100% In-Depth Achievement Guide

A guide on every achievement in City of Beats with information on how to unlock each and every single one of them while providing bonus information such as personal character build, boss strategy, and preparation to tackle on the most difficult achievements.

Introduction

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Hi! You can call me Moldredd, I'll be your tour guide through the city. Welcome to my City of Beats Achievement guide!

This guide will cover all achievements in the game and will provide all the information you might need in order to unlock each and every single one of them. I'll try to be as precise, short, and straight of to the point.

With that said, this guide will not cover the bare basics of the game and will instead rely on the reader to have at least that basic knowledge. However, if it turns to be a hot topic I might write a introductory guide for the game, but only if enough interest is gathered, of course.

Now, let's begin!

Changelog

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11-21-2023

• Guide released.

Basic Information

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General Information

• Completion Time | 12-16 Hours
  
• Difficulty | 6/10
  
• Total Achievements | 19
  
• Offline Achievements | 19
  
• Online Achievements | 0
  
• Bugged Achievements | 0

Terminology

General

TP	Trait Points / Displayed as green blocks in menus, green orbs during encounters.
UP	Upgrade Points / Displayed as purple gears in menus, purple orbs during encounters.
CP	Currency Points / Displayed as yellow rings in menus, yellow orbs during encounters.

Combat

HP	Health Points. The amount of hits your character can take before getting destroyed.
NA	Your weapon's standard/normal attack.
SA	Your weapon's secondary/strong attack. While this attack is powerful, it generates heat. Use with caution.
SC	Stands for your ultimate, the Supercharge.
OH!	Stands for Overheat. You get overheated if you abuse your weapon's strong attacks without rhythm (This guide will cover this later in the more in-depth sections). During this state you cannot attack until the cooldown penalty completes.
AoE	Stands for Area of Effect, this term is commonly used for attacks that tend to cover a wide area.
DOT	Stands for Damage Over Time. The are currently two types of DOTs in the game, acid corrosion and burn.

Story Achievements

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Please refer the Boss Strategy section for information and demonstration on how to beat them and more.

Leave the City Heights	Beat the Zeitgeber's Plasma Shell.
	The Plasma Shell is the main boss of the City Heights and first main boss of the game. Beating it unlock the achievement.

Leave the Flooded District	Beat the Zeitgeber's Acid Shell.
	The Acid Shell is the main boss of the Flooded District and second main boss of the game. Beating it unlock the achievement.

Leave the Desert Outskirts	Beat the Zeitgeber's Fire Shell.
	The Fire Shell is the main boss of the Desert Outskirts, third and final main boss of the game. Beating it unlock the achievement.

Weapon Achievements

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Repeater Expert	Finish an expedition with the Repeater weapon.
	The Repeater is the starting weapon of the game and will be available right away. For this achievement you need to complete a full expedition with the Repeater. That means beating the City Heights, Flooded District, and the Desert Outskirts in a one go. The achievement will unlock as soon as you leave for the hub in your cab after beating the Fire Shell.

Lightning Bow Expert

Finish an expedition with the Lightning Bow weapon.

The Lightning Bow is unlocked by beating the mini boss located in the City Heights. After that it can be purchased from Sub-Woof-R. For this achievement you need to complete a full expedition with the Lightning Bow. That means beating the City Heights, Flooded District, and the Desert Outskirts in a one go. The achievement will unlock as soon as you leave for the hub in your cab after beating the Fire Shell.

Acid Linkgun Expert

Finish an expedition with the Acid Linkgun weapon.

The Acid Linkgun is unlocked by beating the mini boss located in the Flooded District. After that it can be purchased from Sub-Woof-R. For this achievement you need to complete a full expedition with the Acid Linkgun. That means beating the City Heights, Flooded District, and the Desert Outskirts in a one go. The achievement will unlock as soon as you leave for the hub in your cab after beating the Fire Shell.

Blazemaker Expert

Finish an expedition with the Blazemaker weapon.

The Blazemaker is unlocked by beating the mini boss located in the Desert Outskirts. After that it can be purchased from Sub-Woof-R. For this achievement you need to complete a full expedition with the Blazemaker. That means beating the City Heights, Flooded District, and the Desert Outskirts in a one go. The achievement will unlock as soon as you leave for the hub in your cab after beating the Fire Shell.

