In this guide, I will tell you [and eventually show you] what the best order of objectives is to survive and get your easter eggs. So far, this guide is complete until Wales Interactive adds a new level; when they do, I'll be all over it like a cat and canned food. That said, if you want to know how to handle the seasonal and miscellaneous Easter Eggs/Challenges, check out my other guide!
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3381665846




- Cursed Lands of Lavernock [COMPLETED]
- Ashes of Sker Hotel [COMPLETED]
- Sewers of the Dead [COMPLETED]
- Deadly Lover's Fortress [COMPLETED]
- House of the Damned [COMPLETED]
- Tides of Terror [COMPLETED]
- Possible New Level?

These were all done on Nightmare, thus if you follow my guide's wave count to the letter, you might be strapped for cash and will worsen if you bring your friends along.

CASH/POINTS
Unlike Call of Duty, you only get points if you kill or assist in killing an enemy. But if you're lucky enough to pick up a Triple Points power-up while fighting a boss or miniboss, it will triple their already large payout into something bigger. Make it rain, my friend!

DEATH
While it's common knowledge that you can prevent losing your gear and perks with what I've come to call and AfterLife Token, most people don't know is that if you die at the end of a mission's Hidden Story [which means you die after defeating the level's 'World Boss' a second time], it will still count towards completion.

SUPERCHARGER
This is basically your Call of Duty Pack-A-Punch, except in this game, Pack-A-Punch goes up to Tier 5. Each Tier grants a damage boost and 23% more ammo.

PERKS
Here are all the available perks in the game and their Call of Duty counterparts, since most people call them by their CoD counterparts:
Elixir of Life -> Juggernog
Stallion Juice -> Stamin-Up
Fast Hands -> Speed Cola
Swift Death -> Double Tap
Shock And Load -> Electric Cherry
Get Up N Go -> Quick Revive
More Gun -> Mule Kick

EASY/NORMAL PRICES

Supercharger
Tier 1 -> 5K
Tier 2 -> 15K
Tier 3 -> 30K
Tier 4 -> 45K
Tier 5 -> 60K

Perks
Elixir Of Life -> 2.5K
Stallion Juice -> 2.5K
Fast Hands -> 2.5K
Swift Death -> 2.5K
Shock and Load -> 2.5K
Get Up N Go -> 2.5K
More Gun -> 2.5K

HARD/NIGHTMARE PRICES

Supercharger
Tier 1 -> 6K
Tier 2 -> 18K
Tier 3 -> 36K
Tier 4 -> 54K
Tier 5 -> 72K

Perks
Elixir Of Life -> 3K
Stallion Juice -> 3K
Fast Hands -> 3K
Swift Death -> 3K
Shock and Load -> 3K
Get Up N Go -> 3K
More Gun -> 3K

Every 2 rounds, you get a miracle counter. these counters can be traded in for special abilities in the miracles menu [M]. You can mix and match, but only certain mixes are more powerful than others. First, Let's have a look at the Patrons' basic abilities:

- Morrigan: Crits and Damage Boosts
- Draig: Fire Damage and Explosions
- Taranis: Lighting Damage and Damage Boosts
- Goon Brenn: Speed and Sales
- Cyhyraeth: Stun and Damage Boosts
- Brigid: Health and Defense
- Cailleach: Frost Damage and Defense
- Nuckelavee: Poison Damage and Life Leech

Each god has 2 potential 'Hybrid' abilities. This is when you've shown so much love to only 2 patrons that they decide to grant you their combined blessing. These blessings range from:

- Brigid + Nuckelavee = Grants a Poison shield that explodes once hit enough times, inflicting 20 damage on the user.
- Brigid + Cailleach = Grants a chance to slow enemies and heal when hit.
- Cailleach + Taranis = Grants a chance for weapon to overcharge for a few seconds for extra damage.
- Nuckelavee + Cyhyraeth = Grants a chance to heal with every attack dealt.
- Taranis + Draig = Grants a damage boost and a small chance to stun and ignite enemies at the same time.
- Cyhyraeth + Morrigan = Grants better prices with Lucky the dog. [aka a living Mystery Box.]
- Draig + Goon Brenn = Grants better charging time for your Ultimate and Molotov.
- Morrigan + Goon Brenn = Grants an aura that triggers randomly, giving the player almost 100% crits for a few seconds.

Money needed for objective items/necessary doors on Nightmare:

First 2 doors leading from Old Chapel to the Village: 1500 pts
Door to Graveyard: 1800 pts
Wheatfield Hatch to Main Chamber: 3300 pts
Second Main Chamber door: 1800 pts
Thunderbolt: 2400 pts
Vault door next to Elixir of Life: 1200 pts
Library Door: 600 pts
Door from Lab to Charging Area: 600 pts


Total points needed for Main Story: 13'200 pts

Recommended Loadout for the first Abraham encounter:
- Thunderbolt [Tier 1] (Tier 2 if possible)
- Pistol [Tier 0] (to pick off a few enemies without killing the group)
- Elixir of Life, Stallion Juice, Fast Hands, Swift Death

Recommended Loadout for the second Abraham encounter: [this is what I used..]
- Thunderbolt [Tier 3]
- Pavlov Automat [Tier 1]
- All perks except for Get Up N' Go

Wave 1 Right out the gate, buy the door on your right. After that, spend the whole wave just knifing the enemies to get a total of about 1090 pts [this is without the Triple Points powerup]. With this amount of cash, buy the door straight down the path from the previously opened one for 900. Not only is this the fastest way to one of the generators and the Village itself, but it is also the fastest path for another objective later on.
If you still have a straggler running around, you can start going around and destroying the 4 Generators in the Village. Each generator only needs 2 knife hits to break:
The first one, we've seen in passing.
The second one is on a balcony on the second floor of a building with a vault door and Elixir of Life in it.
The third and fourth can easily be spotted as they were placed outside.
Now that all the doors out of the village are no longer electrified, we now have to sit tight farm enough points to proceed.

Waves 2-4 By the end of Wave 3, you should be able to buy your way into the Wheatfield/Graveyard. There are two ways you could buy into here. You can either open the mausoleum to gain access to the facility or, like in this guide, you can buy the lesser known doorway on the other side of the wheatfield. The quickest way to completion would be buying your way through the Wheatfield.
Once inside the facility, you then want to buy the farthest door in the room; that will take you to the Main Chamber which is required to visit in order to progress the mission. You can't miss it, it's a big and red circular room. After finding that room, backtrack back out to the wheatfield and make your way to the tree in the middle. You will a strange chest you can interact with. Now, you must kill all the banshees that appeared [the women in bright white clothes.] Inside will be the first weapon we'll buy for the run; the Thunderbolt, but we cannot buy it yet.
So for now, we'll only have our pistols to fight off the next wave and Abraham.

Wave 5 Clear out most of the wave and you should have just enough cash to buy the Thunderbolt but before doing anything else, let's deal with Abraham. I would advise against using the Thunderbolt, since there's a chance you could kill your straggler and start a new wave. Instead, go to town on Abraham with your knife and pistol. When Abraham is gone and the Thunderbolt is in hands, you will want to shoot only 4 specific corpses in the wheatfield. They look like this. You can spot the blue spots from a good distance, so don't worry about not having their locations chronicled here.
Next, run back down through the Wheatfield hatch you opened and you want to use your Thunderbolt on the purple coils on the ceiling.
When all 4 coils are open, there should be a red sideroom on your right with a lever to flip. You need to defend this lever for a little bit and then we'll have our first cylinder of the run on our way back up to the Wheatfield.
NOTE: This last part could send you into a new wave due to your straggler living for too long, so be prepared to use your Ultimate ability [Q] if you need to.
During the little intermission between waves, make your way back to the Old Chapel [spawn].

Waves 6-9 Make your way to the vault door next to Elixir of Life we ran past earlier. We can now buy it and get to work on getting our second cylinder. You'll see a large altar with a caged goat in the middle of a thicket with 4 statues on the edges of it; one for each cardinal direction. Interact with the altar and now the 4 statues around the clearing will take turns glowing red. those that are glowing red are the only ones that can be shot.
You'll know a statue is damaged enough if it looks like this.
Now that all 4 statues as damaged, look at each side of the goat's cage. Each side has a specific symbol meant for the statue that side's symbol is facing, . Getting all 4 with the correct symbols will free the goat. On the way out with the goat, grab Elixir of Life if you can. Because of the doors we bought, this goat will go through the doors closest to the Chapel which takes less than 2 minutes [this is how you get the 'Lamb-aaaah-gini' Achievement]. And now comes the part of the run where we have to kill a bunch of enemies to feed the gargoyle to get our second cylinder.
Also, if you have the money for it, do make sure to grab Swift death on your way out. There's only three doors left to buy and after that, the rest of your money can go wherever the hell you want.

Wave 10 From here on out, the rest of the Story Mission takes place inside the facility. Next on the chopping block is the furnace. Head back to the Main Chamber and buy the door across from you. Then, go interact with the nearby furnace and you'll need to stand next to it as it slowly opens up.
Next up, a Blazeslinger will spawn. He needs to sling 5 fireballs into the furnace to light it [killing them closer to the furnace also seems to work, but I personally wait until the next part to blow him up]. Lastly for this step, we need the intestines of 10 enemies to use as charcoal [Don't ask me how that works, I have no idea]. Even at Tier 0, the Thunderbolt is GREAT for this. When completed, the fence across from the furnace will open, granting you another cylinder.

