Soulrend Acts IV–V: the Ender Dragon, the Past and the Final Bosses

A map of the two acts

Act IV - Beyond Reality has 13 quests and Act V - Duties has 11. Both are linear, and each has only two or three quests that actually finish the act; the rest are side quests or optional bosses. Entering the End opens Act IV; the End portal and its eyes are covered on the End portal page.

1. Ender Dragon The Slay The Ender Dragon quest is tied to vanilla's dragon-kill advancement.
2. End Highlands After the dragon, entering the End Highlands biome opens Act V. These two are the whole Act V lock.
3. Ingots Act V asks for 4 Astral Ingots and 4 Nightmare Ingots; both are made from Universium.
4. Emblem and the Past The ingots and one Manifestation of Infinity give the emblem; the emblem takes you down into the Past.
5. Two bosses Beating the Scarlet Hunter and Arterius in the Past unlocks the Blessing of Mortusest; tick its checkbox to finish it.

Act IV: the Ender Dragon

Act IV's intro text describes the dragon as a guardian standing between you and the truth beyond the "Void". The main island is reshaped by YUNG's Better End Island, and the pack fixes the dragon's level: its level, damage budget and Boss Ultimatum status are in this page's boss list.

Rewards for the Slay The Ender Dragon quest:

• Dragonslayer Helmet: a helmet with one gem socket.
• Eye of Storm: one of the Cataclysm eyes; it opens Scylla's dimension (Eight Sins, on the End portal page).
• Dragon Head.

What the dragon drops

The pack changes the dragon's loot with two settings:

• A Dragon Egg on every kill. YUNG's Better End Island has "Resummoned Dragon Drops Egg" turned on. The setting's comment says it is off by default; because it is on, a resummoned dragon drops an egg too.
• Amnesia Scroll. The skill tree config has the dragon's Amnesia Scroll drop turned on; the scroll resets the tree with no penalty (Prologue and Act I).

Act IV has two more small side quests: Dragon's Breath (the quest text suggests it for "the best bookshelves"; the reward is random Chipped Gems and 4 Dragon's Breath) and The End button, which takes you to The End chapter (End structures).

End Highlands and the Act V gate

The End Highlands quest, which opens after the dragon, is a biome quest: you only need to set foot in the End Highlands biome in the End. The quest text warns that monsters there "can be very powerful". Its rewards are random Chipped Gems and a Warp Scroll (a teleport scroll); keep that scroll for the trip back from the Past (dropping into the Past).

This quest opens three paths at once: the Act V - Duties button, the optional Void Cathedral chain and the Manifestation of Infinity quest.

Manifestation of Infinity

Manifestation of Infinity (Apotheosis's ancient-rarity material) goes in the center of Act V's emblem recipe, so it is a required ingredient; the quest book still puts it in an Act IV side quest. The quest text does not say where it comes from.

• According to the wiki, you get it by salvaging gear of ancient rarity.
• Crushing an ancient-rarity item with Create gives 2 guaranteed Manifestations of Infinity plus 2 more at 50% each.

The most reliable source of ancient gear is the Ancient Reforging Table; loot rarity by dimension is on the Combat and equipment page. One is enough for the emblem, but the Esoteric Reforging Table needs two more (Galactic Core).

Optional: the Void Cathedral and The Nightwarden

After the End Highlands, the Find Void Cathedral quest opens; the quest text describes the structure as "a forgotten cathedral drifting beyond reality". Finding it opens two side quests:

• Obsidian Bookshelf ("Maximum POWER!"): a bookshelf item.
• Scroll (optional): the quest asks for a specific scroll, one that holds the Counterspell spell. The quest text describes it in one line as "useful on black holes".

After the Scroll quest comes Your test begins.: defeating The Nightwarden. That quest and the Cradle Of Will quest after it are marked optional and do not lock Act V.

The Nightwarden's language file has two messages: "The Nightwarden has adapted to …!" and "Every adaptation fades from the Nightwarden!". The Nightwarden gradually adapts to the damage types it takes and resists them. Only anti-magic such as Counterspell clears every adaptation, so keep the Counterspell scroll the quest asks for for this fight, and vary your damage types.

Quest rewards: 250 XP levels, two separate Perfect Gems picks, 2 Universium Ingots and a Wisdom Scroll. The Cradle Of Will quest gives a Void Manuscript.

Act V: from Universium to eight ingots

After Act V's opening quest, Duties, come two ingot quests: The Metal of the Stars asks for 4 Astral Ingots and Forged from Nightmares for 4 Nightmare Ingots. All three recipes are in the pack's own script; the ingot mod has no recipes of its own for them.

The math: 4 Nightmare + 4 Astral need 8 Universium; the Universium recipe gives 4 at a time, so that is two recipes, meaning 2 Dragon Eggs and 2 Abyssal Eggs. The Abyssal Egg is in the loot of The Leviathan, a Cataclysm boss. The 2 Universium from The Nightwarden only bring you to 6 and do not save you the second recipe (inferred from the game files).

