Thief: The Metal Age Original Fan-Made Achievements

Just a bunch of fan-written achievements for fans of the original trilogy. I want to highlight that I tried to make them as authentic as possible, so consider them more like fan-fiction to try, rather than real challenges to do.

Prefix

Thief 2 and Thief 3 official arts collage by an unknown author

Just a small clarification how I ended up with this idea. Some time ago I decided to replay all Thief games and started with Thief 2014, which turned out to be a very weak reboot, but i still managed to do 100% achievement for Thief 2014. And then I thought, what would more or less interesting and authentic achievements look like for the original games. So, after I completed The Metal Age and thoroughly looked through the levels, I wrote this piece. Enjoy reading and tell me in the comments if you actually tried to do it. Also, below there are clarifying annotations on some of the achievements, that should help you.

Story-Related

Art by WhaleOil1[www.furaffinity.net]

These achievements will be automatically received during the playthrough

Friends first
You helped Basso to release Jenivere

Run!
You got into the Truart's Ambush

Old acquaintances
You met Victoria

Something's up
You received valuable information by kidnapping Cavador

Saving the world… Again!
You saved world by fooling a fanatic

Challenge-Related

Art by WhaleOil1[www.furaffinity.net]

These achievements require you to perform difficult moves throughout the game

Looking for gold
Finish at least 3 levels collecting all possible loot

Passers-by
Finish at least 3 levels without knocking out anyone (1)

One-Eyed Ghost
You finished a level without leaving any traces of your presence (2)

Observant Thief
You found all secrets on at least 3 levels (except levels with less than 2 secrets)

All ticked out
You completed all bonus and optional objectives

Strange beverages
You finished the game without drinking slow-fall or invisibility potions

City Mysteries
You found all secrets in the game

Experienced Thief
Finish the game on expert difficulty

Pacifist
Finish the game without killing anybody (3)

Nowhere to be found
Finish the game without being detected

Real Garrett
You finished the game on expert difficulty without being detected and killing anybody

Interaction-Related

Art by Tervola[www.deviantart.com]

These achievements require you to perform certain actions on certain levels

Outplayed
You knocked out a helmet-wearing guard using a gas arrow (4)

Bomberman and minesweeper
You deloused your own mine with a lockpick

It's a trap!
You made the guard step on the mine by exposing yourself (5)

Look at yourself
You destroyed a watcher while it was at yellow level alert (6)

Boiling water
You disabled 10 bots with the water arrows

Happily ever after…
You found a pair of rings for the newlywed

High Sailor
You found 3 bags of spice during Shipping and Receiving

Abhorrence to front doors
You entered the third floor by secret entrance in Framed

Helping the foe
You killed all hammerhaunts in the cathedral basement in Eavesdropping

Snatch!
You collected all possible loot in First City Bank and Trust

Settling the dispute
You reconciled with Truart by burying his body

Vengeance for innocent
You knocked out all mechanists in Trail of Blood... let the pagans choose their fate (7)

Cooling down the lads
You prevented the guards from fighting in Life of the Party (8)

Keeper sees the keeper
You found the keeper’s note in Life of the Party

Sea Treasures
You found the chest of Markham

Fast and Sneaky
You kidnapped Cavador before he entered his chambers

What's yours is mine
You stole both diamond drill and Cavador's diary in Kidnap

Ghost stories
You learned the truth about Giles and Lorna during first visit to Gervaisius

Just to be sure...
You activated all antennas in Sabotage at Soulforge

You're not Steeve, right?
You crafted all possible gear in Soulforge (9)

Can I quote this?
No, you can't!

City Night Fever
Stayin' Dead

Taffing Exploration
What do you need here?

Framatrix
You are now sure about the truth

Shadows Of The Metal Age

Official art for Thief Shadows Of The Metal Age

Because this fan-made campaign with the time became nearly a semi-official canon and always recommended to play along the original game, I decided why not to write some achievements for it too.

