You're probably stuck on one of the challenges, so I'll be brief: Welcome to Lords of Shadow 2, and you're a brave person for trying to get all the achievements.

If you're having trouble with the challenges, go over this checklist, and make sure it's complete. If not, head off and start searching. You need:

- All Kliedos Pieces

You get the Kliedos from the Chupacabras the first time you visit his store. The parts of it, though, are scattered all around the game. Find them! The "Pile of Sacrifice" secrets hold them, along with artifact capacity upgrades. There are 26 total - 10 upgrade artifacts, 16 hold Kliedos. Every four Kliedos pieces open a new set of challenges, for a total of four full sets. The dodo eggs are very helpful here, and tell you when you've found everything in an area.

(While looking, make sure to carry Dungeon Keys, or the pesky little things will keep landing on the wrong secrets. The XP will help in buying more, anyway.)

- Most of the Life / Void / Chaos gems

Yes, you do need to find all those pain boxes. Chances are, you already have them. If not, find them! You'll need the magic, especially on Prince of Darkness mode! If you're missing anywhere from one to five of any one group, it's not a huge deal. Six or more, and you'll probably have trouble along the way. Life and Chaos are slightly more important than Void. These things require a lot of magic! The dodo eggs help here, too.

- Prince of Darkness Difficulty

You need to be in New Game Plus, or you'll just have to play all these again for the achievement. Save yourself the time and don't bother with these nuisances until you've already beaten the game once and started again on Prince of Darkness.

- Mastered Whip / Void Sword / Chaos Claws

Certain skills are very important, and weapon mastery will increase your damage. This guide will reference specific skills you'll need to use, and you already want to be doing the most damage possible! A good place to level up is in the Overlook Tower - the boss arena and its surrounding territories are full of Brotherhood soldiers who are easy to block and great for leveling up weapons and skills. You don't need EVERY skill in the list, but certain ones are very necessary.

- (Recommended) Wings and Mist Form

New Game Plus, you don't get these before you're able to play the Kliedos. The double-jump from the wings will make escaping from enemies much easier, and the mist is a good way to escape or activate certain skills. Get both, then come back.

- (Recommended) Max Artifacts

You can forget about the Seal of Alastor, the Stolas Clock, and the Dodo Eggs - not helpful, if you're prepared. The Talisman of the Dragon will make some challenges much easier, and the Tears of the Saints will heal you, provided artifacts are allowed. The Trapped Demon will allow you to indulge in a brief magic spree, but only use it if you're REALLY out, since you'll be left with nothing after it deactivates. Max out all three of these, if possible, before attempting any of the more difficult challenges.

One final, very important tip. You'll need a lot of magic for these trials. The game's designer, unfortunately, did not see fit to put a magic source anywhere near the Chupacabras' shop. There are two ways around this oversight:

Method 1) Early on, this is the only way for you to get magic quickly. Just outside the shop is a Wolf Altar. Travel through it, and you'll be back in Castlevania City. Near every city entrance is a magic refill station - use it, making sure to do a full overfill of both Void and Chaos. This is especially important for the "Infection: Second Seal" challenge, where you'll need a LOT of Chaos to win.

On your way out and back, if you need it, make sure you buy all the Dragon Scales from the shop. If you leave any, he won't restock, and only three are available at any given time. Buy all three while leaving to refill, and the other two on the way back. You'll have to clean him out on everything before he'll restock, so keep an eye on your XP counter.

Method 2) Once you finish enough challenges, "The Dead Arise" will unlock, fourth set of challenges. This is a great place to fill up on health and magic. Just kill Corpses with the Whip until you have enough Blood Orbs to fill your magic meter, and use a Void Whirlwind to heal, if necessary.

The challenges suffer from irritating design, but this same design flaw allows you to take any magic you've earned from the middle of one challenge directly into the beginning of the next, including Void and Chaos shields. Exploit this!

Also, I did these on the PC version of the game, PoD difficulty, Mouse-Keyboard. Yes, it's certainly possible.

The first three are easy. Enjoy them while you can.

