Most items listed can be progressed while advancing the story of the respective volume, however I would recommend to leave them for the endgame just before you transfer your save into the next volume.

The exception being the Mail on Vol.3 (which has a warning so you won't forget) and MAYBE forum replies if you feel like it.

Hover over the black box, keep in mind this will spoil who joins your party.

PC

Thread

Subject

Reply

Atoli

1st

Hello, Hello, Haseo.

Sound.

2nd

Re: Sound.

You did well.

3rd

Re: You did well.

Zelkova.

4th

Re: Zelkova.

END.

Gaspard

1st

Hi!

Tri-Edge.

2nd

Re: Tri-Edge.

About Endrance.

3rd

Re: About Endrance.

Good Luck.

4th

Re: Good Luck.

END.

Kuhn

1st

Nice to have met you!

G.U.

2nd

Re: G.U.

Pi.

3rd

Re: Pi.

Gabi.

4th

Re: Gabi.

END.

Pi

1st

Remember This.

Who are you?

2nd

Re: Who are you?

Comatose.

3rd

Re: Comatose.

Debt.

4th

Re: Debt.

END.

Piros

1st

He of Fair Eyes.

Tri-Edge.

2nd

Re: Tri-Edge.

Rumors?

3rd

Re: Rumors?

Napping.

4th

Re: Napping.

END.

Silabus

1st

No Way!

Like What?

2nd

Re: Like What?

Resident of the Forest.

3rd

Re: Resident of the Forest.

You don't need to know.

4th

Re: You don't need to know.

END.

¹²³ Part of the Abyss Quest, after replying you have to go to the area mentioned in the thread for the next one to be unlocked.



¹ Part of the Abyss Quest.

Complete the Abyss Quest if you haven't, a hidden quest that's started by replying to a forum thread (check above section) that will unlock the Lord of the Dead quest.

To fight the Doppelganger all you need to do is go to any area and stand idle for 5-10 minutes after you've read the Official Thread "The Dark guy PK'ed me", eventually it will show up in the area.

* The Doppelganger won't show up on Dungeons or Story-Related Areas!

Beating it gives the following rewards:
Key Item: Own King.

This key item is required for amazing gear on Vol.2 and Vol.3

In Ravens @HOME you can visit the Serpent of Lore at any moment to re-battle any AIDA or Avatar that you have defeated during the story, doing so will earn you a wallpaper per victory, and another one for defeating all of them.

If you want, go back to the Arena and fight until you beat the Team Akatsuki's 1st place's WP.

As you may have noticed, sometimes after clearing an Area with a Rank B, A or S you are rewarded with a new Area Word, check the Area Words section for easy word combinations to go to that will help you unlock all of them.

Complete the Book of 1000, this is gonna be the longest task on every Volume.

¹² Part of the Abyss Quest, after replying you have to go to the area mentioned in the thread for the next one to be unlocked.



¹ Part of the Abyss Quest.

After you complete the main story, go watch Online Jack's Phase 6 episode.
Check the News forum for a thread called "My first time", a user called Goran will talk about a character present in front of Dol Dona's Junk Shop, go talk to Kazubolo, he will log off after a short conversation.
From this point onward visit him 2 more times in different places stated on the same thread to receive the Wallpaper #21.

Complete the Abyss Quest if you haven't, a hidden quest that's started by replying to a forum thread (check above section) that will unlock the Invasion of the Super Beings quest.

* Please note that this Abyss Quest is different from the one on the first Volume.

Using Adler Keys you can unlock every Lost Weapon available in the game and equip them to the appropriate Epitaph User, keep in mind that in Vol.3 they will be gifted to you straight away, so doing this is for completionists that want to see a bit more about Phyllo.

To fight the Doppelganger this time around you can use the same method as in Vol.1 or wait for the post-game, where you will receive an e-mail with the keyword "Moonlight", this word spawns a Doppelganger right away.

* The Doppelganger won't show up on Dungeons or Story-Related Areas!

Beating it gives the following rewards:
Weapon: Heine's Shadow, Heine's Invasion.
Key Item: Forgotten Shadow.

Beating it a second time will give you:
Weapon: Heine's Zero.
Key Item: Moonlight Faith.

Both key items are required for even better gear on Vol.3

In Ravens @HOME you can visit the Serpent of Lore at any moment to re-battle any AIDA or Avatar that you have defeated during the story, doing so will earn you a wallpaper per victory, and another one for defeating all of them.

If you want, go back to the Arena and fight until you beat the Team Only 1 Target 2 1st place's WP.

