Marvel Ultimate Alliance Achievement Guide & Road Map

Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Marvel Ultimate Alliance Achievement Guide

Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 4/10
- Solo Only (Offline): 2 [75]
- Solo or Co-Op (Online or Offline): 56 [1175]
- Approximate time to 1250 leeching Hard save: 20-25 hours
- Approximate time to 1250 doing Hard yourself: 30-35 hours
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 2
- Missable achievements: Yes
- Does difficulty affect achievements: Yes
- Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No
- Extra equipment needed?: No, but extra controllers speeds up a few achievements

Introduction:
UNLEASH THE GREATEST SUPER HERO ALLIANCE EVER. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance lets players create their ultimate team from the largest superhero alliance ever as they engage in an epic quest to determine the fate of the Marvel universe. Players can create and control their own completely unique team, selecting from the largest roster of legendary superheroes ever assembled in one game, including Spiderman, Wolverine, Captain America, Ironman, and The Thing. Through the epic campaign, the heroes will battle, team-up, and interact with over 140 characters from the Marvel universe and ultimately confront notorious villains such as Dr. Doom, Galactus and The Masters of Evil.

Step 1a: Normal Playthrough
If you don't know someone or don't think you'll be able to find someone who has beaten the game on Hard to help you get the Excelsior achievement, you'll need to start your game on Normal to be able to unlock Hard at the end. If you will have help for that, feel free to play on Easy instead (Step 1b), but read this step for tips on the story mode.

During this playthrough you will want to make sure you use this collectible guide to find all the action figures and simulator discs. You can ignore any of the stat upgrades and sketch books if you want, they are not used to unlock anything achievement-related, but some of the sim discs are missable, so be careful about getting those as soon as you can. Also be sure to switch characters whenever you get 175 kills (or 250 if using a DLC character) so that you can gradually work on unlocking all the costumes. This will save some time later.

Other things to work on: finishing moves (combos), throwing enemies off ledges, make sure you play the crane game in Murderworld to unlock Blade, check the DLC achievements for four missable achievements to ensure you have the proper characters at the right times, and do all the trivia questions.

Step 1b: Easy Playthrough
If you'll have someone helping you get the Excelsior achievement, there is no need to play on Normal, so begin on Easy and play through the game. Follow all the other suggestions in 1a though.

Step 2: Arcade Wins
Using a second controller or a friend, get the 100 arcade wins out of the way now. You'll want to do these now, as you'll get a ton of credits to unlock upgrades for your character, which will help in the next step.

Step 3: Simulator Golds
Now that you have a bunch of money to upgrade suits and character abilities, tackle all the simulations and get gold rank on each of them. During any of the missions where you can select your own team, be sure to select characters that you still need kills with and not ones with all their kill-related costumes already unlocked.

Step 4a: Hard Playthrough
If you do not know anyone with a Hard save, start a second playthrough now. You will be able to bring all your stats and unlocks over with you, though you'll want to make sure you've completed all the simulation disc challenges on a lower setting before doing this, otherwise they will ramp up in difficulty.

Step 4b: Hard Save Leech
If you have a friend or can find someone online who has beaten the game in Hard mode, you can quickly get the achievement for beating the game on Hard by having them invite you to their game and fighting Doom. Takes less than ten minutes.

Step 5: Unlock All Costumes
Likely the last thing you'll need to do is finish unlocking all the character costumes. Since you got Gold on all the sim missions already (if you followed this Road Map), you'll just need to rack up kills. Load up an Asgard sim mission with four characters who still need costumes, unlock them all by killing the infinite spawns, then finish the mission and start it again with a new set of characters.

[XBA would like to thank The Pants Party for this Roadmap]

Mandarin's Downfall

45
The evil Mandarin was crushed by the forces of good.
(1)
Story related and cannot be missed.
Mephisto's Defeat

45
Mephisto was struck down.
(1)
Story related and cannot be missed.
The Trickster

45
Loki was defeated.
(2)
Story related and cannot be missed.
The Power Cosmic

45
The mighty Galactus was toppled.
(1)
Story related and cannot be missed.
Doomed Ending

45
Dr. Doom was utterly defeated.

Story related and cannot be missed.
Scarlet Swashbuckler

30
Daredevil was unlocked as a playable hero.
(1)
To unlock Daredevil, you need to collect five action figures during the story. There are 11 of these total, so there is room to miss a few and you can always come back to the locations to find them. Use this guide to find all the collectibles.
Wakandan Royalty

