Current Events > Fire Emblem Three Houses is a bit overwhelming.

(+) Yeah! (+)

There are so many systems. The free roam area is massive and has loot hidden in every suspicious looking nook and cranny, has a bunch of activities that affect each student's affinity differently, has quests everywhere. Everyone can learn fucking everything rather than being restricted to a few weapons like usually. There's a calender system I don't totally get. You can recruit students based on which stats you raise. And I've only even done two battle encounters. Just unlocked the first "lesson" day and it's throwing like forty new systems and concepts at me.

Help ._.
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What difficulty are you playing on? If it makes you feel better, the game doesn't really punish you for not maximizing everything you can
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Hard/Classic Black Eagle route
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Dont worry about min maxing on hard. Just do a couple of skirmishes inbetween major battles

All the games systems will make sense very quickly once you start playing

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It's overwhelming at first but eventually you'll be ignoring most things and getting into a routine. The main thing was to have meals with everyone to raise their motivation so when in class, everyone is at max motivation.

The hidden loot isn't a big deal, pick it up if you see it, but don't search for it. Everyone can learn everything, but that doesn't mean make your mage a warrior. Look at their stats and affinities to see what everyone is good at from the start. If you're still lost, there are character guides that say what each character should shoot for.

The calendar is easy, Saturdays is your walk around campus/free battle time, Sunday is class, and random events might happen during the week. Then you have a story mission on the last day of the month. My schedule was usually first free day of the month, explore and do every sidequest. Second free day, battle. Third free day, explore and meals so everyone is max motivation. Fourth, battle or explore, your choice. Never rest or do seminars.

For recruiting, ignore the stat requirements. Just raise their affinity to B rank and they'll randomly ask to join your house. It's a lot easier. In my opinion, I'd only recruit 2-3 characters to cover any weaknesses your class has. I'd rather focus on my own class so on other playthroughs I get a new experience, and I think it makes the second half of the game better when you leave people in their house.

For lessons, just pick the stat or two you want to improve and dump your whole motivation bar into it. There's no advantage to keeping it (I thought no motivation would hurt in battle, it doesn't) so spend as much as you can.

And it's unfortunate that you picked the worst house, Blue Lions are easily the best.

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DeadBankerDream posted...

Everyone can learn f***ing everything rather than being restricted to a few weapons like usually.

You should probably stick to training them in their proficiencies if it's your first time playing, unless you're following a guide. What sucks is that you can't see the requirements for Master clases until way later, making it hard to plan ahead on your first playthrough.

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markconigliaro posted...

And it's unfortunate that you picked the worst house, Blue Lions are easily the best.

I used a random number generator to pick. Black Eagles and House Baratheon were equally interesting to me from a character and story perspective, but Blue Lannisters had the unique combat skills I was most interested in, so decided to be a coward and make no important decision on my own.

Thanks for the info, though. Looks like that covers most of what is weighing on me.
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Don't worry too much about it. You'll be surprised how quickly you'll adapt. For a first playthrough, just stick with each character's canon class and focus on those skills.

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Also, what exactly does authority do? Is it related to those battalion things I have unlocked but not had a chance to use yet? Considering switching Edelgard to axe and heavy armor to make her my FemHector.
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DeadBankerDream posted...

Also, what exactly does authority do? Is it related to those battalion things I have unlocked but not had a chance to use yet? Considering switching Edelgard to axe and heavy armor to make her my FemHector.

Yeah, authority allows you to use better battalions, and be more accurate with their abilities
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Focus on getting more time to use during free days, first and foremost. Buy bait when you get the chance and save it for days when you can get multiple fish per bait. Also don't forget the garden, every bit of experience helps.

If you want to bust the game open ASAP, recruit Lysithea and Lorenz from Golden Deer. Lorenz has a paralogue that gives him a special item that Lysithea can use to make her absolutely broken.

DeadBankerDream posted...

Also, what exactly does authority do? Is it related to those battalion things I have unlocked but not had a chance to use yet? Considering switching Edelgard to axe and heavy armor to make her my FemHector.

Batallions give you stat boosts. Better authority gives you access to better batallions.
Edelgard's unique class is armored, so there's not much benefit to training her in Heavy Armor. And light spoilers: armored are the worst clases in the game.

