Rise of the Ronin Trophy Guide

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Catch five cheaters while playing Odds and Evens. Odds and Evens is a gambling minigame where you bet on whether the combined total of two hidden dice will be odd or even. Guess correctly and you'll receive twice the number of tokens you wagered. There is one Gambling Den in each state. While playing, watch for the screen to take on a slightly purple appearance. When this happens, the "Tell on Him" option will appear, indicating that you've caught someone cheating. Select it to expose the cheater. Do this five times to satisfy the trophy requirement.

Warning

After exposing the cheating, you'll need to defeat the Gambling Den boss and his bodyguard, so be ready for a fight. Imagine getting caught cheating at dice and immediately deciding the reasonable next step is a boss battle. Gambling etiquette was apparently different back then.

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Glide from the elevated deck at Kiyomizudera Temple. You'll need to reach Kyoto, which becomes available during Chapter 3. Once there, travel to the Higashiyama sub-region and head toward the Kiyomizudera Temple landmark in the southeast portion of the map. There's a Veiled Edge Banner near the temple that makes reaching the location easier. Activate it, then head onto the elevated balcony of Kiyomizudera Temple. Jump from the balcony, open your Glider, and remain in the air for a few seconds. The trophy should unlock during the glide.

Tip

Activate the nearby Veiled Edge Banner first. If your attempt doesn't work, you'll have a convenient fast-travel point right next to the temple. You've survived assassins, political upheaval, and countless sword fights. Now jump off a temple balcony for a Bronze trophy.

Unlock Details

Save Soji Okita's life by completing his two Bond Missions. Both of Soji's Bond Missions become available during Chapter 3, but you'll need to make the correct earlier story choice to get his storyline moving. During the Ronin Mission A Rift in the Roshigumi, accompany the Shogunate faction so you can progress toward The Ikeda Inn Incident and strengthen your relationship with Soji. After completing Fate of the Vanquished, you'll gain access to his first Bond Mission: The Supreme Swordsman Later in Chapter 3, complete his second Bond Mission: A Moment of Brilliance During A Moment of Brilliance, you'll search for medicine that can cure Soji's tuberculosis. Complete his storyline and save his life to unlock the trophy.

Tip

If you're working toward Friendly Neighborhood Ronin anyway, make Soji's two Bond Missions a priority when they become available. You'll make progress toward both trophies at the same time. Rise of the Ronin gives you plenty of reasons to draw your sword. This time we're using friendship and medicine. Character development.

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Reach Level 4, Fated, with any Personal Bond for the first time. Personal Bonds have four levels, with Level 4 being the maximum. Increase a character's Bond by completing their Bond Missions, speaking with them, and giving them suitable gifts. Preferred gifts are marked with an origami heart beside their icon. If you're working toward Veiled Vow, this trophy will come naturally because reaching maximum Bond/Favor is required before you can begin a romantic relationship with an eligible character. Don't stop building relationships after earning the trophy, though. Increasing Bonds is also an important source of Rare Skill Points. Each NPC can reward one Rare Skill Point per Bond level, with the type depending on the character. You can check the Bonds tab to see which type a particular NPC provides. You'll want plenty of these points later when working toward A Jack of One Trade is a Master of All, which requires fully mastering one of the four stat types. Your provided route recommends eventually reaching maximum Bond with more than 20 NPCs to help gather the Rare Skill Points you'll need.

Tip

Combine your Bond cleanup with Veiled Vow instead of treating them as separate grinds. Complete Bond Missions and use preferred gifts on characters you're already interested in raising. Turns out friendship really is its own reward. The reward just happens to be skill points and trophies, which makes friendship considerably more efficient.

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Remodel your Longhouse for the first time. After reaching Yokohama and meeting Taka, Ryoma will arrange a Longhouse for you. This becomes your safehouse and eventually provides access to several useful features as you progress through the game. You can remodel the Longhouse from the beginning, so once you've gained access to it, enter the Housekeeping menu and select the Remodel option. Make a change to your Longhouse to unlock the trophy. That's it. No sword fights, political assassinations, or angry samurai required. For once, your greatest challenge is interior decorating.

