Mission 1: Sciences District

Once the portal drops you off in the Sciences district head left and wrench open the roller door to your left.

 

Memorial: From where you arrive in this area, take the first left, travel in a straight line to the top of the ramp and head left again to find it.

 

 

Inside the game game will tell you to use your newly acquired shadow dagger to destroy two glowing red points above a metal door. The door will then glow gold, signifying that you can push it open. Welcome to the stealth genre all of a sudden. A golgoth guard (who apparently you are no match for – and they are right about this as he can take you down in a couple of shots) will be alerted to your presence. The camera will move to look at the black miasma and Dracula will comment on how he can use that to hide. Walk over to it and press B to hide. Well, this must be a new definition of hiding as instead of hiding you turn into a rat… myeeess. The small pack of rats represents your health while transformed. The golgoth guard can stomp on any rats he sees, reducing your total rats and if it was you, switching you to another automatically. Stick to the sides of the hallway to get around him and head for the shadow portal behind the guard. Transform back into your human form and you will be introduced to possession. Stand behind him (relatively close) and press B to take over his mind. While you are in control of an enemy like this their body will be slowly destroyed by your corrupted vitae. Slog slowly down the lit corridor that the camera points to and use the button/ lever at the end of it.

 

Now the door is open, run inside and pull the lever on the left hand side. This will open the decontamination chamber, allowing you access to the facility beyond. The game will introduce you to bat swarm ability (when Dracula is in trouble just throw bats at people). Aim and fire it at the guard to the right to distract them both and then climb up the now accessible ladder to the grapple points above. As you move along the grapple trail a cut-scene will butt in. Once you are back in control, your friend from the previous room will join you. Now that he is alone however, you can possess him to open the nearby door. Once you possess him the lever by the door will be highlighted. Waddle over to it and open it up to nom the guard. Inside is an object called a pain box.

 

Life Gem – Once you interact with the pain box you will receive your first life gem. Collect five to increase your maximum health.

 

Head back up to the ladder you dropped down from before the second guard arrives and follow the catwalk back to an open door. A cut-scene will once again interrupt your progress as the child from before offers to guide you once again. Suddenly everything will glow. Keep following him along the catwalk until you arrive somewhere else (Bernhard's Wing).

 

 

Diary – On the glowing yellow body to your right when you arrive

 

Follow the corridor until you are introduced to the blood font. Rip it apart if you need it.

 

Life Gem – Circle around behind the wrecked staircase for another gem

 

Life Gem – Next to the previous gem is a grapple point, indicated by bats. Use it to climb up to the stairs above. then jump across two pieces of stairs to a to a ledge with the gem on it.

 

To move on from this crumbled area, there is a grapple point just to the left of the blood font statue. Climb up and along the grapple trail until you reach solid ground once more. A cut-scene will take control here and Dracula will realize that he is back in the past once more. Follow the balcony around into the room with a glowy, lever thing jutting out of the floor. A gap in the wall will open nearby showing cogs gummed up with blood. Use your shadow daggers to free up the mechanism. This will open up the other door out of the room. Cut-scene. The strange child will be across the gap, showing you where you need to reach.

 

Life Gem – Drop down to the floor below to find another life gem

 

Artwork – Hidden inside a statue on the lower floor

 

To get back to the upper level, use the grapple point at the top of the large destroyed staircase. Time to play with some physics. To cross the candlebras, swing them back and forth to narrow the gap and then jump between them.

 

Life Gem – On the right path of the candelabra excursion, swing across to the gem

 

Finish crossing the candelabras, and once more a cut-scene will take over. Head into the only reachable area and smash stuff (chairs and the like) to find a lore entry. You will find a large central pillar with grapple points attached, these will take you to the other side of the room.

 

Diary – On the glowing soldier corpse where you land slightly to your left.

 

Head through the large archway for once again another cut-scene. After this a run sequence will begin, Run along the crumbling path of the floor, using grapple points as needed. If you die, you will restart this run section. Once you succeed cut-scene away!

 

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Boss: Stone Golem

 

 

Attacks – (Void Sword and chaining) tutorial section

 

 

Roar: The stone golem will hunker down and release a shock-wave outwards from himself, knocking back Dracula and dealing no damage. Dodge away from the blast to avoid this.

 

 

Once the Void sword is back in your possession, a golem construct made from the floor and blood will rise from the ground. Use your Void sword until you run out of power. Once you run out of power, the game will inform you about chaining attacks. Chaining successive attacks without taking damage releases orbs which you can absorb to regenerate health and magic. For those on higher difficulties, getting into a rhythm and keeping these chains going is the key to success against harder enemies and bosses. After you succeed in chaining enough attacks to make some orbs appear, push in the left stick to absorb them and the real fight will begin.

 

 

Note: Phase one is indicated by the blood only flowing down the golem's legs.

 

Attacks – Phase 1 (Includes all previous attacks)

 

 

Blood Wave: The stone golem will slowly raise his leg in the air and then stomp it down into the floor, releasing a wave of blood outwards from his position. Keep in mind that the wave also returns back to his position so you will have to jump twice to avoid taking damage. If you do get hit the wave will knock you down and deal a decent chunk of damage.

