The Watching Woods | Salt and Sanctuary Wiki

Full  The Watching Woods Walkthrough

A full walkthrough including all the items, enemies and bosses is shown below. You can add links, images. and other details.  

The Watching Woods is the fourth region you will tackle after making your way through the Village of Smiles. Poison is the theme of these woods. So as you may be able to guess, be prepared to get poisoned (to death) a lot. In the words of the Stone Alchemist found in the Woods, "Man is truly a wretched thing, and the forest is committed to expunging him from existence." Therefore, the Poison Cytoplasms are the enemies to watch out for as they can cause a lot of poison, which deals exponentially more damage if stacked.  

Upon entering the Woods, you will encounter a couple of Drowned Bandits nestled around a white-rope trap. Past them is the edge of a cliff, that looks into a bunch of tree-branch ledges that you will need to hop around for a major part of this region. Head right 2 ledges, and then down the one which has two Skullbat hanging atop. You will find yourself on a candle-lit platform with a Pouch of Salt and 3x Antitodes. 

From there, head to the right, and continue heading right, staying upwards where possible, past the Vilehawk till you find yourself stone-platform with 2 item pouches atop the 2 ledges on each corner. The one on the left has 3x Antidotes and a Poison Cytoplasm waiting for you. From there you should jump to the right ledge to find a Bullwhip and 3 more Antidote. 

Head down that ledge and continue heading right from the stone-platform, past another Vilehawk, and upwards till you find a wooden-platform with stairs leading up to it. (If you go up and to the left before that platform, you will find another wooden platform with a Stone Sellsword and a Buckler shield on it.) On the platform you will find a Bloated Monstrosity, and next to him will be another set of stairs going up, and a ladder going down. The stairs lead up to one of the bosses, The Mad Alchemist. The ladder takes you down the next Sanctuary, which belongs to the The Stone Roots. This is a new Creed that you will encounter, and can join if you "Take Oath" at the altar. NOTE: doing so will abandon your previous Creed and earn you a Sin, which prevents you from changing creeds again (among other consequences) until you clear the sin.

You can speak to the Stone Alchemist (The Stone Roots) at the sanctuary who will tell you about the Woodswraiths's connection with the Woods. If you took oath at the altar, you will now be able to transmutate weapons by speaking to the Stone Alchemist. See the Transmutation page for more information.

After you are done healing, head out to the left and back up ladder and up from the stairs above the Bloated Monstrosity to reach the boss. The Mad Alchemist will spawn adds (Poison Cytoplasm) to distract and poison you. However, this boss is easily staggered and the best strategy is to corner him and take him down fast. For more tips and strategies on defeating this boss, see The Mad Alchemist page.

After defeating the boss, head left and jump across the 2 platforms to collect the Mossy Key, which allows you to unlock the next area. Before that, after you climb down the ladder that led to the boss, drop off  the ledge to the right. There is a chest containing Leather Armor set. Then make your way back to the Sanctuary right below where the chest is, and exit from it the other side. Unlock the door and continue heading right into a dark cave. A Torch or Lantern Charm will prove useful here. On the ledge below you will find A Soldier's Poem and a Stone Blacksmith. Underneath it are gruesome enemies such as the Retchfeeder. If you want to face the Kraeken Cyclops (this will be Route #1), head left. If you want to skip this boss, head right (this will be Route #2).

Refer to the Sunken Keep walkthrough for more info.

The Watching Woods Video Walkthrough