Walkthrough Salt and Sacrifice - guide to Bol Geran

 We tell you how to get through Bol Geran, find all the bosses, and open all the secrets

So, the village of Ashbourne is sorted out, but there is still a lot of work for the inquisitor in Salt and Sacrifice. This was just the beginning. The next stage is Bol Geran, arid southern plains inhabited by giant trees. This is where you'll find the Magnesin Supply tool, which, like the grappling hook, will allow you to navigate through new areas and open slices. In addition, you will encounter some rather insidious bosses. Here is the route you should take through this area.

How to get to Bol Geran

To get the rune combination needed to enter Bol Geran, you need to talk to the talking tree above the gatehouse in the village of Ashbourne. If you do this after you have consumed at least one of the trapped mage's heart, it will give you a rune combo. After that, you can go to Bol Geran through the runic portal in the Valley of Forgiveness.

Desert plain and praying giants

You will start your journey through Bol Geran on the Desert Plain. Go east until you come across a talking head in a small booth. Exhaust all dialogue options and then keep going, ignoring the sealed door. You will find Surface Gatherer and Surface Ranger - these are common enemies in Bol Geran. If you encounter a mixture of such enemies, then first defeat the rangers, who are much more dangerous gatherers. You can ignore the door on the right; it leads upstairs, but you will still get there later. If you explore a small cave, beware of the baroness, who will fall on top of you, causing a lot of damage.

Use the two capture points to move north and you will soon reach the Praying Giants area. Use the ladder and then the wooden platforms attached to the giant tree to climb up. Be careful climbing the long stairs as there is a ranger at the top. At some point, you will be able to push off the wall to the east. From the wall, jump onto platforms that are normally out of reach, and then look for some rare ores in the narrow side cave. Either way, you will reach the top of the area, towards the final destination to the west. There is also an obelisk here. When you start moving west again, you will find a bag with a shimmering bud. Eventually, you will reach solid ground and an obelisk that you need to interact with. Move forward.

How to Defeat the Hate-Cursed Matriarch

The Hate-Cursed Matriarch is an easy opponent, provided you can telegraph his attacks. The strongest strikes use lightning. It will be easy for you to understand what to expect by the swing of the spear.

Hate-Cursed Matriarch Basic Attacks

• Front Kick: The Matriarch makes a light forward lunge with her front legs. It's easy to dodge.
• Smash in front of him: the boss strikes with his spear. It's easy to dodge.
• Jump Kick: This is a dash that deals damage. It's usually easy to avoid. However, be careful when you are going to heal. The matriarch can suddenly attack with a dash if you try to move away from him.
• Lightning Strikes: The Matriarch spins her spear through the air, collecting lightning. Then well-telegraphed lightning strikes will appear on the floor in a line. Dodge them - it's better to roll through the lightning, not from it.
• Lightning Blast: The Matriarch collects some static electricity by holding up her spear, followed by a short-range explosion. Either roll or run away.
• Static Shock: The boss raises his spear and throws electric tentacles forward. Roll over the Matriarch to avoid damage.

Combat strategy against the Hate-Cursed Matriarch

You need to attack the enemy during his slow melee attacks and whenever the Matriarch uses lightning strikes or static shock (if you can quickly roll away from the enemy). During the lightning explosion, roll away and use ranged attacks. The Matriarch is an aggressive boss, so you need to make sure that your health is at or near the maximum. The enemy has enough tools to catch you during the healing animation. For faster healing, it is best to use wild berries.

How to Get Magnesin

From the boss arena, go west and then jump off the platforms. Use the obelisk and move further east. You will end up on another giant tree. Shoot down the nearest ladder and jump off the platforms. Head through the building to the west, jump off the sheer cliff and re-enter the building through the door to the east. Watch out for attacks from the baroness hanging from the ceiling. Here are two of them. If you look up at the top of the room, you'll see a series of destructible platforms that you need to quickly jump over to reach a bag of valuable Exotic Thread. This is where the second baroness is located, so be careful.

The corpse at the end of this room has a supply of magnesin - take it. This item is used to activate pulleys that allow you to quickly move around locations and open up new routes. When you find the magnesin pulley, you can only activate the end where the plants grow! Opening the door on the right will reveal a path to the bottom of the Praying Giants area. By going back and activating the pulley in the west, outside the house, you will be able to activate the second pulley leading directly to the Desert Plain.

