This guide will be showing you how to get all Ctrl Alt Ego achievements.
Roadmap
>Playthrough #1 (~15 hours)
Play through the first time blind, without worrying about any of the specific playstyles. The game encourages you to experiment, but most of the playthrough achievements require very narrow specific playstyles.
>Playthrough #2 (~8 hours)
I would recommend playing through on easy next, without using any disk upgrades. This will force you to exploit the physics system and enemy robots, which will come in handy for the later challenge runs. Even though you aren’t using any disks or worms, I’d recommend trying to pick them up when you see them; 30 to 40 at least, so you can reload your final save after completion and grab the achievement for fully upgrading a program (which you’re unlikely to get in any other playthrough).
>Playthrough #3 (~8 hours)
Next, I would suggest going through on Strict and grabbing the stealth and pacifist-related achievements. You can lower it down to Moderate if you are struggling, but the only noticeable difference would be slightly lower ego costs, so you might as well grab “Strict Mode” at the same time as “Entirely Pure Virtual.”
>Playthrough #4 (~6 hours)
To clean up, the only full campaign achievement you should have left is “They got what they deserved.” Play on easy, and focus on your vacuum’s juice upgrade alongside the shotgun or any other weapon you prefer, and you should be able to breeze through. The early levels are more tedious in this aspect than later ones; I would suggest making sure you thoroughly clear out every individual section in Chapters 7 and 8 before proceeding to the next part of the level, to avoid excessive backtracking to figure out where the one or two enemies left are. And if you are struggling to figure out what enemies are even left, remember to look out for security cameras, evil bugs sitting in ambush spots, and the few random parasites that show up; the miniature parasite in a box on display in Chapter 8 counts as an enemy.
>Cleanup (~4 hours)
You should have almost all the achievements at this point. If you saved liberally, you can go back and easily acquire any campaign-related ones you missed. All that should be left is the various challenge and mission modes. Specifically, you’ll need to:
- Complete “Advanced Rocket Surgery” on severe (see the guide in the previous section if you need help)
- Speedrun the “Stop the Debugger” level in under 3 minutes for “Faster than MindThunk.” (also look at the previous section).
- Complete another extra mission or two until “On a mission” triggers.
Ctrl Alt Ego Achievement Guide
>The Wrong Emu
>Assembler
>I found a Bug
>Please Insert Disk
>DEBUG=0
>I, MUM
>Merged
>Take that thing down
>Unrealistically Marooned
>Gone, but not forgotten
>Conspiracy
>PAM
>Inner Circle
>EXE
>Taxi!
>DEV
Natural parts of story progression. None of these should give you trouble.
>Stealthy Emu
Just finish the tutorial without getting spotted; very easy.
>The Bossman
Just destroy bossman after you first return to him.
>LAN? What LAN?
The key to this is using the DAD you find in the room adjacent to the firewall. Use shift or whatever method you prefer to drag him out, and then push him through the firewall while he has your bug or pup inside.
>Total Assembler
Will come naturally with fully exploring the level; make sure to turn on all the UI hints if their locations aren’t showing up.
>Assembler Avoider
A bit confusing, but not difficult. The first method is using the secret area; check out the arcade machine in the bug lock area, control the camera, then control the DAD. Turn around and take the juice, then take control and use the DAD to place the trap in the shaft. Take control of the pup inside the cage briefly, before detonating the trap and using the freed pup to open the shaft. You can then use whatever method you prefer to send the bug up the second shaft above the DAD. There’s also a Merging key somewhere in the level that you can use after backtracking to the previous level to unlock the door and proceed that way.
>Chicken
Check above the CAT that you started the game in when you return to confront the parasite; you can then get control of a MUM, walk through the first firewall in front of the elevator, and control up and tranfer yourself to CRS without interacting with the parasite at all.
>I, Parasite
Very simple; I would recommend at least ten maggots, and reducing the aggression/dodging and ego size modules to make it very easy to control. Clear out or control the patrolling MUMS so they do not bother you, and then just chase down the parasite and control it.
>Ghost.EXE
This simply requires making it through the corporate level without getting spotted; if you do so, when you go up to his room, the Executor should be staring out into space in his open room adjacent to the elevator and paying no attention to you. Active the nearby console and you’ll fry him without having to fight.
>Chicken.EXE
Just ignore the Executor’s office and use his elevator to go down to his room. You can look through the door and control various objects until you find a pup, which you can use to call the cab instead. Mind the MUM that will usually wander into the room after you do this, if you didn’t clear out the level previously.
>Replete
Fairly easy; the only out of the way Bug is an easter egg hidden in space at the very bottom of the central hub area. I’d recommend clearing out the level beforehand to make sure nothing damages any of the Bugs.
>Egonomical
Can be a little tedious; I believe this counts, specifically, friendly hosts that give you Ego upon controlling them. I did it on Chapter 4, but any chapter you know completely is fine.
