3. Story walkthrough
Basically you only need one playthrough for the whole game on Normal, but this only works if you keep a few things in mind and follow this walkthrough. This might spoil your gaming experience, so if you like the game (as I did) you will certainly do one more playthrough just for the fun of it. However, this is by far the fastest and most efficient way to get a full 1000 or 1250 on this game.
So, start a new game and keep the following things in mind since we will go for a lot of missable achievements:
- Don't go for all the Phantom Shards, I recommend that you only go for 540 since this is the minimum number required to finish the game (30 per region are enough, you can go back later and collect them all).
- Don't die more than 100 times, so save each time before you try to do something that can kill you just to minimize the casualties. Getting saved is the moment you see the sequence when Elika reaches for you with her hand during jumps and fights (in this case, the enemy will regain some health), these are what you need to avoid.
- Save before every boss and keep the save if you don't plan on going for the corresponding achievements with them, giving you the chance to pick them up later after your speed playthrough (shouldn't be needed though as far as I can tell). Keeping older saves will also enable you to go for the kill-specific achievements on generic enemies, so keep some old saves anyway. Otherwise, you will need another playthrough!
- Whenever you get the chance, either push an enemy off a ledge (push him to a ledge and a video sequence will play where you kill him with one hit and push him off the ledge) or kill him before he spawns (stand next to the black spawn vortex and push the X button for an instant kill). As soon as one achievement pops, reload the last save and go for the other one. As soon as that pops do the same again, this will allow you more time to aim to complete the game, under the 12 hours limit.
- Save before you enter the final temple and after you cleansed the final land. Now you can quickly finish the game and go back for everything you missed when you reload. Call it a "general mop-up" if you want, that's exactly what it is.
As soon as the initial cut-scene is done, you earn your first achievement for starting the game.
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement. (Secret)
Now follow Elika a little bit into the game and you will encounter your first fighting sequence. Simply fight the guard until you are prompted to block. Now hold the RT button to unlock the 50 successful blocks. You can of course do them during the game, but if you speed through you will actually be more aggressive than defensive (good offense is always a good defense) therefore making it possible to fall short of a few blocks. Since I unlocked it here, I will state it here.
This is also a perfect spot to do the 20 deflections by pressing the RT button just before the enemy's attack will impact. Again, this could be done through the entirety of the game.
After the fight and a little bit of acrobatics you will come to a bridge that will collapse. After Elika saves you, another achievement unlocks.
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement. (Secret)
After your second fight with one of the guards, you can see the tutorial tip to push the LT button to talk to Elika. Follow that tip to unlock another achievement for you.
As soon as you open the door with the crank on the left side of the temple, the achievement for clearing the canyon unlocks for you.
After you exit the temple and the short tutorial of the world map is done (Personally, I took the left path), you get another achievement here.
Now simply hit the LT button over and over again to learn more about Elika and if done correctly, after some time the following achievement will unlock. Will take a few minutes, but as soon as the Prince talks to himself rather than to her, go for the next target by pressing the Y button.
Get to know Elika by talking to her.
After the next video sequence keep talking to her again until you talk to yourself again and follow the spirit track. Now after she mentions the Hunter talk to her again a few times and the last achievement unlocked for me here concerning talking to her.
Learn about the world, and Elika's history.
As soon as you reach the top you will have the first encounter with the Hunter. During this fight (or any other fight with the hunter) you can get the achievement for deflecting 5 of his attacks during one encounter with him. This is rather easy to do since his attacks are not very fast, I got it on my first try for it. You should save before you reach the top and redo that point for later use.
Deflect the Hunter's attacks 5 times in one battle.
After you beat him you can heal the land with the Y button and unlock another achievement for that.
Save BEFORE you attempt this on a new file or keep your auto save. Now make your way onward (for those that might be confused, take the path to the right after you slide down the pole) until you reach another soldier. Block his attacks and lure him to one of the edges with your back to the edge. Now perform the following combo and make sure to let some time between the hits because if you hit them too fast the combo wont count (timing is everything, just watch the movements) : X,X,X,Y,X,Y,A,Y,X,Y,B and alternatively now either A,Y,X or A,X,Y or A,X,B. If done correctly he dies in this combo and nets you the achievement for the 15 hits combo. Don't worry if you don't get it on the first try, there will be ample opportunities to get it done (you can also use it during a boss battle). Here's a video for those that might struggle to see how it should look like.
