OF MICE AND SAND -REVISED- 100% Achievement Guide

Warning: This guide is full of spoilers.

No achievements in this game are particularly missable, except for Carillion which is pretty obvious. Two playthroughs are required to get the “You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat” achievement, so you can pick that one up on your second playthrough if you want, though you might want the cash from selling it on your pacifist run!

The achievements you need to keep an eye out for, so as to not spend lots of time on them, are:

• Carillon – Don’t get rid of the Golden Pocketwatch you are given at the beginning of the game.
• The Worst Toilet in the Wasteland… – Every time you encounter some Dung, keep on pushing through. Or, save and reload until you get the achievement when you first encounter it.
• Cheese Long and Prosper – Don’t sell your Hides or Tattered Rags, and you shouldn’t have a problem getting this one.

These achievements you should get without having to think about it.

• Modern Times – Complete tasks 200 times
  • That’s just what mice do.
• Debris Elegy – Pick up 1000 items off the road
  • No way to avoid this!
• “Calling You” – Trigger the oasis event
  • This should fire when you encounter this fairly common event.
• Korobushka – Fill the ship with rooms
  • Easiest to do on the first ship, but you’ll want to (and probably will) on every ship.
• Kahliman of the Desert – Expel a mouse into the desert
  • Just grab a mouse, choose Expel. The end (for him). Maybe this has to be done while on a route for the achievement.
• Fine Selection of Screws, Turrets, Batteries, and Cans – Finish 50 quests
  • You’ll want to be doing quests for money and rewards anyway.
• #Celebrate10000tweets – Listen to the mice
  • This will naturally happen over time, as the mice never shut up.
• You Hoard Your Cheese. – Craft 20 Natural Cheeses
  • You’ll have plenty of Natural Milk after reaching El Dorado, just turn it into cheese (and sell it after the achievement pops)!

This appears to be mostly luck, it took me many, many hours to find the last random event myself (last one for me was the Great Hole).

It appears that some routes between locations have a significantly higher chance of triggering random events, and it also appears that all events spawn on all routes (except those that have a 100% chance of an enemy spawning), but it’s possible some are only seen on particular routes.

Old North to Emerson Crater seems to trigger a random event about 50% of the time, which is much, much higher than most other routes, which usually just trigger enemies. I did most of my grinding for events on this route, and found 10 of the 16 events on that route (including the ones I had never encountered before) after I started keeping track, so it seems possible that all events spawn there.

There appear to be no random encounters on the route north of Ruinous Refuge.

I’m not sure it’s useful to know where I encountered them, as it seems like there’s a chance for any event anywhere, but just in case, I’m listing where I found each in the list below:

Random Encounters

1. Russian Monolith – Exchange your mice for small amounts of loot
   • Luta town to Bank Town
   • Old North to Emerson Crater
   • Ruinous Refuge to Fort Shelter
2. Switch (Riddle hologram) – Answers: Dessert, Gears, -19…
   • Old North to Emerson Crater
   • Ruinous Refuge to Excavators’ Camp
3. Crashed Spaceship – gives some loot
   • Old North to Emerson Crater
   • South Quarry to Drill Town
4. Seed of Hope Human
   • Old North to Emerson Crater
5. Catfight – Outcome seems random, maybe Sly one more often
   • Old North to Emerson Crater
   • Artificial Oasis to Bank Town
   • Fort Shelter to Emerson Crater
6. New Hope – Gain Helper Robot and Scrap Robot
   • Old North to Emerson Crater
7. Statue of Freedom – gain Fuel
   • Old North to Emerson Crater
   • New Roswell to Garuda Spaceport
   • Sandrunner Camp to Dune Sea Entrance
8. Dung Pile – Find: Helper Robot, Insect Spawn, Ray Gun, Canned Food, Shrinker
   • Old North to Emerson Crater
   • Garuda Spaceport to New Roswell
9. Junk Roller – gain loot
   • Old North to Emerson Crater
10. Great Hole
    • Old North to Emerson Crater
11. Vacant Extraction Plant – gain Crude Oil
    • Northern Quarry to Luta Town
    • Fort Shelter to Ruinous Refuge
    • Fort Shelter to Emerson Crater
    • Excavators’ Camp to Garuda Spaceport
12. A Mole and His Child – Exchange water or cheese for loot
    • Excavator’s Camp to Garuda Spaceport
13. Oasis – Gain water
    • Excavator’s Camp to Dune Sea Entrance
14. Deserted Fuel Refinery – gain loot
    • Garuda Spaceport to New Roswell
    • Emerson Crater to Fort Shelter
15. Gyrocopter
    • Encountered this very early in my game, didn’t record where
16. Mines – I think this is one of the 16 events. If you find something not listed here instead, let me know

First off, there is probably no need to ever have this many mice. I found with 64 mice, I had quite a few sitting around doing nothing, so when you want to get this achievement, I recommend saving up enough resources (beds and pillows), then saving your game, building everything, getting the achievement, and then re-loading.

