How to play Flarewren

A visual guide · Make your first flight

Your goal

Fly through three living worlds and beat every guardian.

Your little ship, the Wren, flies right on its own and fires on its own, so your whole job is where you fly. Thread the cave walls, star fire and crystal halls, collect Pods to power up, and beat the giant guardian at the end of each stage. Flarewren runs in real time and is a fixed run of three stages: clear the third and you win. A full clear takes about seven minutes.

These pictures are simplified teaching diagrams, drawn in the game's own colours with its real sprites. The three guardian pictures are captured from the game.

01Launch and fly

Click, tap or press Space to launch. On a phone, turn it sideways first. Nothing moves until you launch.

1. Put a finger down anywhere

A simplified teaching example. Press anywhere on the stage, usually low and to the left, so your thumb never covers the ship. Mouse drags work the same way.

2. The ship moves with your finger

The ship copies your finger's movement: move your finger up and right and the ship moves up and right by the same amount. It never jumps to where your finger is.

Keyboard: arrow keys or W, A, S and D fly the ship. Hold Shift for small, careful moves.
Your ship fires all the time, so you never need a fire button.
Esc, P or the pause button pauses. The pause menu has Resume and End run.

02Thread the terrain

Glowing edges and real walls

A simplified teaching example. Cave walls, the star's surface, fire arcs and crystal halls all cost a ship if you fly into them. The glowing rim sits a little ahead of the real wall, so brushing the glow is safe, and flying close earns Skim points.

1. Amber means something is coming

Before a wall grows, rises or slides, an amber warning shows where it will be: 1.5 seconds ahead in the first two stages and 1 second in Shardhold.

2. Then it becomes solid

Here a tendril has grown from the floor. Its glowing bud can be shot, which makes the tendril shrink back, or you can simply fly past before it grows.

Walls also block bullets, yours and theirs, so a wall can be cover.
Some walls are made of cells you can shoot through, or thread through the gap.
Fire arcs and flare walls let shots through but still cost a ship if you touch them.

03Collect Pods

Look for a gold rim

A simplified teaching example. Shoot a carrier with a gold rim, or wipe out every member of a gold formation, and a Pod floats out. Fly into it to use it right away.

What each Pod does

Each Pod has its own icon shape, so colour is never the only clue, and its icon shows what you will get before you touch it.

Swell and Lance change your weapon. If you like the one you have, simply fly around the Pod.
A Pod you could not use becomes something useful instead, and a Surplus Pod when you already have everything.
Every Pod you collect is worth 100 points, and a Surplus Pod 1,000.

04Build your Echo formation

Echoes are light copies of your ship. Each one follows the path you just flew, a moment behind you, and fires everything you fire. You can hold up to three, and nothing can hit them.

Fly level to focus

A simplified teaching example. Flying straight lines your Echoes up behind you, so every shot lands on the same line.

Sweep to spread

Sweeping up or down fans your Echoes out along your path, so your shots cover more of the corridor.

Each Echo adds 25% to the points for every enemy: ×1.25, ×1.5 and ×1.75 with one, two and three Echoes.

1. A ship lost

When a ship is lost, your Echoes float free as teal strays for 6 seconds. Your next ship arrives with a short blink while nothing can hit it.

2. Take them back

Fly through a stray to take that Echo back, for 200 points.

You keep your weapon and your missiles when a ship is lost. You lose the Shield and one step of Thrust.
If you still have no Echo a few seconds after coming back, a free Echo Pod floats in to help.

05Weapons and the Shield

Pulse, Swell, Lance and the Shield

A simplified teaching example. You start with Pulse. With the Missile Pod, missiles also drop and run along the walls on their own. The Shield takes hits from the front and breaks to save you from one wall bump.

06Beat each guardian

Three guardians, three gold weak spots

Captured from the game. Every guardian shows its weak spot in gold. Grey flashes mean that part is armoured: wait for the gold to open. Each has a time limit: 75 seconds, 85 seconds and 110 seconds.

Beat a guardian quickly for a time bonus: 100 points for every second left on its clock.
If its time runs out, the guardian leaves on its own and pays a fifth of its points. The stage still counts as clear.
Each guardian changes how it fights twice as it weakens, and lets out one Pod on its first change.

07Score and how a run ends

The stage tally

After each guardian, the tally adds bonuses for the stage, ships in reserve, Echoes held and a flawless stage. Each one is multiplied by the stage number.

Formation wipe

Clear a whole formation for 500, 800 and 1,000 in stages 1, 2 and 3, times your Echo bonus.

Skim

Fly close to walls for 120, 180 and 240 points a second in stages 1, 2 and 3.

Extra ships

Earn an extra ship at 40,000 and 120,000 points.

Tally lines: Stage clear 2,000 · Ships in reserve 1,000 per ship · Echoes 500 per Echo · Flawless 5,000 with no ship lost, times the stage number.
Clearing stage 3 adds a finish bonus: Full clear 30,000 (the Starhusk defeated) · Guardian outlasted 12,000 (the Starhusk timed out) · Perfect flight 40,000 (no ship lost all run).
The run ends when your last ship is lost, or when you clear stage 3, which is a win even if the last guardian timed out.
To stop early and keep your score, pause and tap End run twice.

Opening this Visual Guide pauses the game. Close it, then press Resume when you are ready.

Play Flarewren