The Roottrees are Dead

The Roottrees are Dead

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The Roottrees Are Dead - Achievement hints
By aliengeometries
Spoiler-lite hints for achievements! (Complete)
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Overview
In keeping with the theme of the game, I will be trying to keep these as non-spoilery as possible! Part of the fun is working it out for yourself. Sometimes that means the hint will be to get you to a spot where you need to take one more step on your own.

In general, the best way to progress is to keep looking. If you get stuck, you can ask the rubber duck. Don't worry, there's no "hintless" achievement; any help you ask for is strictly between you and the duck.

EDIT: Thanks to Ticcory for help with the Search Failure achievement!
Main Game
Story Achievements
These are unmissable.

You Deserve a Gold Star
Find everyone on the first piece of paper you're given.

Establishing Roots
Find everyone in the oldest group photograph.

Branching Out
Find everyone in the middle group photograph.

Take My Hand Beneath the Tree
Find everyone in the latest group photograph.

Family Secrets
Finish the main game.

Missable Achievements
Audiophile (preparation)
There are three playable songs in this section, which you'll need to unlock this achievement later.

"I can't figure out how to play it!" hint: If you don't immediately see a play button, it's not playable.

Call Screener
"Screening" a call means letting it go to the answering machine.

Duckler County Denizen
What exists in our world, but the characters in the game The Roottrees Are Dead never reference, and not just because it's the 90s?

Extra hint: It's not any of the characters or places in the game, because you find out about all of those from the characters of The Roottrees Are Dead themselves. So what's something related to The Roottrees Are Dead that exists in our world, but the characters aren't aware of?

Extra extra hint: I suppose I'm being a bit cheeky; there's an unnamed character in The Roottrees Are Dead who says it out loud but doesn't know what it means, and "you" mention it in passing when you look up a certain periodical...

Extra x3 hint: You've definitely read the search term. A lot. You've likely either clicked on it or typed it in, too. It's probably on your screen right now, so you may have even read it in the past 30 seconds.

Genealogy Genie
Getting this is difficult, but I promise working it out for yourself is rewarding. If you get Loose Ends, you'll have all the tools you need. What held me up the first time I played was, I didn't apply the tools I knew I had. Read carefully, interrogate your assumptions, and maybe make some notes.

It's All Connected!
This achievement must be gained in the base game.

That comment you read on the radio station's website seems interesting. You should really look into it. Surely you'll find something useful if you just search for all of the Conspiracy Theories...

Extra hint: That wasn't a typo. They're all capitalized.

"But I'm sure I did them all!" hint: Even though it'll show the same result, "4-day" isn't part of the conspiracy's name. Silly, I know, but I didn't code it.

"But I'm sure I did them all!" hint 2: Brand names can have conspiracies, too.

Loose Ends: Part One
Find all the evidence in the main game. There are 38 items.

Search Failure
There are two ways to search for something: in the browser itself, or by highlighting something in your journal.

Extra hint: This achievement wants you to try to search while offline. But if you try to open SpiderSearch, the internet turns back on. How might you combine these pieces of information?

Thinking Outside the Box
Hunt for achievements.

Extra hint: What do you usually do in the game if you want to find something?
Roottreemania
Story Achievements
Second verse, same as the first: unmissable.

Old Flings
Find everyone on the left.

Extracurricular Activities
Find everyone in the middle.

Roottree Company Affairs
Find everyone on the right.

The Big Reveal
Finish Roottreemania.

Missable Achievements
Audiophile
Including the three from before, there are five playable songs. Every musician we see in the game has at least one musical track you can listen to. You sure there isn't someone you're forgetting?

Extra hint: Maybe someone whose track you wanted to listen to back in the main game, but you couldn't find online?

An extremely vague list of the five songs so you can check what you might be missing:
  • A song about skating
  • A song about trees
  • A song about someone's mom
  • A song that mentions a spoon
  • A song whose lyrics include its title a lot

FamilyDoku!
Have you looked around your room lately?

Loose Ends: Part Two
Find all the evidence in Rootreemania. There are 43 items.

Voracious Reader
Keep looking, ask the duck.

