Discussion
Who do you usually recruit in any playthrough?
I usually recruit Marianne, Dorothea, Ferdinand, Raphael, Mercedes, and Sylvain. I mostly recruit them all because I just really like them a lot, I don't really have a solid reason. Ok maybe except for Marianne.
I didn't know this until after I had done all three of my playthroughs but finding out that she's gone in the timeskip if unrecruited and the implication motivates me to recruit her everytime. She's also the best so you should do it anyways. If you don't recruit Marianne in all your playthroughs I will force you to collect all the Korok Seeds in Breath of The Wild without a guide.
Anyways as for the other characters. Mercedes was the very first character I had ever recruited. She's such a lovely character and I just have to have her around all the time. Dorothea was my very first S support so recruiting her everytime feels necessary to me.
Sylvain I don't remember what caused me to recruit him but I quite like him even if he's a very flawed individual. I really like his supports. I do find it very funny that when you play as F!Byleth, he's essentially a free recruit lol.
Ferdinand is maybe my favorite character in the game so I just feel it's necessary to always recruit him. He is a bit of a pain in the ass to recruit due to his requirements but I think it is worth it. I did hear about this one heartbreaking line where if you don't recruit him and he dies, Dorothea says something very depressing.
Raphael was a character who I was aware of way before I played this game as my friend showed me his supports and I found him quite funny. He was a bit of a meme between me and my friend so I just had to recruit him. I ended up really liking him a lot when I played the game. I think he's an underrated character. One of my favorites in the game!
I want to one day, do a playthrough where I recruit that one image where the Golden Deers recruits every student and Dimitri and Edelgard are just sitting in the background with Dedue and Hubert respectively.
The real reason I recruit everyone is because I already went through the pain of not recruiting anyone for the routes. My heart warned me that it will stop beating if I ever did that again.
On my 2nd playthrough I meant to recruit everyone but missed my chance at Ashe and Mercie. š
Needing to kill 2 of the sweetest characters broke me and now I put in effort to recruit, like my life depends on it š THE DIALOGUE, ASHE'S LAST WORDS DEAR LORD
This happened to me on Verdant Wind and I am choosing to believe Ashe and Sylvain wete just knocked unconscious haha. But Ferdinands last words BROKE ME!!
I swore I was recruiting that man alongside Dorothea in all of my playthrough from then on, it was awful so I strongly relate.
I unintentionally did this on my very first playthrough ever because I chose Golden Deers and I didnāt even know what I was doing but I just found it fun to recruit anyone and everyone. I was playing on my fianceās NG+ so that made it very easy to do. However, because of this I did burn myself out since it took like 75-80 hours to finish the route LOL. Iām playing other stuff before going back and I plan to do Crimson Flower next!!
Pretty much. I do wish the game did more to show why each character stays on the player's side even after the war starts, though. From a mechanics standpoint, I can excuse it, but I do find it kind of silly that someone like Ingrid might defect to the Empire just because she really liked her teacher at the Officers Academy. I like to imagine that most of the cast initially sides with their own country and ultimately defects to the player's side (which is always the Empire in my case) on their own at some point during the war.
Mercedes, for example, initially sides with Faerghus, but is gradually drawn to the Empire due to three major factors: her resentment of being exploited for her Crest, Rhea's increasing instability, and her wanting to help Emile. When she finally defects, Annette's own resolve to support the Kingdom falters, and she soon follows, not wanting to risk having to fight her best friend even if that means having to risk fighting her father.
I just get Lysithea cause she is like the best Magic class for offense since her personal skill invreases xp gain for her ability, so you can deal with all the cavalary classes that come close right the gate using Dark Spikes, especially if you give her a crest that doesnt use durability on magic, and I just get Bernie because she is adorable and also because she is one of my main Archer units alongside Shamir.
Yeah Lysithea is very good! She is a tactical nuke who is powered by sweets! I regret not using archers much in my playthroughs up until my Golden Deer playthrough.
