Players Guide to the World of Caladrius Blaze

Hello fellow shmup players, welcome to Caladrius Blaze, I'm here to help you out on how the game works, inside and out, also, how to unlock stuff as well.

So sit back, scroll around and hope you'll find this guide useful.

And yes, before anyone asks, the game has fanservice, and is 100% uncut. (Except for the Arcade/AC version and the overseas NA/EU X360 digital version, of course. All other versions of Caladrius [Blaze] are 100% uncut.)

Unlockables

For first timers (or for those that bought the other ports), here's a list of unlockables within the game. This is compiled for quick and easier ways to get them instead of going through many playthroughs, which will be mentioned below. Note: Most unlocks can be done easily on the "Practice" difficulty if you don't feel like having to deal with enemy bullets, which there are none.




Unlocked after clearing Evolution Mode once with any character, any difficulty, either after Stage 5 if continued or Stage 6 if not continued after clearing Stage 5.





Boss character profiles are unlocked by clearing any mode once, but best in Evolution mode to have all profiles of bosses in one run.





Unlocked after clearing Evolution Mode once with any character, after clearing Stage 6. To make things easier for everyone and to get them all in less time, simply play Evolution mode on Stage 6 with all 8 characters and all co-op character matchups to unlock all conversations.





To unlock everything in the Graphics section of the Gallery, you must...
1. Shame Break all 8 playable characters fully. (Get hit with all your lives when you reach a certain amount of time/score/etc. in a stage, do this 3 times.)
2. Shame Break all 8 bosses fully. (Deplete each 1/3 of bosses life within limited time.)
3. No miss (no player hit) all stages in both Evolution and Arcade modes. (If you happen to get hit in any of the stages however, come back to the stage[s] and try again without losing a life. Easier on Practice difficulty.
4. Get all 8 single player character endings.
5. Clear in co-op (either syncro/dual) once in Evolution mode.

If all of the conditions are met before or after (it varies, I assume), the last 5 images on the gallery will also unlock to complete it.

Elemental Shot Customization:
Unlocks when you clear any game mode with 2 characters (easier on Practice difficulty). The customization screen will appear, but only to cleared games by characters you've completed it with. Easier way is to play it in Stage 6 in any game mode (recommending Practice difficulty) and clear it with everyone else to get all 8 types of element shots.

[Worgen Freeman]

Now we just need a way to increase the resolution to a modern resolution, none of this 720 bs.

[The Seedist]

What sort of progress saving do you speak of? I've noticed that my conversations after a complete 2P game (stages 1-6) aren't staying available after I turn the game off, which is really irritating. My image gallery stays complete, but my conversations don't. Is this normal? (I first simply completed stage 6 as you suggested to unlock the conversations, but it didn't work.)

Thanks for all your responses and help!

[NeoStrayCat]

@theseedist
Well, that because they always are in the same place, I'll put in pictures of locations where the Sol Towers are later on. And secondly, for the weapon levelings, yeah, I usually start at level 1. Fire each elemental shot once, repeat once you do the same from levels 2, then 3, and so on to 7. (Though this does require exiting the game out and back into the game.) The final stage (6) does let you start with enough ether chips to max out all weapons up to level 7.

Though be aware the game will not save your progress if you're doing the grind for the weapon leveling achievement normally. I suggest changing something in the options menu so that it actually saves your progress.

[The Seedist]

OK, so I just got "I Will Not Fight You" under these circumstances: 1P original mode, practice difficulty, skipped straight to stage 4. As soon as Islay appeared, I didn't touch the controls anymore. As I waited -- it takes a long time -- I remembered that when I first attempted the achievement, I may have died a few times. I probably got a continue during the battle, which I can imagine might null the achievement.

Yeah, for this one I certainly advise practice difficulty since it's such a long time to spend dodging attacks.

[The Seedist]

Something I hadn't considered is that while I have used all weapons at Lv7, I haven't used them at every level up to that point. I have often augmented a weapon by two or more points at a time, which could cause me to not get credit for using every level of every weapon. Each playthrough now takes this possibility into account. Until the achievement activates I will augment each weapon only once per level.

Thanks. Peace.

[The Seedist]

Thanks for the quick response, NeoStrayCat!

I timed out completely as Alex in the Islay battle, but I only did it once. I see that some achievements and/or gallery images activate either on the second or third try or in a particular game mode. I'll try in original, arcade, and evolution modes to see if that works.

How do you know when you find a sol citadel? I can't imagine how I could've missed at least one after all this time, yet I haven't seen anything that assures me that I have, indeed, found one. You say they're always in the same place; may I please ask for an example of where one is so I can be sure of what I'm looking to do?

[NeoStrayCat]

Yes I have @theseedist, the reason why I didn't put in an achievement guide here is that it would take up more space in this guide here than it should, but considering some people would want to know how to get them one of these days. I'll consider it soon.

For the 3 other achievements that you're mentioning, those solutions are...
-Time out against Islay completely as Alex, no need to damage it. (Easier on Practice difficulty.)
-No, Sol Citadels are separate from Ether restoring crystals. Their locations are always in the same place. (Except for Stage 4 as it is in the sky, and the 2 additional bonus missions.)
-As for using the Elemental Shots, you have to fire them once from each consecutive level from Levels 1 through 7. Just upgrading it all the way to 7 does not count.

[The Seedist]

And I don't understand how I still don't have the achievement for using all lv7 elemental weapons. I've raised all of them to lv7 at least once. Is there a technical detail lurking under the achievement, I wonder?

[The Seedist]

Namely "I Will Not Fight You" and "Revealed Treasure".

Clearly going time over against Islay as Alex isn't enough for the achievement. What, then, do they want?

Does collecting an ether-restoring crystal equate to "destroying a sol citadel"? If so, it's astonishing that after at least two playthroughs for each character there could be another hidden tower somewhere escaping the maelstrom of player projectiles.

[The Seedist]

Thanks a lot for this guide. Have you acquired all achievements? There are a few achievements for which I don't understand the descriptions.