Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement

The world of Bloodstained is dense with information, not all of which you need to know. Here are some highlights that should hopefully help make your experience easier. NOTE: If you want to go for a deep dive, check out the Appendix section.

Hidden in Plain Sight

There are a lot of hidden things scattered throughout the game, and I'll do my best to inform you of the major ones. There are plenty of little things that are hidden as well, so make sure you're taking chances. If a wall looks suspicious, give it a whack. Take the trickiest road to get where you're going. Take the high road before you take the low road because it's usually much easier to get down than get up. If you're getting low on money, health, or MP, break every torch and sconce you can find as they almost always have something, even if it's just 1 G.

Move and Swing at the Same Time

This is a Castlevania classic. You may notice that many of your weapons cause you to stop moving when you use them, but there's a better way. If you jump just before you swing, you'll be able to maintain your momentum, though if you stop that momentum in midair, you may lose it entirely. Landing will also cancel your animation, allowing you to swing again immediately, though this is tougher to make useful.

Alchemy and Gold Farming Tips

This would take up far too much space here. There's an entire section with tips for Alchemy and Gold Farming. While you may be able to use some of these tips early on, most of it isn't too useful until later in the game when you're incentivized to craft a lot, and thus spend a lot on crafting.

Check the Alchemy Tips section for more details on both.

Lucky Duck

When you start getting gear, items, and shards that increase your luck, equip them. You'll want to keep them equipped unless you're fighting a boss. Higher luck increases how often enemies drop items, how much gold you get on money drops, the odds of shards dropping, and your chance to score a critical hit on enemies (so you don't lose too much damage by doing this). Let your other gear boost your other stats while you maximize your luck wherever you can. It'll save you a lot of time in the long run.

Powerleveling

In general, once you've acquired Double Jump and either the Bunnymorphosis Shard or really good Shoes, you can kill large enemies quickly. Find a large and mostly stationary enemy such as a Nyabon or Puppy. Run in, Jump above them and dive kick downward at them (Double Jump+Down+Jump) to make short work of them. Leave the room and re-enter to repeat.

This will help you level a little earlier, but when you reach around the level 40 mark and have made it to the Den of Behemoths, there's a much better spot. Make sure to top off your ATK, get the Accelerator shard from Harrier, and wear Weighted Rings to increase how much XP you get. I also recommend a weapon that can attack while you run such as the Oracle Blade (improved Flying Edge) or the staff-like sword weapons.

Next, go to the Save Room in the Den of Behemoths. Leave the room and climb up the stairs. At the top, go through the door on the left. You'll find a relatively small room with an Abyssal Guardian and a Blue Chest. At first, you may want to jump on it like you do with earlier large enemies until you are strong enough to kill it more quickly. Once you're strong enough, you'll be able to enter the room, swing a few times and leave, netting 10k XP in a mere 5-10 seconds. In this spot, you'll be able to go from level 75 to 99 in under an hour despite needing nearly 3 million XP to reach level 99.

Map Tips

The mini-map in the upper-right of the screen (by default) is a clutch tool for exploring the world. Any space you move into on the map will turn blue. At first, you'll notice that most of the area is surrounded in white. These white walls delineate between rooms in the game. If you don't see a white wall, it means there's more space in that room that you can explore if you go in that direction.

Small gaps in the white walls indicate where rooms are, giving you an idea of where you want to go. For instance, if you are returning to a room, you may notice that there's a doorway in this room that you haven't explored the other side of!

That's not the only thing the map can tell you. If you see a small space on the map that appears to be entirely walled off with no doors in, there may be a secret room. It's never a guarantee, but it can't hurt to hit the wall sections in the rooms adjacent to this gap to see if they crumble. If they start to give way, keep hitting and you'll be in!

Finally, there are different colors on the map. Blue is a room you've been to while red indicates a Save Room. Later, you'll find green rooms as well. These green rooms are all connected and allow you to teleport around the map quickly. There's a green room near your base of operations, just above the town. Since your base has a Save room, this means you can get to a Save Room quickly from any green room.

