What are the rules that define your own trophy hunting?

[me_is_caveman]

1. I don't start a game unless I believe I can get 100% trophies. This includes checking if the game has unachievable trophies.

 

2. If I already started it, my goal is to unlock them all BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. If that means boosting or using a glitch to my advantage, then so be it. Whatever is the path of least resistance, that will be my way of earning the trophy.

 

3. One game at a time. (Usually.) Jumping around between games too much can make me forget the controls.

 

4. The goal is trophies, not necessarily enjoyment. Sometimes trophy hunting comes at the expense of enjoyment, and that's the developer's fault. In that case, I just look forward to getting the 100% over with.

[LoveInHell]

Hmm...

 

Well, I always play a game blind but I do have a glimpse at a guide in case there are weapon related trophies or if choices matter I would make a backup save if possible.

 

I don’t force myself to get a platinum. Fun is what matters the most.

 

I *try* to not continue to the next game before completion but I’ve been failing terribly. I simply cannot dedicate myself to a game I just don’t really feel like playing anymore...
 

Collectibles are always for last.

 

I buy and play whatever I want, regardless of the trophy list.

[Happy]

I don’t really have many self imposed rules.

 

1. Don’t buy games/DLC for trophies

2. Don’t decide you won’t complete a game unless you’ve already made an active unsuccessful effort to complete it.

[DesmaBR]

1. I ain't cheating. I'll gladly use an exploit when available, but I wouldn't hack my console to unlock trophies.
2. If I wouldn't feel gratified or if a platinum seems like too much work, I'll play the game somewhere else
   1. Danganronpa's are games that I've just played on PC instead, their trophy lists are just... no
   2. "Feeling gratified" is definitely weird, and I couldn't really explain how a game would qualify for that. But a game that made me think like that was Resident Evil 2, quality game, one of the very best... but I realized that I had no interested in getting that platinum, so I played it on PC.
3. No worries about stop playing a game for a good while if I get tired of it, I'll take a few months off or even years if needed.
4. Getting cheapo plats is fine by me occasionally, but I wanna get some toughie ones. Had a goal to get one UR plat every year, but that didn't go well.

[Vampirehunter145]

Here are mine:

 

1.- Do not start a game you don't want to.

2.-Avoid digital content the most possible.

3.- Avoid multiplayer trophies the most.

4.- Always go for the plat or the 100% (including DLC).

5.- If the game "burns" you out, play a second or even  a third option to avoid mental burning.

[Baranov_925]

1. Plat game you want to.
2. If you're tired of game - quit it.
3. If you want to plat a game - focus and use this pink sponge inside your head.
4. Hotel? Trivago.
5. Focus on missable trophies.
6. Story first.
7. If you suck harder in mulitplayer mode than Kendra Lust in their prime - quit it.

There is something interesting that I want to share about. It's called   Gaming Stockholm Syndrome . Sometimes, I'm tired of playing a game but Im really satisfied by playing it at the same time.

Sometimes, I wish to have more determination (and time as well), to platinum some popular games like Assassin's Creed or Tomb Raider or Just Cause etc. But sometimes, I know I will never trade my collection for anything (well maybe normal non-cheating, sober, girlfriend or Kobe Bryant being alive).

Edited June 18, 2021 by Baranov_925

[Eraezr]

-Trophy stacking for the sake of trophy stacking is boring. I'd only re-plat it if I enjoyed the game that much.

-Glitches and exploits are fair game. In the Devil May Cry series hover-in-the-air sword slashing was originally a glitch but both the developers and playerbase embraced it.

-No microtransaction spending for in-game achievements. No microtransaction spending AT ALL. lol.

-Play games I'm interested in only of course. Even if the platinum seems impossible (I thought SFV and Fall Guys platinums would be impossible for me when I installed them on my PS4 but somehow I managed to get both ), don't be afraid to boot the game up and enjoy.

-Maintain a 33.3%+ trophy completion in my library.

-Don't buy a PlayStation 5 until I have 100 platinums.

