Overview
This is my first of many guides. So obviously since this is a full guide it will contain SPOILERS.I highly recommend beating the game at least once on hard difficulty before going through this guide. Beating the game on hard will set you up for your new game+ run and will give you a good grasp on the games mechanics. If you have suggestions or better ways to do the achievements than I show feel free to comment it or message me and after testing it out myself I will put it in and give you credit. Beating the game will also give access to level selection which will help when going for the more tedious achievements. IMPORTANT NOTE: There are some achievements where you may need to start a new game. These achievements are CATS Person and GOD MODE: ON. I will explain the reasons why in the guide.If you loved my guide you can show me some support by subscribing to my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCck4VDBKLeORL2iiE0r7QQor follow me on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/perfect_vargasThanks for choosing my guide and good luck with the achievements!
Achievements from Beating the Game
These are achievements you should already have assuming you completed your first playthrough
Finish Prologue
Defeat Nerve
Defeat TrafficKing
Defeat Sisters
Finish Epilogue
Collect all bounties
All of these achievements come from simply playing through the game. Wanted dead or alive comes from fighting all of the mini-bosses that are mandatory through each level so it can’t be missed either.
Difficulty Based Achievements
These achievements come from simply beating the game at certain difficulties. If you beat the game on hard you get the achievements for normal and easy as well. I don’t feel this part needs a guide even on hard mode it is mostly just figuring out which skills you like to use and vs which bosses. Don’t worry about optimization for time or damage just feel everything out.
Beat the game on Easy Difficulty
Beat the game on Normal Difficulty
Beat the game on Hard Difficulty
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Finish NewGame+
So NewGame+ is unlocked after beating the game for the first time. This will increase the difficulty of the game and also change a few things.
- More enemies will spawn in certain areas
- New enemies will wield weapons they usually don’t have such as the scorcher
- New stronger guns will be introduced like the superblaster
- Enemies will spawn during boss fights
The beauty of this mode is that you will still keep your level and abilities from your current playthrough. This makes every A LOT easier than if you had to restart at level 1. This is the build I went with for most of my playthrough in Newgame+
I ran ghost break heavily because like I said regular enemies will spawn during the boss fights now. This means you can ghost break the enemies and the boss will focus them instead. These enemies also do pretty significant damage to the bosses if they can get a hit off. I highly recommend it.
The rest are pretty standard. I maxed out dash for mobility (I prefer maxing out dash instead of using overloads infinite dash but that is better for moving through areas quicker). I maxed out power attack for the strong aoe clear and slow on units that survive the hit. Use of weapons is just a great utility tree and the extra energy is nice. Resource optimizer I maxed because it helps if you make mistakes. It is always nice to have the extra health/energy if you need it. Especially on the hardest difficulty out there.
The rest of the points went into energy shield but I did not use it that much. You can put the points into whatever you need for the time. Overload and supply drop can be very useful in boss fights. I did not like shock launcher because it costs too much energy and frag thrower I would occasionally use vs angels but if you are good at moving around quickly to the cores you don’t need that either.
Don’t stress this run too much though. I went through it with very few deaths compared to my hard playthrough. The only part that was difficult was the TrafficKing boss fight at the Sisters. Other than that it was pretty smooth sailing through the game.
Renaissance Man
Acquire all basic abilities
This one is simple but easy to miss especially if there is an ability you don’t like or see no use for. Just use this skill tree and get it.
Fatality
Perform 50 Ruiner kills
This one is easy to get as well. I am pretty sure Ruiner kills are on by default but if not check in the gameplay settings and make sure they are on here.
After that while killing enemies some instead of dying will stand dazed with an orange circle around them. Simply press the middle mouse button on them and you will perform a Ruiner kill. You are immune during these kills so don’t worry about dying on harder difficulties.
If you are speedrunning the game I highly recommend you turn the kills off as they take up time and even if you don’t go for the Ruiner kills you will either need to hit them one more time or just wait for them to drop dead.
Kill’em ALL – Ashes to ashes
Kill all angels
Destroy all dead Hosts’ piles
These can be done together as they are mainly done through these levels (Aside from the mandatory angel fights from before, these angels are not mini-bosses)
For starters keep a vigilant eye and make sure every pile and angel you pass die. For the most of it you pass every angel and pile you would need to kill to get these achievements. Do not be afraid to run through the room a few times to make sure they are all dead. There is only one hidden area for host piles and an angel. This area is just after you fight TrafficKing for the second time in Mother’s Womb.
This is the part I am referring to.
Instead of following the waypoint up go down here.
There will be 3 more host piles as you can see here.
Then finally the hidden angel.
CATS person
Complete CATS quest
Before I explain this usually I would make videos myself about collectibles or things such as this. However, this game is frustrating in terms of how it handles this achievement. I plan on doing my own videos/screenshots for these in the future.
The problem with this achievement is that if you do not talk to the hooligan before you enter the parking garage the only way to get the first 3 CATS is to start a new game. You must talk to the hooligan at 3 points in order to get all 3 missions.
