Separate buying a skill from activating it
The official achievement fix makes an important distinction: purchasing or unlocking a skill is not the same as using an active skill. A purchased skill alone is not a reason to abandon your save. At the same time, unlocking a tool does not make its active use safe for the challenge. If your goal is this achievement, avoid deliberately triggering active restoration tools while you play.
Do not turn that distinction into an undocumented list of every safe upgrade. The developer's statement defines the active-use rule, but we have not independently audited every upgrade and every input. If you are unsure about a specific ability, check its in-game description and the current developer discussion before using it during a challenge attempt. The safest practical routine is to perform the restoration work manually and keep active tool inputs out of that routine.
Plan a manual route you can recognize
Community players recommend different starting exhibits. One player finds the large central fossil displays useful for learning fragment shapes. Another prefers sea creatures, hats, and masks, and finds some large skeletons harder because many bones look alike. These are personal approaches, not a measured fastest route. Choose a display whose remaining outlines are readable to you.
A practical manual session has a smaller goal than finishing an entire wing. Pick one recognizable display, compare a few likely fragments, and build enough of its shape to make the next decision easier. Then move to a different object when the remaining fragments are ambiguous. This is our suggested workflow, rather than a requirement imposed by the achievement.
Use material and shape as initial clues. A broad visual match can narrow your search, but it is not proof that an object belongs in a particular room. The game still needs a correct placement. Check the actual outline instead of relying entirely on the historical name or the apparent material of a fragment.
Protect progress while working by hand
The 25 September patch made removal of correct pieces deliberate: a quick interaction no longer pulls a correct fragment off, while a held interaction can remove it. Lock Correct Pieces offers stronger protection through Options > Game > Comfort. These placement controls address accidental removal; they are not active restoration skills described by the achievement fix.
Avoid repeatedly dismantling a display just because another fragment looks similar. Identify the questionable piece first and inspect the placement feedback. If you need to understand the difference between a wrong placement and a protected correct placement, use the placement guide. Keeping that distinction clear prevents unnecessary rework during a long manual run.
Recover the last pieces without restarting
The developer answered the Lost & Found achievement question directly: using the recovery function will not fail the achievement. You do not have to spend hours searching for a fragment that has left the accessible area just to preserve the challenge. The current recovery threshold is covered in the Lost & Found guide.
Treat recovery as the final retrieval step, then continue assembling the pieces yourself. It does not mean you have completed the museum, nor does it certify the history of active-skill use in your save. Its compatibility with the achievement answers only the recovery-button question.
If the museum is already open but the achievement is missing
- Update the game through Steam.
- Load the save in which you opened the museum without using active skills.
- Give the save a chance to finish loading, then check whether the achievement unlocks.
- If it still does not unlock, choose Report a Problem while that save remains loaded.
The official fix says eligible completed saves should unlock the achievement upon loading, without replaying the museum. That is a reason to try the existing save before starting again. It is not a guarantee that every completed save qualifies: a save that used an active skill has a different history, and we do not have a verified method to erase or reverse that history.
What to include in an achievement report
Describe whether the museum was opened before or after the fix, whether the updated game loaded the completed save, and whether you remember activating any restoration skills. Distinguish buying an upgrade from pressing the button to use an ability. If you used Lost & Found, say so without treating it as a disqualifying action.
Report from the affected save rather than a new game. The developer specifically requests that context because the report can explain why the achievement did not unlock. Avoid save-file edits, third-party achievement tools, or deleting your progress as a substitute for diagnosing the actual save.