Chalice of Souls

The Chalice of Souls, or simply Chalice, was a sacred collectible item. Collecting a chalice allowed an individual to visit the Hall of Heroes where tributes could be paid to its heroes.

History

In 1386, twenty chalices were sent down to Earth by Gallowmere's heroes as a challenge for Sir Daniel Fortesque, allowing him to prove himself a true hero by collecting them all.

Five hundreds year later, chalices materialised once again, this time in London. The reason for this is unknown. Professor Hamilton Kift, a local scientist with an interest in the occult, converted their power into weapons for Sir Dan.

Gameplay

Chalices of Souls can be found in almost every level of the MediEvil games. Collecting chalices allows the player to visit the Hall of Heroes in MediEvil and MediEvil: Resurrection, while in MediEvil 2 they are redeemed in The Professor's Lab instead. This leads to obtaining rewards such as weapons, Life Bottles and treasure. Chalices can only be collected once in MediEvil and MediEvil: Resurrection, but can be collected many times in MediEvil 2; duplicate chalices are converted into chests of gold.

In order to collect the chalice in MediEvil and MediEvil 2, Sir Dan has to dispatch the required amount of evil souls to fill the chalice. While filling a chalice is not required to collect it in MediEvil: Resurrection, Dan will still need to fully fill the chalice with souls in order to visit the Hall of Heroes.

Some levels, such as The Sleeping Village and Kew Gardens, will also require that Dan protects good souls. Losing too many good souls will drain the chalice and may result in it becoming uncollectable.

Collecting all chalices in MediEvil and MediEvil 2 will reward the player with a special ending. However, this is not the case in MediEvil: Resurrection which only has one ending regardless of how many chalices are collected.

MediEvil (1998 original)

There are 20 chalices in the game. Dan's Crypt and Zarok's Lair do not have a chalice.

Locations

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Souls needed for chalice

The following table features the amounts of souls that need to be collected to claim a chalice in each level. The Ant Caves level is excluded, as the chalice is obtained for freeing all the fairies.

Level	Total souls in level	Souls at start	Souls needed for chalice
The Graveyard	44	0	26
Cemetery Hill	24	0	21
The Hilltop Mausoleum	27	0	24
Return to the Graveyard	49	0	44
Scarecrow Fields	40	0	36
Pumpkin Gorge	36	0	32
The Pumpkin Serpent	34	0	25
The Sleeping Village	25	13	22
The Asylum Grounds	30	0	27
Inside The Asylum	158	0	142
The Enchanted Earth	19	0	17
Pools Of The Ancient Dead	50	0	45
The Lake	24	0	21
The Crystal Caves	47	0	42
The Gallows Gauntlet	35	0	31
The Haunted Ruins	26	3	24
The Ghost Ship	7	0	6
The Entrance Hall	20	0	18
The Time Device	32	0	28
Total	727	N/A	631

Formula

The following section contains original research by Dan's Friend.

The amount of souls needed to collect a chalice in a given level is determined by the following formula:
(Total Souls in Level * Chalice Modifier) >> 12 = Souls Needed for Chalice

For example, the total amount of souls in The Graveyard is 44 and the level's chalice modifier is 2458. Therefore:

(44 * 2458) >> 12 
108152 >> 12

Converting the decimal number 108152 into binary gives us 11010011001111000 from which we will discard the last 12 digits:

11010011001111000 >> 12 = 11010

Then we convert the binary number 11010 back to decimal, which gives us the result: 26 souls.

Chalice modifiers

There are four chalice modifiers used in the game:

• 2458 - The Graveyard's chalice modifier. This reduces the number of souls needed to collect the chalice to about 59% of the total amount, presumably because this is the first level with a chalice.
• 3072 - The Pumpkin Serpent's chalice modifier. This reduces the amount of souls needed to about 73%. This was likely done because several Pumpkin Plants are set to spawn around the Pumpkin King periodically; waiting for all of them to spawn can take a long time.
• 3687 - the chalice modifier for most levels. This makes it so that around 85-90% of a level's total amount of souls needs to be collected to fill the chalice.
• 3891 - The Haunted Ruins's chalice modifier. This increases the amount of souls needed to about 92% of the total amount in the level. This is likely so that the player is forced to collect the chalice during the countdown sequence.

Behind the scenes

Development

MediEvil (1998 original)

In early pre-release versions of MediEvil from summer 1997, such as the MediEvil Rolling Demo, chalices did not yet exist. It is likely they were created as part of the game's redesign near the end of the year.

In other media

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

Sir Dan uses a chalice during his Level 2 Super Move. Several souls are released from the chalice which will kill any opponents they come into contact with.