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Achievement System
aka: Achievements System

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Any centralized in-game listing of optional objectives that records various milestones and feats the player may have accomplished while playing a Video Game; this is not so much about the individual achievements by themselves, but the game's means for tracking and recording (and, sometimes, rewarding) them.

Many achievements are things that the player will inevitably accomplish during a typical playthrough (e.g. complete the story mode, defeat Y number of enemies, etc.), but the achievements themselves do not need to be relevant to game or story progression; some may involve Side Quests (e.g. trade in those 20 Bear Asses for that Infinity +1 Sword), or obscure things that the player might not even think about (e.g. fall for that Shmuck Bait) or realize were even possible (or sane) to attempt in the first place (e.g. defeat the Superboss with only the Joke Weapon).

Note that not all achievements are fully revealed to the player ahead of time, as some of them may invariably spoil certain Plot Twists or surprises if the player knows them going in; e.g. an objective like "defeat The Lancer after his Face–Heel Turn in chapter 16" is decidedly spoiler material; a censored hint like "defeat ??? during chapter ???", much less so. Some achievements may even be kept secret entirely (hopefully only until the player has reached the relevant section of the game, so they can come back for it later).

Note that some achievements may require multiple playthroughs to acquire, since it's entirely possible for developers to create achievements that are mutually exclusive from each other; similarly, some achievements can require multiple playthroughs due to becoming lost forever if the player missed their opportunity to obtain it (like performing a No-Damage Run in a specific level or Boss Battle with no rematch). Many games may also include one achievement for collecting all other achievements — the game's official stamp of 100% Completion. For a detailed list of most common achievement templates, see Video Game Achievements.

A Sub-Trope of Cosmetic Award (in the same way that a forest is related to an individual tree). Compare Reset Milestones, which often affects the game much more and is more tied to stages of progress.

Examples of platforms requiring an achievement system:

  • Microsoft is the Trope Codifier with its Xbox 360 game console and Xbox Live Arcade service, where all 360 games include a list of "Achievements"; each achievement has a specific point value (roughly indicative of its difficulty) which contributes to the player's overall (system-wide) "Gamerscore". Most games offer a combined total of 1000 Gamerscore, though games from the Xbox Live Arcade have only 200 or 400 Gamerscore, and Compilation Rereleases (such as Halo: The Master Chief Collection or Rare Replay) usually have more than 1000. Games that receive Downloadable Content can also have achievements attached to said content, increasing the Gamerscore total. In the case of achievements with spoilers (or just achievements the devs don't want anyone knowing about), the developers can hide their names, descriptions, and point values until the player acquires them, though since 2022, players can now optionally reveal them before acquiring them. It has since expanded to cover PC games (initially via Games for Windows Live service and later via Xbox on Windows for Windows 8.x/RT and later 10), mobile games (via Xbox on Windows Phone), Xbox One (which also has "challenges"note  and media achievementsnote ) and Xbox Series X|S.
  • Games on Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Play Station Vita include a "Trophy" list, with individual tasks graded from Bronze through Gold depending on their relative difficulty and a Platinum trophy for 100% Completion on the trophy list (though most smaller games tend to not have a Platinum, especially during the PS3 era). For some trophies, their details may be hidden until the player acquires them (or reaches a certain point in gameplay) to avoid leaking potential spoilers. The player's Trophy List is also accessible through their online profile.

On PC, it's not an official requirement, many PC games distributed via Valve's Steam, CD Projekt Red's GOG, or the Epic Games Store often include achievement systems anyway, as the same games may also be (or have been) ported to the Xbox or PlayStation consoles. Nintendo does not have a system-wide achievement system, but games on the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo 3DS do have achievements per-game made by respective developers. Stern's pinball machines starting in the late 2010s can be optionally linked by the operator to Stern's Insider Connected network; players who log in (by scanning their service-provided QR code on the pinball table's code scanner) when starting a game can earn achievements that are saved onto their accounts.


Individual game examples:

Note that for the sake of brevity, we'll limit this list to only games whose achievement system is voluntarily implemented, i.e. exceeds requirements imposed by the game platform.

