Inscryption guide: How to beat Grimora in Act 2

After choosing your starting deck in Act 2 of Inscryption, you’ll see a strange, new land before you. There are four zones here, each with a powerful entity that you need to face. One of these is the Scrybe of the Dead, a necromancer who rules from her crypt. Here’s our Inscryption boss guide to help you solve the Crypt puzzles and beat Grimora in Act 2.

Note: For more information, check out our Inscryption guides and features hub.

Inscryption boss guide – How to solve the Crypt puzzles and defeat Grimora in Act 2

Before entering Grimora’s Crypt

When you exit the altar area in Act 2 of Inscryption, you’ll see a world map. The bridge to the left hasn’t been repaired yet, but we’ll go back there later. For now, we can only battle Leshy or Grimora, and we’re going to take out the latter. Grimora’s Crypt is at the bottom-right corner of the map. Before you go there, though, you’ll want to visit a couple of locations:

• Leshy’s Cabin – This hut is at the upper-right corner of the map. There’s a chest outside that provides several cards. I actually got the Bloodhound, Salmon, and Urayuli cards here (they’ll be very important down the line).
• Pier – This small area is next to Leshy’s Cabin. There’s a pathway to the left after you pass the archway on the world map. Here, you can pick up a chest with the Salmon card. There’s also a fish floating in the water so click on it (its counterpart can be found in Magnificus’ Mage Tower). We’ll also return to this location later after beating Grimora.

Note: Act 2 of Inscryption is different in that it’s no longer a rogue-lite game. You can still retry card battles even if you lose. That’s why our goal is to build up our deck so we can have more options.

Grimora’s Crypt puzzle solution

Anyway, once you have more cards, go inside the Grimora’s Crypt. You’ll notice that she’s walled off behind three tombstones. Our goal here is actually fairly simple. We need to collect information about the ones buried here so we can complete their epitaphs:

• The three ghouls (they look like skeletons or spirits) will tell you their names after you’ve defeated them. They’re pushovers if you’re using Leshy’s starting deck.
• You also need to search for other clues by picking up the small stone blocks, checking the well, and interacting with one of the sarcophagi.
• Click on the well a few more times to receive the Drowned Soul card (1/1, 4 bones, Waterborne, Touch of Death).
• There are other rooms here, and they contain clues and other important secrets:
  • Mirror room (upper-right) – There’s a clue here. Likewise, going through the mirror lets you change your character’s appearance.
  • Trader room (left) – There’s another clue here. Also, the Trader NPC has Grimora/Death-themed cards that you can buy using foils. You can also collect cards here that might be of use to the Mycologist Twins.
  • Offering room (right) – The creature in the sarcophagus will ask for an offering.
• Defeating the three undead and opening chests/sarcophagi will net you additional cards for your deck.

Once you’ve gathered all the clues, interact with the tombstones and complete the epitaphs as follows:

• Left: Kaycee Hobbes – Hit by falling ice – The defibrillator failed.
• Middle: Sawyer Patel – Eaten by a hungry dog – Does not hold a grudge.
• Right: Royal Dominguez – Brought down by scurvy – There was no cure.

Grimora boss fight – Phase 1

Grimora will use the following:

• Bonehound – 2/2; jumps at a vacant space if you place a card opposite that.
• Banshee – 1/1; directly attacks you even if there’s a card opposing it.
• Sarcophagus – 0/2; turns into a 3/3 Mummy Lord after a turn that it’s been in play.

You’ll want to keep most of your hard-hitting cards in reserve. But, you do need something that can take out the Bonehound. You can trick it by plopping down a weak card (to mitigate damage) or using an Adder (one-hit kill) if you have it. Likewise, beware of the Sarcophagus. It always spawns at the rightmost column, so if you can prevent it from being used (i.e., causing the Bonehound to jump there), then that saves you a lot of time.

The Adder can take it out, and so does your Bloodhound. In fact, the Bloodhound also acts similarly to the Bonehound (it switches places to counter a creature if there’s nothing opposing it). Grimora will always play her cards from left to right. That means any new Sarcophagus that’s placed down will be taken out by the Bloodhound before it can turn into a Mummy Lord.

Grimora boss fight – Phase 2

At the start of phase 2, Grimora will summon all your cards that have been killed/destroyed (not those that were sacrificed). She’ll turn them into 0/1 zombies and place them in your hand. She’ll continue using the three cards mentioned above, as well as 1/1 Zombies. Needless to say, this could become a battle of attrition. Use your zombies as fodder in case you’re about to get hit, but bring out cards with high ATK or those with the Airborne sigil to take her out.

Getting the Four-Leaf clover

After defeating Grimora in Act 2 of Inscryption, you’ll receive two card packs. Oh, and the bridge is now repaired, which means you can head to two other zones. Instead of doing that, though, you’ll want to return to the Pier near Leshy’s Cabin. Here, you’ll find a Four-Leaf Clover. This allows you to redraw your hand once at the start of every battle.

Speaking of Leshy, we’ll want to battle him next. Head over to our Leshy boss guide for the next part of our Inscryption Act 2 guide series.

Inscryption is available on Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.