Overview
Everything that is not the Main Story is listed here, and as spoiler free as possible!If anyone wants to contribute with either information or images do let me know.
.hack//Timeline
Welcome to The World, .hack is a multi-media franchise which can have each entry enjoyed individually, the games you are playing now take place later in the timeline and can be enjoyed as their own thing, however if you want to complement them with all the knowledge from previous entries you will be rewarded with references here and there that help the world feel much more realistic and alive.
For Last Recode the only piece of media directly linked that shares main character with the G.U. games would be the anime .hack//Roots, which takes place before the events of the games begin and has an OVA that takes place after G.U. Vol.3, all of which can help you contextualize some of the character motivations and relationships that are established prior to the game starting, though once again I remind you that even then the games do not abuse this concept and for the most part do a pretty decent job at providing as much of that context as possible within themselves.
If you are not interested in the rest of the timeline yet and just want that juicy guiding hand you expected to get when you opened my guide, go to whichever of the sections below you require.
For those of you that remain if you want to strictly adhere to the chronological order of the series then the wiki’s[dothack.fandom.com] got you covered.
Since you are still reading this section I assume that you realize that the wiki’s timeline can be overwhelming for a newbie to the series, do not worry, I got you covered, we will talk about a simplified order you can follow which then you can contextualize to the exact years with the help of the wiki if you so desire.
For now you can skip the Novels and Manga and just tackle them if you really get into the franchise, don’t worry I will not tell anyone 😉
Lastly, if at the time of reading this you are lucky enough that .hack//LINK has been released in english (or you speak japanese) then most of your work has been done for you, more on that at the bottom of this section.
Disclaimer: For those that do know about this franchise I know you will have comments on the order, such as “but technically most scenes of the OVA Intermezzo happens BEFORE the anime SIGN so…”, trust me I get it, but we are making things simpler here, though if you have suggestions to achieve that I would love to hear them!
- A: SIGN.
Do not watch the OVAs yet. - OVA: Intermezzo.
- G: Infection.
- G: Mutation.
- G: Outbreak.
- G: Quarantine.
- OVA: Liminality.
- OVA: Unison.
- A: Roots.
Do not watch the OVAs yet. - G: G.U. Part 1
- G: G.U. Part 2
- G: G.U. Part 3
- OVA: G.U. Returner.
- G: G.U. Last Recode.
- G: Link.
- A: Quantum.
- M: Beyond The World.
- G: Versus.
Removed from the list above to keep things simple.
- N: Epitaph of the Twilight.
- N: AI Buster.
Simple 1. - N: ZERO.
Simple 2 – 6. - N: Another Birth.
Simple 7 – 8. - M: Legend of the Twilight Bracelet.
Technically speaking you could watch the anime of the same name, however I would strongly advice against it due to the fact that it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks as it changes all the relevant events and characters.
Simple 9. - M: Alcor.
- M: GnU.
- N: CELL.
Simple 10 – 12. - M: 4KOMA Peaco’s Story.
Simple 13. - N: Ragtime.
Simple 14 – 15. - M: Quantum Introduction.
Simple 16 – 18.
- OVA: GIFT.
Joke confrontation between the cast of SIGN and the first 4 games, also known as .hack//IMOQ. - N: 4KOMA.
Parody manga that has the cast of IMOQ hang around with the cast of G.U. - M: G.U. TRILOGY.
This movie retells the events of the G.U. Games while also changing some events drastically. - OVA: G.U. Parody Mode.
Similar to GIFT this is a joke version of key moments of the G.U. Games with altered dialogue.
At the time of writing .hack//LINK is a PSP Japanese exclusive title in the franchise that just so happens to be the one to simplify and compile most of the .hack timeline into one neat playable package (excluding content released afterwards such as Last Recode’s exclusive additions because that is how space time works).
To keep it simple, LINK introduces an extremely convenient plot element that will allow the main character to relive most of the .hack franchise through a gorgeous official and ordered timeline, the main character from LINK will then help the main characters of the respective .hack media and foil the plans of the newly introduced antagonists while allowing you to experience most of the original story with some alterations here and there.
While this is not the ideal way to experience most of the stories, as they now include elements that were not there before that alter the feelings and pacing, it is a convenient way if you do not have a way to purchase a bunch of manga and novels to consume them, however, as I mentioned earlier, at the time of writing this thing is only legally available in Japanese, if this is not a language that you are able to read then there is no official release that you can acquire, please go stalk Bandai Namco to force them allow it to become a thing.
Lucky for you non-Japanese speakers there is a beautiful Fan Translation available online made by the team below, which will have you modify a legally obtained ISO of the official Japanese game to install the translation patch, a pretty straightforward process that is properly documented on their website at wordpress, as this is not an official release however I will not be linking it on this guide, however I may have accidentally given you all the information needed to easily google it, oh well I am silly like that.
