Achievements and Memory Guide for htoL#♥♥♥: The Firefly Diary

Guide to get 100% Achievements (with some 60FPS gameplay videos).

Overview

First and foremost, I have to say htoL#♥♥♥: The Firefly Diary is an awesome puzzle game. From my experience, I can surely tell that the developers have put lots of effort into completing the game and ensuring the best experience. So hopefully you guys have fun with the game.
I write this guide to help Achievement hunters and perfectionists fulfill the game. This guide will be focusing mostly on the part that is important for the Achievement. After all, this is a puzzle game so I think it is more fun to solve the majority of problems on your own.
Also, while it is a pity that the game is locked at 30 FPS to maintain its difficulty, I personally think it is okay. Do not get me wrong, as I am the kind of person who don't play console games and consider 60 FPS on PC a basic standard. However, this game nature and pacing is slow, so the difference between 30 FPS and 60 FPS is noticeable but rather small. if you guys are still curios of what this game would look like in 60 FPS, check my videos.
Finally, an useful tip to play the game: Keep calm and be patience.
Enjoy htoL#♥♥♥: The Firefly Diary!

Basic Achievements

These are simple Achievements. You will gradually grant them as you play the game till the end. No trick, no secret, no nothing. Just don't quit and it's all good.



Chapter 1 Cleared
You have cleared Chapter 1.



You will get this Achievement after you finish Chapter 1.



Chapter 2 Cleared
You have cleared Chapter 2.



You will get this Achievement after you finish Chapter 2.



Chapter 3 Cleared
You have cleared Chapter 3.



You will get this Achievement after you finish Chapter 3. The game may get significantly harder at this stage but you will get through this Chapter eventually.



Chapter 4 Cleared
You have cleared Chapter 4.



You will get this Achievement after you finish Chapter 4. The first three Stages are manageable, just like those in Chapter 3, but the last one is a nightmare. Check the Achievement You're Just Naturally Lucky? for more information.



Unbending Resolve
Died 10 times.



Very easy.



Unbreakable Resolve
Died 100 times.



In this game, dying is a mundane thing. Don't worry, as, unless you have mastered the console version or you are extremely talented, you should be able to get this one around Chapter 2.

Chapter 1 Achievement

These are four Achievements available specifically for the four Stages of Chapter 1. They require you finish some special tasks, not just clearing the Stage or Chapter.



I Have Nothing Else to Do
Cleared Stage 1-1 in under 80 seconds without dying.



Stage 1-1 is the first stage of the game so it does not have many things to do, really. Just go from start to finish without wasting your time and you are good.



Curiosity Killed the Cat
Touched the Toxin waste in Stage 1-2.



Right at the beginning of the Stage, move Umbra to the upper right corner and you will see an interactable point. Use Umbra to active it and the Toxin waste will flow down, kill you and you will earn this Achievement. Click on the images if you want to view full-size.












Mementos...?
Cleared Stage 1-3 after collecting all the stuffed animals.



There are 3 stuffed animals in this Stage. Click on the images if you want to view full-size.

- The first one is right at the beginning of the Stage. After you break a branch to make the two boxes fall down, climb on a box to get the stuffed animal.










- The second one is near the spike hole. However, you need to climb on two boxes to get it.
Drag the first box under the edge of the higher floor. Then go up the ladder and push the second box down, on top of the first box, them go back down.
Make sure you leave some room so that Mion can climb on to the first box, and then on to the second box.
The process should look something like this.











- The last one is near the exit. After passing above the rock, instead to climbing up the ladder to go to the next Stage, keep going left and you should be able to get the final stuffed animal, which is pretty well hidden.












Escape Artist
Cleared Chapter 1 and defeat the boss without dying at any point.



You need to beat Stage 4-1 without dying. It may take a few run for this Achievement but you will get it eventually. Remember if you fail one, you need replay the whole Stage from the beginning to get the Achievement.

Chapter 2 Achievements

These are four Achievements available specifically for the four Stages of Chapter 2. They require you finish some special tasks, not just clearing the Stage or Chapter.



Sharp Mind
Cleared Stage 2-1 without dying, and without using the levers more than 4 times.