Defeat Gaspard at Rank 1 in Crimson VS.
Check out the Crimson VS section of this guide for deck strategy!

As you may have noticed, sometimes after clearing an Area with a Rank B, A or S you are rewarded with a new Area Word, check the Area Word section for easy word combinations to go to that will help you unlock all of them.

Complete the Book of 1000, this is gonna be the longest task on every Volume.

Hover over the black box, keep in mind this will spoil who joins your party.

PC

Thread

Subject

Reply

Saku.

1st

Just in case.

Bo's big sister.

2nd

Re: Bo's big sister.

White chrysanthemum.

3rd

Re: White chrysanthemum.

What a flower means.

4th

Re: What a flower means.

END.

* Unlike previous interactions, this email thread has permanent consequences.
If given the wrong replies, Saku will permanently leave The World.
If done correctly, she will be available again once the Netslum is available as a Root Town.


¹² Part of the Abyss Quest, after replying you have to go to the area mentioned in the thread for the next one to be unlocked.



Complete the Abyss Quest if you haven't, a hidden quest that's started by replying to a forum thread (check above section) that will unlock the Forest of Pain event, a challenging end-game dungeon with an awesome reward.

* Please note that this Abyss Quest is different from the one on the previous volumes.

Beat the Forest of Pain, a dungeon with 100 floors unlocked by following the secret Abyss Quest.

* Check the Forest of Pain sections for more information!

Defeat all the Chaotic PKs, this will make a post appear on the thread "They got me..." talking about another Chaotic PK with the nickname of "Eggmaniac".
Simply go find her as a regular PK encounter and defeat her, this will update the thread again telling you she was seen with "a big guy PC wearing gold armor".
Go talk to her and her trustworthy ally, and you will get her member address.

By using Avatar Awakening you can obtain Virus Cores, which are used at the area where you obtained your Lost Weapons to upgrade them.

To fight the Doppelganger you can again choose between waiting without interacting with anything for 5-10 minutes or simply use the Area Word "Moonlight" that you obtained during Vol.2 (If you didn't do a Data Transfer you'll have to wait for this volume's end-game to get it).

* The Doppelganger won't show up on Dungeons or Story-Related Areas!

Beating it gives the following rewards:
Weapon: DG-0.
Key Item: Bygone Servant.

Beating it a second time will give you:
Armor: Other Self.
Accesory: Shadow.
For these rewards you have to beat the game first.

Do note that this time around the Doppelganger is wearing special equipment that will make it receive 0 damage for a while, this is because its gear makes it so that any damage received is done to its SP instead of its HP, once the SP bar depletes it will start receiving damage normally so just keep hitting it with everything you have.

* The rewards for beating it a second time require you to have the 4 key items obtained from beating it previous times (1 in Vol.1, 2 in Vol.2 and 1 in Vol.3).

In Ravens @HOME you can visit the Serpent of Lore at any moment to re-battle any AIDA or Avatar that you have defeated during the story, doing so will earn you a wallpaper per victory, and another one for defeating all of them.

If you want, go back to the Arena and fight until you beat team The Sweepstakers 1st place's WP.

Additionally, once you finish the main story, you will receive a challenge from team The Sweepstakers, go to the arena and defeat them on a Limit Battle to earn some new weapons.

Defeat Gaspard at Rank 1 in Crimson VS.
Check out the Crimson VS section of this guide for deck strategy!

As you may have noticed, sometimes after clearing an Area with a Rank B, A or S you are rewarded with a new Area Word, check the Area Word section for easy word combinations to go to that will help you unlock all of them.

Complete the Book of 1000, this is gonna be the longest task on every Volume.

Send this special letter to your favorite party member for a special ending and achievement.
More about this on the "Greeting Cards & Affection" section.

The sections below go into further detail about specific topics that apply to all volumes, the exception being "Forest of Pain" which kinda earned two sections due to its sheer length.

On this section there are some suggested ways to optimize the grinding of the campaigns, the more you slack about them during the story, the more tedious they will be during the end game, so you have only yourself to blame!

Ideally once you reach the end game of the respective volume you'll only have to do minor cleanup on these, but if you are like me, you are going to slack on them completely during the story and do everything last minute before moving to the next volume lol.

Yes, this is an Area, not a campaign.
But it just so happens to be the best area in the game for campaign completion, on almost every campaign I'll tell you to use it, and here's the reason:

Upon arrival to this level 1 area, the island where you spawn has:

• 3 Chim Chim trees.
  
• 1 PK Area.
  
• 1 Lucky Animal.
  
• 1 Mecha Grunty.
  
• 1 Addler Key (Vol.2 Only).

