Bloomtown: A Different Story: Full Achievement Guide

Hello. I’ve never done a guide like this before, so bear with me on it, but seeing as at the time of making this, there aren’t any written guides (not even floating around online! Nothing comprehensive AND accurate, anyway), I thought if I’m going to the trouble to get all the achievements without a guide, I might as well try to help people after me. I’ve pieced the information below from my own experience and scrounging up information online. I apologize for the places where the guide could be a little more precise, such as by including pictures; I just don’t have it in me to go back and grab screenshots. All the information is accurate and sufficient nevertheless.

You literally cannot miss these except by not playing (assuming you’re going for 100%)

• Grandpa’s Lair
• Don’t Whistle
• Friendship is Gravity
• Candy Eater
• In the Shadows of Cabinets
• Silence in the Library
• A Walk through the Forest
• Hunting Season
• On a Survey
• Doctor, get a doctor!
• The Backside of America
• Contour Map – you’ll actually receive this achievement when you go to Gloomtown. (you could conceivably miss this achievement if you don’t do all the side quests, so make sure you do a favor for the two witches to go to the pet graveyard and at least poke up into the rich neighborhood and drop by the clothing store and mystery store on the bottom right.)
• Deworming
• That’s how it was! – pretty sure the details of your deal don’t matter

• Demonic Cocktail – fuse some demons!
• All at once! – I know it’s fun to subdue demons but it’s also pretty satisfying to mass attack them. If it makes you feel better, try to put a full group of demons “down” so you can all out attack all of them and possibly wipe all four of them out at once. (You don’t have to do anything special to get the achievement, though, you just have to use an all out attack. You don’t even have to kill a demon with it.)
• Knowledge is Power – Read a book.
• Novice Gardener – if you’re going for all the achievements, you’ll need to do this one anyway. Growing crops is also an efficient way to increase your proficiency score.
• Capital! – this one isn’t too hard. You probably don’t even have to push for it by working a lot. I probably only worked my job like three times the whole playthrough. You can earn a fair amount of money by selling extra equipment and whatnot, too.
• Up on the Career Ladder – if you keep the garden boxes full and watered, you’ll get this lickety split. You also increase it by crafting items (kinda slow) and reading certain books (real slow). If you go to the Diary and hit the bumpers, you can see your stats and other information about increasing them. Imo gardening is the best way.
• Brainiac – smarts is also pretty easy to increase. Crosswords and reading any book will give you a little smarts experience.
• Taste of Life – when you get to the part of the story where you need catnip, it looks like a group of three purple flowers, where the flower part is a little tower of round ball shapes (like a hyacinth). One is on the Ranger’s side of the stream, one is right by the beaver’s dam, so you can know what you’re looking for. I don’t remember where the third one is, sorry.
• Tight-knit family – nothing special for this quest line.
• Family Therapist – when the cop asks for coffee and a donut, the vending machine just to the left of you sells those things.
• Heartbreaker – There’s a dead flowerbed right by Ramona’s house that keeps dying every few days worth two stars of charm to water. Imo this is a better skill to put points into at the beginning because it matters more right off the bat and is slower to level right at first. Examining the statue to the left of the church, when you unlock the area, also gives a little charm one time. You can also feed the squirrel in Grandpa Cooper’s yard some wheat for a little charm, or the swan on the river on the right-hand side of the Central District map some seeds.
• Muscles – I found guts hardest to level personally but that’s probably just my playstyle. It’s also worth considering putting points in to to start for similar reasons to charms. You can chase the swan on the bridge in the park by the library away, sometimes from both sides of the bridge, for guts experience (assuming you succeed the roll) every day. The shooting range is another good place to increase your guts.
• People Catch Signals – the frog puzzle can be a little tricky, but the goal is to keep there from ever being two of the same frog in a row, so when in doubt, pause and see what you can do to keep that from happening. You can talk to the guy to restart it. Allow me to try to explain how to do it (I’m going to explain starting from moving the bottom frog first but you could probably invert it):
  First bottom frog, first top frog, second top frog, first bottom frog, second bottom frog, third bottom frog, first top frog, second top frog, third top frog, and then you should be able to do it from here, but in case you feel uncertain, first bottom frog, second bottom frog, third bottom frog, third bottom frog, and then scootch down the last two top frogs.
• Thank you for your attention! – they’re not long but maybe go make yourself a sandwich.

