If you’re a fan of Castlevania, then you’ll love Criswelvania, as it is an homage to the classic Konami game. It mixes Minecraft with the classic, bringing you the best of both worlds. This project has been ongoing for a very long time, so there’s plenty to experience, and many different aspect from several different Castevania games, ranging from the classic game to the later ones.
Criswelvania features plenty of areas full of deadly challenges, mechanical puzzles, tense battles, and hidden magical treasures and secrets to discover along an epic adventure. The map is full of unique weapons, new animal companions, and powerful potions to help you along. The map features greatly expanded Nether content, a revamped economy, as well as new challenging challenge dungeons.
The map is also balanced with fantastic multiplayer support, as well as a slew of new redstone and piston mechanisms and traps.
Here's a little Quickstart Guide to help you get started (click to expand):You start on the edge of a dark forest at sunset, and your first order of business should be to find weapons and items to survive. Opening the first chest you see is probably a good idea, and equipping the sword is well-advised. Snowballs can be used to keep monsters at bay until you find something better, but you probably shouldn’t count on them too much. The chest has other useful materials, so be sure to grab it all.
Once you’ve done that, you should follow the path east, then south, until you reach a lake and the Zweiliger Farm. Here you can take refuge overnight should you wish, and you may find some more items to aid you in your journey here. When you are ready and prepared, continue down the road and you’ll come to a passage leading over a cliff to the first village of Gillis. From here, the castle should be visible in the distance. Search the houses in Gillis, and you will find your first quest.
The map has some Adventure Goals, and they are (click to expand):
You goal is to ascend the dark halls and towers of Criswelvania, and to cleanse the castle of the evil you will find within. You are to visit the nearby towns found around the castle to buy supplies and find hints that will guide you to the more rare and powerful equipment. Across the land you will find 24 treasures, if you can locate them. Finding them is very useful, and once you’ve found as many as you can, journey into the portal found beneath the Palace of Darkness, in order to find the Nether Castle. Are you able, return through the Gatehouse found at the end of the final challenge, in order to escape from the Caves of Confusion and reach the surface. Should you succeed, you will become a legend in these lands, should you fail… You will become yet another cautionary tale.
For the optimal experience, follow these rules and guidelines:
- Exploration is highly encouraged and rewarded!
- Difficulty should be set to Easy at minimum, Normal is recommended. Peaceful is not recommended.
- Setting Fog to “Normal” instead of “Far” is also recommended. For a greater challenge, try “Near” or “Tiny” settings, this will also provide a tenser atmosphere. Only recommended once you’re familiar with the map, as high or max fog can be disorienting in some areas.
- Remember, real vampire killers only venture outdoors or leave the town after sunset (this is another way of saying that some encounters only occur at night).
- Get items from dispensers by activating them, please do not just loot them.
- Limiting yourself to only carrying one stack of any particular item, such as arrows or torches.
- Stashing extra loot in chests makes sure you don’t lose it should you die.
- In some chests you will find TNT, how or where you use it is up to you.
- If you want to play in hardcore mode, you will have to enforce them yourself. In hardcore mode, you must delete your save, and restart the map.
- If you want a hardcore multiplayer mode, killed players are to return as hostiles that must hunt the surviving players. The map is lost when all players have died once.
You can play this map with friends if you are so inclined, the map is tuned for both singleplayer and multiplayer. So if you’re having difficulties, bring a friend or two!
In regards to loot, you are free to take what you find as needed, but there are several items that serve no real purpose, and taking it all, will quickly clutter your inventory. It is therefore only recommended that you take items related to combat, defense, and survival. Some valuable items can also be traded in town for supplies.
Treasures you find in chests throughout your journey support Criswelvania’s local economy, allowing you to purchase items marked for sale in shop chests. You trade by placing the appropriate amount of currency in exchange. This exchange is governed by the honor system, so the only one making sure you don’t cheat, is you.
Here are the exchange rates:
- 1 Gold Nugget = $1
- 1 Iron Ingot = $3
- 1 Gold Ingot = $9
- 1 Diamond = $18
There are also some locations where you may sell any books or paintings you find on your journey. A book is worth $2, and a painting is worth $3. These are only allowed to be traded at their designated brokers, you are not to use these as normal currency in shops.
Some blocks are breakable (or rather, allowed to be broken). Any clay you find, you may break. Any suspiciously-placed single or paired blocks of half-steps or brick, or out of place sand or gravel, you may break. Usually, there’s a hint nearby, such as a shovel or a pick in a nearby chest around these blocks. Breaking monster spawners are also allowed, if not encouraged, you may also disable them with torches. Any exposed minerals are allowed to be mined, and any ore you find you may smelt.
Dirt, stone, wood, or other blocks are allowed to be placed in order to repair damaged walls or floors. The only rule here is that you must use the same kind of material to repair them, so if you want to repair a wooden floor, you must do so with a wooden block. If needed, you may also erect emergency barricades, as well as bridges when you need to cross lava or chasms. You may not build steps or towers to climb fences, walls, or other obstacles.
In regards to crafting, you may only craft items you have found at least once before. So if you have the materials for a iron sword, you are only allowed to craft one if you have already found one. The same goes for armor and other gear. Everything can be found in the world though, crafting is not necessary.
Dying in Criswelvania returns you to your starting location outside the forest. Leaving some items stashed behind is recommended if you need to craft or purchase some replacements.
Beds can be found throughout the map, and they may be used to advance your spawn position.
Every important location has a marked path leading to it. Every region is marked by distinct boundaries. For your own sake, try to stay within these in order to avoid getting lost or breaking the game. Pavestones or stairs indicate that exploration is fair game. If you no longer find yourself surrounded by civilization, or in sight of some, you are getting lost.
Breaking obstacles to get around them is not encouraged, the puzzles aren’t that hard, and loot aren’t hidden randomly in the environment, so breaking it will serve little to no purpose. Occasionally locations will have multiple paths to and from them, so in case you get stuck, backtrack and try another way.
The endgame begins once you ascend the Clock Tower. You can and may still revisit previously visited locations to recover overlooked items at this point. Once you’ve cleared the Palace of Darkness, you may locate the Treasury and the Portal Room.
Several challenge areas are also available to explore, once you have the right equipment. The first of these is the Deadman’s Cave, located just outside Gillis. This cave is full of pirate treasure. Other mysterious, and challenging areas also exists.
Once you are ready, and carrying all the treasure you can, enter the portal. In order to complete the map, return from the Nether, through the next portal you find.
Once you have beaten the map, you can use it as you want. Explore it, use the castle as a base, and more. The map also features a quite large and extensive nether portal system that can take you to a dozen of different areas, spanning 2 large continents. The nether also harbors 32 secret chests, see how many you can find.
The map is made with the default resource pack in mind, and no mods are required for the full experience.
You may get stuck in the ground at the start of the map, is this the case, open the game to lan, set /gamemode 1, fly up, then go back to /gamemode 0.
All in all, Criswelvania is a very extensive and impressive map that has been worked on for a very long time, and it shows. Give it a try and have some fun!
How to install the Criswelvania Map for Minecraft:
- Download the map.
- Go to your %appdata%/.minecraft folder.
- Open the “saves” folder.
- Unzip the map you downloaded, and put the unzipped folder into the saves folder.
- There you go, you are now ready to explore and conquer this world of darkness!
Here is a video of the map in action, part 1 of a longer series going through it all, but check it out if you’re interested: