Could someone explain scars to me?

[u/Ynwe]

I get they are challenges with which you can buy things from an alternative shop. However, I am still not sure I entirely understand how they work in terms of scoring/giving souls and what their MAJOR benefits are. Also empathy lowers your score and thus your soul gainage, is that correct?

[u/TacoConKvass]

Scoring is dependant on the scar type. Platforming/target shootout Scars just require you to be quick enough, with empathies simply starting you wity negative time Combat Scars grade you depending on a) how many hits you took b) the amount of resolve you used/total cost of relics you have picked up c) number of empthies used. Each of those 3 lowers your score, but that doesn't reduce the amount of Soul Stones you get, just makes you take longer to get each trophy, since you need to use more classes

As for the MAJOR benefit - some of the Scars give A LOT of Soul Stones

[u/Odd-Confusion1073]

Scores from the different classes add up and you receive soul when your total surpasses the required score for bronze, silver, and finally gold. More than individual scores you are rewarded mostly for beating each challenge with the widest array of classes, and you will probably get gold by the time you are able to beat the challenge with all of them.

Some challenges are locked to a single class and those ones are much more demanding in terms of skill, but they also give you soul three times when you beat the bronze silver and gold scores respectively. 

Finally yes empathy lowers the final skill multiplier so if you have max empathy and beat a challenge easily it might be a good idea to ratchet down the empathy and try again to get a higher multiplier giving you a higher score for that class in the challenge and reducing the time it takes to reach the trophy scores. At least for me the sweet spot for reducing empathy is 3 lower than the one I beat it easily at, which lets me beat it and get a decent multiplier.

Edit: as far as major benefits armor and rune levels are great, as are the special classes. Sometimes the playstyle of alternate classes makes certain scar challenges easier ( and the game counts them as the base class for purposes of score calculation. For example if a challenge is hard with melee and you can’t beat a challenge with the duelist you can use the Stygian Sharpshooter instead if you have unlocked it in the soul shop by pressing up down on a duelist in character selection)

You can also pick and choose additional buffs to unlock for purchase on the castle especially armor and red aether gain.