1 - The Death of Sir Chester

Enemies:
3 Dungeon Jailers

Challenges:
Kill All Enemies
No Chaos Power
Less than 20 seconds between kills

First challenge, relatively easy. You can't break the armor (no Chaos Power), so instead wait for them to do one of their big attacks, then dodge. As soon as they stop to recover, get behind them and use your strongest Whip combinations. Careful, though - they can whip around quickly and hit you.

Whittle all three Jailers down to as little health as possible, then kill all 3 in rapid succession. The bite attack is helpful, if you can get them low enough. A Dragon Talisman will one-shot all three and win you the challenge - do that first, if you intend to use it. Void magic will help, and the Void Sword's Whirlwind does a lot of damage at once, if you don't want to use the Talisman.


2 - Infection: First Seal

Enemies:
(3 Waves of:)
2 Satan's Soldiers
4 Possessed Citizens

Challenges:
Kill All Enemies
No Void or Chaos
Keep Concentration at Max for 30 Seconds

Also relatively easy. Perfect block two attacks, or use combinations to max out your focus bar. Then, dodge around until the timer runs out, making sure to give a whack here and there to maintain the focus (every five seconds or so, at least). If you wait too long, the focus will time out and you'll need to restart. Look out for the green "spit" attacks, and be very wary of dodging the Soldiers' charge attacks in midair, even with the wings - they have a deceptive upward range, but don't go very far sideways. This may be a good place to use a clock, if you have one.

To heal, make sure you ONLY use the Tears of a Saint - activating the sword will automatically make you fail.


3 - The Agony of Sir Reginar

Enemies:
2 Harpies
(R = Respawning) 3 Dishonored Vampires

Challenges:
Kill All Enemies
Damage harpies only with projectiles
Break no shields, lose less than 50 life points to "life drain" attacks

This one is irritating, but still not too difficult. At the beginning, switch to Chaos and spam Chaos Bombs at the harpies. Once they're dead, the Vampires won't respawn anymore.

The Vampires have an annoying attack with infinite range - they drain life from you, slowly, via a blood trail. If it happens to you, use the dodge ability to crash into the shield of the one draining you, which stops the attack. Dodge knocks down smaller enemies, and can stagger large ones for a brief moment. Using the Void Sword (especially Whirlwind) will recover your health and also, reset the life counter if it's been depleted (at least, it did in my case). Watch your health bar to see when it's being drained, as it isn't always obvious.

Perfect block them and then attack, or use a Dragon Talisman to finish them off.

Completion of this should earn you the first achievement.

Get ready, these are quite a bit more frustrating, in places.

1 - The Torture of Sir Nualan

Enemies:
2 Dungeon Jailers
(R) 3 Dungeon Minions

Challenges:
Kill All Enemies
Get the Jailers to kill 6 minions
Kill 9 minions without recovering any life

Do these in the wrong order, and you'll want to throw your controller / mouse.

First, kill 9 minions. It's easy, they're weak. Don't use the Void Sword, the Tears, or the bite-grab attack, or you'll fail. Once all 9 are down, you can heal again, thank God.

To get the 6 minions killed, use Chaos Bombs on both of the Jailers. Leaving both alive will make this go faster, but killing one will make it safer. It's your choice, but I prefer to leave both alive. The Chaos Bombs will set their hammers on fire - this makes them far more likely to kill Minions, but it gives them obscene amounts of damage - nearly a third of your health bar, if the wrong attack hits you. The Chaos also breaks their armor.

You want the Jailers to do their hammer attack, or the smash attack - the latter, especially, will incinerate most nearby minions. It takes a while to bait this one, though - most of their attacks involve kicking or throwing Minions at you, which adds up to a lot of chip damage over time. Try to stay close to them and bait something more effective. If you hang around on the far side of the arena, you'll just get soccer-balled to death.

Once all 6 die, use a Talisman or just kill the Jailers the usual way. Note that the minions spawn in random groups of one to three, not always three at a time.


