Mal's Floating Castle

Let's take a detour to fight Ronin Cran, an optional boss. Defeating the boss would open a shortcut connecting Cran's Pass and The Ruined Temple. At this point in the game, the shortcut is not as useful as in early-game. Nonetheless, defeating Ronin Cran would reward you with plenty of salt and gold. From the sanctuary of Cran's Pass, proceed right. You should already have the Redshift Brand and the Hardlight Brand. Light the Torch and climb various platforms to reach the arena of Ronin Cran.

Ronin Cran

42. Ronin Cran, Salt and Sanctuary

This boss should be relatively easy at this stage of your playthrough. Buff the Obsidian Pillar VII with Pitchfire.

Mal's Floating Castle

43. Mal's Floating Castle, Salt and Sanctuary

You will now enter another optional area: Mal's Floating Castle. Although the area is optional, it is the best place to farm for various endgame materials to fully upgrade your weapons and armour pieces. The endgame upgrade materials are: A Lord's Orders, A King's Orders, and Shimmering Pearl. The upgrade materials are not useful for the Obsidian Pillar. However, A Lord's Orders and A King's Orders are especially useful to max out your armour pieces. You require A Lord's Orders x 3 to upgrade an armour piece from level IV to level VI. Finally, A King's Orders x 1 is required to upgrade the armour piece to level VII, the maximum level.

Start from the sanctuary of Dome of the Forgotten. Drop down, light your Torch, and head left until you find a purplish cloud. You require a lit Torch and the Hardlight Brand to be able to stand on the cloud. Getting to the cloud requires the Dart Brand. Dart onto the first purplish cloud and dart leftward onto various other purplish clouds until you find an obelisk. Interact with the obelisk and you will be lifted up to Mal's Floating Castle. Shadowflip up the tunnel, open the door to your right, and rest at the sanctuary.

Head left from the sanctuary and up a flight of stairs. Open the gate to the castle. The most useful and dangerous enemy in the area is the Crypt Keeper. This enemy drops a large amount of salt. Defeat the enemy for a chance to obtain A Lord's Orders or A King's Orders. In general, it is easier to obtain a A Lord's Orders from the Crypt Keeper than it is to obtain a A King's Orders. Ascend the castle and find an obelisk to allow you to climb to a higher level of the castle, where you will find a retracted ladder. Kick the ladder to unlock a shortcut to the area boss.

Notable loots:

• Stone Guide x 2. One is found on a platform underneath Mal's Floating Castle. The other is located to the right of the area's sanctuary.
• Crystal Sphere x 2. One is dropped by a Mimku. The other is within a treasure chest, next to the shortcut ladder.
• Silversalt Charm. Boosts your attack power at the cost of an amount of salt. Dropped by a Mimku.
• Gray Pearl x 2. One is dropped by a Mimku. The other is on a platform in the room guarded by Mother Merle x 2 and Spear Imp x 2.
• Frozen Reliquary. Dropped by a Mimku.
• Box of Salt x 2. One is in a treasure chest. The other is dropped by a Mimku. Can only be collected after defeating Murdiella Mal.

44. Farm A Lord's Orders at Mal's Floating Castle, Salt and Sanctuary

You should now spend some time to farm for A Lord's Orders and A King's Orders from the Crypt Keeper. Use the farmed materials to upgrade your armour pieces as high as possible. Equip the Brightcoral Ring and the Kismet Stone to boost your item find rate. The Crypt Keeper drops a decent amount of salt. Equip the Grasping Ring to boost the amount of salt dropped by the enemy. In fact, consider farming salt at Mal's Floating Castle to level up your character.

Murdiella Mal

45. Murdiella Mal, Salt and Sanctuary

This boss is optional. Defeating the boss in NG+0 will reward you with 0 (zero) salt. The only reason why you might want to defeat the boss is to obtain Murdiella Mal's Ashes, which can be given to the Leader NPC or use as a transmutation material. Equip the Shroud Ring to boost your defense against holy damage. Buff the Obsidian Pillar VII with (Imperial) Shockstone.