Skulls of the Shogun

There are 55 golden skulls in the game, spread across the 20 levels. The majority of them are very easy to obtain, while others are frustrating and will take a few attempts to unlock. Don't bother with these until you've beaten the game on Normal difficulty and step it down to Casual. There's not a huge difference between Normal and Casual, but every little bit helps.

These solutions are just general outlines. Writing a round-by-round guide would be too time consuming for what's actually a fairly easy achievement, and it'd be difficult since enemy behavior can be pretty random. This guide assumes that you've beaten the game on Normal and know how to play it, so I won't go into detail about the game mechanics.

01. Line Limbo
Skull 1: Beat level without losing any units
Pretty self-explanatory. Be careful and retreat with any damaged units, let your General do most of the killing. The same strategy applies for all skulls like this, and in future levels you will want to abuse you General, Archers and Monks as much as you can to spare the Cavalry and Infantry units. Let the enemies come to you, it works in pretty much every level and it's much easier to handle a few at a time than it is to walk into an ambush. Keep in mind that the enemies seem to go for your General, Archers, Monks, Infantry and Cavalry in that order, so place your units accordingly when you think you're going to take a hit on the next round.

02. Bedlam Beach
Skull 1: Beat level without losing any units
See 01. Line Limbo.

03. Archer Ambush
Skull 1: Beat level without losing any units
See 01. Line Limbo.

Skull 2: Beat level with at least 500 rice.
Grab all the rice paddies you can, and don't waste any of your money on summoning units. Same idea applies for nearly all levels with this skull.

04. Glorious Gates
Skull 1: Beat level without awakening your general.
Rush the enemy General with your troops; he will spread his soldiers out all over the map, making this pretty easy for you.

Skull 2: Defeated enemy general with your general.
Simply deliver the final blow with your own General.

Skull 3: Beat level with at least 2 demon allies alive.
The hardest one for this level, as you'll need to kill a bunch of enemies and drag the fight out longer than needed. Hang back, pick off enemies with your Archer and use your General to kill as many as you can. A demon general counts towards this, so you only need another demon soldier for the skull. This is one of the hardest levels in the game so don't worry if you have to spend an hour or two on it.

05. Sakura's Solace
Skull 1: Beat level with at least 2 monk allies still alive.
Capture the Monk shrines and hang back with them, and this shouldn't prove very difficult.

Skull 2: Beat level wtih at least 1000 rice.
The hardest one for this level. Grab as many rice paddies as you can, and if you're running low towards the end of the level, remember that you can let your Fox Monk eat a skull and then use his "purify skull" ability, it'll give you 75 rice for every skull you purify.

Skull 3: Beat level without losing any units
See 01. Line Limbo.

06. Pink Pursuit
Skull 1: Beat level without losing any units
See 01. Line Limbo.

Skull 2: Beat level with your general as a demon.
You shoul strive to "demonize" your General on every level anyway, so this should come naturally.

Skull 3: Defeated at least 25 enemies.
Move north and wait for the reinforcements to come to you. Pick them off with Archers and your General. Try to take over summoning shrines close to you so you don't get surprise Archers in your face.

07. Potion Panic
Skull 1: Beat level with at least 4 enemies alive.
Can be harder than it sounds and is a little random and luck-based. Rush the enemy general and try to kill him as soon as possible, while still allowing the enemy to capture some rice paddies and summon reinforcements.

Skull 2: Konckedback at least 3 enemies into thorns.
Simply camp by thorns and walk around enemies to punch them into the thorns as they get close. Infantry and your General are the best for knocking any type of enemy backwards.

Skull 3: Beat level with at least 2 demon allies alive.
Eat skulls with your General and one more soldier to grab this easy skull.

08. Guardian Gardens
Skull 1: Beat level with no enemy monks alive.
Skull 2: Defeated enemy general with your general.
Skull 3: Defeated at least 1 monk by haunting its shrine.
Rush up the middle of the map, primarily with your Archers, Cavalry and General, and ignore the side islands with rice paddies and shrines. With any luck, the enemy will also ignore the islands and meet you in the middle, making this a much easier and shorter fight than the developers probably planned. When the map is relatively clear of enemies, send two soldiers up to haunt the Monk shrines to kill them off, lay the final blow with your General and get all three skulls in one go.

