Europa Universalis V: EU5: All Achievements Guide (75/87)

Steam Community guide by Certified Jesus Lover.

Version 1.0 "Lepanto"

Version 1.0 "Lepanto," the initial launch of EU5, released with 50 achievements under the following categories;
13 in "Very Easy"
10 in "Easy"
17 in "Medium"
9 in "Hard"
1 in "Very Hard"

Very Easy Achievements (13/13)

Till Death Do Us Part
Secure a Royal Marriage with another country.
Start as France. Unpause the game.

For the Glory
Diplomatically annex a subject.
Start as England and gift your vassal of Chester the maximum amount of gold. Once your diplomat returns, begin to integrate them. You should be finished before 1339.

Brothers in Arms
Be a secondary participant in a war where any allied participant has 90% warscore.
Part of the benefit of Personal Unions and alliances in EU5 is that the ally country's AI will weigh your power when deciding to declare war. The gist of this strategy is to start as or become a strong country that allows unions, and enter into a union with a neighboring country, or one that neighbors a small neighbor of yours. Enact Assured Offense to make your union partner weigh you in more heavily, which will make them hyper aggressive. Place your standing army close to them and wait for them to declare war, during which you can put in all the leg work and take out the enemy with ease.

City of Cities
Own a core province with at least 100 development.
At game start, set and forget one of your cabinet members to encourage development in your capital province. There are also government reforms and privileges available later in the game that increase monthly development.

Cold War
Have a war without any ongoing conflict for 2 years.
You can cheese this one pretty easily by starting as an isolated nation and getting 100% warscore against your neighboring isolated nation. In my game, I started as the Kitaran Empire and declared war on my only neighbor of Buganda. After stackwiping their army and full occupying them, wait on speed 5 for this achievement to fire.

That is Mine!
Conquer a location.
Start as big country, no cb small neighbor, walk into small neighbor with levies. Profit.
Colonizing also counts for this achievement.

Victorious!
Win a war.
See above guide for "That is Mine!" achievement. Just avoid the colonizing part.

It's Just Business
Create a Market.
Go to Economy > Markets > Create a Market. Choose any location to create a market. You will likely need to take out loans in order to do this. Done.

All in Favor
Pass a Parliament Issue.
Most, if not all nations at game start will need to wait 2-4 years to convene Parliament. Parliament issues are categorized by estate, and the base passing rate seems to be heavily influenced by that estate's power. Go for a nobility issue in addition to giving them a concession, and your pass rate should be 80-100%. Wait the 180 days for the issue to pass and you should obtain this achievement.

Patron of the Arts
Invite an artist.
Start as Castile, left click on Portugal, and go down to 'Invite Artist' under 'Friendly Actions.' After inviting, unpause.

Combined Arms
Have levies, an army, and mercenaries at the same time.
Start as a nation with a standing army, such as England or France. Start a your and raise your levies. While you are in the army tab, recruit a mercenary. The game does not check for a certain number of each, so you can recruit a single merc and get the achievement.

Rule of Law
Change a policy.
This one is relatively straightforward. Go to the Government tab, navigate to 'Laws,' and change your court language. The achievement should fire after you unpause.

Here I Stand
Convert to Lutheranism and unlock 3 Aspects of Faith.
Easiest done as an HRE nation, but any country that starts as Catholic will eventually do. Once the Reformation fires, you can 'Embrace the Reformation' under the situation tab as long as at least 1 of your pops has converted to Lutheran. You might want to wait until a larger portion of your population has converted so as to avoid/lessen a revolt and to not waste precious cabinet members on converting pops. Religious influence for Lutheranism functions similarly to Catholic, so given enough time after converting you will get this achievement.

Easy Achievements (10/10)

Rule Brittania
Starting as England, form Great Britain and be the Naval Hegemon.
The Naval Hegemon is attained by owning the most heavy ships in the world, as well as being a great power. To make forming GB easier, try to isolate and take Scotland during the Hundred Years War. Your starting should be stronger than France's, but if they do cause trouble, handing over parts of Aquitaine is OK. If this achievement is your sole objective for the run, feel free to take out a morbillion loans to build your heavy ships, which may be as much as 30 by age start.

