Steam Achievement Sets Separate Base Game and DLC Progress

Valve has introduced Achievement Sets to the Steam Client beta, a structural overhaul that prevents downloadable content from distorting base game completion percentages. The system addresses a long-standing frustration among completionists: purchasing new DLC previously inflated the total achievement count for a game, instantly dropping a player’s hard-earned 100 percent completion rate without them playing a single additional minute.

Under the new architecture, achievements are divided into distinct categories. Base game collections display with blue progress bars, while DLC-specific sets appear in purple. Crucially, DLC achievement sets remain hidden from a user’s overall game progress unless they own the corresponding expansion. This ensures that players who only experience the core campaign are no longer penalized by content they never bought.

Developers must actively update their titles to implement specific collections, though Valve notes an expanding roster of games already supports the framework. Beyond separating paid expansions from core campaigns, developers can use Achievement Sets to isolate multiplayer milestones from single-player progression or group time-limited seasonal events, such as Halloween challenges, into their own dedicated categories.

This granular approach mirrors systems used by competing platforms but introduces mechanics unique to PC gaming libraries. While Sony’s PlayStation Network has separated base game trophies from DLC trophies since the PS3 era—assigning distinct platinum trophies to expansions—Steam’s implementation allows developers far more flexibility in defining what constitutes a “set.” Microsoft’s Xbox ecosystem historically appended DLC achievements directly to a game’s total Gamerscore, inflating the maximum possible points rather than creating parallel tracking structures. Valve’s model avoids both approaches by keeping sets visually and mathematically distinct on the user profile.

The redesigned achievements page also expands social comparison tools. Players can now track their progress against up to three friends simultaneously, viewing rare unlocks and completed sets side-by-side. When a player finishes every requirement in a specific collection, they earn a “set complete” trophy visible on their public profile.

To protect historical completion records, Valve engineered the system so that if a developer adds new achievements to an existing set after a player has already finished it, that player’s progress bar remains locked at 100 percent. This prevents retroactive goalpost-moving, a practice that has historically frustrated dedicated players when studios push post-launch updates.

Achievement Sets are currently accessible to users opted into the Steam Client beta program. A broader rollout to the stable client will follow once beta testing concludes.