Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is a throwback to the retro games of the 8 and 16 bit era of gaming. Each of the stages you can choose from the game’s Mega Man style map leads to a boss whose power you obtain upon completing the level. In addition to the boss weapons, each level hides at least one secret power module. Each one of these chips gives you access to special passive abilities you can slot into your Moonrider.
The Moonrider only has two slots where the player can insert their power modules of choice. This means that as the game progresses, you will have to make increasingly difficult choices about which passive bonuses to have equipped. What you choose will be influenced by your playstyle and the order in which you take on the levels.
In total there are 12 power module chips hidden across the first seven levels of Vengeful Guardian: Moornider. Here’s where to find each one of them.
Armor Chip
Technically this can be the first power module you obtain in Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider. All you have to do is hit a game over screen and you will be rewarded(?) for your death with a power module chip. The Armor Chip reduces damage taken, but makes it so that your final rank on a level will max out at a B rating.
MP Regen Chip
The MP Regen Chip will automatically regenerate your sub-weapon power over time. It can be found in the second half of the first stage, the Bioweapon Lab, after you fight the first mini boss.
Progress through the rest of the lab normally until you reach a branching path that you can follow either upwards or downwards. Take the upper path and follow it. You are going to have to cross a gap using moving platforms. In this section, you must stall by wall jumping until the final platform lands beneath you taking you over to a small ledge with a MP pickup. Pick up the MP regen and then use your special attack to break the wall in front of you. Inside you will find the tube that holds the first power module chip of the game.
Chameleon Chip
The Chameleon Chip allows you to customize the look and color scheme of your Moonrider. It’s a pretty cool chip, despite not having any gameplay benefits. The Chameleon Chip can be found in the Desalination Station level.
After fighting the mini-boss that causes the water to drain, you will fall down a hole that appears at the bottom of the boss arena. From here, you will be able to choose either right or left. Pick the unintuitive direction and head to the left. Navigate some platforms to avoid falling in the spikes and then drop down to an area with a floating mine connected to a chain. Duck to cut the mine’s chain to reveal a hidden area that you can jump up into. The tube containing the Chameleon Chip is your reward for solving this environmental puzzle.
Long Sword Chip
Later in the Desalination Station you will be able to find a chip that extends the length of your melee attack. The Long Sword chip can be found after the mini-boss, in the section where you are adjusting the water level to activate platforms.
Ride the small red platform up the narrow passage with spikes on each side. After this ride is over you should see a switch and a mine to your right. Walk this way, avoiding the mine but destroying your enemies, and hit the switch to the right of the next large red platform. Ride this down and continue until you see a path upwards.
Take out the enemies before jumping unto the metal platform and then wall jump up to an area where there will be a switch on each side of the gap you are jumping up from. Hit the switch furthest to the right and then jump to the left platform and hit the other switch to raise the water level. Use the now raised red platform to jump left to a previously inaccessible platform with MP and HP power-ups.
When you drop down from here you find yourself back at the start of this section. However now the water level is raised so you can cut the mine’s chain to reveal a hidden passage. Wall jump up it to retrieve the Long Sword power module chip.
Bloodlust Chip
One of the best chips in the game, Bloodlust restores HP every time you kill an enemy. It can be acquired in the Fallen City stage.
After the segment where you escape from the rising wave of fire, you will run down a hallway. An enemy will spawn behind you and you must kill them and destroy the brick in front of you. Instead of running forward here, wall jump up the passage above you to find a hidden area with a health pickup and another block you can destroy. Doing so will cause the block above it to fall through the ground below, revealing the area where you can find the Bloodlust Chip.
Detective Chip
The Detective Chip is useful if you want to start here and organically find the rest of the power modules across the rest of the levels. Found in Iwondonilo City, this chip locates hidden areas in other stages, leading you to the locations of other power modules.
