10 Insanely Difficult Achievements in Strategy Games

Strategy games can be quite challenging sometimes, but that’s part of their allure. They test your mental strength by presenting increasingly difficult puzzles. Just as I am, if you find satisfaction in winning, it doesn’t end there. The game offers a multitude of additional challenges to conquer.

Instead of just increasing the game difficulty level over time, achievements and trophies offer additional hurdles to overcome for a more rewarding gaming experience.

Certain feats may be effortlessly gained during your initial experience, yet others demand greater skill and perseverance compared to any other tasks within the game. Above all, the pride of boasting about mastering these elusive and formidable feats is invaluable.

10. God-Like

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

The God-Like achievement is completed by winning a regular game at Deity difficulty.

In an optimal scenario, elevating the challenge level within a strategy game might enhance the AI’s intelligence, but this isn’t usually feasible. Unfortunately, in games like Civilization, the complexity setting primarily influences who receives undue benefits, rather than making the AI smarter.

At advanced stages of play, other nations tend to produce more units, develop faster, and grow stronger in battle. By the time you reach Deity level, the highest difficulty setting, you’re essentially starting the game at a significant disadvantage, struggling to make up ground, and there’s a real risk that your opponents could eliminate you within just a few turns.

9. Outside Context

Stellaris

The accomplishment of the “Outside Context Achievement” is fulfilled by attacking Earth prior to the development of FTL (Faster Than Light) technology, during a global conflict on the planet.

Achieving this feat often relies heavily on good fortune since Earth isn’t always included in every game, and even when it is, finding the specific circumstances needed for a brief opportunity to unlock the achievement can be quite serendipitous.

If ever such an opportunity arises, it’s crucial to make extensive preparations beforehand, ensuring readiness for action at the opportune moment, and safeguarding the planet until then.

To earn the achievement, it’s necessary to complete everything while Ironman mode is activated. This setting disallows manual saving, ensuring that if an error occurs, you can’t go back and retry, adding a challenge to your progress.

Although it can happen unintentionally, deliberately achieving this is an incredibly challenging feat, often causing significant difficulty.

8. T.H.R.E.A.T. Detected

Marvel’s Midnight Suns

As a die-hard fan, I can proudly say that I’ve conquered the challenge of The T.H.R.E.A.T. Detected achievement – I managed to keep all my heroes alive for three consecutive turns in the THREAT room!

Although it might not seem particularly challenging in terms of difficulty, this feat is exceptionally uncommon within the game. The primary reason being that it’s an extremely laborious process. To collect all 17 heroes, you must virtually finish the game, a task that is undeniably necessary to undertake the challenge.

In essence, it’s no walk in the park to endure the ordeal within the Perilous Chamber. A mere three moves might seem insignificant, but remember, you are left with a single hero who is vastly outnumbered by adversaries. If you don’t have a favorable initial turn, your chances of success are slim since the enemies can swiftly eliminate you from the start.

7. Life…Uh…Finds A Way

RimWorld

To obtain the “Life…Uh…Finds A Way” Achievement, you need to play through the game with the “Losing Is Fun” difficulty level and “commitment mode” enabled throughout.

As a dedicated gamer, I must admit that I’ve found myself striving to attain an elusive sense of accomplishment in a game that rewards its players exclusively through achievements – a feature only available on console versions, as the PC version lacks this particular function. Nevertheless, I’ve learned to relish the challenge and push myself further when playing on my computer, even without the official recognition of achievements.

In the appropriately titled “Losing Is Fun” difficulty level, it frequently dishes out unjust threats and misfortune intended to ruin your settlement, and its “commitment” setting operates similarly to Ironman mode, where the only method for saving the game is through autosaves when you exit the game.

This feature ensures that once something goes amiss during your gameplay, you can’t simply restart from a saved point. Since launching the spaceship is the main objective in the base game, overcoming this prolonged and agonizing hurdle becomes quite a task.

6. 1001 Nights

Cities: Skylines

The 1001 Nights achievement is accomplished by experiencing 1001 nights in the game.

This task might seem unconventional, but you can technically complete it if you simply let the game run without interacting. But once you calculate the time it would take, you’ll recognize that it’s indeed a challenge.