2 - The Torment of Sir Torlios

Enemies:
4 Bloody Skeletons

Challenges:
Kill All Enemies
Destroy 8 Skeletons
Don't break any shields

This one is frustrating if you don't deal with the skeletons the right way. To kill 8, simply hit one until it goes into its blood form on the ground, and let it regenerate. Once this has happened four times, kill the remaining four permanently, for a total of 8.

The Chaos Meteor attack damages all four skeletons at once, but beware of using it very often. Two to three hits will break a shield.

While in blood form, the skeleton is hard to hit - you need to do a strong attack that impacts the ground. The other skeletons will hit you while you try to do this, though, making it difficult. Instead, freeze a low-health skeleton and shatter him, preventing him from going into blood form. If he does make it into blood form, freeze and shatter the blood, or spam Chaos Bombs at it until the skeleton dies completely. The latter two methods are much, much easier than trying to hit the blood with the whip.

It might be possible to kill three skeletons completely, then keep killing the fourth one over and over until he blood-respawns, but I'm not completely sure on this. EDIT: It's possible, but you'll need to be very careful not to kill the last skelly. We don't want a restart this early, do we?


3 - The Madness of Sir Gerard

Enemies:
3 Dishonored Vampires
3 Bloody Skeletons

Challenges:
Defeat all enemies using only the authorized weapons
Defeat all enemies without using the Void Sword to recover life
Defeat all enemies without using the Talisman or breaking shields

Sorry, no Talisman this time. Looks like they're on to us, eh?

First, notice the weapon indicatior at the top right of the screen, Red means whip, orange means Chaos, blue means Void. Use one that isn't authorized, and you automatically fail. The indicator will flash before changing, so keep an eye on it.

Next, kill the Vampires. Skeletons are annoying enough without three Vampires taking whacks at you too. Block, dodge behind, or hit them as they're about to attack you. If it says you can use the sword, use the projectile attack to freeze things - as long as you don't use a healing attack of any sort, you won't fail the challenge. The Chaos Meteor attack will damage all the enemies, but be careful about using it if the shields are already heated at all.

Once the vampires are down, kill the skeletons. If one is low on health, make sure you don't kill it until you know you'll be able to use the right power to kill its blood form. If you're low on chaos, wait for a Void-Whip combo on the weapon timer, etc. Use a Trapped Demon if you're out of magic.


4 - Infection, Second Seal

Enemies
50 Possessed Citizens

Challenges
Defeat all enemies without Trevor dying
No Void Power
No artifacts (or Talisman)

This one is cruel, and yes, they do spawn all those things on top of you, almost all at once. Your problem here is staying alive, for the most part. You have one life bar, so don't squander it.

First, get away from Trevor. The Possessed want you, not your weak and stupid offspring. Give them something to focus on, and they'll ignore him. Let them get attracted to him, and this will be over in roughly five seconds.

Second, cheese the system. Activate the Void Shield, and you'll immediately fail the challenge. We have a cunning plan, however! Once you fail, immediately restart - you'll spawn in with a full shield, and you won't have activated Void at all. Clever, no? I couldn't stay alive long enough until I did this method, especially in PoD.

Third, make sure you have as much Chaos as possible - overfill Chaos at a magic station right outside a Wolf Altar, then hightail it into the shop. Use the Fire Claws ability to kill as many Possessed as possible - it sucks in huge groups and kills them very quickly. Once you've run through all your Chaos, mop up the stragglers with the whip.

The shield will give you a big head start on health, but you still need to be quick - the Possessed with guns do a lot of damage, and will kill you very quickly. Target them first, if you can get a lot of their buddies, too. Blocking can help, but try to spam Flame Claws as quickly as possible. If it doesn't kill some enemies on the first bout, jump over them and spam it again. A quick Meteor will also kill a large group of red-health Possessed, at less Chaos cost.

Also keep in mind that you'll need to refill Chaos every time you retry this one. Fun, right? A Trapped Demon will give you unlimited for about 30 seconds, but isn't anywhere near as viable, especially with five of the idiots shooting at you.

