Overview
Even though there are already hundreds of guides, I made another one.
Foreword
THIS GUIDE IS SLIGHTLY OUTDATED AND IT WILL NOT BE UPDATED ANYMORE.
Though slightly outdated, most of the information is still the same.
If ya’ wanna play, hit me up! 😀
Read this. It’s such a great guide, holy crap.
Combos
Really, there are only two combos that you must be able to do even looking away from your screen. Once you master these, the game is a piece of cake.
Combo 1 (great for lightweight enemies)
JUMP
XXYY (repeating)
hold the second Y just a little bit. the first X comes IMMEDIATELY after jumping.
Combo 2 (great for mediumweight enemies)
JUMP
XYY (repeating)
hold the second Y just a little bit. the first X comes IMMEDIATELY after jumping.
This is how people fly 😀
Once you learn how to do this, you can start to use magic with it as well.
Some other combos that might help…
Flying v2
Though not as useful as combo 2
jump X Y
X X Y (repeating as quickly as possible)
all must be done with rapid succession. Keep repeating XXY (at rapid succession) to keep flying.
Level 50 combo
XXXYY
Does the drill magic attack. Need a couple points into magic as well for this to work. The more magic and strength you have, the more damage it’ll do.
Combo for heavyweights. (use XXXYY IF YOU CAN)
But if you can’t…
XYY.
It’ll just do a little spin with your sword that’ll attack the enemy a few times, and then knock them down.
Farming/ EXP grind!
So you want to get into grinding?
Unless you’re into little replay value and being good solely for the sake of being good in a pretty dead game, I’d recommend against it!
Firstly, YOU MUST NOT HAVE ANY STRENGTH.
Use weapons that will give you negative strength if you already put a few points into it.
Then, look through my combo video and learn combo 1 by heart. A great place to practice and farm is Thieve’s Forest!
If you want to start farming/practicing before unlocking insane mode, I’d recommend the marsh and spam that against the troll boss there, however truthfully, there isn’t any good method to grind pre-insane because nothing really has a lot of health.
Once you unlock insane though, thieve’s forest is the way to go! Lots and lots of exp if you do combo 1 on the troll boss’ minions.
How to use level up points
How you put in the points is completely up to you, but I always build defense first (until max)
Then agility, then magic.
Once I hit 78, I then upgrade strength all the way.
Only characters that don’t apply to this are the Industrialist and Fencer. If you like a character’s magic in particular, you should upgrade their magic first.
If you do not know the combos/ don’t even want to try…. just upgrade agility and spam arrows.
The reason I do not upgrade strength (keep it at 0 until 78) is because you get more exp per kill due to the larger number of times you’re hitting the enemy.
THE Walkthrough
This will be the only walkthrough you need to get that skull quickly.
If you have a friend who has already beaten the game on the difficulty you’re playing, then
Basically, you only need to play:
Castle Keep
Barbarian Boss
Thieves’ Forest
Catfish
Pipistrello’s Cave
Parade
Cyclops’ Fortress
Lava World
Industrial Castle
Dock (not necessarily Pirate Ship, once you get in pirate ship you can exit to map)
Desert Chase
Sand Castle Roof
Corn Boss
Medusa’s Lair
Ice Castle
Final Boss
If you don’t have the luck to have a friend that has gold skull already.. well, frankly you’ll just have to do it legitimately….
Thanks to TheDude935 for updating me on the proper list
edit: apparently, if you go to wizard castle take off and go all the way until you can fight the 4 bosses and just skip to the final boss (rather than just going to final boss after ice castle) you won’t have to fight the boss more than once. Not confirmed though. Just happened to me on my latest gold skull.
Level Guide – part 1
Foreword: Only pets that are really useful are Hawkey and Bipolar Bear… and I guuuuuess technically Giraffey. Thanks Solo -_-
Home Castle ~ Barbarian War
You really shouldn’t have any trouble… but use combo 1 (in Combos section) for all enemies to make it easy.
Barbarian Boss
No real super effective way to kill.. Just attack it and hold your shield when it attacks. If it uses the attack that slams you into the ground, move out of the way, the shield ain’t gonna help much.
