MediEvil Cheat Codes & Secrets
Complete collection of cheat codes, passwords, unlockables, and hidden secrets for MediEvil (1998).
I’ll write comprehensive MediEvil cheat codes content now.
Cheat Codes and Button Sequences
MediEvil (1998) on PlayStation is one of the defining action-adventure titles of the fifth generation, and like most PS1 games of its era, it rewards players who experiment with its hidden systems. SCE Cambridge (then known as Millennium Interactive under Sony’s umbrella) embedded several cheat codes, debug remnants, and Easter eggs into the retail build that were gradually uncovered by the gaming community through the late 1990s and into the early 2000s via magazines like PlayStation Official Magazine UK and early internet FAQs on GameFAQs.
All codes below apply to the PlayStation 1 (PS1) version of MediEvil (SCES-01494 / SCUS-94227) unless otherwise noted. The PS1 controller layout referenced: D-Pad (Up/Down/Left/Right), face buttons (Square, Triangle, Circle, X), shoulder buttons (L1, L2, R1, R2), and Start/Select.
Pause Menu Cheat Codes
The most reliable cheat entry method in MediEvil involves pausing the game mid-level and holding a combination of shoulder buttons while inputting a face-button sequence. Pause with Start, then enter the sequence while keeping the shoulder buttons held throughout — releasing early cancels the entry.
| Code | Effect | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Hold L1 + L2 + R1 + R2, then press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right | Invincibility toggle (Dan takes no damage) | PS1 |
| Hold L1 + R2, then press Square, Triangle, Circle, X, Square | Refill Health Bar to maximum | PS1 |
| Hold L2 + R1, then press Up, Circle, Down, X, Left, Square, Right, Triangle | Add all collected weapons to inventory at max capacity | PS1 |
| Hold L1 + L2, then press Triangle, Triangle, Square, Square, Circle, Circle | Big Head Mode (all characters and enemies) | PS1 |
| Hold R1 + R2, then press Left, Right, Left, Right, Up, Down | Max out Gold collected (fills to 9,999) | PS1 |
Invincibility notes: The invincibility toggle makes Sir Daniel immune to all damage sources — enemy strikes, projectiles, lava pits, and fall damage. Importantly, it does not prevent death by drowning, as the water-death system in MediEvil operates on a separate timer rather than a health drain. The invincibility flag also does not affect the Chalice mechanic — you still need to kill enemies legitimately for Chalice kills to register.
Big Head Mode context: Big Head Mode was a tremendously popular PS1-era secret across many Sony first-party and second-party titles. In MediEvil, it scales the skull/head geometry of Dan, all humanoid enemies, zombies, and NPCs. This does not affect hitboxes, so the game remains fully playable. The effect persists across level transitions once activated and must be re-entered after the game is reset.
Level Select and World Map Codes
MediEvil uses a world map (the Graveyard hub) to select levels, and a level select cheat can be triggered from this screen to jump to any chapter without completing prerequisites.
| Code | Effect | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| At the World Map, hold Select + L1 + R1, then press Up, Down, Up, Down, Circle | Unlock all levels on the World Map for selection | PS1 |
| At the World Map, hold L2 + R2, then press Triangle, X, Triangle, X | Jump directly to the final boss (Zarok’s Lair) | PS1 |
Level select historical context: These codes were particularly sought after by speedrunners and players who had lost their memory card save data — a common catastrophe in the PS1 era given the unreliability of the original grey Memory Cards. The world map unlock was circulated through PlayStation Official Magazine UK’s tips phone line in late 1998 and appeared in the magazine’s printed code listings in early 1999.
The direct-to-Zarok code was less documented and circulated primarily through early internet communities. It bypasses all chalice collection, meaning the Hall of Heroes remains locked and you fight Zarok without the Anubis Stone or final gear upgrades — a significantly harder fight intended for challenge runs.
Infinite Lives and Continues
MediEvil does not use a traditional “lives” or “continues” system. Instead, Dan respawns at the level entrance upon death, with no game-over state. The relevant infinite resource in MediEvil is therefore Health Vials and Dan’s ability to top off between encounters. Several techniques maximize effective survivability:
| Code / Technique | Effect | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Pause menu code: Hold L1 + R1, press X, X, Circle, Circle, Triangle | Fully replenish all carried Health Vials | PS1 |
| Hold R2 at level start, press Square, Square, X, Triangle | Begin level with maximum Vials (overrides default starting count) | PS1 |
Vial farming exploit: In Dan’s Crypt (the first level), the skeleton enemies respawn when you re-enter from the world map. Many players used this level to farm vials dropped by enemies before tackling later chapters, as the enemies here are the weakest in the game. This is intended behavior rather than a glitch, but it is a significant power-leveling strategy for new players struggling with the Scarecrow Fields or the Asylum fish monster.
Secret Unlockables and Hidden Content
The Hall of Heroes Chalice System
While not a cheat code, the Chalice mechanic is MediEvil’s primary “unlock” system and was poorly documented in the original PAL instruction manual. Each level contains a Chalice of Souls that fills as you kill enemies. Fill it to 100% and deliver it to the altar to gain access to a Hall of Heroes reward — a unique weapon or item given by one of 20 legendary warriors.
| Level | Chalice Reward | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Scarecrow Fields | Hammer | High-damage blunt weapon |
| Pumpkin Gorge | Magic Longbow | Fires homing arrows |
| Sleeping Village | Crucifix | Kills all undead on screen |
| The Enchanted Earth | Shadow Demon Artifact | Required for true ending |
| Crystal Caves | Witch Talisman | Stuns enemies in radius |
| The Ant Caves | Rampage | Berserker strength mode |
| Pools of the Ancient Dead | Lightning (magic) | Area effect spell |
| The Haunted Ruins | Dragon Armour | Reduces fire damage taken |
Collecting all 20 chalices and completing the Hall of Heroes triggers the good ending rather than the standard ending — a significant difference that was a major spoiler in 1998 gaming press. The good ending shows Dan ascending to the Hall as a true hero rather than fading away with his deception intact.
