Dracula's Castle

1. The Main Hall

Past Isaac and the drawbridge you are inside Dracula's Castle. Its first region is the Main Hall, and from it the castle branches to the Library and the Clock Tower. Three Tarot bosses wait in these three regions: Talos, The Builder, in the Clock Tower; Brauner, The Artist, in the Main Hall; and Carmilla, The Occultist, in the Library. A fourth, Mammon, The Miser, is back down in the Catacombs of Paris.

• 1

  Entrance Corridor to the Grand Hall

  One guide's route: from the Inner Courtyard through the Entrance Corridor, up the red-carpet hallway with the Arcane Whip, past a Mirror of Life and a wall gear, then the chandelier's grapple point to the upper balcony and through a wooden barrier into the Grand Hall. Another guide's video passes the same Entrance Corridor and Grand Hall, and calls the corridor a good place to farm kills for your Arcana spells.

• 2

  Workshop, Waterworks, Mirror Rooms

  One guide goes on through the Abandoned Workshop, the Boudoirs and the Waterworks, down to the Forgotten Basement, then back to the Grand Hall to turn the large gear that opens the lower rooms, ending in the Mirror Rooms. Later There, it finds Queen Eleanor bound inside a great mirror, and another guide's video titles the same visit "Locating The Sage"; you cannot free her yet. Part 6 comes back to it.

Clues in the Main Hall

1. Clue Builder Flees to the Clock Tower (The Builder) Sends you to the Clock Tower. Where it lies differs: KeenGamer and Fextralife put it in the Abandoned Workshop, IGN's video in the Grand Hall.
2. Clue A Strange Painting of Notre-Dame (The Artist) Gallery of Eternal Night: a fresh painting of the cathedral, signed "Brauner".
3. Clue Artist Hides in the Main Hall (The Artist) Elevator Tower.
4. Clue Alucard Guides (The Artist) Old Gallery. According to two of the guides, Alucard's paintings point you towards hidden areas.
5. Clue Brauner's "Masterpiece" (The Artist) Brauner's Atelier.
6. Clue Carmilla in the Library (The Occultist) Brauner's Atelier. It sends you on to the Library.

The Clue names are the same in three of the guides; the rooms come from two of them, which agree except where marked.

2. Which boss first

The guides take the castle's bosses in different orders. IGN's videos go Talos, then Brauner, then Carmilla (its Occultist video starts right after The Artist). KeenGamer's sections run Carmilla, Talos, Mammon, then Brauner, yet its own text sends you to Carmilla only after clearing the Clock Tower. Rock Paper Shotgun's boss list runs Carmilla, Talos, Brauner, Mammon. Each fight below therefore has its own section, in whatever order you take them. Two links do hold in the sources: Brauner's sculpture needs Smash, which Talos gives (three of the guides agree on this), and Mammon's door needs three Eyes collected across Paris, the Cemetery and the Catacombs.

A trap in the Clock Tower. Two of the guides warn that the route through the Clock Tower Bridge, where a great clock opens a portal, leads into Death's trap and the bad ending. If you trigger it, choose Resume after the credits or reload your last save (each of the two gives one), and carry on. Part 6 covers how to get past it.

3. Talos, The Builder

• 1

  Through the Library to the Clock Tower

  One guide's way: in Brauner's Atelier attack the large turning wall gear to open a hidden passage, cross the West Hall past the fire-breathing dragon-skull pillars and the outdoor bridge into the Library, climb the Rhetoric Shelves, leave by the upper left past a Mirror of Life, and cross the Forgotten Bridge to the Clock Tower. Inside, it climbs through Mechanic's Ascent, the Eastern Access Shaft, Serpent Pinion and Daedalus Crossing; another guide's video passes the same rooms.

• 2

  Clearing the shaft

  Clue Blueprints for the Clock Tower (The Builder) is in Daedalus Crossing (two of the guides). One reads it as "clear the main shaft of all obstacles so the weight can smash to the bottom"; another as how to break a floor at the bottom of the Eastern Access Shaft. Then head along the Path of the Builder to Talos (two of the guides): one goes on by Foundry Apex or the Builder's Secret Elevator and through the Final Trap, with its crushing weights and spike pits, to the furnace hall.

The fight

Talos is a chained giant in the furnace chamber. One guide's only advice is to use the platforms around you to stay clear of the hazards, keep your distance and strike when there is an opening; the other guides do not describe the fight yet.

What you get

• The Builder Tarot card, with the spell Fist of Talos. One guide names the arena the Throne of the Builder.
• The Smash skill: press down and jump in mid-air to break destructible blocks (two of the guides give the controls).
• Weapon Two of the guides find the Fists of Talos in the Builder's Bureau next door; one reaches it by smashing the cracked golden floor near the arena and opening the chest on the right.
• Later A Sketch from Talos, a Clue for The Sage, is here too (one guide puts it in the Builder's Bureau, another only in the Clock Tower).

