Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, the phrase "low-hanging fruit" comes to mind.

While I collect suggestions for our next article on evil achievements, I thought it might be amusing to turn toward achievements that are considerably easier to get. The 17 achievements (and one Feat of Strength) in today's column are all things that you can do without any real preparation.

I'm going to ignore the super-obvious picks (Shave and a Haircut, anyone? You don't need me to tell you about that) and head straight for the more esoteric stuff. I'm also going to bypass extremely expensive achievements that, while quick, will bankrupt the average player, so nothing like Grand Ice Mammoth. (Looks like I need to update OverAchiever: Straight to the poorhouse, come to think of it.) I briefly considered including achievements that you can only get at the end of a long quest chain or reputation grind but canned that idea too. For example, Skyshattered is relatively easy these days with a 410% mount and a little practice, but you'll only be able to access it after a quest grind, so nuts to that. I also eliminated You'll Feel Right As Rain, Critter Gitter, and Fungal Frenzy for that reason. They're all easy, but you can't just toddle off to get them unless you've already put some work in.

These are all achievements that the average player -- assuming a friend or two, a tiny bit of luck, and a little time -- can just run out and get whenever he or she wants.

General achievements

• Going Down? Hie thee to Shattrath, more specifically to this spot on the eastern bridge into the city. Jump -- this is important! Don't step, but jump ... off the bridge. Take a Heavy Frostweave or any form of Embersilk Bandage along with you for Ultimate Triage (another easy achievement below).
• Friend or Fowl The hilly area south of Nifflevar and west of the Explorer's League Post in the Howling Fjord hosts an abundance of turkeys, and this achievement's easy without any competition. Just make yourself a /tar Fjord Turkey macro and you're good to go.

Quest achievements

• Joy Ride This one is Horde-only, unfortunately, but it only involves making a full circuit of the Azshara rocketway. Hop on at one end (either the Northern Rocketway Terminus or the Southern; it doesn't matter), select the other (again, either the Northern or Southern Terminus, depending on where you start), and enjoy your ride.
• Mine Sweeper With Northrend close to deserted these days, you should have a full minefield at your disposal. Just keep angling yourself onto new mines as you fall (or run quickly to a new set after you land) and you get this very easily.
• Bounce It's not enough that this had to be one of the best quests in Cataclysm -- it's also an easy achievement. Detailed explanations of how to do this are probably superfluous.

Exploration achievements

• Medium Rare Its more involved counterpart Bloody Rare is a nightmare, but getting one of the Outland rares is hideously easy. To make it even easier, go for one of the rares that spawns in a later zone that players are all but guaranteed not to be questing through, because most will typically leave Outland at level 68. I've had the most luck with Nuramoc in Netherstorm.
• Northern Exposure This is the Wrath of the Lich King counterpart to Medium Rare. Again, you're best off looking in either the Storm Peaks or Icecrown, because players usually leave the continent for a Cataclysm zone before reaching that point in questing. My picks would be Hildana Deathstealer or Putridus the Ancient in Icecrown, although you're more likely to find Hildana up if she spawns in Jotunheim rather than the central portion of the map.
• Stood in the Fire These days, this is technically a raiding achievement because Deathwing no longer paths around the world at large, but that's what makes it so easy. You should get this for falling off (or dying in some ways -- not all) during the Spine of Deathwing encounter in Dragon Soul.

PvP achievements

• Call in the Cavalry You don't need to PvP for this. Simply convert any extra justice points you've got around into honor at the Stormwind/Orgrimmar justice trade goods vendor (granted, this will be at a loss, but most characters have a lot of extra justice points just sitting around now), and go buy yourself a mount. They cost 2,000 honor, so if you've maxed your justice points, you should have more than enough.
• Duel-icious Even if you suck at PvP, you should be able to convince a friend to lose a single duel to you.
• Freedom of the Alliance/Freedom of the Horde As with Call in the Cavalry above, you can snag this without killing a single soul. Convert justice to honor, go buy the cheapest PvP trinket from the vendors, and profit! FYI, the cheapest PvP trinket should be the class-specific Insignias you can buy for 55 honor from the legacy armor quartermasters.

Dungeons and raid achievements

• Leeeeeeeeeeeeeroy! I imagine just about every character that was active when the achievement system first went live already has this, but if you don't, a quick trip to the Rookery in Upper Blackrock Spire should remedy that. Run around the eggs like a lunatic and you'll have all the whelps you need in short order.
• Eclipse The Twilight Sparks that spawn during phase 2 of the Archbishop Benedictus fight only have about 16,000 health. If you're willing to spend phase 2 one-shotting 10 of them, congratulations -- there's your achievement! Now, a disclaimer: This is much easier to do as a ranged character than a melee character, because not all of the sparks can be melee'd from Benedictus' platform. I would also advise your group that you're going after the achievement, particularly if you are the tank who will now be dragging Benedictus all over the place.
• Straw That Broke the Camel's Back One of the funniest achievements in the game and probably how you should be doing the fight anyway (given that you can cast while moving from the camels). Just stay out of the spikes that spawn during the Earthrager Ptah encounter and you should be fine.

Profession achievements

• The Old Gnome and the Sea Now that anyone can toss a line anywhere in the game, this is as simple as finding your nearest pool of fish. However, be advised that this is reportedly bugged for Cataclysm fish pools, so go to an older zone.
• Mr. Pinchy's Magical Crawdad Box Just checking to see if you're paying attention.
• The Lurker Above You'll need help from a friend in order to form a raid, but otherwise this is a quick solo job at levels 80+. Unfortunately, you will almost certainly die once the Lurker actually spawns.
• Ultimate Triage You did this during Going Down?, right? If you didn't, march yourself back to that bridge and toss yourself off again.

Feats of Strength

• Why? Because It's Red This is another achievement for which you'll need a raid, but all you have to do is farm the first series of trash pulls in AQ40, which will keep respawning as long as you don't kill all four Anubisath Sentinels. Kill three, run out of the instance, and then zone back in and keep trying. Or if you can solo the AQ40 bosses (or most of them), you might prefer just to clear the raid itself if you're also working on Brood of Nozdormu reputation. I won't lie -- the Red Qiraji Resonating Crystal is not a common drop, but it should be doable if you've got a few hours to bum around and want an extra Feat of Strength.

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Enjoy working on achievements? The Overachiever is here to help! Count on us for advice on patch 4.3 achievements, our guide to Mountain O' Mounts, and a good, hard look at what's wrong with archaeology and how Blizzard could fix it.

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