When to Recruit Characters in Fire Emblem Three Hopes
In the second chapter of FE3H, titled Three Houses, you will be given a choice to choose one of the three available houses. Before you make your choice, the game will display a collage of all the students from the specific house, along with their basic information.
- The Fire Emblem Three Hopes is an action role-playing hack and slash video game with the best characters which needs to be recruited in the game.
- You’ll be given the choice of choosing between 3 houses in the second chapter of the game. Every house has different characters with different abilities and character classes.
- The houses include Black Eagles with 26 recruitable characters, Blue Lion with 29 characters and Golden deer with 21 characters. Each of these characters are recruited by simply just starting a particular chapter.
- There are also 4 hidden characters in the game which you can unlock while playing the game which include Sothis, Archbishop Rhea, Arval and Gatekeeper.
The Black Eagles (Scarlet Blaze – Edelgard Route)

The Blue Lions (Azure Gleam – Dimitri Route)

The Golden Deer (Golden Wildfire – Claude Route)

Like the original Fire Emblem: Three Houses, this choice is extremely important, affecting which story paths are available to you, the battles you can fight, and the characters you fight alongside. You can also read our FE3H Tips And Tricks guide to ensure that you win every battle you partake in.
Fire Emblem Three Hopes Recruitable Characters
As you choose a house, 8 characters specific to the house will automatically be added as playable characters. As the story progresses, a few more characters may join you, depending upon your stats. You can increase your stats by reading our FE3H Gardening guide.
For the sake of brevity, we only briefly describe the character recruitment process. If you’d like a dedicated Recruitment guide about a character in Fire Emblem Three Hopes, do let us know in the comments below.
Black Eagles

All characters recruitable in the Black Eagles house in FE3H are listed below in chronological order of their appearance. Do note that the following characters are not available for recruitment in Black Eagles:
Annette, Catherine, Claude, Dedue, Dimitri, Felix, Flayn, Hilda, Holst, Ingrid, Rodrigue, Seteth, and Sylvain. Below are all recruitable characters in Fire Emblem Three Hopes during the Black Eagles storyline.
Character | How to Recruit | Character Class |
Edelgard | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Fighter |
Hubert | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Monk |
Dorothea | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Monk |
Ferdinand | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Soldier |
Bernadetta | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Fighter |
Caspar | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Fighter |
Petra | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Myrmidon |
Linhardt | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Monk |
Monica | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 3. | Monk |
Manuela | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 4. | Priest |
Jeritza | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 4. | Cavalier |
Constance | Start the “Persuade Constance” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 4 and defeat her. | Mage |
Hapi | Start the “Persuade Hapi” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 4 and defeat her. | Mage |
Ashe | Start the “Persuade Ashe” Side Mission during Chapter 5’s Main Quest and defeat him. | Archer |
Lorenz | Start the “Persuade Lorenz” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 6 and defeat him. | Cavalier |
Ignatz | Start the “Persuade Ignatz” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 6 and defeat him. | Archer |
Balthus | Start the “Persuade Balthus” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 6 and defeat him. | Brawler |
Raphael | Start the “Persuade Raphael” Side Mission during Chapter 7’s Main Quest and defeat him. Ignatz must be recruited and on the team. | Grappler |
Lysithea | Start the “Persuade Lysithea” Side Mission during Chapter 7’s Main Quest and defeat her. | Warlock |
Marianne | Start the “Persuade Marianne” Side Mission during Chapter 7’s Main Quest and defeat her. | Bishop |
Mercedes | Start the “Persuade Mercedes” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 8 and defeat her. Jeritza must be recruited and on the team. | Bishop |
Shamir | Start the “Persuade Shamir” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 9 and defeat her. | Sniper |
Yuri | Start the “Persuade Yuri” Side Mission during Chapter 10’s Main Quest and defeat him. | Trickster |
Byleth | Kindly refer to our FE3H Recruit Byleth guide. | Silverheart |
Jeralt | Joins at the end of Chapter 10 if you recruited Byleth. | Holy Knight |
Leonie | Start the “Persuade Leonie” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 12 and escort her to safety. Jeralt must be recruited and on the team. | Holy Knight |
Blue Lions

