I Reached Trophy Level 999 and Here’s What Nobody Tells You

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a big trophy hunter. I love the stuff; that sweet sound when you unlock a new platinum, the total trophy count that slowly keeps creeping up. It's like a drug to me, and probably more expensive than a normal addiction.

As most trophy hunters can agree, setting goals is a pretty common activity. Whether it's your first, 50th, 100th, or 500th platinum, we all have them. One that seems impossible to reach, however, is level 999. That platinum mark on your profile that shows you're one of the elite. Well, I finally did it, and it took more out of me than you'd realise.

An Introduction to Trophy Hunting

It's worth giving you a quick introduction to this system for anyone out of the loop. Trophies were introduced back in 2008 with an update to Super Stardust HD. They were introduced as an alternative to Xbox's achievement system, which was already around on the Xbox 360, essentially rewarding you as a player for completing specific feats in a game, like beating the story or finding hidden secrets. They were just basic PNGs on your account, but that feeling of earning them was unbeaten.

The Platinum Trophy was introduced not long thereafter with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. This was an extra special trophy that would unlock assuming you had unlocked every other trophy in the game. This then became the prize all trophy hunters sought out.

This system also came with levels; your trophies would give you points, which would then lead you to level up. Originally up to level 50, then to level 100, and eventually (with the PS5) up to 999, which is where we're at now.

Trophy Level 999 is the final milestone most trophy hunters have. There aren't many big goals to go towards after this. It requires over 1,100 platinums to reach, and you'll be gifted a fancy platinum PNG on your profile. Yeah, that's it. It doesn't seem worth it, does it? Well, it probably isn't if you aren't in this ecosystem, because as trophy hunters we've somehow made ourselves love small PNGs that offer no significant value, but that's the fun, isn't it?

My History with Trophy Hunting

Before I was a trophy hunter, I was an achievement hunter. I used to be a die-hard Xbox gamer and would only play something if it was on that platform. I was always unlocking achievements in games I was playing, even early on when I wasn't aware of it. Eventually, thanks to Game Pass, I was finding games that I could get 1,000 gamerscore in quickly and bolster my numbers.

Playing on PlayStation seemed heretical. I wouldn't dare touch one. I was, and I am ashamed to say it now, a console warrior. Eventually, though, Sony announced a little game known as Marvel's Spider-Man, and that was all I needed to switch sides and burn any connections I had to Xbox. Very loyal, I know.

Now on PlayStation, I would unlock the occasional platinum here and there. My first was Game of Thrones by Telltale (a very hit-or-miss game that I do have a lot of nostalgia for). I platinumed games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Spider-Man PS4, and Remedy's Control, but I wasn't a die-hard hunter like some.

Luck (or lack thereof) was on my side, as COVID-19 hit and the entirety of the UK was put under strict lockdown for the better part of a year. A terrible time for many, but selfishly a pretty great time for me, as I now had indefinite time to trophy hunt, and trophy hunt I did. By the end of that year, I was at about 100 platinums, an increase of 70 from the start. Sounds like rookie numbers, I know, but to me that was massive. Eventually, it all spiralled until we got to today.

And this brings us to the issue you face when you start to spiral deeper and deeper. Shovelware.

The Shovelware Issue

We come to the most controversial side of trophy hunting, a side the vast majority of trophy hunters despise (for very good reason). Shovelware. To put it bluntly, shovelware games are cheap titles that are created for the sole purpose of giving you a quick and easy platinum trophy, usually in about 5–10 minutes. These games are like the Jumping Burger games that plague the PS Store, titles that must have cost the developers £5 and a ham sandwich to develop and publish.

This shouldn't be confused with genuine games that are just short and easy. We've always had easy platinum games, like Terminator Salvation on the PS3, which was lauded as a laughably easy game to fully complete. We have indie games nowadays like Donut County or The Artful Escape, fantastic titles that only take a few hours to complete. These are genuine games, no matter what anyone says.

Shovelware is obviously bad. These titles steal ideas and concepts from bigger games and sell them off as cheap options without anything of significant value; they're a plague on the industry. Which brings me to my hypocritical nature as I talk about why they're needed to reach 999 without going insane.

