Monastery Activities & Social Links
The Garreg Mach Monastery serves as your central hub in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, offering a wealth of activities beyond the battlefield. During free time on weekends, you can explore the monastery grounds, interact with students and faculty, and engage in various pursuits that strengthen your bonds and improve your units. Building relationships through social interactions is as vital as combat prowess, as it unlocks new abilities, supports, and even recruitment opportunities.
Each month, you'll have a set number of activity points to spend during your free time. These points can be used for several actions, each offering different benefits. Engaging in activities like sharing a meal, giving gifts, or participating in training sessions will raise your Support level with other characters. Higher Support levels unlock paired endings, unique dialogue, and combat bonuses when those characters fight together.
Here's a breakdown of common monastery activities:
- Share a Meal: Boosts Support with one character and provides a temporary stat bonus for the next battle. Choose dishes that your chosen companion likes for maximum effect.
- Give Gifts: Find items around the monastery or purchase them to give as gifts. Each character has specific likes and dislikes, so choose wisely to maximize the Support gain.
- Battles: Engage in auxiliary battles to gain experience, earn gold, and acquire valuable items. These are crucial for leveling up your units and preparing for main story missions.
- Training Grounds: Allows characters to spar with each other, increasing their proficiency in certain weapon types and potentially learning new Combat Arts.
- Choir Practice: Improves a character's Faith and Reason stats, essential for magic users.
- Tea Parties: A more intimate way to raise Support with a chosen character, often involving specific dialogue choices.
- Fishing: A relaxing minigame that can yield valuable items, including fish that can be used for cooking or sold.
- Gardening: Grow special plants that can be used for cooking or crafting.
Beyond these direct activities, simply exploring the monastery can reveal hidden treasures, lost items that can be returned to their owners for rewards, and opportunities to eavesdrop on conversations that provide lore or hints.
Social Link Benefits:
- Combat Support: Characters with higher Support levels will provide assistance to each other on the battlefield, such as healing, defending, or attacking alongside their partner.
- Skill Unlocks: Reaching certain Support thresholds can unlock unique skills or passive abilities for your characters.
- Recruitment: Building a strong Support level with students from other houses can make them easier to recruit to your own house.
- Story Progression: Many side stories and character-specific quests are unlocked through building relationships.
- Paired Endings: The ultimate reward for deep relationships, leading to unique epilogues for characters who have achieved the highest Support level.
Prioritizing your free time activities is essential for a well-rounded playthrough. Focus on raising Support with characters you intend to use in combat, and don't neglect the benefits of exploring the monastery for hidden items and lore.