So you can farm up to 4 campaigns in this one area.
The "strategy" would be to kick the trees once as soon as you warp in (and every Chim Chim that drops from them), then kick the Lucky Animal, then help the Mecha Grunty, then kick the PK senseless, and finally kick every tree and Chim Chim again before warping out (Lots of Kickin'!).

Doing it like this will obviously give you 1 of each on 3 campaigns, and ideally anywhere between 50-120 Chim Chims, and since its a Berserker Area, finding Chaotic PKs will be very easy.

On the Area Words section of this guide you will find other -inferior- alternatives to this area, but I would stick to this paradise for all 3 volumes.

* The placing is different in Vol.1 but it still has everything, just a little farther apart than Vol.2 and Vol.3

If you are doing this one on Vol.1, let me empathize how much I understand your pain... joking aside, if you intend to complete it on Vol.1, be diligent about it, every time the story warps you to a root town, check on everyone real quick.

On Vol.2 and Vol.3 however, we are given the Flyer Radar, an infinite use item that can tell you how many people haven't received a flyer in the area that you are currently in, and their names.

* In Lumina Cloth you can do any kind of Arena Match and once it's done the list of NPCs present will be refreshed, (tip provided by @Eymeil), while in the other servers visiting any area will give the same result (or simply log off and on again).

For the ones in areas, all you got to learn is how to read the destination area info from when you are mixing area words.
On the Area Status, you will see a picture with the area LV, mission, elements, treasure, and 2 icons with numbers next to them.
The blue people icon represents how many PCs are present on that area.
The people with the pink heart represent how many of those you have met before.
And these values get randomly generated every time you put a word in the mix.

So, the idea is to put 3 words to generate an Area, and check for the ratio to be something like (4, 2), meaning there are 4 PCs on that area, of which you have met 2... if not then keep switching any word of the Area until the desired result is achieved, teleport to the area and look for them (you can use the radar to know their names).

Check the Bikman's Model sections of this guide for a list of every NPC location!

For this campaign we are going to need to defeat every chaotic PK, and a total of 50 PK encounters, the easiest way to go about it is touse the 3rd word: Berserker on any area that you create, this word will guarantee a PK area to be present on every area that has the word on it, and it makes very easy to find Chaotic PKs.

For this campaign we require to get a lot of Chim Chim orbs, to have kicked one of every kind of Chim Chim and ONE Chim Chim Crown.
If you have kicked at least the bare minimum required to beat the game, it's safe to say that you have kicked at least one of normal and rare Chim Chims, so that just leaves 3 minor details:

Chim Assassin:
Go to any dungeon and simply wait, the amount of time depends on how many Chim Chims you are carrying:

• 99-90 Spheres: 8 minutes.
  
• 89-80 Spheres: 10 minutes.
  
• 79-70 Spheres: 15 minutes.
  
• 69-60 Spheres: 18 minutes.
  
• 59-50 Spheres : 20 minutes.
  
• <50 Spheres: Never.

King Chim Chim:
Either go for random chances of it showing instead of any normal type, or find a Nue Lucky Animal and kick it, it's effect is to summon the King.

Chim Crown:
Kings have a random (small) chance of dropping them, some users (johnlucci and Lexbya) have tested and confirmed you do not need one for Vol.2 nor Vol.3

If you don't have a single one by the end of everything you can possibly do in the game and for some reason REALLY want one, start farming Nue.

Note: Dr. Kubo may purchase them from you for 10,000 GP but it is not worth the trouble.

To complete this Campaign you need to finish 50 races, and collect a total of 3600 Chim Chims, plus earning first place on all 5 missions earns you bike parts and other useful rewards.

For the 50 races:
There is an exploit that can help you complete them easily and claim the first place, as soon as the Mission starts, head towards any King Chim Chim directly (don't worry about collecting any other Chim Chim), right before you hit him (as last second as you can) open your minimap and exit out of it by pressing B, if timed right the mission will be over, with you on the 1st place.

For the 3600 Chim Chims:
Mission 5 is the ideal for farming, as each run will earn you 120-140 Chim Chims approximately.

* Using the 1st Word: Passing creates racing Areas for this campaign, stating it just in case.

TL;DR Lucky Animal spawns are an over complicated mess that relies both on the last digit of the Average Party Level and last digit of an Area Level.

This guide will keep things simple by assuming your entire party is max level (50, 100, 150) the APL's last digit is 0, so you just need to go to an area with the correct level's last digit.
Feel free to visit the wiki[dothack.fandom.com] for all other scenarios.


