The Mines · The Vineyard

You are still Ethan. Past the crest gate, a lever delivers you into the hands of Karl Heisenberg: you see Mother Miranda and the four Lords for the first time, and Heisenberg drops you handcuffed into his mines to hunt you. You escape unarmed along a fixed route and come out in the vineyard at the foot of Castle Dimitrescu, where you meet the Duke, the game’s merchant. It is a short chapter, with no fights and no puzzles, but it holds a goat you won’t see again this playthrough and your first important shopping decision.

Chapter order: Entrance Passage: lever (Heisenberg appears) → tribunal cutscene (Mother Miranda and the four Lords) → handcuffed escape through the mines (left at the fork, planks, Uriaș) → spike-ceiling pit (crawlspace) → Mining Chamber: blade roller (it cuts the cuffs), 300 Lei and Handgun Ammo → back to the lever (Four Lords) → stairs → vineyard (Herb, Goat of Warding #4, crows) → the Duke, on the path to the castle (first shop, free Lockpick, Patron) → Carriage Gate → Entrance Hall (chapter 4).

Prepare: on the way back to the Graveyard you pass through the Church again: save at its typewriter before you open the crest gate (Luiza’s House is left in flames and can’t be entered again). The guides mark no typewriter in the mines or the vineyard, and the next one is in the castle Merchant’s Room (chapter 4). The escape is played handcuffed and unarmed: there is nothing to prepare, just run and follow the steps below. You spend nothing in the mine: the only enemies are the Lycans chasing you and Uriaș’s appearance, and none of them is a fight.

Money: reach the Duke with every chapter 2 treasure still unsold (the village’s 2 Crystal Fragment, 2,000 Lei each, and any Crystal Skull from the Lycans, 900): none of them combines, so you can sell them now. Fixed cash in chapters 2 and 3 adds up to only about 1,300 Lei (500 in the Chapel, 500 in Luiza’s kitchen and 300 in the mine), plus whatever the Lycans drop (about 150–300 each on Casual and Standard). That won’t cover everything: put the Extra Baggage (S) or the shotgun-shell recipe first (below). You can leave for later the Sniper Rifle Ammo recipe (the F2 Rifle only turns up at the end of the castle) and the Mines recipe: the Duke is waiting again inside the castle, in the Merchant’s Room, with the same stock.

What you can lose: Goat of Warding #4 in the vineyard. When you return to the village in chapter 5 the castle drawbridge is raised and you leave the castle another way, so you never get back to the vineyard this playthrough. Goats are saved to the profile: if you miss it, breaking it on another playthrough still counts toward Heretic.

Difficulty: Evil Resource lists no differences in this stretch: Casual, Standard, Hardcore and Village of Shadows have the same items and the same goat. On Village of Shadows enemies move faster in general: during the escape, never stop.

Entrance Passage (the lever)

Past the crest gate, the wooden walkway with crows, the drawbridge and the tunnel end in the Entrance Passage: some stairs and a yellow-taped lever, the switch that opens the main door, beside a door. Pull it and Karl Heisenberg appears and captures you.

The tribunal (cutscene). Mother Miranda presides over the tribunal of the four Lords (Lady Dimitrescu, Donna Beneviento with her doll Angie, Salvatore Moreau and Heisenberg himself). Heisenberg asks to keep you “for entertainment” and drops you into the mines with a ten-second head start.

Don’t confuse this place with the Ceremony Site, the one with the four giant statues and the stone elevator: it lies by the river, you cross it in chapter 5 on your way out of the cave, and you place the Giant’s Chalice there in chapter 11.

The mines: the handcuffed escape

Your hands are tied: you can’t shoot or use the Knife. Lycans chase you from the start. The only tactic is not to stop: don’t turn around to look at them, and follow these steps without pausing.

1. Run straight down the only path, away from the Lycans.
2. At the fork a Lycan appears on the right-hand path: take the left one.
3. Planks block the way: interact (look down) to pull them off and drop into the tunnel.
4. Keep running until Uriaș jumps down from above (the hammer giant from the village attack). You can’t do anything: the blow sends you sliding into a pit.
5. Spike ceiling. As soon as you land, the ceiling starts coming down. Directly across from where you land, at the back of the room, is a lit crawlspace boarded up with planks. Pry the planks off and crawl through before it crushes you.
6. Blade roller (Mining Chamber). Run toward the lights and drop into a large square cavern with a door at the far end: this is the Mining Chamber. A wall of spinning blades spanning the whole room starts moving toward you. Don’t run ahead: turn around to face the way you came in and squeeze into the nook in the right-hand corner (the cavern’s east corner). Wait there: the blades scrape past and cut your handcuffs.
7. Crawl under the blades.

