Solar Ash Trophy Roadmap
- Estimated trophy difficulty: 6/10 (due to Hardcore difficulty)
- Approximate amount of time to platinum: 10 – 20 Hours (skill dependent)
- Offline Trophies: 33 (PS5: 1, 5, 13, 14) (PS4: 1, 4, 15, 13) Trophy requirements are the same between versions, just values are changed
- Online Trophies: 0
- Number of missable trophies: 1, VoidSprinter (3h Speedrun)
- Glitched trophies: 0
- Does difficulty affect trophies?: Yes, must finish a playthrough on Hardcore difficulty
- Minimum Playthroughs: 2 (3 recommended: 100% Playthrough, Speedrun, Hardcore)
- PS4/PS5 Autopop & Save Transfer: No save transfer
- PS4/PS5 Crossbuy: Yes game is crossbuy
- Free-Roam / Level Select after Story?: Loading save after credits puts you back before the story ending, allowing you to continue in free roam or repeat the ending
- Release Date: December 2nd, 2021
Introduction
Welcome to the Solar Ash Trophy Guide! Solar Ash is the second game from indie developer Heart Machine, and is a somewhat spiritual sequel to their first game Hyper Light Drifter. In Solar Ash you take on the role of Rei, a Voidrunner stranded in an alien environment, trying to start a mysterious device to stop the destruction of her home planet. Unlike Hyper Light Drifter, Solar Ash is a third-person action platformer, which a heavy focus on fast and precise movement and platforming. It is a very speedrun friendly game, with most of the environments and encounters based around being able to quickly traverse the environment at speed. The trophies require doing a 100% playthrough, finding all collectibles and finishing side content, followed by a 3 hour speedrun and a playthrough on the highest difficulty, offering a large variety of play styles required to earn the platinum.
Step 1: First Playthrough, get used to the game, 100% cleanup
For the first step, you will just want to play through the game however you like. Nothing is missable (aside from the Speedrun trophy which you should do once you know the game more) so you can play as you like, then clean up collectibles once you have finished the story. Reloading your save after the ending puts you right back before the ending choice, allowing you to go back to all areas to clean up missed collectibles or choose the other ending.
Step 2: Second Playthrough, 3 Hour Speedrun
Depending on your personal preference or level of expertise you could combine or swap this with the Hardcore playthrough, whichever you feel like.
If doing it separately you can do the speedrun on Novice difficulty, though difficulty selection only affects the amount of time you have during anomaly and boss damage sections, so having it on Novice just means you have much more room for error, so wouldn’t need to retry as much. Solar Ash is set up around speedrunning, so on this playthrough you can ignore all side content and zip your way through each area as fast as possible.
Step 3: Third Playthrough, Hardcore
Your final step of the game will be the Hardcore playthrough. Hardcore is only unlocked after completing the story one time, then can be selected when starting a new save file. Hardcore reduces the time available during anomaly and boss damage phases to the point where there is very little room for error, so you need to be extremely precise. That is the only way it affects difficulty though, it doesn’t make you do the game in one life or anything, so it’s more just a matter of trying over and over until you can finish each section.
Solar Ash Trophy Guide
All Done Attain all Trophies |
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Earn all other trophies in Solar Ash to unlock Platinum. | ||
Wyrmslayer Destroy the Remnant in the Crater |
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Story related, cannot be missed.
This trophy is awarded when you destroy the Remnant in the Crater, the first area of the game. Remnants are the general name for the bosses in each area, with the goal for each area is to destroy the anomalies, followed by the Remnant. |
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City Slicker Destroy the Remnant in the Broken Capital |
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Story related, cannot be missed.
This trophy is awarded when you destroy the Remnant in the Broken Capital, the second area of the game. |
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Tripod Toppled Destroy the Remnant in Ironroot Basin |
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Story related, cannot be missed.
This trophy is awarded when you destroy the Remnant in the Irontroot Basin, the third area of the game. |
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Head In The Clouds Destroy the Remnant in the Eternal Garden |
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Story related, cannot be missed.
This trophy is awarded when you destroy the Remnant in the Eternal Garden, the fourth area of the game. |
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Disarmed Destroy the Remnant in the Mirrorsea |
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Story related, cannot be missed.
This trophy is awarded when you destroy the Remnant in the Mirrorsea, the fifth area of the game. |
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Towers of Power Destroy the Remnant in the Luminous Peak |
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Story related, cannot be missed.
