Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 6/10
- Offline: 48 (980)
- Online: 1 (20)
- Approximate amount of time to 1000g: 50+ hours
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1 + Sandbox games
- Number of missable achievements: None!
- Glitched achievements: No
- Do cheat codes disable achievements?: Yes
Introduction
Tropico 3 is a strategy game that relies upon a careful mix of economy and politics – so finding a balance between acquiring funds and keeping people happy is the key. This game is all about having a good strategy, though once that is in place you can pretty much use the same tactics on each campaign map with only subtle alterations.
There are cheat codes (if you have a chatpad) but they disable achievements so there is no point using them. The save feature is also slightly glitched so whenever you save a game do so on a completely new save file. DO NOT overwrite an old game or it will glitch and crash whenever you try to load it. This happens more often with larger numbers of buildings/people.
When going for achievements that require you to please/upset a specific faction then picking your characters attributes beforehand is recommended. Decide what you are trying to achieve and choose attributes that are appropriate.
Step #1: Tutorial and Campaign
Play the tutorial first for the achievement as it will only take a few minutes. Once done you should start campaign mode. Here you have fifteen islands to work through with a variety of objectives. Be sure to tailor your avatar’s attributes to the task at hand. Along the way you should pick up the majority of the achievements but if you miss any then don’t be too concerned as you can clear them up later. Be sure to go for Curse of the Llama when on the CursedIsland scenario, and Tropican Fiesta when playing Viva Tropico as these are made much easy on these specific missions.
Step #2: Sandbox games
Set up a Sandbox map and make all the settings as easy as possible (i.e maximum foreign aid, max starting population and minimum random events etc), and be sure to set the time limit to only ten years, then select God mode as being active. Now just play normally for ten years and you will get the achievement – be aware that you cannot get ANY other achievement while God mode is on so do not even attempt it. Now set up the same sandbox game but turn God mode off and Rebel Yell and Free Elections mode on – again play through the ten years to snag these.
Step #3: Challenge mode and clean up
Select the challenge Where is the Beef? As this is by far the easiest and has the longest time limit. You can also use this map to mop up any achievements you have missed so far. Play the game as per the general campaign guide, but be sure to build at least 10-15 cattle ranches. With that set up you will hit your target within forty years (you actually have eighty). So check your almanac often and save if going for specific tasks, like allying with both superpowers, assassinating people etc. When you get to about 70k of your 100k target make a save. Now you can stop beef production and focus on any other task you want to do – be it oil output, tourism, industry or whatever. Then you can just load up your original save to finish the challenge or go back to beef production at any point to finish off. Be aware that it you are going for a certain level of output or happiness then it needs to be achieved by the time you complete the challenge so plan carefully. If you are STILL missing anything after this, then set up a sandbox game with appropriate settings and focus on specific tasks.
Conclusion
Once you have a strategy down this game becomes fairly simple and each map can be overcome in pretty much the same way. The key really is knowing what you are trying to achieve and then planning accordingly. Even then you will be forced to spend a large amount of time on the game as many of the campaign missions take a few hours by default, due to the fact they end at a set point in time rather than depending on your output. Learn the best steps to getting a thriving economy and stick with them, that way you will be fine.
[x360a would like to thank jackanape for this roadmap]