In order for your training to be considered complete, you must complete the initial "escape scenario" at Graybox, and complete all three training sessions; Technical Ops Orientation, Marksmanship Orientation, and Covert Ops Orientation.

Saudi Arabia completed. This trophy will pop during the score screen at the end of the mission "Intercept Shaheed and Recover Missiles"

Moscow completed. Depending on your actions with Brayko, this trophy will pop during the score screen at the end of either the "Assault Brayko's Mansion" mission or "Prevent Surkov's Escape" mission.

Rome completed. This trophy will pop during the score screen at the end of the mission "Intercept Marburg at the Museum of Art"

Taipei completed. This trophy will pop during the score screen at the end of the mission "Stop Omen Deng at Memorial Rally"

Alpha Protocol completed. This trophy will pop during the final cinematic at the end of the mission "Infiltrate Alpha Protocol". It is worth mentioning that this trophy will be awarded regardless of what ending you get, or who survives.

The Hard difficulty setting isn't significantly more challenging than Easy, assuming that your character favors a Stealth build. The obvious exception is in the hacking and lockpicking mini-games. The time limits are prohibitively short, leaving zero room for error. Also, the games themselves are harder versions of those you'd find on lower difficulty settings. Locks have five tumblers, and have very little margin of error to engage the tumblers. Alarm panels and door locks have 10-12 circuits and more complex patterns, usually causing you to waste time just trying to find the next number, let alone figure out which circuit to close. Finally, the hacking uses smaller code segments, less than half the size of those you'd find on Easy difficulty. In the time it takes you to move a segment from the top of the screen to the bottom, they will have changed position, meaning that you have very little time to spot the target string before you need to maneuver and lock in the segments. You will find yourself carrying a lot of EMP grenades in later missions, often filling multiple inventory slots just so you don't have to hack/pick anything. Usually the cost of buying grenades will be substantially cheaper than the money you'd miss by passing up a safe with a ridiculous lock.

Combat-wise, enemies will take more damage, and you will need to aim exclusively for headshots, however a Stealth/Pistol build renders most of the difficulty increase moot. The combination of Shadow Operative and Chain Shot can get you out of most situations, and defeat most bosses in one or two uses of the skill. Once you reach Shadow Operative (Master), you become a mass murder machine that would make Steven Heck blanche. Supplement that skill with Advanced Stealth Armor and cooldown enhancing perks like "Under the Radar" or "Sororicide", and nothing in the game can touch you. Using this build for my Hardcore playthrough, by far the most challenging fight in the game was when you fought the two random mooks hand to hand in Marburg's study. Leland's got nothing on Generic Heavy #2.

It should go without saying that you will want to choose the "Veteran" background you unlock with the Evolution of an Action Hero trophy (that is unless you wanted to go the Destructoid route and be stupid). You can remove ranks in skills you don't normally use, and reallocate them to Stealth and your favored weapons to give yourself an even bigger edge right out of the gate.

When starting a new game, instead of choosing a background such as "Soldier" or "Field Agent" that gives you free ranks in various skills, you also have the option of choosing the "Recruit" background, which starts you off with zero skills across the board. For best results, this trophy should be earned on your Easy playthrough, to mitigate the additional difficulty of "Recruit" Thorton's complete ineptitude. Earning this trophy will unlock the "Veteran" background which gives you three ranks in all skills at the start of the game, so this should be a priority before attempting the Hardcore trophy.

This trophy will either be awarded at the end of the mission "Intercept Shaheed and Recover Missiles" or at the end of the "Contact Sheikh Ali Shaheed" mission you do just before infiltrating Alpha Protocol. In either case, using the "Execute" command will terminate Shaheed and earn you the trophy.

You will probably get this trophy on the same playthrough as Thorton, Inc., but unlike that trophy you don't have to get them to like you. During dialogue choices, never use options such as "Execute" or "Shoot", always choose the non-violent paths. This trophy will pop at the end of the game when you spare the final boss.

