Azkend 2: The World Beneath

Alright kids, listen up now. I'm no stranger to difficult completions. Not that I'm a Japanese bullet hell prodigy or anything, but with games like The War of the Worlds, Metal Slug 3 and Mutant Storm Reloaded under my belt, along with anything else you may find impressive from my trophy case, I've still got quite the portfolio of hard games done. I'm not saying this to brag, I'm saying it because this right here, this godforsaken piece of shit achievement, is harder than all of those games. I just want that to be abundantly clear.

For this achievement, you have to clear 10 boards in the Time Challenge before the timer runs out. This means turning all the yellow/grey tiles blue 10 times in 4 minutes. That gives you 240 seconds total, so you'll need to average 24 seconds per board. If you've played this mode at all, this is going to seem absolutely impossible at first, and the more you play, the more you'll realize how correct that assumption is. Insane skill is required, but will not get you this achievement. Only the combination of insane skill and insane luck at the same time will let you even stand a tiny chance, and even then you have to keep your nerves in check. I honestly have very little advice for this as it really is just about playing the game mode over and over and over until you're good enough, and at that point keeping your skill level consistent enough that you can play like a god when that lucky run of 10 awesome boards finally comes along.

The general strategy is this, however: short matches are ALWAYS better than long. Unlike the main mode of the game, the bonus for making long matches in Time Mode just makes multiplier tiles appear on the board. Not only are these useless when going for TTT, but they actively obscure yellow tiles and are generally just an eyesore. Short matches on the other hand (as long as you can keep a streak of matches containing yellow/grey tiles) charge your tesla coils, which when full will launch the familiar lightning bolts that turn some tiles for you and also place compass tiles on the board. Not only that, but they create charged tiles that explode when matched, clearing tiles around them. All of these things are crucial to stand a chance at TTT, so you should always aim to make short, fast matches instead of long, slow ones. Always try to work from the top down on each side of the board, and be aware that charged tiles lose their charge over time, so try to explode all available ones as soon as possible when you get to a new board.

That's about all the advice I can give. As for knowing how many boards you've cleared, the game doesn't tell you. Keep count yourself, and I highly encourage actually saying "one, two, three" etc. out loud to yourself so you don't miscount. Aim to hit a certain number at certain times on the clock so you know if a run is worth continuing or if you may as well restart. You definitely need to hit 2 boards cleared before the first quarter is up, and 5 should come at or juuuust after the halfway point. The latter 5 boards are always faster than the first 5 since you'll have more charged tiles going into them, so keep that in mind.

Here is the video of my successful run, after what was probably at least a thousand failed attempts, the vast majority of which were restarts on board 1. My performance and luck overall on this run were extremely good, with my playing in the last four boards being some of the best I've ever done, and that's the kind of ludicrous speed you should be aiming to achieve in your own playing. There are a few times where I stumble and accidentally make matches I don't intend to because of the speed I'm going at, but in general there are not many mistakes here. That said, I do end up hitting about 10 and a half boards cleared here, so if you're an absolute god of speed and luck, a 100% perfect run is not required.


Good luck, and feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions!