https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e1DR7Uz13adz-8yjZtz2PDqbZC1uD2XKNjB1botzv6Q/edit?usp=sharing

This guide's about 200 pages long, so just let it speak for itself. You can use the subtitles to skip to the sections you want. (yes I know the subtitle naming formula of the second cluster doesn't tell you enough, I'll get to it) This guide contains close to everything I know about Hedon and while it doesn't have as many images as I could have provided it has been a long and arduous process to make, so I hope that it helps people play and enjoy this amazing game!

Edit: Because Steam is stupid and marked the link to my guide as malicious, I decided to port the entire guide to Steam Guides. I will continue to update it with additional screenshots and fixes and bells and whistles if I can be bothered. Don't expect progress to be too swift on that front, but I hope that this guide helps you. Be sure to use the subtitles to navigate to where you need to go and remember that the scroll wheel isn't gonna do jack this is a LOOOOONG guide and hopefully that reflects its thoroughness rather than my lack of brevity.

Long overdue, it’s time for me to make a guide to this game, which is one of my favourites of all time. I’ll try my best not to gush and to make it as spoiler free as possible. I could give you a spiel about how much I love this game or how it is imo one of the most successfully realized worlds I’ve seen, but the best way to do that is just to play it for yourself. Feel free to use this to find your feet when you feel lost on what to do. I hope that this helps you play the game!

Disclaimer: This guide uses the Hedonistic difficulty and doesn’t cover any of the others. I will talk about the other difficulties but depending on your difficulty accuracy may vary (and will definitely vary on Bearzerk)

How to Update to Bloodrite

When Bloodrite is released, you might find you can’t access it right away. Don’t worry, you’re not stupid. GZDoom is quite strange in how it is updated on steam and other platforms - You’re going to need to uninstall the game from Steam/GoG/whatever and then reinstall in order to access Bloodrite and all the cool stuff the second episode offers. This should take like 6 seconds or so. NOTE: THIS WILL BREAK YOUR SAVES. BE SURE TO FINISH YOUR PLAYTHROUGH IF YOU WANT TO BEFORE YOU UPDATE.

TIPS:

-Quicksave. Always quicksave (with F6). One of the worst feelings in the world is to progress and die or screw something up, and then quickload (F9) and then go all the way back again. You can also rebind your quicksave key in the keybind menu and disable the confirmation menu (Quicksave over Save1? YES/NO) by going into miscellaneous options and turning off Save/Load Confirmation.

-Always be vigilant. If you find yourself running out of ammo or health there is almost always something lying around.

-If you have to choose between food or potions when low on health, pick potions. Food can overheal you and is less plentiful. Sometimes you won’t have the opportunity to choose though, so work with what you have.

-If you have no armour amulet that’s glowing, try and find one before picking up armour shards. The ones that are coloured red protect you the most and you can overcharge up to 999, although you’re unlikely to get it charged that much.

-Remember to make use of and pay attention to your consumables. It’s easy to stock up and not be able to pick up new items, so try and rotate through your consumables.

-Certain utilities are better for certain situations. If on Bearzerk, it’s probably more effective to use a force pike to pull an enemy into a pit than to throw axes at it from across the chasm.

-The movement in the GZDoom engine can be quite cumbersome and hard to work with (Note that it isn’t Zan’s fault, it just works this way normally, #JustGZDoomHours). If you get pissed off with the slippery movement, which is fairly annoying for some of the more accurate platforming, try this mod courtesy of Nathan: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2342564144

UPDATE: Zan has updated the game so that doom styled movement can be toggled on and off in the game's options, with its default setting being the new movement style which is generally much easier to work with. In order to find the option, look in Customize Controls or search up Movement in Option Search and toggle the option Movement Style to pick your prefered movement style.

-It only takes one hit to kill an iron urchin. If they’re close to you and about to explode remember you have a quick melee attack with the kick (Q). Pulling them into the water with a force pike in Bearzerk kills them quickly as well.

-You can only carry one turret into a different level. If you have to pick between two, wait a while and watch both of them. If one of them sparks and the other doesn’t, the one that sparked is more damaged and you should take the one that isn’t.

-Have fun!

(Credit to DevouredOne for extra tip suggestions)

(Credit to Spart_n, OlValor and others for boss tactic suggestions and whatnot)

(Small thanks to khachaturian for asking for outlines on the google doc)

(Special thanks to ZanDev himself for helping to make this guide, providing the image for Steam and creating an epic game!)



Difficulties:

(Note - Once you progress in a difficulty you can’t change your difficulty, but if you find yourself stuck or hungry for a challenge you can go to the Testing Hub, give yourself everything you need and start on the level you want)

Greenhorn - You’ll find plenty of ammo, health and armor. Enemies are less resilient and powerful, making for easier fights. Keys, important locations and readables are marked on the map.” Not to be derogatory but it’s story mode. It’s good if you just wanna try stuff out or just want a nice, relaxed playthrough of Hedon.

Head On - “Normal difficulty. Enemies are slightly less resilient and powerful, and you’ll find a bit more ammo. Important readables are marked on the map.”

Hedonistic - “Enemies have full strength and you’ll have to better manage your ammo and consumables. Recommended for skilled players.” Great for people confident in their ability to play shooters who are playing Hedon for the first time.

Hardcore - “Enemies deal 50% more damage and you will find less ammo around. Progression hints are no longer highlighted in readables.” (meaning you’re gonna want to pay attention to the text or, if you’re here, read this guide) “Fit for those who really want to challenge their survival skills and wit.” Basically the Ultraviolence of Hedon. Note that with each difficulty the game takes away a way for you to keep track of things - Definitely a second playthrough difficulty.

Brutalizing - “A chaotic difficulty that shifts gameplay towards more combat and carnage. There are new monster spawns, higher tier enemies appear earlier and are much stronger and more aggressive than usual. However, you also get the weapons, consumables and ammo required to put them down. You also have a chance to encounter a couple of companions along the way.” You remember how in Doom they had Nightmare difficulty and it was just Ultraviolence but the dead enemies come back? This is nothing like that. It’s the hardest difficulty by far, but is fair and adds in lots of items to help you not die to the additional monster spawns and difficulty increase. I wouldn’t make this your first playthrough’s difficulty not matter how skilled you are but it’s a good thing to aim for.

Bearzerk - “You can’t use guns, but you get access to a new set of melee weapons to help you overcome this challenge! Monster strength is normal but spawns are similar to Brutalizing.” One might confuse this as the hardest difficulty but don’t judge a difficulty by its placement. I’d put this somewhere between Hedonistic and Hardcore, harder than the former but with lots of fun tools and readable quest-relevant text is highlighted. A fantastic choice for a second or third playthrough.

What should you pick?

Honestly? I’d pick Hedonistic if you’re confident in FPS games and Head On if you’re a bit less skilled. That being said Greenhorn is great to have as an option and if you’re really stuck it could help to just run the game in Greenhorn to get a grasp of all the puzzles and where to go/what to do. Don’t pick Brutalizing or Bearzerk, those are totally for replays.

It’s a testing hub. Not much more to it. You can have a bit of fun here though - You can create an obstacle course, an arena, you can spawn in any monsters you want and take a bunch of items, you can play some music from the game, check out patreon rewards, recruit some allies, and last but not least select any level you want that’s available. There is a user map portal but there’s unfortunately not any community maps that have been made yet so it’s not got a hall. If you want, you can make them pretty simply - Just download GZDoombuilder, import the Hedon PK3 and get to work on it. The game has a lot to offer in terms of content already though so why not freshen up your mapmaking skills by playing the game first? We’ll start where all good stories start - From the beginning.

You start in a dingy room, there’s an axe in front of you. Go and grab it. Walk towards the door with the strange sounds coming from it and an enemy will burst out. Kill him and collect his weapon. You’ll probably need to hold shift or press capslock to jump across the gap past the door. There’s a couple of potions around, pick them up. The door to your right is locked, you’re gonna need to find the key for it.

Enjoy this weapon while it lasts, because you won’t have it long. Go out into the cave, theres a small cathedral to your right, a path to your left that you’ll loop around to later and a cannon ahead. I shouldn’t need to tell you but don’t jump in the lava. Move to the cannon ahead, there is an armour amulet. Pick it up and the shards that lie next to it. The cannon seems to need a power source, which we’ll deal with soon enough.



Move closer to the door and enemies will appear. Luckily, you have friends to your right. Kill the enemies with their help (with your axe or hellclaw) and move over to speak with them. Opposite from them there’s a pathway up to a cave. Enemies will spawn below but your friends should deal with them. Your first platforming section is coming up but there’s an enemy ahead. See those red crystals? See how close the enemy is to them? It shouldn’t surprise you to know that they explode. Deal with the enemy and cross, going into the cave.

In there, the platforming isn’t too difficult. To your left there’s a bit of elevated rock. Jump up and jump to the platform in the middle. From there you can jump to the platform on the left or jump to the glowing spiral on the wall, whichever is easier or more convenient. There are some mushrooms to munch on to mark that you’ve made it. On the other side should be lava, with little rock platforms leading to your key and a demon who has met a rather unfortunate end. Collect that and hop down, be sure to grab yourself the fragfire gun and the ammo there if you need it.

Go back to the locked door you saw a while ago, there will be a Cerberus there. Kill it with a shotgun blast or two and head through the door. The trippy setpiece might distract you from the bottomless pit below you so keep an eye on your footing. Once you get to the end of that section hop down the hatch which will lock behind you. Read the readable if you will, before finding the switch next to the bookshelf near the bed. Go through the secret door and into the portal inside.



Be ready to fight 4 Hellblazes (the guys who use the hellclaw) when you grab the power source. The gate out has a switch that you can press even before the enemies spawn so if you want to skip this fight you totally can. Charge and activate the cannon and a big demon will be totally obliterated by the explosion, opening the door. Chat with your friends again if you want before going in. Someone will talk to you and you’re out of the intro.

You wake up and you have no health.



Great.

Feel free to explore around the caves for some food to eat the replenish your health. If you go down the left path, you will find 2 pathways. One leads down to an elevator section and some crates, the other leads up to a door with an iron key lock. Ahead there is a wall with a lantern and broken pickaxe. The wall is cracked and needs to be broken with the proper tools. If you go right from the start there’s a small cave with a body of water leading to a path down to the elevator section.

The elevator has no power so we need to give it some. Go down the path to the right and you’ll find a small garden of vegetation with lots of ledges and plenty of mushrooms to gobble up. Again to your right, hop on the ledge near the crystal at the small pool of water and you’ll find a platform with two mushrooms. Hop across to the other side, then from there hop to the middle platform and from there to the ledge with the table. This table has the key you’re looking for.




Hop down and go to the iron key door. Through there is a readable that will teach you more about how those work. To your left’s a path with a cracked wall to your left, ahead is a path upwards with some mushrooms and to your right is a path to a larger cave with a body of water. Pick up an armour amulet and scoop up the armour shards lying around in this room. There’s also a cracked wall in here too.

Explore around or go back to the iron door and go forward this time. You’ll see a few doors to your right along the path. The first one opens to what seems to be an office and your first tool, the fixer goggles. They let you see in the dark, you’re gonna need them at some point and either way they’ll prove useful. Read the readables in this room and head to the next one, which has a power core for you.

Go back to the elevator and turn the power on, then head on up. Make sure you don’t get killed by the elevator lowering. Head on in and put your feet up, pick up an axe. Too bad there’s nobody here to give you a drink. The door on the right as you come in needs a stone key to open. Head into the next room and open the grate that leads to the cave garden to your right, then head to the bathroom and wash up. Exit and go to the right, then both of the buttons. The big round one permenantly opens a gate near the waterfall, the square/rectangle one only opens the gate in front of you for a few seconds.

You should see the gate that you opened permanently from where you are. Head down into it, and be wary of the first enemy you’ll have encountered in some time. Pick up the key and head on out the way you came.





Enemies will have spawned throughout the map, and there’s no way to go back to the mine’s rest area from here. You have two options - Fight them with your axe and fists or sneak up on them with your fists to kill them one by one. To fight them with your axe, leap across the stones in the water and meet the first one head on. Heh… Hedon…

If you want to sneak up on them, jump in the water near the stone platforms and dive. There’s a path with some kelp and glowing spirals, as well as some armor amulets. Be careful to save before sneaking up on them and then punching them to death, they can attack you sometimes when you attack them, thus alerting the others.

Once you’ve dealt with them, go down past the iron door and there’s a few more worms there who you can’t sneak up on. Dispatch them and head for the elevator to the stone key door you can unlock now. Pick up the pickaxe and head out through the cave garden exit. Throw an axe at the worm across the way and head up to the room with the crack in the wall and the lantern.





Break down the wall and collect the second power source, then loop around to the room with the water and the gate. You’ll see why in a minute. Open any cracked walls you saw while you’re on the way. Hop across the stone platforms in the water room to find that the gate has been broken through by one of the crawlers… Who you can now sneak up on.There’s a second one that you can kill like this too - The next room won’t let you sneak up on them, with another crawler (or 3, depending on difficulty) lying in wait for you.

Once dealt with, install the power source and open the first gate, then open the second. Outside will be a figure. Go towards them, and they will disappear. Head towards the floating crystal (and pick up the nearby axe if you lost your old one). Step towards the caves and enemies will spawn in front of or behind you. You can probably dispatch them without using the crystal (which will stop time and will prove very useful to you) but it’s a good time to test it out and see how it works.

Turn on your night vision goggles and head into the dark caves. The goggles light up your enemies making it easier to see where they are. You can throw your axe at them but then you won’t have an axe if you miss. Be careful of their projectiles. Go to the end of the cave and go into the grove to your left. Kill the enemies there and witness my favourite setpiece in the entire game, the statue of the Moon Goddess stood at the center of the grove.



When you’re done admiring the beauty of this place, head back into the caves. On the right side of the wall (left if you’re coming from the mines), you’ll see a cave near one of the support structures with a praak and some blood trails leading inside. Follow the blood and you’ll find an unfortunate soul who is willing to relinquish their weapon to you and some more fixer goggles, along with a note.

Continue along the path and you’ll come upon some enemies who you can sneak up on. This is basically the only time you automatically have the option to sneak up and kill the enemies. Head through the forest, killing the cultists one at a time. At a certain point you won’t be able to sneak up on them but it’s not particularly hard to kill the guys here. Be careful of the ones that throw spikes at you, their projectiles are hard to see. But a lot of those are stationary so once you get close you’re just a click away from ending their miserable existence.

After dealing with the cultists in the clearing, take the path you didn’t take (the left one as you come in) and head down it. There’s a little cave to your left with a worm and a single armour shard. Keep heading down, shoot out some of the spike throwers and fight your way into the outpost. From the well in the center, go left to a door and look around inside. Upstairs, there’s an time crystal, some readables and a switch behind a bush. Press the switch, which unlocks something downstairs. Go through the hidden passage and activate the end level switch.

Secret 1: As you spawn into the mines section of Cold Rock, to your right as you walk forward are some stalactite wall textures. You can go through one of the walls and earn yourself some free food and in some difficulties items.

Secret 2: On the ledge with the iron key in the cave garden, jump behind the crates/barrels, run along the edge and jump across to the elevated cave. Inside are a few mushrooms and a vial of health (a potion of might in bearzerk I think)

Secret 3: As you go into the office room in the mines, the second bookshelf from the right can be activated and lowered, showing a secret door with some goodies and armour shards.

Secret 4: The waterfall near the gate conceals a small cave with some items in it, you need to crouch to get to it.

Secret 5: In the cave with the waterfall exist two pools of water. The one without a waterfall contains two underwater passageways, although one of them is slightly hidden. Leaving the shutter that connects the main mining outpost to the waterfall cave, turn left and jump into the water, where you'll see an armour shard. Follow a trail of armour shards until you find the passage, which leads to a bathing room with some health potions that you might have seen near the beginning of the Cold Rock section. It also has a door that you can open to find another pair of Fixer Goggles, some health pickups, spikes as well as opening a passageway that might not have been available otherwise. (Thanks to HBar for reminding me to add this)

Secret 6: In the room where you get the Stone Key, check behind the bookcase near where the Crawler and dead Chick were. You will find a stone tablet in a hidden compartment, and using it will cause the vine doors to raise. Going through the vine door nearby and through into the room opposite, you will find a fragfire can and a health potion near the bedroll. (Thanks to Hbar for reminding me to add this)

Secret 7: In the middle of the forest there is a circle of stones near the guard wall. Facing the guard wall from there, walk left and look for some smaller rocks, where a pickable flower can be found. Use this on the offering podium of the Moon Statue (A few monsters will spawn after this). The pillar will reveal a number of armour shards and an amulet of shadows.

Secret 8: Secret 7 is a prerequisite. Go back into the forest and hug the left wall, and you will walk through into a hidden section of the level at some point. Inside is a number of cultists who have a bone to pick. Deal with them, then look for a bush at the top of the slope. Crawl against it and you’ll find a hidden tunnel, and a door with a throne room and a few different rooms to explore.

Secret 9: From the well in the center of the outpost, go west through a door. Kill the cultist inside and use one of the bookcases and a secret door to your right will lower.

Secret 10 (Unmarked): From the start of the mines take the path right, hug the left wall and punch the first spiral pattern on the wall near the body of water. A breezy sound effect will play. Turn around and hump the stalactite wall texture across from you until you find an opening. There will be 2 power cores that let you skip the entire caves section of the level.


Unmarked = 0

You spawn in prison. Don’t worry, this isn’t an Elder Scrolls game - You’re outside of the bars. To your right is a locked door, to your left you can’t open and ahead is a room with a readable and a door out into the plaza. Take a right and look around. Sneak attack the guards here - You have two options to handle the gatehouse. You can go in the front door and fight your way up or you can hop up the ledge to your right and sneak in through the window, taking out your enemies silently. Remember, the GEP gun is the most silent way to eliminate Manderley. Also there’s a readable in here.



Once you’re upstairs in the gatehouse, find the gate controls and press them, letting you progress. Go back the way you came and then past the jail. There’s lots of enemies on the other side of the gate that are going to be pouring in, so be ready for those. Remember that cerberi can die in one hit to a well thrown axe on Hedonistic. Alternatively, maybe you want to hit the bar and have a drink. It’s just opposite the jail and has a few drunken louts hanging about that you need to fight, but you can grab yourself a fragfire gun if you don’t have one. Remember that from the intro?

There’s a readable upstairs, but once you’re done go out and deal with the enemies from beyond the gate. Then go through the gate and take a look around. You’ll be back here quite a bit. For now go to the opposite side of the plaza and open the door to the blacksmith. Some extra ammo and pain-loving bullet fodder lies within, as well another plaza of enemies. On the opposite end of this place is a shrine which looks just as pretty as the last. And it’s got a key for us. Grab it and haul back to the prison, where more enemies have spawned.



Open the Iron Key door, where 2 readables 3 switches and 2 cameras lie. Pretty sure the camera orbs are just there for immersion, but that’s okay. Press the buttons and loot the room across from you, then go into one of the other cells and use your pickaxe on the cracked wall. Don’t worry if you don’t have one for whatever reason, the game gives you one. There’s another readable in here, unintelligible as it may be, and a pathway out to an underground river.

The river has plenty of armour shards for you, and assuming that you dealt with the worms you won’t waste them. Go to the other end of the river, then go through the underwater tunnel.There’s air holes but you probably won’t need them. Surface and take the path to your left. There’s a grassy area with crystals and a wall with a torch. On the table nearby there is a key. Grab it and be ready to kill about 8 worms. Not all at once, mind. First 2, then 6.



Go down the path you didn’t take and use the chain to pull yourself up out of the well. It’s a little finicky but you only need to do it once. There’s 3 rooms you can access up here - A little storage cupboard with a mortar of earth pigment, a bedroom with a potion and whatnot and a main blacksmith’s shop with some ammo lying around. Make sure you’re prepared for a brawl when you step outside the Axe Key door.

There’s a good number of enemies in here, to your left there’s a cultist who’ll throw spikes, to your right is a cerberus intent on posting your face to r/roastme, quite literally. And initiates show how annoying they can be here - Peppering you while you’re distracted with weak shots that add up. Use the axe key to go back through the inn/bar and clean house while you’re there, then take a right and enter the axe key door in this plaza.



There’s a readable with a bit of info and an item that will prove useful in a while in here. There is also a way to get to the end of the level right here in this room, but if you don’t feel like speedrunning ignore this for now and go outside. Go to the other end of the plaza, towards a small gate that’s now opened. A few monsters are around here, including the newest kid on the block the Iron Maiden. This one is really mean and can destroy you if you throw a fire hammer or shoot a primary fire crushbolt at it. Also, don’t let this thing get in close, they can rip you to shreds in melee. Luckily there’s only one of them. Here’s a hint - Use the fragfire’s alt fire…



Once dealt with, go over the lake towards the statue of the woman and take the fae dust off her altar.



3 initiates will spawn but they are easily dispatched as always. Go into the door nearby and you’ll find a library. Fittingly there’s quite a few readables - 4 if you count the one on the balcony, which is actually a book if you manage to get to it before you’re usually meant to. Grab the vine key from the vent and use it to open another door in this plaza, the alchemist’s shop. A bowl of scribe embers sits on a shelf which you can turn into magma bolts in the library.

Go to the machine with water in it and use the fire crystal on the empty fuel slot. There’s one rather trivial readable in here. Upstairs is a more substantive one, as well as an item that will tell you what to do, and one of the items to do it with.





It’s pretty self explanatory - You need more purple roots. Go back to the plaza with the jail, but don’t go that far - Go into the first shop on the right. Inside there should be a room with a vine key door. Go inside and grab your root, then head to the bar across the way.





There’s another vine key door in the bar, with another purple root in it.





When you’re done exploring head back to the alchemist’s shop and use your items on the cauldron. If you can't find a fire crystal to put in the cauldron heating device, it's behind an axe key door in the same part of the plaza. Grab the ink and return to the library, where you can use the ink and also all of the other inking materials you might want to make use of.





Take the scroll of dispel magic and use it on the warded door. Go inside, grab the stone key, and prepare for a fight.





This is the first proper arena fight in the game, not really the hardest you’ll encounter but a bit of an exam in how to play the game. The fight starts with 3 initiates, then 3 spike throwers and 1 cerberus in fairly quick succession. It might be an idea to pop a potion of haste here, but the important thing is to keep moving and make sure you use all your gear. It’s a pretty continuous stream of bad guys for this first room, so make sure you keep killing even as you evade fire.

Remember, vials of health are a great way to heal yourself in a pinch but don’t rely on them. That being said I don’t think there’s any health potions in this room so just be careful. A tunnel opens, containing 6-odd worms. If you can group up enemies for an axe throw that’ll save you a lot of ammo, but don’t do it at the expense of health.



In the next room the spawns are a touch more lax, the enemies are grouped up so using one of those magma bolts might be helpful. Go into the stone key door and kill whatever’s inside before using the gate switches.





The gate that these opened is right across from where you exit out into the plaza again, and is also chock full of initiates and a melee cultist or two. Kill them and head for the barracks, it’s time to do a little training.



E1M2 complete!

Secret 1: In the cave behind the cracked wall there’s a wall with a stalactite texture. Upon closer inspection there is a hidden passageway which takes you on a route on which you will find a time shard, a bowl of scribe embers and a passageway into the library to use said scribe embers.

Secret 2: In the room with the axe key, there are actually 2 torches on the wall - It’s just one of them isn’t lit. Press the unlit one and a secret room will be revealed, with a readable, lots of ammo and a bowl of scribe embers.

Secret 3: As you exit the axe key door from the blacksmith’s, turn left and hop on the ledge. Hop between the ledges, onto the sign and onto the balcony. Then hop onto the next ledge leading to a broken window, and go into it.

Secret 4: In the alchemist’s shop, head behind the counter and look for a bookcase with a silver outline. Press it and something will happen. Head upstairs and go to the safe to snag some goodies.

Secret 5: In the bar, behind the vine key door, there is a closet with an odd sound effect coming from behind it. Use it and it will lower to reveal a secret cellar that leads to the blacksmith’s shop if you opened that passage.The cellar itself has some healing items and a potion of haste.

Secret 6 (Unmarked): As you come out of the cave where you first encounter the underground river, to your right there is a ledge with crystals and fauna along it. Surprisingly you can actually get there. From the cave exit, run and jump to your right and hook around to the right as you do so that you land on the ledge, then proceed up the river. Warning! Shark infested waters! This is also the only way to get to the other side of the river unless you somehow have some rocket jumping capabilities. A friend is waiting to greet you on the path out of town there. Looks like you’re stuck here…

Secret 7 (Unmarked): Jump behind the counter of the library and look at the bookcases. One of them has a ladder. If you go up it and go across to the other bookcase on the shelves up top you will find a scroll of wizard’s eye, a very rare item that reveals every part of the map. You can only carry one so you might as well use them when you get them, right?


Unmarked = 0, 1

As the gate lowers, get out your axe and throw it at the dog. He comes at you pretty straight so it shouldn’t be too difficult to aim. There’s one readable in this room, and there is a big door ahead of you that is locked, and to unlock it you need to take the two paths either side.

Crawl under the gate on the left. To your left are a cerberus, a spike thrower and a melee cultist, and above is a bunch of mobs throwing projectiles at you. Note that you can climb up the vines on the wall here. There’s also a bunch of melee cultists coming down the stairs to meet you. Go up the stairs and to your right. THere will be enemies either side, but most concerningly an iron maiden and a bunch of enemies to your right. Still, not that much of a big deal yet. You can’t access the switch to the gate door because you don’t have a key. Before you go find it though there’s a readable in one of the rooms nearby.


Iron Key Door

Head downstairs and go towards the door to find a mess hall. A few enemies in here but they can be killed fairly easily and there’s some food lying around. The next room along, the strategy room is much less forgiving - 2 crawlers, about 12 cultists and initiates as well as a cerberus. You can attack it from the freezer room but the smarter method might be to turn around, go back upstairs, go through the vent next to the briefing board and snipe down some of the cultists, maybe pop a time shard and get in there or something. In there you’ll find the iron key on the strategy table.


Iron Key

So back upstairs you go to open up that iron key door and make sure you use the switch. You might want to hunt around for secrets, but you’re done with this wing for now.

Go through the gate to the right as you start the level and you’ll come out into a training area with a bunch of apparatus and an assortment of enemies. One gymnastics platform has a vial of health on it. You can try and get up there legitimately but it’s easier to just go upstairs and jump over the railings to get it.


Those logs are tiny!

You can’t get through the stone key door, so head upstairs and waltz through one of the doors with a silver border. A crawler is waiting for you in the weight training room. Hop in the vent at the far end and check out the readable before hopping down into the water.



Once you get out, take a right turn. There’s a spike thrower there. Kill him, then open the door so you have a way back in later. You found the second switch for the bathhouse! Unfortunately, you don’t have the key for it.


Stone Key Door

One doggo and an initiate later, turn on the elevator and let it take you down. There’ll be a few enemies in the windows that can nail you, but they go down easy enough with a few spike rounds.

Witnessing a grizzly scene in the warehouse, be sure to take advantage of your new weapon, the Crushbow and blow the enemies that are about to spawn to smithereens.


Keblam!

Grab a few supplies in here, read the readable near the forge gate and go up the slope to the firing range. A few enemies stand ready to give you an impromptu ambush, which is nothing an axe can’t solve. Pick up the key and boot through the window.



I wouldn’t waste my crushbow ammo here, the spike throwers stand still and are pretty weak. Go to the elevator and press the button, watching your enemies become ground chuck before your eyes. Some supplies and a readable detailing the Crushbow’s altfire are sitting around.

Go up the elevator and go back into the main hall, then to the door you opened earlier. Then go to the stone key door, open the door to the bath gate power switch and… well, switch it. Finally head back into the main hall and open up the gate.

Forgive me for gushing, but the sequence that follows is where I realized that Hedon was special. Make sure you’re prepared for a fight and head inside, where the first properly hard fight in the game starts. The first thing you want to do is keep moving, because projectiles come thick and fast though you have a decent amount of space to move - Unfortunately, the newest enemy’s projectiles can track you.

The warlocks are mean. Mean mean mean. But as long as you can circumvent their projectiles they’re pretty easy to fight. The projectiles that follow you can be led into walls and as long as you don’t get hit by and keep away from poison clouds they can be put down with 2 crushbow alt fires to the face. Fragfire shots can work too but you don’t really want to get in that close. Meanwhile plenty of initiates batter you with harm bolts and spike throwers pelt you from their perches.



Crowd control weapons like the crushbow primary and fragfire alt are good for this fight but things get worse when cerberi come in and start gnawing on your leg. Be sure to pop your haste potion, maybe use a time shard or two and pay attention to where the potions are, you’ll want to use them strategically. The ammo is also pretty plentiful and blowing up big groups of bad guys is a ton of fun.

After you finish the bathhouse fight, you might want to relax inside said bathhouse.



There’s a few readables on the walls, a good number of health vials hidden in nooks and crannies and some armour shards sitting here and there. As you wander around you should find that one of the vents in the pools is broken. It wouldn’t be a post-Half Life FPS without some vent crawling so get to it.



When you need to dive, take the underwater passage then take a left and surface. The left path has some armour shards, the right path takes you to the end of the level. Once you’re out the other end, feel free to check the readables and you can go through the gates to look around the level some more if you think you missed anything before heading for the end level screen which is just on the vent.


Level End

E1M3 complete!

Secret 1: As you enter the level, there are 6 torches along the hall. One of them is not lit. Jump up on that one and jump into the furs, which hide a vent that you can get to a secret room with. You can open the door to let yourself through again later and also use the elevator to sneak up on a few enemies in the south wing. If you’re on Bearzerk or Brutalizing, a friend will be here that can be recruited.

Secret 2: In the south wing there are two sets of lodgings with doors. As you go up the stairs, take a right, then a left and go to the end of the hall. Try the doors and one of them will have text as you try to use them. Then, check the bushes nearby and you’ll find an axe key. Use it on the door and you can get inside!

Secret 3: In the weight training room in the North Wing, there are 4 walls on the right hand side. One of them, the second from the left, is misaligned. Press use on it and nose inside, then turn around and be prepared to fight 5 initiates.

Secret 4: In the firing range, stand at the counter. At the other end is a circular switch in the top left corner you can shoot. Hop over the counter and pick up some goods from the secret door that opens.

Secret 5 (Unmarked): Inside secret 2 there is a fireplace. Go through the door to the bedroom and crouch, then look inside the fireplace. You’ll see a really tiny switch. Press it, then go back through the door and you’ll see a secret door that’s been lowered with a ton of concept art behind it.

Secret 6 (Unmarked): In the bathhouse there’s a stone hallway and on the left hand side as you come in there are 4… tube things? Anyway, the third from the left hides a rather interesting sight behind it…


Unmarked = 0, 1

You enter the level by dropping into a vat of water. Hop out of the vat and go grab the turret ahead of you. These guys are going to be useful for you, so keeping them alive is always a sound plan. The elevator nearby is broken, so go over to the door nearby. Drop the turret in front of a couple of crates opposite of the door and look near the boxes next to the door to use the switch behind them. Your turret should deal with the enemies pretty handily but if you want to toss in an axe or a few bullets it couldn’t hurt.



This hallway's probably a good place to use your night vision goggles. One of the doors has a broken power core so you need to replace it. Open up the gate door, leave your turret at the entrance and walk past the water pumps which hide about 6 worms that are about to ambush you. These guys are pretty weak to the fragfire’s alt fire and the turret should make quick work of the stragglers.

A pile of boxes leads to a vent with a readable and the power core you need.





Head back to the broken door and power it up. At the end of the hall there’s a button. Make sure you bring your turret with you, because you’re about to meet one of the most annoying enemies in the game. Also the door shuts behind you.



The iron urchins are fast-moving Lost Soul-like enemies that explode when they get close enough and deal a not-insignificant amount of damage. They’re small, hard to hit and in close quarters are horrible to deal with. On the bright side, they die to one hit of basically anything. Which is why you brought the turret along. Use your spike gun to shoot down any of the ones that your turret doesn’t hit. Outside is another one, which can be dealt with pretty smoothly by just dropping your turret down and letting them kill it.

Go back to the room you spawned into the level with. Press the elevator switch and it will lower… Sort of. Jump on the boxes and use those to platform onto the elevator. There you can get in behind the machinery and into a locked room. There’s a couple of readables and an elemental ring, but most importantly a key item.



Move back into the room with the water pumps and drop down your turret as a couple more urchins have spawned. You’ll notice that a window to the furnace has opened. Hop through and drop your turret there so it has a view of the door you’re about to open, and then… Well, open it! A ton of enemies wait behind it, two cerberi, a bunch of initiates and lots of cultists, both melee and spikethrowers.

Once you’ve dealt with all that, check on your friend in the window to the portal room. They’ll have a message for you. Further to your left is a gate with a switch station and a single cultist ready to ambush you. Tell it to screw off and then open up the gate to the Great Forge. Make sure you bring along that turret because the newest addition to the family is coming.



The Forge Elementals are annoying in like 4 different ways. First they take a lot of punishment, second they’re airborne so if you use your crushbow on them they’ll just waltz through the air (kills them quick if you can land 2 shots tho). Third they deal massive damage if you let them and fourth, they can spawn iron urchins and always spawn one on death (outside of Bearzerk mode. In Bearzerk they don’t spawn any urchins). This makes them a priority to kill, which can be annoying to do at this stage. Luckily you get one of their direct counters in this very level so they won’t harass you for long.



For now, use the turret you have and the one in the forge to your advantage to kill the two forge elementals that just spawned. It’s a decently open arena so you shouldn’t have too much trouble. The spike gun is a slow but reliable way to kill them.Once you’re done, note that there’s a bunch of rocky platforms to the northwest of the forge leading two directions - One is a cave going down and the other is a cave going inside. Hop on one of the platforms and wait for an iron urchin to come out of the uppermost cave. Hop back and wait for the turrets to deal with it (or deal with it yourself if you want). Then, jump into the upper cave.

Remember the red crystals? Be careful what you do in here, make sure you don’t blow yourself up as you check the readable nearby and drop into the room down below. To your left there’s a switch. It might be a good idea, before you press that switch or open the door to your right, to reposition your turrets so that they aim at the gate you’re about to open. (Hint: Direct opposite of where you entered the forge)



Open the gate and go into the next room to try and assist your turrets in kicking cultist ass. There’s a forge elemental in here as well as a good number of other enemies such as cerberi and cultists, but your turrets should prove instrumental in dispatching them all. Go back to the forge and note that the drawbridges have been lowered for you… Cross the drawbridge to your left as you come out and pick up the iron ore near the minotaur.



Head back to the chambers where you lowered the gates/drawbridges and find a door that says “Dwarven Forge”. Be aware of an iron urchin inside as you check the readable and use the smelting machine to make yourself an iron ingot.



Then head over to the next room on your left, the repair bay, and use the iron ingot to make yourself an iron key. There’s a couple of readables in here so check those if you feel like it.



When all is said and done, head for the portal room. You’ll note that your friend from before has been replaced with someone else… Read the message on the glass if you want, then head inside and grab the earth key and the readable by the now-defunct portal.



When you’re done, head to the chamber with the repair bay and dwarven forge. The second door on the left has a workshop with an earth key lock, so head inside and grab the quest items and the new weapon on the table - The Potion Launcher.







The Potion Launcher is strange because it’s either the most or least useful gun you get in the game depending on situation and how often you remember it exists. This particular ammo type, the toxic potions, are very situational but also very powerful. Throw one into a group of cultists and they’ll be stun locked and gradually take damage. That is useful, but what’s even more useful is that when you combo it with the fragfire alt fire, it explodes, making it excellent as a trap weapon. Keep in mind that the toxic cloud duration doesn’t last that long and also hurts you.

For now, go to the platforms northwest of the Great Forge and take the path downward. You’ll need to do a little platforming in order to make it down there. Remember that elemental ring? If you really need to conserve health, consider using one while you traverse the lava. Keep your spike gun out either way and kill the urchins as they fly at you.

When you get to the end of the lava platforms leading in, jump to the right and hop on the floating lava platform as it lowers. Jump down and then take a left, pay attention as there’s a forge elemental taking pot shots at you. Take him out with a few well placed spike rounds, then proceed across the lava platforms. There’s a few crawlers at the end of this tunnel which you can make short work of with your flamethrower, and as you move closer towards the mines here a few urchins will pop out from the elevated caves.





You’ll pick up a pickaxe, and now’s probably a decent time to check out the instructions you got from the workshop.





