These achievements are all scoped to a single run and don’t conflict, so you can earn them together instead of replaying for each one. Every achievement in the plan is marked with a ⛓ badge further down.
These all count in a single game with no empire type attached, so one sprawling save that you keep playing well past the point of winning covers the lot. Push research wide for the Rare techs, keep spies working on everyone, and take subjects rather than annexing them.
- ✓▢... To the Other Side — Research 15 Rare technologies in a single game
- ✓▢All-Seeing Eye — Have an Intel Level of 100 on five different empires simultaneously
- ✓▢Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Blorg — Complete at least ten distinct operations during a game
- ✓▢Relic Hunter — In one game, find 5 Relics from Ancient Relics Story Pack
- ✓▢Growing Planes — Explore 5 Astral Rifts in one game.
- ✓▢Gotta Subjugate Them All — Have a tier 3 subject of each Specialist type simultaneously.
Several of these need specific DLC - Relic Hunter names the Ancient Relics Story Pack outright, and Astral Rifts are their own pack. Smorgasblorg and Master of Puppets are deliberately left out: each one locks your empire into a particular civic or origin, so they conflict with each other and need their own runs.
Early-game anomalies and excavations drop 'Precursor' breadcrumbs (e.g., the Vultaum, Yuht, First League, Irassian, Cybrex). Collect the chain of clues by surveying systems and researching the special projects that appear; each completed clue narrows the search until the precursor's home system is revealed. Prioritise exploration with multiple science ships and follow the precursor event chain to its end.
Rare technologies are the low-draw-weight options that only occasionally appear in your research choices, so fifteen in one game is mostly a question of playing long enough and taking them whenever they surface.
Because they appear by chance, the things that help are anything that increases how many options you see and how fast you cycle through research: more research output, and effects that improve or reroll your available choices. Take a Rare technology when it is offered even if a conventional one looks better for your immediate plan — the ordinary techs will come back around, the rare draw may not.
This is one of the cleanest entries in the stack plan above: it puts no constraint on your empire type and simply wants a long game.
Research the Terrestrial Sculpting / Climate Restoration techs, then select a planet you own and use the terraform action to change its world type (e.g., turn an arid world into a continental one toward your species' preference). It costs energy and time. Just research the terraforming tech and queue one terraform — the cheapest is shifting a planet one climate step.
Fleet power scales with ship count, ship size (Battleships/Titans), and tech (better weapons, shields, armor, reactors). Build a strong alloy economy (lots of Alloy Foundries + miners), research repeatable weapon/defense techs in the late game, and fill your naval capacity with top-tier ships. 100k is very reachable by the mid-late game with Battleships and repeatable techs — just keep your alloy income high and pump ships.
Improve relations with a neighbour (open borders, research/commercial agreements, defensive pact, and shared ethics help), then once trust and attitude are high enough, propose forming a Federation and have them accept. Pacifist/Xenophile empires form federations easily. Just befriend one suitable AI empire and send the federation invite.
Your empire must accept other species into leadership. Use Xenophile/egalitarian-friendly policies and citizenship so other-species pops can become leaders, integrate another species (via migration, conquest, or refugees) with full citizenship and ruler eligibility, then ensure one of them becomes (or is elected) your ruler. Democratic governments make this easiest — run an election a non-founding-species candidate can win, or appoint an other-species ruler in the relevant authority.
Find a pre-sentient species (primitive animals on a surveyed planet — flagged as 'pre-sapient'). Research the Genome Mapping → Epigenetic Triggers tech line (or the relevant Society tech) to unlock the Uplift project, then run the uplift edict/project on that species. Survey widely early to find a pre-sentient species, then research the uplift tech.
Needs Utopia and the megastructure ascension perks/techs. The Science Nexus is built in your own territory and, when complete, gives a big research output. Same workflow as other megastructures: secure the ascension perk (Galactic Wonders / Voidborne line), research the specific megastructure tech, then fund the staged construction in a system you control.
You get vassals by winning wars with the 'Vassalize' war goal (or via diplomacy/subjugation on weaker empires). Build a strong fleet, declare wars with the vassalize casus belli against three different weaker neighbours over time, and win each. Alternatively diplomatically subjugate very weak empires. Keep all three as vassals simultaneously to trigger it.
Requires the Psionic ascension path: take the 'Mind over Matter' ascension perk, then 'Transcendence', which unlocks the Shroud. As a Spiritualist empire research/embrace psionics, get the Psionic Theory tech and the ascension perks, then use the Shroud action to breach it (communing with the Shroud entities). Go Spiritualist + psionic ascension and breach once you have the Shroud unlocked.
The key word is simultaneously — this is a state you have to be holding, not a total you accumulate, so you need all five empires at full Intel at the same moment.
Intel builds through contact, diplomacy and espionage, so the practical route is to meet as many empires as possible early, establish and keep embassies or their equivalent, and keep intelligence operations running on several targets at once rather than focusing one. Losing contact or a diplomatic relationship can drop Intel back down, which is the usual reason people hold four and never see the fifth.
