This blood-drenched optional area is home to a megalomaniac child-kidnapper, so for once killing the boss doesn’t have too much moral grey area. In addition to a Great Rune, there are some high-level upgrade materials and unique loot here that make it well worth braving the big birds and cart-wheeling albinaurics.
There are two ways to get to Mogh’s palace. The “normal” way is by using the waygate found in the Consecrated Snowfield, west of the Inner Consecrated Snowfield site of grace.
The other way to reach Moghwyn Palace is to do Varre’s quest up to the point that he gives you the Pureblood Knight’s Medal. Using this item will take you to the steps near the Dynasty Mausoleum Entrance site of grace.
Walkthrough
This walkthrough is divided into sections — start with “Palace Outskirts” and use the tabs to switch between sections.
Note: This walkthrough assumes you have just gone through the waygate in the Consecrated Snowfield.
After entering the waygate, you’ll find yourself in a dark tunnel. Head southwest out of the tunnel, then turn left and follow the narrow cliff path south and west (1). Drop down onto the stone block platform below (2), then drop off the platform and head east to the edge of the cliff, where a corpse holds a Golden Rune [11]. After you grab it, turn around and go through the arch heading west — you’ll soon reach the Palace Approach Ledge-Road. Rest here and, if you have it, prepare a Wondrous Physick with the Twiggy Cracked Tear — this will come in handy later
(1)(2)
Mount Torrent, and then from the site of grace ride north-northeast, towards all the sitting albinaurics. Note that the red-skinned albinaurics here will attack you, while the silvery ones will ignore you unless provoked. This is also an excellent area for farming runes, particularly if you have a large AOE spell like a dragon breath incantation. On the right side of the path is a corpse with a Golden Rune [11] — when you get close to it, some of the red-skinned albinaurics will start moving towards you. Past these foes, the path will curve left, and on the right is an albinauric just chilling — you absolutely should not kill this guy, because I’ve actually hung out with him, and it turns out he’s pretty cool.
From your new friend, continue northwest downhill. On the right side of the path will be a corpse with x5 Bloodrose, and across the path is one with a Smithing Stone [6]. A group of four albinaurics patrols the road here — it’s best to avoid this group, since there are enough of them to easily dismount you. After grabbing the smithing stone, hug that left wall, continue downhill, and turn left (west-southwest) when able. This narrow path will curve south, and then you’ll be able to drop down into the blood lake.
Hug the left wall again, and dismount once you get to the edge of the cliff. Start sneaking south, staying on the cliff edge — there’s a big bird to the west that you really don’t want noticing you. Continue south and you’ll find a corpse with the Nomadic Warrior’s Cookbook [24], and just west of the corpse is a Ghost Glovewort [8] in some bushes — make sure the bird is facing away from you before grabbing it. Then continue southwest, circling around the left side of the large tree. You’ll see a corpse ahead — wait here, as an invader is about to spawn.
The usual strategies vs NPC-style enemies work well here (jumping attacks and melee spells). The only unique thing about this foe is that they can cast Swarm of Flies, so you’ll need to either run away from it or else make sure you have more than 50% of your health left before letting it hit you. On death, this foe will drop the White Mask and the War Surgeon Gloves, Trousers, and Gown (Altered). You can now mount Torrent again and head west to the corpse, where you can snag x5 Bloodrose. Continue this direction, hugging the wall and making your way west.
You’ll eventually see a surprisingly blood-free tree ahead, and an equally clean rock in front of it. To the right is an item — don’t go for it. Instead, wait on the rock and a bird will come crashing down from above. As soon as it lands, ride back the way you came (south-southeast) and hide behind a tree until the bird starts patrolling. Get off of your horse, and when the bird starts walking to the left, away from the corpse, you can sneak over and grab the Stonesword Key off of it.
Continue west from the corpse, and amongst the tombstones near the edge of the cliff, you’ll find the Haligdrake Talisman +2. Grab it and start sneaking out of the graveyard, making your way north. You’ll run into a Ghost Glovewort [9] in some bushes — pluck it and keep moving, hugging the left wall once again to avoid being spotted by the big ol’ bird nearby. Continue following the wall and you’ll turn left (northwest) and see an item in a dark corner. There will be a dog hiding in the bushes near the wall — take it out quickly and turn around, as another dog will be approaching quickly from behind (northeast) while a third creeps towards you from the northwest.
Solid advice
Once the first three blood-borkers are dead, continue northwest into the corner — behind the tree is a fourth and final dog, so put it down before you grab the x4 Arteria Leaf from the corpse. Head out of the corner going east-southeast, hugging the left-hand wall again. Turn left and continue northeast a bit, and you’ll see a spot where the path narrows somewhat — another invader will soon appear here.
