- 13 Dec, 2025 *
This post may show spoilers for some elements of Crypt of the Necrodancer, excluding the final boss. If you’re actively avoiding spoilers, I suggest avoiding this post for now. This will not go over the AMPLIFIED DLC.
I spent a good few days skimming through the Internet to figure out the percentage of people who have beaten the Story Mode of Crypt of the Necrodancer, as not even Steam achievements has one explicitly for defeating the final boss and getting the ending credits (I’m kind of surprised, actually).
Grabbing from a variety of sources, from PS4 records to Reddit threads, I’ve estimated the percentage of people who have beaten Crypt of the Necrodancer is around 0.3% and all the way up to 27% (which I greatly doubt). The number may include those who …
- 13 Dec, 2025 *
This post may show spoilers for some elements of Crypt of the Necrodancer, excluding the final boss. If you’re actively avoiding spoilers, I suggest avoiding this post for now. This will not go over the AMPLIFIED DLC.
I spent a good few days skimming through the Internet to figure out the percentage of people who have beaten the Story Mode of Crypt of the Necrodancer, as not even Steam achievements has one explicitly for defeating the final boss and getting the ending credits (I’m kind of surprised, actually).
Grabbing from a variety of sources, from PS4 records to Reddit threads, I’ve estimated the percentage of people who have beaten Crypt of the Necrodancer is around 0.3% and all the way up to 27% (which I greatly doubt). The number may include those who may have cheated or used a TAS (tool-assisted speedrun), so the number might be even lower!
Regardless, I want to be the minority of players who have beaten the game by defeating the final boss. As I’m currently playing the Nintendo Switch version on a wired Hori controller (to have full buttons instead of playing on a d-pad), I have no intention of doing the hardest challenges presented on Steam (such as Low Percent), I just really want to beat the Main Story of Crypt of the Necrodancer. I consider myself good at the game, but I’m definitely no master. My personal best is fourteen minutes with Cadence All Zones Any% (+AMPLFIED DLC)
To sum up the game, Crypt of the Necrodancer is a rogue-like, rhythm-based game where you move characters to the beat of the music to collect items, defeat enemies, and exit each room within a limited time (~around 3-4 minutes depending on the level). Below is a sample movement to the beat
There are four zones to beat, each consisting of three levels and a boss (a random selection of four potential bosses). After beating the fourth zone, the final boss is revealed. Once the boss is defeated, that character’s Story Mode is complete.
To beat Crypt of the Necrodancer’s Story Mode, you need to defeat the final boss of three characters (four if you have the AMPLIFIED DLC, though it is not required), Cadence, Melody, and Aria. This is different from "Story Mode" in special runs, which requires a back-to-back deathless run of Nocturna (AMP DLC), Cadence, Melody, and Aria.
Very rarely does a player lose to a situation that is completely unavoidable. Since the game is on a grid, and every single enemy has a predictable pattern, it should be possible to defeat any enemy with the right skillset (even with a basic dagger). Most deaths are avoidable, which makes the game even more frustrating at times when players die.
And to show off how many deaths I’ve taken, here’s an amusing compilation of months of gameplay
Buying the game in early 2023, it took me around two to three weeks to beat the game with Cadence, also known as "Normal Mode." After unlocking Melody, a rather easier character (weapon pre-determined, but one heart less than Cadence), it took me three days to beat the character.
But Aria...I only beat one zone in the two and a half years I had played Crypt of the Necrodancer.The difficulty spikes up to almost an unreasonable level. While the maximum amount of health for Cadence is six hearts and Melody is five hearts, Aria only has half a heart to go through three levels and a boss.
To make it worse, here are some other restrictions the character has:
- You can only have a basic dagger as a weapon. If you pre-loaded the level with a weapon besides a dagger, it’s an instant death.
- You cannot miss a beat (instant damage). Being unable to dig a wall because of a weak shovel, not doing any action, and going down a trap door to skip the level counts as missed beat.)
- You cannot heal or collect hearts (it will not increase to a full heart).
The one saving grace added after the very first update is that Aria is equipped with a Potion (fully restores all health when it reaches zero), giving players a chance to make one mistake. It’s better than nothing, but doesn’t make the game all to much easier. Aria can only carry one potion at a time, and only one out of every five plays can a spare potion spawn in the map.
With all these restrictions, beating four zones and all the bosses with Aria is an absolute nightmare. It gets frustrating, and I’m definitely not the only person who screams at a death in a high-intensity situation.
But I do genuinely hope that one day, eventually, I’ll at the very least beat Zone Three with Aria, as I’ve successfully gotten to the boss twice. Here’s a video of me beating Aria in 3-3 earlier last month
Completely unrelated, but I genuinely enjoy that Brace Yourself Games (Company behind Crypt of the Necrodancer) has an RSS feed for their news including seperating each game individually, and I wanna share it!