Saloon Simulator Deal with the Devil Quest Guide
Learn how the Saloon Simulator Deal with the Devil quest unlocks, why endings do not count, and the safe timing players say actually pops the achievement.
Players chasing every badge in this western saloon sim keep hitting the same wall: the story ends, freeplay opens, and one achievement stays dark. The Saloon Simulator deal with the devil objective is not an ending flag, even though it sits next to ending talk in community threads. If you want the Saloon Simulator deal with the devil achievement, the timing of a cash drop matters more than which finale you pick.
That mismatch is why the quest deserves a second look before you overwrite saves. Saloon Simulator on Steam is the store page for the game, but public achievement chatter does not spell out the safe rule that players eventually pinned down. A short Steam Community thread, opened in July 2025 and still drawing replies that November, is the clearest written record of what actually unlocked the badge.
Why This Quest Confuses Completionists
The name sounds like a story branch. One player who had already seen both finales assumed Deal with the Devil was an ending badge and that Guess Who's Back was the other. They reached freeplay twice, once for each ending, by loading an earlier save and playing the finale again. The badge never appeared. That test is useful because it knocks out the obvious theory: this is not a simple "pick ending A" checkbox.

Official screenshot · Source: Steam store
An early reply guessed the opposite failure state. Maybe the achievement fires if you cannot pay what you owe before time runs out. Nobody later in the thread confirmed that guess. The original poster came back the same day and said the pop lined up with finishing the quest itself, after a first completion that did not register.
Two later comments narrowed the mechanic. One player said the money has to go inside while the quest is already active, not sooner. Another called that trigger frustrating and argued the game should count whatever is already in the safe when the quest begins. Those notes are player experience, not a developer patch note.
Reading the Saloon Simulator deal with the devil reports in order matters. The first theory was an ending flag. The second was a missed payment. The comments that followed both of those ideas point at quest completion plus deposit timing. Treat the unpaid-debt guess as unconfirmed.
| Idea players tested or suggested | Where it came from | What later comments did with it |
|---|---|---|
| Either story ending, including both via an older save | Original post, July 19, 2025 | Freeplay on both finales still left the badge locked |
| Failing to pay before a deadline | First reply, offered as a guess | Never confirmed in the thread |
| Finishing the Deal with the Devil quest | Original poster, after more testing | Matched the run where the badge finally appeared |
| Put the money in only after the quest exists | Reply on August 7, 2025 | Clearest mechanical tip in the discussion |
| Count the safe balance when the quest starts | Reply on November 20, 2025 | Requested fix, not how the trigger behaved for them |
What Community Reports Actually Confirm
Community reports here are thin, and that is worth saying up front. The thread has four comments. It does not name a quest giver, a dollar amount, a deadline length, or a room-by-room route. Anyone selling a specific cash total is going past what these players published. This guide stays inside what they did publish.
Here is the set of claims that more than one part of the thread supports, or that the original poster updated after testing:
- The achievement is tied to the Deal with the Devil quest, not to reaching freeplay.
- Seeing both endings, by reloading an earlier save, was not enough.
- A first quest clear can fail to pop the badge even when the player believes the quest was completed.
- The deposit has to happen while the quest is already in progress. Stocking the container earlier does not satisfy the trigger those players saw.
- The container they are talking about is the safe. A later comment specifically says the trigger should read the safe's contents when the quest starts, which implies the current check does not.
Here is what you should not treat as settled:
- Whether missing a payment on purpose unlocks anything.
- Whether a later update rewrote the trigger. The November 2025 comment asks for a recode. That thread does not include a developer reply promising one.
