Puzzle Chronicles

Before I begin, please note that there is a bugged award - please see Award 13 for details.

Here we go - this guide is a “living” document. What I mean by that is that it’s constantly being updated as I learn more and as I get feedback from the community. I know it’s not perfect so please help out where you can by posting recommendations in the comments section and I will update this guide with your help (and give credit to contributors).

If I get too many negatives I will stop updating simply because it means my guide is not helpful. I apologize in advance if that happens.

This achievement will take a very long time to get. The good news, however, is that there are no “missable” awards. Don’t’ stress out trying to get these all before winning the game! But there are some things that you should note as soon as possible to help minimize some of the grinding:

-Try to get as many Green Power Gems as possible early on in the game (Award 3).
-If you cannot always get Green Power Gems go for any color (Award 7).
-Do ALL side quests!
-Train your Warbeast whenever you have the chance.
-Put all your points from leveling up to Honor first which gives you more experience. Then put points to your highest skill until it hits 75. Always train up your lower level skills first before leveling up (see more details under Awards 46-49 below).

I grouped the awards together to make it easier to follow and to save space. Please see the solution below each grouping.

Awards and Solutions

1. Head Hunter - Destroy 1,000 Red Rage Gems
2. Storm Chaser – Destroy 3,000 Yellow Gems
3. Shield Master - Destroy 500 Green Power Gems
4. Cold Power –Destroy 100 Blue Multiplier Gems
5. Gem Seeker – Destroy 5,000 Gems
6. Beyond the Grave – Destroy 5,000 Rage Gems
7. Power to the People - Destroy 1,000 Power Gems
8. Arithmetically Speaking – Destroy 1,000 multiplier gems
9. Wild Trove – Destroy 500 wildcard gems

Solutions 1-9: You should get most of these by the end of the game if you do all the side quests except for numbers 3 and 7. As mentioned in the intro, I suggest you focus on making green power gems from the beginning of the game as this will be a long grind. Also, equip all the items you have that will grant you more green gems. By the time you get to Act IV you should have the Zichrie familiar (if you are doing all the side quests) which will grant you a +25% chance of getting green gems. I also suggest crafting and equipping the yellow Serpentine Ring (2x Epic Swamp Ring) which converts 10 gems to green when it is destroyed. This is the most helpful item for this award. You should get Award 7 before Award 3, so primarily focus on green Power Gems.

10. Confident Fighter – Win 25 Battles
11. Destroyer of Enemies – Win 50 Battles
12. Conqueror of Puzzles – Win 100 Battles
13. Wanted: Barbarian - Win 200 Battles

Solutions 10-13: You will not get 200 battles by the end of the game. Even with all the side quests you will be a bit over 100 when you are done. To help get to 200, after the game is finished, you can grind this out in dungeons, secret battles or quick battles. I suggest secret battles (see awards 26 and 40 below) since they give you more money and experience. Just find an easy one that you feel comfortable with and grind this out (I chose the Wizard in The Ashurin Palace for high experience and gold). You will be doing tons of these anyway to get enough items and money for the ultimate items (see awards 16-24).

Potential Glitch: Note that award 13 is somewhat glitchy and people have reported needing 300-500 battles before the award would unlock. I literally did 1,000 battles and it did NOT unlock for me. I posted on the Infinite Interactive forums and even emailed the company but they didn't reply. I then decided to grind out the battles elsewhere. I decided to experiment. What I did was to go into the main menu and picked Quick Battle with my main account. I then picked some easy battles (Iron Cobra, Overseer, Mummy) and grinded these out. Good thing is that each battle was only about 30 seconds since I was fully upgraded. After 50 battles the award unlocked. So ultimately I believe that secret battles may not count despite the fact that some people on the internet have said that they do. It could be that some secret battles work and some don't. So my advice is to simply focus on every other award there is, and if you don't pop the achievement after that, just go into quick battle and finish this up. If you figure anything else out about this award in the process I will be more than happy to update the guide.

14. The Great Escape – Defeat Zulac after 3 of his spells have activated
15. Meanest, Hardest…Deadest – Defeat Malvedor on hardest difficulty

Solutions 14-15: You do not need to do these during the game. Once you have defeated an enemy, it will be available under Quick Battle from the main menu. Just have the right character going for the award and choose Quick Battle and then Zulac and Malvedor. For Zulac, play on casual and just sit there until he casts three spells. When he does, annihilate him. For Malvedor, set the difficulty to Deathbringer and attack with everything you got. I actually found him quite easy (30 second match) once I upgraded all my items, Warbeast and skills and had the Necklace of Sin (Award 41).