This Stage has 4 levers for you to interact.
You can advance the Stage without using the first lever. It can be used to change the direction of the nearby conveyor belt, which runs in the opposite of your direction. However, it will just take more walking time to cross it.
The last lever, however, has to be used at least twice, as you need to control a box to drop down below while avoiding the saws and the hammer.










Head to my video for the full process, starting at 00:00.



What's the Hurry
Completed the maze area in Stage 2-2 without dying, and within 60 seconds of stepping on the switch.


Technically, this Achievement is unmissable. In the maze area, after you step on the switch, a door will open and you need to pass it to advance the game. The thing is the door will close within even less than 60 seconds. Also, it is really hard to die in the maze area. On top of that, even after when I did die and retry there, I still earn the Achievement.
Head to my video for the full process, starting at 03:32.



Concentration
Completed the maze in Stage 2-3 with Lumen within 2 minutes and 10 seconds, and without touch the sides.


This has to be one of the most annoying Achievement in this game. The maze is really short actually, so 2 minutes and 10 seconds is more than enough to cross it. The main problems are: this maze is next to to the exist of this Stage and you cannot touch the sides. So basically, if you fail just once, you have to replay the whole Stage, up until that point of the game, and you will certainly be...unhappy.
There are two methods to get this Achievement:
- Practice! Practice! Practice!
During the first few times, if you fail, don't restart the whole Stage. Play the maze until the end to get the hang of it. The maze is not really long so it should not take too many tries to master it. The main time-consuming part is to play from the beginning until that point, so good luck.
Head to my video for the full process, starting at 04:45.
- Save abuse.
Look for the save folder in the install location the game, which should be located at [Steam Library Folder]/common\htoL#♥♥♥ The Firefly Diary\data\save. In there, you should see a savedata.sav file.
Back it up at the saw-dodging puzzle right before the maze game, so if you die, you can overwrite the new save file with this backed-up one, and start near the maze.
Thank Aurani for this. :D



Risky Feeding
Cleared Chapter 2 and defeat the boss using no more than 3 boxes of explosives.



Contrary to the Achievement Concentration, which can be earned by practicing, this one is based quite a lot on luck.
You need to use a minimum 3 explosives boxes to defeat the mechanical dog. So if you waste just one, the retry button welcomes you.
The dog has four different attacks. Click on the images if you want to view full-size.
- Probably the most common and easy attack is the road. The dog will open it mouth for around 45 degree and, well, roar. This causes various object to fall from above later. Small, harmless concrete pieces will fall first at certain positions, and big objects will fall later, at those same positions. So pay attention closely to those small concrete pieces to avoid being crushed.










- Another attack is the grab, which is the chance for you to damage the boss. The boss will open it mouse really wide, wait for a bit and charge forth. If you place an explosive close enough to its mouth, when it tries to grab you, it would bite the explosive and get damaged instead.










- The most annoying attack is the flamethrower. The dog will exhale flame from its mouth. While the attack is really easy to dodge, the flame will destroy any explosive you place close to its mouth, making you forfeit the game if you want the Achievement. So when you see the dog prepares the attack while an explosive is near its mouth, don't think, just retry.










- After the boss has bitten the explosive three times, it will use the final attack. Nothing to worry about this one really. Hide under the trash cart and use Umbra to denote the giant bomb while it is still inside the dog mouth, and you got game.











Head to my video for the full process, starting at 07:01.


Video for the 4 Achievements of this Stage is available here:

Chapter 3 Achievements

These are four Achievements available specifically for the four Stages of Chapter 3. They require you finish some special tasks, not just clearing the Stage or Chapter.



Cloud Hoping
Complete the floating portion of Stage 3-1 without landing one.



This this a tricky Achievement. Near the beginning of the Stage, there is an umbrella near the ladder. You have to use it to cross an entire area of giant fans without landing, until you see a second ladder. During the process, if you touch the ground, die or retry, you will have to restart the entire Stage, as all the save point will put you on the ground. Luckily, unlike Concentration, the place to start doing this Achievement is very close to the beginning of the Stage.

Head to my video for the full process, starting at 00:00.



Hopeless Romantic
Gazed at the moon in Stage 3-2.



At the last save point in that Stage, where you see a large fan that would remove Mion's mushroom umbrella, head right and you should see several giant fans blowing up. Ride the wind to the top for this Achievement.

