General Spoiler Free Tips

1) Adjust the difficulty at any time if the game is too easy or hard. There will be difficulty spikes when new mechanics are added, starting a new higher level zone, certain challenge missions (red skull) and boss fights. No Achievements are linked to the difficulty settings, but your enjoyment of the game is.

2) Feel free to experiment with different classes (aka "jobs"), items, and abilities to figure out how they work and discover the synergies yourself. The only penalty for dying is having to redo things (but you no longer lose resources like how it was half of your gallons in the original SteamWorld Heist). Though dying also may potentially mean missing out on certain achievements in a playthrough. Also, losing a crew member in a mission takes away a reputation star per death.

3) Missable Achievements:



The achievements will pop after beating the final boss in the game if you achieved them in the playthrough, and you can continue playing to get additional achievements after the credits roll. While there is no undo button if you make a mistake that would prevent you from getting one of these achievements, if you are desperate you can force quit the game (Alt-F4) and when you relaunch it will resume from the last autosave point, which typically is the beginning of each turn or the last location you entered on the map. Also, in the escape menu under system there is a load checkpoint button that will send you back two turns within a mission, but it appears the game might remember if you lose crew members when using the load checkpoint, so you would have to use it when a crew death is likely. As there are no manual saves and no option to restart missions you generally have to live with your mistakes once the autosave happens.

4) Take your time and clear out each zone before moving on to the next zone since there is a difficulty spike each time typically and the loot will be less meaningful later as it is leveled to the zone. Clearing all the reputation stars (missions, artifacts/warships) in a zone grants a unique "gear" that essentially grants a permanent buff to all your characters that is well worth it. You have to go to the bar in the zone to collect the gear buff, there are 7 in total.

Angler's Reef -> Golden Gear -> +1 Health
Shiner's Cove - > Amethyst Gear -> +1 Move
Frozen Fjords -> Emerald Gear - > +1 Aura and +1 Melee Damage
Frostbite Fields -> Sapphire Gear -> +2 Cogs
Titan's Drain -> Diamond Gear -> +1 Aim
East Caribbea -> Citrine Gear -> +1 Damage most attacks
Atomic City -> Ruby Gear -> +100% experience

5) Also, I was able to clear all the missions in 29 days on my first Experienced difficulty playthrough (well below the 35 days for the achievement) which included redoing 2 missions because I missed the epic swag star. There are 55 missions in total and you should be able to do 2 or 3 per day once you start getting some crew members. You can also skip the 2 missions in Glacier Gulf if you are in a rush since they don't unlock a gear buff. You can also rush the story and go back and finish up the missions you missed later, but that isn't necessary.


6) Prioritize spending your resources on getting more crew as soon as possible (max of 10 unique characters - entering a new bar location in each zone will trigger additional crew slots or bunk bed sub upgrades), which means it is possible to get additional crew earlier by exploring the map thoroughly. Additional crew means being able to do more missions each day, which means more loot and bounties. It is best to use up every crew member each day, even if that means replaying a prior completed mission. It takes forever to max out characters exp, so it is worthwhile to replay prior missions if you don't have enough to take on a new mission (like prior solo or duo missions).

7) Each day resets all missions, artifacts (treasure chests in map), and warships (strong ships with a star that drop a chest), and other map enemies. This allows you to farm an unlimited amount of additional galleons (water drops) and fragments (purple gems) for items and upgrades if you explore all the current map zones available to you. Recollecting all the artifacts and warships in a day will net you 29 bounty alone, allowing you to get anything on the bounty list.

Story Achievements:
Other than the 3 missable achievements listed above, the rest of the story related achievements (11 in total) are generally hidden to avoid spoilers and are completely unmissable. The current story objective is highlighted at the top left of the screen and generally talking to the submarine pilot Stanwinch will give additional hints on what to do next.

Unlike the first Steamworld Heist, where the ship map is just a level selection tool, in Steamworld Heist 2, the map is fully interactive, with enemies and puzzles and a fog of war that can be explored. The submarine you control on the map will automatically target enemies within range, but you control the direction and speed as well as the ability to submerge. If you die, the day ends early and you lose your accumulated bounty credits you would normally turn in for rewards at the end of the day.

1) Your submarine health resets at the start of a new day in game, but if you take significant damage you will automatically heal up to 25% of your max health after a brief period of no damage (you will blink red). So, if you increase your sub's max health with upgrades your 25% health you can heal up will increase, allowing for hit and run tactics to eliminate any enemy on the map since enemies do not heal if you disengage.

