About This Guide
This guide will go into detail on what requirements are needed to complete the achievements in Them and Us from Steam. Some of the achievements are automatically completed as you go through the game, so if you already finished the game, you will have completed them. This guide will focus on the ones you can miss, going into details for the more complex ones and for the ones with hidden requirements on the Steam page.
The following achievements are automatically completed if you finished the game:
- Alone with Them
- Forced to Kill
- Safe...For now?
- Open Sesame
- What have I done!?
- Them and Us
- OUTRAGE
- This Coffin Has Your Name On It!
- The Forgotten Tower
- The Cultists
- Trapped
For the remaining achievements, their Steam description will be under their names in italic. Some achievements will need further description than the one provided, others won’t. There will also be some helpful tips for some of them.
Note: If you complete an achievement while steam servers are down or during maintenance, they might not register as being completed after doing the requirements. If you do the requirements correctly but do not get the achievement, it might be worth trying again at a different time.
A Night To Remember
Die for the first time.
Retro Player
Finish the story in fixed camera mode.
Modern Player
Finish the game in Over The Shoulder mode.
The Bus Stop
Listen to the radio show inside the office from start to finish.
In the first person section with Paul in his office, turn on the radio and wait until the radio show finishes. It’s quite long, about 25 minutes.
Lover Of Classics
Listen to any Famous LP record from start to finish.
After saving the game with a vinyl record from famous classical music (the ones with the composer on top of the record and the song title in the item name), wait until the song finishes playing (you will hear a record scratch at the end). Keep in mind that the generic records with no song name will not work for this achievement.
Note: I’m not sure whether opening your inventory during the time that the song is playing impacts the completion of the achievement or not. In any case, if you’re having trouble completing it, try just waiting after saving the game until you hear the record scratch.
Parasite Exterminated
Put an end to the Gardener spreading the infection on the island.
Kill the big green guy in the garden, near the entrance to the graveyard map.
Alone In The Dark
Find a way to unlock the bow-gun mechanism.
The code can be found written on the wall of the storage room in the same cabin as the bow gun (4781).
Die Another Day
Kill a stalker while executing an instant-death attack.
These are the orange-ish enemies found in the garden (and there’s one behind the purple gate in the courtyard). The instant-death attack is the jump attack, which they may use if you’re low on health (either below half or in orange caution, not 100% sure on what the starting health point is for the attack to be enabled).
One tip for getting this achievement is to weaken the enemy by shooting it with a few handgun bullets (4 shots should do it regardless of the difficulty, less is needed for lower difficulties) and then shooting it with the shotgun during the jump. This will ensure that the enemy will die from the shotgun shot (if it hits it, of course) and you don’t die from the enemy staying alive after your shot and insta-killing you.
No Time To Relax
Finish the game without saving.
Keep in mind that you can still use the autosaves while completing this achievement (on Normal or Easy).
Before The Eclipse
Finish the game in under 3 hours.
You can also get this achievement by going for a New Game+ playthrough with the Traveler Ending, which is much shorter than a regular playthrough since you skip the whole section outside of the mansion and some of the end sections, making it easier to finish under 3 hours. It might be a little harder in terms of supplies though, especially in difficulties higher than Easy.
This Mansion Is Clean
Kill all the walkers in the mansion.
Although the achievement description says “walkers” (which is how they call the regular zombies), from my experience, you actually have to kill all enemies from the mansion, regardless of whether they’re regular zombies or not.
I Am The Gate Keeper!
Defeat Gate Keeper at the old tower.
After solving the puzzle from the Riddle Note (which you get from using the Empty Antique Paper in the blue fire), defeat the Gate Keeper in the area where you find the Shotgun. Keep in mind that leaving the room and going to the Catacombs will despawn the boss, and you will miss the opportunity to defeat him in this form.
Researcher
Enter Dr. Arnold Howard's research chamber.
This is the room in the Catacombs that can be unlocked with the Researcher Key, which drops from the Gate Keeper if you kill him at the old tower (see the achievement above).
The Curse Is Real
Defeat the Gate Keeper in his third form.
Defeat the Gate Keeper in the Courtyard when you’re on your way to use the Red Sapphire Key to get the Nautical Rope.
Rest In Peace
Defeat the zombie named Adrian Bennet.
After you defeat the Gate Keeper in the third form (see achievement above), you get the Purple Sapphire Key. After going through the purple gate, you can find some items to the right, including the MAC Submachine Gun. After the small cutscene that happens when you approach the MAC, pick it up and go back to the purple gate or to the end of the path to the left and then come back to where the MAC was. The zombie will be standing up. He’s more resistant than a regular zombie, Kill him and he’ll drop the Ceres Key.
What A Mansion
Unlock all rooms from the Mansion.
Most rooms will be unlocked on your way to complete the game, but there are some optional rooms that you need to unlock for this achievement. The Ceres room is one of them (see the achievement above for the key), which is on the first floor near the broken wheelchair. The Minerva Key also unlocks some optional rooms, one on the second floor, which is a save room near where you get the Nebra Sun, and one on the first floor near the room where you start the game (in which you get the Kid Drawing).
