[New] SMS Any% Guide

🚧 IMPORTANT 🚧

As Oct 8, 2025, this is still a work in progress. I will update as I relearn the game.

-------

I'm going to be honest, the other [SMS guide](https://www.speedrun.com/ghouls_n_ghosts/guides/qj5nm) is a bit hard to go through and confusing.
Starting a new one here short and illustrated explaination.

# General Strategy

- The phycho cannon is required to beat the game and only appears after gettings all the other items (gold boots, gold armor, gold helmet & torch)
- Loop 1 focus on getting the gold boots (speed) and the axe.
- Loop 2
- You need to know where are the chest and keep track of the current count

# Chests Logic

**Chest spawns** follow a fixed counter (loops every 7):

- 1, 2, 3 -> Magician
- 4 -> Equipement
- 5, 6 -> Magician
- 7 -> Health/Magic
- ⚠️ After **chest 7** the game returns to chest **2** (not chest 1).

Taking **intentional deaths** is used to reset lives or setup chest spawns faster.

- **Boss chests count** as part of the cycle.
- **Continuing (Game Over)** resets the chest counter to 1.
- Death does **not** reset chest count (unless you continue).
- The count increase when touching the trigger, even when the chest is not visible. For example aftet defeating a boss, walking on the trigger increase the count

All the chest triggers are listed here:

https://www.figma.com/design/wglj2O13WqQNWxrVVpu91e/SMS---Ghouls--N-Ghost?node-id=0-1&t=k5Tk9gmw1M2uU9KP-1


# Items Breakdown

![](https://i.imgur.com/gv4kdrN.png)

# Walk Through

## Loop 1

Items to pick

- 🟡👢gold boots:  for max speed, earlier is better but needs red armor first for some damage boost
- 🪓 axe: which has the best damage
- 🔴🪖 Red/Green Helmet for the shield magic, needed in the last level for the ladder
- 🟡 👕 Gold Armor: required to unlock other item mentioned above, also helpful for level 7 damage boost

Level walkthrough

- Level 1: red boots > die > dagger > die
- Level 2: green boots > game over > axe
- Level 3: no item, just 3 chest to spawn
- Level 4: red armor
- Level 5: gold boot
- Level 6: green armor
- Level 7: gold armor
- level 8: no item
- level 9: no item
- level 10: red helmet

## Loop 2

Items goals

Level walthrough

- Level 1: green helmet
- Level 2: no item
- Level 3: no item
- Level 4: gold helmet
- Level 5: no item
- Level 6: Discus
- Level 7: Torch
- Level 8: Psycho 

Chest chart

Loop 1: http://i.imgur.com/TdMsKF6.png
Loop 2: http://i.imgur.com/flx9yYa.png

Full tutorial, applies to Arcade, Genesis and SuperGrafx versions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntds5zSLqFw

Ghouls 'n Ghosts (ARCADE/MEGADRIVE) any% speedrun (main guide) 

Written guide with all the current strategies for the any % speedrun with videos:

**https://09419018.github.io/ghoulsmd/practice.html**

Mini-guide to HP and damage, tested on arcade but should work on other versions too

# Bosses' health
In the Japanese version of the game (Daimakaimura), the bosses' HP are as
follows:
* Shielder --> 22 HP
* Cerberus --> 26 HP
* Gassuto --> 16 HP
* Ohme --> 5 intestines * 4 HP/intestine = 20 HP
* Beelzebub --> 15 HP
* Lucifer --> 15 HP
In the arcade version you can get one free hit on Shielder before the
battle begins by shooting his head when he briefly holds it in his lap
before moving: the orange hit sprite will confirm that the hit has landed.
In the MD version you can instead get all the free hits you can manage
before he starts moving.

# Weapon damage
* Lance, dagger, discus, axe, torch --> 1
* Sword --> 2
* Psycho Cannon --> 1-3 based on proximity and armour state
Exception: chests have 3 health and cannot be broken in 1 hit, so the
Psycho Cannon only deals 2 damage to them even at point blank range.