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    A-D 

  • Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War and Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War (on the PlayStation 2) included a number of medals that could be earned by completing story missions and beating certain challenges across multiple playthroughs; the medals can be viewed from the main menu.
  • Achievement Unlocked is a series of games parodying achievements, featuring such absurd "achievements" like starting the game, not moving your character, changing graphics quality and other more substantial feats.
  • In Ad Venture Capitalist, achievements are functional: they increase your businesses' profit multipliers.
  • Animal Crossing
    • In New Leaf, Badges are handed out by Phineas the sea lion, who will visit your town whenever you qualify for a badge. They're awarded for things like completing a certain percentage of your bug/fish/diving encyclopedia, saving a lot of bells in your bank account, doing a lot of villager side-quests, or just playing the game for long enough, and each category has Badges available in bronze, silver, and gold versions.
    • In New Horizons, achieving certain milestones in things like harvesting wood, catching fish or bugs, or talking with your neighbors gets you Nook Miles and unlocks new titles for your passport.
  • Arena.Xlsm: The game has an Achievement List, as seen in an official screenshot.
  • ARMS has Badges, which are rewarded for everything from beating gameplay modes with certain characters or under conditions, to as simple as performing a mundane action X number of times.
  • While all the games in the Assassin's Creed series have featured Xbox Achievements, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is the first to have an internal set of achievements, called Abstergo Challenges.
  • Astebreed: The feats for its achievements range from completing the tutorial stage, clearing the game without dying, to no damage running the game, and they are split between difficulties.
  • In Avengers: Infinity Quest, achieving specific goals (like getting an Infinity Gem or successfully finishing a Hawkeye Challenge) awards a trophy that boosts combo scoring. There are three potential colors -– bronze, silver, and gold –- that depend on precisely how well the player did (and reward them more accordingly).
  • Battlerite gives Achievements for things like raising your profile level, raising your champions' levels (both for reaching a milestone of total champion levels and raising a certain amount of champions of a specific category to level 10), collecting Legendary equipment, and adding friends. These come with rewards such as chests and currency.
  • Bayonetta: Achievement/Trophy data is accessible from the in-game menu, where they are referred to as "Umbran Tears of Blood". Other Umbran Tears of Blood are items found in the possession of crows hidden throughout various levels, and both combined are part a Collection Sidequest. The Umbran Tears come back in Bayonetta 2, although there are less of them this time (only 30 achievements compared to the first game's 50).
  • Interestingly, the Kickstarter for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night features achievements. By spreading the word through doing things like following their YouTube channel, Liking their Facebook page, and gaining Twitter followers, the page is updated with Backer Achievements. Unlocking these achievements will contribute toward additional non-stretch goals such as automatically unlocking certain stretch goals, adding in humorous cheat codes, an alternate Retraux soundtrack, or the chance to see Koji Igarashi cosplay.
  • The Borderlands series:
    • The first game, Borderlands, has Challenges that can be completed for XP.
    • Borderlands 2 has "Badass Ranks" that when completed can be traded in for a small but permanent upgrade bonus to stats that apply to all characters in your profile.
  • In Breath of Fire IV, the Masters issue you with various tasks to learn their spells. These range from things you would just progress through the game normally (main character's level; no. of Random Encounters; no. of monster types fought; in-game time), a level of Guide Dang It! (a Chain of Deals; a Collection Sidequest), to some with skill in the game mechanics (racking up 70+ hits in a single combo; reach 9,500 points in the Fishing Minigame; or deal massive 12,000 damage in a single hit). Adding to the sense of accomplishment, the Masters will actually commend you for finishing their tasks.
  • Bunny Must Die feature them in its Game Record, split between Bunny and Chelsea, and features a slew of challenges for the player to perform. Some include clearing the game under an hour, completing the game with 100% completion, defeating bosses with a certain weapon, or not taking damage in certain boss battles. Unfortunately, the achievement requirements are hidden, so players are clueless on what the requirements are unless they stumble on across them by accident or looking it up online.
  • The Match-Three Game Chuzzle has various achievements to collect, usually dealing with combos.
  • In a non-video game example, the Clickbait Gag site Clickhole keeps track of how many times you've clicked on it, marking each milestone as you reach it. It resets when you reach the Cap of 9,999 clicks.
  • Club Penguin has stamps. These stamps can be collected in different ways, such as playing minigames, going to certain rooms, attending certain parties, meeting mascots, etc., and upon being collected would be shown in the player's stamp book for other players to look at. Members could also decorate the cover of their stampbook with stamps.
  • CP3D: This Fan Remake adds several new stamps to games from the original Club Penguin that didn't have them before, such as Bean Counters and Hydro Hopper.
  • Cube Colossus: There are achievements for:
    • Each unlock of a ship, which basically means beating certain levels, with the first achievement and ship, already unlocked at the start.
    • Hitting the level caps of skills.
    • Clicking the More Games button.
  • Cute Bite: The Checklist of things to do, which is unlocked after reaching any ending.
  • DROD 5: The Second Sky is the first title in the series with an achievement system. They are referred to in-game as "challenges", and a number are indeed awarded for completing individual puzzles under Self-Imposed Challenge conditions. Others are awarded for progression in the storyline or completing optional levels, so that maxing one's achievement list is the true sign of having completed everything in the game.
  • Deep Rock Galactic has both standard Steam achievements as well as in-game "Milestones," ranging from completing X number of mission types, secondary objectives, or mission modifiers, to completing missions as a specific class or in a particular biome, to purchasing cosmetic items at the company store or unlocking new beer recipes. They are extremely important, as they award perk points used to purchase powerful passive and triggered abilities.
  • Disgaea 5 Complete on the Nintendo Switch has a carbon copy of the aforementioned PlayStation Trophy system built into the game itself due to the Switch not possessing an innate achievement system.
  • Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara has an in-game achievement system in addition to the Steam Achievements. By accomplishing various achievements, such as completing the game, using various abilities often enough, or inflicting certain effects on monsters, the player levels up and gains points that can be used to unlock items in the gallery.

