Overview:
+Estimated achievement difficulty: 4/10
+Offline: 60/60 [1250:gsicon:]
+Online: 0
+Approximate amount of time to 1000: 40-80 hours
+Minimum number of playthroughs needed: One playthrough for both campaigns
+Number of missable achievements: None!
+Do cheat codes disable achievements? Yes, see below for details
+Does difficulty affect achievements? No
+Glitchy achievements? None!
+Unobtainable achievements? None!
+Extra equipment needed? None!

Introduction:
Welcome to Tropico 4! This is a fun sandbox / strategy game where you are elected president of multiple Caribbean islands, you are in a seemingly never ending quest to make your country the best it can be. Careful though, you will need to deal with rebels, natural disasters, protesters, and more, all while trying to keep each of your countries factions, as well as other countries around the world happy. Although it may sound difficulty, the game is not to terribly hard, and if you follow this roadmap and the guide below, you should be able to get each achievement with minimal hassle. Also, the game has been known to freeze, so make sure you save often and keep multiple saves in case of save corruption.

Cheat code information:
Yes, there are many cheats in this game, however they do disable achievements. Luckily there are ways around it and it can save you hours of time for those of you who would like to speed up the process. Playing a sandbox game in Godmode however does disable achievements and there is no way around it, so if you are playing for achievements, you are more than welcome to play in sandbox mode, but do not use Godmode, or any other cheats for that matter while in that particular game (Unless going for the Expert achievement, more details below).

Anyways, achievements are rewarded for completing certain campaign missions, but not each one. So for instance there is an achievement for completing level 7 in the campaign and one for completing level 17 in the campaign, nothing in between though. So you can use an insta-win cheat on each of those levels in between 7 and 17 and not have any consequences. In order to use the insta-win cheat, start up a the mission and press the button. While on the start menu hold in both the and the at the same time, a cheats menu will come up. Select the insta-win cheat titled "el pollo diablo" and you will instantly win that game, and unlock the next mission. Careful though, do not use cheats on a mission that unlocks an achievement.

Play through the tutorial:
The tutorial is an absolute must, especially if you are new to Tropico games, so do not skip over this part! The game has lots of different controls and menus that you will need to know how to reach, so make sure you pay attention. You will also learn the basics of building your island, what to build first, etc. You will unlock an achievement at the end of the tutorial.

Play through the regular campaign:
Now that you have completing the tutorial, it is time to get started. There are 20 default campaign missions, you will need to playthrough the campaign (use the cheat above to speed up the process) slowly knocking out each achievement, and by the time you reach the final mission, you should have nearly all of the original 50 achievements. Listen to yourself talk at the beginning of each mission to understand the objective and what the island has to offer. Pick traits that will help you in each particular mission based on the information that you heard, do not worry about using each trait to unlock the Expert achievement, we will worry about that later. At the beginning of each mission check the layouts of the island and see what resources you have, and see danger areas that risk being hit by title waves or other natural disasters. To start out each mission, build farms right at the beginning! Tobacco and coffee are fantastic money makers to start out, also build mines in you are planning on using a lot of industry, iron is great for a weapons factory. You will slowly get on your feet financially as you start exporting more goods so keep adding to your exports, build a cigar factory if you have lots of tobacco farms, or a jewelry factory if you have lots of gold mines. Make use of oil off the shores as well. If you are worried about money, do not build apartments or tenements for your citizens until you have the USSR development aid edict to make those items cheaper. Finally, make sure to keep everybody as happy and possible, especially the military, the United States, and the USSR.

Mop up with sandbox games:
Any achievements you could not unlock during the campaign can be done with sandbox games, just make sure Godmode is off. See the guide below for details on how to unlock each achievement. For fast unlock of the Expert achievement, start up a sandbox game with any 3 traits that are are not yet 5 stars, start the game, press the button. On the main menu, hold the and buttons down at the same time. Select the insta-win cheat titled "el pollo diablo" and you will instantly win that game giving you another star for each of those traits. Rinse and repeat until you have 5 stars for each trait, unlocking the achievement.

Modern Times DLC:
Now this is where it gets fun, this is a fantastic DLC with great new additions and 10 new achievements. See the guide below for detailed information for each achievement. Playthrough the new campaign, use the cheats above to speed up the process if you would like, and knock out each achievement. Use sandbox mode again if you need to.

Conclusion:
If you have followed this roadmap and the achievement guide, you should have little to no problems getting the full 1250 for this game. Personally, this is one of my favorite games of all time, and the DLC is my favorite of 2012. I hope you enjoy this game as much as I do, and hopefully the achievements were fun for you as well.

