Achieve achievements and avoid achievementbox
Valve rolls out an achievement pack. You look at the update site and drool. You want those Killing Gloves of Boxing, don’t you? Oh, and that Axtinguisher looks so inviting!
But face it. You aren’t really going to be able to kill someone with the pistol taunt or the hadouken. It’s just wayyyy too hard to do on a proper server-not worth the effort at all! Especially because you just gotta lay your grubby virtual paws on those unlockables ASAP!
Or then, of course, you could head to an achievement server. I’ll admit that I have been on achievement servers. Once upon a time, I found a good server with nice people on it and got 10 achievements in as many minutes (I’m exaggerating, but I hope the point is made). But then, as happens with all achievement servers, the griefers were inbound. Within minutes, a sentry was set up blasting innocent people, a heavy crouched next to the resupply cabinet and opened fire for the next millifortnight (that’s about 20 minutes); all the well-meaning, albeit foolish, players left the server for the next one, hoping for better luck.
Yes, you probably all know the horror-the scourge-the plague-that is the sheer presence of achievement servers. But there’s a way to avoid it, and you don’t need to own your own server! You’ll be able to get at least half of the achievements without encountering a single griefer! (Unless you are a griefer, in which case, uninstall the game now).
Nota bene: This is an introductory guide intended for those who don’t necessarily know the intricacies of the dev console! I don’t need to hear your criticism: I did not come up with this method. If you already know how to do this, that’s excellent! Don’t call the people who actually might learn something here n00bs, because they probably aren’t.
Open up Pandora’s Achievementbox
Create your own game server on achievementbox. If you don’t have it already, download the map achievementbox_b3 from somewhere.
If you don’t already have the development console enabled, do so. (Options -> Keyboard -> Advanced -> Enable dev console). You can toggle the console by pressing the tilde key (~).
Make sure you’re firewalled or playing over LAN, you don’t want random griefers connecting to your server. This server is for you alone.
In the console, type the following commands in order:
sv_cheats 1
mp_teams_unbalance_limit 0
bot
Now there should be a bot on the server. TF2 shipped with bots, but they don’t do anything because there’s no AI code. They won’t do anything unless you tell them to. Note that you won’t be able to use them for achievement farming quite yet. Read on.
bot -team red -class soldier
bot -team blu -class pyro
Those commands spawn a RED soldier bot and a BLU pyro bot, respectively. .
bot_mimic
Bot_mimic is a really handy command. When bot_mimic is toggled on, all the bots on the server will mimic your actions. By moving yourself around, you can move them around too; they also attack when you do. Keep in mind that they’ll face you all the time, so if they’re on the other team, they’ll damage you. If you want them to turn around:
bot_mimic_yaw_offset [0-360]
This controls the direction bots face when mimicking you. 180 makes them face you, 0 makes them turn away from you.
bot_flipout 1
This command will make bots constantly attack, bot_flipout 0 stops the effect.
Tips and tricks
To get a bot medic to heal you, spawn a friendly medic and turn bot_flipout on. After he exhausts his needlegun ammo, he’ll switch to his medigun. Step in front of him to get healed. (Alternately, use bot_mimic, step in front of him, and press the attack button). If you are currently in bot_mimic mode and your bot medic has an uber, simply right click to activate it (or use the command bot_forceattack2). This is a great way to get the achievements which require the assistance of a medic.
Need a spy to cloak for you? Right-click when in bot_mimic mode and you’re done!
If you want to avoid constantly toggling the console, try binding keys.
bind <key> "<commandname>"
Bind a command to an unused key like so:
bind p "bot_mimic"
That serves as a shortcut to typing bot_mimic, just press P next time.
The most important part!
WAIT! Before you start this using technique, and before you start commenting saying that it doesn’t work, there’s one more step. Type the following two commands in order:
sv_cheats 0
retry
If sv_cheats was turned on in the session, then achievements don’t register. “Retry” gives you a clean session without erasing whatever bots you had set up. It’s only after you enter “retry” that you will be able to use this technique for achievement farming!
Get going!
Use this power to get all those achievements and unlockables without connecting to an achievement server! The more connections achievement servers get, the longer they will stay online, and using this technique to deprive them of connections will help wipe them off the face of the earth! And at the same time, you’ll be getting those achievements that you’ve always wanted.
Remember that it can be tricky to get all the achievements from this technique. However, you’ll certainly be able to unlock most of the new weapons; I’ve gotten at least 15 achievements on both the pyro and heavy class packs.