30
Black Panther was unlocked as a playable hero.
(6)
To unlock Black Panther, you need to collect five action figures during the story. There are 12 of these total, so there is room to miss a few and you can always come back to the locations to find them. Use this guide to find all the collectibles.
Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

30
Nick Fury was unlocked as a playable hero.
(2)
Story related and cannot be missed.
Surfs Up

30
Silver Surfer was unlocked as a playable hero.
(14)
To unlock Silver Surfer, you need to get at least a Bronze medal on every simulation disc in the game. This achievement is missable, as there are a few sim discs that can be missed during the story and their locations no longer returned to later in free roam. Use this guide to find all the collectibles, and refer to "Golden Age of Comics" for sim disc tips.
Dragon Slayer

15
Fin Fang Foom was defeated.

Story related and can not be missed.
Blue Screen of Death

15
M.O.D.O.K was defeated.
(1)
Story related and can not be missed.
Underwater Battle

15
Tigershark and Attuma were defeated.
(1)
Story related and can not be missed.
Swimming with the Fish

15
The mighty Kraken was defeated.
(1)
Story related and can not be missed.
Defeated Grey Gargoyle

15
Grey Gargoyle was defeated.

Story related and can not be missed.
Game Over

15
Arcade was defeated.
(1)
Story related and can not be missed.
Son of a Devil

15
Blackheart was defeated.
(1)
Story related and can not be missed.
The Executioner's Blade

15
Executioner and Enchantress were defeated.

Story related and can not be missed.
Giant Relief

15
Ymir fell to the forces of good.
(1)
Story related and can not be missed.
Warrior's Path

15
Gladiator was defeated.

Story related and can not be missed.
Deathbird's Defeat

15
Deathbird was crushed.

Story related and can not be missed.
Titanic Victory

15
Titannus was defeated.

Story related and can not be missed.

Golden Age of Comics

30
Attained gold on all comic missions
(4)
You should have a good bit of coins to help level up some of your weaker characters' costumes to help with the sim missions if you've done "The Destroyer" and got 100 Arcade wins. You'll want to focus on defense and attack before anything else. If you have a suit with XP bonus or something like that, don't bother upgrading that stat. You can also play around with the equipped piece of gear, but that won't make a huge difference.

To get a gold on a character's sim missions, you will need to hit a target point total. Most of the character-specific missions have a set number of enemies to kill, and the deciding factor will be how long it takes you to complete the mission. Make sure you stay in each room until enemies stop spawning, but move as quick as you can otherwise. If you can kill every enemy and complete the mission in about 8 minutes or less, you'll be in good shape.

Getting gold is much easier on these three levels due to infinitely spawning enemies: Murderworld (bumper cars), Asgard (anywhere before the boss), and Omega Base (console room). Simply spend a few minutes here and get all the way to your point goal (or perhaps 2-3k under) and then finish the level. Even if you take a long time, you'll get a few thousand for your time bonus to help out if you stopped killing enemies prior to the goal.

The only really annoying simulation was Captain America's for me. For the Winter Soldier fight, make sure you reset the countdown to get more time. You can't kill him in 40 seconds, so just attack for about 20 and then reset the timer (you'll need to run around and hit three of the consoles), then continue attacking him. The rest of the challenges, especially any of the "Vs" challenges, were pretty straightforward. Always upgrade your suits when possible and pump all your skill points into one major skill that will do the most damage and you'll be golden (pun intended).
The Ultimate Super Hero

50
Defeated 4000 enemies.
(6)
This achievement tracks everything you do in the game. To get all of the costumes, gold medals, and complete the game a minimum of one time (two if you don't have help with Hard mode), this will easily come along the way.
Marvel Geek

5
Answered 15 Trivia questions correctly
(2)
Refer to "Marvel Master" for more information.
Comic God

15
Answered 20 Trivia Questions Correctly In A Row

Refer to "Marvel Master" for more information.
Marvel Master

10
Answered 150 Trivia questions correctly.
(3)
There are a total of 200 trivia questions in the game, 50 per Act. Each time you get to a new "hub" (Stark Tower, Dr. Strange's House, Valhalla, and Attilan) you will want to interact with the trivia machine and answer all the questions. Make sure you don't mess up the answers of at least 20 in a row, and you'll have all the trivia achievements after using the Act 3 machine. I'd still suggest doing the questions in Act 4, as they are worth a ton of XP. You can find a complete list of all the answers here. The order of the questions never changes, and if you do answer one incorrectly, you'll need to answer them all in order again to return to it.
I have a friend

5
Completed a level with at least 1 other player.

Refer to "Ultimate Team Alliance" for more information.
Super Hero Team

15
Completed 25 levels with at least 1 other player.
(27)
Refer to "Ultimate Team Alliance" for more information.
Excelsior!

