These achievements are demanding. But you are a challenge lover, and that's why you got so good at Super Meat Boy in the first place!! I know bro, me too.

A breif, beautiful and touching anecdote: I never thought I'd ever go for something as daunting as the no-death achievements in this game. "All 20 without dying?!" But then, about the same time I was getting close to that elusive 106%, I decided to try Wood Boy. It took a few deaths but I managed it, and it was actually genuinely satisfying to have completed this most noble of quests. I never in a million years would have thought I'd be good enough to go for Impossible Boy. But, here I am.

If that first bit about never thinking you could do them sounds familiar, good! We can have the same outcome!!

People in general don't know how to go about getting the harder no-death achievements, and so this guide was born. Hopefully, using what I explain, and just a little practice, you'll be _________ Boy'in like a pro.
They can also be used as a badge of honour, a card that says "I am badass at video games and I know it". You know, Brag Rights. It is extremely hard: that's why we do it! (And it's not really as hard as you think. Shh, don't tell anyone.)

"When should I start going for them?" I hear you ask. Now!! You can start trying for the achievements whenever you want if you haven't already, regardless of your progress through the main game. As of now, more people have got Wood Boy than have finished some parts of the main game.



Achievement seekers generally agree that it is not necessarily better (perhaps even counter-productive) to plan setting about getting the hardcore achievements only after the game has otherwise been taken to delicious 106% completion.

I advise you to see these achievements as separate from the main game.


So you want to start collecting these achievements - where do you begin? If you are reading this guide I guess you've already at least attempted Wood Boy; and if you haven't then it's definitely a good place to start.

Something I see asked a lot is whether it is a good idea to use a keyboard in preference to a gamepad. My answer is that it is totally subjective: I, along with many top players, use a keyboard, while many people can only use a controller. It is totally up to you - if you are comfortable using a keyboard then stick with it!

• Go through the chapter casually a couple of times. Which levels do you seem to die on the most? Choose one to five of these levels, these will be the ones you will complete first in your Wood Boy run.
  
  
• Which levels do you seem to have the most trouble with? This is not the same as the bullet point above. Choose two or three of these levels that you will do alongside the ones you chose from the bullet point above. You are doing this because, in the last few levels of a no-death run, you will stress out (if you don't this just became a hell of a lot easier!). This isn't useful when you've left a level you struggle with to do whilst in this state.
  
  
• Your level order will probably change as you practise. This is because you are getting more comfortable with levels you had problems with at first, and are able to do some levels with minimal effort.
  
  
• Practise a few levels and find a route that suits you. This doesn't even have to be the safest path; just the one you can pull off the easiest.
  
  
• Leave a level you are unlikely to die on for last. This might sound obvious, but in at least three no-death runs I've messed up my level order, leaving some of the levels I find most difficult in the last three. Plan to make sure this doesn't happen!
  
  
• Frustration is imminent. You can't expect to get the achievements without getting frustrated; I've found the best thing to do is to leave the game for a short while and try again when you think you can focus a little better.

With these in mind, go get your first no-death achievement, and enjoy! It's going to prepare you for the strategies you'll need for later on, and you'll get your first taste of awesomeness when your hard work pays off.

I've put this information here both to cater for absolute beginners, and because some people seem confused about the details. If you're happy you know what the achievement wants of you, feel free to skip this whole section (the next one starts just below the list). Please let me know if there are any other confusions you'd like me to address.

• There is one achievement for completing each chapter in both the light world and the dark world without dying, giving a grand total of 14 of these no-death achievments.
  
  
• To get a no-death achievement, you must complete all 20 levels of said chapter without dying. This does not include the boss, or the glitch level, or any of the warp zones. Just the levels!
  
  
• You are very welcome to use any character, and switch between them all you want - choose the one you can use most consistently well for each level.
  
  
• The above point being said there are a few characters that you can't use. These are Meat Ninja, Steve, Tim and (surprisingly) Tofu Boy. Completing a level with any of these characters will not contribute to your run.
  
  
• The order does not matter at all. You can do them in order, or you can do them backwards. You can do the ones you find hardest right at the beginning, so you don't have to worry about doing them later.
  
  
• The only thing that constitutes a death is a death (or turning the game off, of course). This means you can exit to the level select screen whenever you want during a level; as long as you don't die your no-death run is still on. Please note you cannot turn the game off or exit to the main/chapter-select menu either.
  
  
• If you die on a level you do not need to exit to map or anything to properly 'reset' the run. You can just keep going, hence starting again from one.
  
  
• Just because it's further on in the game doesn't mean it's harder. Notable examples are Dead Boy and Dr. Fetus Boy (namely because both chapters only contain 5 levels), and the dark world being significantly harder than the light world - I found the achievement for dark world Chapter 2 harder than that for light world Chapter 5, and I thought that Girl Boy and Demon boy were about the same difficulty. This is, of course, subjective.
  