Example of the Psycho Cannon damage for Lucifer:
* Standing below him and shooting upwards deals 1 damage when wearing magic
  armour, 0 otherwise.
* Standing below him and shooting upwards while jumping deals 2 damage when
  wearing magic armour, 1 otherwise.
* Jumping from one of his feet when they are on the ground and shooting up
  deals 2 damage in all armour states.
* Jumping and shooting from a knee deals 3 damage in all armour states,
  even when neutral jumping from the middle of a knee which is in the
  farther position.

# Magic damage
* Lance magic --> each lightning deals 2 damage
* Dagger magic --> the clone's daggers deal 1 damage
* Torch magic --> each fireball deals 1 damage every time it hits an enemy
* Sword magic --> each dragon deals 2 damage every time it hits an enemy
* Axe magic --> each burst deals 2 damage
* Discus magic --> the shield deals 3 damage
The discus's shield can deal 3 points of damage before breaking. For
example, a shield that comes in contact with a vulture (2 HP) will kill it
and be left with 1 HP. If it now comes in contact with another vulture it
will deal 1 HP of damage and break. Note that when enemies take damage from
a shield there is no indication of them being hit (no orange sprite).

# Hitbox overlap
When the hitboxes of an enemy and 2 damaging hitboxes (e.g. 2 weapon sprites,
or 2 magic sprites) overlap, the enemy takes 1 damage per frame for the
duration of the overlap. Notable cases of this include:

* The “Super Axe”: if you throw an axe just as the previous one is about to
  hit an obstacle after it has travelled the distance required to throw a
  second axe, you'll be able to actually throw 2 axes in quick succession.
  Since each axe has a big hitbox, the hitboxes of the two axes will overlap,
  dealing per-frame damage to anything they come in contact with. This is
  useful when fighting Shielder and is the fastest way to kill Beelzebub, due
  to her gigantic hitbox.

* The “Super Torch”: when throwing two fire-waters, the flames on the floor
  from the first one will overlap with those of the second one. This is
  less effective than the Super Axe but can be done anywhere.

* The entire reason why magic such as the lance magic or the fire-water
  magic can one-shot bosses is hitbox overlap. As reported in the previous
  section, the magic itself is actually fairly weak, what makes it absolutely
  devastating is the overlap. This is why for example lance magic seems to be
  stronger the closer the enemy is to Arthur: what is actually happening is
  that the hitboxes from the vertical and horizontal lightnings overlap,
  dealing per-frame damage.

* The Psycho Cannon can shoot two piercing projectiles in rapid succession,
  which can overlap and absolutely melt bosses (one prominent example of
  this is Beelzebub).

# Bosses shenanigans
All of the previous damage values and rules work for regular enemies as well as
bosses. Getting the overlaps to work is easier with some bosses and harder with
others, depending on the size of their hitboxes: Beelzebub gets quick-killed by
Super Torches, Super Axes, Psycho Cannon and every magic except for discus and
dagger, whereas overlaps with Cerberus and Gassuto only last for a few frames
and are therefore ineffective. Shielder lies somewhere in the middle, with
Super Axes sometimes working really well and some other times being not as
effective.
In addition to this:

* Super Torches do not work on Shielder.

* The axe magic's hitboxes do not produce overlap with Cerberus.
  Additionally, you cannot deal the final blow on Cerberus using the discus
  magic: he will reach 0 HP but effectively remain at 1 HP until killed
  normally.

* Against Gassuto the Super Torch is ineffective, there are no solid
  objects to activate the Super Axe against (except Gassuto himself when he
  turns invincible, but good luck with that) and the axe magic does not
  produce overlap.

But the most broken boss in the game is by far Beelzebub, who takes reduced
damage!
* All normal weapons (including the sword!) deal 1 damage.
* The Psycho Cannon deals 1-2 damage based on proximity, rather than 1-3.
* All magic deals 1 damage except for discus magic, which deals 0 damage.
Moral of the story: use overlaps (or dagger clone) to kill her, and pray that
you don't get a sword drop from the goblins if you do not have golden armour.

