Trophy Guides: The Complete Walkthrough

[Mendel]

This walkthrough details how to write a guide for this site. Before writing a guide, please read it carefully and follow all directions in order to ensure that your guide will be accepted.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, feel free to post them here. You can also contact one of the members of the Guide Team privately:

Mendel
lukey52
Wozamil
TheFlyingToaster
Terminator
Dark_Phantom_89


Do not post in this thread to inform us that you are writing a guide.

Issues with existing guides should be reported here: Problems with a main site trophy guide / roadmap?

Table of Contents

1. Finding a Game That Needs a Guide
2. Playing the Game
3. Writing the Guide
4. Posting the Guide
5. Submission and Review
6. Future Maintenance
7. Frequently Asked Questions
8. Site Awards

-Thanks to mjc0961 and Marx0r from x360a for the original format and some of the content of this walkthrough

Walkthrough Revised: March 3rd, 2012 by Tuffmuff. Latest additions are in red text.

[Mendel]

Step 1: Finding a Game that needs a Guide

First of all, you need to find a game that needs a guide. Go here for a list of games that are missing guides:

Games That Need Guides

If a game has a guide that you feel you can make significant improvements to, feel free to write a new one to challenge the existing guide.

The Guide Team will look at any guide properly submitted, but if you make a guide for a game that already has a guide and your improvements are minimal (only a few trophies are different, slightly different format, adding pics, etc), then it will be rejected. You are better off contacting the author of the existing guide and asking to incorporate your tips if you only can improve on a few trophies.

Step 2: Playing the Game

In order for you to be able to make a guide for a game, you will need to have played through the majority of it, and unlocked most of the trophies. We don't want people making guesses or taking unreliable second hand information and putting it in guides, so if you post a tip or walkthrough in a guide, it's best that you've tried it yourself first.

So, keeping that in mind:

1. If you submit a guide, but the game is not on your PSN profile, your submission will automatically be rejected. Playing the game at a friend's house does not count. We need proof that you have played the game, and the only way we can do that is by checking the PSN account you have in your profile on this site. If the game doesn't appear on us.playstation.com or any trophycard site, we may need to send you a PSN friend request to verify your profile.

2. We reserve the right to reject a guide if you have the game, but have very few trophies in it, or none at all. This will vary from game to game and we will make a judgment based on the information available in your guide and in the forums. A general rule of thumb is to have at least 50% of the trophies in the game.

3. Along with having played the game, the game you're making a guide for needs to have already been released. If you have an advance copy or have played an earlier direct port of the game (the Fallout 3 DLC for example), then you are allowed to make a guide, but please make a note of that in your guide. Playing a beta does not qualify you to write a guide for it.

4. The guide must be for all trophies. No multiplayer only guides. All trophies.

Step 3: Writing the Guide

The most important thing to keep in mind when writing a trophy guide is that you write it so someone who has never played the game can understand what to do. Here are the major aspects of guide writing you need to worry about:

1. Spelling and Grammar
This is very important. The Guide Team understands that English isn't everyone's first language, but in order for a guide to be used on the site, it needs to be written as if you were writing an essay for an English class. If you struggle with grammar, punctuation or spelling, type up your guide in Microsoft Word first and run spell check, or get someone to read through your guide first before submitting it. Grammar is something we're particularly militant about, and it's a crappy reason to have someone else's guide picked over yours.

Also, game terms have to be specific to that game. If a game has Chapters, don't call them Levels in your guide. If a character uses a shotgun in the game, call it a shotgun, or if need be, a specific type of shotgun (specificity will be covered next.)

2. Trophy Detail
When writing a guide, don't assume that your readers will have played the game, or understand what you're talking about. When in doubt, be overly specific. If you need to do a certain move in a game to beat a certain boss, list the move and what button is required to do the move. If you need to find something in a specific menu, give the steps needed to get to that menu. There's nothing more irritating than reading a guide for help, only to find that a step you need is missing because the author assumed you already knew.

