GRID Legends’ trophies and achievements are packed with racing game references

With the launch now just a few days away (or you can play today if you're an EA Play Pro subscriber), Codemasters has revealed the complete GRID Legends trophy and achievements list for PlayStation and Xbox.

Hunting trophies and achievements will keep some players hooked on GRID Legends long after completing the Driven to Glory story and career modes.

In GRID Legends, there are 50 achievements to hunt on Xbox and 51 trophies on PlayStation including the Platinum trophy. If you take a closer look at the trophy and achievement list, you may find a reference to your favourite racing game.  

Racing at the heart of everything

GRID Legends’ trophies and achievements are packed with racing game references and easter eggs to discover. For example, “Moon above the Castle” is clearly a reference to Gran Turismo’s Moon Over The Castle theme song. Rewarded for achieving a Legend rating in a Drift event, the “Reiko fan club” achievement/trophy refers to Ridge Racer’s mascot race queen Reiko Nagase.

Naturally, there are references to other Codemasters racing titles including the first three TOCA Race Driver games and Onrush. There are also nods to Sega arcade racers (“Blue, Blue Skies”), San Francisco Rush (“San Francisco Rushing”), and Metropolis Street Racer (“Metropolis Sleek Racer”).

“We had lots of fun coming up with the names of [the achievements] in Grid Legends," GRID Legends’ Senior Game Designer Paul Lovell explained in an interview with TrueAchievements.

"There are nods and references to some of our personal favourite racing games that we love dearly and are close to our heart. We liked the idea that players may read them, understand the reference, and get some enjoyment out of them too. Who doesn't want to be a Reiko fan club member?!”

Mercifully, the trophies and achievements in GRID Legends’ are a lot easier to complete than the last game. Most focus on completing story chapters career events, and objectives or adding certain cars to your garage, so you’ll unlock them naturally when progressing through the game. There are no online multiplayer trophies or achievements either.

Other trophies and achievements require you to set up specific scenarios or event types, encouraging you to experiment with the versatile Race Creator.  "There is nothing too grindy or hugely time-consuming," said Lovell. “There's a nice mix of requirements in there that we are really happy with.”

You won't need to grind

In contrast, 2019's GRID required a lot of monotonous grinding to complete the achievement and trophy list. This was primarily thanks to the frustrating Around the Globe achievement/trophy requiring dedicated players to drive 40,075km in the game – the equivalent distance to the earth’s total circumference.

This led to hardcore achievement and trophy hunters resorting to desperate measures like attaching an elastic band to the controller and leaving the game running for several days to unlock it.

The notorious Around the Globe trophy/achievement returns in GRID Legends, but this time it won’t cause you to smash your controller in frustration. Thankfully, all you need to do is complete an event in every country to unlock it, which is much easier.

“You won't be surprised to learn we received a lot of feedback on that particular achievement from GRID," said Lovell.

"We thought it would be amusing to bring it back, but this time give players a much easier time earning it. You won't need elastic bands stuck to your controller and endless laps of Indianapolis this time! We hope this significantly easier version of Around the Globe makes up for the time it took to earn last time."

GRID Legends Trophy and Achievement list