This trophy is awarded when you destroy the Remnant in the Luminous Peak, the sixth and final area of the game. |
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Your Eyes Are Open Activate Cyd |
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Story related, cannot be missed.
This trophy is awarded when you activate Cyd for the first time in the Crater area. Each of the major game areas will have one of these points where you activate Cyd, who then allows warping between areas along with other features. When traveling to a new area you can look for the Cyd point by holding to scan, which puts a marker on your screen for where the Cyd location is and how far away. |
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Urban Explorer Locate Cyd in the Broken Capital |
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Story related, cannot be missed.
This trophy is awarded when you activate Cyd in the Broken Capital area. |
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Rooting For You! Locate Cyd in Ironroot Basin |
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Story related, cannot be missed.
This trophy is awarded when you activate Cyd in the Ironroot Basin area. |
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So Mush More Locate Cyd in the Eternal Garden |
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Story related, cannot be missed.
This trophy is awarded when you activate Cyd in the Eternal Garden area. |
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Beach Day Locate Cyd in the Mirrorsea |
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Story related, cannot be missed.
This trophy is awarded when you activate Cyd in the Mirrorsea area. |
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A Lava-ly Time Locate Cyd in The Luminous Peak |
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Story related, cannot be missed.
This trophy is awarded when you activate Cyd in the Luminous Peak area. |
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All Systems Go Fully power the Starseed |
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Story related, cannot be missed.
This trophy is awarded at the same time as Towers of Power, when you defeat the final Remnant in the Luminous Peak area. |
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Moving Forward Destroy the Starseed and free Echo |
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This is the first of the two ending trophies, with this trophy being awarded when you choose to destroy the Starseed at the end of the game.
This is the “true” ending of the game, as after the ending choice is made you have one final gameplay section, along with the final boss of the game. |
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Return to Forever Activate the Starseed |
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The second of the two ending trophies, with this trophy being awarded when you choose to activate the Starseed at the end of the game. This ending doesn’t have an extra boss with it, the game “ends” after making the choice without any more gameplay. | ||
The Aggrieved Stranger Complete Lyris’ Quest |
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Lyris is the first quest NPC you run into, located in Broken Capital at the top of the building in the first area before you reach the Cyd activation point. After speaking to her there, you need to meet her in a number of different locations in the Broken Capital and Ironroot Basin areas.
In the Broken Capital, find her in the Clocktower at the very top. In Broken Captial, find her in an apartment building towards the back left of the area (from entering and facing the Cyd point) that has a bunch of pipes leading into it. In Ironroot Basin, in the “Dross Harvester” (building with all the pipes coming out of it). After the three above locations, in Ironroot Basin, in the Forest Altar (building unlocked with the 3 switches), around the tree in the middle and down the hole behind it. After speaking with her at this final location you will earn this trophy. |
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Crust Station Vacation Complete Ames’ Quest |
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Ames is the third quest NPC you run into, who is located in the Mirrorsea area. You start talking to him automatically at a point when you enter the area, then you need to go talk to him on the ship at the very top of the first area (which is required to progress because you need to turn off the electrified grind rail).
Ames wants you to find the 4 away teams they sent out to look for the First Citizen. Speak to Ames again and he’ll tell you the areas where you can find the teams. Lernaea Squad is found before you reach the Cyd point. Before the dam, there is a crashed ship. Interact with the red device on the deck, then contact Ames. Cymothoae Squad is found just underneath the Anomaly in the Falling Waters district (right out of the pavilion), where all the wires are in the rusty shipwreck. Gnathia Squad is found crashed into the tower in the Falling Waters district, opposite where the Anomaly is on the ship. Argulus Squad is found crashed into a cliff in the Industrial Sector (left out of pavilion). After you have found all 4 squads, Ames tells you to go look underneath the Senate Pavilion. There is a hole in the ground directly behind the middle part where you can go down, heading all the way to the end of the area to speak with Ames a final time to earn this trophy. |
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Ahrric’s Pilgrimage Complete Ahrric’s Quest |
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Ahriic is the second quest NPC you run into, located in the area leading from the Broken Capital to the Eternal Garden. They tell you that you should go speak to the Elders about your problems and give you a chant to recite to them.
