How to get every achievement ever (UPDATED!!!)

Into the Breach is a game that encourages players to actively get achievements as they unlock coins which in turn are used to purchase new squads. In this guide, I'll describe what I did to complete them all.

Introduction

Hi, I'm rpvarela and I've decided to make this guide to help players who might have trouble unlocking some of the more challenging achievements in this game.

In this guide I'll go through what strategies I used and try to give some tips on how to progress.

Now, it is important to mention that, since this game is heavily determined by RNG, most of the tips here consist in circumventing it or trying to adapt to what the game decides to throw at you.

Because of this, I will not be mentioning specific weapons/passives you may find or purchase as reward as I find it unreliable to build your strategy around relying on specific items showing up.

That said, I do consider specific pilots fair game as you can unlock them as you play.

A final helpful tip: at any point in the game, you can press the Esc key and hover over the achievement icons to track their progress within that campaign, which lets you know exactly how close you are to an objective.

With that said, best of luck and happy hunting!

Rift Walkers

The Rift Walkers are the squad you start the game with. They are very versatile, as all their mechs are capable of both dealing damage and displacing enemies. Let's look at their achievements:

Watery Grave

This achievement requires that you drown 3 enemies in the same battle, either by using the environment or by actively pushing them into the water.
By far the easiest way to accomplish this is to choose the Archive island at the beginning. More specifically, the level that has tidal waves. Put your mechs right at the shore and try to lure enemies towards the ever advancing ocean.

Another strong candidate, also on the archive island is the level that has you breaking the dam to create a river in the middle of the map.

Just be wary that 1- Your combat mech's high damage might accidently kill the vek before you have a chance to drown them. 2- Flying vek such as the hornet or the psion cannot drown and 3- your mechs cannot drown (but also can't attack) while in the water.

You should get this achievement in no time.

Ramming Speed

You get this achievement by dashing towards an enemy 5 or more tiles away for a killing blow. This requires upgrading your combat mech's titan fist to a dash punch by using two cores, which can be found by either opening time pods or completing a corporate island and buying them at the end with reputation (costs 3 reputation each).

Using either of these methods, upgrade the mech and simply position yourself so you dash from the required distance into an enemy that is sure to die from the punch.
The default damage of the dash punch is two, so look for lower health enemies such as hornets, psions, scarabs and leapers so you can complete this with ease or use mountains to pin the enemy down for 3 damage (2 + 1 pin).

Island Secure

You must complete your first corporate island using the rift walkers in oder to unlock this achievement. This really is one of those achievements you get without trying as your learn more about the game and understand its basic mechanics and gameplay elements. Some tips:

• Always prioritize dealing with vek that threaten your buildings and/or map objectives before everything else
  
• Be mindful of environmental hazards
  
• Make a habit of checking the attack order of your enemy by holding Alt
  
• Kill vek whenever possible (so the enemy has less actions in the next turn and you gain experience)
  
• Make use of those cores to better your chances.

Rusting Hulks

Spend two coins and you can play as the Rusting Hulks. These mechs focus on smoke to prevent the vek from attacking, but they also have access to direct damage and a fair bit of displacement combined with a passive upgrade that causes all smoke clouds to damage enemy units (but not your units) at the start of the turn, much like how fire does.
The best tip I can give you when playing as this squad is to have Camila Vera as your starting pilot, as the mech she's in won't have its offensive capabilities impaired by smoke.

Overpowered

This achievement consists in getting your grid repaired to full and then getting more power twice (either by purchasing it or by earning it as mission rewards/perfect island rewards). The best way to do this is to prioritize protecting your buildings above all else, so you don't take grid damage in the first place and then earning the extra power.

If you don't really care about a particular run and just want the achievement, I recommend just completing as many objetives as you can for the reputation and then using that reputation to buy the grid power you need. Not a hard achievement.

Stormy Weather

This achivement is unlocked by dealing 12 smoke damage to enemy units in a single battle.

Focus on acquiring 3 cores either from time pods or as reputation purchases and use them to upgrade your rocket mech's Storm Generator, so that all smoke deals 2 damage instead. Then it is a matter of using smoke on your enemies whenever possible: the rocket mech can smoke blast in the opposite direction its rocket is fired in, the pulse mech can push enemies back into the smoke if the get out and the jet mech can dispense smoke on a single enemy (even more if you purchased the range upgrade).

Avoid blocking enemy vek so you have plenty of targets for smoke attacks.

Perfect Battle

During a single mission you cannot take mech or building damage in order to unlock this achievement. There are a number of ways to accomplish this:

• Try to get your mechs in a position where the enemy will want to attack them instead of a building, and then move out of the way, but be wary of vek that can web you down (another reason to pick Camila for this squad).
  
• If you do get webbed, your mechs can counter to a certain degree (smoke blast, jet jump and pulse can all negate the web attack provided there's enough room)
  
• The range upgrade on your jet mech can smoke two units at the same time, preventing their attacks.
  
• The Rocket mech can hit two enemies in one move if you position it properly (so that the rocket strikes an enemy and the smoke blast from the fire hits a vek behind you at the same time),
  
• Simply upgrading your mechs' damage will allow them to more reliably kill vek, thus reducing the chances your enemy has of dealing damage to buildings.
  
• Your pulse mech, when properly upgraded can shield itself and/or other targets, which is useful for denying damage dealt by enemies (keep in mind that shields will completely block a single attack, no matter how much damage it deals).
  
• Obviously, do not use cores on health upgrades if you're going for this achievement.
  
• If things get desperate, you may choose to ignore mission objects (as long as they aren't buildings) in favor of buildings and mechs.

Zenith Guard

Three coins are required to unlock this squad. They are a bit odd: The Laser mech deals damage in a straight line (dealing progressively less the further away the target is), the Charge mech has innate dash and high damage, but also hurts itself in the process and despite having no offensive capabilities, the defense mech offers some interesting tools to your arsenal.

I recommend picking Abe Isamu and putting him in the charge mech, so it negates the self-damage entirely. A new alternative that has been made available with The Advanced Edition are pilots who level up and get the "Technician" perk, which makes your mech heal by 1 at the start of each turn. (I still think Abe is better for this particular mech, however.)

As a side note, The Advanced Edition brings in a new "Boosted" mechanic for pilots: basically means that, if a pilot is being affected by this boost status they will deal +1 damage with their next attack or heal for +1 health with their next repair. All well and good but this doubles self-damage as well! Do NOT place pilots with this ability in the Charge mech!

Watch out for collateral damage from your laser.

Get Over Here

The easiest achievement for this squad, IMO. Simply park your defense mech next to an enemy unit that has 1 health (leapers and spiderlings are ideal for this) and hit them with the attraction pulse. They will collide with your mech, die and you'll get the achievement.

Glitering C-Beam

This achievement can be a bit tricky to pull off. You either need to be lucky enough so that 4 of your enemies stay in a straight line or set them up like for your laser mech, by using the other two mechs to displace the vek. Then you hit them all with your burst beam.
I recommend doing a corporate island that has a spider leader as the boss and just let her spawn eggs as much as possible (granted, it'll probably cost you quite a bit of grid power, but the goal here is merely getting the achievement) The beam doesn't have to kill the targets, just hit them. Keep in mind that you must hit ENEMIES for this to work. Putting your own mechs in the line of fire won't do the trick.

