Valve is testing Steam Achievement Sets in the Steam Client beta, separating base-game and DLC achievements so completed sets can keep their status when games expand. Here is how the system works, with Crusader Kings III as the clearest player-facing example.
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Valve is testing the achievement fix completionists have wanted
Valve is testing Steam Achievement Sets, a Steam Client beta feature that lets developers group achievements into separate collections and preserve recognition when a player finishes one of those collections. According to The Escapist’s report on the beta, the system separates base-game progress from achievements that require paid DLC, rather than folding every new objective into one undivided checklist.
That is the concrete change at the center of a long-running irritation for Steam 100 percent completion hunters. Under the old all-in-one model, a player could finish every achievement available in a game, then see that perfect status diluted when an expansion or update added new achievements later. EGamers describes the familiar example bluntly: a game completed years ago can fall to 94 percent after a DLC adds five new achievements.
Valve’s new system does not simply hide the problem. It gives developers a structure for sorting achievements by access, content type, or mode. The immediate tension is that this depends on developer setup. Steam Achievement Sets can protect completed-set recognition, and DLC achievements no longer count toward overall game progress until the player has access to that relevant content, according to The Escapist. But the same report also cautions that this is narrower than a blanket promise that every game’s overall 100 percent status will remain untouched in every situation.
How the base-game and DLC split works
The core idea is straightforward: developers decide how many achievement sets a game has and what each set covers. The Escapist reports that a game could divide achievements between base game and DLC, single-player and multiplayer, or even class-based collections. Players still unlock achievements normally; Steam then organizes them into the groups chosen by the developer.
Each set has its own progress bar. When a player unlocks every achievement in a set, Steam awards a Set Complete trophy that appears on the player’s profile. Valve’s important promise, as reported by both The Escapist and EGamers, is that this recognition stays in place even if new achievements are later added to that set.
Steam is also adding visual language to make the split readable. Base-game achievements are shown in blue, while DLC achievements are shown in purple, according to both reports. That matters because the problem was never only mathematical. It was also informational. A single blended percentage could not tell a player whether they were missing a challenge from the game they already owned, a paid add-on they never bought, or a piece of content that had aged out of availability.
Under the new model, The Escapist says DLC achievements do not count toward overall game progress until the player has access to the relevant content. For Steam DLC achievements, that is the most player-friendly part of the change. A player who finishes the base game is no longer automatically treated as incomplete because a paid expansion exists somewhere else on the store.
Crusader Kings III is the kind of game where the difference is visible
Crusader Kings III is a useful player-facing example because strategy players already understand the rhythm of a living game: major systems evolve, expansions add new goals, and long-term players return in cycles rather than treating launch as the end state. The assignment here is not that Valve has announced a Crusader Kings III-specific configuration in the provided source material. The confirmed news is the Steam feature itself, and the example is about how a DLC-heavy strategy game would become easier to read if its achievements were organized through sets.
Imagine a Crusader Kings III achievements page under Valve’s new structure. A base-game set could show the achievements available to every owner of the game. Paid expansion achievements could sit in their own purple DLC sets. A player who completed the base-game set would keep the Set Complete trophy even if future content added fresh objectives elsewhere. If a later expansion introduced new achievement challenges, those could be tracked as a separate set rather than silently lowering a player’s existing completion recognition.
That distinction is especially valuable in strategy games because completion often reflects mastery across patches, rulesets, and playstyles. A player may have solved the base game under one version of the meta, then return later for new scenarios, systems, or expansion-specific goals. Steam Achievement Sets give developers a way to acknowledge those layers instead of forcing every objective into one permanent ledger.
The practical caveat is developer control. Valve is giving studios the tool, not automatically rewriting every achievement page into the cleanest possible layout. If a developer chooses a careful split, Crusader Kings III achievements and similar long-tail strategy achievement lists could become far less punishing for players who finish one era of content before the next arrives. If a developer uses fewer sets, the player-facing benefit may be smaller.
Completed sets are protected, but old edge cases still need developer action
The most important phrase in the beta is “completed set.” According to The Escapist, completing a set adds a trophy to the player’s profile, and that recognition stays in place if more achievements are later added to the same set. Developers can also add new sets as a game expands, giving returning players a separate group of objectives without removing earlier set-completion status.
That approach addresses the cleanest version of the DLC problem: a completed base game should not feel retroactively unfinished because a paid add-on exists. But Valve’s system also includes tools for messier cases. Developers can archive individual achievements or entire sets. The Escapist reports that Valve presents this as useful for seasonal games and limited-time holiday challenges. Players who already unlocked archived content keep it visible on their profiles, while players who missed it will not see it displayed there and will not have it block progress toward completing a set or game.
EGamers frames this as a response to two common complaints: DLC reducing a previously perfect percentage, and older achievements becoming impossible because limited events ended or online modes shut down. The archive tool is the more delicate part of the design because it asks developers to decide when an achievement has become functionally retired. Used well, it can stop dead achievements from poisoning a completion list. Used inconsistently, it could leave some games cleaner than others.
For players, the safe expectation is this: Steam Achievement Sets improve the rules for recognition, but they do not erase the need for developers to maintain their achievement lists. The system creates a better framework. It does not guarantee every old achievement problem will be fixed across Steam on day one.
Steam’s achievement pages are being rebuilt around the new model
Valve’s beta also changes how players inspect achievements. The Escapist reports that the updated achievements page is available from the web Games List and from games in the Library. Search filters can narrow results to specific sets, locked achievements, or unlocked achievements. Comparisons can show progress against up to three friends, including rare achievements and DLC sets.
That matters because sets only help if players can actually audit them. A Crusader Kings III player comparing progress with friends would need to know whether they are looking at the shared base-game pool, an expansion-specific set, or a rare achievement tied to content one player owns and another does not. The redesigned page gives Steam a structure for that comparison instead of turning every missing unlock into the same kind of gap.
Profiles are changing too. Both source reports say Steam’s Perfect Games tab has been renamed Completed. The Escapist says the renamed tab now includes both completed games and games with completed achievement sets. That label change is small, but it reveals Valve’s new philosophy. Completion is no longer treated only as a single final state for an entire product. It can also describe a finished slice of a larger game.
For long-running PC games, that is a healthier accounting system. It lets a base game be complete, a DLC set be unfinished, and an archived seasonal challenge be preserved without all three fighting over the same percentage.
What players can do during the beta
The feature is currently in beta. EGamers says players can try Achievement Sets in the Steam Client beta, while The Escapist reports that the beta already covers 17 games. The provided source material does not list every participating game, does not give a full public rollout date, and does not confirm a Crusader Kings III-specific implementation.
That means the immediate advice is simple. If you are in the Steam Client beta, check the achievements pages of supported games for set-based progress bars, blue base-game achievements, purple DLC achievements, and Set Complete trophies. If you are outside the beta, wait for broader availability before assuming your library’s completion statistics have changed.
For completionists, the feature is worth watching closely but not treating as universal yet. Its strongest confirmed protections are completed-set recognition, separation of inaccessible DLC achievements from overall progress, and archiving for achievements or sets that should no longer block completion. Its open questions are implementation speed, developer adoption, and how consistently older games will be cleaned up.
For strategy players looking at Crusader Kings III achievements, the likely value is clarity. A well-organized achievement page can distinguish mastery of the base game from optional expansion goals, which is exactly the kind of separation a long-lived strategy title needs. Valve has supplied the framework. Now the quality of the system will depend on how carefully developers use it.