Castlevania: Circle of the Moon/Secrets

Unlockables

For the different gameplay modes available after beating the game, see the Gameplay page.

Rare monsters

These are two hard-to-find monsters that give you a lot of experience and/or very rare items. The areas that the monsters appear in are accessible relatively early in the game, but the monsters themselves won't actually appear until after you defeat Camilla.

Skeleton Medalist

The Skeleton Medalist is in a small room off the side of the pit that Dracula throws you down at the start of the game. There is a room in the Underground Warehouse that borders on the pit. Directly below that room is the Skeleton Medalist's room, and directly below that room is the entrance. Use the Roc Wing to fly upward, whipping at the wall until you find it. Go in, grab the power-up, and then hit the ceiling until you find the secret entrance.

The Medalist isn't particularly strong, however it is incredibly fast. Use the Stopwatch as an Item Crush to stop it and then beat it to death. It is possible to get into this room with the Kick Boots however you are most likely unable to kill the Medalist early.

• EXP: 1500
• Item 1: Toy Ring (does nothing)
• Item 2: Bear Ring (Pluto/Black Dog turns you into a bear instead of a skeleton)

Lilith

Lilith is in a hidden room on the western wall in the Underground Warehouse. In the large, vertical chamber there are three visible entrances. Between the top and middle ones is a breakable wall. You can get a power-up here as well, even before Lilith shows up. She resembles the Fallen Angel and Succubus enemies and attacks with energy balls. She's strong, but beatable. Use Uranus/Thunderbird to hit her without being hit, and make the fight end more quickly than if you tried to whip her to death. Once she dies, wait for your MP to recharge and repeat the process. Not only can you get of the best pieces of armor in the game from her, but she also gives 20,000 experience points.

• EXP: 20,000 (24,000 if you have Pluto and Mandragora active when she dies)
• Item 1: Mind Ex
• Item 2: Sage Robe (+250 Def, +500 Int)

Lilith appears as a wind demon in Mesopotamian mythology and as a Adam's first wife in Jewish mythology. Either could be the basis for the CotM creature.

Glitches

DSS Card tricks

Non-existent card combinations

It is possible to use combinations of cards that you haven't found yet. Select a card combination that you actually have. When you activate the DSS, Nathan flashes from normal to black to glowing yellow. As soon as he goes to black, pause the game. In the DSS menu, select the combination that you want to use, and then unpause. You have now activated the combination that you just selected. This will last until you deactivate the DSS, at which point you will have to redo the glitch from the beginning.

• Notice that, this method allows you to activate a DSS even if you do not have enough MP to use that. In this case, using that DSS will cause your MP to be a negative value (shown as garbled value). In this case, your MP will recover from that negative value, and will be shown when it is finally above zero.
  • When your MP is negative, visiting a save point will only recover MP equal to your maximum value. That is, your MP may not be full even after visiting a save point.

Stat-boosting

Some card combinations boost stats like strength, intelligence, and defense considerably when activated, others have no effect or even reduce your stats. You can exploit a glitch to make attacks stronger by swapping cards in mid-use. This really only works with summoned creatures as they are on the screen long enough. To perform the trick, equip the combination to get the summon that you want to use, and then use it. While it is being summoned, equip a combination that boosts strength. The game will determine damage based on current strength, not your strength when you started the summon.

The other time when this is highly useful is when using the Item Crush ability (Pluto/Salamander combination). As soon as the Crush starts, switch to a strength-boosting combo to do additional damage.

Curing poison

When you activate the Jupiter/Black Dog card combination, it puts you in a poisoned state, and when you deactivate the combo, it gets removed. That is to say, the system sets your state to normal when the DSS is deactivated — not to what it was before you activated the combo. That means you can cure status aliments like poison by activating and then quickly deactivating the combination. You can even use the combination even if you don't have the cards yet.

9999 Damage

This method requires a low stat, two Bear Rings and possibly a Dark Armor. Equip all of these items. This will reduce your strength by 210 points, leaving it below 0. Next, activate any DSS combo. This will cause a glitch in the game which brings your strength to 9999, the maximum amount possible. Any time you attack an enemy, the damage will be maxed out at 9999. Notice that your defense will also be so low that, even a Bone Head can kill you in one shot.

• While the Dark Armor must be obtained via cheat device, it is possible to obtain two Bear Rings as early as getting the Kick Boots in thief mode, combined with DSS glitch. (It is possible without DSS glitch as magician, but without the insane luck it is nearly impossible.) The method is as follows:

1. Control your level to 19 or below after getting Kick Boots . This makes your basic strength at 197 or below. The lower level, the better effect, since killing the Medalist gives a lot of EXP at this level.
2. Go to the gate of Ceremonial Room, activate Jupiter/Serpent or similar combo, then fall off the pit while pushing against the left wall. The ice blocks will break the wall for you, and if you are fortunate, you can enter the hidden room directly; if you fails to get in, return to above and fall again.
3. In this room, pick up the HP Plus (39/43) if you like, then break the ceiling, double jump inside, and then kick jump into the room. The first time you enter the room, all you can hear is the Medalist ramming the wall. Do not worry, you can kill it later. Now stay at the right side, use DSS glitch to enable Diana/Mandragora and be ready.
4. Fall off the pit while pushing against the left wall. The moment you enter the room below, kick-jump exactly twice and return to the Medalist room (you might need a double jump to adjust the height). As soon as you land, quickly jump forward and shoot the flowers. If the track is correct, the high damage from the DSS combo is enough to kill the Medalist in a single hit. Repeat this step until you get two Bear Rings (which is very easy due to insane LCK in thief mode), or you are out of MP (go somewhere, recover and come back again).

The Battle Arena

Magic in the Battle Arena

When you enter the Battle Arena, all of your MP is drained and if you restore your MP, it gets drained again. However, it takes a moment for all of your MP to disappear, so if you are fast enough you can get off a spell. Summons are the only spells that can do enough damage with a single casting, however it takes a moment to enter the button combo to use it, so you need to have far more MP than is required to actually cast the summon. Practice the combo before entering the Arena so you don't slip up and waste mind restores.

Also, with a good supply of mind restores, you may use this method to cast as many summons as you like.

Backtrack the Battle Arena

After you finish the last fight of the Battle Arena, you get the Shinning Armor and slide through the gap, back into the entrance. However, if you aim just right, you'll slide into the next screen without falling down the gap. From here, you can turn around and slide back into the room with the armor. The door will be open, allowing you to go back and fight the Devil again. Since the Devil gives 30,000 experience points per kill, this is a fairly fast way of leveling up. Additionally, all other doors will be open unless you move in the supposed direction, such that you may want to hunt for the two DSS cards only found inside.