Dark Devotion Achievement Guide

A detailed achievement guide for Dark Devotion. Contains spoilers.

Introduction

Dark Devotion is a cross between soulslike action RPG and roguelike. You play as a templar exploring an ancient temple full of secrets and hostile creatures.

The game has 45 achievements of varying difficulty; while many of them are pretty straightforward and are be obtained automatically or if you explore every room thoroughly, other have very vague descriptions, and I found myself wishing there were a detailed Steam achievement guide while playing the game.

Boss and Story Achievements

The game has 18 bosses for you to defeat; and while many of these boss fights are optional and can be avoided, you will have to defeat all of them to get the alternate ending.

Deus lo vult
Time has come to bring the light.
Defeat the Child of Limbo and start your jorney into the temple. Unmissable.

Defeat Jezebel
She went mad seeing her dear and beloved made into a martyr.
Jezebel the Erratic is the boss of the Afflicted Village area of the Ancient Dungeon. Optional.

Defeat the Executioner
Gabe will probably be happy to know that the false leader has fallen off his throne.
The Executioner is the final boss of the Ancient Dungeon. Unmissable.

Defeat the First one
You have sinned by bringing down one of your people, you have to redeem yourself.
The First One is the boss of the Purged Hamlet area of the Den of Corrupted Nature. Optional.

Magnanimous
Show mercy by sparing the virgin, forgotten amidst the darkness.
The Virgin is an optional boss of the Cave of Cries. After you win the fight, she drops to the ground where you can kill her to get a shield, or ignore her. The achievement will pop once you exit the room without killing her.

Defeat the Ancient
The need to bring back her people led her to blasphemy.
Defeat the Mysterious Entity, the final boss of the Den of Corrupted Nature. Unmissable.

An outcast amidst the chosen ones
Reach the Cloister of the Chosen. Be careful, you are not welcomed here.
After defeating the Mysterious Entity, make your way through the Hallway of the Chosen together with the Dicecaster to reach the Cloister. Unmissable.

Defeat Elemiah
The crow lady commands an army of royal assassins. Know they will want to avenge her.
The Crow Lady Elemiah is an optional boss in the Cloister of the Chosen.

Defeat the Ritualist
The night’s kingdom is a charming name demonologists use to mean Hell.
The Ritualist is the final boss of the Alabaster Citadel. Unmissable.

Gott ist tot
Ignoring a God is the best way to defeat them. However, fighting sometimes cannot be avoided.
Defeat the final boss of the game.

Almighty Goddess
You entered the Temple as a simple warrior. You will exit sacred by the divine.
Defeat the final boss after defeating all other 17 bosses at least once to get the alternate ending and this achievement. Does not need to be done in the same run with Gott ist tot.

Blessings and Curses

Chosen by the divine
Gather ten blessings or more. God watches over you.
This achievement is fairly easy to obtain, and you'll likely get it without any additional effort when you progress far enough:

• You can assign blessings at the Filthblood Sanctuary once you unlock them (one per tier).
  
• Some weapons and gear carry blessings that activate when they're equipped.
  
• Praying at a blessing altar grants a random blessing. You can pray at the same altar multiple times to obtain several blessings (or to upgrade your existing ones).
  
• During a run, killing enough enemies, dodging enough attacks, or completing enough rooms without being hit also grants blessings.

Plague-stricken!
Amass eight diseases and curses. Be careful, however!
I found this achievement much more difficult to obtain than the previous one. While there are plenty of diseases and curses you can get while exploring the temple, I found getting eight of them at the same time (and staying alive) somewhat challenging. Here are some things you can do to get debuffs:

• Complete several rooms without praying at any altars or doors to get the suffocating faith curse.
  
• Exit to the next room while an enemy is chasing or attacking you to get the frightened debuff.
  
• Neglect repairing your fully broken armor for several rooms to get the dead weight or rotten armor debuff.
  
• Use several healing poultices at once to get the anesthesia debuff.
  
• Use several needles in a short time to gain substance tolerance or overdose.
  
• Dodge and attack multiple times with your stamina meter barely full to get the winded debuff.
  
