Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX)

Second Quest:
There is a second quest in this game that players may overlook. Do the
following steps to get access to the second quest.
Get the Spike Buster armor in the Catacombs by turning into a bat and
using your radar to negotiate the "Dark Spiked Tunnel".
Go to the "Royal Chapel", equip the Spike Buster armor and run through
the hallway of spikes. After the hallway, Maria will give you a Green
Ring. Use the Green Ring in the center of the Castle at the Clock Tower.
You also need the Gold ring worn at the same time, and you then receive a pair
of holy glasses, which will enable you to MAYBE get the 2nd quest,
if you wear them while fighting the "last" boss.


Full refill of health and magic:
For a full refill of health and magic all you have to do is got to any save point and
select to save and it will restore your healh and magic compleatly.


Easiest way to beat Galamoth:
All you need is the Alucard Sword. You'll probably want a familiar to gain
experience. So, first you enter the room, go directly to the middle. Do a
spell, Preferably Soul Steal (back, forward, forward-down, down, down-back,
back, forward, circle/square). After the spell takes effect, form to mist
immediately, then fly diagonally to the right, you'll find a ledge there, it
should be exactly infront of Galamoth. Turn back to Alucard, face him, then
start slashin' baby. Try it.



Cool tunes:
Put the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night CD into an audio CD player.
Go to the second track to hear a hidden song.


Axe Lord Armor:
After beating the game once, start a new game and enter your name as AXEARMOR. You'll find a cool new suit of armor in your inventory.


Alucard's Special Moves:
Hellfire (15MP): up, down, down-right, right and square

Summon Spirit (5MP): left, right, up, down and square

Soul Steal (50MP): left, right, down-right, down, down-left, left, right and square

Dark Metamorphosis (10MP): left, up-left, up, up-right, right and square

Tetra Spirits (20MP): hold up for 2 seconds, then press up-right, right, down-right, down and square

Wolf Charge (10MP, must have "skill of wolf", and must also be in Wolf form): down, down-right, right and square

Sword Brothers (30MP, must be using the "Sword" familiar for this to work): down, down-right, right, up-right, hold up for 2 seconds, then press down and square

Wing Smash (8MP, must be in bat form when performing this): hold X, up, up-left, left, down-left, down, down-right, right and then release X


Belmont's Special Moves:
Whip Uppercut: down, up and X

Run: right right, or left left (hold after second press)

Whip Twirl: hold Square, then tap any direction repeatedly

Slide: down and X

Slide Jump: down and X, X again immediatly after the first one

Back Flip: X twice, quickly

Whip Dash: up, down, downright, right and square (Richter is invulnerable when performing this)

Whip Lunge: left, then right and square(or vice versa)


Enhanced Luck:
After beating the game once, start a new game and enter your name as X-X!V"Q. You'll start with 99 luck and the Lapis Lazuli item, but your strength and hitpoints will be reduced.


Extra Options:
At the name select screen, enter your name as AXELORD then go to the Settings screen


Play as Richter - Japanese and American:
After beating the game once, start a new game and enter your name as RICHTER. You can play now as Richter Belmont


Easy Familiar Experience:
Ok, easy way, but a bit time consuming, to get experience for all your
familiars. I believe you have to have it beaten once first. but I may be
wrong.

As you start the game, go through like you normally would. But this time,
don't but alot from the librarian. Only get the Jewel of Open, and 1 or 2
Library Cards. The proceed with the game.

Once you get in the inverted castle, keep going and get AS MUCH MONEY AS
POSSIBLE. Once you get 500,000 go back to the librarian, and purchase the
Duplicator. Then go BACK to the inverted castle, and equip it. By this time,
you should have at least ONE of the Power of Sire items. Equip that as well.
Voila, you have an infinite supply now as long as you have the duplicator
equipped.

Now go to the room in the inverted church thing (forgot the name off hand),
and enter the room with the big sword that is surrounded by spears and
shields. Use the Power of Sire, then leave the room, and go back in, use it
again, and so on and so forth. Within an hour I had ALL my familiars powered
up to 99/99


Effortless Experience Gain:
To get effortless experience follow these simple steps:
Play through the game like normal until you get your bat familar.
at this point go back to near the start of the game where the zombies keep
coming out of the ground.
Then all you do is stand on the step on the stairs where the zombies can't
reach you and turn your bat familiar on. Just make sure that you are far
enough away that the zombies won't hurt you if your familar misses one of them.

