Snow Ruins 5th Floor Walkthrough to Stairs

5th Floor Path to Shortcut Stairway

The 5th floor is very different in appearance from any previous floor of the Snow Ruins. The ice is far thicker and the floor is cracked in many locations, making straightforward progress difficult. When you first descend the stairs, you will find yourself in a large chamber bisected by a crack in the floor that cannot be crossed. Fallen masonry constitutes the southern boundary of this area. You must go east, either by ascending an ice ramp or, further south, by taking a passage along the main floor that leads to another area free from ice.
If you take the ramp upwards, you will find yourself on an elevated walkway covered in ice that proceeds first north, then west past a frozen door, then west to a ramp that leads downwards to the east. The walkway is guarded by Hunter Wolves.
(At the end of this frozen walkway is an Eye Generator and its arch. Destroy the Eye Generator to melt the ice on the door and proceed through it to an elevated walkway that is free from ice that is a dead end but has a single Treasure Chest.)
Take the ramp downward to find yourself on the main floor in a small area that contains two white urns. Hunter Wolves guard this area as well. You now will see that you are in the initial entry chamber to the west of the stairway from the 4th floor, on the other side of the chasm.
If you walk south along the chasm, you will find a ramp that leads upward to another elevated walkway covered in ice. A treasure chest is tucked into the ‘elbow’ of the ramp. This walkway leads south, then east past the stairway that leads to the 4th floor and then, free from ice now, continues south, then east again to a ramp in the east leading downward back to the main floor. You will be in a small area free from ice guarded by Hunter Wolves but an ice barrier bars you from further progress.
A Monster Generator south of the ice barrier spawns both the Hunter Wolves and a Minotaur.
Proceed south through an exit to an ice chamber guarded by two Minotaurs spawned by a single Generator.
(An ice ramp leads upward to a platform containing a swiveling cannon and its arch. The platform actually bisects the ice chamber. A ramp on the western side of the platform leads back down to the main floor on the western half of the chamber. Here you will find two Minotaurs spawned by a single Generator and a sliding door that is blocked by fallen masonry.
To the north is an ice barrier guarded by a Little Wizard. North of the Little Wizard is another ice barrier. This one holds a huge round boulder in place. You must melt the ice barrier, then run quickly in order to stay out of harm’s way when the boulder rolls south to smash the masonry.
You will find, however, that the sliding door leads only to a tiny chamber containing a single Treasure Chest. Freeing the round boulder, however, will allow you access to the path that it formerly blocked in the north and thus is an essential task.
Go north, then west into a chamber with two tillable fields, each of which consists of four plots. This is NOT a peaceful chamber, however, as a Monster Generator spawns two Souls here.
Ignore them or defeat them, then go thorugh the sliding door in the southern wall to unlock the shortcut to the stairway.


Path to the 6th Floor


Once you have unlocked the sliding door to the shortcut stairway, return to the chamber with the Souls and tillable fields to the north.
In fact, finding the stairway to the 6th floor is as simple as walking to the southeast corner of this chamber where you will find two rocks that can be smashed for ores/gems and another exit that leads south immediately to the isolated stairway to the 6th floor.