Glitches (Chrono Cross)

First Save Title

Use the save anywhere cheat in Fort Dragonia at the beginning to get the unique save title An Ancient Fort - Chasing phantoms in one's dreams.

Thanks to Molotov.

Demo Glenn

Let the demo sequence play completely through (the "ingame" demo as well as the FMV) several times, then press start and begin a New Game. Now, in the dream sequence, open the subscreen, select any of the character-related commands (Status, Element->Arrange, or Equipment) and press left to view your complete roster of characters. Instead of just the three characters you have (Serge, Kid and the random third one) a whole bunch of characters will be listed there. It looks like for each time the "ingame" demo plays, more characters get added to the list. One of these "extra" characters will always (?) be Glenn, while the others will be drawn from the set of characters that may appear as your third party member in the dream sequence.

Of course, you can't actually switch party members (because you don't have the Tele-Porter or access to a save point) but you can view the stats, equipment and Elements of the "extra" characters. Most of the characters have the same Elements they'd have if they had been chosen as your third party member (i.e. the funny 3-3-3-3-1 grid, filled up with assorted attack and recovery Elements and the character's Level 3 Tech) but Glenn for some reason has his actual 20-star grid (5-5-3-3-3-1, with both Dash&Gash and SonicSword learned) and his only Elements are a TurnBlack and a pack of Recharges--the rest of his slots are all empty.

As I mentioned, this glitch is totally useless. Triggering it has absolutely no effect on the game after the dream sequence ends. When I first discovered it the other day I was kind of hoping that you could strip the additional characters of Elements and the game would "forget" to remove those Elements from your inventory at the end of the dream sequence, but no such luck. Damnit, I wanted those Recharges...

Thanks to Alex Jackson

Access the Hydra Marshes Early

Start a New Game+, fight the final boss as soon as possible (Poshul is ok too, I think), get poisoned, and run away. Go to the Hydra Marshes and speak with the guy guarding the entrance. He should say you don't look so well and he'll cure your poison, if I remember correctly. Thing is, Serge steps past the man while doing this...allowing you to roam the Hydra Marshes quite early.

But wait, there's a catch: your path is blocked by two enemies. One is a dwarf on the first screen toward the left, who says some amusing things and you can fight him. He'll pass out when you defeat him, blocking your path in the process. The other enemy is a Beeba, who is in the second screen. If my memory isn't too fuzzy, he'll fight you and then say something about you being mean to him. Either way, he blocks your path.

Other than that, you are free to roam around in those spaces as much as you'd like. When you want to leave, just speak to the man guarding the entrance again (I think).

Thanks to Molotov

Update on Marshes - Get 40 Characters

Unlike what this page says, if you move fast enough, you can go behind the dwarf before he faints and blocks the way. However, you should wait till he says his line to exit the screen or he will block the path to the south when you come back and make you unable to leave the marsh. Remember to recruit Poshul before you go to the marsh, or the game will be frozen when you try to jump off the tree after recruiting Raazzly, probably because that sequence needs three team members to be processed. After you get into the place where Razzly is jailed, you won't see Serge and Poshul right away, possibly because the animation is screwed due to the fact there are only two members in the team. You will see Serge walking slowly out of the wall if you keep pressing DOWN.

Now you have recruited Razzly before you even enter AW! If you wanna get all 40 people mentioned in the title of this post, go fight Hydra. After Kid fainted, choose not to help her. After you meet the priestess, go back to Kid's room. You see Gotcha walking toward the bed because the game thinks you just completed the Hydra quest. Remember to tell Kid to ask Mel for the elements, but don't actually do the quest now. Talk to Macha to leave the Guldove. You are now stuck with Serge(you can use Relief Charm to replace him with others in battle though), Kid, and Gotcha until the body swap. After you get the boat in AW again, go to Guldove to recruit Mel before Serge gets his body back.

