First of all, I would like to say that, although these achievements seem impossible at first, they are actually possible. There are a few videos on YouTube that shows a content creator finishing both Dark and Darker Light through legitimate ways.












But I found another way to get them. So, if you're interested, make sure to follow this guide step by step to unlock these achievements. By modifying your save file, you risk corrupting it if you don't know what you are doing.

Yes, I know, this may be considered cheating.
The thing is, I was just curious, I just wanted to know if I could get the achievements through another way without actually speedrunning the game or using third-party software to get them. Took me a while but I finally figured it out.

There are a few things you need to know/have beforehand:

• The location of your save file save.dat:
  C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\OSFM
  
• Have a text file editor. I recommend using Notepad++[notepad-plus-plus.org], it didn't corrupt my save file like other text file editors.

Now we are ready to start.

This guide works for both Dark Light and Darker Light, so you will need to do these steps twice, one for each run.

1. Recommendation: Make sure you go in the settings and turn on a few options to increase Niko's walk speed (Run) and to skip the dialogue of the game (while we won't be speedrunning it, it's best to be able to do it fast regardless).














2. Create a new Dark/Darker Light run. In the main menu, select Dark Light/Darker Light to start it.


























3. You'll realize that a timer is present and it's counting down, so in this step we'll need to close the game. You only need to do one of two options:

• Reach the nearest bed and let Niko sleep, when Niko is tired.
  
• Close the game directly, by clicking on the "X" button on the game window.
  

4. Next open Notepad++. Load the save.dat file, located in C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\OSFM


















5. When you open the file, you'll notice a bunch of random characters. It seems confusing at first, by there's a string called @timer_workingT. To find it, all you need to do is:

• In the menu, click Search > Find
  
• Press Ctlr + F.

Put timer_working in the "Find what" textbox and then click the "Find Next" button. You will be directed to that string.




All you need to do is to change it from @timer_workingT to @timer_workingF.


By doing that, you will disable the timer.

6. Open the game again. You'll notice that the timer is gone, it was stopped. Now you can do the run as normal. Even if you hear ticking sounds when you enter/leave rooms or when you finish missions, the timer is still off, so don't worry.


























7. While it may be possible to finish the run and get the achievements with the timer off, I didn't test it. Just to be sure, what I did was activating the timer again on the last time Niko wakes up in the bed, at the tower, before going to the maze.

Make sure to load the save.dat again and just change the same string from @timer_workingF to @timer_workingT, like it was before.


The timer will start working again when you open the game, but it will show the time you had when you first deactivated it. So you'll have plenty of time to finish the run.


























8. Once you reach the top of the tower, you'll get the achievements.