Wave 11 For the last and easiest cylinder, buy the nearest door to the furnace [if you were running around between the Get Up N' Go perk and the furnace, you might have seen it]. This door will lead to the library. Once there, there will be a cross on the desk that must be returned to a coffin in the graveyard.
With the lantern in hand, return to the library and check all the large numbered portraits. The lantern will reveal a bright purple symbol and the position it goes into. You only need 3 and then you can guess the last one.
In this example, my sequence is Taranis, Cailleach, blank, Cailleach. At the end of the library, 4 dials await for you. Input the right sequence and then the final cylinder is yours.
And now for the final part of the story mission.

Waves 12-14 Now that we have all of our cylinders, we can finally go back to the main chamber and insert them into the pedestal in the middle. But of course, it wouldn't be that easy.
Make your way back to the lab where we got our first cylinder but instead of going back outside to the wheatfield, we're going right after the stairs and buying that 600 dollar door.
In essence, we have to escort that big, spherical apparatus to each of the 4 floodlights on the walls of this circular room. Every time it reaches one of these lights, we have a small 'Murder Quota' to meet before it moves again. Like the Furnace step, the Thunderbolt is PHENOMENAL for this. My personal trick for this is to serpentine in the direction the target is moving. Confuses the hell out of the enemies.


Wave 15 Return to the Main Chamber and stand near the pedestal; this will take a while, but it will open the large door so that we may reach Abraham. But before we can confront him, we have one last step to complete.
In this new room, There will be 4 battery-like items on the large device that works like the statues from earlier. When that's completed, a pair of secret doors will open. And now we have access to Abraham.
On his own, Abraham is probably the easiest out of all of the Sker Ritual bosses; his fight is pretty much just a Test of Footing. the floor can also heat up in random patterns. There really isn't much else to say, aside from the Thunderbolt not doing much against Abraham himself, but it works wonders to thin the horde that assists him. Once Abraham is defeated, you have a choice; you can either leave the level or you can gamble a little further and try the Hidden Story. If you choose to stay, interact with the strange case at the other end of the arena and shoot the Stranger who appears next to it. Now you must scour the map and do that 3 more times. Here are the locations I know of:

The first that I know of is behind the Supercharger.
The second I found while backtracking; he's in the red side area of the lab behind some toppled equipment.
The third I found stuck out like a sore thumb. You'll see him staring through a window like a creep.

Wave 16 The second piece of the Hidden Story is to interact with this Medusa statue in the library.
NOTE: This will spawn a horde of enemies covering all your exits and you will need to fight your way out, so be prepared!
Once these enemies are dispatched, you want to run to the end of the library where the cylinder was, turn left and at the end of the hall, purchase that door for 600 pts. Then, turn right and go up those stone stairs to purchase another door for 600 pts. This will loop you back to the Old Chapel [spawn]. You'll be glad you did this later. As for right now, there are now 4 symbols with an amount of rat corpses from 1-4 around each symbol. While these spots are randomized, I'll share as many as I can find with you [there's an audio cue for these like with the Stranger]:

First location I know of is on the table in the alternate building where we could have entered the village from spawn.
The second I know of is on the table near to Elixir of Life.
The third possible spawn is on the floor in the lab where we got our first cylinder.
The fourth possible spawn is right outside Abraham's arena.
There's a bunch of other spawns [one hidden in the wheatfield and one near the furnace, to name a pair] but I can't exactly remember where they are. For now though, head back to the catacombs. These statues are where you input the rat code you found all over the map.
In essence, it's just the library puzzle again.

Wave 17 We're almost done; 2 more steps! Right now, we have 4 generators around the map to shoot the Thunderbolt at. They are found in these areas:

The first one is in the Catacombs right beside one of the statues.
The second is found not too far off from the entrance to the Catacombs. Just go down the stairs and turn left as though you were going to the Library.
The third is found at the other end of the very same cave we were just in. Just turn around and turn left.
The fourth one is found inside Lavernock Point, next to the generator on the balcony.
The fifth is in the lab where one Stranger spawn was.
With that completed, the cell in the catacombs will open and we need to escort all the way to an ancient golden door. Grab the seal beyond but be warned, a new wave will start behind you, so be ready!

Wave 18 With this seal in hand, place it in the Godkiller's case and now it is finally time to fight Abraham again. This time however, things will be.. still pretty bland. The only difference is hordes of enemies will assist Abraham + a few Abominations will join the fight. Once defeated, go ahead and leave the level.

Step 1 -> Immediately after exiting the church, turn left and between the cliffs and the graveyard, you'll find this grave you'll want to make explode with a Blazeslinger.
You'll then want to shoot at what's revealed with the Thunderbolt when you get the chance.

Step 2 -> This next step is a little bit of a wild goose chase. 4 bird statues will have appeared around the map and now you must fine them and shoot them. Basically, every time you shoot them, they will turn once in the clockwise direction with the heavy sound of stone grinding into place. You want to slowly move them until you hear a series or 3 rapid clicks; like a switch being pressed or a gun's hammer being pulled back. Here's where you can find them;

The first one is a very sneaky one, watching over you from high above the cliff near the headstone we just blew up.
The second can be found down the path from the graveyard on a small thatch rooflet.
The third can be found on a boulder on the other side of the fence in the corn field.
The fourth and final one is found in the Swamp, right on top of the Lamb.
If all 4 clicked like the sound written above, you'll hear a validation noise and can proceed.

Step 3 -> You now need to run back to the graveyard and you will then find a ghost tombstone like this. It can be found near the destroyed tombstone and the bird statue form the previous steps.
You need to kill approximately 5 Phantoms [the mostly invisible enemies] at this gravestone until a music note appears in the tombstone. If it does appear, you're on the final step.


Step 4 -> As soon as the tombstone bears a music note, it's time to go hunting for 4 music notes as that one that just appeared will not count. The possible locations I've found are as follow;

The first is on a bench in the Chapel, close to the side door.
A second can be found on the fence next to the metal windmill.
The third is in the Graveyard Tunnel [the mausoleum entrance to the morgue].
The fourth can be in the second half of the Living Quarters, leading to the cave connecting the swamp with the chapel.
The fifth can be found next to the last statue before reaching the Chapel Catacombs.
The sixth I've found in on the doorframe of the house in Lavernock Point, next to the well and generator.
When you find all of the music notes in your run, interact with the Jukebox that can be found in the Library.
Enjoy the music and the battle ahead!

Money needed for objective items/necessary doors on Nightmare:

Lobby doors adjacent to teleporter: 1'200 pts
Door to basement: 1'500 pts
Basement Doors: 3'700 pts
Chapel door: 1'200 pts
Howler: 2'400

Total points needed for Main Story: 10'000 pts


Recommended Loadout for the first Isaac encounter:
- Pavlov Automat [Tier 1]
- Howler [Tier 2]
- Elixir of Life, Stallion Juice, Fast Hands, Shock and Load

Recommended Loadout for the second Isaac encounter:
- Pavlov Automat [Tier 2]
- Howler [Tier 3]
- All perks except for Get Up N' Go


Wave 1 Right as you start the level, there will be a canister right next to the teleporter that Isaac shorted out just by travelling through it. It can be easy to forget about, even I forget to grab it sometimes.
Once you have it, open the door on your left then take your first available left. There will be a room full of toxic purple gas with 4 fans inside that need to be shot. Take note that the last cannot be seen from the door so you need to run in and check the door's wall.
Once the gas has been cleared, there's a machine on your right [If entering the room, left-hand side] that we can use to fill the canister. Once filled, grab it and take to 1 of the available 4 slots on the lobby walls. These slots can be found with thick, black wires running along the ground floor.

Waves 2-4 Interact with the teleporter and surprise surprise- it shorts out again. As I said before, we need 3 more canisters but in order to get them, we need to farm some points in the lobby first. I will share the locations I know of below:

One location for these canisters can be right in the Lobby, squirrelled away near the reception desk. Take note of that little rat sitting on the couch next to the weapons kiosk; we'll get to him later.
Another location is the Mannequin Room in the basement's east wing, behind the first door on your left. This is the room with the Shock and Load perk.
A third location next to a Lucky spawn, through a hall adjacent to the Gas Room we've been going into since Wave 1. This is also the room with the Get Up N' Go perk. [The canister is on my right in the screenshot.]
A fourth location in the room in the basement accessible through the first door on the right. Also keep in mind this little guy in the second screenshot you ran past to get the canister. He will be useful later too!
NOTE: Do NOT spend an extra 2'400 to open the rest of the doors on your right. These doors lead to the same room and in addition to a high chance of being surrounded, you will also waste your points!
A fifth location is easy to overlook; its right behind the Grand Staircase in the lobby.
The final location in on a bench in the Chapel.
Once all the Canisters are dealt with, all we can do now is wait for Wave 5.