There’s 5 ore pieces you need to collect, but not Iron - It’s time to go to Moria folks, we’re mining mithril. Use the earth key to lower the elevator (Or just crushbow jump up if you feel like sequence breaking - Yes, you can do that a lot in this game) and take a right, kicking in the head of the Iron Urchin. The mines is a big fun easter egg hunt of looking for ore - You need to find all 5 mithril ores before you can progress. Here’s a step by step on how to get them - Keep in mind that all the iron ores give you from now on is ammo, which is useful but not mandatory. Remember that mithril sparkles but iron ore doesn’t.

1: As you enter the mines, to your right is a path leading to a cave with red crystals. Go in there and platform on the metal pillars to get up to the ledge. There’s an iron ore vein, a red crystal, and a mithril ore vein.



2: Turn around and notice that there’s a path to your left.

Go through it and do some more platforming on metal pillars (don’t mind the cultists that spawn, they fall and die. It’s the urchins that are your problem). Cross the floating gears, you can just walk over them. Go to the Iron shrine and it’s to your left.



3: Leave the iron shrine and take the platforms to your left. Past the axe key door there is a rather large chasm. Take the left ledge and the next mithril ore is just across from you.



4: Go through the chasm and come out the other side, climbing up. There are enemies that have their backs turned to you. Sneak attack them until you can’t anymore - Then fight them. Remember to use your environment to your advantage when you can. The next piece of mithril is in the underground bar, sitting on a table.



5: Before you progress, head inside the pit stop (A door near the bar), check up on the readable inside and check in the back. There’s a sauna there that overheals you - Just make sure you’re at 100 or over health or it won’t be as effective. Head back out again, then progress further into the mines. Take a right when you get to an intersection. Down this way there will be enemies. A cerberus will be facing away from you but that won’t last long so toss an axe his way and fire some rounds at some of the red crystals sitting around, which should make cleanup a bit more simple. The last mithril ore is sitting in a box nearby.

Now that you’re done, you can head back to the forge through any path you might have discovered or just come back the way you came. Make sure you save if you come back via the lava tunnels because the platforming’s a bit tricky. Before you craft your mithril gear, you might want to go and stock up on some ammunition. Fortunately a very convenient method of thing this has been made just for you.

Go back to the chamber where you got the iron key and potion launcher but go to the very back to the door that requires an earth key (The door says Mould Forge). Inside is a selection of machines that allow you to craft ammunition with any iron ore and red crystals you’ve found. You’ll want to smelt all your stuff in the dwarven forge first, but then you can stock up on spike, fragfire and crushbow ammo. Very good idea to check this place out before you leave.



In the great forge, place your turrets so that they face the door that hasn’t been opened yet and get to work. Go to the big smelting machine and dump your mithril inside, take the resulting ingot and take it to the moulding machine. Place the mould, then the ingot and wait for that to finish. Finally, take it to the great anvil. Make sure you’re ready for another fight before you start hammering away.

As the gates lower, grab your potion launcher and fire some toxic shots in, remember the fragfire alt gives you more bang for your buck with those. Try not to get in too close or to let them come through. There’s a lot of them but a good shot with the crushbow should thin out the weaker enemies.

Once they’re finished, grab yourself one of the turrets and move in. There’s a few doors that you can look at in here, the one at the far end has some weapons and the one to your left has a couple of enemies and a health pot or two. Go up the stairs, where there is a readable from a particularly friendly samaritan, and press the level end switch. Make sure you take a step back…

E1M4 complete!

Secret 1: When you find the pickaxe, start from the entrance to the Great Forge from the Portal Room hallway and look right for a ledge. Follow it along until you reach a crack in the wall. Use the pickaxe on the wall, and be ready to kill some worms.

Secret 2: In the underground bar, behind the counter there are several shelves. One of them can be used to reveal a secret door.

Secret 3: Inside Secret 2 you might hear a strange sound. The wall at the back has a misaligned texture that you can use to reveal a hidden door. There, a hidden passage obscured by a dusty old shelf reveals a cave with several crawlers inside. There’s a few iron pieces lying around here. On top of that, if you explore to the end of the secret, you will find a passage that loops you back to the ammunition crafting room, giving you an easy path out of the mines rather than going through the lava tunnels again.

Secret 4: In the chamber that you find mithril ore 5 on my list there is a lava waterfall with a few ledges to get up. When you encounter the Fire shrine, turn around and deal with the forge elemental sneaking up on you. Funny thing here - If you check your map you’ll notice that it looks like an ox’s head. Anyway, there’s two canals of lava - Look at the one on the left, and trying to take as little fire damage as possible move into the translucent wall on the left hand side, where you’ll find an axe key and other goodies.

Secret 5: Near the Iron shrine you’ll find an axe key door (You can find another one in the lava tunnels that lead to the mines). If you have the axe key, you can go inside. The enemies in here are rather resilient, ghostly and can’t be knocked back but they shouldn’t be too hard to deal with. You need to find four wall panels that need to be activated, one of which will spawn a forge elemental in the labyrinth. When you go downstairs, speak to the NPC if you like and pull the lever if you’ve activated all 4 wall panels. Then you’ll be able to access the things the NPC was blocking you from taking, including acid potions which are one of the best ways to take out a forge elemental.

Secret 6: In the chamber that opens as you finish making the mithril gear, go into the room on the left. Go behind the desk and crouch, there will be a small switch hidden by one of the seats. Press it and be aware that 2 Iron Urchins will spawn ahead of you. Turn around and grab your goodies from the vault that just opened.

Secret 7 (Unmarked): If you noclip through the door to the portal room before you’re supposed to get there and go through the portal, you will see a rather interesting cutscene. Make sure you save beforehand.


Unmarked = 0

You start in the park of the plaza, near the library. Head into the library and you’ll find a single initiate, who you interrupt from his writing. His readable is on the counter and in the corner is another one. Like in Plaza, you can use a table in the library to create a number of helpful scrolls with bowls of scribe embers and mortars of earthen pigment. If you go upstairs you can’t use the door, but your character seems to be interested in one of the brown tablets on the table.


Hmm.

Moving on, you can use the gear you made in the last level on the cog panel at the gate, which opens it up.



You can cross over the river here on these balancing beams or just follow the ledge to the waterfall and then to the other side. From here there are 3 ways you can go. I personally wouldn’t recommend one of them but really you can explore as you wish and refer back to this guide when you get stuck.

If you fancy taking your enemies… well, head on, you can go for the middle door. Be sure to grab yourself and use an amulet of shadows. This won’t make you invisible to the enemies staring right at you as you go through that door, but it will make sure that they don’t aim directly at you most of the time. I wouldn’t recommend taking this route because it means you won’t get any free stealth kills but maybe you want to have a bit of fun taking down a heavily armed fort, which is fair enough.


A fair fight.

There is an alternative way into the grove, if you want to find it yourself skip this paragraph.

Facing the green door, go to your right. There are a number of bushes here, and behind some of them is a cave. Crawl into the cave, where you’ll see a worm.



You can of course stealth kill him and head into the next section of the cave which seems to be a dead end. THankfully there’s a tunnel to the left as you walk through. Crawl in, then kill the cultist standing there. This room is rather particular to stealth so get your quickload button ready. Go up the ladder into the broken house and kill the closest cultist to you, then climb up the destroyed wall to the roof and kill the spikethrower on top.



Next, kill the other closest spikethrower to you, then the worm hiding in the farmland patch and the other one. Punch out the rest of the initiates, but don’t touch the dog.

As you were killing everyone there was a fence to your left with some boxes. Hop over it and dispatch of the spikethrowers nearby. Then, continue down the leftmost path. Here is where your stealth would probably end, but here we go the extra mile to ghost every mission in the game. You’re now near where you would have come in through the green door. If you tried to stealth kill the rest of the initiates and spikethrowers you would fail, as a single spikethrower stands a few feet out of sight from where you came into this section. Whenever an enemy attack something, all enemies nearby are alerted - And then they instantly know where you are.

Thankfully, this can be circumvented by being extra fast and punching him to death before he can sound the alarm. It’s tricky to do but it can be done. Now, you can melee the weaker opponents as you wish. I wouldn’t try fisting the ladies personally. Either way, you now have successfully gotten as far as you can get by stealthing the forest. You can deal with the ladies in a bit or do it now, but the most optimal course of action right now is to go through the next section.

So if you want to really cause the cultists some grief, here’s a tip - Jump in the lake. Theres a passage that leads to some old underwater ruins with some air pockets to make sure you don’t die. Head through the tunnels and you’ll eventually find a window with several smug looking enemies inside.


"Hahahahahahahahaha! You stupid half-orc, hahahahahaha!

However, you can see a crack in one of the windows. Hit it, and the window will break and flood the room with water, killing the enemies quite handily.


"Hahahahaha-OH GOD!"

Thankfully the electronics still work, so open the door inside. Surface, but don’t go up the stairs ahead. Head left and kill the initiates, jump up the bed in the bedroom on the right and crawl through the vent, ignoring the growls of the cerberus to your left. Instead, head right and kill the next few guys. You might be tempted to go down the hallway at the end leading left, but instead use the door with the bucket and broom and head through the vent.



In the room you get to from here there’s a switch that will open a door to more enemies than before but also opens one of the more important areas of the map.

Head down the hallway now and clean house. You are coming in from behind so you still have the advantage. If you have acid grenades, those are really effective against forge elementals and iron maidens. Remember that backing up is also an option and leading enemies down the hall to group them up might not be an awful idea.

Near the gates there’s two sets of stairs and up them is a switch. That opens the door - But remember that if you’ve aggroed things in the forest and haven’t cleaned up, they’re probably there, waiting for you. Now you can go through the door you opened earlier - The gate at the back of the room.

The door at the back of this room has a few enemies in it including iron maidens, but it has a readable and some acid potions in it, which is one of the best ways to kill Forge Elementals. You’re gonna want to come back here later, but with that most of the level should be secure enough to explore around.

Leave the Reaver HQ and go into the forest, hugging the right until you find a clearing with a cauldron, a well and a house.




Vine Key & Earth Pigment in house

Go into the house and snatch up the vine key and the mortar of earth pigment, then head out, take a left and then the second right. There’s a big horde of cultists hiding in the grove with the giant tree and they tend to be quite spread out.



A potion of haste and the fragfire alt thins the herd quite nicely, just be mindful of your ammo. The portal cave is to your right as you face the giant tree, and you need the vine key to get in.



The encounter here’s a bit tricky but the enemies are rather grouped up and as long as you keep moving you shouldn’t have too much trouble, test those circlestrafing instincts. Once you’re done with them, go into the room off to the side, read about an unfortunate leg-acy in the readable and go into the room on the left to activate the auxiliary power for the Reaver HQ.





Then, head back to the Reaver HQ.

There’ll be some small-fry initiates along the way but they don’t really have much of a way to stop you. When you’re at the HQ go into the room with the Iron statue and open the first room on the right. Up the stairs there’ll be an Iron Maiden waiting for you and in the room one spikethrower and an extra mean initiate with a large healthpool will be waiting for your bullets. Check the readable and grab the stone key.



If you’ve been looking around you’ll remember there’s one big tower in the middle of the forest. Head out into the forest and take the second left. You might want to toss in a few potion grenades or a crushbow round or two through the window. Only the first and second floors of the tower have enemies on them anyway. The third floor holds one of the cruxes of this level - The Book of Earth…


So mysterious...!!

If you head to the massive tree, you’ll find that yet more initiates have come to try and kill you. Crush them and go to the middle of the grove to see what the Book of Earth can do in action - Use the tablet on the pedestal and a very potent health item will grow. Make sure you’re at 100 health so you can make the most of it.



Then, head down the stairs and through the door where a couple more await you. Go up the log stairs and dispatch a few crawlers, look in some of the rooms for readables and items. You’ll soon get to a doorway with a wall of vines. You can use the Book of Earth here to do away with the vines and proceed upwards. You can go loud in the library here, but I prefer to kill as many enemies with stealth as I can. You probably know the drill there.



You’ll find a few tablets, but a few can be dangerous, some are helpful and only one is actually necessary - And it’s hidden. A readable on the table will talk about someone they killed who hid the tablet and now they can’t find it. Go back to where you came in, then follow the wall left until you see a woman in a pool of blood. Her blood will lead to the wall, near a book jutting out of the wall. Use it and you’ll find the tablet which will remove some vines blocking off a path leading upstairs.



The room upstairs will have pretty much everything you need, because you’re going to have to fight your way out. Grab the earth key and head downstairs with your crushbow.



A number of cultists, melee and spikethrowers alike. They’ll be pretty grouped up but these annoying melee cultists can close the gap kind of fast. Head downstairs and grab your trusty potion launcher with acid pots, because a squad of Iron Maidens are marching up to meet you.



As you head back through the Earth Mother abode, cultists will be waiting to toss spikes your way. I like to toss them each an axe to share the love. Finally, at the bottom, two forge elementals and a bunch of initiates block your way. You can just run but where’s the fun in that?

Home stretch now. Go back to the portal room, go to the side room and open the door with the earth key symbol on it. Be ready for the biggest fight so far when you flick that switch. Heh, how many times have I said that now?



The goal of this fight really is just to kill things and survive for long enough for the timer to run out. If you still have your turret with you you can bring that. It’ll probably die in a few minutes but every little helps, right? I’m not going to give you a step by step for this because it’s pretty much just a constant stream of enemies, so just enjoy the carnage. Hope you held onto some ammo, there’s like 300 guys here.



When you’re finished, head through the portal to end the level. You might want to grab yourself some health before you leave but you’re not taking your usual ammo pool to the next level anyway so that doesn’t matter as much.

E1M5 complete!

Secret 1: There is a waterfall at the underground river. If you go to the right side of it, you can jump up a few ledges and find a stash of goods.

Secret 2: Go behind the house with the vine key in it in the forest and look for a bundle of logs. Hop on it, then onto the wooden plank sticking out of the building and climb onto the roof. A couple of goodies will be near the chimney.

Secret 3: As you approach the portal cave, on your right hand side is a corner with a translucent wall. Behind it is a passage leading to an amulet of shadows and a few armour shards.

Secret 4: In the room where you get the stone key, one of the bookcases will lower to reveal a Scroll of Wizard’s Eye.

Secret 5: In the room of the tower that you get the Book of Earth in there is a table and chair. Crouch and look under it and you’ll find a switch. Press it, then climb upstairs. Some supplies will be hiding behind some furs on the wall to your left.

Secret 6: Once you have the Book of Earth, return to the start of the level and go into the library. Go upstairs and use the tablet on one of the tables. You can find a readable and a powerful armour amulet, and use the tablet on the wall to return.

You spawn back in the portal room. Look in the side room, grab the vine key and…

Look, if you really need a guide for this level, I can’t help you. Today’s an off day, and this level isn’t as complicated as the others by a LONG shot. Just feel around and enjoy the story. I’ll even give you a guide to the stealth section and boss, how’s that sound?

So this is an annoying section but if you know what to do it’s not too hard. As the NPC says, the person hunting you has trouble seeing you for some reason but you shouldn’t press your luck. Stick to corners and crevices. Crouching can help sometimes as well. If one of them sees you they cast a spell that instantly kills you, so uh, don’t get caught. Be sure to quicksave often because this section can be jank.

I’d take the left path myself - There’s one of them patrolling for you there. Make sure they move to face away from you when you make your move, that’s a decent rule of thumb.



Wait for the patroller to move and face away, then follow them and hide on the right, and when they pass by hook around to the left, keeping a distance so they can’t see. There’s another one stalking for you down the path, so again wait until they’re’s not facing you before you sneak by and go down the slope on the right.



There’s two in the elevator room but only one of them should affect you from this route. Wait until they come closer to you and then move into the room and a bit to your right, hugging the wall behind you. Call for an elevator and back up while it comes down, then after the patroller moves jump into the elevator before it rises.



That was the hardest part of it I think, which is funny because the next part involves them staring straight at you. When the patroller you can see stares at the wall, crouchwalk into the hallway behind her… a decent distance away from the patroller now staring directly at you. The moment they turn, follow them and hook a left so you stand behind a table.





Once both of the patrollers in this room are facing away, move forwards and right, near the fireplace and corruption. Once more when they turn, go through the doorway and hook a right. And finally once they go through the doorway again just run past the table you’re at and to the right. Finally, press the button at the gate to start the boss fight.

The first boss phase, at first, seems insurmountable. The game only gives you an axe and a potion… of might. Those increase your melee damage at a cost to your ranged damage, and restores your health over time.





The boss is pretty melee unfriendly, but thankfully so is your axe when you’ve chugged one of these. Their first phase is pretty simple - It’s just you, them, and some homing projectiles they cast. Chug the might potion and hack away at them as much as you can. You shouldn’t need to worry about health too much, but do keep an eye on it

As you bring them down to 80% hp, platforms lower and bring monsters down on you, which means you’re gonna have to do a bit more dodging. On top of that, the boss starts doing a move where they zip across the map, so make sure you keep an eye out for them because it’s easy to lose track in the chaos. On the bright side, more weapons become available to you including spike guns and fragfire guns.


Fragfire Gun


Spike Gun

At this stage of the fight you probably want to circle the arena, picking up supplies as you go and avoiding shots. It’s probably a good idea to start picking at the herd - Start with the initiates and as they are introduced whittle away at the warlocks. If you can choose between using a crushbow bolt on the boss or an add, choose the boss. Use your spike gun and fragfire to kill random monsters. The potion launcher should serve you well against both warlocks and the boss.

At around 70% hp they start doing a move where they toss poison clouds at you like the warlocks. These should be okay to dodge and avoid but if you’re having trouble or get trapped, pop an elemental ring and remember you can jump really high as well if you can’t use that. The elemental ring negates all damage you take from gas clouds so it’s great for this fight.

At 50%, the next platform lowers, bringing with it access to a crushbow and potion grenades… As well as lots of new enemies and a new attack from the boss, where spikes rise out of the ground and spread in 5 directions starting from where they casted it.

The best way to deal with this is to jump away from her (The low grav of this level makes this easier) and stay a decent distance away from her so you know where to land that won’t have any spikes. Keep in mind that most consumables are available in this fight, you simply need to go looking for them. A potion of haste is always useful for fights with big targets or lots of adds.

At about 25% they summon a shield and several warlock protectors. Whether or not you kill the warlocks they take about 15 seconds for the shield to wear off. They tend to summon it if they suffer a large amount of damage at once. Finally, at 5% health they’re dead. After a short ingame cutscene, the end level portal rises out of the ground. There’s not much reason to stick around here, so pick up some health if you need it and go through the portal.

E1M6 complete!

Secret 1 (Unmarked): Okay, this secret is really tricky to describe, so I’ll do my best. This will let you skip straight to the boss. At the very start of the level, go into the side room and into the reaver headquarters generator room. There are two horizontal bars on the far wall. Punch both of those.



Turn right and face this wall:



Walk into the rightmost part of that wall and you will go through it and receive an earth key. Go back out, use the earth key on the earth door and press the switch nearby. That will take you straight to the boss.

Secret 2 (Unmarked): At the spot where you spawn into the battlefield, walk to the spot between the lava pool and the crates ( to your left) and look down. There’s a platform below with a green crystal that will overheal you for 40 HP.





Secret 3 (Unmarked): If you wait for long enough in the dark room where the friend, the foe and the donut are explained to you (Trust me, that makes sense in context) you will be treated to some amusing text. There’s also some criteria you can fulfill to reveal other funny dialogue.

Secret 4 (Unmarked): You will need night vision goggles for this secret. In order to get them in this level you need to cheat. Open the command console (that's the ` button for me) and type "give InventoryFixerGoggles". When you get to the dark tunnels section of the level after the dark room with the friend, foe and donut, turn on your night vision goggles and move forwards until you fall into a larger cave with a body of water. Behind the first natural pillar on the left, you must have your Fixer Goggles on to find a familiar stranger who lives again. (Thanks to spyke624 for helping me figure this one out)

Even though you carry your health over from Errant Signal you don’t carry your ammunition over, instead your ammo from Grove will carry over. You start on a mountain, and proceed to a windy ledge with a wall stopping you from falling over the edge. You can just head to the right and start the level but if you feel like exploring, take a look to the left and notice some ledges with rocks allowing you to platform up them.



Jump up the cliff with another rock and a wood stump, and cross the bridge before following the path to the right which has a cave which seems to be an alchemist’s hideout, containing a few health items and some acid potions. To the left of the bridge is a ledge with a box of goods inside, typically some vials of health.





After you’re done exploring head back to the windy cliff and follow the path right before heading up a set of stairs.



At the top there’s a gate to your left with some crushbow ammo and an elevator up ahead on the right that takes you into the level proper.



Activate the elevator when you’re ready and once you’re up go down the hall and take a left, where you’ll spike gun some iron urchins. Head right and go into the bar. Inside you’ll find a few iron urchins, some food and a switch. Flicking it turns on the lights… And brings a couple of initiates down on you.


They seem pretty chill ngl

You can stealthkill these guys if you like but they're pretty easy to axe to death. Once you deal with them head to the fireplace with the cauldron and back up so the urchin inside doesn’t blow up in your face. Once he’s dealt with, crawl through the vents behind the cauldron.



On the second left turn there’s an urchin right in your face, so make sure to kill him safely. Take the first right and head all the way down where you’ll emerge in a room behind some more oblivious initiates that you can stealthkill.



In this room there’s a big button you can press that opens the gate down the hall (you can shoot it if you're outside this room and don't really want to find the way inside), behind which a small army of cerberi and a single warlock. Your best bet is to chuck a few toxic potions down the way, wait for the cerberi to be stunlocked and then blow them up with a fragfire alt puff, then deal with the stragglers with the crushbow. As for the warlock, the acid grenades can be decently potent against them.

Head through the gate that you just opened and proceed to the storage bay where a big bundle of ranged enemies lie in wait to snipe you. Be careful as you fight them because at some point a bunch of reinforcements will spawn in behind you.



Head through the door along the hall and into an entrance room. Go downstairs and go near the circle to trigger another battle - It’s always good to get fights out of the way optimally so you aren’t surprised by them later.

Head through the left door into what appears to be another armoury. As you walk into the middle of the room more cultists will spawn in, both in front of and behind you. Using a toxic potion on both ends of the room will keep them in place so they don’t surround you and stab you to pieces.



Near the mountain gate control switches is a metal door which leads to a water pump room with a few worms in it. At the far end there’s a switch with a lantern. Press it and the window will open, revealing a shovel… that you can’t get to now.



Don’t worry about that. Go back and head for the door near the armour racks, then take a left.



As you go down the hall enemies will spawn behind you and there’ll be a bunch in the room to your right, but inside are two buttons that open the way for you. There’s a couple readables in here so check those out too. Pressing the buttons will cause a couple of cerberi to spawn in too, so watch out for that.



As you leave the room head left and left again which will lead you through gate 3, outside once more. Hope you aren’t agoraphobic. There are a few things you’re going to want to do out here. First, activate a specific fight that if you don’t finish now will be troublesome later.



Head between the two guard towers near the cliff, where a number of warlocks and iron urchins will rise into view. This is a tough fight, but if you didn’t deal with it here it’d be even worse later. Next, you probably noticed that there’s a hill in the middle of this outdoor section. Head near the furthest building to the right and you should see some stairs on the hill that you can scale - As well as some spikethrowers. You can take them out with the spike gun or axe them a question as you climb up to the top.



Once you get to the top you’ll find a round mechanism with 4 switches. Hit each of them and some pillars should rise out of the top.



Now that that’s done, head down and go into the building with the green windows. Theres a readable in here but more importantly a hatch into a cellar. Heading through, there’s a little farm patch underground as well as a metal entryway with a ladder. Go up it and you’re in the closet.

You could take the metal doorway into the next room but there’s a decent number of guys in there and it’s not always best to tackle a room full of enemies without some backup. So, jump up the crates and go through the vent, where you’ll find some conveniently oblivious enemies. Stealthkill your way through this storage room and head into a metal door with a switch.



Once you’re in there, you’ll find a bunch of switches that can help you. You can hit the big round switch without any consequences but the two switches marked with turrets will aggro the enemies outside, which means you'll need to join them quickly after hitting the switches.



Once you’re ready, hit those switches and head through the gate with orange markings. The turrets that you just activated should be able to clean up but they are worth protecting and keeping around so help them along with the slaughter, and remember to make use of some of the red crystals if you can. Once you’ve killed them, if your character is at 100 hp or so, take a look at eating the green crystal near the lancer statue and going up to the second floor, going through one of the metal doors.



Inside are a few initiates and spikethrowers and, down below, a particularly annoying warlock who is transparent and can be easy to lose track of. Keep your distance so you can track where it goes easily, it should go down with a couple of crushbow bolts. Once you’re done killing them with friendship, on the first floor of this room is a switch with a key on top of it. Grab it and press the switch, which opens up the gate behind you to the room with the lancer’s statue. From there, head left and take one of the turrets with you if you feel like it.

Go through the gate and into a different outdoor section. There’s a bunch of trees and a number of cultists that are immediately apparent and on the left is a sign that reads “To Mountain Pass”. Lots of weak cultists that are good fodder for your crushbow, as well as a few cerberi and iron maidens. The turret helps here but it might get damaged so be careful.



When you’re done killing them there’s a gate that opens to an earlier part of the level. Go through and head left to an earth key door, and open that sucker up to get into the guard’s recreation room. You can go through the next door to find the guard’s barracks and bathroom which you can search for some readables and goods. At the closed window, there’s a switch. Use it to lower the metal barrier, then punch the crack in the window to break through.

Hop through the window and follow the ledge to the left, and drop down past the 2nd armour shard where you’ll find a fragfire gun and the shovel from earlier.





Hop down again and head up the stairs on the left, then head out the left again to go to the outdoor area with the crystal ward. And… Left again to the next gate - And then a right where a bunch of initiates are waiting for you. Kill them and head into the reading station where yet more cultists wait. Use the shovel on the dirt wall with the crack in it, then go into the cave (Bring a turret).



You’ll come out the other end on a higher ledge, from which you can get into the guard towers. When you try and go over to the other one, unfortunately, a warlock and a bunch of initiates will spawn below, near the crystal ward. The other guard tower doesn’t have much, but it does have some ammo and a time shard for your trouble and unlocking the door there can’t hurt.

In the first tower you get to, at the bottom there’s a bookcase with a few armour shards on them, and through the door is a room with a few readables and a key you need, and a clue for a secret.



Go outside and kill the initiates that have been annoying you with their grumbling for the past 2 minutes while you were reading, then go to the crystal ward activation room (it’s the one you got the earth key from, near the lancer statue) and go upstairs, flipping both of the key switches. This lowers the crystals into position and reveals a switch which will turn the ward back on.

Make sure you placed some turrets either side of the lancer statue because some enemies will spawn in that room again, but you can make short work of them. Grab your turret of choice once more and head towards the outdoor section with the mountain pass sign. Head up the stairs near the sign and there’ll be 2 enemies that are easily slaughtered.


End of Level

Press the button near the gate that is now available to open and move on through the caverns to the next level.

E1M7 Complete!

Secret 1: In the storage bay you can platform up the crates to get to a door that leads back into the bar that you turned on the lights in. In that room there are several shelves, and one of them can be lowered so your character can partake in a rather unhealthy bit of boozing.

Secret 2: In secret 1, directly facing you as you come in is another shelf that can be lowered, this time revealing more practical goods.

Secret 3: In the guard’s rec room, (The one you need the earth key to get into) there’s two paintings, the one on the right appears to be of a tree. Crouch jump into it and you’ll find a secret stash including a potion of might.

Secret 4: Throughout the map you’ll find 3 notes containing hints that should lead you to a secret. Here are the locations:
A: At the start of the level go to the scaleable ledges, jump up the first rock and then follow the path left until you reach a set of 3 tall rocks. One of them will have a note wedged between it and the first rock. CL.
B: In the outdoor section with the crystal ward (The round mechanism in the center with switches that you go up a hill with stairs to get to) there are 2 guard towers. Go behind the one on the left and look for some logs, then hop behind them. OS.
C: Inside the leftmost guard tower there is a house with the crystal key. On the table is a readable with a bit of lore and on the desk is the note. ET.
Once you’ve found all 3, or you’ve guessed what the code is… Well, you’ve looked up the secret already so I might as well just tell you, it’s in the closet. Which closet? It’s the one you get into to access the building with the lancer statue and the turret controls. There will be a label on the door saying closet so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding it. The note is behind the boxes that you jump up to get into a vent, and it marks the spot on your map. Once you find that note, all you need to do is get the shovel and use it on the ground at the designated spot.

Secret 5 (Unmarked): At the windy cliff go up the ledges to your left up until you’re past the wooden stump and you’re on the same level as the bridge. Take a right and move to the very corner of the cliff, past the patch of 3 flowers on the floor.. There’s a very thin ledge that you can walk on by hugging the left wall. Be careful because if you fall it’s an instant death. Make it to the end and you’ll find a cave with a single piece of cheese and a reference to Romanian meme culture.


Unmarked = 0, X = Digsite

At the beginning of the level you’re in a cave and when you come out of it you walk through a snowy forest. Just follow the bits of stony path and signs, and eventually you should come to another cave with a jar and health potion at the entrance.


If you see road and signs, you're on the right track!


Progress

Inside you’ll find a door, two pathways and a lake with a frozen cerberus in it. How’d he show up there? Nobody knows, but here’s a fun trick. Try using the fragfire alt on him while he’s underwater. He’ll resurrect, run around, die and give you a bit of ammo for your trouble. Net gain!



Go down the left path and you’ll arrive at a broken bridge. The distance isn’t too far. You could just rocketjump with the crushbow or strafejump over, but that wouldn’t be much in the spirit of Hedon, now would it?



Jump down and pick up the plank of wood… Fun thing, if you look up you’ll see that it was a stalagtite that fell and destroyed the bridge, which is why there’s a big ice hunk in the hole in the ice.



Jump into the ice hole and swim to the other side of the river to retrieve a stone key. It’s good to know your character can survive in freezing cold water.



Jump up to the bridge and head back to the main cave, opening the stone key door. Inside you’ll find a readable, a greater health potion and a cyan crystal.



Next, head down the path you didn’t last time and you’ll find yourself outside.

Exploring a bit out there you’ll find a frozen lake to your right and a house to your left. Inside the house is another plank of wood.



Proceed past the frozen lake and you’ll find a temple. There are two statues with an offering plate either side, one of them empty. To the far end is a potion of haste on a pedestal. Don’t just run up to it. Punch the cerberus to death first, then jump on the pedestal with the potion to retrieve it - There’s a fire trap either side, a pressure plate just in front of the pedestal.



Put the cyan crystal in the offering plate to open the gates. Inside are some cool statues, a readable and a spot to break your shovel at to open the path for progress. Also another plank. When you’re done reading, break open the cracked spot in the ice nearby and dive into the bonechilling waters.





Also we used our shovel for the last time this episode which means its time for an obligatory



Head through some potentially familiar looking tunnels before you surface in a grove. There’s a few health items strewn around, a readable inside the tree-house and a rope-like vine. Hmm, where could we use that?



Head out the other path, scaling the fallen icicles to crawl out, before you head back to the broken bridge - Back into the cave with the stone key door and take a right. Use your items with the rope bridge - It won’t be fully completed but it will become usable to cross over.



Through the cave there are a few enemies huddled by a campfire.

One might think that the enemies ahead can be stealthkilled but unfortunately to your right there is another group and one of the spikethrowers is facing you. I’ve tried like 30 different times to stealth this room by killing the spikethrower before he throws, but it’s all for naught. Not that it matters because this isn’t that hard of a room to get through. Grab your turret if you have it and drop it in the middle and fragfire them down as you normally would. Then head through the tunnel to the frozen lake and a group of 3 warlocks will come down from the sky.



In the middle of the lake, there’s an item you might not have encountered yet - Choker of the Beast. Cerberi can drop this rarely, and they essentially make enemies run away from you in fear. The enemies still attack you but it can make fights in small rooms less claustrophobic, and will probably be useful in the next level. For now do what you will with it, popping it here might be helpful if you’re having trouble with these 3.

Go through the next tunnel and when you emerge on the other side you’ll see a bridge and 2 enemies - Or one, rather. Kick the cerberus off the cliff and head for the bridge with your turret if you still have it.



Alternatively, you could do what I did.

Place it on the start of the bridge and get ready for a wave of cerberi to come sprinting over the gate. Kill them, then go to the other side of the bridge where a wall of iron maidens and a couple of spikethrower snipers throw spikes at you. Snipe them back, and deal with the iron maidens as you see fit. Jumping past them and up the hill might help, but keep in mind that there’s more spikethrowers coming down the next length of the bridge.



You can head behind the hill the spikethrowers were perched on to get some ammo and a vial of health. Resources are scarce here so be mindful. Grab your turret again then head down the bridge once more. There’s a lit fireplace and if you check behind the leftmost tree on this peak you’ll find a few descending ledges to a dead guy and a health potion.

Head over the next bridge about halfway, then head back once you hear iron urchins spawning in. Yep, it’s that time again… Take them down with a spike gun and your trusty turret and turn your attention to the iron maidens at the end of the bridge. The turret might prove to be a boon in killing them, as any shot freezes iron maidens in place - Letting you move in behind and melee them.



Finally, you arrive at your destination, the fortress…

… Unfortunately you can’t get in through the front door. Around the right there’s a ledge that leads all the way around. There’s a few ledges you can jump up to the right side of the fort, and it might be good to deal with this spot first things first, but there is another way into the fort from this path. If you keep going you’ll turn left and find a potion, a box and a barrel. Hop up the ledges to your left and and you’ll see a platform across from you. It’s a bit of a jump but you can make it.



Hug the wall and keep going and eventually you’ll find a spot where you can jump up on another one of the walls, this time quite populated with some weaker enemies turned away from you. Unfortunately your cover is likely to be blown so use the time given to you to blast the enemies away. While you’re at it, there’s some cover to your right - A room of the blacksmith’s guild where you can sit with your sentry (if it’s still alive) and wait while you kill any enemies that might trundle in.



Downstairs is a potion of might and a readable, as well as a blacksmithing station you will need to progress. Going back upstairs, you’ll want to head through the door closest to the hammer wallshield...



...into the next tower which had a horde of crawlers and initiates inside. A step back and a well placed crushbow bolt or two should deal with them nicely. Head through the door to your left and go into the gate control room.



One of the levers is missing so we need to replace it. Hit the first one, then turn back to where you came from - Only to notice that a building nearby had its roof blown open and a forge elemental is now gunning for you. Dispatch of him and jump over into the room through the hole he just blew open - Being wary of the two iron urchins inside. Grab yourself some of the items dotted inside as well as an iron ingot, then head back to the blacksmith’s guild.



Smelt the iron bar using the smelter...



... then use it on the anvil...



... then head back up to the gate control room to replace the lever with the new one you just made.



Then use it to open the gate (Huzzah) and hop down to grab the axe key there.

Opposite from the gates is the manor which can be a bit of a pain to fight in - Rather tight quarters. The first room has a warlock and like 6 melee cultists who can rip you apart if they manage to corner you. Probably a good thing that this room has a decent bit of potion launcher ammo to tide you over with - As well as a readable.



To the right from where you come in is a path up, to the left a path down - The latter of which is what we want for now. Head downstairs and you’ll hear someone coughing. Head to the right and go into the bar. You might want to open the bathroom and clear out the worm trying to make a World of Warcraft expansion in the toilet. Once you’ve saved WoW, abandon your turret and take a dive.



If you dive into the well outside of the toilet, take a left and then surface.





You might want your nightvision to make sure you can see in here. Inside you’ll find the jails - Two of which still have inmates, one more personable than the other. Open them all if you want by pressing the switches on the wall in the door control room, then kill the worm inside one of the cells. Also pick up the Iron Key and pull the lever near the wall to open up your way out.



Go to the friendly inside one of the cells and talk to him. He’ll direct you upstairs for something he needs. Alternatively you can just kill him and be done with the level, but that affects the ending minorly. So do what he says - Head back up to the first floor and then another flight of stairs in the building.

There’s doors on either side of the hallway with the iron key symbol once you reach the landing, but you can explore behind the double doors in this hall for more items and enemies to kill. Up the stairs in the library there are a cerberus, two bedrooms, one with a readable and one with a strange portrait and a king sized bed.



Once you’re done exploring head down to the iron key doors. One leads out to the main area of the level and one leads to the brewer’s guild.



The other door was barred from entry and there’s only a couple enemies, and there’s a hatch that leads down to a cellar.



Inside you’ll find a keg of brew you can bring back to the guy in the cell and he will give you a key after some dialogue.



Leave the jail and head for the gate with orange lights and the earth key symbol, and use the elevator to finish the level.



E1M8 complete!

