Here’s How to Score GT Sport’s Platinum Trophy

It’s been nearly a decade since PlayStation introduced PSN Trophies. Those first games back in July 2008 awarded players with accolades they could show off on their public profiles.

Like all games since then, GT Sport supports PSN Trophies. We covered what they were back before Sony launched the game, but GT Sport’s are some of the rarest out there. Just 0.1% of all of the game’s players have ever won the four most difficult trophies. That’s even more rare than Gran Turismo 6’s 0.8%, and makes Grand Theft Auto V’s 0.4% look like a breeze.

Those are rookie numbers, so we’ve put together a guide for anyone wanting to score that GT Sport platinum.

Walkthrough

Unlike some story-led games, you can’t miss any of GT Sport’s trophies. This means that, effectively, you can acquire them in whatever order you wish.

It’s pretty likely that if you just play the game for long enough, you’ll pick up all 41 trophies naturally. Only a couple of them require any specific process outside what you’ll achieve playing the game normally, so if you’re not in a hurry it doesn’t matter how you go about it.

However, if the Platinum is a specific goal, we’d recommend the following order:

  1. Campaign Mode: Driving School
  2. Campaign Mode: Mission Challenge
  3. Campaign Mode: Circuit Experience
  4. Drifting
  5. Driving Challenges
  6. Gameplay Challenges
  7. Sport Mode
  8. Levelling Up

We cover each of these sections, and the trophies you’ll win, below.

Campaign Mode – Driving School

  • Talent Discovered (Bronze): Earned Bronze in all Driving School challenges
  • No Longer a Novice (Silver): Earned Gold in all Driving School challenges
  • A Promise of Greatness (Bronze): Completed any Driving School challenge at least one second faster than the Gold time

It’s likely that you’ll score all three of these trophies just from completing the Driving School section of the game. If you manage to at least pass all 48, you’ll receive the Talent Discovered trophy.

Naturally it depends on your skill level, but none of the tests are particularly challenging to get the gold on. Perhaps the most difficult are lessons 35 and 36. The former has a tight time limit and uses a difficult section of Willow Springs, while the latter is a long run at the Nordschleife where it’s easy to make errors. The rally test lesson 45 is another that may run you close. Nevertheless it shouldn’t be beyond the wit of too many seasoned GT players to get all-gold with ease for the No Longer a Novice trophy.

There’s surprisingly few tests where the gold time is excessively generous though. You’ll need to beat one by over a second to win A Promise of Greatness. The earliest opportunity is test 21, “Cornering in an S-Curve: 2”. But for a lift during the first left, this lesson is entirely full-throttle and you can beat it by well over a second. Other than that the full lap events, like lesson 24 and 48, are your best bet, as the long durations mean it’s easy to find a second.

Campaign Mode – Mission Challenge

  • The Real Sector King (Bronze): Earned Gold in all Sector King challenges in Mission Challenge
  • One Lap Wonder (Bronze): Earned Gold in all One-lap challenges in Mission Challenge
  • Pylon King (Bronze): Earned Gold in all Pylon challenges in Mission Challenge
  • Relentless Chaser (Bronze): Earned Gold in all Catch Up challenges in Mission Challenge
  • Right on Time (Bronze): Earned Gold in all Time Rallies in Mission Challenge
  • Rival Crusher (Bronze): Earned Gold in all Mission Challenge races
  • Speed Demon (Bronze): Earned Gold in all Speed challenges in Mission Challenge
  • Super Rallier (Bronze): Earned Gold in all Special Rallies in Mission Challenge
  • Speed King (Bronze): Recorded a speed of 187 mph (approx. 300km/h)

If you simply gold all of the Mission Challenge events, you’ll gain all eight trophies. In fact one of the eight is only awarded for this achievement, and you’ll naturally have to win all of the others to get it!

However, for those of you keeping score, three of the trophies require you to win just one event each. These are the one-lap challenge (2-7), the catch-up challenge (4-2) and the pylon — or cone — challenge (1-4). There are four speed challenges, five special rallies, five time rallies and 15 “Sector King” events. That leaves 32 race events to mop up the final trophy.

