These are the playable characters by which you need to play to earn all the achievements. However, among these one should be your main character...

Gaige (Mechromancer)
Krieg (Psycho)
Axton (Commando)
Zero (Assassin)
Maya (Siren)
Salvador (Gunzerker)

---

Let's take a look that how the missions will appear in this game...

1. Post-Crumpocalyptic
   
2. Ell in Shining Armor
   
3. Roll Insight
   
4. Fake Geek Guy
   
   • MMORPGFPS
5. Critical Fail
   
6. Tree Hugger
   
7. Lost Souls

1. The Bane
   
2. The Beard Makes the Man
   
   • My Kingdom for a Wand
     
     • The Claptrap's Apprentice
3. The Sword in The Stoner

1. Winter is a Bloody Business
   
2. Loot Ninja
   
3. My Dead Brother
   
4. ??? (Shoot This Guy in the Face)
   
5. The Amulet
   
6. Pet Butt Stallion
   
   • Feed Butt Stallion
7. Find Murderlin's Temple
   
   • Magic Slaughter: Round 1
     
     • Magic Slaughter: Round 2
       
       • Magic Slaughter: Round 3
         
         • Magic Slaughter: Round 4
           
           • Magic Slaughter: Round 5
             
             • Magic Slaughter: Badass Round
               
             • The Magic of Childhood

(available after Fake Geek Guy and A Game of Games is complete)

---

While most of the missions are straight forward to complete, few may seem some tricky to you. Here are some partial brief explanations about such missions...

1. MMORPGFPS: In this mission you will be asked to perform "Teabag xxDatVaultHuntrxx: 0/2". For this, kill xxDatVaultHuntrxx and crouch directly over his corpse. Like others he too will resurrect and return. Do the same again for the 2nd time. Anyway, this video may be more helpful...

2. The Bane: During this mission you will be asked to "Pick up Gar's map" and this video may be helpful...

3. My Kingdom for a Wand: During this mission you need to perform "Insert Wand In Orc and Shoot Orc in face". Shooting with a sniper rifle will help. Don't worry if the desired orc dies, he will re-spawn until this is done rightly. This video may help...

4. Loot Ninja: In this mission you need to "Investigate Sir Stew" and this video may help for his location...

5. Dwarven Allies: during this mission you will encounter an area where there are some floating rocks and you need to jump on those to reach and pick up one quest object. I found this video is showing the shortest route...

If you still fail to make this jump right Tina will make a way for you. :)

In this same mission later you will enter in a temple where you need to solve a puzzle ('Solve ancient dwarven puzzle'). Here after entering, you will see 6 sources of ray-beams and now let us assume 1 to 6 imaginary serial numbers for those 6. so starting from the left...
Now, activate the rays 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 order. When done, it will automatically throw rays in some different order. Say by: 3, 6, 2, 1, 4, 5. So, now you need to activate in the reverse order of this to solve the puzzle. In this case it should be: 4, 1, 2, 6, 3. Still if you really fail, there is an easy way, if you can't Brck may punch you. :)

You start the game in Normal mode. You unlock True Vault Hunter Mode after completing the final story mission "A Game of Games".


However. the game has an 'easy mode' where you take least damage from all the sources. This means "Easy Normal" or "Easy TVHM".

I found the following video is very helpful for Seraph Crystal & eridium farming...

Note that, by this method you will pay 20 eridium for 1 time only and after each loot just reload. Once you get 500 eridium (max. that you can have at a time) then you can be back.

Some legendary (orange) weapons farming...

1. Mister Boney Pants Guy will appear during the very first mission 'A Role-Playing Game'. You can farm him going to the Unassuming Docks for these: Hail / Blockhead / Commerce / Invader / Gub / Creeper / Bigg Thumppr / Pandemic.

2. If you have completed 'Critical Fail' side quest taken from Moxxi then you can farm 'Arguk the Butcher' whom you encountered at the end of the mission for the gears: Hail / Mongol / Deliverance / Bone Shredder / Chulainn / Pitchfork / Thunderball Fists / Teapot / Judge / Stray Kite.

3. During the side mission 'The Bane' which received from the ECHO recorder of a dead bandit (Mines of Avarice), you encounter Gar in Immortal Woods at the cemetery. You can farm him for the: Madhouse / Pyrophobia / Creamer / Octo / Fremingtons Edge / Morningstar / Gunerang / Whisky Tango Foxtrot.

