Is there a way to control which characters marry each other? *Spoilers*

[Mjolnir]

I'm nearing endgame in Golden Deer and I'm now starting to think about trying to pair characters up so that they end up married in the post game. I've read various contradictory things about this mechanic in different places, and I really don't know what's what! Some seem to think it's all random, but others think you can control it to a degree.

I've heard that in order to control who ends up with who, you need to look at who their "Close Allies" are under Notes as well as having the highest level of support (only A, or A+ will have a chance to marry each other). Whoever is the top in the "Close Allies" field has a good chance of marrying their corresponding top if their support is maxed. In order to get an ally into the top spot it is said that you have to spend a lot of time fighting next to each other and/or assign them as adjutants.

 

I've noticed that perhaps assigning as adjutants is more effective since my Byleth has Felix in his top spot and they hardly ever fight together but I often assign Felix as Byleth's adjutant. I guess it's easier to get into fights together when you're stuck together!

 

Now a question I have is: LOTS of people have Marianne as their top in "Close Allies". Marianne does not have any A+ supports on my route, but she does have two C+ supports: Ferdinand and Lornez. I actually don't want her married to either of those guys, but will the game pick one due to her having a special C+ support or does it HAVE to be A+ support to force a pairing? FWIW she currently has A support with both of them. I've also understood that the game keeps an invisible tally of support points past A or A+, and whoever has the highest tally will end up married (but I am not sure if this is always the same as the person in the top spot of "Close Allies").

 

Oh yes and also I've heard that if you ONLY give a character one A or A+ support (and leave the rest at B or lower) this will force them to wed in post game.  It's too late for that in my game, but many report this working seemingly.

 

If you micromanaged your characters' love lives, what was your strategy? Also, is there a list somewhere of all potential pairings? I've heard of fun ones like Dorothea x Petra but is it the case that all A supports can end up married regardless of gender?

 

 

Edited August 21, 2019 by Mjolnir
forgot one thing

[bethany81707]

1 hour ago, Mjolnir said:

Oh yes and also I've heard that if you ONLY give a character one A or A+ support (and leave the rest at B or lower) this will force them to wed in post game.  It's too late for that in my game, but many report this working seemingly. 

When you reach a new Support conversation, the game will cap their Support Points until you view the conversation. By not watching the conversations of pairings you don't want, they don't gain points to compete with the pairing you want. As such, you essentially win the race Big Rigs style.

As for choosing a pairing without this trick... meals, choir, adjudants, anything you can think of to funnel Support points in one specific direction instead of splattering all over the place.

[redlight]

The first A (or A+) support for pairs locks them into a paired ending.

[timon]

41 minutes ago, redlight said:

The first A (or A+) support for pairs locks them into a paired ending.

Pretty sure that's wrong. It's definitely not that simple, people would've figured it out a lot sooner otherwise. It's based on hidden support points, and if there's a tie it apparently goes off internal order.

[redlight]

21 minutes ago, timon said:

Pretty sure that's wrong. It's definitely not that simple, people would've figured it out a lot sooner otherwise. It's based on hidden support points, and if there's a tie it apparently goes off internal order.

It worked for me, but I guess there's a lot more depth to it

[Garlyle]

I can confirm that first A support is not locked for a paired ending. I had the same save for GD ending 1 month before the final boss. Some A supports were already unlocked, and I got paired ending from those. Still, the results were different.

I wonder if some units need to be deployed in the final chapter to see their paired ending with a non-deployed unit or so.

[CyberNinja]

4 hours ago, Mjolnir said:

I'm nearing endgame in Golden Deer and I'm now starting to think about trying to pair characters up so that they end up married in the post game. I've read various contradictory things about this mechanic in different places, and I really don't know what's what! Some seem to think it's all random, but others think you can control it to a degree.

I've heard that in order to control who ends up with who, you need to look at who their "Close Allies" are under Notes as well as having the highest level of support (only A, or A+ will have a chance to marry each other). Whoever is the top in the "Close Allies" field has a good chance of marrying their corresponding top if their support is maxed. In order to get an ally into the top spot it is said that you have to spend a lot of time fighting next to each other and/or assign them as adjutants.

 

I've noticed that perhaps assigning as adjutants is more effective since my Byleth has Felix in his top spot and they hardly ever fight together but I often assign Felix as Byleth's adjutant. I guess it's easier to get into fights together when you're stuck together!

