Welcome to the Forgotten Forest page of the official IGN Wiki Guide and Walkthrough for Kena: Bridge of Spirits. Here, we’ll take you step-by-step through the Forgotten Forest in Kena and point out strategies, tips, and tricks for finding all Rot, Hats, Flower Shrines, Spirit Mail, and Cursed Chests. Follow along to complete the game’s Taro’s Love and Taro’s Regret quests.
Taro’s Love: Getting to the Forgotten Forest
When you’re ready to explore the Forgotten Forest and meet Rusu there (you can’t visit it before Rusu tells you to), head to where we are on the map below:
Once there, you’ll see a sealed stone door and you should see four blue crystals above it (one of them is on the tree to the left). You can see all of them in our screenshot below. Shoot the one farthest to the left, then the one on its right, then the far right one, and then the one above the door, and it will open.
Head inside to officially enter the Forgotten Forest. Rusu will explain that Taro’s spirit has corrupted the shrines and sealed the entrance to the Guardian Tree. Rusu marks the shrine locations on your map and you need to clean each of them.
Let’s tackle each of those. We’ll be sure to include how-tos for finding each collectible in the areas near the shrines as well.
How to Clean the Woods Shrine
Right by Rusu is a Fox statue. Stand it up with your Rot to gain some Karma. After that, take the path to the right of Rusu. Follow the path around until you hit a combat encounter. You need to defeat enough enemies to gain the Courage needed to destroy the corrupted flower bulb on the tree up above.
This will clean up the area. Congrats! You’ve cleaned up the Woods Shrine! Let’s pick up some collectibles here.
Rot 1
Right by Rusu at the Woods Shrine, you should see some large trees overlooking the river area. Look for one with a purple insignia on it. Jump over to it and use a Pulse while standing on the purple insignia. This will launch four targets into the air. Shoot all four before they fall down to unveil a Rot for you to collect.
Rot Hat 1
Now head back to Rusu and run past him, down the tree we walked across earlier. You should hear and see a waterfall. Walkthrough the waterfall to find a chest. Open the chest to get the Purple Mushroom Rot Hat.
Rot Hat 2
Now, jump down from this waterfall cliff and go right. Just a few steps over, you should see a cliff you can climb. Climb up it to discover a Hat Cart. Doing so will unlock the Acorn Rot Hat.
Rot 2
Now, drop down from this cliff and head right some more. When you see more running water, follow it backwards until you enter a small cavern. You should see a pinkish-purple shrine. Use Pulse in front of it to unveil a Rot for you to collect.
Now, from here, walk out toward the river basin until you see a circle platform. Use Pulse on it and three large stone platforms will rise out of the water. Jump to the middle one and look to the right. You should see what we see below:
Cursed Chest 1
Shoot the blue crystal and the platform you’re on will rise. Double jump to the ledge where this blue crystal was and you’ll find a Cursed Chest. You must defeat 6 flying enemies to complete this Cursed Chest challenge. Open the chest to get a bunch of currency after that.
Meditation Spot 1
Now, head toward the Water Shrine but when you get there, ignore it. Look for some broken stairs. Go up them and follow the path across until you reach where we are below:
You’ll see some water. Follow it. Eventually, you’ll be able to climb up a small rock. From this rock, shoot the blue crystal across the way, as pictured below:
Jump from stone to stone to reach the other side and follow this path until you reach a Meditation Spot.
Rot 3
Now, just to the right of this Meditation Spot is a Rot for you to collect so make sure you do that before leaving this area.
Rot Hat 3
After this, look at your map and head toward the Taro’s Love marking. This is the Guardian Tree. You cannot enter it until all four shrines have been cleaned. We’ll get to that but first, let’s find a hat. Along the way, you should see an Owl Statue. Have your Rot carry it to one of the three glowing owl pedestals pictured below:
You must place all three owl statues on these pedestals to advance. Walk past Rusu and toward the path leading away from the Guardian Tree and beside a fallen tree, you’ll find the second Owl statue.
