After working your way through Act 1 of Hell Is Us, you'll then get into the real meat of the game, where you're tasked with finding the keystones to open the door to the Lymbic Forge. Like most things in the game, however, there's no given order that you should go and pursue the three remaining keystones. As such, some players may be wondering if there's a 'best' route to obtain the keystones to help prevent backtracking or to generally ensure that the gameplay scales with your experience and time in the game. Having played through it, here's the best order to get the keystones in Hell Is Us.
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Best Keystone Order in Hell Is Us
The Keystones of Terror, Rage, and Ecstasy can technically be collected in any order the player wants. After collecting the Keystone of Grief and entering it into the slot at the Lymbic Forge, Tania will give you three locations you can go to. However, from my playthrough, I'd recommend going to Talju to get the Keystone of Terror first, and then going to Jeljin and the Ministry of Cultural Primacy to obtain the Keystone of Rage.
Once these are both done, you'll then unlock the ability to head to the Acasa Marshes and follow the questline through there to get the Keystone of Ecstasy.
The main reason to get the Keystones in this order, as noted by reader Xevro in the comments below, is that certain quest items can only be obtained in Talju. Once you get the first of the three Keystones, time will advance and some of the Good Deeds/ Mysteries in the game will 'expire' so to speak. As such, if you want to go for a full completionist playthrough, you should go to Talju first, search the entire area for quest items, and then complete these Good Deeds/ Mysteries before proceeding with getting the Keystone of Terror from the next location this quest takes you to.
In my playthrough, I went to Jeljin and the Ministry of Cultural Primacy first and this was largely fine, except for the fact that some of the Good Deeds/ Mysteries did fail. I did notice, however, when visiting Talju that the 'level' of the enemies you'll face will bump up to three (I only met level two creatures when getting the Keystone of Rage). Facing higher-level enemies can be useful for getting the different Shards you need. It may be that the game dynamically scales the strength of the enemies as you progress through the game. Once we have confirmation of this, I'll update this post and let you know.
To summarize, I'd recommend visiting the locations in the order listed below to help avoid any unnecessary backtracking.
- Talju
- Marastan
- Senedra Forest
- Lethe - Ministry of Cultural Primacy
- Jeljin
- Auriga Museum
- Acasa Marshes
- National Library of Lethe
- Vyssa Hills
- Plains of Mist
- Lymbic Forge
The major boss of Act 2 will always be found at the Plains of Mist, hence why it's worth leaving this until last so you can suitably level your weapons up and improve your loadout.
Once you get the second of the four Keystones (the first of the three you need to find around the world), the world state will change. There are some Good Deeds, such as Performance of a Lifetime, Love Thy Neighbour, and Land of Milk and Honey, which if not completed before world state changes occur, will fail. I won't spoil the consequences of failing these good deeds, but you definitely won't be getting any rewards for your efforts.
Hell Is Us
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 78 /100 Critics Rec: 79%
- Released
- September 4, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Rogue Factor
- Publisher(s)
- Nacon
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Genre(s)
- Action, Adventure, Open-World
