As usual, since this dungeon is a mine, equipping a weapon dealing Strike damage and holding it with both hands will make killing the miners much, much easier. With that in mind, grab the site of grace and start going through the dungeon.
As you continue through the dungeon, you should make it a habit of looting the crafting and upgrade materials embedded into the walls, you never have too many of those. White stones and yellow stones sticking out of the walls especially, as those will be Somber and regular Smithing Stones.
In the next room, you will find several enemies that are busy mining, and an elevator that refuses to budge. Before proceeding further through the dungeon (B), make sure to walk across the wooden beam (A) and jump on top of the wooden platforms to grab the Smithing Stone [3] and the Somber Smithing Stone [3].
Now that you grabbed everything in this room, it’s time to proceed further through the dungeon. While the elevator isn’t operational for now, keep it in mind as you will soon activate it to serve as a shortcut in the event of unforeseen death. For now, go through the (B) door and you will get to another room with a few hard working miners, and more goodies that they won’t need once they’re dead.
The (C) path will take you deeper into the dungeon, while going to the right (A) and under the wooden set of stairs (B) will grant you even more Smithing Stones. You will have to dirty your hands by murdering a few miners, but the upgrade materials are well worth it. Whenever you want to proceed deeper through the tunnels, go through the door (C) that leads to another elevator.
While the elevator is going down, make sure to face northwest, as we won’t be taking the elevator all the way down. Instead, jump down to the small path on the northwestern side of the elevator, and proceed through this hidden tunnel. There, grab the Somber Smithing Stone [2] at the end of the path and jump down to the small platform underneath. Grab the Somber Smithing Stone [3], and jump all the way down to where the elevator would have taken you, while depriving you of those shiny new upgrade materials.
From there, it’s time to go across another wooden beam. There is however an enemy patrolling on other side, and you really don’t want to get hit while crossing. Make sure he’s not looking your way while crossing, and crouch like a goblin for good measure. Once this old man has been dealt with, do not take the path forward just yet as it leads deeper, and instead go to the left to grab some more upgrade materials, and send the elevator up to activate the shortcut.
Now that you made sure that dying won’t feel too bad, you can proceed to the next area, which is infested with marionette enemies. As you enter this next tunnel, pay attention to the two enemies hanging from the ceiling above the doorway. Additionally, in the room to the right you can find another one that will come out to greet you as soon as you come closer.
Go to the right first and deal with the marionette, grab the Smithing Stones in the room, and then make sure to help the marionettes get down one at a time by using a spell or any projectile. When one of them falls, run up to it and kill it as fast as possible, as the other one will jump down shortly after.
By proceeding further, you will find another room filled with even more of these enemies. Two will be by the chest, with their backs turned towards you, while a third one will be hanging above the doorway.
Both the one to right of the chest and the one above the doorway have bows, while the one to the left is using melee weapons. Dealing with two of these ranged ones at the same time might be dangerous, so you can either choose to bring the one above the doorway down and kill it before running out, or backstab the one to the right of the chest and then roll out of the room. Either way, the melee one will follow you out and you will be able to dispose of it out of sight of the ranged marionette. Once the room is clear, make sure to loot the chest as it contains the Crystal Knife.
You can now put the marionettes behind, and continue to the next section by going forward. You will reach a room with several miners digging in the center, which is where you can get 3x Smithing Stone [3]. However, this place is more dangerous than it looks. Right next to them, there is a tougher enemy observing them, and another patrolling the path to the left.
For the one next to them, you can grab his attention by either casting spells from above or just throwing something at him. While he will run up to punish you, the three happy miners will be too distracted to notice him. Once he’s been dealt with, take the path to the left and deal with the patrolling enemy, which is also where you will the Shatter Earth sorcery. All that’s left now is dealing with the miners in the middle and under the wooden path, and grabbing all of the upgrade materials before proceeding further towards yet another elevator.
Same as with the first one, look northwest while the elevator is descending and jump down to grab the Somber Smithing Stone [3]. From there, go down by jumping to the small platforms along the walls, and you will reach a fog gate that leads to this dungeon’s boss: Crystalian.
Video game fan since TMNT: The Manhattan Project, I'm always on the lookout for games that could top Outer Wilds or Disco Elysium, or for new songs to listen to.
