The Artisan of Flesh miniboss and looking for more secrets
In this section of our Grime Carven Palace guide, I’ll discuss some of the secrets and collectibles that I didn’t mention earlier.
First floor: Main area and basement
You can do this as soon as you’ve gotten the elevator to work. Ride it and air dash to find a couple of items on the ledges near the initial save point. You’ll find 1x Thirsting Sand and 1x Unformed Head (600 mass). There’s also a small opening near the latter which has 1x Bloodmetal Shard.
If you climb the ladder near the save point, you can use the shadow orbs to grapple to the top. You’ll find 1x Bloodmetal Chunk, and you can break the wall that leads to Heod.
Likewise, as long as the elevator is above you, you can drop down to see two openings. The right side has 1x Living Flesh and 1x Bloodmetal Shard.
The left side, meanwhile, has a Celebration Chest armor and 1x Levolam Dust.
First floor to second floor: Secret passageway
There are a few secrets to find as you make your way through the side passages from the first floor to the second floor of the Carven Palace. You can see these in the map below:
For the first hidden passageway, remember the moving platform puzzle near the main area? It’s the one that took you around for a loop until you saw an unreachable ledge that had the Chisel Nails weapon (you do get it as you progress further).
If you look to the right, you’ll notice several shadow orbs. Go ahead and grapple to reach several items (i.e., sands and mass). Keep going through using your air dashes and grapples until you grab everything.
As you start moving upwards and to the left, you can reach an area with a Disciple mob. Kill it to gain a Hunt Point.
The Wax Collector NPC is also here, but it’ll only have a short chat with you (nothing important).
Platform puzzle below the second floor: The Rockgiant and Adept Embroider armor set
If you recall, there was a moving platform puzzle just below the elevator on the second floor. That, eventually, took us to the third floor. There’s actually an opening above the moving platform’s lever. You can stand on it, then use the pull action to make it move. Jump again immediately to clamber. This narrow corridor going to the left has the full Adept Embroider armor set.
If you keep going left, you’ll see a few ledges that you can use to drop down. This chamber has several items, but there’s also a Rockgiant here.
Whenever you absorb its melee hit, it’ll fall down and crush you, so make sure to dash. Killing it nets you another Hunt Point.
Second floor (platform puzzle to the Artisan of Flesh miniboss)
Do you remember that area I mentioned earlier? The one with the two Servant mobs? There are ledges on the ceiling that lead to a hidden passageway.
Head up there and climb the ladders while avoiding the spikes. Now that you have the grapple, you should be able to get to the higher section.
The platform puzzle here is a bit tricky. First, you’ll want to be on top of the ladder, then air dash to land on it. Jump and push it so you can ride it going to the left.
Before it hits the red spikes on the wall, pull it so that it moves up. If you’re riding it, you’ll find a nook with 1x Bloodmetal Chunk.
If you pull the platform downwards, you can follow it until it loops around. Ride it back up and avoid the electricity/barbed vines.
There’s also a gap/frayed wire here (air dash past the barbed vine and pull the platform towards you).
The Artisan of Flesh miniboss
You’ll enter a large chamber that looks like a ballroom. You’ll notice lots of ledges and a few shadow orbs that you can use for grappling.
Before you do anything else, go to the upper-left corner to unlock the door. This takes you back to the main area/elevator shaft on the third floor, allowing you to travel back to the save point if you need to.
Anyway, to your right, you’ll find the Artisan of Flesh. Keep talking to it until the “insist” command pops up. This will cause your character to punch it, and it’ll teleport to the ballroom. If you attack the Artisan of Flesh, it’ll begin the boss fight.
Note: The ledge across the Artisan’s initial spot has 2x Living Flesh.
The Artisan of Flesh has the following abilities:
- Cluster Bombs – Spawns almost a dozen cluster bombs that’ll float down and explode.
- Spiky Mines – Creates red spikes on the ground.
- Exploding Dagger – By far its most dangerous attack. The dagger itself only does 10 damage, but the subsequent explosion can take out a chunk of your health.
Thankfully, the Artisan of Flesh can be quite a pushover. The Exploding Dagger can be avoided (or you can dash after it hits you to stay clear of the explosion).
The miniboss has a fairly slow melee attack as well, which means you can parry/absorb to deal damage and cause the Cluster Bombs to despawn. When you kill it, you’ll receive another upgrade to your Breath (healing) capacity.
Anyway, thanks to the grapple move from Shapely Fidus, you can find additional secrets in other zones in Grime. For instance, if you return to the halfway point of Servant’s Path, you can grapple to reach the ceiling which has the Shapely Greatsword weapon (seen in the image below). Moreover, you can return to the Worldpillar whenever you feel like it to obtain some items and collectibles there.
But, since we’re still at the Carven Palace, I would suggest heading to the basement so we can activate the Nervepass. Let’s go to the next part of our Grime Carven Palace guide to talk about that.
