Before We Leave
56 Achievements
GOG
Variety is the Spice of Life
Colonise Islands of all 6 biomes and have a population of at least 50 Peeps on each of them Details for this achievement will be revealed once unlocked
0.6%
How to unlock the Variety is the Spice of Life achievement in Before We Leave - Definitive Guide
Buster8unny
TrueAchievements
TrueAchievements
Hello everyone. This can be a bit of a time-consuming achievement to obtain. Before I get started on the guide, I want to lay out a few definitions concerning the planets in the game:
Home World: This is your starting world.
2nd/4th Orbit: These are the first worlds you can choose to colonize once you have repaired the spaceship. They are adjacent to your home world.
1st/5th Orbit: These are the Inner (1st Orbit) and Outer (5th Orbit) worlds you can colonize - only available once you have colonized an adjacent world to them, i.e., you need to have colonized the 2nd Orbit to have access to the 1st and you would need to colonize the 4th Orbit to have access to the 5th.
Biomes
Home World
There are four biomes that will always be present on the home world for each game. They are Grassland, Desert, Snow, and Crystal. When you first begin your game, you will always start on the Grassland biome. There are initially two other islands that you can settle on the home world: Snow and Desert. You'll need a Shipwright to reach these other two biomes. The Crystal biome begins the game submerged in the ocean.
To gain access to the Crystal biome, you will first need to colonize either a 2nd/4th Orbit planet. This will allow you access to blue research resource caches and additional research options. You'll need to research Advanced Shipping. Advanced Shipping will allow you to upgrade your Shipwright to level II and build submarines. A submarine can cause explore submerged objects. The object you will want to explore is a single futuristic looking building with purple crystals popping out of the ocean. The biome will emerge shortly after exploring.
2nd/4th Orbit Worlds
The Rainforest biome is available on these worlds. You will need to build a Shipwright to find this biome. Note: The rainforest biome is always present regardless of the size of the planet.
1st/5th Orbit Worlds
You'll find the Swamp biome on these worlds. As for the Rainforest above, you'll need to build a Shipwright and find the biome. Note: The swamp biome is always present regardless of the size of the planet.
Population
The second part of the achievement is getting each biome's population up to 50. This isn't too terribly difficult. How you do this doesn't matter too much. Happiness isn't a requirement for the achievement. So, you can make your Peeps as sad as possible.
Be aware, space is very limited on the Crystal Island. You'll need to include a few apartments so there's enough housing for the 50.
Additional Aid
The biomes in themselves aren't too terrible to find. Although, if you are having trouble knowing what biomes you have settled, there is a button at the very top-right corner of the screen that will reveal information about each settled island. This includes what biome it is. A few of the biomes - mainly the Grassland and Rainforest - do look very similar, so this is a helpful tool.
As a final note, the achievement is a bit wonky on when it'll pop or what it exactly looks for. There can be a bit of a delay when the achievement will pop. So, if you do manage to occupy all 6 biomes with 50+ Peeps, the game may not award the achievement until later on. I've found this to be the case for the achievements that require the game to see if there are at least X amount of Peeps on an island. I've seen the game wait at times until it Auto-Saves to award the achievement.
On another final note, the game logic for checking on the 50+ Peeps isn't confirmed if it looks at the total amount of Peeps across all same type biomes or if it just looks to check if any island/biome combo individually meets the 50 Peep threshold. For example: You have two islands settled that are Swamp biomes. Island A has 30 Peeps and Island B has 20 Peeps. Due to the above delay, it's not known if the game calculates as you having 50 Peeps in Swamp or if it waits until one of the two Islands by itself has reached the 50 Peep threshold: Island A needing 50 Peeps for example.
Either way, if you don't get the achievement to pop despite having 50 Peeps on one island each or if you have 50 Peeps combined on multiple islands of the same biome, don't panic. The game has a normal delay for these types of achievements to pop up.
Home World: This is your starting world.
2nd/4th Orbit: These are the first worlds you can choose to colonize once you have repaired the spaceship. They are adjacent to your home world.
1st/5th Orbit: These are the Inner (1st Orbit) and Outer (5th Orbit) worlds you can colonize - only available once you have colonized an adjacent world to them, i.e., you need to have colonized the 2nd Orbit to have access to the 1st and you would need to colonize the 4th Orbit to have access to the 5th.
Biomes
Home World
There are four biomes that will always be present on the home world for each game. They are Grassland, Desert, Snow, and Crystal. When you first begin your game, you will always start on the Grassland biome. There are initially two other islands that you can settle on the home world: Snow and Desert. You'll need a Shipwright to reach these other two biomes. The Crystal biome begins the game submerged in the ocean.
To gain access to the Crystal biome, you will first need to colonize either a 2nd/4th Orbit planet. This will allow you access to blue research resource caches and additional research options. You'll need to research Advanced Shipping. Advanced Shipping will allow you to upgrade your Shipwright to level II and build submarines. A submarine can cause explore submerged objects. The object you will want to explore is a single futuristic looking building with purple crystals popping out of the ocean. The biome will emerge shortly after exploring.
2nd/4th Orbit Worlds
The Rainforest biome is available on these worlds. You will need to build a Shipwright to find this biome. Note: The rainforest biome is always present regardless of the size of the planet.
1st/5th Orbit Worlds
You'll find the Swamp biome on these worlds. As for the Rainforest above, you'll need to build a Shipwright and find the biome. Note: The swamp biome is always present regardless of the size of the planet.
Population
The second part of the achievement is getting each biome's population up to 50. This isn't too terribly difficult. How you do this doesn't matter too much. Happiness isn't a requirement for the achievement. So, you can make your Peeps as sad as possible.
Be aware, space is very limited on the Crystal Island. You'll need to include a few apartments so there's enough housing for the 50.
Additional Aid
The biomes in themselves aren't too terrible to find. Although, if you are having trouble knowing what biomes you have settled, there is a button at the very top-right corner of the screen that will reveal information about each settled island. This includes what biome it is. A few of the biomes - mainly the Grassland and Rainforest - do look very similar, so this is a helpful tool.
As a final note, the achievement is a bit wonky on when it'll pop or what it exactly looks for. There can be a bit of a delay when the achievement will pop. So, if you do manage to occupy all 6 biomes with 50+ Peeps, the game may not award the achievement until later on. I've found this to be the case for the achievements that require the game to see if there are at least X amount of Peeps on an island. I've seen the game wait at times until it Auto-Saves to award the achievement.
On another final note, the game logic for checking on the 50+ Peeps isn't confirmed if it looks at the total amount of Peeps across all same type biomes or if it just looks to check if any island/biome combo individually meets the 50 Peep threshold. For example: You have two islands settled that are Swamp biomes. Island A has 30 Peeps and Island B has 20 Peeps. Due to the above delay, it's not known if the game calculates as you having 50 Peeps in Swamp or if it waits until one of the two Islands by itself has reached the 50 Peep threshold: Island A needing 50 Peeps for example.
Either way, if you don't get the achievement to pop despite having 50 Peeps on one island each or if you have 50 Peeps combined on multiple islands of the same biome, don't panic. The game has a normal delay for these types of achievements to pop up.
OfficialDarku
TrueAchievements
TrueAchievements
Hope this helps