Information about unlocking and upgrading the Tactics Academy in Fire Emblem Three Hopes.
Unlocking the Tactics Academy in Fire Emblem Three Hopes¶
When you reach the Base Camp in Chapter 6 you’ll be forced to talk to one of your companions before you can move on, and they’ll refer you to a new facility - the Tactics Academy.
At this facility you’ll find the Tactics Instructor, and if you talk to him you’ll get two options - “Learn Tactics” and “Expand Facility”. Essentially you’ll have to buy upgrades for this facility to unlock various boons for your characters, which you can then buy and apply via the aforementioned “Learn Tactics” option.
Unlocking an upgrade by expanding the facility does nothing on its own, you have to then subsequently purchase the unlocked upgrade for each character for it to take effect. Since you have to buy the upgrades you unlock individually for each character, this becomes a significant gold sink, but the upgrades are worth the cost.
You can purchase a variety of upgrades at the Tactics Academy, boosting your Warrior Gauges, Unique Abilities, recovery items and Ability Slots.
Upgrading the Tactics Academy in Fire Emblem Three Hopes¶
By the time you unlock this facility, you’ll have already unlocked the ability to upgrade facilities. Check out the page How to Expand Facilities in Three Hopes for general information about upgrading facilities.
Expanding the Tactics Academy takes two different types of materials, Building Materials and Combat Manuals, each of which comes in three tiers (Basic/Beginner, Quality/Standard and Lavish/Advanced). 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.
(1 of 2) Once you unlock an upgrade at the Tactics Facility, you’ll have to buy said upgrade for each character.
Once you unlock an upgrade at the Tactics Facility, you’ll have to buy said upgrade for each character. (left), You can also mass-purchase unlocked upgrades for all relevant characters, which can get awfully expensive. (right)
Below you’ll find a list of all the upgrades for the Tactics Academy:
| Upgrade | Prerequisite | Resources/Gold | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research Basic Multi-Opponent Battle Tactics | – | Beginner Combat Manual x10, 1,000 G | Unit gains a second Warrior Gauge. |
| Research Advanced Multi-Opponent Battle Tactics | Research Basic Multi-Opponent Battle Tactics | Lavish Building Material x10, Advanced Combat Manual x10, 2,000 G | Unit gains a third Warrior Gauge. |
| Discover Hidden Potential | Research Advanced Multi-Opponent Battle Tactics | Lavish Building Material x10, Advanced Combat Manual x10, 2,000 G | Break stat cap |
| Research Medicinal Arts | Research Basic Multi-Opponent Battle Tactics | Basic Building Material x10, Beginner Combat Manual x10, 1,000 G | Unlocks concoctions. |
| Research Advanced Medicinal Arts | Research Medicinal Arts | Lavish Building Material x10, Advanced Combat Manual x10, 2,000 G | Unlocks elixirs. |
| Learn Introductory First Aid | Research Basic Multi-Opponent Battle Tactics | Basic Building Material x10, Beginner Combat Manual x10, 1,000 G | Recovery item usage increased. |
| Learn Intermediate First Aid | Learn Introductory First Aid | Quality Building Material x10, Standard Combat Manual x10, 1,500 G | Recovery item usage further increased. |
| Learn Advanced First Aid | Learn Intermediate First Aid | Lavish Building Material x10, Advanced Combat Manual x10, 2,000 G | Recovery item usage even further increased. |
| Research Practical Combat Basics | Research Basic Multi-Opponent Battle Tactics | Basic Building Material x10, Beginner Combat Manual x10, 1,000 G | Increase ability slots to 6. |
| Research Intermediate Combat Basics | Research Practical Combat Basics | Quality Building Material x10, Standard Combat Manual x10, 1,500 G | Increase ability slots to 8. |
| Research Expert Combat Basics | Research Intermediate Combat Basics | Lavish Building Material x10, Advanced Combat Manual x10, 2,000 G | Increase ability slots to 10. |
| Research Efficient Training | Research Practical Combat Basics | Quality Building Material x10, Standard Combat Manual x10, 1,500 G | Increases Unique Action Ability level to Lv 2. |
| Research Optimal Training | Research Efficient Training | Lavish Building Material x10, Advanced Combat Manual x10, 2,000 G | Increases Unique Action Ability level to Lv 3. |
| Research Efficient Enlightenment | Research Practical Combat Basics | Quality Building Material x10, Standard Combat Manual x10, 1,500 G | Increases Support Ability level to Lv 2. |
| Research Optimal Enlightenment | Research Efficient Enlightenment | Lavish Building Material x10, Advanced Combat Manual x10, 2,000 G | Increases Support Ability level to Lv 3. |
| Tactical Thinking | Research Practical Combat Basics | Quality Building Material x10, Standard Combat Manual x10, 1,500 G | Increases Tactical Ability level to Lv 2. |
| Advanced Tactical Thinking | Tactical Thinking | Lavish Building Material x10, Advanced Combat Manual x10, 2,000 G | Increases Tactical Ability level to Lv 3. |
| Research General Crestology | Research Practical Combat Basics | Quality Building Material x10, Standard Combat Manual x10, 1,500 G | Increases Crest level to Lv 2. |
| Research Advanced Crestology | Research General Crestology | Lavish Building Material x10, Advanced Combat Manual x10, 2,000 G | Increases Crest level to Lv 3. |
Unlocking more Warrior Gauges will allow you to bank multiple Warrior Specials at a time.
