Rune Factory 5 Marriage Guide – How to get married in Rune Factory 5

There’s been a lot of excitement surrounding the release of Rune Factory 5, not least of all because of its newly introduced same-sex romance options. However, not only will you be able to fall in love with whoever you want, you’ll be able to seal that happily ever after with marriage in Rune Factory 5, too. 

For fans of the series, marriage is a familiar part of this quaint farming sim-come-fantasy RPG; it’s a heartwarming way to bring some closure to the drama of the story, and Alice or Ares (depending on which you choose) are no exceptions to the rule. 

But before you get excited about your future betrothed, there are quite a few conditions you need to meet before you can pop the question. Yes, Rune Factory 5 makes you cover a lot of groundwork to marry the one you love, especially with how long it takes to be introduced to all romanceable characters. 

To help save a lot of trial and error, especially for new fans of the series, below is an easy-to-follow guide to marriage in the rustic town of Rigbarth.

Rune Factory 5 Marriage Guide – Friendship and Building a Relationship

Being interested in an NPC doesn’t mean anything unless you have a decent relationship level with them. This is why focusing on leveling that up whenever you can is the key to unlocking true romance. 

Leveling Up Relationships

Similar to its predecessors, Rune Factory 5 has a relationship leveling system: the more you interact with your love interest, the better your friendship (and later relationship) will be. However, it’s all about the grind in this game, as the protagonist will start at a friendship level of 0 upon arriving in Rigbarth. 

To put that into perspective, you need to reach level 7 before you can even start dating the person of your choice, so you need to be willing to go that extra mile. If you’re ready to put the work in, there are four main ways to get started:

• Talk to them daily
• Gift giving
• Increase admired skills
• Accept their tasks

The main way to start raising those levels is to talk to your chosen love interest every day. You won’t lose progress by not talking to them daily, but it will make achieving that level 7 goal more drawn out. 

Of course, talking isn’t the only way to their hearts, gifting them items is a fabulous way to show them you care as well. As is commonplace in RPGs however, only certain items will win the affection of the one you love – give them something they dislike and you can lose relationship points. Generally speaking, a character will reveal the kind of items they like during conversations with the protagonist or other NPCs around Rigbarth. If in doubt though, crafting an item yourself is always a smart move. 

Indirectly partnered with crafting items they like is raising your skill levels, which also proves beneficial when wooing your chosen partner; this is because each character has a certain skill set they admire, e.g. Martin appreciates forging, while Reinhard admires defense. What they prefer isn’t always obvious, so make sure to pay close attention to the hints they drop. 

Lastly, make sure to accept their task board requests whenever they appear. Much like gift-giving, this is a quickfire way to win them over, slowly but surely.

Romance Sub-Events

Now that you’ve started to pave the way to everlasting love, you’ll start to see romance sub-events popping up on the Rigbarth map. They’re easy to spot because they’re always a pink colored icon of the NPC in question. 

These begin showing up once you get between levels 2 and 3 with any of the romanceable characters, meaning you can pick and choose how many you want to attend. It doesn’t matter if you trigger romance sub-events for more than one character, meaning you get to really figure out if the one you like is right for you. 

In total, there are three separate romance sub-events to trigger before going any further.

Organizing Dates 

You may think that triggering those sub-events means you’re dating already, but you’d be wrong. To get to the dating stage of your relationship you need to confess your love, and you can only do that once you achieve level 7 or higher relationship status. 

Provided you’ve done the sub-events and reached the necessary level, you can finally declare you’re interested in them. To do this, you need to press the L or R bumper when you choose the “just came to chat” dialogue option. But be warned, confessing your love doesn’t always work. 

Assuming your confession is accepted, you’ll be able to meet up the next day for your first official date. Unlike sub-events and tasks that tend to be available all the time once accepted, dates are time and location specific – if you arrange to meet by the Blue Moon Inn at 9 pm and you’re late, or worse, you don’t show, you lose relationship points. 

Once you’ve been on all three dates, you’ll unlock a final “special date”, which is the sign that you’ve successfully wooed them. But wait, before you get too excited, there’s still more to do before you say I do. 

Rune Factory 5 Marriage Guide – Proposing And Getting Married

For you to proceed to this next stage, you need to have checked each of these off your romance list:

• Reach relationship level 10
• Completed the main game story
• Met all the NPCs of Rigbarth
• Been on three dates

If you can safely say you’ve done all these, the final steps to marriage involve an engagement ring (of course) and purchasing a double bed. As you’d expect given the above criteria, you can’t make the engagement ring or buy the bed until after the final main story quest; once that’s done, you can accept a task to prepare for marriage. The ring recipe will be given to you, while Studio Palmo will now stock double beds, which you’ll need 30,000G, 40 stone, and 80 lumber for. 

Your bed purchased, and ring made, you need to give the engagement ring to your partner to pop the question. All being well, they’ll gladly accept, with you both getting married the next day!

Phew. You made it. You’re now happily married to the love of your life. But if you’re still looking for more beyond marital bliss, you could always consider starting a family… 

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