Welcome to part 1 of our walkthrough for Grime II.
In this part, we’ll navigate the Temple of Hands area, where we’ll take down two bosses, unlock a new ability, and uncover a handful of secrets.
For more information about Grime II, check out their official website here.
Table of contents
Escaping the Birthplace
The game starts with a conversation. A being called The Rippler of Waves addresses you. Choose the dialogue option that you want.
After the dialogue, you’ll be put in control of the main character. You don’t have any weapons right now.
Go left to spot a breakable wall on the left. But you’ll need to find a weapon before you can break it.
Start heading right, from the Surrogate. Follow the tutorial prompt to heal as you continue forward. Jump up to the platform above you.
Mantle up the platform on the right and use Dash to get past the spikes.
You’ll spot another breakable wall on your left. Head right and get on the ledge.
Parry the Flailing Hand‘s attack to break the wall up ahead and head through.
There’s another wall on the right that you’ll have to break by parrying the Flailing Hand.
Continue forward, and you’ll spot a glowing purple orb on the ground. Pick it up to collect the Maul Axe, your first weapon in Grime II.
You can use the hanging boulder right next to the weapon to try out its attack and see how it feels. The Maul Axe is a Strength/Dexterity weapon with decent damage and average attack speed. It’s a strong enough weapon to last you the entire game if you like its moveset.
After picking up the weapon, backtrack to the breakable wall you saw on the left and break it. You’ll find a yellow glowing orb on the ground. Pick it up to gain some Atrium, the main currency in the game.
Return to where you found the weapon and continue forward. You can use the dash to get past the wall on the right. Break the breakable wall on the other side to collect some more Atrium.
Drop down through the platforms on the left. Jump and break the wall on the left by attacking it.
Go left and drop down to the section below. From here, head left and use a plunge attack to break the floor on the left.
Breaking the wall on the left will unlock a shortcut that takes you back to the Birthplace Surrogate, where you started your journey.
You can also break the wall on the left of the starting area. You’ll find a Fragment (experience) and a Frail Yadat stone in the room past the breakable wall, but nothing else beyond that.
Open the shortcut and head right. There’s another breakable wall on the right. Break it and head through to trigger a cutscene, followed by the first boss fight of the game.
How to Beat the Overgrown Barrier
The Overgrown Barrier is basically a giant hand that keeps slamming on top of you to deal damage. Its attack can take a decent chunk out of your small health pool at this point in the game.
However, parrying its attacks is extremely easy. Doing so deals damage and also staggers the giving you an opening to dish out plenty of damage.
The only attack that you’ll need to watch out for is when the boss makes a fist before slamming down. This will create a shockwave, which you’ll want to jump over to avoid taking damage.
Once defeated, the boss drops an item. Pick it up to unlock the Grasp ability.
Use it to grasp the point above you to clear the green liquid, revealing a door underneath. Interact with it to head through and enter the Temple of Hands.
Continue heading right, and you’ll spot the Dried Paint Surrogate. Interact with it to activate it and save your progress.
Unlocking the Temple of Hands Map
From the Dried Paint Surrogate, go right. You’ll spot a ladder heading up. This leads to a wall that you have to break from the other side.
Take the middle path (marked in the image above) and continue right.
There are two Small Finger enemies here that you can kill with just one parry. Take them down and drop down to the floor below on the right.
Take out two more of Small Fingers here.
There’s another one on the other side of the breakable wall. Attack the wall to damage the enemy and take it down. Then go right and up.
There’s a platform on the left where you’ll find the Handcloth Chest. Pick it up and continue heading right.
Attack the wall up ahead, take down the Small Finger on the other side, and drop down to the floor on the right, where you’ll encounter a Curled Finger.
Unlike the enemies you’ve faced up to this point, the Curled Finger has a bit more health. However, once its HP drops below the white indicator (Mold Ward) on its health bar, it gets staggered. At this point, you can dash into it to absorb a single charge of its unique ability (Mold).
Absorb enough Molds of the same enemy type to assimilate the ability permanently.
