Rise of Nightmares

Here's my approach to earning my "A" ranking. Again, I highlight which weapons to grab and where. This one involves some tricky running/avoiding monsters and it's really helpful to throw lots of kicks throughout the level. Here it is:

First Area: Grab the Bone Crusher and use horizontal swings plus kicks to kill everyone in the first area. Exit with the portal on the right.

Second Area: Turn left and grab the Sword. Advance towards the monsters and kick the fence. Push forward using horizontal swings and kick the Screamer if needed. At the two crates blocking the path, kick the crates and then walk backwards. Use sword to kill the two enemies. Pick up the Scalpals (all three piles) and use them to kill the barfers & screamers in the open area. Cover ears when needed. If your ears are covered, you can still get a scalpal throw off to interupt the screamer's scream. Use the sword on the right to kill everyone on the hill. Return to where you kicked the two crates and kick the third crate. Kill the monster which comes out and pick up the Yuri's Blade. Advance back up the hill and through the portal.

Third Area (Water): Turn left and kick the barels while working towards the wall. Swat flies and kill the monster which come out. Pick up the crank which comes from the barel close to the wall. Ignore remaining barels. Swim across the water and ignore all other barels. Open gate and kill the 3 monsters. Use portal at the bridge.

Chef Area: Best thing to do here is avoid fighting if possible. I didnt use fighting stance (because it would turn me around) and simply pushed forward. Walk quickly past the enemies being careful to not get stuck on a monster. Move laterally past all barfers so they miss you. Enter the portal on the left near the small puddle of water. Pull the lever and use the portal.

Chef Area (2nd Time): Now advance forward again. The chefs should be in front of you so kill as needed. Again, try to just run past as many as possible. This time, run past the portal in the small puddle and keep pressing forward. At the end you'll see another Yuri's Blade. Pick it up (just to be safe and avoid your current Yuri's blade from breaking) then use the portal to the right of the blade. There will be many guys behind you but they wont hit you.

Final Area: When you spawn from the portal, monsters will try to gank you, so have your block already up. Throw a few kicks for extra room. Start horizontal swinging like a madman while throwing kicks every so often to stun the monsters. Kill everyone. Push forward down the path to the exit.

Good Luck!

This achievement is for getting an A ranking on the third of the game's bonus levels, 10-3, all three of which are unlocked after completing the main game on any difficulty. You can access them by going to Scene Select from the main menu and scrolling past the final act (or scrolling left from Act 0). The difficulty is automatically set to Torture for these challenges, so I highly recommend you leave them until you've done your no-death run of the game on that difficulty, so you know roughly what to expect. That said, these maps are a lot harder than most things you'll find in the main game, but with the right strategy, they are all very doable.

To get an A rank, two factors must be accounted for: completion time and number of kills. The hardest part, however, is simply surviving until the end of the level, so focus mainly on that. Your completion time is what will give you the most points, but if you kill everything in your way it will make up for a slightly slower time. Don't worry about the Cal-o-Kill thing on the rank screen either, as it only really serves to tell you how much you've played the level and doesn't affect your rank at all. The A rank on this one seems to be at 50000 points, as montrossity commented on the other solution saying he had gotten it at 50800 points. My final score was around 56000, so following this guide you should be able to get a score close to that as well.

Now, for the actual walkthrough! A lot of credit goes to Vannos, who wrote the other solution (go thumb it up!) which this will be based on. Snitty 1, Danny Dubs 86, Kovy88 and Sand Und Kraft also deserve massive praise for their comments on Vannos' solution about how to best get past the last two areas, which I will be including in this guide.

Okay, this is the third and by far hardest of the act 10 scenes, and it takes place in the forest from act 5, which you should be quite familiar with. However, there are now fences everywhere, with yellow portals being the only means of progressing from one area to the next. These serve as great markers for how far you've gotten, so think of every area between two portals as one "room". Your timer is set to fifteen minutes, but this level can be completed in as little as six if you're really fast, so don't pay it any mind.

Room 1: A small area filled with the tribal looking helmet-wearing enemies, about eight of them. Pick up the Bone Crusher straight in front of you and use low horizontal swings to kill all the enemies. They can sometimes kill you with just one attack, so if you're about to get hit, either block or kick them away. I prefer kicking, since that will also give you a great opening to attack when the enemies are staggered. After killing them all, proceed through the portal on the RIGHT of the fence.

