ActRaiser Cheat Codes & Secrets

Password System

ActRaiser uses an alphanumeric password system to save your progress. Access it by selecting Continue from the title screen. Passwords encode your current world, population counts, score, items collected, and miracle events completed. Because so many variables are encoded, there is no single “master” password that works universally — the game generates passwords dynamically based on your exact state.

What passwords preserve:

• Current act and checkpoint reached
• Population totals across all active towns
• Score and accumulated experience
• Magic scrolls and items in inventory
• Miracle events that have already fired

When copying passwords, be precise — ActRaiser’s password alphabet is case-sensitive and a single wrong character produces an invalid entry screen.

Special Mode (Unlockable)

The most significant hidden feature in ActRaiser unlocks after you clear the game once on any difficulty.

How to access:

1. Complete all six worlds and defeat the final boss at Death Heim
2. Watch the ending sequence through to completion
3. Return to the title screen
4. Select New Game — a second option, Special, now appears

What Special Mode changes:

Special Mode is effectively a pure action-platformer run through all six acts back-to-back, removing every city-building segment. Boss patterns are more aggressive and enemy placement is denser. Players who want the hardest experience ActRaiser offers use this mode exclusively.

Hidden Items and Secrets

Kasandora Pharaoh’s Treasure Room

After clearing the Kasandora action stage and defeating its boss, a pharaoh’s tomb opens in the simulation segment. Direct your angel (the cherub companion) to the tomb entrance — inside, you can collect a rare magic scroll that does not respawn if you revisit, so grab it before progressing.

Marahna Hidden Scroll

In the Marahna simulation segment, a magic scroll is buried in the jungle tiles. Guide worshippers to clear vegetation in the northeastern quadrant of the map. Once land is cleared there, the scroll becomes accessible and your angel can retrieve it.

Stardust Magic Location

Stardust is the most powerful boss-killing spell in the game. It is awarded after completing specific miracle events in Fillmore. Do not spend miracle offerings casually — saving them for Stardust progression significantly reduces boss difficulty across the entire run.

Beneficial Glitches and Exploits

Enemy Stagger Lock (Action Stages)

Several mid-tier enemies, including certain undead in Northwall, can be stagger-locked by landing hits on the exact frame they complete their attack animation. Rapid downward sword strikes while jumping into them repeatedly prevents their retaliation entirely. This is especially effective against the armored knights in Fillmore Act 2.

Angel Shoot Cloud Farming

In simulation mode, certain cloud formations that appear as scrolling weather patterns can be shot by your angel for bonus offerings. These clouds do not count as storms and do not hurt your population. In Bloodpool’s simulation segment, persistent cloud clusters in the upper screen region yield extra offerings if shot before they drift off-screen. Repeatedly clearing these during population growth phases accelerates miracle point accumulation.

Score Multiplier Preservation

ActRaiser’s scoring rewards consecutive hits without taking damage. In the action stages, landing on enemies using the downward sword strike counts as a hit but resets your fall rather than counting as damage received. Skilled players chain downward strikes across multiple enemies to maintain score multipliers through sections that would otherwise reset them.

Boss Magic Conservation

The Stardust spell, once acquired, clears most boss health bars in two to three casts. However, magic conservation matters for later bosses. A reliable exploit: in boss rooms, you can often bait a boss into a corner using the sword’s limited reach, then cast magic only when the boss is in the optimal position for the spell’s hitbox to connect multiple times per cast. Magical Fire, in particular, has a lingering flame hitbox that deals several ticks of damage per cast when a boss is cornered.

Regional Differences Worth Knowing

PAL players running ActRaiser on original hardware experience notably slower game speed due to 50Hz output. Emulator users should ensure their emulator is set to NTSC timing to match the intended gameplay speed.

Magic Spell Reference

Knowing which spells to conserve is a major “cheat” in itself:

Magical Aura grants a brief invincibility window. Using it at the start of a boss fight rather than during it is a common mistake — save it for when a boss enters its second phase and its attack patterns become harder to read.

Title Screen Behavior

ActRaiser’s title screen cycles through a short attract demo after roughly 30 seconds of inactivity. Watching the full attract demo before starting a new game has no mechanical effect, but the demo showcases the Fillmore action stage and can be used to study enemy patterns in that level without risking a continue.

There is no known traditional button-input cheat code (such as a Konami-style sequence) documented for the retail SNES release. The game’s primary hidden content is gated behind completion rather than input codes.