Continue forward along the path. You’ll be able to drop through the platform up ahead.
There are some more enemies to deal with here. Head right afterward.
Climb up the ledge past the Small Finger up ahead and get to the upper section. Then head left and take down the Curled Finger in the upper platform.
There’s a ladder past the enemy. But before heading up, jump into the hidden opening on the left wall.
Go left past the Flailing Hand to pick up the Handcloth Hands. Just one more piece and you’ll have the complete armor set.
Go back to the ladder behind you and head up. Take down the enemies at the top.
You’ll find a platform on the right that you can use to reach the ladder above you.
Head to the top of the ladder to spot an item on the right. Pick it up to collect the Knifehand, a fantastic Dexterity/Pliability weapon with very fast attack speed. Use the floating platform and the ladder to reach the path on the left.
Dash past the spike and jump across to the next platform on the left.
From here, you can drop down to a hidden ledge without spikes. Keep dropping down to find some Atriums.
Return to the upper section and break the wall on the left to continue moving forward. You’ll drop down to a platform on the left. You can see an item up ahead, but you have to loop around to pick it up.
Drop down and dash through the wall to reach a clearing where you have to fight a Curled Finger and two Spiked Fingers.
Take the ladder up. There’s a path on the left, but jump to the upper floor on the right first.
Dash across the first spike. But the second spike is a Spiked Finger. So be prepared to fight it. Pick up the item afterward to collect the Handcloth Legs.
Now that you’ve got the complete Handcloth Set, consider equipping them from your inventory. A complete set gives you certain bonuses. The Handcloth Set, for instance increase Paint generation, which is required to use Assimilated Molds.
After picking up the item, continue heading left. There’s a hidden ledge above you that will lead you to some Fragments.
Keep heading left, and you’ll soon reach the first Seal in the Temple of Hands. Activate it to unlock the map.
The original Grime required you to find and activate Beacons to reveal the map of specific regions. In Grime II, you have to break Seals to do the same thing. There are two Seals in each region. Breaking the first one unlocks the Area Map, while the second one activates Area Warp. Area Warp lets you first travel to and from the Surrogates in the specific regions.
There’s a ladder right next to the Seal. But before going up, head left and break the wall to unlock a shortcut back to the Dried Paint Surrogate.
Reaching the Temple of Hands – Sealed Chamber
Take the ladder next to the Seal to head up. You’ll have to fight some enemies at the top, including a Spiked Finger. Spiked Fingers disguise themselves as spikes on the ground, but will attack you once you get close.
Go left after taking down the enemies.
There’s a hidden path heading down. But it leads to an area with spikes, and we can’t pass that way without some more abilities. So head up.
Go to the floor directly above you to the left and take down the enemies here. You’ll spot a breakable wall on the left that will lead you to some Atriums you can collect.
Continue along the path on the right and dash to the other side of the wall up ahead. You’ll reach a long section with a couple of enemies to take down.
Head all the way to the right, then use the platforms to climb up. You can see a path heading left, but we’ll go right first.
Break the chain by attacking the link at the top. Then, continue right and take down the enemies up ahead. You can pick up some Fragments after defeating the enemies in this area.
Backtrack to where the path split off, and head left this time. Take down the Spiked Finger up ahead and go all the way to the left.
Climb up the platforms and go right. Pick up the Clasped Mace weapon.
Continue progressing to the right. There are some enemies if you drop down, but you don’t have to fight them if you don’t want to. Just take down the Spiked Fingers in the upper path and keep moving forward.
Dash through the wall up ahead to fight another Spiked Finger.
There’s a ladder on the right, above a pit of spikes. You can’t pick up the item on the ground just yet. So take the ladder up.
At the top, continue heading right until the ground breaks, and you find yourself right in front of the Sealed Chamber Surrogate. Activate it.
Save your progress and head right to spot a white substance on the chain up ahead. Attack it until it breaks.
Note the yellow indicator on the health bar of the chain. This is a Breath Ward. When the health drops below the indicator, you can use Grasp on the target to stun it and gain a full Breath Charge that you can use for healing.