    E-H 

  • Endless Ocean: Blue World has Titles, special nicknames you can assign to your character that unlock by accomplishing various tasks. Some of the Titles come with physical rewards as well, like new diving equipment.
  • The Epic Battle Fantasy series has this starting in the second game, in the form of Medals:
    • Epic Battle Fantasy 2 has 20 Medals in total. They serve no gameplay purpose.
    • Epic Battle Fantasy 3 has 60 Medals in total. A Bonus Dungeon opens with every ten collected, barring the final one, which requires all 60.
    • Epic Battle Fantasy 4 has 104 Medals in total (78 in the base game, with 26 added in the Battle Mountain update). Once again, they serve no gameplay purpose.
    • Epic Battle Fantasy 5 has 133 Medals (83 available in the free version, 50 exclusive to the paid version). A new room in the Grand Gallery opens with every 10 Medals collected, barring the tenth and final one, which requires all 133.
    • Bullet Heaven has 32 Medals. Most have no gameplay effect, but six will unlock a new character: Bronze Badge or Sniper will unlock Natalie, Silver Badge or Killer will unlock Lance, and Gold Badge or Slayer will unlock Anna.
    • Bullet Heaven 2 has more than double the number of Medals, at 75 (64 available in the Flash version, with 11 Steam-exclusive). Medals will award the player additional money when earned.
    • Adventure Story has 30 Medals, none of which serve any gameplay purpose.
    • The Epic Battle Fantasy Collection features 154 Medals over the eight games featured within - 13 in Brawl Royale, 12 in The Kitten Game, 10 in Mecha Dress Up Game, 18 in Epic Battle Fantasy 1, 27 in Epic Battle Fantasy 2 (7 new), 33 in Adventure Story (3 new), 36 in Bullet Heaven (4 new) and 5 in Cat Cafe (all earned by getting a set number of in-game medals from the original version). Another three medals - "Epic Battle Fantasies"note , "Dedicated Fan"note  and "History Nerd"note  raise the total medal count to 157.
  • Eternal Twilight: Each save file keeps track of various "Trophies" based on player accomplishments, which come with prizes. Most of the prizes are junk items to be converted into essence, though there are rare items such as AP increasing items, new recipes, and accessories.
  • Fairy Bloom Freesia: The things that award achievements include defeating a large number of enemies, dealing high amounts of damage in a single hit, to getting a very high combo count;
  • Fallout: New Vegas has the game-wide Steam/360 achievements (required) and character-specific Challenges (not required), hence exceeding requirements imposed by the game platform.
  • Final Fantasy XII had the "Sky Pirate's Den", a screen that collects sprites commemorating such tasks as completing the main story, getting all characters to a certain experience level, or defeating Elite Marks. Each sprite's description states the task it was awarded for.
  • Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers has Medals, doled out starting with getting to the game's title screen and then for accomplishing various tasks going forward. As you gain them, you're given hints for the objectives surrounding the medal you just acquired.
  • In Fire Emblem Warriors, the player gets Badges for completing certain events, such as clearing Story Mode on Hard and Lunatic Difficulties, beating History Mode maps, hitting a milestone, or completing character specific actions. The player gets more Badges to earn the more DLC Packs (based around Fire Emblem Fates, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, and Fire Emblem: Awakening) they have downloaded, culminating in a Badge existing when you get all the Badges, DLC included.
  • Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes has a much longer list of achievements than its predecessor, earned for accomplishing such feats as executing a number of special attacks, exploiting enemy weaknesses, earning high ranks on missions, or completing different story routes. The player can collect rewards from the Reward Master at base camp for every ten achievements earned.
  • Forget Me Not: My Organic Garden: Fulfilled by completing quests.
  • Formula Racer: The first game has 24 achievements, the second has 16. You can earn them for things like winning a race with wrong tires, getting in the top 5 without hitting other cars, reaching 268 mph, and so on.
  • Freedom Planet features over fifty to unlock. They range from defeating a boss with a certain attack, to speedrunning the game, to playing through the Adventure Mode without losing a life.
  • FTL: Faster Than Light has an internal system for achievements that also acts as the mechanism for unlocking new ships and deck layouts as they are completed.
  • Indie game Galaxy Saver on the Nintendo DS/3DS calls its list of achievements "Military Awards", many of which involve destroying X number of a given enemy type.
  • Garfield's Fun Fest: The Awards section in the title screen's menu showcases the gold trophies the player has earned for meeting certain achievements in the levels. There are ten of them in total, and require doing respectively the following things: Simply beating the game, completing all exploration levels without falling asleep even once, getting Pooky in said levels, getting all dingle balls in the Odie-riding levels, getting all balloons in the flight levels, performing all cues in the dance levels, getting a perfect score of 10 from all judges in said levels, and finding all food in the exploration, riding and flight levels. The last two are the hardest, and the second can be a potential source of difficulty as well.
  • There's a trophy system in Granblue Fantasy. Players earn them through things like completing an event storyline or beating a raid a certain amount of times. They give tangible rewards for the player to use, usually in the form of crystals. You can also set them as your title in your profile. Notable is the trophy for recruiting all ten of the Eternals which when set as the player's title, gives all of them a small attack and HP boost in gameplay.
  • Hades has an in-game system called the Fates' Prophecies, a document that grants rewards for completing the game in various fashions or gathering different resources such as, for example, picking up every available boon from a single god.
  • Halo: The Master Chief Collection has a total gamerscore of 6000, with 600 achievements in all. This is due to having 1000 available for each game. (The Halo 2 Anniversary multiplayer is counted separately from the standard Halo 2 multiplayer.)

