Nova Drift

Nova Drift

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All Achievements Guide
By tsuary
Collective guide for every achievement in the game
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Intro
This guide probably won't be updated in the future, so do note that it was made in early 2024 on v0.36.14 Glistering Update

In order from hardest to easiest, based on global rankings
  • [Easiest Way] - Most achievements that have multiple ways of reaching their goal will only have the efficient one listed with this prefix
  • [In Conjuction W/] - If an achievement have its conditions somewhat overlap with another one and they can be done simultaneously to save time then other compatible achievements might be listed after this prefix
Achievements that can't be done in Draft Mode will have "Non-Draft" in their description
Malfunction
(Bastion shield detonated dealing burn damage instantly after deployment)

  • [Easiest Way] Bastion Shield + Architect body + Ally + Shielded Constructs + Burnout Reactors

Due to Architect's body passive and Bastion shield being a construct, the moment your shield is created on the ally, it is detonated immediately
Social Distancing
(Have +75% battlefield size)

  • [Easiest Way] Far Sight(x11) + Railgun weapon + Snipe

Can be obtained by taking many of Far Sight, you don't necessarily need 11 of them since presence of some bosses increases battlefield size, so feel free to use it with Explosive Growth
I Want It All
(Get 250k+ score and have 9 super mods)

  • [Easiest Way] Apotheosis + Ataraxia + Barrage + Deflagration + Last Stand + Mastery + Rancor + Singular Strike + Void Slice

Counts total score, so you can have any build with which you get the score and then get the mods
Ultra Chaos
(Non-Draft; Reach 40lvl choosing only central mod)

Weapon/body/shields doesn't count as mods

Use rerolls wisely, only if you really don't need the offered mod

Highly luck-based
Serenity Now
(Non-Draft; Have 40 unspent upgrade points with Ataraxia)

  • [Easiest Way] Salvo weapon + Spectre body

I played it by spending only 3 upgrade points(weapon, body, Ataraxia) and going to 43lvl, cause it was a fastest way i could think of, and the most reliable combo i found was Salvo + Spectre, mostly cause you can go invis to restore shield back

While having Hyperboost, you fully cloak(maximize damage) the moment you have ~16 rockets in reserve, try to fire every time you have ~28 rockets if you're not dodging or moving and can aim so that most rockets will hit the enemy, this way you can maximize Spectre damage bonus and Salvo stockpile generation speed(it generates slower the more rockets you have)

if you get tanky wave 200 bosses like Glaucus, just keep steady and dodge their attacks, utilize weakpoints to kill them faster, like waiting for Scion orbs to be in the position where most rockets can hit the body, shooting Warbringer at the back, etc., screen warp to dodge most of the abilities, utilize stealth to wait for shield to come back and get into favorable position, you can move around the map while staying invisible if you just quicktap thrust, same for the last few levels, which will be the hardest, stay safe and don't overestimate yourself

You can leave one enemy alive to give yourself some time to restore hull/shields in-between waves

You can also try Swords weapon + Architect body, even though it's powerful it's also easy to die on on the final levels

  • [In Conjunction W/] Pure of Mod and Body
I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends
(Have an Ally limit of 4)

  • Engineer body + Overseer + Bravado + Evolutionary Niche(x9) ( + Ataraxia )

Here's how you get to the limit of 4 allies: 1 default + 1 from Engineer + 1 from Overseer + 1 from having +100% body gear powers ( which you can get with: multiple Evolutinary Niche(10%), Bravado(15%) and Ataraxia's 5 points bonus(30%) )
Chaos Is A Ladder
(Have 56+ Wild mods owned with Discord)

[Easiest Way] Research body + Discord + Obsession + Chaotic Ambition

Start with Research, you need to find Obsession early, the idea is to get Chaotic Ambition to help find Revelation, Explosive Growth and Grandeur, banish what you don't need to get 56 Wild mods owned, if you use Draft Mode, spend about 10 upgrades and if you don't find Obsession abort the run and restart, if you get lucky you can have 56 wild mods with first 35 upgrade points

  • [In Conjunction W/] Restraining Order
Joust
(Defeat Seraph during its charge phase with crash damage using Hullbreaker)