- After the prologue
- After killing Nerve
- After killing TrafficKing
Here is a video guide by gamingarcadia to get the pre-Creeps’ Nest CATS he has videos on the other 2 missions as well. For some clarification, by Creeps’ Nest CATS he means the ones before you enter Creeps’ nest. It is always before you enter the areas not after. So next area would be before going into Hanza Assembly and then before Hell.
Fortune seeker
Unlock all iChing fortunes
This one is not bad in terms of collecting but this collecting both this and the CATS was not fun for me so I did not make my own video. Here is a guide I used to get to the locations. It was made by NO FILE and it is very well done so I highly recommend it. As of posting this it does not have the CATS locations.
[link]GOD MODE: ON
Beat the game without dying
This achievement is not that bad despite how it sounds. Once you beat the game on hard you can do another run through on easy and it will be a piece of cake. You also have the option to simply play through level select and beat every level without dying and you should get it.
IMPORTANT NOTE
If you die in the prologue you can’t use level select to get the achievement.
There is no way that I know of to replay the prologue and when I did level select on hard mode (where I died in the prologue) it did not give me the achievement so I had to play a new game on easy to get it.
KILLYOU! KILLYOU! KILLYOU! – Mickey Mantle
Achieve 15 kills combo
Hit 50 mines with your melee weapon
There are probably tons of times to get KILLYOU! KILLYOU! KILLYOU! but I only found one that is easy and consistent. It is the first fight in the level Hell after killing the 4 turrets. The only enemies that come during this part are mines. All you gotta do is hit the mines or make them explode on you to increase your combo counter.
This area is also great to quickly farm the Mickey Mantle achievement because this is the first fight in the area so you can simply restart the mission after all the mines are destroyed.
Here is a video showing the area and fight.
It’s Over 9000!
Use dash 9001 times
If you don’t know this yet. Dash is an EXTREMELY core part to this game. Both for traveling quickly and staying alive in combat. You will Dash A LOT. Especially if you do multiple playthroughs this achievement should come naturally.
If this achievement doesn’t come naturally or you are just impatient and like the name of the achievement you can level up the overload skill tree. At level 2 it gives infinite dashes when activated and at level 4 the cost is decreased by 50%. Simply put your points in this skill then spam right click to your heart’s desire.
On the fly – Perfect timing
Destroy Angel core in the air
Destroy 3 Angel cores in one go
You can go for these at the same time using the same strategy. While fighting an angel once you deplete its health bar it will drop 3 cores. What you want to do is take the frag thrower ability (frag accumulation upgrade is optional) and then drop some grenades on the angel as the cores pop out.
For On the fly you simply just need to hit one and that will kill it in the air. For Perfect timing you need to kill any of the cores you miss before they are recalled to the angel.
Here is a video of how to do it.
Rest in pieces
Kill 3 enemies with a one explosion
I wasn’t a big fan of frag thrower so I got this achievement rather late. There are tons of opportunities to get this achievement but if you don’t have it just go to The Heart and blow up 3 hosts. They spawn 4 at a time and walk right to you so it is very easy.
Here is a video for the achievement and area.
Gotta get pumped!
Do 1003 pushups
You can do this in Rengkok South. Just hold x and you will start doing pushups (make sure its pushups and not pullups). It would take about 14 minutes of holding down x to get 1003 so maybe get something heavy and use it to hold down your key. In my case I used a water bottle about half filled and put it cap side down on the x, z, and alt keys.
EDIT: Turns out it does not need to be the pushup animation. It could be the pullup animation and you will still get it. Contribution by dinosaur_mousse
Here is a video explaining it as well and showing how long it takes to get the achievement.
Die hard
Die 666 times
Just for some context as to how extra this amount is. I have done I would say an above average amount of playthroughs for this game. I still had to kill myself around 530 times to get this achievement.
Max out supply drop (although you really only need it level 2) and then just keep calling it in on yourself. Basically just go into a loop of shift and r with one hand while watching a video or something. I have two monitors so I just watched a stream while doing this. You can also go to any boss fight on hard or newgame+ and spam r but I found the supply drop method is faster.
Blaze it
Burn 420 enemies with flamethrower
You can do this anywhere once you get access to scorcher and supply drop but the easiest area is Walkways of Terror. Scorchers are all over this level and if you don’t burn the host piles then enemies never stop spawning. You could go to The Heart and farm those enemies while spawning in scorchers with supply drop as well.
Shield wall
Kill 75 enemies with a shield ram
I personally didn’t like the shields in this game so I had to farm it. Simply max out the energy shield skill tree to get the Ram Damage upgrade. From that point you can just go anywhere and kill enemies with it but my personal favorite is The Heart. Just stand behind your brother’s virtual pod and keep ramming through the hosts and you will get the achievement.
Magic mirror
Reflect 100 bullets with your shield
Level up Energy Shield or Kinetic Barrier to level 2 and then just use them to block bullets and some will deflect. You could test this out on one of the turret areas where you just need to survive for a few seconds but really 100 can just be done anywhere with occasional use.
