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How to unlock all achievements.
This guide will go over how to obtain every achievement in Card Shark.
The guide is organized by area. Achievements are organized based on the earliest time they can be obtained.
If an achievement can only be attained during a specific time, I’ll make a note of it.
Warning: this guide contains unmarked spoilers for achievement names and descriptions.
Achievements Requiring Planning
The following achievements require a great deal of planning, and you must consistently meet requirements during the whole game.
Butter Fingers (8 of Clubs)
Fail every technique at least once.
Finish the game without losing a single round.
Die in 6 different ways.
Bring a joyful tear to Death’s eye.
Butter Fingers
Fail every technique at least once.
This achievement might not be attainable currently – it seems as though the Table Wipe Intermediate and Table Wipe Advanced techniques are not triggering failures correctly.
There are also two other techniques that I was not able to fail: Cut Marked and Honest Man.
This achievement requires a significant amount of planning, and is extremely complex.
Failing every technique is not the same as failing every Strategy (for which you obtain cards) at least once.
Some Strategies consist of multiple techniques – e.g. The Cup of Cahors consists of the Wine Spy and Table Wipe Basic techniques.
I. The Bottle of Cahors (Tavern)
Wine Spy, Table Wipe Basic
II. The Three Card Monte (Cascarot Camp)
3 Card Monte
III. The Messy Gatherer (Parliament’s Cafe)
Gatherer, Ineffective Shuffle
IV. The Indiscreet Fingers (Inn)
Fingers
VII. The Bottle of Bordeaux (Manor)
Mark Hidden
(Parliament’s Cafe [2])
Palm Card, Coin Flip
NB: To fail the coin flip, you must not cheat the coin flip. If you perform the trick correctly on the wrong side, that does not count as having failed.
VIII. The Stolen Card (Hospice [1])
Sticky Hand
IX. The Bottle of Burgundy (Manor [2])
Steal Deck, Stack Hidden
To fail the Steal Deck technique, you must overflow the cup when the Comte is swapping decks.
(Baths [1])
Slip/Spring, Pile/Unpile, Cut/Nullify/Crimp
(Bandit’s Den [1])
Bend, Cop Cut, Single Card Stack
(Artist’s Workshop)
False Cut
(Hospice [2])
Baby False Shuffle, Duel
(Bandit’s Den [2])
Cut Nullify, Haymow Shuffle, Spring Injog
(Schloss Favorite)
Fan, Painter
NB: To fail Painter, mark the cards incorrectly during the actual game. When you return, the Comte will recognize that you’ve marked them incorrectly and make excuses to leave. This will not disqualify you from earning Erdnase, Who?
(Chateau du Marais)
Dealer
(Cour des Miracles)
Expert Shuffle
Versailles
Peeking Palm
Death-Related Achievements
None of these achievements, In The End, Death Takes It All excepted, can be achieved on The Con Artist difficulty level.
Return to the world of the living for the first time.
Take a seat in the Lady of Bones’ throne.
Interact with the icon on the right, near the throne, rather than the icon on the left, near the stool.
Encounter the sharp end of the countryside.
Visit the Barn and lose all of your money. You may want to visit the Cascarot Camp beforehand to deposit most of your money.
In order to earn more gambling money, you’ll play 3 Card Monte against an unsuspecting mark. Fumble the cards enough to fill the suspicion meter and you’ll get shanked and earn this achievement.
Greet the Lady of Bones 10 times.
Give your save file to the Lady of Bones.
Die in 6 different ways.
You must die in the following ways:
- Decapitation (Get caught cheating by the 3 losers in the Barn)
- Drowning (Get caught cheating on the Ship)
- Gun (The second visit to the Manor, the first visit to Corsica, and the first visit to the Château du Marais allow you to get shot)
- Shiv (See 3 Stab Monte)
- Starvation (Get thrown in prison and have no one come to bail you out)
- Sword (Lose a duel)
Bring a joyful tear to Death’s eye.
This is a rather obscure achievement. It requires you to die several times and fulfil Death’s requests each time.
