Summary
After spending hours on a main campaign, it can be therapeutic to slow the pace and pivot to hunting collectibles. It’s time-consuming and tedious, but there’s nothing more satisfying to a gamer than 100% completion — especially if it’s a particularly beloved title.Open-world games, in particular, reward thorough exploration by scattering hundreds of collectibles across the map for players to meticulously track down, just to say they have.
While grinding for collectibles can add plenty of additional content tolengthy open-world games, it isn’t always an enjoyable experience to painstakingly locate certain items, check off tasks, and often feel around in the dark for collectibles that aren’t already pinpointed on the map. Collectibles in open-world games operate with a “no pain, no gain” approach, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less strenuous going through the painful part. Here are some of the most frustrating collectibles in open-world games — even if they’re a necessary evil.
InGrand Theft Auto 4’s Liberty City, players can encounter and collect (kill) pigeons, which are dubbed “flying rats” according to the slang term and the trophy name. By obtaining all the pigeons, players can work toward 100% completion and unlock an Annihilator Helicopter to be accessed on top of the MeTV building in place of the Maverick.
However, pigeons cannot be located on the in-game map, so the only way to find them is by scouting the streets and buildings for hours on end. It’s even less worthwhile knowing thathelicopters can just be found in set locations throughout Liberty City, so the only real rewards are the Flying Rats trophy and bragging rights.
Finding 100 tiny feathers across various cities inAssassin’s Creed 2might bea heartfelt gesture by Ezio to his younger brother, Petruccio, but it’s one of the more infuriating tasks. By doing so, players get an Auditore cape, the In Memory of Pertuccio achievement, and a heartwarming cutscene between Ezio and his mother.
Thankfully, there are plenty of guides online that make tracking down the feathers easier than ever, but there’s a lot to be said about the person who found them all in the first place, since only the most patient players could tolerate hours of mindlessly searching around a huge open-world map. It’s certainly gratifying to finally get them all, but in this case, it’s all about the destination, not the journey.
The Riddler Trophies became a staple of theArkhamgames, appearing across all four titles andevenSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. There are actually a few valuable rewards for collecting all the Riddler Trophies, so it’s worth the extra effort. Plus,Batman: Arkham Cityspecifically features Riddler Trophies designed to be obtained by both Batman and Catwoman, so the variety in gameplay keeps the challenge refreshing.
That doesn’t make getting the glowing green souvenirs any less of a hassle, however, as Riddler Trophies are like cockroaches scattered around Gotham. Finding these Riddler Trophies is fun to an extent, but after a while, it starts to get a little ridiculous — especially since one of the challenges involves detonating explosive gel markers consecutively. The only catch is that the game never explicitly states how to do that, so someone had to figure out that zooming in detonates them one at a time. That’s just one of many grievances to hunting the Riddler Trophies.
In order to complete the Compendium inRed Dead Redemption 2,players must gather information about various species of animals, plants, fish, horses, weapons, and more. Aside from the Legendary animals, which can be killed and skinned for fashion or profit, there are 178 different species of animal to encounter in the Wild West, ranging from alligators and snakes to breeds of canines.
Arthur and John must study and skin every kind of animal (including variants of the same species) to add them to the Compendium andunlock the Zoologist and Skin Deep trophies. Nothing much needs to be said beyond the fact that there are 12 different species of snake alone, all found in different climates, so imagine enduring that for almost every other species as well.
Unlike many of the other collectibles inMarvel’s Spider-Man 2, the Spider-Bots won’t naturally appear on the in-game map.By collecting all Spider-Bots, players can unlock a side mission with some pretty significant lore to the Spider-Man universe (as well as 150 XP and 100x Tech Parts for each bot found). It’s possible to unlock an ability on the Suit Tech tree for Traversal, which allows Spider-Bots to show up on the mini-map, but that isn’t overly helpful unless the Spider-Bots happen to be in range already.