• Get wounded by the same enemy twice in a row to get wounds or haemophilia.
  
• Get wounded by a trap to get the internal bleeding.
  
• Get hit by a large enemy (like tamers in the Den of Corrupted Nature) to get cranial trauma.
  
• Get wounded by a beast in the Den of Corrupted Nature to get a slash injury.
  
• Get hit by a mage in the Alabaster Citadel to get the crushed soul curse.
  
• Stay for a while in the black mud that's present in some rooms of the Den of Corrupted Nature to get a pulmonary lesion.
  
• Reading some texts can give you an unholy texts curse.
  
• Kneeling near the pile of corpses in the Hall of the Dead gives you the mental breakdown debuff.
  
• Blood donation altars in the Alabaster Citadel have a chance to give you a disease each time you youse them.
  
• Some items carry permanent curses than equipped: the left elite earing turns all enemies into elites, the torn saddlebag reduces the maximum of consumables you can carry to one, the broken rattle (dropped by children of limbo) shrouds you in darkness, the one-eyed bow (in Obsidian Cathedral) increases your chance to miss, the Martyr's bloodlight gives a chance for a parry to hurt you, relics dropped by mages in the Alabaster Citadel give you a double damage debuff, to name several.

Combat Achievements

Those who oppose the Lord will be broken
Hit for more than 200 damage to let your thrill to kill be felt.
You'll likely to get this naturally as you progress through the game by using a high damage weapon and critting.

Giant killer
A divine wrath animates them. Purge at least twelve of these elite monsters in one session.
Kill twelve elite enemies in one run. Elites are bigger and stronger versions of normal enemies that drop better loot. This achievement is extremely easy to get by equipping the left elite earring that turns all enemies (except bosses) into their elite versions. The earring can be randomly looted from an elite, found in a locked cell in the Gloomy Cellblock, or given by the Emissary in the Filthblood Shelter during one of his quests.

Child murder
Purge at least twenty of these children born of incest and morbid experiments in one session.
Kill twenty of the small crawling greenish enemies found in the Graceless Forest and the Purged Hamlet. The easist way to do it is the following:

• Equip the Porous gemstone, then get to the room immediately after the Anomaly fight in Graceless Forest. Activate the teleporter statue there.
  
• Proceed through the forest, killing every enemy you encounter.
  
• Once you reach the Crusader's Haven, use the Porous gemstone to teleport back to the Filthblood Shelter. Do not return to the main menu or exit the game so the kill counter does not reset!
  
• Get your gear and use the teleporter back to the forest. Defeat the enemies there to get the achievement (repeat if necessary).

The crows are watching you
Defeat a dark assassin. Stay alert, another one could come...
The dark assassins are enemies that randomly spawn throughout the temple. They look as small black crows with red eyes an dark red aura and will not attack you unless you touch them. When touched, the crow turns into an assassin, defeat one to get the achievement. Note that this can be a challenging fight for low level or unprepared player; if you do not want to fight the assassin just yet, simply roll past the crow and it won't attack.

Exploration and Lost Rooms

Three map exploration achievements require you to visit every room of three big game areas, including all lost rooms. The achievement pops up when you open the map after entering the last room of a given area or after you leave the said room.

If you are lost or simply need a good map to refer to, I highly recommend the maps created by Demajen. The maps guide can be found here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1725316638

Mistress of the Donjon
Index the Ancient dungeon.
Explore 100% of the Ancient Dungeon area, including its subareas: Afflicted Village, Putrid Sewers, Gloomy Cellblock, and Bloodied Paths.

Mistress of the Corrupted den
Index the Den of Corrupted Nature.
Explore 100% of the Den of Corrupted Nature area, including its subareas: Purged Hamlet, Graceless Forest, and Cave of Cries.

Mistress of the Citadel
Index the Alabaster Citadel.
Explore 100% of the Alabaster Citadel area, including its subareas: Obsidian Cathedral and Carnelian Palace.

