Flare: Empyrean Campaign Strategy Guide

~by tankMage (December 2018)

Flare: Empyrean Campaign

PC Game Catalog

Introduction

This guide was written for ver. 1.08 of Flare: Empyrean Campaign in order to provide new players with helpful advice concerning classes, the figurine quests, the final boss, and damage mechanics. The following information is the product of my own experience with the game and does not reflect the absolute best way to do things, especially as far as character building goes. Feel free to ask questions, point out anything I missed, and share criticism in the comments.

Note: This guide is somewhat outdated since the dev has added to the game over the years. Maybe I’ll replay Flare in the future and add to it if there’s enough demand.

1. Damage Mechanics

a. Hits, Misses, Blocks, and Criticals

Players may notice that the damage they deal to the same enemy may vary wildly. This is a product of the player’s accuracy and/or the player’s critical hit bonus. The enemy’s avoidance, absorption, and elemental resistance also determine how damage is calculated. The color of the pop-up damage that appears over a monster’s head indicates how the game calculated the damage from the player’s attack. Pay close attention to the color of your damage, because it can help you understand your character’s strengths and weaknesses. Remember, these same rules apply to your hero when being attacked, though all damage your character receives is red.

White (normal): This indicates a hit that has connected fully with the target and has dealt full damage, minus the enemy’s absorption/resistance.

Grey (reduced): An attack whose damage comes up as grey can be thought of as a partial block or near miss. The damage of such attacks is reduced by 50%. Enemies will have an easy time blocking your damage if their avoidance is higher than your accuracy, so it is important to maintain your character’s accuracy if you want to deal full damage. Interestingly, this is applied not only to attacks from normal weapons like swords and bows, but to magical attacks like fireball as well.

Dark Grey (miss): If the enemy’s avoidance is much higher than your accuracy, you may occasionally see the word “miss” pop up in dark grey letters. Of course, a miss will not inflict damage on a target, so try to boost your character’s accuracy a bit if he misses often.

Yellow (critical): Critical hits deal double damage and can stagger their victims. Interestingly, accuracy and avoidance still play a role in how critical damage is scored. A partially blocked critical hit will deal normal damage.

b. Absorption, Magic Resistance, and Poise

Absorption: Reduces damage from ranged, mental, and physical attacks. This includes damage from skills like fireball, cleave, and piercing shot. Absorption is subtracted from an attack’s value and is factored in before avoidance. If a character who has 10 absorption is hit by an attack with a value of 20, the attack will only do 10 damage. If the character partially evades the attack it will only do 5 damage.

Elemental Resistance: Elemental resistance and absorption stack when applied to elemental damage from spells like Fireball and Ice Bolt unless indicated otherwise. While enemies and the player character can resist elemental damage, no enemy is totally immune to an element.

Poise: Reflects how well your character recovers from damage. Characters with low poise will noticeably flinch when hit, while high poise builds can shrug off damage and keep moving.

2. Classes

Players are free to invest points in their characters stats and powers however they like. Every character is given 5 stat points and one power point to spend every time he levels up. The maximum level for any character is 20, which means the player will have 95 stat points and 19 power points to spend. However, the experience requirements for character levels above 16 are extremely high, so this guide takes into account the fact that some players may not be willing to max out their level. It is generally unwise to attempt to make hybrid characters that use skills from another class due to the way skill damage is calculated, but all classes can and should invest in one or two of the following skills: Wolf’s Eye, Energy Flow, Stone Wall. Each class should focus on its primary stat (which is listed with the class overviews below) and defense. A defense score of 28 to 30 is currently enough for a character to wear his or her best armor. I do not recommend specific character builds in this guide and have included brief overviews of each class instead.

a. Warrior

Overview

The warrior’s primary stat is physical, but players should add an average of 2 points per level to the warrior’s defense so he/she has at least 29 defense by level 16. Having 29 defense will allow your warrior to wear the best armor. Most warrior builds will need a point or two in wolf’s eye to make up for the class’s poor accuracy. Some builds may also want to invest in energy flow, which will allow more frequent use of powers, though guzzling mana potions will achieve the same effect.