To complete this campaign we need to help Mecha Grunty 50 times (30 in Vol.3) by feeding him Chim Chims, and every time we help him, he requires +1 Chim Chim on your next meeting.

Ideally you are farming for Chim's Kicker while doing this campaign, just keep helping the little guy out every time and voilà.

Fly! (fly) Fly! (fly) Fly! (fly) Mecha Grunty!!!

Welcome to the only questline in the series that will remove your will to live!
Just kidding... kinda, so, as you have probably learned by now, once you receive the campaign "Bikman's Flyer" you have to interact with every NPC in the game at least once, lucky for us they gave us a special radar to locate whichever NPC we havent found!!!... on Vol.2 and Vol.3

Since we are on Vol.1 we will have to do it the old fashioned way, every time you reload any root town (Warping into it, logging in, returning from an area or arena match) the list of NPCs present will refresh, find and talk to whoever you haven't before.

As a general advise I'd say start this one as soon as it's given to you, and do it along every visit to any root town during the main story, I did it this way and by the end only had to find like 15 NPCs.

Aside from that the tables below will tell you the towns where you can find every NPC.

Special thanks to @Dorg4s for making me add this one and also providing a source.[pathshower.wordpress.com]

Can't write... clever banter... Steam word limit... Must... document... useless... info...

Steam word limit is BS...

For the Championship match I used the following deck:


Source.[www.gamefaqs.com]

¹ See the Area Words section for information on how to get this card.

For most of Crimson VS on Vol.3 I kept using my champion deck from Vol.2 and only really switched it close to Rank 50, not because it starting losing... it didn't, but because I wanted to reach Rank 1 faster and had a bunch of new cards available.

The newest deck was:


Source.[www.gamefaqs.com]

However, for the Championship match I had to make slight order changes to assure victory:


Once you beat the champion you will be rewarded with a General card that allows us to create the ultimate deck:


Source.[www.gamefaqs.com]

As the original poster of this deck (vote4piros) states, the computer CAN'T create a deck to counter it, after I won the Championship I started trying this deck out of curiosity and I still have to see it give me a lose, ideal for collecting any missing card you have left.

Originally posted by lainverse:

Vol.3 This deck does not use the General card Shino - Twilight Brigade and can easily reach Rank 1.

Position

Card

1st

050 Come Back Alive.

2nd

057 Shadow of Memories.

3rd

082 Don't Kick!!.

General

001 Haseo at Dawn.

Originally posted by JasonCelic:

It's a pure snipe deck however it does well due to it's high cost even on most shield decks. However whenever assault becomes the norm it just wins.

Position

Card

1st

077 Rose Letter.

2nd

081 Dancing Lion.

3rd

077 Rose Letter.

General

020 Endrance the Exquisite.

Originally posted by Omegajuriko♐:

The Idea is to use the 3 Part Delta (Yata) Combo, to use the strongest debuff on enemy cards to win most card clashes, or to at least have a Masquerade Ball active to protect gaspard from 1-hko from his own ability. Failing that, place for evil and/or Limitless Knowledge give a large enough buff to 1-hko or survive long 'nuff to. Then Gaspards' change ring pops to flip the enemies' AP and HP, leaving them with a frankly ridiculous attack(witch thanx to masquerade(max dmg 3) doesn't amount to much) and a pitiful 1-6 HP, that can be melted in 1 to 2 turns(with masquerade on).
Ye this deck doesn't win every time... just about +90% of the time! Including 1 of 3 Gaspards' champion decks (sorry, don't remember witch one)!
The card order is not set in stone, if you wanna move the cards around- feel free!

Position

Card

1st

149 The Place for Evil.

2nd

131 Limitless Knowledge.

3rd

132 Masquerade Ball.

General

106 Card King Gaspard.

As you may have figured Affection is basically only really useful for Greeting Cards, so here are some ways to raise it:

• Kicking a God Chim Chim (appears on any area with 3rd World: BBQ Plate).
  
• Gifting them items (rarest items yield better results).
  
• Performing actions that your allies like during battle (such as healing or Rengeki).

Through the course of the game you will sometimes receive Greeting Cards to send to your friends, these cards allow you to get a little bit more info about the real-life personas behind your allies and raise their affection towards you, and most important of all: flirting.

In all honesty just reply whatever you want and have fun with it, there are far better ways to raise Affection and since for most replies an Affection level is required anyways it's kinda useless and redundant to begin with.
For this reason I also suggest you hold to your cards until the end of Vol.3 when you have everyone and you max the Affection of those who are gonna be blessed with your cards beforehand.

