To get all the achievements in Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, you’ll need to do at least 2 playthroughs, but it will be closer to about 4 playthroughs.

There are only 9 achievements, but they are actually fairly involved, which makes them actually seem achievement worthy.

These achievements are:
1 Healthy! - Collecting All 17 Vitality Fragments.
2 Bug Collector - Collecting All 20 Ivory Bugs.
3 Explorer - Completing 100% of the map
4 P-pleasegiveitome - Giving the Mushroom to the Imp in the forest.
5 Faithful - Defeat Archpriestess Choir
6 Imperishable - Beat the game without dying
7 Pacifist - Beat the game without killing any enemies
8 Don’t Try This - Beat insane difficulty
9 True Ending - Dip the Leaf in Hibisco Tea and defeat the final boss

I’m going to suggest you do 4 playthroughs and using them to unlock the following achievements:

1st - Normal or Easy - 100% Map completion, All Vitality Fragments, All Ivory Bugs, the two hidden achievements, and True Ending.

2nd - Easy - Pacifist and No Death

3rd - Hard - Strictly as practice and to unlock insane, True Ending optional.

4th and final - Insane - Minimalistic playthrough, true ending optional (confirmed)


Nuances/Basics:
You have two weapons in Reverie Under the Moonlight. The Leaf, which functions as your melee attack, and your bow, which obviously is your ranged attack.

The leaf has a higher damage output than your bow, but your bow is way, way easier and safer to use, especially on most bosses. You could make a strong argument that it’s overpowered within the context of Reverie Under the Moonlight. Using your leaf puts you at risk of getting hit, while your bow you can safely unload on enemies without fear of reprisal and giving you more forgiving timing windows.

For the majority of the game the bow will be the go-to strategy. There are a handful of enemies that are immune to arrows, and we’ll have to tackle those with the leaf, or alternative strategies.

You can charge your bow and there are a few charge levels. Rapid-Fire by simply mashing the button is the easiest way to deal damage in the early game. Then there’s a single charge, which is a more powerful shot. This is more about rhythmic pumping of the button, and after beating Derelict Frida and unlocking the Bow Charge rate crest fragment it is more damage output, but if you don’t know the rhythm it’s easier to just stick to spamming arrows. Then the next charge is a spread shot which fires 3 arrows and this can be good for hitting some harder to reach enemies.
Then finally after unlocking another crest fragment you get a new tier of charge which is a rapid fire volley of arrows. This is best used in conjunction with your leaf for extreme damage output.

That being said, for most encounters, you’re better off sticking with your bow, especially for hard and insane difficulties, as its significantly safer.

If you beat a boss without taking damage, you’ll be rewarded with an active or passive item. These are very powerful, and will greatly increase your damage output.

I’ll be going through a strategy on how to beat bosses without getting hit, and you should be actively attempting these, as it’s required for beating the game on Insane, and extremely beneficial all around.

There is also some nuance to the way combat functions. You can roll through enemies which is going to be super important for the Pacifist Achievement. You can also give enemies a love tap with your bow or leaf to stun them. This will be used at several locations in Pacifist.

You can then roll through them, or continue to hit combo them to kill them.

Also rolling is faster, so I’ll be rolling a lot. Feel free not to roll, I know it looks dumb.

Normal Run - Most achievements
This first playthrough should really be your casual playthrough. Normal or Easy doesn’t matter. You’ll have more starting health on Easy, so feel free to choose it. The only achievement tied to difficulty is the Insane difficulty playthrough so don’t worry.

Watch the cutscene at the start, and immediately go back to your left for some hidden map percentage (001%). Then back and proceed forward.

The grove is pretty linear here.

Just head forward and get used to jumping. On the second screen you’ll have to fall down some one way platforms to find a chest, hit it to open it, and then head back up, and continue to your right.

Here you’ll find the bellflower. You can basically think of this as an estus flask from Dark Souls. Enter your menu and equip it, and continue to your right.

Just keep proceeding forward here, nothing much to note until you find spikes.

Shoot an arrow across the gap, and a platform will raise, jump on it, and proceed.

You’ll eventually hit a shrine. These are effectively Bonfires from Dark Souls. You can slap it with your leaf for a quick save, or you can stop and save, and have some other options later down the line.

Just keep heading forward here, and eventually you’ll find a shield imp. The easiest way past is just to roll through it. Killing these imps is a pain, and not overly worthwhile.

The next area has more imps, just use your bow or leaf to take them out before proceeding and dodging the spikes.

Now head forward, 2 imps will drop down once you get close. Drop down the platform, and break the chest for more munney before heading up.

Now go down the elevator and head down again.

When you land you’ll want to head left and smack the wall to reveal a secret door. Go through here, kill the imp and collect the first vitality fragment (1/17)

Now head back through this area, and clear out the imps and reach the bottom. Head to your left first.

Do a bit of platforming, and get to the next screen. This guy looks intimidating, but if you rush him he literally cannot hit you.  Take him out, collect the munny, and jump up to find an Astral Charm. This has a chance of you getting more munny from enemies. Equip it if you’re on normal, on easy, you’ll have extra accessories so don’t bother. You’re finished here, so head back to the junction, head right this time. (Map 006%)

Clear out the enemies here and climb onto the center island. Jump over to or shoot the crystal orb, and the stone will drop allowing you to pass.

Move forward to find a shrine, hit it, and then drop down to grab the first ivory bug (1/20) and then hit the bell again before moving forward.

Proceed here and kill the imp. Drop down and you’ll find a spider. Don’t attack it, as it will function as a merchant later on. Just roll through him and head down the hole.

Drop down twice, and hit the wall on your right for another secret door. Go inside and collect the Vitality Fragment (2/17), head back and go down.

Dodge the mist, it will poison you. Ignore the room on the left, we have to backtrack here later and drop down.

Drop down again, and head into the secret area below you for a chest and more map percentage. Then head back up.

Proceed to your right, and pick up the Ivory Bug near the jumping imp before moving forward (2/20)

If you’re fast here you can get this in one cycle, if not you’ll have to wait. Kill the imp, and then get past the one with the shield. Wait for the block to come down, and then wait for it to go up, jump onto the platform, and then again to the platform above you.

In this area there’s a hidden chest beside the shield imp, you can grab it for some extra munny before continuing to your right. This next area is straight forward, just get past the enemies and head to the ladder. You’ll probably get hit by a grenade, but just zone to your right.

There’s another bell here, and make sure to hit it, there’s a boss fight ahead.

Edea:
Edea is pretty easy, and you should make an effort to learn how to no-hit kill her here.

Her weakpoint is the pearl at the end of her tail, but it’s only exposed when she takes a swing at you. The best way to damage her is to charge your bow, and use jumping leaf attacks to damage her torso, then once she attempts to take a swing at you with the tail, back off, and shoot a triple charged shot at her tail. You can summon the faerie here for some extra damage as well, you just need to input up up down down left right into your dpad or arrow keys depending on your input. This is a lot like your bellflower, and it resets every time you hit a bell so feel free to use it anywhere else, but I only really use it for bosses.

