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Arcana System
August 20, 2026 at 03:19 AM
Created Arcana page covering the four named cards, the one-card limit, Works of Mercy, Blessings and the boss companion layer (2026-08-19)
The Arcana are the signature system of Castlevania: Belmont's Curse and the replacement for the sub-weapons of earlier entries in the series. Konami's own description is direct: once defeated, bosses are sealed into Rose's tarot cards, turning them into Arcana, and their skills are then used to cast spells and to obtain unique special actions.
The deck was left to Rose by her mother, Sypha Belnades. It is also the progression guide. Cards start blank, progressively reveal the image of the boss she needs to defeat as she gets closer to it, and fill in completely once that boss is absorbed.
Only one Arcana can be equipped at a time. That single constraint drives most of the decision-making around the system, because every card carries both an offensive spell and a special action, and swapping between them is a deliberate choice rather than a matter of cycling sub-weapons mid-fight. Spells are cast from the same mana pool used for healing, which recharges by landing attacks on enemies.
Arcana | Source | Effect |
|---|---|---|
Cursed Flame | Held from the start | A fireball. It is not a boss drop, and Rose has it from the opening. |
Holy Cross | A thrown cross that returns like a boomerang and can be caught. | |
Infernal Pyre | Joan of Arc | Erupts flame across the full horizontal width of the platform Rose is standing on. Powerful, and expensive in mana. The name comes from preview coverage rather than from Konami. |
Holy Light | Joan of Arc | An ability rather than a spell. Holding the trigger makes Rose intangible to Chaos Shards; a perfectly timed press parries instead. |
Petrifying gaze | Medusa | Turns enemies to stone. Konami has not published a card name for it. |
The stated boss count implies further Arcana beyond these, but no other card has been named and none should be assumed. Card titles reported for the first two slots are hedged in the coverage they come from and are not recorded here.
Each Arcana lists three Works of Mercy, which are objectives tied to that card. They are not all combat tasks: some are exploration or collection goals. Completing one grants a point.
Arcana | Documented Work of Mercy |
|---|---|
Cursed Flame | Hit or kill twenty enemies with the fireball |
Holy Cross | Kill five enemies with a single throw |
Holy Cross | Kill ten enemies with a whip attack |
Holy Cross | Find three different whip-type weapons |
Holy Light | Deflect a set number of attacks |
Various | Hit an enemy five times with that card's spell |
Various | Find hidden places on the map |
Two of these numbers have been mistaken for a contradiction. Hitting one enemy five times with a spell and killing twenty enemies with the Cursed Flame are separate Works of Mercy on separate cards, and both figures are correct.
Points earned from Works of Mercy buy a Blessing for that Arcana, chosen from several options rather than being handed out on a fixed track. The Blessing that gets assigned then carries an unlockable Gift on top of it. Blessings change how a card behaves rather than only raising a number.
Arcana | Documented Blessing |
|---|---|
Holy Cross | Throw two crosses at once |
Holy Cross | The cross deals more damage the farther it travels |
Holy Cross | Catching the cross on the return refunds ten per cent of the mana cost for every enemy it hit, up to sixty per cent |
Cursed Flame | A larger projectile with heavier pushback |
Weapons and Relics carry their own upgrade criteria alongside this, which is covered on Progression and Upgrades.
Sealing a boss into a card does not remove it from the story. Rose can talk to the ones she has absorbed, and what answers is the version of that character from before the corruption took hold, released by its own defeat. Each has a distinct personality and its own agenda, and how helpful they are varies with how far gone they were.
The Fallen is amiable and cooperative.
Joan of Arc is openly helpful.
Medusa stays antagonistic, claims to see the future, and wants Rose to fail.
This layer is separate from the ghost clues Rose collects around the city, which come from spirits rather than from bosses and are stored in the same deck menu. Every boss and the rewards each one pays out are listed on Bosses.
