NEW ACHIEVEMENT GUIDE & ROADMAP BY: MeonOne & bLaKgRaVy

MeonOner · 01-09-2013, 10:27 PM

COPYRIGHT/RIGHTS OF USE:
This Achievement Guide and Roadmap have been written for x360a.org only and may not be used, in part or in whole, by any other person or website without written permission by either the authors or website administrators.

Achievement Guide & Roadmap written by MeonOne & bLakgRaVy.

Roadmap

Overview:
= Estimated achievement difficulty: 2/10
= Offline: 27/27 (1000)
= Online: 0/0 (0)
= Approximate amount of time to 1000: 6-8 hours
= Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 0 (technically not playthroughs, but you will have to play each type of game multiple times [10 Quiz, 3 Explorer and 4 Puzzle])
= Does difficulty affect achievements?: Yes. 5 - Quiz Hero, Quiz Lord, Quiz Titan, Child's Play, Mommas and Poppas. See below for more details
= Number of missable achievements: None
= Do cheat codes disable achievements?: No Cheats
= Extra equipment: Yes, 2 - 4 extra controllers
= Glitched or unobtainable achievements: Yes, 1 - On A Roll, EU version.
= Avatar Awards: 0
= Unlockable Gamerpics: 0

Helpful Links:
Slider puzzle solver - http://analogbit.com/software/puzzletools
How to Complete Each Jigsaw Puzzle in About 1 Minute 30 Seconds
Nat Geo Challenge--Slider Puzzle Solutions

Introduction:
Welcome to National Geographic Challenge! This game is a simple, yet fun, quiz and puzzle game that asks questions about topics from around the world. This is a very simple game, and anyone with some geographical knowledge should have no trouble with this. I think the game is aimed at middle school and early high school students.

The game is split into three modes: Quiz, Explorer and Puzzles.

In Quiz, you are asked multiple choice questions which aren’t that hard. Sometimes the answers are blatantly obvious. There are five rounds per game and three lengths (40, 60 and 80 questions). There are two difficulties and you get to pick one of six continents to be asked questions about.

Explorer is fun. It’s basically s a simplified version of the board game, Risk. You take over territories, trying to gain as many points as possible. When you are in conflict with another player, you enter challenge mode, where you either try to answer a question correctly or place puzzle pieces in the correct places. Get the maximum amount of points and win the game!

Puzzle mode is kind of dull and slow, to be honest. There are three types: jigsaw, square and slider. You have to put the puzzles back together and are timed while you do it (although there is no achievement for doing them quickly). Square puzzles are slightly harder since the pieces don’t interlock.

You can do these steps in any order. Each step should take about an hour and a half to two hours.

Step 1: Quiz Mode - 300
First, you are going to want to play five quizzes on Easy mode. Play three short quizzes (40 questions), one medium quiz (60 questions) and one long quiz (80 questions) with at least two other controllers. When you do, you will unlock Enter a new challenger and Child’s Play.

Score more than 1,000 points during one of the three short quizzes and you will unlock Quiz Hero. Scoring more than 2,000 points during the medium quiz will unlock Quiz Lord. Plug in at least two other controllers (three total) and play and win a long quiz with at least 4,000 points to unlock Quiz Titan and Bragging Rights.

If you finish round 2 or 4 in the negative and complete one of the short quizzes with a negative score, you will unlock Counter-Intelligence.

Next, you will want to play five quizzes on Hard mode. I recommend playing short quizzes (40 questions) so you can breeze right through them in roughly 5-8 minutes each. This will unlock Mommas and Poppas. You will also unlock …One for All since you played these by yourself.

Step 2: Explorer Mode - 520
You will need just one controller for most of this step. You need at least two controllers to unlock On a Roll. You will need to play a minimum of three games of Explorer to get all of the achievements.

Your first game you will want to play ‘Hot-Seat’ mode with four players on Easy. In this game you will unlock the majority of the achievements (besides Hearts and Minds, On a Roll and two of the territory achievements). Go through the game concentrating on each player taking over one continent. The game ends when one player reaches 1,700 points, so plan your game out.

Your second game is going to be played with two players in ‘Hot-Seat’ on Easy. In this game, the only goal is to get the remaining two territory achievements (whichever they may be) and to unlock Hearts and Minds. Once you have them, you can quit out of the game. There is no need to finish the game.