Note to Valve: this is a reasonably well-known technique. In addition, it’s not one that is worth fixing, because the more people who know about this, the fewer achievement servers to hog up your MasterServer bandwidth!
Want more? Visit TF2Wiki for a full list of bot commands.
Himmelstoss on August 29th 2008 in how to, team fortress 2
Stumble it!
madlep responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 9:13 am #
This gets official madlep seal of approval. Anything that bypasses the horror of achievement box grinding is all good.
Yeah, like as if you’d get half of the achievements from legitimate play…
I haven’t done any farming whatsoever. What have I unlocked? The Blutslaugher. That is it. And this is with my most played class list being Medic, Pyro, Heavy.
Bah. I like the new weapons, but I hate having to unlock them.
madlep responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 9:15 am #
PS Himmelstoss - I came up with a better CSS way for showing the console commands if you want to peek at the code
Thrakkesh responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 9:21 am #
Tell me about it. The Medic achievements in particluar border on the absurd. It’s not the skill-based ones that bug me. It’s the hilariously situational ones that you basically have to set up to have any measure of success ones. (To say nothing of the ones that would encourage me to start hunting Medics with a bonesaw or Scouts with a needle-gun just so I can get a bloody saw.)
General Balls responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 10:28 am #
>>”I haven’t done any farming whatsoever. What have I unlocked? The Blutslaugher. That is it. And this is with my most played class list being Medic, Pyro, Heavy.”<<
Neither have I, and I’ve unlocked all the weapons. In all seriousness, they are not hard to get (except the Medic ones), especially since you don’t have to get that many to unlock a weapon.
All achievement grinding does is get you them faster. Personally, I enjoy playing properly for them. They all come with time.
n00bie51 responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 10:38 am #
The Medic pack was the worst, but I’m happy to say I got my Pyro and Heavy unlockables legitimately. As in I wasn’t playing in Achievement servers or messing around with bots.
It’s actually quite feasible to get these Achievements merely by playing for them without expense to the team or the gameplay.
At first, to spite Valve and the extremely awful absurdity of Achievement-based unlockables, especially since you needed to acquire all the Achievements to get all the items, I joined an Achievement server or two or got a friend to help me out. I regret having done that; I shouldn’t have to tell you that there’s no value or merit in unlocking these Achievements unless you actually earned them.
However, the Pyro and especially the Heavy Achievements may not all be easy, but they’re quite within grasp for most players to attain, and you don’t even need all of them like you did in the early days of the Gold Rush update for the Medic.
I seriously recommend that you work for the Achievements. And hey, if you feel a twang of regret, perhaps you should try to achieve them again, legitimately, just so you could say you would have gotten the Achievement the way you should have anyway. Perhaps that’s may appear pathetic, but that’s how I deal with it.
I, myself, am personally frustrated with Valve introducing these unlockables and making it difficult for players who don’t have too much time to play to access them; as I may have mentioned before, I don’t approve of Valve releasing the class packs. You should play earnestly for them. Make them mean something. It’s way more satisfying for me in the long run, and I think it could be for you as well.
Time for the cliché: Patience is a virtue.
LatinoGeek responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 11:11 am #
Thank you for this. I may try it in order to get the last few that I can’t seem to get.
I’ll confess, that I had to grind the medic achievements some of them are absurdly impossible to get. I’ve managed 28/38 for the pyro without grinding. As for the Heavy, I’m still working on them. So far I’ve only achieved 7.
Azul responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 11:31 am #
I’ve set up bots to get a couple of the absolutely ridiculous achievements that discourage proper playing of a class… but most of the new achievements should be unlocked legitimately. It’s not because they are easy or that it is wrong to cheat and get them, it’s that most of the newer achievements will help you to become a better player. Like the heavy achievements that encourage you to protect your medic… I’ve seen and been the medic far too many times where my heavy just races off into battle with 5 guys at once and only succeeds in getting me killed… and often himself as well. Keep your medic alive… he’ll keep you alive… and in a few short minutes you’ll be going on an invincible killing spree. Luckily many of the newer achievements are encouraging smarter play of a class, unlike the medic achievements that encouraged you to run wildly after scouts in a vain attempt to kill them when you should have just jumped on the heavy and let him do the dirty work for you… rather than letting him burn to death while incessantly calling for help.
Misanthrope responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 11:37 am #
I’ve gotten all mine legit.
Enjoy your cheating.
