How to (C - S) Support Rhea?

[vanguard333]

So, I have yet to get Fire Emblem: Three Houses. But, when I do get it, I intend to play it in order from Black Eagles Route -> Blue Lions Route -> Golden Deer Route -> Church Route. For the church route, I originally planned to have Byleth s-support Rhea.

However, how exactly am I even supposed to do so? She's an NPC, so no battle support points. From what I've heard (correct me if I'm wrong), she was dummied out of both the dining hall and the tea party, so how exactly am I supposed to increase support points between her an Byleth? Is it even feasible?

No spoilers, please. 

[Ivan Tridelan]

Gift spam in part 1 and make sure you test out all dialogue options to maximize in-chat support gains with her (unlike most characters, her support conversations offer support gain/loss opportunities). That's really all you can do

[Ertrick36]

Some pointers.

• Her supports are all locked under specific time frames.  Her C-support is available until Chapter 6/7/8, I believe, her B-support locks after chapter 9, and her A-support locks after Chapter 12.  Before they are locked, you must obtain the supports and view the scenes.
• Rhea's supports work differently from other Byleth supports in that you must view them via the supports menu, rather than waiting for her to request your time or you locating the spot in the monastery to speak to her.
• The first and foremost way of boosting supports is by choosing the correct dialogue choices for Rhea.  This is a helpful guide in this regard.
• The next best way to boost supports with her is by gifting her.  Give her every single Goddess Statuette, Landscape Painting, and Ancient Coin you get.  Aside from those, any other gift will work except for Exotic Spices.  You can spam her with gifts until the next level in her support is "gained" (even if you can't view it yet).
• A third way to boost supports with her is by having her instruct you.  It's not quite as useful as gift-spamming, and you'll be forfeiting opportunities to boost your Professor Level, but if you have a desire to train in the skills she offers training for, then you might as well be instructed by her.
• Oh, and actually view the support conversations with her, even if you've seen them already.  Like the previous poster said, you have opportunities to further boost the bond.

[Timlugia]

Also, I believe in NG+ you could override the locks by using renown points in case you missed the deadline

You just need to use it prior to final battle to have her S support option.

 

 

[axlorg89]

I basically just had her tutor me in fists because I was aiming for war master. NG+ helps since you won't waste your whole day. Ended up getting her at A rank by the 1st month of the new year.

[PrincessAlyson]

I'm currently doing a Silver Snow NG+ and I'm spamming gifts and tutoring. It works very well. I'm aware of the time limits for the supports and have planned accordingly. Can't wait!

[Gregster101]

Pretty much just spam gifts. Also, side note, I would avoid playing the Golden Deers route and the Church route back to back

[vanguard333]

Thank you, everyone. So, spam gifts, maximize support gains in dialogue options and support conversations, and possibly spam tutoring as well. By tutoring, are you guys referring to seminars? I ask because Rhea isn't listed on this website's seminars page. 

 

1 hour ago, Gregster101 said:

Pretty much just spam gifts. Also, side note, I would avoid playing the Golden Deers route and the Church route back to back

So, Black Eagles -> Golden Deer -> Blue Lions -> Church? Okay. Why?

I had it in the original order because I read that Golden Deer Route is the one where you try to "investigate what's really going on", so I thought I'd save that one for last. Then I heard about the secret church route, so I thought I'd have Golden Deer next-to-last. 

[Gregster101]

4 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Thank you, everyone. So, spam gifts, maximize support gains in dialogue options and support conversations, and possibly spam tutoring as well. By tutoring, are you guys referring to seminars? I ask because Rhea isn't listed on this website's seminars page. 

 

So, Black Eagles -> Golden Deer -> Blue Lions -> Church? Okay. Why?

I had it in the original order because I read that Golden Deer Route is the one where you try to "investigate what's really going on", so I thought I'd save that one for last. Then I heard about the secret church route, so I thought I'd have Golden Deer next-to-last. 