2) You have three weapon slots: front, side, and top and then the remaining slots are for upgrades to health, mobility, or damage and multiple upgrades of the same type do stack. In general, the weapons auto target enemies when within range if it is not reloading and it is facing the the correct direction.

3) Weapon Types:
Machine Guns - Top/Sides - low damage, guaranteed hit, starting weapons to be replaced because they cannot fire underwater
Cannon - Top Only - high damage, low accuracy on fast ships, cannot fire underwater
Torpedos - Front/Top/Sides - high splash damage, homing, but long reload time, work underwater
Laser - Front/Top/Sides - medium damage, guaranteed hit, work underwater

I personally find the Torpedos to be the best, especially with torpedo damage buffs and using hit & run tactics on enemies since it is good for a high damage burst and then run away or submerge while reloading. Torpedos are also unique in that they are the only weapon you can shoot underwater at boats on the surface, it almost feels like cheating since they can't fire back.



Collecting and spending gallons will happen naturally as you play the game, should get it before the end of the story. Exploring the map every day to collect floating gallon boxes, defeating enemies, and collecting artifacts/warships is the best way to amass gallons to spend.


Artifacts appear as treasure chests with a star and are generally guarded by multiple ships and only one exists per zone (6 total). The first time collecting it gives a reputation star and a unique item. Each day after the first collection gives gallons and bounty credits. You need to collect them all, which means having explored the whole map. Once you have explored a zone, you can see the spawn location on the map itself, there are only a few set locations it can spawn.


Warships are significantly bigger than other enemies and usually have additional health and attacks. When you defeat one it drops a chest with a unique item and grants a reputation star. Similar to artifacts, each day after the first collection gives gallons and bounty credits. You need to collect them all, which means having explored the whole map. Once you have explored a zone, you can see the spawn location on the map itself, there are only a few set locations it can spawn.


The ability to get all crew is locked by crew slots which come from sub upgrades and reaching the bar in new map zones. So you have to reach all zones to get max crew, but you can get new crew members sooner by reaching new zones before the story takes you there. There are a total of 10 unique crew members that each have a starting job, and two personal traits that need to be unlocked. Each crew member costs more gallons to recruit and it gets expensive. The bars typically have two crew members to recruit that change each day.


Since there are several missions only requiring one or two crew, you can get this with only 6 crew and replaying old missions by the time you get to the third zone, but this will be easier with more crew near the end-game when you have many missions to choose from.


The sub upgrades all require the "fragment" resource which looks like purple gems. This also includes the two personal abilities of every crew member and the three upgrades for each job type. The best source for fragments is large enemies on the map and bounties. Cannot complete this until the end of the game because you need all characters and most of the jobs maxed out on at least one character each so all abilities are visible.


This requires getting fairly far into the story since you need a shield for the sub. The easiest way to get this is on the enemy rattler yellow subs in the northeastern part of the map and let the sub torpedos hit you while on the surface (so you don't attack them with weapons). The torpedo has to bounce back and kill the enemy sub to count. Getting close to the enemy gives the highest chance for it to hit the enemy (need sonar upgrade called "Echo Locator" to see the green pings of the enemy subs).

The core of the game, just like in the first Steamworld Heist game is 1-5 character turn-based tactical missions. You control your team of characters to move, attack, use items or abilities, and you aim the ranged attacks. Many missions have timers or alarms which continuously spawn enemies so if you spend too much time you risk being overwhelmed. Unless there is an objective to kill the enemies you actually don't get anything from killing the enemies, only completing the mission main (orange) and bonus (blue) objectives, and collecting basic swag (bags) or epic swag (chests) give you exp and loot. The goal is then to complete the objectives and collect all the loot as quickly as possible and then extract with everyone. When you get to the extraction it will tell you if you collected all the loot in the level, since they like to hide loot in the far corners of the map so always check for unopened doors.

1) I highly recommend taking a balanced squad with different weapons/jobs to maximize the synergy. There is usually a description at the mission start that gives a hint of what is to come, so you might want to choose the classes to best achieve the objectives. Some examples: Flankers are the best at loot collection objectives, while Brawlers are good for tanking hits in combat heavy missions. Reapers or Boomers are usually a good choice on solo missions for their multi-kill potential. Engineers are great in larger squad missions since their buffs and healing add more.

