Finally, a high class joint! You’ll spawn in the lobby of the museum, and immediately be approached by two enemies. Rush the first one and attempt a leg sweep, as this will cause him to drop his weapon if successful. The second guy has a machete, the first bladed weapon you’ve faced so far. As a reminder, guarding attacks from blades will do chip damage — not full damage, but some fraction of what you’d take from a full attack. You can parry bladed weapons, but messing up the timing results in taking a lot of damage, so attempt with caution.
Once the first two foes are down, grab the machete if you want to try it out, then head towards the right-hand ramp on the other side of the room. On a small table to the left of the ramp, you can pick up the Museum Map board item. Then head up the ramp, and note the elevator and stairway doors further ahead — these are the two shortcuts you can unlock later in this level.
You’ll be able to unlock the doors on the right once you get the Museum Keycard, whereas you can’t use the elevator until you reach the final boss for the first time
For now, you’ll take a right at the top of the ramp and head into the exhibit — grab the Exhibition: Identity board item from the stand right after you turn. Then continue through the doors at the end of the hall, and make your way through the first exhibit. No enemies show up here, so feel free to linger and enjoy the artwork. You’ll make your way to a darkened doorway; an enemy is hiding just inside on the right, so be ready for him.
An enemy hides just inside the darkness, on the right
Take out the bat-wielding ambusher, then deal with the Juggernaut. Once he’s down as well, pick up the bat the first foe in here dropped to replace your current weapon (which is likely near-to-breaking), and then continue through the exhibit. Once you’re about halfway across the next exhibition room, three enemies will come through the doors on the other end of the room. Save the toughest enemy — the guy in the full suit — for last. Once he’s down, head through the doors they opened and go up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs, go through the double doors and turn right, then sprint at the enemies there. Take out the guy on the right first — he should only take a couple of hits since you’re carrying a weapon — and then deal with the one wielding the sword. Fight him carefully and respectfully, as he can do serious damage to your health bar if he connects with his blade.
Once both bad boys are down, continue past where they were and turn right into the next exhibition hall, making sure to grab the Exhibition: Cycle Board item as you enter. Go through the doors and you’ll be confronted by two of Sean’s Disciples. This would be a hard fight, except for the fact that there’s a bunch of light bulbs filled with paint you can grab and throw at them. They’re all over the exhibit, so simply run away from the two disciples, throw some lightbulbs at them, then run to the next set of bulbs when they get too close.
After struggling against Sean’s disciples in the club, it can feel good to just throw stuff at them until they go down
After covering the two enemies here in paint, you can grab a final light bulb and then into the next exhibit, which contains a pendulum of ink that staggers anyone who walks through it. Take advantage of the pendulum, keeping it between you and your enemies, and only engaging when you’ve managed to separate one or two foes from the rest of them. Try to pick up a weapon ASAP — leg sweeping or shoving an enemy into a wall is a good way to make them drop their weapon.
Once finished with the foes here, head past the two glass screens and turn left to find a Shrine, then leave via the doors behind you. Enemies will rush down the stairs —run to meet them so you can take one out before the others arrive. Staying on the stairs is an effective way to fight them one at a time. Continue up the stairs after defeating them, go through the doorway and turn right. You’ll see a broom leaning against a janitor’s kit — grab it and then head into the third exhibition. Don’t forget to grab the Exhibition: Twins Board item as you enter.
The next room can be challenging, as it has a ton of enemies, including some Juggernauts who’ve learned how to run. When you enter, fight around the first art display with the series of green and orange plates. Once enemies start to surround you, sprint to the left and then across the room, and fight the first few enemies that chase you. Once you’re almost surrounded again, sprint back to the first art display with the plates, using it to keep enemies seperated. Repeat until everyone is knocked out.
This vaultable art display is your best friend in this room
Leave the room via the white double doors and you’ll enter another room. Your way will be blocked by a new type of powerful enemy, a Juggernaut-lite. He has a series of fairly standard combos, but also has the Juggernaut’s grab, which you’ll need to avoid or dodge. His combos are all 1-3 moves, and frequently end with a guardbreak. They’re all pretty slow, so simply avoid and then counterattack when he finishes his combo. Defeating him grants you the Museum Keycard, which unlocks the first shortcut for this level — you’ll now be able to open the door to the stairs we looked at before entering the first exhibition.
