Dark Cloud Any% Glitched Route + FAQ

Posted by TheGlitchKing on Twitch on 11/27/2013
Page last updated on 10/23/2018

Dark Cloud (NTSC-U) Any% Glitched Route With the Alternate Glitch Menu Trigger & FAQ
This route assumes you're going for World Record.

Example run: https://www.twitch.tv/theglitchking/v/78487064

WARNING: To grab the alternate glitch menu item , you have to press Right, X, and R1 at the EXACT same time to grab it. If one of your button presses is even a frame off, the game will crash. You will probably want to save just before going for the glitch menu item.

*Before the run*
- Use a memory card that has absolutely nothing on it except a single Dark Cloud save. Doing this will allow the game to save to and load from the memory card a few seconds faster. Another reason for doing this is because if you mess up the skip glitch and set the modified save to jump to a non-existent map, it will corrupt all of your Dark Cloud saves.
- Make sure Message Display Speed is set to speedy in options. The other options don't matter.

*During the run*
- Do NOT open the "Weapon" menu until I say it's ok, since doing so will prevent glitch items from being accepted to the store. This means that you won't be able to upgrade or use a 2nd weapon. You can repair weapons by using a repair powder from the item menu.
- NEVER open the "Allies" menu, you never have allies in this run, and that menu also prevents glitch items from being droppable in the store.
- NEVER pick up money dropped by monsters since it's much faster to have no money when getting 85 gilda.
- Do not put any items on slots 11 to 50, and no attachments on slots 3 to 40.


*Divine Beast Cave*

- Get a weapon from a chest on any floor, but don't move either of your weapons yet.
- Fight enemies only for Dran's Crest.
- I open small chests outside of Floor 4 if I'm looking for bone keys. Any other reason wastes time.
- Do not fight Statues unless they're the only enemies remaining - They break the dagger VERY fast, but unlike the old route, this time you are allowed to break the dagger, but it will be slower obviously.
- Never fight Cave Bats. They don't drop anything.

- Complete floor 1 without opening any atla.
- Start opening atla on floor 2.
These are the georama parts you will need to rebuild Gaffer's:
  Gaffer's Buggy
  Lamp
  Odd Gaffer
  Sign
  Supplies

- Get a perfect duel on the 1st attempt in floor 4 to get a powerup powder, which will be duplicated later.
  If you don't get a perfect on the 1st attempt, you get an Undead Buster instead and the run is over.
- When you finish the duel, you will get a random gem that will be sold later on. Since I can't open the Weapon Menu yet, I won't be able use any of them.

- After floor 4 is finished, open atla from floor 5 until you have all of Gaffer's georama parts. If you open all the alta on floor 5 and still don't have all needed parts, reset.


*Gaffer's*


- Restore Gaffer's and watch cutscene.
- When cutscene ends, open the Manual from "Edit Mode" and select "Walking in a Georama", then close it when the instructions load.
- Go to Gaffer's, sell the gem you have, then buy and sell/discard stuff until you have exactly 85 gilda and 10 items in your inventory.
  The 85 Gilda will be turned into a "Holy" that gets turned into 85 fire on a glitch attachment later on.
- Make sure the powerup powder is on the 2nd item slot, then in your weapon inventory, move the dagger to slot 2, and your other weapon to slot 3.
- Close the shop, then immediately re-open it without opening any other menus.
- Move the powerup powder from your 2nd item slot to any slot in the store.
- Place the cursor on column 1 row 11 of your weapon inventory, press Left then Right, X, and R1 at the EXACT same time to get the glitch menu item.
- When you get it, your cursor should be in the item inventory on slot -5. Drop the item there.
- Press Left until the cursor won't go any further, then press Up, Right 13 times, Up 4 times, then go to weapon inventory.
- From here, press "Down" for around 10 seconds until you find a Plant Buster, then from there press down 3 times then X to grab a 129 in square.
- After grabbing it, press the following buttons in order: Left once, Down 29, then L1. Drop the 129 item there, then press L1, X, Right, X, Left, X. This will set the Wind stat of the dagger to 0.
- Press R1 then X to grab the 129 item again, then press left 3 times to put the cursor on the Check! button.
- Hold Up on the analog stick and press Left on the D-Pad again and again until the cursor makes it back into the shop, then drop the 129 square anywhere in the shop.
- Place the cursor at the top of the shop, then move it to the first slot of the top invisible row of your item inventory. You will find a Holy. Place that anywhere in the store.
- Move the cursor to the first slot of the 3rd invisible row from the top, then press right 3 times then X to get a glitch attachment and set your inventory space count to -1.
- Place the attachment anywhere in the shop, Press R1 to go to the weapon inventory, put the cursor on slot 1 of the bottom invisible row, then press right 3 times then X to fully delete the item menu.
- Grab the bread from the store, then press Up once, Right 10, Up 8, then left, the cursor will be back on the Check! button. Hold Up on the analog stick and press Left on the D-Pad again and again until the cursor makes it back into the shop, scroll to the top of the shop and place the cursor where the bread was, then press right 6 times then X. This will unlock the World Map.
- Grab the Powerup Powder, then without pressing up, move the cursor to slot 1 of your inventory, then press right then X to drop it.
- Grab the 129 in square, and drop it on slot 1 of your inventory.
- Grab the Holy and drop it on slot 1 of your attachments.
- Grab the glitch attachment and drop it on slot 2 of your attachments, then leave the store.