- Kuukai – Translating the story elements.
- JunBansyoya – Making things work, Translating menus.
- Keii – Translating the story elements.
- Kazetrigger – Translating the story elements, testing.
- Angga – Translating story elements.
- Deniz/Falions – Translating story elements.
Please thank these heroes for their hard work and dedication and tell them that this random ass guide owner who they do not know technically did not send you their way 😉
Vol. 1 Rebirth
Hover over the black box, keep in mind this will spoil who joins your party.
¹²³ Part of the Abyss Quest, after replying you have to go to the area mentioned in the thread for the next one to be unlocked.
¹ Part of the Abyss Quest.
Complete the Abyss Quest if you haven’t, a hidden quest that’s started by replying to a forum thread (check above section) that will unlock the Lord of the Dead quest.
To fight the Doppelganger all you need to do is go to any area and stand idle for 5-10 minutes after you’ve read the Official Thread “The Dark guy PK’ed me”, eventually it will show up in the area.
* The Doppelganger won’t show up on Dungeons or Story-Related Areas!
Beating it gives the following rewards:
Key Item: Own King.
This key item is required for amazing gear on Vol.2 and Vol.3
In Ravens @HOME you can visit the Serpent of Lore at any moment to re-battle any AIDA or Avatar that you have defeated during the story, doing so will earn you a wallpaper per victory, and another one for defeating all of them.
If you want, go back to the Arena and fight until you beat the Team Akatsuki’s 1st place’s WP.
As you may have noticed, sometimes after clearing an Area with a Rank B, A or S you are rewarded with a new Area Word, check the Area Words section for easy word combinations to go to that will help you unlock all of them.
Complete the Book of 1000, this is gonna be the longest task on every Volume.
Vol 2. Reminisce
¹² Part of the Abyss Quest, after replying you have to go to the area mentioned in the thread for the next one to be unlocked.
¹ Part of the Abyss Quest.
After you complete the main story, go watch Online Jack’s Phase 6 episode.
Check the News forum for a thread called “My first time”, a user called Goran will talk about a character present in front of Dol Dona’s Junk Shop, go talk to Kazubolo, he will log off after a short conversation.
From this point onward visit him 2 more times in different places stated on the same thread to receive the Wallpaper #21.
Complete the Abyss Quest if you haven’t, a hidden quest that’s started by replying to a forum thread (check above section) that will unlock the Invasion of the Super Beings quest.
* Please note that this Abyss Quest is different from the one on the first Volume.
Using Adler Keys you can unlock every Lost Weapon available in the game and equip them to the appropriate Epitaph User, keep in mind that in Vol.3 they will be gifted to you straight away, so doing this is for completionists that want to see a bit more about Phyllo.
To fight the Doppelganger this time around you can use the same method as in Vol.1 or wait for the post-game, where you will receive an e-mail with the keyword “Moonlight”, this word spawns a Doppelganger right away.
* The Doppelganger won’t show up on Dungeons or Story-Related Areas!
Beating it gives the following rewards:
Weapon: Heine’s Shadow, Heine’s Invasion.
Key Item: Forgotten Shadow.
Beating it a second time will give you:
Weapon: Heine’s Zero.
Key Item: Moonlight Faith.
Both key items are required for even better gear on Vol.3
In Ravens @HOME you can visit the Serpent of Lore at any moment to re-battle any AIDA or Avatar that you have defeated during the story, doing so will earn you a wallpaper per victory, and another one for defeating all of them.
If you want, go back to the Arena and fight until you beat the Team Only 1 Target 2 1st place’s WP.
Defeat Gaspard at Rank 1 in Crimson VS.
Check out the Crimson VS section of this guide for deck strategy!
As you may have noticed, sometimes after clearing an Area with a Rank B, A or S you are rewarded with a new Area Word, check the Area Word section for easy word combinations to go to that will help you unlock all of them.
Complete the Book of 1000, this is gonna be the longest task on every Volume.
Vol 3. Redemption
Hover over the black box, keep in mind this will spoil who joins your party.
* Unlike previous interactions, this email thread has permanent consequences, if given the wrong replies, Saku will permanently leave The World.
If done correctly, she will be available againonce the Netslum is available as a Root Town.
¹² Part of the Abyss Quest, after replying you have to go to the area mentioned in the thread for the next one to be unlocked.
Complete the Abyss Quest if you haven’t, a hidden quest that’s started by replying to a forum thread (check above section) that will unlock the Forest of Pain event, a challenging end-game dungeon with an awesome reward.
