Less than two months since the release of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the game has received a ton of new content—great for its many hungry fans around the world. This time, Nintendo has released the second major update for the game. Given their patch notes, players of all skill levels have plenty to dig into.
There are free new updates in this patch, available even if you didn’t pick up the Expansion Pass. The biggest one for gameplay fans looking for a challenge is the addition of “Maddening” as a new game difficulty. It appears you can only choose this upon starting a new game, so pick wisely! And speaking of a new game, New Game + gives you increased Renown and limits. (Already start one? They’ll retroactively apply 10k Renown!) For players who have reached this point, you can also now access the Goddess Tower from the Event Gallery.
Version 1.0.2 also includes the second “wave” of DLC for those who own the Expansion Pass. For those looking to march out a little further, five new Auxiliary Battles have been added: Battle at Lake Teutates, Battle in the Forest, Battle at Gronder Field, Battle at the Sealed Forest, and Battle at Conand Tower. There are new items available to utilize—respectively, they boost your movement, strength, HP and speed.
And, as promised, there’s plenty of cute new clothes, usable for you and your students. Plus, there’s a new song, “Corridor of the Tempest,” accessible during auxiliary battles.
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One more massive change for fans who’ve been paying attention to Fire Emblem news will be the new English voice for Byleth. The original voice actor was accused of abuse by former girlfriends and woman acquaintances; he later posted a blog post admitting to such. Nintendo told news outlets that the actor would be replaced in Three Houses and Heroes.
As with any good patch, there’s quite a bit more, including bug fixes. If you own Three Houses, you can update the game by closing it, then “reopening” it. This should automatically prompt the update. A well-known alternative is to go to the game’s icon via the home screen, then go to the game’s settings and “Software Update.”
You can see the full patch notes via Nintendo below:
New and Updated Features
- Added Maddening mode to the New Game difficulty options. Note that if you clear Maddening mode without selecting New Game +, the title screen will change.
- Increased the bonus Renown for selecting New Game + at the start of the game.
- In addition to the usual difficulty bonus, 10,000 Pts. will now be added each time you clear a path.
- The max threshold for bonus Renown is now 50,000 Pts.
- If you already started playing using New Game + before applying the DLC data, 10,000 Pts. per cleared path will be added to each save slot the first time it is loaded.
- Up to Ver.1.0.1, only the type of path cleared was saved but not the number of clears for the same path, which will now be saved applying the DLC Ver.1.0.2.
- Added Goddess Tower to the Event Gallery in Extras. Use the ZL/ZR Buttons to select the Goddess Tower page, then choose a character event to replay.
- The Event Gallery is unlocked once you’ve cleared the game.
- Implemented new English voice for Byleth (male).
New Expansion Pass Content:
- A new set of items
- You can receive this set of items as DLC Supplies from the bed in Byleth’s Personal Quarters. Each save file can receive these supplies: Sacred Galewind Shoes (Movement +1), Sacred Floral Robe (HP +7), Sacred Snowmelt Drop (Strength +3), Sacred Moonstone (Speed +3).
- Additional auxiliary battles
- There are five additional auxiliary battles in the Expansion Pass: Battle at Lake Teutates, Battle in the Forest, Battle at Gronder Field, Battle at the Sealed Forest, and Battle at Conand Tower.
- Depending on your progress, one of them will be listed in the battle-selection screen.
- These additional auxiliary battles will be marked with the yellow “!” icon in the battle-selection screen. As a bonus, these battles may give you status-up items, such as Ailell Pomegranate, and an increased Gold reward in addition to the Bullions.
- All maps will consume one activity point to start.
- A new song (Corridor of the Tempest)
- You can access the new song (Corridor of the Tempest) from the System menu while you are in an auxiliary battle. You can also listen to it in the Music Library.
- New attire/accessory (House Loungewear / Glasses for Byleth)
- The new attire (House Loungewear) is for the protagonist and students. Swap outfits in Byleth’s Personal Quarters from the Journal. These outfits are only wearable inside the monastery, or for specific unit classes during battle (this varies by character).
- The new attire cannot be sent along with a traveler.
- The new accessory (Glasses) can also be put on in Byleth’s Personal Quarters. They can be combined with any other attire. The glasses can be worn in the monastery and during battle.
- A confirmation message is now displayed when you abandon an item during battle.
Other/Bugs:
- Fixed the bug that caused the game to freeze when Fortify was used while equipped with a certain skill.
- Addressed the incorrect character design in event still images.
- Fixed the bug that incorrectly displayed a Caspar line as Linhardt’s during the White Heron Cup.
- Fixed the bug that displayed a “TBD” message when mastering combat.
- Fixed the bug in the cut-in sequence for a CRITICAL attack.
- Fixed the bug that prevented Rescue magic from working properly to move an ally to a space near the user.
- Fixed the bug that accidentally let the player enter the closed-off desk corridor in the Cardinals’ Room.
- Some text has been revised.
- The gameplay has been improved by addressing a few additional bugs.
