A Support is a bond or affiliation between multiple playable characters through which they can gain certain in-game statistical bonuses.
Different Types of Supports
Support
Used in: The Binding Blade, The Blazing Blade, The Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Awakening, Fates, Shadows of Valentia and Three Houses
The most familiar form of supports first appeared in The Binding Blade. In this type of support, supports have three different ranks, A, B, and C. Supports must be built by having characters end their turn adjacent to each other or while one character is rescuing the other, with the speed of the support varying from support to support and each character having between 3 and 7 available supports. When a certain number of support points is reached, the Support option becomes available and the characters can initiate a conversation that will increase the rank of their support. The characters get the bonus for being within three squares of each other, with the nature of the bonuses being determined by elemental affinity and higher ranks of support giving stronger bonuses. Depending on the game, you can raise a support rank between two characters more than once per map. For example, in The Binding Blade, you can have two characters raise their support rank twice in one chapter, while in The Sacred Stones you can only raise the support rank between two characters once per chapter or map.
Most support conversations further smaller side-stories, or give the player an insight on a particular character's history. In addition, many characters can get a different ending if they have an A support with another character by the game's end. For example, in The Blazing Blade, Bartre and Karla will ultimately get married post-game if an A level support is made between the characters before the ending. Support conversations are added to a library that can be accessed in the Extras menu.
A character may only get 5 support conversations in one playthrough (This limit was removed in Awakening). Therefore a player would have to play the game multiple times in order to achieve hundred percent support for every character.
A variant of this system appears in Radiant Dawn. In this title, any two characters can be made to support. Many various actions can build support points, such as healing, shoving, being adjacent, and being deployed in the same chapter. As before, supports have A/B/C ranks, but characters may now only have one support at a time. Character-specific conversation events were also removed. While supported units can speak to each other, it typically takes the form of a generic single line of dialogue with few exceptions.
Bond Support
Used in: Mystery of the Emblem, Thracia 776, Path of Radiance, and Radiant Dawn.
Mystery of the Emblem introduced the original form of the support system, later named Bond Support in Path of Radiance, representing characters having a relationship before the events of the game. Supports were originally a hidden feature that gave a boost to Accuracy, Avoid, and Critical if the supporting characters were within three spaces of each other. Characters who support start off with the ability to do so, and supports cannot be made or built higher. Several supports are one way, where one unit supports another, but not vice versa.
Instead of the Love System used in Genealogy of the Holy War, Thracia 776 returned to Bond Supports as seen in Mystery of the Emblem. Supports give a flat bonus to Hit, Critical, Critical Evade and Avoid when the characters are within three spaces of each other.
Bond Supports reappeared in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, where they were fixed bonuses to Critical and Critical Evade, and activate only when the characters are adjacent. In Radiant Dawn, if two characters reached an A support, the Bond between them is increased by 5.
The support system in TearRing Saga: Utna Heroes Saga functions quite similarly to Bond Supports, except some bonuses can be increased through events, which often occur automatically if the involved characters are present. Supports give a bonus to the same stats as in Thracia 776.
Love System
Used in: Genealogy of the Holy War
In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, characters could fall in love by accruing a certain number of love points. Each pair of male/female characters in the game start with a predetermined number of points, and their points increase when they are on the map together (different characters will fall in love faster). Love points can also be acquired by having characters end their turn adjacent to each other, or by having them engage in certain events. The number of points a character has can be estimated by having them talk to the Fortune Teller in the castle, and when they reach 500, the two characters marry and can no longer be paired with other units. Characters that have been paired get a +10 bonus to hit and avoid while within three spaces of each other (similar to Charisma), and most notably, will produce children in the First Generation. The statistics, skills, items, and holy blood of parents are used to determine those of the child. Certain characters being in love can also unlock events, and in the 2nd generation it will affect the ending.
Siblings cannot fall in love. However, both siblings and lovers get a +20 critical bonus when adjacent.
Supports in Shadow Dragon and New Mystery of the Emblem
In Shadow Dragon, the support mechanics borrow various elements from other games, combining elements of Bond Supports with the Support system introduced in The Binding Blade. Supports are again built by deploying characters in the same chapter and have ranks from A to C. C supports provide +5 to Hit and Avoid, B supports provide +10, and A supports provide +10 to Hit and Avoid and +5 to Critical and Critical Evade. Like Thracia 776 and the original Mystery of the Emblem, supports can again be one way. There is no limit to the number of supports you can have.
New Mystery of the Emblem uses the same system as Shadow Dragon, but also adds Base Conversations between supporting units between chapters.
