Overview:
-Estimated achievement difficulty: 5/10
-Offline: 48 (1000GS)
-Online: 0
-Approximate amount of time to 1000g: 20-25 hours
-Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 2.5
-Number of missable achievements: 6
-Glitched achievements: No
-Do cheat codes disable achievements?: No



Welcome to the Dead Space Achievement Road Map. Dead Space is a third person shooter/survival horror game, borrowing many of the best elements of games like Resident Evil 4 and Bioshock to make for an excellent immersive, atmospheric shooter that is authentically scary. You are Issac Clark, an engineer called to repair the damaged planet-racking chisp USG Ishimura. But when you arrive on board, you realize that something is deadly wrong...

There are 49 achievements for Dead Space, 48 of which can be acquired on any difficulty. It will require at least 2 and a half plays to get all of them. Beating the game on any difficulty unlocks "Impossible" difficulty, which you have to beat to get the Epic Tier 3 Engineer achievement. You will also have to start a new game+ on one of your cleared files in order to fully upgrade all items for the Maxed Out achievement, as it is impossible to get enough power nodes to do so in one playthrough. It takes about 10 -12 hours to beat the game the first time through, and about 8 hours for a second time through on impossible. How far you have to play on a new game + in order to get Maxed Out depends on how much you upgraded your equipment on the original playthrough for that file. Dead Space isn't a very difficult game, and you can acquire the achievements on easy, so most of it isn't very hard. Impossible may be a bit of a challenge for some, but it isn't difficult at all compared to some other games like the Call of Duty series or Gears of War. Don't Get Cocky, Kid can also be quite frustrating. You can also use cheats to help you with the achievements - the money and power node cheats can only be used once per playthrough, and are very helpful in getting Maxed Out. The stasis cheat is a lifesaver on Impossible difficulty.

Cheats can be found here

Step 1: Easy/Medium Playthrough

On your first playthrough, set the difficulty to Easy or Medium. Easy obviously is easier and goes by quicker, and you'll get more money and items to sell so you can potentially get Maxed Out quicker. However, Easy is rediculously simple, and I recommend you play on Medium as it'll be a better and scarier experience. Just play through normally, and explore around as much as possible to fnd as much money and items as possible. I recommend you use the Plasma Cutter, Assault Rifle, and Ripper as your main weapons, though the Line Gun is also OK. Upgrade your gun's DAMAGE first. You will also want to upgrade your rig's AIR capacity before chapter 4 - after that, don't upgrade AIR anymore. Don't bother upgrading your STASIS or KINESIS. Buy upgraded suits from the store as soon as you can - don't worry too much about upgrading your Rig's health, the higher level suits will help with that. Also, keep your eyes out for data logs lying around. Also make sure you get all schematics (they appear as dark purple dots). You should easily get Legend Teller (collecting 150 logs) in Chapter 11 or 12 without having to resort to a guide. You'll also want to get all the 30 weapon kill achievements - you'll have all guns by the end of chapter 5. I recommend you focus on just 2 weapons at a time. Kills don't count if you die or reload your game. You should get most of the achievemnts, including all the secret ones, as you play. Be sure to use every money/node cheat before you finish your first playthrough - the extra 18,000 and 7 nodes will help with Maxed Out.

Missable Achievements
Ragdoll Check - Gravity panels are where there is an upwards streaming current of bluish particles coming from the floor. They are found only in Chapters 4 and 9.
Playing Catch - Brutes are found in Chapters 4, 5, and 9. The Leviathan is in Chapter 6.
Don't Get Cocky, Kid - The asteroid defense cannon sequence is towards the end of Chapter 4. Save right before you get on the cannon, and keep reloading your game if you fail until you get it. You always start with 85% shield strength on every difficulty. It can be difficult, but keep trying. Don't let the cannon overheat, always get the big, fast asteroids first, and keep focused. I also found it helpful to turn up the brightness temporarily so you can see the asteroids earlier.
Slugger - You fight the Slug Boss in Chapter 9
Crackshot - The shooting gallery is in Chapter 9.
Zero-G Baller - Zero-G Basketball is in Chapter 10.
There's Always Peng! - The Peng Treasure is in Chapter 11, in the shuttle bay. Look to the achievement guide for details on it's exact location.

By the end of the first playthrough, you should have 45/48 achievements (all except for Maxed Out, One Gun, and Epic Tier 3 Engineer) for 735GS.

Step 2 - Impossible & One Gun

After you clear the game once, you will be able to start a new game on impossible difficulty. In order to get Epic Tier 3 Engineer, you must beat the game on Impossible difficulty (NOT hard). For One Gun, you have to beat the game using only your Plasma Cutter. You cannot fire any other gun - you can have them in your inventory or safe and you can equip them - just don't ever fire them. To be safe, don't even buy any other guns if you start a new game on Impossible for One Gun. I recommend you go for both on the same playthrough. Impossible is not too difficult, even if you use the Plasma Cutter, which is actually a very good gun, especially when upgraded. On Impossible, enemies take more hits to kill, move faster, do more damage to you, and you get less money/items.

Here are some tips for Impossible difficulty:
-Always go for the limbs. Aim for the crotch - if they're stasised, sometimes it will sever both legs and kill them right away instead of bringing them to the crawling stage.
-Stasis is your friend. Use it whenever possible. Have the stasis cheat memorized. If your struggling, try using it on every enemy and refilling your stasis with the cheat in between encounters.
-Conserve ammo whenever possible. Use stasis and curb stomp enemies when you've cut their legs off. This is critical earlier on - later, ammo won't be as much of a problem.
-Upgrade! I recommend you focus on upgrading your DAMAGE first - it actually makes a huge difference in the amount of shots it takes to kill necromorphs, and will reduce the amount of ammo you use. By the time you fully upgrade the Plasma Cutter's damage, it will take 2 shots to the legs and 1 or 2 to an arm to kill a standard necromorph. Enemies will be dropping more ammo (6 per drop) than it takes to kill them.

Step 3 - Maxed Out

In order to get Maxed Out, you must fully upgrade all 6 guns, your Rig, Stasis, and Kinesis. You must have all fully upgraded guns in your inventory or safe at once - you cannot sell them. You upgrade your equipment using power nodes at work benches. You just have to get all upgrades on everything - you do not have to fill in all "blank" spots with power nodes, so you should be able to leave some empty in some guns. You will find power nodes as you go on throughout the game, and can buy them for 10,000 credits. It takes 155 power nodes to fully upgrade everything.

You cannot get enough power nodes to fully upgrade everything in one playthrough. However, you can start a "new game +" on the same difficulty after you've beaten the game. Simply start a new game by loading your finished Easy/Medium game. All of your guns, upgrades, money, nodes, inventory, and items in your safe will carry over. Just keep playing on this new game + until you get enough nodes to fully upgrade everything. Sell all unnecessary items and use the money to buy power nodes. Also use the cheats that give you money and nodes. Also, if you haven't gotten Butcher yet, your dismemberments do carry over onto a new game +.

Conclusion

There you go - 2 and a bit playthroughs to get the full 1000 GS. Dead Space is truly an awesome game - one of the sleeper hits of 2008 - and is definitely worth more than one playthrough (and it's still scary the second time through). It's not to difficult or time-consuming - hope you had fun and got the pants scared off you!

[x360a would like to thank -ToXiN- for this road map]