[x360a would like to thank Gleylancer and FoxxyKyle for this roadmap]

Tropico 4 Achievement Guide

Printable Guide
Show completed achievements
Show secret achievements

There are 60 achievements with a total of 1250 points

  • Make $100 000 for your Swiss Bank account in a mission

    This is the final task in Mission 17: 'Forgiveness'.

    You can get this earlier:

    • Start a mission, 
    • Build a ministry,  
    • get a minister of economy, 
    • use the 'Building Permit' edict in the 'Economy and Tourism' tab

    then progress through the mission. You will get swiss bank money for every new building you purchase. Additionally, you can build a Customs Office and set it to 'Customs Duty Evasion'.

  • Finish a game with overall Happines of your citizens above 70%

    Can easily be done in almost all missions, as long as you do not finish the tasks for ending the mission itself. In preparation, you shouldn't have 'Cheapskate' as a trait when altering your avatar. First, try to keep all happinesses high:

    Food quality 

    Just have farms with corn, ranches with cattle and goats, and a few fishermen's wharves. Use the 'Food for the people edict' and build some marketplaces in regions where a lot of people are. It should easily rise over 80% by just doing this.

    Housing Quality 

    At the start of the mission, do not build any houses, but get mines and farms to get a good economy. Buy a foreign office, a ministry, and a minister of foreign affairs. Use the edict 'USSR Development Aid' when you can, else use 'Praise the USSR' and wait for 'USSR Development Aid' to become available.

    After using the edict, build only apartment blocks where shacks are and use the 'Free Housing' edict. After progressing further with your campaign scenario, get a power plant and upgrade all apartment blocks with climate control. You should have amassed some money now, keep going and buy mansions and condominiums.

    Religion Quality

    Buy a lot of churches and cathedrals, the 'Christ the Savior' Landmark, build a High School and College and switch them to Parochial Education. Also, you can use the Papal Visit edict to raise Religion Quality.

    Entertainment

    Buy all of the entertainment buildings and place them where a lot of people are.

    Healthcare Quality 

    Buy some clinics and hospitals, make sure to switch the type to 'Obstetrics' and 'Gerontology' so you have every kind.

    Crime Safety

    Build some police stations, armouries, army bases. Usually only a few will get you a very high rating unless you are on the campaign scenario with a lot of crime. Don't forget to make a secret police and to issue wiretapping.

    Environment

    You can put tons of Gardens and Trees all over the place, they're instantly built. I did not care for this when I was attempting the achievement, so maybe you can leave it out as well, as it is quite annoying to put all these things onto the map.

    Liberty

    Never issue 'Martial Law', but use the 'Sensitivity Training' edict. Build a Radio Station switched to 'Radio Free Tropico'.

    Job Quality 

    Leave this out for now, we'll come to that later.

    Respect 

    Leave this out for now, we'll come to that later.

    After you've raised the overall happiness to around 60%, progress through the scenario requirements and amass a lot of money. When you're on the last task of the scenario to finish it, raise all job payments to the maximum of 50. This can be easily done in 3 steps: Select a farm, raise the wage to 50, and then click the right-most icon right next to it 'Set wage for all uneducated workers'. Do the same with a high school and a college, so all groups of workers now have a wage of 50.

    After doing this, your money will go WAY down unless your economy is really good. Over the time of 2 years your overall happiness should easily go over 70%. Yes, you need OVER 70%.

    It can be done on Mission 6: 'Bickering Factions' where you get lots of rebels. Your last task will be to prepare for a final rebel invasion that gives you the time of 2 years to prepare. Use this to raise all the wages and then just wait it out. The mission will finish after you win the last rebel fight, regardless if you treasury is negative or not.

  • Survive 10 disasters

    You need to survive 10 disasters in one mission. During the campaign, disasters occur randomly, there is no way to trigger them. If you did not get this achievement during the campaign, start a Sandbox game and set 'Random Events' to 'Plenty' and length to maximum. A disaster will happen every 2-3 years - you should have no problems getting ten.

  • Suppress a Military Coup

    Build an Armoury and stop paying the generals. Your adviser will start warning you about a coup that will happen if you don't do something about the militarist's happiness. When the coup happens, you have to win it with just your palace guards.

  • Have population of over 300 and no Shacks

    During the campaign you may come across a communist faction task 'Help the Homeless' which requires to have no shacks on the map. You don't need to have the task active, however, it gives a good overview of how much shacks are left.

