The Spark Hunter Badge is earned as a reward for defeating Darkbeast Paarl, a hidden boss in Yahar’gul Unseen Village.
How To Unlock Bolt Paper
Like many consumable items, you’ll have to find a Hunter Badge to unlock Bolt Paper in the Hunter’s Dream Messenger Shop. The Spark Hunter badge is guarded by Darkbeast Paarl, a hidden boss just outside Yahar’gul, a late game area. There are a couple of ways to reach Darkbeast Paarl, with differing speeds and danger levels, so read on to decide which route you’d rather take.
1. The Safe Method
Unless you’re in a rush to get Bolt Paper or want a major challenge, I recommend following this method to get the Spark Hunter Badge. Simply progress through the game as normal until you reach Yahar’gul, Unseen Village. Once you do, play through the level normally until you reach the Yahar’gul Chapel Lamp. Walk out of the door straight ahead from the Yahar’gul Chapel Lamp, then turn right once you reach the chair in the middle of the path. Walk up these steps and look for a gap in the railing ahead. From here you’ll be able to overlook the difficult enemy encounter below you. Drop off of this ledge and perform a plunging attack to take out the Rifleman below. Drop off of the next ledge to do the same to the dogs, then rush over to the Witch in the front-left corner of the courtyard to stop her from summoning more enemies. Mop up the remaining enemies, then continue on down the path until you head back inside. Once you’re back inside, get ready to start running (you can fight the upcoming enemies, but it’s really, really hard). Run down the steps to your right, then make an immediate u-turn at the bottom to continue down another set of steps behind you. At the bottom of this staircase is a small door – run in here and get ready to roll away from a Werewolf at the end of the corridor. Once you’re out of the corridor, immediately turn left, then turn right once you hit the wall. Run straight on, through a broken set of prison bars, a doorway and a second set of broken bars. Once you’re through the second set of bars, turn right to see a hole in the wall of the prison. The enemies chasing you won’t follow you through this hole, so head through and breathe a sigh of relief. From the ledge at the end of the escape tunnel, you’ll see Darkbeast Paarl asleep in his arena nearby. Drop off the ledge and turn left to move towards the boss fight. The invisible trigger that wakes Paarl up is at the bottom of the steps at the end of this path, so be ready before you cross it. Darkbeast Paarl can be a difficult fight for some, but if you’re at around level 50 and have some Fire Paper with you, you can make short work of him. If you are having trouble defeating Paarl, skip to the section titled ‘Beating Darkbeast Paarl’ for some tips on getting through the encounter alive.
2. The Snatcher Method
The riskier way to unlock Bolt Paper involves deliberately getting yourself kidnapped and thrown into the jail in the area right before the Darkbeast Paarl fight. Start off at the Cathedral Ward Lamp, then walk straight ahead until you leave the building. Once outside, look to your right to find a Snatcher, a tall humanoid enemy with a sack thrown over its shoulder. To get the Snatcher to spawn, you’ll have to have killed the Blood-starved Beast, but not yet killed Rom, The Vacuous Spider. Let the Snatcher kill you and a cutscene will play. When the cutscene is over, you’ll find yourself in a dark cell in Yahar’gul. Open the metal gate just ahead of you to leave the cell, then turn left and keep walking until you see two sets of steps on either side of you. Walk up either of them and notice the door at the top – we’ll be returning to that door soon. Continue up two more flights of steps to find yourself at the Hypogean Gaol Lamp. Light the Lamp and walk back down two flights of stairs to find yourself back at the door you saw earlier. Don’t attempt to fight the Snatcher in this room – it won’t chase you if you run away. Head through the door by the stairs to find yourself in a room full of broken prison cells. Turn left immediately, then right once you hit the wall. Walk through the broken prison cell here and keep running straight until you can’t go any further. To your right will be a hole in the prison wall, your ticket to escaping the jail and finding Darkbeast Paarl. Head through the hole and the tunnel it’s connected to, then drop off of the ledge to find yourself back outside. Across the gap ahead of you is Darkbeast Paarl, waiting asleep until you enter his arena. Turn left and head down the path, and get ready for a very tough fight once you pass the lantern at the bottom of the steps. Paarl is an incredibly difficult fight this early on, so be prepared. The community consensus is that you should be around level 50 before you fight him, a far cry from the level that my character was at when I tested this method. If you chose this route, I wish you luck.
Beating Darkbeast Paarl
However you go about reaching the Darkbeast Paarl fight, you’ll still have to kill it once you get there. If you’re struggling to beat the Darkbeast, here are some general tips for dealing with it:
Play aggressively – after around a minute, Paarl buffs himself. Try to end the fight before then. Focus on one limb at a time – Paarl’s limbs have invisible health bars and will collapse when they run out of health Don’t lock on – the camera is the biggest enemy in this fight. Stay unlocked and manually control the camera so you can see what’s going on. Watch out for his AoE attack – look for a growing ball of electricity by his ribs and run away to avoid getting blasted by the following explosion
Keep these tips in mind and hopefully you’ll have no problem felling the beast and claiming the Spark hunter Badge.
Buying Bolt Paper
Once you’ve earned the Spark Hunter Badge, you can warp back to the Hunter’s Dream to find an array of new items in the Messenger shop, including Bolt Paper. The price of Bolt Paper increases over time depending on how many bosses you’ve killed. The prices are as follows:
2,100 Blood Echoes (default price) 5,000 Blood Echoes (after defeating Vicar Amelia) 9,600 Blood Echoes (after defeating Rom, The Vacuous Spider) 14,000 Blood Echoes (after defeating the final boss)
If you don’t have the Echoes to deal with these insane prices, check out our Blood Echoes farming guide to learn how to get more quickly.
