Rock Band 2 Achievement Guide

Created by LCad
last edited by LCad 2 months, 3 weeks ago

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Introduction

Rock Band 2 is the sequel to the successful rhythm game Rock Band.  This guide is intended to assist you in unlocking its 50 achievements and 1000G as easily as possible.  The format of this guide was inspired by Jeff Gerstmann's own Gears of War 2 Achievement Guide.

Achievements

The achievements in this guide are split into five sections: Tour, Band Challenges, General Play, Drum Trainer and Secret.

Tour

Achievement Name
Achievement Description
Points Worth
Got Wheels
Win a van in World Tour
20G
Open Road
Win a bus in World Tour
20G
Jet Setter
Win a jet in World Tour
20G
West Coast Performer
Play a set on the West Coast of North America
10G
Heartland Performer
Play a set in Middle America
10G
East Coast Performer
Play a set on the East Coast of North America
10G
God Save the Band
Play a set in the United Kingdom
10G
Western Europe Performer
Play a set in Western Europe
10G
Eastern European Performer
Play a set in Eastern Europe
10G
Needs more Umlauts!
Make a band logo
10G
You're Hired!
Hire a staff member
10G
You Killed the Radio Star
Make a music video in World Tour
15G
The San Dimas 4th Annual Award
Compete in a Battle of the Bands event
15G 
Clothes to the Edge
Buy over $100,000 worth of items from the Rock Shop
20G
One Million Fans
Reach 1 million fans in World Tour
30G
Road Dog
Play every venue in the world
30G

These are the achievements earned in Rock Band 2's World Tour.  Unlike the first Rock Band, this mode can be played by a single player.  Most of the achievements become unlocked while logically progressing through the mode.  You can choose whether or not to make a music video or a band logo or compete in a Battle of the Bands.  I suggest that you do all of these things. 

If you want a fast track to the Performer achievements for whatever reason, you can start a different band in a city in each of those areas and play a single song as each band.  For the Road Dog achievement, you only have to play one performance in each venue of each city.  To earn One Million Fans, hire a manager that promises to garner fans over cash (once one becomes available) and accept all random events that promise the same; to earn Clothes to the Edge, hire a manager that will sell your band out for money over fans and accept all random events that offer a bigger financial payoff.  Don't waver back and forth between these two strategies either.  Complete One Million Fans first.

There are a few more achievements in Tour that you can find under the Secret category in this guide.

Band Challenges

Achievement Name
Achievement Description
Points Worth
Along for the Ride
Beat an instrument-specific challenge while playing another instrument
10G
Challenge Novice
Complete either 25 challenges on Medium, 10 challenges on Hard, or 5 challenges on Expert
10G
Challenge Master
Complete 25 Challenges on Hard Difficulty or 10 Challenges on Expert Difficulty
15G
Challenge Savant
Complete 25 Challenges on Expert Difficulty
25G
The Final Countdown
Unlock an Impossible Challenge
15G
Groove Assassin
Beat the Impossible Bass Challenge
20G
Lord of the Strings
Beat the Impossible Guitar Challenge
25G
AN-I-MAL!!!
Beat the Impossible Drum Challenge
25G
Virtuoso
Beat the Impossible Vocal Challenge 
25G
Stage Igniters
Beat the Impossible Band Challenge
25G

Achievements in this category are unlocked by playing Band Challenges, which are accessed from the tour menu.  Don't do what I did and remember that you can still get the impossible challenge achievements by finishing the respective challenges on Easy. 

Along for the Ride and Stage Igniters require multiple players or one player playing multiple instruments.  To unlock an impossible challenge for an instrument and earn
The Final Countdown (not the song, the achievement :( ), play its specific challenge on each level to unlock the next one until you are able to play the impossible challenge on the final tier.  For the Challenge Novice, Master and Savant achievements, seek out the easiest challenges on your favoured instrument.  Your downloaded content will show up in themed challenges in this mode.  If you have purchased simpler songs like the Weezer or Jimmy Buffet packs, they will help your cause.

General Play

Achievement Name
Achievement Description
Points Worth
Flawless Groove
Score 100% notes hit as bassist, up-strums only, on Expert25G
Flawless Fretwork
Score 100% notes hit as a guitarist on Expert25G
Flawless Drumming
Score 100% notes hit as a drummer on Expert
25G
Flawless Singing
Score a 100% rating as a vocalist on Expert25G
Flawless Guitar Solo
100% a guitar solo on Expert, using only the solo buttons
20G
Solid Gold, Baby!
Gold Star a song
25G
The Bachman-Turner Award
Maintain deployed Overdrive for 90 seconds
25G
Overdrive Overdose
Achieve an 8x Band Multiplier
25G
Million Point Club
Earn more than 1,000,000 points in a single song.
25G
Band Savior
Be a savior three times during a single song
20G
Hello Cleveland!
Deploy Vocal Overdrive 4 times in a single song
20G
Victory!
Defeat a player in either Score Duel or Tug of War.
15G
Comeback Kid
Defeat the last player that defeated you over Xbox LIVE in either Score Duel or Tug of War.
15G

These achievements can be unlocked in Quick Play, Tour, online or wherever.  For Flawless Groove, there is no easier bass song to 100% than So What'cha Want as it is only green notes at a slow pace.  Remember to only up-strum.  My recommendation for the Flawless Fretwork achievement is the free downloadable track Charlene (I'm Right Behind You)Flawless Drumming can be earned on Charlene or Livin' on a Prayer, but if you can't complete those, the downloadable tracks Silver and Polly are ridiculously easy.  Polly only has 4 drum hits!  Both cost 160 MSP.  Almost anyone can get Flawless Singing on Testify, So What'cha Want or Visions because none require pitch and are all "talkies". 

