XCOM 2 Achievement Guide

by Sirhawkeye | Posted on January 20, 2021February 28, 2021

This guide will be covering the steps on how to get the 100% achievement in XCOM 2. For those who are planning to obtain all achievements, this guide is for you.

XCOM 2 Achievement Guide

To make things more simple, I have created a categorization for each achievement.

Story Related

First Blood – Complete the tactical tutorial

This is of course technically missable if you never play the tutorial.

Rebel Radio – Build Resistance Comms

Resistance Comms is a facility that can be built in an Avenger slot, after completing Resistance Communications research. As the story advances, you will eventually have to get in contact with other regions to check for local sites, so this is not missable under normal conditions. There are ways to add to your contacting abilities, but they won’t suffice.

Rise of the Resistance – Make contact with a region

Making contact with a new region besides your starting one. This is doable when you have researched Resistance Communication and built a Resistance Comms facility.
As certain locations will need you to travel to and make contact with neighbouring resistance cells, this is not missable.

Codebreaker – Build the Shadow Chamber

The completion of the Shadow Chamber facility will gain you this. You need to research Alien Encryption first.

A Horrible Truth – Recover the Blacksite Data

The Blacksite mission will appear once you are introduced to the Avatar Project. The region of the site needs to be contacted first. Make your way through the map to the facility, enter and claim the Blacksite Vial from the point of interest in the rear, then head to the extraction point.

With Extreme Prejudice – Skulljack an ADVENT Officer

You need to have at least one Skulljack, an item that is being built as a Proving Ground project. Equip the Skulljack on any soldier (specialists aren’t better for this task right here), and use the Skulljack (not Skullmine!) ability on an ADVENT Officer unit. The attack will have a 70% chance, so you might need some tries.

A Better Human Being – Recover the Forge Item

The Forge item comes from the Forge, a mission site available after the Blacksite Vial research in the Shadow Chamber. Much like the Blacksite mission, you will have to fight your way to a point of interest to pick up an “item”, this time you have to use one of your soldiers to really “carry” it all the way to the extraction point, putting him out of play for that time and being slow.

A Grim Key – Recover a Codex Brain

Sometime after the Blacksite mission, you will encounter Codices. Kill a Codex during a mission that doesn’t need you the evac, so your loot (the codex brain) will be brought home to the Avenger.

A Dark Doorway – Recover the Psi Gate

The Psi Gate can be recovered from another special mission, encountering a (Psi-) Gatekeeper. Locate the site by completing Shadow Chamber researches for the recovered Forge Item and the Codex brain. Contact the local region and complete the mission (nothing to “carry” here).

A God Falls – Kill an Avatar

You will meet your first Avatar when skull jacking a Codex, after having finished prerequisites for recovering the Psi Gate it will be one of your story missions. The Avatar will appear once a Codex is skull jacked, you might want to single out that enemy first when it’s in a group. Defeat the Avatar, and the achievement will pop right away. You might want to choose an untimed mission for your try to give you enough time to successfully end that mission.

A Line Crossed – Complete the Avatar Autopsy

After defeating the Avatar unit (see ‘A God Falls’), and you have completed all other Shadow Chamber project thus far (the Stasis Suit, Codex Brain), another project will be unlocked: ‘Avatar Autopsy’. Begin and complete research.

A Final Stand – Create the Commander’s Avatar

Begin Operation Leviathan – the final mission in your campaign to end the slavery of mankind on human earth. This is not the Network Tower mission, but the mission afterwards. The achievement will be awarded right after cutscenes/loading screen.

Campaign Ending Related

Earth Avenged – Overthrow the aliens at any difficulty level

Once you successfully finish the last mission on any difficulty level, you have freed earth and the right to wear the ‘Earth Avenged’ badge.

Defender of Humanity – Overthrow the aliens on Commander difficulty

You must start and end the campaign on at least Commander difficulty, and may not lower the level during it to Rookie or Novice.

Immortal Commander – Overthrow the aliens on Legend difficulty

You must start the campaign on Legend difficulty, and may not lower the level at any time to another difficulty setting.

Valhalla – Beat the game on Commander+ difficulty in Ironman mode

Chose Commander or Legend difficulty mode, and turn on Ironman mode as well. You may not save, and all your decision will be final. You may switch between Commander and Legend difficulty any time.

The Few and the Proud – Beat the game on Commander+ difficulty without buying a Squad Size upgrade

Chose Commander or Legend difficulty mode, and don’t lower difficulty below. Don’t buy Squad Size upgrades, so you will have to stick to 4 soldiers in most of the missions.

