Brief 100% achievement guide

A brief and straight to the point guide on how to obtain the 45 Ys Origin achievements, without long explanations or confusing things, pointing out the best and fastest way to obtain them.

All along the watchtower..

Besides All Along the Watchtower, automatically awarded on obtaining the last achievement, we have a total of 45 different achievements here on Ys Origin. I have read many awesome walkthroughs and guides, but here I'd just like to point out the fastest and easiest way to obtain every single achievement, without getting involved into tactics, plot summaries or descriptions, strategies and so on. So, I won't tell you how to get the SP needed for the shop, or how to complete a nightmare boss rush.. 'cos you'll find everything in faqs and guides throughout the web! :)
My suggestion is only, to optimize everything: three playthroughs on Nightmare, one with Yunica, one with Hugo, one with Toal, and then everything else. Good reading :)

Let's get started, only one section from the easiest to the least awarded ones!
P.S. I'll update this guide, I'll check my English, I'll add things and so on of course, but it's already readable complete and reliable ;)
Yeah, three sections 'cos it's too long. :P

Minimally Exceptional
You'll get this by buying any kind of enhancement (blessing) on any kind of save statue with every character you want.

The Mark of the Claw
You'll unlock Toal, the third playable character, by completing the game and letting the credits roll with Yunica or Hugo, on any difficulty you want.

Now the Gloves Come Off
Two ways of earning this one, one quicker, one recommended. If you finish the game on Nightmare difficulty, you will automatically earn also the achievements of Very Easy, Easy, Normal and Hard. So, try to finish it on Nightmare. Otherwhise, you can simply finish it on Very Easy and you'll earn only this achievement but I really advice NOT to do this, even because you will be "forced" to breeze through Very Easy later in the game.

Average Joe
Same as before, you must complete the game on Easy or on any other superior difficulty level.

Tuff Enuff
Same as above, on Normal.


Who Needs Magic?
Simply finish the game with Yunica, on any difficulty you want.


Teleport 2 Me
You must defeat with both Yunica and Hugo, so in two different playthroughs, the Jenocres boss in Rado's Annex, above floor 14.

"Do You Work Out?"
You must defeat with ALL 3 characters (Yunica, Hugo and Toal) the boss Velagunder on floor 5

The Prodigal Son
You will obtain this achievement by finishing the game with Toal only, on any difficulty.


You Can't Blame a Girl for Trying
You must defeat Epona with Yunica and Vagullion with Hugo. You'll get this through the gameplay, anyways, the two bosses are respectively the 1st and 3rd for Yunica and viceversa with Hugo your 1st boss will be Epona, 3rd Vagullion. It's unmissable if you do a playthrough with both characters.

Scolopendra Seriously Gigantea
Defeat boss Nygtilger on floor 9 with all THREE characters on any difficulty.


It's a Fact: Magic is Awesome
Simply finish the game as Hugo.


(Don't) Let the Bodies Hit the Floor
Enable no-fall mode by pressing F1. This is available only on easy and very easy difficulty and it's written on your upper right; you can also wait for the end-game playthroughs if you're going nightmare in the beginning, it's triggered just by pressing F1 one time.

Stay Down
Defeat boss Kishgal on floor 23 with Hugo and Yunica, unmissable.


Some Like It Hot
Defeat boss Gelaldy on 13floor with all three characters, unmissable.


We Will Rock You
Defeat Khonsclard on floor 17 with all three characters.


My Fact Is Truer Than Yours
Defeat Toal in Hugo's storyline on floor 11. It's a difficult battle and it's missable, since you can lose it and still go on, so look for strategies!


Dirty Little Secret
Defeat Dalles on floor 25 with all three characters, he's the last boss (at least for Yunica and Hugo).

The Uncivil War
Achieved automatically by finishing the game with Toal and Hugo. It will unlock after defeating Toal on floor 25 with Hugo and, playing with Toal, defeating Hugo on the same floor right before the final boss.

Never Mind the Hammer
Defeat Pictimos boss on floor 21 with all three characters.


Thank You For Being a Friend
You must give a Roda Fruid to all 6 Roos (little friendly monsters) with all the three characters. Roda Fruits are on floors 5, 8, 10, 14, 18 and 22; Roos are on floors 4, 9, 12, 14, 19 and 23. Follow a walkthrough or search thorougly, 'cos it's missable. You can collect also all the fruits and give back to the roos whenever you want, it's not mandatory 1 fruit - 1 roo, you can stack the fruits in the inventory.

..until the end

Three's a Crowd
Defeat Zava (the boss with two heads and such) on floor 24 with all three characters. Unmissable and story related.

