26 replies to this topic

[Ryuukishi]

There is so much random information floating around about this achievement and whether it is glitched or not, I was hoping someone here could give me a definitive explanation of the current status.

First off, I only started playing Dragon Age at the end of March of this year so any issues with the previous title updates or the initial version of the Return to Ostagar DLC shouldn't be affecting me. I have all DLC downloaded, and the disc version of Awakening.

I received the first two darkspawn achievements during my initial playthrough as a warrior (Grey Warden at Ostagar and Master Warden at Denerim City Gates). That seems like a lot of darkspawn kills in one PT just for my player character, so maybe party kills count for these? On the other hand, my party darkspawn kill count on the stats page was 700+ when I got Master Warden so maybe it is only player character kills after all.

I then played through Awakening with this same character. Next I did another Origins playthrough with a new Rogue character. Since then I've reloaded various saves to get all four endings in Origins and both endings in Awakening, played through both of the origin stories with darkspawn, and even reloaded the final boss battle a few extra times to rack up some more kills (35-50 each time).

I think either Master Warden or Blight-Queller must be glitched, because I don't see how it is possible that I could get 500 kills in one PT of Origins, but not have 1000 after two PTs plus Awakening plus the other stuff.

Can someone please give me some guidance? Do all 1000 have to be on the same character? Does reloading a save and killing the same darkspawn again count or not? Who has to get the kills for it to count? And did the requirements for this achievement change at some point in time from what they were initially?

Edited by Ryuukishi, 26 April 2010 - 04:13 PM.

[tdroz73]

I really wish someone could definitively answer this - its the only achievement I have left and I'd hate to spend the next few weeks attempting it only to find out I can't get it due to some defect. At least Bioware should update the stats on the website to list off how many darkspawn kills each character you have has had. That would at the very least tell us how much further we have to go with this.

[Ryuukishi]

tdroz, did you go straight into Awakening after beating the main game, or did you get all of the main game achievements first? Looking at other people's profiles, I feel like there may be a pattern:

Before Awakening came out -> People seem to get it before the end of the first playthrough
After Awakening came out, but only play Origins -> Pops during second playthrough or when going for additional endings
Played main game and Awakening -> ???

My current theory is that the game updated when Awakening came out, to change the requirement from all party kills to player character only kills, making it currently impossible to get during a single Origins playthrough, but, it won't pop if your 1000th kill happens in Awakening instead of Origins. If that is the case and I happened to kill my 1000th darkspawn in Awakening, then it doesn't matter what I do in Origins anymore because my chance is passed.

Can anyone disprove this-- i.e., you did one Origins playthrough then moved on to Awakening, and Blight-Queller either popped during Awakening or popped in Origins after you finished Awakening?

[Bairen]

For me I got my Master Warden Achievement after I got into Awakenings. Before I had loaded my save into Awakenings I had a total count of 901 Darkspawn killed in just that play through. Since it is at 100/500/1000 intervals for the achievement; I'm fairly certain it is bugged or possibly only Main Character controlled kills. I am just now working on Awakenings so I will post when/if I get it.

[Thajocoth]

The current theory is that the intention is to count across characters, while in practice it's counting how many the currently controlled character kills in one play-through. I received the achievement by setting up my party to heal & buff me, but let me deal all damage, and exceeding 1000 on that file. I have a more in-depth explanation of what I did in this thread: http://social.biowar...7/index/1556640

Two notes in response to earlier posts in this thread: I had the bug before downloading Awakenings, and when I got Master Warden (at 810 kills on my 2nd playthrough), I was controlling the secret party member, not the main character, as my main character was unconscious.  So I think it's "currently controlled character".

Edited by Thajocoth, 26 April 2010 - 07:27 PM.

[Ryuukishi]

That would make sense. Individually, each of my characters probably have 500-700 kills or less. And I'm assuming that Origins and Awakening kills don't stack for the same character since it's a different group of save files, i.e. the game considers the Awakening import to be a new/different character.

That would mean I'd have to pick one of them and then reload the final battle maybe a dozen more times... Might be worth attempting.

[sassperella]

well, I have over 1000 kills on my playthrough at the end of origins (though some of those come from dlc) having recently started an xbox live profile and starting the achievements again. I have no master warden (the 500 kills one) but the 100 kill one popped up at 100 kills. My char was a dual wielding warrior and there is no way on earth I was getting under half the kills, I was making an effort to finish off as many as I could having been part of the last thread on this, so I would have killed over 500 on my char easily. On my last DW warrior that i was playing in that thread I got the achievement at 810 and was finishing off far fewer enemies myself. So my guess is this achievement is bugged rather than it be as simple as counting the kills on the controlled character.

However if Thajocoth's theory is correct, you will only get this by virtually soloing all areas with darkspawn as he suggests that the counter is wiped clean between playthroughs and that you can only get it on one single playthrough not across several.

Edited by sassperella, 26 April 2010 - 09:21 PM.

[Ryuukishi]

Except that kills apparently still count if you die and redo an area, or just reload a save and redo some kills. On the various achievement boards, people have posted that they've popped it by repeatedly reloading the Battle of Denerim to go after the different endings.

[sassperella]

ah cool I hadn't seen that one, I'll have to go back and try that once I finish my current playthrough thanks. I wanted to do some different endings, maybe I can get the achievement if I do them on the one char from my saved game.