The Untouchables – Beat the game on Commander+ without losing a soldier

Chose Commander or Legend difficulty mode, and don’t lower difficulty below. You may not lose a soldier, that means you can’t have a soldier killed/bled to death permanently.

Exquisite Timing – Beat the game on Commander+ difficulty by July 1st (July 15th for War of the Chosen)

Chose Commander or Legend difficulty mode, and don’t lower difficulty below. Go through the story as fast as possible, only doing the necessary advancements in any aspect of the game, while completing missions flawlessly – if so, you will have some hours or days left when trying the final mission before 30th of June 23:59 (or 14th of July 23:59 in WotC).

Mission Related

Meat Over Metal – Kill a Sectopod on the same turn you encounter it

Encounter as in activating it. You have a full turn to accomplish the kill, so (depending on the activation) you might also have overwatched during the enemy turn before or after your turn. A guaranteed try will be the Blacksite mission where you encounter a Sectopod patrolling the front of the building. Repeater kills will do it, and bluescreen rounds, shredding attacks, soldiers with multiple attacks, or the specialist’s various means of handling mechanical enemies can help greatly.

Like Clockwork – Complete a successful ambush

Kill a whole enemy pod, coming out of concealment, during that turn.
This can be done easily in one of the very first missions, where pods are small and enemies have low HP. The pod needs to be triggered from concealment by an attack (must not be a kill) on a flanked or open target (normally so when the pod moves around the map), the rest of the pod can be defeated then by ordinary means.

Mechlord – Hack and take control of a Sectopod

This requires a specialist to hack (‘Haywire Protocol’) a Sectopod and take control over it (‘Control Enemy’ in the hack sequence. Anything that helps with getting your hack stat up is good (equipping skulljack, improving gremlins, leveling up, having hack rewards for chests with +hack, choosing side missions in WotC with +hack reward, attacking with hack supporting abilities or items (bluescreen rounds).

Nick of Time – Evacuate a soldier whose bleed-out timer is still running

Extract a soldier who is bleeding out in the evac zone before the timer runs out. For the sadistic players: you could, of course, try to set this up, have your evac zone ready to pop or get near a static one, use explosives to deal damage to your friend, and then evac him safely.

David and Goliath – Kill a Berserker in melee combat

A Ranger with a sword, Templar with bladestorm or Skirmisher with a ripjack attack finishing off a Berserker will net you this achievement.

Breathing Room – Kill a Viper who is strangling a squadmate

Instead of killing any serpent in sight, let one use its special attack on one of your squaddies. Then have an attack kill it outright.

Come Back To Me – Kill a Sectoid who is currently mind controlling a squadmate

Simliar to ‘Breathing Room’: when your squadmate is being controlled, focus your attacks on the controlling Sectoid to kill it.

Stop Hitting Yourself – Kill an enemy with a hacked turret

While having control over a turret via the specialists Haywire Protocol, deal the killing blow to an enemy unit.

Have a Nice Trip – Cause an enemy to fall to its death

Falling to death means that the enemy needs to come down from a non-flying elevated position (up on the roof) and be killed by the damage when it arrives on the ground. To achieve that, you have to destroy the ground below it with explosives.

Car Wrecked – Cause an enemy to die in a vehicle explosion

Have an enemy standing or hiding beside a vehicle get killed by the car explosion. The enemy needs to die via the vehicle explosion damage, not your damage (if you use grenades/rockets/…).

Heroes of the Resistance – Beat a Retaliation mission with no more than 3 civilian deaths

This one requires you to act fast and go out of your way to find those civilian-killing pods, as well as killing them really fast. Have your squad lunge forward, rescue civilians with your first moves if you can. The first retaliation missions spotless enemies, but have you underpowered as well. Works also in later stages.

Cyberlord – Earn a second tier hack reward

When hacking a target (objectives, doors, but also mechanical enemies), you have to choose between two rewards, an easy and a harder one, the latter one being the “second-tier” reward. The success percentage is related to your hacking stat, to improve you can level up, use (better) equipment (skulljack, Gremlin upgrades).

Brutal Collection – Skulljack each different type of ADVENT soldier (does not have to be in same game)

Skulljack or skullmine following units successfully (reach the percentage to the skull):
- ADVENT Trooper
- ADVENT Stun Lancer
- ADVENT Shieldbearer
- ADVENT Officer (need to skullJACK for story)
- Codex (need to skullJACK for story)
- ADVENT Priest (if WotC)
- ADVENT Purifier (if WotC)

Now Am I Become Death – Kill 3 enemies in a single turn, with a single soldier, without explosives

Rangers or Skirmishers with several actions or abilities that grant yourself or teammates actions will help you out. You need to kill, not only hit three different enemies, not using explosives for the kill. When playing with the Lost, this becomes quite easy even for normal soldiers.

