Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-a-Fide Edition Trophy Guide & Road Map

Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-a-Fide Edition
Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-a-Fide Edition Trophy Guide

Overview:

Estimated trophy difficulty: 4/10 (Trophy Difficulty Rating)
Offline trophies: 15 (13, 2)
Online trophies: 4 (4 )
Approximate amount of time to 100%: 25 hours SP and 20 min for online. (Estimated Time to 100%)
Minimum number of playthroughs: 1 for Campaign and a few maps for online.
Number of missable trophies: None.
Glitched trophies: None.
Does difficulty affect trophies?: Yes, you must beat the game on Normal.
Do trophies stack?: No.
Do cheat codes disable trophies?: No cheats available.
Extra equipment needed?: A 2nd controller, see the tips below, but unnecessary.

Introduction:
Skulls of the Shogun is a strategy RPG turn based game developed by 17-BIT and is inspired by Advance Wars which you will control an army of undead samurai to beat the other undead armies.

Walkthrough:
The first mission is a tutorial on how to play the game and later on some missions it have another kind of new ability and training unlocked. Meanwhile, beat the story, challenges and online trophies because they will serve as an extra tutorial on how to move around the maps, what the different spells do and how to use the different units, etc. This will make playing the campaign much easier. Once you are done with your normal playthrough, change the difficulty to easy and get any of the gold skulls you missed on your normal run (which is probably most of them).

Step 1 - Complete Single Player
Play through the five stages of the story to get familiar with the game rules and know what each unit can do as normal and as a demon which each has a strong and weak points, so you can use your own strategy to win.

Step 2 - Complete Story Challenges
Do the story mode challenges on Easy to get the 60 gold skulls with your fixed general Aakamoto. Ignore the Forgotten Island bonus challenges for now, which contain 12 skulls.

Step 3 - Complete Multiplayer
Do the Multiplayer for which there are only 4 trophies that require going online, but you can get them in a private local match with applying a host by pressing , or by using a 2nd controller which will make life easier and with my method in the Tips section you will get 9-10 trophies in 1 go.

Step 4 - Complete the Forgotten Islands on Normal, then Easy
Now finally do the Forgotten Island bonus stage on Normal to get Make Lava, Not War, then do its challenges to get what left of gold skulls you forgot or left it for latter because they are super max hard to get, please see Make Lava, Not War for more info on why this Bonus stage is hard and Forgotten Island bonus stage section for the guide itself.

Tips:

1 - You have 4 slots to save, so use them as you like, but it's better to save at the beginning of the map. Make a 2nd save when you have progressed a bit, but when you feel confident about what you're doing, make a 3rd one when have you used all your 5 orders, so end your turn and save. Only use this way if you're in a situation where one of your highly important troops is hidden in the bamboo grass and the enemy has a chance of killing it. Wait until your next turn and see if yours is alive, if no then reload.

2 - Saving and loading are very fast, so you don’t even feel you need to blink and the game is ready. You can save in SP and local Deathmatch and TDM, but not in ranked.

3 - There are 2 types of grass, a green one which is the Bamboo grass, it gives your hidden unit in it and aviation of 20% which you can miss a hit from ONi or your enemy's. The second grass is a red one that has needles which if you or an enemy is standing in front and you or the enemy got pushed to it will take an 1 or 2 points of damage, so be careful if it's behind you.

4 - Use the environment for your advantage. If an enemy is standing beside a cliff/high place or the river, then it will fall to its doom if pushed, even if its health is 30 points like the fully meditated general or demon. Be careful where you stand or else the same can happen to you.

5 - There are 2 potions: 1 red potion which gives you a bonus attack strength and 1 green potion which gives you a bonus health and regeneration which both of them remain to the end, even if that unit dies, eat its skull and you will gain its power either from you or the enemy. Also, when you capture something and remain standing on or back to it, you will regenerate your health next round.

6 - Upgrading your Monks. The best monk is the Salamander. When the Salamander reaches Lv 3 from eating 3 Skulls, it can unleash a Thunderstorm in a large space to hit everyone in range. He has the longest range of all units with a deadly fire ball or a shield of lighting that can deflect enemy hits and damage them, plus he can summon ONI to kill enemies or you.

7 - Upgrading your General. If your General is dead from normal ways or by falling of a cliff, then it's game over. The same applies to the Generals enemy, but it's better to let him meditate for 2 full health lines, then eat 3 skulls which will increases your life and transform you into a demon which unlocks a trophy too. The normal General can attack 2 times, but the demon will attack 3 times, yet remember you can move only only once.

