Steam achievement guide

It's Cold Outside

This is an fairly simple achievement, all you need to do is make an pilot eject from thier ship. There is a small chance that a pilot will bail after hitting the hull (once its under 89%). Some pilots may never bail, whilst some will do it very easily. Only pilots in M3, M4, M5 or TS ships will bail.

Crash Course

This another easy achievement, simply open coms with an Flight school ship and follow the mission they offer. Once done you should get this achievement.

Combat Pro

To gain this achievement keep killing ships. You can keep track of your rank on the pilot page. A complete list of ranks can be found here - yes, its from my X3TC site but the ranks are the same in X3AP.

Captain of Industry

In order to get this one, simply keep buying and selling goods from stations.
In time you will reach this rank. Check above for a complete list of combat and trade ranks.

A Proud Moment

You will need to build an station or factory to gain this achievement. There are two ways to do this:

Hire an TL
For those who dont have their own TL ship, you can hire one. To do this com with an TL and talk to the captain. Say you want to transport something and buy him/her the money. Now com with them again and ask them to dock at the shipyard. Once the TL is docked, buy a station from a shipyard. Now tell your hired TL to Move to position and select an sector/location. Once there (which can take time) ask the captain to build the station, and after a short cut-scene you should have your own station!

Got your own TL?
If you got your own TL, just tell it to land on a shipyard. Once docked buy the station and tell it to either move to position or Jump to sector. Once the TL is in the sector you want, go into the cargo bay and build the station.

Pirate Fever

For this one you must get pilot to eject an crate worth 10,000 credits or more. Many trade ships (TS) carry cargo around the x-universe, so attack one and hope they drop some cargo. Probably best to attack weapon dealers but only attack hostile ships.

On the Boat

This one is fairly easy, get a police license from a trading station/dock and attack Xenon's, Khaak or Pirates.
Each of the main races (Argon, Boron, Split, Teladi and Paranid) have a police license you can buy. Terran's dont.

Liberator

You will need to claim 5 or more ships to get the liberator achievement. This is done by checking for ships with No pilot, once found get with-in 100-200 meters then press Shift + E to exit your ship. You will now be in your space suit. So now fly to with-in 50 meters or less. Press I once in range and scroll down to claim and the ship is yours. If claim is still ghosted out, then fly a bit closer. Repeat another 4 times.

Filthy Rich

Simply have 100 million credits in your account or more. Does not count money on your stations.

Maze

For this one you will need to build 5 stations then join them together to form an complex. See A Proud Moment above for building stations.

To link stations together: buy complex construction kits from shipyards. The stations must be with-in 20km of each other. You can also join multiple complexes together!

I recommend you start with an silicon mine L (dont bother with M mines!), crystal fab and then a power-plant. All you need now is two food stations (pre/post) and your have a complex which makes free stuff (just use some crystals to kick-start the station).

Albion Pride

You will need to complete the Argon plot for this one. To start these missions you will need the Argon rank of Accepted Advisor and be in Argon Sector M148. There is no plot for the Terrans btw (as of v2.0)!
A plot guide can be found here.

Solar Shock Wave

For this one you will need to destroy an Solar power plant. You will need a powerful ship to do this (M7+), as power plants have a lot of shielding and hull!

Turn Up the Heat

All you need to do is to use the Plasma Burst Generator to destroy 20 ships. The Plasma Burst Generator is fairly easy to spot in space due to its flame like appearance:

Be warned, the Plasma Burst Generator can hit/kill friendly ships too!

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

You will need to earn the top rank with the Argon's, Boron's, Split, Teladi and the Paranid.
For a complete list of ranks, see here.

ps. You have to get max race ranks simultaneously.. thanks to HairyGhoul for tip.

Fly Swatter

Fly flies are small creatures found randomly flying around the universe. They are normally hard to find, but sometimes found on asteroids too (Shot it to disturb them).

Once found you will then need to stun them. To stun space-flies you will need to fire an Ion disruptor at them:

It Was About Time!

You need over 2,000,000,000 credits on your personal account to get this achievement.

Do a Barrel Roll

This probably the most strangest achievement in X3AP, by its description you would think that you need to roll the ship.. however what actually need to do is to roll the universe map - odd eh?

To do this, press , to bring up the universe map, now type do a barrel roll, like so:

Operation Blackbeard

You will need to successful board and take control of 10 or more capital ships (M1 or M2).
Boarding is done with marines and not by claiming ships in your spacesuit.
Boarding ships is complex task, more details here.

A Few Good Men

For this one you will need to get 5 marines to have an overall score of 5 stars. You can train your marines on Military Outposts, however their fighting skill can only be improved after successful boardings.

Traveller

You need to visit every single sector personally for this one (ships which have explored the universe do not count). This achievement was broken in v1.0, however its been fixed in v1.1 and higher.
There are 238 sectors you must visit in total.

Making a Difference

For this achievement you will need to do 10 war missions and complete them. War missions are offered at war-sector stations when you get an war update. War missions are very much like normal kill missions.

Survivor

This is probably the hardest achievement in X3AP, because you will need to complete the plot in DiD mode. DiD mode (or Dead is Dead) means when you die thats it: your game is over. The fact of amount of missiles launched and the suicidal autopilot can make DiD near impossible.

Defender of the Universe

You will need to destroy 1,000 Xenon ships to gain this achievement. This will take you awhile to do.
If your unsure what Xenon ships look like, check-out the ship section here.

Reboot

Reboot requires you to board and capture an Xenon Q! Xenon ships are lot harder to take-over than any-other, and will require you to have a lot of good marines (20+, all 5 stars).

X-Treme Fighter

X-Treme Fighter is a combat rank given to those who have killed a hell-of-alot of ships!
Nothing you can do but keep destroying them ships! (cya next xmas :p)

Major Miner

For this one you will need to mine 10 units of the rare material Nividium. Nividium can be found on asteroids throughout the universe. You will need to scan them with an Mineral scanner.

Once found you will need to break the asteroid to small pieces before being able to harvest them. Mining laser or a few Hornet missiles can do the trick. Once broke into small pieces, you will need an Ore collector to pick up the fragments. I recommend that you use an TS ship for this.

A tip from Frankenberries:

You know the old trick where you drop a nav satellite at 0, 0, 1.5 in kingdom end and send a ship to remotely collect ore etc... Heres what you do, drop your nav satellite at the coordinates, but this time just pilot the ship that can hold XL cargo, and equipped with Ore Collector, auto pilot to the satellite, and then shoot the nearest large asteroids with a mosquito missile, then you just fly into the rocks. I suggest flying really slow, like 1m/s that way if you hit a rock too big to collect, it will knock your shields for 50% and break up into smaller rocks. pay attention doing this though, sometimes you will see a rock you think is smash-able but the first hit will knock out the shields and damage your hull a few percent, if this happens throw your ship in full reverse right away and find another rock, else you will die.

X-Treme Trader

Another long achievement which you earn after buying and selling a lot of goods.
Cya next, next xmas :p

Resourceful

Given after the Completion of the Xenon Hub plot. This was added in v2.0. A plot guide can be found here.

Homebase

Given after the Completion of the Headquarters plot. This was added in v2.0. A plot guide can be found here.

Tied Ends

Awarded after the completion of the Terran plot - Tied Ends (added in v2.5). A plot guide can be found here.