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Complete Achievement Guide
By 辻斬り
With the completion of the fan translation, it is about time for there to be a comprehensive English guide as well!

Following this walkthrough-style achievement guide will help you complete everything this game has to offer.
   
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辻斬り
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Category: Achievements, Characters, Classes, Crafting, Gameplay Basics, Loot, Maps or Levels, Secrets, Story or Lore, Walkthroughs, Weapons
Languages: English
Posted
4 Oct @ 5:45am
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Guide Index
Overview
Preparation 
Introduction 
Story (1/4) 
Story (2/4) 
Story (3/4) - Quests 
Story (4/4) - Favorability 
World (1/2) 
World (2/2) - "Not frogs" 
Combat (1/2) 
Combat (2/2) 
Treasure 
A - Red Leaf Lake 
A - Wumeng Valley 
A - Frostfire Cave 
A - Fanyun Stronghold 
A - Misty Mountain Stream 
A - Qinchuan 
A - Mount Yu 
A - Jiangdu 
A - Outskirts of Jiangdu 
A - Spring Trail 
A - Spring Village 
A - Immortal Vine Cave 
A - Iron Pillar Temple 
A - Underwater Iron Pillar 
A - Anlu 
A - Mount Bi 
A - Serenity Estate 
A - World Map 
A - Mausoleum of Qin Emperor 
A - After the Mausoleum 
A - Green Dragon Town 
A - Gollum Bay 
A - After Gollum Bay 
A - Sea of Thundercloud 
A - Dragonsilk Palace 
A - Archaeo-continent 
A - After Archaeo-continent 
A - Qingyu Sect 
A - Wumeng Valley - Frostfire Cave 
A - After Wumeng Valley 
A - Purple Banyan Forest 
A - Back to Qinchuan 
A - Return to Qingyu Sect 
A - Back to Jiangdu 
A - Mount Zhonghuang 
A - Dark City - Shore of Soul - Artemisia Land 
A - White Emperor City 
A - Tianyong Sect 
A - Green Dragon Town · Rain 
A - Preparation 
A - Penglai - Peach Blossom Dream 
B - Introduction 
B - From Prologue to Jiangdu 
B - From Jiangdu to Mausoleum 
B - From Mausoleum to Archaeo-continent 
B - From Purple Banyan Forest to Qingyu Sect 
B - From Jiangdu Revisit to Artemisia Land 
B - White Emperor City - Tianyong Sect 
B - Preparation - Penglai 
B - Finale 
C - Cleanup (1/2) 
C - Cleanup (2/2) 
C - Other Finale Challenges 
DLC: Ancient Sword Spirit 
DLC: Old Story of Tianyong 
DLC: Flying Lanterns 
DLC: Drink and Dream 
Appendix - Endgame Weapons (1/2) 
Appendix - Endgame Weapons (2/2) 
Appendix - Automation: Intro 
Appendix - Automation: Script 
Afterword 
Comments
Preparation
Get the fan translation either from this guide or the original forum post.

The contents of the patch are structured to go to their correct locations already, so just copy the folders to the game folder root to apply the patch.
Introduction


There are 140 achievements in four categories:
  • Story: 41 achievements
  • World: 21 achievements
  • Combat: 61 achievements
  • Treasure: 17 achievements
Two playthroughs + cleanup required.
Estimated time for completion is around 120-150 hours.

Walkthrough A is the "completionist" run, including the hidden ending.
Second playthrough B is a low level challenge run.
Sections C are cleaning up from a reloaded endgame save of B.

DLCs are recommended after playthrough A, as completing them opens up things to be cleared in main game as well.

Sections

Each of the four in-game categories have sections of their own for general or long-term achievements of those categories. Longest achievements may have a section of their own.

After that, there are sections for the walkthroughs, typically per area. Other than achievements, some other points of interest and advice may be included.

DLCs have their own sections afterwards in same fashion.

Finally there are appendices which contain some useful information.

Format
  • Achievements will be listed with both Chinese original title (as in Steam) and English title (as in the translation of the game), allowing looking up specific ones with either.
  • Descriptions will also be the translated in-game ones, although many of them aren't too useful for guidance.
  • Additional details provided by me can be found below each achievement.

Notes

Most achievements are not visible in the in-game listing until you fulfil certain conditions (e.g. achieve one of X times). This prompts a popup much like getting an achievement. Don't mix opening something with actually achieving it!

I also link it in the achievement section for "Not frogs", but here's the hidden ending guide I refer to in the walkthroughs: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3480912928
For me playing them in mid-September 2025, the DLCs other than "Old Story of Tianyong" were more or less untranslated. It does not interfere with completing them using the guide right now or in the future, but the guide will be using descriptions or other measures instead of exact names and terms for various things.
Story (1/4)
General story achievements not tied to a specific location or event.


海内存知己 - So many friends
Talk to 300 people.


Chinese description says 360, which I presume is the real number.

Cities have a ton of NPCs, and a lot of them are also inside buildings. If you’re looking to gain all lore entries, remember to exhaust all dialogue variants with everyone (see ”Passion of research”).

I will not list every NPC here, but here’s the progress I had at some milestones:
  1. Leaving Qinchuan: 28%
  2. Leaving Jiangdu: 91%
  3. Spring Village: Completion
As can be seen, there is considerably more supply than needed for the achievement. Besides, this will likely be gained in the process of going for ”Passion of research” anyways.


不期而遇 - Meet by chance
Trigger 40 scattered dialogue scenes.


The system opens after completing chapter 1 and spending the night at Jiangdu. From that point on, every time you enter a city, your companions will be at various locations around the city. Talk to them after story events for these dialogues.

Couple important notes:
  • Locations are static per city. Someone not in the team will of course not be in the cities either until they’re back.
  • Each dialogue grants progress in every city, not just once per dialogue. Funny but convenient.
  • Qingxue does not count for this achievement until World Map is opened. Might be because her dialogues are registered as the “entrance” to Peach Blossom Valley even if she also comments on the story.

Here are the character’s locations for all the cities, in the order of the cities appearing in the game.

Qinchuan
  • Hong Yu: on the bridge just south from the inn
  • Lansheng: just outside the academy gates
  • Qianshang: next to some wine racks in the southwest estate
  • Qingxue: walking around the dyeing racks in the southeast
  • Xiang Ling: central market next to the water
Jiangdu
  • Hong Yu: on the bridge west of grocery store
  • Lansheng: on the pier north of the market
  • Qianshang: sitting near the casino entrance
  • Qingxue: walking around near the post office
  • Xiang Ling: at the market near the pharmacy
Anlu
  • Hong Yu: on the road southeast from the inn
  • Lansheng: just inside the gate of the northern estate
  • Qianshang: lying on a cart just south from the inn
  • Qingxue: sitting on boxes next to the armor shop
  • Xiang Ling: next to a stall southwest from the inn
Green Dragon Town
  • Hong Yu: in front of the furniture store
  • Lansheng: in the Dragon King Temple on the west side of the north isle
  • Qianshang: next to the large ship south of the shipyard boss house
  • Qingxue: on the elevated north-eastern pier on the east side of the north isle
  • Xiang Ling: inside the shipyard, near the entrance
Dragonsilk Palace
  • Hong Yu: walking around the segment northeast from the palace hall
  • Lansheng: at the lower level southeast from the inn
  • Qianshang: talking to the two ladies on the segment southeast from the palace hall
  • Qingxue: in front of the buildings west from the pharmacy
  • Xiang Ling: far south of the top level, near the Scene Exit
White Emperor City
  • Hong Yu: on the upper ledge north of pharmacy
  • Lansheng: in the yard next to Mingliang Hall, halfway up the mountain
  • Qianshang: at the market, sitting near the bottom of the stairs leading up the mountain
  • Qingxue: -
  • Xiang Ling: just east of the grocery store

With diligent dialogue-hunting, the achievement can already be gained right before moving to Green Dragon Town.


血誓奇缘 - Blood Covenant
Get 7 Spirit Beasts of Blood Covenant.


Achievement seems bugged, it popped up for me when loading a save during Mount Yu, even though I only had 3 spirits at that point.

Most of the spirits are almost unmissable, but here’s the listing of the total 7 spirits anyways:
  1. Fanyun Stronghold: Luli - After the cutscenes in the cauldron cave, you will regain control with a chest straight ahead. Approach it for another scene and your first spirit
  2. Qinchuan: Gold Persimmon - In a chest in the pawnshop, a building on the eastern side of the area that has the main story marker as you enter Qinchuan (middle of the three eastern areas)
  3. Mount Yu · Plum Grove: Luzhaofeng - First sidepath after entering the area (not counting the save point one) has a chest with the spirit
  4. Jiangdu: Muling Fangxiang - Gained by triggering a cutscene at the entrance of the path north to Flowerbloom Pavilion. The chest itself is just west of where the Aurogon shop appears.
  5. Outskirts of Jiangdu: Yingxu - in a rather unmissable chest right after the bridge
  6. Iron Pillar Temple · Outside: Yanguang - in the corridor soon after the second save point
  7. Green Dragon Town: Boqi - inside Aurogon Company. Enter the building and go to the inner section. On the right side, next to the dev “Certain Tree” is a small tree - click it for the spirit

Since the game does not necessarily do good job of explaining what all the spirits do, here’s a rundown:
  • Luli: smashes chests and obstacles around maps. Interactions have indicator.
  • Gold Persimmon: bargains better prices at shops. This is the checkmark box on the buying/selling widget - check it whenever you want to use Persimmon.
  • Luzhaofeng: grows specific plants around maps. Interactions have indicator.
  • Muling Fangxiang: freezing; either monsters or enabling passages. Passage interactions have indicator.
  • Yingxu: show monsters and chests on map, see invisible things. No indicators.
  • Yanguang: burns chests and obstacles around maps. Interactions have indicator.
  • Boqi: restores some SP to everyone. No indicators.


考据狂 - Passion of research
Collect 200 Entries of the Researches.


These refer to the Lore tab entries, which are gained mostly via NPCs and story.

Note that NPCs generally have at least two different dialogues each (some only one, and rare cases more than two), and entries are tied to specific dialogues. Sometimes it may take quite a few talks before alternative dialogues pop up, so take care not to miss on things because of that!

I will not list every entry here, but here’s the progress I had at some milestones:
  1. Leaving Qinchuan: 31%
  2. Leaving Jiangdu: 55%
  3. Before Mausoleum: 89%
  4. Green Dragon Town: Completion

As can be seen, there should be considerably more supply than needed for the achievement.

Steam achievement may be buggy, I already gained it randomly when booting a Mausoleum save that had 93% progress.
Story (2/4)
General story achievements not tied to a specific location or event.


风情 - Local customs
Talk to Yu Wushuang in all cities.


There are 4 locations total for this.
  • Qinchuan: next to the north-eastern bridge, west of pharmacy.
  • Jiangdu: near the bridge west of the inn
  • Anlu: next to the road, northwest of the inn
  • Green Dragon Town: southeast end of the piers on the east side of the north isle


你沉迷了！ - You’re addicted!
The game time exceeds 81 hours.


Self-explanatory.

I got this right before leaving Green Dragon Town for the first time. Thus I’m putting this here in this order, but doing this guide and such is not really an average playthrough. Most people will likely gain this a lot later.


乖，摸摸！ - Let me touch you!
The mood of a Spirit Beast is in its happiest state.


This could be done way earlier, but I somehow managed to avoid it for quite long.

Few rounds of a food the spirit really likes should be enough for this. For me it was few King Kong Crisps given to Luli in Gollum Bay.


八卦 - Gossip
Talk to Cha Xiaoguai in all cities.


There are 6 locations total for this.
  • Qinchuan: on the bridge next to the post office
  • Jiangdu: southeast side of the plaza west of the grocery store
  • Anlu: east of the northern entrance
  • Green Dragon Town: walking around the streets near the Aurogon Company
  • Dragonsilk Palace: walking around the Scene Exit of the middle area
  • White Emperor City: east side of the southern segment, short way from the bottom of the stairs


鸿雁传书 - Letters from afar
Collect 70 letters.


First introduced in Qinchuan, each city has a post office marked on the minimap. Letters received from the NPC can be found in Quests -> Letters.

Most of letters are either unlocked as main story progresses or as rewards from Chivalrous Board. In any case just keep checking the post offices and this will happen in due time.

Letters may arrive globally (at any city) or only to a specific city! In particular Anlu had new dedicated letters fairly frequently.

I got this during White Emperor City.
Story (3/4) - Quests
This section is for the story category quest achievements ”Good man” and “Human world”.


好人 - Good man
Complete all small tasks.


There are 15 small tasks total. These are the minor errand type side quests that some NPCs give you.
Information and instructions on current tasks can be found from the Quests tab.

Note that side quests and Dragon Babies’ tasks are different categories!

Repay Kindness
  1. Talk to Granny Qiu in northeastern Qinchuan
  2. Talk to the person just west of the Jiangdu Post Station to deliver the cakes

Daughter in Red
  1. After nightly Qinchuan, talk to Madam Desheng in the wine pavilion
  2. Talk to the person next to the gate to the northwestern estate in Qinchuan

Necklace of Deceased Wife
  1. In central Jiangdu, talk to the turban-headed man in the backyard of the dancing tavern
  2. In Outskirts of Jiangdu, talk to the waiter of the tea stall
  3. Return to Jiangdu to the turban-headed man

Yangzhou Cuisine
  1. In Jiangdu inn 1st floor, talk to Chef Li near the stairs
  2. make four dishes: Sunflower Pork, Squirrel Fish, Phoenix in Peony and Coin Shrimp Cake
  3. Squirrel Fish is one of hidden recipes that require you to cook other recipes for a chance of discovery. Get Fish Head Soup from Jiangdu grocery store and cook it until you gain the hidden recipe (seems to be ~10 but RNG, so might want to reload on a batch of resources)
  4. other three recipes are from the grocery store in Outskirts of Jiangdu
  5. talk to Chef Li again after cooking the four dishes

Treasure Hunt
  1. In Jiangdu inn 2nd floor, talk to Yue Baobao in the 3rd room
  2. Bring her two each of Wood Plum Needle, Fire Dragon Dart, Earth Spirit Sand, Golden Lotus Beads and Ice Spirit Tube to complete the quest
  3. They can be found in chests and drops during the game as well, but after revisiting Madam Jin in the main story a lot later, Jiangdu grocery store sells these items

Gluttonous Old Man
  1. In Spring Village, talk to the old man fishing across the pond to start the quest
  2. Give the man Fish Head Soup to complete the quest

Colorful Dress
  1. In Anlu, talk to Mrs. Li in the yard south of the northern entrance to start the quest
  2. Give Mrs. Li two each of Plum Blossoms, Epiphyllum flowers, Chrysanthemums, Lotus flowers and Peach Blossoms to complete the quest
  3. If you’re missing something, you can go farm for them in the Homestead. Should be no shortage of seeds if you’ve been using the plant growing spirit.

Glutinous Rice Snacks
  1. In Anlu, talk to Hua An in the second room of the tavern just south of the inn to start the quest
  2. Give Hua An one Meat Zongzi and one Cold Sweet Zongzi to complete the quest
  3. If you bought these from Jiangdu Outskirts grocery store, you can complete the quest immediately. Otherwise might need to come back later.

Gunpowder Express
  1. In Green Dragon Town, talk to Yan Wei southeast from Aurogon Company to start the quest
  2. In Dragonsilk Palace, talk to Yan Feng west of the inn to complete the task

Biluo
  1. In Green Dragon Town, talk to Xu Wenqiang next to the inn 1st floor stairs to start the quest
  2. Cook Tianhua Biluo for him to complete the task. Recipe is sold in the city grocery store

Human Novelty
  1. In Green Dragon Town after Gollum Bay, go to the shore on the northern isle just right of the eastern ferry spot
  2. talk to Yan Chui, one of the sea creatures, who is in the water
  3. Give him one each of Cat Ears (recipe from Mount Yu) and Sugar Ingot (recipe from Green Dragon Town) to complete the task

Gossip
  1. In Dragonsilk Palace, go southeast from the palace hall and talk to Mingqing to start the task
  2. Deliver the item to Fei’er, who can be found down the stairs at the south end of the area with the inn

Meat Lover
  1. In Dragonsilk Palace, talk to the large golden snake west of the Scene Exit of the lower level to start the quest
  2. Give him Ham and Yuanbao Meat to complete the quest. Recipes are from Mount Yu and Anlu, respectively

Scatterbrain
  1. In Dragonsilk Palace, talk to the lad in purple in the right side of the inn to start the quest
  2. Give him Yingluo Necklace to complete the quest. If you happen to not have it, it can be found in armor exchanges. One is also in a chest at the first side path of Spring Trail.

Light Food
  1. In White Emperor City, talk to Li Qing between pharmacy and grocery store to start the task
  2. Give him Leaf Cold Noodles and Song’s Fish Potage to complete the quest. Latter recipe is one of the initial cooking recipes. Former is learned by cooking enough Water Noodles.

Achievement can be gained by the time of “Light Food” in White Emperor City.


人间 - Human world
Complete all side quests.


There are 3 side quests total. These are longer quests comprising of cutscenes.

Information and instructions on current tasks can be found from the Quests tab.

Note that small tasks and Dragon Babies’ tasks are different categories!

Fey’s Love
  1. On 2nd day of Jiangdu, go to the grocery store to trigger a cutscene and start the quest
  2. In Green Dragon Town, after initially visiting the inn for the main story, go south of the pharmacy to trigger a cutscene
  3. In Green Dragon Town, continue the quest immediately on the pier near the furniture shop
  4. In Green Dragon Town after Archaeo-continent, go to the tavern in the southeastern part of the southern island to initiate a scene and complete the task. I thought he had a family already??

Obsidian
  1. In Jiangdu Outskirts, continue a bit past the tea stall to start the quest via a cutscene
  2. In Jiangdu Outskirts after completing Mausoleum and returning to Anlu, check behind the southwestern grocery store NPC to continue the quest
  3. In Qingyu Sect lower level, go to the northwest pavilion near the waterfall. The trigger area seems really small so might need to run around a bit before you manage to hit it.
  4. When escaping Qingyu Sect later in main story, push your way through the blockages to check the same spot as the previous step to finish the quest

Wish
  1. During Wumeng Valley revisit, after Frostfire Cave and a ton of scenes, you will eventually gain control in the northern Valley, with full team back together
  2. Turn back and go into the house. In the inner room of the house, interact with the mask on the shelf to start the quest
  3. Go to Red Leaf Lake and talk to Qingxue around halfway through the area, near the hidden cave entrance, to complete the quest

Achievement should be completed on finishing ”Obsidian” during the second visit to Qingyu Sect.
Story (4/4) - Favorability
There are four achievements related to favorability. They can be worked on at any time, but to be achieved require everyone to be in the team. Thus, it is not possible other than during parts of the mid-late game. While I have the instructions here to avoid section limits, I did this specifically after main story revisit to Qinchuan. Will be mentioned there as well.


Favorability is of course how good your relationship with your teammates is. It is presented with the icon on the top left of the character portrait in the Team view. There are four thresholds: dark blue, green, orange, and pink. Blue and pink are what interest us.

Use Coke to lower favorability. Use Susu Sweetheart Cake to increase it. Coke is by-product from many different dishes, but Ham is probably the best, as the ingredients are in stores and cheap. Remember to sell surplus Ham though - you can’t cook with full stack. Susu Sweetheart Cake is by-product from Osmanthus Cake (which is good for money by the way).

Important: the item usage view does not update in real time! Re-open it or check the team menu to see the actual status. With the provided values it doesn't really matter, but personally I always checked after 5 given items while doing this.

When doing these "in one sitting", I highly recommend utilizing saving and reloading between the achievements, saves a lot of time and resources. Lessens the negative effects of the 99 stack limit on the process too. Since additional Coke is easy to produce, it means only the roughly 50 Susu Sweetheart Cakes beyond the 99 stack that are needed for “Friendship” require a bit of farming, and the rest can be done with just fully accumulated 99 stack of each food.

While I cannot guarantee the initial values are always the same (not affected by e.g. your battles), the thresholds seemed rather static to me. In any case, I will list what each step took for me. Helps give some ballpark of how much is needed.


两肋插刀 - Good brother
All female characters’ favorabilities are below a certain value, while all male characters’ favorabilities are above a certain value.

  • Hong Yu: 45 Cokes
  • Lansheng: 60 Susu Sweetheart Cakes
  • Qianshang: 30 Susu Sweetheart Cakes
  • Qingxue: 45 Cokes
  • Xiang Ling: 115 Cokes

超级大好人 - Super good guy
All female characters’ favorabilities are above a certain value, while all male characters’ favorabilities are below a certain value.

  • Hong Yu: 30 Susu Sweetheart Cakes
  • Qianshang: 45 Cokes
  • Qingxue: 30 Susu Sweetheart Cakes

冷酷到底 - Cool guy
All characters’ favorabilities are below a certain value.


Title translation is kind of funny, probably means literally a “cold guy” instead of how “cool guy” is taken to be. DeepL gave me “Cold to the Core” which would make sense. Anyways, I digress.

  • Hong Yu: 45 Cokes
  • Qianshang: 45 Cokes
  • Qingxue: 45 Cokes
  • Xiang Ling: 115 Cokes

相亲相爱 - Friendship
All characters’ favorabilities are above a certain value.


  • Hong Yu: 30 Susu Sweetheart Cakes
  • Lansheng: 60 Susu Sweetheart Cakes
  • Qianshang: 30 Susu Sweetheart Cakes
  • Qingxue: 30 Susu Sweetheart Cakes
World (1/2)
General exploration achievements not tied to a specific location.