Head to my video for the full process, starting at 02:16.



Patience Please
Feed the Shadow Bird seeds in Stage 3-3.



At the check point where there are two flowers, near a bunch of hanging corpses, simply shoot a seed up, a bit to the right, so that the shadow bird can catch and eat it.

Head to my video for the full process, starting at 03:56.




Dinner Delayed
Clear Chapter 3 and defeated the boss without letting it regenerate at all.



This boss is much easier compared to the previous boss. It only uses one model of attack: vine sprouting up from the ground. You should be able to spot where the vines would sprout by looking at the could of dirt and dust, like this:
Click on the images if you want to view full-size.










When you see one bunch of dust appears for quite a while and keep following you, that is the attack you are looking for. A long vines will sprout from it, long enough so that if you position it under a corpse, you can use Umbra to go along the vine, reach the tree branch and plunge up to 2 bodies.










When you have successfully plunged a body, remember feed it to the carnivorous plants on either side of the screen. Feeding all 4 bodies to the plants will kill the boss.
If the last body (the fourth one) stays on the ground long enough, the boss will try to retrieve it back, so to get this Achievement, feed it to the plant before the boss have a chance to.











Head to my video for the full process, starting at 04:32.

Video for the 4 Achievements of this Stage is available here:

Chapter 4 Achievements

These are four Achievements available specifically for the four Stages of Chapter 4. They require you finish some special tasks, not just clearing the Stage or Chapter.




Sharp Mind 2
Cleared Stage 4-1 without dying and without opening the doors more than 18 times.



This Stage has lots of doors, each linked specifically to another, so it is similar to a labyrinth. This Stage basically has two large section: the first section has 5 floors with 19 doors in total, the second section also has door but is more like a giant area.
Crossing the first area is easy enough, you just need to know the doors' numbers. This area has some enemies, which are mostly served to block you to go to certain doors directly. To make life easier, here is the list of door numbers in the first area, with each row represents a floor:

		1		1		2
0		2		3		7
	3		0		4		6
0		0		7		8
	5		6		5		4

You starts at door 1 on the left, and need to cross this area using doors based on the number from 1 to 8. Doors 0 are redundant.
Crossing the second area is a little more difficult, because there are switches and levers there.

I do cover this area from the beginning of my video, but if you just want to see the second area of this stage, it starts at 01:32.



Cull the Weak
Cleared Stage 4-2 and defeat all shadow enemy in the elevator area.



Stage 4-1 has an area that let you ride an elevator with a flower, and you have to control the aim of the flower to shoot all the enemies. Remember to let Mion sit down, and be careful of your aim, as the seed can bounce back really hard when hitting a shadow and kill Mion also.
The most tricky part is probably killing the enemies on the gear. You need to wait for the elevator to stop and pull the plant back, aim it above and backward. This way when the flower shoots a seed, it will go up, curve and fall down on an enemy on the gear. Check the pic.










I included some game play to help you get the flower easier, so the shooting part starts at 06:35.



Lord of the Pipes
Cleared Stage 4-3 after passing through all the pipes.



After you pass the first pipe, you will come to an areas with various pipes. There will be a red cloud gradually move down so if you are too slow, you will be caught up in it and die. But don't worry about it much anyway.










Starting from the check point in this area, there are 3 routes you can take, passing through 8 pies totally, to get to the next area. Which ever route you take, you cannot go back, but you obviously need to pass them all to get this Achievement. So after exiting the last pipe, near a wooden box, pause the game and hit retry. The game will remember your process, so select a different route to pass, and that is how you can go through all the pipes.

Head to my video for the full process, starting at starting at 08:23.

Video for the first 3 Achievements of this Stage is available here:

You're just Naturally Lucky?
Answered every question correctly during Chapter 4 boss fight.



I was gonna make a video but then I realize it will be long, time consuming and not effective. This Stage consists of two mini-games, repeated for 24 times, so the video would be about me playing two games for 24 times. So instead, I will try my best to elaborate on the arguably the most difficult Achievement of this game.


- The first game is guessing the shape of the shadow. The shadow will fly by a curtain. There will be four option and you have to guess which one just fly by. Basically, you need to notice.