Supports in Awakening
Supports in Awakening are earned by acquiring Support Points.
| Action | Support Points Awarded |
|---|---|
| Battle an enemy with a Support Unit (such as a Pair Up) | +6 |
| Battle an enemy while adjacent to an ally (A unit not Supporting in battle) | +2 |
| Healing or Dancing for an ally | +2 |
| Partner Dual Strikes or Dual Guards | +2 |
| Trigger an event tile conversation in a Pair Up | +9 |
| Relationship Barracks conversation | +9 |
| Use a Seed of Trust while in a Pair Up. | +9 |
Each Support Level between two units require a certain amount of Support Points in order to activate each level. Point amounts differ between each character, Support Level and difficulty level, but they usually require 18-45 points. On a map, a pair can earn up to 27 Support Points. However, any points awarded via Event Tile or Seed of Trust do not apply to the 27 point cap.
Supporting
Supports affect numerous Dual System bonuses including Stat bonuses, Dual Support bonuses, Dual Strike, and Dual Guard activation rate boosts. The higher the unit's Support level, the higher the bonuses received in battle. Characters are allowed to A-Support as many units that are applicable to them. However, each character can only create one S-Support by pairing them with an opposite gender, same generation unit. When S-Support is reached, the characters will marry and be listed as Wife or Husband (or Companion) on their partner's status screens.
Children
Once an S-Support has been achieved, a new paralogue will be unlocked as long as Chapter 13 has been completed. These paralogues revolve around the recruitment of their child. All children characters, besides Lucina and female Morgan, are fixed to their mothers. Thus Sully will always have Kjelle for a daughter and not Owain or Nah. The child is generally recruited by having either Chrom or the child's mother talk to them, though there are exceptions. If they are recruited and they survive their paralogue, they will automatically unlock C-Supports for both parents as well as their sibling if they have one.
If any male child character is the sibling of Lucina or female Morgan they will lose the ability to S-Support them. Their lover support will be replaced with Morgan or Lucina's sibling A-Support.
Supports in Fates
The support system from Awakening returns in Fates. Like Awakening, two characters can build support points with each other, given them bonuses in battle. Like Awakening, there is no limit to how many Supports can be built for a character, allowing them to support with all applicable units if the player puts in time to do so.
S-Supports
S-Supports makes a return, resulting in children once two characters reach that Support level. For characters married to Corrin, their Bonding dialogue (Skinship dialogue in the Japanese version) changes in the player's My Castle Personal Quarters and they will share the room with them. Also, players can have same-sex S-Supports if they attain the rank with Niles and Rhajat for males and females respectively, although they cannot have children. When any two characters S-Support, the spouses gain the ability to use a Partner Seal to allow them to reclass to their spouse's base class. However, there are exceptions for Corrin, Azura, Keaton, Kaden, Velouria, both Kana, Mozu and Selkie, in which their spouse will access their secondary class instead. In the case the spouse's base class is the same as the secondary class of the listed, they will get another class provided.
Children
Children characters are tied to their fathers except for Shigure and male Kana. Children characters inherit the base class and secondary class of their determinate parent, though there are a few exceptions such as Midori and Shigure. They will also inherit the base class of their other parent unless their parents share base classes, in which they will inherit that parent's secondary class. Once recruited, they automatically unlock their C-Support conversations with their parents and their sibling in the case of siblings of Shigure and male Kana. All children will adopt the hair color of their mothers except for male Kana. If Shigure or male Kana has one of the female children as a sibling, they will lose their romantic support and their support will become Shigure and Kana's sibling support.
A+ Supports
Every unit, except for Corrin, can also achieve an A+ Support with one character of the same gender in their support list. Unlike the S-Support, A+ rank does not unlock an additional conversation. Instead, it unlocks the ability to use a Friendship Seal to reclass that character into their A+ Support's base class.
A+ Supports work one-way, meaning that it is not needed to have both units get an A+ Support with each other. This means that Azama can get an A+ Support with Arthur, who can instead choose Benny as his A +Support. Multiple units can choose the same character to be their A+ support.
Corrin works in a different way; they do not have A+ Supports of their own, but any A Rank support they get with characters of the same gender (except for Niles and Rhajat) will technically work as an A+ support. This means when male Corrin gets an A Rank support with Xander and Ryoma, they will get access to the Outlaw and Samurai base class respectively while Hinoka and Camilla will grant female Corrin access to the Sky Knight and Wyvern Rider classes respectively.
Supports in Three Houses
In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, characters accrue support points between each other during battle as in past games. Supports can range between units, several only having up to a B-Rank support while others go up to A-Rank. When battling near an ally with a Support Rank, characters receive bonuses in battle.
Supports can be formed between a fixed set of characters. Supports may have strict time windows in order to be viewed. Some Supports require a Paralogue to be completed to view and some Paralogues require a certain Support level between units to activate. In general, most C-Supports can be made in the Academy Phase, sometimes only during this phase. B-Supports can be made in both phases. A-Supports are strictly in the War Phase.
Simply having allies battle next to an ally will build supports. Characters that have an assigned Adjutant with whom Supports are possible will also build them when the lead unit battles an enemy. Other methods include Academy Activities such as sharing a meal or having two characters assigned to do a project together at the end of each week.