Forest Entrance~Abandoned Mill
You really shouldn’t have any trouble until the Troll boss… but use combo 1 (in Combos section) for all enemies to make it easy. During the troll boss fight, run in zig-zags to avoid getting hit. If you use combo 1 successfully, you’ll EASILY kill all enemies and rack a ton of exp.
Rapids Ride
I would NOT recommend you hop on a log/carcass/alligator/etc. just stay on the water and jump before you attack everything. This makes it so the bats can’t really attack you. Only character I would jump on something is the Industrialist/Fencer, because he can slaughter everything really quickly.
Cat Fish
Just block when it attacks you, and DO NOT move. If you move, the king’s cannon will probably miss. Attack when it’s been hit with the cannon, and then just block when it’s attacking you.. Rinse and repeat.
Once it gets to about halfway down, it’ll swim around and try to hit you, just stay in front of the boat and dodge when it approaches you to make the cat fish hit the boat (no damage to boat, only damages the catfish.)
Tall Grass Field
Just use combo 1… Use combo 2 against the mini boss. Against the steroid-users (er… the buff guys) just keep your distance and after hitting them three times, you should be able to juggle them with combo 2, but otherwise just keep your distance and attack them.
Pipistrello’s Cave
I would recommend either magic or the dive (sprint + Y) to attack the blobs. If you’re level 50 with a decent amount of upgrades in magic, you can try to do the combo X,X,X,Y,Y… It’ll hurt if you can actually use it.
Once you get to Pipistrello, figure out who Pipistrello is going for (on Multi) and that person needs to stay on the very left holding shield. The other people would then stand behind Pipistrello and attack. His tongue does 999 damage so make sure you block it!
Flowery Field
Just use combo 1 as always. it should work until you meet the beefy, then as you did in Tall Grass Field, hit it three times then use combo 2. Even if you drop it, it can no longer do damage to you! 😀
Wedding Crash
Same combo 1 until the boss….
Once you get to the boss, in multi, EVERYONE spam (sandwich A, X combo), (arrows), (or Y)… It should get to a point where the boss can’t move.. even with only two people. If he does manage to get on his piano, just wait and do it again when you can attack him…
On solo, you’ll just have to either use arrows if you have max agility, or juggle him with sandwiches. Once you run out of sandwiches, you just have to be VERY careful. If you have max magic, you can use magic jump followed by combo 2 to juggle him for a while.
Parade
Simply use arrows to knock off enemies that jump onto your cart. If you don’t have max agility, you can also just spam triangle. Eventually, bombs will start to drop, they’ll always start from the left side, and will alternate between left and right afterwards, so keep that in mind (I believe 5 in total drop). Once the troll boss comes back, jump off your cart and just spam square in-air against him. Once you start to drop a little bit, hit triangle once or twice, then square again.
Cyclop’s Cave
As in Pipistrello’s cave, you should either use magic, dive (sprint Y), or use the XXXYY combo, if you have it, against the blobs. all the enemies that come in the first half are all lightweight enemies, so it’s safe to use combo 1. During the last two scenes of this area, the enemies become heavyweights, so if you have the XXXYY combo, use that, and try to hit the blobs as well. If you do not have the combo, then naturally magic or arrows are helpful. If you don’t have ANY of that, I use X,Y,Y to do a quick 3~5 hit move that’ll always put them on the ground, just repeat that.
Cyclop’s Fortress
The very first enemy that comes up is lightweight, so you can use combo 1, but beware of the other enemies that will spawn in. They will be heavy weight and chuck bombs at you… Same tactic as Cyclops Cave for heavyweights. It may help to get in a position where you can face them all in one direction, so they do not come behind you. Also, USE YOUR SHIELD.
You’ll eventually reach a small mini-boss (no health bar) accompanied with fire demons. Use combo 2 against Fire Demons, and same tactic for heavies with the mini boss.
Once you get to the actual boss, go to the fire pit (where he eventually falls in and ‘dies’) on the right side. Go to the right side of it and try to fly (combo 2). He’ll eventually keep jumping back and forth on top of the fire pit, you can then proceed to kill him normally. VERY easy boss fight once you learn this. Here’s a quick vid to show what I mean.
