Path to Platinum: Ratchet & Clank (2002)
- Matt Hill
- Dec 21, 2025
- 3 min read
Ratchet & Clank (2002) Platinum Trophy
Difficulty: 3/10
Fun: 8.5/10
Online Trophies: None
Time: 15 - 30 Hours
As I work my way through The Ratchet & Clank Quest, I'll also be aiming to earn every platinum trophy in the series (minus Tools of Destruction, as the game still doesn't have one 😞). So what better place to start than the very first entry in the series, 2002's Ratchet & Clank, released for the PlayStation 2 before being remastered and brought to PlayStation 3 with trophy support. I played the remaster on my PlayStation 3; however, the game is also available on PlayStation 4 & 5 via the PlayStation Plus Classics catalogue.
For those unfamiliar with Ratchet & Clank, you play as Ratchet, a Lombax and his best robot buddy, Clank. The duo travels across the galaxy in hopes of stopping the evil Chairman Drek as they shoot, smack and platform their way to become heroes.
Beat The Story
The best way to tackle any Ratchet & Clank game is to make your way through the story and enjoy it. It's a great game and still holds up incredibly well 23 years on. It may not be as refined as its modern counterparts, but that doesn't stop it from being a stellar game.
There are 18 locations to visit on the adventure, and each one will have skill points and golden bolts to earn/find. Some of these won't be accessible until you can acquire certain gadgets/weapons further in the game, so if you can't reach any of them at the time, don't worry. For me, I fought my way through the game and just before the final fight with Chairman Drek on Veldin, I returned to each planet for clean up, grabbing all remaining Golden bolts and achieving the remaining skill points.
Skill Trophies
Touching on the skill points, plenty of the trophies made for the game are just adapted skill points that need to be earned in-game, so as you work your way to achieve all 30, you'll also clean up a large part of the trophy list, too.
The Skill points can be a bit cryptic about what you actually need to do, so it's best to follow a guide that explains what each one actually requires (I've linked the one I used here). None of them are all that taxing outside of the 'Speedy' skill point, which wants you to beat the Rilgar Hoverboard challenge in less than 1:35. This skill point is also tied to a gold trophy and can feel a bit difficult on the first attempt, after you get the boost and see a YouTube video on it, you'll get into the flow. You'll need to avoid all explosive crates and the big jump, keep the boost going and cut all the corners you can. After a good few attempts, I finally scraped it with milliseconds to spare.
The Final Grind
Once you beat the game, you can restart in Challenge mode. This will restart the adventure, but Racthet will carry over all existing health upgrades, weapons and bolts to the new playthrough. On top of that, all bolts collected are now worth twice as much, making the 'Bolt Collector' trophy (Earn 1 million bolts) easier. It can still feel like a long slog to earn a million bolts, as the last time I went for the platinum, I had to complete a third run to earn that many bolts.
Thankfully, the Rilgar skate course glitch is still possible in the remaster, which meant I was able to exploit the 'Bolt Collector' trophy by glitching through the wall and onto the out-of-bounds race course, equipping the trumper, and letting crates of bolts continuously rain on me.
After hitting millionaire status, all that was left to do was head back to Novalis, purchase all gold weapons and watch that Platinum trophy ding.
(Credit to SuperSaiyanPaul for the video tutorial)
Despite achieving the platinum trophy, I was enjoying my time with the game so much that I decided to see out the Challenge playthrough. Steamrolling my way through all the planets again, equipped with my dazzling new golden arsenal and the destructive R.Y.N.O at my side.
Ratchet & Clank (2002) remains a great game and an enjoyable platinum journey. It's a shame the Bolt Collector trophy is a bigger grind than it really needs to be, but that doesn't detract from how fun the rest of it is. If you still haven't given the remastered trilogy a look, then GET ON IT.
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