Steam's new achievement sets stop DLC from breaking your 100 percent

Games live longer than they used to. They keep getting DLC, expansions and seasons, and each one can bring new achievements.

Valve names two problems with that. New achievements can be hard to find, buried in one long list. And they can break the completion status of players who had already finished the game.

You may know the feeling. You hit 100 percent, a DLC comes out a year later, and Steam now says 87 percent. You didn't get worse at the game. The goalposts just moved.

A set is a group of related achievements inside one game. The developer decides how many sets there are and what each one is for.

Valve gives a few examples:

• By mode: one set for single-player, one for multiplayer.
• By class or character: Valve imagines a game with 8 class-based sets.
• By content: one set for the base game and one for each DLC.

You still unlock achievements the normal way, by playing. The difference shows up when you browse them. Steam breaks the long list into the developer's sets, so it's easier to see what you've finished and what to chase next.

In real life Picture a huge game with 150 achievements, 30 of them from a DLC you never bought. Before, they all sat in one list and the DLC ones counted against you. With sets, the base game gets its own blue bar, and the DLC waits in its own purple set until you actually own it.

Each set has its own progress bar. Finish every achievement in a set and Steam adds a "set complete" trophy to your profile.

If the developer later adds new achievements to a set you already finished, Valve says your completion is preserved. Engadget puts it simply: your progress still shows 100 percent.

When a game grows, developers can add new sets for the new content. Returning players can see at a glance what's new, without losing their old completion status.

There are two types:

The catch, in your favor: DLC achievements don't count toward your overall game progress until you have access to that content. Once you get the DLC, they appear in purple.

You can still look at every possible achievement from the new achievements page. So if you're curious what a DLC adds, you can peek before you buy.

Yes, in a way. Developers can now archive single achievements or entire sets. Valve sees fun uses for this, like achievements for season-based games or time-limited holiday events.

Here's how archiving works:

• If you unlocked it: it stays on your profile.
• If you missed it: it doesn't show on your profile and doesn't block your progress toward finishing a set or the game.
• Valve's rule for developers: any achievement that players can no longer unlock should be archived.

So a Halloween achievement can come and go, and the people who missed it aren't stuck at 99 percent forever.

Valve rebuilt the achievements page. You can open it from your Games List on the web or from a game in your Steam Library.

• Summary: your overall progress, your progress in each set, and details on single achievements.
• Global Stats: how many players earned each achievement is now a toggle on this page, not a separate page.
• Search: new filters for specific sets and for locked or unlocked achievements.
• Friends: compare progress with up to three friends, including rare achievements, completed sets and DLC sets.

Valve also changed the total achievement count. It's now based on achievements each player can actually earn, which depends on their DLC and on archived or time-limited achievements. That means your total can differ from a friend's for the same game.

Valve says it rebuilt several places where achievements appear, so completed sets show up on your profile, in your Games List and in your Library.

• Perfect Games is now Completed: the tab shows completed games and games with completed sets.
• Completionist Showcase: you can add games with completed sets, not just fully completed games.
• Family Sharing: games played this way now appear in the Games List, and friends with Family Sharing playtime can be compared.
• Store and Library pages: they now show if a game has achievement sets.

Valve also says there's "a little extra joy" when you finish all of a game's sets. It doesn't say what that looks like, so we'll let you find out.

Valve lists 17 games that have already added sets:

• Against the Storm, Age of Wonders 4, Crusader Kings III, Victoria 3
• American Truck Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Forza Horizon 5
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2
• DREDGE, Flock Around, He is Coming, PowerWash Simulator, PowerWash Simulator 2
• LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

More will follow as developers adopt the tools. In a Steamworks post for developers, Valve says studios don't need to update their game or the Steamworks SDK. Sets are configured entirely in Steamworks, and existing achievements keep working.

Valve rebuilt the achievement editor in Steamworks based on developer feedback. It says studios can sort an existing game's achievements into sets "in just a few minutes."

• Bulk import and export: achievement definitions, set assignments, icons and translations, using CSV and image files.
• Bulk move: shift many achievements between sets at once.
• Automatic locked icons: upload an icon and Steam can make the grayscale "locked" version for you.
• Translation check: the editor flags any achievement or set missing text in one of the game's languages.
• Developer-only sets: hidden from players, for testing new achievements.

What's next: DLC sets stay hidden until the DLC releases, so studios can test them ahead of launch without spoiling anything. Valve says it will keep improving the feature during the beta. For another recent shift in how game ownership looks on screen, see how Xbox turns discs into digital licenses.

• Your 100 percent is safer: in games that use DLC sets, new paid content won't lower your overall progress until you own it.
• Want it now? Join the Steam Client beta. Otherwise, wait for the regular release.
• Look for the label: Store and Library pages now say when a game has achievement sets.
• Seasonal events get fairer: archived achievements stay on your profile if you earned them and stop counting against you if you didn't.