It seems like 2026 is the year of the achievement overhaul. Just as Xbox continues to revamp its achievement system, streamlining the experience across PC and Xbox and adding Mythic Achievements into the mix, Valve is also getting in on the action and rolling out Steam Achievement Sets.

Currently live in beta, this new achievement system completely changes how games handle base achievements versus post-launch DLC expansions, as well as season updates and new game modes. Completionists who have had headaches with these systems for decades can rejoice!

So what are Steam Achievement Sets anyway?

So you've poured 80 hours into a game to hit the 100% achievement mark, then merrily moved on to another game. Only to come back later and see your shiny 100% completion is now 80%. The game released new DLC, and you are now compelled to play it to get that 100% back.

Anyone who's played Vampire Survivors or the RE4 Remake can attest to this pain, though I don't really mind and enjoy the new challenge. Valve, however, is solving this issue with a new system that lets developers group achievements into distinct "sets."

Base game achievements are kept seperate from post-launch DLCs or extra mode, meaning if you 100% the base game you keep your base game completion ribbon regardless of what is added later on.

Beyond seperating DLCs, Valve is ontroducing a few other quality of life upgrades to it's achievement system.

• Archived Achievements: Developers can now officially archive dead, broken, or retired achievements. Archived achievements remain visible on the profiles of players who unlocked them, but won't block new players from achieving a 100% completion badge.
• Separating Campaign from Multiplayer: Developers can split single-player and co-op/multiplayer into separate sets. This is a massive win for titles like Portal 2 or Ghost of Tsushima, where dead servers or tacked-on online modes have blocked solo players from earning completion badges for years.
• Sub-ribbons & cleaned-up UI: Unlocking full sets earns distinct sub-ribbons, making massive achievement lists (like Payday 2 or Master Chief Collection) far less laborious to navigate.

Some notable concerns

Overall, the changes have been received positively, but developers could add seasonal or time-limited event sets to games that embrace FOMO mechanics, though I think the archiving feature Valve is proposing mostly solves this. As long as the event is archived after the fact, latecomers can still 100% the game without being walled off.

The update also removes overall Average Game Completion % from profile showcases, a metric many hardcore completionists have built up over the years. Completed game counts have also been replaced with completed sets, meaning a game with 16 sets, such as Team Fortress 2, that has a whopping 520 achievements could artificially inflate a profile's stats compared to a game with just one set. Hopefully these are issues that can be ironed out or addressed during the beta phase.

Will Developers actually use the new achievement sets?

Because Steam has historically given developers total freedom and few rules, Achievement Sets' success relies on studios manually opting in via Steamworks. Fortunately, smaller developers are already praising how easy it is to set up. The founder of Arcen Games (Heart of the Machine) has already noted on Reddit that categorizing 100 achievements into a DLC set took less than 10 minutes.

Titles like Against the Storm, Age of Wonders 4, DREDGE, PowerWash Simulator, and Modern Warfare 4 have already adopted the feature during the beta. There is full list on the Steam announcement page here.

How are you feeling about the update to Steam Achievements? Do you welcome the new structure to our virtual trophy cases, or could you not care less once you complete a game? Let me know in the comments!

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A World of Warcraft player has a bunch of kind internet strangers offering her support right now, she shared her sad story on Reddit. This poor user believes her husband is secretly logging into her account and destroying her hard-earned Mythic+ gear to punish her for making social plans without him.

"I was so frustrated I wanted to cry."

The post is going viral after being shared in the Girl Dinner Diaries subreddit (where women share unconventional, low-effort meals and vent).

The poster shared that the couple usually play WoW together, but her husband has been struggling with severe depression and refusing to leave the house. While trying to maintain her own social life, she occasionally goes out on her own when he refuses to go with her, including to a concert with friends. It was after reminding him of this upcoming outing that the first incident happened.

A high-value crafted staff vanished from her inventory, something that likely took took either 100 hours+ of grinding or £50 worth of mats to create. Staffs don't just 'disappear' in WoW; you need to manually drag the item away and type DELETE to confirm you want to get rid of it. Evidence that it had been destroyed was found in her item restoration menu.

Other incidents leading up to the concert included Great Vault rewards going missing and other gear disappearing from her character or showing as sold to vendors. After another disagreement, all gear from one character was outright destroyed.

The poster doesn't say whether she has confronted her husband about this yet, but her husband has her passwords and she often leaves the PC logged into Battle.net. Additionally, she filed a support ticket with Blizzard, which said there is no suspicious activity on the account and no other IPs have been logging in.

"The call is coming from inside the house," one top commenter noted, pointing out that actual account hackers would drain gold or steal items to trade, rather than calculatingly deleting soulbound gear out of spite. The gaming community has also told her that destroying digital items a partner cares about may seem petty, but they are valued nonetheless and have taken time and effort to obtain. This could be a massive red flag for domestic abuse and controlling behaviour. Fellow players have urged the poster to change all her passwords, enable 2FA and reevaluate her marriage.

She has since changed all her Battle.net credentials and added security without telling her husband, and plans to test whether things still go missing the next time she's away from home. Personally, I would have already gone scorched earth and fed him his scrotum, but it takes all sorts.

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