Chapter 13 - Redemption

Walkthrough

Noctis finally arrives at the Imperial Capital of Gralea and is one of the few locations that mark the end of our group of friends’ journey.

The Imperial Capital

Just one stop away from the capital, the train will stop and mark something less than positive occurring in the next couple of minutes. To make sure everything is okay, the group head into the next car to see what’s going on, only to be struck by some demons. Normally, they wouldn’t be a problem, but for one reason or another that will come to be explained later on in the chapter, you can’t use any of your weapons.

Failing to be able to strike back, simply run through the carriages and dodge any incoming attacks, as right now that’s the best you can do. Once you get to the Regalia, get ready to drive!

Put the pedal to the metal and don’t slow down for anything, because you only have a few minutes before a gate closes and locks you out of the city for good. Along the drive you’re going to come across a large number of obstacles, so try to stick to the middle lane, as it seems to be the one with the least amount of debris in your way. Before long you’ll drive out through a tunnel whilst being shot at, but ignore the gunfire and keep going straight on until you see some gates – then be sure to make the executive decision to smash them into a million pieces with your car to escape!

From now on, though, that’ll be the last we see of the Regalia.

Head down, past the ruined trains, ducking under one that will separate you from your friends; leaving Noctis all alone for the first time in quite some time. With the mass spawn of demons lunging towards you, there’s no way for them to regroup and must make a move on if they all want to make it out of this alive. Again, you do not currently have access to any weapons so keep on running and dodging when they strike, since there isn’t much else you can do at the moment. Once you make your way up some stairs, you’ll be pleased to know that you will finally have a moment of respite and will be moving onto the next quest in the chapter.

A King’s Struggle

With Noctis currently stuck in quite the predicament – no friends and no weapons – it seems the young man is going to need to take drastic measures to ensure his safety throughout the demon-infested city. To keep himself safe, he finally makes the decision to put on the Ring of Lucil, a ring that’s imbued with power; along with 3 different abilities: Death, Holy, and Alterna.

Death – Drains the life of your enemies and will replenish what’s left of yours; killing them in the process.
Holy – Allows you to avoid and counter attacks without worry of taking damage.
Alterna – Requires the use of your entire MP bar, but once it is fully charged it will destroy 4 targets in a small area around you.

This new ring of yours is going to be the only way to engage the enemies that you encounter for quite some time, so be sure to get fairly acquainted with it and its uses.

At the start of Gralea, head straight down the corridor and then turn to your left, where you will see a generator. Activate the generator and head back to where you started to find a newly-unlocked door that you’ll want to head through. Follow on through some narrow corridors and you’ll locate one more generator that will require activating to unlock a few more doors that you’ll come across along your travels. Keep on moving ahead until you finally find a resting point, which I definitely would recommend to at least save at, just to make sure you’re not going back 20 minutes for unjust reasons.

Moving on from the safe area, head down the corridor until you come to a couple of doors that leads to a large, open area – be aware that you’ll be in for a fight when you open that door, so checking over your health and mana might be a good idea. Once they’re all taken care of, head down the corridor towards the elevator and step inside, but don’t relax just yet. A couple of demons will storm into the elevator, but that’s nothing a quick Alterna can’t fix.

From here on out you’ve got a small amount of stealth to adhere to and while the Axemen won’t outright kill you the very second they see you; they’re not quite so easy to deal with without your weaponry. The ring will kill them, but Death won’t do the trick; Holy requires a lot of effort to actually pull off a kill with; and while Alterna will do the trick, it’s still at the expense of all of your mana, so be careful how you decide to use it.

When moving along down the corridor, you’ll spot a certain individual who you won’t want to see standing for much longer: Ardyn. Follow him along the corridors until you come across a brand new safe zone, but don’t head towards the objective maker just yet; go towards the other corridor and you’ll see a pile of clothes – inside will be security card that you’ll need from here on out. Now, get moving, face! Because you’ve got an Axemen around your immediate area, and he’s not really a necessary combatant if you can avoid him.

Keep an eye out for a door with “A-01” marked on it to know you’re going in the correct direction. Follow the path down the long corridor, making your way past the many Axemen bodies; just be aware that one of the last one’s you come anywhere near grabs at you and might make your heart skip a beat if you’re not quite expecting it.

