Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown dropped in January 2024 and quickly became one of Ubisoft’s most polished Metroidvania entries in years. With its intricate level design, punishing boss fights, and time-bending mechanics, it’s a game that rewards exploration and mastery in equal measure. Whether you’re stuck on a specific boss, hunting down every collectible, or just trying to navigate the sprawling interconnected map, this walkthrough has you covered.
This guide breaks down every chapter, boss encounter, and secret location across the game. We’ll cover essential combat tips, ability unlock priorities, puzzle solutions, and optimal strategies for each major fight. Prince Sargon’s journey through Mount Qaf is long and winding, but with the right approach, you’ll conquer every challenge the game throws at you.
Key Takeaways
- Master parrying with its generous 0.3-second window in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown to unlock devastating counter-attacks and build your Athra gauge faster than dodging alone.
- Prioritize unlocking Shadow of the Simurgh and Rush of the Simurgh abilities early, as they unlock map access, create safe zones during boss fights, and reduce backtracking time exponentially.
- Study boss attack patterns and exploit recovery windows rather than face-tanking damage; the game rewards aggressive, methodical play over defensive strategies throughout its challenging encounters.
- Collect all 87 Memory Shards across Mount Qaf for lore fragments and platinum trophy completion, using the in-game map completion percentage to identify unexplored zones.
- Complete Artaban’s side quests and choose the ‘trust’ dialogue option before entering the Tower of Silence to unlock the True ending with a 10-minute epilogue and bonus New Game Plus content.
- Equip amulets strategically based on your playstyle—aggressive builds stack damage bonuses, tank builds prioritize auto-revive and regeneration, and speedrun builds maximize mobility and dash resets.
Getting Started: Essential Tips Before Your Journey
Understanding Combat Mechanics and Controls
Parrying is your lifeline in The Lost Crown. Unlike many action games where dodging dominates, perfectly timed parries open enemies to devastating counter-attacks and build your Athra gauge faster. The parry window is generous compared to Souls-likes, roughly 0.3 seconds, but enemy attack patterns vary wildly. Watch for the yellow flash indicator on enemy weapons to nail your timing.
Athra Surges function like your ultimate abilities. You’ll unlock different Surges throughout the game, but early on, focus on using them during boss fights rather than wasting them on regular mobs. Your Athra gauge fills through successful parries, consecutive hits, and taking damage, so aggressive play is rewarded.
Sargon’s air dash and wall run are available from the start. Combine them to extend platforming sequences, and remember that air attacks don’t consume your dash, you can strike mid-air and still dash afterward to reach distant platforms.
Best Early Game Abilities to Unlock First
Your first major ability unlock is Shadow of the Simurgh in Chapter 1, which lets you place a checkpoint marker and teleport back to it. This isn’t just for platforming, use it mid-boss fight to create safe zones or extend combo chains by teleporting behind enemies.
Rush of the Simurgh (the air dash upgrade) should be your second priority. It’s available after defeating Jahandar and opens up huge sections of the map that were previously inaccessible. The vertical mobility alone makes backtracking for collectibles exponentially faster.
Dimensional Claw comes in Chapter 3 and lets you grapple to specific points. Don’t sleep on this, it’s required for several mandatory progression points and about 30% of all Memory Shards in the game. The Claw also deals solid damage when you slam into enemies after grappling.
Avoid dumping early skill points into health upgrades unless you’re really struggling. The game’s difficulty curve assumes you’re learning enemy patterns rather than face-tanking damage. Offensive abilities like Cyclone of Arrows and Verethragna’s Smite provide better value for your first 5-6 unlocks.
The Citadel and Haven: Beginning Your Quest
Chapter 1 Walkthrough: The Abducted Prince
The opening chapter serves as your extended tutorial. You’ll start in The Citadel during a siege, learning basic combat and traversal. The linear path teaches you wall-running, enemy engagement, and your first Athra Surge. Don’t rush, several Xerxes Coins are tucked in side rooms that become inaccessible after the siege sequence ends.
