Overview:
- Difficulty: 2/10
- Offline: 12 (200)
- Online: 0
- Completion Time: 4-8 hours depending on mode of play/skill
- Minimum playthroughs needed: 2
- Missable achievements: None
- Glitched achievements: None
- Do cheat codes affect achievements? no cheat codes
- Does difficulty affect achievements? no

INTRODUCTION
Ion Assault is kind of like Asteroids meets Geometry Wars. Each stage you must destroy all asteroids on the screen, while avoiding or destroying any enemies that show. Enemies are triggered when a certain amount of asteroids are destroyed. At first the game seems difficult, but once you understand how everything works, the game gets easier as you progress.

Playthrough 1: Single Player
In your first run through, go ahead and play single player, and take the time to get the feeling of the controls. They may not seem complicated, but they are a little confusing since you hold to accumulate "ions" and release to fire. Any and all power-ups picked up that do not activate immediately are activated with the . And, yes, you move quicker while not charging. You can also blow up enemy ships, as well as asteroids, by hovering near them while charging your Ion shot, but only on the spots the ions happen to be around you. It's easier to destroy asteroids and groups of them when you just start to charge your attack near them. Keep all of this in mind as you play through the game for the Triumph achievement. While on Stage One of Zone One, you can also obtain the achievements Hyperspeed and Abstinence. If not, feel free to restart, as it's just the start of the game, really.

You can actually obtain all the achievements in this run through except for Allied Victory, which I do encourage you try to do. If you cannot, then don't worry, since some of the troubling ones are much easier to obtain in Co-Op mode. If you have the patients, I suggest, trying to learn the attack patterns of the bosses of all four sectors during this run through too to help in the Untouchable achievement.

Playthrough 2: CO-OP
Co-Op is exactly the same as the Solo campaign. You can do this locally if you have 2 controllers, as both players have a separate life count, and when one player dies, the game acts as if it were on the Solo mode, but some stages may have more enemies. When an extra life is obtained (at 100,000 points) then your deceased partners revives with that extra life, and will only do so that way during the game. So, clear this mode and you unlock Allied Victory.Remember, you have unlimited continues.

I do suggest taking this run through as a chance to get all the achievements you missed out on in your Solo campaign run through. Starting at stage one of section one, you can easily grab Jackpot as well as Payday if you go after the asteroids and your partner handles the enemies that spawn. You can also do Survivor, Untouchable, and Field Medicine this way too (see below for strategies for Field Medicine).

Cleaning Up
If you missed out on any of the achievements, just go back and finish up in either Solo or Co-Op (highly recommended). You can chose which sectors you want to tackle, but for most you could probably use the first sector, as it's easier to handle.

Conclusion
And there you go! It's not hard to get 200 but some achievements may take some time and practice. If you get the hang of it quick, and have a partner willing to help, this can be done as quickly as 4 hours. If not, it can take up to 8 doing everything yourself, if not longer.

Ion Assault Achievement Guide

Printable Guide
Show completed achievements
Show secret achievements

There are 12 achievements with a total of 200 points

  • Complete the single player campaign.

    See Allied Victory.
  • Complete the cooperative campaign.

     
    Simply complete all four Sectors. Each sector is broken down into 5 stages and a boss battle. Both campaigns are the same, with the exception of more enemies on screen in later stages and sectors.
  • Destroy five asteroids at once.

     
    I obtained this on the first stage in sector two, just break up the asteroids and make sure you have five that are really close together with a fully charged Ion shot. Shoot at the lined up five, or hover near when your ion shot has a nice sized barrier for maximum damage.
  • Destroy seven asteroids at once.

     
    Same as Battleship except now you need to destroy seven asteroids. Start up Zone 2, and when you reach Stage 2, race around the board and suck up as many ions as you can. Then, wait for large groupings of giant asteroids to happen. When it does, take your ship over there and stay very close to them. The asteroids will get hot and blow up, causing you to get a multikill. Obtained this achievement in that manner without even trying, and it's easiest then since, at the start of the stage, there are no aliens and ships to worry about.
  • Complete a stage without collecting a Power-Up.

     
    Simply start up Zone one, Stage one, and don't pick up the yellow orb you get when destroying an enemy ship. That, and the large rectangle icons, are power ups.
  • Complete a whole sector without dying once.

     
    Clear any sector without dying to unlock this and Survivor. I suggest Sectors 1 or 2 for this, just take your time in later stages of these zones and pay attention. Zone one has the easiest boss, but it attacks more frequently then Zone two's, so the decision is yours.
  • Finish a stage in less than 90 seconds.

     
    This one is extremely easy to obtain. Stage one of zone one is, obviously, the easiest. If you don't get the achievement, just restart the stage. Remember to focus on the asteroids only for this achievement, so ignore the enemies, they don't pose much of a threat on this stage anyhow.
  • Payoff

     

    10

    Score more than 500,000 points in a single game.

     
    See Jackpot.
  • Score 1,500,000 points in a single game.

     
    As it says, just score 1,500,000 points to unlock this and Payoff. It is easier to obtain this in co-op, just focus on destroying the asteroids while your partner defeats the enemies. If Solo, I suggest starting out on Section 2, and you should be able to get this before or during the finale of Section 3 at the latest.
  • Survive 3 stages without dying once.

     
    See Untouchable.
  • Destroy 50 big obstacles in a single game.

     
    Destroy 50 of the larger asteroids, which are the ones that, when they explode, break
    down into seperate pieces, not the smaller ones that are obliterated on the first attack. You should get this during your first campaign naturally.
 

Secret achievements

  • Collected enough Score Orbs in a single run to get two extra lives at once.

     
    You gain 1 extra life for every 100,000 points. The easiest way to do this is the later stages of Sector 2 in Co-Op mode. But, if you're going at it solo, I found, to do this is to obtain it through Sector 2 Stage 4, Sector 3 Stage 4, or Sector 3 Stage 5. When you go into one of these stages, have as close to 100,000 as possible. When you start the stage, you need to accumulate 100,000 points, and any other points you need to reach a score of 200,000, without the combo meter resetting back to normal.

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