Pyre: The Best Tips and Tricks

This page contains tips, tricks and strategies for playing Pyre. Here you’ll find basic tips for new players and advanced tips for those who want to become even better in the Rites.

If you know of additional tips or tricks not listed below, feel free to add to the list by editing the page on this wiki guide!

The gameplay of Pyre follows a simple concept that is similar to real world basketball, but the nuance of each character you control makes the flow of your game even deeper. You need to find a way to get the magical sphere into your opponent’s Pyre, but there’s many ways of doing so.

When you first begin playing, take the time to understand how each character controls and their specific abilities. No matter who you’re controlling, each character has pros & cons, some of which are better suited for specific situations than others. The movement speed, size of their Aura Blasts, and amount of health taken from dousing into the opponent’s Pyre all become important at some point. Learning all of it early is a solid path to many victories.

While playing through the early portions of the main story is a good way to learn all of the basics for your characters, engaging in the Practice Rights from the Beyonder Crystal in the wagon is the best place to do so. Here, you can play Rites against opponents and formulate strategies for the different characters used during the Rites.

A good way to get some understanding of how to use each character is to constantly pass the Orb between your team in the Rites. You can only control one character at a time when you’re either on Offense or Defense, but sticking with just one character the whole time is a terrible idea.

Try to move your team across the map as a unit, positioning them in good spots where you can either stop your opponent from advancing the Orb, or pass the Orb to them and damage the opposing Pyre. Doing this will give you a solid understanding of how each character moves and their biggest strengths during a match up.

It also helps keep some characters close to each other in order to extend the radius of their magic Aura. When not moving, a character can place their Aura on th ground and block opponents from passing by, banishing them if they touch them.

Some characters have small auras, but can be greatly extended if they’re in close proximity to a teammate. Use this to your advantage while on the defensive, but also know it can work just as well on offense.

Enlightenment is the equivalent of Experience Points for characters in Pyre. This is very important for the growth of your party and your chance to gain new skills called Masteries. You want to constantly gain the most Enlightenment you can with everything you do, whether its winning in the Rites or engaging in dialogue and story events.

It can take a while gaining Enlightenment as you progress through the game, and you won’t always level up characters to MAX each time you complete the Liberation Rite. This can make some matches more difficult if you haven’t been playing with specific characters for an extended period of time. Towards the later half of the game, this will happen more frequently, so its best to do what you can to spread the attention across your whole party.

The best ways to gain more Enlightenment for your characters is from winning and from activating the Titan Stars before you begin the Rites. You gain access to the Titan Stars after you have Liberated at least one character in the main story. Once the Titan Stars are unlocked, you’ll have the ability to activate them before each Rites match.

These extra challenges will make the Rites more difficult, but will give you a boost in Enlightenment gained if you are victorious. Being smart with which Titan Stars you activate will help you boost characters’ levels and gain more Masteries before entering the Rites.

As you play matches in Pyre, your characters will all gain experience, also known as Enlightenment. This allows you to unlock new abilities, called Masteries, that can greatly affect the outcome of matches in the Rites. The more abilities you have open to you, the stronger your team will be.

But knowing which abilities to use is a bit tricky and different for each character. It can take a while to level up a character to maximum Enlightenment, and you won’t always have all of your abilities open to you when you do. This is why its important to pick which abilities in your character’s ability tree that cater to your playstyle.

You can customize the abilities of all the characters in your party in the wagon or from the Slugmarket menu. You can unlock new abilities once they gain a level, or you can use the Scribe Snuff ability to reset all the abilities and reselect them. If you find yourself having a tough time with some match ups in the Rites, try using Scribe Snuff to respec a character with new abilities to change the flow of the matches.

During various points of the main story, you’ll visit different areas that will allow you to choose a bonus before engaging in the Rites. These bonuses are known as Vocations, which will allow you to do one of three different things to help you and your party.

You can choose to search the area for items within the given area. Sometimes you’ll find a Talismen to add to your inventory, while others you’ll find a bonus item that can be sold at the Slugmarket. However, there are instances when you’ll search and not find anything at all. The kinds of items you find will vary depending on the location you visit.

You have the choice to study the Book of Rites in private, which will grant you a random boost for your characters during the next Rites match. This can be useful if you know you’re going to face a tough challenge ahead and you don’t need to level up characters within your party.

One of the most helpful options is the ability to mentor a character of your choice. By doing this, you’ll help a character gain extra Enlightenment to level up. This is great for when you want to gain extra Masteries before the next Rites match. However, this option won’t be effective if you already have a bunch of characters who are already MAX level.

After engaging in a number of Rites matches against other teams, you’ll eventually have to play in the Liberation Rite. This is a match where you can pick a character who will gain freedom if you win. The match will play like any other Rites match you’ve played before, but the outcome of it will lead you in one direction or another.

When you complete the Liberation Rite, you aren’t done with the game. There’s still more story to see, and other Rites to play in towards gaining freedom for your other characters. You have the option to activate Titan Stars before the Liberation Rite, but unless you plan to boost up a specific character’s enlightenment, you’ll make it harder on yourself to win.

When you win the Liberation Rite and have your character gain freedom, you lose the ability to control that character moving forward. While you continue playing the game, that character won’t be in your party anymore. This will not only make matches against some teams more difficult, but will force you to use different character combinations and come up with new strategies for the Rites.

When you finally reach the Liberation Rite, choose a character that you can use in the match that won’t heavily impact your ability to play the Rites afterwards. It may be difficult having a character on your team that you haven’t used a lot at first, but if you want to keep using the strategies you’ve utilized, you’ll need to do so. Otherwise you’ll be sending a key player back to the Commonwealth and you won’t be able to use them anymore.

Depending on who you send to their freedom, you’ll have different dialogue that plays out during the scenes afterwards before continuing the story.

Occasionally, you’ll have to engage in a small mini-game that has you controlling one character to accomplish a task. One such task is when you need to control the Vagabond Girl and protect the party’s camp from Howlers. Another side tasks is when you take control of Sir Gilman and need to battle his former teammates.

These bonus mini-games look similar to playing in the Rites, but are side quests that allow you to gain bonus rewards, such as extra money and items. Depending on how well you accomplish the task you are give, you can gain a decent amount of bonuses that can assist you greatly later on. Make sure to pay close attention to the objective given to you and immediately accomplish it as efficiently as you can, this includes protecting an area for as long as possible.

If you’ve leveled up the character you are assigned a few levels, then you’ll have a somewhat easier time accomplishing your objectives. If not, then you’ll have a greater challenge if you want to gain bonus money from these side quests.