天上人间 - Heaven and Earth
Open all maze map.


Seems buggy. I got the Steam achievement in Sea of Thundercloud, but the in-game achievement was left at 93%.

Percentage seems to actually progress by "uncovered" map segments (e.g. similar to the minimap), not actual full areas or even sub-maps of an area, but hard to tell exactly.

Should happen as part of the story regardless though. I got the in-game achievement on entering Archaeo-continent.


奇珍异宝 - Treasures
Open 300 treasure chests.


Self-explanatory. Some chests are only available during special sequences (e.g. nights), or in areas that are only temporarily accessible, but there should be a decent surplus to achieve this.

I will not list every chest here, but here’s the progress I had at some milestones:
  1. On leaving Jiangdu: 34%
  2. On leaving Anlu: 57%
  3. On leaving Green Dragon Town: 86%
  4. Dragonsilk Palace: Completion


身轻如燕 - As Light As Swallow
Within the playthrough cycle, the QTE in the scenes failed less than 3 times.


The QTEs are pretty simple, but best make saves before each anyways to make sure you can reload easily if needed.
  • Misty Mountain Stream: introduction of the mechanic at the end of the area
  • Underwater Iron Pillar: at the end of the first map (Underwater Iron Pillar · Square), right before the teleport
  • Mausoleum of Qin Emperor: soon after following the pillar into the second map (Mausoleum of Qin Emperor · Rear), there will be a corridor with the QTE
  • Archaeo-continent: soon after the first save point, as the road starts turning towards east
  • Mount Zhonghuang: right after the last save point of the dungeon
  • Penglai Kingdom: at the very end in Palace Mountain right before the final boss

For who knows what reason, the achievement does not pop immediately after the QTE - "Penglai" is gained instead.

It will be gained upon entering the final battle after the cutscenes and team preparation that follow the scene QTE.
World (2/2) - "Not frogs"
This section is for the world category achievement ”Not frogs” alone, since it would otherwise push section length limits.

It is also a fairly significant missable achievement story-wise - the hidden ending revolves around these tasks.


不是青蛙 - Not frogs
Complete all tasks assigned by the Dragon Babies (including those on Chivalrous Board).


There are 20 tasks total. Couple notes:
  • Letters only have ties to quests and do not give progress by themselves
  • Commissions grant the progress only if they are standalone and do not link to quests. Multi-part commissions like Eliminating Piracy grant the progress once all parts are complete.
Tasks will be marked with Task # numbering to clarify the 20 different tasks.

This will mostly be a reference list for progress and milestones - for details and instructions, check the Peach Blossom Dream Guide.

Guide: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3480912928

Unless specified otherwise, entries can be both initiated and completed when they are listed.

First visit to Green Dragon Town
See Peach Blossom Dream Guide - section 1.

Overarching quest Dragon Babies’ Tasks will also be initiated.

Commissions:
  • Task #1: Eliminating Piracy 1
  • Task #1: Eliminating Piracy 2 (can be done later)
  • Task #2: DPS??
Quests:
  • Task #3: Free-for-all
  • Task #2: DPS??
  • Task #4: Sweetheart Cake

Progress: 15% (20% with both Eliminating Piracy)

After Gollum Bay
See Peach Blossom Dream Guide - section 2.

Quests:
  • Task #5: Look for Orange (initiated)

Progress: 15% (20% with both Eliminating Piracy)

On the flower field at the end of Archaeo-continent
See Peach Blossom Dream Guide - section 3.

Quests:
  • Task #5: Look for Orange (continued)

Progress: 15% (20% with both Eliminating Piracy)

Green Dragon Town after Archaeo-continent
See Peach Blossom Dream Guide - section 4.

Quests:
  • Task #5: Look for Orange (completed)
  • Task #6: Portrait of Hong Yu (initiated)

Progress: 20% (25% with both Eliminating Piracy)

Green Dragon Town after Wumeng Valley
See Peach Blossom Dream Guide - section 5.

Commissions:
  • Task #7: Take Her Away! (can be done later)
  • Task #8: Jelly’s blessing (can be done later)
Quests:
  • Task #9: Save me!
  • Task #10: Portrait of Senior Brother
With Portrait of Senior Brother, it is fine to fail the picture hunt as the guide says, but if you’re having trouble and exchanging large amount of cakes would pose even bigger trouble, here are the locations:
  1. Near the Aurogon Company entrance
  2. To the southeast, next to the last house
  3. The east end of the south island, around where you first spawn to Green Dragon Town on 1st visit
  4. Next to the weapon shop
  5. Next to the exit of the town
  6. Next to the stairs to the temple
  7. Shipyard, next to the entrance of the boss’s house
  8. Shipyard, on top of the wooden structures at the stern of the rightmost ship
  9. Next to Hong Yu
  10. Behind Qingxue at the end of the elevated pier

Progress: 30% (up to 45% with all commissions)

Revisiting Qinchuan after Purple Banyan Forest
See Peach Blossom Dream Guide - section 6.

At this point we should be strong enough to tackle the commissions we have not done yet, other than the new addition, which is very high level. I will presume the others done in the progress %.

Commissions:
  • Task #11: The most manly battle in history (can be done later)
Letters:
  • Task #12: Missing Fellows
  • Task #12: More Missing Fellows
Quests:
  • Task #12: Find Medicine

Progress: 50%. Out of 12 tasks thus far, only “Portrait of Hong Yu” and the endgame commission should still be in progress.

Before meeting Madam Jin during nightly Jiangdu revisit
See Peach Blossom Dream Guide - section 7.

Quests:
  • Task #13: Undergarment with Lace (initiated)
Progress: 50%.

Jiangdu day after meeting Madam Jin
See Peach Blossom Dream Guide - section 8.

Letters:
  • Task #14: Legend of Fan Book
Quests:
  • Task #14: Fan Art (initiated)

Note for Fan Art: “Outskirts of Jiangdu” at Spring Village exit takes you to Spring Trail, there’s no fast travel. The location you’re looking for is the alcove northwest of the middle save point.

Progress: 50%.

Entering White Emperor City
See Peach Blossom Dream Guide - section 9.

Commissions:
  • Task #15: Husband and Wife (can be done later)
Letters:
  • Task #14: Be there or be square
  • Task #14 (?): Inspiration (after completing “Fan Art”)
Quests:
  • Task #14: Fan Art (completed)

Before moving on from here, make sure you bought the Hong Yu outfit “Rosy Cloud Dance” earlier (section 4)

Progress: 55%.

Entering Tianyong City
See Peach Blossom Dream Guide - section 10.

Quests:
  • Task #6: Portrait of Hong Yu (continued)

Progress: 55%.

Green Dragon Town · Rain
See Peach Blossom Dream Guide - section 11.

Commissions:
  • Task #17: Look for wife
Letters:
  • Task #16: Break Up
  • Task #18 (?): ??? (after completing “Stomach Fey’s Test”)
  • Task #19: Be a great man (after completing “True Secret Kungfu Book”)
Quests:
  • Task #6: Portrait of Hong Yu (completed)
  • Task #13: Undergarment with Lace (completed)
  • Task #16: Daoyuan, Daoyuan
  • Task #17: Look for wife
  • Task #18: Stomach Fey’s Test
  • Task #19: True Secret Kungfu Book
  • Task #20: KUSO Ask and Answer
”KUSO Ask and Answer” actually includes a quiz. It’s not really difficult, and most answers can be deduced with the knowledge of the played game thus far, or cleared with educated guesses. If you answer wrong, the quest can still be completed the good ol’ way (with a fight). If you want the bestiary, do the fight. But for those interested, here are the answers too:
  1. 4
  2. Old Story of Tianyong
  3. Hair-Swinging Boy
  4. 35
  5. Shanghai
  6. Me
  7. Transparent
  8. Meat
  9. All are possible

Progress: 100%.


After getting the achievement, make sure you still speak to Lulu for the “Peach Blossom Dream Wine”!
Combat (1/2)
Long-term or general combat achievements not tied to a location.


杀意鼎盛 - Killing Intent
Cause 3 consecutive critical hits.


Luck-based achievement. Parries seem to have a fairly high critical chance, so you're likely to gain this quickly while going for the parry-only achievements.

I got this in Fanyun Stronghold.


完美境界 - Perfect State
Win 20 combats without being damaged.


Self-explanatory and easy to accumulate against weak enemies, especially by using AoE abilities.

I got this in Fanyun Stronghold.


百战不殆 - Fight 100 battles
Engage in 100 combats and win.


Will happen relatively quickly as you keep playing.

I got this in Misty Mountain Stream.


来呀,来追我呀! - Come on! Catch me!
Successfully escaped 50 times.


Likely to be gained by itself eventually, especially if opting to run from battles once journal entries are filled.

Spring Trail is a likely spot for this to be gained due to the narrow corridors all over the dungeon, often resulting in two escapes per ventured side path.


你已经死了…… - You are dead...
Character dies for 30 times.


Will happen eventually, but is easy to "boost" a bit as well.
Get couple of members low health, get them killed and then run from the fight. Rinse and repeat, will be done in no time at all.

Spring Trail is an excellent spot to manually knock this out like this due to the Cat Burglars there. They are likely fast enough to start and have an AoE.


鹿活草 - Deer-reviving Grass
Use Deer-reviving Grass for 100 times in combat.


Self-explanatory; deer-reviving grass is your bread-and-butter healing item for the early-mid game, giving 100 HP each.

I got this in Underwater Iron Pillar, but my numbers were bolstered a bit by the parry-only shenanigans back in Qinchuan. Regardless, should happen eventually.


奇兵 - Sneak Attack
50 successful sneak attacks.


Bump into enemies from behind to start battle with advantage. Repeat 50 times for the achievement. It is a bit finicky and unreliable, best accumulated over the course of the game.

I got this in Mausoleum of Qin Emperor.


战场施工请绕行 - Please detour during battlefield construction
Accumulated battlefield destruction 100 times.


Sometimes the battlefield includes elements that AoE spells seem to destroy. Unsure of the exact mechanics, but just keep playing, this will happen on its own eventually.

I got this in Mausoleum of Qin Emperor.


会心一击 - Critical Hit
The damage caused by 1 hit exceeds a certain value.


Unsure of the exact numbers required, but will happen on its own at some point.

For me that point was in Mausoleum of Qin Emperor, when I put high luck on Xiang Ling and her Divine Fox Illusion (damage scales a lot with luck) did over 3k damage.


正中要害 - Hit the Nail
Totally 999 critical hits.


Self-explanatory; will happen eventually as you keep playing.

I got this right after the Mausoleum.


满堂红 - Full House
Achieve 8 possibilities of Immortal Gambling.


Immortal Gambling opens in the Mausoleum. It sometimes gives you random effects on completing combats.

After having received 8 different effects total, this achievement will pop.

I got this in Gollum Bay.


怪物猎人 - Monster Hunter
Kill 1000 monsters.


Self-explanatory. Should happen on its own as you keep playing.

I got this in Gollum Bay.


屹立不倒 - Last Stand
The damage received in one action exceeds a certain value and does not result in death.


Self-explanatory... kind of. Healing seems to count as damage, as I got this when I healed using a Beggar Chicken in the fight against Kui in Sea of Thundercloud. Beggar Chicken heals for about 1800.

Either way this will happen on its own eventually as numbers slowly get larger and larger.


人出没注意 - Watch out! I'm coming!
Destroy 100 split monsters.


"Split monsters" are the separately targetable parts many monsters have. It is often beneficial to target the parts, especially with strong monsters, so this should come naturally eventually.

I got this in Archaeo-continent.
Combat (2/2)
Long-term or general combat achievements not tied to a location.


常胜将军 - Winning General
Engage in 500 combats and win.


Self-explanatory. Will happen eventually unless you deliberately avoid a lot of combats.

I got this in Purple Banyan Forest.


江湖豪杰 - Recruit Heroes
Complete the tasks of "Recruiting Heroes" on the Chivalrous Board.


Category of task on Chivalrous Board. Will happen as part of the first playthrough cleanup for "Kind man" at latest (see "A - Green Dragon Town · Rain"), but can be done earlier.

Last commissions of this type open after Archaeo-continent, but it might be tough to beat some commissions until later.

I got this after Purple Banyan Forest.


挥金如雨 - Money Rain
Use “Money Rain” in combat and accumulatively spend 200000 coins.


Xiang Ling gains “Money Rain” from I think the 3rd full Astrototem section, thus somewhere around mid-game.

Each use consumes 5000 gold, so 40 uses for the achievement. Better have a good economy going anyhow.

Money Rain doesn’t cost a lot of SP, but if SP is an issue, see the trick mentioned with “Fight While Drink”.

I got this during Qinchuan main story revisit.


醉生梦死 - Fight While Drink
The cumulative consumption of wine by Qianshang’s skills exceeds 81.


After act 2 Qianshang unlocks a skill ”Sing and Drink” which buffs him in exchange for one wine. Later on he gets more wine skills.

Buy full stack of Daughter in Red and start habitually using the skills every chance you get and it will happen eventually, or at least lessen the grind before the deadlines.

SP issues can be avoided by abusing how SP accessories work:
  1. Unequip once at low SP to be left at 0
  2. Re-equip to gain as much as SP as the accessories provide

With +60 SP accessories, this nets instant 120 SP with two slots. Neat!

Later on, the SP spirit Boqi will make SP management better.

I got this during Qinchuan main story revisit.


仙风道骨 - Immortal Charm
All characters have their hidden Astrototem activated.

  • Baili Tusu: opened after completing Underwater Iron Pillar
  • Yin Qianshang: opened after completing Mausoleum of Qin Emperor
  • Xiang Ling: after Archaeo-continent, commission "Beauty's Wish 5" will be opened. Complete it to get the second letter from Chu Suifeng. Read it for the Astrototem.
  • Fang Lansheng: after revisiting Qinchuan in main story, commission "Ancient Temple 3" will be opened. Complete it to get the letter "Just a legend". Read it for the Astrototem.
  • Feng Qingxue: opened after defeating Wugu in the Dark City
  • Hong Yu: opened at the end of the visit to Tianyong Sect


零食 - Snack
In the combat, use totally 30 kinds of recovery or auxiliary foods.


Better left to late in the game where you have big stacks on many different items. At that point, doesn't take long to boot up a low level commission and use items in sequence on everyone until it pops.
Treasure
General treasure-related achievements not tied to a location.


自食其力 - Good Farmer
Obtain 20 kinds of products through Homestead.


Homestead becomes available in Jiangdu soon after completing chapter 1. There are three farms and a fish pond that you can use to gain products.

With relatively thorough exploration thus far, there are enough seeds to achieve this already right after gaining Homestead, before leaving Jiangdu. Just keep hopping in to Homestead while cleaning up Jiangdu activities like the current Chivalrous Board tasks.

Either way, the number is relatively low and will happen after few farming rounds, as most seeds provide more than one type of product.


藏宝大师 - Treasure Master
Obtain 200 types of items.


Keep exploring, cooking and buying at least one of every (not expensive) item and this will come relatively quickly.

I got this in Anlu.


卖炭翁 - Coke Seller
Produce 100 pieces of coke.


Coke is a cooking by-product. You will get it from all dishes that don’t have an alternative dish as the by-product. In any case, what each dish may produce is listed with them, so no need to guess.

Will come naturally in time as you keep cooking.

I got this after gaining the World Map, before going into the Mausoleum.


地摊货 - Cheap Goods
Sell 10 Fishbelly Swords.


Fishbelly Swords are sometimes obtained when eating fish dishes like Song’s Fish Potage or Fish Head Soup. Don’t know the full list. Once you have enough, sell 10 to gain the achievement.

Just to note, it will likely take hundreds of dishes.

I got this on 1st visit to Green Dragon Town.


发家致富 - I’m rich!
Get 500000 coins in the game.


Probably best way to farm money is ginseng. When you get access to Homestead in Jiangdu, buy ginseng seeds from the merchant within. Each seed typically yields around 20 ginseng that sell for 300 each, meaning 500 gold cost turning to about 6000 gold for each. No need to ever worry about money again!

I got this in Green Dragon Town, after Archaeo-continent.


花钱如流水 - Spend Money Like Water
Spend 500000 coins in the game.


Easy come, easy go. Until ginseng farming really took off, the % for this followed “I’m rich” pretty accurately for me. After that, maybe not as accurately anymore.

Will come in the process of doing other achievements regardless.

I got this during the revisit to Qinchuan later in the story.


汤婆子 - Water Bottle
Use 7 types of soup foods.


It’s worth noting that even if a dish is a soup, it does not count if it’s not in the soup category (e.g. some staple dishes). On the other hand, “Laba Porridge” in the soup category does not count, but I’m unsure if it’s because it is a combat-only food or because it’s actually porridge not soup. Go figure.

First seven soups I had access to were as follows:
  • Song’s Fish Potage: gained as cooking system is opened
  • Fish Head Soup: Jiangdu grocery store
  • Perch Chrysanthemum Soup: hidden recipe gained by cooking enough Chrysanthemum Soup (from quest “Gluttonous Old Man” in Spring Village) and Kylin Perch (from Outskirts of Jiangdu)
  • Chicken Soup: quest “Gluttonous Old Man” in Spring Village
  • Ginseng Jasmine Tea: Spring Village grocery store
  • Lotus Tea: Green Dragon Town grocery store after Archaeo-continent
  • Lotus Root Pork Rib Soup: reward from the commission “Fey in the Lake”, available after revisiting Madam Jin in the main story
Cook some, eat some, get the achievement.

If you’re in need of Tea Leaves, the unmarked store next to the wine tavern in Qinchuan sells them.

I got this after Jiangdu main story revisit.


藏兵 - Weapon Master
Obtain 80 kinds of weapons.


Keep emptying all shops whenever you can and this will happen eventually.

I got this in Dark City.


藏甲 - Master Armourer
Obtain 120 types of DEF equipments.


Same as weapons, keep buying everything and it will happen.

I got this in White Emperor City.
A - Red Leaf Lake
Time for the first walkthrough! Playthrough A will be a typical "completionist" playthough, where we go over every nook and cranny and see most everything the game has to offer - including the hidden ending.

Our journey starts with the prologue in the Red Leaf Lake.


势如破竹 - Splitting Bamboo
The total damage caused exceeds a certain value.


Not a lot of damage is required; you will likely already gain this during the first area.


红叶湖 - Red Leaf Lake
The secret of Red Leaf Lake.


Halfway through the area you will have a cutscene with a golden fox. After it runs away, check the north part of the immediate area to find two monkeys and a path into a cave. Go to the cave to net the achievement.


一击杀熊 - One-Strike Bear Killer
Defeat the Boss Bear in Red Leaf Lake.


Boss of the area is a large bear. Beat it for the achievement.
A - Wumeng Valley
童年故乡 - Birthplace
Han Yunxi talked with 5 NPCs.


There are many more NPCs in the area than this, should come without issues. For "So many friends" you want to talk to everyone anyways.
A - Frostfire Cave
永不放弃 - Never Give Up
Game over exceeds 5 times in one playthrough.


Small number and quick to just do early on when you're weak. Saving does not restore health, so you can save low health and die to the closest mob available.

There is an enemy right next to the second save point of the location, so I got myself low running the first section of the area, saved, and then died few times to that fella. The strong large golems of the area can also help with this if needed.


广闻之士 - Widely Known Hero
Engage in 10 combats with elite monsters appearing in the maze scene.


The area boss Stone Golem is an elite. It is not necessary to do this achievement here, but it is also not necessary to kill the elites, just entering a fight counts, so it's pretty quick to do that 10 times here.

That being said, bestiary entries actually require killing, and Stone Golem entry requires 10 kills, so go all in if you're interested in that. Only focus the golem though and run afterwards, so you can re-fight without saving and reloading.


忆梦 - Dream of Memory
Complete the Prologue.


Gained upon completing Frostfire Cave. This is a point of no return for the early areas.
A - Fanyun Stronghold
以牙还牙 - Eye for Eye
Complete the final hit by counterattacking.


反击 - Counterattack
Completely refrain from any proactive attacks in battle.


Now in control of a "new" character, parry QTE will occasionally occur against enemy attacks. The chance is kind of low, but one or two parries is enough to kill the weak enemies, popping up these two achievements.


翻云寨 - Fanyun Stronghold
The secret of Fanyun Stronghold.


After killing the area boss, avoid the coin enemies and head back to where you fought him to find four plates in the corners of the room. Step on them in the following order:
  1. Northwest
  2. Northeast
  3. Southwest
  4. Southeast

Hidden path will open; take it to gain the achievement.


咬你哦！ - Bite you!
The mood of a Spirit Beast is in an angry state.


After the cutscenes in the cauldron cave, you will regain control with a chest straight ahead. Approach it for another scene and the achievement as you gain your first Spirit Luli.
A - Misty Mountain Stream
啊嗒嗒嗒嗒！ - A da da da da da!
Achieve a certain number of combo in a single action.


Not tied to any location, but easy to knock out here. About 10 hits seem to be required. AoE does count, so get into a fight with 5+ enemies that can take at least couple hits each, and bust out Mystic Truth Sword to hit all of them.

In Misty Mountain Stream, after jumping over rocks to cross the stream and going under an arch to a new section, there will soon be a Big Grass Ball enemy ahead. It was a large fight of maybe 5-6 enemies, and netted me the achievement.