Secret 1: In the cave where you spawn in, turn around and go into the cave behind you. Jump on the first boulder to your right and tuck into the crevice between the two boulders, then crouch and grab a rather powerful item.

Secret 2: On the initial path, past the first sign you encounter, there’s a thick group of trees. Searching around with eyes on the floor you’ll find an X made with stones. You need to use a shovel - If you don’t have one because you used the level select, you can get one later in the level, just don’t use it to break the ice until you’ve gotten this secret.

Secret 3: In the fort, inside the Blacksmith’s guild, head upstairs and out the door closest to the hammer wallshield and go to the other end of the wall, but don’t go into the tower. Note that there’s a ledge down to your right that you can access, and if you jump down you can get some hidden goods.

Secret 4: In the cellar of the manor, left as you go past the bar is a bank. You need to crawl through the counter to get in, but the gate itself requires a code. To find the code go to the very top floor of the manor and find the king sized bed, then check under the pillows for a note. The code is 1357.

Secret 5 (Unmarked): Standing at the start of the bridge at the entrance you come in from through the tunnel, take a right. If you look at the corner of the cliff on the far right you’ll notice that there’s a very thin ledge that you can hug the wall and walk on. If you follow it all the way, you can jump down and find a snowman who is standing tall and ready to give you his healing juices.




Unmarked = 0

You spawn in darkness, so turn on your night vision goggles. Hop out of the elevator and crouch under the door. You’ll find you’re in the portal station of this area. Check the readable at the end of the room and then head through the broken window on the right.



Take a left, then open the door on the left and hit the switch inside, which will open the gate down the steps.



Outside in the middle of the plaza is a patch of green with a small pond in the middle, and ahead is the clinic entrance. To your left is a bridge to a gate with a locked level exit.



Head over to the clinic with the purple lights - It’s time to go keyhunting. Inside you’ll find the place is empty. There’s a witch statue and a desk with 2 readables ahead of you. Head right and go through one of the small gates, then try to open the door to the lab room - Unfortunately, the switches are reversed and it’s the door on the other side of the lab room that opens.



So, press one of the buttons and rush out the gate and into the other one, where you’ll find the door to the lab is now open.



Grab the corrosive acid and the vial of health in the lab, then head out and go to the room with the witch statue, taking the stairs to your right. Use the corrosive acid on the iron bars blocking your path and go in the door to your right, the chieftain adjunct’s office.



Grab the key and read the readable for 5 minutes, then step out of the room and crawl through the bars, taking the path left again and through the earth key door at the end of the hall.

Open the door to your right as you walk into the main part of the room, then go through and take a left as you crawl through the tunnel.



Jump down into the pit in front of you, then look for a well lit door. To the right there is a lever, pull it and the door will open. Check the readable inside, then press the switch on the wall.



Water will rise, but it flows down the drain, so pull the lever to close the door and make the water level rise more, thus letting you get up onto the ledge with the table of lab equipment.



There’s a readable to the right of the equipment and a passageway to the left. There are a bunch of explosive bile eggs along the path, use your throwing axe to get rid of them so they don’t blow up in your face. Head up the slope and go into the vent to your left, then hop down into the broken aquarium and dispatch of the bile egg just outside the broken window.



Head to the left, to the opposite side of the room from here and press the switch to lower a dolly that you can crawl through.

To your left are two key doors, one for axe keys and one for crystal keys. You don’t have those, so head down the hallway on the right and into the active orange glowy gate on the left.



Now you’re in the main laboratory area. Note that there’s a bunch of bile eggs sitting around ready to blow up in your face, so be ready to axe them a question.



On the table in the middle of the room with the cauldron on it there is a recipe book with a few combos for the alchemy machine nearby. There should be plenty of different items available to let you craft with so feel free to stock up and take a look at different combos you can make. When you’re done playing with the machine, head through the next door where you’ll find pens with many cultists inside of them. On the right side is a cerberus that has been starving, so we should go look for some food for him.


Poor boi

In the next room at the end of the hall there’ll be 2 tables with people on them. Check the nearby readable with the potion recipe on it, and pick up the nearby meat, and go back to give it to the dog. He’ll bring you the key that he was chewing on.




Good boi

Bring that key back to the place where you first crawled in through the dolly and use it on the switch. Inside are some camera spheres and a button switch that you can press to open a bunch of the doors - Specifically one that you saw someone in earlier.



Inside you’ll find some interesting looking figures and a readable on the table. Open up the next floor and step through, then take a right through the gate. THere’s a bunch of cauldrons in here and a firing range off to the right, but most important here is a door with a few candles, a readable and some wine.



Drink the wine, put on your makeup and get ready for a cutscene.

When the cutscene is done, hop out and go press the switch behind the glass shield, then grab the crystal key that it opens.



Get ready for the most annoying enemy in the entire game. Thankfully they’re relatively scarce but that doesn’t mean that they’re nice to fight. The golem is a mean, mean thing to fight, especially in this environment. Because of their dark colour they often blend into the background here - A good way to counteract this is by turning on your night vision and looking out for them. Not only are they fast but they’re relatively silent - the sound of them running is the only warning you really get of them. They have nasty attacks too - They leap at you, they leap away from you throwing spikes at you and they leave bile eggs sitting around, allowing you to get blown up by them.


(Only good image I could get)

Here’s a couple of ways I tend to kill them. The first time I fought them I used the fragfire gun to burn them and that worked relatively well, although there are better alternatives. The crylance takes them down in two direct shots and the crushbow can take them down in one. The acid launcher are probably the most consistent as the splash damage is quite wide and I can imagine that killing them with the toxic potions is relatively effective. Overall they’re quite weak healthwise, it is getting a bead on them that is hardest, so try and keep moving as much as you can in this cramped environment because they thrive off of ambushes and cover.

You’ll have to fight 3 in this room, so keep your guard up. As the door opens, the next room has 2 that need to be killed. Head on through to the left and go into the room with the cauldrons in the middle. As well as some pesky golems, to your right will be a crylance. You’re gonna want to look at using the alt fire - These golem things are annoying as sin and deserve punishment.

Head through the other end and open a door - Where you’ll see golems infighting with other monsters and holding their own, in no small part due to their agility and speed. This is a good place to try out that alt fire - It can clean the room if used effectively. You don’t want to overuse it though, it’s pretty inaccurate and quite costly.


PROPERTY DAMAGE!!!!

Once you’re done with this room, head through to the hallway with the crystal key door at the end. Grab your potion launcher and chuck an acid potion into the corners in your blindspots before you head in. Fight your way through and remember that there’s a ton of enemies of all sorts around here. Head through the crystal door and you’ll find yourself coming out the other end to the entrance to the clinic with the witch statue…



And a small army of enemies going ham against each other. You could just try and run out of the door and hope you don’t get caught in the crossfire, sure, but you’re better than that, right? To the left is a number of worms and golems, to the right are cultists. Both appear to be fighting each other. If you want to whittle their numbers lay down some toxic bombs and a crylance alt fire or two, and never stop moving - Those golems are ravenous. There is a potion off to the right near some spikethrowers if you’re getting low on health. Hell, pop a haste potion and use your spike gun, why not?



There’s another fight outdoors with some worms and golems but the circumstances are a bit more lax - After all it’s an open space, still dark but with much more area to move around in and less to hinder your movement. Fight them off and then head for the end of level sign on the gate that you can now unlock. Congrats, you’ve reached the final level!

E1M9 Complete!

Secret 1: As you come out of the portal station to face the clinic, turn left and head towards the (locked) level exit. Jump into the river below the bridge and head left, descending and going through the tunnel where you’ll find a cave containing some rather soggy supplies to the left.

Secret 2: Opposite the Chieftain Adjunct’s office is a planning room where you can find some ammo, food, a readable and bookcases. One of these bookcases can be lowered to reveal a secret.

Secret 3: The wall at the back of Secret 2 can also be lowered to reveal a room with a variety of goods inside.

Secret 4: On the right wall of the firing range, there’s a dark patch of wall that if used raises and reveals a secret compartment.

Secret 5: Behind the axe key door, to your left is a safe with some goodies that are visible but unattainable. After you have activated the fight that unleashes the golems, return there and you’ll find that it’s been opened.

Secret 6 (Unmarked): In the alchemy machine, put something in every slot of the machine and press the button to create the item. This will produce a mystery potion, one of the strongest but most unreliable items in the game, which will give several random consumable buffs at once.


Unmarked = 0

You spawn on the other side of the gate, in a tunnel. Head on through and you’ll come upon an entrance to a temple. There will be some crylances on the floor which you’ll want to pick up, especially if you don’t have one yet.



Past the door is a large chamber with lots of items, resources and what not to stock up on - And in the middle is a mechanism with a figurine of Air on it. Pick up the figurine and take a look around. This place is quite pretty…



There are 4 paths - One back through the tunnel you came from, one to the left (west) and one to the right (east). Right now you’re in the middle room. The one ahead is the one that you need to unlock, and to do that we need to collect 4 keys. The figurine you picked up just now is a tool you need to find these keys. Pick the left or right door and you’ll be able to find some path to progress.

Heading for the west wing (because it's west on the map) and heading down the hall you’ll find 2 directions to go - Left, to a chamber of Air and right to a chamber of water.


Air Chamber


Water Chamber

Heading to the water chamber, you’ll find a room with a pedestal with amber markings. Ignore that for now, pull out your acid potions and head into the room to the left with a bunch of belligerent golems and - to make matters worse - two warlocks. A couple of good ways to deal with this room - Keep moving and use the cover to your advantage as the golems do, or if you’re a coward... Back up out of the room after the enemies aggro and kill them as they come.

Once you’re done, head to one of the waterfalls and look up. Notice that there seems to be a body of water above you that is floating. Trippy… Before you hit the LSD, take a gander at the wall opposite of the entrance to this room, and you’ll see that high up there’s a hole in the wall that you can fall into. Swim up the waterfall and into the larger floating body of water, then drop into the hole in the wall from there where you’ll find an icy pathway.



A troupe of worms block your path as you go up a spiral slope, so butcher them and head across the gap. Down the next slope is bag of assorted baddies to your right near the Moon statue, and to your left a ledge of losers with ranged attacks. They’re pretty safe to kill, and then at the very bottom of the path you’ll find a Water Figurine near an icy wall.



From there, turn, head up the slope and you’ll find a scaleable ledge to climb in front of you.



When you get to the top you’ll see a portal and also will get an autosave.



Drop through the portal and you’ll spawn back in the middle of the main hallway with a small army of cultists. Fortunately they’re facing away from you - All 54 of them are lined up in 3 rows of 6 each, facing down different directions of the 3 paths you can take from here.


One of my favourite sights in the game.

I like to pop a time shard here and use my axes to mow down one line, chuck some crushbow bolts down another and deal with the other one in similarly explosive fashion - Maybe some potion bombs or a crylance alt if you’re feeling fancy.


Another one of my favourite sights in the game.

Once you’re done killing them, head back into the middle room of the temple, where you can restock and head into the east wing across from you.

As you head into the east wing you might hear a hiss. Keep that in mind for later… To the right is the chamber of Fire. Use the pedestal with blue markings there and you’ll see that as you place the water figurine streams of water will fall into the lava, creating platforms for you to progress… Later.



Head the opposite way and you’ll find the chamber of Earth. Blocking your way, other than harm bolts from the initiates ahead are clouds of toxic gas. Fortunately, you can get rid of them by putting the air figurine one the pedestal.



As the gas clears you might note that theres an Earth figurine above, on the platform directly ahead of you… If you’re not too busy being pelted by bolts of magic of course. The enemies here can be pretty mean - Some initiates and spikethrowers perched on the platforms above, two warlocks and a handful of golems to harass you below. However there are a number of items to make use of - Keep your eye out for green crystal plants, and near the Iron statue off to the right are a number of vials of health and a patch of mushrooms.



When you’re done with cultist slaughter there’s something else you need to do, in the middle of the grove is a small hill with ledges you can scale to get up to the other platforms. Platform your way to the spot nearest the entrance, where you can grab an Earth figurine.



Next, drop down and head for the tree trunk surrounded by runed stones. There is an entrance which, if you have not placed the water figurine on the earth statue, will be blocked with fire. Inside is one of the keys you need, an Earth Fragment.



As you come out of the tree trunk, to the left you’ll see the iron statue, and nearby that a cave.



Walk towards the cave and drop down the hole, careful not to fall into the lava pit. In the cave you’ll be greeted by a few iron urchins and two forge elementals, which quickly becomes three - The first two forge elementals are hiding behind the pillars ahead, and the last is ahead, hiding behind a wall to your left. There’s a few more elementals and urchins lurking around so stay on your guard. To the left, there is a small room with a portal you can drop into. Ignore that for now and keep searching the caves. Instead head forward and take a right, where you’ll find a Fire figurine nearby some red crystals and a burnt corpse to the right.



Pick it up and then head back through to the cave and drop down into the portal.

When you appear back in the main hallway there may be cerberi running towards you, right in front of you.


Down, boy!

Kill them, then take a left and head back into the chamber of fire. Take the path left, through the shallow lake and into a cave passage.



Ahead there will be lots of stone platforms rising out of the lava only to submerge again.



Yep, it’s platforming time again.



Wait for the first four platforms to start rising then platform onto them and jump on the right ledge, waiting for them to rise again. From here you could go to the left but that’d just take you back to the cave you came from earlier.



Instead take a right and hop up the three stable platforms, before hopping to the ledge opposite . Thin platforms nearby with rise and descend, allowing you to ascend until you reach a cave with a ring of red crystals. Get out your spike gun and carefully traverse over the top of them before hopping to safety. You probably just heard the forge elementals spawn in behind you, so shoot the red crystals before they can get a magma ball shot off.



In the room ahead you’ll see a Fire Fragment in the midst of several streams of lava obscuring the path to the middle platform. Take the platforming path to the left, until you find an opening - And be aware that there’s going to be lots of iron urchins coming for you here from the entrance of the chamber (Yes, you can see it from here) - And they can be pretty mean, but are also easily dispatched.





Either way, grab the Fire Fragment and keep platforming on the left side until you reach the left ledge where you can drop down and find a potion of might to your right. From here you should be able to head back to the main hallway by now. Move through the hallway… And maybe take a step back and bring out your crushbow, because from the windows spill a horde of worms and golems to ruin your day.


Gosh darnit.

Sometimes luck is on your side though - If you do take a step back, the worms may shoot the golems and cause some infighting, giving you a bit of breathing room. Head into the small caves behind the stained glass and you’ll find a patch of mushrooms to eat and a green crystal on either side.



Hope you haven’t had your fill of golems because a bunch just spawned in the middle chamber. Luckily no other mobs are present for this encounter so it’s not that complicated. Deal with them, and then head back through into the West Wing for your second expedition into the elements of water and air.

Head through the hall and to the right once more to the chamber of Water, then place the Fire figurine on the pedestal, which will melt the water ahead of you. Descend into the pool and dive, and activate your elemental ring while you’re at it. In the large underwater chamber there will be 2 warlocks waiting for you. You can only use your spike gun, your axe or your crushbow alt fire underwater but with the elemental protection the damage these enemies deal should be negligible. If you want to avoid damage, lead the homing shots into walls.



On either side of the chamber are switches that will lower the middle ice wall further, allowing one to fight the warlocks inside and upon activating the second switch collect the Water Fragment. There’s 6 warlocks in all but if you really want to try and get the fragment without killing any of them, be my guest. A time shard might help you there, but note that warlocks do not slow down under its effects - Their projectiles do.

Once you’re done, get out of the water and head out of the chamber, heading over to the chamber of air across from you. Place the earth statue on the pedestal and platforms will rise to allow you to platform over to the cloudy stairway. Don’t be scared to step on that by the way - You won’t fall… Hopefully.






What might make you fall however, is that after you get to the top of that stairway and grab the Air Fragment, a bunch of forge elementals will spawn at the entrance that you came from, spawning urchins and threatening to launch you off the platform. You have a couple of options - Snipe them down, hop down and get in to slay them, or hightail it on the leftmost path which will lead you to the icy area where you can portal in behind them and take them down. The problem with going in to kill them is the many initiates that rush in behind them, but well, they’re initiates.



For your last proper challenge before you put in those fragments, the middle room has been littered with cultists that are thirsty for blood. Remember that the middle of the room near the machine has a couple of armour amulets ready to restock you at a moment’s notice as well as plenty of consumables dropped around. This fight isn’t too hard but there are a lot of enemies, so just make sure you aren’t cornered by iron maidens or cerberi. When you’re done, go to the middle of the room and use the slots of each side of the machine, which will place the fragments you’ve collected inside of it. Once you’ve done that, the gates open and let you pass into the next portion of the level.

Go through the gate, down the slope and to the end of a rather long hallway, then up some stairs. To your right is a crystal key gate, so head left.



You’ll come into a room with a destroyed wall, so head through it and then through the broken chain fence into a room with a lot of technology and engineering stuff in it.



As you do, a turret will fire on an urchin, signalling that there are others around. Wait until the other two expose themselves and die, then take the turret with you. At the next gate, this one unbroken, there are 2 energy pumps with a ring that rises and descends. Jump on one of the pumps and head over the fence, then open the door on the left.





Go up the stairs and head to the crates on the other side of the room, jump on them and crawl through a vent - Before dropping your turret and letting it handle the urchins that spawn as you walk in.



Another gate impedes your progress, and another energy pump acts as your elevator. Once over the gate, climb over the fence and crawl through the vent lit by a lantern.



Once through you’ll be in a room with a caved in wall with a crack in it. Walk towards the wall and a forge elemental will greet you. Once he’s dispatched, go through the wall he opened.



On the other end is an absolutely massive horde of baddies. My remedy? A time shard, some well placed potion rounds, and don’t forget that your crylance exists, it’s great for this room in particular.



Once you’re done kicking their asses, take a moment to head left and recruit the warrior (the one with the crushbow) and head over to the barricade at the far end of the room.





At that point, the council room will open, revealing more enemies to slay - Not just from there, but from a gate all the way at the back near where you came in, which lets loose a small army of initiates.





Here’s a good time to talk about companions - Keep a close eye on them or they’ll die pretty quickly. Make sure that when you have a moment to breathe easy, do a headcount if you need to and tell each of them to wait and then follow again. With the right setup you can make companions absolutely shred your enemies, but you need to take care of them as a result.



In the council room (the room with the chairs and the big screen) you’ll find an earth key - But also, if you go around behind the right of the big screen you’ll find a path back through the previous parts of the level and if you go behind the left, you’ll find another companion with a small hoard of ammo.





When you’re done, go behind the barricade with the friendlies and use the earth key on the gate and head to the middle of the grassy area with the camera orb and the NPC in it. After a while of conversing with them (or skipping their briefing using, well, the use key), they’ll give you a crystal key and your objective - Go kill God with friendship or something.

To your left and right are two more companions you can recruit, so grab them before you go.





When you leave the earth key door, a gate will be blown open by a demon, followed by a few cerberi with another demon and some spikethrowers backing him up. If you had left the recruitable bear warrior from before to sit there they’d be dead now, so good job for remembering to pick them up.



This demon is the Pit Lord - The most powerful enemy in episode 1 - And the following sequence is a big extensive fight to your goal as more and more of these delightfully devilish creatures will appear throughout the following sequence. They’re pretty resilient, go down with about 3 well placed crushbow shots and are best fought at mid range due to their aggravating ranged fire-stomp attack and a move they do where, if you’re too close, their roar can actually damage you.



Me describing all the fights you’re going to partake in here is probably going to seem repetitive and you probably know how to fight pretty well by this point so I’ll only refer to combat when there’s something meaningful I can point out. Head down the stairs, then up to the crystal key door where yet more enemies await. Take a right, and step back so as not to be slaughtered by a stab-happy iron maiden. This is a big room so don’t be afraid to separate from your companions so you can keep moving, they’re decent at staying alive on their own.



When you’re done head through a doorway near a wall of rock, and as you come out onto the bridge you’ll find that iron urchins are descending towards you to your left. It’s pretty fun to kill them actually, especially if you get a chain reaction.



Head over the bridge and you’ll be greeted by iron maidens and their initiate lackeys. Fight your way up the stairs and you’ll come across a doorway to another bridge.



Spoopy.

Several cerberi and pit lords are on the bridge, but the supplies and cover is plentiful enough to make slaughtering, ambushing and fighting your way across rather simple, if not easy. As you reach the other end you’ll find a room with a rest area to your left, a gate to your right and a green crystal in front of you. Leave your companions here and head behind the wall near the green crystal.



In this room there’s a bear warrior that you can free and get to stand nearby the others while you head upstairs.



You can technically stealth the room here if you really want to and you really feel like living in pain, but really it’s not necessary. You can just kill the guys in this room, there’s not many. On the right as you come in, press the switch near the wall and the gate will open - Allowing your companions to kill your enemies before you even meet them.



Once they’re dead, head down the elevator and go and meet the companion inside the smaller library section opposite from the elevator, the one that just opened. Turn left and you’ll see a switch which you can press to open the gate nearby.



Down the stairs here is a pretty big fight but if you hit a time shard and haste potion and use it to take down the enemies at the bottom your companions will follow and clean up house the rest of the way.



There’s a room to the right with a bunch of supplies that will help you as you press forwards - The last room with any major fighting is the next one with a pit lord, a few golems and some initiates raining down harm upon you. Sounds more metal than it is - Kill them dead.


POINT OF NO RETURN

The rest of the path is a straight line of supplies. Feel free to take in the sights but this is also the final rest point before the final boss. Once you go through that last portal there’s no going back… And once you go through the door after you go through the portal, you’ll be taken to the final boss of episode 1.

After the cutscene you’ll be put right in the thick of it. They’re big, they’re bad, and they hurt. The strategy is thus: Shoot it. Shoot it until it dies. Of course it’s rarely that simple because you are not the only one in the arena - Not only are your friends here, but he has some friends of his own.

Meleeing him to death is quite risky because he has a fire breath attack that can shred your HP at close range, so stick to shooty shoot if you can. One thing that I can totally recommend - Spam everything, and I mean EVERYTHING.



You aren’t coming back from this and you’re not carrying your stuff over to the next episode unless you cheat, so put your consumables on rotation and go ham. Use your crushbow bolts and crylance ammo especially, because those deal the most DPS to a single target.

Regarding your companions, if you can toggle them mid fight to make them guard/follow/guard/follow, that will help them stay alive as it resets their health. It’s pretty hard to keep them alive regardless, much less keep track of them, but slaying the boss and keeping all your companions alive is a feat of strength. He has a stomp attack that sends spikes of fire in all directions, burning you and your friends to a crisp. At around 80-75% health, doors on the right side of the arena lower, revealing enemies but also ammo and items.



At a certain point, one of his harsher attacks unlocks - He will point a finger at you and fireballs will be thrown at you at a rapid rate. Be sure to find some cover for this before he gets a shot off.
He also has a jump attack that can shoot you up into the air if you’re also jumping, so make sure you take care not to jump around too much so you can avoid fall damage.

At around 65-ish% the other side of the arena lowers to reveal yet more enemies, and at around 30% the windows shatter, unleashing an army of foes upon you while also opening the way for more movement, cover and items.



The negative, of course, is that he can now throw magma bolts at you, which will explode on impact - And he shoots them quite fast. It’s probably best not to sit behind the pillars to avoid this but instead to hop into the areas behind the shattered glass windows and hunker down for a bit.

The fight ends when he reaches 3% and explodes. Give yourself a pat on the back because you just beat one of the best games of all time! When you’re done watching the cutscene, walk into the portal with the end level symbol hanging above it and watch the cutscenes play out.



E1M10 complete!

HEDON 1 COMPLETE!

Secret 1: In the chamber of Water once you’ve placed the fire figurine, head left into the room with the waterfalls and jump into the pool on the left. If you haven’t placed the fire figurine, this will still be frozen, but unfreezing it will give you access to a secret with some goodies and an elemental ring.

Secret 2: In the chamber of Air there’s a broken wall to your left. Hop over it and you’ll find some goods including a choker of the beast.

Secret 3: Near the end of the level is a room with a stairway that leads to a large dark bridge that has several pit lords on it. Before you head through to the bridge, look to your right where a rocky ledge leads to a haste potion and some healing items.

Secret 4 (Unmarked): When you go through the portal to the final battle near the end of the level, turn around and look behind the large lancer statue, and there will be a switch on the base of it. Press it, and look back, then hop through the revealed secret to the Patreon reward gallery for episode 1!


Unmarked = 0

You spawn in the air and drop down into a pool of water. Surfacing, you find yourself in a cave with lots of flora and crystals. Jump on the patch of land to the right which will spawn an axe on another nearby platform, then hop to the next available platform and go grab it.



Turn around and climb up the ledge to get a box of acid potions that spawned nearby a moment ago too, and then follow the ledge along to find an armour crystal.



Just before you reach the armour crystal, a crylance will spawn on the high up platform to your left. Hop up until you’re on a ledge with 3 mushrooms, from which you can jump and get the Crylance. Hop back down and follow a path of red moss with an armour shard breadcrumb trail. There’s a path to the left and right, but ignore the path to the left for now.





You’ll find a path with 4 pillars either side leading to a fountain, with items spawning on the ground as you follow it, and as you collect these items an NPC will spawn in front of the sealed door.



You can have a chat with her if you want but for now keep in mind the withered vine door to your right and then head towards the open hallway off to the left with a big bundle of thorns blocking it off. You can’t get through yet, but you can head through the hole on the left wall which will take you into a crypt.



Rob the dead if you feel like it, but head to the end of the hall and grab the spike gun near the broken stone door, then jump over it into the next room where you will find yourself in a fun happy party place.



You’d love to stick around and get your boogie on but you need to go. Jump onto the rim of the dancefloor and hop on a crate, then the next box and on top of the cage dancer’s cage, before hopping onto the bridge that leads outside. You could hop on the head of the groovy partygoer hanging out nearby to get yourself a time shard as well.

Cross the bridge and then follow the ledge right, dropping down and continuing until you find a withered vine key in front of some overgrown roses.



Drop down once more and return to the fountain near the NPC, then take a right through the withered key door.



There’s a room with a butcher table and a broken window, crawl through there and be ready to deal with a forge elemental and his urchins. There’s likely to be quite a few urchins but killing the big guy tends to sort things out.



Platform to the spot you saw the forge elemental come from and hop the gap of the broken bridge, grabbing the potion bottle on the crate to your left.



Make your way back to the broken window and take the path down the stairs, returning on the path to where the level started - Then take a right when you come to a ruined building with an angel statue and a mana pool inside.



Use the bottle on the water pool in front of the angel statue and take the bottle. Head back towards the path with the pillars and be ready to fight some golems. You can actually stealthkill the first 3 if you like. Take out your trusty axe, step behind the first pillar on the right and you’ll see them - Throw your axe at them.



It’s actually silent for some reason. Maybe Golems don’t have ears? I don’t know. Next, move through the trees to your right and you’ll see another one, again faced away from you. Throw the axe at them and kill them.



Finally look upwards at the bridge above. Because you have only one axe you’ll have to pick who you want to kill - And the last one should go down pretty easily.



If you want to kill more golems (cuz you know you love them), go through the crypt into the party room to find 2 more golems. There’s also a box that’s been opened with golemy stuff leaking out of it - And inside is an armour shard.



Also, one of the golems is standing over the NPC. Make sure you don't axe the NPC by accident because they CAN DIE. Fortunately they drop their key item to progress, so if you do that, just use it on the door nearby.



Otherwise, just head back to the NPC near the barred door, where you’ll find another golem is standing over them. Kill them and give the NPC the potion. After a brief cutscene the NPC will open the door for you and become recruitable, at which point you can drag them around town.

Head into the town, where you’ll see a banner and a door across from you that is blocked by a pentagram. Take a left, you’ll find yourself in town, to the left of you being a set of ruined walls as well as a farm plot above and to the right being a market. Go through the gap in the ruined walls and in the graveyard nearby to your left you’ll find a shovel.

There is also a temple with some glowing pentagrams on the door blocking you from entering - You’ll unlock that later. Turn and leave the churchyard, then start exploring the town. The NPC you brought with will comment periodically on your surroundings, so bring them everywhere! Past the gallows is a market. There isn’t much that you can do here, but there is a copper key door and an unreadable... readable, near some dimming cyan crystals. You might want to come back here later.

Head back the way you came, then go past the banner at the entrance to an alleyway lit by a lamp. The building to your right as you walk down the alleyway has a readable on it that might prove interesting, but continue along until you find one with a shattered window. The sign above has a book, showing that this is a bookstore or a library. Hop through the window and take a look around, heading up the stairs. If you’re attentive, you might have noticed that some of the doors are stuck in this level - We’ll get there…

Go up the stairs and take a right, you’ll see bookcases on the left and tables on the right. On the furthest table is a book you can pick up and a readable that you can translate with it. You can also translate that readable near the copper key door. Head back to the market and go to the spot and you’ll find that the readable says that there’s a key buried behind the farm plot’s shed.

Head to the farm plot directly left of where you enter town, you’ll likely have walked past it a few times by now. There’s a shed here.



Move behind it on the right side and you’ll see a small patch of earth that has a faint indentation in it behind a decaying bush, and using it will dig it up with the shovel.



Grab the key in the hole and then you can then head back to the copper key door and head inside. Inside the copper door there’ll be a fireplace to your right that's lit and a doorway with a towel hanging in it. Head through the doorway and you’ll arrive in a room with a readable and 3 switches and a gate. Check the readable, activate all the switches and the gate will open. Then head to all the way down the alleyway to the left. If you want to gather some stuff, now’s a good time because this this room will cause a ton of enemies to spawn throughout the map.

As you step past the gate it will raise, trapping you with a multitude of enemies in a courtyard. Lots of faces you’ll recognise from episode 1, but there is one you might not - A horned beast known as a hellblaze. He has two different moves - Firing rapid bloodbolts at you or getting close to you and sapping your health directly with their hellclaws. With the bloodbolt attack they there’s a one and a half second (I think) delay that lets you get moving before they start firing. The potion gun does decent damage to them, the crushbow alt kills them in one shot, and they’re a pretty fearsome mid-tier enemy overall.

The weapon they drop is pretty sick though. The hellclaw, which you encountered in the very first level during the intro of Cold Rock is a surprisingly versatile weapon. Its primary fire shoots bloodbolts just like the hellclaw does and the alt fire can throw mines that are slightly stealthy. If you know how to use it the hellclaw can be one of your most deadly tools for enemies big and small alike.

Back to the fight. Your NPC can generally hold their own, but you don’t want to make them do all the work. The room you’re in is a little cramped and as more initiates spawn in and other enemies pour out of the doors on either side, you’re going to need to keep up a steady stream of slaughter. Make sure you’ remember you’ve got your crylance handy, so pop an alt fire if things get really desperate. A pit lord is in the room on the right so he’ll be stomping fire at you every once in a while. Might want to deal with him quickly - As well as the iron maidens who can make this room quite a pain.

Once you’re done dealing with these guys, you’ll want to adjust to your surroundings. With your back to the pentagram’d temple door, you’ll see a defiled knight statue in the middle of the courtyard and on the opposite side of the courtyard a pentagram’d door with a flag eitherside. To the left and right are passages to the rest of town - Take the left one through some cultist beds and into another room with a few enemies in it. You’ll find a hatch that lets you drop into the copper key door room, where a few enemies have spawned. Deal with them and head to the gate room, then get your NPC to wait near the gates. Feel free to open the gates and lead any baddies to them so that the NPC can deal with them.

Feel free to get your NPC to tag along with you, then walk forwards and you’ll notice that theres a barn that’s now open but wasn’t earlier. Inside will be enemies, including about 3-4 hellblazes that just love throwing blood at you and a couple of cerberi that you might want to lead back to your NPC. Since we want to have fun, let’s take her out of guard mode and bring her into the barn. (By the way, a pit lord head into the barn for you, ahhhh!)

As you follow her along on a killing spree, remember to put her in and out of guard mode to keep her alive - And keep track of her, because she can easily run off and die to some stray enemy. You’ll also want to use your spike gun to keep any enemies on the rooftops in line, because they can grow to be a nuisance when fighting enemies with lots of health/damage output.

Fun thing, Iron Maidens are weak to ice damage… Guess who does ice damage? Your friend, that's who.

Anyway, once you tire of endless bloodshed, head back to the entrance of the town and go down the alleyway leading to the library. Throw an axe at a nearby cerberus (and maybe the spikethrower cultist perched above him, you can get that axe back later if it gets stuck) before continuing to the library. You’ll notice that the door has been unbarricaded and lots of enemies have spawned inside - And as you walk in, not only do they all aggro, but the bookcases at the far end of the room open up to reveal yet more enemies including a few warlocks.

Yet behind the bookcases is a dank passage leading up some stairs to the right. Head up them and you’ll find a room that is very, very familiar…



If you remember what this room was, you’ll remember that there is a switch next to the bookcase to your right as you come in. This lowers the bookcase and opens a secret door to a key (rather than a portal this time). With the key in hand, all you need to do is find some way to use it. Head out of the library and towards the town, into the barn...

Once you’re in the barn, go up the stairs look around the upper floor. Near some tiny barrels you’ll find a hatch leading out to a stall roof that you can use to get to the next part of the level. A broken window will allow a cultist to take potshots at you, but some vines will let you get inside. Your NPC will say that they can’t climb with you here and ask you to find them a place that they can stay and cover you… And indeed, you can.

Hop down and bring them to the entrance of town, then have them stand next to the banner.

When you’re done with that head back to the barn, crawling through the hatch, jumping through the window and then through the other one, and you’re on the rooftops now! Ahead on the wall to the left is a hole that you can crawl through. A few hellblazes will spawn as you walk halfway into the room, so maybe lay down a Hellclaw mine with alt fire in each corner of the room before you step too far in.

Next, hop through the broken window and you’ll be near the entrance, where the NPC and the banner is. Two hellblazes will spawn below but the NPC should make short work of them. Walk the plank into the next room and chuck a hellclaw mine or two in. Remember, if it kills individual enemies the others usually won’t notice and it can be a very effective roomclearer - There’s a couple of enemies in here, but even if the mines fail your spike gun and crylance shouldn’t.

At the end of this room there’ll be a plank between a hole in the wall and a balcony with a dark key door. Head in and drop down. There’s a hole in the wall ahead of you with a fire potion on a desk. Pick that up, and head through the wall to the right, where another door on the right leads to a room with a forge elemental and some urchins. The crylance has pretty decent dps against Forge Elementals, so try and use that to get rid of him and his urchins before you get blown up.

Head up the stairs and take the indoor balcony to the right until you head through a room, which will take you to a cellar-ish hall with some worms and an urchin inside. There’s another hole in the wall… Holy crap, how many holes in the wall are there? Anyway, crawl through that and you’ll come out to the waterfall near the withered vine key room. Hop down and look into the broken window where you’ll see a worm chowing down on some lunch and some initiates watching their dead friend or something in the cave to the right.

Move quickly over the water near the window so you don’t land in it and alert the enemies and stealth kill the worm before using a spike gun to kill the initiates - It’s not easy to stealth kill someone you can’t punch. Open the door and you’ll find a worm trying to gnaw your face off - Just boot them in the face and head to the right, into the village so you can grab your NPC to follow you.

Head back to the fountain and take a right, before using the fire potion on the thorns. This will cause them to burn and open a passage for you. Walk forward, but just enough that the door to your left opens without you aggroing them, then head back and hop through the broken wall to the crypt. Assuming you’ve already killed the 2 golems in the party room, head through the door to the right and get a free kill on all 3 of the golems in the room they were about to ambush YOU in.

Head out the door and to the left and you’ll find yourself in a temple. It’s quite expansive and large, mostly empty in the middle with a couple of healing items dotted around. On either side and at the left end of the hall are some statues which each has a hellclaw on it that should give you 25 ammo for it. Anyway, at the left end of the hall is a floating, evil looking book. You can close it by using it but I’d prepare first by laying down a few mines along the middle portion of the temple.

Once you close the book a bunch of cerberi and pit lords will spawn in, as well as a small squad of hellblazes, and while they’ll be weakened they won’t all be dead. You might want to station your NPC somewhere so they can shoot some of the demons down. But, the pentagrams have disappeared and the doors have lowered - And likely so have the rest of the pentagram doors as well.

You could very well just head to the end of the level here, but why not raid the demons’ little treasure shack and make them pay, as the trailer said? Go back to the banner at the entrance of the town and to your left as you arrive you’ll see the door that was once locked is now open. Head inside and be ready for a fight, because there’s lots of enemies in here. You might want to leave your NPC behind so they won’t run off into a pit lord and die - Or you could follow them and kill enemies as you go… Either way, in the building there are quite a number of treasures, even if the demons guard them jealously.

