Vambrace: Cold Soul
54 Achievements
GOG
The Queen of Shades
Go dark. Details for this achievement will be revealed once unlocked
2.3%
How to unlock the The Queen of Shades achievement in Vambrace: Cold Soul - Definitive Guide
There are 3 endings that depend of your choices during key events and specific dialogue options. Tied to each one of them is an achievement and a costume. As far as I know you need to do 3 different playthroughs to get them all.
Light Ending - Achievement The Augur of Edena
Dark Ending - Achievement The Queen of Shades
Neutral Ending - Achievement The Hero of Icenaire
Light Ending - Achievement The Augur of Edena
Dark Ending - Achievement The Queen of Shades
Neutral Ending - Achievement The Hero of Icenaire
First of all: play the game for the first time making the choices you'd like, do NOT worry about the multiple endings. Rest easy, you WON'T have to play the whole thing multiple times NOR worry about choosing this or that. There is a SECRET chapter selection saved for later that will make things for you achievement hunters and completionists a lot easier.
This game's lore is rich, and I've found its myths very, very interesting, but it will only make a whole sense in the end after you have collected most of the missing pages of the journal and then read it. There are no achievement for collecting all the pages, so thank goodness for that.
By the time you've finish it for the 1st time you'll have unlocked one of the 3 different achievements for going "Light", "Dark" or choosing the "middle way". Now, after beating it for the 1st time, you can find the chapter selection's location revealed to you at the final scene, post credits, by interacting with a map on a wall.
Start a new game and after talking to Lanvil and leaving the prison at the very beginning of the story, go to the place where it was marked a "x 1" in that map. It is located by the middle/south left side of the screen, down after a pair of stairs, above the Naziri camp. Hug the corner walls and press and hold the A button.
You will be taken to a secret screen. Scroll right. Each person with a mark represents a chapter of the story. Select none, just keep scrolling right until you reach 3 statues, 1 with a blue crystal, another green and the other red. Each statue represents one of the final endings. If, like me, you did the Light one first, skip the blue one. Select either the green or the red one.
You will be placed in the final chapter, outside the tower. Not much to do here, except to choose 3 companions and then go to sleep, proceeding to finish the game as you did normally the 1st time. You won't have any equipment on you, but you have 7 skill points to spend and by my experience it is very possible to get to and defeat the final boss with that. Before you reach him you will also encounter a few resting camp sites and the merchant, so you can try to buy potions or gear. You may also find for free a bunch of healing herbs and potions right before the final rest site, so if the merchant has good gear that boosts Health and Vigor, I'd sell my junk to him and buy that instead of healing stuff.
Doing this method of chapter selection, you will also automatically unlock other achievements related to the other choices you would have to make to reach this point of the story in this Light, Dark or middle playthrough, such as sparing or killing the traitor, bringing or leaving the king, supporting one or the other merchant.
Finally, if you are struggling with the boss, remember you only have to focus and kill him twice, not his followers. Focus on him and protect your main char, basic stuff you did the whole game before. Having companions with long range or that hit multiple targets at once helps. I was able to defeat him with Lyric and only two companions left, it was not very hard. If Lyric has taken too much damage in the front row you can also protect her by making her switch places with another companion during their turn.
After defeating the boss, you can wait for the short credits to end and then see the consequences of this playthrough. Rinse and repeat this process one more time (selecting either the blue, green or red statue, according to your need) and you'll have finished the game thrice without having replayed the whole thing once.
Last, you will also unlock a number of outfits doing these endings. Any outfit unlocked carries on to the next playthrough, no matter what save slot you use and they are all needed for the corresponding achievement to collect them all.
If this solution was helpful to you, you can also read my review and thoughts about this game. Cheers!
This game's lore is rich, and I've found its myths very, very interesting, but it will only make a whole sense in the end after you have collected most of the missing pages of the journal and then read it. There are no achievement for collecting all the pages, so thank goodness for that.
By the time you've finish it for the 1st time you'll have unlocked one of the 3 different achievements for going "Light", "Dark" or choosing the "middle way". Now, after beating it for the 1st time, you can find the chapter selection's location revealed to you at the final scene, post credits, by interacting with a map on a wall.