Room 2: Since your Bone Crusher will likely be flashing red by now, turn left and pick up the sword. Note the scalpels on the hood of the car in front of you, but don't pick them up yet. Autowalk a bit down the path, and you'll see a fence with a screamer and a few maid zombies behind it. Charge in with horizontal swings and you should be able to kill the screamer before she starts screaming (she dies in one hit). After she is dead, mop up the rest of the enemies, including the three tribal zombies that come running from up ahead. Now, important part! Turn around, walk back to the car at the start of the area and pick up the scalpels you saw earlier. Now continue past where the screamer was and ignore the crate in front of you. Turn right, walk forward and kick open the two crates blocking your path, setting free the two maid zombies inside them. Now, immediately walk backwards, preferably while covering your ears as there is a screamer ahead, and kill the maids with four scalpels each. Now, looking toward the screamer past the crates, the enemies in the next area are positioned as follows: one screamer in plain view ahead, one spitter behind her (you might be able to make this one kill her with its spit), one screamer in a small alcove on the left, another one just around the corner to the right along with a spitter just left of her, and a final screamer in the far right corner with a spitter in front of her. There are a few more screamers along the path to the portal, but ignore them for now. Also ignore the screamer in the far back, as she is behind a fence that your scalpels can't go through. Kill the first screamer and the spitter behind her with scalpels, and pick up another pile or two. Walk forward a bit and kill the spitter in the far right corner. Carefully turn around the corner to the right and kill the spitter there as well. Approach the screamer next to it while covering your ears and kick her when you get close enough. Follow it up with scalpels to kill her. Now turn around (but remain where you are) and kill the screamer in the alcove, as well as the one in the far right corner. Now pick up the sword on the ground next to you and continue to the screamer behind the little fence. Kick through it and kill her. Now walk up the path to your left, kicking the fences and killing the screamers and the maid. Here you can either keep the sword, or go back to the crate you ignored earlier, which contains a Yuli's Blade (it also has an enemy in it). I would suggest you get that, as it doesn't take that long, and it will not break quickly, unlike the sword. When you're ready, go through the portal.

Room 3: This is a fairly safe area, so no need to panic. Start kicking through the barrels to your left, swatting away the flies as you go. You may come across an enemy or two, but they are easily dealt with. One of the barrels close to the left wall has a wheel in it. Pick that up, and leave the barrels alone. Swim across the little lake and ignore the barrels on the other side as well. Use the wheel to open the door ahead, and kill the three tribal zombies who will come running at you as you go through. Continue to the portal on the bridge and enter.

Room 4: This is where it gets hard, but as long as you remain calm, you'll be fine. In front of you will be a set of Ernst's Chains and a Bone Crusher. You might be tempted to go for the chains, but I would suggest either keeping your Yuli's Blade or going with the Crusher. Whichever you choose, you'll have to move quick now as the chef zombies respawn infinitely until you reach a certain point. Don't go into fighting stance here unless you absolutely have to, as it will often lock on to enemies to your side or even behind you. Run past the chefs and the screamers, blocking their spit if you absolutely must, and ignore the portal on your left side next to a little puddle. You need to make it to the very end of this area, where there is a Yuli's Blade on the ground. This can be difficult as the chef zombies like to block your way, but a few swift kicks (again, without going into fighting stance), can get you out of most sticky situations. When you finally reach the Blade, don't pick it up unless your current weapon is somehow about to break. To the right of the Blade will be a small alcove (which later contains a portal). Enter this alcove and run your face against the back wall. This will finally stop the chefs from spawning, but you'll still have to deal with the mob of them that chased you here, so quickly turn around and kill them all with horizontal swipes, throwing kicks when necessary. After they're dead, backtrack through the area back to the portal by the puddle, killing the spitters and any stray chefs in your way. Enter the portal, pull the lever, and go through the portal behind you. You'll start out at the beginning of room 4 again, so pick up the Chains if you want, and proceed down the path once more, this time killing everything. When you reach the puddle portal again, PICK UP THE BONE CRUSHER next to it. This is absolutely vital to your success in the next area, unless you feel very confident in your skills with the Yuli's Blade or Ernst's Chains. Anyhow, continue to the alcove where you took on the chefs, enter the portal there, and KEEP YOUR GUARD UP.

Room 5: As soon as you come through the portal, a large group of enemies will attack you head on, with very little time to react. So keep your fighting stance up before you even enter the portal to ensure you block any attacks they throw at you. If you have the Bone Crusher, go wild with horizontal swings, which will knock the enemies back, an invaluable effect that the Yuli's Blade doesn't have. Abuse kicking to keep the mob at bay, and try to keep your cool as it's very easy to die here. If you somehow end up behind the mob in the middle of all the fighting, don't hesitate to turn around and run for the exit, as you don't need to kill them all to get your A rank. However you choose to deal with the enemies, there is now nothing standing between you and the end of the level, so run down the path, let the screen fade to black, and hope for the best.

If you manage to do all that with a moderately fast time, you're almost guaranteed an A rank. As stated before, the hardest part of this level is simply surviving it, and you'll likely die quite a few times before you get the hang of everything, but don't give up! It's not as hard as it might seem. :)

Finally, here is a video showing the entire level, albeit using slightly different strategies than I did. It's not my video, so I take no credit for it.