4. You can farm 'Warlord Grug and Warlord Turge' in the forest (orc village) and Mines of Avarice who after 2 times level up becomes 'Duke of Ork' for these: KerBlaster / Nukem / Striker / Dog / Unkempt Harold / Dahlminator / Boom Boom / Order.

And...

5. You encounter McNally in Immortal Woods during the side mission The Bane. Farming him may drop: Roaster / Tidal Wave / Sloth / Fibber / Fabled Tortoise / Cracked Sash / Fuster Cluck / Nasty Surprise.

6. During the mission 'Dwarven Allies' you will encounter GreedTooth (GOLD GOLEM) and can farm him for: Hammer Buster / RokSalt / Trespasser / Hornet / Tinderbox / Rubi / Pot O’ Gold / Neogenator / Rolling Thunder.

Tips: You will find a closed door in the final dwarfs temple during your way to Gold Golem...

...and at that point your map should look like this with some undiscovered places...

After killing the Gold Golem when you will return you will get this gate is open and you will be able to move through it to discover this place.

However, this gate will remain locked every time you enter this map. So, every time killing Gold Golem only then you can move through it.

7. You will encounter Ghost Kings (4) in the Immortal Woods at the end of the mission' Denial, Anger, Initiative' and the drops are as follows...

• Ghost King Aliah (may drop: Stomper / Norfleet)
  
• Ghost King Crono (may drop: Teeth / Skullmasher)
  
• Ghost King Nazar (may drop: Logans Gun / Infinity)
  
• Ghost King Seth (may drop: Bigg Thumppr / Bonus Package / Black Hole)

8. Near the end of the mission 'A Game of Games' you will encounter Sorcerer's Dauther in the Lair of Infinite Agony and can firm her for: Lady Fist.

9. At the end of 'A Game of Games' mission as last boss you will encounter Handsome Sorcerer at Dragon Keep and can farm him for: Hide of Terramorphous.

10. In the Murderlin's Temple during the Magic Slaughter: Badass Round (6th: Repeatable), Warlord Slog(s) spawns and who after 3 levels up become 'King of Orcs' (Challenge: Work! Work! Work!) may drop legendary.

11. For all types of loot, you need to farm the Ancient Dragons of Destruction (according the mission 'Raiders of the Last Boss'). Check the top video (Seraph Crystal & eridium farming part) for the location and this time you will go to the arena instead of the mimic room.

Loot-A-Pult...
You will find such in several maps and paying 10 Eridiums you may get decent loots and yes as per your current level. One such is here...


Pearlescents Weapons...
In this stand-alone version you may acquire Pearlescent weapons by farming the Slot Machines in the Moxxi's bar but unfortunately those will vanish by the sanity check at the moment a ‘save & quit’ happens. However, except PerlCents all other items will be saved including legendaries..


A minor graphics tweak...

Like all the Borderlands games you will see black borders in this game too around everything. If you do not like that then there is a way to remove it. The removal will also reduce some GPU resource cost and everything will look smoother.

So for this, first locate this path and open the WillowEngine configuration file (create a backup too) via notepad or any such text processing app.

Now, search for "DefaultPostprocessName"; once you get, notice that at the right side of the "=" sign there are 2 times the word "Willow" exactly like this line...
DefaultPostProcessName=WillowEngineMaterials.WillowScenePostProcess

Now, replace the 2nd "Willow" with either "Ryan" or for without bloom effect to "Cinematic".
After modification the line should be like this...
Or,

Now, save and close the file and run your game. Don't you notice any change at all?

In the map of "Flamerock Refuge" just opposite of the Moxxi's bar you will find this chest. This chest needs Skeleton Keys to open. In it you will get your level specific purple graded weapons (I did not get any better than that costing all of my keys).


You may visit the Official SHiFT Website by Gearbox Software[shift.gearboxsoftware.com] if you wish for more codes.

You can buy gears (all equip-able non-weapon items) / weapons from usual map-shops (vending machines) or from Marcus Kincaid located in the Flamerock Refuge.


In the same Flamerock Refuge map notice these 2 shops ($ signs) where you can buy your various weapons & backpack / bank upgrades in exchange of eridium crystals (= black market) that you have and weapons in exchange of Seraph Crystals.