• Legendary Single – this one is easy, because you’ll get it by fixing the record player. The game guides you through the process.
• In the Lake Foam – this one is also easy. Unlock fishing and go fishing. You can talk to the fisherman by the lighthouse for fishing tips.
• At the bottom of the sea – You’ll need to pay attention to the weather descriptions of the fish. Up on the top left where it tells you the day and time, it will also have a weather indicator.
  For the first six – I’ll level with you, I didn’t pay close attention to where any of them came from in particular. It didn’t seem to be super specific to either location or weather, so if you do a lot of fishing, you should be able to get them.
  – Rainbow Trout – it’s gotta be sunny and around noon. It’s caught in the Central District
  – Shadow Perch – it’s at night in the farm district. I don’t think the weather matters.
  – Golden Carp – So I actually caught this in the forest dungeon at the first fishing spot (not the two where you can cast near or far). But you can also catch it in the forest pond, too.
  – Brown Trout – same place as the Rainbow Trout (so central). The icon you’re looking for is a sun obscured by clouds to catch this one.
  – Grass Carp – farm area, you’re looking for an icon of a sun with a thermometer next to it. I’m not sure the time matters.
  – Moon Catfish – forest pond, you cannot catch it if it is raining or scorching (the thermometer). I’m not sure other factors matter?
  – Flaming Snapper – Central district, with that sun and thermometer.
  – Twilight Stingray – Farm district (you’d think it’d be an ocean fish but oh well), with clouds over sun.
  – Watercolor Apistus – It’s gotta be raining. You catch it in the forest.
  It’s worth noting, I think, that scrap is 12¢ and just buying bait from the fisher by the lighthouse is only 10¢ so making your own isn’t actually cheaper. It’s also worth noting that fishing all the fish is necessary for four other achievements – records, crafting everything, completing all of the side quests, and the “get all the achievements” achievement.
• Academic – You DO NOT have to get all the answers correct to get this achievement. I got like three of them wrong myself. Unfortunately, I’m only really certain about eight of the answer and location pairings; I’ll list the remaining answers at the end.
  – the first one isn’t voluntary; Grandpa asks you for help. It’s Agamemnon.
  – On the porch of the neighbor just to the left; Rosie the Riveter.
  – In the laundromat.
  – On a log in the Central District park, just to the right and up from the library.
  – In front of Ruth’s.
  – In the tower where you set up Ruth’s walkie-talkie; Monsoon. (Don’t forget to come back to this one after you do all the walkie talkie stuff!)
  – Mr. Norman’s porch (the guy who says “normal” a lot because he’s definitely an alien invader, large and wears a pot on his head and a stained wifebeater).
  – The house by corn fields just to the left of the trailers.
  – The house just left of the forest fishing spot.
  – The shed in the Ranger’s compound by where you set up the walkie-talkie.
  – The bus stop by the Church; Boston
  – In the park by the bookstore in the City District, by the house on the furthest left with a teal door just by the see-saw; size.
  – By a booth south of the Orphanage and north of the rock club; the Arctic.
  – In the rich district, on a picnic blanket to the left of the tennis court also on the left; Photosynthesis.
  – Go north of the last one, past the minigolf, to the farthest left house. It’s right in front; Reformation.
  Yellowstone
  Idaho
  Presidential Medal of Freedom
  Hydra
  Mercury
  Crown
  Syzygy
• Legendary album – The first one is a freebie, right? So the others:
  – talk to the fisherman after completing the fishing quest
  – Purchase one at the record store in Central District
  – Either keep claim to the record you find next to the girl in this shop, or if you surrender it to her, earn it back by getting Sam a job in the Mystery Shop in Act 3.
  – Get to the center of the maze in the central district park with a fishing rod and interact with the hole
  – Just north of the farm district fishing spot there’s a record laying around.
  – Complete all four trick shots at the shooting range (this will take four different days).
  – The tent south of the beaver dam and north of the fishing spot in the forest has one inside; you see the little patch of purple-pink behind the backmost supporting pole? Walk around behind the bedrolls to grab it. When I did it, there was no interaction button for it but it still worked.
  – Go to the second floor of the abandoned train station and snatch it right out of that pentagram.
  – Purchase one at the Mystery Item store.
  – Go to Coyote, the rock club, and participate with the band, talking to them afterwards, twice.
  – Go to the graveyard by the church; the grave that’s almost directly straight ahead is the one with the record in it.
• True Skill – Literally just make every crafting and cooking recipe at least once. You will have to have fished up every fish so you can cook each fish; remember you can buy eggs, chicken, bananas, and ketchup at Mr. Lovely’s groceries and oranges at Misery’s groceries. You’ll need to buy these to make banana chips, orange juice, fried egg, and the roast chicken recipes. (Pick up an extra ketchup or chicken or some eggs to save yourself time in Act 3’s dungeon.) You can just buy sugar but I would recommend growing it. Likewise, you can buy cabbage and tomato and wheat from the plant store, but you will have to grow your own mint and licorice for the candy. The biggest factor in this achievement is the time for crafting everything (and aloe for your poor burned fingers after taking that many things directly out of the oven with your bare hands.)
  I don’t know if the stink bomb is required for this achievement or not but you have to make it anyway to max out Chester.

