Flamberge

The **Flamberge** is a melee weapon found in *Juice Galaxy.* It is obtained exclusively as a drop from enemies, and was the first weapon to implement the Fire mechanic.

## Appearance

The Flamberge is a vibrantly-colored sword with a rippled blade, a skinny handle and hilt, and is of roughly the same proportions as the Rune Longsword. It is a dark red in color, except for in the middle of the blade, which has an orange-yellow stripe moving in between the serrated edges. When swung, the blade emits many cylindrical particles, meant to resemble fire. The particles are orange closest to the blade, yellow in the middle, and red the furthest away. The larger the scale of the weapon, the more particles are emitted from it. Additionally, the particles will only appear when the sword is held, no matter how fast it's moving. In terms of sound, it has the same sounds as the Rune Longsword. The Flamberge takes up 16 tiles in the Inventory (2 wide, 8 long).

It's appearance and namesake are heavily based off of real-life flamberge swords.

## Usage

The Flamberge is a fairly standard melee weapon, able to be swung by holding left click at the cost of Energy. It's unique in the aspect that it applies the Fire status effect on hit, which will deal damage over time to enemies before automatically extinguishing. The harder the Flamberge hits the enemy, the more fire stacks will be applied to them, increasing the damage of the fire drastically; in effect, hitting an enemy harder will multiply the damage-over-time effect of the fire (compared to the base rate of fire damage). The Flamberge cannot apply fire if it's launched at enemies.

## Tips

* The Flamberge is an excellent weapon for combat, as the fire mechanic can be applied in many situations. You can retreat from an enemy while they succumb to fire, you can use the fire to safely kill an enemy and grab it's loot, you can allow the fire to kill one enemy while you shift your focus to another, etc. The Flamberge rewards strategic gameplay more so than any other melee weapon.
* In terms of size, a larger Flamberge will not only deal more damage and have more effective range, but will be be able to apply more fire stacks. The scale of a weapon also increases it's maximum angular velocity, which in turn will effect how many flame stacks can be applied at once. Experiment and find a size you're comfortable with, keeping in mind that larger weapons take more energy to swing and are overall harder to manage compared to smaller weapons. Because of the thinner handle, it is less unwieldy at larger sizes compared to similar weapons like the Rune Longsword. The scale of a weapon can be adjusted using Blacksmith Hoagen or Developer Spells.
* In terms of stat mods, prioritize Arm Power for the force of the weapon and how many flame stacks you can apply per strike, and Damage for the damage of the weapon and the fire effect. Movement Speed is also useful for maneuvering during ground combat, but due to the risk of falling over when running quickly, the level of this stat should be fine-tuned to a player's preference.

## Trivia

* Currently, it is the only weapon in the game that is only obtainable via common enemy drops. The Draginslayer is similar in that it can only be obtained by defeating the boss that wields it, but historical versions of the game made it obtainable by visiting certain locations, similar to the large weapons found inside the Fog Giants.
* The first video previews for the Fire system were done using this weapon- although, at the time, fire damage had yet to be implemented, and it was an entirely visual effect.
* The Flamberge doesn't have a pick-up quote. It shares this trait with the Rubber Ball Cannon and the Wand of Kinesis.