Continue along the path to spot a giant cube on the ground. Use Grasp on the three chains to break them and trigger a boss fight.
How to Beat the Bound Shell
Bound Shell is the first major boss you’ll encounter in the game, not counting the tutorial boss. The boss has a large health pool with two Breath Wards. But it has a very limited set of attacks, and all of them are widely telegraphed.
During the first phase, it switches mostly between four attacks.
The most common attack it uses is when it lets out a howl and rains down a barrage of projectiles in a straight line. The final projectile also creates a small shockwave that you’ll have to jump over. But you’ll also see a needle on the ground after the final projectile that you can strike to deal massive damage to the boss.
When the bound shell leans down, and you see a symbol over its head, that means it’s getting ready for a clap attack. You can jump over the attack or even parry it. This attack also spawns a needle you can use.
The boss also has a two-handed slam, which creates a delayed explosion on both sides of the arena. You’ll have to stand at the center of the arena to avoid taking damage from the shockwave.
The final attack of the first phase is a single-handed slam that creates a delayed explosion on both sides of the hand that it attacks with. You can parry this attack too, to stagger the boss.
When you manage to drop the boss’s HP down to around half, it enters the second phase. It’s marked by the boss disappearing into the cube for a moment.
During this phase, the boss will constantly phase in and out of the cube to try to land attacks on you. You’ll want to keep moving and have your parry ready to reflect its attacks.
The boss has a new attack where he fires rays of light at the arena that also has a delayed explosion.
Another new attack that you’ll need to watch out for is when the boss creates a horizontal line above you. Keep moving to avoid getting locked by the homing projectile. It will also create a shockwave when the projectile drops in the arena.
The key to defeating this boss is to learn his attack pattern and react accordingly. Once the boss is defeated, use the Grasp ability to absorb its Mold and unlock the Force meter.
Unlike the previous game, you can’t put points directly into the Force stat to increase your Force Meter. To do so, you’ll have to hunt down unique monsters and absorb their Molds.
Activating the Second Seal in the Temple of Hands
After defeating the boss, head right to spot a ladder going up. This is the main path. But before taking the ladder, go down the passage on the right.
Continue following the path, heading down, and you’ll spot a Frail Yadat stone up ahead. Interact with it.
Go left and drop down. Interact with the Depth Traversal door to reach another section of the map.
Head right and drop down to collect some Atriums near a Flailing Hand. The platform on the right is too high for you to reach at this point.
Make your way back to the ladder in the boss arena and go up. Jump across the floating platforms on the left to reach another ladder.
But before going up, jump to the platform on the left and follow the path to find a Prismatic Pearl. This item lets you Remake your character, redistributing the stat points you’ve earned.
Return to the ladder and continue heading up. Go right at the top to find another Depth Traversal door. Head through it.
Continue heading right to spot the second Seal of the zone. Activate it to unlock the ability to teleport across the Surrogates in the Temple of Hands.
From here, continue heading right. You’ll have to fight a Crawling Finger up ahead. Take it down and keep going right.
Jump across the platforms. You’ll find the Homing Droplets Item Mold in a hand.
Unlike the regular Molds, Item Molds have a specific number of uses that refresh when you rest at a Surrogate. You can increase its total number of uses by finding more of the same Item Mold.
You’ll find the Temple of Hands – Halls Surrogate just past the item. Save your progress.
This concludes part 1 of our walkthrough for Grime II. For more interesting articles related to indie games, check out the links below:
- Into Indie Games Home Page
- Fatal Frame II Remake – Complete Walkthrough Hub
- Esoteric Ebb Complete Walkthrough Hub
- Resident Evil Requiem – Walkthrough Hub
- Lost and Found Co. Walkthrough Hub
Muhit Rahman lives off two things: gaming marathons and endless cups of tea. He writes guides, reviews, and occasionally forgets that real life doesn’t come with checkpoints. His favorite genres are Soulslike and Metroidvania, with Dark Souls III, Hollow Knight, and Dota 2 forever holding top spots on his all-time list.