Kill this invader using the same tactics as before — sadly, it doesn’t drop anything good, but we’ve got to kill it regardless. Once you’ve handled the invader, go south to the nearby corpse and grab the Clarifying Boluses, then make your way southeast while again keeping the wall on your left. You’ll see an illusory tree on some high ground — mount Torrent and hop up onto the near bit of rocks (don’t go further or you’ll wake up some dogs), and wait at the location indicated below.
After a moment, a third and final Nameless White Mask will spawn down in the blood northwest of you. Let the invader come to you, and then make sure you stay where you are while fighting it. Once it’s dead, you can mount Torrent and jump up to the east, where the illusory tree is. Grab the Golden Seed, and then prepare yourself for possible death — we’re going to try and snatch all the items guarded by the big birds that we skipped earlier (because you’d have been dismounted by the invasions).
From the illusory tree, look south-southeast towards the large tree — a bird patrols here, but if you wait until its back is to you, it’s possible to dash in and grab the x3 Rot Grease from the base of the tree and then ride away to the west without it aggroing. Continue west and you’ll eventually have to make your way around to the other side of a large tree, where you’ll find a bird feasting on a corpse. If you prepared it, drink your Flask of Wondrous Physick now, then grab the Holy Grease from the corpse and ride east-northeast towards the next large bird, while trying your best to zig-zag and avoid getting pecked to death.
The next bird is easy to spot since it’s out in the open — grab the Smithing Stone [6] from the corpse it’s snacking on, then also make sure you get the Golden Rune [13] behind the small pillar just past the bird. Once you’ve got both items, ride north-west and then north-northeast to head through the pass.
The birds will chase you for a while, so hug the right-hand wall once you enter the narrower area, and keep dashing until you turn right and find yourself back on the path where you met the chill albinauric — you’ll be facing south and there should be sorcerers hung up on posts. From here, turn around and face north, then hug the right-hand wall and continue forwards. You’ll turn right (east) and enter a small cave, where a loot beetle holds the Ash of War: Blood Tax. You may want to dismount to more easily hit the beetle, as you’ll need to kill it quickly — a couple of albinaurics will aggro and come into the cave once you enter it.
Deal with these foes, then make sure you snag the Somber Smithing Stone [9] that’s also in this cave before you exit. Continue hugging the right hand wall and you’ll find another small cave — on the left of the entrance is a Ghost Glovewort [8], so pick it before continuing into the cave, where you can grab the Swarm of Flies incantation. Leave the cave and go south-southwest to the large tree — on the far side, you’ll find a Hero’s Rune [4].
From there, go west-northwest and past the next tree. Beyond it is another, larger tree with a Smithing Stone [8] at its base. From there, go north-northeast to the Hero’s Rune [3] at the base of another big tree. Northwest of there is a corpse with x8 Blood Tainted Excrement — pick up the poo and then ride due northeast to a corpse with x4 Drawstring Firegrease. From there, ride northeast to you’ll find another cave with a Golden Rune [13] and a Smithing Stone [6].
Exit the cave and go northwest, once again keeping close to the wall on your right. You’ll soon come to a huge tree that forces you to go west, and to the southwest you’ll see a couple of items out in the open — don’t be tempted by the items, but instead sneak up on the albinauric sorcerer who’s just over the rise. This guy (and three of his friends further ahead) are defended by huge skeletons that seem to sometimes spawn even without being summoned — these will easily dismount and kill you, so you really want to take out the sorcerers fast; once they’re dead, their associated skeletons will disappear.
Once you’ve killed this first sorcerer, you can grab the Smithing Stone [7] and Golden Rune [12] he was facing. Then sneak northwest while spamming target-lock, and you’ll find another sorcerer guarding another Golden Rune [12]. Kill it, and then look west towards the nearby hill — with target-lock you’ll easily find a third sorcerer. This one can also be snuck up on or rushed, and then you can safely pick up the Sacramental Bud and x3 Nascent Butterfly on the low ground east of the hill.
Ride northwest towards the stone arch and make your way up the stairs — just ahead is a corpse with the Map: Mohgwyn Palace. Map acquired, you can go south-southwest to the bushes next to a broken column to find a Golden Centipede. Then go east to stairs and head up them to find the Dynasty Mausoleum Entrance site of grace.
This walkthrough continues in the next tab, DynastyMausoleum!
