1000g in X-Blades in Under 5 Hours

[Capn Doug]

Ok, so I've been testing a few things in this game and have figured out a method to get the full 1000g for X-Blades in under 5 hours. First off, it does involve using the cheat codes found here. Lonesquiff gives a vague idea of how to get everything, but this is a full guide for the full 1000g. Second, by doing this, you will miss large sections of the game, which may not appeal to everyone. So, if you avoid the level skip on your first playthrough, add 5 hours or more to the completion.

These are the cheatcodes you will be using (thanks to FR3SH JIV3):

All skills + Money + All Upgrades: - - - - - - -

Skip Level: - - - - - - -

About the codes: After talking with a few people who had a few little issues with the guide based on using this as the sole source of information, there are a few other things that you should know. First, the All skills/money/upgrades code will disable a few achievements. Because you are instantly getting all upgrades, you will not get the achievements that come from picking up the collectables. And since it gives you all skills including the dark spells, it will prevent you from getting the good ending. As a result, you should never use this code while going for the good ending. You can also use the code multiple times to get more money (1 million per use), which will help you get the soul based achievements and the money to help you buy the max rages that you may need to get through the final boss fight.

The level skip code is not actually a level skip code. It takes you to a new level each time you use it, and it will only take you to that level once. Once it has taken you to every level, it will stop working. As a result, even though it says you are at the Finale, you can still use the code to go to a new level.

1st playthrough (30-45 minutes): Use the unlock everything cheat, then the level skip cheat, making sure that you play the following levels: Underground Hall, Deadly Passage (regular and evening), Blades of Death (Regular and evening), Fork in the Road and Finale. For the first 5, save before starting, then make sure you complete each level without taking damage (not difficult since the only enemy you will see is a boss that cannot reach you), making sure you get the level complete message before skipping, since you get credit for finishing the level without taking damage before you actually get the stats screen. To be safe, though, you may want to finish the level by going through to the next area. The level skip takes you to the same level regardless of what level you use it on. On Fork in the Road, you are going to try to finish the level without taking damage as well, but you will be doing it while trying for a 150 hit combo. When you get to Finale, pass the boss and unlock pro difficulty. If you are finding it too difficult to get through Fork in the Road without getting hit, try the Light Form/spam Ray of Light technique on the Finale. This will also get you the achievement for using Magic only, though you will likely need to purchase several Max Rage items to pull the level off without being hit.

2nd playthrough (20-45 minutes): Play on Pro and DO NOT TOUCH the unlock everything cheat since you are going for the good ending. Play through the first level until you unlock fireball, lock it to a button, then skip ahead. Keep skipping levels until you get to a level called the Two Towers where you see a yellow crystal in front. It is important to get that before you skip that level since it will get you enough souls to buy what you need later (you will need at least 450,000 souls, Entrance to the Castle also gives you a lot of souls). When you get to the level Dark Temple, kill the boss there and get the only story based achievement aside from beating the game and purchase Light Form, Light Blade and Ray of Light (they won't be available until you purchase the previous one). Skip ahead to Finale and use the Lightform/Ray of Light method to kill the final boss and unlock the achievements for beating the game and the achievements for the good endings. Killing the Dark Temple boss is actually the hardest thing to do in this method, but fireball will help, as will wearing the regen suit. A few tips, though. The biggest issue is the slow moving energy ball that he will fire at you. You can't out run it, but you can shoot it and destroy it. Because you have the regen suit, you can basically out wait the boss by hiding behind a pillar and waiting for your health to come back.

3rd playthrough (30-45 minutes): You can do this as part of the 2nd playthrough if you save before the Dark Temple boss (there are not enough artifacts before Finale to get both at the same time). Basically, use a guide for the artifact pieces (this one works well) and just keep skipping levels until you get to a level that has a piece that you need. Pick up the piece, then skip to the next level. Repeat until you have unlocked all of the Mastery achievements. Important that on the level Underground Hall, you do not move forward, since it will unlock the 3rd level shooting mastery and prevent you from getting that achievement. When you see the words "Underground Hall," just use the level skip code and move on to the next level.

Final playthrough (2-3 hours): By now you should have just the 10,000 kills left. Start a game on Easy, use the unlock everything cheat and skip ahead to Entrance to the Castle. When you get there just use the spell Lightning Range and kill the endlessly spawning ghosts. Each ghost gives you ~5,000 souls, so that should allow you to track how many kills you are getting. I got 6,000 kills in about 90 minutes, but your mileage may vary depending on the rhythm you get into. It would help to have the regen suit and regen 3


So, after testing everything, you can get the completion in 4-5 hours starting from scratch.