Wave 5 This is a Dark Wave, a special round unique to this map where you must survive with the lights out. But we still have a job to do. Head through the now charged teleporter to find yourself in a library. At the end of its ground floor is a chest that when opened, will spawn Killerwatts for you to kill.
Once slain, pick up the Howler and feel free to pick up Elixir of Life on your way out, we won't be coming back here again. Teleport back to the lobby and now you need to find a pair of plaques each sporting 4 brass heads, maybe depicting Tarangis. These are labelled from left to right as I [or 1], II [or 2] III [or 3], and IV [or 4]. Near each one will be a set of 4 glowing purple roman numerals arranged in an order in which to shoot these heads.
NOTE: If you cannot find the glowing codes or forget about them, you will not be able to proceed until Wave 10, the next Dark Wave which will make the codes reappear.

One such plaque was found when running past Lucky to reach the Get Up N' Go room for a canister location from earlier. The code should be on your left.
The other can be found by going through the door on the right from the lobby, then immediately turning right and going down that hall. When facing this plaque, the code will be behind you.
When both of these have been dealt with in their own orders, the teleporter will be 'upgraded' and capable of bringing you to 3 new rooms! These new rooms are represented by a Spotlight monitor, a Theatre monitor and a Basement monitor.
This terminal will be your best friend moving forward.

Waves 6-9 Interact with the Spotlight monitor and then use the teleporter. This will bring you to a very dark room with a lever in front of you. This spotlight will move and you must stay in the spotlight and kill a good handful of enemies before an item of importance can be obtained; a Punch Card.
NOTE: Shock and Load helps with this part.
Once this Punch Card has been acquired, teleport back to the lobby and activate the Basement monitor next, but do not teleport there yet.

Wave 11 While still in the lobby, wait out Wave 10 and leave a straggler from Wave 11. For this room, you will need to free a lamb from the machine near you and escort through a labyrinth to another of the same machine 3 times. Make sure not to stray too far from the lambs, otherwise they won't follow. The most efficient way to do this one is to always follow the right-hand outer walls, you'll hit only 1 deadend.

Waves 12-15 Last but not least, select the Theatre monitor and teleport through; basically, it's a glorified fetch quest since we need to fix who I call 'Freddy Fazrat'. Here's the order I use to find all the rats:

First, the Howler Rat. [needs the library teleporter active]
Second, the Storage Rat. There's a secret passage near the Supercharger that will take you right to him, the sneaky bugger.
Third, the East Wing Basement Rat in the same room as the Fast Hands perk. One of those little guys I told you about earlier.
Fourth, the Reception Rat near a canister location from earlier.
Lastly, the Theatre Rat.
Since the last rat we collected is the Theatre Rat, we can stuff all of our salvaged parts onto Freddy Fazrat. Next we have 10 Killerwatts to murder for power cells charge up Freddy Fazrat; I'd use the next Dark Wave for this. Once that's done, Freddy Fazrat will grant you the third Punch Card in gratitude.

Wave 16 Now that we have all three Punch Cards, into the terminal and defend it as it tries to find Isaac. It's pretty quick, but a few more enemies will spawn to join the party even if most of the wave is already dealt with, so be careful here. Also, don't forget to select Isaac's monitor before trying to teleport [It's the upper right monitor]. And now for the host himself, Isaac.
NOTE: This can be done on Wave 15 too. Whether you're still on Wave 15 or on Wave 16, the blackout caused by the Dark Wave has no effect in Isaac's Arena.
The first phase is pretty bland, really. He just uses the same attacks he's been using every time he spawned over the course of the Story Objective, except with a twist; he spawns Killerwatts and ONLY Killerwatts to assist him. When he drops to half health, that's where things REALLY take a turn; the 4 rooms that make up Isaac's arena will take turns going out and pumping themselves with gas. Only 1 room at a time will be lit an ungassed. If that wasn't enough, the Tesla coils on the ceilings will start periodically raining down lightning too! To dodge the lightning, I found the corners of the rooms to be immensely helpful, but not against Isaac and the Killerwatts, so only use those sparingly.

If you want to avoid all of this though, Just use a Tier 2 Howler and try to aim solely for his face; if your aim is true, 10 shots from a Phase 2 Howler and he's dead. Once Isaac is defeated, you can either leave the level or try your hand at the Hidden Objective. If you've chosen to hunt for the Hidden Story, interact with the Godkiller case. But be warned, you will be in the dark from this point on; like an eternal Dark Wave. Thankfully, the next part is just like in Lavernock: shoot the Stranger near the case and then you must scour the entire map to shoot him 3 more times. I will update once I learn of some locations:

The first one I know of is on the ledge above a ramp leading to the Basement where the Fast Hands and Shock and Load perks as well as one of the Rat animatronics can be found.
The second one I found is in the room with the Fast Hands perk and the rat animatronic, just staring at you through a window very close to the perk.
The third one I found was in the basement Office. head through the Mannequin where the Shock and Load perk can be found and then go down that hall to find the office in question.
There are maybe more locations, but I haven't found them yet.
X
X
X
Once all 3 Strangers have been found and shot, make your way to an Electrified Fence you may have noticed while either playing normally or checking the Stranger's Basement Office location.
After interacting with that, turn around and run through what looks to be a gap in the wall. Now to your left will be a long wooden passage with a bright purple spiral at the other end of it. This metal closet has an imprisoned Demon Lamb in it which you must escort all the way to the Chapel's pressure plate that you also may have noticed beforehand.
NOTE: This will start a new wave and spawn a LOT of enemies in the Chapel, so be ready!
I'll be honest, this part startled me a bit lmao.

Wave 17 When that's done, teleport to the Void [the Spotlight Monitor]. You might see some purple glowing in the darkness and upon getting closer to it, you will find a button with the Demon Lamb next to it. If you press it, some Abominations will spawn but if you have a Tier 3 Howler, you can kill them both with 2-3 shots to the face each. Now, you need to repeat the process twice, each with different buttons this time; each spawning their own Abomination(s).
But be warned when doing it the fourth time, for that will spawn the King of the Rats, a buffer and bossier Abomination.

Wave 18 The next and second to last step on the list is to bring a Killerwatt to the Labyrinth. Earlier, you may have noticed 1 or 2, perhaps even 3 large red breakers on the walls. If not, then I'll you; they look like large red boxes with an equally large red cylinder next to it. However, the only one of these that can be shocked at the beginning of this step is the one with our Demon Lamb friend near it. Go ahead and get the Killerwatt to shock that one and then you can shock the other 2 in any order. The order I use is this: Follow the right-walls like we did before until you get to the first cloning room [that's the one that had the Demon Lamb for me], backtrack but at the final intersection before reaching spawn, turn right and then right again for another one. Lastly, the final generator will be had to miss, since it's at the start of the labyrinth. Now head over to the Library, the room where we got the Howler. On the walkways above everything else of importance, you might find another purple spiral with a very interesting sequence of rats.
Once the Secret of the Rats has been deciphered, you'll want to find a brass plaque like the 2 we shot at with the Howler very early on and input the Rat Sequence.
This should give you the validation noise right after its completion.

Wave 19 The last step, being identical with the level before it, it to go grab the seal.
Than, bring it to Isaac's arena and slot it into the Godkiller's case. Now all that stands between us and victory is to kill Isaac, but be warned that causing his death this time might be easier said than done; his fight is now just 1 Phase and everything that was in the normal boss fight starts doing its thing as soon as the fight begins. On top of that, He spawns 2 Abominations at the start to assist both him and his Killerwatt minions. If you do manage to kill him and leave the level alive, Congratulations! You are now 50% of the way to getting a shiny gun and mask!

Step 1 -> This step is very straightforward. You'll want to play the level normally until you power up the teleporter and get sent to the library. From here, you'll want to grab the Howler since you need it for the Main Quest of the level anyway. But for this step, you only need the Howler to shoot at them dumbwaiter in the basement. You can access it for free via a passage across from the room where you refill the Teleporter's capsules.
You want to shoot this spot until your hit marker goes red. The projectiles will bounce off instead of in and that's normal. Just keep shooting.

Step 2 -> Your next task is to make your way to the same terminal that thew Main Quest wants you to play around with after the Cryptic Code objective. Because of your abuse on the poor dumbwaiter, this spot has become a Soul Box that requires you to kill 10 Husks.
Husks can be told apart from the crowd by their height, their speed and weaponless hands, aswell as their love of suspenders and sometimes, flat caps [flat caps being popular in Northern England and Ireland at the time]. When shot enough in the face, it might explode but they will keep walking. So if you see a headless man with suspenders running faster than other enemies, that's a Husk.

Step 3 -> When the audio cue signifies the Soul Box had been filled, on the right side of the organ [if you're staring at it], there will be a button to press. Once pressed, a timer will start and you're going to be looking for 3 specific items wit ha square piece of paper on them. Luckily, I'm here to tell you what and where they are; I usually knock these out from right to left, but go with what feels right for you:
- The first item is a barrel right outside of the Basement Furnace.
- The second item is in the Library. From the teleporter, walk right up to the Howler and then loo right to find a box we need to shoot.
- The final item is a metal tub next to the Elite Maker in the Chapel.
The timing for this step is super tight, so don't worry about not getting it right the first time.

