Screamer Trophy & Achievement Guide: How to Survive the Track
Milestone Games brought Screamer back from the dead, and the achievement list is just as punishing as the tight corners on these tracks.
Racing games usually hand you achievements for just crossing the finish line, but Screamer actually makes you work for your Platinum. You are looking at a roster of 50 total achievements (51 if you are hunting that PlayStation Platinum), and a massive chunk of them are tied to character mastery. If you go into this blindly trying to unlock everything naturally, you will be grinding for hundreds of hours.
I spent an unreasonable amount of time drifting, exploding, and restarting races just to map out the most efficient way to clear this list. You need to approach this methodically. Play through the story chapters first, learn the factions, and then prepare to spend a lot of time in the Arcade Mode farming specific ECHO abilities.
Story and Faction Achievements
You cannot avoid the campaign. The Screamer Tournament mode is your introduction to the chaotic mechanics of this game, and completing it naturally unlocks a massive chunk of the achievement list.
The Mandatory Story Progression
Just by playing through the main narrative, you will automatically pop the following progression achievements. Do not worry about missing these; they are entirely unmissable as long as you cross the finish line.
Engine Start: Complete the introductory chapter, "Engine Start".
Sync Rising: Complete the third chapter, "Sync Rising".
Burning Ambitions: Complete the transitional chapter, "Burning Ambitions".
On a Starlit Stage: Complete the final chapter, "On a Starlit Stage", and roll the credits.
Faction Completions
The narrative is split between five distinct factions. Finishing their specific storylines unlocks their respective achievements, culminating in the Lore Master achievement for finishing all five.
The emptiness of revenge: Complete Hiroshi's Green Reapers storyline.
Hard truths: Complete Ritsuko's Strike Force Romanda storyline.
Dangerous knowledge: Complete Lavinia's Jupiter Stormers storyline.
Ending the cycle: Complete Masato Kagawa's Kagawa-Kai storyline.
Heir to the chair: Complete Gabriel's Anaconda Corp storyline.
Arcade Mode and Combat Challenges
Once the story is out of the way, you need to hit the Arcade Mode to clean up the combat and challenge specific achievements. This is where your ability to manage your SGU and Sync meters actually matters.
In the flow: Boot up Arcade Mode, select Checkpoints, and just keep racing without failing for at least two minutes.
Showoff: You unlock customizations by playing the story, but to pop this, you actually have to equip a full set and play a match with that character in Arcade Mode.
Ravenous: Execute three KOs on the exact same enemy in a single race. Pick a target and bully them relentlessly.
On your tail: In a Team Race, wait for your ally to generate a slipstream and KO any enemy that gets caught in it.
KO for KO: Avenge a fallen teammate. If an enemy KOs your ally in a Team Race, immediately KO them back.
Revenge: Just like KO for KO, but for yourself. If an enemy destroys you, respawn and destroy them.
MVP: Score at least 220 points in a Team Race. Keep your momentum flawless and avoid crashing.
Ace: In a Team Race, you (or your team) must rapidly KO the Leader and both Members of an opposing team in quick succession.
Hunter: Execute at least one KO on the Leader and both Members of the same team throughout a single race.
Sharpshooter: Execute 200 KOs using the Strike ability.
Out of my way: Execute 100 KOs while in Overdrive mode.
Not today: Parry 50 KO attempts using your Shield.
Tweaked and tuned: Complete an offline single-player Race! using a custom ruleset in Arcade Mode.
Smooth race: Finish in first place in a Race! or Team Race without exploding while in Overdrive. Read the section below for the easy exploit.
Ultimate driving: Cover at least 4.7 miles in the Overdrive Challenge without exploding.
The "Smooth Race" Exploit
Trying to drive an entire race in Overdrive without touching a wall is a nightmare. The easy way to pop Smooth Race is to load up the Downtown Run track on Very Easy difficulty. Build up your Overdrive meter, but do not activate it. Race normally until you are staring at the finish line on the final lap. Activate Overdrive right before you cross the line. The game counts it, and you get the achievement without the stress.
The "Ultimate Driving" Exploit
For Ultimate Driving, load up the Downtown Run track in the Overdrive Challenge. You start in Overdrive immediately. There is absolutely no penalty for driving slowly. Ride the brakes, take the corners at a crawl, and just focus on not touching the walls. Once you finish two laps, you will hit the 4.7 mile mark. Crash your car immediately to end the run and pop the achievement.
Score Challenge Completions
These are straightforward. Load up the Score Challenge mode in the Arcade and complete a run using a character from each faction.
Pure racing: Complete a Score Challenge as any Green Reapers character (Hiroshi, Gregor, etc.).
Set the stage: Complete a Score Challenge as any Strike Force Romanda character (Ritsuko, Akane, Hina).
New ties: Complete a Score Challenge as any Kagawa-Kai character (Masato, Akemi, Noboru, Keiji).
Experiment No. 1: Complete a Score Challenge as any Jupiter Stormers character (Lavinia, Aisha, Gregor).
Display of force: Complete a Score Challenge as any Anaconda Corp character (Gabriel, Dirk, Hope).
One more race: This is a hidden achievement. Complete a Score Challenge playing as either Mr. Apollo or The Announcer.
The Secret Boss: Hollowed Apollo
This is the hardest achievement in the game. To unlock the Hollowed achievement, you have to spawn and defeat a secret boss named Hollowed Apollo. He only appears in the Score Challenge mode if you meet insanely strict criteria.
You must select a Leader character (like Hiroshi). You must set the format to "long ride". The AI difficulty must be Medium or higher, and you cannot lower it. You must KO at least two enemies, and you cannot explode more than 20 times across the entire event. Most importantly, you must finish every single race in first place on your very first try. If you hit continue, you void the run. If you manage all of that, Hollowed Apollo spawns in the final race. Beat him, and the achievement is yours.
The Mastery Grind
Every character has a Mastery achievement tied to their unique ECHO ability. If you try to do these naturally, you will be playing until the next console generation.
The secret to farming these is the The Cradles track. It is essentially a massive, high speed oval. You unlock it near the end of the Tournament campaign. Load up this track in Arcade Mode, set the AI to easy, and just grind out the specific ability requirements. Since the track has barely any corners, you can maintain maximum speed and build your Sync/Hype meters incredibly fast.
