A Geohound's Guide to Achievements

Welcome to this achievement guide for Grandia II!

This is my personal favorite out of the first 3 Grandia titles that I've played. <3 Ryudo.

Note on Missable Achievements

Here's what you should pay extra special attention to:

• The Exorcism Bow - you get locked out of the area it's in after you progress the story
  
• The Necklaces (Coral, Forbear, Demon) - same as above
  
• Sonic Belt - same as above but this is somewhat close to end-game so it's not that bad
  It's a Family Thing - very easy to make mistakes when targetting Melfice's other parts
  
• Nut Grabber is missable - I've listed it under misc and please see comments for additional info

The first rule of achievement hunting is to make backups! Hopefully, this guide will make the hunt as painless as possible for you!

Storyline (Spoiler Warning)

The Bodyguard
Add Elena to the party


This triggers after you pick up Elena to escort her to Garmia Tower.

Guard for Hire
Escort Elena to Garmia Tower


This triggers after you escape from Garmia Tower.

Spicy Lady
Add Millenia to the party


Millenia temporarily joins you shortly after Elena gets drunk on Kuko Berries.

More Than He Could Chew
Add Roan to the party


Roan joins you after you and Millenia save him.

On the Podium
Find Roan's missing medal


This achievement is obtained after defeating the Durham Minotaur.

Bloodhound
Add Mareg to the party


Mareg joins you after your visit to the Liligue Church.

Tasty Freeze
Defeat Valmar's Tongue

4-segment boss:

1. Allhealer will make this battle very easy.
   
2. Diggin' recommended
   
3. Shh! (silence) works on Valmar's Tongue

Eye See You
Defeat Valmar's Eye

3-segment boss + 4 Eyeball Bats:

1. Hellburner (Chaos Egg) combined the Book of Wizard's Intelligence and Zapfire Chant will make this battle very easy.
   
2. Snooze and Fiora work on the Eyeball Bats.
   
3. Life Up skills from Adventure Book and Book of Warriors will help.

Gun Show
Win an arm wrestling bout


The arm wrestling minigame is available in Cyrum. The very first match with Hemble is impossible to lose (thanks to Elena) and therefore this achievement is not missable.

You may as well stay to win 5 more times against him. The 3rd and 5th win rewards are worth it. In order to win, you need consistency. I like to start off by expending all of my endurance. Then, do 2 quick taps of your recharge button and hold down the power button for a small amount of time. Just repeat the process until Hemble's power bar starts to drop. Once it drops you'll be able to overpower him.



Claw Your Way to the Top
Defeat Valmar's Claw

3-segment boss:

1. Allheal is a must.
   
2. Valmar's Claw and the Left Arm can heal.
   
3. Focus on taking down the claws first by using single-target burst. They don't do as much damage, but they are fast and can be very disruptive.
   
4. Make sure you have Life Up(s) equipped.

Reprogrammed
Add Tio to the party


After your first battle with Melfice, Roan will leave the party in order to rule his kingdom. Tio will join up with you as you leave the castle.

Brotherly Love
Defeat Melfice


See It's a Family Thing for more details.

Hot Body
Defeat the Body of Valmar


This was the first boss that gave me some trouble on Hard difficulty. I suggest taking out the tentacles first. The Body of Valmar will mostly be helpless afterwards.

3-segment boss:

1. Use Tio to keep cancelling Suck In as much as possible.
   
2. The Tentacles do a decent amount of damage and can be lethal when they both get to strike.
   
3. Focus on AoE damage from the get-go. Once Ryudo runs out of SP, just keep casting Quake or high single-target moves/spells to finish the tentacles.
   
4. If you don't have a strong Mareg (move-wise), just give him item-boosting skills. He can alternate between reducing the IP of the tentacles with Mogay Bombs, debuffing with Harps/Nuts, and switching to heals/resurrection when needed.

He Has One?
Defeat the Heart of Valmar


This was a surprisingly easy fight in comparison to the Body of Valmar. Tio will have a very easy time cancelling attacks since all of the parts are very close to each other. There's not a whole lot of strategy needed here other than occasionally cancelling the gas attack of the main part.

All Cracked Up
Defeat the Egg Guardian


This was another easy boss battle. It can be a bit annoying considering all the little minions respawn.

