Fire Emblem: Three Houses is an excellent strategy RPG and its medieval combat and characters were engaging enough to get a spin-off. The Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes re-imagines the world with action-style gameplay, but the original gameplay had plenty to offer in of tough combat scenarios.
Fire Emblem has long been renowned for its difficulty -- the series was primarily known for the permanent death of its party , after all. While Three Houses did a lot to streamline the gameplay, it still could get difficult. This usually would take the form of extremely brutal battles and missions.
Reunion At Dawn
Chapter 13 is one of the few missions shared between multiple versions of Part 2. While every version differs between routes, Crimson Flower is the only one where this mission doesn’t appear. This chapter is the first after the major time skip and it sees the player returning to Garreg Mach monastery after five years of abandonment.
There, they’ll either rendezvous with Dimitri, Claude, or Seteth, and then bandits will attack the church. This mission is extremely difficult because there’s no time for preparation and the player starts with a small number of units. While reinforcements will appear, it takes time and players may not be prepared for bandit attacks.
Tales Of The Red Canyon
Sometimes the hardest battles can be found in Paralogues, optional missions tied to Three House's students and the source of most of their development. In Sothis’ paralogue, Byleth is suddenly drawn to the Red Canyon, a location from a previous mission. There, Byleth is ambushed by giant wolves and other monsters. Since they are left alone, they find themselves on a far corner of the map.
The good news is that Byleth isn’t alone, as their students come to assist. Unfortunately, the students start at the opposite of the canyon. This is also one of the earlier option missions in the games. As such, a player's Byleth may not be strong enough to fight off wolves on their own.
The Chaos Of War
This chapter is another that occurs on multiple routes. It’s the eighteenth chapter of Silver Snow but the nineteenth chapter of Verdant Wind. It occurs on Azure Moon as well but is tougher on the former two routes. It’s also known as the “Invasion of Enbarr.” This is because it sees the resistance finally grow bold enough to attack the Imperial Capital of Enbarr directly.
Unfortunately, the Empire has come out in full strength. Not only is the mage Hubert there, but so is the Death Knight. The Death Knight’s high defense and attack make one want to pause. But the player may find their hand forced when enemy reinforcements spawn close to the player's starting point. This means the optimal strategy for this map is to beeline for the bosses.
Our Chosen Paths
Our Chosen Paths is the penultimate chapter of Azure Moon. It's a climactic chapter of Three Houses, although there are unpopular opinions about it. While the final boss fight can be difficult, the enemies in this chapter make it arguably even tougher. The chapter is sequential with the final, making them a package deal.
Part of the reason the map is so difficult is the unique enemies. Un-recruited students will show up as enemy units, and some of them with extreme power. Petra, in general, finds her place in this route as an assassin. She's a tricky enemy to deal with that can easily slice through player units.
Danger In The Dark
Danger in the Dark is the fourth chapter of the Cindered Shadows DLC Chapter. Fittingly, most of the map is covered in darkness. As with all of the DLC Chapters, the player has no choice over what units to bring into this battle. As such they’re stuck with slow and weaker units than they’d want for a mission also called “A Harrowing Escape.”
The map has the player’s units flee to checkpoints under the time limit. The enemies are too strong to fight through, and an unbeatable enemy stalks the player the whole way through. At the end, the screen is flooded with enemies. And if any of the units die, the battle is failed and the player needs to restart.
Foreign Land And Sky
Some paralogues are shared between Fire Emblem: Three Houses' characters, such as Foreign Land and Sky, split between Petra and Bernadetta. Despite the fact that two characters are required party , it’s one of the toughest in the game. It begins with Petra offering to show Bernadetta her home and it initially seems benign, with the goal simply being to move Petra into position.
The game is lying to the player here, as reaching that location will cause an enemy ambush. In Empire-aligned routes, Catherine will appear with her powerful sword. In Church-aligned routes, Hubert will appear instead, who blasts from far away with dark magic. Both versions of this fight are unpleasant.
Forgotten Hero
Marianne’s paralogue is built up from the moment players meet her. Her demure and shy demeanor masks self-loathing. As it turns out, she’s been lying about the nature of her Crest, a magical inherited power several characters possess. She got it from Maurice, a disrespected hero of legend who turned into a wandering beast that is the boss of this paralogue.
In fact, Marianne spawns right next to him in this mission. There are also plenty of monsters between the player's spawn point and Marianne. And if Marianne falls, the mission is automatically failed. There's also a fog that obscures most of the map, meaning those monsters can attack her from nowhere.
The Face Beneath
The Death Knight is a terrifying enemy that haunts any map on which he appears. Thankfully, he s the player’s side on the Crimson Flower route. On any other route, however, he remains a stoic stalwart enemy. Mercedes and Caspar’s extremely difficult shared paralogue sheds a little more light on one of Fire Emblem's more unsolved and unexplored mysteries.
While the Death Knight doesn’t need to be killed in this mission, players are likely going to want to due to the powerful item he drops. He and his reinforcements are on the other end of the map from Byleth. That also happens to be where Caspar and Mercedes spawn in. One bruiser and one healer won’t last long against hordes of enemy knights, so players should be careful.
To The End Of A Dream
Also known as The Fight for Fhirdiad, this is the final chapter of the Crimson Flower Route. The map contains some of the biggest and toughest enemies, like gigantic golems. It also features Catherine and Cyril, who while recruit-able on other routes, are enemy powerhouses here. But at the same time as all of those, players are expected to deal with the final boss.
The Immaculate One is a large draconian creature and one of the most powerful enemies. It boasts high defense and resistance against most damage. It has a barrier that can be broken with gambits, but the Golems will try their best to waste the player’s supply. It’s a tough enemy that’s going to require all units to defeat, but it’s still not the strongest form of the Immaculate One.
Following A Dream
That would be the Berserk Immaculate One, fought in the last chapter of Silver Snow. While it also serves as a final boss in Crimson Flower, Silver Snow is a longer route with higher levels. It initially pretends to be the Crimson Flower version, before going berserk and fully healing itself. Its White Beast reinforcements, which are also strong, also have a ive ability to heal it as long as they’re close.
In addition, its range is a massive eight spaces. This means it can attack retreating units with ease, and getting in close is simply a tall order. Its Miracle and Staggering Blow abilities both have the potential to one-hit KO units, even without its Crest of Seiros ability, which stacks on even more damage. Players that manage to deal with the Berserk Immaculate One have conquered the hardest challenge Three Houses has to offer.
