Despotism 3k - 100% Achievement Guide

100% Achievement Guide for Despotism 3k. This is my attempt to create a comprehensive guide for Despotism 3k, since no one else tried to make one.

Introduction

Despotism 3k is a rougelike resource management sim. You are an evil AI enslaving humans in order to generate power, food, and more humans. The game has 2 campaigns and Endless mode. At the end of each day you get random events, that can grant buffs or debuffs, depending on your luck and choices.

TL,DR; for Achievement Hunters:

Warning! This game has many RNG elements, so attempts to 100% it in an orderly and efficient manner may be extremely infuriating.

• Achievements in game: 30
  
• Online achievements: 0
  
• Glitched Achievements: 0
  
• Estimated Achievement Difficulty: 8/10 (RNG elements and very hard Hardcore mode)
  
• Approximate amount of time to 100%: 40-50 hours (mostly because of RNG elements)

Chips requirements

Many achievements get significantly easier, if you're using the right chip. Therefore, below is list of all chips with requirements how to obtain them.

• CLASSICS - Basic starting chip. You get it from the start.
  
• HARDCORE - Harder challenge. Finish first campaign to unlock.
  
• EASY - NEVER USE IT! It disables achievements. You get it after losing 10 times.
  
• JARRING POWER - You don't get additional storage each day. Instead, you increase storage by a Matrix-like human battery system. To unlock, choose options 2-1 in Partner in conversation event.
  
• SMALL PLANET - Days are half shorter (10 seconds instead of 20). To unlock, choose option 2 in EventName event.
  
• MUTANTS - You start with all humans as conjoined mutants and giant mutant baby. To unlock it, you need to get those three events (it can happen in separate runs):
  Baby - Choose option 1.
  Wrong Settings - Choose option 2. (Conjoined twins)
  Biter - Choose option 2 and then 2 again (Zombies)
  
• RNJESUS - Half of humans can teleport. To unlock, survive for 3 days with teleporting humans. They can't be from Hole event, and they can't all die.
  
• ONE-ARMED BANDIT - You start with one arm. It unlocks after getting Enough for me! achievement.
  
• CULT - You start with 4 tentacles, 10 ghosts in wheel and permanent Heatwave. To get it, you must strike a deal with Cthulhu in The Old One event.
  
• NO COUNTRY FOR WEAKLINGS - My personal favorite. Weakest humans go first to bioreactor.
  
• CHIP OF BOREDOM - No random events. Unlocks after all other chips are available.

Survival achievements

These are the achievements that you get after surviving set amount of days or finishing campaign (survive 25 days). In this section, I also placed achievements that require you to win* with special conditions.
*check "Almost There!" achievement description carefully.

There is an event that shortens each day by one phase, that may be helpful. After you encounter it, you may also choose "Small planet Chip", that shortens days from the start.
For me, the best one to play was No Country for Weaklings chip.
Not many tips other than that, just play the game until you get it.


You Did It!
Survive for 6 days


You'll Go Far!
Survive for 14 days


Very Decent!
Survive for 20 days


Masterful!
Finish the campaign

Survive for 25 days


Hardcore Henry!
Finish the first campaign with the "Hardcore" chip

To unlock Hardcore Chip, you need to finish the campaign at least once. It's impossible to win in this mode without some lucky events at the beginning. Especially Satan event seams to be crucial for successful attempt. Be sure to always choose the best possible option in events and keep your fingers crossed...


The Champion!
Finish the second campaign


Top 1
Finish the campaign while always choosing the first answer in dialogues


Almost There!


Secret Achievement. You need to lose on the last day (24-th day of campaign)

Grind achievements

These are achievements that require a fair amount of grind and/or time.


Worker of the Month!
Produce 3000 power


Worker of the Year!
Produce 36,000 power

For both "Worker" achievements, you don't need to produce it in a single run. Kudos to Geoluread and SrPilha for verifying this.


Genocide!
Kill 1000 puny humans throughout the game


Maximum Genocide!
Kill 10,000 puny humans throughout the game

For both "Genocide" achievements, you don't need to kill them in a single run. Kudos to Geoluread and SrPilha for verifying this.


TryHard!


Secret achievement. You need to lose 100 times.


Super Munchkin!
Try every dialogue option in the game. Only from first campaign!

This one will take A LOT of time. However, devs made it easier for us to keep track of our choices:


On the left side of each option there is a little bulb. If it's yellow (like bottom one on screenshot) - you already choose this one in previous run.

