Undead Horde Achievement Guide & Road Map

Undead Horde
Undead Horde Achievement Guide

Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 3/10 [Achievement Difficulty Rating]
- Offline: 24 [1000]
- Online: 0
- Approximate amount of time to 1000

: 10-12 hours [Estimated Time to 100%]
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
- Missable achievements: All achievements except Second Era (90G) and Pentagrammaton (15G). See important note below on missables
- Does difficulty affect achievements: No difficulty option
- Unobtainable/glitched achievements: None

Introduction:
Welcome to Undead Horde, an RTS zombie game where you control a necromancer who can resurrect corpses to fight for him. You'll be amassing a horde of allies by defeating enemies and resurrecting them to be on your side, and then using them to defeat more enemies, and so on. The game is broken down into around 40 smallish levels, making this a very manageable RTS game. The achievements are largely simple and straightforward, with only a few requiring you to make it a point to get them. However, see the important note below on missables since you could screw yourself out of some achievements if you aren't aware how enemies and progression works. Let's get started.

IMPORTANT Note on Missables:
There are two reasons achievements in this game are missable:

The first is because enemies do NOT respawn in levels once you "claim" a level. Claiming a level means you've killed all enemies AND destroyed all buildings. Once you do this, you'll get an onscreen notification that the area is claimed (or that all living are slain, in some levels where there are no buildings). This is also displayed just above your minimap in the lower right, where you can see a count of how many enemies and buildings are left on the current level. When both reach zero, the area is considered claimed. Once that happens, there will never be enemies on that level again. What this means for achievements is that, if you decide to just plow through all levels and claim all areas without paying attention to miscellaneous combat or horde achievements, there is no way to mop those achievements up if you've killed all enemies in the game. As a result, you'll want to ensure you get all miscellaneous achievements at the earliest opportunity just so you don't have to worry about them. That being said, there is NG+ to play right into, but that's still the equivalent of starting a new game to progress from scratch to try to get missed achievements.
This leads to the second aspect of missable achievements. After beating the game, the final quest introduces you to the urn, which you can use to slumber until the next era, which is effectively New Game+. While the game does warn you before you use it, once you start NG+, you lose all access to your regular playthrough. This means that if you missed any achievements at all, such as secrets, quests, claiming areas, etc., you need to start them all over again on this NG+ playthrough, and essentially do a whole extra playthrough of the game. Therefore, Second Era (90G) should be your last achievement in the game, and you should not use the urn to slumber until you have every other achievement.

Abbreviated Walkthrough:
To start, just jump right into the game and run through the beginning tutorial sections. This will teach you the main mechanics of the game, of which there aren't many of: attack with

(you can hold the trigger in rather than mashing it), send enemies to attack with

, and resurrect corpses with

. That's the bulk of the game, but you'll eventually use a bit more strategy when it comes to what allies you want in your horde and what gear you equip.

Basically, for the completion, your goal as you progress is to:

Destroy all buildings in the area you come to. This is top priority, because otherwise enemies endlessly respawn. Buildings do not respawn, so even if you die, any buildings you destroyed stay that way, making it possible to make slow progress, worst case. The minimap in the lower right shows buildings in yellow that you need to destroy, and right above the minimap is a house icon showing how many buildings are left to destroy
Kill all enemies. This is second priority, since they'll respawn until you destroy buildings. Once you get down to lower amounts of enemies left on a map, if you look at the minimap closely, you can see glowing red areas where enemies are left, helping you track them down. Like with buildings, there is a counter above the minimap that shows how many enemies are left, and you'll want to bring that down to zero
Once you've destroyed all buildings and killed all enemies, you'll get a notification that the area has been claimed, and it'll get noticeably darker. This is a good time to mop up any secrets in that level. Press to view the overworld map, and next to the level you're on there will be a purple chest icon with a number in it indicating how many secrets are undiscovered in that level. Use the guide in Explorer (90G) to grab any before moving on
The last thing to do is to track down any exclamation points on your minimap. These are quest markers, and they typically just require you to talk to various people marked on your map. You need to complete all quests, so just take care of any quest markers before moving on

As noted in the missable note above, while you're progressing and claiming all areas and collecting all secrets and completing all quests, you'll absolutely want to make it a point to take care of the miscellaneous combat and horde achievements as you progress, since they'll missable. In particular, you'll want to grab Werechicken (15G). Undead Trainer (30G), Salmonella (15G). Re-Animator (30G), and Grim Reaper (15G) as soon as possible. Refer to each one for a little more detail, but to summarize:

