Shady Knight 100% Achievement Guide

A quick guide showing you how to get every achivement in Shady Knight.

General Information

Time to get 100%: ~20-30h
Amount of achivements: 30
Difficulty: ~6/10
Personal Enjoyment: 8/10

There are no completely missable achivements, you can get them all by replaying levels.

SSS - Ranks

In each level you can earn a rank from D all the way up to SSS. Your rank is based on how many style points you got from doing as many different actions as possible. There is an achivement for finishing each world with only SSS ranks and completing them all. I recommend not instantly going for SSS-Rank on each level since it will be a lot easier to do once you get better at the game and learned a lot of different moves.

Here’s some additional general advice for achieving SSS ranks:

First, make sure to enable the option that displays your current rank while playing levels. This allows you to track your progress in real-time instead of waiting until the end of the level to see your rank. Not sure why this isn’t the default setting.


In most levels, you don’t need to kill every enemy to achieve an SSS rank, but you must avoid taking any damage. Particularly in many of the later levels, it’s possible to achieve an SSS rank by performing well in the first half of the level and then sprinting through the second half.

For arena challenges that require you to kill all enemies, the best strategy I’ve found is to abuse the sword slam. You can perform this by jump kicking off a wall or jumping off an enemy's or object and pressing the attack button with the sword while in mid-air. This move sends all nearby enemies flying. The flying(knocked) enemies are vulnerable to follow-up attacks like chained dropkicks or sword throws. Repeat this process, and most importantly, never stand still.

THE PATH TO MASTERY


CRAVENNESS
IGNORANCE
HUBRIS
OBSESSION
WRATH

EXCELLENCE
This does NOT include the final boss, the hidden parkour challenges or the endless challenge.

Challenges

These are challenges that must be completed within a single level. They will only unlock once you finish the level, even if you meet all the requirements during gameplay.

COMBO REAPER
This might seem challenging at first, but you'll likely achieve it naturally in some of the later arena levels where you face a large number of enemies. Taking damage is the only thing that will reset your combo.

KICK MANIA
I unlocked this by accident, so I'm not entirely sure what's required for it. If you don't have it even after achieving an SSS rank on every level, try reviewing your different kick action moves.

FATE BRINGER
To achieve this, you'll need to perform at least five unblockable strikes within a single level. You can identify an unblockable move if you receive the bonus "Fated Strike" after executing it. For this achievement, I recommend playing the level "Wrath - Warp Jumping." Use the S marking on the wall to select any weapon you prefer, and then use the following moves.

• Chained Dropkick (make sure you are walking backward and wait until the hook chain isn't red)
  
• Overhead Chop (Hit the enemy with a parkour charged sword jump strike)
  
• Rapid Three (Hold slide before landing while charging an Apex Shot)
  
• Power Sweep (Fully charge the spear)
  
• Smash (Pole Jump off the ground and hit an enemy with a aerial attack)

SWIFT SWITCHER
To the best of my knowledge, you need to perform the following actions to unlock the achievement. I did this in the level "Obsession - The Lancers".

• Air Dash: Grab a weapon that's in mid-air.
  
• Slide Snatch: Grab a weapon while sliding.
  
• Jump Grab: Grab a weapon by jumping on it while it's stuck in a wall.
  
• Brutal Dash: Grab a weapon through an almost-dead enemy, killing it in the process
  
• Yoink: Grab a weapon from an enemy you just killed before it touches the ground.

If the achievement doesn't unlock, try performing these additional actions:

• Dash Landing: Grab a weapon on the ground by dashing downward.
  
• Souls Dash: Grab a weapon by dashing through an enemy.
  
• Obtain a weapon by performing a wall kick on the strange symbols.

SLAM LORD
There are various actions that count as slams. On the map "Obsession - Dancing Blades," I used the following moves:

• Dagger Slam: Use your chained dagger to slam a knocked enemy into the ground.
  
• Dropkick Slam: Perform a chained dropkick to slam an enemy into a wall.
  
• Jump Slam: Jump off a knocked enemy, slamming it into the floor in the process.
  
• Kick Slam: Kick a knocked enemy towards the floor or ceiling to create a slam.
  
• Slide Slam: Perform a slide kick to send a knocked enemy into a wall, resulting in a slam.

DISC ROOM
You can achieve this by jumping on top of a spinning saw blade and having it hit an enemy immediately afterward. Make sure to aim for the center of the saw blade, as jumping on the edges will result in instant death. I recommend attempting this on the map "Obsession - Dancing Blades."

WRECKING BOX
This is definitely not a fun achievement, as it requires you to kick or pull knocked enemies into swinging boxes. I’m not sure what the best strategy is—it took me several attempts—but here’s a video of my successful one. (Level, Ignorance - Dead Weight)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlxgIddJ3zw
COPYCAT
This is a quite tricky achievement where you need to perfectly replicate all the actions shown in a trailer. Even small details, like whether you slide, jump, or not, make a difference. To be exact you need to replicate the action and parkour moves of the trailer in the perfect sequence. If you're having trouble, I recommend recording your own attempt and carefully comparing every single action on the left side of the screen with mine. There are also other videos of people completing this, but here’s the video of my successful run. (You technically can do it on any level as long as its possibly to do exectute the same action but I recommend the level from the trailer (Ignorance - Switcheroo)
https://youtu.be/DUP_sifZQrc

Progression

Some challenges are not tied to a single level but are instead completed across your entire playtime.