50
Beat Marvel: Ultimate Alliance in Hard Mode
(12)
As mentioned in the Roadmap, there are two ways to get this: first, you can either complete the game in Normal mode to unlock Hard and then complete the game again on Hard, or secondly you can simply be invited to someone else's game who has already beaten the game on Hard and have them extract to the Doom fight. Whichever way you do it, once you beat Doom on Hard difficulty, the achievement will unlock.
Fall to Death

10
Threw 5 Enemies off a Ledge
(1)
Refer to "Widowmaker" for more information.
Scared of Heights

20
Threw 50 Enemies off a ledge
(1)
Refer to "Widowmaker" for more information.
Widowmaker

30
Threw 500 enemies off a ledge.
(7)
If you would like to get this out of the way while you play the story, there is a perfect spot during the Mephisto levels. When you get to the section where you need to complete the five trials to save Ghost Rider, you will come to a trial where you need to throw imps into the lava in the middle. The imps will spawn infinitely here (but only during the story), so you can kill your AI characters so they don't get in the way and then just throw the imps off the side forever. Using Hulk is nice for this as it is easier to direct the throws. Invisible Woman and Dr. Strange have nice throws as well with their skills (Telekinesis and Levitate, respectively).

If you have already completed the story and need additional kills, you can use either the extraction point Sepulcher which will have a ton of enemies to throw off the side after you cross the bridge, or any of the numerous Asgard sim missions (such as Piledriver), which has a nice spot on the big bridge toward the end. The Asgard mission has infinite spawns, while Sepulcher has dozens of enemies to spawn, but will eventually run out. If you run out of enemies, you can extract to six other zones and return, and the enemies will be back.
Battle Tested

5
Won 1 Arcade Mode Level

Refer to "The Destroyer" for more information.
Battle Hardened

15
Won 20 Arcade Mode Levels.
(1)
Refer to "The Destroyer" for more information.
Teh Mast3r

25
Won 15 Arcade Mode levels consecutively.
(1)
Refer to "The Destroyer" for more information.
Mad Skillz

10
Win 3 Arcade levels consecutively

Refer to "The Destroyer" for more information.
The Destroyer

25
Won 100 Arcade Mode Levels.
(26)
For this achievement, you will need at least one other player online or one controller with a Gamertag locally. It is much easier to do on your own with a second controller, but that is up to you. There are two spots that are great for this. One will require lots of reloading of old saves, the other you can basically do in one sitting. Either takes about the same amount of time (60-90 minutes).

I personally used the Sepulcher method. Extract to this location while you are in arcade mode (make sure you didn't select cooperative mode on accident), and then jump off the cliff with the second controller. With your main profile, you will need to get a minimum of four kills for the game to register that the level has actually been played. Except the lone fire giant, all the enemies here can be killed in one punch. There is also ample opportunity to throw them off the ledge to work on the "Widowmaker" achievement. Return to the extraction point and use the portal nearby to exit. You should get a results screen, and this counts as one win. After you spawn on the other side, use the portal again to return, and repeat this process 99 more times.

The other method is on Wrenchworks. In this method, you will have to save the game outside of Omega Base and kill the four enemies there. Head to the end of the level and exit for one win, then use the doorway to return and kill the four enemies you ran past near the exit; leave again for a second win. At this time, you'll need to reload the save you made and repeat this process. I don't like this method due to all the saving and reloading, plus the enemies take longer to kill. However, this has been the preferred method since the original game came out, so a ton of people have used it with success.
Teamwork

5
Completed 1 level with 3 other players.

Refer to "Ultimate Team Alliance" for more information.
Ultimate Team Alliance

15
Completed 25 levels with 3 other players.
(24)
For this achievement, you will need one of two things: three real people to connect with online, or three controllers with extra Gamertags available locally. You can either play through the game normally in co-op to get this over time, or if you want to quickly get it (especially if you're using four controllers by yourself), you can simply load up Stark Tower in Act 1 and enter Iron Man's secret lab. Return back to Stark Tower and that is considered one level complete. Repeat 24 times.
Fledgling Super Hero

5
Defeated 10 Enemies

Refer to "The Ultimate Super Hero" for more information.
Legendary Super Hero

15
Defeated 100 Enemies

Refer to "The Ultimate Super Hero" for more information.
Pugilist

5
Performed 5 Finishing Moves

Refer to "Touch of Death" for more information.
Melee Master

15
Performed 50 Finishing Moves
(1)
Refer to "Touch of Death" for more information.
Touch of Death

30
Performed 200 Finishing Moves
(6)
A "finishing move" is actually just a basic attack combo. You can use Stun (,,), Pop-Up (,,), or Trip (,,) to accomplish these. You will be using these often throughout the game, so this should unlock quite early.
Good Samaritan

20
Completed Skrull Cityscape level without defeating a single enemy.
(5)
There are two ways to unlock this achievement. The first is by legitimately playing through this entire level without killing anyone. You'll have to kill off or remove your AI characters, and then you can use a flying character to simply float to the end of the section or a character that can go invisible to sneak through. Once you exit through the door at the end the achievement will unlock.

