Hollow Bell
In the deep vaults of the Belowkeeper Hollows, a circular deepslate and copper chamber holds a heavy resonance bell hung without a clapper. The Belowkeepers call it the Hollow Bell. It was cast to answer the mountain’s shifting weight before a roof fall, and it still tests the footing of anyone who wakes its belfry.
The Belowkeeper Bell Sanctum
Look for a subterranean deepslate ring with four cardinal passages, eight lantern pillars and a central lodestone pedestal. Its northern alcove holds a Listening Belfry, a supply chest and a two-page field manual, The Unclappered Bell. The chest can hold Hollow Sense, Gloom Sight, Lumen Path, Plumbline or Deep Sound runes. Walking into the sanctum earns The Unclappered Bell and adds a Places entry to your lore journal.
Use the belfry in Survival to begin the optional challenge. The guardian gives you three seconds before its first strike. Reading the book, visiting the sanctum or finishing the peaceful What the Empty Bell Kept story does not begin combat. Guardians must be enabled, and the world must be above Peaceful difficulty.
The Hollow Bell remains anchored at the central pedestal. Its oxidized bronze mantle, swinging yoke, dropping plumb weight and opening acoustic vanes each announce its next resonance before the strike lands.
Read the resonance
| Move | Warning | How to answer | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rim toll | The bronze bell tilts for 1.6 seconds. A marked arc shows its locked bearing and 6.5-block reach. | Step to the sides, behind the locked arc, or beyond its reach. | 1.2 seconds |
| Plumb drop | A copper circle marks the floor for 2.2 seconds. | Leave the 2.25-block-radius circle. The plumb weight keeps its marked spot when you move; a hit pulls you slightly toward the pedestal. | 1.6 seconds |
| Hush wave | The acoustic vanes open for 2.8 seconds. Crosses mark danger, and two clear sightlines bound the quiet lane. | Stand in the unlit 3.5-block damping lane between the sightlines through the impact. | 2 seconds |
The ground markings remain readable with Minimal particles. Each attack can hit you once, and every recovery window leaves time to answer on foot. Base damage is 6 for the rim toll, 5 for the plumb drop and 7 for the hush wave, before ordinary difficulty, tempering and defences. Base health is 180 with 6 armour.
At half health the Hollow Bell shifts its cadence and rotates later quiet lanes between the east-west and north-south axes. A tell already underway keeps the bearing and quiet lane it showed you. Read each new wave rather than relying on the previous lane.
Leaving and returning
The four cardinal passages stay open. Stepping outside the sanctum cancels an attack aimed at you. After ten seconds without an eligible challenger, the guardian heals and returns to rest at the central pedestal. Wake the belfry again whenever you are ready. Reloading a saved encounter also returns it to rest so no unfinished resonance lands as the world reopens.
The belfry remembers its guardian. Repeated clicks do not create extra bosses, and a belfry placed outside a real Belowkeeper Bell Sanctum has no encounter to wake. The sanctum generates only in newly explored chunks.
Tuning Fork of the Hollow Bell
When the Hollow Bell yields, each surviving player still in the arena who dealt an accepted hit during that attempt receives 80 XP, a permanent Learned entry in the lore journal, and one Tuning Fork of the Hollow Bell. The compass points back to that exact Bell Sanctum in its dimension without requiring you to place a lodestone.
Return to a Belowkeeper Listener after the victory. Once you have heard the listener’s four stories, they recognize the tuning fork you carry and record their parting acknowledgement in your journal’s Talk tab.
The belfry stays complete after victory and does not repeat its reward. Leaving an attempt or reloading clears that attempt’s participation. The peaceful Belowkeeper listening route keeps its own clues and rewards.