Information about how to recruit Balthus in Fire Emblem Three Hopes.
In Fire Emblem Three Houses you could recruit many characters simply by getting specific stats and skills high enough. Once done, they’d be impressed enough to realize that studying under you would suit them better than petty considerations such as life-long friendships, national loyalty, familial duty or even religious conviction.
Unfortunately characters in Fire Emblem Three Hopes aren’t quite as malleable - some characters will join your faction as you progress the Main Questline, usually due to story contrivances entirely outside of your control. The rest, however, must be met in battle and “persuaded” to join you… often by lumping them on the head enough times to realize that they’d be better off defecting than decomposing.
To recruit characters in battle, you’ll need to activate a “Persuade” Strategy before the battle begins.
Character Recruitment Strategies¶
In the case where a character can be persuaded to join you, this “persuasion” effort is achieved via the deployment of a Strategy. When you start a battle in which a character can be recruited you’ll first have to pick from a variety of available [Strategies]. You can find more information about Strategies on their own page, but for the purposes of recruiting characters you’ll be interested in any “Persuade [Character]” Strategies, which you must select prior to the battle to ensure you can utilize said Strategy(ies) during the battle. Deploying Strategies in turn require you to expend Strategy Resources, a currency gained by completing [Side Quests] during the chapter leading up to the Main Quest where enemy characters can be recruited.
During battle, when the character you wish to recruit spawns you must activate the Strategy to persuade them by entering the battle menu before you defeat them. If you defeat them without activating the Strategy - even if you selected it before the battle - they will die and you will not be able to recruit that character for the rest of the playthrough! Once the Strategy has been activated, the area where the Strategy is in effect (usually where the target character spawned) will be surrounded by a purple glow. Merely defeat them in this area and you’ll recruit the character.
How to Recruit Balthus in the Scarlet Blaze Route¶
(1 of 3) Balthus appears once you capture the initial three strongholds
During the Main Quest in Chapter 6, you will be able to deploy the Persuade Balthus Strategy by expending 10 Strategy Resources. You should have a total of 50 Strategy Resources if you capture all of the regions prior to beginning the Main Quest. The first main objective of the battle is to secure a route to Ladislava, who will be in the center of the map by herself. This is done by capturing the three strongholds right in front of you at the start. Once you do that, approach the gate leading to Ladislava and Balthus will appear. You will be required to defeat Balthus to proceed in the battle, so you won’t be able to ignore him. Initiate the Strategy once it pops up on your screen, then defeat him in battle to recruit him to your army.
(1 of 3) Activate the “Persuade Balthus” Strategy,
How to Recruit Balthus in the Azure Gleam Route¶
You won’t get a shot at recruiting Balthus until the Chapter 11 Main Quest battle, [Subduing the Western Church]. As usual you’ll have to enable the Persuade Balthus Strategy by expending 20 Strategy Points before the battle begins to actually have a shot at recruiting the scoundrel.
Recruiting Balthus itself is a fairly straight-forward task, but the objectives you’ll have to clear beforehand can be somewhat tricky. When the battle begins you’ll be tasked with rescuing three Citizens, who can be found in three Strongholds (Kitchen, Plaza and Guardhouse). Before you can attempt to rescue them, however, you’ll need to defeat two pairs of Assassins in the southeastern and southwestern corners of the map, then defeat two Gatekeepers to the east and west and claim the central Stronghold (Fortress Main Gates). With those areas secure you’ll be able to advance to the three Strongholds where the Citizens are under attack - you’ll probably need to split your forces up, direct them to seize two of the Strongholds, and deal with the third yourself. Having units with healing spells will come in quite handy here, as it significantly lowers the pressure of keeping the Citizens healthy, but you can also use the Heal the Citizenry Strategy if you enabled it.
Once you’ve rescued the three Citizens, assign a unit to guard them, as they’ll be ambushed by some reinforcements as they flee to the southern end of the map (Brawlers, Snipers and Assassins). You may have to assist your escort units to keep the Citizens alive, but at the very least they’ll buy some time. The Imperial army will also start firing ballistae at you during this phase of the battle, making things even more troublesome - you can stop this artillery by capturing the First Ballista Station and Second Ballista Station Strongholds. When the Citizens manage to reach the southern end of the map, they’ll flee, but you’ll be forced to protect the two Strongholds in the southeastern and southwestern corners of the map (Eastern Retreat and Western Retreat, respectively), so set some units to guard the Stronghold Captain.
While all this is happening, Balthus will grow increasingly frustrated by the immoral actions of the Imperial army, especially their leader, a vile reprobate named Metodey. After you’ve secured the aforementioned objectives, make your way to the northeastern corner of the map and defeat Metodey and his cadre of Assassins to rescue Balthus. Be sure to activate the Persuade Balthus Strategy when prompted. Once Metodey and his goons are defeated, Balthus will decide to join you.
How to Recruit Balthus in the Golden Wildfire Route¶
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