Prison Architect: Edition

[Guide] - It's Not What You Know…

This achievement requires us to collect all 155 snapshots in prison architect. Snapshots are prison architects equivalent of collectibles and they appear when certain events unfold themselves. There is a lot of confusion about when, where and how to get these snapshots to appear.

These snapshots come in 2 ways: 143/155 are unlocked naturally by playing the prison stories missions. They are all 'main story related' and cannot be missed, even if you did not complete the additional objectives.

The remaining 12 require you to get specific events to unfold in any gamemode as long as it is on a standard difficulty. This means that your game must be set to anything other than 'custom'. 'County, Federal and Super Max' are valid difficulties.

For starters it is worth noting that meeting the requirements for a certain snapshot to appear is by no means a guarantee that it will. Sometimes it all comes down to luck. A few tips and tricks will go a long way to assist you in picking them all up though:

1) The snapshots drop when a requirement that is specific for that particular snapshot is met but only for a brief period of time. Once it has dropped it will be there for a few ingame hours and then it will disappear forever for that savefile. So if you fail to pick it up you need to start a new game in order to pick it. Meeting the conditions again in the same prison does not work.
2) The more snapshots you have picked up in a single prison, the less likely new ones are to spawn. Getting all snapshots in a single prison is nearly impossible.
3) It's worthy of recommendation to keep the time speed normal when you expect snapshots to drop, to prevent you from missing them due to them disappearing to quickly.
4) You may wanna start a prison on county difficulty specifically for snapshot hunting. It takes only a couple of minutes to set up a prison that allows you to pick up most of the snapshots.
5) Reloading your prison by exiting the game and then starting it back up again helps to trigger some snapshots that should be appearing. Save often, if your first yard fight did not drop the snapshot for example then you should quit the game entirely ( properly close it on the home screen) and reload the prison again. Then run the prerequisite events (for the first time) again.


Here is the list and how to unlock them:

1) The Warden : Unlocks when he is sitting in his office. Follow him right after you have made an office and hired a warden. The snapshot drops inside his office.

2) Yard Fight: Unlocks when your inmates are fighting in the yard. Make a small yard (5x5), take in maximum security inmates and put one guard in the yard with them. Then close the yard door so the prisoners cannot go back to their cells (double click the door so the red stop sign will show). Wait for your inmates to get irritated due to their lack of sanitation, sleep etc. They will eventually beat up the guard and drop this snapshot in the yard with them.

3) Prison Life : Aquired from a random cell when a prisoner is in his cell. Go to 'regime' and assign your inmates to 'locked up' to keep them in their cells. If your prison population is low then all you have to do is scout the cells to find this snapshot in one of them.

4) Solitary confiments: This one (unlike number 5) cannot be earned in every solitary cell. You need a 2x2 cell with a bed in it and the cell cannot having any pipes under it. Once you have a cell that meets these demands, find yourself a prisoner and punish him with solitary confiment. The snapshot should drop inside the solitary cell.

5) Bangup: Same as 4 but will drop in any solitary cell, regardless of size and contents. Works best if you make 2x2 cell with nothing in it. Don't use the quick build cell,

6) Phone Home : Acquired when an inmate uses a phonebooth in the yard.

7) Kitchen: Go to your 'policy' tab and then to 'other policies'. In this menu you can adjust the meal settings. Put them on the most favourable conditions (High & High) and keep a close eye on your cooks. The minute they start cooking they will drop this in the kitchen.

8) Canteen: Will drop in the canteen once your prisoners are eating.

9) Hygiene matters: This one is often missed and it's worth recommending that once you hire a janitor that you slow down the time and follow him around because the second he cleans anything up he drops the snapshot where he stands...and that could really be anywhere.

10)Medical attention required: Best done right after the yard fight snapshot but any fight will do. Hire an excessive amount of doctors and watch as they heal people in the infirmary. It should drop in there. If you want to provoke inmates to fight, take in max security inmates, adjust their meal settings by using the 'policy' --> 'other policies' tab to basically starve them. And turn off the water by placing a valve right next to your pump station and switching the water off. It's only a matter of time now.

11) Recreation incarceration: Unlocks when inmates use your common room. It's best to build a special prison for this with a big common room and then use the regime tab to assign most of the time as 'free time' this will allow your inmates to use your common room. If you want you can manually lock the doors to your yard and other 'free time' areas by clicking the doors twice. This will lure even more inmates to the common room.

12) The gun show: Unlocks when inmates use the weight lifting bells that you can place in the yard. Personally I recommend against putting them in the yard because inmates barely even look at those gym devices during their yard time. Put one in your canteen instead.

That's it. Please keep in mind that much regarding this game is still shrouded in mystery and I will update this guide whenever new information presents itself.


