The 10 Hardest (But Most Worthwhile) Trophies I've Earned Since Owning A PlayStation 4

Written by DicloniusGames​

Since March 2014, I’ve been the happily (mostly happily) owner of a PlayStation 4. Before that, I owned a PlayStation 3 for a little while but mostly played on XBOX 360 for the last generation of gaming.

While I wouldn’t consider myself a hardcore trophy hunter like some are, I would think that 4,000 trophies in over 3 ½ years is quite the accomplishment, even if I’ve played a lot of PS4 games in that amount of time along with some games from the PlayStation Now service that incorporates the PS3.

​Before I begin this list, I must say that trophies that are disqualified from this list are collectible trophies and any trophies I earned after hitting 4,000 mostly because collectibles trophies are made easy with guides and to be honest, that’s what I used to get just about every collectible trophy I have for any game that has them.
 
Before the list officially kicks off, I do want to make aware some honorable mentions that fell short of making the list but also deserve recognition.

​Honorable Mention #1: “My Turn Now” (Alien Isolation; Silver)
 
When I first popped in Alien Isolation, I was wowed by the sheer accuracy of how true to form the Alien franchise had been created. The franchise never had a successful game until Isolation, and let’s not mention Aliens: Colonial Marines because that was a dumpster fire.
 
For the silver trophy “My Turn Now”, you had to kill an android with the maintenance jack. Now why did this fall short of the list and only get an honorable mention you ask? Well, while it required some work and a little luck, using your maintenance jack to kill an android is simple, presuming you can weaken it with other weaponry first.
 
If you’re going for it legitimately and only using the jack, it’s going to take a few hits and some well-timed uses of first aid kits you craft while surviving the encounter and the rest of the horrors that await you on Sevastopol. While I recommend going for this trophy early, it takes some practice to get used to the attacks from the androids once they go hostile but it’s indeed doable. 

Honorable Mention #2: “Just Get Me Outta Here” (Resident Evil 7; Gold)
 
Resident Evil 7 took a different approach from the rest of the games in the series. While the others took place in Raccoon City and tied around the sinister corporation Umbrella and the T-Virus or variants of it, Resident Evil 7 went first-person and to the backwoods of Louisiana with a basic plot of a man attempting to locate and rescue his wife from a crazed family.
 
To acquire the trophy “Just Get Me Outta Here”, you had to complete the game in under four hours. This didn’t make the list simply because you could claim this trophy on the easiest difficulty, but just because you could set the difficulty to easy wouldn’t make your experience any easier. Outside of a crazed family driven to madness by a mysterious virus, you had to contend with monsters known as the “molded” which were variants of classic Resident Evil monsters like lickers as well as traditional zombies as well as the franchise’s classic puzzles and pulsing suspense and had to do it all in under four hours.
 
It also didn’t make the list because with practice and knowledge of where to go and how to save time, this gold trophy is easily attainable.
 
Now that the honorable mentions received recognition, I officially start off the list at #10 where we stay in Louisiana, but within a different franchise…with more racism. 

#10: “Recruited To 5th SFG” (Mafia 3; Bronze)
 
Mafia 3 was the third installment in the franchise and brought itself open-world gameplay structures like taking out gang leaders and fronts. It also brought us a badass protagonist in Lincoln Clay and the return of franchise favorite Vito Scaletta.
 
The trophy “Recruited To 5th SFG” tasked players with pulling off 5 headshots in 5 seconds. This proved to be a difficult trophy for most people, including myself because pulling off 5 headshots in such a limited amount of time seems impossible. It’s also difficult because grouping 5 enemies together and pulling the requirements for the trophy off felt like finding a needle in a haystack.
 
It made the list because while it was difficult, when I pulled it off, I also received the platinum for the base game (excluding the DLC) so it felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.
 
It ranks in at #10 because many guides on how to get this trophy are out there, including one by YouTuber PowerPyx who has been valuable to my quest for trophy hunting. 

#9: “Swordmaster” (Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End; Silver)
 
The Uncharted franchise is regarded in most gamers’ minds as one of the best franchises of all time as well as one of the best PlayStation exclusives. The PS4 exclusive Uncharted 4 charted hardened protagonist Nathan Drake’s quest to attempt to live a normal life but is brought for one more adventure with his best friend Sullivan and his brother Sam.
 
The trophy “Swordmaster” tasks you with not getting hit in the battle with Rafe, which by the trophy’s name is a sword fight.
 
This is a difficult trophy if you want to go for it legitimately because timing dodges and parries while determining which direction Rafe is attacking from is difficult, even if you’ve done the battle more than a dozen times.
 
The reason this gets ranked low on the list is because of the exploit players can take advantage of. If you’ve beaten the game at least once, you can activate cheat codes (which don’t negate trophies if I’m correct) that can give you a leg up in this difficult fight. The one cheat code that is extremely useful for getting this trophy is the ability to slow down time to make it easier to anticipate Rafe’s attacks and know which direction to dodge or parry.
 
