Encounter - Part 2

Well, after the game takes a decided turn for the disturbing, it's time to find and kill Curtis Blackburn, who's apparently holed up back at his home.

Entrance

There's not a whole lot to see at the entrance, save for a pair of the exploding-head Smiles on the road. Dan's Demon Gun can lock onto their heads, allowing him to easily take them out with critical hits from a good distance away. After saving your game, head around the corner and into the Garden.

Courtyard

The first thing you want to do here is take a right at the junction, move around to the Water Tank, and use the Fire Ring on it to obtain the Odd Engraving. Then, you can use Kevin to get through the laser grid nearby and enter the Garage.

'Yes...well...we're going to start backing away slowly now.'

Inside the garage, you can shoot the wires across from the door to disable the security lasers, allowing you to pass back to the Garden without having to use another invisibility charge. Elsewhere, you'll find a control panel and a picture, indicating that the cars here have to be moved so that the gap is directly in front of the garage door. This means that you have to move the cars so that the middle right spot on the nine-square map on the control panel is clear. Doing so will bring in a new car with Susie's head in it; talk to her to obtain the Power Ring, which will increase the power of your attacks while you wear it.

With that done, you can wheel around to the northwestern corner of the garden, where a Statue lies in wait. It holds a Soul Shell, but doesn't seem eager to give it up; if you charge up Dan's weapon with a few vials of blood, however, and shoot it in the chest, it can be persuaded to part with its prize.

Before you move on to the house, you may just want to hang around this area and kill a bunch of Bombheads before returning to Harman's Room and turning in your blood. The Bombheads are worth a good amount of thick blood per kill, and with Dan's Demon Gun, you can lock on to their heads with ease. It only takes a couple of minutes to fill up on blood, so you may want to just go ahead and do so before turning it all in and saving your game. With that done, head back to the garden and enter the house.

Main Residence

There are going to be more Mithril Smiles wandering the halls, so if you have anyone with Critical Lockon, now would be a good time to switch to them. To begin with, head right and wrap around to the east until you reach a Fireplace. Obviously enough, the Water Ring will be what you need to douse the flames here, so use it and take the Soul Shell in the Chimney. If you happen to have unlocked Coyote by this point, then feel free to jump up to the top of the chimney to speak to Travis. He doesn't give you anything, so feel free to skip this if you're not interested in the game's backstory, such as it is.

You'll need Kevin to get past the lasers, but only Mask will be able to defeat the Protectors.

With that done, return to the ground floor and use Mask to bust through the cracked wall nearby, then head outside via the passage there.

Courtyard Passage

The new enemy here is a Protector ZZ Smile. It's guarded by a pair of its lesser brethren, so after you get past the laser fence with Kevin, you'll need to switch over to Mask and let him start knocking heads. The first Protector can be killed with normal grenades, while the Z protector will take a one-vial charged shot. The ZZ Protector, predictably enough, will need a full two-vial charged shot to do away with. With those guys dealt with, head up to the Backhouse to find the next Soul Shell.