I’m burning rubber as I approach the motel parking lot. The tires squeal in protest as I spin the handlebars hard, waiting for the motorbike to start drifting before I hit the nitro. It’s working. I’m doing a donut, not too tight, just clearing the parked cars. Surely this time I’m going to make it. I only need five seconds, four, three, two … and a zombie slams into me out of nowhere, sending me sprawling onto the asphalt. I’m never going to get this trophy.
I’m playing Days Gone, which casts you as a biker in a zombie apocalypse. The Apocalypse Burnout trophy is the last one I need for a full sweep—you have to drift your motorcycle and use nitro for a speed boost simultaneously for five seconds, which is a lot tougher than it sounds. After a fruitless half-hour, I give up and look for a guide online.
PlayStation trophies, like achievements on Steam or Xbox, are awarded when you complete tasks specified by the developer. They’re a cherry on top, a kind of metagame you can take or leave. You'll inevitably unlock a few trophies as you play through a game, but completionists work hard to unlock obscure achievements. Your trophy count feeds into a score that can serve as a badge of honor on your gamer profile, but not all trophies are treated equally.
What Makes a Good Trophy?Achievements give players another way to explore parts of a game they might miss on their first playthrough, says Graeme Timmins, creative director at Gearbox, the studio behind popular series like Borderlands.
“They create a great sense of pride for completionists,” he says. "They give designers methods to incentivize alternate gameplay mechanics. When approached thoughtfully, they can add a lot to a player’s experience.”
That sentiment is echoed by Dan Webb, who is the editor-in-chief of playstationtrophies.org and xboxachievements.com. Both of the websites Webb runs offer lists of trophies and achievements with guides on unlocking many of them. The respective forums are lively, filled with trophy hunters. But some of these awards are more prized than others.
“One of my favorites was Dastardly from Red Dead Redemption, where you had to hogtie a woman and place her in front of a train, like the famous movie trope,” Webb says. “I’m also a big fan of Borderlands 2’s Tribute to a Vault Hunter.”
