The Fire Emblem series is known for rich games that are deeply challenging and require a lot of strategy. Fire Emblem: Three Houses stays true to this premise but has introduced some new concepts that can affect gameplay and progression.
There are a lot of moving parts to this game so it’s important to keep in mind certain strategies and tips that will help you regardless of playstyle or which house you chose. With a bit of patience, forward thinking, and efficiency you’ll find this game a fun and rewarding challenge and hopefully minimize the headaches.
10 Enemy Archers Are Your Priority
There’s a reason Genghis Khan was able to use the bow to create one of the largest empires in history, they're downright annoying to go up against. Archers have the irritating ability to take chunks out of your units before they have a chance to get in range and strike back. If you’re not careful you’ll find your warriors little more than pin cushions on a bloody field.
Prioritizing the archers will give you a better chance at fighting whatever else is on the field without worrying about all those free hits they’re getting. It will also keep your glass cannon magic users safe as they won’t have to worry about getting picked off from afar.
9 Stay Together
That being said it’s important to not get spread too thin and allow your enemies to isolate and mob your units. It’s best to keep everyone together in a cluster with armored units providing a forward defense with archers and magic users in behind them.
To get those pesky archers it’s better to create a fireteam, a small cluster of units that can break off and handle them. It may take longer but you’re troops will survive a lot better so it’s worth the trade off.
8 Don’t Waste Your Days Off
In real life it would be tempting to take a breather after several days of fighting and do nothing but nap and fish for your down day. In the game you need to be maximizing your time off to ensure that you’ll survive the next week and be viable in the endgame.
Make sure you spend your time recruiting students, raising their motivation levels, teaching them skills, and tending your garden. It may be annoying at first but you’ll find yourself getting stronger the more you put your effort into these days off.
7 Recruit Like Crazy
The game has a number of conquests that will require powerful warriors and you’ll suffer enough losses that you need to have a steady stream of recruits to fill the gap. Without spoiling anything there’s also an important reason to be recruiting as many people as you can before a certain point in the story when you’ll wish you had.
This is primarily what you’ll be devoting your time to on your days off. Start conversations with various students, head hunt those with interesting abilities and find ways to encourage and motivate them to greater heights so they can thrive on the battlefield.
6 Find Your Routine
With so many things you can do during your days off it’s easy to become overwhelmed and find yourself floundering a little. For this reason it’s important to establish a routine that you follow every day off so you aren’t wasting any of your action points and can get the most out of it.
Probably the first thing you should do is tend to your garden, it’s where you acquire ingredients for your meals and will yield important stat boosters so it should be your priority. Afterward spend some time fishing as it doesn’t consume any action points. Once your bait is gone pursue whatever goals or priorities you have at the time.
5 Become a Master Before Switching Classes
This is a familiar mechanic in the Fire Emblem games that new players may not be aware of or tunnel visioned fans overlook. When your character masters a class and obtains the master level abilities those will carry over when you switch classes.
This is a great way to give yourself some versatility and extra power on the battlefield. So while it may be tempting to switch early because you find the class under powered at the time, just wait to till mastery and then switch, it’s always worth it.
4 Don’t Spend Too Much Time On Byleth’s Skills
As long as we’re talking about character development it’s important to note that while you can improve Byleth’s skills at the monastery through faculty training and seminars, it shouldn’t be your main priority.
Without spoiling anything Byleth develops the ability to obtain said skills through a much more efficient means. In fact, you’ll find yourself wishing you’d spent that time focusing on your students. So save yourself the regret later and just put Byleth’s skills on the bottom of your to-do list on your days off.
3 Divine Pulse Is Your Most Powerful Tool
Divine Pulse is an underrated tool that the player obtains at the beginning. In the easier parts of the game players probably wont use Divine Pulse very much if at all and as a result may forget about it.
Don’t make that mistake, the ability to turn back time and redo certain actions can be the difference between winning a battle or failing miserably and starting over. Going back to get a unit out of enemy range, push harder for the archers, or to draw your enemies out are some of the great ways Divine Pulse can be used.
2 Diamond In The Rust
If you’re playing the game online you’ll find yourself coming across a large number of rusted weapons strewn about the field. It may be tempting to ignore these, but you’ll be robbing yourself of some easy coin and possibly some powerful weapons.
These weapons drop from the hands of other players’ units and sometimes those players outfit their units with very powerful weapons that can be reforged at the blacksmith. If it turns out the rusted weapon isn’t worth reforging they can be sold.
1 Plan Ahead With Classes
Perhaps the most important thing you can do to succeed in this game is to have a rough plan of what every character is going to be doing moving forward and work towards it. Take a minute to look at what the powerful classes have to offer and more importantly what their requirements are.
This can save a ton of grinding if you are already training your students into endgame classes from the very beginning. For instance, if you plan on having a character switch to Fortress Knight you want to start working on their axe and heavy armor skills as soon as you can. It’ll save you a lot of time giving you strong classes sooner in the game.