Borghead responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 1:34 pm #
@Misanthrope: Great! So you farmed them all on live servers? I’m sure everyone was so happy when you ubered that scout.
sQUEAKYfOAMpEANUT responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 2:09 pm #
I knew this already, but I’m sure other peeps would need this. Noice woik.
kwentin responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 5:36 pm #
funny enough, my first heavy achievements on a public server with 12 people on each team were:
- kill an enemy with your taunt
- be the first on a capture point, which is very easy no dustbowl stage 3 point 1 when you’re under heavy fire and have a medic uber you
i first thought they’d be pretty hard to get, but it was a bunch of fun
P. H. responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 6:23 pm #
I farmed the Medic achievements.
I farmed many of the Pyro achievements.
And a few minutes ago, I gave up and farmed the 8-10 Heavy achievements that I needed, messing up my stats in the process.
What a mediocre player I am :S
Talking about achievement servers… They seem to have a culture of their own. You have those players more than willing to give a helping hand; if they are the majority, everything goes smoothly. Then you have the selfish kids who berate others for not helping them get their new toys. Next, the free spirits; one minute they stand still and let you burn them, the next they kill you with a taunt. Finally, the r-tards who enjoy killing bots with a sentry for what seems like an eternity. Not even other players; bots. Lifeless, brainless, stationary bots.
FunkyB responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 6:55 pm #
I use this to get about half my achs. Basically, anything that I feel is distracting me from play I farm offline. I used to hate it when I was playing as medic and everytime I saw a scout or medic I’d feel tempted to break out the needles or bonesaw. Most of the time this would be detrimental to the team, but the game was encouraging me to do it.
I didn’t like the dichotomy, so I farmed them using this method, and I enjoy the game again. Personally, I like the ones you get but take ages, like Chief of Staff or the ‘burn 500 enemies’ ones. They feel like actual milestones without requiring lucky situations.
@Misanthrope: Be quiet. You’re living up to your nickname.
Tedonkz responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 8:14 pm #
Aw man, the secret’s out.
monkey responded on 29 Aug 2008 at 11:48 pm #
Yea, I have stuck by and never gone near an achievement server. I have only played for about 30 or so hours, but achievements are damn hard to get without acting like a retard. I mean come on…I am not going to spend a whole round eating sandvitches (even if I had them v.v). So far, all I have gotten is the flaregun…woohoo. I like my stats and I don’t think I’ll be messing them up anytime soon, but it really defeats the purpose of an achievement if you have to go out of your way to do something retarded that does not help your team AT ALL.
P. H. responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 1:20 am #
Just to make it clear, I went to an achievement server; I didn’t drive my teammates crazy in a regular server. I still have a tiny bit of decency
Wyatt responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 2:35 am #
I frequent a private server where we have achievement farming nights and those nights are always good, fun, diversions from the usual. Having said that the Heavy achievements have been the best so far.
Speaking of honest grinding, I just got Chief of Staff and First Do No Harm. Some achievements are going to take forever no matter the method.
TF2 responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 2:58 am #
Achievements farming - evil
Pinko responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 3:06 am #
My first Hadouken was a triple kill.
johannromberger responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 3:34 am #
got all nine unlocks without farming (sandvich one as exception), imo there are enough achievements you can earn rather easily to get all the new stuff for every class - even without acting like a complete moron
heavy one’s where the easiest so far, got K.G.B. within three days (about 6 hours in game, payload maps are perfect for that purpose…)
n00bie51 responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 4:34 am #
What Generals Balls said in this discussion is made with agreeable win.
And Borghead, the Scout got three kills, didn’t he? That’s not SO bad. I would have been upset if I was his team and there were a bunch of other classes like Soldier or Heavy that should have gotten the Über and there were more than three enemies in sight, but if that wasn’t the case, then I think that would have been acceptable.
If it WAS the case, then yeah, you make a valid point.
Wormbrain responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 5:28 am #
Very Nice! I just don’t have the time (patience) to farm these things.
5yewy5r responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 7:04 am #
So how is achievement farming “cheating” and getting them by playing the game “legit”?
No Official Handbook of TF2 rules made by VALVe states that achievement farming is not “legit” or bad.
So stop hatin’ -_-
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Mr. Brit responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 7:20 am #
Onlinegamer, stfu
Himmelstoss responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 9:50 am #
Probably a spammer of some sort.
Or a pingback. IDK
n00bie51 responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 10:07 am #
Or perhaps *gasp* a bot that’s working for a website so more people can see this article and be introduced to ÜberCharged.net?
Misanthrope responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 10:29 am #
Actually, I didn’t have to uber a scount to get my ubersaw.
