Alter Arts, also known as EX Skills, are powerful skills in Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls that can be unlocked by progressing through the story. Some heroes from the past, when summoned from the grimoires, are brought out in an incomplete state, rendering them unable to fight in the same manner as the playable characters. Instead, they are able to swap out with the current player for only a short time. In the original game, they performed only one powerful attack, and then are swapped out with the main character. In the Apple Arcade version of the game, they can be played for a while similarly to normal playable characters, and then are swapped back with the main character once they run out of health (which slowly drains over time).
Alter Arts are tied to a particular regular playable character, but can be selected for use for any playable character. They can be upgraded to be able to be cast up to three times in a round via the skill tree of the main playable character they are tied to.
Original game Alter Arts[]
In the original version of the game (Japanese Beta or Canadian Soft Launch), Alter Arts caused an assist character to briefly appear on the screen, perform a single powerful action, and then immediately exited.
| Item Data: Alter Arts (Original Game) | ||||||||
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| Image | Name - Game Type - Users Description |
Attributes / Consume | Statistics / Sell | Found | Notes | |||
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| Summon the master martial artist Jonathan Morris to produce a refined Aura-Blast. Guards all allies within a certain area, allowing them to survive otherwise mortal wounds. | Conditions: Complete Chapter 2 |
Sequence: [Alter Art] Effect: Damages all enemies on screen, and grants all nearby allies a status effect that allows them to survive a fatal blow with 1 HP. Special: Can be upgraded through Charlotte's Develop Abilities to be cast up to three times per mission. | ||||||
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| Summons a hydro-storm by the greatest of all Belmont warriors, Richter. Deals damage to enemies and increases damage caused by skills for all allies. | Conditions: Complete Chapter 3 |
Sequence: [Alter Art] Effect: Damages all enemies on screen, and grants all nearby allies a status effect that raises the damage dealt by Weapon Skills. Special: Can be upgraded through Simon's Develop Abilities to be cast up to three times per mission. | ||||||
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| Summons a 17-year-old Maria, using the Four Sacred Beasts to heal allies. Also decreases skill cooldowns for allies within a certain area. | Conditions: Complete Chapter 5, Stage 1-1 |
Sequence: [Alter Art] Effect: Heals all nearby allies, and grants them a status effect that allows them to cast Weapon Skills more quickly. Special: Can be upgraded through Maria's Develop Abilities to be cast up to three times per mission. | ||||||
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| Summons Shanoa's adoptive older brother, Albus, unleashing a devastating area-of-affect attack from his gun, Agartha. Reduces enemy attack power. | Conditions: Complete Chapter 5 |
Sequence: [Alter Art] Effect: Shoots a barrage of projectiles out in front of Albus, and lowers the ATK of all enemies it hits. Special: Can be upgraded through Shanoa's Develop Abilities to be cast up to three times per mission. | ||||||
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| Deals heavy damage to enemies through the fist of the first man to defeat Dracula, Trevor C. Belmont. Also reduces enemies' physical defense. | Sequence: [Alter Art] | |||||||
Apple Arcade Alter Arts[]
In the Apple Arcade version of the game, Alter Arts can be played like regular characters for a short time. They have many of the same types of abilities as regular characters, but it is not possible to change the configuration of their abilities.
