Dead Rising 4
104 Achievements
2,150
104-130h
Story Completionist
Complete all Story Mode Trials (Photography, Combat, and Exploration)
40
0.11%
How to unlock the Story Completionist achievement in Dead Rising 4 - Definitive Guide
The single player trials are as follows. Note that your multiplayer stats will count towards most of these as well:
Photography – Note that all photo achievements stack, i.e. if you need to take a B and an A-rank photo, and you take an A-rank one, you’ll complete the trial for both.
Any C, B, A, & S rank photo
Self-explanatory, you’ll get these as you go for others.
Brutality photos: B, A, & S rank
Just take a photo of lots of dead zombies.
Capcom Tribute photos: any rank, A rank, & S rank
To get the S rank, you have to take a pic at Jo Pop in Kiichiro Plaza:
Destruction: B, A, & S
Basically you have to kill a huge group of zombies with non-elemental grenades or sticky bombs, and take a photo of the explosion as you kill the last one. There can’t be any living zombies in the photo. I found it easiest to do with sticky bombs, though the guy in this video just used grenades:
Drama: B, A, & S
Stuff involving good survivors (ex. survivors fighting zombies) will get you this. The more people/zombies in the pic, the better.
Horror: B, A, & S
Just take a photo of a huge group of zombies.
Outtake: B, A, & S
Basically you have to put some silly hats/masks on zombies, and then take a group photo of them. This guy did it with only 4 of them in a big crowd, but if you have a smaller one you’ll need to put more hats/masks on them:
Conspiracy: B, A, & S
Anything with soldiers in it will be a “Conspiracy” photo. Easy to do if you find soldiers with a large group of zombies.
Combined Conspiracy/Destruction B rank (“War Zone”)
You have to get a photo of the military fighting zombies while an explosion goes off. I found it easier to do with a sticky bomb than with grenades.
Combined Horror/Outtake B rank (“The Silly Dead”)
Take a photo where some zombies are wearing silly hats/masks, and some zombies aren’t.
B rank of humans fighting zombies
This one’s easy enough, just find a large enough group of humans and zombies fighting. Load up the later chapters if you’re having trouble.
Combined Brutality/Horror A rank (“Slasher Flick”)
Take a photo of lots of dead zombies and live ones.
A rank of soldiers and zombies fighting
Self-explanatory. The more zombies/soldiers you have in the photo, the better.
A rank of soldiers and survivors fighting (“Man’s Inhumanity to Man”)
A good spot for this is Medieval Town during chapter 5.
Take a photo of 3 fresh zombies feasting (“Feeding Frenzy”)
Easily done during chapter 1 when you’re on your way to the mall safehouse for the first time, when you first open the doors that lead to the emergency hallway where the safehouse is. Here's a video showing the exact spot:
Note that the zombies sometimes don’t spawn where the guy is in the video – if that’s the case, double-back and go through the emergency hallway entrance that's directly behind the pirate ship, and they’ll be there.
Take a photo of a human transforming into a zombie before your eyes (“No Hope Left”)
There are many places you can get this. If you’re having trouble, you can do this in case 4 in the military base when you go down the stairs immediately after doing an investigation in a room with a large cage in the center.
Catch at least 3 zombies falling in one photo (“Lemmings”)
The lower floor of the Amazon Food Court is a good place for this. Another one is the area by the escalators at the mall entrance.
Any rank photo of a fresh zombie mid-pounce (“Pounced I”)
This can be tough to get, it’s a good idea to clear the area after you find a fresh zombie while you try for it. You have to take a picture of it while it’s trying to pounce on you.
Any photo of a evolved zombie mid-pounce (“Pounced II”)
Same as Pounced I, but with an evolved zombie.
Any photo of 5 & 10 fresh zombies
The construction area halfway between North Peak and Old Town is a good place to get this.
Any photo of 5 evolved zombies
A good spot for this is during the main story while you're on your way to the final boss in the sewers during case 5:
Another good area is earlier in case 5 when you're ascending the construction site to rescue Hammond - while the exact number of evos seems to vary, there are often 4 evos on the 2nd floor, 4 on the 3rd, and 5+ on the 4th. You'll likely have to lure enough of them into a group.