In Eternal Garden you can go speak to Ahrric again to find out more info about where to look. They can be found in a tower left of the Cyd point in the center of the area. Ask him where the Elders are and he will give you locations you can check. In Eternal Garden, go to the area to the right of Cyd. There is an anomaly behind a door in a small building. On the lower level to the right of it you can find a path leading below. In here you can speak to the Elder (Keeper of Rights). Recite “Elders who dream, in crepuscular infinity, part the eternal veil, and enlighten me!” This is the same for all the Elders you interact with (and the prompts are even in the same location. In Eternal Garden, in the dark area underneath the central building, after destroying the anomaly you can interact with another Elder (Speaker for the Silent) before going back out of the area. For the rest of the Elders you have to leave the Eternal Garden area, and wait until you are in the Luminous Peak area. In Luminous Peak, on the same island as Cyd, go down the lower area near the red mushroom rail grind to find the “Tender of the Garden”. In Luminous Peak, after you go through the large tower and have progressed past the very long grind rail to the new area, there will be an archway on the right leading towards a long corridor. At the end of this corridor, you can find the “Collector of the Missing”. After finding all prior Elders, you can go into the “Crystal Palace” located in Luminous Peak. This is in the first set of islands when you enter, before the Cyd point (you can take the red mushroom rail by the first Luminous Peak elder spot to get right back here). Head inside to find Ahrric and earn this trophy. |
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A Helping Hand Complete all NPC quests |
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This trophy is awarded for completing all three NPC quests on one save file, earning the three trophies The Aggrieved Stranger, Crust Station Vacation, and Ahrric’s Pilgrimage. None of the quests are missable and can be completed when reloading your save after completing one of the game endings. | ||
Hobbyist Archaeologist Collect 1 Voidrunner Stash |
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This trophy is awarded for collecting any single Voidrunner Stash.
» Solar Ash All Collectible Locations (Voidrunner Stashes & Lost Journals) |
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VoidSprinter Complete the game in under 3 hours |
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This trophy is awarded for completing the game in under 3 hours total from starting the game on a new save and completing the “true ending” (destroying the Starseed). Solar Ash is a game generally designed around speedrunning, with a normal playthrough where you find everything blind likely taking around 5 – 6 hours, so 3 hours is very reasonable after playing through the game once and knowing where to go. Play on Novice if you want to give yourself lots of room for error during anomaly and boss damage phases, then just only do things required to progress (destroy anomalies, destroy Remnant) in each area. Pausing stops the timer if you need to take a short break during gameplay. | ||
Speedy Slayer Kill 5 enemies in under 5 seconds |
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This trophy is awarded for killing any 5 enemies within a 5 seconds span. There are many places this can be achieved during the game, most easily in the areas where groups of 5 of the weak ground enemies appear. Without suit upgrades, these enemies take 2 hits each to kill, so if needed you can set this up to do quicker. Alternatively, if you wait until obtaining Ghozam’s Suit it deals double damage with each attack, making these enemies die in one hit.
A good location for this trophy (as well as “Aerial Assailant”) if you don’t get it natural is in The Broken Captial. On the rooftop you go to from the anomaly on top of a building when going to a VoidRunner Stash, you drop onto an area with 5 of the small ground enemies, easily dispatched in a group. |
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Aerial Assailant Kill 3 enemies without touching the ground |
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This trophy is awarded for killing any 3 enemies without touching the ground in between kills. Like Speedy Slayer this is most easily done on groups of the weak ground enemies. You can get away with jumping above them and swinging at multiple at once, killing multiple at once. You can damage them once each to make them die in one hit when you are ready or wait until obtaining Ghozam’s Suit for double damage. | ||
Pretty Fly Remain airborne for 10 seconds |
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This trophy is awarded for being in the air for 10 seconds straight. Using grapples or any movement points doesn’t count, you can’t touch anything at all for ten seconds after leaving the ground. Slowing time also slows down the time required, so it has to be 10 seconds relative to normal game speed.
