If you’re working through The Message from Deep Space and trying to clean up the achievement list, the good news is that this is a pretty forgiving game when it comes to completion.
There are no permanently missable achievements, so you don’t need to constantly worry that you’ve clicked the wrong thing or accidentally skipped something important. Most achievements will simply unlock as you progress, while a handful require you to perform a specific action.
There are also four rather unusual birthday achievements tied to specific calendar dates.
Here’s everything you need to know.
The Message from Deep Space Achievements Guide – How to Unlock Them All
There are no achievements that become permanently unavailable because you progressed too far.
The normal story achievements should unlock naturally as you play, while the special achievements can be picked up during the game or, in some cases, by reopening the game after you’ve finished it.
So you can play normally on your first run without constantly checking a guide.
Satisfying Achievement – Make the Screensaver Bounce
This one is wonderfully simple.
Start the game and then just leave the computer idle for around two minutes.
Eventually, the screensaver will appear.
Don’t touch anything. Let it bounce around for a while and eventually the achievement will unlock.
There’s nothing else you need to click.
It’s basically the game’s way of rewarding you for having the patience to stare at a bouncing screensaver.
CRASH! Achievement – Divide by Zero
This one is a little more interesting because the game actually lets you break the calculator in a very specific way.
Open the Calculator tab.
Enter the following:
A = 0
B = -1
Then calculate:
A^B
In other words, you’re effectively trying to calculate:
0⁻¹
Do that through the game’s calculator and the CRASH! achievement should unlock.
It’s a tiny secret, but definitely one of the more fun achievements to discover.
One Last Goodbye Achievement – Reopen the Game
This achievement is tied to what happens after you finish the game.
First, complete the game normally and let the credits roll.
Once you’ve finished, close the game.
Then simply open The Message from Deep Space again.
The game will trigger a post-credits sequence, and the One Last Goodbye achievement will unlock.
So if you finish the game and notice that this achievement hasn’t appeared yet, don’t worry. Just exit and launch the game again.
Birthday Achievements
This is where things get a little unusual.
There are four achievements connected to the birthdays of characters in the game:
- Alan – January 31
- Bautista – October 2
- Collins – December 14
- Doppler – May 12
To unlock each one, you need to open the game on the corresponding date.
For example, to get Alan’s birthday achievement, the game needs to think it’s January 31 when you launch it.
If you don’t want to wait until the actual date, you can temporarily change your computer’s system date to the required day.
How to Trigger the Birthday Achievements
The process is fairly straightforward.
Set your computer’s date to the birthday you want.
For example:
January 31 → Alan
Then launch The Message from Deep Space.
You may need to wait a few minutes before the birthday dialogue appears. Once the appropriate conversation triggers, the achievement should unlock.
Afterward, change your computer’s date back to the current date.
If you’re going after multiple birthday achievements this way, you’ll need to restart the game each time you change the date.
So the process is essentially:
Change date → Launch game → Wait for birthday dialogue → Achievement unlocks → Close game → Change date → Repeat
Important Warning About Changing Your Computer Date
There’s one thing I’d be careful about here.
According to the guide, the game may refuse to launch if your computer’s date is set too far into the future or more than a year into the past.
Steam Cloud can also behave strangely while your system date is incorrect.
Because of that, don’t leave your computer’s date changed longer than necessary.
Once you’ve triggered the birthday achievement, put the date back to the real current date and allow Steam Cloud to resync normally.
Do Birthday Achievements Still Work After Finishing the Game?
Yes.
You don’t have to collect the birthday achievements before completing the main story.
Even after you’ve finished the game, you can return later on the appropriate date—or temporarily adjust the system clock—to trigger the birthday conversations and unlock the achievements.
That’s another reason the game’s achievement system is relatively stress-free.
The Message from Deep Space Achievement Checklist
For the achievements that require something beyond normal progression, keep this list handy:
Satisfying
Leave the computer idle for roughly two minutes and wait for the screensaver to appear.
CRASH!
Open Calculator → set A = 0 and B = -1 → calculate A^B.
One Last Goodbye
Finish the game → close it → reopen it to trigger the post-credits sequence.
Alan’s Birthday
Launch the game on January 31.
Bautista’s Birthday
Launch the game on October 2.
Collins’s Birthday
Launch the game on December 14.
Doppler’s Birthday
Launch the game on May 12.
Everything else should come naturally through normal progression.
The Message from Deep Space is thankfully not one of those games where you need to follow an achievement checklist from the very first minute.
Play through the story normally, and you’ll pick up the progression achievements along the way. The few unusual ones are easy to clean up afterward, especially since nothing is permanently missable.
The screensaver achievement is probably the easiest of the bunch, while CRASH! is the kind of little secret you’ll probably remember once you know about it.
The birthday achievements are the only ones that require a little extra planning, but even those can be obtained after completing the game.
So if you’re aiming for 100%, don’t overthink the first playthrough. Finish the story, reopen the game for One Last Goodbye, knock out the calculator and screensaver secrets, and then handle the four birthdays when you’re ready.