Assuming you have the Affection requirement for your friend to reply back the thread will continue until it reaches its natural conclusion. The only exception is when you act like a rude ass, at which point 1 out of 2 things can happen:

• On the next reply there will be no Affection raise.
  
• The thread will stop immediately and there will be no Affection raise.

It's almost like if being an unlikeable ass makes people not want to deal with you... go figure.

Because most mails have no incorrect reply or when they do it's usually painfully obvious, finding a guide of "the correct replies" is almost impossible, it's just not worth it, and even if I love to document useless info, this guide will not be the exception, I will list the greeting cards and indicate which of your friends stop the thread on the first reply since you may feel you did something wrong, but that's about it, if you started a thread and it died after you made fun of your friend you got only yourself to blame.

Spoilers for WHO joins your party through the games, obviously.

* Hover with your mouse to see the image.

If you are in a hurry to complete the threads simply send the card, open the The World login screen and go back to the Altimit Mine OS desktop, the next mails will be ready for your reply, rinse and repeat.

This is a special type of Greeting Card that unlocks a special engagement event.
It requires you to have Maxed Affection with the PC to even send it.

After it's sent you will receive a reply accepting your feelings, and asking to meet at the Mac Anu Chaos Gate, after that simply have to watch this hard earned special ending with your favorite waifu or husbandu.

The Forest of Pain is a special end-game dungeon that's unlocked as part of the Abyss Quest, full of tough new bosses, exclusive rare gear and items.

Unlike any other dungeon, the Forest of Pain is composed of 100 floors.

As mentioned before, the Forest of Pain is a 100 floor dungeon composed of several phases, these phases are made out of 5 floors (which the game calls blocks) from which the first 4 are filled with items and monsters, and the 5th contains a Boss Battle, a Platform and a Save Point (only available after defeating the boss!).

Every phase that you complete (regardless if you completed the Phase Bonuses) will unlock a checkpoint from which you can start the Forest of Pain the next time you visit the area, this however goes up to floor 50, after which you will have no option to return to advanced floors and will have to start from floor 50 every time, Save Points however will still be available every 5 floors.

A simple trick to remember to pass through as fast as possible, is that 90% of the floors entrance and exits are placed in a "Ɔ" shape, meaning that usually you can take a straight line from the floor entrance, then take the first Left/Right path available and if you take the next one you will find the exit.
Use this as an easy way to complete each block after you have finished gathering any item and finished every Phase Bonus that interests you.

Note: If you have the Accesory "Demon Safe Shoes", life will be 100x times easier for you, this item gives you the ability "Super Sprint" which makes you run 25% faster and avoid enemy encounters.
To unlock it simply complete every Goblin Race.

After every Boss you will find a Save Point and a Neo Platform, simply put, Neo Platforms allow you to change Party Members without having to return to the Root Town, allowing adjustments to your strategy on the go.

Every phase (or five blocks) in the Forest of Pain is given a Phase Bonus.
If you complete it's conditions, you will receive a special item.
Phase Bonuses will be displayed in the first block of each phase, and can be checked by pressing "A" on the full map.


Congratulations on finishing the Forest of Pain tutorial, you are rewarded with a new Party Member.

While you can tackle the Forest of Pain however you want, I'll list a couple of suggestions that helped me complete it almost pain-free (pun intended), and commentary for each kind of Phase Bonus challenge.
During the first 50 floors, your biggest problem will be to keep monsters alive long enough, as a general suggestion for any challenge that you are having trouble completing because enemies die out too fast simply change the Party Strategy to "Life" so that your Party doesn't attack, leaving you with enough room to work.

If you came to the Forest of Pain with a Lv 150 Party, you will have a hard time doing the combos before the enemies die out, simply approach any encounter and leave only one monster alive, and finally, with any Dual Guns equipped start shooting basic attacks from as far away as possible, this will deal 1 HP damage to the monster and stun him a bit, allowing you to complete any length combos.

Spam the Dual Gun skill "Justice" on every enemy while trying to only hit one at a time.

* Do not Trigger Finish, it does not count for some reason as a Skill Trigger.

Get them as soon as possible, otherwise you risk not finding enough on the last floor.

To be safe I'd use a Fairy's Orb on every floor to complete it as fast as possible.

Now that we are done with the first 50 floors, the real Forest of Pain begins.

Basically, there's 3 major differences.

• From floor 51 onward, each Phase Bonus contains 4 challenges instead of 1.
  
• Enemies now have a lot more HP, keeping them alive is no longer a concern.
  
• Checkpoints won't be stored every 5 floors, you can save your game and go back to Root Town as normal, but you will have to start over from floor 50 every time you return.

