RF4 Rune Flowers: What They Do & Where To Get Them

Rune Flower in Selphia Farm (RF4 Special)

Rune flowers are a special kind of interactable object that can appear at random in a field. If you hack one with a sickle, sword, or dual blade, it’ll leave behind runes — which are little spheres of light that recover some of your Rune Points (RP).

These rune flowers are handy to keep around, especially after a long in-game day of hard work.

But you can’t pick them up and take them with you in your inventory.

What you can do is save the rune flowers for when you actually need to recover your RP. And don’t worry, they’re not going anywhere – no matter how long you leave them in the field.

 

Where Can You Get Rune Flowers?

One caveat that you have to think about with rune flowers is that you can’t always rely on them.

Rune flowers spawn randomly in any field if at least one square isn’t tilled or occupied by weeds, rocks, branches, stuff like that.

You can expect to see at least one of these rune flowers in your playthrough in Selphia Farm and the seasonal fields (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter Fields).

 
A Rune Flower in Spring Field / Rune Factory 4
A Rune Flower in Spring Field
 

What Are Rune Flowers For?

Rune flowers have only one purpose in the game: to recover your RP by leaving behind runes.

But how much RP?

It doesn’t matter whether you’re still at the beginning of the game at level 4, or pushing endgame at level 327.

A rune will always recover 25% of your maximum RP.

 
Recovering RP with a Rune at Level 4
Recovering RP with a Rune at Level 4
 

Remember: the runes that rune flowers leave behind are different from the runes you can pick up from harvesting crops.

They may look alike, but there are minor differences to keep in mind.

  • Runes from rune flowers only recover 25% of your maximum RP
  • However, the runes from crops have an additional benefit: they can recover RP and level up a random skill

There are even runes with faces on them called runeys. In addition to recovering your RP, these runeys also permanently increase one of your base stats.

 
From left to right: runes from rune flowers; runes from harvested crops; runeys from harvested crops / RF4
From left to right: runes from rune flowers; runes from harvested crops; runeys from harvested crops
 

If you’ve been working on your farm daily then you can expect plenty of additional skill levels and stat boosts by the end of the main story.

Note: once a rune shows itself, it will disappear in exactly one minute, so don’t hesitate to pick them up!

 

When To Use Rune Flowers

Because rune flowers spawn randomly, you have to be strategic with the runes they drop.

This is important to remember, especially in the early game when RP-recovering foods are scarce.

Only cut open rune flowers on your farm when you’ve exhausted your RP from tilling the field, watering crops, chopping wood, smashing rocks, or any other laborious tasks.

This way, you can recover the RP you’ve used up and save the rest for other duties – like crafting or fighting monsters.

Tip: if you’re far from your farm, out of RP, and gearing to fight a difficult boss, you can always see if a rune flower has spawned in any of the seasonal fields.

Fighting monsters is hard work.

Hard work in Rune Factory costs RP.

So always remember to manage your resources well — even resources found inside little blue flowers.

Emily Hinz

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Emily is a Portuguese (BR) -> English translator and a long-time video game enthusiast. Raised on a farm, the charming gameplay of Rune Factory sowed the seeds of her interest in video games. After all, fighting off monsters and tending to virtual fields was more fun than helping out with real farm work. Now, Emily enjoys playing her favourite RPGs in her cozy apartment in Brazil.

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