Fire Emblem: Three Houses Wiki Guide

Garreg Mach Monastery

The Garreg Mach Monastery is a major location in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Situated in the middle of the large continent that borders the three main nations, the Garreg Mach Monastery serves as neutral ground, and also as a training facility that is used by all three nations to train students in the art of combat.

In the events of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, your character, Byleth, is given the opportunity to become a teacher at the Monastery, and must choose to train one of three houses: The Black Eagles, The Blue Lions, or The Golden Deer. This will in turn become your main squad for the coming battles, initially comprised of 8 other units, including the House Leader, the young lord destined to rule over their respective nation.

Your time in Garreg Mach Monastery will cover a good portion of the early game - unlike other Fire Emblem games, you'll spend much of the time training students in a variety of ways, while also having the opportunity to explore the Monastery, or engage in battles.


Monastery Breakdown[edit]

The sections below cover all the activities and assignments you can engage in at the Monastery, as well as the points you can explore.

Weekly Instructions[edit]

Instead of battle maps as missions, you will instead have "missions" that encompass a month at the Monastery, with one day each weekend of free time to choose from several options, and a main battle map at the end of every month.

During most weeks, time will be spent instructing the students of your chosen house. You'll have the option to let your character automatically instruct your students and raise their proficiency in skills, letting the computer choose where each student should focus, and if any need additional tutoring.

List of Skills
Sword Spears Axes Bow
Brawl (Fist Weapon) Reason (Black or Dark Magic) Faith (White Magic) Authority (Battalions)
Heavy Armor Riding Flying

By instructing your students and raising their skill levels, you will help them reach the requirements need to take certification tests to become a variety of different classes. Every student can take multiple certification tests - and if they pass - they are able to swap between classes each battle to whichever classes they have unlocked.

Gaining ranks in skills will also unlock new Abilities and Combat Arts that can be used in battle, and you will be able to equip multiples of each before starting a battle. Combat Arts cost additional durability of the item used to unleash.

You can instruct your class manually, at which point you can instruct students individually and set each character's goals - one or two Skills they should focus on learning. You can also set group tasks to pair up students to take on activities that allow them to bond and learn specific skills, and also review your overall goals.

When instructing an individual student, you will be able to choose which skill to have them attempt to learn. The rate at which they can learn correctly can depend on several factors. Students will have their own innate strengths and weaknesses, and may be more attentive when studying a skill they care about. They also have their own motivation meters - which can be influenced by a number of events, and can dictate how many sessions you can have with that student.

A student who has run out of motivation will still learn over the week's instruction, but you won't be able to grow their skills with 1-on-1 lessons. Instead, you'll need to find different ways to raise their motivation.

Whether a student succeeds or fails in their session, they'll still earn varied amount of skill experience. You can even turn a failure around by correctly choosing to critique or console the student - which can raise motivation enough to continue their lessons, and praise a student for a job well done. Students can even get an experience multiplier if they do well on their lessons.

During the lessons, students may also approach you with concerns over which skills they should be studying, and you'll have the opportunity to coax them into a path that you think suits their style better.

At the end of the week, the results of the rest of your general teachings, group activities, and other tasks will be tallied so you can see what skills your units are focusing on, and how much they have improved, and how their motivation is at the end of the week.

Sundays - Free Days[edit]

Most Sundays after a week of instructing, your character Byleth will be able to choose what to engage in on their day off. These include multiple options - but you can only choose one each time, and each choice has its own benefits and drawbacks. They include:

  • Explore - Allows you to freely explore the Garreg Mach Monastery
  • Seminar - Allows you to have you and your students attend a special seminar, hosted by either your character or another teacher specializing in two certain skills that multiple units can benefit from at once, and gain more motivation.
  • Battle - Embark on a smaller-tier battle to allow your units to gain combat experience and increase in level, apart from the skill experience learned at school.
  • Rest - Do nothing for the day, and allow yourself and your students to rest instead, regaining lost motivation.


Choosing to hold a seminar on your free day will likely lower your student's motivation for the coming week, but it's not without its benefits. By holding a seminar, you can invite another teacher to lecture about key skills to all interested students - including Byleth too.

Seminar Hosts Skill Focus
BylethSword Authority
SetethSpear Authority
HannemanBow Reason
ManuelaSword Faith
GilbertSpear Axe
AloisAxe Brawl
CatherineSword Brawl
ShamirSpear Bow


Should you choose to explore the Monastery on your day off, you'll have a limited amount of Activity Points to spend doing certain tasks with others you meet while wandering the grounds. Time does not pass while exploring, and even if you use up all of your points, you're still able to move around and talk to others until you choose to end Exploration mode.