The third owl statue can be found by following the path directly in front of Rusu. It’ll be laying on the edge of a cliff, as pictured below:
Bring this owl statue back and once all three are placed on the three pedestals, you’ll unlock the Deer Rot Hat. Ok, with that done, let’s tackle the Water Shrine.
How to Clean the Water Shrine
Unlike other corruption sites we’ve cleaned thus far, there are no enemies to defeat at the Water Shrine. Instead, there’s a small puzzle. When you arrive, you’ll see what we see below. Your main objective is to light all of the blue crystals here so that the corrupted bulb opens up. You do that by unleashing a Pulse on the circle platform our Kena is on.
However, you’ll find doing that right from the jump does nothing. Instead, you need to cross the small waterway and find the two blue bulb-like rocks on the ground. There’s one to the left of the shrine and one to the right. Move each to the small tri-tipped stone markings on the ground and place them in the center of the three stones. You can see what that looks like below:
After that, head back to the circle platform and use Pulse. This will open up the corrupted bulb. Now, sic some Rot onto it and shoot the bulb to clean the Water Shrine.
Flower Shrine 1
This will unveil a Forest Tear right at the shrine. Use this tear to get a Rot Cloud and bring it back to the stone stairs from earlier. You should see some corruption on the ground behind the stairs. Use the cloud to destroy that corruption. This frees up a large stone platform that your Rot can move. Move it to the edge pictured below:
This allows you to climb up top. Do so and then have your Rot move the wood. This makes this area easier to access later. Now, follow this path around to find aFlower Shrine. However, you’ll see that it’s covered in corruption. Go use the Forest Tear from earlier to get a Rot Cloud and take this Rot Cloud to the forest shrine (moving the wood from earlier makes this much easier). Interact with it to get some currency.
Rot 4
Nearby, you’ll see a large pile of leaves with purple butterflies floating above it. There’s a Rot here and to get it, you need to bring a rot cloud over to it and slam the rot cloud down on the leaves.
This reveals the rot beneath it.
Spirit Mail 1
While facing the pile of leaves, turn around — you should see a flower on a tree.
Shoot your bow at it and you’ll whip to it. Quickly turn and aim at a second flower beside it and then once there, quickly aim and shoot a third flower (pictured below) to reach the area where this Spirit Mail can be found.
You’ll find the Spirit Mail sitting on a tree stump.
Now, let’s head to where we are on the map below:
When you arrive, you’ll find that it’s a treehouse of sorts. Run around it and look for the flower pictured below.
Shoot it to be whipped up onto the treehouse’s platform and begin your trek up. When you reach a large circle platform, shoot the three purple fruits down and let your Rot eat them.
Spirit Mail 2
After this, head back around the circle until you reach this platform pictured below:
Look across the way to the left and shoot the blue flower to be whipped over to that treehouse. Follow its ledges to a dead end and you’ll find the Spirit Mailpictured below:
How to Clean the God Tree Shrine
After this, return to the first tree and go back to the platform where the purple fruit were found. Look across and you’ll see a blue flower on a tree with a horizontal elevator attached to it. Shoot this flower to whip over to that tree.
Follow this tree’s platforms around and you’ll discover the God Tree Shrine. Prepare for a fight. This fight will be a bit tricky. There are three purple-eyed monkeys that shoot purple shards at you. These shards hurt and their massive explosion after landing hurt as well. Dodge out of the way of these.
Take them out by using the blue flowers near them to whip to their position and attack via melee or ranged until they go down. Take out all three and defeat all of the other enemies in the area. Be sure to go from flower to flower to keep the enemies on their toes. After that, sic some Rot onto the corrupted bulb and then shoot it with a spirit arrow to clean the God Tree Shrine.
Rot 5
After this, look above Rusu (while standing by his at the God Tree Shrine) and you should see a blue flower. Shoot up to it and follow the path around until you reach where we are below. Use Pulse to unveil a Rot.
