Rise of the Ronin

Comes at the tail end of Taka Murayama's Bond mission "A Light in the Darkness" - when the game prompts you, take her photograph. So it's really a case of working through her bond line; the photo op is the final beat of it.

Buy every skill in one of the four stat trees (Strength, Dexterity, Charm or Intellect) from the Skills menu. Pick whichever tree you've sunk the most into and mop up its remaining nodes - you earn plenty of skill points across a full run, so one fully-bought tree is comfortably doable well before the end.

Pops during a Chapter 2 main mission as the duel plays out and the samurai's identity is revealed. Purely story, no action on your part.

The Blade Twin arc's payoff, forced in Chapter 3. It follows on from Curtain Falls, Curtain Rises; you don't need to do anything special for it to land.

Story-forced end-of-chapter pop. Everything gated to Chapter 1 - Infiltrate the Prison Complex, Curtain Falls, Curtain Rises - is already behind you when this lands, so treat it as a checkpoint rather than a task. The map opens up properly from here.

100 cats scattered across every region. Each is a tiny side-objective: approach one slowly and interact to pet it. They surface as map icons as you raise a region's Public Order (clearing its activities and outposts), so push order up first and the locations light up - far easier than combing the map blind. A long haul, but there's nothing hard about it.

Play Odds and Evens at a gambling den (there's one in Yokohama). Watch the table closely - when someone cheats you get the prompt to call it out; do so, then beat them in the scrap that follows. Five separate catches does it. If a round's clean, just keep playing hands until a cheater shows.

Unlocks when Chapter 2 wraps, no action needed. Worth knowing: you'll have had the Testament of the Soul since early in this chapter, so by now the bulk of the game is freely replayable if you want to double back and clean anything up.

Your first Completion Reward drops for fully clearing one region's set of activities and collectibles. Pick a starting area, hoover up its Landmarks, cats, chests and the rest until the region reads 100%, and the reward (and this) fall out. You'll trip it naturally while chasing Cats Over All and Sightseer.

Conduct 15 Technology Developments at Igashichi Iizuka's workshop in Yokohama. Each costs Foreign Books, which you pull from treasure chests around the map, so this is really gated by how many books you've hoarded - keep looting chests and spend the books as they come in until you've done fifteen developments.

A scripted Chapter 1 reveal - the sibling you didn't pick back in the Prologue (Flying the Nest) turns out to be alive. Forced, nothing to do; it sets up the arc that pays off in A Veiled Edge's Future.

Go to Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto's Higashiyama district and find its famously high wooden stage - the elevated deck that juts out over the hillside. Equip your glider, run off the edge and glide. It pops on the way down.

50 Chance Encounters - the random roadside events (white banner icons) where you help a stranger, break up a robbery and so on. They spawn constantly as you move about, so the trick is don't fast-travel everywhere: ride or run between objectives and these tick up on their own.

Soji Okita only exists as an ally on the pro-Shogunate path - side against the Shogun at the Kyoto branch and he dies, taking this with him. To save him, recruit him (he becomes available after the main mission "The Shogun's Journey to Kyoto") and clear his Bond missions, which centre on finding medicine for his illness. Picked the other side or missed his bonds? Replay via the Testament of the Soul on the same save - which is exactly why this is not a true mutex, nothing's permanently lost.

Get any one Personal Bond to Level 4. Personal bonds rise as you clear an ally's Bond missions and take them on outings, so this falls straight out of chasing Friendly Neighborhood Ronin - your most-used ally will hit Lv.4 long before you're done.

The Firearms Training minigame at Yoshida-Shinden in Yokohama - score high enough for the top Master rank. Bring a strong, upgraded firearm and take your time lining up the targets rather than rushing them. Sibling training ranks: Horseback Hero, Winged Warrior, Striver's License.

Forced. The Prologue runs on rails, so this pops the moment its final mission ends - nothing to chase. Your only real Prologue decision is which of the twin siblings you play as; the other becomes your Curtain Falls, Curtain Rises Blade Twin, and even that has no bearing on trophies.

