Fire Emblem: Three Houses has gotten a bit of reputation for leaning hard into the social sim elements of JRPGs compared to its predecessors. If you’ve spent any time in the game at all, you’ll know that this translates to a bunch of inter-character relationships that you foster as the player with companions of your choice. While you can’t turn everyone into a potential love interest, there are specific characters that you can have a happy ending with at the conclusion of the title’s story, and these will depend on the gender of the avatar that you choose at the start. Our Fire Emblem Three Houses romance guide will explain how best to rank up your relationships to the coveted S-rank, and also let you know which characters are available to you depending on whether you’re playing as male Byleth or female Byleth.
Fire Emblem Three Houses Romance Guide — Raising Relationship Reputation
Whether you’re playing as a man or a woman in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, improving your support relationship with the characters that you want to romance is going to be mechanically identical regardless of the choice. You’ll notice that your relationship with each character is ranked, much like the way the game ranks skills and abilities. Getting your relationship to S-rank with someone is essentially sealing the deal, and that’s what you’re going to want to aim for once you’ve picked a person to settle down with. While it’s impossible to hit S-rank until after the time skip in the game, you can lay as much of the foundation prior to that big moment in the game for ease of access later.
Firstly, you can rank up on the battlefield with your chosen paramour by fighting next to them and raising your support levels that way. That’s always been standard fare for the Fire Emblem games, but now Three Houses gives you the chance to do things a little differently by adopting a Persona-style approach to social links. You’ll be given a Rest day of sorts every week in your teaching calendar with which to Explore, which is essentially your chance to free-roam the monastery and to hang out with the other characters.
One of the things that you can do with the action points the game gives you to spend on social activities is to have tea parties with whoever’s caught your eye. Having tea time with a character costs 1 action point, and it involves you making small talk over a cuppa. If you suggest the right conversation topics out of a selection three times in a row, you can score huge relationship points and extend your afternoon tea into something a little more involved. You can even give them gifts if it goes well enough, which will further rank up the relationship between the two of you.
It’s also possible to complete Quests for various characters when they request your attention while you Explore. Successful completion improves your relationship with them. You can also engage in various group activities with your students such as choir practice, cooking, and more if you want more chances to hit S-rank as soon as possible. All of these activities will consume action points, so pick wisely when you’re talking about matters of the heart.
If fighting and tea parties aren’t quite your style, you can take a slightly more organic approach by getting closer to your students as part of your academic pursuits. When you Lecture your students, you’re given some points to spend on individual students’ sessions. Having students perform well in these sessions (Great, Perfect) will result in you improving your reputation with them and in some cases, increase their motivation to learn. The more motivated a student is, the more learning sessions they can engage in when you’re Lecturing: this translates to more chances to up their support rank.
Otherwise, there’s always the good, old-fashioned way of doing things which involves returning Lost Items to various characters scattered around the base. Doing this will net you a reputation bonus for each item returned, and you’ll also get an increase in your support rank over time if you’re smart about gift-giving for each student. We have a bunch of other guides on each House’s likes and dislikes if you want to go down that route, so go check them out too.
Fire Emblem Three Houses Romance Guide — Male Byleth Romance Options
If you’re playing as a man in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, then the following options are available to steal your heart:
- Edelgard
- Linhardt
- Bernadetta
- Dorothea
- Petra
- Annette
- Leone
- Hilda
- Marianne
- Flayn
- Lysithea
- Mercedes
- Ingrid
- Alois
- Sothis
- Rhea
- Manuela
Fire Emblem Three Houses Romance Guide — Female Byleth Romance Options
If you’re playing as a woman in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, then the following options are available to steal your heart:
- Edelgard
- Claude
- Dmitri
- Dedue
- Ashe
- Linhardt
- Ignatz
- Seteth
- Alois
- Sothis
- Mercedes
- Rhea
- Felix
- Ferdinand
- Sylvain
- Lorenz
- Hanneman
- Raphael
- Dorothea
- Caspar
Now that we’ve given you a list of who’s available in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and all the help you might need to absolutely kill it on your first date, it’s time to get out there and start romancing. Remember, not all characters are receptive to your advances so it’s best to figure out if your dream girl or guy is actually going to be down before you spend too much time sipping that tea. Check out our Fire Emblem guides hub if you’ve got any other burning questions.
