Overview:
-Estimated achievement difficulty: 10/10
-Estimated DLC achievement difficulty: 10/10
-Offline: 39/50 (850 )
-Online: 11/50 (150 ) I Got Your Back, Initiation, Teamwork, One Against the World, Shady, Sneaky, An Honorable Death, Snowman, Guardian of the Village, Observer, Walking Dictionary*
-Approximate amount of time to 1000: 75+ Hours
-Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 2 for Story with checkpoint reload trick
-Number of missable achievements: Acolyte in Day 5 is missable. See the guide for when and where.
-Do cheat codes disable achievements? No cheats
-Does difficulty affect achievements? Yes
-Glitchy achievements: Yes. Lone Ninja
-Unobtainable achievements? None
-Extra equipment needed? Online Pass
Introduction:
Welcome to Ninja Gaiden 3, the latest iteration of the venerable Ninja Gaiden franchise. Rebooted in 2004's Xbox release, Ninja Gaiden, this is the first in the franchise to be solely under the direction of a post-Tomonobu Itagaki Team NINJA and is a radical departure for the franchise. The purpose of this guide is to help obtain the full 1000 in this title. While this title is arguably the easiest in the franchise to date, there is still some definite difficulty to be had, thanks in large part to modified gameplay systems. This game should be quite simple for most to clear about 700 in, however closing out the final few achievements will be left mostly to the dedicated and hardcore.
Step 1: Hard Playthrough
While you do not need to start here, I would encourage it. With a few minor exceptions, the Hard difficulty of this game is actually the easiest in franchise history. Grabs will be a problem with certain late-game enemies and some bosses, but the checkpoints in this game are frequent and all encounters are designed to be completed using only what the game gives you at that particular time. If you still choose not to do Hard on your first playthrough, at least play on Normal. Playing on Hero will necessitate two further playthroughs before even trying Master Ninja. You can change difficulty to steps down, not up.
Step 2: Reload the final checkpoint and complete it on Normal
Instead of doing another playthrough after Hard, simply reload your final checkpoint in Day Eight and change the difficulty to Normal through the menu. This will enable you to obtain the Normal and Hero achievements and save you a pitifully easy follow up playthrough.
Step 3: Lone Ninja achievement
Start your Shadows of the World gameplay with this achievement. Complete the ten Acolyte difficulty Trials to unlock Lone Ninja before attempting any co-op. See the Lone Ninja achievement details below for more information.
Step 4: Master Ninja run
Due to the extreme difficulty of some of the later trials, you will want to tackle Master Ninja before fully committing to your Trial completion achievements. Through skill, a little luck, and a lot of patience, you will eventually conquer this mode. For a point of reference, my final run clocked in at around five hours, with maybe an extra two hours not showing up due to deaths. Please check this thread for Day-specific strategies.
Step 5: Clan Battles/Ninja Trials
Now we can put that Online Pass to use and start to hammer out the online specific achievements and the rest of the Ninja Trials. The final two sets will test even the most seasoned Ninja Gaiden veterans and will be significantly easier (though still nothing close to easy) with a good partner. Expect the Master and Ultimate sets to start unfair and get progressively worse. You will need every skill that you picked up in your Master Ninja run for these.
Conclusion:
If you still have anything left over after your Master Ninja playthrough, such as Hayabusa Style Grand Master, you'll be nabbing that here. Congrats on your hard-earned 1000!
[x360a would like to thank CyberEvil for this road map]