When it comes to storied game franchises, its hard to do better than Castlevania. Dating back to 1986, the series debuted on a number of now-forgotten pieces of gaming hardware before making its debut for NES in 1987, a debut which won it worldwide acclaim. Through more than 20 different sequels and adaptations, the basic elements have been the same, focusing on the theatrical trappings of Western gothic horror: werewolves, vampires, and ghosts. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a big-budget franchise reboot, bringing the series to life in sparkling clarity on both modern consoles and staging the action in a robust three-dimensional world.
Gameplay will consist of combat, platforming, and some light puzzle solving, and span nearly 50 levels Protagonist Gabriel Belmont is outfitted with a retractable whip/grapple-like device called the Combat Cross, which can also be used for platforming. The game is published by Konami (it even includes the code!) and developed Kojima Productions, a studio owned by the Metal Gear Solid visionary Hideo Kojima. Previous Castlevania titles and previous Kojima productions have been notable for their extreme difficulty, so we’re providing a complete walkthrough for the game.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
The Walkthrough
Chapter 1
Besieged Village
The game starts after a short cinematic and you’ll be walked through the basics. Keep hacking away at werewolves as they appear with combinations of X and Y attacks.
Follow the instructions to learn to use the health font and buy new skills from the menu.
Once you’ve got the basics down, another cinematic will kick in and the villagers will run away, as opposed to standing nearby and being useless.
To fight the Great Warg, you’ll spend some time getting acquainted with dodging, which you can execute by pressing a direction on the Left Analog Stick and pressing LT. Use it to dodge the unblockable attack when the big werewolf’s mouth glows.
You can block during this fight with LT as well, which helps. If you get into trouble, dodge back over to the health font and recharge.
The rest of the fight is you hacking away at the monster. Get acquainted with your abilities while you do so. Before long, you’ll diminish the Warg’s health and trigger another cutscene. Finish it by pressing RT when prompted. You’ll see the Warg’s eyes flash, which means it’s going to leap at you.
That wraps up level one. You’ll get to see your stats afterward. Hit A to advance to the next level.
TRIAL: After the fight, you can replay the level again to defeat its Trial. Completing all the trials unlocks an Achievement or Trophy. The trial isn’t hard, especially after you just beat the level — finish it in exactly the same way, hacking away at the Lycanthropes and Greater Warg when it shows up. Kill the boss with speed, and make sure you pick up that sharp log at the end before the Warg jumps, or you’ll have to fight it again to get another chance. Keep at least one villager alive and you’ll complete the trial.
Hunting Path
You start this mission on horseback, and pursued by lesser Lychanthropes riding Wargs. The riding part is pretty simple — you don’t have to do much but hang on.
You do have to fight off the enemies, however. Your area attack affects the riders, while your line attack affects the Wargs. First, knock off the riders.
After you’ve killed the riders, you can damage the Wargs enough to jump over to them. Hit them a few times and you’ll be prompted to hop over and massacre the mount.
The trick to beating these guys is to alternate your attacks. Try to quickly kill the riders, while knocking the Wargs off-balance with attacks. The faster you can drop them, the better.
Be careful of the enemies trying to knock you off your horse. You can dodge their attacks by holding the block button and pushing left or right, but this is tough. If you do get hit, wait for the two circles to line up to prompt you to hit any button to right yourself.
Kill the Wargs, or fall off your horse, and you’ll find yourself in an arena area. You have to defend yourself against some Lycanthropes for a few seconds.
LIFE GEM: Before doing anything, run down into the foreground and look for a glowing body on the left side. Interact with it and you’ll take a Life Gem, the level’s only hidden collectible, off it.
Now back to fighting. Hack through the Lycanthropes with area attacks to keep them off you. Kill them all and your horse will return to you, taking you back into the mounted fight.
You have to fight off two more Warg riders to advance. Do it the same way you did before — kill the riders, damage the Wargs, jump on and stab them to death. Shouldn’t take too long.
Killing those two Wargs, or getting knocked off your horse, puts you in a second arena fight. This one’s a lot tougher because one of the Wargs joins in.
Play keep-away while you kill the Lycanthropes. Heal at the font if you need to, and just keep hacking away at the enemies. The Warg is your big concern. Try to stay on your toes and dodge a lot to keep clear of its attacks and the attacks of the little guys as well.
Once you’ve cleared the ground of little guys, you can lean into the Warg properly. Fight it the same way you fought the boss in the Besieged Village — mangle it with your attacks and dodge clear of its glowing-mouth lunge.
The Warg will fall to a ton of damage on your part. Just keep pummeling it and stay out of its way. There aren’t many other points to the strategy, unfortunately. Quick timing will keep you clear of its attacks and alive, but not much else. Try to position yourself so you’re at the bottom of the screen, with the Warg on top. It’s easier that way.
A cutscene after defeating the Warg takes you to the end of the level.
TRIAL: This mission’s trial has you playing it without healing at either the Health Font or by picking up the Life Gem in the first arena fight. It’s doable if you’re careful and kill the Warg Riders quickly. Make sure you find health before starting the Trial, however, because coming into it mostly dead is a great way to fail.
The Dead Bog
Right at the start of this level, you have collectibles to snag.
LIFE GEM: Check the first body on the left to get your next Life Gem.
SCROLL: The body in the middle of the area, lying on his back, contains a Brotherhood Scroll. Read it to find out a bit about the level ahead.
Now turn left and jump onto the platform there. You’ll get a quick tutorial about climbing on ledges. Swing around to the next area and drop down for a cutscene.
When you get control back, you’ll have to fight off a group of Goblins. Start by running up to that grenade when prompted and throwing it back in their faces.
Goblins aren’t too difficult. Fight them with your normal strategy and it shouldn’t be long before you hit another cutscene.
You’ll have to wade through the mire to move on. Stick to the darker water or you’ll take damage from poisonous gas. When you see ripples and bubbles, you know there are enemies called Naiads below the surface that’ll grab you and attack you. You can escape them with the same circle-convergence prompt you dealt with while fighting on horseback.
TIP: Try to jump from dry ground as far into the mire as you can to avoid having to walk in it. this can often get you past the Naiads, which reveal themselves with bubbles, but actually attack when the ripples appear.
Cross to the first dry island you see. Ahead you’ll see a pair of paths — one to the right with a staircase going up, and one to the left with a Health Font. We’re going left.
Go up the stairs on the left side, left of the font, and you’ll reach another Goblin encampment. Dispatch them.
You should see two paths again — one far to the right, the other far to the left. Go to the right path and hop over the rock in the way. You’ll have to cross the bog to another island.
LIFE GEM: When you hit this island (where the path again splits), check the body there for another Life Gem. That’s your second of four.
Now, move off the island going to the right. The camera should swing overhead, showing you the path to the right, and another going up. Dodge the first set of Naiads using timing — the second you can walk around.
Okay, another set of boggy grossness to cross. This time, the path through the bog arcs toward the top of the screen, or down toward the bottom. Take the top path.
Stop when you see Naiad bubbles. Wait for the first set to disappear, then move on quickly over the second set when the coast is clear and you should avoid all damage. Climb up on the land on the far side and progress through.
The path cuts up into the background, or down into the foreground. Come down, toward the screen, and follow the path down until you reach another Goblin camp. Here, you can jump up onto a ledge and continue downscreen into the foreground, but don’t do that.
LIFE GEM: Instead, carefully go to the bottom right of the screen, into the foreground near some scraggly trees, and bear right. You should get the camera to follow you through a small tunnel and into another section, where you’ll find a body and a Life Gem. Be careful of the Goblin ambush this triggers.
Kill the Goblins and fall back to the spot where the path continued into the foreground, which we just skipped over. If you follow that all the way (it cuts to the right side of the screen and you’ll have to jump up some), you’ll wind up back at that fork with the stairs to the right and the health font to the left. We’re back at the beginning.
Cross the bog onto the central island and then back toward the health font. Go past it into the Goblin camp, and instead of taking the right path (which we used to go find the Life Gems), take the left path through the camp. Cross the bog to the next area.
Climb up the ledge past the health font and follow the path down toward the mire again. When you hit swamp, you’ll see a path to the right and another forward. Ignore the right path and go upscreen.
Crossing this section, you’ll see a health font ahead on the left that you can get to if you need a recharge. Then follow through the swamp to the right.
SCROLL: Look on the right of these two platforms, which are very near each other, for a third that has a body on it. Get there and grab the scroll off it.
Cross the swamp ahead and you’ll come to a big drop. Don’t jump down here until you’re sure this is what you want — you can’t come back from it and the only way to get to the earlier sections of the level is to replay it.
You’ll enter a big goblin camp when you hit the ground. The game will prompt you to grab the Goblins to knock their grenades loose. Do that by hitting a button when the circles prompts line up and the grenade will hit the ground. Then run up and grab it, and Gabriel will chuck it at a nearby tree.
Two grenades uproots the tree and knocks it over. You can then cross it to an island in the swamp to progress forward.
SCROLL: From this island, go through the mire to the left to find a second one with a knight’s body on it and a scroll.
Keep moving up through the swamp. You’ll have to dodge a few Naiad patches, but just wait for the coast to clear and you’ll find the timing is easy. On the far side, take the stairs up and around the cliff face. Ahead, you’ll hit a Goblin camp with more enemies to vanquish.
There are two paths — a staircase up, which leads to a boss fight, and another path through the woods forward, that gets you to a healing font. Go that way first to prepare for the boss. You’ll find some Goblins to fight in front of the font. Heal and then return to the stairs.
Go up to the mausoleum. Bypass the front door and you’ll find a place to climb up along the side. Get inside and you’ll trigger a cutscene when you reach the center of the room. Follow the Hook tutorial to learn how to get back outside.
Boss Fight: Swamp Troll
This guy seems tough, but careful dodging will help you win the day fairly easily. Pay attention to the Swamp Troll’s timing and keep clear of its shockwave attack and you’ll have little difficulty.
The Troll starts by snagging a piece of monument to attack you with. This makes little difference to its ability — stay clear of that piece of rock with the dodge move and keep attacking whenever you can. When the Troll hits the ground to send a shockwave, jump toward it to avoid the wave altogether.
Stay out of the air unless you’re avoiding the shockwave. The troll’s attacks are all based on brute force, and it actually is kind of slow and cumbersome. When its eyes go red and it charges, dodge out of the way. If it tries to hit you with its arms, dodge them.
Once you realize that the limit of the Troll’s ability is to swing away at you and that you can dodge every one of its attacks easily, it becomes much less of a threat. Keep hammering away at it until it starts to blink, then execute the killing blow when prompted. Hit your buttons when the circle prompts light up and this big guy goes down without an issue.
With the troll squashed, go to the glowing blue box and get your last scroll. Then head upscreen to the big tree and use the Hook to get out of the graveyard.
Outside, run around the outside of the mausoleum all the way to the left to find a health font to help you. Then step down the stairs leading downscreen to find a big destroyed bridge.
Jump to the next platform and the game will prompt you to climb on the ledge. Do it, drop down and climb around the corner, then use the hook to rappel down. At the bottom, jump across to the other platform and climb up the rocks there.
LIFE GEM: Step close to the pillar (this is the second one you’ve come across) and you’ll see a spot to shoot the hook. Do so and climb up the ledge. Grab the ledge and keep climbing up to the top of the pillar. When you get there, turn left and drop down to the platform below on the first pillar — it has a body and your final Life Gem.
Repeat what you just did and climb back up to the top of the second pillar. This time, turn back to the right and you can use that same Hook Point to swing across to the platform on the third pillar.
Jump down to the next two platforms, then use the Hook to swing across to the last one and climb up. At the top, just run through the doors to end the mission.
TRIAL: For this one, you have to finish the mission after having slain 50 Goblins. There aren’t quite enough Goblins stretched throughout the level — however, if you stop by that Goblin camp with the tree you have to knock down, you can keep fighting as long as you want. The Goblins there will continually respawn until the tree is knocked down. Just keep hacking away until you hit the mark, then go fight the Swamp Troll up ahead.
Pan’s Temple
No branching paths just yet. Instead, go forward up to that glowing shield-looking thing on the left. Examine it and you’ll light one of five spaces on the amulet, which sits on the screen.
Keep running down the path and you’ll hit another rune thing on the right side of the screen. Grab that one too.
SCROLL: Further upscreen from the second rune, look for a big downed log and a body propped up against it on the far side. You’ll have to jump over it to get to the body and the scroll it holds.
From the scroll body, run straight to the right, directly into what looks like the wall of the area. The camera will suddenly pivot on you — revealing a pathway forward and another rune.
LIFE GEM: Just beyond the rune, through the gap in the trees, you’ll find the body that contains the Life Gem mentioned in the scroll.
Backtrack out of this little hole and head upscreen, along the trench path. Grab the next rune on the right side right before you enter a big pond/clearing.
SCROLL: Your last scroll of the stage is at the far end of the pond, right before you re-enter the woods. The body is on the left side of the hole, sitting down, basically right in your path.
Move through to the next clearing. Ignore the blue box to the left — you can’t get to it, as the game will tell you — and get the last shield for your amulet on the right. Then move up to the blinking shield beside the green-sheathed door.
BROTHERHOOD ARK: That blue box up there is an Ark that gives you a weapons upgrade. This one contains a Holy Water upgrade (which you’ll get later), and you need the Seraph Shoulders to get to it (which you’ll receive much later).
Touching this last shield opens up the combination to open the green door. It’s basically a key-code: you want the left-to-right set of runes to match your top-to-bottom set of runes. Swap the rune in each position until the order matches the one on your amulet and the door will open. Head through.
Climb to the top of the temple to trigger a cutscene. You’ll then have to solve a puzzle by rotating three rings to make a path to the center. The solution follows, so don’t read it if you want to figure it out yourself.
Rotate the outer ring clockwise twice; then go to the innermost ring, and rotate that clockwise twice; then go to the middle ring and rotate it clockwise once. Your reward is 200 experience points and the cutscene to end the mission.
TRIAL: Beating Pan’s puzzle in five moves is this level’s trial, and it uses the solution I just gave up at No. 11.
Oblivion Lake
Starting out, you’ll head down another linear path. Stop when you hit the edge of the frozen lake, near a big angel statue.
LIFE GEM: There’s a body right there on this dock, next to the statue. Check it for the gem.
Run out into the lake to start a massive battle with an Ice Titan. It’s a huge statue creature that comes roaring out of the lake to take you on. Close the gap between it and you.
Watch out for attacks as you approach. First, the Ice Titan will zip a line of ice at you across the lake bed, which you can easily dodge. Then, as you approach, it will touch the lake and a rune will appear beneath Gabriel. Dodge when that happens as well, or spiky icy death will be your reward.
Okay, you’re standing in front of the Colossus, er, Titan, now. Watch for it to wind up and punch the ice. You want to be nearby where its fist lands, but jump into the air to avoid getting hit and the subsequent shockwave.
When the fist gets stuck, use the Hook Tip to grapple and climb on the Titan’s wrist. You’ll be prompted to hang on when it starts to shake you. Then, shimmy around the outside, looking for a path to climb up.
Soon you won’t be able to climb the wrist any higher. Shimmy around the outside and you’ll find a purple circle. Start stabbing it when prompted.
Destroy this rune and you’ll end up on top of the arm. The game will prompt you to dodge — do so quickly — and then grapple onto the other arm, then onto the chest.
From here, shimmy to the left and start stabbing the other rune. Watch for the camera to pan so you can see the left arm coming up to snag you, and immediately do your little ledge jump down to the right to avoid being scooped up and tossed.
Destroy the chest rune. If you fall, you’ll have to climb back up without the benefit of prompts. When this rune goes, you can swing up over the face and onto the back of the Titan.
You have to climb down and get to the center of the back to attack this next rune. Follow the rules you’ve observed to now, making sure to jump sideways to dodge the hand that comes to clear you off.
Kill the back rune and you can climb the rest of the way up to the head. You need to skip around to the side to the last rune. Be aware that there’s one last attempt by the hand to kill you here.
Stab the head until you get a cutscene to end the mission.
TRIAL: Your goal is to beat the Ice Titan in 90 seconds, which is not exactly easy and might be better attempted with upgraded equipment. Having beaten it, you know the drill — the key is to be fast, know the path, and not screw up anything. Start over if you get knocked off, as you have no chance of clearing it anyway.
ACHIEVEMENT: The “Chapter I” Achievement is unlocked for getting this far.
Chapter 2
Enchanted Forest
Head forward and you’ll find a ledge where you can drop down. Drop off the ledge and you’ll land in a small nook. Climb down from there and you’ll find a hook point from which you can repel.
Get down to the bottom by catching a second hook point and swinging over. You can walk further downscreen from there.
SCROLL: Look for a body on the left side of the area immediately after you finish rappelling downward.
BROTHERHOOD ARK: Come back to this when you have Shadow Magic. After the scroll, hop across to the far river bank, then drop down into the river below. Walk behind the waterfall and you’ll enter a cave. Follow it back to where there’s a rune on the wall. Turn on Shadow Magic and touch the rune to open the door to the Ark, which contains a dagger upgrade.
Follow the riverbank to the right. You’ll encounter a Lesser Lycanthrope on the way and start to learn about Light Magic. Follow the tutorial to recover some health, and keep following the cliffs until you get the Neutral Magic Font.
Head left from here and you’ll encounter a bunch of lesser werewolves. Switch on Light Magic to get back any health you need, then replenish your supply at the altar behind you if you need to.
Push forward to what looks like waterfall, with two paths splitting left and right. Head down to the right, where you’ll drop down into a stream. There you’ll deal with some Goblins.
LIGHT GEM: Push upscreen along the stream and you’ll come to a body in the water that contains a Light Gem. Collecting five of these will increase the amount of Light Magic you can handle.
Double-back to the waterfall and take the left path. You’ll drop down into a stream again, and again you’ll fight a bunch of Goblins. When you’re clear of them, continue around the corner. You’ll see a hook point up in the air that you can latch onto to climb up.
Shimmy around the ledges until you can climb up to the top of the area. You’ll get up to an edge on the wall, which you can follow through to another area upscreen.
SCROLL: See the body propped against the low wall ahead? Check it to get your second scroll for the level.
Move forward from this spot and you’ll see a wall you can climb up. Break through the weak, round portion, and you’ll enter an interior building.
SCROLL: Check the body in the middle of the floor for the Focus Scroll, which opens up new attack abilities for you. You’ll get a quick tutorial on how they work in a moment.
You’ll also get to fight a Warg. You should be pretty well-versed in how this works, so apply the necessary dodging and attacking strategies to get past its melee attacks.
When the Warg goes down, you’ll see a door you have to blow through, and a group of Goblins will attack you. Keep an eye out for their grenades on the ground, or grab a Goblin and beat a grenade out of him — either way, when you pick one up, you’ll heave it at the door. It takes two to blow it open.
Finish the Goblins when the door is open and you can leave. Go out the door and after a moment, Lycanthropes will attack you. Dispatch them quickly.
SCROLL: There’s a tree in the center of this courtyard, dividing the area into two paths. Go around the tree to the right and you’ll hit a body and your last scroll of the mission.
Go back around the tree on the left and you’ll see a ruined tower that has ledges you can climb. Get high enough and you’ll spot a hook point. Use that to climb to the upper ledge.
Now shimmy around the side and use the hook point to swing across the gap to the cliff beyond. Turn around and swing again, this time jumping so that you land inside the big open stump. That ends the mission.
TRIAL: When you replay this level, your job is to kill 30 Goblins with their own grenades. You can do this when you fight the Goblins in the streams near the waterfall fountain, but the best place is after you get to the spot with the Focus Scroll. There, the Goblins respawn indefinitely and use lots of grenades. Be careful not to throw the grenades at the destructible wall, however, because two explosions will destroy it and cut off the never-ending Goblin flow.
Underground Caves
Step forward into the cave and follow the tunnel until you come to a ledge where you can drop. Shimmy left and climb up, then continue around the corner and jump across the water.
Now it’s time to fight a Giant Spider. This enemy fights much the same way as the Wargs you’ve dealt with, using short-range melee attacks and lunges. You should be able to dodge these easily enough.
Watch out for two longer-range attacks from the spider though. In one, she chucks hunks of web your way, which travel in a straight line and are fairly easy to dodge. The second is a bodily jump in which the spider is the projectile. Again, watch for indicators that the spider is doing the move, then roll clear.
Kill the monster and leave the room. You’ll have to climb up to a hook point, and in the next room, use one to rappel down to the ground floor. When you arrive, Lycanthropes and a Giant Spider execute an ambush on you. You should already know how to defeat them.
SCROLL: Once the coast is clear, go all the way to the right and to the back of the room and you’ll see an exit you can reach by jumping up some rocks. On the other side, use the hook point to climb down to a hangable ledge, and use it to climb over to another ledge you can walk on to the right. From there, jump across to the other platform and walk carefully across the web bridge to the body and the scroll there.
Backtrack across the web bridge and into the room where you just fought the second giant spider. Go through the left door and hop up onto the ledge to the right. You can use that to climb around the corner and jump to another ledge on the other side of the gap.
