The Fire Emblem 3 Houses General Questions Thread

[Anacybele]

5 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Personally, I find it best to ignore the central hill in favour of attacking the Imperial units. Eventually, Claude's team will move and then the Imperial army and the Alliance army might start beating each other up (if they run into them. the Demonic Beasts especially tend to keep the yellow team occupied for a while).

The enemies on the hill ARE Imperial ones though. 😕 Also, how am I supposed to make use of Ingrid and Ashe then if I let Bernadetta remain alive and possibly snipe them? I have them as a Falcon Knight and Wyvern Lord respectively and Ashe has been really good in particular.

5 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

(special mention to Petra for being hard to hit. Also, spoiler alert; you'll have to face her again)

Yes, I figured that since I also had to face her twice in Verdant Wind.

5 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Incidentally, Edelgard will burn the central hill if a yellow unit gets there.

THAT explains it. When I played Verdant Wind, none of Dimitri's group ever touched the central hill. Thanks for letting me know.

[Azure the Scale Tipper]

15 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

The enemies on the hill ARE Imperial ones though. 😕 Also, how am I supposed to make use of Ingrid and Ashe then if I let Bernadetta remain alive and possibly snipe them? I have them as a Falcon Knight and Wyvern Lord respectively and Ashe has been really good in particular.

There are Imperial units off to the left side of the hill that you can focus down on. Offensive gambits can be used to take Petra down, as well as units with Swordbreaker (they have to use a Lance, though). Accuracy-increasing combat arts work, too. Ashe, Ingrid, and everyone else can focus down that side and attack those units and stay out of range of the ballista.

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

The enemies on the hill ARE Imperial ones though. 😕 Also, how am I supposed to make use of Ingrid and Ashe then if I let Bernadetta remain alive and possibly snipe them? I have them as a Falcon Knight and Wyvern Lord respectively and Ashe has been really good in particular.

You could just have them dismount (that said, in my case I had an Aurora Shield, which I had stolen off of Ladislava in the previous chapter; incidentally, that's the only way to get it in Azure Moon). Also, I meant in the area where Hubert is.

1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

Yes, I figured that since I also had to face her twice in Verdant Wind.

Lemme guess - you tore your hair out in frustration there, too. Which makes me wonder, why in the name of Mila would you want to go through that again???

[Anacybele]

1 hour ago, Azure, Roundabouted Out said:

There are Imperial units off to the left side of the hill that you can focus down on. Offensive gambits can be used to take Petra down, as well as units with Swordbreaker (they have to use a Lance, though). Accuracy-increasing combat arts work, too. Ashe, Ingrid, and everyone else can focus down that side and attack those units and stay out of range of the ballista.

I think I still have to go close to the hill to get there though. That hill is right in front of my face.

29 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

You could just have them dismount (that said, in my case I had an Aurora Shield, which I had stolen off of Ladislava in the previous chapter; incidentally, that's the only way to get it in Azure Moon). Also, I meant in the area where Hubert is.

True, I could have them dismount. I suppose I could try that. But I still need to figure out how to keep everybody else alive.

29 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Lemme guess - you tore your hair out in frustration there, too. Which makes me wonder, why in the name of Mila would you want to go through that again???

I didn't. I wanted to actually find good ways to beat her so I wouldn't have to have so much trouble.

[Elephantus]

More of a general forum question, but since I've seen it happen many times, I've been wondering why threads like this get locked? The dude obviously had a reason to necro it, didn't he? In any other forum I've been on, looking for similar existing topics before creating a new one seems like common courtesy. Just curious about that.

[Sid Starkiller]

First, the Member Feedback section would probably be a better place to ask.

Second, he basically acknowledged that there was no point in bringing the thread back in his post. He would've been better off making a brand new thread.

[blaerionvonhraesvelgr]

Any suggestions for maximizing Edelgard’s tankiness in a NG+ Maddening run? 

I’m thinking of taking her through the Brigand line for Death Blow and then upgrading her to Fortress Knight for the offense/defense boosts. I thought I’d put a defensive adjutant on her to minimize damage from doubled attacks and maybe the Empire Heavy Soldiers battalion to maximize her defense. 

This is my first Maddening run and based off of what I’ve seen about the experience of playing it, I’m definitely open to any and all help lol. 

