The Banner Saga

The Banner Saga

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The Banner Saga Achievement Guide
By Xapheer
Contains spoilers, you have been warned. This guide is for everyone aiming to obtain every achievement in this game. Hope it will help you.
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Introduction
To achieve 100% you'll need to finish the game at least two times. I suggest playing on normal difficulty level for the first time, see what this game is about and then move on to the hard. After first playthourgh you should have all godstones related achievements unlocked plus a handful of kills with specific character.
Godstones achievements
There are no story specific achievements, but there are godstones achievements. Godstones do not require any special treatment, you will unlock all of them while playing normally. Here is a table with godstones and chapter in which they appear. Each godstone achievement is unlocked while leaving specific godstone.
Achievement
Godstone
Chapter
Hridvaldyr
2
Denglr
3
Radormyr
4
[/tr]
Marek
4
Hadrborg
4
[/tr]
Dundr
6
Ingrid
6
[/tr]
Bjorulf
6
Stravhs
7
Kill achievements
These achievements require a little bit of action, because in order to unlock them you need to deliver the killing blow with every character in the game. The table represents all kill related achievements in alphabetic order.
Achievement
Name
Character
First Appearance
Notes
Backbiter
Onef
Chapter 4
If you're going for this achievement remember that recruiting Onef will block the Innocent and Beat the Odds achievements since he decides to ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ up in Chapter 6, resulting in him killing Egil and Alette killing him.
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Bowmaster
Nid
Chapter 6
In Chapter 4, after leaving Frostvellr Rook must allow Oddleif to train women to become archers. There will be a opportunity for her to join your party in Chapter 6.
[/tr]
Achievement
Eagle Eye
Alette
Chapter 2
Try to avoid attacking human or varl if you're going for Innocent achievement
Grudgewielder
Ekkill
Chapter 2
In order for Ekkill to join your party you have to cooperate wih Onef and steal supplies with him in Frostvellr. After departure he will approach caravan, he can then be either recruited or taken prisoner. If taken prisoner he can be later recruited in Chapter 6.
Achievement
Hunter
Rook
Chapter 2
None
Achievement
Mender
Eyvind
Chapter 3
Joins the party in the end of Chapter 4.
Achievement
Provoker
Fasolt
Chapter 3
Available in Chapter 5.
Achievement
Raidmaster
Valgard or Egil
Chapter 1 and Chapter 2
None
Achievement
Shieldmaster
Mogr
Chapter 1
None
Achievement
Siege Archer
Yrsa
Chapter 3
None
Achievement
Skystriker
Oddleif
Chapter 2
None
Achievement
Spearmaster
Ludin or Tryggvi (Pre-order only)
Chapter 1 and Chapter 2
Ludin becomes available in Chapter 3
Achievement
Strongarn
Iver or Griss
Chapter 2 and Chapter 3
Early in Chapter 3 Griss will be overheard disrepecting Hakon. You can then kick his ass and after a while he'll try to redeem himself by joining party to protect Hakon. If denied there will be one more opportunity after winning War against Dredge in the same Chapter.
Achievement
Thrasher
Hogun or Mogun
Chapter 2
None
Achievement
Warden
Eirik
Chapter 1
None
Achievement
Warhawk
Gunnulf, Bersi or Sigbjorn
Chapter 1, Chapter 3 and Chapter 6
Sigbjorn can be recruited after helping him in the city of Reynivik in Chapter 6.
Achievement
Warleader
Krumr
Chapter 4
None
Achievement
Warmaster
Hakon
Chapter 1
None
[/table]
The rest
Normal Difficulty
Complete the game on Normal difficulty.

This one is pretty self-explanatory.

Hard Difficulty
Complete the game on Hard difficulty.

Same as this one. I reccomend to do this one together with Challenge, read more below.

Challenge
Complete the game on Hard difficulty level without losing a single battle.

Now this one maybe a bit challenging (he he). The good thing is, you can reload a previous save whenever you feel like you're going to lose a battle and then try again. After first playthrough you should have the idea of what each character can and cannot do, use this knowledge to pick your favorite party and stick with it, master it, kill dredge and ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. The game isn't really that much challenging, I'm not good at this kind of things and managed to do it without that much trouble. You won't get this achievement in case you reloaded after losing a battle.

Quartermaster
Complete the game without letting anyone in your caravan die to hunger.

You need to buy a lot of food and hope things go well along the way. This[stoicstudio.com] may be very useful, however it doesn't contain all of the locations, it gives a rough idea of how long does each travel take. Bear in mind that random things can happen and you can lose your supplies. I recommend doing this one on Easy difficulty and together with Forced March.

High Spirits
Complete the game without ever getting low morale.

This is fairly easy. You just need to rest whenever your morale falls to normal. I recommend resting in the beginning of the day to get the most out of it. You don't have to worry that much about food, just dont let your entire caravan die of starvation and you'll be good. Bear in mind, events may also change the morale of the caravan, for better or worse.