LIFE GEM: Enter then exit the room and you’ll see a blinking Totem pole. You can’t deal with it now — you need a weapon upgrade, the Spiked Chain, in order to destroy it. When you come back, you’ll find a Life Gem hidden there.
First, go left from the Totem. You’ll enter a wide-open area with a destructible wall, and will be ambushed by Goblins. Beat them and use their grenades to blast down the wall.
On the other side, check the body you find there for a Runic Stone Key. It’s the first of two that you need. Then backtrack to the Totem.
Take the path to the right of the Totem. You’ll cross a web bridge in this room, and then another one back in the other direction. On this big platform, a Giant Spider attacks you. Dispatch it.
Look for a place to climb up on the wall in the back right section of this platform, upscreen from you. Climb the rocks to find a ledge, and use it to shimmy around get onto the walking ledge on the far side of the area. Now follow that to the door to leave this section.
Swing across the gap and you’ll find yourself on a ledge with a body. Check it to find the other Runic Stone Key. Now jump off that ledge down to the floor below, but ignore the two blinking locks. You have the keys for them, but there are a couple of scrolls to collect yet.
Head downscreen to the left and you’ll see a web bridge. Cross it to a big platform. There’s another bridge downscreen from you, but ignore it for a second.
SCROLL: Instead, jump to the right to a second rocky platform, then go upscreen toward another web bridge. Cross it and you’ll find some rocks you can climb to reach another exit. Through there is the body with the scroll.
Don’t use the hook point right next to you — there’s still a scroll we can go get. Instead, backtrack to the last room, cross the spiderweb bridge and jump to the first rock platform. Then go downscreen across another bridge and exit the room.
SCROLL: Continue to follow the path downscreen. You should cross lots of rocks and a couple of web bridges, and, before long, stumble across the last body in plain sight. Grab the final scroll off it. Once you have it, you can either continue on the downscreen path to a Health Font (this path leads to the destructible wall where you got the first Runic Key), or backtrack the way you came.
Either way, head back to the room with the blinking locks for the Runic Stone Keys. Put the keys in the locks to open the door, and go through to get the Spike Chain upgrade.
Remember the Totem room? Time to backtrack to it and get a gem. You can get there quickly by heading back through the Runic Key door and heading downscreen, past where you got the final scroll.
LIGHT GEM: Return to the Totem room and use the Spike Chain to saw through it. Follow the path beyond and you’ll hit a ledge with a body on it, which has the Light Gem.
From the Totem room, take the left path back to the altar where you found the Spike Chain. You can take the right path, but you’ll end up fighting a Giant Spider along the way.
Go around the back of the altar and follow the path. You’ll find a Totem there that you need to cut through to advance. With that down, you can push through down the path, then use a hook point to get out of the mission.
TRIAL: Here you have to finish the level after defeating 10 enemies, while suffering from spider poison. That means you have to get poisoned, then do some fighting, which isn’t easy. There’s one room to do this in — the second fight with a Giant Spider, when Lycanthropes join the fray. Step one is getting poisoned: to do that, let the spider hit you with its web. You’ll freeze in place, and the spider should saunter up and poison you while you’re stuck, so don’t fight your way out of the webbing. Once poisoned, kill the Lycans as fast as you can. Use Light Magic to counteract the poison when you’re done, then wrap up the mission as usual.
Labyrinth Entrance
Leave the tunnel as you start this mission, and drop down into the open courtyard below. You can’t do anything here but go to the far end and check the glowing door — doing so triggers an ambush, so be ready.
As soon as you’ve been over to the door, a bunch of Goblins appear, including one that’s riding a huge Warthog. You need to pummel that Warthog to kill its rider and stun it, allowing you to climb aboard.
Keep moving and dodging to stay clear of the Warthog, which will repeatedly attempt to gore you and hurt you pretty badly. In the meantime, hack away at it. Knock back the other Goblins too, and remember to use Light Magic if you get into health trouble.
Eventually, you’ll hurt the Warthog enough that it’ll blink white. Run over and follow the prompts to mount it. Now you can ride around the courtyard, squashing any Goblins that get in your way.
Kill all the Goblins and crash the Warthog into the door a couple times to open it. Dismount (and kill the Warthog) by following the prompts and head through the door.
SCROLL: Stop as you go through the door and round the corner to the right. If you’re careful, the camera will show you a body with a scroll here, obscured by the statue that stands beside the door you just came through. Snag it.
Now go to the wall ahead on the left and climb to the top. It’s the only way through this area. At the top of the wall, start walking on the wooden beams on the left to the other side.
SCROLL: You’ll see a body propped against the wall on the far side of the wood beams you have to cross.
LIGHT GEM: Backtrack a little. Go to the other side of the bridge made of three wooden planks, so that you’re on the rocky platform before the body with the skull. Now walk to the right of the three-plank bridge and walk forward beside it, as if you were going to walk parallel to the bridge. You’ll find a hidden ramp that leads to a room down below where the scroll body was, with a body holding a Light Gem.
Now go to the stone outcropping beside the scroll body that pushes off to the left. The camera will change, allowing you to see the ledge on the tower that you can jump to. Climb around to the far side, over the wooden beam that bridges the gap to the far wall.
Climb down when you find the ledge, use the hook point to rappel back, and jump to the lower ledge. Follow the path around until you drop into a courtyard with a rotating mechanism in the center.
When you start to turn that thing, lesser Lycanthropes will attack you. Stop what you’re doing and clear them out, then return to the spinning thing and start rotating it again. You’ll fight a few groups of these guys before you can actually set about turning the thing. It opens the portcullis ahead — when you’ve turned it far enough, it’ll lock into place.
In the next section, you’ll get a short cutscene that shows monsters doing stuff far above Gabriel. When you get control back, move into the courtyard, past the sphinx statues. Look for a healing font on the left.
SCROLL: Along the right side of this courtyard, keep your eyes out for a soldier slumped against one of the statues. He has the last scroll of the mission.
Follow the path into the structure beyond. When the camera switches, you can go upscreen, away from the camera, or downscreen. Going down brings you to a bag of daggers.
BROTHERHOOD ARK: Look carefully along the right side wall for a darker section of stone. If you attack the statues, you’ll probably hit it — the game prompts you by telling you it’s a weak section of wall you can’t break through yet. Note it for later. Come back when you have the Cyclone Boots and do the Shadow Magic dash move to get through the wall. Open the Ark to get a fairy upgrade.
Turn back and head upscreen. Jump the big gap you find and go outside into the last courtyard. There you’ll start fighting a bunch of Goblins.
Tear through the Goblins to keep get yourself healed with Light Magic. After you kill a certain number, there will be a short cutscene and you’ll see your true enemy, a Greater Lycanthrope, whip a ready-to-explode Goblin your way. As soon as the cutscene ends, dodge away from it.
The Greater Lycanthrope is a weaker version of the Swamp Troll you faced at the Mausoleum. Avoid its melee attacks and be careful of its ground-pounding shockwave move. Without too much trouble, you should be able to just smack it around until it dies.
Grab the blinking horn thing off the ground when the fight is over, and walk it over to the blinking bull’s head statue. Take it to the right side of the statue and you can plug the horn into it. Now rotate the whole thing until a cutscene is triggered, and the mission ends.
TRIAL: This one’s easy — kill five Warthogs, then finish the level. In order to bring five Warthogs into the game to fight you, you have to keep massacring them at the very beginning of the level. Beat up on the first Warthog you see, mount it, then kill it, without using it to break down the door. Repeat the process until you get to the fifth one, and use it to open the way forward before killing it. Bam, trial finished; complete the level and you’re done.
Waterfalls of Agharta
SCROLL: You’ll see this body immediately to the left of you when you start.
Go around the corner through the doorway. Jump down to the arena-like platform and you’ll face a Giant Spider. You know how to beat this thing, so repeat those steps here. When you stun it, you’ll be able to mount it like a Warthog.
Use the spider’s web on the glowing tree on the right side of the arena to pull it down, allowing you to swing across.
LIGHT GEM: Kill the spider and it drops a gem for you. That’s handy.
Swing across at the tree and follow the landscape all the way around the edge of the cliff. You’ll have to do some climbing and swing at one point, after which you’ll be attacked by another Greater Lycanthrope.
Solid blocking during this fight is key because of the close quarters. The Lycanthrope will chew you up if you allow it to use its speed to get around you and mangle you. Try to keep your guard up and get counter attacks to its slashes whenever possible, and you should do okay. Keep using magic to heal up if you need to.
Climb up the ledges to the left of where you fought the big werewolf, and then swing off to the left. Keep following the cliff until you can walk through a short tunnel to the area beyond.
A group of Lycanthropes, including a big Greater one, are waiting on the other side of the tunnel. Dispatch the little ones quickly while playing keep-away with the big one. If he gives you trouble, hit him with a series of daggers to take him out quickly.
SCROLL: Check immediately to the left of the tunnel where you just came through to find the body with this scroll. Get it after finishing the fight.
Follow the cliffside around until you hit the statue head set in the wall. Pull it down with your whip to make a path, then climb down and get to the arena in the center of the area.
Time for a boss fight. When you hit the center area, after a cutscene, you’ll find yourself in the grip of a Cave Troll. Follow the prompt to get free of its grip.
This fight can get distracting. There’s the big troll, which is a tough fighter and moves and acts like the Swamp Troll from the Mausoleum fight. There are also a bunch of little trolls, which will harass you during the battle.
Your focus needs to be on the Cave Troll. Beating him is your ultimate goal. You can slap down the little trolls for a little magic boost, which will keep you alive, but make sure you’re dodging the Cave Troll’s attacks and watching for its shockwave move. Always keep hammering away at it.
Your doing this because you need to wear down the Cave Troll so you can mount it like you did the other big monsters in this and the last level. You’ll need to be quick on your feet, but the Cave Troll is mostly big and lumbering and if work on your situational awareness, you’ll be able to avoid him.
When you’ve worn him down, use the hook tip to get on-board, following the prompts.
Slap around the baby trolls with your mount, then get over to that big blinking rock and destroy it with the Cave Troll’s melee attacks. When you’ve done that, mop up the little guys and kill the mount.
Swing across the gap. When you land, use the Health Font if you need to, and ignore the path to the left for a moment. Instead, take the cave to the right.
LIGHT GEM: Going through the cave on the right, you’ll come out on a cliff face that has a waterfall. Go through the waterfall and behind it and you’ll enter a cave with a body and this gem.
Backtrack to the font and take the left path. You’ll saw through a Totem pole, then jump a small gap to a platform where Lycanthropes will attack you. Hit the big one with daggers and use quick blocking moves to take it and its buddies out.
Climb around the left side of the platform to get to where you can use the whip hook to climb the cliffside. In the next area, you’ll encounter a Giant Spider that you have to fight and ride.
This should be pretty standard. Beat the spider into submission and ride it, then use its web to create a bridge. Strangle it and move across.
On the other side, move into the structure and cut through the Totem you’ll find on the right side. After you get the Shadow Magic medallion, return to the Magic Font outside of the structure and fill it up. Then, go back inside, activate Shadow Magic, and use it to open the door to leave the area.
Just outside the structure, a group of Lycanthropes will attack you. You can use Shadow Magic to really wallop them if you like. After that, go to the back wall and find a place to climb up. Use the whip hook to catch the hook point above, then swing right and hook to the second spot.
Climb to the top. You’ll have to work around the sides of the structure and swing a few times to get there, but before long, you’ll find your way out and end this level.
TRIAL: Another simple trial, you’ll need to get back to the spot where you fought the trolls and mount up on the big one again. Then just proceed to squash a bunch of little trolls — 20, to be exact — before you destroy the boulder that lets you leave that spot. As long as you don’t destroy the rocks, trolls will attack you indefinitely.
Agharta
After the cutscene at the start of the level, advance forward and to the right to find a broken staircase. You can’t follow the woman you saw directly, so you’ll have to go around. Jump from the stairs and use your hook whip to swing the rest of the way.
SCROLL: Follow the path forward and you’ll see a body to the left of the path. Snag the scroll off it.
Now you’ll need to fend off a few trolls. They shouldn’t be to tough to deal with. Use area attacks to keep them off you and you should do just fine.
SCROLL: Go up the stairs on the left and then come downscreen, toward the camera, to find another body and another scroll.
SHADOW GEM: Turn around and head upscreen. Go to the top left corner of this area and you’ll find stairs you can descend. At the bottom, head downscreen and follow the path to the right. The camera will switch to show you a staircase leading up in front of you — ignore it and hang a left at the base of the stairs. There’s your body and your gem.
Ignore the stairs leading through that little hole and instead continue downscreen. You’ll find steps that lead you up, and you’ll encounter a fight with some Lycanthropes. Annihilating them should be pretty easy by now.
Keep moving downscreen and then to the right, where you can hook whip over a gap. When you get there, head up to the gap at the top of the area — where a Warg shows up to fight you.
You remember how to deal with Wargs, right? Lots of dodging and pummeling. Stun the Warg and you can ride it. Then follow the instructions in the Travel Book to jump the gap where the bridge is blinking.
On the other side, use the Warg to kill off the Lycans, but don’t kill the Warg yet.
BROTHERHOOD ARK: Note that statue on the right side of this area. You can’t get past it until you’ve powered up with Shadow Magic and the Dark Gauntlet. When you return, punch the statue out of the way and you’ll reach the Ark, which has a dagger upgrade.
Ride the Warg up the path and hang a left while riding it and you can jump the gap. Then kill the Warg and climb the wall to the next area.
This spot is a Cave Troll ambush, and he’s supported by lots of Small Trolls as well. The little guys won’t stop coming until you’ve tamed the big one, so go to work. Play keep-away and keep dishing out the punishment until it’s stunned.
Mount the troll and ride it to the left, following the curve of the area. On your way, you’ll see some stairs on your right. Stop there and kill the troll.
SCROLL: Just left of the staircase is a blinking body. Get your scroll before proceeding.
LIFE GEM: Now climb those stairs on the right. Keep moving and watch the left corner of your screen for the green glow of a Health Font. When you see that, move into the corner near it and you’ll find you can drop down into another, lower area. Once there, you’ll find the font and a body with a Life Gem on it.
You need a new troll. Head back to where you fought the first one and another should be on its way shortly. Defeat it and mount it, then head back toward where you found the scroll, but hang a left before the structure to drop down into a round arena-type area.
Lycanthropes attack you, but you’re riding a troll, so joke’s on them. Squash them all, then punch through the metal portcullis with the troll.
Lose the troll and go forward. The path will split in two — downscreen is a bag of daggers (like you need more of those). Head upscreen and climb the wall to reach the area above where you end up.
Head left to find a spot where you need a Warg, and just like that, a Warg shows up. Focus on it even as more Lycans show up. Once you beat the Warg, you can mount it and use it to kill off the little guys. Then jump the gap.
SHADOW GEM: Kill the Warg right after the first gap and move forward along the path. When it cuts left, look for a hole in some metal grating on the back wall, right before the broken bridge. you can slip right through this hole to find a body and a gem.
You still need that Warg, though. Backtrack to the gap and look at the floor on the left — you should see a hook point. Climb down on the ledge there and use the hook point to descend. Drop down and use another hook point to go across the gap and get back to where you had the Cave Troll to ride.
Get back up to the Warg, fight it, mount it, and jump the gap again. This time, ride the Warg all the way around, jumping a few more gaps, then use it to climb the blinking wall and trigger a cutscene.
Kill the mount after the cutscene and climb down to end the mission.
TRIAL: You only have to beat this level without activating Shadow Magic to complete the trial here, which you may have done anyway. It doesn’t really affect you much in terms of combat difficulty.
Dark Dungeon
Descend into the dungeon. You should know what you’re doing as far as climbing down at this point. Remember that if you can’t seem to move anywhere, hit X (or Square) to kick off the wall while rappelling and jump from there.
You’ll climb down with the hook whip and then jump to a thin strip of stone walkway that will lead you to the other wall. Jump to the handhold there and work your way around, past the waterfalls, to another hook whip spot. Climb down to the bottom, but don’t disengage the hook whip yet.
LIGHT GEM: It looks as though you can grab the handhold just below where you rapelled down to. Ignore it. Instead, kick off from the wall and then jump and you’ll snag a distant handhold, on the other side of the bifurcated waterfall, over the dark gray stones. From there, shimmy around until you can hit the next hook whip spot, jump while swinging and catch the second, and you’ll land on a small platform with a body. Get your Light Gem, then swing from the last hook whip grip down to the platforms below.
Go through the hole in the wall toward the stairs on the other side. It’s your only path.
SCROLL: Check that body on the left side of the stairs before you head up.
Head up the stairs to trigger a cutscene. When you get there, you’ll see that you need two keys to proceed. Hang a left, following the blue flames.
SCROLL: Your second scroll in this area will be on the left of the path, right in plain sight, past the first blue flame pedestal.
Move forward along the path. A group of flying Gremlins will attack you; they’re hard to deal with because they fly and throw flames. Try to use area attacks and stay in motion to avoid their attacks.
Check the body on the left of the path when they’re dead to find the first rune stone you need to activate the bridge. More Gremlins will attack you immediately after, and mostly from where you just came from, so be aware.
SHADOW GEM: Just past where you killed the Gremlins and grabbed the Stone Rune is a dead end, but you can sneak up the rock face to the right just a little to find an opening. The body there holds a Shadow Gem.
Return to the spot with the two statues you need to place the key in, and do so with one of them. This will extend the bridge you need about halfway across the chasm beyond the two statues. Step out on the bridge and run to the end, and you’ll drop onto a stone platform in the middle. Go through the door on the right.
Ahead is a locked door you can’t get through. When you examine it, a Giant Spider will attack you. You need to beat it down so you can mount it and bust down the door. You should already know how to handle that.
The issue with this fight is that more Gremlins appear to make your life miserable. Try to focus on the spider while steering clear of the Gremlins, if possible, and take them out with area attacks as fast as you can. Shadow Magic might be a good idea here, because it’ll kill everything faster.
Once you mount the spider, you can use it to quickly kill off any remaining Gremlins. Then, use the spider’s web ability to wrench open the grating that you couldn’t get through. You’ll find a Health Font and the second key stone on the body beyond.
Leave that area after you’re set and run quickly back to the extended bridge. Gremlins will be after you, having filled the Giant Spider room as you were leaving. The good news is, the door out of that room acts as a natural bottleneck, allowing you to lay into the Gremlins while they can’t do much against you.
With them dead, return to the statue and put in the second stone. That extends the second half of the bridge, clearing the way for you to cross. Follow the path all the way down the tunnel until you hit a wall where you can climb the roots.
SHADOW GEM: This one is kind of insane to get to. When you start to rappell on this wall, climb up until you’re one step below the lowest set of roots, which are just under the hook whip point. Now kick off from the wall, and when you hit the apex of the swing, jump. You should land on a tiny platform just on the other side of the shaft, where a body lays. You can’t see it at all and it might take a few tries, but getting the entire length of the swing is key.
Continue to climb up the shaft. It’s not difficult. At the top, refill your magic amulets and strike out into the area ahead. You’ll be attacked by a huge batch of Gremlins.
The trick here is alternating between Light Magic to keep your strength up, and Shadow Magic to dispatch the gremlins.
Keep killing enemies for a few more seconds. When you’ve knocked out enough, a cutscene will be triggered to end the mission.
TRIAL: All you have to do to complete this trial is to limit your use of the grapple move, which uses the hook to draw foes to you, on the Gremlins. You may not have used this the first time — I didn’t. It should be easy to get through the trial without issue.
Sanctuary Entrance
After receiving your instructions, go back downscreen and take a left when you go past the big statue on the left. Follow the path around and jump past the wooden debris blocking the path.
Lesser Lycanthropes will attack you here. Use this opportunity to string some combos together and rack up some magic.
Follow the path and you’ll round a corner and find a handhold. That’s where you’ll be climbing up.
SCROLL: Directly beneath that handhold, however, is a body with a scroll. You shouldn’t be capable of missing this one.
Run left from where you climb up, and when you see a hook whip point, throw it quickly. If you don’t, the ground below you will collapse, causing you to have to climb up again and do the swing with a jump.
On the far side of the gap, more Lycans will attack you. Ravage them, then head downscreen to find your first Crystal Shard at the purple swirling thing.
Follow the path around the corner to the right. You’ll see a hook whip point where you can shoot up through a gap and onto a platform above.
LIGHT GEM: Right when you come through the hole in the floor with the hook whip, do an about face and head downscreen, toward the camera. You’ll find a dead body just on the other side of the hole with a Light Gem on it.
SCROLL: Just ahead and next to the hole in the platform, on the right, is a slab of rock that stretches down to the right. You can jump on that and walk on it. Drop down from there and you’ll find a body with a scroll on it.
Walk along the railings to the far side and drop down. Lycanthropes will attack you — deal with them quickly. You’ll find your second shard here, as well as a Health Font if you need it.