Rigorously pious
Pray twelve times in one life, your devotion is rewarded.
Pray twelve times during one run; simply stop to pray at every altar and every door you encounter when you have enough faith to do so. Note you can pray at one altar multiple times.

Holy champion
Upgrade the faith bar to its maximum. The strongest warriors are also the most devout.
Activate all eight faith tablets (white) in the game.

• Three in the Ancient Dungeon: one in the third room of dungeon, another in the library in the Afflicted Village before the Jezebel fight (where you also find the librarian), third in the Cabinet of Curiosities lost room.
  
• Three in the Den of Corrupted Nature: one in the second room of the Cave of Cries, another in the Purged Hamlet before the First One's room, and another in the Graceless Forest in the second room after the Anomaly fight.
  
• Two in the Alabaster Citadel: one in the room immediately after the Mysterious Entity fight and another in the Prince's Tomb lost room.

The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing
Discover a lost room. Pay attention, there are many more secrets inside the Temple.
Enter any lost room. The lost rooms entrances are usually found in corners of main rooms, keep an eye on locked doors, passages, and switches.

Graveless
Most of the dead were forgotten in this secret charnel ground during the third Revolution, the last one.
Enter the Hall of the Dead lost room in the Putrid Sewers.

Woof!
This small lost dog will not survive long in the forest.
Enter the Glade, the lost room in the Graceless Forest and run to the far right of the room. You will notice a small dog running off screen. Go back to the entrance of the room; do not exit yet and go right slowly, eventually you'll notice the dog mirroring your movement. Stop once the dog is at the center of the large dirt patch in the middle of a beam of light. Crouch and the dog should start digging. Wait for a few seconds until the dog digs out a bow, and you'll get the achievement.

The Ancients’ technology
The Ancients thought coitus was impure and thus cultivated children in some sort of incubators.
First, find the Ancients' Incubator lost room accessible from the Crusaders' Haven before the Ancient / Mysterious Entity bossfight. When inside, hit the incubators in the correct order. The sequence can be found in a note in one of the rooms before this Crusaders' Haven; in any case, it's 32541.

A minute of silence for the princes
The youngest suffered a punishment worse than his older brother.
First, you'll have to get the Peaceful mutism blessing by freeing the youngest prince from his cell in the Gloomy Cellblock and then talking to him inside the Filthblood Library. With the mutism blessing active, enter the Prince's Tomb lost room in the Obsidian Cathedral and wait for one minute.

He slipped through your fingers!
This nosy creature collects shiny objects. Make sure to pounce on it next time!
Not an exploration achievement, but I'm putting it here anyway. You'll randomly encounter small crouched humanoid enemies while exploring the temple; once they notice you, they will always attempt to teleport to safety. You can kill them before they teleport away to get several items. Simply let one escape, and you'll get the achievement.

NPC Achievements

These achievements require you to talk to or to help certain non-hostile characters in the game.

Little mouse
The library is the best place to take the time to understand the Temple.
Gain access to the library in the Filthblood Sanctuary to get this one. The library is closed at the start of the game. First you'll need to find the Librarian in the Afflicted Village in the room before the Jezebel fight and talk to him to exhaust his dialogue. He moves to the library afterwards, simply talk to him there to get the achievement.

Helping one’s family
Rescuing Balamb was courageous. Keep saving your people if you can.
Balamb the archer can be found in the first room of the Ancient Dungeon. Go up the stairs, use a Godless Idol to destroy a breakable wall on the left and push the lever inside. Go back down the ladder and use now moving platform to get to Balamb. Talk to him and he will return to the Filthblood Shelter. Talk to him when he's back at the Shelter in the area above dungeon entrances to get the achievement.

Help thy neighbor
Give a poultice to knight Kraumdeith, met in a lost room.
Knight Kraumdeith can be found in any lost room you revisit. Make sure you have a poultice on hand and talk to him several times, he'll tell you he's injured, and you'll get a prompt to give him a poultice. Give him one and you'll get a random needle item and the achievement.

Ezechiel: a bloody baptism
Gilad dragged you into his blasphemy by wanting to free this innocent beast from its chains.
After killing Hezek the Baptized, find Gilad in a library room before the first Crusader's Haven. Speak to him multiple times until he talks about sin and you get the achievement.