Just take hits on Edea as you can. You can only use the bow if you prefer to be safe. Around the midway point the back side of the arena will start emitting poison gas so avoid that third of the screen. Edea isn’t super hard, and if you do take damage you can either suicide, or quit out to the title for another attempt at no-damage.

If you manage to beat edea without taking damage you’ll get her pearl. This adds poison damage to your arrows. Just be warned, that the gas cloud it emits can and will probably poison you. It’s a net damage increase and worth using, but be careful about shooting things very close to you.

This is actually a huge damage increase and will be used for the majority of the game, so it is worth a few attempts of Edea to try and no-hit, and you’ll need to do it for Insane anyways so its worth it for the practice.

Once she’s dead, collect the pearl, equip it, and head to your right towards Karst City.

You can talk to the NPC here if you wish, otherwise just proceed forward.

Once you cross the bridge, you’ll find a shrine, but first drop down, and head back left under the bridge to find another Ivory Bug (3/20)

Now head back to the Shrine and save.

Talk to the merchant here and buy a Crystal Seed. This is a consumable item that increases your damage output by 50% for a short time. It’s worth picking up as you’ll use it for most of the game.

Now head forward, and double jump to attack the witch to stun her, then combo her to kill her.

Then head up the stairs and double jump to attack the dog to stun it, then combo it to kill it.

Head up the ladder.

The left is locked for now, head right and drop down.

Clear out the dogs here, before heading right and dorpping down to kill the dog in the box, and then picking up Vitality Fragment 3/17 before proceeding to the right

Try and avoid the witches shots as much as possible before moving right and dodging the spikes.

Inside here, head right, drop down and loot the chest, but jump back up and continue forward.

Now kill or avoid the witch, drop down, and loot the bookshelf for more uses of the bellflower. These are a permenant upgrade to capacity, so it’s worth getting them in a casual playthrough.

Then head down, and to your left. Just head through this screen to the next.

In here you’ll want to continue left and avoid the flame shots and enemy here. 2 careful rolls is enough to avoid both, just continue left.

Ignore the drop for now, instead just head left. Unlock the shortcut, and head back to the shrine to save.

When you’re ready, head back through the door, and drop down. You can watch the scene, or double tap start to skip it.

Moka and Lubella
This is another fight where it’s pretty desirable to get a no-hit kill but it can be difficult.

You’ll start off by fighting Moka. If you have edea’s arrows, start by firing a few off here to poison him. Then you’ll want to run up and hit him with your leaf to knock him into the corner before retreating and continuing to pelt him with arrows. HIs attacks are easy to avoid, the only real issue is the fact his jumping pattern is unpredictable. I have more trouble getting no hit Moka than almost anything else in the game because of this.

At about two thirds of his health left, your controller will start to shake, which means the real boss fight is coming.

Lubella
Lubella is easily the most recognizable boss in the game. Your goal here is basically the same as Moka. Poison her, and use the leaf. Just be careful not to get too close to her cleavage and you should avoid getting poisoned. At the start of the fight use the Crystal Seed for an attack boost, poison her, and optionally use the faerie with up up down down left right.

This fight has a very predictable and easy to recognize pattern, and as such there are safe spots to stand. As long as you’re within these areas, you’ll never be hit from the above orbs, the most common attack. If you’re lucky she’ll never use another attack. The attack from below is easy to avoid, simply roll away. If she dives you’ll have to run to one side and do two dodges. The checkpoint is close, so if you get hit, feel free to suicide, or quit out to restart and retry.

Once it’s done, pick up the Bakman Patch if you beat her no-hit, then head to your left for another piece of map percentage (017%) before heading to your right, and to another save shrine.

Now continue right and cross this bridge. Clear the enemies or just get through tanking hits. In the next area you can talk to an NPC for some background, otherwise head to your right.

Be careful here, but jump the fairly precarious platforms. Take out the witch on the boats. These boats are kind of clunky, so be careful on them, you don’t want to die here. Zone into the other side and pick up the magnet stone before doubling back. Now just get back to where you talked to Cath.

Head down the ladder into a new area.

You’re in water here so you’re really slow. Just head down. The chest only has 1 munny in it so feel free to avoid it. Continue this path to your left, and drop down.

Theres a cutscene here. (Map percentage 20%)

Once that’s done, Head to your left and climb up the ladder to get a bit of map percentage before continuing left.

Here avoid the cat lady by rolling under her and enter the next zone. There’s a merchant here, and a save shrine, head down and save before heading back up.

We’ll have to do some significant backtracking here so we’re just going to go ahead and clear the boss and get what we can. Drop down, and head left.

This area has spikes so it’s inherently more dangerous. If you’re fast and confident you can get through here very quickly, otherwise just take your time.

Once you’re across jump across to the screen on your left. You can just zone in here for the map percentage, but if you want you can pillage the chest for munny. Just be warned, you’ll get cursed. This puts a temporary no-item use debuff on you and it will spawn another cat lady. It’s your call. Get back to the previous area.

Drop down, and enter the room on your left.

This is just a straight shot of swimming to your left. You can loot the chest for a paltry sum of money on the way.

Once clear, head to your left again to find another save shrine. Then back track to the previous area.

Run down, and avoid the spikes here. Continue left, and you’ll eventually reach the garden key. Now backtrack to the save shrine. Be very careful not to get killed by spikes, it’s just annoying, since we’re close. Once you get back, make sure to save at the shrine before proceeding. There is no persistent game state, if you die, you’ll lose the key.

Ignore the flashing item for now, we have to come back for it later. Continue to your left. This is just another swimming section.

At the end, zone up. Jump up your way and kill the Firekeeper here before getting up to the next level. (Map 025%)

In this next room, if you run and double jump right away you’ll get onto the platform 100% of the time and man does it feel good. Otherwise, wait for the platforms, and double jump your way up them.

At the top a catlady will spawn, so go ahead and shoot her with arrows to take her down. Then jump across and head down the ladder and zone to your right.

Drop down the ladder in the center here, and attack the wall on your left to reveal another Vitality Fragment (4 / 17). Collect it beore heading back.

Continue right doing the platforming tasks ahead of you. These next two rooms are pretty basic.

In this room there’s a rubble wall you can destroy with a bomb from the bakman. Drop down, give it a couple of slaps with your leaf to push it into position, and wait for it to throw a bomb. This will break the wall, and give you a shortcut to the save shrine. Go ahead and save now, there’s a boss coming up.

Head back inside, and work your way to the top of this room, and zone.

Here it’s tempting to just jump down, but run to the edge of the platform and wait. A catlady will spawn, so go ahead and kill her. You don’t want her harassing you during the boss fight.

Once that’s done, heal up if you need to and start the boss fight

Derelict Frida
Derelict Frida is potentially the easiest boss in the game. Her attacks are easy to dodge, and she’s slow and predictable.

Start the fight by popping your crystal seed, and then running into the right corner, turn around, crouch, and start hammering arrows into her. You can optionally use the faerie here for extra damage, as well as the Bakman patch if you have it.

All Frida can really do is walk towards you, summon dogs, or shoot a laser.