Count Your Blessings
You must purchase ALL the 35 blessings of armor and upgrades at the save statues with one of the three playable characters. You can do it whenever you want, as long as you collect every piece of equipment, equip them and upgrade them at the statue

Bursting at the Seams
It's simple; you DO NOT EVER HAVE TO USE BURST: playing as Toal on floor 23 you CAN (it's missable) earn from the Roo called Roobyred an upgrade that will give you the opportunity to press two times the boost button and do a special attack. If you don't get the Roo, you will not get the achievement, because simply you can't "abstain" from bursting if you don't have the skill! Be aware of the fact that Dalles (the last boss of Yunica and Hugo) IS NOT the last boss of Toal, so:
1- you must never use burst during Dalles fight
2- you can and must use burst during the Darm fight, 'cos the achievement will pop up in between the two battles. Just obtain burst, but don't ever use it until the achievement pops up!

You're the Best Around
Finish the game on Hard, or on Nightmare and you'll get this too.


Totally Fact Up
Only obtainable as Hugo. Save on floor 21, and go fight Pictimos, the mantid boss. Kill him on his first form, and you will have a mandatory dialogue by Hugo with himself. Then, let the boss kill you. Recharge and kill his second form.

Only a Ginger Can Call Another Ginger "Ginger"
In the bonus shop, which you will unlock by beating the game on any difficulty with ALL THREE characters, buy Adol for 500.000 SP.

Another Part of Me
In the same shop, unlock any kind of EX (extra) version by buying Yunica, Hugo or Toal's EX style (only one is required for the achievement).

Kid Gloves
This DOES NOT work like the playthrough. You MUST go through boss rush on every difficulty, if you finish the hard mode you won't unlock the easy achievement. It's much easier to do everything with Hugo, so complete boss rush on Easy for this. Time attack, where you'll find boss rush, is unlocked simply by finishing once the game.

Glutton for Punishment
Simply complete the game on Nightmare with any character only once.


Follow the Money
Spend in every way you want 2.000.000 SP points in the bonus shop.


Don't Start What You Can't Finish
Same as "My Fact.." above, this time with Yunica. Difficult boss, missable 'cos you can progress even if you die. On floor 11, defeat Kishgal.

No Stone Left Unturned
For this, you must buy at the bonus shop the EXtra version of all the characters, Adol included.

Cryptozoologist
This is hard. It's not like Ys 2. You do not see the monster statistics on screen. So the best thing you can do in order to obtain the 408 information for every non-boss monster (6 information per monster) is that on one of your very easy playthroughs, you kill and kill and kill multiple times every monster and check always in the menu (which won't remember the cursor position so you'll have manually to check everytime) if you have obtained the infos required.
THERE ARE ONLY TWO MISSABLE MONSTERS, the other ones can be done by teleporting with the crystal when you want (and it's better to do it in the end when you're levelled up):
Hubamobrum, on floor 12, number 31. Save on floor 12, return to that stone, the monsters are red glowing on the next floor and you can't miss them. Defeat two of them, go back, let them respawn, again and again. They are only there.
Zelkaron, on the desert floor before the save statue of Rado's annex, over the 14th. There's a little tip: DO NOT EQUIP the silver chimes, so since they are overpowered, red-glowing undeads they will constantly respawn, so you can kill them multiple times in a row, they'll never die unless you equip the chimes.. so you can get their full entry quite easily.

Just Barely Breathing
Arena mode will unlock after beating the game with ALL THREE characters. In here, you can fight all the monsters in like 6 or 7 consecutive waves from the singular sections of the tower (wailing blue, flooded prison and so on). You must finish a stage (with STAGE the game says "the whole thing", so the whole 7 waves of wailing blue, or silent sands etc.) with 1 to 9 HP remaining. Do this as always with Hugo, using his shield to block damage, and on wailing blue which is by far the easiest category.

Truly Gifted
You must purchase EVERY blessing at the save statues for EVERY character. I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ messed up here by completing Yunica's game and accidentally deleting her save, so I was 104/105. This means divided by 3 that for every character you must buy all the upgrades AND upgrade all the equipment for a total of 35 times per character. It's not easily missable, because you can upgrade all the equipment, or find all the equipment, even if you are on the tower's summit, there's not a limit of any kind, you can grind for SP and so on and buy them when you can, or upgrade the first armor when you're on the last boss.

Everyday Glory
Complete a boss rush on Normal, with the character you like, Hugo is the best one. It's mandatory, 'cos you'll unlock this only by playing on Normal.

Buyin' Out the Bar
Ok a little bit of clarification. Get this as soon as possible, 'cos if you don't have unlocked pikkardon AND/OR yunica's outfit (read the section below), you will have to buy them. Otherwise, buy everything in the bonus shop and you'll get the achievement.

