Styx: Shards of Darkness is a stealth-action-game
released in 2017 for PC. Playstation 4 and Xbox 1, Developed by Cyanide Studio
The game takes place in a fictional world "Of Orcs and Men"-series
starring our main character: Styx the Goblin
Styx, is a thief. Stealing anything that isn't nailed down and worth a damn.
He ain't an ordinary goblin though
because he haves special abilities like going invisible and creating clones of himself
After returning from the job, Styx is surprised by Helledryn, captain of the C.A.R.N.A.G.E squad!
Designed to kill goblins....
Helledryn however, is coming to make an offer to Styx:
Steal an ambassador's scepter, so she haves an invitation to secret summit
And this is the basic premier of this game
If this gets you interested, I highly, HIGHLY recommend playing it before watching this tutorial
This is playable even with a friend, through online
If you want some preview of this game, you can watch this videos prologue section of the game
This tutorial is for the any% of the game for PC-version with controller layout
But is totally playable with keyboard and mouse
I haven't tried the console versions at all, but I've heard they're not as good as the PC-version
The game begins with tutorial level where the game teaches how the mechanics of the game works
However we don't need that so we are going to skip as much as possible
(Screw you Illyen and your table skip, jk jk)
Roll through hole, jump on the box and jump to the window
When you reach out, go left, follow the balcony and jump to the rope
Slide down the rope and you will reach the house
We are going to skip the house by jumping to on top of the sandbag and to the roof
Then follow right side of the roof and jump to the balcony
If you jump too far left, you will bonk your head to the roof, and jumping too far right misses the balcony
When you reach the balcony, slide down the second rope
Here you can make a safety save, if you want
Once you're there, quickly use bonfire as a stepping stone to jump to the roof
If you take any afterburn damage while climbing, Styx will lose his grip and fall down, and you don't have enough health to try again
Once on top of the roof, go towards 2 story house and jump down
The front door will be locked, but there are 2 humans on the first floor
Go to the corner and whistle twice
If you are not in the corner, everybody in the house will hear you when you whistle
And if you whistle only once, in the corner,  only the other person will be angry at you
So, going to the corner and whistling twice makes both of the human suspicious and they will come outside to observe
While they are coming out, go behind counter crouched
When humans are out and out of the way, go invisible and inside the house
Stay crouched while stealing the document and when you are on the stairs, you can return to running
When you are on the second floor, go to the bookcase and hit Interaction-button
The bookcase will move and reveal a secret room
Take amber bottle, 1 raw amber and leave
Go to the opposite door, and while the door opens, grab another raw amber from the bookcase
Once again on the balcony, jump to the roof, go right and jump again
Turn right again roll through 2 holes, and on the second one follow the beam
Once you are outside of the hole, there is a room with 2 guards
It doesn't matter if they spot you or not, since they cannot sound alarm
Go to the balcony and there are 2 more guards
These 2 are much more dangerous, since they have ranged weapons
Crouch-jumping makes less noise than running, and is faster than crouch-walking, so crouch-jump twice and you should be good to go
Go to the left side down the rope
Once down, go to the right and jump to the rope and to dock
In front of you is a terrace with Unstable spore. Grab it and drop down and to the hole
Take a U-turn to the right and while dropping down, stay crouched
because there is an accountant in the room
Take the objective on the table and around the table there are: 1 insect egg, 1 unstable spore and 2 raw ambers
Grab them, go to the door and open it
While staying crouched, go upstairs and you will see guard who is sleeping
Go to the right and go upstairs
First door to the right is sleeping area with 2 Raw Ambers on the upper bed
and behind the second door is second accountant with second objective
The second door is locked, but we can grab accountants attention by running left and right in front of the door
While he is coming to open the door, go to the sleeping area and grab those ambers
When accountant comes outside, he will be scared of us and we can try to guide him to the next door and open it for us
While he is opening the door, go to his room, grab objective and Unstable Spore
(lockpick is also there if you want to take it)
While going after the accountant there is another raw amber on top of the boxes after leaving the room
If he opened the door, jump on top of the doorframe and up to the balcony
Follow the balcony to the right and go to the beam
Jump through second window and take a fast right while crouched
There is third accountant and objective. You can take the objective and it doesn't matter if the alarm goes on