Go up the stairs to the left and you’ll find a dining room and a gold pile where the pit lords hoard their tax treasuries. Up the stairs to the right is a supply room with a short readable and some of your stuff from episode 1. Not all of it though - Can’t be too greedy!

When you’re done, take your NPC with you and head out the other end of the building, at which point you will see that the door in the courtyard where you first found enemies is open and is an end level symbol! Head inside and you’ll complete the level.

E2M1 complete!

Secret 1: Take the withered vine door near the fountain and climb through the broken window, then hop down into the water. Ahead of you is a cave hidden by a bush that you need to crawl into with a bunch of goodies inside including ammo and health.

Secret 2: In the building with the angel statue and mana pool, behind the angel is a pathway. Follow it and you’ll eventually come into a cave with a readable that has these symbols on it:

It appears to be a pattern… And you’d be right. Inside the town, there is a graveyard with a spade that you pick up outside a temple with pentagrams on the doors. You can check your map here and see that the place you’re in has a similar layout to the pattern, the 0’s being pillars - And the X being a hole you can dig up for a Scroll of Wizard’s Eye.

Secret 3: In the churchyard where you get the shovel, there are some ruined walls where you get in. Next to the nearby gates with crates and a lamp post is a wall you can actually climb up the bricks of. Turn and jump to the next ruined section of wall, and then the next, then walk along the wall until you reach a ledge with two benches and a table. To your left is a door and inside are some goodies and a door you can unlock from here to the farm.

Secret 4: In the barn, go through the hatch upstairs to the market stall rooftops, then look left. Theres a hanging planter with dead roses. Hop onto it, then look left again where you’ll see some laundry lines. Hop on those, and crawl through the broken window to your right, where you’ll find a readable, a vial of health and a sledgehammer.

Secret 5: As you walk into the temple with the unholy book in it, opposite from where you come in (it’s on the west side) is a concrete wall with a crack in it. With the sledgehammer you got from secret 4, break the wall and head inside to find a crushbow.

Secret 6: At the end of the level you’ll unlock the door to the pit lords’ treasure house. Go up the left stairs and into the dining hall. There’ll be two bricked in windows… And one on the left with a crack in it. Assuming you have the shovel, which you should, you can dig that out and crawl through to a room with an armour amulet and a scroll of nourish, as well as a readable.

You spawn in a room with tons of worms but if you kept your lancer alive she will fight for you before they kill you. You can stick around and try and help her kill worms for a bit, or you can turn around and activate the door which will slowly open. Once it opens enough to get through, head up the stairs inside and hit the switch, which will close the door behind you but open the portcullis in front of you. You’re on your own now…

Stepping past the portcullis you find you’re in a crypt. Take a right and head down that hallway, then to the left and down that, and finally another left. You’ll find a hole in the wall with a potion launcher and a bucket in front of it, and through it you will emerge into some ruins. There’s some blast marks on the left wall, so keep that in mind as you look down the right hall.

Head down the right hall and hug one of the walls, preferably the left. You’ll find that magma bolts keep being shot at you repeatedly from the end of the hall, so make sure you always hug the wall because otherwise you become a batch of fried chicken. There’s a hall in the middle of the hall, but that just takes you back down to the crypts.

You can also jump over the magma bolts if you really need to. I don’t suggest it.

Hugging the left wall, go as close to the door as you can, aggroing an iron maiden - And stepping back so that when the magma bolts blow up on her and fling her around she doesn’t fling towards you and start stabbing you if she doesn’t die immediately. Next, cling to that wall again and toss a hellclaw mine out at the cultist across from you - Blowing him up and aggroing the rest of the maidens so they blow themselves up on the magma trap.

Step out of the hall once the room is clear and head through the tunnel on the right, where you’ll see two stealthable cultists to the left. Forget about them for now - Drop down, get your fists out and hug the wall behind you, going behind the pillar to the right. There’s a cultist there who will try and knife you, but if you take him down you can stealth the other two later - And find what they were ogling… A fragfire gun.

Down the hall are some obnoxious thorns that you can burn with your fragfire gun’s alt fire, and as you pass through those you’ll find yourself in a room with a Water statue, some water, and a hole in the wall near a broken pillar to the left. Climb the pillar and crawl through the hole to get back to the room with the magma bolt launcher.

Run down the hall and drop down the hole in the middle of it so you end up back in the crypts. Stepping into the middle of the intersection, 2 hellblazes will spawn at each end of the hall and another will be coming down the right. Dispatch of them (remember their melee dps is pretty harsh) and head right then right again. There’s thorns here, and you have the fragfire gun now, but there’s a pit lord on the other side so be careful. He might just burn the thorns himself with his stomp flame attack. Maybe lay down a few hellclaw traps for him and open the way for him before he can do any harm?

Head past the pit lord’s corpse and look at the stairway to the right. It seems that initiates are coming down the stairs, but what is that purple energy they’re charging? Hmm… Duck and cover, because these guys shoot rather swift projectiles. These are the psionicists and range tends to benefit them.

You could run in close, but while their attacks are slow, again, the distance can let them get shots off, and you have some cover here so take advantage of it. Let them trundle down the stairs and axe them a question when they’re close. Then, head up the steps and step outside - And what a beautiful day it is… Because the enemy is cannibalizing itself.

Two sets of enemies - The psionicists and initiates/spikethrowers/cultists, are duking it out, and it won’t be long before one of them turns their attention onto you. Head to the right, and you’ll find a staircase with an initiate firing bolts of harm at the psionicists. Kill it and head in through the nearby door.

Inside, to your right is a copper key, and at the end of the hall you’re in is 2 doors - One into a kitchen and one into a basement. Head into the basement for now and head down the hall, which will eventually lead right and the basement will open up a bit - Right into an ambush with spikethrowers to your left hurling spikes at you and 4 hellblazes, two ahead of you and two behind. Kill them and take cover from the spikethrowers, shooting your own spikes at them to reciprocate.

Once you’re done with them there’s a door nearby with a readable on it. Trying to open it, you’ll just knock on the door and annoy a cultist inside. It seems you need a password… Head back upstairs and go to the right into the kitchen. Assuming you don’t alarm the first enemy nearby, you can stealthkill all the enemies in this room and in the hallway nearby, which will lead you into a dining room.

Jump into the broken window on the left where you’ll see a warlock sat at the fireplace with a servant at her side. Punch her servant to death. Don’t worry, she won’t notice. Then kill the rest of the weaklings and deal with the warlock as you see fit. Head back for now, and remember the dolly you noticed in the kitchen. Crawl inside and press the switch which will take you upstairs.

Up there is another dining table. You’d think that you could stealth kill these enemies but apparently not, they just notice you when you step out of the dolly. Anyway, once they’re dead, walk into the next room which is a bedroom… And a warlock appears to be chained to a bed, still trying to fight you but hopelessly stuck. To your left as you walk in is a pit lord, who is extremely pissed that you’re interrupting his alone time. Put them both to bed, and take the copper key on the bedside table, and maybe take a cursory glance at the readable nearby for 5 minutes.

When you’re done, head through the copper door on this floor into the main foyer. There’ll be a good number of enemies in here including psionicists, a warlock, iron maidens and cerberi, all of whom have a thing for getting murdered.

Anyway afterwards, on the opposite side of the staris from where you came there’s another copper key door. Open that and a cerberus will pop through the door and try to bite you, and down the hall are a few enemies including a hellblaze and some spikethrowers. Nothing you can’t deal with until… But to the right down the hall is a pit lord, and that might give you a bit of trouble. That being said you’ve probably good at dealing with these guys by now. They’re not too difficult - Just dodge their flame attacks and keep out of range of their bellows.

Behind said pitlord is a broken window that leads into a library… Look at the white curtains that are strewn across the walls of the library. They each have a golem in them. If you want you can actually hurl an axe at them and try and stealth kill them but it’s not that easy to figure out where they are, since they’re hiding. Either way, it’s good if you can kill them before they aggro because this isn’t really a place you can move around quickly in. There’s 4 in total (on hedonistic) if that helps.

Check out the readable in here before heading back down the way you came, but take a right and head down the stairs. There’s an iron maiden waiting down there, and in the room on the left is a bunch of cultists and a ton of healing potions that they’ve been hoarding. On the path to the right they’ve got a barricade of tables and such as well as a room with beds that another iron maiden and some weaklings are hiding in.

In that room there’s a hole in the wall leading to a room with bunkbeds. There’s a cultist who’s barricaded themself in with some closets. Crawl through the lower bunk of the bunkbed and kill him, then read his amusing readable and take his gemstone from his poorly hidden hiding place. Crawl out of the bunkbed and take the door on the right and then the double door nearby.

Inside will be a rather perplexed hellblaze quite close to the door, and a bunch of initiates ready for a fight. Deal with them, then pull the lever on the right. You can kill the rest of the baddies in here but they’re not incredibly important. Head back through the double doors, over the barricade and back through the way you came and up the stairs.

Head for the library, where there was a door that needed a square gem - Remember what you got your hands on a while back? Put it in the slot, then go through the door into the chamber of Body. You can check out the readable in the arm chair nearby, then hop through the window to his bathroom and pick up the withered vine key.

You can leave now but you’ll be accosted by bookworms - Cultists who seem to come out of bookcases that lower to reveal their nerdiness. Become a high school jock and stuff them in a trash can before heading downstairs and into the room with the barricade, then take a left through a door that leads outside. Some psionicists and more threatening enemies will probably be outside, and will stop at nothing to prevent you from going down the stairs and heading for a mossy building with an alchemy sign and a withered vine key door.

Once inside, head immediately right up the stairs and punch out the spikethrower before he alerts everyone else, then the initiate next to him and the two enemies near the fireplace. Next, head back up those stairs and into a room with a strange machine and a table with a readable and a checkers board on it. Pay close attention to the position of the counters on that board…



Go down the stairs and take a right out the open door where you’ll immediately see a cave, inside of it being a number of burnt corpses on a checkered floor. Hmmm… Interesting thing to note - The parts of the floor that don’t have any corpses or marks of explosions on them are generally safe, but if you are worried of dying or taking damage refer to the checkers above, or this cruddy directional arrow I made in pain(t):



Once you get to “safety”, you’ll be at the temple vault - And two doors open to either side of you will open. One containing initiates (left), the other forge elementals (right). Once you’ve dealt with them, go to the left door that opened and you’ll find a gold key, which will help you once you get back to the mansion. For now, head back out of the cave and look to the double doors on the stairs to your right.

Once you get close enough to the door you can hear some monsters inside duking it out. You can just sit outside and leave them to it, or help them along in their senseless infighting. Head up the stairs and you’ll see a readable. This one’s pretty important - There are 5 unholy books blocking you from exiting the level, and this readable makes a list of their locations for you:

1: Inside the temple vault, under the Body Master’s watch - You’ll probably find this one last...

2: In the mess hall, where you need a password (remember the cellar?).

3: In the chapel, guarded by the Mind Master.

4: In the Chamber of Mind.

5: The Theater Hall, behind a gold key door in the mansion.

Head out the door to the left and towards a building to the right with red windows. There’ll be a couple of hellblazes and a pit lord inside, but past them is a scroll that you can use to get into the mess hall. Step outside and take a right through a short tunnel with a torch in it. There’s some crawlers in the farm ahead but if you’re lucky you can shoot one of the green pods nearby (I forgot to mention, those blow up like fire crystals but with acid. Pretty sick, right?)

On the path to the left a forge elemental will be rising to come at you… With a green pod right in front of him. You can shoot that, but he might just shoot it himself on accident. These cantankerous tanks are very blank in the head, aren’t they? Either way, use this opportunity to hop down and see that there’s a worm who hasn’t noticed you. Head over and stealth kill him, and you’ll notice that there’s a few cultists here who aren’t exactly alert.

Behind you you’ll notice some boxes you can use to climb up and get the cultists on the upper ledge. Once you’ve Lil’ Mac’d them down, head back out of the barn the way you came, then turn right and you’ll see a few crates you can jump on with an axe and a rope you can climb above some logs. Climb it and you’ll see a hellblaze. You can try and deal with him stealthily - Punching him to death is hard to do without taking damage, but an axe is more silent than a gun anyday.

Hop off the roof and move nearer to the spikethrower, warlock and psionicist. You should notice that some cerberi have been aggroed and are coming towards you. Back up and move to the side of the barn where you’ll see a conveniently placed green pod for just such an occasion as a bunch of rabid cerberi charging your way. Blow them up and prepare for everyone else to aggro for the real fight… Which is admittedly much easier than it would be if you hadn’t done all this. Or, you know, you could just take them all at once, that’s fun.

On the walls around the mansion there are a bunch of psionicist snipers. While they are annoying they shouldn’t hurt you too badly. The ones on the rooftop are comparatively much more annoying and much easier to kill, which just so happens to be my favourite kind of annoying.

Head into the mansion’s foyer and head right, down the hall and through the dining hall into the kitchen, then right again and down the stairs to the left into the cellar. You cleared this place out before, so use the password note on the password door and it’ll be opened for you. Kill the rather impolite doorman, then look right when you’re inside where two iron maidens come after you. There are a few weaklings in here, so clean them up as well.

In this room there’s a harp with a readable. It’s important that you at least use this, because it will teach you how to use the harp which you will need to know how to do for later. Head down the hall - Mind the 4 cultists hiding to ambush you in the gaps of the walls. Head up the steps and take a left, past the towel covering the door. Head down the hall past the blacksmithing equipment and hit the lever to lower the gates.

Head back into the room you just came from and go through the door on the left, where an iron maiden waits to stab your face to the right. Might want to throw in a hellclaw mine or two to whittle them down. In here you’ll find one of the books you were looking for… Press use on it, and head out the door, then head right up the stairs through the copper key door.

Take a left and there’ll be a golden key door obscured by a curtain right in front of you. Open that and head into the gambling room… They’re so busy gambling their money away, they won’t mind if you take a bit. Don’t be scared to blow a time shard or two on some of these fights. Not that they’re hard all, it just simplifies things. When you’re done announcing their snake eyes, hop over the bar and check the vault which has a Mind Gem. You’ll need this in a bit.

Hop through the window on the opposite side of the room and look around. You’ll see, in particular, a large red crystal… And a crack in the roof above it. Stand back a reasonable distance and shoot it, and it will explode and blow up the roof above it. Jump out the window that just broke, head right and then head up the left stairs, heading into a bedroom you didn’t pay much mind earlier. There’ll be a hole in the wall leading into the chamber of Spirit, which you can crawl into.

Inside you’ll see that this place is much nicer than the chamber of Body, and near some mirrors is a stone on a checkered floor. You try to get it, but it vanishes… Look at the mirrors and, without directly looking at the stone, try and move back into it to grab it. Past some bookcases and a pentagram, behind a white curtain is a secret-ish room that has a readable that says why you need to do this.

Head out of the room if you can without dropping out, then out of the other room and take a left into the copper key double door. Head down the hall and right - Where a forge elemental will explode out of the floor and attack you. The hole he just blew open will lead you into the theater hall… Right in front of a bunch of enemies. Granted theres a golem down there to ambush but you don’t wanna go down yet.

To your left you’ll find the door to the chamber of Mind. Put the keystone into the slot and open the door. Inside you’ll find a readable on the desk and a set of stairs up to the basement. Head upstairs and go through the door, where to your left are a psionicist and his buddies. Throw your axe at the green pod behind him, and he’ll be less inclined to give you a piece of his mind. To the right is a cerberus and a couple more enemies, and as you turn right again you’ll find that there is one of the books you need to close.

As you face the book (now closed), turn around and pop a time shard, then hop down through the broken glass hole and start your initial massacre of the theater hall - Maybe a haste potion, acid launcher rounds, a bit of crushbow carnage. This room can be a bit much but it’s not too hard to keep moving in here, so do that as much as you can. Once the room is clear you’ll have the harp all to yourself. Remember that when you use that harp, 4 cerberi, a pit lord and who knows how many hellblazes will spawn to greet you.

However, the cerberi broke the windows to the dining hall. On both sides. Hop through the windows into the dining hall and then through the other set of newly broken windows - Make sure you close the book in the theater hall first. Through there you’ll find an extended balcony with a bridge to a small set of tunnels. Down the tunnel to your right is a patch of mushrooms of mentalism - Psishrooms if you will.

You can actually take one, considering you need it for the crown you’re going to make. Head down the other tunnel and kill the hellblaze which might have been taking pot shots at you earlier and eat his hoarded patch of regular, non-psionic mushrooms. Hop down and head back to the door with the mossy building and withered vine key door. Then up the stairs to the right and place your items into the water slots in the machine and pull the lever.

Grab the psionic crown when it’s done and head out the door you came from, head forward through the gates you opened allllll the way back at the beginning of the level, then take a right, going under the bridge and past the hedgemaze and then the left. Inside this temple you’ll find a psionic barrier that would stop you from proceeding - If you hadn’t made that psionic crown…

Simply running into the wall is enough to lower it - What’s not so simple is a lot of enemies that relish rooms with very little cover in them just aggroed and have no reason not to kill you. To help offset this, head to your left into a room that’s a bit more cramped, which should give you better cover for this kind of fight. Your crushbow will be invaluable to dispatch the psionicists nearby, including their leader, a translucent one who’s rather resilient. The cerberi, you might be better off using your acid grenades here - In fact, this might be a good spot to use up some poison grenades if you have them on hand.

Either way, at the far end of the room they had a shrine with a cyan crystal in them. Pick it up, then turn and head left to see the you need to close. Close it, then head outside and return to the door with the withered vine symbol. Head out the back, into the yard with the cave in it. Follow the path as you did before and when you get up the stairs dump the crystal into the pedestal in the middle, which will unlock the door…

… which when opened aggros the 6 or 7 iron maidens behind it. Do away with them with a few crushbow bolts (be careful they don’t just bounce off the shields) and proceed inside, where you’ll encounter the leader of the initiates here and a troupe of his 3 best men - who just so happen to be just as easy to kill as the rest of their kind. Huh. Also there’s a rather lovecraftian looking enemy sitting in the pool nearby. Here’s a tip… Don’t revive them using the fragfire alt.

Head back out the way you came, then take the double doors on the right, through to the farm plots and animal pen and finally down to the barn. Take another right, and go to the big gates that you might have seen being locked via pentagrams. It lowers now… To reveal about 10 pit lords ultra angry that you destroyed their base. Fortunately, you don’t need to handle all of them alone - A group of friendlies on the other side of the gate that is now lowering will help you shoot them down. Walk up to them and you’ll end the level.

E2M2 complete!

E2M2 SECRETS:

Secret 1: From the start of the crypts, take a right and head down the hall, stopping at the first light you see. To your left is a wall with a body mind and spirit gem on it. Use that wall and it will lower to reveal some goodies and a potion of stoneskin, as well as a suit of armour you can break for the lulz.

Secret 2: In the room you first find the fragfire gun, head past the thorns into the room with the water statue. Directly at the back of the statue, try to dive into the water and you’ll find an underwater tunnel. Move through it until you can take a left and surface, where a number of goods will be available to you in a cave. You can also get to the main mansion portion of the level through this secret by continuing to swim down the tunnel, or you can just head back.

Secret 3: In the cellar of the mansion, head behind the shelves the spikethrowers were using to hurl spikes at you and look at one of the walls on the left. There is a crack in the wall that you can break with the sledgehammer… Break it and head through, and in the room you’ll find a few potions including a Crushbow. You can also break another wall to get into a crypt (not the one you started the level in).

Secret 4: In the kitchen of the mansion there’s a dumbwaiter(dolly?) that you can use to get up to the second floor. Use it in the kitchen but crawl out of it before it takes you up, then check underneath where the dumbwaiter was. You’ll find a number of health vials and an elemental ring. (THANKS TO THOMAS THE GANK ENGINE FOR FINDING)

Secret 5: In the dining room near the kitchen there are some tables with a white cloth covering their undersides - But at the end of one of them is half open. You can crawl under that table and collect a potion of might and other goodies.

Secret 6: As you walk into the room the cultists have barricaded, open a door with a copper key lock and look outside. There will be a stairwell and, ahead, a building with a roof with a purple tiling, and a ledge to your left you can walk on. Walk along it, then jump on the roof and take a right, hopping to the roof with the blue tiling. Jump down the chimney and some useful goods will be inside the house.

Secret 7: In the gatehouse from which you entered secret 5 (don’t go outside), go into the room with the lever that open the gates that block one side of the map from the other. At the far end of the room is a circle of cupboards with hay and training dummies in the middle. From the perspective of where you come in, use the cupboard on the far right and it will lower, revealing a passageway with some goodies. If you use the wall at the end of that, it will open to the crypt that you started the level in. (THANKS TO ZIXINUS FOR FINDING)

You can also enter the mansion from the crypts this way. Up the stairs (past the first psionicists you meet) and near the exit of the crypts is a wall to your right with body mind and spirit gems on it that you can use and lower, then get into the gatehouse from there. (THANKS TO ISO_42 FOR FINDING)

Secret 8: In the Library, go to the door of the Body Master (the door with the green square gem slot on it) and look to the right where there’s a bunch of bookcases. One of the books is poking out. Use it, and a bookcase nearby will lower, revealing an armour amulet. (THANKS TO ZIXINUS FOR FINDING)

This is weird as hell because it’s a map cluster. If you don’t know what that means, it means you go to and from different maps and elements and items from one map will carry over. So there’ll be a lot of maphopping and messing with and collecting items. It can get a bit confusing (and it’s gonna be a ♥♥♥♥♥ to guide you through it) but I’m sure we can get through it together.

So, forgive me for gushing, but Besieged (the starter map for this cluster) is my favourite level in the game. It might even be one of my favourite levels in games. And now you’re gonna sit here and play it. And you’re gonna like it.

This particular level has a ton of NPCs that you can talk to and tons of reading, so put on your slippers and enjoy a rather cozy wall of text with some nice, calming music to accompany. Seriously, the music in this level is top tier. Also, from here on out I’m pretty unversed in episode 2’s secrets so do feel free to look to other guides for… well, guidance, if the secret you’re looking for isn’t here. Also be sure to take as much time as you want with this level, it’s great at any pace.

Watch the briefing (Or don’t, you have an option to skip it), then feel free to talk with the people at the briefing table and pick up your journal (press J for quick journaling). You can turn and leave where there’s a minotaur axeman to your right, and the cave outside that room will have the leader NPCs you saw in the briefing. Have a chit-chat with them if you like, or head into the room behind them with the beds. You’ll find a bedside table with some gold on it, that you can now pick up. Shiny…

Exit the bedroom and head left, into a smaller cave with a few vases near the entrance. To either side of you is an NPC - The one on the right, Earth Mother Bendi, is a good idea to talk to, because they will add a note to your journal. The one on the left, the Minotaur Pyromancer, gives you some flavour lore, but he’ll be more important later.

In the next room you’ll see health potions and a purple glow, and inside will be a witch you can chat with. Make sure you don’t break all her bottles, or she’ll get pissed and take away all the potions so you can’t use them, and it will also have further reaching effects later on in the future… (PROPS TO SPART_N FOR FINDING OUT STUFF ABOUT PISSING OFF THE WITCH) Head out and go down the right path which takes you to a hallway. A maid will be outside your room, saying they’re busy cleaning it and getting it ready.

Pester them if you like, before going through the garden nearby (feel free to pick up some of the grapes and snacks nearby the earth mothers). There’s a gate to your right, taking you outside the settlement, but take a left and head into the bar which is on your left, and you’ll find a bartender inside, the lady Ingrim, who will give you a beer if you talk to them.

Head upstairs and you’ll find someone on the balcony to chat with. And downstairs you should see the entrance to a training hall. Hop down and head over, where you’ll overhear a conversation to your right. Head up those stairs and chat with the 4 NPCs up there, grabbing their ammo if you feel rude, then head back down to the training room and then down the stairs to the right.

You can chat with the two prisoners on the right, then talk with the warlord and her dog near the table. Grab a vial of health on the table and a hellclaw on top of a shelf, then head back up the stairs and to the right, through a blacksmiths workshop. Out the other end you’ll meet a minotaur who is hammering at some steel with a cool looking hammer. He’ll talk to you and tell you that he’ll trade ammunition for iron ore and a note will be added to your journal.

To your left is a workshop with an NPC, a sentry gun and a readable and to the right of the workshop is a stairway. You can get an objective here quickly by reading the readable, or you can chat with the NPC a few times in order to get it added to your journal.

Next, head down the stairs and walk to the end of the hallway, where you’ll find a shady fixer trying to get your attention. Talk to them and they’ll try and sell you a pair of fixer goggles. Unfortunately you don’t have the money to buy it now, so you’ll need to come back later. But you can check out her wares below in a neat little list:

Shady Fixer’s Wares:

10 gold - Fixer Goggles

100 gold - 2 Sentry Guns

300 gold - Bag of Holding

After you buy all her stuff she only sells you vials of health at 10 gold a pop, but you might want to hold some of your gold back for later levels.

Finally, there’s a guy up the stairs to your left as you walk out, a dwarf militiaman, so if you haven’t chatted with him do so. When you’re done exploring the camp, head for the gate leading outside where you can chat to the dwarven guard at the gate. You can step outside and chat with the two guards out there, but from here the level fans out into four directions…

On the furthest right is a path which leads to a gate with 5 spikethrowers waiting to spike you, definitely not an ideal way to get down that way because it aggros all the other enemies down this way too. To the left of that path is a road that has a few human-looking houses with some mines nearby. Further to your left is a natural stairway to a door with a bull’s head on it and some graves to your right with an axe nearby. You can’t open the door yet, but it might be important to remember for later… Looking left of that is a path that crosses over a bridge into another human settlement.

For now we’ll head down the furthest right, but how do we deal with those humans without alerting everyone else? You could of course use one of the ledges nearby to jump up and hop over the gate if you want to take them on directly but that’s a bit tricky… So let’s think outside the box a bit. Go back to the entrance gate and look at the rapidly flowing river flowing under the bridge, where you’ll see there’s a light at one side, indicating a tunnel. Jump in and start swimming.

The tunnel splits in two - Down the right you’ll find an armour shard that’s just out of reach… Where was there a body of water inside the camp? Down the left you’ll find a place you can surface to a portal room (we’ll get there) but keep going for now, following the tunnel to the end. When you surface, you’ll see that you’re behind the gate - And behind enemy lines. Get out of the water and hide behind the guard tower to your right, then crouchwalk past the green tree and ruined bush and head for the door. Go inside and grab the intel of the enemy and check the readable. The readable talks about an ambush in an ice cave - Remember that for later.

Head out the way you came and dive into the water, make sure you don’t get nailed by spikethrowers cuz they WILL notice you. Or, you could try and kill them all. There’s some goods dotted around here so it might be worth it. Once you’re done, head back into the settlement and go to the briefing room and speak to the advisor. You’ll be given some armour shards and a code for your efforts.

Now that you’ve taken the enemy’s secrets, it’s time to check out that mine you found a while back. On the second path from the right you’ll find a mine with two buildings outside of it. They’re both locked, but we can deal with the one on the left - After all there’s something we need in there. Head into the mines and turn on your night vision goggles. The path splits and on the right is a room with psishrooms in it. Inside you’ll find worms that aren’t paying you much attention. Stealthkill them, then head down the path to the left.

You’ll find a room with lava, stone platforms, some ore on the walls (there was also some ore in the room behind you) and a lava waterfall, from above which iron urchins are emerging to come after you. If you’re lucky they’ll blow up on each other. This room will also be particularly important later, but for now you’ll need to head back. Go down the path you didn’t take and you’ll come into a room with a minecart and lava, with some thorns blocking off a path on the other side of the lava. Burn the lava and jump over - And also mind the Iron Urchins chomping at the bit to explode on you.

On the other side you’ll find an axe key door ahead of you and a passage to your left. As you pass through this room the room full of boxes, one of them will have an iron urchin in it that pops out and tries to get the jump on you. Pass through there and you’ll find a bridge over some lava. Passing over it, a forge elemental will pop out of the lava to your left and might shoot a bolt at you, potentially aggroing everything in a 3 mile radius. Kill him, and pouring out of the next room is a cerberus and about 5 worms, as well as some urchins not far away.

This cave has another one of those bull doors that can’t be opened and a few rock platforms up to a tunnel. Follow the tunnel to the end, where you’ll find a TNT plunger and a some explosives set against a wall. Hit the plunger, step back and wait for the fireworks to go off, then head through the resulting hole. From here, hop over onto the roof and head inside, grabbing the pickaxe. It’s time to start digging! Head downstairs and grab the iron ore in the bedroom if you want, then open the door.

You can go back into the mines now and start digging around. You’ll want to keep an eye out for dark iron ore, I’ll post an image whenever I find one. It’ll be darker than normal iron and sparkle.


(In the lava room past the cave with the worms you can stealthkill)


(Behind a minable wall in the room with the worms you can stealthkill)


(Next to the bull door in the mines. You can jump on the rails of the bridge to get there)

Once you’re done, head back to the cave near the settlement and take the leftmost path, the one with the bridge that leads to another human settlement. You’ll see a house with a blasted open door. Inside is a fairly meager living space, with a burnt body and a closet with some chairs propped up against it nearby. Jump up the closet and onto the wooden beams nearby, then move along them to an opening that lets you get onto the roof.

Jump to the roof of the crappier-looking building and hop down through the hole in the roof, then open the door so it’ll be unlocked later. Jump up the crates back onto the roof, and nearby there should be a passage with a lit stone wall. Hop the gap and then do a run up to hop the bigger gap, then explore the minotaur outpost here. There’s a pedestal nearby that you can’t use, so keep that in mind for later.

Hop down off the bridge and look to the right. There’s a door outside with a well to your left and a big destroyed house in front of you. Take a look at that if you want, then head to the left where a fixer is waiting to ask for your help. They autorecruit themselves to you and tell you about some people you need to find at their camp. Bring them along, but we’re not going to the camp yet.

Continue along that path and on the left is a bunker and past it a path. You can explore the bunker for some health items, but afterwards continue down that path you saw past the bunker and you should go into a cave that soon turns icy. Hop down onto the slippery lake ice which is totally safe and into the hole in the ice to totally not be frozen to death in seconds while in icy waters. Go through a tunnel under the water and on the other end find a spot to surface. You’ll be in an ice cave. Remember I told you to keep that in mind?

Heading towards the opening of the cave will cause some ice blocks to drop ahead of you, hellblazes to spawn on the ledges either side of you and two cerberi and a pit lord to spawn behind you. You can trap them if you know where they spawn by throwing some hellclaw mines behind you and on the two ledges.It costs a lot to do, but it sure is fun to kill these creeps before they even realize what’s going on.

You might not have seen the point in doing this but it will be more clear later. Head back through the ice cave and back to the bunker, then head down the next path which is obscured by a bunch of trees. There is a path further to the right that leads to a cabin in the woods you can loot, but along the path you should find a camp near a mine, with a cultist or two looking around. The fixer can probably deal with them, but they’ll explain that a cultist fort up the hill has your friends in it. You can go up the hill and just fight them head-on (heh, Hedon…) but that’s a bit of a challenge and the enemies can be a little overbearing if you’re attacking head on. Not unmanageable but nonetheless more difficult.

So I’m going to do something unconventional and reveal a secret for you to use. It’s not necessary, it may just be a different way of dealing with a similar problem, but it provides an alternate (and, imo, more fulfilling) way to get into the fortress. If you want to attack the fortress head on, feel free to skip past the secret and run up that hill for a big ol’ brawl. Otherwise, read on…

((Secret 3: In the camp at the bottom of the hill leading up to the cultist fortress, there’s a mine. Heading to the back of it, you’ll find a stone wall that needs mining. If you have the pickaxe, you’re in luck - Use it to break through and crawl inside where you’ll find a cave with two paths - One to the left, into the water which will take you down into the moat near the cult fortress, and one to the right which will take you into the fortress itself.))

If you really want to do the fortress fight the normal way but can’t find a way into the building, there’s a guard tower with an elevator up to the second floor with a bridge to the ramparts. Kill the enemies there and once you cross the bridge take a left and through a room into a door which leads to a dining room from which you can get your bearings. For the record, I will be following the infiltration (secret) path from here.

Head up the right path and through the tunnel and you’ll find a hole where you can drop into a storage room, with a kitchen to the left and stairs to the right. There’s health in the kitchen but no way to progress - Head up the stairs and then head through the cellar into a dimly lit room with a desk containing a readable, and some bookcases. This is the room of the Spirit Master, who was absent in the last level.

Further along there’s a hallway with a green pod in it, and to the left is a cerberus. You can kill them with a thrown axe so they don’t become a nuisance later, then go back into the mistress’ room and look to your left. There’s two shelves, and the one on the right has a switch next to it that will cause a secret passage to be revealed nearby.

Go through it, leaving your fixer behind, and being wary of your entry you can catch an initiate and some other enemies unawares. Stealthkill your way through these enemies as you wish - Until someone in one of the cells nearby tries to get your attention. One of them has an open looking hatch and will tell you that the key (and the spirit mistress) is in the nearby patio and you need the key to free your friends, including her.

Go back and get your fixer, then head to the patio down the end of the other hall. There’ll be a tree in a small patio to your left and some stairs ahead. Heading up the stairs, the Spirit Mistress will appear on the second floor behind you. She’s a large translucent warlock who is very tanky and is likely to have some backup - Namely an iron maiden and a warlock or two. Probably the best way to deal with her is to just take down her allies and dance around with her, maybe pop an elemental ring. When you’re done fighting her, the key you needed will be on her table near where she was.

Head back down the stairs and take your first left down the hall and you’ll see a portcullis with a copper key lock. Open it and flip all 4 switches, then head out and recruit your new pals. Go into the armoury and grab yourself whatever ammo you might need, then head for the dining room (opposite the patio), check the readable on the table if you like and proceed into the hallway with the green pod. Bells will toll and the walls on the right will open, revealing golems that you can aggro then blow up using the pod in the middle of the room. A pit lord will spawn to the left, so kill him.

Down the stairs ahead is a tight squeeze of a fight that will probably break out into the next room in comical fashion, which is thankfully less tight - And also much briefer than it could be, considering you have some friends to help things along. As for the fight outside, you can take it at whatever pace you want considering that you have the more powerful army - I’d recommend setting your friends to guard in front of the door and opening it, letting them lay waste to whoever’s outside and whoever comes your way, then bringing them along on a nice long shootout.

When you’re done, all you need to do is head back to the Campaign Settlement - Make sure to bring along the whole party, and hope that none have been left for dead. Talk to Breaza and let her debrief you/not debrief you and you’ll be free to go to your bedroom, which is where the maid used to be. Walk into the blue end level screen to go to sleep…

You wake up to some commotion. Once you step out of the room, you’ll note that there’s enemies all over. On the other hand, there are also shadowy figures all around the area - ANd plenty of weapons to defend yourself with. That being said you probably want to move quickly. Your goal is to find all of those shadowy figures around the settlement and surrounding area in order to stop the demons spawning in. Fighting them is useless because they just respawn.


(1: Where Earth Mother Bendi is)


(2: Where the leaders are)


(3: Where the workshop boss is)


(4: Where the warlord is)


(5: Inside the bar)


(6. At the gates. No, not the melodeth band.)


(7: Up the natural staircase to the bull door and on the right)


(8: Next to the Portal Room. I didn’t explain where it is before, but, well, it’s right there, to the right as you exit the settlement.)

After you go to all of them and make them disappear, the sequence will end. You will have a small conversation with someone, then be taken to your next briefing. Once that ends, take the ruby on the table and chat with the people there, they’ll have something new to say with every briefing/debriefing so it’s good habit.

Head out of the settlement and take the furthest left path. When you reach the buildings, go into the one directly to your left, the brown stoney one, and jump up the boxes inside, going through the roof and into the path to the minotaur outpost. If you haven’t been there before note the pedestal with nothing on it. Use the ruby there, and the eyes of the bull door downstairs will glow red, letting you enter.

You’ll descend into a lava cavern with platforms you’ll need to jump between. Jump on the first 3, then head right and over the bridge before descending down the stone pillar. At the bottom you’ll find a boat which you can hop on and go to the other side of the lava lake. Once you get to the other side there’s another bull door you can’t open, so head right. There’s a staircase up to the left and more platforms to jump to the right. Up the left is also more street urchins and a ruby pedestal in a building on the left.

Hopping the platforms on the right, you’ll find your way up to a statue of Fire and one of the rubies you need. Take it and prepare for about 3 forge elementals to spawn, one of them right near you. One thing that might be good to do here is hop back down the platforms and try and combat them from a distance but the problem there is it’s hard to be certain of your accuracy at that range. It might just be better to take them head on.

