Achievements (XCOM2)

Title, description, minimum Difficulty requirement, notes/advice

• First Blood | Complete the tactical tutorial | - | Toggled on starting a new campaign
• Like Clockwork | Complete a successful ambush | - | In concealment, simply have a soldier make an overwatch shot when another fires to break concealment.
• Rumor Hunter | Complete a Rumor | - | Often after a mission, you'll receive one of these scanning objectives for the Hologlobe
• Locked and Loaded | Upgrade a weapon | - | Unlocked after researching ADVENT weaponry
• Rise of the Resistance | Make contact with a region | - | Unlocked after "Resistance Communications" research
• Come Back To Me | Kill a Sectoid who is currently mind controlling a squadmate | - | -
• A Horrible Truth | Recover the Blacksite Data | - | Story progression
• Tinker | Build an experimental item in the Proving Grounds | - | -
• Breathing Room | Kill a Viper who is strangling a squadmate | - | -
• With Extreme Prejudice | Skulljack an ADVENT Officer | - | Story progression
• Grim Key | Recover a Codex Brain | - | Story progression: picked up automatically on any Codex kill, even on Evac'ed missions
• Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger | Apply a PCS upgrade to a soldier | - | Daft Punk. Semi-rare random drop from enemies, sometimes sold in the Black Market.
• Rebel Radio | Build Resistance Comms | - | -
• Car Wrecked | Cause an enemy to die in a vehicle explosion | - | -
• Room to Grow | Upgrade a facility | - | -
• Heroes of the Resistance | Beat a Retaliation mission with less than 3 civilian deaths | - | Easier modes reduces enemy chance-to-hit and damage: unlike EU/EW, enemies will more prioritize attacking XCOM soldiers once a pod is activated. So, this may require rushing to engage as much as possible, putting your soldiers at risk. Given that it takes about 3-4 turns to cross a Retaliation map, and you're only allowed two civvie deaths: the moment you see a MISS! during Alien Activity, that is your cue to rush to get this achievement. Keep on top of your save states, as well.
• Cyberlord | Earn a second tier hack reward | - | The locked doors and containers of certain mission objectives, and the 'light poles' in cities have lower hack scores than, say, a Sectopod
• Bring It Down | Sabotage an alien facility | - | Discover and destroy a Blacksite
• Have a Nice Trip | Cause an enemy to fall to its death | - | Grenading a roof-mounted turret is an instant kill: all other enemies (save the Archon and Gatekeeper, who float) take an average falldamage of 2 (ignores armor pips).
• Codebreaker | Build the Shadow Chamber | - | Story progression
• A Better Human Being | Recover the Forge item | - | Story progression
• A God Falls | Kill an Avatar | - | Story progression
• Stop Hitting Yourself | Kill an enemy with a hacked turret | - | Grenade another enemy to soften it and remove it's cover
• Now Am I Become Death | Kill 3 enemies in a single turn, with a single soldier, without explosives | - | Ranger's Reaper, Sharpshooter's Standoff, Specialist's Capacitor Discharge, and the Demo can use any of the 'special effect' grenades (acid, poison, fire), as long as the effect does the kill during Alien Activity
• Meat Over Metal | Kill a Sectopod on the same turn you encounter it | - | Focused fire works. Also, luck of the draw with a gun equipped with a Repeater upgrade
• Mechlord | Hack and take control of a Sectopod | - | Best done after doing the 'autopsy,' as it unlocks the Gremlin MKIII for a better hack score; softening it with Bluescreen ammo and EMP grenades helps.
• A Dark Doorway | Recover the Psi Gate | - | Story Progression
• David and Goliath | Kill a Berserker in melee combat | - | Only the kill needs to be done, with any tier blade. Softening the target beforehand is HIGHLY recommended.
• Excalibur | Completely upgrade a beam weapon with superior grade weapon upgrades | - | -
• A Line Crossed | Complete the Avatar Autopsy | - | Story Progression
• Pile 'Em Up | Kill 500 aliens. (does not have to be in same game) | - | ADVENT units count
• A Final Stand | Create the Commander's Avatar | - | Story progression
• Shen's Legacy | Build a facility in every Avenger slot | - | -
• Earth Avenged | Overthrow the aliens at any difficulty level | - | Win.
