Hello fellow achievement hunters and readers! This is my first ever guide.
I never saw myself writing one, but I noticed there wasn't one for this more than decade old game.
So here we are.


Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution contains 77 achievements. The base game contains 73 achievements, and there are 2 DLC packs containing 4 achievements.
8 of the 77 achievements are secret and offer no description on how and where to unlock them, even after they've been unlocked.


I'll break this guide up into chapters Campaign, The Last Stand, Multiplayer & Misc/Other and I'll do my best to group them logically in the order they could/should be obtained.
However, There's a free form approach to this game, you don't have to obtain them in the exact order they appear in. As a result, I've grouped them into blocks of similar achievements. But these blocks have been arranged in such a way that if you aim for the achievements you read about first, it will be helpful to you later in the guide.

Please do a control + f search if you're looking for something particular in the guide. For example; if yo're looking for the secret achievements and how& where to unlock them, do a search for "(Secret)"

And please upvote this guide, comment, favorite it if it helped you. This is so the algorithm knows to put this guide above all those spam guides like "How to open the game" or "How to move your mouse" ect. Reward the content creators that actually put in the work to creating content. Please and thank you.

Of the 77 achievements in this game, 20 of them are obtained by playing the campaign and 4 of them are secret. This chapter will list them all and how to obtain them.
This is a guide, not a walkthrough. We will not be walking through each achievement in excruciating detail. Dawn of war 2: Retribution isn't the kind of game that would really justify that approach. So I'll only be expanding to clarify or offer tips or advice as appropriate on specific achievements. All achievements that haven't been expanded upon basically are as they say they are.


During your first playthrough You should obtain most, if not all of these secret achievements as they are all story related. These are considered unmissable and unskippable.
From memory, one of them will require the playthrough of a specific race but these should all be obtained before you complete the campaign as each race.

If you haven't obtained all 4 of the secret achievements listed below by the time you've completed the campaign as each race (on any difficulty) you have guilt free permission to reveal the hidden text in this block below.

Superheavy Smackdown (Secret)
Defeat the Baneblade on Ladon Temple Ruins.

Exterminatus (Secret)
Escape the Imperial Fleet.

Traitors (Secret)
Defeat the Imperial Guard renegades on Meridian.

Maledictus (Secret)
Unlock the final mission of the game.



Sweeping Advance
Kill an enemy who is retreating.

This one can technically be obtained in any mode, however it is most easy to unlock in campaign. Without using any spoilers, there's a particular mission that has an objective counting down. You will encounter many enemies that are in the "fleeing" state throughout this mission. If your playthrough is on the easiest difficulty and your units are kitted out to do damage, this shouldn't require any special interaction, just a+ left click to attack move your units, or right click a specific fleeing unit to have your units focus fire.

Elite
Max a Discipline (stat) on any squad. Earnable in Solo or by the host in Co-Op.

Teched up
Unlock all buildable units for any race in the campaign.


The below block of achievements are obtained by completing the final mission as each race.
You will need to play through all mandatory missions to reach the final mission which is indicated with a red dot on your star map when you reach it.
You can elect to skip the optional missions if you wish to take the most time efficient route to the finish. Nobody would blame you. While not incredibly long, the campaigns of this game become tedious because they are almost identical in layout to one another.

You can differentiate the mandatory missions from the optional missions which, strangely enough are both green dots on the star map by mousing over or selecting the mission and seeing a small but capitalized tag that denotes it as an optional mission.

For the Fallen
Complete the Eldar campaign on any difficulty.

Let the sector burn
Complete the Chaos campaign on any difficulty.

Nice hat
Complete the Ork campaign on any difficulty.

Sector Savorer
Complete the Tyranid campaign on any difficulty.

Sector Saviour
Complete the Space Marine campaign on any difficulty.

Acceptable Losses
Complete the Imperial Guard campaign on any difficulty.

Some races are easier to clear than others just by the design and synergy. This guide isn't inherently a walkthrough, many other guides exist if you're struggling to clear a campaign on very hard.
Note that completing one campaign on very hard will cause any of the locked achievements on lower difficulties to unlock as well.

Easy Campaign Complete
Complete any Campaign on Easy difficulty.

Normal Campaign Complete
Complete any Campaign on Normal difficulty.

Hard Campaign Complete
Complete any Campaign on Hard difficulty.

Very Hard Campaign Complete
Complete any Campaign on Very Hard difficulty.


Allies to the Cause
Complete a mission in co-op mode.

Stacks well with Battle Brothers (See below)

Along for the ride
Complete 6 missions as a GUEST in Co-Op.