Anyway, go back down the platforms once they’re dead, up the left path and use the pedestal in the left building. This will open not only the door down the stairs but the one at the top of the stairs that opens to the bull door near the settlement, allowing you to travel to the next level and the main part of Besieged with relative ease. Head down the stairs, through the bull door and into the door with the blue level transition sign.

You arrive at the second best music in the game- I mean, a room with 2 locked bull doors, an empty pedestal and an open door on the left. Go to the left and go through the door at the end of the hallway, where you’ll come into a room with a window. Some enemies on the other side of the window will partake in a short cutscene you can watch. The chair in front of the window has a readable on it, and at either side of the door you just came through is a mechanical door that won’t open because it needs more power (the orange bar on the side)

The one to the right of the entrance is open a bit, so crawl through it and head down the chute with the red light above it. You’ll fall onto a conveyer belt - Get your quickload button ready! Crushers are all along the conveyer, so be mindful to avoid staying under them for too long. The third crusher has a vent on the right that you can go through to avoid the fourth one which is too fast to avoid.

When through, hop down the end of the conveyer onto the next belt. To your left, some iron urchins will try and get you through the belt. They’re pretty easy to deal with, just shoot ‘em. To your right is the way into a lava-ey waste dump. You can get through the crusher there as long as you’re quick - Careful you don’t actually fall into the lava and instead stand on the trash just on the heel of the conveyer belt and hop to the garbage floor to the right, leading into a cave with a lump of iron ore and a couple of mildly useful trinkets.

Going back up the conveyer belt, the first crusher is easy to avoid - The next not so much. Three cylindrical parts hammer down on the belt, and you need to get by. Hug the right and watch the one that’s furthest on the right. Wait until it’s slammed down, then wait for the closer cylinder to slam down and raise once more, and then you can go. Be quick! The next crushers are kind of similar but reversed - Wait for the nearest one to lower, then head further up the conveyer when the furthest one has lowered once.

Head up the ramp at the back and turn, where you’ll see a grate platform with an armour shard on it. Hop onto it and take the vent to the left, where you’ll head into a room with a ton of pipes. Jump up the pipes and into the next part of the room, then onto the crates to your right. Crossing that fence, you’ll find… a glowing red maw-wall and a switch with a temperature dial to the left. Press the switch and you’ll see the temperature rise. You might want to stand back from the wall with the temperature dial because this quickly evolves into an explosive situation.

Crawl through the hole that was created by the explosion and you’ll be in a room with a readable, a few dead demons and an impassable crusher, as well as a locked cursed skull door. The readable will say that only a full blooded demon like a pit lord or hellblaze can open the cursed skull doors, and the window shows there are demons in the next room you need to go into… And the crusher has a direct line of sight to one of them. Try and get their attention by standing in line of sight, then wait for them to open the door. It might be amusing to use hellblaze mines to blow them up but that’s a bit costly.

In this room there’s another door and a lever with a sign on the right that says bullet machine. Behind the lever is a lava energy “gauge” of sorts, and when you hit the lever and stop the machine, it increases. This is one of your goals this level - To stop all the machinery and raise the energy to a certain level. There’s more than one reason for it, and one of them is in the very next room.



In there is a curse door on the left, a platform with a forcefield around a very pretty looking gun in the middle and two sets of conveyer belts on the right. One of them requires switches in order to move items… But you can’t use it yet, it’s not got enough energy. You might need to come back later. Instead crawl into the rightmost conveyer belt with the crusher. Through the other end is a lever to turn it off but that doesn’t do any good for you, because it locks you in here and the door nearby isn’t powerful enough to open.

So instead head into the room with the bell, check on the readable and use the bell 3 times. In the room you were just in a Hellblaze will have spawned. Head through the conveyer belt and get its attention, then lead it to the cursed door and kill it. Go grab that gun you saw earlier - The paingun…

The Paingun is a chaingun that inflicts pain. Need I say more? Well, alright, it has the highest bullet output in the entire game and some of the best DPS. You can use it two ways - Pre-reving it up by holding the reload button, the primary fire unleashes an ungodly torrent of deathly bullets upon your enemies (3 is about enough to kill the average cultist/spikethrower). The alt fire releases a much more controlled barrage. It’s safe to say that you’ll want to use the alt fire for most things but the primary can utterly decimate powerful enemies. It’s good at roomclearing and at killing single targets, but anything between a horde of monsters and a powerful boss enemy is a bit tricker to be efficient with ammo-wise since this thing runs out of ammo QUICK.

Anyway, with that being said, head into the room you just opened and find a horde of unfriendlies waiting for you… and your bullets. Mow them down with your new tool of carnage, until you notice that the lights are going out behind you. A door opens and your newest foe arrives - The Helions.

While not extremely dangerous here (There’s only 4 of them and plenty of cover), they are particularly sadistic vixens of pain who have painguns and know how to use them. Their DPS is quite high even with an armour amulet. On the bright side they’re quite easy to kill - They’re kind of like the Chaingunners of Doom, but thankfully you aren’t in Plutonia. It’s generally pretty easy to avoid their fire by hopping behind cover, but being unable to can be quite punishing.

Once you’ve dealt with them, there’s an elevator in the room they were in you can’t use and a pit lord will open the door on the other end of the hall, Kill him and check the readable on the boxes nearby if you feel like it.

In the next room is a strange contraption with a face and an orange maw to your right. Going into the room will result in it shooting fireballs rapidly at you - Something that can kill you pretty rapidly. Luckily there’s some pillars to keep you safe. Ignore the room on the left - We’ll get there - And move to the right, closer to the power pillars near the lava. Some rocks will drop into the lava to platform on, but so will a forge elemental drop on you.

Backing up might be difficult because you’re probably staying in cover from the fireballs being tossed at you, so do what you can to deal with him - Use a crushbow alt to send him away if you can, that might help. Also above are some hellions on the walkways up there. A spike gun can actually deal with them quite well at this distance since they aren’t the most resilient enemies on the field.

Once done with the enemies, hop onto the rock platforms that fell to the ground a minute ago. You should have noticed there’s a pillar nearby with rings that rise slowly and slam down quickly, and you’ll want to jump off before they slam down to avoid fall damage. So, when you get the opportunity, hop to the ledge with the alter that has amber markings on it (There might be a cerberus nearby - Kick it off the edge if you can!).

Theres a descending path to the left marked by some fire crystals, and you’ll find a switch with an energy meter. Press it and step back, and you’ll blow up that fire turret that was pestering you earlier, giving the factory some energy in the process. Head back up the tunnel and to the left the altar, into the cave leading upwards. You’ll find a room with an ember pit in the middle and another turret nearby… Conveniently, there’s some pillars nearby, but also a hellion on the right. Shoot it down from behind the chainlink fence and save your game then head to the left. This part gets… Annoying.

As soon as you step inside 4 shutters will open in the room, each made to mass produce your favourite enemy in the game - Iron Urchins. Your goal, obviously, is to shut them down and stop them from producing the urchins. The first is quite simple, it’s just to your right as you walk in - Just flip the switch and no more urchins will spawn from there…



Then head left, and the next one is behind these boxes…



Jump up those boxes from behind them and onto the walkway to the right, then hop left over the gate at the end of the walkway…



Then hop up the pipes nearby to get back over the gate. The last one is the simplest, get on the walkway again and it’ll be straight down.



It might be hard to tell at first, but that gave the factory quite a sizable chunk of energy. Didn’t stop the fire turret outside from shooting at you though. As you exit the urchin room, take a right down the tunnel and through the room with the now-broken turret downstairs, then head back into the hallway you fought the first helions in and use the mechanical door on the left which now works.



Another energy sink...

Flip the lever so that the crusher in the conveyer belt stops, then head back out the door and into the broken turret room again, but take a left this time. Use the mechanism on the wall and a drill will start making a tunnel. Follow it at a distance because as it reaches the end it explodes, stopping it in its tracks… But not before tunnelling into a room with a blue level transition icon.

Go through and you’ll see a portal. You can head through it and... Now’s a good time to talk about the portal room, now that you’ve actually unlocked one. It’s… a portal room! You can get see the campaign settlement when you step outside and look to the left. Portals don’t open until you encounter them.

There is one inside the cultist fortress that is now under your side’s control, you couldn’t unlock it until now. Feel free to go back and unlock that if you feel like it, before heading back through the portal you just unlocked and back into the second level of the cluster. You can also just grab some supplies and such from the camp.

Head through the hall you fought the Helions in, then take a left and look at the 4 levers in this room. Inside a small pen with 4 conveyer belts is a ruby that you’re going to need in a while...



Use the bottom lever, then the right lever, the top lever, the left lever and finally the bottom lever again, then head for the hatch in front of you to grab the ruby (and vials if you need them) before it passes and you need to bring it around again. Make sure you’re moving slightly when you try to grab it or you might not pick up the ruby.

Once you’ve got it head into the room with the broken turret and go up the tunnel to the altar. You’ll probably have aggroed a warlock on the way, so deal with them as you like. Hop on the power pillar ring nearby and let it ascend one of the higher walkways, where you’ll see there’s a ledge across from you with a couple of hellblazes. At some point helions will spawn on the walkway below you, so spike them too.

When you’re done with that demon murder, hop to the next pillar ring and platform to the ledge where the hellblazes were. There’s a ruby pedestal here you can wack that ruby on, and the two bull doors to your left and right glow red, letting you open them. Also behind the pedestal is another altar like the one we’ve been using as a landback earlier. Keep these in mind when you encounter them.

Turn away from the pedestal and head to the bull door on the right, and up the stairs you’ll aggro a warlock (in pretty close quarters so watch out for them). Also there’s a bunch of burnt bodies and three bulls with very intimidating-looking eyes - One left, one ahead of you and one right. Certainly this pressure plate right in front of you won’t hurt at all… Hop over it (or crouchwalk over the middle panel) and kill the crawler in the tunnel on the left.

Go down the stairs and you’ll find some enemies - Two cerberi, one iron maiden and a spikethrower. Kick their asses, and on the left you’ll find another altar - And to the left of that a switch. Flip it and the other turret that’s been giving you grief since you came to shut down the urchin machine will blow up.

Go back and go up the stairs, remember the tunnel you killed the worm in? Jump in and go through it and you’ll come out quite high in the pillar lava room. As you jump onto the pillar ring, 3 helions will spawn on a walkway below you. Shoot them and then hop on the small grate platforms up to the higher walkway. Nearby on the pillar’s top is a switch. Press it and you’ll activate the ring again.



Oh yeah, I almost didn’t find it. Here’s a dark iron ore that you can find in this level. It’s near the first fire turret you encounter.

Go back through the tunnel (or just go back up to the ledge with the pedestal) and head through the other bull door, which will take you basically to the beginning of the level again. Crouch under the broken door and head left to the mechanical door on the other side of the room, where inside you’ll find the elevator to your goal... Is locked. You can use the elevator… It leaves without you. You’re gonna need to fix that.

Down the right there’s a slope into a room that totally didn’t have enemies in it before and totally won’t have a massive fight in it. When you walk in, the door totally doesn’t close and enemies totally won’t spawn in on you. Iron Maidens blocking your way to where you need to go, forge elementals firing magma bolts at you and hellions on boxes, hellblazes on the walkways above and finally a wave of 3 pit lords including one particularly large one whose attacks emulate the final boss of Episode 1.

All of this is definitely not happening, but should something like this happen, you might want to use a haste potion and time shard or two and remember that you have stoneskin potions for situations just like this. It’s a bit cramped in here but if you use your whole repertoire efficiently then you’ll get through this battle that definitely hasn’t happened, satisfaction guaranteed.

Head down the hallway the iron maidens were in and you’ll see a red light in a previously hidden space with a switch that says “security grates” on it. Hit the switch and head back up the way you came, which will reveal that the grates that blocked you from progress previously are now open. Get in the elevator and flip the switch, then when you get to the bottom take a right. There’s some walls with weird demon faces in this room. I dunno, but they seem sus - Maybe throw a hellclaw mine or two near them, just to be safe.

Head into the room and look around - You’ll find what you’re looking for, as well as a readable. Your journal will update and then you’ll want to head back… Although your traps will go off. Gee, was sure lucky you had the foresight to lay down some mines, else you’d have had to deal with some golems and helions. Quite a nasty combo actually…

Call down the elevator and lay down some mines near it, then- Did you miss something in that supply room? I’m pretty sure there was a time shard in there. Go grab it, and come back to find that two cerberi have just been blown up on the elevator. Rather rude of them to try and ambush you like this. Anyway, head up the elevator again and go back the way you came into the level in the first place. You’ll find some golems have broken out of a box along the way but they should go down with relative ease.

Head on your way to the campaign settlement in Besieged, which is now being… besieged. By demons. Not particularly well, mind, because they’re about to get curbstomped by you. Why not try out your paingun on the pitlords to show off to your friends? It’s surprisingly effective and can fill those overgrown bloodbags with more wound channels than a cable subscription. When you’re done, head down and into the briefing room to chat with Breaza.

Once the briefing is over they’ll send you to bed, so go there if you’re done (Last chance to go tackle the ice cave ambush, by the way… Check out “Surfacedweller Blues” under the Besieged section for more info.

I’ll let you experience the dream. If you need help with that, I’m very curious how you got this far.

After that and the briefing there’s some new NPCs in town that you can chat with. When you’re done talking to them, at the gate will be an earth mother who will try to join you. Recruit her and bring her along with you. This companion is unique - You can ask her to guard and she will heal you and grant you a protection buff that will last a little while. It’ll only heal you to 100 but it’s a great way to conserve potions on the ground you want to save for later. Also, if you brokethe cauldron witch’s potions, she will not turn up, because you screwed with their supplies. Good job breaking it, hero! (Props to Spart_n for finding this)

Coming out of the campaign settlement, take the leftmost path and proceed all the way until you reach the bunker, at which point you’ll go down the path you went for the ice cave. This time you can use a wooden bridge to cross rather than diving in the water (maybe even take a turret with you?) and head through an icy passage. In the ice cave where you got ambushed, you can see that the corpses are still there, but if you hadn’t done this part you will find a number of corpses of your allies!

Head along the icy path, past a dwarven house (which might have some stuff in it) and eventually you’ll reach a dwarven gate that’s been opened. A level transition door is on the left, so head through there and into the last level of the cluster.

You spawn in a pretty derelict entrance to a town with stairs ahead of you and two doors. Ignore the right one and head down the left. On the right near a big tube you’ll find a switch which lowers a bit of a makeshift elevator. Up the elevator you’ll find an NPC you can have a chat with, and you’ll notice to the left there’s a mechanism that lets you switch power from yellow to blue. You’ll need to switch things around a lot during this level, and in order to get out into the greater part of the level you’ll need to switch it from yellow to blue.

Switch it and head out the door into the cold caverns, where you’ll find some more NPCs down the steps (if you didn’t fight the ambush earlier there will be lots more cultists here instead). Have a chat with them and you’ll learn that more cultists are holed up in the upper part of town. You can go up the stairs that you see from the NPC camp and there’ll be two spikethrowers guarding it, as well as more inside as you hop their barricade.

Hellblazes spawn in to try and kill you but if you brought along a sentry turret and your earth mother you can make pretty short work of these guys. The doors nearby all need a stone key to open. To find one, you’re gonna need to do some diving… Head down the stairs and dive into the water to the right of a diving facility with a blue door. We’ll go into that next - Dive down until you find a stone key lying near some bones and a tube with an underwater hallway inside it.


Stone Key, underwater

Surface and head into the diving facility nearby, through the blue door. To your left will be some lockers, and in one of them is a diving suit. Take it and go out, then walk up the stairs to the upper area of the town and you’ll find that a pit lord and his hellblaze lackeys spawn and attack you.

I will say that if the Pit Lord has a direct counter it’s focused paingun fire. Not much takes a Pit Lord down faster and stun locks them better than this thing. Explosives generally work but aren’t as swift on the stunlock as the paingun. The only problem there is when one surprises you, like this one tries to.

Anyway, kill them and check out some of these doors up here. Following the left from any entrance to the upper part of town, the first stone key door leads you to a bedroom with about 3 or 4 enemies and a level transition door on the right. This door takes you to Besieged, where your first enemy is likely to be killed by your earth mother. You can, as I am, be boring and try and stealth this area potentially, but you’re going to want to put your earth mother on guard.

Otherwise, this room isn’t particularly hard to deal with. Mostly weaklings who, of course, can be punched to death. There’s two rooms other than the one you just came from that you can look in in this part of the map - A jewelry store and a supply shop turned cultist dwelling, each with a key quest item that you need.

Heading into the jewelry store, there's a ruby inside a broken glass display near the counter to the left, which you can grab… Mind that you’ll aggro a cerberus right down the stairs, however. Might wanna check down there by the way - There’s a readable and other goods. Either way, leave the jewelry store and go across to the cultist dwellings. There will be another diving suit hung up on the wall, which you can take after you’ve dispatched the cultists nearby.

Finally, go to the gate, ignoring the commands on the readable and opening the door to a fixer (who presumably survived) nearly shooting you as the door opens. It’s the first companion you met in this cluster! To your left there’s a portal, which means you’ve unlocked a door to… somewhere. If you were to head through to the end of this tunnel you’d find you’re just by the cultist fortress you stormed just 2 hours ago!

Turn back and head through the level transition, back into Deep Calls and out of the bedroom you spawn into, then pick the next stone key door. One of them will have a cerberus and a pit lord, but after killing them you’ll find some dark iron ore on the shelf.



Heading into the next stone key door you’ll find a dinking room with a roast duck on the table, and probably a hellblaze inside too. To the right is another locked door - Open that to get to a bedroom with an iron maiden inside, an air tank perched in the corner. Assuming your earth mother is still with you, they will tell you to go see the NPC you first met in this map. They will tell you all the stuff you need to whip up a proper diving suit for yourself.

In the room with the NPC that tells you what you need for a diving suit, use the switch to the left to change the power to yellow and head down the elevator nearby. Then go through the yellow doors until you reach a mossy room with a broken pipe you can step into and climb up the ladder inside. Keep going through the pipes until you reach a yellow door that leads to one of the stone key rooms.

Get out and go down to the NPC camp. You’ve probably noticed by now that there’s another diving facility near them with a yellow door rather than a blue one. Go into it and use the pedestal in the middle of the room, taking the now-filled air tank when it’s done. Next, head down the stairs nearby, and you’ll see through a window that a gate underwater is opening. Maybe something useful lies beyond…

Get out of the facility and take a dive, quite literally. Don’t bring your turret along by the way - It’s not good for you or it. Go through the gate that just opened underwater and look right near some glowsticks and pottery, near some ruined pillars. Go back and surface before you drown, then head back through the path you took to get here and to the NPC again.

He will tell you that you need a smith to put the suit together for you. Luckily there’s one down in the NPC camp! (If the NPCs died because you didn’t save then, you can take your stuff to the blacksmith at the campaign settlement.) Flip the power from yellow to blue and go down to the smith so they can craft you a piece.

Before we go diving, I’d go upstairs and flip the power switch to yellow so you can access the air refill station. It means you’ll have to go all the way through the yellow route again (or you could just noclip through the blue door, but you didn’t get that from me) but it’s good to have access to it.

With all that done it’s time to go diving. Remember that you can only take your diving suit off in the water, you can’t put it back on. If you surface you can put it back on but underwater nada. If you accidentally take your diving suit off, you can use an elemental ring and try and book it to some place to surface.

Swim through the gates you only briefly explored earlier and take a left. Through this way is a rather beautiful sight, a crack in the earth, light coming from above and below... And the last piece of dark iron we need! Isn’t that peachy?



There’s 2 ways you can go and one way you can look. On the far left there’s some ice between you and a warlock floating in the water. She’s got some friends ahead, three to be precise. Swim through the tunnel past this ice window and whip out your spike gun. You actually have a decent number of underwater options right now - You can spike gun the warlocks to death, you can use your hellclaw to primary fire or even create naval mines with the alt fire, or you can use the crushbow’s alt fire.

Blast the warlocks into next year and then turn left - Also checking your map, because it’s a little hard to see the tunnel you need to go into. It’s got a blue crystal in it and leads you to the room with the warlock you saw in the other room. Other than iron ore, in this cave there’s a pipe on the roof that lets you surface inside of a facility.

Take off your suit so you don’t use up too much oxygen. Inside is a few barrels of toxic waste and a gas cloud, as well as a door to the right. You can use your oxygen suit to ensure that the gas cloud doesn’t hurt you, it’s better than popping an elemental potion or eating the damage. Head through the door and down the hall, and you’ll come into a room with a laboratory with a golem and some scientists.

I like to chuck a hellclaw mine into the room just to clear things out, it seems to thin the enemies enough so you can just boot the guy to your left to be done with it. When they’re finished, check out the readable in this room before heading to the turning gears with the purple light. This machine is somewhat similar to the ones back on the surface. Use the switch or the gears themselves, and one of them will fall, cutting off the power and letting you grab yourself a mithril gear.

This will cut off your exit but that’s okay because a doorway will open behind you - And some golems will pour out, trying to kill you. Fight your way through the tunnel that just opened and you’ll find yourself back where you came in, the room with the toxic barrels and one less toxic cloud blocking your way. Put on your suit again and head into the water - You might need to refill if you’ve been in the water for a while, so you can always head back now, but I’m going to assume you have enough air to keep exploring.

Head out of the tunnel you came from and take a left, heading down into the sandy parts of the tunnel with aquatic plantlife nearby. As you pass through to the other side some warlocks will aggro to your right. There’s also about 3 behind the big mass of rock right ahead of you, so you might want to deal with the two you’ve got before you head out to face the others.

Once you’ve dealt with the warlocks, to the right is an elven temple and behind the mass of rocks is a courtyard. At the very back of said courtyard is a small cave with a telescope, magnifying glass and a few vases outside with some bones leading inside - And at the back of the cave is a cyan crystal you can pick up.



(I broke the pots for fun, which is why they’re not there)

Head into the temple doors nearby and you’ll arrive in a temple with 3 Water statues and an icy roof above with light coming through it… Unfortunately, the statues also share the company of about 6 warlocks. Remember, spikes are pretty plentiful down here but those are pretty slow to kill warlocks and you don’t really have a roomclearer underwater. Although some hellclaw mines spammed around might work in your favour (you might need to shoot them with a fragfire round) and your earth mother should deal some decent damage here and there.

Once they’re dead, swim up the stairs and you’ll find a room with some psishrooms, a gate and 4 pedestals which need cyan crystals. One of them is filled and you can dump the one you just got in the ones that aren’t. This is your main goal here - To grab the rest of the cyan crystals.



Turn and head through the main entrance at the other end of the room, and you’ll see pathways to the left and right. Ignore the left and go near the blocked pathway forwards, where you might be able to spy a cyan crystal through the gap. Head through the right pathway, the hole in the wall to a grey tunnel, and through there you’ll see 3 ice tunnels. Take a left and then another left, then head through the hole in the wall.

You’ll be in a room with a water statue in front of you and a cyan crystal to your right. Grab it and go get some air - Find your way back to the dwarven town.

When you surface, go to the upper part of town and through the yellow door route, back to the power switch. Use it, and you’ll install the mythril gear, allowing you to use both yellow and blue doors. Head out the blue door to near the NPC camp and head for the blue door to the diving facility you found the first small diving suit in, then go up some stairs nearby to a yellow door. You’ll need to dive again as you go down these stairs so get that snorkel out.

As you dive and go into a hallway you’ll see a room with some cultists, two hellblazes and a pit lord conducting a ritual. Head to the left and press a switch next to the blue door. Everyone but the pit lord will die as the water in the hallway you’re in lowers and the water in the room they’re in rises.

Head through the blue door and in the next room is a gate to your left and a pressure place to the right. Getting close to the gate or pressure plate opens up the gate, revealing a bunch of melee cultists and a pit lord leading them, presumably the pit lord who teleported off when you flooded his ritual room. If you’re on Bearzerk you get a pretty sick weapon here, and the chance to use it for the first time! Otherwise, it’s quite fun to blast them away with a few crushbow bolts.

Heading down the hall that just opened you’ll encounter some hellions at the far end of the room on the right along with some other enemies, shooting you. A decent weapon to use is gas potions, which can then be exploded - Also there’s a red crystal you can shoot on the left side of the room. Once you’re done killing them, claim the cyan crystal on the left side of the room and head into the room right of the first blue doorway on the right, before hitting the switch inside.

Go through the blue doors and put on your diving suit before hopping down into the depths. If you haven’t cleared this room, there’s two warlocks in here. You’re in the underwater temple. Head through the door then take a right towards the room you need to deposit the cyan crystals - You should have all of them now.

The door will open and you will see a rather ominous room. Head inside, and an NPC will start talking to you. Listen to him (not like you have much of a choice) and wait for the lights to come on and a fight to start with a new enemy in this ominous place. Soon, two Psidemons will spawn… The pain gun works really well on these guys! If only you could down here…

There’s a few things you can do to deal with these guys but let’s go over how they act as they fight you. The Psidemons are rather large, have a lot of health and have one of the most deadly attacks in the game, an assault on your mind. It works kind of like an archvile, it takes a while to hit but if it hits, it hurts - However it can be avoided by staying out of line of sight. And there does happen to be plenty of cover in this arena. They can duplicate themselves and teleport around the area a bit, and both of these make it hard to know where the original is.

If you managed to find a spirit gem to recharge your psicrown a Earth Mother Bendi’s, you can equip that to avoid taking the bulk of the damage - The brain damage is only mild at that point. You might want a ranged solution because you want to be able to hide behind a pillar at a moment’s notice - Your options here are a bit limited is the problem.

As always a potion of haste is good, but the spike gun is kind of piddly against these enemies. The crushbow isn’t great either… If you have some revenant bracers those actually work pretty well here - To use them, activate them and grab your axe. They can fire ice bolts at your enemy with the primary fire or throw an infinitely replicating ice axe with alt fire, and it combos decently well with the might potion. Don’t worry about popping it on two guys - They’re very tough enemies and the options here are pretty limited. Time shards don’t work on them, but chokers of the beast stop them from attacking.

When you’ve killed them and the dialogue after the battle ends, grab the item that is unlocked and go through the temple where you’ll encounter 3 more psidemons in a room with much less cover. Hope your buffs are still active!

Once you’ve given them a piece of your mind, swim back to the town and surface. This is the item you need to bring back to the campaign settlement. Go through the level transition in the bedroom behind the stone key door in the upper area of town and use the portal nearby. Stepping out of the portal room you’ll notice some folks are outside the settlement. Talk to the unique NPC nearby, then head inside and go to the briefing room, have a chat with Zura and go through the briefing with her.

The NPCs will tell you that there’s a way into the mines (that are now blocked off) through Brazen Bull and you need to get there . For now, turn in some quests in the camp if you can - If you got all the dark iron ore you can give it to the workshop boss for some ammo for the paingun and a reward that will unlock in the next map. Now’s also a good time to turn in all those iron ores you’ve probably been digging up as well, head to the blacksmith and turn them in for some ammo and such.

Once you’re ready for some more exploring, head to the bull door just outside the campaign settlement and go through the level transition to Brazen Bull. You’ll notice in the room you first spawn in in Brazen Bull that there’s a pedestal to your right. And if you remember, you got a ruby back in the jewelry store an hour or so ago… Put it on the pedestal and the bull doors nearby will open, allowing you access to the minotaur village.

From the pedestal, head through the leftmost bull door and explore the village at your own pace. There’s a lot to see around here, so take in some of the sights. There is a stairway near some red crystals you can go up and, from there, hop onto a ledge with a vial of health on it that will let you traverse to the rooftops - Which is something you’re going to be using a decent amount.

What you’re looking for is a temple entrance with a few farm plots outside. There is a fire pit with 6 braziers near it, and a readable with a Fire figurine and a readable that tells you what you need to do for this section.

(Figurine 1 on right)

Pick up the figurine and be ready to fight some baddies. The goal of this section is to find 6 altars (you probably know about 3 already) and 6 figurines (which are dotted around the map) in order to unlock the door nearby. Unfortunately, a horde of monsters have just spawned and are itching for a fight. Personally I’d leave your earth mother somewhere safe that they won’t be killed in. Warlocks can tear your companions apart if you aren’t there to intervene and there’s a couple here right now. Acid potions are pretty decent in this section.

So a good place to start is finding some more of these figurines. Once you deal with the initial assault of your enemies, head near the farming plot on the right and go up the stairs nearby, into the door up there. There are some enemies inside as well as a figurine on the shelf.


(Figurine 2 on upper right)

Next, head up the stairs on the left and through the first door on the right up some steps. There’s a rather large amount of cultists in here, so maybe toss in some cautionary mines instead of charging in. In the room you come into (the one with the pentagram) there’s a Fire figurine and a readable.


(Figurine 3 on Left)

Head out the way you came and walk to the other side of the village. There’s two doors you can go through - One, on the left, is full of weaker cultists as well as one of the figurines.


(Figurine 4 on Right)

The door on the right is blocked. Surely there must be a way in through the roof. Take the stairway route to the rooftops, jumping on the first roof to your right as you hop onto the ledge. Then jump up onto the connected roof and over onto the market gazebo connected to the roof of the building you wanted to get into. There’s a hatch in the roof you can get down, leading to a room with a psionicist, a cerberi and a spikethrower. The figurine will be next to the spikethrower on a small… bench thing?


(Figurine 5 on right)

At this point you should have 5 figurines, but this area is dry of them so let’s head elsewhere for the last one. Go up the stairway route to the roofs again, taking the roof immediately to your right once more. There’s a balcony with an open door that you can hop over to from this section of the roofs, so head over there and take out the enemies inside. It’s a bit of a rest area for the enemies nearby, but not many are really here. Make sure you open the door on the bottom floor so that you can access this building easily later.

Head over the plank and through the hole in the wall where you’ll kill yet more cultists and a hellblaze potentially. On the left as you come through the broken wall, on top of a shelf is one of the figurines.


(Figurine on top left)

Now that you’ve got the figurines you can start looking for the altars they belong on. As said you may have found some of these already, so some of these places are gonna look familiar but make sure you check them and make sure you put a figurine on them.

Using the stairway route to the rooftop (up a stairway near some red crystals under a gazebo, then jumping on a ledge ahead of you), go to the end of the ledge and platform to a gazebo connected to a building linked to a tower. Jump into the tower and you’ll find the altar. Simply use the altar with the fire figurine and this one will be done.



Use the same stairway route, but jump on the building to the right and hop over to the balcony nearby. From there, jump on the railing and hop onto the staircase of a tower nearby. Scale up the stairs until you reach another altar, then place your figurine on it.



Hop down again, near the staircase you use to get up to the roof but not actually using it. Instead, head into the door you opened a while back which takes you to the rest area. Go up the stairs and over the plank, then through the door past the shelf you found a figurine on earlier. You’ll be embroiled in yet another duel with demonic despots.

Not to worry though because there’s plenty of acid potions and crushbow bolts for everyone. Somewhere nearby you’ll find a market stall with some sacks that you can hop onto and get on top of the nearby gazebo with. Use that to platform to a roof with a rod protruding out the side of it and a walkway that hangs over the road.

As you pass over the walkway, some hellblazes, a pit lord and a rather persistent helion will spawn around this second section of the village to annoy you. Deal with them, then platform up the roofs and onto a walkway that leads into a tower. Inside you’ll find a ruby pedestal and a path into a tunnel on the other side as well as a door downstairs you can unlock so you can come in and out of the building later.

Go through the tunnel you can get to from upstairs and you’ll find a couple of hellblazes that have probably been taking potshots at you for a while now. On the plus side, there’s an altar in here, so put a figurine on it and then head through the lava tunnels nearby - Try not to get burnt…



As you crawl through the tunnel you’ll come out into a rather familiar part of the map… You’re near one of the turrets you destroyed and near a fire statue - It’s also near that one room with the bull faces that shoot firebolts at you. And speaking of being near things, there’s also an altar nearby!



Head through the hole in the wall near the destroyed turret and go down the pathway ahead of you, through the tunnel to the altar… Hey, there’s an altar here! Who’d have thunk it? Unfortunately some forge elementals are going to come and ruin it for you. There’s about 4 here all in all, so be prepared for them.



Platform on the power pillar ring nearby, then hop onto the walkway, and then onto the furthest power ring along that walkway and onto the ledge with the ruby pedestal. Behind said pedestal is one of the altars, which thankfully spawns no monsters.



Head through the bull door with the cobweb in front of it and take a right, then go through to the very start of the level and then into the village once again, through the bull door to the right of the nearby ruby pedestal. Going to the library entrance you’ll see the 6 braziers in the fire pit are all lit if you did everything correctly. Cross the fire pit and the door in front of you should open to a decrepit library. Go in and head left and you’ll see a ruby on a table. Head right on the other hand and you’ll find a room with 6 tables, with a mysterious scroll case hiding in the corner behind some cobwebs. If you go back to the settlement and hand this to a minotaur pyromancer, they will give you a little lore and a very very powerful consumable.

If you end up visiting the Minotaur Town before you acquire another mithril gear for the power mechanisms in the Dwarven Town, you can find one in the library, at the start of the ruined hallway directly opposite the entrance. This allows you to access and move around the Dwarven Town much more freely and operate both coloured doors earlier than usual. (Thanks to Mito Drium for bringing this up)

Remember that ruby pedestal in the tower in the second part of the village? Go there and climb up the tower either through the door you unlocked or the rooftops and place the ruby on it. It will unlock the door to the factory portion of Brazen Bull… As well as the door on the other side of this part of town. This one will lead to a level transition up some stairs and past some pretty gnarly cobwebs. Through it you’ll re-emerge into Besieged, in the mines.

Heading forward, a worm will aggro to your left, through a hole in the wall. Crawl through it and kill him and his buddies in a room where you’ll find an axe key tucked away in a corner behind some webs. Go back, then go through the bull doors. Your path has been littered with worms who haven’t quite yet learned how bad dying can truly be. Eventually though, you’ll run into a door on the left with an axe key lock - And an urchin or two through it.

Once the urchin(s) are dealt with, there’s a portal in this room. Keep in mind that once you head to the right and drop down, there’s no turning back, and once you activate the item down there, there’s REALLY no going back. So before you head that way it’s a good idea to head through that portal and to take a look at stocking up on supplies, hunting secrets, turning in journal quests and generally just finishing things up. Remember, chat to all the NPCs! If nothing else the character text is interesting.

When you are completely, no really ready, go through the portal back to the mines and jump down the ledge to find two friendlies chatting at you. They reiterate what I said - Make sure you’re ready before you press that plunger and blow up the wall nearby.

Once you do, the very last part of the level is exactly as you might expect - a big, fist pumping fight through some enemies that are pissed that you’re wrecking their stuff. Fight your way through these petulant perpetrators, being mindful that a psidemon or two is among them and also that you have 2 (or 3!) allies with you as you slaughter the enemies. Thankfully, this time you aren’t constricted by the water… And these things aren’t massive fans of painful guns, similarly to their pit lord brothers.

There’s an exceptionally strong pit lord at the end who can use some of those nasty Ep 1 final boss moves, but with a troupe of demonslayers at your side things shouldn’t be too bad. There are 2 switches in these rooms that need to be pulled in order to shut down some fire turrets for your friends. It’ll even give you extra free power for the factory you’re not going back to! When you pull both of them, some explosions will happen and a door down some stairs nearby will blow open, revealing the end level symbol - The proper one. Go through and you’ve completed the last part of this cluster and will move on to the next level!

E1M3-M5 COMPLETE!

Secret 1: Near the shady fixer there are two bookcases. The rightmost one can be used and lowered, much to the chagrin of the fixer, and you can go up a ladder inside and take some stuff from her room, including some gold and an amulet of shadow.

Secret 2: There is a large building outside that has a massive hole on the front on the second floor. The door is locked, so head around the right or back side and jump through a window to get in, then open the door to unlock it and go up the stairs. Jump on the part of the wall to the right that’s been destroyed and on the left there is a closet you can jump on. Use that to jump up to the basement where you’ll find some goods and gold.

Secret 3: In the camp at the bottom of the hill leading up to the cultist fortress, there’s a mine. Heading to the back of it, you’ll find a stone wall that needs mining. If you have the pickaxe, you’re in luck - Use it to break through and crawl inside where you’ll find a cave with two paths - One to the left, into the water which will take you down into the moat near the cult fortress, and one to the right which will take you into the fortress itself.

Secret 4: In the spirit mistress’ room, there are purple curtains. The rightmost one, which is slightly obscured by a bookshelf, has a hidden room behind it with some goods and a choker of the beast.