3-segment boss:

1. Cold and Stram (and the occasional defence debuff) is all you need.
   
2. Use an AoE attack such as Sky Dragon Slash to kill everything when you feel it's getting out of hand.
   
3. With the Cold debuff applied, you will have an easier time cancelling most of the boss' attacks (including resummoning).

Visited Elmo's World
Find Elmo in the Birthplace of the Gods


As part of the story, you'll get to visit the cemetery for the People of Darkness which leads you to Elmo and her archive of knowledge.



Bad Apple
Defeat Valmar's Core

4-segment boss:

Personally, I geared up Tio with agility, item recovery, and skilled item use in mind. She rotated between debuffing with harps/magic and cancelling with moves. I had Roan casting offensive magic while Elena was on heal and debuff support. Ryudo repeatedly used Sky Dragon Slash while Tio also refilled his SP with fruits/toast every other turn (thanks to agility and item spec).

I've read that you can just ignore the other heads but since it was on hard mode, I thought it would be better to just evenly kill them all as the attack frequency could get out of hand.



Amateur Lepidopterist
Defeat Zera Valmar


He uses mostly just magic and self-buffs. I strongly recommend debuffing his ACT as much as possible and as soon as possible. He can get annoying on Hard mode as he gets to attack more often. He also likes to use spells with long animations so you will spend more time watching animations than actually fighting him.

Debuff, spam Heel, Cancel, and Tight Dress is OP against him.

Item Collection

Old Priest, Young Priest
Find the Exorcism Bow in Demon's Law


The Exorcism Bow is in an alcove on the NE section of the Demon's Law.



Put a Notch in It
Find the Black, Heracles, Hurricane, and Sonic belts

1. Black Belt

   Ghoss Forest East 2 - pass under a tree root near the exit for a chest
   

2. Heracles' Belt

   St. Heim Papal State & Cyrum Kingdom (revisited) - sold in the shop
   

3. Sonic Belt

   Raul Hills (revisited) - within the death maze

If the game doesn't give you the achievement even after getting all the belts. Unequip them all, then buy another belt from Cyrum or the final shop.

Bling
Find the Coral, Demon, Forbear, Friends, Pretty, and Rune Necklaces

1. Rune Necklace

   Millenia comes with one
   

2. Forbear Necklace

   Underground Plant - within the pipe maze
   

3. Coral Necklace

   Ceceile Reef - right before the final save point
   

4. Friends Necklace

   Garlan Village - given by Gatta
   

5. Pretty Necklace

   from a Snow Leopard or treasure in the switch maze in Valmar's Body (Artery Passage)
   

6. Demon Necklace

   Raul Hills (revisited) - within the death maze

Miscellaneous/Combat

X Marks the Spot
Congratulations! You pressed the X button. It doesn't do anything... or does it? No, it doesn't.


This will probably be the very first achievement you get. I recommend placing a cat on top of your keyboard.

Fashionista
Change a character's outfit during combat (Weapon, Accessory & Mana Egg)




Encyclopedia
Max all abilities in a Skill Book


Any skill book will do. Naturally, the Adventure Book will be the easiest and earliest book you can do this achievement with.



Egg Farmer
Max all abilities in a Mana Egg


This is basically the same thing as Encyclopedia.

It's a Family Thing
Defeat Melfice with only Ryudo delivering damage


The details listed below was my setup for the achievement. Keep in mind there are more ways to do it. Overall, this was just a time-consuming achievement. It wasn't hard or anything. Technically this is part of the storyline but it is missable.

some advice:

1. Bring some SP recovery items to spam Flying Dragon Slash (normal attacks have a high chance of missing).
   
2. Equip Decoy + Life Up on Mareg then just keep defending with him.
   
3. Tio and Elena will take care of debuffs while occasionally healing.
   
4. Use Diggin', Def-Loss, and Stram as needed.
   
5. Focus only on Melfice.

Weekend Bender
Drink 100 Potions


You do not have to be in battle. Remember that only salves work. I suggest reloading at an area that has traps (which cause damage) so that you can consume 4-12 salves at a time.

Nut Grabber
Grab 24 nuts in the Hut of Trials


Technically this is also part of the storyline. It is missable because the 24-nut requirement is optional.

You need to do this game a minimum of 7 times in order to reach the 24-nut requirement. this means getting 24/20 will not be enough. Keep in mind that as you repeat the game (after winning) the pillars and gum balls (?) start moving faster.



Penny Pincher
Have 250,000 gold at one time


There's not much to say here. A few things that will help...