Leave the room through window, jump to the climbing rocks and reach the top. Once there run to the balloon and you are finished
(and 1 lockpick, if you picked it up)
First time at the hideout go to the skills-table and pick up first skill in the Stealth-tree
After that pick up 4 pieces of iron ore around the crafting-table and health potion just in case. After that leave the area
Welcome to Thoben: a city infested by goblins and thieves
Make your way to Ephron and after the cutscene you will receive 1 amber bottle
Turn around, open the door and go to the left. There are 2 unstable spores on the table, pick them up and head out
Jump to the balcony and try jumping to avoid making too much noise
After climbing up the stairs, stay on the right side and grab 1 insect egg on the box and 1 raw amber on the table and roll under it
There is 1 raw amber on top of barrel, after that head out through the window and climb to the roofs
Jump to the rope, then another balcony, grab 1 insect egg and make your way to the chest unnoticed using invisibility
In second part of the first level we have hijack the airship
While running towards the wheel, grab raw amber at the table and try to dodge melee attacks from the enemy
After touching the wheel, head outside and shoot rope arrow to the airship and Snake Eater to the other side
Head to the second level, go around the guard and pick up 1 insect egg and 1 unstable spore
Head up, jump to the rope and make your way towards back of that ship
Leave your clone somewhere near the opening, and head right to the rooftop
When you reach the rooftop, make a save, take control of your clone and drop down
Your clone will be one-hit-killed, so it might be a bit hard to nail this, but try to make your way towards the scepter
If you manage to get there, a cutscene will play. You can kill the clone now and head to the end of the level while being invisible
Select "Feline"-skill from the Stealth-tree, "Cocoon" and "Rebirth" from the Cloning-tree. Talk to Helledryn and head to the next level
We have to somehow made it to the Korrangar, so slide down the rope, turn around at the edge and reach the balcony
Inside the house, grab raw amber and use crafting table to make a bolt and 3 cocoons
After that, reach the window above the main entrance
Use mattresses while jumping so you won't make noise, since there are 2 guards nearby
Jump to window frame, make a save, jump to right and Styx should grab to the ledge
Jump to higher ledge and there is crack on the mountain where we throw a cocoon
There are 2 ways to get out of bounds using cocoons: Tohelot or Illyen-way
Tohelot way is done by standing up, hugging the corner
keep your aim centered where the crack would be and while you jump, time your cocoon throw so it will land inside the mountain
Illyen way is done by crouching and hugging another corner
aiming slightly left-top towards crack in the mountain, jump and immediately throw cocoon
it should land inside the mountain
After cocoon landing, reborn/teleport to your clone and you are out of bounds.
Jump to wall, climb on top of it and make your way down
When you get past the rocks, make sure you grab the ledge before falling, otherwise the fall damage will kill you
(Sorry to all french-speaking people)
Press "Falsifier Register"
"Donner le signal Hellendryn"
"Fouiller la salle"
"Voler un laissez-passer"
"Donner le laisser passer Helledryn"
and "Atteindre la quartier residentiel"
After loading, go to second floor, grab extra amber potion from the guard and stay at rooftops
Go past the hut and intersection, use rope to get to the balcony and use bolt to drop bell to kill the guard
If you kill guard using bolt and not the bell, there will be an alarm soon after
Use handrails, jump to another bell and then opposite side
There jump to the window, sneak past the guard and go to the first door on the right
Grab insect egg, sneak past another guard and take  unstable spore
Go outside using window and head to the balcony
After cutscene run towards door, jump right to it and there is a ledge
Move right and climb through the window, go right and open door
Run on the handrail and go invisible when you are pretty close to the elves, and go to the balloon
And that's the level
Actually, you don't have to do anything here, you can go straight to the balloon and skip having a conversation with Hellendryn
By far the most interesting way to get to the database
After mission starts, go right, slide down and jump to the platform
Wait until the guard has gone to the other guards
grab insect egg and  unstable spore
make a savepoint and get their attention by running towards them
Our goal here is that while they chase you
you will go to right, hang on this column
and hopefully the guard will pull you up in a way that you are partially through the floor
After that wiggle yourself under the floor by jumping
head to the database
pick "StealElit", "StealSeal", "RetrouverHelledryn" and "InfltrerSanctuaire"
Note that sometimes this works like a charm, and other times the guards will dance there rather than doing their jobs
"Come on do your jobs"
"Yeah, this is the RNG-part of the...."
