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Area Note

Your objective in the Shadow Ruins is to acquire a Relic of Power. But before you can get to it, you'll have to navigate several mazes, solve a few puzzles, and activate four rune glyphs. This first section of the ruins acts as a sort of hub, and it has exits to each of the four areas that contains a rune glyph.

Important MMXII Note: All of the Athena statues (guardians, blockers, and so forth) will drop Shadow Stones. You shouldn't pick up any of them. If you do, then you'll end up with extra stones in your inventory -- which is bad because the stones are considered quest objects and can't be dropped. Luckily, if you pick up extra blue Shadow Stones, then you can spend them in the Chess Puzzle Room to get rid of them (by intentionally failing the puzzle, and using the extra stones to reset it).

Another MMXII Note: When you reach the "purple island" shadow realm sequences, your mini-map will turn off, and you won't be able to see which way you're facing. That means to use the directions listed in the walkthrough, you'll have to pay attention to which direction you're facing when you enter the shadow realm, and then go from there.


1 - Athena Guardians / Levers

The Athena guardians start out as statues, but once you've gotten close enough to the doors at #2, they'll come to life and attack you. After defeating the guardians, you can use the levers on the walls behind them to open the doors.

Note: When you pull the southern lever, the shadow gate at Exit A will appear, allowing you to leave the ruins. This is possibly a bug, because if you leave the ruins that way, you won't be able to get back in.


2 - Doors


3 - Loose Tome

Pushing the loose tome into the shelf will open the secret door at #3a.


4 - Undead Templar Knights

When the knights die, they'll both drop shadow stones. You'll need the stones for the guardians at #6.


5 - Runes

These runes are a hint for the rune jumping puzzle (#8). Note their order.


6 - Athena Guardians

These guardians start out as statues, but when you place shadow stones (from #4) into them, they'll come to life and attack you. Once you've killed them both, the shadow gate to the north (Exit D) will appear.


7 - Loose Tome

Pushing the loose tome into the shelf will open the secret door at #7a.


8 - Rune Jumping Puzzle

The objective of this puzzle is to jump on the runes in the correct order, and, in the process, cross the chamber to the southern end. The order of the runes is the same as shown at #5, and it is also shown on the map using yellow lines.

If you miss a jump or jump onto the wrong rune, then it's possible to escape from the bottom of the chamber. Just head to the eastern side and go through the shadow gate there (Exit G). You'll land in a maze of purple islands (this is probably supposed to represent the shadow realm), but if you go through the eastern gate, then the eastern gate, and then the northern gate, you'll end up back at the hub near Exit A.

Note: Since there's a level 6 chest at the bottom on the chamber, you might want to miss a jump on purpose.


Exits:

1. Exit from the Shadow Ruins. This shadow gate will appear after you've pulled the southern lever at #1. However, you shouldn't use this exit. If you do, you won't be able to get back inside the ruins.
2. Shadow gate.
3. Shadow gate to the Tower Area.
4. Shadow gate to the Shadow Stones Area. You'll have to activate and then kill the nearby Athena guardians to make the gate appear.
5. Shadow gate to the Wind Jumping Area.
6. Shadow gate to Kingston's Area.
7. Shadow gate to the shadow realm. You'll find yourself in a maze of islands. Go through the eastern gate, then the eastern gate, and then the northern gate to return to the Shadow Ruins hub.