8 - The best strategy is to use a Spirit Wall, this needs at least 2 units beside each other. Use 3 Horse units (because they have the highest movement range) and position 3 archers units behind them then a healing Lv3 Monk and 1 Salamander. This is a deadly way to hunt each of the enemy units and kill 3 to 8 in each round if all ranged units are demons.

9 - If you have a 2nd controller or someone to play with you, then go into Multiplayer, choose the local MP option, select a color and press to add yourself as a host. Repeat the process with the 2nd controller then you will be able control 4 armies at once, this way will give you 9 trophies in 1 go. Finally, choose the Ashful Abyss map. See the Guide itself for my video: (LINK). Using my method takes 20 minutes and will get you all the hard trophies, some of them are for Monks and online which are really hard, but with this way they become very easy.

[PST Would Like To Thank Speed of Light for this Roadmap]

Out of Line

Complete the Shores of the Dead on Normal difficulty.
This trophy is story-related and can't be missed.

On Normal, the Shores of the Dead are the first four levels. This trophy will unlock when you kill the enemy general on Level 4, Glorious Gates.

What you want to do is attack the enemy unit directly in front of their General, then, when your next turn comes around attack the General with everything you have. In the bamboo directly to the right of where your units spawn, there is a potion. It can be either red (bonus attack strength) or green (bonus health and regeneration) but in either case, you should pick it up.
Victor of Victorious...Victory

Complete the Land of Eternal Blossoms on Normal difficulty.
This trophy is story-related and can't be missed.

On Normal, the Land of Eternal Blossoms refers to levels 5 through 8. This trophy will unlock when you kill the enemy general on level 8, Guardian Gardens.

Guardian Gardens is a medium sized map. It features the first appearance of Demon Monks: Healing monks who are allowed two turns because they are a full demon (Lv 3) which means in terms of strategy, you need to be aggressive with your attacks. If you're going to attack, make sure you are able to kill that particular unit in the same turn. Otherwise, the monks will simply heal it back to full health, essentially resulting in a wasted turn for you.
Gum-Splattered Lock-Plucker

Complete the Land of Monsoon Meadows on Normal difficulty.
This trophy is story-related and can't be missed.

On Normal, the Land of Monsoon Meadows refers to levels 9 through 12. This trophy will unlock when you kill the enemy general on level 12, Forsaken Flights.

Forsaken Flights features Oni. They will attack you or the enemy if either of you get close to them, with great power. Get the enemy into walking by the Oni, thus letting the Oni do your work for you. There are skulls scattered near the entrances of the Oni's caves. Leave them and the enemy will try to grab the skulls, upon which they will be attacked by the Oni. When the enemy numbers have dwindled, avoid the Oni as best as you can on your ascent and take out their General.
Sound of One Hand Applauding

Complete the Land of Golden Harvest on Normal difficulty.
This trophy is story-related and can't be missed.

On Normal, the Land of Golden Harvest refers to levels 13 through 16. This trophy will unlock when you kill the enemy general on level 26, Autumn Assault.

Autumn Assault is a large map, home to many cleansing shrines, as well as crow monk shrines. Camp at the first pair of cleansing shrines, claiming them and then kill the enemies as they come to you. Be careful of the archers to your left. I also suggest awakening your General early in proceedings and transforming him into a demon. He will be paramount to your defense, just remember to pull him out of the action after each turn. Once you have dealt with the enemies spawning in your immediate area, advance up the steps on the top right of the map. Claim the two cleansing shrines there, then make another defensive stand. When you feel comfortable, attack the General.
A Shogun Is You!

Complete the Land of Frozen Fortunes on Normal difficulty.
This trophy is story-related and can't be missed.

On Normal, the Land of Frozen Fortunes refers to levels 17 through 20. This trophy will unlock when you kill the enemy general on level 20, End of the Line. End of the Line is the last level of the campaign, but the same basic strategy applies. Get your Archers to Demon status ASAP and capture the four shrines near you as soon as you clear out the closest enemies. Salamander Monks work the best and you will want to focus on getting your General and both monks to demon status once your Archers are up to par.

All of your enemies start as demons so it will take multiple units ganging together to get kills, especially at the beginning. You have quite a few more units than you need so if you lose a few at the beginning it is okay but try to not lose any archers. In addition, you will want 3-400 Rice for the end game. Defend the top of the stairs at the beginning, and then spread out to defend the two bridges. You will want to send a cavalry unit to capture the two central cleansing shrines early on.

Play defensively and pull back wounded units to heal on the shrines. Any unit with a blue sword will freeze you but good use of your archers should prevent anybody from getting into melee range after the first few enemies. Remember to protect your archers by having them fire from behind defenders whenever possible.

