Devour has released yet another unique and interesting map. The core premise of the game has stayed the same, but the ritual process, setting and enemies are all different.
This guide includes a walkthrough of how to perform the main ritual, as well as tips for the beginning of the game, and how to beat this map.
The Manor Map Gameplay
The main unique aspect of the Manor house is the presence of two “worlds” – the real world and the “Realm of the Dead”. This realm is accessed through the mirror portals across the map.
The main ritual items – cursed severed heads of April’s wedding guests – can only be found in the Realm of the Dead, making traversal between the realms essential.
Players will have to complete an initial set-up where they enter the Manor, and then perform the ritual a total of 10 times to exorcize Azazel from April’s body. The key items in the Manor’s ritual are:
- Alcohol Bottles
- Moldy Cake
- Cursed Heads
- The Shovel
The Beginning of the Game/ Set-Up
1. Entering the Manor House
Of course, the first step of any Devour map is getting into the main playable area. In this case, just jump on top of the white garden pot and hop over the fence.
Then, make your way into the front garden area to the left and search around until you find a metal gate that leads inside a mausoleum.
Head down into the cave, where you will find the ritual fountain used for cleansing the cursed heads. Continue following the path through the cave to enter the Manor house.
2. Opening the Doors
When you first enter the Manor house, all of the doors will be locked. Head upstairs and find the only unlocked door. This will cause a short interaction with April/Azazel, and will unlock most of the doors in the Manor. Other doors require keys, which can be found by exploring the real world. I’d recommend finding all of the keys, as the last thing you want is to run into a locked door whilst being chased later on.
3. Managing your Items
Before properly starting the ritual, it’s recommended that you pool all the resources in a convenient location to save time looking for them when needed. For example, bring all of the alcohol bottles to the ritual fountain in the cave.
My team likes to store all of our medkits in the Manor house hallway (between the back and front doors) as there is always a portal located nearby (meaning that downed players can easily traverse to the real world to get revived quickly). We also leave the shovel there so it can be quickly accessed when a cleansed head is ready to be buried.
How to Perform the Ritual
The exorcism ritual can be performed by following the eight steps listed below. Of course, the steps outline the process for doing the ritual once, so you will have to repeat the steps ten times in total.
1. Fill the ritual fountain with alcohol from the brown bottles
The first step is to fill the fountain with alcohol that you can find around the map.
This is similar to the other Devour maps like the Inn where you need to fill the baths with water to cleanse the spider eggs.
2. Find slices of cake
Next, look for slices of cake around the real world. These can be found in the ritual room, the garden shed, and other locked rooms in the Manor like the balcony and kitchen, often on top of tables, counters, and dressers. Bring them through the portals into the Realm of the Dead.
3. Drop the cake near a cursed head
Once you have the cake, enter the Realm of the Dead through the mirrors and find the occasional cursed severed head slivering around on the ground like a snake. Press ‘G’ to drop the cake nearby, and that should attract the cursed head toward it like bait.
4. Grab the cursed head whilst it is eating the cake.
Once the cursed head is eating the cake, you can interact with it (the ‘E’ button) to pick it up. Don’t wait too long or the severed head will have finished eating the cake slice and you’ll need to bring it another to repeat this step.
5. Bring the head to the fountain and cleanse it
With the cursed head in your hand, carry it to the fountain in the cave and hold it in the alcohol to cleanse it. The cave is only accessible from the real world so make sure to use the mirror portal to leave the Realm of the Dead once you’ve got your severed head.
If there is no alcohol in the fountain, you will have to ask a friend to pour some into the fountain as dropping the head will cause it to crawl back to the nearest portal and you’ll need to start from step 2 again. That’s why we always recommend to ensure there is alcohol in the fountain before trying to catch a cursed head.
6. Carry the cleansed head to the correct grave
Next up is probably the trickiest step. You need to find the matching body in the graves outside for the head that you are holding. The grave locations (and which bodies are inside) are always randomized, meaning that it’s a case of trial-and-error to find the correct grave.
Remember that there are graves both in the front garden and back garden – so if you can’t find it, it’s likely on the opposite side of the house.
7. Place the head on the decapitated corpse
Once you have located the correct body, put the head back onto the corpse.
8. Bury the body
And finally, you need to bury the completed body using the shovel. You can often find a shovel in the real world inside the garden shed.
If you are not quick enough, there’s a chance that the crows will pick up the head and fly around with it. In this case, just use your UV light to kill the crow and retrieve the cleansed head.
Once you have successfully buried the body, a sound effect will play and a tracker should pop up saying 1 out of 10 rituals completed. Now, just do this 9 more times…
How to Evade the Enemies
Similar to other Devour maps, April will start to attack a few seconds after each ritual is completed. You can choose to hide but there’s no guarantee she won’t find you. Here are some tips to evading April during her frenzy.
1. April (Azazel)
As with all the main enemies in Devour, the only way to defeat April is by performing the ritual 10 times. Each time you complete the ritual, April will ‘power up’ – she will become faster, attack more often, and it will take more stuns to pacify her.