Secret 5: In the cultist fort, the entrance room has a pipe organ against the back wall to the left of the copper key double door entrance, near a green cult flag. Look on the keys of the organ and you’ll find that one of them is darker than the others. Use that and it will open a secret wall to your left with a stairway that takes you up into a room with a scroll of wizard’s eye, a harp you can use to spawn a helion (and after that just bats) and an exit that takes you into the throne room.

Secret 6: Outside of the mines there is an axe key door. In the very last part of the cluster you get your hands on an axe key - You just have to remember to come back and grab the stuff inside.

Secret 7: In the lava caverns (The place you get to after you place the first ruby on an altar before Brazen Bull), platform until you reach a ledge with a wooden bridge which will take you to the stone spire with a boat at the bottom, as well as some fire crystals. Without crossing the bridge to the spire but facing it, turn right and hug the wall leading to the right, following the ledge until you reach an elevated ledge with a skull at the far end. Jump up and find an armour amulet and a greater healing potion.

Secret 8: In the room with the axe key that you get through from the second visit to Brazen Bull, you’ll find an altar and an unmoving bull door. If you have the ruby from Secret 4 of Brazen Bull you can use it to open it. Place the ruby on the altar and the door nearby will open, revealing a bunch of goodies wrapped in cobwebs.

Secret 9: The player can return to the Cultist Fort after freeing the captives and find some changes, one of which being that the pit from which you access the unmarked secret now has a board bridging the gap across the pit. Crossing it and moving into the room on their left, they will find an open room with power shards, an armour amulet and a health potion. (Thanks to HBar for tipping me off about this secret)

Secret 10 (Unmarked): Near where you find the copper key there’s a dark hallway you can go down. A left turn leads you to a black pit with no way across to the gate on the other side. If you jump down it, you will find yourself in a pit… And at the bottom will be none other than The King! Who is he? Whatever the hell he’s meant to be, he’s not impressed with this game.

Secret 11 (Unmarked): In Secret 9, there is a shield resting in the corner. Getting close to it, you will see that it is hiding a switch that you can press. It will lower a hidden door behind a treasure chest which contains some gold pieces and cultured artwork.





Unmarked = 0

Secret 1: On the conveyer belt near the beginning of the level with the crushers, just past the cylindrical crushers, look to the right for a gap you can hide in (not the one directly next to the crushers mind). On the right you’ll see a switch you can flip, and reveal the wall to be a secret stash for some unfortunate soul and their elemental ring.

Secret 2: In the room where you spawn a hellblaze with a bell, use it and drag the hellblaze through the rooms you came from, into the room you blew a hole in by overheating a pump. There’s a cursed skull door just opposite the hole you blew up , so drag him over there to make him open it. Inside is an iron lump, some supplies and a lever rod. The lever goes near the broken mechanism that starts the conveyer belt for the bullet machine, which you can turn on to get free, infinite paingun bullets.

Secret 3: In the room with the first turret you encounter, jump up the stone platforms that drop into the lava, then jump on the ring, turn and jump to the closest walkway. You’ll see a broken pillar you can hop into. Jump over to it and swim through water of the pipeway you find yourself in, until you can rise. There’s a ladder that you can climb, and you’ll find yourself in the room with the hellblaze bell. Jump over to the roof of the bell room and grab some stuff including an armour amulet.

Secret 4: After the Storageroom Struggle, head up the slope to the elevator to the weapons and hellpowder storage. Don’t get on the elevator itself though - Turn it on so that it descends without you, then jump down onto the roof of the elevator and press the switch inside the door below to make the elevator go up again. From there you can crawl into a secret workspace with some goods and a dwarven lockbox. At the campaign settlement, talk to a dwarven militiaman near the stairway to the shady fixer and he will open it for you, giving you a pile of gold, some iron ore and a perfectly cut ruby you can use to open something… (THANKS TO CRAZYTIM45 FOR FINDING)

Secret 5: In the middle of the minotaur village there’s two towers with a statuette altar in them. From the one closer to the farm plots, hop down into a small, closed off area of the village with some flora, trees and a seemingly shallow body of water in it. Jump into the body of water, which is deeper than it seems, and you’ll come out into a hot tub with a pit lord and two helions sharing a private moment.

Secret 6: From the same tower, one of the connected buildings (and by extension the rooftop) will be connected to a patch of flora with some trees and, more importantly, a rock that blocks you from getting to an armour amulet. Hop down from the rooftops to get to it.

Secret 1: As you enter the level for the first time through the snowy approach, there’s a yellow door to your right. In the hallway through that door is a broken pipe with water in it and a hole you can crawl into. There’s a few power crystals and some ammo at the bottom.

Secret 2: On one of the stairways to the upper part of town, there’s an open window obscured by a clothesline on the right side looking down the stairs. Jump up to it and you’ll be in a bar with a few enemies inside. You can also unlock the door for yourself.

Secret 3: In the underwater courtyard where you find one of the cyan crystals, face the cave you find said crystal in and head left along the wall until you see some underwater flora. Behind it is a small cave with a treasure chest.

Secret 4: At some point in the level you’ll pull a lever next to a blue door in a flooded hallway, and the switch will unflood the hallway and flood the nearby room with monsters in it. Go through the blue door and look to your right for what appears to be a puddle. Hop into it and you’ll find it’s a lot deeper. In this small body of water that goes underneath the floor panels is a tunnel leading into the room you flooded a bit ago.

Secret 5: In the town there’s a bank with a vault that requires a combination. While the numerals on the buttons might be confusing initially they’re pretty self explanatory. If you found the intelligence and brought it to the advisor in Besieged, the intel will be on the table and contain a combination - 2367. Open the vault and relieve the bank of its funds.

Secret 6 (Unmarked): In the underwater laboratory where you take the mithril gear from the purple power conductor, there is a dormant golum in the corner that basically just stands there as a prop. Behind her is a piece of paper you can give to the witch back in the Campaign Settlement for a Mystery Potion. (NOTE: If you have pissed the Brewer witch off, she will not make the potion for you. Good job breaking it, hero. You can get rid of the recipe by giving it to the bartender. THANKS TO SPART_N FOR FINDING THIS TIDBIT)



Unmarked = 5

You spawn in a small cathedral, at the other end of which is a familiar face. Recruit them to your posse, which is now growing quite large… Then step outside and get ready to dish out some pain. The courtyard seems rather uninhabited with its bony bloodpits in the middle, a golden key door to your left and an open pathway down past the blood pillar. Yet soon it becomes a touch more crowded…

Bring out your paingun. To the left, around the corner, is a psidemon. Shred him down along with his cerberi pets. On a roof as you turn is a small horde of initiates and psionicists who snipe down at you and your friends and coming down a nearby path are a few iron maidens and melee cultists. Heading down the path, to your left is a squad of iron maidens.

A fun tactic I like to use for big groups of these is to fire primary crushbow bolts at the floor near them rather than directly at them. It kind of splits them up but it’s good for pushing them back and you really don’t want them surrounding you. Anyway, to the right is a crew of helions on the balconies raining pain down on you, so rain acid on them. Head down the left, past a church-like building and you’ll come to some locked gates and a left turn.

As you go down the left turn, there’s a spikethrower and guarding iron maiden on the right… And a green pod right next to them. Shoot it and they’ll die, then head down that path and you’ll find another locked gate, and an open door opposite it. Head through and kill the rather unfortunate cultist alchemists, including an iron maiden you can shoot the green pod near to kill. Go through to the other side, where you’ll see a broken window right in front of you.

Open the locked gate to your right and then go through the window. You’ll find a room with lots of ammo and lots of munitions. Go through to the next room and, peeking out the door, toss some hellclaw mines onto the stairs to the right, then head out with a penguin pointed up the stairs. Cerberi, urchins and pit lords will pour out of the doors, soon to be freshly mowed down by your newly stocked bullets.

Once they’re done you might have noticed, if you did the dark iron quest, that there’s some recruitable reavers nearby that will convey their gratitude to you. Grab them and go into the room that the enemies just came out of, then go through the door to the left. You’ll arrive at an even bigger party than the one you found in Deep Chill. Groove your way through the dance floor (By the way, consider putting hellfire mines in front of each of the cell doors with the off-white shutters in this room) until you encounter a massive party pooper - The Glutton...



This king of vomit and putrescence is as ugly as he is deadly - Despite being slow, lumbering foes, they have a large range in which they can hurl balls of bile that hit fairly hard. Getting in close isn’t a very good idea either because they can perpetually vomit on you as you slowly whittle their health away in melee. They’re surprisingly fun to fight in Bearzerk mode too, it’s a bit of a hit and run deal. Oh yeah, they also explode on death - It’s not pretty.

A good way to deal with them is with your crushbow alt or the penguin, which are always sublime for single target damage. The acid gun sucks against them, but the crylance can dish out decent damage against them although I wouldn’t personally waste an alt on a single glutton like you have here.

Anyway, kill him and go through his hallway where your teammates will get distracted trying to kill some enemies through the windows… Which leaves them ripe for ambush from the cell doors behind them, from which 3 iron maidens pour out. You might have enough time to lay down a mine at each door but it’s also possible they’ll just blow up on you, so be careful there.

At the end of the hallway there’s a few levers with a bloody axe key by them. Pull the levers and take the key then head back down the hall to fight some golems. Remember, if you keep your NPCs safe and make them guard/heal every now and again, you can almost just stroll through this level unmitigated.

Head out of the building and go down to the alchemy house, heading through it and using the gate on the other side. A forge elemental will bust through a nearby wall and a hellblaze will spawn next to it, both conveniently near a green explosive pod. Once they’ve blown up, head into the room with a hole in it and go to the window. Kick it in and head on through. Your friends should already have dealt with most of the enemies in this part of town, and nearby is a barricade of NPCs, with some ammo nearby to pick up.

When you’re done mooching supplies, leave your companions to sit around the tower in the middle of the courtyard, and make sure they’re in pairs of 2 so they can best cover an area, then head inside the tower. The platforming here is pretty self explanatory - Just use your eyes. It’s the enemies that spawn when you accidentally trigger the bell that you want to worry about. Although, they shouldn’t really be a threat considering your friends will deal with them.

Once you get to the top of the tower, walk across a plank to a ledge with a broken window. Head through it and interrupt the study of some rather unruly cultists in the making. Once the students have been properly disciplined, head down the hall where to your left two golems and a psionist wait. You’ll want to head up the stairs and through one of the doors in the hallway at the top.

Make a point to stealthkill each of the enemies on this balcony (while crouching cuz there’s guys downstairs that can see you if not). Through the next door is a library that has some psionicists, a psidemon (rare aren’t they…?) and a few golems, as well as a readable or two. Through the door after that is two balconies with a chandelier you can cross to grab a golden key. Kill the guy up here then drop down and kill the guys down there, and grab the large shell casing.

Head out the door that the cannon isn’t facing and you’ll be back in the plaza you left your friends. Recruit them again, because some enemies are spawning in and your companions are best equipped for mobilized murder.

Take the left path down to a golden gate and then butcher the enemies inside the munitions workshop. Go to the artillery loading station and use the shell casing on it, at which point you’ll probably notice that you need something else… a large calibre warhead. Head out the window and then through the alchemy shop, and past the bloody axe gate you’ll see a golden key double door on the left.

There’s a bunch of enemies inside so rev up those friers- I mean painguns, because it’s time for yet more glorious slaughter. Head inside and use the gold key on the left side of the second floor (the one you came in on) and let your companions eviscerate your enemies, then head through the window on the right.

There is a readable and an item in here, the large calibre warhead you need. Go back to the workshop and insert it in the artillery shell. Take the missile and bring it to the cathedral, where a poorly aimed cannon is about to be loaded. Use the cannon twice and it’ll blow a hole in the wall. Step over the canonized saints you just created and get ready for last stretch of the level, because boy oh boy is it fun…

Run up the stairs beyond the broken door and encounter a massive wave of enemies. I’ll be honest. If I wrote about how to deal with all the enemies in this part of the level this guide would be more boring than it already is, so I’m going to be snappy and say that you probably know how to kill this many by now, and if you don’t you have a group of companions chomping at the bit to kick some ass. So I’m just gonna tell you about the boss.

To kill the boss, shoot it until it dies. As always a potion of haste is great to maximize your DPS, but time shards don’t work on this one (like most bosses and magical enemies he is invulnerable to time magics). You can kill him pretty reliably by depending on your allies, circlestrafing around the outside of the arena and picking away at him with your crushbow and crylance.

The middle of the arena has plenty of health pickups, and if you feel you’re taking too much damage an elemental ring will help immensely. Hopefully you can kill him quickly enough that he doesn’t kill one of your allies, which always sucks, especially since you’re going to need them for the next section.

Also I just wanted you to know that I’ve been cheating my butt off for this guide and I only now, during this fight, maxed out my armour. Here’s what it looks like:

Gather what you want from the level before the fight now because you’re going on one hell of a rampage. This might actually be the most enemies you kill in this short a space of time in the entire game. It’s all doable due to your companions and proves to be one of the most fun and challenging sections in the entire game.

However, there’s only so many ways I can say “remember to use your haste potions honey” before you start wondering why you even read this guide and start looking into a divorce, and I can’t deal with that, I mean, what’s gonna happen to Zan? She can’t just find cream funguses herself! So, for brevity, you murder about 300 people in cold blood. Thank god this isn’t Spec Ops: The Line.

You arrive at the titular Port to Hell, and it’s full… Of cultists. So, purge them like you did the bridge and head left, then right towards the lighthouse and towards the docks, onto the last boat. Inside will be a familiar NPC and the level’s end. Look around the town if you want before you board the boat with your fellows, as there are plenty of food items and scraps of ammo to be looted from the bloated carcasses of demonkind.

E2M6 complete!

Secret 1: From the beginning of the level, go past the blood pit down the road and take a right, then turn into the building on the right. Go upstairs and onto the balcony, and you’ll see there’s another balcony quite closeby to the left. Hop over to the other side and jump on the weapon barrel, then on the crate and finally the chair. Then jump up on the roof, then move and jump to the one with the brown roof tilings, then onto the grey wall where you can drop onto THAT roof and collect the armour shards and amulet.

Secret 2: Outside the church, near the barricade with NPCs, there’s a path that is blocked off with burnt rubble and there is a plank hanging loose from the room above. Climb onto it and into the room to find a rather nice looking relaxation room complete with an armchair and also a door you can open to get to a kitchen and balcony.

Secret 3: In the kitchen of the golden key house there is a white curtain on a wall off to the side. Hug against it and on the right side is a secret door that leads into a gated off area with some goods.

Secret 4: At the end of the level, you arrive at the titular port of hell. From the entrance, take the right and go down the steps to the docks, then take another right and follow the river of lava upstream into a cave, from which you can get up to the rooftops. Jump to the roof on the right then walk the plank to the roof on the left (Like the first secret it’s the one with the brown roof shingles). Hop down onto one of the gazebos and vault over the balcony, before vaulting over a box and some bags to find an armour amulet.







(yeah these maps are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ massive. this is also like the second shortest map in Episode 2)

You spawn on the ship you got on the last level, and you’re on the sea, with the companions that survived the last level. They can’t follow you here but they will assist you. The earth mother can give you a healing and protection buff and everyone else except the fixer will shoot your enemies. Speaking of which, they’re boarding onto your boat now. Head onto the roof of the boat and shoot up some cultists, then head over the bridge they were using to board their boat.

Head right, to the back of the ship, and you’ll find a ladder you can go up, then head around to the left until you find a metal door which will take you into a cabin. Inside are some bits and bobs but most importantly a hole you can drop down which will take you to a room with a few cultists, a helion and iron maiden, as well as a stairway going further down. Grab out your spike gun and go down, where some cultists and a couple of iron urchins are waiting to get in close. A good way to deal with some of them might be the red crystals mysteriously aboard the ship.

There are two levers on the lower deck of the ship but only one is important, the one that has a sign saying “upper drawbridge” inside a lit up side room. Flip the switch, then back out of the side room and hide behind the crate nearby as some golems spawn. This will make sure they spawn without aggroing to you. Take out your axe and throw it at one, then deal with the other who has surely aggroed in a similar fashion.

Head to the other side of the deck and jump up some boxes to escape out of a hatch onto the surface deck. There will be a few enemies that might have tried to board and were probably shot down by your companions, but a boat is nearby with a helion and spikethrower on it. Dispatch of them, then head to the ladder you went up earlier and take a right instead, where a drawbridge has lowered and you can use it to jump to the next boats.

Hop to the next ship, making sure to keep in mind the way the map moves you when you hop over the lava. There’s a few enemies on the supplies ship, especially below the grate walkway. Head to the other end and hop over to the ledge with a ladder on it. Climb up and be ready to be mauled by dogs below, because they and a bunch of other enemies are hell-bent on stopping you.

Once you’re done mopping the floor with their entrails head up the ladder nearby the boxes and head left, into a room with a pit lord captain and some urchins. Kill them, and then head towards the ships’ flags. On the right side of the boat are a few miniboats with enemies on them you can snipe down. A good trick for this level on Bearzerk - Use your force pike to pull your enemies into the lava, killing them instantly.

Once you get to a certain miniboat (mine had a glutton and a helion on it) you will start to be attacked by a psidemon. A rather powerful one at that… You’ll see him in the distance, on a boat way off. You can crouch in certain spots to cut line of sight, like behind a crate or some of the cover that the helions were in. Cross the chains that link one miniboat to another and hop over to the life rafts these guys are 100% not going to need. Go up the stairs to the right, into what appears to be a kind of relaxation deck.

Near the pool is a door window with a crack in it. Break it open and head inside, and you’ll find a bar room with a stage in front of you. Walking towards it will cause the curtains to open and some enemies behind them will attack you. When you’re done 86ing them, hop behind the bar and climb up the ladder, which takes you into a rather cozy living room with an occult symbol on the floor and a dinnertable nearby.

In the leftmost room is a warlock putting on her makeup. Rudely interrupt her with a couple of alt crushbows then head into her room… Only for a troupe of psionicists to appear in the living room. You might want to take cover in her bedroom and grab the gold key on her bedside table, by a broken mirror. There’s also a readable in here.



The next room along doesn’t have that much to offer you. The gold key nearby takes you outside again, but go down the hatch to the bar and press the switch near the dolly to bring it up then crawl in it. Down in the kitchen, there’s a few weaklings and a pit lord (pot lord?). Stealthkill the weaklings and use the acid potions on the table to melt the lord into a puddle.

Head into the hallway and take a left, where some urchins will urgently rush you. Kill them, and then look in the window nearby to see another urchin in the vents. Crawl into them, use an alt-fire potion grenade to bounce off the wall and close to the urchin to blow it up, then proceed through the vents, avoiding the crushers.

Head up the ladder at the end of the vent and kill the enemies inside before pushing the switch. The door to the next room will open, leading to a mess hall. Through the hall on the left is an iron maiden, and on the right a warlock. On the left is also a room with 2 warlocks. Personally I’d head right, kill the warlock, then kill the iron maiden as she comes through the mess hall, before heading into the room with the curtain partially covering the door nearby and kill the spikethrower before he can blab to his initiate friend, then kill him and then the dog.

Two cultists will try to melee you after you kill the dog, so make sure they die as well. Head back through the curtain door and take a left, where a drawbridge lever is. You can potentially kill the golem nearby with an axe that won’t aggro everyone else in the room before using the drawbridge lever and leaving, but that wouldn’t be fun. There’s another golem and a psidemon here who think it’s a smart idea to challenge you.

You can kill the warlocks in the next room now and head up to the deck the way you came or use some of the crates nearby to get to the surface. And lo and behold a drawbridge has been lowered for you to go over to the other ship. Hop over and be mindful that there’s a few pretty beefy enemies on the deck of this ship - A glutton and pit lord at least.

Go through a gold door on the ship and take the stairs down, then take a left to fight some enemies and come to a cannon near some crates with a sign saying “hull snapper”. Use it and it’ll blow a hull in the luxury cruiser, allowing you to platform back onto it - after facing off with some forge elemenals - by jumping on the bags to the left of the gold door and onto the submarine (which you can explore for some goodies) and back to the cruiser.

Head through the hull breach you just made and hop down into a room in close quarters with a glutton. At least you have your crushbow, right? Grab the blood key behind him once you’re done and open the door nearby, where you’ll emerge into the kitchen you slaughtered a little while back.

Go down the hall, up some stairs and to the left where you’ll see a blood door in a room. Open it, head in and head to the end level symbol to finish the level!

E2M7 complete!

Secret 1: On the 3rd enemy ship there’s a captain’s room up a ladder with a window that shows a secret ledge of the ship with an armour amulet on it. You can rocket jump pretty easily to it with the crushbow or fire hammer. Alternatively, the painless method for reaching it is using the heightened edge of the ship to jump onto the chain holding the sail in place. There will be fans that push you off if you go in front of them, but you can jump to the outer floor of the ledge holding the fans and jump over them, grabbing the amulet. (Thanks to Gensoukyou1337 for the painless solution)

Secret 2: At the beginning of the level, on the first ship you raid, there is a door with a gold key lock. After you get the gold key, come back here to fight a pit lord captain and raid his loot, including a bunch of potions and a readable!

Unmarked Secret 1: There is a submarine between the final and second to last ships that you board in the level, and on top of it there is a periscope peering southwest. If you go inside the submarine, after killing the enemies inside you'll notice there's a crawlspace above you. Use the ladder you entered through to enter the crawlspace where you'll find the other end of the Periscope, which if used will show you an easter egg.

This is the start of the second cluster of Bloodrite. I would start this with a spiel about how amazing said cluster is and how well made it is, but if you’ve gotten this far you already know how badass this game is. One thing to note is that despite there only being 5 maps left, this is 100% the second half of the game in terms of length and average testing time of this cluster is around 8 hours, so don’t expect to beat this in one sitting unless you have a ton of time to kill.

You spawn on a beach. To your left is a cave with a big rock in it, on the beach is one of the ships you washed up on and to the right is a tunnel. In front of you are an axe and a journal. Pick both up and head up the right tunnel. You’ll find a gap with a stone platform over some water (and down by the water is a small cave with a trapped chest of goods, watch out for that). Hop over to the other side and then through the tunnel on the left, where you’ll find a beach.

Also, be careful you don’t hop into or near the water. There’s another miniboat wreck with a paingun near a helion’s corpse. Head right into a tunnel where you’ll emerge into an oasis of sorts. Nearby is a strange item, a Sand Nut that hops away from you as you try to pick it up. Catching it is fairly easy, but I don’t think you can catch it while it’s in mid air.

Grab it and turn right from where you came, going past the river and through the caves, where you’ll find yourself back in the room with the stone platform in the middle of the water, from which you can find your way back to the beach you started on. Go into the cave with the big rock and use it, which will break open and let you eat the Sand Nut. Head out of the cave and back down the path you found the sand nut in.

This time take a left. The vines that blocked the path to the left are now gone, and there are a few cerberi inside. Use your axethrow to kill them, then head up the slope and over the gap to grab some vines off of a table. Go down, then head out of the cave and towards the sandy path on which you’ll take a left towards a gorge with a broken bridge. Create a tightrope with the vine, and after a small cutscene, the world will become much less idyllic and the vine will become a chain, which you can walk on to cross to the other side.

Head through the cave entrance lit by red crystals and you’ll eventually come to a fungal room with a pool of acid, 2 paths and a destroyed building with a skeleton hiding some gold nearby. Take the left path first, and along said path you’ll find several fungal trees, gas clouds and pools of acid until you reach a closed gate that’s broken on one side and can be climbed up on so you can get into the ruined village. Jump on it then walk along it to get up to a rampart with a door into a building.

Inside is a warlock and down the stairs nearby is an iron maiden. Oddly enough I haven’t found a good way to stealth this section but I do know that you can get a free kill on the maiden by aggroing her from above, then standing above the acid down below so she kills herself on it. Turn around and kill the hellblaze on the ledge outside, then go for the warlock once he’s dead. Someone will probably have aggroed by now, so get ready for a fight.

Ghoulish gluttons make their homes in the ruined village and a few cerberi and hellblazes as well, so watch your back around here. Once you finish them off, there’s an altar with a potion of stoneskin on it, and to the right of that is a tunnel of acid leading into a sewer of sorts. Head inside, but be wary of the forge elemental who spawns inside.

Down the sewer you’ll eventually reach some rubble and dirt on the left which you can climb up to get into a temple. There’s a statue nearby, but first look to the door half popped open by rubble that leads out to an unextended bridge. Go to the right and pick up some gold, which will trigger a trap - The bridge opens and some cerberi are coming across it, and on the other side a psidemon tries to snipe you down. Kill the dogs and dish out some pain for the psidemon. If you head down the path here and take a right, you’ll find a garden where a few warlocks will aggro.

Go into the garden and chat to the NPC near the psishrooms on the left, before heading to the right and grabbing a shovel near a lantern and a hole. There’s a readable on the porch, but for now head back to the temple and check out the dark statue. You can actually push it along, so push it onto the pressure plate nearby. Self explanatory!

Through the door that opened, there’s some sensors that will detect when you are nearby and mouths that spit bolts of acid. You can actually crouch under them to avoid direct hits completely, but keep in mind that splash damage still exists so stay far enough away from where they blow up. Once through, head up the stairs to the right and look around. There’s not much you can do in this pressure plate room just yet, but you can at least take a look around and gather some supplies.

Heading past the grass, you’ll find a slope. At the top is a pressure plate with a couple of fire turrets - One of them is non functional, the one on the right can shoot you. It’s easy enough to avoid if you’re paying attention - There’s a burnt corpse right there in the middle. Speaking of the middle there’s a table with candles in the middle between the two turrets. Behind it is a pressure plate you can press to open a door with some supplies (and iron urchins) as well as a statue you can push around if you like.

If you want the withered vine key (which isn’t strictly necessary to progression I don’t think), this is one of the ways you can get it. Push the statue down the stairs on the left and look to the path on the right. There are sensors inside that will detect you and bring down spikes… But if you crouch while pushing the statue through the spike area, you can throw the statue into the ditch at the other end of the trap hall which will let you cross towards the withered key. Make sure you activate the trap first, then cross so you won’t be damaged by the spikes. On the other side you’ll find the key, a crushbow and other goods. (THANKS TO SORIOYA FOR THE INFO)

There’s also a hole in the wall near the grass, so grab the stuff in there if you want. Head out of the temple for now - You’ll be coming back later - and over the bridge and down the fungi tunnel, through a thick of fungal trees in some misty swamp water, before you take a right. Through here is some open air at last with an abandoned camp on the right and a road to the left. Take a look through the camp and you’ll find some random supplies dotted around, as well as a portal. Ignore that for now and head up the path which will split into 2. You can’t go to the right yet, so head down the left.

You’ll come to a grey port town that seems a lot more echoey than normal. As an NPC talks to you, head down the stairs to the port and then take a right towards the chapel. There’s a bricked up door with a crack in it. You aren’t able to break this open, but keep the port town in mind for later.

Head back to camp and go through the portal you saw earlier. Head out towards the minotaur, who will take you to the base camp of this cluster.

Go through the briefing and then check the readable near the NPC you were briefed by. Since I gave you a tour of the Campaign Settlement in Besieged, I should give you one of the Base Camp here. Head down the steps behind you, and on the right will be a tent with the workshop boss you can chat with. `There’s a path ahead, past the lava pit, but for now head left and up to a ledge where an earth mother and the witch from Besieged is still stirring that pot.

There’s some potions and such there and NPCs to talk to. Also chat with the warrior at the entrance to the gate as well, before heading over the lava pit by jumping from platform to platform. To the left is a blacksmith who you can chat with and also take an iron lever from on the side of his workbench. In the middle, by the gate, is a minotaur axeman you can also chat with. To the right is a bartender and past them is a mine with a sledgehammer you’re going to need. Grab it and head out the gate the axeman was guarding. Take a right into the portal room, where you’ll take the leftmost portal.

Head forward and take a left out the camp gate, and go straight ahead towards those mushroom trees which obscure a hidden cave tunnel leading to a breakable wall which you can use your sledgehammer on. Go inside the distillery and head up the stairs, grabbing the bag of yeast on the table, before going into the next room and opening the door on the right. You’ll be back in the port town. Go down to the chapel and break that wall, listening to the dialogue you are given.

You will be told to find his friends in the crypts to the east, but we aren’t going there for a while. Go up the stairs to the left and grab the pendant of true sight nearby, then have a chat with the NPC if you like. Leave the port town and head right and past the camp, back into the fungal caves. Take a left down to the temple entrance and head through the temple into the flame turret room, where you might find a shut door with a broken lever nearby. Use the iron lever that you got at the camp on it, and the door will be opened.

Next, go through the door and push the statue in here into the fire turret room, pushing it up the slope. The fire turret is difficult to avoid like this, but there’s only one of them that’s active, so a good method is to push the statue towards the turret until you can get off the plate that’s triggering the turret… Although that’s hardly an easy science to replicate, so just make sure the statue is between you and the fire.

Push the statue into the room on the left and on the pressure plate. Then head into the next room, which contains one of the 5 goals of this level. The altar needs a statue of yourself, which you’ll need to gather the materials and tools for and also someone to make it… Which we won’t be finding for some gameplay hours, so don’t hold out hope. You can chat with both NPCs here, and one of them may be important later.

Head through the door opposite from the one you came in, where the layout will be similar - Including a statue on a pressure plate. Push it off and the door behind you will close, but the one into the fire turret room will open. Push the statue through the room where you left the other statue and into the room with the two NPCs, then push it down the red carpet and down the hole next to the Iron statue, before pushing it onto the pressure plate down there.

Head through the door and up the slope, then turn right where you’ll see two doors have opened. One on the left at the end of the hall has a bunch of goodies in it, the other in the middle at the end of the hall leads outside. Head down the stairs out there and approach the gate, readying yourself for a fight. The crylance is pretty good here since it’s quite accurate and some helions and hellblazes will spawn up on the ledges near where you came down.

A forge elemental will blow through the gate nearby, so jump through and head over the bridge, then keep going under demonic arches until you reach the the bear warrior entrance of the base camp. Then head for the axeman entrance and head down that way, going across the bridge. You can follow the trail of gold coins to a stack of coins on top of a barrel, but that’ll start a fight with some demons who are most unwilling to give away their ten coppers.

Pass over the bridges and you’ll arrive in a forest. Follow the grey path until you see a graveyard on your left, then follow that path past it until you come to a stairway near 5 blank obelisks and a copper key on the ledge nearby next to a skeleton who had one too many. Grab the key and head back. If you were paying attention you’d remember that there’s a house that needs a copper key to access along this route. Ignore it for now, we’ll get there…

Go back to the portal room and head through the portal, and go up the path you took to the port town but take a right instead. Use the copper key on the gate and head through the level transition to...

You spawn on a pathway leading to a garden, a tiny bridge over a river that’s dried up, and a patio with a few chairs. Be careful what you pick up around here - The statues aren’t just for show and are watching you quite closely.

The geniuses are a surprisingly fun enemy to fight. Ranged flying enemies that are quite swift and intelligent, spawning from stone statues that become less stone if you touch stuff they’ve got their eyes on. They can throw lightning bolts at you, zap you at close range and they can close the distance quite swiftly. They’re not that threatening individually but with enough of them they can shred your health.

A fun way to deal with these guys is your fragfire gun, shooting them down as they get in close. That can be unreliable and a bit dangerous though. A good method is to back up and shoot an acid grenade at them, trying to lead your shots just a bit. The crylance is also good for taking them on and kills them in 2 shots.

Take what you want and kill whatever comes, then head down the checkered path. Eventually you’ll come to a courtyard with an entrance to a church on the left and two hedges in the middle with an armour amulet… and a number of geniuses. Remember, it’s the light ones who can come back to life. If you’re feeling suicidal and need some armour, lay down some mines and run for your life. It’ll kill them but it might kill you as well so it’s okay if you wanna take a more practical approach.

Anyway, head left into the church and into the main sanctum. There’s tons of genius-like statues on the balconies above that won’t become hostile… yet. In the middle of the sanctum there’s 4 pads that let you jump on them, and they’ll launch you up into the air which lets you get onto the balconies really easy. Down the left there is an NPC that you need for one of the 5 marks that let you access the final level. This one wants you to bang a demon. Turn around, and look at the demon in the middle of the room.

Go down and talk to the NPC, who will ask for a test of your might. Hit them before they finish speaking, and a fight will start - Though a fight will start one way or the other. Geniuses will appear above, so you’ll want to go for those bouncepads fast. Some initiates spawn on the lower floors and later warlocks show up. I also found that crushbow alt fire works wonders against geniuses, although they are quick so it’s hard to be precise. There’s some ammo littered around the arena, so make sure your guns stay as hydrated as the earth.

From the place you came in, take the right and emerge into a courtyard with plenty more baddies to face off against. More variety awaits you out there - Psionicists, initiates, a warlock, a cerberus or two, and of course a few geniuses who think they’re smart. Kick their asses and head across the maze, into the mansion.

Inside, two warlocks will spawn to fight you. Once they’ve been booked (get it? Cuz they drop their books) head along the red carpet to the gold key door and open it. Walk into the middle of the ballroom and the NPC will appear and have a chat with you. Listen to what they have to say, then hit them again and be ready for a fight.

This time, golems are on the menu - My favourite. A psidemon and glutton join them too, as well as some worms... Check the readable nearby once you’re done, then head for the single golden key door and find yourself in a dining room. There’s a readable on the desk to your left, but for now head to the golden key double doors which open to reveal a portal.

Head through the portal and you’ll be transported to a kitchen made of lava. Punch out the guards who are much too invested in their cooking to notice you, then head right into another portal. This time you’ll find yourself in a natural freezer, an icy cave. To your right are some geniuses who are still alive, but frozen and still stone. You can actually smash them with your fists, and then jump into the pool on the left to grab a revenant bracer.

Through the next portal is a garden with some food items for you to pick up. Head through the next portal and you’ll come out to a stairway which goes down to your left, a room to your right. In there are some golems and a psidemon who aren’t facing your way. Kill them, and proceed into the next room, a particularly nonsensical library. Head left, then right and jump on the sideways table (you can try and read the readable on it. It’s just her thirsting for her gardener).

From the table jump on the ledge ahead of you and press on a bookshelf texture that is misaligned on the wall here, which will open to something of a laboratory. Ignore that for now, and turn right before hopping on the sideways bookshelf, then platforming over to the next and finally hopping to the shelves with their books facing upwards, which will cause some walls to lower and a couple of golems to start attacking you… This is tight quarters…

Anyway, once those jackasses are dead, jump to the next platform with a table on it. Crawl onto the chair with the white pillowy backrest, then onto the upside down table - And shoot down some worms that come out of a monster closet near the dark key you’re trying to get to. Crawl onto the chandelier nearby, and from here you should be able to jump to get your dark key. You could have just rocket jumped, but hindsight is 2020.

Jump down, then go over to jump back up the table and go down that path you just unlocked into the laboratory. Head left up the stairs and stealthkill the worms looking down at the lab, then go down the stairs and throw an axe to stealthkill the golem facing the wall with grass on it. At this point it’s pretty much impossible to avoid aggroing the other enemies, so just deal with ‘em - 2 warlocks and a genius, pretty easy fare for you right now.

Go down to the laboratory and grab the arcane salts. If you inhale these, you’ll start shooting fireballs or something, I’unno. Don’t inhale ‘em, save them for later. There’s also a readable that will give you a recipe for potion launcher grenades… But where do you make them? Hmmm… Anyway, there’s a door to outside, which will take out outside near where you entered the mansion before. Go through the mansion into the dining hall once more, and use the door at the far end which will take you into a relaxation room…

Unfortunately, your dark key doesn’t appear to work immediately. Taking a look around you’ll see 3 mirrors on the right wall. One of which - the middle - isn’t quite a mirror at all, but a fake that you can walk through to an identical room. Use your key on the dark key and head inside, into the NPC’s bedroom - Where you can have a nice chat with them. Listen to them talk a bunch, and when you’ve had enough hit them.

This actually increases their rep… up to this point, where they will complain. If you want to cut off your chance of getting in bed with them, keep on hitting them before they’re done talking. There is an alternate route to getting the mark that I will describe when it becomes relevant. On the far wall is a painting of the NPC, and an iron key and a readable is below it. Heading into the room on the left, where you’ll find an NPC that you can… well, pick up. It’s a bit of a tight squeeze in the backpack, chum...

Go through the dark key door and then through the door at the other end of the room. There’s a hallway you can go down - Most of the doors here don’t work except 2. One is to your right, and opens to a mirror… Where your mirror image comes to life and tries to attack you. This enemy type never shows up again, but it’s interesting to see!

