Combat

On the higher difficulties, and especially so on Crushing, the enemies will pack a punch. I recommend a careful approach to gunplay: take lots of cover, aim from behind cover when you've got a good sight line on an enemy, and not attempting to pop out of cover whilst you're under fire.

Practice your headshots as much as possible during your Hard playthrough. You will need those skills on Crushing.

I highly recommend using the SixAxis controls for fine movements when aiming with L. Once you get the hang of it, it is much more precise than using  alone.

When using a Sniper Rifle (or Nate's camera for that matter) you can use the rear touch-pad to zoom. This can be a lot more accurate than using the front touch screen where you cannot see the slider once its behind your finger.

Collectibles

The game organises collectibles into 3 categories: Mysteries, Treasures and Bounties. You do not need to collect them all in one playthrough - once you have found an item it is yours forever.

Mysteries are collections of objects and photographs which together provide the evidence required for Nate to reach some conclusion on a topic. 

Treasures are ancient carved nik-naks which Nate picks up along the way.

Every Mystery item and Treasure in this game is tracked. You can see what you're missing for your current chapter by pressing  whilst in game. Exploring the Mysteries and Treasures menus will let you see exactly what you're missing, and if you tap on a "missing" collectible it will tell you which chapter you should look for it in.

Alternatively, whilst you are in the Chapter Select menu, the game will let you know what collectibles you are missing from that Chapter by listing the available collectibles in the top-right corner.

As the collectibles are organised on a chapter-by-chapter basis, it makes sense to attack them in this way. It would be inefficient to, say, go after  Secrets of the Kuna and not go after  Odessa Mining Company at the same time. Therefore, you should not worry about working towards a specific collectible trophy at any one time - just focus on collecting every collectible and they will all eventually be yours. Follow PowerPyx's playlist for a chapter-by-chapter walkthrough of all the collectible locations.

Bounties are randomly dropped by enemies when they die and do not need to be "collected" in the typical sense; they will simply drop into Nate's journal once an enemy carrying one has died. Each type of bounty is only available in certain chapters - you can see which type is available in which chapter from the Chapter Select menu, and by checking out the respective trophy tips below.

Bounties can also be traded with your PSN friends using the Near app on the Vita. From the game's Main Menu, choose the Black Market and follow the instructions to attempt a trade. Near will compare your bounties to those obtained by your PSN Friends who have recently performed a Near update and, if one of you has something that the other is missing, you will "trade". Your bounty will not be lost; your friend will simply recieve a duplicate. If you want to make a lot of trades in a short space of time, then set up a Gaming Session and repeatedly perform trades during the session with other players. But be warned that Gaming Sessions may only attract other players who have few bounties so may not give a good yield for the time invested unless someone with most of the bounties joins you to help out. If your trading partner cannot offer you a Bounty in return for your trade, you will recieve a relic instead, which does not count towards the platinum in any way.

With hindsight, simply re-playing the bounties' respective chapters on Easy or Normal difficulty seems to drop the bounties at a fairly satisfying rate. BEND has confirmed that difficulty affects the drop rate of bounties in the game. 

During Chapter 15 there is a sequence where you have to use Nate's acrobatic skills to get to the other side of a locked door to unlock it and let Chase through. Once you're on the other side of this door, look at the wall behind you. Climb the hand holds all the way to the top, and the Strange Relic should be there twinkling at you.

If you prefer a visual guide, then check out PowerPyx's guide to the collectibles in Chapter 15, beginning at 2:16.
 

Chapter 15 Collectible Guide

If this hasn't popped for you in your Hard or Crushing playthrough's, then load Chapter 2 on Easy or Very Easy, and simply play until it pops, skipping cutscenes if preferred. Try not to die by jumping off a cliff or something!

Despite reports to the contrary, I think a patch may have fixed the exploit where NPC deaths (i.e. Sully, Dante or Chase) during protection sequences would not negate this trophy, allowing you to replay a protection sequence over and over for quick kills. I attempted to get this trophy on a number of such sequences, and the trophy did not pop despite me counting in excess of 75 kills.

