Desecrated Cistern - Blasphemous Guide - IGN (2024)

Desecrated Cistern is the sixth level in Blasphemous. This page features a walkthrough of this area, including information on any collectibles you'll find including Cherubs, Quest Items, and more.

Desecrated Cistern

As you begin the level, speak to Deogracias. Then interact with the Prie Dieu to save and replenish your flasks. Go left, avoiding the poison dropping down and through the door.

In this room, there is a door over to the left. Go in here, you'll see a woman suspended in the air with daggers piercing her.

Approaching her will begin a cutscene, and once it's over, your maximum health will be increased.

Leave the room and jump up to the ledge on the right, avoiding the poison. Jump up again, and there will be another door on the left, and more ledges to climb up on the right. Go over to the ledges on the right first, climb up and you'll see an item on the left. This is the Scaphoid of Fierce, the Leper.

Now go back down and through the door to the left. You'll see a Cherub here that you can reach by simply jumping and attacking.

Go to the left and climb up the ladder. If you go in the door on the left, you'll be hit by poisonous smoke clouds. So instead, take the ledges over to the right and jump along them to meet two new types of enemies.

The first one you'll encounter will explode, and the second one further down will ring a bell that will make this first type of enemy keep coming back, so go all the way over to the right and get rid of the one with the bell.

Now take the ladder up, take the door to the right. at the far end is a lever, pull this for a shortcut back to Mercy Dreams near the merchant.

Go back the way you came and climb up the ledges to the very top then take the door on the right. At the end of this room is a chest, so make your way all the way over to the right and open the chest to get another Empty Bile Vessel.

Head back to the left, then down the ledges to the next door on the left. As some of this room is covered in poison, go up the ledges and across to the left instead of through the poison.

When you enter the next room, there are a few ways to go. If you head up using the ladders to alternate between and avoid the poison drops, you'll reach a room. Going into the room on the right and all the way across, will show you a Cherub and a chest but you won't be able to get those right now.

If you climb up, then go left past the guard with the shield, you can slide all the way down and there will be a room on the left.

In here you can refill an Empty Bile Vessel for Tears of Atonement. Doing this will grant you an additional health flask.

Outside of this room, you can slide through the gap on the right to reveal a secret passage. There is an item here but you won't be able to get it until you have the Nail Uprooted in Dirt that you'll pick up later.

Climb back up the ladder, then up the ledges to find another door on the left and more ledges going up. Takes the ledges going up to find Humerus of McMittens, the Nurse.

If you take the ladder up further here, you can hit the contraption which will raise the gate in the Wasteland of the Buried Churches near to where you fought the first large enemy.

Go back down the ladder, then across to the left and drop down to the door. Make your way across to an additional room where you'll see multiple ways to go again. Straight across is a door, and you'll see a ledge you can drop down below.

Drop Down to the Door

Drop down until you reach a door on the right. Go through here and you'll see that some of it is covered in poison. Use the ladders to make your way across to the right, to the lever on the ledge.

Pull this and you'll also see a Cherub floating just off to the left. Jump over to the cherub, hitting it to release it.

Then make your way to the upper left section of the room, to pick up the Black Grieving Veil. Exit this room, then make your way back up and then go through the door.

Go Through the Door

Get rid of the enemy through the door, then pull the lever to raise the gate here. Going straight across to the left will take you to Mountains of the Endless Dusk, while the ladder will take you up. Use the ladder, and then you'll be met with a door and more ledges going up.

The ledges will take you back up to the Ossuary in Albero, while the door to the left will take you to Nacimiento.

Go to Nacimiento first, then up and back to Albero. Save and rest at the Prie Dieu, then make your way through the Wasteland of the Buried Churches to reach Where Olive Trees Wither.

Return After Mother of Mothers

You'll need to complete the Redento side quest to obtain the Nail Uprooted from Dirt. But once you have this, you can come back to the Desecrated Cistern and collect the item from the secret passage opposite the room with the fountain.

You'll also be able to open up the path directly below the room with the fountain. The Nail Uprooted from Dirt will allow you to jump up on the platform in this corridor, then open the gate to the left. This will take you back to a ladder but also open a gate to the left where you can collect another Cherub.

From here, you can also go down the ladder and there will be doors on the right and the left. The door on the right has an item for you to collect, which is the Hyoid bone of Senex, the Beggar. Slide underneath the gap in this room and you'll also find a retro arcade machine.

In the door to the left, you'll find a path that takes you to the shaft that connects Grievance Ascends and Desecrated Cistern. Hit the contraption here to lift the gate, then equip the Linen of Golden Thread and the Three Gnarled Tongues. Drop to the bottom, then ride the lift up. Drop down to the left and you should be opposite the cherub now. Use a ranged attack to grab it, then drop down onto the roots below.

Go to the door on the left. Pick up the Chalice of Inverted Verses from the end of the room and you'll see three paintings. You need to kill one of each of the monsters in the paintings and return here without dying.

You can find these in:

• Mountains of the Endless Dusk
• The Sleeping Canvases
• Wall of Holy Prohibitions

A simple way to do this is to go up to Mountains of the Endless Dusk and take out the first Minotaur you see by the entrance. Then go up to Albero, ride the lift from here up to Graveyard of the Peaks, then take the second lift up to Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage.

Go to the top and take the lift over to Wall of Holy Prohibitions. Find one of the lioneheads in the room with the two ladders near the start. Then drop down to Patio of the Silent Steps, then down to Library of the Negated Words and into The Sleeping Canvases . Find the first stone guard near the beginning of this level.

Once the chalice has been completed filled, cut through Mercy Dreams and back over to the Desecrated Cistern. Return to the room with the pictures, then place the chalice back in the statue. This will unlock the door to the left, which holds the final Mea Culpa Shrine. This will give you the Mea Culpa achievement.