Snapchat is at it again! It’s not enough that Snapchat has become the most popular text messaging app, the team behind Snapchat has introduced (just last month) a new feature to make their already popular messaging service even more fun.
We’re talking about Snapchat Trophies, a special section of your profile (called the Trophy Case) which houses little emoji that you unlock by being awesome! (Or rather, by performing certain tasks in Snapchat, but we’ll go with the whole “being awesome” thing.) There are numerous Snapchat trophies (we’ve found twenty nine), and we’re going to tell you what’s up with these trophies, why you want them, and how to earn all of them.
I have a trophy case that contains all the action figures ever made of me. It also has items I’ve stolen from my movies, like three guns and holsters from Serenity. — Nathan Fillion
Unlock All 16 Snapchat Trophies in Snapchat Trophy Case!
Trophies. We’re used to them in sports. Heck, call them “Achievements,” and they’re pretty standard in video games, too. They’re just little perks to incentivize users to really explore your game. You may not have thought of Snapchat as a game before (even though there are several games you can play over messaging services), but the advent of Snapchat trophies has effectively gamified Snapchat.
In gaming circles (specifically, the theoretical discussion of gaming) there’s an idea called Bartle’s Taxonomy. Essentially, it’s a system of classifying games by how they choose to enjoy online games (he wrote it about MUDs, but it’s still used in discussion of MMORPGS and other games with multiplayer support). For Bartle, there are four types of players 1) Killers, who seek to dominate a game (often by killing off other players), 2) Explorers, who try to go off the map and see what hidden secrets are lurking within a game, 3) Achievers, who want to “complete” whatever tasks are put in the game before them (this may mean completing a story mode, or tracking down every little achievement), and 4) Socializers, people who use the game space as a means of hanging out with fellow players, and for whom gameplay becomes secondary.
Different games do different things in order to attract a different combination of these four types. And (although it’s not a game) Snapchat, as a social media app, is understandably high on the “Socializers” side of things. Well, by adding these Trophies, they’ve put something in place to appeal to the “Achievers” out there. By putting this in there, Snapchat ceases to be just a utility for talking to people; Snapchat becomes an experience in itself. (In short, it becomes a game).
And, of course, Snapchat itself is being quite tight-lipped about their Trophies. You can see 16 blanks in the Trophy Case, but as for what trophies are out there or how they’re achieved, Snapchat isn’t talking. You have to really play around with the App, experiment with a variety of the features available to Snapchat users, before you can see what will yield a Trophy. Snapchat won’t even confirm how many Trophies are out there. In short, they’re trying to appeal to the “Explorers” here, by rewarding people who just really play around with what they’ve been given.
Well, if you’re an Explorer and prefer to find this stuff out for yourself, then read no further, because we’re about to spoil the entire thing for you. Of course, Snapchat being Snapchat, they’re likely to keep updating this list: putting on new Trophies, new categories, and new, arcane means of achieving them.
How to Access the Snapchat Trophy Case
First things first: If you want to be able to earn Trophies, it’s not going to be meaningful if you can’t see the Trophies as you earn them (or can’t see what you may have already earned).
First thing’s first: Tap on the ghost icon that appears on the Snapchat camera screen.
It always comes back to this guy.
Once you’ve tapped on that, look for this Trophy Button:
This, pretty self-explanatorily, will take you to the Trophy Case, which (if you haven’t earned any Trophies) will look like this:
Once you do have Trophies, you can tap on them in order to show what you did to earn them. Of course, by that point you’ve already earned them, so that’s of limited help, which is why we’re going to tell you how to fill all sixteen of those Trophy slots with the highest Trophies available
The 16 Snapchat Trophies
Earlier, I said that we’ve found 29 Trophies in Snapchat, but now, I’m focusing on 16! Heck, even my article title is focused on 16! What about those last 13 Trophies?