09. Raiden's Rampage
Skull 1: Beat level without losing any units.
See 01. Line Limbo.

Skull 2: Enemy general defeated by an oni.
One of the more frustrating skulls in the game. You have to set it up so that there are no soldiers left, and have the General chase one of your soldiers (and not your General). Let a Salamander Monk eat one skull so it gains the Oni Summon ability, and try to hurt the enemy General a good bit before you summon it. There's no easy way to write a guide for this one, since it depends on infinite variables, but just keep at it until you have the situation I described. This is one of maybe five difficult skulls in the game, so don't worry if you end up spending some time on it.

Skull 3: Beat level in under 4 minutes.
Just rush down the middle with your Archers, Cavalry and General. The enemy General should meet you halfway; restart the map if he doesn't awaken and rush at you right away. Pummel him with everything you have and you should be able to do this level in less than a minute.

10. Murderous Moats
Skull 1: Damaged Kurokawa.
Kurokawa is the blue General hiding behind a line of Archers. Play the level normally and "demonize" your Salamander Monk by letting him eat skulls. Then move him close to the archers and use the Lightning Storm ability (the last one) on them and it'll hurt Kurokawa as well.

Skull 2: Knockedback at least 8 enemies over ledges.
Knock back 2 enemies on the first screen. Then, in the third part, just wait for the enemies to come to you without moving any of your troops and knock them over the many edges on this level. I knocked off far more than needed when I did it, it's very easy.

Skull 3: All enemies at campfire section of the level defeated by an oni.
Eat one of the skulls on the first screen with the Salamander Monk before you move to the second screen. When on it, you can immediately summon an Oni on the enemies hanging around the campfire to the south. Wait a round and summon another one, then back your entire squad up to the bridge you came from. If possible, summon a third Oni while still hanging back with all of your troops (so they don't accidently kill anyone with a counter-attack). All of the Onis will disappear when the enemies die so don't worry about spamming them.

11. Hurricane Plain
Skull 1: Defeated enemy general with your general.
Self-explanatory by now.

Skull 2: Defeated 3+ enemies via Lightning Shield counter-attack.
You don't have to use the randomized Lightning Shields! You can level up a Salamander Monk with two skulls to give him the ability to cast the shield. What I did was head north with my General, a Salamander and a few more troops and waited for enemies to cross the bridge. I "demonized" my General and Salamander, and then I cast the Lightning Shield on both on every turn. Every attack would be met with a lightning counter and getting 3 kills that way is pretty easy, especially considering that the lightning has significant range and even works against Archer attacks.

Skull 3: Beat level with at least 2 monks as demons.
See Skull 2, but also summon the nearby Fox Monk and let him eat 3 skulls. Easy enough.

12. Forsaken Flights
Skull 1: Defeated at least 5 oni.
Skull 2: No allies damaged by the oni.
Skull 3: Defeated enemy general with your general.
For this level, just hang out on the right staircase where you spawn. Pick enemies off with Archers and let them come to you. They'll summon Oni for you to kill as well, probably 2-3 of them. After the enemies stop coming at you, send a Cavalry up to activate Oni and then haul ass back to your squad. You'll see Oni eyes pop out of the cave if you properly awaken them. Then just pick the Oni off with Archers, as they're very slow-moving.

13. Fujin Falls
Skull 1: Beat level with at least 4 allies still alive.
Skull 2: Beat level in 14 rounds or less.
Skull 3: Beat level with at least 2 crow monk allies alive.
You can get all three skulls in one go, and it's pretty easy, provided you get lucky with the enemy movements. Send your Archer in the back to Haunt the shrine, the other Archer into the bamboo bushes. Push up with your General and Cavalry on the other side. Blow away any enemies that come towards the first Crow, and snipe the other with your Archers if two come at you at a time. Rush into the main island with your General and Cavalry, letting one Cavalry summon the second Crow. Don't bother with skulls, except for with your General, until you've killed all the enemies in this first part. You'll get infinite round time after they're dead to walk around and munch skulls and do whatever else you need. After crossing the bridge, send your by now demonized Archers, Cavalry and General up the middle of the map. Pick off enemies with Archers, finish them with Cavalry or the General. Within a turn or two, you should be close enough to rush the enemy General with Cavalry, and follow up with your General on the next turn.