Shield Mastery

Using shields, prevent damage four times in a single battle. The trick here is to pick one of those missions where some of the buildings are already shielded up at the start in conjunction with your defense mech's Shield Projector to negate enemy attacks. You can further improve your chances by choosing Bethany or the Zoltan pilot and actively block enemy attacks with further shielding. You can even use your shield and sit on top of a vek spawn point, preventing them from getting to the surface while you block the damage with the shield.

In The Advanced Edition, there is a new mission type that involves destroying a shield generator that is shielding everyone on the battlefield. All shields will be despawned when the generator is destroyed, but if you can deliberately keep it alive for a long time, there will be plenty of shielded targets available.

Also worthy of note in The Advanced Edition is the new pilot, Adam, who gains a shield whenever you use a turn reset (works specially well if you happen to run into Isaac in your campaign)

Do any of those things 4 times and the achievement is yours.

Blitzkrieg

The Blitzkrieg can deal a lot of damage right off the bat: The lighting mech can potentially erase a lot of enemies from existance at once (but be very careful with the collateral damage), and the boulder mech also deals high damage from a distance. While the hook mech has no damage at base, it starts the game armored, being able to block 1 point of damage without consequences.
I recommend putting the mantis pilot in the Hook Mech as it feels like a near-perfect fit: the pilot gives the mech some much needed offensive capability while the innate armor of the mech will compensate for the lack of repairs (make sure to keep it away from fires though!)

They cost 3 coins to unlock.

Chain Attack

This achievement requires that you get a single electric whip attack to travel through 10 tiles. The most obvious choice here is to upgrade this weapon with a core so it can strike buildings without damaging them.
A few things to consider:

• The Spider leader can spawn a lot of eggs, providing you with plenty of targets if you let them be.
  
• Boulders from the Boulder mech count as targets.
  
• Your own mech count as targets.

If you really just want the achievement, don't be afraid of bunching up your mechs with the enemy and then zapping them all.

Lightning War

You'll have to complete two corporate islands in under 30 minutes to unlock this achievement. There's no specific strategy to achieve this, since you can't know what the game will throw at you until it does, but there are some tips I can give you:

• Before even attempting this achievement, turn on the game timer UI and turn combat speed all the way up. That way you can always see how well you're doing time-wise and enemy actions will be executed faster, saving you precious seconds.
  
• "Protect the train" missions last for one less turn than the rest of the missions and will end quicker (just be careful because your electric whip will fry the train too if it's part of your chain).
  
• ANY menu other than the pause screen will count for time, so don't delay on maps/reward/reputation shop screens. Make your decisions quickly and then move on.
  
• Practice, practice, practice. The more familiar you are with your mechs and the enemies, the more efficient you'll be at making good decisions quickly.
  
• Resetting a turn takes time and delays your victory, but it's better than allowing a disastrous turn to take place. Play smart and use your time wisely.

Hold The Line

You have to block 4 Vek from spawning in one turn. Not mission. TURN.

This is quite luck-based, but doable. The best pilot for this mission is the Zoltan by far, since he can sit on a spawn indefinitely, so long as no other sources of damage are aimed at him... but given that he is pretty difficult to unlock, you may also want to try Archimedes, as (when properly upgraded) he can attack and then move in the same turn.

One thing that can help you in this achievement is going for missions where you are allowed to control neutral units: more bodies on the field means more things to block the vek. they will die and cost you reputation, but the achievement is the only goal here, so look for:

• The Artillery and Tanks from the Archive Island
  
• The Freeze Tank from the Ice Island
  
• The Cannon Bot that can be made into an ally in the "Destroy the Hacking Facility" mission on the Ice Island (The Advanced Edition only)
  
• The A.C.I.D. Tank on the Detritus Island
  
• The V.I.P.s on the Destritus Island (Advanced Edition Only)

Other, less desirable but still kinda useful pilot options include Chen Rong, Camila Vera (If the enemy units consist of leapers/scorpions/spiders) and Lily Reed/Gana (to get in the general area where the veks spawn from quickly).

If none of these options are available, you'll have to invest in mech movement and/or health and hope for the best. Try your best to kill the enemy vek present in the first turn as quickly and efficiently as possible from a position where you'll block a spawn. Your boulders from the boulder mech can block one enemy before they break, so if you can throw one at a spawn point, from another spawn point, in order to block two units at once.

Don't forget to repair your mechs that are on top of the spawn. This is especially true for the boulder mech, since it only has 2 health to start with.

The hook mech can also pull vek into spawn points or sit on top of one if it needs to.

You may need to let the vek go about their business in favor of sitting on top of spawn points to stop them (which is very likely to cost you grid power and by extension, the timeline, but we're only concerning ourselves with achievements in this guide, aren't we?)

Steel Judoka

At the steep price of 5 coins, you can unlock the Steel Judoka, which focus on displacement and friendly fire (among the enemy) above all else. Basically any pilot that helps you with mobility works wonders with this squad: Henry Kwan, Prospero, Archimedes and even those "one-time only" mobility pilots like Lily Shen and Gana can make a difference. You need to get to right places to throw enemies around the right way.

With The Advanced Edition, any pilot can earn a handful of new perks that enhance movement speed, which greatly assist this squad.

Unbreakable

For this achievement, you must prevent 5 damage via mech armor. There are two things that can make this mission a lot easier: 1- Having Abe Isamu piloting any mech other than the Judo one (so now there are two armored mechs on the field) 2- Having fireflies as the enemy unit: Since they almost always prefer to attack from a distance, you can more easily get in their way.

You can also use your judo mech's vice fist in a way that the thrown enemy ends up attacking it. Simply absorb damage 5 times for this to work.

Another strategy includes firing your siege mech in a way that it hits your judo mech. Since the armor negates the one damage, it still counts. (You can hit two mechs at once if you put abe in the gravity mech to make this even more effective).

Be careful of A.C.I.D. as well as of enemy units that deal more than 1 damage. You typically don't want your mech to die in the process.

Unwitting Allies

Four enemies must be killed by enemy fire for you to get this achievement. The best way to get this is by using cores to upgrade the Vek Hormones on your gravity mech, so that the vek deal higher damage to each other.

The Advanced Edition also brings in a new type of Psion, the Raging Psion which increases the damage dealt by all vek by 1 (these Psions look black with sickly yellow pustules on top of them).

Kills that happen as a result of the vek attacking something (such as a vek breaking the dam on Archive Island) still count!

Aside from that, look out for enemies that can attack more than one tile at the same time and use your mech to set them up to kill one another. Some examples include the firefly leader, the scorpion leader, the centipede (normal and alpha), the hornet leader among others.

Try to make it so that the vek attacks hurt other vek that are low on health (such as leapers and spiderlings) for easier kills. It may take a few islands and reactor cores before you get this one.

