Tenebris Somnia has 24 Steam achievements, six of them hidden. Here is every one with its condition, plus how many players have it. Getting all of them takes at least three playthroughs, because several of the hardest ones need a run that cannot be combined with anything else.
Story
- Classics Never Die (58.2%) — pick up the iron pipe.
- Have You Chosen... Wisely? (48.3%) — fill the silver bottle by removing 3 save points.
- Devora (43.2%) — find all 3 film canisters. All three sit on the main route.
- De Relictis (29.2%) — read all the pages of the old book.
- One More For The Road (19.5%) — drink Lavendoleum while having full health, so it heals nothing. It restores exactly 1 of Julia's 4 health points.
Exploration
- The Two Stooges (55.3%) — kill two or more enemies at once, not counting Carnitos minions. The hallways outside the elevators are the easiest place: leave one walker alive until a second spawns, then line them up for one shotgun blast or one heavy wrench swing.
- You Can Stop Now (27.0%) — keep going down the endless corridor. In the late green corridor, walk left instead of solving it.
- Thinking About Him, huh? (11.8%) — look at Iván's picture 5 times. It is in the second-floor apartment's computer room, the side room by the TV with the computers and the revolver.
- Stella Plena (5.7%) — open all star lockers. They open with Copper Stars and hold supplies, and the Sanguis fight is the point of no return after which unopened lockers stay unopened, so sweep the floors before it.
- Maybe He's In The Bathroom (8.2%) — knock on Iván's door 10 times. This has to happen before you use the Apartment Key, so do it in the first seconds of a new game.
Combat
- Valiant Little Taylor (21.9%) — kill three Carnitos minions with one hit. Let the fragile minions clump together and sweep them in one swing.
- Butcheress (10.6%) — defeat Carnitos without getting hit. The bottom-right corner of the arena is the safe pocket: step out just far enough to pull the minions into a line, then time the swing.
- Iron and wax (16.3%) — defeat Obscuratus using only the wrench.
- Exhaust Pipe (7.2%) — defeat Fumus using only the iron pipe.
- He Just Wanted a Hug (11.1%) — escape from a Vorax to another room before he explodes. Shoot it until it turns red and charges, then step through the nearest doorway and wait out the blast.
- Bad Puppy (3.2%, hidden) — make Sanguis break all the mannequins. Bait his charge into every upright mannequin, and do not kill him before the set is finished.
Endings
- SOLVE ET COAGULA (23.1%) — get Ending #1, by sparing every Relicta after forging the Aurifer.
- MAGNUM OPUS (23.5%) — get Ending #2, by killing at least one Relicta with the Aurifer.
- VIVUS EX MORTIBUS (7.3%, hidden) — get Ending #3.
- RENUNTIATIO (12.8%, hidden) — get Ending #4.
Endgame challenges
- Heart of Lead (5.9%, hidden) — kill all Relicta ghosts. The kill counter can miscount, so kill them one at a time and let each one's golden particles fade before starting the next.
- Wrench Queen (2.5%) — complete the game using only the wrench. It is the rarest achievement in the game.
Deaths that count as unlocks
- Acrophobia (7.8%, hidden) — die by being dropped by Lacuna. When she screams and leaps, stand still and let her snatch you.
- Devoured (19.5%, hidden) — get eaten by Hermes. In the second phase, walk into the exposed mouth on purpose.
The three-save plan
| Save | What you do on it | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| Save 1 — main run | Play straight through and make a manual save the moment the Aurifer is forged. Finish that file for SOLVE ET COAGULA, then reload it and take the killing route. | SOLVE ET COAGULA, MAGNUM OPUS, and on the reload pass every Relicta for Heart of Lead |
| Save 2 — walk out | A fresh game. Use the Apartment Key on the building's glass front entrance door in the ground-floor lobby and walk out. | RENUNTIATIO |
| Save 3 — the Bible run | A fresh game with the Bible from the ground-floor lobby, taking the alternative solve at each of the three puzzles. | VIVUS EX MORTIBUS and the three Iron Crosses |
Because a wrench-only run can be neither a pipe-only run nor a firearm run, keep a separate save for each of those achievements as well. The save flames themselves are limited and permanent, so the layout of the saves matters as much as their order — the save points page lists every flame in the building. Which ending belongs in which save depends on the branch you earn, and the endings guide explains how that branch is decided.
Achievements that need their own run
- Wrench Queen — finish the whole game with the wrench and nothing else. Weapons arrive in a fixed order — wrench, then revolver, then iron pipe, then shotgun — so a Wrench Queen run is one in which the last three are never used. Picking the pipe up does not swing it, so you can still collect it and earn Classics Never Die, but you must not attack with it.
- Exhaust Pipe — defeat Fumus with the iron pipe alone.
- He Just Wanted a Hug — needs a firearm, because you have to hit a Vorax with gunfire until it glows red and charges.
The same run can still carry Iron and wax, the wrench-only Obscuratus fight, and Butcheress from the Carnitos arena. The full rules for a wrench-only playthrough are in the Wrench Queen guide.
Which Tenebris Somnia achievements are missable
- Stella Plena — every star locker has to be open before the Sanguis fight.
- De Relictis — the Old Book has to be read to the last page, so pick it up on Floor 3 and read it as you find new pages.
- Maybe He's In The Bathroom — ten knocks on Iván's door, before you use the Apartment Key.
- Thinking About Him, huh? — five looks at the picture in the second-floor computer room.
- One More For The Road — drink a Lavendoleum bottle at full health on purpose.
- The Two Stooges — two enemies killed in one hit, so keep one walker alive and wait for a second.
Two achievements are unlocked by dying on purpose, which is easy to miss in a long run: stand still for Lacuna's grab, and walk into Hermes's mouth in the second phase.