Quick Links
- Mission: Investigate McCallum’s Sawmill
- Boss Battle: The Parasiter
After a jaunt into the mountains, things take a turn for the spooky and gross in the next chapter of Evil West. Chapter seven takes the team to an old Sawmill in the backwoods of the middle of nowhere. Seems the place was bought over by a front for the Vampires and it’s the source of the mutagenic Leeches that have been causing the appearance of so many new and odd monsters.
RELATED: Evil West: Chapter Six: Remote RI Outpost Walkthrough
Smoke and Mirrors is a pretty long mission and it’s also one of the more interesting ones as it goes through two different zones and culminates in a boss fight with a brand-new monster. Unfortunately, you never see it again, but it’s a refreshing change from exterminating VampireNobles. To help you navigate through these fog-filed woods, here’s a helpful walkthrough to Chapter Seven in Evil West.
Mission: Investigate McCallum’s Sawmill
Mission
Boss Battle
Investigate McCallum’s Sawmill
The Parasiter
Starting off back at the Calico Hideout once again, it seems the local science team has an issue, some Infected Vessels they were experimenting on have escaped. So you’ll have to head down into the basement and deal with them. You’ll also get to try out Jessies Overcharge ability as Vergil was able to repair his Gauntlet.
However, before doing this there are collectibles you need to gather first as hitting the mission markers will lock you off from getting them. First, go to the workbenches on your left after the chapter starts, there’s Bucks. Head a bit further and look left by some machinery to get an edition of the Daily Mail News and the first collectible lore note for this chapter.
Run to the planning room and up the stairs into the small back office to get another bag of Bucks. Then go down to the Holding Cells in the basement and take the first door on the right, turn right again when you go in the room and there’ll be the Emilia’s Medical Arts Diploma lore note on a surgical table.
Kill the Ghouls in the basement then run back up the stairs to talk to the rest of the Rentier Institute team. You’ll hear through a cutscene that Emilia was able to identify how Felicity was able to build an army of monsters so fast. Turns out the precocious little scamp has been using Leeches that act as living blood bags to transport the strange blood that she uses to transform her followers. Emilia states the blood is incredibly ancient, so Jessie sets off to find the source of this mysterious mutagenic goop.
Welcome to the backwoods. It’s a creepy area with low visibility and a high number of Vampires, but it takes you to some interesting and pretty gross-looking places. Going down the hill from the start of the area, keep left towards the log pile and you’ll find a bag of Bucks to take. Walk into the Sawmill proper and head towards the Barn as it seems the Vampires have put up a Glamour to hide something from anyone passing by.
This is also where Jessie discovers how these seemingly impenetrable shields are held together, they’re fed by huge tumorous hearts. There are three of them in this area and you’ll have to follow the trail of blood-filled vines to find the Glamour Hearts, but they’re along the main path so you don’t have to wander far. The first is right behind you and after destroying it, look to the left of the Glamour as there’s a glowing box on a canoe that you can smash for Bucks.
Cash collected, head over the log bridge to the right of that collectible on the ground on the other side is another bag of Bucks. Hop up the ledge and you’ll be introduced to a new enemy type, the explosive version of the Infected Wasters. These glowing boys will screech and run right up to Jessie before detonating in a corrosive burst that will melt through your health bar. They can be instantly killed with a shot from your Rentier Rifle or X-Bow, but they’re pretty quick and come at you in large numbers.
When these creatures burst they won’t damage or kill any of their nearby friends. So as soon as one pops, focus on another quickly before they get too close.
You can easily stand at the entrance to the arena and pop them from afar, but don’t take too long as two Jengu Giants will drop in to join the fight. Brawl finished, go under the log at the back of the arena and immediately turn right to the pile of crystals to find the first chapter of Felicity’s Diary. Go up the nearby ledge and keep left, next to some logs is another bag of Bucks and to the right of that is the next Glamour Heart.
Tumour burst, head over the log bridge, and look at the stump on the other side on the right as there’s a bag of Bucks on top to collect. Head up the short incline and over the chain into a big arena filled with more explosive Infected Wasters. After you take them out some Jengu Giants and Infected Proteus will drop down into the area and join in as the second wave.
Finish this little fight and climb up the chains at the right of where you came in and it’ll follow a short trail that will take you to a chest with 216 Bucks. Go back down and hop the barricade at the back. Go up the path and on a stump to the right is another bag of Bucks. You can find an extra bag behind the TNT next to the mill just up ahead and if you blow up the other TNT at the back of the shed you can get to a chest with 339 Bucks inside. There’s also a collectible lore note in the shed itself called Felicity’s Letter To Sawmill Workers.
Go around the Sawmill and drop down into another big arena brawl. This one is pretty easy as it’s just a big group of Infected Vessels. After taking them out, go up the chain and there’s a glowing box with Bucks on your left. If you look down from this spot you’ll see the third and final Glamour Heart to destroy which will let Jessie ride the Zipline all the way back down to the beginning where the Barn is.
Now you can destroy the Glamour and after it shatters you’ll get to enjoy another arena brawl, but this time there’s a mini-boss to mix things up. You’ll have a Carrion Husk to deal with that’s backed up by a large crowd of Infected Vessels. Depending on how long the fight takes, eventually some explosive Infected Wasters will appear from the back of the room so keep an eye out for them.
