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____________________________________________________________________________
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| Author: A I e x |
| Began: January 27th, 2005 |
| Completed: February 13th, 2005 |
| Email: Segal & Copyright Section |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
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O============================================================================O
| Table of Contents |
O============================================================================O
** In order to navigate this guide I have implemented a Ctrl+f system, which
means you press ctrl+f in your browser or word processer to bring up the
search menu, then enter the letters in brackets on the right of the section
that you're looking for.
1. Techniques..........................................................(00090)
i - Basic Techniques...........................................(00091)
ii - Advanced Techniques.......................................(00092)
2. Introduction........................................................(000A0)
3. Ruby Cup............................................................(00010)
i - Mute City: Twist Road......................................(00011)
ii - Casino Palace: Split Oval.................................(00012)
iii - Sand Ocean: Surface Slide................................(00013)
iv - Lightning: Loop Cross.....................................(00014)
v - Aeropolis: Multiplex.......................................(00015)
4. Sapphire Cup........................................................(00020)
i - Big Blue: Drift Highway....................................(00021)
ii - Port Town: Aero Dive......................................(00022)
iii - Green Plant: Mobius Ring.................................(00023)
iv - Port Town: Long Pipe......................................(00024)
v - Mute City: Serial Gaps.....................................(00025)
5. Emerald Cup.........................................................(00030)
i - Fire Field: Cylinder Knot..................................(00031)
ii - Green Plant: Intersection.................................(00032)
iii - Casino Palace: Double Branches...........................(00033)
iv - Lightning: Half Pipe......................................(00034)
v - Big Blue: Ordeal...........................................(00035)
6. Diamond Cup.........................................................(00040)
i - Cosmo Terminal: Trident....................................(00041)
ii - Sand Ocean: Lateral Shift.................................(00042)
iii - Fire Field: Undulation...................................(00043)
iv - Aeropolis: Dragon Slope...................................(00044)
v - Phantom Road: Slim-line Slits..............................(00045)
7. AX Cup..............................................................(00050)
i - Aeropolis: Screw Drive.....................................(00051)
ii - Outer Space: Meteor Stream................................(00052)
iii - Port Town: Cylinder Wave.................................(00053)
iv - Lightning: Thunder Road...................................(00054)
v - Green Plant: Spiral........................................(00055)
vi - Mute City: Sonic Oval.....................................(00056)
8. Story Mode..........................................................(00000)
i - Captain Falcon Trains......................................(00001)
ii - Goroh: The Vengeful Samurai...............................(00002)
iii - High Stakes in Mute City.................................(00003)
iv - Challenge of the Bloody Chain.............................(00004)
v - Save Jody!.................................................(00005)
vi - Black Shadow's Trap.......................................(00006)
vii - The F-ZERO Grand Prix....................................(00007)
viii - Secrets of the Champion Belt............................(00008)
ix - Finale: Enter the Creators................................(00009)
9. Unlockables.........................................................(00060)
10. Custom Ships.......................................................(00100)
11. Custom Parts.......................................................(00101)
12. Character Machines.................................................(00102)
13. Character Profiles.................................................(00103)
14. Version History....................................................(00104)
15. Legal..............................................................(00105)
16. Credits............................................................(00106)
O============================================================================O
| Techniques (00090) |
O============================================================================O
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Basic Techniques |
(00091) \------------------------------------------------------------o
ACCELERATING ~ Accelerating is simple, just hold down that big A button on
your controller to move forward, the longer you hold it then more you
accelerate and eventually approach your vehicle's max speed.
TURNING ~ Turning is accomplished in two ways, the second isn't exactly
"turning" per se. Just push the analog stick either left or right to turn
your vehicle left or right. You can also strafe left and right with the two L
and R trigger buttons, and use them in combination as well.
BRAKING ~ The purpose of braking is obviously to slow your vehicle down,
braking is accomplished by press the little red B button.
BOOSTING ~ Boosting is available after the first lap of each race, you can
press the Y button to get a burst of speed whenever you want at the expense of
some of your energy, energy can be recharged on those purple panels.
