Achievements, trophies and the 8 you cannot see

Two counts, one game

The difference is structural, not content: PlayStation adds a platinum for earning everything else. If you are following a Steam list on PS5, expect one extra entry at the end.

The 100% checklist

Everything a complete run asks for, in the order the list implies:

• Unlock all 48 Steam achievements.
• Reach player level 30.
• Clear missions from Threat Level 1 through 7.
• Kill 5,000 enemies.
• Collect 200 upgrades, and eventually discover every upgrade.
• Complete missions across the required regions, including X11-B.
• Rescue the Mycologist during Expedition Alpha.
• Reach Floor 10 in Incursion.
• Score 10,000 in Starrunner.
• Finish the achievements that require other players.

Progression and upgrade achievements

Space Optimization is the one that needs a plan: use a high-level item that already carries many small upgrades and shuffle until nine fit. Serial Killer is almost always the last thing you finish — it goes faster at higher swarm levels, but it is a long tail by design.

Combat and movement

Slap: Hornets are the missiles that chase you. Shoot one a few times to weaken it, then punch it before it reaches you. Growth-clearing missions are the easiest place to find them, because many spawn after you kill the big growths.

Swinger needs Scrapper: jump, start the grapple without touching the floor, and swing until the charge is fully depleted.

Co-op achievements

These are the reason to plan a session with friends rather than hoping matchmaking cooperates. Full Crew is the fiddliest: four different employees in one crew, so somebody has to switch off their main.

Region and mission

The seven Threat Level achievements — Safe, Risky, Perilous, Treacherous, Deadly, Onslaught and Predicament — sit in this block too, and they are the ones most guides skip. They simply ask you to clear a mission at each level, so they arrive on the way to Threat 7.

All eight hidden achievements

Employee of the Month has a shortcut nobody mentions: there is an electric pole in the HUB you can shoot to die on demand. Otherwise it arrives naturally from playing a lot — 31 deaths is not a high bar.

The two that were broken

Patch 2.0.1 fixed two achievement triggers that did not fire at launch:

• Cranius — defeating the secret boss did not always award it.
• Bunker Buster — early 1.0 players were told 15 bunkers were required, which was an achievement bug rather than a requirement. Opening one locked bunker is the actual condition, and it now works.

If you did either during launch week and got nothing, that was the bug, not you.

What to do with the long counters

The two grinds — 5,000 kills and 200 upgrades — should never be a dedicated session. The list's own advice is to combine the level-30 and 5,000-kill grind with unfinished upgrades and mission objectives, so one run progresses several achievements at once.