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The seventh biome of Saros is Cathedral, which is an opulent palace and temple, positioned as the true seat of power on Carcosa while functioning as its foremost religious site. This page acts as a comprehensive walkthrough of what you can expect within Cathedral; the objectives, enemies, and secrets therein.
Randomized Runs
Everything after the tutorial is completely randomized. Each time you die or reset your game, the entire world shifts around and you will find completely different things on each subsequent "run". We can tell you what you might find, however, we can’t tell you exactly when you’ll find it!Cathedral Walkthrough
| Cathedral | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Number | Complete? |
| Halcyon | 50 | |
| Audio Logs | 13 | |
| Holo Logs | 2 | |
| Text Logs | 4 | |
| New Enemies | Primal Ruptures, Priestess (Boss) | |
Cathedral Enemies
Primal Rupture
Primal Ruptures, much like their regular counterparts, often rely on retreating and running circuits around the arena and can similarly fire out a small cluster of nova projectiles that hold in place to cover it as it falls back.
Unlike its more basic version, Primal Ruptures can also spit out large projectiles (either blue or yellow) that arc toward you. On contact with a surface, they will explode and spread out into dozens of smaller projectiles of the same color.
Cathedral Points of Interest
Floating Statues
An optional room of note is a circular chamber with a giant floating statue in its center; three humans with tentacles for legs hanging beneath a giant orb.
On the ground in the center of the room you’ll find resources, along with a jump pad at the back of the chamber you can use to reach an upper platform with a container.
Power Weapon Walls
This biome appears to have an above average chance of various rooms throughout the area to have the glowing orange walls that you can destroy with a shot of your Power Weapon.
As always, these can contain essentially any kind of container, resource, Augment, Artefact, collectible, or other reward!
Laser Hole
In some optional rooms, you’ll find a circular hole in the ground with a grapple point attached. If you look down, you’ll often see a scattering of lasers.
If you are brave and drop down (careful with your positioning to land between the laser fields), you’ll find a mix of resources and rewards. As such, it’s always worth checking if you can trust your instincts and not panic as you drop!
Smoke Hologram Room
Like in previous biomes, you’ll be able to find another room with the giant smoke holograms depicting yet more ambiguous tableaus.
This is most likely to appear in the room at the top of the "infinite staircase" in the central chamber of the biome. Same as with the others, you’ll also find two containers on the far side of the room. You’ll also find the yellow hologram of Klaudia to speak with for more riddles.
Cathedral Objectives
Save Nitya
After heading through the first room, you’ll encounter strange long dangling tentacles. Players of Returnal will recognise these, as you’ll need to walk into them to begin being pulled up.
Once you’re in line with the upper platform, you’ll need to dash out of them before reaching the top end of the tentacles if you want to avoid taking damage.
Emerging into the giant central chamber of this biome, you’ll see two large red tuning fork structures (circled in the image above); one on each side of the room (we’ll get back to those shortly). Head toward the steps and a cutscene will trigger in which disturbing truths are revealed.
A Holo Log automatically begins playing which shows Delroy addressing the Echelon I crew, including Nitya. What’s shocking is that Delroy addresses the different members with the same titles as the bosses you’ve slain throughout each of the prior biomes; and thus the fate of Echelon I is revealed. As Nitya and Delroy appear to break into a fight, Arjun lambasts himself for not being there to help.
Ascend
Continue up the steps behind the Holo Log location and as you climb the central staircase ahead you’ll quickly realise it’s infinite and you’re trapped in place.
As a result, you’ll need to turn around and go back down where the Eclipse pedestal has now appeared.
Overcome
After triggering the Eclipse, the fragmented platforms that are on either side of the main walkway will reform as you approach, letting you take one of two pathways to find her and "release her shackles".
It doesn’t matter which path you take, as you’ll need to ultimately do both to progress. On your chosen path you’ll run through several rooms of enemies, and eventually you’ll reach a dead end on a small platform with what looks like a teleporter.