[Anacybele]

So, I'm gonna do Dimitri's paralogue and I was told there's a bug in it that causes the menu to disappear if you save in the prep screen and then reload the save file, making you unable to do anything more with that file. Has that been patched out? If not, why? This is gamebreaking, akin to that Lumiose save glitch in Pokemon XY. It SHOULD be patched out. Dimitri's paralogue is late in the Blue Lions route.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Anacybele

[Shadow Mir]

32 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

So, I'm gonna do Dimitri's paralogue and I was told there's a bug in it that causes the menu to disappear if you save in the prep screen and then reload the save file, making you unable to do anything more with that file. Has that been patched out? If not, why? This is gamebreaking, akin to that Lumiose save glitch in Pokemon XY. It SHOULD be patched out. Dimitri's paralogue is late in the Blue Lions route.

I checked out the bug tracking thread just now, and one user said they saved during prep, and nothing of the sort happened. Which makes me think it was patched out.

[Anacybele]

8 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

I checked out the bug tracking thread just now, and one user said they saved during prep, and nothing of the sort happened. Which makes me think it was patched out.

Good, I hope that's the case. Since as I said, it's something that should've been patched.

[Sid Starkiller]

About the gift you get from your house on your birthday: I always use my real birthday, which is in November. What happens if you use a birthday that appears twice in the plot, like something in May or June? Is there a second gift?

Edited January 2, 2020 by Sid Starkiller

[Zapp Branniglenn]

1 hour ago, Sid Starkiller said:

About the gift you get from your house on your birthday: I always my real birthday, which is in November. What happens if you use a birthday that appears twice in the plot, like something in May or June? Is there a second gift?

yes, you get a second copy of it.

9 hours ago, blaerionvonhraesvelgr said:

Any suggestions for maximizing Edelgard’s tankiness in a NG+ Maddening run? 

I’m thinking of taking her through the Brigand line for Death Blow and then upgrading her to Fortress Knight for the offense/defense boosts. I thought I’d put a defensive adjutant on her to minimize damage from doubled attacks and maybe the Empire Heavy Soldiers battalion to maximize her defense. 

This is my first Maddening run and based off of what I’ve seen about the experience of playing it, I’m definitely open to any and all help lol. 

Edelgard will...probably be fine the way she is. At least compared to the rest of the black eagles who are very squishy. Benching her for my church route run was heartbreaking because she starts out good and just gets better. If she manages to have less than the armor knight's base 12 defense by level 10, you can spend a seal  to get up to speed since she pretty much joins your team meeting the requirements for that class. Guard adjutants are a great call for units with speed issues (Edelgard isn't one of those), but you'll need to recruit units for that job unless you end up benching caspar or ferdinand. If you were expecting to use Cyril, he won't join black eagles.

[blaerionvonhraesvelgr]

14 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

Edelgard will...probably be fine the way she is. At least compared to the rest of the black eagles who are very squishy. Benching her for my church route run was heartbreaking because she starts out good and just gets better. If she manages to have less than the armor knight's base 12 defense by level 10, you can spend a seal  to get up to speed since she pretty much joins your team meeting the requirements for that class. Guard adjutants are a great call for units with speed issues (Edelgard isn't one of those), but you'll need to recruit units for that job unless you end up benching caspar or ferdinand. If you were expecting to use Cyril, he won't join black eagles.

Right... I mean, I know she’s a Lord character so it’s pretty hard to go wrong with her, but I wasn’t sure how much more care to her class line and skills was necessary on a Maddening run. I’m hoping to make Edelgard into a tanky wall to bait out physical attackers while ensuring she has enough accuracy to actually hit with her axe weapons, but maybe I’m over-preparing with my current plan? I thought about mastering Brigand for Death Blow and then taking her down the Lord line for the Dex growth but maybe that’s not even necessary because none of the classes I’m considering will penalize her already-decent Dex growth, you know?

[jameslove001]

First time to play through and have a couple of general questions, and sorry if these have been asked, I just unfortunately don't have time to read through 77 pages of questions and comments.

First, is it worth even trying to recruit the first time around? I read that recruiting becomes much easier after the first playthrough with saved info. I am kind of half-hearted trying to recruit a couple of people, but wondering if it is worthwhile to restart (currently on Chapter 5 and have not done a lot). I am doing Blue Lions and was basically considering picking up a dancer.

Have any of you done simultaneous play throughs, or again, because of the boost is it better to wait for first completion?

Along those same lines, does the boost remain after each playthrough or does it change each time with the new saved info?

Finally, are there any just terrible characters? It doesn't seem so, so far. It seems like if I properly invest every Blue Lion could be great. 