Unlock Details

Complete all 58 Bond Missions. None of the Bond Missions are permanently missable. Once Testament of the Soul becomes available in Chapter 2, you can return to previous chapters, replay earlier sections, and change choices that may have temporarily blocked access to certain Bond Missions. The easiest approach is to complete the available Bond Missions in each state before finishing that chapter. Many Bond Missions are connected to one another, so leaving one unfinished can prevent another mission from appearing until you've completed its prerequisite. Some missions also require reaching Bond Level 2 or 3 with a particular character before they'll become available. If you're missing a Bond Mission, return to your Longhouse and open Testament of the Soul. Select the Bond Missions tab and check the character list. Unfinished missions appear darker in the mission list, while missing requirements or locations are displayed in red. The description can help identify the character or requirement preventing the mission from becoming available. There are several missions worth paying extra attention to because they have specific requirements. Shinsaku Takasugi's Where There's a Will requires siding with the Anti-Shogunate during Parting Ways. Akikatsu Manabe's The Watchman requires you to have spared Naosuke Ii during The Sakurada Gate Incident. Ryoma Sakamoto's Crossroads of Dawn requires him to survive The Omi Inn Incident. Don't panic if you made a different choice during your original playthrough. Testament of the Soul lets you return and change the necessary decisions.

Tip

Whenever a new Bond Mission appears, complete it before pushing too far ahead with the story. This keeps the interconnected mission chains moving and makes the final cleanup considerably easier. Fifty-eight friendship missions later, you've officially spent more time maintaining relationships than most people do in real life. At least these friends give you Rare Skill Points.

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Upgrade a main weapon, a sub-weapon, and any one piece of armor at a Blacksmith. Blacksmiths can usually be found near your Longhouse in each state. Speak with one, select the Upgrade menu, and upgrade each of the three required equipment types: One main weapon One sub-weapon One armor piece — head, body, arms, or legs The materials required depend on what you're upgrading. Main weapons and firearms use Iron Ore and Black Sand Steel, armor uses Cotton-Linen Thread and Silk, while bows require Bamboo and Iron Ore. You can purchase upgrade materials from Blacksmiths, obtain them by disassembling unwanted equipment, or collect resources while exploring the world. After finishing the game, you'll also gain access to the Blacksmith through the housekeeping menu at your Longhouse.

Tip

Don't waste valuable materials heavily upgrading equipment you're about to replace. For the trophy, you only need to perform an upgrade on each required equipment type. A sword, a ranged weapon, and some armor. Congratulations, you're officially prepared to replace all three with better loot approximately seven minutes from now.

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Complete the objectives of a No-Kill Mission without killing any enemies. There are only two missions with a No-Kill objective: In Search of New Knowledge — Yukichi Fukuzawa Ine's Worries — Ine Kusumoto During either mission, use a wooden weapon or your bare fists to knock enemies out instead of killing them. Complete the No-Kill objective successfully and the trophy will unlock.

Warning

Avoid using Stealth Kills during the mission. Despite your otherwise peaceful intentions, assassinating someone still counts as killing them. Who knew?

Unlock Details

Complete an optional Ronin Mission with Midnight difficulty enabled. Midnight difficulty becomes available after completing the main story. Go to the Longhouse and enter Testament of the Soul. Press L3 to switch over to Midnight difficulty, where you'll gain access to the Ronin and Bond Missions available within each chapter. Midnight significantly increases the difficulty. The recommended level for even the first Ronin Mission rises to Level 56. You only need to complete one optional Ronin Mission on Midnight for the trophy, so there's no requirement to replay the entire game on this difficulty. If you've completed all of your Ronin Missions, Bond Missions, and most of the game's other activities beforehand, you should be around Level 60-62 and in a good position to tackle one of the earlier missions. A good choice is Curtain Falls, Curtain Rises. You can bring two NPC allies with you, there are no enemies on the way to the boss, and you'll only need to defeat Gonzo to complete the mission.