As long as you’re mashing the bow attack, the dogs are no threat. You’ll kill them before they get close to you. Frida will inch towards you until she’s close enough to do a melee attack. At this point you have two options, just dodge it by jumping, or run towards her, and roll through her to get to the other side to repeat the process.

Frida also has two lasers, a “quick laser” which is easily avoidable by crouching, which you should be doing, and a “big laser” which has a very telegraphed charge up time.There are two ways to dodge this, the first is just to roll behind her, and the second is to interrupt it by doing enough damage, most likely with your leaf.

Occasionally she’ll teleport, at which point you’ll just have to do some on the fly repositioning.

Otherwise this fight is probably the easiest in the game. You should be getting this as a reliable no-hit after maybe one or two attempts.

For beating Frida you’ll get the Sparse Thread. This is a very fast, safe and reliable way to deal a lot of burst damage, and it’s basically a free pick up. Pick it up before heading to your left. Use the save shrine here, and collect your first Crest Fragment on your left. This increases your bow charge speed. From now on it’s better to spam level 1 charge rather than spamming arrows, but spamming arrows remains effective, and the damage output difference isn’t that high. You do you.

Save on your way back, and backtrack to the shrine before Frida.

Head back to your right, and follow the way we originally went to get the garden key. Pass down here, get through the swinging platform room and head down past the catlady. Instead of going left here, head to your right.

This path is totally linear, so just continue right. Avoiding the blades here is pretty easy as long as you’re patient. Once you’re at the bottom use the Garden Key, and enter Whiteleaf Memorial Park. Head right and use the Shrine to save.

This looks like a dead end, but go ahead and attack the right wall to reveal a new path.

Just continue to your right, avoiding the bakman bomb and zone into the next area.

Here, you can shoot these living statues, or just roll past them, it’s your call. At the first ladder, drop down.

This area is super dangerous and not necessary, just immediately climb back up, we’re only here for map percentage.

Head right, these platforms will crumble after you step on them. Run to the midway point and fall. Then go down the ladder.

We’ll have to come back here later, just go ahead and drop down the ladder at the bottom.

Once you land, head left to complete the map percentange (031%) and then head back into the previous room. Go ahead and drop down the next ladder you see to find a save shrine. Save here.

Now head back up the ladder and to your right. There are a lot of enemies here and spikes. Just kill them and work your way to the other side to find another bellflower. Now backtrack to the Save Shrine. This merchant sells a Dull Pearl for 1000 munny, which is the equivalent of Edea’s Pearl if you didn’t get it. You can farm the cash for it if you want, but it’s useless if you already have Edea’s Pearl.

Save. You can be a cheeky guy here and use the Crystal Seed, and then slap the bell to get a refresh while maintaining the attack power boost going into the next boss fight, which is on your right.

Lubella 2: Electric Boogaloo
This is a rematch with Lubella. It’s very similar to the first fight with her, but her attacks are faster, and while still fairly predictable, are now much harder to dodge.

You’ll want to start the fight by poisoning her and maintaining the poison if you have Edea’s Pearl. Sparse Thread deals a lot of burst damage as well, so make sure to use that if you have it. The Bakman Patch is also good, but locks you down and can ruin your no hit, which in this fight isn’t a big deal, but you can get knocked off the platform the the spikes.

Her top orbs now don’t only hit one spot, and instead it’s a pattern that requires you to move slightly forward after every volley. Her bottom orbs also come in sets of three, requiring you to move slightly after each one.

The goal is the same, just continue pelting her with arrows and dodging her attacks. If she ever dives, you’ll want to run to a corner, and time it so you can dodge one way, and then dodge back, you do not have enough room to do a double forward dodge without falling off the edge. You can do a double forward dodge, but you’ll need to be quick to jump back onto the platform.

Fortunately, this fight is one of the few that the no-hit reward is fairly useless. Don’t worry if you take a hit in this fight, as the reward is simply a passive item that gives you HP for kills, and we’ll have more than enough Bellflowers to get us from checkpoint to checkpoint. If you do take a hit, proceed to 3 hit combo with the leaf, and unload a charge shot at lubella at the end of the combo. It’s your highest DPS move, and once you get hit once, who cares about getting hit more times.

After the fight you’ll be killed in a scripted fashion, and wake up in a cage as a cat. That’s inconvenient. Once you gain control, attack to break the cage, pick up your Torn Branch if you no-hit Lubella, and head right to the Save Shrine. Cat form has faster movespeed, a smaller hitbox but you lose your ability to use your bow. It’s your preference which you prefer for your A to B travel, but combat should be done in Human form.

After saving, head up, and to your left.

Inside, drop down the ramp and find Ivory Bug 4 of 20.

Then head left and up this room.

Up here just head straight left and snuggle into this crevasse to find bug 5 of 20. THen just head right past the two statues.

Immediately drop down into the room below, and again into the small tunnel. There’s a secret entrance here so just continue right. This is an easter egg room, but required for map percentage. (035%)

Now backtrack up to the previous room.

Head right, and bounce on the pink blocks to shoot up back up to Whiteleaf Memorial Park.
Pick up the glowing Cat Sphere here. This is an active item that lets you toggle between Cat and Human form. Equip it now, and use it to turn back into Kaho.

Head to your left and save at the shrine since you’re here.

Once that’s done, head to your right, and return to the area with the falling platforms. This time run across them all, and dodge past the statue, and climb the ladder.

At the top, head left, and run to the end of this room for map percentage, then double back. (Map 036%)

Now jump onto the elevator. Hang on the right side, and hit the switch once you get close. This opens up a door at the top. If you miss it, just go back down, hit it, and go back up.

Head up to your left, and then up and to your left again.

Unlock the door on your right using the garden key, and head forward. You can talk to NPC’s here if you wish, otherwise just proceed right. Enter the Forlorn Monastery.

Just continue forward until you find a save shrine. Make sure you see this and save here. You can talk to the nuns if you want, but don’t bother donating, you get nothing out of it. (Map 039%)

After saving, backtrack all the way back to the room you used the garden key in on your left.

Once you’re here, bounce up and take out the dog and then continue onto the witch before zoning out at the top left. You’ll have to remember this area for later, but for now, just make a b-line for the left zone.

The next area is the same, just take out the witch. By the pink bounce block, there’s a hidden platform you can jump down, go down here and grab another Vitality Fragment (5/17) before heading back up and left.

This is a mini-boss. It’s not super hard, if you have the sparse thread from Frida, you can use two for a super easy win. Otherwise, it’s one of the like three enemies in the game immune to arrows, so just mash it with your leaf.  You can use the crystal seed, and faerie here if you want, but trading blows here is super easy.

Once it’s dead, a pillar will come up,. Now jump up onto an invisible platform close to the right side. From here, attack the wall to find ivory bug 6/20, now proceed back to your left.

Head up this area, and it should look very familiar. Work your way up and left, and continue left and you’ll eventually reach the Karst City entrance save shrine. Save here, and continue left to past Edea’s corpse to the next shrine.

Here you’ll want to use the Cat Sphere to turn into a cat, and drop down into the now accessible tunnel. Follow this until you hit the red lighting barrier. You’ll zone into Frore Ciele. This area is short, so just go ahead and work through until you reach the bottom right.