Start a new game and after talking to Lanvil and leaving the prison at the very beginning of the story, go to the place where it was marked a "x 1" in that map. It is located by the middle/south left side of the screen, down after a pair of stairs, above the Naziri camp. Hug the corner walls and press and hold the A button.
You will be taken to a secret screen. Scroll right. Each person with a mark represents a chapter of the story. Select none, just keep scrolling right until you reach 3 statues, 1 with a blue crystal, another green and the other red. Each statue represents one of the final endings. If, like me, you did the Light one first, skip the blue one. Select either the green or the red one.
You will be placed in the final chapter, outside the tower. Not much to do here, except to choose 3 companions and then go to sleep, proceeding to finish the game as you did normally the 1st time. You won't have any equipment on you, but you have 7 skill points to spend and by my experience it is very possible to get to and defeat the final boss with that. Before you reach him you will also encounter a few resting camp sites and the merchant, so you can try to buy potions or gear. You may also find for free a bunch of healing herbs and potions right before the final rest site, so if the merchant has good gear that boosts Health and Vigor, I'd sell my junk to him and buy that instead of healing stuff.
Doing this method of chapter selection, you will also automatically unlock other achievements related to the other choices you would have to make to reach this point of the story in this Light, Dark or middle playthrough, such as sparing or killing the traitor, bringing or leaving the king, supporting one or the other merchant.
Finally, if you are struggling with the boss, remember you only have to focus and kill him twice, not his followers. Focus on him and protect your main char, basic stuff you did the whole game before. Having companions with long range or that hit multiple targets at once helps. I was able to defeat him with Lyric and only two companions left, it was not very hard. If Lyric has taken too much damage in the front row you can also protect her by making her switch places with another companion during their turn.
After defeating the boss, you can wait for the short credits to end and then see the consequences of this playthrough. Rinse and repeat this process one more time (selecting either the blue, green or red statue, according to your need) and you'll have finished the game thrice without having replayed the whole thing once.
Last, you will also unlock a number of outfits doing these endings. Any outfit unlocked carries on to the next playthrough, no matter what save slot you use and they are all needed for the corresponding achievement to collect them all.
If this solution was helpful to you, you can also read my review and thoughts about this game. Cheers!
To unlock the game's "bad" aka dark ending, you will want to make all of the following steps, which includes the actual choices for the ending itself, all quests to complete for costumes, and the best choices for the mutually exclusive story events. Be sure to follow this closely and be sure to use a different save slot from your good and neutral playthroughs!
Chapter 1
- Feel free to skip the tutorial.
- Once you on inside the hub, head to the spot on this map and hold to enter the game's stage select feature. Choose "Safe Ghost Bazaar" from the options to warp to the end of Chapter 2.
- You'll spawn in having just defeated the boss of Chapter 2 and obtaining the Oksae item. Give this directly to Gerrard the shop ghost to unlock Ghost Bazaar VIP (10G).
- Back in the hub area, go to the Inn to receive a package with the Wrathveil costume. (21/26)
- Use the stage select feature and select "Chapter 3 Last Room" this time.
- You'll spawn in having just defeated the boss of Chapter 3 and can now choose to leave the king there to unlock The Revolutionary (10G).
- Back in the hub area, go to Shanty Town to speak with Hilda to unlock the Revolutionary Raiment costume. (22/26)
- We will now have to play through the rest of the game normally. When speaking to Talindra be sure to choose "It was a dream of rebirth" this time. Remember to hire some party members before heading out since we skipped all that in the first sections of the game.
- Continue through the Industrial District until the robot leads you to a choice. Make sure you choose to NOT use the Adamant Heart here to earn a costume later.
- Complete Chapters 4 and 5 now, no special choices for the rest of the sections.
- When speaking to Hakon, choose "Focus on Lanvil."
- Go to the large tree in the NE of the hub area to receive the Celestine Armor costume. (23/26)
- When speaking to Mithra, choose "I was trapped with a familiar being."
- After defeating Lanvil, choose to execute him to unlock Avenger (10G).
- Back in the hub, speak to Sitara to unlock the Assassin's Bodysuit costume. (24/26)
- During the initial scenes here, choose "To start a revolution" when prompted.
- Complete the story for the dark ending and The Queen of Shades (50G). This will award you the Queen's Regalia costume. (25/26)