Finishing this one will earn you the second achievement.

This series isn't as horribly frustrating as the last one, but it still has its moments. The fourth challenge is the most nerve-wracking, if you're not good with the controls, and the third is somewhat based on luck.


1 - The Keep

Enemies:
2 Clerics
(R) Brotherhood Soldiers

Challenges:
Kill All Enemies
Kill 5 soldiers with counterattack hits
Kill 5 soldiers under the effects of a Silver Blessing

Not difficult, really, unless you're bad against Clerics. Look out for their AoE attacks, and attack them when they're either doing a blessing or coming at you with the halberd - otherwise, they'll just teleport away every single time. You won't initially do damage while they're performing the blessing, but a block-breaker attack will get through and smash them.

Kill one of the clerics first, then leave the other alive. He'll keep spawning in soldiers for you to kill. Whittle five down to low health, then perfect-block them and deliver the final blow or two.

Wait for the Cleric to do the Silver Blessing on another five, and kill them while it's activated. The Gold Blessing makes them impervious to hits, but the silver one just increases attack power.

It is possible to get a counterattack and blessing kill at the same time, but the knights under the effects of the blessing tend to spam unblockable attacks, so don't count on it. Once you've killed five of each type, kill the remaining Cleric - Chaos Bombs work well, as does the Talisman if you're really, really desperate. I won't judge you, but it's a bit wasteful.


2 - The Revenge of Channarong

Enemies:
2 Heavy Brotherhood Warriors
(R) Brotherhood Soldiers

Challenges:
Defeat All Enemies
Defeat all enemies without 20 seconds passing with no blood orbs in the arena
Defeat all enemies without hitting the Heavy Warriors in close combat or using the Talisman

A bit of a tense one, sure, but not that difficult. Just make sure to kill a soldier with the whip every few seconds, to keep blood orbs in the air. If you use magic or the bite attack, none will spawn - you have to deliver the final blow with the whip. Beware of hitting the Heavies, as they may be charging you. Their mace-throw attack also does a lot of damage, so look out.

This is a perfect opportunity for a Trapped Demon - use one, then spam Chaos Bombs at the heavies. Kill both of them this way, while making sure you're not out of blood orbs in the arena. Once they're down, finish off the small soldiers with the whip. You may need two Demons for this challenge, one for each Heavy.


3 - Infection, Third Seal

Enemies:
2 Riot Mechs
(R) 2 Riot Police

Challenges:
Defeat All Enemies
Take less than 50 damage from enemy shots
Destroy each of the riot mechs' weapons

Each mech has 3 weapons to destroy: 1 Rocket Pod, 1 Flame Thrower, 1 Shoulder Cannon. The bladed gun can be iced over to prevent it from firing, but cannot be destroyed, and is not required for the challenge.

First, kill one of the two Riot Police. They're annoying, and they like to shoot you. Their machine gun fire is the real problem here, not the mechs' cannons, which are easier to dodge. Two spawn every time two die, so leave one alive.

Second, kill the flamethrowers. Dodge around in front of the mechs, and dare them to use the fire attack. When they do, Chaos Bomb the weapons - not the mechs, targeting is important here. You may even have to stand still - the flamethrowers are very rarely used, and then only to hit a close target. Chances are, while baiting the flame, you'll be able to kill the other weapons too.

Third, finish off the other weapons, if you haven't already. The flamers are by far the hardest to get - the rocket pod and shoulder cannons are easy to see and easy to aim at. Freeze the cannon, Chaos Bomb the rocket pod - but only when they activate. You can't Chaos Bomb the cannon - only freezing it will work.

Once all three weapons are down on both mechs, use a Talisman of the Dragon to kill off everything, winning you the challenge. If you're hit by a mech gun, recover quickly to avoid being chain-locked. Blocking will help against the machine guns, and Void Shield can immunize you against bullets - but you'll need to use a Trapped Demon to get more freeze power, which may be difficult to time correctly. I found it easier just to dodge around a lot.


