Unlocking Achievements for The Pathless

As usual, expect spoilers. I recommend finding your own path and completing the game before reading this guide, for The Truth is a Pathless Land.

Story-related Achievements (Unmissable)

Note that these are the only technically unmissable achievements (assuming one would play the game from start to finish and ignore all the side stuff — secrets, lore, etc.).

The Adventure Begins

You should automatically get this once you reach the mainland (Forest Plateau).

Cleanse the Elk

Tied to that point in the story when you light up all the obelisks for Cernos and defeat the evil inside him. Should unlock after the arena battle.

Cleanse the Lizard

Tied to that point in the story when you light up all the obelisks for Sauro and defeat the evil inside him. Should unlock after the arena battle.

Cleanse the Snake

Tied to that point in the story when you light up all the obelisks for Nimue and defeat the evil inside her. Should unlock after the arena battle.

Cleanse the Bear

Tied to that point in the story when you light up all the obelisks for Kumo and defeat the evil inside him. Should unlock after the arena battle.

The Truth is a Pathless Land

You should automatically get this once you finish the game.

Tips for Missable Achievements

From this point on in the guide, all the achievements are missable, and a few of them are a little tricky, so I offer these tips you can try:

• Always be exploring, whether freely or systematically. Try not to go immediately for the game's goals. This is a highly general tip that's useful in any exploration and hidden object game.
  
• Seek out structures great and small, man-made and natural, for secrets are to be found there. Do not worry so much about everything else.
  
• Use your spirit vision often! It will reveal to you: (1) Where you traveled, (2) What major things you missed (they have misty auras that will flash orange, as opposed to blue once completed), and (3) stuff for secrets.
  
• For that last case in particular, keep an eye out for small masked statues or a pixelated-looking diamond-eye icon. The statues may perhaps glow a little.
  
• If you think you have missed something, fear not, for this is an open world game, meaning that right up to the game's ending, you can go back to any point in the game, even the very beginning!

Happy hunting! And if you are ever in need of consolation, read on.

Story-related Achievements (Missable)

Light of Cernos

Light of Sauro

Light of Nimue

Light of Kumo

Find all the Lightstones in a given area, all of which are locked behind a puzzle of some kind. You'll need 9 in total for each Tall One after activating all the obelisks. Use your spirit vision (i.e. the spirit mask) to find any outlying unfound Lightstone locations, which will glow an outstanding orange in contrast to all that bright blue. Side note: with spirit vision, you can actually see where you have and have not been, allowing you to go back and cover untraversed ground at practically any time. Just don't sprint/dash or else spirit vision will turn off.

Hunter of the Light

Unlocks naturally with the above four achievements.

 

 

Gift of the Elk Spirit

Gift of the Lizard Spirit

Gift of the Snake Spirit

Gift of the Bear Spirit

These come naturally with the above set of achievements. After placing all the Lightstones, look nearby for that area's spirit and follow them until they stop to show you something. Then walk up to them and they will reveal something awesome and worthy for you.

Gifts of the Tall Ones

Unlocks naturally with the above four achievements.

A New Path Awaits

You should automatically get this once you finish the credits and witness the post-credits cutscene. However in order to get said extended cutscene, you must receive all of the Gifts of the Tall Ones (see the above achievement).

Archery-related Achievements

Acrobat

Hit 5 or more talismans before hitting the ground. Easiest to do once you have your eagle companion, but can be done with enough skill in the starting area.

1000 Talismans Shot

Hit 1000 or more talismans. Sounds like a lot, but it's less than you think. Should come naturally in the course of gameplay.

Trick Shot

Solve a puzzle with 2 or more mirrors in it. More specifically, the achievement should unlock after hitting both mirrors in a single shot. The achievement should come pretty naturally, as there are a ton of puzzles with mirrors in them (not to mention braziers and fire!).

Skill Shot Master

There are two ways to effectively hit a talisman: full-gauge and half-gauge (as evidenced by the white zones on the diamond-shaped gauge). Hitting full-gauge is common and easy. Hitting half-gauge (a.k.a. a skill shot) is tricker but always guarantees a hit on a talisman. Can be done as early as the starting area, and as late as just before the final cinematic and boss battle; and may require a bit of patience to pull off. Keep in mind that you do not need to be airborne to get this achievement, and if you miss one, do not despair and try again. You'll get that streak of 10 skill shots eventually if you keep doing them.

Falconry- and Travel-related Achievements

Eagle's Companion

Pet (or cleanse, if you will) the eagle 5 or more times. Your eagle companion will need cleansing after an encounter with one of the bosses, or after certain puzzles (the ones where the eagle cries out in fearful distress). As an added bonus, if your eagle's already clean, try petting her until the circles light up (like really light up)...