Head right and use the moving platforms to reach the edge for map percentage, and another vitality fragment. 6/17 then work your way back to the previous area, and continue left.

This is a maze, but just head left, and eventually up to jump onto the moving blocks to reach another ladder.

At the top collect the 2nd crest fragment, which lets you warp between select save shrines, this is going to significantly speed up our backtracking from now on. Then just zone to your right, and right again to get out of here.

Once you hit the red lightning wall, you’ll change back to Sacred Ordalia Grove. Go ahead and turn back around, and pick up a hidden ivory bug next to the stone blocks (7/20). Then head back up to the save shrine in Cat Form.

Now go ahead and use your new found warp ability to return to the Forlorn Monastery.

Head right from the save and you’ll get three paths. You should just head right for now. Just go through about 4 fairly uneventful screens to reach another save shrine. Then continue right for two more screens to find a Witch. Talk to her and you’ll get the monastery key. Head back to the save shrine, and save.

From here, jump up on the pink block to bounce up. The door on the right is a secret that only opens with 100% map completion, so just head left. Just pass through this area, to find another vitality fragment 7/17. Then just go ahead and backtrack to the save shrine, and warp back to the forlorn monastery.

You can do these next two areas in whatever order you choose. Realistically it makes no difference. I’m going to go ahead and do the upper Monastery first because I think it’s a bit easier.

Head right, and climb the ladder, Ride the elevator in here and then zone to the top. (Map 047%)

Here you’ll want to head left first. Just head through the first two zones avoiding spikes before getting the third. Take out the enemies in here, and then head up and around to the top.

You can bypass the enemies here to reach the top of the monastery. Head forward and ring the bell to gain more map percentage (049%) and get some bonus munny. Once you’re done, head back.

You can take out the enemies here. They have a lot of HP, but do not have a lot of scary attacks. Just pelt them with arrows. Killing the big guy reveals a tainted missive, which uses some of your HP to give you a 100% damage bonus, which is significantly stronger than the crystal seeds 50%. Keep it in your backpocket if you want. Now we’re done up here, so go ahead and head back down to the elevator room.

This time, head to your right, take out the enemies, and use the Monastery Key.

It’s very easy to get killed by spikes in this area. My suggestion would be to switch to cat form, and wait after the first set. Once the second set goes down, go ahead and jump through as its the safest way. Zone into the next area, and hit the save shrine.

Under the shrine there’s another hidden path. Attack it, and drop down.

Drop down this ladder to find another ivory bug (8/20) then climb back up the ladder. Get into cat form, and go through this tunnel.

Pick up the soft tissue at the other end. This is required for a secret boss fight and achievement so make sure to get it. Also make sure to continue through another hidden path for another Ivory Bug (9/20).

Return to the save point, and then head to your right for a boss fight.

Pardoner Fennel
Fennel is another fight where a No-hit victory isn’t necessary. You’ll just be rewarded with a few extra tainted missives, which your mileage will vary with.
She starts the fight by shooting lightning where you’re standing. Go ahead and move forward and start unloading arrows into her.

Then she’ll start charging you with a three hit combo on her swords. She does a jumping attack that does curse you, preventing you from using items.

Her AI script isn’t the best, and she’ll usually just spend a lot of time whiffing the air, which is to our benefit.

At around 50% HP she’ll do a backflip and start buffing her sword. If you have the bakman patch this is a prime opportunity to use it. Also feel free to use the Sparse Thread, as well as the Faerie if you see fit.

She’s not overly tough, but it’s very easy to get a hit from the third hit of her combo. Thankfully the save is close if you want to perfect her, giving you ample chances to do so.

Otherwise just pelt her with arrows until she dies. If you get hit, resort to smacking her with your leaf, and unloading a charged shot at her.

Once she’s down, pick up your prizes if you no-hit her, then proceed to your right, and collect the 3rd crest fragment. This one unlocks the strongest charge of your bow, and it’s very strong.

Now just backtrack to the Save Shrine, and warp back to the Forlorn Monastary Again. (Map 051%)

Hand off the tissue to Archpriestess Choir, and then save again. Head right, and this time, down. You should hold left down this massive drop to find a chest with more munny. Then continue taking the plunge.

At the bottom, head to the left to enter the Cinder Chambers

This area is filled with traps, so it’s best to proceed with caution.

Just proceed through the first area, killing the enemy if you see fit. Drop down the first ladder you see. Then head left, hop onto the platform and zone into the right side. You’ll find a save shrine here, go ahead and save.

Continue right, but stop right before the drop. Wait for the arrows to finish shooting before dropping down.

Drop down again, head to the right briefly for some map percentage, before turning left and dropping down.

Here just head right, avoiding the bakman’s bombs and drop down the ladder.

Check the merchants wares if you want, but we only came here for map percentage.

Double back, and cross to the left.

Go ahead and make a quick detour to pick up some map percentage on your left, but otherwise, drop down here.

Just drop straight down this area. Drop down again, and you’ll find another Save Shrine. Make sure to take this, as a boss is coming up.

Head to your right, and unload arrows into the mimic to clear it out, then drop down.

Drop down again to enter the boss arena. The boss won’t spawn until you head to the right.

Go ahead and take out the explosive barrels if you wish here. I like to take the ones on the left out because I find I get hit here too often if they’re around.

Once you’re ready, head to your right and witness a cutscene and the start of the battle.


Heretical Arsonist
This is likely going to be the hardest no-hit boss and will likely take several attempts to complete. Don’t feel bad, it took me more fights than I care to admit to get it down, and I still fail it occasionally.

Start the fight by popping your crystal seed, and start spamming arrows. Cath will help you out a little bit here, but she’s unreliable.

You’re safe if you’re a reasonable distance from Arsonist, but she has a nasty habit of teleporting around. If you see a set of orange balls coming towards you, you want to actually wait for them to get very close before moving away. She’ll do a series of teleports and explosions here, and if you wait for them to get very close, she’ll do it all in the same location.

You can’t jump over these, as they cause a pillar of fire. She’ll also ignite the ground which you can attack with your leaf to clear if you’re careful. Basically you just want her to teleport, then wait for a chance to get to the other side of her.

This fight is a lot of getting a feel for the teleports. If you understand them and how they behave the fight is really easy. It’s just a matter of keeping your distance and unloading arrows into her.

A no hit victory yields one of the most powerful accessories in the game, the Pocket Incensory. This adds flame damage to all of your attacks. Bow shots, leaf swings, even things like the Bakman Patch. It’s extremely coveted and worth picking up. You can buy one shortly for 2000 munny, but this one is free, and you’ll need to get the practice of no-hit for Insane anyways. Equip this, and never take it off, it is that good.

Once she’s down, talk to Cath. Then head to your right, to find a save shrine, and the final crest fragment. This one lets you air dash, which is extremely useful, and the last bit of platforming we need for our backtracking. Now it’s just a matter of picking up everything we need, and then doing the final dungeons.

Save, and then head to your left.

Cross this nightmare section using your new found air dash ability. Feel free to take out anything in your way.

In this next room, shoot the bombs through the wall to get through.