# Credits
The Super Axe and Super Torch techniques were discovered by Aquas, whom I
wish to thank for inspiring me to write this mini-guide and to start
speedrunning the game in the first place.
A big thank you to the Ghouls community as well, for being very welcoming and
awesome in general.

Sega Master System Ghouls Chest Routing

SMS Ghouls Speedrunning Notes
Aremath
Here's my giant text file for routing SMS ghouls. The current route is near the bottom where it says "THIS IS THE CURRENT ROUTE". A few variations that are safer or potentially faster but more dangerous are also down there. There's also an explanation of how item spawns work in SMS Ghouls (Thanks to Fred_), and a list of all (?) the chests in the game.
(https://pastebin.com/kkCBSTvQ if you want good formatting)

123H4 Red Boots 5X (Save time, no change)
1H234X 1H Red Helm X ---> 12345H Red Helm X ?
123H4 Green Boots 5X (Save time, no change)
1H234X 1H Gold Boots X ---> 12345H Gold Boots X ? 
1H234 Dagger X
1H23X
123 Axe 45 GO (Save time, no change)
123 Axe 4 H5

Also on 2-1 2345?


Chest count resets when you continue the game!
	- Otherwise, death does not affect the chest count!
Boss chests count as spawns
	- Touching the boss chest trigger after defeating the boss also counts as a trigger

Need to get:
- 3x boots
- 3x armor
- 3x helmet
- dagger
- axe
- discus
- torch
- psycho cannon
-> 14 total upgrades

Old route (Teleo's old WR):
4:30 of setup to get:
	- (spawn x4) Red Boots (spawn x1, die 1 lives)
	- (spawn x4, die 0 lives, spawn x1) Red Helm (die CONTINUE)
	- (spawn x4) Green Boots (spawn x1, die 1 lives, spawn x4, die 0 lives)
	- (spawn x1) Gold Boots (die CONTINUE)
	- (spawn x4) Dagger (die 1 lives)
	- (spawn x3, die 0 lives, spawn x3) Axe (spawn x2)
Loop 1:
	- Hill: (spawn x4) Red Armor (spawn x1 boss)
	- Slime: Nothing! (spawn x2)
	- Fire: Nothing! (spawn x4)
	- Imps: (spawn x1) Green Armor (spawn x5)
	- Clouds: (spawn x2) Green Helm (spawn x1)
	- Reapers: (spawn x3) Gold Armor (spawn x2)
	- River: Nothing! (spawn x1 boss)
	- Castle I: Nothing! (spawn x2)
	- Castle II: (spawn x1) Gold Helm (spawn x3)
After loop 1 have - Gold Helm, Gold Armor, Gold Boots, Axe (makes sense, axe is very fast for ohme, need other gear anyways)
	- probably want gold helm for the spike section, although it's not strictly necessary
Loop 2:
	- Village: Nothing! (spawn x4)
	- Hill: Nothing (spawn x1)
	- Slime: Nothing (spawn x1)
	- Fire: Nothing (spawn x1)
	- Imps: (spawn x2) Discus (spawn x4)
	- Clouds: (spawn x2) Fire (spawn x1)
	- Reapers: (spawn x3) Psycho Cannon

Routing ideas:
	- Get armor later - die a lot earlier
	- Dying in boss fights does not take very much time - set up the next chest easily
	- May still want to do setup in Village - Village, Reapers, and maybe Clouds are the best places to get equipment
	- Probably take a death at ohme because it is very fast to do so (or at the beginning of waterfall for the same reason)
	- The current route does not spawn very many chests -> plenty of room to move chest spawns into the run from the setup section
	- The current route does not know about (?) the chest at the start of clouds
	- Probably want to get psycho cannon before the 2nd ohme fight, although it's not a requirement
	- When is it convenient to die?
		- Village of Fire
		- Village of Slime sand pits (although this probably wastes time)
		- Boss fights
		- Need to die 3x to reset the count though!
		- Start of the "next level" where health is carried over
	- Probably want to get boots first
	- Probably want to get dagger early
	- This sounds dangerous
	- BUT not getting armor early makes deaths faster to take
	
