The Phoenix Chamber

Your goal, as the book here states, is to place the ashes of the phoenix in the fire to resurrect it. The switch in front of the bird statue here is the mechanism for placing them in the fire, but you can’t access the ashes just yet. Save your game, then jump across to the platform on the left to move on to the spike room.

Blast this wall to reveal a statue of fate.

The spikes in this room are controlled by a large switch. Flip the switch, then aim your bow at the cracked wall in the upper left corner of the room and smash it, revealing a statue of fate and a couple of red orb chests. Don’t worry about the chests for now; if you get them, then die (a distinct possibility here), you’ll have to get them again. Instead, flip the switch again and grab the Hail of Boreas from the corpse on the lever in front of you. That will free up the lever for you to move, but for now, return to the switch.

After letting the spikes raise up and flipping the switch again, immediately activate your amulet to stop time, then move to the lever in front of you and start rotating it (your timestop will cease as soon as you begin revolving it, but it saved you a couple seconds!). You don’t need to rotate it all the way; just enough for you to get under it when you run towards it. One full revolution should do the trick, especially since inertia will continue the movement after you move away. When you think you have a good margin of error, let go of the lever, stop time again, then jump across the gaps in the hallway towards the gate. You’ll need to make two jumps, the second of which is hard to see, so be careful. When you’re under the gate you’ll be in the next section.

Fires of the Phoenix

Video Walk-through

The statue-pushing game in the phoenix cavern is a test of skill, to say the least.

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A few red orb chests are behind a gate here. You can reach them by heading into the dark hallway nearby, jumping up on the right wall to reach a handhold, then double jumping back to the left to reach an upper alcove.

You’ll come across a pair of orb chests before the next large room. Unless you’re in dire need of mana or health, don’t open them yet. You’ll need all you can get in the next room here. When you’re ready for some fun, drag the statue to the left of the door into the room, but keep it between you and the statue of the phoenix at the far end. You’ll see why in a second, as the phoenix will send an unavoidable jet of fire at you; the only way to avoid its damage is to keep the movable statue between you and the phoenix, which will entail a lot of pushing it towards the northern end of the room.

There are some things to keep in mind here. First off, the statue will protect you from fire so long as you’re behind it; leave the area immediately to its rear, and you’ll take a lot of damage. Secondly, if you don’t actively hold onto the statue, it’ll be pushed backwards when hit by fire. Thirdly, you’ll be attacked by a demonoid and fire imps as you walk around; it’s best to simply avoid them as much as possible by laying down a high-level Cronos’ Rage when they get too close for comfort. That will shock them for a few seconds, allowing you to proceed on your way.

It burrrnnnnssss!

Lastly, there are a couple of optional treasure rooms here. To open them, you have to move the statue in front of the doors and quickly open the gates before the statue gets blown back to where it can’t protect you. The first room, on the right wall, holds a pair of red orb chests, while the second, on the left wall a bit further up, holds a red and a blue chest. Entering these rooms will usually let the fire burn you, unless you’re real lucky with your statue placement, so collect the rewards at your own risk, and remember that you (should) have a green orb chest back out the southern entrance, assuming you didn’t open it before.

Anyway, you need to maneuver the statue all the way to the top of the room. Eventually you won’t be able to move it any further due to a stone barrier; shift the statue above the switch nearby and flip it. That’ll lower the barrier, allowing you to move the statue further to the north. Plant it on the leftmost pressure plate near the phoenix. That raises the gate above you. Hold the statue in place until after a jet of flame ends, then quickly get on top of the right pressure plate to drop a grappling point above you. Snag it and swing up to the ledge above you before the gate closes (remember that the fire will push the statue, and it will eventually slide off the plate below). If you’re having trouble getting through the gate, try planting the statue on the northern side of the pressure plate before moving away.

One Last Fight...

Atlas Quake will help in dealing with crowds of enemies like this.

After you recharge your health, push the urn off of the plate that it’s on to descend a bit. Push the urn from the ground into the hole nearby, then move towards the switch you passed by earlier. Before you can reach it, a group of skeletons and minotaurs will attack you. Dispatch them as best you can, then flip the switch here to burn the ashes, reviving the Phoenix. If you need to, you can return to the spike room to go after those red orb chests that you may have bypassed earlier. Otherwise, glide across the steam from the lava to reach the stairwell to the right of the new pillar of lava near you. The upper reaches will lead you back up to the hub balcony, but if you want some more red orbs, check the lowest, broken section of the staircase first to find a chest.

Head to the top of the stairwell to find two orb chests, one to the left and one to the right. Flip the switch nearby to raise up the platform, and you’ll be standing in front of the painting of Boreas. Plant the Hail of Boreas in its mouth to open the door. Head inside, grab the red orb chest, then climb the chain to find a save point.