Guild Wars 2 Twisted Castle Guide

Welcome to my guide for the Guild Wars 2 raid event, Twisted Castle (TC), the third encounter in Stronghold of the Faithful (Wing 3). This is a detailed guide on the mechanics of the event including various strategies that cater to everyone from beginners to experienced raiders. If you’re brand new to raiding, I recommend reading my Path to Endgame guides first.

Know Before You Go

The Twisted Castle is a scripted encounter like Spirit Woods. You are constantly on the move and there are no mini-bosses to fight, so there isn’t a set squad composition. Often squads use whichever professions they had fighting the Keep Construct. Druids and Engineers can perform all the button skips, making them particularly useful.

Prerequisites

• Raids: Forsaken Thicket Waters mastery. No one needs this mastery, but it is useful to have, especially if your squad gets lost or confused, causing the event to take longer.

Recommendations

• Movement speed increase: The Twisted Castle is a mobile encounter, so having permanent Swiftness; signets that increase movement speed; and teleports, shadowsteps, and leaps is helpful.
• Portals: Mesmers or Thieves can make the event easier by bringing or .
• Pulls: This makes it easy to move haunting statues and group up White Mantle enemies.

General Mechanics

The goal of this event is to find and activate five buttons throughout the Twisted Castle, which allows you to ring the bell at the end and takes you to Xera. Once you kill the group of White Mantle down the steps from Keep Construct’s room, the encounter will begin and everyone will be in combat and unable to glide for the duration of the event.

Madness

Madness is a stacking debuff applied to every player during the event. It increases at a rate of one stack every five seconds but increases faster at a rate of one stack every second if a character is facing the central rotating pillar. You can track the number of stacks you have by looking at the purple castle icon on your buff bar.

It applies different effects every 10 stacks. At 30 stacks, you’ll also receive an eye icon over your head, which will change color at subsequent intervals.

Stacks	Effect	Icon
10	Crippled (5 seconds)
20	Crippled (10 seconds)
30	5,000 damage (only if facing the spire)
40	Torment (5 stacks for 10 seconds)
50	Torment (10 stacks for 20 seconds)
60	10,000 damage (only if facing the spire)
70	Torment (20 stacks for 20 seconds)
80	Fear (3 seconds)
90	Fear (5 seconds)
99	Instant defeat

There are various fountains around the maze that players can interact with if they have the Forsaken Thicket Waters mastery. Players can choose to either “Dip your hands into the water,” removing 10 stacks of Madness, or “Drink the water,” granting temporary Madness immunity.

Haunting Statues

Throughout the maze are White Mantle statues, similar in appearance to those in the Keep Construct’s room. The statues have a small red PBAoE which applies Spacial Distortion, unavoidably teleporting players back to the beginning of the maze.

They have an effect called Creeping Pursuit: as long as a character is looking at them, they are frozen in place. However, if no character is facing them, they will rush at a nearby player, attempting to trap them in their AoE.

The statues have extremely high health and Toughness, so while you can attack them, it is impractical. They are also susceptible to hard CC, so you can Pull them off to the side, allowing you or your squadmates to get past.

Navigating the Maze

The Twisted Castle is comprised of many different shapes and sizes of layered floating platforms. Being Pushed or Feared off one means almost certain death. To get to different sections of the maze, players must approach and interact with active gateways pulsing pink and purple, sending them to a predefined location. Players can also drop down onto other platforms, but gliding is disabled in the maze, so they will take fall damage. If there are White Mantle enemies on the other side of a gate, you must defeat them for another gate on that platform to activate or for stone doors to open.

Some of the stones that make up the platforms are false, indicated by visual distortion, particularly around the edges. Players who step on them will fall through.

There are a couple of trap passages in the maze surrounded by pulsating pink and purple walls. In these areas, you’ll take high damage over time, meaning you need to run straight through and get to the next gate as fast as possible.

There are seven buttons total, but you only need to activate five to be able to interact with the closed gate at the end and ring the bell. Since it would be confusing to describe how to get to each one individually, I’ve marked the map below with the locations of gateways, the places each one takes you, and the buttons. 

Only one player needs to reach the end as long as all five buttons have been activated. There is no timer for the event, but it is somewhat limited by accumulating Madness stacks.

Skips

There are several skips you can use. I’ll detail the practical ones below, i.e. ones you’ll encounter on almost every run. One allows you to access the Heart and Square buttons and Gate 15 a lot faster, which leads to the end. The other three are quicker methods of getting to buttons. If you’re using a skip that requires a certain weapon or skill, remember to equip it before starting since you can’t swap mid-maze!

Circle Button

When you enter Gate 2, you’ll end up on a rectangular platform with White Mantle enemies. After killing them, if you take a few steps toward Gate 3 and look down on the right, you’ll see a platform with the Circle button and two haunting statues. There are two ways of accomplishing this skip: for the first, you must be a Druid, while a few professions can achieve the second.

If you’re a Druid wielding a staff, you can move out on the very corner of the left piece of stone jutting out. From here you can aim (Staff 3) on the edge of the scrollwork on the closest column. The center of the AoE should be just on top of it. If done properly, this should move you to the top of the column. Or you can aim the skill on the rock over the column; this is an easier way to aim but it will put you on the platform and you’ll take some fall damage.

