This War of Mine – Fading Embers Tips & Achievements

Quick tips

You start out as Anja as your only playable character. She has 11 backpack slots for scavenging. You will be able to move to a new shelter (the museum) after day 5.

Starting out

• Do not waste materials on building in the first shelter, a bed and a crude stove should be enough.
• When scavenging, take only food and the materials for building and fuel. You will be able to bring only 16 backpack slots worth of items with you when you move, the remaining items will be lost.
• Grow vegetables in the shed on the first day.
• Eat canned food to save fuel when you can, especially if aiming for The Janitor achievement.
• You will not be able to go out and scavenge on the third night, so plan accordingly.
• You can visit the neighbor’s house on the first night to learn about the Samuel Institute to go there on the second night. The Institute has canned food. (You can safely leave the museum items in the Institute to grab them on a later visit.)
• You can help Tito on the first night by bringing 6 fuel and 1 raw meat to him to get some components and a sawblade.
• Franko will visit on day 4. You can get three fuel from him. If he offers no fuel, exit to the main menu and restart the day to refresh his inventory.
• Milena will come on day 5 with meds for Ruben and a can of food.
• You will have the option to move starting from night 5. Ruben will not survive the move that early, so give him meds and keep the heat up for a few days so he can recover. It is safe to move once he is up and no longer bedridden.
• Make sure to grab the items from Ruben’s bag and behind two piles of rubble in the shed before moving for The Custodian achievement.
• You can let Ruben die, but securing the artworks and managing the shelter is easier if he survives.

Location tips

• You don’t have to help Tito to get his vinyl records. You can grab them from his house later even if he dies.
• Crowbar is generally useful as a scavenging tool in the scenario. Shovel is optional and can only be used in the Orphanage and the Abandoned House.
• The Construction Site has a thermo regulator in the basement near the entrance for upgrading your heater early. Reqiures a sawblade.
• To access the Orphanage, talk to the kid in the Supermarket.
• The Petrol Station (available starting around day 15) has a hatchet in one of the piles on the right. Bring it to the Orphanage or Abandoned House to chop wooden objects there for fuel.
• Railroad Station is only available after you bring the books to Lika or around day 18 when Adam visits the museum to ask for help. Bring a sawblade if you want to scavenge.
• Military Warehouse is unlocked late game. Bring two sawblades and a lockpick if you want to loot.

Achievement tips

• Clear the top floor of the museum early.
• Do not burn or give any items away when aiming for The Janitor achievement, except the documents for Taras or painting for Markov required to get one of the two “good” endings. Trick the crow and skip bringing the book to Lika just in case.
• Avoid burning significant items for Burn’em all achievement not to lock yourself out of any endings. There are 41 items in the game so plenty of non-significant items to burn.
• Zoran will refuse to burn collection items, only Anja or Ruben can do it.
• Ruben leaves the next day after you bring the book to the Railroad Station for the Innocent children ending and achievement, so plan accordingly.
• While it is possible to secure all items without reinforcing most pillars if you’re fast enough, all eight pillars have to be reinforced for the Fortify achievement. Each pillar requires 5 Components and 3 Wood.

Achievements

Story achievements

Note: The truck is ready
We finally managed to repair the truck. Now we can move our heritage to safety.
Story-related. You can start repairing the truck from day 15, the achievement will pop up once you repair the engine and refuel it.

Note: The Colonel
We gave the painting to Colonel Markov. Our heritage should be safe now.
Bring the painting Markov asked for to the Military Outpost. Triggers Markov’s ending.

Note: The Fence
We gave the case files to Taras the fence. Our heritage should be safe now.
After Taras visits the museum a few times, he will ask you to bring the files to the Construction Site. Bring him the files to get the achievement and trigger Taras’ ending.

Diary: Innocent children
They had only their adoptive father – Adam. Now they have a glimmer of hope to survive this war.
This achievement requires you to complete a series of requests, and also triggers the Innocent children ending.

• Meet a boy while scavenging at the Supermarket. The boy will tell you about the Orphanage.
• Bring 10 fuel to the Orphanage.
• Bring an item from the museum storage to Lika, then talk to Adam to unlock the next task and the Railroad Station location.
  Alternatively, you can skip bringing Lika the books, and around day 18 Adam will visit the museum to ask for help and tell about the Railroad Station. (If you took the books to Lika, the books’ owner will visit instead.)
• Go to the Railroad Station, then bring the man the item he asks for.

Epilogue: All the way
Complete the game with all the alternate endings.
This achievement requires you to see the epilogue at least four times to see all four endings. The Fence and the Colonel are mutually exclusive.

• Complete the Fence and do not complete the Innocent children.
• Complete the Colonel and do not complete the Innocent children.
• Complete both the Fence and the Innocent children.
• Complete both the Colonel and the Innocent children.

To easily see them all it is helpful to have a save backup on day 19 or 20 before completing any of the three ending events. The save files are storiessavedgames, storiessavedgames.alt in \Steam\userdata\<your Steam id>\282070\remote folder.

Other missable achievements

Diary: Good Neighbor
The winter was severe. I knew Tito used to help my father frequently. I decided to help him too.
Help Tito at the Neighbor’s house by bringing him 6 fuel and 1 raw food. Both can be done on the same night. Can be obtained on the first night if you burn something from your collection. (If you wait too long without bringing Tito fuel, he will die.)

Diary: My dear Ruben
We faced the harsh winter together and made it to the Museum, our new shelter.
On day 5 Milena drops by to bring meds and some food, and the option to change shelter appears the same night. For the achievement Ruben has to survive the move, so do not move shelters before Ruben is feeling well enough to move around (on day 7 if you give him meds every day and keep the shelter warm enough).

Diary: Fool the Crow
We acquired the truck parts without giving up Anja’s necklace.
While repairing the truck, talk to Crow at the Car Workshop, and he will ask you to bring him Anja’s necklace. Do not leave just yet, wait for him to go outside to smoke and talk to him again. Once he returns to his room, sabotage his car by taking out its part, and go to speak to him again. You will have the opportunity to steal the engine parts when he leaves the room.

Note: Fortify
Our place was damaged in the bombing. We decided to reinforce all the pillars to buy us as much time as we can.
Reinforce every pillar in the museum. There is a total of 8 pillars to reinforce, each takes 5 Components and 3 Wood.

Diary: The Custodian
Milena’s wish came true. We saved it all – our precious heritage.
Secure every item: the items at Anja’s house, Tito’s records, two items at the Samuel Institute, and everything in the museum. For the achievement you only need to put them into the museum storage, you can burn the items right after securing them. The detailed list of items can be found in a separate section below.

Diary: The Janitor
Zoran’s destiny is fulfilled. We didn’t burn any of our legacy.
Requires you to secure every item and not to burn a single one of them.

Note: Burn’em all
Some people just want to watch the world burn.
Burn a total of 30 items. They do not have to be significant. For the achievement you only need to turn the items into fuel, no need to actually burn that fuel.

Collection list

There is a total of 41 items in the game. Most of them are in the Museum, some are in Anja’s house and a few other locations. The table is sorted by the location. Significant items are underlined.

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