Heat Signature - 100% Achievement Guide

No missable achievements - 2 achievements require a friend to have played the game

Regarding missable achievements

Okay, technically there aren't any missable achievements. Nothing you can accidentally miss, which you must unlock in a new playthrough.
BUT!
There is this:

Picture	Achievement	Description
	End Game	Talk to Fiasco after liberating every Stronghold

This ends your current playthrough and essentially voids all your progress!

It's quite obvious, but:
Leave this achievement until you're done with basically everything else!

You can very easily avoid this though.
Once you've liberated all 4 strongholds, the color of Sader's name will change and look like this:



If you now engage in a conversation, this dialogue option will be available to you:



I have not edited this warning into the screenshots.
It's literally written right there, ingame.
If you don't want to end your playthrough, just click [Leave] and everything's fine.

Which means you can still pay Sader for information regarding personal missions, even after liberating all strongholds.

Story Progression & Liberation

Picture	Achievement	Description
	End of an Era	Retire Sader Fiasco

Finish the prologue.
You can redo the prologue at any time from your ingame menu.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Liberator	Liberate a station

Every mission earns you liberation progress. The blue bar in the top right corner of the mission select screen.
Once the bar is filled, approach the top right facility of any friendly space station and choose a neighboring station to add to your cause.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	The Fiasco Reckoning	Completely eliminate a faction from the galaxy

As the description suggests, you need to liberate every space station within an enemy faction - not just the stronghold. Every faction has a distinctive station name color.

Missions - Difficulty

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Magic Reality	Complete a practice mission

Practice missions can be started from any space station, just below the usual mission accepting spot.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Nails Audacity Correction	Complete a Hard (or harder) mission Complete an Audacious (or harder) mission Complete a Mistake mission

Harder missions unlock as you liberate space stations. See the top of the guide, if you don't yet know what that means.
Mistake missions unlock within the first 10 liberations, so you'll most likely unlock them way before actually knowing how to do them. You really have to know your gadgets, if you want to clear these missions. Blades and Guns will not carry you through them.

You might want to test, or rather play around with all the stuff the game throws at you to see what fits your play style. If you want 2 rather easy ways to clear even the hardest missions, check the tips below the next group of achievements.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Glorious I Glorious II Glorious III	Complete a Glory I mission Complete a Glory II mission Complete a Glory III mission
	Glorious IV Glorious V	Complete a Glory IV mission Complete a Glory V mission

Glory I missions will be unlocked through liberating stations.
Further glory missions will unlock upon completing the previous tiers.

There are 2 really easy ways of clearing missions on every difficulty:

The first strategy is to hijack a random ship in space, take control of it, approach the mission's enemy ship and destroy the target with projectiles [right mouse button], until the mission is completed.
This easily clears most assassination missions. Only "alarm response: target flees" might fail.
This also works pretty good for rescue missions, if you use the "Offworld Angel" Pod. There's a ~1/2 chance, that you'll kill the person instead, though...

The second strategy is to roll a stealth mission without Jammers & Jammer Doors, equip 5 slipstreams & 5 stealth shields, and just run past everything on your way to open the marked chest.
You can very easily steal every guard's key be pressing [E] while walking behind them with your stealth shield.
The achievements for both glory- & personal missions unlock upon opening the chest.

Missions - Clauses & Traits

For this chapter, the following character trait is your best friend:

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Legend	Retire as a Living Legend
	Closure	Complete your personal mission

Every selectable character has a personal mission. These are usually rather hard. Comparable to "Mistake" missions. Since they are random, they might turn out to be easier though.

To unlock them, you need to pay Sader Fiasco 200 currency.

Once you've completed the mission, you're counting as a "Living Legend". Just retire at the top facility in the space stations and you're done.
Alternatively, "Legend" unlocks by completing any Defector missions - those, which you can only accept in the liberation overview and which give you predetermined equipment.

Normal Mission	Personal Mission	Achievement	Description	Condition
		Silence	Complete a Silence Clause	Finish the mission, without triggering any alarm.
		Bloodless Bloodless Vow --	Complete a Bloodless Clause Complete your personal mission with the Bloodless Vow intact	Don't kill anyone - knocking unconsious is okay.
		Enigma	Complete an Enigma Clause	Leave no living witnesses.
		Pacifist Pacifist Vow --	Complete a Pacifist Clause Complete your personal mission with the Pacifist Vow intact	Don't harm anyone. Not even knocking unconsious.
		Ghost Ghost Vow --	Complete a Ghost Clause Complete your personal mission with the Ghost Vow intact	Enigma + Pacifist: Don't hurt anyone & leave no witnesses.