Tip

Save this until after your main-game cleanup. The extra levels and equipment you've gained will make your first Midnight mission considerably easier. After an entire game of becoming ridiculously powerful, Midnight difficulty arrives to politely ask, "That's cute. Want to try again?"

Unlock Details

Give a gift to another character for the first time. Once you've established Bonds with other characters, speak with one of them and choose the option to give them a gift. Hand over any valid gift and the trophy will unlock. You can find characters you've bonded with through the Bonds tab and travel to their listed location. Some characters are only available during particular chapters, so if their location isn't currently shown, return to the chapter where you originally encountered them. You can also meet characters at your Longhouse, where three different people can appear depending on your housekeeping, remodeling, and accessory choices. Each character has two or three preferred gift types. Look for the small origami heart beside a gift's icon, which indicates that particular character likes it. The exception is the Knot of Destiny, which is appreciated by everyone. You'll naturally receive gifts while completing Ronin Missions. If you need additional ones, merchants also sell gifts in exchange for Silver Coins.

Tip

Save your better gifts for characters whose Bond Levels you actually want to increase. Matching a preferred gift to the right person will make your relationship-building more efficient. Apparently overthrowing governments and mastering the sword aren't enough. A true Ronin also remembers to bring presents.

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Equip four or more pieces of equipment that share the same set bonus. Equipment can belong to one of 10 different sets. Check an item's description and look for the set name displayed in gold text. Equipping multiple pieces from the same set activates increasingly powerful bonuses at 2, 3, and 4 pieces, such as reducing damage taken or lowering Ki consumption. You'll find complete equipment sets in chests throughout the game, so this should become easier as your collection grows. Once you have enough gear, open Equipment and check each of the four armor categories: head, body, arms, and legs. Press L3 to open the Filter menu and filter each category by the same set bonus. Equip four matching pieces at the same time and the trophy will unlock.

Tip

Use the filter instead of manually digging through every piece of armor you've collected. Your inventory will eventually become a museum dedicated to clothing you swear you're going to sort out later.

Unlock Details

Take part in missions with all 32 available combat allies. Although there are 52 NPCs you can interact with throughout Rise of the Ronin, only 32 can accompany you during missions. Ronin Missions allow you to bring up to two allies into battle, and you'll need to complete a mission alongside every available ally at least once. During your first playthrough, some missions restrict which allies you can select based on their faction. Don't worry if you can't use everyone immediately. After unlocking Testament of the Soul, you can replay Ronin Missions and select allies you previously couldn't bring with you. Most allies unlock through story progression, while several require completing specific Bond Missions or other activities. The 32 required allies and their unlock requirements are: Ryoma Sakamoto — Complete Curtain Falls, Curtain Rises. Gonzo — Complete Curtain Falls, Curtain Rises and spare him. Shinsaku Takasugi — Complete Try Your Luck. Genzui Kusaka — Complete The Way of the Warrior. Kogoro Katsura — Complete The Plot to Assassinate Harris on the Anti-Shogunate path. Matthew Perry — Complete Test of Friendship. Jules Brunet — Complete Cultural Exchange. Yasusuke Sawamura — Complete Yukichi Fukuzawa's In Search of New Knowledge. Toshimichi Okubo — Complete Damsel in Distress. Hirobumi Ito — Complete The Fire Attack. Sana Chiba — Complete Deadly Blade, Demon Belle. Eiichi Shibusawa — Complete Something to Show the World. Kiyotaka Kuroda — Complete Eiichi Shibusawa's Something to Show the World. Aritomo Yamagata — Complete The Fire Attack. Kaishu Katsu — Complete Meeting Kaishu Katsu. Yoshinobu Tokugawa — Finish the bouts during A Show for the Shogun. Deishu Takahashi — Find him at the training camp where you fought Yoshinobu Tokugawa. Speak with him and participate in one of the training battles. Jigoro Kano — Complete Hirobumi Ito and Aritomo Yamagata's Strength in Softness. Motsugai Takeda — Complete Yukichi Fukuzawa's In Search of New Discoveries. Rutherford Alcock — Complete Robert Fortune's A Prize Beyond Reach. Alexandria Moreau — Complete An Intoxicating Flower. Toranosuke Shimada — Complete Nobutomo Odani's The Three Blades of the Era. Koto Nakazawa — Complete Temper, Temper. Tesshu Yamaoka — Complete Temper, Temper. Isami Kondo — Complete The Shogun's Journey to Kyoto. Toshizo Hijikata — Complete The Shogun's Journey to Kyoto. Soji Okita — Complete The Shogun's Journey to Kyoto. Shinpachi Nagakura — Complete Burgeoning Betrayal. Hajime Saito — Complete Burgeoning Betrayal. Takamori Saigo — Complete The Satsuma-Choshu Alliance. Ernest Satow — Complete A Priceless Treasure. Akikatsu Manabe — Available after Wildfire, provided you spared Naosuke Ii during The Sakurada Gate Incident.