The third and final game you will need at least two controllers. It’s easier if you play with more, but for On a Roll, you cannot play in ‘Hot-Seat’ mode. The goal of this game is to win five consecutive puzzle challenges. Make sure you plan your strategy ahead of time to unlock this easily. Once you unlock the achievement, you can quit out of the game.

Step 3: Puzzle Mode - 180
First off, you need to play one two-player game of ‘Puzzle Battle’ with two controllers. Make sure Player 1 wins.

Next, there are three puzzle modes (jigsaw, square and slider). Jigsaw and square puzzles will take about the same amount of time, roughly an hour each. Jigsaw puzzle modes are 30 puzzles each (six continents, five puzzles each) and square puzzle mode has 24 puzzles (six continents, four puzzles each). Slider puzzles will take a maximum of 10 minutes if you use Kiskit’s solutions posted in the forum below. There are 24 puzzles total (six continents, four puzzles each).

Link: Nat Geo Challenge--Slider Puzzle Solutions

Conclusion
Congratulations on another 1000. That wasn’t so painful, now was it? And you might have learned something. How often do you do that while playing a game?

MeonOner · 01-09-2013, 10:28 PM

Enter a new challenger... 15

Play a Quiz, alone or with friends.

Simply complete any Quiz by yourself or with friends. If you with play with friends, you'll have to use multiple controllers, as Quiz mode does not have 'Hot Seat' mode (play up to four players on one controller). This can be done either on Easy or Hard and the length of the Quiz does not matter. When the game displays the final results, the achievement will pop.

Quiz Hero 25

Score over 1,000 points in a Short Quiz, alone or with friends.

A Short Quiz consists of 40 questions, 5 rounds with 8 questions in each of the rounds. Rounds 2 and 4 are the only rounds that you have a chance to lose points if you answer a question incorrect, since you bet a certain amount of points on each question. Play on Easy and you should no trouble with this achievement. This will also count towards Child's Play.

Quiz Lord 50

Score over 2,000 points in a Medium Quiz, alone or with friends.

A Medium Quiz consists of 60 questions, 5 rounds with 12 questions in each of the rounds. Rounds 2 and 4 are the only rounds that you have a chance to lose points if you answer a question incorrect, since you bet a certain amount of points on each question. This will also count towards Child's Play.

Quiz Titan 75

Score over 4,000 points in a Long Quiz, alone or with friends.

A Long Quiz consists of 80 questions, 5 rounds with 16 questions in each of the rounds. Rounds 2 and 4 are the only rounds that you have a chance to lose points if you answer a question incorrect, since you bet a certain amount of points on each question. This will also count towards Child's Play.

Bragging Rights 30

Win a Long Quiz against friends.

You are going to need at least two extra controllers, since Quiz Mode does not utilize 'Hot Seat' mode. Long Quiz have 80 questions, 5 rounds with 16 questions in each of the rounds.

Make sure that Player 1 in the game is signed in as your main account. Your 'friends' do not have to be signed in. Now place the two extra controllers in front of you, that way your able to press the buttons to choose an answer when your 'friends' turn comes around.

Now when it is your turn, try to answer your questions correctly and when it is your 'friends' turn purposely answer those questions wrong, since letting the timer run out takes to long. The only thing that will make this process long is when you have to place bets for your 'friends'.

Recommend you try and answer as many questions correctly to earn at least 4000 points or high to unlock Quiz Titan, to minimize your time playing this game.

NOTE: You cannot finish the game with a negative score to unlock Counter-Intelligence and get this achievement. Even if you make your negative score less than your friends, you still will not win the game. You have to at least have a positive score to unlock this.

One Small Step 20

Take your first steps in Explorer.

In Explorer Mode, simply move to another section of the map controlled by some else and take it over. You will either have to successfully complete a puzzle battle or answer the given question correct.

MeonOner · 01-09-2013, 10:28 PM

Dr. Livingstone, I presume? 50
Control all 6 African Territories in a game of Explorer.

Start an Easy 'Hot Seat' mode with four players (all on one controller), so you can also unlock All for One.... In a four player game, you win once someone reaches 1,700, so you can technically only get four of the six Territory achievements in this game.

Start each player on different continents. Each player will start with three territories randomly placed around the map. The trick here is to get all the territories in one region (i.e. North America, Europe, etc.) with any player. It doesn’t have to be Player 1 that gets it, since technically, all the players are on your profile. If any of the four players obtain all six territories in one region, the achievement will unlock.