  • [Easiest Way] Hullbreaker body + Strafe + Rapid Reconstruction + Hidden Power + Kinetic Boost ( + Phantom Strike + Ataraxia )

If you know how to play Hullbreaker just get Strafe and wait for Seraph's charge phase, if you don't then here's a rundown that should be enough to get to and beat Seraph

Because your crash damage is boosted by high speed you want to be able to build up speed quick and the best tool for this is Strafe, aim at the enemies and charge with it, usually after you charge at the enemy, whether you landed it or not, there's no point staying at such high speed so use stabilize(just quicktap will be enough) to slow down, this will be your main attack sequence, better set Strafe and Stabilize to easy to spam buttons as you'll be using them a lot

Taking Terminate and executing the Seraph instead of killing directly may prevent you from getting the achievement

Take Kinetic Boost cause it basically improves your passive's damage bonus from speed

You might want to take Phantom Strike cause it'll increase crash damage and allow you to reposition if you don't penetrate target on hit

You can go for Dying Star if you struggle with smaller enemies, although you'll need to be precise with last hitting Seraph with Terminate so that burn won't accidentally execute it instead when it gets to low health

You can gain more speed before impact by doing a screen-wrap, say if enemy is in the middle of screen and you're on the left side, you would Strafe to the left edge of the screen to warp on the right side and hit enemy in the middle while holding thrust to get max speed

Additionally you can multi-screen-wrap to deal insane damage, for this, first rotate ship parallel along vertical or horizontal line then start thrusting and using Strafe to get speed, rotate a little left/right to make ship move along slightly not perpendicular trajectory to slowly line by line get to the target, better if each line covers the space tightly next to previous one or you may overshoot and miss, though it'll take time to get used to rapidly making a trajectory, adjusting for inertia and hitting moving enemies, but you don't need it to defeat Seraph, just repeatedly bump it with Strafe and when it'll be around 20-30% hp wait for charge phase, once it's charging at you and screen-warped at least once(cause it's hard to hit it at the start of the charge) just Strafe right at it

You can do both screen-wrap boost tricks diagonally, although it'll be harder to land as you'll essentially double screen-wrap at the steep angle

Be aware that it's better to do multi-screen-wrap at the start of the fight or right after enemy appears since if there's bullets or high AoE attacks you'll easily eat up all of them

Choose for yourself whether to use Non-Draft mode for this as it'll take you relatively same time to get to wave 100 as it would to find Seraph in Draft mode, but if you decide to use Draft, know that you can get most needed mods in first 14 lvls, which means you can have Ataraxia for that juicy 48% regeneration

  • [In Conjunction W/] Ludicrous Speed + Planet Buster
Boop Noodle
(Leviathan body with -35% size)

  • Streamline(10%) + Leaf on the Wind(10%) + Regression(4-24%) ( + Winnow(7%) )

Be a lil snek
Savor The Void
(Get offered 7 Void Upgrades by exhausting the mod pool)

  • [Easiest Way](by Xandred) Research body

Use Draft Mode without Wild Metamorphosis and banish all the mods

Don't take weapon/shield to save upgrade points

Void added by Evolutionary Niche doesn't count cause it's a different mod from pool exhaust Void

Mods like Rapid Reconstruction and Hidden Power (as well as Regression and Winnow) can help you banish many mods at once
Restraining Order
(Have +50% total maximum hull and shields reduction from Obsession (x17 additional mods) )

Get Obsession and keep taking Recursive Wild mods, have fun

If you find Explosive Growth use it on Chaotic Ambition or some mod that you don't want too many of

  • [In Conjunction W/] Chaos Is A Ladder
Ya Basic
(Non-Draft; Defeat wave 100 boss with starting gear)

  • [Easiest Way] Terminate + Singular Strike + Homing Strike

At Phase One(Burning Orbs) stay right in front of Seraph and don't go around it to not increase orbs spread area

At Phase Two(Railgun Shots) non-stop circle around Seraph as it rotates alongside you, repeatedly quick-switch from thrusting aiming perpendicularly to get around it and shooting while aiming right at it; low turning speed won't allow Seraph to catch up and it'll miss

At Phase Three(Lance Charge) if you see its charging direction align with you, thrust perpendicularly to it to make it miss and just wait for it to stop charging

