MEANDERS

MEANDERS

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MEANDERS 100% Achievement Guide
By Braden
Short and sweet guide for all of the achievements
   
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Preface
I attempted to keep the names of the achievements written exactly as they appear on the achievement stats, up to the capitalization.

I'd added difficulties next to the achievements and "kind of" sorted them firstly by category and secondly by how early you can get them. Difficulties are Super Easy, Easy, Moderately Challenging, Challenging, and Very Challenging.

Don't worry too much about difficulty. On a scale of 'Dark Souls' to 'I Wanna Kill the Kamilia 3', this game's overall difficulty is a negative thirty-seven. The hardest thing there is to do in this game is hitting the balloons and figuring out what in the world you're supposed to do for level 39.

Feel free to add new information in the comments and I'll update the guide.
Strategy
The strategy here is to unlock all of the achievements in three full runs of the game.

It's very important that the first run be a 100% run (beat all levels with all balloons and all bubbles, get all six spheroids, kill God, unlock God Mode and select a powerup), and that it be done in one single play session. If you shut off the game during the first run, you're going to have to start over because some achievements are broken due to the way the game tracks "Cleared" levels.

So you'll want to set aside 4-6 hours, depending on how fast you can 100% the game.

The second and third runs will be ridiculously easier, since you won't be focusing on the damned balloons and bubbles, and you'll be equipped with overpowered perks that let you break the puzzles. The point of these runs is to reach the God Room and unlock more powerups for the achievements.

In total there are four powerups.

  • No Meanders Sky
  • Serious Meanders
  • ZA WARUDO
  • Cannon Army

You start the game with the first already unlocked, but that powerup sucks.

Therefore, you need to beat the game three times. The first gets the bulk of the achievements and unlocks one of the three latter powerups (your choice). The second run unlocks a third powerup, and the third unlocks the last powerup. There might be references to "four playthroughs" still scattered about the guide since I confused my for-fun cannon army run with a mandatory run.

Source: https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/app/734920/discussions/0/3288067088130637109/

In the source, the dev also mentions a way to cheat the powerups into your hands. Keep in mind that if doing this doesn't award you the achievements. And as I haven't tried it myself, I would recommend against doing that until after you've gotten all of the achievements.
(9) Achievements for reaching a certain level (Easy - Challenging)
  • Bifurcation
  • Bouncer Field
  • Cannon Fodder
  • Bouncer Inferno
  • Cannon Hell
  • Bouncer Connoisseur
  • Cannon Expert
  • The End is Nigh
  • The End?

Can't miss it. Reach Level 10, 11, 21, 16, 26, 20, 30, 35, and 40 respectively.
(4) Achievements for clearing levels (Challenging)
Note: "Clearing" means destroying all of the balloons and bubbles in a level.

  • Wow!
  • Bravo!!
  • Superb!!
  • A-T-O-M-I-C!!!

Clear 10, 20, 30, and 40 levels, respectively.

There's an important caveat with this one, though. You have to do the entirety of the run in one gaming session. According to the dev, closing out of the game makes it reset its internal counter to zero, meaning you have to start all over again to get the achievement. The dev does not seem to consider this to be a bug.

Regardless, getting the balloons and bubbles is the most tedious and time consuming part of the entire game, so if you don't want to spend a couple extra hours re-collecting all of them, you'd better make sure that your 100% run is done in one play session from beginning to end. The other three runs are fine, obviously.

Source: https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/app/734920/discussions/0/1726450077651253221/

I might actually be misinterpreting what the dev said, but better safe than sorry.
(10) Achievements for destroying bubbles and balloons (Very Challenging)
  • Peashooter
  • Friendly sacrifice
  • Juggernaut

Bubbles are those really big colorful balls that float in the air and don't move. The ones that are easy to hit. Hitting one with a ball, a cube, and your own body, respectively, grants these achievements.

  • Flying prodigy
  • Cubic trajectory
  • Zeppelin

These are a pain to get. It's the same as the above three, except instead of bubbles, you're popping balloons. Balloons are the fast-moving sky trolls that always evade every hit. Your best bet getting Zeppelin is to do one of the vertical levels where you repeatedly shoot yourself up in a vertically-locked cannon.

  • Gunslinger
  • Master of Bubbles
  • Skywalker
  • Airbender

You get these for popping bubbles and balloons in general. Bubbles and Balloons are necessary for "Cleaing" levels, which is necessary for another achievement. So these should unlock organically.
(3) Achievements for unlocking power-ups (Easy)
  • Get Serious
  • One Man Army
  • Muda Muda Muda!!

See A new beginning.

These are the achievements you get for selecting different powerups to unlock. In total, the game requires at least 3 full playthroughs to unlock everything. Luckily, the latter two are a cakewalk, because not only are these powerups overpowered as hell, but you can also switch between them mid-level.
(9) Achievements for using various game mechanics X amount of times (Super Easy)
  • Crystal-clear
  • Sharpshooter
  • Fire in the hole
  • Step up
  • Bounce it!
  • Watch your head!
  • Hurry up!
  • Stargate
  • Omnipresent

Over the course of the first playthrough, you're sure to unlock these organically. It's just using the many game mechanics an arbitrary number of times.

Stargate and Omnipresent are a little tempermental, though. They'll eventually unlock.
(1) "Get The Ball" (Super Easy)
Can't miss it. Level 1. Just grab the ball.
(1) "Denied" (Super Easy)
Finish a level while holding a ball. It'll get zapped and you'll get this achievement.
(1) "Space Explorer" (Super Easy)
Just go in the rainbow menu and turn the No Meander's Sky Powerup on.

then play with it a little bit until it gives you the achievement before you turn it back off.