Run And Gun
Kill all the enemies in the village before time runs out.
This achievement is completed during the section you play as Paul after the swamp. During the village ambush, after the alarm goes off at the start, you have about 8 minutes until the red chainsaw guy appears. However, he’ll appear earlier if you kill all enemies before those 8 minutes. That’s what you need to do to get this achievement. Keep in mind that the timer is still counting while you have your inventory open, so avoid spending too much time in it if you're trying to get this achievement. Most enemies are regular zombies, but there is a dog in the initial wave of enemies and, at some point, 4 dogs and a chainsaw guy will spawn. There’s also a couple of exploding zombies.
Armed To The Teeth
Obtain all weapons.
In addition to the Handgun and the Shotgun, which are hard to miss, you need the Bow Gun (see the Alone In The Dark achievement above), the MAC Submachine Gun (see the Rest In Peace achievement above) and the Cannon of Hope, which can be obtained during the final boss fight by going for the “Good” and the “Secret” endings (after checking the Skull Island map near the helicopter area, go back to the boat you took from the swamp to go for the good ending).
Dressed To Kill
Unlock all costumes.
Finish the game with the “Bad”, “Good”, and “Secret” endings (on any difficulty) and on Hard or Professional to unlock all costumes. There is also the costume unlocked by getting the “Traveler Ending”, but since that was added to the game after the achievements and the costume doesn’t appear on the list until you unlock it, I don’t think getting it is necessary in order to complete this achievement.
For the Bad ending, after the Paul section in the village, DO NOT check the Skull Island map. Interact with the helicopter, choose “no” and go back to the boat.
For the Good and the Secret ending, check the Skull Island map and go back to the boat. The Secret ending has additional requirements (see the Back In Time achievement), while for the good ending you just have to finish the game after this.
Back In Time
Unlock the secret ending.
This is only available after you’ve finished the game once. You need to have solved all 4 pyramids in the dark world (which are accessible after you beat the game for the first time, through the "abandon all hope" doors from the first playthrough), obtained certain files (the Letter to Paul, which is in the Ceres room, see the achievement Rest In Peace; and the Unknown Source Diary, which is next to the Minerva Key. There may be some other files required), and translated your files with the strange device in the room unlocked with the old key in the cathedral (interact with it 5 times). Pick up the file after the final boss fight in the boss arena. A portal should appear in the middle of the arena after you pick it up.
(See the achievement above for how to get to the Cathedral and Skull Island)
The 5th Element
Unlock all 5 gates.
This can be achieved by going for the secret ending.
Chosen One
Find all documents in the game.
This is also achieved by going for the secret ending, as the final file can only be obtained this way. You can see the list of notes and their locations in the full walkthrough guide. There’s only one file location that has been changed from where it is in the guide, which is the Prisoner’s Note, which is now behind the rope when you go down to the catacombs to get the Light Medallion.
Note: There is a bug that if you solve the red pyramid puzzle before picking up the lighter in the dark world, the Five Elements of Nature Note might not appear. So you'll want to avoid doing that when going for this achievement, at least until this is fixed (if it is ever fixed)..
Box Of Ploutus
Solve the Box Of Ploutus.
This is only available on Hard or Professional, since the puzzle is already solved on Normal and Easy when you pick up the Box of Ploutus Note. The solution is shown below, and you can figure it out from the note.
Survival Hero
Finish the game on Hard difficulty.
Nightmare Over
Finish the game on Professional difficulty.
Life Of The Thousand Gods
Kill all the shadow creatures on Fog Island.
For this achievement you need to kill all the portal creatures on Fog Island, but you DO NOT need to kill them in the dark world. Even though they appear out of nowhere, their spawn points are scripted, and some of them need you to walk in a specific part of the map to trigger it.
Note: I did this achievement in OTS, and while the spawn locations are the same, in Fixed Camera they also spawn in the graveyard area after the church bell rings, which is not the case in OTS. So I couldn't confirm if I had killed all of them in the graveyard in Fixed Camera, since the achievement was already completed . Also, I wrote this guide after having already done the achievement, so I couldn’t get confirmation that I killed all of them when I was gathering screenshots for the guide either, therefore it is possible I missed some (though I’m 99% sure I did get all of them).
Below are the positions on the map that you need to walk around in order to spawn the enemies (white arrow). Some of them are already spawned. In those cases, the map position is their original position when you enter the area. All of these are from both Fixed Camera and OTS. The Fixed Camera exclusive spawn locations in the graveyard will be at the end of this section.
For the next one, you need the Door Handle, which you can find at the top of the old tower, where the ladder to the catacombs is. You can only access it before you complete the puzzle from the Riddle Note, so make sure you pick it up.
The next 4 are after you defeat the Gate Keeper and come back to the area after having left.
For the next one on the right, you need the Researcher Key (see the achievement Researcher)
Starting from the next one, all of them only spawn after you defeat the gatekeeper in this area
The next one is on the left side of the fence, accessed from the purple gate.
