Overview:
-Estimated achievement difficulty: 7/10
-Offline: 50 (1000)
-Online: 0
-Approximate amount of time to 1000: 20-40 hours
-Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 3 full playthroughs, multiple redone missions
-Number of missable achievements: None
-Do cheat codes disable achievements?: No cheats
-Does difficulty affect achievements?: Yes
-Glitchy achievements: None
-Unobtainable achievements: None
Introduction
Knights Contract is a perfect example of a hack and slash game, all the key elements are there. You control a man named Heinrich who, for reasons explained in the story, is immortal. Due to him being immortal, the game is almost a permanent escort game. You have a witch named Gretchen as a companion who serves as your health bar. This isn't as much of a hindrance as it sounds, as she is the source of your most powerful attacks. The AI on her is, unfortunately, rather bad.
At the top of the screen is her health bar, if that drops to 0 or if she gets knocked off a cliff, you lose. If she runs low on health, you need to press when next to her and Heinrich will pick her up and carry her, which will heal both of them. If Heinrich takes too much damage at once, he gets incapacitated for a while and Gretchen will be vulnerable to enemy attack.
The game has 20 episodes. Each episode has a ranking system. There are five statistics you get marked on during gameplay. Time, combos, kills, finishers, retries. You get a grade from C to S for each of them and then you get an overall grade for the episode which depends on those five marks. S, S, C, S, S and higher will get you an overall S and so will any equivalent (such as S, S, A, B, S). Five S ranks will get you an overall S+ for the episode.
Step 1: First Playthrough
If you are confident in your ability to play games of this genre, then you should start out on Knight difficulty, which is the equivalent of hard in other games. Completing the game on Squire (normal) or Knight will unlock Hexen Knight (very hard) and completing that will then unlock Witchslayer (Dante Must Die).
Starting on Knight will be to your advantage as you'll want to be getting an S rank on every episode of Knight eventually for The Witch's Ultimate Weapon, and any S ranks you get during your initial playthrough will save you time later. You'll also want to be getting every collection item during this playthrough. It may cost you an S rank for time but, again, it'll save you time later.
I highly recommend that the first Witchcraft you upgrade to level three is Colchis' Trap. At level three it covers a wide area for a long time and traps any enemy that walks in the area. It's very good when you need breathing room.
Step 2: Hexen Knight and Witchslayer
You don't need to have unlocked the Spirit Cannon for Witchslayer, as it's impractical against the hardest bosses and doesn't do a thing against Faust's second form, but it does help against regular enemies and the earlier bosses.
By the time you get to Witchslayer you should have unlocked every Witchcraft at all levels. The two most useful for Witchslayer are Colchis' Trap III and Maar's Lance III. After trapping a large group of enemies, the Lance will be able to mow through them. If it leaves any alive, they'll still be trapped and you'll have plenty of time to hit them with your scythe until the Lance has recharged, and using it again will normall kill any stragglers. Colchis' Trap III can lockdown any non-boss except for Mace Wights and even a surprising amount of bosses if you get them in a corner with it. Elizabeth's Fangs and Vlad's Impaler III are also extremely good at giving you breathing room, albeit for a shorter time.
Step 3: Cleaning Up
After finishing Witchslayer you'll have more than enough souls to have all your Witchcraft upgraded fully and should have the kill achievements, most of the finisher achievements and most of the other combat achievements. At this point it's just a matter of doing the gimmick achievements like Eye Candy and Ring Around the Rosie, then grinding out any Finisher achievements and Souls United/Her True Strength - and getting your Spirit Cannon if you didn't do it earlier.
S Rank Tips
Getting S ranks for every episode may seem daunting at first, but after you get the necessary Witchcraft, it's actually quite easy. The best tip I can give for getting S ranks is some advice that I myself followed which got me S ranks for every mission on Hexen Knight. It's rather simple. Just don't actively try to get Finishers. If you spend time whittling away at individual enemies and then using a Finisher, you'll only end up wasting time. Though if one pops up while you're killing regularly, go for it.
With maxed Witchcraft it should be no problem to finish an episode with an S rank time with no deaths. That only leaves combos and kills you need to concentrate on. Enemies should be strong enough that an S rank for combos comes naturally, and as long as you don't skip any enemies you should get an S for kills. S for time, S for combos, C for Finishers, S for kills and S for retries will get you an overall S. Zero Finishers will leave you with a C for Finishers.
Conclusion
Knights Contract isn't an extremely challenging 1000, but Witchslayer difficulty can be a hassle Once you wrap that up, though, you can bask in your newest completion!
[x360a would like to thank xf02 for this road map]