Can probably be achieved even earlier in the second fight of the Fanyun Stronghold boss gauntlet, but I attempted 10 parries in that battle so can't verify.


雾灵山涧 - Misty Mountain Stream
The darkness hidden beneath the picturesque scenery.


After crossing stream jumping on rocks and going through the arch like above, there will soon be a save point. Right before the save point go to the wall on the right and use spirit action to break through for the hidden area and the achievement.
A - Qinchuan
During the day portion of your visit there are no direct achievements to gain, but there are several points of interest that contribute:
  • open up postal system next to the first bridge
  • after the letters, talk to Cha Xiaoguaion the bridge next to the post (see ”Gossip”)
  • after the letters, talk to Yu Wushuang on the northeastern bridge west of pharmacy (see ”Local customs”)
  • Spirit called Gold Persimmon in a chest in the pawnshop (see ”Blood Covenant”)
  • start small task "Repay Kindness" from Granny Qiu in the northeastern part (see ”Good man”)
Chivalrous Board near the post office has commissions as well, but I would postpone them until we have a larger team to benefit from the rewards more.

There are of course also tons of NPCs to talk to and lore entries to gain, as well as shops.

After few steps in the main story, night arrives.


滴水不漏 - Flawless
In one fighting, successfully parry 10 times.


After a ridiculous scene with unlucky Lansheng during the nightly Qinchuan, you will be tasked with going to a western part of the city with Tusu. Save before approaching the marker, because this fight for the achievement is going to be long and possibly tough.

This achievement can be done at any point, but most enemies for a long while can hardly take 10 parries without the fight being over, or will pose an actual threat during it. The mysterious girl however isn't highly dangerous but has a strong healing ability that will keep her alive through all the parries with ease. As long as you have enough healing to withstand how bad your luck is, it’s basically guaranteed.

Parries have pretty poor chance, and she keeps talking and using a lot of abilities instead of attacks that can be parried, so especially initially the progress rate is abysmal. Once she runs out of resources and starts mostly using basic attacks things will speed up considerably, as long as your luck isn’t terrible like mine (the fight took almost 60 minutes for me).

Once you inevitably hit the 10 parries required, you still need to actually defeat her - this isn’t a scripted loss despite the absurdly potent healing she has. Recently acquired item No-Parting Candy can come in handy: it does great damage and has a chance to metallize the target, making them lose a turn.

Achievement pops on finishing the fight.


After few more scenes, you regain control in daytime Qinchuan with a new party member.
With that, there are also new points of interest:
  • start side quest "Daughter in Red" from the Madam Desheng in the wine pavilion (see ”Good man”)
  • grab new letters from the post office
All NPCs have new dialogues, with some new lore entries as well.
A - Mount Yu
Mount Yu is divided into two sections (maps): Plum Grove and Pearl Beach.

Plum Grove additional points of interest:
  • Spirit Luzhaofeng in a chest at the end of an early sidepath in Plum Grove (see ”Blood Covenant”). The map ability causes specific plants to bloom, and you can find quite a few targets for it in these areas (as well as in some earlier maps like Misty Mountain Stream).


新年快乐 - Happy New Year!
Throwing firecrackers as the final hit to victory in fighting against Dragon-Head Centipede, Cloth Tiger, Flying Car, and Scarecrow.

As the slightly broken description tells, you need to use the item Firecracker to finish fights against the aforementioned enemies, four times total.

Unsure if it means literally finishing the entire fight, or killing enemies of those particular types, but I did the former against the Scarecrows wandering near the second save point of Mount Yu.


Pearl Beach additional points of interest:
  • shop near the northern save point sells recipes


虞山 - Mount Yu
Defeat the Beauty Snake hidden in Mount Yu.


In Pearl Beach central left side. With three members and some good abilities it’s not that hard, but take care as the enemy will flee eventually.
A - Jiangdu
Jiangdu 1st day additional points of interest:
  • Cha Xiaoguai at the southeast side of the plaza west of the grocery store (see ”Gossip”)
  • letter from Yu Wushuang in the post office and the lady herself next to the bridge west of the inn (see ”Local customs”)
  • likely unmissable Spirit Muling Fangxiang gained by triggering a cutscene at the entrance of the path north to Flowerbloom Pavilion (see ”Blood Covenant”)
  • start small task “Necklace of Deceased Wife” by talking to the turban-headed man in the backyard of the dancing tavern (see ”Good man”)
  • talk to the man west of the post office to complete small task “Repay Kindness” (see ”Good man”)
  • talk to Chef Li near the stairs of the inn 1st floor to start the small task “Yangzhou Cuisine” (see ”Good man”)
  • talk to Yue Baobao in the inn 2nd floor third guest room to start the small task “Treasure Hunt” (see ”Good man”)
  • new recipes and equipment in the respective stores
This time we also have a sizeable team to go check out the Chivalrous Board for some commissions, but it can also wait until after nightly Jiangdu.


朝露 - Morning Dew
Complete chapter 1.


Pops upon gaining control in nighttime Jiangdu.


Jiangdu night additional points of interest:
  • Flowerbloom Pavilion and Daming Temple have some chests only available during the night


Jiangdu 2nd day additional points of interest:
  • home system is opened, and with it access to some new achievements. Talk to Qingxue to visit the Peach Blossom Valley.
  • with the homestead open, it is possible to straight away do few rounds of farming and “fishing” for an achievement while cleaning up Jiangdu (see “Good farmer”)
  • Homestead also gives access to perhaps the best way to earn money in the game: ginseng (see "I'm rich!"). If you keep doing that semi-regularly, you will pretty much always be able to empty all stores, which is quite useful for various achievements too.
  • companions will now be at various locations each time you enter a city; have 40 dialogues with them for an achievement (see ”Meet by chance”).
  • go to near the grocery store to start the small task “Fey’s Love” (see ”Good man”)
  • new letters in post office
  • if you didn’t yet, hit up the Chivalrous Board before leaving Jiangdu


花枝招展 - Gorgeously Dressed
Obtain 9 types of outfits.


Having gained access to your homestead Peach Blossom Valley, enter it to find an Aurogon shop selling tons of stuff. Buy 9 outfits for 100 gold each to net the achievement.
A - Outskirts of Jiangdu
Jiangdu outskirts additional points of interest:
  • talk to the waiter in the tea stall to progress “Necklace of Deceased Wife”, which can be completed by returning to the man in Jiangdu (see ”Good man”)
  • walk a bit past the tea stall to enter a cutscene with a cat fey, starting small task “Obsidian”, which also continues in the outskirts but later (see ”Good man”)
  • with the recipes from the grocery store it is now possible to complete the small task “Yangzhou Cuisine” back in Jiangdu inn (see ”Good man”)
  • the recipe Phoenix in Peony will also be important later for a hidden recipe
  • Spirit Yingxu in a rather unmissable chest right after the bridge (see ”Blood Covenant”)


江都城郊 - Outskirts of Jiangdu
The shadow of the outskirts lies deep in the grass.


Another “hidden” section achievement, although this time it is pretty visible.

Go to south before the bridge for the entrance. It’s pretty buggy, but just keep pushing at different angles / spots and you will get through, gaining the achievement. Not much more to be gained here in fact, before another spirit later on grants us further access.
A - Spring Trail
Nothing much noteworthy in this area, just a dungeon with a whole bunch of collectables and some spirit interactions.

That being said, with lots of narrow corridors and sidepaths, and the journal for new enemies quickly filled, you're very likely to gain "Come on! Catch me!" for reaching 50 escapes - I know I did.

The fast Cat Burglars with an AoE attack also make this an excellent spot to knock out the achievement for 30 character deaths (see "You are dead..." for "strategy")

At the end of the trail awaits Spring Village.
A - Spring Village
Spring Village additional points of interest:
  • talk to the old man fishing across the pond to start “Gluttonous Old Man”, which can be completed right away by giving the man Fish Head Soup (see ”Good man”)
If you’ve been meticulously talking to NPCs, you will likely gain “So many friends” here.

That’s about it for this place. Talk to everyone, empty the shops and get ready to move on to some dungeons.
A - Immortal Vine Cave
This location cannot be returned to later.


法宝大师 - Attack Item Master
Use more than 10 attack items in one combat.


Soon after entering you will fight a large vine that is immune to physical damage. You can whack it with spells of appropriate elements, but it is also the perfect opportunity to knock this achievement out of the way while at it. If nothing else, there should be enough firecrackers by now to spare a few for this.

To avoid unnecessary pain, remember that element interactions may even heal the vine. While there are several different vines during the dungeon, water was ineffective against this one.


Additional points of interest:
  • Jade Spiders have two destructible parts each, making for good progress in “Watch out! I’m coming!”


Having killed the area boss and made a hasty escape afterwards, buckle up for a tons of scenes, ultimately leading straight away to a new area.
A - Iron Pillar Temple
This location cannot be returned to later.

Iron Pillar Temple consist of Outside and Cave, although other than scenes, there’s barely anything in either of them.

Outside has two save points and Cave has one. There’s a bit buggy achievement coming up soon in the area after these, so to be safe, keep a save from at least one of these three save points.


Iron Pillar Temple additional points of interest:
  • Spirit Yanguang in a corridor soon after the second save point. Note that there is a chest openable with this spirit to the south edge of this area.
A - Underwater Iron Pillar
This location cannot be returned to later.

Underwater Iron Pillar additional points of interest:
  • Chests in this location are mostly vertically on the “walls”, which may make it easy to miss some
  • Right at the end of the first map (Underwater Iron Pillar · Square), before the teleport, you will be hit with another scene QTE. Be prepared! (see “As Light As Swallow”)


铁柱观 - Iron Pillar Temple
Pass Iron Pillar Temple without taking damage.


Buggy achievement. Mostly the section leading up to it, but I also didn't gain it in-game initially (even though Steam achievement was gained).

The dungeon has wrecking balls swinging around that do damage. You need to avoid taking hits from any of them.

As a special mention, when you encounter your first wrecking ball, you need to break your way through the wall at the center of the swing. Make sure you have your smashing spirit equipped and with enough energy before attempting to run past the trap.

After you reach Underwater Iron Pillar · Round, things get a lot spicier.
  • The area is also actually a round pillar now and more confusing to explore. The map was never good at actually showing the path in this dungeon, but now it’s wholly insufficient for anything with the three-dimensional nature of the terrain.
  • Other than swinging balls, there will also be rolling balls. They are fairly fast - compared to you anyways - and the round terrain makes them sometimes annoying to see. Not only that, but they go through walls, so take care when you go through the corridors with poor visibility during the main path.
  • Nearby Rain Madams will occasionally freeze you. Make sure it doesn’t happen around the traps!
  • Nearby Mirages will hit you with input reversal debuff, swirling around your feet (might be easy to miss the indicator first time around).
  • The Big Bad keeps screaming, seemingly triggered by your movement, but I’m not exactly sure what actual effects it has, if any. Solid annoyance, at least.

Important: try to knock this sequence down in one sitting, avoid pausing and idling in menus, because the game bugs out. It seems to queue up the events even when you’re in the menu, resulting in a wild onslaught of everything once you unpause again, from the rolling balls to the debuffs if you were close to enemies. It typically calmed down after a while for me, but it may not be guaranteed - and it will very easily fail your no-damage run in that time.

As a funny consequence of this bug, even the title screen will keep shaking around if you exit from this scene. Hilarious - but also pretty bad.

In any case, the path itself is still relatively straightforward in Underwater Iron Pillar · Round:
  1. Once you arrive at the first save point, continue ahead slightly to the right. There’s a chest tucked next to a nearby boulder.
  2. Go behind the boulder and forward into a corridor in the wall that turns left and runs around the entire pillar. Mind the rolling balls. There’s a chest on the right wall shortly before you arrive at a new larger opening.
  3. To the far right of this opening is a chest, almost at the other side of the pillar. For the main path, go straight forward and slightly to the right to the other side of the opening for another corridor, similarly to earlier. (From the chest, go left until you can take the corridor right.)
  4. This corridor does also a full circle around the pillar, again with a chest shortly before the end. Mind the rolling balls again!
  5. Go forward and left to find a chest, save point and a healing point. The right side leads to the boss - hope you’re prepared. Just don’t get hit by the last balls rolling (or teleporting, lol) around the entrance

Achievement will pop upon entering the cutscene at the end.


千钧一发 - Grave Danger
In a dying state, defeat Lord Moonbiter.


Time for a tough two-phased solo boss fight. As per the description, you need to be in the near-death state while defeating him, meaning the low HP state where the characters is not standing anymore.

Few tips:
  • In solo fights overall, DEX advantage is crucial. Everything will focus you, so being able to both attack and defend is of utmost importance. Going all in on DEX with your Astrototem can help a lot with this fight.
  • Speaking of defending, maybe obvious, but actually try to always defend before the enemy turn if possible. This becomes even more so important during the 2nd fight, where the boss has some moves (like “Roaring at Moon”) that deal up to 300+ damage - or even more - if not defended against.
  • During 2nd phase, boss has a move called “Burning Sky” where he buffs himself with just about everything. Use items to debuff him, also removing the buffs in the process. DEX is perhaps the most important, but I also used ATK debuff. Needed maybe 4-5 of both (Dragon Whisker Hook and Hand Grenade, respectively) for the fight.
  • Get the boss low enough to be almost finished, then keep defending and using healing items of various potency to manage your health to near-death, then finish him off.

Achievement should pop immediately upon completing the 2nd fight.
A - Anlu
Anlu additional points of interest:
  • talk to Mrs. Li in the yard south of the northern entrance to start “Colorful Dress” which can be completed right away (see ”Good man”)
  • talk to Hua An in the second room of the tavern just south of the inn to start “Glutinous Rice Snacks”, which can also be completed right away (see ”Good man”)
  • talk to your companions around the city (see “Meet by chance”)
  • Cha Xiaoguai east of the northern entrance (see ”Gossip”)
  • Yu Wushuang northwest of the inn (see ”Local customs”)
  • now with Scholar Chicken recipe from here and Phoenix in Peony from Jiangdu Outskirts, cook both until you gain the hidden recipe Beggar Chicken,


热闹的家园 - Energetic Home
Obtain 9 kinds of small pets.


稻草人 - Scarecrow
Obtain 7 types of scarecrows.


To the northeast is our first encounter with a furniture shop. If you can spare or procure up to 16000 gold right now, you can knock out both of these right now by buying small pets and scarecrows respectively, for 1000 gold each. With some ginseng, should be possible at this point.

If you can empty the store altogether, you will also gain considerable progress for "Mysterious Decorations".
A - Mount Bi
Mount Bi additional points of interest:
  • the wells in this dungeon often hold a treasure, but it’s very easy to miss due to how insanely clunky most of the interactions with them are to trigger
  • this area is another good spot to progress “Watch out! I’m coming!”, since Red Scorpions have three breakable parts each. Well, there aren’t that many of them in the area overall though, so maybe not that good unless you reload for them.


About halfway through the dungeon you will be faced with an easy and short block-pushing puzzle, made a bit unnecessarily tedious regardless by the control scheme not fit for it.

Other than there isn’t much else going for this area.
A - Serenity Estate
Serenity Estate additional points of interest:
  • just like in Mount Bi, there are wells with treasures here too. The interactions are about as bad as well, all puns intended


At the end of the area you will face two boss fights back to back, the second one being a bit tricky.

Lansheng needs to be alive and in the team, or the boss keeps casting one-shot spells. If he isn’t in the team, switch him in using the buttons next to the character portraits. As long as Lansheng is there, the boss will keep focusing him.

Unfortunately the boss will occasionally instantly kill Lansheng too, sometimes even with supposedly regular abilities and low damage numbers. Maybe a bit buggy, but then again there actually is a chance-based "instant death" mechanic in the game, and you can gain it too later on via some gear. In any case the fight becomes mostly about whether or not you have enough speed, items and luck to actually keep Lansheng alive while attempting damage.

Boss also keeps spawning the flying lantern fellas every turn. They are slow and hardly a threat initially, but clear them or eventually they will pose problems.

If you’re having trouble, resetting Astrototem can always help. Qingxue’s “Gorgeous Moon” (reduce target ATK and DEX, opened from second full subsection I believe) and “Sound of Tide” (resurrect, opened with enough water element) are excellent in this fight. Any AoE can be useful for the ads, just remember the elemental affinities.

Don’t forget the couple treasures around the boss arena when you’re inevitably victorious!
A - World Map
Upon leaving Serenity Estate, sequence of cutscenes eventually takes you to the entrance of the Mausoleum of First Qin Emperor on Mount Li.

More importantly however, World Map can now be accessed, and with it, fast travel! It is thus time for some backtracking.


  • Fanyun Stronghold: ice chest in the hidden map section
  • Misty Mountain Stream: two plants to grow, two ice chests in the hidden map section
  • Qinchuan: new letters, chats with companions (see “Meet by chance”)
  • Mount Yu · Pearl Beach: two plants and one chest inside the waterfall to the northwest
  • Jiangdu: new letters, new entries (from market, dancing tavern, Go courtesan and outside the casino), chats with companions (see “Meet by chance”)
  • Outskirts of Jiangdu: two chests in the hidden area. Hope you have some stuff to feed your fire spirit, because you will need it for a total of 10 times in this small area
  • Spring Village: new entry from the pharmacy
  • Anlu: few new entries around the city, chats with companions (see “Meet by chance”)
  • with the completion of Serenity Estate, there are also new commissions on Chivalrous Board


Once ready with backtracking, it is time to move on to the Mausoleum.
A - Mausoleum of Qin Emperor
Mausoleum of Qin Emperor additional points of interest:
  • before hopping in, cook enough King Kong Crisps (recipe from Jiangdu grocery store if you don't have it) to get about 5 pieces of the by-product One-Hit Dizzy Cake, needed for an achievement later in the dungeon
  • the chests in this place are different from the usual, and blend in somewhat with the surroundings. Might be easy to miss initially!
  • some strong enemies in this area, including gimmicks like counter-attacking every time or having 100% physical reflection
  • if you still need it and want some easy progress towards “Sneak Attack”, there are sections with stationary terracotta enemies that you can easily farm sneak attacks against
  • soon after you follow a falling pillar into the second map (Mausoleum of Qin Emperor · Rear) there will be a corridor with scene QTE (see “As Light As Swallow”)


印堂发暗 - Bad Luck
Immortal Gambling doesn’t appear in 12 consecutive combats.


After everyone joins the team, Immortal Gambling system is opened. It essentially has a chance to give random buffs / debuffs on completing combats.

For this achievement, just run away 12 times in a row.

Just to mention, there are also “Not more than three times” for three consecutive appearances and “Full House” for 8 different accumulated results, but both are luck-based and will happen on their own at some point (hopefully). Just FYI.


秦始皇陵 - Mausoleum of Qin Emperor
The unknown blood and tears in the depths of the mass grave.


柳暗花明 - Willow and Flower
Find 5 hidden maps.


After everyone joins the team, follow the path to the right to find a corpse guy with spirit lights around him. Talk to him for a key and instructions.

In the area next to him, there are talisman papers on the walls. Burn them all with your spirit to open up the entrance in one of the walls.

“Mausoleum of Qin Emperor” will be gained upon entering the hidden area. If you have found all the hidden areas thus far, “Willow and Flower” will also be achieved.


经脉逆行 - Counter-Flow
A character has 8 special states at the same time.


The Corpse Ghost enemies occasionally drop an item called 5-Ele&7-Flavor Pill (a lot more elegant in Chinese I'd imagine).

With that it is now easy to knock down this achievement. Compliment the five elemental buffs with some stat-buffing consumables or abilities (like Xiang Ling's "Go with Wind") and this will be done in a whiffy.


一砸就晕 - One-Hit-Dizzy
Use One-Hit-Dizzy Cake to give Lei Yan a final hit.


Right after the scene QTE there’s heal and save point next to an obvious boss arena. You should have cooked few One-Hit Dizzy Cakes earlier, now’s the time for them.

There will be three fights. This sequence is already hard enough without the achievement which only makes it even more challenging. It being at the end of the third fight is the icing on the cake.

The three fights are roughly as follows:
  1. You need to kill all enemies close to each other in time or they spawn new ones. They have immunities, take note of those.
  2. Defend and heal, the fight ends on its own after a while.
  3. Bring Lei Yan close to dying and finish him using the cakes. Ignore the lackeys unless you can nuke them really fast, because in few turns they just self-destruct, instantly killing one of your allies each. Unfortunately new ones spawn soon after. Bunch of bollocks, I say.

Tusu and Qianshang are great combinations of damage and being tanky enough for the fights. If you're feeling spicy, Xiang Ling’s Divine Fox Illusion and Money Rain can do nukes that ignore the immunities, but she's a bit squishy.

Achievement pops upon finishing the fight.
A - After the Mausoleum
After the Mausoleum it is time for a short breather before the next new locations.

Story takes you to Anlu first. After gaining control in the city, do the usuals:
  • talk to everyone in every city (see ”Meet by chance”)
  • new letters, also when leaving Anlu and coming back
  • new commissions on Chivalrous Board
  • buy everything in the furniture that you didn't buy yet to progress "Mysterious Decorations"
  • small task ”Obsidian” can now be continued by going to the southwest corner in the Outskirts of Jiangdu, behind the grocery store NPC (see “Good man”)

After everything is done for the moment, get back to Anlu to continue main story.


初晴 - First Sunny Day
Complete Chapter 2.


Gained after the Anlu cutscene where the party sets their aim on our next destination: Green Dragon Town.


This is also where the game informs you of the DLC: Drink and Dream, which handles Qianshang’s past.

