If you are like me, you decided to go back to this game before the remaster comes out later this year. This game has always been near and dear to my heart and I wanted to make a guide for anyone that decides to go ahead and get the achievements pre-remaster. Mind you, this is not a beginner's guide, so there will be some information required to know for this guide to make sense (though, I will do my best to make things as clear as possible.

YOU CAN ONLY EARN ACHIEVEMENTS IN ENDURANCE MODE, YOU WILL NOT GET ANY ON THE OTHER MODES!

This guide will start with a simple walk-through to the last boss, the Undead Dragon. For those using this as an achievement guide, I will attach the achievements that you should get during the stages. Mind you, it is possible to have a completely different play-through where you obtain some achievements I haven't listed, and I encourage not following the guide strictly as this is for the most efficient play-through. After the guide, there will be a section for achievements you may not have following the defeat of the Undead Dragon.

Below is the achievements you should obtain during this phase:

• Self Defense - Kill one enemy
  
  
  
  
• First Contact - Travel 50 blocks from start
  
  
  
  
• Tinkerer - Craft one item
  
  
  
  
• Survived the Night - Survive for 1 day
  
  
  
  
• Deep Digger - Dig 20 blocks below the surface
  
  
  
  
• Welcome to Hell - Dig 40 below the surface (I would highly recommend doing this at this stage of the game so you don't lose anything too major if you die in hell)
  
  
  
• Short Timer - Play for 1 hour

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Welcome to the game! Once you load in there are some tasks that you should take care of as soon as you can.

The first task you should do is arranging your ammo in your inventory as seen in the screenshot attached below. This simple trick allows you to have infinite ammo. If this feels like it is cheating to you, feel free to ignore this step, but it will add more resources you need to gather.

After this, go around and collect about 16-24 logs. You'll need wood for torches for when you move onto the next step. Mine any surface iron and coal you may find as well. I would recommend getting an assault rifle from your iron and wood. Assault rifles are a great choice to deal with the starting area's zombies, as well as the pesky cave skeletons.

Your next step is to make a mine (whether you mine straight down, go cave diving, or make a decently functional staircase is up to you). You are looking for iron in order to make a iron pickaxe, and then move into looking for gold. Once you find enough gold to make a gold pickaxe, go ahead and find more until you can make a gold assault rifle. The gold assault rifle will help a great deal with the next step, as you can kill aliens with it in about a magazine and a half. Be sure to make the bullets for the gold weapon, they don't use the same kind as the iron-made weapons you have been using.

Once your inventory looks about the same as mine, you will be ready to move onto the next step.

Below is the achievements you should obtain during this phase:

• Leaving Home - Travel 200 blocks from start
  
  
  
  
• Desert Crawler - Travel 1000 blocks from start
  
  
  
  
• Alien Encounter - Get close to an alien
  
  
  
  
• No Fear - Kill 100 enemies (Note that you may get this during this stage or any of the following)
  
  
  
• Crafter - Craft 100 items (Note that you may get this during this stage or any of the following)

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You should be ready to start venturing out into the world. The first thing you need to do is find the alien meteor/spaceship. These usually spawn around the desert biome, and they are fairly obvious once you see them. Keep in mind, you will see one or two dragons on your way to the meteor. KILL THESE DRAGONS AS THEY DROP GOODIES YOU WOULD HAVE TO FARM FOR OTHERWISE.

Beneath the crater lies a cavernous pit with a lot of valuable materials. You'll want to collect enough diamonds for a diamond pickaxe, and then follow it up by collecting enough bloodstone for a bloodstone pickaxe.

Once you have the bloodstone pickaxe, start working for the bloodstone assault rifle. Keep in mind that the recipe is expensive (50 bloodstone would take forever to mine with a diamond pickaxe, so I highly recommend going for the bloodstone one), so you will be down in these caverns a while. Kill what aliens you can as they can drop smelted iron and copper, as well as some diamonds.

