Crusader Kings 3 Achievements Guide

There's a lot of 'em.

Crusader Kings 3
Crusader Kings 3

I’ll be honest with you, I love achievements. I tend to become a bit of a completionist when I like a game and the latest title from Paradox is no exception. I have been playing through Crusader Kings 3 practically non-stop over the past few weeks, trying to get as many achievements as possible in that time.

I still do not have all of the achievements as of yet but I have enough experience with the game and knowledge of the requirements that I believe to know the best way to get each of them. I hope that this guide will help you in your endeavors and that you will become a CK 3 achievement hunter.

How To Get Achievements
General Achievements
Start Specific Achievements

 

How to Get Achievements

Crusader Kings 3
Crusader Kings 3

An important note before we get into the guide is how you get the achievements on Steam. The most important thing is that you must play in Ironman mode with the settings on default. If you do not meet these requirements then you will not receive the achievements, regardless of completing their specific rules.

 

General Achievements

Crusader Kings 3
Crusader Kings 3

Starting out we have the general achievements category. These are ones that can be achieved while starting as any character regardless of religion, ethnicity, or anything else.

Until Death Do Us Part: Marry another Character
This one is very easy and one you’ll likely acquire within minutes of starting a new game. To obtain this achievement, open your character menu and, if you are not married, click the find spouse button.

Death Did Us Part: Murder your spouse.
This achievement requires you to get involved with the Intrigue system. Depending on your character’s skills, this can either be a piece of cake or a nightmare. To obtain this achievement, simply right click your spouse’s portrait and click the murder option.

The Things We Do for Love: Murder your lover’s spouse.
I haven’t honestly found a good reason for murdering my lover’s spouse other than to get this achievement, but it’s the same deal as above. Simply right-click on your lover’s spouse’s portrait and click the murder option.

A House of My Own: Create a Cadet Branch of your dynasty.
This one can be tricky depending on who you start as. There are a few characters who can do this relatively early such as Count Alfred of Wessex in 867. To obtain A House of My Own, you need to go to the special events menu and see if the option is available.

Dreadful Ruler: Obtain the maximum amount of Dread
Fairly straightforward and easy to achieve. The way I did it was just executing prisoners until I reached max Dread. Sure, you may get a lot of tyranny for doing so, but everyone will be so scared of you that you won’t have to worry.

Stressful Situation: Suffer a mental break.
Time to finally go crazy. For this achievement, you simply need to do things that are against your character traits. For example, if you are shy, then you should try to make friends with everyone. All traits are tied to actions that add Stress, which will eventually lead to a break.

Turning Into Diamonds: Reach the highest possible stress level.
For this achievement, just do the same as the previous instructions. It will take you a lot longer to reach the highest level, but it is still pretty easy to obtain.

The Succession is Safe: Have 10 living children.
This achievement is all about time. Eventually, you will get it just by playing the game, but there are a few things that can help. If you take multiple lovers as well as romancing your spouse, you will have this one in the bag quickly.

Celebrity: Reach the highest level of prestige.
This one is very easy to accomplish. Simply start as Haesteinn of Nantes in 867 and you get it immediately.

Saint: Reach the highest level of Piety.
This achievement is much more difficult than its counterpart as there are no characters, that I am aware of, that start at max Piety. The best way to get it is to build churches, invest in the learning lifestyle, and pay off your religious leader until you reach the highest level.

Non-Nobis Domine: Found a Holy Order
You can accomplish this task once you’ve achieved the third rank of Piety. Simply go into your special actions panel and the option to found a Holy Order should be there. It costs 500 gold and a varying degree of Piety depending on character and religion traits.

Followed By Shadows: Know ten secrets simultaneously
The easiest way to complete this is to set your Spymaster to the action of finding secrets in an important capital. Constantinople is a particularly good place to obtain secrets.

Moving Up in the World: Increase your rank
This achievement requires you to move from the starting rank of count, duke, or king, to a higher tier. Rurik can accomplish this from the game start as he can immediately go from a duke to forming a kingdom.

Fine Print: Use a hook to modify a feudal contract
Hooks are an important mechanic in Crusader Kings 3. They can be used for various things, but one of the best things to do with them is through your vassal’s feudal contracts. If you have a hook on a vassal, simply right-click their portrait and use it to modify their contract in your favor.

