The Beginner’s Guide To Trophy Hunting On PlayStation

Want to start trophy hunting but don’t know how to get started? Here’s your PlayStation trophy hunting beginner’s guide. 

For 13 years, PlayStation trophies have been at the back of every Playstation owner’s mind. Occasionally popping up in the corner of the screen when they beat a boss, find an easter egg or happen upon a hidden collectable. What if you wanted to start getting these deliberately? And a lot of them at that? Here are some tips to get you started on your trophy hunting journey. 

Set Your Goals

3 years, 63 platinums and 3100 trophies later, I’ve gained a healthy understanding of what you’ll need to start rising through the ranks. Firstly, you’re going to need a goal to hit. Jumping around your library picking up a few bronze trophies here and there will just lead to burnout as your trophy collection makes no visible progress. Before you decide on how you’re going to trophy hunt though, let’s have a quick rundown of how the trophy system works in 2021. 

There are four types of PlayStation trophies: bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Each is worth more points than the last. They all contribute to your trophy level, that number and emblem you’ll see all over your PSN account. 

Bronze, silver and gold trophies are handed out for doing a specific task, be that beating a boss, defeating 20 enemies without dying or collecting 800 collectables (I’ll never forgive you, Assassin’s Creed). These trophies are worth 15, 30 and 90 points respectively, with gold and silver trophies are typically given out for the harder challenges on a game’s trophy list. 

The platinum is the final milestone of any (proper) trophy list. Worth a whopping 300 points, it’ll only unlock once you’ve unlocked every single trophy a game has to offer. Thankfully, you won’t have to complete any DLC trophies for this, just the main list. 

How Do You Want To Trophy Hunt?

Just interested in seeing that platinum counter go up? Focus on fully completing your favourite games. Are you like me and want your trophy menu to be an endless cascade of 100% bars? Make sure to fill out all the DLC trophies that live outside of the main list. 

If you’re just interested in levelling up your overall trophy level, you might want to hunt for gold trophies instead of platinums, since they’re the quickest way to rapidly boost your points. 

Some people even attempt full-series platinum hunts, completing every trophy in a whole franchise, including the titanic Final Fantasy series. Kudos to Rebourne07 for that particularly enormous achievement. 

Find Some Resources

So you’ve got an idea of what approach to trophy hunting you’re going to take. Now to find some resources to help you along your way. 

There are plenty of trophy-centric websites out there, but for my money, psnprofiles.com is by far the best. PSNProfiles has PSN account integration, detailed trophy tracking, a global leaderboard and a unique approach to trophy guides that puts it head and shoulders above any other website.

Not to say that PSNProfiles is the only good website out there, however. Some honourable mentions include playstationtrophies.org and Powerpyx.com, which each host a slew of accurate, if slightly less aesthetically pleasing guides. 

Beware Of Missable Trophies

When looking at a guide for a game, there are three types of trophies you want to look out for. 

Check for ‘Grind’ trophies before you decide to hunt a game, as these will usually involve a long, repetitive task and are incredibly annoying.

You should also look out for ‘multiplayer only’ trophies, which are going to require other people to complete (be sure to check PSNProfiles and r/Trophies if you’re struggling to find a partner/team for these). 

Perhaps the most annoying though are ‘missable’ trophies. These are exactly what they sound like, and will often require a full extra playthrough of the game to go back and get if you miss them. Be sure to make manual saves to a USB stick or the PSN Cloud before you reach the point in the game that holds this trophy, lest you spend 15 hours returning to that one spot at the end of Dark Souls 2 to get the one spell you missed. I promise I’m not bitter. 

Have Fun

Above all, trophy hunting is meant to be fun. If you find that grinding for that one trophy is ruining your enjoyment of a game, or that struggling through a game’s trophy list is getting in the way of the fun you could be having, take a break or quit entirely. Trophies are one of my favourite parts of gaming, but they’re nothing if the games aren’t fun. 

What did you think of our PlayStation beginner’s guide to trophy hunting? Be sure to check back next week for the best platinum trophies for new hunters. 

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