Found in the north of the Altus Plateau, the Shaded Castle is a decently large area to explore, with a number of tough enemies and plenty of poison to wade through.
Unique Rewards:
- Golem’s Halberd
- Antspur Rapier
- Marais Mask
- Marais Robe
- Valkyrie’s Prosthesis
- Perfumer’s Cookbook [2]
- Marais Executioner’s Sword (boss drop)
- Briar Greatshield (boss drop)
Dungeon Location
The Shaded Castle is accessible via the pass to the south. Go north through the valley that lies just east of the Erdtree-Gazing Hill site of grace, and hug the western side of the valley as you go north. You’ll eventually reach a pass through the rocks.
At the front of the castle, you should see a cluster of slugs facing a corpse — kill them and grab the
Use Torrent to make your way up the rocks and onto the ramparts, being careful of the enemy that’s hanging out just to the left of the broken crenellation. Turn right to head northeast, and take your first left up the stairs to find the Shaded Castle Ramparts site of grace. Tap it and then go back the way you came and jump back down, to the outside of the castle walls. Ride west and then northwest around the castle, and you’ll see a couple clusters of poison plants. Go past them to the northwest, then bear west and head past the tall rocks into the field full of rubble.
As you enter the area, a giant on the far side will stand up — we want to engage the giant without aggroing the human enemy nearby, so swing around to the right in a wide arc and then engage the giant (you can also grab the
Stay on Torrent and attack the giant’s vulnerable ankles — as long as you’re patient and ride away while the giant attacks, this fight is easy. When retreating, try to retreat in any direction but towards the human foe we passed coming in. If the other enemy does aggro, just ride away from the giant to lead them away, then ride back and attack the giant some more. The giant will drop the
A note on enemies and poison:The many zombie-like enemies here (we’ll call them “rottens” throughout for the sake of brevity) are slow, but have a very damaging attack where they open up their chest and spray poison at you. They also have a nasty grab attack that they’ll do if you stand near them for too long, where they bite you and take a huge chunk of your health. While you’re exploring a section of the castle for the first time, you should always clear these enemies. Once you’re familiar with a section — and you know you’ll be heading past them — feel free to ignore them, since they’ll take a very long time to catch up to you. The other thing to keep in mind throughout this area is to not roll in the poison — if you do so, your meter will continue to fill even when no longer standing in it.
From the site of grace, go down the stairs to the southeast and turn right — past the two rottens and through some barrels is x4
Melee characters will need to time a roll through the perfume and close the distance (you can also immediately sprint at these enemies when you see them to get in range before they can attack you). Ranged characters can just be happy they don’t have to bother. These enemies also have two charges on a crimson flask, so keep attacking them when they’re low to prevent them from healing.
Continue forward on the rampart and turn right to go up a set of stairs, where you can sneak behind another perfumer — be careful of the rotten that hides around the corner on the right, at the top of the stairs. Sneaking up the stairs seems to un-crouch you, so go slowly up the stairs and make sure you’ve crouched once you’re at the top. Take down both enemies and then grab the
Numerous rottens will crawl out of the ground once you near the poison, so be quick as you grab the x5
Climb down the ladder just southwest of the site of grace, and then head north — just around the corner on the right is an enemy you should take out. This will likely aggro the enemy on your left, so run to that one next, and continue killing the albinauric sorcerers that are nearby. Next, you’ll need to follow a series of tricky jumps to reach a
With your
Take a left at the slugs and go up the stairs, and you’ll find yourself on a platform facing a rooftop with a couple of basilisks. Probably the most loathed enemies since Dark Souls 1, these enemies spew a cloud that inflicts the
Once you’ve dealt with the basilisks, go south to the corpse on the end of the diagonal wooden walkway to grab the
Continue west on the roof and look down to find another basilisk waiting to ambush you — remove it from the Lands Between (at least until you die or rest) and then grab the nearby x2 Drawstring Fire Grease. Then jump back up onto the building and use it to leap west to the platform you entered this area from. Go down the stairs and head west onto the roof with a perfumer, remembering to close the gap quickly if you’re melee. From the roof, take the wooden walkway onto the nearby ramparts, then turn right — you’ll see another perfumer. Once he’s dealt with (plus any rottens that aggroed), turn around and head southeast on the ramparts.
