Mission 5: The Blood Curse

From where you start, head up the only open door into the hallway. After that, um, interesting opening sequence you will be infected by Carmilla's blood (who didn't see that coming?). The interesting (and probably very shortly for you annoying effect) is that when your health depletes you will become her slave. Each hit you take reduces your resistance to her mind control (just like taking damage).

 

 

After you regain control, two skeletons (one with a shield) will attack. They are similar to most other enemies so far in that they have a mix of unblockable and blockable attacks. But due to the nature of the fight (and your infected blood) you want to avoid being hit at all. So play as defensively as you can, dodging around constantly and hitting them with your whip from range. After the first skeleton falls, it will be replaced by another. As it is appearing, use this lull to break the shield of the shield bearing skeleton and finish him off quickly. The next skeleton should have formed by then as well as his shield bearing partner. Repeat the same tactics to survive the first room. I actually died twice here, so it's not as easy as it sounds.

 

 

After that another cut-scene will occur with your wife… Yes I was dubious as well but apparently it is actually her. Her blood will give you some health back (but not break Carmilla's hold completely). Now Carmilla will be looking for you with a giant lantern. Why Dracula is running away from a woman with a giant lantern I have no idea but apparently he is. The goal here is to offer your blood at four points (one in each part of the area). Carmilla will try to find you (and offer her blood to close the seals). If she does, two soldiers will appear and begin fighting you. Defeat them and the hide and seek resumes. So obviously you want to avoid her at all costs. This is a slow and annoying mini-game but relatively easy if you are cautious. Once all four are lit, Carmilla will leave and the doorway will open.

 

Move into the open gate and use your blood on the floor seal. The next doorway should open, leading you to a heart statue to replenish any lost health.

 

 

Challenge Item: Take a left in this corridor and jump up and use the grapple path to reach the plinth above.

 

Diary: As you walk out on to the battlements to your right.

 

Head outside onto the battlements and begin crossing. Partway along, the way back will close, leaving you alone with your wife again. Er, wives? Hmm, time to choose I guess. In my play through, the one on the right was the real Marie. You can also get clues from what they say, so if you want to double check just listen for a bit. Choosing right pisses of Carmilla just a tad. Boss fight time.

 

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Boss: Carmilla

 

 

Attacks – Phase 1

 

 

Shield Roll: An unblockable symbol will appear on Carmilla's sphere and then she will bowl straight towards Dracula. A quick dodge sideways will get you out of danger here.

 

Summon: Carmilla will summon two vampire soldiers to attack Dracula. They have the same attacks and movement patterns as every other vampire soldier.

 

Thunder Wave: Carmilla will call down a bolt of lightning that spreads out in a wave from her position. You need to jump to avoid this attack.

 

 

Carmilla (unlike most of the bosses we've fought so far) has no tutorial introduction, it's straight into the battle. To start with, Carmilla is in a ball of rotating rings. These mean you cannot hit her with your normal whip or void sword. You can however damage the sphere with your chaos claws. This doesn't cause her direct damage but it will cause the sphere to fail after enough consecutive hits. One of the only good thing about her summoning minions is the fact that friendly fire is on, her wave and shield roll attacks can hit and knock down her minions. This will occasionally give you a free opening to attack or finish off your opponents.

 

The summoned enemies are only there for you to chain off really (if you can) otherwise you have to just keep smacking her orb until it crumbles enough times (three). Once it does you will enter phase two.

 

 

Attacks – Phase 2 (All previous attacks included except shield roll)

 

 

Lightning Spear: Carmilla will call down lightning in front of her and then direct it towards Dracula. A well timed dodge will avoid this.

 

 

Camille will now be free of her bubble and able to be hit, but doing that is tricky when she moves extremely fast and teleports around. Added onto that is her annoying summon spell and new lightning spear attack. The only real way to stop her moving is to freeze her in place. But to do that you need some void magic, this means a successful chain against her summoned pals.

 

Charge up as much void magic as you can and in a gap between her summon waves, freeze her in place. Rush up and start whipping her and as soon as she unfreezes and teleports, freeze her again. Repeat this as many times as you can before she summons more soldiers. I managed to take a good half a bar before she could create more so it works quite well.

 

Once she has lost two thirds of her first bar she will create copies of herself and surround you. As soon as you regain control, start using your whip's area attack to hit and destroy as many as you can rapidly. Because as soon as all the clones are gone, you can resume hitting the real Carmilla. You may need to dodge a few lightning wave attacks between hits but it shouldn't take too long to find her again. Once you find the real one a cut-scene will take over and you will attain the power to transform into mist (just remember the battle isn't over yet).

 

 

Attacks – Phase 3 (No previous attacks)

 

 

Spectral Swipe: The specter will do either one or more simple swings towards you. Dodge backwards to avoid the damage.

 

Spectral Bolt: The specter will slam it's hand into the ground and send a wall of electricity towards Dracula. Dodge to the sides to avoid it.

 

Spectral Wings: Carmilla's specter will flap it's wings, knocking Dracula back if he is nearby. Not a damaging attack but a backwards dodge should get you out of it's area of effect.

 

Spectral Grab: Carmilla's specter will raise both it's arms and try to grab Dracula. Stay back with the whip or dodge backwards to avoid taking damage.

 

 

Now that you have absorbed her mist powers you get to use them to escape her specter's grasp. Press the RT to escape it's clutches. The other benefit is that she can't teleport anymore (hooray!) and is thus a lot easier to hit. You can also mist through the bars of Marie's prison and drink her blood to replenish your health. Now the counter-attack can begin. Use your single target whip to keep her stun locked as much as you can. If you do this well she can be finished off in less than a minute. Once she falls, watch in satisfaction as she gets her just desserts.

 

 

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Now that Carmilla is out of the way and you have the power to transform into mist, Dracula is feeling a bit more like himself. Head back along the battlements and return to the room with the blood seals to find Marie.

 

 

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