SHADOW GEM: Head to the back left corner of this area. You should see a big gap ahead of you. To the left is a handhold — grab it and climb up and then up again into a small room with another body and a bag of daggers.
BROTHERHOOD ARK: Take note that there’s an Ark in the room with the crystal shard that you can’t get to until you’ve upgraded the Combat Cross.
You need to cross the gap below where you found the Shadow Gem. Climb up onto the handholds so you’re on the one below the Shadow Gem room and shimmy to the right, then jump. You’ll cross the big gap that way. Hop down.
Go around the corner to the left and climb the wall. Use the hook whip to rappell, then kick off from the wall and hook whip to the wall parallel to the one you’re hanging from. Swing to the right from there and grab the handhold and climb around to the walkway to the right.
Head to the right, and don’t slow down — the ground will fall out from beneath you. Get to the far end and climb down to the ground level across the gap. Follow the path down to the bottom.
Here you’ll be attacked by three (3!) Greater Lycanthropes. They’ll manhandle you if you’re not careful. First off, use Shadow and Light magics here to your advantage — alternate between them, try to focus your attacks on a single enemy, and squash him with superior power.
Two things to remember: First, blocking Greater Lycanthropes is extremely effective. Try to get used to their timing and watch for them to dodge around you, as these moves are almost always followed up with a fast slash that you can counter.
Second: Lycanthropes of all sorts are weak against your daggers, so go nuts. Dead Lycans will drop additional daggers, and you can get some more out of the statues scattered around the area.
With care and skill, you’ll best the three Greater Lycanthropes and can move on. Head to the back right corner of the area to find a place to climb up and follow the path along the outer wall.
When you reach the top near the waterfalls, head downscreen and grab your third crystal from the node. Turn back the other way and run until you get to a high point above a courtyard. Heal at the Health Font and then drop down.
SCROLL: Before you do anything else, go find the scroll in this area. It’s hard to see — head all the way to the left side of the area and find the leftmost pillar that’s standing out in the center of the courtyard, away from everything. On the side farthest from the camera, out of your view, is a body. You may just barely see the scroll it holds blinking near some pots. Snag it.
Now get your last Dark Crystal shard from the top right corner of the area. Be sure not to use the crystal yet, however. You’ll need it later.
Finally, go to the blinking statue beside the door. When you examine it, you’ll find you can’t destroy it on your own, at which time a Cave Troll will appear conveniently to help out. Teach it some manners and then mount up.
Smash through the statue, then murder your new troll friend and hop through. On the other side, plug the crystal into the big statue and it’ll open the door that leads back the way you came. Take the crystal back out and head into that last room.
You’ll see three statues, one of which is blinking in the top left corner. Go plug the crystal into it, then spin it around so it’s facing across the room to the right. The laser it emits will hit that statue, which you can spin to face the third statue in the middle, bouncing the laser to it. Spin the last statue to face the door to open the door and clear the stage.
TRIAL: To get the bonus here, you need to find a way to collect 20 neutral magic orbs at once, on one suction move. You can do that, potentially, at a number of places in the stage. A good one is right at the end, when you fight the Troll, if you can do it quickly. The Troll won’t die until you mount it, so theoretically you could build up focus and hack away at it until you get 20 orbs. Try it there or at other places with Lycans to complete the trial.
Sanctuary of Titans
SHADOW GEM: First off, when the Titan stands up, you can go snag a hidden Shadow Gem before you start the fighting. Run around the outside of the arena, staying clear of the Titan, and head to the back of the area near where the Titan stood up. There’s a body lying at the base of a tree there. Basically, if you just run around the outside edge of the arena, you’ll eventually see it blinking obviously.
Keep your distance from the Titan. When it raises its foot, jump to avoid its shockwave attack, and keep moving when debris starts to fall out of the air. You should just be able to sit tight for a few minutes and wait.
Before too long, the Titan will actually grab a rock from its orbit and heave it at you. When that happens, catch the rock by hitting the trigger to activate the hook whip, then rotate the Left Stick hard to heave the rock back at the Titan.
You’ve got an opening to run up and climb onto the Titan’s leg. Do so, skipping up from ledge to ledge, until you get to the top — then you can hook whip over to the other leg. Be careful not to get shaken loose.
When you get to the left leg, climb down to the knee cap and assault the first rune. Kill it and the Titan will brush you off.
Back on the ground, get clear of the Titan and repeat the process, waiting for another rock to come your way. When it does, throw it back, run up, and catch on to the Titan’s hand.
While the Titan is distracted by Claudia, quickly climb up it and deal with the next rune. The Titan will swing a hand at you after you destroy that one — climb clear and you can use the hook whip to snag onto the other arm and travel over to the next rune.
On this arm (the Titan’s right), you just have to climb straight up to the elbow. When you get there, stab away at its rune, avoiding being shaken off.
When this rune is destroyed, the Titan will try to brush you away again. Quickly climb further up the arm as high as you can go to avoid the attack. Then hook whip onto one of the rocks orbiting it.
The Titan will draw this rock to its hand, giving you a chance to grapple over to its face. Quickly climb up to the last rune and start hacking away.
Before you can kill the Titan, it’ll shake you loose. Claudia will throw you a Dark Crystal, which you need to catch following a circle prompt. That’ll win the fight and end the mission.
TRIAL: You have to complete the battle with the Titan in less than two minutes for this trial, which is doable if you: 1. know exactly where to climb, and 2. don’t screw it up, even a little. It’ll take a few tries, but if you hit every single transition and move fast, you should be able to complete it. It might help to come back when you’re stronger.
The Black Knight
Guess what: another boss fight. Fortunately, though the game seems to think this is a big tough battle, it really isn’t. Play keep-away with the Black Knight and you should best him handily.
The first half of the fight is all about dodging backwards and sideways. The Black Knight has a few primary attacks — a shockwave punch that sends energy out in all directions; a explosive line-based range attack where he slams his sword into the ground; a linear wave attack in which he reels back, then drags his clawed gauntlet along the ground (you’ll see him wind this up); and a straight sword swipe.
Basically, all these attacks can be avoided by simply doing the dodge move or strafing sideways around the Knight. This makes the battle extremely easy. You’ll be surprised if you get hit during the first portion of the fight — it means you screwed up.
Between getting away from the Knight’s attacks, lay into him with quick combos. Just keep pounding away. You can use Shadow Magic to help if you want, but work up some Focus so you can earn it back if you need to.
Before long, you’ll stun the Knight. When that happens, hit him with the hook whip and follow the prompt to rip some armor off him.
Best him twice with the hook whip and the Black Knight adds a new wrinkle — it’ll thrust its sword into the ground, releasing some black ooze that chases you, albeit not very well. This stuff roots you to the ground if it touches you, leaving you open to attack while you try to free yourself.
The black stuff doesn’t corner well, so just stay away from (or jump over) it. Avoid it and avoid the Knight’s attacks just like you were doing. This has the effect of only cutting down your ability to attack the knight often. You should still keep trying to get in a few hits before you have to move again.
Eventually, you’ll wear the Knight down and rip off some more armor. When you’ve torn it down to its bare chest, hack at it until its life bar is gone and it’ll go stunned again. Hook whip it for the end game — follow the prompt and you’ll kill the Knight and end the mission.
TRIAL: The trial is to beat the Black Knight without using Light Magic to heal yourself. This is actually pretty easy when you know the Knight’s tactics and can avoid all of his attacks. Practice a little and you should have no problems.
ACHIEVEMENT: Congrats on your “Chapter II” Achievement here.
Chapter 3
The Three Towers
First you’ll get a tutorial on how the Dark Gauntlet works. Check the statue near where you start and you’ll learn that you can punch it. Do so and a way over the wall ahead appears.
Hop over and start by going downscreen. You’ll be attacked by Lycans at the bottom of some stairs. Kill them and head to the left and you’ll find a way to a Magic Font. Fill up your amulets.
Now go to the top of the area and jump up onto the platform. You should find a handhold which you can use to climb back over to the statue. When you get there, activate Shadow Magic and punch the statue again to break down the wall.
Follow the statue through and fight off a few more Lycans. Recharge your magic if you want, and do another charged-up regular punch to the statue to push it to the edge of the chasm. Now you can use it to swing across to the other side.
On the other side, run through the archway until you come to an edge where you have to jump to another platform. Head downscreen instead and grab a Dark Crystal from the node there. Hang onto it, you might want it for a big fight later.
SCROLL: Now jump to the central platform. You’ll run straight up to the body with the scroll on the left side of the path.
Go to the end of the platform and jump way down to the next, then jump again while running to the third platform. You’ll catch the edge and have to climb up.
BROTHERHOOD ARK: You can’t snag that Ark yet, but come back when you have the Cyclone Boots and you’ll be able to reach it. When you come back for it, it’ll upgrade the number of fairies you can carry.
Instead, jump to the right to the railing below the Ark and you can use that to climb around the outside edge of the platform. On the other side is a hook whip point you can reach by jumping. Climb up to the top on the other side.
SCROLL: First, head down to the right, alongside the gap you just climbed up, and snag a scroll off the body there.
A big fleet of Lesser Lycanthropes attacks you up here. You just need to keep hacking away at them. After a while, green fairies will appear and help you out by distracting the Lycans so you can continue to pummel them. Finish them up for a cutscene.
SHADOW GEM: Head into the temple and you’ll find a body almost in the middle of the first chamber.
Fill up your amulets at the Magic Font on the right side of this chamber. Then head back to the left of that body with the Shadow Gem.
LIGHT GEM: You’ll see a blinking rock up on the wall on the left side of the chamber. Hook whip it and follow the prompt to tear the wall down. Climb up and go through the hole to the outside. Swing across the gap and find a body with the Light Gem. Backtrack when you’re done.
Move to the next chamber. You’ll see a rotating switch on the ground. Twist it and it opens the passage into the center of this area. Head there next.
Fight off the Lycans that attack you inside the center chamber. You’ll notice you can leave either by the left or right passages — take the left. At the end of the walk, you’ll find a Warg.
You should know how to beat a Warg by now. Beat if mercilessly and ride it all the way to the end of the right path. You’ll find some vines you can use the Warg to climb to reach the area above.
Strangle your best friend Warg and move through the door on the left to find a Health Font if you need it.
SHADOW GEM: Check the door on the right next, the one furthest downscreen. There’s a body just inside with the gem.
Go through the last door, which leads to a broken bridge. Jump the gap and you’ll have a Lycan fight, with Lessers and a Greater to contend with. Play keep-away with the Greater while you kill the little guys, allowing you to focus on the last one that much more easily.
After you’ve killed everything, go to the crank and follow the prompts to open the door. Inside, head left to the hook whip point. It’ll swing you outside where you can catch a second point. Climb to the top of the tower and you’ll find a Fairy Node.
SCROLL: Head downscreen from the fairy rock thing and you’ll discover a Magic Font and a body with a scroll on the right side.
Keep moving downscreen and you’ll find a place where you can climb down. Use the hook whip and you can drop to the bottom. Now it’s time to activate those runes.
You read something about the puzzle in the last scroll you found. You need to use magic on the runes to complete the riddle. The answer follows.
Touch the leftmost rune with Light Magic activated, and the other two while Shadow Magic is activated to solve the puzzle. This presents you with new whip hook spots to grab from the big statue that just rotated. Head that way.
You’ll land on a new walkway. Follow it down and to the left and you’ll find a handle on the ground near a sealed grate. Pick up the handle, take it to the nearby crank, and put it in. But let go quickly, as you’ve got a fight to deal with.
A Greater Lycanthrope climbs up to fight you as soon as you mess with the crank. You should be able to take it out fairly easily. Dispatch it and crank open the door to go through and hit another whip hook spot. Keep following the hooks and handholds to climb to the top of the tower.
LIFE GEM: When you get to the top, turn and head downscreen before going up into the center section. You’ll find a body in the foreground.
Get up to the center and grab Fairy no. 2. Then climb down the side of the tower by repelling from the handhold to the right.
SHADOW GEM: When you get to the bottom of the first rappel, you’ll see an opening in the side of the tower and an opportunity to continue down. Don’t go yet. Instead, shimmy over and climb into the opening to find a body. Then you can climb back out again.
Rappel to the bottom and head across the broken bridge again to the colored rune room. Swing across the hook whip points presented by the statue you turned and go to the crank where you put the handle in. Take the handle and backtrack to the right to another spot to use it.
When you put the handle in, another Greater Lycanthrope attacks. Kill it and crank open the door to reach the outside of this tower, where you can climb up. At the top is your last fairy.
Descend the way you came and head all the way back toward the area where you found the Shadow Gem and the Health Font. There’s a big hole in the ground in the top left corner where you can descend. That route takes you back to where you first opened the two metal portcullises, where the gate you want to access waits.
When you get back to the courtyard, as soon as you start turn the switch that opens the grates, three Greater Lycanthropes will jump you. These guys can be tough, so use hit-and-run tactics and try to focus your attacking.
If you see one of the Lycans get stunned, run up and use your grab to execute a finishing move. It’s a quick way to get some magic together to keep your health up.
When you’re victorious in the battle, go around to the right of the portcullises and you’ll find a spot you can hit with the hook whip. Grab it and follow the prompt to pull it down. Then you can climb up to a high window and get back inside. Examine the big blinking door beyond to end the mission
TRIAL: You have to kill 15 enemies that are stunned by fairies. The fairies help you early in the mission, so try to get your kills there — only kill Lycans that are under fairy influence to rack them toward your total. If you have to get more, you’ll need to use the fairies you find in the level. That’ll require you to visit the tops of the towers more than once to reclaim them.
The Dark Lord of the Lycans
Before you enter the arena, you should obviously heal up and snag as much magic as you can. Overcharge whatever you like better, either Shadow or Light magic. After you die once or twice — because you will — you’ll have a better idea of what to bring to this fight.
Cornell is stupid. He’s really fast and huge, and can inflict serious damage with his maneuvers. The best tactic I could come up with for this fight was to hit him three times, then roll or prepare to roll away from his charge attack. The best time to attack him was after he’d just used it or his area attack.
Using mostly melee strikes, Cornell comes at you fast with a charge that covers about a quarter or half of the diameter of the entire ring. If he levels that hammer at you, roll sideways. Don’t think or hesitate — get used to rolling clear or he’ll massacre you.
He also has an area attack in which he pounds the ground, but it has a limited range. Still, these are the two strikes that will likely trouble you most. If you’re quick on your feet, you won’t find Cornell connecting too many other moves against you. But that charge is devastating.
The trick here is to conserve health and magic as best as you can against Cornell now, because while his second form isn’t necessarily harder, it does have a larger reach and deal more damage. I found the second form of the battle to be much easier because Cornell in Lycan form mimics the attack patterns of other Lycans. But the second half stretches on and it gets tough at the end, so conserve as best you can.
Remember that Dark Crystal we had you save? This is why. Use it on Cornell (switch to it with the D-Pad and activate it by holding down the dagger button) to drop a big portion of his health. Use your discretion, but getting to that second form as quickly as possible is advised.
Keep using hit-and-runs on Cornell and keeping clear of that insane dash move. Before long, you’ll knock out the human-ish Cornell form to get to the real battle: the huge Lycan Cornell form.
Lycan Cornell
Like I said, this seems worse than it is. For one, Lycan Cornell retains the dash move and it goes much further, but he broadcasts it like crazy. You’ll see him swing back and thrust his shoulder forward and have plenty of time to roll sideways to get clear of it. It will rarely, if ever, hit you if you watch for it.
Which isn’t to say Cornell isn’t formidable otherwise. Fighting him is like fighting any other big monster, and specifically like fighting the Greater Lycanthropes. Cornell will pound the ground to do a shockwave move and take various slashes at you. Almost all of these can be dodged.
Lycan Cornell can handle more punishment, but you should be able to hit him way more and way more often. Lay into him with solid combos that you can break easily, and stay on the ground: this guy will capitalize on anything that hangs you up for even a second or two.
Fight Cornell like you would any other Lycan — hit him hard, roll clear of his attacks, and repeat. If you’re going to roll sideways away from one of his slash strikes, of which there are maybe three varieties, try to roll to the right. Cornell favors his right hand and so you’re more likely to take a hit going to the left than to the right if it’s a close call.
Do your best here to keep your health up. Solid dodging is much more important than hitting the boss. Hopefully you conserved Light Magic, because despite Cornell hitting you a lot less, it’ll hurt a lot more. One or two lucky shots could mean the end of the battle.
When you’ve broken Cornell to no energy, the endgame starts. Cornell becomes slower and less fearsome, but only slightly. He’s also invulnerable. The only way to deal him damage is to take out the statues surrounding the platform. They’re all glowing and broken when they’re vulnerable.
The statues start out easy to destroy — one hit for the first, two for the second, three for the third and so on until about the sixth statue. Then it takes a ton of hits, for some reason. You’ll want to get to the nearest statue, hit it, then get to the next one and do the two-hit combo and so on.
When a statue is destroyed, Cornell goes to his knees and is very temporarily immobile. Early on this gives you the chance to take out statues before he gets to you, or at least mark them with some damage. Cornell will chase you around the arena, attempting to murder you before you can murder him. If your health is low, this can be very tough.
As before, the trick is solid dodging. You’ll need to be able to read Cornell, react quickly, get out of harm’s way and deal with the statues all at the same time, and it’s not easy.
Try to run from statue to statue, hitting it and getting clear of Cornell. The dash move’s off the table and he’s tired, so he won’t close the gap on you so fast in every case. He doesn’t lie down, though — Cornell will be at your back every step of the way.
As you run around the edge of the platform, one eye should always be on Cornell. If you can effectively roll clear of him, get up, run away and hit a statue or two on the way as you circle back, you’ll (eventually) be successful.
The last part of this fight really does make you earn it, however. Cornell likes to randomly and prudently roll out the shockwave attack and his long reach can get annoying. Keep hacking away and running away, however, and you’ll get it eventually.
Finally, there’s an active cutscene where you have to nail a few circle prompts, so don’t put the controller down. After that, while wearing your new boots, sprint straight upscreen and jump the gap between the rocks to end the mission.
TRIAL: This one’s hard and you might want to return much later, when you have more health. It demands that you don’t use Light Magic while fighting Cornell throughout the battle. Unless you’re just trouncing Cornell, hold off on this one until it’s a little easier.
ACHIEVEMENT: For your victory against Cornell, you’ll get the “Chapter III” Achievement.
Chapter 4
Mountain Fortress
Follow the mountain pass around and head for the Magic Font, where you can replenish your supply. Then push on toward the flags in the distance.
SCROLL: About the time when you hit the flags, you’ll see a body to the left, near where all the birds come up over the path.
As you go on, you’ll get a quick dash tutorial, which allows you to clear the way through the door. Keep moving until you get to a fork in the path. Head right when you do.
LIFE GEM: You’ll pass right by the body that holds this gem as you venture down the path to the right.
This is actually a dead end beyond getting that gem, however, so double back the way you came. At the other end, you’ll have to climb down onto the side of the tower to proceed. It’s not difficult.
When you’re back on your feet, you’ll be attacked by a group of Small Trolls. Really, though, these guys should fall easily to you and your Combat Cross. Kill them, then start to sprint to jump across the long gap ahead.
Right on the other side, you’ll fight some more trolls. They’re easy, but don’t advance down that left path just yet. If you look to your right, you should see a blinking body on the other side of a wall.
SHADOW GEM: To get to that body, activate Shadow Magic and do the dash maneuver straight to the right, through the wall that divides you from your prize. Snag the gem when you’re done.
LIGHT GEM: Now go back to the left, past where you fought the trolls, until you hit a chasm. Hook whip up to the point above you and climb up to it. Grab hold of the wall when you get there and shimmy right — the camera will show you a second hook whip spot. Hit that one and climb up again. You’ll find the Light Gem on a body along with a Dark Crystal node.
SCROLL: Get back down and clear the chasm. Follow the path to the left, all the way up to the fortress beyond. The body lies in the center of the path at the top of the mountain pass.
Go left of the scroll body and you’ll see a handhold and then a hook point to start climbing. Get to the top and you’ll be engaged by some Small Trolls — and then the Ogre you’ve been reading about will show up inside the castle. Fight the Troll and stay to the right, near the barrier, as the Ogre’s pounding will cause the ground to give way, which kills you if you fall with it.
Wait for the Ogre to knock loose the barrier ahead of you and jump clear. Then use the hook whip to get away from this area. In the next spot, you’ll have to fight the Ogre’s hand. Basically, all you need to do is whip away at it, while staying well back. Just whittle it down. If you get too close, it’ll grab you and you’ll have to do some button-pounding to get loose.
As soon as the hand retracts, get out of there. It’ll return if you don’t. Hook whip clear to the next area, where you’ll get engaged in the real fight with the Ogre.
Boss Fight: Ogre
First off: This is not as hard as it may look. The key, as always, is strafing movements around the outside of the area and dodging away from attacks. The Ogre has a very particular assault pattern that you can exploit
Principally, the Ogre means to squash you — generally like a fly, with the palm of his hand. When he reels back with his arm, dodge clear. The hand is big, but if you’re already move sideways, you’ll dodge it handily enough.