Innocent
Alette doesn't want to harm humans or varl...don't make her.

In order to unlock this achievement you must not have Alette harm any human or varl. If during battle you see Alette saying "I didn't want to do this", that means you failed. Very important is not to recruit Onef in Chapter 4.

Forced March
Reach Boersgard in 120 days.

If you focus on making choices that result in you moving forward and not resting anywhere along the way, you should reach Boersgard in 102 days. So in the end you can rest sometimes but be careful not to do it too much.

Treasure Hunter
Acquire 5 rank 5 items.

You can achieve this without buying anything, here is a list of items you can find or receive from others:
Chapter 3: Five Ring Necklace - at Denglr godstone you need to gather all things and keep the necklace for yourself.
Chapter 4: Shepersky Stone - you need to loot storehouse with Onef and take everything from there. Interferes with Innocent.
Chapter 4: Godscale - at Marek godstone you need to collect scales.
Chapter 6: Dundr's Hand - allow Krumr to go back and fight dredge. He will return a few days later with the new item.
Chapter 6: Bjorulf's Blessing - during conversation with Sigbjorn you need to agree not to tell anyone what happened.
Chapter 7: Stravhs' Whetstone - at Stravhs godstone you need to climb higher and look for another piece. After returning to Boersgard the item will be given to you after finishing Silver arrow.

Diplomat
Get permission to destroy a varl landmark.

You need to spend 3 days fighting on the bridge in Einartoft, after that time, Jorundr will agree to it. This achievement is unlocked after beating the game.

Warmonger
Fight 40 battles in a single playthrough.

You should get this if you didn't avoid any battles.

Beat the Odds
Whew...Egil made it the whole way!

Keeping Egil alive is really difficult since he seems to like getting into death threatening situations. To save Egil you must:
Chapter 2:
  • send Egil and Alette away and fight the dredge without them or
  • loose an arrow at the dredge that is threatening Alette after first battle in Skogr if you let the fight.
Chapter 2: not try to ambush supply wagon and lose the fight. You must win the battle or choose other option to try to enter Frostvellr.
Chapter 4: not recruit Onef, he will kill him in chapter 6.
Chapter 5: take active part in the battle on the bridge on second day in Einartoft

Master Tactician
Win a battle on Hard difficulty in the camp Training Tent using 6 rank 5 units.

You don't have to actually play to this point on Hard difficulty, you can play on Easy, get 6 rank 5 units, then change difficulty and go for achievement. It it easy to have 6 rank 5 units in Chapter 6 after you help Sigbjorn in Reynivik. To this point you need to level up only 4 characters, since You'll have Eyvind and Sigbjorn which are already on level 5 when joining party. After Sigbjorn joining your party set a camp anywhere before Boeargard and go for it.

23 Comments
Elkirath 8 Jul @ 3:02pm 
Does the warmonger achievement only trigger after you finish the game? I've beat it in normal without avoiding any battles and didn't get it, when I look at it, it just says 0/40 (bugged?) I am now replaying on hard and even tho I'm fighting every time I can, I don't see the number go up.
SotiCoto 7 Nov, 2021 @ 2:24am 
Oh, and it would help if the formatting could be fixed in the Kill Achievements section. Parts of it are still illegible.
SotiCoto 6 Nov, 2021 @ 10:28pm 
Does the forced loss to Bellower on the bridge count against the Challenge achievement, or is there some way to avoid participating in that fight entirely?
Rino 15 Jan, 2020 @ 2:43am 
What if I did lose a training battle in camp on hard ? did it count for the challenge achievement?
wcis 17 Mar, 2019 @ 4:32am 
I'm pretty sure that my morale never hit "poor" during my first playthrough, and still, I didn't get the "High Spirits" achievement. Any ideas what could go wrong?
Yavalanche 15 Nov, 2017 @ 5:23pm 
@★Pavelo★ The author didn't say change the difficulty for the last battle, they said change it for the Training Tent challenge: Master Tactician achievement. You have to start and complete the game on Hard for both the "Hard Difficulty" and "Challenge" achievements.
Pavelo 10 Aug, 2017 @ 8:37am 
Changing the difficulty at the last battle doesnt work. I was playing on Hard all the way through but i changed to Normal difficulty because I was finding it hard to complete a battle and I didnt get the achievement after I beat the final boss on Hard
Krook 15 Aug, 2016 @ 5:25am 
for some reason i didnt get diplomat ;-;
Mercotroll 8 Jul, 2016 @ 11:47am 
Question about Forced March: Do battles affect the time it takes to get to Boersgard? For example, if I'm trying to get the Warmonger achievement at the same time...
dn 11 Jan, 2016 @ 4:25am 
Hogun can die in chapter 5 when you do the second fight into "the Summer Path". If he was one of the characters you wanted for Master Tactician (easy run up until reaching level 5s), be mindful of this.