Valve has launched a beta test for Achievement Sets, a new Steam feature that allows developers to organize a game's achievements into thematic collections. The system addresses a long-standing problem: as games receive ongoing updates through DLC, expansions, and seasonal content, newly added achievements can become difficult to find and may inadvertently reset a player's completion status even after they have finished the base game.
Developers gain flexibility in how they structure their achievement collections. A single game might divide achievements into base game and multiplayer categories, while another could create eight separate class-based sets tailored to its specific design. Players continue to unlock achievements through normal gameplay, but Steam automatically sorts their unlocked achievements into the developer-defined sets, making it simpler to track what has been completed and discover related achievements still available.
How the Sets Work
Each achievement set displays its own progress bar, and completing an entire set awards a "set complete" trophy that appears on the player's profile. When developers add new achievements to an existing set later, the system preserves the player's prior completion status rather than resetting it. Developers can also introduce entirely new sets as their game evolves, allowing returning players to quickly identify fresh content while maintaining their historical completion records until they choose to engage with the new material.
The feature distinguishes between two set types. Base Game sets contain achievements available to all players and display progress in blue, while DLC sets group achievements locked behind additional purchased content and appear in purple. A key design choice ensures that DLC achievements do not count toward a player's overall game progress until they actually own the corresponding content, allowing players to separately track their progress in expansions they have acquired.
Managing Achievements Over Time
Developers can archive individual achievements or entire sets, a capability Valve identifies as particularly useful for season-based games or time-limited holiday events. Players who previously unlocked an archived achievement or set continue to see it on their profile, but archived achievements do not appear on the profiles of players who missed the unlock window, nor do they block progress toward completing a set or the full game.
Steam has also updated its achievements interface to support the new system. An updated achievements page is now accessible from the Games List on the web and directly from games in the Steam Library. The search function includes new filters for specific sets and for locked or unlocked achievements. Players can compare their progress with up to three friends, viewing rare achievements, completed sets, and progress within DLC sets.
Additional changes accompany the sets feature. The Perfect Games tab has been renamed Completed and now displays both fully completed games and games with all achievement sets finished. Games played through Family Sharing now appear in the Games List, and friends who accessed a game via Family Sharing become eligible for friend comparison. Both the Store and Library pages will indicate whether a game supports achievement sets.
Early Adoption
The beta is currently available to both players and developers. Valve has stated it will continue refining the feature during the testing period and expects to see these changes appear in supported games as developers begin implementing the new tools.
A substantial number of titles have already adopted achievement sets. The initial wave includes Against the Storm, Age of Wonders 4, American Truck Simulator, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Crusader Kings 3, Dredge, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Forza Horizon 5, Flock Around, He is Coming, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2, PowerWash Simulator, PowerWash Simulator 2, Team Fortress 2, and Victoria 3. The rollout demonstrates developer confidence in the system's ability to improve how long-running games present their content to both new and veteran players.
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