Lava World
Simply use combo 2 against all the fire demons. Once you reach the volcano, try to lure your fire demons to one side of the volcano and get to the other side, you can then defeat the volcano very simply. Once you get to the final boss of this area, get hit by the boss’ fire breathing attack. Then tap A to quickly jump back up and fly towards the boss. As long as you don’t fall, you’re invincible. VERY easy boss fight once you learn this, again. For the noobier peeps, you can also just sit by the right side and spam arrows/magic. Watch for boulder though! Thanks Solo for telling me to add spamming part!
Industrial Castle
Simply use combo 1 against all the enemies. I’d watch out for their bombs though… At the boss, you can use combo 2 to destroy the right arm. If you have magic or agility, you can easily destroy the left arm as well… If not, you just have to be EXTREMELY careful when attacking it. I would recommend only attacking it when it’s nearby one of the five poles so you can just attack the poles and it’ll take damage when it gets nearby (if you face left). Something to note, the top two poles don’t hit the very top of the platform!
Pirate Ship
Ninjas are lightweight. If you hit them normally, they’ll simply disappear momentarily and flying kick the crap outta you. Would recommend to just use combo 1 to easily kill all of them.
Desert
Use combo 2 to just FLY whenever the scarabs are rolling around. You should really only go down when there are ABSOLUTELY NO scarabs rolling around. Even 1 can easily demolish all your health in less than 3 seconds. There’s isn’t really any ‘good’ way to kill them. Same methods as always for the heavies. (Pro tip: you can incorporate your magic combos with the flying combos to just stay up in the air and kill all your enemies- will take a while though)
Alien Ship
You really shouldn’t have any trouble with this level. All the aliens die in one hit. Once you reach the countdown, I would recommend killing all the enemies quickly (they always spawn up-top) and then just fly (combo 2) through the steam part.
Level guide – part 2
Sorry, reached the character limit…
Desert Chase
Simply use combo 1 to kill all the lightweights, the few heavyweights that remain (I think only one) are to be killed in the same ways as before.
Sand Castle Interior
Use ranged attacks (arrows, magic) against the steroid-jerks. Then just use combo 1 to kill off the rest.
Sand Castle Roof
Simply use combo 1 to kill all the enemies. Only need to watch out for people ‘tornadoing’ around. Kill heavyweights the same way as before.. Nothing new. During the volleyball match, use combo 2 to hit the ball in air. It almost always works.
Marsh
All skeletons are lightweight, so simply use combo 1. Upon reaching the beefy skeletons, simply use ranged attacks or hit them three times and use combo 2. Upon reaching Snakey’s (the green guys), use combo 2. Watch out for their magic jump, it does serious damage.
Corn Boss
Simply use ranged attacks. If you do not have any (by this point that’s odd, but…) jump at the boss from a slightly different plane than he’s in. (As in go slightly above or below him) in this way, you have a chance to never get hit. Or just attack the very top of his head.
Flooded Temple
Use ranged attacks and simply run away when they approach. If no ranged attacks, just know that after you hit them four times, they’ll bounce towards the direction they’re getting hit from.
Medusa’s Lair
Use combo 2 against Snakey’s. Same method as Flooded Temple for the ‘fishes.’ Upon reaching the boss, stay to the right of her and deal damage, so you do not get struck by her L♥O♥V♥E beam. Or you can just be a jerk and refuse her love by holding the shield. Use the shield whenever she attacks to always stay close-by.
Full Moon
The first two waves consist of two heavy-weights and one beefy. Simply use ranged attacks against all of them. Use XXXYY against heavyweights once the brute dies. The next wave is simply a beefy (DON’T PROCEED TOO FAR, ALWAYS STAY ON THE HILL AREA). Then proceeding will be two more heavyweights. It’s easy up to here.
The next section there will be a ladder and a good number of people trying to kill you, they’re all heavyweights. The easiest way to do this is to ABUSE THOSE LADDERS. Simply climb up, and when they’re all climbing up, do the strongest move you have (usually XXXYY, but if you don’t have it unlocked, XYY. Or magic if you use red). Once they all fall down, simply hop onto the top of the ladder and all of them will go back down. Just rinse and repeat.
Then you have to do this process all over again but with eskimos mixed in as well. You can use combo 1 to kill eskimos, but watch out because the Stove Heads will still attack you.
