Alien: Isolation
50 Achievements
1,000
40-50h
One Shot
Completed the game without dying
100
0.22%
How to unlock the One Shot achievement in Alien: Isolation - Definitive Guide
Keep this for your 2nd run, because once the game mechanics are assimilated, it becomes much easier to do this successfully.
Some tips though:
- Never run
- Against humans, use sound lure to kill them easily
- Against the Cyborgs use the taser followed by melee ()
- Save your fuel for the flamethrower (2 low pressure on is enough to scare the Alien)
- Do not rush! Being patient will save your life many times!
- Make regular saves so you don't have to do a long session after death
- If you're dead or killed a civilian,reload the backup save.According to our colleagues from PS4 trophies it doesn't void the achievement.Not the current save !
About the civilians i actually don't know if they void the cheevo. On my run without dying, I killed one, had a Game Over and the cheevo popped at the end.But in any case,if you killed one,reload your backup save to be sure.
Voila, I hope these tips will be able to help you. Again, this cheevo is not complicated at all (I did it on expert) but you have to proceed with caution.
Good stalking !
There are seven instant death scenarios in the game:
- If you still have a Kinect connected (Xbox One only), turn off the Kinect Movement/Noise detection. They are a neat touch to the immersive experience, but this increases your risks of getting noticed (and subsequently killed).
- You want to be as stealthy as possible and not look for a fight. There will be rare times where running will be easier than slowly getting around people, but practice your ninja skills.
- You can part-build devices (ie don't hit at the end to complete the build) to remove components from your inventory. This will assist in having plenty of parts in your inventory to build when you're desperate.
- The Pipe Bomb if thrown too close to you can kill you. Make sure you have a clear path to throw it far away from you.
- It hasn't been mentioned explicitly here, but when you're hiding in a locker or under a table/bed and you have the motion tracker on, the Alien can hear you if it's close by. It took me a while to understand why the Alien kept finding me. The same goes for Synthetics.
- Speaking of lockers, make sure that your health is always at or near 100%: when you're in a locker and you're given instructions to hold your breath, eventually your health will start falling. Usually the Alien isn't around long enough for this to be a serious problem, but you'd hate to die through lack of oxygen.
- If you're not sure whether you've died or not, you can always check the progress against "100 Times Too Many" (Xbox One only). If you end up dying early on in the game and didn't realize (i.e. you thought you reloaded in time but didn't), you'd rather know you've already blown the achievement early on, right?
- In particularly tense parts where you're being hunted by the Alien or Synthetics, have your right thumb hovering over the button. While usually you'll have a few seconds to hit it and load from a previous save, there are times where you're just going to want to remove all ambiguity and hit reload straight away. Luckily the Alien generally gives you warning (its scream) before it gets too close to you.
- I found that the Alien either got more used to being hit by the flamethrower later in the game, or it wasn't as effective. In other words, be prepared to needing to hit more (but still in short bursts) than a few times to scare it off in later missions. Flamethrower fuel is somewhat scarce in Hard mode, but as long as you're not too trigger happy with it you will have more than enough, and the game does provide fuel in key parts of the game where it's basically impossible to proceed without it.
- I found that the Alien only twice got into the vents to get me (this was towards the end), so if you're hiding in the vent system it's best to hide in a corner (i.e. where there's an L turn) so you can keep an eye on both directions.
- Missions 10, 14 and 16 were the most painful, and they're also some of the longest levels, so be prepared for a long slog. Don't be discouraged.
- Save Often! The game design has luckily put save points in a lot of places and generally before the more difficult parts, so while you may be reloading from one particular save point often, you're keeping your backtracking to a minimum. The game DOES save collectable pickups when you reload the to your last save, but always find a save point when you're done with your session.
- Two important tips for Mission 18:
You have two save slots, a current save and a previous save. If you load a previous save it becomes your current save, and your old current save becomes the previous save. Basically your saves swap names, you can verify this with the time stamps.
If you get killed (see the save icon, or get an instant death) the current save will get a death. Your previous save will still be death free. This allows you to load the previous save and continue your death free run. But now the save you died on becomes the previous save. So if you get killed again before you can make a new save, you will have deaths on both saves and fail the achievement. You can still reload your current save if you're about to die, but you can't actually die.
I would also like to note that killing aggressive humans does not void this achievement. If you kill a non aggressive human it will count as a death, so just load your previous save and go about your business.
This is actually a very simple achievement once you understand how the deaths/saves work. Always try and remember where your previous save was made, and if it was in a dangerous situation try to make two saves at the next safe registration point.
Also I got this achievement playing on novice on my second play through.
UPDATE: thank you to @Zordnil for confirming that you can reload the chapter save if you happen to get deaths on both saves. You must replay/play all chapters from that point for the achievement to still unlock. Would also like to note that the solution by @IIKazzII also explains this.
I hope that all makes sense and happy hunting.
