Fire Emblem Three Houses: Which house is actually best?

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is approaching its two-year anniversary, and the fandom is still debating over which house is best.

Having this debate is always tough, though, considering how flexible units are in the 2019 release Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Even though each character has proficiencies and routes they excel in, any player can take any unit and turn it into whatever they want.

Since the game’s release, the Fire Emblem fandom has scoured through the stats, growth rates, arts, abilities, and every other aspect of these units. As a result, some characters have been reaching S on many tier lists, making some houses have advantages over each other.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the opinion of the writer.

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Which route has the best units in Fire Emblem: Three Houses?

It’s important to note that this is concerning a Hard mode playthrough. Also, it will consider moving through the game somewhat quickly: any unit can be good if the player turtles hard enough.

When comparing the three, it’s good to first look at what merits each house has. Starting with the Black Eagles, they’re definitely a mage-heavy house for Fire Emblem Three Houses with several magic users like Linhardt, Dorthea and Hubert.

They each have access to powerful spells, like Linhardt’s Warp and Hubert’s Dark Spikes. Dorthea also serves as a great dancer.

In terms of the early game in Fire Emblem Three Houses, the Black Eagles unfortunately lack a strong tank. Edelgard will easily swallow hits, especially if she's promoted to Emperor, but that’s about it.

This house has other stand-out units, though, like the incredibly fast Petra and Bernadetta, who have a phenomenal personal ability and combat art list.

The Blue Lions house is almost the opposite of the Black Eagles; there are many physical units in the Blue Lions, but not too many mages. That being said, Mercedes might not have dealt the most damage, but she is arguably the best healer in the game. Annette is also a great Rally bot that can boost the Strength and Speed of the rest of her squad.

The Blue Lions also have a pair of destructive forces between Sylvain and Felix. Sylvain gets a damage boost when next to a female unit, and Felix deals extra 5 damage when a batallion isn’t equipped.

On top of all that, Dimitri eats up most enemies in the game like a fast food meal with gorgeous Strength and Speed growths.

Finally, the Golden Deer have an interesting mix of units, some of which are the best in the game. Most notably, Lysithea makes a strong case for best mage in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Not only can she Warp, but access to Dark Spikes makes her capable of killing the Death Knight in one shot!

Aside from that, Leone gets access to a great combat art in Point Blank Volley, allowing her to double many units. Hilda is also capable of becoming the fastest and strongest member of any army.

Given the power of these three units, Golden Deer is a very powerful house that could be best in Fire Emblem Three Houses. That title will go, however, to the Blue Lions.

The main reason for this is because a player who chooses the Blue Lions can always recruit Lysithea and Hilda. Once those two are removed, the Golden Deer don’t have much aside from a strong Lord (which every house has honestly).

On the flipside, the Blue Lions have a good number of units that will work well in a Fire Emblem Three Houses playthrough. Felix, Sylvain, Mercedes, Annette, Dedue and even Ingrid can all deal with most units in the game. They are also balanced between units that work well in Enemy Phase and Player Phase.