Below, we explain all you need to know about PlayStation trophies. By the end, you’ll be ready to start building a trophy collection of your own.

What Are PlayStation Trophies?

Trophies are awards given for meeting certain goals that you can earn in all PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PS Vita games. They are tracked at the system level, and are thus distinct from quests inside games that advance the story or provide you with in-game rewards. PlayStation’s trophies are analogous to achievements on Xbox.

Trophies arrived on the PlayStation 3 in mid-2008. Early PS3 games, and some smaller titles, didn’t include trophies. But Sony made them mandatory for all releases shortly after launch, so all games on modern PS consoles include trophies.

Collecting trophies is entirely optional. Many people find them enjoyable to work towards, but if you don’t care about them, they don’t affect gameplay in any way.

Trophy Setup and Examples

Trophies come in four grades: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. Developers choose how many trophies their game will have, what goals those trophies will require, and grades for each trophy before launch.

Bronze through gold trophies represent the relative difficulty of their task. For example, you might earn a bronze trophy for completing the first stage, while a gold trophy would be reserved for completing the game on hard difficulty.

Meanwhile, platinum trophies are special; you only earn a game’s platinum trophy by earning all other trophies. Getting a platinum trophy usually signifies that you’ve fully completed, or “100%ed,” a game. Not all games have a platinum trophy, however. Full releases usually do, but smaller indie titles might not.

Below are a few examples of trophies you can earn from some popular games, to give you an idea of how they often work:

Fully Stacked (Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart): Purchase all weapons. Relic of the Sages (The Last Of Us Part II): Find the Strange Artifact. Running Up the High Score (Doom Eternal): Complete Extra Life Mode with 10 Extra Lives in your inventory.

The overall difficulty of trophies depends on the developers’ wishes. In some games, you can earn almost every trophy simply by playing through the game normally and going for full in-game completion. For other trophies, you’ll need to play through the game on the hardest difficulty, beat it without dying, perform a mini-speedrun, or even find small Easter eggs hidden in the game.

How to View Your Trophies

It’s easy to check the trophies you’ve earned right on your PS5 or PS4, which also lets you see more information about them. It’s also possible to view your trophies in the PlayStation mobile app, if you prefer.

On PS5, select your profile picture from the top-right of the main menu, then hit Trophies. On PS4, choose Trophies from the main menu. On either system, you’ll then see a list of games you’ve played and a summary of the trophies you’ve collected. This includes a progress bar and count of each trophy grade.

Select a game to see its list of trophies. If the game has trophies tied to DLC, you can choose to see the original trophy list or the list for any DLC. Each trophy includes a name, criteria for earning it, and grade.

You’ll also see a Rarity field. Depending on what percentage of players have earned a trophy, you’ll see it ranked as Common, Rare, Very Rare, or Ultra Rare. This gives you an idea of how difficult or obscure a trophy is.

Chances are that you’ll also see some Hidden Trophy fields. Developers can choose to hide trophies until you earn them, which is usually done to prevent story spoilers or keep some trophies a surprise. If you want to see a hidden trophy anyway, select it and press Square to show its details.

To compare trophies with your friends, press the Triangle button (PS5) or choose Compare Trophies in the top-right (PS4), then choose a friend. If you’re on the main trophy screen, you can compare all games. When inside a game’s list, this lets you compare trophies for that title.

Finally, if you don’t want to share trophy information with everyone, press the Options button on the trophy overview page and choose Privacy Settings to choose who can see them.

Understanding PSN Trophy Level

Many people enjoy collecting trophies simply for the sake of doing so, but your diligence in earning them also shows on your PlayStation Network profile. When you open your profile from the main menu of your PS5 or PS4, or check a friend’s profile page, you’ll see a trophy icon and level.

This level, which goes from 1 to 999, represents your progress with collecting trophies. Each trophy you earn provides a certain number of points, with higher trophy grades providing more points than lower ones. You need a certain number of points to level up, with that requirement increasing as you progress through the ranks.

Again, this doesn’t have any practical effect, but it’s fun to compare your performance to other trophy hunters. In the past, Sony offered small rewards for collecting a lot of trophies, but this isn’t currently in effect. A similar system could make a comeback in the future.

How to Automatically Capture Trophy Screenshots and Videos

Depending on your console, you can have your system automatically capture a screenshot and/or a short video clip when you earn a trophy. These provide a fun way to look back on big moments when you finally earned a tough trophy. On either system, open a trophy’s details page as described above to see the media your console saved for it.

Read more: How to Capture Screenshots and Videos on Your PlayStation 5

You can also adjust the settings for these automatic captures. On PS5, head to Settings > Captures and Broadcasts > Auto-Captures > Trophies and you can change what grade of trophies that screenshots and videos activate for. Taking videos for every trophy can use up lots of storage space, so you might not want to capture videos for bronze trophies.

On PS4, visit Settings > Sharing and Broadcasts > Screenshot Settings > Take Screenshot Automatically When You Earn Trophy. The PS4 can’t take an automatic video when you earn a trophy.

How to Track Trophies on PS5

The PS5 includes a handy trophy tracking feature, which makes it easy to refer back to one you’re working on without having to dig through menus every time. To start tracking a trophy, select it from a game’s list and choose Start Tracking.

Then, when you’re playing that game, hit the PS Button on your controller to open the quick menu. Highlight the game’s icon at the bottom and you’ll see an entry with the trophies you’re tracking. Select it to review them or even pin that menu to the screen.

Additionally, the PS5 can track progress for some cumulative trophies. For example, for a trophy that requires you to defeat 1,000 enemies, you’ll be able to see that you’ve already defeated 450. The PS4 lacks this feature; the only way to track trophies like this is through in-game stats, if they’re available.

Consulting Trophy Guides

If you want to earn trophies efficiently as possible, consider using a trophy guide website like PlayStation Trophies or PSNProfiles. These are extremely handy, as they lay out all the details of earning a game’s platinum trophy for you.

Each one includes an overview, which covers:

How difficult the platinum is About how many hours the platinum it takes to earn How many playthroughs getting all trophies requires Whether difficulty affects trophies Whether any trophies are permanently missable

From there, the sites provide a recommended roadmap of how to play through most efficiently. For example, you might play through on easy mode the first time to grab completion trophies, then have to play a second time on a harder difficulty. And if you get stuck on any trophy, these guides include an explanation of how to earn each one.

These are a great resource to cut down on wasted time, but be careful about playing games just to earn trophies. It can suck the fun out of a game, so consider playing through once normally, then consulting a guide if you want to mop up the rest of the trophies.

Stock Your Shelf With PlayStation Trophies

PlayStation trophies, like achievements on other platforms, are a fun way for developers to challenge players with different playstyles and encourage you to explore all of a game. They’re totally optional, so don’t let them stress you out. Now you know how trophies work on PlayStation systems, and can decipher all their terminology.

If you’ve got a PS5, there are tons of useful tips you should know about to maximize your experience.