Quirce, Returned by the Flames is a boss in Blasphemous who, as his name suggests, has plenty of fire attacks.
He’s pretty agile and has really powerful attacks. In fact, I thought he’d probably be a very challenging boss, but… he wasn’t. That’s mainly because, even though his attacks aren’t bad at all… honestly, they’re generally pretty predictable and easy to dodge. That doesn’t change the fact that I loved this fight; it’s just that, in my opinion, it was missing that extra bit of difficulty.
By the way, Quirce’s story is pretty interesting: he was someone who was burned at the stake completely unjustly and who, for some reason (well, thanks to “the Miracle”), was reborn from the ashes, becoming what we see in the game.
Table of Contents
Quirce Location
You can find Quirce in the “Wall of the Holy Prohibitions“, a prison-like area full of cells. It’s a really good area; I honestly liked this one. Don’t worry, you’ll run into him while exploring the area. In fact, it’s set up as a surprise so you have to face him unexpectedly (similar to what happens with Perpetva, except this time the floor collapses).
To get to this area you’ll need to go through the “Archcathedral Rooftops”, from the west side; it’s the area above “Mother of Mothers”.
By the way, I highly recommend coming to this area with the Key of the Inquisitor, since you’ll find some interesting stuff thanks to it. You can buy it from the merchant in “The Sleeping Canvases”, the area where you fight Expósito, Scion of Abjuration (the evil baby).
Attack Guide
As I mentioned, he ended up being pretty easy. Don’t be fooled by his powerful fire attacks and his great agility, because you’ll see he’s much easier than he looks.
These are Quirce’s attacks:
- Teleport and Flame Columns: Quirce disappears and shortly after reappears along with a pillar of fire right at your position, then disappears again. He’ll do this about 3 or 4 times, and after the last one you’ll have a few seconds to take the opportunity to attack him. To dodge it, just keep moving; you don’t even need to use the dash.
- Normal Charge: Sometimes he’ll perform a somewhat slow charge that doesn’t cover much distance. You can clearly tell when he’s about to do it because he takes a peculiar stance and starts sort of trembling. You can dodge it by jumping or with a well-timed dash. Plus, right when this move ends you can take the chance to attack. If you’re far away, the Mea Culpa skill that lets you attack while running is perfect for this.
- Fiery Charge: A charge that’s infinitely more powerful than the previous one. In this one, Quirce goes from one side of the screen to the other with his sword out in front, and along the way he leaves three fire pillars that erupt once the attack ends. Forget about attacking here: dodge the charge with a jump (be patient, it’s a bit slow) and then look for a gap between the pillars.
- Wall Cling and Sword Throw: Quirce clings to one of the side walls and throws his sword at high speed. Keep your head down.
- Wall Cling and Fire Pillars: He clings to the wall the same way as in the previous attack, but this time he summons some pillars near the wall he’s on. Whenever he clung to one of the side walls, I always ducked just in case, and if I saw it was this attack, I’d dash away to dodge the pillars.
- Top Cling: Other times he’ll cling to one of the top corners of the screen and throw his sword, which travels along the walls of the room until it completes a full lap. It’s easy to dodge with a jump, and after that hit him as much as you can: you’ll have time for 4 or 5 hits while he stays up there after you jump over the sword.
As for phases, he does have a sort of phase 2, but there aren’t many changes in it. Basically, every now and then he’ll summon several pillars at once in bursts, but again, it’s not very hard to dodge.
Build and Tips
You can probably get by just fine with whatever you’re carrying. There’s not much I can say about this boss, since with how “overpowered” you probably are at this point in Blasphemous, he likely won’t give you much trouble.
What I do strongly recommend is equipping the Rosary Beads that improve the Penitent One’s physical defense, and especially this one:
- Piece of a Golden Mask: Slightly increases the Penitent One’s fire defense, so it’s perfect, really. If you have an upgraded version, even better. So far it’s the only fire resistance Rosary Bead I have in my playthrough.
And that’s it! Have you made it to Quirce, Returned by the Flames in Blasphemous yet? What items did you use? Any tips that worked for you? Leave a comment!