• Spirit Crusher – in the Forest Underside, you should come across another pet graveyard. Be careful about fighting the boss of this dungeon before you do this or you’ll be locked out of it. When you find the graveyard, on the left hand side, you should find a grave with two sets of flowers on it, and just to the right of it, a grave with a dug-up hole and no flowers. Both should be interactable. You can look at the barren grave first or not, I’m not sure it matters. Take a spare set of flowers from the first grave, which pisses off an elite demon. I don’t think it matters what you say, it’s gonna fight you. After you defeat it, put the flowers on the second grave.
• Fight on a Walk – This achievement happens in the third Underside dungeon. If you defeat Dr. Lewis, you will lock yourself out of this achievement. Inside the Asylum proper, in the patient ward, there’s a large square room of mostly concrete with a trapdoor on the floor where Johnny escapes. If you had yourself listed as patients, you will not be able to fight patients. This is a problem for the achievement – either don’t do that in the first place (in which case this courtyard is the furthest you will be able to progress before having to go back and be assigned as patients), or after you have escaped the patient ward as patients, get re-assigned as employees and go back to this courtyard. There will be a patient demon standing near the door; by all appearances, it’s just a regular patient, so it’s easy to miss, but it’s actually an elite, and it’s the one you need to fight for the achievement.

• Pyramid Schemer – idk if you can unlock it earlier but during the third act, if you go to the Farms and hang out around Kitty (the trailer girl) or the shooting range around 7 or later, Hugo will comment that people are breaking curfew. Go talk to the shooting range guy and ask about it, then go to the barn that’s just west then south of him and examine it. Your dialog choices don’t matter, fight the demon, and you’re done.
• Thief’s Jubilee – for me this is a progression one. Just stay stocked up on lockpicks and explore everywhere, miss no chests, and you’ll get it by Gloomtown. (As for the one chest that seems unreachable in Gloomtown – sorry, I got nothing on how to get there.)
• Decider of Destiny – Here’s a list of all the side quests and any particular notes about completing them. Most of them are encountered by progressing the main story or hanging out with your friends. If you make an effort to do everything your diary tells you to do, talk to everyone, and explore everywhere, you should be able to get all of these.
  – Rock-n-roll Tonight
  – A Unique Exhibit – Do not bother calling the museum until your charm is high enough to succeed on this roll. You only get one shot. The answers are living dinosaur, egg, and diplodocus.
  – Everyone’s a Critic – Impressionism, color, tone, and texture itself, and Manet.
  – Sweet Life – just grab a free candy from the bowl.
  – Package for Cooper
  – Contact with the Natives
  – An apple a day keeps the doctor away
  – Sport is health
  – Book trust issues
  – The Mystery behind the old ladies’ door
  – little bookworm
  – any fish is good enough
  – Esoteric affairs of retirees
  – Spiritual food
  – Dispelling hugo
  – The Way to Yourself
  – Possessed Scythe (it’s the scarecrow in the top left cornfield)
  – Joe’s Gun (Make sure you don’t sell Chester’s starting Winchester to make this easier.)
  – Noise from under the floor
  – kids in black
  – Catch ‘em all!
  – Sam’s Enthusiasm
  – Shroom Meadow (go to the middle left of the forest. Bruno is blue; Borris is white; Barney is red. The treasure is right by them.)
  – Mother’s consolation (you need Bob’s ghost to start this, so make sure you talk to him before you finish the forest.)
  – Hell’s Cow (make sure you do not finish the forest before this quest or you will be locked out. Go up to where there is a toothy looking tomato thing and jump down a hole. Wander aimlessly finding more of them until you have enough and then use the map to figure out how to get back out.)
