This page covers all of the Artes for Alphen/Iron Mask in Tales of Arise. You’ll find every Arte, how to unlock it and suggestions for the best ones to use when playing as Alphen.

View Full-size

Scarlet Outburst is Alphen’s Mystic Arte.

Boost Attack¶

Alphen’s Boost Attack is arguably the most useful in the game, albeit at the cost of some of his HP. When used, he’ll use a powerful Fire-based strike that will down any enemy unless they’re in Overlimit (at which point it’ll deal damage only). This is useful for leaving any enemy open where you can use burst damage without fear of getting struck.

Ground Artes¶

Icon	Name	AG	Element	Flaming Edge	Unlock
	Swallow Blade	1	–	Infernal Torrent	Default
	Demon Fang	1	–	Explosive Ring	Sword Strike - 100
	Sonic Thrust	1	–	Rending Flash	Iron Mask Title
	Shockwave Slash	1		Infernal Torrent	Comrades in Freedom Title
	Iron Cleaver	1	–	Infernal Torrent	Infernal Tongue Title
	Rising Wyvern (launcher)	1	–	Rising Phoenix	Default
	Destruction	1		Rending Flash	Sword Strike - 300
	Lightning Thrust (launcher)	1		Rising Phoenix	Aerial Strike - 100
	Sword Rain: Alpha	2	–	Rending Flash	Sword Strike - 1200
	Severing Wind	2		Searing Gale	Rebellious Spark Title
	Reigning Slash	2	–	Incineration Wave	Sword Strike - 800
	Double Demon Fang	2	–	Incineration Wave	Sword Strike - 1000
	Mega Sonic Thrust	2	–	Explosive Ring	Sword Strike - 1400
	Eternal Devastation	2		Incineration Wave	Sword Strike - 2000
	Vacuum Blades	2	–	Incinceration Wave	The Power of a Sovereign Title
	Thunder Fang	2		Explosive Ring	Enlightening Bond Title
	Dragon Swarm	2	–	Explosive Ring	Sword Strike - 1200
	Howling Azure Storm	2		Incineration Wave	Veteran Samurai Title (DLC)
	Orochi’s Galeforce Fury	2		Explosive Ring	Beach Hero Title (DLC)
	Plasma Shock (launcher)	2		Searing Gale	Strait-Laced Schoolboy (DLC)

Aerial Artes¶

Icon	Name	AG	Element	Flaming Edge	Unlock
	Mirage (down)	1	–	Infernal Torrent	Default
	Rising Falcon (down)	1	–	Infernal Torrent	Another Day, Another Wall Title
	Luna Rondo	1	–	Rising Phoenix	Aerial Strike - 300
	Devastation	1	–	Rising Phoenix	Arms Collector Title
	Hurricane Thrust	1		Searing Gale	Aerial Strike - 600
	Stardust	2	–	Rising Phoenix	Rebellious Spark Title
	Void Flash	2		Searing Gale	Undefeated Swordsman Title
	Soaring Light Spear	2	–	Rising Phoenix	Aerial Strike - 1000

Flame Strikes¶

Icon	Name	Element	Flaming Edge	Unlock
	Infernal Torrent		Incineration Wave	Blazing Sword Title
	Rising Phoenix (aerial, down)		Incineration Wave	Blazing Sword Title
	Explosive Ring		Incineration Wave	Flame Strike - 400
	Rending Flash		Incineration Wave	Blazing Blow Title
	Searing Gale (aerial, down)		Incineration Wave	Flame Strike - 100
	Incineration Wave		–	Unrelenting Blaze Title

Mystic Artes¶

Icon	Name	Element	Execution	Unlock
	Scarlet Outburst		Hold down two Artes buttons during an Overlimit	Story - During Cyslodia arc
	Flaming Pillar		Use five consecutive Artes during a combo and then hold down two Artes buttons during an Overlimit	Story - During the events at Pelegion

Alphen’s best Artes¶

Alphen has a number of useful Artes available to him but his best ones come with a risk as the Blazing Sword will drain his HP during their execution. To make matters worse, you’ll want to purchase the necessary skills and drain his HP to 1 to ensure they hit the highest damage possible, a massive risk, especially on the higher difficulties.

Alphen is the party’s main damage dealer when it comes to burst, and especially against bosses, it boils down to exploiting every opportunity you down a foe (usually with Alphen’s Boost Attack) by using the hardest hitting Flaming Edge Arte you have at the time before getting out of the way and waiting for Shionne or Dohalim to heal you.

When not using Flaming Edges, Alphen is extremely useful at filling the Boost Strike gauge so that you can trigger them more often in regular battles. Sword Rain: Alpha, with its multiple hits, is excellent for filling it and comboing it with Mega Sonic Thrust and Vacuum Blades is an effective method when not using your Flaming Edge Artes. For ground-based Artes, be sure to always keep Double Demon Fang on a shortcut, this allows you to hit effectively from range (especially useful for solo Training Ground battles) and more importantly, can be morphed into the powerful Incineration Wave from distance late game. Reigning Slash deserves special mention, it’s a slow hitting Arte and hard to combo with but it’s by far Alphen’s hardest hitting Arte and is the best for bosses, to make it even more useful however is the fact that you morph it into Incineration Wave. Finally, when you unlock Thunder Fang late on in the game, be sure to give it a shortcut as most of the enemies at that point of the game are weak to Light.

Alphen is an effective character at aerial combat, and he has some useful Artes that allows him to keep an enemy in the air for long periods of time and is arguably his most effective (and one of the game’s most effective) methods of triggering a Boost Strike. Severing Wind acts as a great launcher and then from there, Stardust serves a similar function as Sword Rain: Alpha to drive multiple hits on the gauge. As often the case with aerial combat, an enemy could get away from you and if they drop to the ground, it resets the Boost Strike gauge. A combo of Void Flash and Luna Rondo is excellent at pulling the enemy back up to you, hitting multiple times and raising them higher into the ground and when you reach late-game with high AG, it’ll be the most effective method at triggering Boost Strikes.

Unique to Alphen however is the Blazing Sword, and his Flame Strikes are extremely potent. Early on, focus on using them often to have your proficiency reach at least 100, this gives you the chance at using the effective Explosive Ring. This is Alphen’s best Flame Strike until you unlock Incineration Wave late game, this will hit enemies along a line in front of him and when fully charged with the damage boosting skills, will really put a dent into even the sturdiest of enemies.