Updated Andrii Kovalenko3 min read

How Long to Beat Blasphemous

How long to beat Blasphemous — main story, true ending, and full completion time for the base game and DLC.

Blasphemous takes most players 12 to 18 hours to finish the main story. Going for the true ending and full completion — all collectibles plus the DLC — pushes that to around 25 to 30 hours.

The reason for the gap is the true ending. The default ending is reachable on a normal run, but the better one is gated behind specific items and routes you can easily miss if you don't know to look.

How long to beat Blasphemous

GoalTime
Main story (default ending)12–18 hours
True ending16–22 hours
Full completion + DLC25–35 hours
Speed run1–2 hours

The main story is the steady part. The true ending and the free DLC chapters are where the extra hours come from.

What affects your playtime

A few things move your number:

  • The true ending requirements. Blasphemous doesn't tell you how to get its best ending. It involves a specific item, a side quest chain, and a route that's easy to walk past. Players going in blind often finish the default ending first, then spend extra hours hunting the true one.
  • Boss difficulty. The bosses are the time-eaters. The first game has no dodge roll, so you rely on positioning and a backstep, and a wall boss can cost you many attempts before the pattern clicks.
  • Exploration and backtracking. This is a Metroidvania, so new abilities open old areas. Completionists revisit the whole map for collectibles, hidden bosses, and the Mea Culpa upgrades.
  • The DLC. Blasphemous received several free content updates that added bosses, areas, and the path to the definitive ending. Including all of it stretches the game well past the base story.

The big one is the true ending. Whether you go for it is the main fork between a 15-hour run and a 25-hour one.

Is it worth the time?

Yes, if its tone lands for you. Blasphemous has a distinctive look — heavy religious iconography, brutal pixel-art executions, a grim and specific world — that nothing else quite matches. The combat is methodical and the bosses are memorable.

The honest caveat: the first game's combat is stiffer than modern metroidvanias, and the lack of a dodge roll frustrates players used to faster movement. The cryptic true-ending requirements can also push you toward a guide, which not everyone enjoys. If you want fluid, forgiving action, this isn't it.

How it compares to similar games

If you're sizing Blasphemous against the games it sits next to:

  • Hollow Knight is longer — roughly 25 to 30 hours for the main story — with a bigger map and more optional depth, though a similarly grim tone.
  • Ori and the Will of the Wisps is shorter and far smoother, around 8 to 12 hours, trading Blasphemous's heavy combat for fast, flowing movement.
  • Curse of the Dead Gods is in the same range for a first clear, around 8 to 12 hours, but it's a run-based roguelike rather than a single connected world.

Blasphemous sits in the middle of the Metroidvania length scale, with a tone and difficulty that are more demanding than most.

If dark aesthetics and methodical metroidvania exploration are your thing, KUTO: The Lock of Time is worth watching. It's a time-bending Metroidvania where time powers are literally breaking the world — every ability you unlock is one more lock off the thing that ends everything. Wishlist it on Steam so you don't miss the launch.

Frequently asked questions

How long does Blasphemous take to beat?
The main story takes 12–18 hours for most players. The true ending requires additional exploration and adds 3–5 hours. Full completion with all collectibles and DLC takes 25–35 hours.
How long is Blasphemous 2?
Blasphemous 2 takes most players 15–20 hours for the main story and 25–35 for full completion — slightly longer than the original.
Is Blasphemous hard?
Moderately. Boss fights require pattern recognition and the lack of a dodge roll in the first game makes positioning crucial. It's harder than most modern metroidvanias but not as punishing as Returnal.
How many bosses are in Blasphemous?
The base game has around 16 bosses including optional ones. The DLC adds more. Boss fights are the most memorable part of the game — each one has distinct visual design tied to the grotesque religious aesthetic.
Does Blasphemous have a true ending and what does it require?
Yes. The true ending requires collecting all Guilt Fragments, completing Gemino's quest with the Golden Thimble, and solving several other side objectives. It's worth doing — the bad ending is deliberately unsatisfying by design.
How does Blasphemous 2 compare in length to the original?
Blasphemous 2 is slightly longer — 15–20 hours for the main story vs. 12–18 for the original. The sequel added a dodge roll and expanded the combat system, which some players feel makes it more approachable.
Is Blasphemous worth playing if you like Dark Souls?
Yes, but with caveats. Blasphemous shares the punishing death system and cryptic lore-delivery, but it's a 2D platformer, not a 3D action game. The difficulty spikes come from bosses and platform sections, not from enemy aggression.
Can you backtrack in Blasphemous?
Yes — it's a metroidvania. You unlock new traversal abilities over time that open previously inaccessible areas. The map is designed for backtracking and most collectibles require revisiting areas with new abilities.

Keep reading

How Long to Beat Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight's main ending takes 25–35 hours. The true ending and full completion push well past 50 — here's the full breakdown.

Hollow Knight True Ending Explained

Hollow Knight has five endings, and the 'true' one needs extra steps. Here's how to get Dream No More and what it actually says about Hallownest.