Mass Displacement

The icon for this achievement shows the exact setup you need to get this going. Displace 3 enemies with one attack. They want you to use the siege mech for this. Aim at a tile surrounded by 3 enemies and push them away (as long as there are no obstacles preventing them from being pushed), but you can do this with purchased weapons such as the Titanite Blade or the Vortex Fist, for instance. It's one of the easier achievements, and you may end up getting it without even trying.

Flame Behemoths

Pay 5 coins and unlock the Flame Behemoths. I really don't like this squad at all. They desperately need cores to function at a decent level (give damage to the Meteor Mech ASAP). Their only saving grace is the fantastic Swap Mech (I have my own little "conspiracy theory" that the swap mech was intended to go to the Steel Judoka, but they got the Gravity Mech instead so that the Flame Behemoths wouldn't suck as hard.) Anyway, on to the achievements.

Quantum Entanglement

The simplest achievement of this group. Merely upgrade your swap mech's Teleporter to full (3 cores) and teleport an enemy unit that is 4 tiles away from it. The challenge here is getting the cores using this sub-par squad. Hunt time pods, purchase cores with reputation and/or lower the core requirement to 2 by putting a +1 reactor core pilot in the Swap Mech.

Scorched Earth

You have to ensure that by the end of the mission, 12 tiles on the map are on fire. Here are a few tips to make this work:

• Increase the range on your Flame Mech's Flamethrower ASAP so you can hit multiple tiles with a single shot
  
• Bait enemy attacks so that they hit forest tiles for even more fire.
  
• Upgrade your Meteor Mech With Backburn to set fire on two tiles at the same time.
  
• Never repair your mechs while standing on a fire tile, as doing so will put the flames out and you don't want that.
  
• Avoid "Protect the Train" missions: they have one less turn than normal missions, meaning you'll have less time to set fire to the tiles.
  
• The Advanced Edition introduces a new type of Psion called a "Smoldering Psion", which makes all vek leave flames behind when they die. Seek these out (They look Pinkish with blue pustules)
  
• Also in The Advanced Edition is a new mission on the Ice Island which involves destroying a hacking facility to free a cannon bot which then joins you. It sports a weapon that leaves fire tiles behind as it strikes the ground.

This is Fine

Have 5 enemies on fire at the same time.

The best way I've found to make this work out is by having an enemy blood psion (regeneration every turn) present and then leaving it alone.
Upgrade the range on your flame mech's flamethrower if you can and start setting fire to your enemies as usual: burn them with your weapons or swap them into an existing flame using the swap mech. If they have more than 1 health, they'll survive every time if you let them be. You can get this in 2 turns if you can use all your mechs to set fire to three enemies in the first turn, then two more in the next, but it'll probably take you 3 or 4. Just keep in mind that psions never benefit from their own buffs, so don't burn the blood psion unless it is the last unit you need to get 5.

Another strategy is (as usual) facing the spider leader and using your upgraded mechs (max flamethrower range + backburn) to set fire to as many spiderlings and eggs as you can, after allowing a bunch of them to spawn, but I prefer the previous tactic.

The aforementioned Cannon bot can also aid in this, providing you with one more unit capable of creating fires. (I won't suggest the smoldering psion here because I believe the blood psion is a far superior pick for this achievement).

Frozen Titans

The Frozen Titans cost 6 coins to purchase and are a solid addition to your arsenal. They have reliable damage, but are a bit weak on the displacement side of things, with only the mirror mech being capable of doing so (and sometimes you have to watch out for collateral damage from the other cannon, in case you are trying to hit only one target).

The best pilots for this squad are Bethany and the Zoltan for the shield on the ice mech that negates self-freezing.

Cryo Expert

Use the ice mech's cryo launcher four times in a single mission. This would be a fairly straightforward mission if it weren't for one detail: the cryo-launcher also freezes your own mech upon being fired. So how do we get around this? We make it straightforward.

If your mech is protected by a shield before firing the cryo launcher's cannon, it will not be frozen at all. This means you can use it freely like any other artillery weapon. Put either Bethany or the Zoltan in the mech and get this achievement easily.

If Bethany or the Zoltan aren't available to you yet, it'll require a bit of smart play from you: use the cryo launcher from a position where you'll be attacked or from atop a vek spawn point. that way the attack/surfacing vek will break the ice, freeing you for the next turn.

Another way around this achievement is going to the final island, as shooting ice from a lava tile does not cause you to freeze (remember the ice mech does fly and can't get blocked by liquid)

Trick Shot

Trick shot is in my opinion the hardest achievement for this squad: it requires you to kill three units with a single shot from the mirror mech's janus cannon.

Ok so when I made this guide years ago there was a glaring omission here: You only need to kill three targets by firing the cannon, but they don't have to die BY the cannon. This is important because you can still complete the achievement if the cannon breaks the dam on the archive island. This is by far the best way of completing this achievement.

Failing that, consider going to an island with a spider boss and get yourself surrounded by spiderlings, as they only have 1 health each (remember that they don't count as enemies until they hatch, however) As long as three enemies died by whatever means as a result of you firing the cannon, the achievement counts. My bad!

Pacifist

You have to kill less than 3 enemies in a mission to get this achievement. The best way to do this is to get Bethany or the Zoltan on the Ice Mech, since you'll have to use it a lot, and focus on islands that have higher health enemies (such as the scorpion and the firefly) and either a soldier psion (+1 health to enemies) or a shell psion (+1 armor to enemies), since it helps keeping the high damage from your Aegis Mech in check.

Consider protect the train missions for this achievement, since they last for one less turn.
Other alternatives includes the missions where vek can be neutralized or ignored (such as the one littered with cryo mines on the ice island or the one where buildings started shielded and can withstand an attack without consequence).

Hazardous Mechs

The Hazardous Mechs squad can be unlocked with 6 coins and it's all about managing collateral damage (to both your mechs and everything around them) and using their "lifesteal" upgrade.
I recommend putting either Harold Schmidt In the leap or unstable mech (as it provides them with a way of displacing enemies without as much collateral damage) or Abe Isamu, which will negate the self-damage altogether (unless you upgrade it) at the cost of forcing you to be more aware of collateral damage.

The Advanced Edition introduced new perks for your pilots when they level up (even the sidekicks!). Among them is "Technician", which enables your mech to heal for 1 at the start of each turn, making this squad's life signifficantly easier.

Healing

You have to heal 10 health in a single battle with your mechs.
Now, in order to get this achievement, you must first understand how the hazardous mechs and especially their passive effect works:

They regain health each time they land a killing blow on an enemy unit. Even if they die in the process of killing an enemy due to self-damage or unintended collision with other objects, the regenerating effect will prevent the death of the mech and by extension its pilot. But you MUST land a killing blow.

That said, you'll win this easily if you upgrade your nano mech's viscera nanobots (3 cores). So that it heals for 2 instead of 1 when you kill an enemy. If that's still not enough, then also upgrade your mechs' weapons in order to deal (and take) more damage.
Remember, it is ok to suicide attack to kill an enemy because viscera nanobots will bring you back.

The nano mech itself can't get kills as reliably unless pushing enemies into water/chasms, so either use it to help set up kills for the other mechs or block a vek from spawning, so that you can keep taking damage and repairing for even more recovered health.