Edited May 15, 2021 by Eraezr

[Guest]

No sports games ? (football etc.) I still made minor exceptions and platinum PES 13 and Handball 17 at the time, as well as occasionally collecting simple trophies in sports games (as you can see my last two games registered on my profile lol). I don't like sports games and I don't have the skills for them either, even when it comes to trophies, I can't force myself to play for a long time. in the past i also wouldn't like to stack a lot of games or platinum junk, but i have the opportunity to play for free thanks to friends so i don't care sometimes. in general? I don't care about organization or percentage of completion, so I can casually play whatever I want, that's great.

Also no hidden trophies at all!

 

Edit: I also like to "clean up" online trophies and leave the game safe for the future, I did it with Far Cry 2, Battlefield 3, AC Brotherhood, Crysis 3 and I'm currently cleaning up Binary Domain!

Edited May 15, 2021 by kevao97

[PhantomWarcry]

Glitches are fine, going to hazard a guess very few people got Demons Souls legit. More skill based ones are iffy (Hollow Knight, which I did glitch but only because those pantheons are absurd)

 

Unobtainables goes both ways, I’ve got trophies that are unobtainable now and I’ve got incomplete games that I’ll never be able to complete. I try not to let that hold me back from playing a good game

 

I only boost for games I genuinely like and after I’ve at least tried the multiplayer, sometimes the multiplayer was good enough to play legit and I just need the tricky trophies boosted

 

If I don’t like a game the plat has to at least be easy to justify me spending that time, if I really hate it it’s getting dropped. As my schedule gets busier that’s probably going to change to “only games I really love are getting the effort”

 

I’ll never have a perfect profile and that’s fine, I don’t stress about DLC at all

 

I never buy games because they had an easy plat but if Ps Plus gives them out it’s fair games. I subscribe to PS Now occasionally and there apparently are a ton of easy plats on there but that’s a little too much for me

 

Nobody cares about my list but me (not really a rule just an attitude I try to maintain)

[ChiefMichigan]

1. Avoid 0% as often as possible. Heck, avoid under 5-10% completion when possible. Because of this. I intentionally avoid starting a good amount of games so that it doesn't fill my profile with lots of really low completion rates.

2. I'm probably not going to get a platinum unless it's a really easy or quick one, so I pretty much know that going in.

3. Stacking of cross-buy or other situations is fine.
4. Stop playing if the game isn't fun (unless it's really quick to get all the trophies)

5. Stop trying to get a trophy if it's too hard, not fun, or too time-consuming.

6. Don't cheat/hack

[tonkie18]

I’m new to trophies and I only really have one rule .. only buy when there is an offer on. But this rule gets bent when I really want something badly.. so do I even have a rule?? Only issue is I buy everything that is on offer that week that I like the look of so I’m not really saving any money. 

 

I suck ?
 

 

[Hvalpen]

I have one rule. Never play a game just cause it has an easy plat.

[darkrequiem7]

I don't really have rules, just kinda guidelines.

 

1. Play what I want when I want.

2. Go for 100%, but it's not necessary. Don't grind heavily if it's not fun.

3. It's ok to play easy games for trophies, but don't buy a game just for its trophies. Buy a game because I want to play it.

4. It's ok to hide trophy lists of games I started but ended up not liking and quit quickly.

[TimeLordCrow13y]

Interesting topic. I guess I have thought about this quite a bit...blame my OCD. 

 

1) Only start games I at least think I will enjoy. This applies to all games, including free/cheap games with easy/fast trophies. If I think I’ll dislike it/be bored to tears before even starting it, I’m not going to bother.

 

2) Get as close to 100% as I can in all games (doesn’t apply as much to games I started prior to September 2020, as that’s when I decided to start trophy hunting).

 

3) Stacking is fine if the following conditions are met: A: I absolutely loved the game and I’ve played it so much I want to try to speed run it on another stack (haven’t done this yet, but already have a couple titles I’m planning to do this with in future) OR The stack is free and I enjoyed the game well enough the first time around OR I enjoyed a digital game enough that I want a physical copy and a physical copy is only available in another region. B: The stacks are not S ranked too close together (because I just don’t like the way it looks, and I think in most cases I’d get bored completing the same game again with no/few other games in between). 