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I already recruited Sylvain or whatever his name is. Was thinking of playing the game like a normal fire emblem game where you recruit fucking everyone. This isn't the first time I've heard it said that the experience is better if you don't, though.
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Antifar posted...

Yeah, authority allows you to use better battalions, and be more accurate with their abilities

Authority only let's you equipped better battalions although ranking up authority does give you a skill that boosts the MT of gambits. Some characters also learn rallies through authority.

Charm is what increases the damage and accuracy of gambits.

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LordFarquad1312 posted...

Batallions give you stat boosts. Better authority gives you access to better batallions.
Edelgard's unique class is armored, so there's not much benefit to training her in Heavy Armor. And light spoilers: armored are the worst clases in the game.

I would say training up Edelgard to C Heavy Armor early in the game since she starts with D rank Heavy Armor is worth it because it gives her Weight -3 which helps her double or avoid being doubled.

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I've seen the term 'gambit' thrown around in the game, but it hasn't explained what that means yet.
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It's special abilities battalions have that units can use in battle a certain number of times.

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Is it always that you can only do some things on days off or is it just tutorializing the different things at the start of the game and forcing me to do those specifics?
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Tutorial

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I'm restarting the game again (because I was dumb and didn't realize a character had died about 10 hours in) and I'm comprehending things a bit better. Gambits were sort of explained in the first practice skirmish with the Knights of Seiros. Like right after you learned how to tutor the class.

DeadBankerDream posted...

Is it always that you can only do some things on days off or is it just tutorializing the different things at the start of the game and forcing me to do those specifics?

You get more freedom in a month or two as you get more 'time points' rather quickly.

I'm not too sure if the Seminars are worth it though. That's about the only thing I'm not sure of for the Free Days.

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So in the story mission to take out bandits in the canyon, enemy AI is being dumb. The bow-wielding thieves have an ability to shoot from 3 units' range instead of 2 and since my own ranged units can't shoot from a range of 3, they can't counterattack that. But if the thieves have a shot from counterattackable range, they'll take it instead of not.
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DeadBankerDream posted...

So in the story mission to take out bandits in the canyon, enemy AI is being dumb. The bow-wielding thieves have an ability to shoot from 3 units' range instead of 2 and since my own ranged units can't shoot from a range of 3, they can't counterattack that. But if the thieves have a shot from counterattackable range, they'll take it instead of not.

That might be because your accuracy suffers if you use bows from more than 2 spaces away.

Azardea posted...

That might be because your accuracy suffers if you use bows from more than 2 spaces away.

It's 20% penalty for every tile after 2.

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• Train everyone you can
• Eat with the people that you trained with to get back their motivation
• Garden each time you're in town
• Fight and beat the Arena once each month
• Do all the random shit each month on the very first day

You'll be wondering what to do with your extra time very quickly

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Ah okay, that makes some sense, then.

Dumb still, but the AI script makes sense.

My understanding has completion!
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Finished the canyon mission, woo!

Not gonna lie, if this is the start of hard mode, I feel this is gonna be... well, hard.

The enemy units do significant damage to me with every hit, discounting beefy targets like Edelgard, Byleth and Ferdinand, and a lot of them easily double me. Sort of having second thoughts about the difficulty, but I've been told normal mode is too easy to be fun.
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Can't speak for everyone, but I found that the game gets easier once you start getting your skills and promotions and shit. Many FEs are hardest at the very beginning.

Given the freedom that this game allows, it's very easy to break the game once you can start investing into your units. The first few chapters are certainly the hardest, because you just don't have much to work with.

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Alright, I'll stay the course for now.

Sometimes the game skips my free days and it upsets me.
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Even though I heard this game is easy, I still never start any game on hard mode. I always go with normal and if I want a second play through then maybe hard it is.

It's tutorial, though there are one or two instances later where you have to do a specific option

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Azardea posted...

Can't speak for everyone, but I found that the game gets easier once you start getting your skills and promotions and shit. Many FEs are hardest at the very beginning.

This isn't true at all for me, but I stopped playing the series after the GBA games. Then I played Awakening and then 3H. All of them are pretty easy until you get further into the game. TC is right, they're hitting you twice within the first few maps and in the other FE games it takes a long time before the enemy can double you. Fucking Ax users can double you easy in this game very early in the game.