The advanced edition has introduced a level that involves destroying a machine that generates an A.C.I.D. storm over the entire level, meaning both your mechs (unless you pilot has earned the "Thick Skin" perk, which grants A.C.I.D. and Fire immunity) and any vek will take double damage. Even though self-damage is still double from A.C.I.D it's still worth going for as kills will ressurect your pilots as I said.

Also present in The Advanced Edition are pilots that have access to the "Boosted" status (pilots Kai and Morgan have this ability) which increases damage dealt by the next attack by +1. Normally I'd advise against using these pilots as it also increases self-damage, which is what the hazardous mechs are all about, but given that you can revive on kills, it could work as a strategy, IF you can land the killing blow.

Immortal

This is probably one of the hardest achievements in the entire game. It consists of completing all four corporate islands without letting a single mech die. The best pilots for this in my experience are Abe Isamu on the Leap or Unstable mech to prevent damage or Harold Schmidt, to provide your mechs with a safer (for the buildings/objectives) displacement.

With The Advanced Edition come new pilots and pilot perks. Below I will list all of the ones that can be relevant to this achievement by boosting your survivability in some capacity:

• Rosie Rivets (New Pilot): Repairs mechs that are adjacent to her after moving.
  
• Skilled (New Pilot perk): Confers +1 Move and +2 HP to the piloted mech.
  
• Technician (New Pilot perk): Piloted mech heals for 1 at the start of each turn.

It is important to note that the new Invulnerable pilot perk (pilot survives mech destruction) will not help you here. The mech itself cannot be destroyed for you to win.

Now for the mission itself, by now you know the game is heavily determined by RNG, so I can't provide many mission-specific tips, but I'll can share some generic tips that might help:

• Death by self-damage will be prevented if you kill an enemy unit in the process. I can't stress that enough, it is vital to know this in order to succeed.
  
• Deal with the hardest islands first. Oh so in this run the final boss of the ice island is the spider leader? Kill it first! Islands only get tougher as you complete the previous ones. I almost always go for the Archive island last because so much goes on there that can help you (extra tanks/artillery, landmines, tidal waves, the dam...) Careful planning. Always.
  
• Cores, cores, cores. You need a lot of them to do this reliably. Upgrade your mech's damage. You need to kill in order to heal. Upgrade health and mobility so you can last longer and position yourself well. Upgrade the Viscera nanobots to make the healing effect even more powerful.
  
• Remember: all mobility attacks, including the leap mech's hydraulic legs, can be used to break free from webs.
  
• Repair removes both Fire and A.C.I.D. from your mechs. Use it if you need to! (And the Thick Skinned pilot perk from The Advanced Edition makes you immune to these effects altogether)
  
• Kill as many Vek as you can and remember you cannot block shots on this one, unless you're abe and they deal 1 damage.
  
• Soften up alphas and leaders with the Nano Mech so that you can more reliably kill them.
  
• Kills with the Nano Mech (by pushing vek into water/chasms) still count and the mech will regenerate from it.
  
• Be especially careful when dealing with high damage enemies such as leapers and alpha versions of normal enemies.
  
• Don't bite more than you can chew. No shame in avoid missions with a "high vek threat detected" or missions that involve protecting the train, the renfield bombs, yadda yadda yadda. You can find yourself unable to properly attack your enemies because of all the collateral damage you'll deal to objectives and buildings.
  
• Never neglect the grid: It doesn't matter how well you're doing in a run, you *will* fail if it falls, so protect your buildings, buy power when you can, keep it safe.
  
• Your leap mech will damage and push everything around the impact point of its attack. Be very mindful of when and where you use it so you don't accidently kill your own mechs and fail the achievement or wreck the grid and fail the timeline.
  
• The unstable mech knocks itself back when firing. Be careful not to damage buildings behind it or take more damage than you expected. You can only afford to take fatal damage if it kills the enemy unit in the process.

Overkill

Deal 8 damage to an enemy unit. You need to fully upgrade the Unstable Mech's Unstable Cannon (takes 4 core power). And then use it to kill an enemy affected by A.C.I.D. It doesn't matter how much health the enemy has, just the damage you'll deal to it. Very straightforward achievement.

Despite having easy access to A.C.I.D, it's worth noting that a new mission from The Advanced Edition on the Detritus Island has constant A.C.I.D. rain, meaning you can bypass a set up to make the enemy afflicted as everyone starts affected.

Randomized Squad

Anything goes. You can play with a randomized squad as soon as you unlock one extra squad.
The thing about the randomized squad is that it only chooses mechs from squads you've already unlocked. So if you're only in it for the achievements, consider completing the random squad ones as soon as they are available, so that way you can control the odds somewhat.

Loot Boxes!

Find and open 5 time pods over the course of one timeline. This achievement isn't hard once you're familiar with the game and can make your way around the islands. It'll most likely require a 4 island run to complete. Needless to say, timepods must be protected even at the cost of grid power/mission objectives/mech health if need be. Also, if your mechs happen to have mobility skills such as dash punch, consider grabbing time pods that land on hazards such as the cataclysm (that can happen) and then use your skill to move out of the way, otherwise you'll have to sacrifice a pilot and be down a mech for the rest of the mission to save the pod.

Lucky Start

Beat the game without spending any reputation.

Just as the game says, you really need a lucky start on this one.

You can reroll the mechs the game give you as much as you want. See if you can get a squad that has a healthy mix of damage, displacement, and different attack ranges (ideally you'll want at least one mech that can deal 2+ damage, one mech that can reliably displace foes and one mech that can hit enemies that are far away).

Use a pilot that better suits whatever is given to you and good luck.

I recommend making this a two island run, as the vek will become tougher and tougher the longer you wait.
I beat mine with the boulder mech, the aegis mech and the swap mech, but there are many other possible combinations you can try.

Change the Odds

Raise grid defense to 30.

Don't be fooled by missions that offer you grid power. Always go for double reputation for as much as you can. Reputation buys grid defense, which is always better.

If you manage to get a perfect island, you will be offered a pilot, a weapon or more grid power. Unless you're offered a strong, game-changing piece of equipment that will truly allow you to protect buildings much more effectively, always go for extra grid power on this one.

Protect buildings as much as you can and play as many corporate islands as you need until you reach 30 grid defense.

Customized Squad

Pick any mech you want, repeats allowed, and make your own squad.

Mech Specialist

Beat the game using 3 of the same mech. I did that with the combat mech from the rift walkers, basically punch everyone you can to death, finish two corporate islands and go for the final one. I got some weapons along the way that helped me deal with stuff they otherwise couldn't (like the airstrike as a poor man's artillery, for instance).

That said, there is an easier way I haven't considered then that you can see below (Check the Flight Specialist Achiwevement).

Class Specialist

This requires you to use three different mechs from the same class to beat the game.
I chose the prime class and picked the combat mech, laser mech and the aegis mech for the sheer amount of damage these all provide.
Do a two island run achievement on this one. No sense in making it harder than it needs to be.

Flight Specialist

Just a quick heads up before you try this one: Prospero doesn't work if you bring a ground mech piloted by him. It must be 3 mechs that have flight by default.