The way you can do this normally is by jumping into the hole connecting the “light” and “dark” areas up the cloud pillar in Mirrorsea. Instead of getting out of the hole like you normally would, let yourself fall back in, avoiding the walls while you go. You can slow time to help yourself aim, but you still need 10 full-time seconds for the trophy. It is also possible to have a glitch during boss fights (seems to happen most frequently during the Mirrorsea area boss fight) where during traversal of the boss you will be tossed extremely high into the air. When you land from this you will have been in the air for over 10 seconds due to the massive height, also awarding the trophy. |
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Plasma Drive Collect 1000 Plasma |
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This trophy is awarded for obtaining a cumulative total of 1000 Plasma. See Universal Donor. | ||
Plasma Overdrive Collect 5000 Plasma |
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This trophy is awarded for obtaining a cumulative total of 5000 Plasma. See Universal Donor. | ||
Universal Donor Collect 10000 Plasma |
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This trophy is awarded for obtaining a cumulative total of 10000 Plasma.
Plasma is the general currency you obtain during gameplay, and is used when speaking to Cyd to repair Voidshield cores to increase the number of hits you can take without dying. All three of the Plasma trophies are cumulative, so you don’t need to hold on to Plasma to reach the total required for each trophy. |
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Reliquarian Collect all Voidrunner Stashes |
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This trophy is awarded for collecting all 28 Voidrunner Stashes.
Voidrunner Stashes are collectibles located in each major area that include logs from the other members of Rei’s crew. Finding all Stashes for an area awards you with the corresponding character’s suit, with each one having a unique ability to it. Stashes can be found by spotting sigils pointing towards their locations in the environment, along with the blue pillar of light above them. Speaking with Cyd in each area will have them tell you how many are left if you have not found them all. You can also tell how many are left by looking at the number of logs missing for the corresponding suit on the map. » Solar Ash All Collectible Locations (Voidrunner Stashes & Lost Journals) |
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A Veruki’s Tale Find 5 of Tarragon Danderpaw’s lost journals |
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This trophy is awarded for finding any 5 of Tarragon Danderpaw’s lost journals.
» Solar Ash All Collectible Locations (Voidrunner Stashes & Lost Journals) |
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There and Back Again Find all of Tarragon Danderpaws’ lost journals |
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This trophy is awarded for finding all 15 of Tarragon Danderpaw’s lost journals.
Tarragon Danderpaw’s lost journals are a unique type of text collectible that can be found spread throughout the major areas. They are harder to spot than Voidrunner Caches, and don’t actually count towards 100% completion on a save. They are a square of paper that can be differentiated from general text readable by a gold glow that appears around them before you interact with them the first time. This is also the only way to know which you have interacted with so far, as they aren’t actually tracked anywhere in the menu. » Solar Ash All Collectible Locations (Voidrunner Stashes & Lost Journals) |
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Glutton For Punishment Complete the game on Hardcore Mode |
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This trophy is awarded for completing a playthrough of the game on Hardcore difficulty. This is the highest difficulty level for the game, and is only unlocked after you have completed a playthrough first.
As stated on the difficulty selection prompt when you create a new save, difficulty selection only affects boss and black ooze challenges (anomaly destruction). On Hardcore difficulty your available time for each of these is extremely short, with almost no room for error or slowing down between attack points. Bosses will also start fully angry, so for example on the first boss you can’t step on any of the ooze parts right from the start of the fight, further increasing the precision needed. When you take damage you are immediately warped back to the most recent checkpoint, and when you die completely the game starts the boss fight overs over, so you need to do all 3 damage phases again. Because of these changes, the playthrough is largely an exercise in repetition, redoing each part as many times as needed until you are able to get them. Purchasing shields from Cyd still functions the same, so you should buy more when possible to give yourself more chances during boss fights. Every time you take damage and checkpoint the shield boxes are respawned, so during boss fights you can be aware of the nearest one to the Cyd point and just grab a new one every time and never need to restart boss fights. If you finish 100% on another save before starting hardcore you are able to use the Absolution suit after the first boss, which is highly recommended. |
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Rei-gn Supreme Attain 100% completion on a save file |
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This trophy is awarded for achieving 100% completion on a single save file. To do this you are required to:
So this means basically anything tracked on the map screen. Tarragon Danderpaws’ lost journals aren’t tracked in-game and aren’t required to be found to achieve this 100% completion trophy (though you have to find them anyway for their own trophies). |
PhantomFear94 says
Thanks for this roadmap 🙂 On the fence due to the difficulty, but I tend to get through 6 or 7/10 type completions even though I’m not a great gamer.
Out of interest, is there any plan to make a roadmap for Chorus? Not on the next guides, so not expecting it, but I know some unscheduled guides get slipped in sometimes.