Dracula (Lords of Shadow)/Abilities

As Gabriel Belmont (Lords of Shadow)

Gabriel was trained in the arts of combat from a very young age, though he has showcased incredible powers of strength, stamina and agility far beyond human ability as well. His standard arsenal consists of the Combat Cross and other supplementary weapons such as Silver Daggers, bottles of Holy Water Flasks, and rare Dark Crystals.

The Combat Cross, also known as the Vampire Killer is a multifunctional weapon invented by Rinaldo Gandolfi. Gabriel upgrades his combat cross throughout his journey. It consists of an iron crucifix with a retractable chain quenched with Holy Water hidden inside the main body of the weapon. Hence, the Combat Cross is a very effective weapon against the undead and also allows the wielder to channel either their light or shadow magic into it.

On his left hand Gabriel wears the Dark Gauntlet. The Gauntlet is an ancient relic forged in the pits of Hell. It grants him tremendous superhuman strength, able to move heavy obstacles by punching them, conjure Hellfire from his fist to incinerate all enemies, and overpower Satan with ease. In addition, it also grants him the ability to defend and counter magical attacks.

Additional relics acquired by Gabriel are the Cyclone Boots and Seraph Shoulders which allow him to sprint with amazing speed and double jump respectively. Gabriel has the ability to utilize magic in combat as well. Light Magic and Shadow Magic are both at his disposal and are used for healing his wounds or boosting his offensive power. Combining magic with his combat allows Gabriel to use new and devastating moves on his foes as well.

While an incredibly competent warrior, his fall to darkness and defeat of the Forgotten One was only a prelude to his true potential.

As Dracula (Mirror of Fate, Lords of Shadow 2)

"My power has grown infinite. Now only fools dare oppose me."

— Dracula ruminating during the siege on his castle

As Dracula, he has all the common powers of a vampire combined with the immense power of the ancient demon known as the Forgotten One, who was the sovereign of the elemental plane of darkness. He also possesses great holy powers, surpassing even that of the Paladin Roland de Ronceval. This he attributes to being God's Chosen One after acquiring the God Mask. This makes Dracula one of the most powerful beings the Castlevania world has seen to date, if not the most powerful, second only to God himself. It is even admitted that Satan and Zobek fear his power.

In the Lords of Shadow 2 trailer, he is seen to possess even greater physical strength as well as telekinesis and the ability to transform into magical smoke and manipulate the smoke to a variety of effects; such as flying through the air and landing with enough force to stagger a battalion of knights, creating magical whip of red energy that slices enemies with great speed and force, and instantaneous teleportation.

Dracula's Dragon Form (click to watch)

His powers and weapons as Dracula are first seen in-depth in Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate. When battling Alucard and Simon, he can transform his hand into a red gauntlet, which allows him to produce a magical red whip similar to his old Combat Cross. When fighting Trevor, he is shown retaining his ability to use light and shadow magic, and uses both a light magic-empowered sword and a pair of shadow-magic empowered orange gauntlets, which allow him to perform an array of magical attacks. With the sword he is able to send out waves of energy, and with the gauntlets he summons bursts of fire similar to the Gauntlet's tremor attacks. Also, in parallel with his classic counterpart, he is able to fire a stream of fireballs and commands legions of monsters, such as werewolves, undead knights and the Succubus.

The release of Lords of Shadow 2 revealed the nature of Dracula's powers. Rather than using Light and Shadow magic he uses the Void and Chaos, and each is tied to a weapon. The orange gauntlets are named Chaos Claws, and are slower but powerful. The sword is the Void Sword, which is light and fast, granting Dracula an increase in health with every attack, and able to blast void power to freeze enemies. His neutral weapon is the Shadow Whip. In addition to these changes Dracula does not absorb neutral magic from enemies, but rather orbs of blood. If Dracula is in need of quick health, he can easily drain the blood from enemies.