WIth that out of the way, this mission can be easily cheesed by picking Bethany or the Zoltan and using 3 ice mech (and it'll get you get Mech Specialist achievement as well if you can pull it off. Basically freeze everyone you can and repair your frozen mechs to break free. You can even park your mechs on top of vek spawns and fire at nothing to block them from surfacing indefinitely.

An important word of advice tho:

On the second part of the final mission do NOT freeze yourself in the first turn unless you do so from a tile that will be attacked or is lava. If the next turn starts while you're still frozen, you'll be under a tentacle that will instakill you and there won't be anything you can do unless you picked up a displacement weapon along the way and have it on a fellow mech to set you free!

Two other tips for the final mission:

• The Psion Tyrant tentacle attack will break you free of the ice on every turn (but be wary it'll also attack the Renfield Bomb, so you might wanna freeze it as well)
  
• You can't freeze flying enemies that are over lava tiles.

As with all these, make it a two island run to make it as straightforward as possible.

Bombermechs

With The Advanced Edition come new squads and their respective new mechs with new weapons. The first of which is the Bombermechs. They cost 4 coins to unlock and can be quite tricky to use, but are incredibly fun.
The Pierce Mech pushes the first target (if it can be pushed, that is), dealing no damage and damages and pushes the next target behind it. The bombling Mech lobs a controllable, but short-lived bombling that can self-destruct, causing damage.
The Exchange Mech is the swap mech on steroids: Make an adjacent target (friend or foe) trade places with another one anywhere on the map with unlimited range.

Given that the bombling mech creates another unit in the field, this makes Silica insanely strong with this squad. No one else comes close: you can have FOUR bomblings out at once if you upgrade the weapon and fire twice without moving. Let's get down to some achievements:

Hold The Door

You have two islands to prevent 30 vek from emerging. The most obvious solution for this is to upgrade your bombling mech's bomb dispenser (three cores required) which enables it to field out two bomblings at once. Since bomblings die at the end of each turn even if you don't detonate them, they can be reliably used to block emerging vek.

As mentioned in the intro to this guide, Silica makes this even stronger as you can fire four bomblings in a single turn, provided that you do not move. Of course, using your own mechs and even controllable units (if you don't care about reputation) can also do the trick. The biggest challenge comes from getting used to this squad's tricky setup, but it is not complicated. Play aggressively and move towards the vek side of the map so you can more reliably block spawns.

Another new addition from Advanced Edition to consider are the new pilot perks that enhance your pilot's movement speed (thus getting you to those vek spawns more easily) if earned, but it is best not to rely on those. I managed to get the achievement on normal and without silica (because I wanted to try the new pilots) so I suspect it's even easier if she's present.

No Survivors

Hilariously, an achievement I got accidentally without even trying: One of the new missions brought by The Advanced Edition has you destroying four explosive boom bots: basically robots with 1 health each that innately have the blast psion's effect, exploding on death. They were clumped up and a shot from the pierce mech set a huge chain reaction of enemy deaths. That, combined with the expiration of the bomblings I had fielded did the trick.

Short story aside, it is obvious that the best way to do this is to get your bombling mech upgraded ASAP by using two cores, so it can field two bomblings at the same time, two more cores with Silica at the steering wheel means you'll have 4 bomblings that can die for the achievement.

Aside from this very effective way, any unit death counts: spiderlings, allied units you can control, robots from the Ice Island. Just make sure you get 7 deaths in a single turn (pressing the end turn button will still grant you the achievements if anything dies by environmental or vek damage while you're out. Hell, you can even go to the final mission, fire all 4 bomblings with Silica and deliberately stand still so that the vek instakill tentacles kill ALL your mechs! that's 3 dead mechs and 4 expiring bomblings for an easy achievement. Ultimate throw, ultimate power move, if you ask me!

Powered Blast

By far the easiest achievement available to this squad and one of the easiest in the game: put a bombling between your piercing mech and a target that will die when hit and shoot it. The cannon deals 2 damage by default, so look for the lower health vek, or ensure there's something behind the vek for them to bump into for a nice 3 damage attack. You should get this one in no time.

Arachnophiles

Paying 4 coins enables you to play as this awfully named squad. They are slightly similar to the Bombermechs in that they can field expendable units to aid you, but the similarities end there.
They offer a whole lot of displacement and can provide damage in a pinch, if you field enough Arachnoids.

While I don't have a specific pilot recommendation for this squad, I do think putting a more defense-oriented pilot in the slide mech (such as Abe or Bethany) can help extend its longevity, seeing it has 2 HP by default and it tends to get in the thick of the action, but for achievement hunting specifically, there are better options I will discuss below.

On to the achievements:

Spider Breeding

This achievement asks that you spawn 15 arachnoids in a single island. In order to spawn an arachnoid, your arachnoid mech must deal the killing blow to an enemy (damage alone does not suffice: the target must DIE).

"Health and damage" is the name of the game on this one:

Look for ways to increase your damage (with one core you can make your arachnoids' attack apply A.C.I.D., doubling the next incoming damage for yet another arachnoid) Two cores can increase the damage of the Arachnoid Mech itself, enabling it to more reliably get kills. Rely on your Bulk mech to soften up bulkier targets, on the slide mech to position them more favorably and on the arachnoids themselves for extra damage, A.C.I.D. or even distractions (you do still need to worry about the grid, after all). New Advanced Edition pilots Kai Miller and Morgan Lejeune have access to a new "boost" mechanic, which increases the damage of your next shot. Kai has it for as long as her mech is at full health, while Morgan gets it whenever he kills an enemy.

At the same time, look for enemies that are lower on health, the ever reliable spider leader and her ample supply of spiderlings can be of use, as can leapers. The Detritus Island has a lot of A.C.I.D. and even a new mission in the Advanced Edition which causes every unit on the field to be covered in acid due to an acid rain.

If you fail to get this achievement on your first island, consider trying again in the next one, since you'll have more cores at your disposal.

Lastly, Arachnoids are not like bomblings: while they will die upon attacking, they do stick around and don't expire at the end of each turn. You can even shoot and kill them with the arachnoid mech to produce another arachnoid in a pinch for this achievement!

Working Together

A simple achievement. Find any map with a large open area and put your slide mech as close to the vek as it'll go (avoid those vek that have webs or ranged attacks) try to get your mech on said open field and see if the enemy vek to stay adjacent to them, put your own mech and any extra arachnoids or alied units on the surrounding tiles until every adjacent tile has a unit and nothing is obstructing the three tiles in the direction you plan on shifting to.

Do that and the achievement will be unlocked. Henry Kwan may help with this, as he can move through enemy units to better position himself.

Efficient Explosives

You need to kill three units with the Bulk Mech's Ricochet Rocket. Allies won't work for this one, but most of the tips I gave for the first achievement of this squad applies here: Look for ways to kill multiple targets at once (enemies that explode on death, the dam level and so on). Failing that, look for targets that are very low on health such as spiderlings and leapers. Use your arachnoids and the slide mech to make your enemies bunch up in an appropriate manner and shoot them in a way that two targets die and bounce on a third one, killing them as well.