Pairs well with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Blorg, since both reward keeping espionage active across multiple empires in the same game.
Requires the Utopia DLC and the Megastructures-related ascension perks: take 'Galactic Wonders' (which needs 'Voidborne' or another megastructure prereq, plus the right techs). Then build a Dyson Sphere over a star with no inhabited planets in the system. It builds in stages (each costs alloys + influence and a lot of time), eventually producing massive energy. Plan ahead: rush the megastructure techs, take Galactic Wonders, pick an empty star, and fund the multi-stage build.
Gaia worlds are the ultimate terraform target (perfect habitability for everyone). You need the Climate Restoration tech AND the World Shaper ascension perk (or a spiritualist World Shaper path), which unlocks Gaia as a terraform option. Then terraform an owned planet into a Gaia world — it's expensive and slow, so build up energy first. Take World Shaper, research the prereqs, and convert one planet.
Achievements only unlock in Ironman (single save, no reloading), so start an Ironman game. 'Winning' means meeting a victory condition by the end date (default 2500, or hit a domination/federation score threshold). The simplest path: a strong tall economy + the largest fleet, then have the highest victory score, or conquer/vassalize enough of the galaxy. Play a forgiving start (e.g., a standard militarist or technocrat build), survive the end-game crisis, and be ahead on score at the end. Set the end date earlier and galaxy smaller to finish faster.
Astral Rifts are their own content pack, so as with Relic Hunter this needs the relevant DLC active to be earnable at all.
When available, Rifts appear in systems and are explored as multi-stage events rather than instantly, so five in one game means finding them and then committing the time to work through each one. Survey widely — you cannot explore what you have not found — and start them as you find them instead of queueing them all for later.
Scoped to a single game with no empire requirement, so it belongs in the same long save as the rest of this plan.
Like the Dyson Sphere, needs Utopia + Galactic Wonders ascension perk + the Ring World tech. Build it on a suitable star system; it completes in stages and the final sections become enormous habitable districts. Budget a large alloy stockpile and influence, and start early since each stage takes years. (Owning a Ring World section as your capital is the separate 'Put A Ring On It' achievement — move your capital to a completed Ring World section for that one.)
Steam names the requirement directly: these are Relics from the Ancient Relics Story Pack, so that DLC has to be active or the achievement cannot be earned.
With it enabled, Relics come from archaeological excavation of dig sites scattered across the galaxy. The practical advice is to prioritise surveying and excavating rather than treating dig sites as optional flavour — five in one game is comfortable if you commit to it early and uncomfortable if you leave it late.
Because it is scoped to one game and puts no constraint on your empire, it folds into the long-game plan above without changing how you play otherwise.
The Contingency is one of three end-game crises (it's a rogue-AI extinction event with Ghost Signal + Sterilization Hubs). To beat it you must destroy all its Sterilization Hubs (heavily defended worlds) and ultimately assault its Nexus that spawns. Have a massive late-game fleet (see Grand Admiral), bring armies to take the Hub worlds, and grind down each hub until the final Nexus appears and is destroyed. You can influence which crisis spawns via game settings; prep a huge military before the end-game date.
Play a Pacifist/Fanatic Pacifist empire and simply never go to war for 200 years (end-game crises don't break the streak per the wording). Secure your borders with defensive pacts and a strong defensive fleet/starbases so the AI won't attack you, focus on a tall economy/tech build, and let the clock run. Avoid offensive wars entirely and decline aggression.
Play a Spiritualist empire. Holy Worlds are special planets guarded by the Spiritualist Fallen Empire (and a few event ones). Owning four means taking Holy Worlds — usually by waiting for/triggering the Fallen Empire's decline or war, then conquering their holy planets, plus any holy world events. Build a fleet capable of beating Fallen Empire defenses, and seize four holy worlds.
The demanding part is simultaneously combined with tier 3: you need one subject of every Specialist type at once, and each of them raised to the top tier, which takes sustained investment rather than a single conquest.
Specialist subjects are a feature of the overlord/subject system, so the relevant DLC needs to be active. Strategically this favours a game where you take subjects rather than annexing what you defeat — every empire you absorb outright is one you can no longer specialise. Assign each new subject a different Specialist type as you acquire them, and keep them long enough to reach tier 3.
This is the entry most likely to be the last one you complete in the long-game plan, so start collecting subjects earlier than feels necessary.
Note the word distinct — this counts ten different operations, not the same one run ten times, so you will need to work through the variety of espionage actions available to you rather than repeating a favourite.
That means keeping intelligence assets active on several empires at once and deliberately picking an operation you have not run before each time one becomes available. Some operations need a minimum Intel level on the target before they unlock, so this benefits from the same groundwork as All-Seeing Eye.
Run the two together — the Intel you build for one is the prerequisite for the other.