    I-L 

  • In Idolish 7, The player is given several rewards upon achieving certain goals such as meeting a combo requirement, getting a certain rank, or playing a song a certain number of times. There are also the bonus-giving badges which are also awarded to players upon reaching specific milestones.
  • Implosion: You can earn badges by completing levels under various conditions, some of which are designed to appeal to Challenge Gamers and 100% Completionists. In addition to expected conditions like completing the level "naked" (equipping no extra battle gear) or without damage, there are "Zero Knockdown" badges and one badge whose conditions are hidden until you earn it. Badges can then be used to collect rare ARKs or weapons.
  • Armor Games' Indestructo- series of games has had medals for in-game achievements ever since Indestructotank 2.
    • IndestructoTank 2: Max Combo (20, 40, 60), Total Kills (250, 1,000, 2,000) and completing the Classic, Enhanced and Adventure Modes at Easy, Medium and Hard levels.
    • IndestructoTank A.E.: Solo Star (max out all enemies in a Standard game), Chain Champ (25, 50 and 75 Combo), Free Flyer (launch your tank more than 90 feet in the air), Ducking Dirk and Pimpin' Pacifist (last for 30 or 60 seconds in Quick Play without destroying any aircraft)
    • In3structoTank!: Completing Adventure and Standard modes, getting 5,000 points in the Pindestructotank pinball game, getting 33/66/99 Combos, getting 100/250/500 kills, and beating Whizzkid or General Betton in one minute or less.
    • IndestructoCopter: Great/Expert/Ace Gunner (beat Easy/Medium/Hard mode), last for 5 minutes or get 30 combos in Challenge mode, Hot Shot (get a perfect score in level 4 in Easy/Medium/Hard mode).
  • Similarly, Stern's Jurassic Park machine bestows fossils to the player for certain milestones, ranging from finishing a T. rex mode to completing a mini-Wizard Mode. They're grouped into four sets, and each one has a Set Bonus awarding an increasing amount of points and another benefit (such as an extra ball).
  • Into the Breach: Each mech squad you can use has 3 achievements each, alongside a number of general achievements for every squad. These achievements give you coins, which are used to unlock even more mech squads.
  • Kenka Banchō has titles you unlock by thinking completely out of the box, such as staying the full seven days without leaving your room. Good luck.
  • Kid Icarus: Uprising: The game has Sakurai's signature "achievement wall" called Treasure Hunt.
  • Kirby
    • As mentioned below, Kirby Air Ride has Checklists for each of the three main game modes. This basic concept would be reused for later Smash Bros. games and, as mentioned above, Kid Icarus: Uprising.
    • Both Team Kirby Clash Deluxe and Super Kirby Clash feature "Heroic Missions," achievements that award Gem Apples or Rare Fragments upon completion. The former game features 256 missions, while the latter game features 900. The missions are also associated with a mechanic called the Heroic Rank; the higher it is, the more likely it is that Rare Fragments might show up in battles. In the latter game, the Level Cap increases the more missions are completed.
  • LittleBigPlanet has this starting from the second game, in the form of Pins. Pins are given out for all sorts of minor and major things, including time spent in your Pod, time spent playing story levels, ratings given to community levels, versus levels finished with friends, levels completed in a row without dying, and even more dubious achievements like coming in last in races, dying in community levels, or drowning. There's also an assortment of Secret Pins that have no real use beyond looking cool under your profile picture, for doing things like wearing the Jack-o-Lantern head on Halloween, playing on developer birthdays, or getting the Platinum trophy. In addition to the Platinum trophy pin, some other Pins are also tied to PSN Trophies.
  • Lunarosse: One made in RPG Maker example. The ones you get by default are mostly for show, but the ones you have to work for can unlock new moves, items and equipment.