• Pirate's Ring (Adventure Book) - lets you get equipment drops more frequently (sell the extras)
  
• Miracle Scales (Nanan Village mini-game reward) - doubles money earned

A good place to farm gold (if you ever want to do so) is the area just outside of Demon's Law. The Desert Divers come in groups of 6 and they can drop up to 1500 gold or a combination of gold, revival gem(s), and vaccines. They are easily dispatched with an upgraded Howl or BOOM!.

Note:

These next 2 achievements are cumulative across your playthroughs. You should have 1700~1900 enemies killed (from a single Hard mode playthrough) provided that you did not skip any of them during the course of your travels.

Geohounded
Kill 1000 Monsters across all playthroughs


Geohunted
Kill 2000 Monsters across all playthroughs

Character/Party Level

Growth Spurt
Level Up


This achievement will not trigger until after you get Guard for Hire.

Note:

1. These achievements will not trigger until you have a full party of 4.
   
2. If for some reason you are still not level 50+ by the time you reach the optional Raul Hills visit, there is an item there called Soul of a Hero that will double your experience earned.

Ryudo, Party of 10?
Have a party made up of Level 10 or greater characters


Ryudo, Party of 25?
Have a party made up of Level 25 or greater characters


Ryudo, Party of 50?
Have a party made up of Level 50 or greater characters

Hard Mode

Professional Lepidopterist
Complete Grandia II with difficulty on Hard the whole time

What can you expect from hard mode?

Here's the exact quote from the developer/CM:

Originally posted by GungHo America:

Hard Mode: Some fans are concerned that our Hard Mode is just a minor bump in enemy HP. Here is a simple breakdown of the changes:

World Enemies (small adjustments):
- Increase in attack frequency
- Increased HP
- Increased defense (for some)

Boss Monsters:
- Increased frequency of attacks and spells
- Large boost to HP, defense, and (for some) base damage values
- Vulnerabilities to specific attacks has been decreased, but not to the point that they no longer have a “weakness”

All in all, it took me around 30 hours to beat it on Hard Mode with some mild farming involved.

Anniversary Activated!

Thank you [A.] KSib for the reminder.

Originally posted by A. KSib:

would also mention how to get the "Anniversary Activated!" achievement. Apparently, you need to switch the anniversary branch of the game in the Steam game properties in order to get that one.

[Wolfuster]

For some reason sometimes the achievements about getting the belts and the necklaces don't activate when getting the last one. A way to fix it is to remove all necklaces or belts equipped and go to a shop, go buy then sell and after that leave the menu. It should pop up.

[purestprodigy]

Worth noting that the "X marks the spot achievement" was originally required for pressing X. The Anniversary Activated requires the same just in anniversary mode. I thought maybe it happened when you first launched the game in Anniversary and got to the main menu, or from watching the first cutscene and getting control of your player. Neither of these worked and then I looked up the requirements for the old achievement which would have saved me some time, and loaded up a more recent save. I pressed X and it didn't unlock right away and then button mashed every button on my controller like crazy and it popped. Ironically the last achievement I unlocked because I didn't play anniversary for my playthrough.

[JOKER]

whats the anniversary achivment would it be wise to do that first starting up .
i can't remember if this was in the ps2 version so long ago i last play'ed it so im hyped too play again?

[Poleon]

for anyone trying to get the x mark the spot achievement it's actually re-edited to anniversary activated just an FYI

[[A.] KSib]

I would also mention how to get the "Anniversary Activated!" achievement. Apparently you need to switch the anniversary branch of the game in the Steam game properties in order to get that one.

[[A.] KSib]

I'd also mention that "Nut Grabber" is missable at the top since apparently it's missable in the main part of the guide.

[[A.] KSib]

Small typo "The Exorcist Bow" is "Exorcism Bow"

[Chris]

Can't get the X mark the spot achievement. I'm using a ps4 controller and pressing x which should be the square button. Even button mashed my entire keyboard. Tried putting a cat on it like the guide said >>>actually didn't. Any ideas on how to fix this? the solved guide didn't even help at all.

[RockmanZ]

The Hidden Achievement is "Activate Anniversary" which you get by returning to Anniversary Edition by using the beta option on game properties.

[kennon13]

X marks spot cannot be unlocked.
I pushed x button many times.
The thread must be an anniversary edition it says that can't unlocked.
Is it true?