Overview:
-Estimated achievement difficulty: 2/10
-Offline: 24/24 (1000)
-Online: 0/24 (0)
-Approximate time to earn 1000: 3-4 hours for the first 700, 10-15 hours of mostly AFK simming for the rest.
-Minimum number of playthroughs needed: one game on each of 8 maps.
-Number of missable achievements: None.
-Do cheat codes disable achievements?: None
-Does difficulty affect achievements?: No difficulty settings.
-Glitchy achievements: 'National Conquest'
-Unobtainable achievements: None
-Extra equipment needed?: None


Some portions of this guide and road map were adapted from efforts of borandi in his quick start guide written in 2008.

Introduction:
A-Train HX is a railroad simulator available in PAL and NTSC-J regions (not stackable gamerscore, however). It was not a commercial success and to date is the only Xbox title released by ArtDink. The general concept of the game is to start with some basic infrastructure and build railroads and supporting infrastructure throughout a map to earn money. The game ships with 8 maps although more are available for download via LIVE. There is no DLC.

Instructions on how to use the controls
serves as pause when in game. While it doesn't bring up any new menus, it does stop time, enabling you to manipulate the menus at will. Generally, moves you physically around the map, and are used to move within the menus. and control part of the menu as well, with primarily being used to access the speed and depth menus, while changes sub-menus in the primary menu section.

At the start of each game, it is important to set the speed to maximum. Do this by pressing and then holding until the arrow in the upper right corner of the screen reaches maximum.

Later in the game, especially when going for the Subway Mall achievement, you will need to build underground. To access that area, press twice and then press once and then . Press to exit and resume playing. Your viewpoint should be underground at this point, and you can build tube stations and rail lines. You can build inclined rail to link underground rails with surface rails as well.

Using the D-Pad to scroll the main menu is fairly easy, and things tend to be labeled well. 99% of your gameplay will be done through the main menu. Pay attention to when you can press to change sub menus, such as changing from laying rail to deleting rail, selling vs buying stocks, etc.

How to win a scenario
To "clear" or win each scenario, you have to accumulate $10 billion in cash on hand. This can be cash from operations, loans, or trading in the stock market. Typically, the fastest way to accumulate this is from retail operations and loans. You can continue playing after clearing the scenario.

How to make money
At the start of each scenario, pick a location at the edge of the map where you have flat land all the way to the edge. Each map has at least one edge with enough room, and most have more than one eligible edge.

At this location, you are going to build what is essentially a resource center. Most structures in the game require resources to build, and freight trains deliver those resources. Start by laying five parallel rails from the edge of the map. You want them to be seven spaces long and directly adjacent to each other. At that point, choose Stations in the menu and use to scroll to the Marshaling Yard. Press 9 times to change it from a short 1 line yard to a long 5 line yard. If you look at the yellow image on the map, note that one edge of the image shows blocks at the edge of the tracks. These blocks indicate the end of the lines, and when placing the yard on the map, they have to be at the far end from the incoming rail lines or they will prevent the trains from running. Press to rotate the structure to ensure the blocks are away from the rails you laid.

The next step is to build trains, one for each line. Go to the train menu, use to select an empty train slot, and press to buy a train. Scroll through and find the DC4 and use to toggle it to layout 7 (Max Cargo 12). Place it on one of the available tracks by using to move to the track and pressing . Repeat this for each of the five tracks, and then while the selector over one of the tracks in the marshaling yard, press . Change the bottom choice from "Load and Unload" to "Unload", then press to apply that choice to all trains at the yard.

Now that you have resources coming in, you need a place to put them. In the Station menu, choose Material Yard. This is a flat square where resources get placed and are ready for use. Build a U-shape around the Marshaling Yard, three deep in all directions. On maximum speed, this will fill up in a hurry.

All around the edge of the material yards, start building convenience stores. These are small, cost around $4 million each, and become more profitable over time. They will be your primary source of income throughout the game. If you wrap around the material yards six deep with convenience stores, you can win any given scenario in about 30 minutes. Note that you don't have enough money at the start of any scenario to build that many stores, so you have to build some, wait for income, build more, etc. Be cautious to avoid running out of cash. You need some for operation of the various trains, while on April 1st you pay income tax and on May 1st you pay property tax. Those can each run over $100 million even in the early game, and several billion later.

Once you have an outer U-shaped layer six deep of convenience stores, your resource center is complete! Just wait while the money rolls in. If you are looking simply to clear the map and not play after that, you can borrow enough money to win by the time you have around $3 billion in cash on hand.