There is a limit of 16 Sleeping Quarters in your ship, and each one can hold a base of 4 mice, plus 4 more with pillows, so that means you must build 16 fully maxed out Sleeping Quarters. This will require a total of 32 beds and 64 pillows. Tattered Rags were the bottleneck for me, but that might have been because I sold off a stack of Hide earlier in the game. This will require a total of 256 Tattered Rags (2 rags per mouse, whether crafting a bed or a pillow).

Pretty straightforward, though it is important to note that some new rumors appear around Kumel Tribe Camp after first beating the game.

Easy. You’ll probably want 6.

I crafted all of my engines, but you can also sometimes get them in encounters (maybe a drop from Sand Pirates, but I don’t remember for sure…). You can also extract them from enough Scrap Vehicles, but I prefer to turn them into Field Generators, which are much more costly to build than Engines.

This requires a Gunsmith, fully upgraded, and a Cannon to shoot it with. If you just craft one of them, it’s easiest to make sure a mouse fires this piece of ammo if you unload all of your other guns. Make sure to reload them after the achievement pops to defeat your foe, though!

This is a list of all 17 enemies in the game, and where I encountered them. Some are likely found in more places (Desert Bug is probably literally everywhere), but these are places they were certainly found. They are also probably found going either direction, but I list the direction I was going when I first encountered them.

• Desert Bug
  • Dune Sea Entrance to Excavators’ Camp
  • Fort Shelter to Ruinous Refuge
  • New Roswell to Garuda Spaceport
  • Garuda Spaceport to Sandrunner Camp
  • Old North Farm to New Roswell
  • South Quarry to Drill Town
  • Drill Town to Bank Town
  • Bank Town to Luta Town
  • Bank Town to Artificial Oasis
  • Lighthouse City to Cactus Farm
  • Cactus Farm to South Quarry
  • Old North to Emerson Crater
• Cat Bandit
  • South Quarry to Drill Town
• Tail Rider
  • Fort Shelter to Emerson Crater
  • Summer Supply Depot to Luta Town
  • Dune Sea Entrance to Excavators’ Camp
  • Old North to Emerson Crater
• Shrieker
  • Luta Town to Bank Town
• Sand Pirate
  • Garuda Spaceport to Sandrunner Camp
  • Sandrunner Camp to Dune Sea Entrance
• Sandligator
  • Artificial Oasis to Settled Seas Plant
  • Settled Seas Plant to Northern Quarry
  • Northern Quarry to Luta Town
• Sand Whale
  • Excavators’ Camp to Garuda Spaceport
• Rogue Droid
  • Dune Sea Entrance to Excavators’ Camp
  • Excavators’ Camp to Ruinous Refuge
  • Ruinous Refuge to Fort Shelter
• Devil Cat (drops hides)
  • Garuda Spaceport to New Roswell
  • Garuda Spaceport to Excavators’ Camp
  • Fort Shelter to New Roswell
  • Sandrunner Camp and Dune Sea Entrance
• Sand Jaws
  • New Roswell to Fort Shelter
• Queen Bug
  • Summer Supply Depoy to Emerson Crater
• Desert Dweller
  • Dune Sea Entrance to El Dorado
• Winter Bug
  • Ruinous Refuge to Polar Pipeline
  • Polar Pipeline to Sand Whaler Base
  • Sand Whaler Base to Temple of Corpses
  • Temple of Corpses to Space Telescope
• Droid Prototype (group of 3 is called “White Tri-star”)
  • Polar Pipeline to Sand Whaler Base
  • Temple of Corpses to Space Telescope
• Princess Bug
  • Sand Whaler Base to Temple of Corpses
  • Temple of Corpses to Space Telescope
• White Devil
  • Temple of Corpses to Sand Whaler Base
  • Sand Whaler Base to Polar Pipeline
• White Desert Dweller
  • Space Telescope to North Pole

Save your game before crossing to El Dorado, so you can also get You Broke into the Wrong Goddamn Rec Room! at the same time.

Have plenty of repair kits (60-80 maybe?), disable *every* job except for the engines, and just make a run for it!

Save your game before crossing to El Dorado, so you can also get You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat. at the same time.

Have lots of guns and plenty of repair kits, disable *every* job except for the guns. I believe I had around 6 Turrets, but I can’t quite remember.

I have not achieved this yet myself, but from my tests it appears it can not be done when continuing a game after beating it (the achievement mentions “achievable on 2nd play through”, but this seems to refer to starting a completely fresh new game, not journeying across the desert a second time).

Lots of mice with lots of repair kits and as many engines as you can fit will help a lot.

