Aside from the War Chapter and scouting students, Famitsu’s Fire Emblem: Three Houses blowout also included a close look at the Cathedral and what you can do there, as well as the return of Combat Arts from Fire Emblem Echoes, and a look at some advanced classes.
Cathedral
The Cathedral is a place of rest for the faithful among Fodlan’s inhabitants. At the Cathedral at Garreg Mach Monastery, you can do the following three things:
Provide Offerings to a Saint Statue
There are four Saint Statues at the Cathedral, each in the image of a different Saint. By providing offerings, you can increase the amount of skill EXP earned during private tutoring sessions. Offerings are paid in the form of Renown, and each statue will offer different benefits.
Giving offerings to the statues can also affect the amount of EXP earned, the number of Divine Pulse uses, and stat caps. It also seems taht there are four students who have Crests of the four Saints.
Choir Practice
You are able to do Choir Practice once per day, using up one Activity Point. For Choir Practice, you invite two students to join in, which will not only boost the support levels between the three of you, but also give ability EXP for the ‘Faith’ ability, which affects White Magic.
Advice Box
There is an Advice Box where students are able to post anonymous letters about their worries, and the protagonist can give advice for them. You have to choose answers that the characters in question are able to accept. After you answer the question or worry, the person who wrote the letter will be revealed, and if you gave good advice, your support will increase.
Market
At the market, you can buy various items, including those needed for activities, and more. While there are stores there, there are also traveling merchants that will visit with rare items not usually sold.
Series staple, Anna the merchant, will open a secret store after completing a certain quest. She’ll stock rare items.
Smithy
In this game, weapons have a set amount of uses before they break, but instead of disappearing, they are still usable, but with drastically lowered Might, and lose their special effects. You can repair the weapons at the blacksmith’s.
Using Refining Stones, you can also upgrade weapons into + variations, but only if the protagonist’s Teacher level is up to par.
The protagonist’s Hero Relic, the Sword of the Creator, can be repaired normally at the smithy, but is also able to restore its own durability by 5 if the protagonist chooses to Rest during the weekend. As Motivation can also be increased, if there’s nothing particular to do, Byleth can choose to do so and save some money if needed.
Combat Arts
Like Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, this game has Combat Arts, which use up Durability instead of HP this time. You also cannot perform Follow-up Attacks, but you can dish out a strong blow in its stead. Combat Arts are learned by increasing Skill levels, and are associated with weapon types.
As for Reason and Faith, these ability levels allow you to learn Magic, which has limited uses per battle.
Wrath Strike
A basic Sword combat art, that uses up 3 Durability but boosts damage by 5 and Hit rate by 10.
Helm Splitter
An Axe combat art that reduces Durability by 5, but adds 7 damage and increases Crit rate by 5.
Back Blow
A martial arts combat art that increases 6 damage and Hit rate by 10, and increases Evasion by +30. After combat, the unit will draw back one space, meaning that other units can get up close and follow up.
Curved Shot
A Bow combat art that uses 3 Durability but increases Hit rate by +30. From the screenshot, we see that it extends range by 1 as well.
Promoted Classes
Like the unpromoted classes, you and the students will need to take and pass exams in order to promote, with Basic level at Lv. 5, Intermediate at Lv. 10, and Advanced at Lv. 20.
Hero (male-only)
A male-only class focusing on swords, strength and speed.
Class Skills:
Swordfaire – Attack +5 when sword equipped.
Vantage – Attacks first when attacked by enemy when below 50% HP.
Fortress
A class that exchanges speed for absolute defenses.
Class Skills:
Axefaire – Attack +5 when equipped with Axes.
Weight –5 – Total equipment weight –5.
Paladin
A balanced mounted class with defense and resistance alike.
Class Skills:
Canto – When there is still remaining movement, unit can move remaining distance after action.
Lancefaire – Attack +5 when lance equipped.
Terrain Resistance – Immune to terrain damage.
Grappler (male-only)
A master of fighting hand-to-hand, specializing in consecutive attacks.
Class Skills:
Gauntletfaire – Attack +5 when equipped with Gauntlets.
Barehanded combat – Can attack with melee even with no weapon equipped.
Warlock
A master of black magic, good at fighting against high-defense but low-resistance opponents.
Class Skills:
Black Magicfaire – Attack +5 when using Black Magic.
Black Magic Uses x2 – Number of Black Magic uses doubled.
Bishop
A White Magic adept that can also use attack magic.
Class Skills:
White Magic Uses x2 – Number of White Magic uses doubled.
White Magic Recovery +10 – White magic healing heals an additional 10 HP.
Terrain Resistance – Immune to terrain damage.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses releases for Nintendo Switch on July 26, 2019.
