The most important tools besides your weapon and relics in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse are Arcana Tarot cards gifted to Rose Belmont by her mother after her death. These cards give Rose the ability to cast powerful spells, as well as contain the power of various bosses she faces as she hunts the revived night in a gothic side scrolling adventure. Each Arcana is reflective of a boss’ power, having unique upgrades players can unlock by completing different goals to strengthen their magic for the toughest battle encounters.
Every Arcana in the already highly celebrated Belmont’s Curse has 1-3 Works of Mercy tied to them, which are side quests tied to using an Arcana’s spell in certain ways. Some Works of Mercy are straightforward, such as slaying a number of enemies with a specific spell, while others are more vague, such as collecting particular weapons or discovering hidden locations on the map. Completing any Work of Mercy gives you a choice to permanently enhance the associated Arcana, giving it new and enhanced properties that make it far stronger than it was before.
The first boss you capture the Arcana of is The Fallen, whose identity is somewhat of a secret until a certain point of the game. You may not want to continue reading if you don’t want to be spoiled, though, as the remainder of this list contains reveals for the main bosses tied to Arcana within the entirety of Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse. Dracula is the only obvious boss without an Arcana, not even in any sort of New Game+. Thankfully, one of the best tools against Dracula comes from beating The Fallen right away during the early stages of the game.
The Fallen’s Arcana is called Holy Cross, representing a classic and traditional ranged weapon of the Belmont family found throughout many Castlevania games. For a low cost of Mana, Rose can throw a corrupted cross that deals damage to enemies it hits before traveling back to you like a boomerang. Unless it hits a wall, the Holy Cross will go a certain distance before coming back, dealing extra hits on the return trip. The Works of Mercy for this Arcana are quite simple, including:
The Blessings of the Arcana you can unlock for this spell can give you the ability to throw a second Cross with every cast, as well as causing it to inflict more damage the further away it is from Rose. At the same time, one Blessing will give you extra Mana if Rose manages to catch the Holy Cross on its return trip, with more Mana being gained back for each time an enemy was hit. This stacks up to a maximum of 60% Mana return, making The Fallen’s Arcana one of the cheapest and reliable spells to rely on during your adventure.
One of the more expensive Arcana in Belmont’s Curse is The Warrior, the Tarot card assigned to Joan of Arc, an enemy you can face twice during the game. The card is obtained after your first encounter with Joan, whose been corrupted in Paris Streets and holds one of the keys to The Catacombs location. Joan is at the top of the Prison Tower in the Paris Streets, and is a formidable opponent that wields fire alongside a heavy Greatsword. The ability attached to Joan’s Arcana is called Infernal Pyre, with Works of Mercy tied to burn damage and launching opponents upward.
It costs a lot of Mana to use Infernal Pyre, but it’s easy to see why. This Arcana costs 80 MP, but ignites the ground around Rose, creating several pillars of flame that ignites enemies and pops them skyward. This can stun certain foes and deal lingering burn damage once you upgrade the ability. Although one of its Work of Mercy is hard to unlock, being tied to “finding a suitable place for Joan to pray,” it’s definitely one of the best Arcana to invest in early. Here are all the Works of Mercy tied to The Warrior Arcana:
Upgrades to the Arcana will regain Mana cost for each enemy hit by the central explosion, if you choose that improvement route, but only starting with the second enemy affected. The launch height of enemies can be increased from other Work of Mercy gifts, with the final one prolonging the fire duration as mentioned earlier. Applying fire can be great against many enemies, including bosses who are more susceptible to it.
The final of the first three Catacomb Guardian bosses in Belmont’s Curse is The Prophetess, also known as Medusa. As you might expect, Medusa’s Arcana is tied to her ability to turn people to stone, in Rose’s case, any enemy that isn’t a boss. The Petrifying Gaze of this Arcana is wonderful for isolating tough enemies during exploration, such as the massive suits of armor that attack you the moment you enter Dracula’s Castle. This spell can be used as a follow-up from your Arcana Whip grapple attack on enemies too, leading to fun combos while you explore.