- Exact retry steps after a failed pop. The original poster said the first completion did not register, then concluded the quest clear was the condition. They did not post a click-by-click second attempt.
| Date | What the player added | How sure you should be |
|---|---|---|
| July 19, 2025, morning | Endings and freeplay did not grant the badge | High for that player's saves; one account |
| July 19, 2025, later morning | Guess that failing to pay is the condition | Low; labeled as a guess and never backed up |
| July 19, 2025, afternoon | Badge seems tied to completing the quest; first clear missed | Medium; first-hand, but the miss is unexplained |
| August 7, 2025 | Money must be placed inside during the quest, not before | Medium; direct instruction, still one player's report |
| November 20, 2025 | Safe contents should count at quest start | This is feedback, not a confirmed change |
If you want the raw posts, they live in the Steam discussion about the Deal with the Devil achievement. Read them as player experience. Achievement trackers that were unreachable when this was researched do not add a second source.
Before you follow any of this on a current install, open the Steam update history for the game. Behavior described in mid-to-late 2025 can change. Until notes say the safe is checked at quest start, assume early cash does not count.
How to Time the Safe Deposit
Treat the Saloon Simulator deal with the devil quest as a live objective, not as a bank balance the game will notice later. Player experience says the trigger watches the act of putting money inside while that quest is active. A safe that was already full can look correct to you and still fail the check.
Use a short routine the moment the quest shows up in your log. Do it before you celebrate, sell off inventory, or roll the story forward.
- Pause and make a new manual save. Name it so you can tell it apart from story autosaves.
- Do not assume cash already in the safe will be credited. If you filled it earlier, that matches the failure mode later comments describe.
- With the quest active, put the money inside. The thread never states the sum, so follow the amount the quest itself asks for on your screen.
- Leave the safe interaction and watch for the achievement toast, or check the Steam overlay, before you overwrite the new save.
- If the toast does not appear, keep that pre-deposit save. It is the cleanest way to try the deposit again under the same quest state.
A few habits cause the miss even when you "did pay." Topping off the safe in an earlier chapter feels efficient, and it may even be what the story nudged you to do. According to community reports, that efficiency works against this badge. The game, as those players encountered it, wants the deposit event during the quest, not a balance that happens to be high enough on day one of the objective.
| Moment | Action that matches player reports | Action that players say fails |
|---|---|---|
| Quest not in the log yet | Leave the safe alone if you care about this badge | Pre-loading the cash "so you are ready" |
| Quest just appeared | Manual save, then deposit | Depositing, then deleting every older save |
| Right after you close the safe | Check the overlay before you continue the plot | Assuming a finished quest line means the badge is in |
| Toast never shows | Reload the save from before this deposit | Replaying only the ending cutscenes |
| Already in freeplay | Go back to a quest-era save if you still have one | Expecting freeplay to backfill the badge |
Keep the Saloon Simulator deal with the devil attempt on its own save branch. The original poster already used older saves to see both endings. That same habit protects you here. One slot can hold the moment the quest begins. Another can hold the moment after a deposit. Do not collapse them into a single rolling autosave until the badge is visible in your achievement list, not merely implied by quest text.
Fixes When the Achievement Stays Locked
A missed Saloon Simulator deal with the devil pop is usually a timing problem, not proof you chose the wrong ending. Sort the symptom before you replay hours of story.
Start with the question the original poster got wrong at first. Did you only finish the campaign? If the answer is yes, endings are the wrong lever. Their own test covered both finales and freeplay, using a reload, and the badge stayed dark. Replaying the last scene again is unlikely to help unless that replay also puts you back on the quest with a fresh deposit.
Next, ask when the money moved. If the only time you filled the safe was before the quest existed, you are in the situation the August 2025 comment describes. The fix those players point to is simple, if annoying: have the quest, then put the money inside. It is not "have had the money in there at some point."
