Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 1 - Platinum Trophy Tips

Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 1 is my first Potter game and 9th platinum. Have read all the books and own most movies on blu-ray though. The game is quite easy to platinum, but takes a long time because you must complete 3 playthroughs and 15 online challenges. The only hard part is the horcrux fight (A Cold Dark Night level) on hard mode.

Resources

1. PS3Trophies, for a nice trophy guide
2. Video walkthrough
3. Collectible video guide

I recommend not following the video guide on ps3trophies.org for collectibles because sometimes it is hard to figure out where the location is. Follow the link I gave above instead.

Roadmap

I started the game on hard because I wanted to breeze through the medium and easy modes without thinking much. Hard mode is not hard, except one or two tight spots. In my first playthrough (on hard), I picked up all collectibles, finished all combat trophies except the 1000 kills trophy. This one, I got sometime during the 'Follow Dean' level in my second playthrough. You can get it much earlier (or even at the end of the first playthrough) but I was very bored of killing; so sneaked through most of the time with the cloak. Other than that, the only trophies that remained were the online ones and medium and easy mode completion trophies.

After this, I finished medium mode, followed by easy mode; took about 4 hrs each. Then did the online challenges, finishing up with the Friendly Rivals trophy and the platinum.

Tips

While you'd get a lot of tips on ps3trophies.org, I give below some tips that I discovered / particularly found helpful.

General Tips

• There are loads and loads of enemies that spawn several times, so it gets really tedious if you have to fight everyone. Use your cloak to sneak past groups of death eaters / acromantula / pixies. Don't worry too much about the 1000 kills trophy, since you have 3 playthroughs. If Ron and/or Hermione are with you, let them take the heat while you sneak past with your cloak. They will blow your cover if they catch up with you, so while they are busy fighting, you need to make your way forward not accidentally stepping in the line of fire. They will join you when you reach the next checkpoint. If your cover is blown, one good option is to run (holding X button), get slightly farther and put on the cloak.
• Use Impedimenta for acromantula, pixies, horcrux snakes.
• Stupefy works fine for enemies but takes longer to kill unless you get headshots. Since the auto-aim doesn't snap on to the head that often, you may want to use Confringo instead.
• When under heavy fire, run to a corner where enemies can't come behind you. Cast Protego and hold, move your cursor near the next enemy you want to hit, quickly release Protego and hold R2 + R1 to fire. If you are using Stupefy, make sure your cursor is very close to the head when you press R2. Confringo worked very well for me in the survival missions, since it can take out multiple enemies at once (unlike Expelliarmus).
• If you have trouble aiming and throwing Doxycides at pixies (I did, initially), use this method. Wait until they all surround you, select the potion, throw it on the ground right where you are standing (you don't need to aim, just look at the ground and throw). This is almost sure to freeze them all. Now step aside, use Impedimenta and take them out.
• When you get near Whomping Willows, step close enough until you wake it up, then step backwards immediately. Right after the willow sways, press X and run forward. The willow will not hit again until you cross.
• Sometimes enemies spawn right after you cross Whomping Willows. Using the method above, step close enough to wake it up and step back. This usually makes the enemies on the other side spawn. Now you can easily kill them standing from the other side. If you don't do this, you may be surrounded when you've just crossed the willow.
• Sometimes enemies stand close to the willows, in a way that it doesn't wake up. If you see more than one standing around it, use Confringo and hit the tree. This will make the tree whack the enemies, possibly taking them out for good. Do this multiple times if they don't die.

Muggle Rescue Mission inside the Ministry

This mission seemed daunting at first but it is ridiculously easy when you know what to do. You don't have to kill anyone if you do it right (unless you do want to kill for the potion - see the next section). Put on your cloak and walk right in between the guards into the cell; the meter will turn red but will reset once you go in. Walk out the same way and get out of that section quickly. Suppose you get noticed when walking into the cell, throw Peruvian Instant Darkness close to the cell entrance and run to a quieter section to put on your cloak.

Liquid Experience

While you'll get all the potions eventually, Elixir of Life is supposedly the rarest. While it all seems random, I noticed that Elixir of Life starts dropping in the muggle rescue mission inside the ministry. This is not random because I confirmed it with multiple walkthrough videos. So when you play that level, make sure you kill the guards standing near the cell door. They will very likely drop the potion.

From Under the Cloak Trophy

Here is how I got the trophy. In Streets of Godric Hollow muggle rescue mission (not the main mission), start by following your Four Points spell. You should first reach an area with two guards and a muggle. After you finish that section, use Four Points again; this will take you to a muggle with a single guard, with enough space in between them. Sneak behind the guard, stand very close, cast Stupefy without aiming. This will definitely take him out. Now walk in the same direction he was facing, keep walking past the entrance until you see a chair. Once you cross that chair, turn around, put on your cloak and walk back to the muggle area. You'll see that the guard respawned. Rinse and repeat 50 times, the trophy is yours. At times you'll see one or two dementors bugging you. If you do, just kill the guard, get rid of the dementors and continue.

Horcrux Battle

This battle on hard mode annoyed me quite a bit. Finally I figured out a way, after which I never died in any difficulty mode. I've posted my method here. Copy pasting from there, in case that link dies:

As soon as the level started, I killed 1 or 2 snakes that were right ahead of me. Then I turned all the way around and ran like hell. After some distance, there was a tree with a big rock right next to the tree, on the right side (when you see from the "snake's point of view"). I hid behind the tree and started taking potshots at the snakes. The spiders mostly came from the side where the rock wasn't there, so as long as I'm watching that side I could kill them easily. They occasionally came from the rock-side too and sat on that rock, but this wasn't very often. The green stuff came flying on both sides, but the rock took all the hits that came its way, so I didn't have to bother about that side at all. After a long time the scene ended, but I seriously doubt if I killed all the snakes! And I had this doubt in each difficulty!

Online Trophies

While the challenges are easy, there are one or two things that may need explanation. In Easy Challenge 5 (Go to Umbridge's Office), the Four Points spell stopped working for me after a while. If it happens for you, keep walking in the same direction until you find an area where there is some crowd, 2 big pillars, some lighting in that area. The door in between the pillars is where you need to go into.

Hard Challenge 5 is the easiest of all, and this will help you with Survivalist and Friendly Rivals trophies. You just need to remember that you can run fast as soon as it starts, until you get to the end of the street. The sneak meter will go red in a while, so you need to refresh your cloak at least once in the middle. A good place to do this is as soon as you enter the ministry fortress (from the street); you should see a guard there facing the other way. It took me about 48 seconds.

The Friendly Rivals trophy, which looks easy enough, warrants some explanation as it gave me a hard time at first. In the Online Scoreboards, once you select a challenge, you'll see the 1000 people who made the best scores. Even if you finished this challenge, if you press the square button (marked "You"), you may not see your name. That is because you need to get a score that is better than the 1000th person's score. Similarly, the friends you added (to compare scores) should also have completed that challenge with a score that puts them on the leaderboard. So when you add a random person for this trophy, ensure that he/she is on the leaderboard for some challenge, and that this challenge is easy enough for you to get a good score. Suppose you choose Hard Challenge 5. Go to that challenge, play it, get a good score. You'll see the "Continue" and "Retry" options; choose Continue here and get back to the online challenges menu (where you see the list of challenges). Now, STAY HERE for a few minutes ... or play some other challenge, but DO NOT quit to the previous menu. The reason is that it takes some 10 mins for your score to be posted to the leaderboard, and it will not be posted if you leave the online challenges menu (it is OK to be playing a challenge). Once you wait for 10 mins, go back to the scoreboard, you should find your name when you press the square button.