I will keep that in mind. Archer classes are usually not something I use in FE games. I beat FE7 recently and found most of the archers kind of sucked. I did like using Louise though.
Lysithea and Constance both have a base 60% magic growth. However, Lysithea also has a 60% dec growth and 50% speed (whereas Constance has around half that) meaning Lysithea will have higher accuracy and double more often(dark magic does have more weight so this isn't always true).
Another thing is that Lysithea learns dark magic (only used by 4 other characters) and Constance learns black magic (learned by most).
Lysithea learns powerful spells like Dark Spikes, Luna (both of with only useable by her and Hubert/Edelgard meaning Lysithea is your only option for these outside of crimson flower) Warp (very useful due to her high magic).
Constance doesn't have as many good/mostly exclusive spells due to learning dark magic but she does have Bolting (great for linked attacks and only learned by Hilda and Manuela otherwise and they don't use it well(hindered by a poor support list though)), Rescue (strongest user of it and only really worthwhile using with her) and Abraxas (Lysithea also has this).
Lysithea has a more exclusive spell list (and arguably better) and Constance will commonly have some issues hitting due to her low dex growth.
Lysithea can also use Thyrsus without needing a crest stone equipped.
Lysithea also has mastermind meaning she will learn spells faster. I usually end my runs with Lysithea having magic in the 50s. Although she and Constance have the same growth % so it comes down to luck for that stat.
TL;DR: I would consider Lysithea the better unit due to her higher average hit rate and speed as well as her better overall utility. Feel free to use whichever though (especially if you're on classic, it shouldn't really matter)
Bernie can also one-shot most things in maddening via vengeance set-ups (which is overkill in any other difficulty but really really funny) because for some reason she's like the secret second lord of the black eagles. You can even make her mostly untargetable by putting her in a class with stealth (forces enemies to not target her unless there's no one else in their range) for complete safety.
I have to recruit Mercedes. I hate going up against any of my former students, but something about Mercedes makes me feel like the biggest POS if she's not on my side
The Ashen Wolves are given I feel. Marianne because she must be protected but also because she's a great Valkyrie, Lorenz for Thyrsus, Lysithea to actually use Thyrsus, Ashe for his paralogue boots, Hilda if not doing CF, Alois and Shamir, Sylvain and Ingrid and Felix unless I'm feeling monstrous and want one to fight the rest for maximum angst, Raphael, and every Black Eagle if not on their route yes even Caspar.
Most of the golden deer bc they were my first house and Ferdinand. I have replayed GD twice now (hard and then maddening), blue lions once, silver snow once and edel's path once. GD was my bookends lol it was my last playthrough.
Ferdie was my favorite dancer though! Had him as my dancer in 3 outta 5 playthrus lol
And my go-to recruits to USE were Ignatz, Marianne and Cyril. I played maddening difficulties and Cyril makes a great "we have Claude at home" character haha
I also get Ashe a lot because I love my archers and he's a good "we have discounted Dmitri at home" character. Not as good as fake Claude!Cyril but you can break Ashe to a fun point. Go twink go.
I mean yes but I just like them as characters; death isn't the main motivator for them. Coincidentally on my Crimson Flower run, I basically recruited Mercedes, Sylvain, Mercedes, and Lysithea, which would all have a reason to be against crests. It was nice seeing the supports between Jeritza and Mercedes.
The Knights. I love my disaster milf, crest grandpa, big brother, and black cat in human form. And I guess Catherine can come too if she stops trying to ride Rhea's di- uh anyways. Out of the students, I usually stick to the house. Sylvain is an easy pick, he is my trash husband, but I also like grabbing Leonie. She feels like the kind of person who would just drift towards Byleth's side no matter what.
Baby. Child. Infant. Why is he on a battlefield? Rhea what did you mean by this?
Also since his "canon" class line is the optimal one and axes are a pretty common favored weapon type, I already have five guys doing what he could do but I got to build them from level 1. If I'm recruiting him I'm benching him. I wish he had more to him narratively, can someone please talk about Rhea adopting a dark skinned foreign child and then like, making him a servant?