The clauses need to be unlocked. This happens upon liberating space stations. You don't need many; all clauses will be unlocked within the first 10 stations.

The mission select screen will specifically mark a mission with a clause. You need to finish a mission of at least "Medium" difficulty with the clause specifically marked, in order to unlock the achievements.

The vows are character traits like the ones below, but written in blue.

And yes, the targets are exceptions to the clauses, but NOT to the vows.

If you fail your vow, you can [Alt]+[F4] the game to restore it!

Picture	Achievement	Description	Condition
	Dying	Complete your personal mission with the Dying trait	You only have 10 minutes to live.
	Proud	Complete your personal mission with the Proud trait	You can't bring yourself to take any mission that pays less than 70 mLs, it's beneath you.
	Blacklisted	Complete your personal mission with the Blacklisted trait	You're banned from all shops and you know full well why.
	Shaky	Complete your personal mission with the Shaky trait	Shots with firearms can go anywhere within 15 degrees of where you're aiming.
	Frail	Complete your personal mission with the Frail trait	Any lethal damage kills you, no chance to rescue yourself with your pod.
	Technophobe	Complete your personal mission with the Technophobe trait	Gadgets cannot be recharged or self charged.
	Glitch Sickness	Complete your personal mission with the Glitch Sickness trait	You pass out for a few seconds after teleporting.
	Weak	Complete your personal mission with the Weak trait	You're not strong enough to use melee weapons.

Most of them can easily be completed by using any of the two methods provided just below the Glory mission achievements above.

Note, that the 10 minutes for the Dying trait refer to ingame time-passing.
Time does not pass while in Pause mode and passes way slower, while using the slipstream gadget.
Both Pride and Dying become way easier, if you pick a character, that also has either Informative or Rich.

And if you should have missed it at the top of this chapter; this trait is your best friend:

Missions - Fancy Completions

Some achievements don't unlock on "Easy" missions. I didn't test which do and which don't. If you're aiming to unlock these achievements, choose missions of at least "Medium" difficulty.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	White Knuckle Extraction	Catch a Rescue target in your pod while they're suffocating in space

Search a room with a window and break it. Grab the rescue target and voluntarily jump into space while carrying him/her. Enter pause mode, choose to remote-control your pod and catch yourself and the target.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Outside the Box	Complete an Assassinate mission without entering the ship

Accept an "Medium" assassionation mission and enter your pod. Search out a random space ship in the galaxy and hijack it (Kill all inhabitants and take command). Now command it to crash your target ship.
Since enemy ships in "Medium" missions are still rather small, this will directly kill your target in many to most cases.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Conflicted Hitman	Deliver an assassination target alive
	Only The Guilty	Complete an assassination mission without harming any other crew
	Ghost Thief	Complete a theft without being seen or harming anyone

Self-explanatory and easy to pull of in "Medium" difficulty missions.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	One Careful Owner	Complete a Hijack mission in a Warzone

Wether a mission takes place in a Warzone or not can be seen on the mission select screen.

Once docked to the enemy ship, open the Pause menu and check in the upper right corner, how much time you have left until an incoming attack.
The incoming attacks usually start at the back of the ship.
Spamming slipstreams makes this way easier.

You may also leave the mission's enemy ship, dock at and whip out the attacking ship, and return to the original enemy ship to finish the mission.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	They'll Live	Knock a Capture target through a window

The capture target itself needs to be the "object", which destroys the window.
To do so, grab several wrenches. Search a capture mission with an armored target. Lure the target into a windowed room and throw-spam your wrenches on the target until he crashes through the window.
Concussive Hammers work way better for this, if you happen to have them unlocked through liberations.

Alternatively, you can use a slipstream, which allows you to throw your target's body itself, if you knocked it out beforehand.

As has been pointed out to me by Silverdenn in the comments:

Just so you know, ramming someone into a window works even without a slipstream. Just start running towards the window with the person on your shoulder, then throw them when you're like almost at the window, and it will have enough momentum to break it. Useful when you don't have a slipstream.