16. The Milliner - Collect all Ultimate Headwear
17. The Armorer - Collect all Ultimate Armor
18. The Guy who Makes Belts - Collect all Ultimate Belts
19. The Bootmaker - Collect all Ultimate Boots
20. The Weaponsmith - Collect all Ultimate Weapons
21. The Shieldsmith - Collect all Ultimate Shields
22. The Jeweller - Collect all Ultimate Rings
23. The Charmer - Collect all Ultimate Charms
24. Junk Roadshow - Collect all Ultimate Items

Solutions 16-24: Note that all the items need to be in your possession at once to count, so don’t sell them! These awards will take a long time. Ultimate items are created by crafting two epic items together. Following is a great guide for getting all the ultimate items. I will not repost here because it takes too much space and want to make sure the original author gets credit.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/959349-puzzle-chronicles/faq...

Note that you cannot craft Ultimate items until you make it to the Khazrimi Halls at the top of the screen, so just grind these out after you have finished the game.

Some extra tips on getting these awards:
• Use secret battles to get items and gold. Some battles provide more gold than others but are still easy when you are fully upgraded. I chose the Wizard in The Ashurin Palace.
• By the time you finish the game you will mostly be getting only Legendary or Epic items, so if you don’t have enough lower level items (Regular or Ornate) to upgrade to higher items, I suggest selling them.
• If you have enough money, buy the Epic items in the shops. At the end of the game, the shops will only sell Epic items anyway. If one shop doesn’t have it, try another shop. Between all the shops in the game, every Epic item is in stock. You can find shops in the following locations:
o K’Thun Village
o K’Lune Village
o Daedris Arena
o Najat
o The Ashurin Wall
o Slaver Camp

25. Little Help… Long Way… - Collect all the Unique Boss Items

Solution 25: Just do every single side quest in the game and you will get this before Malvedor. I suggest getting the Boss items before each battle anyway as they help tremendously.

26. Seals of the Khazrimi – Collect all 16 Seals

Solution 26: There are actually 17 Seals, so this is a misprint. Check the Seals in the Home icon (RB from the game then select middle icon). Each Seal is granted when you defeat the monster in the secret battle (one per location). To unlock these battles, please see Award 40.

27. The Lost Treasure – Collect all the Rings of Al-Quenya
28. Owner of Rare Pets – Collect all the Familiars
29. Endurance Barbarian – Finish the Prologue
30. Beginning of the Journey – Finish Act 1
31. Destruction of the Slavers – Finish Act II
32. Invasion of the Islances – Finish Act III
33. The Plains are Mine! – Finish Act IV
34. Daemonslayer – Finish the Game

Solutions 27-34: As long as you do all the side quests and main quests then you will unlock all these awards. If someone needs to know specifically where the Familiars or Rings are then let me know and I will see if I can find out. Or if someone wants to be so kind as to post specific quests/locations, I will update the guide.

35. I have the Power! – Destroy 4 Power Gems at once
36. Grave Digger – Destroy 10 Rage Gems at once
37. Destroyer of Gems – Destroy 20 Gems at once
38. Epic Damage – Move the bar 5 spaces in one move

Solutions 35-38: Don’t fret about these at the beginning of the game, especially Award 38. The reason is because once you are fully upgraded and have the Necklace of Sin (Award 41) which randomly coverts 12 gems to rage gems when destroyed, the bar will move farther with each Power Gem destroyed. Once you are ready to tackle these awards, just pick an easy battle (try Daedris) start loading up your side of the screen with gems (put all battle gems to the side so you don’t get messed up), then destroy them all in one fell swoop (I was able to move the bar 15 spaces in one attack once I was full upgraded). I also suggest equipping the yellow Serpentine Ring (2x Epic Swamp Ring) which converts 10 gems to green when it is destroyed and makes everything explode for a large gain because the gems will most likely touch a battle gem. Key item of note: Power Gems only count as ONE gem! Therefore if you are going for Award 37 (Destroy 20 Gems at once) I suggest a zig-zag pattern so no Power Gems are created. Once you have enough, destroy them and the bar should move 5 spaces. You will probably need to do 35 and 37 separately to be on the safe side.

39. Without Breaking a Sweat – Finish a battle with exactly 3 gems on the board

Solution 39: Again, don’t focus on this until you have finished the game because you might get this through your normal playthrough. If you don’t have it at the end, just try any easy battle and take it SLOW. The key is to focus on clearing your side of the screen and not on power-attacking your opponent. When you are about to win the battle (the bar is close to your opponent’s side) go all out to make sure you only have 3 gems left, and then do not hit the B button! Your opponent will most likely kill himself by having too many gems on his side, so adding any more gems on your side will be futile. This will take a few tries but is quite doable.

