Hot Spring & Mess Hall
The Hot Spring and Mess Hall are two integral facilities within your Castle in Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, designed to enhance unit morale, strengthen relationships, and provide passive stat boosts. The Hot Spring, a relaxing bathhouse, allows units to recover their HP and gain temporary stat increases. When a unit visits the Hot Spring, they will regain a certain amount of HP based on the facility's level. More importantly, units who bathe together can build their Support levels, leading to stronger combat effectiveness when fighting side-by-side. For example, having Corrin and Xander take a dip together can increase their Support rank, which in turn provides bonuses to hit, avoid, critical hit, and critical avoid when they are adjacent on the battlefield. The duration of these stat boosts is typically for the next battle, making it a strategic decision to utilize the Hot Spring before undertaking a particularly challenging map. Different units have different preferences for bathing companions, which can influence the effectiveness of the Support gain.
The Mess Hall, on the other hand, focuses on improving unit relationships through shared meals. Similar to the Hot Spring, units can increase their Support levels by dining together. The Mess Hall offers various meal options, each with different costs and potential benefits. Some meals might provide a small HP recovery, while others might offer temporary boosts to specific stats like Strength or Defense. The key benefit of the Mess Hall, however, lies in its ability to foster Support ranks between units. This is crucial for Conquest, where unit survival and synergy are paramount. For instance, pairing a strong offensive unit like a Berserker with a supportive unit like a Strategist in the Mess Hall can lead to a significant increase in their combat effectiveness when they fight together. The higher the Support rank between two units, the greater the bonuses they receive when adjacent. It is recommended to utilize both the Hot Spring and the Mess Hall regularly to maximize your army's potential. Prioritizing units that you frequently deploy together, such as your core combat units or those with complementary roles, will yield the most significant advantages. Investing in upgrading these facilities will also increase the HP recovery and the potential stat boosts offered, making them even more valuable as you progress through the game.