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I unlocked the ability to reclass. Is there any permanent benefits to doing so other than mastering an ability when you gain enough class exp? Other than base stats what is different when you change class? Do you get different growth rates?
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Noble/Commoner don't help your growths at all.

Beginner Classes help you a bit.

Intermediate Classes help you more.

Advanced Classes have the overall best growths with a few exceptions.

Master Classes are a mixed bag. You get classes like Wvyern Lord that blow out every physical class in terms of growth and then you get Bow Knight that gives you nothing.

Also each tier of classes gives you stat mods which boost your stats. Beginner classes give you a small mod, Intermediate give you a bigger one, Advanced give you a bigger one, and Master Classes give the most.

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Does the game expect you to do a certain amount of non-story battling on your days off? I'm hesitant to engage, remember how doing optional fights in Sacred Stones and Awakening was a sure way to get yourself overleveled.
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DeadBankerDream posted...

Does the game expect you to do a certain amount of non-story battling on your days off?

On hard, it probably won't hurt to spend 1/2 days a month for battling. There are also certain battles with story content, called paralogues, to be found by doing that.
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DeadBankerDream posted...

Does the game expect you to do a certain amount of non-story battling on your days off? I'm hesitant to engage, remember how doing optional fights in Sacred Stones and Awakening was a sure way to get yourself overleveled.

On the battle screen, you can see the story battle and it's recommended level. I usually aim to have everyone in my house around that level.

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Most of the non paralogue battles are lower level than the chapter mission so they won't give you as much exp. The ! are special monster battles that you can do on specfic weekends which are around the level of the chapter mission which can provide you more exp.

Unless you have the expansion pass in which case the yellow ! battles are the same as the red ! monster battles.

Paralogue battles on the other hand are generally higher level than the chapter mission they start from, so they can give you a lot of exp if done immediately.

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Can you miss story content by not battling? I spent all of the Garland Moon not doing so and am on my next mission.
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DeadBankerDream posted...

Can you miss story content by not battling? I spent all of the Garland Moon not doing so and am on my next mission.

There are some paralogues that have to be completed before the time skip, and some that occur post-timeskip (and have to be done before the game ends). Beyond story content, there's usually some good items or weapons to be gained from these.
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How can I see if a free-day fight is story or whatnot? Are they called paralogue if they're story and auxiliary if not?
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DeadBankerDream posted...

How can I see if a free-day fight is story or whatnot? Are they called paralogue if they're story and auxiliary if not?

What do you mean? The battle screen clearly labels what each battle type is plus the suggested level in the text box. You can exit out of the screen as long as you didn't start any battle, so just go in and check, then back out and plan your day.

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dameon_reaper posted...

Even though I heard this game is easy, I still never start any game on hard mode. I always go with normal and if I want a second play through then maybe hard it is.

That works with games with three starting difficulties, but for games with only two starting difficulty levels, assume it's easy and normal, no matter what they're called. That's how it was with Awakening, and it's been like that since. They also have casual and classic as options as well, but the game's default is closest to hard/classic. It's up to you what difficulty you ultimate end up playing on, but hard/classic seems to be what the game is balanced around.

Hubert is the creepiest fucker, I swear.
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Make erryone wyrvenriders no exceptions. Oh and BL best house.

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DeadBankerDream posted...

How can I see if a free-day fight is story or whatnot? Are they called paralogue if they're story and auxiliary if not?

Yes, and the paralogues will be marked by a green exclamation point
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Alright. Thanks.

In general thanks to everyone for helping.

I decided to do a battle before the mission. Had to restart it three times. Shit's hard, man. Everyone is doubling me.
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LordFarquad1312 posted...

You should probably stick to training them in their proficiencies if it's your first time playing, unless you're following a guide. What sucks is that you can't see the requirements for Master clases until way later, making it hard to plan ahead on your first playthrough.

Most of the Master classes are pretty meh hell some are actively worse.

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Remember the best way to become a better professor is by fishing. Maximize fishing by saving bait for Fistful of Fish weeks.

As far as spending your weekends go. Seminars are for when you just want to skip a weekend later in the game. They never outperform fighting or exploring. And never choose to just skip a weekend.

I typically go Explore -> Battle -> Explore -> Battle or Mission depending on the month.

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