Bastion
12 Achievements
200
15-20h
Altruist
Complete 100 percent of the Vigils in the Memorial.
20
How to unlock the Altruist achievement in Bastion - Definitive Guide
1. The Valediction - Construct a Memorial to Caelondia.
This one is automatic, as you cannot claim vigils until you construct this building.
2. The Dynasty - Earn First Prize in the required number of Proving Grounds (you need seven first prize wins out of the eleven available in the game).
This might take some practice, but upgrading the weapons to max makes the challenges much easier to complete.
Fang repeater is a cakewalk with the fully upgraded weapon.
Cael Hammer needs 30 seconds or less, so it is fast. Use your roll technique to cover ground quickly and damage weak stuff.
Duel Pistols requires 700+ points. Faster shooting each target nets more points.
Brusher's Pike can be ran through with an upgraded weapon, and you can move through some turrets with damage to save time.
Bullhead Shield is not too hard once you get your timing down. Use obstacles for cover when multiple enemies are around.
Scrap Musket's key is pushing the gourds off the side. Make sure to hit as many as possible with each shot.
Machete is easier if you focus on the squirts in the middle first, before they flee and separate. Then upgrades makes killing easier and faster.
Mortar is quite simple once you max out the weapon.
Bellows are another easy once the weapon is maxed with big spread and damage. Also use roll to get in the middle of peckers and let loose.
3. The Culture - Gain a required number of Mementos.
Can be found on the lands and can be bought in Lost & Found
4. The Service - Learn at least 20 Secret Skills.
As you progress, you will unlock new skills for each weapon, and have new ones available at the "Lost and Found" to buy. You also get more secret skills by completing first place in challenges (one for each weapon).
5. The Country - Restore 13,000 pieces of land.
This will come with natural story progression, as you are always restoring land when you enter new territories for the story.
6. The Mercy - Defeat 15 different foes.
This is another story-related one. The final enemy is the Rattle-tail, the rock-chicken thing. It is the white bird that drops rocks from the sky on the Ura levels.
7. The Masons - (Cael Hammer) Deal 70 damage with one blow to a single foe.
This should come from an upgraded hammer with focus on damage. You can get it more easily by hitting bosses with multiple swings until you get a slam or uppercut.
8. The Breakers - (Breaker's Bow) Defeat 3 foes with one shot.
Utilize the Power Shot on a cluster of enemies, or several lined up in a row.
9. The Trappers - (Fang Repeater) Defeat a hearty foe with the last bullet.
This should happen automatically, but squirts make an easy target for this.
10. The Menders - (Bullhead Shield) Defeat a foe with a melee counter when you are under 20% health.
To counter, you get a notification on screen when you use to counter an attack and reflect damage back. Again, squirts are a great target for this one, as they have little health and do little damage with melee attacks. Note - it MUST be a melee counter.
11. The Gravers - (War Machete) Achieve 15 hits in a row without getting hurt.
Surprise, go for squirts again! They die easy, but you can get this by just being mobile with your roll when using the Machete.
12. The Marshals - (Scrap Musket) Defeat 10 foes at once.
Seriously, squirts. Just let them cluster up, then unload on a group.
13. The Slingers - (Dueling Pistols) Achieve 12 hits in a row without being hit.
Just take your time and aim before firing. Rapid firing decreases accuracy.
14. The Brushers - (Brusher's Pike) Stab, then throw the pike at the same foe and hit it.
Easiest to do on a stationary target, such as a turret enemy.
15. The Triggers - (Army Carbine) Get a kill with a Power Shot at a very long distance.
Find a stationary enemy, such as a turret, then keep your line of sight on them and back up until they are on the edge of the screen. Then center the shot and take a Power Shot to kill it.
16. The Cinders - (Flame Bellows) Defeat 20 foes with one blow.
Back to the quirts again! This is another cluster kill, as one blow is one continuous usage of the Bellows (one fuel charge).
17. The Skippers - (Galleon Mortar) Inflict 999 damage with one shot.
Best achieved with a Power Shot on a group of enemies at a distance. Just be patient and line up your shot on a cluster of immobile targets. This is not for inflicting 999 damage on one enemy with a single hit, but over 999 total with one shot.
18. The Mancers - (Calamity Cannon) defeat 3 foes with a single shell.
Given the power of this weapon, this should be no challenge. However, you can always upgrade it for more damage and splash damage.
19. The Inspiration - Upgrade 5 weapons to level 3.
Pick your favorite five and make them better.
20. The City - Spend 10,000.
Another natural story progression one.
21. The Conscience - Reach level 5.
Another natural story progression one, as you gain experience with each kill.