2) Job (aka Classes):
Job / Weapon / Purpose
Brawler / Hammer / Tank - they have armor and can heal from kills but can generally only attack one unit at a time
Boomer / Rocket Launcher / Explosives - specialize in crowd control and utility items like grenades
Engineer / Handgun / Buffs - specialize is giving healing and various "aura" buffs to teammates and debuffs on enemies
Sniper / Sniper Rifle / Precision - long range attacks with high accuracy and single target damage, but also the only weapon requiring reloading
Reaper / SMG / Multi-kill and critical hit damage at the cost of lower health
Flanker / Shotgun / Mobility and loot collector, ideal for speed and positioning on map

3) Every character starts with a single job, but can level any job up simply by changing weapons and then can choose to unlock the abilities of inactive jobs with "cogs". Since you start with 3 cogs and unlock more as you level up jobs it is highly recommended to switch up jobs to maximize the active abilities on a character. Every job has permanent boosts to "cogs" at level 3 and health at level 5 as well as strong abilities worth using across jobs. At max level 5 in a job the experience gained is put into a reserve bank and spent on the next job you pick.


4) Every character should do at minimum one mission as a Boomer and a Flanker (Rocket launcher and Shotgun) to unlock another utility item slot (Boomer) and more mobility (Flanker). Also, I do recommend one level of sniper for the perfect aim ability for long shots or collecting hats.

5) In my opinion, strong synergies exist between certain jobs on the same character:
Brawler + Flanker -> Armor & Mobility for front line characters
Sniper + Reaper - > Aim & Critical Hit for precision high damage headshots
Engineer + Any Job -> Engineer adds more cogs for unlocking inactive job abilities though best fit with Sniper and Reaper
Boomer + Any Job - > Boomer increases health, utility item effectiveness, and gives double shot, which helps every character.

Achievements:


This is easiest in missions with rattlers since they spawn in large numbers and many of them allow attacks to pierce them. A Reaper can have as many attacks as enemies as long as a kill is made with each shot if you have the level 4 "Harvest" ability.


This counts heals across all missions in a playthrough to get to 100 total. As long as you have the engineer level 3 healing ability or healing utility items and use them you should get this naturally through normal play. I would sometimes heal just before extracting my crew if they only took minor damage with the aura to get 3 heals at once if you want to speed it up.


I found this is best with a sniper/reaper combination character with the critical hit buffs, positioned next to an engineer for the damage buff, using the war cry reaper ability, the sniper damage buff, focus, and then getting a headshot is the best way to get this. Additionally, avoid enemies with high armor and soften an enemy with a pistol shot from an engineer to give the "break" debuff plus utility items to increase damage.


This achievement is not too difficult if you have the crew member Tristan (Engineer) unlocked with his 1st personal upgrade "Always Prepared" unlocked because it makes all healing items free actions so you can spam them all at once. It also couldn't hurt to unlock the level 3 engineer ability "Maintenance Protocol" for an additional heal. The other thing required is the level 1 brawler ability "Guts":

Ideally the character that has guts equipped is not a brawler (don't equip a hammer) since we don't want to have armor that reduces the incoming damage. We want to go to a higher level mission where enemies can do high burst damage, trigger guts with damage, and then spam healing.


This achievement is particularly tricky because it requires getting 4 debuffs on the same enemy, which requires specific gear and job abilities.
Break is the easiest since every engineer has that as the base ability as long as a pistol is equipped.
Hobble requires shooting an enemy in the leg, which has a chance to prevent them from moving for one turn. It is random chance to apply per shot and in my experience it is a relatively low chance to proc, like between 10-20%.
Chilled can be applied by an enemy ending a turn on icy floor or an icicle hitting an enemy in most Rattler missions in the north (Arctica). However, there is one grenade that guarantees the chilled status effect:
For burning, the best way is to have a max level engineer since there is a level 5 ability called "Feel the Burn" that applies burn on every hit.
Please note that Break and Hobble only last one turn, while Chilled lasts two turns and Burn lasts three turns.
So you basically need to find a beefy enemy (boss or mini-boss) that can take a grenade and some pistol shots without dying before all the status effects are applied. I got it in Tango for Three within Titan's Drain, but there are other missions that would work. I just liked that it was a quick mission with 3 mini-bosses to test it on.


This Achievement is a very long grind since it requires doing a lot of missions over and over to get experience. This can be sped up by equipping the common or rare Badge utility items:

I have confirmed you can stack the Badge bonuses so put them all on one character to power level. You can buy unlimited common badges at the final zone bar for 600 gallons each. Also, the final zone gear from max stars gives an exp bonus:

This achievement is the most time consuming because it requires collecting a lot of hats off enemies and some only exist in certain levels or are random rare spawns.