• Shadow Whip: A supernatural whip-like weapon, which Dracula creates from his own vampiric blood. It retains many of the moves and attacks of the Vampire Killer and serves as his main weapon. The Shadow Whip manifests as an eldritch red gauntlet on Dracula's right arm.
• Chaos Claws: Dracula's Chaos Claws are burning red gauntlets and are use similar to Shadow Magic. They inflict extra damage and can channel powerful flame eruptions from the ground. After acquiring the Primordial Chaos gem, Dracula is able to fire Chaos Bombs. The description of the Fire Cover attack indicates that the Chaos Claws' energy projections allows Dracula to burn enemy souls.
• Void Sword: This mystical blue sword can be spawned by Dracula, capable of stealing life and healing him. Works similar to Light Magic. The sword can use adaptable powers like wave blasts, slashes of Void magic and a freezing power as well as a swirling vortex of wind during which the sword gives off electric blasts. When he recovers the Primordial Void Gem, he can fire Void Projections.
• Immortality: After Gabriel became a vampire and gained the power of the Forgotten One, he became the immortal Prince of Darkness and took up the moniker Dracul. At the same time, he also maintains his position as God's chosen one, and is thus immune to the divine and holy magic that would typically harm those of his kind. As the new master of the castle, Dracula remained in the world for over nine hundred and sixty six years. Also as an elder vampire, Dracula can take on different appearances such as a withering old man, his young self and through the downloadable content he can take on a physical appearance strikingly similar to Vlad III Drăculea, the Impaler with a mustache and a beard. Nothing in the Castlevania universe can kill Dracula, except the Vampire killer, though never proven.
• Blood Manipulation: Dracula can utilize his own blood in many ways. The most evident manifestation of this is the Shadow Whip itself (which is revealed to be forged out of blood in the game's first trailers). After completing the tutorial stage, Dracula will then don his new coat by creating it out of his blood. Lastly, the Vampiric Possession ability turns Dracula into a stream of blood that enters the body of its victim, after the possession, he reconstructs himself using the blood.
• Blood Draining: As a vampire, Dracula can drink his enemies' blood to heal himself. By draining the blood of vampires such as Carmilla, Dracula can gain access to their innate powers like Carmilla's Mist Form.
• Mist Form: Dracula can become an elusive black and red mist to reach new locations, phase through enemies without taking damage, instantly appear near enemies, and create large shock waves of smoke as seen in the E3 trailer.
• Plague of Rats: In the shadows, Dracula can transform into a small pack of rats in order to get passed enemies that are unaware of this form and reach small locations with ease. Interestingly, Dracula has all of the bestial transformations of a common vampire except possibly wolf form, which his son Alucard possesses.
• Dragon Form: Dracula's true form is his dragon form. It is similar to the original Dracula's different forms he would take during a battle with a Belmont (except the original Dracula had a variety of true forms). In this form Dracula has partial Pyrokinesis, able to breathe fire upon his enemies. With the right amount of collected scales for his talisman, Dracula can transform into a dragon and obliterate his enemies. This power's process works similar to the Dark Crystals from the first game. He is also able to partially manifest this form even without a dragon talisman, as shown by how he finishes off the Gorgon. It can also be assumed that like his original counterpart, Dracula can maintain this form for a long period of time if he chooses, though it may place a tremendous strain on his power.
• Bat Swarm: Enemies can be stunned or distracted by a cloud of bats summoned by Dracula.
• Shadow Daggers: Like the Shadow Whip, Dracula can create projectile daggers from his blood magic. This power refills on its own from Dracula's blood reservoir.
• Stolas' Clock: The demon prince Stolas enclosed the ashes of a thousand dead bodies in these twisted hourglasses. These clocks slow time when shattered by Dracula. Enemies must be hit in order to be slowed down in time.
• Seal of Alastor: A relic that can be shattered to unleash the soul of a legendary warrior. Once activated, Seal of Alastor unlocks all of Dracula's weapon skills regardless of his progress.
• Chaos Eruptions: In Mirror of Fate, Dracula can create eruptions of fire from the ground when fighting Trevor Belmont. In Lords of Shadow 2, these pillars of flame explode much quicker using the Explosive Earthquake skill that emulate the Dark Gauntlet's Exploding Quake ability.
• Void Slashes: When fighting Trevor in Mirror of Fate, Dracula can swipe at the air with the Void Sword, causing slashes of Void magic to travel towards Trevor. The slashes can also be created in mid air.
