Flare — The Ultimate Boss Killer of the Early Game
/characters/flare
Flare is a dragonborn knight and a member of the 9th Brigade of the Solar Knights of Solismenamus. Despite her current commission, Flare is always in search of her true purpose in life. She grew up spoiled, so she's not used to approaching people first and doesn't know how to talk about anything besides herself. There's no sign of this behavior changing, so it usually takes her a while to make true friends...
Flare is one of the most powerful characters in the early game when it comes to dealing with bosses. Unlike more versatile DPS units like Mina or AoE-focused characters like Esther, Flare has a very clear role: eliminate high-priority targets as quickly as possible. She belongs to the Destroyer class, a role that is especially valuable early on due to its rarity and its importance in handling tougher encounters.
Flare’s kit is built around two core strengths: high single-target damage and strong Neutralization. Neutralization is a crucial mechanic in boss fights, as it allows you to break the boss’s vulnerability bar and create windows where they take significantly increased damage. In this area, Flare excels. She can rapidly reduce the Neutralization bar, enabling faster stagger phases. Once the boss is stunned, she can unleash powerful burst damage, making her extremely effective at deleting bosses during these openings.
What truly makes Flare stand out is her ability to shorten fights. While other characters rely on sustained damage over time, Flare operates in a more explosive way: she breaks defenses, creates opportunities, and capitalizes on them with high burst damage. This makes her incredibly valuable in modes like Conquest, where defeating a boss within a time limit is the primary objective. In this context, she is one of the best characters in the game, as she not only contributes high damage but also improves the overall efficiency of the team by optimizing burst windows.
However, this specialization also defines her main weakness. Flare is significantly less effective in situations involving multiple enemies. Her AoE damage is decent, but clearly inferior to characters like Esther, Mina, or Sangun. This means that in Story/Open World or Dimensional Rift, she can feel less impactful, especially during fast-paced clearing phases. She still performs well against elite enemies or mini-bosses, but she is not the ideal choice for farming or pure speed clearing.
In open world content, Flare remains a strong option despite this limitation. While clearing groups may take slightly longer, she makes boss encounters and tougher enemies much easier to handle. She brings consistency and control to these fights, which helps smooth overall progression. Even if she is not the fastest clearer, she is very reliable in more demanding encounters.
In Conquest, Flare is simply top tier. Since the mode revolves entirely around a single boss, all of her strengths come into play. Her ability to deal high Neutralization damage and take advantage of vulnerability phases makes her one of the best possible picks. She enables faster, more controlled, and more efficient boss fights. In well-built teams, she often plays a central role in the overall strategy.
In Dimensional Rift, Flare is still strong, but less dominant compared to other top-tier characters. This mode emphasizes speed, AoE, and fluid gameplay, which are not her primary strengths. However, she still has value for quickly dealing with elite enemies or bosses that appear in certain stages. She is often paired with characters who specialize in AoE clearing to balance out her weaknesses.
Another important aspect is that Flare is not heavily dependent on Awakenings to be effective. She performs very well even at A0, making her a great early-game investment. While her Awakenings further enhance her burst and Neutralization capabilities, they are not required for her to function. This makes her especially valuable for players looking to improve their boss performance early on without heavy investment.
In summary, Flare is a highly specialized but extremely effective character. She dominates boss encounters thanks to her strong damage and Neutralization capabilities, making her a key unit for difficult content. While she is less effective in AoE situations, this drawback is more than compensated by her impact in high-priority fights.
Overall, Flare is an essential pick for early game if you want to optimize your performance against bosses. She may not replace a versatile DPS like Mina, but she complements her perfectly. Where Mina provides consistency, Flare brings explosive power. Together, they form one of the strongest combinations for progressing efficiently through the game.