Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a game which exists in ii distinct parts. The outset role, chosen White Clouds, focuses on your character's first year as a professor at the Garreg Mach Monastery Officer's University. In one case you choose one of the game's titular three houses, y'all spend your days instructing students, sharing meals at the dining hall, doing fetch quests, and fighting tactical battles while unraveling a tale of intrigue and forgotten histories. In that location are many mechanisms to appoint at the monastery and their sheer numbers can be overwhelming. It takes time to learn to optimize your feel – both what actually needs doing and which actions practice it the near finer. I've found that one time you lot learn those techniques, it's easy to await back and wonder how much further you could be if you knew what you knew now when you first picked up the game.

That is the purpose of this guide. Whether you are just starting 3 Houses and want to take guidance in how to make the almost of part one or if you're the sort of player who learns through reading, this casual stroll through the early on game of Three Houses should help to illuminate the various activities at the monastery and aid you to get the most out of your Fire Keepsake experience.

Three Houses Dreams Come True
I got you, buddy, let's work on those dreams!

INSTRUCTING YOUR STUDENTS
The game makes a joke about how no one actually teaches you well-nigh teaching, and really instruction is mostly straightforward. However, there are definitely some tricks to this, pocket-size optimizations y'all might miss or traps y'all tin fall into if you lot aren't paying attention. Starting time, let's talk virtually how instruction works. At the beginning of each week of classes (non every week will take classes), y'all choose a number of students to instruct based on your professor level. When yous instruct a student, yous tin can cull any of their skills to raise by a number of points based on a variety of factors. Here's how that works:

The base experience gain for any single teaching action is four. That means if you instruct a student at total motivation in a totally neutral skill, they'll gain 16 experience in that skill. Now there are a few dissimilar factors that can change this number. If the students has a strength in the skill, they'll get an extra 2 XP. If it's their weakness, they'll actually lose 2 XP. If your player character has a college rating in the skill than the student, they'll get a +2 bonus for professor expertise. And finally, if you've spent renown at the advisable Saint Statue (more on this in a bit), yous'll become +1 or +2 for that besides. All of this establishes your base XP for an education session, something in a range from 2 at the lowest to 10 at the highest.

Now at that place'due south also a multiplier that's applied when you instruct based on the quality of the pedagogy. Instruction quality is random, as all-time as I can tell – short of endless save-scumming there is no fashion to optimize your instruction session for each item pupil. A good session gives the normal experience, a swell session multiplies the base by 1.5, and a perfect session multiplies the base by 2. Smashing and perfect sessions likewise increase support level with the student, and your first perfect during that particular pupil's didactics also restores some motivation. Information technology'south also possible (though very rare – I've merely had it happen once) to get a bad lesson, which reduces XP proceeds only gives support points. After a bad session, you lot tin can console or critique the pupil – cull based on their personality, because choosing the right option restores the motivation that they spent on the bad lesson.

Three Houses Big Scary Axe
It will be when I am done teaching you all about them!

There are in one key point I missed on instruction until later into the game that I want to focus on here. You may have noticed that some characters have a fix of iii stars next to one of their skills. These stars mark that skill as abudding talent, and the game does explain a bit that a budding talent tin can get a strength if the character practices it enough, and they'll also larn an power as a result. Here's the thing: the stars on the budding talent gauge only fill from pedagogy fourth dimension. You cannot mitt Claude an axe and expect him to just magically unlock his budding talent. Putting Hilda in a group action for heavy armor will never increment her strength. I got Hilda'due south heavy armor all the way up to level C while even so having 0 stars in the budding talent considering I never gave her directly pedagogy. This meant that I spent a significant amount of time investing into that skill without unlocking its potential to gain experience points faster. If you determine to invest in a grapheme'due south budding talent, know that you accept to instruct them directly with activity points – there's no other way to unlock that subconscious potential.

GOALS
During educational activity time, yous tin can assign goals to your students for them to focus on. These goals will gain experience at the stop of a class calendar week separate from the fourth dimension you spend instructing the students with activity points. Essentially, goals are costless XP, so you want to make the most of them! Every character starts with their own gear up of goals, and may over time ask y'all to change their goals to something based on their personal interests, but you can make their goals whatever you lot want them to be. Here's how the experience payout for your goals works:

