Chapter 9 is the longest stage yet in A Plague Tale: Requiem, as well as one of the least violent. In order to uncover the secrets behind La Cuna, as well as Hugo’s bizarre curse, you’ll explore the island’s bucolic countryside, solve a major puzzle, climb a mountain, and infiltrate an ancient ceremony that’s only a little creepy and apocalyptic.
Here’s what to look out for on the marathon run that is Requiem‘s ninth chapter, “Tales and Revelations.”
A Plague Tale: Requiem Collectibles – Chapter 9
There’s a lot to find here. Chapter 9 starts off by letting you loose on La Cuna, for a freeform period of exploration that ends when you decide to make the trek up the side of the mountain. That, in turn, is only an option once you’ve solved the riddle posed by the bird statues that are all over the landscape.
That leaves you with a lot to find here, which includes a big puzzle that involves the windmills on the coastline. That puzzle’s worth going for even if the reward doesn’t sound like much, because you can break into all four windmills and loot 5 Pieces from each one. The further you get into Requiem, the more your upgrades get bottlenecked by your Pieces supply, so every little bit helps.
There are also a lot of resources you can sponge up at the villagers’ expense, including a couple of hidden tool chests. It’s a good idea to max out your crafted ammo supply right at the start of Chapter 9, because you’ll probably end up with more reagents than you know what to do with.
As far as this guide is concerned, there are two souvenirs and a secret chest located in the early part of this chapter. Everything else is found higher up on the mountain, including a particularly elaborate, hidden trophy/achievement.
Souvenir #15: A thousand more years
At the beginning of the chapter, leave the Count’s estate and go downhill until you happen across the first bird statue. If you’re standing next to it, turn and look down the nearest lane.
If you go down that lane, past the house on the left, you’ll come to a fence with a conspicuous hole in it (circled below).
Go through that hole and turn right at the river to find an ancient olive tree at the end of the path. Inspect it for a brief philosophical interlude, with some actual tree-hugging, and this souvenir.
Secret Chest #6
As you explore further into the island, you’ll notice a ruined tower at the base of the mountain, on the other side of the bridge across the river.
At first glance, it’s locked up, although you can climb through a hole in the tower’s side to collect the contents of a large chest.
To open the door at the tower’s base, circle around to the opposite side of the door and look through the window. You can break the door’s lock off from here with a rock from your sling.
Reenter the tower and climb the ladder to its second floor, where the latest secret chest awaits you. As always, you’ll need a Knife to open it, so you can get at the pot, Tool, and bag of Pieces inside.
Souvenir #16: Nice screeching
Look, it makes sense in context.
In the same ruined tower as the previous collectible, climb to its roof and use the interaction point by the broken cornerstone.
This vantage point can also be useful for spotting the remaining bird statues, if you’re still on that stage of the chapter by now, and if your draw distance is up to the challenge.
This is the last collectible you can get in the exploration phase of Chapter 9.
Souvenir #17: Tramontane
On your way up the mountain, you’ll run into a locked gate with a goatherd in front of it. He’ll ask you to keep an eye out for his lost goat, Tramontane. (It’s an archaic term for someone who lives on the side of a mountain.)
Take a left from the goatherd’s gate to continue with the level. Shortly afterward, you’ll hear a goat bleating as you pass an old ruin by the side of the path.
There’s a chest of reagents by the side of the ruin, next to a patch of tall grass. Use an Ignifer to burn the grass, and when the fire dies out, you’ll see a crawlspace at the base of the nearest wall.
Send Hugo through that crawlspace, because that’s definitely not the worst thing that’s happened to him this week, to unlock the door for you.
Now you can walk in and interact with Tramontane the goat. You can also collect a Tool and some Pieces from a nearby chest while you’re engaged in your goat rescue, so this is a worthwhile stop to make even on replays.
Secret Chest #7
From Tramontane’s ruin, go uphill to continue along this chapter’s critical path. You’ll climb a ledge shortly afterward.
Keep an eye on your left as you continue. At about the same time as you start hearing the guards’ conversation from ahead of you (“Thank you for your offerings!”), you should spot another climbable ledge. Scale it to find a second secret chest in a ruined campsite.
This can be a problem on any difficulty level other than Narrative, as you may not have found a second Knife with which to open this chest. (At least on Narrative, there’s a second Knife right inside the ruined tower that housed the previous chest, but you may accidentally recycle it before you realize you need it.) If you do, you can pop the lock on this chest to grab a pot, some Pieces, and a Tool.
Feather #4: Barn owl
As you approach the Sanctuary, you’ll have to go through two extended stealth sections, which are further complicated by Amicia’s unwillingness to even lightly maim the guards. You can use non-lethal deterrents like throwing Tar into open flames, although that puts the guards into alert status. Even that can be useful, however, as alert guards aren’t on their pre-set patrol routes.
After the second section, you’ll end up roughly halfway up a spiral staircase, inside a tower. If you descend to its bottom level, you’ll find a workbench.
If you go all the way to the top of the staircase, ignoring the two exits along the way, you’ll find a ledge to climb.
This leads to a short path that will take you to the Sanctuary’s front entrance. More importantly, at least as far as this guide is concerned, you can pick up this feather for your Herbarium from the ground near the broken bit of bridge.
Hidden Trophy/Achievement: Old Protector
After you participate in the Count and Countess’s ritual, you’ll end up out in the Sanctuary’s courtyard with some time on your hands. This part of the chapter has another well-hidden trophy/achievement.
As you’re going through the “sacred quarters,” as your objective calls them, there are 16 items you can interact with along the way. If you check out all 16, you’ll unlock the trophy/achievement Old Protector. Like other hidden trophies/achievements in Requiem, this is a gold trophy on PlayStation and worth 100 Gamerscore on Xbox.
The point of no return here is speaking with Sophia as she’s translating the scrolls on the quarters’ second floor, which automatically drops you outside with no way back into Basilius’s rooms. A lot of the Old Protector items are effectively unmissable, as you can’t advance through the scene’s narrative without checking them out, but it’s easy to blow the trophy/achievement by talking to Sophia too soon.
If you do what I did the first time and talk to Sophia before you’re done with Old Protector, you can pick “Phoenix” in this level’s scene selector to get dropped in the courtyard right before the entrance to Basilius’s quarters.
The 16 items are, in rough order:
- The tent in the first room, which Hugo runs into as you enter (above). You must interact with him while he’s in the tent to get credit.
- The child-sized wooden rocking horse on the floor by the entrance.
- Basilius’s bed, in the first room.
- The carved wooden toys on the chest by the bed, next to where Sophia is standing.
- The rack of women’s armor in Aelia’s room.
- The weapons rack next to that armor.
- The toybox next to the training dummy, on the floor near the door into Aelia’s room.
- The two wax tablets on top of the chest next to the exit door from Aelia’s room.
- The clay bowl of dirt on the floor in the operating theater, on the right as you enter.
- One of the bottles in the corner of the room, next to the locked door.
- The circular platform full of differently-shaped bottles, in the corner opposite of the previous object.
- The flask on the table next to the operating theater.
- The big scroll sticking out of the oven in the corner of the room, near where Sophia is initially standing.
- Once you’ve done a couple of circuits around the room, Hugo moves to the operating theater table and starts getting upset. Talk with him, which also advances the scene.
- On the second floor, walk into the center of the grate on the floor and interact with it.
- Pick up one of the scrolls in the shelf behind the two writing desks, directly opposite the room from where Sophia is reading.
The trophy/achievement should fire shortly after you’ve found and examined the 16th object, whatever that might happen to be.