A third area where it can be done is when you’re in the military base in case 4 after you get the objective "Sabotage the generator." This one's a little harder since you either have to clear out the soldiers before they kill any of the evos, or wait for the evos to respawn by not destroying the generator, but it can be successfully done, as this guy did:
Photograph every person of interest
These are not necessarily the only locations you can find these people, but they are the first time you see them. All of them are encountered as you follow the story:
- Frank - Take a selfie at any point
- Vick – Case 0 or case 6
- Brad – Case 1 at the beginning or case 6
- Connor – Case 1 in the hotel (he can also be found later in the farm sections)
- Darcy – Case 1 at the end (after you find all the impaled/dead soldiers and investigate the area)
- Jessa – Case 2 at the beginning
- Paula – Case 2 in City Hall Archives in Old Town
- Isaac – Case 2 in Tom’s Compound
- Tom – Case 2 in Tom’s Compound
- Hammond – Case 2 at the High School
- Jordan – Case 2 at the High School
- James – Case 2 during the boss battle
- Dr. Blackburne – Case 3 when you rescue her
- Dr. Barnaby – Case 3 – take a second picture of the photo of Dr. Barnaby after you’ve scanned it for evidence
- Commander Fontana – Case 4 during the boss battle
- Calder – Case 5 briefly when he throws bombs at you. Cannot be done in case 6.
Take one photo of every category
This will come naturally as you work on the others.
Combat – Thankfully, unlike Dead Rising 3, anything with multiple tiers stacks, i.e. when you finish tier 1, tier 2 does not start at 0. As noted earlier, your multiplayer and single player stats will combine for these.
Kill 100, 250, 1000, 2500, 5000, 10000, 25000, 50000, 100000, and 250000 zombies
The biggest grind of the game, and fairly self-explanatory. Unfortunately, 3 achievements are tied directly to this (along with a 4th one, kill 200,008 zombies, which you'll get along the way).
Kill X number of zombies with the following combo weapons/vehicles:
These are all self-explanatory. If you don't want to make them, you can buy them from safehouses once they've been levelled up.
- 300 with the Warmonger
- 200 with the Kill-O-Watt
- 200 with the Plunger Lure
- 200 with the Tripod Zapper
- 200 with the Tread Maker
- 200 with the Electric Axe
- 100 with the Roto Killer
- 400 with the Bazooka Cannon
- 200 with the Gandelf
- 100 with the Flaming Helmet and/or Jurassic Barf
Kill 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, & 500 fresh zombies
This will come naturally over time. Fresh zombies are the fast ones that charge at you, but don’t have antlers. They’re found all over.
Kill X number of fresh zombies with the following weapons:
Another self-explanatory one.
- 30 with the Acid Maul
- 30 with a keyboard (Both computer keyboards and music keyboards are ok for this)
Kill 10, 25, 50, and 100 evolved zombies
These are the toughest zombies. They have antlers on their heads and can take a beating. They become more frequent as you progress through the story. I find the best way to kill them is to build up your combo meter and hit them with a + attack using non-combo weapons, since most of them will insta-kill them. Using ice swords are ok too, as they slow the evos down a little; they’re too quick for most firearms if you’re aiming manually.
Kill 10 evolved zombies with the Fish Launcher
Best to weaken them first, the Fish Launcher isn’t very powerful.
Kill 10, 25, 50, and 100 hostile survivors
Kill 10, 25, 50, and 100 soldiers
Kill 10 and 25 Exo-Troopers
Kill 10 Flametroopers
These are all self-explanatory.
Kill X number of human enemies with the following weapon:
Self-explanatory again.
- 10 with hockey sticks
- 50 with the Ice Sword
- 100 with Deck the Halls and/or Glass Knuckles
Kill X number of any type of enemy with the following weapon/vehicle:
All self-explanatory again. You can buy these weapons/vehicles in safe houses if you don't want to make them.
- 100 with Acid Rain
- 300 with any traps (Floating Lantern, Suckmaster 3000, Santa Traps)
- 300 with any of the following laser guns: Holey Terror, Umbrella Gun, Ion Cannon
- 200 with the Ornament Gun
- 100 with the Magic Wand
- 200 with the MowerHawg
- 100 with the Creep Fryer
- 200 with the Cryonic Commando
- 200 with your fists and/or close quarters weapons (boxing gloves, etc.)
- 100 with the Frostee Penguin
- 200 with the Bogey Monster
Burn 250 zombies
Freeze 250 zombies
Burn 250 zombies with acid
All self-explanatory.
Exploration – These consist of actual exploring as well as building combo weapons.
Create any 15 combo weapons of the following types.