Plus Ultra
As Castile or Spain, have presence in Iberia, Maghreb, the Caribbean, Mesoamerica and Peru.
Going by region, here is how to get this achievement;
Iberia - You already have this requirement by game start.
Maghreb - You can either fight a war against Morocco/Tunis or colonize the islands west of Iberia that are within your colonial range. The latter option is recommended since those islands will serve as a springboard for your colonial range going forward.
Caribbean - This will most likely be the first New World region you discover and if you have done so early enough it will be completely uncolonized. Feel free to colonize any location you want. Anywhere in Hispaniola and Cuba are good choices.
Mesoamerica - As Spain, you will receive a chain of events related to the historical conquest of Tenochtitlan if you have its corresponding region discovered by ~1510. By this point in the game, you should be easily able to curbstomp the owner of Tenochtitlan and allies even with a small stack of 4-5k professional troops.
Peru - Your explorations will need to snake around modern-day Brazil and Argentina until you arrive at the Peruvian coastline. Colonize any coastal location you please.

City of Man's Desire
Starting as the Ottomans, conquer Constantinople and end the Rise of the Turks situation as the strongest Beylik.
As the Ottomans, you will start as the strongest Beylik when the Rise of the Turks launches, which gives you the ability to vassalize and gain cbs on other beyliks. After consolidating Anatolia, wait for the Byzantines to go bankrupt (they usally do). You can check this by hovering over their great power ranking. Bankruptcy is a decaying -100 modifier to score. Invade and take Constantinople in the peace deal.

A Pile of Gold
Own 35 locations which produce gold or silver.
This achievement's threshold was recently increased by 10, so now starting as Yuan no longer works. Instead you will need to play a colonial game and pick up gold locations on the way. However, Yuan still starts with almost 30 gold locations, so you might want to colonize the New World for the remaining few locations.

At Every Continent
Own one location on each continent.
Easiest and earliest done as a colonizing nation (England, France, Castile, Portugal). In a regular colonial game you can head both east and west to get this around midway into the 1500s.

Grand Coalition
Join a Coalition of more than 5 countries.
Start as Milan. Wait a few months until you get an event that gives antagonism against Verona. Without previously spending any diplomats, start a new coalition against them under "Hostile Actions." Use your last four diplomats to invite other countries before unpausing. Depending on your RNG, this may take a few tries for the final country to join on their own.

It Belongs in a Museum!
Gain a new Work of Art.
Start as a moderate-to-large size nation in Europe and wait for the Age of Renaissance to fire. Depending on your RNG, you will get an event to spawn an artist in your country within the first few years. The artist will create his work of art over a few months or years, and when it is finally done you will get an event saying it's complete. Click one of the options and unpause to get this achievement.

A Cabinet of Curiosities
Have a Cabinet Action of all three categories active at the same time.
To get this quickly, you will want to start with a kingdom or empire. Under the dropdown that reads 'Government' on the far right of the screen, you will see 3-4 bars that say "Empty cabinet slot." Click on them to select a cabinet action. You want one of each category (Admin, Diplo, Military) in total. Unpause to get the achievement.

Hearts and Minds
Improve the cultural opinion with another country.
Start as Hungary. Navigate to Bosnia and open 'Diplomatic Actions.' Ask to improve their cultural opinion of you. They should always accept. Alternatively, France has multiple vassals which you can immediately improve cultural opinion of, too.

A Brave New World
Discover the New World.
Start as Greenland. That's it, that's the entire guide.

Medium Achievements (17/17)

Crusader Kings
Win a Crusade or a Jihād.
Start as Egypt and declare a Jihad on your neighbor of Cilicia on May 1st. Your starting levies should be more than enough to win the war.

Lingua Franca
As France, be the Cultural Hegemon.
Hegemons are unlocked in the Age of Discovery. Beforehand, focus on buildings that increase cultural influence, namely libraries (+0.1 monthly influence) and universities (+0.5 influence), both of which can only be built in towns and cities. Once 1437 fires, you should get this achievement without much issue.

Break the Yoke
Break the Tatar Yoke as a Russian country
Start as Muscovy. In 1.1 betas the Golden Horde seems to collapse in civil war fairly consistently early on. When they do, declare war with the Break the Yoke CB and enforce your demand once war score is high enough.

Felix Austria
Starting as Austria, become Emperor of the HRE and be a Great Power.
Becoming HRE Emperor will give you 250 great power points towards your score. Do your best to improve relations with the electors and ally as many electors as possible. Pray the sitting Emperor dies early enough for you to get elected.