Open the remodel menu at your Longhouse and place or change a single furnishing - that's the whole thing. Do it the first time you're back at your home base and it pops on the spot.

All 58 Bond missions across every ally you recruit - the big completion gold and one of the two real time sinks. They open as you build bonds and push the story, so knock them off as they appear rather than leaving a wall of them for the end. A few belong to allies you only get on one faction path (e.g. Farewell, Black Cat), but the Testament of the Soul lets you replay the other path's content on the same save, so all 58 are reachable without a second playthrough. Overlaps heavily with Social Climber.

Three separate upgrades at a blacksmith: enhance one armour piece, one main weapon and one sub-weapon (firearm). They needn't be big - a single level on each of the three categories ticks all three boxes. Cheap, so just do it early.

Raise any one region's Area Bond to Level 3. Area bonds climb as you complete that region's activities and help its people, so this comes naturally while you're clearing areas for Collector and the collectibles - no separate effort needed.

The Horseback Archery course, also at Yoshida-Shinden in Yokohama. Hit the targets from the saddle for the Master rank - pre-aim slightly ahead of each one as you ride past so the arrow meets it. See also Firearm Genius, Winged Warrior, Striver's License.

A Chapter 1 main-mission objective - fight your way through the prison complex to reach Shoin Yoshida and it pops. Forced, nothing missable.

Fugitives are wanted-poster minibosses dotted around the regions (91 exist, you only need 50). Pick up the bounties from message boards and the map, then hunt them down - each is a one-off duel. They're good combat XP too, so clear them alongside your other regional mop-up and you'll hit 50 comfortably.

Clear a No-Kill mission's objectives without killing a soul. The go-to is Yukichi Fukuzawa's Bond mission "In Search of New Knowledge" - go in with a non-lethal mindset, using throws and unarmed knockouts rather than blade finishers. Watch that your stealth takedowns don't tip into lethal ones.

Land a killing blow with each of the nine weapon types (listed below). Quickest done on weak trash mobs: equip a type, get the finishing hit, switch to the next, repeat. Keep one of each type in your inventory as you go and you'll likely have most before you ever think about it.

A forced Chapter 2 main-mission beat - the meeting at the Sumida River. Nothing to chase, it comes to you.

Complete any optional ronin mission with the Midnight difficulty toggle switched on. Midnight is the hardest tier and only unlocks once you've finished the main story, so this is a post-game job by design. Pick a short, easy optional mission you can handle at your endgame build, flip Midnight on and clear it. It's the sternest single trophy in the game, but one mission of your choosing is a world away from a whole Midnight run.

Hold 150,000 sen at once - it's your current balance, not a lifetime total. Money flows in steadily from missions, looting and selling surplus, so the only real obstacle is spending it all on upgrades. Sit on your funds for a while and offload duplicate weapons and armour at a blacksmith and you'll clear the threshold easily.

Hand any ally their first gift - open the Talk menu with an ally (at the Longhouse or out in the world) and give a gift item. Gifts raise bonds, so you'll be doing this anyway; the very first one pops it.

Equip four pieces of gear that share the same set bonus at once. The set bonus is the golden text on an item's stats - get four matching and it (and this) activate. Easiest early with common looted sets: don't chase a specific one, just hold four of whatever set you've got the most of and slot them together.

The platinum - pops the instant every other trophy is done. With nothing missable and the whole game replayable through the Testament of the Soul, it's purely a matter of clearing the list. Once the story's behind you, the two completion golds (Friendly Neighborhood Ronin and Social Climber) plus the collectible sweeps (Cats Over All, Sightseer) are the bulk of what's left.

100 stealth kills - sneak up behind an unaware enemy (crouch, stick to cover and tall grass) and hit the assassination prompt. These stack up fast if you open every engagement quietly, so default to picking off a camp's outer patrol before you trip the alarm. You'll be most of the way there by the endgame without trying.

44 photograph spots dotted across the regions. Once revealed, each shows a camera icon - stand on the marked spot, open the camera and snap the framed view it wants. Same trick as the cats: raising a region's Public Order surfaces its icons, so clear activities first. (This is the free-roam photo set; A Happy Memory is the separate story-tied one.)