4 - Infection, Fourth Seal

Enemies:
1 Horned Demon
(R) Possessed Citizens

Challenges:
Defeat All Enemies
Don't let 30 seconds pass without earning experience
Damage the Horned Demon only when it is frozen

This is the most irritaing one in the fourth set of challenges, so get ready for some fancy freezing.

To keep the experience up, just kill a Possessed Citizen every 20 seconds or so. As long as you kill it, it doesn't matter what weapon you use.

Freeze-killing the Demon is the hard part. There are a number of ways to do this - Hoarfrost Fog, Ice Crest, or Void Projections (freeze bolts) will all work. You'll need two Projections to fully freeze the beast, and they also need to be close together. If it's still moving at all, DO NOT ATTACK. Drop and Perforation will not work, as it counts as an attack.

Once frozen. If they do, you have 3 seconds to attack the monster. Give it two good whacks with the Chaos Claws - or three, if you're quick, reckless, and very close to it. Repeat. Make sure you've switched away from the Void Sword before attacking!

If you're far away, you can shoot two Chaos Bombs if you're SURE the Demon is frozen.

Make sure to kill a Possessed after each attack on the Demon, and make sure the attacks don't hit the demon itself! Any non-frozen hits on it will fail you the challenge.

Winning this challenge will get you the third achievement.

Final set, you're through the worst of it. The fifth challenge here is monumentally obnoxious, but still very doable.


1 - The Dead Arise

Enemies:
40 Servant Corpses

Challenges:
Defeat All Enemies
Avoid being grabbed for more than 10 seconds, total
Kill 5 Corpses with in a single series of hits from the air

This one is nearly impossible if you don't do it correctly. If you use the right tactic, though, it's very easy. It's also a great place to get free magic and health, if you're quick.

To start, the Corpses have an unbelievably irritaing and difficult to dodge grab attack. It has a huge range, is very fast, and does sizeable damage. They give you very little warning, pursue you around the arena, and will often be waiting for you even when you land from a double-jump. After the fifth straight time you get hit by it, you'll want to smash your monitor. You can escape by button presses, or use Mist Form - the second one is probably the better option.

To get the aerial attack, you need to do a series of tasks to prepare. First, run around the arena and give every Corpse one or two hits with the Whip. They should be in yellow health by then - any green health bars, and you still have damage to do.

Second, the Corpses won't all come to you, and just standing there is a good way to trigger happy-grabby time. Use the Void Kata skill to suck in as many as possible - don't kill them with it, but draw them in. Flame Claws works too, but it does far more damage and has knockback - the Kata is much easier to use. If you get 6-7 Corpses in a group, you're ready.

Finally, stop the Kata and quickly jump out of the briefly-stunned group. If you don't get out quickly, they'll start hitting you. Activate Chaos, jump in the air, and perform the "Eruption" attack. If they're at less than half health, this will incinerate all of them in one hit, netting you the challenge. If not, try again. You have to kill five while you are in the air - the corpses can be anywhere, as long as they all die before you hit the ground.

Once done, carefully eliminate the rest of the corpses. I finished this one and had to restart because of grab attacks, which resulted in some colorful raging on my part. Chaos Bombs are a safe (if paranoid) way to finish off the rest of the Corpses. The Talisman works too, but not on Corpses that haven't spawned in yet.


2 - Infection: Fifth Seal

Enemies:
3 Waves of 3 Dark Monks

Challenges:
Defeat All Enemies
Complete the trial without the Dark Apostle surviving more than 40 seconds, total
Complete the trial without spending more than 20 seconds at less than 100% health

Sounds annoying, actually very easy. Dodge the energy attacks and keep away from the monks. If injured, use Tears or the Whirlwind attack to recuperate. The Tears have 50% overheal, allowing you to tank a few attacks before needing another dose. A Talisman will finish off one wave immediately.

If you see the monks becoming a Dark Apostle, hang back, and wait for it to form. Hit it with a Void Projection, and the Apostle will immediately dissolve back into the Monks. This should only cost you about 3 seconds at a time, but try to be quick anyway.