Upgrade Achievements

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Jack Of All Trades	Put at least one point into each trait.
	Self explanatory. For this one you need to allocate at least one TP on each and every one of the trait categories.

OP Gaming	Level three traits to their maximum.
	Self explanatory. For this one you need to max out three of the trait categories. However, in order to do so you need to beat Challenge 4 which will increase the trait balance limit to 5,000. From there you will need a total of 4,545 TP in order to max out the categories.

Extension Hoarder	Buy all extensions.
	Self explanatory. For this one you need unlock and buy all extension upgrades. With that being said, in order to unlock all 12 you will have to beat a full expedition and will need to total of 480 UP in order to purchase the level 1 version of each for the achievement to unlock.

I'm Rich, You Know?

Fully upgrade all extensions.

Self explanatory. For this one you need to max out all extensions. Each extension have 4 upgrade levels. Max out all 12 and the achievement will pop. To speed up the process I suggest getting UP from Exchange encounters, beating mini bosses and having the Bounty Hunter extension active in order to boost main bosses drops. Lastly, the challenges also boost your UP drops but keep in mind it will make your runs significantly harder.

Hardest Achievements

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Just Don't Get Hit

Finish an expedition at maximum hit points.

This achievement requires completing a full expedition with full health bar (hit points). With that being said, don't let the achievement description mislead you, you can get hit as long as you go into the final boss with a full health bar. From there you need to defeat it without getting hit. For this achievement please refer to the in-depth sections below as I will go into details on how to prepare yourself for this task and/or information how to beat the bosses. This is the second hardest achievement in City of Beats.

Frugal Fighter	Finish an expedition without any traits or extensions active.
	Self explanatory. This achievement requires you to beat a full expedition without any trait point assigned and with no extensions active/equipped. Getting upgrades from expedition encounters are fair game and will not void the achievement. This is the hardest achievement in City of Beats.

A Little Challenge

Beat the first challenge mode expedition.

After beating the game (Expedition) you will unlock the End Game of City of Beats. This consists of challenge based expeditions. These runs will test you to your skill limits and all matter of negative modifiers will be placed on you. On the other hand, rewards are also upped should you manage to beat them. For this achievement simply beat Challenge 1 which shouldn't be too difficult as the only handicaps are a giant damaging circle spawning on the floor at intervals and your cab broken scanner which makes all encounter unknown. The achievement will unlock as soon as you leave for the hub after beating Fire Shell.

Big Challenge	Beat the final challenge mode expedition.
	The big one, the one above all, the ultimate City of Beats test, Challenge 8. This one will test your skills to the limit. For information and tip/hints on how to prepare yourself for the task, make sure to refer to the in-depth sections in this guide. This is the third hardest achievement in City of Beats.

Secret Achievements

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There's a total of 4 hidden achievements in the game.

Total Disappointment	Disappoint A-TIM.
	During expeditions you will encounter Repair Bays, they are easily spotted by their + symbol. For this achievement you just need to select the last option (Leaving the A-TIM profoundly disappointed).

Didn't See That Coming	Get destroyed at the Beacon.
	Story-related. When you beat any of the mayor bosses for the first time and return to the hub you will find Barry (that lovely dude to the left) next to Sub-Woof-R. Simply talk to him to get a present, unlocking the achievement in the process. Such a nice guy!

Useless Achievement	Finish an expedition with a useless upgrade.
	During expeditions, after an encounter you will occasionally find useless upgrades that gives nothing. Simply pick at least one and finish the whole expedition afterwards. For most this might seem obvious and will try to gather as much useless upgrades in waits of something to happen, so this one is not too hard figure, just don't hoard, simply pick one.

You Cannot Pet The Ball	Learn more about the mysterious ball at the Beacon.
	The Ball is unlocked by completing Challenge #?. For this achievement you need to beat Challenge 8 in order to enable the dialog option to pet the ball, from there talk to it and the achievement will unlock after you ask to pet it and instead are denied.

