Overview
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 5/10
- Offline: 50 for 1000
- Online: 0
- Approximate amount of time to complete: 60-80 hours
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1.5
- Number of missable achievements: Anything involving LP (Master of the Classes, etc.)
- Do cheat codes disable achievements?: None
- Does difficulty affect achievements?: No
- Glitchy achievements: None
- Unobtainable achievements: None
- Extra equipment needed?: None
Preparation
One thing that is very importing for this game is knowing the lay of the land and the order in which to do something (or not do something) so that you can complete it with the least amount of work and time possible. For starters, a good walkthrough is handy as the game does not give you much direction. I used the one at Game Pressure, which includes every quest and very good maps. Come to that, the next most important thing are the maps themselves. Here is everything you should need in the order you'll come to it:
- Island, Chapter 1
- Bandit Camp
- Harbor Town
- Volcano Keep
- Island, Chapter 2
- Island, Chapter 3
- Island, Chapter 4
Part 1: Island, Bandit Camp and Harbor Town
- Evidence for Marcelo (hold on to the Brugleweek package)
- Get rid of Toni/The family heirloom (hold on to the amulet)
- Lukor wants the five armor plates (hold on to the plates)
- Protection money from Costa (hold on to the money)
- Find the burglar's spy! (do not talk to Doyle)
- Find the three golden bowls (hold on to the bowls)
- Romanov's seaman's chest (hold on to the chest)
Having done all available quests to this point aside from the ones above and their followups, save your game in a new slot and do not overwrite it! You will now continue on with the game, siding with the Order first and becoming a Mage. Do not become a Warrior of the Order, as they cannot learn Seal 4 required for the Rune Master achievement.
Part 2: Mage Playthrough
Go ahead and finish those seven quests above (again, do not save over the file where you're holding all the items - create a new one!), doing whichever method will be "for the Order." Once that is done, you will be sent to Volcano Keep and from there just follow the guide at Game Pressure to get all story related quests and various side-quest achievements as well. As you play, use the maps provided above to collect (but not eat!) all of the special herbs. Also be sure to collect all the Stone Plates and find any Bookshelves, as well as getting all the Teleport Stones.
Late in Chapter 4 you should have found all the Bookshelves and Stone Plates, getting your Wisdom up to 200 and unlocking the Expert achievement. At this point, track down your remaining herbs from the maps above and use the save and reload trick to get 200 in strength and dexterity. Here is the order you will need to train in to successfully get 200:
- Pay a trainer to get up to 100 dexterity (you should start at 10, making sure not to use anything else before maxing out your training through LP) - this will again cost 90LP and nearly 6k Gold. (100/200)
- Use any potions you have found to increase the skill. There are two: one in a Steelbeard chest and one on a barrel in the woods above the bandit camp. (105-110/200)
- With Alchemy Level 3, make as many potions as you can using Hero Crown/Pixie Hat. (200/200)
- Reload you save game and repeat for strength. There is one potion as a reward for the Hemlar's Murder quest, one for a quest Ignatius gives to report to the Don at one point, and one can be found in Leonardo's house in a locked chest (be careful when trying to steal this). The Alchemy portion will require the Hero Crown and Orgeroots.
At this point, go ahead and finish out the game if you've done all quests-related achievements except Fence and Freedom Fighter, then reload the special save you made back in the beginning of Part 1.
Part 3: Fighter Half-Playthrough
Now you will need to turn in your seven quests, this time doing whichever method will net you "for the Don" outcomes. At the end of this, you will be able to earn the "Fence" achievement, and upon completing Chapter 2 again you will earn "Freedom Fighter." That should be the last story-related achievement you needed, so move to Part 4 to finish off your 1000.
Part 4: Cleanup
You should now only have some of the grindy achievements left, having earned all quest-related achievements and all stat-related achievements. Reload any save you want to finish the rest of the achievements by abusing the hell out of the save/reload method. I would suggest your Mage with the maxed out strength and large inventory. Continually sell your inventory for King Midas. Find a group of wolves or gnomes to repeatedly kill for Big Game Hunter. Pickpocket, Lockpick and Forge for Master Thief, Safecracker and Weaponsmith. Anything else you have to clean up should be fairly easy as well. If you have any stat or quest-related achievements left at this point, you did something wrong somewhere in Part 1 or 2 and may need a third game, but hopefully not.
That should about do it. Congrats on your 1000!
[x360a would like to thank The Nerevarine and The Pants Party for this Road Map.]