As a relative newcomer to Zwift I’ve been struggling to get my head around how the achievement badges work. Not the specifics required to gain a badge - that is obvious, but the overall total. I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect be able to achieve 100% completion in a game with a bit of hard work.
However, when I looked at the badge lists on Zwift’s own support pages the totals did not match what I was seeing in game.
There are 12 badges listed under your heading of ‘General Badges’, common for both running and cycling.
There are 17 ‘Cycling Badges’
There are 13 ‘Running Badges’
There are also 10 ‘Extra Credits’.
If we ignore the running badges for the moment, the total number of badges available for cycling should be 39. And yet my Zwift app shows my total out of 46.
But if you do bundle in the running badges, the total then becomes 52.
I contacted Zwift support and although they were very friendly I have never come across such a slippery bunch in all my years of dealing with technical support departments.
They initially suggested that some achievements were still hidden and that it is up to the players to discover them.
Although I never got a straight answer when I asked for a complete list of badges(as they are secrets yet to be discovered, presumably), I did manage to establish that the ‘Extra Credits’ do not contribute to the “base max amount of badges”. So if you are currently sat at 33/45 and then complete ‘Lift Off’, then your total would then become 34/46.
So far, so easy.
But, they never divulged what the complete list of ‘base max’ badges were.
A quick Google search returns forums with some people suggesting that the running badges were included. Which seems crazy for Zwifters who use it exclusively for cycling as it means it would be impossible to achieve 100% in the badges section.
I asked Zwift support a few times to confirm specifically if the running badges were bundled into the overall total but I have yet to receive a straight answer either way.
They initially insisted there was a “base amount” of 40 badges. Which doesn’t tally with any combination of General/Cycling/Running badges.
After pursuing it further, they then admitted that they had made a mistake and that the base amount was actually 41. Now I am no mathematician, but this can only lead to two conclusions. Either:
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Running badges are not included in the total, and there are 12 secret achievement badges out there that nobody on the internet is talking about.
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Running badges are included in the total and that Zwift support have got their totals wrong - twice.
So, from what I can decode from the information given to me, the base number of achievements is actually 42 (12+17+13). And if a Zwifter completes all the ‘Extra Credit’ achievements(10), the absolute maximum number of badges available is 52.
However this still makes no sense.
I currently have a total of 46 available achievements. 6 of those are ‘Extra Credit’, so if those are subtracted to reveal the base number we are back at 40.
Or, if you remove the 13 running badges from my total of 46(please), then the maximum number of badges that would be available to me would 33. Only I currently have a total of 34. And I have yet to complete the ‘Mas0chist’ achievement - which would give me 35 out of 33, which is pretty impressive.
Either way you look at it, there is a discrepancy of 2 in my total available.
So - if you have managed to stay with me this long… Does anyone out there actually have 100% completion in the Achievements section? And if so, do they have any secret achiements that aren’t listed in the Zwift support pages linked above?