Its more comfy to do this game in TWO playthroughs, so just go ahead and enjoy the game the first go.

Took me 8 hours in Dystopia (first time and at my leisure) and only 2.5hrs in Casual (2nd time) using plenty of grenades.

But know this!
To get the mutually exclusive achievements you need to either kill everyone or spare everyone on your first playthrough (on Casual) and then do the other side on the other (on Dystopian).

This guide is full of spoilers, so if you dont want to get spoiled, do not go further.

I also suggest you read the Loyalty section, it has minor spoilers but it will save you some time.

You get your first choice right before escaping the first level, at the holding facility:

You can mop up achievements on your second go, no problem.

A lot of the achievements need a good charisma skill, so pump it :)

Dont forget that this game does not have steam overlay, so the achievements wont be SEEN popping up, you will need to check them manually somehow and some achievements only unlock after the credits, so dont close the game recklessly! (Just to be safe, dont alt-f4)

White Shadow helped a lot of people with info on achievements, this guide has some info from the discussion forums provided by him, so I wanted to fully credit him for the data.

Aquatorrent gave great notes that will help!

Dont be afraid to use your bullets, you'll get plenty of money to buy more. If anything, keep a 300Vita stash around for emergencies and spend the rest on painkillers or whatever as much as you can.

Cheers m8,. thx!

These crafting achievements are pretty easy and you dont have to get more that level 1 on the skill to achieve them. You can even get some money before hand, save, buy the skill, buy ingredients, craft a lot, then reload. They sell detonators in the store in the last town.





You will need at least the advance version of their respective skills to achieve these.
Explore everywhere, these shouldnt be hard to get.
Some doors give you the option to lock or smash, I would always go with smash and I still got the lockpicking achievement before the smash one.


This isnt that hard, by the endgame, you should have over 1000 Vitas lying around, if you mess up in the first go, you can do it in the second. Easier on your kill-everything run.
Crafting doesnt give you extra vitas, just makes things cheaper.


They are really hard to miss, most are at the beggining of a town area.
You should complete this as soon as you complete Act4 and arrive to the last town.

Player Natsu pointed out you might have a little trouble finding all of them so he gave additional details:
--------------------------------------
I've noted the locations of all 7 news consoles if you wanted to add them in, or if anyone happens upon this and wanted to know:

Gamma Sector Streets 4
Delta Sector 01
Sector Theta 01
Midsector 03
Sigma 13 backdoor
Sector Phi West 01
Sector Phi East 01
--------------------------------------

You need at least two play-throughs for this game, because of

White shadow mentions:
The Merciful/Cold-Blooded achievements trigger the moment credits start to roll, so you have to sit through the ending before it triggers (rather than the moment you spare/kill the last of the people).

There are 5 instances in total where you get to decide to spare or kill.
The very first one with the guard when escaping the holding facility counts as one of these.

Also the Trust achievements require to spare or kill 3 out of 5, plan your playthrough accordingly, its really more convenient to do a full spare or a full kill run.

So do the first play-through on casual difficulty to get to know the game and then try Dystopia for the difficulty achievements.






For tips on Dystopia difficulty, you can read and contribute to this thread:
http://cs2bus.com/app/412170/discussions/0/350542683195027154/

Save before meeting with the gang after act4 is done.
Each area has an ending and two possible outcomes, these are reflected in hidden achievements, so having a save file here is handy.

Here is the decision for the final area of the game:

This quest is given by the first shop owner in Gamma after escaping.
With some charisma, this is a requisite for another achievement.


This one is easy to get, just help him when you find him, he is to the east of the store in Act 2.


In the gang's hideout, explore a bit and you will need to disable these minetraps.

(I had advanced hacking), go right then get the quest, the valves are nearby.


Talk to Leo near the store in act3 (midsector) and complete his task either way.


This is done by refusing to retrieve the package for Leo and accepting the security guard offer.
Go to the apartments and meet the seller.


Either charm Wraith to do this without a fight (and get the hidden achievement) or fight him, either way its an easy unlock.


Talk to watts in the southeastern part of Midsector, either fight him or convince him to owe you a favor. (For a hidden achievement, needs charisma)


After getting off the train, go south and find the dealer who sells this for 40 vitas (30 with charisma)


Really easy quest, right from the dealer who sold you MAD, find the woman, go near the store, find the girl. Task completed.


The blood dealers are in the last apartment in the apartment building east of the last hub.


In the last hub, some gangmembers need your help. Its pretty straightforward.


As posted by White Shadow:
When in the warehouse siege bit, you have to be uncaring and cold towards Rebecca. So any time you get a choice to express what you think about the situation, you have to choose the 'I don't care' options (or the equivalent), and when talking to Rebecca, tell her that on a second thought you've changed your mind. If you choose all of the right options, then later on, when you're on the way to your final mission of choice and you see a cutscene of Rebecca talking to her father, she will appear all emotionally troubled by what happened to her, and her father will say he'll get Sgt Burnett to help Roddrik in catching your team. Then, during the final boss fight, Sgt Burnett will be there to replace the flamethrower trooper and you get the achievement at the end of the fight. He is roughly the same level of threat as the flame trooper, and is simply more of a secret character that you find from one of the choice and consequence branches than a secret boss.

Additional note:
* When the psycho asks you what you think, DONT tell him he is sadistic, choose the other option. I personally like to choose to kill Olivia to be extra mean.

Aquatorrent notes:
For "The Job Fell Through", perhaps the dialogue that needs to be selected here needs to be mentioned: https://cs2bus.com/app/412170/discussions/0/365172547947990118/#c360671727316589456
Especially since it's kinda confusing in the guide on what you need to say to Rebecca (you don't really have to talk to her actually)

http://cs2bus.com/app/412170/discussions/0/365172408529081048/

The two are sort of mutually exclusive, so you won't be able to get both in the same playthrough without reloading. If you want to get both in the same playthrough, then you have to kill 2 characters and spare 2, and then save just before the final boss, spare him, get maximum trust with Chloe, reload, kill him, get max trust with Lorelei. The way this maximum trust is shown is with a cutscene during the ending.