All characters recruitable in Blue Lions house in FE3H are listed below in chronological order of their appearance. Do note that the following characters are not available for recruitment in Blue Lions:
Caspar, Claude, Edelgard, Ferdinand, Hilda, Holst, Hubert, Leonie, Lysithea, Manuela and Monica.
Below are all recruitable characters in Fire Emblem Three Hopes during the Blue Lions storyline.
Character | How to Recruit | Character Class |
Dimitri | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Soldier |
Dedue | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Fighter |
Felix | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Myrmidon |
Mercedes | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Monk |
Ashe | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Fighter |
Annette | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Monk |
Sylvain | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Soldier |
Ingrid | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Soldier |
Rodrigue | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 4. | Cavalier |
Petra | Start the “Persuade Petra” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 4 and defeat her. | Thief |
Hapi | Start the “Persuade Hapi” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 4 and defeat her. | Mage |
Seteth | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 5. | Cavalier |
Flayn | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 5. | Priest |
Dorothea | Start the “Persuade Dorothea” Side Mission during Chapter 5’s Main Quest and defeat her. | Mage |
Bernadetta | Start the “Persuade Bernadetta” Side Mission during Chapter 5’s Main Quest and defeat her. | Archer |
Shamir | Start the “Persuade Shamir” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 9 and rescue her from enemies. | Sniper |
Yuri | Start the “Persuade Yuri” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 9 and defeat him. | Assassin |
Catherine | Joins automatically at the end of Chapter 9. | Swordmaster |
Lorenz | Choose “Recruit them to your team” at the start of Chapter 10. | Paladin |
Ignatz | Choose “Recruit them to your team” at the start of Chapter 10. | Sniper |
Raphael | Choose “Recruit them to your team” at the start of Chapter 10. | Grappler |
Marianne | Choose “Recruit them to your team” at the start of Chapter 10. | Bishop |
Balthus | Start the “Persuade Balthus” Side Mission during Chapter 10’s Main Quest, then rescue him from enemies. | War Master |
Linhardt | Start the “Persuade Linhardt” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 11 and defeat him. | Dark Bishop |
Constance | Start the “Persuade Constance” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 11 and defeat her. | Gremory |
Byleth | Kindly refer to our FE3H Recruit Byleth guide. | Silverheart |
Jeralt | Joins automatically at the end of Chapter 12 if you recruited Byleth. | Holy Knight |
Jeritza | Start the “Persuade Death Knight” Side Mission during Chapter 13’s Main Quest and defeat him. Mercedes must be recruited and on the team. | Death Knight |
Golden Deer

All characters recruitable in the Golden Deer house in FE3H are listed below in chronological order of their appearance. Do note that the following characters are not available for recruitment in Golden Deer order of Fire Emblem Three Hopes Character.
Annette, Caspar, Catherine, Dedue, Dimitri, Edelgard, Felix, Ferdinand, Flayn, Hubert, Ingrid, Jeritza, Manuela, Mercedes, Monica, Rodrigue, Seteth, and Sylvain.
Below are all recruitable characters in Fire Emblem Three Hopes during the Golden Deer storyline.
Character | How to Recruit | Character Class |
Claude | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Fighter |
Lorenz | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Soldier |
Hilda | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Fighter |
Raphael | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Fighter |
Lysithea | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Monk |
Ignatz | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Fighter |
Marianne | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Monk |
Leonie | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 2. | Soldier |
Shamir | Joins automatically at the start of Chapter 4. | Archer |
Linhardt | Start the “Persuade Linhardt” Side Mission during Chapter 4’s Main Quest and defeat him. | Priest |
Balthus | Start the “Persuade Balthus” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 5 and defeat him. | Brawler |
Holst | Joins automatically at the end of Chapter 5. | Swordmaster |
Bernadetta | Start the “Persuade Bernadetta” Side Mission during Chapter 6’s Main Quest and defeat her. | Archer |
Petra | Start the “Persuade Petra” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 7 and defeat her. | Thief |
Hapi | Start the “Persuade Hapi” Side Mission during Chapter 9’s Main Quest and defeat her. | Warlock |
Constance | Start the “Persuade Constance” Side Mission during Chapter 9’s Main Quest and defeat her. | Warlock |
Yuri | Start the “Persuade Yuri” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 10 and defeat him. | Trickster |
Byleth | Kindly refer to our FE3H Recruit Byleth guide. | Silverheart |
Jeralt | Joins automatically at the end of Chapter 10 if you recruited Byleth. | Holy Knight |
Ashe | Start the “Persuade Ashe” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 11 and defeat him. | Bow Knight |
Dorothea | Start the “Persuade Dorothea” Side Mission during the Main Quest of Chapter 13 and escort her to safety. | Gremory |
Secret Characters in Fire Emblem 3 Hopes
There are also 4 secret characters in FE3H that can be unlocked when replaying the game. This is, in our opinion, an excellent way of increasing the game’s replayability; allowing players to venture into the other Houses’ stories and unlock some new characters you haven’t used before. Read how to clear the Cleobulus boss in our FE3H Cleobulus Boss Guide.
Following are the hidden characters you can recruit in Fire Emblem 3 Hopes, irrespective of the House you may have chosen in your first playthrough:
Characters | Character Class |
![]() Sothis | Gremory |
![]() Archbishop Rhea | Saint |
![]() Arval | Dark Bishop/Gremory |
![]() Gatekeeper | Soldier |
The Recruitment process for Sothis, Rhea, and Arval is the same. After Shez gets their personal quarters in Chapter 4, the Renown Section will be made available for you. Visit the Renown Section whenever you can and unlock these secret characters for 60 Renown Points each. Unlocking Arval does require that you unlocked and recruited Byleth and Jeralt on your previous playthrough.
Gatekeeper can only be unlocked and recruited on your third playthrough of Fire Emblem Three Hopes.
Summary
Fire Emblem 3 Hopes is currently the most famous hack and slash game that you can play on the Nintendo Switch. If you own a Switch, you should definitely try Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. The game offers hours of content with an awe-inspiring story, and you’ll be hooked in no time. Learn how to correctly answer all Lecture Questions in our FE3H Lecture Questions & Answers guide.
That concludes our guide on the Fire Emblem Three Hopes Character Recruitment guide. Let us know what you think about the latest Fire Emblem game in the comments below.
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