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Fire Emblem, Fates, Hoshido, Nohr, versions,

Fire Emblem Fates – How to Raise Support Relationships

Make everyone friends.
This article is over 8 years old and may contain outdated information

Support Relationships

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One of the key features in Fire Emblem Fates carried over from other games in the series, are the support relationships. This mechanic boosts stats between two characters that have built a support, and maximizes how well they work together in combat.

With Fates, each character has a list of supports they can build, with some even resulting in marriage adding additional bonuses. Only one S and one A+ ranking is possible with each character, and anyone already in one of these rankings cannot get to that level with another. Depending on the character, obtaining an S ranking and marriage can even result in a brand new mission with a recruitable child character.

Support relationships play a huge role during combat, and even add extra conversations fleshing out character’s personalities. There’s a few things you can do to make sure you’re maximizing your support relationships quickly.

During Battle

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This is the easiest and most common way you’ll build support relationships in Fire Emblem Fates. Positioning of your units on the field is everything, and you want to make sure to have characters that can build support next to each other.

By checking the list of relationships in the menu before a chapter you can see who will work best with who. When characters stand next to each other in battle, they’ll join in when attacking or defending against an enemy. For every “action” taken like attacking or healing, as long as two characters that can build support are next to each other, a heart will appear over their heads after the action. This signifies an increase in their bond. By positioning characters together, the main one attacking or defending will receive a boost in stats like hit and evasion.

Additionally, you can pair two characters into one unit. You’re able to switch which one you’ll want attacking and supporting, but this is a good way to build a support between a character with high defense and one with low defense. The more you use units together in battle, the more support conversations you’ll be able to prompt, causing two characters support level to go even higher. 

Outside of Battle

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There’s a few different things than can boost your support relationships at your castle, which you have access to after Chapter 6. After a battle, different characters will have exclamation points over their heads. Although it’s mostly random, talking to these characters can result in various things. Sometimes they’ll give you an item, sometimes they’ll ask for an accessory and sometimes it will just result in a relationship boost. This boost can happen between said character and the avatar, or between two characters who are talking.

When characters ask for an accessory and you give them one, this will also result in a relationship boost. The character will wear the item with boosts in castle invasions or online matches, but removing an accessory from a character doesn’t lower the relationship level in any way.

The avatar also has a function called “Invite Ally” when they visit their private quarters. This allows you to select one ally to come over and chat with. When selecting which ally some will have hearts next to their names, this means that a relationship boost will happen with this ally if they are invited over. You’re only able to invite allies when the time of day is afternoon or evening. 

Support Conversations

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While building support in battle and at the castle is important, it’s even more important to advance support ranks via the support conversations. This menu can be accessed while at the castle or before a battle while selecting units.  The support tab will have a list of every character, and when you click on that character it will bring up another list of every unit that one can build a support relationship with.

When units are ready to advance to the next support rank an exclamation point will appear next to their name. You just need to go in and press which units have available support conversations, watch the dialogue that happens between the two characters, and then they will advance to the next rank. Afterwards you’ll need to do any combination of battling alongside them, talking to them in the castle, or inviting them to your quarters to get the chance for another support conversation. 

A+ and S Ranks

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These are the two highest ranks achieved by characters in Fates, and each character is able to have one A+ and one S rank.

A+ is a step above A, while S is basically the pinnacle that results in marriage. S rank relationships will give higher stat boosts during battle than normal, and for some characters result in children that can also be recruited in the paralogue missions. Whoever the avatar marries will end up living in their private quarters, and open up a new menu option called “bond.” This allows you to further deepen the relationship with this character allowing for more scenes and dialogue.

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Author
Image of Hayes Madsen
Hayes Madsen
A connoisseur of all things RPG related, and always looking for the artistic expression in gaming. His love of Gundam is only matched by his love of Pizza. Playing Games Since: 1991 Favorite Genres: RPGs, JRPGs, Strategy,