It’s a fun side task, but some of the Spider-Bots require some critical thinking to reach them, such as maneuvering Spider-Man off tall buildings. The Spider-Bots are nice trinkets to have, but the drawn-out process of finding them makes it significantly less engaging — and made all the more frustrating by the cool lore that comes at the end of finding them all.
InWatch Dogs, Audio Logs can be found on computers and cell phonesall throughout Chicago. There are 101 Audio Logs to find in total, but only 10 are needed to unlock all the in-game items, and there are no achievements associated with finding all the Audio Logs.Watch Dogshands over the first four Aiden Pierce logs during the opening sequence of the game, but many need to be found by completing side missions, such as QR Codes or Privacy Invasions.
It’s simple enough to skim through a guide and track them down, but it’s quite easy to miss a lot of them, particularly when they’re tucked away across several floors and multiple buildings. They help to build the game’s lore and can be replayed as many times as the player desires, but they’re ultimately far more trouble than they’re worth.
4The Crown Of Barenziah (The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim)
Potentially Relies On Glitches To Obtain
to receive the Crown of Barenziah inTheElder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, the player must retrieve all 24 Stones of Barenziah scattered across Skyrim. After all 24 stones are handed in, the Dragonborn can then venture to Tolvald’s Cave to find the Crown of Barenziah. Uponsuccessful completion of the “No Stone Unturned” quest, the Dragonborn receives the ability Prowler’s Profit, which greatly increases the chance of finding multiple precious gems in their set places, like chests, burial urns, and corpses.
While not every stone is a hassle to find, there are a few that slow down the entire process, such as the one in the Thalmor Embassy. If it’s missed the first time, it requires a glitch to obtain, which isn’t something that just anyone would know. It’s also infuriating that half of the stones are located in dungeons or require completing a dungeon to have access to them.
WhileHogwarts Legacy’s Merlin Trials aren’t exactly trinkets to keep or collect, they are optional side quests that can befound all throughout the World Map. Once completed, they award players with additional inventory slots, allowing them to carry more equipment and items. In total, there are 95 Merlin Trials, and each requires the knowledge of specific spells, such as Depulso and Flipendo, to successfully unlock them.
Not only can it be mind-numbing to try and figure out what the Merlin Trials are asking for, it’s also even more frustrating to learn that players cannot advance with some Merlin Trials without completing certain segments of the story first. There’s also the matter of the Merlin Trials being objectively less fun than many of the other tasks, such asbreeding beastsor growing plants.
Jade Statues inSleeping Dogscan be collected after the “Amanda” mission and the kung-fu master, Sifu, will teach the player new melee moves for each Jade Statue they recover. First, the Jade Statues have to be found by going in completely blind and searching high and low. But, that isn’t even the worst of it, as players can spend hourscrawling the streets of contemporary Hong Kongin search of the Jade Statues, just forSleeping Dogsto offer a surefire method for finding them later on in the game’s main plot.
It’s a real slap in the face for anyone genuinely trying to find the Jade Statues earnestly when Tiffany calls as part of a story mission (Tifany’s Song), and the locations of all the Jade Statues appear on the map afterward anyway. It definitely defeats the point of a collectible whenSleeping Dogsmakes it seem as though the Jade Statues must be found the old-fashioned way, just to hand them over on a silver platter.
Inhibitors are collectible artifacts found inDying Light 2 Stay Humanthat increase Aiden’s stats. There are 126 Inhibitors overall, but many players find themselves stuck at 124 or 125, as the last few are especially tricky to find. For anyone missing two of them, it’s usually an error in which quests are chosen and how the story unfolds from a non-linear standpoint in order to access the areas where the Inhibitors are.
For those with only one Inhibitor missing, it’s usually the one tucked away in the 987 safe or the one floating in midair at the Wharf Radio Tower ruins. Both of these are easy to miss, which immediately slows the momentum of anyone looking to get them all and forces players to retrace their steps, which is always the most disagreeable option.