Also, keep in mind that your guide will be posted on the main page of a professional site, so be sure that your guide is appropriate in language and tone. This isn't the place to try out your comedy routine, so try to keep anything off topic to a bare minimum, and anything that doesn't have to do with the guide itself will be cut anyway, so just leave it out.

We reserve the right to have you remove portions of the guide that are unnecessary or inappropriate before accepting your guide.

Story-Related Trophies
In nearly every case, simply writing "story-related, can't miss" is insufficient. If nothing else, add a brief description of when the trophy should unlock or if a boss is involved in getting the trophy. It's also good practice to any tips, strategy or even videos that you think will help. Again, it may seem obvious to you when the trophy will unlock, but your audience may think that a trophy is glitched, or they may only want to play until they get a certain trophy, and they'll want to know when they can expect to get it.

Redirects
In many instances, getting one trophy will get you another (e.g. a 500-kill trophy and a 1000-kill trophy). Feel free to redirect a trophy to another one in order to avoid repetition. If five trophies all have the same basic explanation, redirect them to one trophy and explain it there. Kill counts, difficulty, collectibles – these are all types of trophies that can be redirected. Generally you should always redirect a trophy to one that will be acquired last. For redirects, all you need in the explanation is something like: "See Some Other Trophy"

Missable Trophies
Please call out "missable" trophies as necessary. Our definition of "missable" is that you have to restart the game to get the trophy if you didn't get it the first time. An example might be quest-related trophies, like in a game such as Fallout 3 or Dragon Age: Origins. If the game has a chapter select feature that allows you to jump around to any point in the game and get a previous trophy, then it is not missable. For some games you can create save files at any point and reload to get a trophy that was missed (Fallout 3, again). These are not necessarily missable if you plan accordingly - please call out such save functionality in your guide as needed.

Videos
Feel free to include videos in your guide. It's a good idea to ask permission first before using them. However, do not create a guide that is entirely comprised of someone else's videos. Unless they are your own videos, such guides will be automatically rejected. You need to put more effort into the guide than that.

Move Control Schemes
If a game is released primarily as a Move branded title, we highly suggest you write the guide from the perspective of using the Move controller (with applicable Move button smilies). We know that some games allow both use of a DualShock3 (DS3) or Move, and that most people are not going to have Move. If you only play the game with a DS3, please at a minimum try to do the following:

• Include control mappings between a DS3 and Move (or Move+Nav Controller)
• Include alternate strategies if some trophies are easier with Move vs. DS3, or vice versa

If you need to solicit this info from other users in the forum, that is fine.

3. Simplicity
The entire point of writing a trophy guide is to show the quickest, easiest way of achieving the Platinum for that game. Keeping that in mind, make sure that your trophy walkthrough gives the easiest possible method for acquiring each trophy. Some examples:

• Can you play against a second controller instead of the CPU?
• Can you play on the easiest game setting?
• Can you move any game sliders?
• Can you input cheat codes or turn in-game cheats on?
• Can you boost/trade online trophies? If so, how?
• Is there a complete walkthrough for the game itself?
• Do you have a list for collectibles? What about maps for them?
• Do difficulty achievements stack?
• Can you use level select for trophies?
• Do kills/collectibles/etc carry over from game to game, difficulty to difficulty?

What you should not include in your guide, however, is a dishonest way of getting trophies. Do not include info on hacking trophies or gamesave transferring in your guides. Glitches are allowed on a case-by-case basis. If glitches are present because of how the game was developed (and it was never patched), then they are okay to add in the guide. If you are unsure, please contact the Guide Team.

4. Other Things You Need to Know/Do

Co-authoring:
We do allow co-authoring of guides. The limit to the amount of guide writers that can work on a roadmap and receive credit is 2. If you are looking for a guide writing partner do not post in the forums requesting one. There is a group where you can make those requests here: Trophy Guide and Roadmap Collaboration Group.