• Void and Chaos Shockwaves: In Mirror of Fate during his fight against Trevor, Dracula can leap into the air and unleash shockwaves of either Void or Chaos magic (depending on which weapon he is wielding) that can encompass the entire room. During his fight against Simon and Alucard, Dracula uses a "neutral" shockwave reminiscent of the Shadow Whip's magic.
• Hellfire: While facing Simon and Alucard in Mirror of Fate, Dracula can lift his cloak to shoot a barrage of fireballs. This is strikingly similar to how the original Dracula attacked while fighting. Dracula also uses fireballs against Trevor near the conclusion of their fight. If hit, Trevor will completely disintegrate leaving no traces behind. This effect is similar to the Forgotten One's blast if he detects Gabriel during the Resurrection DLC's stealth sections.
• Legions: As the Prince of Darkness, Dracula has command over the creatures of the night. Terrorizing the world from his powerful castle, Inner Dracula later turns the loyal creatures against their Lord in its attempt to stop him from going through with his goal to achieve eternal rest.
• Teleportation: As seen in Mirror of Fate, Dracula can teleport to different locations in an instant while leaving behind traces of his infamous black mist. He does this while eavesdropping on Simon and Alucard and during the final battle with the latter two in which he teleports around his throne while being chased by Alucard. This ability may very well be linked to his Mist Form. In Lords of Shadow 2, Dracula is notably seen to use teleportation against Raisa Volkova and Nergal Meslamstea.
• Electrokinesis: Since he was turned by Laura who was of Carmilla's vampiric breed and could manipulate lightning, it can be assumed that as Dracula, Gabriel will have this power. In the Void Sword trailer, Dracula is briefly shown able to emit lightning from the sword as a swirling vortex surrounds him.
• Acidic Blood: During Dracula's battle with the Brotherhood, he vomits a great amount of vampire blood into the power source of the Siege Titan. This was powerfully toxic enough to corrupt and destroy the mechanized giant. When using the Vampiric Possession skill, he mentions that his blood corrupts the body of the victim, explaining its gradual losing of health.
• Super Strength: As a vampire, Gabriel's above-normal strength was increased dramatically. Dracula is able to push a large battering ram with little effort, peel off metal parts of a Siege Titan and effortlessly pick up fully armored soldiers and throw them around like rag-dolls.
• Super Speed: Dracula can move inhumanly fast and can easily outmaneuver humans and outrun them.
• Super Agility: As Dracula, Gabriel is extremely nimble. Able to leap a great distance onto the Siege Titan's hand to confront the Golden Paladin and he can frequently dodge unblockable attacks from enemies with relative ease.
• Possession: Dracula can use his blood to possess his enemies and force them to fight one another or to take control of them to a limited degree. He can only inhabit a body temporarily, as the power of his blood will quickly kill the host. In Mirror of Fate, he uses a different type of possession is able to take control of Simon without directly inhabiting his body. This form of possession uses some type of black smoke and allows Dracula to manipulate his victims far more efficiently as evidenced by Simon still being fully combat-capable, as opposed to targets in the modern day who are barely able to walk. This form of possession is not seen in Lords of Shadow 2.
• Flight/Levitation: Like Carmilla, Dracula was able to shortly levitate high off the ground after he gained his powers and before killing the Forgotten One. He also levitates during,his confrontations against Simon, Trevor, and Alucard, using a combination of levitation and mist to maneuver in battle and avoid getting hit. In Lords of Shadow 2, he levitates an instant before possessing a target.
• Resistance To Holy Artifacts: A regular knight of the Brotherhood of Light would believe that crucifixes and other holy artifacts can weaken and kill all vampires. However, they have no effect against Dracula as he was once a knight of the brotherhood and God's chosen one. In some instances he can even reflect holy magic back against the caster due to this reason. This is also similar to how Dracula from the famous novel written by Bram Stoker couldn't be affected by crucifixes because he himself served God as Vlad Țepeș.
• Demonic Wings: Similar to the Seraph Shoulders, Dracula can summon wings via his blood magic to double jump. This is due to Dracula imitating the effects of the holy artifacts he had in the previous game, before abandoning their use altogether.
• White Wolf Medallion: When at an altar, this relic will summon Dracula's spirit guide, the White Wolf, who can lead Dracula between the castle of his past and the modern city.