"...run because as you can see these guards are excellent"
"Hopefully they will..."
"watch me... yes!"
"and drag me through the floor"
Jump to the air duct, and go to the other side
After getting out, head left, there are 2 guards speaking to each other
Go past them while crouched and being invisible
Climb up to the ledge, go right and grab  insect egg and head towards the pillar
Jump to the pillar where candle is burning, climb up and save
From there jump in place and throw a cocoon forward without taking any steps
the cocoon should land on the wall and the clone should grab the ledge
Teleport there, move to the right and save
Now, there are 2 ways to "clear" this:
First one is try to land on top of the dark structure next/in front of you
Second one is jumping straight to other side and grabbing the ledge
If you miss the jump, reload your save and you should have now “boosted jump”
when you jump next time. It’s the most noticeable here, because with it you can clear this gap with ease
Either way, you should grab the ledge at other side of the pillar, go to bridge and drop down to database
Press "MarkerFactionB", "TalkHelledryn" and "FollowDjarak"
...and level is done. Yeah, it’s shortest mission in the game.
Before the next mission we want some evasion properties
so we open "Kill"-tree, and pick "Flying Killer", "Anticipation", "Headlong Rush!" and "Ethereal dodge"
The last one is the most important one, because it gives us a 50% chance to dodge projectile
by going "ethereal" for a very short time, and the next place (The Mines) will be full of projectile spitting Roabies
While upgrading skills, pick "Absorption of sounds" from Stealth-tree. After that go to the mines
The most boring and somewhat dangerous level in the game
There is database-route for this level as well
but it requires a ridiculous amount of cocoons
and it doesn't save that much time, something like 15 seconds or so
If you are interested to watch it, there's a link below where I did go to the database in the level at the marathon
Anyway, since we are not going to break the game at the moment, we could pick some ingredients on the way, right?
(Donald: "This might be a good spot to find some ingredients!")
Jump here
here
here
Turn left
go to the hole
When exiting hole, go to the other side and grab 2 insect eggs
Go left and up
Go to hole, exit, pick up another insect egg and continue to another hole
When exiting this hole, there will be a bunch of Roabies
so save before venturing too far
After that, depending where the roabies are, take either left or right
and try to avoid them by jumping and making as little noise as possible
If you get too near them, there is a chance they will instantly kill you
Coming out of the cave, climb up
go invisible while heading to another door, and de-cloak yourself when you are about at second roabie
Go forth jumping and hoping roabies aren’t blocking the doorway
Follow that path until you come out of the cave and see elves are running this place
Go left, run along handrails, go invisible when near an elf and jump to right when you are near the second building
Climb up and you will see air duct. Before going inside, grab unstable spore
When coming out, drop right while ducking, because there are more roabies
Throw your cocoon as shown and teleport there
Save, jump left and after passing a corner, steer forward
Grab another ledge, jump left and climb up
Find a position where Styx can stand up, jump to find another ledge, climb up and jump to get on top of the rock
Save, run-jump left side and steer right after passing the obstacles.
There are 2 ledges where Styx can grab: higher and lower
If Styx grabs higher: go forward and climb twice when there is first rock
If Styx grabs lower: go on top of air duct, turn around to jump to grab a ledge. Turn left and climb twice
After climbing, there is rock on right where we climb. Save, and jump towards where the rock is pointing
After this, it's a bit hard to see things, but there are 3 ledges you need to climb
After climbing, try to jump and stay on the left side without falling off or through holes
Once you are out, go right, follow the wall and go to database and press the last switch "GetQuartz"
There should be very epic and hard bossbattle, and after this battle the player gets Quartz
which is more powerful power than amber
There is some kind of failsafe for obtaining the Quartz
so that you have physically get it, otherwise it doesn't count
From Stealth-tree pick up "Contagious Invisibility" and "Latency", and you can go straight to the cage, skipping conversation with Hellendryn
Pretty short and straightforward map, just hit the bell
wait for the bridge to fall
use invisibility to get past guards, pick up 2 raw ambers along the way and go to the ship/chest unnoticed
This one is also pretty simple level
Get out of the cave, head left side, get to the captains cabinet
You have to use lockpick, if you missed one earlier there is another one in this room
Open the door, then grab the captain and slowly make your way to the balcony edge
Drop the captain over the edge
(because he is drunk he won't take any damage)
watch out for patrolling dwarf
If the coast is clear, drop down, grab the captain, use invisibility near the boat, drop captain inside it and set sail
Another mission done!