If you got this far, you’re probably fine. There are a few more enemies though.
Snow World
All eskimos are lightweight, just use combo 1. Extremely easy level, just a bit more time-consuming. Bipolar bear is at the very end of Snow World (BEFORE ENTERING ICE CASTLE. IF YOU ENTER YOU HAVE TO REDO ALL OF SNOW WORLD TO GET IT) and is very helpful for Ice Castle.
Ice Castle
If you have bipolar bear, equip him now. You can fly through the first part with the three arrows. Once you reach the eskimos, they’re all lighweight, so use combo 1. The boss is just annoying, not hard. I use XXXYY and arrows only when fighting him (unless I have industrialist/fencer), but really, do anything you want, the fight just goes by very slowly, but it’s not hard at all.
Learn what move he does when he poses in certain ways, and jump to avoid freezing, go full on DPS mode when he’s just on stand-by, etc.
Wizard Castle Interior
Use combo 2 against all Cult Minions.
Boss 1: Painter Boss]
Simply BARRAGE on him when he’s drawing (/not on the elevator). If you’re on insane, just run into his paintings, you’ll recover all your potions upon defeating him. Otherwise, just use ranged attacks to kill them all. Once he reaches half way, he’ll start walking around with endless enemies spawning from the sides. Just attack him in any way you can.
Boss 2: Cyclops
There is no extremely easy way to kill him this time as before, but he is a very easy boss to kill. Just hold up your shield when he swings at you or fires those fireballs. Fly or get hit by him (not conehead) when he’s jumping around to avoid his little conehead buddy.
Boss 3: Necromancer
This is the by far hardest boss of the four. Just survive and attack whenever you can against the two giant waves of enemies. There’s really no other way to do it.. You can fly around for the first wave, but during the second wave, flying around will get you killed due to beefies. Use ranged attacks only, going up close is going to hurt you. Run in zigzags if you want to get across. The easiest way to survive the hordes is by having four players, and having all of them sit at a corner. EVERY player must then spam all his magic and arrows, and EVERYTHING. D:
Once you get past the first two waves, you can use combo 2 when the Necromancer does his magic jump to easily kill him. Or you can just use XYY. If you’re playing with another player, stay far away from each other, then when he targets the other person, just use ranged attacks. (Having Bitey Bat is actually somewhat helpful against Necromancer. Once the bat is biting him, you can easily use combo 2 against him.)
Final Battle
Just avoid the crystals when they’re falling down, and attack them when they do fall down… Simple.You can stand at the bottom of the platform when they first fall down and they won’t deal damage to you.
Do not attack the boss with magic when he’s red. Only use melee or physical attacks (arrows, melee, or some character’s cyclone magic) and only use magic when he’s blue. Failure to do so will inflict damage upon yourself and the team.
When he’s flying around as a balloon, just jump up and attack him…
Against the spider, you must jump up and use combo 2 or 1, either way works and slowly diminish his health. To avoid his legs, just attack from a different plane (slightly below or above him). You can also use the invincibility tactic from Lava World here.
When he’s in his final form, simply use combo two against him when he’s spawning the meteorites. To make things quicker, you can try to hit him when he’s on ground, but watch out for his two other attacks (rolls across screen // shoots a fireball)
That’s every level….
Achievements!
Melee is Best!
–Defeat any boss without using any magic.
Very easy to defeat first boss on normal mode w/o magic. If you don’t get it the first playthrough, you can always come back (as a higher level).
Maximum Firepower!
–Using a catapult, fling a knight with maximum power.
You want to click at about 3/4 way going up on the catapult in Flowery Field. If you don’t get it first try, you can just quit to map and keep retrying. Remember, if you click right when you hit the top, it’ll be too late. Hit a little earlier.
Deer Trainer!
–Navigate the Abandoned Mill without hitting any obstacles.
Just stay near the back with the troll boss… thing… in the Abandoned Mill and you should be fine. For you extra protective people, the order is as so: middle, middle, up, down, middle, down, middle, down, up, down, middle
Thanks to Doge for telling me to add this. If you follow the other deer, they’ll tell you where to go (as long as there’s at least one other deer that isn’t manned by a person).
Traditional!
–Complete the game using any character.
