Tales of Vesperia Secret Missions Guide: every secret mission in Definitive Edition and how to beat them

Tales of Vesperia is full of optional sidequests and events like any good RPG should have, and one of its more unique takes on this idea is that of Secret Missions. Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition adds two new secret missions from the PlayStation 3 release of the game, bringing up the total to 25. The ability to retry Secret Missions in the last act of the game is carried over as well, so you'll never miss your opportunity to attempt them. Each mission each gives its own achievement/trophy, so you can fill up almost half of your trophy list just by completing these out. You'll also earn the True Knight costume title for Yuri if you complete them all in one playthrough.

Secret Missions are optional tasks to complete during several of the game's boss encounters. Many involve knocking down opponents at specific parts of the fight, but many also involve context-sensitive actions that may not be immediately obvious. We've got every secret mission in Vesperia's Definitive Edition below and tips on how to complete them.

Don't forget that alongside the new secret missions for Tales of Vesperia Defintive Edition (taken from the Japanese PS3 version), there's also some new DLC character costumes new for Western players in this release - be sure to unlock those. If you're planning to hit up the late game content, check out our page on the Fell Arms - the best weapons in Vesperia. We've also got the full list of Costumes and other titles, as well as where to find the Giganto monsters and a full list of cooking recipes.

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition - All Secret Missions

Note that since Secret Missions involve many story critical boss fights, there will be heavy spoilers for several characters in the game.

Secret Mission 1: Zagi (Zaphias Castle)

Defeat Zagi while protecting Estellise from Zagi's attacks.

As the first secret mission of the game in its first boss fight, this one is obviously a bit simpler to complete. Estelle won't fully join your party in this fight, but she'll throw in some healing spells in the second part of the battle. Simply keep her alive and keep Zagi away to complete this mission.

Secret Mission 2: Goliath

Down Goliath by attacking its Achilles' heel while it charges X Buster.

Periodically throughout the fight, Goliath will charge his X Buster attack while standing tall on his legs. On the back of his right foot is a little blue patch that you need to hit while he's charging this. You should try to free run behind him to be able to cleanly hit the leg. You may have to try this multiple times if his guard doesn't break with your first attack.

Secret Mission 3: Gattuso

Take a page from Karol's book and use the billybally plants to knock down Gattuso.

Gattuso is infamously a big difficulty spike early in the game, so this might be difficult to complete on your first try of your first playthrough. Going to Easy for this fight, especially if you are attempting this mission, is highly recommented.

What you have to do is target the billybally plants that are around the arena and hit them to release a puff of stun powder. While this does stun Gattuso if he passes through it, it will also stun any party member that's also nearby. You can alleviate this by attacking the plants from range using Azure Edge, or by revisiting the fight with a Stun Bracelet/Talisman. 

However, stunning Gattuso is only half of the mission, then you have to knock him down. Once you're able to stun him without being stunned yourself, try to hit him with Destruction Field since Gattuso is weak to fire. Rita's Fire Ball is also generally useful for this fight. This annoying task will likely take a few tries, especially if you have no good way to prevent stun or poison, so consider revisiting late game where the difficulty of the fight is far more trivial.

Secret Mission 4: Zagi (Ragou's Ship)

Lure Zagi to the side of the ship and knock him overboard to cool him off!

Another somewhat difficult mission early in the game, and one that doesn't really follow the rules set in other fights. What you have to do here is knock Zagi off of the side of the ship, so try to position yourself so that he'll head over to either edge of the arena.

You'll want Zagi to use either Cyclone Shot or Light Spear so that he elevates well over your head. Once he's high up, the best way to knock him off in the early game is to go into Overlimit and hope the knockback carries Zagi off the edge. This method is not perfectly reliable, but pretty easy to retry if you can't get it to line up well. Late in the game, you can revisit the fight with Rita's Tractor Beam to make this a lot easier. 

Secret Mission 5: Dreaded Giant

Down the Dreaded Giant when it rears back and leaves itself wide open.

Finally a bit of an easier mission. Several times throughout the fight, Dreaded Giant will rear up on his hind legs and you'll need to break the guard at his feet in order to knock him over. You'll probably need to hit him this way a few times for it to count. Try using Azure Edge or other ranged artes, or go into overlimit yourself to help prevent being knocked over. 

Secret Mission 6: Gigalarva

Use Raven's Serpent arte to set a trap for the Gigalarva and prevent it from healing itself.

Once you get Gigalarva to half hp or lower (24,000), then take control of Raven and just spam Serpent over and over again and you should be able to get this without a lot of issue.

Secret Mission 7: Barbos

Take out the bridge supports to keep Barbos from calling out more of his thugs.

Another really simple one. Before focusing on Barbos, simply free run around the arena and hit all the bridge switches. 

Secret Mission 8: Cursed Wanderer

Strike down the Cursed Wanderer while it is reloading.