If after transition from Phase One To Phase Two orbs didn't created an opening near Seraph for you to go around when it starts shooting(that shouldn't happen as it's having a lowest attack speed that scales with wave it is encountered at, starting at 100), try thrusting after Seraph takes aim, if you'll be at the right speed the moment it takes a shot it'll miss due to its low rotation speed, you have to wait cause of limited space available to you since if you'll thrust too much you might fly into the orbs

Seraph spawns with 3 Drones which will shoot 3 bullets initially then 4 thereafter, they're hard to dodge so eliminate them first

You can ignore Turrets spawned in corners as they'll only shoot you at the edges of the screen, and will only hit if you're staying there longer than half a second

If Tesla Mines, Cherubs or Hosts spawn, target them first unless Seraph itself is having lower health

You can disable all difficulty options but don't use Practice Mode as it disables achievements
Trolley Problem
(Get Cargo Train to last hit you)

  • [Easiest Way](by Xandred) Bastion shield + Omni Shield

Defend yourself with the shield and hit the cargo with your hull when it appears until it kills you

You can also try Saturation Fire + Core Shielding + Rapid Reconstruction + Essence Sap with which the idea is to get heavy hull self-damage weapon which wouldn't kill you when you fight enemies(that's what Essence Sap is here for) and the moment you see the train spawn just damage yourself to get really low, then bump into the cargo
Turbo Tortoise
(Have <3.5s Bastion shield cooldown)

  • [Easiest Way] Architect body + Overseer + Support Specialist + Tempest Break + Hidden Power ( + Ataraxia's 5 points bonus )

The reason you take Hidden Power is cause it gives 10% shield cooldown

Taking Efficiency doesn't affect flat cooldown time so it won't help

Taking Energized Shields doesn't help as it also reduces construct assembly speed that Bastion's cooldown is affected by

You can use Bravado to slightly boost Architect's bonus construct assembly speed
World Serpent
(Reach 80 body segments as Leaviathan)

  • [Easiest Way] Leviathan body + Rapid Reconstruction + Blink + Hidden Power ( + Phantom Strike)

You need to reach 70lvl to get 80 segments, you can get it earlier by stacking body gear powers

To get to the Hidden Power you can take things like Scorching Wake, Force Armor, Rebuke

You should take Phantom Strike whenever possible, it's really helpful here as it reduces the crash damage, and also makes you appear on the other side and your tail will snap to you, damaging everyone in-between, in case you don't get lucky you can always go for regular Blink focused crash damage Leviathan

Be careful with Scion's beam and Bulwark's retaliation shield, cause they're pretty much the only things able to take down your full hp bar until 70lvl

  • [In Conjunction W/] Bullet Sponge + This is Fine
It Was At That Moment He Knew...
(Have a shield that pulls enemies inward)

  • Shockwave shield + Polar Inversion

Hugs!
Filled with Determination
(Get 200k+ score after reviving from Last Stand)

  • [Easiest Way] Engineer body + Overseer + Advanced Engineering + Fleet Commander + Evolution + Overpower + Counter Artillery

Get Engineer body and max constructs, set drones to Assault formation for max firerate, switch to Default formation when you want to defend against projectiles, play safe and try to dodge everything, don't go for every exp orb if it doesn't look safe, take Blink for mobility

If taking Wild construct specialist mod, consider Drone Specialist > Ally Specialist > Turret Specialist, as drones will die more often while dealing significant damage with Terminal Directive

You can die early to have easier enemy encounters
The Best Defense
(Self-Destruct Bastion shield triggering Volatile Shields, Self Destruction, Tempest Break)

  • Architect body + Ally + Volatile Shields + Self Destruction + Tempest Break

You need to have Auto-Deploy for constructs enabled
A Bold Strategy
(Trigger Retribution from self-damage)

  • [Easiest Way] Retribution + Omni Shield + Antimatter Rounds

Alternatively you can use Omni Shield + Discharge + Gemini Protocol, or any form of self-damage that will inflict huge hull damage
Pure of Mod and Body
(Get 200k+ score with at most 8 mods including Ataraxia)

  • [Easiest Way] Swords weapon + Architect body

This combo is pretty strong by itself so no advanced tactics needed, just remember to not actively use swords on Gyrogun projectiles, cease fire and use it once you're near an enemy

