Hemwick Charnel Lane Trivia Quiz

Answer: Optional

While entirely optional, there is much to be had from Hemwick Charnel Lane. For casual playthroughs, this area may as well be mandatory given how much is packed into this small side area.

Answer: Forsaken Castle Cainhurst

This is the single only way the player has to reach Cainhurst Castle. And while Cainhurst Castle, too, is an optional area, in my opinion, it is the single greatest area in this entire game, and one of the best in all of From Software, in terms of sheer entertainment value.

The only reason to avoid, or to not strive to reach, Castle Cainhurst, is if you're speedrunning the game. Otherwise, you would absolutely want to come here, with the Cainhurst Summons in hand, and get whisked away by a stagecoach being engineered by a dead man.

Answer: The player knows "the password"

The conditions for a Mad One to spawn are as follows: the player must have at least fifteen Insight, Vicar Amelia must have been slain, and the player must have subsequently obtained the password to access Forbidden Woods. If all of this has been achieved, two Mad Ones can spawn in Hemwick Charnel Lane.

Mad Ones are fairly docile and passive, so the player can easily escape them if they so desire. But if they do choose to fight, these are enemies which can teleport short distances and rack up damage quickly. They can also be parried however, so they are not the stiffest of adversaries to be found in this game by any stretch.

Answer: No

In general, Hemwick Charnel Lane is more significant to the game's lore than it is a challenging, enriching area. Progression through the map is basically all done in a straight line, and takes about five minutes even if this is your first time exploring the area. Plus, the boss at the end is notoriously known for being, hands down, the weakest boss in this entire game.

As such, few if any players are likely to want to spend Insight on an NPC summon, explaining why From Software didn't even bother providing one.

Answer: Boost physical defense

The Lake Rune has three different versions, and this one is unsurprisingly the lowest valued version, offering the player a 3% boost to their physical defense. The highest quality version slightly more than doubles this at 7%.

3% is frankly not too much, but this is almost certainly going to be the player's first Caryll Rune. And since every single thing in this whole entire game can do physical damage, at least this Rune is poised to do something, even if it isn't much.

Answer: Hintertomb

The Hintertomb Chalice Dungeons are a step up in difficulty from Pthumeru, the previous Chalice Dungeons the player had available. Combining these three Bloodshot Eyeballs with two level 2 Ritual Bloods and a pittance of Blood Echoes will grant access to the entirety of the Hintertomb catalogue.

Answer: It must be day

This is a tricky set of conditions to meet, that no player is likely to do without being consciously aware of the Tonsil Stone. The reason being, in 99/100 cases, killing Vicar Amelia is immediately followed up by the time shifting into night. It is possible to avoid this, but again, it is not likely if the player is not imminently aware of the Hemwick Charnel Lane Tonsil Stone, as it would require them to kill Vicar Amelia and then intentionally leave her boss room without interacting with the Laurence Skull at the very back of her boss room.

Answer: Twenty five

Bone Marrow Ash, when consumed, makes the next gunshot fired deal twice as much damage. Giving Bone Marrow Ash to a person using a Bloodtinge build is akin to giving a starving animal a juicy steak dinner, in that it will be enormously appreciated until it's gone in about five seconds. Bone Marrow Ash is so unbelievably essential for a Bloodtinge build, yet so annoying to come across, that Bloodtinge players may make the journey to Hemwick Charnel Lane literally solely for this Bone Marrow Ash.

There is not an area in this game containing anywhere near as much Bone Marrow Ash. Second place goes to Old Yharnam, where you can pick up a whopping six. 25 sounds like an abundance now, doesn't it?

Answer: Witches of Hemwick

This is, without a doubt, the single easiest boss fight in this entire game. It is actually difficult to lose this fight, as the boss itself will never even actually approach the player and spends the fight in hiding.

This is a gimmick fight; the goal is not to go up to something big and attack it until it dies. Instead, upon the "fight" starting, nothing and nobody will appear. The first Witch is invisible until the player gets up close to her. After they hit her a few times, she will vanish and teleport elsewhere for the cycle to repeat itself.

After getting the first Witch to half health, the second one will appear completely unannounced. Same deal here: the player must get close to it and attack it until it teleports away, then rinse and repeat.

One wrench can be thrown in to the formula here: if the player completely kills one Witch, after 25 seconds, the other one will revive the fallen Witch to full health. As such, the player must ensure to land the killing blow on both Witches within a short time frame.

But even if they don't, this boss is so unthreatening and passive, that basically nobody should ever actually take a death here. Literally, neither boss actually wants to fight the player, and will spend the entire "fight" getting as far away as they can. They can technically damage the player, but even if they do, they will never pressure them with a follow up or any real danger, so the player can just heal it off easily.

Answer: Memory Altar

The Memory Altar is what allows players to equip Caryll Runes. Earlier in the area, the player may have acquired the Lake Caryll Rune. Unless they then proceeded to finish the area, they would have had no way of actually doing anything with this. Defeating the Witches of Hemwick grants access to the Memory Altar, enabling the use of Caryll Runes.

Though the boss it's tied to is underwhelming, the reward is so great that it tends to be the driving force behind players exploring the area.