In an otherwise great game that’s chock-full of grindy achievements, ‘Excuse Me…’ is one of the worst, requiring you to rack up 1,000 kills with the Ion Blade in one of three Duel PVP game modes. Fortunately for achievement hunters, there was a time around launch when the requirement was only 100, and we can ‘downpatch’ our game to re-create this.

In addition, as mentioned above, the 3 achievements for these game modes are broken in the current version of the game, but are working in the downpatched version we’ll use.

I understand this functionality used to be possible natively in Steam via the console, but was removed in a recent upgrade… so we’ll be using a fantastic 3rd party software instead (all credit to the author). Note I’m on Windows 10 so the guide is written with this in mind – it may work on other OS/versions but I haven’t tested.

This is dead easy and takes about 20 minutes to get to kicking off the download.

• Depot Downloader – open source & available on GitHub
  
• .NET – a compatible version for your system to run desktop apps

1. Download the tools above. Install .NET whenever you like, and I also extracted the Depot Downloader files to the same location for simplicity
   
   
2. Open a new Command window as Administrator, and navigate to the dotnet folder
   
   
3. Copy & paste the below, replacing (including brackets) [username] and [password] with your own Steam account details and press enter. The software is not mine and is open source & trustworthy (you can check it out further on GitHub for peace of mind).
   
   
   dotnet DepotDownloader.dll -app 104900 -depot 104901 -manifest 1947628230305090045 -username [username] -password [password]
   
   The ‘manifest’ part here is crucial as it defines the game version number… this’ll take your game back to 25th February 2014, when the game first re-launched as ORION: Dino Horde 😊
   
   
4. You’ll also be asked for your authentication code if you’re using Steam Guard – input and press enter, or skip this step if not applicable
   
   
5. All being well the download will start! It can be a little on the slow side but clearly will depend on your connection speed. Any messages regarding errors/timeouts downloading chunks can be ignored – the download will complete fine but may take some time, so be sure not to close the window too soon.
   
   
   
   
6. While the download runs, in the Steam application find ORION: Prelude in your Library, Right Click > Properties… > Updates tab
   
   
7. Under Automatic updates, use the dropdown to select ‘Only update this game when I launch it’, and under Steam Cloud untick ‘Enable Steam Cloud synchronization for ORION: Prelude’, then click Close. If you’re using one of the Beta versions, you should also reset this to ‘NONE’.
   
   
   
   
8. Once the download finishes, navigate using Explorer within wherever you extracted Depot Downloader, to depots > 104901 > 1681254, and copy all files & folder except ‘.DepotDownloader’, as this won’t be needed.
   
   
9. Navigate to your Steam installation for ORION: Prelude (named ORION: Dino Beatdown at launch) – for me this is as below. Delete all files and folders within the Orion Dino Beatdown folder, and replace with the downpatched version copied to clipboard in Step 8.
   
   
   E:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\Orion Dino Beatdown
   
   
10. Launch the game! If everything worked to plan the launch splash screen will be different and you should see the ‘ORION: Dino Horde’ title screen, as shown below. Now you need just 100 Ion Blade kills and a willing volunteer to slaughter 😉

These achievements are intended for playing 5, 10, and 25 matches respectively on the Team Duel, 1v1 Duel or FFA Duel game modes. They’re broken as of Sept-20, but will work now you’ve downpatched.

I would recommend FFA Duel and the Airlock map – once your victim spawns in the central passage way, you can kill them with one hit with a heavy attack (hold RMB) and then retreat behind the 3 crates near the centre. There’s a short delay before respawn at which point the game calculates the furthest point to respawn – if done correctly, you’ll guarantee they respawn in the centre passage each time to avoid time searching, and you’ll be able to crack out 10 kills in ~2 minutes. Repeat.

Once you have these 3 achievements (as well as 'Excuse Me...') it’s your choice whether you stay downpatched or revert to the current version. To revert, quit the game and reverse the changes made in Step 7 above, then re-launch.

Despite the description, this achievement only counts wins for progress, not losses. Other guides/discussions mention that this can be done in single player by collecting the eggs, which is true, but that’s effort… It can also be done AFK if you trick the game into thinking it’s a valid match and have the Dinosaurs win when time runs out.

Start the match, choose Carriers and let the match start countdown timer complete. Once the match begins, immediately press ‘N’ and switch team to Dinosaurs. There’s a match timer for 20:00 at the bottom – set an alarm, and once this hits zero the match will end in your victory, and the achievement progress will go up by +2 which is a nice added bonus.

As an aside, this game mode is a lot of fun, and you might just be able to find someone to play with in this otherwise very-dead game if you open a public lobby and just play for a while 😊

This mode can be completed totally AFK, or with a tiny bit of player input in under half the time, and you will need a friend to assist (they can be totally AFK).

Since this mode’s achievements count wins & losses either way, you can let the 20:00 timer elapse with neither player capturing the point and still get progress. Alternatively, if you spend ~20 seconds running to capture the point each time then it’ll only take around 8 minutes 20 seconds per match, + the usual start/end timers.

Similar to above, this mode seemed to give me +2 achievement progress regardless. You can also search the Steam Workshop for Arena 1.0 by Nighthawk (installation instructions enclosed) to speed the process up even more (for this and the other PVP achievements).

This achievement requires 1,000 revives with the Revital Kit, and is horribly grindy given the item is outclassed in basically every situation by the Medic and/or Utility Gun, whilst teammates have a habit of dying or kill-reviving themselves before you get within melee range to use it.

The map XP Grind 1.2 by hb payne makes it easy to create a controlled environment to farm these achievements out with a friend. Install the workshop item (instructions on link, or see their visual guide[imgur.com]), then setup a Prehistoric lobby as below.

Note: all settings will persist between games except the Map, so you’ll need to set this manually each time.

Before you start, make sure you have the Revital Kit in your Loadout (unlocks at Assault L10) to save some time.

1. Have Player 2 (P2) be Recon class; your class doesn’t matter
   
2. Start the generator
   
3. P2 should open the floating crate ~10 times and pick up the cash, and then buy Gambler (+3 fall down chances) and Rocket Turret
   
4. P2 should stand across the way, with the positioning/facing as below:
   
   
   
   
5. Once the round starts, P2 places the Rocket Turret, which will start hitting the floor whilst attempting to target the spawning Dinosaurs, causing self-damage to P2. This is necessary given friendly fire is forced off in Co-op, so this method gives a steady & reliable source of downing.
   
6. Each time they go down, Revital them up! Once they fully die, restart server and repeat.

Note that the higher your friends Level, the more revive chances they’ll have by default. This makes each run slightly more efficient, but isn’t worth grinding in its own right.

Thanks for reading; as mentioned in another guide here on Steam – this is a great game but a truly hellish 100%, so I hope this guide has helped you in some way!

Comments & feedback welcome; here’s a flying Stegosaurus.