If you're familiar with the teatime gameplay mechanic in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes' expedition mechanic is going to feel just like home to you. But home can be a good thing... or a bad thing. Were you ever frustrated when teatime's vagueness got the better of you, and a dialogue response you had good reason to believe would charm your conversation partner caused them to lose interest in the chat instead?
Should your answer to that inquiry be no, congratulations; you're one in a thousand. Expeditions can be nearly as vague, you see, albeit with some nice little enhancements to ease the burden somewhat. We'll go over some best practices for wowing your partner with three bluebells — or whatever those things are at top-left, anyway.
How to Ace Expeditions in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
Sometimes, the game will notify you that a specific character wishes to go on an expedition. This will never happen when you lack a free Activity Point to oblige them, so no worries there; if you should advance the story, however, you'll miss the chance for some extra points for saying yes.
Most of the time, however, it's on you to invite someone on an expedition yourself. You can do so by visiting the war camp and interacting with the character you wish to bring along. A cutscene will play out with the two of you riding horses out of the camp, and it's off to see some nature.
Early on, you'll only be able to visit the 'Plains' location. Continue doing sidequests on the war map every chapter, and you'll gradually unlock places like 'Forest', 'Beachfront', and more.
Throughout an expedition event, players are provided with three opportunities to engage with their friends. As you can see in the above Shamir screenshot, the setup is quite akin to Three Houses' teatime. This time around, you can choose between 'Talk' and 'Ask a Question' for each of the three rounds.
As best we can tell, there's no bonus or score reduction for picking the same category twice, or even thrice, in a row. If you feel more secure asking Edelgard three consecutive questions, knock yourself out. Should you feel more comfortable picking conversation topics when spending the afternoon with Alois, that's just dandy.
Simply study the character's page in the Convoy before heading out into the wilderness with them. Every question and topic is cleverly titled to infer that it may or may not be directly tied to their interests. Look for whatever sticks out; there will always be something worth clicking.
You'll gain some points to increase Support Rank with your partner just for hosting an expedition. In a neat little wrinkle, you'll gain the same amount even if you completely flunk the experience, so don't be shy. A perfect conversation does double the reward, however!
What Do You Get From Expeditions?
If your interests are primarily pragmatic, know that there's more to be gained than Support Points alone. Perfect conversations also add a permanent boost to both characters' Charm stat. There's frankly no better way to grind for Charm, although we would generally advise not going so wild with it that you neglect a more balanced approach to your time with Three Hopes.
By bearing in mind the likes and dislikes that each character's profile page contains in-game, you can accomplish a perfect score and earn the chance to gain even more Support Points. You can do so by offering your partner a gift, which can only be done on expeditions if all three rounds of the minigame are successful.