The Emblem of the Past recipe

The Emblem of the Past (the emblem that drops you into the Past) is the pack's own item, and its only recipe is a shaped crafting table recipe. The pattern is ANA / NIN / ANA: Astral in the corners, Nightmare on the edge middles, Manifestation of Infinity in the center.

• Astral Ingot ×4: the four corners.
• Nightmare Ingot ×4: the top, bottom, left and right edge middles.
• Manifestation of Infinity ×1: the center.

The emblem does not stack (stack size 1). Crafting it completes Act V's emblem quest; the reward is random Flawed Gems and 10 Huge Estus Flasks. Each heals 75% of your maximum health (Huge Estus); go into the Past with them.

Dropping into the Past: a fall from Y=200

When you right click with the emblem, the pack teleports you into the Past at the same x and z coordinates, at a height of Y=200. Then:

• You get 30 seconds (600 ticks) of Slow Falling and drift down slowly.
• The emblem goes on a 5-second (100-tick) cooldown.
• The Wither's spawn sound plays and the chat says "You have been cast into the infinite trenches...".

Using the emblem while you are in the Past does nothing; you only get the message "You are already in the battlefield...". The script has no line that uses up the emblem; it stays in your hand after use.

Before you go into the Past

1. Healing Put the 10 Huge Estus Flasks from the emblem quest in your inventory; there is no safe place to rest in the Past (inferred from the game files).
2. The way back Carry a Warp Stone or the Warp Scroll from the End Highlands, and make sure you have discovered at least one waystone in the Overworld.
3. Food Chickens do not spawn and wheat seeds do not drop in the Past; bring food from outside.
4. Landing spot Because the drop keeps your x/z, you pick your landing spot in the Overworld. Look down during the 30-second glide and do not land in a crowd of soldiers (inferred from the game files).
5. Targets Both boss quests open with Visit the Past; the Ancient Church and the Gate of Disaster generate in the Past's Dead Wasteland biome. You can do them in either order.

The rules of the Past

The Past is a dimension run by the pack's own script. What the script and the dimension settings say:

• Endless storm. While you are in the Past, the script turns the weather into a thunderstorm every second.
• Darkness. The dimension has no skylight and its time is fixed.
• Light does not stop spawns. The dimension settings let monsters spawn at any light level; placing torches does not make an area safe.
• Limited food. Wheat seed items do not drop, and chickens and some fish do not spawn; bring your own food.
• Dragons become Elden. Ice and Fire dragons that spawn in the Past turn into armored "Elden" variants (Elden Beast, Elden Soldier's, Prince's and Watcher's Mount); your tamed dragon is not affected.

Soldiers

There are no ordinary undead in the Past: the script turns them into named, enlarged soldiers that are immune to knockback. The values in the table are the base values written in the script; mob levels are added on top, so the final in-game values are higher and could not be calculated.

Three spawn limits are in the script as well:

• Only one Decaying King can exist within 256 blocks at a time.
• No new soldier spawns if more than 3 are already within 24 blocks.
• No soldiers spawn within 96 blocks of a Past boss; the boss arenas stay clear of soldier crowds.

Loot: in the pack's Apotheosis config, affix rarity depends on the dimension. The config lists only ancient for the Past, but the game expects two values per line and skips it, so the Past has no rarity limit. The values for the other dimensions are on the Combat and equipment page.

Act IV–V bosses: the short list

Here you only get "where, at what level, why it matters"; for loot and tactics, follow each name to its card in the boss catalog. What the damage budget is gets explained on the Combat and equipment page, and how to read "fixed" and "scales with you" levels in the Act II boss list.

• Ender Dragon · The End · level 467, fixed · 20% budget (the fight lasts at least 5 seconds). Part of the Act V lock (with the End Highlands); a Dragon Egg on every kill.
• The Nightwarden · Void Cathedral (End Highlands) · level 500, fixed · 20% budget. Optional; adapts to damage types and gives 2 Universium.
• Ó Brolacháin, The Scarlet Hunter · Ancient Church (the Past, Dead Wasteland biome) · level scales with you (at most 200) · no budget. Quest reward YAMATO.
• Arterius, The Last Watcher · Gate of Disaster (the Past, Dead Wasteland) · level scales with you · no budget. Quest reward HF-MURASAMA.
• The Nightlord · Tree of Light (the Past, Dead Ocean biome) · level scales with you · no budget. It is not in the quest book, and no loot table for it was found in the files.

The Past bosses' numbers

The script renames the three bosses that spawn in the Past and writes their health and attack damage as base values: 12,000 health and 2,000 attack damage. These are the base values written in the file; mob levels are added on top, and the final in-game health could not be calculated.

The Past bosses have no fixed level: they take the Soulrend level of the nearest player (averaged with their party within 60 blocks), so at most 200. The 1,000–1,100 in the dimension file is not used by this pack. Check the final health in game by looking at the boss.

