Overview
Estimated Achievement Difficulty: 3/10
Offline: 12 (200)
Online: 0
Approximate amount of time to 200: 3-4 hours
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Missable Achievements: 2 (Little Helper and Points in Paint)
Do cheats disable achievements: No Cheats
Does difficulty affect achievements?: No
Glitchy Achievements: None
Unobtainable Achievements: None
Extra Equipment Needed: None
Introduction:
Axel and Pixel is a point and click style adventure game, so right of the bat, you know it isn’t going to be that difficult. If you have the game, you can probably complete it in a lazy afternoon without putting too much effort into it. You don’t need to do much preparation, so just dive right in. The game has a small set of collectibles as well as mini-games that you must complete on top of just playing through the story. You'll want a walkthrough pulled up while you play to avoid using hints and to get everything in one playthrough.
Step 1: Story Mode
You’ll need to get through 24 chapters of adventure goodness and an Outro chapter to pass this mode. None of the chapters are particularly hard, and you should manage to pass most of the levels just by clicking on the obvious points on the screen. However, some of the items you need to click on are pretty small, and some of the actions are mildly absurd, since the world is a dreamscape. If you ever get stuck, refer to the walkthrough HERE to see the next steps in the chapter. You’ll get the Good Start and four "season" achievements for getting through the story.
You also need to find 20 bones, 8 pieces of the masterpiece and 8 colour tubes hidden throughout the game. A lot of these are obvious, and you can press to bring up the collectable counters and see if there are any items hidden in the chapter. The walkthrough contains the item locations, so refer to that if you ever get stuck. You can replay any chapter after completing it, so if you miss an item, you can always go back for it. Dog’s Dinner will unlock immediately after picking up the 20th bone, but you will need to play the Outro Chapter again to get the Master Painter achievement.
Finally, do not hold for a hint. They cost you points and could prevent you from getting the Points in Painting achievement, not to mention that you can’t use more than 20 and get the Little Helper achievement. If you do use more than 20 hints, you will need to restart the game. You cannot go back and replay the level to remove your use of hints or gain a time bonus, making these two achievements missable. Refer to the guide below for more info on any specific achievement.
Step 2: Mini-Games
Over the course of the story, you will unlock 3 different mini-games with the vehicles you create. None of them are terribly difficult, but each may take you a few tries. If you are struggling, the guide below contains a few tips and strategies. The three “Great” achievements might take a few tries, but shouldn’t take more than an hour total, depending on how many times you need to attempt them. You can do them at any time (once unlocked) and they do not interfere with your stroy progression.
Conclusion:
Axel and Pixel is definitely a simple game, and a quick 200, so there really isn’t much to prevent you from the almost Monty Python-esque animation in the game. If you happen to have missed the two achievements labeled as missable, then you must start a new game and go through it all again.
[x360a would like to thank Capn Doug for this road map]