Crimson Moon Forsaken Streets

Forsaken Streets is where every preview starts and where most players will spend their first hunt. Official early-look footage showed gates igniting, Hellgrowth tendrils wrapping scaffolding, and a teaching boss at the end of the run. This page is built from that footage, Steam copy, and achievement strings. It is not a full walkthrough — authored districts remix packs and modifiers, so one safe path would be a lie. It is a faction and architecture brief so you zone in knowing what the room will ask.

Why this ward matters

It is the onboarding space. Designers made it accessible enough for a first run while still showing what the game feels like: tight alleys that punish panic rolling, Hellgrowth that fills corridors, and a vampire mix-up that teaches you the shield is not decorative. If you learn nothing else here, learn that the perfect parry achievement was designed for this ward.

Crimson Moon developer AMA on bosses and systems

Factions you will meet

Hellgrowth dominates the visual identity. Red viscera eats scaffolding, walls, and doorways. These are the corruption-made-flesh abominations. Reach weapons and radius Weapon Arts earn their keep here. Do not bring a rapier and expect to poke from safety when the growth has already closed the gap.

Vampires appear in the street-level mix. They are the reason the shield matters in a “fast” melee game. Expect grabs, repositioning, and the classic vampire tell: a long wind-up before a punishing strike you should have parried.

Infernal Legion packs push from the occupying force angle. Demons are the muscle. Preview players noted that standard fodder melted quickly and elites forced the actual combat decision.

Undead fill the interiors. Execute and move. Save your Weapon Art for the elite hiding behind the last skeleton, not for the first three.

Architecture and camera

Alleyways and tight street corridors are the visual theme. This creates natural chokepoints that work for and against you. A two-hander heavy attack into a pack of Hellgrowth in a narrow street is satisfying. The same swing into a vampire that repositioned behind you in the same corridor is a life spent. Lock-on is your friend here. Hellgrowth in open courts is manageable; Hellgrowth in a chokepoint you cannot see around is where the parry achievement becomes personal.

The teaching boss

Preview coverage and achievement data confirm a district boss at the end of Forsaken Streets. The fight is designed as a graduation exam, not a wipe check. Expect the boss to cycle through attacks that test what you learned in the ward: a Hellgrowth grab to punish overextension, a vampire strike you must parry, and an Infernal Legion demon enrage phase. If you enter the boss room with one life left and no consumables used, you probably skipped too much. If you enter with two lives and a full gauge, you saved the Angel for the right room.

Loot priorities

Chests in Forsaken Streets are your early gear foundation. Co-op drops can roll multiple items so partners are not fighting over one sword. Priority: any weapon whose Weapon Art you understood in the first pack you used it on. Armor that fits the sentence your weapon started. Trinkets with passives that feed your art or your survival. Do not hoard commons. Purify what you used, not what looked rare.

A first run in Forsaken Streets

1. Equip the sword-and-shield starter. You are here to learn camera and stamina.
2. Lock on to elites. Let the fodder come to you.
3. Parry the vampire wind-up. Every time. That is the habit that carries through every other ward.
4. Save Angel Mode for the boss room.
5. Open every chest on the path. Skip the detour for a common if the boss door is open.
6. Return, purify the art you pressed, then read weapons with a real preference.

Forsaken Streets is the first sentence of the game. Learn the grammar here and every other ward becomes a chapter you can read.