Since the game ends when someone reaches 1,700 points, you can only get one region per player. Save the last two for the second, two-player game, see Hearts and Minds

In ONE game of Explorer mode. You must conquer and take control of all 6 African Territories, 6 Australian-Asian Territories, 6 European Territories, 6 Asian Territories, 6 North American Territories, 6 South American Territories. Once all 6 territories are controlled, the continent will be lock down to the rest of that game and will not be able to be captured by another player.

African Territories:

Southern Africa
Eastern Africa
Western Africa
Northwestern Africa
Northeastern Africa
Madagascar

The Grand Tour 50

Control all 6 European Territories in a game of Explorer.

See "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" for more information.

European Territories:

Southern Europe
Western Europe
Northern Europe
Eastern Europe
Nordie Degion
British Isle

Skills and Spices 50

Control all 6 Asian Territories in a game of Explorer.

See "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" for more information.

Asian Territories:

Eastern Asia
Northern Asia
Central Asia
South West Asia
Indian Subcontinent
Japan

Voyage of Discovery 50

Control all 6 North American Territories in a game of Explorer.

See "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" for more information.

North American Territories:

Western US
Eastern US
Western Canada
Eastern Canada
Greenland and The Arctic
Alaska and Northern Canada

The Inca Trail 50

Control all 6 South American Territories in a game of Explorer.

See "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" for more information.

Note: This includes Mexico City and Central America

South American Territories:

Northern South America
Western South America
Eastern South America
Southern South America
Caribbean
Mexico City and Central America

Hearts and Mind 50

Control half the Territories in a game of Explorer.

Start an Easy 'Hot Seat' game with two players (both on one controller). For this achievement you will have to control 18 of the 36 territories on the board with a score of 1,800. This means that you can only control territories that are worth 100 points. In two player games, the game is won when someone reaches 2,200 points. If you have three or more players, the game will end before you control half the map, so it needs to be two players.

You start off already controlling 9 territories each on the map (all 100 points) in a two player game. You just have to obtain 9 more. Move around the map, taking over 100 point territories, either by conquering Player 2 or by exploring new ones. If you have to land on a 250 or 500 point territory, purposely miss the questions so you don’t take it over. The achievement will unlock when you’ve taken control of the 18th territory.

If you are still in need of Territory achievements, have Player 2 start to take over territories on a particular continent. Player 1 should do this also once you have this achievement (since some territories are over 100 points). If you unlocked four territory achievements in your first ‘Hot-Seat’ game with four players, the other two should come naturally. Just plan it out and you will get them with minimal effort.

MeonOner · 01-09-2013, 10:38 PM

On a Roll 30

Win 5 consecutive, competitive puzzles in a game of Explorer.
For this, you will need at least one controller, but with more controllers, the easier this will be, since you will have more territories to choose from. The reason for this is because this cannot be obtained during a ‘Hot-Seat’ game.

When you move onto a territory controlled by someone else, or they move onto yours, it will start a challenge. It might be a puzzle challenge or a quiz challenge. You will have to win five consecutive puzzle challenges. The puzzle challenges you have to win are, when you are putting the pieces of a photo back together. Its very unlikely that you will get 5 consecutive competitive puzzles. You only need to win 5 competitive puzzles without losing one. You do not have to win the quiz ones (actually, it’s preferable if you don’t since you can double back and try to retake the same territory). Losing quiz challenges does not reset your progress on the puzzle challenges.

Now what you would want to do is capture 2 or 3 territories adjacent/next to each other and just bonce back and forth from them. Have the other player try to take over your territories triggering either a puzzle challenge or a quiz challenge. Make sure that if its a puzzle challenge that Player 1 wins. Rinse and repeat until you have won 5 competitive puzzles.

The achievement unlocks upon winning the fifth puzzle challenge in a row. Make sure that while going for this achievement, a player does not reach 1,700 points, as that will end the game.

GLITCH: This Achievement seems to be glitched for the EU version but not for the North American version. To date, this achievement is sill unachievable for the EU version.

All for One... - 75
Complete a game of Explorer with 3 other players beside you.

You don't need four controllers for this. Start a game of Explorer, pick 'Hot Seat' mode and choose to play as all four players with one controller. Any player can win (as long as any of the players reach the score limit 1,700) as there is no achievement for Player 1 winning a game of Explorer. You will get this while going for the individual territory achievement.

...One for All 75

Complete 5 Quizzes alone (profile owner only).