Just beat the game.. Scroll down to the “Walkthrough” section for the quickest way (if you have a friend that has beaten game already).
Treasure Hunter!
–Find and dig up ten buried items.
There’s more than 10 things to dig up in the Desert, just dig those up. You get the shovel in the Desert, btw.
The Traitor!
–Defeat any boss by playing one of his own minions.
If you go into Single Player and beat the King’s Arena, you will unlock the Barbarian. Then, kill the Barbarian boss for the trophy. If you are too lazy to do that, defeating the stage with the enemy type (for example, Fire Demon on Lava World) will unlock the trophy as well.
Medic!
–In a 4 player game, resuscitate [revive] each of your fallen comrades at least once.
Finding 4 players is probably going to be the hardest part. Then getting them to die for you is difficult as well… nonetheless, once you manage to get a 4 player party, you can either all die except for one person and that one person revives everyone, achievement pops, then switch that one person until everyone gets the achievement. Oooooooor, you can just wait for them to eventually die and be the first one to revive them.. (better hope I’m not in your lobby, I’ll never die xD)
Kay Eye Ess Ess!
–Collect all 4 princesses’ kisses in a multiplayer game.
Simply win the fights if you’re facing others, or if you’re in Single Player, just kiss ’em. (or like the Medic trophy, you can take turns getting the achievement, but some of the bosses take a while without certain characters (more details in Characters section))
Scroll down to Arena Master for best combo 😉
Conscientious Objector
–Complete the Home Castle through Barbarian Boss areas without attacking any foes.
Basically, from the beginning of the game ’til after the first boss, you’re not allowed to attack any enemies. It’s okay to attack as long as you don’t hit anything. You’ll need to do this in a multiplayer game if you haven’t realized.
Animal Handler
–Collect all the animal orbs.
Too much work to explain… [link]
Arena Master
–Win 40 Arena Online Matches.
I think I’ve seen four people in total on Arena… It’s basically dead. Either try to find a buddy and boost it, or just be very patient… Look in the “Combos” section for an awesome combo against people.
Glork
–Win 20 All You Can Quaff Online Matches.
Pretty much same with Arena Master.
Unlocking Characters
The other characters are dlc. (pink, hatty, purple)
Big thanks to Cute Shiny Whale for telling me to add this section and giving me THIS link. Better if you don’t like that low-res image. (ctrl + f and type characters name)[castlecrashers.wikia.com]
Funky Characters
So basically, ALL the characters are exactly the same… they have some sort of splash that goes forward and deals damage, and they shoot some kind of projectile… *shrug*
But before I go into it, here’s a tier list from Zam! Though I personally don’t agree with him (obviously civilian is #1) it’s definitely worth looking through!
[link]
Here are some of the special ones.
Red Knight
This guy has a killer magic. Just hold the splash magic and it will deplete health very quickly once his magic is upgraded. Can’t move while using it though!
Blue Knight & Eskimo
They’re the only two that are able to freeze enemies. Useful if you know how to use properly… otherwise you can deem it useless. XXXY becomes super OP at level 50 with 15 magic.
Green Knight
Only character with slightly different melee. Don’t expect me to go over it. I honestly don’t use him.
Industrialist & Fencer
THEY USE SAWBLADES AS THEIR FRIGGIN SPLASH. It’s like every other character, but these get special notice because they DRAIN bosses so effectively if magic is maxed out.
King
His splash can heal others around his proximity. Not very efffective even completely maxed out though.
Saracen & Bear
These can whirl up a quick tornado.. Pretty useless if you don’t know how to use properly. The Saracen also can attack a group of enemies on ground with his projectile magic in-air.
Grey Knight, Conehead, & Royal Guard
They throw BOMBS for their magic! Yeah, you save like 100 gold with that for pets! (but in honesty, it’s a pretty useful magic for combo’ing if you can use correctly (Pink Knight’s projectile in-air magic is just like bomb, but can only affect enemies, not walls))
Green, Orange, Alien, & Fire Demon
These are the only characters able to do Duration over Time magic.
Definitely check out this guide from the good ol’ Nympho~ ♥
[link]
Loo~t
Wanna get rich quick? Call 1 (800) GET-RICH!