See  250 Headshots for more information on getting headshots.

You get a headshot whenever an enemy is killed by shooting him in the head.

I found it helpful to aim a little higher than you might do in other games. The hit-detection in this game can be a little screwy and I found you want to be aiming so that the enemy's forehead is in the centre of the reticule (assuming he is facing you). Shooting lower than this seemed to count as a hit to the body.

Make use of the six-axis to keep your aim precise. I found I was a lot more accurate by using  to get the reticule in the general "ball-park" of an enemy, then using L and a few small tilts of the Vita to line up my shot.

The description for this trophy says all you need to know really. If you're having difficulty, play a chapter or two on Easy or Very Easy and kill as many enemies as you can by running around and shooting them with R (without aiming with L). I think blind firing from cover counts as "shooting from the hip" too.

This should pop during your first playthrough as there are a number of sequences where you have to shoot enemies whilst hanging. You will only be able to use whichever pistol variant you're carrying at the time whilst hanging and the game will give you infinite ammo once you deplete your last clip. If you haven't got this trophy by the time the GP32 - BND is available, then make sure you save your rounds with that weapon for the rope climbing sections in Chapter 32.

This pistol is commonly used by Guerro's men. Swap it in for the .45 Defender when you encounter them and get 50 kills with it. You may not get this until your second playthrough. 

Don't confuse this gun with the PM-9mm, which does not have an associated trophy.

This is a fully automatic pistol variant, similar to an uzi. Commonly dropped by Guerro's men from about Chapter 9 onwards. Simply kill 50 enemies with it.

This revolver fits into your pistol slot. It is dropped by Guerro's men, from about Chapter 16 onwards. It's a one-hit-kill, so getting 30 kills shouldn't be too difficult as you won't waste much ammo.

This pistol is dropped by Dante's men, from about Chapter 22 onwards. 30 kills should be very manageable, it's a powerful gun.

Dropped by Guerro's men, from around Chapter 16 onwards. A good rifle with a three round burst when fired. Personally, I found I used this as my main weapon when it was available. If you agree, 70 kills shouldn't be too difficult.

Dropped by Dante's men from about Chapter 22 onwards. A good, fully automatic rifle, this one might be another of your favourites. 70 kills should pop during your second playthrough.

This shotgun is dropped by the larger "shotgun-guys" in Guerro's army. Use it when it's available as ammo is in short supply. You might need to grind this one after your second playthrough as shotguns are not usually a viable option on Hard or Crushing. 

This shotgun is dropped by Dante's "shotgun-guys". It will most likely need boosting as it is only available late in the game, usually with little ammo. The best thing to do is start an Easy or Very Easy game on Chapter 29. Make sure that you acquire and hold onto a SAS-12 and ammo from the two shotgun-guys on the bridge, just after the guy with the RPG. Then proceed down the path, killing enemies as necessary. When you reach the sequence with the raised bridge, kill the guys on the other side using the SAS-12. When they're dead, jump off the ledge to die and restart the raised bridge sequence. Rinse and repeat.

There is a good spot in Chapter 26 to grind this trophy out. After Sully misses the jump and falls, and you have climbed down to reach him, there should be a M79 lying around in the vicinity. Grab it, and kill the guys advancing towards you with it. Leave one alive to kill you or Sully and the checkpoint will reload, allowing to to rinse and repeat until the trophy pops. If the last guy dies, and you haven't got any M79 or grenade ammo left to kill youself with, then reload from the last checkpoint - you won't have lost too many kills.

Be warned, Sully will try to defend himself too and may kill the final enemy you have left alive, so you should deliberately rush the final enemy to encourage him to kill you.

This weapon is the one-handed grenade launcher Sully uses whilst in the canoe in Chapter 21, and which is available for Nate to use in Chapter 32. Both the canoe sequence with Sully and Chapter 32 are viable farming options for this weapon. Note: as it is a one-handed weapon, Nate can use it whilst hanging from ropes in Chapter 32 - use this to your advantage. 