Battle Brothers
Complete the Campaign in Co-op.

This only needs to be the final mission. So if you have a save file of a campaign where you are up to the last mission, only the last mission needs to be cleared. This stacks nicely with Allies to the Cause.

Of the 77 Achievements in Retribution, 26 of them are only obtainable in The Last Stand.
none of which are secret.

I'm listing this in an order that would be most time efficient to unlock them in if it can be helped. Use the search function (control+f) if you wish to find something in particular.

To unlock any achievement from this batch, you must attain a score of at least the indicated number in a single game as score is not cumulative.

Manipulator
Score 500,000 in The Last Stand.

Conquerer
Score 1,500,000 in The Last Stand.

Dominator
Score 2,500,000 in The Last Stand.

Terminator
Score 5,000,000 in The Last Stand.

Exploiter
Score 10,000,000 in The Last Stand.

Thusly, attaining a very high score could theoretically unlock all of these in a single game.


This Batch of achievements must each be completed in a single game. Some may stack, but most will not.

Usurper
Beat wave 20 in The Last Stand Bloodied Coloseum.

There is an exploit where you can get out of the map detailed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6vb1g3vOPU
My strategy deviates from the video though. We can use the doombolt trick outlined in Magic Missiler & won't need the gift of sustenance. Instead we can pick up Greater or master sorcery. The second sorcerer on your team can use the same build but take orb of blood instead. Third teammate was a tanky tyranid, someone the Boss could bite into.

Hardcore
Beat wave 20 in The Last Stand Anvil of Khorne Map.

Tau Efficiency
As the Tau Commander, kill all three doppelgangers within 5 seconds of each other on wave 16 of Bloodied Coliseum yourself.

The wording of the achievement is misleading. You have 5 seconds from the first kill made to kill the other 2. Not 5 seconds, then 5 seconds, then 5 seconds.

I made a guide you can find here: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3109332052

Lord of the Risen Doom
Revive 2 Allies at a time - or 1 Ally and yourself - with the Resurrection Orb ability twice in a single game.

There can be only one
Defeat your clones on Wave 16 of the Bloodied Colosseum as the Chaos Sorcerer.

Megakill!
Kill 20 enemies within one second as the Tyranid Hive Tyrant.

This is probably easiest on Anvil of Khorne and the 6th wave (Imperial Guard). Rush one of the Guardsman blobs right at the spawn point and use Toxic Miasma to kill the bunch.

Advanced Multiplication
Obtain a score multiplier of 275 as the Eldar Farseer.

Simply have all players do their best to stay alive and hold both points for as long as possible. If you have an Lord General, this stacks well with Unshakable (See below)

Unshakable
Complete 10 waves in a single match while holding both strategic points as the Lord General.

The Sharpest Wrench
Achieve 350 kills in a single match as the Ork Mekboy.

Any failed attempt at this progresses Can't touch dis (described below in cumulative achievements)

The Warrior Born
Achieve 350 kills in a single match as the Space Marine Captain.

Any failed attempt at this progresses Fury of the Primarchs (described below in cumulative achievements)


Progress towards these achievements carries across between games and adds up. You'll be contributing towards these while aiming for everything above in this guide.

Overlord
Reach level 20 in The Last Stand

The wording of this achievement is somewhat misleading. Simply get a hero to max level for this achievement.

Summer Slaying
Kill 5 Banshees on The Bloodied Colosseum.

Promethium Summer
Kill 50 enemies while using a flamer.

A flamer appears to be any flamethrower. Some players report unlocking this with the Tau commander's starting flamethrower. (Unlocked at level 1)
Others report unlocking this with the Ork commander's "Burna" (unlocked at level 1)
Should be able to unlock this one without much effort or strain within a single game.

Dynamic Entry
As the Tau Commander, kill 100 enemies by jumping on them with the Jet, Heavy Jet or Stabilized Jet abilities.

The Red Harvest
Complete 100 total waves as the Overlord.

Magic Missiler
Consume 5,000 energy from using abilities as the Chaos Sorcerer.

The wording of this achievement is somewhat misleading as the chaos sorcerer has an ability called "Consume". But for the purposes of this achievement, it means spend.
There is actually an exploit that not only makes this achievement easier, but it also sends the Sorcerer's damage numbers sky high. Requires Doombolt. When casting doombolt, wait until the cooldown sillhouette over the abitlity icon in your bar is between 1/3 and 1/2 then right click to move your sorcerer. This cancels the ability, completely refreshes the cooldown and refunds the energy, as well as firing off approximately 2/3 of the spells's total damage. If you're struggling with the timing using the cooldown on the icon, try paying attention to the animation. The window you're looking for is after he has raised his armo and pushed it forward for the seconrd time, but before he raises his arm and pushes it forward the 3rd time.

