Has anyone gotten the "Homesick" achievement?

[setdreadstostun]

I need your tips and advice!

I'm pretty comfortable playing this game and feel like I understand it well. I am most comfortable playing at Pioneer and Veteran but have won at Viceroy.

I have gotten a lot of the achievements and want to try tackling Homesick, but even at Settler difficulty I can't win any earlier than 6 years, even if I'm focusing on glade events and improving resolve to gain reputation that way.

I'm thinking the key is in upgrades and embarkation bonuses, so maybe I'll try again in another few cycles, but I would really appreciate advice in the meantime!

[arjensmit79]

I did that a long time ago. I recall winning several games in 3 years each, in different ways.
Glade events are indeed an important part. Back in those days the traders also sold advanced tools that were barely more expensive but you needed half as many. Those probably helped a lot there. I think the cornerstone that gives you reputation for trading XX amber is also a great help for this achievement, espescially combined with some very effective pack production bonusses (which you can often get from orders) and the glade events. Cycle the value around a few times, calling in extra traders right after the last one left. Victory might then look like this:
6 points from orders
4 points from glade events
4 points from trading cornerstone

Resolve wont do very much to help you win in year 3. Its too slow for that and needs bigger populations. Of course unlocking all the upgrades is a given precursor for the hardest achievements. (paradise is the hardest iirc)

[el Darkness]

Once on Veteran I almost finished a game within 3 year (actually I finished it in the beginning of Drizzle year 4...). Upgrades will help a lot but lucky Cornerstones, Orders and Glade Events will help to. I was very lucky to get a Perk that gives +15 Resolve for 4 minutes after exploring a Glade, but come with a constant -5 Resolve drawback. All in all I think you need to be a bit lucky and play on Settler to get to year 3 finish. Year 6 will be more doable, but do not rush it. Learn the game and get some upgrades. :)

[KD.AltQQ]

It's very much quite doable (even on the highest setting P20), but one needs to get a bit lucky whereas if one doesn't get lucky, maybe you won't get it even at lower difficulties.

The main bottleneck is population (as resolve rep scales based on the number of villagers), barring things like trade hub, and then luck with +global resolve modifiers.

Here is one such game thanks to the harmony spirit altar (yes, humans, you will have absolutely nothing but a basic roof over your heads, and still be happy)

https://steamcommunity.com/id/kb27787/screenshot/2040744207145784673/

[koboldlord]

It actually isn't very hard, but it does depend somewhat on luck. It did get a little harder in the event rework a little while ago, since a lot of dangerous glade events either lost their reputation reward or got much harder input materials.

The first thing to keep in mind is that you're choosing orders entirely based on your ability to complete them quickly. There is some order RNG in that sometimes you get presented with two that take some time or are uncertain, or that you sometimes get presented with one that has a really nice reward but is harder to complete. For a homesick run nothing matters except getting them done as fast as possible, so always pick the one you can immediately force to complete and hope you get lucky on your options offered.

Second, you don't have to worry about the future. You can go way harder on your resources than you can in a normal game, because you're not going to be here very long. All those starting parts and wildfire essences? You're selling those for tools. If your people start starving because you're selling food they need to live, that's all fine, you're just trying to get that last reputation. You can rotate traders a lot faster because you won't be having time for impatience to build up, and if some of them run off because you're working glade events in a storm that won't have time to cause bad consequences either. If you have a dangerous glade event that isn't rewarding to finish, you can often even just let it run because the game will be over before bad things happen.

[Ariakan]

Settler, ignore food and resolve completely, find bps for tools prouction, open plenty of glades, setup tool chain, open chests, win. Half of the rep points from orders, half from events/chests.
When i was hunting for specific moifier i was spamming those games, they took 2-3 years.

[Spacesuit Spiff]

Probably unnecessary, but dropping 30+ embark points on a settler game near the end of a cycle is funny to picture

[I Can Imagine Anything]

On a map where you have foxes, it's pretty easy to speedrun settler by having them send as many caches to capital as you can. The leftover amber can be used at traders to buy more tools if you can't make them fast enough, or other things you may need for glade events.

[Livy]

Homesick 2 is a bit luck as well.

[setdreadstostun]

Thanks so much, everyone! I really appreciate the advice. I put some of it into action and was able to complete the achievement! Thanks again.