Once you reach Haven, the game opens up into its Metroidvania structure. This hub connects to virtually every major area in the game, and you’ll return here constantly. Talk to NPCs to unlock side quests, Artaban’s quest chain, in particular, rewards a powerful early-game amulet that boosts parry windows by 15%.
The Sacred Archives entrance is visible from Haven but locked until Chapter 4. Mark it mentally, because many players waste time trying to brute-force their way in early. Instead, explore the western exit toward The Depths to progress the main story.
Before leaving Haven, visit Kaheva’s shop and grab the Elusive Water amulet if you have 50 coins. It increases your dash invincibility frames, which makes both platforming and boss fights significantly more forgiving.
First Boss Fight: Jahandar Strategy
Jahandar is your first real skill check. This corrupted Immortal hits hard, but his patterns are telegraphed and consistent. He has two phases, with the transition happening at 50% health.
Phase 1 tactics:
- His overhead slam leaves him vulnerable for 2 seconds. Parry it, then land 3-4 hits before backing off.
- The horizontal sweep attack has two variations: single and double. Wait for the second swing before parrying if you see him wind up from his left side.
- When Jahandar teleports and charges across the arena, dodge perpendicular to his path rather than backward. You’ll have time for a jumping heavy attack as he recovers.
Phase 2 changes:
- He adds a grab attack that’s unblockable. The tell is both arms spreading wide. Dash backward twice to avoid it.
- Shadow clones appear during his combo strings. The real Jahandar has a brighter glow, focus on him and ignore the clones, which disappear after his attack finishes.
- Use your Athra Surge when he’s stunned after the grab whiff. You can deal 20-25% of his health bar in one window.
Many guides on game walkthroughs and boss strategies recommend defensive play here, but Jahandar rewards aggression. Stay in his face, parry consistently, and he’ll go down in 3-4 minutes.
The Depths and Lower City: Navigating the Underground
Chapter 2-3 Walkthrough: Exploring the Catacombs
The Depths is the game’s first true non-linear zone. Multiple paths branch in different directions, and you’ll lack the abilities to access roughly 60% of the area on your first pass. Prioritize the southeastern route toward The Lower City, this advances the critical path and unlocks your next major ability.
The poison water sections in The Depths will damage you over time. You can’t avoid them entirely, so keep health potions ready and look for elevated platforms to minimize contact. There’s a hidden amulet in the northwest cavern (requires double-jump, which you don’t have yet) that grants poison immunity, but you’ll need to backtrack for it later.
The Lower City introduces platforming gauntlets, timed sequences where platforms collapse or hazards activate on a cycle. The section after the first checkpoint is notorious: rotating spike walls combined with disappearing platforms. The trick is waiting for the second rotation before starting your run. You’ll have a clean 8-second window to clear it without taking damage.
In Chapter 3, you’ll receive the Dimensional Claw after solving the bow puzzle in the underground shrine. This immediately opens shortcuts back to Haven and unlocks several gated areas in previous zones. Before moving forward, backtrack to The Citadel entrance, there’s a grapple point that leads to a room with 3 Memory Shards and an amulet that increases arrow damage by 30%.
Defeating the Manticore: Boss Guide and Weak Points
The Manticore guards the exit of The Lower City and is the first boss that punishes panic dodging. It’s a three-phase fight with distinct attack patterns in each.
Phase 1 (100%-66% health):
- Tail swipes come in sets of three. Parry the first two, dodge the third (it’s a sweep that hits low).
- Poison spit creates ground pools. These persist for 15 seconds, limiting your arena space. Bait them toward the edges.
- The pounce attack is your damage window. When the Manticore leaps backward, it’s about to pounce. Dodge through it (not away) and punish with a full combo from behind.
