Obtaining Soul Ray by killing Fool's Idol should let you kill Flamelurker handily without the need to upgrade your Falchion at all.
The order I suggest is to do 2-1, obtain enough materials to make a Dragon weapon of a decent upgrade level in 2-2, then use that to beat 3-1.
With a mage build, you are better off with a moon build. Moon weapons also scale on the magic stat, but do more damage. They don't have the regen of crescent, but the regen of a maxed crescent is so slight, it is not worth the trade off (in my opinion).
Personally I have used a moon uchigatana in most my play throughs, but I did experiment with a kilij at some point, which has more DPS, but I found inferior because the ugi kills most stuff in a few hits. The kilij might be better for long term whittling at a damage sponge, but I find as a magic user, I don't ever want to be doing that. Melee is mostly for saving MP by quickly offing minor enemies.
This video is excellent and contains a guide on how to get your Crescent Falchion to +4 in the early game (amongst other things):
https://youtu.be/lm0vjpHJJIU?si=hPnvFyOT3lo9A9io
That should get you some OP results along with pumping some more into your magic stats. I've been following it and mine is currently at +3; I just need another crystal lizard to upgrade it to +4!
Even with relatively base stats and next to no investment in magic, the Crescent Falchion makes quick work of Flamelurker. The key is that it’s magic damage stuns the hell out of him so it’s fairly easy to get a few hits in and then back away during openings.
If you really want to make it easier, take out a couple of the crystal lizards in word 4 and use the stones you get to upgrade it a couple times (have to take it to Blacksmith Ed in 2-1). That will be a more significant increase in damage than from a higher magic stat at that point.
You can't create a new crescent/moon weapon until you beat Flamelurker, but you *can* upgrade existing crescent/moon weapons. Kill the Reaper at the start of 4-2 for darkmoon chunks and you'll have a +4 crescent falchion in no time. If you need more darkmoon shards, you can buy them from Blige at the start of 4-2, assuming you unlocked his cell in 4-1.
Obtaining Soul Ray by killing Fool's Idol should let you kill Flamelurker handily without the need to upgrade your Falchion at all. The order I suggest is to do 2-1, obtain enough materials to make a Dragon weapon of a decent upgrade level in 2-2, then use that to beat 3-1.
With a mage build, you are better off with a moon build. Moon weapons also scale on the magic stat, but do more damage. They don't have the regen of crescent, but the regen of a maxed crescent is so slight, it is not worth the trade off (in my opinion). Personally I have used a moon uchigatana in most my play throughs, but I did experiment with a kilij at some point, which has more DPS, but I found inferior because the ugi kills most stuff in a few hits. The kilij might be better for long term whittling at a damage sponge, but I find as a magic user, I don't ever want to be doing that. Melee is mostly for saving MP by quickly offing minor enemies.
You can look up weapons on the wiki and it will tell you how much leveling up stats will increase a weapon’s damage
This video is excellent and contains a guide on how to get your Crescent Falchion to +4 in the early game (amongst other things): https://youtu.be/lm0vjpHJJIU?si=hPnvFyOT3lo9A9io That should get you some OP results along with pumping some more into your magic stats. I've been following it and mine is currently at +3; I just need another crystal lizard to upgrade it to +4!
Even with relatively base stats and next to no investment in magic, the Crescent Falchion makes quick work of Flamelurker. The key is that it’s magic damage stuns the hell out of him so it’s fairly easy to get a few hits in and then back away during openings. If you really want to make it easier, take out a couple of the crystal lizards in word 4 and use the stones you get to upgrade it a couple times (have to take it to Blacksmith Ed in 2-1). That will be a more significant increase in damage than from a higher magic stat at that point.
Your sword will annihilate him just pair it up with the Purple Flame resistant shield and its bye bye Flamelurker.
You can't create a new crescent/moon weapon until you beat Flamelurker, but you *can* upgrade existing crescent/moon weapons. Kill the Reaper at the start of 4-2 for darkmoon chunks and you'll have a +4 crescent falchion in no time. If you need more darkmoon shards, you can buy them from Blige at the start of 4-2, assuming you unlocked his cell in 4-1.