MeinMMO author Tom Rothstein has earned the platinum trophy in FIFA 21. However, the journey cost him a lot of time – and especially nerves.
What exactly have I achieved? The platinum trophy in FIFA 21 is called “All Achievements”. You are rewarded with this accolade when you earn all other FIFA 21 trophies on PS4 or PS5. Since I have yet to pre-order a PS5, I achieved this success on PS4.
And I am a little proud of it. After all, I can now count myself among the elite circle of the top 0.1% of all FIFA 21 players who have achieved the platinum success. This is not an achievement I would boast about at Aunt Sabine’s birthday party, but the trophy popping up gave me a warm feeling of satisfaction and positive affirmation.
Especially since EA Sports has made it particularly difficult and nerve-wracking for me to reach this goal this time.
Development and trophy hunting are bugged and extremely annoying
Why I cursed EA Sports multiple times: Trophy hunting is a time-consuming activity. The more rewarding and satisfying it is when the desired trophy is finally earned. And the more frustrating it is when the trophy does not want to appear despite the required achievement. Especially when, like in FIFA 21, you invest several days of gameplay into trophy hunting.
In FIFA 21, there are two trophies that have driven many trophy hunters to frustration. The reason: They are “bugged”. This means they do not appear even though the described requirements have been fully met.
“Hunger for Success” was the first trophy in FIFA 21 that made me curse EA Sports. The requirement is actually simple: You must play 10 co-op games with online friends in FUT. You don’t even have to win; you just need to finish 10 games. Nothing easier than that!
But after these 10 games, I looked dumbfounded: no trophy! I researched in online trophy forums and found a possible solution: All 10 games must be played consecutively in one session. So I had to invest another three hours and convince a friend to work through these 10 games in a row with me. Thanks, EA!
This is the “worst” trophy in FIFA 21: The Developed trophy has caused hair-pulling among numerous players. I had already eyed this trophy with suspicion before I tackled it. Because in the FIFA 21 trophy overview on PS4, I saw that hardly any player had been able to unlock it yet. Although you actually only need to complete “2 milestone groups” in FUT for this. It’s a bit time-consuming, but not impossible.
A look into the English and German forums showed me what was going on: The Developed trophy is extremely bugged. At that time, no one knew how to circumvent this bug. Many players eagerly completed the milestone groups without receiving the trophy.
In English forums, I picked up the idea that you should complete both milestone groups in one gaming session, similar to “Hunger for Success”. This requires a large organizational effort since milestone groups take a long time and you have to meticulously work towards having both completed at the same time.
I shared this idea in early November in a German-speaking trophy forum, where there had already been extensive discussions about the bugged Developed trophy. And indeed, some players (including me) tried the idea and achieved success with it.
The most eager trophy hunters, who had already completed (almost) all milestone groups in the hope that the trophy would eventually appear, now stand bitter and abandoned by EA. They now have to wait for more milestone groups to be activated or for this trophy bug to finally be fixed. As of early January 2021, only 0.7% of all FIFA 21 players have the “Developed” trophy on PS4.
Especially for perfectionists, such bugged trophies can lead to a half-nervous breakdown. Because if the trophy is not reachable in the “normal” way, one must hope for a fix from the developers or live forever with this blemish in their trophy collection. And EA Sports is not known for fixing the bugs with the bugged trophies that have occurred repeatedly in FIFA titles.
Volta stressed my nerves in FIFA 21
What I was upset about in Volta: Anyone who wants to get platinum in FIFA 21 must also dive into the Volta mode. One trophy is called “VOLTA Elite”. It unlocks when you reach Division 3 in the “Volta Teams” mode. This works like this:
- First, I must play 5 ranked matches in that mode.
- EA Sports then calculates my skill rating with a magic formula and assigns me to a division.
- If I am directly in Division 3, the trophy is a piece of cake.
- If I am not directly in Division 3, the trophy becomes a time consumer.
After the 5 games, there was a heavy blow for me. I was placed in Division 6. Uff! There were several reasons why I couldn’t stop cursing EA:
- Volta is not my favorite mode. I wanted to quickly grab the trophies in it.
- You must remain in a division for two weeks before you can promote. Because only then does a new season start and a new chance to increase your division. So I knew: this will be time-consuming!
- The Volta mode is not transparent at all regarding promotion progress. You cannot see how many points you still need to promote. This is much clearer and better handled in FUT Division Rivals. In Volta, you can only hope for a green arrow to appear after each win, symbolizing that you are promoted at the end of the season.
The annoying thing about it: You seem to be at the mercy of EA Sports regarding how many wins are needed for promotion. Some players report having promoted after just 3 wins. Others needed more than 80 wins. I needed between 19 and 24 wins to climb from division to division. And I think I fared quite well compared to other players.
On my way to platinum, I surprisingly learned to love Volta a little. What started as torture turned out to be mostly fun once I engaged with it. But I was still annoyed by how opaque and thus unnecessarily frustrating this mode and this Volta trophy were executed.
“VOLTA Elite” was the last trophy I needed for platinum. Now I had “All Achievements”.
Trophies, Achievements and Platinum – What is it and do you need it?
Is it worth trying to do this? The achievements, which are called “trophies” on PlayStation consoles, are a thing of their own. Many gamers could not care less about them. They want to casually or fiercely play their game and be done with it. For other console gamers, however, these achievements mean everything in gaming: they spare neither time nor effort to unlock all trophies of a game. Because then a shiny reward awaits, the platinum trophy, the ultimate goal for every trophy hunter. Such a thing looks good in their trophy collection, which of course continually needs to be expanded.
Then there are many shades in between. So players who enjoy earning a trophy and can be pleased about it, but do not specifically chase it with ambition.
I personally would also place myself somewhere in between. I do not try rigidly to amass platinum trophies and subordinate the fun of playing to that goal. But in games where I know I will spend a lot of time, I try to complete them with platinum as well. And that includes the annual FIFA releases.
How do you feel about trophies and achievements? Do you have platinum in FIFA 21?
The Headliners event is currently running in FIFA 21 FUT, which has new special cards in tow.