These are all fairly self-explanatory. You can make 15 of the same weapon for these:
- Blunt
- Bladed
- Unarmed
- Elemental
- Pistol
- Rifle
- Launcher
Create all 51 single player combo weapons
Note that weapon blueprints you get in multiplayer (and can subsequently create in single player) do not count.
The game won’t tell you which ones you’ve made (though you can see which ones you've unlocked), so I recommend keeping track with a pen & paper.
Also note that you must create one of each elemental type of Grenade (Ice/Fire/Acid) with the martini shaker, and also one of each elemental type of Santa Trap (Ice/Fire/Acid again)
Destroy 100 vehicles
While you can drive them til they wear down, it’s easiest to just grab a rocket launcher/grenades/vehicle with weapons/etc. and use them to destroy any vehicles you find. Note that the vehicles you destroy have to be ones that are drivable, or at least have their lights turned on (indicating that they still have power).
Destroy 50 holiday decorations
Self-explanatory.
Discover 25, 50, 100, 150, and all 163 locations across the city
You can keep track of every building/store you’ve gone into by checking your map – if it has an icon over it, you’ve visited it. If it’s blank, you haven’t. See "Hunting Grounds" for more info.
Get all the collectables
As you level up shelters you can buy maps from vendors in them. These maps show you the locations of all the collectibles, which is why I don’t feel it’s necessary to post detailed locations for them. The collectible trials are:
- Photograph 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 100 zombie tags (These look like shadows that have been spray-painted on walls.)
- Newspapers (all 41)
- Podcast recordings (all 12)
- Cell phones (all 87)
- Vick’s Logs (all 15 - some of these will be given to you automatically as you progress through the story)
Level up an Emergency Shelter to level 2 and 5
Level up all emergency shelters to level 5
You level up emergency shelters by first clearing them out, then by rescuing civilians in the surrounding area. If you fail to rescue someone, don’t worry, new ones will always spawn.
Find all 31 panic rooms
You’ll need to find keys for these. As with everything else, you can buy maps from vendors in safe houses that lead you to these. Here's a LIST if you have any problems finding them.
Buy 200 items from vendors
Self-explanatory. Vending machines in multiplayer also count for this.
Buy all 28 maps from vendors
Single player only. These only become available as you level up safe houses.
Buy 50 combo weapons from vendors
Self-explanatory. Vending machines in multiplayer count for this.
The single player trials are as follows. Note that your multiplayer stats will count towards most of these as well:
Photography – Note that all photo achievements stack, i.e. if you need to take a B and an A-rank photo, and you take an A-rank one, you’ll complete the trial for both.
Any C, B, A, & S rank photo
Self-explanatory, you’ll get these as you go for others.
Brutality photos: B, A, & S rank
Just take a photo of lots of dead zombies.
Capcom Tribute photos: any rank, A rank, & S rank
To get the S rank, you have to take a pic at Jo Pop in Kiichiro Plaza:
Destruction: B, A, & S
Basically you have to kill a huge group of zombies with non-elemental grenades or sticky bombs, and take a photo of the explosion as you kill the last one. There can’t be any living zombies in the photo. I found it easiest to do with sticky bombs, though the guy in this video just used grenades:
Drama: B, A, & S
Stuff involving good survivors (ex. survivors fighting zombies) will get you this. The more people/zombies in the pic, the better.
Horror: B, A, & S
Just take a photo of a huge group of zombies.
Outtake: B, A, & S
Basically you have to put some silly hats/masks on zombies, and then take a group photo of them. This guy did it with only 4 of them in a big crowd, but if you have a smaller one you’ll need to put more hats/masks on them:
Conspiracy: B, A, & S
Anything with soldiers in it will be a “Conspiracy” photo. Easy to do if you find soldiers with a large group of zombies.
Combined Conspiracy/Destruction B rank (“War Zone”)
You have to get a photo of the military fighting zombies while an explosion goes off. I found it easier to do with a sticky bomb than with grenades.
Combined Horror/Outtake B rank (“The Silly Dead”)
Take a photo where some zombies are wearing silly hats/masks, and some zombies aren’t.
B rank of humans fighting zombies
This one’s easy enough, just find a large enough group of humans and zombies fighting. Load up the later chapters if you’re having trouble.
Combined Brutality/Horror A rank (“Slasher Flick”)
Take a photo of lots of dead zombies and live ones.
A rank of soldiers and zombies fighting
Self-explanatory. The more zombies/soldiers you have in the photo, the better.