 

4) If I can’t obtain a trophy by myself (excluding trophies that either require or are made much easier by having 2 players/multiplayer trophies) that trophy will not be obtained. 

 

5) Boosting is fine because multiplayer trophies are, in most cases, bullshit. 

 

6) Completion should never again fall below 40%, and eventually achieving 90% completion is the goal.

 

7) Don’t avoid games I would otherwise love to play solely because they have a few unobtainable/PS+ required trophies. 

 

8) On the other hand, feel free to skip games that have lists largely comprised of the things mentioned in rule seven.

 

9) Also feel free to avoid games that have constant new (and grindy) dlc updates. Seeing my completion percentage for a game go DOWN very often would be beyond annoying. 

 

10) No micro transactions for consumables or loot boxes/gachas. I don’t pay for these on mobile games, I’m certainly not going to do it for PS games.

 

 11) No system clock manipulation/in game dev menu/turbo controller to unlock trophies. I know all are allowed, but they all feel like cheating to me.

 

Things that could be considered cheating by others (but not by the site) that are allowed: A: Reloading a save to choose another option. After all, I did actually have to play the game myself to get to the point to make the choice. B: Exploiting in-game glitches to obtain a trophy more easily if I’m having a hard time. C: Using a guide if I have no clue what to do next and have been trying to figure it out myself long enough that I become frustrated OR Briefly checking a guide before starting a game to see if there are any missibles. 

 

12) Don’t play games that have easy UR trophies solely because they are UR (see rule one). On the other hand, don’t avoid games I think I would enjoy solely because they have extremely common trophies. 

 

13) And finally: no hidden trophies. I understand the various reasons why non-cheaters do it but it’s just not something I want to do. And I don’t cheat, so hopefully I’ll never be forced to hide any to maintain leaderboard status. Deleting a 0% trophy list until I obtain a trophy is perfectly fine though. Mostly because I hate the way they look on my profile. 

 

Bonus rule: Try to plan milestones that mean something to me (my very first milestone is utter bullshit that means nothing, but that was years ago-so I pretend it isn’t there, lol). 

Edited May 15, 2021 by TimeLordCrow13y

[ShinySpidey]

These are my rules:

 

1. Play games that I enjoy. If I’m not sure whether I’ll enjoy a certain game or not, I’ll play it on another account first.

2. Easy and hard plats are ok as long as the game is enjoyable for me.

3. Try to 100% everything including DLCs

4. Don’t play games heavily multiplayer based. If the game requires several hours of multiplayer and even boosting then I won’t play it unless it is a masterpiece.

I hate multiplayer trophies.

5. Don’t bother to stacking unless I really love that game.

6. Glitches are allowed as long as they don’t completely break the game.

7. I am allowed to leave games if it’s just not worth it (the game requires too many hours to plat, hard and not enjoyable).

8. 7 happens only if I miscalculate my platinum journey 

9. If I really love that game I will plat it no matter how hard it’s going to be.

10. Don’t bother to leaderboards but only completion

[Raidou Kuzunoha XIV]

• Not bother with platinums/100%s that are generally considered hard (7/10 or above). I will attempt this only when I really, really enjoy the game enough to.
• Not bother with platinums/100%s that are going to take several playthroughs and far more hours than necessary to enjoy the game to its fullest. Unless, as with the above, I enjoy it enough to warrant it.
• Have a look at the trophy list and/or a trophy guide (if one exists) before playing any game that has trophies.
• Try to get as many trophies as I can in any game, if it's enjoyable enough to do so, even if I don't see myself platinuming/100%ing it.
• Don't buy/play games just to platinum them. I haven't ever really bought a game I've had little interest in just to plat it (while, except maybe Storm Boy), but I've done this with a few PS Plus games if those count. Even then, I'll always give them a chance but if they end up being boring for too long, I will just rush through them as quick as possible to get the plat if it's any easy one (guilty of this for a few VNs I got via PS Plus).
• Almost never attempt speedrun trophies. I've always hated speedruns, I did one for the Ico plat and never want to do one ever again.
• If a game breaking bug, save corruption or something else prevents me from platinuming the game, I will attempt to get around if it's reasonably possible. If I have to start the whole game over, I probably won't bother. If it's a game I wasn't enjoying much anyway, probably won't bother. Thankfully this doesn't happen often, but it did prevent me from getting the Legend of Kay plat (and even just completing the game in general) a few years back. My last save was 2-3 hours prior and I just couldn't be bothered.
• Have fun. that's really all it boils down to at the end of the day for me.

