Blood of Dawnwalker: Xanthe’s Mansion lantern puzzle solution

Xanthe’s Mansion is simply located in the Blood of Dawnwalker’s world of Vale Sangora, and you can go there and fight her at any point.

It is that easy — at least, it would be, if her mansion wasn’t essentially one giant puzzle box. Not only that, but just getting inside isn’t exactly easy.

In this guide, we’re breaking down everything you need to know to get inside Xanthe’s Mansion and solve her lantern puzzle in Blood of Dawnwalker.

Full Xanthe Mansion lantern puzzle walkthrough – BoD

We’re breaking down our Xanthe Mansion guide into parts. First we’ll explain what you need to know to progress through the mansion, and then we’ll explain how to get the two Xanthe Lanterns you need to finish the mansion’s puzzle.

What you need to know about Xanthe’s Mansion

The quest where you take on Xanthe’s Mansion is called The Cycle of Love, and you’ll only be able to enter her mansion after you’ve cleared out several of Xanthe’s soldier camps and transports in the open world.

After clearing one of them, a soldier will approach you asking to help find the recently kidnapped women and girls. He’ll give you Xanthe’s Lantern, a key item required to get inside Xanthe’s Mansion. You’ll now have Xanthe’s Mansion marked on your map, and you can approach it and open the front door with the lantern at any time.

Xanthe’s Lanterns are made to be hung from disturbing statues, and when hung, the light will wither the corrupted roots that cover doorways. We had a visual bug here where the roots sometimes would not disappear, but you can still use the doors as intended. There will be several enemy encounters as you explore the mansion, but we won’t explain how to battle them.

Xanthe’s Mansion part 1, getting a Xanthe Lantern

As you enter the main lobby of the mansion, you’ll have a door to the dungeon on your left, a set of stairs leading up to the second floor, and a lantern statue. On the right side of the room, you’ll find a single door and a lantern statue on the ground floor, and another set of stairs leading up to a lantern statue and two doors on the second floor.

Since you’ve used your first Xanthe Lantern on the front door, you currently don’t have any in your inventory. This means all the doors on the right side of the room are inaccessible, and the door to the underground dungeon is also locked. That just leaves you with the left-side stairs and the single door.

On the second floor, you’ll immediately find a lantern statue holding a Xanthe Lantern for you to collect, but you need to ignore it. Leave it where it is, move to the end of the room, and head through the door on your right. You’ll find Iasmina in here, a traumatized young girl sewing a dress. She can’t help you, but you can take the Xanthe Lantern from the room. As long as the other lantern you saw is still outside, the door won’t lock when you take the lantern.

Now you finally have a Xanthe Lantern you can use to explore other parts of the mansion.

Xanthe’s Mansion part 2, getting a second Xanthe Lantern

Returning to the main lobby, we’re now going to head over to the right side of the mansion. There are two rooms you can access upstairs, but they’re both optional, filled with items that reveal lore and a few collectibles. You can check those if you want, but your main target should be to use the lantern on the statue downstairs so you can get through to the next room.

After the combat encounter, you can examine the arena before entering the small hut-like building at the rear of the room — again, for us the entrance was covered by roots visually, but we were still able to enter through the door.

Inside you’ll find another lantern statue holding another Xanthe Lantern. You can take this one. Use Focus Mode to investigate the room after taking the lantern, and you’ll see a hatch in the floor that you can use to escape the room after the door locks. This will lead you down to the underground dungeon, and you’ll have to fight your way out to get back to the main lobby. Use Focus Mode, and you’ll find the Key to the Kennels, which will let you escape the dungeon and return upstairs.

Xanthe’s Mansion part 3, finding and finishing Xanthe

Now you can pick up the lantern you placed to enter the right-side ground-floor door, and you’re nearly ready to finish the mansion. Head back upstairs on the left side of the mansion, and run through the door past Iasmina’s room to find a door that requires two Xanthe Lanterns to open. Place both lanterns you collected from Iasmina’s room and the hut, and you’ll be able to pass through.

Inside, you’ll find Xanthe’s sickly daughter, Chariklea. She can only communicate in the form of a song, so it’s a good thing she’s got a good voice. Interacting with Chariklea will cause Xanthe to appear, and you can defeat her to finally tick another of Brencis’ Boyars off the list. When the red orbs appear, make sure to destroy them quickly so you can get back to the fight.

You will be given the option to end Chariklea’s suffering when the fight is over, and you can do it if you’re brave enough.