40 Fun Facts About Blasphemous

Which Spanish city's religious art and iconography did the creative director of Blasphemous cite as a major influence?

Seville is where many of the developers are from, and Spain's Holy Week, with its hooded penitents, was the main inspiration for the game.

The pointed helmet of the Penitent One in Blasphemous resembles which hood worn in Spanish Holy Week processions?

Capirote hoods are worn by penitents so that attention goes to God rather than to the person repenting, and the game wraps its version in barbed wire.

What is the name of the thorn-wrapped sword carried by the Penitent One, the masked knight of Blasphemous?

Mea Culpa came into being, in the game's lore, when a woman praying for punishment kept striking her chest with a sacred image.

Which currency, earned by defeating enemies in Blasphemous, is spent in shops to upgrade the Penitent One?

Tears of Atonement are harvested more slowly after each death, until the Penitent One returns to the spot where he fell.

Which Spanish studio developed Blasphemous and later rebuilt its code from scratch for the sequel, Blasphemous 2?

The Game Kitchen spent 18 months writing the sequel's code afresh instead of reusing any from the original.

Which publisher released both Blasphemous and Blasphemous 2 on behalf of their Spanish developer?

Team17 also partnered with Limited Run Games to produce physical standard and collector's editions of the first game.

Which crowdfunding platform hosted the 2017 campaign through which Blasphemous first found its backers?

Kickstarter backers got the project moving two years before release, and by March 2021 the game had reached a million players.

Which fellow Metroidvania lent its heroine Miriam to Blasphemous for a crossover added in a free update?

Bloodstained's Miriam is stranded in the game's world and needs crystal shards, won in tough platforming challenges, to repair her portal home.

Blasphemous launched with voice acting in which single language, because the budget stretched to only one dub?

English was picked to reach a wider market, though the developers had always wanted Spanish voices and added them in a free update once the game had sold well.

Which free Blasphemous expansion added the true ending that leads directly into Blasphemous 2?

Wounds of Eventide was the largest of the game's free updates, adding bosses, characters and quests in December 2021.

In the lore of Blasphemous, which master craftswoman made rosaries so prized that the Church banned all others?

Engracia gives her name to the achievement for unlocking every rosary slot, and she was found dead against one of the olive trees she tended.

Which jailed ghost in Blasphemous lets the Penitent One equip more rosary beads in exchange for knots of rope?

Soledad's cage sits in the game's opening area, and six knots take the rosary from two bead slots to eight.

Which Blasphemous rosary bead, sold in the Graveyard of the Peaks, shows a health bar above damaged enemies?

Calcified Eye of Erudition is described as the eyeball of a scribe named Alavaroz, and it costs 1,200 at the merchant's stall.

Which Blasphemous rosary bead protects the Penitent One from all damage while he drinks from a Bile Flask?

Pelican Effigy is found on the west side of Jondo and recalls the old belief that the pelican fed its young with its own blood.

Which rosary bead appears in Blasphemous after the Penitent One donates 50,000 to the church in the game's hub village?

Cloistered Ruby adds ranged projectiles to sword attacks for 12 seconds after a Bile Flask is used, while a smaller gift of 5,000 earns a different bead.

Which prisoner sealed inside a metal statue in Blasphemous asks for sacred oil carried in a golden thimble?

Gémino leaves behind the Frozen Olive, a rosary bead that halves incoming damage when the Penitent One's health is nearly gone.

Which bent-backed pilgrim in Blasphemous rewards the Penitent One with three rosary beads shaped like limestone toes?

Redento walks with his hands tied behind his back as penance, and equipping all three toes at his final stop moves a statue to reveal a hidden relic.

Which old merchant in Blasphemous sells rosary beads such as Hollow Pearl and Wicker Knot from her three shops?

Candelaria also sells an Empty Bile Vessel for 9,000 and a key that opens the chamber holding one of the game's relics.

Which Blasphemous rosary bead doubles prayer damage and stacks with the Smoking Heart of Incense for even more?

Drop of Coagulated Ink is found in the Library of the Negated Words and lifts prayer damage by 100%, or 200% with the heart equipped.

Which Blasphemous rosary item must be worn through several deaths to unlock the game's true ending?

Immaculate Bead darkens with each death until it is fully tainted, and only then opens the portals left by broken Confessor statues.

Which Blasphemous rosary item, first found in Mercy Dreams, grows larger at certain candles and raises maximum health?

