Achievements Guide
CastleMiner Z has 31 Steam achievements. Some track naturally as you play, but others suffer from severe tracking bugs left over from the 2017 development freeze. This guide covers every achievement, its exact unlock condition, and the workarounds you need for the bugged ones.
Most achievements only track reliably in Online Endurance mode. Single-player and offline modes frequently fail to register progress. Always host or join an Online lobby if you are chasing achievements.
Crafting Achievements
You earn these by crafting items at any station. The counter tracks every individual item produced.
| Achievement | Requirement | Unlock Rate | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tinkerer | Craft 1 item | 22.9% | Visible |
| Crafter | Craft 100 items | 10.1% | Visible |
| Master Craftsman | Craft 1,000 items | 2.7% | Visible |
| Demolition Expert | Craft TNT | 8.6% | Visible |
Hold Shift while crafting to process items in bulk. The game counts every individual item toward your total, so bulk crafting speeds up the Crafter and Master Craftsman milestones significantly.
Combat Achievements
Kill enemies using various weapons and strategies to unlock these.
| Achievement | Requirement | Unlock Rate | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self Defense | Kill 1 enemy | 32.2% | Hidden |
| No Fear | Kill 100 enemies | 9.8% | Hidden |
| Zombie Slayer | Kill 1,000 enemies | 2.8% | Visible |
| Dragon Slayer | Kill the Undead Dragon | 3.9% | Visible |
| Air Defense | Kill a dragon with a guided missile | 2.9% | Visible |
| Boom! | Kill an enemy with a grenade | 2.8% | Visible |
| Fire in the Hole! | Kill an enemy with TNT | 2.4% | Visible |
| Alien Encounter | Get close to an alien | N/A | Visible |
| Alien Technology | Make a kill with a laser weapon | N/A | Visible |
The Dragon Slayer achievement requires killing the Undead Dragon specifically, not just any dragon. The Undead Dragon spawns between 3,700 and 4,700 blocks from the origin in the Hell biome. Bring a Bloodstone LMG or a Red Laser Assault Rifle with plenty of ammunition.
Distance Achievements
These track how far you travel from the spawn point. They unlock sequentially as you push further into the world.
| Achievement | Requirement | Unlock Rate | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Contact | Travel 50 blocks from start | 31.2% | Visible |
| Leaving Home | Travel 200 blocks from start | 19.3% | Visible |
| Around the World | Travel 5,000 blocks from start | 2.8% | Visible |
Additional distance milestones exist for reaching specific biomes (Desert Crawler, Mountain Man, Deep Freeze, Hell On Earth) and depth thresholds (Deep Digger, Welcome to Hell). These trigger based on your absolute lateral distance and vertical depth from the origin.
Survival Achievements
Stay alive for a set number of in-game days to unlock these.
| Achievement | Requirement | Unlock Rate | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Survivor | Survive 100 in-game days | 2.0% | Visible |
| 28 Weeks Later | Survive 196 in-game days | 1.8% | Visible |
| Anniversary | Survive 365 in-game days | 1.8% | Visible |
Time-Played Achievements
These are the most problematic achievements in the game. They track cumulative real-world play time, but the internal timer has critical caching failures.
| Achievement | Requirement | Unlock Rate | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short Timer | Play for 1 hour | 12.9% | Hidden |
| Veteran MinerZ | Play for 10 hours | 3.4% | Hidden |
| MinerZ Potato | Play for 100 hours | 3.1% | Hidden |
The Time-Tracking Bug
The game clock frequently fails to save progressive time data to your Steam profile when you exit or crash. If the game closes unexpectedly, the local cache dumps your progress, and the timer effectively resets for that session. This is a hard-coded engine bug that was never patched.
The AFK Workaround
The community has developed a reliable method to unlock these achievements. Follow these steps exactly:
- Host an Online Endurance lobby. Set a passcode to keep it private. Single-player instances suppress the tracking triggers.
- Travel at least 141 blocks laterally from spawn. Staying in the immediate spawn chunk prevents the internal "survival" flags from activating.
- Build a 3x3 AFK bunker. Mine copper or iron and construct a sealed box. Leave exactly three blocks of vertical air space inside to prevent clipping damage.
- Leave the game running in borderless windowed mode. Do not close, minimize, or alt-tab aggressively. The session must remain active and uninterrupted.
- Mute via your OS volume mixer. The game has no built-in background mute option. Right-click the speaker icon in your taskbar and mute CastleMiner Z directly.
For the 100-hour achievement (MinerZ Potato), the game must run continuously for 100 real-world hours in a single unbroken session. Any crash, disconnect, or manual close resets the session timer.
The Hell Roof Method: An alternative AFK spot. Dig 40 blocks down into the Hell biome, then pillar back up and build a protective cocoon directly against the underside of the Bloodstone ceiling. Enemies cannot break through the impenetrable ceiling above you, making this the safest long-term AFK position in the game.