Key Notes
- Steam Achievement Sets let developers group challenges by mode, character or content, with separate progress and completion trophies for each collection.
- DLC sets separate expansion challenges from the base game, while completed sets retain their status when developers add more achievements.
- Developers can archive unavailable achievements so earned rewards remain visible without blocking completion for players who missed them.
Valve has launched a Steam Client beta that lets developers organize achievements into named sets and archive rewards tied to retired content. Announced on October 15, the update also separates DLC progress and changes how completed achievements appear across Steam profiles and libraries.
The aim is to make achievement hunting more manageable as games add expansions, modes and seasons. Instead of putting everything into one growing checklist, developers can group related challenges and give players a clearer view of what they have finished.
Valve’s announcement lists games already supporting sets, including Portal 2, Left 4 Dead 2, DREDGE and Forza Horizon 5. The feature remains in beta, and support depends on developers configuring their games; joining the client beta does not reorganize every achievement list automatically.
Base Game and DLC Progress Split Apart
Studios choose how their achievements are grouped. A game could separate single-player and multiplayer challenges, organize them around characters, or create a new collection for an expansion. Each set has its own progress indicator and awards a profile trophy when completed.
The completion rules address a familiar frustration for players who have already finished a checklist. Valve’s documentation says a completed set stays completed even if more achievements are added later. Players still working through that set will have the additional challenges to complete, so Valve recommends creating new sets for new content.
DLC sets have a separate role. Their achievements do not count toward completion of the base game or other sets, and DLC ownership determines whether they count toward a player’s completion. Players can explore released DLC’s achievements without having to buy it first.
For example, finishing a game’s original challenges can remain a meaningful achievement without requiring a purchase of every subsequent expansion. That is different from saying DLC achievements have disappeared: they remain goals for players who can access the relevant content.
Archived Achievements Stop Blocking Completion
Developers can also archive an individual achievement or an entire set when the associated content is no longer available. That accommodates seasonal events, holiday challenges and replaced game modes.
Players who unlocked an archived achievement keep it visible and can still feature it on their profiles. Those who missed it will not see that individual achievement or need it to complete its set. An archived set remains visible to players who previously unlocked at least one achievement within it.
Archiving is a developer action, rather than a promise that Steam will automatically retire every unobtainable trophy. Valve tells studios to archive achievements that can no longer be unlocked and ensure their games stop awarding them. Deleting an achievement is different: it removes the achievement for everyone, including players who earned it.
The practical benefit is that an event can leave a permanent memento for participants without permanently preventing later arrivals from completing the available challenges. It does not make expired rewards earnable again or remove the time limit while an event is running.
How to Try the Steam Beta
Players can follow Valve’s beta instructions to opt into the Steam Client Beta. The redesigned achievements page is accessible from the web Games List and games in the Steam Library, bringing set progress and individual achievements together.
The update adds filters for sets and locked or unlocked achievements, while global completion rates become a toggle on the same page. Players can compare their progress with up to three friends. Totals can differ because each person’s available DLC and archived achievements affect what they can earn.
The former Perfect Games tab becomes Completed and includes games with completed achievement sets. The Completionist Showcase also accepts games with completed sets, expanding what players can display without implying that completing one set means clearing every challenge in a game.
For studios, Valve’s Steamworks update introduces bulk imports and exports, bulk moves between sets, localization checks and developer-only sets for testing. Existing achievement names and unlock calls keep working; developers do not need a game or Steamworks SDK update simply to configure sets.
We recently covered Epic’s rebuilt launcher preview. Valve’s beta tackles another everyday part of a PC gaming client: how players navigate their progress after a game’s achievement list grows. Its usefulness will depend on how studios organize new content and maintain older, unobtainable challenges.