• Shadow Broker | Sell goods worth 1000 supplies to the Black Market (Can span multiple games) | - | The black market Merchant will have 3 item types per month that it will buy at a high price
• The Sun Never Sets | Build a radio relay on every continent | - | The Relays cost more Supplies for every one built globally, while reducing Intel costs to sectors in proximity to it: leapfrogging a good tradeoff, and some continents require 1 or 2 Relays to unlock their bonuses.
• Global Resistance | Get all of the continent bonuses available in a single campaign | - | See above
• Brutal Collection | Skulljack each different type of ADVENT soldier(does not have to be in same game) | Captain is story progression, as well as the Codex, which also counts: that leaves the footsoldier, the Shielder, and the Lancer
• Nick of Time | Evacuate a soldier whose bleed-out timer is still running | - | A purchase in the AWC increases chance of Bleedout vs death. The cheap way to get this done is on a mission where you can call an evac at will, and use AoE attacks on your own grouped soldiers (with one out of the way; unharmed and on standby), and wait for one to go into bleedout. Them simply call for evac, and have the healthy soldier carry out one of the wounded. Save before doing that, then you can just reload and do the mission as normal.
• The Most Dangerous Game | Win a multiplayer match. | - | If you have had trouble getting matches at all, let alone the achievement appearing: while mods are not supposed to disqualify achievements, there have been reports of bugs for this one. If the Ranked Match option is not open to you, this applies. You may need to delete your local game files and do a fresh download of XCOM2. Once linked to another player for a match, and you can press the ready button (or once in actual battle), you can try pressing J to open up an ingame chat with the other player, and ask politely if they would let you win, if you cannot do so legitimately.
• Defender of Humanity | Overthrow the aliens on Commander difficulty | Commander | -
• Beginner's Luck | Beat a mission in June or later using only Rookies | - | Best done on easier modes
• Valhalla | Beat the game on Commander+ difficulty in Ironman mode | Commander | Practice
• The Untouchables | Beat the game on Commander+ without losing a soldier | Commander | -
• Immortal Commander | Overthrow the aliens on Legend difficulty | Legend | Practice
• Heavy Metal | Kill an enemy with every heavy weapon in the game (Doesn't have to be in the same game) | Rocket Launcher comes with the EXO suit, rest are Proving Ground projects, with more unlocked once the W.A.R. suit is developed: Flamethrower, Hellfire Projector, Shredder Gun, Shredstorm Cannon, Plasma Blaster, Blaster Launcher.
• The Few and the Proud | Beat the game on Commander+ difficulty without buying a Squad Size upgrade | Commander | Specialists can hack mechanical enemies for a time, and Psions can MC enemies for whole missions, alleviating fire on your own forces
• Overpowered | Beat a mission on Commander+ with a squad composed entirely of soldiers of the same class (but not Rookies) | Commander | -
• Exquisite Timing | Beat the game on Commander+ difficulty by July 1st | You'll pretty much be limited to plot-centric research, and will need as many scientists as possible, and perhaps a laboratory or two: in fact, a Lab should be your first and immediate construction. Not also to unlock the plot, but to rush for unlocking better weapons and armor for the final mission. Second priority is the Shadow Chamber, to discover the location of the Psionic Gate (research the Codex) and the Forge (Research Blacksite vial), as you need to make contact with local resistance to take on these two missions. The penultimate mission, the ADVENT Tower, can be accessed regardless of where it is, as is the final mission. After fighting an enemy type enough (and you have at least one body), some autopsy researches will be instant.
• Who Needs Tygan? | Beat the final mission using only conventional gear | - | Best done on easier modes: save a state on the Avenger before the final mission on your Exquisite Timing run (for less advanced enemies-- and experience fighting this mission with lesser tech: but take the extra time to max out those ranks), then redo it with the stater gear on Easy mode. Exact details for disqualifying equipment have already been pulled from game files [1], effectively: only starting equipment (including base Psi Amp, thus Psi Magi are OK), Plasma Grenades and Nano Medkit and Smoke Bombs (since they can't be 'rolled back' from being an upgrade to those starting items), and the Nanofiber vest. Any tier weapon attachment or PCS is OK, so Superior Repeaters are a good go for those rare insta-kills, with Psionic soldiers with all abilities (particularly for the Dominate mind control ability, if they can bag a Gatekeeper or Andromedon).