Getting Every Trophy in The Messenger
The Messenger is one of those games that looks simple at first glance but quietly punishes you if you don't put in the effort. There are 37 trophies (or achievements, depending on your platform), and they're not trivial to unlock. I spent about 20 hours getting every single one, mostly because I forgot I had to do a second playthrough until I was partway through. Here's what you're actually signing up for.
The Messenger Trophy Guide: What You Need to Know
The core structure is straightforward. You beat the game once, you get the story completion trophy. You find all 100 rings scattered across the world, you get the ring collector trophy. Then there's the second playthrough on Nightmare difficulty where you can't die once — miss that and you're restarting from the checkpoint you set before entering the New Game+ menu. I learned that last one the hard way. I made it to the final boss on Nightmare mode in my second playthrough, got cocky, and let a single spike trap kill me. The game doesn't warn you that dying on Nightmare in NG+ locks you out of the "True Messenger" trophy until you restart the whole run. No soft reset option. No mercy. I ended up doing the entire game a third time at around 2 AM because I refused to accept a platinum run without it.
The Trophy Breakdown
The Messenger — Complete the story. This is just finishing the game on Normal difficulty. About 6 to 8 hours if you know what you're doing, 10 to 12 if you're figuring it out as you go. The game gets genuinely difficult in the last three acts, particularly the clock tower section and the final arena. Don't underestimate the last boss. Ring Collector — Collect all 100 rings. They're scattered across both worlds (the village and the temple complex) and aren't marked on any map. Some are in obvious places. Some are tucked behind breakable walls that the game doesn't hint you need to destroy. I missed at least six rings on my first sweep because I didn't realize certain decorative tiles in the swamp area were actually breakable. Check every wall. Especially the ones that look like they belong. True Messenger — Finish the game on Nightmare difficulty without dying. This is the big one. It requires a second playthrough with all your upgrades carried over. The catch is the no-death rule applies to the entire run, not just the final stretch. One mistake, one bad RNG encounter, one frame-perfect platforming error and you're back to the New Game+ checkpoint. I recommend setting your checkpoint at the start of Act 3 if you want to minimize damage. The first two acts are relatively forgiving compared to what the game throws at you after that.
Get the Full Details
Collector — Find every secret. This one trips people up because "every secret" is vague. You need to unlock all the side rooms, find the hidden bosses, and complete the optional challenges. The most commonly missed secret is the one in the temple basement that requires backtracking with a specific ability you unlock mid-game. You can easily walk past it on your first visit. My workaround was going back to every area with an ability I hadn't used yet and testing it against every wall and floor tile. It took about 40 minutes total across all zones. Speed Runner — Finish the game in under 30 minutes. This is purely for people who already know the game inside out. The trick here is that you need to abuse movement tech — wall jumps, dash cancels, and enemy attack animations to shave seconds off traversal. A typical first-time player will clock in at 45 to 60 minutes even on speedrun attempts. You need frame-perfect execution. I'd recommend watching a runs on YouTube first rather than winging it, unless you enjoy repeating the same section twenty times.
Order of Operations
Don't try to platinum this in one sitting. Here's what actually works: Play through the game once on Normal. Collect rings as you go — they don't respawn, so if you see one, grab it. Use the first playthrough to map out where the harder ones are. The rings in the lava zone and the upside-down temple area are the most frustrating. Note their locations even if you don't get them all this run. Start New Game+. Carry over your upgrades. Go for the remaining rings and secrets on your way to beating the game again. At this point you're significantly more powerful, so the difficulty curve flattens out considerably. The second run should take you 4 to 6 hours.
Once you've got all rings and secrets accounted for, start a fresh New Game+ with the explicit goal of the True Messenger trophy. This means starting the third run cold — or carrying over and deliberately playing carefully. Some people carry over everything and just play methodically. Others start a new game without upgrades to reduce the skill gap. I prefer carrying over because the game is designed around having your full kit, and fighting without it feels unnecessarily punishing for a trophy that already demands perfection.
Pitfalls to Watch For
The biggest issue most players hit is the nightmare difficulty checkpoint system. The game autosaves your checkpoint when you enter a new zone. If you die, you restart from the last checkpoint, but the no-death condition resets entirely. There's no partial credit. This means a death at the final boss is functionally identical to a death in Act 1 — you lose the trophy path and have to restart. Another thing nobody mentions: the ring locations don't appear on any in-game map. The mini-map only shows major rooms and exits. You are completely on your own for navigation. If you're missing rings, your best bet is a region-by-region search with a second playthrough, using abilities you unlock later to access previously unreachable areas. The speedrun trophy also has a hidden timer quirk. The clock starts the moment you leave the first room, not when you select New Game. If you're fumbling through menus at the start, you've already lost 15 to 30 seconds before you've done anything. I've seen runs fail by under a second because someone paused to check their inventory.
Final Thoughts
The Messenger's trophy list is fair but demanding. Nothing is unfairly obtuse, but nothing is easy either. The no-death run is where most people give up, and honestly, it's the hardest trophy in the set by a significant margin. If you're not comfortable with the movement mechanics by the time you hit the late game, Nightmare mode will expose that lack of skill brutally. The silver lining is that the game itself is genuinely good. Even grinding for trophies, you're playing a well-designed metroidvania with tight controls and a satisfying power fantasy. It's not a chore in the traditional sense — it's just tedious if you're chasing completion purely for the sake of it. Plan for 25 to 30 hours across all three runs minimum. Add another 10 if you're slow on ring hunting. That's the real cost of the platinum, and it's worth it if you enjoy the game, less so if you're just collecting trophies for the sake of it.