Occasionally if you’re dead-on in front of the Ogre, it’ll use both hands, and at other times it’ll use its fist and create a shockwave. These almost never happen if you keep moving sideways between attacks.
Whenever the Ogre’s arms or hands are near you, lash into them. You should be able to get a few attacks in for every one of his. This is your strategy — you just want to keep dealing damage for as long as possible, as much as possible.
After you’ve done about half the damage you need to, the Ogre will go invincible and try to punch you. Get clear of the fist’s shockwave, then hook whip onto the hand. Follow the prompts and you’ll put out one of the Ogre’s eyes.
More dodging of the hands, only this time, the Ogre will occasionally grab a rock to bash you with. This isn’t a big deal — the rock smash is a lot like the punch, and it can be easily dodged. It’ll carry a shockwave, but if you jump up quickly and whip the hand three times, the rock will crumble and the Ogre will stagger.
Keep dealing damage and the same pattern with with the hand will happen again. Hook whip it when it blinks at you and you’ll follow some more prompts and put out the Ogre’s other eye. Almost done.
Now the Ogre steps up his attacks in the flailing around aimlessly department. First, it’ll sniff for you. When it has you figured out, it’ll start punching and slapping the area, but if you just stay back and move a little sideways, you’ll dodge these attacks easily. Do some more damage.
You want to try to be in the center of the half-ring that surrounds the Ogre. See that sharp rock there? You want to fight him roughly directly in front of that. When the Ogre screams at you, you can hook whip is tongue.
If you’re close enough to the rock, you’ll trigger the end-game, in which you follow the prompts, then slam the Ogre’s neck into the sharp rock, killing it. If you do the tongue-hook thing anywhere else, you’ll just injure the Ogre without killing it and have to repeat the process.
Head to the right and you’ll hit a hallway. Follow it a little further and you’ll hit a gap — you may even fall into it.
SCROLL: No big deal if you fell in — we wanted you to. Inside that little hole is a body and a scroll. You can climb out of the hole by standing on the rock next to the body.
LIGHT GEM: Now, directly forward from the hole, the path corners left. Stand facing upscreen and you should be in front of a statue. Use the Dark Gauntlet and punch through the statue. It’ll break, and beyond, down the hall and around the corner, is a body with a Light Gem and a node to get a fairy.
BROTHERHOOD ARK: Backtrack and take that leftmost pass. You’ll see a semi-circle on the ground that’s blinking. Get the upgraded Combat Cross that allows you to use it as a handle and you can return to open that Ark, and get the fairy upgrade that resides there.
Past the Ark, you’ll find a dead end, and a spot where you can climb up beside it. Hook whip over the barrier and you’ll land in a Small Troll fight.
Beat back the trolls until a Cave Troll appears. The little guys will respawn forever until you take this guy out, so concentrate your efforts. Pound on him until you can mount him, then clean up the Small Trolls and bash your way through the portcullis ahead. That’ll trigger a cutscene.
Go up the steps and a little thing called a Chupacabra will appear and steal all your stuff. Backtrack down the stairs and climb the wall to the left at their base. You should be able to go up and into another area.
Go past the Magic Font on the left and climb the wall just beyond, heading upscreen. When you get to the top, you can swing across to the Chupacabra. Accost him and he’ll give you your stuff back. You can reach the bottom again by jumping down to the right.
Backtrack to the stairs and head up them. You’re free to get to the fortress entrance and the end of the mission. Just crash through the front door using the Shadow Magic dash move to end it.
TRIAL: Defeat the Ogre without taking any damage. It’s not impossible, but it requires you to be very quick on your feet. Restart your previous checkpoint if you’re hit to get a clean slate. If you’re patient and careful, this shouldn’t be too tough. Finish the mission to claim your victory.
The Crow Witch
SCROLL: As soon as you get control, run just past the fire, straight ahead, to find the body you’re looking for.
LIGHT GEM: Backtrack downscreen and to the right, and you’ll see the base of a set of stairs leading behind the bird’s head statue. Climb them to get to the second body and find this gem.
From the Light Gem body, keep moving along the red-carpeted walkway to the hole in the wall up ahead. You can get out of this room that way.
SHADOW GEM: As you exit onto the mountainside, don’t go to the right — instead, head downscreen and step toward the camera, then jump down to the left. You’ll be able to climb down, swing, and jump into a cave below. There, Small Trolls will attack you, and you can get the gem from the body in the center of the room.
Charge your magic at the font to the far right, kill all the trolls, and head out of the room to the left and upscreen. You’ll come to a sealed door. Use the Shadow Magic dash to blast through it and you’ll come out in the room where you started. Go back out through the hole onto the mountainside.
Go up to the right. You’ll need to climb up the tower, but it’s nothing you’re not used to. At the top, you’ll use the hook whip to climb up to a cathedral window. Kick it in (remember the mausoleum?) and be ready for a fight.
Step into the room and you’ll be attacked by what’s called a Swordmaster. It’s not especially tough to kill — it actually falls pretty easy — but it’s fast and has a long reach. Watch for it to follow up a sideways dodge with a sword thrust. Get the timing of that move down and you should be able to escape damage.
Hammer the Swordmaster fast and you’ll stun it. Follow up with a grab and it’ll fall apart and die. Almost immediately after, two more will replace it. You’ll want to try to focus on bringing one of these guys down fast, so try to pick one and pummel it.
Watch for these guys’ abridged tactics. They’ll add a shockwave move to their repertoire, and one might trigger his sword to make it glow. If that’s the case, it can send a wave of energy at you (after broadcasting it with some slow-motion antics) that travels in a straight line.
Still, swing some area attacks at these guys and keep your combos going and your dodges ready, and you’ll bring both these Swordmasters down without much danger.
After a quick cutscene when you’ve dispatched the wraiths, go to the stairs on the far end of the room. Hook whip at the top to the next floor. Time for three Swordmasters at once. New wrinkle: when they charge up their swords, they can send electricity through the white patches of ground on the floor. So avoid those.
You must focus on one of these guys and try to take it out fast. Evening the odds is the only way to avoid annihilation — the Swordmasters are just too fast otherwise. Do your best to keep the Swordmasters all on one side of you so you can hit them all simultaneously, and dodge their attacks. Slam them with area attacks so you can damage all of them quicker.
BROTHERHOOD ARK: When you’ve finally succeeded against the Swordmasters, look for a big staircase in the back of the room. Take it up to the Ark — you’ll need the Seraphim Shoulders, which you get for defeating the Vampire Dark Lord — and you’ll get a Holy Water upgrade when you eventually retrieve it.
Back in the center of the room, move toward the left side, near the side of the staircase. There’s a hook whip spot WAY up there, so if you have trouble seeing it, try just running around the outside of the room until you get the right angle. Grab it and climb up.
Pull yourself up to the upper level and head around to the left to find a Health Font. Double back to the right and you’ll hit a Magic Font. Recharge at both — it’s almost boss fight time.
LIFE GEM: There’s a body right next to the Magic Font that you’ll pull this gem from.
Climb up the outside of the building, using the handholds on the left, to reach the top of the tower and the fight.
Boss Fight: Crow Witch
SCROLL: Run around the outside of the area to find a body with a scroll on it. I think it’s to the right of where you start.
Okay, focus on the Witch. When you see it go to slow-motion, it means it’s about to hurl eggs at you. Just like with the last Titan, you want to catch the eggs and fling them back. It’s really fast, but if you pay attention, you can throw some or all of them back and stop the real danger — the Witch Children.
The returned eggs will damage the Crow Witch, but the ones that hit the ground will spawn Witch Children. These things are the real danger — if they hit you with fire breath, they could immediately kill you. Best them by hammering them quickly. Fairies help as well.
The Crow Witch herself will only send her dumb crows at you in a linear stream, which is easy to dodge and not that scary anyway. When you’ve hit her with enough eggs, she’ll go dazed. Run up and hook whip her and you’ll get a scene where Gabriel rides her. Then pound the button in the prompt to knock her out when you hit the ground again.
Quickly run over and hit the Witch a few times. She’ll back off, you’ll have to fight Witch Children, and the cycle will begin again.
The Witch Children are tough to learn. They guard a lot while they fight, and they have a tendency to roll sideways, then attack. Try to keep moving and dodging whenever you suspect they might be about to hit you, because that fire really will tank your health immediately. If you kill them with a grab finishing move, make sure to stay well away from their bodies, as they may explode.
The first time you bring the Crow Witch back down to earth, she’ll pull back after you whip her a few times. The second time, she’ll lay there a lot longer. The crows surrounding you will damage her, but if you just go over there with Light Magic on, use area attacks, and keep pummeling away, you’ll clear her energy while keeping enemies at bay and your health up.
As soon as the Crow Witch starts blinking again, use the hook whip. Follow the prompt to finish her and trigger the chapter-ending cutscene.
ACHIEVEMENT: Victory over the Crow Witch nets you the “Chapter IV” Achievement.
TRIAL: Finish this mission while only killing two of the Crow Witch’s witch children. It’s doable, but you have to be fast on those eggs to whip them back or destroy them in-flight. Note how many egg impacts it takes to trigger the Witch’s stunned states: you can only throw back one egg on her first volley; two on the second; and one on the third, although on the third volley you won’t need to kill any Witch Children in order to defeat the boss. If you have more than two Witch Children to dispatch early on, restart the checkpoint — the Witch won’t throw more eggs until they’re all dead.
Chapter 5
Veros Woods
Start down the path until it splits. Go get a fairy from the left if you want it, and fight off what appear to be Snow Goblins while you do. Both sides of the path go the same way, so keep moving along it.
This is hard to see, but when the camera swivels so that the turn to the right becomes the way going straight ahead, look for a little alcove in the right side of the path. You’ll find a wall there — it’s all hard to see because of the snow — which you can smash with the Shadow Magic dash move.
LIFE GEM: Behind that wall is a spot to grab a new Dark Crystal if you need it, and the gem is on the body a little behind you.
Back on the path, just stick with it. Just ahead, it’s our friend the Chupacabra. He’ll take your stuff as you enter a Goblin camp and have to fight your way through it. When you’re done, take the fork to the right to pursue him.
Up ahead, the road splits three ways. The middle route has a Health Font — heal if you need it — and note that the left fork includes a smashable wall. We’ll be back. Take the right path. You’ll see Chupacabra up ahead and he’ll lead you straight into another freaking Goblin camp. This one comes with its own extremely annoying Warthog rider.
Slaughter the rider and stun the Warthog while holding off the Goblins. When you can mount the beast, finish off the little guys, then plow through the door ahead. Beyond, kill your mount and heal up at the font, should you need to.
SCROLL: Right in front of the wall you need to climb, you’ll find a body with a scroll on it.
Climb up the wall to the cliff above. Go to the edge and send a fairy over to distract the Chupacabra, or he’ll blast you with lightning and you’ll fall when you jump over. When he’s chasing the fairy, hop over, climb up and snag him to get your stuff back.
SCROLL: Go inside the cave the Chupacabra was standing in front of to find this body. There’s a Magic Font back there, too.
Jump down from the cave and follow the path to the left. You’ll pass another small Goblin camp — squash them as you go by — and drop down at the gap when you hit it.
You can go up to a smashable wall, or down and get some collectibles. Head down first until you hit a Goblin camp. Pound through it until it’s clear and you’re in about the center. From here, you can take the path upward. This is where the Chupacabra led you. You should recognize three-path split.
LIFE GEM: Go to the left path just above the Goblin camp and dash through the wall. You’ll get a Dark Crystal shard and a Life Gem for checking this area out.
SHADOW GEM: From the Life Gem spot, go to the right and follow the path, looking for another fork. This one has a destructible wall down the right fork. Break through it, grab a Crystal shard, and loot a body for its jewelry.
Now, backtrack to that Magic Font before you came back down to the Goblin camp. There’s a destructible wall just past it that you need to go through. Use the dash.
SCROLL: Your last scroll is on a body on the right side of the path, just through the wall.
Follow the path all the way to the end of the mission. Nothing left to do.
TRIAL: Beat the mission while getting your stuff back from the Chupacabra in under three minutes. This isn’t that tough, actually. Focus on quick Goblin defeats and when you get to the Warthog, make subjugating it your primary concern. Crash through the door quickly and climb the wall, trying not to screw up there, either, and you should do fine.
Wygol Village
Enter the village and move down to where there’s a small staircase on the right side of the path.
BROTHERHOOD ARK: Take note of that staircase. You need the Seraph Shoulders to actually get this upgrade to your Holy Water, but remember these stairs and the destructible wall you find at the top of them.
SCROLL: Ahead of the Brotherhood Ark spot, you’ll enter what looks like the village square. Immediately turn left and head to the back left corner. The camera will switch, so bear right to get to the back of the area. You’ll see the scroll on a body there.
Push further to the left to trigger a cutscene. After it, you’ll be accosted by ever-spawning ghouls. A great way to deal with these guys is to grab them with the Combat Cross and just follow the prompt. You’ll be invulnerable in doing so and what’s basically a one-hit kill on the ghoul, plus tons of magic.
Once you clear the initial ghouls (watch out for the green ones, they spew poison), use the hook whip to grab the statue on the right side. It’s blinking yellow and standing right near the hole the ghouls are coming out of. Call Zobek when prompted and don’t touch any other buttons, including holding the trigger button.
A prompt will come up and you’ll have to rapidly tap a button. Follow the prompts and you’ll pull the statue down and plug the hole. There are two more, so head to the left and upscreen to the next one.
You will need to punch The second statue to get it to move. Stand behind it and use the Dark Gauntlet, then repeat the steps from statue one.
The last statue is way up in the back left corner of the area. Go to the left, not toward the statue, but to the wall around behind it. You can dash through that wall to get behind the statue. Once you’re there, punch the statue into place, then pull it down to plug the last hole.
SHADOW GEM: Immediately to the right of the third ghoul hole, there’s a small pile of bodies. One is blinking with a Shadow Gem.
Mop up the ghouls, then dash through the door that was damaged when the third statue came down.
SCROLL: Once you crash through the door, head immediately to the front right corner of the mausoleum where a body lies to get this one.
Go to the altar inside the mausoleum to upgrade the Combat Cross. You now can crank the semicircle crank thing over on the left — remember those cranks where Brotherhood Arks were hidden? You can go back and get those, too. Crank open the door and you can exit the mission through there.
TRIAL: Complete this mission without letting Zobek kill any ghouls. This should be easy — just stay near him and kill anything that comes close, then quickly plug the holes. A fast way to get rid of anything that Zobek is fighting is to use the grab ability to rope the ghoul and murder it. You shouldn’t have much trouble.
Abbey Catacombs
Run into the central chamber and Vampire Warriors will attack you. These guys aren’t extremely tough, but be careful of their quick dodges and flying attacks. You shouldn’t be too pressed, though.
When there’s a lull, the game will show you where there’s a handle to turn the central crank. Grab it and turn it when you’ve got a second, as the Vampires will keep coming indefinitely in waves otherwise.
Crank open the door, then call Zobek to hold the bar for you. Run through the portcullis you just opened. On the other side, punch the statue to the portcullis, then use Shadow Magic to punch it through the metal. Go back and help Zobek mop up the vampires and you’re able to move forward. Bring the crank handle with you.
There are two gates you can crank open in here. Start with the one on the left, and bring your crank handle. Go through and you’ll find a big room with the first key in the center of it. Upscreen from you is a crank — pop in that handle and turn it and you’ll move a platform over to your side of the room from the left.
Call Zobek to hold the handle and go jump on the platform. When he lets go, you’ll be transported to the far side.
LIFE GEM: First, come all the way downscreen to the foreground when you hit the other side of the room. You’ll find some steps up to the left, a body, and a gem.
Go grab your key and jump back to Zobek. Take the crank handle with you and return to the central chamber to open the way to the right. You can leave the crank handle this time.
You’ll trigger a goofy little trap in which the ceiling collapses on you in the next hallway. To get through, just more forward past Zobek. You’ll automatically hold up the next slab — follow the prompts and call Zobek up when you’ve supported it, and you can leapfrog all the way to the end.
And there’s the key — obviously whoever designed the traps has never seen an Indiana Jones movie, because that was way too easy. Return to the central chamber and use the keys to open the last door.
Follow the path up the stairs. When you hit a short cutscene that shows a glowing seal and what looks like a portal, you’ve arrived. Time to grab scrolls.
SCROLL: First, go straight past that glowing seal, and up around the corner beyond. The body is slouched against the wall.
SCROLL: Now run out into the center courtyard. You’ll find the body almost squarely in the middle.
You can figure out the puzzle on your own, but the solution follows.
First, if you jump into that portal, you’ll find you appear on the seal you passed. From the body where you found the second scroll, if you check the wall just downscreen of the opening that leads you to the hallway containing the portal, you’ll find a smashable wall. Blast through with the dash.
Inside is a crank handle. When you grab it, you’ll trigger an attack by Vampires and Ghouls. Carry the crank handle to the courtyard and plug it into the crank in the center, then fight off the monsters.
You can turn this handle to designate which location — left, right or center — you want the portal to link to. Turn the crank until you get it to aim at what you want, then call Zobek to hold it. You only have a few seconds to run to the portal after that. Jump through and you’ll wind up at the designated seal.
SCROLL: First, aim the crank at the room you just found the handle in. It contains a Health Font and there’s a body behind a portcullis. When you jump through you’ll appear beside the body. Grab your scroll, then use the Combat Cross to open the portcullis.
Return to the fight. Kill off any Ghouls and aim the crank at the center location, the one that’s walled in behind iron bars. Call Zobek and jump through the portal.
LIGHT GEM: You’ll appear beside a body with the gem. It’s to your left, right in front of you.
Go to the wall next and climb up.
To solve the puzzle, aim the crank at the spot just behind the portal. It’s the one that’s downscreen in the foreground of you when you’re not holding the crank. Jump through the portal and you’ll pop open a gate automatically. Going through the door this presents ends the mission.
TRIAL: You only need to keep Zobek from being knocked down by an enemy to clear this trial. He can really only be knocked down by the Vampire Warriors, so basically, stick close to him as much as possible to keep them off his back. You’ll also need to act fast during those moments when you have Zobek holding a crank handle for you (snicker).
Abbey Library
Follow the path until you see a doorway to your left. That’s the path, but you’re not going there just yet.
LIGHT GEM: Instead, continue to follow the hallway forward and then around to the right to find a body.
Enter the library by going through that one door. You’ll face two big suits of animated armor. They look tough, but they’re not really.
The trick to fighting these guys is distance. They really don’t have any kind of decent attack to use on you if you just stay away from them, and they’re slow. Watch for a shockwave attack, but otherwise, roll away from incoming melee attacks.
Pummel away at the Animated Armor until its shield starts to blink. Use the hook whip to grab hold of it and follow the prompt to tear it free. Without a shield, the Armor is much more vulnerable, but will incorporate a mid-range dash stabbing move into its repertoire. Same tactics apply.
Keep hammering at the armor after it loses its shield and it will start to blink. Use the grab again and you’ll get a couple of prompts that help you to tear the Armor’s magic heart out and kill it.
When both fall, you’ll get a cutscene that will take you into a room above this one. There’s a mirror/laser puzzle to solve upon your arrival.
SCROLL: You landed right next to this body. It presents the puzzle’s solution.
Go behind the mirror and punch it so that it intersects with the sunbeam, then rotate it to open the door. You can now access the next room, so lets go get collectibles before solving the puzzle.
SCROLL: Leave this room and round the corner into the next one where you’ll see another sunbeam and mirror puzzle. Hang a left immediately out of the door and go to the wall. You’ll see a body slumped there.
LIGHT GEM: Now go toward the thick white sunbeam and turn directly into it. There’s a hallway obscured here that goes around in a circle. Check the left dead end when you get to the sunbeam’s termination point.
Part two of this puzzle is almost as easy as part one. Go to the first mirror statue. Punch it down its track so it intersects with the beam. Rotate the mirror so it sends the beam into the other end of that hallway where we just got the Light Gem.
Head to that other hallway and you’ll find a second mirror. You should just have to punch it and it’ll lock into place, bounce the beam forward and open the door.
Now it’s time for the big puzzle. Enter the next area and you’ll find yourself in a huge room, filled with Gremlins at the outset. Dispatch them quickly and head to where you see the beam of sunlight.
SHADOW GEM: Go down the first set of stairs next to where the beam originates. They go down to the right. The body is somewhat obscured when you get down there.
Time to start solving this puzzle. It’s relatively easy — punch each mirror into place and it’ll be simple to see how they all line up once you start bouncing beams around.
Punch the first mirror into its spot (look for the tracks on the ground) and rotate to bounce light down to the second mirror. Go to that mirror and punch it toward the first, then rotate it to send the light across the room to the right side. Charge up your magic and go across.
On the far side, you’ll see another mirror, but this one doesn’t interact with that light beam. Punch it all the way upscreen to the end of its track, then to the left. That’s where it actually goes.
