Now that you’re free of the arena and wearing pants again, let’s go have a little follow-up chat with our home squatters-slash-personal abductors, Yogi and Reggie. They’re still as super-annoying as ever, but instead of breaking both their necks, you somehow let them talk you into setting out in search of a lost thangka painting, which may or may not be magical, in a cave with a scary door. There’s a hang glider right here, and you probably took the buzzer to get here. Either will serve in this case.
On the island, the quest marker will lead you to the entrance of a cave named Kalinag’s Wisdom.
There you’ll find treasure, a mani wheel, and a vertical tunnel that drops into a subterranean pool. Resist the urge to dive. It won’t kill you, but you don’t want to go all the way down.
Use the grapple point overhead and lower yourself into the hole. As you descend, watch for another grapple point you can switch to, then another. This will put you on a platform near a stone walkway and another grapple point, then another, rising increasingly higher. Eventually, you’ll be eye-level with the statue.
Use the walkway and head into the chamber beyond. The chamber beyond contains one of Mohan’s Journals—which you should grab first—as well as a canister-like object on a crate. This is your first thankga. And it is indeed magical. You’ll pass out and awake at the edge of a precipice, looking down into a patch of ground fractured by glowing red fissures. When the voice tells you to jump, do so. Then swim up through the funnel of fishes. (Yep. You read that right.)
Entry into Shangri-La
You’ll emerge on a gold-and-scarlet landscape, with no weapons and only one direction to go. So go. You’ll soon come across a scene as grisly as Shangri-La is beautiful.
Follow the prompt and continue up the path. When you reach the area with the man on his knees, be sure to interact with him.
You also have a newly reborn friend. . . which you can fire at enemies like a fuzzy, four-pawed cruise missile.
Seeking the Seekers
On each trip to Shangri-La but the last, you’ll come across three “seekers”—previous visitors who became frozen in time at the exact moment of their deaths. And although this first one is almost impossible to miss, others must be [*ahem*] sought out by exploring every corner of Shangri-La. They’re more than just macabre trophies, too. For every seeker you find in a given level, you gain a block of health.
The next chamber is a wide lakeshore (you can walk on the water, by the way) where you’ll join the fight against the tiger’s enemies: a horde of masked demons determined to slaughter every living thing in Shangri-La.
Wipe out the demons by sending the tiger after some and executing takedowns on the others. There are no collectibles in Shangri-La beyond the three seekers, so feel free to focus upon wiping out demons and eventually re-spinning the two enormous mani wheels wobbling on opposite sides of the area.
Demons puff blue powder-smoke from their empty eye sockets when taken down.
The Second and Third Seekers
After spinning the second wheel (the one on your right when you stand at the place where you entered), go through the archway nearest the giant statue to find a wooded area populated by blood-red grass, pure white stags, and the second seeker.
Now, head up the steps toward the towering statue in the distance.
Farther up the stairs, you’ll encounter a new kind of enemy called a scorcher. He’s very similar to a real-world flamethrower heavy. Our advice here is to go with the flow. The tiger will likely key on the scorcher, which gives you the opportunity to swoop in from behind and hit him with a takedown (assuming you have the Heavy takedown skill). However, regular enemies all around will be turning this area into a crossfire of doom and chaos. So if you can’t get in on the heavy, just lay back, out of the crossfire, and clean up the minions on the edges. Don’t worry if your furry friend goes down. He’ll be back soon. Once the regular demons are thinned out, take the scorcher out with a takedown while the tiger has him disabled.
If the tiger plays tug-of-war with the scorcher, the scorcher is vulnerable to a rear takedown. But if he drops to his knees, you can wax him from any angle.
Once all enemies are defeated, explore the area to the right of the stairs-near the broken tree-to find the third seeker. Then, proceed up the giant statue’s spiralling ribbon ramp and free the Bell of Enlightenment, thus ending this visit to Shangri-La.
Congratulations! You now own a home. And one-fifth of an incredibly magical thangka painting.