Mechanics

Arkham Knight has one ending split into two halves, and everything optional in the game either feeds the second half or does not. That is the only ranking that matters when you are deciding what to spend an evening on, and it is not the ranking any collectible map gives you. Some systems gate the ending. Some only gate achievements. One gates nothing at all and makes everything else survivable. And one of them looks like a choice and is not.

Here is the ladder, read from the ending backwards.

What each ending actually requires

The half ending is not a failure state and it does not end your save. You activate Knightfall Protocol at the Bat-signal on top of GCPD, watch the manor go up, and the game hands Gotham back to you so you can finish the rest and do it again properly. Which is why the sensible way to play is to reach that first trigger and then decide whether the second half is worth it.

The second half is a very different amount of work, because apprehending the Riddler is folded into it. Our endings guide spells out both cinematics, including the Gordon monologue that has him voted in as Mayor and Tim Drake set to marry Barbara, and the alleyway teaser where a figure watching a mugging on a rooftop takes off and bursts into flame. It also settles one thing worth knowing before you start grinding: AR Challenges and the Season of Infamy DLC have no effect on which ending you unlock, while the Batgirl DLC collectibles do.

Tier one: the systems that gate the true ending

The 40 scannable riddles

These are not the trophies. Riddles are a separate track, forty of them, each a piece of wordplay that points at an object or a scene you have to line up and scan. They are spread across the same six regions the game is built from, and the count per region is lopsided in a way nobody tells you up front.

Our advice on this one is to leave them until the credits, because several of them sit in places the story locks. One Founders' riddle needs the Perfect Crime mission finished before you can even get into the room. Three of the Bleake riddles are inside the GCPD lockup and share a single set of coordinates, which is the kind of thing that looks like a bug when you are hunting them cold. Every riddle text, its coordinates where our page has them, and the exact thing to scan are on our riddles guide.

Riddler's Revenge: ten caves under Gotham

The longest Most Wanted mission in the game, and the one that keeps Catwoman in an explosive collar until you finish it. Riddler shows himself in Chapter 1 but does not set the terms until Chapter 3, when you lower the Mercy bridge. The challenges split cleanly into Batmobile races and two-character puzzle rooms, and the puzzle rooms all need Catwoman, which means switching between the pair constantly.

Two practical warnings before you start. Final Exam will not let you through the door without the Remote Electrical Charge, and you can pick that up from the GCPD evidence locker at any point in the story, so grab it early and save yourself the trip. And in the puzzle rooms with Riddler robots, colour matters: Catwoman can only hurt the red ones and Batman only the blue ones, so the fight is really two fights happening at once. The Numeracy 101 button order, the three Final Exam grid solutions and the two-phase mech fight at the end are all on our Riddler's Revenge guide.

Tier two: the system that gates achievements only

AR Challenges replace the old Arkham Challenge Mode, and our page is blunt about them being among the hardest content in the game. They are also, per the endings page, entirely optional as far as the story is concerned. What they do give you is Upgrade Points, because a first time three star clear on any challenge hands you a free WayneTech Point, and each category multiplies what you earn.

That multiplier column is the reason to read this section before you start rather than after. The six tutorial challenges are available immediately, carry no star requirements at all, and pay the highest multiplier in the game, which makes them the single best thing to do in your first hour.

Do the Batmobile categories last. Our page recommends going in with the 60mm Cannon upgrades maxed, Dodge Thruster Boost, and Armor Level 4, and says plainly that some of them are close to impossible without that kit. Three of the races are also locked behind Riddler cave completions, so the two systems interleave whether you plan it or not. If you are chasing Absolution and have the Season Pass, the DLC challenges are noticeably easier three stars and count toward it, which lets you skip the worst of the base game ones. Every challenge, its unlock condition and its star thresholds are on our AR Challenges guide.

Tier three: the system that gates nothing and speeds up everything

There are more than 350 upgrades and a single playthrough does not comfortably pay for them, mostly because story activities pay well and everything else pays badly. Six ways to fix that, from our upgrades page.

The firefighter loop deserves its own sentence because it is the one method that breaks the economy. Line of Duty firefighters are held around Gotham by a small group of thugs, and the thug standing over each one pays well. Beat the guards, walk away without untying the firefighter, come back, and the guards have respawned. Repeat as long as you can stand it. Our upgrade points guide has all six methods, and it is worth reading before the AR Challenges rather than after, since the points are what make the challenges winnable and the challenges are what pay the points.

The choice that is not a choice

Late in the story you board the Stagg Airship, having first lowered the bridge to Founders' Island to get there, and find two Scarecrows hunched over the same set of controls. It is presented as a decision, and it is not one.

Take the one on the left and it turns out to be Joker wearing the mask, at which point the real Scarecrow sprays you with toxin from behind. Take the one on the right and the same thing happens. There is no correct answer, no missable outcome and no achievement riding on it. Our Scarecrow choice page reads it as an illusion of choice that fits a game where Batman has been hallucinating since Arkham City, which is a more generous reading than most.

Either way you end up fighting through the hallucination, and Scarecrow leaves by helicopter once it is clear you are not breaking. It is in this guide only because a ladder about what things unlock needs the rung that unlocks nothing.

The order to do it in

1. Tutorial AR Challenges first. Six challenges, no star requirements, the highest multiplier in the game, available before you have done anything else.
2. Smash the glass on the REC gun held in the GCPD evidence room while you are nearby, because Final Exam will refuse you without it.
3. Play the story and take Most Wanted targets as chapters release them. This is where the XP actually is.
4. Run Riddler's Revenge once your gadgets and Batmobile upgrades can carry the races, which also unlocks three of the AR races.
5. Sweep the 40 riddles once the credits have rolled, since a finished campaign leaves every door already unlocked.
6. Then decide your ending. Seven Most Wanted gets you to the Bat-signal. All fourteen plus the full Riddler set and the Batgirl collectibles gets you the alleyway.