Dracula's Curse Block 5

Block 5 (Routes 6 and 9) for the game Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is the Underground Passage in which Alucard dwells. In the North American version, the first part is a tunnel system (also referred to as caves) filled with acid. In the Japanese version, it is bloody. The latter part of the passage are the Catacombs. 
==Overview==
==Sub-stages==
:Note that sub-stage names are unofficial.
*5-01: Underground Passage Entrance - Enter the tunnels, head right, and fight Big Eyes and Firemen, while avoiding low spiked ceilings. Head down and continue right over some collapsible blocks and falling acid that melts blocks. Take the upper door or choose to wait until acid melts enough blocks to reach the lower door.
*5-02: Dual Chambers - Face Slimes and low ceiling spikes along the upper path, or jump over some gaps and avoid Fuzz Busters on the lower path.
*5-03: Dirt Mound - Choose to take the upper path (may need to wait a while if on lower path) or wait for enough blocks to become melted to take the lower path.
*5-04: Fire and Water - Face Firemen along the upper path or cross over water and avoid Fuzz Busters along the lower path, potentially switching between the two at a vertically oscillating platform.
*5-05: Alucard's Tomb - Avoid the top or bottom of vertically moving double-side spike traps, depending on which path you're on. The paths converge at some grinding spike traps, then avoid more Fuzz Busters. Head up with the help of a levitating platform to an area of purplish cave walls. Avoid a Big Eye, head right, and then face what appears to be Dracula. After beating him, it turns out to be his son Alucard. Choose whether or not to allow him to join you (ditching Grant if he was with you).
*5-06: Catacombs - The purplish caves continue, although the area after this is treated like a separate stage, since you continue at block 5-06 if you run out of lives while in the caves. Continue heading right, battling Slimes and Mummies. Head up, then go to the upper platforms and head left, avoiding the Red Skeleton. At this point, you can choose to exit the caves and enter the Sunken City of Poltergeists or continue with the caves.
*5-07: Hall of the Skull Knight King - If you opted to stick with the caves, continue left through a greenish caves and avoid Fuzz Busters with low ceiling spikes. Cross a platform with falling and stacking blocks and fight Red Skeletons. Cross more falling block sections and then face the Skull Knight King in the catacombs. Then reach Dracula's Castle through its own cave network at the Basement.
==Enemy Data==
==Gallery==
===Artworks===
NP C3 Mummy Enemy.JPG|Mummy from Nintendo Power.
NP C3 Alucard.JPG|Alucard boss from Nintendo Power.
Cv3 alucard.jpg|Alucard from Nintendo Power.
===Enemy design===
Design documents for enemies found in the The History of Castlevania e-book
File:Slime Design Sheet.png|Slime
File:Lava Beast Design Sheet.png|Lava Beast
File:Alucard Boss Design Sheet.png|Alucard
===Maps===
CV3 B4 to B5 Stage Map.jpeg|Stage map
Cv3 block501.png|Stage rip.
Stage Map - Dracula's Curse - 04.png|Path selection.
CV3 Block 5 Concept Map.JPG|Concept Map included in the Book of the Crescent Moon.
CV3 Block 5 Game Flow Map.JPG|Concept Game Flow Map included in the Book of the Crescent Moon.
Dracula's Curse Block 5-1 Map.gif|In-game map, Part 1
Dracula's Curse Block 5-6 Map.gif|In-game map, Part 2
Dracula's Curse Block 5-7 Map.gif|In-game map, Part 3
==Videos==
Castlevania 3- Dracula's Curse Part 5 by United VirusX
==Other appearances==
The Underground Passageway is a network of varied tunnels that link various destinations to Dracula Castle or within it. They may be made-made tunnels or natural caverns. Their chambers can be used as Dungeons and Torture Chambers as well as Catacombs. They are usually located beneath the Underground Waterway section of the castle, though they may also include them. 
Stages that can be considered a part of the Underground Passageway include:
* Castlevania: Simon's Quest - Dabi's Path, Lower Road
* Haunted Castle - Caves
* Castlevania: The Adventure - Adventure Stage 2
* Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - Block 5
* Super Castlevania IV - Stage 8
* Castlevania Chronicles - Block 3
* Castlevania: Rondo of Blood - Stage 3'
* Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Catacombs
* Castlevania: Circle of the Moon - Catacomb''
* Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance - Skeleton Cave, Luminous Cavern
* Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - Underground Cemetery
* Castlevania: Curse of Darkness - Garibaldi Temple (Catacombs of Grief and Sorrow)
* Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Skeleton Cave
* Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate - Castle's Outer Wall, Forgotten Caves, Deadly Waterfalls
* Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls - Corpse Mountain
One entrance to the Underground Passageway lies beyond marsh caves. These marshes are often found beyond the lake or moat that the castle resides within, but sometimes appear on castle grounds. The marshes that lead up to the passageway appear in Simon's Quest (Dabi's Path and Aljiba Woods, possibly extensions of the Denis Marsh and/or Joma Marsh), Dracula's Curse (Block 4), Rondo of Blood (earlier in Stage 3'), and Castlevania Chronicles (earlier in Block 3). The Abandoned Pit in Symphony of the Night may also represent this gateway. While it doesn't appear to be a marsh-filled cavern, or contain frogs or mud-men, you can hear frog chirping in the background music. Swamps were added to the area representing the pit, The Road to Hell, in Grimoire of Souls.