Mining Chamber and back to the lever

Mining Chamber. With your hands free, and before you leave the cavern, break the two broken wooden crates with the Knife: the one on the north side holds 300 Lei and the one on the south side Handgun Ammo ×4. There is nothing else in the mine: no files, no goats, no fixed treasures.

Back to the lever. Crawl through the opening at the end of the hallway (the Mining Passage) and unbar the door at the far end: you come out in the Entrance Passage again, beside the lever where Heisenberg caught you. Pull it: this time nobody interrupts you, and the Four Lords challenge (“escape the mine”) pops here. Go through the door and up the stairs: they lead out to the vineyard.

Vineyard

The stairs bring you out into the vineyard, with Castle Dimitrescu ahead. There are no enemies. Pick up:

• Herb in the middle row of the plant beds.
• Goat of Warding #4 (the fourth of 20): on the rocks among the foliage on the north side of the beds. Go up the right-hand side of the vineyard to the right-most scarecrow: the goat sits on a rocky ledge in the snow next to it. Listen for its sound to find it and break it with a shot or the Knife. Goats count toward Heretic (all 20, 16,000 CP) and are saved to the profile across playthroughs; if it is your first, Cynic pops. Take it now: you don’t come back to the vineyard this playthrough.
• Crows: shoot them for Lei. The Squawk Shot challenge (5 crows in flight) is easier on the second village visit (chapter 5), with 4 crows in the Graveyard.

The Duke: first shop

His garlic-hung caravan stands at the side of the path in the north-west part of the vineyard, on the way up to the castle gate (the Carriage Gate). He is the game’s merchant: he sells (Supplies), buys treasures (The Duke’s Purse) and upgrades weapons (Gunsmithy). The kitchen (The Duke’s Kitchen) doesn’t open until chapter 5. Buy anything for the Patron challenge; the cheapest is a single round of Handgun Ammo.

Stock on this first visit:

• Lockpick: one, free (0 Lei), from this first meeting on. Evil Resource lists it as a free Lockpick from the Duke; Game8 and Fandom attribute it to the Survival Resources Pack. Always take it. It sells for 1,000.
• Survival Resources Pack (DLC included in the Switch 2 Gold Edition according to Nintendo Life; not confirmed in game): 0 Lei, once per playthrough. It gives Handgun Ammo ×30, Shotgun Ammo ×5, a First Aid Med and the Lockpick above. You need free case space when you take it: if it doesn’t fit, come back for it later.
• Mr. Everywhere Weapon Charm (Trauma Pack, LEMI only) and Mr. Raccoon Weapon Charm (M1897 only): free and cosmetic only.
• Samurai Edge - AW Model-01 (Trauma Pack): 200 Lei (one guide lists it as free). Power 110, rate of fire 0.4, reload 2.6 and 9 rounds: barely better than a stock LEMI (100 power, 10 rounds). It can’t be upgraded and takes 3×2 slots. Only for flavour.
• Extra Baggage (S): 10,000 Lei. Expands the case to 11×7 (77 slots). The (M) comes after the castle and the (L) at the Factory.
• Recipe: Shotgun Ammo: 3,000 Lei (Game8 says 2,500). Formula: 1 Gunpowder + 2 Rusted Scrap + 1 Chem Fluid = 3 Shotgun Ammo.
• Recipe: Sniper Rifle Ammo: 4,000 Lei. Formula: 2 Gunpowder + 1 Rusted Scrap + 1 Chem Fluid = 4 rounds. Useless until the F2 Rifle.
• Recipe: Mines: 3,500 Lei (Game8 says 4,000). Formula: 1 Metal Scrap + 1 Rusted Scrap = 1 Mine. Metal Scrap is the scarcest material.
• LEMI - High-Capacity Mag.: 9,000 Lei. Magazine from 10 to 16 rounds (+6).
• M1897 - Hair Trigger: 8,000 Lei. Rate of fire from 1.7 to 1.5 (faster). If it is the first part you fit, it unlocks the Gunsmith challenge.
• M1897: 24,000 Lei, only if you didn’t take it at the farmhouse during the Lycan attack.
• First Aid Med: 1,000 Lei.
• Handgun Ammo: 150 Lei per round. Shotgun Ammo: 1,000 Lei per shell.