This achievement requires you to play 5 Quizzes alone. Recommend playing a Short Quiz (40 questions) on Easy. You do not have to win or even get a high score, just complete them. You can to do this with either Child's Play or Mommas and Poppas to minimize game play.

Child's Play 5
Complete 5 Quizzes on Easy Difficulty (profile owner only).

You will need to play and complete 5 quizzes on Easy Difficulty.

Recommend playing three short quizzes (40 questions), one medium quiz (60 questions) and one long quiz (80 questions) while going for this achievement to minimize your 'playthroughs'.

Score at least 1,000 points on one short quiz to unlock Quiz Hero.
Recommend you finish one of the short quizzes with a negative score to unlock Counter-Intelligence.
Play the third short quiz however you like.
Score at least 2,000 points on the medium quiz to unlock Quiz Lord.
Play the long quiz with at least two extra controllers and win the game with a score of at least 4,000 points to unlock Quiz Titan and Bragging Rights.

Mommas and Poppas 5
Complete 5 Quizzes on Hard Difficulty. (profile owner only).

You need to play and complete five quizzes on Hard Difficulty.

Recommend playing short quizzes (40 questions) to make this go by quicker. You don't need to have a positive score, you can just keep pressing

, or

for True/False questions. Each quiz should roughly take 5-8 minutes.

Prince of Puzzles 30

Win a Puzzle Battle against another player.

Two controllers are required for this achievement.

From the main menu select Puzzle Battle. Once the game starts, you ignore the second controller as you wont be needing it.

As Player 1, match as many of the puzzle pieces from the bottom of the screen to the square above. Time will run out for the second player declaring you the winner.

Jiggery-Pokery 10

Complete your first Jigsaw puzzle.

See "Lord of the Dance" for more information.

MeonOner · 01-09-2013, 10:38 PM

Lord of the Dance 40

Complete all Jigsaw puzzles. (profile owner only).

From the main menu, select Jigsaws Mode. You just need to assemble all 30 jigsaw puzzles, 5 in each of the 6 continent. Each jigsaw is only 24 pieces. These puzzles should take you about 2-3 minutes each and roughly 1-2 hours to complete them all. Remember, pressing

will give you a hint.

Puzzle building hints from Amazon XD:
Dropping two connecting pieces next to each other almost guarantees they will connect without you having to figure it out.

So here's what you do. Pick up a piece, let it rotate properly, and then place in one of five piles. Top pieces go on top, bottom pieces go on bottom, left and right respectively, and the middle pieces (non borders) go in the middle. Once you have these piles (should be around a minute mark on a puzzle). Take whichever border you prefer, and start picking up and dropping pieces onto the pile. Move back and forth on the pieces depending on where the next piece should fit (if you have the whole left bottom of a border done, start dropping the border to the left of the bottom pieces).

Pretty soon you'll get the hang of it and understand how the game pieces the pieces together. Once you have the border done, just drop the border around the pile a few times and the puzzle should fill itself in. After a few tries you'll get the hang of it and it'll become second nature. Each puzzle should take you about 2-3 minutes.

If you feel like it, though it’s honestly a point of preference, you can stack all the pieces on top of each other and kind of move the bigger pieces onto the littler non-connected ones. If you find it easier this way, you'll probably shave 15 seconds off each time. Time is not a factor as far as the achievement it concerned, and it doesn't seem like much, but for this, it means the difference of about 10 minutes of your time!

For the square puzzles, this will be your only option (stacking them all on top of each other). Even though it sounds harder, square puzzles done this way will still only take about a minute 30-45 each.

If done correctly, with a total of five puzzles each for the six continents, and two sets of continents (jigsaw and square), you should be done with these in roughly 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Good luck!

LINK: How to Complete Each Jigsaw Puzzle in About 1 Minute 30 Seconds

Squared Away 10

Complete your first Square puzzle.

See "Squared Eyed" for more information.

Squared Eyed 40

Complete all Square puzzles. (profile owner only).

From the main menu, select Square Puzzle Mode. There are 24 different Square puzzles, 4 puzzles for each of the 6 continent, with 24 pieces in each. You will unlock new puzzles each time you complete one. These should take you about 2-3 minutes each, depending on how good you are at puzzles, so about 45 minutes to an hour to complete all the Square puzzles.

This guide should get you an average puzzle time to about 3:30*, which puts you at almost an hour for this achievement.

* Some puzzles take less than two minutes; others can take upwards of 8. Most will end up being 3-4 minutes long.