The corporeality of experience gained for a goal depends on the grapheme'due south force in that goal. The base level for a neutral skill is 28 XP. Having a weakness in that skill will reduce the amount to 24, while having a force in that skill increases the XP reward to 32. This means your students volition all proceeds somewhere between 24-32 XP in two skills at the end of each course week. However, some character classes don't want yous to have a balance in multiple skills – instead, they ask for a much college ranking in a single skill. This applies to classes like grapplers, swordmasters, or bishops – characters line-fishing for these avant-garde classes probably desire to increase 1 particular skill really fast rather than playing the field. Turns out, you lot actually can do that – it is totally possible to set a goal for 1 single skill. When setting a goal for a unmarried skill, select custom goals and and so choose the skill yous desire. When information technology asks for a second goal, scroll to the bottom and select "none." Having only 1 skill equally your goal increases the XP gain past i.5 – now you're looking at 36 for a weak skill, 42 for a neutral skill, and 48 for a strong skill. This is also really skilful for focusing on some of the more passive skills like riding, flying, or heavy armor that you lot tin can't build just past simply equipping your character in a different manner.

You may notice as your characters accomplish their goals, they learn a number of combat arts for the various skills that they are practicing. You may also notice that, during combat, you tin never seem to find those combat arts when you want them. Every bit it turns out, if you lot've never opened the combat art submenu from the inventory screen, you may never realize thatyou tin can only equip 3 combat arts to your character. I certainly missed this very of import piece of information early on, and it led to me spending a long time with some rather useless arts on many of my characters. So exist certain to regularly check that menu, learn about the gainsay arts you lot are picking up, and equip the three you like the well-nigh equally you progress through the game.

Three Houses Saint Cethleann Statue

SAINT STATUES
I mentioned earlier that one fashion in which you tin can optimize your educational activity times is through the influence of saint statues. So how do those work? The saint statues are unlocked in chapter 5 cheers to a quest you tin can consummate during your exploration fourth dimension. One time y'all've washed the quest, y'all can speak to the artisan who stands by the statues in order to spend yourrenownon bonuses. Renown is earned by doing quests, so you lot'll want to make sure that you complete all of the quests that are available each calendar month in order to maximize the amount you have to spend. Why? Considering these saint statues give quite substantial bonuses.

Each saint enhances the amount of experience you proceeds with a different set of skills. Some skills such as axe, bow, and faith, allow y'all to purchase for relatively little renown a bonus of +ane to the instruction experience gained for that skill. These bonuses tin can reach a maximum of +2. For the more than passive skills similar riding, heavy armor, and flying, you lot get the +2 unlock in ane buy. All four saint statues give additional divine pulse uses as well as buffs to experience points gained. At present what I want to emphasize nigh the saint statues is 1 particular saint, the i who grants the buff that I consider to exist the well-nigh important in the game: Saint Cethleann. For the price of only 2000 renown (which yous should most certainly accept by the time y'all unlock these statues), Saint Cethleann will give a +1 bonus to the rate at which you proceeds class experience.

"Ian," you lot might say, "y'all're that excited near a +1 buff? Sounds pretty lame." Ah, but class feel doesn't work like skill experience. Y'all cannot instruct it, you cannot ready information technology as a goal, and y'all cannot do whatever activities at the monastery to increment it. Class experience only goes up in ane fashion – when you fight on the battleground. Each fourth dimension you click "attack" against an enemy unit of measurement and the battle animations play, you gain 1 class XP towards your character's currently equipped form. And that's it. This means that in society to primary a class that requires, say, 100 XP, yous accept to fight 100 battles with that character. The bonus from Saint Cethleann cuts that rate in half, and this is the only way to increase the rate at which characters master their class (at least in role one – information technology's totally possible there's a different mechanism for this belatedly game that I oasis't reached however). Doubling your class mastery is so valuable because mastering a class gives you one of that class's fundamental abilities, and the abilities you proceeds for mastering a grade are often some of the best ones in the game. Trust me: invest in Saint Cethleann as soon equally you unlock her in affiliate five. It will make course progression so much faster and more satisfying.

Three Houses Passed the Exam
"Dear, how was school today? Did you lot benefit on your stabbing test?"

CLASSES
Three Houses would appear to be all virtually classes – you teach at murder school, after all – justclassactually refers to a specific mechanism in the game. Your class is the combat archetype which your graphic symbol falls in to, it determines what abilities they can admission, and the type of unit they are: infantry, armored, horseback, or flying. Everyone starts out as a commoner or noble but can take certification exams to motility to more powerful classes with amend abilities. At that place are iv form levels: beginner, intermediate, avant-garde, and main. You lot won't even exist able to look at the master classes until you hit professor level C (more on professor levels in a bit), but everything else you tin can see the requirements for in advance to assist you lot plan out a path for your characters.

My first tip about classes comes in the form of a really dumb error I made early: classes above beginner require you to have the advisable rank in all of the associated skills for that class. I got confused considering beginner classes simply require you lot to have one skill trained up. The fighter, for example, can be accessed if yous have a rank of D in bows, axes, or brawling. I assumed that logic connected into higher levels and that you only needed one of the two or 3 skills listed for a class in society to unlock it.That's non the instance. In one case yous ascent higher up beginner, yous demand to have the advisable rank in all of the skills for a class in order to have a 100% of passing the certification test. Now y'all tin canendeavourto become into a class by taking the exam with merely one of the appropriate skills, merely your chance of passing will be greatly reduced and the game does not let you save scum this. From the testing I've washed it looks like it rolls your likelihood of passing for the month and if it rolls a fail, it doesn't matter how much you restart and effort again – it volition always exist a fail for that month.

Now for my second grade tip: plan for both short term and long term growth. This may seem obvious, just hear me out. In one case you unlock the ability to see master classes, information technology is very tempting to immediately accommodate all of your characters past setting skill goals that will equip them for the master course you desire them to have. That's certainly what I did. The trouble is, if yous focus only on their long term career growth, you might miss out on important classes before primary and take nowhere for your character to go when they are fix to accelerate. I had this happen with multiple characters who, because I took their focus off of their master weapon so they could build skills with riding or a secondary weapon, couldn't access an advanced course when they were set because their primary weapon wasn't at level A. And then while y'all certainly want to take fourth dimension to build skills on the side for the grade you want in the future, information technology's equally important to make certain y'all are going to authorize for at to the lowest degree one class on the level above your current one: intermediate if you're at beginner, advanced if you're at intermediate.

Finally, if yous have a unit who is studying both magic and a weapon skill, be enlightened that you lose your magic if you bandy to a class which does not have magic as one of its core skills. In that location are eventually means to work around this but in the early on game, making a spellcaster into a martial class will cost them the ability to use any of their magic spells. This is a very easy mistake to make when switching from noble/commoner into one of the beginner classes, and it increases the challenge of raising characters for a master class that will somewhen combine magic and a weapon. You essentially accept to take two career paths for them, switching between their martial classes and their spellcasting classes equally appropriate until late game.

Oh, and for goodness's sakewatch out for gender restrictions on class options. I don't know how long I spent training Catherine to be a state of war master earlier I realized that she can't be one because she's a adult female. Information technology's frustrating to return to this archaic feature from older Fire Emblems after Fates finally opened the total class puddle to every character.

Three Houses Intimidating Catherine
"Sad Catherine, existence strong is a man's chore. Become ride on a unicorn or whatsoever."

PROFESSOR LEVELS
One of the most important stats in Iii Houses is the player graphic symbol's professor level. This level informs a number of important features in the game: how much allowance you receive at the starting time of the month, the number of activity points and teaching points you have, how many paralogue battles y'all can do in one free day, and the number of adjutants you can assign during combat. Because your professor level connects to and so many significant mechanisms in the game, increasing information technology quickly should be a serious early game priority when playing 3 Houses.

There are a number of activities that give you professor XP. One of the about popular which you receive right away is eating in the dining hall. Each meal gives 200 professor XP too equally fully restoring the motivation of ii of your students, but information technology costs an activeness point to do then. Gardening can be done once a month and gives 100 professor XP without costing any activeness points. Angling doesn't take a ready value, so we'll spend a dedicated section of the guide talking about fishing in a few moments. Starting at chapter two, y'all can attend choir practice with two students to increase their organized religion equally well as netting 100 professor XP. Finally, by chapter four yous can compete in tournaments to earn prizes and a whopping 300 professor XP. Both choir practice and tournaments cost activeness points.

Looking at this, your best selection to optimize your professor level is to apply any activity points you accept for tournaments as much as possible. Sign up, use the + push button on your controller to skip the battle animations and then that all the tournaments don't have you an 60 minutes to watch, heal during the semis and the title, and watch the professor XP and the gold roll in! The risk of this approach is that tournaments practise zero for the motivation of your students – y'all want to be able to make the about of the instruction points you lot're unlocking with that high professor level, right? So how do you do that? The key is using resources other than activity points to help your students recover motivation then that y'all can spend your action points on building professor XP through tournament wins.

Three Houses Leonie Tournament Win

MOTIVATION
The well-nigh obvious outlet for increasing motivation is the dining hall – for one action point you max out 2 students at once while also gaining 200 professor XP. This is certainly not a bad pick and there volition exist times where the departure between 200 and 300 professor XP won't matter to yous all that much. Simply to really accomplish the highest professor level every bit quickly as possible, you'll desire to develop other techniques for maximizing motivation. Luckily there are quite a few mechanisms for this throughout the game.

