I will give a short plan for completing all achievements as quickly as possible. There will be a minimum of 2 full playthroughs and going over a few stages for S+ rankings.
-Your last achievement will be for S+ ranking on all normal and nightmare difficulties. This will be more annoying than difficult. S+ rank is completely point based. Deaths and time do not matter. The first few stages will be nearly impossible to S+ rank without the "reward" lens that gives more points for photos.
-There are a few endings that simply require you to replay the last chapter and make different choices.
-Collectables: Keep in mind that you need to get to a check point to retain collectables. There are the documents that are called "notes." There are also 3 types of ghosts photos: echos, specters and ghosts. Specters and echos can simply be photographed. The ghosts have to be "TOUCHED" To see which ghosts you need to touch, check the menu and they should have a "video".
-Camera upgrades. Save the damage option for last on both characters. Upgrade the reward lens once you get it, then restore lens and anything else after that.
-Get in the habit of "TOUCHING" all ghosts. Either fatal frame or shutter frame them to finish them off this gives you more time to "TOUCH 'EM". Run up to them as they are dying and spam
. The tall woman and dolls can not be "TOUCHED".
1 Normal difficulty going for collectables, specter/echoes and "TOUCHING"Don't worry if you missed a collectable on your first run. Also, don't worry about S+ rank for now either.
These are great video guides for collectables.
https://muradzero.com/fatal-frame-maiden-of-black-water-proj...https://foggyproductions.com/guides/project-zero-maiden-of-b... 2 Nightmare getting the last collectablesWhile playing through Nightmare, dont worry too much about S+. You will probably have enough points pretty early on in order to full upgrade all cameras/lens. You will be rewarded an infinite film upgrade for completing all stages on Nightmare and Normal. This will give you a slight edge on some stages for S+.
3 Wrap upBy this point, you should have the "infinite film", all lenses, all 8 endings, all collectables and maybe some S+ ranks. Here is my advice on S+. The same info is pasted in the achievement too:
-It's all about the points. Take your time. Your total score is based off points earned from fights, points earned from taking photos of echos/specters and points from unused items.
-Take photos that earn high points and low damage. Depending on the enemy, you can stretch a battle out to 20 minutes and earn over 100,000 points.
-Use 07 film only. Dodge often.
-Get all echos/specters each stage.
-Dont buy any items at the start. This will actually lower your score.
-Collect as many items as you can. Late levels will offer 50,000+ for item bonus.
-Take photos of all the echos/specters
-Use the video guides for item locations, echos and specters.
-The only item you should ever use are the herbs. They are only worth 250 points. The mirror-stones are really valuable and should you accidentally use one by dying, you may consider reloading the checkpoint. On some of the early stages, you should not even use any herbs.
-Ren's 8x shot generally do little damage and earn around 1,000 per cycle. Fatal frame combos with 8x are a good way to go too.
-Yuri should ALWAYS use the reward lens/green highlight on ghosts. Focused shots with
typically get more points and low damage. Try to avoid shutter shots as they usually give high score but high damage too. Keep spamming
during fatal frame combos.
--For the thread levels, the flashlight does no damage so, you can just keep hitting enemies until you have the score you need.
-Some guides have enemies listed as random. If you wait long enough at a location while fully drenched, the enemies will appear. The longer you play a stage, the more likely the random enemy will appear. Some stages, the enemies will keep coming back. Rather than pausing, stay on screen.
-Infinite film upgrade can come in handy. A few stages have really long stretches between check points. Having the option of using higher film to take out enemies fast is great. The infinite film upgrade is great for these times because if allows you to keep the points but you can use the rare film. Again, infinite upgrade is available after completing all stages on normal and nightmare.
This is a list of S+ scores. I did compare these to my own and other lists. I could not find an absolute list; only other's personal scores. I combined other's list and my personal scores to find the lowest.
First Drop:
Normal: 22,422 Nightmare: 24,651
Second Drop:
Normal: 142,387 Nightmare: 150,671
Third Drop:
Normal: 106,970 Nightmare: 120,659
Fourth Drop:
Normal: 225,262 Nightmare: 231,014
Fifth Drop:
Normal: 142,961 Nightmare: 182,522
Sixth Drop:
Normal: 182,252 Nightmare: 210,492
Seventh Drop:
Normal: 116,406 Nightmare: 146,294
Eighth Drop:
Normal: 112,408 Nightmare: 138,354
Ninth Drop:
Normal: 120,120 Nightmare: 107,404
Tenth Drop:
Normal: 148,916 Nightmare: 116,629
Eleventh Drop:
Normal: 177,381* Nightmare: 158,986
Twelfth Drop:
Normal: 188,348 Nightmare: 221,381
Thirteenth Drop:
Normal: 127,572 Nightmare: 112,593
Final Drop:
Normal: 437,938 Nightmare: 413,185
Second Thread:
Normal: 59,427 Nightmare: 35,839
Third Thread:
Normal: 43,083 Nightmare: 14,862
Last Thread:
Normal: 45,350 Nightmare: 14,284
Here are a few other lists I found helpful for ghosts etc.
https://selphie1999gaming.com/game-guides/fatal-frame-projec...https://steamah.com/fatal-frame-project-zero-maiden-of-black...