The achievement is for clearing Authentic plus difficulty (realistic difficulty with no checkpoints) without any manual saves. Which means; you die, you restart the level.
This is very hard, and you'll need to learn the game mechanics inside out before attempting this. It becomes easier by playing co-op, which will give you "extra lives" by allowing your partner to revive you.
This guide focuses on getting the achievement solo, but the tips are valid for co-op as well.
Differences from Authentic to Authentic Plus:- No HUD elements.
- Any remaining bullets in clips when reloading are lost (making bolt-action rifles preferable since they don't use clips)
- Enemies will NOT let off once aggroed. The lowest status they will go back to is to keep searching for you, they will never completely de-aggro
- Enemies will fetch backup from nearby parts of the map. This can be used to your advantage if you can camp down in a secure spot and just let the enemies keep coming to you
- While there seems to be a limit to how far off enemies will run for reinforcements, there does NOT seem to be a limit for how far they will keep searching for you. If you make an enemy suspicious at the beginning of the level, they can end up getting you from the back at the very end.
- Suppressed rifle and pistol ammo
is just as audible to enemies as regular shots at close to medium range (sound masked shots are still silent, as are melee kills).
Spotting enemiesTake advantage of your camera. Press up against walls and corners and use the camera to peek around. Sometimes the best way to spot enemies is just to keep the camera completely still and scan for any movement.
Audio cuesThere are audio cues for most of the in-game actions, some examples:
- Enemies changing status (passive, searching, in combat etc) always have a spoken voice line
- Enemies spotting you has a sound effect
- When nearby enemies are in combat, there's specific battle music
- Before throwing grenades, enemies will shout about "granate"
- Before shooting rockets they'll mention "panzer"
- There's a special "boom" sound effect for when you kill the final nearby aggroed enemy
- Picking up items has specific sounds for each item (healing items sounds like a zipper, ammo sounds like clinks etc)
Solo specific mechanics- While holding your breath you'll no longer have any of the on-screen tips, but you still enter slow-motion like in other difficulties. This can be abused to let you get your bearings on the current situation and react/take aim before the enemy can.
Co-op specific mechanics- Your co-op partner mate can revive you when you go down. So stick together and make sure that you always have eachothers backs.
- If your partner can't revive you (and you're not the lobby host), you can quit out and then rejoin the lobby. This can only be done a couple of times before the level auto-fails, but it can be used in a dire situation.
- N.b! Enemy placements are slightly different between co-op and single player, so your single player strats may need some modification!
Recommended equipment- The rifle and smg you feel most comfortable with
- The Welrod (since you won't need to carry supressed pistol ammo)
- Supressed sniper ammo
- Healing items
- A trap (at least for most levels)
General tipsWhen camping,
always always make sure to booby trap any alternate entrance to your camp site
Since there's no HUD, sound masking is best identified through the controller rumble. Hearing the sound effect is hit or miss if it's actually masked, but the rumble never lies.
You will need to learn to snipe reliably, taking into account gravity, wind, gun differences and differences in suppressed/regular ammo.
Go for the regular authentic achievement first as practice. Go through the levels a couple of times, aiming for a path that doesn't get you killed. You can practice difficult shots or sections by reloading checkpoints until you get them down.
Disregard all optional objectives, just focus on the main ones needed to complete the level.
You
will die a lot going for this achievement. While it is difficult, it's not unfair. If you can accept it as a fun challenge rather than just ticking off an achievement it's a lot less frustrating.
Being slightly reckless in the beginning, to learn the auth+ mechanics and finding an optimal safe path to the first few objectives will probably save a lot of time in the long run (there are examples of such reckless-but-not-really paths in the videos below).
Tips for the different levelsI've put together some videos on how to get a quick start on the levels. After this point, things start becoming unpredictable, with randomized enemy AI movements. Due to the nature of the game, there's no surefire tips to make it through the level, but the videos and the general tips should be enough to get you started.
1. San Celini Island: - All officers can be sniped from a distance. Use explosive crates etc when available, it doesn’t need to be pretty it just needs to get done.
- Make your way
counter clockwise around the map rather than through it
- Find and make good use of the lookout towers and the sound masking.
- Clear out the town or at least part of the villa before approaching it, there are a LOT of enemies there if aggro:ed
- On the top floor of the villa there’s a camping spot. If you aggro the enemies, head up the ladders to where the safe is. There will be an infantry in this room but other than that you can stay in this room relatively safe. Just watch out for grenades and soldiers climbing the ladders.
- This is one of the tougher levels, considering there are so many objectives spread out with so many troops guarding each, and no sheltered camping spots. Just take your time with it.
Sniping the first officer in under 2 minutes:
2. Bitanti village:- If you spook the infantry at the start by killing some of them with an explosion, you should be able to sneak past them to the left and reach the partisan HQ in just a few minutes.
- After that it's just a question of making your way up to satchel the door. Camping the church or bum rushing the radio tower are two options.
Reaching the partisan HQ in under 3 minutes:
3. Regilino viaduct:- Following the minefield path to the left after the first bridge, you can stealth run your way to the bridge without killing virtually anyone
- Take out the sniper on the bridge and the soldiers on the construction platforms. They will bring friends, so prepare for a long-winded fight!