While Petrifying Gaze may not be great against bosses, it can be excellent in fights where bosses have minions or anyone else helping them fight. The Mana cost of this Arcana is fairly high, which makes sense given its ability to stun enemies instantly. This Arcana’s ability even causes enemies to take fall damage if they are petrified and fall from a great height, a fact that is actually tied to some Works of Mercy goals. Improving the Petrifying Gaze increases Roses damage to petrified enemies, and causes the effect to last longer the closer you are to targets, with multiple enemies being affected at once to make it a good spell to use frequently.
The official Works of Mercy for this specific Arcana are as follows:
Medusa’s Arcana only has a couple of upgrades due to the limited number of Works of Mercy, making it a spell without too many uses. However, the upgrades associated with the card involve recovering Mana by killing petrified enemies and the aforementioned increased spell duration the closer you are to a particular foe. As a spell that costs 75 Mana to cast, this is only slightly less expensive than The Warrior’s Arcana, leaving it up to player preference to which one works better.
Once Dracula’s Castle opens up the game in a big way, there are a few paths players can go, but deep into the basement of the Clock Tower is perhaps the first location to visit. Here, you’ll fight the holder of The Builder Arcana card, who will later reveal themselves as Talos, the architect of the Castle itself. The Fist of Talos is an Arcana that costs a moderate amount to cast, creating a huge fist that strikes the ground in front of Rose when used. This attack deals massive damage to enemies directly below the fist, while hitting targets along the way.
The impact of this Arcana is perhaps some of the highest damage any spell in the game can do, especially when you upgrade it through Works of Mercy. The Fist of Talos spell also triggers a small earthquake AoE when used, striking enemies in a wide radius and knocking them off platforms, helping set up environmental kills quickly. The Works of Mercy tied to Talos’ Arcana are:
Arguably, this Arcana is the easiest one to upgrade throughout the long story of Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, meaning you’ll see the enhancements often. This Arcana can be a boss killer, especially since on Work of Mercy buff causes the fist to deal 75% more damage to enemies suffering from control effects. Enhancements to the earthquake AoE combines with an upgrade that gives the fist a covering of damage-dealing spikes that launch out to hit enemies even after the fist has hit the ground already. This Arcana is very strong, and while not as versatile as other Arcana, has many uses in tough fights.
The Occultist Arcana refers to one of Dracula’s lieutenants Carmilla, a powerful vampire who uses blood magic to instill an eternal night on Paris. Carmilla’s magic is found throughout The Library area of Dracula’s Castle, and can be utilized once her Tarot is obtained. Along with a new mid-air dash movement ability, Carmilla provides the Blood Spikes spell, a cheap 50 Mana cost magic that summons blood spikes from Rose’s position to impale nearby enemies. This spell deals low initial damage, but causes targets to bleed rapidly over time.
This spell automatically targets the furthest enemy on a platform, usually allowing Rose to deal the first move. As you upgrade Rose’s Mana bar through specific collectibles, this spell becomes easy to use over and over, especially to bleed bosses to deal high collective damage with your normal attacks. This spell clearly gets better when completing Works of Mercy too, which include:
The Gifts unlocked for The Occultist are quite strong, such as the spell healing Rose 2% of her max health every time an enemy dies from bleeding. This can help you reach safe zones faster through prolonged survival during exploration segments, but the other Works of Mercy effects can be good debuffs on enemies as much as they work as buffs for Rose. The last two Gifts are being able to deal instant high damage to an enemy if you apply bleed to it while it is already bleeding, and causing any bleeding to also slow enemies and reduce their overall damage dealt to Rose.
One of the easiest optional Arcana to get in Belmont’s Curse‘s prolonged Metroidvania structure is that of The Artist, the brilliant painter Brauner. Brauner can only be found if you destroy his masterwork in the Main Hall of Dracula’s Castle, a feat you can only accomplish from the traversal ability gained from defeating Talos. Doing this doesn’t lead to a boss fight, but rather a pitiful surrender from the vampire, whose skills are more in fashioning the magical traps and decor around the Castle. The main ability of The Artist Arcana is called Masterpiece, a spell that summons a gargoyle ally to fight alongside Rose.