This trophy is far more involved than its counterpart Ask Questions First, Shoot Later. As a general rule, every time you have the option to "Execute" someone during a dialogue, do it. Most of the characters in the game will die at your hand this way. In some cases you will have to have a very low reputation score with the character to have the "Execute" option available, so use the Dialogue Trends table in Thorton, Inc. and do the exact opposite.

Specific details below:

Nasri - At the end of "Intercept Nasri the Arms Dealer", execute him during the conversation.

Shaheed - At the end of "Intercept Shaheed and Recover Missiles", put on some R Kelly or Jimi Hendrix (your choice) and toss Shaheed off the bridge.

Sis - At the end of "Assault Lazo's Yacht and Retrieve Data", shut Sis up for good.

Albatross - Get back on his good side long enough to choose him as handler for the "Assault Brayko's Mansion" mission. When you find him tied up in the guest house, shoot him in the head. (Take that, Ancient Mariner!)

Brayko - DO NOT EXECUTE BRAYKO IMMEDIATELY! After the fight with Brayko at the end of "Assault Brayko's Mansion", he will plead for his life. Choose Professional at first, until he reveals that Surkov is a commie bastard, then in the next choice... well, let's just say that you're video and he's the radio star.

Surkov - "Prevent Surkov's Escape"; the mission title says it all. Refuse Surkov's partnership, give Championchik his lead medal, and shoot Surkov to prevent him from getting on the helicopter. Hey Surkov! In Russia, weapons ship you!

NSA Gelato Guy - I don't think he's necessary for the trophy, but better safe than sorry. Plus, when he scratched his head with the scoop... that was just gross.

Al-Bara - Again, I don't think it counts, but why take the chance.

Marburg - See Youth Trumps Experience. (Note: Some have indicated that Marburg is not a requirement for this trophy)

Steven Heck - Though you won't kill him, he plays an important part in the "Infiltrate Alpha Protocol" mission where you will choose him as your handler. For best results, you'll want his reputation score to be high.

Sung - Not sure if it matters, but I chose the Riots data, so that Sung is assassinated during the mission "Stop Omen Deng at Memorial Rally"

Deng - At the end of "Stop Omen Deng at Memorial Rally", kill him on principle for looking like a Chinese M. Bison.

Leland (Part 1) - If your reputation score with Leland is high enough and you are offered a position with Halbech, decline (read: punch him in the face).

Mina - Over the course of the game, make sure your reputation with her is very low. In the "Infiltrate Alpha Protocol" mission, when you go to rescue her from the firing range, choose a Professional response, then choose "Leave her" when the option appears. As you walk out, the bomb will explode and kill her.

Parker - You will encounter him in the course of the "Infiltrate Alpha Protocol" mission. Kill his goons, then kill him.

Darcy - Don't call me Mikey, you sonofabitch.

Westridge - I don't know if it's possible to fight him in this scenario, maybe as a function of your reputation score, but if so execute him too. For me, it always ends with Leland as the last boss.

Leland (Part 2) - DO NOT EXECUTE LELAND IMMEDIATELY! At the very end of the "Infiltrate Alpha Protocol" mission, you will encounter Leland, and wipe that smug grin off his face once and for all, but in the end spare his life. As you walk away you will be shot in the back by...

Scarlet - DO NOT TAKE THE "CONTACT SCARLET LAKE" MISSION. Skip directly to "Infiltrate Alpha Protocol" so that she will not appear in the interrogation room. She will appear after you spare Leland, anxious to get paid. Before the situation gets out of hand, choose the "Heck" option to have him gun her down. (Depending on your relationship with Scarlet, Heck may gun her down without you having to give the order)

Leland (Part 3) - After Scarlet goes to Heck, you will again have the option to "Execute" Leland. Pull out your best Schwarzenegger impression and tell Leland, "You're fired!"

The trophy will pop after Leland dies, just in time to sail off into the sunset with Nolan North.

