Vernal Edge is a neat little game that is chock-full of secrets to discover, and a few achievements to go with them. Most of these you'll unlock by being a bit more thorough when exploring the floating islands, be it completing side-quests, mini games, or going for 100% completion. But some achievements can be bit more tricky to uncover. Here's a simple guide for how to unlock every achievement for Vernal Edge!

Beware of some mild spoilers below!

Disclaimer: This is my first time making a guide for a game, so bear with me as I try to figure these things out. I may update this guide a bit in the future, possibly adding some more pictures and more detailed steps once I have a bit more knowledge behind how some of these achievements work.

Beat the game

Pretty self-explanatory. Just beat the final boss to finish the game and unlock the achievement.

Beat the game on Vicious difficulty

Also pretty self-explanatory. Beat the final boss and finish the game on the hardest difficulty. Vicious difficulty is normally unlocked by beating the game once, however if you want to unlock it from the get go and have your first playthough be on Vicious difficulty, we have a secret code for that!

Just go into the settings to access the secret code menu and enter the following code:


You should get a message saying Vicious difficulty has been unlocked. Good luck out there!

Enter Unreality of your own accord

You'll get this achievement by naturally playing through the game. Roughly halfway through the game, you'll obtain the ability to open these strange rifts that you'll come across on some islands. Simply open one of these rifts and enter inside to earn the achievement.

Find the hidden palette

You will need the Wall Run and Pulse Fly upgrades for this.

On Mossy Isle, if you go to the left of where the airship docks, you'll eventually come across a locked door. To unlock it you'll need to do a bit of exploring in Unreality. If you go to the Unreality Crossroads (first accessed through the Barren Cave) and take the right path from the central room. You will soon enter a large room with green upside-down trees in it. Use Pulse Fly to fly to the top of the room and you will find a secret path. Continue forward and you'll find yourself in the same area as when you were sent to Unreality the first time.

Continue forward like before and go through the pink and green door, after which you immediately go to the left and use Wall Run to go up to a new section. This section is a relatively tough platforming section with spinning projectiles. I'm not sure if you can dash through these projectiles naturally without getting hit, but if you can't, then having the Reflection and Swift Slice Memories equipped should help immensely. At the end of the path will be a secret boss fight against Patche. Your reward for beating them? The ??? Key.

Return to the locked door on the Mossy Isle and use the key to unlock it. Inside you'll find... something strange... but you'll also find a funky new colour palette for Vernal that can be toggled in the settings menu, and a new achievement to go with it!

Purchase every item from every shop

This one is actually easier than it sounds. There are three shops in the game: The Church soldier in Pyrena that sells you new combat moves, as well as a shopkeeper in both Pyrena and Rosalis that will sell Spells, Memories, and Memory Points. Personally I would prioritize buying from the Pyrena shopkeeper first, as the Memories they sell are very useful for both combat and exploration.

The amount of money you'll need to buy everything is pretty high (I'll have to play again to know the exact amount), but if you clear every combat encounter and open every treasure chest you find, you should be able to earn more than enough money to do so, so grinding shouldn't be an issue at all. If you find the "Money" Memory, you can equip that to speed up the process a bit, as enemies will drop more money when defeated while it's equipped. Once you buy the last item from the last shopkeeper, the achievement should unlock.

Parry 8 hits without taking damage

This was a tough one for me, personally. To get this achievement you will need to purchase the "Deflection" Memory from the Pyrena shopkeeper. With this activated, if you press [DOWN] just as an enemy is about to attack you, instead of getting hit you will instead "parry" it and reflect the damage back to the enemy. However, the window to parry an attack is much smaller than normally blocking it. It's also important to know that a regular block won't count towards the achievement. Personally it's likely the easiest to parry the attacks of the basic enemy grunts pictured below, as they only have two different attacks and they're pretty well telegraphed.



It will take some time and practice, and there's a decent chance you might die before succeeding, but if you can manage to successfully parry an attack eight times in a row without getting hit once, the achievement will be yours!

Acquire Treasure Sense

You will need the Wall Run upgrade for this.

In the lower parts of Pyrena you will meet a shady NPC named Sen. She's willing to sell you a very useful Memory for the "low" price of 999,999,999,999 pieces. Obviously this an amazing and totally affordable price, but Sen's willing to cut us a deal. All she needs is a special medicinal powder and they'll gladly give us the Memory, free of charge! So, where can we find this special medicinal powder?

When you reach Rosalis, you'll come across an NPC that resembles a goat on the far right side of town. He has some of the medicine we're looking for, but he'll only give it to us in exchange for a very special plant in return. To find this plant we'll need to head over to the Arboretum. In the large, vertical room of the Arboretum, if you Wall Run up the left side you'll come across the plant you're looking for: a stock of... broccoli? Grab it and head back to the goat in Rosalis and he'll give you the Medical Powder.