As you might know, you can aim your UV light (right mouse button) at April’s face to stun her. In the early parts of the game, this will pacify her. However, as you progress, you will have to perform multiple consecutive stuns to pacify her.
When you pacify April, you will have a grace period where she is harmless and will not attack you. As you perform more rituals, this grace period will shorten, with a virtually non-existent grace period at 9 rituals completed.
You can tell that April/Azazel is pacified when you hear a bell sound effect after you stun her. She will then continue to wander around the map, and will not attack for some time.
The general rule for stuns is:
1-3 Rituals Completed – Pacify April with 1 Stun
4-7 Rituals Completed – Pacify April with 2 Stuns
8-9 Rituals Completed – Pacify April with 3 Stuns
I will say, this general rule does not seem to always be true on the Manor map but it’s still something to keep in mind when considering whether to fight or flight.
The other important thing to look out for is April’s eyes. After you stun her (if she requires more than 1 stun to pacify), she will have red eyes for a few seconds. Whilst she has red eyes, you cannot stun her with the UV light. As such, you should run away as far as possible during this time. Try to follow the pattern of stunning her, running away, stunning her again, running, etc. Definitely do not stay still, as she will quickly approach with red eyes, and there will be nothing you can do to stop her.
I find it easiest to evade her whilst in open areas, such as in the front and back garden. The most dangerous part is inside the Manor, as the reduced sightlines mean that she can quickly turn a corner and catch you before your UV light has time to stun her. The cave is also pretty tricky to evade her, as she can quickly back you into a corner with nowhere to run.
2. The Crows
Of course, April/Azazel isn’t the only enemy on this map. You’ll be constantly disturbed by the crows around the Manor. You can kill them with your UV flashlight, but ensure you have enough juice left to stun April when needed. Batteries can be found across the map in situations where you don’t have enough time to let your UV regenerate.
The crows can be frustrating as they will run off with the cleansed heads if you drop them on the ground, or leave them attached to the corpses without burying the bodies.
3. The Realm of the Dead “Traps”
When you take the portals, you will sometimes encounter “traps” that only appear in the Realm of the Dead. These will pull you towards them, slow you and damage you. Just like the crows, you can destroy these with your UV light.
Multiplayer Tips for the Manor Map
1. Work in Groups of 2
Our team found the most success when pairing up and working in groups of 2. This is especially the case near the end of the ritual process, where one player places the head on the corpse, and the other buries it. Whilst you are trying to find the correct grave, it’s useful to stick together and have one person carrying the cleansed head, and the other bringing the shovel to avoid any loss of progress.
2. Alternate Your UV Lights
If you are following the tip of working in a group of 2, you can alternate using your UV lights when April/Azazel is chasing you to let the other’s UV recharge.
This is also useful if you run into crows during a chase. One player could kill the crows whilst the other stuns April/Azazel.
3. Stockpile All Important Items Before Starting the Ritual
While it can be a little boring to prepare for 10 or 15 minutes before completing the first ritual, you’ll be thanking yourselves once you’ve performed the ritual 7 or more times. Collect all your medkits in a convenient and easy to access location, and make sure all the alcohol bottles are in the cave by the ritual fountain.
4. Optimize the “Downtime”
In Devour, there is a grace period between attacks (the length of which depends on how many rituals you have completed). This is a safe period where April/Azazel will not attack you. During this time, you should ensure that you have enough alcohol at the fountain, your medkits are easily accessible, etc.
Since Devour only spawns a limited number of items at a time, it’s important to “reset” your resources every once in a while…it’s likely that you’ll have used up all the medkits and alcohol gathered at the start of the game by the end-game.
5. Cleanse the Heads in Batches (3-4-4)
My group has had a lot of success when we cleanse the cursed heads in batches. We typically have one player sitting in the cave with the cleansed heads to make sure that crows do not take them away. Then, the other players search around the house for cakes and cursed heads.
From our testing, the game will only spawn in 4 cursed heads at a time – this prevents players from stockpiling all 10 cursed heads right at the start of the game. As such, you can then follow the formula of:
- Cleansing and burying 3 heads
- Cleansing and burying 4 heads
- Cleansing and burying 4 heads.
Between each of these points, you should restock your items (i.e. medkits and alcohol bottles), and prepare the next batch of cursed heads.
The rationale behind the 3-4-4 method is as follows. If you have 4 cleansed heads at the ready, you don’t need to search around the house for cakes and cursed heads at the more dangerous stages (i.e. 8 or 9 rituals completed). Instead, you navigate around the Manor at a slightly safer point of the game (6 rituals completed). Then, all you will need to focus on is bringing the heads from the cave to the graves.
I’d argue it’s much easier at 8 and 9 out of 10 rituals to just bury the head, compared to having to complete all 8 steps of the ritual with April chasing you.
The Manor House Lore
In this update, the latest cult member to be possessed is April North. On her wedding day, her fiance was killed, and to attempt to find her lover’s soul, she sacrificed her guests to summon Azazel. She asks Azazel to open portals to the Realm of the Dead, but in true demonic-fashion he also possesses April.
There has been our guide. We hope you’re having as much fun with the new update as we are, and share any tips you found helpful below. Good luck!
