Though you’ll cut your way through a huge number of monsters during your time with Halls of Torment, you’ll leave surprisingly little blood on the floor: your enemies have the courtesy to simply vanish into the aether upon death instead. Because of this, the blood trails you can find in the game feel rather suspicious, and so they should. Following these trails is the key to unlocking one of the game’s most crucial secrets, so shrugging them off is a big mistake if you want to reach the end of a run. What are blood trails in Halls of Torment? Keep reading to find out.
Unraveling the secrets of the blood trails in Halls of Torment
The Bloodstained Book
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- Screenshots by PC Invasion
First things first: where can you find the blood trails? They appear in the game’s first stage, Haunted Caverns, in an area roughly to the north-west of your starting location. They can be tricky to stumble upon, but thankfully there’s a major landmark you can use to orient yourself by: the Bloodstained Book.
The Book can be found on an altar at an intersection of stone walkways, a beacon of yellow light making it easy to spot once you’re close. Investigating the book will grant you your first clue in the mystery of the blood trails, in the form of a cryptic quote: “The trails of blood led us into the darkness where two morbid shrines awaited. Each of them demanded a sacrifice in exchange for a fragment of a powerful token: The Token of Pain, which betrayed its old master and would yield us the power to finally end his atrocious reign.”
The sacrificial shrines
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- Screenshots by PC Invasion
This is chilling stuff, but also incredibly informative. It tells you not only where the blood trails lead, but also what you can receive if you follow them: the Token of Pain. Once you’re finished with the Book, you’ll notice two trails of blood leading away from it, so pick your favorite and follow it through the stage. The trails aren’t constant, meaning you’ll have to be careful not to lose them by moving too quickly. Once you reach the end of one, you’ll find yourself at one of the shrines the Book mentions. These take the form of piles of skulls, surrounded by a purple circle, or three in the case of one of the shrines, with a number displayed on top.
Screenshot by PC Invasion
As the Book said, you’ll need to offer a sacrifice to each of these shrines in order to receive the two fragments of the Token of Pain. What that means in gameplay terms is that you’ll need to kill a number of monsters equal to the number displayed above the shrine within the bounds of the purple circle(s). This is fairly easy to orchestrate, since monsters tail you relentlessly in Halls of Torment, so just kite your way around the shrine and you should get your sacrificial quota done in no time. Once complete, a fragment of the Token of Pain will appear, which you can then collect.
The Token of Pain
Once you’ve claimed one Token fragment, you can follow the blood trail back to the Book, then follow the other one to find the other shrine: rinse the blood off and repeat. With both fragments collected, you’ll have assembled the complete Token of Pain, and the mystery of the blood trails will effectively be over. And what will you receive for your efforts in solving it? A huge advantage in the final battle of Haunted Caverns, that’s what! If you bring the Token of Pain with you into the fight against the Lord of Pain, it will deal a huge amount of damage to him right off the bat: 60% of his total health, in fact. This is a big help in a tough fight, and well worth the effort of assembling the Token.
So there you have it. If you were wondering what the blood trails in Halls of Torment are for, you need wonder no longer. Instead, you can wander along and find them, so that you can face off against the Lord of Pain in the best shape you possibly can. Failing to do so would be a waste of your bloody time.