* Please note that this Abyss Quest is different from the one on the previous volumes.
Beat the Forest of Pain, a dungeon with 100 floors unlocked by following the secret Abyss Quest.
* Check the Forest of Pain sections for more information!
Defeat all the Chaotic PKs, this will make a post appear on the thread “They got me…” talking about another Chaotic PK with the nickname of “Eggmaniac”.
Simply go find her as a regular PK encounter and defeat her, this will update the thread again telling you she was seen with “a big guy PC wearing gold armor”.
Go talk to her and her trustworthy ally, and you will get her member address.
By using Avatar Awakening you can obtain Virus Cores, which are used at the area where you obtained your Lost Weapons to upgrade them.
To fight the Doppelganger you can again choose between waiting without interacting with anything for 5-10 minutes or simply use the Area Word “Moonlight” that you obtained during Vol.2 (If you didn’t do a Data Transfer you’ll have to wait for this volume’s end-game to get it).
* The Doppelganger won’t show up on Dungeons or Story-Related Areas!
Beating it gives the following rewards:
Weapon: DG-0.
Key Item: Bygone Servant.
Beating it a second time will give you:
Armor: Other Self.
Accesory: Shadow.
For these rewards you have to beat the game first.
Do note that this time around the Doppelganger is wearing special equipment that will make it receive 0 damage for a while, this is because it’s gear makes it so that any damage received is done to it’s SP instead of it’s HP, once the SP bar depletes, it will start receiving damage normally, just keep hitting it with everything you have.
* The rewards for beating it a second time require you to have the 4 key items obtained from beating it previous times (1 in Vol.1, 2 in Vol.2 and 1 in Vol.3).
In Ravens @HOME you can visit the Serpent of Lore at any moment to re-battle any AIDA or Avatar that you have defeated during the story, doing so will earn you a wallpaper per victory, and another one for defeating all of them.
If you want, go back to the Arena and fight until you beat team The Sweepstakers 1st place’s WP.
Additionally, once you finish the main story, you will receive a challange from team The Sweepstakers, go to the arena and defeat them on a Limit Battle to earn some new weapons.
Defeat Gaspard at Rank 1 in Crimson VS.
Check out the Crimson VS section of this guide for deck strategy!
As you may have noticed, sometimes after clearing an Area with a Rank B, A or S you are rewarded with a new Area Word, check the Area Word section for easy word combinations to go to that will help you unlock all of them.
Complete the Book of 1000, this is gonna be the longest task on every Volume.
Greeting Cards & Affection
Through the course of the game you will sometimes receive Greeting Cards to send to your friends, these cards allow you to get a little bit more info about the real-life personas behind your allies and raise their affection towards you, and most important of all: flirting.
The way this works is as follows:
- You send them the Greeting Card.
- They have the required Affection level towards you.
- Go away from the Altimit Mine OS desktop and return to it.
- They sent you a response and you can again reply back and forth until the 4th mail.
- At this point the thread is over with no more input on your side.
* Every time you reload the Altimit Mine OS desktop you get a reply (granted you fulfill the Affection requirement for them to reply).
Each time your friends reply it will raise their affection towards you and allow you to continue the thread.
The only exception however is when you act like a rude ass, at which point 1 out of 2 things can happen:
- On the next reply there will be no Affection raise.
- The thread will stop immediately and there will be no Affection raise.
It’s almost like if being an unlikeable ass makes people not want to deal with you… go figure.
As you may have figured Affection is basically only really useful for Greeting Cards, so here are some ways to raise it:
- Kicking a God Chim Chim (appears on any area with 3rd World: BBQ Plate).
- Gifting them items (rarest items yield better results).
- Performing actions that your allies like during battle (such as healing or Rengeki).
Because most mails have no incorrect reply or when they do it’s usually painfully obvious, finding a guide of “the correct replies” is almost impossible, it’s just not worth it, and even if I love to document useless info, this guide will not be the exception, I will list the greeting cards and indicate which of your friends stop the thread on the first reply, but that’s about it, if you started a thread and it died after you made fun of your friend you got only yourself to blame.
In all honesty just reply whatever you want and have fun with it, there are far better ways to raise Affection and since for most replies an Affection level is required anyways it’s kinda useless and redundant to begin with.
For this reason I also suggest you hold to your cards until the end of Vol.3 when you have everyone and you max the Affection of those who are gonna be blessed with your cards beforehand.
Spoilers for WHO joins your party through the games, obviously.
* Hover with your mouse to see the image.
If you are in a hurry to complete the threads simply send the card, open the The World login screen and go back to the Altimit Mine OS desktop, the next mails will be ready for your reply, rinse and repeat.