| Item Data: Alter Arts (Apple Arcade) | ||||||||
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| Image | Name - Game Type - Users Description |
Attributes / Consume | Statistics / Sell | Found | Notes | |||
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| A hunter of the Morris family, a branch of the Belmonts. He is a hot-blooded man who has mastered a variety of martial arts, although he may seem unscrupulous because of his relaxed attitude. He toys with the enemy with quick steps and crushes them with brilliant combination attacks. | Conditions: Complete Chapter 2 |
Sequence: [Alter Art] Evolve: Can be upgraded through Charlotte's Develop Abilities to be cast up to three times per mission. | ||||||
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| A vampire hunter famous for being the Belmont's strongest man. He's a hot-blooded man who has a strong sense of justice. He uses a variety of powerful techniques and masterfully dispatches enemies with his whip. | Conditions: Complete Chapter 3 |
Sequence: [Alter Art] Evolve: Can be upgraded through Simon's Develop Abilities to be cast up to three times per mission. | ||||||
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| Maria Renard at age 17 years old. A force to be reckoned with, she possesses greater control over the Four Sacred Beasts, and better skills from all that vampire hunting. | Conditions: Complete Chapter 5, Stage 1-1 |
Sequence: [Alter Art] Evolve: Can be upgraded through Maria's Develop Abilities to be cast up to three times per mission. | ||||||
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| Ecclesia's Chief Researcher, combining scientific development with practical magical application. Channels glyph energy into bullets with his magic gun, Agartha. Acts as a brother to Shanoa. | Conditions: Complete Chapter 5 |
Sequence: [Alter Art] Special: Can be upgraded through Shanoa's Develop Abilities to be cast up to three times per mission. | ||||||
| A reincarnation of Count Dracula. With his power of dominante, he can use the souls of monsters he had defeated in combat. Despite appearances, he acts his age. | Conditions: Start Chapter 10 |
Sequence: [Alter Art] Special: Can be upgraded though Alucard, Simon, and Shanoa's Develop Abilities to be cast up to three times per mission. | ||||||
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| Along with Alucard, he formed the first party ever to defeat Dracula. He repeatedly swings his Vampire Killer to eradicate enemies. | Conditions: Complete Whip's Memory |
Sequence: [Alter Art] Special: Can be upgraded through Simon's Develop Abilities to be cast up to three times per mission. | ||||||
Weapons[]
Characters summoned through an Alter Art each have one weapon.
| Item Data: Weapons | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | Name - Game Type - Users Description |
Attributes / Consume | Statistics / Sell | Found | Notes | |||
| Find: Starts with |
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| Find: Starts with |
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| Find: Starts with |
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| Find: Starts with |
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| Find: Starts with |
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Character Skills[]
Characters summoned through an Alter Art can also have one Character Skill.
| Item Data: Character Skills | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | Name - Game Type - Users Description |
Attributes / Consume | Statistics / Sell | Found | Notes | |||
| Dash with a sharp knee kick and blow away your enemies. | Find: Starts with |
Sequence: [Character Skill] | ||||||
| Rush at the enemy while rotating the whip at high speed. | Find: Starts with |
Sequence: [Character Skill] | ||||||
| This summoned spirit deals a formidable strike forward. | Find: Starts with |
Sequence: [Character Skill] | ||||||
| Uses the power of light and shadow to perform an attack that tracks enemies. | Find: Starts with |
Sequence: [Character Skill] | ||||||
| Unleashes the power of the Claimh Solais to mow down a large area. | Find: Starts with |
Sequence: [Character Skill] Effect: Enhances the power of Nuadha's Sword, then performs overhead strike. | ||||||
| Unleashes a barrage of high-speed, lightning-like kicks. | Find: Starts with |
Sequence: [Character Skill] | ||||||
Subweapons[]
Characters summoned through an Alter Art each have one sub-weapon.
| Item Data: Subweapons | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | Name - Game Type - Users Description |
Attributes / Consume | Statistics / Sell | Found | Notes | |||
| Throws it forward and continues to attack the spot for a certain period of time. | Find: Starts with |
Special: Type B Axe Throw | ||||||
| It is thrown forward, flies a certain distance, then returns. | Find: Starts with |
Effect: Type A Cross Throw | ||||||
| A dash-attack by a fully-grown Byakko. | Find: Starts with |
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| Fires a projectile forward within a limited range. | Find: Starts with |
Special: Type B Gun Shot | ||||||
| Fires multiple projectiles forward. | Find: Starts with |
Special: Type A Gun Shot | ||||||
| Throw a parabola and attack enemies in the sky. | Find: Starts with |
Effect: Type A Axe Throw | ||||||
Weapon Skills[]
Characters summoned through an Alter Arts can each have two or three Weapon Skills.