1. Pick up all of the pieces one-by-one so that they rotate to being right-side up and place them in a tight group, so that they are close but don't touch.
2. Attach the obvious bits together (e.g., faces, prominent features). Use the hint

to your advantage.
3. When you have a chunk of attached pieces, pick up the entire completed part and drop it at various places in the group of free pieces. Random chunks that you may not have seen will attach on to the completed chunk (this is especially helpful on the Golden Buddha’s puzzle).
4. When you have a pretty definite 4x6 puzzle, use your amazing puzzle skills to get the last few pieces in place.
ON THE GOLDEN BUDDHAS LEVEL: Use the tops and bottoms of the pieces to get your initial chunk. Look for Buddha’s that are missing the tops of their heads and match those with the blue caps found at the bottoms of the pieces. Note the diamond pattern of the hint

.

Slipping and Sliding 10

Complete your first Slider puzzle.

See "Let it Slide" for more information.

Let it Slide 40

Complete all Slider puzzles. (profile owner only).

From the main menu select Slider Puzzles. This mode will have you re-arranging all slider puzzles, which can be very time consuming. But follow this Nat Geo Challenge--Slider Puzzle Solutions to save time. Each slider are only 8 pieces and all are unlocked by default. There are 24 puzzles, 4 for each of the 6 continents. Estimating that each puzzle will take you about 15 to 20 seconds, this should approximately take you 8 minutes.

Credit goes to Kiskit for the solution.

Diversity 20

You captured a Territory in each colour in a game of Explorer.

Pretty simple achievement. You can also do this while going for Hearts and Minds. In ONE game of Explorer, Hot Seat mode with four players, you will need to capture a territory, not just own a territory (as in ones already marked that you start the game off with). Make your way around the 6 continents, capturing at least 2-3 territories. Again, you will want to avoid territories with 250 & 500 points as mush as possible. Now, have the second player capture 2 territories adjacent to each other and just hop back and forth in that continent, that way the second players turn will be forfeited.

Counter-Intelligence 20

You have finished a round in any Quiz with a negative score, alone or with friends.

In rounds 2 and 4, you can end the round with a negative score. This is because you bet a certain amount of points on each question.

On one of your short quiz playthroughs, see Child’s Play, end either round 2 or 4 (or both) with a negative score, betting 100 by pressing

and purposely getting the answer wrong. Then end the entire game with a negative score and the achievement will unlock.

NOTE: For some this achievement wouldn't pop if they had a very high negative score.

DEG23 · 01-10-2013, 08:50 AM

MeonOner, both yourself and bLaKgRaVy have submitted your individual guides (they are appearing in the submit forum) and have been passed on to the guide team. Where you planning on submitting this as a single, combined guide to be published in place of the individual guides?

bLaKgRaVy · 01-10-2013, 02:45 PM

Looks good MeonOner. I like that you bullet-listed the Explorer Territories in your original guide and this new one.

The solutions look good; a good combination of both of ours. I'll read it over and look for errors (grammatical and such) and let you know what I find. Other than that, I'm fine with this. I'll let you know either later today or tomorrow if you can wait to submit it until you hear from me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DEG23

MeonOner, both yourself and bLaKgRaVy have submitted your individual guides (they are appearing in the submit forum) and have been passed on to the guide team. Where you planning on submitting this as a single, combined guide to be published in place of the individual guides?

Yes DEG, this is a combined effort from both of us and we will be submitting it in place of the two separate guides. This is really to lighten the guide teams' burden on having to decide how to combine them and whose solutions to use since it seems they are backed up.

MeonOner · 01-10-2013, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bLaKgRaVy

Looks good MeonOner. I like that you bullet-listed the Explorer Territories in your original guide and this new one.

The solutions look good; a good combination of both of ours. I'll read it over and look for errors (grammatical and such) and let you know what I find. Other than that, I'm fine with this. I'll let you know either later today or tomorrow if you can wait to submit it until you hear from me.

Alright cool. Yea let me know if you see and errors or if something isn't clear. Take your time, I will come back and check this later on today.

To DEG23, Quoting bLaKgRaVy "Yes DEG, this is a combined effort from both of us and we will be submitting it in place of the two separate guides. This is really to lighten the guide teams' burden on having to decide how to combine them and whose solutions to use since it seems they are backed up."

bLaKgRaVy · 01-11-2013, 04:24 PM

Quote: