Welcome to our Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night walkthrough for Nintendo Switch! If you're looking for more, head over to our complete Bloodstained guide page.

When you start the game, you’ll be presented with an introductory cinematic that serves to set up the world and characters of Bloodstained. Shortly after a few minutes, the game’s protagonist, Miriam, and Johannes will have a brief conversation.

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After their conversation, you’ll be ushered a few steps to the right where a chest sits. Within this chest are two pieces of equipment for you: Kung-Fu Boots and a Knife. Both have identical stats so choose whichever you fancy more by following the on-screen directions.

After selecting a weapon, a Seama Demon will launch through the window to your left. Take it out using your new weapon by pressing Y. Once you’ve killed it, you’ll receive a Shard known as Cerulean Splash. This shard can be used by pressing X and doing so will launch a bouncing ball of water at enemies.

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You will acquire more Shards after defeating enemies randomly throughout the game. They act as Bloodstained’s way of granting you additional magical abilities.

After this, head right to enter the first area of the game.

Galleon Minerva

Continue right and kill the Morte Demons that come from the ground. Head right and high jump onto the net by holding B, the jump button, to reach the next floor.

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After reaching the next floor by climbing the nets, open the chest to your left to get a potion. Now, head to the right to the door with a magical band wrapped around it. Use the right stick to point Miriam’s hand toward the door to open it.

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Go through the door and head right onto the ship’s deck. Defeat the few enemies you encounter and climb the broken ship mast. Climb up this mast and jump across the gap. Up here, continue left while defeating enemies until you reach a chest. Open it to get the Country Dress.

Just to the left of the chest is a wall. Destroy the wall to obtain an HP Max Up. After that, head back to the main deck you were on earlier. Head right, clear the gap and kill the Dullahammer. Behind him is a chest with a Rusted Ring.

Go back to that small gap in the floor you just jumped over. Drop down by pressing down and B at the same time. Head left, kill the Mortes and open the chest at the end of this walkway to get a potion. Now, head to the far right and slide under the gap by pressing down and B at the same time. On the other side of this gap is a green chest with a Tunic. Hop over the small hole in the ground and press up on the d-pad at the bookcase to learn some things about different attributes in the game.

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To the right of this bookcase is a Save Room. Head inside and save. Then, exit the save room the same way you came in and head left, drop down below and head as low as you can go. Once down here, on the right, you’ll find a green chest with a Hairband.

Attack the wall to the right of this chest to find a secret area with a Max MP Up and a chest with 1000 gold. Exit this room and head left. In here are two chests: one with a Musketoon and one with Musketoon Ammo. While the Musketoon is weaker than the two weapons you currently have, because it’s a gun, you don’t need to be as close to enemies to attack them.

Exit this room and head back up until you can’t go any higher and go to your left. In here will be a Cannon Morte. Kill this enemy and you’ll receive the Flame Cannon Shard which you must use to light the cannon’s fuse. Doing so will shoot a hole in the nearby wall.

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Head into that new hole, continue left and enter the next room. In here, hop across to the left to open a chest with Bronze and Sugar inside. Drop below this chest and attack the wall to find a Max MP Up. After this, continue down and stay to the right. Head through the door on the right and continue downward until you reach another door to the right.

In here, stay on the floor and go under a platform holding two Cannon Mortes on it. Continue right to the platform holding even more Cannon Mortes on it and open the green chest to obtain the Galleon Map.

Your map should look like this:

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Kill the Cannon Mortes above and head right to the wall with platforms attached to it. Climb up and go to the right to find a green chest with a Short Sword in it. If you like the gun and its range, stick to it but if you prefer something more melee-focused, switch to this new weapon.

Continue right and down until you reach a doorway on the right. Walk through it, examine the bookcase and continue right to find another Save Room.

After saving, leave the Save Room and head up the platforms. At the top, take the doorway on the right to find a green chest with a Tattered Scarf inside. Continue right until you come across another Dullahammer. Kill it and head right.

In this new room, you’ll see a Ghost closing in on you. Kill it and climb upward via the platforms. At the top, head through the doorway on the right and continue up in this room. An enemy will shoot three demons into this room. Dispatch them and continue climbing up to find a green chest with a Claymore in it.

The Claymore is the strongest weapon yet so we suggest equipping that. Head left until you arrive at another Dullahammer.

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Kill it and then light the nearby cannon fuse to blow a hole in the wall. This hole now serves as a shortcut to the area you were at earlier.

If you go through this new passageway, you can return to the first Save Room you found. After blowing the hole through the wall, head right just a few steps until you see some nets you can climb up. Here, you’ll find a crate that you need to push to the right. Use this crate to jump high enough to reach the green chest in sight. Open the chest to obtain the Whip.