When the enemy general finally wakes up and attacks you, the fastest way to kill him if you have two Demon Salamander Monks is to put them behind your general, and no units out front. You can't kill the enemy general with units other than your general but you can damage him with other units, cleansing shrines and spells. His attacks will freeze you so ensure that you attack first else you'll likely die. Use your two Demon Salamander Monks to first cast three lightning storms on the enemy general. Save your game and then attack with your Demon General. Congratulations!
Devil Inside

Power up your General to a Demon.
Your general needs to eat three skulls. Skulls are left on the battlefield when you kill an opponent or some maps already have them, eating them heals your units and increases their maximum health. Eating three of them will turn any of your units into a demon, which gives them extra actions each turn.

This trophy can be unlocked on any level in any game mode. If you do the first level which serves as a tutorial, as soon as you’re told about eating skulls you can unlock this it. Simply select your general and have him eat three skulls over three turns (you have 1 turn because you still don’t have your 2nd sword), retreating behind your line of infantry after doing so to prevent the A.I from attacking him. The trophy will unlock after eating your third skull.
Were you using that?

Defeat an enemy Monk by haunting its Shrine.
You can unlock this on any level with a shrine, in any game mode. The easiest method is to create a local game with you and add a host by pressing on the Chaos Canyon map, with unlimited time. Note which color is your primary profile and with the other one, let the host haunt any of the shrines that generate a monk. In the middle of the map is the Crow Shrine, which is easy to reach with both teams.

Once your host profile has haunted the shrine (which takes a turn), a Crow Monk will spawn. Let your horse unit hunt the host's shrine which will take a turn, end the host turn, and that monk will die and the trophy pops.
Outfoxing Death

Bring back a fallen unit with a Demon Fox Monk's Revive spell.
You can unlock this on any level with a Fox Shrine, in any game mode. The easiest method is to create a local game with you and add a host by pressing on the Chaos Canyon map, with max time and 1,000 rice. Note which color is your primary profile and with one of its units haunt the Fox Shrine which is at the top center of the map, this will spawn a Fox Monk on the following turn.

Kill three of your host's units and have the Fox Monk eat their skulls, so that he becomes a Demon Fox Monk. On your host's turn, kill one of your primary profile's units then end your turn. Select the Demon Fox and move within range of the skull left behind by your deceased unit, choose Spell and select Revive. Confirm the spell and the unit will revive then the Trophy will unlock.
Lightning Storm

Defeat 5 foes at once with a Salamander Monk's Lightning Storm spell.
You can unlock this on any level with a Salamander Shrine, in any game mode. The easiest method is to create a local game with you and add a host by pressing on the Chaos Canyon map, with max time and 1000 rice. Note which color is your primary profile and with one of its units haunt the Salamander Shrine which is at the bottom center of the map next to the cliff with two other shrines on it. This will spawn a Salamander Monk on the following turn.

Kill three of your host's units and have the Sala Monk eat their skulls, so that he becomes a Demon Sala Monk. On your host's turn, group five of its units (weak ones) close together, and then end your turn. Select the Demon Sala Monk and move within range of the group of five units, choose Spell, and select Lightning. This will damage all of the units. End your turn and immediately end the turn of your host profile as well. Cast the Lightning spell again, the units will all die, and the trophy will unlock.
Gone with the Wind

Knock 3 foes off a ledge at once with a Demon Crow Monk's Typhoon spell.
You can unlock this on any level with a Crow Shrine, in any game mode. The easiest method is to create a local game with you and add a host by pressing on the Chaos Canyon map, with max time and 1000 rice. Note which color is your primary profile and with one of your units haunt the Crow Shrine which is at the very center of the map. This will spawn a Crow Monk on the following turn.

Kill three of your host's units and have the Crow Monk eat their skulls, so that he becomes a Demon Crow Monk. On your host's turn, line three of your units up right next to each other on the edge of the cliff that makes up the bottom of the map. Select the Demon Crow Monk and move within range of the three units on the cliff edge, choose Spell, and select Typhoon. Target the middle unit, confirm the spell and all three will be knocked off the edge of the cliff unlocking the trophy.
The Bone Collector

Earn 15 gold skulls.
See Skullpocalypsegeddon
Kingdom of the Golden Skull

Earn 30 gold skulls.
See Skullpocalypsegeddon
Kurokawa Would Be Proud

Break a Deadly Alliance in online multiplayer.
(10)
Create a Deathmatch with 3 players select your color and add 2 more hosts by pressing . Furthermore when the game starts, open the Info screen by pressing and select the other host player. Choose Form Alliance to create a Deadly Alliance. The other host will need to accept the alliance. Whoever is getting the trophy will need to open the Info screen with and break the alliance. The trophy unlocks immediately.
Web Master

Win an online multiplayer match.
Simply win multiplayer match, local or otherwise, by defeating the opposing general(s) and this will unlock.

