Fire Emblem: Three Houses professor levels are vitally important for players looking to min-max their returns on the system - or simply want some extra tea time with their favorite characters. The inclusion of various social sim elements in Fire Emblem: Three Houses has made it a genuine game of the year contender and it makes sense that many players want to maximize the amount of time they get to spend with those features, which makes professor level one of the most crucial stats in the entire game despite it having little obvious effect on battle.
In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, professor level is the metric the game uses to measure a player's advancement as an instructor at the Garegg Mach monastery. The more successes the player has there, the more professor experience they gain. Professor level can be used to increase the number of activities (measured in Activity Points) available to a player when they explore the monastery, which is the primary way to drive up character relationships while also earning money through pastimes like fishing and gardening. On top of that, professor level also affects the number of battles a player can participate in each time they choose that option, which in turn grants them more combat experience and renown. All in all, professor level is the funnel through which most of the game's elements pass through, so raising it is an often unforeseen priority mid-way through the game.
Waiting that long can seriously hamper a player's ability to enjoy the Fire Emblem: Three Houses professor level system, though. Knowing what to do early and often will help players make the most of their stay at Garegg Mach monastery and can be the difference between recruiting a desirable student and saving them from certain death or watching them die at the players' hands on the battlefield - and we know which one we'd choose.
Always Explore Fire Emblem: Three Houses' Monastery Early in the Month
Every calendar month that passes sees major updates and additions to the Fire Emblem: Three Houses monastery layout, and many of them are more beneficial the earlier they're acquired. There are lost items that spawn at the beginning of every month that can be given to specific characters to boost their relationship with the player, and there are quests that can be accepted while exploring. The latter is especially important because some of them require additional steps to complete, like going into battle - and that eats up another week of time. Getting them early lets players plan their month out accordingly and ensure they don't miss any vital missions that will raise relationships and offer great rewards.
Exploration also lets players find various books around the monastery that will boost their professor level just by interacting with them. Ranking up early in the month can award extra AP for the rest of it, which is yet another reason exploring is almost always the correct choice for the first free day of each month.
Always Select Instruct Manually in Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Instructing manually lets players interact with their students and sometimes answer their burning questions about life. Answering these questions correctly not only boost the character's morale, but it also awards a hefty chunk of professor level experience. Missing out on these can quickly add up and cause players to fall behind.
Complete Fire Emblem: Three Houses Merchant Quests ASAP
Completing Merchant Quests gives players access to the Eastern and Western merchants in the marketplace of the monastery. While they mostly sell items designed to help boost character relationships, one of them sells something incredibly important for professor levels - fishing bait. Every time a player explores the monastery after unlocking these merchants, they should clean them out of bait (and, for an added bonus, smithing stones - they're pretty useful as the game progresses).
Fire Emblem: Three Houses Fishing is The Best Professor Level Booster
Fishing awards bonus professor level experience for each catch and doesn't eat up a precious Activity Point to do so. There will be days marked on the calendar of each month that indicate there is something happening regarding some of the social sim elements like fishing and gardening. The best approach is to buy bait at every opportunity and then wait until there's a double fishing event - it's indicated by saying something like "there's a lot of fish being caught in the pond" on the calendar. During this event, instead of catching one fish, players can catch up to four at once - and their experience bonus scales with the fish caught!
This is huge, and when planned correctly, can gain thousands of professor level experience points for those with enough patience. Instead of getting anywhere between 10-30 XP per catch, suddenly players can acquire around 120XP per catch with good bait. In a game that's pretty stingy about professor level experience, that's a huge swing and can completely change the game.
Recommend Fire Emblem: Three Houses Professor Level Route
Essentially, professor level is raised the most in exploration, so it's key to have a planned out default route to help raise it to its maximum. For each exploration selection, players should make sure to use the Dining Hall to dine with two students for the special of the day, plant and harvest seeds in the garden, do special one-on-one cooking with a character, and fish if there's an event. There are also house vs. house battles that award professor level experience for participating in that switch every month, so be sure to engage with those as well, even if it doesn't look like a character will win. Making it further gets more experience but every bit counts.
Hopefully that helps players looking to maximize what they get out of Fire Emblem: Three Houses professor levels. It's a fun system that helps make the social sim elements feel meaningful, and it also gives players more time to spend with characters as the game progresses. Given that Fire Emblem: Three Houses is an emotional rollercoaster that does an excellent job of making the player care about their students, that's a big win and a huge motivation for raising professor level as soon as possible.