Steam's new Achievement Sets mean DLC will no longer break your 100% completion
The feature is in beta and splits achievements into base game, DLC and time-limited sets.
Valve is testing one of the biggest changes to Steam achievements in years. With Achievement Sets, announced on Thursday, October 15, developers can group a game's achievements into collections, and players who already hit 100% keep that status when a game later adds new achievements through DLC or updates.
The feature is live in the Steam Client beta, which any player can join, and already works in games such as Portal 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Forza Horizon 5, DREDGE, PowerWash Simulator 2, Euro Truck Simulator 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.
What changes in practice
- Each set has its own progress bar, and finishing one adds a "set complete" trophy to your profile.
- If a developer adds achievements to a set you already finished, your completion is preserved.
- DLC achievements live in separate sets (purple, while base game sets are blue) and only count toward overall progress once you own that content.
- Achievements that can no longer be earned, such as those from a finished event, can be archived: players who unlocked them keep them, and those who missed out are not blocked.
- A new achievements page compares your progress with up to three friends and folds global stats and filters into one view.
The Perfect Games tab is renamed Completed and now also lists games with a finished set. Games played through Family Sharing now show up in your Games List.
Why it matters
It fixes a long-standing complaint from achievement hunters: a game finished years ago would suddenly drop back to incomplete because a paid expansion added new achievements. Valve says as much in its announcement, noting that games now live longer through DLC, expansions and seasons. For studios, archiving also opens the door to seasonal and holiday achievements without punishing players who arrive later.
To try it, opt into the Steam Client beta from Steam's settings. Valve says it will keep refining the feature during the beta and that more games will adopt sets as developers update them.
