7 Fire Emblem: Three Houses Replay Ideas to Make Garreg Mach Feel Brand New

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Fortune’s Weave lorehound route

Image: Nintendo/Polygon

There might be three houses, but there are actually four routes through this game. The “church route,” also known as Silver Snow, is a variant of the Crimson Flower route where you betray Edelgard at the end of Chapter 11 of Act One and shift your allegiance to the Church of Seiros. I understand why this might not be many people’s first choice, because it’s effectively the narc route, and there are quite a few similarities to Claude’s Verdant Wind storyline. That said, you’ll learn a lot more about Seteth, Flynn, Rhea, and Sothis in this path, and there are direct connections to the Nabatean and Argarthan lore that’s a central feature of Dietrich’s route in Fortune’s Weave.

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No boys allowed / No girls allowed

Image: Intelligent Systems / Nintendo

If you include the Cindered Shadows DLC characters, there are roughly 40 possible recruits in Three Houses, and they’re split equally between men and women. That means it’s entirely possible to run an entirely gender-segregated squad for much of the game. A fun element of the challenge here is that you’ll miss out on some of the gender-specific classes depending on which one you pick. The ladies have exclusive access to Pegasus Knight, Falcon Knight, Gremory, and Dark Flier, while the gents get the Fighter, Brawler, Grappler, War Master, Dark Mage, and Dark Bishop classes.

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Oops! All gingers

Image: Intelligent Systems, Koei Tecmo Games/Nintendo

Fire Emblem loves a flame-haired hero, and so do we. There aren’t quite enough carrot-topped characters to field a full squad in Three Houses, but there sure are a lot of them, especially if you include the DLC additions. They include:

• Ferdinand
• Sylvain
• Annette
• Leonie
• Gilbert
• Hapi
• Anna
• Hilda (maybe)
• Petra (sorta)

Round out the rest of your roster with a bunch of candy-haired randos like Bernadetta, Lindhart, Marianne, and Caspar, and you’ve got a pretty impressive army purely based on interesting hair color.

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Hold me closer, beefy dancer

Image: Intelligent Systems / Nintendo

Getting access to the Dancer class, which has a unique ability that allows you to grant a second action to an allied unit during the same turn, isn’t guaranteed in Three Houses. In order to get it, you must win the White Heron Cup dance competition during Chapter Nine of Act One. To become the belle of Garreg Mach’s ball, you’ll need a character with at least 13 points in the Charm stat. You can get +5 for the stat by attending a lesson during free time, but the rest is up to you, whether it’s through Tea Time or stat-boosting items.

There are some obvious candidates, like Dorothea and Marianne, who make excellent Dancers. But why not mix things up a little and pick someone who really, really doesn’t make sense in the role, like surly Hubert, stoic Dedue, shy Bernadetta, or meat enthusiast Raphael? Not only will you giggle every time you see them in that slinky outfit, it just might inspire you to build against type elsewhere on your team, too.