Know Your Place: Defeat a faction in a war
This is once again the waiting game. Eventually, you will have discontent either from peasants or from your powerful vassals. Once this occurs, you need to score a victory in the war and the achievement is yours.

It’s not a Cult: Create a Faith.
Once you have enough Piety, 5000 minimum for any significant changes, you can either create a new faith or reform your current faith depending on what religion you start as. This can allow you to create the perfect playstyle by giving you a religion that supports your activities.

For the Faith: Take part in a successful Great Holy War on either side.
Once your religion has access to their version of a Great Holy War, you will likely be called to serve. The easiest way to complete this achievement is through the Catholics as they are the most powerful faction starting out, but it is doable with other religions.

Bad Blood: Go to war with one of your siblings over a claim.
A fairly straight forward achievement, this one is easiest to accomplish while starting as one of the Jimena siblings. They all have claims on each other, so war is easy to declare.

Way of Life: Complete an entire lifestyle (all three trees).
This achievement is quite difficult to achieve due to lifespans and random events. Your character needs to survive a long time to complete all three trees in a lifestyle. Some traits help such as genius or ones that extend life expectancy, but a lot of this achievement comes down to luck.

A Legacy to Last the Ages: Complete an entire dynasty legacy.
There are ways throughout the game to increase the amount of renown that your legacy gains, but this one will take some time. It’s best to save getting this one for when you do a long campaign because it will likely take up the majority of the game time to complete.

A Name Known Throughout the World: Have your dynasty reach the highest possible level of splendor.
This one is linked to the previous in many ways. It will take a long time to gain the maximum level of splendor and most of the ways to increase the gain of renown are random. Wait long enough though and you are guaranteed to get this one.

Not So Feudal System: Use the Claim Throne scheme successfully.
Within the Stewardship lifestyle, there is an ability that unlocks the claim thrown scheme. This allows you to, as the name suggests, claim the throne of your liege. This will no doubt end in conflict, but it can be very useful in certain situations.

Prolific: Have one hundred living dynasty members.
Yet another achievement that requires a good amount of time. You will likely need to play through several characters before your dynasty has over a hundred living members since most dynasties start with less than five.

End of an Era: Play until 1453.
Bonus points if you begin on the earliest start date, though I don’t think it’s required. To get this one, simply play to the end of the game. This is nearly impossible to fail unless all members of your family end up dead and there are no more possible player characters.

Keeping It In the Family: Have a child with the inbred trait.
Time to get freaky. To have a child with the inbred trait, you need to either marry, romance or seduce a family member. There are some religions where these relations are ‘acceptable’, but they are rare. The chances of the inbred trait increase drastically the closer the relation is.

Trapped in the Web: Have strong hooks on three direct vassals.
Simply put your spymaster into the find secrets action within your vassal’s land. If you are lucky then you will find secrets on the vassals themselves. This one is difficult due to most secrets being that they have a secret lover, which is only a weak hook.

What Nepotism?: Have your Dynasty rule ten independent realms of at least Kingdom tier simultaneously.
I’m gonna be honest, I hate this one. I had so many family members declare war on me because I gave them too much power and they had a claim on my titles. The easiest way I found to do this is to wait until you hold 10 kingdom titles, which will take a long time, and then grant them all to dynasty members and grant independence. Your empire will be destroyed, yes, but you get the achievement.

Above God: Have a strong hook on your head of faith.
Another achievement that leans heavily on the skill of your Spymaster. Use the find secrets action on the location of your head of faith and then pray that you get lucky. I managed to do this on the pope, but it took a while.

Paragon of Virtue: Have three or more virtuous traits.
This one is tricky until much later in the game. You do have some control over what character traits you and your children get, but it’s not perfect. To find what your faith’s virtuous traits are, go to the faith panel and you will see them in the information tab of your religion. This one requires playing around to match your traits to the virtues, but it isn’t too difficult.

The Thing Love Does for Us: Have a lover save you from a murder attempt.
Honestly, I haven’t unlocked this one yet. The best thing to do though is to have a lot of lovers and then start making people dislike you. Hopefully, the event will trigger and you will get this. Other than that, this one is pretty much dependent on luck.