Battle Tactics¶
Increasing the number of Warrior Gauges you can have allows you to fill, store and eventually unleash up to two Warrior Specials at a time. These are awesome desperation moves, or useful attacks for damaging or eliminating a group of enemies outright in a hurry. A real powerful upgrade that allows you to be more flexible with your Warrior Specials, and a real no-brainer as far as upgrades go.
Hidden Potential¶
Breaks the stat cap when purchased for a character, this is real tempting for min-maxers… But is it a prudent purchase? If you over-level you may be nearly L70 by the end of the campaign (most of the characters you play regularly will more likely be in the 50s-60s, assuming you play on Normal difficulty). You probably aren’t maxing any stats without resetting a character’s levels and releveling them as a class with better Growth Rates and/or using some permanent stat-boosting items.
Simply put, for most characters, this won’t be an issue on your first playthrough. It can wait.
You can upgrade both the number of healing items you can use per battle, and their quality.
Medicinal Arts¶
Switches out your Vulneraries for Concoctions and, later on, Elixirs. These increase the effects of battlefield consumables, which will, of course, make it more difficult for anything to kill your units. Not a bad upgrade, but not super high priority, either.
First Aid¶
Increases the number of battlefield consumables you can use each battle. The “Medicinal Arts” upgrade path is the quality, the “First Aid” upgrade path is the quantity. Both are useful.
Practical Combat¶
One of the better offerings at the Tactics Academy, and that’s saying a lot given how good the upgrades for this facility generally are. You have four ability slots by default, and each of the three upgrade tiers for “Practical Combat” will allow you to equip two more, expanding your ability slots to 6, 8 and finally 10. Your mileage may vary depending on how much grinding you do and how many classes you master, but if you scope out choice Abilities and grind up class ranks to get them, these upgrades can make your characters considerably more powerful. If you don’t grind much and stick the following the blue arrows on the class tree, you won’t get as much out of these upgrades.
Efficient Training¶
Every character has three Unique Abilities, not to be confused with Innate Abilities. In the “Convoy” menu, on the “Set Abilities” tab, the “Unique Action Ability” will be the first on each character’s list of three Abilities under the “Unique Abilities” header. Often passive (but not always), these “Unique Action Abilities” vary wildly between characters. Purchasing these upgrades increases the potency of the effect.
Efficient Enlightenment¶
Every character has three Unique Abilities, not to be confused with Innate Abilities. In the “Convoy” menu, on the “Set Abilities” tab, the “Support Ability” will be the middle on each character’s list of three Abilities under the “Unique Abilities” header. These passive abilities have effects which vary wildly between characters. Purchasing these upgrades increases the potency of the effect.
Tactical Thinking¶
Every character has three Unique Abilities, not to be confused with Innate Abilities. In the “Convoy” menu, on the “Set Abilities” tab, the “Tactical Ability” will be the last on each character’s list of three Abilities under the “Unique Abilities” header. These passive abilities are less unique than the other characters, and grants them a bonus to damage dealt or reduces damage received when ordered to attack, seize, guard or defend. Different characters have different proclivities. Leveling this up will increase the bonus gained.
General Crestology¶
Some characters have Crests, which typically have a set percent chance to activate when performing some action or another, giving them a boon when it triggers. Upgrading a character’s Crest Lv will increase the odds of the crest activating. This does not affect [Hero Relics] in any way. Characters without Crests cannot purchase these upgrades.
Which Tactics Academy Upgrades to Unlock First?¶
Unlike most facilities, there aren’t a lot of misses with the Tactics Academy, which is replete with good upgrades. Grabbing the “Research Basic Multi-Opponent Battle Tactics” isn’t just a prerequisite for advancing further into the Tactics Academy’s upgrade tree, but it’s also one of the better upgrades you can get. Being able to fill up two Warrior Gauges is just gravy, as you can then bank one for emergencies, and use the second one as it fills, and goes a long way towards turning Warrior Specials from a fringe gameplay element to a spammable special attack. Getting three Warrior Gauges is a welcome long-term goal, and while obviously a nice boon, it doesn’t have as huge of an effect on gameplay as getting that second Warrior Gauge does.
After the obligatory purchase of “Research Basic Multi-Opponent Battle Tactics”, expanding your Ability Slots are probably the next best upgrades to get… provided you grind out class ranks to get Abilities worth equipping. This is a longer-term project, as you likely won’t have the Seals to burn on flights of fancy (like getting Strength +5 from some character’s Warrior trees), but as you get deeper into the midgame, having those extra Ability Slots - and Abilities worth equipping - will pay big dividends.
Tertiary upgrades may be merely a way to burn materials and upgrade your Camp Level in most other trees, but as mentioned earlier, the Tactics Academy has a lot of depth. Dropping materials into unlocking “Medicinal Arts”, “First Aid”, “Efficient Training”, “Efficient Enlightenment”, “Tactical Thinking” and “General Crestology” are all decent choices, although the benefits will vary by character when it comes to upgrading Unique Abilities and Crests. Some characters just have better Unique Abilities and Crests than others.
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