22. The Sanctuary - Build and upgrade every structure in the Bastion.
Another natural story progression one. There are six buildings, and you will upgrade each one (6 buildings with 6 upgrades).
23. The Faith - Complete a "Trial of the Gods," which is a Trip to "Who Knows Where" with at least 1 god activated.
I recommend Pyth as your god, as this should come automatically after you encounter the shrine in the story. If not, then activate Pyth and go through the Pipe, as that one is the easiest and fastest trial.
If I am missing anything or you have suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments, and I will edit this guide with credit.
I think the non-weapon vigils very obvious and do not need any explanation. Some of the weapon ones are trickier however.
The Masons: Get the power attack upgrade, hold L2 and then attack something.
The Breakers: Should be gotten inside it's challenge. Note that you can perform a power shot by timing the attack right before you start glowing.
The Trappers: Shoot with the Fang Repeater until you only have 1 shot left. Have the machete as your second weapon. Go to a strong enemy, for example a larger gasfella. Hit it with your machete until it has a sliver of health and finish it off with your repeater.
The Menders: go to a small gasfella or squirt. The small gasfellas are easier to counter imo. Let it hit you down until you are below 20% And simply counter to kill it. You counter via clicking L2 right before they land their hit.
The Gravers: Should be easily obtainable in it's challenge. Otherwise find a Lunkhead and keep hitting it until you get the vigil complete.
The Marshals: Preferably upgrade the musket a bit for damage, find an area with the squirt pop-corn machine, the pipe dream will have a wave of those for example. Run around until you have 10 or more of them and shoot!
The Slingers: Should be easly obtainable if you aim for it. If your aim is not good then join the pipe dream until you face a big scumbag and shoot him. Almost impossible to miss.
The Brushers. Hit something until it will die from an thrust + throw combo via holding the attack button and finish it off.
The Triggers: Join the pipe dream, clear a wave until you face stationary enemies like canons. Stand in such a way that you cannot see them on your screen and you can barely lock on to them. Might take a few attempts.
The Cinders: Very hard to achieve outside of it's challenge, very obtainable in the challenge if you make sure you have some fuel left before facing the third wave of birds.
The Skippers: Do the challenge.
The Mancers: Pretty simple. Easily done against the pop-corn machines or in the appropriate challenge!
Before you can do any of these, you have to get the memorial. When you get your fourth shard, you can build it on the right side of the bastion. At first, you'll only have 12 Vigils. After you upgrade the memorial and get all 11 weapons, you will have 23 Vigils that you have to complete. Some may seem daunting at first but are all really easy. Only the one for getting first place in seven challenges can be a little tricky.
For a help to all Vigils, refer to this guide.
Vigils are accomplishments for completing specific tasks in the game, and reward you with a big chunk of fragments. Before you can begin working on these, you need to build the Memorial in the Bastion. In Score Attack Mode, you can build the structures in any order, so I'd suggest getting the Memorial before anything else. The Vigils will reward you with extra fragments, so getting these out of the way sooner will help toward many other achievements.
There are 23 Vigils to complete, and you'll get an on-screen notification if you complete one of them. Many you will do without even trying. For the rest, consult this guide for help completing them. The biggest task is doing all the Proving Grounds, and some of the weapon-specific ones can be tricky. But with that guide, you'll knock them out in no time.
You will unlock the ability to complete Vigils once you've built the Memorial. The earliest you can build it will be your fourth building.
As noted by Ruck, the Memorial is a place of remembrance and achievement. As such, Vigils basically serve as in-game challenges that you can complete for fragments. For this trophy and the one before this, Vigilante , you'll need to complete all 23 Vigils. Because completing each Vigil grants you fragments, which you can use to purchase items from the Lost-and-Found or to upgrade your weapons, you will want to complete the Vigils as soon as you can, rather than leaving them for later.
None of the Vigils are hard to accomplish at all. Half of them you'll automatically meet the requirements for just by playing through the game, especially if you're doing everything there is to do. The latter half, the weapon related ones, almost all of them can be earned through playing each weapon's respective Proving Ground. Play around with each of the weapon's abilities depending on the requirement (i.e. faster reload rate as opposed to higher damage), and you should do just fine.
In addition, one of the Vigil's requires you to earn a total of 20 secret skills. Some are earned just by playing through the story, but a majority of them must be earned by placing first place in each of the weapon's Proving Grounds. Luckily, there are more than 20 secret skills available in the game, so if you're having trouble earning first in some of the Proving Grounds, you can skip a few of them and still get your 20.
As the requirements for completing each Vigil is listed in-game, I have not included them in the guide.