This isn't that difficult to accomplish, and will likely be earned during your Ask Questions First, Shoot Later playthrough. First, always choose favorable dialogue choices with characters to raise your reputation score with them, because you'll want to be on everyone's good side. Not all of these characters count towards the trophy, but here's the complete list of dialogue trends for characters for ease of reference:

Dialogue Trends:

Mina - Professional (Occasionally Suave when she's in a playful mood)
Darcy - Suave
Parker - Professional (Also Veteran if available)
Westridge - Aggressive
Leland - Suave / Professional (Reacts poorly to Suave near end of game)

Nasri - Aggressive
Shaheed - Professional

Sis - Professional (Spare her life)
Albatross - Professional
Grigori - Suave
SIE - Aggressive
Surkov - Professional
Brayko - Professional

Marburg - Professional
Madison - Suave

Scarlet - Professional / Suave
Steven Heck - Aggressive when violent / Suave for banter
Hong Shi - Professional
Deng - Professional

For certain characters there are specific actions that must also be taken to ensure their allegiance to you, as described below:

Nasri - When you confront him, choose to "Extort" him.

Shaheed - Spare his life.

Sis - Spare her life.

Albatross - If you use him as your handler for the mission "Assault Brayko's Mansion" (and you should; G22 has way better stuff), make sure that you rescue him from captivity.

SIE - In the "Investigate Weapon Shipments" mission, agree to her terms, and don't attack her at the end of the mission. If you use her as your handler for the mission "Assault Brayko's Mansion" (which you shouldn't; you'll piss off Albatross, and SIE is much harder to offend), make sure that you rescue her from captivity.

Brayko - After the fight use a Professional stance. Spare his life, and take the deal he offers. This will also unlock the final mission "Prevent Surkov's Escape"

Surkov - After Brayko rats out Surkov, catch up with him at Molo-Tek. Stay Professional, and choose "Partnership" when it is offered.

Scarlet - Make sure that you visit her and give her the Halbech evidence before starting the "Infiltrate Alpha Protocol" mission. Then after you escape from the medical bay, make sure to rescue her from the interrogation room on your way by.

Steven Heck - Make sure you erase his files from the NSB computer during the Retrieve "NSB Data from Grand Hotel" mission.

Deng - Spare his life.

Sung - Though this might not count towards the trophy, I chose to save the Assassination data rather than the Riot data, thus allowing Sung to survive the attempt.

Shaheed - Just before the "Infiltrate Alpha Protocol" mission, agree to betray your country. (Based on responses, this may be a requirement. Needs confirmation)

Mina - Make sure to rescue her from the firing range on your way by.

Darcy - After calling me Mikey the whole damn game...
...Fuck him, he's dug his own grave.

Westridge - Spare his life during the battle at the end.

Leland - At the end of the game, accept his offer to join Halbech. After that it won't matter if you betray him during the end cinematic, or choose to execute him. So do what you will.

Thanks to Usul, HandzOfBlood for testing requirements.

Follow the strategies for Rome-ance, Office Romance, Exclusive Interview, and the trophy should pop immediately after getting Savage Love. This should probably also be followed up with a dose of Valtrex.

This trophy comes with a hidden catch. Obviously the easiest way to prevent from being seduced is by acting like a world class bastard with all four women. Act Aggressive with Mina, Scarlet and Madison, but Professional or Suave with SIE. If by some random fluke any of the other three women present you with the option of consummating the fires of your passion, turn them down.

The catch comes in with SIE. Again, you have to choose her as your handler for the "Infiltrate Alpha Protocol" mission. It doesn't count as turning her down unless the opportunity is there, you see. If she died in Brayko's mansion, or you don't choose her as your handler for that mission you can't get the trophy. If your reputation score is low enough for all women, they won't have any trouble kicking you to the curb. The trophy will pop as soon as SIE walks away to work out her frustrations on some hired goons.

