Starfield

Technically this is optional, but it'll be impossible not to hit level 5 just by playing the game through...

It'll be impossible not to hit level 10 just by playing the game through.

Ships can be modified at the technician who is in the landing area in every major city; including Jemison where you start, and Akila which is well worth heading to in short order. They are always either standing between your ship and the way to the city, or in a small hut/building nearby.

All you need to do is make any change to your ship and it'll pop.

No need to hurry though - can be done at any time and you'll want to make upgrades soon enough... ...once you've got enough credits.

This can be done anytime in the game and is a pre-requisite for other outpost-related achievements like Shipping Magnate and Industrialist.

Just head to a plane, land, walk about a bit and open the output menu (LB on a controller) and you'll have the option to establish an outpost.

Note that not all planet types are habitable until/unless you unlock more skills later in the game - but the game will tell you this as you progress and if you can't yet establish an outpost on your chosen planet. Avoid planets with extreme conditions...

This will easily come naturally through regular play as you travel around doing missions. No need to focus on this one.

See Reach for the Stars

This will come very easily through natural gameplay, no need for any special attention.

There are mission terminals in a few locations where you can accept side missions, usually by being part of the local faction. Probably the easiest (and most fun?) is the Freestar Rangers missions - on Akila; head into the big stone tower-like building at the back of the square as you enter the city. Up two flights of stairs and the terminal is just on your right as you get up there. You have to join the rangers and complete a few missions before you can use it though; you'll know when because you'll be asked to do one to prove yourself to them.

Visit Akila City, on Akila in the Cheyenne system to star the Freestar Rangers questline. Its just a few jumps from Jemison ('downwards' on the starmap).

When you get there, as you enter the city you'll be told of a crime in progress; help the sheriff with that and that's your entry point into the questline.

This will come naturally during regular play; just interact with any/all computers you see along the way and it'll pop soon enough. Progress carries over into NG+ if needed.

Activities are like mini quests and they'll pop into your journal automatically - either from nearby companions, or people you walk past in the various cities. Each one is typically pretty quick to do. If you just keep an eye and do some as you play through the game there'll be no issue unlocking this one.

Just pick all the locks you come across as you play. Progress carries through into NG+ so won't be lost. It's worth investing a few points in the skill tree to enable you to pick higher level locks. This isn't a painful grind.

This is the 2nd achievement in the Ryujin Industries questine, so you must have joined Ryujin Industries, completed the first quest first to unlock Back to the Grind and progressed through the quests until you reach the one named Guilty Parties, which you need to complete for this achievement.

As with all the faction quest achievements you don't need to do anything specific - just complete the quest.

In a 'normal' type of playthrough this won't necessarily come naturally - so make a point of killing any and all wildlife as you come across it. There's no penalty for doing so.

This is the last of the Ryujin Industies faction questline. See Back to the Grind for how to join.

This is missable because there's only so many opportunities in a playthrough to curry favour with your active companion. So pick one to stick with, and do/say things that they will like. Whenever their 'activities' to talk to them pop up in your journal, do so. Do the companion questline.

Eventually your relationship level will rise enough that there'll be a marriage or ceremony - the companion will signal that its time. Go along with this and on completion the achievement will pop.

Don't panic about reaching 'Friend' status - you haven't been friend-zoned, this is just a step along the way...

See Reach for the Stars

The easiest way is definitely to accumulate materials, store them in your ship's cargo hold and install crafting workstations in your ship - so that all materials are available even on higher difficulty settings (which you'll be wanting for Reach for the Stars

This is easiest done by decorating your ship to install a Weapons Workbench, and modifying weapons there; as you'll have access to all the resources stored in your ship's cargo hold - even on the higher difficulty settings you'll want for Reach for the Stars.

Just make a point of applying some kind of modification - basic barrel mods are pretty cheap - to all your weapons as you continue through normal play and this should pop soon enough.

Note the criteria is really about applying 50 weapon mods; not quite the same as modifying 50 different weapons.

This isn't just for transporting contraband - you have to be scanned and have the contraband not be detected.

This needs a ship with a shielded cargo hold. Some vendors sell one (e.g. at the Den) - but a ship with one already fitted is the reward for the Mantis questline, which becomes available when you pick up a note about a Hidden Outpost from the body of a pirate you'll randomly kill during normal play.

Once you've got the shielded cargo hold, now for some contraband! There's randomly some contraband in various POIs and bandit camps - you'll inevitably come across some during normal play sooner or later. Failing that, you can steal from security checkpoints or jails - e.g. at Neon.

Note that only the first X units of cargo are shielded. So if (for example) your ship has 100 units of shielded cargo hold, only the first 100 units of stuff you put in will be shielded. You might need to sell/dump your other stuff first to make sure contraband gets those first few units. Or put it in your pocket and just be over-encumbered for a few minutes before you put it all back in again after putting the contraband in the hold.

Skill magazines are randomly lying around the place in various places - including repeatedly in some of the bandit camps you'll encounter on planets.

They are flat rectangular paper (or paper-style) magazines with a picture on the front, and picking up each one grants some kind of minor permanent stats bonus.