[sanger]

Thanks for the walkthrough. I have a question. In 2nd playthrough, I keep losing the fireball before I get to the Dark Temple level and can't kill the boss because I have no ice spell or any ranged spell (like Ray of Light or Fireball) Any ideas why this might be happening?

Nevermind. Figured out what was going on. This might be because I'm playing the JP version, but level skip takes you back to the first level after a few skips, at which point I lose all my skills. I have to get the fireball again and then skip to the Dark Temple.

[Capn Doug]

Oh, yeah, that was something I completely forgot to mention. Even with the unlock codes, not all spells are available at all times. If you want to keep them, you need to bind them to one of the buttons, since they can never disappear that way.

[sanger]

Originally Posted by Capn Doug

Oh, yeah, that was something I completely forgot to mention. Even with the unlock codes, not all spells are available at all times. If you want to keep them, you need to bind them to one of the buttons, since they can never disappear that way.

It disappeared even though I bound Fireball to B and Earthquake to Y button. I really think it's best to skip 5 times and then follow your walkthrough for best effect.

Also the linked artifact guide doesn't seem to have enough ruby & gold artifacts listed to get the achievement. The Great Gates (Darkness) level has the final ruby piece on top of stairs, and the final gold piece on the bottom of the stairs though. The Great Gates (Evening) doesn't have the Ruby piece on the left side (as far as I can see).

I think it's best for 10,000 kills to destroy one of the ghost generators and then go to the other one and just rubber band / turbo RT. Almost no ghosts will come your way and with regen 3 on it's impossible to die. It takes about 3-4 hours this way but you don't have to do any controlling so you can do it while you eat, study, work, nap, or playing games on WP7 for even more achievements.

One minor fix to playthrough 1. Underground Hall is the first level if you skip. Maybe switching the order of the levels around would be a bit more clear.

Finally, I'm copy/pasting the artifacts guide here, because this was useful for me when I played the JP version. This is in the ordered for the level skip and not the normal way of playing. (All credits to ms-xbox World. I only re-order and copy/paste their work with a very minor fix at the end)

[sanger]

Level names without anything underneath are just there for your reference so you know how many times to skip. There are no artifacts there. I have removed anything but the artifacts from this guide. (i.e. scroll, regen suit 3)

Underground Hall
Dungeon
Deadly Passage
Deadly Passage (Evening)


Ruins I

• Inside the stone tombs that are breakable, just before the exit of the level on the right is the first Silver piece.

Blades of Death
Blades of Death (Evening)


The Two Towers

• goldin tomb on right up stairs

Entrance to the Castle

• silverin breakable statue in center of floor

The Great Rift
The Sun Temple


The Abandoned Coast

• Ruby piece. - As soon as the level begins, head to the ruined structure on your left, the ruby piece is on the floor of the structure.

• Gold Artifact piece- As soon as the level begins, head to the ruined structure on your right, the gold piece is on the floor of the structure.

The Stone Circle

• Silver Artifact part- as the mission begins go past the columns and head to the right side near the debris.

Stairway to Heaven

• Gold piece- As soon as the level starts, go up a few steps and it's on your left.

The Ruins Above the Sea

• Ruby artifact part- head to the right and its in the open area on the ground

The Fork in the Road

• As soon as the level starts, by the doorway on your right is a breakable object withsilver piece

Observation Site

• After the spiked floor sequence you'll enter a fight. At ground level in one of the alcoves is aruby pieceand anothergold piece.

The Great Rift (Evening)


The Death Arena

• Gold piecein one of the breakable stone tombs

• Silver piecein tomb next to green crystal

Stairway to Heaven (Evening)
The Ruins Above the Sea (Evening)


The Stone Alley

• silver piecein 3rd smashable stone on right

The Way to the Temple

• Gold In the 4th statue on the ground on your right or left (it seems you need to break the vase on the ground by the exit for this to appear or a number of breakables).

The Abandoned Coast (Evening)

• Same as beforeSilver pieceon the left gold on right in structure

The Stone Circle (Evening)

• ruby- as the mission begins go past the columns and head to the right side near the debris.

The Arched Bridge
The Dark Temple
The Dark Temple (Evening)
Finale
Observation Site (Evening)


The Ruins II

• Once you clear being locked in the area with the pillars (right side from where you start level), there is a narrow passage that leads to an area half bathed in light with a raised area near exit. Aruby piece is on top

The Ruins II (Evening)

• Rubyon raised ledge near exit

The Stone Alley (Evening)

• Silver piecein 3rd statue on the left

The Seashell

• Go up 2 sets of steps, at the base of the third there is a dark room,gold pieceis inside.