Stepping on and interacting it will instead trigger a small cutscene in which Arjun looks up and (all of a sudden) the world is inverted, and Arjun is now able to traverse the surrounding area flipped upside down.
You’ll now need to backtrack out to the central chamber once again, platforming through areas that were on the ceiling/completely out of reach on your first pass through the area. In one of the side rooms on your passage back, you’ll also find the Nightmare Strand portal for this biome.
After reaching the far end of the main path, overlooking (underlooking?) the central chamber, you’ll need to interact with another "teleporter" on the ground which will flip the orientation once again.
Now you’re on the platform with one of the large tuning fork structures, which you can then approach and melee to cause it to ring out. This partially lowers the segmented pieces floating in the air in the central chamber.
You’ll then need to jump back down into the central area and platform across to take the second of the two paths. The process is identical to the other side; make your way through several rooms and interact with the inversion teleporter at the far end, then platform your way back to the central chamber and melee the second tuning fork. With both tuning forks rung, the large bell will come together from the shattered fragments in the air and slam down.
Jump back into the center of the chamber and ring the third tuning fork that has now appeared to split the bell apart and reveal a hole in the floor with a large drop.
Investigate the Hidden Chamber (Optional)
This hole in the ground has a very large drop that prior to jumping in looks like it will kill you. However, after dropping down you’ll land in a room with a giant mechanical structure on the far side. Go up the steps and interact while standing in the center of the circular pool to trigger a unique flashback sequence.
Here you’ll play as Nitya in a monochrome sequence before she took the job with Soltari.
Read the tablet on the table to the left to see an email discussing her successful application and how it’ll require an indefinite absence from home, and she must immediately prepare.
Then pick up the beer bottle from the floor by the table and then speak with Arjun who is led on the couch.
As Nitya pleads to do something together rather than Arjun going out drinking, he accepts her offer but almost immediately reneges on the idea and chastises her for comparing him to his father.
Later as Nitya clasps her medallion and ponders on the concept of "forever", you can check the picture frame on the shelf by the TV to see a young Arjun and another figure with his face clouded.
You can also check the tablet on the table again to see Nitya’s draft of an email rejecting the Soltari offer due to "complex personal circumstances". All the while, Arjun is arguing on the phone with someone outside, so when ready head out to meet with him and trigger another cutscene. Once again Arjun becomes immediately hostile despite Nitya saying almost nothing at all, lamenting the loss of his "partner and friend".
Regaining control with the tree in the garden now corrupted, head back inside and check the tablet on the table to see Nitya’s email accepting her new position and messaging with Kiira about their excitement to catch up and get to work. Then approach and interact with the bag on the floor to begin to leave. Arjun interrupts and begins pleading for her to stay, but Nitya remains defiant and proclaims that Arjun is only in love with the idea of her and she has nothing left here. As Arjun coldly calls out that she’s nothing without him, she gives him back the medallion and retorts that she is nothing *with* him.
Returning to the present day, Arjun remains in active denial about his past behaviour. Use the nearby Eclipse Thread to ride back up to the central chamber and then go back to the "infinite staircase" which you can now head all the way up.
Ascend
When ready, proceed into the large open chamber with the golden ring floating in the center to trigger a Solar Cage, where you’re most likely to encounter multiple Aurelia and Harbinger enemies as the primary targets. Once the Solar Cage dissipates, use the inversion teleporter nearby to flip the orientation of the world.
You can then follow the linear path forward up the tower of mangled bodies to reach the top. Arjun will reach up and then be teleported into a cutscene. Lina appears with glowing eyes, clearly succumbing to the corruption and draws a pistol on Arjun. Before she can shoot, the entity behind her springs to life; grabbing and killing her.
Priestess Boss Fight
Tip:
If you fire your Power Weapon or Overdrive at Priestess and hit it whilst it's in the middle of an attack, you can actually disrupt what would be the following attack in the pattern. This will give you a very brief reprieve if you need it to refocus or reposition Arjun to continue.