You will get a bank inside of the Moxxi's bar to store your extra gears...


You will also get a 4 slots stash to store 4 weapons which can be shared among all of your characters...

Achievement descriptions are moderately sorted by the order those appeared according the global status up to this date of publish of this guide. So far there are total of 30 achievements.

The following...
marked (24) achievements are character-independent and...
marked sections are the part of the previous achievement.
marked (6) achievements are character specific.

Criteria: Slew Mister Boney Pants Guy
Description: After the start of the game, during the mission 'A Role-Playing Game' you will come to enter the unassuming docks. Suddenly, a dragon will appear but then Tina will remove it by the suggestion of Lilith and instead 'Mister Boney Pants Guy' will appear accompanied by several skeletons. Defeat him to obtain this achievement. So, this one is almost an unmissable achievement.

Criteria: Reached level 5
Description: You start the game from level 1. Once you will touch level 5 you will get this. So, this is an unmissable achievement.

Criteria: Introduced thyself to the White Knight
Description: During the mission "Denial, Anger, Initiative" you will find a white night (with white armour) who is actually 'Roland' - Lilith's ex-BF. There you will fight with 3 dragons and after those are defeated once you talk with Roland the achievement should popup.

Criteria: Reached level 10
Description: Self-explanatory! Once you will touch level 10 you should get this. So, unmissable one.

Criteria: Unsheathed 5 swords from Immortal Skeletaurs without leaving the area
Description: During "Denial, Anger, Initiative" accompanied with White Knight (Roland) you will come across a circular area in the Immortal Forest where you will fight with 4 Ghost Kings (Aliah, Crono, Nazar & Seth). There will be some skeletons too, in which some of those are skeleton monsters that have glowing swords in their backs.
When you kill them they don't die. Instead, they get up after a few seconds. To kill them permanently, you need to run to those and after those falls being HP 0, press E (when prompted) to pull out the sword out of their back and then they finally die.
Before leaving the area you need to do the same for the case of 5 such enemies and the achievement will be yours. By chance, if you can't manage the achievement during the story, you may come back later here and can get this achievement as all those enemies will spawn again.

Criteria: Purchased 5 items from the black market
Description: May be you have already bought something form the Black Market in exchange of some eridiums but for this buy any 5 and the achievement is yours.
See: "Purchase of gears / weapons and stashing..." section above.

Criteria: Redeemed 25 tokens
Description: Notice the picture below. For completing various challenges you get Badass tokens and these you redeem to boost your bonus status and Badass Rank. When such 25 tokens are redeemed, you get this achievement.

Criteria: Unlocked 10 customization items
Description: Customisation items (say, skins) you will get naturally as you will progress your game. But you can get those 10 as loot drops / from chests / completing challenges / completing missions / from vending machines / trading with other players. This is cumulative among your characters.

Criteria: Used the Lootapult to cause a Lootsplosion
Description: There are several Lootapult scattered into several maps. One is in the Flamerock Refuge. Paying 10 eridiums you can get a loot and the achievement.
See Farming & other tips (Loot-A-Pult) section above.

Criteria: Demonstrated your skill, or lack thereof, at rolling the magical treasure orb of many sides
Description: Naturally you will come across chests with 2 dice on the top. You will see 2 options: (E) ROLL ONE DIE, (Q) ROLL TWO DICE [E 5]. The first one costs you 1 and the 2nd one costs you 5 eridiums. Whatever you do, while rolling a number should come up. In the following picture it is 8. But when it will be either 1 or 20 the achievement will pop up. During Post-Crumpocalyptic side quest you will see the first chest in the Unassuming Docks (Forlorn Ruins).

Criteria: Completed thy quest by rescuing yonder queen
Description: Story related and so unmissable. You will get this after beating the final story boss Handsome Sorcerer and freeing Butt Stalion from her prison. Tips: Slagging The Handsome Sorcerer and his 3 incarnations will ease the fight. After the defeat he returns as Necrotic Sorcerer and summons a lots of skeletons. Necrotic Sorcerer is resistant to shock damage and the skeletons are resistant to incendiary damage. After this, Demonic Sorcerer is the final incarnation and non-elemental weapons are best against him.

Criteria: This is the only secret achievement
Description: Progressing through the level on the map of Lair of Infinite Agony you will find a Side Mission marker (yellow exclamation point) and upon accepting it you will find a man (Face McShooty) who will ask you to shoot on his face. Doing so will complete this mission and you will get this achievement.

