Fire Emblem Three Houses Guide - Which House Should You Pick First?
This is our introductory Fire Emblem Three Houses guide, including an answer to the question of which house you should pick first.
Fire Emblem Three Houses has proven to be a smash hit success for Nintendo, both commercially and in the meme generator aspect. In this Fire Emblem Three Houses guide, we'll be taking you through everything you need to know going into the game, including providing you with a list of all the Fire Emblem Three Houses characters, so you can decide which house you'd like to pick.
Fire Emblem Three Houses - Which House Should You Pick?
Based on the descriptions further on in this guide, and your chance encounter with the three house leaders in the prologue section of Fire Emblem Three Houses, you'll need to pick a house to side with. Thankfully though, there's an extended section after the prologue where you meet the three leaders in the Garreg Mach Monastery, before making your decision.
Keep in mind the personalities of the three leaders when making your choice. If you'd rather a more laid back approach, then Claude and the Golden Deer would be the best choice for you. If you prefer a more militaristic approach to the game, then Dmitri and the Blue Lions would make an excellent choice. Or, if you'd prefer the use of magic and a halfway point between laid back and militant, then you should probably go with Edelgard and the Black Eagles.
By now, we've completed Fire Emblem Three Houses multiple times, and without getting into spoilers at all, there are differences to the game based on the house that you pick. From our experience with the game, we'd recommend going with Golden Deer for the first playthrough. Then, if you plan on playing Fire Emblem Three Houses a second time, select Black Eagles for a new game plus playthrough.
Fire Emblem Three Houses Guide
In the rest of this guide below, we'll be giving you an overview of all the Fire Emblem Three Houses characters. We'll be dividing them up around the house that they belong to, so you know which characters you're going to be with if you pick Black Eagles, Blue Lions, or Golden Deer.
Fire Emblem Three Houses Blue Lions
The house of the Blue Lions is led by Dimitri, and hails from the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. It's fair to say the Blue Lions are pretty honor-bound and militant, showing a strong demeanor.
Head over to our complete Fire Emblem Three Houses Blue Lions guide for more, or check out the list of students in the Blue Lions just below.
- Dimitri
- Dedue
- Felix
- Mercedes
- Ashe
- Annette
- Syvlain
- Brigid
Fire Emblem Three Houses Black Eagles
Edelgard is the leader of the Black Eagles in Fire Emblem Three Houses, which hails from the Adrestian Empire. Edelgard is next in line to the Adrestian throne, and students in this house tend to be gifted with magic.
If you're looking for additional information on this house, you can head over to our Fire Emblem Three Houses Black Eagles guide, or you can find a list of students just below.
- Edelgard
- Hubert
- Dorothea
- Ferdinand
- Bernadetta
- Caspar
- Petra
- Linhardt
Fire Emblem Three Houses Golden Deer
As you can probably tell from Claude in the opening of Fire Emblem Three Houses, the Golden Deer favor ranged weaponry. The Leicester Alliance is definitely more laid back than the other two houses, as is personified in their leader's attitude.
If it's more information on the Golden Deer house that you're after, you can head over to our Fire Emblem Three Houses Golden Deer guide, or check out the list of Golden Deer students just below.
- Claude
- Lorenz
- Hilda
- Raphael
- Lysithea
- Ignatz
- Marianne
- Leonie
Can You Change Houses in Fire Emblem Three Houses?
Once you've selected a house in Fire Emblem Three Houses, there's no turning back. At the end of the prologue chapter, you'll be asked to ally yourself with the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, or the Leicester Alliance.
Allying yourself with the Golden Deer, Black Eagles, or Blue Lions house means you're committing to teach every student within that house. You're not only pledging your allegiance to a faction in the world of Fodlan, but you're pledging your time on a day to day basis.
At no point in the rest of Fire Emblem Three Houses can you change the house you're allied with. So if you chose to ally yourself with Edelgard and the Adrestian Empire, you're going to be allied with that faction for your time with the rest of the game.
Fire Emblem Three Houses Character Stat Growth
Within Fire Emblem Three Houses, every character has a hidden statistic for growth rate in different skills and attributes. For example someone might have a Strength growth rating of 50, so they're going to increase their Strength level quicker than a character with a Strength growth rating of 40. Below, we've rounded up the characters with the highest growth rating in any attribute, in all three houses.
- Petra - Petra has a relatively insane stat growth rate for Speed, at 60 points.
- Ingrid - For the Blue Lions, Ingrid has a high Speed growth rate of 60.
- Leonie - It's Leonie that has the quickest growth rate in the Golden Deer, with a Speed rating of 60.
If it's more Three Houses content you're after, then USG has everything you could need for the adventure. You can head over to our various guides, including our Fire Emblem Three Houses weapons guide, our Fire Emblem Three Houses romance guide, or our Fire Emblem Three Houses recruitment guide. Alternatively, there's our full Fire Emblem Monastery guide, or our page on which house to choose in Fire Emblem Three Houses.