By Thomas Hawkins
Crusader Kings 3 is a brilliantly complex rulership simulator with a wide variety of difficult achievements. These are the hardest.
Crusader Kings 3, the historical grand strategy game created by Paradox, has a wide range of achievements for the myriad incredible (and sometimes bizarre) feats players can achieve. Crusader Kings 3 is the latest game in the Crusader Kings series and was released on PC on the 1st of September 2020.
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Players can choose from a huge number of rulers from countless regions around the world throughout history, with the goal of continuing and expanding their rule while ensuring their family line continues. A game of Crusader Kings 3 is only truly over if the player's ruler dies and has no heir. This list will discuss the most difficult achievements players can earn in the game.
7 A Legacy To Last The Ages
The achievement "A Legacy to Last the Ages" can be tricky to achieve, especially for new players. In order to earn this achievement, players must complete an entire Dynasty Legacy Path, which is a set of special traits related to a specific theme that can be unlocked by the head of a Dynasty at the cost of Renown. This requires the player to either be in direct control of their House by playing as the House Head or simply hope that the AI playing the House Head will make sensible decisions while helping to amass the necessary Renown for purchasing each of the legacy paths' five ranks.
This is made slightly easier since the AI is programmed to always prioritize any legacy path that their House already has ranks in, which means that they will actively attempt to meet the requirements for this achievement when managing the House, though it is still far easier if the player is controlling the House Head themselves.
6 Beacon Of Progress
Another title that can be tricky and time-consuming to attain is the "Beacon of Progress" achievement. This achievement requires the player's culture to unlock all innovations except for those which are regional or culture-specific.
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Since unlocking Innovations is down to random chance modified by factors such as a culture's current fascination and the number of adjacent cultures who have unlocked it, this can be very tricky to achieve without spending a great deal of time in the game, and will also require players to ensure their culture survives long enough to complete the process of advancing through all the innovations. Becoming the head of the Culture allows the player to choose the fascination, but much of this achievement is still down to luck and time.
5 Blood Eagle
War-hungry players will likely find the "Blood Eagle" achievement an excellent test of their might. In order to gain this achievement players must play as any of Ragnar Lodbrok's children and conquer the entire British Isles. This will require a great deal of sailing, pillaging, and warfare, which the various Norse factions are excellent at, but will still take a while to achieve.
Since all the characters from the Wrath of the Northmen DLC, except for Earl Alfred of Wessex, are children of Ragnar Lodbrok, any of them would make an excellent start. Of these, Ivar the Boneless and Halfdan Whiteshirt provide the best starts.
4 From Rags To Riches
Another achievement that could take quite a while is "From Rags to Riches", which requires players to start as a count and become an Emperor. Under most circ*mstances, this will require a considerable amount of time spent cultivating allies and making war strategically.
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It is possible to complete this achievement very easily by taking advantage of laws of succession and a pre-existing character, however. Simply begin the game in 1066 as Ayaz Alp Arslanonlu of West-Tokharestan, the heir of Seljuk. Then players need only wait for the emperor to die and inherit the title.
3 A Perfect Circle
Easily one of the trickier achievements in Crusader Kings 3 is "A Perfect Circle", which requires the player to manipulate events so that the character they end up playing has only 12 or less distinct characters among their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents in their family tree. This will require a great deal of planning, setup, and lots of inbreeding, as there could be as many as 60 distinct characters in those sections of the family tree.
2 Lingua Franca
Another of Crusader Kings 3's toughest achievements is definitely "Lingua Franca." To earn this achievement, players must ensure that every royal court in the world speaks their court language. This requires spreading the player's power over as much of the world as possible, and conquering anywhere that refuses to adopt the court language until no land is left that does not speak it.
Any ruler will work for this achievement, though choosing a well-established power to begin with will make this monumental task much easier.
1 What Nepotism?
Yet another monumental achievement is "What Nepotism?", which requires the player to make 10 members of their dynasty into rulers of independent realms of at least Kingdom Rank. What makes this especially difficult is that these members of the player's dynasty are not under the player's direct control, and could very easily lose their title in any number of ways before the requirements for this achievement are met.
The recommended strategy is to grant all of these independent domains at once after amassing the necessary power to do so, thus ensuring that the achievement is unlocked before there is a chance for something to go wrong.
Crusader Kings 3 is available now for PC, and coming March 29, 2022 to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
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