Keep in mind you can make this achievement even easier by spending three cores to boost the ricochet rocket's damage output (from 1 to 2) or by using the aforementioned Kai and Morgan (See the "Spider Breeding" section above) or combine both for a 3 damage shot.

Mist Eaters

Talk about a strong squad! For only 4 coins, you can have access to the Mist Eaters. They are kinda like an even stronger version of the Rusting Hulks, interacting with smoke in a different, but equally fun way.

Despite having very easy access to self-heal, I would still recommend either Abe Isamu or a pilot that earns the Technician perk for the Thruster mech for a normal playthrough (NOT if you're hunting for achievements!), as it makes it so that you don't have to worry so much about optimal placement and increases you range of options when using the mech.
Another strong candidate is Harold Schmidt, for either the thruster mech or the smog mech, as a means of providing some displacement that these mechs lack (it's not even necessary however due to how insanely strong the control mech is)

Let's talk achievements.

Stay With Me!

This achievement is the reason why I don't recommend Abe or the Technician perk for this squad if you're achievement hunting: You need to heal 12 damage over the course of a single island. Technician does NOT count for this! In fact, it's detrimental.

As of today's (6th September 2022) patch, technician does count for this achievement, so go nuts with it! If you pilot gets it, just sit on a vek spawn or catch on fire to constatly heal damage taken!

So how do you do it? Well, the Mist Eaters' main mechanic is a passive effect called Nanofilter Mending. This causes them to heal for 1 whenever they enter a smoke cloud, consuming it. Combine that with the fact that they have several ways of generating smoke you know where this is going. Some things to consider:

• You have to actually HEAL lost health. simply consuming a smoke cloud when at full health will not do the trick for this achievement.
  
• With two cores, the Smog mech can be upgraded to lay down 4 smoke clouds, instead of two.
  
• New pilot Rosie Rivets can heal friendly mechs if she moves to a tile adjacent to them.
  
• The New "Boosted" mechanic, increases your damage dealt by 1, but it will also increase the self-repair ability every mech has, enabling you to heal for 2 at once.
  
• The new Mosquito vek attacks by laying a smoke cloud on a tile in front of it and then getting ready to attack. Against the mist eaters, this consumes the cloud and heals you!
  
• Seek out missions in the Desert Island for even more smoke via the sand tiles.
  
• Speaking of, a new mission in the Desert Island even features a sandstorm that gradually covers the entire level with smoke.

Simply get 12 heals before the island is completed and the achievement should be yours.

Let's Walk

This achievement involves using your control mech's control shot to move enemy units around for a total of 120 tiles over the span of a single game. This one is more about pacience than anything else. You can spend a total of two cores to upgrade the range of the vek movement twice, enabling you to get this achievement faster. That said, don't simply move the vek as far as it'll go just for the achievement's sake! Use the vek to block spawns and kill other vek. You still need to worry about the grid.
It will probably take you longer than a two isle run for this achievement to unlock, but the good news is that this squad is so strong you shouldn't have many issues.

On The Backburner

You have to deal 4 damage with your thruster mech's reverse thrusters. Initially this may seem like a demanding achievement: The reverse thrusters' damage increase the further away you use it from the target, so you would need one core to upgrade its range and then three more to upgrade it again, but there is a far simpler way to achieve it.

Simply go to the detritus island and look for ANY mission that involves a vek afflicted with A.C.I.D. Then position your mech right next to it and dash two tiles away so that your damage is doubled for an easy 4.

Alternatively, you can use the boosted status effect (new pilot Kai is ideal for this) along with a single core for a range upgrade. Dash three tiles away from an adjacent enemy while boosted and they'll take 4 damage.

Heat Sinkers

Like every other new squad, the Heat Sinkers cost 4 coins to unlock. They are a new take on the Flame Behemoths' fire-themed attacks and do (in my opinion) a better job at it. Lots of displacement will be at your disposal. While I don't have specific pilots for this, there is one that massively helps with an achievement that will be discussed below. If just playing the game normally, you can pick whatever pilot you prefer with this one.

Boosted

The pilot you need to make this achievement very easy is right on the image.
Boost your mechs 8 times in the same mission. For the Heat Sinkers, this is achieved by walking into a flame tile or being set ablaze. This consumes the flame from the tile and grants you the boosted effect (it should be noted that this passive effect makes them all immune to fire damage as well)
Keep in mind that Kai's boost does not work for this achievement because she has it innately. You must apply the boosted effect for it to count.
Go with Morgan as he gains it with every kill. Prefer maps that feature lots of forest tiles and use the cores to upgrade your napalm mech's range and/or to add fire to your dispersal mech's thermal discharger.

Remember, the boost won't count for the achievement if you consume a flame while already boosted. use up your boost by attacking or repairing and only then move to a flame or use the napalm mech's attack on your own mechs (it doesn't deal any damage, but be wary of the displacement).

Feed the Flame

For this achievement, you must light three enemies on fire with a single attack. This is one of those achievements that require a few cores in order to work out. Focus on upgrading your napalm mech's range. (There are two upgrades that grant you 3 extra range for 3 cores.) Then, it is a matter of setting up three enemies in a single line for your napalm mech to set them all ablaze. While you only really need 1 core upgrade, the more you get the easier it'll be to do this.

Spending a core to give your quick-fire mech the ability to push targets can also be useful if you need help setting up a line.

While you can technically get this achievement by fully upgrading the dispersal mech's thermal discharger, this requires too many cores to be effective, in my opinion. The dispersal mech is far more useful ,even unupgraded, when setting up targets for the upgraded napalm mech to get the achievement for you.

Maximum Firepower

Deal 8 damage with a single quick-fire rocket activation. The easiest and quickest way to get this achievement is to use a pilot with any means of getting the "boosted" trait, and/or spend three cores to increase the quick-fire mech's damage and then go to the Detritus Island to find two enemies afflicted with A.C.I.D and hitting them both for 4 damage each, 8 in total.

The harder way would involve fully upgrading the mech (damage and push) and then shooting two targets, knocking them both into other objects while boosted (2 dmg + 1 boost + 1 collision per target) a far more complicated and time-consuming setup, in my opinion.

Cataclysm

The Cataclysm squad is by far my favorite not only in the Advanced Edition but in the game as a whole. It costs 4 coins to unlock and it's a lot of fun, pretty much destroying the entire map in order to achieve victory. Not only that, but every single one of their mechs has a really impactful single core upgrade that only makes them stronger.

My pilot recommendations are either placing Morgan in the Drill Mech to make their setup even more ridiculous or a (powered up) Prospero in the Pitcher Mech for mobility in the destroyed landscape and as a protection from bottomless pits.

Given that anything that can pin you down can severely hamper this squad, Camila Vera can also be a solid choice to mitigate this somewhat.

Solid pick for a squad!

Here are their achievements:

Unstable Ground

You must crack 10 tiles in a single mission in order to win this achievement. The way this works is each time your Drill Mech kills a unit, all the tiles adjacent to that unit will become cracked, as long as there isn't a building on top of it.

Upgrade the drill mech's damage using one core as soon as you can, so it can tackle 2 health enemies from the get-go and use whatever other means (boosted, other mech) to soften up stronger vek so the drill mech can get the killing blow. Using this strategy the achievement should be yours without much effort.

