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00:00For practically as long as there have been video games, there have been video game secrets.
00:04Players have been hitting walls, jumping down holes,
00:07and sometimes just mashing buttons hoping to find something special.
00:11Over the years, this video game signature feature has become more fully implemented.
00:16Secrets evolved to provide more satisfying rewards.
00:19These are the secrets that made it past you and made you say,
00:22wait, what? When you finally heard about them.
00:24I'm Jess from WhatCulture and here are 10 video game secrets everyone knows except you.
00:30Number 10, Chain Boosting, Crash Bandicoot.
00:33Some people would call the Crash Team Racing series a simple knockoff of Mario Kart.
00:38Those people though would be wrong.
00:40In fact, much like the original Crash Bandicoot platformers,
00:43the game can be downright brutal, especially competitively.
00:47Play online and you'll notice that you're getting absolutely smoked by everyone else.
00:52You're not even coming close and they all have this blue fire trailing behind them.
00:56The reason for that is chain boosting, an advanced,
00:59difficult to master technique that's practically required for high level play.
01:04By chaining skills together, you can build up an escalating speed boost of varying color,
01:09the fastest of which is blue.
01:11From there, you can continuously chain together any speed boosting elements
01:15such as turbo pads and turbo power up, and you can maintain the blue boost indefinitely.
01:20But don't expect the game to give you any help.
01:22It's something you have to learn and master for yourself.
01:269. Duplicating Remembrances
01:28Elden Ring
01:29Like any Souls game, Elden Ring doesn't bother explaining much to you.
01:34And also like any Souls game, it's packed with secrets.
01:37So many they're still being discovered by persistent players.
01:40But one of the most powerful things you might not know about
01:43is how to duplicate one of the game's most powerful items, remembrances.
01:48Remembrances are only dropped by bosses and can be traded for one of a selection of items.
01:53Choosing the best one is a bit of a gamble.
01:56Fortunately, you can choose two if you know this trick.
01:59The first thing you'll need to do is find a wandering mausoleum.
02:03Don't worry, you'll probably know it when you see it.
02:05Just listen for the telltale sound of a church bell in the distance.
02:08Hack away at its legs a little to make the poor big guy take a little tumble,
02:12and from there you can climb on up and find an altar
02:15that will let you duplicate any remembrance you wish.
02:18But you should still choose cautiously as each altar can only be used once
02:23and there are more bosses than there are mausoleums.
02:26So choose well, Tarnished.
02:31The Metroid series has always been a game of exploration first.
02:35Most of the abilities and upgrades you acquire over the course of playing
02:39are geared towards progressing through the world more so than they are for combat.
02:43So it's no surprise that the games also have their fair share of secret mechanics.
02:47But the self-healing Crystal Flash in Super Metroid
02:50is by far the least likely to find without a friend
02:53or your trusty copy of Nintendo Power to clue you in.
02:57It costs a not insignificant amount of ammo,
03:00can't be used if you have any full energy reserve tanks,
03:04and can only be used at less than 50 health.
03:06But by entering Morph Ball mode, selecting power bombs,
03:09holding down the fire button and then pressing L, R and down on the d-pad simultaneously,
03:15you can get Samus out of a real pinch if you need to.
03:18Needless to say, this is the kind of thing you could only discover
03:22through button mashing and a lot of luck.
03:24And while the cost is high, the huge amount of health you recover
03:27is literally a lifesaver in an emergency.
03:36Metal Gear and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima
03:39has never been shy about loading his games up with secret mechanics.
03:43But one seemingly small joke in Metal Gear Solid 5
03:46turns out to have actual tactical applications.
03:49I'm talking about the sound effect tapes.
03:52Throughout the game are numerous hidden cassettes
03:54featuring some of the greatest hits of the 80s.
03:57Most players thought them out eagerly and sometimes wound up disappointed
04:00to find that what they thought was a new song
04:03was actually just a tape of sound effects.
04:06Kojima trolling us again.
04:07But these tapes actually have a use.
04:10If you're hiding in the bush and a suspicious guard saunters over,
04:13you can play any of the animal sound effects to cancel his suspicious state.
04:18Likewise, if the same happens when you're in a toilet stall,
04:21you can play the, um, how should we say this?
04:24Stomach ache sounds to convince him he's better off
04:27not knowing what's going on in there.
04:29So if you're ever in a deep espionage situation,
04:31don't forget that tape of Halloween sound effects you had as a kid
04:35because it might just save your life.
04:41A little pizzazz.
04:42Fallout 4.
04:43One of Fallout 4's better mechanics is the weapon and armor customization.
04:48The game provides a generous amount of interchangeable parts
04:51that can be liberally mixed and matched.
04:53This not only allows you to tailor a weapon to your preferences,
04:57but also mixes up the loot you'll find.
04:59Add in the game's random legendary weapons with their own unique effects,
05:03maybe a new paint job,
05:04now you've got a piece that just screams you.
05:07Even better, you can name your new weapon, truly making it your own.
05:10To NPCs, you're the boss character with the unique item drop.
05:14But did you know you can further customize the name
05:17with a couple of basic HTML tags?
05:20Yes, by adding the appropriate code,
05:22you can have the name underlined, bold, or in italics.
05:26So that's pretty neat.
05:27Look, we never said these would all be useful secrets.
05:30Number 5.
05:31Shield Surfing.
05:32The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.
05:34The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild
05:36was a throwback to the legendary franchise's infancy.
05:39A giant open world with little in the way of direction,
05:42it was naturally also packed with secrets for players to discover.