If you have any questions or suggestions, please post them in the comments and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

[Guide] - It's Not What You Know…

This achievement requires us to collect all 155 snapshots in prison architect. Snapshots are prison architects equivalent of collectibles and they appear when certain events unfold themselves. There is a lot of confusion about when, where and how to get these snapshots to appear.

These snapshots come in 2 ways: 143/155 are unlocked naturally by playing the prison stories missions. They are all 'main story related' and cannot be missed, even if you did not complete the additional objectives.

The remaining 12 require you to get specific events to unfold in any gamemode as long as it is on a standard difficulty. This means that your game must be set to anything other than 'custom'. 'County, Federal and Super Max' are valid difficulties.

For starters it is worth noting that meeting the requirements for a certain snapshot to appear is by no means a guarantee that it will. Sometimes it all comes down to luck. A few tips and tricks will go a long way to assist you in picking them all up though:

1) The snapshots drop when a requirement that is specific for that particular snapshot is met but only for a brief period of time. Once it has dropped it will be there for a few ingame hours and then it will disappear forever for that savefile. So if you fail to pick it up you need to start a new game in order to pick it. Meeting the conditions again in the same prison does not work.
2) The more snapshots you have picked up in a single prison, the less likely new ones are to spawn. Getting all snapshots in a single prison is nearly impossible.
3) It's worthy of recommendation to keep the time speed normal when you expect snapshots to drop, to prevent you from missing them due to them disappearing to quickly.
4) You may wanna start a prison on county difficulty specifically for snapshot hunting. It takes only a couple of minutes to set up a prison that allows you to pick up most of the snapshots.
5) Reloading your prison by exiting the game and then starting it back up again helps to trigger some snapshots that should be appearing. Save often, if your first yard fight did not drop the snapshot for example then you should quit the game entirely ( properly close it on the home screen) and reload the prison again. Then run the prerequisite events (for the first time) again.


Here is the list and how to unlock them:

1) The Warden : Unlocks when he is sitting in his office. Follow him right after you have made an office and hired a warden. The snapshot drops inside his office.

2) Yard Fight: Unlocks when your inmates are fighting in the yard. Make a small yard (5x5), take in maximum security inmates and put one guard in the yard with them. Then close the yard door so the prisoners cannot go back to their cells (double click the door so the red stop sign will show). Wait for your inmates to get irritated due to their lack of sanitation, sleep etc. They will eventually beat up the guard and drop this snapshot in the yard with them.

3) Prison Life : Aquired from a random cell when a prisoner is in his cell. Go to 'regime' and assign your inmates to 'locked up' to keep them in their cells. If your prison population is low then all you have to do is scout the cells to find this snapshot in one of them.

4) Solitary confiments: This one (unlike number 5) cannot be earned in every solitary cell. You need a 2x2 cell with a bed in it and the cell cannot having any pipes under it. Once you have a cell that meets these demands, find yourself a prisoner and punish him with solitary confiment. The snapshot should drop inside the solitary cell.

5) Bangup: Same as 4 but will drop in any solitary cell, regardless of size and contents. Works best if you make 2x2 cell with nothing in it. Don't use the quick build cell,

6) Phone Home : Acquired when an inmate uses a phonebooth in the yard.

7) Kitchen: Go to your 'policy' tab and then to 'other policies'. In this menu you can adjust the meal settings. Put them on the most favourable conditions (High & High) and keep a close eye on your cooks. The minute they start cooking they will drop this in the kitchen.

8) Canteen: Will drop in the canteen once your prisoners are eating.

9) Hygiene matters: This one is often missed and it's worth recommending that once you hire a janitor that you slow down the time and follow him around because the second he cleans anything up he drops the snapshot where he stands...and that could really be anywhere.

10)Medical attention required: Best done right after the yard fight snapshot but any fight will do. Hire an excessive amount of doctors and watch as they heal people in the infirmary. It should drop in there. If you want to provoke inmates to fight, take in max security inmates, adjust their meal settings by using the 'policy' --> 'other policies' tab to basically starve them. And turn off the water by placing a valve right next to your pump station and switching the water off. It's only a matter of time now.

11) Recreation incarceration: Unlocks when inmates use your common room. It's best to build a special prison for this with a big common room and then use the regime tab to assign most of the time as 'free time' this will allow your inmates to use your common room. If you want you can manually lock the doors to your yard and other 'free time' areas by clicking the doors twice. This will lure even more inmates to the common room.

12) The gun show: Unlocks when inmates use the weight lifting bells that you can place in the yard. Personally I recommend against putting them in the yard because inmates barely even look at those gym devices during their yard time. Put one in your canteen instead.

That's it. Please keep in mind that much regarding this game is still shrouded in mystery and I will update this guide whenever new information presents itself.


If you have any questions or suggestions, please post them in the comments and I will get back to you as soon as possible.