Remember, you don't have to break the cracked tiles to form chasms: Simply cracking them will suffice.

Core of the Earth

Over the course of a single island, drop 10 enemies into pits. This is an achievement you can get along with the previous one. Fire your Triptych Mech's (who came up with this name?) cannon in a way that both creates pits and shoves enemies into them. Use your pitcher mech to throw vek directly into pits. Looks for two missions in particular in the Desert Island: Protect the Earth Mover (it starts out with a massive bottomless pit that gradually gets filled so chuck enemies in there while you can) and the fittingly named "Cataclysm" where pieces of the ground gradually fall off, creating more pits. Water/lava/A.C.I.D. pools do not count. It must be pits.

Miner Inconvenience

(No, it isn't a typo.)
Destroy 20 mountains over the course of a single game. It is a simple achievement that will only get easier as your squad gets stronger and gets rid of vek more quickly, allowing you to dedicate some time to mountains: Look for anything that can help you:

The easiest way to achieve this is to find the Waste Disposal/A.C.I.D. launcher mission on the Detritus Island, as destroying all mountains with it is an objective there. Less reliable missions involve those "destroy 2 mountains" mission in the Desert Island, which starts with some cracked mountains.

Aside from that, the usual strategies will apply: displace the vek in a way that their attacks will hit mountains, use the Triptych Mech's weapon to hit three mountains in a line. Finally, a risky but equally effective strategy is to kill vek under the influence of a blast psion when they are adjacent to mountains so that they explode them upon death. Good luck!

Victories

These achievements focus on beating the game, rescuing a timeline.

Victory

Beat the game. No special requirements. Any squad, pilot, length, weapons, etc goes.

• Protect the grid above all else by prioritizing enemies that are attacking it first (remember that vek attacking your mechs are not important. You can move out of the way, buildings cannot).
  
• Complete as many objectives as possible. You need the reputation to buy cores.
  
• If you feel like you're ready to take on the final island, consider sacrificing some reputation to fully repair the grid before going.
  
• Bring an experienced pilot if you have one.
  
• Grid defense is the least useful attribute you can get on a pilot. Consider switching them out if you stumble upon a better one.
  
• Only buy more grid power if you're either desperately low on it or if you have nothing better to buy (reputation isn't carried over to the next islands, so spend it all).

Hard Victory

Same rules and tips from above apply, but you must beat the game on hard. More alphas will spawn. You can try to cheese it with a custom squad composed entirely of ice mechs (for more info on that, check out the "flight mastery" achievement under the "customized squad" section of this guide).

Adaptable Victory

Beat the game in three different lengths (2 islands, 3 islands, 4 islands). There's not much I can say other than what was already said. The tips are the same, the only difference is the more islands you do, the tougher it gets.
Learn the enemy's patterns, buy weapons to counter your squads' weaknesses and enhance your strengths with cores.
Study the map layout prior to picking a mission and see if there's anything you can use to your advantage (such as the landmines in the archive mission or the A.C.I.D. launcher/terraformer).

Squads Victories

Beat the game with four different Squads.
If you go back to the individual squad achievement sections of this guide, you'll notice I've listed each squad's cost in coins as well as some tips and pilot recommendations on them. Go back and check them out if a particular squad is giving you trouble.

Complete Victory

Beat the game with the original 10 squads (from before The Advanced Edition), even the custom and random ones. See the previous achievement (Squads Victory).

Metagame

Metagame achievements are ones you'll complete as the game progresses. No sense in actively rushing them. You will get them eventually as you hunt for other achievements.

Emerging Technologies

Unlock a new squad. Simple. Using coins acquired from previous achievements, unlock a new squad.

Friends in High Places

Spend 50 reputation across all games.
Basically, the more "two star" missions you do, the faster you will get this achievement. Just remember the reputation isn't carried over from an island to the next, so spend it all always.

Immovable Objects

Block 100 Vek Across all games.
Good mechs for blocking include the ice mech and the boulder mech. Good pilots for blocking include Bethany and the Zoltan. Displace vek on top of other vek spawning for even more blocks. Stand there and repair yourself. Eventually you'll get it.

Humanity's Savior

Rescue 100,000 civilians across all games.
Basically, each mission starts with 1,000 civilians by default (500 on easy, 1,500 on hard). Each time a building takes damage, a number pops up showing how many civilians were killed. At the end of the mission you get to keep those 1,000 minus the ones that died. Protect buildings as best as you can for more civilians at the end of each mission.
Play on hard if you're confident in your skills for even more civilians saved per mission.

Perfect Strategy

Collect 10 Perfect Island rewards across all games.

Basically, this means you have to finish the island without failing a single objective. Tips:

• If a time pod drops, it becomes part of the objectives and you must protect it. Failing to do so costs you the achievement.
  
• Don't bite more than you can chew (don't pick missions where you have to protect an object if you're playing as blitzkrieg, for instance)
  
• Go for the one star rep missions if you're having too much trouble.
  
• Take all the help you can get (this goes for special mission units, objects and environmental effects such as the airstrikes, terraformer, landmines, etc)
  
• Bodyblock mission objectives if you have to. You can heal damage and function even without a pilot. Mission objectives will be gone if they take damage and you will fail the achievement.

Do it 10 times over the course of your games and the achivement is yours.

Island Challenges

Island challenges revolve around completing goals on a single island and can be unlocked fairly early in the game.

Perfect Island

Don't fail a single mission objective over the course of an island.
The easiest way to complete this one is by going after the easiest missions for your squad. Don't go for the "no mech damage" ones if you're playing as the hazardous mechs, don't go for the "kill 7 enemies" one if you're playing a squad with more emphasis on displacement/crowd control.
Play smart and be sure you have the necessary damage to take out the island's leader at the end.
A more experienced pilot may help you there.

The Defenders

Finish an island without taking building damage.

Don't rely on grid defense for this. It can save you in a pinch, but it is far better to play smart and protect all your buildings, bodyblocking them if you have to. You may have to sacrifice non-building objectives to get this one.
Watch out for collateral damage-prone mechs. Avoid the hazardous, laser, siege and mirror mechs for instance.

Untouchable

Finish an island without taking mech damage.
Good news is you don't have to increase mech health with cores for this one. You can focus on mobility.
You'll probably have to sacrifice grid power a few times in order to complete this. Avoid enemies that attack multiple tiles when selecting an island, and be very careful of webs.
Good pilots for this one include Bethany, Abe, the Zoltan and Camila.

Backup Batteries

Earn or buy 10 grid power on a single island.
This one is fairly easy if you change your normal strategy. Go after all the missions that offer grid power and use the reputation you get to purchase the rest you need by the end of the island.

Good Samaritan

Earn 9 reputation on a single island. Same as the above achievement, but go after all the missions that offer "two stars" on the map screen. You can get them all and then two more from killing the boss and protecting the corporate building at the final island mission.

Pilot Challenges

Achievements revolving around your pilots. Not much more to say.

Field Promotion

Have a pilot reach maximum level.
This is one of those achievements you'll get without even trying, but in case you really want to get it quickly, just pick Ralph Karlsson, your starting pilot and put him in your strongest mech.