SIDE CHECK ~ The side check is an attack used for the purpose of damaging and
destroying your opponents. To do the side check hold down the X button and
then press left and right on the analog to attack in that direction.
SPIN ~ The spin is another type of attack that is executed by pressing the Z
button, while you are spinning steer into opponents to damage them.
CAMERA ~ The camera can be manually changed and positioned to wherever you
like by pressing either up or down on the D-pad during a race.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Advanced Techniques |
(00092) \------------------------------------------------------------o
DRIFTING ~ Drifting is a special way of turning that allows you to put your
car in a slide so that you can position your nose in the direction you wish to
move and then accelerate in that direction easier. To drift you need to start
going around a corner and then hold the L and R triggers together.
QUICK TURN ~ The quick turn is similar to using drifting to turn except works,
well, quicker. When coming up to an extremely sharp turn, or any turn really,
tap the trigger button of the opposite direction you want to go, and then hold
the correct trigger button. Say for example you wanted to turn left, as you
come up to the corner tap the R trigger and then jam down the L trigger and
hold left on the analog stick.
SPEED SAVE ~ THe physics in this game allow you to let go of the accelerator
in order to lower the amount of speed you lose when you have recently boosted
or done something to increase you speed by a large amount. This doesn't work
well in practice letting go of the accelerator after every time you boost, but
you'll notice a very effective use for it in a course like Port Town: Aero
Dive when you've come out of the large drop going down the platform.
EXTRA BOOST ~ In this game you should always aim for the very edge of the
booster panels and not the middle, try it for yourself on a course where it's
easy to aim it at the start like Outer Space: Meteor Stream, hit the booster
panel on the edge rather than the middle and you'll get kind of a double
boost, you'll even hear a different sound when you do this.
SHIFT BOOST ~ A shift boost is obtained when you have temporarily left the
track for a split second, when you come back on and your vehicle gets a little
jolt you will hear a swooshing noise and get a buurst of speed as if you
boosted yourself. Chech the Trident and Lateral Shift section for more info.
MTS (Momentum Turbo Slide) ~ One of the most advanced and useful special
techniques you can find. This technique allows you to build up incredible
amounts of speed on corners, you will drift around but your speed will
increase from 1100 on a normal car to more than 2300 or more. To perform this
incredible trick what you need to do is similar to a quick turn except
opposite. Say you are approaching a right turn, as you come up to it tap the
R trigger, then let go and hold right on the analog stick, hold the L trigger
(yes opposite the direction you're moving) and let go of the accelerator
completely. When done correctly (and it's very easy once you get the hang of
it) you'll get a huge speed boost on corners. If you wish to try this, the
Quick Cannon G4 is the best ship in the game for it.
SUICIDE FINISH ~ There's no special technique you need to use besides killing
yourself here. If you slam into a wall at high speeds when you have no health
left, you will bounce off at an exponentially higher speed than when you hit.
If you can set it up so that you bounce off in the direction of the finish
line, it still counts and crossing even if you're way up in the sky.
SNAKING ~ The most exploited technique in the entire game, and I've never
successfully done it in my life, I tried once but it made my hands hurt.
Basically what you do is get an extremely heavy ship with an A rating for
grip, and set it to full acceleration. No other settings will do. Now as you
start moving and get faster, start quickly tapping left and L, then right and
R over and over again so you're kind of "snaking" back and forth on the track.
People who can perform this well can double, triple, quadruple whatever they
want, to their max speed. With this technique, times in the range of 30
seconds on the first track can be seen, that should give you an idea of how
powerful it can be. None of this guide utilizes the technique, every last bit
of this game can be beaten without it, even without MTS.
O============================================================================O
| Introduction (000A0) |
O============================================================================O
Here is how everything is set up. For each course there will be a basic
racing strategy, usually applicable to the Grand Prix if you're just trying to
win. Then there will be a special strategy for trying to beat the various
staff ghosts in the game. Staff ghosts are unlocked by coming within ten
seconds of their time in the time trial mode, then bought from the shop and
loaded by pressing Y in the courses selection screen, from there you can press
X to turn them on. Finally there is a special time trial strategy for those
who want to try and get the best possible time possible using any means
necessary, with the exception of snaking and spaceflying.