  • [In Conjunction W/] Serenity Now
Steady...Steady...
(Fire weapon after charging it for 60+ seconds)

  • [Easiest Way] Charged Shot + Engineer body + Fleet Commander + Overpower

Dodge enemy attacks while your constructs do the work, or you can use Thermal Lance weapon + Power Reserves + Strafe to stay mobile while charging

  • [In Conjunction W/] Missile Massacre
Divide by Zero
(Trigger 40 Warp explosions at once)

  • [Easiest Way] Warp shield + Engineer body + Advanced Engineering + Fleet Commander + Overseer + Ally + Turret

You need to have 20 shielded constructs as Warp shield spawns 2 explosions for each warp, having Engineer body + Overseer with max drones will give you 14, Turret 3 and Ally 3 more, or you can get Drone Specialist to get them to 18 and Turret/Ally for 3 more
The Hard Way
(Non-Draft; Destroy Station Omega without breaking any vulnerability points)

During the First Phase(Lasers) just circle around alongside it to not get hit

During the Second Phase(Spheres) stay near edges and screen-wrap whenever you about to get hit by the projectiles to whatever part of the screen which is open at the moment

Beware of weapons with post-hit AoE blast radius like Railgun, which will damage the node even when hitting the body from outside
Sonic Rainboom
(Activate Volatile Shields using Celestial Lance while having Hyperboost)

  • Volatile Shields + Celestial Lance ( + Ataraxia 20 points bonus, to not wait for Hyperboost drop)

Once you have all three of these just hold thrust until your shield breaks and that'll be it
I Regret Everything
(Die with Omni Shield while having your shield active)

  • [Easiest Way] Omni Shield + Siege Weaponry

Simply fire non-stop once you have some hull self-damage
Still Alive
(Keep turret alive for 4+ minutes)

  • [Easiest Way] Vital Bond + Point Defense ( + Tactical Link if you want extra help)

You can use Guardian ally to help keep turret alive, watch out for enemies near your turret or defend it with drones in Circle formation if you're using Overseer
Don't Play Dice with The Universe
(Beat wave 100 boss without using rerolls)

Pick the most useful or harmless mod you get offered and defeat Seraph
Volatile Projectile
(Trigger Volatile Shields on a Blade Drone)

  • Blade weapon + Volatile Shields + Shielded Constructs

You need to break your shield while it's on the blade, that's it

  • [In Conjunction W/] No, You
Ludicrous Speed
(Inflict 25k+ crash damage hit)

  • [Easiest Way] Hullbreaker body + Kinetic Boost

You can get this achievement by simply thrusting in any direction, eventually you'll hit an enemy, if that didn't do enough damage try to accumulate more speed or get Improved Thrusters, Juggernaut, etc.

if you want more detailed Hullbreaker tutorial, visit Joust section

  • [In Conjunction W/] Joust + Planet Buster
'Tis But A Scratch
(Destroy all Warbringer's components)

You need to attack Warbringer from the front, focus the middle laser first since none of others will hit you when it's centered on you during the attack, then continue damaging it from the front
NOT THE BEES
(Have 50+ swarm constructs)

  • [Easiest Way] Carrier body + Spontaneous Generation

Generally not hard to get from killing high health enemy while having Spontaneous Generation, you can also use Carrier body + Overseer
Secret Weapon
(Achieve standard firerate with reflexive shields)

  • Reflexive Shields + Discharge ( + Spread/Torrent weapon )

This achievement requires fairly fast firing weapon, most weapons will do but if you don't get it try using Spread or Torrent
This is Fine
(Take 6k+ damage from the Dying Star mod in one game)

  • [Easiest Way] Leviathan body + Rapid Reconstruction + Dying Star

Get Leviathan build with high hull and regeneration and play normally, Firefly synergizes well with it too

  • [In Conjunction W/] World Serpent + Bullet Sponge
No, You
(Reflect an enemy projectile with a weapon construct)

  • [Easiest Way] Blade weapon + Reflect shield + Shielded Constructs

Once you have all three, simply fire your weapon at the enemy projectile

  • [In Conjunction W/] Volatile Projectile
Shock and Awe
(Make Discharge your primary weapon)