This is a special type of Greeting Card that unlocks a special engagement event.
It requires you to have Maxed Affection with the PC to even send it.
After it’s sent you will receive a reply accepting your feelings, and asking to meet at the Mac Anu Chaos Gate, after that simply have to watch this hard earned special ending with your favorite waifu or husbandu.
Crimson VS
For the Championship match I used the following deck:
Source.[www.gamefaqs.com]
¹ See the Area Words section for information on how to get this card.
For most of Crimson VS on Vol.3 I kept using my champion deck from Vol.2 and only really switched it close to Rank 50, not because it starting losing… it didn’t, but because I wanted to reach Rank 1 faster and had a bunch of new cards available.
The newest deck was:
Source.[www.gamefaqs.com]
However, for the Championship match I had to make slight order changes to assure victory:
Once you beat the champion you will be rewarded with a General card that allows us to create the ultimate deck:
Source.[www.gamefaqs.com]
As the original poster of this deck (vote4piros) states, the computer CAN’T create a deck to counter it, after I won the Championship I started trying this deck out of curiosity and I still have to see it give me a lose, ideal for collecting any missing card you have left.
@lainverse
Vol.3 This deck does not use the General card Shino – Twilight Brigade and can easily reach Rank 1.
@JasonCelic
It’s a pure snipe deck however it does well due to it’s high cost even on most shield decks. However whenever assault becomes the norm it just wins.
Campaigns
On this section there are some suggested ways to optimize the grinding of the campaigns, the more you slack about them during the story, the more tedious they will be during the end game, so you have only yourself to blame!
Ideally once you reach the end game of the respective volume you’ll only have to do minor cleanup on these, but if you are like me, you are going to slack on them completely during the story and do everything last minute before moving to the next volume lol.
Yes, this is an Area, not a campaign.
But it just so happens to be the best area in the game for campaign completion, on almost every campaign I’ll tell you to use it, and here’s the reason:
Upon arrival to this level 1 area, the island where you spawn has:
- 3 Chim Chim trees.
- 1 PK Area.
- 1 Lucky Animal.
- 1 Mecha Grunty.
- 1 Addler Key (Vol.2 Only).
So you can farm up to 4 campaigns in this one area.
The “strategy” would be to kick the trees once as soon as you warp in (and every Chim Chim that drops from them), then kick the Lucky Animal, then help the Mecha Grunty, then kick the PK senseless, and finally kick every tree and Chim Chim again before warping out (Lots of Kickin’!).
Doing it like this will obviously give you 1 of each on 3 campaigns, and ideally anywhere between 50-120 Chim Chims, and since its a Berserker Area, finding Chaotic PKs will be very easy.
On the Area Words section of this guide you will find other -inferior- alternatives to this area, but I would stick to this paradise for all 3 volumes.
* The placing is different in Vol.1 but it still has everything, just a little farther apart than Vol.2 and Vol.3
If you are doing this one on Vol.1, let me empathize how much I understand your pain… joking aside, if you intend to complete it on Vol.1, be diligent about it, every time the story warps you to a root town, check on everyone real quick.
On Vol.2 and Vol.3 however, we are given the Flyer Radar, an infinite use item that can tell you how many people haven’t received a flyer in the area that you are currently in, and their names.
* In Lumina Cloth you can do any kind of Arena Match and once it’s done the list of NPCs present will be refreshed, (tip provided by @Eymeil), while in the other servers visiting any area will give the same result (or simply log off and on again).
For the ones in areas, all you got to learn is how to read the destination area info from when you are mixing area words.
On the Area Status, you will see a picture with the area LV, mission, elements, treasure, and 2 icons with numbers next to them.
The blue people icon represents how many PCs are present on that area.
The people with the pink heart represent how many of those you have met before.
And these values get randomly generated every time you put a word in the mix.
So, the idea is to put 3 words to generate an Area, and check for the ratio to be something like (4, 2), meaning there are 4 PCs on that area, of which you have met 2… if not then keep switching any word of the Area until the desired result is achieved, teleport to the area and look for them (you can use the radar to know their names).
Check the Bikman’s Model sections of this guide for a list of every NPC location!
For this campaign we are going to need to defeat every chaotic PK, and a total of 50 PK encounters, the easiest way to go about it is touse the 3rd word: Berserker on any area that you create, this word will guarantee a PK area to be present on every area that has the word on it, and it makes very easy to find Chaotic PKs.
For this campaign we require to get a lot of Chim Chim orbs, to have kicked one of every kind of Chim Chim and ONE Chim Chim Crown.