The bat familar will kill most of the zombies that appear, also make sure you
are looking in the direction of the zombies or the bat will not hit them.
The best part about this trick is that the familar will kill the zombies and
both he and you will get the experience making this absolutely simple in
gaining levels. In three hours my bat went from level 2 to level 60!


Find Sword of Dawn and Great Sword:
The Sword of Dawn is hidden in the Reverce Castle. Remember where you got the double jump relic in the normal castle?
Well, to the left of that there's a secret breakable wall. Attack it to reveal a hidden pot roast.
But when you're in the Reverce Keep, repeat the process to reveal the Sword of Dawn.
Execute this move to summon Dawn warriors: down,forward,then square or Circle.
Meanwhile the Great Sword can be easily obtained by defeating a gold Armor Lord in the Reverce Castle.
It won't always work though. Keep trying.


Easy Money:
First equip the JEWEL SWORD, and go anywhere in either castle, (like the
entrance where the zombies are) and keep swinging until you have enogh
money


Hint:
In the castle and the reverse castle, theres a monster called parathropus with the ring of varda,
wich gives massive bonuses to all attributes (+40 to str, +30 to int, etc.) Equip it along with the Crissaegrim,
a sword found by killing schmoos in the reverse castle and you will be practically invincible in the game, all bosses take only a few hits to destroy.


Beat Doppleganger Easy:
Okay, for players who have a hard time with Doppleganger (the Alucard
look-alike), hit him so he lands in a corner, and repeatedly jump at him and
attack. He will reliably jump into your blade repeatedly. This works on both
the Light and Dark Castle Doppleganger.

OR

Before you fight the doppleganger in the second castle, equip the Medusa
Shield. Hit the doppleganger with the Medusa Shield, and he will turn to
stone. Attack him mercilessly with your weapon until he turns back to flesh,
then use the shield on him again



Explore an Inverted Castle:
If you defeat the possessed Richter Belmond in Dracula's Keep, you'll see
the ending. But what you may not realise is that this is the 'bad end', and
you've only seen half the game! To get to the real ending:
First, make sure you've gotten both rings from Maria. The first you recieve
after defeating the Succubus in the 'Nightmare' stage. The second is past
the hall with all the spikes in the Cathedral (you need the SpikeBuster
Armor from the Catacombs)
Equip both rings at once in the room with the big clock, and the floor will
open. Down in this 'lair' Maria is waiting for you once again. She'll give
you a vital piece of information.
Once all this is done, then go to Dracula's Keep and meet Richter. He'll
attack you, but you will now be able to see a green orb floating above him.
Attack the orb, but _don't_kill_Richter_ (hint: the Sword Companion will
serve you well here) After a bit of attacking, the orb will break open,
revealing everyone's favorite loathesome 18th/19th century warlock: Shaft!
(daaaarn right! right on, bruthaman!)
This also breaks Shaft's spell, freeing Richter from the spirit of Dracula.
Alucard will tell Richter and Maria to escape while they can as the clouds
swirl and open up, revealing a mirror-image of the Evil Castle! Shaft
escapes into the Inverted Castle, and of course it's Alucard's duty to chase
after him!
But just when you think you know the layout already, you find some crucial
elements of the castle have been rearranged, it's stocked with bigger and
badder enemies, and even the music has changed!


Fiddle with the Logo:
When the words NOW LOADING are on screen, you can manipulate them with the
d-pad.


Heaven Sword Special Attack:
You can get Heaven Swords as a rare item by killing the Cloaked knights
(flying knights that toss their swords at you). If you have two of these,
equip one in each hand and press both square and circle to activate the
special attack.


