I've written this guide almost 1 year later after completing the game. Some information might be innacurate. I apologize in advance if that is the case. Use Ctrl+F to find the achievement you're looking for.
You can do these achievements in any order you prefer. I advise you do leave 'Robinson Who-soe?' as last of your standard playthrough.

Obtain the Golden Compass



Let's get the hardest one out of the way. First of all you need a sexton for this achievement. You will get at the first encounter in the inn.

Ethical Way:
Map 2000 islands. Find an island. Use the sexton to understand where to put the island icon on the map. Repeat 2000 times.
Once you're done go find the Cartographer. Cross-check your map with his. He will reward you with a bunch of stuff and the Golden Compass if you have 2000 correct islands. If you intend to do it this way keep this achievement for last and do it as you progress through the story.

Unethical Way (how i did it):
Read this pinned thread, download and install the mod from nexus. This will replace your ingame map with an already mapped one with 2000+ islands. Find the Cartographer and get the Golden Compass.

Thank you WillieSea for this time-saving mod



Map 100 islands at 100% accuracy.




Self explanatory. If you get Master Navigaror, you get this one aswell

Cartographer Locations: (unconfirmed)
1 East 15 North
3 East, 62 North
15 East 34 South
42 East 27 South
53 East 58 South
10 West 42 North
46 West 12 South
49 West 14 North

Obtain a legendary item.



Obtain a legendary weapon, which has an orange background in your inventory. There are many legendary items in the game and if you are going for 100% completion this achievement is impossible to miss.
The one legendary item i recommend you to get is Breezy Scepter of Northern Wind[projectsalt.fandom.com] which is a staff that increases your sailing speed.

Contribution from F4/80

Place a flag on a very tall mountain.



Climb the tall island and place a flag on it.
To climb it you need to jump backwards and choose your path wisely. once your up there place a flag (1 Wood Log + 1 Cloth Swatch)



Obtain a Hightop Bloom Flower.



When climbing the mountain you should find a bounch of these flowers near the top. Pick them up.

Collect at least 10 flowers, you will need them for a merchant quest later.

Dig up some buried treasure



When you find an island with a lot of sand, land on it and look for an NPC on it. Talk to him and he will explain you how to look for treasure and provide you with a shovel. When you find the X dig and you will get the treasure and this achievement.

Craft The Maiden.



Craft one of the Maiden type ships. This wiki page[projectsalt.fandom.com] has them all and usefull info on how to get them.


Decorate your boat with a painting.



Hang a painting on your ship. Can be bought from a Merchant, collected from the ground on Pirate Islands, from Flotsams, or Bronze/Silver pirate chests.

Kill the Spider Queen.



There is also a quest related to her given by a merchant along with a potion of spider scent. Drink it at night to make her spawn.
You can also randomly encounter her during the night.
Though enemy. Be prepared.

Comment from contributor F4/80: Try to aim for critical hit chance stuff even up to 48% and 400% critical hit power. In this way it's almost one shots with bows for all enemies except bosses.

Obtain over 10,000 gold.



You should get this while grinding for the other achievements. No need to rush it.

Hunt and kill The Alpha Stag.



You need to kill him, He spawns only when you drink Deer Scent (found as loot in Hunting Shacks).

Hold at least 50 lore books in your inventory.



Keep collecting books that you find as loot, don't sell them. Prioritize other achievements, do this at the very end if you still haven't completed it (some books can be bought from merchants). I don't remember having trouble with this one

Obtain a set of Turtle Armor.



Craft Turtle Shell Helm and Turtle Chestplate. You need Sea Turtle Shells which is a common loot obtained by fishing.

Craft the Pardon Pusher.



Caft Pardon Pusher with the 4 crates looted from the 4 Pirate Bosses found on Battlemaster Settlements[projectsalt.fandom.com]

Contribution from F4/80

Obtain all journal inks.



-Bright Blue Ink: rare drop from Flotsam, which is obtained by fishing
-Bright Red Ink: rarely found behind the Innkeeper's desk. This one was the hardest for me. I visited 4 or 5 different inkeepers before i found this one
-Dark Blue Ink: rarely found in silver chests on Battlemaster Settlement islands.
-Dark Green Ink: chance to be looted from a Jungle Statue after putting a Jungle Ruby into its eye socket.
-Dark Guardian's Blood: KIll The Dark Guardian and obtain this by looting it. You need to kill him anyway for another achievement.
-Dark Red Ink: can be obtained by looting dead Pirates.
-Orange Ink: sold by merchant
-White Ink: Crafted from easely obtainable materials

Complete every merchant quest in the game


Check the merchant quest[projectsalt.fandom.com] wiki paragraph for more details on the quests

This was the most annoying one for me because it requires alot of travelling between different locations. I've included the locations i've found. Thank player The Donald for sharing some of these locations with us.

A Better Brew 29E, 9S

The Loony Light 1W, 24S

The Spider Queen 52E,58S

Shark Soup 67E, 39S (there's alot of these in the starting area aswell)

The Catch of a lifetime 58W, 1N

The Voyager's Maiden 30E, 30S

Hightop Bloom Hunter 10E, 16N

Valtuila Lilly 173E x 172S, 168E x 172S, 160E x 69S, 124E x 136S,
207E x 163N, 229E x 180N, 148E x 98N, 85E x 73N,
112W x 119S, 199W x 220S, 88W x 73S, 110W x 65S,
181W x 69S

Cover to Cover 218E x 131N, 54E x 40N, 181W x 169S, 176W x 209S,
163W x 238S, 216W x 223S, 271W x 244S, 180W x 76S

The Dark Deer 27E, 39N

An Old Man's Revenge 89E x 82S, 85E x 65N, 278W x 242S

Queen Of The Jungle 154E x 162S, 202E x 163N, 204E x 151N, 83E x 81N,
152W x 203S, 280W x 243S, 154W x 62S

A Hard Find 19E, 64N

Purify the Ancient Skull.



