Enter the Corrupted World is the nineteenth mission in Devil May Cry.
Walkthrough (lower difficulties)[]
Dante starts out still in the fountain courtyard where he defeated Nightmare in the previous mission. Go through the teleport circle in the middle of the room to be transported back to the guard rooms, and head downstairs, fighting the single Marionette on the middle floor or just carrying on. Use the teleport circle on the bottom floor to be transported back to the broken bridge.
A message appears saying the Elixir is reacting to the painting of the Castellan's bedroom. Collect any of the large Red Orbs left on the platform, then jump through the other painting. If the player is following this guide, they will have already cleared out this room at the end of Mission 16: Nightmare of Darkness, so the only thing to do is interact with the mirror that Nelo Angelo came out of back in Mission 04: Black Knight. Interact with it again after using the Elixir on it to pass through it into the Mirror World.
The Castellan's bedroom is largely the same in the Mirror World, save that the door to the balcony is open and the Divinity Statue cannot be used. If the player did not pick up Nightmare-β back at the Coliseum, it will be on the bed here. Proceed out onto the balcony.
Down in middle of the courtyard is a key item, the Philosopher's Stone, but do not pick it up just yet. Instead, go around the battlements to the highest level. Jump to the square tower that had a Red Orb Cache and Untouchable on the top back in Mission 05: Guiding of the Soul, then drop off the right-hand side: there is a Blue Orb Fragment hovering in the air partway up this side of the tower.
Collecting this will cause a second Blue Orb Fragment to appear, this time in the small tower where Dante picked one up in the normal world. As before, it can be reached with Air Hike, Air Raid or Vortex. This is the last Blue Orb Fragment in the game.
With this done, drop down into the courtyard and take the Philosopher's Stone to trigger the arrival of a group of Nobodies. These whooping monkey-like demons move in a jerky, unpredictable way. The small Nobodies only really have one attack, swiping at Dante with the large hand on their back. Nobodies are extremely evasive and can dodge multiple times in a row. They cannot be launched, but a launcher move will lift them up onto their back legs and make them vulnerable to follow-up attacks: they can be "juggled" in this state with Ebony & Ivory, which resets them back to their fully stood-up state with each hit. After one of the small Nobodies has taken a fair bit of damage, a cutscene will show it putting on a mask and growing in size.
The large Nobody is a distinctly greater threat: it has a very unpredictable jump-kick move which comes out almost instantly, deals high damage and knocks Dante back, which it will tend to use if Dante attempts to melee it from the front. They also have a grapple attack where they grab Dante by the head with their large arm and repeatedly slam him against the ground, and can drop exploding eyeball bombs when they evade or throw them as projectiles. The eyeballs will explode if Dante moves close to them and will sometimes roll slowly towards him: they can be destroyed at a distance with gunfire or a Round Trip. At long range or if they are off-screen, large Nobodies will rear up onto their back legs and perform an evil dance that rapidly drains the Devil Trigger Gauge: this can be interrupted by hitting them. Hits from the front will eventually shatter a large Nobody's mask and turn it back into a small one.
The single best way to deal with Nobodies is Ifrit's Inferno move: this will always destroy the mask of a large Nobody, and a single Inferno will nearly kill a small one. They are also easily stunlocked with roll-cancelled Grenadegun fire or Shotgun twitching, and a large Nobody can be kept in a perpetual stunned state if Dante gets behind it and constantly uses Stinger.
Even when defeated, a Nobody is still a threat, as their corpse is destroyed by a series of gruesome explosions which deal damage if Dante is too close. Do not be tempted to rush in and claim the Orbs they drop before the explosion effect has concluded. As well as the explosions around the body, the chunks of gore that are thrown outwards are not just for show: they are modelled projectiles that can deal damage to Dante if they hit him.
Once all of the Nobodies are defeated, Dante can exit the courtyard: climb back up, return to the bedroom, pass back through the mirror and use the teleport circle. The player should then have Dante cross the broken bridge for a final time in whatever manner they prefer, and enter the Cathedral.
The pool which Nightmare initially emerged from in Mission 16 is now rippling with energy: have Dante stand in the pool, then examine it to be drawn down into the gateway to the Underworld, located on the ceiling of an inverted version of the Cathedral. If the player desires, Dante can return to the regular Cathedral from here by jumping onto the floating eyeball platform, while will rise up and take him back. The portal to the Underworld is through the broken dome that Phantom smashed back in Mission 03: Destroyer of Ardor, but it is currently protected by a glassy barrier. Walk across the barrier and use the Philosopher's Stone on the eyeball-like device on the floor at the far end of it: this will dispel the barrier and allow access. Jump into the gateway to complete the mission.
Higher difficulties[]
As before, the single Marionette halfway up the guard quarters is replaced with two Fetishes.