Tentative Plan:
This works:
Village:
1234 Red Boots 5x
12345 Green Boots x
12345h
Hill:
1 Gold Boots x
1234 Dagger 5 - leaving 5 with 2 lives in the next stage
	-> Maybe avoid spawning 1 chest e.g. 1245 leaving 1 2 lives
	-> Then do 1 ???? x 12345 leaving 1 1 life for imps
	 - now after imps 1 have 6 items
Definitely is 4-6-6
- Can re-trigger a boss chest after beating the boss!

from Fred_:
Chest 1: Magician
Chest 2: Magician	<---\
Chest 3: Magician		|
Chest 4: Equip Room	|
Chest 5: Magician		|
Chest 6: Magician		|
Chest 7: Health Room ---/ (Loops back around to chest 2)
Game over resets to chest 1.
Touching the chest trigger after a boss arena will increase the counter
This means items will appear on chest 4, 6, 6, 6, 6, etc. if you do not die.
After death, chest 4 will be the first item.

List of all (?) Chests in SMS Ghouls:
1. Village
a) Jump to the left of spawn
b) Pass the first stone building on the ground
c) Jump from the gravestone
d) Pass the second stone building
e) Jump off the end of the building, or dboost off the guillotine
5

2. Hill
a) Jump from the 3rd cross
b) Pass the hill
c) Jump into the first scary tree
d) Jump right of the ladder
e) Boss Chest
f) Boss Chest b
6

3. Slime Village
a) Jump from slimy pillar to the left
b) Pass the hill after the slime pillar
c) Above pit 1
d) Jump left from the right side of pit 2 right before the sand starts
e) Boss Chest
5

4. Fire Village
a) Jump to the low section
b) Jump off of the high pillar slightly early
c) Left of the top of the ladder
d) Jump at the second background pillar
e) Boss Chest
f) Boss Chest b
6

5. Imps
a) Stay right
b) Go left
c) Go right again
d) Stay left after the choke point
e) Clear the first gap
f) Jump after going under the last green platform
6

6. Clouds / Tongues
a) Jump at the spawning point
b) Pass on the first moving platform
c) Stay on the moving platform until the end of the first tongue
d) Pass the second moving platforms
e) Boss Chest
f) Boss Chest b
6

7. Reapers
a) Jump to the destroyed noop noop
b) On the skeletal spine
c) On the ramp after the spine
d) Jump below the ladder to the right
e) In the nook
f) On the down ramp before the exit
6

8. River / Waterfall
a) Past the second hand on the up-down roof-shaped river - NOTE: need to destroy this chest if you spawn it if you want BigFall to work
b) Jump left from the hand below at the left-hand side
c) Jump into the gap in the spiky balls on the down-left moving river
d) At the bottom of the last river
e) Boss Chest
5

9. Castle I
a) On the ground at the start (jump left?)
b) Jump down to the left after climbing the second ladder
c) Jump to the right after the second arremer
d) Walk left on the first layer of platforms
e) Jump left on the second layer of platforms
f) Jump left on the top layer (3rd layer) of platforms
6

10. Castle II
a) On the ground at the start
b) On the ground after the first astaroth
c) Before 2nd astaroth fight
d) Pass on the floor after the 2 astaroths
e) Jump left on the platform right before going into the beelzebub room
f) Boss Chest
g) Boss Chest b
7

58 total chests
-> 2 loops = 116
Need 82 chests -> can skip 34

Deathless route:
V	5
H	4 2
S	4 1
F	4 2
I	6
T	4 2
R	5
W 	4 2
C1	5
C2	5 2

Route Format:
Stage Name	| Chests to spawn, Chest to get the item from (*)	|> # of chest spawns you end the stage with		What item to get from the * chest. 