Well, as we shall see, a number of the Trophies are actually parts of categories, where the difference is one of scale. For instance, let’s say you only have one Trophy: the Baby Trophy which (spoilers) you earn for getting a Snapchat Score of 10. But when you get that Snapchat Score up to 100, you get the Shining Star Trophy. Now, you don’t have two Trophies: You still just have one; the Shining Star has replaced the Baby. They’re both Trophies for Snapchat Scores, but one is ranked higher than the other, and you only keep the highest one. So when we talk about there being 16 Trophies, it may be more accurate to say that there are 16 categories of Trophies — some categories may have half a dozen Trophies under them, and some may have only one.
Well, without any further ado, let’s start filling that Trophy Case:
I) Snapchat Score Trophies
The following Trophies are all earned by having an increasingly high Snapchat Score. As with the Trophy themselves, Snapchat is incredibly tight-lipped about what it takes to get a high score, but as best as we can tell, it’s a metric for showing how active and engaged people are with Snapchat. There are presently seven badges that relate to your Snapchat Score:
1) The baby. Yes, nothing encourages participation like a creepy floating baby head. You earn this when your Snapchat Score is 10.
2) The Gold Star/Shining Star. Okay, once you see that baby head, you’re probably busting your butt to raise your Snapchat Score so you never have to see it again. Your reward for this, once you get your score up to 100 is this star emoji in your Trophy Case.
3) Sparkles. Mr. Sparkle! Awesome-uh-Powuh! Once you get your score up to 1000, you get these Sparkles in your Trophy Case.
4) Circled Star. First of all, what kind of phrase is “Circled Star?” It sounds like one of the more abstract Monkees songs from their weird 1968 feature film. Anyway, you may have noticed that all of these Trophies increase by an order of magnitude, so that whenever you get another zero behind your Snapchat Score, you get a new Trophy. This is the one you get for getting your score up to 10,000. By the way, does this remind anybody else of those PSAs from NBC a few years ago?
5) Explosion. Well, I guess that circled star crashed into itself, because now we have an explosion, which you earn when you get your Snapchat Score up to 50,000 (so much for my comment about orders of magnitude).
6) Rocket. When you get your Snapchat Score up to 100,000, the explosion is replaced with this rocket. Wait a minute: A baby in the stars, then an explosion and a rocket ship… Is Snapchat telling the origin story of Superman?
7) The Ghost. The highest Snapchat Score Trophy (at this point) is the Ghost. Likely a shout out to app’s famous mascot, (less) famously named “Ghost Face Chillah.” And this ghost can be yours when you get your Snapchat Score up to 500,000!
Keep an eye peeled, because it’s not at all unlikely that Snapchat will add new Trophies to this line up in the future (that’s an easy progression.) In fact, there may already be Trophies in place in the code, just waiting for someone to earn them. Has anybody gotten their Score up to 1,000,000 yet?
II) Video Trophies
Of course, Snapchat is more than just an app for sending pointless messages and discreet photos. You can also use it to send videos. And depending on how many videos you send, you will earn from these following Trophies (there are presently three available):
8) The Video Tape. Okay, so I have a feeling that fewer and fewer of Snapchat’s users have first hand experience with VHS tapes. I feel like this is going to be one of those icons (like the floppy disk which serves as the Save button in most software) which persists long after it makes sense. Anyway, this VHS can be yours when you send a Video Snap. Yep, just one. That’s all you need. Pretty low bar.
9) Movie Camera. When you send 50 Video Snaps, your VHS tape is replaced with this Movie Camera. I guess because you’re starting to transition from a mere hobbyist to a professional.
10) Camcorder. And here’s where it all falls apart, because now we’re right back to the hobbyist stuff. So, once you’ve sent 500 video snaps, this becomes your Trophy, but I really don’t understand the progression here. These are all out of order in terms of necessary level of expertise and the order of invention. I just don’t know what to do here!
III) Filter Trophies
Currently, there are two Trophies based on using filters in your Snaps:
11) One Finger. You get this one when you have your first physical after age 40 send your first Snap with 1 Filter applied.
