While Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night isn't directly connected to the Castlevania series, it does have a cameo from a familiar face.
About halfway through the game (be sure to check out our full Bloodstained walkthrough, by the way), you'll encounter a character called OD who runs the castle's library. He bears more than a passing resemblance to Alucard, Dracula's son who appeared in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. His full name is Orlok Dracule, and he's even voiced by Robert Belgrade, who voiced the character in SotN.
Amazingly, you can actually fight against Orlock Dracule — but it's an insanely difficult battle if you don't know what you're doing.
No matter what you do, you will not be able to fight Orlok Dracule unless you have completed 99% of the map.
Now, it’s important to note that completing the map doesn’t necessarily mean collecting every single item within a room or taking out every demon within — it simply means clearing it on your map, which is another way of saying change every room’s colour on the map from black to blue.
Your map should look like this:
Where To Find Orlok Dracule
Next, you need to go to Orlok Dracule’s room in the Livre Ex Machina area of the castle and check out the Tome of Conquest book from him. With this equipped, head to the Glacial Tomb.
Once here, go to the portal room on the easternmost side. Exit this room on the left, climb up and go through the door in the upper left corner.
Inside is where the secret Orlok Dracule boss fight happens.
How To Trigger Orlok Dracule Secret Boss Fight
After a quick discussion, the boss fight will begin. Now, this boss fight can be extremely difficult if you attempt to fight him without any kind of cheesing methods (if you intend to do that, we’ll break down his moves below) but with the Heretical Grinder Shard, Orlok goes down in no time at all.
Secret Boss Fight: Orlok Dracule (Easy Method)
If you simply wish to end this boss fight as quickly as possible, equip your best gear and your strongest weapon. Ensure you have plenty of potions and food, and be extra careful to bring as many ethers as you can, because you’ll be relying on these a lot.
Before the fight begins, equip the Heretical Grinder shard. This shard allows you to use magic to unleash a circular drill of sorts in any direction you choose.
This is important because Orlok will spend most of the fight hanging from above you on the ceiling. By simply pointing your grinder at him, you can inflict near-constant damage to him during the fight.
So, when the fight begins, allow him to hop up to the ceiling and then spam that Heretical Grinder. Your screen should look something like this.
When he uses his own moves on you, simply dodge as you would any other move, hit him with your weapon of choice and allow him to return to the ceiling. Once he’s back up there, whip out the grinder again, rinse and repeat.
When he goes down, he’ll drop the Standstill Shard which allows you to stop time using your magic. You’ll also be able to equip all 21 of Orlok’s Dracule’s books, which is incredible because, before this fight, the most you could equip was three.
Secret Boss Fight: Orlok Dracule (Hard Method)
If you’ve decided to fight Orlok without cheesing him, you’ll need to know about the moves you can expect him to use. The first move you’ll notice is his Standstill Shard ability, which allows him to stop time.
When the screen turns sepia, he’ll freeze you in place and unleash a flurry of icicles that will come for you when he unfreezes time. There’s not much you can do here other than prepare to dodge the icicles.
When he isn’t freezing time, he’s likely throwing some form of ice magic at you. Sometimes, Orlok will throw three icicles into the air. Slide away to dodge these. On that same note, he’ll sometimes launch a wave of ice onto the ground that is quickly followed up by multiple ice spikes rising from the ground. Jump over these to avoid taking damage.
On the fiery side of things, Orlok will sometimes launch three spouts of flame from the ground. You’ll see circles on the ground beforehand that indicate where these flames are coming from. Just ensure you’re not standing on those circles.
He’ll also attempt to throw three fireballs at you every now and then. Your best bet of surviving these is to double jump over them.
When he isn’t using magic, he’s likely going to be using a flurry of melee attacks. He’ll either swipe at you from the front or, if you’re behind him from too long, use a backstep slash of sorts to damage you.
You can avoid taking any melee damage from Orlok by simply jumping over his attacks.
Stay persistent, dodge his attacks, heal when you have to and after a two-to-three minute bout, Orlok Dracule will go down.