This gargoyle comes out of a large slab of rock Rose conjures from the ground, which can also damage enemies in its creation. The gargoyle itself shoots fireballs at nearby targets, but recasting the spell causes the creature to do a vertical slam on a close enemy and explode. This explosion deals moderate AoE damage, but can only be done if the spell is recast (for no extra Mana cost) while the gargoyle is still alive. This spell only costs 60 Mana to cast, making it something Rose can use fairly often. Should you plan to upgrade it, you need to pursue these Works of Mercy:
The Artist’s upgrades are some of the best of any Arcana, so it makes sense why the Works of Mercy are among the hardest to complete too. One improvement to this Arcana gives Rose a way to summon two Gargoyles instead of one, drastically increasing the allies she has. In addition, another upgrade is causing every fireball from a Gargoyle to heal Rose with each hit, a buff that stacks with every Gargoyle on screen. The last Gift for The Artist Arcana gives the Gargoyle a chance to stay alive longer by killing at least one enemy during its vertical slam, preventing its destruction and keeping it active to help Rose even more.
One of the fights you have to lose early in Belmont’s Curse is against Death, the enemy responsible for resurrecting Dracula during the game’s story. Eventually, you’ll come face to face with Death again in the painted world of Notre Dame, but not fully absorb the entity into a traditional Arcana. That being said, you do still get a spell tied to The Shadow, the Tarot representing Death in this Castlevania entry. The spell attached to Death is Soul Harvest, an attack that unleashes a slow scythe attack that cuts down enemies in front of Rose.
Any target killed by Soul Harvest causes four sickles to spawn from the attack, creating deadly projectiles that also deal damage to nearby enemies. Costing 60 Mana, Soul Harvest comes with the Double Jump traversal ability, which essentially unlocks the remainder of areas within the game. If you want to improve Death’s magic even more, take a look at the following Works of Mercy:
Some of the upgrades for Soul Harvest are truly fascinating, such as how one Gift allows Rose to regain 25% of the spell’s Mana cost for each sickle that hits an enemy. Furthermore, another upgrade allows the sickles spawned from the initial cast to create even more sickles, but only if the first projectiles created also kill an enemy. This spell also has an innate upgrade meant for bosses, activating when Rose only uses the magic on one enemy. Per the rules of that improvement, Soul Harvest will heal Rose for 4% of her max health if she uses the spell and only hits one target with it.
Challenging Dracula’s most loyal servant Issac too soon can result in a massive mistake, leading you to fall into the boss’ trap in the Clock Tower area of Dracula’s Castle. Without Death’s Arcana Tarot, Issac will trick you into facing Dracula too soon, leading to Belmont’s Curse‘s bad ending where Rose is fully corrupted by the dark lord. If you manage to get past Issac’s illusions and defeat the time-wielding Zealot, his magic will be well worth the effort. Issac’s Arcana is called Chronomantic Dive, which gives Rose small control over time itself.
This Arcana’s spell sees Rose jump into the air before falling down to the ground, dealing damage along the way and creating a cross of green fire. Along Rose’s path, she’ll also damage enemies in the way and slow them down for a brief moment when she lands. This gives you a small window to really deal some damage before enemies can retaliate, making this Arcana very useful in the late stages of Belmont’s Curse. With a 50 Mana cost, this spell is powerful enough to not need many upgrades, but it does have a couple Works of Mercy still:
The upgrades for Issac’s Arcana are simple — the creation of a bigger AoE explosion from Rose’s attack or an increased duration of the time slow effect from the spell itself. This means there isn’t a lot of finesse in using this spell, but the strength of its effect can’t be denied. As one of the last bosses before Dracula himself, you’ll likely be using this Arcana to get through some of the more difficult endgame zones of the game.
The Miser is another optional boss in Belmont’s Curse found in The Catacombs after you discover three special Relics around the whole world map that open a secret flesh door when worn together. This boss takes some environmental digging to find, but the effort is worth it to fight The Bishop who summoned Trevor and Rose to Paris in the first place. Defeating this traitor, now calling themselves Mammon, gives you the powers of Dracula’s newest servant in the form of the Wheel of Chaos spell. This Arcana launches a wheel bearing the solo Eye of Mammon, targeting the nearest enemy to deal continuous damage.
