A comprehensive guide to getting the Voight-Kampff achievement

[Ariphaos]

I've seen some threads here and on Reddit wondering if this is even possible, so here you go.

Step 1) Start a non-Spiritualist empire, in a game with only one other AI (preferably non-Advanced).

Step 2) Tech to Robots, Droids, and Synths. This requires Powered Exoskeletons (for Robots), Self-Aware Logic (Droids) and Sentient AI (Synths). Avoid teching jump drives, of course.

Step 3) Build 1 and only one robot/droid/synth on each planet you own.

Step 4) If you have migration enabled, be sure to set your policy to 'primary species only' as for some reason Synths really like to congregate. Leave AI policy on servitude.

Step 5) Your goal is to get Synthetics around ~2260.

The Prethoryn arrival is determined at game start. 170/200/250/300 years in (as of 1.3) with a chance of it never occurring.

The Unbidden are triggered by a standard MTTH event, which is not supposed to be able to happen before 150 years have passed (as of 1.3).

The AI revolt is triggered to happen 60/70/80/90/100 years after getting Synths. So to guarantee the AI revolt, you need to tech Synths by about ~2245. This is somewhat difficult in 1.3, though I'm still playing with things. I can generally get them around 2255 more reliably.

If you can get Synths by 2265, and keep them in servitude, then you can guarantee that the Prethoryn will never show up. If there's only one other empire, the chances of them triggering the Unbidden are pretty small.

Step 6) Expand. Build your fleet strength up to ~100k over the next 60 years. A Fallen Empire might awaken if you pass ~40k - the MTTH for that is 50 years. Removing your admirals from your fleet can handle this, but in a one-AI opponent game you are generally so huge that you can ignore most awakened FEs for an extended period.

Step 7) Wait for the AI to revolt.

Step 8) Paste the AI's fleet and destroy the stations around its homeworld. The files suggest that the synth infiltration will continue whether or not you actually capture their homeworld, but they won't be doing anything for the rest of the game anyway. I just left them.

Step 9) Wait for the synth infiltration to begin. This doesn't take long.

Step 10) Wait for the 'Synth detection project' to fire.

This has a MTTH of 35 years.

Step 11) Continue waiting. I suggest playing in Windowed mode so you can do other things while the game progresses. This is really, really boring. Took over 40 years for this to fire for me. You will lose lots of spaceports and see lots of buildings blow up. I gave up even bothering checking them eventually.

Step 12) The event fires!



Click on it. Go to your situation log:


Click on it. Wait for the month to turn over (if you've got less than 1k society/month of research you are doing it wrong, but hey, if it takes you two months, it takes you two months).


Congratulations! You now have the rarest and most anticlimactic achievement in the game!

 

[Oscot]

Thanks. I had no idea what this achievement was even about.
Not that I go after them especially, but it's still nice to know.

 

[Dr. B]

An idea, if you want to max out your odds, can you not predefine an empire, and set it to always spawn in game? If you only play with one other AI, then this empire should be your only starting opponent... and you decide its traits/ethos/government etc. You could stack the odds against having jump drives researched, among other things

 

[Ariphaos]

Yep. Give them hyperlanes.

If you make them fanatic xenophobe militarists or fanxen collectivists, they can also show up as fanatical purifiers.

 

[Zulfurlubak]

Thanks for the advices. Wasn't sure about requirements for getting this achievement before but got it today after checking this guide.

 

[The Founder]

The Unbidden are triggered by a standard MTTH event, which is not supposed to be able to happen before 150 years have passed (as of 1.3).

Unbidden have a base MTTH of 2000 (2 thousand) years, per empire that has T3 drives.
1 jumpdrive tech cuts it by 10. The 2nd by anohter 10. So ideally you want to force the game into any non-Wormhole FTL tech. While it is no longer a lockout for Jumpdrives, at least the chances to get Jumpdrive should be smaler.

Step 6) Expand. Build your fleet strength up to ~100k over the next 60 years. A Fallen Empire might awaken if you pass ~40k - the MTTH for that is 50 years. Removing your admirals from your fleet can handle this, but in a one-AI opponent game you are generally so huge that you can ignore most awakened FEs for an extended period.

You could just set fallen Empires to 0.