Beowulf

The difficulties stack in this game, so finishing Act one in Legend will unlock Act One in Thane Achievement as well.

I suggest for your first playthrough to play on Legend and go for all carnal points (which will net you the Max Carnal Index achievement), as carnal will help immensely in the final stages of the game, especially on the "Defend the Relic" mission, because you will need all the help you can get.

After finishing Act One, if playing in Legend, the achievement will pop for both achievements.

Act I on Legend difficulty honestly isn't much different from playing on Thane. From what I can tell, the game will be hard at certain points whichever difficulty you play on, so you might as well play on Legend. Both difficulty achievements stack so there's that to think about too.

Now this doesn't mean the game is easy. Actually it's quite challenging at times and can be a bit frustrating too. If you're good with Hack & Slash games, then you may find this easier than I'm making it out to be. I'm not good at them, so this is going to be a guide for the n0obs out there who suck at these games like I do.

PROLOGUE
There's nothing much to worry about here. Start by following your opponent and learn how the climbing in this game works. (It's quite shit). Press to climb the rocks and swing to jump further. After a bit of pointless climbing, you will have to fight crabs. These are probably the easiest enemies in the game so don't worry. Use the combo on them, and every enemy from now on. It's probably the best combo (maybe even only) and it is helpful.

Next you will have to fight 1 of the 2 bosses in Act 1, the Sea Serpent. First, start by dying or getting knocked off the edge. You will then learn about a new skill, which you can activate by holding . You are invincible until it runs out, so let the creature. Punch away it's health until it falls down. Now quickly mash and whatever button follows after it. Once you push the following button, go back to mashing , then again press the following button/s after it. Repeat these steps until the Sea Serpent is killed. If this is your first time, you will unlock...



EPISODE 1
After the cutscene, you will have to hit the correct button prompt to avoid wrecking your boat. Start by holding and then to begin the mini game. The single dots are always going to be . The longer lines will be which you must hold until the line ends which you must then let go. Keep doing this until this short episode ends.

EPISODE 2
A few more cutscenes and you will find yourself on a beach. Grab the sword to your left (the camera shoot focus on it) by mashing . Kill the crabs and move forward. You will fight some bandits now which are quite simple. I avoided using through most of Act I as I always seemed to get my team killed or me after it ran out. Do whatever you prefer. After fighting your way through enemies for a while, the Episode will end. Make sure to continue grabbing swords as you come across them stuck into the ground. Your sword will eventually break so you might as well have a good one with you at all times.

During the episode, you will come across a wheeldoor. Press and hold then press twice once you killed off all the enemies. You will order them to open the door, so now hold and to start the mini game.

Instead of holding , wait for your blue bar to be completely full then hold and press to activate Heroic Storm. There's an achievement for this anyways, and I find it much easier. Only do it when your blue bar is completely full.

EPISODE 3
You will now have to fight your 2nd and last boss fight of Act I, Grendel. The boss is fairly simple once you figure out his moves, but first we have to do a song to call him out. If you complete the song perfectly, you will unlock...





Once Grendel comes out, immediately press . This is one of those only time kind of things. Now since you have that activated, you can't be hurt. Quickly let the ugly thing have it. Attack him until he retreats to the middle of the area. Quickly run over to one of the many pillars on the wall and rip it out mashing . Once it's in your hands, walk up to Grendel and hit him with it by pressing . He will fall, and now is your time to quickly grab onto him. This part can be a bit tricky and may be hard for me to explain.

Begin mashing
Continue mashing

Once he gets back up, now is your time to wait for your blue bar to refill. Avoid Grendel and do not attack. Once the blue bar is full, press and repeat the steps. Each time you grab onto him, more will be added to the button mashing/QTE. I don't know if it's random or not, but I would recommend mashing whenever there is not a button prompt to press something else. After pressing or go back to mashing so you're ready. If you're not mashing fast enough, he will throw you and you will have to take his health down again.

The second time he falls, it will be something like this...
Begin mashing
Continue mashing
3 random button prompts
Continue mashing

Repeat the steps until he falls for a third time. This time, repeat the previous steps, but continue mashing until Grendel is finally dead. This will end the episode.

If this was your first time killing Grendel, you will unlock...



EPISODE 4
Earlier on in the level there will be a stone that forces your men to randomly go to it. Destroy the stone and they will help you fight off the enemies.

If you cannot find any swords stuck in the ground and they're something else, you can steal a sword from an enemy by grabbing them with . Once you grab them, mash then immediately start mashing when it tells you to. Obviously, you can only do this to enemies holding weapons. Make sure to steal only swords as they're the best weapons.

Fight your way like you normally would. This is probably the hardest Episode of Act I. Once you get to the final checkpoint, you want to climb up on the left ledge or right ledge and have your team follow you by pressing + . Don't hold at all during this fight because you will get your people killed. Instead, wait for the Heroic Storm. Grab weapons from the ground when needed, and hope to survive. If you die, you have to restart. If all your men die, you have to restart. Keep this in mind, and keep everyone alive and together. Having them up on the ledge, made it smaller room to fight the enemies and you could kill them as they were coming down and up to get you. Your team should follow you up there, don't worry about team killing. As long as you don't activate your whatever it's called, then you cannot harm your team. Just steal swords if you run short, and keep using that combo.

In short...
Wave 1 - Go up on left ledge. Steal weapons if your sword breaks. If you cannot steal weapons, grab one from the ground. If you are near death and only if you are near death, activate . Hopefully you will kill those around you. Then quickly deactivate it and recover some health. Drop down if you are worried about dying.
Wave 2 - I was on the opposite ledge. The one with the Shields in the ground. Not many enemies holding swords this time so it was hard to steal any. If you would rather stay up on the other ledge, that makes perfect sense.
Wave 3 - This is probably the hardest wave. There will be a mix between shields, swords & everything else. The enemies are stronger here, so retreat to the middle if you're near death and the enemies are lower in numbers.

Good luck.

Once you finish the fight, walk into the caves. Climb where you're supposed to climb and fight what you're supposed to fight. For the ending, just survive for about 1:00.

That's it. You've completed Act I. The game only gets harder from here on out.