You’re floating in the North Sea. It’s quiet, maybe too quiet, and honestly, you’re just trying to help Stan process some heavy grief without missing a shiny digital trophy in the process. Under the Waves is a vibe. It’s beautiful, moody, and surprisingly stressful when you realize you might have just locked yourself out of a 100% completion run because you didn't check a specific shipping container on Day 15.
Getting the Platinum isn't technically hard. It’s a 2/10 on the difficulty scale. But if you're the kind of player who just rushes the story, you're going to have a bad time. Most players think they can just clean up everything at the end. You can't. Well, you sort of can, but the game has these weirdly specific windows for certain actions that will drive you crazy if you miss them.
The Missable Stuff (Don't Skip This)
Let’s talk about A Can Of Worms. This is the one that trips everyone up. It only happens around Day 15 or 16. You'll enter a dark room filled with these creepy oil worms that have an orange glow. Most people try to avoid them. Don’t. To get the trophy, you actually have to let them kill you. It feels counterintuitive, but just swim right into the middle of them and succumb. If you finish the story without doing this, you’re looking at a partial replay.
Then there is the choice at the end. Without spoiling the narrative weight of it, there are two distinct trophies: A Choice: One Last Story... and A Choice: A Last Goodbye.
Here is the pro tip: as soon as the first trophy pops after your choice, hit pause. Immediately. Quit to the main menu and reload your save. The game puts you right back before the final decision, allowing you to pick the other option and grab both trophies in one go. If you let the credits roll fully, you’re stuck replaying the entire final day. It’s a massive time-saver.
Dealing with Moon and the Grind
Your little sub, Moon, is your best friend, but you also have to be its worst enemy for a minute. You need the You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Sub trophy. This requires you to smash the sub into rocks until it's completely destroyed. It’s painful to watch, especially after you've spent hours upgrading it.
Speaking of upgrades, you need to find 20 crafting blueprints. Surfrider: Master Upcycler is the trophy for crafting every single upgrade. The bottleneck here is usually coal. You’ll find some while exploring, but the real trick is waiting until you get the laser for Moon. Once you have the laser, you can "clean" oil traces. Each trace you zap gives you coal. Don’t waste your time scouring the seabed for loose coal early on; just wait for the laser missions and farm the oil traces.
Collectibles and the 75 Logbook Entries
There are 18 main collectibles, 10 stickers, and 3 music tapes. Most are in wrecks. If you find a wrecked ship or a downed helicopter, there is almost certainly a collectible inside.
- Echoes Of The Past: Find all collectibles.
- A Sticky Situation: Find all 10 stickers.
- Captain’s Log: Unlock 75 entries.
The Logbook trophy sounds daunting, but it’s basically a participation trophy for completionists. By the time you find all the collectibles, stickers, and blueprints, you’ll be close. To push it over the edge, make sure you scan everything. See a Great White? Scan it. See a Blue Whale? Scan it (that also gets you the Stan Ahab trophy). Even different types of seagrass and landmarks count toward your 75.
The "Human" Trophies inside the Life Module
Stan isn't just a diver; he’s a guy living in a tin can. You need to spend some time doing the "boring" stuff.
Go to the punching bag in the crafting room. You need a score of 2500 for Stan Balboa. It’s a simple rhythm mini-game. Then there’s the guitar in the bedroom. You need 5000 points there for A Little Rusty. If you’re struggling with the guitar score, make sure you’ve found the extra music tapes hidden in the world, as they offer more opportunities to rack up points.
Also, don't forget the TV. Sit on the sofa and keep cycling through the channels until Telly Addict pops. It’s one of those trophies that feels like the developers are rewarding you for being a couch potato in the middle of a deep-sea mission.
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Cleaning Up the Ocean
The game has a strong environmental message, and the trophy list reflects that. You need to pick up 50 pieces of plastic for Surfrider: Activist. You’ll find plastic everywhere—literally everywhere. Just grab it as you go.
But there’s a specific one: Surfrider: Leave No Trace. When you use an oxygen stick, Stan tosses the empty tube. You have to manually look down and pick up 10 of those empty tubes. Most people just swim away. Don’t be that guy. Clean up after yourself.
Essential Locations to Visit
There are a few "secret" spots you need for the list.
- The Galleon: Located roughly at X: 483, Y: -1695. This unlocks Like The Wreck Of The Hesperus.
- The Communication Antenna: X: 1728, Y: -716. You’ll go here on Day 2, but make sure you actually interact with it for Connection Lost.
- The Surface: Just drive Moon straight up. Keep going until you break the surface. It’s a beautiful sunset and unlocks Emma’s World.
- The Squid: Go to X: 1170, Y: -920. There’s a shipping container there. Use a mine to blow it open, and a squid will swim out, netting you Cthulhu Fhtagn.
Actionable Next Steps
To make this as efficient as possible, follow this order:
- Days 1–14: Play naturally, but scan every new fish and landmark you see. Collect plastic as you go.
- Day 15/16: Look for the orange glowing worms in a dark interior. Let them kill you for the "A Can Of Worms" trophy.
- Post-Laser: Once you get the laser for Moon, go on a cleaning spree. Clear 50 oil traces to get the coal you need for the final upgrades.
- Before the Finale: Complete all 4 photography missions for Wildlife Photographer. If you don't do these before the end of Day 17, you'll have to reload.
- The Choice: Use the pause-and-quit trick during the final choice to get both ending trophies in one 15-minute window.
If you follow that flow, you’re looking at about 12 to 15 hours for the Platinum. It’s a melancholic, beautiful journey that doesn't overstay its welcome, provided you don't have to replay the whole thing for a missed worm attack.