Creeping caves and an abandoned gorge

In order to progress through the story and gain access to the next area, you first need to gain access to the Bol Geran Temple - the area behind the sealed doors. To do this, you need to absorb two hearts of Mages. Luckily, you can find two magicians right now. You can get Aeromancer's heart, Aura Cyrus. The second heart belongs to the terramancer Sto'h Karrig. The hunt for this mage begins in the Creeping Caverns behind a sealed door that will open when you consume the Aeromancer's heart. We talk more about mages in a separate guide.

Proceed carefully as you make your way through the Creeping Caverns, as Den Priests will use a devastating spin attack, and Creeping Sires will jump on you to pin you to the ground and deal a ton of damage. Move slowly and be prepared to dodge. When you get to the long horizontal Magnesin Pulley, jump down for a moment to find a sack with a double aspirator. Be ready for the baroness' surprise attack (when you interact with the pulley) and then make your way through the caves.

Eventually, you will reach ledges that look like you can jump up the wall. In fact, nothing will come of it, you will open this section later. Continue until you have to choose between heading west or falling into a huge cavern with stalactites on the ceiling. Drop down and cling to the ceiling of the cave to get a pair of Ash Twins. Keep moving down, but watch out for the enemies. Collect loot as you go until you can only go west. Here you will be able to start the Terramancer hunt, in front of the door to the Forsaken Gorge. Just above the victim, there is a chest containing a Glimmering Bud and a Rune Mace. But in order to open it, you will have to walk along the destructible platforms and avoid the trap.

After defeating the two mages, you will be able to explore the area of ​​the Forsaken Gorge and open the sealed door in the northwest leading to the temple of Bol Geran. In the Forsaken Gorge, there is really nothing: only a few enemies and an obelisk in the east. Inside the Bol Geran Temple, you will fight the Indefatigable Exalted.

How to defeat the Indefatigable Exalted

Fighting the Indefatigable Exalted is very difficult as he uses instant kill attacks. It is especially difficult for tank characters, who are used to absorbing damage.

All attacks of the Indefatigable Exalted

• Censer of Death: This is the main attack of the boss and you need to pay attention to it. The Indefatigable Exalted will raise his censer, summoning three white spirits that slowly fly towards you. These spirits do not deal damage, but they start to accumulate a status effect, which you can see below your stats in the upper left corner of the screen. When this bar fills up, you will automatically die. Roll from the spirits.
• Censer Strike: The Indefatigable Exalted slams the censer on the ground in front of him. Hard to avoid, the hitbox is blurry.
• Staff Strike: Similar to Censer Strike, but with increased range. Very close to the boss there is a small safe zone that you can use to counterattack the enemy.
• Staff Strike: A move that is easily avoided when an Exalted slams the base of his staff into the ground. Just rollback.
• Staff Strike (Fires of Death): When at very low health, this attack will unleash a flurry of homing wisps, which contribute to a status build that automatically kills the hero. When this happens, dodge the wisps and don't even think about your own attacks.

Battle strategy against the Indefatigable Exalted

It matters a lot how well you do when dodging Death Incense Burner Spirits and Staff Slash Wisps. Unfortunately, with wisps, you will only practice towards the end of the fight. The boss only uses this attack when he is very low on health. Even if you get three death spirits, you still won't die. You can use this moment to tank one of the death censer's barrages. The timing and hitboxes of the Indefatigable Exalted's physical attacks are blurry and hard to avoid, but not as powerful. Continue to heal. Save your ranged attacks for the last moments of the fight and use them to finish off the boss. This will not only save you iron ore on failed attempts. Keeping your distance from the boss is a great way to avoid the death wisps that appear at the end of the fight.

Bol Geran Temple

Now that you have access to the rest of the temple thanks to defeating the Indefatigable Exalted, you can explore it. Your final goal is the top of the temple, where you will find a long staircase. Open the bag at the top of the stairs to get a dirty key. Be careful when exploring the temple as there are Tomb Servants inside who wield staves and can use the same deadly wisps as the Indefatigable Exalted.

After climbing the temple, you will find a door on the east side. It will open a short path to the Desert Plain and the Praying Giants, as well as grant you access to a new area - the Unclean Oasis. Halfway through, you will also encounter a prey that will allow you to start hunting the necromancer. To the left of the victim is a bag with a steel key - you need to practice a bit to get it.

Below the necromancer's hut is a grapple point that you can use to get to the door. You can open it with a dirty key. Inside you will find a stone room full of corpses. Go down to the lowest level, go through it and kill the green guard. Jump up the west side of the wall, make your way to the wooden platform to the east, avoiding the traps, and then get to the topmost level. Here you will find a guard sitting against the wall. Talk to them to gain access to the Corvius Swamp. This is the next area in the game.