Return to where the beam hits the wall, back near that other mirror’s starting point. You should see that you can dash through the wall. Do so and you’ll have to fight an Animated Armor on the other side.
Now, go downscreen and punch that mirror to the end of its track. Rotate it so the light goes down to the far end of this room, upscreen. There’s another door you can break down there.
The light now hits that mirror you moved all the way down its track and around the corner. Rotate it and it’ll open the door you’re trying to get through and you’ll solve the puzzle. Go through to finish the level.
TRIAL: The trial is to complete the mirror puzzle we just got through in two minutes, 30 seconds. It’s not impossible, but the fighting that goes on here will make it hard. The best strategy is to quickly move all the mirrors as soon as you get to them. You know where everything goes now, so it shouldn’t be hard to get the alignments. Bypass fighting anything you can and run for the exit and you’ll pass.
Abbey Tower
SCROLL: At the start of the level, right after the cutscene, turn left immediately and walk around the broken cart. Check the left wall for an obscured, blinking body.
Go to the right and you’ll be attacked by Gremlins and Ghouls. You shouldn’t be too hard-pressed to win this fight. Use the grab move to pull one-hit kills on any or all of these enemies.
LIFE GEM: Go forward down the path a little and look for a hole in the iron bars at the top of the wall on the right. You can jump up here and get through. There’s a body lying on the ground on the other side.
Follow the path forward. You’ll be forced outside again and up ahead you’ll see the path cut to the left.
SCROLL: You should see this blinking body long before you approach it, just after you step back outside. It’s way in the background, leaning against the back wall, right before the gap on the left.
Jump the gap and the camera will swing so you can see a drawbridge on your left. Hook whip it and pull it down. That triggers a fight, so get ready for Gremlins.
Kill the fliers and get inside the fortress. Kill some more Gremlins (the grab attack works wonders), then ratchet open that portcullis using the Combat Cross on the crank up ahead. Push through and take the corner to the right.
You’ll see a spot where you can start to climb up. Follow the path as you go, but move quickly, as many of the ledges collapse after you touch them. At the top, follow the walkway around until you see another handhold across a gap from you. Sprint to jump far enough to catch it.
LIFE GEM: Shimmy on this handhold to the left, around the corner. You’ll come to a spot where you can let go and land on a little ledge. Do so and grab the gem from the body there.
Go back to the right and start climbing again. When you get around the corner, you’ll deal with collapsing ledges once more. Look for a hook whip spot, then you’ll have to swing around the corner and jump to get to the next one.
Climb to the top, where you can kick in the window. Doing so will trigger the cutscene that will end the mission.
TRIAL: In this level, you have 20 seconds to find and destroy breakable objects. Each object you destroy adds a second to the clock, and you have to rack up 100 objects before you run the timer out completely. After that, just finish up the level.
Brauner
You’ll get an opportunity to recharge magic and heal before entering the fray. Do so now.
Use the hook whip to get over the wall and start this big fight. The first thing you’ll have to deal with are a mess of Warrior Vampires.
These guys aren’t especially tricky, they’re just irritating. They have a tendency to hit you a lot because you don’t see their quick movements or from-the-back tactics. Try to stay clear of them, do a lot of damage, and conserve your Light Magic.
You can use the Holy Water you have if you want — when you do, it’ll stun pretty much all the vampires, allowing you to get in close and use your grab move to stake them. That’s handy, but you’ll want to save some Holy Water for the boss fight immediately after this battle — although you can win without it.
Once you’ve hammered through all the Warrior Vampires, you’ll start the boss fight against Lieutenant Brauner, a much bigger vampire. He fights more or less like a Greater Lycanthrope: quick movements, short-range melee attacks. Steer clear of his long-range dash attack that shows up about midway through the fight and you’ll do okay.
At first, Brauner just fights you like a regular big monster. Roll clear of his attacks and keep pounding him. When you reduce him to half-health, you’ll stun him and get the opportunity to move in and grab him. Follow the prompts to do some major damage.
Brauner now pulls out a few new moves. He’ll do that dash, which is really powerful, and always followed by his teleporting around the village square by turning into a cloud of bats. When this happens, just stay away — the bats can hurt you before they coalesce again.
You’ll also start to get Brauner taunting you, coming in for faster attacks, and throwing his blade at you. He’ll even warn you about it — “See if you can catch this” — and you can. Use your grab maneuver to pluck his blade out of the air when it comes your way, then throw it back with your attack button for some serious damage.
Repeat the process of laying into Brauner and staying away from his attacks. Keep pounding him and you’ll get another opportunity to stun him and trigger a context-sensitive execution. After slicing Brauner up, you’ll move on to the next mission.
TRIAL: Get to the fight with Brauner to execute this trial. It requires that you hit him with his own blade four times in a row without hitting him any other way. That’s pretty easy. Stay clear of him to get him to throw it at you, time hitting the grab button as it approaches, and then toss it back. Otherwise, just avoid Brauner until you’ve ticked off four blade-throws and you’re set. Kill him and win your trial.
Castle Sewers
Head into the sewer following the path. You’ll hit a Health Font before long, allowing you to recover from fighting Brauner.
SCROLL: Go downscreen from the Health Font to find a staircase in the foreground. Down at the bottom is a body with a scroll.
SHADOW GEM: Before you start messing with the switches above, you can go through this muck down here to get to a Shadow Gem. Remember the bog way back? It’s like that, complete with Naiads. Wade to the island a little to the right and scope the path going downscreen. You need to stay in the dark water to avoid poison fog. Jump off the island, into the muck, and walk down to where it corners, and you should avoid the Naiad bubbles. As soon as the two bubble sets clear ahead of you, start going to the right. Don’t stop until you hit the next spot of dry land or you’ll drown as you sink into the muck. You’ll find the body there and the gem.
You’ve gotta backtrack to the stairs the same way you came. Jump to minimize your time in the muck and stop between the two Naiad bubbles you hit first. Stop at the corner, then hurry to the dry spot to avoid death.
Now get back up the stairs. Throw the switch next to the water spout and you’ll be able to run past it. Refill your magic and pull the second switch that’s around the corner, near the other spout. That switch opens the grate below you. Jump down to it, but then head back to the stairs to your left.
Climb back up to the stairs, throw the switch again, and this time use the Sprint ability to bypass both water spouts to get to an area beyond them to the right. Get ready for a hard fight when you arrive.
Start cranking that wheel to trigger a cutscene. When you come out of it, you’ll be facing three very strong, very irritating Skeleton Warriors. These guys are fast and do a lot of damage, particularly with their unblockable dash attacks. Try to roll clear and watch their combo-swing melee attacks.
Make full and heavy use of magic here. The only way to beat these Skeleton Warriors is to utterly trounce them, making them fall apart (hey, just like in The Legend of Zelda). When they crumble, they’re vulnerable to another hit which can scatter and destroy them. Otherwise, they reconstitute, and you have to make them fall apart a second time to be defeated.
Switch on Shadow Magic and go to town. Make sure you steer clear of as many attacks as possible and just keep hammering away, preferably at one Skeleton at a time. There’s not much else to strategy except to stay light on your feet.
When you’re done, crank the wheel until it’s open, then return to the Magic Font (and Health Font — if you’ve died since using it, it’ll be restored), then drop down to the open grate below the second switch you used. Go through to the other side.
SCROLL: To get across there, you need to sprint and jump to the left. When you get there, you’ll be standing at the portcullis to leave — instead hug the wall and go downscreen. You’ll find a bag of Holy Water flasks and a body lying in the muck.
Back to the portcullis you opened. Advance to the left to the next room. This gets not exactly difficult, but confusing, because it uses an ability you may not have even thought of before. If you don’t want help solving the puzzle (although, good luck), stop reading here, because this is the end of the stage.
Go to that button on the left and punch it. That activates spikes on the path down toward that portcullis at the far end. When the spikes go down, activate your sprint and you’ll clear them, but the gate drops on its own.
Weird, right? You need to throw something at the button to activate it again, and this is where it gets fishy. A dagger won’t do it — but a Shadow Magic dagger will. So activate Shadow Magic, chuck a dagger down there, and the puzzle is “solved.” Go through and climb up the shaft to end the level and chapter.
TRIAL: In order to clear this trial, you need to defeat the Skeleton Warriors you fight in the crank room without breaking their shields in the process. That’s, uh…confusing. My best guess is, you can cause the skeletons to destroy one another by utilizing their spinning tornado attacks. When a Skeleton does this attack, try to draw him toward another Skeleton. If the two impact, the second Skeleton should be turned into rubble, allowing you to destroy it. Repeat the process to get rid of two of them, then try to roll behind the third and attack it without getting its shield in the process. You can also attack from behind immediately after the tornado attack, because the Skeleton is dazed from the effort.
ACHIEVEMENT: Hey, free “Chapter V” Achievement for advancing.
Chapter 6
Castle Courtyard
Climb up out of the shaft and you’ll find two paths you can check. To the right, sprint and jump over the gap to find a refill on Holy Water. To the left is a Health Font if you need it, and on the left you can climb the small tower to get up over the wall there.
On the other side, you’ll find a wheel you can crank open, but as you approach it, two suits of Animated Armor will come after you. You ought to be an expert at killing these things by now, and you have plenty of room to maneuver in doing so.
When they’re dead, crank open the hole in the floor. Hop in as soon as you do, or it’ll snap shut again.
SCROLL: Immediately upon hitting the ground in the hole, run upscreen and to the left back corner of the area. You’ll find a body there you can loot.
Now backtrack downscreen. There’s a Magic Font in the bottom left corner of the screen, but at the same time, two Skeleton Warriors are spawning in, and they suck.
Use Shadow Magic. You want to kill these guys (or the Warg that shows up only a few seconds later) as fast as you can. You’ll eventually do battle with as many as three Skeleton Warriors, but once you whittle down the Warg, you can mount it and use it against the enemies.
TIP: I found success by working in Dark Gauntlet punches (especially with Shadow Magic) against both Skeletons and Wargs. It sends things flying. If you can use the ground punch move (Block combined with your area attack button), you’ll scatter Skeleton bones pretty easily, as well as defeating them when they’re on the ground.
LIFE GEM: This sucks, but you have to do it during the course of the fight, or at least after you’ve defeated the Skeleton Warriors. When they’re dead, you can kill your Warg mount and fight another one indefinitely. Immediately upscreen of the Magic Font, at the bottom of the room, is a wall you can dash through, on the left wall. If you do it while you’re fighting, you’ll get a nice health boost. The body’s just inside the door.
Once you’ve killed everything and gotten your Warg, climb up the column that’s blinking. At the top, use the Warg to mangle some Vampire Warriors. Then kill it, as it’s now useless.
SCROLL: Look for a beam that acts as a tiny bridge between this side of the room and the left. Cross it and you’ll find a Health Font, a Dark Crystal node, and a body in the foreground, on the right side.
Return to the other side and drop through the hole in the floor near where you fought the vampires. At the bottom, proceed along the path until you can climb down into a canal. Here, three more Skeleton Warriors attack you in close quarters, in what has come to be known as a Singular Moment of Total Suck.
Don’t let these guys surround you, and try to work in blocks (very key to defeating these guys) and punches to scatter them. You should also go nuts with the magic, as there’s a Magic Font right after this battle. Just hack away, as fast and as powerfully as you can manage. Except this battle to be difficult, especially because the camera angle means you can’t see half the room. Great.
After that, crank open the portcullis, refill your magic and climb the spiral stairs out of the mission.
TRIAL: To finish this trial, you need to kill not one, but three Skeleton Warriors on the back of that Warg. That’s tough to do, and here’s why — you need to avoid killing all three Skeleton Warriors that attack you when you get to the section with the Warg, or you’ll fail the trial. Instead, when you get there, do your best to ignore the Skeletons (yeah, that’ll be easy), and dump all your damage and Shadow Magic into the Warg. Try punching it in the face with Shadow Magic turned on a few times. Then mount it and kill the enemies to complete the trial.
Maze Gardens
Yup, you guessed it. This is irritating. Go forward to begin with and you’ll be attacked by a mess of little creatures called Mandragora. They’re not hard to kill, but they’ll drain your life if you let them. Follow the trails back to the enemies and use the grab to put them down fast, with a wealth of magic dropped.
SCROLL: You’ll find you have three possible paths. Bear all the way left and continue to the left. You’ll eventually meander into an open area, with a path that leads up on the left side of it. Go down to the middle, against the left wall, to find a body with a scroll on it.
LIGHT GEM: From the scroll body, go straight toward the background and you’ll see a smashable wall. Go through it with the dash move to find a body and some Mandragora on the other side.
That does it for the left path — nothing left over here. Head back to the right to the beginning of the garden, where the path split three ways. Take the middle route.
LIFE GEM: Ignore that corner you can take to the left — that returns you to the leftmost path — and enter the courtyard beyond. If you turn left immediately through the archway, you’ll see a Totem statue you that you can saw through. Do so to get the Life Gem behind it. You might want to kill some of the Mandragora first.
Done here. For simplicity’s sake, backtrack to the three-way fork and take the rightmost path. Follow it until it corners and you’ll see a big, glowing gap on your left. Can’t jump that without an animal or something, so note it for later. Continue to the right, turn at the next junction, and you’ll find a statue. Punch it.
Follow the statue to where it rests and climb up. Hop over the wall and jump down, then continue heading downscreen. You’ll round the corner into a fight with Mandragora. Squash ‘em.
Continue to the right, and when the camera shifts, go upscreen. If you go further to the right, you’ll hit the Giant Spider, and we don’t need him yet.
SCROLL: If you follow the path going up, you’ll pass a blinking door (which requires the spider), which you should ignore. Past that, when you hit a corner at the far end, you’ll find a body.
Head back down to wrangle the spider. Once you’ve got it, you can go do everything you might need it for in one go, if you’re smart. First, ride to the left and down to get back to that bridge with the glowing spot we saw in the cutscene. Use the Spider’s web to make a bridge.
Now ride back up to where you got the scroll off that body, before fighting the Spider. You’ll see a door on your right — hit it with web to tear it open. Then keep moving along the path until it cuts to the left and you find another door. Hit that with web and tear it open, too.
SHADOW GEM: You’re riding through those two weird doors back into the first section of the maze. You’ll want to keep heading to the right and down, toward where you found the statue that you climbed up. When you get to that spot where we said you couldn’t cross the gap without animal assistance, spin another web bridge. Kill your spider, as it has served its purpose, and cross the bridge to your gem.
Backtrack to the statue and climb it, hop over the wall, and head back down. Cross the first bridge you made with web.
SCROLL: Grab the scroll off the body to the right of the far side of the bridge. It has a puzzle solution for you.
Up ahead you’ll find the puzzle. It gives you the Vampire Key, which opens the two doors that get you out of the garden. The puzzle is not unlike the one you played at Pan’s Temple, with the rotation of different rings moving one or or more rings, as well as rotating the statues. You want to get all of them facing the center. The solution follows, so skip 16 if you don’t want to read it.
Here we go. If you want to beat the puzzle immediately, highlight the center ring, and rotate it clockwise twice. That’s it. You’ll get the experience bonus and the Vampire key.
The rest is really simple. Go to the first door you tore open with the Giant Spider. Through it, you’ll find a big door you can open with the key if you follow the path. Doing so takes you back out to the Castle Courtyard’s first section. Get Holy Water, sprint jump across the gap, heal and climb the wall the way you did the first time through here.
Now, instead of trying to go underground, just head up to the big front gate and put the key in the hole to the right. That opens the way into the castle and ends this mission.
TRIAL: It’s about Mandragoras: you need to kill 15 of them within 15 seconds. The best way is Shadow Magic coupled with area attacks. Try to just keep hacking through any you see as fast as you can. Finish the mission after that to claim the trial.
Castle Hall
At the outset of this battle, you’ll have to fight some Vampire Warriors. The trick is to lay waste to them quickly. Do that however you deem necessary.
Now go to the left quickly and throw the hook whip at that blinking board on the window. Tear it down as prompted. Do the same with the other two, stopping to fight if need be.
TIP: There’s sunlight streaming into the room a little downscreen of you. Lure the Vampires into it. It hurts them and protects you.
You can eventually pull down that curtain, casting sunlight on the hole from which the Vampires are emerging. When that’s done, you’re in the clear. You can also open the other curtains during the battle to add more sun to the fun.
Head downscreen. You’ll find a mirror statue and another curtain you can pull down. First, punch the mirror all the way to the left. Pull down the curtain next, then angle the mirror so the sunbeam goes into the next room, all the way at the far end of this one.
Crank open the portcullis at the far end of the room to enter the next one. This is the same situation, except this time you also have to deal with a suit of Animated Armor.
You’ll want to kill the Armor first, and as fast as possible. The Vampires are irritating, but they spawn indefinitely. You can’t really ignore everything to pull down curtains, either. They’ll attack you while you work.
Quickly go to the bottom left corner of the room and pull down a curtain. This gives you an advantageous place to draw Vampires to while you’re fighting them. Keep your focus on the Armor and try to bring it down fast.
Once you’ve dealt with the Armor, which isn’t exactly an easy proposition, repeat the process from the last room: clear the room, pull down planks, repeat. Once you get the curtain open over the Vampire hole, it’s just a matter of mopping up.
SCROLL: Check the left side of the room just beyond the vampire hole, near a boarded window you can’t open.
You’re free to crank open the door to the next room to the right. Inside is a mirror statue you need to move into position in the room you just left.
SCROLL: Grab this one off the body in the center of the room.
LIFE GEM: From the scroll body, head to the left wall. Look for a break in the molding that rings the floor above (you may have spotted a blinking body up there from another angle). Break the furniture just below the molding to expose a spot you can climb up. Get up there to find the body with the gem.
Punch the mirror into position and use it to open the door beyond. There’s a magic rune puzzle to solve now — skip 15 if you don’t want the answer.
You need to turn some runes blue and others red by activating them with magic. Starting outside of the door you opened with the sunbeam, go to the left rune. There are more runes inside, going in a clockwise circle. The order is: red, red, blue, blue, red. Puzzle solved.
BROTHERHOOD ARK: Above the runes, and beyond the door you opened with the light beam, is this Ark, which upgrades your daggers. You need the Seraph Shoulders to access it, which you’ll receive after you beat the Vampire Dark Lord.
Once you activate the rune puzzle and the portcullis protecting the next door rises, the sun will go down, allowing a mess of vampires to come after you. Quickly try to head back to the other room outside the door.
The door you want isn’t open yet, so try to hold off the Vampires. It eventually will be open, and when that happens, you can just dart through it. Meantime, kill as many as you can and try to keep your strength up.
When the door is open, sprint through. This will trigger a cutscene and then a chess-like minigame. You’ll get a scroll that explains how to play, and it’s difficult to do so here, so I’ll skip it. Suffice it to say, if you do play, the best thing you can do is move your Necromancers up a little, with one in front of the other, so that they have access to more of the board than they do at the start. This way, you can use them to zap attacking pieces. They’re the best piece in the game, so protect them. Kill your opponent’s Necros early and you will be much more likely to win.
LIFE GEM: Whether you play or skip it, you’ll be released into the room next. Go to the back right corner of the room to find a body.
Exit by the door opposite the Life Gem body, which is in the back left corner of the room. Mission over.
TRIAL: This one requires you to win the Vampire War Game without losing more than three pieces, which is a tall order. The same rules apply — make smart use of your Necromancers, with two aims: 1. eliminate enemy Necros as early as possible, and 2. turn the tides of any battles your pieces are in. If you can knock out both pieces of a certain variety, you cause the opponent to lose a turn if her spinner lands on that piece, as well. That can help mitigate the pain of giving your enemy multiple turns as a cost of doing well.
Refectory
Run down the hall and up ahead you’ll see a Magic Font and another hallway that cuts left. Ignore that one for now — down there is a locked door, the key for which you’ll need to find.
At the end of the hall going upscreen, you’ll get a cutscene. Time to head down and kill some Ghouls. You’ll find a staircase further to your right.
TIP: The grab move is still the best way to dispatch these Ghouls. You can instantly kill each one without reprisals.
SCROLL: Now that the room is clear, check the table that’s closest to the fireplace on the left. Underneath is a member of the Brotherhood and the scroll you seek.
In order to get out of this room, you need to recreate the cutscene you just watched. Head to the left, where you’ll find a bucket of body parts. Bring one back and dump it in the depression in the middle of the room, and then ring the bell. Ghouls enter, and leave a hook whip point you can reach.
Whip that spot and you’ll be taken into a narrow hallway. Follow it until you get to a fork, where you can go upscreen or down, into the foreground.
SHADOW GEM: Head downscreen, into the foreground, and you’ll find a body in a small chamber with the gem.
Head back in the other direction to trigger a cutscene. Now you’ll have to go up against that huge Evil Butcher guy.
This guy hits hard. He’s not especially difficult to battle, but he uses moves that have a tendency to reach far in the cramped room. You’ll need to learn the timing of his fire blade strike, which sends a line of flame forward that can devastate you.