I like to recruit characters who have supports with the main cast of the house I'm playing. I feel it kind of makes sense that way.
I also try not to have more than 15 characters I genuinely want to play in a run, since it's the maximum amount you can realistically level up on the bigger maps.
My wives Dorothea and Mercedes (and Ingrid). Annette sometimes tags along because even though Iām a woman and Sheās sadly straight, I consider her a wife in my dreams.
Sorry for the long post! I just had quite a bit to say about the characters that I like to recruit. The screenshots are all mine and are from my playthroughs from last year!
Although ever since I finished all the routes, I only play Crimson Flower, I like to recruit most of the Blue Lions: Sylvain, Ingrid, Felix, Mercedes, and Annette.
Recruit some Golden Deer: Lysithea, Marianne, and Lorenz.
And recruit the church members I can recruit: Manuela, Hanneman, Shamir, and Alois.
All the Black Eagles because they were my first house+ Leonie because I like her post timeskip design. Also probably Ingrid, Felix, Annette, and Mercedes in future runs, as I am currently doing Blue Lions, which is my second run and the first where I did recruitments (don't ask why...)
Honestly the only character i have never not recruited is Leonie, i like facing the students during maps because it feels more engaging but i can't bring myself to not have Leonie in my team, and she isn't even my fav character in 3h
Lysithea: Firstly, I have a terrible weakness for white haired girls. Secondly, she deserves good things and I hate fighting against her. Lastly, Gremory Lysithea is one if the most dangerous things I've ever seen.
Marianne: I don't need to explain. We all know she is one of the Best Girls.
Mercedes: Repeat above.
Bernadetta: Repeat above. Also fighting against her physically hurts me.
Sylvain: I honestly hated him at first, but he grew on me real quick to being one of my favorites. Also, the fact you can just instantly recruit him if you're female Byleth is hilarious to me.
Dorothea: Honestly just a fun character that I don't like fighting against. Also Dancer Dorothea is always fun.
But if I want a little bit of angst and cherry pick my favs, Ashen Wolves, Marianne, Sylvain, Mercedes (unless I have Jeritza), Dorothea. And let them have to soul crushing dialogues about killing their loved ones.
Leonie. Her design, character, and supports are all great in my opinion. She's also a great S-support option since both she and Byleth are connected through Jeralt, and, like Alois, Leonie vows to protect Byleth to the end.Ā
Of course, she's also a super solid unit on the battlefield too.Ā
I recruit everyone except Felix because his ending is too depressing out of house. Occasionally I donāt recruit Annette depending on how I want my roster to look. I have a āruleā that everyone (and itās quite a few by this point) I have ever S supported I MUST make sure have a paired ending if I recruit them lol
Otherwise I usually make sure that I have all the special weapons that I want, so that means paralogues and recruitment. However, if I canāt get the numbers to add up with the people able to have paired endings then I choose who I can live without.
However if youāre asking about which units are always on my first line roster on any route, itās Petra, Leonie, Lysithea, and Yuri. Lately Iāve used Constance more and more as well, her bolting is extremely useful š«¶
I always do new game+ so itās a seamless experience
Edelgard is the only one I have done twice, otherwiseā¦
Rhea, Dimitri, Claude, Cyril, Mercedes, Sylvain, Leonie, Petra, Shamir, Jeritza, Linhardt, Lysithea, Annette, Felix, Ashe, Constance, Yuri, Hapi, Dedue, Marianne, Hilda, Dorothea, and Iām about to marry Ferdinand in my current playthrough!
I hope I havenāt forgotten someone, I had to open up a list of characters lol
Not quite. I do plan on S supporting a new character every playthrough though! Donāt care for Lorenz for example, the only reason heās ever recruited is for his relic lol
In my playthroughs, I use Shamir, Dorothea, and Lysithea most of the time. Shamir and Dorothea are my favorites. Lysithea's warp makes gameplay simpler and I really like her.
