This page is the one-glance upgrade of the Fatal Claw Walkthrough. Where the walkthrough gives a region-by-region narrative, this page collapses the 14 main route steps into a single table that ties each step to its ability gate, its named boss (where one exists), and its Steam achievement trigger. The point is to let you scan from “where am I” to “what do I need next” without bouncing between fourteen separate region pages.
The route order below matches the Walkthrough exactly. Achievement percentages are from the official Steam global stats page (snapshot 2026-09-21); where Steam hides a percentage behind login, the field reads “not listed.” Ability gates are pulled from the per-region pages and the Ability System Explained guide. If a number conflicts with the in-game overlay, the overlay wins — these are not surface combat stats, they are completion signals.
14-Step Progression Table
| # | Region | Order | Ability gate you need here | Key boss | Steam achievement (global %) | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Origin Laboratory | 1 | Base Claw + Heal + Blink timing | Saitin | Weed Control (92.7%) | Saitin is the teaching fight; the Weed Control achievement fires on first kill. | |
| 2 | Upper Origin Laboratory | 2 | Air dash, wall climb (early) | — | Into the Darkness / Golden Castle delayed | Vertical expansion above the main lab; clears into Moss Cave connector. | |
| 3 | Lower Moss Cave | 3 | Dash (forgiveness on bad jumps) | — | Water Cat preparation | Water relevance and Jibanam notes; mark Carox markers for the Meditation of Jibanam unlock that arrives later. | |
| 4 | Strigine Quarry | 4 | Glide (vertical wind) | — | Gale Warning (55.3%) | Wind updrafts; Gale Warning fires when the region is first reached. | |
| 5 | Black Canyon | 5 | Lyani’s Claws (wall cling) | — | Into the Darkness (39.8%) | Dark mud, Imprint School context; the achievement tracks first arrival, not region clear. | |
| 6 | Elord Castle | 6 | Lyani’s Claws + Stone Warp habit | Mirkam | Let There Be Light (65.3%); Golden Castle (44.4%); Claw Sharpening (69.2%) preferred | First major hub. Mirkam restores village power; Claw Sharpening (Kannium upgrade) usually lands in this run. Activate local levers before any Stone Warp. | |
| 7 | Higasha Tundra | 7 | Lyani’s Claws + Dash (ice floor recovery) | Ortrinde | Pull Yourself Together (31.9%); Frozen Boundary (27.6%) | Frozen biome; Ortrinde’s floating blades check Blink discipline. | |
| 8 | Tenshukaku Interior | 8 | Blink (side-route resets) | Enma | Sacrifice (41.5%) — Infected Carbo alternate route | Enma uses illusion sorcery; Reien’s Covenant is the named Engraved Skill linked to this route. | |
| 9 | Wolf Gate | 9 | Story flag only — no ability gate | — | Bridging the Past (21.2%) | Story barrier; not a region with secrets. Clean it and move on. | |
| 10 | Jayma’s Dungeon | 10 | Lyani’s Claws (vertical shaft) | — | Prison of the Forbidden (17.3%) | Treat as spoiler-sensitive; the achievement is a reach marker, not a clear marker. | |
| 11 | Kannir Belt | 11 | Blink (gap shortcuts) | — | Sea of Energy (16.4%) | Routes toward Kannir Sanctuary; Sea of Energy fires on first reach. | |
| 12 | Kannir Sanctuary | 12 | Meditation of Jibanam (water unlock) | — | Second Key of Hope (13.6%) | Lift the seal; Second Key of Hope is one of the rarest mid-route achievements. | |
| 13 | Aphotic Marsh | 13 | Silver Chain + heavy Cabitz | Kurtz | Where the Black Current Ends (9.3%); Fulfill the Calling (22.5%) preferred | 1.0 late-game region; Silver Chain is the named Engraved Skill from this route. Kurtz is the named boss; bring a healing build, not an exploration build. | |
| — | Isaac Manor | — | Story flag | — | — | Story location; sits outside the 14-step progression table but links from the route. | |
| 14 | Sealed Spire | 14 | All late tools + Sanctuary state | Nagaraja (story final) | The Last King’s End (19.15% on Exophase); He Was an Excellent Assistant (postgame) | Final ascent. The Sealed Spire checks Stone + Kannir + Water seal state — incomplete seals punish backtracking. Nagaraja is the prophecy boss; Engraved Skill unlocks from this route. | |
| — | Shrine of Ancestors | — | Story flag | — | — | Used as the post-epilogue return anchor. Not a route step. | |
| — | Water Sanctuary | — | Meditation of Jibanam (water traversal) | — | Third Key of Hope / Water Cat (10.7%) | Sealed by water; Water Cat is one of the lowest-rate achievements tied to a route completion. | |
| — | Stone Sanctuary | — | Story flag | — | First Key of Hope (15.7%) | Stone Sanctuary seals the Stone thread; not a numbered step, but required before Sealed Spire. | |
| — | Mirror Chamber | — | Story flag (Adrian’s Tea effect) | — | Curiosity Killed the Cat (~15.9%) | Curiosity check, not a route gate. See the Walkthrough for the Adrian’s Tea trigger. |
The table is intentionally tight. The narrative for each row lives in the linked region page; the ability mechanics live in Ability System Explained; the combat loop lives in How to Play Fatal Claw.