Don't Sweat the Stats

How weapons, armor, accessories, and items work with your base stats is not entirely clear. For some reason, weapon attack values are only about 2/3rds effective (if it says 30, it actually adds 20 to your ATK stat). Less noticeable is that protective gear often has a slightly higher or lower effect than is advertised. If the item says it will increase your DEF by 15, it might do so by 14 or 16.

All of this is to say that you shouldn't sweat the stats. Gear stats with bigger numbers are better than gear with lower numbers but don't try to get nitty-gritty about what the actual impact will be or you'll pull your hair out.

Gotta Go Fast

Aside from moving through water, running forward is Mariam’s slowest form of movement. There are several techniques that allow you to move faster depending on circumstance. They are as follows (slowest to fastest):

1. Dodge (requires moving backward)
2. Slide (press down and jump to slide)
3. Angle

Dive into Arvantville! While not dangerous, this town will soon serve as your base of operations as you explore the castle ahead.

Map Key:

• A - Lindsay: Bounty quest giver.
• B - Johannes: Crafter.
• C - Dominique: Store owner; new items appear after you craft them.
• D - Abigail: Memorial quest giver.
• E - Farmer: Gives seeds; produces 10 of the seed's yield after a number of screen transitions.
• F - Susie: Cooking quest giver.
• G - Camera: Used for a main story objective to create a passplate.

Arvantville Exploration:

Head right from the start and defeat the Morte near the first building. Continue right to encounter two new enemies: a Giant Rat (24 HP) and a Bone Morte (37 HP).

• Giant Rat: A fast-moving enemy that runs back and forth. Stay at a distance and use ranged attacks. Drops Rat Tails for alchemy.
• Bone Morte: A stationary enemy that throws bones in an arc. Dodge its attacks and defeat it quickly. Drops Melting Bone and Melting Skull for alchemy.

Use a ranged attack like Cerulean Splash on the Giant Rat from the cart. Approach the Bone Morte from below, jump to attack, and retreat to avoid its projectiles. After defeating the Bone Morte, a regular Morte will spawn. Return to the Bone Morte's platform to find a Red Chest containing 500g. Proceed through the doorway to the right.

After a conversation, enter the next doorway on the right to find the shelter that will become your HQ. Descend to the bottom floor and go through the door on the right to find Johannes.

Alchemy with Johannes:

Johannes offers four services:

• Craft: Combine materials from enemies, exploration, and dismantling to create new items. Recipes are required for some items.
• Prepare: Similar to Crafting, but uses food ingredients to create dishes that heal and provide permanent stat increases on first consumption. Ingredients can be found or bought.
• Enhance Shard: Upgrade existing shards using materials to improve their effectiveness, often without increasing MP cost.
• Dismantle: Break down unwanted items into their component materials. This costs an Alkahest.

Items crafted via Alchemy are added to Dominique's shop inventory.

Dominique’s Shop:

Dominique offers a variety of goods for purchase and buys unwanted items or shards. Her stock expands as you craft more items. Consider dismantling items for materials rather than selling them if their components can be used for crafting.

You can purchase potions and gear, but it's advisable to check if you can craft better alternatives first to save money and materials.

Exit Johannes's area through the door on the right to reach a save room.

The Villagers:

Leave the save room and return to the stairs. Ascend to the middle level and find Lindsay on the right. She offers Kill Quests. Her first quest is to kill five Mortes to avenge her husband, rewarding you with three Rings. Lindsay provides numerous quests throughout the game, so check back with her regularly for rewards for activities you'll be doing anyway.

Loot the Chest (#2) nearby after accepting her quest.

Items Found:

• Blue Chest (#1)
• Green Chest (#2) - Leather Chestguard
• Bookcase (#3)

Enemies Introduced:

• Bat – 5 HP (Drops Bat Fangs, Small Webbing)
• Sabnock – 88 HP (Drops Lion Mane)
• Gieremund – 53 HP
• Morte
• Aello
• Ghost