In Fire Emblem Three Houses, Relationships, or Supports, are essential not only to build an efficient army capable of facing highly dangerous and numerous enemies, but also to discover all the background to the intriguing story of the title and the most secret aspects of its wonderful characters.
But what exactly are Supports? They are simply conversations between the various protagonists that until the previous chapters of the saga were unlocked through mutual support and proximity between soldiers in the clashes on the various maps and missions, and that after the unlocking enhance some statistics of the fighters if they are close during the battle.
In Three Houses the basic concept has remained the same, but new ways have been added to strengthen the bond between the various soldiers and thus speed up the process to unlock all the Supports. Another big difference with titles like Awakening and Fates is that the Protagonist will be the only character able to marry and bring a Relationship to level S, the maximum possible, with any other character of the opposite sex or with some characters of the same sex.
Method 1: Skirmishes
The most classic method also used in the other chapters of the saga is to have their soldiers fighting in their vicinity. Unlike Awakening and Fates we can't immediately unite two of our units as a single force of nature, but the radius of influence for the Support to grow after each attack or defense has been greatly enlarged.
So come into play the Skirmishes, the version of the optional Three Houses battles. To access the Skirmishes we will have to spend a Sunday of free time in the Calendar, and depending on the Teaching Level we can play one, two or three Skirmishes. Also to play the Secondary Missions and Appendices we will have to spend Activity Points.
There is also the possibility to play an infinite Skirmish, and it simply consists in choosing the Optional battle that does not have the Activity Point next to it. This option is a healthy touch both to easily make experience points, money and materials, and to strengthen relationships with relatively easy fights that won't put our units at risk.
Be aware, however, that the only way to unlock the next levels of Support is to return to the Monastery in Explore mode or through the menu of choice of Sunday activities. You cannot view Support conversations from the battle preparation menu, so once you get enough affection to unlock a conversation all excess affection will be lost until you view that conversation.
Method 2: Gifts, Lost Property and Flowers
With the addition of the new Life-Sim section, Fire Emblem Three Houses gives us the opportunity to collect a number of items to donate to our units to strengthen the relationship with the protagonist during the Sunday Exploration.
This is undoubtedly the fastest way to quickly unlock the highest levels of Support: in fact we will have no limit to the amount of gifts we can bring to our favourites, who in addition to their affection for us will also see their Motivation for Lessons increase, and during the Exploration we can at any time access the Unlocked Conversations to make the next level available and then restart the vicious circle until we exhaust the gifts.
The objects that can be donated to (almost) all characters are divided into:
- GIFTS: items that can be purchased at some special retailers every month, found around the Monastery or received as a reward for some fetch quests during the Exploration.
- SMARRY OBJECTS: objects that can be randomly found during the Exploration at various points in the Monastery marked with blue sparks.
- FLOWERS: flowers obtained randomly through the use of certain seeds in the Greenhouse during the Exploration
Each character to whom it is possible to give something has their own tastes and passions described in the Class Register, through which we can understand what kind of Gifts they want and what Lost Property they are looking for. We also remind you that some of these objects will only appear in some chapters and depending on which House we have chosen (If we have chosen for example the Black Eagles, we will not find objects belonging to Dimitri or Claude).
Here is a quick list of the most common Lost Gifts/Lost Objects for each character by House:
Black Eagles
- Edelgard: Armored Teddy Bear, Board Game, Book about Monarchies / Oriental Porcelain, Used Goose Pen, White Gloves
- Hulbert: Board Game, Coffee Beans, "The Story of Fodlan / Shaving Razor, Hresvelg Treaty, Harmful Handkerchief
- Ferdinand: Riding Boots, Tea Leaves, Cote Stone / Treaty on Agriculture, Tea Leaves Exchange
- Linhardt: Book of Signs, Fishing Float, Baked Candy / Animated Bait, Feather Cushion, "Saints Revealed".
- Caspar: Smoked Meat, Training Weight, Cote Stone / Stone Talisman, Ruined Coat, Tonitrus Replica.
