Ready or Not Rarest Achievements Guide

The Hardest Ready or Not Achievements, Ranked by Real Difficulty

The rarest achievements in Ready or Not are almost all gated behind the same three variables: mission choice, difficulty setting, and squad loadout. The single biggest trap for completionists is chasing them on Commander or Ironman, where the AI reaction time and friendly-fire rules turn a 20-minute run into a 90-minute reset loop. The sweet spot for most of these is Veteran difficulty with a four-player squad running non-lethal primaries, which preserves the achievability of the objective while keeping enemy accuracy survivable. Below is a ranked list of the hardest ones, with the exact mission, difficulty, and loadout that makes each realistically obtainable.

Quick reference: the hardest achievements at a glance

Ranked breakdown of the rarest achievements

1. Full non-lethal clear — the hardest one in the game

This is the achievement that separates completionists from everyone else, because it requires restraining every suspect in a mission without a single lethal shot, and the game does not forgive a stray round into a downed suspect. The best mission for it is Thank You, Come Again on Veteran difficulty. Veteran keeps suspect reaction time slow enough that a pepper ball to the chest still lands before they fire, while Recruit makes the AI so passive that the achievement sometimes fails to register due to non-hostile suspects being counted differently.

Squad loadout that works: all four players take a pepper ball launcher as primary, a taser as secondary, and two flashbangs each. One player carries the battering ram for the rear door, one carries the mirror gun for the hallway. The reason this specific loadout matters is that pepper ball has the longest stagger window of any less-lethal tool — roughly four seconds per the weapon’s in-game stat panel — which is the only window wide enough to cuff a suspect who has already drawn a weapon.

Main trade-off: pepper ball has almost no penetration, so a suspect behind drywall or a door frame takes zero effect. You will need to reposition rather than shoot through cover, which is where most attempts fail.

2. Zero civilian casualties on a hostage map

Elephant on Veteran is the map where this achievement is realistically obtainable, because the civilian pathing is more predictable than on the nightclub or hotel maps. The failure mode is almost never a deliberate shot — it is a ricochet or a wallbang through a suspect who has a civilian behind them.

Loadout: two players with ballistic shields (front and rear of the stack), two with beanbag shotguns. Shields absorb the suspect fire that would otherwise force you to return fire into a crowded room, and beanbag has a lower over-penetration risk than any rifle round. The trade-off is that a shield-heavy stack moves slowly, and on Elephant the timer for the primary objective is tight — you have to clear the main hall first, then sweep the side rooms, or you will run out of time with civilians still unsecured.

3. Sub-par speed clear

Speed achievements are rare because most players clear methodically and finish well over the par time. Neon Tomb on Veteran has the most forgiving par window relative to its size, so it is the best candidate for a speed run that still counts as a legitimate clear.

Loadout: all four players on an SMG with a red dot, no heavy armor plates, and one smoke grenade each. Armor plates slow your movement speed by a measurable margin — roughly 8–12% depending on the plate class in the loadout screen — and on a speed run you are trading survivability for seconds you cannot get back. The reason smoke matters here is that the map’s long sightlines are the main time sink; smoking the central atrium lets you cross it in one push instead of clearing angle by angle.

Trade-off: no armor means a single unlucky suspect angle ends the run. Expect a high reset rate.

4. Solo completion on a multi-room map

Solo runs are rare by definition, but the achievability gap between maps is enormous. Rust Belt on Recruit is the only one where a solo clear is a reasonable evening project rather than a week-long grind, because the suspect count is low and the AI does not push aggressively on Recruit.

Loadout: one rifle with an optic, six flashbangs, and a lockpick. Six flashbangs is the number that covers the map’s six breach-and-clear chokepoints without forcing you to backtrack. The reason flashbangs beat smoke for solo play is that you cannot cover a smoke cloud alone — you need the enemies blind and stationary while you are the only person clearing the room.

