The hierarchy of PlayStation trophies has stayed the same since their inception on the PlayStation 3. Bronze is entry-level, given to those achievements that only require the shallowest scraping of what a game has to offer. Silver requires more digging, rewarding players for the completion of shorter side quests and situational combat/puzzle challenges. Gold is reserved for the deepest excavations when players mine every morsel of content from the game, completing tasks like finishing the main story and collecting every item possible.
As rigid as this sounds, developers routinely break trophy etiquette in devious ways. This sometimes can make a player's life far easier but, more frequently, forces the player to complete gut-wrenchingly complex challenges or time-consuming collect-a-thons only to give them a lowly bronze trophy for their effort.
10 Ring King - Sonic Forces
At first glance, collecting rings in a Sonic game does not seem like a momentous task, with the blue hedgehog and his allies practically drowning in them throughout most of their adventures. Even 2017's Sonic Forces and its demand for the player to collect 100,000 rings for the 'Ring King' trophy seems reasonable considering Sonic's penchant for the circular currency.
However, this task is quickly put into perspective when one does some basic math. Players will only net around 800 of the golden circles per playthrough on specific levels. Mix in the fact that all rings collected when an enemy hits the player character are instantly dropped, and unlocking this trophy becomes quite the grind.
9 Gasoline Cowboy - Call Of Duty: WW2
The Call of Duty franchise has always included trophies spread across varying difficulty levels. 2017 entry Call of Duty: WW2 sees developer Sledgehammer Games immerse players in the multiple fronts of the titular conflict, with level 'Collateral Damage' putting them in control of a Sherman tank as they plow through a devastated town to reach their comrades.
Considering the number of enemy soldiers and armor the player comes across during this section, the trophy 'Gasoline Cowboy' and its requirement of keeping the tank's armor level above 80% at the end of the level is a tall order. Players who attempt this bronze trophy will quickly become extremely cautious, inching their automotive war machine around corners in a painfully slow manner.
8 Geared Up - Onrush
For fans of the MotorStorm series, Onrush from developer Codemasters is a destructive racing game with a twist: win conditions never involve crossing the finish line first. The leveling system rewards players with gear crates that include items to customize their vehicles and drivers. As expected, some trophies are tied to the collection of these items, one of which is the bronze trophy 'Geared Up'.
With the trophy wanting players to collect over 250 gear items, one already expects a grind since only one gear crate is earned through leveling up and each crate only includes three items. However, another kicker is these items could be duplicates that do not count toward the overall item number.
7 Brutality 101 - Batman: Arkham Knight
Fans of The Dark Knight were positively spoiled from 2008 onward with the releases of multiple entries in the Batman: Arkham video game series. Praised for their intense narratives and layered combat mechanics, players are cast as the Caped Crusader himself as he causes immense bodily trauma to any henchman who crosses his path. The pseudo-finale in the series Batman: Arkham Knight shared in these praises, but did include a sneaky little trophy called 'Brutality 101'.
Despite its well-received combat system, this gameplay-related trophy in Batman: Arkham Knight will have players clenching their controllers to implosion. Requiring the performance of 15 different combat moves in one combo, players attempting this trophy will have to deal with the infuriating tendency for henchmen to strike Batman on the 14th move, forcing them to start the whole combo again.
6 Well Rehearsed - Foul Play
Foul Play is a wonderfully creative side-scrolling brawler from off-beat indie publisher Devolver Digital. Players control Victorian gentlemen and professional demon-hunter Baron Dashforth and his trusty sidekick Scampwick as the pair retell an adventure through a theatrical play that ultimately ends up being part of the same adventure being retold.
Plot inception aside, the trophy 'Well Rehearsed' expects players to achieve 50 Perfect Scenes, which essentially amounts to completing an area without breaking a combo. The word 'essentially' is used lightly here, as keeping up a combo is frustratingly harder when Dashforth's very own moves can easily knock an enemy out of range of a follow-up attack.
5 Master Of Convergence - Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Mixing Warhammer with hack-and-slash gameplay became, perhaps unsurprisingly, quite the combination with the release of Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide and its sequel Warhammer: Vermintide 2. The latter, which sees the Ubersreik Five continuing to fight off hordes of the rat-like Skaven, harbors many eye-gouging situational trophies including one titled 'Master of Convergence'.
This trophy wants players to order leylines within a very strict time limit. In true Warhammer franchise fashion, players will also have to waste precious seconds messily carving their way through gangs of ravenous Skaven. Additionally, the trophy is impossible to achieve solo, so having two or three friends on hand to share in the frustration is non-negotiable.
4 Cratered - Overwatch
The trophy 'Cratered' in the OG Overwatch falls into a category of trophies that are infamous among trophy enthusiasts: online trophies. This ire for trophies of an online variety stems predominantly from the lack of control players have over the situations necessary to achieve the trophies.
The trophy in question here concerns a mainstay of Overwatch's cast of characters: the cybernetic tank hero Doomfist. Using his ultimate ability Meteor Strike, players are tasked with hitting four separate enemies at once. This would be hard enough against predictable A.I enemies but, against other humans who frequently make off-the-cuff decisions, this trophy comes down to a hefty amount of luck.
3 Deterrence - Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear franchise is known for its cinematic scope, intricate plots, and sometimes absurdist humor, and the fifth mainline entry in the franchise Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain was highly anticipated. The offbeat nature that Kojima injects into his work is achingly present in the game, and the bronze trophy 'Deterrence' does not disappoint in this department.
The description for the trophy ominously orders the player to develop a nuclear weapon. In context to the gameplay of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, this task is relatively straightforward. However, players will still find themselves having to amass a ridiculous amount of resources as well as rack up a playtime of 24 hours. Gamers who go after this trophy better be happy with sliding down sand dunes in Snake's iconic cardboard box to pass the time.
2 The White Rider - Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor
The trophy list for Monolith Production's Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is applauded among trophy fanatics, integrating organically with the general completion of the game. That is, for the most part, with one trophy especially being a nuisance to any prospective platinum achievers.
'The White Rider' trophy asks players to liberate 30 slaves in 180 seconds whilst mounted on a caragor. To the collective sigh of trophy hunters worldwide, there is no specific place in the game to efficiently complete this challenge, with players finding themselves aimlessly stomping through the fiery topography of Mordor in hopes of stumbling across some slaves to liberate.
1 Multi-Tasking - Star Wars Battlefront 2
To put it bluntly, the 'Multi-tasking' trophy from Star Wars Battlefront 2 is a nightmare to complete. The trophy asks players to defeat 25 hero ships as regular fighter ships which, without any context, may well seem like a reasonable challenge. However, once one delves into the practicalities of such, the tedium becomes evident.
Firstly, a certain amount of points is required to spawn as a hero ship, meaning players will not realistically see hero ships straight away. Secondly, getting an assist kill does not count as defeating a hero ship, so players will routinely find themselves wearing the Millennium Falcon down to a slither of health before seeing their kill be sniped by another player.