Achievement file format

This is a technical description of the achievement file format, used by Factorio to store player's achievement progress in the files "achievements.dat" and "achievements-modded.dat".

Yes - this information can be used to "cheat" Factorio by simply writing to the achievement file(s) in such a way as if you had met all the achievement requirements, open up Factorio, and then suddenly have all achievements unlocked. If you've played Factorio at all you should know that this point is moot. The goal of this document is to share how to _read_ the achievement file(s) - so that third party applications can do do things with that information. Enjoy.

See the page on data types for an explanation of the different types of data used in this document.

File Format

The overall file format is as follows. Note that in this file, array length is stored as a short, not an int!

Type	Description
short[4]	The version string of Factorio that generated this file.
array<bytes>	Achievement header info. Variable length. See the section for more information.
array<bytes>	Achievement content info. Variable length. See the section for more information.
short	Unknown. Always seems to equal zero. Perhaps padding?
short[*]	Currently tracked achievements, given as a series of shorts up until the end of the file, with each representing the index number of an achievement. The order of achievements in this series matches the order of which the player has them tracked in game.

This format has been valid since at least version 0.14.x.

Achievement Header Info

The header contains information about what type of data fields each achievement has.

Type	Description
string	Achievement type. This determines what kind of data fields this achievement contains in the content array.
string	Achievement string id - the one used internally by Factorio.
short	Achievement index number. This number is used to map achievements between this header info array, the content info array, and the tracked achievements list in this file. These index numbers are non-normative, so they won't always match up with the same achievement. Note: the mapping of index numbers to achievement ids are continuous, but start at index 1 (there is no index 0).

Achievement Content Info

This contains the actual data of each achievement. It's important to note that not every achievement listed in the header has a matching content section here.

Type	Description
short	Achievement index number. This matches up with the index number in the Achievement header info.
byte[*]	The achievement's progress information. The structure and length of this is determined by the achievement's type. See the table below for a list of achievement types.

Achievement Types

If new achievement types are added in the future, the achievement files will be unparse-able. Please add any new types you find here, thanks!

Achievement Type	Data Type(s)	Description
player-damaged-achievement	float bool	The Maximum amount of damage a player has taken in a single hit. True if the player survived that hit, False if they died.

Much of the data in the achievement files is (usually) redundant - the same progress information for multiple achievements of the same type are stored multiple times, once for each achievement of that type.