What's the Deal With All These Roottrees?
This achievement can't be unlocked on a completed save. Also, the solution can only be accessed in Roottreemania.

You can complete this one on a fresh Roottreemania save file in like five seconds. You don't even need to type.

This achievement involves a reference, and how to use it.

Use hint: I'm serious, open a fresh save and don't touch the computer. What actions are available to you from the start of Roottreemania, but NOT the base game, that you can combine with the reference?

Reference hint: The answer involves a real person's name. Someone who says "what's the deal with" a lot.

For Americans under 25, or people not familiar with US media, this reference may be legitimately tricky, so here is an extra push if you don't want me to just tell you: You could try looking up that phrase in a real search engine. He also did Bee Movie and has a sitcom on NBC that shares his name. Wikipedia has articles on them.

But if you do want me to just tell you the reference: The real person's name is Jerry Seinfeld.

"But I'm sure I did it!" hint: It has to be a key relative.

Hinting at cultural references is really tricky. I'm not revising this further. If you just want someone to tell you how to solve this, there's another guide that explains the exact steps.

Where There's Smoke...
Keep looking, ask the duck.
57 Comments
aliengeometries  [author] 20 Sep @ 4:58pm 
Sorry it didn't land for you. You're correct about the intent—when I didn't have that note there, people kept asking about that. I've tweaked it slightly.
burntotears 14 Sep @ 9:05am 
Concerning What's the Deal With All These Roottrees?,
the weird emphasis on "don't touch your keyboard" doesn't make any sense and threw me off. I assume what you're trying to emphasize is 'don't use the search engine', because you can type names in when picking a name.

I had to keep searching online to understand what to do.
IplayGOG 24 May @ 2:47am 
There is out-of-game achievement, and whoever achieved it can see others. It feels like developers don't want that to be known widely. In my opinion it is order of magnitude less cryptic than What's The Deal. It is possible to stumble upon while digging as usual, just don't stop digging on a border between in-game and out-of-game stuff
aliengeometries  [author] 22 May @ 10:44am 
@IplayGOG ooh, good find!
IplayGOG 22 May @ 12:16am 
Steam game teaser video contains three names that are different to what is inside the game. These names can be typed into SpiderSearch. Not an achievement, just for fun.
aliengeometries  [author] 27 Mar @ 8:38pm 
@Yawn-kun you're fine! Tbh I think I typed it in too, but the comment I kept getting was "so I'm just supposed to type [the answer] into SpiderSearch?" And I was like, okay, I already said "you don't even need to type," so maybe I need to emphasize the other parts of the interface.
Yawn-kun 24 Mar @ 9:11am 
You're welcome, @Trillian. As a person who consumes American TV I immediately knew the reference, but for the life of me could not know how to input the answer lol, so hopefully my hints would help people like us =))
Trillian 23 Mar @ 4:42pm 
ty, ty, ty aliengeometries for the guide and ty Yawn-kun, your hint 3 finally got my old noggin to comprehend what to do, as a Scot I still had to google to even have a clue who it was in reference to, I'd vaguely heard of him but never watched anything so had no idea about that phrase, anyway I'll go restart yet again and hang out by the phone til I can do my usual job of not answering the darn thing and wrap this fun all up :)
Yawn-kun 23 Mar @ 10:58am 
For those who still have no idea how to do the "What's the Deal With All These Roottrees?" achievement, here are more hints (hopefully this isn't giving it away too much @aliengeometries, feel free to delete)

Hint 1: Again, check if you're doing it in Roottree Mania (part 2) and not The Roottrees are Dead (part 1) I mistakenly tried to do this during part 1 but it's impossible
Hint 2: Technically you can use just your mouse but I found using a keyboard easier
Hint 3: Inputting your answers in Roottree Mania changed from The Roottrees are Dead which makes the game considerably harder. You need to use this change to properly do the achievement

If you're still stuck there's another guide here that tells you how to actually do it lol
vortex 21 Mar @ 10:21pm 
@idridian Did you try saving a highlight to your notes, turning off the internet, then clicking the search in your notes? That was the only way I could do it.