Garreg Mach Monastery is covered in lost items. Seriously, these things are everywhere, and returning them to someone in your part automatically restores fifty motivation – that's half their bar correct there. If you happen to accept 2 lost items for i person, and then that character is good to go! Yous should besides note that support conversations with the actor character fully restore motivation, and then always check your supports when preparing for a free 24-hour interval. If y'all have a support conversation unlocked with a graphic symbol for Byleth, in that location will be a specific point on the map that activates the conversation with them. Utilise that map point to trigger the conversation so you can restore their motivation for free, without spending activeness points or money.

If you don't take lost items and you don't accept support conversations, that'southward where gifts come in. Gifts are items y'all can purchase from the southern and eastern merchants starting in chapter 6, though you tin detect gifts lying around earlier than that. When you lot give someone a gift, they'll get 25 or 50 motivation back based on how much they similar the gift. Yous can get a pretty decent thought of someone's gift preferences by looking at their notes page when you cheque their stats in the carte du jour. Some of them are certainly tricky to effigy out, though. Gifts are the expensive road to restoring motivation – sometimes a single gift can toll 1000 gold – but if you're optimizing professor XP by fighting in tournaments as I suggested, you lot're getting that money back plus some.

While tournaments are the best way to increase professor XP via activity points, at that place's one other activeness that one should not neglect in the journeying towards the ultimate professor level: fishing.

Three Houses Excellent Fishing
This should be the moving-picture show next to the definition of "necessary evil" in the dictionary.

Line-fishing
When I offset started Three Houses I expected fishing to be a silly minigame that I would start ignoring pretty quickly into my playthrough. And for a flake, I did dismiss it due to the small amount of professor XP it appeared to grant. And so the merchant shops opened upward and I started to do some math. Each month, you tin purchase 40 individual uses of bait from the eastern merchant. When you fish, you tend to gain professor XP somewhere betwixt 10-30 points based on the rarity of the fish you lot capture. And then even if you simply get the bare minimum amount of XP every catch, that'due south all the same 400 professor XP per month just for taking the fourth dimension to fish – more than whatsoever other activity in the game. More probable you lot'll be communicable some fish with a greater rarity, then your actual XP gain will land on average in the 600-800 range. Getting this much professor experience without having to burn down any activity points makes fishing maybethe best method of raising your professor level.

In that location are a few other factors that come into play and help to make this happen. In that location are regularly special fishing events which will assist you lot to maximize the amount of feel you get when fishing. These include days where rare fish bite more ofttimes or, my personal favorite, the "fistfuls of fish" event. When you bank check the calendar at the beginning of the month, if you see this, make sure that all of your bait is saved for that gratuitous day. During fistfuls of fish, you lot catch multiple fish per use of bait, significantly increasing the corporeality of XP yous get when fishing. During one fistful of fish issue I legitimately gained nearly 2000 professor XP from all the fish I caught with my xl allurement. 1 month, there's a fishing tournament where you'll be given 50 allurement for free in order to compete. Be sure to use all that bait before ending the tournament. Yous as the player absolutely take control of when that tournament ends based on showing a particular fish to a certain character, so exist certain to maximize your experience during the tournament by using every piece of free bait y'all get – it'll all be gone when the tournament ends.

Every bit far as applied tips most fishing are concerned, the mechanisms are relatively unproblematic. You press A at the same time that the moving ring aligns with the colored band in the line-fishing meter over and over once again until the fish's stamina bar is reduced to cypher. Getting directly "fantabulous" combos increases the quality/rarity of the fish you receive, and then it does take an indirect outcome on the corporeality of professor XP that you receive. Now you might retrieve that when you throw the line into the h2o, your goal is to hit A the moment that a fish bites the line. Just in reality, you tin can expect for upward to three fish to test the line before y'all finally hit the push button and start to catch. I personally use this technique to wait for a rare or glimmering fish instead of a common fish (look for a crimson or gold symbol instead of blueish). Just note that regardless of the color of the 3rd fish, you'll accept to catch it or you lose the bait on the line.

And that finally brings us to the end of all the tricks I've learned during my early hours in Fire Emblem. Naturally you lot can enjoy the game in whatsoever way you wish, but these techniques can help yous to optimize the amount of experience that you proceeds and requite y'all mechanical advantages on the battleground. My hope is that some of these were new data for you, just if you've got some tricks upwards your sleeve that I didn't share here, feel gratuitous to include them in the comments below! Thanks for reading and I promise you enjoy your fourth dimension in the globe of Burn Emblem: 3 Houses.