These are the only spikes in the area that won’t kill, but they do deal a lot of damage, so don’t worry too much, but worry a little bit. At the right side, attack the wall for another ivory bug (10/20)

Then jump up, cross the spikes, and grab another Vitality Fragment. 8 / 17

Now just jump across these platforms, kill the bakman, and pick up the cinder key.

Now backtrack out of this room, and head up to return to the Save Shrine. Make sure to save.

Head up, and to your left to find the bug. Talk to him to see his merchandise. Nothing is really valuable here, drilling arrows aren’t nearly as useful as they sound. But it’s cool, Map percentage bro.

Exit, and climb up the ladder, and bounce up to exit on the left side.

Head left while dodging these falling maces. They deal a lot of damage so heal if necessary.

In this room, jump before the first mace to find a hidden ivory bug 11/20. You’ll want to jump and move left to catch it.

Now continue left, avoiding the maces, and use the cinder key.

Avoid the enemies here and continue left. You’ll find a vitaliy fragment here (9/17) and a switch. Drop down and hit it, this disables the traps in the Cinder Chambers, which hilariously we’re basically finished with.

Backtrack to the previous room, and head up the first ladder you see.

Bounce up this room, and exit out the top.

Now head to your right, killing the enemies on your way. Continue to your right, backtracking to the entrance of the cinder chambers.

Here kill the enemy, and then double jump and dash into this hidden alcove to find an ivory bug 12/20

Now return to the previous area. This time, head to your left. Climb up this area and continue left, to reach whiteleaf memorial park. Map 063%

Follow this area up to the top avoiding or killing the bugs here. Once you zone, head to your right. You should continue to the end of this area avoiding the Alarune by jump dashing, then climb the ladder, and at the edge is another vitality fragment (10/17). Now just head back from where you came, this time, head to your left.

Go ahead and jump over the elevator, and continue up to Karst City, and then right to reach the forlorn monastery. If you want, you can make a detour to hand in your ivory bugs for some rewards, but I prefer a bulk hand in at the end.

At the save shrine, save, and warp to the Subterrean Grave.

Head right, and then down, then climb the ladder to the treasure chest. Make sure to pillage it, before hitting the hidden wall to your right, and entering.

Now turn into cat form, and follow this tunnel to find another ivory bug (13/20) you can open the cells and talk to the prisoners by hitting the orb if you wish.

Now continue back to your left, and pass the swinging platforms room, then down and to your left, past the large empty room, then through the spike room,  and return to the second save shrine in the Subterranean Grave.

Grab the Dirty Shroom from the tunnel in cat form, and head to the save shrine, save, and warp to Sacred Ordalia Grove.

From here, just head to your right past all the enemies until you reach the elevator. Jump over it, and enter the tunnel in cat form to find another vitality fragment. 11/17. Then head back to the ladder and ride it down.

Continue through the grove until you reach the room with the crystal and the locked door. Clear the enemies in here if you wish. Then get onto the central platform, and jump dash into the crevice as a cat. Now you’ll need to do some tricky jumping to get above you, and find another ivory bug (14/20)

Continue forward, saving at the save shrine. Just continue forwards as you did at the start of the game. This time once you reach the double poison geyser, head left. Talk to the imp here and give her the Dirty Shroom, which will unlock the first achievement P-pleasegiveittome!. You’ll also get the Rotten bellfower, and finish up the sacred ordalia groves map percentage (66%)

Now we’re done in here, so just make your way to the Save Shrine before Edea, just make sure you don’t hit some spike traps or die on the way there. At the shrine, go ahead and save.

Now here I missed some map percentage in the Cinder Chambers so I went and quickly finished it off. Warp to Cinder Chambers, head left, then drop down past these enemies and drop down again. Then just air dash across this gap, and land. Avoid the firekeeper, drop down again, and again, and again to reach the save shrine. Save here, double check you’re finished iwth the cinder chambers map percentage, and then warp to Whiteleaf Memorial Park.

There’s  not much to do here, it’s just a short route. Head right until you reach the collapsing platforms. Drop down the ladder. Then jump and dash to your left to enter a hidden area, and collect ivory bug 15/20.

Now just drop down, and head down the next ladder. Slap a save, and head back to the Lubella arena. Head past where the wall was for the last bit of map percentage in whiteleaf, before heading back to the save shrine. (Map 66%)

Now warp to Karst City, we’ve official finished the backtracking for now.

Go ahead and head right, and up taking out the witch and dog, head up the ladder.

WIth the 4 crest fragments we can geain access to a new area. Approach the white door, and head left to enter the Royal Pino… it’s an art gallery.

Enter here, talk to the NPC if you wish, and then ring the bell to save.

Now just head forward to find a very well hidden Vitality Fragment 12/17. Go ahead and kill the skeleton and grab it, some mini-frida’s will spawn, so be aware. You can head back to save if you want, otherwise just continue left.

Take out the enmies and drop down, then drop down again to go under the door here. Now just head left for map percentage. (Map 68%) Feel free to listen to the music box, otherwise head back.

Take out the enemies here and head to the top. Now, make sure to head right quickly, but also make sure to have enough height to reach the top platform. Grab the 13th vitality fragment here. Then drop down, and save. This is the merchant that sells the Pocket Incensory for 2000 munny, so if oyu didn’t no-hit arsonist you may want to farm around here to buy it since it’s that good.

Otherwise, climb the ladder.

Get past the skeleton and head up again.

Clear out this skeleton, and head left. Dodge past these giant bricks and pick up the 14th vitality fragment before leaving.

Now just work your way to the top, killing or avoiding the mini-frida’s and zoning to your left.

Now drop down, take out the skeletons, and run to your right into the hidden alcove to find the 16th ivory bug.

Then head left, up the ladder, and then up the second ladder.

At the top, head into the room on your left. Transform into a cat, and go through the maze area, avoiding or killing  the bakman, and the mini Frida’s. At the top, pick up the 17th ivory bug, and drop down to exit.

This next area is kind of annoying. Take out the skeleton the moving platform on your right. Then you need to hit all three switches and grab the Ivory Bug in the middle. (18/20) You can shoot your bow, or just jump in there and smack them with your leaf as a cat.

Once you’ve done all that, ride the platform to the top and zone to your left. Continue left until you find the red skull to make sure you get your map percentage (72%) and then head down. Stick to the right side here, and just drop down multiple times. Take time to heal if you need to and continue dropping down.

Once you hit a room filled with treasure chests pick up the Black Sachet, and then destory the painting, and take out the treasure chests and mimic to loot a bunch of munny. Then head right, and return to the Save Shrine.

Now it’s just a matter of backtracking back to the room with the two moving platforms. The paths linear, just head up  through the various rooms until you get back there. Once you’re there, go ahead and head right this time.

You want to be careful in here because it’s easy to fall down the collapsing platforms in the middle underneath the painting of teh girl. You want to avoid this, and instead jump across to the right side and climb up the ladder at the top.

Now, you just want to make your way to the top of this section. Feel free to kill anything on the way. At the top, loot the Sealed Wind on the right side. We need this for the true ending.

Now just drop down, and drop down again.