Heavy Hitter
Kill 25 superheavy units as the Tyranid Hive Tyrant.

Originally posted by dow.fandom.com:

You must play the Anvil of Khorne map, where there are six (6) super units per each complete play-through:

Wave 13: Swarmlord
Wave 16: Battlewagon
Wave 17: Avatar
Wave 18: Great Unclean One
Wave 19: Baneblade
Wave 20: Land Raider

Source: https://dow.fandom.com/wiki/Retribution/Heavy_Hitter

Grab me the paddles
Revive 75 allies as the Eldar Farseer.

A trail of blood behind him
Kill 2,500 enemies as the Lord General.

Can't touch dis
Kill 2,500 enemies as the Ork Mekboy.

Fury of the Primarchs
Kill 2,500 enemies as the Space Marine Captain.

Of the 77 Achievements in Retribution, 29 of them are only obtainable in multiplayer.
4 of which are secret.
I'm listing this in an order that would be most time efficient to unlock them in if it can be helped, not alphabetical. Please use the search function (control+f) if you wish to find something in particular.

At the time of writing this guide, This game is over a decade old and still has a reasonably healthy, active player basewith as many as 300 players in the online server chat at times, So while these achievements are technically still obtainable, and the developers intended for these achievements to be unlocked through organic play, you're reading an achievement guide. So this guide is going to assume that you're boosting. Strategies and tips will be about optimizing for time.
If optimizing for time and minimizing redundancy, I'd recommend attempting the achievements in the order of the Blocks I have grouped them by.


As there are no story rich spoilers in this section, no spoiler tag will be used for secret achievements hereout. You'll know where the secret achievements are by holding control, pressing f and searching for the phrase "(secret)" If you, for some reasons don't want spoilers, you have been warned.

Manner Please (Secret)
Send "GG" to everyone in a match and concede in the next 15 seconds.

You'll know if the message is viewable to everyone because it will be yellow, not white.
It's been a while since I've played but you need to either hold shift and press enter to open all chat, or it's "y". Lower case "gg" also works.

Spammer! (Secret)
Field two units of the same type at the same time in a multiplayer game.

Domination
Hold 5+ victory points at once in an online Free for All.

Can do in unranked custom game with one other player (or possibly even no players, honestly *untested*)

Wisdom of the Ancients
View a recorded game.

At the conclusion of any match, you can save the replay. Do this at some stage then play it back from the main menu.

Heresy! (Secret)
Reinforce a squad from a reinforcement structure of a different race.

Simply grab (minimum) 3 buddies and queue for 2v2 ranked (optional, advised), ensuring that your teammate and yourself are different races (Ork + tyranid or Chaos + Eldar) Have one member of your squad based units die then pull them back to your allie's base, then reinforce them back to full strength. DO NOT press the flee button. This takes them to YOUR base.
Some players have reported issues getting this achievement to unlock. I can only speculate, but I think using Imperial guard + space Marines or Space marines + chaos or imperial guard + Chaos might be dubious combinations are the races are all humanoid. Don't ask me if eldar factor into this equation.
Note: If you ARE in a ranked game (as advised), You can take the oppurtunity to unlock 'E's a Zogging Nurse! in the same game if you're so inclined.


'E's a zogging Nurse!
Revive your teammates 30 times during online ranked play.

Here's the method I developed Getting Master of the Apocatherion in Dawn of War 2 & Chaos Rising that works here too.

Have one player of each team create the heavy weapon infantry unit Devastators for space marines, Havocs for Chaos ect (Only one player, that way all their range is the same). Set the up near the top most or bottom most capture point.
if you hold right click, when moving these squads you get a cone or arc of fire. Make sure these are all similarly positioned when it comes to edge of range. which you can use the capture point as reference.

Then, each member of the other team sends heroes to that point. Once heroes are in position, a scout unit from the team allied to the firing line should creep forward using s to stop and right click to move in very small increments until one of the 2 enemy heroes is barely revealed. The firing squad now with targets in range AND with line will open fire. The person doing the revives should be further back from the firing squad than the one dying and thus out of sight. You'll need to manually count revives (Which I did by typing in team chat) this can mirrored in the other half of the map the other team can accumulate revives at the same time.

Flawless Victory
Achieve an online ranked victory through annihilate or VP victory with 500 points remaining.

With Manner (secret)
Win a ranked game through annihilate and with 500VP"s on your team's Victory Point counter

This secret achievement requires 2 separate games, one by which you win by annihilation. The other by which you'd unlock the Flawless Victory achievement (Detailed above) They both need to be completed in Ranked play.