    At the start of the mission, do not build any houses, but get mines and farms to get a good economy. Buy a foreign office, a ministry, and a minister of foreign affairs. Use the edict 'USSR Development Aid' when you can, else use 'Praise the USSR' and wait for 'USSR Development Aid' to become available. After using the edict, build apartment blocks where shacks are and use the 'Free Housing' edict.

    To locate shacks, go to the Almanac -> Lists -> Residents - Housing. On the last page you'll see all people that live in shacks. Press on one, then select 'House: Shack' and press . The game will show you the shack. Just build an apartment block over it and he/she will move in after a month.

  • Finish a Sandbox game in God mode

    From the title screen, select 'Sandbox'. In the game settings, activate god mode, set the game length to minimum so you can finish this quickly. You don't actually have to do something in god mode, so you may just wait and confirm any spam messages from your people.

  • Construct 1337 buildings

    It will unlock during the campaign missions, it is cumulative over all missions, so just keep building.

  • Earn $1 000 000 from industry in a single game

    Build some farms (more than 4 for 1 factory) that produce coffee, tobacco, sugar - or build gold mines or logging camps, whichever is best for the island's resources. Then just build the corresponding factory and wait for the exports to get you all the money. It works great with Weapon Factories, Rum Distilleries, Cigar Factories and the likes.

  • Suppress an uprising

    An uprising will happen during mission 10: 'Independence Day', even if your overall happiness is way over 50%. You're required to build a radio station. This ratio station will be occupied by rebel agents, have your army deal with it. Later, you have to switch your Ministry to People's Commitee and gain 130 Revolutionists. A 'fake' uprising will happen right after you've gathered them. After a few seconds Penultimo will inform you that it is a real uprising. You will win the campaign mission if you suppress this uprising, it will also unlock the achievement.

  • Construct at least 1000 meters of roads and 4 Garages

    As the description says, build 4 garages and 1000 meters of road. 

  • Construct 200 buildings on one island

    Just complete 200 buildings on the same island.

  • Have more than 20 soldiers and generals in one game

    Build 4 Armouries, 4 Army Bases and a bunch of guard stations. To speed things up, build a high school and college switched to military education.

  • Earn $1 000 000 from tourism profits in a single game

    Build a tourist dock, lots and lots of hotels and attractions. Use tourism edicts to promote your island. It'll take a lot of time to amass one million, the best mission for this is No. 12 'The Olympic Heist', as you barely have anything else to rely on but tourism, sugar and logging.

  • Finish all tutorial missions

    Complete the tutorial. If you're not familiar with Tropico you will have to do it anyway.

  • Complete 10 Faction tasks in a single mission

    Finish 10 tasks, given to you by the factions. These will pop as a blue (!) on the map. It'll include things like building churches, destroying logging camps and other very easy things.

  • Complete 20 agenda tasks in a single mission

    Agenda tasks are the tasks with a red (!) that will randomly pop up on the map. Most of them help you in a certain way to complete the mission, they can be optional sometimes. Complete 20 of them in a single mission.

  • Complete 10 Foreign tasks in a single mission

    Finish 10 tasks, given to you by other countries. These will pop as a blue (!) on the map. It'll include things like paying money, exporting goods and other very easy things.

  • Arrest 10 Criminals in a single mission

    Easiest to do in Mission 16: 'Operation Endgame'. Brunhilde will 'offer' to send 10 criminals onto your island after you've exported 1000 goods, right after the start of the mission. Decline for now and finish the next task to get 10 policemen. Build 2 prisons. Later, she will drop the 10 criminals on the beach of the island. In the almanac under Lists -> Residents - Job you will find the criminals. Simply press A on one and select to arrest him. Note that it'll take time for the police to catch them.

  • Have a full Ministry cabinet

    Build a ministry and recruit a minister for each position.

  • Fire a Minister because of his gaffe

    A gaffe will randomly occur if you have ministers, so you should always employ some. Penultimo will inform you when one happens, then just fire the minister.

  • Hire an unemployed citizen as a Minister

    Start a mission, build a ministry right away. Lock all job slots on all buildings, check the ministry for an applicable minister of defense, fire that person from the palace and lock those job slots too. After the person shows up as 'unemployed' under Almanac -> List -> Residents - Education -> High School, nominate him/her as minister of defense.

  • Clean an Oil Spill in less than 4 months

    Oil spills are random. There is nothing specific that you can do to trigger them.

    When an oil spill occurs, select it and choose to immediately clean it up. It'll cost you a lot of money ($40000 - $50000), but gets the achievement done. 