Criteria: Revived someone from "Fight for Your Life!" that is on your friends list
Description: For this you need to play with another player who is in your friend list. However, you should send him shift friend request in game because staying in your steam friend list and joining via steam invite / chat window will not unlock this achievement. After the player joins, burning by the bonfire at Flamerock Refuge and reviving should work. Otherwise, go to any map to fight with some enemies while taking out the shield (who will be revived) will fasten this. You should invite them in-game pressing 'Esc' and then by the right side 'Invite friend...' system...

Criteria: Showed thine worst enemy, the abomination known as "The Darkness", who is the nerdiest of them all
Description: In the Hatred's Shadow map there is a black cave. Shooting at it will eliminate the darkness and the hidden door will reveal itself and you will get the achievement. Notice the below map for the exact location.

Criteria: Fed thy noble queen 3 times during one visit to her quarters
Description: After the completion of the main quest A Game of Games, you will find Butt Stallion in the stable of Flamerock Refuge to complete the quest 'Pet Butt Stallion' where you will melee her one time. After that for the quest 'Feed Butt Stallion' as shown in the below picture, going to her, feed her 5 eridiums. At this point you can leave the stable but then later come back for this achievement.
Now, if you have came back for this achievement then make sure that you have at least 15 eridiums with you.
So this time feed her 3 (3 x 5E = 15E) more times without leaving the stable and you should get this achievement.

Criteria: Reached level 25
Description: Once you will touch level 25 you will get it naturally. So, this is an unmissable one.

Criteria: Killed a Chubby
Description: This enemy is a skeleton named 'Chubby Bones'. So, he will spawn among normal skeletons. The most possibilities are in the Unassuming Docks and Lair of Inifnite Agony. It may be a matter of luck after how long you will get him. Some may get him during the normal game play while some may need to farm for him. I farmed 3/4 hrs for him in the normal mode on the Unassuming Docks for this achievement but later got him normally while visiting Inifnite Agony for the 2nd time after completion of TVHM.
So, if you need to farm for him, then from the Flamerock Refuge enter to the Unassuming Docks [not via the fast travel] through the map exit point and then take the left turn and you will find 4/5 skeletons. He may spawn here but if not then advance more and you will get more skeletons. This way move up to the place where you did the Enraged Golem fight for the quest 'The Sword in The Stoner'. If you still did not get him then simply reload and repeat.

Criteria: Wielded the Mysterious Amulet
Description: After 'Dwarven Allies' is completed, you will find NPC Mr. Wiz, he is a random spawn in the Lair of Infinite Agony. If you do not see the exclamation mark on the map you can keep reloading. However. when you will meet with him, you will accept the quest 'The Amulet'. After accepting the quest there will be 2 options presented to you either Buy Miz's amulet Or Punch in the face. If you decide to buy this amulet and after buying if you equip this, you should get this achievement. Some said that if other player trades you this and if you equip still you can get this achievement.

Criteria: Had Purple-rated gear or better equipped in every slot
Description: All through your game play you will get many purple rated or above weapons and gears. Levels does not matter, just keep those all. After your backpack is fully upgraded you need to equip all purple or above ratted items in every slot. I have described above about the various loot and farming sources and even Seraph Crystal Vendor. By obtaining items from all these sources will not be too hard but relic may take some extra time for some of you to find; just keep trying. Once you get all the purple or above rated you will get this achievement.

Criteria: Won the most challenging round in Murderlin's Temple
Description: You get this achievement after completing the Magic Slaughter: Badass Round (6th) in the Murderlin's Temple. This is hard. So, at this point I suggest you at least use gears and weapons at per your level and as much better quality as possible. Also, game settings in EASY mode (See above Game Modes / Difficulty settings...) will be helpful. Can also try in co-op. Check 'Characters & Missions Flow...' above. Antagonist shield is highly recommended purchased from the Seraph Crystals vendor.

