This guide is split between 2 parts, if you're if you're looking for an achievement not featured in this part, view the other part:
Before we begin, we should go over a couple of things to help you plan out your 100%. Of course, I'd recommend just going through the base game achievements first, which is why we're only covering those in this video.
We'll need to do one playthrough on normal, or easy, for the first one. This will allow us to get ALMOST all of the collectibles, and most of the random miscellaneous achievements. I say almost for the collectibles because there are 14 that you'll only be able to get on our second playthrough, the Nightmare mode playthrough.
This is a much harder run which is only unlocked after beating the game once. We'll need to do a full playthrough on that difficulty to get another achievement for completing the game on that difficulty.
Now, we'll go ahead and go over all of the story related - unmissable achievements to get those out of the way. You don't have to think about them, you'll just get them automatically while playing through the game.
We have "Follow the Light" for taking a night course of light education. You'll get this during Episode 1.
Then "Nordic Walking" for taking a walk through the logging area and meeting one of the quirky locals. You'll get this during Episode 1 and unfortunately, it's not an e-girl in the logging area, just a taken.
"Bright Falls' Finest" for calling for help. This will be at the end of Episode 1.
Next will be "Under a Thin Layer of Skin" for defying the park ranger. This will be in Episode 2.
Then we have "Park Ranger" for enjoying the sounds and sights of Elderwood National Park. You'll get this at the end of Episode 2.
"Wheels Within Wheels" is for meeting the kidnapper. You'll get this at the end of Episode 3.
Next, we can get "Perchance to Dream" for taking a moment to reflect on past events. You'll get this at the end of Episode 4.
Then "Gatekeeper" will be for cutting the power to the transformer yard. You'll get this in Episode 5.
"The Lady of the Light" is for discovering the secret that she guards. You'll get this at the end of Episode 5.
Next will be "Tornado Wrangler" for defeating the tornado. You'll get his during Episode 6.
There are a few achievements for difficulty at the end, but we'll go over those when we do our Nightmare run because doing that will unlock all of the difficulty achievements below it as well.
Now getting into missable achievements we have A LOT of collectibles. We're not going to go over those in this specific guide, but I'll be putting out a big guide showing every single collectible in the game.
Those will be "Finders Keepers" for discovering 5 hidden chests and "Every Nook and Cranny" for discovering all of the hidden chests.
"Damn Good Cup of Coffee" for discovering 25 coffee thermoses and "Hypercaffeinated" for discovering all coffee thermoses.
"Paging Mr. Wake" for finding 25 manuscript pages, "Picking Up After Yourself" for finding all of the manuscript pages in Normal mode, and "Collector's Edition" for finding all of the manuscript pages in the game including Nightmare mode ones.
"Carny" for knocking over five can pyramids.
"KBF-FM" for listening to all of the radio shows.
"Couch Potato" for watching every single TV show.
"Bright Falls Aficionado" for reading all of the signs.
Yes, there are a lot of these. A very large portion of your first playthrough will be spent trying to track which ones you've gotten, so I made a google sheet to help you that you can get from the top of the page. Just make sure you make a copy of it instead of requesting to edit.
Now as for the rest, we can start going through these around the time where you might get them.
Not necessarily collectible, but another one to keep in mind is "Drink Em Both Up" for putting the lime in the coconut twice. During Episode 1 you'll be in the little diner and a couple of crazy old rock stars will ask you to turn on the jukebox. You'll want to do that. Then fast forward to Episode 5 you'll be walking past that same diner and will need to go in there and turn on the jukebox again. This has to be done in the same playthrough to count for the achievement.
"Float like a butterfly" is for performing a cinematic dodge. This is essentially just for dodging out of the way from an attack at the perfect time where the game puts you in slow-mo and shows it off. They are very forgiving about the window you have to do this so it shouldn't be too hard to do.
There's also "Missed by a Mile" for doing this 20 times, so make sure you keep on dodging attacks to get that as well.