Down the hall there’s a gold door on the left but head to the very end, out into an art exhibition… And it appears you just walked out of a painting. Going down the right you’ll be talked to by one of the paintings, which will ask you to free it from its prison. Doing so isn’t necessary for completion but it is probably a good thing for both of your mental health. Also if you head out the door at the end of the hall there’ll be two iron maidens waiting and some geniuses will spawn behind you down the hall.

Go back into the hallway you came from and on the right is a gold key door that leads to a sauna room with a small pool. Hop in and crouch to crawl through the vents, where you’ll surface in a fountain pool. Hop out and go to the door that’s up some stairs, where there’ll be a switch on a pedestal. Pressing it will reveal 6 switches you need to press. If you press one in the wrong order you have to start over again.

You can figure out what the next switch you need to press looks like by jumping up the fountains and using the orb camera, then comparing the differences between each of the switches and their surroundings and using deductive reasoning to determine which is next. Another great way to figure out which is which is by using different landmarks. For instance, try shooting the walls of one of the switches, then reloading and throwing your mag near another.

I don’t know how to describe it, but if you want to figure this out yourself skip past the images and numbers that follow. From this perspective, here is the order in which you press the switches:



4 2

1 5

6 3

After revealing 3 switches, a few geniuses will spawn to fight you and after 6 both sets of doors in here will open revealing 2 iron maidens and a pit lord each, as well as more geniuses bearing down on you. After they’ve been dealt with, head up the stairs and through the door, where you can place the NPC item onto the shrine. They will ask you for 300 gold… Which is probably small potatoes but if you find you really don’t have any gold there’s more than enough gold in the 3 levels available to you to cover such an expense.

When you have the money, use it on the altar. You will be transported into another place which you can’t escape. There is an NPC here you can chat with, and also you can explore around. There’s a ton of gold here… In single pieces. It doesn’t add up to much but every little helps. Head into a room that’s almost blocked off with gold, ignoring the NPC’s chatter about said room. Inside you’ll find an amulet of true sight which you’re gonna need.

Head back into the main chamber, hoovering up gold if you need it, and a flash will happen. Four bowls and 5 signs will appear, one of them explaining your goal and 4 giving information pertaining to it. There are 4 people that you need to split 40 gold between by taxing them for the animals they keep - Chicks, hogs and bova. As you take more time, the NPC will feed you more things they’ve figured out, and you can always talk to them to go over what you’ve learned - And at a certain point they will straight up tell you what the animals are worth.

I’m not really sure how to guide you through this, so I’m just gonna straight up give you the answer. Skip ahead if you want or just work on it yourself until you’ve figured it out or gotten tired of trying to figure it out.

Farmer Drav = 1 bova, 1 hog, 4 chicks

Cobbler Dovan = 1 hog, 8 chicks

Widow Fray = 1 bova, 2 chicks

Butcher Iod = 2 hogs, 2 chicks

2 Chicks = 1 gold

Hog = 4 gold

Bova = 8 gold

Farmer Drav = 14 gold

Cobbler Dovan = 8 gold

Widow Fray = 9 gold

Butcher Iod = 9 gold

Once you’re done figuring it out, put the gold in the corresponding bowls to each farmer, a gate will rumble open. Head inside and head down the right path while crouching. The faces in the wall will spit fire, and I’m not talking about rhymes. Some you’ll have to hop over, some you’ll have to crouch under, and some are getting in the way of you and getting that sweet sweet moolah.

At the end of the hall you’ll come into a treasury room which will have a few bits and bobs and a ritual dagger in it. Grab it, then head back past the firefaces and to the entrance of this place, then use the ritual dagger with the altar that has some health potions on it. Once that’s done, grab the resulting charged chaotic device and when you’re done hoovering up gold in this place (make sure you grab the stuff you put in the bowls too), talk to the NPC.

Once you talk to them you’ll be transported back to the start of Place Afoul with no way to get back to the other area. Your NPC will leave back to the camp during a short cutscene, after which you can regain control. It might be time to head back to the base camp now, because there’s not much left you can do in this level right now.

Back at the base camp go to the barkeep and give them the yeast bag you found, and it’ll come in handy later. Nearby, close to some boxes is the NPC you found earlier who will now sell you stuff. Why not take a look at their items, since there’s not that much else you can do with gold?

Hellclaw - 15G

Paingun ammo box - 20G

Spike ammo - 5G

Fragfire can - 15G

Acid potions - 25G

Toxic potions - 25G

Crushbow bolts - 25G

Light Armour Amulet - 75G

Once you’re done grabbing supplies, head out the axeman gate and head over the bridges into the forest. Follow the path until you find a house with a copper key door, the one we didn’t touch earlier. Head inside and before you go into the room with the dining table be prepared for a fight as some hellions, cerberi, forge elementals and a pit lord or two will spawn outside, breaking the windows and aggroing. There’s a couple of ways to deal with that - You can go outside and fight them head on, or you can just run like a coward… But where?

The table has a cloth on it that partially covers it, but you can get under it - And under the table is a hatch leading to a cellar of sorts that leads into a tunnel and then at the end of it a hole that leads to a crypt. Drop down into it and use the wall that lowers and reveals a room with two paths - A level transition on the left and a path upwards on the right. I’d take the right first - Go up the stairs and at the top on the right there’s a switch.

Press the switch and it will open the door to a graveyard, wherein some spirits of melee cultists and initiates will try to attack them. If you’re injured after that there’s a greater healing potion nearby. Also check around for some gold and make sure to remember to open the gate to the graveyard nearby, before heading back into the crypt and down to the level transition.

When you pass through the level transition you’ll arrive in a crypt with a broken gate you can crawl through. In the main room, the door to the other floors is blocked off but you can drop down the middle to access the next floor. Drop down one floor, onto the one with the wooden plank and the rope arrow, then head into the room on the left side.

The room seemingly has a power pillar similar to Brazen Bull, with a ring on it that you can climb on - And it’s currently nonfunctional. Jump onto the ring, then onto the platform with the barred room. Above you there’s a number of psionicists who’ve got your number, but your spike gun should handle them nicely, and some helions and hellblazes on the upper floors will try and nail you as well. Fight your way up the platforms, climbing up the wooden plank to the top, then turning and hopping over to the opposite ledge where another ramp waits for you.

Head up the ramp and forward, then take a right, dropping down onto the ledge that has been barred to you mostly in this room. Go into the room on the left, where there’ll be a coffin and a pressureplate. Stepping on the plate will shoot a sawblade out of one of the empty bonewalls either side of the wall. To avoid this, hug the left or right wall to get to the coffin. Crawl inside it and use the switch. This won’t stop the sawblades from appearing, but it will raise some of the grates you’ve seen around here.

Hop down onto the ring platform, then jump onto the ledge with the wooden plank and the barred door that is now open. Go inside and grab the chalice there which will become quite important in time. Head up the plank then left, where you’ll aggro a spirit inside the pillar in the middle of the room. There’s a switch behind him. Hop over and hit it, and the ring down below will start rising and descending, making for a great makeshift elevator.

Take the ring up to the second-to-top floor and jump on the platform with a now-open grate door and an ominous look to it. Go inside, and the lights will come on before you can try to stealthkill anyone, with tons of cultists, initiates and a psionicist or two. Once you’re done with these guys, you’ll notice that there’s two pools either side of the room - One that has hellfire oil in it, the other has sacrificial blood. Very morbid stuff, but stuff you’re gonna need. Use the hellfire oil well to fill the chalice you just got with oil, and bring that with you, you’re gonna need it soon.

Also, take a look at the readable on the pedestal nearby and pay attention to it. It’ll be relevant soon. - This one highlights “knowledge” as being part of the first verse.

Head out and hop onto the ring that’ll take you down. Then head out into the main bone hall, where you’ll notice that all the grates that stopped you from going up and down floors easily have risen… And there’s some enemies around that want a chat. Some iron maidens and spikethrowers on this floor, worms on the one below, initiates above and some spirits at the bottom. Overall nothing you can’t handle.

Head down one floor and take a right into a room with a rather heavy helping of ranged enemies - A helion and some initiates above with spikethrowers on either side of you. In this room there are 4 torches that you can fill with hellfire oil (don’t worry, you can’t run out unless you replace the vial with something else). Each of them has a corresponding word - Knowledge, Hedonism, Death and Worship. You know that Knowledge was part of a verse of some kind. Maybe there’ll be more verses to read as you explore.

Head into the next room where a number of foes will accost you, so kick their asses and take a look around. There’s not much to do in this room in particular, but a book near where the glutton was will teach you all about Hedonism and its place in the path. That’s nice.

Go back to the bone hall and down to the bottom floor, where you’ll be attacked by spirits. There is also a trap here with an armour amulet and two hellclaws that will fire on you if you get near it. Funnily enough you can just pick those up as ammo and then grab the amulet. Anyway, other than the stairway to the upstairs, there’s two paths you can go - Left or right.

I’d choose left personally and grab some gold off of the table with the candles on them before heading into the next room. There’s another trap here - Jump over a pressureplate and into the middle of the room or you’ll be shot with warlock bolts. The book on the pedestal will tell you all about Death’s place in the grand scheme,

Jump over the next pressure plate into the next room which is filled with cobwebs. There is a way to progress here though… Behind the altar/table, the vent has been opened, allowing you to crawl through it. Head through, out into a snowy-ish area, then left back into some vents. Head right and into a church-like area until you find yourself in a bone pit. There’ll be a book nearby that teaches you of worship.

By now you’ve touched on all the books that you need for the torch puzzle. You need to arrange them into their own order - Paying attention to the headings they give. I will spoil the solution later, but if you’ve been paying attention to the books you’ve probably figured it out already.

Anyway, heading through the vent on the other end you’ll find yourself on the edge of an icy cliff near a gothic cathedral. Hugging the wall, shimmy along the right ledge until you come to more solid ground. Ahead of you are two psionicicsts and there are more enemies around here. So as always it’s a good time to procure tools. In front of the psionicists is a revenant bracer you can use to axe your enemies a question AND give them the cold shoulder, so kill the two and be ready for a bit of a brawl.

Also, just saying, this run has made this powerup’s fun factor very apparent to me, it’s great to just go ham with this thing. To the left is a small tower, go in and up it, fighting the weaklings in there before engaging with the helions shooting you from the wall. In the next building there’s a stairway up to the mines to the left, but head right to fight some helions a glutton and some geniuses.

Near where the glutton was there’s a wall with an genius-like statue. You can hop over the wall to find a crimson salt rock, which you can’t mine yet but keep it in the back of your mind. Jump back over and follow the path into a room with a checkered floor. Inside the room, on the left is a door you can’t open yet and ahead is an altar with a time shard. However be careful because there’s a gap in the floor, so stick to the left to avoid falling in. Looking right, the chasm leads to a ledge you can follow that takes you into a room with a portal and an alchemy machine. Ignore the machine for now and go to the wall behind the portal.

Your rebel’s pendant or true sight will reveal that the walls are infact pathways into a room with an iron key padlock that holds the door ahead of you closed. Unlock it, and you will find that there are some NPCs inside who will give you a briefing.

The NPC who leads the rebels will chat with you for a while and explain to you that the NPC from Place Afoul has 3 items you need in order to face off against the final boss, and to find them you need to enchant a pendant of true sight with somebody’s mind. When the briefing ends, you’ll probably have noticed a mana fountain behind it. Ignore the mana bottle nearby and use your challice on the fountain, taking it when filled.

Talk to the other NPCs as well. The sculptor NPC will give you a diagram of somewhere you need to dig - A graveyard in the forests of Place Afoul. Nearby you will also find a pickaxe that you’ll want to take. The wise NPC won’t talk to you yet but he does have a neat recipe for stoneskin potion you can make use of.


(The Diagram)

Leave the rebel hideout and jump up the broken wall on the left to reach the alchemy machine. There’s a couple of readables in this room that explain it, but it’s pretty self explanatory. Mix any of 4 liquids - Blood, poison, oil and mana - with any of 3 coloured salts - Cyan, pink and green. The recipes nearby are only a few of what you can make with this thing. You can make everything from vials of health to recuperate after another fight or Lich soda. The choice is yours! You can also use your challice to fill the tanks of liquid.

Make what you want from the recipes you know of right now, I’ll try and list some of them somewhere if I remember. For now, head back through the ice cave you came from and drop down, then take a left. Open the iron key door to the cathedral-like zone and take a look inside. In the middle on your left there’s a switch you can press to open the way between the cathedral and the portal/alchemy room. To the right is one of the 5 NPCs you need to appease in this cluster. Go over and have a chat with it, and it will ask for mana. If you don’t have any you can go get some right in the rebel hideout behind the leader NPC.

When you feed the mark NPC mana, be ready for a fight. The mark NPC will push you back, and 2 pit lords will immediately be summoned and helions, geniuses and hellblazes will gradually join the fight, finishing with a glutton and 2 cerberi. When they have been killed, the NPC will talk to you and transport you to a new area…

There’s not much to say about this area when it comes to guiding you through it, but just take in the sights and sounds of this place and appreciate the lighting. The section itself is quite self evident in where to go and what to do. Just wander through and realize what it means to live again in these wild woods forlorn…

When you finish here, the NPC will tell you he wants an elixir of life and elixir of death. When you return back to the main part of the level, you’ll be near the wiseman NPC who you can now talk to to get some lore and such from him. When you’re done, head back into the area you found the mark NPC and go up the stairs, then use the iron key door on the left - Just to open it for later. Head through and hop down the left where you’ll find you’re back near the Hedonism book - And also near the torches puzzle.

Okay, so if you want to figure out the torch/oil puzzle yourself, you’ll want to head back and read up on the books - You’ll need to go back anyway so you can refill your chalice with oil by going upstairs and using the power pillar elevator to get up to that room. Either way, you need to fill the oil fonts in a specific order, which is right below:

Knowledge

Worship

Hedonism

Death

Once you’re done with the fonts, two sets of stairs will raise to the upper levels of this room, opening up another part of this level for you. Head up the stairs, past either of the doors and you’ll come up more stairs to a grate platform at the top in the middle of the room. There’s an anointed phylactery that was within a cage that you lifted. Grab this, because you’re gonna need it for your elixir of death.

Go down the stairs on your right and go into the hallway with the purple lights. On the right is a dark key door (for which you should have the key) and inside is a bedroom with a scroll of enchant trinket on the desk to the right. Take that and check the readable on the desk before stepping out of the room and heading down the hallway.

Past the red font are some ice caves (or are they salt caves?), an icy window on your right showing a room with a purple light and an altar. On the left is a cave across a gap that you can go into to find a few enemies and, across a gap, a worm next to a red salt chunk that you need. With the pickaxe you can now grab it - You need 7 and you should have 1 by now.


(Salt rock on the right)

Follow the wall right until you reach a tunnel with a lit torch outside of it, which will lead you to a dark key door. Open it and head through and you’ll be in the room you saw earlier through the window. Going through this room you’ll find an elevator lit in red. Jump into it and take it down… Only for it to break and crash down to the bottom floor - Where you are submerged in red liquid. Good thing you can exit the elevator from here.

Move through the tunnel, past the glowing gems to what seems to be a surface. You’ll realize you’re at another party, there’s so many of those in Hedon 2! To your left, near the edge, is another red salt chunk you can mine, making 2 out of 7.


(Salt chunk on the left)

Go back under the water and take a left this time, through the water and into another cave. There’s blood waterfall with some geniuses nearby and behind said waterfall is a bloody axe key. Some of you will need to come back here for something but that’s later.

For now, follow the glowing gems deeper into the cave, up some rocks and across the ledge near the party. To your left is a time shard you can snag if you do some light platforming. And to your right is a glowing red blood waterfall with a few skulls and heads bobbing at the entrance. Head up the stairs and down the ledges of the waterfall, where you will meet the fifth and last NPC you need to appease for their mark.

This one wants something rather simple. You need to betray someone important that trusts you and spill lots and lots of blood. So clearly, you have your work cut out for you. Turn away from them and head past the 6 pillars, then up the bridge. Grab the ammo here and go through the door on the left or right, then through the portal. Open the door and you’ll find yourself in the room you got the scroll of enchant trinket from. Then, head back through and down the bridge, before taking a right.

Look left over the gate once you get to the bottom of the slope, because there’s some geniuses coming from that direction. Fight them off, then climb up some planks and ladders nearby in order to get to the upper section of these salt mines. Kill the Hellblaze up here and go on up to the walkways where an initiate is likely taking potshots at you.

From the ladder you climbed up head right and do some light platforming to go down that walkway, then hopping through to the cave at the end (when you’ve dealt with the baddies to a satisfying degree). To the left on a table is a free red salt chunk you can pick up, 3 of 7 now!


(Salt chunk on the left, table)

Head through the cave, onto a wooden platform. THere’s a ladder up to the walkways and a hatch down to another level. You prooobably don’t wanna go down right now because there are 3 boss-tier enemies in this section of the level - The final boss from Episode 1 and two of the first from Episode 2 are to fight you. Funnily enough, they have much less health from before. You can snipe them quite effectively from the platform you’re on or from the walkways, although the episode 2 boss is a bit too quick for its own good.

However you choose to deal with them, afterwards go up the ladder to the walkway and head straight until you come to a right turn. Snipe down the glutton on the salt blocks and head over to the gate at the end, which is closed from the inside… You can, however, open the door from the outside with a bit of fiddling with the switch. Through there is a blood room with a path on the right that has a pool of blood leading into it, a path on the left with a plank to cross over to the other ledge. Hop down and head to the left, where a chunk of red salt hides behind 3 cages. 4/7! You’ll also note there’s blood key doors in this room… We’ll get there.


(Salt chunk on left)

Admittedly there’s not much left to do in here yet, so go out of the blood room and onto the walkway and continue along it until you find a ladder. Take it and you’ll come out into a cave with a barred door and a lit desk with a readable on it. It details a recipe for a sleeping potion… Deadly poison, mana and cyan salts. Interesting - Keep this in mind for later…

For now you might want to find your way down to the ground. Head back the way you came, then down the walkway to the blood room, but don’t go inside. Head down the salt blocks to the ground floor, where a few enemies might be waiting for you. Take a right and follow the path until you come to some open gates. There are lots of boxes in this section, and an elevator on the right that has a level transition symbol on it. Near that, a few iron maidens will aggro you and a few gluttons and a forge elemental will show up behind you, the latter destroying the gates that stopped you from progressing earlier.

Once they’re finished, head into the elevator and pull the lever to enter the second part of Paradise Lost. Once you get out of the elevator, to the left is a path up to a winch you can’t use and a window with a lot of bad guys. And to the right is a way out of the mines… And immediately a Helion’s shooting at you. You can snipe them down with your spike gun but an amusing way I like to handle it is to go up the ramp and to the right, using the contraption over the trench with the inactive hellclaw mines once.

This will launch an explosive and blow up the tower the Helion is in, resulting in a painful death. By now, you’ve noticed that there’s an NPC in the trench that you can chat with. Funnily enough you can actually kill this person, but I’m not sure if that changes anything because I’ve never had the heart to betray our side in my playthroughs.

Do what you will with them, then jump up to the explosives launcher you used a bit ago and take a left up the path marked by ropes, onto a ledge with two paths. The right one will have geniuses coming down it and on the left is a bridge to the tower you just blew up. Kill the geniuses and head down the right where you’ll drop down near a mine, with an obelisk in the middle of the section and nearby an explosives plunger you can use to blow up the wall.

Use that, and when the explosions are done it’ll have provided a method to both go back through on the ground level and also climb up to where you were. Climb up to where you were again, before hopping onto the right side of the rock you just destroyed. Snipe the helions with a spike gun if they’re annoying you, then head along towards a tunnel which leads into the base.

There’s a bit of a fight in here - Seems like the demons are having some infighting issues! There’s also an NPC in here, behind a closed door. Kill all the enemies, and then talk to the creature through the door, who wants you to collect something for him. He’ll give you a blood key…

Use the switch nearby to open the gate if you feel like it, there’s not much point since it’s mined to hell. Then head out the way you came and back to the mines with the obelisk and explosives plunger. Go into the tunnel entrance with the lit torch then follow the lanterns and platform over the lava lake to the other side with the red sigil pillar. Head inside the cave where you’ll find more sigil pillars and some stone chairs, and to the right will be a switch you can press.

When you do, the wall at the back of the room behind you will open, revealing a translucent warlock - Another Spirit Mistress, perhaps? Inside her room is another switch as well, which you can press to lower another wall in the main room which has a forge elemental behind it. Go through there once he’s dealt with and jump down once the tunnel ends at a broken bridge, heading left to find a shipwrecked boat on the shore. You can get inside through a hole on the right side and there’s a ladder up to the surface deck. There’s some supplies and a readable up there but nothing essential.

Once you’re done, head back and follow the main road south where you’ll find the orcish base camp, the other half of the base camp that was cut off from you for most of this cluster. You’ll be taken to a briefing with one of the leaders, where there is a map at your feet that shows you the locations of the NPCs you need the marks of to progress to the final level.



Chat with the NPCs in this - If you have spoken with the mark NPC that wants an elixir of life and death, one of them will refuse to show you it, but direct you to someone else who can tell you about it. There’s 3 NPCs in the tent but one of them’s a bit hard to see. They’re in a cage, that’s covered with cloth, though they do speak to you if you move close.

Turning around you’ll see 1 (potentially 2) NPCs you can chat with as well as a house. Go inside and you’ll find a maid and the bartender from earlier. If you gave them yeast, the bartender will have some booze (you can ask for more every once in a while) and a potion of stoneskin for you. Head into the back room, which is a kitchen, and you’ll find a quest item, some meat. You’ll understand what to do with that later.

Out the back door is an NPC that is tending to a farm plot who needs mana. If you have mana water in your cursed chalice you can give them some by putting it in the basket nearby. Go out the front and then down the slope, where you’ll see a barn ahead and a ton of NPCs guarding the gates on the left. A lot of the NPCs nearby are companions that you brought from all through the episode who survived your exploits, so feel free to relive the glory days.

To the right of the barn is a pool of amber and an NPC you can have a chat with, and then to the right of them is a pathway through the mines into the rest of the base camp. For now, go back up the slope where you probably noticed that there’s 3 earth mother NPCs conjuring at a stone that you can chat with and a dog guarding a room. It sits between you and the elixir of life...

Dejected, head through the normal base camp and talk with the shady fixer, who will give you a poison for the dog… Wait, that’s bad isn’t it? Yeah, but it is an option. Unless you have another option for putting it to sleep…

I, personally, have never had the heart to kill the dog. If you want to kill him, then that’s perfectly easy. Go to the dog and feed it the hog liver mixed with the poison, then step over its corpse and grab the elixir. That’s done and dusted. However, maybe you want to do things the preferable way… And if you were paying attention, we have like 300 things to do in Salt and Blood.

(DISCLAIMER: So I think the following only applies to Bearzerk. I don’t know. All I know is that I got a message from Zan that the location of the digsite had changed, so this is just a disclaimer to say that I may be talking out of my ass. You will find a digsite in Place Afoul that has this)

But before we head right into the level, go through the axeman gate of the main base camp and into the forest. Don’t take the bridge entrance - Instead hug the left, keeping an eye on your map, then ignore the first left turn and enter the middle pathway with the solitary rose bush in front of it. You’ll find a graveyard with 4 coffins and a defiled statue. Dig HERE and you’ll find a mithril chisel.



When that’s done, head back to the portal room and take the level transition portal to the rebel hideout. If you haven’t used that portal yet the portal here won’t be usable, but it should be pretty easy to get there.

Speak to the sculptor NPC in the rebel hideout and you’ll give them the chisel. They will tell you you need 7 of the red salt rocks for something… We’ll deal with that in a bit. Right now, talk with the blue mark NPC nearby and they will give you some extremely vague hints about how to make an elixir of death. Remember that phylactery you found? If you haven’t, it’s not too far away and you can look up where to get it under the effortlessly subtitled section, “Click to skip solution to font/oil puzzle”.

At the alchemy machine, use oil, mana, poison, pink and green salts and the phylactery to make an elixir of death. But where’s the other one, the elixir of life? I can’t bare to kill that poor dog… Well, today’s your lucky day. Also if you’ve somehow run out of poison you can actually use the bottle the shady fixer gave you to refill it a bit. Not sure if there’s any sources of poison in this level to scoop into your cursed chalice.

You remember that book in the salt mines that detailed a sleeping potion recipe? It told you that you need poison, mana and cyan salts to make a sleeping potion. You can then use that potion to make the dog sleep peacefully and snag the elixir of life.


(Oh yeah here’s that salt rock I was talking about like wayyyy at the beginning of Salt and Blood on the right. 5/7!)

Once you have all the blue mark’s elixirs, offer them to him and he will give you his mark. Turn and head out the iron door to the left, then go up the tower, across the bridge and up the stairs to the left. Go down to the end of the hall, ignoring a left turn, and you’ll find a door with seemingly no switch and a box in front of it. Check behind the box and hit the switch, and head in to grab your next red salt chunk on the coffin inside.


(Salt block on the left. 6/7)

Go up that left that you ignored earlier and explore these tunnels if you feel like it… If you want to get to Place Afoul from here: Go up the stairs, take the second right, turn left and walk over some mushrooms in the pit (might want to quicksave or have your diving suit handy as the gas down there will hurt if you fall). Then follow the tunnel to a level transition.

(ANOTHER DISCLAIMER: Again, I don’t know if I’m still talking out of my ass, but this SHOULD be where the Mithril chisel is for you if you’re playing normally.)

Go up through the crypt and open the way into the main room, before activating the switch on the coffin of the main room. This opens a room on the left with a bunch of cobwebs in it. Go inside, and look in the bone wall second from the left to find another switch. Press that, and the room opposite from the one you’re in will open.

Head across and there’ll be a few spirits who want to kick your ass. Kick theirs instead, and look at the open coffin in this room. Jump in and press the switch inside. This opens the room diagonally across from the one you’re in. Go inside and turn around, looking up where you’ll see a switch. Shoot it and the switch to open the exit to the crypt will be revealed for use.



Exit the crypt and you’ll see that there’s some geniuses around this graveyard. Pay attention to what you pick up in here, you might upset someone… Head right, moving along the path until you come to a split. There’s a pair of graves on your right, try and use the ground near it with a shovel and you’ll dig it up and be able to collect the mithril chisel from it.







We’re not done in Salt And Blood, so when you’re done in this place head back and go back the way you came. Once you cross the mushrooms, head down the slope and take a right and then a left, where you’ll find a high up ledge in a salt/ice/whatever area. Anyway, to your right is another red salt chunk, high up and nearish the blue mark NPC.


(Red salt chunk on the right. 7/7!)

If you have 7 salt chunks you can head back to the sculptor NPC, who will give you a statue of yourself for your efforts! Now, who wanted one of those… Hopefully some more salt spelunking will jog your memory!

Go to the dark key room where you got the scroll of enchant trinket (we’ll use that someday) and head through the portal to the salt mines. Go right, down the slope, then right - But ignore the scaffolding. Head left on the ground floor of the salt mines, up a ramp and keep going until you reach a tunnel with lanterns and a blood door on your left. Go through it and you’ll be back in the blood room we didn’t get to explore earlier. Thankfully we have the blood key from that NPC that wanted us to work for him to betray our people.

Head through the rooms, past the blood pool, window and cages and use the blood door at the far end of the cavern, wherein you’ll find yourself in a strange room with a wheel of pain with several skeletons who have long given up pushing it. Ignore the horrid sight and look to the ladder to your left. There’s no platform, but this game engine has some interesting momentum tricks, and there is one just above the ladder. Run against the ladder and it’ll launch you into the air, onto the platform hopefully. If not, you go splat.

From there you can platform up to a ledge with a switch you can pull to open up the path. If you remember, this is where we found that sleeping potion recipe… Anyway, walk to the end of the beam with the bag hanging off it and leap to the longer beam with the bag hanging off it, before climbing that and scaling the planks up to the ledge up ahead.

On your right is a lever you can grab to replace on a machine somewhere and a door you can open to somewhere much earlier in the level. Always open doors for yourself! On your left is a workbench area and a ladder into a… a blood tank. It’s a tank… of blood. At the bottom, it appears the tank has been blocked up by a red salt chunk.



Unblock the tank and it will flow into the wheel of pain room, where the chunk will fall down into the water and be retrievable if you haven’t gotten your statue yet.


(salt chunk on the bottom left. 8/7)

There’s a potion of haste you can grab on one of the ledges that is now easily accessible, and the other one, to the right of that, has something we need - A room with a spare winch wheel in it.



Punch out the crack in the window nearby after you pick up the winch wheel and head into the room on the left, where you’ll be ambushed by a warlock, a number of golems and a torrent of worms that unfortunately aren’t here for the party. When you’re done kicking their asses, go up the plank that leads to the exit to the walkways, but take a left and check the machine nearby. It needs a lever… And what did we pick up a few minutes ago? Use the lever with it and jump down to check the bottom of the machine, where another red salt rock has been made for you.


(Red salt chunk center. 9/7)

Head out of this area and go to Paradise Lost through the elevator route, I assume you know how to get there at least. Up to the left you can use that winch to release alllll those bad guys on your friends. It’d sure be funny to watch their entrails strewn across the battlefield. Just imagine the looks on their stupid faces!

… Well, I tried like 3 times. Up the right, in the trench is 4 heavily armed orcs with a good defensible position. It’s really pretty much impossible for them to be killed. It kinda just shows how powerful companions are and how much better the orcs are at combat than the cultists in lore. There’s even a cannon nearby that you can use to blow up yet more cultists for fun. Anyway, I assume that there’s a way to betray the orcs - I’ll experiment at some point and report back.

Anyway, once the cultists have been rather effortlessly repelled, go inside the fort and talk to the NPC who wanted you to betray them, who is blissfully unaware that his troops are dead and gone. He asks you to help them eradicate the camp. Why not eradicate him instead? Grab his head and take it down to Salt and Blood through the elevator.

When at the bottom, go through the blown up gate ahead and take a right up the slope, then take another right towards the red mark NPC. Offer them the head of the guy you just betrayed, and you will receive their mark. Head back to the base camp and form your next plan of action. Oh, also, if you are done with the alchemy machine you can give your arcane salts to the witch stirring the pot in order to get a few pox launcher grenades. If you pissed her off in Besieged by breaking her stuff this will serve as a bit of a peace offering. She’ll give you less ammo if you angered her that much, but she

Head to the portal room and take the port to the abandoned camp near Place Afoul. You’ll find that there’s about 3 NPCs here you can chat with! Before we proceed with our main objective let’s check on the port town that was all grey and such from earlier… After we deal with an ambush on the camp of some demons, of course. Some hellblazes, forge elementals, a number of cerberi and a pit lord all attack the newly manned camp. Fortunately, it is newly manned and with your help they cut through them like a hot knife through butter.

Go up the path to the port town where you’ll see that it’s not greyed out anymore… But instead manned by enemies with malicious intent. You could sneak from the passage where you got the yeast bag but really unless you’re on Brutalizing/Bearzerk, it probably isn’t necessary. You can stealthkill all but one enemy in this area with ease. Make sure you check inside the chapel for some goodies.

Head back down and past the camp, into the fungal caves. Take a left through the misty fungus bog and another left into the garden with the NPC near the psishrooms. Have a chat with him and infuse his brain with one of your pendants of true sight. You’re gonna need this guy’s help. The withered vine key door nearby is nice to unlock but very much not mandatory.

You can get everywhere you need to without it, but if you want to know it’s in secret 2 of Place Afoul - Or, if you’re crafty, you can get it basically at the beginning of the cluster by heading to the temple with the fire turret room and doing a bit of rocket trickery in one of the traps. It’s in plain sight, you just have to look carefully. Anyway, whatever way you enter, you’re bound for the cathedral at Place Afoul.

Head to the cathedral, the first building you came to on your first visit. When you do, the cathedral will change - And after the NPC who holds this domain talks to you a bit, a small army of foes will emerge from the shadows to combat you of all shapes and sizes. I’m pretty sure everyone but warlocks, iron maidens and golems show up here and they’re all out for blood. Thankfully, there is a ton of items littered throughout the cathedral arena that will help you survive and the bounce pads will let you keep moving in case you can’t deal with the enemies on the ground floor.

Once you finish the fight, walk to the purple mark NPC and you’ll see that there’s doors you can go through either side of them. Head through and listen to the NPC from your first visit, without hitting them. Turn to look at the windows, three of which are open - Head into the left, and jump into the mindscape, heading down, along and up the spiralling slope before leaping over to the pathway that you can see as you get to the top of the spiral. Don’t worry because A: the gravity is lowered in here and B: Even if you fall you’ll just be taken back to the beginning with a bit of health lost.

The pathway will have some pillars along it, and a number of translucent enemies (cerberi, initiates, ect) will try and stop you from progressing. Deal with that, follow the twisting path and you’ll come to a doorway into a dimension of bookcases. Big platforming section here - Jump on the ledge, then onto the bookcase on the right to get up to the “roof”. On the left there’s a table and some bookcases you can jump to and scale, where you’ll be able to platform to the next bookcase room.

As you progress through the library dimension you’re sure to notice that there’s now an entryway to the library rooms you found earlier on in the level during your first visit. By this point a warlock and a couple geniuses will probably have tried to attack you. Take the bookcase platforms up to the left and jump onto the tiled floors, where the path ends abruptly. On the right is a chair with an armour shard you can hop on, but don’t linger too long - Hop over to the nearby table before the chair starts lowering down towards the table with bookcases on it.

Platform over to the rest of the path and jump down the hole at the end, where you’ll land in an oversized test tube of water. Jump out of the water and, balancing on the glass, hop onto the test tube and then over to the massive cooking pot, landing on the handle .There’s a forge elemental hiding in the soup, so get out your acid pots for him. Balance up the spoon handle nearby and grab the item that you need here - One down, 3 to go.

You get teleported back to the cathedral, where the NPC will talk to some more. Again, don’t hit them if you want to fulfill the purple mark’s request easily. The rightmost window to the mindscape now has a staircase of clouds, and it leads to the test tubes you couldn’t reach beforehand. Hop over the two and onto the nearby magnifying glass, which has a handle you can use to traverse over to some beds. Go from the bunk bed to the single one, stepping on the headrest to jump onto what looks to be a padded cell.

There’s ghastly initiates firing bolts of harm down at you here as you platform between the padded cells, so shoot them down with your spike gun if you feel like it - Just watch your footing. Hop to the third cell, then hop on the higher ledge to the left. This circular arrangement of padded cells has a pit in the middle and a tower, and ledges of varying heights An initiate that wasn’t in your view will try shooting at you from a ledge far off, so jump up the next ledge, hop over to him from across the pit and kill him. You can see how to progress up here by following the trail of initiate ghosts.

Eventually you’ll be able to hop onto a scaffolding with a railing on the tower, and then you can jump up the next elevated padded cells. On the roof of the tower is 3 armour shards, so jump onto it and you’ll find a hole in the top of tower that you can drop into. In here you’ll find a laboratory with a big tank in the middle of it, containing golems, crawlers and a lovely psidemon. There’s also tons of fire bottles, some green pods and ammunition strewn throughout the arena. To the right of the entrance is a door that’s locked from the other side, and on the left side of the room is a door that will start an encounter once it is walked near, so be prepped for that.

The room will darken and the glass in the tank will break, allowing all manner of foes to pour out and hunt you down. The floor will be flooded to start but that will drain gradually - Geniuses and eventually helions, iron maidens and warlocks will gradually stream into the room, making for a cramped but satisfying battle. When finished, open both doors that were locked earlier (one of them should be open already but don’t forget the one that leads to the other section of the laboratory) and head through the door with the soul fragment item.

Pick it up and you’ll be transported back to the beginning of the mindscape once more. Listen to what the NPC has to say one last time and proceed up to the middle window into the mindscape which now has a stairway. You remember that thing you did as a kid where you’d jump on the bed? You get to jump between lots of them this time - From the first bed, jump onto the second bunk of the bed ahead of you, and use the pillow on it to jump to the next one, which is elevated quite high and has a ghastly melee cultist trying to stick you.

Kick his ass, then deal with the transparent psionicist up above and the melee cultist sleeping on the sofa. Then, in the king sized bed, drop into the bed-rooms ahead and you’ll emerge into a… rather large bed-room. Very large indeed. THere’s a pillow in front of you, and behind that is a massive mattress with tons of potions in the middle and a way out at the far end. Once you walk near the middle of the mattress you’ll start bouncing very high into the air, but once you get to the exit it’ll close off and a number of foes will spawn, itching for a fight.

