Carven Palace: The first floor and checking out the basement
When you first reach the Carven Palace, you’ll notice the main elevator. It’s not working yet, but we’ll be able to activate it soon.
You’ll also notice a couple of crystal items on ledges, but we can’t reach them now. Likewise, if you go to the right of the Surrogate (i.e., save point), you’ll see a barrier that can’t be opened since it requires the Unsealer.
Oh, and if you climb down the ladder in the main area, you’ll find a chasm and an odd-looking shadow orb. We’ll be able to traverse this area much later, so just make a mental note of this place.
Anyway, go back to the main area and climb up the ladder. You’ll see a lever and a platform. If you use the pull action, it’ll force the platform to move in the opposite direction. This allows you to ride it to the other side.
Note 1: From this point onwards, you’ll encounter several puzzles involving the moving platform. If the platform has to be moved upwards, jump and do the pull action with the cursor/thumbstick facing down. If it has to be moved downwards, drop and do the pull action facing up. There are also cases when there are gaps/frayed wires that will despawn the platform, so you need to do another pull to make it move past the gap.
Note 2: Whenever you see spike traps that can’t be avoided (i.e., there are items or the platform is moving), you can use the parry action just as you’re about to get hit. This will nullify the damage and prevent the spike from reappearing for a few seconds.
Continue following the rooms and corridors, eliminating the mobs as you see them. You’ll begin to notice barbed vines as well. You can dash past these objects. But, if you get hit, your character will take damage and respawn in the closest area with solid ground. At low health, you’ll simply die and respawn in the last save point that you used.
There’s one particular spot here (seen in the image below). After you get past some barbed vines, you’ll see a ladder and several disappearing ledges. Below the ladder, you can press down and drop to see a small nook. You’ll find the Chisel Nails weapon therein.
Eventually, you’ll reach an opening with a couple of Armored Servant mobs that will attack on sight. You’ve just reached the second floor. Let’s discuss this further in the next part of our Grime Carven Palace guide.
