How To Get Someone To Join You in Rune Factory 4

by Emily Hinz

To have someone to join you on an adventure, you’ll need them to be at least at a friendship level of 3 or more, although there are two NPCs in RF4 that are exceptions (which we’ll cover in this guide).

Having a follower join you will bridge the gap between the town and the main story, and it’s also a feature that makes fighting in dungeons a lot easier and more dynamic.

Requirements

Luckily, getting someone to join you on an adventure isn’t that difficult and doesn’t require much preparation before you can invite some of your favorite characters. The only requirement is that the character you’re asking needs to have a Friendship Level (FL) of 3 or higher.

There are only two characters that are an exception to this requirement:

Forte has no requirements and will always accept your invitation
Doug is the last person who will accept your invite, as his FL does not increase past 3 until after the second arc of the story

However, there are some cases that will always prevent characters from joining your party. For example:

If you have triggered a Town Event, the participating characters in that event won’t accept your party invitation until you resolve it. Check your diary beside your bed to see if you have any ongoing events!
If you ask someone to join you after 18:00

Visnhal at 1LP, rejecting your invitation in Porcoline’s Kitchen

If you try to invite someone on an adventure before the requirements listed above, or because of a conflicting reason as listed above, they will make up an excuse about being busy and continue on with their day.

How to Ask Someone to Join You

First, you have to find the character you’re interested in. When you have found them, talk to them.

In the top right corner of the dialogue area there is a pink button with the text LR BTW…

Press the L or R shoulder button once and the pink button will start wiggling like in the GIF below:

Make sure the button is still wiggling when you finish the dialogue with the character you’re speaking with.

After they finish what they wanted to say, the following menu will appear on screen:

BTW… options

Choose the “Let’s go on an adventure!” option and if you fulfill the requirements that were listed in the requirements section, the character will happily accept your offer.

Forte as part of the party in her house

When the character accepts the offer, a happy “success” jingle will play and a health bar will appear over your party member’s head.

The character will then follow you and fight alongside you if you take them into a dungeon.

Party member options

What Are My Options?

When you talk to your party member(s), you are presented with a number of options:

Talk – The party member says their daily dialogue.
Are you okay? – Asks the party member how they are feeling, their answer depends on how full their health is.
Stand back a little. – The party member jumps back and continues to follow you at that distance; they will linger closer to the edge of the screen rather than right behind you. To go back to the default distance, choose the “stay close” option that replaces it in the menu.
Hold still. – The party member stops exactly where you told them to stand and doesn’t move unless you cancel the request with the option “Stay close” or if you move into the next map area. Then, if you continue to the next screen, the party member will continue to follow behind you at the “stand back a little” option’s distance.
Let’s split up here. – The party member goes back to Selphia and continues with their daily routine. If you dismiss them in town they will run off to another location in town. If you dismiss them far outside of town, they immediately teleport back to their normally scheduled position in town.
Nothing. – Exits the menu. If you press “B” while in the menu, your cursor will jump to this option.

Benefits of Having Party Members

With all that out of the way, why should you invite the townsfolk to go on an adventure with you?

For starters, you can have up to two members in your party (including monsters). Aside from extra firepower in dungeons, inviting the townsfolk to your party provides you with many other helpful benefits:

The townsfolk AI is smarter than the monster AI. For example, townsfolk will analyze a fight and not attack when the monster is healing itself whereas a monster would continue fighting.
Party members work as a distraction. Other than providing more damage to a fight, the enemies have more characters to focus on than just you, therefore improving the survivability of the entire party.
Many townsfolk also have healing abilities. This especially helps when you’re being targeted by an enemy or affected by a status effect and are unable to heal yourself.
Some characters give you food. Clorica and Kiel will both throw a cooked dish at you when your health is low if you have not eaten that day already (if there is no red apple under your health bar). If you dodge what they throw at you, you can pick up the dish and eat it or save it for later. Sometimes they may even throw dishes that fetch a high price and can be sold for a lot of G!

BACK TO THE MAIN GAME Rune Factory 4 Full Strategy Guide

Guide Navigation

Rune Factory 4
- How To Get Someone To Join You in Rune Factory 4

Emily Hinz

14 articles

Emily is a Portuguese (BR) -> English translator and a long-time video game enthusiast. Raised on a farm, the charming gameplay of Rune Factory sowed the seeds of her interest in video games. After all, fighting off monsters and tending to virtual fields was more fun than helping out with real farm work. Now, Emily enjoys playing her favourite RPGs in her cozy apartment in Brazil.

View Writer's Posts →