If you have kicked at least the bare minimum required to beat the game, it’s safe to say that you have kicked at least one of normal and rare Chim Chims, so that just leaves 3 minor details:
Chim Assassin:
Go to any dungeon and simply wait, the amount of time depends on how many Chim Chims you are carrying:
- 99-90 Spheres: 8 minutes.
- 89-80 Spheres: 10 minutes.
- 79-70 Spheres: 15 minutes.
- 69-60 Spheres: 18 minutes.
- 59-50 Spheres : 20 minutes.
- <50 Spheres: Never.
King Chim Chim:
Either go for random chances of it showing instead of any normal type, or find a Nue Lucky Animal and kick it, it’s effect is to summon the King.
Chim Crown:
Kings have a random (small) chance of droping them, and you require at least ONE (except in Vol.1 since the campaign starts with 1 by default).
If you don’t have a single one by the end of everything you can possibly do in the game, start farming Nue.
* If you get more than 1 crown in ANY volume, go ahead and store it in Canard, since you require 1 per volume and if you keep them in your inventory when you talk to Dr. Kubo he will purchase them for GP, which is not worth it anyways.
NOTE: User johnlucci confirmed that a Chim Crown may not be required on Vol.2 and Vol.3, I haven’t been able to verify it myself, but you can always try and see if the NPC marked Completion without it and let me know!
To complete this Campaign you need to finish 50 races, and collect a total of 3600 Chim Chims, plus earning first place on all 5 missions earns you bike parts and other useful rewards.
For the 50 races:
There is an exploit that can help you complete them easily and claim the first place, as soon as the Mission starts, head towards any King Chim Chim directly (don’t worry about collecting any other Chim Chim), right before you hit him (as last second as you can) open your minimap and exit out of it by pressing B, if timed right the mission will be over, with you on the 1st place.
For the 3600 Chim Chims:
Mission 5 is the ideal for farming, as each run will earn you 120-140 Chim Chims approximately.
* Using the 1st Word: Passing creates racing Areas for this campaign, stating it just in case.
The Lucky Animal that appears on each area is calculated with a formula:
(Avg. Level – 1) * Area Level
For example having a party of lv 100 on a lv 100 Area, it would be:
(100 – 1) * 100 = 9900
The last number (0) determines the Lucky Animal as follows:
¹ Source.[www.neoseeker.com]
An easier way to apply this formula is as follows:
As long as you are on max level, to know which area to pick simply do:
10 – Desired Value = X.
For instance, if I want to find the Moon Rabbit that would be (10 – 9 = 1), so visiting any Area with a level of X1 (01,11,21,31,41,etc…) would guarantee a Moon Rabbit running around!
To complete this campaign we need to help Mecha Grunty 50 times (30 in Vol.3) by feeding him Chim Chims, and every time we help him, he requires +1 Chim Chim on your next meeting.
Ideally you are farming for Chim’s Kicker while doing this campaign, just keep helping the little guy out every time and voilà.
Fly! (fly) Fly! (fly) Fly! (fly) Mecha Grunty!!!
Campaign: Bikman’s Model Vol.1
Welcome to the only questline in the series that will remove your will to live!
Just kidding… kinda, so, as you have probably learned by now, once you receive the campaign “Bikman’s Flyer” you have to interact with every NPC in the game at least once, lucky for us they gave us a special radar to locate whichever NPC we havent found!!!… on Vol.2 and Vol.3
Since we are on Vol.1 we will have to do it the old fashioned way, every time you reload any root town (Warping into it, logging in, returning from an area or arena match) the list of NPCs present will refresh, find and talk to whoever you haven’t before.
As a general advise I’d say start this one as soon as it’s given to you, and do it along every visit to any root town during the main story, I did it this way and by the end only had to find like 15 NPCs.
Aside from that the tables below will tell you the towns where you can find every NPC.
Special thanks to @Dorg4s for making me add this one and also providing a source.[pathshower.wordpress.com]
Campaign: Bikman’s Model Vol.2
Can’t write… clever banter… Steam word limit… Must… document… useless… info…
Campaign: Bikman’s Model Vol.3
Steam word limit is BS…
Area Words
On this section you will find useful Area Words for various things, usually having the required element right next to the spawn point.
* Do notice that areas on Θ or Σ servers won’t be accesible until the respective Root Town is unlocked.
Chase the Bounty:
Δ Elegant Aster’s Berserker.
Θ Serene Evening’s Berserker.
Σ Serene Sunshine’s Berserker.
Σ Competing Natural Berserker.
Chim’s Kicker:
Δ Elegant Aster’s Berserker.
Lucky Data Collection:
Δ Elegant Aster’s Berserker. ¹
Δ Counting Wrath’s Two Wings.
Σ Serene Sunshine’s Berserker.
