100% Achievement Guide: How 2 Survive

This game is fun, but very flawed. King among flaws is the single save slot situation. I highly suggest you backup your save file every-so-often as you play.

The save file is located in steam/userdata/[your numerical id]/250400.

I would just copy and paste the 250400 folder periodically and rename it something so you remember what stage of the game you're on. I personally had my save file wiped when I synchronized my game with a friend's; also playing the DLC you need some limited-spawn items for the monkey quests (i.e.: red stone, golden chalice) and if you somehow can't get any of those on your save file, then you would have to start the game all over to get those achievements. So do yourself a favor and back it up just in case.

Based on my personal experience and reports from others, it seems that currently certain achievements may not unlock for you if you playing as player 2 in somebody else's game. That is to say, some achievements may require you to be the host of the game to unlock. However it appears that all of the achievements reported which fall into this category are the type that can still be unlocked by loading an end game save and doing a little achievement farming. Still, it is something you should be aware of.

Discoverer I - story progression achievement. No need to worry about it. Discoverer II- story progression achievement. No need to worry about it. Discoverer III - story progression achievement. No need to worry about it.

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Dead... Again (Achieve your first instant kill on a zombie.): As you damage the zombies of the island, you will notice button cues pop up from time to time. Press the button to perform an instant kill. Level Up (Unlock your first skill.): Can't miss this, you will need to make a fire to progress the story early on.

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Easy Survival (Complete the story mode in "Normal" difficulty.) Unbreakable (Complete the story mode in "Iron man" difficulty.): This should stack with Easy Survival if you want to knock them both out in one playthrough. If you play normal first you will lose all your items when you start iron mode. However, it has been reported you could give items from your first playthrough to a friend or another character in 2 player mode. Then start up iron mode in 2 player mode and get the items back, reach a checkpoint, and then you should be able to carry your items over.

Note: Some plants and monkeys are unavailable until you get the ability to destroy barricades. Pretty late into the game there is a point where you need to backtrack to all the islands to collect packages, this provides a good opportunity to finish up these quests while you are running around.

Pickey Monkeys (Complete the 12 secondary quests of Kovac's monkeys.) - There are already two great Steam Community guides for the Monkey Quests- with map locations and in game pictures to help you find all the tricky objects.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=191562781
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=189769693 Herbalist (Find the 20 special plants of the Herbarium.) - There is already a great Steam Community guide with map locations of all the plants.
Remember: Some of them require you to destroy bushes and go into tiny, "secret" areas to collect.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=189725831

All credit for the content in the linked community guides goes to the respective creators of said guides. I merely linked them here for convenience.

Four Handed Massacre (Complete a local or online challenge with another player.): I suggest you play the challenges in co-op mode anyway, because they are significantly more fun with a friend, so this should come easy. Survival Veteran (Reach "Survival hobbyist" ranking tag (Challenge mode)): I suggest you aim for this first when playing challenge mode, as you may unlock some of the other challenge mode achievements as you go. Play each challenge and try to get a personal score over 2500 for each one. You need a personal score of 20,000 global points for this. If you are playing with a friend be sure to notice that the total score is your combined score, and as such you will need a combined score of 40,000 points to get this. It is easy to score way more than 2500 points per challenge, so you can likely get this without having to do the last one or two challenges. Perfect Run (Complete a challenge with a "S" ranking.): If you didn't get any S ranks by the time you got Survival Veteran, I suggest obtaining this in Challenge 3. You get free weapons at the start. Open the safehouse to get the items needed and quickly move to the seaplane by the dock. Hold position at the end of the dock as the zombies run right into your meat grinder. Aim for headshots, keep accuracy up. Don't take damage. Kill as many zombies as you can. Wait for night to come and pass and by daybreak you should be able to start the plane and get an S ranking. If you aren't getting an S ranking, try staying on the dock a little later into the 2nd day compiling kills. But try to get out in less than 14 minutes.

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Pharmacofobia(Complete a challenge in NORMAL difficulty without using medicinal plants nor medikits.) Winners don't use drugs (Complete a challenge in IRON MAN difficulty without using medicinal plants nor medikits.) The weasel (Complete a challenge in NORMAL difficulty without losing health.) Untouchable (Complete a challenge in IRON MAN difficulty without losing health.)

All four of these achievements can be done on Challenge Mission 3. Best done in co-op mode with a friend. Follow the basic strategy for Perfect Run, with some minor differences. Have one person stand at the very end of the dock by the seaplane while the other stands halfway down the dock and "tanks" any zombies that slip through. This time try to get the plane started as quickly as possible and get out. The person standing at the end of the dock should be able to take no damage (and obviously not need to use medkits). Then you and your partner can switch places. Can easily be done even on Iron Man difficulty.

One per sec (Kill 5 zombies in less than 5 seconds.) Speed killing (Kill 10 zombies in less than 5 seconds.) Express cleaner (Kill 20 zombies in less than 5 seconds.) Wait your turn (Perform 5 instant kills in less than 15 seconds.) Close killer (Perform 100 instant kills.) Mass murderer (Kill 1000 zombies.) No more room in hell (Kill 2000 zombies.) Collateral damage (Get zombies deer to kill 20 Zombies.) Cheap kill (Kill 5 monsters in a row with a bullet or an arrow.)