Some notes for explanation:

1. The reason you meet the priestess before healing Kid is that the shrine will be blocked once you activate the Mel quest. Gotcha will leave the team after the Mel quest and there is no way to get him back. To keep Gotcha till the body swap, you have to make sure you are able to leave Guldove without finishing the Mel quest.
2. When you finish the Mel quest as Lynx, Gotcha doesn't leave the party because... well, he is not even in the party at this point. He will be back with all the other pre-swap members after Serge regain his form because he is in the party before the swap.
3. You can't get Razzly's personal weapon and LV7 tech because she is in the team during the Hydra fight for sure.
4. The only four members you can't get are two of the minor guides, Doc, and Harle. There seems to be absolutely no way to recruit Doc if you fight Hydra, and you can't keep Harle without Crono Cross.

Keep in mind that this routine is only possible in a NG+ since you can't enter the marsh earlier than intended in a normal play. Therefore, this discover is probably not very meaningful because you can use Crono Cross to get team members from your previous plays anyway. Additionally, recruiting Razzly before crossing dimension for the first time does NOT allow one to access The Magical Dreamers ending before breaking into Viper Manor.

Thanks to Fortranm

Enemies and Poison

Simply put, enemies in Chrono Cross cannot die from Poison status. This may be a "duh" fact to some people, but if you InfoScope an enemy who is poisoned and let their HP hit 1, you'll notice it stops draining...even if you defend multiple times. The trick is to use an element (something harmless), which will drain the monster's HP by 7 points instead of 1. This causes the HP stat to rollover and display a totally ridiculous number: 4,294,967,292 or so. Nitrodon (a friend of mine) figured that out, so thanks go to him for that number.

The number is completely for show, since the enemy will still die in a single attack. You also cannot heal the enemy to 0 HP to make a kill, so there's a little fun taken away. Obviously if the enemy was undead, you could, but where's the fun in that? For those who just want to see a picture, here is a screenshot:

Yes, that is using the Japanese version, but that's where I first discovered this. Yes, Serge's name has also been shortened to one character. If you know me, you know why.

Radical Dreamer: Also, the large number thing is an issue with how C handles numbers. I'm assuming that they programmed the game in C, or a C like language, mind you. Numeric variables in C can be either signed or unsigned, meaning they can be positive or negative, or be only positive, but with a wider range. Since health is always going to be positive, they probably used an unsigned variable for enemy health, and insterted checks to insure that when it went below zero, it would stay at zero. Looks like they missed one.

Thanks to Molotov

Double Tech No Serge Glitch

This Japanese version glitch causes your in-battle element levels to act in a strange way. Keep in mind, I, Molotov didn't discover this glitch. I learned about it from Mrs. Kotoi's site, which is a Japanese site with some cool information on it.

The basic idea (if I remember correctly) is to have two characters who can use a double tech in your team, and place someone other than Serge as your party leader (he can be in the second or third slot, if you wish). Build up the appropriate element levels for the two characters that can use the double tech, and build about 5 or so with your new leader character.

Everything seems normal until you unleash the double tech. This causes weird results which depend on some formula I don't understand. Basically, you can have Glenn go up to element level 8 and have your third person lose all their levels (even though they weren't involved) after a single X-Strike. The site I linked to should have an explanation on how/why things work that way, but I apologize if I didn't explain things very well. It's been a while since I've tested the glitch, but I know it works.

Molotov

Kid Helps Herself

Several years ago, I discovered a cool yet benevolent glitch in Chrono Cross completely by accident while using the Relief Charm during the Hydra Humour Subquest in New Game + mode.

Before entering or completing the Viper Minor scenario involving Nikki, Pierre, or Guile in New Game + mode, use the Relief Charm to select Kid as your substitute in battle, choose two other members of your entourage (not including her, of course) to complete your three-member party, and play through that section of the game. Once you awaken in Guldove, keep these settings until you reach the point where Kid succumbs to the effects of the poisoned dagger that Lynx threw at her, then choose the optional subquest to obtain the Hydra Humour needed to cure her.

Now, here is the neat part of the trick: even though Kid's name will disappear from the available party members roster, if you get into a fight at any point between the beginning and end of this subquest, you will discover that she will still appear as Serge's substitute in battle as a completely functional character! This glitch only works under the specific set of circumstances outlined above, will not work if you select not to try and save her yourselves, and is known to have the following inherant limitations:

1. Kid will be stuck using whatever elements, weapon, accessories, and armor she was equipped with before she became incapacitated until such time as she "officially" rejoins your party.