Now just follow this linear path. Feel free to kill anything in your way, or otherwise dodge everything. It’s a bunch of screens, just be careful to avoid spikes, and the enemies in here do deal a lot of damage so stay healed.

Once you see the small group of Frida’s you’re home free (Map 75%) and you just need to drop down.

Head left, open the door from the other side, and save at the save shrine.

Now just head to your right, and you have to drop down this ladder so go ahead.

Just follow this path to your right, avoiding the enemies and spikes until you reach a switch. Once you hit it turn around and drop onto the pink bouncer to rocket up.

Then head left, and unlock the door. Go ahead and backtrack to the save shrine.

Now continue to your right, through the door, and to the boss area.

Duchess Lupiar and Royal Huntress Magnolia

This fight is one of the harder ones to no-hit. Mostly because you have to keep an eye on Lupiar, while Magnolia shoots arrows at you from above.

Oh yeah, Lupiar is immune to arrows too, which severely hinders our strategy.

If you want a no-hit win, the best bet is to use the Bakman Patch with the Pocket Incensory. This is a speedrun strategy, but it’s super easy to setup. Move to this section inbetween the two windows. Use a bakman patch, and then run forward, and double tap start to start the fight. Lupiar will get absolutely demolished by the fire-buffed bakman patch. Fire off another one, and then finish her off with melee attacks, or sparse thread or two.

Then Magnolia

I strongly recommend the Bakman patch strategy, Lupiar is easy enough without it, it’s just a lot harder to avoid getting hit. If you don’t use this strategy, just concede the no-hit and start slapping her with your leaf, you should be easily able to trade blows with her.

Once her health bar is down, Magnolia comes down. Magnolia is very easy, and you can use arrows. Just charge your bow, and wait for her to teleport down, and unload on her. She’ll attempt to melee you, then teleport away with an explosion. Just keep an eye on where she warps, and continue to unload on her with arrows and she’ll go down without much fuss.

The no-hit reward is Heavy Arrows, which significantly increase your bows damage output. THey are absolutely worth getting, however, it won’t break your playthrough without them.

Once you’re done, move forward and hit the save shrine. Then backtrack down and enter the sewers to Karst Castle.

The enemies in here deal a lot of damage but there’s not much of note. Just follow the linear path, killing or avoiding enemies, and dodging the spikes and pitfalls. Once you head up a bounce pad, head to your left. You can talk to the cat if you wish, otherwise hit the switch and cross the drawbridge for map percentage. Go ahead and save while you’re here. Map 82%.

Then head back across the bridge into Karst Castle. Continue right, until you reach a ladder and an exit to your right. Take the right exit. Follow this path avoiding the pits until you reach a save shrine.

Save here, and it’s a good opportunity to do some backtracking. To get the true ending, we need to upgrade our Maple Leaf, to do this, warp to the Forlorn Monastary.

Now head left, until you enter Karst City. Follow this path up until you reach a witch by a windmill. Equip the sealed wind here, and use it. It will open the grate below you. Change to cat form, and enter this tunnel to find the spring. Dip your leaf to upgrade it and now head back to the Forlorn Monastery.

There’s a secret boss encounter here as well since we gave Choir the tissue. Head right, drop down the ladder, and enter the now unlocked room on your right.

You’ll have to fight Archpriestess Choir down here. She’s not overly difficult, especially if you have the Pocket Incensory and Heavy Arrows. You can easily spam arrows on her to win, just make sure to dodge her projectiles. The further you are away from her, the easier they are to dodge, so the arrow strategy works very well. She will occasionally shield and block your arrows , but if you keep spamming a no-hit win is pretty easy to get.

Your reward is some map percentage, a blood-stained tissue, and one of the hidden achievements: Faithful. That’s two of 9.

Once you’re done, head back to the Save Shrine, and warp to Karst Castle.

Now head left, and back to the room with the ladder up. Climb it. Kill the enemies here, and climb the next ladder.

At the top, kill the enemy on your left, and jump dash to the wall. There’s a hidden platform here with the 19th ivory bug. Then get back across, kill the witch and jump onto the moving platform. Then take out the skeleton before heading right and bouncing up tot he next room.

Just take out the witch here and head up the ladder.

Swap to cat, and navigate this maze, and continue going right.

You’ll reach a series of drops. Go ahead and stick on the right side, and just drop all the way down until you see a switch. Hit it, and you’ll activate the block and a shortcut to the save. Head down and save *Map 87%*

Now climb back up, and head to your right. Fire a ton of arrows here to kill these enemies or just roll through them, you’re choice, but continue right until you find a ladder down.

Drop down, turn into a cat, and head to your right. At the end of collapsing platforms is the 15th vitality fragment. Only 2 more to go.

The chest at the bottom has nothing of value, so go ahead and skip it, just back track the way you came in, and climb that ladder again.

At the top, say your prayers and do a double jump air dash to reach the other side. Then a second air dash and fun to the end. Ignore the ladder, and head right.

Avoid or kill the enemies here, and continue right until you reach another ladder down.

Continue dropping down here to reach a junction. Head left, and kill the enemies to pick up the last bellflowers in the game. Then head right and jump dash across the floating platforms to pick up the 16th vitality fragment. Make sure you have enough platforms to get back. Once you’re done down here, just head back, and backtrack to the ladder.

Climb up and zone. Get past the enemies here, and head up.

Now, turn to your left avoiding the Frida’s and and zone to find a chest filled to the brim with munny. Then continue back to the right, and zone.

Climb this area to find Cath injured. Ease her suffering, and you’ll gain a passiflora. The Passiflora is a full heal. Then continue forward, and use the save point.

Continue left, and slash the block to reveal a ladder, head down. This is the last vitality fragment so drop down, and dash across the spikes to get it. You’ll get the achievement Healthy! Right here.

Then head back up, and save.

Now, continue to the left, killing anything in your way.

On these ramparts, you’ll have another mini-boss encounter. The clone angel. The clone angel is immune to arrows, so that’s immediately out. You’ll also get counter attacked for hitting the wrong angel. The real angel is the one that spawns the lowest. If you have a sparse thread, you can nail it with two, and then a combo and it should die in two cycles. If you don’t just wear it down with combos making sure to always hit the lowest spawning angel.

Afterwards, head left, then bounce up. Continue to your right, and  kill the withc and skeleton . Jump to trigger the trap, and jump into the alcove to find the last ivory bug. Map completion 96%. You should get the achievement Bug Collector here.

Now this step is optional, but you can hand in these bugs for rewards.

Backtrack to the Save shrine, and warp to Whiteleaf Memorial Park. Then just head right until the elevator, go up it. Use this time to check your map to make sure you haven’t missed anything. Then jump up on your left side, and then run across to find a bunny. Talk to her, and you’ll hand in all the bugs getting various rewards, including 3 Passiflora, and enough Bellflowers to push you to 10.

You’ll also get the Hazel Badge, and some Munny. You can head to Eri in the Sacred Ordalia Grove from Karst City, and give her the Hazel Badge for a spell that’s not overly worthwhile, but you can if you choose.