There are 101 Hats in total, 11 of which are obtained automatically from each crew member, 15 can be bought at the 4 merchant ships called "The Convenient Chapeaux", 3 are unlocked through the story, and the rest must be obtained from enemies. To get the achievement, you have to collect all 101 hats on the same save file, finding new hats on another playthrough won't count.


This requires shooting off hats from enemies (multiple hats of the same type don't stack) and each one only needs to be collected once to permanently unlock in a playthrough. This is easiest with the sniper job or the level 1 sniper ability "Perfect Aim" since the shot needs to not actually hit the enemy (no damage), but pass right above them (the ricochet can do damage after the hat is off). Otherwise, hitting an enemy directly and killing them will never drop their hat. After shooting off a hat it will have a yellow circle ping if it is a new hat, so make sure to have a character move on top of it and pick it up or you don't get to unlock it.

Hat Trick (3 hats in one shot) is easiest against the basic Rattler Skelebot unit since they typically spawn in groups of four so it is easier to get them lined up for a single shot.

Note: you can view all collected hats in the escape menu at any time to confirm if you already have it. They are organized in the order you acquired them.

I group the hats into three groups:
Common - spawns frequently as the default hat with a particular enemy type
Rare - spawns infrequently for a particular enemy type - prioritize these when you see them
Unique - spawns only on one particular enemy in a single mission

Tips for spawning Rare Hat versions: Find a mission that spawns the common hat enemy variant in the initial spawns or in reinforcements. If searching for hat on first pass of level: Equip all mobility items and abilities to search map quickly (Beacon, Poe, and Crowbar are best) by opening all doors to reveal units. If no rare hats spawn, abort mission and you can immediately try again until successful. Otherwise look for a survival mission or alarmed mission and let reinforcements come until the rare hat spawns. Also, highly recommend completing the game first to get the missable achievements before grinding for hats since it is faster with a maxed out crew.

Enemy Hats in order of missions/zones available:

Backwater Bay (1st Zone)

Navy Soldier Cap (Common)


Army Helmet (Rare)


Swordsman's Hat (Common)


Commander Hat (Common)


Pilot Hat (Rare) - Spawns on the Non-Elite Blue Hat Commanders - got mine in Cheville Stockades


Angler's Reef (2nd Zone) - All of the above plus:

Navy Guard Hat (Common)


Sniper Goggle (Common)


Safari Hat (Rare) - Spawns on any sniper unit - I got mine in Tunnel Guardians


Bones in the Ocean mission:
Small Spiky Helmet (Common)


Seashellmet (Common)


Tin Foil Hat (Rare)


Horned Seashell (Rare) - seems much rarer than tin foil - found in Let's get this Parley Started in the reinforcements


Royal Navy Intel HQ mission:
Blue Rotating Beacon (Common)


Party Light (Rare) - Can farm on levels with spawn chutes


MachineGunner Hat (Common)


Shotgunner Hat (Common)


Cowboy Hat (Rare) - have seen it spawn on both the Shotgunner and Swordsman


Shiner's Cove (3rd Zone)

Illicit Machinations (Solo Mission)
Floppy Hat (Unique) - Big Steve


Out on Bad Behavior (Duo Mission)
Prison Warden Hat (Unique) - Warden


Rattler Recruitment (Challenge mission - Red Skull)
The hats of rattler totem bearers match the totem on their back:
Occult Conductor Cone (Common) - Shingle David


Occult Retribution Cone (Common) - Shingle Dum


Occult Bone Cone (Common) - Shingle Dee


Sunken Vault (Story Boss)
Complex Navy Hat (Unique) - Commander Batterfaux
Need to break glass in order to shoot off hat.


Frozen Fjords (4th Zone)

House of Pain (Duo Mission)
Knife in the Head (Unique) - Vindicta Bonescrew


Crown of Thorns (Rare) - Retribution Totem Bearer spawn


Cool Cube (Common) - Cold Comfort Mission


Frosty Propeller (Common)


Fur-Lined SeaShell Hat (Common)


Viking Helmet (Rare) - spawns on Icy Rattler Gunner - easier to farm in "What a Steal" Titan's Drain


Totem Hold Em' (Survival level so good for farming rare hats due to constant spawns)
Uni-Horn (Common)


Seagull Nest (Rare)


Bull Horns (Common)


Cardboard Box (Rare)


Let's get this Parley Started (Story Mission)
Propeller Hat (Unique) - Barry


Glorious Pompadour (Unique) - Lord Admiral Piston (can also collect in Boss fight later)


Elite MachineGunner Hat (Common)