The cone challenge is perhaps the easiest one. Simply guide your Alfa Romeo MiTo into the ten groups of ten cones and hit them all inside the time limit. The speed challenges require you to hit a certain maximum speed. These can be tricky, but if you catch as much slipstream as you can from AI cars it shouldn’t take too many tries.

For One Lap Wonder you’ll need to hit a lap better than 1:37.300 at Brands Hatch GP in a Gr.4 Mercedes. It’s relatively generous, but feel free to try the Circuit Experience for this track (in a much faster car) if you need to get your bearings.

Relentless Chaser is a little odder. In this event you have a preset time limit to overhaul a slower AI car with a lap’s advantage on you, around BB Raceway. Again, learning the course, particularly the speed you can carry through the right-hand kink, in Circuit Experience first may help.

The four Speed Challenge events are pretty simple: you have to guide your car to the target speed. Avoid collisions with the AI, but make as much use of their slipstream as possible. Along with the Speed Demon trophy you’ll also score the Speed King trophy; it’s likely to arrive when you gold mission 3-5, and definitely will when you pass mission 4-4.

The Special Rally events use a small autocross course laid out inside Northern Isle Speedway. You can use any eligible car from your garage — any Gr.B rally car — and it’s pretty likely the game will award you one long before you need it. These events can be frustrating, as the time limits are tight. Rather than sliding about too much, keeping the car under control is usually the quickest way here.

Time Rallies are rather like old school arcade games. A timer counts down, refreshing each time you pass a checkpoint. Beware of contact though, as that can reduce your remaining time. All you have to do is reach the end of the race with enough time remaining to win the gold, and the Right on Time trophy.

Sector King and Race events both require you to win. In Sector King you’ll need to overtake all of the cars in a single sector of the track, while in Race you’ll have a number of laps to do so. This is sometimes quite a few laps: the final races in the final tier of Mission Challenge are endurance events, where you’ll need to manage fuel and tires to win.

Campaign Mode – Circuit Experience

  • Globetrotter (Bronze): Earned Bronze in all Circuit Experiences
  • Tactical King (Silver): Earned Gold in all Circuit Experiences

There’s no other way to get these two trophies than simply hitting up Circuit Experience and beating every test.

The Circuit Experience section doesn’t contain all of the tracks. In fact it’s just 23 of them, mostly from the original release of the game. Each has a number of sections, followed by a full-lap challenge where you tie all of your gained knowledge together.

They vary from the 11-section Nordschleife down to the two sections of BB Raceway and Blue Moon Bay. In fact Northern Isle is so short, it only has the full-lap challenge. BB Raceway’s full lap test is actually two laps — we don’t know why either. Generally the gold requirements for the sections are generous enough to pass most with a few tenths to spare, while the full laps allow for entire seconds.

As of the 1.13 update in February 2018, the Circuit Experience section got a little harder. This update added the Monza circuit to this part of the game. It’s likely that future new locations will also eventually make their way to Circuit Experience.

If you pass all 111 tests, you’ll earn the Globetrotter trophy. Pass all at gold standard and you’ll also win the Tactical King trophy.

Campaign Mode

  • Finale (Silver): Unlocked the Ending Movie

Once you’ve at least passed all of the various tests in Campaign Mode, you’ll unlock the Finale trophy. All that you need is a bronze or better in every Circuit Experience, Driving School and Mission Challenge test, and the trophy is yours.

Driving – Drifting Trophies

  • Novice Drifter (Bronze): Earned a total of 1,000 Drift Points
  • Decent Drifter (Bronze): Earned a total of 100,000 Drift Points
  • Top-Drawer (Bronze): Drifter Earned a total of 1,000,000 Drift Points

Drifting is an acquired taste, and a million drift points might seem like a challenge you just don’t want to do. Fear not, there’s an easy way around it.

