Achievements & Trophies

Complete The Surge 2 with this guide to all achievements and trophies. Uncover the steps needed for meticulous exploration and specific combat strategies.

For the dedicated completionist, The Surge 2 offers a robust and challenging set of achievements and trophies. While many are tied to natural story progression, a significant portion demands meticulous exploration, specific combat strategies, and multiple playthroughs. This section will guide you through the various categories of achievements, highlighting key examples and offering actionable advice to ensure you don't miss a single one.

General Achievement Strategy & Tips

• First Playthrough Focus: Concentrate on enjoying the story, exploring thoroughly, and completing all side quests. Many missable achievements are tied to side quests.
• Limb Targeting: Many boss and enemy-specific achievements require dismembering particular body parts. Always aim for the highlighted weak points or specific limbs as instructed.
• Backup Saves: Especially for missable achievements or difficult boss encounters, consider backing up your save file to a USB drive or cloud storage before critical moments. This allows you to reload if you fail to meet the achievement criteria.
• New Game+ Planning: Some achievements are exclusively available or significantly easier to obtain in New Game+. Plan your second playthrough with these in mind.
• Consult the Guide: While this guide provides a comprehensive overview, always cross-reference with an in-game achievement tracker or a dedicated achievement website for real-time progress and detailed breakdowns.

Achievement Categories & Key Examples

Story Progression Achievements

These achievements are generally unmissable and unlock as you advance through the main storyline. Simply complete the game's primary objectives to earn them.

• "Welcome to Jericho": Arrive in Jericho City.
• "The Great Wall": Breach the wall surrounding Jericho City.
• "The End of the Beginning": Defeat the final boss and complete the game.

Collectible Achievements

These achievements require you to find all hidden items scattered throughout Jericho City and its surrounding areas. Thorough exploration is key.

• "The Whole Story": Collect all Audio Logs.
  • Strategy: Audio logs are often found in secluded corners, behind destructible objects, or near important lore points. Pay close attention to environmental cues. Many are found in the CREO Institute of Technology, Gideon's Rock, and the Downtown district. There are 30 total audio logs.
  • Common Pitfall: Some audio logs are in areas that become inaccessible after certain story events. Prioritize exploration before advancing major plot points.
• "A Helping Hand": Find all Comic Book Pages.
  • Strategy: These are usually well-hidden and require careful searching. There are 10 pages in total, depicting the adventures of "The Iron Maus."
  • Example Location: One page is found in the Downtown area, near the entrance to the Cloud9 bar, often requiring you to jump across a gap or find a hidden path.

Boss-Specific Achievements

These achievements often require you to defeat a boss in a particular manner, usually by dismembering a specific limb or avoiding certain attacks. This often means sacrificing optimal damage for precise targeting.

• "Cutting Edge": Defeat Little Johnny by dismembering all of his legs before defeating him.
  • Strategy: Focus all attacks on Little Johnny's legs. Each leg has its own health bar. Once all four are dismembered, then proceed to defeat the main body. Recommended weapons are fast-hitting ones to quickly break limbs.
  • Recommended Loadout: Lightweight armor for mobility, a fast-attacking one-handed weapon or twin-rigged weapon.
• "The Good Samaritan": Defeat Delver without destroying any of the surrounding life support systems.
  • Strategy: Delver will occasionally target the life support systems with its ranged attacks. Position yourself strategically to draw its fire away from these critical components. Use ranged weapons or drones to attack Delver from a distance if necessary, minimizing risk to the systems.
  • Common Pitfall: Melee attacks can accidentally hit the systems if you're not careful with your positioning.

Side Quest Achievements

Completing specific side quests or all major side quests will unlock several achievements. Many of these are highly missable if you progress too far in the main story without completing them.

• "The Wanderer": Complete all of Stranger's side quests.
  • Questline Overview: Stranger is a recurring NPC found in various locations, starting in Downtown Jericho. His quests involve retrieving items, investigating disturbances, and often have moral choices.
  • Key Quests:
    1. "The Stranger's Request": Find his missing drone in Downtown.
    2. "A Familiar Face": Investigate the CREO Institute of Technology for clues.
    3. "The Final Stand": Assist Stranger in his final confrontation.
  • Missable Warning: Progressing too far into the main story, especially entering the final act, can cause Stranger's questline to fail or become unavailable.
• "Brotherhood of the Spark": Complete all of Brother Eli's side quests.
  • Questline Overview: Eli is a religious fanatic found in the Cathedral of the Spark. His quests often involve retrieving relics or eliminating heretics.
  • Key Quests:
    1. "A Spark of Hope": Retrieve a sacred artifact from a dangerous area.
    2. "Cleansing the Heretics": Eliminate specific targets in the Port Nixon area.
  • Important Note: Eli's questline often conflicts with other NPC questlines (e.g., Athena). Choose your allegiances carefully if you aim for specific achievements.

Gear Mastery & Crafting Achievements

These achievements reward you for extensive crafting, upgrading, and collecting gear sets.

• "Fashion Victim": Craft all full armor sets.
  • Strategy: This requires significant farming of materials from various enemies. Each enemy type drops specific schematics and crafting components. You'll need to defeat enemies repeatedly and target specific limbs to acquire all necessary parts.
  • Resource Management: Keep an eye on your Tech Scrap and crafting component reserves. You'll need a lot of both.
• "Master of Arms": Upgrade a weapon to its maximum level (Mk. XX).
  • Strategy: Choose your favorite weapon early and commit to upgrading it. This requires a substantial amount of Tech Scrap and various upgrade materials (e.g., Tungsten, Cerberus, etc.), which are found by defeating enemies, dismantling gear, or as quest rewards.
  • Tip: Focus on a weapon you enjoy using and that scales well with your chosen stats.

New Game+ Achievements

Some achievements are designed to be tackled in subsequent playthroughs, often due to increased difficulty, new enemy placements, or specific choices that can only be made once per playthrough.

• "The True Ending": Achieve the secret ending in New Game+.
  • Strategy: This often involves making specific choices throughout the game that differ from a standard playthrough, potentially requiring you to side with different factions or complete obscure objectives. Details are often intentionally vague to encourage discovery.
  • Warning: This achievement may require a very specific sequence of actions and dialogue choices, making it highly missable if not followed precisely.
• "Hardcore": Complete the game on New Game+ or higher difficulty.
  • Strategy: New Game+ significantly increases enemy health, damage, and introduces new enemy variants. Focus on optimizing your build, mastering combat mechanics, and utilizing environmental hazards to your advantage.
  • Recommended Build: A balanced build with high stamina, health, and a powerful weapon is advisable. Consider armor sets that offer good protection or unique set bonuses.