Step 4 -> Final stretch, lads! Once again, we have 4 Music Notes to find and their possible locations are as follow;
The first possible location is right next to the grand staircase in the lobby.
The second is in the Basement Room where a canister and animatronic can be found.
The third is in the Void, on the lever's backside.
The fourth is in the Theater, next to the Ammo Blammo machine.
The fifth can be found in the labyrinth, right across from one of the breakers for the Hidden Objective. If you're doing the labyrinth objective Counter-Clockwise, it's pretty much in a straight line from the Second Cloning Machine and can be found on your way to the final chamber to get the Punched Card.
The sixth is also in the Labyrinth, but this one is in the final chamber in the Labyrinth, next to an Ammo Blammo machine. Stick to the right wall and you'll get there.
The seventh is in the Library, just up the stairs from the Howler.
The eighth can be found on the dresser in Basement Storage; the sneaky room connected to the Basement Furnace, right behind the Supercharger.
The ninth is in a corner in the secret passage right across from the Basement Furnace.
The tenth and final one is in the Chapel, on the piano right next to the Jukebox. If this is the last Music Note you're hunting for, you can immediately hit the Jukebox afterwards.
Happy Shooting!

Money needed for objective items/necessary doors on Nightmare:

First 3 Sewer Grates: 2700 pts
Train Doors from Sewer to Swift Death: 4200 pts
The Plague: 2400 pts
Both Doors to Radio Tower: ~2400 pts
Sewer Grate past SuperCharger: 1200 pts
Quiet One Escort: ~6600 pts Max. [if paid 11 times]

Total points needed for Main Story: ~19'500 pts

Recommended Loadout for the first Stranger encounter:
- Pavlov Automat [Tier 1]
- The Plague [Tier 2]
- At least Elixir of Life

Recommended Loadout for the second Stranger encounter:
- Pavlov Automat [Tier 2] (Tier 3 if possible)
- The Plague [Tier 3]
- Elixir of Life, Stallion Juice, Fast Hands, Swift Death

Waves 1-3 - From spawn, You'll need to farm enough points to open 3 sewer grates . As extra work, you will also need to deal with bright yellow pods that's tendrils are blocking the way for every door; you can either shoot or knife these.
Once out of the sewer, you will immediately notice that there aren't that many places to run to for now. That's because what we need is in the train near the sewer exit; there's a yellow pod above the door that you can shoot or knife in order to free the door, but surprise surprise, you also need to pay for it to open!
It shouldn't take you too long to open this door though.

Wave 4 - There should be a trial mission active not too long after this wave starts for a nice little cash bonus. Once inside the train, you'll see the tendrils are back and the rat pod for them is on the ceiling of the train car. Knife it and proceed.
There will be a clearing on the right with a spawn for Lucky the pupper, but the rest of the stuff in that opening will only be useful later on.
For now, keep going further into the train until you find an clearing on your left that's guarded by those red tendrils again. The pods for them are always very close, so be sure to look around. The opening in question looks like this.
Like the Thunderbolt and The Howler from the previous maps, The Plague also has special enemies to kill in exchange for its power. This time its 3 Demon Hags; kill them to obtain your prize! ...When you can pay for it, that is.

Waves 5-6 - As soon as you have the Plague in your hands, you will need to find these scaled bulbs like the one in the Plague's train car that you may have noticed when you first entered that train car. Shoot the plague at it once to open it up and then shoot or knife it to dissolve the tendrils tied to it. The most important one though, is this one at the opposite end of the first train door you bought after exiting the sewers. Be ready to also pay 1800 pts to open it.. which you might not have yet.
When you do get the points though, turn your eyes to the side of the Radio Tower. There will be another scaled bulb you need to shoot at with both the Plague and your main gun.
Once inside the Broadcast Center, there will 8 more of those bright yellow pods you need to shoot at spread out all over the room.

Wave 7 - When all 8 pods are no longer a problem, Elizabeth will tell you about the smaller middle chamber at the very bottom. needing 4 keys to open and can be broken down into 4 sub-objectives, sorted in my personal order for acquiring said keys. It always depends on how much money you have to complete Keys A and C, so I'll include which waves I dealt with them so that you may hop between them in the order that suits you best:
A) Miniboss fight
B) Escort Duty
C) Train Station Ticket Machine
D) Toying with the Radio Tower
So let's get to work on obtaining the first key. For this objective, interact with this poor man you may have noticed at the very beginning of the level. Then shoot him with the Plague to make the rat in his chest start running. Now we need to find his 3 friends and do the same thing; this part is on a 2-minute timer so we'd best get moving!
The second of these 4 lads is in the first clearing you found in the train, chained up to a tree by those red tendrils.
The third can be accessed one of two ways: you can either buy your way through the rest of the train for 3000 pts or you can 'weedwhack' and buy the second wooden door from the Radio Tower for 1800 pts. Either path will lead you to the Train Station, where the third of these lads is just 'relaxing' in the ticket booth.
For the last lad, we'll need to retrace our steps back into the sewers, but keep heading straight instead of going to spawn to find an ammo machine and the SuperCharger. On the right hand side is a grate to buy open and the final lad will be on the wall of the metal tunnel.
Now go back to spawn and the purple bulb on the ceiling should be open. Shoot it with the Plague and now I wish you good luck with the fight. He's particularly weak to The Plague, so use that to your advantage.
Once defeated, you will have 1/4 Keys in your hands.

Waves 8-10 - Head into the train. There should be a door you can open for free that contains a mysteriously-shaped helmet on its table. Pick it up and run all the way back to where the SuperCharger is, but instead of going right where the fourth Lad is, we turn left this time. At the far end of this dungeon-like room is a cell with a passive Quiet One; a fren! Open the cell and escort him all the way to the Flooded Passage near the Radio Tower. The gimmick here is this escort is VERY slow and you might have to pay it 600 pts for a small speed boost.
He will eventually reach a platform that he will stay standing on. this will open 2 steel doors [1 on each side of the Quiet One] with valves to turn. Once both are turned, the water will drain.
This will result in us having 2/4 Keys

Waves 11-12 At the train station, interact with the ticket machine. You will need to kill 3 speed freaks to print a ticket revealing specific initials.
Run around the map to find luggage with those initials until one gives you a code, characterised by 4 icons of our miracles' patrons. Input that at the train and the you should have access to this key.

Wave 13 - Last but not least, we have the elephant in the room to deal with; the Radio Tower. On each side of the Radio Tower will be a 3-color sequence with 3 platforms of those colors high up on said tower to shoot in order from left to right. Once the 3 sides containing these puzzles are dealt with, you will receive your final key.

Waves 14-18 - This part is the most annoying. Return up the stairs to find a purple canister in a dead man's hanging hand. He will move slowly around this floor whilst you must kill 100 enemies to fuel the canister. You can get easily overrun on this step, so you must VERY cautious. What I would recommend [as in 'I do this too'] is to have a Tier 1 Plague and run laps around the room. Every time you get back under the canister, just rip the entire Plague mag into them before starting another lap. You may need to buy several ammo refills and thankfully, there's a refill crate along the track.
This is the last step needed to confront The Stranger.
His weakness may be his eyes, but he will retreat with every third of his health gone to summon small enemies and abominations. Be warned, if you kill all the small enemies, a new wave will start. The first time he retreats, he'll just summon 2 Abominations; but the second time, he'll spawn 6 + he will have a timer that when elapsed, will spawn a new Abomination. There are two ways to kill these Abominations:

1) The Aboms are like a squishier King of the Rats, but they share the same weakness. Therefore, a Tier 2 Plague firing 3 to 4 shots to their weakspots from point-blank range is enough to deal with one of them; this means you can deal with all of Phase 2's Abominations in about.. 30 seconds tops. If you don't have that/didn't have the means before the fight, I have a second contingency plan. <3

2) If your damage output is too low to instakill them with the Plague, the poor man's key to fighting these Abominations would be to use the little gap-like ramps you can find in the arena; when they get close, just jump across the gap. Be warned however, if your damage input is STILL too low on the Stranger's second retreat, the Abominations will seem INFINITE. That's because they WILL BE!!

When the Abominations are defeated, there's no time to rest. We must make The Stranger reappear and the only way to do that is to shoot his physical, flesh-bound form. It takes a lot more damage from the Plague; 1 shot from a Tier 2 Plague and it's gone [3 shots from a Tier 0 Plague].
only then will The Stranger reappear. Once defeated, you once again must choose: Leave the level with your spoils or gamble a bit and stay.

Wave 19 - Interact with the chamber housing a special weapon; this will start this map's Hidden Objective. Like the last 2 levels before it, the first step is we need to find and shoot The Stranger 3 times. As always, here are the locations I know of:
Once the Stranger has tasted enough bullets, you will hear that validation noise and can now proceed.

Wave 20 - Next, halfway through the train will be a large cage with a cat sitting atop it; this stone cat is guarding a seal of its own likeness. Surrounding this cage are 3 Tesla coils that need activation, so let's activate the first!
Interact with the cage and this will start a fight with Balor, who will spawn behind you.
Like most, if not all humanoid enemies, Balor's weakness is being shot in the face. Who knew? What most people probably DON'T know however, is that 3 shots from the Tier 2 Plague is enough to kill him. Though be warned if you choose not to use the Plague against him, his attacks are all about AoE given his fiery design and of course his giant warhammer, so be very careful when fighting him. The Radio Tower can be useful here.

