Unfortunately, Spirit of Vengeance launched in a particularly buggy state that made it nearly impossible to finish even on Story difficulty for all but the best geared team or the most patient players. Since then BioWare has hotfixed and patched the Flashpoint into a serviceable state, but it is still the hardest one in the game that possesses a Story mode, and you might still find it tricky even if you are all geared up. In this guide we’ll walk you through the Spirit of Vengeance Flashpoint and provide some tips for completing it.
What is Spirit of Vengeance about?
Even those Flashpoints that do not have a Story difficulty setting have plenty of narrative framing to explain why you and three other heroes are murdering your way through a fancy new environment. In Spirit of Vengeance we get a lot of story, since this is setting up the next major on-going plot thread of the game now that Tenebrae/Vitiate/Valkorion is dead for good (or is he?). Shae Vizla, the current Mandalore, is struggling to keep the united clans united and turns to the Alliance Commander - that’s us - to help clear things up. At this point the Mandalorians are both our allies, and a powerful force to be reckoned with, which means internal strife or outright civil war weakens your allies while also endangering the whole galaxy which is still struggling to rebuild after the oppression of the Eternal Empire finally ended. The Flashpoint comes to heel when Shae informs you that her flagship, the Spirit of Vengeance II has run into some problems, and asks for your assistance in retaking it. Upon arrival, it becomes clear that three rebelling Mandalorian clans have harpooned and boarded it. Your task is to go to all three attacking vessels, detach the boarding tubes and slay the leaders of the clans that turned on you. It eventually becomes clear that the coup has been orchestrated by someone called Field Marshal Heta Kol, who fundamentally disagrees with the way Shae leads the Mandalorians, and formed a splinter group called the Hidden Chain.
6.2.1 Changes
The recently launched game update 6.2.1 introduced a suite of over 30 tweaks and bug fixes to Spirit of Vengeance alone, following multiple hotfixes since the launch of the Flashpoint in December 2020. Initially, the difficulty balance was completely broken, with the Flashpoint being exceedingly difficult even in Story mode. This was caused by multiple issues. First of all, the trash mobs were markedly tougher than they should have been, and the imbalance was even worse with the bosses. This was compounded by Rass Ordo, the unchangeable temporary Companion given upon starting the Flashpoint being stuck at an Influence Level of 1. Since companion influence levels affect how effective they are in combat, be it damage or healing, this rendered Rass effectively useless - Canderous would be very displeased. Additionally, no Combat Support Droid is provided in Spirit of Vengeance, even in Story Mode - however, if you have already played through the actual Story mission of the Flashpoint, you can take along any companion (like ZO-0M) even in subsequent Story difficult runs. With the changes implemented in 6.2.1 the Flashpoint is mostly bug-free and soloable in Story Mode for most players who have level appropriate gear for 75 - nonetheless, it remains a tough one.
General Tips
Now that it got patched, there isn’t much to know in particular about Spirit of Vengeance that doesn’t also apply to other Flashpoints overall. That said, due to the difficulty, it’s recommended to pay even more attention to these tips than otherwise - usually even if you pull a bunch of enemies your trusty Combat Support Droid would carry you through, but that is not the case here. Currently Rass Ordo will have an Influence Level of 25, as intended, making him actually worth something in the healer role, which is the recommended setting for solo players taking on the Flashpoint. Throughout Spirit of Vengeance you’ll often encounter large, open spaces full of multiple groups of enemies. When Spirit of Vengeance launched the Weak/Strong/Elite distribution was different, but this was among the fixes implemented by BioWare meaning many trash mobs are now Weak type, with only the Varad Hulk being an Elite. In these situations you need to be careful to only aggro one group of enemies. Their aggro ranges won’t pull in the whole room on you if you target the right groups. Be mindful of your area of effect and knockback skills, as these may pull in another set of enemies. Ironically, the first room you’ll enter on the first ship is particularly tricky in this regard, and multiple groups are prone to attack you at once.
Enemy Types
1: Varad
Weak: Churl, Bloodsworn, Hound Strong: Beskaryc Elite: Hulk
With Varad enemies, the only one you need to keep an eye out for are the Hulks who utilize both knockback abilities and Full Auto which chews through quite a bit of health.
2: Dar’Manda
Weak: Medic, Enforcer Strong: Commando, Specialist, Officer
On first glance the lack of any Elite types might make you think the Dar’Manda are pushovers - you’d be sorely mistaken. By far the most difficult set of enemies to deal with, a squad of Dar’Manda is legitimately tougher than any boss in the Flashpoint, making us suspect that they are still suffering from vestigial balance bugs. The Medics, who appear in every group and sometimes pair up, have ridiculously potent healing abilities, while the Commandos, Specialists and Officers do way too much damage for their type. Additionally, these have various damage over time and debuff effects that can take you down with ease. Be very careful when facing them - pulling in more than one group of Dar’Manda is a practically unwinnable situation.
3: Ash’ad
Weak: Lorekeeper, Pilgrim Strong: Seeker, Sharpshooter
The Ash’ad shouldn’t pose any real trouble. The Lorekeepers have healing abilities, but these are quite weak, especially compared to what you need to deal with when fighting the Dar’Manda.
