How to enter and exit the Umbral Realm in Lords of The Fallen

Trying to enter or leave the Umbral Realm in Lords of The Fallen? The Umbral Realm, or Realm of The Dead, is effectively a second dimension overlaid on the real world, which you can enter to navigate terrain and solve puzzles. It’s an innovative idea in Hexwork’s new Souls-like. But how exactly do you get in and out out?

Once you’re in the Umbral Realm, it isn’t always clear how to leave. Getting there in the first place can be a headache, too, though it remains an intriguing mechanic, as we noted in our Lords of The Fallen review. So here, we’re going to go over how to enter and importantly, how to leave the Umbral Realm in Lords of The Fallen. If you want to build a full picture of the Umbral, check out our guide on how to soulflay too.

How to exit the Umbral Realm

Since exiting the Umbral Realm is a little more complex, we’re going to cover this first. To leave the Umbral Realm in Lords of The Fallen you need to find and interact with an Emergence Effigy. To interact with an Effigy, press the A/Square button on controller for console, or the E key on mouse and keyboard for PC. This will rift you back into the Axiom, or normal world.

You can find Emergence Effigies by progressing through the Umbral Realm. In areas where you need to be in the dimension to progress, you may have to complete puzzles to get to an area with an Effigy. The Effigies appear as chained, bleached corpses knelt on the ground, with ghostly mycelial strands floating outward from their skull.

One other possibility – if it’s available to you – is to backtrack to your most recent Vestige. Resting at a Vestige will automatically pull you back out of the Umbral Realm.

How to enter the Umbral Realm

To enter the Umbral Realm, you need to first get your Umbral Lamp out. Once you’ve switched weapons and selected the Lamp, raise it up using Ctrl on mouse and keyboard or the left trigger (L2) on controller. While holding this input, press the A/Square button on controller or E on mouse and keyboard. This will transport you into the Umbral Realm, which is overlaid on realspace.

Keep in mind though that once you make this transition, you can’t exit again without resting at a Vestige or finding an Emergence Effigy. Also keep in mind that upon entering, some of your health will be withered. If you want a breakdown of how withering works check our full guide, but the key takeaway is that you can recover it by attacking, but will lose that portion of your health for good if you’re hit.

Why enter the Umbral Realm?

Given the present dangers, it might seem strange to want to bother with umbral rifting into the Realm of the Dead at all. However there are a number of advantages to it. While in the Umbral Realm, you’ll earn slightly more Vigor for any enemies defeated in combat, with the multiplier starting at 1.10x. Sometimes, you’ll also need to overcome the aforementioned puzzles to progress, beating Umbral Entities to move through blocked paths or interacting with environmental objects to reach new areas. Though uncommon, you’ll also be able to encounter a few unique bosses in the Umbral Realm, giving you a handful more opportunities to get your hands on Vestige Seeds and other special items.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of going into the Umbral Realm though is treasure hunting for the best rewards. With a litany of bloated corpse chests scattered throughout the plane, the Umbral Realm is often your best ticket to finding new unique items, sorceries, Saintly Quintessences for upgrading the Sanguinarix, and Antediluvian Chisels for upgrading the Umbral Lantern.

That covers how to enter and how to leave the Umbral Realm in Lords of The Fallen. If you’re still new to the game, consider having a look at our recommendations for the best starting class and best starting weapons you can try out for your first or a subsequent playthrough.

Is the Umbral Realm in Lords of the Fallen dangerous?

The Umbral realm in Lords of the Fallen is very dangerous, especially in later areas of the game. You’ll face hordes of varied and challenging monsters, and staying too long is a death sentence.

What happens if you stay inside the Umbral Realm for too long?

If you stay inside the Umbral Realm for too long in Lords of the Fallen, more powerful and aggressive enemies will spawn in at far greater numbers, including enraged enemies. Once the Realm reaches this state, your death is almost guaranteed.