Defense Grid 2
65 Achievements
1,000
25-30h
Alien Tears
Earn a gold medal on every mission in Story mode.
10
3.72%
How to unlock the Alien Tears achievement in Defense Grid 2 - Definitive Guide
if you get stuck just send me a message on here or on xbox live
and i will get back to you asap
Note that this doesn't seem to include the prologue. I have got both this and the Planet Defender achievement and I have a bronze medal for Prologue, but gold for everything else.
Prologue
level 1 Threshhold
level 2 Supply and Demand
level 3 Suspension
level 4 Overlook
level 5 Barrage
level 6 Rapid collapse
level 7 Split Decision
level 8 Boiling Point
level 9 Precipice
level 10 Breach
level 11 Sandstorm
level 12 Incursion
level 13 Deep End
level 14 Surface Tension
level 15 Refuge
level 16 Double Take
level 17 Double Take
level 18 checks and balances
level 19 Out Of Control
level 20 Backlash
Then I found JogandoEAndando's YouTube playlist with videos on how to beat EVERY mission on EVERY mode on NORMAL difficulty. I've used it from A to Z to beat the game (50hrs) and each guide is perfect. Following this guide, I also succeeded getting the 'Master Strategist' achievement ('Earn 100 Gold Medals on any missions'), very easily. Very nice work from him, congrats!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyx3ruPOCg3_g0ZCN_9in...
The story campaign of this game consists of a prologue and 20 missions. When selecting a mission, you can choose in which mode you want to play it. Choose story mode (which is always the first option) for every mission and don’t proceed to the next mission until you’ve obtained a gold medal.
You can earn medals after mission completion based on your performance. You get more points for completing a level as little towers and upgrades as possible, for killing aliens as fast as possible and for having all of your cores and a lot of resources left at the end of the mission. If your score is high enough at the end of the level, you’ll earn a gold medal. If you’re having difficulties then try playing on the easiest setting, and you should have no problems getting a gold medal in every mission. For visual aid, please refer to the video below.
Video courtesy of GamerName on YouTube.
This requires obtaining a gold medal on the Prologue and all 20 maps in the Story mode. You can choose Easy difficulty if you find a map challenging, and the game comes with a rewind feature tied to the button so if you make a mistake you don't have to completely start over.
A gold medal is awarded based on your score, which is accumulated with each alien killed. The points are calculated based on the difficulty of the alien (boss aliens are worth more, obviously), the value of your turrets on the map, the amount of resources you have in your bank, how many orbs are in the core, and how many orbs are on the map but not in the core. To maximize your score you will want to ensure that no orbs are ever removed from the core and that you spend as little money as possible. On most maps, however, it is quite possible to get far more points than are needed for a gold medal, so your primary focus should be on protecting the orbs rather than keeping a higher resource balance. The developer has stated that it is possible to beat each mission in more than 1 million ways, and having played it enough I would tend to agree with that statement.
If you really get stuck (especially on level 7, which I feel is the hardest map to get gold on) go unlock other tower items and come back, or try it a few times in Practice mode to get a feel for different tower layouts that may work for you. After selecting the map and mode you will be on a screen to assign your Command Team and tower items...ensure that you actively choose your tower items as you play each map as they can dramatically increase your combat abilities. The items you unlock seem to be somewhat random, but all of them result in more effective towers.
JimmySwizzle87 has prepared videos showing how he obtained gold on each level in this thread. Note that he has no commentary and at times acts very quickly, so you may need to pay close attention.