Space / Pods

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Out of Gas	Dock at a friendly station while on emergency fuel

Fly into the searchlight of an enemy ship and let your pod be damaged.
Press the displayed buttons for some emergency repairs.
Now get back to a friendly station. Aim at a station and use a little bit of gas to get going, then let yourself glide through space without wasting any further fuel on increased speed.

Note, that your character will die, if you waste all fuel...

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Objects in Space	Board a ship without docking your pod
	Spacewalker	Make it to a station after your pod has been destroyed

For these achievements, I consider it the easiest, to find a *defector mission in which you start in space without a pod, but loaded with a lot of ammunition. Shooting your gun will propel you through space and a bit of aim shoots you directly into the space ship, which you need to enter.
Finish the mission and both achievements will be yours.

*Every liberated station unlocks a defector mission. They are only available at the liberation screen.
The defector mission of your starting base often happens to be such a mission. If not, just create a new galaxy, skip the intro and check, if you're luckier this time.

Alternatively: Once docked to an enemy ship, undock your pod while being inside of it and immediately enter pause mode. Throw yourself out of the pod with T and directly into the enemy base.
Enter pause mode again, remote control your pod into the enemy ship's spotlights and let your pod be destroyed. Now kill the captain/pilot, take control of your hijacked ship and return to a station.

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The following 4 achievements require you to use specials pods. These will be unlocked upon liberating specific stations. They are explicitely named as liberation rewards. Once unlocked, you can buy them at any liberated station.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Angel	Save someone with the Offworld Angel

By pressing "Use" (default E), the Offworld Angel can pull you and capture/rescue targets to itself.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Brick	Break a ship with the Foundry Brick

The Foundry Brick has the special ability to destroy rooms if you hit them with enough speed. This does damage to the pod, as if you flew into the enemy ship's spotlights. The Pod also has infinite emergency fuel.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Coldfire	Pass through a ship's vision undetected in the Sovereign Coldfire

The Sovereign Coldfire is a stealth ship that is generally undetectable by other ships.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Tick	Teleport to an airlock with the Glitcher's Tick

The Glitcher's Tick can teleport and dock to nearby ships when pressing "Use" (default E).

Weapons & Gadgets

All the achievements in this chapter require you to use any of the gadgets available in the game.
I'll only tell you which one you have to use per achievement, since the achievements are pretty easy, once you know which gadget to use.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	A Weight Lifted	Be rescued from your captor by the Visitor
	Visitor Pass	Acquire a keycard while Visiting
	Unauthorised Visitation	Use a second Visitor before the first returns you

Gadget: Visitor

The Visitor teleporter allows you to teleport anywhere in its range other than inside walls. After two seconds, you will return to where you teleported from.

Note, that you can pickpocket key holding guards with E.
The captor achievement does not refer to your alarm countdown running out; it refers to any guard, which knocked you unconscious and is carrying you to where your pod is docked to throw you out.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Known Issue	Cause a sentry to shoot a guard by subverting it
	Rerouted	Hack a telepad to glitch someone into space
	I Wouldn't...	Cause a guard with a subverted shield to shoot themselves

Gadget: Subverter

Makes turrets, shields, and other electronics work against their owner. Hold down the button to aim, release to subvert. Only uses up a charge if successful.

Regarding "Rerouted": Telepads look like this --->
Just search for an assassination mission with "alarm response: target flees".

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Defenceless	Crash a shield

Gadget: Crashbeam

Turns off turrets, shields, and any electronic guard kit, even through walls. Hold down the button to aim, release to crash. Only uses up a charge if successful.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Living in a Bubble	Reflect a bullet with an emergency shield

Gadget: Emergency Shield

Protects from all damage for 3 seconds per use. Incoming projectiles are reflected.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Lightning Strike	Take someone out with a melee attack less than 0.5 seconds after Sidewinding

Gadget: Sidewinder

Click anywhere within the radius to teleport there, as long as there's a direct route to the target. It can be long and indirect.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Strange Justice	Cause a guard to shoot themselves by Swapping with them

Gadget: Swapper

The Swapper teleporter allows you to permanently change places with any other person within range. Requires a target person to change places with. Also works on unconscious/dead bodies.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Nitojutsu	Kill someone with a Shortblade within 1 second of killing someone with a Longblade

Weapon: Shortblade

Dash 2 meters to strike a target.
Swing again almost immediately after a successful strike.