[Mendel]

Button/Trophy Smilies
Whenever you reference buttons on the PS3 controller, you need to use the button smilies available on this site. No other images hosted off this site will be allowed and we will ask you to replace them. Trophy smilies should be used only for Roadmap breakdowns and to indicate the weight of each trophy in the guide. There is no need to use a trophy smiley every time you reference a trophy.

Spoiler Tags
Spoilers are taken very seriously at PS3T and guides are no exception. If you have trophy explanations that involve major spoilers, we highly suggest you use spoiler tags. If you are unsure of how to use spoiler tags, see this thread:

Spoiler Tags

When in doubt, use spoiler tags or contact the Guide Team. Anything story-related probably needs spoiler tags. Only place the tags around the trophy explanation. Leave the image, description, etc. outside of the tags.

Give Credit Where Credit is Due
If you use someone else's tip or video in your guide, you need to give them credit. Make sure you bold their name in the credit. If someone contributes to 10% or more of your guide, we will ask that you add them as a co-author and they will be given a full guide credit alongside you.

Japanese Guides
For Japanese guides, we ask that you include both the English version of the trophy name beneath the Japanese for each trophy. This allows us to correctly match up trophies to the main site list if we don't already have a translation. Also, Japanese characters are currently not supported in the text editors for trophy explanations, so they will not be loaded if you include them in the guide. So please keep that in mind when writing the guide and provide English translation as much as possible. If there are parts where an English translation is not feasible, that is okay and we will just link to the forum version from the main site.

Please see below for an example of what the Japanese trophy format should look like.

Overall Formatting
There are a few formatting things that we ask you adhere to:

• Please stick to the default font for the forums: Veranda, Size 2, default color. Black text is allowed, but please refrain from using any other color as it will affect readability on the both the forums and the main site. You can bold or italicize a few things for emphasis, but keep it minimal. Excessive and unnecessary formatting will be removed.
• When you reference another trophy, please either bold the name of the trophy or surround it in quotes.
• Avoid unnecessary formatting like text alignment (left, right, center) or text color. Too many formatting tags create spacing issues when editing or copying the guide to the main site.

Step 4: Posting the Guide

When the guide is nearly complete, feel free to post it in the specific game's main forum. You need to make sure you are using a formatted list from the main site as the template for your guide.

Before you post anything, though, please be aware of the following:

1. Do not post a guide thread that merely has the list of trophies, minimal explanations and a "work in progress" tag. These will most likely be closed. You need to write the majority of your guide first, prior to posting it. Do not ask people for info on trophies – we will assume you don't know how to get them and that you're not qualified to write a guide for the game.

2. Do not throw up a quick guide on the day of release in order to be the first with a guide or to "reserve" it. We can tell when you do this, and we will generally close these if no substantial progress on the guide is made within 24 hours.

3. Do not post a guide written by someone else, including those found on xbox360achievements.org. Even if the author gave you permission to post his/her guide, we do not allow guides that you haven't written yourself to be copied from other sites. The guide will be automatically deleted and you may be infracted for it.

4. Do not plagiarize another guide currently on the site. Sometimes there is more than one guide posted in a game forum, and neither will have been accepted yet. One may be an old one that hasn't been submitted. In either case, do not copy information from another guide in order to make yours look better. We can see all your edit history and we will reject your guide if you do this. This is the main reason we'd like you to write the guide prior to posting – to minimize plagiarism.

5. Do not post copyrighted material. This includes any text or images from a Prima or Bradygames guide.

6. Do not ask the Guide Team to post it for you or to tutor you on the text editor. You need to be able to write the guide and post it properly on your own. There are plenty of resources and FAQs on the site that can help you, if you take the time to seek them out.

7. Do not freak out if your guide thread is locked. The Guide Team doesn't go around looking for threads to lock because we're on a power trip or are bored. Guides that don't meet the posting guidelines will be locked, it's that simple. It's nothing personal, so please don't take it that way. We do this to ensure that guides are posted correctly the first time, to encourage quality and to minimize confusion among the community.