Librarian's Secret Stash:
To get the librarian's secret stash under his chair you must have the super
jump relic. After you have obtained this item go to the room under his.
There will be a narrow vertical space that (when you jump into it) will lead
to a Life Max Up.
Now jump repeatedly without touching the floor, but make sure the
librarian's chair goes back on the floor. If this is done correctly you will
first get the Ring of Arcana. If you contunue to do this you will then
obtain the Dracula Tunic and after that the Axelord Armor will follow.


Music Select:
To gain access to the excellent soundtracks, complete the game (fully, with
over 190%) with Alucard and restart a brand new game with Alucard (do not
cover over the old one). When you get to the Librarian, simply walk up to
him and a music select option will appear with the 'buy/sell' box.


The Shield Rod Trick:
If you have the Shield Rod you can do this trick. Equip the rod and any
shield. Then, all you have to do is hit the left hand button and the right
hand button (normaly the O and Square buttons) simultaniously and you will
do a special move that has to do with the shield you have equiped. Every
shield does something different. Experement with different shields to find
out which one you like. Also, when you are equiped with the shield rod if
you press back, foward, then attack Alucard launches a star from the rod. It
must do something besides look really cool, but I haven't messed around with
it that much to find out.


True Hellfire:
There is an interesting effect if you cast the Hellfire spell, (up, down,
down-right,right and square) then press and hold UP, AFTER the teleport, but
BEFORE the three fireballs go off. It shoots TWO of the black fireballs
demonstrated by Dracula in the opening scene. As far as I can tell, it does
no more damage, and costs the same, but it DOES punch through targets rather
than be absorbed.


Hint:
If you use the shield rod power up with the Alucard Shield, then use the
Alucard Shield as your primary weapon, It does amazing damage and makes
you practically invincible until your magic power runs out, the shield
its self averages 244-255 for Normal hits and 500-550 on Critical hits,
this tactict makes the game incredibly easy so use if you want too


Get the Ring of Varda:
To get the ultimate ring, the Ring of Varda, you must kill the gold skeleton.
The skeleton hold's a femur as a weapon. If he doesn't drop it right away
keep trying. The ring raises all of your stat's significantly.


Secret Rooms:
Here are the locations of some of the secret rooms in the game.

Room 1: Outer Wall
When you enter the stage from the Marble Garden, go down to meet an Armor
Lord. Beat him and go to the left. Hack the wall on the left wall to get a
Pot Roast. Stand in the Space for 20 seconds and you will go into a room
with items

Room 2: Alchemy Lab And Necromancy Lab
In the Alchemy Lab, hack the wall in the first room going up. Inside is a
Heart Max-up. The one in the Necromancy lab of the inverted castle is in the
same spot.

Room 3: Colossem and Reverse Colossem
In the room with Blade Soldiers and Blade Masters, go to the first pillar,
face left and use a few axes to reveil a passage.

Rooms 4 and 5: Orlox's Quarters and Akmodan's Chamber
The first room is in the room with the Sprit Sword. Go to the right to find
a dead end, hack the wall to get some good items.

The second one is later in the stage. When you are in courtyard with the
Vahalla Knights, go down to the ground and proceed left. Proceed left until
you are in a room with the bridge. Hack Every part of the wall until you
reveal the room. Do the same in Akmodan's Chamber's (Orlox's Room in the
Inverted Castle)

Room 6: Clock Tower and Reverse Clock Tower
In the room before the Birdman boss, Hack the right wall at the top of the
room.

Room 7: Pit to the Catacombs
Use the Demon Familiar to flip the switch after the Cerberas Boss to reveil
a room. Do the same in the inverted castle.




Hints:
I've figured out that the best sword is the crissagrim. It's a rare very difficult item to find. It deals out about 15 or so slashes per strike,
which is awesom. Even better than the yasutsana katana. It is fast too. For easiest finding aquire the ring of arcana (makes rare items
appear more often) and the lapis lazuli(bring luck stats up). The lapis lazuli is a drop item from the flea man riding the bone dragon in
the inverted castle entrance. You may have to kill multiple times to get it. After you have the two items equip them and head to the inverted
library. The crissagrim is a drop item from schmoo (bloody head rag ghost) kill mulitple times until dropped. Combine this with the ring of
varda (dropped by the giant's skeleton with the bone weapon) and you can consider the game conquered.