Qianshang also gains abilities that consume wine. I'd recommend buying stack of wine and getting into the habit of using them to reduce some pain later on.

With the Chapter 2 under our belt, there are actually new letters, commissions and scattered dialogues that can be checked before moving on to the next location if so wished. In fact, with diligent enough dialogue-hunting thus far, it is possible to achieve “Meet by chance” right now.
A - Green Dragon Town
There’s a fair bunch going on here, especially with some Aurogon Company quest lines, so here’s a suggested order for structural clarity:
  1. Continue main story until you need to meet shipyard boss in his house. Everything in the city is now open to be done before continuing.
  2. Explore the entire location except Aurogon Company
  3. Enter Aurogon Company to gain a letter and a task, leave afterwards
  4. Do Chivalrous Board and check letters
  5. Explore Aurogon Company


Exploration points of interest:
  • with diligent entry-gathering thus far, “Passion of research” will be gained in this city
  • talk to Yan Wei southeast from Aurogon Company to start “Gunpowder Express” (see ”Good man”)
  • talk to Xu Wenqiang next to the inn 1st floor stairs to start “Biluo” which can also be completed right away (see ”Good man”)
  • go south of the pharmacy shop to progress “Fey’s Love”. Can be continued right away on the pier near the furniture shop (see ”Good man”)
  • Cha Xiaoguai is walking around the streets near the Aurogon Company (see “Gossip”)
  • Yu Wushuang is at the southeast end of the piers on the east side of the north isle. Talk to her to complete her achievement (see “Local customs”)


收藏名家 - Famous Collector
Obtain 10 types of decorative paintings.


神秘装饰 - Mysterious Decorations
Obtain 40 types of decorations.


Furniture store in Green Dragon Town sells paintings and carpets. If you bought everything back in Anlu furniture store, buying everything here will net you both of these achievements.


百晓生 - Weapon Researcher
Obtain weapon racks for all characters, place them in the house and display the weapons on the racks.

Another achievement via the furniture store.
  1. Exchange the five weapon racks that don't require Aurogon Coins. If you don't have the exchange materials, do a quick round of the weapon shops in different towns (and this town).
  2. Hop to Peach Blossom Valley and navigate the menus Home Renovation -> Decorate Weapon Room
  3. Put weapon rack in place for each weapon type, and display a weapon in each.

Achievement pops immediately upon setting the last weapon.


Chivalrous Board and letters points of interest:
  • alongside the truckload of new commissions there’s a new commission category “Aurogon Secrets” which contains some tasks that are pre-requisites for some of the Aurogon quest lines. Do ”Eliminating Piracy 1” and ”DPS??”. For “DPS??”, focus “Fakemoon”, as killing them ends the fight. It’s not realistic to kill the other guy for now (at least wasn’t for me). There is an achievement but I’ll cover it later.
  • new letters, some also upon entering Aurogon Company. One of the letters is from a person at Aurogon Company and pertains to the hidden ending. More of a hint than a requirement though.


Aurogon Company points of interest:
  • Entering Aurogon Company automatically registers the quest that revolves around the hidden ending. Time for the section 1 of the ending guide! (see ”Dragon Babies' Tasks”)
  • Remember to save before exploring the Aurogon Company! Talking to the specific dev avatars allow initiating a quest (a fight) that can easily prove fatal when caught unaware. Don’t accidentally lose progress!
  • seventh and last spirit Boqi is in the Aurogon Company. Enter the building and go to the inner section. On the right side, next to the dev “Certain Tree” is a small tree - click it to gain the spirit and the achievement “Blood Covenant”
A - Gollum Bay
Welcome to a… side scroller adventure? Somewhat uneventful one though.

Gollum Bay additional points of interest:
  • some chests are oysters instead
  • main path changes direction at the second save point


咕噜湾 - Gollum Bay
Jump more than 40 times in Gollum Bay.


There are a lot of jumping spots in the dungeon. If you explore all the side paths, this will likely come naturally way before even getting to the bottom, not to mention back up.


万相初生 - Primary Number
Cause 1008 points of damage in one hit.


Luck-based, and your power level may differ too, but this area can be perfect for this.

For me, Tusu’s 5th fire spell Doom Fire was doing roughly 1000 damage on the Golden Dragonfishes at level 30. Considering the AoE and that the enemies are often in groups of up to 6 or so, it is pretty efficient and there are abundant chances for this to happen during the dungeon.

If your power level is similar, I’d recommend fighting the fishes on the way out until this pops. Avoids potential unlucky headaches later.


Overall not a lot going on in this area, other than a lot of running. Just needing to run the entire dungeon back up takes about 10 minutes, what with unavoidable encounters, waiting for elevators, and such. I think the story bits at the bottom give you an Origin-Returning Nectar though which you can use instead.

Back in Green Dragon Town however await some more exciting ventures.
A - After Gollum Bay
After Gollum Bay it is time to get back to Green Dragon Town for a moment.

Points of interest:
  • new step in the hidden ending sequence, section 2 of the guide (see “Dragon Babies’ Tasks”)
  • to start and complete the task “Human Novelty”, go to the shore on the northern isle just right of the eastern ferry spot. Talk to Yan Chui who is in the water (see “Good man”)
  • Lansheng’s father has sent banger of a letter detailing maybe dozen or so combination moves ready to be used. Nice!
  • some new commissions

Other than that it’s just a short return to the town. Next up is another chain of no-return locations, so get prepared!
A - Sea of Thundercloud
This location cannot be returned to later.

Sea of Thundercloud additional points of interest:
  • The achievement “Heaven and Earth” popped for me on entering the dungeon, but the in-game progress was still at about 93%. Upon reaching the end of the area, it was at 98%. Might be buggy. In any case, I’ll list the achievement in a later section when it is achieved properly according to the counter - just feels more right that way.


雷云之海 - Sea of Thundercloud
Go through Sea of Thundercloud without being damaged.


There are spots in Sea of Thundercloud where lightning strikes the ground periodically. Avoid being hit by any of them for the entire dungeon to get this achievement.

The locations and timings are always consistent, so just keep your eyes open for upcoming lighting spots. Compared to the similar achievement in Underwater Iron Pillar, this isn’t really as annoying (or buggy).

Achievement will pop right after passing the last lightning spot, few platforms before the last save point.


Tough fights at the end. Couple tips:
  • Removing destructible parts can significantly weaken the enemies while still also relaying some damage to the main
  • Hidden recipes like Beggar Chicken that heal the whole team are indispensable against constant strong AoE

Afterwards bunch of scenes take you directly to a new location.
A - Dragonsilk Palace
This location can only be returned to for a limited time afterwards.

Dragonsilk Palace additional points of interest:
  • once outside the palace hall, go southeast and talk to Mingqing to start small task “Gossip”, which can be completed in another section of this area (see “Good man”)
  • at the area with the inn and most everything else, talk to the large golden snake west of the Scene Exit to start “Meat Lover”, which can also be completed right away (see “Good man”)
  • task “Gunpowder Express” can be completed by talking to Yan Feng west of the inn (see “Good man”)
  • Cha Xiaoguai is strolling around the Scene Exit of the area with the inn. How though? I guess her dealings with the martial arts world aren’t limited to just gossiping, lol
  • talk to Craneshadow on the right side of the inn to start “Scatterbrain”, which can be completed immediately (see “Good man”)
  • if you’ve been meticulous in hunting chests, “Treasures” will be gained with one of the last chests in Dragonsilk Palace
  • after resting at the inn once, you can talk to your companions around the city (see “Meet by chance”)
A - Archaeo-continent
This location cannot be returned to later.

Beyond the small entrance area is the actual dungeon, much like with the Mausoleum.

Behold the most annoying enemy thus far: the Azure Ape! Not really dangerous, but has like 50% dodge chance and a move that makes it invincible for couple of turns. Accessories improving hit chance might be worthwhile to remedy the slog.

At least the battle music in this dungeon is pretty banger!

Archaeo-continent additional points of interest:
  • right as you enter you will likely gain “Heaven and Earth” in the game (and possibly on Steam, if it didn’t pop already in Sea of Thundercloud)
  • a little while after the first save point there will be a scene QTE (see “Light As Swallow”)
  • next step towards the hidden ending will be during our visit here, section 3 of the guide (see “Dragon Babies’ Tasks”)
  • during the path there will be bolts of light descending upon you, spawning either an enemy or a chest. I didn’t bother to try, but it could be possible to load-abuse chest spawns
  • almost every single enemy has destructible parts, some multiple (see “Watch out! I’m coming!”)


祖洲 - Archaeo-continent
Go through Archaeo-continent without being damaged.


Another achievement to pass a dungeon without taking damage from specific hazards.

During the second map you will go through two circular openings where you use your ice spirit to progress (better have food for it). Moving around the walls are weird masks that keep shooting fireballs at you. Avoid getting hit by any of them to net the achievement.

This time the achievement only pops right at the exit of the area, even though there are no hazards for the last bit. Kinda sucks that you have to go through the tough boss fight to know whether you got it or not, so if you’re unsure better re-do the running than the boss fight.


As mentioned, another very tough boss fight in the end. Get your biggest nukes on, because you need to drop at least one of the enemies as soon as possible or your defences likely won’t hold for long. Fortunately they have a spell that puts you at 1 HP which is perfect for Tusu’s Flaming Bloodbath.

Soon afterwards, after some scenes and being separated from everyone, you face an even stronger foe. Fortunately, you don’t have to win. Just defend and use strong healing items against maybe dozen or so attacks and it will automatically end.

After some long scenes and getting the Fairy Ganoderma, do not leave! It is finally time for the hidden ending continuation, and if you leave you can never come back to this flower field. For the sequence itself, find Orange among the flowers to continue the task “Look for Orange” (see section 3 of the hidden ending guide and “Dragon Babies’ Tasks”).
A - After Archaeo-continent
After Archaeo-continent it is time for couple city visits. First, Green Dragon Town!

Green Dragon Town additional points of interest:
  • new steps for the hidden ending, section 4 of the guide (see “Dragon Babies’ Tasks”)
  • complete “Fey’s Love” by entering the tavern (see “Human world”)
  • new letters and equipment
  • new commissions, including the last ones for the “Recruiting Heroes” type (see “Recruit Heroes”)

There are also some new entries around the city if you still need some. Afterwards, to Anlu!

Anlu additional points of interest:
  • new letters
  • new commissions (blocked behind previous ones if you didn’t do everything before)

Afterwards, move to the inn to finish the interlude.
A - Qingyu Sect
This location cannot be returned to later. Sort of.

Qingyu Sect additional points of interest:
  • on the lower level, go to the northwest pavilion to continue “Obsidian” (see “Human world”)

There are also couple entries and few treasures, but that’s about all there is beyond loads of story.
A - Wumeng Valley - Frostfire Cave
We first arrive at Wumeng Valley, but it’s better to hop right into Frostfire Cave and explore afterwards, as some things only open at that point.

Frostfire Cave additional points of interest:
  • The new frost wolf enemy type here is very dangerous for soloing. I was level 38 with almost 300 DEX, and they attacked twice before me in every fight. As Tusu could take at most 3 of the ice spells, ending up in a fight with two of the wolves was an instant death sentence. Short but potentially pretty painful section. As usual, DEX is king when solo.
  • You can come back with a full team afterwards to fill up bestiary entries more conveniently if you want to

Once back in Wumeng Valley, it is time for a truckload of scenes.

Wumeng Valley additional points of interest:
  • once you finally regain control with the full team, turn back and go into the house. Go into the inner room and interact with the mask on the shelf to the right to start “Wish” (see “Human world”)


Do not go to Purple Banyan Forest yet. See next section.
A - After Wumeng Valley
Time for couple short sidetracks before moving on to Purple Banyan Forest.

Points of interest:
  • Next step of the hidden ending sequence happens now in Green Dragon Town. Section 5 of the guide (see “Dragon Babies’ Tasks”)
  • The side quest “Wish” we just picked up in Wumeng Valley can be completed in Red Leaf Lake. Nostalgic? (see “Human world”)
  • Far end of Red Leaf Lake with the big monkey beyond the bridge can now also be reached unlike in the prologue. Not much there though, just one new enemy type and one chest. Do not go to the ending Scene Exit unless you already did the hidden ending step. It will also take you to Purple Banyan Forest.

Once everything is done, it is time for the forest.
A - Purple Banyan Forest
This place is something of a circular maze. You can take your time when going in though. Out on the other hand, not as much.

Regardless, the biggest enemy in this area is really the camera and some hitboxes.


紫榕林 - Purple Banyan Forest
Run out of burning Purple Banyan Forest within the time limit.


Sounds maybe a bit intimidating, but it is about as threatening as it was in Immortal Vine Cave - a leisurely walk is enough. Plenty of time to grab chests and the like. Main path is roughly as follows:
  • Clockwise 180 degrees, out to the middle ring
  • Counter-clockwise 180 degrees, out to the outer ring
  • Counter-clockwise all the way around to the entrance of the forest

Timer stops and achievement pops upon reaching the save point at the end of the outer ring. It does not lock you into continuation, so if you ended up missing a place with a chest or anything else, you can go back without rush.


故土 - Hometown
Complete Chapter 3.


After the boss fight, a ton of scenes follow. Achievement pops once the last scene in Purple Banyan Forest ends, before few more scenes in Wumeng Valley.
A - Back to Qinchuan
Before we go back to Qinchuan, do a quick run by Anlu to grab a new letter there.

In Qinchuan, continue main story for couple steps until you have the full team again.

This is where the game informs you of another DLC: Floating Lanters, which handles Lansheng and Miss Sun.

Qinchuan points of interest:
  • if you’ve been slacking with farming money, start getting into it right now for the coming bits, since it will be needed
  • Next step towards hidden ending! Section 6 of the guide (see “Dragon Babies’ Tasks”)
  • new letters, commissions
  • new equipment and exchanges in stores. If you have grinded for exchanges or will do so now, it is possible to get both “Weapon Master” and “Master Armourer” here


菩萨心肠 - Kindhearted Guy
Find medicine for xThrall.


Awarded for completing the Dragon Babies’ Task “Find Medicine”. See hidden ending guide section 6.


战斗的午餐 - Lunch of Battle
The characters on the field enters the combat with cooking weapons and win the combat.

Fairly self-explanatory, other than the specific equipment. You have access to the following three weapons now:
  • Fishbelly Sword: gained randomly from eating fish dishes (see “Cheap goods”)
  • Soup King Spoon: reward from the commission “Strange Dishes 4”
  • Candy Balls: reward from the commission “Ancient Temple 3”

There are also other eligible ones for other characters, but these are what we at least have at hand right now. Equip them on Tusu, Qingxue and Langsheng respectively, unequip everything else, and fight a battle in a dungeon, not commission.

I’m not sure if it’s buggy or just very specific like that, but it only popped for me fulfilling these conditions.


打击盗版功在千秋！ - Contribution for eliminating piracy!
Complete the series of tasks “Eliminate Piracy” on Chivalrous Board.


Clear commissions “Eliminating Piracy 1” and “Eliminating Piracy 2”. They have been available ever since first visit to Green Dragon Town, but the second one is quite tough. By now you should be strong enough for it if you didn’t already do it earlier.


As can be guessed, big things are incoming, and now is also the best - or even the last - chance to knock some achievements down.

This will take about 2-3 hours depending on how much you have ready and how many combat achievements you take on the side. Plan is the following:
  1. Do all the favorability-related achievements. This leaves teammates at high favorability. These must be done now.
  2. Do some combat-related achievements. These can mostly be done later too, but now is a convenient time for them.


Time for the favorability achievements! See section “Story - Favorability” for the following achievements:
  • ”Good brother”
  • ”Super good guy”
  • ”Cool guy”
  • ”Friendship”

If you have accumulated a full stack of Susu Sweetheart Cakes and Coke during the game, this won't take that long to do in one sitting. If not, well, a bit more then.

While you’re waiting for the farming for this, you can work on the combat achievements below.


It is time to work on (at least) two combat achievements right now alongside the farming above. You can do few more too, but it gets a bit cumbersome if there are too many things to orchestrate. See specific sections of these achievements for more details and strategies.
  • “Money Rain”: use the eponymous Xiang Ling skill 40 times total (for 200k gold total)
  • ”Fight While Drink”: use Qianshang wine-consuming skills 81 times total
Do things in that order. It is likely that “Money Rain” is done before favorability is, but ”Fight While Drink” takes longer. Once favorability farming is done, you can either continue the grind to the end or move on - it will get done eventually anyways too.

While working on “Fight While Drink”, using the buff skill “Sing And Drink” instead of attacking you get multiple uses per battle. You can also remove some DEX equipment from other members to get Qianshang to play first - he likely doesn’t otherwise.

This takes about 1-2 hours depending on your setup and how much you’re doing on the side.

I didn’t do any, but here are couple other achievements that could be worked on simultaneously:
  • “Golden Friendship”: trigger 30 teammate defending events (more likely after high favorability, but requires a setup as defending only happens when teammates are at risk of dying)
  • “Snack”: 30 different recovery / auxiliary foods used in combat


If you didn’t get them already earlier, this session should also definitely give you both “I’m rich” and “Spend Money Like Water”.

Once everything is done, it is time to go to Qingyu Sect!
A - Return to Qingyu Sect
This location cannot be returned to later.

First, continue the story to get some big drops. Well, a lot of it all we as players already knew though. Keep going until you’re coming back down and find yourself inside a large green barrier.

Qinguy Sect additional points of interest:
  • You work your way through by fighting the disciples that keep up the barriers
  • First, work your way through to northwest. “Obsidian” can be finished at the same spot the previous step happened, also completing the side quest achievement (see “Human world”)
  • There are some chests with pretty good consumables


After beating the uncharacteristically tame boss, do not go to Jiangdu right away. First, hit up Anlu and Qinchuan for some (maybe missable) letters.

Afterwards, on to Jiangdu! Some hidden ending stuff going to take place again.
A - Back to Jiangdu
Our visit will again be divided into day and night - this time the other way around.

Jiangdu night additional points of interest:
  • Next step towards hidden ending in Flowerbloom Pavilion, guide section 7 (see “Dragon Babies’ Tasks”)

Jiangdu day additional points of interest:
  • Next steps towards hidden ending, guide section 8 (see “Dragon Babies’ Tasks”)
  • New commissions
  • Updates in the stores
  • Chests have given these too, but Jiangdu grocery store now finally sells the attack items needed for “Treasure Hunt” (see “Good man”)
  • Commission “Fey in the Lake” rewards with a soup recipe - “Water Bottle” can now be achieved

Before moving on in the story:
  • New letters in Anlu
  • Dragonsilk Palace will become blocked soon in the main story. If you have anything to do there, do it now. Notable examples are some good accessories only available there.
A - Mount Zhonghuang
Mount Zhonghuang points of interest:
  • There will be a scene QTE at the end of the dungeon (see “As Light As Swallow”)


中皇山 - Mount Zhonghuang
Go through Mount Zhonghuang without being damaged.


Much like with the lightnings in Sea of Thundercloud, there will be spots where large icicles periodically drop. They are pretty wonky, but fortunately majority of the spots can be entirely avoided in the spacious corridors.

Some enemies occasionally freeze you in free roam, so be careful.

Avoid getting hit for the dungeon to net the achievement. Achievement will pop in front of a large ice wall you need to burn, a short while after the boss of the area.
A - Dark City - Shore of Soul - Artemisia Land
All three locations cannot be returned to later.

Dark City is a city with few citizens, some chests and couple shops.
Shore of Soul is a short dungeon.
Artemisia Land is a hefty bomb of scenes.

Dark City points of interest:
  • If you’ve been emptying shops for weapons, chances are the ones offered here can get you to “Weapon Master” (if you didn’t already get it earlier via exchanges). Otherwise, it will come later.


劫变 - Beginning of Disaster
Complete Chapter 4.


Gained at the end of the last cutscene in Shore of Soul when returning from Artemisia Land.


Next up, White Emperor City. Although, you will already find yourself there before all the cutscenes are done.
A - White Emperor City
Our last city! That means a ton of things to do.


人间烟火 - Experience Human World
Reach all cities and towns.


Self-explanatory. Awarded immediately as you gain control in the city after the long sequence of scenes.


White Emperor City points of interest:
  • Next steps towards the hidden ending! See section 9 of the guide (see “Dragon Babies’ Tasks”)
  • for last small task “Light Food”, talk to Li Qing between pharmacy and grocery store (see “Good man”)
  • find final Cha Xiaoguai on the east side of the southern segment (see “Gossip”)
  • there are new commissions, but it is better to wait until we have more people in the team again
  • new letters, also once again new letters in Anlu. If everything thus far has been received, these letters will grant “Letters from afar”
  • New recipes, and pretty good ones too! Keep cooking new recipe “Blessing of Humble Family” and older one “Song’s Fish Potage” to gain the hidden recipe ”First-Class Tofu”, which provides a team-wide 100% heal. Another noteworthy recipe is the “Chili Sliced Giblets”, which finally provides resurrection with high HP restoration.
  • New equipment. Better gear up! Tough things incoming. In particular I would recommend the “Bloodthirsty” weapon for Tusu, because possible impact of lifesteal (simultaneous offense and defense) cannot be overstated. Buy the weapon the shop has for Tusu to open the exchange option. Farm the rest of the listed material requirements from enemies (Ice Giant, Cyan Lion Fey, and Fierce Sang)
  • If you’ve been emptying the shops with all the money but little exchanges, now is likely the time you will gain “Master Armourer”


妙厨 - Good Cook
Produce 10 types of cooking by-products.


