Hotline Miami

Kill 4 enemies within the combo timer (each kill refreshes it). Trivial - chain four quick kills in a row without pausing. You'll get this in the first level or two without trying.

Throw a brick (or other blunt throwable) at a wall so it ricochets off and kills an enemy. Put a wall between you and a target and lob the brick at the wall at an angle so the bounce catches them. Fiddly, but any level with a loose brick and a nearby wall works - just retry until the bounce lands.

Six kills on one combo chain. Pick a room with a tight cluster of enemies and blitz them - drop them back to back before the meter empties. Comes naturally as you learn to flow through a floor.

Use an enemy as a human shield. Sneak up behind an enemy and grab them (the grab prompt) rather than killing them - while held, they'll soak a bullet meant for you. Grab one in front of an armed enemy and it pops. (Named after one of the devs.)

Throw a weapon at an enemy so that his knocked-loose weapon flies off and kills a second enemy. You need two foes roughly in line - hurl a weapon at the front one so the chain reaction takes out the one behind. A bit of luck and positioning; line up two and keep trying.

Cumulative: kill 99 dogs across all your runs. Dogs are the fast enemies that rush and maul you; they show up plenty from the mid-game on, so this ticks up naturally. Replay a dog-heavy chapter a few times if you want to finish it off.

Cumulative total of 1989 kills (a nod to the game's setting). This just accrues as you play and replay - you'll be well on the way by the time you finish the story, and grinding the other achievements (especially Get A Life) pushes you over.

Score A+ on a single chapter. Your grade rewards speed, big combos, weapon variety and boldness (risky melee kills). Pick an easy early chapter, clear it fast with mixed weapons and a couple of combos, and you'll hit A+. Good practice for the real test, Get A Life.

Eight kills in a single combo. You want a densely-packed group and a fast weapon (fists or bat, or a gun to drop several then finish stragglers with melee). Learn a level's layout and open a door into a crowd, then keep moving - never hesitate.

Complete the main story - the numbered chapters up to the showdown. Unmissable if you're playing through: it pops when you finish the last main chapter and roll into the epilogue. Followed by That's It?.

Finish the epilogue (the post-story Biker chapters) to fully complete the game. Just carries on from The End? - play through to the real ending and it pops.

Break 200 glass panels, cumulative. You smash glass constantly - throwing enemies or bodies through windows, shooting or meleeing them - so this racks up naturally as you play. Deliberately bust any windows you pass if you want to finish it off.

Die 1000 times. You will die. A lot - it's Hotline Miami. This comes naturally over a full playthrough and the A+ grind, but if you want to force the last stretch, deliberately die on a hard room and use the instant restart to rack them up quickly.

Ten-kill combo. Now you're planning it - find a level with a big clustered group, memorise the layout, and clear them in one unbroken chain. A gun sprayed into a crowd, then mopping the rest with melee, keeps the timer alive. On the way to Combo King.

Unlock every weapon. Weapons unlock as you rack up kills and finish levels, so this is mostly automatic over a full playthrough - keep using varied gear and completing chapters, and the last few fall out of your cumulative kills.

Scattered through the chapters are hidden puzzle pieces (special letters), tucked in out-of-the-way corners of levels. Collect every one - use a locations guide to track them down, since several are easy to walk past. The full set unlocks the puzzle for The Boss, which leads to the secret ending This Is It.

Pick up and fire every firearm at least once - pistol, silenced pistol, magnum, uzi, MP5, shotgun, assault rifle and the rest. Just make a point of grabbing each gun type as you meet it, and sweep any you missed on chapter replays.

Once you've collected all the hidden puzzle pieces (Eye For Details), a puzzle unlocks on the level-select - solve it (the letters the pieces reveal spell out the answer). Solving it is the gateway to the true ending This Is It. If you're stuck on the solution, look it up; it only needs solving once.

Throw every throwable at least once - knives, bricks, and any pick-up-and-hurl object. As you play, deliberately throw each type you come across; a quick replay sweep cleans up any you skipped.