O============================================================================O
| Ruby Cup (00010) |
O============================================================================O
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Mute City: Twist Road |
(00011) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ Ah yes, the most basic of the Grand Prix courses in the game. Anyone
who has put any time at all into this game should be quite familiar with this
course. I recommend the Acro Lynx G4 for this course, basically the most
balanced car in the game. Refer to the custom racer section for how to build
it, you should have it in your garage at all times. Set the car to max speed
and get ready to race. As you start out slide to the right side of the track
and hug the wall coming out of the turn. Slowly glide toward the middle where
you will see a boost panel in front of you. Start drifting to the right JUST
before you make contact with the panel and then jab the R trigger to put most
of your momentum into the turn. As you approach the wall start tapping the R
trigger to keep from actually hitting the wall then straighten yourself out
around the centre of the track to hit the next boost panel. As you go over
the little drop you can jam up on the analog and then quickly back down to
reduce the amount of time you are in the air. Navigate around the long left
turn just using the analog stick to keep yourself steady and glide over to the
other side for the right turn. As you come out of this do your best to stay
in the middle but just slightly on the side so that you can hit the very edge
of the boost panels, if you don't know why you want to do this check out the
advanced technique section elsewhere in this guide. Assuming you are using
the Acro Lynx G4 you can probably net around 1:00:00 or so on a good run.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 00:59:964) Unfortunately the game starts you out
against one of the hardest staff ghosts, the difficulty of this ghost is not
representitave of all the ghosts, but he certainly isn't the hardest either.
Definitely in the top five though. As you may have read on the previous
section a time of around 1:00:00 is expected with a good run of the Acro Lynx
G4, so this is still my recommended vehicle for the staff ghost. It will be
difficult to try and give tactics for this without just saying to take the
basic guide and follow it word for word. Basically you must hug every single
corner, and I know how dangerous this is at some of those speeds. With the
exception of the first boost panel on the large right turn you must cut the
corner of each panel trying to get that double boost. The weak spot of the
staff ghost is the S turn during the recharge panel, I find that using the
Acro Lynx I can always catch up a fair bit at this point, possibly because of
hitting a double boost on the panel, or maybe because of the nose dive off the
edge (if you do a nose dive be sure to pull up before hitting the ground to
avoid slowing down.) Hitting the edge of the two boost panels approaching the
finish is one of the most important things you can do, and never stop slamming
the boost button once you can. On the second lap the staff ghost doesn't even
hit the first boost panel since it's so out of the way, you may want to do the
same, just boost yourself and stay on the inside lane. By the third lap
you'll probably be running low on boost and you'll have no choice but to hit
it. I'm sure you can easily conquer this ghost using the techniques in the
time trial section, but for those who want to do it the old fashioned way all
I can offer is my word that I have done it, without using any advance tactics
besides the edge of the boost panels, with the Acro Lynx G4.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal Best: 00:55:041) Welcome to the first of many time
trial I'll cover during each course, for more information on exactly what this
section is about see the intro header to this whole section just above. Now
lets get into it, for this course I would use no other car besides the Quick
Cannon G4. Since the thing is almost useless in terms of analog steering you
had better be good at handling turning with the L and R triggers because
that's mostly what you're going to be doing. Go all the way to max speed and
start the race. At the beginning use the R trigger to hug the left wall but
you'll need to be a lot more careful than with other cars if you're using the
Quick Cannon, since as the name implies it is quick to respond and has those
huge wings which always threaten to knock against the wall. Coming out of the
turn aim yourself at the boost panel dead on, then just before you're about to
hit it start MTSing to the right and nail it as you slide. Coming out of the
turn you should be in the middle of the path ready to hit the next boost
panel. When you come off the drop just drive straight for a couple seconds
then start to MTS to the left, now is a good opportunity to utilize the MTRS
technique if you're good at it, I myself am not and often find it only slows
me down but many people are able to MTS around this corner and begin grinding