The Underground Passageway may also lead to the Sunken City or other aquatic environments like Somnus Reef, potentially connecting those destination to the marshlands and Dracula's Castle. The paths to these destinations can be found in Dracula's Curse, Rondo of Blood, and Order of Ecclesia.
In some games that lack stages located outside of Dracula's Castle, the Underground Passageway appears to dead-end and lead to no where. The general shape of these areas tend to be horizontally elongated though, and one could imagine that they might lead outside the castle if that was within the scope of the game. Such is the case for the stages found in Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow, and Harmony of Dissonance.
Entrances to the passageways may be marked by a giant beast skeleton mouth. These were first seen in the concept art in the Dracula's Curse Wallachia stage map concept art, though it was not depicted in the final game. Similar mouths can be seen in Rondo of Blood (Stage 3) and Harmony of Dissonance (entrance to the Skeleton Cave). 
The underground passageways are laced with a variety of hazards and traps traps meant to impede intruders' progress. These include:
* Caustic blood, acid, and water - The first clue that these are not safe places to travel though was the sharp stalactites hanging from the ceilings in Simon's Quest. These pose no danger to the player. However, they appear to be dripping with blood. Dabi's Path also contains a pool of what may be blood in it. It looks and behaves similar to the other poison marshlands found in that game, and is damaging to the touch. However, it appears a deeper reddish color than other swamp areas. The groundwater found in Haunted Castle turns to blood partway through the stage. The cave walls in Dracula's Curse also appear to be seeped in blood, which was altered in the North American version of the game. The ceilings drip a caustic substance that melts the floor in Dracula's Curse. While this may be acid, it may also be a kind of monster's blood. This substance also appears in Super Castlevania IV, where it appears red like blood, where it was censored to be green in the North American version. It also forms pools that are damaging to the touch in Super Castlevania IV, similar to those found in Simon's Quest. Harmony of Dissonance may have offered an explanation as to the nature of this substance. In a boss room where a pillar bleeds, Juste Belmont can hit a switch. A large shriek is heard and the next area begins to fill will tons of blood. Juste takes a raft to the top of the cavern as the blood level rises. There, he can see a giant monstrosity that had been crushed by a spiked monster masher, presumably having been crushed as a result of Juste hitting the switch, with its blood pooling into the area below. In the Deadly Waterfalls of the alternate timeline game Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate, the caustic water need to be shielded from when passed under, and is explained to be the result of thousands of corpses being thrown into the moat, which infected the underground streams.
* Falling boulders - The caves in Haunted Castle utilize strategically placed falling, bouncing, and rolling boulders to impede intruders. These can be difficult to avoid. These may have been replaced with rolling Big Eyes in The Adventure.
* Surface spikes - Dracula's Curse replaced the stalactites with metal spikes on the ceilings that do damage when touched. These spikes recurred in Symphony of the Night, and line all the surfaces of the dark room. 
===Super Castlevania IV===
The dungeon stage of Super Castlevania IV is based on this level. It has some similar acid or acidic blood, depending on the region, spike traps, and skeletons in the background. It has enough man-made structures within the cave structure to be classified as a dungeon, however. Caskets resembling Alucard's caskets can also be seen in parts of this stage.
===Castlevania Chronicles===
An entrance to the Underground Passage is found beyond a marsh cave in Block 3.
===Castlevania: Symphony of the Night===
The Catacombs of Symphony of the Night appear to be based in part on the Underground Passage. The general environment is somewhat similar to the Catacomb section, of course. The dark room with the spikes in it may be a reference to the low-lying ceiling spikes that can be found throughout the early part of the pre-Catacomb section of the passage.
===Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance===
The Japanese version of Dracula's Curse has red colored walls, which could be blood. The various spiked mashing implements could be the source of much of this blood. The acid dripping from the ceiling could represent some kind of caustic blood running throughout the walls of the caves, although it doesn't appear red. The Luminous Cavern of Castle B in Harmony of Dissonance could be a reference to this stage. Blood runs down one of the pillars dripping by a skull ornamentation on a pillar. Beyond this, flipping a switch causes a giant mashing spike to crush a monstrosity, which causes blood to pool and fill the caverns. Also, some of the background of these caves in Castle B is a similar purplish color to that found in Block 5-06.
The Skeleton Cave likely corresponds with the catacombs of Block 5-07 and shares the same Skull Knight boss. It is as if all the bones lying around throughout Block 5 were gathered and removed from the Luminous Caverns and then put into one place.
==External links==
*NES Game Atlas hints: Scans of pages 166-167 (Route 6) and 168-169 (Route 9) hosted at the Castlevania Dungeon.
*Nintendo Power - Issue #13 hints: Scans of pages 62-63 (Route 6 - The Lost Son of Dracula) and 68-69 (Route 9 - Hall of the Skull Knight King) hosted at the Castlevania Dungeon.
*YouTube - Let's Play Castlevania III Dracula's Curse - Second Quest Stages 01 to 06 / 07, Region Differences Stages 01 to 06 / 07
Category:Catacombs
Category:Caves
Category:Dracula's Curse Locations