Arterius's and the Scarlet Hunter's own mod config (Nightfall Invade) adds three more protections. According to the config comments:

• Per-hit cap: a single hit takes at most 8% of Arterius's maximum health and 4% of the Scarlet Hunter's.
• Rising damage reduction: once accumulated damage passes a threshold (for Arterius it starts at 4% of maximum health and is full at 12%; for the Scarlet Hunter it is full at 6%), the damage they take is reduced by up to 90%, and the reduction decays to zero over 160 ticks (8 seconds).
• Blood shield: the Scarlet Hunter's blood shield lasts 2,400 ticks (2 minutes) and has a 2,400-tick cooldown.

The Galactic Core and the Decaying King

One of the side quests that opens on your first visit to the Past asks for Galactic Core (the esoteric-rarity material). The quest's only description is three words: "Find Decaying King". Its reward is three random Rare Loot rolls.

The Decaying King soldier replaces the Past's wither skeletons and is alone within 256 blocks; if one does not drop the core, look for another in a different area. Its base values are in the soldier table.

Esoteric Reforging Table

The Galactic Core is used for the last table in the Reforging chapter. The pack's recipe upgrades the Ancient Reforging Table:

• 1 Galactic Core (top middle)
• 2 Manifestations of Infinity with the Ancient Reforging Table between them (middle row)
• 3 Gloomslate Bricks (bottom row)

The Reforging chapter has two quests called "Finally!"; the one that depends on the Galactic Core quest asks for this table (the other is for the Simple Reforging Table). The table's behavior was not read from the pack's files; the order of the tables is on the Combat and equipment page.

Blessing of Mortusest: the end of the game

Entering the Past opens two structure quests: Enter Ancient Church and Enter Gate Of Disaster (5 XP levels each). Each structure leads to a boss quest:

• Defeat Scarlet Hunter Ó Brolacháin: 50 XP levels, random Perfect Gems and YAMATO.
• Defeat The Last Watcher Arterius: 50 XP levels, random Perfect Gems and HF-MURASAMA.

Defeating both unlocks the Blessing of Mortusest; tick its checkbox to claim the Zweiender. It is the last main-line quest in the quest book. The quest text puts the ending in one line: "Mortusest will come to congratulate you. Now all you can do is wait."

Act IV–V checklist

Tick off the steps of the last two acts here. Marks are stored only in this browser and share the same record as the series checklist on the Getting started page.

Where to go from here

• Full cards for the bosses on this page: Boss catalog
• Reforging tables, gems and the damage budget: Combat and equipment
• The previous step: Act III: Eight Sins and the End portal
• The start of the series: Getting started and the checklist

If something looks different in your game, let us know through the contact page; this guide was written for version v8.5.2 of the pack.

Frequently asked questions

How do you unlock Act V in Soulrend?

Beat the Ender Dragon in Act IV, then enter the End Highlands biome in the End. Those two quests open Act V - Duties; the Void Cathedral and The Nightwarden are optional.

What is the Emblem of the Past recipe?

A shaped crafting table recipe: Astral Ingots in the four corners, Nightmare Ingots on the four edge middles and a Manifestation of Infinity in the center. That is 4 Astral, 4 Nightmare and 1 Manifestation of Infinity in total.

How many times do I have to beat the Ender Dragon?

Once is enough for Act IV, but Act V's eight ingots take two Universium recipes and each recipe uses a Dragon Egg. The pack lets a resummoned dragon drop an egg too, so you need to beat the dragon at least twice.

How do you get out of the Past?

The emblem only takes you into the Past. The pack allows cross-dimension teleports, so you can return to a waystone you discovered earlier with a Warp Stone or Warp Scroll; no waystones generate in the Past. Because no spawn point can be set in the Past, dying also sends you back to your spawn point outside it.

Which Decaying King do I have to beat for the Galactic Core?

The soldier called Decaying King that spawns in place of wither skeletons in the Past. It drops a Galactic Core with a 50% chance when it dies. The Decaying King boss in the Nether does not drop one.

Do I have to beat the Nightwarden?

No. Its quest is marked optional and does not lock Act V. If you beat it, you get 250 XP levels, two Perfect Gems picks, 2 Universium Ingots and a Wisdom Scroll.

What is the last quest in Soulrend?

The Blessing of Mortusest. Beating the Scarlet Hunter Ó Brolacháin and Arterius, The Last Watcher in the Past opens it; ticking its checkbox gives the Zweiender. It is the last main-line quest in the quest book.

This guide is unofficial and is not affiliated with the makers of the Soulrend v8.5.2 pack. The content was prepared by inspecting the files of the installed pack (Minecraft 1.20.1 · Forge). Minecraft © Mojang Studios; this page is not approved by or associated with Mojang Studios or Microsoft. The Soulrend pack belongs to Apotheotic_Studios; the mods and images in it belong to their respective authors; names are trademarks of their respective owners. Credits: credits.json. Textures used on this page: Astral Calamity Extras (viliam, MCreator), Apotheotic Additions (Bryce792, MCreator), Waystones (BlayTheNinth), cataclysm. If you are a rights holder and want an image removed, tell us through the contact page and it will be taken down.