After FOUR characters, EIGHT playthroughs, FIFTY-FIVE hours, TWO Reddit posts, and a bunch of searching, I FINALLY got all Umbral Stigmas achievement. Here's what finally worked and things I tried

[Araskelo]

I originally posted this to Reddit, but figured it'd help some people here

Pt3 (final)

Yes, you read that right. The achievement finally popped. Here's what I did different this time.

This character was played on a single patch. I know what you are saying, wasn't the last character also played on a single patch? Well, kind of. I went offline to avoid downloading the new patch. So the game server was on a newer version than the version I was playing on. Now, people in the comments of Pt2 said they got the achievement while playing on multiple patches. It is still possible that being online, then offline, and then back online somehow messes the achievement.

Next, this character purposely skipped what I believe to be an erroneously left behind or glitched pumpkin stigma. This is after the Hollow Crow fight in Fief on the way to the Saintly Quintessence. I actually thought they left them all in but on this character I went out of my way to grab them all in case that might be the issue, but the Skyrest Bridge one was not there, so I skipped them all.

It doesn't stop there. In order to switch things up for fun, I decided to do Umbral ending first. I almost always did Radiant ending first while doing this since you clear more of the bosses cleansing beacons for Radiant. I still cleared all the bosses on both playthroughs. I still collected 62/63 on the first playthrough and 1/63 on the second playthrough. Well, this time I actually collected 2/63 because I wanted some stuff from Lightbringer.

Lastly, and I'm pretty sure I did this on my last character too for most, if not all, of them, I would clear out the area, switch to Umbral, clear out the Umbral enemies, and then collect the Stigma, and stand on top of it while it played out.

Closing thoughts: I really shouldn't have to jump through so many hoops and spend so much time attempting to unlock a straightforward achievement. It literally was burning me out from playing the game. I was to the point where if it didn't pop this run, I would shelve the game until I saw the specific achievement mentioned in patch notes. Now I am anticipating all the new content announced on the road map (mostly the new armor quests (hopefully not like the Pumpkin quest) and hardcore mode (although there need to be some changes/fixes before that happens). I really hope my struggles and testing helps other players. Now, off to farm the final few armor pieces I need for platinum (??? or whatever it's called on Steam).

Edit: Fifty-five hours is the amount of time I spent solely trying to get the achievement. I now have 181.2 hours in the game.

Second edit: rereading this post I realized I missed a big difference on this character. Both playthroughs were done on NG. Previous characters did them on subsequent NG. Main character was NG+10 and NG+11. Second character was done on NG, NG+1, NG+1. Third character was done on NG, NG+1. This/fourth character was done on NG, NG. This also means the title should mention NINE playthroughs, not eight.

[Araskelo]

Pt2

Anyways, in that post I mention how it might be because I played a character over multiple patches and I also reran through NG+1 twice instead of going to NG+2 after messing up Umbral ending.

I made a new character yesterday. Played through NG and made sure to get 62/63 Umbral Stigmas. The only one I missed was Elianne's from Umbral ending. The only peculiar things about this run was that I got Andreas of Ebb's quest Umbral Stigma AFTER Adyr's because I forgot about it. Cleared NG+1 doing Umbral ending, got Elianne's Umbral Stigma AND STILL NO ACHIEVEMENT.

The only thing that happened out of the ordinary is that there was patches back to back days so I could not avoid playing over multiple patches, so instead what I did was went into offline mode on Steam so the patch didn't download. I have no clue if offline mode affects this achievement, but I had prior suspicion that playing over different patches does. It was kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't moment.

Like I said though, no achievement. that makes three characters, over 200 hours of playtime and absolute 100% positivity that I unlocked all Umbral Stigmas on all three. The second two characters were made specifically for the achievement, investing 25hrs and 11hrs on the two.

I'm at a complete loss at this point. There isn't really anything else I need/want to do in the game (although maybe some Shrine stuff but the currency per effort seems absurdly low for NA) or play through more NG+ (although it being capped at a underwhelming +5 that I've already ran through seven times deters me from that) or do a SL1 character (but with the constant tuning patches it makes more sense to wait until later to do that).

So, I'll be back if more content comes out or I see they acknowledge/fix the achievement. Despite all its flaws, and how vocally negative the community seems, I really enjoyed my time with this game. My only real complaints are the lockon system (which I think it is weird that they haven't even acknowledged any complaints/bugs about) and how some attacks have multiple hit detectors (even if you dodge with the Umbral eye that causes wither damage and get the blue glow you still get hit) - but that might just be a skill thing of dodging in the wrong direction.

I'd give the game a solid 7/10.

[Araskelo]

Pt1

I followed this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhwjeB_nwMk which lists 63 stigmas. You're able to get 62 in one playthrough. I did 60 in the first playthrough (all except Drustan's and Elianne). Second playthrough I messed up Umbral ending but did Drustan's. I restarted NG+1 AFTER beating it. Killed Elianne, got her stigma and still no achievement.

I have two theories why I didn't get the achievement. For whatever reason, it doesn't track both NG+1 playthroughs, so I should have done Drustan's again. OR it doesn't communicate cross patch.

The reason for the second theory is that I finally got the all bosses achievement on a new character after killing all bosses except Elianne on a single playthrough on a brand new character. It popped after I killed Sophesia even though I've killed Sophesia AT LEAST twice on my main character.

I dunno, I'm just a little salty I guess because I basically put 22hrs into a character trying to get two achievements and only got one. And now the only thing I can think of to do is to start ANOTHER brand new character in hopes that it will work again.

[Nexus]

55 Hours for 8 Playtroughs... thats very fast or i am very slow with my 35 hours - not even near the first playtrough - but gratulations :)

[Quickdraw]

Im near the end of my 4th playthrough just got this achievement today but i played with single character (multiple patches).

[alvimrfg]

My last ones were the ones at the previous lightreaper arenas after defeating him.

[Araskelo]

Originally posted by Nexus:

55 Hours for 8 Playtroughs... thats very fast or i am very slow with my 35 hours - not even near the first playtrough - but gratulations :)

I had roughly 120hrs built into a character when I started going solely for this achievement. I was already very experienced with the game.

[VonRaven 666]

andreas stigma bugged for me , it never showed up, last one i needed. wish me luck in next run :)

[Rubyeyed]

You did 8 playthroughs in 55h? Did you have any fun? I mean, 8 runs in 55h is like mad rushing through it all.

[Araskelo]

Originally posted by Rubyeyed:

You did 8 playthroughs in 55h? Did you have any fun? I mean, 8 runs in 55h is like mad rushing through it all.

I had roughly 120hrs built into a character when I started going solely for this achievement. I was already very experienced with the game. It's typically like fresh run is around 9hrs doing 62/63 stigmas, getting upgrades, etc. Second run is boss rush to get the last stigma in like two hours.

[Araskelo]

Originally posted by VonRaven 666:

andreas stigma bugged for me , it never showed up, last one i needed. wish me luck in next run :)

It might help to exit out of the game and reload if it's supposed to be there. A lot of quests get progressed with resting/reloading.

[Araskelo]

Originally posted by alvimrfg:

My last ones were the ones at the previous lightreaper arenas after defeating him.

I specifically went out of my way to grab these multiple times just to be safe. Did not trigger the achievement.