How I Solve the Redemption Church and Trident Puzzle

Quick Answer

Redemption Church has two separate objectives.

For the main route, the floodgate code is:

1672

The church was built in 1667, but its bell was completed half a decade later:

1667 + 5 = 1672

For the optional The Other Gods investigation, my Trident route is:

Church Key → A Call Upon Believers → Star Key → The First Vision → release the Trident → womb → rhombic spearhead → crooked cross → serpent → let all 3 lightning strikes finish → return the charged Trident to the highest mount

The Trident occupies 2 inventory slots, so I make room before taking it.

Redemption Church confused me at first because I was trying to solve two different problems as though they were one.

The main story only needs me to open the floodgate.

The much larger Trident route belongs to an optional investigation that finishes The Other Gods.

Once I separate those goals, the church becomes much easier to read.

My route is:

get inside

→ find the Star Key

→ collect the ritual clues

→ finish the Trident if I want the investigation

→ use 1672 at the floodgate

If I only want story progression, I do not have to finish every occult step first.

Get the Church Key and Enter Redemption Church

The first progression item I need is the Church Key.

Once I have it, I use it to enter the church rather than continuing to test unrelated locked routes around the district.

Inside, the most useful clue is A Call Upon Believers.

It sounds like ritual language, but it is really a set of instructions.

I reduce the clue to five actions:

release the Trident

→ take it to the star shrine

→ invoke the jailers from depths to heights

→ let the star’s gaze charge it

→ return the charged Trident to the highest point

The phrase I remember is:

from the depths to the heights

That becomes important when I reach the symbol puzzle.

Find the Star Key Before Trying the Occult Route

The star-shaped locks are not a symbol puzzle by themselves.

They need the Star Key.

Once I have the Star Key, I return to the star-locked section and continue the church investigation.

I do not confuse this with the graveyard gate.

The graveyard becomes useful later for the wider district route and the Printing House.

The Star Key belongs to the Trident investigation I am solving now.

The First Vision Gives Me the Four Trident Symbols

Behind the Star Key route I find The First Vision.

This Evidence identifies the four symbols involved in the ritual:

womb

rhombic spearhead

crooked cross

serpent

The First Vision gives me the symbol identities.

It does not solve the sequence by itself.

For the order, I go back to the earlier instruction:

from the depths to the heights

Those two clues have to be read together.

Make Two Free Inventory Slots Before Taking the Trident

The Trident occupies 2 inventory slots.

That is enough to matter during this section.

I make those two spaces available before picking it up rather than discovering the problem after I have already committed to the ritual route.

I do not need to turn this into a complete inventory rebuild.

I just need:

two empty slots for the Trident

Once those are free, I take it to the outdoor star mechanism.

Correct Trident Symbol Order

This was the part that stopped me longest.

Knowing all four symbols was not enough.

I had to enter them in the direction implied by:

from the depths to the heights

The correct order is:

womb

→ rhombic spearhead

→ crooked cross

→ serpent

If I have those four symbols but the mechanism refuses to validate, I do not start searching the entire church for a fifth symbol.

The problem is the sequence, not a missing piece.

Once the order is correct, the mechanism begins charging the Trident.

Let All Three Lightning Strikes Finish

After the symbols validate, the Trident is exposed to the star’s gaze.

The ritual clue indicates that the charging happens three times.

So I leave the Trident in place until the entire sequence finishes.

I do not take it back after the first visible strike.

After all three, I recover the charged Trident.

At this point I am done with the outdoor symbol mechanism.

The next instruction is already contained in A Call Upon Believers:

return it to the highest point.

Return the Charged Trident to the Upper Mount

I take the charged Trident back into the church and return to the highest Trident mount.

I do not place it at one of the lower ritual positions I passed earlier.

The wording of the clue is literal here.

Once I install the charged Trident at the upper mount, the final part of the church investigation starts.

During that encounter I obtain the stone dagger.

I use the dagger on the pulsing flesh barrier when the interaction opens instead of treating the barrier like another enemy that needs to be shot down.

Finishing this sequence completes the optional church mystery and unlocks:

The Other Gods

It also rewards Dream Essence, which is why I normally finish this investigation on a completion-focused first run while I am already inside the church.

Floodgate Code: 1672

The floodgate is a completely separate and much shorter problem.

The lock asks for:

the year of the bell

The easiest wrong answer is 1667.

That year comes from Origins of the Redemption Church.

The church was built in:

1667

But the lock does not ask for the church’s construction year.

It asks for the bell.

The second clue, Report on the Bell, says the bell took another half decade to complete.

Half a decade is:

5 years

So:

1667 + 5 = 1672

Floodgate code: 1672

The two wrong answers I would avoid are:

1667 — using the church construction year directly.

1677 — reading “half a decade” as a full ten years.

The working answer is:

1672

Do I Need to Finish the Trident Before Opening the Floodgate?

No.

This is the most useful distinction in the entire church section.

If I only want to continue the main story:

enter 1672 and leave once the floodgate route opens.

I do not need to complete the full Trident investigation first.

If I am doing a completion-focused run, I prefer:

finish the Trident mystery

→ unlock The Other Gods

→ collect the investigation reward

→ then open the floodgate

The reason is specific to this area: I already have the Star Key, the church layout is fresh, and all of the ritual pieces are nearby.

Leaving the Trident half-finished means coming back later and reconstructing the whole chain.

My Redemption Church Completion Check

For the main route, I only need to make sure:

Floodgate code — 1672

For the optional investigation, I expect to have completed:

Church Key

A Call Upon Believers

Star Key

The First Vision

Trident collected with 2 free inventory slots

womb → rhombic spearhead → crooked cross → serpent

all 3 lightning charges

charged Trident returned to the highest mount

stone dagger sequence

The Other Gods

Once those are done, I stop treating Redemption Church as unfinished.

The wider district then moves into the broken-crane and Printing House route, while the separate cursed press investigation continues in my Printing Press puzzle guide.