Those who wish to run a more traditional melee build should put 1 point in Shield Bash (which will allow the Warrior to close gaps with enemies) and choose a single attack skill to develop. Blood Strike is the best close range damage option, while Cleave is an effective AoE attack that works well against both groups and single foes. The Throwing Axe/Knife skills make it possible to turn the Warrior into a fairly powerful medium range fighter, but players will have to comprise between Wolf’s Eye and Energy Flow, since the 5 points of Throw Knife required to build up Throw Axe will drain your skill point pool. Warriors should probably avoid Quake and War Cry, because neither skill is quite useful; in fact Warcry is easily replaced by the Immunity Scroll.

Strength: 3-4 per level

Defense: 1-2 per level

Powers: Blood Strike, Shield Bash, Stone Wall, Quake, Warcry, Cleave, Throw Knife, Throw Axe

Helpful Scrolls: Reflect, Immunity

b. Ranger

Overview

Rangers can forgo Wolf’s Eye in favor of Energy Flow thanks to the class’s innate accuracy. Energy Flow is a must for most Ranger builds, because of the high MP demand of the class’s skills. Multishot is arguably the most powerful Ranger skill, though viable builds can be based on Ember Shot, Piercing Shot, and Rapid Fire. It’s best to take only one of these skills to level 5, because Rangers will also want to supplement their repertoire with the Haste Skill or Caltrops/Bear Trap. Ranger armor is surprisingly protective thanks to the avoidance bonus it grants, but the class is still squishy and vulnerable to large damage spikes from direct hits. Reflect and Shield Scrolls help improve the Ranger’s survivability thanks to their ability to mitigate damage. Zombies make for good temporary tanks in combat, so get used to packing scrolls early on and this class will have little trouble. A solid 2 points to defense per level can also help capitalize on the Ranger’s high avoidance and give him some extra poise so he can recover from hits quickly.

Offense: 3 per level

Defense: 2 per level

Powers: Multishot, Piercing Shot, Ember Shot, Rapid Fire, Bear Trap, Caltrops, Haste

Helpful Scrolls: Reflect, Shield, Immunity, Summon Zombie

c. Magician

Overview

The Magician is seriously underpowered compared to the other classes. You’re going to want to drop a full 5 points into Shield unless you are really good at dodging monsters or don’t mind burning through dozens of life potions. Most of the Magician’s spells are somewhat lackluster aside from Ice Bolt, which slows enemies. It is possible to create an Ice/Shock build to get extra critical hits, but a similar build with higher damage potential can be achieved with Ice Bolt (or even Fireball) and Wolf’s Eye. It may be tempting to invest points in skills like Burn, Thunderstrike, and Freeze, but these skills are nearly useless and are not worth the exorbitant point cost required to build them up. However, putting a single point into Freeze, Burn, or Thunderstrike can be useful if you’ve already built your more important core skills, since AoE attacks can come in handy at times. Finally, a few points in Energy Flow can be beneficial to the Magician, since it will allow him to hurl spells with reckless abandon.

Mental: 3-4 per level

Defense: 1-2 per level

Powers: Fireball, Burn, Ice Bolt, Freeze, Energy Flow, Shield, Shock, Thunderstrike

d. A Word About Hybrid Builds…

Earlier I said it was a bad idea to make hybrid characters, well there is one caveat to that statement… maybe. Set armors, which impart powerful bonuses to players wearing multiple pieces of the set, require a character to have points invested in all of the stats. For example, in order to wear the Underworld set, you will need 15 to mental, physical, and offense as well as another 20 points in defense. That character would also need at least 30 points in mental, physical, or offense to wield one of the three Underworld weapons.The trade-off is that such a character would have a massive %40 bonus to all elemental resistance, a powerful weapon, and many other significant bonuses from each piece of armor.