12) Two Fingers. You get this one when you send a Snap with 2 filters applied.
So far, these are the only trophies in this category, and I don’t know how likely it is for there to be more. I mean, what sort of abstract theoretical mathematics do you have to master to find numbers beyond two?
IV) Flip Trophies
Your phone: you know you have the back camera, and the front camera (or selfie-cam). Well, in Snapchat videos, you can flip back and forth between these cameras within a single video. Doing so will earn you the following trophies, which look more like road signs than tokens of awesomeness.
13) Loop Once. You’ll get this one if you flip your phone camera once during a single video Snap.
14) Loop. This means you’ve flipped the camera 5 times in a single video Snap.
15) Rotate. And this one is unlocked when you flip 10 times within a single video Snap. Also, you might be dizzy when you see this one.
V) Colorful Trophies
These are the Trophies that you get for drawing on your Snaps. Of course, all of these have the same core requirement: You need to use at least five different colors on the same picture.
16) Lollipop. Swirly lolli goodness is yours when you send one Snap with five different pen colors.
17) Rainbow. Roy G. Biv got nothing on you! You’ve sent 10, count ’em, 10 Snaps using 5 or more pen colors.
18) Artist’s Palette. Ever the artist, if you’ve sent 50 Snaps utilizing 5 or more pen colors! How this possibly trumps the rainbow, your guess is as good as mine.
…And Beyond
Those are all of the the categories that have more than one Trophy to them. All of the following Trophies are in classes of their own… they don’t replace any of the other Trophies.
VI / 19) Frypan. For the night owl…or the early bird. Either way, this is the worm. An egg. In a frying pan. There is no worm. But it does mean you sent a Snap between 4 and 5 in the a.m. Now go to sleep. Or get to work!
VII / 20) Moon. You’ll be seeing the man in the moon when you send 50 Snaps while in Night Mode. Gonna be some sweet sounds, coming ’round, in the Night Mode. Of course, for users of a certain age, this will invoke nightmares of MacDonald’s attempted mascot, Mac Tonight.
And now that you’re no longer in any danger of sleeping, you can send out some of those late-hours Snaps! You’re welcome!
VIII / 21) Panda. It’s not racist at all. It’s for when you send at least 50 Snaps which utilize black and white filter. It’s classy. Like a Panda.
IX / 22) ABCD. GIANT TEXT! This one is for when you send out 100 Snaps that contain GIANT TEXT! or enlarged font size. Rawwwwwr!
X / 23) Microscope. Ready for your closeup, Mr. DeMille? You’ll get this trophy when you send 10 video Snaps which utilize zoom…doesn’t even have to be used effectively!
XI / 24) Magnifying Glass. Too close! If you send 10 good old photo Snaps but all the way zoomed-in, you’ll win the trophy you can use to look at all the blackheads on your nose. No shame, man; everybody’s got ’em.
XII / 25) Monkey. This monkey definitely hears no evil. Seeing, well, that depends on the Snap. You’ll get this guy when you send a video Snap that contains NO sound. I would’ve used a mime, but no one asked me.
XIII / 26) Ogre. This is a Japanese Ogre. And we think Snapchat is trying to say something here because you get this trophy (diss?) when you’ve sent 1000 selfies…we’ll try not to read into it too much.
XIV / 27) Flashlight. For those late night Snaps, you use the front facing flash. Send 10 Snaps with that special lighting and you’ll earn this trophy.
XV / 28) Snowflake. You’ll never unlock this one in Phoenix, Arizona. If you do, hell has frozen over. Send a Snap with the temperature filter showing below freezing temps and you’ll get the snowflake…and possibly frostbite. Be careful!
XVI / 29) Sun. On the other hand, Snaps with temps showing above 100 will garner the sun, as though you needed a reminder.
We’ve now covered all 16 Trophy Slots in Snapchat and all 29 Trophies that can go in them. If you have any questions over what we’ve covered, or if you’ve found one we don’t know about, please feel free to mention it in the comments.