Cold Hike

Travel up a cold, mountainous path to a monastery from the Redwood Steppe (Sauro's domain). Up there, there's a Lightstone, some secrets, and some lore.

Monastery

Visit an area on the Forest Plateau (Cernos' domain) with special puzzles and a massive flight crystal reward. Unlocks upon completion of the puzzles.

Textile Workshop

Visit an area on the Redwood Steppe (Sauro's domain) with special puzzles and a massive flight crystal reward. Unlocks upon completion of the puzzles.

Bathhouse

Visit an area on the Great Plains (Nimue's domain) with special puzzles and a massive flight crystal reward. Unlocks upon completion of the puzzles.

Observer

Visit an area very high up on the Mountain Tundra (Kumo's domain) with a massive flight crystal reward. Should unlock sometime upon visitation.

Epic Landing

The description says "Fall 150 meters without gliding." Falling off one of the obelisk towers will do, among other possible places. Just don't use your eagle companion!

Super Slide

Slide down a long mountain slope. Most natural once you reach the Mountain Tundra, but can be done before that, as there are structures on the mountainous edges of the plateaus that you're likely to reach.

River Rider

Ride a river for a while, without moving your character (i.e. you get in and let the river move you from there). Can be done on any of the four plateaus, but perhaps it's most natural to do it on the Great Plains.

Epic Flight

Fly unimpeded (i.e. without touching ground) for at least a full minute. Just start somewhere high (REALLY high, such as a mountaintop or obelisk tower) and glide. It helps to have some flaps as well.

Sky Master

Get 10 flaps. The game tells you how to get flaps: flight crystals, which are tucked away in the game's many, many secrets (over 60 of them!). You also get a free flap each time you cleanse a Tall One's spirit. If you got caught out in any of the game's stealth sections and lost a few flight crystals, do not worry, for they are abundant, and you can pick about half of them back up once you recover. Plus I hear there are enough secrets and such to get over 15 flaps! Therefore the best thing to do to get this achievement is to keep exploring (using your spirit vision helps immensely).

High Flyer

The Mountain Tundra has a lot of updrafts, and at the top of one of them is a massive flight crystal reward. Specifically it's the highest updraft in this screenshot (spirit vision was used for clarity):



The achievement should unlock after flying up the highest updraft just before you reach the game's main point of no return. It is not required to fly up the updrafts in sequence, just the highest one. Note that the achievement's description is a little misleading since there is actually technically an even higher updraft in this area.

Secret- and Lore-related Achievements

For these achievements, note that a stele (i.e. a tall stone with written lore on it) or a departed spirit will glow bright blue if unread. Departed spirits in particular can be viewed at a distance, and should look somewhat distinct from the glow of the numerous talismans.

Ancient Whispers

Echoes of the Past

Wisdom of the Ancients

Listen to 15, 30, and 45 departed spirits, respectively (credit to @stax for finding these numbers).
These achievements should unlock naturally just by seeking them out.

The Pathfinder's Tale

Read all the steles and listen to the departed spirits in these local areas (credit to @Michael for finding the required condition): the Prison in Forest Plateau (where the Pathfinder was initially held), the Monastery in Redwood Steppe (where the Pathfinder shared his vision and set out on the quest for the Spirit Mask), the Spirit Mask Shrine in Great Plains (where the Pathfinder found the Spirit Mask and saw The Pathless before him, and decided that a Path needed to exist and so become a Godslayer), and the Sun Sword Shrine in Mountain Tundra (where the Godslayer used the Spirit Mask to acquire the Sun Sword, in all its terrible power). They all speak of how the Pathfinder became the Godslayer.


(Also, although it's not required for the achievement, some additional related lore can be found in a prison in Mountain Tundra. It is the Godslayer's prison, where those who disagreed with his Path even the slightest were sent.)

 

Secret Seeker

Great Secret Seeker

Expert Secret Seeker

Seek out the secrets that give you those yellow flight crystals. There are over 60 of them, but you only need 45 to unlock the achievements. Many of them are in the form of lanterns which give 9 crystals each (except for the starting area, where you get only 5 per lantern). Use your spirit vision (i.e. the spirit mask) to find any outlying unfound secrets, which will glow an outstanding orange in contrast to all that bright blue. Side note: with spirit vision, you can actually see where you have and have not been, allowing you to go back and cover untraversed ground at practically any time. Just don't sprint/dash or else spirit vision will turn off.

More details about secrets can be found here:

Secret Stuff in The Pathless 

A Guide for The Pathless

By: The Sojourner

All Ammonite Shells, as well as various secret types.