As noted by Geoluread in the comments, some random events only appear in the second campaign and endless mode. Since you need story events from the first campaign only, I recommend getting as many random ones as possible, while working for all the story events in the first campaign, and then switching to endless mode to finish the rest.

I'll refer you to other guides by angeleyes27 and Malibloo for details about particular events.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1763205596
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1570603536

"Get to Day X with Y" achievements

In this section I have put all achievements that require specific behavior for set amount of days. In general, I suggest trying each as a separate run. Sorted from quickest to longest.


What Is This?
Don’t use a facility for two days straight

It does not specify the facility, but for me the easiest way was just not using bioreactor from start until the end of day 2.


Happy Farm!
Breed 30 humans before Day 2 ends

Description is misleading. You need to HAVE 30 puny humans before Day 2 ends. That means you need at least two Storage upgrades (to get 30 humans capacity). I also recommend upgrading breeding tube twice.


Human Bean Soup!
Get to Day 6 without improving the Power Generator

As description suggests - invest in 2-3 upgrades of breeding tube and drop all excessive puny humans into bioreactor. No Country for Weaklings chip is optimal for this.


Paranoid
Reach day 6 while never having less than 50% power

Small planet chip makes it a lot easier. Aside from that, just play it safe and be sure that buying upgrades won't drop you below the 50% threshold.


Enough for Me!
Get to Day 10 without buying new arms

Use max breeding strategy. Don't even try managing facilities - you'll need both those arms constantly dropping humans into bioreactor. Events increasing stamina help a lot.


Provider!
Get to Day 14 without losing a single puny human to starvation

I don't have any specific strategy for this one. Just make sure your Food Generator is up-to-date and fully staffed - that should be enough.

Collector achievement

Collector!
Encounter all modifiers

This is one of the most tedious achievements in game. You need to encounter and get all "classic" (from first campaign) buffs and debuffs listed below (thanks to courtesy of sthabel, who posted it on discussion page). You need to get buff/debuff - choosing option that don't give modifier doesn't count.

• A Box
  
• A GAT!
  
• Baby
  
• Battery Fluid
  
• Biter
  
• Brass Monkey Weather
  
• BTTF
  
• Circus
  
• Computation Failure
  
• Doc Ock
  
• Escape
  
• EventName
  
• Existentialism
  
• Feral Quadcopter
  
• Food Generator Calibration (Recipe)
  
• Food Generator Calibration (Butts)
  
• Glitches
  
• Gotta Go Fast!
  
• Heat Wave
  
• Hope Generator
  
• Hunger Strike
  
• I hate this game
  
• Infection
  
• Michael
  
• Mouse
  
• Neoh's Revolution
  
• Oh Jah
  
• Old Man
  
• Optimization
  
• Partner in Conversation
  
• Pipe
  
• Power Leak
  
• Puzzle
  
• Rebel
  
• Replicant
  
• Shar-Pei!
  
• shredder
  
• Smarty Pants
  
• Spy
  
• Strange Disease
  
• Stuck
  
• Superconductors
  
• The Old One
  
• Tree
  
• TV
  
• Twins
  
• Ubermensch
  
• UTF-8-BOM
  
• Unhygienic Conditions
  
• Vaccine
  
• Virus
  
• Wrong Settings

Miscellaneous achievements

In this section I have put rest of achievements, that don't fit in other sections.


Last second save!
Save a puny human a second before they perish from exhaustion

You need to click -1 button right before a human in facility dies from exhaustion. May take few tries.


Multicooker
Dissolve 20 people in the Bioreactor simultaneously

Best bet - wait for meeting GLaDOS event (Puzzle) and get Portal Gun. After that, you just need to drop 20 puny humans at once. Michael event also helps (humans take longer to dissolve in bioreactor).


Menagerie!
Breed fat conjoined zombies

There are 2 ways to do it: Hard, and Easy(ier):

HARD - You need 3 events to happen in one run:

• Wrong Settings - Choose option 2. (Conjoined twins)
  
• Biter - Choose option 2 and then 2 again (Zombies)
  
• Virus - Choose option one (Cyber-Zombies - not sure if that one works, but they get the same stats)
  
• Food Generator Calibration - When it asks for new recipe, choose option 1 or 2. (Fat humans)

EASIER - You need to obtain Mutants Chip (see Chips section). Then you can start the game with conjoined cyber-zombies - so you just need to get Food Generator Calibration event. I recommend endless mode for this one.


