The Hojarasca Guide to Fire Emblem: Three Houses
About this Guide
Welcome! This guide is a collection of notes, data, observations, and recommendations based on my playthrus of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I started writing this information down mostly for my own benefit (so that I don¦t forget these things between playthrus), but am publishing them on the internet in case they are helpful to some·one else.
Authorship & License
This website was created by Hojarasca. She bears no affiliation with, nor endorsement from, Nintendo, Intelligent Systems, or other owners or investors in Fire Emblem intellectual property. The purpose of this guide is to inform players about Hojas subjective opinions regarding the game—meaning that not all information is guaranteed to be correct. Hoja strives to have correct opinions, however.
Content License
- C·C B·Y‐S·A 4.0
The content of this guide is made available under a C·C B·Y‐S·A 4.0 license. Content within this guide can be saved, shared, and adapted provided that the persons so doing comply with the license terms. One such term requires that any derivative works be licensed under the same C·C B·Y‐S·A 4.0 license.
Icon Licenses
- C·C B·Y 3.0
This guide makes use of a number of icons from Game-icons.net :— . These icons were made by Lorc, Willdabeast, Delapouite, and Skoll with modifications by Hojarasca and are made available under a C·C B·Y 3.0 license.
Webfont Licenses
- A·F·P·L
- S·I·L O·F·L
This guide makes use of three webfont families: E·B Garamond 12, licensed under the S·I·L O·F·L, and U·R·W Gothic and U·R·W Classico, licensed under the A·F·P·L. They can be downloaded at the preceding links.
Perspective
This guide is written from the perspective of wanting to increase player agency to make the decisions they want to make regarding the game. That is, it focuses on questions such as how to make bad characters better, how to make difficult builds possible, and how to take the greatest advantage of game mechanics to grow ones units to the maximum extent. These are often longterm strategic decisions focused in the areas of unit growth and resource allocation, and they mesh well with a certain kind of roleplaying mindset which appreciates investing large amounts of time and doing substantial planning in order to achieve self‐defined narrative goals.
However, this is not the only way to approach a Fire Emblem game. Players who are trying to optimize their play for tactical achievements—such as victories with low turn counts—will likely not agree with everything in this guide, or find all of it useful. And players of a differing roleplay mentality—who like treating characters as machinations embodied with an authorial “intent” rather than dolls for the player to dress up and ascribe their own purposes to—or who like to take game mechanics somewhat literally and consequently abhor many forms of grinding—will probably find some practices encouraged by this guide to go against the rules of their respective magic circles.
Assumptions Regarding Play
As with any, this guide is required to make some assumptions regarding play.
Difficulty & Mode
- Classic
- Maddening
This guide is written for Maddening difficulty—the highest difficulty in the game—played in Classic mode. Maddening differs from other difficulties not only in the levels and quantities of enemy units, but also in the fact that they have been given additional abilities which can profoundly change the tactics of various maps. Most of these changes make the game harder. Conversely, Maddening can actually make some kinds of grinding easier, thanks to bulkier enemies and enemies that auto‐heal.
It should be possible to follow this guide even if you are playing on an easier difficulty, but not everything will apply to you.
Amiibo
- Amiibo Gazebo
If you own a Fire Emblem amiibo, you can scan it to get a number of random item drops each month by scanning it at the Amiibo Gazebo. These are mostly inconsequential, but occasionally quite useful. Because of their unpredictable nature, they will not be covered in this guide.
Downloadable Content (D·L·C)
- Cindered Shadows
This guide is written from the perspective of somebody who has purchased the D·L·C and completed the included Cindered Shadows campaign. The D·L·C adds a number of classes and features which make the game easier, yes, but also more interesting. As someone who has put a lot of hours into Three Houses, I enjoy having it.
On the other hand, the D·L·C is $25. If it is your first time playing the game and you are uncertain whether you will be playing much of it, buying the D·L·C is a lot of money for perhaps not much added benefit. Before purchasing, I would recommend beating the game once, and then considering if you are willing to play multiple more runs thru it. If you are, then $25 to make all of those hours a little nicer and more interesting might be worth it. If you aren¦t, then save your money.
In this guide, I have tried to call out D·L·C features as I discuss them so that you can see what it offers, and ignore those recommendations if you haven¦t purchased it.
Online Play
- Nintendo Switch Online
- Online Liaison
- Spirits of the Fallen
If you have Nintendo Switch Online, you can play the game connected to the internet. This adds Spirits of the Fallen to the battle maps and unlocks the Online Liaison feature. I enjoy Spirits of the Fallen, and don¦t consider it to materially change the experience too much, so I usually do play connected to the internet. Conversely, I find the Online Liaison to be rather game‐breaking and refuse to make use of it.
I won¦t be covering online features in this guide, because I don¦t think they really make a difference in ones strategy or approach. Whether you turn them on or leave them off is up to you.
New Game+
- New Game
- New Game+
Once you complete the game, you can build off of your previous save with a New Game+ save. This save allows you to skip some aspects of the game by spending Renown, and is consequently easier and allows for free·er strategy. Saves that are not New Game+ are ordinary New Game saves.
This guide is generally written assuming a New Game playthru, not New Game+, but on occasion specific aspects of New Game+ may be called out.