As mentioned before, the more we advance, the least we have to worry about the enemies being alive long enough to do our thing, however, as a general advice I'd rather do every challenge possible on the first floor available.
Again to simplify some challenges on the early floors I would keep the Party Strategy on Life.

Obviously every step I write is optional, however the more you accomplish the easier it will be.
I include a brief description of even the self-explanatory ones for the sake of consistency.

Same as the 1st Half, for the first couple of floors stick to using the Dual Gun skill "Justice" to a single enemy and avoid using the Trigger Finish afterwards, later on once the enemies have a big enough health bar you can pretty much battle normally as you will complete this one as part of the "Defeat XXX enemy parties." one.

Find and defeat the given number of enemy parties, for the most part this one will come naturally while doing the rest, but keep tabs on it in case you followed my advice and finished most battle-related ones on the first couple of floors.

This one shouldn't give you much trouble, if for whatever reason you are dying at all, then get a Harvest Cleric in your Party(Shino or Atoli)and you should be fine.

• Have your Party made out of members with Maxed Affection.
  
• Equip them with Morale boosting gear.
  
• Switch your Awakening to "Beast Awakening".
  
• Start a battle.
  
• Use strong healing items on your Party (regardless of them actually needing it).
  
• Once Awakening is available perform it but DO NOT damage any enemy.
  
• Keep using healing items and Awakenings every time.

For example, I made a party withShino and Alkaid(both with Maxed Affection but no Morale boosting gear because I'm lazy), I started a battle with the first enemy group I found on floor 51 and spammed 5 Wonder Sodas, with that and a little healing skills used by both girls(My Alkaid knows healing spells)Beast Awakening became available within the first minute, obviously I used it and repeated 3 more times, and voilà... one of the Phase Bonuses was completed on the very first battle I found.

Use Fairy's Orb on every floor until you get it, most floors have 3 treasure boxes each.

Originally this section of the guide directed you to an amazing website I had found (http://indzchan.pafu.org) which was owned by Lindsay, this was done as such with the intent that the website got all the visits and credit she deserves.

As of 5/19/2021 I have been made aware that this website no longer exists and as such I will be providing below the Wayback Machine links that were given to me by @Omegajuriko♐ while also listing the content as plain text.

Please be aware that 100% credit of this section goes to Lindsay/Lindz and that, as it was written originally on this guide, should I ever be in contact with her, this section may be modified to respect her wishes.

The way that this works is that you can be rewarded with an Area Word upon clearing an area with a rank of B, A or S.
From what I vaguely recall of my playthrough I did most Area Words in the Abyss Quest areas, however I may be remembering this incorrectly as according to Lindsay you need to do so in an area of a level that matches the ones below, for example, should you want the 1st Word: Forgotten, you need to do so on a Lv 2 Area. For this she recommends you use Grass and/or Wilderness type fields since they are the smaller.

This section contains uncensored spoilers, you have been warned.

This section is mostly for cleaning up whatever you have left, which if you followed this guide will most likely be the "self-explanatory" ones such as "True Enlightenment" which need 0 additional information since they are straightforward "Do X a total of Y times".

I decided to include the list of achievements since some of them are hidden and this guide already has information on most of them anyways.

King of The World
Obtain all achievements.


Reborn
Complete Vol. 1 Rebirth.


Reminiscing
Complete Vol. 2 Reminisce.


Redeemed
Complete Vol. 3 Redemption.


Reconnected
Complete Vol. 4 Reconnection.


Perfect Score
Achieve an overall S-rank area result.


Clear All Areas
Achieve an overall A-rank area result 50 or more times.


Trading Up
Conduct a trade with an ally.


Mercantile Spirit
Conduct 50 or more trades with allies.


Just a Little Something
Give a gift to an ally.


A Show of Gratitude
Give 30 or more gifts to allies.


Rookie Rider
Ride your bike.


Saddle Sore
Ride your bike for over 30 minutes.


My First Alchemy Set
Alchemize an item.


Alchemical Brother
Alchemize 100 or more times.


Mecha Grunty's Savior
Rescue Mecha Grunty 5 or more times.


Animal Kickers' Activist
Kick or use your bike to ram a Lucky Animal 5 or more times.


Chim's Kicker
Kick or use your bike to ram 30 or more Chim Chims.


The Great Communicator
Speak to 10 or more PCs in the same volume.


PKK 4 Life
Defeat 5 or more PKers in the same volume.


Lone Racer
Finish first on any course in the "Highway Master" campaign.


Mecha Grunty's Messiah
Complete the "Stray Mecha Grunty" campaign.


