Hard Bargain Achievement Guide

A quick guide to demonstrate how to obtain the Hard Bargain achievement in Bastion without any grinding in Score Attack Mode.

Introduction

This guide outlines a quick win process for obtaining the hard bargain achievement. This can be done from level 2 and requires access to the Kid's Dream sequence. You must also have whale ale, and Black Rye spirits, all gods, and the gel canister secret skill.

Credit

Full credit for this guide goes to CurapemkuH from Youtube, this is their idea however the video has quite low views considering how easy and time saving it is. The video can be viewed here. If you like this guide please pop over and give the innovator some credit :)

Setup

Idols

Invoking Idols increases the score from each enemy. You want to ensure that all gods barring Acobi, Olak & Roathus are active.

Weapons

It is irrelevant what weapon loadout you use, i would go for ranged weapons to allow you to pick off straglers without putting your combo at risk. You want to select the Gel Canister secret skill.

Spirits

Black Rye is mandatory. There is some debate about Whale Ale, however you will not be needing any other Spirits so you may as well take it.

Gel Canisters

Gel Canisters causes the kid to throw a canister in front of him, which will spawn a turret from the game Portal. As in that game, turrets can only attack in a forward cone which is probably about 120 degrees to the front. Turrets will make very short work of the enemies in the Kid's dream.

Getting the Achievement

You want to go into the 'Kid's Dream' Sequence, which is available shortly after rescuing Zulf. Upon waking up, you want to throw turrets down. The exact layout will take some getting used to, however as a general rule of thumb you want to move outwards from the mouth of the arena (where you wake up), ensuring that the turrets are covered from the rear. In the beginning, you will likely need to kill enemies if they spawn behind your turrets, or out of their range.

You will likely lose a couple of turrets in the beginning, this is fine. The most important thing is that you do not let your combo expire. Avoid getting hit but be proactive in seeking enemies that may be out of your turret range. Eventually, your turrets will pummel anything that spawns within seconds and you will be running around avoiding damage and collecting black tonics to continue the spree.

If you manage to get through without your combo expiring, it should end up at around x60. This will net you over 1M points and the achievement.

[EXITdotEXE]

Damn! This is so good guide, i like it, you deserve a reward! Thank you so much, i did it with first time after i read that guide.

[Dorg4s]

Thanks bro, saved me some hours, did 900k in first try after using your strat with minor changes, used fully upgraded repeater (with Tracking upgrade) with 5 drinks Dreadrum, Doomshine, Cham-Pain, Black Rye and Whale Ale.

[Breadstone58]

I found that with the gods, disabling Garmuth was very useful. After disabling him, I got the achievement first try. Makes it so much easier to kill things if your turrets don't see the enemy.

[Remko]

Easiest way for me was to finish the levels up to and including Burstone Quary. Max the pike, max the scrap musket, and then follow the method explained in this post. It's insanely easy when you can actively participate in clearing the mobs.

[Assassinogor82]

I finally did it after so many tries!!! Thanks alot!

[crabsnapper]

Just did it - took a few tries. Like the guide says turret positioning is essential. If a mob spawns in front of one they are dead, if they spawn behind it they likely will wail on the turret and explode it. It's really a little of trial and error, as you can't always predict where the mobs will spawn, but it's cool, the sequence only lasts about 9 mins. You can't let the combo expire even once, so if it does just restart. The auto seeking repeater helps.

[Pwaeogxer]

This method simply doesn't work for me. The turrets don't last long enough and there is not enough black tonics to replenish them.

[NachosAndCheeezzz]

Amazing guide dude, just got all achievements thanks to this.

[Karn, The Great Creator]

Had to upgrade my preferred weapons a bit (pike and fang repeater) so I could help deal with the mobs intially, but after I got a few turrets going worked well. Got the achievement first second try. Thank you!

[Theos 🪐]

To get the gel canister skill on the Score Mode I have to beat the game again right? Because score mode resets your progress