This is highly dependant on what happens in the first few turns. If all three enemies on the right go for your General, restart until one of them runs off to the left. If all enemies on the left rush towards your Archers, try backing away but if they won't let up and go after your General instead, restart.

14. Lion's Labyrinth
Skull 1: Beat level owning all cleansing shrines.
Skull 2: Beat level with at least 4 demon allies alive.
Both of these are self-explanatory and easy. If you don't own all shrines by the end, leave a couple of enemies alive while you run around with Cavalry to haunt the remaining shrines.

Skull 3: No allies damaged by cleansing shrines.
One of the tougher skulls in the game. Just hang out where you spawn for the entire level, only venturing out to capture the two cleansing shrines to the right when you see an opening, the sooner the better. Use your Archers to snipe any enemies that try to steal them, they can hang out in the bamboo to the right of your spawn, where there are two rice paddies. Other than that, just camp down and pick off enemies with Archers or your General. They'll come to you very slowly, and usually keep themselves busy running around the map, haunting rice paddies and whatever else.

15. Chaos Canyon
Skull 1: Knockedback enemy general over ledge.
Skull 2: Beat level owning all monk shrines.
Skull 3: Defeated at least 5 foes with the crow monk.
This is one of the tougher levels since the skulls are so situational, and it depends on what the enemies do, but what I did was send a Cavalry and an Archer to the north to haunt everything there. With a little luck, the enemy will only send one Cavalry up there, who will stop to haunt rice paddies before coming for you, and you can easily take him out and be left alone up there. Then send an Infantry and your General to capture the Crow Monk shrine in the middle, and the other Cavalry and Archer to the south to do what their buddies did up north. Regroup your forces wherever the enemy's going, north or south, and use your Crow to blow enemies off the edge. Leveling him up so you can go two Gusts in a turn is a very good idea. You can also Gust the enemy General off, so that's an easy way to finish him off when you're ready. Just don't overdo it; if you're being overwhelmed, pick off a few enemies with the rest of your soldiers and don't try to Gust off every single enemy with the Crow, and you should be fine.

16. Autumn Assault
Skull 1: Enemy general defeated by a cleansing shrine.
Skull 2: Beat level with at least 800 rice.
Skull 3: Defeated enemy general with your general.
As you can see, you can't get all three skulls in one attempt. Regardless of which one you're going for, your strategy will be to camp out on the staircase to the right of where you spawn. Grab the cleansing shrines as soon as possible, and also send Cavalry off to grab the nearby rice paddies. If you're going for the 800 rice, send two Cavalry off to haunt the Fox Monk shrine across the water on the left. Keep the two Cavalry there to defend the shrine so you don't lose your Fox Monk. Then just keep camping the stairs and letting the enemies come to you, but before you eat skulls with your best soldiers, use the Fox Monk's level 2 "purify skull" ability to get the last bit of rice you need. I didn't try it myself, but it might work for you to make a save towards the end of the level, when the enemies are almost completely gone and the enemy General rushes you. Hurt him until he's almost dead and hope that the cleansing shrines get him, or finish him off with your General. There is no solid strategy for getting him with the shrines, so you just have to hope that he doesn't get killed by a counter-attack and you have to let him eat up any friendly skulls lying around before you have a chance, as he needs to start one of your rounds with 2 health to be killed by the shrines. This is the most luck-based skull in the game, so you'll probably have to make a few attempts at it.

17. Glassy Glacier
Skull 1: Beat level owning all shrines.
Do this separately, and it should pose no problem at all. Keep some enemies in the eastern part of the map in case one of the enemy Cavalry decides to run off there to capture shrines, while keeping your main force in the east and killing enemies and haunting shrines.
Skull 2: Knockedback at least 5 enemies over ledges.
Capture the mixed monk shrine in the south and pick a Crow, then camp between that shrine and the rice paddies with your whole force. Gust any enemies that come close off the ledge, and "demonize" your Crow to help out with that. After you have 5 kills this way, just finish the rest of the enemies off and win.
Skull 3: Didn't attack with any unit but your general.
This is pretty easy. Keep your group together, let the enemies come to you and only go on the offensive with your General. Counter-attacks by other soldiers are fine, and helpful. Let your General do all the skull eating to keep his health up, since it wouldn't help to "demonize" other soldiers anyway.

