Half-Life: Alyx Achievements Guide

Half-Life: Alyx has 41 achievements you can get just by reaching certain key points in the game, completing routine tasks, or by pulling off something special. There are even a couple secret ones that are harder to get, including a few we don’t quite know the solution for yet.

Here we’ll break down all 41 Half-Life: Alyx achievements (well, most of them), their official descriptions on Steam, and how to get them. We’ve broken this guide down into sections: story achievements you are guaranteed to complete just by playing through the game, chapter-exclusive achievements that require you to complete a certain action in that section, easy achievements you can get pretty naturally but are still possible to miss, and special achievements that may require you to pull off something very specific and difficult to do by accident.

We’ve tried to keep this guide as spoiler-free as possible, but if you’re afraid of even seeing the names of chapters and implications about the ending from the official Steam achievement descriptions, then stay far away! We’ve put story achievements, which allude to end-game chapters, at the very end of this guide so it’s easy to skip.

For more Half-Life, check out our Half-Life: Alyx review, weapons guide, puzzle guide, accessibility options guide (including how to play the game seated), and our roundup of the best Half-Life Easter eggs we’ve found so far. If you were wondering how many chapters are in Half-Life: Alyx, we have that covered too.

Easy Achievements

You can get most of these achievements by playing the game pretty naturally, but some are still possible to overlook. They are not chapter-exclusive, but a few things (like Xen grenades or tripmines) only make appearances in certain chapters.

Find the name of the achievement, the official Steam description, and our tips below.

Up in Arms

Install your first pistol upgrade.

Tips: Use a Combine fabricator to upgrade your pistol using resin you collect around the world. Learn how to hack into a Combine fabricator in our weapons guide and our puzzle guide.

Dead Giveaway

Loot a corpse.

Tips: Corpses can sometimes have useful items on them like ammo, grenades, and healing syringes.

Safe Trip

Use the multitool to hack a tripmine.

Tips: You don’t have to explode a tripmine to get past them. Use Alyx’s multitool to disarm them via a hacking puzzle. Tripmines make their first appearance in Chapter 6 – Arms Race.

Xen Lootism

Snatch a Xen grenade from its resting place.

Tips: Xen grenades are held tightly in place by strange, Xen tree-like creatures. If you’re quick enough, you can snatch it out of its grasp. Use it like a regular grenade or store in your wrist pockets for later. You will first encounter these in Chapter 5 – The Northern Star, but they appear in a few other parts of the game too.

Chapter-Exclusive Achievements

These are achievements you can get by doing something exclusive to a specific chapter. Descriptions are taken from Steam, with our own advice added.

Good Grub

Feed the snark.

Tips: In Chapter 1 – Entanglement, at Alyx’s base in the very beginning, pick up the can next to the Snark in the jar on Alyx’s table and sprinkle in some food.

On a Roll

Interact with the playground somehow.

Tips: In Chapter 1 – Entanglement, before reaching Russell’s lab, interact with the playground.

Little Slugger

Represent yourself with a specific prop on Russell’s map.

Tips: In Chapter 1 – Entanglement, pick up the little Scout figurine in Russell’s lab and use it as a marker on his map when prompted.

Mag-Snagger

Catch Russell’s ammo magazine before it hits the ground.

Tips: In Chapter 1 – Entanglement, when Russell throws you the gun out the window, catch the magazine he throws. This can be done using the gravity gloves to pull it toward you.

Near-Jeff Experience

Stay close to Jeff for 10 seconds (but not too close).

Tips: In Chapter 7 – Jeff, try to distract Jeff with a loud noise, then hover around him for 10 seconds. Being close to him long enough without dying will get you this achievement.

Hold Your Liquor.

Catch a bottle falling out of a cupboard before it breaks and alerts Jeff.

Tips: In Chapter 7 – Jeff, there is a side room with shelves and cupboards, full of loot. When you open one, a bottle will fall out–catch it before it hits the ground.

