The deeper you go into the accursed world of Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, the more layers of secrets, formidable foes, and untapped potential within your character will be revealed to you. Perhaps the most interesting of all the game’s hidden systems is the Red Death Skill Tree — an original and high-end specialization path that lets you discover lethal powers and build a whole new build around them.
Unlike the typical skill trees that you find early on in the game, Red Death is not readily available. You need to play through main story content, discover the correct location, and finish a certain side quest that most players overlook on a normal playthrough. Below is everything you need to know.
What is the Red Death Skill Tree?
The Red Death skill tree is a hidden branch of advancement that opens up to some of the strongest and blood-focused skills in the game. It’s perfect for those who like dark, life-siphoning builds, high-risk, high-reward fighting, or simply want to be immersed in the more arcane side of Avalon’s lore. The skills revolve around death, vitality manipulation, and aggressive strategies.
It is locked to a specific questline and can only be unlocked upon reaching a specific point in the game’s main campaign.
How to Unlock Red Death Skill Tree?
Reach the Second Major Zone
In order to unlock the Red Death tree, you need to advance so far into the main story that you will gain access to the second zone. This zone is opened after playing for several hours, after you’ve finished the main quests in the initial area and explored further towards the interior.
You’ll know you’ve arrived at the correct location when you come to a much larger, more populated settlement with important places like a hospital, noble homes, and multiple large NPC factions.
Locate the Hospital
Once you’re in the middle town of the second zone (usually called “the big city” or “capital” by players), head to the hospital. This isn’t always immediately clear, so look for signs, or ask around NPCs.
Within the hospital, search for a quest-offering NPC — usually a doctor or someone with ties to healing or patient administration. He or she will offer you a quest by the name of “Perinde Ac Cadaver.”
(Translation: “As If a Corpse.” Trust us, it’s as creepy as that sounds.)
Complete the “Perinde Ac Cadaver” Quest
This quest is your introduction to the Red Death skill tree. It includes hunting down cursed men, checking out ritual locations, and committing some dubious acts. Without getting too far into spoiler territory, it has to do with Avalon’s death and corruption themes.
Look forward to the following:
- Run-ins with necromantic elements or plague-ridden people.
- Moral decisions that can affect your alignment or standing.
- Combat encounters against powerhouses enemies or mini-bosses.
- Ritual items or cursed objects to collect.
Once you complete the quest, you will get access to the Red Death tree. This could be in the shape of a skill book, a dialogue choice, or a ritual altar where you commit to this new path.
Unlock and Equip Red Death Skills
After unlocking, the Red Death tree is accessible as any other skill path. You can now allocate skill points here to unlock its exclusive benefits.
Some of the reported abilities are:
- Blood Leech: Heal from enemies you hit.
- Sanguine Blade: Increase damage taken while at 50% HP or lower.
- Corpse Surge: Cause area explosion when you slay an enemy.
- Red Resilience: Get damage resistance based on the number of corpses around.
These are not officially displayed in the UI until you unlock the tree, so finding every node is the fun.
Tips for Red Death Builds
- Synergize with Bleed or Life-Steal Gear: Red Death performs optimally when you’re always receiving and delivering damage. Equipment with lifesteal, DoT effects, or HP increases complements well.
- Employ Summons or AoE: Skills that create a lot of corpses in no time (such as skeleton summons or AoE spells) synergize with some Red Death passives.
- Stay Mobile: Red Death builds can be glass cannons. You’ll deal high damage but be relatively vulnerable, so dodge and movement skills are essential.
- Experiment: Red Death can shift your entire combat style. It’s perfect for respeccing into a darker, more offensive build.