Phase 2 (66%-33% health):
- Adds spawn, two corrupted soldiers. Ignore them and focus on the Manticore unless they’re directly attacking. They despawn when the boss phases.
- Wing buffet creates a wind push effect. If you’re mid-combo, you’ll get knocked into poison pools. Attack only after this move.
- Use Shadow of the Simurgh to place a checkpoint on the safe side of the arena, then teleport back after risky attacks.
Phase 3 (below 33% health):
- The Manticore goes berserk with faster attacks and shorter recovery windows.
- A new charge attack where it runs around the arena’s perimeter. Double-jump over it or take 40% of your health.
- Save your Athra Surge for this phase. When it roars (signaling the enrage), pop your Surge and unload everything. With good DPS, you can end the fight before it completes a second rotation.
The Manticore’s weak point is its underside, exposed briefly after the pounce and during its roar animation. Aerial attacks deal 1.5x damage to this spot.
Hyrcanian Forest and Sacred Archives: Mid-Game Exploration
Chapter 4-5 Walkthrough: Time Powers and Puzzles
Hyrcanian Forest is where The Lost Crown leans hardest into its time-manipulation mechanics. You’ll gain Fabric of Time early in Chapter 4, this lets you slow environmental hazards and enemy attacks. Unlike typical bullet-time systems, this has a limited duration (about 4 seconds per charge) and requires Athra energy, so use it strategically during platforming.
The forest is dense with verticality. Look for glowing plants that act as grapple points: these respawn after 3 seconds if you fall. The western canopy path has a notorious sequence: grapple up through rotating saw blades while timing your movement between slowdown charges. Many players get stuck here for 15+ minutes. The solution: activate Fabric of Time at the apex of each grapple, not at the start. This gives you control during the critical moment when saws are closest.
Sacred Archives opens after you obtain the Gravity Wings ability (double-jump) from the forest’s mini-boss encounter. This zone is puzzle-heavy with minimal combat. The central library has a three-tier puzzle requiring you to redirect light beams using mirrors. The solution isn’t obvious: middle mirror faces northwest, top mirror northeast, bottom mirror straight north. This unlocks a shortcut to Upper City and a chest containing the Verethragna’s Wrath amulet.
Chapter 5 splits between Archives and Forest cleanup. Several Memory Shards are now accessible with your expanded toolkit. Prioritize the Archive’s eastern wing, there’s a timed challenge that rewards an amulet boosting Athra gain by 25%, massive for the upcoming boss rush section.
Kiana and Azhdaha Boss Encounters
Kiana is a dual-wielding warrior you fight in the Forest’s arena. She’s fast, aggressive, and heavily punishes healing attempts. Her critical weakness: she has zero ranged attacks. Keep distance with bow shots between her combo strings, and she’ll close the gap with a predictable dash that’s easy to parry.
Her unblockable grab glows red. Don’t try to parry it, dodge sideways and counter with a charged heavy. At 40% health, she enters a berserker state with super armor on some attacks. Switch to hit-and-run tactics here. Comprehensive boss fight guides and strategies often recommend saving Athra Surges for this phase since her armor breaks after taking 300+ damage in one window.
Azhdaha is a multi-headed dragon mini-boss in the Archives’ basement. Each head has independent health and attack patterns:
- Left head (fire): Breath attack in a cone. Huge damage but slow startup. Stay close to its neck to avoid the hitbox.
- Right head (ice): Creates floor hazards that slow movement. Destroy ice crystals immediately or you’ll lose mobility for the entire fight.
- Center head (lightning): Only attacks when both side heads drop below 50% health. Chain lightning that bounces between targets, if you have summons active, dismiss them.
Focus left head first (fire DPS is deadliest), then right, then center. Use the stone pillars in the arena as cover during breath attacks, but note they shatter after 2 hits. With optimized DPS, you can kill the left head before the first pillar breaks, trivializing the encounter.
