Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse has three endings — Belmont’s Fall, The Hunt Goes On, and Curse Lifted — decided entirely by what you do in the Clock Tower before the final fight with Dracula and whether you complete the Gallery of Four Virtues first. Current as of the game’s October 2026 launch version. Spoiler warning: full ending details follow below.
Ending 1: Belmont’s Fall (Bad Ending)
This is the ending you get by rushing. Reach the Clock Tower, beat Isaac (the boss blocking it, known as the Zealot), and if you walk straight through the left door into Dracula’s trap without disabling the Cursed Horologium first, Death ambushes you and Rose loses. It’s less a true ending than a punishment for skipping a step, and it’s confirmed by both TheGamer and KeenGamer‘s guides as the fastest way to see credits roll, and the worst one to actually get.
Ending 2: The Hunt Goes On (Normal Ending)
Disable the Cursed Horologium properly this time, using the Soul Harvest Arcana you get from defeating Death earlier in the Notre-Dame storyline, then fight through both phases of Dracula — his humanoid form in the Court of the Night, then the massive winged demon on the Castle Rooftops — without using the Absolution attack. Dracula falls, but the ending’s own title tells you what it means: the curse itself isn’t lifted, just this particular monster.
Ending 3: Curse Lifted (True Ending)
The true ending adds a full side-quest before the final fight. In the Gallery of Four Virtues at Notre-Dame, you collect four blessings tied to four Arcana — Infernal Pyre for Courage, Freezing Path for Temperance, Chains of Justice for Justice, and Mirror Walk for Prudence — then defeat Rose’s own shadow doppelganger.
Beating that fight upgrades her original Arcana, The Cursed, into The Self, swapping its fireball attack for Absolution, a far heavier finisher. Use Absolution to finish Dracula and Rose actually lifts the curse on herself, rather than just killing the thing that caused it.
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse Endings, Compared
| Ending | What triggers it | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Belmont’s Fall (Bad) | Enter Death’s trap in the Clock Tower without disabling the Cursed Horologium | Rose is defeated before reaching Dracula |
| The Hunt Goes On (Normal) | Disable the Horologium with Soul Harvest, then beat both Dracula phases without Absolution | Dracula is defeated; Rose’s curse remains |
| Curse Lifted (True) | Complete the Four Virtues trials, beat Rose’s shadow, then finish Dracula with Absolution | Rose defeats Dracula and lifts her own curse |
You Don’t Need Three Separate Save Files
All three endings are reachable from a single save. After the credits roll on the Bad or Normal ending, the game offers a Resume option that drops you back in just before the final fight instead of forcing a fresh run, so seeing every ending is a matter of replaying one boss gauntlet twice more, not three full playthroughs.
Why the Structure Rewards Exploring, Not Rushing
What makes this worth explaining rather than just listing is the shape of the design: the game doesn’t punish you for reaching Dracula fast, it just withholds the one ending where Rose actually wins something for herself. That’s a deliberate callback to how older Castlevania games have handled multiple endings for decades.
Symphony of the Night’s true ending famously required a specific item most first-time players never found. Belmont’s Curse modernizes that idea by telling you exactly what each ending requires in its own menus, rather than hiding it the way the series used to, but it keeps the same underlying lesson: the series has always made its best ending the one that asks you to do more, not just finish first. It’s a lesson critics rewarded on release, too — Belmont’s Curse holds a 97% critic-recommend rate on OpenCritic, the highest for any mainline Castlevania game since 2005.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many endings does Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse have?
Three: Belmont’s Fall, the bad ending; The Hunt Goes On, the normal ending; and Curse Lifted, the true ending, each requiring progressively more of the game’s optional content to reach.
What do I need to do to get the true ending in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse?
Complete all four Gallery of Four Virtues trials at Notre-Dame, defeat Rose’s shadow doppelganger to unlock the Absolution attack, then defeat Dracula using Absolution in the final fight.
Can I get all three endings on one save file?
Yes. After clearing the Bad or Normal ending, choose Resume from the end-credits menu to return to just before the final boss and attempt a different ending without restarting.
What happens if I rush to Dracula without doing anything else?
You’ll likely trigger the Bad ending, Belmont’s Fall, by walking into Death’s trap in the Clock Tower without first disabling the Cursed Horologium using the Soul Harvest Arcana.
Is the true ending harder to get than the normal ending?
It requires more content, not necessarily a harder final boss: the Four Virtues trials and the Rose’s-shadow fight are an extra gauntlet before Dracula, on top of the same two-phase boss fight the normal ending also requires.
Picking your way through the Clock Tower first? Our Belmont’s Curse best weapons ranking covers all 28 weapons across the game’s seven weapon types, and if you’re deciding whether this one earns a spot in the all-time canon, see our 10 best Castlevania games, ranked.