¹ From Vol.2 onward this area changes the location of the Lucky Animal to be right next to everything else, this will help get the 50 kicks fast.
Stray Mecha Grunty:
Δ Elegant Aster’s Berserker.
Σ Competing Natural Berserker.
Easy A Score:
Θ Raging Scheming Conclusion.
Adler Keys:
Θ Competing Cloudless Two Wings
Cheat Code:
Σ Serene Sunshine’s Berserker.
God Chim Chim (Affection):
Σ Spring’s Maiden’s BBQ Plate.
Visit the following areas and obtain the Treasure from the Beast Temple.
Vol.2
Vol.3
* Special thanks to @Calintz for the Area Words for Vol.3!
Below is a list of words that add special effects to an Area when used, most of them are end game rewards, except the campaign related ones.
Δ Counting Blazing Berserker
Contains a lv 40 Boss, PK battle, Lucky Animal and easy Chim Chim farming without battles.
By @Rusman.
Δ Counting Failing Two Wings
Contains NPCs (for coupons sidequest), Lucky Animal and counts to give the area word “Immovable” (Clear with B or higher).
By @Magnum Hocus.
Unlockable Area Words
Originally this section of the guide directed you to an amazing website I had found (http://indzchan.pafu.org) which was owned by Lindsay, this was done as such with the intent that the website got all the visits and credit she deserves.
As of 5/19/2021 I have been made aware that this website no longer exists and as such I will be providing below the Wayback Machine links that were given to me by @Omegajuriko♐ while also listing the content as plain text.
Please be aware that 100% credit of this section goes to Lindsay/Lindz and that, as it was written originally on this guide, should I ever be in contact with her, this section may be modified to respect her wishes.
The way that this works is that you can be rewarded with an Area Word upon clearing an area with a rank of B, A or S.
From what I vaguely recall of my playthrough I did most Area Words in the Abyss Quest areas, however I may be remembering this incorrectly as according to Lindsay you need to do so in an area of a level that matches the ones below, for example, should you want the 1st Word: Forgotten, you need to do so on a Lv 2 Area. For this she recommends you use Grass and/or Wilderness type fields since they are the smaller.
L002: Forgotten
L003: Heavenly (story: Peaceful Leading Freedom)
L005: Elegant (story: Chasing Cupid’s Phantom)
L011: Halberd (abyss: Choosing Superior Offerings / L011 / Cave
L014: Harvesting
L019: Unknowing
L020: Wandering
L021: Piling (abyss: Heartless Starting Pilgrim)
L022: Restful (story: Lazy Advice’s Exile)
L023: Paling (story: Delicious Past’s Weed Eater)
L024: Obstructed
L028: Playing
L029: Unending
L030: Dreaming
L031: Saddened
L032: Fattening (quest: Coiling Destiny’s Whicker)
L033: Decadent
L038: Spring’s
L039: Immovable
L040: Closed (abyss: Entwined Joyous Venom Fang)
L042: Concealed
L051: Refined (story: Severe Unclean Gray Dance)
L053: Feeble (quest: Blowing Sea Sand’s Hot Wind)
L058: Tearing (story: Excusing Illusion’s Route)
L065: Wailing (story: Wonderful Opaque Yin Beast)
L067: Radiant (story: Lingering Aching Love)
L078: Cheering (story: Discerning Neighboring Vampire)
L079: Deep
L093: Winding
L098: Foolish
L101: Courageous (abyss: Unknown Mortuary’s Shady Rite)
L102: Serving (story: Gathering Familiar Mascot)
L104: Inviting
L105: Clamorous (story: Wise Calamity’s Water Mill)
L108: Boisterous (story: Undercover Lakeside’s Metal Beast)
L111: Preaching
L113: Boasting
L117: Thirsty
L119: Quiet
L120: Forever
L127: Unsheathed
L128: Reaching
L131: Glittering
L135: Ignorant
L139: Insightful
L140: Continous
L006: Honor
L016: Bustling
L026: Discord’s
L035: Sunshine’s
L045: Nirvana’s
L052: Spiral’s
L062: Eternal (story: Secret Mind’s Surpassed)
L073: Cloudless
L083: Pocketed (story: Misjudge Precept’s Symphony)
L092: Grieving
L103: Overripe
L109: Galaxy’s
L112: Evil’s
L116: Moonbeam’s (story: Vulnerable Barren Safe House)
L121: Engaging
L124: Stellar (story: Fleeing Dismayed Emotion)
L129: Merciless
L132: Queen’s (quest: Developed Steel’s Magic Fist)
L137: Fool’s
L141: Wizard’s
L144: Youngest’s
L147: Bull’s Eye
L150: Blue Silver
L001: Dark Tree
L007: Generation
L008: Cat’s Eye (story: Great Cursed In-laws)
L009: Tide Road (quest: Essential Idling Old World)
L010: Snow Lamp (quest: Dancing Moruning Masquerade)
L013: Pinwheel (quest: Screaming Returning Princess)
L017: Ignorance
L018: Belladonna
L027: Gold Bird
L036: Phoenix
L044: Fountain
L046: Evergreen
L047: Life Boat
