Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising Cheat Codes & Secrets

Secret Unlockables and Hidden COs

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising does not use a traditional cheat code or password system — it uses GBA battery-save and progress-gated unlocks. All secrets are earned through campaign completion or purchased with G (coins) in the Battle Maps shop.

Playable CO Unlocks

Black Hole COs become playable as you defeat them during the campaign. Completion of the Normal Campaign is required before the full roster is available for Battle Maps play.

CO	How to Unlock	Notes
Flak	Available from campaign start	Default Black Hole CO
Lash	Progress through Normal Campaign	Unlocks mid-campaign
Adder	Progress through Normal Campaign	Unlocks mid-campaign
Hawke	Complete Normal Campaign	Final Black Hole story CO
Sturm	Complete Normal Campaign + purchase in Battle Maps shop	Extremely high unit stats
Hachi	Purchase in Battle Maps shop (costs significant G)	Most powerful CO in the game — all units cost half price

Hard Campaign

Unlock	Requirement
Hard Campaign mode	Complete the Normal Campaign in its entirety
Additional Battle Maps	Earn G from campaign missions; spend in the Battle Maps shop
Design Maps (Map Editor)	Available after sufficient campaign progress

Hard Campaign significantly increases enemy CO Power usage frequency and tightens mission objectives.

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Battle Maps Shop Unlocks

The Battle Maps shop is the primary secret content system. G is earned by completing campaign missions — higher speed and technique bonuses award more G per map.

Item	Approximate Cost	Notes
Hachi (CO)	High G cost	Unlocks him for VS/Battle Maps use
Sturm (CO)	High G cost	Must complete Normal Campaign first
Extra multiplayer maps	Varies	Expand the VS map pool

Replaying campaign missions on Hard Campaign yields more G per completion, making it the fastest farming method for shop purchases.

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Scoring System and S-Rank Technique

AW2 grades every campaign mission across three categories:

Category	Max Score	How It’s Judged
Speed	100	Days taken vs. par time
Power	100	Units destroyed vs. units lost
Technique	100	Proportion of map captured/controlled

S-Rank (300 points) is achieved by maxing all three. S-ranking a mission rewards substantially more G than lower grades. Speed score drops sharply after the par day count — prioritize fast wins over careful play when farming G.

Speed manipulation tip: Deliberately delay ending missions by one day if it keeps you within a score threshold — the Power and Technique categories can compensate for a minor Speed penalty.

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Beneficial Glitches and Exploits

Pipe Seam Exploit

The most significant known exploit in competitive play. Pipe seams — the junction tiles where two pipe segments meet — have inconsistent terrain interaction with indirect-fire units.

• Indirect units (Artillery, Rocket, Battleship) positioned adjacent to a pipe seam tile can, in specific map configurations, fire through the seam as if it were open terrain.
• This allows attacks that bypass intended chokepoints on maps built around pipe defenses.
• Affects both single-player and VS play; particularly impactful on Black Hole map designs that rely on pipe corridors as defensive structures.

Black Boat Infinite Repair

On maps where a Black Boat (repair ship) is accessible:

• Black Boat restores 1 HP and resupplies adjacent naval/air units per turn at no cost.
• Multiple Black Boats can stack their repair on the same unit by positioning them in adjacent water tiles — this is unintended behavior that repair formulas don’t cap at one per unit per turn.
• Effective for keeping expensive air units (Bombers, Stealth) alive indefinitely near water.

CO Power Timing Manipulation

The CO Power meter fills based on damage dealt AND damage received. Intentionally exposing a low-value unit (Infantry) to heavy enemy fire accelerates power charge without meaningful loss. This is technically intended game design but is considered an exploit in competitive contexts — often called “charging on cheap units.”

Fog of War Vision Boundary

In Fog of War missions, unit vision is calculated from the unit’s current tile. When a unit moves, vision updates at the end of movement, not during. Exploiting this:

• Move units along the edge of your scouted area to reveal tiles without entering them.
• Recon units (vision 5) moved along a forest border see into forest tiles from the edge; the enemy does not get symmetrical vision unless they have a unit already adjacent.

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Developer Easter Eggs and Hidden Content

Nell’s Tutorial Acknowledgment

On the pre-campaign tutorial map, if you complete every objective significantly under par and achieve a perfect Power score, Nell delivers an alternate dialogue line acknowledging exceptional performance. This has no mechanical reward but is flagged by speedrunners as a confirmation of clean routing.

CO Dialogue Variations

Several Black Hole COs have alternate pre-battle dialogue that only triggers when facing specific opposing COs:

Black Hole CO	Opponent	Alternate Dialogue Trigger
Hawke	Andy	References the events of the original Advance Wars
Lash	Sonja	Rival scientist dialogue variant
Sturm	Nell	Final confrontation extended exchange

These are cosmetic only but confirm Intelligent Systems embedded story-aware dialogue trees beyond the standard lines.

Map Editor Hidden Tile Behavior

In the Design Maps editor, placing certain terrain tiles in specific combinations (pipe ends adjacent to sea tiles) reveals that the engine stores coastal pipe graphics that are never used in the Normal or Hard campaigns — leftover assets from earlier map design iterations.

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External Code Devices (Game Boy Advance)

AW2 has no built-in button-sequence cheat codes. For those using cartridge-compatible cheat hardware on real GBA hardware, Game Boy Advance Action Replay and GameShark Pro devices support raw memory codes for the NTSC-U release. These are external device codes, not in-game inputs, and must be entered into the cheat device’s interface before booting the cartridge. Common categories of external codes used by players include unlimited funds in VS mode and unlocking all Battle Maps without grinding G — consult device-specific databases for verified addresses, as memory offsets differ between the USA (AGB-AW2E) and European (AGB-AW2P) releases.

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Quick Reference: What This Game Does NOT Have

Feature	Present?
Built-in button sequence cheat codes	No
Password level select system	No — uses battery save
Warp zones or stage select codes	No
Infinite lives mechanic	N/A — not a lives-based game
In-game invincibility toggle	No

All meaningful secret content is accessed through campaign completion and the Battle Maps G shop system, making full campaign runs (Normal then Hard) the core unlock path for serious players.