The Pit of Eternal Sands: Advanced Platforming Challenges
Chapter 6-7 Walkthrough: Mastering Time Manipulation
The Pit of Eternal Sands is the most mechanically demanding area in the game. You’ll need mastery of every traversal ability unlocked so far, particularly Fabric of Time and Shadow of the Simurgh. The Pit is structured as a vertical descent with branching paths that loop back on themselves, easy to get disoriented.
The opening segment requires you to rewind falling platforms. This is the first time you’ll use the Temporal Shift ability gained at the start of Chapter 6. Unlike Fabric of Time (which slows), Temporal Shift rewinds a single object to its state from 4 seconds prior. Target platforms as they begin falling, rewind them, and jump before the rewind expires. Timing is strict: 0.5 seconds too early and the platform hasn’t fallen enough to rewind meaningfully: too late and you’re already dropping.
Chapter 7’s sand waterfall sections combine every hazard type: rising sand (instant death if submerged), collapsing platforms, rotating blades, and enemy archers. The game expects you to use Shadow of the Simurgh to place checkpoints mid-sequence. Place your shadow at the halfway point of each major section, not at the start. This cuts your retry time by 70% if you mess up the second half.
There’s a hidden shrine in the Pit’s western cavern (requires backtracking with late-game abilities) that contains the Chronos Pendant. This reduces all time-ability cooldowns by 30% and is borderline essential for New Game Plus speedruns.
The Pit exits into the Upper City, but before leaving, explore the northeastern dead-end. It looks like a trap corridor, but at the very end is a chest with 200 Xerxes Coins and a Memory Shard tied to a missable side quest. Many players blow past this and lock themselves out of a quest completion.
Chapter 8-9 Walkthrough: Final Area Secrets
Upper City feels like a victory lap after the Pit’s gauntlet. Combat encounters ramp up, but platforming difficulty drops. This area is dense with NPCs offering final quests and shops selling endgame gear. Kaheva’s final shop inventory appears here, grab the Immortal’s Resolve amulet (auto-revive once per life) before tackling the Tower of Silence.
The Tower of Silence is the point of no return for the main story (the game warns you explicitly). Before entering, ensure you’ve completed any side content you care about. Once inside, you’re committed to a 90-minute sequence of combat arenas, platforming challenges, and boss fights with no opportunity to backtrack for upgrades.
The Tower’s rotating room puzzle in Chapter 9 stumps many players. You need to align three symbols by rotating the room itself using floor switches. The solution: North switch twice, East switch once, North switch once more. This alignment opens the path to Vahram’s arena and unlocks a shortcut to the Tower’s summit.
Secret hunting in the Upper City pays off. There are 5 Memory Shards in this zone, and collecting all of them before the Tower grants a cutscene that adds context to the ending. The hardest is behind a cracked wall in the marketplace, bomb it open (requires the explosive arrows from Chapter 7) to access a hidden archive room.
Vahram Boss Fight: Complete Strategy Guide
Vahram is the penultimate boss and the hardest fight in the base game. He’s an Immortal warrior with three phases and attacks that can one-shot you if your health isn’t upgraded.
Phase 1 (100%-70% health):
- Spear combos: Three-hit strings with the final hit being a thrust. Parry the first two, dodge backward on the third.
- Shadow dash: Vahram disappears and reappears behind you. Spin your camera and parry immediately when you see the flash.
- Ground slam: Creates a shockwave. Jump over it and hit him with an aerial attack during recovery.
Phase 2 (70%-35% health):
- Vahram gains a projectile spear throw. This tracks you, so keep moving laterally. If you parry it at the last second, the spear bounces back and stuns him for 3 seconds, huge damage window.
- Clone summon: Two shadow clones appear. They die in one hit but explode on death. Kill them from range with arrows.
- His combos extend to five hits. The fourth hit is a sweep (dodge), the fifth is an overhead (parry).
Phase 3 (below 35% health):
- Full berserker mode. Attack speed increases by roughly 40%, and parry windows shrink.
