Strengthen Supports
All this is all very well, but you will have to roll up your sleeves to make the potential love or friendship between all these characters blossom. Fortunately, Fire Emblem Three Houses offers you many options in this area, which are much more interesting than in old games. It must be said that spending 50 laps side by side on the battlefield doing nothing was not very fun or interactive. These methods can be divided into two main categories, those reserved for the progression of the relationship with another character, and those that also allow the relationship between two characters to progress. This second category is particularly important if you want to multiply battle bonuses, as well as form different pairs, and discover sometimes fun interactions. It would be a shame to miss them.
Methods exclusive to Byleth
- Talk to the NPCs and give the right answers in the dialogues: We will repeat ourselves, but identifying the psychology and interests of your interlocutors is a key element here. The objective is to give them the answer they will like, not what you really think. It's hypocritical, but like in the real world, it works. You can consider that the cathedral's question box as well as questions during classes fall into this category.
- Bring back lost items: Visit the monastery on the first weekend of each month to collect everything and find the owners of the items. We suggest testing all objects on all your interlocutors, there are sometimes complete surprises.
- Giving gifts: By consulting the Character List and the last tab with additional notes, you can see what your class likes and dislikes.
- Asking for assistance for the month of a student temporarily adds him/her to this list. Once recruited, teachers and students are also listed. In general, you can determine at least one of their interests through the dialogues, others are well hidden, however.
- You will seek the enthusiastic answer, recognizable by the expression of your interlocutor, the double relationship arrow and the +50 Motivation for your students, specific to the gifts they really love. The greenhouse, once unlocked, merchants are good sources of gifts.
- Send flowers for their birthdays: This is the only option you have at the beginning of the game, do it even if it costs gold. It is useless for leaders of other classes, however. Then, when you have the option, have tea on birthdays, it's more profitable.
- Having tea: This option is unlocked after a few months, by completing Ferdinand's quest, who asks you to give his tea set to someone (Lorenz). It costs one point of activity and is not really necessary unless you are urgently looking to develop your relationship with someone. By managing the situation well, you can earn a bonus charm point.
- Get a lesson: In Free Neighborhood mode, getting trained by someone makes you gain some relationship with them. As you will need it to develop Byleth, choose your teacher carefully.
- Teaching: The easiest and most cost-effective way is to select the tutoring option for your students. The results 'Very good', 'Perfect' and 'Congratulate' will make you gain relationship. When Seiros teachers and knights are recruited, you can also train them.
- Cooking: Cooking with someone consumes an activity point and ingredients, but you unlock a combat bonus and a big relationship bonus. Be careful though, only a few people really like it, the majority are neutral, and some don't like it.
Universal methods
- Fighting together: When characters are side by side during a battle, or within range of the same target, or when one heals/buff/rally the other, or when there is a tactical bonus, there is a relationship gain. By using remote weapons to increase the range of this bonus (so the character is considered within range, even without being next door), by healing characters who are missing a life point, and by abusing bosses who are regenerating their lives, it is easy to develop links. Students recruited for the month are only used to use this method. Once the option is unlocked, the wizards are just as simple and effective in this area.
- Canteen: The advantage of this method is that as long as you have ingredients and activity points, you can multiply the meals à la carte. It's really the perfect way to have fun forming couples or developing relationships without having to take them to the battlefield. For example, if you want to discover the possible relationship between Hanneman and Manuela. You just have to take the time to find a meal they both like. Moreover, this method regenerates the whole motivation bar, it is perfect to accelerate the training of your favorite students. Finally, this method also gives teacher points. This is by far the best option.
- Choir Training: This method, which can be used at most once a week, has the advantage of increasing Faith for everyone, and of the Authority and teacher points as a bonus for Byleth. It is a good way to develop relationships between characters who like to sing while optimizing them. However, it is not very useful for most characters.
Other
It should also be noted that group work, which you can configure in class, is an excellent way to develop the relationship between 2 characters while giving them a small mastery bonus. It's the only method forbidden in Byleth. Afterwards, when you have recruited the monastery staff, it is a fantastic way to develop couples, as long as performance is not your primary objective at least.
Written by Robin "Raiden" Bouquet. Translated from French by Millenium.us.org