Weapon: Longblade

Dash 8 meters to strike a target.
Can't swing again until 0.4 seconds after a successful strike.

Take Downs

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Jam	Take down a Jammer
	Prey	Take down a Predator
	Shields Down	Take down a Defender
	Ambush	Take down a Tracker

Accept a mission with "alarm response: light reinforcements", let yourself be seen and let the alarm go off. The above mentioned special units will spawn after a few seconds. Just kill them.
If in doubt, use a thrown glitch trap to teleport them into space. Or hijack a different ship and take the alarmed one apart with missiles.
The achievements will most likely unlock without you even trying, though.

Daily Challenge

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Week Streak	Play the Daily Challenge every day for 7 consecutive days
	A Good Day	Finish all three missions in a Daily Challenge
	A Perfect Day	Finish all three missions in a Daily Challenge with no penalties or purchases

Daily challenges require you to play a specific character per day, which is available in every space stations and sits a bit further away from the bar as the other characters; the one with an orange name, who can only be interacted with while choosing a new character.

You might want to aim for "A Good Day" on an "Easy" day.
Note, that you need to clear all 3 missions without penalties on your first try.
Or rather, on the first one, which the game saves. If, for example, you're playing a mission with the condition to kill as few people as possible, but you've killed one, you're locked out of "A Good Day" for that day - unless you [Alt]+[F4] the game. Because the game only saves the stuff you do in space, if you return to a station OR close the game regularly via the [Esc] menu.

The 7 days achievement does not require to finish all three missions per day. All you need is for the game to upload one score per day. The fastest way to do so is to actively fail the first mission. Like letting the assassination target flee, killing the capture/rescue target, or letting the enemy ship in a steal mission return to it's base without stealing the item.

Secrets, Miscellaneous & Online

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Well Done	Knock yourself out with a wrench you threw (Secret / Hidden Achievement)

Just grab a wrench - almost all enemies in "Easy" missions carry those around - approach and face a wall, throw it, and get hit by the rebound.
Arguably the easiest achievement in the game, once you know the actual requirement.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Cauldron of Stars	Start a new galaxy
	Billions Dead	Delete a Galaxy (Secret / Hidden Achievement)

Just open your menu, click on "Choose Galaxy", create one and delete it right afterwards. Done.
Don't worry, this will not void your current progress, as a Galaxy in this context is synonym to save slot, which you have 3 of.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Gold Text	Find a unique item
	Heirloom	Find an item that belonged to a Steam friend's character

Enter enemy ships and loot any chests you come across.
Both of them are entirely random, but they're going to happen eventually.

For "Heirloom", at least one of your steam friends needs to have a character retired, which left behind an item - which in turn requires, that said character accomplished "something impressive", like liberating a stronghold or successfully finishing the personal mission.
And you need online features to be enabled in the options.

Note, that both of these achievements become easier, if you're using a character with the "Lucky" trait.

Picture	Achievement	Description
	Coming Through	Rescue a friend's character
	Self Help	Rescue one of your own characters

Well, enter an enemy ship, trigger the alarm, and remain on the ship until the countdown reaches zero. Your character will now be captured, and a new character will spawn, with the personal mission to save the captured character - which you'll have to finish successfully.
They are easily noticable, because the the character's name will be written in green.

"Friend's character" refers to a captured character in a steam friend's game.

["Just call me Takeshi"]

I noticed some of my friends cannot access the friends' content.
If you have some problem, please read the topic below and leave a message,
because I have already reported the problem to the dev and introduced the topic.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/268130/discussions/0/4758704179146656703/?snr=#c4758704514231251711

["Just call me Takeshi"]

Here is the topic "Looking For Friends for Achievements".
https://steamcommunity.com/app/268130/discussions/0/3768986805989182510/

[asbecker]

Putting my name out there to try and get the friend-related achievements... I swear I have friends, they just aren't gamers lol ;)

["Just call me Takeshi"]

Somebody let's get the friend achievements!

[Ham is Good]

looking for achievements which need friends

[AKA_Bob_Bungler]

@Aristocratic_Suit i gotchu, add me!

[Hightower]

If anyone's willing to add me I'm looking to get those friend-required achievements :D

[Kluudge]

@Squery12 also added!

[Squery12]

Thank you!

[sead]

@Squery12 added!