Loop1:
V	| 1234 * 5		|> 1	Red Boots
H	| 1256		|> 5
S	| 1 * 2345		|> 4	Dagger
F	| 12 * 3456	|> 4	Axe
I	| 12 * 3456 	|> 4	Green Boots
T	| 23 * 456	 	|> 3	Red Armor
R	| 123 * 56  	|> 2	Gold Boots
W	| 15			|> 4	BigFall			- Intentional death for HP in Ohme
C1	| 13 * 46		|> 2	Green Armor
C2	| 1234 * 67	|> 2	Gold Armor
Have: 8 items out of 14 required
Loop2:
V	| 1234 * 5 	|> 1	Red Helmet
H	| 1256		|> 4
S	| 1 * 2345		|> 4	Green Helmet
F	| 12 * 3456	|> 4	Gold Helmet
I	| 12 * 3456	|> 4	Discus
T	| 23 * 456		|> 3	Fireball / Torch
R	| 123 * 56		|> 2	Psycho Cannon
W	| 15			|> 4
C1	| 13 * 46		|> 2
C2	| 1234 * 67	|

Alternative idea:
V	| 1234 * 5x, 12345*x, 12345 |> 5	Red Boots, Dagger
H   | 1*x, 1234 * 56 		|> 2	Green Boots, Axe
S	| 1234 * 5 		|> 1	Red Armor			1L
F	| 1256			|> 5						2L
I	| 1 * 23456		|> 5	Green Armor			4L
T	| 2 * 456			|> 3	Gold Boots			6L X
R	| 123 * 56			|> 2	Gold Armor
W	| 5				|> 3				(15 if you need hp then skip 2 - or intentional death at boss...)
C1	| 123 * 46			|> 2	Red Helmet
C2	| 1234 * 67		|> 2	Green Helmet		1L
Loop2:
V	| 1234 * 5 		|> 1	Gold Helmet						1L
H	| 1256			|> 4									2L
S	| 1 * 25			|> 2	Discus							- Might be faster to skip this somehow and fight Gassuto with Fireball after fighting arremer and cerberus with axe...
F	| 156			|> 5	(Can also skip boss trigger for chest 6)
I	| 1 * 23456		|> 5	Fireball
T	| 2 * 456			|> 3	Psycho Cannon	(intentional death at start for hp?)
R	| 123 * 56			|> 2
W	| 15				|> 4		Intentional death in boss fight?
C1	| 13 * 46			|> 2
C2	| 1234 * 67		|
At the end of loop 1, have
Gold Armor, Green Helmet, Gold Shoes, and Axe
- only need 4 items after this!
Advantages:
- Get psycho cannon earlier
- Fight Ohme the first time with 5 health! -- make the health route way better
- Get Axe earlier
- Get gold boots earlier
Disadvantage:
- Farm for like 45 seconds

Alternative idea 2:
- Fight Arremer 2 and Cerberus 2 with Axe, Gassuto with Fireball
- Faster because you spawn fewer awkward chests
- Fighting Cerberus with discus takes forever
- Fighting Gassuto with fireball vs. psycho cannon seems about the same
V	| 1234 * 5x, 12345*x, 12345 	|> 5	Red Boots, Dagger
H   | 1*x, 1234 * 56 				|> 2	Green Boots, Axe
S	| 1234 * 5 				|> 1	Red Armor			1L
F	| 1256					|> 5						2L
I	| 1 * 23456				|> 5	Gold Boots			4L
T	| 2 * 456					|> 3	Green Armor			6L X
R	| 123 * 56					|> 2	Gold Armor
W	| 5						|> 3				(15 if you need hp then skip 2 - or intentional death at boss...)
C1	| 13 						|> 5
C2	| 1 * 23467				|> 5	Red Helmet
Loop2:
V	| 2 * 34 					|> 2	Green Helmet
H	| 256					|> 5
S	| 1 * 25					|> 2	Gold Helmet
F	| 156					|> 5
I	| 1 * 23456				|> 5	Discus
T	| 2 * 456					|> 3	Fireball
R	| 123 * 56					|> 2	Psycho Cannon
W	| 15						|> 4		Intentional death in boss fight?
C1	| 13 * 46					|> 2
C2	| 1234 * 67				|