In my case, the achievement unlocked after I fired a ball out of the gun.
(2) "Cannon Deviation" and "Bouncer Deviation" (Easy)
These ones are a little tricky. What you have to do is complete level 10 with one route, then go back to level 10, do the other route, and finish out that route for the entire 5 levels (11-15 or 21-25 depending on which one). This should give you the achievement for one side. Once you get the achievement, do the exact same thing but vice versa.
(1) "The Cube" (Super Easy)
Pick up the cube (about 3/4 into the game). Unavoidable, really.
(2) "Water-soluble" and "Laser-soluble" (Super Easy)
Destroy the ball via water and lasers, respectively. You'll probably unlock these without even trying.
(1) "Spheroid" (Easy)
Look at the way the levels are laid out on the level select screen.


Notice how every screen contains ten levels, which either comprise 1 or 2 routes? The last level (10th or 5th) on every screen has a big pyramid structure central to the level (this includes that ferris wheel looking device). Upon satisfying the win condition for those levels--such that the exit gate is unlocked, take a detour and go inside the other part of the pyramid to find a strange ball. A "spheroid". There are six of these total in the game, just as there are six "ending" levels in the four pages of the level select. Now you know where they are.

After collecting all six of the spheroids and beating level 40, you will end up in the "God Room", and be able to kill the A.I. that has been guiding/berating you throughout the whole game. You get an achievement and unlock God Mode. This can be done multiple times. Every time you do this, the God Mode increases one level, making you more OP. It's worth taking the extra minute per level to do this to make your life easier in the following runs.
(1) "A new beginning" (Moderately Challenging)
After beating the game, you'll find yourself in the "God Room", where big daddy orb asks you to get in his hole. Do it. It'll start the game over and give you a powerup (which also gives you an achievement). You'll be doing this about three-to-four times in the process of getting achievements, but don't worry, the powerups are so OP that runs 2-4 are a cakewalk.
(2) "Touch the Sky" and "Wrong Way" (Moderately Challenging)
Wrong Way is easy enough. Just walk away until the game throws you some sass (and an achievement).

Touch the Sky is a little more difficult, and I don't believe it's possible to do on the first run. I got it in the second run, using the "serious" powerup (the one with the rockets). It's actually pretty easy. Just play a vertically-inclined level, stock up on as many balls as possible (God mode 1 + 3 balls gave me 9, which was just barely enough to do it in the level with the giant spinny device that looks like a ferris wheel), get to the highest point, and then alternate between left click to blast air and right click to shoot a ball to get some crazy height. This is also possible with the ZA WARUDO powerup, and arguably easier, since once you figure out how to ride your projectiles, making massive vertical leaps is a cinch.

Maghook also posted a guide on how to unlock Touch the Sky, so it might be worth looking at as well.

Maghook's Guide: https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1295882840
(1) "Supreme Overlord of the Ruby Spheres" (Challenging)
Your reward for getting all of the above achievements.
17 Comments
Cuttyflame 4 May @ 10:13am 
i got atomic in two session, but i did replay the level i already finished without reseting the save so didnt need to collect the balloon again
Matt. ☕ 20 May, 2024 @ 11:58am 
In order to get the powerup achievements, I used the cheat mentioned at https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/app/734920/discussions/0/3288067088130637109/ , basically, now I can't acquire the achievement, is there any way to disable the cheat?:katana_bust:
JS 7 Apr, 2024 @ 2:58am 
Thanks for the guide. As you mentioned, the following playthroughs are much faster.
I can only recommend that everyone get the Serious PowerUp the second time they play through. And in the third run the WARUDO powerup. With this, the achievement "Touch the Sky" is easy but takes just under 2-5 minutes, depending on the level selected.
Without playing the bonus levels, it took me 4.5 hours to complete all the achievements.
giminpolo 6 May, 2023 @ 5:54am 
Touch the sky respawn back is hard please help me
Rushin 15 Apr, 2022 @ 11:47am 
So for the Deviation achievements, you just need to select Cannon on level 10, then after five levels select Bouncer path. And vice versa.

However, the first time I did this I went Cannon, then went Bouncer but ended up on the Lasers level (which is the continuation of Cannon path) and didn't get the achievement. Yes, I'm absolutely positive I entered the correct exit. I suspect it may be a bug because I unlocked the other exit first (I unlocked both). Basically for the Cannon path you need to use the hoops at the central spinning thing. Ignore the ones around the map and use your only exit.

I did get both achievements in the end.
Braden  [author] 28 Feb, 2021 @ 7:30pm 
You're welcome Yum ;)
淡可 28 Feb, 2021 @ 9:37am 
THANKS
Braden  [author] 22 Mar, 2020 @ 8:49pm 
vvv Palmiton's probably right
Braden  [author] 22 Mar, 2020 @ 8:48pm 
> The achievement ''Cannon Deviation'' didn't work man, can u be more specific?

idk man, it's been two years. But based on the pictures and what I vaguely remember, I think you have to play, in sequence, 10-11-12-13-14-15, then 10-21-22-23-24-25. Don't level select inbetween levels, level 10 has two endings and they branch off into both sets of levels.
Palmiton 22 Mar, 2020 @ 12:18pm 
When at the level 10, you will see two exits. One of them leads to the CANNON route. Going there, when you reach the end of the 5th level of said route, you will see two exits yet again. One will continue through the CANNON route, while the other takes you to the BOUNCER route. Taking the BOUNCER route here should grant you the achievement instantly. Doing the reverse, starting at BOUNCER in level 10 and switching to CANNON 5 levels in grants you the other achievement.