I'd suggest doing this via the second method though, which is to simply go through the level normally (lots of enemies to throw off ledges), and then once you exit to the next section, use the doorway again to return to Cityscape. Your kill count will be wiped upon entering this area again, so just turn right back around and use the door a third time to unlock the achievement. If you've already passed this section of the game, choose the extraction point "Heights of Progress" in Act 4 to return to the door you'll need to use.
Dressed for Success

45
Unlocked ALL outfits for EVERY hero
(15)
For this achievement, you will need to unlock four outfits for every character (except Moon Knight, he only has three since he has no sim disc). The first outfit for each character starts unlocked. The second outfit is for getting 25 kills with the character. The third outfit requires 175 kills. The fourth outfit requires a Gold on their simulation.

You will obviously need to collect all the sim discs, so make sure you followed the collectible guide during the story. Also be sure to switch what character you're using during the story each time you get to 175 kills. This will cut down on the amount of grinding you have to do later. If you only use one character the entire game, you'll have hundreds if not thousands of extra kills to do later.

Refer to "Golden Age of Comics" for tips on getting simulator Golds.

There are 5 achievements with a total of 100 points

Gamma Garb

20
Unlocked all the outfits for the Hulk.
(4)
Refer to "Creed's Cloth" for more information.
Archer Apparel

20
Unlocked all the outfits for Hawkeye.
(16)
Refer to "Creed's Cloth" for more information.
Optic Outfits

20
Unlocked all the outfits for Cyclops.
(1)
Refer to "Creed's Cloth" for more information.
Teleport Threads

20
Unlocked all the outfits for Nightcrawler

Refer to "Creed's Cloth" for more information.
Mutant Love

20
Cyclops has spoken with Jean.
(9)
Acquired when rescuing Jean Grey from the Pitfall arcade game in Arcade's level. Select Cyclops for your party at the start of the mission 'Doom's Castle' in Act 2. Make your way to the big top, defeat the Clowns, then play the Pitfall arcade game. This achievement will unlock as soon as you complete the Pitfall game. You can not get this by talking to Jean in Dr. Strange's laboratory.

There are 7 achievements with a total of 150 points

Doom's Duds

20
Unlocked all the outfits for Doom.

Refer to "Creed's Cloth" for more information.
Magnetic Regalia

20
Unlocked all the outfits for Magneto.

Refer to "Creed's Cloth" for more information.
Symbiote Skins

20
Unlocked all the outfits for Venom.

Refer to "Creed's Cloth" for more information.
Creed's Cloth

20
Unlocked all the outfits for Sabretooth.

For the eight DLC characters in the game, you simply need to get 250 kills to unlock all three of their extra outfits and unlock their corresponding achievement. The best place to grind these out is either the Sepulcher extraction point, or any of the Asgard simulation missions. Asgard is great because you can make a team of the four DLC heroes and get all those at once since the spawns are unlimited, then just finish the mission and start it again with the four villains to do all of theirs.
Doppelgänger

25
Doom has spoken with himself.
(2)
This achievement must be done during the game's story. If you pass the point of the story to get this, you'll need to start a new game. You will want to make sure you have Doom in your party when you leave Stark Tower at the beginning of Act 5. Doom will need to be alive when you reach the final boss (Doom) to unlock the achievement.
Wrong Claws

25
Sabretooth has been mistaken for Wolverine.
(2)
This achievement must be done during the game's story. If you pass the point of the story to get this, you'll need to start a new game. Make sure you bring Sabretooth with you when you leave Attilan at the beginning of Act 4. Once you encounter Gladiator, if Sabretooth is still alive the achievement will unlock.
Fleeting Allies

20
Magneto has spoken to Xavier.
(3)
This achievement must be done during the game's story. If you pass the point of the story to get this, you'll need to start a new game. Make sure you bring Magneto with you when you leave Dr. Strange's House in the middle of Act 2 (the second time you come here). As soon as you start the level the achievement will unlock.