Priestess - Phase 1
At the beginning of the phase, Priestess will split into three (summoning two additional versions of itself). All three can attack, so you’ll need to keep your head on a swivel throughout the entire fight. This is even more relevant as the Priestesses can teleport away and appear together in a different set of the corridors surrounding the arena - so be on the lookout!
They collectively deploy red shockwaves simultaneously (one each), which will by proxy force you to jump and/or dash as needed to reposition yourself to land between the waves.
The Priestesses can also fire a wide tunnel of yellow projectiles one after the other, which you’ll want to position yourself inside of to begin with and then jump and dash through the opening at the far end as it comes to an end.
This is often followed up by them simultaneously firing out a thin, precise vortex of yellow projectiles from their hands which you’ll want to jump over/dash under.
You’ll need to defeat two of the three Priestesses in order to resummon the real one and actually be able to begin dealing damage. As it spawns into the center of the arena, it can hunch over and fire vertical walls of yellow projectiles out from itself while also emitting red shockwaves on the ground. Position yourself between two of the walls and focus solely on jumping the shockwaves and getting some relatively free hits in.
This Priestess too can fire out the narrow vortex of yellow projectiles that it’ll track you with, so continue to jump over/dash under it to keep it trailing behind you and trying to catch up.
Something to look out for though is that it’ll be passively depositing dozens of nova projectiles in the vicinity beneath itself while doing so, so maintaining distance is still paramount.
Another attack sees the Priestess again partially hunching over and firing out multiple consecutive rings on two juxtaposed diagonals (in an X shape), with accompanying red shockwaves on the ground.
Like before, you can focus on jumping the shockwaves but also now be able to equip your shield and regain some Power Weapon charge in the process.
It too can also fire out the large yellow projectile tunnels that you can jump your way out the far side of, but there will also be a spattering of blue projectiles in your path that you will need to time a dash through or absorb while in midair.
Keep in mind that throughout the fight there can be occasional intervals in which the Priestess resummons the copies of itself that you’ll need to defeat in order to continue dealing damage once again. They can also simultaneously fire long capsule-shaped nova projectile tunnels; depending on your positioning you can either avoid them entirely or angle a jump dash to glide through a chosen tunnel.
The Priestess can also float in the center of the arena and begin firing out yellow and nova projectile walls simultaneously, moving them in opposite directions. Jump over the lower nova walls and stick close to a yellow wall that's moving away from you until the attack ends.
Priestess - Phase 2
After depleting Priestess’s first health bar, the arena will rip apart and transform, and giant copies of the Priestess will appear around the arena. While these split versions *can* take damage, they are incredibly spongy and you’ll find a mechanic shortly to get rid of them entirely. They will communally summon a large orb that they fire into the center of the arena that will continually fire out wavy lines of nova projectiles that you’ll continually have to watch out for and jump over.
The Priestess can fire a much larger cone-shaped vortex of yellow projectiles at you, and this will be impossible to jump dash through due to its length so you either absorb a hell of a lot of corruption with your shield or frantically rush to the corners of the arena not covered by this giant attack.
It can also fire out a five-pronged wavy star of blue OR yellow projectiles that twists around before launching at you, and shouldn’t be too hard to avoid (or outright absorb of course).
Throughout this phase (when there are multiple Priestesses) you’ll see smaller platforms around the perimeter of the arena that have the red tuning fork structures on them. You’ll want to immediately rush over and melee them all.
Not only will they wipe any projectiles in the vicinity and very briefly stun the Priestesses, but after ringing all three of the forks the Priestess will reconverge back into one body; allowing you to continue dealing proper damage.
When back in one body, you’ll see a large weak point in the center of its chest which you’ll want to direct the majority of your firepower toward. The Priestess can conjure a circular wall of projectiles that will surround you before rapidly closing in.
