Gunfire Reborn

Note: As of this writing, the Xbox version was last updated early 2023, which is way behind the PC version. If it ever gets a new update, these strats may change as things have been rebalanced. Also, this guide is for SOLO PLAY. The timer never pauses in multiplayer, which makes it harder. This also assumes you have all Talents maxed out.

I struggled with this one for dozens of attempts, then finally got some good advice that really helped (and had good luck).

IMPORTANT NOTE: You do NOT need to complete Act 4 for this achievement! When you beat Act 3, choose to go "back to the inn" to end your run.

SAVE SCUMMING

As long as you have enough Soul Essence to revive, and you're playing solo, you can save scum. After each act, you can save your game at a fire/well. If you die after that, DO NOT REVIVE yourself. Pull up the Xbox dashboard and quit the game, then relaunch and "continue." You can try again from the start of the act without voiding the achievement.

Also use this to your advantage if you have a good (or bad) run going. The idea is to pass an act and save if you have good scrolls/weapons/time, otherwise restart the act and hope for better stuff (everything randomizes). Ask yourself: Are you doing good damage? Do you have good ascensions? Did you get a worthless Legendary scroll from the boss?

Sometimes you need to just throw in the towel on the whole run if you're not doing enough damage or getting a good time. I was on Act 3 with only 7 minutes left, and I tried a bunch of times, but just couldn't do it fast enough (I won in 32 min total). I should have just restarted the whole run.

RECOIL BUG

There is a bug after you save scum -- your current weapon(s) will have really high recoil, bad accuracy, no aim assist, or some combination. I'm not sure what exactly, but there's an easy fix: drop your weapon and pick it up again. It should be back to normal.

VAULTS

Skip all Elite vaults, the ones with the stone men, Dragon Qian, and any others that seem too slow. Remember that you can always back out of the vault! I only did vaults in Act 1, but if your time is good, feel free to do some in Act 2 if you feel it's needed or you can do them quickly.

KNOW WHAT PAUSES THE TIMER

Various things pause the in-game timer: buying from the peddler, the craftsman, red chests, goblets, viewing your inventory, etc. But some things DO NOT pause, like "comparing" a weapon that's on the ground. Pay close attention. Feel free to spend time deciding which ascension to take, but if you get a scroll, pick it up first, then go into your inventory to read about it! Every second counts.

FAST MOVEMENT WEAPONS

There are two weapons that increase your move speed faster than the rest: Poisonous Ghost and Flowing Light (both swords). Pick up either of these and keep it as your secondary (ideally you'd get one from the starting chest. Don't upgrade it or use it to fight once you get something better). Swap to these whenever you kill all the enemies and need to move quickly to a new area, backtrack for something, etc. If you only have "slow" weapons, swap to your default gun.

CHARACTERS

People have said they had success with many characters, but there are two that I focused on:

BUNNY (TAO)

This is what finally won me the achievement. Bunny was always my favorite character, but I wasn't doing enough damage. Someone suggested getting an Angelic Aura and keeping it for the whole run, just upgrading it whenever you could. Normally I'd swap for better perks along the way, but you just don't have time/money to do that, and my damage was always lacking. In my winning run, I got pretty lucky with Red Chests and also Ascensions, so I don't know if a starting AA would really hold up, but with the right scrolls I think it could. You could also go with Demonlore, but that relies heavily on ammo perks, so it depends on your build/scrolls. If you can get Demonlore along with the Advanced Depot scroll, you'll have max stacks all the time and should be golden, it's just hard to get. You may want to try to find an AA *somewhere* in Act 1, otherwise restart.

I always thought Blade of Bloom was a top talent (and still do), especially here where you need to use cover often and may not be able to aim carefully. Honestly, if you don't get it in Act 1, consider restarting the run. Don't go for most of the other Bloom perks, however. Go for things that increase Sword damage, or gun damage/ammo. Warlike Blade paired with Ammo Extractor is really good.

You'll want to get crit damage scrolls and things that help with ammo, if possible.

Paranormality is great, especially if you can increase your shield from Red chests.
Reinforced Eggshell is good, and amazing if you also have Paranormality -- that's a permanent -30% damage taken.

Since you get your shield back by killing people, ALWAYS take the shield upgrades from Red Chests if they're offered.

Here's how my winning run went:

Act 1 - finished at 9 min, had an Angelic Aura lvl 5 with an exclusive Lucky Shot perk (because I rerolled at a Red chest), poisonous ghost as secondary.
Act 2 - finished at 17 min, maxed out blade of bloom midway, still had the same aura but at lvl 12.
Act 3 - I replaced a green inscription at a Red chest and got fire dmg on my aura. Got cursed scroll in order to add a 2nd exclusive perk to my aura. Never had to save scum! Final time 25:42! I don't like the Serpent boss, so that took some time. I could've done the Ship even faster.

Here are some screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/cCBT4f0

I definitely got lucky with the Red chests and Blade of Bloom, but I did NOT get many of the scrolls that I normally look for! No crit damage, no ammo scrolls, no shield increases, etc. So it ended up being a great run despite that. After I finished the first act, I KNEW this was the run. My damage was great, and I knew that my Aura would do the job for the rest of the run -- I even passed up a Demonlore at the peddler! Don't change things that are working. I had Mid-Air strike, so I just kept hitting people with Blade of Bloom and then jumping, which basically killed anything.

Your run will obviously be different, but that should give you an idea of how fast it *can* be done with the right build. If you're struggling to complete an act in 10 min, you need to restart.

TURTLE (QIAN SUI)

He looks like a porcupine/hedgehog, but he's actually a snapping turtle. He's theoretically great for this, because he's really fast and you don't have to aim. However, the playstyle didn't really suit me, because it's all close combat. The issue I had was that I was dashing in close to punch people, then either I'd have my Aspis run out (and not have dashes to get out of there), or I'd dash to one enemy, and get shot in the back by everyone else. Bosses can also be an issue because most of your damage comes from punches. You can definitely kill bosses like the Wind God with punches if you jump and punch straight up, but again you'll need a specific build to get enough damage for that to work.

Here's some advice from JohnnyRiver on the TA forum:

While Wave-Breaking Blow is great, I found it bad to get early on -- you're better off getting stuff like Dark Tide first, so you can get your punches back. There's a specific order you need, but I didn't play enough to figure it out. Please leave a comment if you have advice.

The basic loop is: pop your Aspis, hurtle into an enemy to build up your FS and also cause them to take more damage, then punch until they're dead. Do the same for every enemy. It works great after you have a lot of ascensions, but not as much early on.

Turtle is all about speed, and speed builds up your FS, so take all scrolls that improve your speed/dash.

OTHER TIPS

• Red chests that let you "reroll all perks" can give you gemini's and exclusive perks, even on a weapon that only has a few (I got both on a weapon that had 3 green perks to start).

• Remember that the chests take time to open. If you're near one when all enemies die, click to open it, then run around to pick up gold or recycle weapons before returning to get the item from it.

Good luck!