With the recipes in this city added to our repertoire, we should finally have enough different types of by-products for this achievement. Keep cooking until you get it!
A - Tianyong Sect
This location cannot be returned to later.

Tianyong Sect additional points of interest:
  • next part of hidden ending, section 10 of the guide (see “Dragon Babies’ Tasks”)
  • on your way out you will gain Hong Yu’s hidden Astrototem, which is the last one missing for “Immortal Charm” if the ones requiring commissions have been done earlier

Beyond some exchanges unlikely to be accessible right now, the shops in the city don’t actually offer anything new.

Continue main story to get into an epic battle on your departure.

On gaining control afterwards, the game informs you of DLCs for the third time, this time for two!
  • DLC: Old Story of Tianyong handles Tusu’s past life in the sect.
  • DLC: Ancient Sword Soul tells the story of Ziyin and Hong Yu.

Time for some cleanup, preparations, and the finale.
A - Green Dragon Town · Rain
Follow the story to Green Dragon Town once more. This time it’s all gloomy and rainy, with foreboding music.

Final Green Dragon Town points of interest:
  • Last steps for the hidden ending! Lots of steps in fact. Check section 11 of the guide (see “Dragon Babies’ Tasks”)
  • there’s a second grocery store now, check map
  • some very strong equipment in the exchanges, no new additions for money


你是纯爷们 - You’re a true man
Complete the task “The most manly battle in history” on Chivalrous Board.


师徒 - Master and Apprentice
Get the special items. “Fat Bird Hero” and “Sword Elder”.


”The most manly battle in history” gives ”Fat Bird Hero” as reward.
”Sword Elder” is reward from the earlier two Eliminating Piracy commissions.

This is a tough fight, but less tough than the level and description might indicate. The crux of the fight is whether you have enough DPS to nuke Lingduan out right away before he starts disabling your entire party every turn. The others are fairly passive monsters, and No Harm Done mostly keeps to buffing them until they are gone. He himself isn’t much different from many of the developer fights thus far, just with a lot more health.

Take care not to down yourself on the 100% physical reflect he has though.


相濡以沫 - Husband and Wife
Complete the Chivalrous Board task “Husband and Wife”.


Another Aurogon developer fight, this time it’s the couple with the young kid. Once again a tough fight; both keep attacking with strong abilities, including AoEs. The skill “I love my son” that gives them every single stat buff is the icing on the cake, beautiful. Get nukes going to immediately reduce them to one enemy and it will get a lot better.


大好人 - Kind man
Complete all the tasks on Chivalrous Board in the 1st time playthrough.


2nd playthrough includes more commissions, thus the description. Additionally, DLCs also add some, so it’s not even necessary to complete all the commissions to gain this achievement, just the number of commissions in base game, I presume. I got it with handful still undone.


食物中毒 - Food Poisoning
In the Chivalrous Board task “DPS??”, defeat “No Patting or Feeding”.


Remember this commission? At this point, after all the later dev fights, defeating “No Patting or Feeding” should be pretty easy.


悉心照料 - Good care
7 Spirit Beasts reach highest level.


Seven meaning all of them. If you’ve been using them, this might already be done way earlier.

Spirit EXP is 1-1 with how much energy they have recovered with food. No matter how much you feed spirit at 100/100 they won’t gain anything.

Luli (smash), Luzhaofeng (plants) and Yanguang (fire) should already be maxed just from doing all their interaction points in the game.

Muling Fangxiang (ice) gets relatively far with interactions, and the free roam spam that can freeze monsters is pretty quick for maxing out the rest.

Yingxu (clairvoyance) and Boqi (SP recovery) don’t get much “handheld” progress - you need to specifically do it all yourself. If you’re at zero for them right now, might take maybe 30-60 minutes.

Gold Persimmon (bargaining) also requires you to manually do it, but should be done at this point if you have been using it since the first Qinchuan visit. If not, just sell all your Coke and other cheap stuff one at a time with the bargaining checkmark on. Takes maybe 10 minutes total.


成竹于胸 - Full of Bamboo
Display a full set of bamboo furniture in the house hall together.


Grindy achievement, and one that will not happen without specifically going for it. Took me like 2+ hours, but maybe my luck for drops was just horrendous. Jiangdu has an exchange accessory with increased drop rate, but can't vouch for how good it is, since I noticed it way later.

Spring Village grocery store sells and exchanges bamboo furniture. Their specialty, after all. Bamboo Bed is not needed, since it does not go to house hall.
  • Bamboo Tea Set * 1: buy with money
  • Bamboo Square Table * 1: exchange with drops from Ruffian and Bum
  • Bamboo Chair * 6: exchange with drops from Scarecrow and Jade Spider
  • Bamboo Tea Table * 2: exchange with drops from Big Grass Ball and Gray Wolf

Rest of them have commissions available, but Bum and Gray Wolf can only be fought in their respective areas. Bum is actually listed on one commission, but Ruffian is spawned instead, tragic.

Bum is found in Spring Trail, only accessible via backtracking from Spring Village.
Gray Wolf is found in Mount Bi, accessible from Anlu or with fast travel.

Once you have enough materials (will take a while), nab the furniture and hop on to Peach Blossom Valley. Enter Home Renovation -> Decorate Hall and put your 6 chairs, 3 tables and the tea set in their places.

Achievement will pop instantly when all pieces have been added.


不炫耀会死 - Show Off
Use summoning beasts to make the final hit and win the fightings for 20 times.


What is not mentioned is that summoning beasts refer to the large creatures shown in the cutscenes of the ultimate elemental spells (99 MP). The spells are strong though so it is possible to have gained progress on this achievement without knowing, but personally I was almost at zero.

Hit up White Emperor City since it has a healing point right next to the Chivalrous Board.

Pick some low level commission, preferably with a single enemy (e.g. "Demon Craftsman 1") so it doesn't matter if the spell is AoE. Fight it 20 times in a row, hitting up the heal point every couple rounds for full mana.

Doesn't take that long overall. Remember that you can skip the 1 min long spell cutscenes. They're pretty, but ain't no one going to watch them 20 times straight.


这样都可以？！ - Do it like this?!
Only use Century Egg Bombs to attack the enemy and win the battle.


Something that could have actually been done almost the entire game, but what a better time for a "palette cleanser", right?

Century Egg Bomb is the by-product of Tea Egg. Hit up the commission "Demon Craftsman 1", throw few eggs, and get the achievement.


Before moving on to the finale, there are some things to do in preparation for the second playthrough. Those will be covered in the next section.
A - Preparation
Before the finale, it is time for preparations.

Second playthrough will revolve around the low level challenge ”Good Military Counsellor”. Homestead will carry over, but equipment will not. Therefore, put some strong weapons in Peach Blossom Valley weapon displays, and you will have them during the next playthrough from Jiangdu afterwards. This will help tremendously with all the fights when the levels are low.

I recommend putting everyone’s strongest weapons in, because with no other challenge limitations, the final boss can be cleared without issues even without them. Duplicates can be farmed where possible too.

For coverage on some of the characters strongest weapons and how to get them, refer to "Appendix - Endgame Weapons".


After all the farming and putting weapons to Homestead is done, it’s time for Penglai Kingdom!
A - Penglai - Peach Blossom Dream
World can still be returned to all the way to the end. Once you’re deep in the dungeon, Origin-Returning Nectar can prove helpful.

There will be no typical “complete game save reloads before final boss” common to these types of games. Reloading complete save starts NG+. Do everything you need to prepare for NG+ before the last fight at the latest.

Finale starts with "Penglai Illusion", a straightforward linear entrance dungeon to the main area.


战意高涨 - Great Combat Passion
Use Ultimate Skill for 49 times when the Combat Passion Value is full.


This initial area contains a lot of enemies that are pretty beefy but not very dangerous - perfect time to knock this out.

Combat Passion Value is the gauge on the right. For most of the game it’s downright useless due to the abysmal gain anything other than Xiang Ling’s firecracker-consuming ”Red Earth” gives, but by this time everything produces more (including “Red Earth”) and Ultimate Skills are available as well.

Progress feels a bit buggy - sometimes there’s nothing, sometimes a whole lot. Multi-hits provide significant gains per use, so maybe they trigger the segments of the gauge as intended?

My recommendation would be either Qianshang’s Conquering Mountains or Hong Yu’s ”Devastating Beauty”. Using the latter I gained 10% per use. Former may give even more since it’s AoE, unless gain is limited by the five segments of the gauge. Couldn’t test after gaining the achievement. Don’t use them on weak targets - if the enemy dies, rest of the hits don’t give progress.


Real meat of the area awaits once we arrive at the Penglai Kingdom.

Penglai Kingdom points of interest:
  • Soon after arriving at South Zone there is another block pushing puzzle, like in Mount Bi (this time more confusing with the lack of overview camera). The blocks form a plus-sign: push bottom to left twice, left and right to up, middle to either side and top up until the way is clear.
  • Final scene QTE will take place right at the very end of the dungeon, in Palace Mountain summit (see “As Light As Sparrow”)


蓬莱 - Penglai
Go through Penglai illusion safely.


Another achievement with description alluding to traps, but frankly, I went through the dungeon, got the achievement, and I still don’t know what I should have been avoiding. Maybe it’s just for completing the area.

In any case, it will pop immediately after the scene QTE at the top of Palace Mountain.


"As Light As Swallow" should be gained upon entering the final boss battle.


涅槃 - Nirvana
Complete Chapter 5.


Gained weirdly enough when a cutscene happens around halfway through the second phase of the final boss.


超速蜗牛 - Overspeed Snail
Over 50 hours to complete the game.


桃花幻梦 - Peach Blossom Dream
Complete the plot of ‘Peach Blossom Dream’.


With over 50 hours on the playthrough and the hidden ending under our belt, both will be gained after credits finish.


Save the complete game save and reload for the second playthrough! Well, maybe after a break.

Before the second round, I recommend checking out the DLCs, as they open bit of content in the subsequent playthroughs. It is also nicer to do them now with the story fresh in mind instead of somewhere alongside bunch of scene skipping and challenge shenanigans.
B - Introduction
Second playthrough revolves around the low level challenge. At the time of finishing the game, average level of the party must be lower than 40 (total level must be below 240)

Important:
  • Qianshang re-joins at fixed level 45 before Penglai

Therefore, the rest of the party must be at most average level 39 for the final battle. Additionally, always keep Qianshang in the active party. That way he will "waste" the EXP given to him, and the benched people will lower the average.

Recommended main trio for final battle is Qianshang, Tusu and Qingxue, and therefore you should always strive to keep them in the active party throughout the main story as well, to leech more of the total EXP.


Edit Notice

I actually did the entire B-playthrough thinking Qingxue re-join is like Qianshang's, that she comes back at fixed level 54, because that was what she returned at during my first playthrough. From that, I got 35 average as maximum (54 + 45 + 4 * 35 = 239).

That is not the case however. She does not come back at fixed level, instead she follows party average (or gains EXP as a hidden passive party member inside Penglai Kingdom), which led to level 54 on the completionist playthrough.

This means that the guide will presume characters to be lower level than they would need to - there is slightly more buffer. For most of the game it doesn't matter at all, but during some later game bosses life can be made slightly easier with maybe a single level more.

There might also be slightly outdated or wrong information here and there based on that belief, although I'll try to edit things.

Overall I had maybe ~60k buffer at the end of Penglai. Do not overshoot what buffer is given to you by this, it's not a lot over the course of the entire game. It is also perfectly fine to still follow the guide to a tee and just farm the buffer at the end of Penglai like I did.


About EXP

Level 35 requires 205360 EXP total.
Level 36 requires 223650 EXP total.
Level 40 requires 307710 EXP total.

Total EXP gained in mandatory encounters after the Mausoleum (after Immortal Gambling is introduced) is already by itself around 290000 EXP for everyone. Some members gain several thousand more, Tusu the most by having the most solo time.

In short, it is not possible to reach final boss at 40 average without using Immortal Gambling to reduce EXP.

Generally in the playthrough, avoid all battles that are not mandatory. Early to mid game it hardly matters due to the small numbers, but as the EXP gained from fights starts quickly increasing, you may accumulate few levels over the course of the game without noticing.

The EXP gained versus the challenge limit does not have a ton of buffer, and you really don't want to end up needing even more Immortal Gambling than the minimum one required. It is easy to gain bit more EXP in the end if there's buffer, but it's not possible to undo previously gained EXP.


Immortal Gambling

In Mausoleum, Immortal Gambling is introduced. One of the effects is to only gain 1 EXP from the following three (completed) fights. This effect can be triggered by fighting low level commissions that only give 1 EXP at that point. With the effect, huge boosts of EXP gained from bosses can be entirely avoided.

I cannot guarantee its uniqueness, but this is what I had in the menu when the effect was active:



This on the other hand is how it will show on the results screen:



Likelihood of Immortal Gambling appearing is pretty low, and to get the exactly one out of the 8 even more so. May take couple hours or even more to trigger the wanted effects.

Worse yet, Immortal Gambling does not persist to a save file, if you save and reload it will be gone. When you get the effect, you NEED to complete the upcoming fights without reloading.

This means of course that you not only need to attempt it in same sitting, but also actually succeed right away too. As such, I recommend testing the waters and practising the fights couple of times before going for it, so that you can be confident once the debuff grind is done.

Would suck tremendously to farm couple hours for a chance and then lose it, wouldn't it?

Fortunately, as long as battles are avoided diligently enough, only one Immortal Gambling grind is required in the playthrough.


For this playthrough, I will only be covering the points that matter for the challenge. Otherwise just run through everything.

Unfortunately, this playthrough will highlight some shortcomings and missing QoL of the game (e.g. useless escape system, missing in-battle save reloading, wonky terrain hitboxes, etc.).

Small price to pay for salvation? Maybe. Take it easy but prepare for occasional frustrations. The playthrough isn't that long time-wise either with all the story skipped, and many of the bosses are actually quite fun underleveled with some strategizing.

Good luck and have fun!
B - From Prologue to Jiangdu
Early EXP hardly matters in the grand scheme, and without the weapons stashed in Homestead, you aren’t that strong either. It is okay to level a bit as needed.

Prologue

For the entire prologue just run it through normally, Han Yunxi doesn’t play into the levels after all.

Fanyun Stronghold

Can ignore all fights except the mandatory ones, Tusu is plenty strong as-is.


追忆师门 - Recalling the Sect
Get the outfit of Tianyong.


Having completed the game, you will have item called “Mysterious Bag” in your auxiliary items. Use it to gain 6 outfits, one per character. Tusu’s is Tianyong Uniform, gaining you the achievement.

Worth a mention that these outfits are half of the achievement “Wonderful Time”, so you should be at 58% after using the bag. The other half are the original outfits for “Original Simplicity”, one of which we already have from endgame (Qingxue’s)



Misty Mountain Stream

Remember to open at least the last chest of the area right before the scene QTE for the “No-Parting Candy”. Will be useful against Qingxue soon.

Qinchuan

Soon we will be facing against Qingxue, which can be a tough fight. With “No-Parting Candy” and the strong fire element accessory given on NG+ you can pretty much kill her before she does anything though.

Mount Yu

Just run through the dungeons, though remember to pick up the plant spirit from the beginning and the recipes from right before Jiangdu.

Jiangdu

The time has come! Continue main story until you open Homestead, gaining the ice spirit in the process. Pick your endgame weapons and start your farming economy right away.

Ginseng is still king, but consider some osmanthus and honey as well, since higher favorability using Susu Sweetheart Cakes and thus higher chance for defending events can come in clutch during challenging battles.

Buy new defensive gear from the shop too, as well as the new recipes.

Status:
  • Baili Tusu: Level 7
  • Fang Lansheng: Level 5
  • Feng Qingxue: Level 7
  • Hong Yu: Level 7
  • Xiang Ling: Level 5
  • Total: 31
B - From Jiangdu to Mausoleum
Now with the power of endgame weapons, blaze through the early-midgame with no need to fight much. EXP is still not a lot initially, but will accumulate without noticing - the level thresholds never increase that strongly after all.

Remember to keep buying defensive gear still, as that part is as weak as during a normal run.

Jiangdu Outskirts

Buy the recipes. In particular “Phoenix in Peony” is the other half getting us to “Beggar Chicken” later. New spirit gained along the way.


Next few areas have nothing of interest for the challenge, just speed through all the way until Anlu. After the wolf fey boss, Tusu will likely be around 16-17.


Anlu
  • Check in with your farming
  • Buy new defensive gear
  • Buy new recipes, especially “Scholar Chicken”, which now in tandem with the earlier “Phoenix in Peony” will allow creating “Beggar Chicken”, our bread and butter item all the way to the end

Leave the city and speed through Mount Bi to arrive at Serenity Estate.

Serenity Estate

Might be hard to avoid some of the fights, but other than the Millionaire Ghost in the cellar for the estate key and the final boss, everything can be ignored.

The boss was mostly gated by damage anyways, so having strong enough weapons to burst her before the spawns matter makes the fight trivial. It gives substantial EXP, likely giving couple levels to everyone by itself, jumping to around 18-20 for the active members at least.


World map is now open. Farming and such can be handled whenever convenient.


Mausoleum of Qin Emperor

Push through in the Mausoleum towards the point where your teammates join you. Annoying room for this challenge is the one with hidden enemies that forces nine (!) fights on you, each easily giving over 1k EXP.

Once your teammates join, you are introduced to Immortal Gambling, the last cornerstone of our challenge run, but a bit more on that later.

Put Qianshang (who joins at 25) in your team. He will regardless be at 45 once he rejoins later, so all the EXP we can funnel to him will be “wasted”.

Continue the dungeon to the end for the boss gauntlet. Use Qingxue, Tusu and Qianshang.
  • Qingxue should only defend and use Beggar Chickens, she’s too squishy otherwise.
  • Tusu with Bloodthirsty is very strong but can’t survive alone.
  • Qianshang is tankiest and with Phoenix Flame hits very, very hard. Can be used to heal to allow the other two to defend.

For the first fight, as long as you aren’t unlucky (e.g. three times “Diamond Thunder Attack“), things will be fine. Qianshang can two-tap the middle enemy - put him to healing duty after one turn to let Qingxue defend. Finish once Tusu is ready to drop the other two with “Flying Flame”.

For the second fight, keep both Qingxue and Tusu defending all the time while using Beggar Chicken with Qianshang.

For the third fight, go all-in with boss focus and it will be over in no time. Qianshang’s “Heavy Slash” can crit for around 70% of the boss’ HP.

Finishing the fight gives a sizeable but not massive boost of EXP (ironically smaller than the forced room wipe earlier), probably because Qianshang’s level is higher already.

Status:
  • Baili Tusu: Level 23
  • Fang Lansheng: Level 16
  • Feng Qingxue: Level 21
  • Hong Yu: Level 19
  • Xiang Ling: Level 19
  • Yin Qianshang: Level 26 (Level 45 later)
  • Total: 124 (143)
B - From Mausoleum to Archaeo-continent
Now with Immortal Gambling on our side, EXP can be curated with perseverance. For the rest of the playthrough, I will be listing the mandatory fights and how much EXP they gave me fighting normally starting from the level status after mausoleum (see previous section). This way use of Immortal Gambling to avoid EXP can be customized as seen fit, although I will also be specifically covering what I personally did (and recommend).

Remember,
Level 35 requires 205360 EXP total.
Level 36 requires 223650 EXP total.

Anlu

Combination attacks are now open, which will be very useful going on.

Green Dragon Town

Make sure the grab the spirit Boqi from inside the Aurogon Company, because the SP recovery skill is even more important now that we can’t replenish SP by fighting that much.

Gollum Bay

This area is even bigger pain now that the fights need to be avoided. Cuteys will likely be a death sentence whenever encountered. Use ice spirit free roam freezing to help with avoidance.

Fights:
  • Against three Pingyi on the shipwrecks: 931 EXP
  • Dragonfishes before the boss: 1651 EXP
  • Boss fight: 15000 EXP
  • Total: 17582 EXP

It’s hilarious how much EXP the boss fight gives when it’s pretty much less dangerous than any of the mob fights in the area. Main story treasure hoarding gives you Origin-Returning Nectar among other items. If there ever was a time to use that item, now is that time.

Green Dragon Town

There will be the sequence with only Lansheng and then later Xiang Ling soon, and the battles in it will be very challenging (or impossible) depending on their strength and gear. Make sure to have a save from before continuing in case you get softlocked and need to prepare a bit more.

Sea of Thundercloud

You will get into Lansheng solo fight straight outta cutscenes, and if you’re unlucky you get frozen and literally die. Life’s rough.

Moment later it’s time for a group of them, but Xiang Ling will hopefully be fast enough to start and strong enough to AoE them all to death with wind. Otherwise, going might get tough. Another group afterwards but with some reinforcements.

The boss fights are getting quite challenging by now, with stats catching up to your weapons. The duo in this area use a lot of AoE which makes things worse.

I found Divine Fox Illusion excellent once again. With good luck it will nuke the destructibles quick, doing good chunks to the boss too while weakening them. The fights are also two separate ones, so even if you wipe one team in the first one, they can be a backup in the second fight. This proved very useful for me at least.