The Church route is more or less an inferior copy paste of the Golden Deers route minus Claude.

[vanguard333]

14 minutes ago, Gregster101 said:

The Church route is more or less an inferior copy paste of the Golden Deers route minus Claude.

Seriously? That's sad. Do you just mean in terms of gameplay/maps, or story as well? I might be able to bear them back-to-back if the story is sufficiently different, even though I'm more of a gameplay person. 

Anyway; back to the original topic, do you know what the others mean by tutoring?

[Boomhauer007]

The maps are identical with the exception of the final chapters, and ch17 GD does not exist in SS, SS is 21 chapters.

The major events of the story are the same until the very end. You get an info dump about Byleth at the end of SS.

Spoiler

Also the late game fights are littered with generics since you have all of the black eagle characters.

 

[vanguard333]

3 minutes ago, Boomhauer007 said:

The maps are identical with the exception of the final chapters, and ch17 GD does not exist in SS, SS is 21 chapters.

The major events of the story are the same until the very end. You get an info dump about Byleth at the end of SS.

  Reveal hidden contents

Also the late game fights are littered with generics since you have all of the black eagle characters.

 

That's a shame. Still, I really want to do the Black Eagles Route first and save the routes that reveal the most stuff for later. Should I do Golden Deer 2nd; Blue Lions 3rd, or Blue Lions 2nd; Golden Deer 3rd and just put up with the repetition?

Anyway, to get back on topic, do you have any advice about Rhea that hasn't been mentioned yet?

[Elephantus]

16 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Anyway; back to the original topic, do you know what the others mean by tutoring?

After a certain point in the game you can talk to faculty in the monastery and have them teach Byleth in a certain skill (like Sword, Reason, etc.), similar to how Byleth can raise weapon ranks of his students during the week. This raises their weapon rank and gives support points.

[Boomhauer007]

I would probably do GD next, CF gives you a lot of wrong information which will be corrected on GD. BL isn't bad or anything, but it's a much more focused story within its bubble.

I don't have any Rhea advice, everything that has been said covers everything, there's not much to it. I will say there's no benefit to do it all at once since you're not starting with SS, it's much less of a hassle getting A in NG+.

[Ertrick36]

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

So, Black Eagles -> Golden Deer -> Blue Lions -> Church?

I'm gonna say that if you do it this way you're gonna be waiting quite a while to actually S-support Rhea, because, much like the house leaders, Rhea can only be S-supported in one particular route.  You can only S-support Rhea in Silver Snow.

2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

By tutoring, are you guys referring to seminars? I ask because Rhea isn't listed on this website's seminars page. 

It means after speaking to Manuela during the third chapter and doing her quest, you'll get an option to use one of your activity points during exploration to undergo "Faculty Training" with a particular Garreg Mach staff member, which enables Byleth to train in a skill of your choosing depending on the teacher (e.g. Manuela teaches Sword, Faith, and Flying, and you can choose to have Byleth increase any one of those three skills by a certain amount).  When you do this, you will see both the skill you selected increase for Byleth and a support boost with the person who instructed Byleth.

Most would use faculty training as a way to get Byleth to increase skills which they are lacking in or to get Byleth to class into certain things.  For the most part, it isn't really the best way to have Byleth bond with characters.  However, it is one of the very few ways Byleth can obtain supports with Rhea, but it isn't nearly as reliable as gift spam.

[Timlugia]

You can do CF-GD-BL-SS order, it's quite popular since it spread out the routes so it doesn't feel repetitive.

[eclipse]

Rhea also teaches Faith.  Not the best use of Byleth's time or ability slots, but hey, budding talent unlock.

[Ertrick36]

39 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Rhea also teaches Faith.  Not the best use of Byleth's time or ability slots, but hey, budding talent unlock.

It gets Byleth the ability "White Magic Avoid +20".  Decent if you want Byleth to actually use white magic to fight.  Worthless otherwise.