Flower Shrine 2
After this, backtrack until you see a gap to a different platform on this part of the tree we haven’t yet been to. Jump across the gap and you’ll see the bucket of blue goop pictured below:
Have your Rot hit the bucket over and blue goop will fall out and down to the platform below. Drop down and have your Rot carry it around the circular platform to the Forest Tear pictured below. Use this tear and then take a Rot Cloud down the elevator (shoot the blue crystal to make the elevator go down) and then use this cloud to purify the Flower Shrine at the base of the elevator.
Rot 6
Slide down the path to the right of the Flower Shrine and then take a left once down there. Follow the path and keep an eye on the things hanging above you. You’re looking for the purple lantern hanging pictured below. Shoot it to unveil a Rot for you to collect.
Rot Hat 4
After this, return to the large piece of wood where we shot those four targets from earlier. Look across the way and you should see the blue flower pictured below.
Shoot over to it and open the chest beneath it to get the Sibling’s Mask Rot Hat. Now, let’s go clean the Fishing Shrine.
How to Clean the Fishing Shrine
When you arrive to the Fishing Shrine, we recommend standing right in front of it. Look to the left of it and you should see a stone pillar with a blue crystal in it. Shoot it. Then, look for that same pillar to the right of the shrine. From where you’re standing, there are two behind you — one on your back right and one on your back left.
Shoot all four of these quickly and two flying enemies will attack. Take them out. You’ll find that if you keep doing this, the same thing happens over and over. Take a closer look at the Shrine. Do you see the four stacks of candles? These candles are your guide to solving this puzzle.
Each candle corresponds to a pillar. The back left pillar corresponds to the two candle set, the front left pillar corresponds to the four candle set, the front right pillar corresponds to the single candle set, and the back right pillar corresponds to the three candle set. In order to solve the puzzle, you must light the candles up in a 1, 2, 3, 4 formation. In order to do this, you must shoot the pillars in the following order: front right pillar, back left pillar, back right pillar, front left pillar.
Upon doing this, the corrupted bulb will open up. Sic some Rot onto it and shoot the bulb with an arrow to clean the Fishing Shrine. Now, we’re free to head to the Guardian Tree, but first, let’s pick up some collectibles.
Cursed Chest 2
If you’re facing the Fishing Shrine, look right. Follow that path. When you reach where we are on the map below, you’ll find a Cursed Chest.
Rot Hat 5
You must defeat all five enemies that spawn in 30 seconds to complete this Cursed Chest Challenge. Open the chest to get the Taro Rot Hat. There’s another Rot in this area but it’s currently inaccessible so we’ll come back for it later.
For now, head to the Guardian Tree.
Boss Fight: Sprout Captain
After cleaning all four Forgotten Forest shrines, head to the Guardian Tree (it’s marked yellow on your map) and stand on the circle platform in front of it. Use a Pulse and prepare for a boss fight.
The Sprout Captain is extremely aggressive. They’ll immediately sprint at you and unleash a two-swipe combo. You can either parry this combo or dodge out of the way. If you’re good at parrying, we highly recommend unlocking the Parry Counter upgrade. This way, when you parry, you can quickly tap R1 to perform a powerful spinning attack that does some pretty decent damage against the Sprout Captain.
Often, the Sprout Captain will follow up its two-swipe combo with a lunge attack. If you parry the two-swipe combo, you likely don’t need to worry about this follow-up lunge attack, but if you dodge away, the Sprout Captain will perform a lunge attack right at you so prepare to either jump away from it, parry the attack, or dodge away. We recommend dodging away when the Sprout Captain lunges.
The Sprout Captain will also sometimes use a powerful three-move attack. It’s easy to read but it can kill you if all three hits land. Basically, the captain will swipe left with its sword, then right, and then left again or vice versa. You should really try to parry the first swipe to end the move and open up the Sprout Captain for some easy damage.
Another thing to do, and if you’re quick you can do this right when the Sprout Captain first appears, is shoot the yellow diamond on the Sprout Captain’s body. This will immediately take off a fourth of the Sprout Captain’s health.
Attack the enemy, use your arrows, and be wary of their attacks and eventually, the Sprout Captain will go down.
When the Sprout Captain is defeated, head into the tree, sic some Rot onto the corrupted bulb and shoot the blue bulb to clean the Guardian Tree. A cutscene will immediately begin.