This is a pretty sick battle, not gonna lie. It’s quite challenging but you have all the gear you need, all the potions you need and a pretty awesome premise for a battle arena. What’s not to love? I recommend starting by throwing some hellclaw mines here and there so maybe they’ll get a kill or two. Remember, the arena has ammo in it - And often, ammunition is a suggestion to use that weapon. If you want to stop bouncing the pillow has a nice stable surface you can not bounce on if you just want to shoot down some bad guys. All kinds of demons in all shapes and sizes show up, it’s just a big fun shootout in a bouncy castle. Enjoy it.

Once you’re done with that, head through the doorway that was blocked off for you and into the bed dimension. Group beds, queen’s beds, patchwork beds, kinky beds, beds of all shapes, all sizes you will pass through on your road to bedding the demon you have courted. But you have a choice to make… Take the last soul fragment, and look at the NPC. If you want to get the mark easily this is a good, quick way to get it - But there might be other ways if you can’t stand this person…

If you want to friendzone the NPC, just leave. Walk out the door with their soul fragments and they’ll scorn you and not be available anymore. However, there is someone who is… Remember the NPC who was having trouble earning their green mark? Go to the green mark NPC and deliver them your statue that you got a while back (to get to the green mark NPC from here go out of Place Afoul, past the garden with the psishrooms and to the temple with the fire turret room and you should be able to find your way from there), then talk to the NPC in front of the green mark.

They will tell you you need a ruby sword that is in the salt mines, and will give you a key that might help you find it - A bloody axe key… Hmm. Head to the portal room, go to the rebel hideout in Salt and Blood - But before you do, go into the rebel hideout and talk with the leader NPC and tell him you have the soul fragments.

After he gives you an item, head into the cathedral with the blue mark, then up the stairs and take the take the iron key door on the left. Move to the other side of the room following to reach the first dark key door, but go left down to the ice/salt caves, where you’ll seek out the second dark key door of this area.

Hop down the elevator shaft, into the water, and then swim left into a room with unspawned geniuses and a blood waterfall. If you laid traps for them, walk near the geniuses and then back up - Because they spawn in with proximity. Anyway, behind the blood waterfall is a bloody axe key lock that will unlock and lower some walls, revealing halls of… well, salt and blood. Roll credits!

You can’t progress down the left, but the right has a set of stairs you can walk up. Unfortunately, some demons will spawn, having caught wind of where you’re at… Nothing you can’t fix with a little demon murder. There’s a switch to the right you can’t access and a pathway to the left, so follow the door on the left and kill the demons nearby, including that hellblaze shooting you from behind the blood waterfall nearby. To the right is a switch you CAN pull, which opens a door on your right which will take you to a room with a genius and the sword you’re looking for.

Be ready for some spirits and other enemies to put you on their ♥♥♥♥ list… Granted, not too many, so it’s more like a polite defication list. Funny thing about geniuses - If you can get them in a hallway so you can chop them up with your axe, they’re actually surprisingly easy to deal with. Anyway, head back to Paradise lost, going back to the green mark. Give them the sword and they will give you the booty. Take their lock of hair once the cutscene is done (don’t worry, nobody’s in the nuddy in this game, no matter how much it might look like it), with said cutscene overhealing you for 50 HP! Quite a bonus, don’t you think?

Head to the purple mark NPC over in Place Afoul and give them the lock of hair, which will finish the requirements you have to complete to progress. If you are missing something, check your journal to make sure everything is ticked off. When it is, try and return to the base camp. Someone will find you and bring you there to a briefing, before you are taken to the forest, which has a ton of recruitable allies that you can pick up and bring with you.

However, there’s still probably a ton to explore in this level. Take a moment to go back to the base camp and chat with everyone present. Most characters will have at least one new thing to say to you. You can use the shady fixer to stock up, and also sell them your spare red salts for a decent sum. Some characters will give you stuff - The bear warrior you spared in the trench will give you a few amulets of shadow near the stirring witch.

If you want to and you haven’t given it away you can use the arcane salts to make some more stuff in the alchemy machine. You can go secret hunting, you can grab a turret from somewhere, you can nab some supplies that you left around, or do anything else you might need to do before you progress. Anything to bloat up that timer at the top right corner of the map!


God help me.

When you are done however, take a moment to reminisce on the past 10 levels. Episode 2 is truly an adventure, and I think it’s pretty hard to deny the amount of effort put into making it the best it can possibly be. And with that, we walk into these dark woods...

The woods have been filled to the brim with demons, forge elementals, pit lords, psi demons, gluttons, and utter chaos. A pure, simple battle for the future of the realm - It’s a great penultimate challenge, leading into the final level of the entire game… for now. It all culminates in a final charge against a wall of hellion unleashing a torrent of bullets on you and your allies as you fight off 3 pit lords, 3 gluttons, a small army of forge elementals and a psi-demon breathing down your neck.

But when all of that is done and you have cleared the forest of these dark inhabitants, it is time to say goodbye to Paradise Lost and say hello to the final portal. Once you go through the blood gate there’s no turning back, this is your no really last chance to restock, get everything you need and say goodbye to your friends. Maybe take a scenic walk down memory lane… Or just watch some demon dancers give you a show, cuz that’s always fun.

When you’re done putting it off (because in character you don’t actually have much time), head through the gates. It’s time to complete the Bloodrite.

E2M8-M10 COMPLETE!

Secret 1: At the beginning of the level, behind your starting spot is a cave that is blocked off by vines. If you return once the environment takes an ill turn, they will be thorns that you can burn to go inside and grab some goods.

Secret 2: In the pressure plate room with the fire turrets, go up the slope to said fire turrets and turn left to stand on a ledge with two pillars. There’s another elevated ledge across from you with a hole in the wall that you can jump to for some goodies and a body gem.

Secret 3: Near the copper key entrance to Place Afoul, past the abandoned camp, is a ledge on the right with some cream funguses on it. Hop onto the ledge and look for a secret passage hidden by a red bush. Crawl into it and throw an axe to trigger a tripwire that shoots a crushbow bolt at you. There’s some ammo and other supplies in here, and inside the box is a pillow with a note behind it detailing a map of the southeastern coast (near the place you spawned in this cluster) with an X marked on it. You copy it to your map and can go there to dig it up with your shovel if you like.

Secret 4: Inside the chapel of the port town, as you enter through the broken wall there is a wall opposite you with a demonic face, a carpet leading up to it. Use the wall and it will raise, revealing a room with some goods inside it.

Secret 5: From the orcish side of the base camp, leave out the main gate and hop on the leftmost ledge, going up it until you come into a tunnel. In a cave there will be a book and two pillars. Interacting with the pillars will light them up. The book will tell you that you need to light the first, third and fifth from south to north. You can use your map to tell what is more north from south. Activate the first pillar, then the one across the bridge and hop over into the other tunnel which has a broken bridge between here and there. Go inside and light the second pillar on the room, then turn right to the translucent warlock’s room where a wall will lower, revealing a portal to a room with some goods and a scroll of wizard’s eye.

Secret 6: In the graveyard with the crypt from which you enter the main path into Salt and Blood, to the left of the crypt (right if exiting said crypt) is a row of 5 gravestones, 2 of which freshly dug. The closest one to the crypt has a switch on the back of it you can press. Then, go inside and look on the left, near some candles and behind a cobweb will be a revealed secret crawlspace you can get a choker of the beast in. (CREDIT TO SAROIYA FOR FINDING)

Secret 7: This one’s a doozy. There are 5 obelisks scattered throughout the cluster. One of them is outside the temple with the green mark NPC and fire turret room in Paradise Lost, one of them is in the first section of the base camp in Paradise Lost, one of them is near Lord Eberon’s fort in Paradise Lost, one of them is outside the cathedral in Place Afoul and the last one is frozen in a cave in Salt and Blood with a note nearby. Each of them have letters which, when juxtaposed, spell the following:

“In a cauldron of fire, lies a portal glowing red. Seek it out, and facing northwards, take three steps and start to dig”











You’re probably wondering what the “cauldron of fire” and the “portal glowing red” is, right? Wonder no more. Head to the base camp and leave out the bear warrior route, following the path until you find a bridge… Over a cauldron of fire. Scale down to the lava and you’ll see a cave with a broken portal in it - Remember how one of the portals in the portal room is broken? Go over to the cave and dig here - Note that you need to have used at least 4 of the 5 obelisks (they will make a harp sound once first activated activated) in order to dig at the spot:



You will get a crystal key. The crystal key can be used in the forest leading to the entryway to the final level, in a ruin/crypt with 5 mini obelisks outside of it. Just explore the forest outside the axeman’s exit and you’ll find the crystal key slot. Inside you’ll find a ton of goods and a pair of Boots of Journey, a permanent buff you can take advantage of that lets you run faster!

Secret 8: Another doozy. The blacksmith will tell you about a book and demonic library that holds many secrets. From the green mark NPC, go down the stairs and towards the blown up gate, but don’t go through it. Take a right into the house nearby and jump up the ledges marked by fire crystals. Progress along the ledge and you’ll find a room with a red sigil pillar and a block with a cult symbol (If I’m honest it almost looks like a “no” symbol.) Press it and the pillar will lower, revealing what might be the most impressive but challenging secret ever made. Stock up on some fragfire ammo, make sure you save on a different file in case you give up or want a retry, and head on in.

You will fall, and then find yourself in a dark room. There is a fragfire can and a time shard ahead. Walk forwards, and some fire will spew from the right, revealing the two types of floors in this room - Walkable and not walkable. You can also see the principle here - Use you fragfire alt to light a path. If you walk on one of the black unwalkable tiles, you will be teleported back to the beginning of the puzzle. Note that this isn’t universal - When you progress sufficiently through the puzzle, failing won’t send you back as far, although if you fail again in the area it sends you to, it might. Always save!

ZanDev is a much better artist than I am, but they provided me with a map that I chose to annotate for clarity. Thanks to ZanDev for the image!



A good trick here is to use a couple of time shards. That way your flamethrower’s light will last much longer and avoiding fire turrets will be far, far simpler. It’s a costly way to do it but it IS a way to do it.

When you get to the end you will find a portal that’s opened by the last switch. Go through and you will find a library… Which is inhabited by some forge elementals and their urchin buddies. There’s tons of scrolls of magma bolt in here, enough to make an iron bound tome… Go through the portal and bring the book to the blacksmith. He will create what is in my opinion the second strongest weapon in the game. While it requires getting into melee range, the Ring of of the Red Monk lets you kill pit lords in one punch and a psidemon in a few. It’s a fantastic option if you run out of axes to throw and want to run in and shred some monsters. I’ve used it throughout this walkthrough and it has sped this up and been amusing beyond measure.









FULL MAP

Secret 1: In the dining room of the mansion there is a red chair. Open the golden key double doors, then nudge or sit in the red chair and a compartment behind the doors will lower, revealing a withered vine key and some goods.

Secret 2: In the laboratory where you find the arcane salts, a quarter of the way up the stairs there’s a table with a grass wall behind it and a golem facing it. On the back of the altar is a switch (I think you need an pendant of true sight for it but I don’t know that for sure). It opens the way for you to go into the painting the Lancer is stuck in. Unfortunately you don’t have the item to free her yet… Come back when you have your pendant of true sight infused with the mind of a servant. Go to the ballroom in Yzbeth’s mansion and go into the second door on the left. If you don’t have the servant’s mind infused with your pendant, ahead of you will be a chair and a brick wall… Otherwise, however, you’ll find the wall can be walked through and a doll will be on a chair inside. Use this to free the lancer.

Secret 3: In the hallway leading to the art exhibition, on the right is a door that leads to a mirror where your image attacks you. And on the left there is a door that won’t open but says it won’t budge. You can go inside of the mirror of the first door and there will be some stuff and a door inside. Use that door and the one down the hall that won’t budge will open to a room with a potion of might in it.

Secret 4: In the crypt you come into from the Salt and Blood path into Place Afoul there’s 4 demonic walls, on one side there’s a bucket - And a hole in the wall, with a switch inside. Shoot that switch and a door in the main room of the crypt will open with a stash of goodies inside.

Secret 5: At the entrance to the mindscape, take the leftmost window and get to the part of the path with pillars on either side. Before you pass into the library dimension, on the right there is a table with some chairs. Jump onto the table, then turn right and jump onto the bookcase, right again and onto a pillar - By now you should see an armour amulet on one top of one of the pillars - Then jump on one of the higher pillars and then onto the pillar with the armour amulet on it.

Secret 6: In the bedroom of the NPC you’re dealing with throughout Place Afoul, there are 3 tiny switches that must be pressed in order. Starting from the dark key double doors you enter through, jump behind the sofa to your right and the first one will be on the back. Press that, then across from you will be a table by the pool with 2 lounging chairs. Jump on the table and behind it is the next switch. Finally, head right towards a fireplace (there’s some instruments nearby including a lute and a harp). Crouch inside the fireplace and on the left side of the inner wall is the last switch. A door will open in the fireplace, revealing a room with some goods including a choker of the beast and a heavy armour amulet, as well as a few pieces of art. (CREDIT TO SARIOYA FOR FINDING)

Secret 7: From the graveyard in this level that connects to Salt and Blood, go down the path that leads away from the cathedral and scale the ledges to the right until you find a passageway that leads near the obelisk in this level. Then, carry on right on this ledge until you find part of the cathedral’s structure. Crawl underneath and you’ll find a skeleton hoarding a greater healing potion, an axe, a revenant bracer and some armour shards. (CREDIT TO SAROIYA FOR FINDING)





FULL MAP

Secret 1: In the room with the hellfire oil and sacrificial blood wells, on the right side (the oil side) there is a torch near a wall that doesn’t have a flame. If you look closely you will notice that there’s a switch inside the torch. Press it, and the wall in front of you will open, revealing a cave with some goods and a passage deeper into the caverns.

Secret 2: In the room with the hellfire oil and sacrificial blood wells, at the back of the room under the blood red sigil is 3 sets of body, mind and spirit gems. One of the gems, the body gem (square one) on the leftmost collection, is missing. If you have the body gem from Secret 2 in Paradise Lost, you can put that in the slot and open a door nearby which has a ton of potions, a scroll of inferno and a portal to get the scroll of enchant trinket early.

Secret 3: At the bottom floor of the Bone Hall, in the room with the book about Death, there are two curtains. The one on the right has money behind it, the one on the left has a secret ladder to a room with some vials of health and gold. In the fire place is also a spot where you can open a secret door leading deeper into the caverns.

Secret 4: Near the dark key door up the stairs that are raised by completing the oil font puzzle, there is a font with a red gem at the bottom. With blood in your chalice, use the chalice with the font and down on the floor below (in the room with the Hedonism book) some floors will lower, revealing a secret - And spawning a pit lord and a couple of his lackies. In the secret will be a chest with some consumables, gold and other goods.

Secret 5: In the salt mines, near the elevator level transition, there is a large stack of boxes. You can drop down from the walkway onto it, into a box of hay with a greater health potion in it to soak the damage. When you land, jump down onto the box to the left and turn, crawling into the nearby box for an armour amulet. There is a more painless method of getting this secret, however - Nearby there is a guard tower with a ladder to climb up. Climb up the guard tower, turn around to face the stack of boxes and (after making a quicksave to make this easier) try to jump towards the highest box you can reach on the right, making sure to slow down so you don't end up overshooting and falling down. From there, jump over to the box with the armour amulet inside it. (Thanks to HBar for finding this method)

You spawn with a gate closing at your back and a demonic church ahead of you. Step forward, and an enemy commander will speak - He will comment through the level as you gain more ground. To your left is a bridge to a bloody axe key door over a dam of blood and a bloody axe key gate, both of which are unopenable at this point. To your right is a slope, up which you can find and face a large assortment of enemies, including some that are arguably a new type - The Nuclear Maidens. This is a pretty combat heavy level and requires a lot of opportunities for bloodshed, infighting and tricks - But I’ll try not to talk too much about enemies.

These enemies can be excessively annoying to deal with but are introduced in a way that teaches you how they work. Along with 5 cerberi, some pit lords and gluttons behind them, the Nuclear Maidens are translucent Iron Maidens that, upon death, explode. This can work in your favour sometimes… As commonly as it can ♥♥♥♥ you over. A good way to deal with them is, as always with Iron Maidens, stay away and bomb them with acid potions. If you’re lucky or time it right you can get them to blow up more tanky enemies, or even set off a chain reaction with other nuke maidens.

On the left of where you entered the map, there are some windows that some hellblazes will spawn in and try to shoot you. Funnily enough on my second playthrough I somehow accidentally rocket jumped up there and carried on as normal. That was pretty fun! For now though, head down the right where there’s 5 helions stationed in the windows above to shoot down at you. Kill them, then pass under the bridge where you’ll find a courtyard… And your statue. In the middle is a blood fountain with plenty of health potions in it to keep you hydrated, so that’s nice.

As you walk into the statue you’ll notice that the statue you made for the green mark quest in the last level is here… And now you’re also under fire, so once you’re done being transfixed with your immaculate beauty, deal with the helions, hellblazes and hedonistic gluttons harassing you. Keep in mind there’s a revenant bracer near your statue. Geniuses will join in the bloody waltz, and before long so will the inhabitants of a nearby tower. Near the fountain, on the right of where you came into the courtyard is an entrance to said tower. Assuming the helions to the right have been dealt with (through murder or infighting), check the grab some health nearby before heading up the stairs on the left.

A trail of armour shards leads into a room with a tree in the middle, stairs to the left and a pathway to the right. Take the stairs to the left and kill the two helions down the first turn (there’s a door behind them that we’ll get to), then down the long hall that has tons of armour shards and a pit lord at the end, start tossing some hellclaw mines down the hall, spacing them out somewhat so they’re not all in one bunch. Once you head down the hall, a small army of cerberi will rush down it, looking to burn your face off. Even then you aren’t gonna get all of them, so consider using one of those revenant bracers, maybe a time shard or two. Really, just use whatever you want - These fights can get brutal at times.

Hellblazes will also spawn behind you at some point so watch out for that. When you’re done with them, take your buffs down the hall, to the room with the pentegram, where you’ll find a path full of hellblazes, helions, nuke maidens and a psidemon. In here is also an armour amulet and you might want one, so grab that if you can.

Pass through into a room with an elevator and a key on top of some boxes, which you’ll obviously want to grab - The illusive bloody axe key… Next to some rather pretty looking ammo.



Grab the key and the ammo sitting near it, before jumping behind the boxes and down the ledge, which will land you near some hellblazes potentially. Wipe them out, and head down the hallway they were in, into what can only be described as a barn. Kill yet more hellblazes and some forge elementals outside (you can unlock the gate here with your new key), before proceeding outside to the left, into a room with plenty more hellblazes, helions and forge elementals than one might be comfortable with dealing with in such tight quarters.

In the middle of the room is a massive stack of boxes one can use to climb up to the walkways and bells, or you could just use the ladder like a normal person. At the VERY top is a glutton with a fairly good vantage point and - like all demons - no clue how to use it. Climb to the top, then kill the glutton and head into the walkway overlooking a church, complete with benches and a prayer book… A demonic prayer book… Remember the first and second level, how you closed them and something big opened? Unfortunately you can’t reach it yet, because it’s blocked by a force field, but we’ll sort that out.

Either way it doesn’t matter much because helions and cerberi are spawning up here and gluttons and psidemons are spawning down below. Cross over the walkway if you can and then down a ladder that leads to a slope of stairs. Fight the cerberi, helions, pit lords and what not in here before going into the main room of the church. You could just fight the gluttons and psidemons off from above, but wouldn’t it be funny to just punch them to death? Give it a try!

Head up the stairs you came from again and use the walkway on the right to return to the room with the tree in the middle. Go up the stairs here and take the first left (remember this was the place with the 2 helions and the door?) before opening the door to the study. Inside is a rather luxurious study room in the tower, which you can explore to find that a few enemies spawn in to try and stop you. It’s kinda piddly really, so they shouldn’t be too hard to kill.

Head upstairs and look around up there until you find a portal in a room hidden behind the bed. Go through it and you’ll be taken behind the force field that blocked you off from accessing the book, which you can now close…



Once you close the book, a door on the right will burst open and some cerberi will come through to try and ruin your day. The door will lead you out to the courtyard, which is where you wanna go. Go up the stairs to the blood pond and your statue and approach the door nearby, which will open to an exceptionally strong pit lord. Be sure to take some cover every now and then because sometimes he can use the moves of Episode 1’s final boss on you.

When you’re ready to leave this area behind, go into the next room and meet your foe. The final battle begins…

Or not, he just tosses you into a pit. Shame really. Well, roll credits! Bye bye! See you later, show’s over…

... Okay not really. You fall and arrive with a buff giving you slowfall and low grav, and you land on an elevator. There are pathways ahead, to the left and right and behind you, though the one behind you is the last you will go down. In order to go there, you need to place the 3 soul fragments in their slots so that they can unlock the door.

Turn left and follow the path with vials of health, going through the door either side of the wall where you’ll find yourself in a huge sanctum. Nearby is a pool full of healing potions, in the middle of the sanctum is a row of bounce pads which can take you up to a platform above with a ton of armour shards on it. The ledges on either side of the arena have their own bounce pads and some ammo to tide you over, which probably means you’re going to fight some baddies here.

Past the row of bounce pads is a massive pit - Bounce up to the platform above and try to use the purple machine inside. It won’t let you, so drop down into it to see if you can fix the problem. Exiting the door at the bottom you will find a lever that you can throw. The game will autosave, so maybe you should too. Throw the switch, and once you do, jump up onto the platform to your left, which will have a bouncepad.

Make sure you land where you mean to because lava is going to be slowly rising as you ascend up the platforms - All the while you’re getting shot at by helions, spikethrowers, initiates and whatnot. And after you succeed and rise to the top, you will find that there are enemies up top as well, in the totally-not-arena that is now an arena. Bounce pads will help you avoid the cerberi, pit lords and nuke maidens but only bullets and bombs will help you against ravenous gluttons, irritation initiates, pissant psionicists and hassling hellblazes. Not to mention the warlocks breathing down your neck and helions coming to put an end to your happiness.



Once they are all dealt with, jump back on the platform using the bounce pads and use the machine inside the tube to place the soul fragment and let you exit this hellish section… Only to realize that several hellish enemies have spawned. Some hellblazes on the ledge on the opposite side of the elevator and some gluttons on a walkway nearby. When you deal with them whatever way you like, jump on the ledge the hellblazes were on and head through the door, where you’ll see the next soul fragment tube. This time though you can’t just jump down the pit…

Especially since some nuke maidens spawn behind you and a glutton to your left. This wing of the dungeon is the land of ambushes and it demands your attention. Geniuses and warlocks join the fight too, resorting to dirty tricks to get you. Use your low gravity to your advantage, hopping onto the bridge in the middle of the room where there’s some armour shards to keep you safe.

Once done, from the entrance head right along the path until you come to a doorway that leads into a laboratory. There are 3 psidemons lurking in here along with some golem minions and some initiates dotted here and there. To make matters more dire, once you aggro the enemies in here, 2 gluttons will spawn behind you in the doorway, and in the lab at some point cerberi drop in. A good tactic to use - Pay attention to what’s on the shelves of the lab, and see when you can make use of it. Those fire crystals look fun…

When you’re done crushing demon heads between your fingers, jump up on the walkway in the middle of the laboratory, and drop into the chamber marked by purple light and head across the bridge. Place the soul fragment in the machine and start to leave… Only to have helions break the windows of the bridge and gluttons to rain bile on you. Exit out of one of the broken windows and take them on head-on, before heading back to the library and through it, into a grand hall.

In this hall live 2 pit lords and a small army of worms with a bad appetite. You can also get up on the ledge above to grab some armour shards and a time crystal, and some ammo above that. When you’re done raining hell down upon them, on the other side of the fountain from where you came is another lab… Although the tests in there are much more lively so to speak.

Inside, to your right is a passage locked off by tendrils, and to your left is a room with 6 test subjects - An initiate, pit lord and lack of existence on the right and an egg sac, crawler and hellblaze on the left, each trapped in a test tube with a switch on it. Feel free to press all the buttons but only the egg sack is important. Use that sac test tube and it will open the tendrils that you couldn’t bypass in the other room.

Unfortunately, that also means it opens lots of test tubes for crawlers to come at you, and golems burst out of their pods to fight with you. Head up through the corrupt caves, taking a left along the blue glowing passage littered with armour shards until you reach another test tube, which has a familiar artifact near it and a battered readable. Nearby you might have aggroed a warlock, so deal with them - And from here you should be able to see the soul fragment tube you need to reach.



Mind the psidemon, crawlers and glutton you pass as you go to install the soul fragment into the machine, which will release some golems but also complete your objective. Head back to the elevator that you started this section of the level at, minding that you don’t get killed by golems and gluttons, and you’ll find that a sizable number of enemies have spawned in the main sanctum to kill you. Warlocks predominantly, but helions, gluttons, pit lords, even cultists and forge elementals might try and take a bite out of you.

It’s pretty fun to fight them in this room actually. The potential for platforming and dishing out mayhem is as high as it’s ever been - Space jumping around killing Warlocks is kind of a blast! But when you’re done, head for the elevator and go to the place that was barred to you before, which will now be open to you. Release the friend from the prison, and after a brief cutscene you will be able to go to the final battle of the game…

Before you engage in the final battle, as always, stock up on what you can. There’s a portal somewhere that you can use to return to the first section of the level with, so go grab some stuff from there and hunt some secrets if you feel like it. When you’re ready, however, it’s time to return to the elevator, which is now charged enough to work. Use it, and you’ll be brought to the final arena…

To fight the final boss, shoot it until it dies. You can’t get in close enough to melee them so don’t even try it. A bunch of enemies will spawn - Mega pit lords, gluttons, cerberi and potions litter the ground floor, and there’s a bounce pad you can use to access the higher ones. The second floor up has a platform with a bunch of grass and some trees, with some hellclaw ammo dotted around it, as well as some bounce pads you can get even higher with. Jumping up into the windows nearby you will find some helions and hellblazes are stationed here to rain death down on you, but there’s some armour shards and ammo inside, so pick it up if you can.

On the grate walkway in the upper middle of the arena is tons of paingun ammo and some helions, and above that on the very top floor is a pair of heavy armour amulets, a revenant bracer and the ability to be a sitting duck for glutton fire because on the top floor of the outer part of the arena, where a diverse assortment of ammo is interspersed between gluttons, hellblazes and your final boss.

Speaking of which, a good way to handle him is… Well, of course a good start is always to deal with the baddies around first, but it’s not that simple because he is also fighting you. He has a few moves - He can bounce you away from him if you move too close to him, he can shoot you with a focused laser fire at long ranges, he can use the psidemon’s generic archvile attack, and he can teleport around the arena, confusing you quite severely which is compounded by his final skill - To appear mostly translucent and attack you from a direction you can’t discern. Also he can duplicate himself! He’s

You can still see him but it’ll often be too late, when he’s firing on you with a focus laser. As I said before, a good tactic is to start with his lackeys before getting to him, because his lackeys are perhaps his most consistent source of damage. A good way to get rid of a lot of the enemies here is to use that revenant bracer up top and go ham with it.

Remember that, while your axe throw might have a cool down, your normal attack with the axe (which shoots frozen bolts while the revenant bracer is on) does not so you’ll always do some decent damage. It’s not great against the boss itself, but it’s okay in a pinch. Don’t blow too many cooldowns yet because this is only the beginning.

As you can probably imagine, the paingun absolutely shreds his health and there’s plenty of ammo around. The crushbow alt fire works well, especially combined with the haste potion. Even the spike gun, combined with a haste potion, does pretty legit damage here. The fragfire and other weapons are probably best relegated to slaying other foes - The crylance actually does decently against the crowds but isn’t too substantial against the boss itself. Funnily enough, if you use your time shards while the boss is shooting his laser at you, you can melee him quite easily although it won’t last long and you’ll want to move as time gradually returns to normal before the brunt of the laser bares down on you.

Strategic use of the psicrown is invaluable in this fight if you still have access to it, and a choker of the beast might be invaluable here, as would an amulet of shadows - And as always, potions of stoneskin are always helpful in this arena. When you’ve taken the boss down to 74% HP he will activate the second phase of the fight, which means a total change of arena…

Everything goes black, then you fall into an ocean, with a giant version of the boss rising out of the water. Some waves will come towards you which will mortally wound you, and the only way to avoid a lot of them is to dive. Get our your elemental ring because this place is gonna be rough. To your left and right are pillars that reach up into the sky with walkways that connect to one behind you… And said pillar behind you is your goal. Dive under to avoid the waves and hopefully the ire of incoming warlocks and geniuses (by the way, those genius’ electric bolts really hurt if they hit near you when you’re underwater)

On the pillar at the back as you turn around, you’ll note that there’s a light on it which is where you’ll want to get up. Get up onto the ledge there when you surface and climb up the ladder, where you’ll be on a ledge, nearby a walkway that you can jump to will be swarming with cerberi. However it’s pretty easy to make them fall… Shoot a crushbow bolt and some of them will fall into the water. At the end of the walkway is one of the pillars with a bunch of psionicists and a switch. This is one of your goals - To shut down each beacon.


(Switch on lower right. 1/3)

Once you’ve thrown that switch, head up the ladder on the right side of the pillar and once you’re done with the enemies up there use the bounce pad nearby to jump to the top floor of the next pillar and then use the bounce pad there to get to the top floor of the last pillar. There’s an absolute army of psionicists on the very top and you start to see their threat. In groups they can absolutely hammer you with psionic attacks, but as long as you can keep moving you won’t be too badly hurt. The beacon is on the floor right below the very top…


(Switch on center right, 2/3)

When you’ve hit that switch, turn around and drop down onto the bridge, crossing it until you reach the pillar. Drop down two floors down the pillar and you’ll find the final switch you need to press to progress. With that, the third phase will begin...


(Switch on lower left, 3/3)

You begin the phase at a place that will be familiar if you played the first episode… You’ll be at 1 HP and in need of some recovery items. Thankfully, there’s plenty around here. To your right is a friendly NPC you’ll want to chat with for some information. On a table to your left is a potion of stoneskin as well. Head through the curtain door and into a room with a pot and a large health potion on your right. Then go through the door into the main hallway, where some NPCs will be chatting amongst one another. You can chat with them by a lantern or head down the path to the right and head upstairs, to the library from Grove. You should remember where you are now.

Take advantage of the food, ammo and conversation in here to learn what’s up. There’s lots of cheer and merriment about…So naturally, it’s a good time. There’s some supplies strewn around this place, so you’ll want to grab them up before you head to the bottom floor. You will be asked to gather up all your friends to meet on the bottom floor.

Head upstairs and tell the reaver and fixer to go downstairs, then up the stairs more to the library. Tell the people at the table and finally the lancer by the tree to come downstairs, and take a good look around for ammo and health… Before heading to the bottom of the stairs, to meet the people outside.

Take the key on the table and open the door. Once the door is open, you will find that the NPCs nearby have automatically become companions, so step outside and arrange each of your new allies at the barricades outside of the library, two at each spot. Make sure you work quickly, because enemies are coming soon. There’s some gear nearby that you can grab, including an armour amulet and some toxic bombs. Might be a good idea to chuck some of those toxic bombs down the pathways the enemies come from to halt them for a bit while your friends get some shots in.

From this holdout, you can skirmish in the middle against the demonic attackers, making sure to protect your allies. Remember that there’s plenty of health potions on the barricades to keep you ticking along. Pretty much every enemy under the sun is coming for you - From pit lords to forge elementals to hellblazes to psidemons to armies of melee cultists to iron maidens… Can’t suggest much other than just rampant demon murder, but then that’s all you need right?

When you’ve finished, your friends will tell you to go attack the Reaver HQ nearby. Recruit your friends to follow you again and from the exit to the library take the rightmost path to the reaver HQ, where you will fight another small army of enemies including helions, gluttons, iron maidens, cerberi. After a while a bunch of hellblazes and pit lords will spawn behind you. Just rip and tear, slaughter and butcher the demons until they’ve been purged from this place. Give them no quarter…

You emerge into the first arena, where the fight will continue similarly to before - Although the enemy has a few new tricks. He can fly, has an attack where he flings balls of magic at you and can expel bolts of ice in all directions around him. A good tactic is to keep your paingun stocked and stay back a decent distance. Sometimes, your crushbow’s alt fire can stun him, interrupting his attacks… Always make sure you’re cycling through consumables.

And remember - This is the last time you’ll ever be able to use these weapons, items and consumables. If you have something you want to use, use it. If you have sentry guns, plop them down strategically around the arena. At the 39% mark of his HP, the boss will transport you to another place…

You will find yourself falling into a deep, grand darkness. There are walls around you that will eventually turn into razors that will instakill you, and you will fall towards blood puddles that will deal rather significant damage to you as you fall. Eventually, you will need to fall into your friend in the center or you’ll fall into a ring of blood that will damage you. Either way, you get spat back into the arena, but it’s preferable to fall into your friend.

Anyway, you’re back in the fray and there’s even more enemies trying to tear you a new one. Funny thing I found is that the boss’s flying form can actually quite safely be melee’d. At around 24%, the boss will transport you into another new, this time an arena with a pillar and him in the middle. Around you are several white discs on the floor, one of which will turn orange. You’re going to want to hide behind that one, which will block the attacks the boss shoots at you. Eventually the boss will spit you back out, where the boss will have gone back to his grounded form (so he can’t be melee’d any more).

At 19,14 and 9% he will return you to this realm where you need to hide behind the orange disk. Remember - Shoot him until he dies. More and more enemies keep spawning in so it’s a bit of a DPS race to bring him down before he brings you down.

Once you bring him down to 4%, you’ll have won. Nothing else needs to be done - Simply take a moment to chill out, sit back and watch the story play out. Most of your decisions and the things you’ve done and achieved throughout episode 2 will come into play in some way during the ending and a lot of the fun is just watching stuff and imagining how things progress from here. Take a moment to enjoy what is imo one of the best endings to an FPS game!

When you’re done with it, you might get that empty feeling in your gut - Sadness that there’s nothing left to experience in Hedon. Well, there is - There’s a ton of secrets you might have missed, some decisions you might not have made, some tricks you might have ignored and this episode has tons of easter eggs for you to find that I haven’t found. So if you’re looking for stuff to do in this game Hedon is a gift that keeps on giving.

On the other hand, maybe you’re a creative sort… And maybe you’re skilled with doom editor. Why not make a new map or two? Hedon needs new user maps and the new assets present in Bloodrite make for new possibilities within the world of Hedon, chances to render a lovingly crafted underworld environment or make additions to Zan’s burgeoning arsenal. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and make stuff. I hope you’ve enjoyed your time with this game and that this guide has helped you to figure out its more esoteric puzzles and requirements. And with that, I bid you adieu… Until Hedon 3! Muhahahaha!

E2M11-M12 Complete!

HEDON 2 COMPLETE!

Secret 1: Open the bloody axe key door to the study in the first third of the level. On the other side there will be 3 suits of armour. Like always you can break them… Except one on the left, which if you use will fall apart and reveal a blood key. Go to the courtyard with the key and near your statue will be a blood pond you can dive into. If you still have a diving suit with some air, this is a good place to use it - Otherwise pop an elemental ring.

A few psidemons and some warlocks linger beneath the water here, so be careful and aware of cover you can use. Use your night vision goggles if that makes things easier. Anyway, from the blood pond’s entrance into the caves, take the left path, then take the first right. Use the blood key door, surface, grab some goodies if you like and use the portal to return to the study where a bunch of alcohol is waiting for you. You can open the secret passage here in order to return before you face the final boss and stock up on some of the consumables here you might have missed.

Secret 1 (Unmarked): In the second section of the level, after you free the friend from prison - Before you go up the elevator - There’s a portal that you can see from the elevator, opposite the prison your friend was in. Jump into it and you’ll be transported to this episode’s Patreon rewards room where you can find some pretty badass artwork being displayed and also use this room to get back to the first section of the level if you so choose.

Secret 2 (Unmarked): In the third phase of the boss, in the library from Grove, if you remember there was a secret compartment that you could access by using a book that was jutting out of one of the bookcases. If you check there now you’ll find a scroll of inferno, the most powerful weapon in the game.

Thank god this thing is finally on Steam. Now you guys can read it as you wish. This was a chore to make the first time, luckily spamming it onto Steam is a much easier thing to do. I hope that you've enjoyed Hedon, it's one of few games that I'm truly passionate about and that's mostly because I've been so involved with it, and it's become a part of me as well. I hope that we can see many more levels, both official and fanworks in the future, and I hope that you will join me and I can continue to create instructions for the game in the future. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm months overdue another playthrough.