THIS IS THE CURRENT ROUTE V
Alternative idea 2*:
- Fight Arremer 2 and Cerberus 2 with Axe, Gassuto with Fireball
- Faster because you spawn fewer awkward chests
- Fighting Cerberus with discus takes forever
- Fighting Gassuto with fireball vs. psycho cannon seems about the same
V	| 1234 * 5x, 12345*x, 12345	|> 5	Red Boots, Dagger
H   | 1*x, 1234 * 56 				|> 2	Green Boots, Axe
S	| 125	 				|> 5	Red Armor
F	| 1 * 2456					|> 4	Red Armor
I	| 12 * 3456				|> 4	Gold Boots
T	| 23 * 456					|> 3	Green Armor
R	| 123 * 56					|> 2	Gold Armor
W	| 5						|> 3				(15 if you need hp then skip 2 - or intentional death at boss...)
C1	| 13 						|> 5
C2	| 1 * 23467				|> 5	Red Helmet
Loop2:
V	| 2 * 34 					|> 2	Green Helmet
H	| 256					|> 5
S	| 1 * 25					|> 2	Gold Helmet
F	| 156					|> 5
I	| 1 * 23456				|> 5	Discus
T	| 2 * 456					|> 3	Fireball
R	| 123 * 56					|> 2	Psycho Cannon
W	| 15						|> 4		Intentional death in boss fight?
C1	| 13 * 46					|> 2
C2	| 1234 * 67				|

Alternative idea 3:
- Can we cut out some stage 1 grinding? - Do not NEED gold armor for Ohme if you take an intentional death
- Lose a bit of time waiting for spikes in C3 without magic, but maybe it's ok?
- Axe on the first boss fight seems like it saves a lot of time over dagger though
- Putting off Green Boots for a while seems bad too
- Is this really safer than the deathless route?
V	| 1234 * 5x, 12345*,	 		|> 0	Red Boots, Dagger	- Saves 45s immediately
H   | 12356		 			|> 5
S	| 1 * 2345 				|> 4	Axe					- Lose ~30s? (No idea) in sand zone
F	| 12 * 456					|> 3	Green Boots
I	| 123 * 456				|> 3	Red Armor			- Red Armor gotten in the middle of imps is a bit scary
T	| 234 * 56					|> 2	Gold Boots
R	| 1235 * 6					|> 1	Green Armor
W	| 5						|> 2
C1	| 134					|> 5
C2	| 1 * 23467				|> 5	Red Helmet
Loop2:
V	| 1 * 2345 				|> 4	Gold Armor
H	| 12 * 56					|> 2	Green Helmet
S	| 125					|> 5
F	| 1 * 256					|> 3	Gold Helmet
I	| 123 * 456				|> 3	Discus
T	| 234 * 56					|> 2	Fireball
R	| 1235 * 6					|> 2	Psycho Cannon
W	| 15						|> 4		Intentional death in boss fight?
C1	| 13 * 46					|> 2
C2	| 1234 * 67				|

Stage 1 timings
123h4 *		- ~28s		~25s to spawn it
123h4 * 5x	- ~42s -> Chest 5 is 14s
1234		- ~65s
12345 *		- ~80s		78s with another intentional death then get item 1 (but this is timing with the death)

Skull dboost in 1.2?
	- The ledge is too high to make it I think.
Pig vomit dboost in 1.2?
	- You have to wait for the pig to walk over to the right where the slope is higher
Don't go up early in 3.2? (Can you just jump over the skulls?)
	- Can ALMOST make it, but it doesn't quite seems like it.
Fight both arremers in 5.2 at the same time?
	- Saves a little bit of time
Intentionally dboost off of magicians / magician shots?
	- Doesn't seem like there's a place to use it. The ceilings in 5.1 are solid
Weird Arremer despawn in C1?

Name	Autor
[New] SMS Any% Guide	arnaud33200 11 months ago
Chest chart	Aquas 7 years ago
Full tutorial, applies to Arcade, Genesis and SuperGrafx versions	Aquas 10 years ago
Ghouls 'n Ghosts (ARCADE/MEGADRIVE) any% speedrun (main guide)	09419018 1 year ago
Mini-guide to HP and damage, tested on arcade but should work on other versions too	Gallivanter 5 years ago
Sega Master System Ghouls Chest Routing	Aremath 3 years ago