Who Needs Tygan? – Beat the final mission using only conventional gear

The final mission is the one after the Network Tower infiltration.
You must stick to conventional base gear for your outfitting slots: armor, weapons, secondary weapons/items. Special gear is not allowed (chosen weapons, hunter weapons, legacy armor, …). Weapon mods and upgraded items (Plasma Grenades, upgraded med kits) and PCSs can and should be used freely with any level (up to superior).

Pile ‘Em Up – Kill 500 aliens. (does not have to be in same game)

Well yeah… 500… just don’t begin counting them. You might have to do several campaigns runs anyways. Depending on your difficulty settings, it might pop sooner or later – more difficult, more aliens to pile.

Overpowered – Beat a mission on Commander+ with a squad composed entirely of soldiers of the same class (but not Rookie)

You have to fill your ranks up to your maximum squad size. In the beginning, you might want to try all grenadiers for the guaranteed explosive damage, but there are some opportunities later when you have leveled up your guys and can field a bunch of rangers or specialists that support each other well with their abilities.

Heavy Metal – Kill an enemy with every heavy weapon in the game (Doesn’t have to be in the same game)

Heavy Weapons need to be bought from the Proving Ground facility. There are two types of projects, Experimental Heavy Weapon (EHW) and Experimental Powered Weapon (EPW), that will randomly provide you one of the 7 needed weapon types:
- Rocket Launcher (EHW)
- Shredder Gun (EHW)
- Flamethrower (EHW)
- Blaster Launcher (EPW)
- Plasma Blaster (EPW)
- Shredstorm Cannon (EPW)
- Hellfire Projector (EPW)
Try to build one of each. Remember, another campaign counts as well! Equip the weapon in a mission (needs EXO or WAR suit, or SPARK). Kill at least one enemy with the weapon.

Beginner’s Luck – Beat a mission in June or later using only Rookies

Beginning June 1st 00:01, take only rookies with you (can’t use upgraded soldiers via the GTS ability) and beat the mission successfully. Equipment can be used freely, and you can get rookies killed – but you have to complete mission objectives!

Strategic Level

Bring It Down – Sabotage an alien facility

ADVENT facilities available on the world map need to be infiltrated and successfully sabotaged.

Tinker – Build an experimental item in the Proving Grounds

Once Proving Grounds is active, you can start producing any “Experimental…” named item group. These become unlocked through autopsies and can be Ammo, Armor, Heavy Weapon, Powered Weapon or Grenade.

Room to Grow – Upgrade a facility

Upgrades for facilities are made through the facility view in the Avenger itself (if an arrow in the corner of the facility is available, it will mean you can upgrade it).

Shadow Broker – Sell goods worth 1000 supplies to the Black Market (Can span multiple games)

The Black Market will appear quite early as a new POI, once investigated you need to fly there and then will be able to sell your surplus.

Rumor Hunter – Complete a Rumor

Scan and investigate one of the POIs on the map that gives you resources such as supplies, intel, engineers.

Locked and Loaded – Upgrade a weapon

Upgrade any weapon with a mod. Research Modular Weapons first, then use any attachment to upgrade your weapon in the soldier outfit screen/armory.

Excalibur – Completely upgrade a beam weapon with superior grade weapon upgrades

You have to attach superior type modifications to a beam-type weapon of your choice so that in every available slot there is a superior mod.

Shen’s Legacy – Build a facility in every Avenger slot

There are 12 slots in the Avenger that needs to be filled.

The Sun Never Sets – Build a radio relay on every continent

There are six continents all over the world, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. You need to build at least one relay on each of those, and when you have finished building the last one, all others must be active.

Global Resistance – Get all of the continent bonuses available in a single campaign

To get all 6 continent bonuses, you need to make contact with ALL regions and install 1 to 2 relays on each continent (needed number right under the continent name on the map).

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger – Apply a PCS upgrade to a soldier

A Personal Combat Stimulator is an enhancement that is found as mission loot or can also be bought from the black market. Equip one of your soldiers with one after building the GTS.

Miscellaneous

The Most Dangerous Game – Win a multiplayer match.

All multiplayer modes work. To find a game, you have to build your squad and enter the Arena, the system will try to find a match for you. The community discussions page here in steam is a point to find some fellow to try a game, or you just get lucky that someone else is also looking for the achievement.