Information about unlocking and upgrading the Marketplace in Fire Emblem Three Hopes.

Unlocking the Marketplace in Fire Emblem Three Hopes¶

When you reach the Base Camp in Chapter 4 you’ll unlock a variety of facilities, including the Marketplace. The Marketplace facility should not be confused with the Marketplace location in the Base Camp, as the facility’s upgrade only affects the Item Shopkeeper and the Armorer, oddly enough, who isn’t part of the Blacksmith facility at all.

Both of these merchants serve to sell you various items, with the Armorer selling a selection of weapons that you should never under any circumstances need nor want, and the Itemshopkeeper selling Crests, Gifts, and ingredients. The most useful of these items, the Crests, are ironically the only type of item that doesn’t benefit from upgrading the Marketplace.

Upgrading the Marketplace in Fire Emblem Three Hopes¶

After clearing a few Side Quests in Chapter 4, when you return to the Base Camp you’ll be pestered by one of your companions, who will tell you about expanding facilities, directing you to speak to the Facilities Master for more information. Check out the page How to Expand Facilities in Three Hopes for general information about upgrading facilities.

Expanding the Marketplace takes two different types of materials, Building Materials and Licenses, each of which comes in three tiers (Basic/Sutler’s, Quality/Merchant’s and Lavish/Purveyor’s). These materials are progression gated, so you won’t be finding the mid-tier and high-tier variants until you’ve progressed the main questline. When they do become available, you can regularly find them by exploring Surveying Spots and by buying them from the Supply Depot.

Below you’ll find a list of all the upgrades for the Recreation Quarter:

Merchant Network¶

Having more Gifts for sale means you’ll be more likely to find something a specific character likes. That said, giving Gifts isn’t a vital aspect of Three Hopes - you can always just take characters you want to gain Support Ranks with on battles, after all. The most compelling case for this upgrade is the fact that some Surveying Spots require specific Gifts to unlock, and unless you invest in this upgrade line, you might not have what you need when these Surveying Spots pop up.

Stockpile Goods¶

One of the better upgrades for the Marketplace, the “Stockpile Goods” line of upgrades increases the stock - the quantity, not the quality or variety - of wares sold by the Item Shopkeeper. This includes Seals, and having access to more Seals per Chapter makes this arguably the Marketplace’s highest priority upgrade.

Luxuries Distribution¶

Reducing the cost of Gifts is not a vitally important upgrade - you can always grind for more Gold, or just take characters on battles with you to increase their Support Points, mitigating the need for Gifts entirely.

Weapons Dealer¶

The sole Armorer-focused upgrade in the game, the “Weapons Dealer” upgrades increases the variety of weapons sold by the Armorer. She initially sells “Iron” weapons, but buying the first of these upgrades will cause her to stock “Steel” weapons, then “Silver” weapons and finally “Killer” weapons. Unfortunately, these weapons lack any modifiers, and you’ll almost certainly find better weapons by the time you could upgrade the Armorer. There’s never a compelling reason to buy any weapons from the Armorer, and hence no real incentive to get these upgrades.

War Chest Cart¶

This is a deeply disturbing chain of upgrades, mostly because it insinuates that the only reason we’re not getting more Gold from battles is simply because we lack the logistical capacity to carry it all back to Base Camp with us. Just how much money are we leaving on the battlefield due to lazy oxen, shoddy wheels and rickety cart construction?! Truly appalling to consider…

Anywho, Gold is good. Gold buys you things. A lot of upgrades in this tree revolve around lowering the costs of specific items, which is… not great, but why do that when you can just increase the amount of Gold you rake in every battle? Gold you could then spend on useful things, like forging weapons, leveling up characters at the Training Grounds, or buying better upgrades than the rest of the rubbish this facility offers?

This isn’t a bad upgrade, but it won’t compete with the amount of Gold you’ll earn from, say, the Despoil Class Ability. Still, it’s passive and it increases your gains every battle, so it’s one of the more worthwhile Marketplace upgrades.

Food Supplier¶

Essentially the “Merchant Network” upgrade, but for ingredients, “Food Supplier” will increase the variety of ingredients for sale at the Item Shopkeeper. Like with Gifts, you shouldn’t need to buy ingredients in Three Hopes, especially if you’re more focused on Volunteering than Cooking. Also, you gain ingredients by winning battles, so if you’re sufficiently grinding you should have plenty of ingredients to burn. The only exception is if the odd Surveying Spot requires some ingredient which you otherwise might not have, but this is in practice rarer than the Surveying Spots that require rare Gifts.

Ingredient Distribution¶

“Luxuries Distribution”, but for ingredients. You don’t need to lower the cost of ingredients; they’re not that expensive, you can only buy a few of each ingredient per Chapter, and you can get Gold and ingredients by winning battles. Honestly this is one of the last upgrades you should bother with, and even then, only for the achievements.

Which Marketplace Upgrades to Unlock First?¶

The Marketplace takes a lot of swings - it has the second most upgrades of any facility - but a lot of them are misses. The “Stockpile Goods” upgrades gives you access to more Seals, so it should be at the top of your list as far as Marketplace upgrades go. After that, fixing up your shoddy “War Chest Cart” to earn more Gold from battle isn’t a bad option. The rest of the upgrades? Not much to recommend. “Merchant Network” and “Food Supplier” may be needed to nab the Gifts or ingredients (respectively) some Surveying Spots require, but you can just keep excess building materials on-hand in the case of such an eventuality and upgrade these as needed.