 

Now a question I have is: LOTS of people have Marianne as their top in "Close Allies". Marianne does not have any A+ supports on my route, but she does have two C+ supports: Ferdinand and Lornez. I actually don't want her married to either of those guys, but will the game pick one due to her having a special C+ support or does it HAVE to be A+ support to force a pairing? FWIW she currently has A support with both of them. I've also understood that the game keeps an invisible tally of support points past A or A+, and whoever has the highest tally will end up married (but I am not sure if this is always the same as the person in the top spot of "Close Allies").

 

Oh yes and also I've heard that if you ONLY give a character one A or A+ support (and leave the rest at B or lower) this will force them to wed in post game.  It's too late for that in my game, but many report this working seemingly.

 

If you micromanaged your characters' love lives, what was your strategy? Also, is there a list somewhere of all potential pairings? I've heard of fun ones like Dorothea x Petra but is it the case that all A supports can end up married regardless of gender?

 

 

Just don't let the pairs A support that you don't want, even on Hard classic you don't need the support bonus.

[bethany81707]

2 hours ago, redlight said:

It worked for me, but I guess there's a lot more depth to it

The Supports you unlocked first could work on gaining points beyond A Rank faster than those that unlocked later. "The A Support you got first" is a good indicator, but nothing more.

[xchickengirlx]

So far the only concrete way to get the exact pairing you want is only allow a character to only have ONE A support with another unit. Byleth doesn’t count. Say you want to get Marianne and Lorenz’s paired ending, but Byleth is at the top of Marianne’s closest allies list. As long as Lorenz is second, she had Lorenz should get the paired ending,

I have yet to actually finish my GD run, but I have tested it out to see what happens when You trigger a A support btw two characters. When you do that, it will bump them up on each other’s closest allies list. I’ve also tried to experiment if you trigger one A support, then another, then another, will the last one you trigger override all the others? I haven’t really gotten anything conclusive from trying that though.

also, if you’d still like to at least view the A support convos to enjoy them, because most of them are all really good, and can take away your experience of enjoying their relationships with each other if you ignore them. What you do is: save your game, watch all the A support convos, then reset the game and only ever trigger the A support btw the two characters who’s paired ending you want.

there was a thread on this topic a while back: 

the main issue folks would run into was that they’d have a pair of characters who were at the top of each other’s closest allies list, but then right before the game ended, some other character would suddenly be at the top of the closest allies list and screw up the paired ending the player was vying for. I think this might of happened with players who’s characters had multiple A supports with each other? Who knows, It’s all very confusing with this hidden support point counter the game seems to have.

 

Edited August 21, 2019 by xchickengirlx

[Mjolnir]

27 minutes ago, xchickengirlx said:

So far the only concrete way to get the exact pairing you want is only allow a character to only have ONE A support with another unit. Byleth doesn’t count. Say you want to get Marianne and Lorenz’s paired ending, but Byleth is at the top of Marianne’s closest allies list. As long as Lorenz is second, she had Lorenz should get the paired ending,

I have yet to actually finish my GD run, but I have tested it out to see what happens when You trigger a A support btw two characters. When you do that, it will bump them up on each other’s closest allies list. I’ve also tried to experiment if you trigger one A support, then another, then another, will the last one you trigger override all the others? I haven’t really gotten anything conclusive from trying that though.

also, if you’d still like to at least view the A support convos to enjoy them, because most of them are all really good, and can take away your experience of enjoying their relationships with each other if you ignore them. What you do is: save your game, watch all the A support convos, then reset the game and only ever trigger the A support btw the two characters who’s paired ending you want.

there was a thread on this topic a while back: 

the main issue folks would run into was that they’d have a pair of characters who were at the top of each other’s closest allies list, but then right before the game ended, some other character would suddenly be at the top of the closest allies list and screw up the paired ending the player was vying for. I think this might of happened with players who’s characters had multiple A supports with each other? Who knows, It’s all very confusing with this hidden support point counter the game seems to have.

 

Thanks a lot for the link! I didn't think to search "paired endings" and only searched marriage so I totally missed that. There's lots of good information in there.

Well it looks like I'm in trouble for my current playthrough since many characters already have multiple A ranks, but I guess next time I'll try the not getting A support trick. It's somewhat annoying that the game seemingly forces you to do that to play matchmaker, but it is what it is. I guess it's more realistic this way...

I wonder what it would take to figure out exactly how the game determines which character ends up with another when there's multiple A ranks in play? And I am really curious about how C+ or B+ impacts the final result if at all.

[Lyre]

My Ingrid and Felix has the highest support they could and got married. I’ve never had any other units get married besides the ones I married