Kena Bridge of Spirits Master Difficulty Exploit Explained

In Kena Bridge of Spirits you must finish the game on Master difficulty for the  Master Spirit Guide trophy. However, this difficulty is quite challenging because you die in 2-3 hits and must dodge/parry enemy attacks perfectly. Master difficulty is also not available from the start, requiring you to beat the game once on any other difficulty to unlock it.

Luckily, there is a Master Difficulty Exploit that lets earn the trophy in 1 playthrough without ever having to do a Master playthrough and this guide explains how to do it.

It is confirmed to work on both PS4 & PS5 with patch version 1.03/1.04/1.05. Update: This has been patched as of 1.06 and no longer works. The disc release already comes with 1.06 preinstalled and can’t be downgraded, and the digital edition automatically downloads the most recent patch. Because of this there’s effectively no way to use this exploit anymore.

Follow these steps exactly:

1. Fast Travel to Mountain Shrine at any time after having finished the story (very north of map). Make a MANUAL SAVE while standing inside the Mountain Shrine Meditation Spot (blue circle on ground).
2. Interact with the Meditation Spot (press Triangle Button), this will trigger the final cutscene/credits. You can skip them by holding X Button.
3. When back in the main menu, start a NEW GAME on MASTER DIFFICULTY.
4. Play the New Game Master difficulty until you’ve met the first Rot in the story.
5. After having met the first Rot, press Options-Button and load the MANUAL SAVE that you made in Step 1 (not the Master difficulty Autosave).
6. Now you should be back at the Mountain Shrine. Interact with the Meditation Spot again. Skip cutscene.  Master Spirit Guide trophy unlocked!

Also note that in some cases, players were able to unlock it without needing to play all the way to the first Rot in Step 4. But playing this far is the safest option that seems to greatly increase the success rate. If you don’t get the trophy simply repeat the steps again and maybe try playing slightly further on Master difficulty.