How to Beat Hard Mode Marcus and Faleris: Team and Drops

Marcus and Faleris on Hard Mode is the Fire tower rematch, and it is an endurance fight rather than a lethal one — the boss sits on roughly 561,000 HP and shrugs off 85% of everything you throw at it, but it hits softer than any other tower rematch in the game. This guide covers the boss card, why Water counts twice here, the Pals and accessories that shorten the fight, every attack in Faleris's rotation, and exactly what the drop table pays.

Marcus and Faleris (Hard) at a Glance

Faleris is a pure Fire Pal, which makes the whole fight simple to plan for: Water is strong into Fire, so one element covers everything. The line that decides how long you'll be in there is the damage-taken multiplier — at ×0.15 the boss absorbs 85% of your output, so a team that isn't hitting the weakness will run the clock out long before it runs out of health. You can check any pairing yourself on the element matchup chart and counter finder.

	Hard Mode
Boss	Marcus & Faleris
Element	Fire
Weak to	Water
Level	80
HP	~561,000
Damage dealt	×8
Damage taken	×0.15
Unlock	Clear Marcus and Faleris on Normal Mode first
Paldeck	#188

How Hard Mode Changes the Fight

The rematch is not a small step up. Faleris's health multiplier jumps from ×27 to ×110, its damage goes from ×1 to ×8, and its damage taken collapses from ×1 to ×0.15 — that last one is the change most people underestimate, because it silently quadruples how long a non-Water team needs to finish. The full multiplier set for every fight is on the tower boss list.

Where Faleris Ranks Among the Hard Rematches

Put side by side with the other rematches, Faleris is the tankiest of the elemental towers and the least dangerous. It ties Orserk for the highest health multiplier at ×110 and for the tightest damage-taken figure at ×0.15, but its ×8 damage output is the softest on the board — Grizzbolt swings at ×13 for comparison. That combination is why this fight is usually lost to the timer rather than to a wipe, and why bringing the right element matters more here than bringing the best armor. Panthalus is the one tower Pal with no hard rematch at all.

Tower Boss	Element	HP ×	Deals ×	Takes ×
Astralym	—	405	5	0.45
Faleris	Fire	110	8	0.15
Orserk	Dragon / Electric	110	10	0.15
Grizzbolt	Electric	100	13	0.10
Lyleen	Grass	100	10	0.12
Shadowbeak	Dark	100	12	0.25
Selyne	Dark / Neutral	93	9	0.20
Shaolong	Dragon / Water	88	12	0.20
Bastigor	Ice	75	10	0.18

Water Is the Answer, Twice Over

Water is strong into Fire, so a Water attacker hits the weakness — but the chart runs both ways, and being strong against an element also means resisting it. A Water Pal therefore takes reduced damage from Faleris's fire on top of dealing extra to it, which is the single biggest reason this fight can be trivial or miserable depending on what you walk in with. Four of the fourteen S-tier Pals on the combat tier list carry Water, so the roster is deep.

Neptilius is the pick if you want damage — 145 ranged attack, and its pure Water typing means nothing in Faleris's kit gets a clean hit on it. Jormuntide trades that for the highest melee number in the group at 150, and Panthalus is the survivability option with 200 defense and 180 HP, useful if you keep dying to the big casts rather than timing out. Shaolong sits between the two and is by far the fastest of them to reposition on.

Pal	Element	Attack	HP / Def	Why bring it
Neptilius	Water	145 ranged	105 / 125	Best ranged attack of the pure-Water S-tier picks; takes reduced damage from every Fire move in the fight
Jormuntide	Dragon / Water	150 melee	130 / 100	Highest melee attack in the Water pool — for close-range builds
Shaolong	Dragon / Water	135 ranged	140 / 120	Strong ranged damage plus the best mobility of the group
Panthalus	Water	120 ranged	180 / 200	200 defense and 180 HP — the answer if the AoE keeps killing you
Faleris Aqua	Water	110 ranged	110 / 115	The Water version of the boss itself, and far easier to get than the legendaries
Suzaku Aqua	Water	105 ranged	125 / 105	Flying Water attacker for players who want to fight from the air

Turn Your Own Gun Into Water Damage

If you do most of the damage yourself rather than letting the Pal work, two partner skills convert your attacks to Water — guns included — so your rifle inherits the same weakness multiplier your Pal does. Azurobe does it while you ride it, and Finsider does it while summoned, which makes Finsider the pick for anyone who fights on foot and dodges. Neither is a heavy hitter on its own; the value is entirely in what it does to your weapon. The full list is in All Pals That Change Your Attack Element and How It Works.