If you are still missing any of these achievements once you beat the game and do the challenges, they can all be farmed in a few good places. I recommend loading up the last save of the file you beat the game on. It should be right before you start the final boss encounter. During this fight you should be able to grind out and obtain all the above listed achievements.

For the deer kill achievement make sure you just kite the deer around once it appears and it will gut the zombies as they follow you.

Don't worry if you die, everything still counts.

If you are still having trouble with the 20 zombies in less than 5 seconds achievement, I suggest playing in co-op mode as it appears you can both contribute to the kill count making it easier to do. Alternatively you can return to the first island where you first wash up on shore and there should be a huge mob of zombies you can blast with explosives. I'm not sure if there are 20 zombies there, but you should be able to kite a few extras over there for good measure.

Discoverer IV - will unlock as you progress through the DLC story. Discoverer V - will unlock as you progress through the DLC story. Discoverer VI - will unlock as you progress through the DLC story.

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Hot flush (Complete "El Diablo" chapter in "Normal" difficulty) Burn out (Complete "El Diablo" chapter in "Iron Man" difficulty) Back fire (Complete "El Diablo" chapter in "Kovac's Way" difficulty)

These achievements DO stack. To complete the El Diablo DLC in Kovac's Way difficulty you will need to own the Kovac's Way DLC and start a new game on that difficulty.

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Glass breaker (Kill a volcanologist zombie without electricity): The volcanologist zombies are the ones in the hazard suits. I got this achievement by just shooting one in the face with a basic sten gun, in fact it was the first such zombie I saw. High voltage (Kill 500 monsters with electricity): Once you make an electric gun (tesla coil + bigfork + harpoon grip + hardware) you can begin farming this and should have it before the end of the DLC. Electric skewer (Kill 8 monsters in a row using electricity): For this you will want to take the basic electric gun recipe but add a capacitor to it which will increase the number of targets hit. Use this style electric gun on a big group of zombies gathered around a carcass and you should be able to get this. It may take a few tries. Bolts' master (Recharge your electric weapon without using an electric pylon.): For this you will need the electric gun and electric armor (tesla coil + big fork + fuses + soldier bulletproof armor) then equip both and wait for lightning to hit you. This will charge your weapon and should pop the achievement. God of Rain (Complete the special remote): This is earned as a reward from bonus quest given after completing the main story of the DLC. You will need to collect 10 electric devices from around the islands of the DLC. They will be in the sheds and safehouses and will be earned by completing the hidden monkey quests of the DLC. Make sure you check every shed and safehouse for items and do the monkey quests and you should have all 10. Monkeys on your back (Complete all the monkeys' quests of El Diablo islands): There are 6 monkey quests. 3 are straight forward and require you to retrieve items. Make sure you have a red stone and a golden chalice saved from the base game for this. If you used all the red stones you will have to start all over. The other 3 quests require you to find 3 hidden monkeys, for which there is already a great Steam Community guide:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=310595638

All credit for the content in the linked community guides goes to the respective creators of said guides. I merely linked them here for convenience.

These DLCs provide stand-alone mini-campaigns similar to the Challenge Missions that came out with the base game.

A cat among the pigeons (Survive the 5th night of the mode "Barricade!") The hardest part is yet to come (Survive the 10th night of the mode "Barricade!") Survival marathoner (Survive the 15th night of the mode "Barricade!")

Barricade's achievements require you to survive at least 15 nights in this game mode. It can be done on the normal difficulty, and in coop mode-- which makes this really quite easy. On the 5th, 10th, and 15th night a boss zombie comes, so you will want to be prepared for those. You need to protect an immobile NPC character from attacks each night, and obviously make sure you don't wipe out either.

The strategy I used to get this real easy on my first try was the following:

• I played with a friend.
  
• We built barricades around the sick guy that you need to protect so the zombies couldn't attack him-- there is no way to heal any damage he takes.
  
• We built many sentry guns, rather than upgrading them we kept building more and more as we could. It was better to have more sentry guns covering various different directions.
  
• We pretty much ignored the far-eastern side of the island. There was more than enough supplies to get through 15 nights on the western side that we didn't even need to go over there.
  
• Try not to let the zombies attack your barricades/turrets too much. Turrets can be repaired by putting ammo in them.
  
• Make sure you come back at dusk to protect the NPC. If even one zombie finds a way to start attacking him, he will die fast.
  
• When the bosses show up keep them busy attacking your characters and not your barricades, turret, or the NPC.

It's a pretty easy game mode to complete, considering it can be done on the normal difficulty. The turrets are incredibly powerful, even unupgraded.
Dead easy trip (Complete the mode "One Shot Escape" in "Normal" difficulty.) Eventful trip (Complete the mode "One Shot Escape" in "Iron Man" difficulty.) Nightmarish trip (Complete the mode "One Shot Escape" in "Kovac's Way" difficulty.)

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