-----------

Posting Format
In your posting, please use a formatted list from the site for your guide. The trophy list and tiles for your particular game can be found here:

http://www.ps3trophies.org/trophies/

Select the type of game (Retail, PSN, Japanese) and then navigate to the game itself.

There is no simple "plug and play" way to get a formatted list off the site trophy lists and into your thread. You will need to do some manual editing and formatting. You should write the guide offline first (as already mentioned), then worry about the format when you actually post it. Here is the process we recommend:

Step 1: Enable the advanced editor interface. Simply go to the UserCP, go to Edit Options, then in the last section (Misc), make sure the Message Editor Interface is set to the "Enhanced Interface - Full WYSIWYG Editing." This turns on all the editing features for posts, which is necessary for formatting a guide properly.

Note: There can be differences between browsers in regards to the post editor. We have found that Internet Explorer and Firefox work the best, so we recommend using those.

Step 2: Go to the main site and find the trophy list for the game you are making a guide for.

Step 3: Highlight the trophy list with your mouse. You will end up selecting the tile, name, description, weight and comment bubble for each. Copy your selection.

Step 4: Create a new thread in your game's forum and paste what you copied. The trophy list will appear in the post, but you'll need to add spaces and line breaks to make it look right. Also, delete the comment bubbles that link to individual trophy comments (they look like this: ). Select "Preview Post" to check it out, and submit the post when you're ready. If you need multiple posts for your guide, space the trophies out between posts.

Once complete, each trophy should have:

-Trophy Image
-Trophy Name
-Trophy Value (i.e. )
-Trophy Description

Merely add the explanation of how to get each trophy below the Trophy Description. In a perfect world, you should just copy and paste this from the guide you've already written offline.

In order for your guide to be looked at by the Guide Team, your trophy list must be formatted per the instructions above. Minor deviations are allowed, but please don't get crazy or we'll tell you to change it.

Here is an example of what a trophy should look like:

SME
Gain the ability to drive and fly all vehicles.
This trophy is story related and cannot be missed. You will gain the ability to drive APCs and tanks in the mission The Wheels of Chance, and you will gain the ability to fly helicopters in the mission Biological Imperative. Once you consume the pilot in Biological Imperative the trophy will unlock.

Redirects should look something like this:

Half-Truths
Complete a mission without causing a single Military Alert.
See Mankind Is Your Mask

Japanese trophies should be formatted like so, with the English name/description beneath the Japanese (for easier copying to the main site):

騒乱を未然に防ぎし者
特定種族の撃破数 悪魔種族 500匹

[The One That Prevented The Uprising]
[Killed 500 Demon enemies]

Kill 500 demon enemies. Just farm the imp on the 1st floor of シーインの迷宮 [Sein Map] for this trophy. Trophy is unlocked after your 500th demon kill.

-----------

Thread Titles
Do not place your name in the title of the thread and make sure the full name of the game is included in your title along with Trophy Guide and Roadmap.

So, for Mass Effect 2, your title would look like this:

Mass Effect 2 - Trophy Guide and Roadmap

[Mendel]

Step 5: Submission and Review

1. Submit the Guide. Once your guide is complete, and you've made sure all of the above steps have been followed, you will need to create a new thread in the Submit forum, with the name of the guide as its title. In the thread post, put a link to your guide. Do not post the actual guide in the Submit forum. Also be advised that if you refuse to submit your guide, leaving it solely in the forums, we reserve the right to lock and deny it. Note: your thread will disappear once created; don't worry, it's still there, but only staff will be able to see it.

2. Wait for the Guide Team to Review Your Submission. Once submitted, it will be added to the list of guides waiting to be looked at by the Guide Team. Guides are reviewed in the order they are submitted and it could take up to two weeks for us to get to it, depending on the volume of recent submissions.

There is no need to PM a Guide Team member asking them to look at your guide once it has been submitted. There is no problem asking a Guide Team member to look at a guide for help before you submit it, but once you have submitted it, it's implied that the Guide Team will look at it.