Return to Sen in Pyrena to give her the powder. After a short cutscene and a secret boss fight against Sen, herself you will get Treasure Seeker: an extremely useful Memory that allows you to see how many pickups/secrets you have collected on every island. Acquiring the Memory will also give you the achievement as well!

Acquire Pacifist's Curse

This could possibly be the first achievement you unlock, as you can get it as soon as you start a new playthrough. At the very beginning on the game, in the first room, you'll fall down next to a lone training dummy. With this dummy, you can learn the basics and practice with Vernal Edge's combat mechanics. If you pay close attention, you'll notice that the dummy's health bar is actually depleting veeeeery slowly. And if you're curious just like I was, you might also wonder if anything would happen if you manage to actually destroy it.

After spending a few minutes whacking it around, it turns out you actually can destroy the training dummy. And this first one in particular drops the "Pacifist's Curse" Memory. It actually doesn't really do anything useful, as it actually halves the damage you deal to enemies when you have it equipped. But hey, if you want to make your playthough that much harder, then go for it! Plus you also got another achievement for getting it so no harm, no foul (no pun intended).

Discover your roots

This one requires you to learn to Read (yes, really).

Dotted across the islands are smaller rooms with shelves that you can interact with. These aren't really anything special, at least upon first glance, however once you acquire the Read ability from the Hidden Facility, you can see what these shelves really have to offer: some additional context behind the backstory and lore of the game, what happened before the game started and some insight on Vernal's family. There are quite a few of these hidden bookshelves around the world, but their locations are as follows (I may add pictures in the future):

• Aloe Air Fortress: In the upper right area of the Air Fortress, specifically the blue steam-filled room. On the right side of the room is a short hallway with the bookshelf at the end.
  
• Arboretum: In the far right part of the Arboretum, in the room where you first acquired the Airstep upgrade, you will find the bookshelf to the left near a treasure chest.
  
• Debris Field: On the upper area of the Debris Field is a door to enter a large tower. Go immediately to the left after entering the tower to find a room with the bookshelf.
  
• Fungal Ruins: This one's a little tricky. In the centre of upper-right section of the Fungal ruins, there is a small section comprised of three small, rectangular rooms. The top-most room has the bookshelf in it.
  
• Jungle: On the upper platform inside the Hermit's cabin. It's pretty easy to spot.
  
• Peony's Letter: In your inventory, you can now read the letter from Vernal's mother.
  
• Pyrena: In the training yard found to the left of Sen. Jump up a vertical section to reach an alcove with the bookshelf.

After reading each entry, you should unlock a new conversation on the airship. Trigger it for a bittersweet conversation between Vernal and Chervil, as well as the achievement.

Win the fishing minigame

This one was... oddly tough for me to get. At the very bottom of the Debris Field, you can find an NPC next to his fishing hole. He'll offer you a challenge to catch 75kg worth of fish. You'll need to knock the fish out of the air and hit them into the net to score points, but this is easier said than done. The fish are as follows:

• Blue fish are worth 5kg each and need to be blocked to knock them out of the air.
  
• Pink fish are worth 6kg each and need to be hit with a Pulse throw to knock them out of the air.
  
• Orange fish are worth 7kg each and need to be hit with a charged attack to knock them out of the air.
  
• Make sure to hit them into the net, as they will eventually flop back into the water after a long enough time.

This will likely take you a few attempts, as the fish can be very difficult to hit. But a good thing to keep in mind is that the fish will appear in the same order every time you attempt the minigame. Memorize their patterns and stay focused and you will reach that 75kg goal soon enough! Your hard work will be rewarded with a Mana Piece and the achievement.

Win the baseball minigame

I found this minigame to be much more manageable than the fishing one. Right next to Rosalis is a small island called Outfield Island. Here you will find another NPC who operates the Floating Isles' latest and greatest attraction: a batting cage! The goal is to score 1000 points to beat the minigame and get your reward. Now for the minigame, itself:

The cannon will fire several large baseballs, each of which need to be hit with a charge attack to hit the net on the other side of the room to score points. If you hit the higher section of the net, you earn more points! Now, a very important thing to keep in mind is that each baseball can be juggled in the air with a normal attack. And every time a baseball is juggled, that particular baseball will gain a bonus score multiplier of x0.5, up to a maximum multiplier bonus of x4.0. If you can hit a baseball with a x4.0 multiplier into the top net, that's an easy 200 points for you.

