I finally got my blasted apes to assimilate meat in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

The trophy that almost got away

Ever have that one, final, just-within-reach trophy or achievement left to check off before you’re done? One last goal to meet before you can wipe a game from your hard drive without any weird remorse?

I have. I’ve had a bunch of ’em. Here’s a recent example that might prevent some headaches.

The latest self-inflicted thorn in my side was a trophy called All You Can Eat – the final trophy I needed to unlock the platinum in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, a fascinating and meandering survival game about evolving proto-humans. I didn’t set out to earn all of the trophies – a few of them are far too grindy – but after wrapping up my review and taking a (very necessary) breather, I couldn’t resist.

So, that’s what I did over the quiet winter break. I spent an unreasonable amount of time breeding human-like apes, feeding them mushrooms, eggs, fish, and meat until they got sick, and forcing their young to watch and learn so they might grow up and pass down those essential life skills to their kin.

To become omnivorous in Ancestors, you can’t just endlessly eat all of the food types. You have to get sick – enough to have an upset stomach – and then actively recover, most easily by drinking loads of water. Do that enough times (and lock in a few crucial genetic mutations), and you’ll fully assimilate.

If I had known that tidbit going in, I would’ve saved so much time. I wouldn’t have carved up dozens of snakes and saber-toothed cats and god knows what else just to keep the midnight meat train rolling.

There’s no shortage of guides, tips, and how-tos for games these days – except sometimes, there is.

This happened to be one of those instances where even a deep dive into the subreddit couldn’t get me all the way there. I had to start up a custom late-game lineage and strategically kill off my elder apes to prevent the clan from making too much evolutionary progress while chasing down this dang trophy.

Was it worth it? Well, yes. Mostly.

When there’s only a single trophy left to get, you’re going to think of every excuse in the world to keep chipping away at it, no matter how mindless the task ends up being. Besides. I’ve done far worse.

Ancestors is a weird game for weird people, and I love it, but I doubt many of you will be able to directly relate to this one specific trophy in this one not-exactly-mass-market game. Still – I’m sure you’ve all gone to great lengths before to spend more time in a video game you weren’t ready to put down yet.

Got any stories?