The other attack you should fear from the Butcher is the fire-breathing he does when he picks up a bottle. You’ll see him with it, and he’ll immediately close the distance between you. Just stay clear of him until he throws the bottle at you and try to avoid this one. It hurts a lot.
Other than that, watch for the Butcher’s windups and dodge him. You’ll see him go for his blade for regular melee attacks, and if he picks up a meat clever, it takes him about a second to actually throw it, so don’t dodge too early. Beyond that, keep your health up (you can dump all your magic here and replenish it right after the battle) and fire away whenever you see the Butcher move.
That’s the most you need to do in the way of defense. Spend most of your time hammering the Butcher, especially if you see him go pick something up that looks like food. If he eats, he’ll replenish health, but you can just whack him one and he’ll drop it and re-engage in the battle.
You shouldn’t have too much trouble beating the Butcher down to almost nothing. When that happens, he’ll grab a pot and put it on his head. To execute him, just jump up and hit him in the helmet. You’ll spin it around on him, giving you a chance to snag his blade with your whip hook. Follow the prompts until you win.
With the key you just got, leave the kitchen and go back into the dining room. Fight off a few Ghouls there.
LIFE GEM: Go back to the left room where bucket of body parts was. Open the door there and check the left side of the room for a body against the wall.
Double back out of the dining room and back up the stairs. Refill your magic and go back to that hallway we passed that led to the locked door.
On the other side, down a hall, you’ll be fighting a tough battle. This one includes a suit of Animated Armor and four Skeleton Warriors. They like to pick at you while you’re fighting the big guy, so try to keep your head on a swivel.
Your strategy here should be one of quick eliminations. Watch for the Skeletons to go down, and clear them with the ground-pounding Dark Gauntlet move. Try to get rid of the Animated Armor fast so you don’t have shockwaves bouncing you around while you fight the Skeletons.
Remember, you can use the hell out of your magic, since recharging is just a very short backtrack away.
SCROLL: When you finally finish here, check the right side of the room for a body.
SCROLL: Head over to the barricaded staircase on the right. Stand on it and the camera will pan for you, showing you a hook point. Use it to climb up onto the wood scaffolding and then around all the way up to the second level. Head to the right and you’ll see an alcove with something blinking set in the wall. Take it — it’s your scroll. It explains the puzzle down in the room below.
SHADOW GEM: From here, head right. You’ll see a Magic Font, which you can us. After doing so, head downscreen to start walking on the wood planks that crisscross the span. Make your way down and to the right until you get all the way across to the far wall. There, you’ll find a staircase that leads downscreen and a body with the gem.
Backtrack downstairs. Time to solve our rune puzzle to get out of the room. Skip 24 if you want to solve it yourself. Check your scroll for clues.
Here’s the solution: Blue, blue, red; red, blue, red. Use your magic to power up the runes and you’ll open the door.
Leave by the door and you’re done. That’s Chapter 6.
ACHIEVEMENT: Of course, you’ll be rewarded with the “Chapter VI” Achievement or Trophy for pushing through.
TRIAL: This is a simple one. To beat it, just drag out the fight with the Butcher and get him to use at least 15 of the items in the room. That means food, cleavers, jugs for flame breath — just keep letting him use those things and try not to die. When he ticks off 15, smash him and then finish the level.
Chapter 7
Balcony
As soon as you start out here, you’ll be attacked by a group of three Vampire Warriors. You should be able to take these guys with little difficulty.
SHADOW GEM: Run upscreen to the railing and look left. The camera will pan, allowing you to drop down. Climb down and walk across the planks until you get to the other side — you’ll pass the body you’re looking for. Back on solid ground, go to the upscreen side of the platfrom, which is to the right as you leave the plank, and you’ll find you can hang off the ledge there. Shimmy over and then climb up to reach the platform with the gem.
Backtrack and head up that little ramp. You can’t actually go anywhere to the left, but you can go around the corner to the right. You’ll see where it connects to the ramp as you go upscreen. Down there, you’ll engage three Swordmasters in an annoying fight in an annoying venue.
The Swordmasters come out one at a time, and sometimes they take quite a while to reinforce one another. This is your only real advantage here — try to massacre at least one of the Swordmasters before you’re in a three-on-one. Do your best to dodge their attacks and continually focus on a single target. Use your secondary weapons, as well.
SCROLL: When you finally finish these guys, you can climb up the wall nearby. At the top, go around the right side of the center section to find the body. Note that the door beside it is locked.
SCROLL: Go around the left side of the center rooftop and look for a gap in the railing on the left. You’ll be able to climb down from there and go all the way to the far left, where you can climb down to a pair of windows. Drop off by the one on the right and go through, and after being attacked by a couple of Swordmasters, you’ll find the scroll on a body. There also is a Health Font way in the foreground.
When you’ve finished with that window, jump back out to the cliff side and go to the right corner of that section. You should get the camera to pan over and show you a hook whip point where you can climb up. Jump across to the left side and climb around to the window there.
Hop down and go through the window. Inside, you’ll fight a couple of Skeleton Warriors. Kill them both and you’ll receive the Balcony Key, which lets you open the door back up on the roof.
LIGHT GEM: There’s also a body in the middle of the room with this gem. Yoink.
Backtrack out and climb back up to the rooftop. Go to the back and unlock that gate in the back of the area. Go up the stairs and climb into the room there.
SHADOW GEM: You can grab this one by going downscreen and around the back of the big red fabric object on the right. The body is kind of secreted back there.
SCROLL: Same thing: go upscreen and look behind that red fabric object on the left as you go around the corner. You should see the body blinking once the camera pans up.
Go to the blinking cabinet in the corner to solve the puzzle to get out of here. It’s a Plinko-style game that makes the little hinges turn from red to green and back again when the ball touches them. The trick is to turn them all green. The solution follows, but you can probably just play it until you figure it out on your own. After that, just leave through the door.
TRIAL: Your task here is to finish the Plinko puzzle in as few ball-drops as possible. There are seven. The answer is: left, middle, middle, middle, middle, middle, right.
Electric Laboratory
SCROLL: As soon as you start here, you’ll see a body to the right. Its scroll clues you in on the puzzle you’re about to work through.
To turn off the electricity, you have to turn the electrical nodes the same color. Opposite colors will conduct electricity between them. Go to that little yellow circle to the left and turn on Shadow Magic, then do the Gauntlet Punch into the ground. This will send a charge that changes the first node red and turns off the current.
Go to the next circle, ahead but on the right. Do the same thing with Light Magic. Then head up to the last one, in the left corner, and use Light Magic. That should clear the path out of the room.
In the next room, you can see that to the right is a spot to put a battery. The way to the left is blocked. Hit that first circle with blue magic to transfer the electricity and open a path left.
LIGHT GEM: Check to the right as the camera shifts for you, in the foreground.
There’s your battery, and it’s on a track. Punch it to send it down to the other end of the room and return to your circle. Hit it with Shadow Magic this time.
Go back around and put the battery in its place. That’ll open the path up ahead to the right. Go up there and you’ll see a circle on the wall, which you can punch to have another effect, way back over on the other side of the room.
Head back down, change the path, and get over to where you got the battery. Now you can move to the back of the room, where you’ll find a Magic Font (charge up), and a bag of daggers. Wonder what we’re supposed to do here?
Switch on Shadow Magic and chuck a dagger at that circle on the far wall. That’ll let you move closer to the door. Throw another, same Shadow charge, and you can exit the room.
Room number three. Now that you know how to perform the puzzle, you get a chance to do a huge one. Hooray. Run up to that crank and turn it clockwise.
You should now have access to a path going up and left. Go left first. You’ll find a wall you can dash through and destroy. On the other side is a yellow circle you can punch to change the currents. Do so now.
You should now gain access to the upper-left quadrant of the room. Go in there and look in the top right corner for an item called the Red Lens. Pick it up and you’ll trigger a boss fight.
Boss Fight: Mechnical Monstrosity
This actually isn’t too bad a battle. The big mechanical scorpion’s attacks are all frontal, so dodge sideways and stay well back and you’ll do just fine. When it charges up with lightning, either get all the way to its side, or jump, to avoid an electrical discharge.
The mechanic of this battle is as follows: once you’ve taken a quarter of the scorpion’s life bar, it’ll go to a nearby electrical node and recharge to full strength. The first time this happens, you can do nothing. The second time, you can punch a nearby yellow circle while charged with magic and electrocute the boss.
You’ll need to maintain a little magic in order to do this reliably, so keep that in mind. There’s not much to this fight beyond that and staying clear of the scorpion’s attacks. Try to stay near the yellow node thing while you fight, so you can hit it quickly when the need arises.
That’s it. Electrocute the scorpion three times and you win. After that, you’ll get access back into the center of the chamber.
LIFE GEM: Next, take the upward path to the top and turn right. You should see a moving platform. Jump onto it and ride it to the right corner. Jump off at the body to get your gem, then return.
Rotate the crank so you can reach the first node in the bottom right corner. Hit it. That’ll clear a path, after you rotate again, to a node in the bottom left corner. Hit that one.
Rotate the path again so you can get up to the moving platform at the top. Ride it to its end — you should now be able to jump off and get to the last node in the bottom right corner. Punch that to solve the puzzle and open the way out of the room.
TRIAL: Completing this trial has you battling the Mechanical Monstrosity without damaging it with your weapons after the first time it heals itself with the Tesla coil. This isn’t too tough — play keep-away with the monster until it goes to heal, then blast it. Use the save checkpoint at the beginning of the battle to restart if you accidentally attack it.
Chromatic Observatory
Charge up at the start of this mission and go to the crank in the center of the room ahead. When you activate it, you’ll be able to move the lenses above into the light. You have the Red Lens, so start with that.
Moving the red lens into position sets a laser that opens the door to the left. Go through and you’ll fight a bunch of Vampire Warriors. There are two waves that you’ll have to dispatch, but they’re not tough.
SCROLL: There’s a body in the center of the room with clues to the puzzle.
Okay, with that done, you can solve this room’s puzzle. Activate Shadow Magic and stand in one of the corners of the square, and the tile below you will light up. Now do the dash move (the one you use to break through walls) to the next corner, and you’ll illuminate all the tiles in between.
Do the dash move around the edges of the square to solve the puzzle and open the gate above you. Take the stairs on either side of the room to reach it.
At the top, you’ll access a room with a body. Examine it to get the Green Lens, but the gate will close on you. You’ll have to kill a Swordmaster to escape.
Return to the laser emitter and add the Green Lens. Align it with the red to make a yellow laser and open the door. Recharge your magic before you head in.
You’ll fight a group of Vampire Warriors inside the yellow door. They should be easy. After that, you’ll notice the center of the chamber has a similar pattern to that square you had to dash over to illuminate earlier. Same thing here — activate Shadow Magic, do the dash move.
SCROLL: After you’ve opened the gate with Shadow Magic, move over the left wall. The camera makes the body here difficult to see, but you should get a glimpse of just an arm or leg sticking out. Snag the scroll off it.
Go through the gate you opened to find the Blue Lens. You’ll also have to deal with a pair of Swordmasters to get back out.
LIGHT GEM: Back to the laser emitter. Add the Blue Lens to the beam and subtract the Red Lens. This will create a turquoise beam that activates a suit of Animated Armor that’s been sitting like a statue in the room. Kill it, and behind where it was previously sitting, you’ll find the body.
TIP: Activate the Blue Lens alone and you can fight a second set of Animated Armor, but purely for the experience points. It’s an easy fight here, especially with unlimited magic at your disposal.
Activate just the Green Lens next to enter another room. Inside, you’ll fight three Swordmasters, and it’ll be tough. Use your magic as much as you need to.
LIFE GEM: When you’ve defeated these guys, you have to swing across that chasm in front of you. This is actually not that easy, but it’s not impossible. The trick is thus: sprint and then jump over the chasm, but don’t fire your hook whip until you’ve started the downward plummet at the end of the jump. You need to be as far along as possible before you start your swing. When you do swing, jump at the apex and you should catch the far side. If you don’t have maximum distance, you’ll fall. You may see the blinking body to the right as you approach. When the camera switches, it’s on your left — go to the edge of the chasm on the left side and use the grab button despite not being able to see the body and you’ll snag your gem.
Now that you’re over here, you can do the dash move on the zig-zag tiles further into the room to activate a puzzle. It presents you with the White Key for solving it. Snag that and return to the laser emitter.
Combine all three lenses to open the white door and go inside.
SCROLL: Immediately to the right when you go through the white door, you’ll find a body.
Go left and you’ll see a hook whip point. Use it to climb up and around onto some wood scaffolding. At the top, you can carefully walk across the chasm in the center of the room to the far side. Climb down and use the White Key on the door you find there.
SHADOW GEM: All that effort gets you into a locked room with a body lying in the center. The Shadow Gem is on it, waiting for you.
Backtrack all the way out to the laser emitter and combine the Red and Blue lenses. This opens the way forward through the big door in the center of all the others. Charge up and heal before you go.
In the next room, you’ll face three Deadly Toys. Despite their name, they’re pretty easy. For the most part, staying in close to these guys is the way to go. They principally attack you more or less at range, and you’ll see them winding up a close-range melee attack with plenty of time to dodge it.
The big attack you want to dodge is the one where the toy jumps in the air and slams down with a shockwave. You’ll see the jump coming and it takes a few seconds, so get clear. Beyond that, spend your time dodging melee attacks and use area attacks to do as much damage to everyone as possible.
Try to focus on a single toy and take it down. When it blinks, use the grab move to initiate an killing move similar to that you use against the Animated Armor. In fact, this battle is a lot like that.
When you kill a toy, the others will throw out that black goo that the Black Knight used on you during his fight. This is almost not even a concern. Try to stay away from it and it will mostly seem to stay away from you. Killing the last two toys ends the chapter.
ACHIEVEMENT: You know how it works. Finish a chapter, get the achievement. This time it’s “Chapter VII”.
TRIAL: Get to the end of this mission to the fight with the Deadly Toys for this trial. You’ll need to destroy 10 of them. The trick to getting more into the fight is to kill the toys by just beating on them, rather than doing the finishing move initiated with the grab move when they’re blinking. If you kill one with conventional attacks, Laura the vampire girl will keep adding more to the fight. Get through 10 to win here.
Chapter 8
Outer Wall
SCROLL: Check the left corner of the balcony as soon as you start. The blinking body is hard to see, but it’s there.
Drop off the right side balcony and climb all the way around. When you get to the top, you’ll find a Health Font. Heal if you need to, you’re about to be in a fairly big fight.
SHADOW GEM: Standing beside the Health Font, look to the background on the left and you might see a blinking body. Climb up the ledge and go around the corner to the left, immediately past the Health Font, to find the body there.
As you enter this room, you’ll find a Magic Font and then be attacked by some Vampire Warriors. While you’re dealing with them, Skeleton Warriors will join the fray. And somewhere between killing the Vampires and killing the Skeletons, more Vampires will join from the right. It’s a party.
Try to do this a little at a time. Kill the Vampires because they’re easier — use Holy Water if you’re in a jam and you can take out all of them at once. Then focus on a single Skeleton Warrior and try to get blocks off during the fight to seriously punish them.
Use magic like crazy. There’s a Magic Font about 10 feet away if you need more. Do whatever you need to in order to win.
SCROLL: When you’re finally done fighting, look over by the Magic Font for a scroll about the puzzle to escape this area.
This one’s easy. You’ll find six runes near the door out of here to the right. Three are on each side of the door. Read the scroll for clues, or just read No. 9 below for the answer.
Solving the puzzle is as follows: On the left side, from furthest from the door to closest, the pattern is blue, blue, red. On the right side, starting from furthest from the door, the pattern is blue, red, red.
Go through the gate and down the path to the round tower platform. There, you’ll be surrounded by Gremlins. Take them out the easy way by continually grabbing all of them and murdering them. Shouldn’t tax you at all.
Turn the crank all halfway around and you’ll line up the exit door with the path moving forward. Release the crank, however, and the door snaps loose and goes back to the starting position. Instead, just run through it as it passes to get through to the outer edge of the platform.
From here, you should be standing on a spiral staircase that descends into the tower. Go down into the chamber below and you’ll find a body that has the Tower Key on it, which you want. Two Swordmasters will attack you next. Kill them and use the crank to open the door.
Follow the path to the next tower. Inside, you’ll find a Health Font to the right, which you can use as you’re about to finish this level.
LIGHT GEM: Head over to the left side of this circular chamber and smash through the furniture to reveal a body lying there.
Open the door with your key and you’re done.
TRIAL: When you get to the Gremlin battle in this stage, your trial is to kill 10 of them with daggers. That pretty much means not killing them with anything else. It’ll be irritating, but if you dodge effectively and try to keep your health up, you can do it. Remember that if you save the Health Font at the opening of the stage, you can return to it for a boost during this fight.
The Clockwork Tower
At the start, walk the beam across the gap to the platform at the far end.
LIGHT GEM: Turn left. You’ll see a gap in the railing. Get a sprint going and jump to where you can’t see and you’ll land on another platform. There’s a body there.
Go back across and get on the moving platforms going to the right. Jump onto the rotating platforms and when you approach the big electrified gear, jump up onto the back wall to grab it. Shimmy over to the gear and wait for it to stop, then jump to the next handhold ledge on the other side of it.
Drop down onto the rotating platforms again and jump around the outside until you get to a spot with an elevator platform. Get on it and ride to the top, where you’ll find a crank you can turn.
Spin the crank till it stops to bring up the platform that has the footbridges on it. Follow it around to the next section, where you can hookwhip up, but electricity bars you from climbing. To get past the first current, kick off the wall, then kick off again when you land to get a bigger swing. The second one you should be able to do the same for.
At the top, shimmy right and drop down on the moving platform. Ride it around to the other side and you’ll find another piece of the wall you can climb onto. Keep going to the right, jumping to the far platform, and then to the wall again.
Keep moving sideways. You’ll eventually land on a platform with a Magic Font. Next you’ll be climbing up past electrical currents. Watch them to get the timing — the second time the first current stops, move up, and when all currents stop, go up two steps quickly. The last current will go in and out, so just watch it and bounce over it. Climb off to the left at the top.
LIFE GEM: Before you go further left, jump over to the platform on the right to find a body.
Climb left and you’ll swing over to a platform with a crank. Start using it and the Mechanical Monstrosity shows up for another fight.
This fight is really similar to the last one, with one small difference. Occasionally the Monstrosity will gather a cloud of debris around it, which it will then huck at you. This basically adds your need to dodge more at range. It’s not a big deal
Avoid the Monstrosity’s lighting attack and do your best to stay back for the rest of the fight. Keep hammering it. You don’t need to do anything special other than that.
Whittle the Monstrosity down to a quarter of its health bar and you’ll get to do the killing move. Follow the prompts to smash it and kill the brain inside and you’re done with this fight. It should be one of the easier ones.
Back to the crank. Turn it until it locks and cross the footbridge to the platform and the end of the stage.
TRIAL: The only challenge here is to get all the way to the Mechanical Monstrosity in under five minutes. If you move carefully with a minimum of missteps, it should be pretty easy.
Olrox
This is a tough fight, if only because of its intense duration. When you start against Olrox, you’ll recognize his fighting style from when you fought the last vampire commander. He does a lot of the same things, and more than anything, he’s fast, so watch out.
There are two moves you have to really look out for — first, when Olrox disappears and does his teleporting thing, he’ll always end it with a melee attack. It’ll either be an attack with his claws, which you can block, or a combo strike with his blade, which you can’t. Best to just roll backward when he appears.
When you see Olrox pull out his two big blades, you know he’s about to throw them. You can’t catch them like you could last time, and the build-up to the throw actually takes a few seconds. Because of this, if you dodge too early, you’ll till get hit as Olrox adjusts his aim. You have to wait until just before he throws to get clear.
Because you fight Olrox for so long, you’re going to need to work to keep your magic up. Look for attack patterns so you can execute a block, get your focus, and amass more Light Magic. The best one for this is the strike Olrox uses following a quick sideways dodge. That one you can reliably see coming and it’s always blockable.
Also make use of your Holy Water, which is a pretty devastating weapon here. Don’t use it all up too fast, as it’s good in a pinch and actually knocks Olrox down.
The rest of the fight is attrition. You need to hammer away at Olrox over and over and over again. Bash him down to an inch of his life and he’ll go to one of the iron maidens scattered around the room, where he’ll feed on Lycans held there. The first time he does this, he gets about a quarter of his health bar back.
So whomp on Olrox again. Knock him down to almost-dead — again. And again, he’ll go to a coffin to feed. When he does, get over to him and hit him a couple times. This will drive him away and give you a couple of free seconds to smash the Lycan body with your weapon, destroying it.
You need to repeat this process four(!) times to destroy all the Lycans and keep Olrox from healing. Once you’ve done that, you can just finish him. This is why you want to be careful about your magic and Holy Water usage: you’ll be fighting a long time and both can get you out of deadly situations.