Build and Setup

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*The rest of this guide information regarding the bosses and challenge runs will be covered using the Lightning Bow

Preferred weapons

• Lightning Bow (Must have Upgrades: Twin Shot | Dark Hole)
  
• Acid Linkgun

Trait Distribution

• Hit Points: Max
  
• Damage Output: Max
  
• Supercharge Duration: 10
  
• Critical Hit Chance: 10
  
• Barrier Duration: Max
  
• Heat Reduction: 10
  
• Orb Attraction: 6
  
• Block Chance: 10

Active Extensions

• Repair Module
  
• Reward Recycling
  
• Repair Bay Subscription
  
• Bounty Hunter
  
• Hotfix

Active Extensions in Detail

These extension configuration will ensure you get as most sustain as possible in order to be able to deal with those difficult and unavoidable encounters and be able to get all the way to the finish of the expedition.

Repair Module
Sometimes elite encounter aren't avoidable and usually result in getting hit. For that reason this extension will ensure you sustain when finishing the encounter. What makes things better is that sometimes elite encounters will reward you with a common (white) reward for you to shoot and heal out of it with the Reward Recycling, giving you 68 HP back.

Reward Recycling
What makes this extension extremely valuable is the fact that most encounters will reward you a common (white) reward. Without mentioning TP and CP encounters are a guaranteed heal when you need it, as TP and CP rewards are common. Lastly, the awesome glitch sound that plays when the modules are destroyed.

Repair Bay Subscription
This extension will significantly boost your healing from Repair Services encounters, should you need it. It also provides crucial healing options at the bay for those challenge expeditions you lose CP when getting hit (Challenge 5 and 8).

The extra options are:

• City Heights - Orb Converter (Picked TP orbs during the next 3 encounters give you 3HP each)
  
• Flooded District - Supercharge Converter (A percent amount of your SC is converted to HP)
  
• Desert Outskirts - CP Converter (CP you spend on your next shop visit is converted to HP (Not that useful during Challenge 5 and 8 as you will probably not have much throughout the runs))

Bounty Hunter
Self explanatory. The reward you get by destroying a shell (main boss) will be significantly boosted in UP and HP.

Hotfix
Self explanatory. An extra life should you get destroyed the first time.

Boss Strategy | City Heights

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Ultradian Bombarder

This boss has 3 seamless stages. The only thing that changes with each stage is the type of enemies that spawn to protect it.

To beat this boss you must wait till it's shield goes down, it happens in intervals of 4. When the shield is down, fire two SA's at it with some NA's. Rinse and repeat until it is destroyed.

https://youtu.be/J4cvsmUQehc?si=CIksaMeWb0nbBCjo

Zeitgeber's Plasma Shell

This is the main boss of the City Heights. This boss has 5 stages, 2 invulnerable ones.

Stage 1

During this stage, the boss will shoot multiple moving laser lines that you need to dash over in order to avoid getting hit. This while spawning small ranged enemies.

When the lasers stop moving is when you need to shoot 2 SA's at it.

Stage 2 (Invulnerable)

Minion stage. Simply destroy all enemies thrown at you.

Stage 3

During this stage the boss will try to squash you while spawning 2 bomber minions during attacks, simply bait it to where you need it to land. When it is about to land, shoot 2 SA's at it while avoid the small bomber minions. If you are having difficulties timing your attacks, pay attention to the big Circle indicator on the floor, when the inner circle is about to fill the outer one is when it is gonna land.

Stage 4 (Invulnerable)

Minion stage. I suggest using your SC at the start of this stage in order to destroy most enemies before they overwhelm you.

Stage 5

During this stage, the boss will start shielding itself in intervals of 3 attacks while spawning AoE and bomber minions. Time it's attacks with the music and when the shield is down, shoot two SA's at it.

https://youtu.be/AVh8zGVWvKc?si=bDpghNWbHw6riZrc

Boss Strategy | Flooded District

Circadian Turret

This boss has 3 stages, you will know you are starting a stage when it shields itself momentarily. All 3 stages are practically the same except for the type of enemies that spawn during it. Stage 1 will spawn a small amount of ranged/close enemies, stage 2 will spawn nuclear AoE enemies and ranged ones, stage 3 will spawn all kinds of enemies at you.

https://youtu.be/a2z6P8wDdPA?si=T6_vinhp3DPk0Z0d

Zeitgeber's Acid Shell

The Acid Shell is the main boss of the Flooded District. It has 5 stages, 2 invulnerable ones.