You've Made Your Point
Must complete the game on Nightmare with Hugo, Yunica AND Toal. Do this instead of completing the game on other difficulties, 'cos you'll unlock also the normal easy etc. achievements all at once!

..the real end..

You Bet Your Life
As Kid Gloves, you must mandatorily complete a boss rush with the character you want (Hugo is the most indicated) on Hard difficulty.

Untouchable
This can be a pain, and it's not clearly explained. The game says that you must complete four or more consecutive stages in arena mode without taking any damage.
It's not so clear, because when you go to arena mode you can embark into stages like wailing blue, silent sands, guilty fire.. but when you successfully finish one (6-7 CONSECUTIVE waves, NOT stages) you are redirected to the arena selection screen, so that you can choose another one, or exit. And it does not says which arenas you must complete "untouchable".
You must complete FOUR stages without taking damage.
Hugo's shield is MANDATORY!
This is my strategy. Pick Hugo (normal or extra, same thing) and go to Arena stage 1: Wailing blue, EASY difficulty. You'll level up, and so will your current and max HP, so take always a look: if you go 59/60 and maybe an enemy drops a potion you get healed, but you're screwed. ALT+F4 or wait to get killed (you can't go into the menu and retry, like during boss fights).
Then, take off your shield magic and defeat all enemies but one. Let your magic bar recharge, put on your shield, kill the last enemy, take on the others. Leave one alive, and repeat.
When you have successfully finished easy wailing blue, REPLAY the same floor for other THREE times.
It took me days to get it, but if you make use of Hugo's shield you'll absorb the damage provoked by the popping up of all monsters at the beginning of every wave, you can kill them ranged distance and prepare your MP to open a new shield, kill the last one, and get ready for the next wave.

Grace Under Pressure
Simply complete a single time attack/boss rush on nightmare difficulty. Easiest is with Hugo, so that you don't have to fight the last Toal/Adol boss and generally Hugo is the best character, ranged and strong with his shield and good magic.

Pikkardon Don't Care
Pikkardon, the big pig thing from the early Ys games, will appear in the Arena mode like the other Arenas (wailing blue, sands, blood etc.) only when you will have completed the game on NIGHTMARE with all three characters. This is the easiest way, because you will get many other achievements by doing three nightmare playthroughs. The other method is really time consuming, not worthy really, you have to finish the game like 10+ times.. and then again in nightmare mode if you want the nightmare achievements!!
Unlocked, buy Pikkardon in the bonus shop and defeat him in the arena!

...And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt
There are TWO modes of getting this. One is literally life consuming, so I'll list only the easiest one. You must finish the game with the EXTRA version of ALL THREE characters on VERY EASY (so that it's the shortest route possible). First you must buy the extra versions of Yunica, Toal and Hugo, then with those versions complete the game three times. You have Very Easy, and it's a breeze, and at this point you'll know the game by heart.
Only after finishing the third playthrough, in the bonus shop you will be able to buy Yunica's schoolgirl outfit and get the achievement!

Caress of Steel
You must complete the full time attack/boss rush EIGHT times, with all the EIGHT different versions of your four characters (Adol included), on NIGHTMARE difficulty; "just" this.

Open to comments suggestions improvements and I'll be back on this many times :)
Thanks thanks thanks for reading.

[Prinny.Empire]

I can confirm that you can get the Yunica Schoolgirl Outfit by completing all 3 EX versions off the character on Very Easy. You can also breeze through by using F2 (increase level by one) and F3 (to get the all blessing achievements without farming). BTW F4 is for (regen HP) if you still struggling. NOTE: All of this cheats only available on Very Easy and Easy ONLY and it don't void your achievement as the previous 2 Ys game (Ark of Napishtim and Oath of Felghana). I assume that the developer just forgot to inform it or simply forgot to disable it during debugging process.

[ELAMOKEN]

Oh

[Jarkes]

To be honest, I was planning to use the EX characters for Nightmare runs. So... hypothetically speaking, could I do that to get the schoolgirl outfit, Pikkardon fight, and "Nightmare with all characters" all at once?

(I also can't seem to find any info as to how the EX characters play differently from the normal versions)

[BeastBox]

You sure about the unlocking the schoolgirl outfit by beating the game on Very Easy with the EX versions of the characters? Because that didn't work. :(

[HeroDjinn]

Azex

Once you get the skill for Toal, just dont use it at all, and when you get to the final boss, go nuts with it, thats what it means, he is just saying if you miss that roo, you are screwed out of it if you go beat the final boss

hope this helps out

[RyanRickyW]

Cryptozoologist can be earn with arena fight...i accidentaly get it..

[Azex]

your explanation for "Bursting at the Seams" i s alittle confusing. am i supposed to get the skill from the roo, in order for the achievment to work. OR must i NOT get the skill from the roo?