Mind control master
Hack 50 enemies
Just max out your ghost break ability and hack everyone. Even on a regular playthrough this skill is pretty useful as the hacked enemies pull aggro to them and they can do a lot of work when this ability is fully upgraded. The only mode where this ability is not good is in speedrun. The lich king ability makes it a lot easier since now you can hack 3 people at a time instead of 1.
Faster than a bullet
Finish Speedrun
Just complete the run. Don’t worry about time the first way through just finish the run and get the achievement.
Dressed to kill
Acquire all outfits
All of this information is geared towards the McFly Jacket and 1 hour speedrun as it is the hardest part of the outfits.
This is probably the hardest achievement to get out of all of them. If you go to gameplay settings it shows all outfits and how to unlock them. The only outfit that is difficult to get is the McFly Jacket. This jacket requires you to complete speedrun in under an hour.
The difficulty in speedrun is normal. If you don’t play efficiently then this will be VERY hard for you. Point optimization is also very important as well. While in the skill point tree and paused time does not increase however it does increase when selecting a weapon from supply drop. Learn where the weapons you want are and remember to select them quick when you need them.
For my playthrough this is basically what I had by end game
I obviously did not have 48 extra points on this run but I did have a few more which would go between supply drop, shock launcher, or frag thrower depending on what I needed.
Overload level 2 is extremely important for mobility. From running through long halls to running passed unnecessary host piles in Walkways of Terror. Level 4 also helps with mobility at lower energy and especially at boss fights.
Dash I kept at level 4 because that was really all I needed for boss fights. The extra dashes are all you need for boss fights as for the most of it you should be timing dashes and hits. Overload level 2 is better than dash level 6 because on top of the amazing mobility it gives it also gives really good damage.
Dash level 5 does increase damage but that depends entirely on your dash length and if you hit the enemy while dashing. This can be hard as sometimes you will miss your hits mid dash which means you are not getting optimal damage compared to overload which will always give you damage.
Power Attack is a must I would say and later in the game level 2 as the damage for Focused Slash is ok vs bosses and great for clearing groups of enemies and Whirlwind is amazing for killing bosses and Angel’s.
Use of Weapons level 1 is really useful later in the game when you have very strong power weapons. It could also be useful early on with shotguns to kill bosses. Level 2 is pretty good as well so you can have your better melee weapons around longer and like I said Whirlwind is very important so more durability is useful to have.
Resource Optimizer levels are purely optional but I leveled it to 2 because the extra health is nice and the bonus from drops helps out a lot if you have a rough run in some areas. This is a speedrun so you really don’t want to die. I am also not the best player so having this safety net is nice as well.
Now for the abilities that I would rotate with the extra points.
Supply drop would get one level just before certain boss fights so I would have the gun I wanted. For most boss fights later in the game I would use the Electra as the damage is really nice and the stun helps keep you alive. Verses Mother and the Sisters I would not recommend the Electra. Maybe the Vulcan or one of the shotguns like the TAS-8 or At FUSION-MAX.
Shock launcher I only used on the early bosses for free damage with shotgun or whirlwind attacks. The 50 energy makes this ability not worth it later in the game but early on it is one of the only options you have and it is not that bad at that point in the game. Once you start using overload in boss fights do not let this skill sap your energy overload is way more important than stunning the enemy.
Frag thrower is perfect to destroy Angel cores as they come out of the Angel. If you are really bad at timing this and can’t destroy 1-2 cores as they drop don’t use this ability. If you are really good at chasing the cores down then you can do that but you will be wasting precious seconds. Since this is a speedrun you want to kill all 3 cores every time. If you fail to do this you are wasting A LOT of time. If you are low health at Angel fights I do not recommend risking your life to hit the cores with frag thrower as dying is much worse than chasing the cores as long as you get all 3.
If you want an extremely detailed guide on the 1 hour run you can check this one out as it helped me out as well.
[link]
Just know to never give up too early and try to align with the times from the other guide. It took me two tries to get it but even if you struggle don’t give up it is very possible even if you are not a professional speedrunner.
Peace was never an option – Seasoned fighter
Finish Arena:Colosseum
Score more than 50000 points in Arena:Colosseum
I am not entirely convinced these achievements don’t come from simply just beating the Colosseum. So this mode is automatically on hard and you get rewarded with points for kills, Ruiner kills, and not dying. I died on most areas except for maybe 2-3 and ended up with a score of 90,000 so the margin is VERY wide. You get to choose upgrades/abilities the further you get in and checkpoints come after each stage (there are a total of 10).You don’t lose points for dying you just lose the bonus you would get. This bonus starts at 5,000 and goes down 1,000 for each death per wave.
When going for this I took the Ghost Break skill and upgrades when optional. Wave 10 has a boss that spawns with regular enemies and the ability was very useful vs stronger enemies. If you don’t get Seasoned fighter the first time you can most likely just get it on a second playthrough. This is not as difficult as it seems but if enough people have a problem with it I can make a video for it.
Congratulations!
Congrats on making it through my entire guide! I hope it helped you out a lot. If it did please leave a rating and a favorite! Feel free to add me if you have any questions or any ways I can improve my guide and I wish you all good luck with your future achievement hunting!