Beyond that, all of my questions are matters of opinion (which weeks to train, which we weeks to explore, which weeks to battle) and strategic things that get beyond generalized questions. Thanks for considering answering!

[Sid Starkiller]

I found recruiting everyone draining when I did it. There's just too many units to manage, especially when you can use at most 12, plus 3 adjutants. If you just want to recruit for a dancer, Dorothea or Marianne are your best options IMO.

You are better off doing one run at a time for the boosts to build upon each other. They remain forever, so could have every character with S+ in every skill, and every class mastered. Also, both genders of Byleth are considered the same unit, so you could master all the female-exclusive classes and buy their mastery skills as the male, or vice versa.

While some characters are certainly better than others, no one is flat-out unusable. Unless you're on Maddening, you're free to use your favorites (Caspar gets flak for being a glass cannon, but for me he usually ends up an effective dodgetank).

I usually go Explore->Battle->Explore, and if there's a fourth Sunday, whatever I feel like I need at that moment. Rest and Seminar are never really worthwhile.

[Shadow Mir]

36 minutes ago, jameslove001 said:

First, is it worth even trying to recruit the first time around? I read that recruiting becomes much easier after the first playthrough with saved info. I am kind of half-hearted trying to recruit a couple of people, but wondering if it is worthwhile to restart (currently on Chapter 5 and have not done a lot). I am doing Blue Lions and was basically considering picking up a dancer.

Yes. That said, if you get a B support with a character, they might request to join your house during a weekday (this ignores the stat and skill qualifications you'd normally need; HOWEVER, this does not apply to Caspar and Ferdinand, who have their B supports locked until after the time skip).

38 minutes ago, jameslove001 said:

Finally, are there any just terrible characters? It doesn't seem so, so far. It seems like if I properly invest every Blue Lion could be great. 

I would say Lorenz and Raphael (both from the Golden Deer) really suck.

[jameslove001]

1 hour ago, Sid Starkiller said:

You are better off doing one run at a time for the boosts to build upon each other. They remain forever, so could have every character with S+ in every skill, and every class mastered. 

While some characters are certainly better than others, no one is flat-out unusable. Unless you're on Maddening, you're free to use your favorites (Caspar gets flak for being a glass cannon, but for me he usually ends up an effective dodgetank).

I usually go Explore->Battle->Explore, and if there's a fourth Sunday, whatever I feel like I need at that moment. Rest and Seminar are never really worthwhile.

So, essentially everyone could be everything? Interesting. Obviously certain people will not excel at certain things, but it is an interesting premise. It is interesting that seminars are not really worth it. I have done a couple, but didn't know if it was really worth it.

50 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Yes. That said, if you get a B support with a character, they might request to join your house during a weekday (this ignores the stat and skill qualifications you'd normally need; HOWEVER, this does not apply to Caspar and Ferdinand, who have their B supports locked until after the time skip).

I would say Lorenz and Raphael (both from the Golden Deer) really suck.

Thanks for the head's up here. Luckily with Blue Lions I haven't really been too interested there. I was quasi interested in Raphael until I realized Dedue wanted to become my tank.

[Silver-Haired Maiden]

3 hours ago, jameslove001 said:

So, essentially everyone could be everything? Interesting. Obviously certain people will not excel at certain things, but it is an interesting premise. It is interesting that seminars are not really worth it. I have done a couple, but didn't know if it was really worth it.

Thanks for the head's up here. Luckily with Blue Lions I haven't really been too interested there. I was quasi interested in Raphael until I realized Dedue wanted to become my tank.

Lorenz is worth recruiting if only for his relic if you plan on getting Lysithea. Thyrsus is super good. Depending on what difficulty you're playing, Ashe can quite easily become a liability instead of an asset (I ended up making him my dancer this runthrough, he was that strength screwed) and Ingrid can easily become quite weak in strength (but some levels in Wyvern or fighter should patch her up) but for the most part everyone in the Blue Lions are super good. I recommend avoiding Linhardt thanks to you having Mercedes as she is the better healer of the two, and if you want Warp Lysithea is the better recruit because she gets it at B instead of A faith.

[Shadow Mir]

14 minutes ago, Silver-Haired Maiden said:

Lorenz is worth recruiting if only for his relic if you plan on getting Lysithea. Thyrsus is super good. Depending on what difficulty you're playing, Ashe can quite easily become a liability instead of an asset (I ended up making him my dancer this runthrough, he was that strength screwed) and Ingrid can easily become quite weak in strength (but some levels in Wyvern or fighter should patch her up) but for the most part everyone in the Blue Lions are super good. I recommend avoiding Linhardt thanks to you having Mercedes as she is the better healer of the two, and if you want Warp Lysithea is the better recruit because she gets it at B instead of A faith.