Stage 1

During this stage the boss will shoot some homing attacks at you while nuking the sides and spawning a single close range minion at you.

For this stage stay at your starting location and move/dash side to side to avoid/dissipate the homing attacks, while shooting 2 SA's at it in rhythms, this will ensure you will do a lot of damage to it while killing the close range minion and dissipating most of the homing attacks your Black Holes don't swallow.

Stage 2 (Invulnerable)

Minion stage. Kill'em all.

Stage 3

During this stage the boss will cover the screen with straight shot attacks that look like the homing attacks in stage 1 with the exception these don't track you and can be reflected back at the boss. Also will be nuking the sides with AoE's and spawn one nuking minion and a ranged AoE bomber in intervals.

During this stage, get the right/left side of your starting locations and deal with the minions and the straight shots. having the Lightning Bow Black Hole at this time will be extremely useful to kill minions and swallow the boss attacks while inflicting damage to it.

Stage 4 (Invulnerable)

Minion stage with trap floor. Survive and kill'em all.

Stage 5

This stage starts as soon as the music shifts from last stage. During this stage the boss will start to teleport from the far left and far right of the screen in intervals. This while AoE nuking a big portion of the battlefield with a laser attack and throwing all type of minions at you, with the exception of the red AoE nuking ones from stage 3.

This is when you use your SC in order to clean the battlefield and inflict a lot of damage to the boss before you get collapsed on.

https://youtu.be/3u1mdbfEGUs?si=uKULyNsQMnwdDSu3

Boss Strategy | Desert Outskirts

Infradian Beamer

This boss has 3 stages, the differences between stages is the boss location (Left or top side of the battlefield) and the amount of lasers it shoots at your and the types of minions it throws at you. For this boss, I tend to stay close to it while dashing through its lasers while clearing the battlefield of minion.

Stage 1 (Left side, one straight laser)

During this stage the boss will be throwing some range minions at you while going up and down tying to fry you.

Stage 2 (Top side, two diagonal lasers)

During this stage the boss will be moving from left to right while trying to fry you. During this stage more types of minions (ranged/trapper) will be thrown at you.

It is possible to stay at a distance from the boss while being able to avoid the lasers, although it might prove difficult if you let yourself be cornered/trapped by the minions.

Stage 3 (Left side, three diagonal lasers)

In this stage the boss will throw everything it has at you. For this stage I strongly recommend staying at the left corner of the stage, right in the boss' face in order to make dashing through the lasers as simple as possible.

Don't let yourself be cornered/trapped while inflicting damage to the boss.

https://youtu.be/qBmLnZRYbTk?si=QIFxbRaHme7iZxRa

Zeitgeber's Fire Shell

This is the Desert Outskirts' main boss, the third and final boss of the game.

The Fire Shell has 6 stages, 2 invulnerable ones.

Stage 1

This stage is tricky because you need to stay at an area for as long as you can in order to avoid the AoE flames to engulf the whole platform, while fighting ranged minions.

Each boss attack bounces 3 times, you need to stick as close as you can from the previous bounce in order to keep the AoE as controlled as possible while order ones dissipate over time.

The boss' shield drops each 4 seconds so use that in your favor to gather shield points and inflict serious damage.

Stage 2 (Invulnerable)

Minion stage. You get teleported to space but as usual, just kill them as soon as possible.

Stage 3

In this stage all three Zeitgeber's Shells will face you at once. The Plasma will be a massive rotating laser, the Acid will serves as a burst turret shots that can be deflected back to it, and the Fire Shell will bring more balls to engulf an area in flames for a limited time. All that while a close range minions usually spawn to attack you.

If you chose the shield option in the Exchange Shop then you will have plenty of access to shield points during this stage as all three Shells drop their shields when attacking.

This stage choreographed and very in sync with the music so, you must learn the Beat!

