Achievements

A list of feats the game watches for while you fly. Each one pays credits and discovery the first time you do it, and that is where most of a new pilot's money comes from.

What they are

An achievement is one thing worth doing, written down in advance with a price on it. Going supersonic is one. Getting a periapsis clear of the atmosphere is one. So is launching with landing struts aboard, taking a reading in Mars' air, and coming to rest on ground steeper than 10° without tipping over. There are 150 of them in all.

They are not a side activity. Early on they are your income: your first launch from Earth pays 200 credits and 5 discovery. Every node on the tech tree is bought with discovery, and achievements are what pay it, so the tree opens at the speed you fly new things.

They are judged as you fly

Nothing has to be claimed, submitted or handed in. The game watches the flight itself: every step it checks your altitude, speed, G, the ship's parts, where you are and what you just fired against the whole list, and anything that matches unlocks on the spot. A banner slides in over whatever screen you are on, naming the feat and the reward, and your credits and discovery move at once.

Because it is the live flight that is judged, an achievement is earned in the moment and never afterwards. There is no way to go back and count a feat you have already flown.

A ship you are not flying is still watched for the few feats the world can see for itself. If it coasts into another world's sphere of influence while the game is shut, or its course turns into an orbit or an escape, the achievement for that is earned there and then, its reward is paid, and your phone tells you. Everything else, from your altitude to the parts you fire, is only judged while you fly.

They pay once

Each achievement pays exactly once, for the whole life of your account. Reaching 10 km again pays nothing the second time. This is why the rewards get very large further out: the whole payment for landing on Mars has to arrive in one go, and it does, at 8,000 credits and 150 discovery.

Rewards are paid in credits, in discovery, or in both. A feat that proves a machine works tends to pay credits; a feat that teaches you something tends to pay discovery. A few pay discovery alone.

Note

A reading taken with a scientist aboard pays more than the same reading taken without one. The bonus is the scientist's own, and the toast names them when it pays. See Science and readings.

Where the list is

From the hangar, tap the purse at the top left of the screen, then Achievements. The sheet lists what you have earned at the top with a green tick and the reward it paid, then everything still to do, muted. The line under the title counts them: "2 / 153 unlocked". Under that are two filters, Completed and Not completed, both ticked each time the sheet opens. Untick Completed to see only what is left to chase, or Not completed to see only what you have earned (the padlocked and hidden rows go with it, since they are still to earn).

The Achievements sheet over the hangar. Two rows at the top have green ticks and green rewards, Space! and Touchdown; below them Liftoff, Sound Barrier, Above the Clouds and others are muted with grey rewards. The header reads 2 / 153 unlocked, and under it the two filters, Completed and Not completed, are both ticked. — Earned at the top, still to do below. The figures on the right of each row are what that row pays.

Every achievement you can see before earning it is listed, with its reward, in the Achievements reference.

Some need parts you have not unlocked

Two thirds of the achievements can only be earned with a particular part aboard — firing a vacuum engine, opening a payload bay, latching a docking port. Until the tech tree has sold you that part there is nothing you can do about them, so they are not listed one by one either. They are counted into a row of their own, marked with a padlock, just above the hidden one.

The row shrinks as you buy tech. Every node you unlock puts the achievements its parts make possible back on the list, with their titles, what they want and what they pay — so the list grows with your rocket, and what is on it at any moment is what you could go and do today.

The bottom of the Achievements sheet on a new account. Above the hidden row sits a padlocked row reading 60 need parts you have not unlocked, Buy the tech that sells them and they join the list. — A brand-new account. Sixty of the hundred and fifty-two are behind parts that are not in the palette yet.

The count at the top of the sheet does not change: it is out of every achievement in the game, listed or not. See The tech tree for how parts are bought.

Some are hidden

Not every achievement is on the sheet. The still-hidden ones are counted into a single row at the bottom that says how many there are and nothing more. You find out what one was by earning it, at which point it turns into an ordinary row like the rest, with its title, what you did and what it paid.

The bottom of the Achievements sheet. Under the last visible rows sits a row marked with a question mark, reading 18 hidden achievements, Earn one to find out what it was. — The last row on the list. That is everything the game will tell you about them.

Offline, and in sandbox

A feat done while the game has no connection still unlocks and still shows on the sheet. Its reward waits, marked "reward pending", and is paid the moment the game reaches your account again. Nothing is lost by flying offline.

In sandbox the feats count too, on a list of their own. The toast says ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED as usual, with the discovery the reward would have paid and the words "in sandbox", and the sheet shows what you have done there. That list is kept on this phone only (see Your account), and while you are in sandbox it is the one the sheet shows.

Careful

A sandbox achievement pays nothing: no credits, and no discovery you can spend, because sandbox must never be a faster way to progress. It also does not count on your account. Fly the feat again in the shared world to unlock it there and be paid for it.