If they’re blue, this is a fantastic opportunity to replenish tonnes of Power Weapon charge. If they’re nova, the wall is much shorter and thus you’ll be able to easily jump over so long as you’re paying attention.
Another projectile attack is one where the Priestess chucks out pairs of diamond-shaped clusters of either blue or yellow projectiles that are angled at various different diagonals.
It can also generally eject a random shower of yellow projectiles from its body that fire out and arc down toward the ground (but don’t home in).
When you get Priestess’s second health bar to 50%, it’ll again split into multiple copies. The exact same strategy applies in order to continue dealing damage; rush to the tuning forks once they appear and melee them all to reform the Priestess.
The Priestess can also raise its two upper hands and fire out a tight swirling vortex of yellow projectiles from each.
These vortexes will track you as you move around, but they dissipate much faster than other vortex tunnel attacks of its ilk so a single dodge and partial strafe is more than enough to keep out of harm's way.
Priestess - Phase 3
After depleting Priestess’s second health bar, the platform will dissolve and the arena will transform as you fall. Upon landing, an even larger Priestess appears before you. It will then summon glowing orbs and throw them down onto the multiple platforms around you, each one converting into a spinning nova-firing entity in the center of each platform; much like Phase Two.
Similarly to Phase Two’s strategy, you’ll need to rush during this time toward the Priestess, where you’ll again see two smaller platforms with a tuning fork each. After meleeing both forks, the Priestess will become vulnerable to damage once more.
The Priestess can again fire out diamond-shaped projectile clusters, but these will also now be trailed by diagonal red waves that you’ll need to position yourself between in order to avoid.
Furthermore the Priestess can fire out a giant swirling tunnel of yellow projectiles, and so long as you’re standing on a platform you shouldn’t have much difficulty in staying central and not getting hit as it moves around slightly.
You’ll note that occasionally the platform you’re standing on will begin to break apart. If you notice in time, you can simply run and jump across to one of the other platforms nearby, but even if you don’t there’s no need for concern; a new platform will always automatically spawn in beneath you to catch you and then raise you back up.
After depleting Priestess’s second health bar to 50%, it’ll again become temporarily invulnerable, throw down more nova-emitting orbs, and you’ll need to melee two additional tuning forks to progress further.
As well as firing out giant starfish-esque spirals of yellow projectiles, Priestess can also raise one of its upper hands high into the air and summon a cluster of rapid moving homing nova projectiles.
This is one of the sneakier attacks, as it will often be out of your FOV if you’re not angling your view up constantly. As a general rule of thumb, this is usually a follow-up to a different projectile attack, so keep an eye out as soon as a different attack ends just in case.
Priestess is also able to fire out swarms of blue homing projectiles for all four of its hands, but these are all easily absorbable, far more easy to notice, and conveniently will fully refill your Power Weapon charge in the process.
After defeating Priestess, it’ll fall away and the platform you’re on will collapse and Arjun will wake up in a dead end room with several orange portals around the perimeter.
Approach any of these (it doesn’t matter) and a cutscene will trigger where Nitya calls out to Arjun, prompting him to push through the portal. Arjun will find Nitya on the shore, and she distorts and glitches while beckoning him into the water.
As he joins her, she is relieved to see him after waiting all this time and claims that everything is now perfect; both of them proclaiming "the sun is forever" with warped voices before embracing and kissing as the eclipse rises in the distance. From the dust in the air and the eclipse itself, giant tentacles emerge and thrash around.
Speak with Constant/Follow the Opened Path
Unceremoniously, Arjun respawns back at The Passage, frustrated that he’s away from Nitya once again. As Constant beckons in the distance, go into the side room where Constant can be found and speak with it.
Constant informs Arjun that Nitya has gone to "The Shore", and Arjun deduces that Constant is the way to access The Shore. Arjun brute forces his way through the computer terminal as Constant protests, slowly fading away. Head back out and down toward Primary, where you’ll now find a giant glowing opening to the left, with roots twisting out into the center of the room.