  – Misuse of force (as noted earlier, the vending machine right by the cop has his coffee and donut)
  – Dr. Shadow
  – Music Obsession
  – Re-stocking
  – Reintegration in society
  – Defeated Ranger. Aftermath
  – Housing issues
  – Bug hung (I found it easiest to stand in the bug’s path facing away from the bug and trying to catch it as it passes you.)
  – Search for Ruth’s Sanctuary
  – Arrival
  – Curfew
  – Artist’s Atonement
  – Doomsday Preacher (head back to the church after you open up the third Underside dungeon.)
  – Psycho Trackers (this is in the third dungeon; if you defeat Mr. Lewis without doing it, you’ll lock yourself out. TAKE NOTE! If you go into the employee’s wing as patients, the employees will attack you, *including the one who gives you this side quest*. He’s the very second employee you would encounter, so you’ll want to avoid going into the employee wing if you haven’t gotten your party marked as employees by the receptionist. Otherwise you can lock yourself out of this quest!)
  – Elections (this happens at the fair. If you don’t get the achievement after completing this side quest, you missed one. Quick, reboot an older save file from before you defeated Mr. Lewis – cuz if you complete the game, your earliest available save file might not go back far enough or might skip to way way earlier. Ask me how I know (you know how I know, don’t ask me.) It doesn’t matter who you get elected as long as you resolve the elections, but I personally think the swan is pretty great. If you play hide and seek with the kids and find them all, then you can get them to rustle up votes for your preferred politician.)
• Take Everything from Summer – ugh, this achievement. Ugh. Anyway here’s what you gotta do:
  – Read a book? (You need to do this for a different achievement regardless so even if this is not actually part of the achievement, do it anyway.)
  – Watch at least one movie at both cinemas (Central district and the suburbs)
  – Work at the grocery store at least once (beyond the obligatory time)
  – buy at least one lotto ticket (Encouraging minors to gamble? For shame!)
  – Attend the Book Club (At the Library in the left wing, Sunday)
  – Attend the Jazz Club (Fri-Sun 4-7)
  – Attend the Rock Club (Fri-Sun 4-7) (you’ll need to do this for the records anyway)
  – Attend the Bathouse/Spa (opens at 4)
  – Work out at the Gym (you’ll need to do this for the main storyline anyway, though it’s possible you need to do it an additional time)
  – Work out at home (interact with the little dumbells on your rug)
  – Clean your room (interact with the broom; you have to do it an additional time beyone the obligatory one at the beginning)
  – Craft something (You’ll need to anyway)
  – Cook something (You’ll need to anyway)
  – Fish at all three locations (You’ll need to anyway)
  – Shoot at Joe’s (You’ll need to anyway)
  – Burger Challenge at the diner (interact with the flier on the counter first; Sat-Mon 6-10pm)
  – Telescope activity (as in Ruth’s)
  This achievement was actually really difficult for me to obtain and it caused me a lot of stress, and while it’s likely that I just missed something due to major issues with save files (namely, trying to trigger things like the side quest achievement and then the cruel auto save overwriting the nearest save file that would allow me to keep playing the game because I didn’t know about permanent summer yet) it still came off as having done everything and the achievement not triggering. So my best advice, if you wind up struggling with this achievement, is try to do everything on this list as soon as you can, so you don’t miss anything, and if you feel like you’re at the near end of the game and you’re still missing things, do them all a second time. You can always agree to do infinite summer with Lucifer and figure it out then (if you want to go ahead and get the side quest achievement.)

I hope this guide makes 100%ing the game much more enjoyable for you than it was for me.