As soon as you encounter chickens in groups in Alwyn Forest, that's a great place to get both Undead Trainer (30G) and Re-Animator (30G), although both can be done at numerous locations. I still recommend getting them done very early on, because later levels will be far, far harder to get them
As soon as you get your first Scythe weapon drop, get Grim Reaper (15G) out of the way
As soon as you get your first Staff with a Chickening aspect (turns an enemy into a chicken) get Werechicken (15G) done
As soon as you get your first Ring of Plagueing drop, get Salmonella (15G) done

With those miscellaneous achievements out of the way, you're free to progress and beat the game, getting all secrets, completing all quests, and claiming all areas. I don't see how you could possibly claim all areas without unlocking Summoner (90G), so expect that to come naturally. After doing everything else, if you haven't unlocked Heroism (15G), Horde (30G), Scrooge McDead (15G), or Death Dealer (15G), you can mop them up now.

As noted above, be sure you have every achievement in the game except Second Era (90G). Once that's your only achievement, go ahead and use the urn in the Crypt to slumber to the second era, and you'll unlock your final achievement.

Conclusion:
Undead Horde starts off a bit slow, but once things get going it's a pretty fun game. There is constant loot coming your way, which is great for keeping things interesting. Unfortunately, this meant that I literally never used the Crypt at all, since I didn't spend a single gold the entire time because I constantly had a steady stream of new gear being dropped. It's also a bit annoying that the game decides to throw fire at you toward the end, and there's no way to survive it without having some sort of fire resistance stat boosts in your gear, and that's the only status effect I encountered the entire time with the game. Other than that, I found it to be a pretty addictive game where I just wanted to keep pushing through and claiming areas, and had a lot of fun with this. It's definitely an extremely simple introduction into the RTS genre since it has more RPG elements than RTS, and it also has barely anything to manage versus other RTS games. Congrats on the completion!

[XBA would like to thank Necrophage33 for this Roadmap]

Rule Alwyn

15
Claim all areas in Alwyn.
*MISSABLE*

Refer to Conqueror (90G) for more information.
Rule Catacombs

15
Claim all areas in the Catacombs.
*MISSABLE*

Refer to Conqueror (90G) for more information.
Rule Burning Rock

30
Claim all areas in Burning Rock.
*MISSABLE*

Refer to Conqueror (90G) for more information.
Rule Wastelands

30
Claim all areas in the Wastelands.
*MISSABLE*

Refer to Conqueror (90G) for more information.
Rule Citadel

30
Claim all areas in the Citadel.
*MISSABLE*

Refer to Conqueror (90G) for more information.
Second Era

90
Start the second Era.
WARNING: Starting the second era is the equivalent of starting New Game+. You will lose all access to your regular playthrough when you start NG+, meaning if you missed any achievements, you can't go back and get them. You'll need to play through the game all over again to get whatever you missed. Be sure that this is your only achievement left before you start the second era.

For this achievement, you'll need to beat the game by defeating the final boss. Once beaten, the quest will tell you to return to the Commander in the Crypt and talk to him. Do so and he'll introduce you to the urn just below him. Interact with it and you'll be able to slumber until the second era, which is effectively NG+. Opt to do so and you'll unlock this achievement.
Summoner

90
Unlock all the basic statues.
*MISSABLE*

This achievement requires you to defeat enough of each enemy type to unlock its respective statue in the Crypt (allowing you to summon that enemy to fight by your side). In the Crypt, you can go up to each statue to see how many of the required enemy type you've defeated and how many more you need to unlock the statue. Note that this achievement only requires the two rows of basic enemy statues. It does not require the boss statues, which are in their own separate room farther up in the Crypt.

I honestly don't think it's possible to "claim" every area in the game for Conqueror (90G) without unlocking all basic statues along the way. Therefore, as long as you're making it a point to clear out all areas and claim them, this will unlock toward the end of the game, after you unlock the final three statues in the Citadel area. The only reason I have flagged this as missable is because you could beeline to the end of the game, skipping some side levels, beat the game, then use the urn to start the second era and potentially have to play through the game again to unlock all statues.
Heroism

15
Summon a hero from a hero statue.
*MISSABLE*

After beating any of the bosses/minibosses in the game (enemies with their name in red over them), they will have their own statue in the Crypt. However, this boss area in the Crypt won't be accessible until around a third of the way through the game when you save the skeleton who opens that area up for you.

Once you have access to that area, you'll be able to see all of the boss statues. Defeating a boss allows you to go to that statue and summon that boss to fight by your side, just like any normal statues, except their command value is naturally way higher, but they also cost gold to summon them. However, considering you'll be generating hundreds of thousands of gold throughout your playthrough, summoning a single boss from its statue will be readily affordable to unlock this achievement.