Other Missable Achievements

Storm Survivor

First, get caught up in one of the bosses' storms (NB at least one obelisk on each area needs to remain unlit, so this should come fairly naturally, especially as the storm spheres have a tendency to advance toward you). Once inside, you'll lose your eagle companion and have to recover her, but it's dangerous to do so. Simply do as the game says and stay out of the light until you reach your eagle companion. Succeed at least three times and this should unlock.

Forest Whisperer

Simply run alongside a live forest animal, and then do the same with other forest animals! At first they will run away, but persistence should pay off, and soon, they will be with you! The achievement unlocks once you can run alongside 6 creatures.

It helps if you can rescue animals from the Godslayer's curse, as these animals don't need to be chased. The animals that can be rescued are hard to see at a distance (yes, even with that one graphics setting turned up to "Ultra"), but tend to be found in more open areas on the ground, in the lowlands, or nearby trees or other noteable landmarks. The animals can be found on any of the four plateaus.

The locations of the affected animals can be found here (second section):

Secret Stuff in The Pathless 

A Guide for The Pathless

By: The Sojourner

All Ammonite Shells, as well as various secret types.

The Last Achievement That Will Ever Unlock for The Pathless

No Path Untraveled

Note however that as of this guide's posting, this achievement is bugged and may not always unlock. Regardless, it's supposed to unlock once every other achievement is unlocked. If it doesn't immediately unlock, try finishing the game's story.

UPDATE: I have now confirmed what others have known for months by now: in order to unlock this one, you have to have every other achievement unlocked in the same save file. This likely explains the seemingly sporadic behavior of why some got the achievement and others didn't.

In any case, two things to note: (1) It's OK to take breaks, as long as you don't start a new game; and (2) If you already finished the game, you can just select "Continue" from the main menu. The achievement will pop up as soon as you've finished them all — no need to finish the game again.

All that said, it has been a little tricky to decipher this since the game's release since there's no in-game achievement tracker, so I have a couple of (hopefully helpful) checklists that summarize everything above in this guide. First, the easy stuff if you already play like a completionist and/or are aware of where everything is:

• Complete the story
  
• Get every Lightstone
  
• Explore every area
  
• Collect all the Gifts of the Tall Ones
  
• Shoot 1000+ Talismans
  
• Solve a puzzle with 2+ Mirrors
  
• Get 10+ Flaps

And now the stuff that you likely have to consciously remember, even if you play like a standard completionist:

• Shoot 5+ Talismans without touching the ground
  
• Do 10+ Skill Shots in a row (no missing — if you miss, you have to start over!)
  
• Fall a long distance
  
• Slide a long distance
  
• Ride a river for a while
  
• Fly unimpeded for 60+ seconds
  
• Make friends with 6+ animals
  
• Survive 3+ storms
  
• Pet/cleanse your eagle 5+ times

[Trincate]

I don't think SAM would help you, the game itself would dictate if you had all other achievements on the same save file, no? The game itself must count your achievements on each save file for "No Path untraveled" achievement to exist

[koraxinon]

i have the exact same problem, is there any possible risk in using something like SAM to reset my achievements so i dont have to keep track manually?

[The Sojourner]

Oh. I just realized your problem. Once you've cleansed a land's guardian, you no longer have any storms to enter, as there are no storms on the floating isle. In this case, you're probably gonna have to restart (or possibly load up a previous save, though who knows what achievements have been unlocked up to that point since there's no visible in-game tracking system).

[Five Pebbles]

Oh okay. But I still don't have the "Storm Survivor" achievement, there's no storms left before the floating isle right?

[The Sojourner]

Likely not actually. I re-read the last section of what I wrote, and I think hitting "Continue" should work (and I then recalled that it worked for me). It'll place you wherever you last left off before the ending area/floating isle.

[Five Pebbles]

Oh jeez, it's a bit of a gamble huh

[The Sojourner]

I suppose you could select "Continue" from the main menu and try to get all the achievements from there. If that doesn't work, then a new game may well be needed.

[Five Pebbles]

If I can only get the "No Path Untraveled" achievement by getting all the other ones in one save file, I have to create a new game? Since I already finished it, but without getting the 3 encounters unscathed achievement.

[The Sojourner]

Yeah, I'm half-aware of that (and was rather annoyed that the achievement description revealed nothing of the sort when I heard about it, especially given that there's no such tracker(s) in-game). Haven't tested this myself, but I'll be sure to update this guide when I do.

[Demon-Doggo409]

Found something regarding the "No Path Untraveled" achievement. It is not bugged, it's just that you have to complete all achievements on a single save. At least, that's how I obtained it (after days of struggling to get it). I know it sucks, but if you've made it to that point, it's only a matter of time before you get it. Your grueling path will end soon, hunters.