Hop up the ledge and follow the big muddy trail. Watch the left side of it as there’s a glowing box with Bucks that’s easy to miss since you’ll probably be staring at all the massive slimy Leeches on the trees. They can’t hurt you or be interacted with in any way, but it’s still a creepy visual that fits with the zone.
Follow the path around the corner towards an old shack, if you keep left there’ll be a trail that loops you back to it from behind. On a banister are some Bucks and inside the shack is a Hidden Chest with the Ghost Hat cosmetic skin. Retrace your steps to the main path and continue up the hill and deeper into the woods. Also as you round the corner at the top there’s some Bucks on the boulder you walk around so keep an eye out for them. Hop over the gap and burn through the brambles to enter the forest area properly.
Drop down the ledge and go to your immediate right. Burn through those brambles and you’ll find a chest with 356 Bucks, there are also some more Bucks in a glowing box to the left of the entrance where you came in. If you walk a few feet further into the forest a big group of exploding Infected Wasters will drop down along with some Infected Vessels and Infected Proteus providing ranged attacks from the back. It’s a fairly large group but it shouldn’t be too hard to deal with by this point.
Hop up the barricade at the back of this area and go along the path. On the left will be the second chapter of Felicity’s Diary and to the right is a bag of Bucks. Both are amongst the Leeches, but you can just walk right amongst them and grab it without any issues. Follow the path and keep left to find a swing point that will take you to a ledge with some Bucks on it. From there retrace your steps, drop down and go left, there’s some brambles to burn and a Hidden Chest with the Boom Balls perk inside.
Keep left again from this chest and the path will lead to another hill with brambles to burn and a chest with 223 Bucks inside. Now go back to where you came in and start scraping the right side of this circular area. Down the right path is a hanging corpse with Bucks inside its pockets, but you’ll have to deal with some explosive Infected Wasters first. Continue along the trail to the right of these and it will loop you around across a log bridge and towards a glowing box with Bucks.
Behind that previous collectible is a swinging point, if you go over this you’ll drop into a brief brawl with some Infected Proteus. But there’s a chest with Bucks inside it for your efforts as a reward. Ghouls dispatched, drop down onto the trail again and go left, this will take you to the exit. There’s a big patch of brambles to burn, but before you’re able to do that some exploding and non-explosive Infected Wasters will crawl out from them and attack. Just burn them with the Scorcher to quickly dispatch them.
Head through the brambles and you’ll finally discover what the Vampires were so eager to protect, it’s a gigantic and extremely dead and rotting monster. Seems their blood has mutagenic properties when used by the Vampires and they’ve been actively using the Leeches to transfer this blood into their followers to turn them into all sorts of monsters.
You never see any other massive monsters after this. It’s a plot point that’s quickly forgotten about, unfortunately.
Follow the trail around and into the guts of this beast to get the final Vampire fight of this chapter. This brawl is quite big as there’s a lot of Undead getting thrown at you. At first, it’s a large spread of explosive Infected Wasters from the left and right side of the room. They’re then swiftly reinforced by Infected Proteus, Infected Vessels, and Jengu Giants so get through them quickly or you’ll be swamped with exploding boys.
There’ll be another wave of exploding Infected Wasters to deal with, but when they appear that’ll be the last of the Ghouls to deal with. Fight finished, hop up the barricade and head through the rest of the monster and a big slimy pile of Leeches. Before hopping over the next barricade, keep an eye out as amongst your goo-covered friends is a bag of Bucks to find. Cash grabbed, time to take down a mega monster.
RELATED: Evil West: Weapon Upgrade Guide
Boss Battle: The Parasiter
The Parasiter is quite a solid boss fight and a massive difficulty spike in Evil West. It has a number of unique moves, they’re fairly wide and when combined with the tiny area you have to run around in it can be extremely hard to avoid them unscathed. The first phase will feature slams from the tentacles and an acid spray from the mouth. The smaller arms will also lob gobs of corrosive goo at you if you get too far away from them.
Your only way to damage it will be shooting the smaller appendages with the Rentier Rifle and X-Bow, or using melee hits. But for those you’ll need to wait until the tentacles get stuck whilst slamming into the ground, then quickly hit them with the Gauntlet before they can pull out. Both tentacles have their own health bars so you can see how close they are to dying. Once they’re taken out the head will drop down with two target points to shoot. Doing this will chunk its health bar and start the next phase.
Get ready to spam the doge button. The Parasiter attacks constantly and there are no lengthy breaks between them, so keep moving and hit when you can.
The second and third phases of the Parasiter are where things start to get really nutty. It’ll do the same attacks as before, but it will also regurgitate fleshy eggs that will spawn explosive Infected Wasters. Although, the Parasiters own attacks can instantly destroy these, so try and trick it into doing that.
Another move involves it slamming the tree it’s wrapped around to cause rocks to drop on you, but this one isn’t much of a threat. To nerf this attack, stand still, pitch the camera down and look at the circles on the ground. One will always appear directly under Jessie every three seconds and you can just step to the left or right to avoid them since the AOE is so small. Once this horrible beast is taken down, Jessie will burn its remains with the Scorcher before heading back to Calico to report his findings.
NEXT: Evil West: The Best Perks