Rot 7, 8, and 9
You’ll receive the Food Offering Relic after this cutscene. You’ll immediately receive three Rot after receiving this Relic too.
After this, head to the new blue marking on your map. It’s the entrance to the Lantern cave. Prepare for a boss fight against a Mage to begin the second you arrive.
Boss Fight: Mage
The Mage is a very interesting fight and that’s because it’s unlike any fight in the game thus far. For starters, this is the first Mage Kena’s ever fought in this game and secondly, it has a unique move set that keeps you on your toes.
When the fight begins, the Mage will use an area-of-effect move that sees the Mage hit the ground. Red particles lift up and then three to four enemies appear. It is imperative you take out these enemies immediately because they can quickly overrun you. However, doing so will not be easy. That’s because while fighting these enemies, the Mage will be launching large red balls at you.
These balls chase you and they chase for quite a while. When they hit, they knock Kena back a couple of feet and do a lot of damage. We do not recommend dodging away. By the time the dodge animation is over, the ball will be caught up and likely hit you. Instead, run away from it.
Once you’re super comfortable with it, run in such a way that the red ball collides with the Mage’s minions. It will actually destroy the minions. You can also run it into the Mage but this won’t do any damage. That’s the main move to look out for the, but the Mage also has their own standard melee attacks so be sure to dodge or parry those. If you see the Mage lift a green ball into the air, it’s about to heal.
You absolutely must interrupt this healing move with an attack of your own. A bow-shot will do the trick if you’re far away. If the Mage is able to heal, they can heal up at least half of their health if not more. During all of this, get your bow shots and melee hits into damage the Mage. The Rot Hammer in particular does a ton of damage. You can also shoot the red diamond on the Mage’s back to take out nearly half of its health but actually hitting that is very tough. You need the Focus upgrade for the Spirit Bow, really. That’s because it slows downtime.
Get behind the Mage and slow down time to shoot the diamond. Without slowing downtime, the Mage will likely just turn around to face you. After a good set of hits, Rot Hammer hits, and spirit bow hits, the Mage went down. After this, talk to Rusu and a cutscene will begin. It’s time to enter the Lantern Cave.
Taro’s Regret: How to Clean the Lantern Cave
When you first enter the Lantern Cave, you’ll find that it’s not actually a cave…yet. For now, it’s just a grassy field. Head forward.
Rot 10
When you first enter, head to the path on the right and follow it to some stones on the ground. You’ll find a Rot under the stone furthest on the right.
After this, head left and you’ll find a crate with some currency. You’ll also see some lanterns hanging. Use Pulse to get some currency from them. Right by those lanterns is the way forward — you need to climb up the cliffs seen in the screenshot below:
Up top, follow the path to the left. You’ll find some old camping gear marked with a fox symbol. It’s some remnants of Taro. Interact with the gear and Taro’s spirit will jump out. Follow it. When you reach some corruption, sic some Rot to the corrupted bulb and then, when it’s glowing blue, shoot the bulb. This destroys the corruption.
When you reach the crossroads pictured below, head left first. There are some collectibles to the right, but you must complete more of the golden path first.
When you go left, you’ll stumble upon a Taro Memory. Equip your Taro Spirit Mask to view the memory.
After this, head to the right and you should see the spawn area of a Forest Tear. Look up and to the left. You’ll see a glowing blue crystal on a tree.
Shoot it and then shoot the blue crystal to the right. Shoot the third blue crystal even further to the right after that. This will drop a blue tear and your Rot can carry it to the Forest Tear. Now you can use a Rot Cloud to clear all of the corruption in this area.
Meditation Spot 2
First, you should go to the left with the cloud to clear some corruption. This will open up a pathway that leads to a Meditation Spot. Meditate here to gain a permanent health increase.
Now, grab another Rot Cloud and clear all of the corruption directly in front of the Forest Tear. Deeper down this path, you’ll see another Forest Tear spawn point. Behind it is a blue crystal.
Shoot it to spawn a Forest Tear. Now, create another Rot Cloud and further clear the corruption along this path.