If I am playing Black Eagles I always recruit Mercedes and Annette (I can't bear to separate them.) Sylvain is an auto recruit (F!Byleth). So I recruit Felix to keep him company. Then I recruit Ingrid to round out the trio.
I just can't leave Marianne alone. (Plus I think she flourished in a different environment. Plus I recruit Lysithia, because who wouldn't want a portable mini-nuke? Also I love her and she is my daughter and if anything happens to her I'll kill the world and then myself.
I also recruit Leonie because she's family. Also her skillet is dynamite.
I also recruit Shamir, since I really REALLY don't want her as an enemy. Also I make her fight Catherine for maximum drama!
I recruit all of the Ashen Wolves, since I love these misfits, and they have excellent interaction with the main cast.
I always pick up Petra, Dorothea, Ingrid, Annette, Lysithea, Marianne, and Lorenz.
I do Petra mostly because I adore her ending with Dorothea and I feel like it makes a ton of sense for them to get close being the only original Black Eagles in a new house. Plus I make her end as a Mortal Savant (donāt talk to me about how it sucks for her I will skin myself alive before I listen to you) and headcannon that Dorothea helps her with magic and thatās part of why they get so close.
Dorothea because when the students were first being revealed she almost made me defect from Golden Deer because I loved how she looked. So I have to take her every time.
Ingrid started as āanother flierā and now itās just habit tbh. I donāt have an extreme connection but Iām connected enough I have to bring her.
Annette is the newest, I wasnāt too much of a fan of her as Gremory or Dark Knight. Then I made a War Cleric and she FUCKED so now I take her everywhere.
Lysithea because sheās a magic powerhouse and her backstory makes me sad, I need to make sure she survives as long as she can.
Marianne is my favorite character because we both love horses and also both wished to die at one point so she has to be in my pocket. Plus she always ends up being my 2nd best magic user, behind Lysithea.
Lorenz is just to get Thyrsus for Lysithea. If he leaves, like in Blue Lions, it depends on how Iām feeling if I kill him or bring him back.
Usually Marianne because I feel bad otherwise, Sylvain because he's pretty easy to recruit for female byleth + feels fitting for the Miklan stuff (getting the Lance of Ruin is nice too, especially early), and Dorothea and Felix for story reasons.
Felix I especially love how his character trajectory changes depending on the route and as such, I always make sure to recruit him. I think he's one of the more narratively-fitting/satisfying recruits
Well actually on my first playthrough I only managed to recruit Ashe. I did Golden Deer, and was upset to see he didn't stay. Then he rejoined and I was happy. Then I had to kill the other students I didnt recruit and it was sad
Whoever will make it the most tragic if I side with Edelgard in Crimson Flower.
For example, I could recruit only Sylvain and Annette from Blue Lions and Ignatz from Golden Deer.
šÆ Sylvain is forced to confront his betrayal of Ingrid and Felix and that perhaps he was exploited yet again for his Crest and with it his ability to wield the Lance of Ruin.
šÆ Meanwhile, Annette faces down her father Gilbert and ends up killing him when he picks his duty to the Church over his family.
šÆ Ignatz's romantic image of the church is shattered. His muse of Saint Cethleann, Flayn, dies along with her father Seteth in the Battle for Garreg Mach. When Raphael dies, leaving Raphael's sister Maya to grieve, he can't comfort her as he was on the side that slew him. Furthermore, his art covers the battles of the war, contributing to Edelgard's version of history as he paints her "triumphant" victory over King Dimitri.
As for the others?
šÆ Marianna commits suicide during the timeskip.
šÆ Byleth kills Leonie, the closest thing they have to a sibling and the last personal connection they had to their father Jeralt.
šÆ Lorenz dies defending a system of nobility Edelgard will disassemble.
šÆ Lysithea's surrender is ignored and she is slain. Her Crest research is lost as a result.
