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To earn By My Own Hand in Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, retrieve Excalibur yourself. The achievement description says to find a way to retrieve it “without any outside help.” The sword is reported to be in front of the Captain’s Quarters at the Horns of the South castle, also called the Keepers’ stronghold. Prepare to withstand damage while pulling it, and make a separate save before you interact with it.
Where to find Excalibur
Look for Excalibur in front of the Captain’s Quarters at the Horns of the South castle. Guides also refer to this location as the Keepers’ stronghold. The achievement is tied to retrieving the sword yourself, not simply finding it.
How to retrieve the sword
- Make a separate save. One guide marks the achievement as missable and warns of a quest-related risk on a particular route.
- Put healing items in your quick slots. Guides recommend Aromatic Remedy, Digestion Tincture, or Queen’s Honey, and advise healing during the extraction.
- Activate King’s Power. Begin pulling Excalibur and keep healing as needed while the extraction continues.
- Finish the scene. The guide reports that the achievement unlocks after the scene in Arthur’s chamber.
These are guide-recommended strategies rather than guaranteed results across every game version. If the achievement does not unlock, check that the extraction and following scene completed, and consider whether your current quest state or version differs from the guide’s assumptions.
Choose preparation that fits your character
| Approach | Preparation | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Potion and King’s Power | Quick-slot healing potions, activate King’s Power, and heal through the extraction. Aromatic Remedy, Digestion Tincture, and Queen’s Honey are named options by TrueAchievements. | A straightforward option if you have healing items available. |
| More defensive setup | Invest in Endurance, bring plenty of healing, and consider King’s Soul to slow the damage if you did not complete the relevant safe-retrieval steps. | A character build or quest state that calls for extra survivability. |
A Steam community guide suggests stockpiling five to ten potions, eating food, and using King’s Power, and says the approach can work at low level. Treat that as player advice, not a verified minimum or a guarantee. The guides do not establish that a particular build, potion count, or ability is universally required.
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Timing advice differs across guides, so there is no single quest milestone established here as safe for every route. TrueAchievements warns players on the Captain and One-Eye route that taking the sword before completing the gong ritual during the Shadow of the Horns main mission may block two other achievements. Other guidance emphasizes retrieving Excalibur before meeting the Lord of the Seas, while Neoseeker describes an early self-retrieval route for players who did not complete the required steps in Acts of Kindness.
Because those cues do not align perfectly, check your active quest state and preserve a separate save before acting. In particular, consider whether you are on the Captain and One-Eye route and whether the gong ritual is complete before pulling the sword. Do not assume that the same timing rule applies to every route or game version.
Rank #2
What the achievement asks you to do
The listed objective is: “Find a way to retrieve Excalibur without any outside help.” That wording is reproduced by XboxAchievements. If the sword is retrieved and the post-extraction scene finishes but the achievement still does not appear, the available guides do not establish patch-specific trigger behavior or platform differences; check your current game version and achievement status.
Quick Recap
Best Value
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Rank #4
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