Monastery Points of Interest
Officer's Academy Greenhouse Fishing Hole Dining Hall
Dormitory 1F Dormitory 2F Training Grounds Cathedral
Marketplace Entrance Hall Reception Hall Stables
Knight's Hall Second Floor Library and Cardinal's Room Third Floor

Some of the things you can do when exploring include:

  • Chat with Students and Faculty. Talking with many characters may present you with dialogue choices, and if you pick one best aligned with what that character wants to hear, you'll earn increases to your support rating.
  • Take on tasks for others, picking up side quests. You may also find Lost Items around the Monastery that can be given back to the character who dropped it. Figure out who the item's owner is using the clues given, and they'll gain motivation and support for getting their item back.
  • Engage in activities with students to build bonds and skills. You can select students to join a Choir to build bonds and raise the Faith skill of all participants, choose a character to make a meal with that will increase stats for your whole roster for the month, or invite two characters to dine with you and increase their motivation and bond with each other.
  • Using the Amiibo Gazebo to summon amiibo that grant items and gifts
  • Enter a student into a Tournament to win a gauntlet of matches using a certain weapon each month. If the unit wins the tournament, you'll gain a big reward.
  • Partake in solo activities like Gardening and Fishing, which can help you procure items needed for making meals, catch rare fish to sell, or cultivate flowers and items that can be used as gifts and even stat-boosting consumables.
  • Speak with students of rival houses, during which you may be able to recruit other students if they are impressed by Byleth's skills. Not all characters can be enticed to join, and your skill growth may only align with the interests of select students.


Once unlocked, Byleth can interact with the Greenhouse each free day to plant seeds, increase their yield by cultivating them, and then harvest the rewards the next time you explore the Monastery.

Depending on the seeds and method of cultivation, and possibly even the different seeds that are planted together, you'll be able to harvest many different rewards - which can include more seeds to plant, fruits and vegetables to use in Dining Hall meals, beautiful flowers that can be used as Gifts, or even powerful Items that can be used to increase the stats of a character.

Gardening will also award you with Professor Experience each time you harvest your seeds. The higher your Professor level, the more seeds you can plant at a time, and the better methods of cultivation you'll have access to that can increase yields.


As you find or purchase bait, you can try your hand at fishing. In this minigame, you must wait until the shadow of a fish appears, and press A to try to catch it, or wait for another shadow to appear - but your bait will usually be lost after 3 fish come and go.

Once hooked, you'll need to press A as the purple ring shrinks to overlap with the purple ring in the center - getting close will result in a good attempt, while getting it exactly matched will be an excellent attempt - and deplete more of the fish's stamina, while your own will go down slower - and the higher your professor level, the more stamina you'll have.

As long as you keep up consistent excellent attempts, you'll deplete more stamina faster until the fish is finally caught. Depending on the bait, and any events that are going on, you can find fish to use in sharing meals at the Dining Hall, bigger more rare fish that can be cooked in the Dining Hall to give a temporary stat boost to your entire team for the month, and you can also sometimes find extremely rare fish that can be sold for a profit.


At the Dining Hall, you can take part in two activities - both will require one Activity Point each.

Cooking will allow you and a partner of your choosing to create a meal using special ingredients sometimes found fishing or gardening that will give a special stat boost to your team for the month - depending on the ingredient used.

Sharing meals will allow you to pick two different Characters to dine together - which will increase bonds between the three of you. The effects may be enhanced depending on whether the Characters like that particular dish, and if any special events are currently taking place.

Choir Practice[edit]

At the Cathedral, you can take part in an activity that will require an Activity Point. This let's you pick two partners to sing together in the church, and the three of you will increase your bonds as well as a bit of the Faith skill, and Byleth will gain Authority skill from leading the choir. Effects may be increased during special events.

Faculty Training[edit]

Many of the staff and Knights of Seiros can make time to help teach Byleth in various Skills - but each training will require 1 Activity Point, and a particular character can only train Byleth once each free day.

Certain Characters will come and go over the course of the story, which means you may not always find the same faculty around each month - so make use of the teaching they give wisely, as it's one of the only dedicated ways to effectively raise Byleth's skills.

Faculty Skill Training Options
ManuelaSword Faith Flying
HannemanBow Reason Riding
JeraltLance Authority Riding
SetethSword Lance Axe
Authority Flying
RheaSword Brawl Reason
AloisAxe Brawl Hvy Armor
ShamirLance Bow
CatherineSword Brawl
GilbertLance Axe Hvy Armor