L048: Foot Stone
L050: Two Wings
L054: Dagger (story: Burning Fallen Seven Sins)
L055: Myosotis
L056: Casket
L057: Starlit Sky (abyss: Chaotic Fortified Guard)
L060: Facet
L061: Pillow
L063: Cuckoo (story: Troubled Her Antitheses)
L066: Royal Edict
L070: Dude
L074: Orion (story: Aesthetic Hardship’s Aster)
L077: White Wolf
L085: Kappa
L087: Small Flag
L091: Volcano
L096: Ceremony
L097: Knife Edge
L110: Daydream (story: Looming Muddled Seer)
L106: Antares
L107: Dropwort
L114: Cross Eye
L115: Proper
L118: Cool Night
L122: Utopia (story: Incensed World’s Build-Up)
L123: Showers
L125: Umbrella
L126: Wind Party
L130: Saga
L133: Insomnia
L134: Orange
L138: Bracken
L142: Fisherman
L143: Raven
L145: Bengalese
L148: Full Moon
L149: Dragonweed
Forest of Pain 1st Half
The Forest of Pain is a special end-game dungeon that’s unlocked as part of the Abyss Quest, full of tough new bosses, exclusive rare gear and items.
Unlike any other dungeon, the Forest of Pain is composed of 100 floors.
As mentioned before, the Forest of Pain is a 100 floor dungeon composed of several phases, these phases are made out of 5 floors (which the game calls blocks) from which the first 4 are filled with items and monsters, and the 5th contains a Boss Battle, a Platform and a Save Point (only available after defeating the boss!).
Every phase that you complete (regardless if you completed the Phase Bonuses) will unlock a checkpoint from which you can start the Forest of Pain the next time you visit the area, this however goes up to floor 50, after which you will have no option to return to advanced floors and will have to start from floor 50 every time, Save Points however will still be available every 5 floors.
A simple trick to remember to pass through as fast as possible, is that 90% of the floors entrance and exits are placed in a “Ɔ” shape, meaning that usually you can take a straight line from the floor entrance, then take the first Left/Right path available and if you take the next one you will find the exit.
Use this as an easy way to complete each block after you have finished gathering any item and finished every Phase Bonus that interests you.
Note: If you have the Accesory “Demon Safe Shoes”, life will be 100x times easier for you, this item gives you the ability “Super Sprint” which makes you run 25% faster and avoid enemy encounters.
To unlock it simply complete every Goblin Race.
After every Boss you will find a Save Point and a Neo Platform, simply put, Neo Platforms allow you to change Party Members without having to return to the Root Town, allowing adjustments to your strategy on the go.
Every phase (or five blocks) in the Forest of Pain is given a Phase Bonus.
If you complete it’s conditions, you will receive a special item.
Phase Bonuses will be displayed in the first block of each phase, and can be checked by pressing “A” on the full map.
Congratulations on finishing the Forest of Pain tutorial, you are rewarded with a new Party Member.
While you can tackle the Forest of Pain however you want, I’ll list a couple of suggestions that helped me complete it almost pain-free (pun intended), and commentary for each kind of Phase Bonus challenge.
During the first 50 floors, your biggest problem will be to keep monsters alive long enough, as a general suggestion for any challenge that you are having trouble completing because enemies die out too fast simply change the Party Strategy to “Life” so that your Party doesn’t attack, leaving you with enough room to work.
If you came to the Forest of Pain with a Lv 150 Party, you will have a hard time doing the combos before the enemies die out, simply approach any encounter and leave only one monster alive, and finally, with any Dual Guns equipped start shooting basic attacks from as far away as possible, this will deal 1 HP damage to the monster and stun him a bit, allowing you to complete any length combos.
Spam the Dual Gun skill “Justice” on every enemy while trying to only hit one at a time.
* Do not Trigger Finish, it does not count for some reason as a Skill Trigger.
Get them as soon as possible, otherwise you risk not finding enough on the last floor.
To be safe I’d use a Fairy’s Orb on every floor to complete it as fast as possible.
Forest of Pain 2nd Half
Now that we are done with the first 50 floors, the real Forest of Pain begins.
Basically, there’s 3 major differences.
- From floor 51 onward, each Phase Bonus contains 4 challenges instead of 1.
