Complete guide to all 40 achievements in Road to Empress I, including chapter completion, interaction, collection, and depth achievements.
This guide covers every achievement in Road to Empress I, organized by category. Each entry includes the achievement name, description, unlock method, and estimated difficulty.
Data sourced from Steam achievement listings and games-manuals.com.
These achievements unlock automatically by completing each chapter for the first time.
| # | Achievement | Description | How to Unlock | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Unfathomable Rear Palace | Clear Chapter: The Unfathomable Rear Palace | Complete Chapter 1 by choosing to stay in the palace rather than sharing a room with Liu Xi | Easy |
| 2 | A Frightful Banquet | Clear Chapter: A Frightful Banquet (any version) | Complete Chapter 2 — works with either the Radiance (red) or Celestia (green) dress path | Easy |
| 3 | Crown Prince’s Palace Enigma | Clear Chapter: Crown Prince’s Palace Enigma | Complete Chapters 3–4 by navigating the assassination plot and confessing to Consort Yang | Easy |
| 4 | The Specter of the Cold Palace | Clear Chapter: The Specter of the Cold Palace | Complete Chapter 5 by surviving Xianchi and the encounter with the mad aunt | Easy |
| 5 | Southern Mountain Hunt | Clear Chapter: Southern Mountain Hunt | Complete Chapters 6–7, including the hunting QTE and the hairpin discovery | Easy |
| 6 | The Ominous Prophecy | Clear Chapter: The Ominous Prophecy | Complete Chapters 8–9 by surviving the “Woman Ruler Wu” witch hunt | Easy |
| 7 | Consort of Preciousness’s Downfall | Clear Chapter: Consort of Preciousness’s Downfall | Complete Chapters 10–11 by bringing down Consort Wei and manipulating her ambitions | Easy |
| 8 | Love Under Imperial Tyranny | Clear Chapter: Love Under Imperial Tyranny | Complete Chapters 12–13 by navigating Gaoyang and Bianji’s crisis | Easy |
| 9 | A Crucible of Life and Death | Clear Chapter: A Crucible of Life and Death | Complete Chapters 14–15, including Yang’s demise and Wei’s daughter arc | Easy |
| 10 | Destiny Rekindled | Clear Chapter: Destiny Rekindled | Complete Chapter 16 — the final chapter with multiple endings | Easy |
These track your overall exploration and completion progress through the game.
| # | Achievement | Description | How to Unlock | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Getting the Hang of It | Reach 50% exploration | Progress through the story making varied choices to accumulate exploration percentage | Medium |
| 12 | Master of All | Reach 100% exploration | Unlock every branch and ending in all 16 chapters | Hard |
| 13 | Another Life | Trigger a normal ending for the first time | In Chapter 2, fail the QTE during the Celestia dress path | Easy |
| 14 | Secluded One | Achieve 5 or more standard endings | Replay chapters choosing different paths to accumulate standard (non-bad) endings | Medium |
| 15 | Flow of the Past | Open the Cleared Chapters Summary | After any Chapter 16 game end, click the Cleared Chapters Summary button | Easy |
| 16 | Personalized Touch | View your Trait Sketch | After completing the game, click to view your personalized Trait Sketch | Easy |
These are triggered by using specific game features for the first time.
| # | Achievement | Description | How to Unlock | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | All Part of the Experience | Trigger a bad ending for the first time | Make any choice that leads to a Bad Ending (BE) — easiest in Chapter 1 | Easy |
| 18 | Time Rewind | Use the backtrack feature for the first time | After a Bad Ending, spend coins to jump back to the key choice | Easy |
| 19 | Nimble Moves | Complete a quick time event for the first time | Pass the door-pushing QTE in Chapter 1 | Easy |
| 20 | Distant Echoes | Listen to a voice message for the first time | After any ending, listen to one voice message from the menu | Easy |
| 21 | Treasure Trove Discovered | View a character video for the first time | Go to Main Menu → Characters → open any Bonus Video | Easy |
| 22 | The First Step | Vote on the leaderboard for the first time | Main Menu → Leaderboard → View → give a flower or egg to any character | Easy |
| 23 | World of Possibilities | Unlock a feat for the first time | After unlocking any Feat, open the Feats page and click it | Easy |
| 24 | Golden Butterfly Chase | Use the “current” button for the first time | From the Story Map, click the “Current” button at the bottom | Easy |
| 25 | Starlit Skies | Open the trait sketch for the first time | At a chapter end screen, click the Trait Sketch in the lower left | Easy |
| 26 | Curious Cat | View a hidden video on the outcome page for the first time | Starting in Chapter 2, watch any bonus video shown at the chapter end | Easy |
| 27 | History Buff | Enter the chapter list for the first time | From Storyline view, click “All Chapters” in the lower right | Easy |
These require thorough exploration and gathering of all content.
| # | Achievement | Description | How to Unlock | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 | Archivist Extraordinaire | Unlock all videos in the character profiles | Fully explore all chapters to unlock every character bonus video; typically completes around Chapter 16 | Hard |
| 29 | Networking Pro | Unlock all content in Characters | Unlock every entry and video in the Characters section through full exploration | Hard |
| 30 | Scholar Supreme | Unlock all content in Collectibles | Find and unlock every collectible item across all playthroughs | Hard |
| 31 | Master Listener | Listen to all voice messages | Listen to every voice message across all 110 endings | Hard |
| 32 | Easter Egg Hunter | Fuse over 2 rare keywords for trait sketch | Fuse rare keywords in the Trait Sketch system; triggers during Chapter 15 with full exploration | Medium |
| 33 | High Roller | Collect any two feat bracelets | Complete enough Feats to earn two feat bracelets across the Trait Sketch | Medium |
| 34 | Millionaire | Accumulate 100,000 coins | Earn coins through chapter completion, Feats, and the initial 20,000-coin mail bonus; typically reaches threshold near Chapter 13 | Medium |
These require specific story choices or completing challenging objectives.
| # | Achievement | Description | How to Unlock | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | Arrows at Wei | Successfully bring down Consort Wei | In Chapters 10–11, choose to “Feed her dream of becoming empress” to trigger the successful path | Medium |
| 36 | Counterplay | Successfully bring down Consort Yang | In Chapter 15, pass the QTE during Yang’s Last Stand confrontation | Medium |
| 37 | Style Icon | Tell Consort of Preciousness that gold dulls her complexion | In Chapter 1, choose “Decline — gold dulls your complexion” when offered the hairpin | Easy |
| 38 | No Way Out | Try every way to save Bianji | In Chapters 12–13, attempt all five methods to save Bianji (discuss with Li Zhi, beg His Majesty, plot with Li Tai, task Xi Xin, and all sub-variants) | Medium |
| 39 | Martial Arts Master | Successfully complete all quick time events | Pass every QTE in the game across all chapters, including the two-round QTE in Chapter 16 | Hard |
| 40 | Wardrobe Indecision | Change dresses more than 10 times | In Chapter 2, when the dress selection prompt appears, choose “Let me try the other one” more than 10 times | Easy |
Quick 100% Strategy:
Estimated time to 100%: 25–35 hours for a thorough completionist approach.