Head through the door the big fella was guarding using your newly acquired keycard, check out the weird art, then continue up the stairs and out the doorway. Turn right and go through the first metal gate, and note the locked door on the right — this leads to the Artist Residence Door, which you can’t open until you get the Artist’s Key. Continue through the next metal gate, then go through the glass doors on the right and head down the stairs, then through the doors at the bottom (you should now be on the third floor again).
The first metal gate
Turn right and you’ll see a woman admiring a mask — she’s another one of Sean’s Disciples. Depending on how you feel about fighting vs the staff combos (she has the same ones as the staff-wielding woman from the Club level) you can choose to sweep her to disarm her, or fight her while she has the staff. She can be tough, but since we just got the shortcut, it’s fine to use up a bunch of deaths fighting her — you can restart the level once you defeat her if you want.
Once she’s defeated, you’ll receive the Club Code Board item, which will let you into a previously inaccessible room in the Club (to the left of the dancefloor) and obtain the Fire Key. Inspect the mask she was looking at to receive the Strange Mask board item. Go back the way you came, through the doors and then up the stairs (you should now be on the fourth floor), then back through the two metal gates. Follow the yellow line on the ground, making sure you use the Shrine on your right. Also grab the Temporary Exhibition Board item just past the shrine. Vault over the railing where the yellow arrow points, and then head forward into the final Exhibition.
You won’t fall, I promise
You’ll find yourself in a dark, rainy room with two vaultable counters. Use them to avoid being surrounded — if you want, you can even use them to cheese this section, vaulting back and forth and only attacking when you vault into an enemy and stagger them. After defeating the four initial enemies, a larger wave of enemies will spawn out of the darkness. Defeating this second wave spawns a Juggernaut and two enemies like the Dancer from the club. Since the Juggernaut is so slow, and you’ve got two vaults, defeat the ladies first, then take down the Juggernaut. Once they’re finished, a door will open and you can head through.
You’ll now be in a hallway — parrying and then throwing stunned enemies into the wall will be an effective strategy throughout this hallway battle. Grab the sword on your right, then make your way left through a series of room battles. None of the enemies in the hallway are tough, so you should be able to easily dispatch all of them with your sword. Continue to the left until you enter a room with another large Juggernaut-lite. He’s got the same moveset as the guy we fought for the Museum Keycard, and can be dealt with the same way: Avoid or parry his attacks, avoid the grab, and counter when his combo finishes or his grab misses.
Defeating him opens another doorway. Head through it and continue forward towards the stairs. A trapdoor will open up and drop you in a room full of figures. One of them is a Dancer enemy; you can spot her by looking for the one figure standing normally instead of posing.
Oh, hello there
As with all dancer enemies, she is low HP but high damage, and has a number of hard to avoid attacks. Dodge or guard the first move of her combo every time (since it’s frequently a leg sweep), then try to avoid and counterattack. Defeating her will open yet another doorway, with a white light just beyond. You’ll pass a series of statues that break as you near them, but beware: you will be attacked twice from the shadows as you move through this area, first by one enemy, and then by a pair. Fortunately, these enemies only take a few hits from your sword to take down.
Keep going and you’ll find your way blocked by a statue wielding a staff. You must destroy it to continue, and you can choose to trade your sword for the staff at this point if you prefer. Step into the trapdoor just past the statue, and you’ll see a brief cutscene and then begin a battle against two Dancer enemies with blade shoes. Try to position so you’re only fighting one at a time, and make sure you focus all your damage on a single target — making the fight a 1v1 as quickly as possible is key to not dying.
Defeating them will net you the Elevator Key — you can now take the elevator from the lobby straight to the boss fight. A final doorway will open; head through to find a Shrine just ahead and to the left, by the creek. Choose the Focus Regain upgrade if you haven’t maxed it, and unlock the Weapon Catch skill from the Skill Tree if you don’t already have it. When you’re ready, continue forward to begin the boss battle against Kuroki, the Artist.
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.