  
• The definition of an Iron Man run isn't set. Usually it refers to a no-death run, completed with the levels in order, using only meat boy, and never escaping to menu to avoid a death. The term can just refer to any no-death run, though.

You might know what they are all called; if not I have included a list of names and pictures you may want to refer to when reading the rest of the guide. I will use these names to refer to the achievements from now on.

As you progress through the achievements, in an order that suits you, they will get harder. But - so too do you get consistently better and better at doing them. What did you learn from your Wood Boy run? Maybe there were some levels that you thought you could do every time that, really, you couldn't? Maybe you had to shuffle your level order around and around to find the most effective, or maybe you just ploughed through the chapter over and over until the achievement finally popped up (which is not a good habit to get into, by the way). You should be constantly using your experience to shape your play-style.

After Wood Boy, I suggest trying out Needle Boy or Dead Boy. These two, for me at least, are the easiest apart from light world 1. If you have a favourite chapter, you should start looking at that one too. It doesn't matter if it seems too ambitious to actually go for that no-death run right away, but in a chapter you are very fond of you are likely to surprise yourself with how well you can do. This could be among the first three or four of these runs that you do, even if it is considerably more difficult than the easiest three or four chapters.

• Practise every level over a few times separately, even if you think you're already a pro at them. More than once, I've left the easiest for last and then forgotten how to do it under the pressure; that wouldn't have been a problem if I'd practised it!
  
  
• Practise blocks of a few levels. This will ready you for each level, which is useful for moving obstacles that require you to start moving at certain times. Doing this, you can also know what level you're about to face without really having to think.
  
  
• Don't take it seriously until your practice period is over. Have fun getting to grips with each chapter! If you don't, you will not enjoy getting the achievements as much, and are more likely to get frustrated and give up.
  
  
• Don't think speedrunning is a bad thing in no-death runs. If you are a speedrunner, you don't need to find a different, slower, safer path through any level. If you are comfortable dashing through a level you'll probably find it easier sticking to your fast path (unless it's unreliable: level 5-13x Halo of Flies comes to mind). Plus, speedrunning through a level in a no-death run feels more epic.

Frustration is one of the biggest problems you'll face. After all, it's more horrible to die on the 20th level in a run than on the 2nd. I've always found that getting frustrated, although it makes me more determined to get the achievement, detriments my dexterity and skill, making it physically impossible to get a decent run of the chapter. If this happens, the best thing you can do is to take a break. This could be 10 minutes to calm down, or for the more difficult chapters you may want to leave it for days (or weeks) to start fresh. This might sound counterintuitive, but it will totally get rid of the frustration, and you'll not be as annoyed or bored with any level in particular (7-20x was my worst enemy for ages, for example).



Apart from that, if you can't get past a run of 8-14 levels, you should consider going back to the practice stage. Yeah, it's going backwards, but you're making progress. Don't just practise the hard ones either; keep trying the easier ones until you can do them every time, no problem.

I figured individual levels may cause problems for someone reading this guide - I know they did for me. So, I've included tutorialettes for some notably tricky levels throughout the whole game - these are usually levels people generally struggle with when trying to do them consistently without dying.

I'll keep the list brief initially, however if there is a level you are struggling with please contact me and I will add the level here as soon as I can.

So enjoy! It's a short list split into chapters; each level name can be found below the respective picture.

Thank you for reading, and I hope I've been helpful to you and your journey of awesomeness!

This is my first guide, so it will by no means be perfect. So it will be updated frequently, to sort out typos and outdated information etc, and I'll also add content where appropriate whenever I can, to make the guide as accessible and versatile as possible.

I will also respond to suggestions and criticisms, usually withing 24 hours, and will answer any questions you may have, clarify any data, change any errors you've spotted, or add something to the guide itself (if I feel it is appropriate and beneficial to other users). I will add any requested levels to the 'Help for Individual Levels' section, for example. Please post a comment underneath for me if you have any problems or if you think I can extend the guide in any way, and tell me if there is a level (or part of a level) you have trouble with.

Also, please rate the guide! I appreciate the feedback.

Credit to Kuhaa for further guidance on specific levels 3-12x, 3-13x and 7-2.

"Some contribution-ish stuff: [By MalikNZZ]

2-3X: Buzzcut used to make me a nervous wreck, until I started using Ogmo instead of Kid. His even shorter jump made that level a breeze; I stopped dying there completely.

2-8X: Grape Soda's first jump between the two needle piles at the top can be done consistently with Kid's jump arc by standing on the small clear space to the left. It's a beautiful sight.

For 5-20: Judgment, I run to the right immediately, going under the first two flies, then wait for the third one to fully open its mouth, then jump back over the first two flies to the left, and slide up the wall as far as Kid will go. The third fly will fly under you while you're on the wall, and the first two will fly over you, giving you a clear path. I found this to be very safe and consistent."


So now it's down to you. Good luck, I'm proud of you for the attempt bro :D you have no idea how satisfying it is until you've done it... And of course, above all, enjoy your achievement hunting!!