GT Sport classifies drifting as losing traction. If the back wheels are slipping, you’re drifting — unless you’re pointing the wrong way or hit something. And GT Sport’s Drift Mode allows you to use rally courses. See where we’re going?

Head into Drift Mode, pick a rally course — Colorado Springs is probably the best — and the Lancer Gr.B rally car from the arcade car selection. Now go “drifting”.

You should rack up 12,000 points or so each time you try, and each attempt takes about 40 seconds. For best results, turn the driving line on and stay as close to it as you can while drifting. Winning the three trophies should take under an hour.

Driving – Driving Challenges

  • First Victory! (Bronze): Recorded your first ever victory!
  • Run, Run, Run! (Bronze): Earned your first Daily Workout
  • Welcome to the Nordschleife (Bronze): Completed your first lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife

It’s extremely unlikely that you’ll have got this far without picking up the Run, Run, Run trophy. That’s awarded the very first time you complete the daily marathon, of 26.2 miles driven on any one day in the real world. You don’t have to drive all 26.2 miles in one sitting either, although you will do in several of the Mission Challenge 8 events.

You’ll win the First Victory trophy the first time you win a race. Beware that even though the game labels some of the Driving Missions as Race, you will not win the trophy there. You’ll need to beat an AI field in GT League, or Arcade Mode Single Race, or win any online race in Sport Mode.

The Welcome to the Nordschleife has similar restrictions. You won’t unlock it despite doing the required lap in Circuit Experience. However any other lap in any other mode will count; just ensure it is the regular Nordschleife alone, and not any other version of the circuit.

Driving – Distance Trophies

  • Experienced Driver (Bronze): Drove for a total of 62.5 miles (approx. 100km)
  • Route 66 Racer (Bronze): Drove for a total of 2,451 miles (approx. 3,945km), the length of the USA’s famous Route 66
  • King of the Ovals (Bronze): Drove a total of 500 miles (approx. 806km) on oval tracks
  • Endurance Racer (Bronze): Drove for a total of 24 hours

There shouldn’t be any need to chase down these trophies. In almost all cases, they will pop up naturally as part of your regular gameplay. It’s likely that you’ll see the Experienced Driver trophy within your first day of play.

The others take a little bit more time, but again should appear as you’re pursuing the rest of the trophies. On average you’ll be travelling at around 100mph while playing GT Sport, so Route 66 Racer and Endurance Racer ought to appear pretty close to each other.

King of the Ovals might take a little more wrangling. Nevertheless, if you’re using the Blue Moon Bay method for the various level trophies above, it should appear in short order. If not, set up an Arcade Mode Time Trial at Blue Moon Bay and send the fastest car you can find off on a long distance run to rack up the remaining mileage you need.

Gameplay Challenges

  • My First Car (Bronze): Bought your first car
  • Collection 10 (Bronze): Acquired a total of 10 cars
  • Souvenir from Le Mans (Bronze): Took a Scapes shot featuring the Circuit de la Sarthe and the Audi R18 (Audi Sport Team Joest)
  • Souvenir from the Nürburgring (Bronze): Took a Scapes shot featuring the Nürburgring and a BMW Gr.3 car
  • Top Photographer (Bronze): Took 100 or more Scapes shots or race photos
  • The Charm of Customization (Bronze): Showed off your first car customized with the Livery Editor
  • Tuning Addict (Bronze): Fully tuned a car for the first time using Mileage Points.

These seven trophies are a mix of the obvious and the slightly less obvious. My First Car is easy: just buy a car. Any car will do. Collection 10 is even easier, as you’ll get this trophy as soon as you receive your tenth car. You don’t even have to do anything, as this applies to cars the game awards you for the various Campaign Mode challenges and your 26.2-mile Daily Marathon.

The Souvenir trophies are not entirely as simple as that. For both you need to take your photograph in the Scapes section of the game; race replays will not do the job. For the Nurburgring trophy you simply need any of the three Gr.3 BMW race cars in the shot. For the Le Mans trophy you need a specific car: the Audi R18 TDI Audi Team Sport Joest 2011. Thanks to the DLC update in December there are now three Audi R18s in the game, but only this specific car will trigger the trophy. You don’t need to save either photo — the act of taking the photo alone is enough.