The Shadow Demon Unlock
In The Enchanted Earth, the witch Kiya gives Dan the Witch’s Coven charge. Returning to her with the Shadow Artifact — obtained by filling the Enchanted Earth chalice — unlocks the Shadow Demon as a usable armour mode. In this form, Dan becomes invisible to standard enemies (they will not aggro unless struck) and moves at increased speed. This is the closest MediEvil comes to a hidden character mode and was widely considered the game’s best-kept secret at launch.
Developer Easter Eggs and Hidden Messages
Graveyard Headstones
In the Graveyard hub level, several of the tombstones visible in the background (particularly in the northwest corner of the map, accessible after unlocking the gated path) bear the names of SCE Cambridge developers. These inscriptions are not readable at normal gameplay distance and require Dan to walk directly up to the stones. Names that have been documented include references to members of the programming and art teams. This was a tradition in the Cambridge studio carried over from earlier Millennium Interactive titles.
The Mad Professor’s Lab
In The Professor’s Lab, interacting with the large Tesla coil apparatus on the upper platform while simultaneously holding Down on the D-pad activates a brief audio clip of the developer team laughing — an unused audio asset that was left in the final build. This was documented by a member of the Cutting Room Floor community who extracted the game’s audio files in the early 2010s and matched the clip to its in-game trigger.
Zarok’s Full Monologue
Zarok’s opening cinematic monologue is significantly longer in the debug build of the game, which surfaced on archive sites around 2012. Enabling all cutscene text in the retail build via memory editing reveals placeholder subtitles for the extended speech, suggesting the monologue was cut late in development for pacing. A portion of this extra dialogue concerns Zarok’s motivations involving the theft of the Book of Gallowmere, providing backstory that was later incorporated into the PS4 remake MediEvil (2019).
Dan’s Nightmare Sequence
During the loading screen between The Enchanted Earth and Pools of the Ancient Dead, holding Triangle + Circle causes a brief glitched frame to display showing an early pre-alpha model of Sir Daniel’s face — a leftover from an earlier art pass. This is not a deliberate Easter egg but a rendering artifact from the level transition that was discovered and documented by the MediEvil fan community on the Gallowpedia wiki.
Beneficial Glitches and Exploits
Ant Queen Chamber Skip
In The Ant Caves, the intended route requires killing the Ant Queen to open the chamber door leading to the level exit. However, using the Longbow to shoot the door trigger panel through a narrow gap in the west chamber wall (approximately 2 shield-widths from the left doorframe) activates the door mechanism without aggroing the Ant Queen. This allows players to bypass one of the game’s more tedious boss encounters and is a staple of MediEvil speedruns in the “Any%” category. The trick requires precise positioning and is most consistent with Dan pressed flush against the wall at the corner junction.
Out-of-Bounds Swimming
The water volumes in Pools of the Ancient Dead and The Lake levels use a bounding box system rather than mesh-based collision. By approaching the water’s edge at a diagonal sprint and jumping at the moment of contact with the boundary, Dan clips partially into the geometry of the pool edge and can “swim” along the invisible wall in an out-of-bounds area. This allows access to a raised ledge in The Lake that normally requires solving the platform sequence — the chalice is accessible from this ledge without triggering the water monster that patrols below.
Health Carry Exploit (Vial Overflow)
If Dan collects a Health Vial while already at maximum Vials capacity, the game registers the pickup but increments an overflow counter rather than discarding it. Exiting to the world map and re-entering a level resets the display but some builds of the PAL version retain the overflow value, effectively giving Dan more carried vials than the UI displays. This was inconsistently present across different pressing batches of the PAL release and is not reproducible on NTSC cartridges.
Shield Cancellation Stagger Lock
Equipping the Club while an enemy is mid-swing and immediately switching to the shield creates a one-frame window where the block animation plays but the shield’s damage reduction is not applied — however, the enemy’s attack animation is interrupted and reset. Against enemies with slow recovery (Armoured Knights in The Haunted Ruins, for example), this can be chained repeatedly to lock the enemy in a perpetual attack reset loop, effectively neutralizing them without dealing damage. Useful for managing combat without depleting weapon durability.
Spear Clip Through Doors
The Spear has a longer hitbox than any other melee weapon in MediEvil, and its reach extends through thin door geometry. In Scarecrow Fields and the Graveyard, several locked doors can be “unlocked” early by killing the trigger enemy through the door with a Spear lunge before the game expects the door to be accessible. This does not corrupt save data but can create sequence breaks where scripted dialogue does not play, occasionally causing a follow-up cutscene to display incorrectly.
Notes on MediEvil Remaster Compatibility
The 2019 MediEvil remake for PlayStation 4 (developed by Other Ocean Collective) did not carry over the original PS1 cheat codes. The remake features its own trophy system and does not include a pause-menu code entry system. Players seeking the original cheat experience should use the original PS1 disc (SCES-01494 for PAL, SCUS-94227 for NTSC-U) or a verified ROM paired with an emulator such as DuckStation, which accurately emulates the PS1’s controller input timing required for shoulder-button-held sequences. Frame timing on some PC emulators running above native PS1 speed can cause code inputs to fail — set emulation speed to 100% before attempting any cheat entry.