• The leg positions: V-shape or crossed.
  
• The arms: one arm or both arms are up.
  
• The object (if any) the shadow is holding: 4 different objects are available (the shadow always has one arm up if holding an object).

- The second game is more familiar, which by no mean is easier. Basically, from 3 shuffled cards, you need to find the one that has the figure.

There are a few things to keep in mind.

• First, always keep Lumen above. You need her to light up as much area as possible for you to observe the game.
  
• Second, you don't have unlimited time to make a decision. After a certain period of time, you will lose the mini-game, even if you have not chosen anything, so be fast and it would be wise to keep Mion at the center before any mini-game begins.
  
• Third, the mini-games will gradually become faster, harder and more complex.
  
• Finally, it is not easy. Getting this Achievement is difficult, not only because of the mini-games themselves, but also because if you fail just once, you have to restart the whole Stage and play the exact same two games for 24 times. There is a check point also, but for this Achievement, it is useless.

The hard way to get this Achievement is to keep practicing. I think after if you can get this Achievement by practicing, you deserve a place in some US Military Elite Sniper Forces.
The not-very-hard way to get this Achievement is to record the game using a third-party software[obsproject.com] . Record a puzzle, pause it and carefully look replay the video, at 3 or 4 times slower. Don't think you are safe. You may get too comfort or cocky and don't pay serious attention to the replay video gradually...and...bam...Your effort is wasted.
You can try to spam the ESC button to pause the game continuously, but that would be really time consuming and, since everything will get faster gradually, your ESC-hitting speed would eventually be no match for the game.
Good luck with this Achievement, or at least with not becoming frustrated.

Uttermost Achievements

These Achievements require you to combine efforts of working throughout the game, and can only be acquired after you have seen the first ending,



Memories
Collect every Memory Fragment.



There are 13 memories fragment in the game. If you find one and finish watching the cut scene, the game should auto-save and you can quit the Stage immediately if you wish. Head to the sections below for full detail.



Mion's Punishment
You have completed the game.



You need to unlock, beat Chapter X and see the True Ending to unlock this Achievement.
Now let's go step by step.

Unlocking Chapter X

- Collecting all 13 memories fragment. Head to the sections below for more detail.
- In the 13rd fragment, you can control Mion to place the light orb somewhere in her house, like in TV or in the Kitchen. Wherever you choose won't affect world peace really much so just put it somewhere and remember its location.










- Go to Stage 4 and play the first event. During the night, the place where you choose to hide the object in the 13rd fragment will become interactable. Get the object from there, exit and head to Stage 3-3.










- In case you haven't fully explore the area, to the right of the check point with two flower, the shadow bird and a bunch of corpses, there is a gigantic door. You couldn't do much about it before, but now you got the key. Plunge a corpse to make the carnivorous plant in your way busy and head to the door.










Congratulation. You have reached Chapter X. Your journey is almost over. Prepare for the final battle.

Clearing chapter X

In chapter X, you have to defend the tree from the shadow. It's like a tower defend game. There are 6 buds on the trees, and depending on how you interact with them, they will work differently.










- If Mion interact with a bud in the light, it will blossom into a flower that shots seeds automatically. If Mion interact with a flower in the light, she can adjust its direction.
Personally, I suggest aiming the flowers towards the center. By doing so, the seeds will have more areas to bounce, and can cover lots of ground. If you aim the flowers to the edge, they will either hit or disappear quickly, and that is not very efficient.
Basically, I suggest positioning the flowers like this.










- If Mion interact with a flower in the dark, she will kill it, and a bud will grow, in place of that flower. Sound pointless but it is the opposite really. If Mion interact with a bud in the dark, it will drop down, dealing a massive amount of damage to anything beneath it and create a vine too, which will also damage whatever attacking it.
You should use this attack on large crowd of enemies or enemies with lots of health.