5. Perfect evidence recovery

Brixley Talent Time on Veteran requires every piece of evidence to be collected and secured without a single item being destroyed in the firefight. It is rare because evidence near windows or on flammable surfaces can be lost to crossfire, and the game does not tell you which item failed — you simply do not get the achievement at the end.

Loadout: all four players carry an evidence kit (faster pickup and secure time) and two carry lockpicks for the locked cabinets. The reason evidence kit matters specifically here is that securing an item takes roughly half the time with the kit equipped, which is the difference between grabbing evidence mid-firefight and losing it.

How to choose your difficulty for achievement hunting

Difficulty is the single biggest lever on how long each of these takes, and the relationship is not linear. Based on the mission parameters shown on the deployment screen and community-reported attempt counts:

• Recruit — suspect reaction time is slowest. Good for solo runs and for learning a map’s layout. Some achievements will not register if the map ends without any hostile contact, so it is not universally the easy choice.
• Veteran — the default recommendation for almost every achievement on this list. Suspects react fast enough to make the run legitimate but slow enough that less-lethal tools still land.
• Commander / Ironman — one mistake ends the run and sometimes the campaign. Reserve these for achievements that explicitly require the highest difficulty, and expect attempts to be measured in hours rather than minutes.

A practical rule: if an achievement does not name a difficulty, play it on Veteran. If it names Commander, treat it as a separate project and do not attempt it in the same session as a less-lethal run, because the muscle memory from one difficulty actively hurts you on the other.

Ownership realities: what actually wastes your time

Achievement hunting in this game fails for reasons that have nothing to do with aim. The three most common time sinks, based on how the game handles run state:

• Restraint accounting. A suspect who is downed and then shot again breaks a non-lethal run silently. You will not see a warning — the achievement simply does not fire at the end screen.
• Objective ordering. Several maps let you complete the primary objective before securing all civilians, and the achievement checks the end state, not the sequence. If you rush the objective, the civilian count can fail on the back end.
• Session continuity. Achievements tied to a full mission clear do not carry across a mid-mission disconnect or a host migration. If the host drops, assume the run is void and restart rather than trying to finish it.

None of these are documented in the in-game achievement description, which is why the community attempt counts for the rarest ones run into the dozens even for experienced players.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the rarest achievement in Ready or Not?

The full non-lethal clear on a large map is generally considered the rarest, because it compounds two failure modes: you cannot fire a lethal shot, and you cannot re-engage a suspect who is already down. Most players who have it report dozens of attempts, and the usual failure is a ricochet or a wallbang rather than a direct mistake.

Does difficulty affect which achievements you can earn?

Yes. Some achievements explicitly require Commander or the highest available difficulty, and others — particularly the non-lethal ones — behave inconsistently on Recruit because the game may not count a map cleared with minimal hostile contact. Veteran is the safest default when an achievement does not specify a difficulty.

Can I get the non-lethal clear in a public lobby?

It is possible but unreliable. Random players often carry lethal primaries and will fire on a suspect you are mid-cuff on, which voids the run without any warning. The realistic path is a pre-made four-player squad where everyone has agreed on the loadout before the mission starts.

How long does a typical rare achievement attempt take?

The run itself is usually 15–30 minutes. The attempts are the real cost: the speed clear and solo completion achievements typically take 15–40 attempts, and the non-lethal and civilian-casualty achievements can take longer because their failure conditions are invisible during the mission.

Do loadouts really matter that much for achievements?

For the less-lethal and zero-civilian-casualty achievements, yes — the loadout is the achievement. Pepper ball and beanbag have longer stagger windows and lower over-penetration than any rifle round, and shields remove the situations where returning fire is your only option. For speed and solo achievements, the loadout is mostly about movement speed and utility count.

What should I do if an achievement does not fire at the end screen?

Check three things in order: whether any suspect was shot after being downed, whether all civilians were secured before the primary objective completed, and whether the session had a disconnect or host change. If any of those are true, the run is void regardless of how clean the rest of it looked.