Overview
Good to know before playing. Does not spoil story elements.
About Aegis Defenders Steam Achievements
Supposedly, all achievements can be unlocked in a single run, though I haven’t personally confirmed this. (Source)
Save for the last one (listed under Global Achievements, currently ‘Deathless’), all achievements are straightforward. Achievments with hidden descriptions are likely as you have guessed – they are story achievements that unlock with plot progression.
Deathless Achievement
Retries are what actually stop you from unlocking this achievement. On my first two playthroughs, I thought using the pause menu to retry from the checkpoint was just a matter of convenience. I ended up having to play the game a third time. This is the main reason I decided to make a guide.
Beware of bonus levels. While the game as a whole doesn’t pressure you with the threat of instant death, one of these three levels will have you running from it constantly. These levels are offered by NPCs from other games who appear next to the main shop mid-game. The female NPC is the one to look out for (and with the other two being a mech and a knight, you will know straight away).
There is an option to disable autosaving. It can be found in the game settings, under Data.
Difficulty Settings
I have unfortunately not had the oppurtunity to try out co-op, which I imagine would be great, but here is my personal experience with three of the different modes.
My third playthrough. With only the Deathless achievement left, I ignored most level goals after the first area and rushed through the game in around five and a half hours. Not my best speedrun. Now that I think of it, I don’t believe I’ve ever watched a speedrun of a hybrid tower defense game. And I’d love to!
My first playthrough. While most of the main levels felt just right, there are three in particular that I really struggled with, and they were the only levels I had to rerun for level reward completion (which isn’t necessary for 100%). I imagine those levels would be a lot more fun in co-op. Taking my time, I finished the run in roughly twenty hours.
My second playthrough. Insane isn’t much different from hard, or at least playing the former after the latter presented a nearly identical experience. I thought I could unlock the Deathless achievement while I was at it, but eight hours later I found out I should not have been retrying levels from checkpoints.
Collectibles
Relics are never hidden behind false walls. I only know of two instances where the character can go behind part of a level, and neither instance hides anything that cannot be found elsewhere. Both times the art properly teases you in, so there is no need to run head first into every solid wall.
You can always reenter a story level from the world map, and the world map will almost always be available, even after beating the game. The three bonus levels, however, cannot be reentered after being cleared, but I’m pretty sure the relics in those areas are completely optional and aren’t shown in the relic viewer.
Dialogue Choices
Dialogue choices will sometimes reward you with 1-3 RP (which presumably stands for both ‘research points’ and ‘roleplay’), which is used to upgrade defense blocks. Level rewards, however, will generally reward you with one to two orders of magnitude more.
On my first play-through I was able to fully upgrade all the units I used regularly with a fair bit to spare, but not enough to fully upgrade everything else. I don’t think it’s possible to have everything fully upgraded, so I don’t consider dialogue RP to be very important, though it’s not completely negligible either. Think of it as a small bonus. You may also want to note that some dialogues only offer 1 or 2 RP for the ‘correct’ answer.
Going Fast
If you’d like to make quick work of the platforming parts of levels by avoiding all the monsters, keep in mind there are three rare monsters that each have their own achievement. They are the largest in the game, so I’m sure you’ll know on sight, but if you need a size reference, they are larger than stone-throwing rock golems. I think they each appear at least twice.
Save File
The saving and loading menus start with three empty slots, but the list expands as more slots are used. If you’re here you probably already know why making backups is a good idea. I’ve also included the locations of the actual save files.
There is an option to disable auto-saving in the game settings (the menu with the nine squares).
C:Users%USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalLowGUTS DepartmentAegis Defenders<>.data
With Steam Cloud synchronization enabled:
C:Program Files (x86)Steamuserdata371140remote<>.data
~/Library/Application Support/GUTS Department/Aegis Defenders/<>.data
~/Library/Application Support/unity.GUTS Department.Aegis Defenders/<>.data
With Steam Cloud synchronization enabled:
~/Library/Application Support/Steam/userdata/371140/remote/<>.data
The save slots are stored in the single file with lots of numbers in its name, and if you have custom keybinds, those can be found in a neighboring file (inputPrefs.data).
After taking a look at the save files, actually, I think you may be able to restore a slot even if you accidentally delete it. But not if you accidentally overwrite it. The save file is mostly human-readable, but there happens to be some weird data at the start that I can only assume to be a checksum (which might prevent manual editing to some degree). I haven’t tried messing with my save files, so I’m not sure how easy it would be. I have also noticed that nowhere in the file does the game specifically record a death count; the closest thing would be ‘…“gameMetrics”:{“retryCount”:…’. Hm.
Afterword
I threw this guide together for players like myself, because there were no guides when I was playing the game. Getting cheated out of the final achievement and having to run the game a third time was quite a bummer, but I’d like to mention that I did in fact enjoy my first run (and much of the second as well). The game is rather lovely, and I hope it gets the attention it deserves.
If there is anything unclear or incorrect, please leave a comment!