For the maze route, keep your disguise through the opening speech, solve the box with the left hole and handle Bakir after the feast. Revealing yourself early starts a group fight instead. This guide distinguishes those routes rather than treating the courtyard battle as mandatory.
Stuck? Check version 1.1 first
The official update notes list these relevant fixes: Early labyrinth exit, the return fight failing to trigger, and missing start-time information in Farkas's objective.
If this matches your problem, update the game, preserve your save and retry from a separate save before the problem while checking the current objective. A listed fix is not a guarantee that every already-blocked save recovers automatically. If it persists, record your version, objective and triggering action instead of repeatedly spending quest time.
Enter with Farkas
- Complete Bakir’s Court objectives until his challenge becomes available, then meet Farkas outside Lunar Manor. Do not replace the journal with a fixed activity-count rule.
- Arrange entry in the afternoon and follow the wait-until-dusk objective. Total-time records disagree: Gamer Guides lists five segments, PowerPyx six. Read each actual time prompt.
- Before the maze, you can gather the corner bush’s leaves and taint the liquor near Cockroach. Talk to Porcupine if you want the reported opportunity to avoid his duel later. These are optional preparations, not proof every contestant survives.
Maintain the disguise
- Avoid the opening speech’s combat response if you want the maze. ATH’s Mad Khan article deliberately uses that response to fight Beldam and guards first; it is a different branch.
- Use the sword while progressing through the maze, collecting equipment. The compared walkthrough allows feeding on rats but warns that conspicuous vampiric powers expose you; this is not blanket permission to use every ability.
Solve the box and reach the feast
- At the blocking mechanism, read the note and choose the left hole. Continue to the willow-tree coin objective, completing the contestant encounters on the way. The reference cursor is on the wrong alternative.
- Preserve a save before the feast. For the reported treasury route, refuse to unmask, accept the drink and friendly toast, then ask for the reward. The later death-wish reply conflicts: PowerPyx favors dying in combat; ATH describes a peaceful old-age answer. An exact sequence guaranteed across your prior choices remains unconfirmed here.
Defeat Bakir and check his remains
- If the confrontation starts outside, deal with the consort and guards before Bakir. In the treasury branch, initiate the confrontation once isolated. These are alternative situations, not two mandatory stages of every run.
- For his straight blood attacks, dodge sideways and watch for repeated casts. Keep moving through the incoming flock rather than stopping after its first pass. Sources disagree about his melee weapon, so do not base your timing on an asserted slow-sword pattern.
- Finish the kill-or-drain decision. Draining is the reported Shadowstorm unlock; inspect the remains for equipment afterward. If Farkas takes you into the treasury following a courtyard fight, return to where Bakir fell before departing. Check the journal for The Ring; continue with its recipient choices.
Bakir: distinguish the kick from ranged attacks
ATH reports lowered arms before an unblockable front kick: dodge back rather than trying to parry it. For the diving bats, it recommends a sideways dodge as they approach because an early dodge can still be tracked. Exact timing remains untested here; do not turn these cues into fixed frame counts.
This newer account also favors the fighting-death answer at the feast, matching PowerPyx. The older ATH old-age answer remains a source conflict, not proof that both guarantee the same treasury route.
Bakir quick reference
| What you see | Immediate response | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Arms lowered before a close front kick | Dodge back out of kick range | Treating the kick as ordinary parryable melee |
| Repeated straight blood attacks | Move sideways and watch the next cast | Stopping after the first projectile |
| Diving bats approaching | Watch their approach, then dodge sideways | Dodging too early and waiting in place |
| Guards and the consort still present in the courtyard route | Clear space before focusing Bakir | Treating this as the isolated treasury confrontation |
These cues follow the sources already discussed here, without fixed frame timings. Find Bakir again after dodging and read his next move before closing in; the kick and ranged attacks do not share one dodge direction.
Continue: The Ring: treasury location and recipient choices
The Ring: treasury location and recipient choices
Waiting for Farkas or waiting to enter?
| Current situation | What to check next |
|---|---|
| “Wait for the right opportunity”; no meeting yet | Check Bakir's anger in Court. PowerPyx identifies maximum anger as the prerequisite, but gives no guaranteed delay for Farkas to arrive. |
| Farkas is outside Lunar Manor but entry is unavailable | Check the time of day: the documented entry window is Afternoon. Review the cost before accepting his wait option. |
| The opening speech immediately becomes a group fight | You selected the reveal/confrontation branch. Reload a pre-speech save if you wanted the maze and its equipment pickups. |
PowerPyx's walkthrough distinguishes these stages. Waiting repeatedly is not a verified fix for a missing invitation. Keep a separate save and record the current objective if the prerequisite is met but Farkas never appears; exact arrival timing remains unconfirmed.