This is only missable in the sense that once you start the second era, you'll no longer have access to hero statues, and you'll need to play through 25% of the game or so to access them again.
Kinahmo Fried Chicken

15
Slaughter 100 chickens.
*MISSABLE*

This is cumulative throughout your time with this game. Chickens are present only in the first area of the game, Alwyn. In particular, you can find groups of them in wooded areas, like Alwyn Forest. They pretty much die instantly from any attack and they do almost no damage, so tearing through them is no problem. You'll likely unlock this achievement naturally as you claim all areas of Alwyn. There are a few groups in Citadel forest areas too, but if you're claiming all Alwyn areas, you'll unlock this achievement by the time you finish the first area of the game.

You would need to intentionally avoid chickens to miss this achievement, but it is still technically missable if you start the second era without killing enough chickens.
Pentagrammaton

15
Reach level 5.
Story-related; cannot be missed.

You level up by earning XP either from completing quests or killing enemies. There is no possible way to progress through the game without reaching level 5, considering all the various quests you'll need to complete to progress. This achievement is therefore unmissable. As a point of reference, I was level 5 before even finishing the first area, Alwyn. I finished the game close to level 20.
Horde

30
Raise a horde of 50 undead.
*MISSABLE*

This achievement requires you to have 50 minions in your horde at any given time. While you will increase your command cap from leveling up, the easiest way to unlock this achievement is just to fill your horde with chickens. You'll unlock the chicken statue near the start of the game, and chickens barely take up any command value. I don't think you'll even need to level up to fit 50 chickens in your horde. Just use the statue in the Crypt to keep adding chickens until this achievement unlocks.

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/2f6Hjh2Vt6

This is only missable in the sense that if you start the second era without doing this, you'll need to progress enough in NG+ to be able to do it.
A Thousand Corpses

90
Raise 1000 corpses.
*MISSABLE*

This is cumulative over your entire playthrough with this game. My experience is that, if you're claiming all levels for the achievements, you'll likely do this naturally. I personally unlocked this achievement right at the end of the penultimate area, Wastelands, just as I was getting to the final Citadel area.

As far as I can tell, the only real way you'd be able to screw yourself out of this achievement is if you claim all areas without having done this (meaning there are no enemies in the game left to kill so you can raise them). This would only be possible if you got an Amulet of Devouring early on, which you can use to consume enemy corpses to heal your horde. Using this item essentially can significantly reduce the amount of corpses you raise throughout the game, so bear that in mind. I didn't really start using a Devouring item until I unlocked this achievement, just to be safe. Without a Devouring item, you'll be continually forced to raise corpses to progress through levels and claim them. I recommend making it a point to raise corpses in levels to fill up your Command meter, rather than continually returning to the Crypt to add to your horde, because I don't believe it counts if you use the statues in the Crypt. It needs to be corpses of enemies you've killed.
The Lidless Eye Socket

30
Scout all areas.
*MISSABLE*

This achievement just requires you to access every level in the overworld map. This will come naturally while going for Conqueror (90G). I believe there are only three or so levels that aren't required for story progression, but there aren't any secret levels or anything like that, so just use all exits in all levels to access all areas, and you'll unlock this achievement right at the end of the game when you go to the last level to fight the final boss.

This is only missable in the sense that if you start the second era without getting this achievement, you'd need to play through the game all over again to do this.
Conqueror

90
Claim all areas.
*MISSABLE*

In this game, you "claim" an area by destroying all buildings and killing all enemies. The amount of each present in each level is displayed right above your minimap in the lower right. Your top priority is to destroy buildings, because enemies will endlessly spawn from them until they're destroyed. Then, once the buildings are destroyed, you can mop up remaining enemies. Once both of the counters (for enemies and buildings) is at zero, you'll get an onscreen notification that the area has been claimed, you'll get a scroll to pick up, and the area will become noticeably darker. The game also will be a skull icon on that level on the overworld map screen to indicate the area has been claimed, but for some reason it doesn't do this consistently. It only does it with areas with buildings. Below is a screenshot of what your completed, fully claimed map will look like when done.

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/vgeSvjWUBX

On the minimap, remaining buildings are displayed in yellow so you can see where they are. For enemies, look for faint flashing red areas on the map to indicate where remaining enemies are. One thing to note on enemies, buildings, and claiming areas is that if you leave an unclaimed area by taking an exit and then coming back, the level will stay exactly as you left it (same number of buildings and enemies left). However, if you fast travel away back to the Crypt or if you die and respawn at the Crypt, when you fast travel back to that area, the buildings won't respawn if they're destroyed but the enemies will. So, while the buildings that spawn enemies won't be back, a set of enemies that would spawn from that building will be there patrolling like usual. This means you can't just leave and come back to areas with more horde troops or whatever. You need to push through each level and defeat all enemies to claim it.

