Supports are the relationship system in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave. They do two jobs. On the battle map, characters who have grown close hand each other a bonus for standing side by side. Off it, the same closeness unlocks conversations between them. Nintendo's dedicated presentation covers both halves, noting that adjacent allies can receive buffs during the positioning rundown, and that characters who have grown close may converse and show their support to each other at inns.
On the Battle Map
Adjacency drives the combat half. When two characters who have grown close stand beside each other, the interface shows the partner's portrait with a heart icon and a numeric level, and the bonus itself appears as a banner. Combat System covers where that sits among the other positioning rules.
Pre-launch combat forecasts show the numeric level in use. The table below records what has actually been read off those screens.
Pair | What the Screen Showed |
|---|---|
A Level 1 support bonus, in a fight that appears to happen soon after Troy joins | |
A Level 1 support bonus already in place | |
A Level 1 support | |
A support prompt appearing on the map when the two stand together | |
A support bonus picked up from Mu standing next to her |
As of September 2026, no official system explainer or presentation says what the bonus adds. No figures have appeared for any level, and no source states whether Level 1 is the floor for every pair or something a pair has to reach.
A second heart display appears on the map when a single unit is selected: markers over other units that cap at five and vanish when the selection moves. Nothing published explains what they count, so they are recorded here as an observed interface element rather than a described mechanic.
Raising a Support Level
Activity | What It Does |
|---|---|
Gifts | Given to a character in Dagsion, capped to a set number of uses per week |
Shared meals | Inviting a character to eat, likewise capped per week |
Campfires | Eating at a campfire restores HP and earns support points |
Dungeon links | Coordinating a link with a party member is reported to raise the support level between the two, covered on Dungeons and Clashes |
Adventure Guide tasks | Guide entries marked with a heart award support points when completed |
Stage Shows | Inviting a character to a show at the theater, which opens at Renown 7 |
Feeding the Pale Raven | Once a week, raises any chosen character's support with Eshmel; the effect applies in Part III |
The Adventure Guide sorts its entries into Dagsion and world map categories and marks each one with a symbol for the reward it carries, hearts among them. World Map and Exploration and Between-Match Preparation cover where those activities sit in the time you have between matches.
Guides written from the retail game treat meals as the main lever. A character can be invited to a meal once they have received one gift, a single meal can raise several supports at once, and the table can include pairs that do not involve the route's Hero at all. Guides disagree on how often meals can be held: one lists them among the once-a-week actions in Dagsion, while a guide dedicated to supports says they can be held several times a week.
Supports and Recruitment
A support level is one of two bars behind a successful recruitment, the other being Renown. The support that counts is the one between the character and the Hero whose route you are playing. Individual characters set their own minimums, and Ninae is cited as needing support level 3 before an attempt will land. The gifts and shared meals that raise a support level are the same ones the recruitment pitch uses, so the two systems run on one track. Recruitment covers the full sequence.
Support Conversations
Conversations are held at inns while time passes between matches. Each character has a support list screen showing their partners and which conversations are available.
The ranks seen so far are C, B and A, and coverage is uneven. Not every pair carries all three: some are missing a C conversation and some are missing an A. Some conversations are locked until a later point in the story. No rank above A has appeared on any published screen, and accounts of the finished game report that supports stop at A, with no S-rank conversations.
Pair | What Has Been Shown |
|---|---|
Listed on Leda's support list | |
B and A conversations listed | |
Listed on Leda's support list | |
A conversation shown on camera, in which Esmeralda talks about visiting Dietrich's sister once he leaves Dagda | |
A support conversation listed, with no dialogue published | |
A support chain listed, with no conversations shown |
Eshmel appears on at least one support list as a guest unit, carrying an A conversation and nothing below it. Eshmel's supports are also raised differently from everyone else's: once a week, feeding the Pale Raven at Dagsion raises a chosen character's support with Eshmel, and those levels take effect in Part III. How that feeds into the conversation ranks has not been documented on this wiki as of September 2026.
How Far the System Goes
Accounts written from the finished game describe support levels running from 1 to 3, the same count as the C, B and A conversation ranks listed above, raised by the gifts and shared meals covered further up this page.
They also converge on the volume being thin. The number of conversations a character carries, and the number of pairs with a full chain behind them, is repeatedly described as modest against what the series has trained players to expect. There is no romance or marriage system attached either: a completed chain ends at the conversations and the map bonus, and nothing turns it into a pairing.
Supports Across Routes and Parts
Support levels belong to the save file rather than to a route. Raising a support between two characters on any path keeps that level on every other path, so time spent building Leda's supports during Cai's route makes those characters easier to recruit when Leda's route comes around. The same guides note that support levels never go down, even when a chapter is restarted, and that some characters who can never be recruited still have support conversations and can be invited to meals.
Players found an early way to use that. Hosting meals, restarting the chapter from the system menu and hosting them again keeps the support gained while resetting the money and time spent, so a long chapter can be replayed to raise many supports quickly. Coverage of the loop describes it as most likely unintended, and it is easiest to run on a replayed chapter, covered on Routes.
Supports carry forward into the later Parts too. New support conversations become available in Part II when the pair's level from Part I was high enough, and viewing support conversations is one of the tasks that count toward Notable Deeds, covered on Boons of Salvation.
What Is Not Known
The bonus figures are the largest gap: as of September 2026 this wiki has not documented the stat effect of any support level, and no official presentation, press release or system explainer gives one. The size of the weekly gift cap, the point at which the time-locked conversations open and the number of conversations a full chain runs to are likewise not documented here, and nothing describes what a completed support leads to beyond the conversations themselves. Accounts of the finished game report that supports stop at A. The Level 1 readings in the forecast table above come from pre-launch footage; the support levels of 1 to 3 used for recruitment have since been confirmed by a recruitment guide written from the retail game.
Related Pages
The positioning rules the adjacency bonus sits among are covered on Combat System. Inns, where the conversations are held, are part of the loop described on Between-Match Preparation. For how characters join the roster in the first place, see Recruitment.