Craft 2 cocoons, talk to Helledryn and exit hideout
Another short one, thanks to the database
When level begins, drop down and head to the exit door where we would normally go after killing Grab-Jack and Arlock
Stand roughly between 2 planks, aim your cocoon in a small hole between chest, box and wall
Best position for the throw is when shockwaves don't come out of the hole
Before throwing, make a save
Once you have thrown a cocoon and teleported, you should see little drop
Default your view to watch straight forward where the wall should be, then straight down
take aim with another cocoon, then move it a little bit right and throw
The sound will tell if you made it
For unsuccessful sound, there is this really muffled sound
Also you can teleport to your clone and see if you made it or not
For a successful sound there is this "splash"-sound, almost like water
After getting out of bounds, head right, grab the edge, save and drop down without steering
If you move during the fall, Styx will die
Then select "KillGrabJackYourself", "BP_GetBadgeFromGJ", "KillArlockYourself", "BP_GetBadgeFromArlock" and "ClaimYourReward"
It's a trap!
This is THE longest stage in the game.....
If we had to play it normally. Head to crafting table nearby, craft 3 cocoons and follow the video.
Throw cocoon here, teleport and jump here
After climbing to this fence......thingy
use crouch-jumping rather than stand-jumping, because the space is small
Follow the video and throw a cocoon through the wall, it's not solid
There is an invisible collision you can run on, just make sure to hold "grab the ledge"-button because you can't see when the collision ends
Drop down, go straight and you will find a database
Start from left "1. challenge_West02" and go right, pressing every switch, then up and presto, you are done.
Talk with Djarak and go to next level using balloon
When you spawn, head to the window, climb up and climb up. Seems familiar?
Do it like you did it last time. Except the switches are floating now, for some reason.
(That was "boosted jump")
Stop here, make a save and do a running jump, and if you jump at the edge, you should be able to grab one of the switches
Jump from switch to switch confirming them along the way
Head left, jump over the chasm, head inside
grab 1 unstable spore, 1 insect egg, 1 raw amber and wait for the guard to come inside
Once the doorway is clear, head out, trigger the next event
grab 1 unstable spore and 1 insect egg
Head left, climb on top of the tower, create clone, save
Drop down, go invisible, assassinate ambassador, disguise the murder and teleport to your clone
Then go to the balloon
(Use invisibility here if the guard is on the way)
There are 2 things to notice when killing ambassador:
1) Don't assassinate ambassador over the well, because when you try to disguise it, game will prioritize the well over disguising the murder
2) When you have killed the ambassador, don't be too close when he falls
because if he touches you, you will be knocked out of the invisibility and that's instant game over
Same as last mission but 0 cocoons
Talk to Djarak, craft 3 cocoons and go to balloon
Here's the deal:
we have to collect 3 bombs
So, slide down the rope go left and to another rope
Go inside the building
take unstable spore
place your clone on the door frame
kill the bystander and drop down and snatch bomb from the guard who is looking at....
.....nothing? I guess?
Teleport to your clone and there is second bomb behind bookshelf
Head out through the window, jump to roof and climb to stairs, make a save
There are 2 dwarfs discussing, and it can be a bit tricky to go past them
The goal here is to get past them using invisibility, leaving a clone in front of a door
collecting the last bomb showing by the marker and teleporting back to the clone
Dwarfs will smell you even while using invisibility
but sometimes they spot you right after coming out if invis, so it is somewhat luck based
If you successfully avoided them, go through the door and trigger the ending by the boat
!!!! UPDATE !!!!