Wave 21 - The next thing we need to do go further into the train [like if you came from the sewer at the beginning] to find a compass/button hybrid right next to the box housing The Plague. Each cardinal direction has a symbol, reminiscent of the Cursed Lands of Lavernock map but this time, corresponds to 4 cat statues arranged in a lap around the map. Here's the order I deal with them in:
The Kitty of the South is in the area you spotted while running to the Plague early on in the level.
The Kitty of the West is near the sewer exit near where Elixir of Life can be found.
The Kitty of the North is at the Radio Tower [you may have noticed this one too beforehand.]
Finally, the Kitty of the East is at the Train Station near the fourth Lad and the ticket machine.
This will prime the button and when pressed, this will trigger a fight with Balor The Undying, a slightly buffer version of our green Balor. Despite losing his ethereal flames and opting for actual flames, his weakness is still that same; the face. His more effective weakness is the Tier 2 Plague; 8 shots from that thing and we won't need to worry about him anymore.
If you don't have the Tier 2 Plague for any valid reason, I would highly recommend luring this one to the Radio Tower.

Wave 22-24 - Now that 2 coils are active, let's activate the last one! Make your way back to spawn to find a demon lamb just chilling there.
You need to escort it to 2 separate locations but be warned, once he reaches the Quiet One's and then the Radio Tower, each location will start a new wave. The first location is where you find the Quiet One during the Story Objective.
The second location is between the kitty cat statue and the Radio Tower.

Once it reached the cage and coils, the demon lamb will disappear but that will summon Balor the Undying.. AGAIN. His weakness will still be the face. Again, if you have the Tier 3 Plague by this point and shoot him 3 times in the face, he'll go bye-bye. 'Make a wish and pull the trigger 3 times, Dorothy.'

Wave 25 - When Balor the Undying has finally gone against his namesake and dies, the cage will open. Grab the seal and before doing anything else, I would advise preparing yourself as best as you can. Once you are ready, get back to The Stranger's arena and place the seal on the chamber housing the special weapon.
And now for the Grand Finale, you must fight The Stranger again. This time, while the weakness is the same, copies of Balor will join the fight instead of abominations, so they retain the speed of the Abominations + the damage and weakness of their boss counterparts; the spawns also changed from 2 and 6 Aboms to 4 and 5 Balors. Also, ALWAYS look at where you're aiming. Like the first Stranger fight, waves can still happen here if you kill the straggler. IN ADDITION, DEAL WITH THE BALORS FIRST OR RISK GETTING 1-SHOTTED When The Stranger and all of his Balors are defeated, you can now leave the level without having to fear death.

[In contrast to the rest of the guide, This was done on Normal first in order to find the steps that people still haven't found. Not even the Sker Ritual discord wants to do it.]

Step 1 - I found a valve that can be shot and damaged. Once shot, the valve will begin to spin. There are 4 valves on the map that I placed in order of distance to get the Music as early as possible:

The first one was found in the only available hallway at the start of the level.

The second one is in the final room with Elixir of Life and can be found on the opposite wall from the perk.

The third one can be found in the room with the Supercharger, right before the catacombs for the luggage and the Quiet One objectives. You don't money for this one, just make your way to the Supercharger, then turn around and look up.

The fourth and final one can be found on the right wall of the flooded room where you must escort the Quiet One. If you already paid to get to the Radio Tower, you won't need money to get to this one either.

You should hear a validation sound and allow you to progress to Step 2.

Step 2 - You want to enter the train and find a clearing with a Lucky location, a cat statue and a Quiet One tied to a tree. There's a green smoke here that you will need to drink from your flask in.
This was changed. It used to be 'Drink from your flask at an enemy spawn'.

Step 3 - Make your war to the Water Room [it directly connects the Flooded Room and Spawn if I remember correctly]. You will find two green gas vents, both parallel to each other, that won't be there if you haven't completed both steps above. Turns out I was correct, just not in the execution. [The community solved it after not listening to me on the fact that it was a Soul Box] Basically, you need to kill 10 Speed Freak after they clone themselves. When the Speed Freaks are damaged to below half health, they will bring their arms up as though blocking a punch and split in two. Whether both the clone and the original count or not is still unclear, given how tricky this step is to complete AND survive.



Step 4 - The final step seems to always be to find 4 Music Notes scattered around the map. Even with that being the case, Sewers of the Dead made itself even MORE notorious due to its Music Note locations, you'll see what I mean by the ones I found thus far:
The first can be found in the same room as the Swift Death perk.
The second is hidden in a cheap spot right below the door across from the Supercharger.
The third can sometimes be found in the same spot but at Spawn [where you fight the King of the Rats].
The fourth spot I was able to find is on the curve in the West Sewer Tunnels [a small, sometimes heavily ignored passage connecting the Broadcast Room to the Sewer Chamber near spawn].
The fifth can be found on the way to the Supercharger from spawn.
The sixth is the hardest to find in my opinion. It's hidden on a pillar in the dark hallway between Shock and Load and the Pistolet Stamped SMG, near the Quiet One you need to escort. [the SMG and the Quiet One escort are on my left in the screenshot.]
The seventh can be found at the top of the stairs in the Water Room, in the Soul Box zone from the previous step.
The eighth, ninth and tenth can be found by backtracking from the Water Room and past the Quiet One to the Radio Tower. The first of the three can be found on the left hand side of the tunnel right by some rocks. The second one of the trio can be found just past the Quiet One, on the right hand side of the tunnel, once more by some rocks. The third of the trinity and the final possible location is on one of the Radio Tower's consoles.

Once you found your 4 Music Notes, interact with the Jukebox on the train; specifically, it's in the train car adjacent to where you can buy The Plague.
Enjoy your music and added difficulty!

Money needed for objective items/necessary doors on Nightmare:

Door to enter Castle: 600 pts
Farthest three doors in Castle leading to Lab: 4200 pts
Second Floor Cloning Lab Door: 1500 pts
Door to Forge: 1200 pts
Shattering Edge: 2400 pts
3 Quiet Ones Escort: 4200 pts


Total points needed for Main Story: 14'100 pts

Recommended Loadout for the first Elizabeth encounter:
- Joseph Heavy Automat [Tier 1]
- Shattering Edge [Tier 0]
- All Perks except for Get Up N' Go

Recommended Loadout for the second Elizabeth encounter:
- Joseph Heavy Automat [Tier 2] (Tier 3 if possible)
- Shattering Edge [Tier 0]
- All Perks except for Get Up N' Go


Waves 1-2 This is the final level we need to complete for the Godkiller and the Hidden Crowns, so let's get to it! Right out the gate, you will notice many buttons like this you can't interact with yet. You might also notice a strange wall with a familiar chest at the foot of it. These things are linked and will be useful later.
For now though, head to the very end of the courtyard and stand near the winch for the gate. Beware, our old friend Balor will show up to stop you. Given that this is Wave 1, we just need to stab him religiously in the butt! ..Or, there's a weapons kiosk nearby. Be careful though, if he has the opportunity to 1-shot you, he will without a second thought!
Just past Balor is an inner courtyard area with a big electrified orb overhead. This is basically a repeat of Lavernock, but this time, you must shoot the orb until if turns a dull gray before you can destroy a generator.
Be warned that after the first generator is destroyed, a tougher Balow will be summoned, so be ready:
NOTE: There's a high chance you can kill both Balors with knife and pistol only during Wave 1. If you have faith, save your money. If not, no shame in buying a weapon! If you're even faster than this, you can clear both Balors, destroy the generators AND get into the castle by Wave 2!
The first one is easy to spot, it's next to the Supercharger.
The second one can be found opposite of the first one, behind a half-crumbled stone wall.
The third is found up the nearby stairs behind the Ammo Refill. It's in the same room as the Elixir of Life.
The fourth and final one is found across the stone rampart/bridge from the third one.
And now, you'll finally have access to the castle. Now that we're inside the castle though, we now need to look around for 4 bright red Oil pots to feed to the overhead battering ram. You will hear bubbling when you're close to one of them, so don't worry about missing one. For some of these spawns, open the farthest door from the castle's entrance. Do not open the Cloning Lab via the courtyard, as that will waste your points if you want the Fast Hands perk. Instead, go up the ramp near that door and buy that one instead since it will be very useful now and later too.
NOTE: The objective says 'within the Castle Grounds', but some spawns are inside the castle itself
This one is found just past the fourth generator [across the rampart/bridge from Elixir of Life].
This one is found on the ground floor of the Cloning Lab
This one is found at the door to the Cloning Lab from the Courtyard.
This one is accessible from second floor of the Cloning Lab above the Fast Hands perk.
Next up, go up to the ice wall the Battering Ram is facing and pick up the torch, use that on Balor's head in the courtyard and then go light the battering ram. Lastly, interact with the gargoyle head next to the Ice wall to melt your way through.
you should be able to make your way through the previously iced over hallway and reach this door that we can't open yet.
Unfortunately, this isn't a cheery game like Paper Mario. Instead of the 7 Crystal Stars to open the door, we need 4 heads: Abraham's, Isaac's, The Stranger's and Balor's. The good news is you can tackle these objectives in any order; but I can show you how to complete these in a timely and somewhat efficient way.