Monumental: Fully upgrade a duchy capital building anywhere in your domain.
Time, money, and successful successions are required to complete this one. It’s best to do this in a place where you are likely to keep as a primary title. I did it in Constantinople but anywhere will suffice so long as you plan on holding it. Start upgrading the capital whenever you can and you’ll get this one eventually.

Seductive: As any one character, successfully seduce ten people.
Raise your heir to have high intrigue and then dedicate them to learning the intriguing lifestyle. Once you have transferred to playing as them, follow the seduction tree and start seducing people as soon as possible. It’s pretty easy to do, but it takes some time.

An Unfortunate Accident: Inherit a title from someone you murdered.
Another achievement that works best when starting as one of the Jimena siblings. Two of them start with extreme levels of intrigue. Simply start murdering your family members until you get the titles.

The Emperor’s New Clothes: While holding any empire title, be naked.
Once you form an empire, become part of the Adamite religion. You will be naked, sure, but it’s one more achievement under your belt.

A Perfect Circle: Have only two distinct parents, grandparents, and great grandparents
You need to play through a few characters to earn this achievement. Hopefully, nothing goes wrong through succession and birth and you have a distinct lineage. Don’t worry though, this one is easy to get.

Beacon of Progress: Have your culture unlock all innovations, excluding regional and culture-specific innovations.
The last achievement that will take you most if not all of the game time to complete. Research and discovery are slow and there are very few things you can do to help it. Once you have gained the land you want, you can start creating learning-focused characters, but this will still take ages to complete.

 

Start Specific Achievements

Crusader Kings 3
Oi oi, I grew up here!

Start specific achievements require you to start as a specific character, religion, rank, or ethnicity. These tend to be more tedious to complete than general ones, but there are a few that can be achieved with relative ease.

From Rags to Riches: Starting as a count, lead your line to rule an Empire.
Pretty easy to do, but it will take time. Conquer territory, form titles, and then repeat. Eventually, you will have enough land to form an Empire and you will finish this achievement.

Álmost There:As Álmos Árpád, form Hungary and convert to Christianity.
This one can easily be completed in under an hour. Simply start the game, go to your special actions menu, click the migration option, and declare war against Bulgaria. You can win this war with the army you will be given access to. Once you win, simply convert to Christianity and the achievement is yours.

Going Places: As Haesteinn of Nantes in 867, hold any Kingdom tier title.
This is another that can be achieved in the first hour of play. Haesteinn starts with max Prestige, a sizable army, and the ability to declare war on a lot of people. Take out your starting enemy, form the first dutchy, claim another of your choosing, and then form a kingdom.

The Emerald Isle: Starting as an Irish ruler, hold the Kingdom of Ireland
This one can be completed quite simply. Start as any Irish ruler and start fabricating claims and declaring war on neighbors as soon as possible. Once you have enough land, you will have a prompt to form the Kingdom of Ireland. You can get this done on the starting character if you act quickly enough.

Last Count, First King: As Nuno II Vimaranes, form Portugal.
Reforming Portugal is one of several special realm creation actions in CK3. To do so, you must hold all of the de jure territories within the realm title. Once you do this, you will be able to form Portugal from the special actions menu.

Blood Eagle: Starting as any child of Ragnarr Lothbrok, conquer all of the British Isles
This achievement requires you to form the Empire of Britannia and to hold all of its de jure holdings. The easiest of the brothers to complete it with is Ivar the ‘Boneless’ as he starts as a duke within the needed territory, but any of the brothers are doable.

Frankokratia: As a French Catholic, hold the Kingdom of Thessalonika without being a vassal to Byzantium.
This is a difficult task at game start and, depending on how events unfold, may become harder the longer you wait. The Byzantine Empire is the largest realm in the game, so prepare for a fight when taking Thessalonika.

Reconquista: Starting as an Iberian Christian, convert all of Iberia to Christianity.
The only reliable way to obtain this is to conquer all of Iberia and start converting as quickly as possible. The longer you wait, the more likely the stronger Muslim powers will get involved and the difficulty will increase drastically.