"Let There Be Light" will be for getting a generator running. There will be plenty of these for you to get running during your playthrough so it might as well be unmissable.
Then there's "It Flies, It Burns" for burning 1,000 birds. This you can grind out pretty easily in Episode 2 near the end when you return to the house where Barry is. You'll be out in the back yard with some flare gun cartridges and a large number of birds attacking you. Just kill all of those, and then once they're all dead you can reload the last checkpoint and do it all over again. Keep grinding that out until you get the achievement.
Speaking of killing things, there are a few achievements we can go over for killing the taken with certain things. It's worth noting your progress on these carries over from you first playthrough into your second playthrough so don't worry too much about getting them all during that first playthrough.
"Sound and Fury" is for killing four taken with a single flashbang. Once you start getting flashbangs, you'll want to try to group a few up and then use one grenade to get them all. There will be plenty of places for you to get this.
Then still kind of related to killing things, "Back, Back, I Say" will be for saving yourself with a flare. Basically as a few enemies are coming up you'll want to whip out a flare as they're attacking, and you'll get a nice slow-mo scene of you saving yourself.
"Come One, Come All" is for killing four taken with a single shot from the flaregun. You'll just want to let a few taken gather around in a group and then shoot off a flare.
Next, we can go over "Two For the Price of One" for killing two taken with a single shotgun blast. You'll want a bit of distance when taking shots and have two taken grouped up, that way your spread will hit both and you can get them both killed with the same shot.
"They're Heeeeeeere!" is for destroying 20 poltergeists. Eventually you'll start having inanimate objects attack you and you can fight them with light. You'll end up killing 20 pretty naturally.
Speaking of inanimate objects attacking you can get "Heavy Metal" for surviving the bulldozer attack. This will be during Episode 3 you'll have to fight the bulldozer after dropping down into a large area. A little tip to beating it is just to sit in one of these corners because it's very hard for it to hit you when it's running into walls. Then just keep using the light to slowly kill it until you finally do.
For another large inanimate object, we have "Iron Horse" for encountering a steam engine. This will be near the end of Episode 3 when you have to get into a locked door. Just make sure you stay outside and fight it with light until it's dead. Use the buildings or other solid objects to keep it from being able to hit you.
"It's Not Just a Typewriter Brand" is for defeating 50 taken with a shotgun. This will take a while to get through, but just keep grinding it until you do.
Similarly, we have "The Six-Gun Scribe" for defeating 100 taken with the revolver. It'll also take a while to get through this one, but you should eventually get there.
There's also "Thunder and Lightning" for defeating 50 taken with flashbang grenades. You'll want to use them in groups to make this a little bit more efficient.
Next, we'll go over "Collateral Carnage" for defeating 20 taken with indirect means. This means using explosives, electricity, etc. as long as you aren't shooting them, but you're the one pushing them into it then it should count.
"Right of Way" is for driving over 15 taken. There will be plenty of situations with you having to drive so just make sure you use the lights on taken and then run them over to get this up to 15 of them.
Then "What Light Through Yonder Window" is for defeating 50 taken with the flaregun. You'll just need to allow them to group up and then shoot off of a flare to kill a few with one shot. Keep doing that when you can, and you'll eventually rack these up.
The last of these killing achievements will be "Taken Season" for defeating 50 taken with the hunting rifle. You have access to hunting rifle's less than other guns so this may take a while, but just try to use it when you can.
Moving on from those we can go over some random miscellaneous achievements. "Medical Opinions" will be for listening to Hartman's recordings. During Episode 4 you'll be in the lodge. Once you get the key to access the staff area you can go into a small room with a tape recorder and a bunch of paintings. Start listening to tapes on the recorder and once you listen to all three then you'll get the achievement.
"Boob Tube" will be for seeing what is on TV during Episode 4. Before you exit the lodge, you can turn on the TV there and see the video playing for this achievement.
