Castlevania: Circle of the Moon/Audience Room

Intro
Having cleaned out the Catacomb, Nathan begins the long trek back up to the castle. Make sure you have everything you need, and have saved (or at least recovered your HP/MP from the boss fight) and enter the Abyss Stairway from the left opening in the ceiling of the Catacomb.

Abyss Stairway
Head left and begin climbing (well, jumping a lot, to be specific) until you get to the second platform in the middle of the stairwell. From there jump and whip against the right wall to open a room containing a and two enemies. The Slime drops the (and ) and the Axe Armor drops the. Eventually. Once you get the cards, continue up the stairs until you can walk to the right. Go through the door and while standing on the next platform, drop straight down. Go through the door (this one is visible) and grab the. Head out and drop down, back in to the Catacomb.

Repeat the climbing process, but this time continue going up, into the next section of the climb. Work your way up, avoiding or killing the Bone Heads that hang from the ceilings. The second door on your right takes you to a save room, so use it if you wish, then resume climbing. When you can't climb any higher, you'll see an opening to your right, so head through.

This section is just like the previous one, except longer and there are Skeletons and Gremlins in addition to the bone heads. Keep climbing until the area widens. You'll see a door to the right (skip it for now) and go up to the next level. The left wall can be broken, leading to a room with a and a Skeleton Soldier, who drops.

Keep climbing up the left half of the stairway, and eventually you'll jump through an opening in the ceiling, into the Audience Room.

Audience Room
Ignore the door on the right and jump over the collapsing platforms to the upper ledge. To make it, you'll need to be jumping while at a run. You shouldn't need to double jump, and doing so can make it harder to control yourself. Once you get over, head left, and go through the door.

You'll be in a four-level room that acts as a hub to several different areas of the castle. From where you first enter, you're on the third level (right side). Drop down one level and head to the left side of the room (going down to the first level will take you back to the top of the Catacomb and the sealed off warp room). Head all the way up to the top, and break the wall on the upper most ledge to get a. Head right and go through the door.

Fight your way past the Axe Armors and Skeleton Soldiers, until you get to the three-floor stairway. The middle door takes you to a save room, and the upper door is the one you want to go through. Before you do, break the hidden wall by jumping off the top ledge and whipping the left wall, and get the.

In the large room, just head right for now. Double jump to pass by the gap with the low ceiling (make your second jump when you are in the middle of the gap and lower than the top of the ledge) to get a. Drop straight down the gap and pick up a. Head left to get to the door, then climb back up and into the same room. From the entrance, jump up to the right ledge, then jump up to the left ledge above it and follow the path. Jump through the opening in the ceiling to get to the Outer Wall.

Outer Wall
Jump over the first pillar and drop down to the group. Head right and break the ground underneath the overhang to get a. Head back to the left side of the Wall, and jump across the pillars to get to the top of the overhang. Go through the opening, into the right side of the Wall.

Jump across the pillars until you see the Brain Floats. As before, use the Mercury/Serpent card to freeze them so that they can be used as platforms. At the very top is a. Once you get it, head back down, and drop through the gap on the right side to get back into the Audience Room.

Audience Room
First, head left and take the upper left exit to get into the warp room. Go through the archway and after a flash of light, you'll be back in the west side of the Audience Room. Go out and jump on the switch to destroy the barrier and then warp back to where you came from.

Head over to the right side of the long room. The upper left exit will get you a and the lower right is a save room. Drop through the hole and into a long hallway. Head all the way left to get another, then all the way right to get back outside and start going downward. Break the wall at the top of the second set of stairs on the left to get to a, then continue down to the bottom of the stairs. If you head right you can get a in the middle of the rafters (you'll have to come back later for the rest), and you can fight the Clinking Men until you get a, which raises your luck slightly. If you have the Venus/Mandragora combo active, your luck will be boosted, increasing the chances of you getting an item. When you've gotten what you need, go through the lower left door.

Follow the hall way, and before you have to jump up to a ledge on the right, jump a bit and break the left wall to get a. Now head up and continue left, going through the door and into the large chamber.

Drop all the way down and go through the lower right door to save your game. Right in front of this door is an Electric Skeleton that, assuming you haven't already gotten one, will drop the. It's a low drop rate, so equip the Venus/Mandragora DSS combination to boost your luck.

Once you have the card, save again, and work your way up to the upper left door. If you don't have one already, you can get an axe from one the candles on your way. Take running jumps to make it across the collapsing platforms and you'll see the glowing blue boss door. Head in to find the Necromancer, who is impressed that you survived so far, and mentions that Dracula is planning on restoring his powers by sacrificing Morris during a full moon.

Necromancer

 * See Necromancer for more.



The Necromancer can be a challenge the first couple of times, but once you learn his techniques, it isn't too bad. At first he'll float around the room throwing energy orbs at you and occationally summoning Zombies. Once you hurt him enough he'll drop his cloak and either summon Skeletons or turn into an energy ball and ricochet around the room. In either form the best time to hit him is when he's summoning, as he's stationary. The whip will probably do more damage, but the axe is easier to hit him with (note: Shooters should just use the magic dagger).

Afterwards
After the fight, Nathan become more resolved to find Morris as quickly as possible, though he wonders where Hugh went. After the dialogue, go through the left door to get the, which will let you break the stone blocks by running at them and pressing.

Go back and save your game if you wish, then head through the lower left door of the large chamber. Pass through the hallway, breaking the stone blocks, and you'll find yourself back at the entrance to the Abyss Stairway.

Head back around to the large room directly below the Outer Wall. From the top left doorway, jump up the the right ledge and keep going right. Go into the next room and break the stone block to find a Heat Shade and. Fight the Heat Shade until you get the, which will let you heal via magic. The Heat Shade also drops the, though rarely. If you don't feel like fighting her right here, just continue on, as the Machine Tower is overrun with them. Either way, eventually head back to the large room that connects the Audience Room and the Catacomb, either by transporting or walking. Take the left door on the third level from the bottom to get to the upper portion of the Triumph Hallway.