After you die in an area for the first or second time, you meet Death and have the option to either pay or cheat Death to return to life.
NB: After your second death in an area, Death allows you to return to life without doing anything.
Opt to pay for your life. Death will either ask for money or something more abstract. Do not keep more than the minimum bet when possible – you want to fulfil Death’s non-monetary requests.
In order, Death’s requests are:
“Time” (scripted result of your first death)
“A soul’s movement” (Answer: breathe or shake your head)
“A poem” (Any choice will satisfy Death)
“An illusion” (Any choice works, though one option redirects you to pay livres)
“A song for my lover” (Any choice will satisfy Death)
“Fear” (Any choice will satisfy Death)
“Vertigo” (Either invite Death to come with you or tell a tale)
“Joy”
When Death asks for Joy, don’t tell a joke, but instead laugh. Keep laughing until Death laughs along with you. This will unlock the achievement.
Tavern
Make a glass overflow 5 times.
Can be achieved using any wine pour.
Wipe the table for 5 seconds.
Can be achieved using any trick involving wiping the table.
Cascarot Camp
Find the Queen in the introduction to Three Card Monte.
Can only be obtained now, and you only get one chance.
Follow the third card Ireneo places, rather than the first card. In other words, he’s lying when he claims to place the Queen.
Injog 5 times in the same deck.
Can be achieved during any shuffle.
Master the Ineffective Shuffle.
Automatically obtained after learning the trick from the Magician.
Spare money for the camp fund.
Parliament’s Cafe
You got the stronger hand, for once.
When harvesting cards, ensure that the high cards end up in your hand.
This can be done during the tutorial.
Skip 5 tutorials.
If you need to leave an area and return, the Comte will offer to review the strategy with you. Each time you decline to counts toward this achievement.
Increase the bet at least twice.
Pull off the first scam of your journey.
Automatically triggered once you complete an area.
Manor
Loiter mid-game in a backroom or cellar.
After performing the bent card trick (or any backroom trick, in future), the suspicion meter stops rising.
At this point, wait in the backroom for 10 seconds to obtain this achievement.
The Barn
Be bested by the three losers in the barn.
Visit the Barn and lose all of your money. You may want to visit the Cascarot Camp beforehand to deposit most of your money.
Hospice
Correct one of your shuffling mistakes.
The easiest way to obtain this achievement is to “mistakenly” drop an additional card after offsetting the high card to the Comte’s first position, then dropping more cards until the high card is in position to be dealt as the Comte’s second card.
If you drop the additional card during the Comte’s tutorial, he’ll instruct you on how to correct the mistake but you will not get the achievement. Performing the correction during the rehearsal will give you the achievement.
This method works for any trick where you’re offsetting a card into a player’s hand and have at least one card’s worth of leeway.
Give yourself the card you kept back in Sticky Hand.
Instead of offsetting the stolen card to deal it to the Comte, offset it to deal it to yourself.
Manor (Second Visit)
Turn the bandits against each other.
After arranging the second deck and being prompted by the maid, peek at Sitarane’s cards as usual.
However, instead of approaching the Comte, approach Bertrand instead. You’ll automatically slip the stacked deck into his pocket. Sitarane will accuse you of cheating, but the Comte will in turn accuse Bertrand.
Hooray for internecine violence!
Cascarot Camp (Chapter 2 Start)
Complete 3 card tosses in a row.
Baths
Fling a card on the Colonel’s seat.
Ah, turning the tables when accused of cheating. There’s quite pawsibly no finer feeling.
Ship
Pay the full price of the voyage.
The voyage costs 450 livres. If you need cash, you can go repeatedly fleece the Lady, the Reverend, and the General in the Barn.
Artist’s Workshop
Inspect all the paintings in Belle’s workshop.
Ensure you inspect every painting before picking up the brush on the far left.
Baths (Second Visit)
Mark a card with 8 or more paint marks.
This can be done during the tutorial.
Perfectly time your deal.
