The Good Life

This is the ‘unlock all achievements’ achievement. Interestingly, the Achievement Tracker is active so every time you unlock an achievement, you’ll see your progress towards this one increase (ironically, that made me more nervous than if it was hidden {such is the way with these achievements}, but it unlocked just fine).

See here and here for details on the PC money exploit. I made full use of this and it meant money wasn’t a concern. I didn’t pay too much attention but it didn’t seem like I was earning much cash through normal gameplay. Moral of the story – play on a PC if you can! Cross played worked for me without any issues, so you can switch to console once you’re rich (in-game, at least ) if you prefer. I apologise but I don’t have any hints for console-only players.

Note that there are no missable achievements and the achievement tracker works for almost every achievement.









Generally, the story is easy enough to play and follow. Markers will usually point you in the right direction.


Should come naturally.


Get everything else done, then stay at the Downer Inn for 3 nights a time to waste whatever time you need.

Just talk to everyone you see. This should come naturally as you complete the story and side quests and may even be unmissable/story-related.



Go to any Shrine that has been unlocked. Donate to the relevant animal over and over to boost the gauge. Max out and unlock the achievement, then reload your save if you want to save money and repeat the process for the other animal. Your animal rating effects prices around town. Although, obviously, dogs are better!


Once you’ve completed the Route B missions, you can mark and dig as a dog. I just got to know the marking spots around town and would re-mark them every day. Dig whenever you can, especially at the 2 garden beds mentioned in the solution.


You’ll be uploading photographs to your PC on a program called Flamingo. At any given time, there are 5 Buzz Words and they change every Monday and Thursday – take photos that match the Buzz Words for Emokes (likes). Buzz Words are discussed in more detail in the GRINDING section below.

Wait until everything else is done then just take random photos to reach the 1000 pics target.

There is a guide linked in the solution but it can be a little vague at times. I often had photos that registered as meeting the requirement but did not advance the achievement at all. I probably uploaded 60 or more Buzz photos to get the 5 needed to go from 95% to 100%... Seems a little broken but just stick at it and they’ll register eventually.


You’ll probably want to ride your sheep anyway because it’s much faster. Should come naturally as you play.

Will come as you work towards the next achievement.

Discussed below. BRUSH YOUR SHEEP EVERY DAY AS SOON AS YOU CAN!!!

Accessed via McAvoy after you’ve done some tasks for him. Max out your sheep’s skills and practice before you try. I noticed a major difference between console and PC – on console the sheep would very slowly accelerate while on PC it virtually went straight to top speed. If you experience the slow acceleration, try switching system or controller if you can as it makes these races very difficult otherwise.

You can just buy sheep from Lonette Burley at Burley’s Farm. A little tedious as you can only have 8 at a time. Remember you can do this in one go then reload a save to keep your money if you want. Be careful not to sell your Shteed!



Visit the café and pub in town and another pub over to the East of the map below the Eccles Shrine. To learn a recipe, you need to eat the same meal over and over (there is a bar on the menu that shows your progress).

Drinking too much alcohol can result in a game over, so I recommend drinking one or two drinks per day. There is a checklist in the solution to help you keep track.

Who doesn’t love a god-awful minigame? See GRINDING section below.




Shrines, campgrounds and gates all need to be unlocked, by interacting with them and paying a fee. You’ll have to wait until you are some way through the story (after the Route missions) to access them all.



You’ll need to do some tasks for McAvoy, then you can pay him to modify your house/garden for these. Do it in one go and reload your save if money is an issue.


Small and large animals are found throughout the game. If you use the PC exploit, you’ll get this while gathering Small Animal Hides. Otherwise, it’s easiest to target the smaller animals in cat form.

See the achievement solution for the PC exploit. As I used it, I don’t have any advice for console players – sorry!

Head to Cameramart in the town and buy 5 cameras or lenses.

See the solution for several locations where you can grind for this without losing time/money. Don’t leave it to the post-game as it’s much faster/easier at the locations mentioned.

Clothes are bought at the Post Office/Store in town. Easy if you use the PC exploit (see the solution). Otherwise you’ll have to collect resources which will be time consuming.

Weird seeds, bought at the Post Office, seem to be the fastest option for this. Different gardens have higher numbers of planting spots.

Side quests range from being very easy to incredibly difficult (or even broken and impossible to complete). The good news is that there are many more than the 60 required, so if something looks too hard, just skip it. The quests given via email are generally easy and there are plenty of them – simple things like cooking a dish or photographing specific people.

During Route A, you'll complete a missions where you have to buy a Pickaxe and visit the quarry. After that, make regular trips to the quarries and grind at this as there is a finite number of mining spots at any given time.
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With all the achievements covered, it’s worth looking at the grindy stuff you should be doing every day in the game.

DAILY:
- Play (hopefully win!) the drinking game with Benedict Macauley at 1977,
- Go to Burley’s Farm and brush your sheep,
- Food and Drink – eat and learn 1 or 2 meals and consume 1 or 2 drinks. (optional)

REGULARLY (every 2-3 days):
- Buzz words – discussed in more detail below,
- Excavating – visit one or two or the dig sites. They regenerate regularly,
- Marking and Digging spots as a dog – do a lap around town,
- Harvesting – weird seeds and one of the larger gardens.

DRINQUEEN!
Universally loathed (and rightly so), this mini-game is played at 1977 in town. Enter and look to the right – Benedict Macauley will be sitting at the table most days from around 10:00am. There will be some days when he’s not there though – just skip it and return the next day.