The "corkscrew" attacks and energy waves can't be blocked, but their hand attacks can. If they open a Possessed portal, kill the floating green runes around it to deactivate it. Once the Monks are down, destroy any remaining Possessed for completion.


3 - The Battle of Nifhel

Enemies:
Paladin
3 Heavy Brotherhood Warriors

Challenges:
Defeat All Enemies
Get the Paladin to break the Heavies' armor without him killing any of them
Kill the Paladin without him keeping the swords together for more than 20 seconds at a time

Not too bad, though hectic. The Paladin is the friendly gold fellow you fought at the beginning of the game. This time, though, you have more equipment available.

To break their armor, shoot one Chaos Bomb at each of the heavies, then bait the Paladin into swiping them with his sword. At this point, you can finish the Heavy off, or try for the next one. The Paladin's double-sword boomerang attack is a great way to break a heated armor set, but may put you dangerously close to the 20 second limit. It will certainly break an already-heated armor set, and might break an unheated one if you're lucky - same for the vertical sword spin, though not as easily. I was lucky here - one boomerang broke all three sets for me.

When the Paladin combines the swords, immediately hit him with the Claws until he breaks. The Whip and Sword do the same thing, but slower. A well-placed Chaos Bomb will do the same thing, but only if he blocks when it hits. Be warned - if he does the fire rain attack, a single hit will take off half of your life bar - this surprised me in the middle of an attempt.

Once all three armor sets are broken, use the Talisman to kill the Heavies and injure the Paladin. Finish him off however you see fit - Whirlwind and Avalanche work, and you can block his normal sword attacks.


4 - Infection: Sixth Seal

Enemies:
4 Riot Police
2 Dark Monks

Challenges:
Defeat All Enemies
Survive until the Dark Monks invoke 12 Possessed Citizens
Get 12 Possessed Citizens to die from Riot Police Mines

Dare I say it? This is the easiest challenge on the list. The Monks and Police will duke it out while you watch. Just hop around until the monks start summoning Possessed, who will immediately start getting themselves impaled (and one-shotted) on Riot Mines. Wait long enough, and twelve will die by themselves.

You can finish off the stragglers with a Talisman, or just kill them yourself. Chaos Bombs are great at breaking the Police Shields, especially if they try to fly away.


5 - Infection, Seventh Seal

Enemies:
75 Servant Corpses
Victor Belmont (sort of)

Challenges:
Defeat all enemies before the number of corpses reaches 20 (at once)
Complete trial without using artifacts, Void, or Chaos
Kill 25 corpses before Victor does

Victor is your ally and your enemy here. He'll help you kill the zombies, but he'll also be racing you in a ragequit-inducing competition. Let me say this at the beginning: this is based on luck.

You have to kill the Corpses quickly, and you can't use any powers to do it. If you ignore Victor, he'll probably win the race, but if you steal too many of his kills, the Corpses will gang up and you'll lose the "less than 20" part.

Your attacks are faster, but Victor's do more damage. He has one fiery chain-slam attack that can net him 7-10 kills in a row, if you don't watch out. Dart in immediately at the beginning, and slam-whip as many enemies as you can. If you see a big group, go for them, especially if Victor is nearby.

If you're grabbed, Mist Form out quickly! Depending on how far ahead / behind you are, restarting may be a good choice. If you get this one first try, consider playing the lottery.

Be careful of your health - you have one health bar, and nothing else. This may be a good opportunity to use the shield trick from the Second Seal, back in the Ruby section. Dodge around while you whip, and look out for charging zombies.

If you die, get grabbed while behind Victor's score, lose the race, or reach 20 Corpses, restart. I teetered at 17-18 for most of the round, while barely keeping ahead of Victor. Once this one is complete, you're done. You should receive the fourth achievement, as well as the ones for the "Legend" and "Hero," if you've been playing on PoD. Congrats, and you've really, really earned them.

I hope this guide helped - if you have a useful tactic, leave a comment for me, and I might add it. Otherwise, good luck, and happy hunting.

- ZK