Once that’s over with go down the next corridor and head straight to the room at the very end. Inside you’ll find the way to upgrade your security card’s clearance and move onto the second floor – via a similar looking door to the previous: door A-02.

Upon entering the next floor, turn the corner, quickly eliminate the Axeman, and keep on running until you spot someone rather familiar trapped behind some iron bars. To help, find a way around to him – just don’t be expecting to find him unfortunately – be expecting an ambush instead. There’s a fair amount of enemies leaping on you, but to take them out nice and easy just use Alterna a couple of times – using an Ether when necessary – and you won’t have to struggle and mess about with Holy or its MP usage.

Before too long you’ll be the only one standing; yet it seems your friend is nowhere to be seen – alas there’s a small compromise in the form of the next level of clearance for your security card. When you’re ready, go back to the central room and enter through the door on the left in that room to take the elevator up to the next floor.

This next section is considerably more stealth-based, since you’re going to come across some rather larger combatants that you can technically kill, but will only respawn a new one shortly afterwards.

Be sure to head in the direction of a set of stairs that will take you down another level – ignoring the main elevator in the middle as you can’t access it anyway, so just be sure to ignore it for the time being. Look around for a small passage that leads to some stairs and to an elevator you can actually access. Just before you step inside you will be ambushed by an Axemen, but you should know how to deal with them by now: Death!

Exit the elevator, look for the control console for the “generator keycard” and then make your way back to the room with the elevator located in the middle of the room. In the corner there will be a generator that you need to activate before progressing onto the next quest.

Zegnautus Keep

Just before you get to reach the elevator, the floor will crash under Noctis’ and cause him to drop down into a brand new area of the keep. In there you will find two things; one morbid and one very useful – in this area you will discover what’s came about of Ravus, the brother of Lady Lunafreya. With the bad thankfully comes the good in the form of a brand new Royal Arms – your late father’s Royal Arms: The Sword of the Father.

Similar to pretty much any other Royal Arms, they slowly sap your life with every usage, so be careful when you’re using this sword from here on out; just remember to combat this, though you can use the power of Death to regenerate any lost health.

Down the corridor you’ll come across a safe room that you can save and rest up in if you so choose and shortly afterwards you’ll come across some poison gas that you’re going to need to switch off as soon as you can. Take the first corridor on the left, ignore the first door and go towards your right, where you’ll soon be ambushed. Don’t waste too much time on them and go to the right after them and then to the left to come in contact with a control console to shut off the poison gas that makes your life that much more difficult.

Once the poison gas is cleared out, follow along to the objective marker and if you get jumped or ambushed by Axemen then you know you’re going in the right direction. Soon enough you will find yourself just outside of the next elevator and almost as soon as you hit that button to call the elevator down to you you’re going to be ambushed once more by a rather foreboding foe. This is one foe who won’t die to Death or Alterna, but Holy does manage to dodge the majority of its strikes throughout, which you’re definitely going to need to do. Staying on the defensive is the preferred way to go for this fight and the very second the elevator touches the ground run into and leave the demon behind.

Run out of the elevator and down the corridor; before long the power will go out and require you to turn it back on before demons overwhelm you. Throughout this time you’re going to be ambushed a number of times, but they’re easier enough to deal with your newly acquired sword. After they are dealt with, activate the generator, and escape back to the main room and use the newly unlocked door towards the south of the keep.

Before long you will come across a room that resembles that of a puzzle room, a puzzle that requires you to activate 2 of 3 panels to lock and unlock certain doors to continue your progress. To get out of there nice and fast, turn on “Panel B” and “Panel C” to exit the room and keep Noctis on the move.

Make your way past the rest area – unless you choose to use it – you know you’ll be going in the right direction if combat pretty much comes out of nowhere. Soon enough you’ll come to a large area that will house a new console that you’re going to want to activate, at which point some more Axemen will come to kill you, but won’t manage to do as such with everything you’ve currently been doing.

Head through the newly unlocked pathways and make your way all the way to the new rest zone for some much needed respite. Look out for a narrow corridor that has bodies spread about the place; an area that is quite clearly a trap when Shock Troopers wake up to get a-hold of you and two large rays of electricity block you from move another step. It seems your comrades are nearby, however, and will be left to get you out of your predicament.