  • Put out 10 buildings on fire in a single mission

    Have a few fire stations. The firefighters will automaticly work on any fires. The best missions for this are #10: 'Independence Day', but it is even easier to get in #15: 'Best Served Cold' due to continuous sabotage when you are required to build houses. Just delay building the condominiums and mansions until you have your achievement.

  • Survive 3 Volcanic eruptions in a single mission

    Most islands have a volcano. Volcanic eruptions happen randomly and won't kill you, you just have to see three of them in one mission to get the achievement.

  • Survive a Tornado Outbreak with no human casualties

    You don't need a fully upgraded weather station. Just the upgrade that detects Tornados. It will prevent deaths during randomly occurring tornadoes. Then just wait for a tornado.

  • Have no dry fields at the end of a Drought

    During a drought, select a dry field around your farms and choose to manually water it. Do this with all dry fields until the drought ends. Pause the game time on the beginning of each month and keep looking for dry fields.When a drought is going to occur you get a warning that it is coming. Select the option to limit people from wasting water. You are able to get the achievement without any input on fields from selecting this option.

  • Survive a Tsunami with no human casualties

    You don't need a fully upgraded weather station. Just the upgrade that detects Tsunamis. This requires electricity to purchase. It will prevent deaths during randomly occurring tsunamis. Then just wait for a tsunami.

  • Unlock 20 Blueprints in a single mission

    Buy all the blueprints in the building tabs you can find.

  • Generate 1 000 MW of electricity in a Nuclear Power Plant

    Build a nuclear power plant. Make sure you have enough import funds and space on the freighter import Uranium (you can change this values on the dock). Now get a full staff for your power plant, their experience will grow over time, and so will the amount of electricity generated.

  • Have a Nuclear Power Plant and a Nuclear Program built on your island

    Build a nuclear power plant and then a nuclear program anywhere on the island. You just need to have both at once.

  • Distribute more than 1 000 Luxury Goods from a Shopping mall

    In the mission 'No One Left Behind' you will have to build 2 shopping malls. Switch one of them to 'Outlet Store'. Selling 1000 luxury goods will finish in a short time after you have both. You can also do it on any other mission, of course.

  • Buy all upgrades for a Chemical Plant

    Build a chemical plant and purchase all upgrades.

  • Earn more than $30 000 from selling Tropican art in a Museum of Modern Art

    Build a museum of modern art and switch it to 'Promote Tropican Art'. It will sell art ever so often, the achievement will unlock in time.

  • Gain $15 000 for your Swiss account from a Customs Office

    Build a customs office and switch it to 'Customs duty evasion'. It'll unlock after some time has passed and your exports keep going.

  • Have one of your clones die instead of you during an assassination attempt

    Two knowns ways to achieve:

    1. Have a secret police, whenever it discovers an assassin, choose to send a clone after him. There is a certain chance that the assassin will shoot your clone. If it happens, the achievement is yours.
    2. Have an academy of science. Should any assassin try to shoot El presidente, he will kill a clone instead.
  • Kill 5 rebels at once with a trap in your Mausoleum

    Buy a mausoleum and upgrade it with booby traps. Don't use Military Modernization. Make sure your people are not too happy so they keep becoming rebels, they need to outnumber your army. The best missions for this are No. 6 'Bickering Factions' and No. 13 'The Blind Revolution'. Once you think there are enough of them, save the game and use the edict 'lure the rebels', they will attack your mausoleum. After the rebels win, the mausoleum will blow up, taking out all the rebels around it. It works if there are a lot around, not if they already fled or are still walking out of the blast radius. Your army shouldn't be too small (I fired most, but not all), because all the rebels actually need to be in the place before they win. The trait 'Coward' might help. 

  • Have a Roller Coaster near a Ferris Wheel and an Aqua park

    Build a Ferris Wheel, an Aqua Park and a Roller Coaster right next to each other.

  • Buy all upgrades for a Weather Station

    You will come across this achievement while going for Head for High Ground and Tornado Valley.

  • Have both a Dungeon and a Colonial Museum in the same mission

    In some missions like #4: 'IMPORTant Business' and #12: 'The Olympic Heist', you can upgrade 2 existing ruins on the map, make one a dungeon and one a museum.

  • Have Character Trait at level 5

    See Expert achievement description.

  • Have 3 Character Traits at level 5

    See Expert achievement description.

  • Expert

     

    30

    Have all Character Traits at level 5

    When you start a mission, choose custom avatar and select traits on the last page. You will need to upgrade all these traits to the maximum. Finishing one campaign mission will level up all selected traits by one level. You need to complete 51 missions or sandbox games to get this. The easiest way is to just go for god mode sandbox games with a duration of 10 years. You don't actually have to do anything during these 10 years, so just confirm any messages you get and keep repeating, till you have one star left to do (or one star per trait), then start a sandbox game without god mode and play through it normally. God Mode locks any kind of achievement, it will also prevent you from getting this one, so disable it for your final round.