These are what it says on the tin. Do these first if possible because they stack with achievements later in this section.
Note that these ones require WIN unlike achievements later in the guide that simply require PLAY.

Aspect Warriors
Win a Ranked Team Battle with 3 different Eldar heroes on the team.

Defenders of the Imperium
Win a Ranked Team Battle with 3 different Imperial Guard heroes on the team.

We Stand Together
Win a Ranked Team Battle with 3 different Space Marine heroes on the team.

The Swarm
Win a Ranked Team Battle with 3 different Tyranid heroes on the team.

Waaagh!
Win a Ranked Team Battle with 3 different Ork heroes on the team.

Chaos Favor
Win a Ranked Team Battle with 3 different Chaos heroes on the team.

In addition to the customary 6 race specific achievements, we also have:
Battle Team
Create a 3 Player Party and Play a Ranked Multiplayer Game together.

Stacks nicely with any of the above.

Turns out there's a charater limit for a section! Turns out I hit it! Oops.
As before, I'm listing this in an order that would be most time efficient to unlock them in if it can be helped, not alphabetical. Please use the search function (control+f) if you wish to find something in particular.

These can be completed with as few as 2 people. Though everything else you've done prior to this step in the guide will have counted toward the accumulative achievements.

Searching for Ranked 1v1s makes it pretty easy to match with a buddy who is willing to trade wins with you because you're likely going to be the only 2 searching 1v1s.
Note: It can take upwards of 3 minutes for the matchmaking algorithm to pair two players, regardless of whether they are similar in level and queued at approximately the same time.
Note: If your opponent concedes/forfeits, you win.

Gladiator
Play 10 Ranked Multiplayer Games.

Winning Rush
Earn a 5 game Win streak during online ranked play.

Hail the Champion
Earn Champion rating 20 times during online ranked play.

Quickest way to get a champion rating that counts is to have your opponent concede after you have earned at least one victory point. Once you have these out of the way, the speed at which you can trade wins speeds up.

Veteran Victor
100 Ranked wins.

Winter Assault
Play for a total of 30 minutes against a human opponent on: Ice Station Obelis, Selenon Fissure, or Argent Shelf

Ice Station Obelis is a 1v1 map so just keep your eyes peeled when you're going for the achievements detailed in the (Advised) 1v1 portion of the Multiplayer Pt 2 of this guide
Can be done in ranked or unranked. You can't filter for this map in ranked.


Blood God
Win a Ranked game using only Khorne-themed units.

Bringer of Change
Win a Ranked game using only Tzeentch-themed units.

Plague Father
Win a Ranked game using only Nurgle-themed units.

If you have a win trading partner, and are taking turns conceding, not making any units, using the Attacker (Chaos Lord), Defender (Plague champion) and Support (Chaos Sorcerer) in 3 separate games, you will unlock all of these.
One of these you should have scooped up previously when you unlocked Chaos Favor detailed earlier in the guide.

Angel of Death
20 online ranked games completed with Space Marines.

Exarch
20 online ranked games completed with Eldar.

For the Dark Gods
20 online ranked games completed with Chaos.

Great Devourer
20 online ranked games completed with Tyranids.

Hold the Line
20 online ranked games completed with Imperial Guard.

A Proper Waaagh!
20 online ranked games completed with Orks.

This section of the guide is for achievements that can be obtained in any of the 3 game modes, or alternatively, don't fit into any of those 3 categories. Some achievements contained within this sections may have been duplicated in other sections where I felt they were most appropriate, either as a reminder, or because that's when they were most easily obtainable.

All in a day's work
Kill 500 enemies

This is cumulative and across all game modes you'll likely unlock this organically.

The better they look, the better they fight
Create a customized look for any race in the Army Painter.

The army painter is tucked away under the multiplayer option in the main menu.

Wisdom of the Ancients
View a recorded game.

Only Multiplayer games can have their replays saved / recorded

I hope this guide helped you. It's information I wish I had available to me on my journey towards 100%ing this game.

And please upvote this guide, comment, favorite it if it helped you. This is so the algorithm knows to put this guide above all those spam guides like "How to open the game" or "How to move your mouse" ect. Reward the content creators that actually put in the work to creating content. Please and thank you.

If you found any grammatical or factual errors, please leave a comment.

------- This dividing line separates closing notes from dev updates/ change log, which I make no promises to update -------

10/Dec/2023 - Attached my tau efficiency guide, cleaned up headings and formatting. As well as gave a more comprehensive tip for Magic Missiler & Advanced multiplication.