Fights:
  • One Walking Corpse in the beginning: 933 EXP - Lansheng
  • Group of Walking Corpses: 4665 EXP - Lansheng & Xiang Ling
  • Group of Walking Corpses: 5598 EXP - Lansheng, Xiang Ling & Tusu
  • Kun: 9000 EXP
  • Peng: 9000 EXP
  • Total: 18000 - 29196 EXP

Archaeo-continent

Very nice linear area with broad paths for dodging enemies. It’s even pretty easy to grab all chests if that fancies you. Just push until the boss.

This boss fight can be really tough, but the skill that sets HP at 1 will immediately trivialize the fight as soon as they use it on Tusu. At that point, one Flaming Bloodbath will kill both of them in one go. Until that happens you can try focusing one of them with nukes like Qianshang’s Heavy Slash to give some breathing room.

The EXP is massive again, probably at least two levels for everyone. By now, team average is likely already around 30. Only few levels that can be gained anymore.

Afterwards is time for the encounter with Qianyu. At level 31 I had about 950 HP and he mostly did 850 to 900 per attack. Eat Beggar Chickens like candies. If needed, you can also utilize Nine-Heron Incense for immunity and Phoenix Golden Feather accessories for revives to weather the storm. At least there’s no EXP.

Fights:
  • Boss fight: 45000 EXP

Status:
  • Baili Tusu: Level 31
  • Fang Lansheng: Level 27
  • Feng Qingxue: Level 30
  • Hong Yu: Level 27
  • Xiang Ling: Level 28
  • Yin Qianshang: Level 32 (Level 45 later)
  • Total: 175 (188)


After Archaeo-continent there will be bunch of story that doesn't matter for the challenge.
B - From Purple Banyan Forest to Qingyu Sect
After Archaeo-continent, continue the story until it is time for Purple Banyan Forest.

Purple Banyan Forest

Run in, run out, and prepare for a painful boss fight. Also, instantly load the save you make at the save point right before the boss or the fire lady nearby will follow you into a fight.

Going in raw underleveled, this fight is extremely challenging if not impossible. Lingduan’s “Chaotic Sword Secret” will one-shot everyone except Tusu and Qianshang, and he is faster than almost anyone in the team, meaning he starts the fight. The disabling hardly matters when it mostly kills. Lackeys are fast too and pose threat to others, but mostly heal Tusu. Lingduan occasionally doubling him shuts him down hard unfortunately.

Not all hope is lost though! With some preparations we can wiggle through. Here’s how to do it:
  • Xiang Ling has 5 AP now - her time to shine! Re-spec her to water to gain access to Bingyi in Cloud - heal, immunity and debuff cleanse for everyone. She should use it every. single. turn. She herself can never survive “Chaotic Sword Secret”; I believe she even dies twice to it if given Phoenix Gold Feather for insta-revive. Equip her with Sachet accessory for +60 MP so her pool can provide two casts instead of one.
  • Restart the fight until Lingduan starts with basic attack, otherwise Xiang Ling starts dead.
  • Feed mana to Xiang Ling with Qianshang while Tusu clears the lackeys with the combination skill Mystic Sky Flame (Mystic Truth Sword + Burning Flame). Defend when no mana needed. This not only reduces damage but will put him ahead of Xiang Ling in turn order for next mana infusions.
  • Once lackeys are down, start using Heavy Slash on the boss with Qianshang but only when Xiang Ling does not need to be given mana.
  • More lackeys will keep spawning but it doesn’t matter now that the boss can be targeted. Tusu AoE smacks everyone all the same. Rinse and repeat until he dies (which is maybe about 4 rounds of DPS).

Fights:
  • Boss fight: 32100 EXP

Status:
  • Baili Tusu: Level 33
  • Fang Lansheng: Level 29
  • Feng Qingxue: Level 31
  • Hong Yu: Level 29
  • Xiang Ling: Level 31
  • Yin Qianshang: Level 34 (Level 45 later)
  • Total: 187 (198)

Qinchuan

Back in Qinchuan continue until the party has assembled again.

On the second floor of the wine pavilion, lady in white will be selling all the monster materials in the game. This will be our shortcut to endgame gear without gaining EXP. It is not cheap though. Endgame enemy drops cost several thousand each. Hope you’ve been farming money!

For now it is not necessary to delve into that business in any case, as Qinchuan armor shop updates will serve us for the next dungeon or two.

Qingyu Sect

Back in Qingyu Sect, continue main until a fight. The group of birds like to use wood AoE, killing everyone but healing Tusu. Only way he dies is if they decide to use basic attack 2-3 times in a row.

After you whack them, go to the lower level and start making your way though the blockages (see fight listing for route). The disciples are faster than you but defensively weak, so I found the "team reversal strategy" to be very efficient here. Put your weaker team in first - enemies may kill them before you have a turn, but coming from backup does not incur delay, so strong backliners can hop in to one-shot them, leaving only the Bo.

The boss of the area is still pretty tame even underleveled. The biggest pain is that it heals from fire, dropping our DPS considerably. Going all in with pair of Golden Earrings and Divine Fox Illusion can shorten the fight a lot if you’re lucky, and afterwards Xiang Ling can move to Bingyi in Cloud. Otherwise keep Qingxue giving her mana and Tusu on DPS (just don’t use fire).

If needed, Lansheng also has 5 AP and access to Bingyi in Cloud now. With two people using the spell the fight will be very easy but also very slow. If doing this, remember to switch your lowest level for Qingxue before the end to waste more EXP. With Tusu in active party we can keep pushing him ahead of the curve to help later.

The boss gives unholy bomb of EXP, and due to the number of fights overall in the dungeon, it is unavoidable no matter what. In fact this dungeon is by far the largest single source of EXP during this run (literally about 40% of all the EXP thus far), and it will likely push you to around level 35 average.

Fights:
  • three Inseparable Lovebirds: 5175 EXP
  • Blockage #1 - back-left: 6562 EXP
  • Blockage #2 - front-left: 6562 EXP
  • Blockage #3 - north side of the main hall: 6562 EXP
  • Blockage #4 - further along the north side of the main hall: 6562 EXP
  • Blockage #5 - outside the hall fences from #4: 6562 EXP
  • Boss fight: 45000 EXP
  • Total: 82985 EXP

Status:
  • Baili Tusu: Level 38
  • Fang Lansheng: Level 33
  • Feng Qingxue: Level 36
  • Hong Yu: Level 34
  • Xiang Ling: Level 35
  • Yin Qianshang: Level 45
  • Total: 221

On a more positive note, there are only four mandatory fights left in the game before the final boss. It is time to pray for Immortal Gambling!
B - From Jiangdu Revisit to Artemisia Land
Time for the Immortal Gambling grinding.

Back in Jiangdu

After the story beats, fight low level commission until you gain Immortal Gambling with the “1 EXP for three fights”. Once you see the indicator, do not reload or you will lose it. Push forward for the next two mandatory fights in one sitting. Do keep saving into a new slot still though, so in case you fail in the middle of the gauntlet, it’s possible you still gained progress.

This debuff should take us through
  • Mount Zhonghuang boss
  • Wugu in the Dark City

Technically you can also go through Ziyin with it, but he doesn't give EXP to begin with.

Now that we also no longer gain experience, it is even more so important to optimize our gear a bit. Always buying the strongest armor is a given, but now it can also be useful to hit up the monster material merchant in Qinchuan I mentioned earlier, and do some exchanging.

DEX is king - it scales with both offence and defence. As such, Love Buckle is perhaps the most important general accessory.

Love Buckle:
  • 3 * Huashe Pendant
  • 3 * Zhusi Horn
  • 10 * Bronze Arrow

Ambergris Pendant for lifesteal is also great, although Bingyi in Cloud kind of obsoletes it a lot of the time.

Ambergris Pendant (Dragonsilk Palace):
  • 15 * Dragon Wings
  • 9 * Bloody Sleeve
  • 4 * Luminous Horn

I would however recommend grabbing few regardless, as well as at least one Coral Necklace, because both will be useful during section C, and Dragonsilk Palace will be inaccessible going on.

Finally, grab the special per-character armor pieces from the exchanges for at least your main party - they will help significantly.

Mount Zhonghuang

Push through to the boss, which is annoyingly bit of a walk away from a save point.

Fortunately the boss is not very threatening (although it has a ton of health). With the exchanged armor upgrades none of the moves it used on me had enough power to one-shot even the squishies. Victory should come easily.

Fights:
  • Lion Eagle: 45000 EXP (reduced to 1)

Dark City

Continue the story - on your way out of the temple, you face Wugu.

Unlike the previous boss, she actually packs a lot of punch too. She also does reflect damage from magic, enough for you to down yourself with strong spells. Keep Bingyi in Cloud going and whittle her impressive health bar down eventually.

Fights:
  • Wugu: 48000 EXP (reduced to 1)

Grab the Nine-Heron Incense to the southwest end of the city.



Afterwards continue the story through the short dungeon, using ice spirit as needed to avoid enemies in narrow paths. After the scene dump at the end, Qingxue will be gone, but we only have two fights left before she’s back anyways.
B - White Emperor City - Tianyong Sect
White Emperor City

Nab the recipe Blessing Of Humble Family. With it and good old Song’s Fish Potage, uncover hidden recipe First-Class Tofu for team-wide 100% heal. Although, Beggar Chicken is typically enough anyways.

Chili Slice Giblets is another useful one with high HP resurrection.

If you didn’t use it as your NG+ weapon (like the guide presumes), remember to grab Bloodthirsty, because you will need it.

Additionally, the armor exchange items are ridiculously powerful - also pretty much mandatory - and with the power of money, all of them are within our grasp! It ends up quite expensive though with materials + cost of items themselves, so don’t spend without consideration of what you actually need. For now, prioritize to get Tusu up to speed for his upcoming solo showdown - rest can wait until before Penglai.

Before moving on to the sect, make sure you have at least two Nine-Heron Incense. Without it the fight against Master Ziyin is going to be a lot more painful. If you only have the one from Dark City above, there’s another here in Anlu:



You can also trade for them at the grocery store:
  • 5 * Stinky Tofy (by-product of Blessing Of Humble Family)
  • 5 * King Kong Crisps (cooking)
  • 3 * Blackfire Feather (monster material exchange)

Can be worth it to keep a save from here before hopping on to the sect in case further upgrades or similar are needed.

Tianyong Sect


Edit Notice

With the additional buffer, there is the option of farming a bit of Chivalrous Board with Tusu alone to help with Ziyin as well as making him alone stronger for the final boss.

Alternatively, everyone can be bumped up a bit at the end of Penglai. Bit of both can also be done.


After the story in the sect, it is time for the showdown. One of the hardest battles in the playthrough, but also a very fun one.

Ziyin never gives any experience (there isn't even a victory screen) so there is no need to worry about that.

Even with Bloodthirsty and the best armor from White Emperor City, this fight is extremely tough underleveled. All his skills can one-shot if they crit, and Hollow Sword or stronger will even without. As long as you survive his moves though, Mystic Sky Flame will do excellent damage and heal you a lot. Equip two Love Buckles and debuff his DEX. At that point you should be able to attack twice every single turn or use items.

Fortunately his fight is fairly deterministic, and therefore victory is pretty replicable too, hinging mostly on couple moments of luck. He has two phases - here’s how they go down.


First phase - until 60%

For the first half, he will always repeat this cycle:
  • 1. Great Void Sword (kills with crit)
  • 2. Mystic Truth Sword (kills only with high rolls and crits)
  • 3. Hollow Sword (always kills unless defended)

Second phase - after 60%

For the second phase, Ziyin applies a defensive formation, taking less damage and reflecting physical damage. He also starts doing bit more damage overall, meaning you only survive critless low rolls.

There is still a sequence of three however:
  • 1. Random action
  • 2. Random action
  • 3.A. If there is no formation, basic attack and re-apply it.
  • 3.B. If there is, Visionary Hollow Sword. This basically means you die.

Random action is any of the skills in Phase 1, or a basic attack.

His formation is broken if you do enough damage. I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but we are doing it anyways.

Strategy

More like sequence. You will need two Nine-Heron Incense for the most consistent strategy. Having less is possible but leaves you vulnerable to multiple chances to be one-shot.

This is for level 38 Tusu and may not work at lower.

Phase 1:
  • Attack #1 - reduce DEX
  • Attack #2 - Mystic Sky Flame
  • Defend #1 - Ziyin uses Great Void Sword. Kills if crit
  • Attack #3 - Mystic Sky Flame
  • Attack #4 - Mystic Sky Flame
  • Defend #2 - Ziyin uses Mystic Truth Sword. Kills if crit
  • Attack #5 - Mystic Sky Flame. Ziyin reaches 50% -> Phase 2 incoming

Phase 2: Two Nine-Heron Incenses
  • Attack #6 - Nine-Heron Incense
  • Defend #3 - Ziyin random action (nullified)
  • Attack #7 - reduce DEX
  • Defend #4 - Ziyin random action (nullified)
  • Attack #8 - Swirling Phoenix
  • Attack #9 - Swirling Phoenix
  • Defend #5 - Ziyin basic attacks and applies formation
  • Attack #10 - Mystic Sky Flame
  • Attack #11 - Nine-Heron Incense
  • Defend #6 - Ziyin random action (nullified)
  • Attack #12 - reduce DEX
  • Defend #7 - Ziyin random action (nullified)
  • Attack #13 - 5 * 1 AP basic attack
  • Attack #14 - Mystic Sky Flame
  • Defend #8 - Ziyin basic attacks and applies formation
  • Attack #15 - Mystic Sky Flame
  • Attack #16 - Flying Flame + 2 * 1 AP basic attack
If you’ve gotten really bad damage rolls, you’re now set for another Mystic Sky Flame if you manage to survive one Ziyin turn.

Uncertainties:
  • Moves during Phase 1 kill with crits, but it’s not overly common (about 1/4 of fights for me)
  • It is possible to roll high on damage for initial rounds and enter Phase 2 before Defend #2. This will invalidate most of the strategy afterwards, but fortunately it should be rare. (maybe 2-3 times total during my entire time fighting)
  • It is also possible to consistently low roll damage and be unable to finish the fight by the time Attack #16 is done. If so, you need to luck out on one or two of Ziyin’s turns to close it out. (never happened to me but it’s possible)

Alternatives:
  • With zero Nine-Heron Incenses, you can focus on reducing DEX while attempting to defend every attack. Just remember that out of three things (DEX debuff, attack, defend) you can only do two.
  • With one Nine-Heron Incense you can do something between these two. Best spot for incense is when Ziyin goes equal turns with you, which can happen even when you have DEX advantage. Don’t waste it on turns where he has forced basic attack though.
  • Nine-Heron Incense can be used to survive Visionary Hollow Sword, allowing a strategy where 2nd round of Phase 2 you instead defend and refresh resources, buffs, and debuffs, before committing to the end.


There are many other possible strategies and abilities I did not consider or experiment with, but this worked out very consistently for me.

Fights:
  • Master Ziyin: 0 EXP

Eventually he will go down, and with him, one of the biggest challenges of this run. Onwards towards the finale!
B - Preparation - Penglai
Continue story until all that is left is Penglai.
  • Prepare everyone (or at least your main team) with the best armor available using the material trading. Don’t forget Qingxue’s even if she’s not present right now.
  • Modify weapons that can be modified in Qinchuan
  • Trade for few Nine-Heron Incenses from White Emperor City grocer if you didn’t already
  • Make sure you have enough of other useful items e.g. debuffs / buffs, Beggar Chicken, First-Class Tofu

Once all the preparations are done, check your EXP and how much you have until average 40.

Onwards to Penglai!

Penglai

In the entrance area, be careful with the monster few islands in that sets movement reversal on you and zooms at you. It will zoom to the location where it noticed you, so if you quickly switch your input it can be avoided. The battle can be escaped too but it can be a real party crasher.

Another similar one in the back half of the first area inside the Penglai Kingdom itself, and it is even more difficult to avoid. Approach slowly from either left or right side of the road, dodge to the other side when it jumps at you, and run past when it’s going back to it’s position. Wait for the debuff to pass beyond the range, before attempting to pass the Fey Disciple soon after, because the debuff will run out next to them and may mess you up.

If you get into either of the fights with these mini-boss groups, you are better of killing everyone but one enemy (be careful), and only then attempting running. Otherwise it’s never happening due to how terrible the escaping is. Although frankly, it’s never happening either way, good grief.

In North Zone, you will need to destroy couple walls during your path. Make sure to have enough clearance from enemies when doing so, and don’t rush into the destroyed walls before they disappear or you may encounter a bug that requires reload.

If you feel like you will need it, grab the save point from the North Zone. It should be accessible via taking the first left when you arrive at the central area. The other end of the left side is guarded by Taotie though (don't fight it), so it's a bit roundabout.

In any case, push until you encounter Darkcloud Gallopsky, our last mandatory fight.

For such an epic name it’s fortunately quite a pushover even underleveled. If you want to play it safe, Xiang Ling with two DEX accessories will start and keep ahead of it throughout, guaranteeing Bingyi in Cloud for every enemy turn. You can likely just go full offense without any problems though.

It keeps spawning NPCs related to your party members. I’m not sure if they actually do anything if left alone (the fight barely lasts long enough to find out), but you can clear them by throwing any attack item at them with the related team member.

Fights:
  • Darkcloud Gallopsky: 8250 EXP

Right after the boss there are couple deer enemies along a narrow path, that can be very tricky to avoid (ice spirit from far enough helps). If you still have sufficient EXP buffer until level 40, you can fight them both.

If not, you might want to do a quick backtrack to North Zone save point just to guarantee your progress before the nimble business. After those enemies there are wide roads and a save point soon after.

Before continuing to the Palace Mountain, carefully use up the rest of the EXP buffer to level your team, but don't overshoot. You don't need to squeeze absolutely everything to be able to beat the final boss.


Final status:
  • Baili Tusu: Level 41
  • Fang Lansheng: Level 36
  • Feng Qingxue: Level 39
  • Hong Yu: Level 36
  • Xiang Ling: Level 39
  • Yin Qianshang: Level 47
  • Total: 238

After farming enough for your needs, enter and climb the Palace Mountain. It’s time for the final showdown.
B - Finale
Shaogong fight has two fights and three phases.

Phase 1

Honestly, the first phase is more so tedious than threatening. The only move you need to be careful around is Relics of Mount Yao which does high AoE.
  • Keep his DEX debuffed and you will be mostly faster
  • After each Relics of Mount Yao, revive who died and cast Bingyi in Cloud to have time to recover
  • You can use high damage abilities, but try to accumulate resources towards the end. You want to be in tiptop shape for the actual challenging fight, not to mention it starts with a damage check. Don't slow too much though as he puts a consistent per-turn heal buff on himself when low.
  • If you finish with Tusu dead, he starts at 1 HP for the second phase, helping with damage. You cannot lose HP with Self-Destruction in the damage check so you need to set it up if you want it. I found Flaming Bloodbath to be a bit buggy in the damage check, but at least you will get the % ATK increase regardless.

Phase 2 - Damage Check

After the warmup is the real show. Shaogong starts with the huge damage check, where you need to do at least 20% of his health while he has additional resistances up. If you fail, he wipes you.

Countdown is his turns, so buff yourself, debuff him, and use everything you can to prevail. All abilities that don’t count as physical or elemental damage perform excellently here, seemingly bypassing a lot of his increased resistance.

Some damage check plans:
  • 1.A. Qingxue: start with Burying the Moon (Cold Moon + Waning Moon) to give him every stat debuff. Afterwards you can switch to someone else for better burst, e.g. Xiang Ling or Hong Yu. Can also go for best spells or buff the other two instead.
  • 1.B. Xiang Ling: Divine Fox Illusion all the way - if you’re lucky it does more damage per turn than anything else, but well, that’s a big if… afterwards, switch back to Qingxue
  • 1.C. Hong Yu: Morning Bell on Tusu. For own damage, all highest nukes or combination spells will do.
  • Tusu: Self-Destruction does a lot more than anything else in his kit for this, maybe due to damage types. It is also low resource cost which is great
  • Qianshang: Universe in Flagon (Drink A Toast + Rock Stacking) is the highest damage. Afterwards use whatever highest damage your resources can muster

I personally went with Qingxue - Xiang Ling switch and it worked great.

Shaogong will not stop the damage check phase early even if you clear the threshold, meaning you can get fair bunch of free damage in if you’re strong.

Phase 2 - until 50%

Shaogong is not only stronger generally in all stats, but also has a lot more dangerous moveset with high damage AoE. Otherwise this “phase” is fairly unremarkable however, and regular Bingyi in Cloud abuse will make it a cakewalk.

After 50% there is a scene - time for the phase 3!

Phase 3 - last 50%

Shaogong gets yet again more threatening. His most powerful moves can one-shot even Qianshang if they crit.

This time there are also actually several gimmicks to know.
  • He removes immunity from someone random every turn.
  • He has destructible part now. I don’t know what it does, but I did crack it.
  • If Tusu is down on Shaogong’s turn, he seems to get a lot stronger

Perhaps rather unexpectedly, the fight is not that difficult despite everything, it just takes ages to clear. The usual things will do just fine:
  • Keep Qingxue at Bingyi in Cloud or debuffing. Make sure she has mana
  • Tusu should rock Self-Destruction pretty much the entire fight. It’s the best DPS for sustained damage, and your resources will last the entire fight.
  • Qianshang should switch between nukes, accumulating SP for them, and helping Qingxue.


神策天师 - Good Military Counsellor
The average level of the team is below level 40 when the game is completed.


Achievement pops after credits finish.

With this, you have triumphed over the hardest challenge in the game, spanning the entire playthrough! The rest is relaxing and satisfying cleanup in comparison.


