Playthrough 1

It is recommended that you playthrough on Easy to start off as the equipment is not effected by the difficulty, and because the equipment is your characters stats you don’t need to level your character like a traditional RPG. You will be collecting all Health upgrades and Soul Anchors through this playthrough, the latter for an achievement and the former because it will make life easier. To be sure you get them all, follow our level guide located here.

There won’t be a huge amount you will need to do except finish the story and get the end game equipment.

Playthrough 2

During this playthrough, you will be playing through the first level and scoring a gold medal on each character class in order to get the Three-peat achievement. You are also going to want to follow our handy dandy video guide located here on how to complete the achievement Special Delivery, nabbing yourself what is arguably some of the best armor for each class, if not the most stylish.

If you’ve missed some of the miscellaneous achievements such as I’m Not Dead Yet or Big Bang Theory you can mop those up during this playthrough.

Playthrough 3

This playthrough is all about Go For Gold. Most of the levels are easily done solo, but you will find yourself struggling to gold Asturi or some of the challenges solo. Remember that the high difficulties offer vast amounts more points than the lower difficulties but it comes at the price of enemies becoming very resilient to most attacks, and will effect your time and ability to chain combo kills.

Secrets are very much so worth the time on Immortal or Ridonkulous, as they pay out 750 – 1,000 points each. Playing with others has disadvantages and advantages. On one hand your time score will sky rocket, and you will die a lot less. On the other you all share the same score multiplier and so it will have a tendency to stick around 2X or 3X simply because the more people there are the more chance there is someone will be hit.

I Have The Power! – 10

Unleash your Ultimate attack.

This will most likely be the first achievement you will unlock in Crimson Alliance. To be able to use your Ultimate attack you will need to collect 5 Soul Anchors, there are 33 Soul Anchors in the game and you need to collect 30/33 for the fully upgraded Ultimate attack. Once you have obtained the Ultimate attack you can activate it by pressing the LB button on your controller.

Three-peat – 10

Earn a gold medal on Fall of Byzan with each character class.

There are four different medals to earn. Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platnium, the level Fall of Byzan is the very first level. There are three different character classes you will need to obtain the gold medal with. The gold medal is 22,000 points on Fall of Byzan, the higher the difficulty is the more points you will get. It is recommended that if you wish to get this achievement early you play with a group or with a friend who has end-game equipment.

Big Bang Theory – 10

Kill 25 enemies with explosive barrels in a single level.

Scattered through nearly every level are red explosive barrels, which once hit will start a fuse before exploding. Almost all enemies are slightly slower than your character is, so in conjunction with the dash/teleport ability(activated by pressing the A button on your controller) it is possible to ‘herd’ the enemies into tight groups. Once you have a reasonable size group, run past the red explosive barrel and hit it. If the difficulty is low enough, all enemies will generally die in a single explosion.

I’m Not Dead Yet! – 20

Revive yourself while playing alone.

It is possible to revive oneself by breaking a pot of health moments before dying or  having a Health Totem down when you are dead. Basically as long as there are hearts floating through the air when you have died it is possible to be revived.

It is important to take note in co-op it is possible to revive someone without having to stand next to them holding the LT button on your controller using this method.

Maxed Out – 20

Max out any character stat.

Unlike other RPGs, the stats your character has is contributed from the armor and weapons it has equipped. You will most likely have a maxed out stat two or three levels before the last level. However this depends on the equipment you have found or bought.

Special Delivery – 20

Carry the present out of Palace of Death on at least hard difficulty.

In the very first of Palace of Death room behind some boxes is a green present you will need to carry to the end of the level. It can be destroyed very easily and you may drop it. The strategy to getting through the level on hard with the present intact is to drop it just before an enemy encounter is started and clear out the next room or two. It must be noted you cannot die or it will make the present disappear, you must also be careful to take it past certain gates otherwise you will not be able to go back for it. It must of course be done on at least the hard difficulty.

This is easier with more people but it is completely possible solo. You have to physically carry the present out of the level, past the red checkpoint for it to count. Included is a video guide of the locations to drop the present to unlock the achievement.

Soul Hoarder – 20

Find and collect all 33 Soul Anchors.

Throughout the levels there are 33 collectibles known as Soul Anchors, aside from upgrading your character’s Ultimate attack they also offer to flesh out the story more with information. To collect a Soul Anchor simply walk through it. Refer to our level guide here to find all 33.

Rampage – 10

Achieve a score multiplier of 8X on at least normal difficulty.

Crimson Alliance gauges how well you are performing based on a point system divided into how many secrets you have found during the level, how quickly you completed the level and lastly how well you performed in combat. The more enemies you kill, the higher your multiplier will grow up until it reaches 8X. If you are damaged in any way however you will lose part of your multiplier.

It is possible to obtain 8X on the first level Fall of Byzan by killing all but two enemies during the level on the normal difficulty.

Horny Devil – 20
Defeat Gashadokuro, the Death Knight.

This is a story related achievement and cannot be missed. Gashadokuro is located on the level Gashadokuro.

Bring Out Your Dead! – 20

Complete Requiem.

This is a story related achievement and cannot be missed. Requiem is located on the level Requiem.

Soul Survivor – 20
Defeat the Soul Siren.

This is a story related achievement and cannot be missed. The Soul Siren is located on the level Asturi.

Go for the Gold – 20

Earn a gold medal or better on every Main Campaign level on at least normal difficulty.

The combo system is the key to getting a high combat score. It is similar to the medal system in games such as Halo where if you get more than one kill is quick succession you will be awarded more points. The difficulty will effect the amount of points awarded from the Time Bonus, Combat Bonus and Secret Bonus. Refer to the achievement Rampage for a better description of how the point system works.

To unlock this achievement you will need get a gold medal on every campaign mission and challenge on at least normal difficulty. Use our level guide located here for a breakdown of each level.

Learn each enemy and their locations throughout the levels, it will make things a lot easier as the enemies usually stick to set a routine.

You should not have much trouble with this up until the last three levels, where you will need to either get very lucky or you will need to play in co-op on a harder difficulty to get enough points.