Reunion and Recovery

Moving down the corridor towards the cellblock – move all the way to the final cell where you’ll finally encounter your long-lost friend: Prompto; an acquisition to the team Noctis has surely missed.

It’s best to head back to the throne room that you will have encountered earlier to move along the story and to have Prompto reveal a very serious bit of information about himself; information that only makes his bond with Noctis that much stronger. Before long, you can look at the console once again to deactivate the machine that has prevented you from switching your weapons, so be sure to equip them once all is said and one.

Fight your way through each and every corridor you pass; the use of your old weapons making things much easier in this keep. Keep on going until you come across another elevator that will take you up to a large area; one that’s going to harbour a rather impending boss fight.

I’m sure many people felt that Ravus didn’t deserve to die in the way he did, but I highly doubt they wanted to see him return like he did – as a monster. The only way to move forward is to put him to rest yourselves and with your party back up to scratch it’s going to be easier than some of the previous areas in the keep.

Ravus is a very tanky fellow, but he is also incredibly slow. Whenever he manages to miss one of his strikes, you’ll be able to retaliate with a few of your own; just try not to overdo, as that will result in your curatives feeling the burn rather quickly. Keep this up for long enough and Ravus will finally fall, but you don’t quite get the chance to rest just yet. Out pours a literal endless supply of demons and while you can fight them for as long as you wish, you will eventually be told to run, so be sure to take that advice and run to the elevator that powered up just a moment ago.

Take that one last elevator ride to finally locate what you’ve been looking for so long: the Crystal. Watch the cutscene and bear witness to the shocking events that follow and see what is to come next in the final chapter.

Plot

See also: Plot

Where the group left off in chapter 12 was on a train ride to the Imperial City, their final stop on the train. Things don’t exactly go to plan, as the train for some reason stops just outside of the city and it’s quite clear that whatever is about to happen next isn’t positive. Noctis and friends decide to check out the next train car, to see if they can get a better perspective of what’s going on; only to be attacked by demons. Demons are a problem they’ve faced many times before, so it’s not too much of a threat – at least it wouldn’t be if they could use their weapons. For some unknown reason, the team can no longer access their weapons and for the time being are completely defenceless, so they must do their very best to avoid combat as best they can until they make it to their car: the Regalia.

They hop into the Regalia and shoot off as fast as they can to avoid as much as possible, all the while dodging falling debris and consistent gunfire. It’s not too long until they come across a closed gate and must ram the car into it to force it open; sadly putting the Regalia out of action for the rest of their adventure.

Making their way through a ruined train yard to avoid any potential nasties, the group get separated from each other – leaving Noctis all alone and defenceless. Noctis soon comes to the conclusion that he can no longer ignore the power of the Ring of Lucil and decides to finally wear it; bestowing him with powers only his bloodline can put to use – allowing him the chance to save his hide if he comes across any possible demons.

Currently trapped inside a considerably sized Keep, Noctis explores around, trying to locate his friends and only seeming to fail for a little while – that is until he spots Prompto being held against his will in a cell! Making use of a keycard that Noctis has been using throughout the Keep, upgrading its security level as necessary, he finally finds a way to help out his trapped friend and free him – once he manages to get to him first of all. Things are never that simple for Noctis, however, due to the fact that he finds himself falling down to a new area of the Keep; an accident that proves both hopeful and disheartening all at the same time.

Noctis locates Ravus – Lunafreya’s brother, who sadly is no longer of this world; this sad truth only spurs Noctis on to finally put a stop to the empire and Ardyn. While the death of Ravus weighs heavy on Noctis as an individual, he must press on and make use of the weapon that Ravus had in his possession: the Sword of the Father; the very same blade that was taken from Noctis’ father.

Finally being equipped with a blade, he can make it through the rest of the Keep without too much issue; eventually managing to catch up with Ignis and Gladio – and even soon after that you all manage to locate your lost friend: Prompto. Just before the end of the chapter, the team are reunited; just as they should be!

They all take an elevator ride up to their objective the entire time they were there: the crystal which Noctis believes must be touched in order to gain the powers necessary to save the world. Once again, this is nothing more than another one of Ardyn’s tricks and causes Noctis to be pulled into the crystal; leaving both his friends and the world he once knew behind.