Next section, starting with cleanup.
C - Cleanup (1/2)
To start the cleanup, reload your latest save before the final boss (or maybe somewhere slightly earlier for more convenient location). We have roughly two goals:
  • Clear all Chivalrous Board missions
  • Get level 60 on everyone (level 60 requires 1049610 EXP)

In practice, we will first push to 60 and then clean everything on the board. If you want a break from EXP grinding, checking in on the board in the middle (maybe around 50-55) is fine too for a breather, but most things in there don't give a lot of experience.

All of this will take fairly long while not being very exciting for most of it either, but start a movie or something and zone out for a bit, and it will be done soon enough.

Rotate your party members occasionally - benched people only get 70% of the EXP.


Preparation

First things first, put a Coral Necklace on for extra EXP. It gives everyone +30% experience. It does not stack, but it does work from reserves, so put it on someone benched for a free boost.

If you don’t have one, you will have to reload to before the Dark City to exchange one from Dragonsilk Palace. It costs 15 Sea Crystals and 15 Crimson Crystals.

Hopefully you did get one when I mentioned it earlier though.


Up to level 50

For the initial EXP grind the targets don’t matter that much, as everything in Penglai gives a ton of EXP at this point. The blue Flying Deers are an easy recommendation though, as they are not particularly dangerous but give the most EXP I believe. With Coral Necklace on, pair of them will give 17550 EXP. You can find them in the first and last Penglai Kingdom areas (West Zone and East Zone respectively).

Any strong AoEs (or just nukes in general if fighting lone targets) are going to make your life easier when grinding. Getting Tusu to 1 HP (finish a fight with him dead, use Self-Destruction without healing if needed) gives you access to a massive Flaming Bloodbath in every fight, as long as you sustain your SP using Boqi. This setup should one-shot whatever you will be fighting for now, making the grind a lot quicker.


Levels 50-55

Other Penglai enemies gradually stop yielding beyond 1 EXP, but Flying Deers still give alright experience up until around level 55 average. Still, during these levels you want to slowly transition to the below strategy, depending on how strong you are.


Levels 55-59

From level 56 onward Flying Deers no longer give EXP. At this point - if not earlier - you will want to switch to one of the respawning mini-bosses:
  • Qiongqi on the central elevated structure of South Zone
  • Taotie near the end of North Zone

Both are near save points and give around 20-30k EXP all the way to 59. I personally preferred Taotie because once you're strong enough, you can hit up the nearby portal back and forth for a new spawn instead of the save point, which was by far the fastest way to farm.

Qianshang is great addition for damage. Universe in Flagon for example does, with good crits, about the same on single target as 1 HP Flaming Bloodbath does.

Once your party average hits level 59, Taotie and Qiongqi stop giving experience as well. At this point it is time to leave Penglai and return to the Chivalrous Board.


这还不够 - Not Enough
Complete the 4 new tasks on Chivalrous Board in the DLC “Old Story of Tianyong”.


Requires clearing the DLC first.

There are four level 55 boss fight tasks on the board:
  • Civilian Tasks: Wolf Howling at Night
  • Civilian Tasks: Deep love can’t last long
  • Anecdotes: Look For Blade
  • Anecdotes: Gentlemen’s Friends

Although at high level they are doable in general, Qianshang performs excellently if you’re having trouble. He’s beefy and hits insanely hard, so with lifesteal accessory he can solo the fights if need be. Half of the enemies mostly heal him too.


修炼有成 - Good cultivation
All characters except Han Yunxi have reached level 60.


Using the above commissions, push for the last bit until all five members are level 60. Achievement pops on victory screen as the levels are announced.

I presume Qingxue does not count due to not being present. I did mention elsewhere already though that she seems to follow the party average one way or another. In any case, after all this she will also be level 60 when you eventually arrive at the final boss again - or was for me at least.


After the EXP grind, it is time for the Chivalrous Board grind.
C - Cleanup (2/2)
With level 60 under our belt, most anything on the board is going to be pretty easy. Maybe a bit shame, but at least it saves time. Most of the tasks were there during the first playthrough anyways.

Start with the Anecdotes to get the setup for “No Make Up” - see below.


返璞归真 - Original Simplicity
Obtain the original outfits of all characters.


今夕何夕 - Wonderful Time
Get all the outfits that can be obtained in the game except DLC.


素面朝天 - No Make Up
The characters on the field wear the default outfits and win 10 combats.


“Original Simplicity” is half of “Wonderful Time”, with the other half inside the “Mysterious Bag” you can find in your auxiliary items in NG+ after prologue.

Original outfit is an outfit that provides same visuals as having no outfit. Not sure what the point is, but I digress. In any case, all of them can be gained as rewards from the Anecdotes commissions NG+ onwards. Qingxue’s is also automatically gained every playthrough when entering Penglai Kingdom.
  • Qingxue: automatically equipped by her once you get her back in the end of the game. Note that she will already be considered for the progress once you enter Penglai Kingdom, even though she is not visible in the team (thus the achievements open and “Original Simplicity” shows 16%)
  • Tusu: commission “Gluttonous Creature”
  • Lansheng: commission “Legend of Youth”
  • Hong Yu: commission “Crisis in Green Dragon Town”
  • Xiang Ling: commission “Friends From Afar 2”
  • Qianshang: commission “Friends From Afar 3”
  • Qingxue: also from commission “Friends From Afar 4”

“No Make Up” only cares for the active three members, so once you have that much, equip them, adjust your active party, and fight few times for the achievement.


龙星秘闻 - Aurogon Secrets
Complete the new “Aurogon Secrets” series tasks on Chivalrous Board in the “Floating Lanterns” DLC.

Requires clearing the DLC first.

There are six new commissions, Aurogon Secrets 1-6, under the category of same name. They consist of re-fights with story bosses.


武林英雄 - Kongfu Hero
Complete the tasks of “Death is predetermined” on the Chivalrous Board.


The fluff text in Chivalrous Board is “Life-Death Contract”, but in any case these are the commissions with green titles. NG+ adds few commissions to this category. Some we already cleared as part of earlier achievements.

Last one will likely be the Big Boy level 60 commission ”Ancient Monster 3” against Taotie · Awake. At the very least, it feels most apt to leave it as the last one.

This ultimate Taotie actually hits like a freight train (3k+ AoE and 2k+ basic attacks), but since the AoE is once again fire, Qianshang can solo if a bit lucky. Bingyi in Cloud can return to the spotlight if needed too.


隐秘 - Secrets
Complete all the tasks on Chivalrous Board, including the 2nd time playthrough tasks.


You might get this achievement before you’re actually done with all the tasks, because achievement progress persists between saves, but does not know the details of what you have actually completed. This can lead to “duplicate” progress from commissions.

In any case, if you complete all the commissions you will also gain this along the way.


满载而归 - Harvest a lot
Obtain over 10000 coins in a single combat.


A quick setup is needed for this one.

First, grab Ruyi Ribbon from Spring Village exchange for 5 Sea Crystals and 2 Fox Fans. It doubles the money gained after a battle. Similar to Coral Necklace, it doesn’t stack but can be in reserves.

In battle, make sure every enemy is metallized when you kill them. This yields a lot more gold (I think it bases on their health). Hong Yu’s ultimate metal spell Kylin Night will metallize the target, which is very useful for this - no need to farm No-Parting Candies.

There are multiple different late game fights / commissions that can be used for this, but I found ”Overseas Immortal Items 3” to be convenient, since there are only two enemies.

At this point it’s a bit late, but this can be a good way to farm money too. Oh well.

Achievement is gained upon leaving the victory screen.


情比金坚 - Golden Friendship
Trigger support events 30 times during combat.


Support events are when one characters defends another being attacked.
  • It can only happen when the target is actually in danger (e.g. low HP, would die to the attack)
  • It only happens against basic attacks (like parrying)
  • Higher favorability increases the chances of it happening

Obvious setup is therefore:
  1. Get most of the team killed in some fight that packs a punch but can be soloed by someone (e.g. Qianshang with some of the level 55 commissions)
  2. Once you have a full team of 1 HP, hop on to some area with enemies that mostly basic attack and don’t have AoE (e.g. bandits or early game beast-type enemies)
  3. Remove all healing and lifesteal from everyone
  4. Save game every now and then
  5. Let yourself to be sneaked upon from behind (or just walk backwards) so the enemies start
  6. Hope some events are triggered during the initial attacks
  7. Escape
  8. Rinse and repeat

Personally I used the Red Pepper enemies in Red Leaf Lake. I don’t think they even have moves other than the basic attack. Took maybe 20 mins for the 50% progress I was missing.

Alternatively (especially if you haven’t done anything for favorability this playthrough), you can get some good progress in the DLC “Old Story of Tianyong” once you arrive in Red Leaf Lake. Enemies basic attack a lot, you are weak enough to feel it, and the (not visible) favorability among your party seems pretty high based on the chance of the events happening.

In any case, it actually doesn’t take that long with a good setup, fortunately.


事不过三 - Not more than three times
Immortal Gambling appears in three consecutive combats.


This gauntlet of EXP grinding, re-clearing commissions and all other cleanup has been the best chance for this to happen. If it didn’t, now is the time for the painful part.

Best way to grind is probably either
  • 1st commission
  • Deep end of the Mausoleum with the immediately respawning terracotta enemies

For the commission grind you can also utilize the automation script I made (see section “Appendix - Automation Script”).

Purely depending on luck, this could take anywhere between 30 minutes and 10 hours (or more, really). Statistically speaking not having gained it this far in the game after maybe 1000-2000 fights is probably already an outlier, so surely it’s not going to take that long anymore, right?


Next up, the three remaining achievements.
C - Other Finale Challenges
Final boss for the final three times. Make sure to have all the best gear and enough items to help you along the way.

Before running all the way to the end of Penglai, check also the first challenge below to see if some shopping is needed.

I gained the other achievements just fine, but based on the issues gaining “Let it all hang out”, it is possible similar conditions apply to the others as well.


铜剑江湖 - Bronze Sword to the End
Defeat the final BOSS with the lowest level weapon equipped by the characters on the field.

For this challenge, everyone needs to equip their initial weapons (which can fortunately be regained if needed). These are the weapons you need:
  • Baili Tusu: Brass Sword
  • Fang Lansheng: Rosewood Buddha Beads
  • Feng Qingxue: Iron Scythe
  • Hong Yu: Lovebirds Dual Sword
  • Xiang Ling: Colorful Silk Fan
  • Yin Qianshang: Clipped Iron

Qianshang’s is sold in Green Dragon Town, while the rest of the team can find new stock in Qinchuan.

At level 60 and full armor the boss is not dangerous and the biggest pain point is having enough damage for the damage check. With the help of skills it’s manageable though.

Specific highlight is once again Xiang Ling with Divine Fox Illusion that barely suffers from the lowered ATK, if at all. With a bit of luck she will help clear the damage check with flying colors. After that, the fight is basically won already, just takes a fair while to arrive at the results.

For some funny reason, this achievement is actually gained immediately upon reducing Shaogong’s health to 0, even though the fight doesn’t even end before he takes his next turn for the scripted finish.


你忘了什么…… - You forget something……
All characters don’t activate their Astrototem when the game is completed.


As described, reset everyone’s Astrototem at the last save point. While Qingxue’s could also be reseted once she joins, hers doesn’t count, so definitely fill in what unused points she has and put her in the team. Tusu and Qianshang are probably best options for the rest of the team, as both have story-bestowed strong skills and do good damage with basic attacks.

Much like the above challenge, Shaogong doesn’t pose much of a threat and even basic attacks can pass the damage check, making this pretty easy challenge.

Achievement is gained after credits end.


无牵挂 - Let it all hang out
The characters on the field only equip weapons and defeat the final BOSS.


Achievement seems slightly buggy or there are unstated requirements. Might be that Tusu must be in the active party or that wiping a team invalidates the achievement, but on first clear I wiped my main team and Tusu wasn’t in when I finished. Didn’t gain the achievement. Second time I cleared with Tusu and without wipes and it popped.

Final challenge, and toughest out of this bunch. With all your gear gone, there’s real threat of one-shots again. The bigger problem though is the big loss in speed. Shaogong often takes double turns, quickly escalating mechanics like the per-turn heal in Phase 1 end or the damage check in Phase 2. Keep debuffing his DEX at all times.

With both weapons and skills still at play, your damage itself is at least still pretty competent. No need to push it - other than the specific mechanics, you’re best off playing it safe with Bingyi in Cloud (or two). After all, any damage or debuff - especially the confusion - can hurt a lot more when you don’t have the speed advantage to deal with them. If a healer gets downed, you might be looking at a wipe.

Just like “Bronze Sword to the End”, the achievement is gained immediately once Shaogong’s health reaches 0.


That’s all folks! With these challenges done, everything in the game should be done. Time for the curtains on this journey. Hope you enjoyed it!
DLC: Ancient Sword Spirit
This DLC gives a glimpse into the past of Hong Yu.


千古剑灵 - Ancient Sword Soul
Start the plot of “Ancient Sword Soul”.


Gained at the end of the first scene in the smithy.


往事如风 - Past is like wind
In the DLC “Ancient Sword Soul”, talk with 20 NPCs in the scene.


Once you gain control in Anlu, go around and talk to NPCs. Should come pretty easily, there are way more than 20 NCPs in the city.


百鬼夜行 - Haunted Night
In Hong Yu’s DLC “Ancient Sword Soul”, win the combats for 10 times.


Once night arrives in Anlu, there will be enemies roaming around. Fight and win 10 times for the achievement.

If you’re having trouble, the yard far west from the inn has a lone Huashe which is likely the easiest fight in town. It tends to heal itself after being damaged, and drops healing items.


影煞 - Shadow Assassins
In Hong Yu's DLC "Ancient Sword Soul", defeat the special elite monster in the scene.


Not a fun achievement unfortunately. You might have seen the assassin swordsman type enemy running very quickly around the city - that’s your target.

It spawns in the yard of the inn initially and starts running from there. Sometimes it's invisible for some buggy reasons, but it's always there. Do not save inside the yard entrance. I almost soft-locked myself into the encounter (enemy always spawned right in front of me on load) but fortunately the battle can be escaped.

To cut the chase though, you will need to level up for this fight. Enemies of the area are tough compared to their poor EXP unfortunately. I recommend at least 32 or 33 before the boss fight is reasonable. Maximum level that can be reached is higher, but it takes a long while. Personally I won the fight at level 33.

Before getting into the grinding part, make sure you have at least these couple treasures from the city:
  • Day: Coral Necklace (increased EXP) - back of the large yard opposite of the pawnshop
  • Night: Swallow Dart * 3 (attack item) - near the southern city entrance
  • Night: Coin Shrimp Cake * 2 (mid heal + DEF + LUC) - southeastern estate

If you missed the EXP necklace during the day, just re-do the DLC. Better to use maybe 15 minutes to re-explore the DLC up till now than 1-2 hours additional in grinding EXP.

With that done, time to grind a bit. Overall this took me about 3 hours.

Level 30 → 31
Time: ~40 minutes, depending on how much you fought during exploration
Fight the enemy just southeast of the northwest healing spot while healing between each fight. It is Huashe + two Buried Beasts. Takes about 2.5 - 3 minutes per round with the running.
  • Kill Huashe with two rounds of SP skill + 1 AP attack. It barely takes damage from metal spells.
  • Buried Beasts die to two casts of ”Flashing Sword”. You have MP for three, so use 3 * 1 AP attacks for the rest to restore some SP
  • Run back to heal point, save, reload. Rinse and repeat

If you’re struggling, the lone Huashe in the earlier western yard is also an option, but it will take a lot longer. It will also only drop health items, missing the mana items that the beasts drop. Both may come into use later.

Level 31 → 32
Time: ~60 minutes
Do the same as above.

Level 32 → 33
Time: ~60 minutes
EXP gained seems reduced, but we can keep up the pace by moving locations. With the help of the health / mana recovery items we have accumulated, we can take the fight next to the pawnshop.

Fight the two groups of Painting Maids near the pawnshop. We can now consistently and sustainably kill one maid before they take action, so the confusion debuff of their attacks isn’t as big of a problem. Even if you get permanently confused by the second maid, you can beat it without dying.

Takes about 3 minutes for the two fights in each cycle.
  • Kill one Painting Maid with two rounds of SP skill + 1 AP attack. Use higher SP as needed.
  • Kill the other one using 3 * 1 AP attacks only, to sustain SP.
  • Same for the other enemy group. Heal as needed. Save & reload, rinse and repeat.
Depending on your mana item resources, you can also just keep spamming “Lightning” + 1 AP attack to kill all maids in two rounds (use higher power abilities as needed), since the animations are faster.

Level 33 → 34

I won the challenge at 33 so cannot offer much personal experience, but same leveling spot will do well. Curiously, I got more experience than at level 32, but not complaining.

Level 34 → 35

At this point Painting Maid joins the enemies that no longer give EXP. Best farming spot is likely the fenced area northeast of the pawnshop, with the Rain Madam. It is also relatively easy to sneak attack which is convenient. Use ”Flashing Sword” on the scorpion but not on the Rain Madam as it heals from metal. Refresh mana with your item stock.

The Fight

The fight is kind of ass, but with our leveling it should now be manageable. There are few key parts:
  • It’s 1 vs. 2 and they are about as fast as you. In fact unless you sneak attack they start the fight until you’re 32, which is basically a death sentence.
  • If they cast “Ghost Hellfire”, the fight is over. It one-shots until about 33-34 when not defending, and it’s not possible to keep defending when you only have one turn. Even if you survive, you’re better off running / dying and restarting, unless you’re already about to win.
  • They only take 1 damage per hit from metal damage, rendering all your spells useless.
  • They have high chance of counterattack, so all damage you do is instantly retaliated, making it hard to withstand their following turns.
  • Keep enough health to survive anything else except “Ghost Hellfire”, which can be ignored (just hoping it doesn’t happen). This means that even as little as 200 HP per enemy can be enough just fine.
  • If you cannot kill one of them before you need to heal, might as well restart. It’s barely possible to keep up healing against the two of them, so it will just uphold a losing cycle until ”Ghost Hellfire” happens.

Before fighting, fill your resource bars (including SP) and change your accessories for combat. My strategy was as follows, at level 33:
  • To avoid getting counterattacked, start by using your three “Swallow Darts” on one of them.
  • This should put him low enough to be killed with 26 SP + 1 AP.
  • Depending on your and the enemy’s health:
  • A. keep pushing pure damage with 26 SP + 1 AP. Should do about 1/3 of their health.
  • B. use “Coin Shrimp Cake” for heal + DEF + LUC
  • C. use “One-Hit-Dizzy Cake” for minor damage and dizziness for one enemy turn
  • If you haven’t used C by the time the enemy is about 1/3 or bit above, you can try C -> A to finish it unimpeded.

With a bit of luck and persistence, it will happen.


远眺 - Overlook
Complete all the plot of “Ancient Sword Soul”.


Gained after completing the last scenes, right before the return to main menu.
DLC: Old Story of Tianyong
This DLC gives a glimpse into Tusu’s past with Tianyong as well as the future of the sect after the main story.


少年游 - Youth Travel
Complete 2 small tasks in the DLC ‘Old Story of Tianyong’.


There are only two side quests in Red Leaf Lake; both need to be completed.

Minor Punishment
  • Before the first main story marker, during the north-eastern stretch, there’s a spot with a visual effect emitting on the right. Interact with it to talk with Fenglan and start the quest
  • Deliver 7 Peach Pits (drops from monkeys) to complete the quest

Lost Bracelet
  • After passing the bridge with scene QTE, continue straight ahead instead of the story marker
  • Beyond another bridge and a Stone Giant is a little girl Teng Xiaofeng who will give you the quest
  • Defeat the nearby Big Grass Ball and talk to her again to complete the quest


再次打倒熊 - Beat bear again
In the DLC “Old Story of Tianyong”, defeat the special elite monster in the scene.


After Lingduan is taken away by the Snake Beauty, do not go into the portal yet. Instead, look to the left to see the good ol’ bear - defeat it to gain the achievement.

With some levels under your belt it’s not that tough of a fight surprisingly, but I recommend using Cloud Immortal Wine to save before the fight, after clearing the area otherwise. Would suck having to re-do from before the scene QTE due to the sparsity of save points. You can find three wines in a chest on the left after the scene QTE bridge.

Do not save on the same slot though. If you end up struggling and want to level, that’s not possible beyond the scene QTE bridge.


它们是被迫的 - They’re forced.
In the Boss battle of the DLC “Old Story of Tianyong”, kill less than 5 monsters summoned by the Boss.

The Snake Beauty boss keeps spawning ads every single turn. Kill less than 5 of them to net the achievement. Killing some of them using AoE is definitely recommendable though, because the boss won’t necessarily go down before the sheer numbers start to overwhelm you.

The fight is actually quite tough (but fun). What types of ads the boss spawns may affect a lot. Don’t forget to debuff the boss. DEX is crucial (reduces not only attacks but the spawns), while DEF debuff will help in bursting her down. The (at the time of me playing) untranslated Fu Qu skill “Taoist Truth Sword” is also excellent - it buffs everyone’s ATK and DEF.

The cave is great for leveling up (good EXP and a healing spot) which makes the fight a lot more manageable. I defeated the challenge all the way at level 26.

Achievement will pop once you enter the following cutscene, not instantly.


忆君如梦 - Recall You in Dream
Complete all the plot of DLC ‘Old Story of Tianyong’.