During making of this video, I made slight rerouting for this mission
Now after we slide down, leave clone on the roof, gather 2 bombs (you don’t have to kill the civilian) and teleport
After that go to the third bomb and leave
This method is much, much safer and doesn’t cost any more time than the previous one
Also you save one bottle of amber
Yeah, this is the place where we would use our bombs
If it wasn't so slow, that is
There are 2 ways to get out of bounds: Wheelskip or prison
Wheelskip is an older method and requires 4 cocoons to complete
You have to open "Alchemy''-skill tree, pick "Amber distiller", "Lockpick", "Acid solution" and "Alchemist toolbox"
then switch your outfit to Alchemist Toolbox
The benefit is that  you can craft whatever you need on the road, but you make much more noise when running
Idea here is to climb high, jump-throw cocoons on top of a waterwheel
and HOPE your clone will land on a sweet spot
Once you teleport to your clone, smash that rolling-button and roll under the rock, and you will be out of bounds
After that, follow the video
Prison skip is newer and requires only 3 cocoons
Go over the bridge, past the sleeping guard, going left while climbing up
There are guards and roabies, use invisibility to get past them and go to a door on the right
After doorclimb (???? oops)
use air duct on the left and position yourself on top of the line and between air ducts
Make a jump-throw while looking up
Note: there is invisible collision near rocks, so practice is advised
After the clone is grabbed the ledge, teleport, climb up, hang by the ledge and fall
Continue to fall inside and you are now unused part of the map, the goblin prison where we were in Mission 5
There are no active enemies, only the plants that are hanging from the ceiling and on the floor
Head forward towards iron gate, climb through using airduct and go around it
Climb on top of the prison(cell) and save
This throw is the most precise throw in the game
When you throw, the reticle should be all light-white, and clone is not seen by the player
If the throw is success, the cocoon is out of bounds and you can teleport to it
Go straight, climb few times and throw cocoon to a database
Pick "BombTunel", "ReachMachine2", "BombLaboratory", "Bombamber" and "ReachExit"
If you don't have Alchemist-set, craft 1 cocoon and talk to Djarak
Final level and final boss
Quick tip:
while playing the first part, don't select "last savepoint" if you die
because the game won't save until you get through the first gate
Select "reload level" instead and you don't waste time
Also, it's possible to do "Houdini" here, found by Illyen
We are not sure why it works exactly
but it has something to do with loading and how much power the computer is using at the moment
How to do it:
smash continue and quick-save buttons while loading the level
and if you see "Saved successfully" you can reload "Load last save" and the boss will be gone
While in this state, you can not save at all
Also you need extra cocoon for this gap because the boss isn't present (to give you a statue-bridge)
If playing normally: when you are through the gate and climbed up to a balcony
turn around and do jump-throw with cocoon, and teleport there
This saves you about 20 seconds. This is the only skip in this level.
Use invis here (and remember to de-cloak)
And without drinking, use it again here
Go right
Climb up
Climb down, drink amber bottle
Wait until the search-light starts going right and run across the stage using invisibility
When you make it, drink amber (and health potion if needed) and save
You can roll over the edge to on top of a pillar
jump to a rope and jump to safety if the laser doesn't hit you while you are using rope
After climbing up, use invis one last time and jump. You have finished Styx: Shards of Darkness speedrun
(TIME!)
This is Shards of Darkness speedrun in a nutshell
There are also many other categories (that are empty ;-) ;-) )
and a new game plus category
The difference between any% and new game +
is that you don’t have to collect ingredients and you can max out your character
Also when you complete the stage
you will be booted back to Styx’s hideout and you have to use this stage selector to advance in the game
I want to thank everybody who has watched my speedruns about this game and our little discord-community
Special thanks to my girlfriend who made the thumbnail and ingredient icons for this tutorial
Illyen and Fezkoe for sticking around and giving huge morale boost
even though they don’t play this anymore, but still are active in the community and helping newcomers
And thank you Cyanide Studio for making Styx: Master of Shadows and Shards of Darkness!
Hopefully Styx’s journey isn’t over yet….