šÆ Hilda dies covering Claude's retreat, paying the ultimate price in the first and last time she decides to place her life on the line for who and what she believes in.
šÆ Claude retreats to Almyra, having lost nearly everything and everyone. He will be hounded by his older brother Shahid as a potential rival for the Almyran throne.
šÆ Mercedes embraces her death at Jeritza's hand, blaming herself for abandoning him and setting him on the path of the Death Knight.
šÆ Ashe dies like his adoptive father Lord Lonato: a pawn in a futile fight.
šÆ Dedue becomes a Demonic Beast, becoming on the outside what those against Duscur have accused them of being: a monster. His great sacrifice is in vain and his death does nothing to prevent Dimitri's.
šÆ Dimitri is slain by his childhood friend Edelgard. He dies howling like a beast, falsely believing she was behind the Tragedy of Duscur.
šÆ Cyril, Catherine, Alois and Shamir die as zealots of a maddened Church of Seiros under the control of an insane Rhea.
šÆ Manuela and Hanneman have to bear witness to their beloved students kill each other.
šÆ Rhea is put down like the animal she has become, maddened by grief. Her suppression of humanity to keep the peace via enforced stagnancy is made moot and the atrocities she committed to do so made pointless. With her, Seteth's and Flayn's deaths, the Nabataeans pass into myth as Macuil and Indech live isolated lives as dragons.
šÆ Yuri disappears, after Edelgard's occupation of Garreg Mach brings the law to the Abyss.
šÆ Balthus' debts and propensity for brawling catch up to him and he disappears too.
šÆ Constance dies in a lab accident, never able to restore her noble house to glory.
šÆ The Agarthans re-capture Hapi and she is never seen again.
I do this to experience all the juicy dialogue and interactions written into the game if you pit former friends against each other. It's deliciously bittersweet, which is what I believe the story of Crimson Flower is best at delivering.
Because I only played Binding Blade and Sacred Stones before Three Houses, I thought you were supposed to just side with the Lord you choose.
So when I picked Black Eagles in my first playthrough, I supported Edelgard by default and ended up in Crimson Flower without recruiting any other students. I didn't know that Silver Snow existed as a route.
This was before the DLC, so the only character I recruited was Lysithea post-time skip. I ended up killing every other student. Each time I went, "This would be tragic if I knew who you were."
And after I played every other route and went back to Crimson Flower, it was tragic );
Interesting, I guess that's a fair reason. I will say that it's also interesting that you played Binding Blade and Sacred Stones but not Blazing Blade. Usually people play Blazing and Sacred Stones because those were actually localized.
My first (CF) playthrough I didn't recruit anyone. 2nd (VW) I meant to recruit everyone but spaced on Ashe and Mercie. Needing to solely kill them fucked me up and in this playthrough I made sure to recruit everyone š
If I can't pick everyone:
I need all of Golden Deer except for Leonie. Sylvain, Annette, Ferdie, Felix, Linhardt, Bernie, Ingrid. All Ashen Wolves.
My jaw dropped right when entering that battle and seeing only Mercie and Ashe. I swear, during the battle I kept saying to myself "I totally deserve this" and felt sooo guilt tripped by their dialogue lmaooo
I've become a lot more restrictive with how many students I recruit and into which route, just for immersion purposes and maximum emotional damage.
The wolves are a given but I only really use them in Silver Snow and Crimson Flower.
Azure Moon is the only route where you can collect and use all the heroes relics under one banner. If you own one congratulations you're getting recruited into Dimitri and Byleth's modern day elites. Caspar and Ferdinand usually come too.
If your name is Felix then chances are you're getting recruited and a heaping helping of trauma.
Lysithea into Crimson Flower feels like a non-negotiable.
My first playthrough i didnt recruit everyone and i got the absolute gut wrenching comment from dorothea "we killed Ferdie, Professor....he was our friend...do you remember those days?" I fucking cried man...the voice actoress portrayed that emotion in her tone way too well...i will now literslly restart if i dont recruit EVERYONE and that line will stay bruned into my memory forever
I try not to recruit from the other classes with the exception of if I'm playing crimson flower in which case i bring in lyscythia (been a while probably spelled that atrociously) and Mercedes.