Level 999 requires 1,100 platinums at a minimum. That's a huge ask. Let's say you average 50 platinums a year alongside your busy schedul, a very respectable annual total. You're looking at about 22 years to finish this. Even if you earn 100 platinums a year, which many will struggle with, that's 11 years of consistent effort. That's far too long. Doable, but do you really want to? Shovelware fixes that by letting you earn years' worth of platinums in a single weekend.

So obviously, I did this too. I earned maybe 500 shovelware platinums across my 6+ years of trophy hunting. A number I'm really not proud of, but one that allowed me to reach this goal in a timespan that doesn't send me to an insane asylum. I don't know anyone who has reached that number without a good few hundred shovelware titles on their account, and if they have, then I applaud them for all their hard work.

Even with that many shovelware games under your belt, you still have an insane grind ahead of you.

The Grind

As you would expect, 1,100+ platinums takes some time to earn. Even with me doing a shameful amount of shovelware, I still had hundreds more platinums to earn. This took over 6 years. Some games would take me 60–100 hours; some might have taken just a couple. I was playing games I had no interest in for the sake of an easy platinum, and I was dropping games I wanted to play because I couldn't justify wasting time on something without a platinum. It wasn't a great time.

To put it into perspective, for a span of about 4 years I was only playing games I knew I'd platinum. Sometimes I'd start something that I eventually dropped and never finished, or I would play a game I thought would be too unbearable to complete. I didn't mind it at the time, but the more I played the more I realised: this isn't what I needed to do. I would spend upwards of 60 hours playing a game I really disliked (*cough* Stellar Blade cough) for the sole purpose of getting the platinum. This isn't what normal people do, right? Why was I wasting my time like this?

In the last year, I decided to stop caring. I played games like Death Stranding, which I wanted to play but didn't want to worry about platinuming (I still did). I stopped limiting myself solely to games I would earn that distinctive blue award in, and it was great. It felt freeing to play games on my own terms, and I found I was still earning platinums at a good rate because I was enjoying the games enough to really see them through.

The grind for 999 really opens your eyes to the whole process. When you're so far in, it's hard to quit and say you can't do it anymore. You're right at the summit, just a few more steps away. But when you reach that peak, it's euphoric.

Reaching 999

When I was around 300–400 platinums, I already knew what my final game would be. Spiritfarer. If you don't know it, it's essentially a cosy game all about death; it's fun, it's sad, it's long, and it's satisfying. It's by far my favourite game ever made, and I decided it would be the perfect closer to this long journey. Eventually, the time came when I could start working on it, and I chose to do the whole thing in co-op with my partner.

A lot of gameplay, stress, and tears shed mourning the animal friends that passed on and eventually the goal was hit The platinum was earned, and level 999 was in my hands. I checked my profile and saw it there, and honestly, it was an emotional moment. This was over 6 years of progress and at least 15+ years of achievement-hunting experience; it all came together for this. A little PNG on my profile. But it's far more than that; it's a reminder of all the games I played, a damning statement of how many shovelware games I lowered myself to play, and a reminder of the whole journey. But what now?

Trophy Hunting After 999

There comes an emptiness after you hit major milestones in trophy hunting, whether it's a game you've worked on for months finally being done, or hitting your 100th platinum. What do you do after? Surprisingly, that feeling never hit me at the time. Maybe because I had other games to get to that I was excited to finally play, but I did make sure to set another goal.

"You said it was the last goal! You said there are no more milestones!" I can hear you shouting, if you've read this far. Well, yeah, technically. But I've already told myself I want to hit 1,700 platinums, which sounds like a strange number, but it would be the total I needed to reach 999 without any shovelware. After that, I'm probably done with goals. Maybe. We'll see.

Would I recommend you go for it yourself? No, definitely not. It's only for people who are truly dedicated to the result, and I don't mean that in a passive-aggressive way, just that there are many better things to do with your life. I'm proud of the fact that I reached this number, but I won't lie and tell you I had fun the whole way. It's stressful, it changes how you view some games, and it makes you waste money on terrible, terrible games. If you're willing to put yourself through that, then go for it. I'll be cheering in your corner. But if that's not the battle for you, there's no shame in walking away at the start.

I'll still trophy hunt, it's in my blood to go for platinums. But it's nice to feel free to platinum games I actually want to play. It feels like how it felt to start trophy hunting for the first time. It feels amazing, and I can't wait to get back to work.