Team Spirit

Bring Russell a bottle of vodka.

Tips: In Chapter 7 – Jeff, Russell will reminiscence about how he misses vodka and ask you to bring him a bottle back. You can store one in your wrist pockets. Carry it that way through the whole level until he thanks you for your efforts.

Sound Strategy

Escape the distillery without killing Jeff

Tips: At the very end of Chapter 7 – Jeff, he’ll run towards the control panel that you need to interact with to progress since it makes noise. The room behind that control panel has a cargo container that you can lock, so toss a bottle in there to get him to go inside, then quickly pull the lever on the left side of the door and engage the lock.

Flat Note

Kill Jeff.

Tips: At the very end of Chapter 7 – Jeff, you also have the option to kill Jeff when you lock him in the cargo container, which–as it turns out–is a trash compactor. Just hit the button below the lever that closes the door.

Special Achievements

These achievements are a bit easier to miss or require you to do something special in the game. Like some of the achievements listed above, they are not chapter-exclusive, but some of the things you need to complete them (fighting a Combine Heavy) only appear in certain chapters.

Mazel Tov

Pick up and smash 50 glass bottles.

Tips: This is especially easy to do in Chapter 7 – Jeff, which is set in a distillery. You’ll be smashing a lot of bottles.

Smash and Grab

Break open a supply crate with your hands.

Tips: Supply crates are those light tan boxes with the yellow “supply” label on the front, recognizable from earlier Half-Life games. They can be shot open from a distance, but you can also smash one against something hard with your hands.

Pro-Pain

Kill a grunt by shooting their gas tank.

Tips: If you spot a Combine enemy with a gas tank strapped to their back… shoot it.

Freshly Squeezed

Test your grip on a headcrab heart.

Indirect Approach

Kill a Combine Heavy while their shield is up.

Combine Harvester

Use the gravity gloves to loot an item off a living Combine soldier.

Tips: Combine will carry ammo, grenades, and sometimes healing syringes, and you can grab them off of them mid-fight using the gravity gloves.

Deadliest Catch

Use the gravity gloves to intercept an incoming enemy grenade in mid-flight.

Tips: Combine will throw grenades at you to blow you out of cover. Resist by catching the glowing red explosive mid-air or wherever it lands and tossing it back, but be quick about it.

Mystery Achievements

We don’t know what these achievements do yet, but we will update you once we learn!

Gnome Vault of My Own

Unknown. Our current theory is that you can get this by carrying Russell’s gnome magnet, which you will find on the fridge in his lab in Chapter 1, all the way to the end of the game.

Crustacean Frustration

Unknown.

Eye of the Geiger

Unknown.

Story Achievements (Potential Spoilers)

These are achievements you’ll get just by encountering story-based events. All descriptions are taken from Steam. You are now entering potential spoiler territory! Names of areas and key events are mentioned in the Steam descriptions, and the ending is alluded to.

Again, these are the official Steam descriptions.

Hit and Run

Break out of the Combine prisoner transport vehicle.

Quaranta Giorini

Enter the Quarantine Zone.

Sustenance

Receive a tasty treat.

Zombie with a Shotgun

Collect the shotgun.

Xen Garden

Enter the explosive Xen infestation.

Off the Rails

Stop the prisoner transport train.

Checking In

Reach the Northern Star.

Heart-Breaker Hotel

Get creative turning the power back on.

Surface Tension

Escape the underground pit.

Unbonded

Collect the SMG.

Cord-Cutter

Shut down the substation.

Blast From the Past

Defuse a roomful of explosive barrels.

Sea Level

Reach the aquatic exhibits.

Triple Bypass

Solve the tanker yard’s electrical puzzle and escape.

High Water March

Start climbing the water tower.

Textbook Jinxing

Wake the Strider.

Point Extraction

Get to the superweapon.

Consequences

Make your choice.