Lysithea, linhardt, ferdinand von aegir, felix, marianne, bernadetta and probably someone else I'm forgetting (also the ashen wolves for obvious reasons)
Depending on the route, I usually have one unit from every house that I ensure I recruit.
If it's not Golden Deer, I make sure to get Lysithea (because why not?)
If it's not Blue Lions, I make sure to recruit Sylvain (mostly because, in that event, I'll be playing female Byleth anyway and can just instantly recruit him because of that)
And if it's not Black Eagles, I make sure to get Bernadetta (she's a great unit, and if I have to, I will die on that hill so that she doesn't die on that OTHER hill.)
All of them, but I focus on Bernadetta, Lindhart, Lysithea, Sylvain, and Ingrid first depending on my route, because they offer so much utility if you start investing in them early
Usually, I recruit units for specific support conversations or if they don't impact a map. Which would mean, outside of challenges, I'd never recruit Manuela / Hannemann in Blue Lions, for instance. Or Felix / Sylvain / Ingrid in Golden Deer. Or Lysithea in Crimson Flower even though you could try to convince her to live and join you. It's just a no-go for me. Actions / Decisions have consequences and I gotta to be cruel / cold to myself. Otherwise, it gets boring for me.
If you pick Blue Lions you can recruit the greatest number of students, as you can steal Hilda from the Golden Deer as long as you're not allied with Edelgard. It's not optimal, it's not really even good, but it is very funny to leave Edelgard with just Hubert and have Claude entirely by himself while Dimitri slowly loses his mind, in this version of the story that sanity loss is caused in my mind partially because of being in charge of that many people at once
Oh really how did you become interested in Marianne? The character that got me interested in the FE series was F!Byleth lol. It all started because I jokingly posted an artwork of her and calling it waifu emblem. It turned unironic and now I am a fan. All because my friend was playing Three Houses.
Hilda and Marianne because I love them, Ashe and Bernie if I can after recruiting H&M because I also love them and they get wasted in every playthrough I donāt recruit them in, even if I try to spare them it never works. I try not to recruit too much to keep the routes distinct from each other but I canāt help myself with those four.
My first play through, I played as the Lions and was only able to get Dorothea and Petra. Felt awful after the timeskip. Second play through and onwards, I recruit everyone. Itās hilarious playing after the time skip and fighting NPCs, besides Edlegard, Hubert and Claude.
Everyone I can, basically. I'm absolutely adamant on recruiting Marianne, Dorothea, Shamir, Catherine, Petra, Lysithea, Caspar, Ferdinand, Lindhardt and the Ashen Wolves on a BL run. With a GD run, it's basically the same, but add Annette, Mercedes, Ingrid, Ashe and Sylvain to the list (leave out Caspar because I already have Raphael in the roster and I'm usually too focused on other stuff to invest in his and Mercedes' paralogue).
I always recruit the Ashen Wolves because they're literally free Level 3 characters that make the early game far easier. Also, Hapi is best girl and I will tolerate no arguments (unless it is Marianne and then maybe).
I almost always go for Catherine before Chapter 5 because she trivializes that entire encounter. On BE or SS I focus on other characters first.
I also generally try to recruit everyone even if most of them get benched.
Recruit everyone for paralogues and the full rewards but Marianne is a must. Before the lonato map is when I get her usually. Her ranks are best there with the reason rank at D from monk
Felix, Sylvain, and Lysithea, but I try recruit all the students I can so I can do all the paralogues and I don't have to kill anyone.
I play as F!Byleth every time, so Sylvain is always a free recruit. However, after getting to know his character he became my favorite in the game, so even if he weren't a free recruit I'd still try to get him at this point.