Make more excuses. Your kind *always* does.
General Balls responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 12:33 pm #
>>”Or a pingback.”<<
You win!
b4dboyz- responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 1:20 pm #
It’s madleps secret organization of swedish people.
n00bie51 responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 4:17 pm #
Well, Misanthrope, I think some humility would do you some good.
When the Medic pack was released with the Gold Rush update, players originally had to get all thirty-three damn Achievements in order to get all the unlockable items. That was insane for anyone trying to legitimately obtain the weapons. Later on, after the Pyro pack was released, Valve changed the Medic Achievements so that you didn’t need to unlock all of them in order to reach the third Milestone; truth be told, I wouldn’t have an Über Saw if it wasn’t for that change for the Milestone requirements. It’s only understandable to me why people would try to stage and grind hard for those unlockables and join Achievement servers.
Now, if you knew this, you wouldn’t be bragging about how you got all the Medic unlockables without cheating because you’d probably know how hard it was to get all of them back then.
I’m all for obtaining the Achievements legitimately, especially now, but your condescension is ill-placed here.
n00bie51 responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 4:19 pm #
I made an error: It’s actually thirty-six Achievements, not thirty-three for Medic.
KAMIKAZI DUDE responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 5:38 pm #
Lol, we had fun with “unlockall_achievements” (something like that) when medic achievements 1st came out didn’t we?
Mooman responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 5:47 pm #
It makes me a happy little vegemite to know I’ve gotten a few medics some of the more ridiculous medic achievements legitamitely. Get 5+ kills on from an ubered scout (first cap second stage Goldrush, we ran up the tunnel on the right of BLU’s spawn) and burn 5+ people to death with an ubered pyro. (Gravel Pit at A. Came out of B and went around the side opposite to the entrance to C)
As for the debate about achievement grinding, I killed a medic about to uber a heavy with the quickdraw. Yes, he was standing still. Yes, I was behind a corner. FLANK TAUNTKILL FTW. However, it was on one of those 24/7 2FORT INSTAKILL INSTASPAWN UBERL33T RADIO servers. I can still say I tauntkilled a medic about to uber. Yay.
a little while ago a mate of mine bought the game. He asked me how to get some of those weird weapons so I told him. He decided he wanted to go to an achievement server to get them. I really didn’t mind, that’s just the way some people play. As it turned out, this particular server had gone to hell and turned into an incredibly awesome deathmatch. We decided to stick around anyway. It was a lot of fun. The map was called ‘Achievement Help’, if you’re wondering. Both times I was there, it wasn’t actually being used for farming, just being used as a deathmatch server. If you can manage to find it, I’d recommend it.
My mate still doesn’t have his toys :p.
Jocker responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 8:26 pm #
> But then, as happens with all achievement servers,
> the griefers were inbound. Within minutes, a sentry
> was set up blasting innocent people, a heavy
> crouched next to the resupply cabinet and opened
> fire for the next millifortnight
You forgot to tell about people like me that launch a nuke on pwnshop servers.
See the video
http://www.noobflicks.com/watch/2387/achievement_farming_on_a_diceroll_server
(same video, lower quality but faster:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxjKcA47QnE )
Pulviriza responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 9:34 pm #
I got the taunt kills by myself. I got the actual achievement for the pyro one on an ach server, but if I had waited, I would have got it normally.
n00bie51 responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 11:24 pm #
I actually got the Pyro taunt kill Achievement when a friend of mine was borrowing my account. Which bothers me immensely, because I’m thinking he might have went around on MY account spending countless respawns trying to simply kill someone with a taunt.
Misanthrope responded on 31 Aug 2008 at 2:19 am #
Actually, I did know that about the medic achievements, but since this “article” comes well after the achievement nerf, what’s your point?
They’re all simple and easily achievable. Cheating simply isn’t necessary.
n00bie51 responded on 31 Aug 2008 at 8:06 am #
Yeah, Misanthrope, but you’re criticizing players that were forced into cheating to get all thirty-six of the ridiculous Medic Achievements in order to get the weapons when the Gold Rush update was released. Now that it’s been changed so that you don’t have to get all the Achievements and Valve toned down the absurd requirements for them, I totally agree with you that staging them isn’t necessary ANYMORE. But BACK THEN, it was.
n00bie51 responded on 31 Aug 2008 at 8:08 am #
I mean, you could suffer the absurdities of ÜberCharging Scouts in regular gameplay and heal a million points legitimately, but that was ridiculous. I don’t blame people for going to Achievement servers then, but now, I do since they’re not as absurdly difficult as they used to be.