In normal gameplay, running continuously, the game would require more than 480 hours to complete. If you increase the game speed to three times faster, it would still take approximately a week of continuous play to finish the game.

Put another way, when it comes to a game that you genuinely enjoy, it’s quite feasible to earn that particular achievement just by immersing yourself in the gameplay itself.

5. The Winterhome Survivor

Frostpunk

To earn The Winterhome Survivor achievement, complete the Fall of Winterhome scenario while playing in Survivor Mode.

In the narrative, Winterhome is a once-thriving settlement that’s now abandoned and crumbling. The “Winterhome’s Downfall” scenario places you in control during its final days, where you find half of the town in ruins from fire, and the remaining resources are barely enough to support everyone.

Additionally, Survivor Mode cranks up the challenge by maxing out difficulty settings, disabling the pause function, and eliminating manual save options. Instead, it autosaves only when you exit, leaving no opportunity for contemplation or error, as you navigate through a harrowing ordeal.

4. Valhalla

XCOM 2

In order to unlock the Valhalla achievement, you need to finish the game at either Commander or Legendary levels while playing in Ironman mode.

To avoid the potential loss of your entire game progress, it’s crucial to be very careful and avoid making any errors during gameplay when using the Ironman mode.

In XCOM 2, your characters can die permanently, and when playing with the Ironman mode, the game automatically saves instead of allowing manual saves to ensure you can’t go back after making mistakes.

To ensure that your characters are strong enough to defeat the progressively challenging and formidable adversaries throughout the game, it’s crucial to maintain their survival throughout the entire playthrough. Losing even one character can significantly hinder your progress, and if multiple characters perish, you might as well restart from the beginning.

3. King Of All The Isles

Crusader Kings III

To earn the title “King of All the Isles,” play as a North Germanic leader following the Asatru faith. Your goal is to conquer every island in both the Atlantic and Mediterranean oceans, but ensure that your realm’s total size remains under 80.

Presently, not every part of Britain qualifies as an island, fortunately. However, seizing the Mediterranean isles might provoke formidable adversaries, such as the Byzantine Empire.

Since you choose to maintain a small domain, you’ll find yourself spread very thin, leaving you significantly weaker than your adversaries, thus confronting them becomes an arduous task.

Luckily, you can do this without Ironman mode on and still get the achievement.

2. 30 Minutes of Hel

Hearts Of Iron IV

As a gamer, I need to pull off the “30 Minutes of Hel” achievement by dealing more than one million eight hundred thousand (1,800,000) damage to Germany, playing as Poland in the fast-paced “Blitzkrieg” scenario set in 1939.

Should you be familiar with history, you’d recall that the year 1939 was particularly harsh for Poland. A coordinated attack by Germany, Slovakia, and the Soviet Union left Poland under complete control within roughly a month due to their overpowering strength.

In this simulation, you find yourself in a challenging predicament from the get-go and must exert considerable effort to turn the tide of events and alter the course of history. To do so, you’ll need more than just survival; you’ll have to orchestrate an outstanding counteroffensive as well, given the magnitude of 1.8 million at stake.

In addition, it needs to be performed with the Ironman mode activated, which implies that any error could require you to begin anew from the very beginning.

1. Three Mountains

Europa Universalis IV

To earn the “Three Mountains” achievement, it’s necessary that you or someone under your control owns all territories globally, playing as Ryukyu.

From a passionate enthusiast’s perspective: I find myself captivated by Ryukyu, this minuscule archipelago nestled within the vast Pacific Ocean. With the Mandate of Heaven DLC activated, my in-game experience begins with Ryukyu being a tributary to the Ming Dynasty. This means that I’m obliged to remit an annual tax to them, and in certain instances, they may decide to shield me if I face an invasion. It’s not the most equitable of partnerships, I must admit.

No matter if you’re a tributary or independent, Ryukyu finds itself in an incredibly unfavorable position for global conquest.

When you’re quite secluded, there are numerous ways you could confront the issue, yet each approach will prove challenging. The situation becomes even more complex as you need to activate ‘Ironman Mode’ to earn accomplishments in Europa Universalis IV.

2025-01-28 20:10