40. Right Before Your Eyes – Find all the secret locations

Solution 40: To find all the secret locations you will need to access (unlock) a dungeon and then defeat any monster in the dungeon within 2 minutes. A secret location will then appear on your map. Note that some maps have two dungeons but you only need to kill ONE monster in either dungeon within 2 minutes. There is exactly one secret location in every area.

41. Power of the Ancients – Craft the Necklace of Sin

Solution 41: When you make it to the Khazrimi Halls at the top of the map, you will find a side quest that allows you to craft this Necklace. I suggest doing this as soon as possible since I think it’s the most power item in the game. When its Power Gem is destroyed it randomly converts 12 gems to rage gems for a huge boost.

42. Apprentice Craftsman – Craft a level 2 item
43. Journeyman Craftsmean – Craft a level 3 item
44. Master Craftsman – Craft a level 4 item
45. Craftsman of Legend – Craft a level 5 item

Solutions 42-45: As you win battles you will get items that can be combined to create more powerful items. It takes two items of the same type to craft together to form one higher quality item. The order of quality goes like this: Regular -> Ornate -> Legendary -> Epic -> Ultimate. So a level 2 item is Ornate and so on. You can craft items in the following locations but are limited to the level you can craft:

Khazrimi Port: Level 3 - Legendary Items
L’Hal Village: Level 4 – Epic Items
Khazrimi Halls: Level 5 – Ultimate Items

46. Strength of a Hero - Raise your hero’s Strength to 75
47. Honor of a Hero – Raise your hero’s Honor to 75
48. Agility of a Hero – Raise your hero’s Agility to 75
49. Wisdom of a Hero – Raise your hero’s Wisdom to 75

Solutions 46-49: A key thing to note when going for these awards is that your character’s max level is only 50. That means that by leveling up you will only be granted 150 points to allocate to your skills, which is not enough to get you to 75 across all your skills. The remaining skill levels required to reach 75 must come from training. You can train your skills in the following locations:

Slaver Castle – Level 25
Khazrimi Port – Level 50
L’Hal Village – Level 75
The Wizards Valley – Level 99

In order to attain this award with the least amount of headache possible, it's recommended that you train as early as possible. The reason why is because the skill mini-games get progressively harder as you go up, so as you get close to 75 it's better to use points rather than the mini-game. You could probably do a calculation to figure out how many mini-games you will need to complete vs. how my points you can earn from leveling your character. For example, each time you level up you get 3 skill points to allocate, so if you are level 25, then you know you will be receiving 75 more skill points before maxing out. Use that to gauge how early and how often you should play the mini-game.

50. Man’s Greatest Friend – Train your Warbeast to Level 50

Solution 50: You can train your Warbeast in the following locations:

Daedris – Level 10
Etuvesk – Level 20
Hideout – Level 30
K’Lune Village – Level 40
Khazrimi Halls Level 60

Although you can’t upgrade to level 50 until close to the end of the game, I suggest upgrading periodically as you get to each of the locations above so your Warbeast can help in battles. Also, the mini-game for Warbeast taming is the easiest of all the mini-games because it goes fast and you can jump multiple levels with each try.

51. One Man Army – Finish a Boss battle without using your Warbeast.

Solution 51: You will probably get this without realizing it. Simply do not cast any spells when your powers are full and it won't engage your Warbeast. If you don't have it by the end of the game, just go to the main menu and select "Quick Battle", then pick an easy boss like Zulac and make sure you don't use your powers.

52. Primitive Trophy – Get the Trophy for all Ogryn
53. Death Trophy – Get the Trophy for all Undead
54. Little Trophy – Get the Trophy for all Khazrimi
55. Serpent Trophy – Get the Trophy for all Zoraathi
56. Fiendish Trophy – Get the Trophy for all Daemons
57. Banished Trophy – Get the Trophy for all Wizards
58. Freedom Trophy – Get the Trophy for all All Slavers
59. Imperial Trophy – Get the Trophy for all the Ashurin
60. Epic Trophy Hunter – Get the Trophy for Every Monster

Solutions 52-60: You can check your trophies by clicking RB in the game and then selecting the Home icon in the middle. A menu will pop up where you can click the “Trophies” button. Trophies are unlocked when you defeat a certain type of enemy. However, since there is more than one enemy of each type, you may have to defeat multiple enemies to get the actual award. For example, there is a Slaver and a Slave Lord, so you will need to get each of their trophies before you get the award for All Slavers. I found that every time I unlocked a dungeon it actually counted as an encounter for a particular monster, so by unlocking all the dungeons after you finish the game you should get all the trophies if you haven't already received these awards. No need to go searching for each type of monster. There are 28 trophies in all.

I hope this lengthy guide helps. If you would like to add anything please let me know. Candid feedback is appreciated!!!