This wheel can be launched in any direction, creating a projectile similar to the Holy Cross from The Fallen Arcana. However, this hovering wheel can be cast out again for a reduced Mana cost over and over. Getting greedy with this Arcana allows it to linger for a longer time, keeping it fixating to deal damage constantly in a single space you choose. Through Works of Mercy like the ones listed below, this spells’ impact only gets better:
This spell is entirely tied to greed, as the enhancements to it suggest. You can pick Gifts for the Arcana such as increasing its damage every time it is cast, pairing with its reduced Mana cost effect that comes from repeated casts. Since this only costs 45 Mana to use, this bonus can work well, even if the bonus resets from that upgrade if the spell is not recast while active. At the same time, another upgrade allows the spell to be cast using Rose’s health if you don’t have enough Mana, dealing 50% more damage in the process. The final upgrade adds a random effect to the Eye of Mammon, triggering 1/8th of the time after recasts to give the magic a more chaotic feel.
The Ferryman is the mysterious NPC you meet at different locations in each area of Belmont’s Curse, who offers fast travel to various zones. This is one of the few characters you can get the Arcana of without facing them in a boss fight, or causing them to disappear at all. By finding missing coins of the dead in Mammon’s boss room, The Ferryman will reward you with a new spell, lending part of his abilities to Rose as thanks. The spell associated with The Whisperer Arcana is Freezing Path, a magic that turns Rose invisible to enemies.
This can be a great spell for getting past enemies for exploration, but there are other effects. For example, the 35 Mana cost spell makes Rose intangible for about three seconds, but also increases her movement speed and freezes any enemies Rose passes through while in that state. This spell doesn’t have many Works of Mercy, but they are among the easiest to accomplish based on the requirements shown here:
These two Works of Mercy can add a new effect to Freezing Path when the spell ends, causing a wave of frost to appear around Rose to freeze additional enemies she didn’t pass through, within an AoE range of around five meters. Should you choose the other upgrade, this spell can cause passing through an enemy to increase Rose’s movement speed by 10% for each creature she passes through, stacking five times. This only triggers once on the same enemy, but gaining a +50% movement speed buff is something you might use quite often.
Another non-conflict Arcana is tied to The Sage Tarot, which you discover in the Main Hall when you find a save room mirror with someone named Eleanor trapped within it. You have to find four special mirrors around the map and kneel in front of them to travel to a unique Mirror World to break the chains attached to Eleanor’s imprisonment, and unlock her card as a result. This is mainly tied to combat challenges in the Mirror World, which activate when you destroy seals within that realm keeping Eleanor trapped.
Doing this side quest unlocks the Mirror Walk spell tied to the Arcana, giving you a magic you might seldom use due to its high 80 Mana cost. Yet, this spell is powerful despite its casting price, as it places a mirror at Rose’s location. When recast, this spell teleports Rose to the mirror she places, restoring 50% of her health that she may have lost since casting the magic. The mirror disappears on its own after 15 seconds if it isn’t used, or when Rose teleports to it. With the Works of Mercy shown below, this spell can get even stronger:
The Gifts from this Arcana reward players for using the mirror from the spell well, with one upgrade restoring 80% of Rose’s Mana after teleportation if she didn’t get hit since placing the mirror. Another upgrade severely damages all enemies in the path of Rose’s teleportation, but another can help prevent Rose from dying entirely. One upgrade only activates when Rose suffers a fatal blow while a mirror is active, and upon triggering, it prevents death and activates the teleportation right away. This can only be activated once, but since it can be recharged when Rose interacts with any Save Room, this ability can be a crucial extra life for boss fights.
Another boss besides Death in Notre-Dame is King Arthur, whose Arcana is labeled as The Brittle King to symbolize his role as a former monarch. This Arcana is obtained after a big boss fight, but it is by far the most expensive spell in Belmont’s Curse, way more than anything in even some of the best Castlevania games. The spell attached to The Brittle King Arcana is Stained-Shield Glass, which costs 100 Mana to use. This magic calls up a magical shield to protect Rose and absorb attacks used against her.