In some scenarios you wont get chance to do the 2x save method, chapter 18 is a prime example, as in the last section with the transit cars, there are no saves just checkpoint saves. If you die in these conditions keep your wits about what save your loading, checking the times helps. But be aware these checkpoints overwrite your manual saves.
ONE MAJOR tip I would like to give, due to the above, I ended up with deaths on both my save files. Meaning both current, and previous. I was a bit annoyed I would need to do yet another playthrough, but first I tried something. With both saves void of the achievement. I returned to main menu, and went to mission load, I loaded up mission 18 again from the start, and finished the game, both the one shot, and finishing on hard unlocked. So if you do mess up, and screw both your saves, simply go to menu, and restart the mission you messed up on, no need for a complete new playthrough at all.
If you are in the death animation of the Alien or anything else that can kill you, you MUST reload PREVIOUS save, not the current save. If you are not prepared (reloaded) and you are about to eat it, but not into the death animation yet, you then can click load Current save. I would load PREVIOUS regardless. With that said, save at every save station every chance you get. There was a time or two that I realized that I had to do a lot of actions between save points. When this happened, I would save and then hide in a locker or under a desk until that save station was ready then save again. Then the previous save is still right there at that location.
Hope this helps those traveling on the Sevastipol!!
If both your saves mess up on a mission after you die, you will not loose the chance of getting this achievement!
If you haven't died on any previous missions simply press start and load game, Load mission save, now you'll need to restart the level and not mess up the second time around, if you do you'll need to load mission save again and do it all over!
So there isn't really many ways to miss out on this achievement, just save twice at every station, and load mission save if you've messed up your current and previous ones on that particular mission.
I just completed this on HARD mode without dying and killing any humans in order to get:
Now, I took the liberty of individually testing each death scenario that you could come across and here are the ones that you can avoid easily and the ones that can condemn your run.
Death scenarios where you can press immediately and reload your CURRENT SAVE:
Death scenarios that are UNAVOIDABLE by pressing and instead you have to press and immediately shut the game:
I took my risks by playing this on hard but I totally recommend you to try this one on novice if you can since it's ridiculously easy and the Alien won't even show up for most of the game. The humans and androids do an insignificant amount of damage as well and it is basically a walk in the park.
Final tips:
- If you see the Alien running towards you press start and reload save. Play it safe.
- If and android catches you with low health, pause and reload.
- If a human corners you with low health, pause and reload.
- Restrain from running as it can attract hostiles.
- Turn and check your back from time to time. Gotta keep those eyes in the back of your head.
- Save your ammo, gadgets and crafting components for emergencies as much as you can.
- Turn your volume up! the Alien does a very specific clanking noise and hissing when entering your area through a vent and does a similar noise when leaving. And also it gives you a warning before attacking by screaming.
- If you get targeted by hostiles go hide and avoid having your motion tracker out for too long as its sound can help enemies to pinpoint your location easily.
- Save as much as you can! There are plenty of save stations throughout the game. USE THEM. The more you use them, the less you get thrown back if you have to reload a save.
Remember: play it safe and avoid being greedy. Good luck!
> Play in "Easy" mode.
> Save often !
> If the Alien grabs you, quickly press the "Options" button and load your last save. There is a short sequence each time before you die (2-3 seconds, not more).
> Be careful, a new monster appear on level 14 :
They are killing you in one shot if they touch you ! Be careful : you must pay attention of the noise / little scream they make when they're coming. You'll see them for the first time on level 14 and then in next levels.
> Hopefully, there is also another way to prevent any stupid death without restarting the whole game : copy your "Alien Isolation save" on an external USB key from the PSN menu (you must quit the game for this). I recommand to save like this at the beginning of each levels, particularly when you are at the level 14 and all next levels until the end. Copy all files everytime. If you sadly die, you'll have to quit and overwrite your PS4 files with the USB saves.
> For those like me who wants to attempt this trophy in their first run : be careful, the game is not finished when you have the trophy for completing the level 18, there is another short playable sequence after that on the "Torrens" (the ship of the really beginning of the game).
Hope this will help. Sorry if my english is not perfect, I'm french !
You can indeed hit escape and load the current save before the cutscene ends. If you get attacked by the alien a second time before hitting a new save point you need to load the previous save point!
I was attacked in the very last part by a facehugger from behind, it killed me. But I loaded the previous save point and the achievement popped for me when I finished!
I guess this will also work if you get hit by the trams.
Before you start your attempt at this trophy be prepared for one thing - you will die a lot!! This fact is almost inevitable in this game so the rest of this guide will be around avoiding the game actually realising that you've died!!
Basically you need to avoid dying and getting the game over screen. This is the screen that appears after a death and tells you to reload your game.
I would definitely suggest you don't try this on your first play through. Doing it on subsequent playthroughs will mean you have a good understanding of the game mechanics and you'll be familiar with the tough parts of the game where death is possible if not inevitable.
The key to getting this trophy is good management of your game saves. You can have two games saves at a time (current and previous save) that can be loaded via the pause menu. Save at every opportunity and when you are approaching a part of the game where the risk of death is higher save your game and then wait by the save point for a couple of minutes and save again so you have two "clean saves".