Be careful as you come to the next area with enemies (where the rampart opens up into a larger area) — a rotten is hiding around the corner on the right. Take ’em all out, then go east to find a perfumer with his back turned — remarkably, there’s no one waiting in ambush here, so sneak up on him at your leisure. Up the stairs to the south is a
To the north, you’ll see more slugs checking out some
Turn left and head south on the ramparts to find a corpse with x2
Return to the spot where you first jumped onto this section of rampart, and jump back onto the roof. If you look to the north, you’ll see an item on the low ground (a
You can check out our guide on this enemy type for more help fighting it, or you can just grab the item and then run to the ladder we passed earlier (it’s east and slightly south of the roof you’re probably still on while reading this). Just know that you’ll miss out on the
Either way, climb the ladder when you’re ready. At the top, there’s an enemy on the left hidden by objects you should take out before you go down the stairs — where you’ll find another hidden enemy on the left. There’s a lot to do in this area, but first we should grab the site of grace. Go left from the bottom of the stairs and you’ll quickly find another broken bit of crenelation. Look north and you’ll see a series of rooftops you can follow to reach the site of grace:
Grab the
Otherwise, your best bet is waiting until the mounted enemy gets close enough to pull with a projectile, fight that guy on the stairs, and then go 1v1 the revenant. It drops another
Whatever you decide, you can next head south down the stairs, where you’ll see two albinauric sorcerers making their way towards you from the building on the left, and another spectral horseman patrolling the poison. Note that the poison here is very deep and you can’t run in it, so plan your paths across the poison carefully. Ranged characters can deal with the horseman first, while melee characters should rush the sorcerers and kill them before engaging with the horseman. With all three enemies made not-alive, look to the southwest towards the tree — there’s a
Then go northeast and jump into the wooden structure there. Kill the enemy and grab the
Now go back the way you came, south on the ramparts, and continue southwest past the ladder you just came up. You’ll see a perfumer making his way down some stairs. Deal with him, then kick the ladder to the left of the stairs and go up ’em. (This shortcut isn’t particularly useful, but it feels good to kick the ladder anyway). Go up the stairs, and grab the
Continue forward on the ramparts for a while, ignoring all the rottens, until you find a corpse with x2
Head north and go right at the intersection to find a dog waiting for you. Eliminate it and get a bit of lore from the nearby spirit. You can then head west, where you’ll find a ladder on your right (somewhat hidden by the wall) leading up. When you get to the top of the ladder, there will be two dogs lying down in the middle of the tower you’re on — they blend in pretty well with the stone, so it’s easy to miss them. Attack them before they get up, then go up the nearby stairs and through the doorway.
There’s a weak enemy waiting to ambush you on the right, and a comparably pathetic sorcerer nearby. Further into the room on the left behind a statue is a tougher enemy — it’s one of the pages found just before Knight Loretta in Caria Manor. Shields are effective vs these foes, as are ranged attacks. There’s also a sorcerer behind the bookshelf who will cast spells at you as you fight the page, so draw the page backwards towards the way you came in to avoid a 1v2.
Next, climb the ladder on the other side of the bookcases to find the
You’ll find yourself in another room full of statues — at the eastern end of it is a corpse with x2
Kill the doggie and take the stone, then go hug the right-hand wall near a statue as seen below. When the knight gets a bit closer, you can go right past her as long as you’re crouching — she’s too busy dragging herself along to notice you.
Continue south (note the stairs up to an elevator on your right) to find two dogs chilling — kill them quickly and head southwest towards the lit lantern on the ground. There’s a ladder here you can kick to open a shortcut. It’s another pointless shortcut (there’s a Stake of Marika for the boss in the next area), unless you die to the Cleanrot Knight here . You can now either 1v1 the knight, or just run into the room with the elevator and ride it up. When the elevator stops, cross the bridge and enter the fog gate to fight the Shaded Castle’s boss, Elemer of the Briar.