Pretty self explanatory. In 90 dialogue choices, use Suave, Aggressive, and Professional stances at least 23 times each. Responses that offer Yes/No or Execute/Spare options are not considered as Suave or Professional responses, and do not count towards the trophy. Keep a running tally of your choices or rotate between the three. However you do it, the trophy will pop at the end of the 90th choice.

Using favorable dialogue stances or making admirable mission choices, raise the Reputation score of three characters above +3 to gain "Liked" status. Once the third character likes you, the trophy will unlock. See the description of Thorton, Inc. for a detailed list of favorable stances for each character.

Using unfavorable dialogue stances or making reprehensible mission choices, lower the Reputation score of three characters to -3. Once the third character dislikes you, the trophy will unlock. See the description of Thorton, Inc. for a detailed list of unfavorable stances for each character.

The description is misleading. This trophy is awarded for purchasing 75% of the total mission intel available from the Clearinghouse. The problem is that the availability of mission intel varies depending on your actions and reputation with certain characters throughout the game, potentially making this trophy impossible to get on certain playthroughs.

By choosing to "Arrest" Nasri rather than "Execute" or "Extort" him, several additional pieces of intel will be available in Saudi Arabia. Having SIE or Albatross as an ally and completing all previous missions will unlock additional intel for the Embassy raid. Befriending Heck before dealing with Brayko will yield unusual results. Sparing Brayko or Rescuing Surkov will yield additional intel for the "Investigate Delivery at Warehouse" mission. If you allied with SIE in Moscow, she happliy provides intel on Marburg for the "Intercept Marburg at the Museum of Art" mission. High reputation with Hong Shi, Steven Heck and Albatross can provide additional intel for several Taipei missions as well. To let you know if you're getting close, at 50% you will unlock the "Be Prepared" perk.

While holding the button to aim at an enemy with a pistol, your reticle will slowly turn red. Once the sights converge on the target and stop, fire with to score a critical hit. After 100 critical hits, the trophy will unlock. Along the way you will unlock the "Pistol Proficiency" perk at 25 critical hits, letting you know that you're doing it properly.

While holding the button to aim with the SMGs, you will see a bar across the bottom of the reticle and a critical hit multipler at the lower right which starts at x1.0. As you continue to hit enemies this multiplier will increase to a maximum of X1.7, but if you stop the bar will slowly shrink to indicate how much time is left in your critical hit streak. Find more enemies to shoot before time runs out or it will reset to x1.0 and you will have to start again. Keep in mind that reloading will also reset your critical hit multiplier, so use of extended clips or the Bullet Storm ability are key. Streaks are often easiest to accomplish in boss fights as they can absorb a great deal of damage, potentially giving you multiple streaks at a time. The "SMG Fury" perk will unlock at 3 maximum muptiplier streaks, marking the nearly halfway point.

While holding the button to aim at an enemy with a shotgun, your reticle will slowly turn red. Once the red meters along the edge form a complete circle, fire with to score a critical hit. Or cut out the wait, and activate the Room Sweep ability to automatically critical with every shot. After 100 critical hits, the trophy will unlock. To mark the halfway point, at 50 critical hits you'll earn the "Shotgun Rampage" perk.

The description says "head shots", however it will only count head shots that kill the target. They do not have to be critical hits, but it is still the most efficient way of delivering lead to your enemy's face. At the halfway mark "Assault Rifle Precision" will unlock, leaving only 50 head shot kills to go.

Though "Close Quarters Combat" can refer to defeating enemies with standard melee attacks, this also applies to any takedowns you achieve by sneaking up on an enemy from behind and pressing the button when prompted. Takedowns are a far safer and more efficient method, and will also count towards your Lurker trophy.

After getting Black Belt, you're likely well on your way to getting this trophy already. Again, sneak up on an enemy and press the button when prompted to give them the Chokie Roberts.

