100% Achievements

SPOILERS -- guide to unlocking all achievements

Preface

NOTE: This guide will be written from my perspective as I have played through this game. Constructive feedback is welcome. Please leave me comments below if I made a mistake! Please be courteous.

This guide also contains spoilers for the game and the storyline. Do NOT read any further if you don't want to be spoiled.

Most of the achievements are very straight forward and require little guidance. Some are a little out of the way, so the point of this guide is to help you find what little pieces you may be missing.

Terraforming

These are achieved by completing the terraforming objectives given:

• Terraformer 1

Melt the poles

• Terraformer 2

Create an atmosphere by reaching 300 millibars of pressure

• Terraformer 3

Ecopoiesis - reach 0 degree Celsius, liquid water, and 1 millibar of O2

• Terraformer 4

Green Mars - Reach 120 millibars of O2

• Terraformer 5

Breathable Atmosphere - reduce CO2 below 5%, and keep O2 below 30%. Use N2 to reduce these other components.

NOTE: I was able to finish this with 5000 millibars of pressure, 5x that of Earth. It met the requirements and I got the achievement.

Special Projects

These are achieved by doing special projects.

• Nuke Mars!

Find the abandoned silo and then launch the Microsuns special project from orbit. Elya will walk you through how to do this. Hard to miss, but can be lost if the ice caps get melted without using this option. A Reflection will let you know if the time has passed.

• One Moon Too Many

Crash Deimos into Mars. Research this in the tech tree and then build the special project.

• Elevate Myself

Build a space elevator. This is generally simple to achieve, as it is necessary for the endgame. You can make multiple by redoing the Build Space Elevator special project.

• Magnetic Personality

To get Terraforming V, you will complete this achievement. Finish the Magnetic Dipole Shield special project.

• Shades Of Grey

Research the Black Polar Dust tech and launch the project. It is available ONLY in the early game and is easy to miss.

• Doom Importer

Like the others in this list, research the GhG Importing and do the special project that appears. It took my several ingame years for the shuttle to return and the achievement to pop.

Combat

The two combat achievements are achieved by following the story and defeating the enemy bases.

• Taste For Battle

After defending yourself from the first wave, search SA-1 for the enemy base and destroy it. This can be skipped if the polar ice caps melt first.

• Fight Club

Destroy the second base once it appears in the story.

Story-Based

Following the story will open these options, with a small branch at the end.

• Otherness

Bring humans to Mars! Hard to miss.

• Pushing the Limits

Expand into SA-9. This happens pretty quickly into the story.

• Glorified Cog

During the story, the ISA will force you into taking a cognitive test. Complete the test with any answer and this achievement will be given. During the test, the game runs in the background but you can't interact with it! Be prepared!

• Down The Rabbit Hole

Like the first cognitive test, this test will happen after the ISA says they need to test you. Answer the questions like a good bot and the achievement is yours.

• Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Learn about Carmine after the second cognitive test.

• Off The Hook

You will be informed that the ISA is going to use the killswitch on AMI and remove them. Carmine will contact you. I believe you receive the code automatically, but err on Carmine's side in case.

• Home is Where Your Code Is

Like Carmine, Zhen will reach out to you with a code to save AMI from the killswitch. I do not know how far into Zhen's search you need to be for this to happen. As before, I believe you receive this automatically.

• We Are Immortal

Survive the killswitch with one of the three methods.

-- Accepting the Killswitch Death (ISA ending)

• Bite the Carmine Dust

After accepting the killswitch (left option OR taking Zhen's option), you must take down Carmine. Defeat the base and the achievement is yours.

• Good Robot

Finish the terraforming and ISA will give you a new mission to work on! Roll credits. (These credits were overlayed with a slowly degrading AMI reflection, and I do not know if this was intentional or a bug.)

-- Use Zhen's Code (Martian Republic Ending)

• None Shall Pass

Zhen will give you a special project to build a defense grid around Mars. Complete it to get this achievement. This requires space elevators. I recommend building a lot of them.