Those interested in making such a build should probably farm the Underworld set with a more traditional build in the Underworld and start a fresh character who can equip the gear as he or she levels up. Players totally committed to acquiring all of the unique/set items could create a character to wear the Underworld set on their first run, because the Maria’s Garb and Templeguard Raiment have similar requirements, but farming these items will take quite a bit of patience. You will have to run through St. Maria’s and Mez’s temple, killing bosses (potentially hundreds of times) until each piece of gear drops.

3. The Figurines and The Halls of Infinity

Players can undertake a number of quests in Flare: Empyrean. Most of the quests in this game are very straightforward and easy to figure out, but the figurines tend to be more elusive. There are four figurines in total and the player will have to search the game thoroughly to find them all. Once all of the figurines have been acquired, the player will be able to challenge a special dungeon known as The Halls of Infinity near the end of the game.

a. Bear

Visit Grot Lagoon near the Abandoned Mines and talk to the goblin (Grot) standing on the island. Return to Lake Kuuma and talk to the goblin peddler, who will give you the Bear Figurine in exchange for the ruby.

b. Owl

Enter the Nazia Mines in the northeast section of the Nazia Highlands. You will be sealed in the mines after you take a few steps in, just follow the passage until you reach a skeleton mage named Xonun and destroy him. Examine the box he was guarding to get the Dynamite and return to the mine entrance. Check the minecart near the stone blocking your way and you’ll automatically place the Dynamite in it which will result in the stone being blown to bits. The Owl Figurine will appear after you walk over the spot the stone once occupied.

c. Cat

Explore Fort Nasu, whose entrance is in the Dilapidated Sewers north of the teleporter. You’ll need to fight your way through minotaurs and solve switch puzzles to get to the northwestern most room with an altar. Take note of the runes near the switches to solve the puzzles. Activate the corresponding switch if a rune is etched in the center of the tiled squares. If not leave the switch alone. The altar is guarded by a spider boss named Buchi. Check the altar after destroying the boss to get the cat figurine.

d. Turtle

The final figurine is located in the Oasis, which can be found by exploring the Underworld Mines. Talk to Martigan who is in the center of the Oasis and he will ask you to re-kill his friends who became undead. You will find your targets in graves scattered around the Oasis. Return to Martigan once you have Nerrin’s Bow, Lorund’s Sword, and Kayl’s Staff. You’ll run into a skeleton boss named Arzoz on your way back, so be ready to fight. Talk to Martigan about the zombies and he will give you the Turtle Figurine.

e. Halls of Infinity

Make your way to the Underworld Stronghold: Barracks once you have all four figurines and look for a set of doors near a series of spike traps that lead to the Halls of Infinity. Examine each altar to place the figurines on them and activate the Infinity Obelisk. Look at the obelisk to enter the halls.

4. Obtaining Unique Items

Unique and Set items are dropped by “boss” type monsters who have special names like Seagate or Buchi. Unique items have larger stat bonuses and often boost the player’s skills when worn. Set Items are much like Uniques, though they are composed of multiple pieces (ie: a weapon, helmet, and gloves) and the player will receive an extra bonus for wearing more than one piece of the set. All Unique/Set items have a low drop rate (possibly 1%) and the player will likely have to defeat a boss several times before obtaining the item.

5. How to Defeat Lezaith

The final boss, Lezaith, is a powerful magic user located in The Pit and the only thing standing in the player’s way at the end of the game… aside from an army of monsters. Lezaith can deal tremendous amounts of damage, killing some classes in just a few hits. To make matters even more complicated, the last boss has an attack for each damage type, so stacking armor and resistance won’t help much. It also has 13280 HP, so it’ll take some doing to win this battle. Fortunately there’s an easily exploited item in this game that will help the player shred Lezaith while remaining unscathed: Reflect Scrolls. Use a Reflect Scroll to bounce Lezaith’s deadly projectiles right back at it, protecting your character and harming the boss at the same time. Below are more specific strategies for each class.

