How to Get Through the Talos Gauntlet in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse (Crushers, Rams and the Escape Route Down)
The route from the Clock Tower hall down to Talos covers crusher gaps, a four-level ram shaft and a burning corridor.
The route from the Clock Tower hall down to Talos covers crusher gaps, a four-level ram shaft and a burning corridor.
by AllThingsHow Staff
After the opening phase of the Talos battle in the Clock Tower in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, he plunges beneath the hall. Follow him through a short gauntlet of crushers, stone rams and spikes before stage 2 begins. The route is brief, but nearly every hazard punishes hesitation or a mistimed move.
Quick answer: Jump each corridor gap right after its crusher slams. Drop down the shaft right, left, right, left after each ram fires. Then run right, grapple over the spikes, vault the gear gate and slide into the chain chute.
When the gauntlet starts
The gauntlet starts as soon as you break his shield and hit the core enough times. The hall flashes, Talos tears free from the upper hall and falls out of sight below.
Talos breaks loose and drops away below the hall.
A gate opens on the hall’s left side. Pass through it to follow the route to Talos, who is waiting farther down.
The route uses a handful of movement inputs, including the Arcane Whip for the grapple points near the end:
Keep your attention on the openings. You’ll encounter three gaps; in each, a crusher descends from above onto a stone block suspended by chains beneath the floor. Stay off the suspended block, or the crusher will pin you against it.
Once the crusher has struck, sprint-jump across the full opening and land on the opposite floor. Mistiming the leap in either direction means a fall or a crushing hit.
Use the same pause-then-jump timing at the remaining two openings. At the corridor’s leftmost end, a railing borders a ledge, with a purple grapple point beneath it. The ledge serves as a checkpoint.
The far-left ledge is a checkpoint; the shaft is below it.
Part 2: the ram shaft
A shaft beneath the ledge at the far left contains four tiers of grated walkways. From the side walls, horizontal stone rams fire across the tiers about every three seconds, producing a bright flash on impact. There’s no warning before a ram launches, so look for the flash below and move immediately afterward.
A ram slams across the level below from the left wall.
Continue beyond the second block to the checkpoint. Farther ahead, a heavy crusher drops onto the floor’s end; beyond its edge lies a spike pit, with a purple grapple point suspended over it.
The crusher at the end of the floor, with the spike pit and purple point beyond.
Let the crusher strike, then use its upward motion as your cue: sprint to the edge, jump, point up and hold the whip button toward the purple point. The whip catches, letting Rose climb over to the platform on the far side of the spikes.
Don’t linger after landing: roughly a second later, a spiked ram sweeps in from the right. Sprint beneath the purple point over the round gear gate, then leap, aim upward and lash it with the whip. It hoists you out of the way while the ram travels underneath.
Leap from the ledge toward the chute running between the suspended chains. After landing, sprint forward, then slide through the passage on your right.
The passage exits onto the lower arena floor, where Talos is chained up again; stage 2 begins here. How to break the shield down there is in our Talos phase 2 guide.
The lower arena, where stage 2 begins.
If you die in the gauntlet
A death in the gauntlet leaves the battle in progress. You return at the last checkpoint, while Talos retains all the damage you’ve dealt; his health bar remains at that level.
If you drop through an opening in the corridor, you return to the edge just before that opening.
Die in the ram shaft and you’re back on the far-left ledge.
A death in the bottom corridor beyond the pair of low blocks sends you back to its checkpoint.
