[Trap Shrine-DARKSiDERS
Laurice Whack
As you ride forward into The Plain of Frost keep to the west of the path. You'll encounter some Armored Fleas along the path, but nothing dangerous. Keep riding north, staying as far left as possible, until you see a Boatman's Coin on the path up ahead. There are some Armored Fleas frozen in the ice that will break out and attack when you approach them. There is no side mission related to these frozen fleas in this mission, but there is a side mission for collecting 10,000 souls, and killing more enemies can only help in this goal.
Continue north and you'll find a Demonic Magus guarding a Small Chest which contains 360 Souls on Normal. Do not go to the east. The area with the horse ward marked on the map indicates a fight. If you approach this area it will trigger a fight, and it's preferable to come at this fight from a different direction.
Turn around and ride south, past the coin that you picked up. Stick to the west side of the path. You'll find an ice bridge west of the path you took on the way here that deads across to the southwest portion of the map. As you come out of a small canyon, you will find this Boatman's Coin on a short platform next to a cliff wall.
Ride back the way you came. When you come to the canyon and the ice bridge that you rode across to get here, take the path to the northeast. At the end of this path, you'll find another Boatman's Coin. There are some Armored Fleas up on a nearby ledge that will throw spears down at you, and a few more who will come out of the rocks nearby to attack you.
Double jump to the east, and glide across the gap to a platform on the other side. Here you'll find a Small Chest containing 180 Souls on Normal. When you open the chest you'll be ambushed by Armored Fleas. From here you can see the battle zone down below. Again, you don't want to approach that battle zone. It's better to come at it from a different direction.
Hop down off of the ledge to the south, and ride southeast. You'll find a statue with a Soul Cache and a bunch of Armored Fleas worshiping it. It's marked on the map. There's no side mission for killing them, but it will get you some extra souls.
Head north, up a short stone staircase. Continue north until the wall on your left ends. At the end of this wall there's a cage on your left just around the corner. This cage is open and you can enter it. Inside is a Boatman's Coin. It's very difficult to spot.
As you may have guessed, this is where you'll find The Houndmaster who is mentioned in a couple of the side quests for this level. Killing the Houndmaster is simple enough. But there is an optional quest for killing less than 5 hounds before you kill the Houndmaster.
I highly recommend that you do not attempt this side quest on your first trip through this level. It's very difficult to fight The Houndmaster without killing 5 of his dogs just through collateral damage. You really just don't have the tools. Use this trip to learn the area and what you'll have to do to get through it killing as few hounds as possible.
That's not to say it isn't possible. I have earned this challenge on my first trip through the area. It was just much more difficult than it needs to be. If you do want to try to complete this challenge on the first run through the level, you can hit the Houndmaster relatively effectively by jumping with Strife and shooting at him with the Beam Shot or Standard Ammo while in the air, allowing you to shoot over the heads of the smaller Hellhounds and hit the Houndmaster.
After you finish this chapter you'll get a powerful Anarchy Form that will allow Strife to obliterate the Houndmaster without having to worry about taking damage. Come back after unlocking this ability to complete this difficult challenge.
When you kill a hound, the number of hounds killed does not update properly. The game will continue to show 0 hounds killed. Rest assured, the game is properly counting. It's just not displaying the number correctly. When you kill 5 Hellhounds, you will fail the side mission for killing less than 5 hounds before killing the houndmaster.
There are a bunch of caged and sleeping Hellhounds in this level. If you're careful you can avoid waking and releasing them. There are a few of the beasts running around awake, so be on your toes. If you fight them near any sleeping hounds, you're likely to wake them.
Proceed north then follow the path as it turns east. Follow the path as far as you can to the east. When the path ends, turn right and go south. Eventually you'll reach a Switch. Ignore the switch for now. Just before the area with the switch there's a lit torch. There's an unlit torch just beyond the switch on the east side of the path. Use the Vorpal Blade to spread fire to the unlit torch.