the left rail for a big boost in speed. Come out of the turn and aim yourself
toward the right wall, starting your MTS almost immediately to send you around
the corner. From here just go straight to the finish line. On lap two you'll
want to boost right off the bat and MTS around the first corner. Do the same
for the second corner, the boost paenl here is really iffy. I find it helps
if I am able to aim a turbo slide and actually hit it, but considering how
early you should start this turn it's far too random and I prefer to stay as
close to the inside lane opting not to hit this panel. Drop off and boost
around the S turn while using the momentum turbo slide. If you have trouble
with anything on this course it will probably be here, it took me forever to
master MTSing around this S shaped turn. Another thing to note is that you
may actually want to try and avoid refilling your energy all the way, the
reason for this will become clear in a second. Coming around the final turn
hit the first of the two boost panels and then wait approximately one second,
now this is up to you but here it is possible to get a good suicide finish in
and shave about one second off your total time. If you've got a good run I
would not recommend doing this, it's mostly for people who have mastered the
course and are looking for any possible way to improve their time. Instead
what I recommend is hitting both boosts and waiting until the finish line
comes into view. Aim yourself a little to the left and then slam into an MTS
so that you slide over the finish line. Do this wrong and you'll nail the
right wall coming to a dead stop, so it takes practice to judge when the exact
time you should start the slide comes up.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Casino Palace: Split Oval |
(00012) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ This is one of the few courses where I don't recommend the Acro Lynx
G4 even just for basic play. If you need a car for the Grand Prix it will
still work perfectly fine, but even beginners can get more out of this course
with the Combat Planet-Z. There is one danger but I'll make sure to cover it
so that there's very little risk involved. This course is made up entirely of
boost panels and involves very little actual strategy, the strategy itself
comes in the form of choosing which panels to hit and which of the two
branches to take. Starting off go straight ahead and hit the middle panel and
then the one just ahead of it. In front of you are two boost panels on on the
right and one further away on the left. Ignore the one on the right and glide
over to the left wall so you hit the boost panel coming out of the slight
turn. Once you hit the panel don't keep turning just let yourself go in the
straight toward the other side of the track where you should hit the right
panel and then quickly jab the L trigger to hit the panel in the middle.
There's two more boosts leading up to the fork. Using this method you will
miss two of the panels but it is certainly the one that maximizes safeness and
speed, trying to hit them all is very dangerous. When you come to the fork
take the right path. Stay on the right side of this thin path to hit the
first boost, then the next one comes on the left side. You have adequate time
to hit this one but after you do you must quickly jab the R trigger to hit the
next two on the right side in time. Don't hold it down, try tapping ebcause
you seriously risk hitting the wall at this speed. Beyond these two boosts
are two more, one on the right and one further down on the left. Hit the one
on the right but avoid the one on the left that comes just as you reach the
peak of the hill, even if it is easy to hit you must avoid it on purpose. The
reason for this is using this particular car and similar heavy ones they get
so much power from the boost panels and hitting that last boost at the tip of
the hill risks lifting you off the track completely and sending you into the
oblivion. On the next lap hit the same set of panels but take the left branch
at the fork to recharge your boost. Keep boosting over the recharge panel but
them this time avoid BOTH of the boosts on the way to the top of the hill.
You can manually boost all you want but hitting either of them while boosting
yourself will more than likely flip you over the edge. During the last lap
you might want to go back ot the right branch since you won't really need to
charge up for the next lap since you're on the final one.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 00:56:691) Use the same set of boost panels as
outlined in the basic strategy, it still works here. Remain using the Combat
Planet-Z, the speed of this machine works well in your favour to beating this
guy. The main problem comes when beating the staff ghost is this, you want to
go faster so you'll want to try and cut the edge of the boost panels, however
doing this increases your risk of flying off the hill at the end by about ten
million percent. So what you want to do is this, hit the edge of the boost
panels all the way up to the ones two in a row at the end of the right fork.