With Chloe:
- Must spare at least 3 out of 5 characters when given a choice whether to kill or spare.
- Must be supportive of her when given dialogue choices (there are couple of such instances, which offer you a choice to either agree with her or to scold her).
- Must NOT pick the 'Thanks but no thanks' ending
- Must NOT pick the 'Bearing Responsibility' ending for obvious reasons.

With Lorelei:
- Must kill at least 3 out of 5 characters when given a choice whether to kill or spare.
- Must complete her personal side quest: 'Resignation'.
- Must NOT pick the 'Extreme Methods' ending
- Must NOT pick the 'Bearing Responsibility' ending for obvious reasons.

Furthermore, I asked WhiteShadow about the choices for Chloe, he posted:
The three instances where your trust with her is affected in the dialogue are these:

- First instance is just after you finish the task in the Midsector Hospital. In the dialogue you have with her, you get a branch at one point: "Well, at least we've made it" and "It was a waste of time". The first option is good, second is bad.

- Second instance is after your team falls off a bridge and you find yourself underground. Whilst Chloe is treating your wounds, dialogue follows, and at one point you get a branch: "You did the right thing" and "Your actions were a bit drastic". Once again, the first option is good, second is bad.

- Third instance is when you're trapped in the warehouse with Jinn. When you have a task to speak to Rebecca, you have to talk with her and in a branch select "We're going to stick together". This gets approval from Chloe. Not speaking to Rebecca or choosing "On second thought, forget it" will be a negative towards max trust with Chloe.

My notes:
You need to kill or spare all for other achievements, plan your playthrough and decide which one to do first. Again, spare all in one playthrough and kill all in another.

Before you set out to collect these, keep this in mind.
aquatorrent notes:
In "Hidden Achievements" section, "Sabotage" achievement is obtainable after "I Owe You", and "Face Surgery" is obtainable after "A Better Offer" or "Last of the Diyu" clan. As for the "All Bark No Bite" achievement, since you need to complete it from "The Package" sidequest, perhaps referring it in "The Package" sidequest will help.

Short descriptions taken from:
https://www.exophase.com/game/city-of-chains-steam/achievements/


Failed to use the First Aid.
Try and use this on an almost healed character.


This one is really easy, just approach 5 soldiers from behind, you can do this by taking alternate paths around them. You can get this done before finishing act1 so try and get it out of the way asap.


Dealt with Wraith without having to fight him.
You need Max charisma and avoid the fight completly by convincing him to stand down.


Made Sgt Watts owe you a favor.
This one needs charisma, in the warehouse of the first town/area save the fella and get him to tell you Watts name, then, in Midsector(Act3) go southeast and meet Watts, dont fight him and use charisma again to unlock this.

aquatorrent notes:
"by not killing him, you'll get Spec Ops Armor (the best armor in the game)"





Convinced Amir to ally with you.
Amir met his end.





Roddrik and Olivia both survive.
Roddrik and Olivia both die.


Made Roddrik kill Jinn.
White shadow posted:
Roddrik's wife must be killed for him to storm in and punch Jinn to death (either if you choose her to be shot or if you refuse to choose altogether and Jinn shoots both hostages anyway)

aquatorrent notes:
hello! i just rechecked it and can confirm that the charisma has nothing to do with it (was checking it with both advanced and excellent charisma skill). I was simply made the wrong choice in killing jinn (was doing my cold blooded run). the requirements for face surgery achievement is actually just by killing olivia and sparing jinn; you don't need to wait for the fight to end midway. just make sure not to kill jinn afterwards and after holt and the gang run away, the cutscene where roddrik kills jinn will happen after that.


Gave Thurston what he deserves.
White Shadow posted:
You don't retrieve the package and tell Leo the truth that you know about him. He gets annoyed and says he'll get you for this. Later on, in the final hub area, which is the one after the warehouse siege part of the game, you get to meet him again. To find him, if you go to the Southern part of the area, you'll see a building guarded by 2 robots. Across the road from it, to the South, you'll see a small alleyway. Go down there and you'll find a chest to loot. Take the contents of the chest, and at this point a cutscene will be triggered and Leo will reveal himself. There's no battle or anything, just a cutscene. After that the achievement should be unlocked. :)

aquatorrent notes:
For "All Bark No Bite" achievement, perhaps it's better to write it as "tell Leo that he didn't tell the truth" since the only option that is available to choose is the package didn't there and that he didn't tell the truth.


Used a Medical Bot to clear a room.
In Sigma Labs, midway you will find a locked room, smash nin or lockpick in and gain control of the medbot to activate the sprinklers system and clear the next room.






Spared Li Shen’s gang.
Destroyed Li Shen’s gang.
These two achievements come from the Ascendancy ending.





Holt met his end.
Dreschner met his end.
These two endings come from the "Liberation" Ending, Senate Attack.





Accept Hope's aid.
Declined Hope’s aid.
These two endings come from the "Escape" ending.

• Holt's Disable Machine is a great skill which combos with Lorelai's Opportunist.
  
• Chloe's energy weapon is great to disable machines on those tough encounters with 4 of them at once.
  
• Maximize charisma and lockpicking; they are really useful.
  
• Equip Lorelai with Focus Supports, and give her a couple of focus improvements, she is great with crits
  
• Similarly, equip the tough guy with HP Enhancers for greater regen to make better use of his Provoke.
  
• Dont be afraid to use up everything on boss fights, specially on Dystopian.