Freeing a charming stranger
The Escapees are a very generous nomadic people. Jael will remember your help.
Free Jael from her cell in the Gloomy Cellblock. Her cell is the only one with the door shaking, and an interaction option appears when you approach it. Find a cell key by breaking the key hooks in the cellblock, return to Jael's cell door and use the key to open it, then go inside and talk to her to get the achievement.

Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him
Free the heir from his prison and find him inside the Filthblood Library.
Find the youngest prince in his cell in the Gloomy Cellblock (the cell requires a key to open) and speak to him. He'll move to the Filthblood Library; find and speak to him there to get the achievement.

Skreed, a dubious Templar
Your shield showed him you belonged to his people. However, sharing his opinions does not mean he should be trusted.
Skreed can be found in the Afflicted Village, in the room behind a door locked with a lever. He will refuse to talk to you much unless you bring a Templar Shield. The shield can be found in a chest behind a locked door the Ancient Dungeon. Talk to Skreed multiple times while wearing the shield to get the achievement and a gold necklace trinket.

The Moth Gatherer
He burns bodies and makes potions, which will come in handy.
Find and talk to the Moth Gatherer in the Graceless Forest past the Anomaly. He will move to the bottom floor of the Filthblood Shelter near the Cloister of the Chosen entrance.

Reuniting Ariuk and Gabrielle
It is crucial to remain united as a group during this pilgrimage.
To reunite Ariuk and Gabrielle, you will need to talk to both of them in one run. First, find Ariuk in the third room of the Cave of Cries, talk to him and exhaust his dialogue. Then go to the Purged Hamlet to find Gabrielle in the second room past the First One bossfight. Talk to her and exhaust her dialogue, she'll give you a rune and promise to find Ariuk. They will both move to the Cloister of the Chosen, find them there near the tablet to the left of the Obsidian Cathedral entrance and talk to them to get the achievement.

Shared pugilism techniques
Balthasar seems to be a great boxer. His knowledge will be useful if you are foolish enough to fight barehanded.
Speak to Balthasar in the Cloister of the Chosen while wearing your default bandage weapon to get the achievement and a damage buff.

Blood sisters
Fate had you cross paths with princess Amaris on several occasions.
Find princess Amaris in the temple and speak to her every time you see her:

• First she will be in the Afflicted Village in the room after the Jezebel fight, standing near the tablet. Speak to her and exhaust her dialogue.
  
• Next she will be in the last room of the Cave of Cries behind a faith locked door. Again, speak to her and exhaust her dialogue.
  
• Next she can be found meditating in the Cloister of the Chosen. Speak to her anyway.
  
• Lastly, she will be in the Heraldic Lily outside the entrance to Asriel's room. (She will also be in the Obsidian Cathedral but I've read that interaction is not necessary to get the achievement.) Talk to her and proceed to fight Asriel. When you enter the bossfight, Amaris will join to fight together with you. You will get the achievement after defeating the boss.

The Emissary's Quests

Model Templar
Complete the set of quests given by the Filthblood Shelter emissary.

The emissary in the Filthblood Shelter will give you quests to kill enemies. Completing these quests unlock various items in the forge, and completing all twelve quests grants the achievement.

The currently active quest given by the Emissary and your progress can be viewed in the upper right corner of the map, and the quest objectives are marked on your map with yellow exclamation points.

