While you come across water reasonably early in the game, you don’t gain the ability to dive into it until you’re around halfway through Bloodstained.
How to Swim in Bloodstained Ritual of the Night
The shard you’re after is the Aqua Stream Shard. You can get this Shard from one of the first rooms in the castle, but not until you’ve acquired a different ability.
You first need to defeat the Bloodless boss, who you’ll come across as you make your way through the game. She is in the Hall of Termination, which can be found in the Dian Cecht Cathedral.
Defeating her will grant you the Blood Drain Shard, which you need to use on the fountain of blood early on in the castle.
Once you descend below the blood fountain, you’ll eventually come across a big jellyfish enemy, which is the one that drops the Aqua Stream Shard that allows you to swim.
For reference, the map below has the Blood Fountain room circled, with the jellyfish room circled below it.
You may need to farm the jellyfish in order to get the Shard to drop, but press on, and it’ll eventually be yours. Then you’ll have even more places to explore.
Due to the way you swim underwater, you won’t be able to open chests right off the bat, though. To do that, you need to have the Deep Sinker Shard, which can be found within the Hidden Desert area after a boss fight.
You can see where it is on the map below. Once again the Blood Fountain room is circled for reference. The shard itself is past this barrier which disappears once the boss has been defeated. The Deep Sinker Shard lets you move around underwater as though you were on land. This means you can use your abilities and open chests.
Now that you know how to swim in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, you should head on over to the Bloodstained guides hub where you can learn about all sorts of other useful things. It’ll make this tricky journey far easier to handle.
