Traveling to the Watching Woods

Discover the path to the Watching Woods in Salt and Sanctuary. Find items like the Iron Pot, Bloodflower Charm, and Warhorn, and unlock shortcuts.

After defeating the Queen of Smiles, continue forward from her boss room and you should see a ladder leading down. Climb down, head left, and you'll soon see another ladder, so climb down there too. Once down, head right and open the chest for Iron Pot (Hammer), Chef's Set then continue to the right until you see another ladder that goes up. Use the ladder to climb up to a lever that opens a shortcut (it's actually the doorway right under the Sanctuary) and pick up the Black Pearl next to the lever while you're at it.

Once you've used the lever, head back down the ladder and then go back to the left until you see some stairs leading down. Drop down onto these stairs, and then drop down again (or just walk down the stairs) so you're at the level below you. Head back left (not up the stairs, but "behind" them) until you get to the wall on the left. You should see that this is a really hard to see door, go ahead and open it, then go through.

Head left and hop down a few platforms and you should see the Bloodflower Charm right at the tip of the ledge. It just might be your first Charm, so if you're using a melee weapon (and the slot next to your offhand is open) go ahead and equip it. You may want to reduce your equipment burden to under 25% to get back up as the jumps are decently high up there. There's not any enemies around in this area or where you came from (or well, they can't reach you) so you don't have to worry about that. To get back up, you must jump to the platform on the LEFT first, then go right. You cannot make the jump to the right first (well, maybe you can with some Brands you don't have yet), so don't try.

Head back through the doorway on the right and then go back up the stairs to where you were before (if you continued right you would see another obelisk you can't use yet, and that's it). Once on the level with the opened chest, barrels, and cart, head back to the right and keep going beyond the ladder.

You'll get to another set of stairs, and it gets really dark, so use that Torch of yours. You'll come to another ledge, hop onto it and keep going right to find the NPC Fern who asks for a "Bag of Earth" which is an item we won't be getting for a lonnnnnng time. So just say "No" when you get asked, it makes no difference. This quest is entirely optional (no trophies associated with it) so just make a mental note of it for later. Pick up the Warhorn, Bundle of Salt that is located just behind him. There is also a lever here, go ahead and use it to open up another shortcut, but don't head through quite yet (one more thing to do here).

Head back left, drop off this platform, and continue down the staircase until you hit the end. At the end you'll see another lever with a Haymaker (Reaper) next to it. Use the lever, then SLOWLY walk over and get the Bundle of Salt that was on the other side of the gate. I want you to STOP here, partially because of the _Bloated Monstrosity_(he's not that difficult though) but mostly because I want you to approach this area from a different direction.

Truthfully, there are a total of _three_ different entrances that lead all to the same place. I'm going to recommend going the "formal" route, and I call it that because it's accessible even before defeating the Queen of Smiles. What we'll end up doing is working our way back to this exact spot, at which point I'll give more information about what's around.

Going the "formal" route also puts you the closest to the Sanctuary in the _Village of Smiles_ so it's another reason I recommend it. So head back to that Sanctuary by heading back up that long, dark staircase, climb up the first ladder you see, move beyond the gateway that was closed, then you should see another long ladder once you get back outside. This ladder leads back up to the Sanctuary (in case you didn't recognize it). You might want to use the Sanctuary anyway, as you probably still have all the Salt that the Queen of Smiles gave you.

Once prepared, exit out the right doorway at the Sanctuary to get back outside to where all the trees and grass are. Remember that there is a _Spike Trip Wire_ along the ground (look for the black round thing) so make sure you roll through it or just jump over it. Continue right, and head through the doorway to enter the room where the _Drowned Bandit (3)_ are (two spawn from the floor) and this is also where the Bronze Knight used to be (or maybe still is, if you skipped him). Continue right once more and we get to...