#	Quest	Location	Reward
1	Kill 6 gray humanoid enemies common in the dungeon that sometimes drop from the ceiling.	Ancient Dungeon	Poultice (consumable)
3	Kill the Executioner, the boss of the first area.	Ancient Dungeon	Pieces of armor (consumable)
4	Kill 2 large lava spitting beasts.	Den of Corrupted Nature	Incendiary idol (consumable)
5	Kill 6 dark offspring. Those are the same cursed children enemies you have to kill for the achievement.	Den of Corrupted Nature	Pestilential idol (consumable)
6	Kill the Mysterious Entity, the boss of the second area.	Den of Corrupted Nature	Corrupted seeds (consumable)
7	Kill 3 purple hooded priests.	Alabaster Citadel	Strange poultice (consumable)
8	Kill 2 large golden knights.	Carnelian Palace	Mass page (consumable)
9	Kill the Ritualist, the boss of the third area.	Alabaster Citadel	Holy water (consumable)
10	Complete the dark altar challenge. The altar is located in the Ancient Dungeon, while the quest is active you can interact with it to start a fight with shadow copies of the Templar (one with a greatsword, one with an axe and a shield, and one with a bow). The shadows will keep respawning until you defeat enough to complete the challenge (about ten).	Ancient Dungeon	Melancholic axe (weapon)
11	Defeat Adonias with the left elite earing equipped, the Emissary will give you the earring when you talk to him. Adonias is the boss of the Gloomy Cellblock area whose boss fight consists of four waves of regular enemies. The earring turns all enemies into elites.	Ancient Dungeon	White flail (weapon)
12	Defeat Elemiah with your bare hands. It's a good time to get the David and Goliath achievement as well, see more details in the section below.	Cloister of the Chosen	Black beaks (weapon)

Completing all twelve quests unlocks the achievement.

Challenge Achievements

Templar versus Templar: a fair fight
It was very honorable of you to face your foe with a Templar's weapons.
Defeat the First One using the Templar gear. That gear cannot be crafted and has to be obtained in the temple during your run. Here is the route I used:

• Get the Templar's Sword in the library room in the Afflicted Village.
  
• Get the Templar's Armor in the Gloomy Cellblock, in the room before the Crusader's Haven.
  
• Finally, get the Templar's Shield on a corpse immediately to the right of the entrance to the First One's room.

Defeat the First One using that loadout and the achievement is yours.

Reaping the Reaper
It is a true disgrace for a King’s envoy such as Elemiah to die by her own minion's scythe.
Fight and kill Elemiah with a Shadow scythe. A Shadow scythe is a guaranteed drop from crow assassins. Meet a crow assassin, defeat it, equip the scythe, and defeat Elemiah using it.

David and Goliath
Defeat a boss barehanded. The art of pugilism will hold no secrets for you anymore.
Defeat any boss while using only your default bandages weapon. (The rest of your loadout does not matter; enchanted bandages you get from Sariandel do not count. Note you can get a better armor and items from the blacksmith when you start your unarmed run; the bandages will stay in your inventory as long as you don't choose any weapons.) Best to do during the Emissary's questline since you will need to defeat Elemiah unarmed anyway, plus you can talk to Balthasar before the fight to get an unarmed damage buff.

And finally,

The Messiah

The Messiah
Reach the end of the Temple while wearing the Redeemer’s curse. Be an example, show the path.

The Redeemer’s curse becomes available after you beat First One - Fallen Bulwark for the first time. You can get the curse at the altar in the first room of the Ancient Dungeon for 60 faith. The curse reduces both your armor and your health to one and cannot be removed by items, runes, or purifying statues. Once you get the curse, proceed through the temple normally and kill the final boss with the curse active to get the achievement. This can be hard.

General tips to make it easier:

• Use a wepon and a build you are very confident with. Get a shield for blocks or take the spellbook you get by killing Jezebel to cast a shield.
  
• Equip the armor with best stats and not the best health since your armor will be reduced to one anyway. Same goes for your trinket.
  
• You can use the Porous gemstone to avoid most bossfights. Note you will have to fight the final boss anyway even if you have already defeated them and have the gemstone in your inventory. Once you reach the Snow-Covered Walkway, throw the Porous gemstone away.
  
• Completing several rooms without taking armor or health damage grants you a blessing that gives you a free shield at the start of every room, aim for getting that.
  
• In general, aim for being fully healed, armored, and preferably shielded at all times.
  
• Healing items like poultices are useless.
  
• Break every teleporter statue you encounter to get free items.
  
• Get the skill that increases your damage based on the number of rooms you visited and visit as many rooms as possible.

Notable items:

• Protective sphere is a very useful consumable that grants you a shield that blocks two hits then used, I recommend getting it as your starting item. To unlock it at the Forge, you need to get to the Cloister of the Chosen while carrying a cell key and use that cell key to open the locked door with the chest. Flail knights in the Alabaster Citadel can also drop this. Note that multiple protective spheres (and shields from other sources) do not stack, so wait until your shield is broken before casting another one.
  
• Collect Yellow fireflies in the Den of Corrupted Nature to use in the final boss fight, each firefly can prevent damage once.
  
• If you talk to Skreed wearing the Templar's Shield in a previous run, you can go to him on your Messiah run to get the Golden medallion trinket that will prevent death once. The Clothes of a fallen angel dropped by mages in the Alabaster Citadel also grants you a chance to survive a fatal blow.

Philomathy

Philomathy
Gather every single piece of text. You have everything you need to theorize about the Temple’s history.

This achievement requires you to collect all texts for the Filthblood Library. Not all texts in the game are saved in the library. You can use the table below to check the items you're missing.

This guide has a map with all texts marked:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1725316638

Note: entry #6 of the False Eden series seems to be bugged; it saves in the library but seems to disappear when you close and relaunch the game. The bug does not prevent you from getting the achievement though, just make sure to check it's there and reread it if necessary. It's in the first room of the Obsidian Cathedral.

Name	Parts	Library shelf	Location
Lost Page from a Saint	1	Floor 1, left shelf	Unlocked by default
Memories of a Fool	4	Floor 1, left shelf	Unlocked by default
From a Lost One	2	Floor 1, left shelf	Ancient Armory in Afflicted Village
Letter from a Mother	3	Floor 1, left shelf	#1: Afflicted Village, second room #2 and #3: In the rooms after Jezebel fight
A Lost Poem (A Dark Devotion)	1	Floor 1, left shelf	Unlocked by default
Journal of a Curious Man	3	Floor 1, left shelf	#1 and #2: Ancient Dungeon #3: Bloodied Paths
Diary of a Woman	2	Floor 1, right shelf	Purged Hamlet
A Tale from Another Age	2	Floor 1, right shelf	Graceless Forest
Exploration reports (Report 7:20 / Report 7:21)	2	Floor 1, right shelf	Cave of Cries
Templar's report (Ancient report from a lost squad)	2	Floor 2, left shelf	Carnelian Palace
Lucubration (A spark of light...)	1	Floor 2, left shelf	Carnelian Palace, room after Sariandel
The three Commandments	3	Floor 2, left shelf	The Anteroom of the Light in Carnelian Palace
Black mass (Initiation)	4	Floor 2, left shelf	Last room of Obsidian Cathedral, doors locked with blood altars
False Eden 1/2	4	Floor 2, right shelf	#1: Unlocked by default #2: Ancient Dungeon #3: Afflicted Village #4: Cave of Cries
False Eden 2/2	3	Floor 2, right shelf	#5: Graceless Forest #6 and #7: Obsidian Cathedral

[Fent And Steal]

I confirm, only sword and shield of the templar are required to unlock the Templar vs. Templar achievement :)

[Erik Njorl]

For Templar vs. Templar achievement you don't need Templar armor! It is really about the weapons only.

For Reaping the Reaper achievement you just need to do the killing blow with Reaper scepter. The rest of the fight can be done with any weapon.

[Kira]

None of the achievements are missable, in fact most of them get easier the further you progress in the game. Some achievements require you to do several things in one playthrough, but even if you miss something, the worst that can happen is that you have to do another run for the achievement...

That said, after completing the 10th Emissary quest, he will give you a free Left Elite Earring that is available each game until you complete his 11th quest, which is a very good item to have in bossfights including against the final boss if you want to beat him directly with starting gear, and it also makes the Giant Killer achievement more convenient. So I'd probably put off doing his 11th quest until you have ticked off all the bossfights and Giant Killer.

[polaru]

are there any missable ones?

[ladaas]

Slight correction on the Messiah achievement. It is activated by defeating First One - Fallen Bulwark, not by completing the Emissary's quests.