Wave 3-4 Let's deal with the Stranger first; this one is the most complicated head to get out of the two we can get right now. Interact with the teleporter just to have it short out, which means we have to make a trip to the nearby Lab. Basically, there are three chalkboards and a large terminal. The large terminal isn't very hard to spot:
But the three chalkboards are. Here are their locations:
Chalkboard A is actually overhead. If you followed the guide and bought the lab doors that had Fast Hands on the way, you'll see it when you first walk in.
Chalkboard B can only be found and observed on the second floor of the Lab.
Chalkboard C can be found near the opposite wall of the terminal.
To give an example on how this works, the crossed out shapes are not to be added to the sequence while the shapes with arcs linking them are meant to have their positions swapped. For the screenshotted examples, my sequences were:
A: Triangle, Circle, Square, Diamond.
B: Circle, Circle, Circle, Square.
C: Square, Diamond, Square, Triangle
Once you find your own sequences, you must grab a vial and find that same sequence on a cryo tube for the correct letter on the terminal. Before putting the last one, I'd strongly recommend that if you don't have a Primary yet, like the nearby kiosk's Pavlov Automat, get one. When all 3 are correct, this will summon King of the Rats.
If you manage to kill it, that will grant you The Stranger's head.

Waves 5-6 Now that we have the fuel, fix the teleport and walk through it. This part is self-explanatory. there will be a zone where you need to slay enough enemies in order to proceed. Personally I would get the Joseph Heavy Automat here, it's in this room + it's one of the best weapons in the game.

Wave 7 For now, let's not continue further and instead teleport back to the main area of the castle. head to spawn where we saw that strange wall and its chest. The buttons from earlier flip the symbols on the wall to turn them all yellow to get the Sword. But in doing so, this will summon Abraham! This will start a new wave so be prepared!
Defeating him grants you Abraham's head.

Waves 8-12 After Abraham has been defeated, pick up the Sword from the chest. Unless you have some spare cash, we will not be able to access the door near the battering Ram, thus we will need to spend an extra wave in the castle.
Once the door has been opened, you will noticed another door with a strange lock on it. This lock can only be opened with the Sword. And now you should be in a Forge of some sort. Interact with the valve on the forge and you will now need to race and turn 5 valves around the map:

First one could be spotted whilst running to the Forge door to buy it.
Second one is easy to find; just turn around from the first and it's next to an Ammo machine.
The third was spotted when we first entered the Castle from the courtyard.
The fourth is right outside the path to the Lab and Fast Hands perk.
The fifth and final one can be found on the second floor of the Lab, near Chalkboard B.
The next part of this step is to reforge the Sword's blade. In order to do that, we must teleport back to the area we bought the Joseph Heavy Automat from. The 3 doors in the room will now take turns being interactable. Interact with the open one; it will then shut and you need to stand close to it in order to thieve the materials we need for the Sword.
Beware beware, however, for Isaac lurks in the shadows of this room and will attack you once you get close to completion.
Defeat him for interfering and you will be awarded with his head. You should now be able to teleport back and place our hard-earned materials into the Forge. Now comes the familiar part with all Wonder Weapons. We must now kill 5 Knights of Sker [the icy swordsmen] in order to create the Shattering Edge.
This sword, like all other Wonder Weapons before it, will be VERY important later.

Wave 13 Now the last head we need is Balor's, make your way through the dungeon [yes, we're teleporting back] and find this door at the very end. There will be a chalice nearby that we'll need for the objective.
Now as for the objective itself; Escorting the Quiet One.. again.. 3 SEPARATE TIMES. Hooray... To add more detail, there are 3 platforms throughout the length of the dungeon we just ran through. Each one will power a lever to open a cell and allow us to collect blood from their residents. Then we dump that blood into the sconces on either side of the door we started the objective from. Finally, this will summon Balor the Undying.
If you manage to kill him, this will grant you his head.

Wave 14-15 Wave 14 final wave for the Base Game's Main Story. I would personally spend this time buying perks and upgrades if our balance allows it. Whenever you're ready, make your way back to the icy corridor we needed the ram for, and place all 4 heads into the door and begin your dance with Elizabeth.
She doesn't move at all. Instead, after every third of health removed, she wave her arms around and turn invincible. She can still be damaged during this animation, but be warned that another Thomas will join the fight [as in you and the enemy] and try to kill you; Defeat Thomas and her shield goes down, but in consequence a horde of clones will come for you. Parts of the floor can also be electrified, so use the middle of the arena as much as you can. This entire fight is the amalgamation of every 'World Boss' you've fought to get to this point. Once she is defeated, you know the drill: Leave or try the Hidden Story.

If you choose the Hidden Story, as always, interact with the Godkiller Case and go find the Stranger 3 times. Here are 3 locations I know of:
The first is at the zombie spawn, near where the battering ram can be activated.
The second is in the Lab, sitting in a tube near Chalkboard A
The third is very easy to spot, right on the ledge near Elixir of Life.

Next, Head to where you found the chalice to start the Balor stuff. there will be a metal cabinet with a Demon Lamb inside. You must escort this lamb all the way to the teleporter but be warned, the Traitorous Lamb will short out the teleporter and summon both Abraham AND Isaac, so once more, be prepared.
You may only proceed once both are defeated.

Wave 16 For the third step of the Hidden Story, You may remember seeing an odd machine at spawn, behind the capsule you rode in on. Press the big red button on it and it will do nothing. Now, take out your Shattering Edge and you need to go smack 5 corpses hanging from the wrists. They are all grouped together in the courtyard and will all make groaning, zombie-like sounds; super easy to find them. When that's done, go back to the machine and hit the button again. This time, King of the Rats and Balor the Undying will be summoned, so be ready for that!
Once again, you may only proceed once both are defeated.

Wave 17 Last but not least, teleport back to the dungeon. You may have spotted a lantern on the wall when exiting the teleporter room; Grab it.
Next up, you want to walk around the dungeon for numbered cells and shine the lantern through the bars to reveal a symbol.
Once you have all 4 symbols, head to where Balor was summoned and in that room is a dial puzzle like in Lavernock. When the right sequence had been made, you can now grab your prize; the Final Seal we need.
Now is the time to make any last minute purchases, because now we must fight Elizabeth again. This time, fighting Elizabeth will be FAR more difficult; her pain thresholds are higher and instead of summoning hordes of clones to assist Thomas, she'll summon Abraham and Isaac the first time, an Abomination the second time and the for the third time, she summons 3 Abominations and Balor the Undying! As long as you keep running around Elizabeth and dodging some of the enemies that choose not to follow you, only stepping away from there for ammo, you can really take your time with whittling down Thomas and then finishing off Elizabeth.
When you manage to defeat the entire family, leave the level and claim your prizes for your own. If you made it this far, I'm proud of you. It's been a honour to guide you! <3

Step 1 -> Right after dealing with King of The Rats and the rest of that objective, head into the dungeon and turn left instead of right. At the end of this hall will be a little hidden nook with a headless corpse.
Attack this corpse until you hear the validation sound to begin the Music Secret.


Step 2 -> Because of how we upset the headless corpse who just wanted to rest peacefully, his blood will cause 4 torches around the fortress to burn red instead of orange. You will want to use a Knight of Sker's projectile attacks on all of these eldritch torches. The locations are as follow:

The first one the can be found right after teleporting is in the hall connecting the courtyard to the Banqueting Hall.
The second is in the Banqueting Hall itself, near the gargoyle head the triggers the Battering Ram.
The third can be found right next to the Ammo Machine where Balor is fought the second time.
The fourth and final one can be found right next to the Elite Maker at the Cloning Lab.
You will know you have them all if the validation noise is heard.

Step 3 -> The next thing you want to do is use your Ultimate [Q] on the empty tank on the second floor of the Cloning Lab [Near chalkboard B] to get a Blue Flame to kindle inside it.
Interestingly enough, There doesn't seem to be a Soul Box requirement here.

Step 4 -> When that's complete, all that's left is to run around and spam your voiceline to find 4 Music Notes scattered around the map and then hit the Jukebox. The locations for these will be posted once I find some.
The first location I found was right at spawn on the pillar between one of the Buttons and the Hidden Story canister behind the Revive Caspule.
The second can be found in the corridor that serves as the Antechamber for the Forge to get the Shattered Edge wonder weapon.
The third can be found near an enemy spawn point, near an oil jer spawn and the battering ram's lever.
The fourth I found is right outside Balor's door on an adjacent wall.
There might be more like on House of the Damned, but I have not found them yet. Once you found all 4 of your notes, teleport back to the dungeon and interact with the jukebox near the door to the cells. This will start a new wave and spawn Abominations, so be prepared!

Money needed for objective items/necessary doors on Nightmare. Keep this in mind when spending for perks and upgrades:

Door to Main Floor: 600 pts
Door to Foyer/Parlor+Double Barrel Shotgun: 600 pts+2700 pts
Mannequin Room door: 600 pts
Door to front yard: 600 pts
Joseph Heavy Automat: 2400 pts
Corpse Grinder + door: ~3000 pts
Mausoleum door: 2400 pts
Cellar Door: 600 pts

Total points needed for Main Story: 13'500 pts


Wave 1 -> Go upstairs, by the door and you'll notice the door for the front yard in the Kitchen is barred. We need to restore gas and electricity, but let's do electricity first. Now, to restore Electricity, take note of the 3 lightbulb numbers and find the 3 of 6 breakers in order from left to right. Before going back up the stairs, take note of the gas meter's number, that will be useful for later. For the breakers, you can find them in these places:
1 = In the flaming room with the Hanging Man.
2 = In the Foyer/Parlor.
3 = In the Master Bedroom above the Hanging Man
4 = In the room with an Ammo Machine, adjacent to Stallion Juice. Accessible for free via Mutilated Pig's hallway.
5 = In the basement near the main power switch.
6 = In the hallway adjacent to the Hanging Man.
Once that's done and you completed the objective, start Gas; Gas is PURELY RNG, unfortunately. What I do know is that only 1 hag spawns on this wave as soon as the Gas is triggered.