Note: For some unknown reason certain people couldn't get the trophy by using my method in the tips section of the Roadmap, but it popped to me and some other people that way. If you can't get the trophy by using my method, then please visit the boosting thread: LINK
Team Player

Win a team deathmatch game with your teammate still alive.
(2)
Go to Skulls On The Couch option, then select Team Deathmatch, put max time with full rice and chose the Murky Mire map. Note which color your primary profile is and the color of your teammate and make sure you both are in the same team number. For example team 1. Also, add 2 more hosts by pressing and put them as team 2. When the game starts, simply have the opposing generals rush toward your teams and get killed or throw them into the lake and the trophy will pop.
Speed Kills

Win a multiplayer match with a 20-second-per-turn time limit.
(1)
This trophy means you have only 20s to act in your turn before it auto ends and the enemy turn will start and so on, but not to win within 20s. Go to Skulls On The Couch option, then set the Time Per Turn to 20 seconds and then chose the 1st map, then chose your color and add a host by pressing . Either you do an all out attack to kill the enemy General or bring him to a cliff and throw him a way for a fast end and the trophy will pop.
Make Lava, Not War

Complete the Forgotten Isles on Normal difficulty.
This is a bonus stage which have 4 missions (12 skulls) and unlocks after you beat the final mission "End of the Line", but you must beat it on Normal. You will control a new general with a mask, not Akamoto which has its own story in this bonus stage. The Forgotten Island is really hard because when units die they will not resurrect in the next fight, so you only have 1 life. For example, You start with just 4 units and you have 300 Rice, now you need to calculate carefully how you move your units and use your rice, so you used 200 Rice and 3 units are dead and one is hurt. You made it to stage 2, now you only have 100 Rice and your units are not healed and whoever died stays dead with no new buck up. All this remains until you beat the 4th final mission.

See the Forgotten Islands bonus stage and my videos which will show you how to beat the levels and get their skulls.
Dead Ringer

Cast the Tanuki's taunt on a General and kill him with the Tanuki's counterattack.
You can unlock this on any level with a Tanuki's Shrine, in any game mode. The easiest method is to create a local game with you and add a host by pressing Chose the Beach of the forgotten map, with max time and 1000 rice. Note which color is your primary profile and with one of its units haunt the Tanuki's Shrine which is at the very center of the map, this will spawn a Tanuki's Monk on the following turn.

Kill three of your host units and have the Tanuki's Monk eat their skulls, so he becomes a Demon Tanuki's Monk. On your host's turn bring the General to you and cast the Tanuki's taunt on that General and let him hit you, you will see that your Tanuki's take less damage from him than any units and counter attack him, keep letting hte host G hitting you until he dies and the trophy will pop, but remember that after each 2 turns you must cast again the taunt on the general.
Skullpocalypsegeddon

Earn all of the Bone-a-Fied Edition Gold Skulls.
(1)
Gold skulls are awarded for completing challenge goals in the game (such as beating the first level while taking no casualties) which each mission have 3 skulls. You may earn some of these while completing your Normal campaign but don't worry about them. You can do a second playthrough on Casual focusing on the skulls using Stage Select. There are a total of 72 gold skulls available and you will need to earn all of them, in any order, to unlock this hard trophy.

Many thanks to Shelton from XBA.com for his detailed Guide for Missions 1 to 17 of 20 with both text and videos for every Skull challenge: LINK

Mission 18: Avalanche Alley

Here is my video for Skulls 2 and 3:

After you got the Skulls 2 and 3, play it again on easy (better do it after you beat the game to change difficultly to easy). Now you must beat the level in 10 turns, fast capture the 2 thunder shrines with the 2 horses, and the rice by your G, yet the 2 archers kills a unit from behind your red grass. After enemy's turn, have all 5 run up as far as you can, its doesn't matter if the ice balls hit you cause you got it already. Now capture the upper shrines and make sure to pick the Salamanders and hit/kill them as mush as you can within the area up before going to the middle ONI cave and let the 2 Sala and your G with 1 archer eat skulls to be a demon before round 6.