If you want Byleth to be exclusively a physical combatant, it'd probably be better to have her train them in Brawling or just not train them at all if you intend to make Byleth a mounted unit.  She does teach Swords, but having Rhea teach Byleth Swords is like having a child teach a healthy dog to run.

[vanguard333]

2 hours ago, Ertrick36 said:

I'm gonna say that if you do it this way you're gonna be waiting quite a while to actually S-support Rhea, because, much like the house leaders, Rhea can only be S-supported in one particular route.  You can only S-support Rhea in Silver Snow.

I know that, but thanks. I just plan to s-support Rhea for the church route. I already have other characters in mind for the other routes (though I can't decide between Ingrid and Mercedes in the BL route, but that's beside the point). 

 

2 hours ago, Ertrick36 said:

It means after speaking to Manuela during the third chapter and doing her quest, you'll get an option to use one of your activity points during exploration to undergo "Faculty Training" with a particular Garreg Mach staff member, which enables Byleth to train in a skill of your choosing depending on the teacher (e.g. Manuela teaches Sword, Faith, and Flying, and you can choose to have Byleth increase any one of those three skills by a certain amount).  When you do this, you will see both the skill you selected increase for Byleth and a support boost with the person who instructed Byleth.

Most would use faculty training as a way to get Byleth to increase skills which they are lacking in or to get Byleth to class into certain things.  For the most part, it isn't really the best way to have Byleth bond with characters.  However, it is one of the very few ways Byleth can obtain supports with Rhea, but it isn't nearly as reliable as gift spam.

Ah; okay. Thanks. That makes sense. 

 

2 hours ago, eclipse said:

Rhea also teaches Faith.  Not the best use of Byleth's time or ability slots, but hey, budding talent unlock.

It would be rather fitting to train Byleth in faith in the church route...

 

22 minutes ago, Ertrick36 said:

If you want Byleth to be exclusively a physical combatant, it'd probably be better to have her train them in Brawling or just not train them at all if you intend to make Byleth a mounted unit.  She does teach Swords, but having Rhea teach Byleth Swords is like having a child teach a healthy dog to run.

I haven't yet decided what I'll train Byleth to be in some of the routes. …Wait; she can teach brawling?! An Archbishop teaches brawling?! Faith is obvious, swords I can kind-of understand, but brawling? I'm guessing the explanation for that involves story spoilers. 

Anyway; out of curiosity, does anyone have any idea why Rhea was cut from tea? There's dialogue for her partaking in it in the game, and, considering #1 advice is spam gifts, tea would undoubtedly make this a lot easier. 

[Humanoid]

All well and good to do some forward planning, but I'd suggest not necessarily assuming you'll end up playing all four routes immediately. Play your preferred route first and don't worry about the next three just yet because there's every chance you might be done, or at least want to take an extended break, afterwards. There's a lot of repetition between routes regardless of which you choose.

[Ertrick36]

5 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Wait; she can teach brawling?! An Archbishop teaches brawling?! Faith is obvious, swords I can kind-of understand, but brawling? I'm guessing the explanation for that involves story spoilers.

Yeah, she absolutely can.

And it most certainly is spoilers.  When you learn more about Rhea, it'll likely make a lot more sense.

8 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Anyway; out of curiosity, does anyone have any idea why Rhea was cut from tea? There's dialogue for her partaking in it in the game, and, considering #1 advice is spam gifts, tea would undoubtedly make this a lot easier. 

Cut/placeholder content, most likely.

I would assume that at some point they considered making Rhea a playable character.

[bethany81707]

1 hour ago, Ertrick36 said:

She does teach Swords, but having Rhea teach Byleth Swords is like having a child teach a healthy dog to run.

Sometimes, I have no idea why people think raising Byleth's Swords is ludicrously easy, and then I realise it's because I actually class into different things. A+ Swords is something Byleth always likes for her Sword of the Creator.