Be aware that, while most areas can be claimed as soon as you visit them, there are a bunch that you can't until you come back with a key or some means of accessing the rest of the level. These are all story related though, so there's nothing extra that you need to go out of your way for. Completing all of the quests will get you access to all of the areas and the enemies. That, coupled with getting all secrets for Conqueror (90G), will ensure you have access to all parts of a level where enemies could be.

The reason this is missable is because if you start the second era without getting this achievement, you'd need to play through the game all over again to complete this.
Adventurer

90
Find and complete all quests.
*MISSABLE*

Quests in this game are displayed on the minimap as exclamation points, and active quests are listed at the top of the screen at all times, showing what you need to do. For this achievement, you need to complete them all.

My experience was that there weren't any hidden quests or any to "find." They were all very obviously marked on my minimap. Almost all of them just require talking to specific people, but some require finding items from chests. The only quest that I didn't complete naturally was the one for finding three glowing orbs for Vesa in the Crypt. These orbs are located in three separate chests in the first three levels of the Burning Rock area. I missed one in the southeast of Burning Sands, and apparently multiple people missed an easily overlooked one in a gold chest in the northwest corner of Scorpion Canyon. All of the rest of the questions are straightforward and should come naturally.

The reason this is flagged as missable if because if you start the second era without completing all quests, you'd need to do another full playthrough of the game to get this achievement.
Explorer

90
Find all secrets.
*MISSABLE*

Secrets in this game take two forms: hidden chests, and hidden switches (which open up new areas that typically lead to hidden chests). The game shows you how many secrets are undiscovered in each level once you reach that level. On the overworld map, there will be a little purple treasure chest icon to the left of the level with a number in it showing how many you have yet to find there.

You'll likely find a bunch naturally. The chests can be tough to spot since many are mostly buried, but once you realize what to look for with hidden switches, they're easier to find. For a list of all secrets, use THIS LINK to a very helpful guide. The levels are in alphabetical order for some reason, instead of the order you'll progress, so you'll need to jump around on the list. Every time you claim a new level, press to see if there are undiscovered secrets, and if so, use that link to track down the ones you're missing. With no enemies or buildings left, it's easy to just run to each secret location with no risk of being attacked.

The reason this is flagged as missable if because if you start the second era without finding all secrets, you'd need to do another full playthrough of the game to get this achievement.
Scrooge McDead

15
Gain 600000 gold.
*MISSABLE*

This is cumulative over your entire time with this game. This is actually quite a lot of money. During my playthrough, I was very thorough, opening every chest I could find, all secrets, all quests, selling everything, never stored anything in the chest in the Crypt, and destroyed a decent amount of breakable containers. I ended my full playthrough with just over 800,000 gold gained. This means there isn't a huge amount of leeway, but still a decent amount. Do note that this is unaffected by any money you spend in the Crypt, so don't feel a need to save up 600,000 gold if you want to spend money on something. If you're being thorough and working on all other achievements, just make sure to continually sell stuff from your inventory to make room for all the new stuff that chests and bosses and some enemies drop, and you should cross this threshold by the time you reach the Citadel area.

I have flagged this as missable because you could certainly just leave drops on the ground instead of selling gear and picking them up to sell more, you could ignore some quests, and I'm honestly not sure if gear drops will despawn, and I'm also not sure if this carries over between playthroughs. To be safe, I recommend getting it on your first playthrough.
Death Dealer

15
Sell 20 skulls.
*MISSABLE*

You'll get introduced to skulls toward the end of the first area. Skulls are just one of the multiple equippable slots you have. You'll get skulls as random drops from chests and enemies, and can have one equipped. Since you can only have one equipped, sell whatever you aren't using, and you should get this achievement around halfway through the game or so.
Salmonella

15
Use ring of plague to infect the living via chickens.
*MISSABLE*

This achievement requires you to find or buy a Ring of Plague-type item, which will be a green shield you can equip in either the or slot. Once you find one, you'll want to get this achievement out of the way right away just to assure you don't miss it by claiming all areas and having no enemies left to infect. Once you have this item, and you're at a level with living enemies (archers, melee enemies, shamen, etc.), return to the Crypt and add a ton of chickens to your horde (a ton is just to ensure they can infect enemies before they die). Now head back to the level with living enemies, send your horde to attack with , use the directional pad input that you assigned the Ring of Plague to, and when a melee enemy hits a plagued chicken, it'll poison the enemy and unlock this achievement. Only a single enemy needs to be infected by a single chicken to unlock this.
Necronomicon

100
Acquire the legendary Necronomicon.
*MISSABLE*

This item is found in a chest in the Old Castle Dungeon level towards the very end of the game. There is a secret switch in the southwest corner that opens up access to a hidden area, and there is a chest inside with this item. Just make sure to pick it up. If you're following the guide in Conqueror (90G) for all secrets, you'll get this one in the process. Video clip below shows me finding and collecting it.