To elaborate further, I will separate the enemies into different waves, like in my video below. There are two main waves, and between them you get a check point so pause and retry to bring the tree to full health.
- Waves 1: The enemies appear here is still very weak. You will face some common shadow enemies that you find familiar, and they move fast. Anyway, it should take around 2 seeds to destroy a shadow, so position the flowers like I said and let them rain the seeds down. In wave 1.3 and 1.4, some big shadow will appear. They move quite slow but they have a lot of health, so the seeds won't work well. For these enemy, it's best to drop one or two buds on their head.
- Waves 2: The first thing that appear on the left in wave 2.1 (left picture) is a huge shadow monster, like the boss in Stage 1-4. That thing move very very slow, but have lots of health, so much that the seeds can never kill this thing. You need to drop around 3 buds to smash it. Don't pay much attention to it, really, as it is slow, it can be killed with the buds and you got waves 2.2 (right picture) on the right to worry about, In this waves, the big shadow enemies will flock in. There is no possible way to kill them all with the seeds. so you need to time to kill the flowers and drop the buds on them.
There will be small, fast-moving monsters appear but they are the trivial things.

After you have taken care of both waves, it is time for wave 2.3. Use the dark Mion to kill everything, You don't need the flowers, just the buds. This final wave has so many big enemies that seeds won't make sense anymore. After that, just wait for the enemy to come in, time it right and drop all 6 buds on their heads. Don't worry about the small, fast-moving ones. They are not enough to take down the tree, and will likely to die while doing so.

Overall, the flowers and seeds are suitable at the early stage, when fast-moving enemies with little health appear. Gradually, slow but healthy enemies will appear more, so the buds will shine.

Full battle is available in the video.

After taking care of all the shadow enemies, enjoy the True End of the game. The Achievement should pop-up shortly after.

Memory Location (Memory 1-6)

Memory 1

Stage 1-1
Technically this one is unmissable. This Memory stands in your way, right in front of the exit, you need to collect this memory to get to Stage 1-2 anyway.

Memory 2

Stage 1-2
Use Umbra to cut the rope and make the box fall down and smashed to reveal the Memory inside it.

Memory 3

Stage 1-3
The Memory is near the beginning of the game. After placing the two boxes to get through the spikes, instead of taking the ladder up, go right to access a hidden area.

Memory 4

Stage 2-1
When you come to the area that has two saws near each other, as in the picture shown below, get down the ladder on the left and head left for the Memory.










Head to my video for the full process, starting at 00:00.

Memory 5

Stage 2-2
At the maze area, there is a ladder which leads down to a lever. You need to step on two other switches, beside the one that opens the large metal door, to make way to that ladder.








After getting to the ladder, head down, active the lever there and head down to another ladder. Wait for a while and the conveyor belt will bring the Memory to you.










Head to my video for the full process, starting at 00:58.

Memory 6

Stage 2-3
Always keep Mion on the highest conveyor belt. Near the end of the belt, you should find a hidden lever above her. Active it to turn a part of the belt up so that you can get the Memory.










Head to my video for the full process, starting at 03:00.

Memory Location (Memory 7-13)

Memory 7

Stage 3-1
Right After being confused by the mushroom, head into the green pipe and you will get the Memory.










Head to my video for the full process, starting at 05:04.

Memory 8

Stage 3-2
Quite difficult to describe. As you advance through the Stage, at one point you will notice the Memory on the right. So it get it, you need to steer right, passing the saw near the end of the floating section. Then go right a bit.










Head to my video for the full process, starting at 06:56.

Memory 9

Stage 3-3
I think one is really hard to miss, as the memory is on your way through the level. After the checkpoint where you need to cut the vine and go down to get to Stage 3-4 (left pic), when you reach the bottom, the Memory should be on your right.










Head to my video for the full process, starting at 07:57

Full video for getting Memory 4-9 is available here:

Memory 10

Stage 4-1
In order to get this Achievement, you need to operate and open certain doors, levers and switches, so I think it's best to show a video. Keep in mind that you need to stack 4 boxes for the Memory. 3 boxes won't do.










Head to my video for the full process, starting at 00:00

Memory 11

Stage 4-2
Near the beginning of this Stage, you will come to an area where you need to push boxes or bombs onto the switches on either side so that the ground will move up a level. On the third level, which requires you to active switches on both sides, you can see there is an air flow from left to right above it. The Memory is on the left so you have to travel against the air flow.
So, on the third level, remember to active the switch on the right, then of the left. That way, when the ground move up, you should be on the left and will be very close to the room with the air flow.









