Torchlight Infinite SS14 Flame Elementium Farming Guide: Tartarus and T7 Tips

A screen full of loot looks great, but it does not always mean your next upgrade is paid for. When farming Flame Elementium in Torchlight Infinite SS14, separate the FE you pick up, the items you can sell, and the materials you spend to keep running.

That distinction matters even more in Tartarus: the SS14 update makes Flame Elementium the only currency used for Trade House transactions. Selling useful drops therefore belongs in your farming plan alongside collecting raw FE.

For early progression, start with repeatable Netherrealm clears, collect the resources needed for Tartarus, and turn the resulting loot into upgrades. This guide focuses on that farming loop. For the prison rules and companion systems, see our Tartarus mechanics and Followers guide.

Choose T6 or T7 Based on Your Clear Speed

Start with a difficulty your build can clear consistently rather than pushing higher tiers before your gear is ready. If T7 bosses take too long or repeated deaths interrupt your runs, use T6 to work toward a specific upgrade before trying again.

Move into T7 when you can handle ordinary packs, escaped inmates, and map bosses without frequent deaths or lengthy retreats. The aim is to establish a repeatable farming routine, not simply complete one difficult map.

Test a small batch of maps with the same setup. Pay attention to where you lose time: slow boss fights, frequent recovery stops, or encounters that your build struggles to finish. Use those problems to decide what to upgrade next.

Avoid spending your entire FE reserve on an expensive item without knowing what it will improve. Prioritize upgrades that address the damage or survivability problem holding back your clears, then test the route again.

Build a T7 Route Around Maps and Nameplates

For this approach, use T7 to pursue both ordinary loot and seasonal progress. Defeating escaped inmates in the Netherrealm provides Prisoner Nameplates, which are used to begin the Tartarus prison-management activity.

That makes this a different route from pure boss rushing. Skipping seasonal encounters may shorten the map, but it also removes the nameplate collection that supports the second half of your farming loop.

A practical starting routine is:

1. Prepare a batch of maps. Use layouts you can navigate comfortably and avoid modifiers that repeatedly disrupt your build.
2. Clear escaped inmates along your route, collect their nameplates, and finish the map. Avoid unnecessary backtracking for isolated enemies.
3. After the batch, handle Tartarus and sort the rewards together. Price-check useful drops before returning to mapping.

Start with a batch of 10 maps and record your costs, clear times, and rewards. Repeat the test before deciding whether the route is worth continuing.

Also, test the maps currently available rather than copying an old favorite without checking it. SS14 replaced some repeated Netherrealm maps and others whose gameplay experience did not meet expectations.

The goal is to find a route you can repeat without constantly changing equipment, browsing the market, or reorganizing your stash.

Choose Tartarus Treasures for the Board You Have

Once inside Tartarus, focus on decisions that improve the rewards you can eventually claim. The seasonal rules connect defeated inmate groups to Warden’s Caches of the corresponding rarity. Building the board matters, but those encounters still need to be defeated to reveal their caches.

The following Warden’s Treasures serve different purposes, so choose based on what your current prison board needs:

Treasure effects are summarized from the TLI Events community reference.

Choose the effect that solves the present board problem. An opening effect and a consumption effect do different jobs; neither should be your automatic choice every time.

Check the live card description before confirming. In particular, do not assume Crimson Vintage upgrades inmates that are already Legendary or higher, or that Brass Horn lets you choose the order of consumption.

Work Out What a Season Compass Actually Costs You

The old instinct is simple: more drop quantity should mean more profit. Tartarus adds another consideration—some reward modifiers also make the Riot take longer.

The values below are listed in TLIDB's Season Compass database. Check the current in-game descriptions before buying or using a Compass.

These effects do not stack with themselves, and added Season Compasses are consumed when the endgame stage begins.

Consider Mercury Shackles. At otherwise unchanged damage output, reducing damage taken to 55% implies roughly 1.82 times the damage-dealing time needed to defeat the same target. That is arithmetic from the modifier, not a measured increase in total run time.

The whole run also includes management, movement, and looting. A longer fight may be acceptable when combat is already a small part of the session.

Test the full cycle, not just the reward chest. Use a stronger Compass only if the extra rewards outweigh its cost, the longer combat time, and the risk of failed or incomplete runs.

Turn Useful Drops into FE

Do not restrict your price checks to weapons and armor. SS14 adds Trade House support for Followers, Tartarus Skills, and Origin Tartarus Skills, along with improvements to precise-search filters and saved search conditions.

For this farming route, sort your sale candidates into three groups.

Equipment: Search for the same item and compare relevant modifiers. Do not price an ordinary roll against the most expensive listing, and do not assume every legendary deserves a lengthy investigation.

Materials: Decide what your next planned upgrade actually requires. Price-check the surplus rather than automatically consuming everything in crafting attempts.

Follower-related drops: Check trade eligibility and the complete item details. Search comparable entries rather than assigning value from the name or rarity alone.

Save useful searches for categories you repeatedly find. That gives the new search tools a practical purpose: less time rebuilding the same filters after every session.

Most importantly, a listing price is not a completed sale. An item you hope to sell for 12 FE is still inventory until someone buys it. Keep that estimate separate from the currency available for your next purchase.

When Should You Move from T7 to T8?

T7 should support progression, not become a permanent destination simply because the first few sessions felt good.

There is a specific SS14 reason to investigate T8: the official update lowers the drop threshold for Legendary Compasses to T8, while noting that their drop quantity remains significantly below Profound difficulty.

That gives T8 an additional reward opportunity, but it does not establish that every T8 setup earns more than T7.

Test the transition once your current route feels comfortable. Keep your build and farming approach as comparable as possible, then check whether the extra rewards compensate for slower clears and higher costs.

When T8 repeatedly stalls your session, return to T7 with a specific upgrade in mind. When it clears smoothly and produces better net returns across several batches, move your regular farming there.

Do not stay in T7 solely to preserve an impressive clear time. Equally, do not force T8 solely because it has a higher number.

Track Your Actual FE Profit

Use a simple calculation:

Net farming profit = raw FE collected + net FE from completed sales − the value of consumed farming materials.

For example, a hypothetical session with 15 FE picked up, 25 FE received from sales after tax, and 10 FE of consumed materials produces 30 FE of net profit. This is an accounting example, not an SS14 earnings estimate.

Record unsold equipment separately. For repeatable profit comparisons, also assign a replacement value to consumed materials you farmed yourself; finding them does not make them costless to replace.

Include map preparation, prison management, Riot combat, looting, and selling time when comparing routes. Excluding half the work can make a weak method look much better than it is.

Final Thoughts

When farming Torchlight Infinite Flame Elementium in SS14, begin with manageable T7 maps, collect nameplates along the way, and make Tartarus choices that suit your board. Sell useful drops before spending heavily on experiments, and judge stronger Compasses by the entire run rather than the size of one reward explosion.

Then test T8 when your build is ready. The aim is not to remain at the easiest difficulty—it is to keep turning each farming session into the next meaningful upgrade.