    M-P 

  • Mad Max (2015) structures its level-up scheme as an internal achievement system, earning levels through various actions instead of grinding for Experience Points. However some of these achievements, particularly the combat-related ones, are repeatable, so if you really want you can go collect Thirty Car Bumpers for levels. You have to be intentionally avoiding a lot of content to have to rely on grinding to unlock your upgrades, though.
  • Magic Shop: There are fourteen trophies to earn for things like creating 150 artifacts or beatting four levels in a row without using spells.
  • Marvel vs. Capcom 3, in addition to the platform-standard achievement/trophy system, has a list of "Titles" and "Icons" the player can assign to their in-game profile; the player can see the requirements for unlocking individual titles (generally by beating the game's story mode with various characters).
  • Mass Effect:
    • Mass Effect implements Achievement as per Xbox 360 standard, but also gives almost all Achievements an in-game benefit, such as permanent passive boosts or unlocking a bonus talent to choose upon starting a new playthrough. Several Achievements in the series also carry benefits in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.
    • Mass Effect 3 also has a challenge system in its multiplayer mode, granting cosmetic banners and titles.
  • Medal of Honor: Vanguard awards medals after the end of each Operation, these include medals for: completing missions without dying, landing in a specific location at the start of the Operation during the parachute jump, getting over a certain number of headshots in a mission, using every type of weapon available in the mission, and obtaining enough of the other medals.
  • Miitopia gives medals to keep track of the party's progress, like leveling up a class to level 25 or visiting some areas.
  • Minecraft has its own system of "advancements" that are unlocked in a branching chain (for example, you have to smelt iron ore before you can make a bucket or iron pick), which start over on each new single-player world you create or server you join. The real purpose of this was to give clueless players a general idea of what they can do in the game, with the prerequisites hinting at how.
  • Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae has over thirty in-game achievements to unlock, and they can be unlocked by performing feats such as clearing the game on a certain difficulty, defeating bosses, and using a technique a certain number of times.
  • My Huntsman Academia has a list of "achievements" listed at the end of major battles. Clearing certain objectives will award CP (Character Points) for readers to invest into Izuku's stats and skills. However, the exact achievements aren't revealed to readers until after the fight is won. In addition, certain achievements can improve his relationships with the people he fights alongside.
  • Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012) has a large number of license plate designs that each require accomplishing certain tasks in multiplayer on top of the normal achievements/trophies for Xbox 360/PlayStation 3. Most Wanted U on the achievement system-agnostic Wii U has four exclusive license plate designs based on finding Easter Eggs.
  • Nexus Clash has an achievement system based on badges that are granted by a variety of sources. Some grant small rewards for visiting locations important to the series' backstory, but most are based on Stat Grinding. Doing just about any action can get you badges, and doing enough of it gets you more Character Points to spend on skills. Since Character Points can be spent on anything, this bridges on Refuge in Audacity when, for instance, a character who has murdered enough angels gains the ability to repair damaged doors and electrical grids.
  • Persona 5 Royal: In addition to its trophies/achievements, this Updated Re-release has a list of Awards for doing various tasks in daily life and in battle. These can be viewed in the game's Thieves Den mode.
  • Pikmin:
    • Pikmin 3 Deluxe awards badges for completing certain in-game objectives.
    • Pikmin Bloom has a few badges that are earned from certain milestone tasks such as how many steps taken, Pikmin grown, and total flowers planted.
  • PlanetSide 2 has Directives, achievements that are earned from completing various objectives, i.e kills with weapons, spotting enemies, and so on. Completing Directives grants account-wide but meaningless "Directive Score" and unlocks unique items, such as specially modified variants of standard-issue weapons, unique Tron Lines for vehicles, or camouflage. Additionally, the popular Recursion Stat-tracker Game Mod tracks kill and support achievements when the user is logged into Recursion, which run the gamut from simple double-kills to making players fall to their death to killstreaks of five hundred. Recursion achievements can be earned repeatedly, so you might get a dozen killstreak-related achievements in one session.
  • PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (in addition to the PS3 Trophy system) allows the player to select a variety of icons and backgrounds for their in-game profile and customize each character's intro/outro lines or Minion, which are unlocked primarily by accumulating enough points with specific characters (a few others are purchasable DLC).
  • In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, the player is given a "Medal Box" early and one medal to initially fill it with. As they progress through the game, an NPC named Mr. Medal may appear in a Pokémon Center to award more medals for completing various achievements, and provide hints about future medals. The medals themselves are color-coded into various categories (battling, trading, etc.), the decoration of which roughly reflects its difficulty, and there are a total of 255 throughout the game.
    • The medal system returns in Pokémon X and Y, but could only be seen on the Global Link site before it closed down.
  • In Polyrhythm Mania, you can earn achievements for playing and completing levels, letting widgets pass, exploding them, and playing the side modes.
  • Poptropica: Parodied on Mocktropica Island, which features the game being taken over by new developers as a way of mocking 2010s video game trends. One of the first new features is achievements, which are insulting and sarcastic. They're exclusive to this island's story, and you end up destroying the achievement system by the end (which also earns you an achievement).
    Focus tester: We've got something new and great happening. Achievements!
    You: Why would I want those?
    Focus tester: It's proof of what an awesome gamer you are! How would you know you had fun without achievements to prove it?
    You: Good point. I want some achievements. I need them. Now. How do I get some?
    Focus tester: Surprise! You just earned one!
    [an achievement popup appears: "Achiever! - Learn about the focus tester's terrible new idea"]
  • Portal 2 uses its achievement system for a good gag in Chapter 9:
    GlaDOS: Well, this is the part where he kills us!
    Wheatley: Hello! This is the part where I kill you!
    CHAPTER 9: The Part Where He Kills You
    Achievement Unlocked: The Part Where He Kills You

