Death’s Door ending guide

Find Ancient Tablets of Knowledge to see the true ending in the endgame

By Julia Lee@hardykiwis Sep 1, 2021, 4:35pm EDT

A small crow lifts up an Ancient Tablet of Knowledge with a glowing green eye on it.

Julia Lee (she/her) is a guides producer, writing guides for games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Genshin Impact. She helped launch the Rift Herald in 2016.

Part of Death’s Door guides

After beating the final boss in Death’s Door, more secrets await you in the true ending. In the endgame, you have to find Ancient Tablets of Knowledge at night. Our Death’s Door ending guide will explain where to find the Ancient Tablets and where to connect them.

There are seven tablet pieces. You don’t need to get them in any specific order. We’ve listed the Ancient Tablet locations below.

Nighttime and the Rusted Belltower Key

Ancient Tablets of Knowledge

Death’s Door true ending

Turning in the Ancient Tablets of Knowledge

Nighttime and the Rusted Belltower Key

First, to access endgame, you need to pick up the Rusted Belltower Key Shiny Thing from the floor of the Hall of Doors. This will be sitting where you fought and killed the final boss.

Once you have it, go to The Lost Cemetery, and head all the way north, above the entrance to the Estate of the Urn Witch. Use the key to access the locked tower, climb up, and strike the bell with your weapon. It will suddenly become nighttime.

Pink Ancient Tablet of Knowledge: Three owls

The Old Watchtowers ▪ The Estate of the Urn Witch ▪ Overgrown Ruins

There is one owl in the Old Watchtowers, one in the Estate of the Urn Witch, and one in the Overgrown Ruins. When you find them, you can interact with them, and they’ll drop an Ancient Tablet of Knowledge shard. When you find the final owl, they’ll combine into one.

The Estate of the Urn Witch

An owl stands on a bridge at night in front of a small crow. — The Estate of the Urn Witch owl is on a bridge near the Rogue Daggers.

Go east of the entrance to the Ceramic Manor, on the path where you find the Rogue Daggers. The owl is on a bridge on this route.

Overgrown Ruins

An owl sitting in a dark jungle above some trees. — The owl in the Overgrown Ruins is just above where you find the Magical Forest Horn Shiny Thing.

This owl is on a ledge above where you find the Magical Forest Horn in the north of the area.

The Old Watchtowers

An owl standing in a dark, snowy area in front of a little crow — The owl at the Old Watchtowers is at the end of the slippery ice path.

The owl is sitting at the end of the slippery ice path. You cannot backtrack to this owl — you actually need to go through the slippery path again.

Red Ancient Tablet of Knowledge: Escorting Jefferson

The Stranded Sailor ▪ The Flooded Fortress

A small crow carrying a large squid on its back approaches a mechanism with a moon on it

If you go into The Stranded Sailor, you’ll see Jefferson the squid sitting in a tank with a collapsed body next to him. After talking with him, he’ll hop on your back and you’ll need to take him to a special spot in the Flooded Fortress. The catch is that you have to walk the entire distance, as Jefferson can’t enter the Hall of Doors. Cross through The Lost Cemetery, take the gondola down to the Overgrown Ruins, walk through the Mushroom Dungeon, and begin your journey in The Flooded Fortress.

Jefferson will tell you to look out for guidance from the moon, and sure enough, there’ll be glowing moon paths to walk on. It’s a fairly straight-forward journey, where in the end, you’ll pray with Jefferson to get an orange Ancient Tablet of Knowledge.

Yellow Ancient Tablet of Knowledge: Final Avarice battle

Overgrown Ruins

A treasure chest atop some stairs in the dark

Directly in front of the gondola to the Overgrown Ruins, the flooded area is now drained. A large menacing treasure chest sits here, similar to the one you get your abilities from. It will swallow you up, forcing you to fight many enemies in Avarice again. Once you beat them all, you’ll get a yellow Ancient Tablet of Knowledge.

Teal Ancient Tablet of Knowledge: Seven ghosts and seven statues

The Lost Cemetery

A door in the dark that has seven lit up pink icons above it.

As soon as it becomes nighttime, seven ghosts will appear in The Lost Cemetery and they need to be reunited with statues of old Lords of Doors. The ghosts appear fairly close to statues, so you’ll just need to walk to the closest statue from the ghost. If you move too quickly, the ghost will stop following you, but you can go back to pick it up.

We’ve marked where to find the ghosts and statues on the map below.

A map showing where to find various hot pink ghosts with circles marking where to take them

Once you reunite all the ghosts, a door on the southmost point of the map will unlock and the green Ancient Tablet of Knowledge will be inside.

Blue Ancient Tablet of Knowledge: Six torches

The Old Watchtowers

A crow stands under six large fired up torches with an open door nearby

There are six unlit torches around The Old Watchtowers. When lit, they open a door in the northeast of the map.

The easiest way to grab all the torches is to use the Old Watchtowers door from the Hall of Doors, and run through the map as you did the first time (without taking any of the opened shortcuts). The first torch is actually before the door, when you first emerge onto the mountain.

You can see all six torches below.

Image: Acid Nerve/Devolver Digital via Polygon
Image: Acid Nerve/Devolver Digital via Polygon
Image: Acid Nerve/Devolver Digital via Polygon
Image: Acid Nerve/Devolver Digital via Polygon
Image: Acid Nerve/Devolver Digital via Polygon
Image: Acid Nerve/Devolver Digital via Polygon

Once you light all six, the northeast door will unlock, allowing you to grab the indigo Ancient Tablet of Knowledge.

Purple Ancient Tablet of Knowledge: Gravedigger fight

The Lost Cemetery

A small crow stands outside of a mausoleum at night

After you pick up the Mysterious Locket outside of Betty’s Lair, the door to the Gravedigger’s mausoleum in The Lost Cemetery will open. The mausoleum is within the small grave area that the Gravedigger usually is standing in. Once you enter, he’ll recognize your locket and become enraged. Take him down to get the Purple Ancient Tablet of Knowledge.

The fight itself isn’t particularly hard, as long as you keep dodging and quickly taking care of any little guys he spawns. At this point, you should be able to one-shot the small guys while whittling away at the Gravedigger’s health.

Green Ancient Tablet of Knowledge: Plant all the Life Seeds

Estate of the Urn Witch

To get this Ancient Tablet of Knowledge, you need to find every Life Seed and plant them all into pots. This can seem daunting, but if you visit Pothead’s secret garden at night, he’ll tell you how many pots you have remaining. He’ll even give a hint to where the missing pots are.

A crow talks to Pothead, who tells you how many empty pots are left in the game.

Save this for the step last, as doors in the Hall of Doors will glow red if there’s still Ancient Tablets, Shiny Things, Life Seeds, or empty pots. If you get the other stuff out of the way first, the only doors left will indicate Life Seeds and pots, making this task easier. The door to the Camp of the Free Crows will always glow until you turn in all the tablets there, so ignore that for now (unless it’s the only glowing door left).

A large door behind a campsite begins to open

Once you plant all the seeds, the door behind Pothead at the Estate of the Urn Witch will open, and you can grab the green Ancient Tablet of Knowledge.

Turning in the Ancient Tablets of Knowledge

Camp of the Free Crows

A small crow stands in front of a shrine with rainbow colored stones

Once you get all of the Ancient Tablets of Knowledge, head to the shrine in the back of the Camp of the Free Crows. This will open up a cave, where you can watch the true ending.

Death’s Door ending guide