Warrior: The brute is at something of a disadvantage in the early stages of this battle, regardless of build, because he needs to get closer to Lezaith than the other classes. The boss hangs out near the back of The Pit and you’re going to attract a lot of its minions when you approach it. You can carefully go around the perimeter of the chamber destroying the enemies and their spawners, but you still run the risk of getting aggro from Lezaith before you are done. Running up to Lezaith and getting it to pursue you to the blocked off entrance is probably the safest way to deal with the situation. Just use be ready to slam the healing potion button while Lezaith is chasing you and use the Reflect Scroll when you get to the choke point. Reflect will deal a lot of damage to the boss and any of its minions that followed you. Hammer away at the boss with Blood Strike or Throwing Axe and it should die pretty quickly. If not, keep hitting health potions after Reflect wears off and continue to attack Lezaith, who should die after a short while.

Ranger: The ability to attack from a distance is a major boon in this battle. Have your ranger go around the room taking out minions and their spawners from a distance. You probably won’t be able to destroy the spawners at the back of the room without aggroing the boss, but with most of them gone, you should be safe. Your main skill is going to define how you deal with Lezaith, since you’ll need to get close to use ember shot and multi-shot effectively. Rapidshot will allow you to hang back and fire away at Lezaith. Either way, Reflect Scrolls will give the Ranger much needed protection, since his low defense makes him highly vulnerable to Lezaith’s attacks. A Shield Scroll and the Ranger’s Haste ability can help protect him, but you’ll need to take evasive action to stay alive in this battle.

Magician: The Magician, who struggles with a lot of stuff in this game thanks to his low damage, has an easy time fighting Lezaith. Eliminate the monster spawners around The Pit, then focus on the boss. Use Reflect when your Shield crumbles and hammer away at the boss with spells.

6. Johnnie’s Underworld Set Farming Strategy

The following is a strategy for farming the most powerful armor set in the game (the Under World Set) courtesy of a contributor named Johnnie. This strat can also be found in the comments section below, but I’m adding it here to make it easier to find. I’m also going to quote Johnnie directly, because he refers to some features of the game that were not implemented when I wrote this guide and he is more knowledgeable on this topic.

Johnnie’s Under World Set Farming Strategy:

“OK I’ve found an exploit for the underworld set.
First, I’m wearing 2 “Adventurer Relic Ring”s. Each of them gives +%55 Item Find Chance = +110% (rings are the only items I have found that gives item find chance).
Treasure Potion stacks so I drop the Lezaith’s HP all the way down to %1 or so and then guzzle down 5 treasure potions and then kill him. He drops between 3 to 6 underworld items each run.
Each Treasure Potion gives %400 item drop chance so 5 of them + rings gives me 2110% chance.
Only downside is you get multiple of the same items usually (I usually get 2 varieties, eg. 3 bows and 1 chest).
Probably under 10 runs (50 potions) you can probably complete the whole set.
I’ve used an Adept so far and going to use a permadeath melee only Brute and try to get the set this way.
I’ll have some fun afterwards before deleting it later : )
A few bugs but great game overall.
Metzger in Wizard’s Tower Laboratory was way more difficult as an Adept by the way (died at least 5 times). Lezalith is nothing compared to that. Let’s see if he makes me cry with permadeath.”

Info on the Potions for farming (also from Johnnie):

“Empty Bottle + Aloa Vera + Mushroom = Treasure Potion

Also according to this: https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/underworld-armament-set

Underworld set requires these:

phy 14
men 16
off 15
def 28
A weapon stat needs to be 30 (Underworld Blade requires Phys 30, in total 89 points = Level 18 character).”

More Resources

There’s really not a lot of info out there for this game. In fact, this guide may be the only one in existence. That said, the libre game wiki may eventually populate some relevant links, so check it out.

https://libregamewiki.org/Flare:_Empyrean_Campaign

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