*Warping To Dark Heaven Castle*


- After leaving the store, open the item menu. Grab the Powerup Powder from your active items, press right twice, then X to drop the powder back into the active items. This sets the value of address 01CE2068 to FFFF instead of 0000. If the value there is 0000, the game will crash on the next 2 steps.
- Grab the 129 square from active items, press Right 6 times, then X. This will give you 12645 Powerup Powders, and yes, you do need this many.
- Go to your attachments menu and grab the glitch attachment on slot 2, then while holding the attachment, place the cursor on the powerup powders in active items and press Square. You will now have Powerup Powders everywhere. You should still have your dagger, 2nd weapon, "Holy", and now have Dark Heaven Castle unlocked, but there have been times where one of those didn't happen, and I'm still not sure why, so heads up.

- If everything went right, place the glitch attachment back on slot 2 of your attachments and discard the powerup powder you grab there.
- Open the Weapon Menu, equip the Dagger and upgrade it to +1, then go Dark Heaven Castle and use the check-in.


*Check-in Counter*


- When the counter appears, hold Left until the cursor won't go any further, then press Up once, Right 10 times then Left once.
- From here, scroll down for a little under 5 seconds until you find the holy.
- Grab it and press "Down" 5 times, Left once, X, then Circle to drop it. (If you get a powerup powder when you drop the Holy, press Down once and drop it on that slot.)
  The glitch attachment on slot 2 you have should now have a fire stat of 85.
- Open the Weapon Menu and place the glitch attachment on any of the Dagger's slots, then upgrade it to level 5 with the powerup powders and Status Break it.
  You now have a synth sphere with 53 Fire and 0 ice wind and thunder.
  This gives a hexadecimal value of 00000033, which is the value for the map that shows the ending credits.
- Go into your item menu and bring down a blank row, then go to attachments and place the sphere on the first slot in the blank row.
- Open the counter again, go to attachments menu and grab the synth sphere without pressing Up.
- Then hold Left until the cursor won't go any further, then press Up, then Right 11 times.
- From here, scroll down for around 11 seconds until you find a fake weapon at +5, or a Dagger (Broken).
  The name of the weapon is determined by how many enemies you defeated on floor 3.
- When you find this weapon, press "Down" 18 times and drop the sphere.
- Leave the counter. Open your item menu, bring down a blank row then go to your weapon inventory, grab the weapon in Toan's 3rd slot and place on the 1st blank row slot, then go back to the counter.
- When the counter opens, close the "What'll you check-in?" speech bubble, then press R1, X, Left 5, Up once, Right 10 times, then Left twice.
- From here, scroll down for a little over 9 seconds until you find a Foundation (You'll know you're close to the foundation when the cursor goes over a Sapphire). When you have the cursor on the Foundation, press "Down" 77 times then drop the weapon.
  The game will now think the map that will be saved is the ending credits.
- Now leave the counter, save, reset, then load the glitched save.

That was... a wonderful adventure,
making a new world...




Frequently Asked Questions:




Q: Does this route work in any version of Dark Cloud?
A: This route only works with the NTSC-U version.


Q: What is the shortest possible dungeon run to get every needed Georama Part?
A: With insane RNG, you can finish Gaffer's Buggy by the end of floor 3.


Q: Why doesn't Seda appear when you enter Dark Heaven Castle?
A: One of the address that gets the value 00B2 from the powerup powders is 01CE43AC. If the value there is anything above 7F (127 in decimal), Seda's cutscene doesn't occur since the game now thinks that event already happened.


Q: What was the old route?
A: For those that are interested in the old route: http://pastebin.com/raw/1Y6GQn9W


Q: Why did you reset?
A: Excluding the Save & Reset needed at the end to load the glitched save, I will reset if (Not in any order):

1- Toan gets defeated
2- I don't have a 2nd weapon after collecting all needed atla
3- A Statue has the gate key
4- A locked door is found far into the Floor I'm on, and there's no chest with the key close to it
5- I need to restock before floor 5 is available
6- A georama part I needed was on floor 1, 6, or 7
7- A Cave Bat poisons Toan without an antidote early in a floor
8- A dungeon floor takes too long to finish
9- I don't get a perfect in the floor 4 duel
10- I messed up the Skip glitch or anything involving the glitch menu