While playing Dry Drowning recently, I noticed a conspicuous shortage of Steam guides for it, at least in English, so I've decided to write some myself and already published one guide >> covering an admittedly minor aspect of the game. This one is a much taller order and aimed at my fellow achievement hunters/completionists. Hi, guys :-)

⚠️Spoilers ahead, obviously, tho I tried my best to keep them to an absolute minimum and judiciously used spoiler tags to hide some things anyway.⚠️

Should you find this guide useful in any way, do me a solid: rate, award, favourite and share it to spread the good word and boost its visibility while hunting those elusive demons, the achievements :-P

Without further ado, let's get on with it.

• 20 achievements to unlock, most of them at least semi-missable
  
• 8 of those are mutually exclusive chievos tied to choices made towards the end of each of the first three chapters: 4 for Chapter 1, 2 for Chapter 2 and 2 for Chapter 3, all covered in the Choices section divided by chapters
  
• 4 are awarded for the game's various endings, all covered in the Endings section
  
• 2 are tied to the game's completion, all covered in the Completion section
  
• another 2 are for completing levels in Be a Good Citizen, an in-game app, all covered in the Minigame section
  
• the last assorted group of 4 is covered in the Miscellaneous section
  
• at least 4 playthroughs required: one full, three partial skipping the majority of Chapter 1 in the New Game Plus mode (including one short one for a secret ending) and a brief mop up from a strategically created hard save

You can get your first achievement even before starting a new game: Other adventures can be unlocked in the main menu (please refer to the Miscellaneous section).

1st playthrough
The first (and the only full) playthrough should net you at least 6 achievements:

• 4 for making story-related choices
  
• one for unlocking your first ending
  
• one for completing the game for the first time.

Possibly more if you:

• create save files before making those story-related choices (especially the first one that's tied to mutually exclusive achievements)
  
• are lucky/thorough and/or fail too many times (or you simply read the Miscellaneous section of this guide ahead of time)
  
• complete enough levels in the Be a Good Citizen minigame for up to 2 extra achievements and a special reward (a secret ending).

2nd playthrough
For your second (partial) playthrough, choose "Start +" from the main menu and make sure to select "Yes" when asked if you want to start New Game + mode, which will let you skip the majority of Chapter 1 and place you right at its finale. Here you can:

• make the opposite choice so you may unlock one more achievement down the line (for a new ending)
  
• or you can unlock a secret achievement if during your first playthrough you've beaten at least 10 levels of the Be a Good Citizen minigame by choosing the new option and bringing your run to an end.

The regular second playthrough (beyond Chapter 1) should net you at least 5 more achievements:

• 4 for making story-related choices different than during your first playthrough
  
• one for unlocking your second ending
  
• one for completing the game again in the New Game Plus mode.

3rd playthrough
For the third regular playthrough (beyond Chapter 1), choose the New Game Plus mode again but this time pay special attention to the choices you make in the finale of the game's chapters. The third playthrough should net you at least 1 new achievement for unlocking your third ending if you make the required choices.

These achievements come in 4 pairs and are mutually exclusive unless you create strategic manual saves to unlock both in any given pair by replaying the appropriate portion of the game that always comes towards the end of the chapters. There are many more choices you can make in this game but those don't unlock any achievements and only offer some flavour text and/or minor consequences down the line.

Note that the first pair can be unlocked in Chapter 1 just BEFORE the finale so if you replay the game in New Game Plus mode, you'll skip this portion and won't be able to get the other achievement until you start a new playthrough from the very beginning OR revert to a manual save. The choice - as always - is yours but plan accordingly.

Truth is overrated
Don't deliver the chip

Choose the upper option (Hide the video) after the confrontation with a witness at Foley Investigations towards the end of Chapter 1.

It's not our choice
Deliver the chip

Choose the lower option (Hand over the video) after the confrontation with a witness at Foley Investigations towards the end of Chapter 1.

Another kind of remorse
Save someone in chapter 1

Choose the upper option (Save Freya) in the Chapter 1 finale and continue playing to the chapter's end.

Mordred shot first
Shoot in chapter 1

Choose the lower option (Shoot Pandora) in the Chapter 1 finale and continue playing to the chapter's end.

Every lfie is important
Avoid a revolution in chapter 2

Choose the upper option (Stop Eugene) in the Chapter 2 finale and continue playing to the chapter's end.

Destroy the wheel
Destroy once and for all the status quo of Nova Polemos in chapter 2

Choose the lower option (Destroy AquaOS) in the Chapter 2 finale and continue playing to the chapter's end.