You’ll reach some enemies eventually. Take them out and a corruption bulb will reveal itself. Sic some Rot onto it and then shoot it to clean the area.
Flower Shrine 3
Go back and grab a Rot Cloud again and clean the last remaining bit of corruption. It leads directly into a tunnel and on the other side is a Flower Shrine covered in corruption. Destroy the corruption with a cloud and interact with the shrine to get some currency.
Rot 11
After that, return to the Forest Tear and use a rot cloud to slam the piles of leaves next to it. This will reveal a Rot for you to collect.
After this, return to where the corrupted bulb from earlier was and dropdown. You’ll slide to a new area below. When you reach the bottom, continue forward until you see a circular platform with a blue crystal on it. Use Pulse on this crystal to open the doors. Time for a boss fight.
Boss Fight: Shrine Guardian
The Shrine Guardian is quite a fun fight. That’s because the Shrine Guardian has a lot of fun moves. When the fight begins, the guardian will summon a healthy handful of minions — like at least 5. We recommend taking these out immediately as it only takes a couple to overrun you, not to mention the actual boss will be attacking still as well.
When you defeat all of the minions, you’ll get about 30 seconds of the fight to take the Shrine Guardian on alone before they summon more minions so make good use of time during those 30 seconds. We highly recommend using the Spirit Bow’s Focus ability, which slows down time while aiming in with the bow for a few seconds, to target the yellow diamonds on the Shrine Guardian’s body.
There are three in total and each takes out about a fourth of the boss’ health. The moves to watch out for from the Shrine Guardians are actually quite simple and they have big tells. If the boss rears back, it’s about to do a big slash-like attack. Dodge backward to avoid this attack as it sweeps left to right and vice versa. Another move to watch out for is a standard attack — it’s basically a small spin attack and it’s the move the Shrine Guardian will use most often.
Occasionally, the boss will charge up and launch into the air. When it does that, run — it’s about to do a big ground pound attack. Not only does a direct hit of this move do massive damage, but the pound forces a yellow circle to shoot outward across the ground and this circle does area-of-effect damage. Be sure to run away from this move.
One of the Shrine Guardian’s favorite moves is a strange pink tendril attack. It’s tough to read when this will happen, but if it looks like they’re about to dig their arm into the ground, get ready to run. That’s because large pink tendrils will shoot out of the ground. They hurt and so do their area-of-effects. Also they explode, so that’s fun.
If you get too close to the Shrine Guardian for too long (looking at you, heavy melee users), the Shrine Guardian will pound their foot down. This move does area-of-effect damage so be sure to dodge backward to avoid it when it happens.
Look at the boss’ health bar. Notice how it has two yellow orbs beside it? That’s because this is a multi-phased fight. Fortunately, the phases aren’t all that different. Every time one of the Shrine Guardians’ yellow orbs is depleted, it will unleash a massive AOE attack so be sure to run away from it when that happens.
After you take down the Shrine Guardian, a cutscene will begin.
Rot 12, 13, and 14
Following this cutscene, you’ll automatically receive Three Rot. Then, it’ll be time to free Taro using the Relics.
Head deeper into the cavern and climb out of it. You’ll find that it’s raining. Follow the only path forward.
When you see a lantern on the ground, have your Rot pick it up. Bring it to the other lantern up ahead — to the right of it is a flat stone. Place this lantern on that stone. You can see where in our screenshot below.
This lights up the blue crystal up above. Shoot it and follow its trail to find the next crystal to shoot. The trail will go to eight different crystals. After the eight, the corrupted bulb in the central area will open up. Sic some Rot to it and then shoot the corrupted bulb. This will clean the area and Rusu will appear.
Rot Hat 6
After talking to Rusu, look behind him and slightly to the left. You’ll find a chest there, pictured below. Open the chest to get the Pinecone Rot Hat.
After this, warp back to Taro’s Tree using any of the Warp points in the Forgotten Forest. You should warp right next to the objective, which is marked yellow on your map. When you arrive at the objective, you’ll need to interact with the marking on the ground. This will trigger a cutscene.
Time for a boss fight.