A rank of soldiers and survivors fighting (“Man’s Inhumanity to Man”)
A good spot for this is Medieval Town during chapter 5.
Take a photo of 3 fresh zombies feasting (“Feeding Frenzy”)
Easily done during chapter 1 when you’re on your way to the mall safehouse for the first time, when you first open the doors that lead to the emergency hallway where the safehouse is. Here's a video showing the exact spot:
Note that the zombies sometimes don’t spawn where the guy is in the video – if that’s the case, double-back and go through the emergency hallway entrance that's directly behind the pirate ship, and they’ll be there.
Take a photo of a human transforming into a zombie before your eyes (“No Hope Left”)
There are many places you can get this. If you’re having trouble, you can do this in case 4 in the military base when you go down the stairs immediately after doing an investigation in a room with a large cage in the center.
Catch at least 3 zombies falling in one photo (“Lemmings”)
The lower floor of the Amazon Food Court is a good place for this. Another one is the area by the escalators at the mall entrance.
Any rank photo of a fresh zombie mid-pounce (“Pounced I”)
This can be tough to get, it’s a good idea to clear the area after you find a fresh zombie while you try for it. You have to take a picture of it while it’s trying to pounce on you.
Any photo of a evolved zombie mid-pounce (“Pounced II”)
Same as Pounced I, but with an evolved zombie.
Any photo of 5 & 10 fresh zombies
The construction area halfway between North Peak and Old Town is a good place to get this.
Any photo of 5 evolved zombies
A good spot for this is during the main story while you're on your way to the final boss in the sewers during case 5:
Another good area is earlier in case 5 when you're ascending the construction site to rescue Hammond - while the exact number of evos seems to vary, there are often 4 evos on the 2nd floor, 4 on the 3rd, and 5+ on the 4th. You'll likely have to lure enough of them into a group.
A third area where it can be done is when you’re in the military base in case 4 after you get the objective "Sabotage the generator." This one's a little harder since you either have to clear out the soldiers before they kill any of the evos, or wait for the evos to respawn by not destroying the generator, but it can be successfully done, as this guy did:
Photograph every person of interest
These are not necessarily the only locations you can find these people, but they are the first time you see them. All of them are encountered as you follow the story:
- Frank - Take a selfie at any point
- Vick – Case 0 or case 6
- Brad – Case 1 at the beginning or case 6
- Connor – Case 1 in the hotel (he can also be found later in the farm sections)
- Darcy – Case 1 at the end (after you find all the impaled/dead soldiers and investigate the area)
- Jessa – Case 2 at the beginning
- Paula – Case 2 in City Hall Archives in Old Town
- Isaac – Case 2 in Tom’s Compound
- Tom – Case 2 in Tom’s Compound
- Hammond – Case 2 at the High School
- Jordan – Case 2 at the High School
- James – Case 2 during the boss battle
- Dr. Blackburne – Case 3 when you rescue her
- Dr. Barnaby – Case 3 – take a second picture of the photo of Dr. Barnaby after you’ve scanned it for evidence
- Commander Fontana – Case 4 during the boss battle
- Calder – Case 5 briefly when he throws bombs at you. Cannot be done in case 6.
Take one photo of every category
This will come naturally as you work on the others.
Combat – Thankfully, unlike Dead Rising 3, anything with multiple tiers stacks, i.e. when you finish tier 1, tier 2 does not start at 0. As noted earlier, your multiplayer and single player stats will combine for these.
Kill 100, 250, 1000, 2500, 5000, 10000, 25000, 50000, 100000, and 250000 zombies
The biggest grind of the game, and fairly self-explanatory. Unfortunately, 3 achievements are tied directly to this (along with a 4th one, kill 200,008 zombies, which you'll get along the way).
Kill X number of zombies with the following combo weapons/vehicles:
These are all self-explanatory. If you don't want to make them, you can buy them from safehouses once they've been levelled up.
- 300 with the Warmonger
- 200 with the Kill-O-Watt
- 200 with the Plunger Lure
- 200 with the Tripod Zapper
- 200 with the Tread Maker
- 200 with the Electric Axe
- 100 with the Roto Killer
- 400 with the Bazooka Cannon
- 200 with the Gandelf
- 100 with the Flaming Helmet and/or Jurassic Barf
Kill 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, & 500 fresh zombies
This will come naturally over time. Fresh zombies are the fast ones that charge at you, but don’t have antlers. They’re found all over.
