Fire Emblem: Three Houses has a number of major turning points in the game, and one of them is the Battle in the Holy Tomb which takes place in Chapter 11 of the main story. For those who may have sussed this out already, this happens just prior to the timeskip, and is probably your first real taste of what’s to come after in terms of enemy variety and map mechanics. This can be a tricky fight against the Flame Emperor, so let our Fire Emblem Three Houses Holy Tomb battle guide sort you out.
Fire Emblem Three Houses Holy Tomb Battle Guide — Units and Map Layout
Regardless of which House you picked, you’re going to be facing down the Flame Emperor in the Holy Tomb battle. The enemies that you’ll face will also remain consistent, so we’ve populated a bit of a list here so you can tick off your foes as you mow them down. In the Holy Tomb, you’re going to face:
- 5 Sword Users
- 9 Axe Users
- 4 Bow Users
- 6 Reason users
- 2 Demonic Beasts
- The Flame Emperor
- Metodey
You’ll be allowed to have 9 units in battle, so make you choose wisely if you’re already done your share of recruiting kids from other Houses. We would also make sure that you bring a coterie of units with healing abilities to tackle the Demonic Beasts.
Fire Emblem Three Houses Holy Tomb Battle Guide — General Strategy
As a general rule with this map, you’re going to have a few competing concerns. The first is the fact that there will be Thieves trying to steal Crest Stones that are scattered around the map in various tombs. These Thieves are more focused on stealing the stones and running away than with engaging you, and you’ll also gain increased rewards if you save more Stones so we would recommend that stopping them be a top priority before you concentrate on anything else. These Thieves will be heading South once they nick the Crest Stones, so get your units with the highest movement or the longest range to hunt them down.
What you’re going to want to do is to then take care of the Demonic Beasts that will be drawing closer with each turn. These things are no joke, and they have a single-minded focus. They want to take you down. For the moment, you don’t have to worry about the Flame Emperor or Metodey, but you’ll be wanting to deal with the Beasts and their coterie of support troops as soon as possible — this includes some pretty lethal mages. You’ll be pincered from the bottom and the middle of the map, so make sure you’re moving your healers around but also keeping them adequately protected from being picked off. It can feel like a game of attrition with the Beasts, so we’d recommend buying time until you can get Byleth ready for a counterstrike, whilst chipping away with your other units and ensuring that they’re topped up. We would focus on staggering the beasts by double-striking one of their shielded tiles.
Move on to the Flame Emperor and Metodey once you’ve taken out the Beasts and the other adds. You don’t want to be swamped by enemy forces when trying to contend with these elites. Personally, we would take down Metodey first. Feel free to use an archer to get some chip damage off onto him, or to use your Magic users to do the same. Once you think he’s been whittled down enough, go in for the kill and make sure that you have enough units available to deal with the Flame Emperor on the same turn. We reckon it’s safer to go for both at one go — they can definitely pack a punch if they get the jump on you.
Now that you’ve got our Fire Emblem Three Houses Holy Tomb battle guide to help you out, you should be able to make quick work of this fight and to nail the right targets. If you’re a bit further along in the game and you need a hand with the Nemesis battle or the battle against Cornelia, our guides will have you covered.
