Procedurally generated mystery dungeon games seem to be going out of style in today’s gaming landscape. To put it simply, mystery dungeon games are titles in which you explore a series of mazes in order to reach the end. There will usually be many obstacles in your way including enemies, traps, and weather or stage hazards. In addition, these titles often have survival elements that require the player to be more or less risk averse than they’d like to be in order to be successful.
Players that grew up on Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, Chocobo Mystery Dungeon, or Shiren the Wanderer haven’t seen many new titles that fill that niche in recent years. The latest non-remake games to be released for these series were 10 years ago, 17 years ago, and half a year ago respectively. Although Shiren received a brand new title in January 2024, it was preceded by an extensive 14 year-long drought in the series. It is unfortunate for fans that so few recent releases cater to the mystery dungeon crowd.
Enter void tRrLM(); // Void Terrarium and void* tRlLM2(); // Void Terrarium 2. This duology serves as a welcome entry in the neglected mystery dungeon space. You control a robot named Robbie as he cares for the only human still alive in a post-apocalyptic world. You explore vast wastelands in order to recover resources to better care for your charge, Toriko, whom cannot venture outside herself. Where other mystery dungeon games lean into fantasy, these games lean heavily into sci-fi.
This is no more evident than when viewing Void Terrarium’s trophy list, which includes many nods toward computer programming. This makes unlocking each achievement a real treat if you are somewhat familiar with common syntax and semantics in coding. For example, the two forward slashes in the games’ titles denote a “comment” in C++, Java, and JavaScript. While the text beforehand would be read and executed by a computer, anything following the slashes would be skipped. They are only for a human user’s benefit; in this case, us players!
In this article, I will discuss my experience going for the platinum trophies in Void Terrarium and Void Terrarium 2, along with a few tips, tricks, and interesting observations I gathered along the way.
Table of Contents
void HelloWorld(): Why Void Terrarium?
“void tRrLM(); //Void Terrarium is a roguelike adventure set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have supposedly gone extinct. The player takes control of a scrapped janitorial robot on his journey to explore the desolate wasteland in search of food, medicine, and crafting supplies in order to keep a defenseless human girl alive. Confront wasteland creatures and rogue robots in procedurally generated levels where no two expeditions are alike. The fate of mankind rests in your hands.”
— PlayStation Store
Void Terrarium originally released in 2020, coincidentally near the start of a worldwide pandemic. It was pretty surreal playing a video game whose entire plotline could have begun with this real-life event gone catastrophically wrong.
I personally did not start playing the game until January 2023, when I happened to see it during a PlayStation Store sale. The premise was topical and captured my attention immediately. Once I researched the game further and saw it was a mystery dungeon title with cute aesthetic designs, I was sold. There was even some base-building elements and virtual pet sim mechanics like Tamagotchi or Digimon devices.
I was hooked on the game and achieved the platinum trophy with just under 11 hours of gameplay. I picked up the game’s sequel, Void Terrarium 2, as soon as it released. Its trophies required a considerable increase in time commitment; it took me about 42 hours to achieve the platinum trophy.
Most guides suggest these games will take the average player about 25-30 hours for the first and 60 hours for the second. I likely skated by with less time thanks to good luck and lots of experience with the genre. I enjoyed the vast majority of my time with both games with only a select few gripes to be outlined in the trophy hunting section below.
void Completion(): The Trophy Hunt
Experience the Story
The primary objective for Void Terrarium trophy hunters is to reach the point of no return in the story. Over the course of many missions, you will upgrade your robot’s capabilities and Toriko’s terrarium. You should try to get comfortable with the game mechanics and try out lots of different skills and builds to find your favorite combinations.
Thankfully, the point of no return is broadcasted pretty explicitly by the game and is hard to miss. If you’re still worried, just keep an eye out for when you are asked to build the life-preserving vessel item. Otherwise, you can play normally and simply enjoy the game for what it is.
Collect Everything
You will accumulate a large amount of Void Terrarium’s trophies through natural gameplay. Defeating enemies, using skills, crafting items, and taking care of Toriko are all necessary tasks on the journey to completion. However, the highest tiers of these trophies are likely to require more intentional gameplay on your part.
- void CheckLevel(50)
- This trophy is acquired by reaching level 50 while inside of a dungeon. This is really only possible in the Endless Ruins, which allow you to delve as deep as you wish without worrying about Toriko getting sick or lonely. Even knowing this, you will likely need to be fully kitted out with custom parts and knacks. Extra skill draws, double skill chance, inventory boosts, and skill removals are all very useful. I mostly ran with the carrier knack, as I personally found that more items increased my chances of surviving.