-
or wait for when the sniper is on the move, to run up and stealth/stealth kill your way through to the satchel. Taking this path, it might be easier to just sneak by the soldiers until you reach the actual bridge, those soldiers you will need to take out since they're in your direct path.
- Pay close attention to how the satchel is placed relative to the formation of the hole, so you can snipe it later
-
or use a timed TNT explosive to blow up the satchel after placing it. This might be easier for you, depending on your confidence in your throwing skills and your "running like hell" skills
- However you do it, you'll need to be at least by the
far edge of the platform
next to the platform with the satchel for you to not blow yourself up and fail the level
- Blowing up the satchel completes the level
Reaching the viaduct, lower part in under 3 minutes:
Setting off the satchel with timed TNT:
4. Lorino dockyard:- Make your way through the first mine field for some much needed traps
- Enemies on this level will sneak up on you, so booby trap well before camping
- Learn the different sound mask areas and use them well
- I have not found a reliable way of clearing the level without clearing off pretty much all enemies. Just take your time and be patient about it
- Aggroing enemies from booby-trapped, elevated positions is a
relatively safe way of disposing them. F.e first sound masked roof, the roofs near the first sniper etc
- Setting off the first satchel on the southmost naval gun will spawn a bunch of new enemies and tanks. Rather than dealing with those, clear the rest of the level of objectives and enemies before satcheling the first gun. Then stealth rush to the final radio room to finish the level
Reaching the first sound masked murderzone in under 3 minutes:
5. Abrunza monastery:- Take the right path around the village and make your way to the top floor of the house overlooking the vineyard
- There's a soundmask right outside the house, but you might want to occasionally aggro the enemies anyways to lure them out of the fort
- You will need to approach the fort and take out the few Jäger next to the artillery gun, these will not aggro
- Approach the monastery from the back and take out the sniper. Remember to take it slow and disable his traps!
- Use traps, stealth and diversions to take out the soldiers in the monastery. You might need to take out quite a lot of them to get to Capo, just be patient.
Reaching the vineyard house in under 2 minutes:
6. Magazzeno facility:- Take out the radar dish first thing. Once enemies start aggroing around the map, getting to the dish will become hard
- Second make your way back to the first bunker, and snipe the soldiers first through the doors, then from the bridge landings, last from the safe room (or above it).
- The arc reactors can be shot to create explosions
- Intentionally aggro enemies inside the arc reactor rooms as much as you can handle. You want to get rid of those outside forces
- The last objective is just outside and to the right of the northern entrance. Dispose of the outside enemies using traps and diversions, then stealth rush to Dorfmann's room. It's a lot safer to rush the room than attempt any kind of combat, aggroing here will bring the entire level onto you.
Disabling the radar dish in under 3 minutes:
7. Giovi Fiorini mansion:- You can stealth rush your way inside the mansion through the southmost island and then the basement
- You can camp inside Rothbauer's office and take out the outside soldiers through the windows. Take advantage of the explosions from shooting the cars and trucks outside in the courtyard
- Take the northmost path over to the bunker, and enter through the bunker entrance inside the tunnel. You will only need to deal with 3-4 soldiers this way
- From the tunnel, there are only two soldiers between you and the sniper. These can even be completely ignored if you manage to stealth into the sniper building or snipe the sniper
- If you enter the sniper hideout, remember to disable the traps
- The end of the level is straight out of the sniper building into the plaza below
Killing Rothbauer in under 3 minutes:
8. Allagra fortress:- Taking out the first spotter, you can stealth rush across the ice to the eastern bunker entrance (deal with the soldiers inside the outside bunker and outside the entrance as stealthily as you can)
- Once inside, keep the entrance booby trapped in case you get flanked. There are more traps to be collected in this room. From the corridor you can clear out the entire missile room (aggro is your friend)
- From here, the missile plans are just above you, and the first valve is across the far side of the room
- The other two valves can be picked off stealthily and can be accessed from the missile room
- When taking out the sniper on the boardwalk over to one of the valves, I'd recommend not entering combat with any soldiers that might investigate. Better to have one or two suspicious soldiers than to fight the whole facility
- From the stairs you use to access one of the valves, you can enter into the final area. Snipe the first sniper, then use the sound mask to stealth kill the last sniper. From there you can sneak your way into the final room and call the radio
- Use your SMG to shoot both of the plane engines and you're done
- If you fail to shoot down the plane (or die), there IS a checkpoint right before the final plane sequence. The only checkpoint in all of auth+
Reaching the bunker entrance in under 3 minutes:
The location of the final objective before the plane sequence (could be hard to find since it isn't marked in any particular way):
Thanks Gram101216 for the tip on different sounds when picking up itemsEDIT 1: The xbox GameDVR update deleted most of the clips for some reason, but I've since rerecorded themEDIT 2: Xbox live has again removed some of these videos, uploaded and linking those clips on YouTube insteadEDIT 3: Seeing how unreliable xbox live is for storing longer clips, I've uploaded all of them to Youtube instead. Let me know if there are still problems with the clips.