Perform 14 hits in one combo.
Reload the save before you attacked/killed this guy, go for him again and now either kill him before he spawns or lure him to one edge and drop him off it. Now teleport to the temple and teleport back to the first healed land. Get back to the spawn location and he should be there again. You can do this on every spawn location of an enemy but since this is the earliest chance, do it here. Be aware that teleporting only works on healed land, you can not teleport on cursed land. So, rinse and repeat to sack the following achievements. If you don't do these before you kill Ahriman, you will have to replay the whole game again, so do this before you healed all lands and face Ahriman.
Kill 10 generic enemies before they spawn.
Throw 10 Soldiers of Ahriman into pits.
Now mark the next accessible area on your map (I chose the next to the right, first encounter with the alchemist) and save before you reach the next fertile ground area. Now sack the achievement for not using any acrobatic moves on the alchemist (pushing the A button during an attack initiates this, so keep your fingers away from the A button). Pushing him to one of the ledges will help you on that and as soon as a small button smash sequence appears (continually push the X button fast), you should unlock another achievement for winning a wall mini-game.
Win a wall mini-game in combat.
Defeat the Alchemist without using the acrobatic button.
Now reload your save, kill him as quick as possible, cleanse the land and collect the missing shards until you hit 60. Now get back to the temple and activate the rightmost sigil. Here you can of course choose which sigil to pick, but I picked that one because I think the areas it does unlock are quite starter friendly in comparison. What I did was that I picked the next level on the hunter path. Again, liberate the level and get as many shards as you can (30 minimum, 45 maximum, but I DON'T recommend the 45.....being on 35 is a good number). For the next upgrade you need 170 shards to unlock it, so what I did was that I liberated all the levels accessible on the path of the hunter and the alchemist (each area has an encounter with one of them at the end). If you collect around 30 on each of them, you should reach the 170 with no problems and should be able to get the new ability in no time. I took the yellow symbol since it unlocked more areas in the hunter's region. During one of the encounters with the hunter, you will be in an area where there is a large pillar in the middle. Push him towards this one and as soon as a sequence starts (button mashing again) where you use the pillar to damage him, the achievement for using the environment on an enemy unlocks. Don't sweat it if you don't get it, there are ample of opportunities to get this, but since i got it here, i will as well state it here.
Use the environment against an enemy.
We collect and liberate again areas as we go along, but you now will have to go to a new domain and encounter either the concubine or the warrior. Both have corresponding achievement and in both cases I recommend saving before you get to them to get the achievement and reload the fight. Since it's your choice which to pick, I will explain the methods on both. For the concubine, don't use any grab attacks while defeating her (the B button is for grab attacks), so simply ignore the button totally and beat her legit to get the achievement. For the warrior, this is one of the hardest in my opinion. As soon as he starts swinging his weapon, use the left stick and push A to roll to either side and to evade the attack. Do this 20 times and the achievement is yours (this is quite a lot, reload is really crucial here). You should've gotten now either or both achievements.
Defeat the Concubine without using grab.
Dodge the Warrior's attacks 20 times in one battle.
Now collect until you hit the spots for the next upgrades. You will come to a point where you reach either of the 4 champions hideouts. Since its up to you in which order you go, I won't go into details on them and simply state them here since you will, sooner or later, have to do them to proceed in the game. Those unlock as soon as you liberate the last area in the jurisdiction of either of them. Liberate the hideout as well to unlock 25 additional collectible shards. You should get the following achievements. Notice that this should be the 6th time you encounter them!
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement. (Secret)
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement. (Secret)
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement. (Secret)
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement. (Secret)
After defeating the alchemist, you should get another achievement for finding the highest point in the game.
Find the highest point in the world.
Now after you defeat the last of the 4, you will also unlock an achievement for healing each of the corrupted lands.
Since you will have at least 540 light shards now (mine were around 640) you will get the achievements for them up to 500. Since I reached 600, I write it until 600 because I got them without even trying for them and you should as well hit around 600 (if not, don't worry, you will have a chance to get them all).