Here is the first Secret Mission added to the PlayStation 3 version of the game. One of the Cursed Wanderer's attacks will involve him jumping in the air and firing his pistol several times. Simply hit him right afterwards when he's reloading his gun to earn this mission reward easily.

Secret Mission 9: Zagi (Coliseum)

Allow Zagi to absorb too much magic and destroy his bodhi blastia in the third battle against him.

The best way to complete this mission is to set a shortcut to Rita's Fire Ball and spamming it for Zagi to absorb. The fireballs will heal him until they overload the blastia on his arm.

Secret Mission 10: Pteropus

Defeat the Leader Bat to prevent Pteropus from recombining.

This one can be tricky, depending on how well suited your party is for aerial combat. After taking some damage, Pteropus will split into several Attack Bats, Magic Bats, and one Leader Bat. Find the Leader bat, and focus it down before the boss has a chance to reform.

Secret Mission 11: Outbreaker

Destroy the core in the battle against Outbreaker to prevent magic from inverting day and night.

This is mechanically similar to the previous mission, and again involving hitting an aerial target in a short amount of time. Periodically, Outbreaker will split out his core and hold it in front of his face before reabsorbing it. Yuri's Severing Fang is probably the easiest way to hit this orb several times each time Outbreaker spits it out. You'll probably need to have him spit out his core two or three times to fully destroy the core.

Secret Mission 12: Belius

Light up all candlesticks in the battle against Belius to eliminate the illusions.

About halfway through the fight, Belius will split in two, summoning a copy version of themself. What you have to do here is run around the room and light the four candles in order to make the copy vanish (make sure you use a Magic Lens on it first). Any fire elemental spell will light the candles, simply using Destruction Field or Fire Ball will work easily, but you'll have to do it pretty quickly or the candles will snuff out before they are all lit. 

Secret Mission 13: Nan and Tison

Time your strikes between Nan and Tison's attacks to knock them down.

This one is difficult for a couple reasons. Not only do you have to effectively complete two separate missions in the same fight, but each one involves a tight window behind artes that the bosses won't necessarily use that often. For Tison, you have to knock him down after his Dragon Blade: Advent ability. This is probably the easier of the two halfs of this mission as he performs this arte pretty often and the window to hit him after isn't too short.

Nan's condition for being knocked down is similar to Tison. You have to wait for her to do Rending Slash, which involves her jumping high in the air and then landing with her blade stuck in the ground. The most difficult part of this is waiting for her to perform the arte. Late in the fight, she'll tend to focus more on casting spells, healing, and even resurrecting Tison if he has died. So it might make it easier to grab this early in the battle before she starts casting healing artes. 

Secret Mission 14: Schwann

Down Schwann by attacking when he clutches his heart after his mystic arte .

Here's the first of a couple Secret Missions that involve enemy Mystic Artes. What you'll want to do is wait for the boss to use Blast Heart, and then knock him over while he's clutching his chest. Dragon Swarm should be enough to knock him over, but you may find the opening to be a short window if you're fighting him for the first time. Just be ready to recover right out of getting hit by the Mystic Arte and hitting Schwann as quick as you can after.

Secret Mission 15: Zagi (Heracles)

Use Karol's Nice Recovery Smash arte to heal Zagi's poison in the fourth battle against him.

One of the easiest secret missions in the game. Simply use Karol's Nice Recovery Smash to heal Zagi's poison once he applies it to himself.

Secret Mission 16: Baitojoh

Hit Baitojoh three times during its Ice Edge attack and fish it out of the ice.

This one can be tricky because Baitojoh is a pretty quick boss and doesn't expose his fin for very long when he's under the ice. You can either try to hit it with ranged attacks like Azure Storm or try some multiple hit abilities like Twin Punishing Smash with Karol if you can get close enough quickly enough. Baitojoh likes to alternate between Icicle and the stun attack with his fin so use that to position yourself appropriately to hit the boss. Stun preventing accessories should help again.

Secret Mission 17: Estellise

Use the Mother's Memento in Yuri's battle against Estellise.

Simply use the item Mother's Memento during the second half of this boss fight. You can get the memento by resting at the inn in Mantaic after getting Ba'ul but before heading to Myorzo.

Secret Mission 18: Yeager

After breaking Yeager's guard to create an opening, use Raven's Rain arte to make his heart explode.

This is probably the most difficult secret mission of the game. Not only do you have to hit Yeager during a short opening, but it has to specifically be with Raven's Rain arte. Make sure he doesn't have any abilities equipped that changes this arte into Rainsong. Make sure to put Rain on one of your right stick's shortcuts. First fight the battle normally until Yeager hits about 50% health and reveals his heart like Schwann.

Instead of waiting for an opening after a Mystic Arte, you need to break Yeager's guard with several consecutive hits. Abilities like Severing Fang and Shining Dragon Swarm, should help, and then try to finish your combo with a heavy attack to attempt to break his guard. You'll then have to quickly have Raven cast Rain as soon as you see the opening. It's incredibly short. Not only that, but you'll have to make sure Raven's in a position to hit Yeager's chest, so keep yourself in between Yeager and Raven at all times.