Return down the hall to the east. At the end of the hall, turn left and go north. Continue north as far as you can. Here you'll find a room with another Portal Panel on the right wall. Use a Void Bomb to create a Portal back to the other panel.
To the south of the cage is a Bomb. You need to quickly grab the bomb with your Ghost Hook and throw it through the portal before the cage closes. The bomb will clear the orange rock in the room to the north near the other end of the portal.
This room is full of sleeping Hellhounds. It's up to you if you want to fight them. Go north. eventually you'll find a Small Chest on the left side of the path. It contains 360 Souls on Normal.
The Houndmaster is very similar to a Legion Champion, but is much stronger. He has all the same moves as a Legion Champion, except that he has the ability to power up Hellhounds while the Legion Champion powers up Legion.
The Houndmaster may look and move like a Legion Champion, but he is much much stronger. He has far more HP than a Legion Champion, and his attacks do far more damage. Combine that with the masses of hellhounds and his stomp attack which is so quick it is almost impossible to see coming, and you have a very dangerous enemy.
At the far end of the path there's a switch that will open a gate to let you out of the Kennel. Note that you cannot enter the kennel from this direction initially because of the gate. After you use the switch to open the gate you can enter the Kennel from either direction, but this gate makes it so that you must go the long way through the kennel to reach The Houndmaster.
When you first enter The Pit by coming through The Kennel, there's a Legion Boltspitter guarding the front gate. If you had approached the gate from outside, this powerful enemy would have come out to meet you, and you'd have to fight a difficult battle at the front gate to get in.
Since you went through The Kennel, you've come up behind him, and he's in a very bad position. The Legion Boltspitter is sitting in the middle of a huge stack of explosive barrels on either side of him. Come up behind him with Strife and shoot all of the exploding barrels. This will reduce his HP down to a critical level, and you can just run up and perform an execution on him, essentially skipping a difficult boss fight.
The fight isn't entirely over. There are still a few Legion, several Armored Fleas, and a Legion Champion for you to deal with. But they'll be much easier without having to deal with the Legion Boltspitter at the same time.
In the southwest corner of the keep there's a wall with a blue climbing board at the top. Use this to climb up onto the parapets. On the southwest corner of the parapets you'll find a Small Chest containing 720 souls on Normal difficulty.
Drop down off the parapets and run north along the west side of the keep. In the northwest corner you'll find a Boatman's Coin. When you pick the coin up you'll be attacked by a large contingent of Armored Fleas and a Fallen Hound.
On the west side of the keep there's a Trickster Door, however it requires 3 Trickster Keys to open. If you've been following this guide, you will only have 2 Trickster Keys at this point. This is the first time in the game you cannot open a Trickster Door as soon as you reach it.
There are a few Slag Fleas shooting fireballs down on you from the rubble northeast of the previous coin. Shoot them with Strife, then jump up onto the rubble. At the top of the pile of rubble you'll find another Boatman's Coin.
The rest of this level is full of Trap Chests like the one in the southwest of this area. If you open these chests they will spit out an orb of energy that will damage you unless you dodge out of the way. There's nothing in the chests besides the trap.
I typically open these chests just to get them out of the way and to help me keep track of where I've been. Just know that if you open a chest and souls don't come out, you need to immediately dodge to the side to avoid the trap.
As you enter the Central Chamber you'll be attacked by some Armored Fleas. As you continue across the bridge fleas will keep climbing up over the sides to attack you. When you reach the other side you'll have a big fight with a bunch of Armored Fleas and Legion.
Continue west to the end of the path, then jump across to the next area. You may notice a Boatman's Coin down below the map. It is possible to jump down and get it, but then there's no way to get back up without dying. You're supposed to wait until the way out to get this coin.
There are a spattering of enemies around the room. Mostly Armored Fleas with one or two Legion. You may want to start be clearing them out so they're not a distraction. This next bit is tricky.
In the center of this area there is a gate with 6 Blue Crystals around it. Obviously you can hit the crystals with the Vorpal Blade to activate them. However this is a puzzle with a trap attached to it, and one of the side quests is to reach the seal without triggering this trap.
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