Fire Emblem: Three Houses Nemesis Guide — How to Defeat Nemesis

If you’re not playing the Verdant Wind (Golden Deer) story route in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, then this might not be entirely helpful or relevant to you. You’ll be concerned with facing down a different kind of evil, but regardless of which House you end up aligning with, you’ll definitely have Nemesis crop up here and there throughout your story. Spoilers will show up ahead, of course, so only proceed if you’re wanting to know how to take this enemy down for your chosen route. Now, if you’re Team Fear the Deer, crack onto our Fire Emblem Three Houses Nemesis guide for a refresher on who he is and how to beat him. 

Fire Emblem Three Houses Nemesis Guide: Who is Nemesis?

There’s no real way to put this lightly. Nemesis has a pretty intimidating name because, well, a huge point of the Verdant Wind story is that he’s essentially the eternal nemesis (yes) of the Church because he snuck into the tomb of Seiros and stole her body. The aftermath of his actions included conspiring and working with Those Who Slither in the Dark to create Hero relics, and to bestow Crests and Powers upon a group called the Ten Elites, who represent the ten ruling houses in Fodlan.

While history is a bit murky in terms of the actions of the Elites and who they actually fought for, the entire Silver Snow route is essentially revisionist history and makes it a bit difficult to gain the actual story behind Nemesis’ beef with Seiros. In the Verdant Wind route, you have to fight a cryogenically preserved Nemesis that ends up unleashed on your forces. The other Fire Emblem story paths have alternate endings, so check out our story paths guide if you want a tease of what those are. If you want to figure out how to beat Nemesis with the Golden Deer squad, then read on. 

Fire Emblem Three Houses Nemesis Guide: Defeating Nemesis

The Fire Emblem Three Houses Nemesis guide will break down the final fight for you if you’re lucky (unlucky) enough to have picked the Golden Deer House. The gist of this fight is that you’re essentially going to be facing off against Nemesis and Ten Elites. 

Each Elite remaining on the map and undefeated gives Nemesis a buff. You will find it almost impossible to deal damage to Nemesis without actually taking care of them first, so you’re going to want to take out his commanders based on how close they are to your army. Because of the terrain and the status effects that it can inflict, you’re going to be well-served if you have some flying units like Pegasus and Wyvern Knights to mop up. Be careful when you’re positioning your units as well, there are a number of magic-capable enemies that you should watch out for.  Once you defeat the enemy Lamine, the tricky terrain will vanish, so that might be something to keep in mind if you’re wanting the fight to be less onerous. 

If you make good use of the additions to the battlefield like the ballast, you should make quick work of the Elites which are propping up Nemesis. Once you’ve done that, advance upon your actual foe and take him down. Nemesis is definitely a tough nut to crack, and it goes without saying that you’re going to have to employ your local powerhouse protagonist to take him down. Relying on squad members with a high crit rate will be handy here, though we found that Byleth was essentially a one-woman band by that point in the game, so everyone else was just contributing a little bit here and there to whittle Nemesis’ HP down. Keep at it long enough and you’ll be rewarded. 

Now that you have our Fire Emblem Three Houses Nemesis guide to hand, you should find it easy to take down this geriatric final boss if you’re toughing it out in the Verdant Wind route. If you’re having trouble pinning down enemies from other House routes, like the Azure Moon route’s Cornelia, we have a guide for that too.