3. Review / Revision. After we review it, we will contact you with suggestions or requested changes. Please do not take offense at any suggestions we may make – our intention is to make sure your guide is the best and most helpful it can be. We may also ask to edit the guide from a grammar, spelling or punctuation standpoint, but will never change your specific content without your consent.

If, for whatever reason, you are unable or unwilling to make any necessary adjustments, your guide will not be added or stickied, and any subsequent guide that comes along could potentially replace yours. So be sure to make any adjustments as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Private Messages: Make sure you have PMs (private messages) turned on, and please do not ignore PMs from the Guide Team regarding submissions. If you turn PMs off or ignore them, we will assume you don't want to support your guide or work with us on it, and we may automatically lock and reject it. Be professional and respond, even if it's to tell us that you want to withdraw your guide from consideration.

4. Acceptance. Once accepted, your guide will be stuck and loaded onto the main site. Do not PM staff members asking them to sticky your guide; it will only be done when we have accepted the guide. A guide will appear on the front page the moment we load it.

5. Multiple Submissions for the Same Game. We only choose one guide for a game. It may be that your chosen game has multiple guide submissions. Once a guide has been chosen by the Guide Team, all other open or submitted guides will be locked and you will not be contacted about it. This is also the case for guides that are submitted to challenge the current main site guide – we will allow it to remain open while you work on it, but if after submission we do not feel that it is good enough to replace an existing guide, it will be locked.

If you post a guide intended as a challenge and neglect to finish or submit it in a reasonable amount of time, we will lock it.

Once again, please do not take a locked thread personally. This is part of the process and if you've read this walkthrough, you should know what to expect.

If the author of a locked guide would like to work on his guide for resubmission, they should contact a Guide Team member and the thread will be unlocked. You will need to update the unlocked guide in a reasonable amount of time, or it will just be closed again.

Step 6: Future Maintenance

Updating a Guide. After a guide has been accepted and loaded onto the main site, you may find that you need to make an update to your guide. If you need to, feel free to make your updates, but please notify the Guide Team as well, as they will need to update the version of the guide that exists on the main site. The main site versions do not automatically update, so it's crucial that you notify us, otherwise they will be out of sync. You can post your corrections/updates within this thread: Updates Needed on a Main Site Trophy Guide or Roadmap? Let us know here.

Community Issues and Monitoring. Sometimes the community brings up issues and questions about accepted guides. While not required, we hope that all authors will keep track of activity in their guide threads, and respond and update their guide as necessary. We suggest subscribing to your guide thread to ensure that you get notified about questions or concerns. Please don't neglect your guide.

Reviewing Older Guides. The Guide Team occasionally reviews older guides and may edit/revise them to ensure that they are up to current site standards. We will always contact the author about any issues first and work with them to get the guide properly updated. If an author has been banned from the site, we reserve the right to modify and revise the guide as necessary to fit the needs of the community.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I add general game tips or a walkthrough to my guide?
A: Many times basic tips can be left out. Keep in mind these are trophy guides, not comprehensive strategy guides. However, sometimes they are one and the same and it's highly beneficial to have tips or a walkthrough as part of the guide. So, if you feel they are necessary for the guide, there are few ways you can add them:

-If the content relates to a specific trophy or trophies, add the information to the trophy explanation for those trophies.

-If the content doesn't relate to a specific trophy, you can add it to the Road Map in order for it to be added to the main site.

-If you have a large section on general gameplay/tips, or a long walkthrough of any kind, put it in a separate post at the end of your guide, or create a new thread for it. Then link that particular post or thread in the roadmap or appropriate trophy/trophies.

Q: If there are cumulative trophies (get 10%, 20%, 100%, etc) or stacking trophies in a game, do I need to write something for each trophy in the guide?
A: No, in this case you only need to write a description for the last attainable trophy and redirect the other trophies to it.

Q: How do I add a picture to my guide?
A: There are several different options:

-If the picture is on your computer, add it to an image hosting site (like imageshack or photobucket), then use the IMG tag in the toolbar to add the link and post the picture.