Killing less than five people isn't that difficult, as long as you remember to load tranquilizer rounds in your pistol and always use for a non-lethal takedown and not which instead performs a stealth kill. Stealth is a very useful ability in Alpha Protocol, and I would recommend that you purchase 5 ranks in Stealth as fast as possible in the game to permanently activate the Awareness ability. This displays a directional arrow that indicates an enemy's facing, direction, approximate distance to you, and awareness level. This arrow will normally be blue, turn yellow when they hear or see something suspicious, or red when actively hostile.

Enemies are considered "alerted" if you set off an alarm or if their arrow turns red. Contrary to popular belief, an enemy is not considered "alerted" if their arrow turns yellow. If you evade them for long enough, or enter a new area, their state of suspicion will go back to blue. Alternately, performing a stealth takedown with or knocking them out with a tranquilizer dart will eliminate your problem handily. Takedowns will always be the safer choice, since a glancing hit from a tranquilizer may not knock out the enemy immediately, and with any shot there is always the chance that the target may reflexively pull the trigger of his gun as he falls, alerting any other enemies in the area. When you have no other choice but to use the tranq rounds, take the time to aim for a critical hit to the head.

To minimize your chances of being detected, always wear armor with high noise reduction (if you wear armor at all), and of course only use your silenced pistol. Stay crouched, and watch your enemy's path to pick your moment carefully. Use the Stealth skills Silent Running or Shadow Operative if you have them for easy takedowns. The easiest missions to complete undetected are "Bug Al-Samad Airfield", "Prevent Surkov's Escape", "Bug CIA Listening Post" and "Investigate Warehouse District Data Trail". Any mission where an alert is automatically triggered by plot events or a boss fight will not be counted towards this trophy.

In the Technical Aptitude skill tree, the Gadgeteer skill is unlocked at ranks 7 and 14 granting you an additional gadget slot. Also, most armors grant you 1-2 additional slots for carrying gadgets into the field. Whatever the combination, load up with 6 different gadgets and use one of everything in the mission. At the end of five missions where you used six different gadgets in each mission, you will get the trophy.

You will need Concussion Grenades, EMP Charges, Explosive Grenades, Flashbangs, Incendiary Bombs, Shock Traps, or Remote Mines, and of course 100 poor schmucks to lure to their doom. Two things to remember. First, the devices have to be placed, not thrown. Hold the button and approach a wall until the outline of the device appears. Release to stick it in position. Second, the device has to go off for it to count. Luckily the enemy doesn't have to die. As long as it detonates, it counts towards the total.

An easier way to get this trophy is in the first section of Technical Ops Orientation, since you have access to unlimited concussion grenades from the storage cabinet. Place 5 concussion grenades on the wall (any more than 5 and they'll de-spawn), then throw one at them to blow them up. After the 100th detonation, the trophy will unlock. Credit to choolwhip for the farming tip.

Squeeze the button to raise the tumblers of the lock until the top of the tumbler's red section comes level with the red laser line. When you are in the correct position and the circular lock on the right flashes yellow, press to lock the tumbler in place. Though this will be an easy trophy to get for most, it's advisable to go for this trophy on your Easy playthrough as most of the locks have only three tumblers and a more forgiving range of success. If for some reason you have trouble with this trophy, the Breaking and Entering & Spy's Luck skills in the Sabotage tree will help.

Hack 20 electronic door locks or alarm panels. Again, this will be best to complete on your Easy playthrough as most panels will have only 5-7 circuits and a generous time limit, as opposed to the panels on Hard which have 12 circuits that you have to complete in 20 seconds. If for some reason you have trouble with this trophy, the Breaking and Entering & Spy's Luck skills in the Sabotage tree will help.

Maneuver two code segments using the and , match them to the two target strings that are stationary, and press the or to lock them in. On Easy difficulty the segments are larger and easier to see, as well you will have more time to lock them in. On Hard difficulty, the strings are half the size and the timers leave little room for error. If for some reason you have trouble with this trophy, the Breaking and Entering & Spy's Luck skills in the Sabotage tree will help.