Tip

Whenever you're given a choice of allies for a Ronin Mission, prioritize characters you haven't used before. Once you've unlocked the full roster, Testament of the Soul makes it easy to replay missions and clean up anyone you missed.

Warning

Gonzo and Akikatsu Manabe have choice-related requirements, so pay particular attention to them. If your original story choices prevent access, use Testament of the Soul to revisit the relevant decisions. The real challenge isn't fighting alongside 32 different people. It's remembering which 31 people you've already dragged into battle when you're missing exactly one.

Unlock Details

Name: The Greater Opportunity Category: Misc How to Unlock: Save Shinsaku Takasugi's life by completing his storyline. Shinsaku has four Bond Missions: Try Your Luck Something to Believe In Where There's a Will The Spice of Life The first three become available as you progress through the story. His final Bond Mission becomes available during Chapter 3 after reaching Bond Level 3 with him. There's also an important story choice involved in keeping Shinsaku alive. During the Battle of the Forbidden Gate, Shinsaku is fighting for the Anti-Shogunate faction. You need to accompany the opposing Shogunate faction, which allows you to save him at the end of the battle because of your friendship with him. Once he's alive, you'll eventually be able to complete his fourth Bond Mission and finish his storyline.

Tip

Raise Shinsaku to Bond Level 3 while working through his earlier Bond Missions so you're ready for his final mission when it becomes available. Nothing says friendship quite like joining your friend's enemies so you can save your friend from the people you just joined. Politics are going great.

Warning

If you originally sided with the Anti-Shogunate faction during the battle, don't worry. Use Testament of the Soul to change the past and make the choice needed to save Shinsaku.

Unlock Details

Name: Threads of Fate Category: Misc How to Unlock: Establish your first Bond with another character. As you progress through Rise of the Ronin, you'll meet NPCs you can develop relationships with through the Bond system. There are 52 characters you can form Bonds with by progressing through the Ronin Missions and completing the story. Once you've established a Bond, you can view that character and your current relationship level under Menu → Bonds. Bonds have four levels: Acquainted — Bond Level 1 Friendly — Bond Level 2 Inseparable — Bond Level 3 Fated — Bond Level 4 You can strengthen these relationships by completing Bond Missions, talking to the character, and giving them gifts. Increasing Bonds also provides useful rewards, including combat styles and Rare Skill Points. For this trophy, you only need to establish your first Bond, so it should come very early through normal progression. Don't worry, you don't need to become best friends. Just meet someone who doesn't immediately try to stab you. In Rise of the Ronin, that's already a promising relationship.