Byleth can increase their Support points with characters in Garreg Mach Monastery by having Tea Time with them, sharing a meal, cooking with them, returning a lost item, giving them a gift, giving them a one-on-one tutoring session, correctly giving them the best advice when asked, or by giving the character a positive response during certain story cutscenes. Byleth can also lose support points by selecting responses that a character does not like. If Byleth has earned enough support with a character to view the next conversation and advance a rank, but prior to viewing it, chooses a dialog option the other character disapproves of, Byleth will have to build support with them again in order to return to the threshold.
Byleth's current support with a student who is not currently a part of their class lowers the required stat and subject proficiency requirement to recruit said character. Each Support rank lowers the stat requirement by 20% and the subject requirement by one stage (C→D+→D etc.)
C+/B+/A+ Supports
Some Support Ranks have multiple tiers, highlighted by two chevrons pointing right over the Support Rank. Such support ranks require two separate conversations in order to move up to the next rank.
S-Supports
Byleth is the only unit in the game who can achieve an S-Rank. On a calendar day event before the final battle begins, Byleth may choose a character whom they have achieved at least an A or A+ rank with to be their S-Support. This unlocks a special cutscene after the Endgame of the story route has been completed assuming the character in question survived the final battle. There are no in-game bonuses for selecting an S-Support.
Byleth can S-Support all opposite gendered characters. However, they also have several same-sex S-Supports. Linhardt, Jeritza, Alois, Gilbert, Edelgard, Dorothea, Mercedes, Rhea, and Sothis, as well as Yuri of the Cindered Shadows DLC, all can form S-Supports with both genders of Byleth.
Endings
Supports have an effect on the story endings of each character. Other than Byleth, any character who has achieved an A or A+-Rank with another can potentially have a shared ending. These can be platonic or romantic in nature depending. These shared endings are determined by the collective support points between the characters in the event that the characters have formed multiple A/A+ Supports.
Supports in Fire Emblem Heroes
On August 5, 2017, supports was added to Fire Emblem Heroes as a part of its 1.7 update. Supports come in two varieties: Summoner Support and Ally Support. For both Support types, they require that each character defeats a certain number of Level 35+ enemy units to move up in rank.
There are no special conversations for building Supports for either type to support. Support boosts are not applied to Arena Duel Defensive teams.
Summoner Support
Players choose one unit to bond with the Summoner. Players may choose only one unit at a time and if they switch to a new Bond Unit, the previous Bonded unit loses all ranks and bonuses, even if the player re-supports the unit. This Summoner Support unit receives a unique Background for their status screen and their Hero Icon Border and Stars turn Red. Duplicates of the same Hero do not receive the bonus, thus choosing Azura as your Summoner Support will only apply to the Azura selected.
The bonuses work similar to Fury and Life and Death where the stats bonuses are flat increases and are not considered a buff, thus are unaffected by skills such as Panic Ploy.
A common misconception is that support points are gained by getting kills against enemies. In reality, the player's Bond Unit gains one point of support after the player completes a map in which the unit had engaged in battle with at least one enemy at level 35 or higher. All types of map (Tempest Trials, Arena, Chain Challenge, etc.) work, regardless of whether the map had previously been cleared or not. The unit doesn't need to survive the map, but the map does need to be completed.
| Rank | Bonus | Support points required |
|---|---|---|
| C | HP +3, RES+2 | Starting Rank |
| B | HP +3, DEF/RES+2 | 8 points |
| A | HP +3, SPD/DEF/RES+2 | 24 points (32 total) |
| S | HP +3, ATK/SPD/DEF/RES+2 | 48 points (80 total) |
Ally Support
Ally Support allows the player to choose any two units in their army to form a bond. While all units can support any unit, they cannot form a Support with more than one unit at a time. Any attempt to form a new bond between units results in immediate lost in all Support points and bonds earned. Ally Supports work universally amongst all copies of the same character. Thus forming a support between Fae and Nowi will work for all copies of the two characters.
If two units who have formed a support are on a player's team in battle, they will receive stat bonuses based on their current Support Rank and their position on the map to each other. The bonuses themselves are similar to Spur Stat skills, thus are only applied when the unit is in combat. They will receive the strongest stat bonuses if they are adjacent to one another and receive a small boost if they are only one tile apart. If they are separated by two or more tiles, they will receive no bonuses in battle.
Each unit can gain one point of support per map if they fight at least one battle against an enemy at level 35 or higher, provided that their support partner is within two squares of them. This means that each pair of units can actually gain two points per map, provided that both of them fight at least one battle under the proper circumstances. As with Summoner Support Points, any type of map works, and the points will be gained as long as the map is cleared, regardless of whether one or both of the units survives.
| Rank | Bonus (Adjacent) | Bonus (One Space Away) | Support points required |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | RES +2 | RES +1 | Starting Rank |
| B | DEF/RES +2 | DEF/RES +1 | 6 points |
| A | SPD/DEF/RES +2 | SPD/DEF/RES +1 | 18 points (24 total) |
| S | ATK/SPD/DEF/RES +2 | ATK/SPD/DEF/RES +1 | 36 points (60 total) |