- Enemies now have a lot more HP, keeping them alive is no longer a concern.
- Checkpoints won’t be stored every 5 floors, you can save your game and go back to Root Town as normal, but you will have to start over from floor 50 every time you return.
As mentioned before, the more we advance, the least we have to worry about the enemies being alive long enough to do our thing, however, as a general advice I’d rather do every challenge possible on the first floor available.
Again to simplify some challenges on the early floors I would keep the Party Strategy on Life.
Obviously every step I write is optional, however the more you accomplish the easier it will be.
I include a brief description of even the self-explanatory ones for the sake of consistency.
Same as the 1st Half, for the first couple of floors stick to using the Dual Gun skill “Justice” to a single enemy and avoid using the Trigger Finish afterwards, later on once the enemies have a big enough health bar you can pretty much battle normally as you will complete this one as part of the “Defeat XXX enemy parties.” one.
Find and defeat the given number of enemy parties, for the most part this one will come naturally while doing the rest, but keep tabs on it in case you followed my advice and finished most battle-related ones on the first couple of floors.
This one shouldn’t give you much trouble, if for whatever reason you are dying at all, then get a Harvest Cleric in your Party(Shino or Atoli)and you should be fine.
- Have your Party made out of members with Maxed Affection.
- Equip them with Morale boosting gear.
- Switch your Awakening to “Beast Awakening”.
- Start a battle.
- Use strong healing items on your Party (regardless of them actually needing it).
- Once Awakening is available perform it but DO NOT damage any enemy.
- Keep using healing items and Awakenings every time.
For example, I made a party withShino and Alkaid(both with Maxed Affection but no Morale boosting gear because I’m lazy), I started a battle with the first enemy group I found on floor 51 and spammed 5 Wonder Sodas, with that and a little healing skills used by both girls(My Alkaid knows healing spells)Beast Awakening became available within the first minute, obviously I used it and repeated 3 more times, and voilà… one of the Phase Bonuses was completed on the very first battle I found.
Use Fairy’s Orb on every floor until you get it, most floors have 3 treasure boxes each.
Achievements
This section contains uncensored spoilers, you have been warned.
I decided to include the list of achievements since some of them are hidden and this guide already has information on most of them anyways.
Obtain all achievements.
Complete Vol. 1 Rebirth.
Complete Vol. 2 Reminisce.
Complete Vol. 3 Redemption.
Complete Vol. 4 Reconnection.
Achieve an overall S-rank area result.
Achieve an overall A-rank area result 50 or more times.
Conduct a trade with an ally.
Conduct 50 or more trades with allies.
Give a gift to an ally.
Give 30 or more gifts to allies.
Ride your bike.
Ride your bike for over 30 minutes.
Alchemize an item.
Alchemize 100 or more times.
Rescue Mecha Grunty 5 or more times.
Kick or use your bike to ram a Lucky Animal 5 or more times.
Kick or use your bike to ram 30 or more Chim Chims.
Speak to 10 or more PCs in the same volume.
Defeat 5 or more PKers in the same volume.
Finish first on any course in the “Highway Master” campaign.
Complete the “Stray Mecha Grunty” campaign.
Complete the “Lucky Data” campaign.
Complete the “Chim’s Kicker” campaign.
Complete the “Bikman’s Model” campaign.
Complete the “Chase the Bounty” campaign.
Complete the “Highway Master” campaign.
Perform 100 or more Rengeki attacks.
Perform 300 or more Rengeki attacks.
Perform 100 or more surprise attacks.
Perform 500 or more surprise attacks.
Perform 50 or more Awakenings.
Perform 200 or more Awakenings.
Win 100 or more battles.
Win 500 or more battles.
Win 1000 or more battles.
Participate in 50 or more Arena matches.
Participate in 200 or more Arena matches.
Perform 50 or more counterattacks.
Perform 200 or more counterattacks.
Perform 10 or more Avatar Awakenings.
Win 100 or more times in Crimson VS in Vol. 2 and 3.
Win 500 or more times in Crimson VS in Vol. 2 and 3.
Open the gallery after having collected all cards in Crimson VS in Vol. 3.
Watch an engagement event.
Reach guild rank 9 by raising all books in the Book of 1000 to rank 9 in Vol. 3 after having carried over your save data from Vol. 1 and 2.
Collect a total of 60 or more 1st Area Words in Vol. 1, 2, or 3.
Collect a total of 60 or more 2nd Area Words in Vol. 1, 2, or 3.
Collect a total of 60 or more 3rd Area Words in Vol. 1, 2, or 3.
Raise Haseo to level 150 in Vol. 3 or Vol. 4.
Unlock all Terminal Disc files.
View all Parody Mode content.