You could also just spam Rain and hope you get lucky and that your allies end up breaking Yeager's guard on their own. You'll need a bit of luck for this mission regardless, and in all likelyhood will take several tries. Sometimes Yeager will clutch his chest shortly after being stunned (instead of breaking his guard), so that's another opportunity to hit his chest with Rain. Good Luck. 

Secret Mission 19: Alexei

Down Alexei by attacking him when he's tired after his mystic arte.

This one is mechanically identical to Secret Mission 14, and the same general strategies apply. Simply use some of your heavy hitting abilities (Lone Wolf Storm, Raging Blast) to try to knock Alexei down shortly after he unleashes his Mystic Arte Brilliant Cataclysm. This is easier to pull off after he has used the Mystic Arte multiple times.

Secret Mission 20: Cursed Wanderer (Final)

Use the Maris Stella in the fight against the second Cursed Wanderer.

Identical to Secret Mission 17 -- just use the Maris Stella against the Cursed Wanderer during the second fight with them. You get the Maris Stella in Zaude by approaching the center gate before unlocking it with a red orb. 

Note: Even though this mission is numbered 20, you actually will take on this boss after Secret Mission 21 and 22.

Secret Mission 21: Gusios

Attack Gusios' tail, and then down him with a close attack while his feet are raised.

Very similar to Secret Mission 5 with the Dreaded Giant, simply try to break the boss's guard when he rears up on his hind legs. He will often do this to cast spells and perform other attacks, as well as frequently go into Overlimit which prevents him from being knocked over. So it'll be a bit more tricky than it was early in the game, but still shouldn't require more than a few tries. The Altered Arte Lone Wolf Storm works well.

Secret Mission 22: Khroma Dragon

Down Khroma by timing your strikes between certain attacks of hers.

Another mission that involves knocking down a boss, but thankfully Khroma's is probably the easiest of the lot. She'll do an attack where she roars and causes rocks to fall down from the ceiling, simply knock her down during this ability. You may also be able to do this right after she lands after stomping on the ground. You'll likely knock her down before even realizing it was tied to a mission, the windows are pretty generous and her guard tends to break often.

Secret Mission 23: Flynn

During the battle against Flynn, have Flynn use every arte he can, including a mystic arte .

During the friendly duel with Flynn, you have to let him do every ability during the fight before winning the battle. He'll use his Mystic Arte Radiant Dragon Fang automatically after Yuri does a Mystic Arte, and then for the rest you pretty much just have to run around until he performs all his other abilities. A couple of his abilities First Aid and Guardian Field he'll use to heal himself, so make sure he takes some damage to see him do these. The game will let you know with a short cutscene once he's performed all his artes.

In this version of the game, he seems to have these abilities:

• Rising Falcon
• Sonic Thrust
• Dragon Swarm
• Hell Fire Blade
• Tiger Blade
• Shining Falcon
• Beast
• Severing Blade
• Demon Fang
• Demonic Circle
• Demonic Chaos
• First Aid (Heal)
• Guardian Field (Heal)
• Holy Lance (Spell Arte)
• Luminant Scythe (Spell Arte)
• Radiant Dragon Fang (Mystic Arte)

Secret Mission 24: Zagi (Tarqaron)

In the fifth battle against Zagi, down him by attacking after he gets exhausted from Blastia Bane.

This is like a pared down version of the secret missions with Schwann and Alexei, namely that you have to knock Zagi down after one of his abilities, thankfully it's not his Mystic Arte. When he's using the ability Blastia Bane, use your heavy hitting artes to knock him over.

Secret Mission 25: Duke (Second Form)

Defeat Duke using a mystic arte during your second battle against him.

As a conclusion to the game's secret missions, just make sure to finish off the final boss's Second Form with Yuri's default Mystic Arte, Savage Wolf Fury. As a reminder, pull this off by holding the attack button after an Altered, Arcane, or Burst Arte while in Overlimit 3+. Wait for Duke to have something like 10,000-20,000 health, and then activate the arte. 

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition - Retrying Secret Missions

Thankfully, unlike the original Xbox 360 release of the game, Secret Missions are no longer missable. Once you make your way to Nam Cobanda late in the game during Act 3, simply talk to the Cow Kid in the northeast corner of the outdoor area. For 300 chips (not gald) per boss, you'll be able to retry every secret mission as many times as you need to.

This is handy for being able to tackle some bosses who can be difficult to simply defeat early on, such as Gattuso, but also being able to go into each with more useful skills under your belt. For instance, using Tractor Beam to knock Zagi off the ship from mission 4. You won't earn any exp or other rewards for fighting these bosses, but are able to earn any missions you missed during your playthrough.