Supports and Romance
Which characters can bond, how far each bond goes, what has to happen before a locked conversation opens, and where romance actually enters the game.
How supports and romance work
Supports in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave run on two layers that are easy to confuse. The first is the rating itself, which rises whenever two units fight and work together, on a battlefield or in the city between chapters. The second layer is the conversations: not every pairing has them, and a pairing without conversations still gains its rating and still collects the passive bonus applied while the two fight side by side.
Conversations are read at the taverns in Dagsion, near the colosseum or in Lowtown. When you open a support list there, a locked row shows a padlock, which means an earlier condition has to be satisfied first. Those conditions are concrete rather than mysterious: the rows checked wait on reaching Part 2 or Part 3, on a specific chapter such as Chapter 7 or 9, on recruiting the unit at all, or in a few cases on an unnamed requirement the source itself renders as question marks.
Romance arrives at the end rather than during the route. Only some characters can reach A rank, and many A ranks allow a Paired Ending in the epilogue. Eshmel holds the exception: at a maximum rating of 5 you can choose a Paired Ending with that character, which unlocks an S-rank scene. The source notes that every character Eshmel can reach A rank with is assumed, but not confirmed, to be eligible for that S scene, so the inference is labelled an assumption wherever it appears instead of being presented as a finished fact.
The rank ladder
- C conversation - the rating 2 scene, and the first step of every recorded pairing that has conversations.
- B conversation - rating 3. Several pairings in the tables start here rather than at C, which is why a row can show a B without a C.
- A conversation - rating 4, the highest ordinary rank and the one that opens the door to a Paired Ending.
- S scene - rating 5, offered to Eshmel only, and read at the end of the game as the romance payoff.
Every recorded support pair
The tables checked record 73 pairs across 44 characters. Each row names the pair, the conversations documented for it, the highest rank that pair can reach, and what has to happen before a locked row opens.
| Character | Partner | Conversations | Highest | Opens when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cai | Alexandra | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Cai | Bertrand | A, B | B | Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Cai | Centurio | C | C | Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Cai | Esmeralda | A, B, C | C | Must be Recruited |
| Cai | Goliath | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Cai | Mu | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Cai | Ninae | B, C | C | Unlocked in Part 2 |
| Cai | Unlocked in Part 3 | A | A | No lock recorded |
| Dietrich | Buccar | B, C | C | Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Dietrich | Cai | A, B | B | Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Dietrich | Catania | B, C | C | Must be Recruited |
| Dietrich | Esmeralda | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Dietrich | Fabio | A, B, C | C | Requires ??? |
| Dietrich | Halvin | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Dietrich | Mikaela | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Dietrich | Seteth | C | C | Unlocks in Part 3 |
| Dietrich | Talimun | A, B | B | Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Dietrich | Unlocked in Part 3 | A | A | No lock recorded |
| Leda | Buccar | A, B, C | C | Unlocked in Part 2; Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Leda | Cai | A, B | B | Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Leda | Dante | B, C | C | Unlocked in Part 2 |
| Leda | Dietrich | A, B | B | Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Leda | Esmeralda | B, C | C | Unlocks in Chapter 7 |
| Leda | Guzran | B, C | C | Must be Recruited |
| Leda | Jester | B, C | C | Must be Recruited Before Chapter 11; Unlocked in Part 2 |
| Leda | Olympia | A, B, C | C | Unlocked in Part 2 |
| Leda | Orchel | B | B | Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Leda | Sirocco | A, B, C | C | Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Leda | Talimun | A, B | B | Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Leda | Theodora | A, B | B | Unlocks in Part 3; Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Leda | Unlocked in Part 3 | A, C | C | Requires ??? |
| Leda | Unlocks in Chapter 10 | A, B | B | No lock recorded |
| Leda | Unlocks in Chapter 9 | C | C | No lock recorded |
| Peter | Cai | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Peter | Dadao | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Peter | Jester | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Peter | Mu | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Peter | Ninae | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Peter | Sofia | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Peter | Unlocked in Part 3 | A | A | No lock recorded |
| Peter | Ursula | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Theodora | Alexandra | C | C | No lock recorded |
| Theodora | Bonaventure | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Theodora | Cai | A, B | B | Unlocked in Part 3; Unlocks in Part 3 |
| Theodora | Diego | C | C | Unlocked in Part 2 |
| Theodora | Dietrich | A, B | B | Unlocked in Part 3; Unlocks in Part 3 |
| Theodora | Lilian | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Theodora | Lysander | A, B, C | C | Requires ??? |
| Theodora | Nezha | A, B, C | C | Unlocks in Chapter 9; Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Theodora | Simon | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Theodora | Talimun | B | B | Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Theodora | Tialla | B, C | C | Unlocks in Part 3 |
| Theodora | Tobias | A, B, C | C | Unlocked in Part 3 |
| Theodora | Unlocked in Part 3 | A, B | B | No lock recorded |
| Tialla | Bonaventure | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Tialla | Cai | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Tialla | Io | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Tialla | Ludia | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Tialla | Peter | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Tialla | Seteth | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Tialla | Talimun | B, C | C | Unlocks in Part 3 |
| Tialla | Unlocked in Part 3 | A | A | No lock recorded |
| Ultand | Cai | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Ultand | Centurio | C | C | No lock recorded |
| Ultand | Goliath | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Ultand | Loretta | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Ultand | Nezha | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Ultand | Orchel | C | C | No lock recorded |
| Ultand | Peppe | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Ultand | Peter | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Ultand | Tialla | A, B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Ultand | Tobias | B, C | C | No lock recorded |
| Ultand | Unlocked in Part 3 | A | A | No lock recorded |
A rank pairs and the Paired Ending route
Only 5 of the 73 recorded pairs reach A rank in the tables checked. Those are the pairings that can carry into the epilogue, which is where a Paired Ending is decided.