In seriousness, don’t call that number…
Anyways, to get lots of money, pretty quickly (specially helpful for Animal Handler achievement) you just farm the barbarian boss for his gold. Or, if you happen to use the Industrialist, if you go up to the Wizard Castle, you can keep farming the Painter Boss for slightly more gold.
But, either way, lots of money in a short amount of time on Single Player…
On multiplayer, it may take a little longer because the gold is shared, but with two people attacking the boss, the fights may be a bit shorter.
PETS
There are so many pets, and so many good guides already.. Not going to bother. +1 FOR LAZINESS 😀
Two great guides you should check out. 😀
Weapons!
Here’s a nice guide from Digipatd regarding weapons and where to get them [slightly outdated on stats].
[link]
and a guide from Nympho and U-Knighted on the best weapons!
[link]
People from the comments say…
===========================Laura Bodewig====================================
(TL;DR AT BOTTOM)
Ninja has beyond spectacular boss slaying capabilities. It might not be as fast as Fencer or Fire Demon, but since he has short range, instead of being at a disadvantage from the range, he has smaller hitboxes than normal that hit slim targets extra times (not more than seven hits, but just more times than another splash attack would hit the same enemy). Aside from that, he has the god-tier non-elemental XXXY combo that does two times normal damage with armor piercing, his magic projectile moves faster than normal like Iceskimo and Faggotmancer, and he’s the ONLY character in the game with a special melee speed-up that accelerates all melee attacks to be just faster than everyone else. If you notice in PvP, his attacks are just fast enough that he can interrupt your combos, which pretty much makes him the Meta Knight of Castle Crashers.
You should mention Fire Demon in the special characters. He’s not a reskin of dark pillars with fire effects; he’s a reskin of vines with fire effects. That makes him so overpowered that he’s pretty much the third best in the game with the best being fencer/industrialist and the second best being Ninja
Knockback and Freezing are typically the best forms of crowd control, which make Blue Knight a god, and Iceskimo, Orange Knight, Fencer, and Industrialist demigods. Pink Knight has decent crowd control, and bombs/sandblasts have good crowd control since they’re the only projectiles that hit multiple enemies
People somehow have the mistake of thinking that Red Knight has good crowd control. He doesn’t. He’s a crowd clearer, not a crowd controller. Stunlocking isn’t crowd control if you can’t even move around and control the entire crowd. Pink Knight has good stunlocking crowd control, but only because he can move around to catch any enemies he doesn’t hit originally.
Red Knight isn’t even that good. Alignment is a huge issue with him, and in multiplayer most people don’t know ♥♥♥♥ about alignment and just run around like chickens with their heads cut off.
Red Knight is also the ONLY character that can’t move while casting his splash attack, and this is actually a HUGE disadvantage, because he doesn’t make up for it with how fast he kills; the damage rate is only half as fast as buzzsaws, and he does 60% of normal splash magic damage while buzzsaws do %80. If you decide to dodge, then you’ll have to stop casting then re-cast, which wastes mana, making Red Knight bad at managing a mana bar.
You forgot to include Royal Guard with Gray Knight and Conehead, and Gray Knight shouldn’t even be listed with those two because his XXXY combo is tied with red knight’s for being the worst, most useless and underpowered XXXY combo in the game.
TLDR;
Don’t use Red Knight or Gray Knight with XXXY combo because it sucks apparently. (not sure what combo that even is though..)
Red Knight sucks due to inability to move while casting splash.
1.) INDUSTRIALIST/FENCER
2.) NINJA
3.) FIRE DEMON
But you should read it.. interesting read.. a few tips from a real pro, I suppose.
===========================Lunatic24_7====================================
There’s actually a pretty easy way to kill brutes; Spam the headbutt combo. (X X Y)
==============================Doge=======================================
You should add this:
If you play singleplayer on the troll boss, just follow the other deers. If you see them all in 1 one place, it means theres a door coming, so go near them.
When they arent near eachother, that means theres nothing/a tree.
============================U-Knighted=====================================
While an enemy is in the middle of an attack (for example, when his sword is raised in the air) there’s a small window of time to put up your shield. When you do, the attack will be blocked, but the enemy will be knocked back a ton, instead of what normally happens, where the enemy stays still and you are knocked back a bit.