Now its time to go for the palace again. Save BEFORE you enter it because you cant go back after that point!! This is the most imperative thing to do!! As soon as you reach it you should get the achievement for exploring every region of the game.
Explore every part of every region.
Now, face Ahriman, imprison him again and get the achievement for beating him.
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement. (Secret)
Now stand still and WAIT for 2 minutes, don't even touch the controller. Set it aside and hold Elika in your hands for 1 minute to get another achievement.
Take one minute to think.
Now carry Elika outside of the temple and lay her down in front of the temple. Get to the 4 sacred areas (marked by a cone of light) and destroy the trees to open the temple again. get inside, destroy the tree and bring the light to Elika (this is the last seed you need for the 1001 seeds). Elika will come back to live and the game will end and if you did it right, you get the achievements for being under 12 hours (sadly there is no way to track that one) and getting less than 100 times saved.
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement. (Secret)
Finish the game in under 12 hours.
Elika saves you fewer than 100 times in the whole game.
We will now reload the last save before the temple and do finally the big mop up for the missing achievements.
Mop Up
We start outside of the temple and have now all the time of the world to mop up the remaining achievements. So first we will go for the runner achievements. These will need you to reach from a certain start point to another a certain time limit. Since now everything is cleansed of corruption, this should prove quite simple. In case you should struggle, I found some videos to make this a little bit easier or understandable which routes to take. Normally the light spark shows you the fastest way possible.
Run from the Sun Temple's Fertile Ground to the Fertile Ground in Windmills in 5 minutes.
Run between the Fertile Grounds in the Construction Yards and Heaven's Stair in 6 minutes.
Run between the Fertile Grounds in the Royal Gardens and Coronation Halls in 4 minutes.
Run between the Fertile Grounds in the Tower of Ahriman and City of Light in 7 minutes.
Since those are done now, we concentrate on the misc achievements for reaching certain points in the game. Don't worry, there are videos with exact locations.
Find the lowest point in the world.
While facing the temple, walk towards the stairs (don't go up) on the left and follow the wall around until you can see an opening to the right to reach a small underground area. Achievement will unlock there.
Find the Assassin's view.
Get to the martyrs tower, get to the left and slide down. Now turn around, take a right along the circular middle area and get outside. Walk down the ramp and to your right you will see a post to stand on. Stand on it to get the achievement (should be a familiar feeling for people that played assassins creed at some point)
Get to the machinery grounds, get to the post to the right and stand there a little to unlock the achievement, quite simple.
There should be only a few achievements left now. We now can go for all the seeds. There are 45 per level except for the boss lairs, there are only 25. So collect them all to get the remaining achievements for those. The final shard will be dropped by the tree holding Ahriman, so for the master, simply beat him again to get the achievement to get a 1001 (reference to 1001 nights i recon?) seeds. Sadly this achievement is glitched and you might end up with only 1000 (999 before Ahriman) EVEN though the map shows a 100% everywhere. If that happens (and i hope you kept your early saves) try to reload one save where the math is still alright (use a calculator if needed) and gather them all again. This is way better than starting the game all over again or looking for the last missing seed on every level. However, if you didn't keep your save you sadly will have to replay the WHOLE GAME AGAIN!! These things might trigger the event to happen:
- saving while obtaining a seed
- dying while obtaining a seed
- having a level where the seed count is wrong (46/45 for example)
You will also get on the way the 500 co-op jumps (those are when you push Y in midair to get some lift up), if not, simply stand on front of the temple, jump and co-op jump around until it unlocks, quite easy to get.
Collect 1001 Light Seeds.
Now there is only one achievement left. To get this you have to perform each combo in the game. To keep track i recommend using a list (provided in the collectibles section) and check off which attacks you already used. The in-game list WON'T update on your combos, you HAVE to check them another way. You don't have to do this on the final boss of course. The alchemist for example is also a great enemy to do this (you surely kept that save, did you?) since he rarely deflects attacks, therefore not breaking your combo. This might take some time, but in comparison to the collectibles (especially if you got the glitch) its rather fast.
Find every combo in the game.
Congrats, you got a full 1000 on this game now!
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