 

Swing Low: The golem will scythe his fist down low, near to the ground when you are near him. Stay back far enough or dodge away from the attack when the swing animation begins. This attack can be blocked and is a good way to deal damage to the golem.

 

Slam: The golem will raise it's arm behind it's head and the unblockable symbol will appear on it's fist before it slams it into the ground. Don't be in the way of this attack if you want to have any health left on higher difficulties. Due to the long wind up time it is quite easy to dodge unless the golem blindsides you (or the camera does). After the hit you should have a couple of seconds to get a few hits in before it resumes the onslaught.

 

 

Once the blood runs to the golem's legs the fight really gets going. The golem's attack pool expands and his attacks can deal some serious damage. If you have enough points to upgrade your single target whip attack, this might be a good time to do it as this guy takes little damage from a regular (non upgraded) whip. Target the blood to keep the damage coming as hitting his upper torso at the moment with jump attacks is useless (but will be useful in the second phase). Concentrate on dodging his attacks over dealing damage (the blood wave is probably your biggest threat due to the tricky jump timing). If you can get the hang of chaining against this guy, keeping your health up is easy. Eventually after enough attacks you will stagger him (when the orange bar is nearly gone). Run up to the golem and complete the quick time event (the button required changes so I can't help with that). If you mess it up, the golem will smack you down for decent damage and regain half it's life bar of health (so don't screw it up). Get it right and the fight moves to phase two.

 

 

Note: Phase two is indicated by the blood welling up from the golem's chest (not down it's legs).

 

Attacks – Phase 2 (Includes all previous attacks)

 

 

Freeze Blast: The stone golem will tilt his upper body back and then lean forward, releasing a ball of ice that will freeze a section of the floor (and Dracula if it hits him). This is easy to dodge away from but remember to keep an eye out for the icy patches it leaves as they will freeze you.

 

Blood Club: The large chunk of stone that makes up the golem's right hand will drop to the floor, attached by strands of solidifying blood. It will then swing this behind it's head (with the unblockable symbol appearing at this point) and then launch this at Dracula. Jump or dodge away from the attack to avoid damage.

 

Homing Blood Spikes: This is probably his most annoying attack in this phase. The golem will raise it's arm behind it's head and then slam it down into the ground. A puddle of blood will come out of the arm and home in on Dracula's position. Once it reaches him it will erupt into spikes, dealing a hefty chunk of damage. You need to jump away (and air dodge if you want to make doubly sure) just as the blood puddle reaches your position.

 

 

Now that the blood has moved, jump attacks are the way to go for damage dealing. You may want to invest in the guillotine attack or the increased aerial combo attacks if you haven't spent any points yet to make dealing damage easier. The strategy is pretty simple here, jump up for aerial attacks and then air dodge away when the golem counterattacks. Avoid the icy patches on the ground from it's freeze blast as he will land free hits on you while you are frozen otherwise. If you need health either chain successfully or use your void sword's aerial attacks. After enough punishment the golem will stagger once again, indicating a quick time finish (with randomized button) once again. Complete this to blast it apart and end the fight.

 

 

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After shattering the stone golem into a million pieces, approach the intact remains of the head. Inside is a primordial gem. This gives you the power to freeze water and enemies with icy blasts. The game will prompt you to freeze the nearby waterfall. If (like me) your magic reserves were exhausted from the fight, remember back to the finishing blow and seeing a wall nearby being smashed open. Inside are a magic regeneration font and healing statue. Grab what you need and return to the base of the waterfall. Use your new void powers to freeze the falls and then quickly grapple your way to the top before it melts. Smash your way through the crates at the top and grab the relic hidden inside. Head straight ahead through the slightly crumbled archway and along the corridor within. Keep traveling until you emerge on a scaffold above the corridor that collapsed under your feet earlier.

 

 

Void Gem: Travel left, along the grapple points strewn the length of the hallway until you reach a platform at the far end with a pain box and the gem inside.

 

Return back to the previous path split (back along the corridor and then into the wet, waterlogged area.

 

Void Gem: Head straight ahead as you enter the waterlogged area to find a pain box and the gem.

 

Keep following the guide arrow on your mini map to arrive at a large circular space with a grapple point to your right as you enter. Leap up to it and follow the trail to the upper area. Head right to find a new hallway and cut-scene (haven't had one of those for….. three minutes?). One of your soldiers is menacing the boy who led the way for you before. Unfortunately, the tainted blood that powered the stone golem will once again try and stop you here in a mini boss fight. Is it just me or does the soldier really resemble a predator from the movies?