...And justice for all
Condemn your future in chapter 3

Choose the upper option (Shout the truth and doom your future) in the Chapter 3 finale and continue playing to the chapter's end.

Deal with the devil
Make a pact in chapter 3

Choose the lower option (Make a deal with the devil and sell your soul) in the Chapter 3 finale and continue playing to the chapter's end.

There are 3 regular endings to the game and a special fourth one. The former three are entirely dependent on the choices made in the finales of Chapter 1 and/or Chapter 3. The latter (fourth) ending is tied to the It feels like I've unlocked something achievement (see below).

A ENDING
Unlock ending A

Make specific choices (Save Freya in the Chapter 1 finale AND do NOT agree to the deal in the Chapter 3 finale) then play through Chapter 4-A to the end.

B ENDING
Unlock ending B

Make specific choices (Shoot Pandora in the Chapter 1 finale) then play till the end of Chapter 4-B. Choices in the other chapters' finales don't matter for this one.

C ENDING
Unlock ending C

Make specific choices (Save Freya in the Chapter 1 finale AND agree to the deal in the Chapter 3 finale) then play through Chapter 4-C to the end.

As for the aforementioned special ending:

Mirai no hiro
Save the world and become the pilot of the future

First you need to beat the first 10 levels of the Be a Good Citizen minigame for another achievement (I feels like I've unlocked something, see below), start a fresh playthrough in New Game Plus mode and then choose the special option (Unleash your true power) in the Chapter 1 finale. Enjoy!

There are 2 achievements in this category: one for completing the game normally and another one for doing so in New Game Plus mode.

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts
Complete the game for the first time

Pretty self-explanatory: simply complete the game once with any ending.

Nova Polemos strikes again
Complete the game in new game plus

After completing the game for the first time, do so again in the New Game Plus mode after selecting "Start +" from the main menu AND choosing "Yes" when asked if you want to start a New Game +. Fair warning: if you choose "No" instead, you'll start from the very beginning of the game and won't unlock the achievement at the end of your playthrough. So be like Indiana Jones and choose wisely :-P

Be a Good Citizen is yet another instrument of opression an in-game app that has you rotating tiles to make continous connections between them. It becomes available halfway through Chapter 2 (after you've given Cornelius Huber's AquaOS to Dean Smith for decryption) and can be played well into one of the variations of Chapter 4. But be aware that while the minigame's progress does carry between chapters within the same playthrough, it does NOT between different playthroughs so if you want to unlock the associated achievements, you need to do so BEFORE hitting the end credits within a single playthrough or you'll have to start over. You can, however, make a manual save to retain your progress up to that point within your playthrough and revert to it if needed.

Note that the Steam descriptions for the achievements below are a bit misleading since in reality it's not enough to simply REACH the appropriate levels: you need to BEAT them too. But other than that it's pretty straightforward. Which doesn't necessarily mean easy.

I feel like I've unlocked something
Be a GREAT citizen by reaching level 10 of Be A Good Citizen

Beat the 10th level of the Be a Good Citizen minigame.

Nova Polemos forever
Become the best citizen ever by reaching level 30 of Be A Good Citizen

Beat the 30th level of the Be a Good Citizen minigame.

If you need any help with beating those levels, check out this guide by yours truly:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3041665742

The following achievements reward your curiosity (or your prudent foresight in reading this guide beforehand :-D):

Other adventures
Select the VLG logo in the main menu

In the game's main menu, click on the VLC logo in the lower right corner of the screen to be referred to the VLC website.

Awful detective
Use the pack of cigarettes with Hera while you are waiting for a guest

In Chapter 1, find Mordred's cigarettes by investigating his office the first time you have a chance/are required to do so at the start of the game and in the following scene (on February 26, 2066 at Foley Investigations) use them from the inventory BEFORE talking to Hera.

Change the boss of this gym
Check a strange photo in Dean's apartment

In Chapter 2, investigate a photo standing on the white closet on the right in Smith brothers' apartment. Apparently, it's a reference to an old meme involving a late male erotic performer, or so the good ol' Interwebs seem to suggest when I asked... for a friend, of course ;-).

Learn from your mistakes
Get a game over

As far as I know, there's only one way to get a game over in Dry Drowning and that's to fail at any three-eye confrontation (or what's called the "Living Nightmare system" in-game) by choosing the wrong answer 3 times prompting the scene to reset. The earliest opportunity presents itself while confronting Baker at the Police Station in Chapter 1, especially if you don't have a crucial piece of evidence yet because you haven't convinced his wife to let you investigate their house beforehand. There are quite a few of those confrontation throughout the story so you may unlock it without even trying: entirely by accident (wink, wink). Or even on purpose (like a boss... of a gym :-D).