Waves 2-4 -> will only give hags on a RNG basis, but my observations are that Wave 2 has almost no hag spawns [between 0-1] and Wave 3 can give you up to 4. Regardless, you might have to fight Thomas and his puppies on Wave 5 in the house. While you have a straggler shambling about, go find the white X's on the walls, there should be 5 of these on both floors except for the basement. Behind half of them will be levers to interact with. Then, there are 3 valves to find, but only turn the ones corresponding to the sum of the gas meter number. In case quick math isn't your thing, the gas meter numbers I've seen and their corresponding valves are the following:
35+42 = 77
35+73 = 108
42 + 73 = 115
35+42+73 = 150
Then, interact with the furnace and open the one interactable door in the basement for the code to open the furnace.
NOTE: In the event you escape the house before Wave 5 (which has happened to me before, but only once.), skip to Wave 6.

Wave 5 -> This wave basically sets you up is the best wave to farm for guts imo. Best way to do that and take out Thomas is to buy the double barrel and the door leading to the foyer from the weapons kiosk, run laps around the first floor and every half lap, clear some pups until 1 is left. THEN deal with Thomas.
NOTE: If you run too fast, some of them will switch directions and kill you.


Wave 6 -> on average, you should be outside by now. Head to the weapons kiosk and get the Joseph Heavy Automatic ASAP. It's insane RoF and Damage will help TREMENDOUSLY, even when not Pack-A-Pu-- excuse me, SuperCharged. Interact with the cross on the sealed well and place it in the coffin. You'll have 4 urns to shatter, but only the one with bright red cracks will be active. When that's done, pick up the explosives and place them on the well, but do not go down yet, unless you have at least 3000 points.
NOTE: In rare cases on Nightmare, you can start AND complete half of the Music Easter Egg written on Waves 7 [throw a bomb at the chimney] and 10 [Kill a bunch of dogs at the blue fireplace] as early as Wave 6 or even Wave 5, if you were lucky with hags on Waves 2-4. This is because the Corpse Grinder room spawns a random number of dogs, so if you have a straggler shambling in the yards, you can train the dogs to the fireplace. If this happened to you, skip to Wave 10 for the next part of the Music Easter Egg.

Waves 7 -> Kill a few enemies in this wave and you should have enough to drop into the well. Pick up the Corpse Grinder and run back out of the house. Mow down every enemy in your sight and with 1 remaining, search the house for 3 corpses and take their hearts to the Ritual Site; these corpses will be marked as the objective so don't worry about missing one. If the straggler is still alive, interact with the painting to summon Abraham, Isaac and The Stranger. As for their spawns, it's always the same; Abraham spawns on the second floor, Isaac spawns in the basement and The Stranger spawns in the front yard. You must defeat all 3 to complete the painting. If the straggler is still alive by the end of it, you can complete the painting in this wave.

Waves 8-9 -> For these two waves, you need to kill a total of approx. 34 enemies while standing at the fireplace in order to grab the complete portrait. I would strongly recommend using a Tier 1 Corpse Grinder for this as the AoE and upgraded damage melts anyone who dares set foot near you. Just aim it at their feet and pull the trigger. Repeatedly. A non-upgraded Corpse Grinder works fine too, but you will need to rely on bombs and running a lot more. During Wave 9, when the blood-spilling is done, take the portrait to the Ritual Site, throw a bomb at the house's chimney and buy yourself entry to the Mausoleum and grab Mother's Head. This will spawn Thomas, but that's good for us. Keep him around while he's on the brink of death and kill off the smaller enemies to start Wave 10.
NOTE: If you try to do the opposite on Wave 10, It will spawn a second Thomas.

Wave 10 -> Finish off Thomas at the start of this wave. By dealing with Thomas this way, it guarantees that only the dogs will spawn on this wave. You will need to kill 10 of them right in front of the fireplace and you should hear a validation noise. Then go to the basement hallway with Mother's Head out and die again. Interact with the Book of the Dead to respawn for free again. Your Life Token will not be consumed for either of these actions. Then go find the 3 runes with Mother's Head out, I placed the images in order distance from the Book of the Dead. Destroy them and take the book to the Ritual Site.
Then with a spare dog, run out to the graveyard and you should see a green flame floating around. You need to die here and use your voiceline on The Stranger there to respawn for free.
This will cause 3-4 music notes to spawn throughout the house that you will need to go find and use your voiceline on. I would recommend also using this wave to find the Music Notes that came from the Stranger. These are the locations I know of:

Waves 11-15 -> Before starting the last step, the last step for the Music Easter Egg is to interact with the grammophone located near Breaker 4 [In the room adjacent to Stallion Juice]; THIS WILL SEND YOU TO THE NEXT WAVE AND SPAWN 2 ABOMINATIONS, SO BE PREPARED BEFORE DOING THIS. You do get to bask in the light of the blood moon for this, so enjoy it.
Once the Abominations are felled, we can move on to the last step for the story stuff which is The Father. His route is fairly simple; He will walk to the Mausoleum, then through the rotted bathroom corner to the Hanging Man, then up the Foyer/Parlor stairs to get to the Mutilated Pig, then down the other flight of stairs to reach the Mannequin Room in the basement and finally, he walks out to the Ritual Site. For every location except for the Ritual Site, he needs 10 kills as payment before moving to the next.
NOTE: Having the cellar doors open for the final part of the escort helps a lot.

Wave 16 -> Now the blocked path behind the Ritual Site should crumble and give you access to Canwyll Corph, the boss of this area. I would recommend having a Pack-A-Punched RS10 shotgun or equivalently levelled Joseph Heavy Automat to eat away at his health in large chunks; but be warned, this boss is very dangerous, even on lower difficulties. Once he's defeated, you have a choice: You can leave the level via the red orb at the opposite end of the entry point or you could head out through the arena's entry point and interact with the bigger, greener orb. The latter starts the Hidden objective. If you choose to stay for the Hidden Objective and interact with the green orb, 3 Demon Lambs will spawn in the map. An audio cue will get louder when you get close (like the seals for the Book of the Dead) and you must shoot all 3 Demon Lambs. These are the locations I know of:

Wave 17 -> After the Demon Lambs, use the Corpse Grinder on the Mutilated Pig until no more damage numbers show up. Then, a pig effigy will be found in the basement near the hallway leading to the cellar doors. Interact with it and repeat the process, but this time, find the effigy in the front yard, next to the Sword In The Stone.
Return to the Mutilated Pig a third time and you'll be able to interact with it. THIS WILL ADD 1 WAVE TO YOUR WAVE COUNT AND SUMMON 2 THOMASES, SO RUN! A LOT!

Wave 18 -> Soon after the Thomases are felled, you will hear 3 different animal sounds, each at different location outside of the house: A pig squealing around the front porch, a sheep bleating at the Ritual Site and a dog barking at the graveyard. Take note of how many each animal noise sounds out before a long pause, then use those numbers at the mausoleum.
Then there will be three stashes to find for a medallion; A tree stump between the Graveyard and the Ritual Site, a floorboard between the kitchen and the stairs adjacent to the gas tank and a brick behind the stairs in the basement.
When the medallion is found, bring it to the Corpse Grinder room and put in into the plaque with a lamb head.

Wave 19 -> I don't know the exact number, but there's a good amount of blood to be spilled in this room. Interrupting the room's 'killstreak' by leaving the room will not reset it (or at least it shouldn't). You essentially need to keep killing in this room until you hear the validation sound.

Wave 20-21 -> The last thing left to do is to find a steel door next to the stairs in the Mannequin and free a Demon Lamb. From here, you need to escort it to the Ritual Site and then fight the boss again. Once the boss is defeated a second time, you can now officially leave the level.

CONGRATULATIONS!! You should now have earned the Bloody Crown if you did it on Normal or the Ultimate Bloody Crown if you did it on Nightmare!

Money needed for objective items/necessary doors on Nightmare:

All necessary doors [1st Ship]: 6300 pts
grates from Poop Deck to Hold [2nd ship]: 3000 pts
Cave shortcut from 2nd ship to shore: 1200 pts
Door from Vault to Shortcut Cave: 1500 pts

Total points needed for Main Story: 12'000 pts


Recommended Loadout for the first Abraham encounter:
- Joseph Heavy Automat T0 [for Objectives]
- Maelstrom T2 [T3 if possible]
- All but Get Up N' Go and More Gun

Recommended Loadout for the second Abraham encounter: [this is what I used..]
- Joseph Heavy Automat T0
- Maelstrom T4
- PERKS


Waves 1-7 This is maybe the lengthiest start in all of Sker Ritual. Right out the gate, you'll need to interact with a cannon aiming at a rock wall. The cannonball's location can be randomized but I've always found it near the Fast Hands perk on the Gun Deck.
Now run all the way up to the poop deck and then the Captain's Quarters to then unlock a door that serves as a bridge to cross to the other shipwreck. You must repeat the exact same process, but going down into the hold this time to get the fuse. This is one of its locations.