Main quest related.

The quest wiki[projectsalt.fandom.com]

Wiki on how to purify it[projectsalt.fandom.com]

Defeat the Dark Guardian



Dark Guardian WIki[projectsalt.fandom.com]

Obtain the Loreman's Lofty Axe.



One of the possible awards when turning in 7 Sea Scholar's Tokens to the Sea Scholar. Tokens are obtained by delivering books for the Sea Scholar.

Sea Scholar Wiki[projectsalt.fandom.com]

Knock fruit from a tree and shoot it with an arrow before it hits the ground.



Not particularly hard but it will take a few tries. When you see an apple on a tree, save your game. Try to do it and if you fail reload your game.

Comment from contributor F4/80: Shoot Da Fruit! is easier if you stand directly below the apple and shot 2 arrows up, in this way you almost succeed in 2-3 tries, don't shoot from side.

Remember that you can fish while travelling on your boat. Also use shark bait which is very durable and easely obtainable by trading a shark to a specific merchant for the quest Shark Soup.

Fish up a Gigantic Mouth Seabass.



Fish up a Dragon Fish.



Dragon Fish can only be found in deep waters.

Obtain the Lucky Fisherman's Hat.



Last item obtained from the Jungle Fisherman. requires you to fish a very rare fish[projectsalt.fandom.com] found only near jungle islands. Follow the Jungle Fisherman quest line (keep in mind that this is a diffent fisherman found only on jungle islands)

Get the Jungle Skimmy boat.



You will get it after completeing the last quest[projectsalt.fandom.com] given by the Huntsman. Complete the Jungle Fisherman quest line before doing this because it requires more fishing.

Defeat every boss in the game.



End game achievement. When you're done with the main story and the Master Merchiant achievement go for this one.

List of bosses:

• Spider Queen[projectsalt.fandom.com]: merchant quest
  
• Jungle Queen[projectsalt.fandom.com]:
  
• The Dark Guardian[projectsalt.fandom.com]
  
• Luthor: related to a Huntsman quest[http//Man+Eater]
  
• Grent Famed Slayer of Luthor[projectsalt.fandom.com]: special condition required to summon him, read the wiki
  
• The Cursed Skull: related to the main quest and an achievement that requires you to purify it
  
• Draegan: final boss

Comments from contributor F4/80:
The list above is 100% needed for the achievement. If it doesn't pop, kill also the following bosses:

• 4 named pirate bosses
  
• 4 king pirates (comment by Aenra: according to user PiNGU these 4 are not needed, he only killed 2 and got the achievment anyway)
  
• Varkahn[projectsalt.fandom.com]

Before you kill Jungle Queen save the game, cause you need to get Spider Silk from the Jungle Queen for a merchant quest, else it will be pain to search for 2nd queen (one of the most painfull enemies to find).

Don't really try to find Spider Queen cause you will get a potion from composer in the inn which will spawn such boss enemy and no, in jungle it will also spawn Spider Queen.

Complete the main quest line.




Follow your Journal and complete all the main quests. If you get stuck on some parts there is a wiki page for all of the quests, you just need to google '*quest name* salt game'

Obtain the Obtain the Druid Spirit Idol.



I advise you to do this one at the end of your journey. Chance of getting the rare material needed for it's crafting are 1/200 soo you will need a lot of wood logs aswell as a Junglewood Whittling Knife sold by the huntsman.

First you need to obtain a Glowing Heartwood[projectsalt.fandom.com]. Craft wood splinters by combining wood log and whitting knife. At some point you should get the glowing heartwood as a byproduct. Craft the idol and get the achievement. It took me 250 wood logs before i got it.

Sail past the 1000 unit mark.




Do this one as last when you have fast ships and items that give you sailing speed bonus. I did it with the Jungle Skimmy boat.
These items increase your sailing speed: Breezy Scepter of Northern Wind, Sailing Gloves, Pirate Set (or Privateer Set), Sailor's Lucky Necklace, Lost Ring of the Sea and Sailor's Charm.
Fully geared up, it will take you about 5 hours (best case scenario). I read somewhere that by going north you get slightly more speed because of the wind.

Comment from contributor F4/80: I got all sailing speed increase stuff except some exotic wind sail and had almost 60 knots on Jungle Skimmy boat but it can take still 5 to 6 hours if you calculate for 1 unit 20 seconds of real life time and the game will crash a lot after some period.

Defeat Draegan on Hardcore Mode.



When you're done with all other achievements you can go on and start a new game on Hardcore Mode. This is a tricky one because of permadeath but do not worry you can trick even death with this guide.
Keep open Task Manager while you play this because if you close your game fast enough (by killing the process in task manager) your death won't register. I died to a cultist but i didn't register because i killed the process through task manager.

How to beat Draegan:

Ethical Way: You fight him the legit way. May all the gods help you if you decide to do it this way,

Unethical Way (how i did it):

• Before you enter the stronghold and initiate combat, anchor your ship nearby, then place a bed and sleep on it.
  
• You need a bow and lots of arrows (200, maybe more, i don't remember)
  
• Enter the stronghold and Initiate combat. The doors of the stronghold will close behind you.
  
• Now open your menu and press 'Return to your Boat'. This will teleport you to your boat nearby while Draegan will be stuck in the stronghold.
  
• All you need to do is shoot him through the door but be carefull he can still kill you with his ranged attacks. There is a beam of fire that you need to avoid and stay far away from when you see it coming towards you.
  
• Even with this method it is very possible to die soo take care