This also applies to the Top Photographer trophy. You’ll need to shoot 100 photos, but you don’t have to save them and they don’t have to be different. Simply hit the Shoot button, then the back button and repeat until you have 100 shots. This takes less than ten minutes and also gives you an in-game Achievement reward.

Achieving the Charm of Customization trophy is even quicker. The first time you create and share a livery, the game awards you the trophy. It doesn’t even have to be a complicated livery, as even a change of wheels or a new paintjob qualifies. Paint a car, save the livery and share it for your trophy.

Tuning Addict requires you to spend some of those hard-won Mi points. Each car has a preset range of power and weight adjustment, for the purposes of balancing the vehicles. You can “Level Up” these ranges by spending Mi points, but be warned, this doesn’t necessarily mean you can make the car more powerful or lighter. It simply increase the range of power and weight available for that car. Some cars have only one or two levels for each, some have six, and you’ll need to buy all of them for any one car to get this trophy. The cheapest way we’ve found so far is with the Suzuki Swift Sport, with 1,232 Mi points required.

Sport Mode

  • Master of Manners (Bronze): Unlocked Sport Mode after Completing all Racing Etiquette Lessons
  • Certified Genius (Gold): Matched Ayrton Senna’s record of 65 pole positions
  • Record Number of Races (Gold): Matched Rubens Barrichello’s record of 322 F1 races
  • Record Number of Wins (Gold): Matched Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 F1 victories

These trophies are monstrously difficult. Well, not Master of Manners, which simply requires you to play the two Racing Etiquette videos, but the other three certainly.

You can only achieve these trophies in Sport Mode, racing in the Daily Races and FIA events. They are fairly self-explanatory; you simply have to win, start on pole position, or finish the required number of races.

The Record Number of Races trophy is the least difficult, as it just requires your willingness to endure 322 races. Record Number of Wins is a test of skill, requiring you to beat all of your fellow players in an online race at least 91 times. As the saying goes, you’ll need to “git gud”…

However, Certified Genius is the luck of the draw, more-or-less. It depends on who the match-making software pairs you with and, unless you set the fastest practice time worldwide, there’s no guarantee of being on pole position for any given race.

There aren’t really any tips for achieving these three trophies, but it’s certainly easier to get pole positions and victories against lower-ranked players. Unless you’re extremely adept at GT Sport, maintaining a low Driver Rating and Sportsmanship Rating might be beneficial for these trophies.

Levelling Up

  • Newbie Driver (Bronze): Reached Level 15
  • Veteran Driver (Bronze): Reached Level 25
  • Legendary Driver (Silver): Reached Level 40
  • Ultimate Driver (Gold): Reached Level 50

The first two of these trophies will be among your first. The last two are likely to be, along with the three gold Sport Mode trophies, nearly your last.

To achieve each trophy, you simply need to accumulate enough XP (experience points) to pass the required level boundary. Almost everything you do in GT Sport gives you XP, so it’s just a question of getting enough of them.

For Level 15 you need 8,755XP or more. You can get more than that just from doing the Driving School and Mission Challenge sections. For Level 25 you’ll need to pass 36,814XP. That’s a little more difficult, but you get 22,566XP for passing all of the Campaign Mode, so it’s not much to find.

The Level 40 and 50 trophies are a bit more stern though. To reach Level 40 you’ll need almost 385,000XP — yes, 385 thousand. For Level 50 you have to score almost 2.4 million. Considering the tiny payouts in Sport Mode, it’s a long old slog.

There are ways to accelerate your XP count, but it’s no easy ride. We estimate that if you do nothing but the fastest method of scoring XP, it’ll take you 56 hours of racing.

Platinum

  • Gran Turismo Platinum Trophy (Platinum): Acquired all Gran Turismo Sport trophies!

Once you’ve completed all of the above, the Platinum will be yours!

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