4. Brauner, The Artist

Brauner is in Brauner's Atelier in the Main Hall, and you need Smash to reach him. One guide's steps: find the huge stone sculpture hanging on chains in the middle of the room, take the grapple point above it, and Smash down to break it.

Whether Brauner is a real fight differs. KeenGamer describes no fight: after the sculpture breaks you speak with Brauner and receive the card. IGN puts the word "fight" in quotes. Map Genie's only requirement is "Smash the Brauner's 'Masterpiece'". Fextralife says Rose absorbs the card "after defeating Brauner", and Rock Paper Shotgun lists Brauner among its bosses.

What you get

• The Artist Tarot card, with the spell Masterpiece; one guide describes it as a summoned gargoyle that shoots fireballs at nearby enemies.
• Fextralife says The Artist also teaches Aerial Rush; KeenGamer, IGN and Map Genie give Aerial Rush after Carmilla instead.

5. Carmilla, The Occultist

Carmilla is in the Library. One guide finds her past the Observation Tower, in a chamber beneath a blood-red moon; another calls the district the Observatory.

The Library Clues

1. Clue Star Chart Astronomer's Office. One guide reads it in the Planetarium.
2. Clue Organic Astrology Drawing Room.
3. Clue Magical Brush Observation Tower.
4. Clue Blood Poem Natural Philosophy Shelves. One guide says to look at the stars in the nearby window.

With Carmilla in the Library from the Main Hall, that makes five Occultist Clues; the names are in three of the guides, the rooms in two. They teach a star pattern for reaching her. The guides describe the puzzle in their own words: one turns the rings of a huge astrolabe until its nodes match the constellation on the Star Chart; two others talk of jumping on the marked planets or spheres in the star pattern, a different pattern for each kind of planet.

The fight

• The skulls. Two of the guides say to break the skulls she summons; one of them adds that she takes no damage until the two skull shields circling her are broken.
• The blood. Both have you dodge her blood attacks rather than stand in them. That same guide's detail: she opens with a curse that puts an 8 over Rose's head, each blood hit counts it down, and at 0 she grabs you for an instant kill. Jump the pink crest of each blood wave; from half health she raises pillars of blood, so stand in the gaps.

What you get

• The Occultist Tarot card, with the spell Blood Spikes.
• Key item Brauner's Paintbrush (two of the guides). With it and The Artist you can enter the painting of Notre-Dame in the Gallery of Eternal Night; that is Part 6.
• Aerial Rush, a dash in mid-air, by three of the guides' account; one ties it to The Artist instead (see section 4).

6. The three Eyes and Mammon

Mammon, The Miser, waits in the Catacombs of Paris behind A Door Made of Flesh and Eyes in the Circle of Greed. One guide calls it the Gate of Flesh. The three Miser Clues from the Bishop's Office in Part 4 (Hospital Relic, Tomb Relic, Catacomb Relic) each point to one Eye.

3 Eye relics

1. Relic Thrilling Eye The Hospital, off the Street of the Tomb Masons in Paris; one guide finds it on the altar on the lower floor.
2. Relic Trembling Eye The Pillaged Tombs in Holy Innocents' Cemetery; one guide finds it in a flesh-covered alcove.
3. Relic Oozing Eye The Circle of Greed itself; one guide climbs to a raised platform for it.

Open the Equipment menu, put all three Eyes in your relic slots, and use the door. One guide reaches the Circle of Greed through the Collapsed Path, the Realm of Old Night and the Antechamber of Sin.

The fight

Only one guide describes it so far: a chamber full of gold, with attacks that run along the floor and beams. Hang from the grapple rings overhead to clear the floor attacks, move between the beams rather than through them, and hit Mammon while he hovers or after an attack.

What you get

• The Miser Tarot card, with the spell Wheel of Chaos.
• Key item The Ferryman's Obol; one guide finds it in the treasure pile in Mammon's Lair.

7. The Obol and the Ferryman

Take the Ferryman's Obol to the Ferryman and speak with him (one guide says at any of his wharves); he gives you The Whisperer Tarot card, with the spell Freezing Path. Two of the guides describe it the same way: Rose turns intangible for 3 seconds, moves faster and freezes the enemies she passes through.

• Clue Stolen Oboles (The Whisperer) is in the Hospital in Paris (two of the guides), the same place as the Thrilling Eye.
• Later Keep The Whisperer: two of the guides say the Ferryman meets Rose again in Notre-Dame for the trial of Temperance.

8. Part 5 Completion