Take every one of the 32 recruitable allies on at least one mission - not just recruit them, actually bring them along. Easiest habit: the moment you unlock a new ally, slot them into your next mission's ally roster. Missions let you bring more than one, so you can tick several off in a single outing. Naturally overlaps with Friendly Neighborhood Ronin.

Start and complete a mission with no allies in your party - just leave the ally slots empty in the pre-mission loadout. Pick an easy mission so going solo doesn't bite. Note it pulls against Social Climber (which wants allies along), so knock this one out on its own separate outing.

Unlocks inside a Chapter 2 main mission as the truce is brokered - it's scripted, not a choice you can fluff. Forced.

The dojo challenge - reach the top Master rank there. It's the sternest of the training trophies since it's a straight duel rather than a target course, so come back once your build's fleshed out and your Ki management is solid. Companion to Firearm Genius, Horseback Hero, Winged Warrior.

You master a combat style by raising the Bond of the ally who teaches it - get three of them to Master and this lands. In practice you'll have three maxed from natural bond-building well before the credits (it's widely reported popping around Chapter 3's Omi Inn Incident), so there's nothing to grind here.

The Blue Demon is a brutal optional boss during main mission 2, "Infiltrating the Black Ship" - you can flee it first time round, and most people do. Come back through Mission Replay once your build's strong: learn its telegraphs, block and deflect to break its Ki, then punish the stagger. It's entirely optional, so no shame in leaving it until you're properly kitted out - one of the harder fights in the game.

A late-game set-piece main mission on the critical path - clearing it pops the trophy, and there's nothing missable inside it. Just play it through.

The final chapter's closing pop, and effectively "beat the game" - forced, nothing to do but reach it. The Battle of Toba-Fushimi sits on the critical path just before here.

Work through all four of Shinsaku Takasugi's Bond missions, then give him the medicine at the end of the last one to save his life. Straightforward as long as you follow his bond line through; and like the other fate trophies it's replayable via the Testament of the Soul if you miss it live.

A scripted Chapter 3 main-mission beat - the persuasion of Takamori Saigo plays out in the story, so it's automatic.

The game walks you into your first bond during Chapter 1's early missions - it's a taught mechanic, so this pops as you learn the ropes. Bonds are the spine of Friendly Neighborhood Ronin and Social Climber, so start banking them from here.

Perform your first Bond Transfer at a blacksmith - this moves a special ability from one piece of gear onto another. You need two items with a transferable trait: pick a trait you like off a piece you're about to ditch and stamp it onto a keeper. Doing it once is all this asks.

Replay any mission via the Testament of the Soul at your Longhouse - the feature unlocks early in Chapter 2. Just re-enter one mission you've already cleared and it pops. This is also your safety net for every missable-looking trophy in the game, so you'll be leaning on it plenty regardless.

Ryoma Sakamoto dies at the Omi Inn Incident unless you've completed his fourth Bond mission before you play that main mission - so keep on top of his bond line as it opens rather than saving it for later. Blow the timing and it's not gone: the Omi Inn Incident and his bonds are both replayable through the Testament of the Soul, so his fate can be re-sealed on the same save.

Take any romanceable ally to maximum bond, then pick the "I've got feelings for you" dialogue option to begin the relationship. Whichever ally you've bonded hardest with (see Fateful Encounter) is the natural pick - once they're maxed, the romance prompt shows up in their Talk menu.

Character Level 55, which arrives on its own through normal play - missions, bonds and all the combat you'll be doing for everything else push you past 55 long before the platinum's in reach. Nothing to grind deliberately; if you're somehow short at the end, a few fugitive hunts (Keeper of the Peace) top you up fast.

The Gliding Training course in Edo's Shiba region. Hit every target on the way down for the top Master rank; keep the glider's nose down to carry speed between the widely-spaced ones so you don't fall short. Kin to Firearm Genius, Horseback Hero, Striver's License.