The true ending. First earn The Boss by solving the puzzle (which needs all pieces from Eye For Details). Then, playing the epilogue as Biker, interact with the computer on the ground floor of Chapter 19 (Resolution) to get its coded message, and finish the epilogue as normal. That triggers the secret ending and this achievement.

Clear Chapter 5 (Tension) using only your fists - never pick up a weapon. Fists are one-hit like everything else, but you have to be right on top of enemies, so it's all about timing, doors and grabs. Learn the layout, take it room by room, bait enemies round corners, and don't touch a single weapon.

The big one - twelve kills on a single combo, one of the two demanding achievements here. Pick a chapter with a large, tightly-grouped mob (the late assault-rifle levels have dense rooms), learn the exact route, and execute it flawlessly - any pause drops the meter. Take your time scouting the right spot; some rooms are practically made for it.

Land a hit with every melee weapon at least once - fists, bat, knife, pipe, katana, golf club and so on. Use each melee type as you find it; replay any chapters that feature the ones you missed.

Kill two enemies with a single brick throw - so both are caught in the brick's path. Find two enemies standing close together in a line from your position and throw straight through them. Easier than it sounds once you spot two lined up; patrol routes often bunch them.

Reach the getaway car (i.e. complete a level) 60 times, cumulative. Just accrues as you play and replay chapters - you'll pass 60 over a normal 100% run without thinking about it.

Unlock every animal mask. Masks unlock through in-game feats - hitting kill/combo milestones, completing levels, and finding hidden ones like Sewer Alligator. A few are tied to specific challenges, so check a mask-unlock list for any stragglers. Needed alongside Sounds of Animals Fighting.

Grab the hidden alligator mask (Jones). Play Chapter 5 (Tension), pick up a crowbar, and instead of leaving in the car, head to the south-east corner of the level to find a manhole. Drop down it to reach the sewers, where Jones's mask sits by a corpse. Grabbing it pops this and adds the mask to your collection for Zoo Keeper.

Brandon is the panther mask - it makes you move much faster. Wear it and get your kills on the fast rushing "panther" enemies with it: equip Brandon on a chapter full of the rushing dog-type foes and cut them down while masked. The speed boost makes chaining them easy.

A gag kill: one gangster is caught sitting on the toilet ('the crapping gangster') - finish him with a fire axe specifically. Bring or grab a fire axe for that encounter and make sure the axe is what lands the kill, not a gun or other weapon.

Equip and play with every mask at least once. Once you've unlocked them all (Zoo Keeper), just start a level wearing each one you haven't used yet - quick to clean up over a few chapter replays.

Clear Chapter 2 (Overdose) using only a baseball bat while wearing the bat mask. Equip the bat mask, pick up a bat early, and use nothing but the bat for the whole chapter - no guns, no other melee, no throws. A fun themed run; just be disciplined about only ever swinging the bat.

As Two Birds With One Stone but three or more enemies with one brick throw. Largely down to a lucky line-up - find (or wait for) three enemies clustered in the throw's path and lob it through them. Patrol patterns sometimes bunch a trio; keep an eye out and throw when they align. A bit of RNG to it, so don't force it - it often just happens.

Perform every type of ground execution - the finisher on a downed/stunned enemy. Each weapon has its own ground-kill animation, so you need to knock enemies down and execute them with every weapon variety (fists, bat, knife, each gun as a pistol-whip, etc.). Work through the weapon types on downed foes; a checklist helps track which finishers you've still to do.

A+ on every chapter - the toughest achievement here and likely your last. The grade rewards speed, big combos, varied weapons/kills and boldness, so each chapter wants a fast, aggressive, high-combo, mixed-weapon clear. Some chapters are far harder to A+ than others (the boss and gauntlet levels especially), so look up per-chapter tips for the nasty ones and expect to grind them. Restarts don't count against you, so retry freely until the run clicks.

The completion cap - pops automatically once every other Hotline Miami achievement is unlocked. Your last two are almost certainly Get A Life (A+ every chapter) and Combo King (12x combo). Grats when it lands :)