Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse — How to Level Up Fast with Phantom Ring XP Farming

Leveling in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse speeds up dramatically once you have the Phantom Ring. This relic rewrites how enemies come back, so instead of waiting for a save point to reset a room, you can refill it with a single trip through a door and back.

Quick answer: Equip the Phantom Ring from the Clock Tower, clear a room of enemies, step through a door, and walk straight back in to fight them again for repeated experience.

What the Phantom Ring does

The Phantom Ring alters one mechanic: enemy respawns. Its card reads, “Mobs respawn when you leave a room rather than after a save.” Without the ring, defeated foes reappear only following a rest at a save point.

That one change is what makes fast experience farming possible. You pick a room, clear it, and reset it as many times as you want without hunting down a save.

Where to find the Phantom Ring in the Clock Tower

The Phantom Ring sits in a chest in the Clock Tower, Western Ascent. Head to the lower-left section of the area and look for an alcove tucked behind rotating gears. Approach the chest and press R1 (PC: E) to interact and open it.

Phantom Ring chest card — The chest holding the Phantom Ring in the Western Ascent, tucked into the lower-left alcove behind the rotating gears. Shown at 341:16 in Shirrako’s video. Image: KONAMI

When you pick it up, the card displays its full text: “PHANTOM RING / Mobs respawn when you leave a room rather than after a save. / Designed by a heretical architect, this object seems to deceive space itself.” The prompts give you “HOLD TO EQUIP” and “CONTINUE”.

How to equip the Phantom Ring

In the EQUIPMENT menu, move over to the RELICS tab. Three relic slots appear along the top of the screen, and you can equip up to 3 relics at a time. The bottom of the screen shows the controls: Navigate, Select (Cross, PC: Enter), and Unequip (Square).

Navigate down the grid until the Phantom Ring is selected. The panel on the right displays its description and marks it “INSPECTED”.

Phantom Ring equip menu — The RELICS tab with the Phantom Ring selected, its respawn description displayed in the side panel. Shown at 346:01 in Shirrako’s video. Image: KONAMI

Select the Phantom Ring to drop it into a slot. If all three slots are already filled, unequip one first to make room.

Farming experience at Daedalus Crossing

With the relic active, you need a room full of enemies worth fighting. Daedalus Crossing in the Clock Tower works well. Its red dual-blade guards are stationed along the walkways and near the lift.

Exit through a door into the adjacent room, turn around, and head straight back. The “DAEDALUS CROSSING” banner appears once more, and the guards have returned to their starting positions.

Re-enter Daedalus Crossing — Re-entering Daedalus Crossing brings the banner back up and respawns the dual-blade guards. Shown at 346:12 in Shirrako’s video. Image: KONAMI

Take on the guards after they reappear, then repeat the loop. After a few cycles, the “LEVEL UP!” burst triggers as the final guard drops on the lift.

Level Up after respawned guards — A level up triggers after clearing the respawned guards, confirming the loop is paying out experience. Shown at 347:19 in Shirrako’s video. Image: KONAMI

Which rooms give experience, and other sources

Defeating a regular enemy makes it drop experience orbs. In rooms that endlessly spawn enemies until you exit, the drops are mana orbs only, with no experience, so these waves are unsuitable for farming. Instead, use a standard room that can be reset, such as with the Phantom Ring.

A handful of whip strikes shatters each golden statue, unleashing experience. There are 147 statues throughout the game, and those found farther along yield larger payouts.

Area	Statues	Experience per statue	Area total
Paris Streets	28	100	2,800
Holy Innocents’ Cemetery	15	150	2,250
Catacombs of Paris	20	200	4,000
Main Hall	21	250	5,250
Notre-Dame	19	300	5,700
Library	9	300	2,700
Hall of Mirrors	21	300	6,300
Clock Tower	14	350	4,900
Master’s Quarters	—	400	—

All 147 statues together are worth 33,900 experience. Each boss awards between 400 and 1,500 experience: Dracula’s second form gives 1,500; Dracula, the Succubus and the Joan of Arc rematch 1,200 each; Death in the Transept, the shadow of Rose and Mammon 1,000 each; Talos 900; and Carmilla 850.

Levels go up to 99. The bar empties after each level-up: level 2 needs 250 experience, the last level needs 10,001, and reaching level 99 takes 418,999 experience in total.

How to know a level landed

Each time your experience bar fills, a “LEVEL UP!” message and a gold burst play on screen. Open the Equipment menu to check your level (LVL) alongside ATK, HP, DEF, and MP. Rose gains +1 ATK and +1 DEF with every level; leveling leaves her health and mana unchanged, since only Brave Hearts and Wise Hearts increase those totals. Defeating a boss and absorbing its Arcana can also trigger “LEVEL UP!”.