When you finally get Olrox beaten and execute him following some prompts (don’t screw it up or he’ll get another 25 percent health boost), his blood will flow into the maze on the floor. It blinks, but wait! Don’t activate it yet. We’ve got something to do.
SHADOW GEM: This tricky gem is hidden in one of the Iron Maidens that previously housed a Lycanthrope that fed Olrox. It’s the one in the right-hand corner in the back of the room — if you paid attention, you would have seen it behind the Lycanthrope when Olrox went over there to feed. You can now walk over and take the gem, but you couldn’t during the fight.
Now go activate the maze seal puzzle. The trick here is to guide the blood to those little circular wells in the maze. Each one represents a save point — there’s a timer ticking down around the edges, and if it reaches zero, you get bounced to the last well you made it to. This is irritating because you literally have just enough time to get to each stop.
Start by going to the well on the bottom right first. Next, navigate the most direct route to the left well. The well just above that is next, and you should take the path that goes up and then left to get to it.
From the upper left well, go directly right to the fourth well, and then take the path up and left to the final one. Almost all these routes seem like the most direct, so you probably will figure this out pretty easily alone. It’s more about precision than planning.
That opens the door out. Leave and you’ll end the mission.
TRIAL: You’re trying to get your focus activated for this trial. Once you do, you have to hold it for 60 seconds straight. This basically means you have to go a long, long time fighting Olrox without getting hit. Learn his cadence and look for blockable moves, as these are key to gaining and maintaining focus quickly. Get clear of the unblockable ones and you should do okay, though it might take a few tries.
The Throne Room
Start by refilling your meters. Start working your way up the long staircase next.
LIGHT GEM: Obscured by shadow is a blinking body on the right side railing of the stairs. It’s tough to see, so tread carefully so you don’t miss it.
You’re free to head inside and start the fight with the dark lord.
Part One of the fight is a huge battle with Vampire Warriors. This part is pretty straight-forward and you know how to deal with it. Just fight vampires like you’ve been doing for two or three chapters now.
The caveat is that occasionally, Carmilla will descend from her beam of light and fire lightning at you. When this happens, ignore everything and do a sprint to the right or left. Just keep moving sideways and you should avoid the lightning until it’s gone — and some vampires will get caught in the attack.
Only when you’ve killed all the vampires, and a few more spawn in to join the fight, will Carmilla transform into the Vampire Dark Lord. This is only slightly more scary. At the outset, she’ll be flanked by a pair of vampires, but you can kill them pretty easily. In fact, Carmilla might do it for you.
For the most part, at first, the Dark Lord isn’t all that aggressive. She’ll do single-strike moves that you’ll see coming and can easily dodge. Wail on her right now (maybe try a Dark Crystal, and note that most secondary weapons are pretty useful against her, including Holy Water), and after about 25 percent damage you can do a quick-time strike on her.
After that, she amps things up a bit. She’ll get more aggressive but the strikes will continue to be single-serving. She’ll fly into the air occasionally, and these are the moves that can be problematic.
The first in-air move the Dark Lord will pull on you is one through which she crackles with electricity, then lets go of an area strike on the ground. Just jump to avoid it, but you don’t want to be caught in this.
The second move will have the Dark Lord summoning bats. They’re tougher to avoid, but mostly travel in a straight line, so try sideways dodging.
Beyond that, keep clear of melee attacks and keep up your strikes. When you’re close to the end, Carmilla will hit you with a lightning blast you can beat back by tapping a button. Right afterward, Gabriel’s gauntlet will glow with electricity.
When this happens, run up to the downed Carmilla and gauntlet punch either her or the ground. That’ll trigger the endgame scene. Follow the prompts to finish her off.
TIP: With the Seraph Shoulders, you can now backtrack and get a handful of Brotherhood Arks you had to pass up earlier in the game. They’re mostly clustered in the latter, vampire stages.
ACHIEVEMENT: Hooray. The “Chapter VIII” Achievement.
TRIAL: This trial seems hard, but isn’t. It just means avoiding death in the opening act of the battle. You need to get Carmilla to kill 10 of her vampire minions. You can hit them yourself, and you should, but you can’t kill them. A solid way to do this is to blast them all with Holy Water to get their defense down, then wait for Carmilla to start firing lightning. Avoid the lightning and she’ll continue to fire it at you for a long while. As you move, she’ll arc it over the vampires, and if they’re weakened, they’ll die. Continue this until you’ve racked up the right number, then finish the fight.
Chapter 9
Bones Forest
SHADOW GEM: First thing out of the door, head over to the left side of area, toward the wall. You’ll see a body along the edge, on the path, and a little toward the foreground.
LIGHT GEM: You’ll find this one around the back of the portal, on the right side, behind some rocks.
Move to the back of the area and charge your health and magic. Beyond, you’ll find you can climb the wall, but you’ll need the Seraph Shoulders to reach the handhold. Climb up to the top.
SCROLL: When you hit the chasm right at the top of the climb, just jump down and kill the Small Trolls there. The body is near where you can climb back up.
To cross the chasm, get a sprinting start, jump, and double-jump at the furthest end of the first leap. You should hit the other side without incident. Beyond, you’ll battle a new enemy called the Headless Burrower, in one of the most slow and boring fights you’ve yet encountered.
Beating the Burrower involves first destroying its floating, severed head. Kill all the heads and the bodies will appear from the ground, in order to resupply the heads. It’s at this point that you have to attack the bodies and do enough damage to stun them. Then you can grapple them out of the ground to destroy them.
Problem is, standing still for any length of time will cause Burrowers to rise up from behind and grab you. You’ll see the ground turning red near you — that means a Burrower is coming. You can easily shake them with a prompt, but it gets irritating.
SCROLL: Battle through these guys and then take the path to the right. Get a running start and jump over the chasm, then double jump and climb to the top. You’ll find a cave with a body in front of it. You can explore inside, but there are just trolls and dead ends at this point.
Backtrack and take the left path. Follow it until you hit another chasm. You’ll see a cave up ahead.
SHADOW GEM: Get another sprinting start and jump the gap, then double-jump to land above the cave. You’ll be walled in and have to play a weird game of whack-a-mole with Headless Burrowers, but it should be okay. Use area attacks to squash lots of them quickly. Then grab the Shadow Gem off the body on the left.
Jump back across and then jump down to the cave entrance. Use the hook whip and the Seraph Shoulders to cross the long chasm. At the end, a Chupacabra appears to make life difficult — follow him up the wall to the right.
LIFE GEM: As soon as you start the climb on the wall, you’ll see this body. Shimmy over to it and snag the gem.
At the top, you’ll enter a cave. A Cave Troll will appear, and so it’s troll wrangling time. Beat the Troll down, mount it, and crash through the rock ahead. As you go forward, you’ll see Small Trolls appear. You can squash them now, which is more convenient, and then bash through the rock on the right.
Kill the Troll, grab that Chupacabra who is stunned from being smashed along with the rock, and get your stuff back. If you killed the trolls, you’re free to move forward.
You’re back where you found the last scroll. Follow the path back to where the Chupacabra first diverted you. You’ll find a chasm ahead — sprint and double-jump to make it to the platform beyond. After a second, this one and the one ahead will collapse.
Use the hook whip to stop from falling to your death. You’ll need to climb the walls to get across the next gap. Then follow the path to where it leads to another gap. Jump, swing, catch the handholds on the far side and climb to the top.
SCROLL: At the end of your climb, when the music shifts, you’ll see a body to the right of the path.
That’s it. Move forward to the end of the mission.
TRIAL: Remember fighting the Headless Burrowers? Completing this trial requires that you defeat 10 of them without being grabbed by one. This is tough, but doable, if you keep your attention on the glowing ground near you and make sure to move before you get into trouble.
Woes Moor
SHADOW GEM: First, leave the house and head into the foreground. You’ll happen on a body before long.
SCROLL: Head down the other path. You’ll run up to a body before long. Take it and you’ll get a puzzle scroll.
The game notifies you of the crows that just landed on the scarecrow. Move up to it and grab the wheel at its base. Shake it and the crows move to the next scarecrow.
SCROLL: Move to the scarecrow that the crows landed on and check to the right of it to find another body.
LIGHT GEM: The path splinters to the right near the scroll. Along the way, against one of the buildings on the far side of the path, is another blinking body.
As you move around here, you’ll be dealing with Mandragoras. Do your best to just annihilate them and keep your health up. Continue moving to the right, as we’re going to explore this whole area before we do anything drastic.
SCROLL: Keep moving to the right. Go as far as you can, past the outbuilding that’s sort of in the middle of the area and to the right of the scarecrow with red light coming out of it. Around the back of this building, you’ll find your body.
LIFE GEM: Stand next to the scarecrow with the red coming off of it, and then move right into the open barn there. The camera will shift to reveal a body.
When you get to a dead end moving to the right, come downscreen to find a Magic Font. Fill up and then examine the blinking pile of rubble on the left. You can pull it down with the hook whip.
LIGHT GEM: Just inside that small area behind the rubble pile is a body. You’ll also be stormed by Mandragoras.
Return back to the left. Head for the scarecrow with the crows perched on it. When you get there, shake the wheel on this scarecrow and the crows will approach a third, which is kind of glowing red. This one will come to life and attack you.
The Scarecrow can be a tough fight, primarily because it has a big reach and moves fast. Dodge is your best friend here — keep moving and keep hammering away. If you roll as the Scarecrow attacks, you’ll stay below its attack path most of the time.
Avoid the Scarecrow’s speedy attacks and you’ll beat it without too much pain. Kill it when it’s stunned with the prompts and you’ll receive your first key. You’re ready to move on.
Shake the rig that the scarecrow was just on, where the crows are now, and a new flock will appear.
Head all the way to the back of the area, moving upscreen, past the other red scarecrow. You’ll go around a corner and find a stack of debris you can saw through. Go up the ramp to where the crows are perched on another wood rig.
LIGHT GEM: Just past the crows, check for a body to the left.
Go find where those crows landed. They’re to the right of the first group of crows, behind a barn. Shake their posts until they move over toward where you fought the first Scarecrow. You might have to get the other flock to move.
Keep shaking that flock’s post until they eventually activate the next Scarecrow. This one has a new trick — rolling and coming at you fast. Wait for it to roll up and dodge clear just as it starts moving, or it’ll reacquire your position and come after you.
Kill it and get the next key. Follow the crows when they leave. You’ll find them to the right, near the last scarecrow, but they won’t approach. You need two more flocks, the second of which is behind the building to the right.
Shake those crows into position, then go find your last flock. Remember that area you broke into by destroying the debris in the way? Go there and the last flock will appear. With the other birds in place, rouse these ones and follow them toward the Scarecrow.
The last Scarecrow seems to block more than the others. You should be an expert by now. Finish it off and grab your key.
Return to Baba’s house, job done. That’s the end of your mission.
TRIAL: This one has you moving the crows the minimum number of times — 13. The key is to know where they need to land so that other groups will move on once they encounter them. With the first Scarecrow, you’ll move the crows three times. You’ll need to move them a fourth to trigger the second flock, then move the first flock back to where it was. Move the second flock off the platform, then to the scarecrow beyond to activate Scarecrow no. 2. After that, the two flocks move to the right: you need one on the left side of the path in front of the Scarecrow and one on the right side. Don’t put you first flock on the right side or the second flock, which you get from behind the building, will move further toward the Magic Font and mess you up. Finally, move the third flock from the room you have to break into and then to the statue.
The Music Box
First, grab that green thing floating in the center of the room and plug it into the blinking machine. This is the music player, and you inserted the Green Cylinder. Hit the button on the far right to play it.
This opens the path down the left corridor, the one that’s got all the spikes in it. You’ll need to dash or sprint down that hallway to avoid getting stabbed.
LIGHT GEM: Midway down that hallway is a body you can pilfer a gem from. You can grab it, but you’ll have to take a stabbing. This won’t kill you outright, but will take some health and reset you in the previous room, as if you fell of a ledge.
At the far end of the spiked hallway, you’ll find the Red Cylinder. Grab that and then step on the glowing seal to teleport back to the music player. Plug in the Red Cylinder and switch it so the order is red then green, then play both.
Check the path down to the right. Wait for a second and platforms will pop up, allowing you to proceed forward. Jump down to the far end of the chasm and turn left — it’s another spiked hallway, and when the green music starts up, you’ll be able to run to the end.
Grab the Magenta Cylinder you find here and teleport back. Plug it into the player and set the order to red, magenta, green, and play them. Head down the right path again.
Across the chasm, turn to the right where there are gears overhead. Usually there are a pair of gears nearer the floor, but the Magenta Cylinder has removed them. To get through, roll under the remaining gears to avoid getting hurt and grab the Yellow Cylinder.
Teleport back and plug in yellow. Make the order red, yellow, magenta, green and take the upscreen path, the only one you haven’t used yet. Platforms should appear that you can use to jump across this chasm.
Across that chasm, turn left and you’ll find flamethrowers going crazy on the path. Turn on Shadow Magic and charge the dash move. When the front flamethrower disappears, dash through. To get through the next section, the same rule applies, but you have to move fast as the front thrower is restored really quickly and will bounce you to the beginning if you hit it.
On the other side of the flames, grab the Blue Cylinder and return to the start. Your new order should be red, blue, magenta, green, yellow. That will open the path all the way to the Blue Rose, the object you need to finish this stage. On the way there, we’ll stop and get a Life Gem.
Start the box and take the upscreen path again. When you’re across, charge your magic a little so you’re full on Shadow and continue to head upscreen, toward the electricity. Like the flamethrowers, you have to dodge through these to get to the next section. Activate Shadow Magic and in the first group, wait for the only current to be in the center. When it’s gone, dash through.
With the second group, it’s a little tougher. Dash when you’re clear and then immediately dash again, as Gabriel has a tendency to stop about midway.
Continue going forward, upscreen, as the magenta music plays and you’ll see the gear trap you dealt with before. Roll under it to get clear. You’ll hit the last room — from here, when you go right, you’ll find the Blue Rose.
LIFE GEM: Instead, go left. You’ll find a flamethrower trap. Wait for the green music to end and the yellow music to begin, then execute Shadow Magic dashes to get through the same as you did before. On the far side, you’ll find a body and a Life Gem, but you’ll have to repeat the whole process again to return for the Blue Rose.
Teleport back to the beginning and go upscreen after starting the music. Get through the red platform trap, the blue electricity trap and the magenta gear trap. When you hit the fork, go to the right. The last trap is the spiked hallway that green music opens. Wait for your opportunity, then sprint.
At the far end, you’ll find the Rose. Snag it and end the level and the chapter.
ACHIEVEMENT: You’ll also receive your “Chapter IX” Achievement commemorating your struggles.
TRIAL: Beating the Music Box without being hit by any traps is the key to this trial. It’s going to be difficult and probably very frustrating, but it’s doable if you’re careful and methodical.
Chapter 10
Titan Graveyard
At the start, jump over the gap ahead and start climbing the wall, looking for the handhold on the left. Follow the climbing path all the way outside. It’ll be a minute. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
When you’re outside, go forward until you get a cutscene of the land ahead. Then drop down and climb down to the ground level.
SCROLL: Immediately head right of your position to find a body slumped against a rock.
You’ll need to get a sprinting jump to clear the fog and get to the island ahead, then jump again to the land beyond. When you get there, you’ll be engaged by crawling enemies called Creeping Corpses and a pair of Skeleton Warriors.
The creepers are irritating but you can nail them pretty well with area attacks. Just don’t let them distract you from the greater threat the Skeleton Warriors represent.
SCROLL: When you’ve finished everything off, head to the left. You’ll come to a spot where the ground heaves up and you can climb a ridge. Instead, go upscreen and look for a body near the rocky overhang above.
LIGHT GEM: Now go climb that pile of stuff to the left. At the top, you’ll be able to drop down to reach a body.
Backtrack to that island you jumped to before you reached the battle with the Skeleton Warriors. See that chunk of statue rising up in the background? Jump to that and climb up it. Then jump off the hand forward, using sprint and the Seraph Shoulders, to make it to the ground beyond.
Here you’ll battle a couple of Creeping Corpses and a new enemy, the Creeping Coffin. Note that this thing gets walloped by Holy Water as well as Light-charged Fairies. Basically, it fights like a normal spider, except that it’ll slam the ground with its coffin to create a shockwave, and it has a longer melee reach.
Keep moving around the Creeping Coffin and keep up the damage on it. Before long it’ll collapse and you can use your grab move to start a finishing move on the body inside. When you’ve knocked it loose, kill it to move on.
The Creeping Coffin should drop a Rune Fragment when it dies. Snag that but don’t plug it into the blinking shield just yet.
LIFE GEM: Instead, run along the path to the left to reach another platform. There you’ll find your body.
Return to the shield and drop the Rune Fragment into it. It’ll move the big hand and make a path forward for you. At the far end, you’ll have to do some island hopping. Jump first to the island just ahead, where you can go either to the right or ahead and to the left.
SHADOW GEM: First off, head left. Jump over one island and then to a bigger one, with lots of Titan chunks on it. Around to the left when you land, you’ll find a spot that requires two Rune Fragments. Around to the right, check the left side of the area against the pile of debris for a body.
SCROLL: Return to that central island and this time, head over to the right. Go downscreen and smash the big spike-shaped rock in front of you with your weapon. You should be able to jump a short gap to another small land mass, where a body lies. You can also fill up on Holy Water flasks here.
Jump back and follow the path on this island up until you hit a cave. Turn right inside there and you’ll be dumped into a fighting arena inside a Titan’s chest cavity.
You’ll deal with Creeping Corpses and not one, but two Creeping Coffins. Keep moving laterally around the edge of the arena to avoid serious damage and kill all the small creepers (the grab move works wonders). To do serious damage to the Coffins, use Holy Water.
When you’ve destroyed both Coffins, you’ll get another Rune Fragment. Take it back to the big dead Titan on the island where you received the Shadow Gem. Plug it in to create a new path. Go around to where the Shadow Gem was and climb up onto the hand, then sprint and jump across to the island beyond.
LIGHT GEM: Immediately after you land, look to the background and a little left of where you hit ground for a body. It’s slightly obscured, but you’ll pull a Light Gem from it.
Keep going left, where three Creeping Coffins are amassing. Try to jump over them so you can get into the center of the island and fight them properly. It’s irritating to have three to deal with at once, but it’s worse if they corner you.
You can feel free to just go for broke on these Coffins with the Holy Water. If you’ve been returning for the Brotherhood Arks we staked out, you should have lots, but even if you don’t, there’s that bag of flasks back near where we found that scroll by the cave.
Because the coffins bunch up, Holy Water works really well with splash damage. Hit them hard with that, then start destroying the coffins as soon as you can. With the enemy whittled down, you’ll have a much easier time progressing. Grab the last Rune Fragment when you finish.
Now climb the wall at the back of the island to get up onto a Titan hand and jump back to the main island. You can backtrack to the scroll spot to refill your Holy Water if you feel like you need it. Otherwise, plug in the rune and run around to the other side of the island.
You’ll be slowed by a Skeleton Warrior and some Creeping Corpses here. Grab the corpses to quickly dispose of them and then concentrate on the Warrior. A single skeleton should be easy for you at this point. When it’s dead, climb the back wall on the right side to get up onto the arm you moved and jump to the island beyond.
TRIAL: You only have to allow the mist to damage you during this mission to get through the trial. You have to take 100 points of poison damage from the mist. Stand in it to take some damage, go get in a fight and replenish yourself with Light Magic, then go get hurt again. It can be tough because 100 points is a lot of damage, but if you fight smart, you’ll be healthy and without issues as you progress.
Fire Pinnacle
You’re in a big boss fight with the Silver Warrior, who has a lot of your same capabilities. At the outset of the fight, you’ll lose your ability to perform magic, so try to keep from taking a lot of damage.
The trick to fighting the Silver Warrior is clutch blocking. Unlike most bosses you fight, this guy only has one or two unblockable melee attacks. He does, however, have several mid-range, sweeping area attacks, one of which comes at the end of a dash. This makes them really hard to dodge.
If you can effectively get a counter block on the Silver Warrior, you’ll get a chance to pummel him. If you can string several together as he recovers, you’ll be golden for this whole fight. It can be difficult, but an aggressive stance and attention paid to his wind-ups should give you the edge.
Remember, however, that you have to give the Silver Warrior at least a third of his total damage without being able to heal, so defense is a must. You should be able to effectively dodge most of the time, but get used to his moves early for blocks.
TIP: Pop a Dark Crystal here if you have one for a lot of damage.
When you knock down a third of the Silver Warrior’s health, you can activate a quicktime event. Follow the prompts and you’ll get your Light Magic restored. Use it carefully.
Like you, the Silver Warrior can use Light Magic, and it works the same way. With Light Magic activated, he can heal himself by whomping on you, just like you usually do. If you both have it activated, the magic cancels and no one gets healed.
Keep fighting, dodging, blocking and fighting again. There’s not much additional strategy except to conserve Light Magic, use it wisely, and try to avoid letting your enemy heal off you. Turn your magic off when the boss’ is turned on while you fight him or you won’t hurt him at all.