If you think death is about to happen, i.e an alien has seen you and you can't scare it off, then load your current save quickly by pressing the options button. If you suffer an instant death ( facehuggers, gas, trams, explosions) then you need to load your previous save and then spend time making sure you have two "clean saves again". If you want to be extra cautious then save your game save to USB or edit your cloud saves. If you mess up so that both your saves include deaths then you can load the game from the beginning of a chapter using the menu reached by using the options button.
If you ever think you have really messed up in a particular chapter then start the chapter again from the beginning.
Chapters with a high risk of death:
5 and 6 - Going through the medical facility as an alien is actively looking for you in the hallways
10 - High alien activity as you complete objectives
14 - Alien nest - facehuggers for instant death. I would suggest taking the time to make multiple saves at every opportunity.
16 - Lot of highly dangerous humans around - I just killed them all with the flamethrower
17 - This is where I died the most. Multiple objectives and back tracking. There are quite a few scripted alien ambushes that you can learn. I would suggest taking the time to make multiple saves at every opportunity.
18 - Second alien nest - if you get caught by a facehugger make sure you load your previous save , not your current one. The same if you get hit by a tram. Make sure neither of your saves are a file that contains a death if either of these happen. Once you get on board the Torrens make sure you carefully complete the final quick time event involving the alien on board.
You'll rarely see the Alien - more often than not you'll hear it drop and go back almost immediately HOWEVER this means it's rather hard early on to "summon" it to clear humans for you. Although that only really matters in M6.
One thing to note though - the Alien is still forced into aggressive behavior during the same spots as before i.e. M10 and most infamously M17. Although it's not even remotely close to hard/NM levels of staying on ground and getting close to you.
Novice also has a couple of scripted events that don't happen on proper difficulties, that benefit you.
In M7 the Alien will force-drop once you sneaked past the humans to clear the way for you once you return to the elevator.
In M7 or 8 four humans will come down to the hub when you call the transit. Simply hide in the locker and wait. About 10 seconds after the transit arrived they'll go back upstairs and you can simply walk into the train.
Also - if you wan't to engage with the Alien before you're forced to do so (i.e. M17) you can go all out with the flamer as long as you don't reload before you have to briefly give away your weapons. The next time you'll pick it up it's gonna be at 500 fuel again + whatever you picked up prior.
Also also the peak of the game aka the nest can be cheesed pretty hard - either watch this video (
There are 3 scripted Aliens that will fuck off after a couple seconds of waiting. You can kill the first 3 FHs just fine, but the one that comes running up to you while you go deeper into the nest usually starts the hunt for the "regular" Alien if you kill it. To avoid this, immediately go into the small locker to despawn him.
That way you prevent setting off the Alien and won't have to deal with any other than the scripted ones and the enraged one that spawns in the entrance-room after prepping the nuke.
All in all, the only real threat is the Facehugger at the beginning of M17, assuming you don't want to deal with the Alien. Create a save at the other save-station before opening the door, close the game completely, restart to sync the save and launch the game again so you can be 100% safe that you'll be able to unfuck your run.
MISSABLE
See Survivor for general tips on how to best survive in the game.
Play on Easy to give yourself the easiest of times with this trophy since after beating the game on Hard, you should be well equipped to go through the game without dying on Easy as you will know how the game works now.
The important thing to note is that if you are about to die you can always pause and reload your current save and if you do happen to die which may happen during mission 14 you can just reload your previous save. At the same time you can always back up your save to the cloud or a USB in case you die.
You can make two saves at each save point if you choose to in case you do die and need to reload your previous save since this way you won't be sent back as far into the game. The only other parts to be concerned about is during mission 18 when there are runaway trams, if you are too slow just reload your current save instead of risking getting killed, and that if you ever see a vent on the ceiling with drool coming from it don't go under it since the Alien will kill you.
Like I said before, just play safe and don't be reckless then you should manage to beat the game without dying and last but not least be careful when you do try and save since you are vulnerable whilst doing so. The trophy should unlock upon beating the 19th mission.
Note: This trophy can't be gotten in either of the story DLCs.
swotam has made a useful info-graphic so you will know what to do in the event you die:
One Shot & Dying: The Definitive Infographic!
As for the facehugger - the death animation when it attacks is very fast, if you do not have time to press the pause button, try pressing the PS button and then return to the game - you will have the pause menu open, this will give you the opportunity to load the latest save.
I completed 100% without deaths, for some reason the trophy did not fall out, while in the slot on the reactor I saved the entire last chapter on a flash drive every time just in case, but there were no deaths.. While I’m finishing off 10 people and 100 deaths from the Alien, maybe something will change.. I’ll unsubscribe.
Probably for this trophy you need to not see the “save selection” menu even once during the playthrough.
Including if you killed a peaceful person, a friendly NPC, etc. Any restart leads to the loss of the trophy.