  • Discharge + Hidden Power

Hidden Power makes your weapon do nothing but still allows you to fire, making you able to use Discharge
Gaze Into The Abyss
(Get offered the Void by exhausting the mod pool)

  • [Easiest Way] Hidden Power + Rapid Reconstruction

Having those two is the fastest way to get The Void since they singlehandedly remove huge chunk of mods from the upgrade pool, so playing any build focused on external powers like Firefly, Leviathan, Hullbreaker should do, though in the end you'll still need to take 4-6 practically useless mods to get to it

Doesn't count Evolutionary Niche
Bullet Sponge
(End the game having sustained 12k+ damage)

  • [Easiest Way] Leviathan body + Rapid Reconstruction + Blink

Use Blink to hit enemies with your body

Be careful of Scion's beam and Bulwark's retaliation shield

You can track global Damage Taken in Pause screen

  • [In Conjunction W/] World Serpent + This is Fine
Planet Buster
(Deal 30k+ damage in one hit)

  • [Easiest Way] Hullbreaker body + Strafe + Juggernaut + Blitz ( + Hidden Power + Kinetic Boost )

Use Strafe and screen-wrap to gain speed before hitting enemies, this way you can easily get 30k+ hit

  • [In Conjunction W/] Joust + Ludicrous Speed
Missile Massacre
(Fire Salvo with 300+ missiles)

  • [Easiest Way] Engineer body + Fleet Commander + Overpower + Fusillade + Barrage

Hold your stockpile until you get 300+ while your constructs clear enemies for you, once you fire you'll get an achievements

  • [In Conjunction W/] Steady...Steady...
Shouldn't Have Been Standing There
(Penetrate 20+ targets with one Railgun projectile)

Just use Railgun, you don't need that high damage to penetrate low health targets and there's a lot of enemy waves/formations that'll consist of many small enemies with which it's not hard to get this achievements
18 Comments
joyous18 2 Sep @ 10:10pm 
For Trolly problem, its alotr easier to to subsumption or mortar and then spam it binded to your scroll wheel so you are always at 0 hp
yautl 20 Aug @ 1:25am 
Serenity Now has been changed at some point so you only need 30 unspent levels (technically a 150% damage boost from Ataraxia but that's 30 levels worth) now, which is substantially easier than getting to 40.
Hells_Razer 28 Jul @ 1:00pm 
Really helpful. BTW you can also get joust from any of the seraphs that appear after you beat the endboss. Got mine from one that showed up at wave 240-ish? About there. So if you for some reason don't manage to get him at wave 100, but your run is going good, don't throw it. Keep going! You will get more opportunities.
R@sιn 22 Jul @ 12:03pm 
Super helpful.
Can also do Serenity Now using Swords + Siphon + Carrier.
Swords have good DPS against enemies with multiple parts, saves the ship from bullet hell. Siphon and Carrier provide very fast shield regen.
~Chechmate~ 12 Jul @ 4:42pm 
Ultra Chaos can be done in conjunction with serenity now if you make sure the Ataraxia mod is the central one by rerolling.
AudLynn 10 Jul @ 10:14am 
Yes, that's exactly what I mean. I don't know if that's a bug, or if it was an intentional thing in the new update or something, but it was only after I attempted and succeeded at killing Seraph without Terminate that the achievement triggered. Maybe it used to work, but for me, it didn't.
tsuary  [author] 10 Jul @ 2:50am 
You mean you didn't get the achiv by executing Seraph with Terminate? And without, it triggered correctly? I can't confirm whether that's so, but i'll add it in the notes and remove Terminate
AudLynn 15 Jun @ 10:38pm 
You might have to update this, I kept doing runs to get Joust and it WOULD NOT trigger, no matter what I did. Only when I removed Terminate from the equation did ramming Seraph in its charge phase actually do anything. My only assumption from this is that, for whatever reason, Terminate just doesn't count as crash damage.
TechOps 13 Jun @ 8:06pm 
how do i get burnout reactors, what builds into it?
dog.tag6663 5 Apr @ 2:09pm 
Bullet sponge build with Ataraxia is crazy.

That might be another way to get Serenity Now, but if you pick too many upgrades, it will take time.