Unlock Details

Perform your first Bond Transfer at a Blacksmith. Visit any Blacksmith and select Bond Transfer from the menu. You'll need two pieces of equipment: a Destination Item with an available ability slot and a Transfer Item containing the ability you want to move. The rarity of the equipment does not matter. Select the Destination Item first, then choose the Transfer Item containing the desired ability. Performing the transfer requires: 1 Transfer Item 10 Iron Ore 1 Bond Jewel Complete the Bond Transfer and the trophy will unlock immediately.

Warning

The equipment used as the Transfer Item is consumed, so don't sacrifice something you actually want to keep. Finally, a game mechanic for looking at a perfectly good weapon and saying, "I like you, but I like that other sword's perk more."

Unlock Details

Retry any previously completed mission using Testament of the Soul. After reaching Edo, you'll unlock Testament of the Soul. This system allows you to revisit previous states, replay Ronin and Bond Missions, and even change choices you made earlier in the story. Return to your Longhouse and enter the Testament of the Soul menu. Select any mission you've already completed and replay it to unlock the trophy. For a quick option, replay the first mission. It only contains three enemies followed by a boss fight, making it an easy choice if you simply want the trophy out of the way.

Tip

You'll need Testament of the Soul for other trophy cleanup anyway, so there's no need to go out of your way for this one. It becomes especially useful for revisiting choices, unfinished Bond Missions, and Tears of a Blue Demon. Congratulations, you've unlocked time travel. Naturally, your first use of this incredible power is going back in time to earn a Bronze trophy.

Unlock Details

Save Ryoma Sakamoto's life. Ryoma has four Bond Missions that should be completed before starting the Ronin Mission The Omi Inn Incident. Completing all four beforehand allows Ryoma to survive the attack during The Omi Inn Incident. You'll then be able to continue his storyline and gain access to his final Bond Mission afterward. If you reach The Omi Inn Incident without completing the necessary Bond Missions and Ryoma dies, the trophy isn't permanently missable. Use Testament of the Soul to return to the unfinished content, complete the necessary Bond Missions, and change the events so Ryoma survives.

Warning

Try to finish Ryoma's available Bond Missions before The Omi Inn Incident. Testament of the Soul can fix things afterward, but getting everything done beforehand saves you some timeline repair work. You know you've reached peak friendship when you're completing side quests to prevent your buddy from dying in the main story.

Unlock Details

Start your first romantic relationship by reaching maximum Favor with one of the 13 characters eligible for a Veiled Vow, then selecting their special relationship dialogue. You can increase Favor by completing the character's Bond Missions, talking to them, and giving them gifts they like. When choosing gifts, look for the origami heart beside the gift icon — this indicates that the character particularly likes that item. Romantic characters also have between 2 and 5 Bond Missions, making those missions one of the fastest ways to raise Favor. The 13 Veiled Vow options are: Ryoma Sakamoto Shinsaku Takasugi Genzui Kusaka Goro Katsura Matthew Perry Taka Murayama Ernest Satow Soji Okita Princess Atsuko Ine Kusumoto Sana Chiba Fumi Sugi Usugumo Dayu Once you've reached maximum Favor/Bond with an eligible character, a special dialogue option can become available that allows you to establish a Veiled Vow. Some romances require reaching Chapter 2 or Chapter 3 before this dialogue appears even if you've already maxed their Favor. Ine Kusumoto is the earliest available option, becoming possible during Chapter 2. There are no gender restrictions on the romances, and you can establish Veiled Vows with all 13 characters. Ine Kusumoto and Sana Chiba are the two characters who may notice your other relationships and leave you. You can also simply wait until you've collected all 100 Cats for Cats Over All. Doing so raises your relationship with Usugumo Dayu and provides a natural route toward establishing a Veiled Vow with her.

Tip

If you're going for the Platinum, there's no need to rush this trophy. You'll already be raising Bonds for other trophies and collecting all 100 Cats, so several opportunities to start a romance will appear naturally. Apparently collecting 100 cats isn't just good for the Platinum. It's also a legitimate dating strategy. Take notes.