Waves 8-9 Return to the cannon and you must now kill 50 enemies near it to power it. [Don't ask me how that works.] Right at the end of Wave 9, you should be able to shoot the cannon into the rock wall.
Bomba away!

Wave 10 This part is easier to do with a crab as your straggler. you'll find some tendril masses like in Sewer of the Dead which can be dispatched very easily. You'll then find this door.
We need 3 sword keys to open it; a Bronze [In the Shortcut Cave], a Silver [that we just ran past to find the door] and a Gold [on the Capstan on the 1st ship]. Before continuing, get back to the Supercharger and you might have seen this strange wooden scroll-looking thing. Shoot at its locks and it will reveal it's secrets.
You'll want to complete this treasure hunt for the map's Super/Wonder Weapon, the Maelstrom. When you find that dig site, it should look like this.
The bounty you've hunted down is a key! This key will unlock the Maelstrom's cage.

Waves 11-14 Once that's done, We can work on getting our first key. For the sake of eliminating the hardest one first, let's start with the Bronze one.
DISCLAIMER: Interacting with each sword will start a new wave, no matter what.

Interact with its door in the shortcut cave and the next thing on the list is to find red crates with white crosses that you might have seen before while venturing through the level for the cannon. Three of them will have a crank for the 2nd ship's Main Deck's winches. It's important to grab both cranks as soon as possible before using them.
While we're here, we can at least start the Music Easter Egg. With the Maelstrom in hand, make your way to the 2nd Ship's Main Deck after you collected both cranks and in the distance, you will find a lighthouse. You'll want to give it the same treatment as House of the Damned's chimney, except with harpoons this time. You'll know you did it right if the flame of the lighthouse burns blue instead or orange.
Now, returning our focus on the Soul Boxes nearby, we can only activate one at a time, both needing 25 enemies each before we can proceed. Once that's done, we have a crab friend to escort down to the cave.
NOTE: This objective gets a lot easier during a Squid Lord wave, since the crab's count towards the objective. Just mow that Squid Lord down with the Maelstrom. Crab can only sidestep and thus can't attack you for much.
When our crab friend gets to that door we interacted with, we can claim our prize.

Waves 15-17 Next, let's handle the Gold Sword. Interact with the 1st Ship's capstan and fight until you get a straggler. You'll want to shoot these coils, specifically the unlit ones with electricity arching to it from another.
We now have a breaker sequence to handle on the capstan, same song and dance from House of the Damned.
As far as I know, there are only 6 Breakers and are only found in the 1st Ship, the HMS Providence. The locations are as follow:
- #1 is found in the same room where Fast Hands and the cannonball can be found, right below the next two.
- #2 is found right next to the cage containing the Maelstrom, near Elixir of Life.
- #3 is found on the wall across from the room Breaker #2 is found in.
- #4 is found on the wall right across from where Breaker #1 is found in.
- #5 is found in the hold of the HMS Providence.
- #6 can be found in the hall connecting the Main Deck to the Captain's Quarters.

If done correctly, The capstan will now become a Soul Box. Instead of needing 25 like each of the 3 winches from earlier, this big boi needs 50.
NOTE: If you need to train them, be very careful of the stairs in the center, as it can kill you. This part is only treacherous because of that.
Once completed, we can grab our Golden Sword and continue our quest.

Waves 18-21 Lastly, we have the Silver Sword to claim; arguably the easiest of the three. Interact with the cell door near the cannon. A purple mist will seep into the cave like in Ashes of Sker Hotel and there are 4 vents to find and shoot. Don't ask why a cave needs ventillation or even how it gets power.
The next step is to find more yellow pustules to clear the cells of those fleshy tendrils from earlier. One of these cells will have a key hanging on a chain.
Once the Silver Sword if ours, it's time to stab the door with our many, many swords.
This reveals the purpose of the swords, they're knobs for the giant vault! This will then let you interact with the Golden Cannonball atop this old-timey console. There are now 3 switches you must find a flip within a minute. This will need you to run a lap around the map; best way to do it is the cave switch, 2nd ship switch, 1st ship switch. This will free the cannonball which you can then load the small cannon with it; FIRE!!
Interacting with now-revealed code will change the wave and spawn Squid Lords, so be ready!

Wave 22 It's time for the moment of truth. Input the code and before entering the arena, take note of what's at your feet
Now go Moby ♥♥♥♥ that giant squid!
Once the boss is defeated, you can either leave the level or stay for the Hidden Objectives. If you stay, you could also complete the Music Easter Egg!

If you choose to stay, Make your way to the top decks of either ship and you'll notice the masts now have Roman Numerals on them. [They don't show in the screenshot because I did it before screenshotting.. whoops.] the East ship is the HMS Providence [1st ship] and the West ship is the HMS Hunter.

Waves 23-24 The next step for the Music Easter Egg requires 2 Squid Lords, so let's put that aside for now. For the Hidden Objective, interact with this green orb near the cannon and then find 3 Demon Lambs like in House of the Damned.
The Demon Lamb locations I know of are as follows:

The first one I spotted was high above the Sword in the Stone.
The second one I found was nearby; he was on a rock behind the Elite Maker.
The third one I found, the sneaky devil, was on a cliff out of bounds and can be seen from the HMS Hunter's Main Deck.

Wave 25 This is one of the Squid Lord waves I was talking about earlier. You might have noticed that on both ships, there's a squid emblem that appeared; on the Main Deck of the HMS Hunter and below deck on the HMS Providence.
What you wanna do is kill a Squid Lord close enough to one of them so that it turns red, like this.
You will need to repeat this on Wave 30 for the other one. While I love the idea, the radius is just way too small to get it right the first time.

While you have a straggler, You need to wait for lightning strikes. With every lightning strike, two symbols will become visible on these cliffs;

One is on the same cliff that a Demon Lamb spawned on.
The other is on a cliff high above the Sword on a Stone, but you can only shoot it on the main deck of the HMS Providence.
The trick is to shoot one then go to the Captain's Quarters to shoot the same symbols on the books at the foot of the desk, then repeat for the second symbol.

Then right after that, it's just a guessing game with the compass on the desk. All you need to do is spin the dial to hit the cardinal directions in a specific order that randomizes every run.

Last thing to do for this wave is to run down to the beach and interact with this orb here.
Interacting with it will start the new wave and summon a handful of minibosses so be prepared before interacting with it.

Wave 26 Starting off from the blue orb, you will have summoned a few minibosses that need to die before we can move on; 2 Squid Lords and 2 Abominations.
NOTE: Only defeating the Squid Lords is necessary for the step to be considered complete
This fight will have gobbed up most of your time, so for the time being, just gear up for the next wave.


Wave 27 Once they're out of the way, 5 blue orbs will spawn around the map. This part is timed and you'll need to restart if you miss one or take too long. The locations are as follow:
The First is on the HMS Providence, specifically the mast with the Roman Numeral III.
The Second is right behind it on the same set of cliffs one of the symbols could be found on for the Music Easter Egg.
The Third in on the HMS Hunter, on the mast with the Roman Numeral I [where the crab was caged.]
The fourth is in direct view of the previous orb on the Starboard side [aka the right side.]
The fifth and final one is directly above the Sword in the Stone. [you don't even need to get off the ships for this one, you can shoot it from the bridge with the cannon]

Once that's also ticked off the list, the blue orb on the beach will show up again, but this time, on top of starting a new wave, it will be different.
Be prepared, because this one might be worse than before.

Wave 28 That flame you just touched will summon 2 Kings of the Rats, Lord of the Squids and Canwyll Corph [If Mr.Corph sounds familiar to you, he was the man we had to fight at the end of House of the Damned.]
Like Wave 26, you might just want to gear up for the next wave.

Wave 29 -> For this wave, you literally have nothing to do for either objective. Fill up those pockets, Scrooge!

Wave 30 For this wave, we need the Squid Lord's soul to be gobbled up by the other squid emblem. Here's a refresher about where they are: there's on the Main Deck of the HMS Hunter and below deck on the HMS Providence.

After you've satisfied the remaining emblem, we've got some music notes to find!

The first I found was on the pillar that houses the Shock And Load perk.
The second I found was on the rock next to that Ammo Blammo crate.
The third I found was on the broken mast on the HMS Hunter's Main Deck.
The fourth I found was on a pillar in the shortcut cave.
Lastly, interact with the Gramophone that is found in the HMS Hunter's Hold to start a new wave.
Enjoy the music! [And the Abominations..]

Waves 31-34 After that, we have a friend to help! He spawned on the beach and wants to zoom across the entire map! He wants to zoom up through the HMS Providence, down through the HMS Hunter and finally to the vault door! Protecc Crab Fren!
This silly little guy who deserves all the headpats on his exoskeleton is on a journey;
- His first stop is on the HMS Providence's Lower Deck.
- His second stop is on the HMS Hunter's Gun Deck.
- His third is in the shortcut cave.
- His final stop is at the boss.

It's worth nothing that each of his little stops will trigger a new Wave, so be prepared to run out of the wrecks and onto the beach. When all is said and done, we can finally go toe to toe with Y Cracen again; ROUND 2, BABY!!
If you made it this far, congratulations; you now are the proud owner of the Sunken Crown! ..Wait that's Dark Souls.. uhh.. this thing!