The harder case is the one the original poster hit. They believed they had completed the quest, and the achievement still did not fire the first time. They later decided quest completion was the real condition, which means a clean repeat can succeed after a miss. The thread does not say whether they reloaded, whether the safe was already full, or whether the game simply failed to send the unlock. Because that detail is missing, do not invent a ritual around it. Reload to a save where the quest is active and the deposit has not yet been performed this attempt. Then deposit once and check the overlay.
| What you see | Likely reading from player experience | Practical next step |
|---|---|---|
| Both endings done, badge still locked | This is not an ending reward | Return to the quest, not the finale |
| Safe was full before the quest | Early cash was ignored by the trigger | Deposit again only while the quest is active |
| Quest text finished, no toast | First-clear miss, reported once | Repeat from a pre-deposit save on that quest |
| You never paid, on purpose | Unconfirmed guess from the first reply | Do not chase a fail state; pay during the quest |
| Only one save, already past the quest | No safe way back without an older file | Check cloud or backup saves before starting over |
Steam overlay delays happen in many games, so give the client a moment and a restart before you assume the run was wasted. If the badge is absent after a restart, trust the save, not the hope that it will appear overnight. Nothing in the thread describes a delayed unlock hours later.
Also separate this badge from ordinary quest completion text. A objective can tick off in the log while the achievement hook fails, which is exactly the gap the original poster described. If you only watch the quest log, you can walk away thinking you are done. Check the achievement name itself.
Goals That Do Not Replace the Quest
Finishing the story is still worth doing. It just does not substitute for this objective. The original poster framed Guess Who's Back as the other ending-related achievement. That framing is their player experience, not a full description of every unlock condition for that second badge. Use it only as a contrast: they could reach the ending content they cared about and still lack Deal with the Devil.
Freeplay gets the same treatment. Entering it after a reload, on more than one ending, did not backfill the missing badge. If your completion pass is "roll credits, enter freeplay, check the list," build a different pass for this one quest.
| Goal | What players associated with it | Does it replace this quest? |
|---|---|---|
| Story ending | One of the finale paths | No |
| Guess Who's Back | The other ending badge, in the original poster's words | No; it was the comparison case, not the fix |
| Freeplay | Post-story mode after an ending | No; reached twice without this unlock |
| Paying during the active quest | The action later comments credit | This is the path they describe |
| Leaving the debt unpaid | Early, unconfirmed guess | Not established |
A single session that respects the trigger
Block one sitting for the quest rather than folding it into an ending marathon. Load the save where the objective is new, or as close to new as you have. Confirm the quest name is present. Make the manual save. Perform the deposit the quest is asking for. Stop and verify the achievement before you chase the other finale.
If you still need both endings for other badges, do that on a different branch afterward. The original poster's reload method shows that ending achievements and this quest do not have to be solved in one continuous timeline. Splitting them keeps a bad safe interaction from also costing you a finale you already liked.
What to ignore until patch notes say otherwise
Ignore advice that quotes a dollar figure, a day count, or an NPC script this thread never contained. Ignore the idea that the safe is scanned the instant the quest starts. A player asked for that behavior in November 2025 because they found the real trigger annoying. Asking for a change is not the same thing as the change shipping.
Check current notes on the Steam store page before a long replay. If a later build says the game now counts money already in the safe, the August 2025 warning is outdated. If the notes are silent, play by the stricter rule.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I unlock the Saloon Simulator deal with the devil achievement?
Community reports say you unlock it by completing the Deal with the Devil quest, and that the money has to be placed in the safe while that quest is already active. Reaching freeplay and seeing both endings did not do it for the player who tested those routes. The thread never publishes a required cash amount, so use the figure your quest prompt shows.
Can I fill the safe before the quest starts?
Player experience says no. A comment from August 2025 says you must put the money inside when you have the quest, not sooner. A later comment complains that the safe's existing contents are not counted when the quest begins. Pre-loading looks safe and, for this badge, is the mistake those players warn about.
What if I finished the quest and the badge never appeared?
That miss is part of the original report. The first completion did not trigger, and the player still concluded the quest clear was the right condition. Reload a save from before the deposit, make sure the quest is active, put the money in again, and check the Steam achievement list after a client refresh. Do not spend the retry only on ending cinematics.
Does failing to pay on time unlock it instead?
That idea showed up as a guess in the first reply, and later posts did not back it up. The comments that followed point at paying at the right time, meaning during the quest, rather than at missing the payment. Chasing a failure state can also burn the save you would need for a proper deposit. Pay while the objective is live, and keep a backup slot until the badge is actually on your profile.
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