Challenge him to a drinking game. Unfortunately, there is no trick to this - use the DrinKING item, purchased from the Post Office, to extend the balance bar a little at level 4 and/or 5 and just practice. All I can suggest is that you tap rather than hold when possible to maintain position and change directions immediately when the bar starts to switch. Good luck!

SHEEP:
From memory, you unlock rideable sheep during the Route A missions. Your sheep (Shteed in game) has 3 stats. Handling is developed just through riding, Power by smashing items and Fluffiness by brushing daily.

Alternate between walking and riding the sheep, which you summon with unless indoors, to get Extreme Hiker, Sheepmanship Virtuoso and develop Handling to max (yellowed out level 9 when interacting with the sheep in Burley’s Farm).

There are breakable objects all over the place. Every morning I would summon my sheep outside my house and ride to Burley’s Farm. Before entering Naomi’s Pasture, which is directly to the right on entering, I would do a lap around the Farm – there are several creates that can be smashed (press to charge through them). Between that and the Sheep Races required for Lady of the Sheep Power was maxed out pretty easily.

The main reason for the daily visit to Burley’s Farm is the Fluffiness stat. This takes forever to level up! Each day, interact with your Shteed and brush it. This was the longest of all the grindy achievements for me.

FOOD AND DRINK:
There are 3 achievements to be discussed here.

For Glorious Gourmand you need to eat 85 different meals. For Walking Cookbook you need to learn 85 different recipes.

In general, food and recipes are obtained through the Mushroom & Evans café and the 1977 pub in town. Speak to the people behind the counter/bar and order some food. It will be placed in front of you. Hold to eat it. Eating once will count towards the first achievement. When you order the food, you’ll see a bar below the price. This will slowly increase as you eat the meal several times and once it’s full you will learn the recipe and make progress towards the second achievement.

While this is not complicated and could be done all in one go, the menus are poorly designed and fairly tedious to navigate – I recommend eating/learning a meal or two every day after you play the drinking game, just to space it out a little and maintain your sanity.

For the Professional Eater achievement, you need to drink 50 drinks. Drinking too much alcohol in the game causes all sorts of problems. Once again, drinking just one or two drinks per day will avoid complications. The solution for this achievement has a checklist you can use to keep track.

Note that some of the drinks aren’t available in the main town – head to the Eccles Shrine to the East of the map and go South into the town there – the first building on the right is a Pub where you can order several unique drinks.

BUZZ WORDS:
Each Monday and Thursday the Buzz Words on Flamingo (on your PC) will change. There are 5 each time. You simply need to upload a photograph which matches the Buzz Word to make progress.

Check Flamingo on your PC to see the current Buzz Words. The solution for The Hottest Buzz links to (the same as above) a checklist you can use to try and work out what to photograph. That guide isn’t great and some are obscure or even impossible to complete. Added to that, I often had uploads that showed as meeting the requirement (uploaded photos will be marked with “Buzz!!” once uploaded to Flamingo) but did not progress the achievement tracker at all.

The maximum you can progress each week is 10 photos (10% of the achievement) but l could only get around 3-4 to register on average. As mentioned above, towards the end I went for weeks without getting anything to register. For this reason, don’t ignore the Buzz Words – get started early and just trying if they aren’t advancing the achievement.

EXCAVATING:
Actually not too bad. You need to complete a mission for McAvoy where you’ll have to buy a pickaxe and mine some items at Blencarrick Quarry before you can work on this.

There are several quarries that you can warp to. You’ll find small pick icons scattered around the place that you can interact with and mine for minerals. They replenish every day or 2 so this isn’t too bad, but again it’s an achievement to keep chipping away at.

MARKING AND DIGGING
Once you obtain the abilities, during the Route B missions, get to know the marking spots around the main town. As a dog, they appear as yellow outlines. Interact with them and hit the bar when it’s over the blue to mark the spot. Over time the yellow outline will deplete and you can mark it again as soon as it’s less than 100% full. Get in the habit of re-marking spots every day and this will go quickly.

Digging spots should appear near most marking spots and will regenerate every few days. In particular, there are a couple of garden beds you should get to know. From your house, head towards town and take the lane to the left before you reach the first buildings of the town centre – if you pass McAvoy Construction you’ve gone too far. On the right down this laneway is a garden bed with 4 dig spots.

The second garden bed is located towards the church. From the town centre, take the path between the Grocery & Butcher Shop and the Cameramart. Just before you reach the church there is a gap in the left fence and you will see a marking spot by a scarecrow. Two of the fields here have a total of 18 dig spots.

I believe you can eat Flapjacks for a buff – I never bothered so I’m not sure if it increases the number of dig spots or just the yield from each dig.

HARVESTING:
Weird seeds are best. Buy some from the Post Office. They yield more weird seeds, so once you get going you won’t need to buy any more. You can also change your garden (via McAvoy) to have more planting spots.
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The enormous TA score/ratio on this game is caused by a few things. Game Pass inflation, certainly, and the fact that the game plays quite slowly and is pretty obscure. As long as you’re up for a decent grind, don’t be put off by the numbers. It is a weird game, so consider playing a little on a dummy account to see if you like it.

With the exception of the drinking minigame and perhaps the combat with the larger animals, there is nothing difficult or skill-based.

If you decide to give it a go, I hope this solution helps. Good luck, Good Lifers!