Rose doesn’t take any damage when the shield absorbs a hit, nor are her actions or special effects interrupted in association with any attack she tries to perform. Upon the attack blocked, shards of glass fly around Rose and launch outward like projectiles to damage nearby enemies. Although the shield can only absorb one big hit on its initial cast, Works of Mercy can expand this magic’s potential, but only if you finish some of the following side missions:
One upgrade for this spell you might want to get first is the one that allows the magical shield to absorb one more attack than normal before breaking. At the same time, another upgrade could be the one that spawns the shard projectiles from the spell every time Rose takes damage, not just from the secondary effect of the shield breaking. This effect takes place whether the shield is up or not. The final upgrade causes Rose to take 50% reduced damage after being struck with an attack, also giving her some armor to prevent her next attacks from getting interrupted in a slight recovery phase from getting hurt.
The Temptress is a boss found in the Hall of Mirrors, and is one of the harder foes besides Dracula that you’ll come across during your journey. Unlike many other spells in the game, the Life Drain magic tied to The Temptress is dependent on how much Mana you’re willing to spend rather than a flat amount. Defeating the Succubus boss allows you to use the spell as always, but you can hold the spell input to spend 5 Mana per second to keep the magic active. Life Drain, when held, casts a life draining effect in front of Rose, latching onto the nearest enemy and draining their vitality to increase your own.
The damage dealt through Life Drain restores Rose’s health every time the spell deals any sort of punishment. This simple effect is somewhat situational, but it can be useful for long backtracks and against bosses that give you windows to use it. Like many Arcana Tarot cards, there are three Works of Mercy for The Temptress, including:
These goals are pretty simple, allowing you to get upgrades to this relatively weak spell quickly. For example, one upgrade allows Rose to deal bonus damage with the spell if her health is already full. A different Gift for Life Drain causes Rose to not be interrupted when hit using the ability, giving her a chance to bypass hits and gain health right away without being stopped. Another upgrade allows Life Drain to target two enemies instead of one, increasing the potential of the vitality restoration to prevent you from using precious potions until you absolutely need them.
This Arcana is perhaps the strangest to unlock in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, as it comes from the Palace of Justice rather than a standard boss fight. You need to have upgraded your health or Mana meter maximum at least a few times to balance the scales of justice in this location, which will prompt The Judge, Saint Louis, to awaken. This will initiate a trial where The Judge must be placated to have him lend Rose his power. The spell tied to this Arcana are the Chains of Justice, which can be incredibly potent against basic enemies.
The Chains of Justice spell costs 40 Mana to cast, and creates chains that wrap around enemies near Rose when cast. This spell prevents enemies from moving for four seconds, and when the first time a chained enemy would take damage, they take added bonus damage too. The Works of Mercy for this spell reflect a sense of progression classic to older Castlevania games, reflecting character improvements you typically do within the genre:
The best upgrade for The Judge card is one that prevents any chained enemies from performing any action, rather than just not being able to move. Another upgrade causes the Chains of Justice spell to activate again when you kill a chained enemy, causing a target near them to gain the chains they had. In another big upgrade, you can choose to buff the magic even more, causing any attacks against a chained enemy with less than 20% of their health to die instantly.
The last Arcana card you unlock in Belmont’s Curse is, ironically, the one you started with — The Self. At first, this spell only manifests as a single projectile of flame, easily replaced with the first Arcana besides it that you collect. Yet, even though it only has one Work of Mercy, this Arcana tied to Rose’s curse grows and evolves to have many more abilities when it is fully realized. The final spell with The Self is called Absolution, where Rose can hold the spell input to absorb the curse from all nearby enemies, purging their evil and dealing massive damage.
This replaces the Cursed Flame spell originally attached to The Self Arcana, but it is far more powerful as a result. For each enemy hit by the spell, Rose is healed a significant amount, making this easily the strongest spell in the game by the time you get it. Defeating the Shadow version of Rose will help unlock the Works of Mercy for this magic, which include:
Only one upgrade is available for this spell when it exists as Cursed Flame, but more unlock when it transforms into Absolution. One upgrade lets the spell deal 50% more damage if Rose it at full health when she uses it, while another causes the magic to ignite a target if only one foe is impacted. The last upgrade causes Rose to heal back to full health if the spell kills at least four enemies, giving her a big boost outside of safe zone mirrors. Getting every Arcana ability is important to unlocking the true ending to Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, so taking the time to collect them all is important to seeing the final step to Rose Belmont’s journey.
Which Arcana spell ability is your favorite to use in Belmont’s Curse? Let us know in the comments below!