05:46But by far the coolest of these, and the least practical, was shield surfing.
05:51To participate, the first thing you're gonna need is a shield, obviously.
05:55Now go to the top of the biggest hill you can find.
05:57Finally, use the left trigger to raise the shield,
06:00then X to jump, then A in midair.
06:03Link will land feet planted on his shield,
06:05and now all that's left to do is perform sick tricks
06:08by using the analog stick and the X button.
06:11Link can even fire arrows while surfing,
06:13but this is unwieldy and impractical to say the least.
06:16And yes, there is a side quest that teaches you to do it,
06:19but it's so far out into the mountains,
06:21you'd really have to go out of your way exploring to even find it.
06:24Number 4.
06:25Wave Dash.
06:26Super Smash Bros. Melee.
06:28The first time you saw a wave dash was probably
06:31when you were getting your butt handed to
06:33in what started as a friendly game of Super Smash Bros. Melee.
06:36Fast forward to the competitive Smash Bros. scene,
06:39and the question everyone wanted to know,
06:41was it fair game to exploit what is essentially a glitch?
06:45Now synonymous with the Smash Bros. brand,
06:47wave dashing was a completely unintentional gameplay mechanic.
06:51By repeatedly and rapidly jumping, then dodging to the ground,
06:54the game created the illusion that you were sliding around the arena
06:58like Sonic on ice skates.
06:59This allows you to be the most obnoxious hit and run fighter,
07:02as you can wave dash in, get a hit,
07:05then wave dash out before your opponent's attack animation could even complete.
07:09It took quick fingers and a good amount of practice to use it effectively,
07:12but the wave dash quickly became a necessity if you wanted to play competitively.
07:17It's gone through a few different iterations over the years
07:19after being embraced by Nintendo,
07:21and it no longer feels quite so exploitative,
07:24but rarely does a secret game quirk become such an iconic mechanic.
07:28Number 3.
07:29Melee Boost.
07:30No Man's Sky.
07:31By now we all know how No Man's Sky has gone above and beyond
07:35making up for its shortcomings upon release.
07:37Now we have vehicles and mounts to traverse a planet's terrain,
07:40making it much less of a slog to explore a planet.
07:43But until you reach that point in the game,
07:45on foot travel is still a slow and tedious chore.
07:49This goes double if you're exploring a hazardous planet.
07:52Your health is rapidly draining,
07:53you're short on shield batteries and life gel,
07:56there's a cave just ahead of you,
07:57but you can already tell you're not gonna make it,
08:00if only you were faster.
08:01That's where this handy little trick comes in.
08:03By using your melee attack
08:05and then immediately following up with your jetpack,
08:07you'll boost forward at a breakneck speed.
08:10This does drain your jetpack quickly,
08:12but alternating between sprinting and the melee boost
08:15is your best bet to get anywhere fast.
08:17Just make sure you look before you leap.
08:19Number 2.
08:20Kill Undead by Casting Life.
08:22Final Fantasy Series.
08:24Like most RPGs, the Final Fantasy series
08:26has a rock-paper-scissors style of elemental weaknesses.
08:30You can usually count on fiery enemies to be weak to ice,
08:33robotic enemies to be especially sensitive to electricity,
08:36and undead enemies especially flammable.
08:39It's the dry skin.
08:40And yet, rarely are you taught that undead enemies
08:43have a much more significant weakness,
08:45healing magic and items.
08:47After all, if a spell heals the living,
08:49then it stands to reason that it would unheal the dead.
08:52And if it resurrects your party,
08:54then it also makes sense
08:55that it would kill a dead thing even more.
08:57Okay, doesn't necessarily make a ton of sense,
08:59but you can't deny there's a certain logic to it.
09:02What's even better is that many undead bosses
09:04throughout the series are just as susceptible
09:06to death by life as your average zombie grunt.
09:09To the undead, your white mage
09:11might as well be a walking nuke.
09:12Number 1.
09:13Mobile Stash.
09:15Cyberpunk 2077.
09:17You know how it is.
09:18You're running around questing in a big open-world RPG.
09:21You find an epic piece of loot,
09:23but it's a bit out of your league,
09:25meaning you lack the stat requirements to wield it.
09:28Since it's only taking up inventory space for now,
09:30you go back to your main hub
09:31and drop it in your convenience stash.
09:34And then after a couple hours of leveling,
09:36ding, ding, ding,
09:37you finally pump that stat up
09:38to the minimum you need for that shiny new weapon.
09:41Too bad you have to stop what you're doing
09:42and go all the way back to your stash just to equip it,
09:45then go back to the task at hand.
09:47Add double annoyance if fast travel points
09:49aren't conveniently located.
09:51But Cyberpunk 2077 makes that minor inconvenience
09:54a thing of the past,
09:56as your car's trunk allows you to access your stash
09:59from almost anywhere you want.
10:00There's nothing quite like the sheer convenience
10:03of being able to pull right up to the door of a building
10:05full of techno thugs
10:07and swap out any equipment you might need.
10:09And no need to worry about those pesky carry limits anymore.
10:12That's the end of our list,
10:14but do let me know down in that comment box
10:16if you can think of any other video game secrets
10:18that you reckon everyone knew before you did.
10:21As always, I've been Jess from WhatCulture.
10:23Thank you so much for hanging out with me.
10:25If you like it, come say hi to me on my Twitter account,
10:27where I'm at JessMcDonald.
10:29But make sure you stay tuned to us here
10:31for plenty more gaming goodness.