I realise my list of rules is mostly "won't do X or X", but that's mostly because I've lost a lot of patience for trophies in recent years. I'm much more concerned with trying to get enjoyment out of these pieces of software I spent money on nowadays. There's been too many times when games have started to feel like a chore, and I want a lot less of that in my life. Earning trophies is still fun, and I will strive to collect trophies in games even if I have no intention of platinuming them, especially if they're otherwise linked to things in the game I want to do regardless of trophies/achievements existing. But sometimes obtaining trophies isn't so fun, and that's where I draw the line nowadays.

[Conor]

- Go for platinums or 100% in the case of games without plats, i.e. the platinum or 100% must be obtainable before I begin

- DLC trophies are optional but I make an honest effort to get as many as possible

- Platinum games from the same series in release order

- Games from the same series are separated by at least one other game

- Grindy/ difficult/ time-consuming platinums are succeeded by at least one comparatively quick and easy one unless I have already done the bulk of the work previously

- Get online multiplayer trophies out of the way first if possible since server shutdowns are an ever-present danger

- Try to have the last trophy before the platinum pops be a gold.

- Play a game as normally as possible the first time around i.e. speedruns, highest difficulty etc are for later playthroughs

- However, guides for collectibles and missable trophies are totally fine

- In-game exploits are also fine, no qualms about using them

- Have fun

Edited May 15, 2021 by Stan Lee

[jamirxp]

- Buy a game that I will enjoy/I liked.

- Aim for the Platinum or 100% completion (If DLC are still expensive, wait for a sale. ?)

- Looking to Platinum the entire series of the game.

- Targeting to complete more UR platinum/trophies.

[Jordio]

My rules are pretty simple, as I do this for fun and to get me to play my games:

 

• Only play games you want to play, not just to get the trophies.
  • I love seeing my number of plats and lever go up but not at the expense of wasting my time or money on a game. (I did make an exception for My Name is Mayo though)
• Complete it to 100% unless impossible, or if the DLC isn't worth it.
  • AC:Brotherhood is a good example of this. I got 100% on the PS4 version since it came with the DLC and no MP, but I will probably just get the plat on PS3 since I don't want to spend $10 on the DLC.
• Don't stack regions, and limit console stacking.
  • Stacking regions is a waste of money and a pin in the ass. I have console stacked some games, like AC Ezio collection, but it was more for cleanup from when I originally played them years ago.
• No micro transactions
  • Just no.
• Try to avoid games with annoying MP
  • I have never liked competitive MP all that much, and it usually feels tacked on in many instances. This makes the trophies feel unsatisfying and they are usually really grindy.
• Play games in the order of release.
  • I believe it is the best experience since it's how the game devs intended the series to be played.
• If an exploit/glitch/cheat is available to all players and makes getting the trophy easier, https://media4.giphy.com/media/8VSaCyIdcnbuE/200.webp?cid=ecf05e47wi3pb0o4enqh0lng2aaz45yjwj39c22fykx8oz16&rid=200.webp&ct=g
  • Jak II and Jak 3 are a good example of this with their dev tools

There isn't much else other than to have fun and don't stress over games that I played years ago and probably won't complete (Looking at you COD).