This is a list of all items in the game, in the order shown in the Item Guide, so this can be used to figure out what you’re missing.

For items that say where they’re dropped, that information is directly from the guide, and seems to indicate what range of routes (respective to the normal progression of the game) where they can be found.

1. Lo-Fi Scrap
   • Dropped throughout the desert
   • Crafted: Workbench
2. Hi-Fi Scrap
   • Dropped throughout the desert
3. Fuel Ore
   • Drops from Emerson Crater
   • Crafted: Farm, Plant
4. Rare Ore
   • Dropped from Settled Seas Plant to Luta Town
   • Crafted: Plant
5. Iron Ore
   • Dropped from Settled Seas Plant to Luta Town
   • Crafted: Plant
6. Copper Ore
   • Dropped from Settled Seas Plant to Luta Town
   • Crafted: Plant
7. Crystal Ore
   • Dropped from Garuda Spaceport to Ruinous Refuge
   • Crafted: Plant
8. Material Sand
   • Drops from Cactus Farm
   • Crafted: Plant
9. Glass
   • Craft: Furnace
10. Rare Metal
    • Craft: Furnace
11. Gear
    • Craft: Workbench, Factory
12. Bolt
    • Craft: Workbench, Factory
13. Wire
    • Craft: Workbench, Factory
14. Piano Wire
    • Craft: Workbench, Factory
15. Mainspring
    • Craft: Workbench, Factory
16. Coil
    • Craft: Workbench, Factory
17. Sheet Iron
    • Craft: Workbench, Furnace
18. Steel
    • Craft: Furnace
19. Silicon
    • Craft: Factory
20. Engine
    • Craft: Workbench, Factory
21. Motor
    • Craft: Workbench, Factory
22. Circuit
    • Craft: Robolab
23. Robotic Arm
    • Craft: Workbench, Factory
24. Tank
    • Craft: Factory
25. Iron Pipe
    • Craft: Workbench, Factory
26. Plastic
    • Craft: Plant
27. Crude Oil
    • Bought
    • Craft: Plant
28. Battery
    • Craft: Power Plant
29. Beaker
    • Craft: Furnace
30. Chemical Oil
    • Craft: Lab
31. Flask
    • Craft: Furnace
32. Acid
    • Craft: Lab
33. Alkaline
    • Craft: Lab
34. Alcohol
    • Craft: Lab
35. Gearbox
    • Craft: Workbench
36. Cylinder
    • Craft: Factory
37. Magnet
    • Craft: Furnace
38. Gold Ingot
    • No use, just sell for money
    • Craft: Furnace
39. Silver Ingot
    • No use, just sell for money
    • Craft: Furnace
40. Copper Ingot
    • Craft: Furnace
41. Ceramic
    • Craft: Furnace
42. Cactus Bread
    • Craft: Kitchen, Furnace
43. Cactus Bits
    • Drops from Cactus Farm
    • Craft: Farm, Plant
44. Cactus Flower
    • Drops from Cactus Farm
    • Craft: Farm, Plant
45. Cactus Sugar
    • Bought
    • Craft: Lab
46. Cactus Powder
    • Bought
    • Craft: Lab
47. Cow Skull
    • Dropped throughout the desert
    • Craft: Farm, Plant
48. Synthesized Milk
    • Craft: Kitchen, Lab
49. Synthesized Cheese
    • Bought
    • Craft: Kitchen, Lab
50. Natural Milk
    • Only use is crafting Natural Cheese
    • Found in El Dorado
    • Drops from late-game enemies (White Devil?)
51. Natural Cheese
    • No use, just sell for money (lots of money)
    • Craft: Kitchen, Lab, Plant
52. Meat
    • Drops from some later enemies
    • Craft: Kitchen, Farm
53. Synthesized Water
    • Bought
    • Craft: Plant
54. Salt
    • Bought at Kumel Tribe Camp and Sandrunner Camp
    • Only use is completing various quests that each require 20-100 Salt
55. Cooking Pot
    • Craft: Workbench
56. Burner
    • Craft: Workbench
57. Large Plate
    • Craft: Furnace
58. Turret Rounds
    • Bought
    • Many weapon ammo types drop from enemies (Tail Rider, Cat Bandit, etc)
    • Craft: Gunsmith
59. AP Rounds
    • Craft: Gunsmith
60. Iridium Rounds
    • Craft: Gunsmith
61. Magnum Rounds
    • Craft: Gunsmith
62. Cannon Shells
    • Bought?
    • Craft: Gunsmith
63. Grenade Rounds
    • Craft: Gunsmith
64. Missile
    • Craft: Gunsmith
65. Emperor Bomba
    • Craft: Gunsmith
66. Turret
    • Craft: Gunsmith
67. Cannon
    • Craft: Gunsmith
68. Golden Pocketwatch
    • Start with this, hang on to it until you cross the desert once for the achievement, then sell it. Or keep it, if you’re sentimental.
69. Spark Plug
    • Bought
    • Craft: Workbench
70. Scrap Robot