From the Dynasty Mausoleum Entrance site of grace, go south and then up the stairs, where you’ll find the first of many groups of blood zombies (let’s call ’em blombies). Most of these will ignore you. However, if one of them is paying attention to you as you approach, it will soon run at you and explode into a bleed-inducing mist (note that they all will create such a mist upon death). Also note that these enemies wander, so the locations of agressive blombies described below are approximate.
Continue south up the next set of stairs and you’ll enter an area with some tombstones. Here, a blombie in the middle of the path will run towards you and explode — just beyond it on the right side of the path is a Smithing Stone [7]. Grab it and continue up the hill. Where the path levels out, a blombie will ambush you from behind a column on the left — further east at the edge of the cliff is a Numen’s Rune. Grab it and continue south — another blombie will attack right where the path narrows — following the path uphill, and you’ll soon encounter a huge bloody blob blocking the path.
This thing drops Thin and Hefty Beast Bones, but it has a ton of health, so you can just go around it if you don’t want to kill it. Continue west past it, grab the x3 Stanching Boluses, then take a right (north-northeast) just ahead to find a Stonesword Key at the end of the path. When you turn around and head back to the main path, a blombie will attack from the right, so be ready. Once back on the main path, head southwest towards the big doorway, but before entering grab the x8 Bloodrose from the southern side of the group of praying blombies. Then activate your Lantern and go through the dark doorway.
When in Rome…
You’ll pass through a hallway and then enter a rocky chamber — at this point, you’ll be able to summon spirit ashes if you like; since you’ll be facing a series of tough enemies (Sanguine Nobles) it’s not a bad idea to summon your strongest spirit. Continue west up the path, and make sure you have your sound turned on. Walk instead of running, and soon you’ll hear the sound of bubbling blood — ahead of you, the first sanguine noble will spawn down the left fork of the path. Get near his spawn point and charge up your strongest attack; he’ll trip a little bit once he’s out of his blood pool — this is your indication that he can be damaged.
Once he’s defeated, you can go further west (left at the fork) to see the Imprisoned Merchant, but note that doing so will cause another Sanguine Noble to spawn (in the same spot as the first one) on your way back to the fork, so unless you want something he’s selling (notable items are infinite Dwelling Arrows and Burred Bolts), it’s best to go right at the fork instead and continue north-northwest. You’ll soon see a corpse in front of a monument — grab the Lord’s Rune, then go northeast through the tombstones.
You’ll come to a small drop — below is a Great Ghost Glovewort and a Golden Centipede. Once you grab the glovewort, all of the nearby blombies will aggro and very slowly start moving towards you. Run northwest through the crowd and turn left to make your way southwest up the path.
Continue southwest until you come to another fork. First, go left (continuing southwest) towards the item in the distance. You’ll soon hear another Sanguine Noble spawning in — this one is behind you! Kill him and go grab the Smithing Stone [8] in the southwest corner. Then go back north-northeast, and turn left to head uphill going north. You’ll hear another noble spawning — you can choose to turn around and fight, or keep running up the path (generally northeast). (There’s also a Ghost Glovewort [9] that’s hard to miss in the darkness on the right side of the path). You’ll soon find yourself back outside, where you’ll be able to activate the dishonestly named Dynasty Mausoleum Midpoint site of grace.
From this grace, go south-southeast up the stairs. Start sneaking and make your way around the back of the altar, where you’ll find a Golden Rune [13]. From here, you can look east-southeast to see a corpse hanging off of the rocks below. You can jump to this corpse, but before you do so, check to see if he has an item or not. Currently, this corpse has a Golden Seed, but only if you didn’t grab the one at the base of the illusory tree in the lake of blood. If you do jump to it, you can teleport back to the Dynasty Mausoleum Midpoint site of graceafterwards.
Next, you can either try to fight the huge group of enemies, or you can ignore them and jump up onto the platform and open the chest to loot its Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone. Whatever you choose, the last thing to do here is head to the large elevator platform northwest of the altar and ride it up. At the top, you can continue northwest into the boss arena to face Mogh, Lord of Blood.
After defeating Mogh, you can check out the view from the mausoleum, or inspect Miquella’s egg, but there isn’t really anything to do here besides activate the site of grace and teleport to your next destination.
This concludes our walkthrough of Mohgwyn Palace!
Where to Go After Mohgwyn Palace
If didn’t finish clearing the Consecrated Snowfield, that should be your next goal. Otherwise, the natural choices are either the Haligtree or Crumbling Farum Azula (assuming you’ve finished all the other areas).
Unabashed FromSoftware fanboy still learning to take his time with games (and everything else, really). The time he doesn't spend on games is spent on music, books, or occasionally going outside.
You have forgot to link the boss fight I think!
Appreciate you pointing that out! The boss guide is now linked.