18. Avalanche Alley
Skull 1: Beat level in 9 rounds or less.
Start by grabbing the cleansing shrines with your Cavalry and the rice paddies and Monk shrine with two archers and an infantry. Next turn, haunt the rice and shrine up north with your Cavalry, and pick off any enemies with your Archers and Salamander. Keep a save on the previous round, because your success with doing it in 9 rounds depends on what the enemies do here. If they don't kill any of yours and you can snipe all of theirs, and there should be three of them moving towards you, you're good. After that, move up without triggering the Oni cave to the north. Grab the cleansing shrines and rice as soon as you can, and let a Salamander eat three skulls to "demonize" him. By round 5, or at least 6, you should have both cleansing shrines up here, with a demon Salamander and your General should be fleeing from the Oni in the south, while enemies gather up in bunches to the north. If they're gathered up well enough, start spamming them with Lightning Storm magic from your demon Salamander, while you rush up the ice with your Cavalry, General and Archers. With any luck, you'll be able to take out most of the enemies with Lightning Storms, and on round 9 you'll only have to rush 1 or 2 enemies with your advancing force.

If not, start over and try again. This is perhaps the very hardest skull in the game and will require luck and a few attempts.

Skull 2: Beat level without losing any units.
Skull 3: No allies damaged by the avalanche.
Skulls 2 and 3 should be easy for you by now. Just stay off the ice and let the enemies come to you. You can start the level off the same way as you will for doing it in less than 9 rounds, up until the point of taking control over the second Oni cave area.

19. Frozen Finale
Skull 1: Defeated Yuki.
Skull 2: Defeated enemy general with your general.
Skull 3: No allies frozen by Yuki's magic.
All three of these can be obtained in one attempt, I did it on my very first. First off, take note of the areas on the map that are affected by Yuki's freezing attack. There are streaks of ice going outward from her location, almost down to where you spawn, directly beside the bridges leading to her. These icy areas are ones you cannot ever end a turn on, as you'll be frozen if you do. Camp out in the area where you spawn, heading a little bit east to haunt the rice paddies and shrine by the bridge to the right. Let enemies come to you, pick 'em off and be patient until all enemies are dead. Try to keep two Cavalry alive, and preferrably in demon form, but you only absolutely need one. Once all enemies are dead, ride the Cavalry across the bridge to the right and then the bridge to the north. Hide them behind the rock to the right of Yuki. Every turn, step out from cover and hit her twice (if you have demon Cavalry), then go back into hiding. Keep doing that until she's dead and don't worry about the enemy General while you do, he won't come after you. When she's down, just rush the enemy General with everything you have, making sure to land the final blow with your own General.

20. End of the Line
Skull 1: Ate at least 20 skulls.
Skull 2: Didn't knockback a single foe over a ledge.
Skull 3: Beat level with 1 of each monk type as a demon.
These can also all be earned in one attempt. Your main strategy, like most maps, is to just camp the staircase by your spawn and let enemies come to you. Pick them off as soon as you can, and sacrifice some damage to your own Archers if you have a shot at taking out one of theirs. Let a couple of your Archers, and your General, eat skulls as soon as possible to strengthen your defense. Haunt the two Monk shrines closest to you as soon as you can, and make a Fox Monk and Salamander Monk. Level them up as soon as you can, as it will be useful to have them able to perform magic twice in one turn. The enemy force will pick either the left or right path as their main point of attack, so when the enemies start thinning out a bit and there are less of them coming at a time, head to the least populated path with a Cavalry and a Salamander Monk, maybe an Archer too and preferrably all in demon form, and haunt the Shrine there. If you can spare these guys and have a healthy little army still camping the staircase, you can keep them by the shrine to make sure the enemy doesn't steal it. Then just keep camping and let the enemy general come to you, doing as much damage from a distance as you can to make sure you don't get frozen by him or his minions. If you've camped hard enough, you will have easily eaten 20 skulls without knocking anyone off the map, and the only difficult part will be keeping ownership of the Monk shrine you haunted earlier. This level isn't one of the harder ones, though, so you'll probably succeed with the camping strategy.