Despite being a rarer weapon to come across, there are plenty of enemies to kill in these sections of the game, so this should pop during your Crushing playthrough. Also, the game gives you infinite ammo if you use a one-handed weapon whilst hanging. If you're low on ammo, but there is somewhere to hang, it might be worth shooting from a hanging position if you can do so safely.

There are plenty of sequences in the game where the Dragon Sniper appears. Simply make sure that you use it whenever it is available and the trophy should pop near the beginning of your Crushing playthrough.

This one will need some grinding as the RPG-7 appears infrequently. I recommend you load Chapter 32, and play until the bit with loads of RPG-7's lying around, and a GAU-19 guy with two standard enemies on the left hand side, across a chasm. Another GAU-19 guy will turn up on the right hand side after a while.

Simply kill them all, then jump off the ledge to restart the checkpoint. It shouldn't take too long to get to 30 kills.

Early on in Chapter 16 there is a great place to farm kills with this weapon. Play on Easy or Very Easy for your farming run. After Dante is thrown down into the room with you, kill the guy wielding the GAU-19 and use it to kill the 2 other guys in the room. 2 more guys will drop down from ropes in the ceiling. Wait for them to hit the floor and start to move around naturally (i.e. let them finish their stumbling/landing animation) before you kill them; I have read some reports that killing them whilst on the rope or whilst landing causes their kills not to count. 2 more normal guys will follow them down the ropes, then 2 shotgun-guys. Only kill one of the shotgun-guys and allow the other the kill you. You will respawn at the beginning of the chapter. Rinse and repeat.

This is also a great place and method to farm Cadiz cards for  Bounty: Cadiz.

These are the grenades in the game. Whenever you get grenades, use them by tapping the grenade icon on the screen. There is no reticule, but Nate will aim them at the centre of the screen. 30 kills should pop during your second playthrough, assuming you use them whenever they're available.

Simply defeat 50 enemies using melee attacks. I think this one stacks with  Steel Fist Master and  Master Ninja so you shouldn't have too much difficulty.

You can perform a stealth attack by sneaking up behind an enemy (Nate will automatically crouch and go stealthy) and pressing  when the fist icon appears. Nate can also perform a stealth attack from behind cover, if the enemy is near enough to the corner or box you're hiding behind. Do this to 50 enemies.

There are a few sequences in the game which lend themselves to using stealth. Basically, if you can see a group of enemies, and they haven't seen you yet, then you have the opportunity to use stealth. Watch the enemies' movement patterns, and try to go quickly from one to another without raising the alarm. Most of the stealth sequences have a pattern to them which, if done correctly, should allow you to clear the area without alerting anyone. But if you get spotted and things descend into chaos, don't worry - you can always just replay a chapter or two in clean-up to get the kills you need.

To reduce your own chances of dying, I recommend going for this one in the clean-up stage on Easy or Very Easy. Simply run towards an enemy and shoot him until he stumbles. Whilst he is stumbling, get close enough to do a melee attack with . Nate should perform a kill with a single punch or kick. If you get into a QTE fight sequence, you've done something wrong. Do this on 20 enemies and the trophy is yours.

I did this at the beginning of Chapter 9. Load Chapter 9 on Easy or Very Easy and follow the instructions above for  Steel Fist Master on the first 10 enemies you come across. If you prefer a visual guide, please see the video below.

Steel Fist Expert Video Guide

See  Charted! - Hard.

See  Charted! - Hard.

Complete all chapters and the prologue on Hard difficulty, and these three stackable trophies will pop. By completing the game on Hard, you will also unlock Crushing difficulty, so it is recommended that your first playthrough is on Hard if you want to get to  Platinum most efficiently.

Complete all chapters and the prologue on Crushing difficulty to obtain this trophy. You can complete the chapters in any order you like. Remember those really annoying touchscreen QTE's from the end of your Hard playthrough? Well you may want to get them out of the way first as they are even more annoying in Crushing.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

These bounties are only available in Chapters 2 and 3.