After you do another third of a health bar of damage, you’ll get a second quicktime strike on the Silver Warrior. Get through that one and you receive Shadow Magic in return, but now so does your enemy. He’ll also add a projectile attack to his arsenal, which you can always easily dodge.
Keep using powerful blocking as you fight in the last of this battle. You’ll want to counter the boss’ magic with the opposite to do some massive damage. That’s the crux of this battle — if you have matching magic turned on, switch it off or switch to the other one and keep fighting.
At the last, you’ll get one more quicktime event, which has the Silver Warrior throwing a massive blade at Gabriel. This is a fast one, so pay attention. Send the blade back and you’ll win the fight.
TRIAL: Beat this trial by fighting through the entire battle without letting the Silver Warrior heal off you using Light Magic. It’s tough, but not impossible. Blocking, again, is the key. You’ll also want to get through the magic-using portion of the battle as quickly as you can, so save a Dark Crystal and pop it during the second leg of the fight to move through quickly. With fast reflexes, you should be able to defeat this one.
Fire Cemetery
Run forward and jump out across the chasm to a handhold on the far side. Climb around the edge and keep moving until you hit a cliff side where Zombies attack you. They’re easy — just pound on them. If you go to the foreground, you’ll find a bag of daggers in case you need some.
LIGHT GEM: Instead of climbing down the handhold on the left, go forward, farther upscreen, until you hit another chasm. Just drop down. You’ll fight a bunch of zombies. Go to the far side of the hole and you’ll find a spot where you can climb the wall up on the right side. Get to the top to find a body. To get back, there’s a similar climbing spot on the other side of the hole.
Go back to the handhold you passed on the way to the gem and climb down. Shimmy along the pass and don’t stop, as the handholds are falling from the earthquakes. When you get to the far side, you’ll see a Health Font where you can heal, then make a sprinting leap toward the land below. Use the hook whip at the end to climb up.
Chupacabra puzzle time. There are collectibles scattered around, so lets get those first.
SCROLL: First, move straight up and grab the scroll off the body just ahead. That’s the puzzle scroll.
SCROLL: Next, turn to the right, near the purple glowing statues, and then go down and you’ll find another body with another scroll nearby.
LIFE GEM: While we’re running around, head up from the statues along the track in the ground, then look for a blinking body to the left in a little nook.
SCROLL: Go all the way upscreen toward the distant Magic Font and you’ll see a blinking body to the right of it. Snag the scroll despite the game warning you that you can’t proceed without your gear.
LIFE GEM: From the central cage where the Chupacabra is, go down and to the left at a diagonal. When you go as far as you can down, you’ll find a cliff side that represents the edge of this area, and you’ll find a body slumped there.
Finally — puzzle time. Go to the right where those two purple statues are. The first one is near a blinking thing on the wall, but if you examine it, you’re told it’s broken. So just hit the statue with your weapon from its left side and it should move.
Now go further to the right. There should be a blinking statue that you can rotate. Take a Dark Crystal from the node nearby, and plug it into the wall socket to the right of it. That’ll charge your statue. Rotate it to fire the beam at the first statue you hit, and it’ll blow the first lock off the Chupacabra’s cage.
Leave the crystal and hit the statue that’s emitting the laser so it moves upward along its track. Keep pushing it all the way until it terminates. There, the statue will emit another laser and you can use it to clear another lock off the cage.
Get your crystal back and hit the statue you moved the first time, but this time, knock it all the way left. Then go to where it lands and head up along the outside edge of the area. You should hit another, more isolated laser statue, near a wall socket.
Plug in your crystal and move the statue on its track until it’s charged. Turn the beam so it shoot straight down and it’ll hit the statue you just positioned. Go down and turn that one toward the cage to clear lock no. 3.
With the cage destroyed, just jump over and snag the Chupacabra to get your stuff back and an experience bonus for all the work. Now head way up, to the top of the level.
Here you’ll be asked to fight what feels like a crazy number of Zombies, but it really isn’t that tough. Use area attacks over and over and you’ll kill multiple Zombies at once. You can also try Holy Water, as it’s pretty effective as well.
When you finally clear out the Zombies, you can attack the final puzzle. Go charge your Shadow Magic, then approach one of the gongs. The trick here is to punch one gong, turn on Shadow Magic, dash to the other gong and quickly punch it as well. You want both gongs going at once to open the door.
It might take a few tries, but this really isn’t that tough. Once you open the door, charge your magic and proceed to the next level.
TRIAL: The trick here is to kill 20 Zombies in one aerial fight sequence. It’s not impossible, but it is tough only because some moves will return you to the ground. Go to your Skill Book and look up aerial combos so you know what you can string together reliably. Try for area attacks that you can use over and over again, then go into the battle at the end of the stage and keep dolling out those combos in the air to nail the trial.
Crematory Oven
Time for another big boss fight. First, you’ll have to fight through some minions, however. When you see the Creeping Corpses, run forward and try to snag them and kill them quickly. Then you’ll fight a Creeping Coffin.
You know how to deal with this, so just go to it. After killing one Coffin, two more will appear. You can use Holy Water to your advantage here, so keep that in mind.
Blast through these two Coffins and the way forward is opened. Up ahead is a Magic Font and a Health Font. Recharge both as you go to the big fight.
The Gravedigger, despite his size, is really not that tough a fight. He only carries a few moves — a tentacle-throwing mid-range melee move you can easily dodge or block; a shockwave strike you can jump over; a linear fire move that has some range but also gives you plenty of time to dodge; and standard melee swings up close. He also summons Creeping Corpses, which you can grab for immunity from his attacks during the killing animation, and which provide free magic.
Basically, just play keep away with this boss for the entire fight. Read his body language, dodge his moves, and keep smashing him. You don’t need to be especially smart or employ any real tactics — staying out of his range and dodging sideways will almost always save you.
The trick is not to get hit with the shockwave, and to not let the Corpses distract you. Other than that, this is a pretty straight-up fight. Keep knocking away at the Gravedigger until he loses all his health and becomes stunned.
When you finally knock the Gravedigger down, go to the right of where he stops and use the crank on the ground. This will open the door to the furnace behind him. Now go initiate the quicktime event.
You’ll have to do some button-tapping here and the quicktime event is pretty long, but eventually you’ll kick the Gravedigger into the furnace. Note that this is not the end of the event, however, so keep paying attention.
After the cutscene, you’ll have to climb out of the furnace. This is pretty standard. Keep climbing and shimmying up and eventually you’ll have to hook whip your way up. Keep moving and try to go fast, as the fire below you is rising.
Eventually you’ll get to a platform you can stand on, and then jump to another platform. From there, hook whip up to a molding that goes all the way around the wall of the furnace.
SHADOW GEM: It’s from this spot that you can quickly go get a gem, though it may cause you to take some damage and restart the climbing portion. Instead of climbing the handholds right above you, shimmy to the right to find a second set. Climb up to the top and get the Shadow Gem off the body there. You can then climb back and take the other handholds.
Climb out of the furnace with those handholds straight above you and you can hook whip a few times to get to another pillar. Keep moving along the path and you’ll climb out and end the chapter.
ACHIEVEMENT: You’re rewarded with the “Chapter X” Achievement here.
TRIAL: Know how the Gravedigger kept spawning more Creeping Corpses while you were fighting him? The trial here is an easy one. He brings those corpses up in groups of three — you need to kill 15 of them. Just stay away from the Gravedigger while you fight him, and when he summons corpses, grab them and kill them. He summons them pretty quickly upon your destroying them, so it shouldn’t even take you very long to complete this Trial.
Chapter 11
Necromancer’s Abyss
SHADOW GEM: Run forward until you get to a big platform with a big set of rings in the middle. When you arrive, move along the left side and then push all the way to the left edge of the platform. You should drop down to a handhold. Climb all the way down to find a body with the gem.
SCROLL: Climb back up and go to the right and you’ll find a body just lying on the path with a puzzle scroll on it.
Now for the puzzle. At first it seems complicated, but once you realize it’s not the symbols that matter, but the positions of the sun and moon as you set them, you’ll find the puzzle easy to solve. Solution follows.
Here’s your goal: All three glowing heavenly bodies should align with the hole in the rock in the background. Start by moving the lunar phase, the third symbol so that the whole thing is black — no moon. This will position the sun behind the rock. Next, set the date to the 24th, which is the beginning of the fourth week. That’ll get your moon and earth in the right distance from one another. Finally, adjust the first symbol, the month, until all three align to solve the puzzle. Just hit the button to set all three and you’ll see how everything moves, so you can make the proper adjustments.
Head over to that rock that moved up onto the platform and step onto it. A path will be built before you as you go so you can cross to the next puzzle.
SCROLL: Grab the puzzle scroll off the body to the right for clues on what to do here.
As the scroll said, color is movement. Puzzle solution follows at 8.
The tiles on the ground represent moves, and what you’re doing is similar to the blood maze a couple chapters ago. You need to replicate the pattern you see in front of you. Ground-punch the tiles to give movement instructions, then hit the big glowing seal to execute them. Brown is up, red is right, green is left, and yellow is down. For the solution, punch in this order: brown, red, brown, brown, green, yellow, green, brown, brown, red, brown.
Jump through the hole by sprinting. Go left and step into the portal. On the other side, you’ll be accosted by Reapers, which look like Swordmasters but are much easier. Dodge their attacks and hit them a couple times to kill them. If they hit you even once, you’ll die, so be on guard.
LIFE GEM: Go to the left of the portal int his area, then come downscreen toward the camera. You’ll hit a body with a gem. This should be your last Life Gem, and unlock the “Green Collector” Achievement or Trophy.
To get to where you need to go, you’ll need to jump into the portal rather than walking into it. You’ll be deposited a few feet off the ground, and rather than just falling, your jump will be translated through the portal. Double-jump to make it to the ledge in front of you.
Climb around and examine the mirror. You’ll wind up somewhere else — ride the moving platforms up to the top platform and fight off some Reapers. Then sprint and double-jump to then ext platform. Ride along the path to get to the next mirror and touch it.
Boss Fight: Necromancer
The Necromancer operates a lot like the Gravedigger you just fought. His moves aren’t amazing and he has some of the same ones — the line-strike, for example — and he incorporates a few of the fast moves of bosses in the past. Watch for a sideways dodge followed by a stab.
What’s difficult about this fight isn’t so much the Necromancer itself as his constant use of distracting Zombies. You’ll see this attack coming when the boss throws a group of green lights onto the ground around you, instantly surrounding you.
You can deal with this situation, however, by just rolling clear of the Zombies as the green lights fall. The boss throws two sets every time, but then draws them back within a few seconds. Get clear of the Zombies, ignore them, and attack the Necromancer.
You’ll mostly just spend this battle dodging the Necromancers powerful but limited number of moves. Get clear of the line-strike, watch out for its unblockable slash, and try to block the stab move it uses so you can get some magic back.
Get the boss’ cadence down and you should make relatively short work of it. The trick is not getting caught by its fast strikes, which are really powerful. Also, use the opportunity of the Necromancer summoning Zombies, and then unsummoning them, to get a bunch of free hits.
Finally, remember that if the going gets rough, you can always tag the Necromancer with Holy Water for a fair amount of damage.
Two paths are open before you — a left one and a right one, accessible by mirrors. Take the right one first.
LIGHT GEM: When you come out, immediately head to the left. Jump to the far platform, then double jump up into the portal above. When you come out, use the hook whip to swing to the wall, then kick off and jump to the body above. You’ll get your last gem and unlock the “Light Collector” Achievement and Trophy.
Drop back down to the bottom and jump back to where you started. Jump into the portal so you’ll be moving when you come out above, and then double jump to reach the platform with the mirror. Zap through and you’ll come out on another platform out in space.
See the floating platform behind you? Wait for it to move to the right, then step into the portal on the right of your platform. You’ll drop in the air and should land on the platform that’s moving. If not, direct Gabriel into the portal as he falls and you’ll wind up where you started.
SCROLL: Ride the platform as it goes to the right and links up with another moving platform. Jump on that one and ride to a floating rock that has a bag of Dark Crystals on it, and a body with the scroll.
Ride the platforms down back to the left. Jump onto the next rock and then drop down onto a ledge you can shimmy on to the right. Climb up to the top from there and beware the small group of Reapers as you head to the mirror.
Stepping through the mirror takes you to another room, where you’ll be attacked by a ton of Reapers at once. Use area attacks and dodge when they get in close for the attack. Hammer away and you’ll be fine.
When you’re done, use the Gauntlet to punch the glowing button on the floor. Then step through the mirror.
You’ll return to the beginning where you fought the Necromancer. Time to take the left path.
When you get to this side, first go to the right. Double jump into the portal out in the air, then hook whip when you get there. You’ll be sprung up to another mirror. Enter it.
At the far side of the mirror, you’ll enter another room where you have to fight off Reapers and then hit a glowing button. Do both and step through the mirror again.
Take the left path again. This time, jump off your platform to catch the handhold on the left. Shimmy around and drop into the portal, then use the hook whip on the other side to shoot to safety.
Reapers attack here, and a lot of them. This is a crappy place to be in a battle, but there’s a way to cheat — just drop down onto the ledge on the right and then take to the handhold below. You’ll give the Reapers the slip instead of having to fight a really tight-spaced, irritating battle.
Climb around to the left and up to the path ahead. Heal up when you get there and then punch the glowing button. That’s your last one — step through the mirror to go back to the start.
Go through the now-open aperture and touch the mirror you activated. At the other end, you’ll fight another Necromancer. This one’s amped up a little from the last one, but not terribly so.
The principle differences between these two bosses are, this Necromancer will do an area attack in which the ground glows green, and you’ll need to double jump to avoid; and it summons Reapers as well as Zombies.
However, while the Zombie summoning last time wasn’t much of a big deal (despite that the Necromancer heals as it draws back its minions), the Reapers are a bigger threat. You’re better off tearing into them and staying back from them.
Taking those two things into account, smash the Necromancer the way you did the first time. Note that the endgame move is slightly different — to kill this boss, you’ll twice have to do button-mash prompts, rather than a timing one.
Winning opens another mirror. Through it, you’ll have to sprint-jump to a handhold and start another climb. It’s a long one, but pretty straight-forward. When you get to the top, jump across to the platform with the mirror and go through.
SHADOW GEM: When you land, heal and then head down the stairs to the left. At the bottom, you’ll find your body. That should snag you the “Dark Collector” Achievement for getting this last gem. That should also be your final gem — the “Master Jeweler” Achievement is your reward for finding all of them.
Take the stairs up and climb to the top of the platform to finally end this mission.
TRIAL: Good God, there’s a trial after that massive level? Actually, it’s not too tough, and just requires that you kill 60 Reapers during the course of the stage. In order to hit that mark, prolong your fight with the second Necromancer and mangle his summoned Reapers and you shouldn’t struggle too badly.
The Dracolich
Death will turn into a giant Dragon when you show up after the cutscene, and this actually makes the fight less of a battle and more of a platforming exercise.
Wait for the Dragon to make an attack run, and assess where its green flames will land on your platform. Dodge to the other side and watch the underbelly of the skeleton as it passes. You’ll see a blinking bone that you can hook whip onto to catch up with the dragon.
Like the Titan fights before, you need to climb around on the dragon and find runes to destroy. You can see the path of what bones you can traverse because they’ll be whiter than the rest of the brown bones. Start by crawling around the left side of this bone and climbing up.
The path is fairly linear. Start by heading toward the tail, to the right. When you can’t jump from ledge to ledge, try climbing up and walking, and then back down again. The path is pretty easy.
Remember that the Dragon, like the Titans, will try to shake you off regularly. If you happen to fall off, watch the cutscene for a quicktime prompt so you can get back to your platform and repeat the process.
After what seems like a ton of climbing and shimmying, you’ll finally find a Rune at your feet. Smash it and the vertebra to your left will break, offering a path forward.
Do some more climbing in that direction and you’ll hit your second Rune. Smash that and a bone to your left and lower down breaks. You can climb down and get to the Dragon’s underside from there.
Climb up the belly and get to your third Rune. Destroying it sends you falling off the Dragon and you’ll have to hit a prompt in order to catch back onto it. Now you’re free to go to the right.
Hop to the end of the vertebrae and climb down. Go around the spiky part at the bottom and climb up the other side to get back on your feet. You’ll find the Rune there. Smash it.
After a quick cutscene, you’ll face the last of the Dragon. It breathes its green fire at you, so assess where that’s going to go and dodge it.
Immediately after the fire, you’ll see the jaw of the Dragon blinking, and the last Rune in its mouth. Hook whip up there and the Dragon will start charging its fire again. When it opens its mouth, jump forward and smash the Rune to cancel out the fire and get your damage in.
You’ll probably be spit out and have to repeat the process, but doing this a second time will kill the Dragon and end the chapter.
ACHIEVEMENT: Even though defeating the Dracolich is easy, you still get the “Chapter XI” Achievement for sticking with it.
TRIAL: The trial for this level is only to defeat the Dracolich within five minutes. Basically, you can’t fall off and have to move as quickly as possible during the climbs. It’s tough to do, but you can do it if you pay attention and use quick reflexes.
Chapter 12
Final Fight
Once your big huge cutscene is finally at an end, it’s time for the big fight with the Prince of Darkness himself. Don’t read past here if you don’t want the story spoiled before you get to this fight.
When you finally get to the actual fighting, you might be a little underwhelmed by the battle with Satan. It comes down to switching between Light and Shadow magic to counter Satan’s power.
There are quite a few punishing moves in Satan’s arsenal, but for the most part, he’ll use straight-up smacking-you-in-the-face melee attacks on you. Get used to their speed and you can block them. Block them and you can do serious punishment to Satan.
Because magic is such a big deal in this fight, your meters won’t deplete. You’ll also get health back every time you strike a blow against the boss that counters his magic, regardless of what type. Conversely, if he wallops you with counter-magic, he gets some health back as well.
First off, continually switch magic. The first move you’ll probably notice is the one in which Satan strikes the ground to create a huge earthquake. Jump to avoid it, just like in every other battle, and you’ll be okay.
His other problematic move, at least early on, is throwing down several round seals of blue and red that, if you touch them, will draw you in and immobilize you. Note that equipping the same color magic nullifies the seals, so you can walk over them, and if you get caught by one and Satan goes to do the earthquake move, switch magic to the same color and then jump clear. No big deal.
Beyond that, this is a battle of sharp timing and counter blocks. Satan is fast and you can attack him pretty effectively from mid-range, but he has a tendency to close the gap and hit you pretty hard up close. The best defense is, well, defense. Block his moves and strike back with the appropriate magic.
There’s not a lot of other strategy involved. Continue to bring combos to Satan and counter his magic with your own. The introduction of the magic counters actually makes things pretty easy.
Damage Satan to about a quarter of his health and he’ll go stunned. You then need to get up to him to initiate the quicktime attack, but he’ll be surrounded by alternating rings of red and blue. You need to match the rings with your magic as you pass through them or you can’t close the gap, and Satan gets a bunch of health back for your failure.
The best way to do this is to just run and switch without stopping your forward motion. It can be tough and you’ll take damage if a ring bounces you back out, but stick with it and you’ll get through. The quicktime event on the other side is pretty easy.
Back in the standard battle, Satan rolls out a couple of new moves. First is to summon meteor strikes down on you, the positions of which are highlighted on the platform. These have a tendency to cause big, annoying shockwaves, so try to stand well-clear. Watch out for Satan to come after you while you’re avoiding them.
The other thing you’ll have to deal with are Reapers — Satan likes to summon them, and instead of being your standard “hack at me until I’m dead” Reaper version, these ones will be color-coded. Use opposite magic to destroy them.
Other than that, the battle remains the same. Counter-blocking will let you seriously hurt Satan while replenishing yourself. Keep pounding at Satan until he’s down to nothing.
You’ll stun him again, and this time the rings will be moving and rotating, which makes it much more annoying trying to get to Satan. Try to go where the rings have a lot of space between them and keep moving. He stays stunned a long while.
When you finally get to the center, initiate the endgame and you’ll take Satan down and end the game. There are a bunch of cutscenes to watch before you finally get back to the world map.
ACHIEVEMENT: Depending on what difficulty mode you were playing on, you’ll unlock several achievements for your trouble. You should get the “Skimrish” Achievement for finishing on Esquire difficulty; the “Gest” Achievement for Warrior difficulty; “Crusade” on Knight difficulty; and “Epic Victory” on Paladin difficulty, which you’ve only just now unlocked if this is your first playthrough. You’ll also pull down the “Chapter XII” Achievement.
TRIAL: Here’s a tough one: Defeat Satan without ever taking damage from an opposite-magic attack. That’s a tough one, but it boils down to making good dodging and blocking decisions against Satan. You can always reload the last checkpoint once you start the battle to attempt the trial over and over if you screw up. It’s the melee attacks you need to worry about as well as the seals and the Reapers. When in doubt, switch to the same color magic and let the two effects get cancelled out.
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