Speaking of Ashe, if you want the Shoes of the Wind (aka Boots) and are leading the Black Eagles, you'll have no choice but to recruit him as the other character his paralogue revolves around (Catherine) cannot be recruited, at least until right before the timeskip, if at all.

EDIT: Also, after the timeskip, you'll be forced to fight against Ashe and Lorenz even if you recruited them (if you're on a route where they weren't part of your initial class). It is possible to get them back by having Byleth defeat them and electing to persuade them afterwards.

Edited January 3, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Dark Holy Elf]

@jameslove001

7 hours ago, Silver-Haired Maiden said:

Lorenz is worth recruiting if only for his relic if you plan on getting Lysithea. Thyrsus is super good. Depending on what difficulty you're playing, Ashe can quite easily become a liability instead of an asset (I ended up making him my dancer this runthrough, he was that strength screwed) and Ingrid can easily become quite weak in strength (but some levels in Wyvern or fighter should patch her up) but for the most part everyone in the Blue Lions are super good. I recommend avoiding Linhardt thanks to you having Mercedes as she is the better healer of the two, and if you want Warp Lysithea is the better recruit because she gets it at B instead of A faith.

To piggyback on this, Lorenz is worth absolutely recruiting whether or not you plan to get Lysithea; Thyrsus is super-good on any offensive mage. Crestless mages take 10 damage after combat if they have it equipped, so I usually give it to someone with a crest (pretty much every natural mage except Hubert and Dorothea), but even if the only mages I was using were crestless ones I would still give one of them Thyrsus, Magic Range + 2 is that stupid.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Sometimes I'll look at a relic and notice it's full durability and think "I know I've used this once or twice for damage". Is there some auto regeneration on these weapons I don't know about, or am I just going crazy? With divine pulses it can be hard to keep your memory straight with what you used and why.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 1/4/2020 at 5:31 PM, Glennstavos said:

Sometimes I'll look at a relic and notice it's full durability and think "I know I've used this once or twice for damage". Is there some auto regeneration on these weapons I don't know about, or am I just going crazy? With divine pulses it can be hard to keep your memory straight with what you used and why.

Hm... have you been playing with "Spirits of the Fallen" turned on? I believe those can replenish weapon uses.

[The Roger The Paladin]

Anyone know what sort of level I can expect to get characters to in Maddening *VW* given the EXP gain reduction?

[Geenoble]

29 minutes ago, The Roger The Paladin said:

Anyone know what sort of level I can expect to get characters to in Maddening *VW* given the EXP gain reduction?

In general, it still depends on how many kills each unit gets, so dedicated healers will usually be around lower levels, at maybe lvl 35 in endgame. (Eg: Marianne)

Defensive combat units, such as WMs Knights, Paladins and Wyverns should reach level 40 to 42. (Raphael, Hilda, Leonie, Lorenz)

Frail combat units, such as snipers and mages should be a little under the physical units, at level 38 to 40. (Ignatz, Lysithea)

Claude will easily reach Level 45 or above due to his extra exp gain, Byleth will get to 43 or something since he doesn’t gain auto levels upon timeskip. 

This is assuming no favouritsm but the levels shouldn’t be that lower than hard.

The exp penalty actually isn’t that bad, since while you gain less exp, there are also more enemies per map, so it evens out somewhat.

[The Roger The Paladin]

1 hour ago, Geenoble said:

In general, it still depends on how many kills each unit gets, so dedicated healers will usually be around lower levels, at maybe lvl 35 in endgame. (Eg: Marianne)

Defensive combat units, such as WMs Knights, Paladins and Wyverns should reach level 40 to 42. (Raphael, Hilda, Leonie, Lorenz)

Frail combat units, such as snipers and mages should be a little under the physical units, at level 38 to 40. (Ignatz, Lysithea)

Claude will easily reach Level 45 or above due to his extra exp gain, Byleth will get to 43 or something since he doesn’t gain auto levels upon timeskip. 

This is assuming no favouritsm but the levels shouldn’t be that lower than hard.

The exp penalty actually isn’t that bad, since while you gain less exp, there are also more enemies per map, so it evens out somewhat.

Thanks. I think this should be enough to work an estimate.