  • Import 2 000 food

    Purchase some marketplaces and allow them to import food. If you don't build any ranches, fishermen's wharves or corn farms, it'll unlock even faster.

  • Import 10 000 resources

    This will unlock during the campaign mission 4: 'IMPORTant Business', you have to import 10000 resources. Build some industry buildings and allow imports for them, it'll unlock quickly.

  • Issue an Execution order on a citizen called Juanito

    Have some army men and go to the Almanac -> Lists -> Residents - Origin and keep looking for someone called Juanito. 'Origin' makes looking for him easier, since the name is Spanish/Hebrew. I found him coming from Spain, certain other countries might be possible, too. When you find him, just select him and order your army to kill him.

  • Issue the Quick-build command on 10 constructions

    Purchase a building and instead of having it built by the people, select 'Quick Build' after selecting the construction site. Do this 10 times. It doubles the cost of buildings.

 

Secret achievements

  • Made Tropico the best country on the planet

    Finish campaign mission 5: 'Tropico Above All'

  • You escaped the wrath of your opponents

    Finish campaign Mission 8: 'Survival'

  • Found out who the Mastermind behind your downfall is

    Finish campaign Mission 17: 'Forgiveness'

  • Fulfilled Presidente's dreams for Tropico

    Finish campaign Mission 20: 'Tropican Utopia'

DLC: Modern Times

There are 10 achievements with a total of 250 points

  • Have a Babel Tower with 50 employees

    You unlock The Babel Tower in 1996. Once unlocked, build it under Welfare & Economy structures. It costs $120,000, upkeep $120/month, requires 50MW of electricity.

    Following this, hire 50 uneducated foreign employees to quickly fill the building and unlock the achievement.

  • Have a Ziggurat with 50 families as tenants

    You unlock Ziggurat in 1994. Once unlocked, build it under Housing structures. It costs $100,000, upkeep is $150/month and it requires 100MW of electricity.

    Tip: Set the rent of the Ziggurat to $1 and raise the rent of all other types of housing. By a lot. You will then be able to fill the building more quickly.

  • Renovate your Palace

    Achievement requires four steps to satisfy.

    1. Reach 250 population.

    2. Reach at least $20,000 in your Swiss Bank Account.

    3. Reach 60 in population happiness.

    4. Pay $20,000 from the Treasury for your 'Presidency.' 

    Tip: You won’t necessarily reach the requirements for each step in order, but wait for steps 1 - 3 to be complete before actioning step 4.

    Once you complete Step 4, your palace will automatically quick-upgrade.

  • Build 4 Bio Farms and 4 Organic Ranches in a single mission

    Bio Farms and Organic Ranches become available between 1970-1975. Ranches and Farms costs $4,000 and $5,000 respectively, without discounts.

  • Build a Diamond Cathedral before 1990

    The Diamond Cathedral unlocks around 1988. It costs $40,000.

  • Build an Aerodrome and a Seven-star hotel in a single mission

    The Seven-Star Hotel unlocks in 1979 (replacing the High-Rise Hotel). It costs $30,000.

    The Aerodrome unlocks in 1983 (replacing the Airport). It costs $24,000.

    Once both are built, you should unlock the achievement.

 

Secret achievements

  • Resolved the Great Tropican Crisis

    Awarded for winning Modern Times Campaign Level 1. Unmissable.

    Tip: Build a gold mine and invest in cattle ranches early. Cattle ranches pay off as the export price is increased a number of times.

    Tip: Can pay to hold off completing the requirements of resetting your Panic Meter, so that you have a little extra time to develop your economy. This put s you in a better position to meet the next resetting requirement on time.

    Tip: For the last objective you will be tasked with arresting 17 criminals. To do this you will need multiple prisons, as when the panic meter hits 100, more criminals will be released. You can kill any excess.

  • Learned the true name of your enemy

    Awarded for winning Modern Times Campaign Level 4. Unmissable.

    Tip: You will have to do a lot of rebuilding during this level, so make sure you have Construction Offices. Save your progress whenever you see the "Disaster Imminent" notification. Earthquakes are the most dangerous natural disaster on this level.

  • Foiled the Conclave's plans

    Awarded for winning Modern Times Campaign Level 6. Unmissable.

  • Completed the Modern Times campaig

    Awarded for winning Modern Times Campaign Level 12. Unmissable.

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