Use Umbra to interact with a point in that room, behind the Memory, and Mion should automatically walk toward it.










Head to my video for the full process, starting at 04:30

Memory 12

Stage 4-3
Starting from the check point in the areas with multiple pipes and 3 routes, select the route starting with the pipe below, on the right, and you should be able to get this Memory. Would be unmissable if you do the Lord of the Pipes Achievement.










Head to my video for the full process, starting at 06:03

Video for Memory 10-12 is available here:

Memory 13

Stage 1-Event
After completing Chapter 4, the 13rd one should become available in the Even Stage of Chapter 1, and you would start at this Stage anyway.

Miscellaneous

• This guide [psnprofiles.com] helped me a lot of complete the game. So if you are currently having any problem that mine won't work, fell free to drop a question or head there.
  
• If you want to hear something about the story/plot, after reading a lot of comments about this game, I can help you. Feel free to provide some more information.
  

  Basically, there was a happy family of three living together in a tree during a war period around the year 2078. The daughter name was Mion, and her parents were scientists. The tree was likely to have some kind of mysterious power, which could explain everything in this story.
   One day Mion played with her dad, who told her to hand him a seed. She did and that seed, somehow, contains a part of Mion's soul. Her mother invented a mechanical dog, but, probably, it when rouged and killed her (Chapter 2 Boss). 
  The parents were sad and decided to make a replica of Mion, using her remaining "information" in the previously mentioned seed. They failed a lot of of time, creating countless dead bodies and probably feed them to some kind of tree (Chapter 3 Boss). However, they finally success and created a Mion clone, with horn. Anyway, Mion's soul was still around. So when she witnessed her family having fun with a clone of her, and even shut down the room to the core of tree where her soul was still residing, she went so jealous and frustrated that she murdered the entire family. The mother became Lumen and the father became Umbra. There seem to be more than one clone living, so Mion's soul hunted down and killed a lot of them. Mion looked down the access to the core of the tree, and hid the key somewhere in her house (Memory 13). 
  Knowing that their daughter soul was still around, the parents, Lumen and Umbra, spent their time to help Mion's clones to get to that particular room containing the core of the tree, so that Mion could possess a body. 7921 years later, in the year 9999, they made it. They tricked the Mion clone into the room with Mion's seed and killed the clone so the true Mion's soul could have a body.
  The soul of Mion's clone was not very happy. Imagine it was like you were guided to die. The soul went rouge, and it can have power probably because of the energy from the core of the tree. The parent tried to summon shadow enemies to attack the tree's core, thus killing the soul but they failed. The Mion's clone's soul destroyed the seed, killed Lumen, Umbra and Mion. So Mion died, twice. She cried but the clone's soul forgave her. Mion changed from red to green, and the two probably crossed over.
  

• If you want to watch All 13 Memories scenes, head here:
  

[Vapor Dosh]

@Julie Thank you for confirmation of the Concentration achievement, I unfortunately found this out the hard way before reading your comment.

[Maria]

adding that i just did no landing achievement but it didnt count. its either the first one is counted as landing (i probably didnt hear her footsteps) or its because i clicked retry even though it was only restarting to the very beginning of the stage.

[Maria]

im aware that this is a five years old thread but i came here to confirm that the scummysave tricks that Aurani mentioned in this comment indeed wont work if you make the point right before the maze as your saves. Instead, use the one right before the saw game (and yep i got mine that way). Thanks Aurani!

[Schwein]

Thanks >u</

[MMDK]

I just complete this game, It's so hard but possible to beat and I love this game so much. thanks very much for the guide.

[ffleader1]

@Hotaru
I can't lol. Just the video is at 60 FPS because I render it using frame interpolation. But yeah... game 30 FPS lock.

[IcedLemonTea]

@ffleader1 And how do you play the game at 60 FPS anyway ? I've completed the game in 30 FPS and it took me a long time and frustations

[IcedLemonTea]

@ffleader1 thanks, for your guide again, it helped me a lot

[ffleader1]

@Hotaru Sorry man. It has been like 2 years so I can't really remember the game well.

[IcedLemonTea]

Your guide is super awesome ! Though.... The story, how do you know that is 7921 years later ? and how do you know that the game event is taking place in year 2078 ?