- Bernadetta: Armored Teddy Bear, Musical Score Unleavened Handkerchief, Watering can, Painting of a Landscape / Hedgehog, Needle and Wire, Still life photos
- Petra: Exotic Spices, Hunting Knife, Smoked Meat / Dictionary with Notes, Exotic Feather, Dried Leather
- Dorothea: Musical Sheet Music, Precious Stones, Elegant Hair Clips / Graceful Comb, Silver Brooch, Diva Poster
Blue Lions
- Dimitri: Ceremonial Sword, Riding Boots, Training Weight, Cote Stone / Black Leather Gloves, Bevelled Sword, Training Diary
- Dedue: Exotic Spices, Floral Ornament, Watering can / Gardening Tools, Gold Earring, Cooking Pot
- Felix: Ceremonial Sword, Hunting Knife, Smoked Meat, Training Weight/Black Steel Spur, Scabbard Fragment, Toothed Dagger
- Sylvain: Board Game, Unleavened Handkerchief, Painting of a Landscape / Crumpled Love Letter, "The Story of Sreng", New Lipstick
- Ingrid: "Legends of Cavalry", Riding Boots, Smoked Meat / Horse Barrel, Handbook for Rides, Irons for Pegasi
- Mercedes: Armored Teddy Bear, Precious Stones, Statuette of the Goddess, Baked Sweets / Book on Ghost Stories, Fruit Jam, "How to Cook Sweets".
- Annette: Book on Arithmetic, Musical Sheet Music, Elegant Hairpin / Book on Magic, Incomplete Sheet Music, Wax Tablet
- Ashe: Ancient Coin, Exotic Spices, "Legends of Chivalry", Baked Candy / Bag of Herbs, Amulet Repulse-Wickedness, "The Tale of the Knight of the Moon".
Golden Deer
- Claude: Board Game, Exotic Spices, Riding Boots, Book of Signs / Board Game Pawn, Leather Bow Sheath, Non-Lethal Poison.
- Hilda: Armoured Teddy Bear, Musical Score, Unleavened Handkerchief, Precious Bracelet, Elegant Hair Clip / Handmade Hair Clip, Plain Bandage, Used Perfume
- Leonie: Fishing Float, Hunting Knife, Training Weight / Arrowheads, Fur Scarf, Hand drawn Map
- Raphael: Smoked Meat, Oven Baked Candy, Training Weight / Large Spoon, Bound Sack of Rocks, Wooden Button
- Lorenz: Musical Score, Floral Ornament, Tea Leaves / Treatise of Etiquette, Fake Flower, Silk Handkerchief
- Ignatz: Ancient Coin, Ceremonial Sword, Statuette of the Goddess, Painting of a Landscape / Art Book, Blue Stone, Letter to the Goddess
- Marianas: Armoured Teddy Bear, Unleavened Handkerchief, Floral Ornament / Bag of Seeds, Letter of Confessions, "How to Be Ordered".
- Lysithea: Book of Arithmetic, Armored Teddy Bear, Book on Signs, Baked Candy / Encyclopedia on Sweets, New Perfume, Princess Doll
Church of Seiros
- Rhea: Statuette of the Goddess, Painting of a Landscape / (No Lost Property)
- Alois: Ancient Coin, Floral Ornament, Floating Fisherman's Float / Old Foreign Coin, Introduction to Magic, Mysterious Notebook
- Cyril: Hunting Knife, Smoked Meat, Watering Can / Old Cleaning Cloth, Portrait of Rea, Old Cleaning Cloth, Portrait of Rhea, Old Axe
- Manuela: Blue Cheese, Musical Score, Precious Bracelet, Statuette of the Goddess / (No Lost Property)
- Flayn: Armoured Teddy Bear, Unleavened Handkerchief, Elegant Hair Clip, Baked Dolcetto al Forno / Fermaglio Antico, Old Fairytale Book, Old Map of Enbarr
- Seteth: Fishing Float, Unleavened Handkerchief, The History of Fodlan / Old Fishing Rod, Broken Pen, Unfinished Fairytale
- Hanneman: Book on Arithmetic, Book on Signs, Unleavened Handkerchief, Tea Leaves / Hammer and Chisel, Lens Cloth, Sketch of a Sign
- Catherine ( from the Sixth Moon ): Blue Cheese, Legends of Cavalry, Training Weight, Cote Stone / Graduation Badge, Letter to Rea, Battered Mantle
- Gilbert ( from the Eighth Moon ): Ceremonial Sword, Fishing Float, Statuette of the Goddess / Carving Hammer, Puppet without nose, Silver Pendant
- Shamir ( from the Ninth Moon ): Musical Sheet Music, Coffee Beans, Exotic Spices, Hunting Knife / Animal Bone Nut, Bag of Dried Herbs, Painting of a Centopiedi
Flowers are harder to find as they can only be obtained by combining a few seeds grown inside the Greenhouse. However, they are generally appreciated by everyone, and some are the favourites of certain characters:
- Anemone: Hilda
- Wedding Veil: Cyril
- Carnation: Edelgard
- Forget-me-not: Flayn, Ignatz...