Story-Related

Unfortunate Visit
The city didn't really welcome you

Is he alive?!
You learned the truth about Kaedar

Fanatics make unreliable friends…
You avenged the betrayal

Challenge-Related

Peaceful
Finish at least 3 levels without killing anyone

Hidden Revealed
Find all secrets in the campaign

Clean hands
You didn’t kill anyone during the campaign

Foreign Ghost
You were not detected during the whole campaign (except the last level)

Expert Rookie
You finished the campaign on expert difficulty

Interaction-Related

Switch-off
You used 10 EMP grenades to disable machines

Power of nature
Use all kinds of alternated arrows at least once

Exam passed
You stole all loot from the museum

Future allies
Don't kill or knock out any hammerites in A Question Of Knowledge

Rest Already
You burned the remnants of Mausoleus

Spirit of Vengeance
You finished Into the Fray without being detected by either of the factions (10)

No negotiating with taffers
Knock out Finkle before he starts talking to you

Hot on the trail
You finished Betrayal under 10 minutes

Doorn
You failed the objective!

Clarifications

General:

All spoiler-covered achievements are supposed to be secret until receiving.

By knock-out I mean all the ways of making guards unconscious including blackjack, gas arrows and gas mines.

By being detecting I mean activating 3 level alert: the enemy sees you and tries to eliminate. This works for human and intelligent humanoid enemies only, so if you are detected by undead it doesn’t count.

Special:

(1) There are 2 levels which require no knock-outs on expert and they count too, so essentially you need to do only one of your choice.

(2) This includes: no knock outs, no torches put out, no moss arrows used, no level 1 alerts aka “thought I saw something...”

(3) Killing Lotus doesn't count.

(4) These guards get alerted with metal sound when hit with the blackjack.

(5) The guard should be level 3 alerted and chase you when they step on the mine.

(6) You should destroy the camera while it's identifying you and turrets aren't activated.

(7) There is one helmet-wearing mechanist in the end of the level, which you cannot knock out because of absence of gas arrows and mines, so consider that they do not count.


Art by Ogilac[www.deviantart.com]

(8) The conversation between those 4 guards must be triggered and all of them must stay alive by the end of the level.

(9) This includes both written and secret recipes apart from the very secret and illogical one.

(10) Essentially, you should not trigger any 3 level alerts.

I also didn’t specify exact actions for several achievements for the aesthetics and you to guess, but if you really want to know, here is the unraveling:

Can I quote this? – craft secret quote list in the last level.

City Night Fever – find secret dancing zombies.

Taffing Exploration - enter graveyard in Ambush!

Framatrix – get out of bounds. I won't specify the level where you can easily do it, but give small hint: you will need some boxes to climb on the bound fence

Doorn – get out of bounds in that campaign. I again won't specify the level, to make it more interesting for you, but the hint is: it is done from the building rooftop.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this piece of fiction. Tell in the comments what you think about it, you can even suggest your own fun and interesting achievements, which fit the game. And though it's obvious, I want to clarify one more time that I DO NOT OWN ANY RIGHTS on the images used in the guide and all regards go to their original authors. I used them to bring more people to original trilogy fan arts, which are now quite difficult to find, because google usually give you tons of arts on mediocre remake with few on the real series. Nevertheless, I didn't manage to find proper links for some of the fan artists, so you can send them in the comments, or if you are an actual author you can also leave your own comment with proper links - you guys rock!

Thanks for reading and remember to stay in shadows

Art by Barber216

[Luna O' Blue]

Personally, I do not think Thief is an immersive-sim. As you said, they give player the freedom to play their own way, however, in Thief the only real way to play is going fully stealth. Yes, you have a variety of ways to reach goals, but you're still going stealth only, unlike, Deus Ex, for example, where you have a freedom from being a silent non-leathal to an augmented one-man army.

As for the achievements, they do not make you play a certain way but rather "suggest" doing it. You are not obliged to follow them during your first playthrough, however, they can give you additional challenge or motivation to try something new on the subsequent one, increasing the replayability.

[Clarence]

I don't think achievements jive well with immersive sim design. Achievement demands player to play certain ways and it is most certain that a lot of players will play with the goal of getting them in mind. This is not good as immersive sims wants player to find they own solution their own way. Players might even do that at the price of their own enjoyment. I think Thief is better without them.

I think achievements works best when the problem the game present are not so open-ended

[Vitamin defincensy]

For games with no achievements I just prefer to do one-challenge runs instead of keeping a bunch of stuff like this in my head but the idea is great.