DLC #96 - The Last of Us - Reclaimed Territories

No reason to be picky..

The Reclaimed Territories pack is the first Multiplayer based trophy offering for The Last of Us, adding a further 7 trophies related to the 4 new maps bought out as part of this package.

They're such a straight-forward selection of trophies, I didn't even realise how close I actually was to completing this set until I randomly noticed my trophy collection was almost complete for this list, which I suppose tells you everything you need to know about the sort of challenge it presents.

Out of the trophies on offer, 3 of them are awarded for playing each of the games 3 different game modes (Survivors, Supply Raid and Interogation) on any of the 4 new maps, which are added into random rotation during ranked matches, so you should have no problems getting into a game on any of them.

The other 4 trophies require you to achieve 5 downs or executions in a match on any game mode for each of the 4 new maps, which really isn't difficult, even if you wouldn't consider yourself to be very good at the game. You might need to wait around for that last map to come into rotation, but if you're working on the main list of the game, where you need to play at least 168 matches to beat both online campaigns, you should hit all 4 maps multiple times during that period anyway, giving you plenty of chances along the way to full completion.

Given Naughty Dog's track record of Multiplayer trophies, this is very much at the opposite end of the spectrum to the norm. You will more than likely achieve these trophies through just progressing the Firefly and Hunter campaigns for the related gold trophies in the main list, so you won't even need any sort of focus on them, and can completely rely on natural obtainment of all 7 trophies. Very basic stuff.

DLC #95 - Call of Duty : Black Ops - Escalation Map Pack

Ensemble...

The Escalation Map Pack adds 5 trophies to the zombie mode of Blacks Ops, and is the first trophy pack in the game that includes Easter Egg related trophies.

The "Ensemble Cast" trophy, awarded for sending the crew to Paradise in co-op, requires you to fulfil the aforementioned multi-step Easter Egg contained with the newly added Call of the Dead zombies map.

At the time of writing, there have been many Easter Egg themed trophies released in the vast array of games in the Call of Duty series down the years, so even relatively new at the time of it's release, these trophies are now common place in the Call of Duty world.

This is actually one of the easier ones to follow, and even though you will need to finish it in co-op, you can complete every step of the Easter Egg with as little as just 2 people, in comparison to some Easter Egg trophies that will require you to have a full party of 4.

There are no particulary difficult parts of this process, though you will need the V-R11 from the mystery box to turn a zombie into a human during one of the latter steps, but that's about as challenging as any step gets, and you can complete the steps in large chunks providing you have a crawler present at all times. The "Stand In" trophy, will also be awarded upon completion of the Easter Egg, which has exactly the same requirements, but can also be achieved in Solo play.

The more challenging parts of this DLC come from the bronze trophies;

Shooting on Location - In Call of the Dead, kill 10 zombies with one Scavenger shot from over 100 feet away.
Quiet on the Set - In Call of the Dead, cut the lights on the Director.

The "Shooting on Location" trophy proves to be the most difficult trophy on the list.

There are proven and solid methods to obtaining this, and it is best done in Solo play, but you'll need to pull the Scavenger from the mystery box first, and then be able to gauge a position from where you can shoot a group of zombies that are far enough away in order to satisfy the requirements of the trophy. Making a group of crawlers will not only lessen the threat whilst you line up a shot, but also makes them a much easier target to group together and kill all at once.

There's more luck than judgement involved, and it could take you a handful of attempts, whether that be because you didn't manage to pull the Scavenger out of the mystery box early enough, or because you didn't kill enough zombies with 1 shot and have to subsequently start the next round.

It does also help to Pack-A-Punch the Scavenger if you can survive long enough to accumulate 5000 points, which increases the damage dealt and blast radius of the explosion on a shot, and Juggernog is always a good perk to have to hand when playing solo because being downed will end the game when you don't have any team-mates to assist you.

The "Quiet on the Set" trophy requires you to kill George Romero, who wanders around the map, and will become hostile if either shot at, or you get too close to him.

He takes alot of damage before dying, and it's actually best to play for the trophy in tandem with the above, since the upgraded Scavenger can deal alot of damage, which is exactly what you'll need to kill the Director. Standard weapons can work, but the damage is so minimal, it becomes a tedious exercise, and if you already have an upgraded Scavenger from trying to obtain the above trophy, it just makes sense to try and kill him with it too.

The crawler method is sound, though it is important to make sure the crawler is always well away from the fight, else the blast radius will cause death and trigger the next round suddenly. It's also important to make sure you shoot the Director within water, which is the only remedy to his raging rampage around the map, so focus on the centralised starting area when going for this trophy. Almost a full cip of 36 rounds on the upgraded Scavanger will be enough, so make the shots count, and you should have enough.

Again, it may take a handful of attempts depending on mystery box luck, and if you can survive multiple waves, but with the right strategy, it isn't terribly difficult, though can be frustrating having to restart the game multiple times.

Despite not being as easy as the First Strike Map Pack, Escalation presents it's own challenges, but in the bigger scheme of the Call of Duty series, it contains one of the easier to complete Easter Eggs, with some potentially frustrating, but not incredibly difficult added extras.