First map - Clear River and Rice Paddies
For your first game, rather than doing the first map that is in the scenario list, choose Clear River and Rice Paddies. This gives you the most money for your starting pile, so it makes it easier when learning the game. You will start by making a resource center as detailed above, unlocking Company Expansion, and then focus on earning $10 billion. When you win the scenario, you should unlock Harmony With Nature, The Great Leap Forward, and probably Industry Leader as well. Keep playing this scenario after saving to unlock these achievements: Property Baron, Sign of Success, Factory Head, Top Taxpayer, Station Expansion, Tube Expansion, Bullet Train in Service, Maglev Train in Service, Public Transport King, Port of Call, Take to the Skies, Tourist Trap, Leisure Industry Leader, and City Expansion.

Second Map - A Town with Two Rivers
Start by building a resource center, and focus on building housing (use the Flat 5) to slowly build up the population. Don't go too fast however, as the taxes on the housing is ridiculous. Once you have over $5 billion, start playing the stock market. When you win the scenario, we will have three goals to do in the end-game: Bustling Metropolis, Top Trader, and Subway Mall Expansion.

Third Map - North/South of the Mountains
The goal here is Railway Microstate. Build a resource center and wait for 30 minutes until that unlocks.

Fourth Map - Isolated Region
The goal for this map is Railway Kingdom.

Final Four Maps - National Conquest (potentially glitchy achievement)
Just beat the final four maps by building a resource center and waiting to clear the scenario. Each map should take 30-60 minutes. For some people it may not unlock after beating the 8th map. To reduce the chances of this happening, you can keep your final win save for each map as you go, and make sure you don't download any maps from the servers. However, if you do experience the glitch, simply clear the first map again and it should unlock, giving you the full 1000 in the game.

 


[x360a would like to thank Creech for this road map]

A-Train HX Achievement Guide

Printable Guide
Show completed achievements
Show secret achievements

There are 24 achievements with a total of 1000 points

  • Clear all included game maps.

    This will be the last achievement you earn. "Clearing" a map means having $10 billion ($10,000,000,000) in cash on hand. There are eight maps. Each map can be cleared in roughly 30-45 minutes by following the procedure outlined in the road map to build a resource center. If you are trying to get this achievement and nothing else, it would take roughly 4-6 hours, most of which involves waiting while each map earns money.

  • Total railway assets exceed the total of non-railway assets by over 15% when the game is cleared.

    To earn this achievement, when you clear the scenario your railway assets have to exceed other property and stock by 15%. While technically cash is an asset, it is not counted for this achievement as such.

    Start a scenario on Isolated Region and build a resource center on the north edge, east of the centerline marker on the map. You will be building a Maglev rail to the west of the centerline and blocking the one path on this map where a Maglev train can fit will cause difficulties. Wait until you have around $9 billion in cash, and save the scenario so you can reload if you make a mistake.

    Open the Market menu and use to go to the Bank submenu. Use to change the loan amount. You will need to open multiple loans until you are at $9.99 billion. DO NOT GO OVER THIS AMOUNT! Once you have enough money, press to close the Market and press once to go to the Project menu. Press , and then use and to line up the Maglev at a permitted spot (the line will turn blue.) Press to build it, and unpause time by pressing .

    It takes just over 4 months to build it, so the only tricky part is to not exceed $10 billion while waiting. Once you are back up to $6-7 billion, open the Station menu and build Materials Yards over about 2/3 of your convenience stores. You need to watch your cash and aim for stability...you don't want to lose money, but you don't want to increase any more either. Your may have to adjust this several times while waiting for the Maglev to be constructed.

    Once construction is complete, you are ready to clear the scenario. Open the Report menu and use to go to the Balance Sheet. On the right under Total Assets, look at the Subsidiaries line. These are your convenience stores, and are likely worth far more than your bullet train. Build Materials Yards on top of them until you are down to about $5 billion in Subsidiaries, then go to the Market menu and take out enough loans to reach $10 billion. The scenario will clear and you will unlock the achievement (it unlocks after updating the leaderboards if you choose to do so).

  • Total rail length is less than 300 when the game is cleared.

    The description is apparently slightly off. The achievement appears to unlock only if you have never exceeded 300 total rail length at any point in the scenario. As such, the map to play this on is North/South of the Mountains, where your starting rail is around 70. Build a resource center (which only adds 35 rail) and wait to hit $10 billion.

  • Blocks of trees exceed 300 when the game is cleared.

    You can earn this on any map simply by building nothing but a resource center and waiting to clear the scenario. If you are following the roadmap, you will get this on your first map, Clear River and Rice Paddies.

  • Clear the game within 5 years.

    You can earn this on any map simply by building nothing but a resource center and waiting to clear the scenario. If you are following the roadmap, you will get this on your first map, Clear River and Rice Paddies.