- void EatTheBug(all)
- This trophy is acquired by feeding Toriko every food item in the game. She will only eat once per expedition outing, so you will need to space out when you try to feed her. Overall, there are 12 different food items for Toriko to try, each of which can be obtained within a different dungeon. Keep in mind that she will only eat Gruel when sick, and Rotten Food can be acquired by letting a food item spoil.
- void KillThemAll()
- This trophy is acquired by defeating every type of enemy listed in the Archive, including all the recolor variants of each species. You will likely get through the vast majority of these creatures during normal gameplay; however, you are unlikely to finish it in its entirety without going out of your way.
- I personally struggled to find a specific Roller enemy, as I had trouble differentiating them from the similarly designed Ball enemies. If you’re unlucky like me, you will have to venture into the Contamination Source and Blast Furnace maps several times to find what you’re missing.
- void GetSick(6)
- This trophy can be a heartbreaker. Since you’re in charge of taking care of Toriko, why would you want to see her stricken with illness? Well, this trophy can only be acquired by allowing her to get sick 6 different times. This is done by neglecting her needs, whether that be her radiation level, an unclean environment, or lack of food and attention. The trophy doesn’t just call for 6 sick events, either; she has to get sick with 6 unique illnesses. There are 15 possible sicknesses that Toriko can contract, so it is certainly possible that you might get unlucky with a duplicate or two.
- Curing her illnesses are fairly simple and generally require the acquisition of specific key items within the dungeons along with a moderate amount of resources.
- Sicknesses in Void Terrarium are quite fun to discover and might surprise you with their creativity. I would recommend trying to obtain them without looking at a guide if possible.
- void BeWithYou()
- This trophy is acquired by gazing at the moon with Toriko. It sounds simple on the surface, but don’t be fooled; While we may take the moon for granted in reality, such beauty does not come for free in the wastelands. As a matter of fact, you have to craft a moon for this trophy. To do so, you first have to unlock the blueprint for it by collecting a rare drop from those Roller/Ball enemies mentioned earlier. This trophy can take several hours if you’re unlucky with spawns.
Clear the Game
Once you’ve gotten all the grindy trophies out of the way, all that should remain is the penultimate “void TheEnd()” trophy followed by the game’s platinum. All you have to do is see Void Terrarium through to its conclusion and find out Toriko’s fate.
void SaveThemAll(): The Sequel
Void Terrarium 2 was released in 2023, 3 years after the first game. It expanded on its good ideas and came up with some new ones. Overall, the trophy hunting experience is very consistent across both titles. Like the first game, trophy hunters can expect to play Void Terrarium 2’s story up to a point of no return, then spend a decent chunk of time grinding out various trophies before closing the chapter with the game’s final scenes.
Void Terrarium 2 has a lot of similar trophies to the original title, like reaching high levels, defeating large amounts of enemies, taking care of Toriko, and having her get sick. However, it won’t be quite as easy as last time.
For example, Void Terrarium 2 sees the return of the moon trophy, this time named void BeWithYou2(). In this case, the moon can only be crafted with a Gold Element L5, a very difficult resource to obtain. They can only be found in the 5th tier of the Danger Zone, which in itself cannot be accessed until you successfully complete all 4 previous tiers. These levels will require a highly leveled up Robbie and a great deal of luck. I found myself especially fond of the Drill weapon, as it allows you to dig underground and traverse floors without being spotted by enemies.
New additions to Void Terrarium’s trophy list include the void WeaponMaster(all) trophy and void SaveThemAll(). The former requires a lengthy grind in which you must gain large amounts of experience in all 8 different equippable weapons in-dungeon, while the latter requires completion of a long series of side-quests in the VR World.
All in all, Void Terrarium 2 is likely to take two to three times as long as the first game to obtain the platinum trophy, depending on your familiarity with the genre and your comfort with its gameplay. You may choose to invest more time leveling up Robbie to make the Danger Zones easier to deal with, although it isn’t strictly necessary with good luck and execution.
void TheEnd(): Conclusion
Void Terrarium and Void Terrarium 2 are criminally underrated video games among the trophy hunting community. There are currently only 120 platinum trophy achievers for the first game and 25 for its sequel on PSN Profiles. The series has a fun and engaging gameplay loop, a decent narrative, and is quite fair in its trophy requirements. I would argue that it is well worth checking out if you are at all nostalgic toward mystery dungeon games or enjoy modern roguelikes.
Do you enjoy mystery dungeon games? Are you one of the few platinum trophy achievers of Void Terrarium? Let us know! If you’d like to read more about other unique and similarly overlooked platinum trophies, check out our articles on Poison Control and Little Noah: Scion of Paradise.
Leave a Reply