If you’re going for this legitimately, you’ll need a lot of practice and repetition to determine the directions you need to dodge and parry against Rafe, but it’s far from impossible. It’s actually doable compared to the other trophies I’ll get into on this list. 

#8: “Hero” (Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes; Gold)
 
It was to no one’s surprise that MGS V: Ground Zeroes received negative reactions not only to gamers, but to reviewers due to its’ short length. While you technically can repeat the main mission and accompanying side missions as long as you’d like, they all took place in the same base as the main mission did.
 
The “Hero” trophy required you to acquire an S rank for all missions in the game.
 
This gets difficult as there aren’t any real strategies to know how to acquire an “S” rank outside of finishing a mission quickly with zero alerts and zero reflex moments (assuming you have reflex mode turned on). Not killing people goes a long way to an “S” rank in every mission as well as the above mentioned requirements and rescuing any prisoners certain missions may contain.
 
The only real advice to getting “S” ranks in this game is to acquire as many points as possible and hope you acquire an S rank and mark the missions you have “S” ranks on. Repetition and practice are a must for this trophy as well as a luck factor. 

#7: “One Suit Man” (Alekhine’s Gun; Silver)
 
Alekhine’s Gun went through a lot of development delay and was hyped to be the next Hitman game. What it turned out to be was a watered-down Hitman: Blood Money with PS2-era graphics and subpar gameplay. While I managed to trough through the game and had an okay experience, the trophy “One Suit Man” proved to be a tough trophy to acquire in this game. The game encouraged you to blend in with your environments by acquiring different disguises to make your way towards your target for assassination.
 
“One Suit Man” requires you to complete a mission using one disguise or less. In other words, you could do one of two things. One, take the stealthy route and attempt to only use one disguise or none whatsoever to finish a mission (A feat Centerstrain01 manages to pull off in Hitman games with practice and repetition as well as timing) or go in guns blazing to reach your target and kill him and manage to finish the mission.
 
While Alekhine’s Gun managed to not meet my expectations, I managed to somehow luck out and acquire this trophy along with sheer repetition of missions and learning enemy patrols to squeak by, kill my target and escape. This gold trophy requires the same as “Hero” does; practice, repetition, and luck. 

#6: “One Shot (Alien Isolation; Gold)
 
Alien Isolation earns another nod here as the trophy “One Shot” takes center stage. The game is known for its’ horror, tense gameplay, and the infamous xenomorph that undoubtedly will kill players repeatedly.
 
The gold trophy “One Shot” requires you to complete the game without dying. Seems possible right? Think again. You have to deal with hostile humans, Working Joe androids and the invincible alien itself aboard an isolated space station where you struggle for survival.
 
While it is possible, if you’re going for it legitimately, you’ve got to dodge all that and have a massive amount of luck and know how positioning of enemies. Going for this trophy means you can’t be killed by anything, not just the alien.
 
This falls short of the top 5 because of how you can possibly do it (and how I did it). If you feel the alien on your heels and close to killing you or anything about to kill you, you’re able to reload your last save (Saving a lot is recommended in this game) and attempt to stay alive and the trophy won’t negate itself so technically the game won’t count deaths against you. It’s a tad scummy but at the same time, you could also play the game on easy and do the same thing.
 
Now onto the best of the hardest trophies I acquired…the top 5. 

#5: “The Last Of Us Survivor +” (The Last Of Us Remastered; Gold)
 
It’s also no doubt The Last Of Us is one of Naughty Dog’s best projects ever made and one of Sony’s best exclusives. It’s a story of one man trying to survive an apocalypse with a young girl in tow with him immune to the disease that caused it.
 
“The Last Of Us Survivor +” trophy has you go through and beat the game on survivor plus difficulty. Now what is survivor plus difficulty? It’s basically survivor difficulty mixed in with new game plus. While you’re able to keep your upgrades, it doesn’t make the game, let alone the trophy, any easier.
 
Survivor difficulty severely limits your resources and ammo you can scavenge in the environment as you have to make every shot and every resource count. Outside of the basic enemies, the game introduces the clickers and bloaters, two enemy types that are tough as nails to kill your first time through.
The only thing that makes this trophy a little easier is that survivor difficulty is unlocked from the very first time you play the game but that’s about a relief as much as a drop of water in a desert. Survivor difficulty doesn’t go easy on you and you should prepare for it adequately. Luckily, Ellie isn’t like most NPCs and can fight at times but at the times you’re alone, the game doesn’t hold your hand. Hell, it doesn’t hold your hand period. Even the missions you play as Ellie are no walk in the park.
 
The only advice I can give you is to play on survivor for the first time and try to find all of the upgrades and upgrade your weapons as much as possible and leave the rest for survivor plus. With a bit of grit and know how when to fight and when to sneak, this trophy can topple like dominoes. 

​#4: “Social Lubricant (Watch Dogs; Bronze)
 
In 2014, Ubisoft released a new IP named Watch Dogs. In previous E3 conventions, they showed off the game with amazing graphics, but the product people received at release was nothing short of a bait & switch. Luckily, PC users could unlock the graphics shown at E3 with some mods.
 