In the final section of this stage, right before the boss, you will be running through a section that will force you to wall jump in order to avoid oncoming lasers. This one is actually hard to miss since it can be seen while moving forward. If you pay attention to the top of the screen you can see the chip when it comes up and use the wall jump to reach its location.
Acrobat Chip
The Acrobat Chip is essentially a double-jump ability. This power module can be found early on in the Lost Ruins stage of Moonrider.
Early in Lost Ruins, you find yourself in a large space that you navigate via disappearing platforms that fall away once you step on them. The Acrobat Chip is in the top left-hand corner of this area. To get there you will need to jump up to the stable platform with a power-up on it. From here, follow the disappearing platforms to your right. This will actually force you to wall jump off a large column, setting you on a path of disappearing platforms you can take diagonally left all the way to the top of the screen. There is a nook up here where you will find the Acrobat Chip.
Akujiki Chip
In Lost Ruins, you will see the locked blue door to the Akujiki Chip when you first enter the area with the colored switches. No other ruin allows you to become as powerful as this one. When equipped, the Akujiki makes it so that the more enemies you kill per life the stronger your attack becomes. Here’s how to solve the puzzle to unlock it.
Progress normally, flipping the colored switches that will lead you to the left, down, and around into the blood lake. You will now be moving left to right under the red water. Do this until you pass through a yellow door you should have unlocked. Instead of moving forward to the right, follow the path down a hallway to your left. At the end of it lies the switch that unlocks the blue door to the chip. From here, get back on the critical path to unlock the red door out of the lake. Now you will either be able to wall jump up left or right. Go left to backtrack.
While backtracking through the first part of the area, do not hit the red switch on your way back. If you do, you will have to do this whole process from the start. Instead, wall jump up the space above where the red switch is and then follow the path left back to where you started. Now the blue door guarding the Akujiki chip is unlocked and ultimate power is yours.
Reborn Chip
The Reborn Chip will allow you to respawn once per stage with half of your maximum HP. You will find it early on in the Asura’s Fleet level of Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider.
In the first part of Asura’s Fleet there is a section where you are dangling from a bar beneath a big ship, avoiding the fires that are coming down to attack you in straight lines from the ship. After this section you will jump down onto a floating ship platforming before jumping up to the next part of the level.
Don’t jump yet. If you look closely, you can see there is a bar on the bottom of the platform, indicating you can drop down. Do so to find a smaller floating ship platform where the tube with the Reborn Chip waits to be claimed.
Soul Eater Chip
The Soul Eater Chip is like Bloodlust, however it allows you to restore MP instead of HP by killing foes. This one is also found in Asura’s Fleet.
After the second mini-boss of the stage, progress forward until you hit a gap before a wall. You can either wall jump up or fall down the gap. Fall down and you will find yourself in a section with two enemies on platforms on the left side of the screen. Go to the enemy on the bottom platform, take care of him, and then walk through the wall behind him. It will reveal itself to be a fake wall and the Soul Eater Chip can be found inside.
Glass Cannon Chip
This chip isn’t helpful. Instead, it is meant as an extra challenge for the hardcore players. With the Glass Cannon chip equipped, you will die instantly if you take even a single hit. You can find it in the Laser Research Base stage.
In the first section of the Laser Research Base you will run into a passage blocked by 8 crates, in two stacks of four. Only attack the two in the top left by jumping and swinging your sword. This will allow you to jump on top of the second stack. From here you can see that all it takes is a wall jump to get up to the platform where the Glass Cannon chip is hidden.
HP Regen Chip
The HP Regen Chip restores a bit of health over time every few seconds. It can be found in the second half of the Laser Research Base stage.
During the section with the floating vertical and horizontal platforms take the upper path. When you reach a vertical floating platform, with horizontal platforms to the right and a hallway with a turret to the upper left, you are in the right place to find this power module. You now have to navigate a platforming section very similar to the one you completed to get the MP Regen chip, only now with turrets you have to destroy. Get to the end of these horizontal platforms and you will find the HP Regen chip waiting for you.