Uncertain what the trigger for this achievement is – whether it involves keeping a steady rhythm during the deal, not fumbling, or dealing a card at the first pawsible opportunity.
Can also be done during the rehearsal.
Hospice (Second Visit)
Train with the Chevalier without making a mistake.
Note that making a mistake during the initial training is acceptable. It seems that as long as you have at least one successful duel against the Chevalier, you will attain this achievement. It may be the case that a successful duel is required in order to progress, which would make this achievement mandatory.
Bandits’ Den (Second Visit)
Beat Theodore at his game.
Win the duel against Theodore.
Cascarot Camp (Chapter 3 Start)
Four achievements require you to visit a hidden area in Chapter 3.
Visit the Cascarot Camp and talk to Ireneo. He’ll point you in the direction of Kepplinger, a cheater at the Inn.
Inn (Second Visit)
Toast yourself.
Teach Kepplinger a lesson.
Gambling House
Sabotage the other cheat’s ploy.
Château du Marais
Ridicule Colonel Gabriel.
Choose Slap him, then Chance. Rig the coin toss to ensure a duel. The second coin toss is irrelevant. Watch as the Colonel shoots himself in the foot.
Pompadour Salon (Second Visit)
Test the limits of your disguise.
While disguised, linger around the Comte for 6 seconds. This should be done as soon as you enter and before you take a seat at the table.
Cour des Miracles
Complete the last tutorial of the game.
Château de Versailles (Finale)
This is it, the final area. This section has like 10 different achievements. 7 of these are always able to be earned, one will be earned if you visited the hidden area in Chapter 3, and two of these may be earned if you met other requirements throughout the game.
The two achievements:
Fail every technique at least once.
Because the final technique is learned here, this achievement can only be earned at this point, and only if you’ve failed every other technique at least once. TBD: Whether failing during rehearsals counts.
Finish the game without losing a single round.
Quite pawsibly the most annoying achievement – this achievement requires that you’ve lost no rounds during the game. Scripted losses (e.g., the second visit to the gambling house) may be acceptable. TBD.
The other 8 available achievements:
Put the Red Lion in a cage.
This achievement will be earned when MacGregor is arrested.
Earn every Strategy Card in the game.
Again, this achievement requires that you’ve visited the Inn in Chapter 3 and learned the trick for that visit. If you have, then this achievement will be unlocked after you learn the final trick.
The next 6 achievements are all mutually exclusive with one another, corresponding with different endings. However, once you earn one and roll credits, you’ll be returned to the main menu with the option to load the save right before the final round.
Of course, if you only care about the achievement, you can exit to menu immediately after the achievements are unlocked. The epilogue is the same across all endings.
Cheat for the King during the final round in Versailles.
Cheat for yourself during the final round in Versailles.
Cheat for the Comte during the final round in Versailles.
Cheat for Erdnase during the final round in Versailles.
Get caught cheating during the final round in Versailles.
The quickest way to do this is to get caught by the King while using Palm Glimpse to peek at the deck, though any method by which you fill the suspicion meter will work, obviously.
Play honestly during the final round of Versailles.
This achievement may be obtained by only dealing cards from the top of the deck.
Epilogue
Encounter every character in the game.
If you visited the Inn during Chapter 3, you will receive this achievement.
Beat Card Shark’s tester’s time (2:12:40).
If you were sufficiently quick to complete the game, you will receive this achievement.
One More Thing…
After you finish the game, delete your save. If you’re not comfortable with this, take a backup of your save first.
After you delete your save, you will see it replaced with a save in the Tavern, at the start of the game. Do not delete this new save.
Load the save to earn this achievement:
Replay the game after finishing it.
Note that playing through a mew save file will not trigger this achievement.
Miscellaneous Achievements
Hold on to 1500 coins.
If you need to, you can earn the requisite money by fleecing the Lady, the Reverend, and the General, but you’ll purrobably naturally earn enough money after the second visit to the Pompadour Salon.
Walk a total of 1000 steps.
Win 7 tables in a row.
The achievement likely entails completing 7 areas without having to leave because you ran out of money or were caught cheating.