Now skip over the boost panel on the way up the hill on your right and hit the
one on the left right about the centre to minimize your lift, this should give
you the most amount of speed with the least amount of risk. On laps two and
three take the left fork both times and boost sparingly as you go toward the
hill, maybe even laying off a bit so you can hit one or both of the panels but
not so much that the staff ghost is able to catch up with you. This is
another one of those courses where the staff ghost is quite hard and you may
want to experiment with some other vehicles if you find this one to be too
dangerous. There is however a way to use this danger to your advantage and if
you aren't against a using a nice little trick I suggest checking out the time
trial section for a surefire way to take this ghost down.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal Best: 00:49:791) You can pretty much forget everything
I've been saying about taking care not to be too dangerous here, you now have
free reign to be as dangerous as you want because we're going to take that
frustrating off course launching hill and turn it into a huge advantage. Now
this takes some serious practice and you can't expect to master it on the
first try, or even the tenth try. Here's the idea, to get the best time on
this course you don't have to change much, accept the fact that you probably
aren't going to be able to hit all of the boost panels unless you are REALLY
proficient with the L and R triggers, and even then you risk losing a lot of
speed sliding from side to side. When you approach the fork take the right
a=path and build up as much speed as possible. Going up the hill stay to the
right and hit the boost, keep staying to the right and you should see your
machine starting to shake, this indicates it's probably about to fly off the
track. Here's what takes a lot of practice, you need to gauge exactly when
the machine is going to left off and then slam the L trigger down and hold it
the instant BEFORE the machine actually lifts. Done right you will always go
airborne and start gliding along in the air, there are pretty much two
contingencies for this (besides completely screwing up of course.) Either you
will fly sharp or fly wide and this depends on whether you timing was good
with the L trigger or not. A wide shot will always send you gliding off the
course completely but done right you will always glide on a nice angle toward
the track again just in front of the finish line. This is not a technique to
cut half the course off, in fact it doesn't cut off the course at all, the
simple fact is that this gets you moving so fast that when you land you will
actually be one to two seconds further ahead than someone who just took the
corner on ground. Try to get this on every lap and you may find that you can
get some amazing times and completely obliterate the staff ghost (my time used
the Combat Planet-Z with this technique, seven seconds faster than the ghost!)
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Sand Ocean: Surface Slide |
(00013) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ The Acro Lynx G4 is just prime for this course. Go for max speed and
take it to the field. When you start off cut the corner of the boost panel
and hold right up to the left wall as much as you can, the Acro Lynx has great
control so you can probably get really close without having to worry about
hitting the wall. Nail the boost panel in the centre before going flying off
the edge, do a nose dive and pull up before you hit. This part is a little
difficult so you may want to just avoid the nose dive for now, it doesn't help
too much. Stick to the right when you get into the enclosed area and just
ride along the recharge panel. When you come to the big right turn use the R
trigger to hlep keep yourself against the wall, I'd advise against drifting it
will probably only slow you down. Now coming to the next turn get ready
because it's difficult. Use the quick turn, if you haven't checked the
advanced techniques section it is performed by quickly tapping the L or R
trigger opposite the way you want to turn, then holding the direction you do
want to turn. For example in the case as you come up to the turn which goes
hard to the right, lap L and then jam down the R trigger to do a quick turn,
while doing this tap R and hold L to make it around the bottom S curve. Now
stick to the right wall and glide around the corner. You'll come to a section
where the road is slanted, it's somewhat dangerous but get yourself to the
highest part of the slant against the left wall and stay there all the way
around, the curve angle won't change too much. When it ends go down to the
middle and then up on top of the sloped are again. Ride this raised section
around the bend and then head straight for the finish line. Begin boosting
right off on this lap, boost as much as you can because the reharge panel
comes so close to the starting line. After recharging you'll need to use
boost sparingly because you crtainly won't have enough to go the whole race.