From here, continue up and you’ll be back on the deck of the ship. On the left is a red chest with 500 gold and to the right is another Dullahammer. Kill it and head right to find a chest with a potion.

Do not proceed through the right door as this will lead to Bloodstained’s first boss. Instead, drop down and head left past some rats to find a red chest with 500 gold in it. Then, head back to the right to find a Save Room.

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You should save because following this, you’ll be going up against the first boss known as Vepar. Head back up and go through that door we told you not to go through earlier. Here, you’ll hold a conversation with Gebel before your boss fight begins.

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Boss Fight: Vepar

After talking with Gebel, the boss fight against Vepar will begin. Because this boss is the first boss in the game, she doesn’t throw anything to difficult at you.

She’ll begin by lobbing acid at you. Vepar’s tell for this move is that she gets right up on the front of the ship before opening her mouth to lob three balls of acid at you. They’re easy to dodge so just pay attention.

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Attack Vepar as much as you can in between these acid attacks. Throughout the fight, pay close attention to her tentacles as every so often, she’ll swipe at you with one. After you damage Vepar enough, she’ll move to the side of the ship. Here, she’ll shoot a stream of water at you in a sweeping motion from either left to right or right to left. Simply hop over this and attack her in between sweeps.

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The only other attack Vepar has isn’t really an attack. Instead, she’ll toss some light balls into the air. These eventually land on the deck and become Seama demons. Take them out as quickly as you can and continue to lay into Vepar until she dies.

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When she dies, you’ll receive the Thrashing Tentacle Shard.

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Arvantville

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After defeating Vepar, you’ll be shown the Bloodstained title splash and, after a short conversation with Johannes, learn that you’re in Arvantville.

Head right, defeat some new enemies and open the red chest to receive the Bone Toss Shard. Continue right until you encounter Dominique. After a conversation between Dominique, Miriam and Johannes, you’ll learn that the nearby house will serve as a safe house of sorts for you and the gang.

Hop up and open the nearby chest to receive your first Waystone, which, later in the game, will serve as a way to teleport back to the safe house.

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After that, head back down to the bottom floor of this house and then head left to enter Dominique’s shop. Here, you can sell and buy items. We recommend selling any items you don’t plan on using and purchasing a few potions.

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Once you’re done, after you back out of her menu, she’ll give you a Village Key.

After shopping, head to the left of her shop until you some landscape portraits. Inspect them and after a brief conversation, Dominique will tell you that she needs some Silver Bromide. Head right and back into the main room of the safe house and then head right out of there.

In this new room, you’ll find Johannes who will teach you about Alchemy and Crafting.

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Johannes will be your go-to guy for all things crafting. With him, you can give him Schematics you find on your journey that will allow him to craft additional items for you and more. You can also prepare meals with him which will you give stat boosts. Finally, he can enhance your shards for you so once you’ve got a feel for this form of magic works, and a few favourites picked out, head back to Johannes so he can strengthen them.

After speaking with Johannes, head right to enter a Save Room and save your game. Exit the save room, head left past Johannes and back into the main area of this house. Head up the stairs and speak to the woman on the right ledge to obtain the first side quest in the game: Avenge the death of my husband!

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Sidequests are in no way necessary to complete the game or reach the game’s true ending, but they often reward you with money and items you might not otherwise get so do them as often or as little as you’d like.

After talking to that woman, head to the top of the house and go through the door on the right by using the Village Key.

Continue right and kill the Bone Morte in front of you. Use the ledge it was on to hop up and to the left to get an Ammo Capacity Up. Continue left and you’ll discover a Portrait Room. These allow you to fast-travel around the map, but as this is the first you've found, you can't use it yet.

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After that, head back to the right and hop up the ledges until you reach the rooftop. Run to the right and stop right above the green chest. Open the chest to get Elf Ears.

Drop down the roof and attack the left wall to open a door and unlock a passage back to the safe house. Feel free to go back to the safe house but you don’t need to. Instead, head right until you find the Baselard knife and a bookcase to inspect. This bookcase will teach you the Surprise Gift technique.

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After this, head left and drop down through the floor. Continue left and attack the stone wall to reveal a secret area. In here is a green chest with an 8-Bit Coin inside.

Head back up and continue right past the room with the bookcase. Head out to through the exit on the right and continue right until you reach a lever wheel that you can interact with.

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This lever lowers a drawbridge. Walk across it to enter the next area of the game – the Castle Entrance.

Your map should look like this when you complete Arvantville:

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Proceed to the next guide...