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/5J4VGspqnt

This is only missable because if you start the second area without getting it, you'll have to play through the whole game again to get to this late-game level.
Grim Reaper

15
Kill three humans with a single scythe sweep.
*MISSABLE*

This achievement is highly missable. As the description says, you need to kill three humans enemies with a single swing of a scythe. Obviously the first step here is actually getting a scythe. I found this to be one of the rarest weapon drops in the game. I got one relatively early, but over my time with this game I only found maybe five scythes (as opposed to dozens of hammers, axes, swords, etc.). As a result, you'll want to make it a point to get this achievement as soon as you find a scythe, and if you see one available to purchase in the Crypt, do so just so you can get this achievement out of the way.

Once you have a scythe, you need to kill three humans (i.e. any enemies that aren't animals and aren't creatures such as elemental monsters) with a single swing. The scythe is the only weapon in the game that can hit multiple enemies with a single swing. This actually isn't hard to do if you actively try for it. I found the easiest way to get it was to just wait for enemies to respawn from any building in any level. Wait right out front, and when the horn sounds for them to spawn, start swinging. They always spawn in groups of five, and it only took me a couple tries for them to stay grouped up so I was hitting at least three with every single. It's going to take at least three swings to kill enemies, so you'll need them to stay grouped and be weakened at the same rate. You can make this more likely by sending your horde away so they don't kill enemies too quickly. If you die, no big deal. Return to that building and try again until they group up properly.
Re-Animator

30
Raise 15 corpses at once.
*MISSABLE*

This achievement is highly missable. It requires you to raise 15 enemy corpses with a single use of . This is extremely unlikely to happen naturally, since you'll typically only be raising enough enemies to fill out what's missing from your Command meter. However, there is a relatively easy way to force this, and that's by luring enemies to existing corpses so they're all together. By far the easiest is with groups of chickens, especially in Alwyn Forest, but it can only be done pretty easily with groups of wolves in later levels. I personally did it with groups of regular enemies, so that's entirely possible too. Simply kill a group like normal, leaving all of their corpses on the ground. Then, find another group of enemies but don't use to attack. Let the enemies see you and fhen lure them back to the corpses of the previous enemies. Attack the new enemies nearby so all the corpses are together. Repeat this until you're certain you have at least 15 corpses together. As noted, this is very easy with chickens because they're present typically in groups of 8-10. If your Command meter is too full, send away horde members (press to pull up the character screen, and use the option in the lower left to continually send away horde members until you have none). Then, you should be able to see 15+ yellow skulls in the area you'll be raising. Raise that whole group and you'll unlock this achievement.

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/XAibvH7M9S

As a side note, it certainly doesn't look like I raise 15 at once in that clip, but I got the achievement there.
Undead Trainer

30
Command a single unit to kill 20 enemies.
*MISSABLE*

This is another highly missable achievement. The wording is a little vague, but when it says "single unit" I assume that means that you can't raise new enemies to join your horde. Basically, without raising any new corpses, having your horde kill 20 enemies in a row.

This is easy to miss because it's a natural part of the gameplay to always raise new corpses to join your horde. As long as you don't do that, it's really easy to get this achievement against groups of chickens or even groups of wolves later. Another thing that really helps with this is getting a Ring of Devouring item. This is the only item in the game that lets you heal your horde members. You can therefore take out enemies, use their corpses to heal your horder instead of raising new corpses, and continue on to the next group of enemies, making this relatively easy to get.
Werechicken

15
Chickenify 20 enemies.
*MISSABLE*

This is the final highly missable achievement. This achievement requires you to find or buy a Staff weapon that has the Chickenify ability, which turns a random enemy of lower health into a chicken. In my time with this game, I only found maybe four or so, despite being very thorough. I also never saw one at the shop in the Crypt. Therefore, you'll want to keep your eye out for a Staff of Chickening or whatever they're called, and as soon as you find one, make it a point to grind out this achievement. I find these staffs to be pretty bad, so just use the first one to get to grind out this achievement against enemies as you progress, unlock this achievement, then ditch the Staff for a better weapon.