The Bleach content in RE:AOPG adds a long progression path for Ichigo, and getting the full spec is not something you can unlock in just a few minutes. You’ll need to work through several quests, races, items, bosses, and different versions of Ichigo’s powers before reaching the final upgrades.
I recommend starting with the Zangetsu progression first, since several of the abilities and items you unlock along the way are required for later parts of the quest. You’ll also need to spend time farming different enemies and completing the race requirements for Racial Fusion.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the main steps I followed to unlock Ichigo’s progression in RE:AOPG, including True Zangetsu, Horns of Salvation, Bankai, Grand Ray, Getsuga Blitz, and the other secret moves.
How to Get Ichigo Spec in RE AOPG & Bleach Event Guide
First, go to Hugo Mundo in the Multiverse and look for the Zangetsu NPC.
You’ll need to grind Zangetsu to obtain the Souls that randomly spawn during the progression. Collecting the required Souls unlocks different sword moves and allows you to continue with the Bleach progression.
Once you have progressed through Zangetsu, you can begin working toward the Hollow-related upgrades.
Get Hollow Mask and Horns of Salvation
Talk to Hollow Ichigo and follow his request for the Hollow Mask.
The Hollow Mask can appear every few minutes, with the transcript showing around a 30% chance for it to spawn.
Once you obtain the mask and continue the progression, you can unlock Horns of Salvation.
Horns of Salvation gives you access to Grand Ray and also provides a 1.7x global damage buff, making it an important part of the overall Ichigo progression.
Start the Main Yhwach Quest
After working through the initial Zangetsu and Hollow progression, head to New Crystal Island in the Multiverse Sea.
You’ll find Yhwach above the castle.
Talk to him to start the main quest.
You’ll need to collect several drops from enemies and bosses in Multiverse C. The required enemies include:
- Awakened Angel
- Miracle
- Akin
- Balance
- Nerves
The drops have low chances, so expect to spend some time farming them.
Get Defeated by Yhwach
After collecting the required items, continue the Yhwach quest.
You need to fight Yhwach and allow yourself to be defeated during Phase 2.
After you reset, return to the progression and you’ll find that Zangetsu becomes shattered.
This moves the quest into the next stage.
Get Asauchi
Next, head back to Crystal Island and find Oetsu near the Spawn Point Set.
Oetsu will send you into the Asauchi Raid.
Complete the raid in under two minutes to obtain the Asauchi.
Once you have it, return to Oetsu and continue the quest to unlock True Shikai.
Complete the False Acceptance Quest
After obtaining True Shikai, you need to visit Ichibe.
Ichibe will give you the False Acceptance progression.
For this part, you actually need to fail the trial intentionally.
After completing this stage, you’ll need Racial Fusion to continue toward True Acceptance.
That means you have to work through all four races.
Get Awakened Human
The first race requirement comes from the Shinigami vs Quincy event.
Farm Souls through the event until you obtain the required progression for Awakened Human.
You’ll need this later when combining the different race requirements for Racial Fusion.
Get Hollow Race
For the Hollow race, go to Urahara and start his Hollow trial.
Allow the Hollow to hit you during the trial and then reset.
This gives you the progression needed for the Hollow race.
Get Quincy Race
Next, complete the Quincy trial from Kenpachi.
Kill the required Quincy enemies until you obtain King’s Blood.
This unlocks the Quincy race progression.
Get Shinigami Race
For the Shinigami requirement, go to the Head Captain and complete the Hollow Extermination quest.
Kill the required Hollows until you obtain the Shinigami Badge.
Use the badge together with your Awakened Human progression to obtain the Shinigami race.
Get Fullbring Race
Return to Urahara and complete the required Hollow trial progression.
You need to obtain Hollow Essence.
Once you have it, you can use it to unlock the Fullbring race.
Get Racial Fusion
Now you should have progressed through all four races:
- Shinigami
- Quincy
- Hollow
- Fullbring
Head to the Soul King at the top of Crystal Island.
Equip each race and obtain the corresponding essence.
Once you have all four required essences, you can combine them to obtain Racial Fusion.
This is required for the next part of Ichigo’s progression.
Get True Acceptance and True Zangetsu
With Racial Fusion unlocked, return to Ichibe.
Complete the True Acceptance progression.
Once you finish this part, you can obtain True Zangetsu, which allows you to continue into the later Ichigo upgrades.
Start Ichigo’s Hugo Mundo Quest
Now head back to Hugo Mundo and find Ichigo.
You’ll need to defeat the required map bosses and complete Ichigo’s sparring requirements.
The progression requires you to:
- Defeat 4 map bosses.
- Spar with Ichigo 30 times.
- Continue talking to Ichigo.
- Complete the additional quests he gives you.
After completing the initial requirements, you’ll unlock the first Q move.
Keep progressing through Ichigo’s dialogue and quests to unlock the rest of his moves.
Get the Hollow Mask Again
Continue the Ichigo progression until you need the Hollow Mask in Hugo Mundo.
Find the mask and use the Hollow Essence you obtained earlier.
This lets you progress into Horns of Salvation.
Horns of Salvation is important because it gives you access to the later secret abilities, including Grand Ray.
Get Inner Zangetsu Soul
One of the more time-consuming parts is farming the Inner Zangetsu Soul.
You have roughly a 4% chance of obtaining it by sparring with Ichigo.
Once you get the item, use it to enter the special area containing around 150 swords.
You’ll have around 20 attempts to select the correct sword.
There is also a 20-minute cooldown, so choose carefully rather than wasting your attempts.
Once you select the correct sword, you can continue the Ichigo progression.
Complete the Final Yhwach Progression
After obtaining the required sword progression, return to Yhwach.
Defeat him again to progress toward the final Ichigo mode.
This leads into the Bankai portion of the quest.
How to Unlock Bankai’s Name
During the Yhwach fight, enter Phase 2.
Bring Yhwach down to around 20% HP.
At the same time, your own HP needs to be around 20%.
When both conditions are met, activate your unnamed mode.
This unlocks the name of your Bankai and continues the final progression.
How to Get Grand Ray
Grand Ray is one of the secret moves connected to Horns of Salvation.
Equip Horns of Salvation and fight Yhwach.
Bring Yhwach down to around 25% HP.
At the required point in the fight, you can trigger the Grand Ray progression and unlock the move.
How to Get Getsuga Blitz
The final secret move requires another specific Yhwach fight.
Bring Yhwach down to around 10% HP while your Bankai is at around 25% HP.
Meet the required conditions during the fight to unlock Getsuga Blitz.
The Ichigo progression in RE:AOPG is a long grind, but the final result gives you a complete Bleach-themed progression rather than just a single ability. The biggest time sinks are the low-drop-rate items, race requirements, Ichigo spars, and the Inner Zangetsu Soul farming.
I recommend completing the race requirements early whenever you have downtime, since Racial Fusion is one of the major gates in the progression. Once that is finished, you can focus on Ichigo, Zangetsu, and the Yhwach fights without having to stop and complete the race quests later.