  • Number of underground malls exceeds 100.

    The achievement description indicates you need 101 or more underground malls, but it unlocks when you reach 100. A subway mall is a passive structure, in that you cannot build it directly. Instead, your population builds them when the circumstances are correct. You need to have a large population, multiple tube stations (underground railway, essentially) and underground materials yards. Because of the population requirement, I recommend working on this simultaneously with Bustling Metropolis. It can be completed on any map.

    This is likely the single longest achievement in the game, but can be completed while sleeping or other AFK activities. Start by building a resource center and reach around $5 billion. Build a second resource center, but instead of convenience stores build Flat 5 (under Construction, Housing) until you have 80-100k population. You can view your current population under the Report menu. It is the fourth line from the top on the City Info report, and is labeled as "Pop. Change/Year." The label really refers to the graph below as the number on this line is your current population.

    You are going to build tube stations underneath your housing resource center, so start by pressing twice to select the Cutaway menu, use to select the second level from the bottom, and press and then . The screen should largely be orange at this point, indicating you are underground. Proceed to build a two-line underground railroad that starts at the edge of the map and goes lengthwise underneath your housing resource center. Along the way, build 6 2-line tube stations, each one 3-5 rail away from the next. Try to keep all the stations close to the housing above, which means you may need to build the line in a U-shape.

    When placing the tube stations, note they have a platform for people to walk on. This is the side that the subway malls will be built from. Place two Material Yards on the other side of each station, leaving the platform side free for the Subway Malls to be built. If you make a U-shape, make sure these sides are facing the outside of the U to avoid potential interference with each other.

    Build two trains: a DC-4 with layout 2, and a Tube train (all the way on the bottom of the list when purchasing trains). For each station in the line, you need to set the DC-4 to Unload only. For the Tube train, you can delete the rail leading off the map to speed things up a little, so that it only shuttles between the stations.

    At this point, you just have to wait. I set it to run overnight, and it took about 12 hours total over two nights for 100 stores to build. If you are following the road map, now is a good time to work on Top Trader achievement.

  • Total length of rails in tunnels exceeds 100.

    On any map, simply build 100 lengths of rail underground and the achievement will unlock. Note that the achievement description is incorrect as it unlocks at exactly 100. To build rail underground, press twice to access the cutaway, choose the second box from the bottom, press , . Open the Rail menu, choose Flat Rail, and place 100 pieces. They do not have to touch each other or lead anywhere, although obviously it is quicker to place long strips of rail at a time.

    If you are following the road map, this can be done on the first map when you are working on Public Transport King, or in conjunction with Subway Mall Expansion.
     

  • City population exceeds 100,000.

    This can be done on any map. Start by building a resource center and reach around $5 billion. Build a second resource center, but instead of convenience stores build Flat 5 (under Construction, Housing) until you have 80-100k population. You can view your current population under the Report menu. It is the fourth line from the top on the City Info report, and is labeled as "Pop. Change/Year." The label really refers to the graph below as the number on this line is your current population. Note that on property tax day (May 1 in all but the first year of a scenario) the taxes on the number of flats required can be $3-4 billion, so be prepared and don't over spend.

    If you are following the road map, you will get this while working on Subway Mall Expansion.

  • Number of stations exceeds 30.

    The achievement actually unlocks right at 30. This can be done on any map simply be accessing the Stations menu and building 30 stations. If you are following the road map, you should do this on the first map after you have cleared the scenario.

  • Total rail length exceeds 2,000.

    This achievement actually unlocks right at 2,000. You can see how much rail is laid on the map by checking the Reports screen. You can earn this achievement on any map at any time simply by choosing the Rail menu and laying flat rail. If you are following the road map, you should do this on the first map after clearing the scenario.

  • Total assets exceed 30 billion.

    You can earn this achievement on any map. Assets include cash, stocks, rail, factories, housing, etc. Basically anything in the game other than bank loans. Building a resource center as defined in the road map is the fastest method to earn this achievement. If you follow the road map, you will earn this on the first map before you have cleared the scenario.

  • Number of factories exceeds 30.

    The achievement actually unlocks right at 30. This can be done on any map simply be accessing the Construction menu and building 30 factories. If you are following the road map, you should do this on the first map after you have cleared the scenario.

  • Number of leisure facilities exceeds 20.

    The achievement actually unlocks right at 20. This can be done on any map simply be accessing the Construction menu and building 30 spas (found under Leisure). If you are following the road map, you should do this on the first map after you have cleared the scenario.

  • Number of your properties exceeds 60.

    The achievement actually unlocks right at 60. This can be done on any map simply be accessing the Construction menu and building 60 structures of any kind. If you are following the road map, you will get this on the first map when you are building a resource center.