• The Martian Republic

Sonna will talk about creating the Martian Republic, but in my game I could not get this achievement to fire properly. I assume that it is the end of this storyline.

-- Use Carmine's Code (Artificial Intelligence Ending)

• Just the Beginning

Merge with Carmine by using her code. !!You will lose control of your base and suddenly own another large base in another zone!!

• Give me liberty or give me death

Destroy your previous base and you will get this achievement.

I recommend that if you are going to choose this path, deconstruct all drone hives and drone factories. It makes the fight much easier.

• Reach For The Stars

Once you have destroyed your previous base, you desire to build seederships. Build 30 of them to complete this achievement. This requires space elevators. I recommend building a lot of them.

Research Outposts

These achievements are gotten by building research stations on top of special research areas. If the research spot is given to you by a person, then look in the bottom right hand corner: there will be an icon that you can click that will show you where this special research place is.

• The Land of Opportunity

Research the Opportunity's Rover's Site by placing a research station on it and letting the colonists research it (5.5W 2.4S altitude -0.7 km, SA-9)

• Red Bird is the Word

Zhen will contact you a bit into the story and give you coordinates. Research the Tõng Hóng Radar Station to get this (22W 50.8S altitude 1.7 km, SA-12)

• Two Are Better Than One

Zhen will give you a location in the middle of SA-7. This will be the Odyssey One Landing Site, though it will not say that until after you research it (113.9W 10.8S altitude 8.6km, SA-7)

• Skeletons in the Closet

Complete Zhen's research tasks, through the three pieces of the Colonie Asterion to receive this. The last place to go will be the Biomedical Facility, and once it has been researched, this will be yours.

To buy yourself time to research this before the killswitch, halt all terraforming/directives until you complete the researches. Alternatively, siding with the ISA or with the Martian Republic will allow you to research the places after the killswitch.

Siding with Carmine makes this achievement unachievable.

[Althis]

I havent played any of the DLC. This game does not interest me anymore so I have not explored anything.

[EffKay9]

Okay, just found out all by myself.
After some time you completed the "Home" quest, within 100 days, the game advise you reached the final goal and has a further "surprise" for you, after some days AMI will say that something has landed on the southern part of Mars and wants to investigate. The location is 54.8 S 116.9 O close to South west of Thaumasia Fossoe

[EffKay9]

how to get "Happy Ending" Achievement? Where is Dr Foster landing site?

[kevin]

the Home DLC brought 4 new archivements, all can be done by play through tekkie/isa ending if you finished the main story line and the additional task fast enough. 2 of them depending on it, the rest don't have a time limit.

[Včelí medvídek]

@Jedo - note I am quite slow player and spending time on lot of build up. But going through whole game from start to end took me about 35 hours. If you make save at killswitch you can than choose all 3 storyendings - this finale took me about 3 hours on max gamespeed. I did not get all achieves because I dont have Blue planet DLC that is required but otherwise everything can be doen in single run... hence <50 hours.

[Jedo]

How long is the game if you go for 100%? :o

[Althis]

Thanks for the notes! I haven't played since the game originally came out, so the guide may be out of date.

[Eclipse_Storm]

Just wanted to point out that, for the "Just The Beginning" achievement, you need to complete the story (it will pop right after "Reach For The Stars").
The achievement order in the guide kind of suggested that "Just The Beginning" would pop once you choose to use the Carmine code, but it won't.

Thank you for your guide, as it was very helpful :)

[Narretei]

for "The Martian Republic" to pop, you need to finish phase 5. maybe it was bugged before, worked for me now.

[RemoraDFC]

Opportunity Rover is located in Meridiani Planum at 2.4S 5.5W alt. -0.7 km
If playing Campaign, look to the West (left) of your starting position.
If you see the Schiaparelli Crater, keep going West about 4 Grid Squares.(medium grid squares)
If counting small grid sqares (max zoomed in), then it is 22 squares to the West of Schiaparelli Crater.