Overview:
-Estimated achievement difficulty: 3/10
-Offline: 27 (400 )
-Online: 0 (0 )
-Approximate time to 400 : 8 hours
-Minimum number of playthroughs: 5
-Missable achievements: Multiple, but each playthrough is ~ 1:30 hours
-Does difficulty affect achievements?: No difficulty settings
-Glitched achievements?: None
-Do cheat codes disable achievements?: No cheats
The Cave is a game, best known for his work on classic games such as Day of the Tentacle and the Monkey Island series. It is a puzzler, which involves you taking a selection of seven characters on a journey through a frankly strange cave. Each character has their own specific puzzle, and there are five standard puzzles to go through. The game looks beautiful, the voice over is entertaining, and genuinely funny in parts.
The puzzles are not too difficult to solve, but if you get really stuck, there are a few puzzle guides around the internet, but I really suggest solving them yourself, as this will be more satisfying and stretch out what is really a pretty short game. A complete walk-through can be found by Youtube user XCVii007r1, which I would suggest using only if you get really stuck (click on his name for the vids).
Each character has two endings, good and bad.
Bad simply requires you to trade your stolen trinket for your hearts desire and then leave The Cave.
Good requires you to hand back your hearts desire (it will take three tries before the man accepts it) and leave The Cave.
You'll gain two Cave Paintings per ending per character, but make sure you stay on the look out, as there are a total of 24 to find throughout The Cave.
Step 1 - Playthrough 1 (of 5)
13 achievements for 135
Group: Hillbilly, Knight and Time Traveler.
This is your main playthrough and you'll be dealing with the majority of the miscellaneous achievements along with the story based ones for Hillbilly, Knight and Time Traveler.
You'll also be getting the Cave Paintings for Hillbilly, Knight and Time Traveler so keep your eyes open!
Remember to steal the postcard before you leave the Gift Shop (and carry it through the rest of The Cave) to snag Shoplifting and Remorse.
At the Carnival you'll need to get fortunes for Hillbilly, Knight and Time Traveler from Xavetar.
Upon returning to the gift shop you should get the bad ending for Hillbilly, Knight and Time Traveler.
Miscellaneous achievements unlocked: "Well Done", "Shoplifting", "Fire in the Hole", "To Soothe a Savage Beast", "Creamed Corn", "Remorse", "Royal Buffet", "Weight of the Beast", "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
Story achievements unlocked: "What you Always Wanted", "A Midsummer Knight's Theive", "Funnier than a Burning Carnival", "Prevenge"
Working on: "Don't Fill Up on Fortune Cookies"
Step 2 - Playthrough 2 (of 5)
4 achievements for 70
Group: Hillbilly, Scientist and Monk
This is your do-not-die playthrough. I find this group to be the easiest for this. Remember you can quit-to-dash to avoid death (up until you respawn seems to work) but you'll lose a variable amount of gameplay.
Keep your eyes open for the Scientist and Monks Cave Paintings.
At the Carnival you'll need to get fortunes for Scientist and Monk from Xavetar.
Upon returning to the gift shop you should get the bad ending Scientist and Monk and the good ending for Hillbilly.
Miscellaneous achievements unlocked: "Who Wants to Live Forever", "Embrace Impermanence"
Story achievements unlocked: "Learn to Stop Worrying", "Grand Theft Karma".
Working On: "Don't Fill Up on Fortune Cookies"
Step 3 - Playthrough 3 (of 5)
Group: Hillbilly, Adventurer and Twins
7 achievements for 120
This is the last time you need to take the Hillbilly! You'll also have finished every bad ending and taken all 7 characters to the bottom.
Keep your eyes open for the Adventurer and Twin's Cave Paintings. (The trickiest painting is behind the bookcase in the lounge of the Twin's house)
At the Carnival you'll need to get fortunes for Adventurer and Twins from Xavetar.
Upon returning to the gift shop you should get the bad ending Twins and Adventurer and whatever ending you want for Hillbilly.
Miscellaneous achievements unlocked: "Walk Like An Adventurer", "Such Bad Children", "Don't Fill Up On Fortune Cookies"
Story achievements unlocked: "Win-win-win-win-win-win-win", "Corruption", "It Belongs in a Museum", "God Bless Us, Every One"
Step 4 - Playthrough 4 (of 5)
1 achievement for 10
Group: Knight, Time Traveler and Scientist
This is pretty much just a run-to-the-end playthrough. You've done nearly everything there is to do already. Based on a suggestion by DropDeadArtemus I've moved Hazardous Work Environment into this playthrough due to the high chance of dying.
Upon returning to the gift shop you should get the good ending for Knight, Time Traveler and Scientist.
Miscellaneous achievement unlocked: "Hazardous Work Environment"
Step 5 - Playthrough 5 (of 5)
2 achievements for 65
Group: Monk, Adventurer and Twins
Just make sure you get the good ending for all three of these, and you should be done with the game!
Achievements unlocked: "Redemption", "The Whole Story" (as long as you have picked up all the cave paintings!)
Mop Up
You should have this game maxed out, the only achievements you may have failed to get is the one for not dying, but after playing through a couple of times you should be able to get through pretty quickly and competently.
[x360a would like to thank ErrolErrolson & Corrupt x360a for this Roadmap]