Herdling, the atmospheric Indie adventure game from developer Okomotive, has a total of 31 achievements/trophies covering a variety of story beats, challenges, and interactions. Here is our Herdling Herdcore Achievement Guide to help you unlock the achievement and prove you are the best herder of them all!
You can read our Herdling Review to get our full thoughts on the game.
This guide is going to be structured a little differently. First is a rundown of what you want to look out for during your playthrough of Herdling to help unlock the Herdcore achievement. The second part of this guide is an “alternative” method to pop the achievement, without having to do it the intended way.
Herdcore Achievement Guide
You don’t need to worry about losing a Calicorn until you reach Chapter 3, the Autumn Forest. You’ll reach a point when you find a Calicorn standing on a cliff looking at the view. This is when the game teaches you how to save a Calicorn from slipping off a cliff.
Approach the Calicorn and follow the on-screen instructions to save it.
After the campfire rest stop, you have to guide your herdling through several stealth sections to avoid alerting a giant, ravenous bird to your presence.
Guide your Calicorns around the stick totems that lie on your route, and if you do stop your herdling until the bird settles down again. Check out our Stealthy Achievement Guide for more detailed help.
The first time is on finding the Calicorn staring at the mountain. When you approach it, it will slip, and you are shown how to rescue Calicorns from falling.
In Chapter 4, the Foothills, there is one point when you need to rescue a Calicorn from slipping off a cliff.
This happens close to the end of the chapter, when you are guiding your herdling on a rocky cliffside. You can see the rocks that are going to give way, and one of your Calicorns will get caught.
Chapter 5, the Mountain Range, has a stealth sequence like you faced in Chapter 3 at the top of the mountain. First, you need to navigate between the stick totems up the slope to reach the peak.
The second part has you guide your herdling around to the right side of a statue in the middle of the area, and pushing it with the help of your Calicorns. This gets rid of the totems and the birds waiting to swoop.
After resting at the liberated campfire, there is another stealth section, so more slow navigating around stick totems.
You will reach a point when you have to stampede through a wall of totems to progress, which leads to a stampede/chase sequence where you have to avoid the giant birds as they land in front of you.
Try your best to navigate past the birds and through the flower patches to keep your stampedes topped up. As long as you don’t get caught by a bird or slow down, you should make it to the end of this sequence without issue.
You don’t have to worry about any hazards until the end of Chapter 6, the Glacier Valley. Once you reach the snowy region, you want to watch and listen out for the appearance of crevasses.
Steer your herdling around these so they don’t cause it to open and fall in. Make liberal use of the stop and move slowly so you don’t get caught out.
In Chapter 7, the Snowbound Pass, you need to guide your herdling around more crevasses, all while dealing with heavy gales that can push your Calicorns. To stop this, tell them to stop, and your herdling will brace itself against the harsh winds.
Just take your time with this chapter, slow and steady. If you make it to the end of the chapter and you haven’t lost a single Calicorn on your journey (the full herdling is 12), then the Herdcore achievement will pop!
The “Alternative” Herdcore Achievement Guide
Okay, so if you are looking for a much quicker and easier way to unlock the Herdcore achievement, here is how to do it.
Finish a regular playthrough of the game, unlocking all the chapters, and then start a new game. You will have the choice to start from any chapter you have unlocked, including Chapter 7, the last one.
Start from the Snowbound Pass and you will have a full herdling of Calicorns. Now all you have to do is shepherd them through the final chapter, and the achievement should pop!
Congratulations! Whichever way you did it, you have unlocked the Herdcore achievement for Herdling!
That was our Herdcore Achievement Guide for Herdling! We hope you found it helpful, and there are more guides for this game you can check out below.