Regardless work your way back to the Save Shrine before the Clone Angel, it’s time to finish this.

This area is linear, but dangerous. Just proceed forward using you bow, and avoid the pits ahead. You’ll eventually reach an elevator. Stay on the left until the magic comes, and then move to the right. Just keep alternating until you reach the top.

Then just head right, past this area, and you’ll be at the final bell with hopefully 99% map completion.

If you keep inching forward, you can get to 100% completion without triggering the boss. This gives you access to a development area in the Fornlorn Monastery near the witch who gave you the key. Feel free to head back, or you can wait until New Game+ to avoid having to backtrack through karst castle (again). Once you hit 100% Map completion, you’ll get the achievement Explorer.

Once you’re ready, just head forward and you’ll start the final boss fight.

The Queen of Karst is pretty straight forward, your bow is still your best friend here.

If you have a pocket incensory, and heavy arrows you have a ton of damage output here. It’s just a matter of dodging projectiles and avoiding getting hit as much as possible. The first phase is easy.

Focus on charging your bow when possible, and avoiding when she comes from teh bottom of side. The projectiles she throws eventually explode, so make sure to steer clear of them. Otherwise, it’s just a warm up for phase 2. It’s an easy fight, just unload arrows on her. If you don’t have heavy arrows the fight is just a bit longer, but still handles the same.

Phase 2 brings new attacks, but is still largely the same.

She’ll start by teleporting into the center of the screen and summoning swirling triangles. Get as many hits in here as you can before they’re too close. Stand directly under her after, and you won’t get damaged. You can use the sparse thread to continue damaging her when you’re waiting. After they disappate, move, because she’ll shoot herself downward. From here it’s basically the same encounter as phase 1, and you should’ve dealt a respectable amount of damage. She does occasionally shield, but it’s just an annoyance. Just keep pelting her and wear her down.

Now for the final phase, which is only available if you get the Green Leaf.  If you didn’t you’ll get the bad ending here. The queen turns massive during this phase, and stays still instead focusing on magic attacks. The safest place is sitting on top of her. The easiest strategy here is just to race. Spam your leaf while charging your bow. Unload everything you have on her, and feel free to use whatever magic spells or healing items you have left. Just continue to combo and level 4 charge and you should take her down before she wears you down.

You’ll unlock the True Ending here. That’s 5 of 9 achievements down, assuming you died during this playthrough, otherwise it’s 6.

Now at this point you should have a good handle on Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, and the remaining achievements are mostly just specialized playthroughs. Pacifist, and No-Death are best tied together on Easy. Then Hard, and Insane are something you should focus on beating as quickly as possible since health pickups are virtually worthless. As such I’ll give a route, but I’ll be glossing over a lot of the body of these playthroughs here. I have videos available showing my full playthrough if you’d like more details.

Pacifist and No Death:
Pacifist isn’t super difficult, you just can’t kill anything that isn’t a boss.

This doesn’t mean that things can’t die. There are some exceptions: Enemies that suicide, like the ones in Karst Castle that blow themselves up do not count. Enemies that also jump into spikes on their own, and die, do not count. Finally, the dogs spawned in the Derelict Frida boss fight do not count, so feel free to kill them, but those are the exceptions.

Everything else simply must be avoided. This is done in 3 ways. Jumping over, rolling and later air dashing through them, and running through them after slap of your leaf, or an arrow stun.

Jumping and Rolling should be pretty obvious. It’s the easiest way to get through.

When you hit an enemy, there is a brief period where they lose their collision. This means you can safely slap an enemy with your leaf, and then run past them. This is useful in a few circumstances when it’s difficult to pass an enemy.

This is best done on easy, and as such, it’s usually best to try and tie this to your No-Death playthrough. On Easy you’ll have an increased HP pool, and can damage boost through a lot of areas because of this.

The No-Death stipulation isn’t terrible. Just quit out and never choose “Retry” and you should be able to do it fairly easily. If you’re struggling I would suggest looking up and taking some speedrun strategies. Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonnlight is pretty easy to speedrun, and enjoyable, and it’s one of the easiest ways to get acclimated to a no-death run.

You should have zero issues getting through the grove. Make sure to pick up the easy 2 Vitality Containers here. You can grab the ivory bugs if you want, but they won’t be overly useful.

Edea is the same, make sure to practice getting a no-hit kill. You should be making sure to get the no hit kills down on these playthroughs.

You can proceed as normal through Karst City, buy the Crystal Seed, and picking up the vitality fragment, and bellflower at your discretion.

Lubella is the same. Just take out Moka, and make sure to stand in the safe spots to get a no-hit. The Bakman Patch is strong, and worth getting.

The only real deviation I do here is to do Frida later. You still have to cut through the subterranean grave, and get the Garden Key, it’s just easier to avoid Frida for now for a few reasons. One, it’s harder to get to her, and two you have to deal with an enemy unless you have the air dash. Instead, go ahead and head to Whiteleaf Memorial Park after getting the key, and fight Lubella 2. Don’t worry about getting hit here, except for practicing no hit. Just go ahead and unload on her. Then just get out of here, grab the cat sphere, and head to the Forlorn Monastery, grab the save, and head back to Sacred Ordalia Grove, then Frore Ciel to get the warp crest.

I skip the Vitality Fragment down here because it is -very- easy to die accidentally, and it’s hard to get through here in pacifist because of enemy position. Just skip it and save the headache. You should have increased health from being on Easy regardless.

Once I get the warp crest again, it’s a toss up, you can do Arsonist or Fennel. I usually prefer Fennel because the extra bow charge helps on Arsonist quite a bit. You can waste Fennel super hard with the Pocket Incensory though so it’s your call.

Go for the easy vitality fragments if you want, but feel free to skip tons of stuff. I skip most of the extra bellflowers, the ivory bugs, and a good chunk of the out of the way vitality fragments because you just don’t need them. Head to the witch for the monastery key, grab the fragment here if you want, then backtrack and head up the elevator to Fennel. Take her out with arrows, and if you’re lucky missive, if not, no big deal. Then grab the fragment, and head down to arsonist, skipping literally everything not mandatory, the route is pretty straight forward.

You should always be striving for No-hit arsonist because it gives the strongest reward. Without the incensory you’ll have to grind for it, and it makes the kills vs. Lupiar way more difficult.

After Arsonist is dead it’s just a matter of going through the motions.

Head to Frida, you can use cat form to avoid hitting the cat lady in the one room, or you can dash jump past her. The main thing is to jump and dash to avoid spawning the cat lady before the frida boss fight so she doesn’t harass you. From here, it’s just a matter of unloading on Frida. If you have an incensory, the Frida fight is an absolute stomp. Get your fourth crest fragment.

Head up to the Gallery, Pick up the easy vitality fragments. Pick up the Sealed Wind if you want, it should be optional for a pacifist and no-death run achievements. I went ahead and did it.

You should learn the Bakman Patch strategy for Lupiar because it is just by far and wide the easiest, and most consistent way to get a no hit. Then finish her off with one or two sparse threads.

