One of the most rewarding ways to gain an early advantage in Fire Emblem: Three Houses is by mastering your classes and raising weapon proficiencies as soon as possible. Regardless of whether you’re playing on Normal, Hard, or preparing for Lunatic Mode, this early-game setup can push your units into A-rank territory in just a few battles—saving you dozens of hours later in the campaign. In this guide, we’ll walk you through a strategy that lets you level not just one but two characters at once while boosting class mastery, weapon ranks, and Authority experience.

Prerequisites and Setup

While this method can be applied with any character and class, it’s best suited to Byleth (the Professor) and a durable, high-defense unit. You’re going to rely heavily on survivability, so equip anything that improves defense stats—shields, passive skills, or defense-boosting battalions. While bonuses from previously mastered classes (via New Game+) are helpful, they aren’t required.

You’ll also want to bring a decent stock of healing items—Vulneraries or Concoctions—and store them in your convoy. Byleth can access the convoy mid-battle, which is critical for staying in the fight as long as possible. Lastly, if you have a high enough Professor Level, you’ll be able to access multi-battle maps (especially on Hard mode) and assign Adjutants, which is how you’ll simultaneously train a second character.

Step 1: Choose the Right Battle Map

Pick a battle with respawning enemies, forest tiles, or choke points. If you’re early in the game, some of the paralogues or auxiliary battles provide perfect setups. Forests lower enemy accuracy and allow you to survive longer, while restricting movement paths can help with positioning.

Enable online services before entering the battle. Once on the map, search for glowing purple or yellow tiles—these are dropped by other players and often contain rusted weapons, which are key to this method. You’re looking for weapons with very low accuracy and damage, like broken swords or rusted lances. This keeps you from accidentally killing enemies while still gaining EXP.

Step 2: Strategic Positioning

Place your unit in a tile where enemies can surround them from 2–4 sides. Ideally, you’ll be flanked by forest tiles to lower hit rates further and draw melee attackers into optimal positions. Once in place:

• Turn off battle animations
• Set battle speed to fast
• Skip enemy phase if preferred (to save time)

Now, just press A and let the fight flow. With your accuracy intentionally low and defenses high, enemies will attack each turn and usually miss or do negligible damage. If your HP gets too low, heal with a Vulnerary from the convoy. As your defense rises through level-ups, you’ll eventually reach a point where the enemies can’t damage you at all—but you’ll still be gaining skill and class EXP from every engagement.

Step 3: Bring an Adjutant for Double Gains

If your Professor Level allows it, attach an Adjutant to your unit. This lets you level up a second unit’s class and weapon proficiency alongside your main fighter. Just ensure the Adjutant is:

• Assigned a weapon they want to level up
• Not using anything that boosts your main unit’s hit rate or damage output

This makes it easy to rotate through your party between battles and get everyone to A-rank over time. Don’t forget: your main unit also passively gains Authority experience during this process—critical for equipping higher-level battalions later in the game.

Important: Remove Accuracy and Damage Boosters

To ensure you don’t end battles too soon or kill your farm targets, unequip any abilities or battalions that increase hit rate or attack power. Avoid weapon proficiency boosters for now as well—they’ll speed things up too much and ruin the grind.

Step 4: Optimize Further

• Turn off animations and skip enemy turns to speed things up
• Equip Defense or Resistance-boosting battalions without offensive bonuses
• Use the convoy regularly to replenish healing items or swap weapons
• Farm until you’re ready to finish, then re-equip a high-accuracy weapon to quickly wipe remaining enemies or dangerous ranged units

If you’re aiming for complete proficiency coverage, simply rotate your Adjutant with each new battle. Over time, you can grind nearly your entire roster up to A-rank in their core weapons, master early classes like Mercenary or Brigand for Vantage or Death Blow, and set the foundation for advanced builds.

Final Thoughts

This method may feel a bit grind-heavy, but the payoff is enormous. Within a few battles, you can:

• Master multiple classes
• Reach A-rank weapon proficiency
• Boost Authority
• Train multiple characters at once

Even if this is your first playthrough and your Professor Level is still low, you can use this strategy mid-game once you’ve unlocked Adjutants. For veterans or New Game+ players, this is one of the best farming techniques in the game.

Got questions about this setup or want help prepping for Lunatic Mode? Drop a comment, and get ready—because this strategy is going to make even the toughest runs feel a whole lot easier.

Enjoy your grind—and happy farming!