Kill X number of fresh zombies with the following weapons:
Another self-explanatory one.
- 30 with the Acid Maul
- 30 with a keyboard (Both computer keyboards and music keyboards are ok for this)
Kill 10, 25, 50, and 100 evolved zombies
These are the toughest zombies. They have antlers on their heads and can take a beating. They become more frequent as you progress through the story. I find the best way to kill them is to build up your combo meter and hit them with a + attack using non-combo weapons, since most of them will insta-kill them. Using ice swords are ok too, as they slow the evos down a little; they’re too quick for most firearms if you’re aiming manually.
Kill 10 evolved zombies with the Fish Launcher
Best to weaken them first, the Fish Launcher isn’t very powerful.
Kill 10, 25, 50, and 100 hostile survivors
Kill 10, 25, 50, and 100 soldiers
Kill 10 and 25 Exo-Troopers
Kill 10 Flametroopers
These are all self-explanatory.
Kill X number of human enemies with the following weapon:
Self-explanatory again.
- 10 with hockey sticks
- 50 with the Ice Sword
- 100 with Deck the Halls and/or Glass Knuckles
Kill X number of any type of enemy with the following weapon/vehicle:
All self-explanatory again. You can buy these weapons/vehicles in safe houses if you don't want to make them.
- 100 with Acid Rain
- 300 with any traps (Floating Lantern, Suckmaster 3000, Santa Traps)
- 300 with any of the following laser guns: Holey Terror, Umbrella Gun, Ion Cannon
- 200 with the Ornament Gun
- 100 with the Magic Wand
- 200 with the MowerHawg
- 100 with the Creep Fryer
- 200 with the Cryonic Commando
- 200 with your fists and/or close quarters weapons (boxing gloves, etc.)
- 100 with the Frostee Penguin
- 200 with the Bogey Monster
Burn 250 zombies
Freeze 250 zombies
Burn 250 zombies with acid
All self-explanatory.
Exploration – These consist of actual exploring as well as building combo weapons.
Create any 15 combo weapons of the following types.
These are all fairly self-explanatory. You can make 15 of the same weapon for these:
- Blunt
- Bladed
- Unarmed
- Elemental
- Pistol
- Rifle
- Launcher
Create all 51 single player combo weapons
Note that weapon blueprints you get in multiplayer (and can subsequently create in single player) do not count.
The game won’t tell you which ones you’ve made (though you can see which ones you've unlocked), so I recommend keeping track with a pen & paper.
Also note that you must create one of each elemental type of Grenade (Ice/Fire/Acid) with the martini shaker, and also one of each elemental type of Santa Trap (Ice/Fire/Acid again)
Destroy 100 vehicles
While you can drive them til they wear down, it’s easiest to just grab a rocket launcher/grenades/vehicle with weapons/etc. and use them to destroy any vehicles you find. Note that the vehicles you destroy have to be ones that are drivable, or at least have their lights turned on (indicating that they still have power).
Destroy 50 holiday decorations
Self-explanatory.
Discover 25, 50, 100, 150, and all 163 locations across the city
You can keep track of every building/store you’ve gone into by checking your map – if it has an icon over it, you’ve visited it. If it’s blank, you haven’t. See "Hunting Grounds" for more info.
Get all the collectables
As you level up shelters you can buy maps from vendors in them. These maps show you the locations of all the collectibles, which is why I don’t feel it’s necessary to post detailed locations for them. The collectible trials are:
- Photograph 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 100 zombie tags (These look like shadows that have been spray-painted on walls.)
- Newspapers (all 41)
- Podcast recordings (all 12)
- Cell phones (all 87)
- Vick’s Logs (all 15 - some of these will be given to you automatically as you progress through the story)
Level up an Emergency Shelter to level 2 and 5
Level up all emergency shelters to level 5
You level up emergency shelters by first clearing them out, then by rescuing civilians in the surrounding area. If you fail to rescue someone, don’t worry, new ones will always spawn.
Find all 31 panic rooms
You’ll need to find keys for these. As with everything else, you can buy maps from vendors in safe houses that lead you to these. Here's a LIST if you have any problems finding them.
Buy 200 items from vendors
Self-explanatory. Vending machines in multiplayer also count for this.
Buy all 28 maps from vendors
Single player only. These only become available as you level up safe houses.
Buy 50 combo weapons from vendors
Self-explanatory. Vending machines in multiplayer count for this.