Best of the Best

Have 3 pilots at max level at the same time.
The best way to get this achievement is either by using a squad where every mech deals damage, so everone is capable of killing enemies or by putting low level pilots on the most damaging mechs and get kills with them. Bringing a maxed out pilot from a previous timeline will also help you a lot.

Come Together

Unlock 6 additional pilots
Pilots can be found inside time pods or chosen as a reward upon completing an island perfectly. Just be sure to choose a pilot as a reward if you haven't seen them before and you'll get this achievement in no time.

I'm getting too old for this

Great news! The Advanced Edition provides a way to largely trivialize this achievement! If at any point in your game any pilot levels up and happens to earn the perk "Invulnerable", that means that they will survive the destruction of their mech and still be available! Then it's only a matter of getting that one pilot to the final mission, pick them as your next pilot whether you succeed or fail and make it to the final battle three times. Just stick to that one pilot and never switch off. They won't die.
If you feel like getting this achievement without The Advanced Edition perks, read the rest of this section below:

Have an individual pilot participate in the final battle 3 times across multiple games.
So there's a catch here: it has to be the same individual. It won't count if, say your copy of Harold dies and then you bring another Harold from the hangar on the next mission. It has to be the same Harold three times in this example.

Just start a run, make it to the final island ASAP (two corp. island run) and participate in the final mission while ensuring your chosen pilot never dies between games. It doesn't matter if you fail the final mission or not, just that your pilot is alive by the end of it and that you choose them to continue the mission.
Be very careful of instakill environmental hazards, especially in the last mission as well as mostly unavoidable damage such as fire or the psion tyrant.

Good pilots for this one include Bethany, Abe, Camila and Rockman.

Distant Friends

Encounter a familiar face.
Ok, so this one is a bit tricky as it is largely dictated by luck but what you must do is when starting a mission, choose the ones which have the most mountain and/or ice tiles. Once you get into said mission see if one of the mountains or ice tiles start out damaged even thought it was fine in the mission screen.
If you look closely and there is a (very faint) yellowish/green glow on that tile, destroy that mountain/ice. One of your squad members will comment on the strange glow that will be left behind on the spot. Move a mech to it to get it and a special time pod from FTL will appear. Collect that pod and finish the mission to unlock either a Mantis, a Zoltan or a Rockman.
I'll eventually add screenshots of this to my guide, but for now there's a much better guide in these forums for this achievement that you can look at.

Just keep looking for those special tiles in mountains and ice and be ready to destroy mountains and ice ASAP

Challenge Runs

Challenge runs span 3 corporate islands in a single game and can be kinda tough to accomplish. I managed to get all of them on normal (I've only ever played on normal except for the hard victory achievement) using the Rift Walkers to get all challenges.

Honestly the tips found here can be found all over other sections of this guide and due to the RNG nature of the game I can't provide much in the way of a specific, perfected strategy.

Sustainable Energy

Finish three corporate islands without ever dropping below 4 grid power.
The solution here is to get your grid power to full and keep it there for as much as you can so you can have some lenience if you fail to protect all the buildings across three different islands.
Get pilots and mechs that can reliably move around the battlefield and/or bodyblock enemy attacks.

Engineering Dropout

Finish three corporate islands without powering up a weapon modification.
Health and Mobility are fair game, so use your cores on these exclusively. Don't power any weapon modifications, even if it doesn't improve damage. It will still cause you to fail if you do so. The reason why I get the rift walkers is because they are very reliable and self-sufficient.

Chronophobia

Finish three corporate islands while destroying every time pod you come across.
A three-island run, except you can't collect or protect time pods until the mission is over: you must actively destroy them. Time pods are destroyed if fired upon or if a vek is pushed into their square.

Doing this means you will fail an objective and won't be eligible for perfect island rewards.

There is no Try

Finish three corporate islands without failing a single mission objective.

Probably the hardest of the challenge runs. Isaac might be a good choice of pilot, so you can have some room for error. (Though I used Abe when I did it).

Damage is key here, I feel. Dead vek cannot act and bosses that go down quickly will cause less trouble.

Avoid missions that are too hard, such as the ones that start out with one alpha on the field, or the one where the robot factories constantly spit enemies out and avoid bosses/enemies that can easily overwhelm you.
Go for easy missions where the corporations assist you, such as the ones with the terraformer, the landmines, etc.
Be wary of blast psions, spiders, blobbers, diggers and the goo. Those can very easily ruin your day.

Play missions that suit your squad, avoid missions such as the train and renfield bomb prototype ones your mechs deal a lot of collateral damage, for instance.

Practice a lot and don't get discouraged.

Trusted Equipment

Finish three corporate islands without ever equipping a new weapon or pilot.

Pretty simple. at the end of every island, donate every pilot and weapon you find in your missions and spend corporate reputation solely on cores and grid power.

Conclusion and a few notes

So that's it for this guide!

Remember that if any of the achievements are proving to be too much trouble you can always get it on easy if you so desire. No sense in putting yourself through a lot of trouble if it's not fun for you.

The reward for unlocking every achievement is that you'll have 25 achievement coins left to purchase the frankly underwhelming Secret Squad as well as bragging rights. Oh well. :p

I'll be (slowly) updating this guide as I find errors, suggestions, comments, etc. As well as adding screenshots when I can.

I hope I managed to help you guys with some of the more annoying achievements.

NOTE: The guide is now updated to The Advanced Edition. Enjoy!

[rpvarela]

@Jon.Topps. Oh that was my bad, I never noticed I didn't write grid defense at certain places. I just fixed it, but the strategy still applies.

If you get more grid power while your grid gauge is full, it'll increase your grid defense instead. Basically you want to buy grid defense at every opportunity by using your reputation.

Hope that helps!

[Jon.Topps]

For "Change the Odds", did this one change or something? It now says on Steam you need to raised Grid Defense to 30% with a random squad. So, NOT 30 grid power, but the actual defensive bonus. Any tips for that one? I've found pilots that increase it a little, but I don't know what else allows you to increase grid defense.

[Torus]

For the Bombermech's "No survivors", getting RST island mission where you need to protect the prototype Renfield Bombs early is also an option, especially if you have Leapers on the island.
Low-health Vek, 3 explosives and a bit of kamikaze can get you the 7 kills on the first turn if you plan well.

[Navas]

Quando vc vai atualzar?

[<<c:ardis>>]

Hey, I wanted to share that I got "Unwitting Allies" when a Vek destroyed a dam. The resulting flood wave killed two Vek and they counted as "killed by a Vek".

[Juice Supreme]

I could've figured this all out myself, this doesn't help me.

[Starken]

BTW for Distant Friends, if you don't want to waste your time blowing up mountains and ice, you can cheese it and use the console:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1332506359

[qwerty 3.14]

you can earn all 3 of the custom squad achievments at once by using 3 ice mechs.

[Helly]

Strange that "Trick Shot" works with the dam, but not by using a Blast Psion to cause a chain of explosions.

[Nyx]

Just unlocked "Trick Shot" by using the attack to destroy a dam and that killed 3 Veks.