Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Trophy Guide: What Most Players Miss

You're standing in the middle of a dusty Gizeh tomb, whipping a Nazi off a ledge, and wondering if you've missed a journal note three rooms back. Honestly, that’s the "Great Circle" experience in a nutshell. It’s messy, it’s gorgeous, and for trophy hunters, it’s a bit of a nightmare if you don't know where the game hides its secrets.

Tracking down the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle trophy guide isn't just about finding every golden idol; it's about navigating some seriously wonky save systems and collectibles that don't always behave. If you’re gunning for that Platinum or 100% Gamerscore, you've gotta be prepared for about 40 to 50 hours of work. It’s not "hard" in the Dark Souls sense, but it is "hard" in the "I can't believe I missed one photo in the Vatican" sense.

The Roadmap to 100% Completion

Most of the list is pretty standard fare. You’ve got your story-related pops that you literally cannot miss, but then there's the stuff that requires you to play like a weirdo. Like hitting a guy with a flyswatter.

Here is the basic reality of the grind:

• Difficulty: 3/10 (You can play the whole thing on Easy).
• Time: 40-50 hours for most people.
• Missables: Technically zero, but backtracking is a massive pain.
• Playthroughs: Just one, if you're thorough.

The game uses a hub-based system. You’ll visit the Vatican, Gizeh, the Himalayas, Shanghai, and Sukhothai. While you can revisit these places, some internal "dungeon" areas lock after you finish the story beat there. Don't panic, though. The devs actually move any missed collectibles from those one-time areas into the main regional hubs afterward. It’s a nice touch, but honestly, it’s way easier to just grab them the first time around.

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The Archivist Headache

Let's talk about the Archivist trophy. This is the big one. It’s the "collect all journal notes" achievement, and it’s arguably the most frustrating part of the game. There are over 500 entries to find.

You’ve got four main types of things filling up that book:

1. Main adventure notes (Story stuff).
2. Fieldwork (Side quests).
3. Mysteries (Small puzzles and world-building).
4. Field notes (Random stuff you find or photograph).

A lot of players get stuck at 99% because of the final journal note. Here’s the kicker: the very last note is tucked behind a massive stone wall in the final area of the game. To open it, you need to have collected every single Ancient Relic and solved a massive puzzle. It’s the game's way of saying, "Yeah, you really do have to do everything."

Buying Your Way to Victory

One thing most people overlook is the map vendors. In each major region, you can find a merchant—usually someone like Ernesto in Gizeh—who sells maps for the collectibles. Buy these. Seriously. They mark the locations of books, relics, and notes. It feels like cheating, but considering how vertical and dense some of these maps are, it’s a lifesaver. You’ll need a lot of local currency, so smash every lockbox you see.

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Combat and Miscellaneous Fun

Not everything is about reading dusty old papers. Some of the funnier trophies require you to use the environment as a weapon.

Take The Right Note, for example. You have to clobber an enemy with a guitar. Then there’s Apple of Discord, which involves hitting someone with—you guessed it—an apple. These are basically "Found Weapon" trophies. If you see a weird object on a table, pick it up and throw it at a Nazi's face.

The Tour de Force trophy is also a standout. Indy can infiltrate underground boxing rings in Gizeh, the Vatican, and Sukhothai. You’ll need a disguise to get in, and then you have to win the tournaments. These fights can be tough if you haven't been keeping up with your Adventure Books.

Pro Tip: Focus on the "Brawler" and "Iron Grip" abilities early on. They make the boxing rings a cakewalk and help with the Offensive Defense trophy, which requires you to KO an enemy using only counters.

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Don't Forget to Eat

There are three specific food trophies that catch people off guard:

• Little Horn: Eat a Cornetto.
• Bread is Life: Eat Aish Baladi bread.
• Celestial Delight: Eat a star fruit.

These aren't fixed spawns. They appear randomly in crates and on tables. If you see one, eat it immediately. Don't wait until you're at the end of the game trying to farm a specific fruit in Sukhothai.

Avoiding the "Glitched" Progress Trap

The save system in The Great Circle is... let's call it "classic." It doesn't always save the moment you pick something up. Look for the little hat icon in the top right corner of the screen. That’s your confirmation that the game actually registered your progress.

Many players have reported picking up a note, dying shortly after, and the note remaining "collected" in the journal but not actually counting toward the achievement total. To be safe, if you find a rare relic or a tricky journal note, manually save or walk into a new area to trigger an auto-save.

Actionable Next Steps for the Platinum

If you're just starting out or cleaning up your save, here’s how to handle it:

1. Priority One: Maximize your stamina and health by finding medicine bottles (there are 30 in each major region). This feeds into the Bookman trophy, as you need these stats to unlock all abilities.
2. Disguise Early: Get your disguises as soon as the option becomes available. It makes exploring for collectibles 10x faster when you aren't being shot at every five seconds.
3. Photograph Everything: If your camera icon pops up in the UI, take the photo. Even if it's just a wall. It’s almost always a journal entry or a hint for a mystery.
4. The Sukhotai Cogwheels: There is a specific puzzle involving 10 missing cogwheels scattered around the river. Do not try to solve the final puzzle until you've gathered all 10. You can find a map for these pieces at the local vendor near Voss’s camp.
5. Check Your Inventory: Before leaving a region, check your journal checklist. If you’re missing a "Fieldwork" or "Mystery," solve it then. Backtracking through the loading screens later is a time-sink you don't want.

Getting the full 100% completion in this game is a love letter to the franchise. It’s about the journey, the weird side characters like Antonio in the Vatican, and the satisfaction of seeing Indy’s office filled with all those repatriated artifacts. Just keep your whip ready and your eyes on the journal.