The endings in The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales are a veritable labyrinth of decisions and consequences. You seemingly make your choice in a single boss fight at the foot of the North Tower, but the game gives you few clues as to where you’ll end up. Each ending marks your save with its own seal—bronze, silver, or gold—and rewards you with a unique intro in the style of old parchment. However, reaching the true ending is the most challenging: you’ll have to collect dozens of cats throughout the world and fulfill a long chain of conditions that the game doesn’t reveal. The good news: all three endings can be achieved in a single playthrough, without restarting from scratch. We’ll tell you how.
Spoiler warning: details of late battles, plot twists, and secret mechanics follow. If you want to preserve the integrity of your experience, please wait until you’ve played your first ending.
Table of Contents
Conditions for obtaining all three endings of the game
All endings are determined by the battle with the Sorcerer at the bottom of the Northern Tower (Age of Storage). The difference lies in what Elliot does at the final moment of the battle:
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Bad – a normal attack, without using the Mystic Seal of the Sword of Leitstaff’s level 4.
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Good – a fully charged Mystic Seal as a finishing move to seal the boss instead of killing him.
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True – not hitting at all. Instead, perfectly blocking all attacks, provided you have enough cats collected and have already unlocked the special scenes of the true path.
In reality, the bad and good endings are more like steps to the true ending, rather than equal forks in the road. After any ending, the game offers a clean save, so you can safely reload and continue. By the way, the New Game+ mode is unlocked only after viewing the true ending – keep this in mind if you plan on running on higher difficulties.
How to unlock Elliot’s bad ending?
It becomes available after the events with the Dragon Pillar in the Age of Awakening. Calotesia will point the way to the Tracking Needle in the Age of Restoration, and then you’ll return to the Hooter Kingdom—and from there, the markers will lead you directly to the tower. Enter the Northern Tower (now in the Age of Storage), descend to the Sorcerer boss, and attack him with normal attacks until he falls. The “As Long as There’s a Drop of Hope” achievement and the bronze seal are yours. No further action is required.
How to get the good ending and the Silver Seal?
You’ll need two key elements: the Sword of Leitstaff and the Mystic Seal skill. The sword is hidden in the Water Ruins during the Age of Restoration, behind a locked door on the second level.
The Seal itself is taught by three sages: one in the Great Tree, one on Phoenix Mountain, and one in the Mechanical Ruins. The last one will teach you the final rank only after you’ve retrieved the sword, so the order is strict: first obtain the blade, then visit all the instructors.
Once both conditions are met, return to the Sorcerer. Reduce his health to a minimum, then deliver the finishing blow with a charged Mystic Seal, level 4—this will seal the boss instead of killing him. This will trigger the “World We Walk In” achievement and the Silver Seal. An important caveat: even if you have both the sword and the seal, if you accidentally end the fight with a normal attack, you’ll receive a bad ending. Be careful in the final seconds of the fight.
Step-by-step guide to the true ending
If you’ve reached this point, you’ve likely already wielded the Sword of Leitstaff and mastered the Mystic Seal. But that’s not all there is to the true ending. You’ll need to fulfill a number of additional conditions, some of which are not immediately obvious. Let’s take them one by one.
How endings affect progress and rewards?
The end credits are far from the end of the story, as each of the three endings leaves a unique progress marker on your save game. The game uses a system of multi-colored seals on your save game to record your completed routes. There’s no need to worry about ruining your progress. If you finished the fight with the Sorcerer with a basic move and achieved bronze rank, you can always load the same clean save game, fulfill the necessary conditions, and claim silver or gold. The seals do not cancel each other out, but rather neatly stack.
Each ending has its own condition in the final battle and a specific bonus:
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Bad Ending. A bronze seal will appear on your save, and the achievement “While a Drop of Hope Remains” will be unlocked in your profile. To achieve this, simply defeat the boss with standard attacks. The reward is modest—the game will return you to the point of no return, allowing you to replay the ending.
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Good Ending. To obtain the silver seal and the achievement “The World We Walk In,” you must land the final blow with a Level 4 Charged Mystic Seal. As with the first ending, you will be knocked back to find alternative routes.
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True Ending. The most difficult challenge. You must complete the battle without landing a single direct hit on the boss—only through perfect blocks. The reward is the coveted gold seal.
Gold is crucial for perfectionists. Bronze and silver only allow you to complete achievements, but the gold mark unlocks access to the secret final boss and launches the long-awaited New Game+ mode.
What bonuses carry over to New Game Plus mode?
You can’t launch NG+ early: the coveted option in the main menu of The Adventures of Elliot is activated only after defeating the secret boss of the true ending. However, a repeat run will reward you with the retention of almost all your acquired arsenal. Key equipment, including the legendary Sword of Leitstaff and the already mastered Mystic Seal, will carry over with your character. You definitely will not have to waste time revisiting the Water Ruins or searching for the three sages again for the blade.
However, there’s a reset. If you plan to earn platinum in your second playthrough, be prepared to clear the map again. Your cat collection is completely wiped—the Cat Lover Traveler will once again require you to find all 50 furry fugitives from scratch.
Mandatory Actions Before the Final Battle
Before you descend to the Sorcerer for the final time, make sure you have completed three tasks:
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Completed all story events for each of the three eras—Awakening, Magic, and Restoration. To trigger them, visit the cities of the corresponding era. If the objective marker suddenly disappears, don’t rely on the interface: visit Mao’s hut in the current era. Sometimes the game requires a personal visit without prompting.
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Mao’s Pendant. You’ll receive it when the game directly asks you to find it in Princess Heuria’s room (Storage Age). This accessory transforms into the Amber Pendant and halves damage from the final boss. Without it, the path to the true ending is blocked—keep that in mind.
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A sufficient number of collectible cats. This is where the fun begins.
Number of cats to unlock the true path
There are a total of 50 cats scattered throughout the game. You need to turn them in to the Cat Lover Traveler. The developers have not revealed the exact threshold, but the community has agreed on 35—the minimum required to unlock the true ending. However, if you want to be on the safe side, it’s better to collect all 50: a full set also grants all the associated rewards. Get less than 35, and even if you meet all the other requirements, you will not get what you were expecting.
There’s a catch: three of the fifty cats are hidden right on the path to the true ending—in the Great Tree, Phoenix Mountain, and the Mechanical Ruins. This means you can have a maximum of 47 before the final stage. The remaining three will be collected as you progress, so don’t panic if you’re missing three before the battle.
Tactics for completing the final battle without attacks
When you’re ready, equip the Amber Pendant in the accessory slot and head to the Northern Tower (Storage Age). Mao will definitely be mentioned in the dialogue—a sure sign you’re on the right track.
Now comes the hard part: don’t attack the boss at all. Not even once. Instead, defend yourself, parry his physical attacks, and try to execute perfect blocks. Each block triggers a short flashback that advances the story. Once you’ve successfully parried enough, the battle will end automatically—you’ll win without even landing a single blow.
But the game doesn’t end there. After the battle, another significant section awaits, including a secret final boss. Fortunately, it’s linear and marked with markers, so you will not get lost. At the end, you’ll earn a gold seal, and most importantly, unlock the New Game+ mode. It’s precisely for this that many people embark on this whole ordeal.