  • Number of other companies' properties exceeds 1,000.

    The only way to have another company own property is to build something and then sell it through the Market menu. The challenge here is that the AI will start selling off its assets if it has a lot of one item. As such, the best way to earn this achievement is to build a resource center and separate out the convenience stores into 10x10 blocks. Build ten of those groups of 10x10, then pause the game. Save your game in a new slot as you will want to reload after this done. Go to the Market menu and use to scroll to Property, and use the D-pad to change the sub menu to your stores. Press 1,000 times to sell them to the AI, unpause the game, and the achievement should unlock after about 10 seconds. If it doesn't, this was likely caused by not selling the full 1,000 stores, so pause the game again to prevent the AI from selling anything, sell more of the stores to the AI, and unpause again.

    If you are following the road map, you should do this on the first map after clearing the scenario.

  • Share trading profits exceed 10 billion.

    This can take a while, but is pretty straight forward. If you are following the road map, do this on your second map after building the necessary tube stations for Subway Mall Expansion. The easiest way to do this is to start with $4-5 billion and open the Market menu. Use to go to the Stock Market and use the D-Pad if necessary to select Buy Shares. Change shares purchased to the maximum of 10,000,000.

    To make money on stock market, as in real life, you want to buy low and sell high. The advantage of this simulator is that it has a cyclical nature that is only psuedo random. You lose 10% of the total price for each transaction, so you need a fairly wide margin to make money. I recommend anything under $8 as the purchase indicator, and anything over $12 to sell. While the game sometimes drops as low as $5 or $6/share, and goes as high as $20, that seems to be pretty rare. The general cycle was $7-14, so those cut offs work well to frequently be able to make money.

    Anytime a stock price is in the purchase range, buy 10,000,000 shares. Anytime it is in the sell range, sell all the shares you have in that stock. It is easier to pause and scroll through all 50 or so stocks available so that you have the time to purchase or sell all appropriate stocks. Generally what will happen is that you will end up owning 10,000,000 shares in each company, wait a while, then sell each off as it rises above $12. You then wait until the market drops again, rinse and repeat. Not a fast process by any means, but it does work and depending upon the market cycles, should take less than 2 hours.

  • Profits from property exceed 20 billion.

    This refers to profits from anything except trains or the stock market. Simply build a resource center and wait for the achievement to unlock. If you are following the road map, this will unlock some time after clearing the scenario on the first map.

  • Bank interest paid exceeds 500 million.

    The achievement tracks interest paid on loans. The amount you can borrow is based on your total assets, so this is easier to do later in the game. Open the Market menu, use to select the bank, and change the amount of the loan to the maximum of $1 billion. Take out the loan, repay it immediately, rinse and repeat until the achievement unlocks.

    If you are following the road map, you should do this after clearing the scenario on your first map.

  • Taxes paid exceed 10 billion.

    You can earn this on any map. Simply build a resource center as outlined in the road map and wait. Both income taxes and property taxes contribute toward this total. If you are following the road map, this will unlock on the first map shortly after clearing the scenario.

  • Construct an airport.

    This can be done on any map. Simply build an airport (found in the Construction menu) near any place with a Materials Yard. If you are following the road map, place it near a resource center at some point after clearing the scenario on the first map.

  • Construct a port.

    This can be done on any map. Simply build a port (found in the Construction menu) on any flat piece of shore. Note that the port building needs to be in the water, and the flat materials yard that is attached needs to be on the land. If you are following the road map, place it on a river after clearing the scenario on the first map.

  • Complete the bullet train project to open a bullet train line.

    This can be done on any map. It requires $600 million in cash and an unobstructed straight path across the map (no mountains). Open the Project menu, use and to align the Bullet Train path until it is yellow (red indicates it is obstructed and cannot be built there) and press . You then need to wait 128 in game days for the construction to complete. If you are following the road map, this should be done after clearing the first scenario on the first map.

  • Complete the linear train project to open a maglev train line.

    This can be done on any map. It requires $9.9 billion in cash and an unobstructed straight path across the map (no mountains). Open the Project menu, select the Maglev Train using , use and to align the Maglev Train path until it is blue (red indicates it is obstructed and cannot be built there) and press . You then need to wait 128 in game days for the construction to complete. If you are following the road map, this will be done after clearing the first scenario on the first map. You can also wait until the fourth map when you are unlocking Railway Kingdom as you will need it for that achievement.

  • Construct all types of landmarks.

    This can be done on any map. The landmarks are available in the Construction menu. Build a resource center if you don't have one, and then simply place one of each landmark around the edge. The achievement will unlock after the last one is built. If you are following the road map, this will be completed after clearing the scenario on the first map.

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