    • Drops from Ruinous Refuge
71. Positron Brain
    • Craft: Robolab
72. CRT TV
    • Craft: Factory
73. Speaker
    • Craft: Factory
74. Pump
    • Craft: Factory
75. Scrap Vehicle
    • Drops from Ruinous Refuge
76. Ray Gun
    • Craft: Factory
77. Laser Crystal
    • Craft: Lab
78. Soap
    • Craft: Lab
79. Dewormer
    • Craft: Lab
80. Antibiotics
    • Craft: Lab
81. Tattered Rag
    • Drops from Kumel Tribe Camp
    • You will need a lot of these (256 total) for the Cheese Long and Prosper achievement
    • Craft: Sewing Room
82. Terminal
    • Craft: Robolab
83. Field Generator
    • Craft: Robolab
84. Record Player
    • Craft: Factory
85. Piano
    • Bought
    • Craft: Workbench
86. Dry Wood
    • Drops form Southern Quarry
    • Craft: Plant
87. Timber
    • Craft: Workbench
88. Insect Spawn
    • Drops from bug-like enemies
    • Craft: Farm
89. Larva
    • Craft: Kitchen
90. Cactus Wine
    • Craft: Kitchen, Lab
91. Bed
    • Craft: Workbench
92. Pillow
    • Craft: Sewing Room
93. Chair
    • Craft: Workbench
94. Repair Kit
    • Craft: Workbench
95. Bandage
    • Craft: Lab
96. Brick
    • Craft: Workbench, Furnace
97. Shrinker
    • Craft: Robolab
98. Rubber Hose
    • Craft: Workbench
99. Seed of Hope
    • Acquirable in desert events
    • Craft: Farm
100. ROM Cart
     • Craft: Computer
101. Vacuum Tube
     • Craft: Workbench, Robolab, Factory
102. Transistor
     • Craft: Robolab
103. Capacitor
     • Craft: Robolab
104. Valve
     • Craft: Workbench
105. Gunpowder
     • Craft: Lab
106. Cotton
     • Craft: Sewing Room
107. Fluorescent Paint
     • Craft: Lab
108. Paper
     • Craft: Plant
109. Bug Juice
     • Craft: Lab
110. Oven
     • Bought
     • Craft: Workbench
111. Sewing Machine
     • Bought
     • Craft: Workbench
112. Tapestry
     • Craft: Sewing Room
113. White Shirt
     • Craft: Sewing Room
114. Clean Fabric
     • Craft: Sewing Room
115. Energy Drink
     • Craft: Lab
116. Satellite LAN
     • Craft: Robolab
117. Coordinate Fragment
     • Craft: Computer
118. Calorie Stick
     • Bought
     • Craft: Plant
119. Canned Food
     • Craft: Factory
120. Whale Oil
     • Only use is to turn into Crude Oil
     • Drops from Sand Whale enemy
121. Hide
     • Drops from some enemies
     • Only use is to turn into Tattered Rag
122. Shark Fin
     • Drops from Sand Jaws
     • Only use is to turn into Meat
123. Sandfruit
     • Claims it does not drop on any roads, so maybe drops from an enemy
     • Only use is to turn into Sandfruit Wine
124. Sanfruit Wine
     • Only use is to sell for money
     • Craft: Lab
125. Helper Robot
     • Acquirable in desert event
     • Only use is to sell for money
126. AC Unit
     • Craft: Factory

This appears to just be pure random luck. Whenever you see some Desert Dweller Dung, keep on pushing through!

Finding the Desert Dweller Dung in the first place seems pretty rare, the times I recorded finding one was on Garuda Spaceport to New Roswell and on Old North to Emerson Crater. It feels there’s about a 50% chance of getting each next item from the dung, which means you’ll have to try quite a few times to get this. The good news is that which event you’ll encounter gets chosen when you leave a town, but the results of that event are still random each time. So, when you encounter a Desert Dweller dung, and inevitably fail to get all 5 items, assuming you have the default “auto-save when leaving towns” on, immediately Return to Title, and reload your autosave. Now, save it in a real save slot to be safe, and save as close to the dung event as possible to save time. Then, just keep trying and reloading, and eventually you’ll get all 5 items (took me about 30 minutes or so).

The items you’ll get appear to always be a Helper Robot (good for money), Insect Spawn (good if you’re playing a pacifist run), a Ray Gun (not bad), Canned Food (pretty useless), and a Shrinker (great, especially early game).

Just don’t sell the Golden Pocketwatch until after you’ve reached El Dorado.