Flawless Guitar Solo
requires you to have the Rock Band Stratocaster controller.  I advise against getting it because it's a piece of garbage in comparison to the Guitar Hero X-Plorer and Les Paul controllers.  With your hopefully borrowed Strat, play the first designated solo of Give It Away by pressing the solo buttons without strumming the strum bar.  If for some reason this presents too much of a challenge, the solo in the downloadable track The Power of Equality, which costs 160 MSP, is even easier.  Make sure to finish this song after 100%ing the solo.

Solid Gold, Baby!
can only be unlocked on Expert, because that is the only difficulty that you can earn gold stars on.  If you can get any of the Flawless achievements, you can probably get this one with a sensible use of overdrive.

The Bachman-Turner Award is a little tricky.  Overdrive must be active by at least one player for one minute and thirty seconds.  The more players you have, the easier it is.  Overdrive drains at various speeds on different songs.  Singers and drummers can only activate at designated points so start your attempt with one of those.  The next player should activate as late as possible before the previous player runs out and so on and so forth.  This achievement is quite do-able on Today and Give It All.

Overdrive Overdose and Million Point Club require a full band.  For the former, get all four players to activate their overdrive at around the same time.  For the latter, play long songs with lots of easy notes on higher difficulties.  Also have multiple players activate overdrive close together for higher multipliers.  I recommend PDA, Shooting Star and Lazy Eye

For Band Savior, play with at least three players, pick a long, easy song with lots of overdrive and have someone fail twice and another person fail once before you save them each time by activating.  Hello Cleveland! is easily obtainable on Visions and So What'cha Want.  Activate overdrive early and often.

While Victory! can be earned over Xbox Live, Comeback Kid is the only Xbox Live mandatory achievement.  You can either earn it legitimately or get a friend to help you because it's non-ranked.

Drum Trainer

Achievement Name
Achievement Description
Points Worth
Beat It!
Complete all beats at 60 BPM or higher or half of the beats at 140 BPM or higher
10G
The Beat Goes On
Complete all beats at 100 BPM or higher or half of the beats at 180 BPM or higher20G
Fill Me In
Complete all fills at 60 BPM or higher or half of the fills at 140 BPM or higher10G
Fill Legend
Complete all fills at 100 BPM or higher or half of the fills at 180 BPM or higher 
20G

These achievements are awarded for skill in the drum trainer mode.  There are almost no tips I can offer here.  It's entirely dependent on how good you are at playing fake drums.  My sole recommendations are to earn the achievements by completing half of the beats/fills at a higher speed rather than all of the beats/fills at a lower speed and to remember to play them at the bare minimum speed for that of 140/180 BPM.

Secret

Achievement Name
Achievement Description
Points Worth
Buy a Real Instrument Already! Beat an "Impossible" Challenge with all players on Expert Difficulty35G
Rock Immortal InducteeJoin the Rolling Stone Rock Immortals list
20G
Vinyl ArtistFinish the Endless Setlist 2 in World Tour on Medium
20G
Gold Artist
Finish the Endless Setlist 2 in World Tour on Hard
30G
Platinum Artist
Finish the Endless Setlist 2 in World Tour on Expert
50G
The Bladder of Steel Award
Complete the Endless Setlist 2 without pausing or failing
25G

The secret achievements are earned in both the Challenge and Tour sections of the game.  Beating an impossible challenge on Expert might be a daunting task.  The easiest are probably the Impossible Bass Challenge and Impossible Vocal Challenge.  Unlocking Rock Immortal Inductee should be no problem once you've progressed that far in Tour, since the Rolling Stone Rock Immortals setlist can be played on Medium in a worst case scenario.

The Endless Setlist 2 is the last main objective to complete in the Tour mode.  It's approximately five and a half hours of non-stop Rock Band.  The Vinyl, Gold and Platinum Artist achievements are simply a matter of skill.  The Bladder of Steel Award is a matter of being hardcore.  While it can be earned on any difficulty for the Endless Setlist 2, it's still a challenge to complete.  Finding a chunk in your day where you're sure to be uninterrupted for that long and abstaining from bathroom breaks or instinctively pausing can be difficult.  I chose 10:30 PM - 4:00AM and succeeded.  I also almost paused during Panic Attack to scratch my nose, which would've been a tragedy.

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