Animal Hunter
Complete the "Lucky Data" campaign.


El-Chiminator
Complete the "Chim's Kicker" campaign.


The World Famous
Complete the "Bikman's Model" campaign.


Terror of Death
Complete the "Chase the Bounty" campaign.


My Way Is the Highway
Complete the "Highway Master" campaign.


Rengeki of the Century
Perform 100 or more Rengeki attacks.


Assassin's Touch
Perform 300 or more Rengeki attacks.


Back Attacker
Perform 100 or more surprise attacks.


Sneaky Striker
Perform 500 or more surprise attacks.


I Have Seen the Light
Perform 50 or more Awakenings.


True Enlightenment
Perform 200 or more Awakenings.


Fighter-In-Training
Win 100 or more battles.


Battle-Hardened
Win 500 or more battles.


Ultimate Warrior
Win 1000 or more battles.


Courageous Companions
Participate in 50 or more Arena matches.


Battlefield Besties
Participate in 200 or more Arena matches.


Lightning-Fast Reflexes
Perform 50 or more counterattacks.


Otherworldly Speedster
Perform 200 or more counterattacks.


Data Drain
Perform 10 or more Avatar Awakenings.


Red-Faced Intermediate
Win 100 or more times in Crimson VS in Vol. 2 and 3.


Rosy-Cheeked Expert
Win 500 or more times in Crimson VS in Vol. 2 and 3.


Sanguine Master
Open the gallery after having collected all cards in Crimson VS in Vol. 3.


Popping the Question
Watch an engagement event.


Guild With Benefits
Reach guild rank 9 by raising all books in the Book of 1000 to rank 9 in Vol. 3 after having carried over your save data from Vol. 1 and 2.


Wordsmith
Collect a total of 60 or more 1st Area Words in Vol. 1, 2, or 3.


Lexical Locator
Collect a total of 60 or more 2nd Area Words in Vol. 1, 2, or 3.


Vocabulary Virtuoso
Collect a total of 60 or more 3rd Area Words in Vol. 1, 2, or 3.


Knows No Bounds
Raise Haseo to level 150 in Vol. 3 or Vol. 4.


The Truth Is Out
Unlock all Terminal Disc files.


The World: A Parody
View all Parody Mode content.

On this section you will find useful Area Words for various things, usually having the required element right next to the spawn point.

* Do notice that areas on Θ or Σ servers won't be accesible until the respective Root Town is unlocked.

Chase the Bounty:
Δ Elegant Aster's Berserker.
Θ Serene Evening's Berserker.
Σ Serene Sunshine's Berserker.
Σ Competing Natural Berserker.

Chim's Kicker:
Δ Elegant Aster's Berserker.

Lucky Data Collection:
Δ Elegant Aster's Berserker. ¹
Δ Counting Wrath's Two Wings.
Σ Serene Sunshine's Berserker.

¹ From Vol.2 onward this area changes the location of the Lucky Animal to be right next to everything else, this will help get the 50 kicks fast.

Stray Mecha Grunty:
Δ Elegant Aster's Berserker.
Σ Competing Natural Berserker.

Easy A Score:
Θ Raging Scheming Conclusion.

Adler Keys:
Θ Competing Cloudless Two Wings

Cheat Code:
Σ Serene Sunshine's Berserker.

God Chim Chim (Affection):
Σ Spring's Maiden's BBQ Plate.

Visit the following areas and obtain the Treasure from the Beast Temple.

Vol.2

Vol.3

* Special thanks to @Calintz for the Area Words for Vol.3!

Below is a list of words that add special effects to an Area when used, most of them are end game rewards, except the campaign related ones.

Δ Counting Blazing Berserker
Contains a lv 40 Boss, PK battle, Lucky Animal and easy Chim Chim farming without battles.
By @Rusman.

Δ Counting Failing Two Wings
Contains NPCs (for coupons sidequest), Lucky Animal and counts to give the area word "Immovable" (Clear with B or higher).
By @Magnum Hocus.

Welcome to The World, .hack is a multi-media franchise which can have each entry enjoyed individually, the games you are playing now take place later in the timeline and can be enjoyed as their own thing, however if you want to complement them with all the knowledge from previous entries you will be rewarded with references here and there that help the world feel much more realistic and alive.

For Last Recode the only piece of media directly linked that shares main character with the G.U. games would be the anime .hack//Roots, which takes place before the events of the games begin and has an OVA that takes place after G.U. Vol.3, all of which can help you contextualize some of the character motivations and relationships that are established prior to the game starting, though once again I remind you that even then the games do not abuse this concept and for the most part do a pretty decent job at providing as much of that context as possible within themselves.