After you have your assault rifle, I would recommend getting 5-10 space rock and goo. You'll need space rock to craft anti-dragon missiles, which is the easiest way to take down the Undead Dragon. I would recommend making two missiles for now.

I'd also recommend making a respawn beacon, as it sucks walking 4000 blocks back to the Undead Dragon if you fail (Believe me, I know). Be sure to make it BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE DESERT as it needs sand to craft.

Once your inventory looks like mine, you're set to proceed on the home stretch.

Below is the achievements you should obtain during this phase:

• Mountain Man - Travel 2300 blocks from start
  
  
  
  
• Deep Freeze - Travel 3000 blocks from start
  
  
  
  
• Hell on Earth - Travel 3600 blocks from start
  
  
  
  
• Dragon Slayer - Kill the Undead Dragon
  
  
  
  
• Air Defense - Kill a dragon with a guided missile
  
  
  
  
• Around the World - Travel 5000 blocks from start
  
  
  
  
• One Week Later - Survive for 7 days

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This is the home-stretch for the play-through. You should know that more zombies spawn during the night, therefore, it would be wise to make a base in the sky when it turns night as it gives you a break as well. There is not much information I can really provide while you go through the mountains, icelands, stonelands, and the hell-on-earth biome until you reach the Undead Dragon, but enjoy some of the screenshots of each biome! We put the respawn anchor in the stonelands biome, but it is up to you where you want to put it!

As you reach approximately 4000 blocks out, the Undead Dragon should spawn. There are two ways you can go about this. The first is staying on ground-level, which is effective as long as you know how to deal with the zombies spawning as well. You could also build up in the sky, which eliminates zombies from spawning a lot around you, but the Undead Dragon can use the fireballs to break your platform. Use your anti-dragon missiles and your bloodstone assault rifle against the dragon, and he should fall fairly quickly.

Congrats! You technically completed all that CastleMiner Z has to offer for a normal play-through. However, there is plenty more achievements to get! DO NOT STOP PROGRESSING IF YOU ARE AFTER ACHIEVEMENTS!! THERE IS ONE FOR GETTING TO 5000 BLOCKS!

Listed below is the rest of the achievements and how to get them. Some are fairly straightforward, and some will take A LOT of time. I'll go into detail as much as I can for some of the lengthier ones:

• Demolition Expert - Craft TNT (straightforward)
  
  
  
  
• Fire in the Hole! - Kill an enemy with TNT (also fairly straightforward, just make sure you don't die in the process)
  
  
  
• Alien Technology - Make a kill with a laser weapon (you'll need space rock and goo for this, so if you're doing this after you defeat the Undead Dragon, just go until you find another spaceship)
  
  
• Boom! - Kill an enemy with a grenade (straightforward)
  
  
  
  
• Zombie Slayer - Kill 1000 enemies (completely straightforward, you should be fairly close at the end of the run to this goal anyways)
  
  
  
• Master Craftsman - Craft 1000 items (find something cheap like torches to craft and just make as many as you can until you reach this goal)
  
  
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  These next few require a lot of waiting to complete, so it will be best to leave the game on idle when these run. I personally worked towards this achievement by making a secure area underground so that nothing can break in. Zombies don't spawn underground, and skeletons seem to be unable to break blocks. They are a combination of spending so many hours in the game itself while playing on a world, as well as the day count. THESE ACHIEVEMENTS COUNT THROUGHOUT MULTIPLE PLAYTHROUGHS, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GET THESE ON ONE GO!
  
  
• Veteran MinerZ - Play for 10 hours
  
  
  
  
• MinerZ Potato - Play for 100 hours
  
  
  
  
• 28 Days Later - Survive for 28 days
  
  
  
  
• Survivor - Survive for 100 days
  
  
  
  
• 28 Weeks Later - Survive for 196 days
  
  
  
  
• Anniversary - Survive for 365 days

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This marks the end of all there is to do in CastleMiner Z (outside of Dragon Endurance, which I will NOT be doing). I hope this guide has proven to help. If it did, please give it a rating :D