SteamWorld Dig

What are gold stars, you ask? Conveniently, they correspond with these 4 achievements (1 star each):





Let's tackle these one at a time, shall we?

20000 Gold Collected: Every time you return to town and sell off your gold, you will be shown what your total is for the game. You do not have to have 20k on hand all at once, so feel free to spend whenever you want! The world is randomized (except caves) but there should be around 22000 worth of ore available. Once you get the ore detector late in the game is when you want to start pushing toward this goal. Start clearing out zones (except the first). This will help you find the Orbs needed for the next star, too!

150 Orbs Collected: While there is no in-game counter for this, I found 176 during my run, and another 15 or so when exploring afterword. Since the world is randomized you could have a few more or less. Similar to the 20k gold, go for this later in the game (though don't avoid them earlier on as they will help you with upgrades). They look the same as ore on the mini-map once you have the ore detector.

Finish without a single Death: This is far less difficult than I thought it would be. Since the game only saves when you enter town or buy something, it is quite easy to hit the guide button and close the game before it saves a death. This means that you will lose a bit of progress, but keep your run intact! Beyond that be careful around falling rocks and magnets - I think they are always 1-hit kills even with health upgrades.

Beat the game in less than 2:30: Please note I take no credit for the below video and have nothing to do with its production. However, I found it IMMENSELY helpful when going for this achievement. It was created by speedrunner Twyn Etienne Laplane:

A few things to note:

- You don't have to follow his steps exactly, but knowing which caves (and which secrets) pay off the best is helpful. Some big money can be acquired early if you know where to look!
- He uses a special wall-jump technique to hit some areas earlier than intended. It took me a solid 30 minutes of trying the jump before I could do it even once. Eventually I was able to do it fairly reliably, but it started out frustrating. You don't need to do this for Master Prospector (though its handy if you also want Sequence Breaker on the same playthrough and don't want to risk dynamite tricks).
- I was 1k short on gold with 15 minutes left - but was able to scrape enough together and kill the boss with 5 minutes to spare.
- Once you finish the game you can go back with a Secrets guide to clean up that achievement. You can also purchase upgrades after you finish.
- If you beat the boss, it saves your time but puts you back to right before that fight. Only go in to fight him if you know you have 20k cash and are pretty sure you have the orbs (no in-game counter for them).
- You can make the mini-map bigger in the UI options. Handy when cleaning out the world for 20k gold and 150 orbs!
- Good luck! I got this on my first play using the above video. If you want a no-stress run first, there is nothing wrong with that though!