It’s by no means the toughest platinum trophy out there, yet with the game’s high acclaim and whispers of a potential sequel, many will flock to The Last of Us: Remastered later this week, hoping to add its most coveted prize to their own list of virtual bragging rights.
Among these eager trophy hunters will be veterans of Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic masterpiece: those who managed to net one hundred percent when the original launched last year. For them, the road to platinum in Remastered should be a fraction easier, having already devised survival strategies and conquered the multiplayer. Whether or not they have the patience to do it all again is another matter.
Hardened survivor or newcomer, your first port of call should be the single player campaign. At this stage in your journey it doesn’t matter what difficulty setting you select, though choosing hard or even normal will prepare you better for what’s to come.
For those who haven’t experienced the game before, I would strongly advise against trying to find all the collectibles in your first run. It can be an exhaustive process and one that will often distract you from what’s actually happening between checkpoints. Picking a few up here and there is fine, especially given that some collectibles award gameplay bonuses, but be sure to mark which ones you’ve bagged along the way, as this could trip you up when you come to doing your second run through.
No matter which setting you’re playing on, Survivor difficulty will unlock upon completing the game. Ultimately, you’ll need to beat Survivor+ so, again, you’ll have to decide whether to focus on collectibles or simply blitz your way to the final playthrough. Personally, I would focus on the collectibles first: although Survivor+ is actually slightly easier due to weapon upgrades carrying over, if you happen to miss any, you’ll find yourself starting another new game plus just to mop up the leftovers. Thankfully, the Grounded difficulty remains separate from the main trophy list needed to attain the platinum.
Collectibles themselves come in a few different flavours. Firstly we have pills and salvage, both of which are used to boost Joel’s combat prowess, either through health boosts or weapon upgrades. Unlike the rest of the game’s collectibles, these are stowed away in designated areas and can often be found lying around the environment. My only advice is make sure you trawl each and every space, opening boxes, drawers, and any other containers. By the end of your Survivor run you should be more than half way to maxing out all weapons and attributes.
Other collectibles, like dog tags and comic books, are easier to locate by following one of the numerous guides found around the web (like this one). As touched on before, make sure you’re keeping track of which ones you pick up or triggered, as when gunning for the platinum on PS3, I had to replay half the game just because I missed a optional speech prompt! Another great tip is to avoid using the shiv in combat at all. These double up as lockpicks for special doors, often leading to a treasure trove of pills, salvage and other supplies.
Luckily, there are no miscellaneous trophies to hunt for, so you can pretty much dedicate your entire focus to both the collectibles and actually making your way through the game. Note that, when playing Survivor, you will lose your ability to locate enemies via Joel’s listening skill. At first, it can make combat encounters extremely intimidating, but analysing enemy movement and keeping stocked on ammo will serve you just as well. Thankfully the checkpoints aren’t too brutal, even during some of the game’s toughest battles where stealth isn’t an option.
Turning away from the campaign, The Last of Us also has a fairly well-rounded multiplayer mode too. Though the trophies in this mode are fairly straightforward, it will take you at least a couple of weeks of solid play to earn them fair and square. Then there are the trophies tied to the game’s downloadable map packs: these are equally clear to you, but some have actually been toned down in Remastered.
In order to grab the two main gold trophies, you will need to “complete the journey” of both the Firefly and Hunter factions. You’ll be given a small cluster of survivors who will either die or thrive, depending on your performance in matches. Each match represents a day for the camp, with both trophies requiring you to reach the end of week 12 alive. That’s 168 matches in total, 82 for either faction.
It’s a long process though fairly simple if you remember a few key tips. First off, quitting a game while in session will automatically incur a penalty, usually killing off a large portion of your group. Do this two or three times in succession and it’s pretty much game over. Still, there will be plenty who are tempted to abandon matches as it progresses you to the next day without having to play a full game.
A number of events will occur during your journey, challenging players to beat a task of their own choosing. These range from kills with certain weapons and team revives to marking targets and pulling of executions. The main distinction between these events is that some will grant you a boost to your camp while the others must be achieved to stop them from being wiped out entirely. With that in mind, it’s recommendable that you save the easier tasks for the latter weeks. The last one will occur on week 12, day 4, so if you decide to go for, say, shiv kills, you can probably kiss goodbye to hours and hours of progress.
That’s just about as far as we can take you, with the rest will rely both skill and patience. Once again, we’d also like to credit those who dedicated the time and effort to create video walkthroughs for the PlayStation community. Trophy hunting would be a lot harder without them!
Phizzy
‘For those who haven’t experienced the game before, I would strongly advise against trying to find all the collectibles in your first run.’
Bad advice. Search everywhere. You’ll not only find these collectibles, but crafting items which will help you fight the infected and the upgrade items which improve your weapons and Joel’s abilities.
‘With that in mind, it’s recommendable that you save the easier tasks for the latter weeks. The last one will occur on week 12, day 4, so if you decide to go for, say, shiv kills, you can probably kiss goodbye to hours and hours of progress.’
Shiv kills is one of the easiest missions to complete. Choose the perk that has you start each spawn with at least one use of a shiv. Shiv kills are easy to obtain. You will generally get at least one opportunity to approach an enemy from behind in each match. If not, use a smoke bomb and shiv the enemy from any direction while they’re stunned. You only need one shiv kill to pass the first use of this mission. I have never failed it.
Jim Hargreaves
One opportunity in each match, and only three matches to get it in are still tough odds, especially if you’re the sort who would get jittery beings its the very last week of the journey.
