Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 8/10
- Offline: 74 [1710]
- Online: 4 [40]
- Approximate amount of time to 1000: 200-250 hours
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 2
- Missable achievements: None
- Does difficulty affect achievements: Yes
- Unobtainable/glitched achievements: None
- Extra equipment needed: No
Introduction:
Welcome to Gears of War 2 (Japanese) unlike most stacks this game's list is significantly different from the "regular" version and actually is more involved. While most of the "core" game stuff stayed the same a lot of the DLC achievements were scrapped, combined, or just otherwise changed. This time around there are also a lot more level progression achievements that will in it's own way make the grind to level 100 seem more bearable.
This version of the game runs on a different update version than the "regular" Gears of War 2, which drastically effects matchmaking and several achievements as result. If you wish to proceed, prepare to play more Horde than you probably ever wanted to.
Step 1 - Co-Op Campaign + Collectibles:
Grab a collectible guide and a friend, then start your campaign on any difficulty (insane will not be available yet). Obviously casual will go the quickest, but I did mine on hardcore for a challenge. After this you will have all the campaign achievements, co-op achievements and collectible achievements.
You can also knock out the 3 deleted scene achievements during this step too.
Step 2 - Insane Difficulty:
Remember that friend you had? See if you can grab him again. Either go through together on insane, or have your friend be on casual which will allow him to lead you Rambo-style through the game extremely fast.
Step 3 - Horde Master + Veteran Gear:
Grab 3 or 4 other gamers and play through all 50 waves on all 29 maps. Doing this will knock out quite a few achievements and get you significant progress towards a few others. You will have netted 1,450 rounds for "Party Like it's 1999" and will be at around level 81 which is the half way to "Veteran Gear" in terms of experience earned. For the remaining experience to reach level 100, grab your partners for this game and grind wave 1 of Security on Insane (or highest difficulty you can clear consistently). By the time you reach level 100 you will have easily surpassed 1,999 rounds of horde for "Party Like it's 1999."
Step 4 - Mop Up:
If for whatever reason you have some achievements left at this point go ahead and knock them out now.
Conclusion:
"Horde Master" is easily the most intimidating thing here, but if you have a good group that sticks it out it's not a terrible achievement to do. Same with "Veteran Gear." In the end it's just a giant time sink. If you're crazy enough to go through with going through this I wish you good luck and hope you have fun!
[XBA would like to thank KillerBEA and The Pants Party for this Roadmap]