Baba Is You achievements not unlocking: How to actually fix your broken trophy list

You’ve spent three hours staring at a screen, moving blocks of text until your brain feels like it’s melting, and you finally—finally—solve that one level. You push the "Baba" block onto "Win." The sparkly victory music plays. But then... nothing. No notification. No satisfying "bloop" from Steam. Your Baba Is You achievements not unlocking is a special kind of frustration because this game is already hard enough without the technical glitches stealing your glory.

It’s annoying.

Honestly, it's one of the few downsides to Arvi Teikari’s masterpiece. While the logic in the game is flawless, the logic connecting the game to Steam or console achievement trackers sometimes trips over its own feet. If you’re sitting there looking at a completed map but a grayed-out achievement icon, you aren't alone. This happens more than you'd think, especially after the massive "New Adventures" update or when playing across different devices like a PC and a Steam Deck.

Why Steam sometimes forgets you're a genius

Most of the time, the reason behind Baba Is You achievements not unlocking isn't even the game’s fault. It’s a communication breakdown. Steam’s API is generally reliable, but if you lose internet for a split second right as you clear a world, the "handshake" between the game and the server fails.

Cloud saves are another big culprit. Say you’re playing on your laptop at a cafe, you finish "The Lake," and then you shut the lid before the sync finishes. You open the game later on your desktop. The game sees the level is done, but the achievement trigger was missed in that awkward transition period. It’s basically a desync.

There's also a quirk with the game's internal flag system. Baba Is You tracks your progress through "flowers" and "orbs." Sometimes, the game engine registers the orb collection but fails to send the specific "Achievement_Unlocked" command to the platform wrapper. This is common in many indie titles made with Multimedia Fusion 2, the engine Hempuli (Arvi) used for Baba. It's a powerful engine for logic, but its integration with modern storefronts can be finicky if the stars don't align perfectly.

👉 See also: Finding the Right Life Board Game Printable When You’re Bored of the Original

The "Integrity Check" and other quick fixes

Before you start messing with save files, try the boring stuff. It works more often than people admit. Right-click Baba Is You in your Steam library, hit Properties, go to Local Files, and click "Verify integrity of game files."

Sometimes a tiny file responsible for the Steamworks integration gets corrupted during an update.

If that doesn't do it, try the "Re-trigger" method. This is the most successful way to handle Baba Is You achievements not unlocking without losing your mind. Go back into the game. Enter the level or the world map that should have given you the achievement. If it’s an achievement for clearing a specific world, try re-completing the final level of that world.

You don't usually have to redo the whole thing. Just trigger a "Win" state one more time.

For those playing on the Nintendo Switch, the situation is a bit different since the Switch doesn't have a system-wide achievement system. However, if you're looking for the in-game completion markers to show up and they aren't, a full hardware restart (holding the power button, not just sleep mode) often forces the game to re-scan the save data and update the map screen.

Dealing with the "New Adventures" update glitches

When the "New Adventures" content dropped, it added a massive amount of free levels. It also broke a few things. Some players reported that old achievements stopped tracking properly if they were halfway through a world when the update hit.

If you are a returning player, the game might be confused about your legacy save data.

In these cases, you might see that you have the "All Orbs" achievement but you're missing the achievement for a specific world like "Forest." This is a classic "flag" error. The game thinks you've already passed the point where it checks for that achievement.

One trick used by the community on the Steam forums is to temporarily disable Steam Cloud, move your save file (found in %AppData%/Baba_Is_You) to a backup folder, and start a fresh game just to trigger the early-game achievements. Once they pop, you can swap your old save back in.

👉 See also: Angry Bird Angry Bird Game: Why We’re Still Obsessed With Slinging Grumpy Avian Heroes

When the "Secret" levels don't count

Baba Is You is famous for its layers. You think you've cleared a world, but have you really? Some achievements are tied to completing every single level in a world, including the hidden ones you only find by turning the level icons themselves into objects.

If your achievement for a specific area isn't unlocking, double-check that you haven't missed a "Sub-level."

Look at the map. Is the flower for that world glowing or just sitting there? A glowing flower means it's fully cleared. If it's not glowing, you've missed a secret. This isn't a bug; it's just the game being its usual, cryptic self. You might have "Baba Is You achievements not unlocking" because the game is waiting for you to find that one extra level hidden in the corner of the map that requires you to turn "Level Is Transform."

The nuclear option: Steam Achievement Manager (SAM)

Let’s be real. If you’ve legitimately earned an achievement and the game refuses to give it to you because of a software glitch, you shouldn't feel bad about taking matters into your own hands.

Steam Achievement Manager is a third-party tool that lets you manually toggle achievements.

Is it "cheating"?

Technically, it's a tool that can be used for cheating, but for many people dealing with broken trophies, it’s a repair tool. Use it with caution. Make sure Baba Is You is closed before you use it. Only unlock the ones you have actually finished in-game. It’s a clean way to sync your Steam profile with your actual in-game progress when the "handshake" fails permanently.

Modding and its impact on your progress

If you've been messing around with the Baba Is You level editor or downloading custom level packs from the community, this can sometimes interfere with your main game's achievement tracking.

👉 See also: Billionaire Blueprint Monopoly Go: Is the 2026 Solo Event Actually Worth Your Dice?

The game generally separates "Custom" progress from "Main" progress, but some mods that alter the game's core logic files can accidentally disable achievement triggers. If you're running a modded version of the executable, achievements often won't unlock at all.

To fix this:

• Delete any unofficial patches or "DLL" mods.
• Reinstall the game (your saves are in AppData, so they’ll stay safe).
• Open the vanilla game and trigger a win condition.

Actionable steps to restore your progress

If you are currently staring at a missing achievement, follow this sequence to get it back without wasting your afternoon.

1. The Map Check: Enter the world map and look at the flower icon. If it’s not glowing, you are missing a hidden level. Search for any level icons that can be manipulated.
2. The Re-Win: Re-enter the final level of the world that's bugged. Complete it again. This is the most common way to force the Steam API to realize you've finished the task.
3. The Sync Check: Ensure Steam is in "Online Mode." Achievements will not sync if you are in Offline Mode, even if you reconnect later—sometimes they just get lost in the void.
4. The Save Refresh: Go to your save data folder. Usually, this is in C:\Users\[YourName]\AppData\Roaming\Baba_Is_You. Back up your Data folder. Delete the original (after backing it up!), start the game to create a new one, then close it and paste your backup back in. This often forces a "re-scan" of your progress.
5. The Steam Console: For advanced users, you can sometimes use the Steam Console (steam://open/console) to check if there are any "AppID" errors preventing communication with the game.

Baba Is You is a game about breaking rules and rethinking logic. It's ironic when the game's own rules for achievements break, but with these steps, you can usually get your profile back to 100% completion. Just remember that the game's internal logic is very literal—if you haven't fulfilled every "Is" and "Has" condition for a world's completion, the achievement will stay locked. Double-check those map secrets before assuming it's a bug.