Boss Fights
1: Gorga Brak
You’ll encounter Gorga Brak at the end of the first attacking ship, and he’ll be the first to mention the Field Marshal. This boss will help ease you into things as the encounter features no additional enemies and the mechanics are fairly standard fare, with only two outstanding abilities to look out for. Occasionally Brak will activate Full Auto, a well known Commando ability. The difference compared to the ability players can use is that his Full Auto will also root you, so it is recommended to activate an ability that purges movement impairing effects. If all such abilities are on cooldown - unlikely, since Full Auto triggers rarely - Rass can likely heal you through it but you’ll definitely lose a lot of health. On Master Mode, Tanks will need to re-taunt after Full Auto because the ability clears threat. A more frequent ability you’ll see is Fire Bomb, which is pretty self explanatory. This will be telegraphed by the large red indication circle on the ground, so all you need to do is avoid it. Other than hitting hard, this will also cause damage over time with a burn effect.
Optional: Goldie
Spirit of Vengeance features its optional bonus Boss fairly early on, near the middle of the second ship you’ll board. In order to spawn Goldie you will have to complete the Bonus Mission Goldie’s Locks (ha) which involve finding hidden keys in the bedrooms of the Officer’s Quarters. The first is on the nightstand on the rightmost bed of the right-side room, and the other is in a footlocker on the rightmost bed of the left-side room. When you travel down the elevator at the end of this section, you’ll end up in a cargo hold section filled with mobs. This is also where you’ll encounter Goldie, Bask Sunn’s pet Rancor (damn, they sure went all out with the puns, didn’t they?). Luckily you need to spawn Goldie manually, so you can mop up the enemies first. Goldie is pretty easy to defeat, but has some tricks up her… hands. The first one you need to look out for is Slam, a knockback attack that deals a high amount of damage. It is telegraphed ahead of time, so you can get out of the way. Next up are two Swipe attacks. Right-Handed Swipe tracks the target and does damage in a cone, but isn’t much of a threat; Left-Handed Swipe aims a fixed damage area at the target, but you can run out of it.
2: Bask Sunn
The decadent Dar Manda leader is backed up by a number of trash mobs during the encounter, so it’s good practice to clean them up first. In Master Mode, this is outright necessary. Once you’re fighting Bask himself, things should go quick since he has relatively little health. However, this balances out by an immensely powerful Rocket Punch ability that absolutely will knock down 2/3 or more of your health in one go, and cannot be avoided. This would be a good time to activate your class’ damage reduction ability, and use a health station. He also possesses a knockback ability, the use of which usually prefaces the Rocket Punch.
3: Troya Ajak
Troya Ajak seems to be bugged even after the release of 6.2.1, but in this rare case the bugs benefit the player, not the other way around. These errors manifest in the form of some of Troya’s abilities being channeled but not actually doing anything - no damage, debuffs or buffs can be observed. Nonetheless, she is tough and deals plenty of damage so it isn’t going to be a cakewalk. There is a specific ability - which does work - called Pick Off which has infinite range and passes through targets. When triggered it has a very short warning period of two long red lines on the ground. The tactic here is to exploit the damage sharing feature of Pick Off. Basically, it always deals a flat rate of damage that is distributed between all hit targets. If it hits only one player, they’ll get the full blast - and probably die - however if, say, 4 players all stand in the line of fire, all of you will only take a quarter damage. Alternatively, just get out of the red zone.
Final: Heta Kol
The final boss fight has a phase mechanic, where upon reducing Field Marshal to 66% and 33% health, she’ll jetpack away and spawn a few groups of trash mobs - copied from the previous portions of the Flashpoint - to attack you. Kol only returns after the mobs were wiped out, but keep in mind that the second wave at 33% is a particularly annoying set of Dar’Manda who will likely cause more trouble than the Field Marshal herself. That said, right after flying back she stays rooted in place, and there are areas in the encounter which break line of sight, allowing you to deal with the trash first. She has a few abilities to throw at you when you’re fighting, however. First up is a rooting ability with a short cast time. This will drop red circles under your character that will follow you for a while if you move, and if you stay there when they trigger you won’t be able to move for a while. It is quite easy to outrun them. Kol also occasionally throws a sticky grenade at you, but this causes negligible damage - it isn’t clear if the ability is bugged or not. After casting Lockdown, Kol sometimes immediately pops Execute, which only has any effect if you were snared by the red circles, and inflicts massive damage, so be wary. After Kol is defeated, the Flashpoint is over.
Achievements & Collectibles
There are several achievements that can be unlocked in Spirit of Vengeance, as well as some lore objects to unlock codex entries.
Lore Objects
There are 5 lore objects in this Flashpoint, spread out across the latter two attacking ships. Two are on the Fortune’s Folly as datapads, the first appearing on a table next to the burning corridor section. The second is on a ramp leading up to the Bridge in the area you fight Goldie. The remaining three are on the Seeker’s Vigil. To find the first, simply go forward to the bench right ahead of where you exit the first elevator. You will find a toy dinosaur and a piece of paper, which unlocks a fun little codex entry about what kind of games Mandalorian children play. The last 2 are in the sniper section of the Archives, appearing as two interactable consoles in front of the exhibits on each side of the room.
Achievements
These achievements aren’t listed in your Legacy window until you unlock them:
Not so Profitable Now, Is It? – Defeat all War Profiteers Precision Platformer – Be the first to cross the gap (in group) Race to the Bottom – Be the first to jump down the trash hole trap (in group) Mercy of the Wicked – Spare the War Profiteers