Gained on completing the DLC, right before the return to main menu.
DLC: Flying Lanterns
This DLC handles Lansheng and Miss Sun a fair bit after the main story.


Points of interest:
  • there are nine letters in the post
  • there is an actual grocery shop
  • there are quests (see “Don’t ask the past.”)
  • In this DLC you have an important unique skill “奶娘！！” with which you summon the grumpy nanny from the Sun family to fight alongside you. Not only is it amazingly useful and powerful, but it is also related to an achievement (see “You’re too noisy!”).


莫问前尘 - Don’t ask the past.
Description


Not all quests relate to the achievement but I’ll list them all here anyways.

Quest from the Qinchuan bridge
  • talk to the lady on the bridge west of the weapon shop. She will ask you a question, answer the 2nd option (蜜蜂)
  • talk to the lady again to continue the quest
  • talk to the old woman at the south end of the southeast sector to complete the quest

Quest from the Qinchuan tea stall - Don’t ask the past
  • Talk to the man dressed in brown at the tea stall. He will ask you four question, answer the following:
  • 1. 4th option (眭)
  • 2. 2nd option (不倒翁)
  • 3. 4th option (员外探花)
  • 4. 5th option (晋国天下莫强焉)
  • talk to the man again for even more questions:
  • 1. 1st option (西北)
  • 2. 3rd option (连累二姐)
  • 3. 2nd option (枯魂缠)
  • After arriving in Misty Mountain Stream, run to the hidden cave entrance nearby, at the turn where a save point used to be. Close enough to the wall will cause it to open.
  • Go to the end of the cave to find a treasure chest
  • Open the chest to complete the quest and gain the achievement.

Quest from a monkey in a tree
  • Soon after the place where we first met Qingxue, there is a monkey in the tree along the path. Talk to it to start the quest
  • Continue until you see couple of the fluffy enemies sitting under a tree to the left of the path. Defeat them to continue the quest
  • Return to the monkey to complete the quest


你烦不烦 - You’re too noisy!
In the DLC expansion “Floating Lanterns”, let Nanny Sun participate in 10 battles.


Your unique 30 SP ability “奶娘！！” summons the Nanny Sun to fight alongside you. She has four moves:
  • 5 AP attack
  • 1st skill: AoE multi-hit, small damage
  • 2nd skill: charms(?) an enemy, small damage
  • 3rd skill: charms(?) an enemy, good damage

Nothing costs resources beyond AP, so just go ham with whatever you need (which is almost always the third skill).

Make sure you always have enough SP to summon, since it’s not only progress with the achievement, but will help with the fights substantially. In fact, Lansheng pretty much cannot survive most fights alone, especially in Fanyun Stronghold.

After ten summons, the achievement will be gained.


不想扫地 - No sweeping
In the DLC expansion “Floating Lanterns”, defeat the special elite monster in the scene.


This time the special elite enemy is in Fanyun Stronghold in front of the ominous stone door to the secret laboratory thingy with poisonous air back in the very early game. Talk to the ruffian to initiate the battle, and kick his ass to net the achievement.

Lansheng’s 22 SP + 7 MP combination ability will make short work of him, dealing about 3000 damage per round.


For the boss of the DLC, nuke the lackey with everything you’ve got (two ultimate wood arts will do it for example), and she isn’t that threatening herself. “Freezing” is great sustainable damage, dealing about 2400 per 18 MP from two casts in a round. Nanny should be summoned as well, of course.


放灯 - Float the Lantern
Complete all the plot of DLC ‘Floating Lanterns’.


Once more an achievement gained upon finishing the DLC.
DLC: Drink and Dream
This DLC covers some of Qianshang's past with Shaogong.

Additional points of interest:
  • Once you arrive in White Emperor City, there are whopping 8 letters in the post. Without translation I couldn't tell whether they are related to something else later in the DLC, but don’t forget them. Some have items too anyhow


家长里短 - Small Household Affairs
Complete all the small tasks in DLC ‘Drink and Dream’.


There are 5 small tasks total.

Cooking Issues
  • in the beginning in Qingyu Sect, talk to Wang Chuyin on the lower level east of the portal out to start the quest
  • gather Mushroom, Goji Berry and Day Lily for him
  • Mushroom is right next to him
  • Goji Berry is just east of the main story marker - take care not to trigger it
  • Day Lily is to the right of the main hall, at the beginning of the narrower path
  • give them to Wang to complete the quest

Xiaobao’s Silver Comb
  • during White Emperor City daytime, talk to the kid Nie Xiaobao just south of where the grocery store would be to start the quest
  • on the lower level, somewhat directly south of the kid, is a gate in a wall. There is a treasure in the gap inside the wall - open it for the silver comb
  • deliver the comb to complete the quest
  • rewards include this DLC’s Coral Necklace

Assassin Under Moon
  • during White Emperor City nighttime, talk to the Bai Murong at the bottom of the stairs to the southern section to start the quest
  • Defeat all three Shadow Assassins in the scene. They are static and easy to sneak attack. They are also in general less tough than in “Ancient Sword Soul”, and actually escape eventually below 50%, so there isn’t even a need to kill them (I did kill the third going all in though so can’t confirm all the way through). Can splurge on MP spells - there is a heal point after all.
  • 1. short way from the quest giver in the southern section, just south of the western stairs leading up a level
  • 2. south of Mingliang Hall on the lower ledge, where Hong Yu dialogue is in White Emperor City
  • 3. other side of the same level as 2
  • talk to Bai Murong again to complete the quest

I need meat!
  • during White Emperor City nighttime, talk to the dragon baby Do-Not-Ask-Who-I-Am who is in front of the building east from the bottom of the stairs to the southern section
  • Greedy little bugger wants a lot of meat, but they’re all pretty near:
  • Beggar Chicken is on the left side of the same building
  • 20 Ham can be found from the beach to the southeast
  • 10 Coin Shrimp Cakes are right where Xiaobao for the quest “Xiaobao’s Silver Comb” was, near where the city’s grocery store would be
  • 5 Yuanbao Meat can be found south-southwest towards the piers, at the end of wall rubble

The spicier the better
  • during White Emperor City nighttime, talk to the dragon baby Do-Not-Ask-Who-I-Am again after completing “I need meat!”
  • First, answer three questions correctly. Wait, what do you mean the answers aren’t translated?? Positions seemed consistent, but I will also include the Chinese for each answer.
  • 1. 3rd option (十三)
  • 2. 1st option (时序)
  • 3. 4th option (麻吕)
  • Afterwards, find and fight the Super Chili Pepper in the far left of the beach, on a ledge to the south side of the structure there
  • Return to the dragon baby to finish the task


最恨影煞 - Hate Shadow Assassins
In the DLC “Drink and Dream”, eliminate all the “Shadow Assassins” in the scene.


Achieved on finishing the third fight. Will come as part of the quest “Assassin Under Moon”.


After doing everything in White Emperor City, you actually need to leave the city and fast travel to Qingyu Sect. With no translations I was a bit lost for a moment.

In Qingyu Sect, there are now treasures on both floors. For the main quest, you need to go to the upper level to find the marker.

At the end, you fight a Toxic Corpse. Tedious and annoying fight with too much health, where your success mostly depends on how much the boss uses “Corpse King Roar”, an AoE nuke that can poison. Seemed to use it a lot at low HP. Destroying the mouth should really disable that move, but never mind I guess.

You’re best off conserving resources first, preferably coming in with a lot of SP already. Approaching the lower HPs, debuff boss DEX / ATK, buff everything for yourself with Refreshing Talismans and just full send it with your biggest nukes like “Drink A Toast”. Attempting to sustain the boss starting a “Corpse King Roar” spam is just not possible, it takes too many turns to shrug off the damage and effects.

After the fight there is a scene QTE for a finisher. It’s easier QTE than the late game ones, and I don’t know if failing means re-doing the fight, but best keep your wits about anyways.


云音泛天 - Echoing in the Clouds
Complete the plot of ‘Drink and Dream’.


Gained at the very end, before returning to main menu.
Appendix - Endgame Weapons (1/2)
This is part 1/2 of appendix covering some of the best weapons for each character and how to get them

Carrying over weapons to NG+ via Homestead is important for the low level challenge, but this information can prove otherwise useful too.

Qinchuan offers many different modifications for weapons, but most of the time lifesteal is the best one - offense and defense in one package is hard to beat.

Baili Tusu

Best weapons: Fenji, Nirvana, Red Lotus Suffer, Bloodthirsty
Final battle: Fenji
Homestead: Nirvana, Red Lotus Suffer or Bloodthirsty, based on preference

Tusu actually has multiple options that all work just fine depending on the preference between raw power and utility. Fenji has the most power and is automatically gained, so keeping it for the finale and sending one of the others to NG+ is likely the best choice.

Fenji

The most raw power, but also has stat drawbacks. Can be modified in Qinchuan.

Will be automatically gained as part of the story.

Nirvana

Second-highest damage. Increased parry chance. Cannot be modified in Qinchuan.

It is worth noting that Nirvana is available surprisingly early on a playthrough, so it may not benefit much from being put into Homestead.

Exchange from Peach Blossom Valley:
  • Aurogon Coin (5): various sources, should have easily enough
  • Five-colored Feather (9): Five-color Bird - commission "Pirate 2"
  • Celestial River (1): see below

Celestial River is exchanged from Jiangdu:
  • Dust Heart (8): Dust Spirit - commission "Guangling Affairs 3"
  • Jade Sword Hilt (8): Jr. Disciple of Tianyong - Male - commission "Fey Troubles 2"
  • Jade Buckle (8): Jr. Disciple of Tianyong - Female - commission "Fey Troubles 2"

Red Lotus Suffer

More sizeable drop in ATK, but also boosts fire and parrying. Nice middle of the road between various aspects. Cannot be modified in Qinchuan.

Exchange from White Emperor City / Green Dragon Town:
  • Bloodthirsty (1): see below
  • Red Fire Pearl (10): Fire Meteor - commission "Palace Thief 2"
  • Flame-Locking Rings (10): Flame Maiden - commission "Palace Thief 2"
  • Qingsi Horn (5): Sad Soul Bird - commission "Mechanical Wooden Bird 4"
  • Fire Claw (5): Flaming Howl - commission "Palace Thief 2"

Bloodthirsty

Lowest raw damage out of the bunch with rather large gap to the top ones, but unlike Qinchuan modifications, the healing perk is higher % and also works on skills and spells, making the sustain utility far beyond the others. Cannot be modified in Qinchuan.

Exchange from White Emperor City:
  • Flowing Moon (1): buy from White Emperor City
  • Ice Spirit (5): Ice Giant - commission "Plum Blossom in Snow 3"
  • Lion Horn (5): Cyan Lion Fey - commission "Secret Recipe"
  • Fierce Sang Claw (10): Fierce Sang - commission "Palace Thief 3"

Fang Lansheng

Best weapons: Vajra Beads
Final battle and Homestead: Vajra Beads (duplicate)

Lansheng is more of an utility / elemental character so the weapon is not as crucial. The winner is still very clear though, and it should be relatively easy to duplicate too.

Vajra Beads

Highest damage accompanied by all the different buffs his weapons have (elemental and damage against certain types). Cannot be modified in Qinchuan.

Exchange from White Emperor City / Green Dragon Town:
  • Mianqiu Beads (1): see below
  • Blue Wood Feather (1): Shuhu - story boss but can also be spawned in one of the developer fights soon after the appearance in story, maybe Orange? Ten feathers is also given as first time reward for commission "Overseas Immortal Items 2"
  • Red Veil (1): Ghost Bride - commission "Ghost Mountain Trouble 5"

Mianqiu Beads are also exchanged from White Emperor City:
  • Tridacna Beads (1): see below
  • Reverse Wings (5): Bingsi - commission "Secret Recipe"
  • Hexagonal Snowflake (10): Snowball - commission "Plum Blossom in Snow 3"
  • Dahuan Pill (10): Disciple of Qingyu Sect - commission "Old Leader of Shadow Assassins 2"

Tridacna Beads are exchanged from Qinchuan:
  • Cypress Branch (10): Mr. Straight - commission "Mechanical Wooden Bird 1"
  • Red Fire Pearl (10): Fire Meteor - commission "Palace Thief 1"
  • Rattan (6): Vine Spirit - commission "Mechanical Wooden Bird 1"

Feng Qingxue

Best weapons: West Wind,
Final battle: West Wind or anything decent for supporting
Homestead: West Wind

I didn't see much competition for Qingxue's weapon. West Wind is by far the highest damage while also providing two auxiliary effects. That being said, Qingxue's role in the final battle is likely more to support, so putting the strongest weapon in NG+ can be a good move. West Wind can also be duplicated exactly once though. Cannot be modified in Qinchuan.

Exchange from White Emperor City / Green Dragon Town:
  • Setting Sun (1): buy from White Emperor City
  • Ghost Cry String (10): Qin Lady - commission "Overseas Immortal Items 4"
  • Red Snake Staff (1): Wugu (story boss), commission "Secret Recipe" (first time reward only)
Appendix - Endgame Weapons (2/2)
Hong Yu

Best weapons: Love Sea, Gorgeous Dance
Final battle and Homestead: either way, preference

Hong Yu endgame weapons are pretty uninteresting in that they all provide same effects, just with slightly different ATK. Main difference is in having or not having modifications.

Love Sea

Highest damage. Cannot be modified in Qinchuan.

Exchange from Peach Blossom Valley:
  • Aurogon Coin (4): various sources, should have easily enough for at least one
  • Datura (10): Datura - commission "Ancient Temple 2"
  • Sea Crystal (12): Mirage - commission "East Sea Feys 1"

Gorgeous Dance

Slightly lower damage. Cannot be duplicated, since the only source for one material is a story boss. Can be modified in Qinchuan.

Exchange from White Emperor City / Green Dragon Town:
  • Moonlit Star (1): buy from White Emperor City
  • Samadhi Sky-devouring Wings (1): Taowu (story boss)
  • Sword Hairpin (2): Sword Dancer - commission "South Sea Beauty 1"

Xiang Ling

Best weapons: Vast Sea, Tumi
Final battle and Homestead: either way, preference

Xiang Ling weapons are fairly close to each other in numbers. Difference may come down to elemental preference (water / wood) or modifications.

Vast Sea

Highest damage, water element boost. Cannot be modified in Qinchuan.

Exchange from White Emperor City:
  • Tumi (1): see below
  • Fox Fan (2): Nine-tailed Fox - commission "Fey Troubles 3"
  • Gentleman Fan (2): Orchid - commission "Overseas Immortal Items 3"
  • Bluewave Glass Lantern (1): Lushu - commission "Pirate 2"

Tumi

Slightly lower damage, wood element boost. Can be modified in Qinchuan.

Exchange from White Emperor City:
  • 5-Fire 7-Bird (1): buy from White Emperor City
  • Rosy Cloud Sleeve (5): Nuchou (only available in Shore of Soul)
  • Qingsi Horn (5): Sad Soul Bird - commission "Mechanical Wooden Bird 4"

Yin Qianshang

Best weapons: Phoenix Flame
Final battle and Homestead: Phoenix Flame (duplicated for both)

Qianshang weapon choice is pretty clear.

Phoenix Flame

Highest damage by a clear margin, two very strong damage-boosting effects, and no drawbacks. It also has no limited materials, so duplication is just a matter of time (it might take a bit though). Cannot be modified in Qinchuan.

Exchange from White Emperor City / Green Dragon Town:
  • Juque (1): see below
  • Golden Dog Armour (3): Black Mutt - commission "Guanling Affairs 4"
  • Residual Candle (15): Lotus Ghost Lantern - commission "Ghost Mountain Trouble 4"

Juque is also exchanged from White Emperor City:
  • Eclipse (1): buy from White Emperor City
  • White Bear's Fur (10): White Bear - only in Mount Zhonghuang
  • Lion Horn (10): Cyan Lion Fey - commission "Secret Recipe"
Appendix - Automation: Intro
This section is to help people automate some actions with the attached script.

You will need AutoHotkey[www.autohotkey.com] to run the script. AutoHotkey is open-source scripting language for Windows for various input-based tasks. You can find more information on them from the link to their official website or just generally the internet.

Note that the script was written for AutoHotkey v2.x and may not work on older versions without minor changes. You can try to run it and it will tell you the issues one by one.

Resolution is presumed to be 1280x800. If you are running the game at different resolution, the coordinates need to be adjusted!

Below is a list of the readily automated actions for convenience.
  • ctrl+i and ctrl+b: Entire loop for “Not more than three times”
  • ctrl+shift+f: Doing a single commission for challenge run Immortal Gambling grinding
  • ctrl+shift+s: Saving the game
  • ctrl+shift+a: Basic attack first target
  • ctrl+shift+m: Mystic Sky Flame

I also added NumPad shortcuts for some actions for convenience. NumLock needs to be ON for them to work.
Appendix - Automation: Script
IMPORTANT REMINDER: Never ever run scripts you do not fully understand or trust. AutoHotkey itself is just a scripting language, but the scripts themselves can be malicious. The people - like me - writing the scripts can and will say they are safe, but if you don't understand the script, all you have is their word for it.

#Requires AutoHotkey v2.0 SetWorkingDir A_ScriptDir ; Ensures a consistent starting directory. ; relative screen coords used - 1280x800 presumed! CoordMode("Mouse", "Window") ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SlowInput(key) { ; input with delayed down - workaround for unresponsive menus ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SendInput(Format("{{1} down}", key)) ; click the button Sleep 80 ; short sleep for click to be recognized SendInput(Format("{{1} up}", key)) ; click the button } ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Click() { ; click shorthand ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SlowInput("LButton") ; send left mouse button } ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enter() { ; enter shorthand ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SlowInput("Enter") ; send enter } ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Esc() { ; esc shorthand ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SlowInput("Esc") ; send esc } ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Save() { ; open menu, save, close menu ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Esc() ; opens menu Sleep 500 ; ensure menu has loaded in MouseMove(1200, 700) ; hover "system" menu Sleep 200 ; wait for button to respond Click() ; click the button Sleep 500 ; wait for save menu to load Enter() ; press enter to save Sleep 500 ; wait for confirmation Enter() ; press enter to save Sleep 500 ; wait for save Esc() ; close the menu } ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ StartCommission() { ; starts 1st commission when board open ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MouseMove(750, 230) ; move to 1st group Sleep 200 ; wait for button Click() ; open first group Sleep 200 ; wait for UI MouseMove(750, 260) ; point at 1st commission Sleep 200 ; wait for button Click() ; click commission Sleep 500 ; wait for menu to load MouseMove(450, 700) ; point at battle start button Sleep 200 ; wait for button Click() ; click button Sleep 500 ; wait for confirmation Enter() ; confirm battle } ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Attack() { ; handle a single attack ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MouseMove(730, 370) ; move mouse to over ATK Sleep 200 ; wait for button Click() ; click the button Sleep 500 ; wait for action menus Enter() ; pick the chosen attack Sleep 500 ; wait for target picking Enter() ; confirm target } ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fight() { ; handle a fight that is won with one attack ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Attack() Sleep 6000 ; wait for battle to end Enter() ; close victory screen Sleep 500 ; wait for view to update } ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DoCommission() { ; does 1st commission once, from standing next to the board ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MouseMove(640, 350) ; point at the board (presumed slightly above screen center) Sleep 50 ; wait briefly for processing Click() ; click the board Sleep 500 ; wait for board to load ;-------------------------------------------------------------------------- StartCommission() ; run commission start Sleep 5000 ; wait for battle to start Fight() ; run fighting sequence ;-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Esc() ; close the board } ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DoMysticFlame() { ; cast Mystic Sky Flame - note the variations ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MouseMove(730, 370) ; move mouse to over ATK Sleep 200 ; wait for button Click() ; click the button Sleep 500 ; wait for action menus SlowInput("Right") ; move to skills Sleep 200 ; wait for menu ;-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ; SlowInput("Down") ; if Aerial Execution is there ; Sleep 200 ; wait for menu ;-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enter() ; queue Mystic Truth Sword Sleep 200 ; wait for process SlowInput("Right") ; move to spells Sleep 200 ; wait for menu Enter() ; pick Burning Flame ;-------------------------------------------------------------------------- MouseMove(1080, 265) ; if 5 AP Sleep 200 ; wait button Click() ; press "done" ;-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sleep 500 ; wait for targeting Enter() ; confirm } ^+s:: ; save, ctrl+shift+s NumPad1:: { Save() Exit } ^+a:: ; attack, ctrl+shift+a NumPad2:: { Attack() Exit } ^+m:: ; mystic flame, ctrl+shift+m NumPad3:: { ; remember to still do the cast interaction DoMysticFlame() Exit } ^+f:: ; fight 1st commission, ctrl+shift+f NumPad4:: { DoCommission() Exit } ^+i:: ; init grinding loop, ctrl+shift+i { global BreakLoop := 0 Loop { if (BreakLoop = 1) break ; board is presumed open StartCommission() ; run commission start Sleep 5000 ; wait for battle to start Fight() ; run fighting sequence } Exit } ; break loop, ctrl+shift+b ^+b:: global BreakLoop := 1

Adjust the sleep times according to your system's performance if needed.

Having installed AutoHotkey, there should be File Explorer option to new->Create AutoHotkey-script. Can also just create .ahk-file manually. Create a script file (make sure it is completely empty), copy all of the above inside, and save. I recommend using a text editor meant for programming, so you have potential syntax highlighting and the like. Makes it easier to understand the script, especially if you need to modify it.
Afterword
If you find any mistakes, or have any comments, problems or questions, send them down below!