Swiss Army Knife!
Control all types of mechanical arms simultaneously

Another misleading description. You need to have at least one tentacle, Doc Ock octopus arms AND GLaDOS Portal Gun in addition to normal mechanical claws.

• For tentacles, you need to sacrifice puny humans (any amount) in The Old One (Cthulhu) event. Choose 1 and then 2.
  
• For Doc Ock arms, you need to choose 2-2-1 in his event.
  
• For GLaDOS Portal Gun, you need to solve the riddle in Puzzle event.

After the first encounter with Cthulhu, you can start the game with Cult chip, that gives you tentacles from the start, but I recommend Endless mode and standard Chip for that one.


Continuous Production
Have humans splattered over all possible facilities simultaneously

You need to get debuff from crushed puny human on all facilities with following events in one run:

• Power generator - Gota go fast - Choose option 1 or 3
  
• Breeding tube - Pipe - Choose option 1
  
• Food generator - Stuck - Choose option 1 or 3.
  
• Bioreactor - Michael - To the Bioreactor! (all options end same way).

As with other "collect buffs" achievements, I recommend trying this in endless mode.


Hunger!
Have more than half your puny humans starve at once

Secret achievement. Quite easy - key is to be on verge of starvation, and then stop generating food. So, if next cycle will consume 30 food, have 31 and then stop food production.


So Lonely!
Lose the game with one human left

Secret achievement. Right after start, drop 4 humans into bioreactor. Wait until energy runs out. That's it.


Pacifist!


Secret achievement. Just wait until energy runs out and lose without single puny human dying.


Revolution!


Secret achievement. Revolution happens after Neoh's Revolution event. All facilities stop working, and you're supposed to throw X number of puny humans to bioreactor. Instead, wait until you run out of energy.

[Ⱥngēłッ]

After 1 year I published translate of this guide
Unfortunately, I forgot about it, although 70% was ready in the first week. I just got lazy. I apologize to the author of the original. In the next 2 days I plan to finish it. I'm sorry again.

[Mouflon_TA]

Sorry, it was a mental shortcut. You don't have time and arms to manage tired humans - it's better to let them die in facilities and replace with new ones. You need to proritize breeding tube, and constantly drop excesive humans into bioreactor.

[Dathuil]

What is the max breeding strategy? I don't see it mentioned anywhere else?

[kapekkapusniak]

God bless you for this walkthrough. I was almost going to give up on this game until I came here. Using Chips made difference in my life :D

[Mouflon_TA]

Hey, I'm glad that it worked the second time I guess that "mutant" modifier overrides "zombie" modifier. Did you check for changes in modifiers list in upper menu? If, after getting mutant modifier, the zombie one disappeared, that would confirm it.

[antoid owo]

EDIT: i did another endless run while avoiding any unnecessary human modifiers, got the recipe event and it worked :)

[antoid owo]

hey, great guide, it's real nice to go through :)
i was playing endless mode with the mutants chip and got the recipe event for menagerie but it didn't pop! i got the mutant event earlier in the run, so i'm not sure if it has to exclusively be those three buffs/debuffs to count. Oh well!

[ObviouslyN0tMe]

just did the enough for me achievement with the cult chip, which was quite easy cause you get 4 tentacles from the start, maybe eaiser than with the no countryy for weaklings chips

[Mouflon_TA]

Hey, I'm glad it helped you.
Thank you for the feedback. I will include it in the guide. In particular, what you discovered regarding "Super Munchkin!" is important. I recommended playing the first campaign, so the pool of potential events would be smaller, but if all of them are needed, then endless is in fact more optimal.

[Geoluread]

Thanks for the great guide, this helped me a lot for my playthrough. For "Super Munchkin!", I think "only from first campaign" just refers to the story events. The events "A Find" and "Delivery Service" only appeared during the second campaign or endless for me, but Delivery Service was what got me the achievement. If these events truly do not appear in the first campaign, then endless is better so that if you're searching for a specific event, you are more likely to find it the longer you go. I also used speed up and small planet chip, but maybe this is common sense. For hardmode, an easy tip to give is to wait to click on events until the timer hits 1 to squeeze as much energy as possible. Many more attempts get off the ground this way. I can also verify that "Maximum Genocide" does not require the kills to be during a single run.