    Q-T 

  • Ratchet & Clank games have the Skill Point system - do unintuitive things to get points which you can use to spend on cheats and costumes. When the series got Trophy support, they kept the Skill Points but there are a lot fewer.
  • The site Retro Achievements uses modified emulators to add achievements to a whole host of classic games.
  • Revita has these under "Secrets", where accomplishing certain tasks during runs earns you more Imprisoned Keys to unlock more relics, or more blueprints to unlock more special rooms and more traits to help you out on runs.
  • RuneScape has an achievement system. The first achievements that were added to the game are categorized into different sets based on area and difficulty level that give rewards for completing them. In 2017 the achievement system was reworked to include the requirements for getting the completionist capes as well as adding large number of new achievements for leveling up skills, defeating bosses, and many other things. Most achievements now add to a score called your RuneScore. Although many achievement sets have rewards for finishing them, the RuneScore is only for bragging rights.
  • A rare Pinball example: Gottlieb's Shaq Attaq has five "Hidden Features", each of which is awarded after performing a certain feat in the game. An end-of-game bonus is given for the number of Hidden Features found; getting all five awards an extra one billion points.
  • While the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the Skylanders games feature system-standard Trophies and Achievements, the Wii version includes them as a list of "Accolades". In addition, Skylanders: Giants adds "Quests" which are nine achievements specific to each individual figurine (three of them unique to each element, and one unique to that specific character); completing these unlocks metallic Top Hats (bronze, silver, gold) for that specific figure to wear. Quests are saved with the actual figurine, even the ones not officially part of the Giants lineup.
  • Quiz website Sporcle has Badges, which track an user's playing history and progress. There are over 1000, from the basic (creating an account, linking to social media, playing * games), to ones ranging from category, day, time of day, etc. including ones during specific periods. A few are borderline abusive to get, such as playing every day for 100 days.
  • Protect Me Knight: The second game in the series, Gotta Protectors, features "Awards" for performing certain feats within the game, such "Defeat X boss with Y character on Z difficulty" and "Level up X facility to Lv.XX", however these are only visible to the player after beating the game for the first time.
  • Spore Creatures: The Badge system tracks numerous statistics about your play-through which count toward Badges. Every Badge earned awards Badge Points, which can be put towards useful bonus parts from the Part Shop, or cheats in the Cheat Shop.
  • Squaredle: There are a number of achievements that can be earned and viewed from the menu, including ones for finishing a certain number of puzzles, ones for completing a puzzle under a certain amount of time, and one for completing a puzzle without any mistakes.
  • Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is one of the earlier games to use this system in the form of Battle Trophies. From easier ones such as "Fight X number of battles" to harder ones like "Defeat X bosses within X minutes in hardest difficulty with single character". Star Ocean: The Last Hope also has its own Battle Trophies but for each character instead of for everyone. Both games will reward the player once certain amount of trophies percentages have been reached.
  • Sunset Overdrive: Completing the collection of some types of collectibles, provides some Cosmetic Awards, like getting the free Camera Hat from destroying all the cameras, and 10 OverCharge and 10 Money.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Super Mario Bros.: Though absent in the original version, it features an achievement system in the Deluxe version for the Game Boy Color, in the form of the album. By doing various tasks, like finishing the game or defeating enemies, you can complete the album with pictures or medals related to your achievement that you can even comment and print thanks to the Game Boy Printer! However, the print option has been removed in the 3DS Virtual Console release due to the obvious incompatibility with the Printer. Also in the Virtual Console version, due to the removal of Multiplayer, 2 pictures have been permanently locked, making 100% completion legitimately impossible on 3DS.
    • Super Mario Odyssey has a list of various achievements that you can complete once you finish the game, such as collecting various kinds of Power Moons (for example, by Ground Pounding or through wearing certain clothes), collecting souvenirs or costumes, or even by jumping or throwing your hat enough times. For each achievement, you earn a Power Moon.
    • Mario Party DS: Each collectible item requires completing a specific achievement. Many of them are self-explanatory (though not necessarily easy or time-saving), but others are based on unintuitive or non-obvious actions.
    • Mario Party 10: This game includes a Mario Party Challenge List with challenges that players can complete throughout the game. Clearing these challenges will earn the player Mario Party Points to use in the Shop in Toad's Room.
