Mount Qaf is a nightmare. Honestly, it’s a beautiful, sprawling, Metroidvania nightmare that wants to trap you in a time-looping headache. If you've played any of the previous Prince of Persia titles, forget almost everything about the combat rhythm. This isn't just about swinging a sword; it’s about parry timings that feel like they were tuned by a metronome on caffeine. Sargon is fast. The enemies are faster.
A solid Prince of Persia The Lost Crown walkthrough isn't just a list of where to go. It’s a survival strategy for a map that grows vertically in ways that will make your thumbs ache. You start as a member of the Immortals, chasing a kidnapped Prince Ghassan into a cursed citadel where time doesn't flow straight. It’s messy. It’s brilliant. But if you don't understand how the Simurgh powers actually interact with the environment, you're going to spend three hours staring at a wall you can't climb yet.
Getting Your Bearings in the Lower City
The game kicks off with a linear push, but the moment you hit the Lower City, the leash comes off. You’re looking for Menolias and Vahram. Most people make the mistake of trying to explore every nook immediately. Don't. You lack the air dash (Rush of the Simurgh). Without it, 40% of the Lower City is just a tease.
Focus on the main objective: The Abducted Prince. You'll run into an Undead Erudite. He’s basically a tutorial in disguise. Use him to practice your slide-under. Sliding is actually more important than jumping in the early game because it provides frames of invulnerability that most bosses aren't prepared for.
Eventually, you'll hit the first real roadblock: Jahandar.
The Manticore Problem: Beating Jahandar
Jahandar is the first "skill check." If you can't beat him, you aren't getting through the rest of the game. He’s a massive manticore with a stinger that tracks your movement.
The trick? Look for the yellow flashes. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown uses a color-coded parry system. Yellow means "parry this for a massive cinematic counter-attack." Red means "get the hell out of the way." When Jahandar flies up, he’s going to dive. If you parry that dive, you knock him prone. That’s your window. If you try to just chip away at his health without parrying, the fight takes ten minutes and you'll eventually mess up a dodge.
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Why the Map is Your Best Friend
Ubisoft Montpellier did something genius here: Memory Shards. Use them. If you see a chest behind a gate you can't open, take a screenshot in-game. It pins it to your map. It’s a literal lifesaver because, by the time you get the Shadow of the Simurgh power ten hours later, you will forget where that chest was.
The Hyrcanian Forest and the Bow of Menolias
After Jahandar, the path splits. You’ll head into the Hyrcanian Forest. It’s green, it’s lush, and the music is incredible, but the platforming spikes in difficulty here. You need the Bow of Menolias.
Once you get the bow, the game changes. You aren't just a swordsman; you're a puzzle solver. The bow doubles as a "Chakram." You can throw it to trigger gears. Pro tip: you can aim the Chakram and then recall it. Sometimes the puzzle requires the Chakram to pass through an object on its way back to you.
Navigating the Pit of Eternal Sands
This is where a lot of players quit. The Pit of Eternal Sands is a vertical gauntlet of falling sand and crushing pillars. You need the "Gravity Wings" (double jump) to make sense of this place.
To get them, you have to fight Azhdaha. It’s a giant snake. Sorta. It’s more like a screen-filling dragon. The fight is a test of your ability to stay in the air. If you've been neglecting your aerial combos, Azhdaha will destroy you. Stay near its head, use your Athra Surges (the Level 2 "Sargon’s Shadow" is great for healing), and don't get greedy.
The Mid-Game Complexity: Shadow of the Simurgh
The most important mechanic in any Prince of Persia The Lost Crown walkthrough is the Shadow of the Simurgh. This lets you leave a "ghost" of yourself in one spot and teleport back to it instantly.
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Think about the possibilities. You can jump off a cliff, realize there are spikes at the bottom, and teleport back to the ledge. Or, more importantly, you can leave a shadow on one side of a moving trap, wait for the trap to pass, and teleport "through" it.
The puzzles in the Sacred Archives rely entirely on this. You’ll find yourself in rooms with three switches and a five-second timer. You have to place a shadow on switch A, run to switch B, then teleport back to A while throwing your Chakram at switch C. It’s intense. It feels like high-speed chess.
Dealing with Vahram
Without spoiling too much, Vahram is the recurring antagonist who will ruin your day. His fights are about speed. He uses "time bubbles" that slow you down. If you get caught in one, you’re dead. You have to use your own dash to exit the bubble's radius before he finishes his animation.
This is the point where you should start visiting the Blacksmith (Kaheva) regularly. Your swords need to be at least +3 by the time you hit the late-game biomes like the Tower of Silence. If you don't have the Azure Damascus Ore, go back to the Lower City and look for hidden walls. Most hidden walls have a faint shimmering effect. Hit them.
The Tower of Silence and the End Game
The Tower of Silence is cold, grey, and full of grapples. You’ll get the "Fabric of Time" ability here, which is basically a grappling hook. It lets you pull yourself toward enemies or anchors in the sky.
The final stretch of the game requires you to chain all these powers together. Dash, double jump, teleport to shadow, grapple, dash again. It’s a flow state. If you aren't in that flow, the platforming sections in the "Soma Tree" will feel impossible.
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Essential Amulet Combinations
You have limited slots, so don't waste them.
- Void Blade: Sends out a wave of energy. Great for crowd control.
- Shield of Mithra: Creates a time-slowing bubble when you successfully parry. This is arguably the most broken item in the game. Use it.
- Amulet of Agony: Deals damage to enemies when you get hit. It’s a safety net.
- Four Stars: Enhances your melee damage. Simple, but necessary.
Misconceptions About the Difficulty
People say this game is "Dark Souls hard." It’s really not. It’s "Metroid Dread hard." The difficulty comes from precision, not just punishing damage numbers. If you’re struggling, go into the settings. There are incredibly granular accessibility options. You can change parry windows, dodge windows, and even environmental damage. There is no shame in using these. The "Platforming Helper" is a godsend if you just can't nail a specific triple-jump-dash combo and want to see the rest of the story.
Mount Qaf is a circle. You’ll find yourself back in the Lower City toward the end, looking at those first few rooms with a completely different perspective. Areas that seemed massive are now just two dashes away. That’s the magic of the progression.
Survival Steps for Your Journey
- Parry over Dodge: Parrying refills your Athra gauge. Dodging just keeps you alive. If you want to use your cool "Super Moves," you have to be aggressive with your parries.
- Talk to Fariba: She’s the little girl hidden in every zone. She sells map data. Buying her maps saves you hours of wandering in circles in the Catacombs.
- The Hidden Floor: In the Lower City, there’s a merchant named the Scrapper. He takes Xerxes coins. These are rare, but the items he sells—like the "Lost Key"—open up entirely new questlines and upgrade paths.
- Athra Management: Don't hoard your Level 3 surges. Use them. The "Bahamut's Rage" explosion clears out entire waves of annoying flying enemies in the Forest.
The most important takeaway for a successful run through Mount Qaf is patience. You will see doors you can't open. You will see items you can't reach. Just keep moving forward. The game is designed to bring you back there when you’re powerful enough to treat those obstacles like paper.
To maximize your efficiency, focus on unlocking the "Homa Fish" fast-travel points immediately upon entering a new biome. They are usually located near the center of the map or near the main boss arena. Once those are active, backtracking for upgrades becomes a five-minute errand rather than a thirty-minute slog through respawning enemies. Check your amulets, sharpen your blades at the Forge, and remember that every boss in this game has a rhythm. Find the beat, and you'll find the ending.