Building bonds for recruitment: whose level counts and how to plan your weekMinor spoilers

Recruitment checks bonds with this route's protagonist

The bond required for recruitment is the numeric level between the target and your currently selected protagonist.

Check Renown, bonds, and prerequisites separately#

Cai's story checks “Cai–target,” while Leda's checks “Leda–target.” It does not use the target's highest bond with any teammate, or which C, B, or A conversation you have watched. When dining before recruitment, the protagonist must be one of the three guests.

So, give the target a first gift → seat the protagonist and target together → reach this route's required Bond Level → recruit once Renown and paralogue/negotiation requirements are also met. If you lack Renown, continue the story and complete available requests. Schedule relationship activities when bonds are the missing requirement. Meals and chapter restarts cannot bypass Renown, character appearances, prerequisite paralogues, or negotiation materials. Even a level 1 requirement needs a first gift before recruitment becomes available.

Bond Levels, conversations, and combat bonuses#

Bond points accumulate between two characters and raise their numeric level at set thresholds, up to level 5. Support conversations offer C/B/A ranks depending on the pair; not every pair has all three. C usually requires level 2, B level 3, and A level 4, with possible chapter, event, and viewing-order requirements. Reaching level 3 and watching a B conversation are separate conditions. Do not read “bond 3” in the recruitment table as “watch B first.”

Combat stat bonuses begin at level 2, with higher class bonuses at level 5. Additional bonuses for specific pairs are already present at level 2 and do not increase afterward. Combat bonuses and bond points from gifts are separate.

Bond gains and weekly activity limits#

Weekly limits reset every Sunday on the in-game calendar, rather than after a real-world day. Facilities do not all share a once-per-week limit. Meals, training, and baths in particular have separate limits for each menu or spring type.

Activity	Available before recruitment, and whose bonds improve	Limits or requirements
Gifts	Yes; current protagonist and recipient	Once per character per week; the first gift unlocks the relationship and meals, while later gains depend on preferences
Inn meals	Yes; mutual relationships among up to 3 selected characters; include the protagonist for recruitment	Once per menu per week; increases to 3 dishes at Renown 3; choose guests by food preferences
Watching theater	Yes; the 2 selected characters	Renown 7; shares one weekly use with performing; matching impressions grant an extra benefit
Performing in theater	Recruited characters only; 3–5 participants	Renown 8; shares one weekly use with watching; costs Motivation
Arena training	Recruited characters only; the 2 selected characters	Once per training menu per week; costs gold and Motivation; menus change weekly
Temple Service	Recruited characters only; the 2 selected characters	Once per week across all temples; costs Motivation
Baths	Recruited characters only; the 2 selected characters	Unlock at Renown 8; once per spring type per week; 500G per visit
World-map feasts	Recruited participants in the party	Requires a feast spot, ingredients, and turns; keeping spell uses below full allows repeated feasts
Fighting while adjacent	Recruited characters and some guests; adjacent characters involved in combat	Combat must occur; bond gains from standing still and weekly caps are not clearly documented
Healing, buffs, and Dancer assistance	Recruited user and recipient	Healing/buffs and Dancer assistance are documented ; no weekly cap has been found
Clash Linked Attacks	Characters taking part in the Linked Attack	Performed in a Clash; no weekly cap has been found
Correct dialogue choices	Characters involved in the event	Specific moments in town or battle; no general “once every day” rule has been confirmed
White Crow's Roost conversations	Selected recruited character and Eshmel	Weekly; choose answers suited to that character

What about requests? Recruitment-specific requests are prerequisites for their characters, while ordinary requests can also raise Renown. Count bond gains only when the event explicitly shows a bond increase; do not rely solely on turning in requests to build everyone's bonds.

Start with a cheap gift, then match preferences#

Use something cheap for the first gift, and match preferences afterward. You do not need an expensive favorite to establish a bond. One option is “Saraminian Sweets,” sold without a purchase limit for 100G in the capital, Megaira. Establish several relationships first and save the good gifts for later.

Gifts differ individually. Even if a character likes fishing, check their reaction to each fishing-related gift. Gift preferences, food preferences, and theater impressions are separate lists. A gift table cannot establish bonuses for the other two activities.

Weekly gifts that receive a “really likes” reaction have been observed to raise a bond from level 1 to level 2 in roughly 4–5 weeks.

Prioritize meals for targets who need bond 3#

Split your targets into two groups before spending money.

If a target's recruitment window is about to close, arrange meals earlier.

Eat at chapter start and restart with bonds intact#

Renown usually rises as you progress, but bonds require deliberate planning. Reach the bond threshold early so you can recruit promptly when your Renown catches up. After a half-price Sunday meal, skip ahead at the inn, then retain your bonds by restarting the chapter. This lets you repeatedly spend the limited free-action time on the same relationships. Mikaela and Fianna are examples of having enough Renown but insufficient bonds; a demonstration compares gold and levels after restarting, then reaches the requirement with more meals.

For recruitment bonds, concentrating on meals is simpler. Unrecruited characters can receive gifts, share meals, and watch theater. Bonds from other facilities also carry over, but looping meals alone is usually faster because it saves travel and menu time. Theater and training work well for incidental gains; unrecruited characters cannot train as an alternative to dining.

Build several bonds with world-map feasts after recruitment#

Separate pre-recruitment methods from those available afterward. Use first gifts and inn meals for unrecruited characters. For party members, feast spots marked with a pot icon improve bonds among the participants together. First expend at least one spell use in battle, then select one ingredient that does not restore spell uses at a feast spot. If spell uses remain below full afterward, you can feast again. Each feast still costs ingredients and turns, so prepare enough; count ingredients spent and bond increases separately.

This method covers recruited participants; you cannot invite unrecruited characters from town. To improve the protagonist–target relationship needed for recruitment, use the inn loop above. Check ingredient effects in the item table and in-game descriptions, and keep spell-restoring ingredients out of the loop.

Each protagonist has separate bonds after switching routes#

Bonds carry over by character pair. Switching routes does not max out everyone's relationship with the new protagonist. For example, if you improve “Cai–Mikaela” in Cai's story, that pair retains its relationship in Leda's story, but “Leda–Mikaela” is separate. To prepare for the next route, seat “next protagonist + target” together during meals in the current story. That pair's value is what recruitment checks next time. You can invite characters you are not currently controlling, so pairs with support conversations can also help you choose dining companions.

Unlocked classes and Boons of Salvation can be shared before clearing Part I. Exploration records, temple contributions, and shared requests have their own carryover conditions. Renown, gold, items, and character levels are separate for each protagonist's story. Reaching Renown 10 once does not unlock recruitment freely across all four routes; a character recruited on one route must meet the recruitment requirements again on another.

Returning to old routes from Part III has additional limits. Some data, including bonds gained in Part III, only carries back when you restart that protagonist's story from Chapter 1. Part III's convergence, character Merge Causality, and bond carryover between Part I routes are separate operations. See New Game+ carryover for details.

If bonds are high enough, check prerequisites#

First check whether the character is recruitable on this route, and whether they have merely appeared without meeting the actual prerequisites. Then verify the bond is with your current protagonist and that you have given the first gift. Finally, check Renown, paralogue windows, negotiation materials, and story progress. Fabio in Leda's story and Gaitz in Dietrich's story both appear well before you can recruit them. See the route-by-route requirements.

If a support conversation says “special conditions not met,” check the event restrictions in the support list before choosing your recruitment order.