Pal	Element	Trigger	Note
Azurobe	Water / Dragon	While mounted	Converts your attacks to Water and keeps you mobile
Finsider	Water	Summoned	Works on foot with any weapon — no saddle needed

The Accessories That Matter Here

One accessory is almost custom-built for this fight. The Faleris Aqua Ring goes on the Pal fighting beside you and stacks top-rank Fire resistance with a top-rank Water damage boost — both halves of this fight in a single slot, and it costs only 20 Iron Ingots, 30 Paldium Fragments, 30 Aquatic Pal Fluids and 5 Ancient Civilization Parts. If you'd rather push raw numbers, the Baton and Talisman carry the same Water boost with an Attack or Defense raise attached instead of the resistance. For yourself, the Reptyro Charm is the top-rank Fire resistance option. Full recipes and effects are in List of All Pal Rings: Effects and Recipes and on the accessories database.

Accessory	Who wears it	What it does
Faleris Aqua Ring	Your Pal	Top-rank Fire resistance and top-rank Water damage boost
Lord of the Sea's Baton	Your Pal	Same Water boost, with an Attack raise instead of the resistance
Neptilius's Talisman	Your Pal	Same Water boost, with a Defense raise instead of the resistance
Reptyro Charm	You	Top-rank Fire resistance plus heat protection

Armor and Guns to Bring

Heat-Resistant Ancient Armor is the body piece to wear — 840 defense and 2,400 HP at Technology 75, and it is one of the few chestplates that carries an innate Fire resistance line, which is doing real work against a boss whose entire kit but one move is Fire. The Ancient Armor guide covers where each schematic drops.

On weapons, read the numbers the right way: attack ratings only compare inside a weapon class. The Beam Launcher tops the launchers at 14,000 and the Charge Rifle tops the rifles at 12,500, and those two are not on the same scale as each other. The Plasma Rifle earns its slot on 25,000 durability rather than its 1,860 attack — against a health pool this size, a gun that never needs repairing mid-run is worth more than one that hits marginally harder. Full rankings are in the Best Guns Tier List.

Gear	Type	Key numbers	Tech
Heat-Resistant Ancient Armor	Body armor	840 defense, 2,400 HP, innate Fire resistance	75
Beam Launcher	Rocket launcher	14,000 attack (launcher scale)	80
Charge Rifle	Assault rifle	12,500 attack (rifle scale)	65
Plasma Rifle	Assault rifle	1,860 attack, 25,000 durability	78

Every Attack in Faleris's Rotation

Eight of Faleris's nine moves are Fire, which is what makes a Water team so forgiving here. The exception is the important one: Holy Burst is Neutral, it is the single hardest hit in the kit at 700 power, and it reaches 5,000 units — so it is the one attack your Water resistance and your Fire-resistant gear do absolutely nothing about. Treat it as the move you dodge and everything else as damage you can afford to eat. Powers and cooldowns for every skill in the game are on the active skills list.

The pattern that falls out of those ranges: Ignis Rage and Phoenix Flare only reach 1,000 and 3,000 units, so staying at long range removes two of the four heavy hits from the fight entirely. Raging Flame Wave starts at range 0, which is why standing on top of Faleris is worse than it looks.

What Faleris Drops

The payout is one of the better ones in the game, and almost all of it is guaranteed rather than a gamble. The Fire Radiant Gems are the headline for anyone still awakening Fire Pals — 10 to 20 per kill at 100% — and the relic haul underneath is arguably worth more, because Decayed, Dormant and Gorgeous relics all land every single time and those are the feedstock for the Ancient Relic Recycler's schematic rolls. The one-in-four Glistening Ancient Relic is the real prize there, since it fires the recycler's best odds. Marcus himself pays out the Marcus Hat, a 20-defense, 60-HP cosmetic headpiece you'll want for the collection more than for the stats.

Drop	Chance	Amount
Fire Radiant Gem	100%	10 – 20
Decayed Ancient Relic	100%	30 – 50
Dormant Ancient Relic	100%	10 – 20
Gorgeous Ancient Relic	100%	4 – 8
Glowing Ancient Relic	50%	2 – 3
Glistening Ancient Relic	25%	1
Flame Organ	100%	1 – 4
World Tree Holy Water	50%	1 – 3
Electric Radiant Gem	50%	1 – 3
Marcus Hat	Boss reward	20 defense, 60 HP

Where to Find Faleris Outside the Tower

You don't have to beat the tower to own one. Faleris appears at 47 spawn locations across the map, day and night alike — open the interactive map with Faleris's spawns pinned and pick the closest. It is also worth catching for reasons that have nothing to do with combat: Kindling Level 6 makes it one of the better furnace and forge workers you can park at a base.

Breeding is the other route, with a catch — Faleris is excluded from the normal combination pool, so the only pairing that produces one is Faleris with Faleris. What it *does* unlock is Faleris Aqua: pair Faleris with Jormuntide and you get the Water version, which is both the counter to this very fight and far easier to farm in the wild at 197 spawn locations, including a level 66 alpha. Run the numbers on any pair in the breeding calculator.

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