Boss Fight: Corrupt Taro
Let’s get this out of the way: Corrupt Taro is far and away the hardest boss in the game thus far. Taro hits hard, they’re extremely quick, and they have a lot of health. Fortunately, you have us.Before starting this match, we highly recommend the Focus upgrade, which allows you to press R3 while aiming down sights with the bow to slow down time, the Increased Quiver upgrade, which gives you five arrows, and the Rot Hammer Rot upgrade, which is possibly the best move in the entire game.
When the fight begins, use Focus to target the small yellow hanging lantern around Taro’s neck. This will do a nice chunk of damage and it will stun Taro.
Run in and get a few hits on them and then prepare to dodge backwards or run away — they’re about to do some kind of reciprocal move.
Here’s what to look out for coming from Taro: If they throw their hands into the air, they’re about to pound the ground and not only does that move do a ton of direct damage, it also does splash damage that contains a nice amount of knockback too. If you get knocked down by this move, Taro will likely land another hit on you while you’re trying to get up. Taro might also slash at you and if you can parry the first hit, go for it. Be sure to punish with a counter move as well. You can also try and tank the move, but be careful — Taro doesn’t hit just once but three times when they slash….usually. The third hit might break your shield and cause damage. However, if you have the Shield Health + upgrade, you should be able to tank all three hits.
Taro will also sometimes jump across the arena to hit you so don’t think you’re safe just because you’re far away. A simple dodge will save you here. While it might sound dangerous and scary, we actually found that staying close to Taro was safer than keeping distance between Kena and Taro as a result. Plus, if you dodge behind Taro when they slash, you’ll usually be safe from the two slashes that follow the first.
If you see some pink symbols in the space in front of Taro, get ready to dodge backward — they’re about to do a strange spinning attack that damages from all directions. Another big move to watch out for is a massive, arena-sprawling AEO explosion. It seems to happen every time you get a third of Taro’s health down. If you see Taro charge up, as it were, run and dodge backwards as much as possible (or if you’re shield bar is full, use a shield) because he’s literally about to explode.
Here’s a tried and true strategy for taking down Taro that worked for us:
- Target their yellow lantern when it’s glowing yellow to stun the boss and open them up for damage.
- In the meantime, target the maroon diamond weak spot on their elbow to stun them too.
- Attack them with Kena’s melee attacks in between ranged attacks and the dodges necessary to not die at the hands of Taro.
- When you have a full drop of Courage, you can choose to either heal using one of the two healing flowers in the arena (be careful as they don’t respawn after use) or you can sic some Rot onto Taro.
- If you sic Rot onto Taro, pay attention and think fast: they’ll turn Taro’s shoulder into a blue orb and if you shoot that orb with the Spirit Bow, it will do a nice chunk of damage and stun Taro, opening them up for even more damage.
- If you have the Courage to spare, a Rot Hammer hit does serious damage to Taro. It also stuns them for a second or two and it interrupts any attack Taro is tossing your way.
When you’ve finally taken down Taro’s health bar, it’ll throw its hands into the air and screech. Prepare to sic some Rot on it and when that happens, Taro’s entire body will glow blue. Use Pulse to clean Taro of the corruption.
Rot Hat 7
A cutscene will then begin.
Following this cutscene, you’ll receive the Taro Mask Rot Hat. However, it’s important to note that this hat actually counts as a hat for the Taro’s Tree region of the game — not the Forgotten Forest region.
Meditation Spot 3
After defeating Corrupt Taro, the Relic insignia at Taro’s Tree will become a Meditation Spot. Be sure to meditate here to permanently increase Kena’s health. The game doesn’t track Meditation Spots like it does the rest of the collectibles so this technically doesn’t matter, but on IGN’s interactive map, this Meditation Spot is in the Taro’s Tree section because that’s where this spot can be found. However, it cannot be found until completing the final quest of the Forgotten Forest and when you complete this chest, you’ll be placed right at this meditation spot.
Honor Taro at the Mask Shrine
The next thing you need to do after this is head back to the Village. Here, you must honor Taro at the Mask Shrine.