 

The soldiers will attack in pairs, one normally rushing you while the other flanks. After taking some damage, one of the soldiers will mysteriously get hold of the child (how does he do that?) and taunt you in the center of the room. Thankfully there is no friendly fire here so feel free to go nuts on the soldiers. After taking enough damage, the soldier holding the child will drop him and the dance will start again. If you are having trouble inflicting damage on the soldiers, use your whip to keep them at bay and perfectly time your blocks to leave them vulnerable to a hefty single target combo. The soldiers only use simple lunge and slice attacks against you so the timing is pretty easy to learn. Once you deal enough damage to them, you will be prompted to finish them (and regenerate some health). Each time one dies, they will kidnap the kid and repeat the process again. After a few rounds of this you will notice that only one soldier remains. Finish him off and, you guessed it… another cut-scene.

During the scene the boy will give you the wolf medallion that allows you to summon a white wolf as your spirit guide. Once you regain control, use the medallion on the wolf seal on the ground (no, not a wolf-seal hybrid thing, though that would be interesting). Your spirit guide will appear on the level above, so use the nearby grapple point to climb up.

 

Void Gem: Before following the wolf down the darkened hallway, head left and jump over the large gap in the floor to find a pain box.

 

Once you are ready, follow the wolf down the black corridor to return to the present day and the science facility. Drop down to the floor below (the wolf seal will take you back to the past), refill your void power if you need to. Drop down the hole in the wall to the left to re-enter the science facility proper. Unfortunately, your traveling companion spawns another soldier for you to dismember. The good news is that this time there is no re-spawning and teleportation bollocks to worry about so just smack away at him with your whip until he is ready to finish. He should drop a relic for you afterwards.

 

You should see a locked door in this room with a dripping waterfall next to it. Use your freeze powers to solidify and climb the waterfall. Drop down on the other side of the door and freeze the wind generator (/ fan). Then use the nearby shadow portal to turn into a rat. Now that the fan is frozen, you can safely pass underneath and through the grille inside. Lines of fire will block your path inside the duct but with your rat-like powers you can simply jump over them. Once you reach the electrical hazard, you will have to carefully pick your way along the corrugated iron path (how it that not electrified as well?). Enter the first open panel for yet more lines of fire to jump over. At the end is another grille that exits out of the duct.

 

And puts you around the corner from a guard. Remain in rat form and enter the grille on the wall across from you. Inside is a wire you can gnaw on to short out the gate panel (at the cost of one rat). This will cause a technician to emerge and start tinkering with the door panel. Return to the shadow portal and change back to your normal form. The guard can easily be distracted by shooting bats at his face. While he is blind, walk up behind the technician and possess him to open the doorway. Gee, nobody would notice anything wrong with that guy…). Head down the corridor inside and watch the decontamination process completely fail to faze you. Cut-scene begin.

 

After the events of the cut-scene, you will be in a room with four mutated soldiers inside. These guys have no weapons (except clawing at you) but they are fast and will try to flank you so be ready to dodge if they appear behind you. Aerial attacks don't really work here as they will spit bile at you, knocking you out of the air and ruining your chain so stick to the ground. Once all four are taken care of you will be face to face with your first modern boss opponent.

 

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Boss: Raisa Volkova

 

 

Attacks

 

 

Flash Step: Raisa will suddenly appear, complete a short power up sequence and charge rapidly at Dracula. Dodge is your best bet here and it may take a few attempts to get the timing down for this attack.

 

Cable Slap: Raisa will wind up (showing the unblockable symbol) and simply swing her cables in your direction. Dodge away if you just want to avoid the attack. After taking some damage, the range of the cable will increase, meaning her arc of attack will become far bigger.

 

Cable Whip: Raisa will whip the cable out from her position towards Dracula, strafe left or right (or dodge) to avoid this attack. After taking some damage, she will add an electrical blast that comes out of the end of the cable in a straight line.

 

Short Circuit: After taking some damage, Raisa will stand in the center of the room and pass voltage into the floor. This electrifies a large part of the floor and leaves electrical orbs in a pattern around her. Stick to the edges of the room when she starts this animation and avoid the electrical orbs afterwards.

 

 

Luckily for us, Raisa wants to toy with Dracula for a bit. She will begin by simply charging at him (flash step attack). If you still haven't worked out how to deal with this, the game will feel sorry for you and start giving hints. Answer: just freeze her. Once she's cooled off a bit, she will drop back down and rip up some cables from the floor. The freeze effect on her will only last for a little while so try to be as aggressive as possible to reduce the number of times you have to regenerate your void power and freeze her. Each time you need to do this, infected soldiers (like the ones before) will show up and keep spawning until you chain enough to create orbs and regenerate some of your void magic. Once you do, Raisa will revert to flash stepping into you until you freeze her again and then the fight will resume.

 

These intervals can be annoying and just waste time. So keep up the pressure, upgrade your single target whip attacks if you can and stay far enough back (thanks to your whip) to react to her attacks. Once she is nearly done with her first bar of health, she will lasso you and grab hold of you. Complete the QTE (quick time event) to escape her grasp. After this, keep repeating the same tactics and regenerating/ freezing her until her health is depleted. Thankfully there is no QTE to finish her, a cut-scene will take over and you will be transported back to downtown.

 

 

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