Mission Badge System

1. Summary

A performance-based achievement system that rewards players for completing missions under specific constraints and accomplishments. Each mission contains nine badges spanning categories such as restrictive playstyles (pacifist, no-alarm, ability restrictions), environmental feats (environmental kills, object interactions), completionist targets (eliminating all enemies), difficulty milestones (Hard mode completion), and speedrun time limits. The system drives replayability and mastery by layering optional challenges above primary mission objectives, with badge conditions hidden during first playthroughs and revealed afterward via an in-mission journal.

2. Tags

3. Design Intent / Job Story

When replaying a mission, I want to attempt optional challenge constraints, so that I can earn badges that demonstrate mastery and unlock cumulative rewards.

4. Role in Gameplay Loop

• Provides optional challenge layers on top of primary mission objectives
• Encourages mission replayability through mutually exclusive and hidden constraints
• Rewards diverse playstyles: pacifist, speedrun, environmental exploitation, ability restriction
• Progresses meta-achievements that span the entire campaign

5. Preconditions

• Player has started a mission
• Badge constraints are evaluated continuously during mission execution
• For revealed badges: player must have completed the mission at least once (first-playthrough badges remain hidden)

6. Parameters

7. Core Rules

• Each mission contains exactly nine badges.
• On the first playthrough of a mission, all badges are hidden; their conditions are not displayed to the player, but they can still be earned.
• On subsequent playthroughs, badge conditions are revealed in the in-mission journal/log.
• Each badge has a real-time evaluation state: grey (still achievable), red (failed and no longer achievable), or earned (persistently saved).
• A subset of badges within a mission may be mutually exclusive (e.g., choose path A vs. path B).
• One badge per mission requires completing the mission on the highest difficulty setting.
• One badge per mission requires completing the mission within a mission-specific time limit; the in-game timer is accessible during play.
• Badge progress is evaluated continuously during mission execution; failing a constraint marks the corresponding badge as red immediately.
• Earned badges are saved persistently; reloading a save does not revoke an already-earned badge.
• All mission badges across the campaign contribute to a cumulative meta-achievement.

8. BDD Scenarios

9. Edge Cases

• Player performs an action that invalidates multiple badges simultaneously (e.g., killing a civilian fails both "no civilian kills" and "no kills" badges).
• Player earns a badge, then dies before reaching a checkpoint; the badge remains earned due to persistent save.
• Incompatible badges cannot be earned in a single playthrough; the system must handle save-scumming attempts.
• Timer behavior during pause menus or journal inspection is not explicitly confirmed in sources.
• Hidden first-playthrough badges may be accidentally earned or missed without player awareness.
• Mission failure or restart resets all badge states for that attempt.
• Difficulty can be changed mid-mission; the hard badge requires the mission to be completed on Hard.

10. QA Notes

11. Mechanic Dependencies

• Stealth Detection System (Alarm-avoidance badges depend directly on the stealth detection and alarm response systems)
• Character Ability System (Many badges restrict or require specific character abilities, such as prohibiting disguise use or mandating stone distractions)
• Stealth Elimination Mechanics (Kill-method badges (e.g., environmental kills, specific weapon restrictions) rely on the elimination mechanics)
• Environmental Interaction System (Environmental-interaction badges (e.g., rock pushes, barrel explosions, cart rolls) require the environmental interaction system)
• Mission Objective Variety (Badges are attached to individual missions and evaluated against mission state and objective completion)
• Character Movement System (Movement-restriction badges (e.g., no climbing, no water, no hookshot) depend on character movement capabilities)
• Quicksave and Reload Iteration Loop (Save/load iteration is the intended method to earn mutually exclusive badges within the same mission)

12. UI Links

• Difficulty Selection Dialog - The Mission Badge System is disabled when Novice difficulty is selected. The dialog displays a warning that badges cannot be earned on Novice, linking the difficulty choice directly to badge eligibility.
• Post-Mission Results Screen - the UI displays mission-specific challenge badges in the right column of the Statistics tab, showing earned badges with gold skull icons and unearned badges with grey icons; badge conditions are evaluated from play session data

References

1. 1.

   Прохождение Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun #1 - Осада Осаки | Тракт Накасено [Профессионал] (40:00-40:00) Gameplay frame showing active mission HUD with timer display and character portrait panel, confirming real-time mission context where badge evaluation occurs.

2. 2.

   Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun Review – Is This the Best Version Yet? (3:00-3:00) Review frame showing console HUD layout with Shadow Mode command UI and character selection, providing visual context for how journal/badge UI integrates with active gameplay.