2. While in walkabout mode, you will be unable to cure her of any status ailments (Poison, Flu, Sprain, etc.) that she may acquire, though you will be able to relieve her of them while in battle mode.

3. If you select another character as Serge's replacement using the Relief Charm at any point during the subquest, the trick will immediately end and Kid will no longer be accessible until she "officially" rejoins your party.

What may make this trick worth everyone's while to try out is that, up until this point in the game, Kid is the only member of your party who possesses the ability to steal, and playing as her during this subquest will allow you to swipe items from enemies you normally might not be able to. For the record, I have thus far managed to pilfer a Plaster Cap from the Wingapede, a blue Ice Lance element from Madame Pentapus, and a Tablet from the Hydra. However, I have not gone on a exhaustive stealing binge to discover what rare items, if any, can be acquired in this fashion, so some Chrono Cross veterans might want to experiment further with this...

Special thanks to Dingo Jellybean, author of one of the many Chrono Cross FAQs out there, who initially helped me get the word out about this glitch I discovered. Thanks to Lunar Archivist.

Serge Self-Injury Glitch

As illustrated here, if Serge kills Radius during a certain point of the tutorial battle, only he will remain. Any attacks or Elements he activates will be focused on him, but he cannot actually suicide (his HP will be stuck at 1).

TotalChaos

utunnels: Lynx, Harle and Sprigg fought 2 TotalChaos enemies in the Temporal Vortex. When there was only 1 Chaos left, Lynx performed a heavy attack to finish it off. The hit landed right on it, but it didn't die; instead, the camera zoomed in like it was playing a boss's death animation. The Chaos turned 90 degree and faced the screen with its side (it is a monster as thin as a paper, you know). After than, any attack just failed to hit it (always miss; I tried all 3 characters with their light attacks), until Lynx finished it with an element. -- This is not really a glitch, but an undocumented dodge tech.

Sprigg Critical / Lynx Attacking Non-Existent Enemy Glitch

This comes from BohepansThe2nd.

Okay, so I'm at the Isle of the Damned, Home World, getting Sprigg some Doppelgangs before going to track down the Sage of Marbule. No real reason for going off track, but now I'm glad I am. This has never happened to me before...

So I get into a battle with two Will O' Wisp enemies. Using Lynx, I go after the first one with two Weak attacks. Interrupting me, the Will O' Wisp I was targeting used MagmaBurst on Sprigg. Sprigg is confused. I go after the Will O' Wisp again, as my "chain", if you want to call it that, wasn't interrupted. I go for a Fierce attack, which lands - and Sprigg interrupts me to attack the Will O' Wisp I'm still going after. She not only actually lands the attack (at this point, Sprigg's physical attacks kinda suck, both in power and accuracy...), she even criticals, and destroys the monster.

Then the other Will O' Wisp immediately uses Magma Burst on Harle. Once all that is done, Lynx resumes his assault...but wait, the Will O' Wisp he was targeting is dead...who is he attacking?? I honestly don't know why what happened from there ended up happening, but, Lynx took about a step and a half to his right, staring a little bit above Harle. Being the curious sort, and having never seen this before, I HAD to see what would happen.

So I went for a Strong attack. Briefly, the screen went black (except for the layer of stuff that disappears while holding Select during a tech's or element's animation), and right beside where Lynx was, "71" damage seemed to occur. ...Even more strangely, the battle ended immediately. I couldn't have done anything else, because Sprigg was confused, Harle was confused right before I did the 71 damage to seeming thin air, and I'm quite sure I made no other attacks. And it's strange on its own that Lynx could attack a non-existent enemy...especially without crashing the game...

Can anyone offer me some insight or perhaps an explanation on this one? o.o; Anything at all?

Biyte: For some reason, Sprigg will critical on Willow Wisps all the time for me too. Or was it the Airframes? It was one or the other. But this never happened to me before.

From: Cheats and Glitches