Chalice dungeons

Start the fixed route

• Defeat Blood-starved Beast in Old Yharnam for Pthumeru Chalice. Collect Ritual Blood (1) from the altar in the large building below Djura, then perform the ritual at a Hunter's Dream altar.
• Clear Pthumeru through its layer-3 Watchdog for Central Pthumeru. Clear Central through its layer-3 Pthumerian Descendant for Lower Pthumeru.
• Lower Pthumeru has four layers. Its layer-4 Bloodletting Beast drops Defiled Chalice; do not stop after Rom on layer 3. Collect the Workshop Haze Extractor from the layer-2 pre-boss side-area coffin.

Loran detour before Defiled

• Kill Nightmare Frontier Amygdala for Ailing Loran. Its ritual needs Ritual Blood (4) and Coldblood Flowerbuds; gather the latter in the Frontier.
• Search Ailing Loran layer 3 for Bastards of Loran: the trap room after the circular stairs and the treasure room beyond the rope bridge contain them. Defiled needs two. Collect Beast Claw in the layer-2 pre-lamp side area for Hunter's Essence.
• Clear Defiled in order: Keeper of the Old Lords, Watchdog of the Old Lords, Amygdala. The last gives Great Pthumeru Ihyll. The curse halves your HP: prioritize survival and short attack commitments.

Gather the Ihyll ritual materials

• Ihyll requires Ritual Blood (5), four Red Jelly, Arcane Haze and one Living String, plus echoes. Reserve these instead of spending them on optional Root rituals.
• Red Jelly: take two from Lecture Building 1F's storage room beside the Nightmare Frontier exit. Get the remaining two from fixed Lower Loran layers 2 and 3, or fixed Isz layer 3. Ihyll's own jelly cannot pay for your first entry.
• Lower Loran option: finish Ailing Loran's Abhorrent Beast for the chalice; its ritual uses Ritual Blood (5) and Blooming Coldblood Flowers collected in Loran.
• Isz option: defeat main-game Ebrietas for Great Isz; its ritual uses Ritual Blood (5), Pearl Slugs and Haze. Pearl Slugs are in Byrgenwerth and Upper Cathedral Ward, and become purchasable after obtaining the chalice.
• Living String: drop the Brain of Mensis using the hidden upper lever, then descend by the cage lift and kill it in the abyss. Pulling the lever alone does not award the String. Obtain it before an ending.
• For missing Haze, use the Haze Extractor at the workshop on surplus ritual materials. For missing Ritual Blood, recheck side rooms and farm appropriate-depth dungeon enemies rather than repeatedly remaking a completed dungeon.

Finish and understand the rules

Ihyll's bosses are Pthumerian Descendant, headless Bloodletting Beast, then Yharnam. Fixed rewards and layouts are stable; Root rituals select varying layouts, and gem drops can still vary. NG+ neither raises chalice difficulty nor clears existing altar progress. Each layer's lever unlocks its boss door.

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