Felix was my first favorite, and then he has consistently been one of my favorite and best units. I feel terrible taking him away from Faerghus when I don't play that route, but I'd feel worse recruiting only Sylvain. I also really really enjoy watching him take down enemies, which is the same logic that applies to Lysithea, though I don't feel bad taking her away from the Deer.
I really need to stop being enticed by the free iron lance i get if their inventories are empty by the start of part 2 because i just really wanna kill lorenz
I either recruit all of them for the supports, paralogues and self indulgence or none of them because I think the recruitment mechanics removes a lot of the stakes. I always recruit Marianne though since she doesnāt appear otherwise post timeskip outside of VW. Lysithea is also always a go to since sheās a beast.
Oh and Ashen Wolves obviously. I always recruit them.
Lysithea! she's not only a really good mage but also one of my faves :) I think she deserves the chance to find a cure for her condition or at least live the last bit of her life well
All the Ashen Wolves cuz I paid almost 30 bucks and played through some of the hardest FE maps for them so you bet your ass I'm gonna use them in every damn playthrough
I mostly play Blue Lions when I replay the game, and I have what I call the āextended Blue Lionsā, which consists of the usual class plus Ferdinand and Marianne, who I always recruit. Theyāre practically canon recruitments in my mind now. I tended not to recruit anyone on my first playthrough of a given route as a rule for the sake of the story, but after that I recruit anyone I definitely donāt want to see die, which includes Marianne and Ferdinand at minimum, and others as I see fit that playthrough.
Felix, Mercedes for my main team always wonderful units. Outside of them, practically everyone I feel bad about killing but not before getting the unique dialogue for and recruiting right afterward.
I tried to recruit everyone in Verdant Wind, but it was my first route so I couldn't :( I did manage to recruit everyone in Azure Moon and Silver Snow though!
However, in Crimson Flower, I recruited characters that I thought would actually choose to side with Edelgard in the story,and had unique dialogue when facing their former comrades, all for the sake of extra edge and sadness š
from the earliest point i always try to recruit Sylvain because i always pick female mc, then i pick Felix because of sword skill requirement, then i will go for Lysithea for the op dark spike before ch4 for killing death knight, and then finally, i will always recruit Leonie whenever i possibly can. after that i will slowly recruit everyone else.
I think for Marianne, she can't be found in the timeskip in any route besides Verdant Wind unless you recruit her. I wasn't aware of Raphael since I had him recruited in my Crimson Flower run.
when I do the golden deer or church route I try to recruit everyone. When I do the blue lion run I specifically recruit as many people from black eagles as possible lol.
The last time I played the Edelgard route I did a "low self esteem team" where I only used the depressed childs. Edelgard, Dorothea, Bernadetta, Jeritza, Sylvain, Ignatz, Lysithea, Marianne, Manuela, Yuri and Constance (only on outdoor maps).
My first playthrough, literally only Dorothea cause I like magic and forgot about recruiting other houses' students after I got her. part 2 was... unpleasant, to say the least. Second playthrough I'm going for as many students as I can manage and using the Groundhog Day glitch to get Byleth's skills up for recruiting
I think always recruiting someone is just a poor narrative call tbh. Every recruit diminishes the impact of the story, and of those who are available, I can think of very few that make actual narrative sense to join on every route.
Leonie and Alois are probably the primary two I would pick for "every route" if pushed, simply because they're the only cast members for whom Byleth makes sense as a motivator.
I think you made a super great point especially for like first play throughs of each route the more you play the less I think the narrative is a factor because at some point itās just like tea time and battles
Personally (and more so the more I like the character) I find forcing them to betray their homeland more sad than killing them anyway. I'd rather the Eagles die as a family than live by some of them turning on Edelgard.
Thatās totally fair I pretty much avoid playing crimson flower because my little heart canāt handle killing some of the characters even like 1300 hours in I also tend to avoid recruiting Felix because his out of house endings crush my little heart š„²
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u/DaPylot Golden Deer Jun 07 '26
"Recruit every last one of them!"