- New unblockable ultimate: Vahram channels energy for 2 seconds, then releases a room-wide explosion. You must use Shadow of the Simurgh to teleport to a safe zone you placed earlier, or use the Immortal’s Resolve amulet to tank it.
- He regains health when clones die near him. Don’t kill clones in melee range during this phase, use ranged attacks only.
Optimal strategy: Save all Athra Surges and potions for Phase 3. Burn him down as fast as possible to minimize exposure to his ultimate. With max upgrades and proper parries, Phase 3 can be finished in under 60 seconds of actual combat time.
Final Boss and Ending: Defeating the Ultimate Threat
The final boss awaits at the Tower’s summit. Without spoiling the identity, expect a multi-phase encounter that tests every skill you’ve learned. The fight has four distinct phases with checkpoint saves between each, so you won’t restart from the beginning if you die in Phase 4.
Phase 1 is pattern recognition. Learn the three-hit combo, parry the second hit, and punish during recovery. Phase 2 introduces environmental hazards, collapsing floor sections that force constant movement. Don’t stand still for more than 2 seconds. Phase 3 combines both previous mechanics and adds a DPS check: you must deal 30% of the boss’s health within 60 seconds or face an unavoidable attack. Pop Athra Surges and use your highest-damage abilities here.
Phase 4 is pure execution. The boss gains super armor, faster attacks, and one-hit-kill moves (telegraphed with red indicators). Your defensive tools matter more than offense. Use Fabric of Time during attack strings to create safe parry windows. Place Shadow of the Simurgh in the center of the arena before each major attack, giving you a panic button.
The ending you receive depends on choices made during Chapter 8’s dialogue sequences with Queen Thomyris. There are two endings: Standard and True. The True ending requires completing all of Artaban’s side quests and choosing the “trust” dialogue option during the final conversation before entering the Tower. The differences are significant, True ending adds a 10-minute epilogue and unlocks bonus content for New Game Plus.
After credits roll, you’ll unlock post-game features and the ability to continue exploring Mount Qaf with all abilities intact. Several areas previously inaccessible open up, including a secret boss harder than the main story’s final encounter.
All Collectibles, Amulets, and Xerxes Coins Locations
Memory Shards and How to Find Them
Memory Shards are the primary collectible in The Lost Crown. There are 87 total scattered across Mount Qaf. Each shard unlocks fragments of lore about the Immortals and Sargon’s past. Collecting all 87 is required for the game’s platinum trophy and unlocks a secret weapon in New Game Plus.
Shard locations are gated by ability progression. Roughly 40% require Gravity Wings, 30% need Dimensional Claw, and the remaining 30% are accessible with base abilities but hidden behind puzzles or secret walls. Use the in-game map’s completion percentage to track zones, any area below 100% has uncollected items.
Key shard locations often missed:
- The Citadel: Shard in the throne room accessible only during the opening siege. If you miss it, you can’t return until New Game Plus.
- Hyrcanian Forest canopy: Three shards behind a timed challenge door. The door opens for 30 seconds after you defeat all enemies in the western clearing. Rush through immediately.
- Sacred Archives vault: A shard behind a wall that only appears when you stand on a specific floor tile for 5 seconds. The tile is in the southwest corner of the main library.
- Pit of Eternal Sands: Six shards total, but two are in areas that become inaccessible if you progress the main story past Chapter 7. Grab them before entering Upper City.
Detailed collectible location guides often break down shards by chapter, but The Lost Crown’s non-linear structure means some shards are easier to grab during backtracking phases.
Best Amulet Combinations for Different Playstyles
Amulets provide passive bonuses and you can equip up to four simultaneously (with upgrades). Here are optimal loadouts:
Aggressive DPS build:
- Verethragna’s Wrath: +25% Athra gain
- Blade Dancer: Successful parries increase attack speed by 15% for 5 seconds (stacks 3x)
- Warrior’s Spirit: +20% damage when above 80% health
- Elusive Water: Extended dash invincibility frames for repositioning
This setup rewards perfect play. If you’re parrying consistently and staying healthy, your DPS skyrockets. Great for boss speedruns.