Fixed Camera Exclusive:
These are only in Fixed Camera, and after the bell rings, which happens after you kill the super zombie in the crypt (he drops half of the Church Key)
Survival Horror
Finish the story with an S+ Rank on "Professional".
For S+ on Professional, you need to finish the game in less than 2h30min, save the game a maximum of 3 times, use 4 or less healing items, and not use infinite ammo weapons. This info was obtained from the game files and not all of the requirements’ limits were tested (but you’ll definitely get an S+ if you fulfill all of these requirements). I did test the save limit and I did confirm the limit was 3 indeed. Keep in mind that you start the game in Danger, so you’ll immediately use 1 healing item at the beginning.
Some helpful tips for completing this achievement, and playing on Professional in general:
- Crippling the zombies that are hard to avoid is the best way to use your handgun ammo. On Professional, critical headshots are rare and usually only happen after you already dealt a lot of damage to the zombie. Closed reticle shots on the zombies’ thighs have a higher chance to cripple them from what I’ve gathered. (Closed reticle shots in OTS deal more damage, have higher critical chance and more knockback power). Shooting them in the legs also works in Fixed Camera.
- Most enemies take you to Danger with one attack, no matter what your health is. That means a small bandage + ointment can have the same effect as a full heal, in most cases. There are some enemies that can kill you from outside of Danger though, like the exploding zombies and regular zombie's vomit and the sewer boss, so be aware of that (but in the case of the zombies' vomit, they also don't take you to danger in 1 hit if you have enough health).
- The hardest part of the game is the beginning, when you don’t have a lot of resources and there are a lot of small areas that make enemies hard to avoid, so if you’re doing well in the initial mansion section, I recommend using one of the saves there.
- If you have trouble killing the dogs with the Handgun before you get the Shotgun, you can shoot them through the fence before you open the blue gate (in the courtyard area) and from the second floor (in the mansion).
- When fighting the portal enemies (there are 2 mandatory fights with them), be careful with their quick attacks. Wait for an attack that keeps them still for a while, get some distance and shoot them with the Shotgun. Also, when using the green water to access the red pyramid, you might want to splash the blue water on the enemies in the room after luring them far away from the portal, just to slow them down while you splash the green water on the portal (try to splash them after their slower attacks as well). Otherwise, you have to rely on luck not to get hit after the animation from the green water.
- Since you’re likely going to do the very bad ending for this achievement, there’s no final boss, so don’t hesitate in using your ammo for the good weapons. You get 10 mine arrows in the swamp, which should be enough for the 3 cultists in the helicopter area.
- When fighting the cultists, make sure you wait for them to start moving to shoot them again with the Shotgun. If you try to shoot them while they’re in a knockback animation, they will immediately run at you instead. Be careful when shooting them from the back initially as well, they might quickly turn around if your shot doesn’t knock them back.
- In the area where you have to kill the red cultist to get the Angel Medallion, you can shoot once, exit the room and repeat this process to kill the enemies without taking damage. It will cost you some time though, and that’s also a requirement. Watch out for the axe throw as well.
- In the village section with Paul, kill the initial dog and avoid killing other enemies, just cripple them and wait. This way, the second wave of enemies might not spawn if you didn't kill some enemies when trying to cripple them (the wave with 4 dogs and a chainsaw) and you’ll just have to wait for the 8 minutes to run out for the red chainsaw guy to appear. Don’t hesitate in using the Magnum on the dogs, there's enough ammo around for the dogs and the chainsaw guys (a police officer zombie from the last wave of enemies drops magnum ammo as well). Also, the timer does count while you're with the inventory open, but if you wait the whole timer this way then the red chainsaw guy might spawn together with the enemy wave with the dogs and the other chainsaw, so be careful.
Spiritual Essence Well Spent
Unlock the mysterious key known as Key to the Unknown [Special item].
For this achievement, all you need to do is buy this key from the Box of Ploutus. If you’re trying to get all achievements completed, this one can be easily done, since you get 100k spiritual essence on New Game+ for getting an S+ Rank on Professional, so you can just wait to do this achievement after the one above and you won’t have to grind spiritual essence at all. Otherwise, you will have to grind for it. It can be done in one playthrough (but not in the first playthrough), though you’ll have to avoid using ammo on any optional enemies, and it can probably only be done in one playthrough if it’s on Easy (for resources reasons), and you’ll have to kill the monsters from the dark world, so make sure to kill all the green ones you can before you lose the green divine chalice, just to maximize the essence you’ll get (but you can probably get it even if you don’t kill them since there are a lot of these enemies in the portals for the other pyramids).
Pet The Dog
You can pet the dog in Them and Us.
This can be achieved by using the Key to the Unknown to open the door in the portal room.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2594005369
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- Them and us guia en espaol
- Them & Us: Guide/Walkthrough to completing the Story
- Healing item data
- THEM AND US ver0.8.0 play guide
- Achivement Guide: Halloween Event
- Them and Us Guide: Alternate ending / path (Traveler Ending)