After gathering all three keys by defeating Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse's first three bosses--The Fallen, Joan of Arc, and Medusa--you should then return to the room where Rose fought the first of the bunch. Here, she will place three stones into the door and descend into the Catacombs. This marks the first really difficult area to navigate as it’s long and winding, with plenty of traps and enemies blocking your spelunking efforts.
To conquer this area, you’ll need to get to grips with using Holy Light to phase in and out of Chaos Shards, dodge deadly spinning discs, and fight against some of the toughest regular enemies you’ve seen so far in this metroidvania adventure. The worst bit is that it’s not the only majorly tricky, prolonged area you need to navigate; the Clock Tower is definitely more complex and deadly. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Here is how to descend the Catacombs in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse.
How to descend the Catacombs
As you enter, head down and to the left to the next room. This next room will have some ghosts, bone pillars, and exploding spiders in addition to the regular skeleton archers and other nasties you’ve faced so far. Use Holy Light to cross the Chaos Shard blocks and reach the next room. This one introduces Fleamen, who hop around and can latch onto you if they hit. Parrying will be effective against most enemies here, so take your time. After some more enemies, you’ll need to go down a shaft filled with spinning blades. Time your jumps well and use the grapples you find later on, and you should reach the bottom and the next room.
Believe it or not, that was the easy part! But first, follow the glowing trail to the left to find a save room. Head left and cross the skull head. Keep going left and you’ll see a ledge above you can take to grab one of the Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse relics, or continue to the green writing on the wall. This green writing indicates some kind of secret; in this case, a hidden ledge you can fall through. Fight the gauntlet of enemies to the right, including the Skeleton Ape, before revealing the hidden wall to the right of the statue. Hit the switch to lower the giant skeleton heads, creating a shortcut to the save point. Head down to the next room, which has you dodging some more spinning blades. When you come across the large platform of Chaos Shards, use the Holy Light to dodge the blades, then sling yourself up when the blades move right. You should then be able to move to the left and into the next area.
This next section has an invisible pit, but you can climb up the shaft to the left to escape. Fall through the hidden ledge to the pit’s right to get to the next switch. Wall jump right of the Bone Pillars here to find some hidden secrets, then go left and kill the fleamen. The Gallery of Teeth is the hardest set of spinning blades and Chaos Shard placement you’ve probably seen so far, so take your time and cross all the gaps to find the last two switches for this part of the catacombs. The next room has loads of Bone Pillars, as well as the toughest enemy gauntlet yet. Once defeated, use the grapple point in the next room to open the shaft below the giant skull. To the left is a spinning blade challenge room, so fall down the hole that’s opened up and go right to the next section. The Condemned Mineshaft has an elevator to the right as you enter, which is a shortcut to the save point.
Heading down and to the right will lead you to the Blood Pits, which have some tough traversal puzzles and an enemy gauntlet. When you reach the bottom, there are collapsible platforms leading to a couple of Mermen. These monsters spit fireballs with surprising precision, so parry using the Holy Light. There's a hidden area up the ceiling to the right of the yellow whip latch point with an upgrade, but continue left to run the gauntlet of spinning blades and berserker skeletons. At the end, there are two hidden walls with chicken to the left and the next area to the right.
The Hall of the Fallen Angels has a whip, as well as a tough gauntlet that includes harpies, berserker zombies, and archers. Defeat them all, then go down the middle into Stairway to Hell. This area has a Skeleton Ape, which you can ignore if you want. Watch out for the ambush of berserker zombies shortly afterwards in the long corridor. In the next room, you’ll find a shortcut to the second elevator, so ride it all the way to the beginning if you need the respite. From this point, you should reach the end of the Catacombs, where we’re going to stop to avoid spoilers.