Otherwise, just unload on her with your leaf and forgo the Heavy Arrows. Then just go through the motions to finish Karst Castle. If you want to get the True Ending in pacifist, make sure to head back to Forlorn Monastery, head to the Windmill and unequip your gear, like the pocket incensory. Walk up to the witch, and slap her once. Then wait a second, and slap her again, and maybe even a third time to knock her off the edge. Then go ahead and use the sealed wind, and zone out to your right. Return and the gate should be open and clear for you to head down as a cat.

Then just return to Karst Castle., I strongly recommend the Bakman Patch skip here. Use the bakman patch while standing near the bell and it will hit the switch, avoiding a massively long section of the game.

Then just head up to Cath, fight the clone angel, and beat the Queen again. It should be exactly the same, and as long as you don’t kill any enemies you’ll be fine. There’s only a handful of problem areas. The area with the witch, and the moving platform over spikes is a nightmare for pacifist and no-death. Just be patient, body tank a hit, and jump up there as fast as possible.

Remember, if you die, just quit out and you’ll be fine

All that’s left is the actually hard stuff now.


Insane:
To actually unlock insane, you first need to beat the game on hard. This features additional enemies, and a severely decreased health pool. These are effectively the same playthrough, so I’ll just cover insane, it’s a bit annoying you have to do it twice, but that’s just the way it is.


You should use this as an opportunity to learn the new enemy placements, as they will be the same in Insane difficulty later. You may be able to tank a hit or two on hard, but vitality fragments barely effect anything.

You should also practice beating bosses without getting hit. Being able to reliably beat Edea, Lubella, and Frida without getting hit will be fundamental. You’ll have to beat them all without getting hit on Insane, so keep that in mind.

You also have two real choices for play style here. Slow and steady, and rush through.

Slow and steady means taking your time and using your bow to take out enemies safely from a distance
.
Rushing through is pretty obvious, you’re just going to skip everything, rolling or jumping past.

Both have their pluses and minuses. It is benefitcial to kill a lot of stuff with your bow since it avoids a potential hit. Strongly recommend killing most things on insane, except in a few places where it’s quick to just dodge through.

For your hard playthrough to unlock insane I would also suggest learning how to “pseudo-speedrun”. It’s mostly just the route. Since you’re dying in two or three hits anyways a lot of items are not super useful to you, and you can safely ignore them.

Your starting HP is pathetic, but you can still collect the health upgrades on insane should you choose, gathering all the vitality fragments may give you enough HP to survive a hit, but likely you’re better off ignoring them, as they’re more effort than they’re worth. Just cut the fastest route to the 4 crest fragments, and rush to the queen of karst.

Since your HP is constantly at 1, you can benefit from the 100% attack power from the Necklace of Sacrifice. This is a 700 munny purchase from the merchant at the Subterranean Grave shrine. If you wish to farm the munny, go ahead, it will make bosses take less time, which usually equates to you getting less chances to screw up and lose.

I haven’t tested it, but it should be a significant damage increase when tied with the Pocket Incensory, and potentially rival heavy arrows.

Unironically, the hardest part of this run is the Sacred Ordalia Grove. It’s just really hard to get through without getting hit. I have more deaths here than most of the other areas combined. You can also get poisoned, and if you do, a single tick kills you, so you’re just screwed. This is the hardest part of the run, just be persistent, and you’ll eventually make it through, although it seems ridiculous. The Shrine before Edea marks a massive step towards completion, trust me.

Edea has a quick kill you can employ but its super risky and hard to pull off. If you hit her pearl with a charged shot at just the right time you’ll OHKO her. This is super hard to pull off, and I’ve only done it a handful of times, so you’re better off charging your bow while doing jumping attacks, and unloading on her pearl if you ever get a chance. Of course, if you’re close you can still do a massive chunk of damage, which makes the fight easy.

Then just proceed through Karst City as normal, you can kill enemies, or just give them a deterrent whack with your leaf and run through them, both are viable options.

You should be able to reliably take out Moka and Lubella at this point without getting hit. You basically have to, so that means a Bakman Patch.

Then just continue to the subterraenean grave. You should be killing enemies here with arrows when possible. The Bats down here are a massive pain to deal with on insane as they’re randomized. WHenever you’rem jumping, be ready to swing your leaf to kill them or you’ll be dying to bats a lot. In here if you want you can farm the cash for the Necklace, it might be worth if if you’re struggling. Shorter fights = less chance of getting hit.

Then just reach Frida in the standard way, and again, you’re going to have to kill her without getting hit, which is a free sparse thread. Spamming arrows is easy and effective.

For most of the area traversal from now on, shooting the majority of enemies wiht your bow is the go-to. Its easy, and effective and you can take things out before they’re a threat. Do this if you’re ever struggling, or attempt to just roll past things.

Lubella 2 is probably the most difficult to no-hit. Your goal here is pretty much to damage race. Make sure to use the Sparse Thread, Crystal Seed, and the bakman patch if you think you can pull it off. Otherwise just focus on spamming arrows, and unloading on her and hoping you get a good pattern. Dives aren’t good, but if she spams the upper orbs its an easy fight.

Then you just head up the Forlorn Monastery. Standard grab the crest fragment from Sacred Ordalia Grove for easy warping. Less backtracking = less frustrating time lost to deaths.

Afterwards, I actually find Fennel hard to no-hit without the Incensory so for insane, I do favor Arsonist first.

Just head down to the Cinder Chambers and fight her. You should be fairly adept at her right now. Start the fight with a crystal seed and double bakman patch. Then once she teleports to you, get her to explode on the barrel. Then just continue pelting her with arrows, and a sparse thread once she gets close via a teleport. Once you understand Arsonist it’s pretty reliable to take her down this way. Pick up the Pocket Incensory.

Get your air dash, and head back to Forlorn Monastery. Head to Fennel.

Fennel actually has quick kill potential. The pocket incensory deals a ton of damage to her, so you can spam her down with arrows to get to get her into her second phase. While she’s buffering her sword, you can unload a bakman patch into her, which is basically a free kill.  When you’re done, collect your missive, and the last crest fragment.

Now head up to the Gallery. You don’t need to unlock the true ending for hard, you don’t have to take my word for it, here’s the developer.

Regardless, I can confirm that you can unlock the achievement for Don’t Try This with the bad ending, so I assume it’s true for the bad ending unlocking Insane difficulty.

I would skip it, especially on insane, it’s a bit of a mess.

You should do the quick kill on Lupiar here. It’s easy and reliable to execute. Stand in the windows, bakman patch, move forward, double start, bakman patch, and one or two threads, and you’re done. Then just pelt Magnolia with arrows once she comes down and you’ve got the Heavy Arrows, but make sure the poison dissipates before talking to her.

Now just get to the Queen of Karst and it’s over. Use the Bakman patch strategy to avoid the upper loop around Karst Castle, and just skip it. Kill the clone angel, kill every enemy in the later rooms and once you’re at the final save it’s all good.

You won’t have to kill the third form of the queen here, you just need to kill the first two forms which should be pretty easy to no hit. Feel free to use missives to up your damage output, and your sparse thread and bakman patches at your convenience.

Once you’re done these 4 playthroughs, you’re golden, all 9 of the achievements for Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight locked safely away