Upgrades (Gunsmithy). Level 2 prices for each stat. LEMI: power 100 → 110 (6,000), rate of fire 0.45 → 0.42 (3,000), reload 2.7 → 2.5 (2,500), capacity 10 → 12 (4,000). M1897: power 560 → 640 (8,000), reload 2.8 → 2.6 (4,000), capacity 5 → 7 (6,000); its rate of fire can’t be upgraded (only through the Hair Trigger). The LEMI falls behind once the M1911 arrives (chapter 5): don’t sink much into it. The M1897 is your damage gun until chapter 6, when the W870 TAC (760 base power) overtakes it.

What to buy, sell and upgrade now

What to sell. Crystal Fragment (2,000) and Crystal Skull (900) don’t combine: sell them all now, which is what lets you pay for the shell recipe or the Extra Baggage (S). In the castle you’ll find pieces that do combine: the Silver Ring (1,800) and the Azure Eye (1,200) make the Azure Eye Ring (12,000). Never sell a loose piece without reading its description. The big payday comes at the end of the castle with the Crystal Dimitrescu (25,000): it almost covers the Extra Baggage (M), at 30,000.

What to buy on a tight budget (our recommendation). After selling, in this order:

1. The free Lockpick and the Survival Resources Pack if it shows up.
2. Extra Baggage (S) if you can afford it: every buying guide puts it first. The castle is full of ammo, materials and healing, and without room you’ll have to leave them on the floor.
3. Recipe: Shotgun Ammo (3,000): it pays for itself on the first craft, because 3 shells cost 3,000 Lei in the shop. Shells are your heavy ammo against the Moroaică and Dimitrescu’s daughters.
4. M1897 - Hair Trigger (8,000) when you have spare cash, or the LEMI’s cheap upgrades: reload (2,500) and rate of fire (3,000).

Leave the Sniper Rifle Ammo recipe (buy it once you hold the F2 Rifle, from the castle attic) and the Mines recipe for the Merchant’s Room. Loose ammo is expensive: craft handgun rounds with the recipe you already have (2 Gunpowder + 2 Rusted Scrap = 15 Handgun Ammo, worth 2,250 Lei).

The free lockpick: what for? The castle has 3 lockpicks and 3 locks: the Living Room drawer (Shotgun Ammo ×4), the one at the end of the Eastern Corridor (the Wooden Angel Statue treasure, 3,000 Lei; the lockpick in the cabinet by the door is right there) and the Opera Hall 2F drawer (Sniper Rifle Ammo ×6). The Duke’s free one goes on the Living Room drawer (the castle’s first lock); the Eastern Corridor one opens the drawer at the end of that corridor and the Armory one the Opera Hall drawer. The Attic one is spare: keep it for one of the two village drawers you marked in chapter 2 (the West Old Town Farmer’s House one, Sniper Rifle Ammo ×7, and the one in the Chapel bedroom, Shotgun Ammo ×7) when you return in chapter 5, where you find more lockpicks. The first one you use unlocks Petty Thief. Lockpicks still spare after the Factory sell for 1,000 Lei each.

Duke tricks. If you die, the Game Over screen lets you shop with him before retrying: use it for an emergency First Aid Med. On Village of Shadows enemies drop far more money (up to 5,000 Lei per Game8), so you arrive here richer. If you later go for Frugal Father (finish having spent 10,000 Lei or less), do it on another playthrough: it clashes with this buying plan.

Carriage Gate

Past the caravan, follow the path to the Carriage Gate, Castle Dimitrescu’s carriage entrance. Going through it takes you into the Entrance Hall: chapter 4 begins. According to PowerPyx, the game fully heals you on entering the castle, after the first cutscene: don’t spend a First Aid Med right before.

In the water west of the drawbridge you crossed in chapter 2, between the Graveyard and the Entrance Passage, guides mark 3 fish (Fish for the Duke’s kitchen), but they aren’t there yet: they appear once you are back from the castle, in chapter 5.

Don’t leave without:

• Goat of Warding #4 in the vineyard (you don’t come back this playthrough).
• The Duke’s free Lockpick and Survival Resources Pack.
• The 300 Lei and Handgun Ammo in the Mining Chamber, and the Herb in the plant beds.
• The chapter 2 treasures sold and, at the very least, the Recipe: Shotgun Ammo or the Extra Baggage (S).
• The Four Lords (automatic) and Patron (buy anything) challenges.