Your unit are the G, 2 Sala, and 2 archers, an ONI will appear below, ignore him and the rest of your unnecessary units. Move on up and kill the rest while capturing the 2 Cleansing shrines and 1 rice from the Left side. Ice balls will kill them and hurt them, you will see an Oni appears from the middle cave, kill him fast and ignore his rice, and make sure 1 Sala demon use Oni skill on them, but don't get close from his or their range. In your side by round 7, do an all out attack by using the Sala thunder storm which you can do it about 4 or 5 times which will kill a lot of them, then clean up with your 1 archer left and your G.

You will be in the last round #10, you will see 3 enemy's are left in the middle up, kill them with your G, 1 archer, and 1 Sala because only they will remain whiten their reach to kill them and win, you can use an ONI to kill them from the 2nd Sala, but make sure to do it before round 9 starts to have an advantage.

Mission 19: Frozen Finale

See here to get all 3 Skulls in 1 go:

Mission 20 (Final): End of the Line

You need to eat 20 Skulls, never knock-back any enemy to edge and you must have the 3 Monks as a demon.

Note that all of your enemies are full demons. This mission is really hard to beat. I beat this on Normal on my 3rd try and got the 3 skulls. You need to capture the 2 Cleansing shrines with a Samurai, but not something else, because they will survive the 1st wave of attack, yet on of them might die, then capture the 2 rice with your archers from the Right side, put a horse unit beside those any Samurai as a Spirit Wall, enemy attacks. Now what you must focus on the 4 arches who need to sit on the Left stairs, they are your only key hope of wining right now, before you summon the Salamander and the healing monk because you will kill all the 27+ units in that spot, do not leave no matter what. Follow these steps:

1 - Kill the closest enemy that is coming to kill your 2 Samurai in Round 3, 1 of them must die from the 3 Archers, hit with your archers and run down from their next turn range attack, and repeat.

2 - Now the cost is clearer, you will see that they took Rice fields and stuff, ignore them and you will see 2 Archers and a Samurai coming from the Right side to you, but still far and 2 Archers, sometimes 3 with a Horse from the Left side, remain down middle with your General no matter what.

3 - Now while they are coming, fast capture the 2 shrines in your side, make sure at the Left shrine that you chose the Salamander because he and the 3 archers will be your only chance to survive the 3 deadly archers from the Left. Yet at the 2nd shrine, chose the Healing Monk and bring him down to your group later and along the way there are 3 skulls, let him be a demon. Now bring back the 2 horses units that captured them. Save your game.

4 - 1 enemy Archer will hit you (twice because he's a demon) but Spirit Wall is cool, now as before kill them as step 1. There is a chance that only 1 of your arches will die, but if more, then reload you save. You must have the Healing Monk, Salamander and 2 Archers alive at any cost though if the rest dies then no problem, but with this way I had all my units alive except for 2 Samurai and an horse.

5 - Wave 3 is from the Soldier shrines, the last hope of the old man. He will order them to attack both sides, but they will reach after 3 turns. You will see around 25 Skulls close to you, your G, Sala, Healing Monk ,and 3 archersmust be a demon now or it's game over because you will be wiped out by them as they attack twice and are stronger, not -4 or -5 of damage, but -6 or -8.

6 - See your screen, you will notice you only have 300 rice, but do not use any of it because this is the deadly hit to the old man. The Salamander demon, 1 Archer and Yakamoto are your only way to win in the end.

7 - Now the enemy have 0 rice and he will send 2 Healing Monks with the 3 Ice Royal Guards. Be very careful because if the ice men touch you, then you'll be frozen until next turn of enemy, meaning you cant move at all and they will attack you 4 times. Again sit in your trap, relax and let them come to you, so you'll kill all 3 ice men and 1 healing monk.

8 - Now all is clear just the old man and a healing monk, he will come to you and needs 5 turns, by now no problem if all your units are dead except, your G, Sala, H.M, 2 Archers, and 1 Horse unit. Make sure all of them are demons. Here capture the 2 upper Cleansing shrines, then the shrine from the far Right because the old man will come from Left no matter what.

9 - Here is where you need to save, kill the last monk, the old man will be close now and by now you summoned the last monk, the Crow. You are fully ready to kill the old man, he will get hurt by your units, but no Side Edge or Wind can make him fall, so you can only kill him with your general!! However, you need the silly crow to be a full demon.

10 - Put your units as in the picture, the Crow comes and the old man will chase your G, but no reach, now move your G to the crow and the crow to him, the crow on the bridge, the old man changed to fallow Sala, Sala run Left, up then a bit Left, your general is with the horse, the crow eats 2 skulls, the old man get confused because he was following Akamoto, but then the Sala. There is a gap the crow can stand on safely, then the crow meets the Sala as the picture:

11 - Finally, see this video: