The Blazing Sword is the ultimate weapon in Tales of Arise, but it comes at a cost. The scalding blade will expend Alphen’s own health whilst inflicting serious damage on your enemies. The Blazing Sword is best used in moderation, but can be a crucial factor against more powerful foes with high HP.
There’s a bit more to this weapon than meets the eye, so here is everything you need to know about how to use the Blazing Sword in Tales of Arise.
- RELATED: Tales of Arise review
How to use the Blazing Sword in Tales of Arise
In theory, the Blazing Sword is simple to use. As explained in the Tales of Arise tutorial section, you must first use one of Alphen’s artes and simply hold down the same button to transition this attack into a follow-up that uses the Blazing Sword.
It’ll drain Alphen’s health, and as you progress through the game and learn more skills, you can hold down the button longer to expend more health in exchange for more power.
However, there’s a small catch, as we’ll cover below.
Why isn’t the Blazing Sword working?
There’s a common issue players have in Tales of Arise where holding down the arte button doesn’t actually activate the Blazing Sword. This is one of the details that the game doesn’t explain very well. You can only use the Blazing Sword if you have unlocked the specific Flaming Edge extension for the arte you are using.
To understand further, go into Alphen’s Artes screen and look through your list of artes. You will notice that each arte has its own name, type, AG cost, element and another detail called the Flaming Edge extension, which has a specific name itself. If the Flaming Edge extension name is highlighted in yellow, this means you have got the necessary arte available. If it’s not highlighted, then you don’t have it yet and the Blazing Sword won’t work when you hold down the button of this particular arte. See the below picture: The Flaming Edge arte (Rising Phoenix) isn’t highlighted, so trying to use the Flaming Sword after Rising Wyvern will be unsuccessful.
Generally, the issue people have is that they are trying to activate the Blazing Sword whilst using artes where they haven’t yet unlocked the relevant Flaming Edge extension. Obviously there are some other reasons why the Blazing Sword may not activate, such as Alphen being interrupted or having insufficient HP, but this is by far the most common issue. In the meantime, familiarise yourself with the artes that do have a Flaming Edge extension unlocked and focus on these ones whenever you want to use the Blazing Sword.
To be clear, if you hold down the button for any arte which has a Flaming Edge highlighted in the artes screen, the Blazing Sword will activate as long as Alphen has enough health.
How to unlock all Flaming Edge extensions for the Blazing Sword
There are 6 Flaming Edge artes, and each of them corresponds to numerous standard artes. Once you’ve unlocked all of them, then you can follow up all of your standard artes with a Flaming Edge extension if you wish.
Here are all Flaming Edge artes for the Blazing Sword, and how to unlock them:
Infernal Torrent
Learned automatically within the Blazing Sword title, which itself is unlocked automatically during the story.
Rising Phoenix (aerial arte)
Also unlocked within the Blazing Sword title, though this will cost you 560 SP. The title is unlocked automatically during the story.
Explosive Ring
Unlocked by increasing Flame Strike Proficiency to 400. There is no title or skill necessary for this arte.
Rending Flash
First unlock the Blazing Blow title by downing 35 enemies with Alphen’s boost strike. Then you must expend 960 SP to learn the Rending Flash arte.
Searing Gale (aerial arte)
Unlocked by increasing Flame Strike Proficiency to 1,000. There is no title or skill necessary for this arte.
Incineration Wave
First unlock the Unrelenting Blaze title, which is automatically achieved by sufficiently progressing the story (within the fifth realm). This arte will then cost a whopping 1560 SP to learn. However, it is one of the most powerful attacks in the game so is well worth it.
How to increase Flame Strike proficiency
Two of the above Flaming Edge Artes require flame strike proficiency, which is increased simply by repeatedly using the Flaming Sword.
Proficiency doesn’t correspond exactly with usage. For instance, raising Flame Strike proficiency to 400 doesn’t necessarily mean 400 uses of the Flaming Sword. It will probably take far more than that. As such, simply try and use the Blazing Sword a few times per battle and you’ll eventually boost it sufficiently. Remember, you’ll have to check the menu to make sure you know which artes have a Flaming Edge extension available.
Once you have enough proficiency, then the next time Alphen uses a Flaming Edge arte he’ll use the new arte to show that it’s unlocked.
Tips for using the Blazing Sword in Tales of Arise
That’s the main theory behind the Blazing Sword covered, but here are some of our top tips for getting the most out of it during the adventure.
Combine Flaming Edge artes together
Once you have unlocked Incineration Wave you can keep holding down the button to perform two Flaming Edge artes consecutively, with the second one always being Incineration Wave.
This is the ultimate way to deal quick, heavy damage to enemies and the best time to use it is when you inflict a Boost Break or a Core Break on a strong foe, giving you a chance to unleash these artes and retreat so Alphen can be healed. There are some normal artes that activate Incineration Wave, such as Double Demon Fang and Eternal Devastation, but the real bonus of Incineration Wave is that all other Flaming Edge artes can transition into this follow-up.
My favourite combination with the Blazing Sword was to use an arte that prompted Searing Gale (such as Severing Wind) before unleashing Incineration Wave. I don’t really like Rising Phoenix since this can be a bit harder to aim. The last thing you want to do is use up your health and miss the target.
Time with healing artes
Using the Blazing Sword to its maximum potential will cost a lot of HP. Once you’ve unlocked the relevant skills, you can end up on 1 HP if you want to really dish out the pain.
Therefore, it’s best to instruct a healer to cast a healing arte manually just before you use a Flaming Edge extension. By the time you perform it, hopefully Alphen will be well on his way to a swift recovery. This saves you having to wait for the AI to react, leaving Alphen vulnerable.
The best artes for this tactic are the likes of Healing Circle and Regenerate, which heal periodically. When one of these artes is cast on Alphen, whether manually prompted or not, it’s a great time to use the Blazing Sword as the recovery should coincide nicely with the attack.
Exploit enemies with fire weaknesses
Tales of Arise allows you to check enemy weaknesses for free. Simply press and hold L1 to pause the battle and allow you to switch the targeted enemy with the analogue stick. Once you’ve done this, you can scroll through each enemy and find their elemental affinity (if they have one). This means you should focus on artes of the opposite element. Any enemies with the Water symbol will be weak to Fire, so these are the best enemies to attack with the Blazing Sword.
For reference, Earth and Wind are also opposite elements, as are Light and Dark. However, these aren’t relevant to the Blazing Sword.
Recap
The key points surrounding the Blazing Sword are summarised here:
- Hold down the arte button for Alphen to follow up with a Flaming Edge extension
- The Blazing Sword artes are specific artes that have to be unlocked, and each normal arte has a corresponding Flaming Edge arte
- If the Blazing Sword isn’t working, it’s probably because you haven’t unlocked the corresponding Flaming Edge arte for the arte you just used
- Check the Artes section of the menu to see which ones have got a Flaming Edge extension highlighted – these will be the only ones that work with the Blazing Sword for now
- Unlock all 6 Flaming Edge artes to ensure you can always follow up an arte with the Blazing Sword
Hopefully this guide of how to use the Blazing Sword in Tales of Arise will help you out and answer all of your questions.
For more Tales of Arise tips and guides, check out some of our further articles below.