Misanthrope responded on 01 Sep 2008 at 12:41 pm #
n00bie51, I agree.
*Now* that the Achievements are easy, this article is offensive.
n00bie51 responded on 01 Sep 2008 at 2:33 pm #
Yes. Now we know.
And knowing is half the battle.
LOOY responded on 02 Sep 2008 at 6:34 pm #
Doesn’t work, if bots are on then the achievements get disabled.
BathrobeAssassin responded on 03 Sep 2008 at 12:04 am #
I grinded the Pyro and the Medic, and I am not sorry.
Whenever I play the Heavy, I try not to actually think about achievements. That can be hard when I see a situation that I could have exploited to get one.
But I’ll just play the Heavy normal to see if I can do it.
Nime responded on 03 Sep 2008 at 5:35 am #
I got both taunt kills on real servers during normal games.
Snuck up on a zoomed in sniper.. and yeah.. it’s funny..
Both were gotten this way.
Himmelstoss responded on 05 Sep 2008 at 3:21 pm #
Yes, the heavy pack does have vastly improved achievement reqs
BUT
are you REALLY going to waste an uber taunting to get “photostroika”? Seriously.
Misanthrope responded on 06 Sep 2008 at 2:55 am #
“are you REALLY going to waste an uber taunting to get “photostroika”? Seriously.”
OMG, I wasted a whole ubercharge! My team is obviously doomed now! Doooooomed!
Don’t like them, don’t do them. It’s just that simple. These weak rationalizations for cheating are just that, weak. Because you don’t like something, suck at TF2, or don’t have the “patience” are not reasons to cheat. They’re excuses.
I know it all falls on deaf ears though.
n00bie51 responded on 06 Sep 2008 at 5:27 am #
Misanthrope, the way I would refute that argument is say that you don’t need to get Photostroika so it can be avoided. I still haven’t gotten it myself.
I think there is a legitimate method to gain the Achievement while playing practically, and that’s by having a Medic ÜberCharge to take out a lone Engineer and his Sentry Gun and then taunt immediately afterward. I mean, you can find lone SG-emplacements sometimes, I think it may work.
OR, something really interesting I want to find out is if you can taunt-kill with the finger and get Show Trial along with Photostroika at the same time.
Himmelstoss responded on 07 Sep 2008 at 3:04 pm #
Misanthrope
you really ARE a misanthrope. Chill a bit.
SirMax responded on 03 Oct 2008 at 10:12 pm #
I know I’m using this to get some of the medic ones, but not for the others. I personally don’t find them that ridiculous, but some of the medic ones encourage you to be an idiot and hurt your team (You’ll Feel Like A Little Prick, anyone?), so I think I’m going to use this for them instead of ubering 9000 scouts.
Fabio Bracht responded on 04 Oct 2008 at 5:16 am #
(Note 1: Haven’t read the comments.)
(Note 2: I know this is an old post.)
I just wanna say that, yes, unlocking the stuff is horrible. But I couldn’t never sleep with myself if I got and Achievement by achieving absolutely nothing.
I recently unlocked all three Pyro weapons, all by my own effort, and GOD how awesome I felt. Pure joy!
I used the Achievements as a way to train myself. They were my Mr. Miyagi. Every achievement was a skill/luck/endurance test for my and my trusted flamethrower.
I now consider myself a “slightly above average” Pyro because of that training. With a few more hours, maybe I’ll be “slightly below UBER-PRO”.
On the other hand, now I’m trying to get the Heavy achievements, and this helped me understand a simple fact about my personality. I HATE BEING A HEAVY.
Fabio Bracht responded on 04 Oct 2008 at 5:24 am #
One more thing: I avoid the Achievement Servers not really because of the “achieving something without actually achieving nothing at all” thing. I do it becuse they mess with my play stats.
The second day I had the game installed, I didn’t even knew about this achievements servers and I entered one by chance. I choose the Medic and got on to healing. I ended up scoring 33 points in a single life/round and now it shows on my stat graphs.
I hate looking at them in the loading screen because I SUCK playing Medic and I know I’d never score 33 points in normal play. I want the pyro bar to be the biggest one, because it would reflect the player I really am.
Maybe if what you did the achievement servers were not added to your stats, I would consider grinding the hardest achievements…
????? responded on 28 Oct 2008 at 9:33 pm #
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A Sense Of Achievements (part 1) | ubercharged.net responded on 31 Oct 2008 at 8:03 am #
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