>Clean Sweep
Same as Ergonomical.
>Disk Full
I would recommend doing this at the end of a no disk playthrough (see the roadmap); make a save right before the ending, reload it and use all your spare worms to upgrade whatever you like.
>Programmatic
There is a plethora of disks, several more than there are programs, so you should not have trouble getting this on a full exploration playthrough.
>Unidentified
Just avoid doing anything that sets a robot into the “hostile” state towards something you are currently controlling. The end of level screens will always show the number of alerts you have; reset to an earlier save if you somehow got an alert.
>Pacifist
Just avoid breaking any robots. You can absorb things with DADs, just do not do anything that results in robots becoming scrap parts. The end of level screens will also help you with this, although it is much easier to track.
>Executor
“Active Hostile” is a hostile that hasn’t been broken or controlled by you. Cameras, hidden enemies, and sometimes submerged DADs count towards it, so make sure the end of level screen shows “0” active bots and you’re fine.
>Strict Mode
Not as hard as you might think; the main difference between normal difficulty is the shielding enemy robots get upon detecting you, forcing you to be stealthy. I’d combine this with “Entirely Pure Virtual” for that reason.
>No Breakpoints
You can serialize (get absorbed into a DAD or respawn at a bug maker) as many times as you want, you just have to avoid ever having Bug 22 destroyed by an enemy. Will likely come naturally after finishing a full stealth playthrough (there is almost no way to die outside of combat).
>Program Not Found
The most tedious of all the playthrough requirements; I would recommend doing this on a dedicated easy playthrough. The lack of flight is the biggest impediment to progression, but you can manipulate the physics system very easily by just grabbing onto things (especially vents and flat objects) while standing on them. Spending all your MEM on beam upgrades and controlling a MUM also trivializes pretty much every level.
>Virtual
Very straightforward; just complete the game without an alert. You can check it at the end of level screens; the number in parenthesis should always stay zero. You can get very random, unannounced spottings if you’re playing adventurously, so be diligent in checking it and saving often.
>Conscious robots are people too
Also straightforward. As with No Breakpoints, you can serialize things as much as needed.
>They got what they deserved
Getting executor on every level gets tedious; I would recommend doing this on easy, and breezing through focusing on the shotgun, vacuum (for juice) and flight. You can very quickly get nearly infinite ammo and one/two shot enemies, making for a fast run.
>Entirely Pure Virtual
These both compliment each other fairly well; it is not significantly more difficult being pacifistic while stealthing, as enemies on moderate and above can rarely be killed silently without heavy investment anyway. Stealth, flight, and shift alone will handle everything in the game if you know all the secret tunnels and pathways.
>On a mission
Just complete three of the levels on the mission tab. You can speed through them on easy if you desire.
>Severely Advanced Rocket Surgery
This level is actually pretty simple, but the lack of a bug is overwhelming at first. If you need a quick guide:
1. Start by getting as much ego as you can in the starting area (check for the camera on the ceiling vent).
2. Control the DAD pad in the second central area, near the lift, and activate so you can control the DAD.
3. Control the free bug trap, then serialize it with the Dad.
4. Make sure to save; the next part is finicky. You’ll want to zap the containers so you can open the door on the second floor, near where the elevator out of the level was in the main campaign. Then, place your bug trap far enough that it’s past the door (and can see the inward facing door camera), but not so far it’s out of angle from your limited viewpoints.
5. Control the bug trap, then navigate through, collecting as much ego as you can up until the room facing the ether barrel stack.
6. With enough ego, you should be able to go back to your DAD, print out the second DAD inside him, and then immediately control it.
7. You can now “slinky” the dads wherever you want in the level; serialize one, print it where you want to go, control and serialize the original DAD, and so on.
8. Get your DADs up to the second floor, serialize your free bug trap, and use it to blow up the ether can stack without harming your DADs.
9. With the stack gone, you can go through and set up a DAD so that it has an angle through the mechanical pieces on the wall; print your second dad through it, look up at the rocket and control the launchpad, activate it and wait for the level to complete.
>Faster than MindThunk
The only real “challenging” achievement that will test your skill and not knowledge. I used this video from “Extramrdo” for the route, although you can use whatever method or path you want.
In essence, you want to hop from free ego device to free ego device, until you are controlling the electronics outside the station (something you likely did in one of your actual playthroughs) to skip the majority of the level. Hop into the bug trap in the window of the final printer room, blow yourself up and control the second bug trap, and then print yourself out. Grab the pup, proceed into the final room, and fling the pup towards the debugger door while you move the box and grab the hidden debugger key on the catwalk. Control the pup and run through while the DADs are distracted, and serialize yourself onto the debugger pipe with the mini DAD inside the debugger room to complete the level.