Tank/Sustain build:
- Immortal’s Resolve: Auto-revive once per life
- Mount Qaf’s Blessing: Regenerate 2% health per second when not attacking
- Stone Skin: Reduce all damage by 15%
- Chronos Pendant: Reduced time-ability cooldowns for more Shadow escapes
This lets you face-tank mechanics while learning patterns. Ideal for first-time players or New Game Plus difficulty spikes.
Speedrun/Mobility build:
- Feather Fall: Reduce fall damage by 90%
- Wind Runner: Increase movement speed by 20%
- Rush Master: Air dash cooldown reduced by 40%
- Chronos Pendant: Stacks with Rush Master for near-instant dash resets
Pure traversal optimization. Not ideal for boss fights, but cuts exploration time by 30-40%. Swap to a combat build before major encounters.
Xerxes Coin farming is crucial for buying all shop amulets. The best farming route is Lower City → The Depths loop. Clear all enemies (they drop 5-15 coins each), reset at Haven checkpoint, repeat. With the Fortune’s Favor amulet equipped (+30% coin drops), you’ll earn 500+ coins per 15-minute run.
Post-Game Content and New Game Plus Features
Completing the game unlocks New Game Plus (NG+), which carries over all abilities, amulets, and upgrades to a fresh playthrough with increased difficulty. Enemy damage scales up by 50%, health pools increase by 30%, and boss patterns include new attacks not present in the first playthrough.
NG+ exclusive content:
- Secret boss: Corrupted Simurgh. This optional encounter is accessible from Haven after collecting all 87 Memory Shards in NG+. It’s a 5-phase fight harder than anything in the base game, with mechanics that require frame-perfect parries and sub-1-second reaction times. Beating it unlocks the Simurgh’s Feather weapon skin and a unique ending cutscene.
- Master difficulty mode. Unlocks after finishing NG+ once. Enemies deal 2x damage, player damage is reduced by 30%, and parry windows shrink by 50%. This mode is designed for masochists and speedrunners optimizing for leaderboards.
- Immortal Trials. Post-game challenge rooms accessible from the Sacred Archives. These are wave-based combat gauntlets with modifiers (e.g., “no healing,” “time limit,” “one-hit death”). Completing all 15 trials unlocks cosmetic skins and the Chronos Blade, the highest-DPS weapon in the game.
NG+ also adds developer commentary nodes scattered throughout the world. Activating these plays audio clips from the design team discussing level layouts, boss mechanics, and cut content. There are 40 total nodes, a nice bonus for lore enthusiasts.
Speedrun community has optimized routes that complete NG+ in under 2 hours using sequence breaks and advanced tech. The current world record (as of March 2026) sits at 1 hour 47 minutes, utilizing a Dimensional Claw clip to skip the entire Pit of Eternal Sands section. Casual players can expect NG+ to take 8-12 hours if they’re not rushing.
Conclusion
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a masterclass in modern Metroidvania design, but it doesn’t hold your hand. Every boss has a learning curve, every platforming section demands precision, and every collectible rewards thorough exploration. Whether you’re gunning for 100% completion, testing your skills in Master difficulty, or just trying to see the credits roll, the strategies in this guide will get you there.
The beauty of The Lost Crown is how it respects your time while still challenging your skills. Checkpoints are generous, fast travel unlocks early, and the Screenshot Map feature (for marking puzzle solutions or collectibles) is one of the smartest quality-of-life additions in recent memory. Once you’ve mastered the core mechanics, parrying, time manipulation, and ability chaining, Mount Qaf becomes your playground.
Now get out there and reclaim the crown. Sargon’s waiting.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