The section where you get ambushed by 8 enemies, shortly after meeting Chase, is a good farming/grinding spot. Kill the 8 enemies, then exit to main menu and choose to continue your game (there is no way to kill yourself at this point). I have not tested to see if simply re-loading your checkpoint after killing the 8 enemies would work. 

BEND has confirmed that difficulty affects the drop rate of bounties in the game, so you may wish to consider raising it whilst you farm. 

These bounties are available on Chapters 5 through 11.

Personally, I prefer to just blast through these chapters on Easy or Very Easy in one run, skipping cutscenes, and repeating as necessary. But a good place to farm enemies is at the beginning of Chapter 9, where you would also go to do  Steel Fist Expert.

BEND has confirmed that difficulty affects the drop rate of bounties in the game, so you may wish to consider raising it whilst you farm. 

These bounties are available in Chapters 21 to 27.

A good farming spot is the sequence in the boat when you briefly play as Sully and get to use his grenade launcher. Leace the last enemy alive so that he kills you and you restart the sequence.

Alternatively, the sequence where you get to use the turret and have to protect Sully is also a good spot with a lot of enemies. Leave one guy alive to kill Sully so that the sequence restarts.

Or just blast through all the relevant Chapters if replaying the same sequence over and over is too boring.

BEND has confirmed that difficulty affects the drop rate of bounties in the game, so you may wish to consider raising it whilst you farm. 

These bounties are available in Chapters 15 to 19.

I found a good farming spot was at the beginning of Chapter 16. Follow the same tip as detailed at  200 Kills GAU-19 and you should unlock a great deal of Cadiz cards whilst you grind those 200 kills.

If you get bored of repeating that sequence, I also found a sequence later on in Chapter 16 which had a high drop rate for Cadiz cards. Go to the sequence where you have to jump across the room to the turret, whilst protecting Chase on the floor below you, and whilst Dante provides cover. Then, protect Dante using the turret whilst he follows you over. Leave one or two guys alive to kill Dante, reload, rinse and repeat if necessary. I think I got 3 Rare Cadiz cards on my first go through this sequence. 

BEND has confirmed that difficulty affects the drop rate of bounties in the game, so you may wish to consider raising it whilst you farm. 

These bounties are available in Chapters 28 through 34.

There are a lot of enemies in these chapters, so you could just blast through them on whatever difficulty allows you to progress quickly, and then repeat. A good spot to grind is the sequence where you access the GAU-19 in Chapter 29 - use the GAU-19 dropped by the first GAU-19 guy, then jump off the cliff after killing the second GAU guy and any other enemies in the immediate area and the sequence will reload.

BEND has confirmed that difficulty affects the drop rate of bounties in the game, so you may wish to consider raising it whilst you farm. 

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

I highly recommend that you find the collectibles on a chapter-by-chapter basis as this is how the game organises collectibles and lets you know what you're missing. Watch PowerPyx's excellent playlist on YouTube and follow his guide for any collectibles you are missing.

Attempting to go after this trophy specifically will be inefficient as you will have to go past other collectibles on the way. Therefore, follow PowerPyx's playlist.

NB, be careful on the last photo on Chapter 23; if you go too close to the path between the snake statues, you will be taken to the next chapter and have to restart this chapter from the beginning. Go exactly where PowerPyx goes, and hug the wall until the camera icon appears.

When climbing on a rope, you can use the Vita's rear touch pad to climb by swiping your fingers in a downwards motion rather than using  or . Do this once and the trophy should pop.

This trophy should pop after you find your first treasure. As on of the first treasures in the game is scripted, you shouldn't miss this.

Load Chapter 20. Tap Jose Parrot every time he appears on screen - sometimes he can be right on the top edge of the screen or in the background. Tapping him will cause him to say some witty things. If you didn't get the trophy, you missed him at least once. Reload and try again.