-If the picture is on another website, right-click on it and click on Copy Image Location, and then use the IMG tag in the toolbar above to post the location and post the picture.

-You can host the picture in a personal PS3T photo album, and many users have done this in the past - but please note that people who are not signed into the site will not see those images (they won't even load). So we do not recommend you do that, especially not for images critical to a trophy.

Q: How do I add a video to my guide?
A: Copy and paste the video's URL into the guide and the video will be added.

Q: Can I link to a collectible guide or walkthrough on a different site?
A: In most cases, yes, though we would prefer you write your own version for this site. If you have doubts, contact the Guide Team.

Q: What if I don't want my guide on the site anymore? Can you remove it after it's been accepted and loaded to the main site?
A: You are free to remove your guide from the forums, but generally, no, we won't remove a guide from the main site pages. When you post a guide in the forums you are giving consent for us to display it on other areas of the site. Essentially it's a non-exclusive license for displaying the guide, per the site's Terms of Service. You still have complete ownership of the guide and can post it on other sites, but removing guides defeats the purpose of this site, which is to build up content for the entire user base, and it also affects its continuity.

If you have concerns about this policy, please contact an Admin: How to Contact the Staff.

[Mendel]

Site Awards

All guides accepted will receive a single guide credit, regardless of length or number of trophies. In other words, guides for Retail, PSN or DLC will each get a single credit.

If your guide is replaced with a challenging one, you will not lose the credit for the displaced guide.

We do allow co-authoring of guides. The limit to the amount of guide writers that can work on a guide and receive credit is 2.

Site awards are given out for the number of accepted guides you have. Here are the awards:

Bronze Trophy Guide Submitter: At least 3 guides were accepted.

Silver Trophy Guide Submitter: At least 6 guides were accepted.

Gold Trophy Guide Submitter: At least 10 guides were accepted.

Platinum Trophy Guide Submitter: At least 25 guides were accepted.

[Moose_PS3T]

Nice work on the new thread Mendel, it's infinitely easier to understand in comparison to the last guide. One thing I would suggest is to edit the link displays and have them say "here" in a different color so that they are a bit more distinguishable. Otherwise, top notch work. A few questions though:

• Do we need to notify the GT that we are making a guide? It says that we should not post here saying "I'm making a guide", so should we message you telling that we are making a guide or just make it and submit it when we're done or what?
• Has the rule changed about guides for games that have not be released to the whole public? Like for the Fallout DLC guide, we had to wait until the dlc was released. Do we still need to do that? Or can we make one about a week before it is released since some will have it by then.
• Concerning the site awards and the sticky process, is it safe to say that from now on if a guide is stickied, we will be receiving creidit towards the site trophy?

I think those are all of my questions but I might have forgotten something so if I have I'll let you know, good work though. Cheers for this, mate.

[Rockets88]

Originally Posted by mendel_skimmel

Games that Need Guides or Road Maps: Games That Need Trophy Guides/Road Maps

This link doesn't work mendel, and has this thread (the linked thread) actually been updated recently aswell?

[Moose_PS3T]

Originally Posted by Rockets88

This link doesn't work mendel, and has this thread (the linked thread) actually been updated recently aswell?

Ya, I told Olsen it needed updating a while ago, it's atleast two or three months behind....

[Rockets88]

Originally Posted by Moose_PS3T

Ya, I told Olsen it needed updating a while ago, it's atleast two or three months behind....

yh i saw that on his profile lol. The thread was last updated 09-07-2009 by mjc. I would like this to be done because i have just seen a guide get un-stickied and it would be cool to know if i can make a new one for that game.

[Moose_PS3T]

Originally Posted by Rockets88

yh i saw that on his profile lol. The thread was last updated 09-07-2009 by mjc. I would like this to be done because i have just seen a guide get un-stickied and it would be cool to know if i can make a new one for that game.

Which game? One of mine?