Phizzy
At least one *accidental* opportunity per match. If you try to manufacture more opportunities, you should have no problem getting around three shiv kills per match. It may take some practise to learn the best ways of using the shiv… But you should always make one as your first item. You don’t want to get caught without one.
JR.
I agree with you Phizzy. I didn’t use a guide on my first play through but I tried to find as many collectibles as I could. Some of them, like the notes/journals, really add to the experience. Plus, the game tells you how many collectibles you missed in each level anyway so it’s to too much of a pain to go back and pick up the one’s that you missed.
Also, wasn’t there a glitch where you could trick the game into thinking that you had already beaten Survivor mode so you only had to play it twice (once on normal and once on Survivor+)? I remember hearing something about it at the time.
Lyts1985
I’m assuming that particular glitch will be patched out, out of the box, seeing as it’s the “complete” version :-(
Jim Hargreaves
Yep. I can’t remember the method but it’s what I used to get the platinum. Bit cheeky, I know, but saved me needlessly doing another playthrough.
Lyts1985
The method was simple. Finish the game on any difficulty, start a new game+, then change the difficulty to Survivor as soon as you’re able. I used it too, I couldn’t face the idea of playing the game on Survivor without any of your upgrades etc, then again on Survivor+ having already played it through once… 3 playthroughs is enough to put me off platting it again.
chall5
should the title be “How To Get The Platinum Trophy In The Last Of Us: Remastered”
Stefan L
Whatever do you mean? It was like that all along! *WINK WINK*
Kubr1ck
Started playing on Grounded. Does anyone know if completing it at this level unlocks the trophies for the lower difficulties?
Forrest_01
Pretty sure it doesn’t – I recall reading that you need a playthrough for each of the associated difficulty trophies.
Kubr1ck
10 play throughs to get all the difficulty trophies? That can’t be right can it?
Forrest_01
Apparently, the internet says it isn’t & looks like I am incorrect – I think that might have been something I latched onto around the time of the ps3 release (it’s one of the reasons I haven’t bothered with it. Other than it being a bit dull to play).
Seems that the platinum can be obtained in 2 playthroughs if you use a glitch. However, Grounded difficulty was effectively DLC, so I have no idea how this affects the other difficulties.
Jim Hargreaves
Pretty sure they stack. When I beat Survivor+ it got me all of the ones beneath it.
Phizzy
Pretty sure someone confirmed that playing on easy and then grounded+ with the glitch will net you all the completion trophies.
double-o-dave
This time round I think I’ll use a guide for the safes & tool boxes as Stevie Wonder would’ve probably spotted more collectibles than me.
I still can’t believe I completed it on survival mode after accidental sneaking/walking past clickers what I didn’t even realise were there ’til I turned around.
Mate “How did you sneak past them, took me ages?”
Me “Sneak past who?”
Mate “That group of clickers behind you.”
Me “Oh yeah, didn’t see them. Wondered what that noise was. Err… Just don’t make eye contact I guess” ;)
Jim Hargreaves
On Survivor the Clickers actually became less and less of a threat. Having to actually stop and monitor their movements would make it so easy to blitz through some of the rooms.
JR.
This is one of those games where I knew from the outset that I would never earn the platinum trophy. I got all the single player trophies on the ps3 version (inc survivor/suvivor +) but I didn’t even try the MP because I could see what a grind it was. I’m not a huge fan of MP to start with but I would have given it a go if it was like the Uncharted games where you get trophies just for trying it (and can still earn the plat without putting in 70 hours or something ridiculous). I got everything I wanted out of the SP campaign and pretended that the MP didn’t exist. Same with the new Tomb Raider game. Excessive online trophies are a crime. I hope ND don’t do this with Uncharted 4. I know you don’t HAVE to collect the trophies but it’s annoying all the same.
Jim Hargreaves
I feel you, with Tomb Raider especially – some very BS trophies kicking around there.
Phizzy
I didn’t feel like it was a grind to get the Factions trophies. They popped in no time for me… Though I did start off just playing it to get the trophies and ended up really enjoying it and recruiting another three people to get the game and play it with me.
Severn2j
I didn’t play through more than once on PS3, but this version seems to have every difficulty unlocked from the start, so maybe you don’t have to go round as many times..?
I’m thinking of doing ‘Hard’ first, then Grounded+ 2nd time, but will that get me the “non +” Survivor and Grounded trophies as well? Or do I need to do Survivor and Survivor+ to get them all?
Phizzy
The Grounded+ playthrough will unlock every other difficulty trophy you haven’t earned yet.
Severn2j
Awesome. Haven’t gone for a platinum trophy for a long time, but I’m quite looking forward to trying this :)
Vaile23
Loved the game, one of my proudest platinums. MP was great in this game, nice to play something different!
pikabritt2
i say if you havn’t played the last of us on ps3 and just got the remastered one, have your first play through just focusing on the story. this way, on your next play through, you can spend time finding all collectibles, optional conversations, etc. while not having to miss out on enjoying the story. also, you’ll need to beat in on survivor and survivor+ and it says. so that can be your second playthrough (the one where you’re finding all collectibles) or you can do it after that playthrough. so probably 2-3 playthroughs. however, if you already beat the last of us multiple times on ps3 (as myself) you could jump right into survivor and search for everything, and if you missed anything, get it in survivor+
Smallville2106
Feel silly posting this, but does the game get better? Played maybe 2-3 hours and it seems really slow and a bit boring.