Criteria: Vanquished the Ancient Dragons of Destruction
Description: So you are in the last mission 'Raiders of the Last Boss' where you will deal with the 4 ancient dragons in a single fight.
The main strategy is here you should at a time attack only 1 dragon and not shoot the others until it dies. Because dragons can level up during the fight and if you attack only one then it will remain at the spawn level. Accidentally If you shoot another it will land but then don't shoot it and let it fly back. You better target dragons by this order: first attack the shock dragon because it has ability to heal all the dragons and itself. Next the fire dragon who gets invincibility for few seconds after landing while standing still, next the slag and then the corrosive who keeps spawning smaller dragons. Set your game in EASY mode but still this fight may not be that 'easy'.
However. if you can do it you will get this achievement with the huge burst of loots: the biggest loot in game.

Criteria: Reached level 35
Description: Once you touch level 35 you get this. This is the highest level achievable in the TVHM mode for now and the highest level in the game. Magic Slaughter: Badass Round (6th, repeatable) in the Murderlin's Temple is the fastest way to level up. You get xp for as long as you survive in this round.

Criteria: Completed all side missions
Description: For this achievement see the above section: Characters & Missions Flow... and do all the side quests though 'The magic of childhood' and Raiders of the Last Boss may or may not be needed depending on how many side-quests you have finished this far as the game counts the number and some quests were added in this standalone version than the original DLC. So, If you have not missed a single quest staring form the very beginning then may be you will get this achievement even before 'The magic of childhood'.

Criteria: Completed level 1 of all challenges with a single character
Description: If you do this achievement as your last achievement then you will find that most of the challenges are already done. You need to complete all the level 1 challenges but note that some “Undiscovered” challenges will be accessible only completing some other challenges to level 5. Not all the map specific challenges you need to complete but just complete the general global challenges. Here is the list...

DoT (damage-over-time) effects: For such weapon-challenges you should use weapons written this in its description.

Dragon Keep


Elemental


Loot


Money and Trading


Health and Recovery


Continued in the next section...

Grenades


Shields


Rocket Launcher


Sniper Rifle


Assault Rifle


SMG


Shotgun


Pistol


Melee


General Combat


Continued in the next section...

Miscellaneous

Criteria: Killed 100 enemies with Deathtrap
Description: If Gaige (Mechromancer) is your main character then you will get this naturally as you will play on. But if not, then once you are in level 2 you will get 2 skill points and start summoning Deathtrap and the following picture is showing how did i do that being in level 6.


Since Deathtrap is not so strong so shooting the skeletons and reducing their HP a bit fasten this process.

Criteria: Killed 100 enemies with the Sabre turret
Description: If Axton (Commando) is your main character you will get this naturally as you will play on. But if not, then after being level 2 start deploying your turret and start to get kills. Also, reduce enemy HP by shooting and let the turret kills those. I was in level 8 when I got this. Here is my skill tree at that point...

Criteria: Phaselocked 100 enemies
Description: Irrespective to say that if Maya (Siren) is your main character then you will get this naturally. When not, after killing the first boss Mister Boney Pants Guy and killing other skeletons with it only don't kill one archer and there are many places where you can get a cover and where arrows will hardly touch you. So, this way you can Phaselock it as many times as possible. Otherwise, fast travel from the Flamerock Refuge to the Unassuming Docks and you will spawn on the boat. Then use the same technique for the nearby 3 skeleton-spawns. By this method I got this in level 4 and here is my tree....

Criteria: Killed 100 enemies while using Buzzaxe Rampage
Description: Start a new game with Krieg (Psycho) and turning on the EASY mode will be very helpful. Note that recharge of the skill takes too long time: 120 sec. I travelled via map exit point of the Flamerock Refuge to the Unassuming Docks and took right turn for the Mister Boney Pants Guy and killed all the skeletons there by Buzzaxe Rampage. Since skill recharge takes 2 minutes so I reloaded there and repeat this. Here is my skill tree being level 7...

Criteria: Remained in Zero's Deception mode for ten seconds straight
Description: My main character was Zero (Assassin) and so it was not a problem for me but if it is not for you, then you need to level up to 15 to get 28 skill points such that you can reach the last skill of the BLOODSHED tree. Getting one after another kill is important here. This following video worked for me nicely...

Criteria: Gunzerked continuously for 90 seconds
Description: Since Salvador (Gunzerker) was not my main character so I reached to level 12 for this and got 22 skill points. The moral is, as many kills you can get, that long you can continue this phase. Here, this video helped me...

---

---

This guide is presented to my steam friend & sister Rachel whom I consider as 'Tiny Tina'. :‑D
I hope this guide will be helpful for you too.