The Seashell (Evening)
The Long Descent
The Hall of Columns


The Great Gates

• As you enter go through arch on right, theruby pieceis in arch under stair.

• As you reach the top of the steps that lead to the spider queen. Look right and you'll see the Silver piece. You need to double jump to get across.

The Great Gates (evening)

• under stairs on right (if you got all of the above this should be the last ruby piece you need to collect)
• silver piece is on right at top of stairs

The Great Gates (darkness)

• ruby piece is on right at top of stairs
• gold piece under stairs on right (if you got all of the above this should be the last ruby piece you need to collect)

The Fork in the Road (evening)


Death Arena (Evening)

• Silverin breakable tomb and gold in another.

[Lord Chabelo]

Anyone try these cheats on Blades of Time yet?

[Pinion13]

Thanks to the op and sanger for the tips.

[Capn Doug]

Awesome addition, sanger. I didn't even realize that the guide was missing an artifact. I knew there were a few missing, but there should still have been enough (that was the guide I used). Either way, having them in level skip order should help so many more people.

[Melysman]

For playthroughs 1,2,and 3 what should the difficulty be set to? I read that it should be set to easy for playthrough 4 but nothing for the other three.

[deluxnugs]

Wow buddy,this is awesome. Im gonna use it soon.Thanks you guys.09/04/2012

UPDATE: It works perfectly.Thanks a Shitoad. 09/05/2012

[Virgin]

It's hard to just pick this game up and do it this way, but I still managed to do it pretty quickly doing it 75% this way, thanks.

[Klister NL]

thanks a shitload of bunches.. or something...
I've had this game for such a long time and I was at the point where I just didn't care about it not being 100% anymore, but in just 2 hours by following your guide I managed to pull it all off. Only need the 6 levels without being hit.

[pedgz]

wish i saw this thread first before completing it, but who knows, i could try the method presented here at a later date .

[Acydyk]

Just wanted to point out, on the Pro run, make sure to buy the Light spells right after killing the Dark Temple boss (next screen). Do not skip this level before buying, or the spells will be locked out. Took me a good 20 minutes to figure out why I couldn't buy them, and had to kill the boss again.

[Gatsu]

Damn man this is a good guide, well done.

[QuiCkz Ninja]

Thank you to the Capn Doug and sanger for the tips.

[Xenolith666]

there is literally no rhyme or reason to that level skip code.. it just brings you whereever.. i can't figure out where the fuck i'm going half the time.. gotta make another run since i couldn't get all the collectibles in one run

[WOODY2211]

Great guide!!! Thank you very much.

[Tripl299]

Originally Posted by Capn Doug

2nd playthrough (20-45 minutes): Play on Pro and DO NOT TOUCH the unlock everything cheat since you are going for the good ending. Play through the first level until you unlock fireball, lock it to a button, then skip ahead. Keep skipping levels until you get to a level called the Two Towers where you see a yellow crystal in front. It is important to get that before you skip that level since it will get you enough souls to buy what you need later (you will need at least 450,000 souls, Entrance to the Castle also gives you a lot of souls). When you get to the level Dark Temple, kill the boss there and get the only story based achievement aside from beating the game and purchase Light Form, Light Blade and Ray of Light (they won't be available until you purchase the previous one). Skip ahead to Finale and use the Lightform/Ray of Light method to kill the final boss and unlock the achievements for beating the game and the achievements for the good endings. Killing the Dark Temple boss is actually the hardest thing to do in this method, but fireball will help, as will wearing the regen suit. A few tips, though. The biggest issue is the slow moving energy ball that he will fire at you. You can't out run it, but you can shoot it and destroy it. Because you have the regen suit, you can basically out wait the boss by hiding behind a pillar and waiting for your health to come back.

Just want to add a few things. When you start and you use the Skip Level cheat code for first time, DON'T just skip to next level. Defeat the boss from the hall way without getting hit, this will give you 25K souls. Then run around the room and smash all statues and vases there. Once you smash everything you will have over 1 mil souls. Then you can skip to the next level, DON'T walk thru the door because it will take you to the last level but you won't have the skills needed to defeat the final boss.

[Gregtastic]

Thanks for the guide!

[1001puppys]

Great guide, made the game a ton easier! I may play through the game at least once, but as others have said it being terrible I may just grind the 10,000 kills instead.