How To Read The Ability Gate Column
The “ability gate” column is the single most useful field on the page. It answers the question players ask most: “I just arrived in region X. What tool am I missing?” Each entry names the specific ability whose presence makes the region readable, and links to the ability page where the routing logic lives:
- Base Claw + Heal + Blink = you should not be stuck in Origin Laboratory if you have these three.
- Air dash, wall climb = early vertical expansion; the second Origin Laboratory sweep is mostly a wall-climb lesson.
- Lyani’s Claws = the named wall cling tool. Without it, Higasha Tundra and Black Canyon both refuse to open.
- Glide = what wind updrafts in Strigine Quarry actually gate; if you cannot ride the gusts, you do not yet have glide.
- Meditation of Jibanam = the water mutation. Three sanctuaries wait for it (Water Sanctuary, Kannir Sanctuary via Stone Sanctuary routing, and the Aphotic Marsh inner pools).
- Silver Chain = the 1.0 late unlock from Aphotic Marsh. Without it, the very back half of the route stays locked regardless of how many bosses you have killed.
- Stone Warp habit = not a tool you unlock, but a behavior you train. Activate local levers before warping, especially in Upper Elord Castle; the EA patch fixed a soft-lock there but the habit survives.
If your region does not appear to open after you have the listed ability, the blocker is almost always one of three things: an inactive Stone Warp lever, a Cabitz slot you have not assigned, or a story flag you have not yet triggered. The Walkthrough walks through which one each region expects.
Achievement Frequency And Route Priority
The Steam global stats let you tell which route milestones the playerbase actually completes versus skips. Reading the table from highest percent to lowest, the “gates that almost everyone crosses” come first:
- 92.7% have killed Saitin.
- 87.2% have equipped Cabitz.
- 69.2% have used Kannium to upgrade their Claw.
- 65.3% have restored power to the village by killing Mirkam.
The “gates that most players stop at” come much later:
- 9.3% have reached the Aphotic Marsh.
- ~13-15% have lifted the Second Key of Hope, Curiosity Killed the Cat, or First Key of Hope.
- ~19% have opened the Sealed Spire gates (per Exophase “The Last King’s End” 19.15%).
If you are stuck at one of the rarer achievements, the bottleneck is almost always an ability unlock you have not yet pulled, not a secret you have not found. Use the table above to verify that the ability gate for that row has actually fired. If it has not, backtrack to the named ability page and run the unlock quest; if it has, the achievement itself may be missable or hidden — the Walkthrough and Achievements Guide cover the missable cases.
Pairing With Other Guides
- For the long-form region narrative, use the Walkthrough.
- For ability definitions and acquisition order, use Ability System Explained.
- For Cabitz loadout ideas that match each step, use Cabitz Builds.
- For combat verbs under the route, use How to Play Fatal Claw.
- For the 51-achievement list with completion rates, use Achievements Guide.
- For cleanup after the epilogue, use Endings Explained.
If a row in the table says the Steam achievement is “not listed,” the in-game overlay is the authoritative source — Steam hides some percentages behind login. The table does not pretend to know what Steam chose to hide.
Sources: Steam Community global achievement stats (snapshot 2026-09-21), Exophase 51-achievement list (Steam mid-table recovery), NDEV patch notes for the named Cabitz additions and the 1.0.8 hotfix.