Xbox brought the wonders of achievement hunting to the forefront of the gaming community in 2005 with the launch of its gamerscore system. 15 years and nearly 200,000 achievements later, the competition is still going strong.
The Xbox achievement database is very difficulty-diverse, with titles like Avatar: The Burning Earth, which will net you the full 1000 gamerscore all within the tutorial, to titles such as Quake 4, which require you to play 5000 ranked matches for one achievement. This list focuses on the latter type of achievements.
10 Xbox 360: Tom Clancy’s GRAW - Team Champion (Multiplayer)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter asks you to ever-so-easily climb to #1 on the worldwide team leaderboards. While achievements exist in this game to reach #1 on the solo and universal leaderboards as well, it is “Team Champion (Multiplayer)” which has proven to be the most difficult, earning you 32 gamerscore - not even divisible by five… really? GRAW uses a TrueSkill ranking system, meaning that beating low-ranked players until the end of time will not get you anywhere near the top. You are required to climb the skill ladder by defeating only players better than yourself, until no such people exist. As a shooter released in 2006, players who attempt this now will have a lot of catching up to do, and these top players do not mess around.
9 Xbox One: I Am Bread - Turophile
Who’d have thought a game as silly as this one could also be one of the most difficult. I Am Bread features five gamemodes, none of which are easy to perfect by any means, but it’s the Cheese Hunt gamemode that towers above the rest. The “Turophile” achievement requires players to earn an A++ ranking on each and every Cheese Hunt level, a feat done by only 22 gamers. The incredibly wonky and unpredictable physics of this game make it borderline impossible for a player to follow precise paths with haste, though that is exactly what it takes to unlock this achievement, as the time requirements are incredibly unforgiving. Absolute mastery of control and glitchcraft are essential to earn this achievement. Do you have what it takes?
8 Xbox 360: Robotron: 2084 - Wave 100
The oldest entry on this list, the 1982 shoot ’em up Robotron: 2084 was released to the Xbox Live Arcade in December of 2005, and featured a “Wave 100” achievement, requiring players to make it to… well, the 100th wave. Less than half a percent of players have made it to wave 30, let alone more than triple that.
The clunky controls and only eight directions of movement and fire make for an incredibly frustrating experience that only 31 players have made through. A successful attempt will take you over 40 minutes, so a run being killed late into the game can be truly demoralizing. Make sure to stock up on every extra life you can early on; you’ll need ’em.
7 Xbox One: Assetto Corsa - You Are Special!
Kunos Simulazioni’s 2016 racing title, Assetto Corsa is a good racing title for newbies, but the “You Are Special!” achievement is not. This achievement requires you to meet the gold standard for all drift, race, hotlap and time attack events, a feat that only seven gamers can say they have done. The easiest of all these events, the time attack events, have still only been perfected by roughly half a percent of players. Yes, those are the easiest events. The hardest, hotlap and race, have each only been perfected by 11 gamers. To earn this achievement, you literally have to play at a top-10 level internationally, so unless you’re a simulation racing savant, your efforts may be better placed elsewhere.
6 Xbox 360: CloudBerry Kingdom - Shenanigans!
One of the most fun multiplayer side-scrollers of the past generation is also one of the most difficult. CloudBerry Kingdom’s “Shenanigans!” achievement requires the player to beat the seventh and final chapter of the game. All is fine until the 319th and 320th levels, the final two in the game. These levels were added in as a joke; shenanigans. The levels were created by a level generator with the difficulty cranked up to 11, and have only been completed by 12 players. The guide ball that so many players rely on doesn’t last through the whole of these levels, as they’re lengths outlast its lifespan. Going forward from when it disappears, it’s just you, your character, and a few pixels of freedom between every two obstacles. Good luck.
5 Xbox One: Trackmania Turbo - End Of The Road?
Nadeo’s racing title, Trackmania Turbo features 200 total tracks. Yes, 200, and the developers expect you to earn a gold medal on each and every one of them in order to unlock the “End of the Road?” achievement for 90 gamerscore, including the monstrously difficult Black Series tracks. All gold medal times require immaculate control and incredibly precise aiming, and as such, only the most skillful gaming racers have been able to attain this achievement. Fewer than 0.1% of players have earned the 200 gold medals required, making it the single hardest achievement in any racing game on either platform.
4 Xbox 360: Asteroids & Deluxe - Platinum
A remodeled version of the most influential shoot ’em up of all time, Asteroids features the second hardest achievement on Xbox 360. But what could be so hard in a game so simple? Well, “Platinum” requires you to score 250,000 points in normal difficulty, a feat attained only by three people, the first of which was 11 years after the game’s release.
This requires an insane amount of skill and reaction time, and a whole lotta luck. Don’t be afraid to pause the game to scout for an escape path; nobody will blame you for it. It’s a legitimate strategy. By the time you hit 70,000 points, enemy strength, speed, and accuracy are maxed and it’s a game of survival until the end.
3 Xbox One: Fishing Planet - Winning Streak
You thought fishing was relaxing? Think again. Fishing Planet’s “Winning Streak” achievement requires you to place on the podium in 10 consecutive competitions. These competitions all take place against real people around the world and are two hours in length. You must place in the top three ten times in a row. If you drop a competition, you have to start from scratch. This will ultimately boil down to knowing exactly where all the best places to fish are, the best ways to catch the types of fish you expect to see there, and most importantly, a lot of luck. The top players you are competing with will know the best spots too; you just need to hope you get luckier. To this day, only two gamers have satisfied the requirements for this achievement.
2 Xbox 360: Deathsmiles - True Tyrant
One of the best shoot ’em ups available on the Xbox 360, Deathsmiles’ “True Tyrant” achievement requires you to defeat Bloody Jitterbug. The game has four difficulties: Level 1, 2, 3 and 999. You must play on Level 999, completing the six main stages of the game without continuing (deaths are allowed). You then must complete the two extra levels, Gorge and Ice Palace without dying, as well as deathlessly traverse Hades’ Castle. Finally, you must kill Tyrannosatan without continuing, which will spawn Bloody Jitterbug, who you must then defeat. This is no joke, as evident by the mere three gamers who have unlocked this.
1 Xbox One: Brick Breaker - Survival Level 5
Sometimes the simplest things in life are also the most complicated. Brick Breaker, a modernized version of the Atari’s 1976 Breakout is as simple a concept as it comes, but it features an achievement as hard as it gets. “Survival Level 5” requires players to make it through the game’s entire 100 levels… in one run… with five lives. This has been successfully accomplished by one player, who had to turbo-press the pause button to simulate slow motion for the full duration of the game. The successful seventh attempt lasted over 11 hours. No other player has even made it to level 50 in one run, let alone 100, and without turbo cheats, it’s unlikely that any gamer ever will. This is the hardest achievement on all of Xbox, but in a game that seems so innocent. Unless you’re AI, you may want to steer clear of this one.
NEXT: The 7 Rarest Achievements And Trophies According To The Guinness Book Of World Records Gamer’s Edition 2020
