NHL 23: How To Get The Greatness Achievement

With the release of "NHL 23", to something of a middling critical reception, the Venn diagram of gamers and ice hockey fans crosses over once again, and players already have their eyes on the prize of 100% achievement completion. Folks who purchased the "X Factor" edition might already have made good progress.

Some trophies can be picked up organically as you go along, such as "Someone Get that Kid a Puck!" where all you have to do is score your first goal, or "Bag of Goodies," which you get for opening your first progression rewards bag. There are others, however, that will require a bit of time investment on the player's part, such as "How Prestigious," which you will unlock after getting past level 50 on your World of CHEL pro. For others, a feat of skill will be needed, like the "Not My Bottle!" achievement, for which you'll need to knock the goalie's bottle out of their net while scoring a goal. But what about one of the most difficult trophies to get? 

The "Greatness" trophy, however, requires both time and skill. This is because in order to unlock it you'll need to break the points record with your character in "Be a Pro," the game's answer to career mode. The NHL points record hasn't been broken since Wayne Gretzky, who was active between 1979 and 1999, and who earned 2,857 points during his career.

It's probably a good idea to start up with a new character if you're trying to get this achievement, so you can focus on points from the beginning. When creating your character, be sure to put yourself up front in an attacking position so that you can maximize your scoring potential. Gretzky, for example, played in the Center position. Choose your character's archetype wisely, such as "Power" (higher physicality and puck control) or "Sniper" (higher speed, but lower puck control) to get your skill boosts locked in early.

Once your career is underway, be sure to also make use of your training hours and redeem your trait points for useful offensive skills. If you chose the Sniper archetype for a pure goalscoring build, for example, picking up Steady Hands (+2 puck control) early to eliminate that initial lack of control could be a good call.

Now it's time to play. And score. A lot. If playing on easy difficulty doesn't wound your pride, it's a good idea to set the difficulty to Rookie for the sake of getting this trophy out the way without too much trouble. Some players have suggested simulating seasons when hunting this trophy in previous iterations of the "NHL" franchise, while others recommend grinding most of the points manually and simulating the rest, just to make sure.

Becoming the greatest of all time takes a lot of effort. Be sure to take breaks and do something else every now and then.