    • Mario Party Superstars: There are several feats that can be done across the various game modes to make stars shine in a night sky seen through Kamek's crystal ball in his Data House. They range from relatively easy (like earning 3, 5 or 7 stars during a party session), going through long-term which require playing the game frequently (like landing on an Event Space 30 times or depositing coins in the Koopa Bank 50 times), to very difficult (like reaching Level 99 in Stick 'n' Spin or getting a S rank in every 1-vs.-3 minigame when playing Trio Challenge). Meeting achievements grants titles and namesakes that the player can later use for their Mario Party Card.
    • Mario & Luigi: Dream Team has the Expert Challenges, which give you points for things like dodging a certain number of enemies, winning fights against each monster without getting hit and using special attacks successfully. This eventually unlocks some useful items.
    • Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam also uses Expert Challenges like its predecessor. They're rather handily divided into separate categories for easy sorting. These earn you points that can be traded in for unique equipment.
    • Luigi's Mansion 3 has four different types of achievements: Collection, Hotel, Battle and Scarescraper. The collection achievements relate to collecting all the gems on each floor and the type of money you amass. Hotel achievements are more miscellaneous, involving such things as riding the elevator 50 times, finding and interacting certain objects, etc. Battle achievements involve defeating different types of ghosts while Scarescraper achievements revolve around clearing floors and defeating rare ghosts.
    • Wario Land: Shake It! has multiple challenges for each level and boss battle that can be optionally completed. Once all are completed for a level/boss battle, the music for said level/boss is added to the Sound Test.
    • WarioWare: D.I.Y. became the first game in the WarioWare series to implement a recording of achievements. D.I.Y.'s achievements reward music for the player to listen to, while later games reward Coins.
  • The Super Smash Bros. games starting with Brawl include "Challenges" grids, each of which unlocks a cosmetic award (such as trophies or music for the player's collection). The player may check details of any achievement that is horizontally adjacent to one they've already acquired, and they also have a limited number of 'golden hammer' items that can be used to unlock an award without having to complete the objective for it. Other games by Masahiro Sakurai, Kirby Air Ride and Kid Icarus: Uprising, have similar Challenge grids.
  • Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido has the Triumph system consisting of 15 categories, all of which are numerical (such as winning X battles, doing X damage in one attack, or collecting X Sushi Sprites). Each category contains 9 Triumphs, each of which have a higher numerical requirement than the last and, fitting the game's conveyor belt sushi theme, take the form of colored plates in order of how they're traditionally priced in a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. The game will ask you to get a certain number of Triumphs of particular ranks; if you can fulfill those requirements, your Striker Rank will increase. In addition to rewards given out at each Striker Rank promotion, the higher your Striker Rank, the more likely Sushi Sprites will join you, with most of the late-game and postgame Sushi Sprites requiring a minimum Striker Rank to recruit.
  • Tales of Maj'Eyal has a total of over 1500 Steam achievements, a lot. As of 2013-12-15 this is more achievements than Steam can handle properly, which results in Steam often forgetting what achievements the player has. Approximately three-quarter of the achievements is under the 1% level, and the hardest ones are actually at 0%.
    • It also tracks achievements separately on its own servers for all players with an online account (including those who didn't buy the Steam version). Notably, most achievements have multiple versions for the different difficulty levels (excluding the easiest modes for which no achievements are awarded), and the TE4 server awards the achievement for all difficulty settings less than your own, but Steam only awards them for that exact difficulty. Resynching achievements from TE4 is needed to unlock the extra achievements on Steam.
  • The Steam achievements in Team Fortress 2 were originally the only way to unlock additional gear for your characters. You can still obtain all of the original 27 unlockables this way, which is handy since the sheer number of items in the random drop pool now means the odds of finding those particular ones by the time you reach the necessary milestones to unlock them are slim.
  • Tofu Tower Deplanty: The achievements list is accessible by a medal silhouette in the Start Screen, and there's a reward of coins to purchase things such as new dangers and character and world restylings, a.k.a skins. The coin reward is tier of Achievement x 10. Such as not getting hit for 30, 60, 90 and 120 seconds being the four tiers of "Time first Hit".
  • The Tree of Life: There are more than 1000 achievements to earn for getting resources or completing challenges, with their names just being their respective number ("One", "Two", "Three", etc.)