If you want to strictly adhere to the chronological order of the series then the wiki's[dothack.fandom.com] got you covered.

Since you are still reading this section I assume that you realize that the wiki's timeline can be overwhelming for a newbie to the series, do not worry, I got you covered, we will talk about a simplified order you can follow which then you can contextualize to the exact years with the help of the wiki if you so desire.

For now you can skip the Novels and Manga and just tackle them if you really get into the franchise, don't worry I will not tell anyone ;)

Lastly, if at the time of reading this you are lucky enough that .hack//LINK has been released in english (or you speak japanese) then most of your work has been done for you, more on that at the bottom of this section.

Disclaimer: For those that do know about this franchise I know you will have comments on the order, such as "but technically most scenes of the OVA Intermezzo happens BEFORE the anime SIGN so…", trust me I get it, but we are making things simpler here, though if you have suggestions to achieve that I would love to hear them!

1. A: SIGN.
   Do not watch the OVAs yet.
   
2. OVA: Intermezzo.
   
3. G: Infection.
   
4. G: Mutation.
   
5. G: Outbreak.
   
6. G: Quarantine.
   
7. OVA: Liminality.
   
8. OVA: Unison.
   
9. A: Roots.
   Do not watch the OVAs yet.
   
10. G: G.U. Part 1
    
11. G: G.U. Part 2
    
12. G: G.U. Part 3
    
13. OVA: G.U. Returner.
    
14. G: G.U. Last Recode.
    
15. G: Link.
    
16. A: Quantum.
    
17. M: Beyond The World.
    
18. G: Versus.

Removed from the list above to keep things simple.

• N: Epitaph of the Twilight.
  
• N: AI Buster.
  Simple 1.
  
• N: ZERO.
  Simple 2 - 6.
  
• N: Another Birth.
  Simple 7 - 8.
  
• M: Legend of the Twilight Bracelet.
  Technically speaking you could watch the anime of the same name, however I would strongly advice against it due to the fact that it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks as it changes all the relevant events and characters.
  Simple 9.
  
• M: Alcor.
  
• M: GnU.
  
• N: CELL.
  Simple 10 - 12.
  
• M: 4KOMA Peaco's Story.
  Simple 13.
  
• N: Ragtime.
  Simple 14 - 15.
  
• M: Quantum Introduction.
  Simple 16 - 18.

• OVA: GIFT.
  Joke confrontation between the cast of SIGN and the first 4 games, also known as .hack//IMOQ.
  
• N: 4KOMA.
  Parody manga that has the cast of IMOQ hang around with the cast of G.U.
  
• M: G.U. TRILOGY.
  This movie retells the events of the G.U. Games while also changing some events drastically.
  
• OVA: G.U. Parody Mode.
  Similar to GIFT this is a joke version of key moments of the G.U. Games with altered dialogue.

At the time of writing .hack//LINK is a PSP Japanese exclusive title in the franchise that just so happens to be the one to simplify and compile most of the .hack timeline into one neat playable package (excluding content released afterwards such as Last Recode's exclusive additions because that is how space time works).

To keep it simple, LINK introduces an extremely convenient plot element that will allow the main character to relive most of the .hack franchise through a gorgeous official and ordered timeline, the main character from LINK will then help the main characters of the respective .hack media and foil the plans of the newly introduced antagonists while allowing you to experience most of the original story with some alterations here and there.

While this is not the ideal way to experience most of the stories, as they now include elements that were not there before that alter the feelings and pacing, it is a convenient way if you do not have a way to purchase a bunch of manga and novels to consume them, however, as I mentioned earlier, at the time of writing this thing is only legally available in Japanese, if this is not a language that you are able to read then there is no official release that you can acquire, please go stalk Bandai Namco to force them allow it to become a thing.

Lucky for you non-Japanese speakers there is a beautiful Fan Translation available online made by the team below, which will have you modify a legally obtained ISO of the official Japanese game to install the translation patch, a pretty straightforward process that is properly documented on their website at wordpress, as this is not an official release however I will not be linking it on this guide, however I may have accidentally given you all the information needed to easily google it, oh well I am silly like that.

• Kuukai – Translating the story elements.
  
• JunBansyoya – Making things work, Translating menus.
  
• Keii – Translating the story elements.
  
• Kazetrigger – Translating the story elements, testing.
  
• Angga – Translating story elements.
  
• Deniz/Falions – Translating story elements.

Please thank these heroes for their hard work and dedication and tell them that this random ass guide owner who they do not know technically did not send you their way ;)