Al-Andalus: Starting as an Iberian Muslim, control Iberia and take the Avenge the Battle of Tours decision.
Same as the previous but with a different religion. This one is easier starting out as Muslim control over Iberia is particularly strong. Just start taking territory quickly, because you don’t want to risk a crusade being called against you.

7 Holy Cities: As a Hindu ruler, hold all seven Hindu Holy Sites at the same time.
This achievement can either be hard or easy depending on who you decide to start as. If you choose a strong kingdom when starting then it is possible to accomplish this within a single character’s lifetime. To find the holy sites simply go to your religion panel. After that, it’s just about conquering territory.

Rise From the Ashes: Restore the Roman Empire
Like the Portugal achievement from before, this will require you to control all of the de jure territories of the Roman Empire as a Greek. The easiest way to do this is by starting as the Byzantine emperor, but it is by no means a simple achievement. You will be fighting many of the game’s great powers to regain the territory, so be ready for a fight.

Give a Dog a Bone: Starting as Matilda di Canossa in 1066, rule Italy, have 50 Dynasty members and found a Holy Order.
The tedious part of this achievement is the Dynasty member requirement. The conquest of Italy is pretty easy, but then you have to wait until your Dynasty has enough members. It could be a short amount of time or it could take multiple characters depending on game events.

Wily as a Fox: Starting as Robert the Fox in 1066, rule Sicily, hold a Greek Kingdom, and convert it to Catholicism.
Pretty easy to get this one. Make sure you have good allies and the conquest of a kingdom should be doable. The only part that will take a lot of time will be converting it all to Catholicism.

Norman Yoke: Starting as William in 1066, win the Invasion, become English, and have only English vassals.
Once you have won the invasion, focus on diplomacy with your vassals. Only when they all like you should you change your culture to English. Hopefully, most will change with you and this achievement becomes much easier. After that, you can choose to either revoke titles or grant independence for all vassals that didn’t become English.

Sibling Rivalry: Starting as any of the Jimena siblings in 1066, become the Emperor of Spain.
You have four options for doing this, but I recommend starting as the King of Leon. He has high intrigue and taking over your sibling’s land will be relatively easy to do. You are heir to all of their land at the start so simply use the murder scheme and the titles will become yours.

Kings to the Seventh Generation: Starting as Eudes Capet in 867, lead your Dynasty to rule the Kingdom of France.
The easiest way to accomplish this is to build yourself up to be powerful before using the Claim Throne scheme. If successful, then the Kingdom will be yours and you can either move on in your conquest or go after a new achievement.

Royal Dignity: Starting as Vratislav Přemyslid in 1066, lead your Dynasty to rule Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire.
Becoming the Holy Roman Emporer is a difficult feat to accomplish, but through certain abilities such as the Claim Throne and Murder schemes, it can be easier. Once in control of Bohemia, simply continue the conquest of the needed territories before claiming the HRE for yourself.

Land of the Rus: Starting as Rurik the Troublemaker in 867, lead your dynasty to rule the Empire of Russia.
You start as a duke, but you can immediately create a king tier title from the game start. As a pagan, you will get special casus belli to conquer the surrounding territory. Continue the conquest until you have 80% of the de jure territory for Russia in your domain and you will be prompted to create the Empire.

Carolingian Consolidation: Starting as a Karling, be the only independent Karling to hold a landed title
This achievement is very difficult due to the wide range of Karlings that exist across the map. You will likely need to spread your empire across most of central Europe to achieve this while also making sure your descendants don’t somehow end up as independent rulers. You can use murder and other schemes to help, but this achievement is pretty much a giant game of whack a mole.

Mother of Us All: Starting as Daurama Daura, have your line reform an African faith and convert all of Africa to it.
Lastly, this achievement is the most tedious in the game. To do this, you will pretty much need to unite all of Africa starting from a county. This requires you to hold multiple empire tier titles and will take you most of the game time. Then, you need to reform an African faith and convert the entire nation to it, another tedious task. It’s not necessarily a hard achievement, but you’ll need to dedicate a lot of time to get it.

Crusader Kings 3 is available now for PC.

READ NEXT: Crusader Kings 3: How To Easily Make Money

Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.