Bead of Red Wax swells from small to medium to big as red candles are put out in the Convent and the Library, adding 10, 20 and then 30 health.

Which Blasphemous relic turns roots into footbridges and climbable ledges, opening paths to several hidden rosary beads?

Three Gnarled Tongues is the reward for handing a hatched Egg of Deformity to a statue, and it is needed to reach beads such as the Thorned Symbol.

Which towering, rope-bound penitent narrates Blasphemous and hands the Penitent One a thorn for his sword?

Deogracias was once a scribe who left his abbey to witness events first-hand, which is why he is so often seen kneeling with a large scroll.

Which woman in Blasphemous offers to heal the Penitent One during boss fights, visibly ageing each time she helps?

Viridiana can assist in only three fights before she collapses, and speaking to her then earns a prayer that summons protective shields.

Which knight leading Escribar's soldiers in Blasphemous is revealed by a prequel comic as the Penitent One's killer?

Crisanta guards the gates leading to Escribar, and in a post-credits scene she pulls the Penitent One's sword from his lifeless body.

Which Blasphemous boss, a goat-skulled beast resting in a statue's arms, is many players' second fight?

Ten Piedad was once a man who fell asleep in the statue's arms and woke trapped inside a beast of constant anger and pain.

Which Blasphemous boss is an exhumed archbishop in jewelled robes, held upright by several arms during the fight?

Melquíades wears a golden crown and wields a golden staff, and the arms holding him up can be struck without draining his health bar.

What is the name of the vast cathedral in Blasphemous whose bronze door opens only after the Three Humiliations?

Mother of Mothers is reached across the Bridge of the Three Calvaries, where Esdras of the Anointed Legion bars the way.

Which decaying village serves as a safe haven in Blasphemous, home to the healers known as the Kissers of Wounds?

Albero fills with more townsfolk and even animals as the story advances, and its church accepts donations that upgrade the game's save altars.

Whose painting A Procession of Flagellants did the creative director of Blasphemous name as a key inspiration?

Francisco Goya's painting shares its imagery with Spain's Holy Week, and the game's art also draws on Ribera and Zurbarán.

The Veredicto, a slow, long-reaching weapon in Blasphemous 2, takes the form of which church object?

Censer in shape, the Veredicto has the furthest reach of the sequel's weapons but strikes slowly and cannot parry.

Which very first Penitent leads the Archconfraternity, resurrected to guard a giant heart in the sky, in Blasphemous 2?

Eviterno is fought at the top of the City of the Blessed Name, but his defeat comes too late to stop the birth he was protecting.

What is the New Game Plus mode of Blasphemous called, added by The Stir of Dawn along with three optional penitences?

True Torment lets the player keep prayers, relics and most rosary beads while resetting health, flask and rosary-slot upgrades.

Which substance must the Penitent One bring to the giant Nacimiento in Blasphemous to strengthen his Bile Flasks?

Quicksilver comes in five pieces, and each upgrade uses up one flask, leaving a fully upgraded Penitent One with fewer but stronger heals.

Which trio of gold-weeping faces with a single mind is revealed as the true mastermind in Blasphemous's last ending?

The High Wills created the Miracle to harvest the people's faith for their own immortality, until the Penitent One cuts them down with an old enemy at his side.

The sword of Blasphemous was born when a woman beat her chest with an image of which figure, called the First Miracle?

The Twisted One began as a youth whose pleas led to the Miracle being created, and he is revered as a messianic figure in the game's faith.

Which Blasphemous rosary bead, found in Echoes of Salt, lets the Penitent One block attacks that come from behind?

Scale of Burnished Alabaster sits on a ledge that can only be reached by striking a lantern in mid-air for a vertical boost.

When the Penitent One dies in Blasphemous, a fragment of what is left at the spot until he returns to reclaim it?

Guilt piles up with every death, shrinking the bar that powers prayers, and beating any boss wipes it all away.

In Blasphemous's New Game Plus, the hunchbacked giant Jibrael wakes the Amanecidas by playing which instrument?

Bugle notes release four warrior women from crystal sarcophagi, and beating them all lets Jibrael awaken their leader, Laudes.

What name does Blasphemous give the caged cherubs that the Penitent One frees by striking their glass prisons?

Children of Moonlight number 38 in all, and freeing 20 of them earns a relic that lets the Penitent One survive falling into pits.