[Demx]

I managed to get both Master Warden and Blight-Queller on a single play-through in DA:O. The only DLCs I had at the time were Stone Prisoner and Warden's Keep. I was also trying to unlock the traveler achievement as well.

Edited by Siradix, 27 April 2010 - 07:27 PM.

[sassperella]

was this recently because this problem just seems to be since the last patch? And on my last playthrough on a new xbox i got traveller no problem but no master warden and no blightqueller and over 1000 darkspawn killed.

Edited by sassperella, 27 April 2010 - 11:41 PM.

[tdroz73]

Ryuukishi - I don't recall when I went into awakenings - it was likely after one complete playthrough. I've since gone back and re-did the battle of denerim 5 times now - no achievement. And this is with a warrior. Even on casual, I can't quite tank everything in the battle - curse of mortality spells get me every time.



I tried clearing my cache and playing for a bit, but nothing happened. Like a stab in the dark - don't want to invest 50 some hours into it just to find out it doesn't help.

[Ryuukishi]

Success!!



I just popped it. I found that I could down ~25 darkspawn every 3 minutes by repeatedly reloading the Elven Alienage, and I spent about the last hour doing that.



I think it's now obvious that you must get all 1000 on the same character. Whether there were any other factors at work, I don't know.

[tdroz73]

I may try this this weekend and give it one last try...Just Cause 2 is screaming to be played now.

[HeckOnWheels]

This is a great, informative thread people. I'm in the same boat, and I will try the same solution. I guess I'll start a new game, as my others are already complete, and I kind of wanted a human female warrior anyway. If I achieve success, I'll respond in 50-60 hours.

[Lake Effekt Kid]

I agree completely with HeckOnWheels. Im gonna give Ryuukishi's method a shot in this playthrough and will comeback with my results. Thanks all.

[Benzboysl500]

The best answer I can seem to find is that you have to have the main character make the final blow so for me on the third play through its looking like it is going to be solo 2h hnw run. I will let you know how it turns out unless the final battle guide works in which you do some load and reload when you are in the alienage.

[CrabOni]

I tried that a couple of different times and had zero success. I was able to get it by removing every shred of DA from my harddrive, and starting a new game (unpatched). I got the achievement without any problems, using a full party in combat.

Edited by CrabOni, 11 October 2010 - 09:40 PM.

[InjusticeReborn]

I'm now in my second game, both this playthrough and my first playthrough were as a Mage.



My first game i reached the results of the Landsmeet, with over 500 Darkspawn kills with the aid of my party. No achievement. This second game, i've held by party back and removed any weapons so i could slay every Darkspawn i encounter. I've got a total of 593 Darkspawn killed thus far (just Nature of the Beast left to do), and STILL no achievement.



I'm going to give the above suggestion a go. I wish they'd sort it out though. :/

[Kai Freefall]

CrabOni wrote...

I tried that a couple of different times and had zero success. I was able to get it by removing every shred of DA from my harddrive, and starting a new game (unpatched). I got the achievement without any problems, using a full party in combat.

Recently picked up DAO:UE and am saddended to say i have been hit with a similar thing.

As of yet i have not got the 100 darkspawn kills, i have nearly 200 as a party but because the game doesn't give you individual stats im having to hold everyone back while i fight them and just keep hoping it will unlock after i get the next kill as my PC, i have read somewhere that in some cases of the 360 version the darkspawn achievements don't unlock at all.

Hoping i won't have to use the method suggested, but, if all else fails and it seems this method does work then i guess im just going to have to go for it

[running_jester]

I got my master warden very early on so I dont remember how I got it but I know that I downloaded the fix after it and that after two full playthroughs and multiple starts I still had not got it. Finally I only had that and the intimate challenge to do for platinum. So I deleted all my data and did not go online until I got blight queller.



I can be very confident now saying that if you do this you only need 500 kills providing you have the master warden trophy. It is across multiple playthroughs and it is party kills not one players kills.



Hope this helps

[roryritt]

ugh played through with 3 characters over 3000 kills across all my playthroughs.....killed over 1k on each file......now i am playing through without any patches offline of course since blight queller is the last achievement i need, just broke 500 no achievement yet.....gonna try to break 1k again and see what happens.

[Pilgrim44]

Hello, I just managed to get the trophies today and I hope the summary I have written below will help those struggling with it as I had been. I play on PS3, I am updated on all my patches, I have the majority of the D.L.C. (excluding Gollems of Amgarrak, Witch Hunt, and Darkspawn Chronicles), (NOTE: I did not need to delete game and save data, dlc, etc!). I followed the advice of the above posters and people on other forums and on my Mage (1st play through on that account) I progressed into the game until the Elven Alienage (final battle)(as recommended). I saved [may have to be save (1)] at the tree after the auto-save, then I went forth and wreaked havoc. After I killed the enemies I simply reloaded and after a good amount of time I was able to get both the Master Warden and Blight Queller achievements. Thank you to all who assisted me.

[Pezukarhu]

Yeah this is the last one for me too and its driving me insane cos I have 1500 kills and still havent got the achievement. I've been killing darkspawns in vigil and reloading the file after the match, but it looks like that I cant have it even this way.

[Markz2]

It's is really annoying, and I thought that the grim reaper achievement would be the most insane one to get. My count on DS is at 1659 and no blight-queller trophy ´-.-