Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 - Blood Curse walkthrough, kill Carmilla, offering blood

Carmilla's the star of the show in this next chapter of Lords of Shadows 2. While you'll have to dance carefully around her in the first half of this section, you can look forward to a tough showdown with her during the chapter's conclusion. Here's how to stay out of trouble, grab all the goodies in this stage, and then send Carmilla packing.

Blood Curse walkthrough

Make your way over the metal girders until you're on the next platform along, then jump down to the floor below you. Now head across to a gate to trigger a cut-scene. After it's finished, head upstairs and then into the next room to watch another cinematic, one that's followed swiftly by a fight with a pair of Bloody Skeletons.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2: Graphics Comparison

The tactics for fighting these enemies aren't too tricky, but it's worth knowing what you're up against in advance. One of the Bloody Skeletons has a shield, so make sure you use your Chaos Claws to rip through it before you do anything else. After it's been smashed, switch back to your Shadow Whip and deal damage to your opponents from maximum range. There's no blood to drain from these monsters, so don't bother with melee combat. Eventually, these monsters will turn into pools of blood, but the fight's not over yet. Make sure you whip the blood until it completely vanishes.

Offering Dracula's blood

You'll be treated to another cut-scene once combat is over, before being placed into a new area that's split up into four rooms, with glowing yellow crosses on the floor. You need to offer Dracula's blood at all four of these special crosses, but watch out for Carmilla who's patrolling the area. If she spots you, she'll summon a pair of enemies for you to fight before you can carrying on giving blood.

You also need to be quite speedy during this section too, because if Carmilla comes near any of the crosses you've already tainted, she'll offer up her own blood, and you'll have to visit the shrine once again. She'll also remove some of those bookshelves that are so handy for hiding behind, and even teleport from room to room if she hasn't spotted you for a while. She cheats, basically, so get this job finished up as quickly as possible.

"If Carmilla comes near any of the crosses you've already tainted, she'll offer up her own blood."

There are a few sneaky tricks you can employ yourself to make things easier. First, make your way to the nearest cross and offer your blood. If Carmilla comes in, hide behind a book shelf until you can sneak into an adjacent room. If it looks like she might come across a cross you've given blood too, let her see Dracula and spawn the enemies. You'll have to fight them which is annoying, but she won't be able to offer her own blood at this time.

As soon as you've managed to taint all four crosses yourself, make your way through the door that's just opened, and then offer blood at the new cross on the floor. Keep going forward through the next door along, and interact with the statue to grab a quick top-up of health.

Keep bearing to the right, and then climb the right-hand wall that's at the end of the corridor. Go all the way around the castle once you're up top, then head inside to get another Kleidos from the Pile of Sacrifice.

Make your way back down, and then take a left through the open door. There's a fallen knight over to your right. Take the Soldier's Diary from him, and then go down the path. You'll have to choose between two Maries here. The Marie on the right has the blood you need to drink, but be ready for a fight against Camilla herself once the cut-scene has finished playing.

How to kill Carmilla

At the start of the fight, Carmilla will be enclosed within a ball made from circular strips of metal. You've probably guess by now that you'll need your Chaos Claws to get stuck in here, so get them equipped and then go at this structure mercilessly. Keep an ear out for when she begins talking though, as this signifies she's about to launch one of two special attacks at you.

The first one is telegraphed by the red warning circles you've encountered in previous fights. When you see it, Carmilla's preparing to lunge at you with a direct attack - get ready to back up and dodge this incoming damage. Dodge back again to get right back into the melee action. The second attack is an electrical shockwave that spreads from the ball in a small radius around the boss. Jump over it to avoid the damage.

After a while you'll destroy the metallic ball, but Carmilla will very quickly recreate it, and bring two more enemies into the fight at the same time. Unless you have a burning need to replenish your Chaos Magic, just ignore these newcomers and focus on the main job at hand. There's a visual clue as to whether you're doing enough damage or not. If the cage is orange, you're on the right track, but if it switches back to blue then you need to hit it much harder.

Eventually the cage will be destroyed entirely, and you'll have to deal with Carmilla directly. Watch out for her lightning attack which she shoots in a straight line along the floor. Jump or dodge out of the way to avoid this. She'll also continue to make use of that radial lightning attack that we mentioned earlier. Stay nimble throughout this phase of the fight and you'll be fine.

"You must use your Void Projection to freeze her in place before making use of your Shadow Whip."

It's a good deal trickier to pull off your own attacks during this phase. You must use your Void Projection to freeze her in place before making use of your Shadow Whip. Until she's frozen solid, you just can't attack her. You should also avoid using your Chaos Claws, as they'll chip through the ice you've encased her in very quickly. As before, you may also have to deal with enemy support - continue to ignore them and focus your attacks on Carmilla.

Once you've gone through three or four cycles of this phase, Carmilla will create a number of clones of herself. She'll also come at you with circles of lightning which move around the floor as they slowly reduce in size. Dodge these circles, and take out the Carmilla clones nice and quickly with a single crack of your Shadow Whip.

When the clones are dead, you need to switch your attention back onto Carmilla. You'll soon trigger a cut-scene where Dracula learns how to use his Mist Power. Simply follow the on-screen instructions to slip away from her, then use the Mist Power again to get inside Marie's cage and drink the blood inside. You should now use the Mist Power once more to get out of the cage.

During this - mercifully - final phase of the right, make sure you stay at maximum range from Carmilla and stick to using your Shadow Whip for damage output. Just be ready to dodge backwards quickly when the demon appears above Carmilla.

This demon has two attacks to be aware of. The first involves two rapid swipes that damage anything standing in a fairly wide area in front of Carmilla. The second one consists of a dual lightning attack that spreads along the floor. It's very similar to the attack Carmilla used in an earlier phase of this fight, and you should handle it the same way by dodging the damage. It moves a lot faster though, so you'll need to dodge twice in quick succession.

Whenever the demon vanishes, continue attacking Carmilla with the Shadow Whip until she finally falls to the floor. Not only have you completed this chapter, you've also got your hands on a very special power, one that allows you to access previously unexplored areas of the game.

If you've come unstuck trying to free Chupacabras, you can find the help you need elsewhere in our Lords of Shadow 2 walkthrough.