- Lavender: Mercedes
- Orchid: Lysithea
- Valley Orchid: Marianne
- Carnivorous plant: Bernadetta
- Rose: Lorenz
- Sunflower: Alois, Petra, Shamir
- Violet: Ashe
Method 3: MOTHER-FUCKING-TEA
Did you think Fire Emblem Three Houses was a tactical role-playing game based on a class system, satisfying gameplay and a complex story told by multi-faceted characters? WRONG, THE NERVE CENTER OF FIRE EMBLEM IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE TEA!!! INVITE YOUR COMRADES-IN-ARMS TO TEA, INVITE THE CHARACTER YOU WANT TO PROCREATE WITH, INVITE YOUR FAMILY, YOUR CLASS, YOUR COLLEAGUES TO TEA, EVERYONE MUST HAVE TEA, LONG LIVE THE SUPREME TEA!!!
Apart from the jokes, the new mechanics of the Tea Invitation is another very convenient and quick way to level the Relationship between the protagonist and the Compromisees through the use of an Activity Point during a Sunday Exploration.
For the Tea Invitation you will have to choose the right mixture of leaves or herbs, which will slightly increase the Affection regardless of the result of the chat, and choose conversation topics that can entertain the guest. In order to be successful you will have to keep in mind the tastes, aspirations and hobbies of those we will have in front of us, and if we are successful three times in a row we will have to answer a personal question that could increase even more the Support.
After this we will have the opportunity to continue to observe and converse without problems with the guest, and we will also be able to give him Gifts or Flowers. The Tea Invitation is also a free action if we invite the characters as a Birthday Party, so it is highly recommended to at least try.
Method 4: Lessons
Almost every Monday of every Moon we will have the opportunity to give a lesson to our students. Depending on our Teaching Grade, we will have more or less Action Points to spend to personally enhance each student's Skills, as long as their Motivation is high enough.
Each time we use this action, we will partially strengthen the Support with the aforementioned character, that although the amount of Affection gained is not equal to the amount of Gifts and Fights, it is still good practice to try to take part in these Lessons if you want to strengthen the Relationship quickly.
Method 5: Cutscenes and Anonymous Requests
The latter method is the least efficient, but not for this reason useless. During our adventure, we will be given the opportunity to respond with different dialogue options during the cutscenes. In some of these, one of the two or three options may please or displease our interlocutors, thus strengthening the Support. Most of the time it will be easy to find the appropriate response, so don't worry too much about it.
A much more common method is that of Anonymous Requests, unlocked around the Second Moon during the Exploration of the Monastery: it is a box of Anonymous Requests from the Inhabitants of Garreg Mach in which they will explain their problems anonymously and randomly, and it will be our task to give them a precise and appropriate solution that they may like. We will have to respond within thirty seconds and we will not have the opportunity to open the Registry to verify who the request came from.
If you know enough about the tastes and problems of our comrades, it will be easy to give the right answer.
Method 6: Canteen
Together with the Gifts, this is probably the most effective way to win the hearts of your comrades and get to know each other better. The Canteen will be unlocked during the first Moons of the game and consists of selecting some of your pupils or colleagues to have lunch together, thus increasing the bond between the three characters and also their Motivation.
Every Sunday there will be different dishes based on various menus that will whet the palate of the various protagonists, each with its own favorite dishes. If you decide to eat one of your diner's favorite dishes your support will rise to the stars.
Each meal will require an Activity Point, but the action is repeatable as many times as you want at least once per character. It is advisable to spend your meal together with two characters who, in addition to having a relationship with the protagonist, also have the opportunity to develop it between them. To see if two characters can develop a Support just go to the menu and check it quickly and clearly.
In the last levels of the game, due to your allegedly high degree of Teaching, the Canteen will be virtually abuseable every Sunday and will allow you to easily reach the grade A with anyone together with the Gifts.
New Game Plus Method
Once you've completed your first run on Fire Emblem Three Houses, you'll be given the opportunity to replay the entire title in New Game + mode to make all the choices you previously discarded.
The New Game + offers the opportunity to spend Fame Points that were previously available through Secondary Missions and previously only spent at the Statues of Saints to purchase passive bonuses. Now instead the game will allow you to spend them to buy Skills, Skills and especially Support that you had already obtained in the last run, speeding up in this case also the Recruitment of Students of other Houses.
To do this, simply select the corresponding entry in the Diary in your Room during the Sunday Exploration and spend the appropriate amount of Fame Points. It's child's play that will allow you to recover all the progress from the previous game in no time.
These are the most effective ways to maximize the relationships between the various characters in Fire Emblem Three Houses. If you're interested in this incredible Nintendo Switch exclusive!