With the right positioning, it's relatively easy to juggle multiple baseballs at the same time. Just remember to keep calm and stay focused to keep up the rhythm and you'll win the minigame in no time! Your reward for doing so will be the "Defensive Stance" Memory, as well as the Slugger achievement.

Tend to the lonely flower

You will need the Wall Run and Pulse Fly upgrades for this achievement.

Another major sidequest in the game. Over in Pyrena is an NPC who mentions a rare type of flower that can grow quite tall. That's nice. Anyways, in the more remote regions of the world map is a tiny, remote island called Little Flower. All that's there are a few dead trees, dried up dirt, and a lone, droopy sprout. Time for some gardening! To do this, we'll need some fertile soil, and there are three batches of it scattered around the islands:

• Arboretum: Right next to where the airship docks in the Arboretum is a secret area. Inside you can find some treasure and the first batch of fertile soil.
  
• Outfield Island: On Outfield Island are some steep walls. Using the Wall Run ability, you can run all the way up to the top, where you will find the next batch of fertile soil.
  
• Jungle: While you're doing your fetch quest for the Hermit, you should be able to find the last batch of fertile soil easily enough in the far-right area of the Jungle. Just use the Pulse Fly to complete a quick platforming challenge to get it.

Every time you collect a new batch of fertile soil, make sure to return to Little Flower and spread it around the sprout, and you'll notice some greenery slowly return to the lonely little island. After using the third batch of soil, talk to the NPC in Pyrena again, then head back to Little Flower to enjoy your lush new garden, as well as some nice rewards for doing so. The Green Thumb achievement should also unlock here.

Complete the Pyramid without using the shortcut

This achievement is best saved for last, as you will need every major upgrade just to complete the Pyramid Trial, let alone get the achievement. The Pyramid Trial is an island that houses a tough platforming challenge. Now the tough part isn't necessarily the platforming itself, but more so the strict time limit you have to complete it. There is a secret passage with a breakable wall at the very beginning of the trial that allows you to skip the first section of the pyramid, but if you want to earn the achievement make sure you DO NOT TAKE THIS SHORTCUT.

It is still possible to just barely make it to the end of the trial without taking the shortcut, but you don't have much room for error. This will likely take multiple tries to do. Make sure to memorize the layout of the trial as best you can to optimize your movement and hone your platforming skills. Making the best use of the, Wall Run, Water Slide, and Pulse Fly abilities will also be super handy in saving time as well. If you can reach the top of the pyramid without taking that first shortcut, then the achievement should unlock for you. Good luck!

Discover Slime's Summit

This one will require the Pulse Fly upgrade to get.

Enter the Unreality Crossroads through the entrance in the Barren Cave. Continue moving to the right a little bit until you see another Unreality rift on a ledge high above you (you'll know where it is if you have the "Sense of Direction" Memory equipped). Use Pulse Fly to reach the rift, and enter through it to enter a hidden area: Slime's Summit. Just entering the area for the first time should trigger the achievement, but make sure you stick around and explore a little bit, as the area has a short side-quest that gives you some very nice rewards, including the powerful "Explosion" Spell. You'll also be able to find a docking point to call Chervil and the airship, which allows you to return to Slime Summit directly from the world map.

Become a one-note wonder

I'm actually a little surprised that I was able to figure this one out on my own. Figuring out what to do is tricky, but once you know what it is, it's actually really straightforward. Dotted all around the Foggy Ruin are large bells that you can ring as part of a larger puzzle. These bells will rock back and forth when you hit them, with charged attacks making them swing faster. The achievement is simple: continue to hit a bell over and over again until it makes a full 360 rotation. This should work with any bell, and once you do it the achievement will be unlocked.

The hitboxes on the bells can be quite finicky though, so it make take a few minutes of constant whacking to get it, and sometimes you just have to hope the bell will swing in the right direction. But if you just keep whacking at the bell with a combination of normal and charged attacks, you'll eventually get it to make a full rotation.

Meet Chervil's new friend

For a while I didn't really understand what caused this one, as it just seemed to randomly trigger at first, but this one is actually really simple. You just need to kill 5 training dummies throughout your playthrough. The fastest way to do this is go to the Fallen Tower, where you can hit a dummy off of a ledge to kill it instantly.

Killing 5 training dummies will unlock a new conversation on the airship where Chervil brings on board a training dummy to keep him company. After watching the conversation, the achievement will unlock.

[Special thanks to GIR in the comments for clarifying the requirements and the helpful tip!]

And that's every achievement there is to collect in Vernal Edge. While it isn't GOTY material, I still personally think this is still a mighty fine game in its own right. The perfect kind of game to run through if you have a weekend to kill. Now if you don't mind me, I'll be off to finish that Vicious playthough.

Happy hunting, everyone!