Hóngwǔ Dì
As Míng, own the entirety of China and be the leader of the Middle Kingdom.
Start your campaign on 1.1.3 or newer. This was bugged for the first three months of release, so if you couldn't get it then, you can now.
Start as Yuan. There are many events leading up to the Red Turban Rebellion that increases the maluses for Yuan during the Rebellion. You want to take the option that makes them weaker (Between 10% and 5% for example always pick 10%). During the situation itself, you will get events releasing warlord states who declare war on you. Click the first option on all of these except for Ming. Once you are playing as Ming, the rest is pretty straightforward. You have 20 years to unify all of China and annex the other warlords.
After winning the Red Turban rebellion, you will gain a plethora of cores within the China super region, as well as gaining access to the Unify China CB. You need to directly own all of these cores for the achievement to fire successfully.

Just a Little Bit More Patience
Play a campaign from 1337 until 1836.
Acquire a sizable power base until you can automate economy. Speed 5 until 1836.

Potato Potato
Starting as a European country, produce potatoes.
The only region where potatoes exist at game start is Peru. Therefore, you will need to explore and discover Peruvian areas. Once you have done so, open the RGO map and locate an uncolonized location with potatoes. Beeline there and once it is fully colonized you will get the achievement.

The Three Mountains
Form Ryūkyū.
Start as Chuzan. Wait one month and declare a no cb war on either Hokuzan or Nanzan. Walk into their capital and wait until the siege is complete. Take their only location in the peace deal. Declare war on the remaining neighbor the same day you sign your first peace deal and raise levies. Full annex them, and you will now be able to form Ryūkyū.

Doge Coins
Starting as Venice, become the Economic Hegemon.
Venice starts in a precarious, but opportunistic position to dominate the economy. You will get unique advances and reforms related to trade, and you should always seek to maximize trade efficiency, production efficiency, trade capacity, and so forth. You will spend most of your run juggling the economy with hyperaggression as you seek to unite Northern Italy and the Adriatic Coast while staving off coalitions. To do this, research each era's military tech first so that even a coalition with Bohemia and half of the HRE is survivable. If you can disband the coalition military, good for you. For me, I had to settle for white peacing most of the time, with some conquest in between coalitions. If you are just slightly under the required income, an easy way to boost your income temporarily is to get Parliament Approved Taxes and maximize each taxation slider for a few months. This should get you the hegemony and thus the achievement.

Je Maintiendrai
Form the Netherlands as a minor nation starting with Dutch culture.
Brabant is the best nation for this as they have a high population and start with 11 out of 28 required provinces. Conquer some of your isolated neighbors and form the Netherlands once you directly own all 28 provinces.

Lion of the North
Start as Sweden, ensure the victory of the Protestant League.
You can join the HRE by taking land from an HRE ally of Denmark, and making it your capital once cored. Moving your capital back to Stockholm or Copenhagen will not kick you out of the HRE also.
From here, the strategy diverges based on whether YOU want to lead the Protestant League to victory, or become the Emperor as a Catholic and be so incompetent that the Protestants win. Both are a gamble with how Bohemia, which will be your main HRE rival, comes into play. If you are doing a Catholic run, restart if they don't flip Protestant. If you are doing a Protestant run, ensure they too become Protestant, or if they remain Catholic, make sure to carve up their nation before the HRE war of religions.

The Navigator
As Portugal, have presence in Africa, America, India and Indonesia before the Age of Reformation.
In game rules before starting your campaign, set colonization for Western Europe only. Beeline towards Capo Verde and integrate it into your country. To counter Castile, ally one of Aragon, France, or England. Preferably France. Rush advances that speed up exploration and colonization. Colonize at least one province in Brazil and start heading east towards the Indies. You may need to take a pit stop in Australia and the islands next to Madagascar. Colonize any Indonesian island as well as the island next to the Maldives, since the latter counts as part of the India region.

House for Hus
Starting as Bohemia, win the Hussite Wars situation as Hussite.
Take the event to start a claim throne war against Poland and try to become Emperor of the HRE. If successful, your power base should include Luxembourg, Milan, Brandenburg and Poland. Consolidate quickly and the Hussite Wars should be trivial for you.

The Spice Must Flow
Starting as a European country, have an active Trade route with Cloves.
All you need is a single import/export route for cloves into any of your markets, while starting with your capital in the Europe continent. This is best accomplished by a country that starts with a coastline in Western Europe. To make this easier try to maximize your trade range too. Cloves are most common in Indonesia, so if you are able to colonize a cloves province there, you should get this with no trouble.

Scientific Victory
Have at least 450 Advances researched.
In order to get this efficiently, you will need to stack research bonuses. Adopt institutions prematurely for a +5% bonus each, 100% clergy satsfaction gives +25%, 100% literacy gives a