A HUNDERD MILES
Simply use your chained dagger on a knocked enemy and then kick it. You'll likely unlock this naturally as you progress through the levels.

PARRYCORE
A parry can be performed by holding down the attack (not throw) button just before the enemy's attack lands. This can be done with any weapon. You dont need to do it with the blessed and normal enemie variants, one should be enought. And for the archer you need to deflect an arrow instead of parrying.

UNDER PRESSURE
Some levels feature elevated crates that can fall and be used to kill enemies. Note that swinging crates do not count. You dont need to crush both the normal and blessed variant of each enemie type. Here’s a list of levels and the enemies you can kill with crates in them:

• Hubris - The Archer: Archer
  
• Obsession - Hunted: Lancer + Spider
  
• Wrath - Blessed Heavies: Heavies + Knights

Hidden Skulls (+hidden parkour levels)

In most levels, you can find a hidden skull to pick up. However, you must reach the end of the level for the skull to be saved. If you fall into the water, the skull will reset, and you'll need to collect it again. In the first world (Craveeness), 3 out of 4 levels contain a skull, while in all other worlds, 6 out of 9 levels have one.

COLLECTOR
You will get this for collection all skulls, there are no skulls in parkour levels or the final boss.

FLOWRIDER
Three skulls always act as a key to unlock a secret parkour level. These secret levels are hidden throughout the various hubs. Here’s a video showing you how to find those levels
(special thanks to Li’l Wheedle for allowing me to include his video in this guide).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC3LbeycUMI&lc=UgzsaykXQB1_4UPHluF4AaABAg.ABTbcytbdy8ABTbuYSZVZf

Style Points

There are four categories of style points you can earn while playing a level. Before a move is discovered it will be hidden/blank. Once you perform one of these moves and complete the level, it will be marked as discovered and its no longer hidden. To unlock the achievement, you must discover all moves within a specific category. You will discover most of them just by playing the game. I recommend not focusing on these until you SSS-ranked every level.

This guide does not provide an explanation for each individual style point. If you're missing one and can't figure it out from the name alone, feel free to leave a comment under this guide, and I'll try to help out. Or even easier, look at orian34's style point guide.
ACTION HERO
PARKOUR MASTER
AGENT OF CHAOS
ON THE EDGE

Endings

SHADY KNIGHT
To unlock the normal ending, simply complete every standard level (your rank doesn’t matter), and then defeat the final boss.


BROKEN CIRCLE + ONE HUNDERT KNIGHTS
I'm not entirely sure about the exact conditions to unlock the secret ending, but here's what I did to unlock it:

• Achieved the normal ending
  
• Collected every secret skull
  
• Completed all parkour challenges
  
• Reached 100 kills in the hidden endless challenge (one hundert Knights achievement)

Miscellaneous

INVINCIBLE
This can be done on any level, and you can even repeat the same level three times in a row.

FEARLESS
To complete this, simply grapple onto the large invincible enemy found on the 2nd floor of the Nexus hub and kick it in the back a few times.

NEXUS CLIMBER
To complete this, head to the Nexus hub and climb all the way to the top without using any portals. It's important to note that you must eliminate yourself on the lowest floor for the ascent to count as complete. Here's a quick video of me demonstrating it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp4vYM8_bkA


Special thanks to orian34 for helping me figure out some of the achievements, and to Li’l Wheedle for allowing me to include his video in this guide. Plus PeanutButterFly and Lead99999 for providing some more clarification for some of the achievements. I hope this guide has been helpful! If you're struggling with a specific achievement or have suggestions or corrections for this guide, feel free to leave a comment or send me a friend request.
Philip

[Древнейший]

@philip Ye, thx, i tried and it worked, i finally got it!

[philip]

@Древнейший You could try to create a new save and climb up the Nexus from there. If I remember correctly you can make a new save without deleting your old one

[Древнейший]

Well, im trying to get Nexus Climber like for 30 mins already and i still can't get an achievement. Doing all the same like on vid, but it doesn't work for some reason. What should i do then?

[BeansMeister]

It worked! Thank you so much! @philip

[BeansMeister]

I will try and get back to you. Thank you!

[philip]

@CrimsonMenace You could try doing the 100 kills again to see if it works this time. Or join the Shady Knight Speedrunning discord sever and aks the people there because they know a lot more about the game then me. Dev is also in there being pretty active

[BeansMeister]

So I did all the requirements for "BROKEN CIRCLE" and I did not get the achievement. What should I do?

[Puzzlebox427]

Nevermind, disregard the comment below. Had a massive brain fart and thought the secret ending was in the final level, not one hundred... That would make a lot more sense lol

[Puzzlebox427]

So I've gotten all the achievements but still cant get the secret ending. I feel like I've tried everything, any ideas on what i'm missing?

[philip]

@Lead99999 Thanks a lot, thats quite helpful. I updated the guide with your information