Iron Mask (Rare) - spawns on Elite Machinegunners

Frostbite Fields & Glacier Gulf (Tied for Zone 5)
Occult Ice Cone (Common)


Occult Cone (Rare) - Got it in "Botsicles" mission in Glacier Gulf on Frost Totem Bearer


School of Sharp Shots (Duo Mission)
Rugged Veteran's Hat (Unique) - Dean Bolticar


Titan's Drain (6th Zone)
Icy Horns (Common) Got in "What a Steal"


Pretty Bow (Rare) - farm reinforcements in "What a Steal" on Icy Horns Berserkers


Dreadnaught (Story Boss)
Morgan's Spire (Unique) Tempest Morgan


East Caribbea (8th Zone)

Recruit Hat (Common)


Paper Boat (Rare) - Prioritize this because recruits change into other units on their turn (changing the hat); Easiest to farm Recruits in the Recruit Academy mission


Elite Soldier Hat (Common)


Elite Swordsman's Hat (Common)


Elite Guard Hat (Common)


Elite Shotgunner Hat (Common)


Elite Commander Hat (Common)


The Bonaparte (Rare) - Only spawns on Elite Commanders - best to farm in either Bank Job or Locked In, since there are 2-3 spawns in those missions


The Roasters (Challenge Mission)
There are 3 fire chiefs mini bosses with unique hats
Lit Candle (Unique) - Burnard


Savory Bucket (Unique) - Mr Singe


Very Cool Hat (Unique) - Scorch


Medium/Critical Reinforcements in East Caribbea (I found Locked In easiest mission to farm):
Fire Helmet (Common)


Bearskin (Rare) - spawns on Fire Helmet units


Heated Propeller (Common)


The Grand Bot Gala Mission - 3 unique wigs spawn at the end
Fancier Wig (Unique) - Commander Glensburg


Fancy Wig (Unique) - Commander Pootsworth


...Fancy Wig? (Rare/Unique) - Can spawn instead of Fancy Wig


Elite Sniper Goggle (Common) - Guaranteed two Snipers in Locked In Mission


Story Based Hats (Obtained Automatically)
Rebellious Beret - After Beating Lord Admiral Piston and talking to the rebel leader


Krakenbane's Hat - After meeting up with Mom


Captain Faraday's Hat - After the Mysterious Figures reveal themselves


Atomic City (9th Zone)

Atomic Helm (Common)


Graduate Hat (Rare)


Octopus (Rare) - Much rarer than the Graduate Hat best farmed on reinforcements most likely


Delectable Cone (Common)


Jellyfish (Rare)


Crystal Crown (Common)


Marvin's Helmet (Rare)


Mimic Mask (Common) - There are multiple mimic forms


Hall of the Infinite King (Challenge Mission)
Infinity Crown (Unique)


The Reckoning (Story Mission Bosses) - Just need to break glass first
Band of Icy Revenge (Unique) - Keeper Custos

Crown of Reckoning (Unique) - Imperator Primus

There are 11 hats that are obtained automatically from each crew member recruited:
Daisy - Flop Cap


Wesley - Picklehaube


Sola - A Simple Valve


Judy - Leather Hat


Tristan - Spiky Hair


Poe - Roguish Antenna


Chimney - Sailor's Cap


Beacon - A Simple Beanie


Crowbar - Soft Cloth Hat


Cornelius - Fez


Captain Leeway - Captain's Hat (Story Mission locked)



15 can be bought at the 4 merchant ships called "The Convenient Chapeaux":


1st Store is in East Caribbea, but is accessible early from Angler's Reef

2nd Store is in Shiner's Cove, so it is accessible soon in the 3rd zone:

3rd Store requires defeating Tempest Morgan to get ram and is in the northernmost part of map:

4th Store requires upgrading the sub in order to reach the final zone then taking whirpool to surface:


Hats you can buy:
1st Store (East Caribbea)
Purple Bandana - 150 Gallons


Top Hat - 150 Gallons


Magical Horn - 150 Gallons


Wicked Shades - 250 Gallons


2nd Store - Shiner's Cove
Snorkling Gear - 100 Gallons


Fruity Hat - 50 Gallons


Straw Hat - 150 Gallons


Green Screen - 50 Gallons


3rd Store - Ice Cap Anchorage
Sylvester - 100 Gallons


Ushanka - 100 Gallons


Fur Hat - 100 Gallons


A Fish - 200 Gallons


4th Store - Eye of the North
Jolly Hat - 250 Gallons


Stylish Hat - 250 Gallons


Valkyrie Helmet - 250 Gallons