Fire Emblem: Three Houses Guide – How to Level Up Allies Faster

Recruiting units for battle but struggling to get them up to speed? This guide will contain a method of quickly building a character's strength for battle! Level up your units fast with this Fire Emblem: Three Houses guide, homebrewed by someone wholly addicted to the game!
FE: Three Houses Guide - How to Level Up Allies Faster

FE: Three Houses Guide – How to Level Up Allies Faster

Two weeks ago, Nintendo released their latest installment in the Fire Emblem series: Three Houses. With near-universal acclaim from both critics and fans, it serves as another hit for the franchise, particularly in the West. In my time playing the game (70 hours at the time of this article), I’ve experimented with different methods of battles and conversations to maximize output. The result is the foundation of this Fire Emblem: Three Houses fast-leveling guide, which will detail the fruits of my labor.

While this guide’s aim is to share a specific method of experience collection, I will also share some general tips on how to reap as much EXP profit as possible while battling in the game. This said, I want to include a few disclaimers prior to discussing it at length:

  • This fast-leveling method is more effective during the earlier segments of Three Houses (particularly Part One). Part of this is due to higher-ranking enemies being able to bypass terrain, which works against the method. As such, this method is also ineffective against monsters.
  • The method is also much less dangerous when the character the player wants to level is one who can attack from two spaces away (a la archers and casters). For those with a more intimate attacking style, some adjustment is necessary.
  • These conditions assume the player is playing on Normal difficulty. I have no idea if the enemy AI are intelligent enough to counteract this fast-leveling method on higher difficulties.
  • Finally, as a precautionary tactic, this guide is more suited for leveling underleveled allies just acquired into the House. This isn’t some magical ability that will have one gain more experience than normal or anything. Think of it like a funnel for pooling all the experience possible to one or two characters.

Introductory elements handled, allow me to elaborate on my method with the following image:

FE: Three Houses Guide - How to Level Up Allies Faster - Visual aid

FE: Three Houses Guide – How to Level Up Allies Faster – Visual aid (original image by u/CanadaTay)

Some may be able to understand just from this image alone. For those still in the dark, I’ll light the torch. First, that black border around “EXP” and “TANK” is a narrow passageway, which can only fit one person at a time. A few levels available (such as the “Empire,” “Border,” and “Mountain” stages) have access to a narrow pathway where one is capable of farming experience through this method. The narrow path is essential, so pray Three Houses smiles on you when randomizing battle locations.

What makes the narrow path useful is that it negates the advancement of reinforcements. When a character stands at the end of a narrow path, a swarm of enemies will be forced to cloud the spaces prior to the path, needing to defeat said character in order to advance. This ensures a one-on-one battle every single turn. One needs three roles to ensure a safe funnel: the tank, the bank (“EXP” on the image), and the (optional) healer. When the conditions are right, these are the steps necessary to make this work:

 
  • Tank – The character that will be taking the brunt of the attacks at the front. Typically characters with high HP or quick enough to have enemies miss are good candidates for tanks. But an important note is that one shouldn’t have tanks attack the enemies; that, or have weak attacks to soften them for the bank. Typically, I equip the MC with a bow and have him stand in place.
  • Bank – The character that will be comfortably behind all the danger, collecting all the experience. With the positioning, this is where the “two-space attacks” come into play, as one-space attacks will be worthless. Enemy types will also come into play as to how effective the bank will be in defeating enemies, so expect this method to occasionally be very time-consuming.
  • Healer – The least complicated role of the bunch. If the tank begins to break down, heal them. Of course, one cannot get in behind them without moving the bank, so it’d be useful to bring a healer with “Physic,” which allows healing from many spaces away.
FE: Three Houses Guide - How to Level Up Allies Faster - This level, to my knowledge, does not have a narrow path

FE: Three Houses Guide – How to Level Up Allies Faster – This level, to my knowledge, does not have a narrow path

My fast-leveling method is pretty concrete, but sometimes the character involved has more success with one-space attacks. In that case, do a similar method, except the bank and tank will become one. The narrow path will still ensure a one-on-one battle every time, but a healer (or two, or three) will likely be needed. It’s still funneling all the experience to one character, but they’re also taking all the damage.

To ensure a safe funneling, one should clutter all allies as closely together as possible. The enemy AI seem to be programmed to go after whomever they have a type advantage over, so should the target be buried amongst everyone else in a giant ball, there’s no chance the enemy will try to go around. As for archers and casters on the opposing side, plan to take them out early.

Hovering away from trickery, Three Houses allows some other means of fast experience gains. However, the most tried-and-true method of gaining more experience is simply to partake in more battles. Other means include restoring the Four Saints statues in the Monastery area by spending Renown, or having one character damage an enemy, then having another character finish them. Otherwise, it’s not too complicated.

Hopefully this Three Houses guide helps you fast-level your weaker units more quickly so as to not overgrind. If you have any other sneaky methods, be sure to comment below, or just tell me if this helped you!

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