Choosing what a run is for
Take the challenge rules now: 8 of them, each kept from the start to an ending. Several combine, so one careful run can carry more than one. The prep-window ones are decided in the same breath: 5 kg, 25 kg, 50 kg of supplies bought before the outbreak.
A run is already going
The rules are closed to you, but the 26 counted ones and the 7 day markers are not. Check the counts early rather than at day 80: the largest is Mountain of Corpses at 2,000.
Chasing the endings
9 achievements ask for one particular ending each, and no character reaches them all, so the group is at least 3 runs. Every ending has who reaches what.
Nothing is unlocking
18 achievements keep their name hidden until they fire, and 6 of those are the game’s own Hidden group: single actions rather than long goals. The table further down names them, and none costs a run.
Open the achievements list Every achievement with its group, whether it tracks a count and what it asks for.
There are 93 achievements across 10 groups, and most of them do not need planning: you cook, you plant, you survive, and they arrive. 8 of them do not work like that. Every one is a rule you keep for a whole run, and every one is lost the moment you break it, so they are decisions made before day 1, not goals you pick up in week eight.
The ones that have to be planned
| Achievement | The rule |
|---|---|
| Just Once | Reached the ending without using a single rebirth in this save file |
| Stay behind closed doors | Reached the ending without ever leaving home in this run |
| Minimal Budget | Reached the ending while spending less than half of your money before the disaster in this run |
| Flawless | Reached the ending while keeping doors and windows above 70% throughout this run |
| Vegetarianism | Reached the ending without eating any meat in this run |
| Going Solo | Reached the ending without making a single trade in this run |
| One Person's Hundred Days | Reached the ending without ever progressing the Neighbor storyline in this run |
| Never Fallen | Reached the ending without Life ever dropping below 20% in this run |
Read them as run plans rather than as a checklist. Three observations about the set:
They all end at an ending. Every one is worded as reaching an ending, not surviving to a particular day, so each of these is a full run, judged on day 87. That makes them expensive: 8 rules, none of which can be combined carelessly.
Some of them do combine. Nothing about never trading conflicts with never eating meat, and neither conflicts with keeping the doors above their threshold. A single careful run can carry several at once, which is the only way the set is reasonable to complete.
One of them rules an ending out. The rule about never progressing the neighbour storyline rules out the endings built around another person for that run. Those need exactly the thing the achievement forbids. Plan it on a run aimed at one of the build-for endings instead.
The ending group is the long pole
14 achievements sit in the Ending group, and they are the ones that take the most calendar time, because reaching all of them means playing every character. Every ending and how the game picks yours has the full table; the short version is that no single character reaches them all, so the group is at least 3 full runs before any of the challenge rules are layered on.
The days the game marks
| Day | Achievement | What the game says |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | First Night of Disaster | Survive Day 1 after the disaster |
| 7 | Week 1 | Survive Day 7 after the disaster |
| 30 | One Month | Survive Day 30 after the disaster |
| 50 | Fifty Days | Survive Day 50 after the disaster |
| 70 | Day of Reckoning | Survive to Day 70, and responses from all parties arrive one after another |
| 88 | The Final Horde | Survive the final horde on Day 87 |
| 100 | One Hundred Days | Survive Day 100 after the disaster |
That table is the shape of a run in one place, and it is read from the field each achievement carries rather than from its sentence. One of them differs between the two: the achievement the game calls the final horde asks for day 88 while its own description says day 87, so it fires once that day is behind you. Every planned ending needs the judgement on day 87; only an uncommitted run reaches day 100.
The counted ones need a target in mind
26 achievements track you against a running count rather than a single moment.
| Achievement | Wants | What it asks |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain of Corpses | 2,000 | Kill 2,000 zombies in this loop |
| Meat Grinder | 400 | Kill 400 zombies in this loop |
| Tinkerer | 100 | Craft a total of 100 items |
| Balcony Farmer | 50 | Harvest a total of 50 times in this loop |
| Home-Style Cooking | 30 | Cook a total of 30 dishes in this loop |
| Perfectionism | 30 | Cook 30 perfect dishes in this loop |
Those are worth checking before a run rather than discovering at day 80 that the count is a fifth of the way there. The list’s Tracks a count filter has all 26.
The ones you would never find
18 achievements keep their name hidden until they unlock. 12 of those are ending ones, for obvious reasons. The other 6 are the game’s own Hidden group, and they are the only achievements on the list you could finish the game several times without ever tripping.
| Achievement | What it asks |
|---|---|
| Between Neighbors | Expressed stance 20 times in community groups |
| TV Enthusiast | Score 70 in a TV mini-game |
| A Room Full of Flowers | Harvest 10 flowers |
| Collector | Collect and display all souvenirs |
| Cold as Ice | Take a cold shower using Ice Cubes |
| Midnight Kitchen | Cook a meal at 3 AM |
None of them costs a run. They are single actions taken at the right moment. Read them once and they stop being hidden.
What to do
- Pick the challenge rules for a run before you start it, not during. They are all-or-nothing.
- Group compatible rules onto one run. Several of the 8 coexist happily.
- Keep the neighbour rule for a run aimed at a build-for ending. It rules the people endings out.
- Check the counted achievements early. 2,000 of anything is not a last-week project.
- Treat the Ending group as a 3-character plan, not a single-run one.
Quick reference
- 93 achievements, 10 groups.
- 8 are run-long rules decided before day 1.
- 26 track a count; the largest is 2,000.
- 18 are hidden until they unlock, 6 of them one-off oddities.
- Every ending achievement is judged on day 87.