Of the many features Microsoft has tried over the years, the performance system is by far the most successful. Introduced in the days of Xbox 360, success basically gave you boastful rights. While you're playing a game, you can do certain tasks for a small contribution to your gamerscore that you can then compare with your friends. As simple as it is, achievements - and ultimately Sony trophies - are a big part of what defines the modern console experience. Learn all about achievements on Xbox One, from collecting achievements to tracking them to redeeming rewards.
further reading
What are successes?
Achievements are digital rewards given to players for completing certain tasks in their games by the game's developer. Every single achievement is worth a certain number of points which are added to your total gamerscore. As a rule, the performance values are given in multiples of five between 5 and over 100. Your Gamerscore is a quick and easy way to see your career or that of a player at a glance. It never resets - the achievements you unlocked for Madden NFL 07 will be tied to your Gamerscore forever unless you create a new Xbox Live account.
You can unlock achievements in Xbox 360 games, Xbox One games, and choose first-party Microsoft games on PC. As with PlayStation trophies, unlocking an achievement triggers a small notification on the screen as well as a distinct ping sound.
Microsoft keeps track of how many players who own each game have achieved each achievement: if the achievement you have achieved is particularly rare, a sparkling sound replaces the standard carillon and a diamond appears in the notification window.
A small number of games also offer unrated, time sensitive "challenges". Completing these points will not affect your Gamerscore, but you can earn additional in-game rewards. They drive in and out of supported games so you should always have it something to work while you play. Challenges don't appear as a secret on a game's achievements list until they're completed, but third-party sites like True Achievements keep track of them for finishers.
While the number of successes varies in each game, most success lists add up to 1,000 gamerscore at start-up. Many developers add more achievements through downloadable content after launch. Xbox achievements don't have a reward for earning them all, like the PlayStation 4 platinum trophy, but Gamerscore is a simple and easy to understand system that will allow your friends to see your progress.
Achievements Hub and Gamerscore Leaderboard
Xbox One has a achievements hub that shows your achievements and other information about your gamerscore. To find it, click the Xbox button in the middle of your controller and select the trophy icon on the far left of the Xbox sidebar.
From there, you can view a list of your achievements by game, view your recent achievements, and check out the Gamerscore Leaderboard, which shows how much your score has improved compared to your friends on Xbox Live. When you're playing a game, you can also quickly access the performance list from the sidebar.
Click on see all of my achievements go to your hub for achievements. From here, you can view all of the achievements you've had for various games on Xbox One and Xbox 360. The games are displayed in the reverse order in which you played them. Choosing a specific title will allow you to review the progress you have made towards certain achievements.
Statistics are shown in a tab on the left. Clicking on it will reveal detailed game stats for almost every Xbox One game. They can range from total time played to your highest level and vary from game to game. Click on an individual statistic and you will see how you compare to other people on your friends list who have played the game.
There is also a monthly Gamerscore leaderboard in the Achievement Hub. This section shows the performance progress you and your friends have made over the past 30 days. To view the leaderboard, return to the main page in the Achievements hub. You will see a tab for this on the left. Select it and you will be taken to a page showing your friends' results over the past month. You can also view the previous month's leaderboard from a drop-down menu at the top of the page. Select a friend from the list and you will be taken to a page that details how your progress is in games played together.
How to achieve success
Usually, you can get multiple achievements in every game you play without doing anything that you normally wouldn't - complete levels, level up your characters, find collectibles, and compete against each other in multiplayer.
Once you've had as much success as you can without doing outside research, it's time to fill in the gaps.
Many games also have a certain number of very specific achievements - some add additional challenges, others are just meant to be fun. You can check the achievements in a specific game by looking at the Performance Hub on Xbox One. The hub lists all of the possible achievements for your games, although some are listed as "secret" and won't be revealed until you've completed them. You can also view achievement lists on the internet on third-party websites like Xbox Achievements, which have the added benefit of a comments section where players can share stories about how they can achieve certain achievements.
You can also use Xbox Achievements for guidance. Some loyal players out there have decided to take an arrow for the rest of us and detail how to complete each achievement on specific games. If you want to score a full 1,000 points in a game, be sure to check out a guide first before diving in.
If you want to keep track of a specific series of moment-to-moment achievements, you can do that using the Xbox One too. Just open the home menu and under your achievements you will see a tab for the performance tracker. If you enable this option, a box with a list of possible achievements will appear in the corner of your screen during a game. Below the toggle is the "Configure Tracker" option, which you can use to select certain achievements, make the window more transparent, or move it to another area of the screen.
You can only unlock achievements when you're connected to Xbox Live. Any performance requirements that you meet while playing offline should result in the corresponding achievements unlocking once you've reconnected your console to Xbox Live. However, problems have arisen in the past.
You can also use some unique strategies to build your gamerscore faster. Checking out the Xbox 360's previous game catalog is an unconventional option. Games like Fight Night Round 3 Make it easier to earn 1,000 credit points. Each of these points is earned by completing eight specific fights in the game. Alternatively, you can go too Avatar: The Burning Earth for a simple 1K. The infamous game only requires a 50 hit combo to reap all of its success points. When you're done with the game, you can either sell it back or give it to a friend for the same performance advantage.
Does Gamerscore offer specific advantages?
Gamerscore has tangible benefits: Microsoft Rewards is available on every Xbox One console. All you have to do is sign up. Microsoft Rewards gives rewards for everything from achieving achievements on your Xbox to playing games with Game Pass to using Microsoft's mobile apps. You can redeem your rewards for gift cards, discounts on Xbox Merch, and just about anything else available from the Microsoft Store.
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