The other way to achieve the skip is to stand on the right piece of stone, facing the corner of the platform below, and use a leap or similar movement skill. Starting from the back of the stone, running forward, and using the skill on the edge works best. The following leaps work: ( Guardian Greatsword 3), ( Ranger Sword 2), and ( Warrior Sword 2). These three skills will usually put you on the narrow lip jutting out from the platform, so you’ll have to jump up. You’ll also take heavy fall damage, so have your heal skill ready to go.

You can also use the skills ( Elementalist Dagger 4) or ( Engineer Utility) from the same spot; these are safer bets since you travel farther.

Fair warning that the skills ( Ranger Greatsword 3) and ( Warrior Greatsword 5) do not work as they lack the upward and/or forward momentum to propel you over there.

Heart & Square Buttons

When you enter Gate 4, it will take you to a U-shaped platform with two gateways. When you kill the enemies, both gates will become active. If you go toward Gate 5 and look down, you’ll see another platform with Gate 15, steps leading down from it, and the Heart button. If you go to the very edge of the stone jutting out and Dodge (not jump) off, aiming for the top of Gate 15’s arch (where my commander tag is in the screenshot), you can survive the fall. Don't attempt this if you are Crippled, as this impacts distance traveled.

Any profession can do this, but usually, a Mesmer or a Thief will leave a portal on the U-shaped platform and perform this trick in case others miss. They can heal themselves when they get down, step off the arch, and then leave the exit portal on the landing at the top of the stairs.

From here you can activate the Heart button, kill the White Mantle, which opens the stone doors, and then go through and activate the Square button. Climbing back up the stairs and entering Gate 15 will take you to the end of the maze.

Spiral Button

From the Star button, you can see the Spiral button right below. Since the platforms are so close together, you can jump down, but if you have a movement skill, you can use it to play it safe. You can also use a ground-targeted leap to jump onto the arch by the button.

Triangle Button

If you go through Gate 15, you’ll be taken to a long stretch of winding platform. If you go left from the fountain, you can get to the end of the maze. However, if you go right, you’ll find yourself right across from the Triangle button. You need to be on a Druid or an Engineer to accomplish this skip.

On a Druid, you can aim (Staff 3) anywhere on the opposite platform.

On an Engineer, is the safest and easiest bet, but you can also use (Rifle 4). For this, you need to be directly behind the archway on the very edge of the stone railing. If you’re far enough out, your range indicator should just be able to reach the opposite side.

Once on the lip of the platform, you’ll need to jump up to the actual platform to step on the button. To do this, go to the second area where stones are missing, diagonal right from the button. If you stand in the middle of it, jump, and then move forward, you’ll be able to get up.

This skip can be useful if a couple of people made it through Gate 15 but you realize you forgot a button somewhere along the way. This way you don’t have to return to the start and go through the maze again to get a different one.

Walkthrough

This is a quick and easy method that shows one way to complete the maze, but there are many combinations of buttons and strategies used to get to them. This walkthrough utilizes the Heart & Square and Gate 15 skip and either the Circle or Spiral button skips.

Everyone should go through Gate 1 at the start. You’ll end up in a trap hallway with pulsing damage. Run straight through and use your heal skill if you need to. Interact with the already active Gate 2 at the end.

You’ll be dropped on a rectangular platform with a group of White Mantle. Kill them and take care not to fall off the edge. Gates 3 and 4 will become active.

One player should go through Gate 3 and activate the Arrow button. They can also use the fountain if needed. Using the gate on the other side of the fountain will take them back to the start.

If you have a capable profession and player comfortable with it, they can use the Circle button skip. They can step inside one of the haunting statues’ AoEs to go back to the start. If no one performs this skip, you’ll need to use either the Spiral or Triangle button skip.

Both the Arrow and Circle button players can follow the steps back to the rectangular platform and rejoin the group by entering Gate 4.

While those players are hitting the buttons, the remaining squad can go through Gate 4. You’ll be facing the spire as you run toward it, so be quick. You’ll be put on the U-shaped platform with a group of White Mantle. Killing them will activate both gates on the platform (and give your button people a chance to catch up).

If you have a Thief or Mesmer, they can place a portal up top and then perform the Dodge skip off the platform and down to Gate 15. Otherwise, at least a few players will need to do this since there are more enemies waiting below. Leave one player on the U-shaped platform and have them enter Gate 5.

The players down below can jump off the stairs onto the platform (instead of trying to avoid the statues), kill the White Mantle, and activate the Heart and Square buttons.

The player who went through Gate 5 will need to wait for the double doors in front of them to open (triggered by the main group killing the mobs down below) and then activate the Star button. If no one did the Circle skip before, they can jump off with Swiftness or use a movement skill to get to the platform below and activate the Spiral button too. This player doesn’t have to rejoin the main group if they don’t want to, as from here it’s just a sprint to the end.

Once the fifth button has been activated (or the fourth if you want to do the Triangle button), the main group can go up the stairs and through Gate 15. If the haunting statues are blocking the stairs, you can Pull them away or lure them down by having everyone face away for a couple of seconds.

Once through Gate 15, you can take a second to use the fountain if you want. If desired, one player can go right to perform the Triangle button skip while everyone else goes left. The White Mantle enemies on the way to the end can be killed or avoided since they aren’t necessary to open any door or interact with the bell. There are several haunting statues along the path, so if you’re ignoring the mobs, you should use any Swiftness, movement skills, and Condition Cleanses you have at your disposal.

Be cautious when you reach the grassy area with floating stones—there are a few gaps in them wide enough to fall through, so jump carefully. After this, you simply have to climb a couple of flights of stairs, interact with the double door, and then the bell will ring and the maze will be cleared.