Stage 4 (Invulnerable)

A very intense minion wave. All types of minions from all three mayor areas will be thrown at you at once.

For this stage I recommend using your SC in order to dispatch the enemy as soon as possible.

Stage 5

The shotgun stage. The Fire Shell will drop it's shield and will attack you with spread attacks while throwing 1 ranged minions (at a time) at you. I suggest memorizing the Beat as the attacks are synced with it.

Stage 6

Final stage of Fire Shell. During this stage the boss will be rolling spawning minions and teleporting from side to side before teleporting to the middle and spawning ranged and 3 red AoE nuking minions at you. At this stage you should have or be close to having SC, if you do, activate when it is about to show in the middle to inflict serious damage. Stay in the bottom platform during this part to avoid the explosions from the side nukers while inflicting damage. Position your self in a angle where you can take both the ranged minion and the center red nuker while inflicting damage.

Rinse and repeat until the run is yours.

https://youtu.be/NwOSHAAAFZ8?si=s9VvyhdJx0k_TBSU

General Tips/Hints for the Hardest Achievements and Challenges

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This section contains useful tips in order to be able to beat the most challenging runs in City of Beats.

Learn the Beat

Each encounter is sync with the music. Learn the music in order to know what to expect and when you are attacking or getting attacked.

Learning to expect and time enemy channeled attacks

If you find yourself incapable of figuring out the timing of certain channeled attacks then there's two ways to do so, by learning the Beat and by looking at the floor. When the inner red circle is about to fill the outer one is when you dash. This is well thought from the devs and I assume is there to assist handicapped players. Thank you for that, devs!

Learn your Weapon Rhythm

There's a limit where you can use your SA before getting OH! Learn the rhythm in order to be able to constantly use your SA without getting OH!

For this guide I'm using the Lightning Bow so the two main rhythm I mostly use without Heat Reduction and my current Trait Distribution are:

• Standard - NA, NA, SA, NA, NA, SA, etc.
  
• Strong - SA, SA, NA, NA, NA, etc. (Will ensure your second SA goes heated (red) if you have bonus damage traits for when are heating up, but if done correctly, will never OH!)

Don't take unnecessary risks when routing

If you aren't confident of a certain encounter/route/mini-boss then don't take them. Losing HP with minimal gains is never worth it, specially during the hardest runs. Your resource management is crucial and should be checked at all cost. The mini-bosses' rewards, while really good, aren't necessary to beat the runs.

Desert Outskirts' Black Market

As tempting as the defense and damage output during SC are, never pick them over the shield option for the following reasons:

• The shield option costs the least amount of HP and the more HP you have, the better the chances against the final boss.
  
• The shield option will offer the most protection during the fight as you will be constantly shielding from the shell constantly dropping it's shield throughout the fight. This will help not just from the boss but the rest of the minions as well.
  
• The defense option only protects you from the boss and not the minions and both minions phases during that fight are intense.
  
• The damage option is very limited as you will only just have a few chances to SC throughout the fight.

Don't be discouraged to end your run prematurely if things aren't going according to plan

If you happen to have a rough start and/or the RNG gods aren't in your favor then end the run and start over again. Losing 7-10 minutes isn't the same as going against the final boss with low HP and/or ill-equipped after 20 or so minutes.

Take a break if needed

The game can get really tough during some encounters in the hardest runs. If you find yourself frustrated and/or mentally drained, take a break to fresh out. There's no point in keep in up if you are not feeling it. Rest.

Conclusion

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If you reached this section of the guide then that means the tour is over. With that being said, I thank you for taking the time and visiting and sincerely hope I was able to help you in your journey through the City of Beats.

Lastly, this guide will be updated constantly to ensure it's content meets quality standards. For that reason, if you have found any kind of errors of any kind, please be sure to let me know in the comments sections to ensure this guide keeps helping those in need.

Once again, I thank you for your time and interest and wish you good fortune in your future and upcoming journeys.

Huzzah!

[Moldredd]

My pleasure.

I'd like to thank you as well for bringing us this lovely gem.

[kaitorched]

Great guide, thanks so much for taking the time to create it! <3