Look, let's be real for a second. If you’re here, you probably love blowing things up. That’s the whole point of Medici, right? Just Cause 3 is a playground of fire, grappling hooks, and physics that definitely didn’t pass a high school science class. But then you look at the trophy list. You see that gold trophy for getting 5 gears in every single challenge and your heart sinks a little. It’s okay. We’ve all been there.
Winning the Just Cause 3 trophy guide battle isn't just about skill. It's about patience and knowing where the game is trying to cheat you. Because it will. The physics engine is a fickle beast. One minute you're gliding like a majestic eagle, and the next, a random palm tree has clipped your wing and sent you spiraling into a mountain. It's frustrating, but honestly, that's the charm of Rico Rodriguez’s third outing.
The First Rule of Medici: Finish the Story First
Stop worrying about the collectibles. Seriously. Just put them out of your mind. A lot of players make the mistake of trying to grab every Di Ravello tape or vintage part as they see them. Don't do that. You’re just going to slow yourself down.
The most efficient way to approach this is to blast through the campaign. Why? Because you need the upgrades. You want that boosted wingsuit. You want the faster reel-in speed. You want the explosives that actually do something besides making a pretty spark. Once the story is done and General Di Ravello is a distant, fiery memory, the map opens up in a way that makes cleanup way faster. Plus, liberating provinces reveals all the collectible locations on your map. It’s basically built-in cheating, provided by the developers themselves.
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Why the 5-Gear Challenges Are the Real Final Boss
Forget the final mission. The real nightmare is the "All the Gears" trophy. To get this, you need five gears on every single challenge in the game. We're talking wingsuit courses, land races, sea races, and those weird destruction frenzies.
Some of these are a breeze. Others? They feel like they were designed by someone who hates joy.
Take the wingsuit challenges. The "Skycastle" courses in the Insula Striate region are notorious. You need to hit those red center circles for the point bonus, but the wind resistance—or lack thereof—can be unpredictable. If you're struggling, here's a pro tip: don't over-steer. The more you move the stick, the more speed you lose. It’s about micro-adjustments. Small taps.
And for the destruction frenzies? Stop using the guns. Seriously. The grapple is your best friend. Why waste ammo on a fuel tank when you can tether it to a passing jet? Or better yet, tether two spheres together and watch the chaos unfold. The game rewards creativity, and usually, the creative solution is the one that gets you that fifth gear.
Managing the "Anything You Can Do" Trophy
This is the one that trips everyone up because it requires another person. You have to beat a score you were called out on. It sounds simple. It’s actually a pain because of how the servers work.
If you don't have friends playing the game, you're stuck. But there's a workaround. You can create a second PSN or Xbox account, add yourself, and send a "call-out" on a simple feat, like "longest time spent in the air." Then just switch back to your main account and beat it. It’s a bit of a process, but it beats waiting for a random stranger to challenge you to a wingsuit stunt they’ve spent ten hours perfecting.
Dealing With the "Winner Takes All, Again" Grind
Liberating the entire map is the core of the Just Cause 3 trophy guide experience. It’s 100% completion. Every settlement, every military base, every tiny little outpost tucked away in the mountains.
It gets repetitive. I won’t lie to you.
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By the time you reach the third act, you’ve liberated twenty identical villages. The trick is to vary your methods. Use the rebel drops. Call in a tank. Call in a helicopter. Try to liberate a whole town without firing a single bullet, just using your grapple tethers. It keeps the game fresh and prevents you from burning out before you hit that final 100% mark.
The Collectible Scavenger Hunt
You’ve got rebel shrines, Di Ravello tapes, vintage parts, and those jump stunts.
- Rebel Shrines: There are 49 of these. You need to light them. It's a bit tedious, but it gives you free fast travel back to those spots.
- Di Ravello Tapes: 71 total. These actually provide some decent lore, explaining how the General rose to power. If you care about the story, they're worth listening to.
- Vintage Parts: These unlock classic vehicles. You need 54.
- Daredevil Jumps: 30 of them. Use a fast bike. The "mugello" bikes are usually the best bet here because of their air control.
The "Tomb Raider" trophy is also in this category, requiring you to find all 23 Ancient Tombs. These are all on the big northern island (Insula Striate). Look for the blue flowers. That's the visual cue. If you see a patch of bright blue flowers against the rocky gray terrain, there’s probably a tomb nearby.
Technical Glitches and Performance Woes
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the frame rate. Just Cause 3 is famous for chugging when things get too "splody." If you’re playing on a base PS4 or Xbox One, things are going to get choppy.
This actually affects the trophies. Some challenges rely on precise timing, and when the game drops to 15 frames per second during a massive explosion, your timing is going to be off. If you can, play this on a PS5 or Xbox Series X. The boost in stability makes the five-gear challenges significantly easier. If you're stuck on older hardware, try to clear out enemies before starting a destruction challenge if the game allows it, though usually, the chaos is what earns the points.
Essential Gear for the Platinum
You cannot expect to finish this list without maximizing Rico’s potential. Focus on these gear mods first:
- Wingsuit Air Brake: Essential for those tight turns in the mountain passes.
- Tether Strength: You want to be able to pull down statues and towers without the cable snapping instantly.
- Grenade Homers: Makes destruction frenzies much more manageable.
Honestly, the "Supply Drop" upgrades are also huge. Reducing the cooldown for vehicle spawns saves you a massive amount of time when you’re hunting down those last few collectibles across the massive map.
The Most Missed Trophies
There are a few "hidden" or specific task trophies that people often overlook until the very end.
"...And I'm Proud of It" requires you to beat a feat. Any feat. Most players get this naturally, but if you're playing offline, it might not pop. "Feats" are the little leaderboard things that pop up on the right side of the screen, like "longest wheelie" or "farthest headshot." Just make sure you're connected to the Square Enix servers at least once to register these.
Then there’s "Forgive Me, Father." You need to find a priest and "clear your heat." You do this at a monastery. If you’ve liberated the whole map, it’s actually harder to get heat, so do this early. Grab a gun, shoot a wall near some police, get a star, then drive to a monastery and talk to the priest. Easy bronze.
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Final Cleanup Strategy
Once the story is done and the map is purple (liberated), your map will be cluttered with icons. It’s overwhelming.
Pick one region at a time. Start with Insula Fonte—the starting island. It’s the easiest. Clear every challenge, find every tape, and hit every jump there before moving to Insula Dracon. Save Insula Striate for last. It's the biggest, the terrain is the most rugged, and the challenges are the most demanding.
If you get frustrated with a specific wingsuit course, walk away. Go blow up a bridge. Come back later. The "just one more try" mentality in Just Cause 3 is a fast track to throwing your controller across the room. The physics are slightly randomized, so sometimes a run that felt perfect fails, and a run where you clipped a bush succeeds.
Actionable Next Steps for the Platinum:
- Prioritize Liberation: Finish the main story and liberate all provinces to reveal every collectible icon on the map.
- Focus on Gear Mods: Complete the "easiest" challenges in each category first to unlock the mods that make the harder challenges possible.
- The Second Account Trick: If the "Anything You Can Do" trophy isn't popping, use a burner account to send yourself a challenge.
- Insula Striate Tombs: Look specifically for the blue flower patches when hunting the Ancient Tombs on the northern island.
- Stability Check: If playing on older consoles, turn off the "extended leaderboards" in the options menu to slightly improve performance during high-chaos moments.
The road to the Medici platinum is long, and it's filled with repetitive tasks, but there's nothing quite like that final "pop" when you realize you've conquered one of the most chaotic open-world games ever made. Just keep Rico in the air and the explosions constant.