The first and most obvious is on the railing behind Sarah when you first enter the Lodge - its also visible in the loading screen image of this same scene. Just look slightly to your left (her right) as you approach.

Keep an eye out for these as you play the game, including when exploring POIs, and eventually this will unlock. They're almost always on a desk or table. You can check progress in your character's stats pages.

Progress does carry over into NG+ so don't panic about getting them all before proceeding.

Most of this will naturally come through completing the game - but generally just land, even if just briefly, on any planet with a reason to be there and you'll get there soon enough.

Progress carries over into NG+ too, so don't panic about hitting it before completing the story.

You'll pick up a number of companions automatically (and optionally) as you progress the story.

To get more, go to bars and social areas in any of the cities and look at the random NPCs there. Some will have titles that align with roles on a ship - talk to them and they'll usually agree to join your crew.

Get 10 and the achievement will unlock. Note that you don't have to actually assign anyone to a role on your ship - just them being in the roster as a companion is enough.

This is probably the most painful grind; using your Cutter to mine small pieces of rock everywhere. Do this as much as possible as you play, as its terribly boring to do hundreds in a row at the end. Just pick off a few whenever you're walking about on planet.

The game doesn't report progress out to the achievements system, but you can check how far you've got in the character status menus.

You can buy ships from any technician (the same place you go to upgrade your existing ships). Also there are a couple of quests where a ship is a reward; e.g. if you pick up a note speaking of a Hidden Outpost.

Otherwise, when walking around on a planet sometimes (often!) a ship will land nearby - some of these are crewed by enemies and can be taken over once all the enemies are killed. Usually, though, you'll need a higher Piloting skill to be able to take them over.

Technically this isn't "all" star systems as the description would imply, but visiting 120 star systems. Some kind of internal "has visited" flag gets reset when you go into NG+, so just visit places and travel around as you play and it'll pop eventually. You don't need to worry about ticking off each and every system - just 120 in total.

This will likely be the longest grind, even after doing NG+ and the DLC - its a long road to level 100.

Make sure to max affinity with a companion and get rested by sleeping for the +15% XP boost (vs +10% without a maxed companion), and look at the consumables/beverages you can buy or craft for extra XP boosts (like Tranquilitea or Alien Tea).

Also look at the game's difficulty settings; increasing combat difficulty, or reducing access to ship's cargo to only when you're on the ship, and various other settings all add incremental XP boosts. Its worth turning all these up to as high as you can stand for +40% or so XP in everything you do. If its too challenging, you can generally raise/lower these settings whenever you want without any particular penalty.

You can also consider setting up outputs (which you'll need for Home Sweet Home and Industrialist anyway) and have them manufacture basic resources, store them in storage units and then you can bulk-craft cheap items; e.g. if you can mine Iron and Aluminium in the same outpost then bulk-crafting Adaptive Frames can be lucrative. There are more advanced setups, but balancing the time taken to set up outposts and the links between them is counter-productive.

Alternatively, fly about and blow people up - the Freestar Rangers mission board in Akila City is a good place for quick missions to help do this.

This really means "create 5 outpost connection links".

To link two outposts you need to build a Cargo Link at each one, and use the UI in one of them to tell it to link to the other side.

There are two levels of Cargo Link, the first is for connections in the same system only and doesn't require any special research. Or, you can upgrade your skills for Inter-System Cargo Links to ship cargo from one system to another. Only the basic Cargo Links are required for this achievement.

This can be a painful grind; walking up to plants/trees and tapping to harvest.

But the quickest way is with the Eternal Harvest power (obtainable from Temple Lambda) and either in a Greenhouse in an outpost you make - or during the Freestar Rangers mission "Deputized" you'll have to head to a farm on a moon near Akila (Cheyenne system) with Emma Wilcox; on that farm is an outdoor greenhouse with a circle of maize plants; just run around the circle harvesting them and hit Eternal Harvest after each rotation. The whole 500 can be done in 20-30 minutes this way, and you can return at any time so there's no hurry.

These are a type of special enemy found as you progress through the Shattered Space DLC. You'll see they are bigger and tougher than the regular sparkly dudes. Killing 25 should come naturally through the DLC without any special effort.

If you want to encourage more to spawn, don't kill human enemies too quick as they may summon a vortex horror. Also craft and use the Vortex Lure grenades - when you use them small Horrorlings will spawn, which also count.

Redeemed are tougher, special enemies throughout the Shattered Space DLC. They spawn randomly and are uncommon but not super rare.

If you don't get 10 through completing the DLC normally, just try exploring more - or flying to and landing on other random places around the planer Va'ruun'kai, and the random camp/POI spawns should have some until you reach the 10 kills required for this achievement.

Most of these will come naturally through playing the DLC, but keep exploring the map for various POIs if you end up short - including flying and landing at different places on the planet.

If you make sure to collect all the various vortex pieces you'll come across whilst fighting enemies in the normal course of completing the DLC then this is easy enough to do from about 2/3 of the way through it; all in one go at a Weapons Workshop.

All five kinds are listed in your crafting menu, and following the above you can do them all in pretty much one hit (i.e. wait until you've got lots of materials).