[Zanreo]

Mostly just:

* Play the games I enjoy or that looks somewhat interesting. There's no shame in easy plats/trophies as long as I actually enjoyed the game to some extent, or did at some point at least

* Try to get as far as I can and as many trophies I can, but know my limits and accept there are some trophies I probably just won't get, at least without a LOT of frustration and spending all my time on one game when I could be playing many others.

* Just in case, look up if there are any missable trophies to save myself the potential pain later

* In-game glitches/exploits are ok

* Also don't avoid a game just because it has really hard trophies I probably won't be able to get (never been a problem for me though)

* Don't be too concerned about completion rate, just play what you want when you want

* Overall, just have fun!

 

I also can't be bothered to region stack and buy a game twice just for trophies and one more plat (console stacking, on the other hand... yeah, I shamelessly do that for games that are quick and painless enough to get through, and might also do it for a game I liked enough to play and plat again)

Edited May 16, 2021 by Zanreo

[Mariner1534]

I guess the most important rule for me is that I don't need to plat/100% every game I play - If I did, I would either avoid a lot of awesome games with plats outside my skill/patience range, or totally burn myself out trying to get those plats. On the other side of the coin, I'm not going to buy a game I won't like just because it has a super-easy plat. Nothing against people who do, but I personally need to have genuine interest in the actual game.

 

That said, I still make an honest effort to get as many trophies as possible before moving on; sometimes that means getting the plat, sometimes it doesn't.

 

• If I know I won't be chasing the plat/100%, I try to aim for at least 70-75% completion. If even that is unrealistic for me, then aim for at least a C-rank. I usually look over the trophy list and the outline of a guide before starting and map out a mental route to my final destination.
• Sometimes the goalposts move while I'm already deep into the game: for example, I just quit Disgaea 1 at 39% after originally intending to plat it. Just got tired of the grind and it was no longer fun.
• I try to limit myself to 1-2 story-driven games at a time, plus a couple games that lend themselves well to quick, drop-in-and-out sessions (sports games, roguelikes, etc). Keeps me from just abandoning something before I'm done.
• Try to make the last trophy I earn for a game (whether it leads to the plat or not) satisfying: e.g finishing the story in a long RPG, completing all quests, etc.
• Exploits/glitches/etc. depends on the context. I'm more likely to use them if the alternative is countless hours of boring grinding or replaying the game when I don't want to. I try not to use them just to bypass a lack of skill.
• Avoid guides for collectables until the postgame, unless there are mid-story missables that would screw me out of a trophy if I didn't get all of them
• No microtransactions for the sole purpose of earning trophies
• No region stacking, console stacking is okay if I actually want to replay the game on different hardware
• Certain types of trophies are a hard pass 90% of the time: no-damage runs (especially on tough bosses or long/difficult levels), full-game speedruns, multiplayer trophies when the meat of the game is single-player, etc.

[Monochrome]

1. My first playthroughs are always blind. I only peak at completion time and difficulty before starting.
 

2. I try not to let difficult trophies, multiplayer trophies or unobtainable platinums prevent me from trying a game I'm interested in. Even if it messes with my completion rate.
 

3. I won't buy an easy plat just for the sake of an easy platinum, I have to be interested in the game itself.
 

4. Even if I can't platinum or 100% a game, I try to get at least an A rank before moving on. There are exceptions, of course. I'm not going to force myself to play a game I'm not enjoying even a little bit.

Edited May 17, 2021 by monochrome

[Cerlayjux]

1. Do research on every game before starting it so I know what to expect.

 

2. Complete the game quickly, and efficiently. I like to utilize my time as efficiently as possible.

 

3. Do not start any games that have unobtainables/discontinued trophies. 

 

4. I don't really care how easy or hard the game is. If it is doable I will do it. 

 

5. Boosting/multiboxing is obviously the most efficient way to go about a lot of multiplayer games. I use multiple consoles for a lot of these games.

 

6. EZ games are either used as a palate cleanser for me either after or during a longer completion.

 

7. Finally and most importantly, I must have 100% in the games I start. I'm a massive completionist, so even when I have a platinum and it shows up as 87/100% it bugs the hell out of me.