9 hours ago, Ertrick36 said:

• The first and foremost way of boosting supports is by choosing the correct dialogue choices for Rhea.  This is a helpful guide in this regard.
• The next best way to boost supports with her is by gifting her.  Give her every single Goddess Statuette, Landscape Painting, and Ancient Coin you get.  Aside from those, any other gift will work except for Exotic Spices.  You can spam her with gifts until the next level in her support is "gained" (even if you can't view it yet).
• A third way to boost supports with her is by having her instruct you.  It's not quite as useful as gift-spamming, and you'll be forfeiting opportunities to boost your Professor Level, but if you have a desire to train in the skills she offers training for, then you might as well be instructed by her.

You say the dialogue options are a better means of raising Support than gifting as if giving Rhea a Goddess Statuette didn't give four times as many Support Points as a correct dialogue option.

I wish I could say for certain how many Support Points Faculty Training gives, but that was beyond the scope of my resource. When I S Supported Rhea myself, I just made sure I did a session every free week anyway. Extra Sword Ranks never go amiss. (If you want to recruit Felix, Sylvain-as-male, Lorenz, Annette or Lysithea, you can also use Rhea's training to double-dip there.)

[vanguard333]

22 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

All well and good to do some forward planning, but I'd suggest not necessarily assuming you'll end up playing all four routes immediately. Play your preferred route first and don't worry about the next three just yet because there's every chance you might be done, or at least want to take an extended break, afterwards. There's a lot of repetition between routes regardless of which you choose.

I think the more likely scenario is that I won't be done, but I'll be forced to put the game aside for a while because University consumes free time. 

 

23 minutes ago, Ertrick36 said:

Cut/placeholder content, most likely.

I would assume that at some point they considered making Rhea a playable character.

Ah; that makes sense. 

 

3 minutes ago, bethany81707 said:

You say the dialogue options are a better means of raising Support than gifting as if giving Rhea a Goddess Statuette didn't give four times as many Support Points as a correct dialogue option.

I wish I could say for certain how many Support Points Faculty Training gives, but that was beyond the scope of my resource. When I S Supported Rhea myself, I just made sure I did a session every free week anyway. Extra Sword Ranks never go amiss. (If you want to recruit Felix, Sylvain-as-male, Lorenz, Annette or Lysithea, you can also use Rhea's training to double-dip there.)

Thanks for the advice. 

[Timlugia]

17 minutes ago, Ertrick36 said:

Cut/placeholder content, most likely.

I doubt it's just placeholder since she has unique and voiced lines for each tea scenario, I heard only other unused character has one is Jeralt but haven't see proof for him yet.

She's a fully functional character with all necessary lines, including unit selection, leveling, critical, injuries, defeat/death, lv99, two unique classes, ability to participate daily activities and all her lines were voiced in both languages.  Most common theories are either they cut her in the very last minute for unknown reason or they are holding her as future contents. I think it was DeathChaos or another high profile dataminer said that Rhea can run the whole game without any glitch if you kept her in her own classes.

[Humanoid]

11 minutes ago, bethany81707 said:

Sometimes, I have no idea why people think raising Byleth's Swords is ludicrously easy, and then I realise it's because I actually class into different things. A+ Swords is something Byleth always likes for her Sword of the Creator. 

I only just hit A in swords and I'm in chapter 19, and a fair bit of faculty training dedicated to it (since there's little else to do with your exploration points post-timeskip). And that's with staying in sword classes for the entire game. And if you're going to stick with the default classes, Byleth doesn't need to spend much effort in other skills anyway since passing exams won't be much of a thing. So yeah, training swords seems a pretty reasonable thing to do in that context.

Granted, I literally have not used the Sword of the Creator at all (I'm boycotting it because I hate whip swords on a conceptual level) and often resort to using magic instead to chip enemies to avoid overlevelling.