- Cai and Unlocked in Part 3 - reaches A
- Dietrich and Unlocked in Part 3 - reaches A
- Peter and Unlocked in Part 3 - reaches A
- Tialla and Unlocked in Part 3 - reaches A
- Ultand and Unlocked in Part 3 - reaches A
Eshmel stands apart: 0 pairs involving Eshmel are recorded, all of them reaching A rank in the tables. Eshmel is also the only character who can choose a Paired Ending outright at a maximum rating of 5, which is what turns an A rank friendship into an S rank scene.
Coverage and open gaps
Of the recorded pairs, 32 carry an unlock condition, which makes them the rows worth planning around: a pairing that waits on Part 3 cannot be finished during Part 1 no matter how many battles you fight together. The characters currently covered by those tables are Leda, Cai, Theodora, Dietrich, Ultand, Peter, Tialla, Unlocked in Part 3, Talimun, Esmeralda, Alexandra, Bonaventure, Buccar, Centurio, Goliath, Jester, Mu, Nezha, Ninae, Orchel, Seteth, Tobias, Bertrand, Catania, Dadao, Dante, Diego, Fabio, Guzran, Halvin, Io, Lilian, Loretta, Ludia, Lysander, Mikaela, Olympia, Peppe, Simon, Sirocco, Sofia, Unlocks in Chapter 10, Unlocks in Chapter 9, Ursula.
The support section of the source set is itself marked in progress, and further pairs are listed by name without any rank data. Those rows are counted but not published here, because an entry with no rank would look like a finished record while telling you nothing you can act on. As the tables fill in, the row count on this page moves with them rather than being restated by hand.
How the Rating Actually Climbs
The tables above map which pairs exist. This captioned guide covers the other half of the question, which is how the rating underneath those pairs is farmed, and it surfaces the single most consequential fact on the page: support progress is not scoped to one route. Everything below is drawn from its captions, with the creator's habits marked as habits rather than rules.
Progress carries across routes
Support levels are saved between the four paths rather than per run, so a bond raised on one route is already there when you start the next. That changes the value of every meal and gift: it is account progress rather than spending that resets, which is also why the recruitment gates on the characters page can be planned across a full playthrough rather than one route at a time.
Restarting a chapter keeps the rating
Restarting the chapter from the system menu keeps the support levels you gained inside it, which the game itself states when you use the option, so the creator reads it as a deliberate system rather than an oversight. Chapters with a large turn budget therefore become support farms: spend the turns on meals and gifts, restart, repeat, and keep everything that mattered.
Half price on a weekend day
Meals are the fastest lever because they can be shared with units you have not recruited yet, and they run at half price on a weekend day that the in-game calendar lists. One caution worth stating plainly: the creators covering this do not agree on whether that day is Saturday or Sunday, so the calendar in your own save is the authority and both guides are wrong at least half the time.
Buy in bulk, and discount the habit
Gifts are the largest recurring gold cost in the game, so the creator's advice is to buy in bulk from the cheapest sources rather than one at a time: a southern city vendor sells sweets in effectively unlimited quantity, the tavern area carries free and cheap gifts, and the gift-discount Boon of Salvation is the first boon he recommends buying because the discount compounds over a whole run.
The other four levers
Beyond gifts and meals, support also comes from the theater, the temples, the bathhouse and Bird Time. The theater splits by activity: watching a show can include units you are still recruiting, while acting is restricted to the team you already field. Temple service only pays support to units in your party, and the bathhouse adds stat bonuses to the bond it builds, which is why the weekly circuit on the activities page matters here too.
Bank support ahead of Renown
A recruit needs both its support level and its Renown level, and only one of those is something you push directly: Renown arrives from simply playing, Chapters and side quests. The creator's working method is therefore to over-invest in support early and let Renown catch up, so the unit joins the moment the account-level gate clears instead of being gated on a grind you could have done weeks earlier.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you raise supports in Fortune's Weave?
- Support ratings rise when two units fight and work together, on and off the battlefield. Conversations are then read in Dagsion at the taverns near the colosseum and in Lowtown. Units without their own support conversations can still raise a support rating, which grants passive bonuses when the pair fights together.
- What do C, B and A rank mean here?
- The tavern support list maps C, B and A conversations onto rating 2, 3 and 4. A padlock next to a row means an earlier condition has to be met first, such as reaching a later part of the story or recruiting the unit.
- How does romance and the Paired Ending work?
- Only some characters can reach A rank, and many A ranks allow a Paired Ending in the epilogue, which is where romance sits. Eshmel is the exception that gets an S-rank scene: at a maximum rating of 5 you can choose a Paired Ending with that character.
- Why are only some characters listed?
- Because the source set is still being written. The tables checked cover the characters published so far and those pages are themselves marked in progress, so this page publishes the documented pairs and leaves the rest out rather than filling gaps with plausible guesses.
Planning a run around one of these pairs? The support matrix lists every partner for a chosen character with the rank each bond can reach, and the characters page records who can be recruited on which path in the first place.
Quick answers
Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave supports run on two different gates rather than one rating, and that is also where Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave romance lives: the bond itself grows during the run, but a paired ending is only decided at the epilogue.