| Item Data: Weapon Skills (edit) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | Name - Game Type - Users Description |
Attributes / Consume | Statistics / Sell | Found | Notes | |||
| A blow that transforms mental power into a shock wave and launches it in all directions. | Find: Start with |
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| An uppercut that launches enemies into the air and hits them multiple times. | Find: Start with |
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| Purify all enemies with a heavy rain of holy water. | Find: Start with |
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| A torrent that harnesses the power of Seiryu to destroy enemies. | Find: Start with |
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| Scorches surrounding enemies with its flaming wings, which harness the power of Suzaku. | Find: Start with |
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| Summons a shield with the power of Genbu, to guard from surrounding attacks. | Find: Start with |
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| Attacks enemies above with a kick move enveloped in magic flames. | Find: Start with |
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| Unleashes massive bullets from the magical gun Agartha with the power of glyphs. | Find: Start with |
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| Summon G Axe Armor to launch the enemy into the air. | Find: Start with |
Effect: Giga Twister | ||||||
| Summon a Flame Demon and shoot multiple fireballs forward. | Find: Start with |
Effect: Hellfire | ||||||
| Transform into a bat temporarily and fly around freely. Use attack controls to perform a charging strike. | Find: Start with |
Special: Perform a Wing Smash by pressing [Attack]. | ||||||
| Unleash the power of the holy whip and obliterate surrounding enemies. | Find: Start with |
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Unique Actions[]
Characters summoned through an Alter Arts can each have any number of Unique Actions.
| Item Data: Weapon Skills (edit) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | Name - Game Type - Users Description |
Attributes / Consume | Statistics / Sell | Found | Notes | |||
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| Susceptible enemies will be launched into the air. It can also break an enemy's guard. | Conditions: Unlock through Develop Abilities (Alucard, Simon, and Shanoa only) |
Sequence: Press and hold [Attack] | ||||||
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| Perform a strong jump kick. | Conditions: Unlock through Develop Abilities (Simon-only) |
Sequence: [Dodge] + [Attack] (Simon); [Slide] + [Attack] (Richter) | ||||||
| Find: Starts with |
Sequence: Press and hold [Attack] | |||||||
Alter Arts Mode[]
After beating stage 4-1 in the tenth grimoire, you will unlock Alter Arts mode. Alter Arts mode effectively allows you to complete entire stages from the beginning as an Alter Art, whose power scales with the items and abilities of the character you activated the mode with. If an Alter art loses all of their health, the primary character will replace them. You will not be able to re-summon the Alter Art after they die in this mode. Unlike using an Alter Art normally, you will be forced to wait out weapon skills entirely in this mode, whereas normally every time your alter art dies your weapon skill cool-downs will restart. This has particular affect on Jonathan, Richter, and Trevor.
Trivia[]
- In the beta version, Alter Arts were unlocked by reaching level 30 with the corresponding playable character. Alucard unlocked Maria, Simon unlocked Trevor, Charlotte unlocked Jonathan, Maria unlocked Richter, and Shanoa unlocked Albus.
- Despite being present and usable in the beta, Trevor was never released in the full version of the game, as it was discontinued.
- However, the game was later confirmed to be re-released and he was finally released on May 13, 2022 with his EX Move Destruction being replaced by Grand Cruz.
- Voice clips for the playable characters datamined from the game suggest that Hammer and Mina were planned as additional Alter Arts to be released later on, but were scrapped when the game ended its service.
- Soma Cruz was originally going to be a regular playable character in the original game, but after its discontinuation and re-release in Apple Arcade, he was made a support character instead.
- Coincidentally, Soma and Trevor are the only two Alter Art characters to appear as bosses and they must be defeated to unlock them.
- Soma is the only Alter Art character to have idle poses in the Elgos hub, further confirming he was originally going to be the sixth playable character.
- Alter Arts are very similar to Totems from Oceanhorn: Chronos Dungeon in the sense that they both allow the player to morph into another character and use their weapons and abilities, and then revert to normal upon death.
See also[]
External links[]
- YouTube - Original Alter Arts
- YouTube - Apple Arcade Alter Arts