How to Free Maria Renard in Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania

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With the DLC pumping new life into , there's a lot of hidden content locked away for players to discover and free, like Maria Renard. An iconic character from the game series, this young vampire huntress gives players both a new outfit when she is first released, and a new random weapon players can stumble across in future runs.

Like Richter Belmont, she is locked away inside one of the DLC environments, specifically the Castle's Outskirts Biome. While freeing Richter unlocks a special mode in , freeing Maria does not. Still, the weapon the player gets for doing so is well worth the effort. Byakko, with the item labeled as Maria's Cat, is cute, vicious, and an absolute joy to run around with. He takes up an equipment slot by sitting on the player's should and occasionally getting up to wander around and slash at enemies he passes by. He can also be reactivated to deal out a bit of critical damage if the player is in a pinch.

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Before the player can wield this deadly feline, they need to find and free Maria. First, they'll need to start the DLC and then start exploring around the Castle Outskirts Biome, the starting area. While exploring they might come across the door to Maria's cell, but they won't be able to unlock it without a key.

Players will need the Ribboned Key which is around the neck of Byakko, Maria's white cat. You can find them running around the Biome and is more than likely to jump down in front of the player at some point. To catch Byakko, the player just needs to stay on top of them while holding the interact button, they'll eventually drop the key.

If the player has found Maria's cell, they can just go back there. If not, they'll need to