One trophy in the game made trophy hunters alike furious; “Social Lubricant” was that trophy. The trophy, while a bronze trophy, required you to reach and beat level 10 against all three opponents in the drinking mini-game across Chicago.
 
As you progressed against every opponent, the mini-game got harder and harder with almost impossible button and stick movements, even so as the game would flip the sticks on you sometimes that down would be up and vice versa.
 
This trophy became such an issue to people that it urged Ubisoft to patch the game to make the trophy easier to acquire. While I wish I could say I got the trophy before the patch, I got it after they patched it, but I still conquered one of the hardest trophies in the game and for a bronze, it’s that hard.
 
The only thing I can say is that when you get to the harder levels is to practice…. a lot, even if it means a lot of fails. 

#3: “Best Of The Best”/”The Shot” (Call Of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered; Silver)
 
NOTE: Both trophies are silver trophies.
 
There’s no doubt that the first Modern Warfare is regarded as one of the best Call Of Duty games ever made in the franchise. The game gave us one of the best characters in Captain Price and one of the best single-player experiences in the franchise’s history.
 
I couldn’t decide between one trophy or the other that shall be mentioned, but the trophies “Best Of The Best” and “The Shot” both deserve this spot as they are both silver trophies.
 
“Best Of The Best” tasked you with beating Infinity Ward’s record of 15.1 seconds in the training course at the start of the game that determines what difficulty the game will recommend you.
 
Obviously, beating IW’s time is extremely difficult (I’m not sure how they did it, so I’ll just assume they did it with luck and a lot of Red Bull and spare time). In my opinion, this is the hardest trophy in the game as you need not only sharp cat-like reflexes but exact knowledge of the course.
 
The other trophy that makes the #3 spot is “The Shot.” “The Shot” requires that you beat the missions “All Ghillied Up” and “One Shot, One Kill” on veteran difficulty. Veteran difficulty in Call Of Duty games doesn’t go easy on you as you can easily die in one or two shots and some missions, you’ll die more than others but in “One Shot, One Kill” towards the end of mission, you have to fend off waves of enemies while waiting for your escape helicopter with Captain MacMillan. It’s a 20-minute fight filled with seemingly unlimited spawns of enemies and repeated deaths until you find some way to escape by the skin of your teeth. This one mission makes this trophy and veteran difficulty an impossible wall to climb.
 
You’ll have to have pinpoint accuracy and perfect placement of your claymore mines to fend off enemies long enough as well as a ton of repetition and luck on your side to hold out. 

#2: Die Die Die…Die (Overwatch; Bronze)
 
Overwatch has been regarded as one of the best multiplayer experiences released in the past 5-10 years. While it’s a multiplayer-only game, there’s lots to do and fun to be had.
 
About 80-90% of the trophies require you using the various character skills in the game, but one of these makes the game’s trophy list extremely difficult.
 
The trophy “Die Die Die…Die” requires you to use the character Reaper and get 4 kills in one use of his skill called Death Blossom. The skill itself is when Reaper uses his shotguns to kill enemies around him as he rotates in circles around the map for a few seconds.
 
What puts this trophy as the second hardest in my opinion is that it’s completely luck and skill based. There isn’t really any strategy to make this trophy any easier except to practice with the skill and hope you get lucky enough to catch and kill 4 enemies in one use.
 
If there’s one thing that may help, it’s to get into a party with you using Reaper and tasking your friends to weaken opposing enemies while you save your Death Blossom ability for the right time to use and luck out.
 
The hardest trophy in my opinion comes from the underwater city of Rapture and the city in the clouds of Columbia. 

#1: “Taffer’s Delight” (BioShock Infinite: Burial At Sea Episode 2; Silver)
 
In my opinion, BioShock Infinite is probably one of the best games released in the past 10 years. It ranks up there with games such as Uncharted 4 and The Last Of Us.
 
Burial At Sea was the cataclysmic end to a legacy created by Ken Levine and Irrational Games. Episode one explored Elizabeth’s obsession with killing the last Comstock (disguised as Booker DeWitt). Episode two took on Elizabeth’s toll of her debt for not saving Sally as she had Comstock condemned for his actions as Sally burned to death in the furnace.
 
The trophy in episode 2 called “Taffer’s Delight” deals with the player completing the DLC in 1998 mode. 1998 mode is basically very hard difficulty but what makes this harder is that Elizabeth lacks the abilities Booker had in the main game. Her emphasis when you play as her is pure stealth as you solve the mystery behind the link between big daddies and little sisters while Elizabeth prepares to meet her fate and must do so without any of her tear powers.
 
The trophy itself is the hardest in my opinion because without Liz’s tear powers, the game is difficult, but playing on 1998 mode slaps you with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire and set on fire. You’re forced to rely on stealth and the weapons and gadgets you’re given as well as distractions to sneak kill your enemies or lurk your way around them towards your objective.
 
This trophy not only requires skill, practice, and luck, it requires patience…which is why I consider it the hardest trophy but most worthwhile trophy I’ve achieved so far since buying a PS4.
 
This list is 100 percent my opinion so if you have a dissenting opinion, feel free to let me know.