    U-Z 

  • When it came to consoles, Undertale was required to add achievements, and so went with distinctly easy and simple ones that have nothing to do with the story, including four for getting any random items, and 15 (out of 30) for donating to the Dog Shrine. This reinforces the game's critique of completionism in gaming by not rewarding you for anything aside from playing the game.
  • Vagrant Story was one of the earliest examples of this. You actually had to go through several menus to find it in the "gazette" and many of the titles you got were extremely difficult to achieve. One was for getting through the game without saving, for example.
  • Valkyria Chronicles is just old enough that it is not part of the PS3 trophy system. Instead, it has a set of medals that are awarded for clearing specific missions that represent Squad 7's role in major campaigns or completing conditions like defeating a large number of enemies or achieving the highest rank on all stages. The two sequels on PSP have a similar system. The PS4 Remastered version of the first game merges these medals into the trophy system.
  • In Wii Sports Resort, every sporting event has a list of five "stamps" awarded for such things like getting a perfect score, performing certain tasks like fighting their opponent to a draw in Swordplay, popping balloons while air touring the island, or hitting hidden fruit targets in Archery.
  • The Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory pinball machine awards gumballs to the player after completing certain tasks, ranging from amassing enough bumper hits to the Herculean task of cashing in a full "scrumdiddlyumptious" combo. One random achievement will also award a Golden Ticket (one of five needed to reach the Wizard Mode).
  • In World in Conflict multiplayer, you gain medals and badges for various scoring points or winning matches, among other things. Medals and badges are tiered bronze, silver, and gold; the screen that displays them also explains (via tooltips) the requirements for unlocking them. You can also view players' medals in their public online profiles on the Massgate service website.
  • World of Warcraft gained its achievement system during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. In addition to the cosmetic "points" for achievement, players can also unlock in-game items or titles for performing certain achievements. Older achievements that have since been lost forever are relegated to the "Legacy" or "Feat of Strength" sections.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1 has a large variety of internal achievements that grant Non-Combat EXP when completed. They're split in 2 categories, Trials and Records, with the former largely relating to the various sidequests and latter being mostly combat based. Only the latter carry over to New Game Plus, possibly because the former are more tied to the overall story progress and the latter generally have further stretching goals.
  • ZeroRanger features a double-subversion, if playing via Steam. There is only one Steam achievement, "SYSTEM ENDLESS", which is obtained by beating the True Final Boss. Afterwards, the game's internal achievement system, which is not tracked by Steam, is revealed and unlocked. Completing achievements earns tokens that can be used to unlock bonus illustrations.

Other

    Literature 

  • Dungeon Crawler Carl: The Dungeon comes with an achievement system, often (but not always) accompanied by a loot box reward. Many of the more common achievements are used as a means to unlock/teach crawlers about basic systems; for example, you can't see your XP bar until you kill something, gaining XP for the first time. Carl starts out flooded with over a dozen achievements, which his trainer explains is normal for early crawlers. The Dungeon AI also has a bit of leeway on giving out extra prizes... such as when it gives Carl bonuses for killing things with his bare feet.
    New achievement! Podophilia!
    You've used your bare feet to crush and kill an opponent! Hey! That's my fetish! Seriously. Keep doing it, and you'll be rewarded. This will help.
    Reward: You've received a Gold Shoe Box!
  • Marvel Multiverse Missions are a small Gamebook series with an achievement system in each one. A lot are unlocked through story progression, but there are a few "Super Achievements" you can get by having ridiculously high stats by the end of the adventure, or having everything in a set, among others.


Achievement Unlocked: Achievement System Described.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Video Game Achievements, Achievement, Achievements System

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Royal coffers achievement

Finding King MacFrights' secret treasure trove awards an achievement in addition to all the gold and gem.

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