I recommend saving it for the sloped sections while you're just turning
lightly and going nuts as you approach the finish line. Make sure you use it
all a bit earlier in the third lap so that none is remaining and wasted when
you finish the race.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 01:56:743) Compared to the previous two courses
this staff ghost is a walk in the park. You should easily be able to beat it
by upwards of three seconds just using the Acro Lynx G4 and no special
tehcniques. Use the same strategy as above and be sure to save whatever boost
you have in the second lap for the raised areas which is the weak point of the
staff ghost. It seems like the top speed of the Acro Lynx G4 is much better
than the car the ghost is using, you'll find that on straight aways you start
catching up at an alarming rate. The most important thing really is to drift
the S turn well, the staff ghost does it with incredible precision so if
there's a point on the course where it's going to pass you that's the most
likely area, so practice that turn especially at high speeds, drifting and
boosting at the same time is difficult technique master, but important.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal Best: 01:45:485) Break out the Quick Cannon G4 again,
your MTSing best friend. Max speed of course. I find that this course takes
a lot of practice to play well with the Quick Cannon, but using MTS
effectively you should be able to shave a good five to ten seconds off your
best time. Start out normally trying to stay as close to the left wall as
possible. When you get into the enclosed area use the huge right turn for
your first major turbo slide. While sliding and holding the L button you may
have to regulate your angle with R. What I mean by this is you'll probably
end up turbo sliding toward the left wall, to avoid this start tapping R while
still holding L during the turbo slide, you'll slow down a bit but avoid
hitting the wall which is much more important. Coming out of this you'll need
to be ready, this is the first of the two reasons why getting a good time on
this course is so hard. You can use the L and R triggers to get a really fast
turn here with the Quick Cannon, but you can get an even faster turn with MTS.
The problem is that using MTS will only be a bit faster, and it's about a
million times harder because you have to go from a right turbo slide to a left
turbo slide almost instantaneously. Takes some practice. Further down you'll
come to that sloping area with the huge left turn where the track is on an
angle. Get around the centre of this track and start MTSing to the left while
controlling yourself by tapping the opposite trigger button, this will be the
primary area where you really speed past other cars or the staff ghost if
you're racing it. Now the second reason why this course is so hard comes
here. This raised section makes it virtually impossible to MTS around this
huge corner even though it looks so appealing. You wil almost inevitably
launch yourself into a wall if you falter control for even a second using the
slope as a ramp... a ramp to your death. Unless you can find an effective
method, like maybe staying on the outer track (but that might be just as slow)
then avoid MTS on the final corner and repeat the whole process fore the next
two laps while boosting like crazy, try saving lots of boost for that final
corner so you can at least get something out of it.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Lightning: Loop Cross |
(00014) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ Take the Acro Lynx G4 and go with max speed here. The course is full
of loops and twists but you should be able to handle it just fine. Stay along
the yellow line in the middle to nail all the boost panels along the way at
the beginning. Soon enough you'll see a patch of dirt on your left, this is
your cue to get ready to drift. When the path begins to curve tap the L and R
trigger buttons and press right while tapping them, assuming all goes well you
should have gone into a drift and now you can safely let go of the L and R
buttons and keep drifting but just tapping the analog stick to the right to
control yourself around the huge turn while drifting. When you reach the top
there's a fork there, take the left path to hit a boost and then the right
path immediately after for another boost. The path remains pretty uneventful
for the next little while until you come to another turn, not the one in the
enclosed area but the big almost 180 degree turn, use the quick turn technique
to skim around the corner effectively. Start boosting right away here but I
don't think I need to tell you to lay off a bit as you approach the huge turn.
Drift up it ignoring your boosting capabilities until you hit the top and then
go nuts, take the right and then left paths to recharge your energy. Boost on
this straight away for a bit but save some for the last straightaway leading
up to the finish line as well, same applies to the final lap.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 01:59:907) The Acro Lynx can conquer this ghost
no problem, so don't worry about changing cars. On straight paths your max
speed will remain similar to the one on the previous course, and that's quite
a bit faster than the staff ghost. Someitmes in fact I find myself wondering
exactly what he's doing back there, it really seems like you have to go out of
your way to let him pass you. In fact you can slam wall after wall and still
win the race by over three seconds. Basically it seems like he doesn't boost,
or uses it all at once so if you save a fair bit of boost for the area
approaching the finish line on the final lap you can probably catch up by
almost two seconds. The important thing is to take the huge turn at the start
really well, like I previously mentioned drift into it and control your craft
with the analog stick. Not much else to say here.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal Best: 1:48:376) Lets whip out that Quick Cannon G4 and
see what we can do shall we. This craft is a beast at taking that first huge
turn, but controlling it is an ordeal in of itself. As you are MTSing around
that huge turn you get going really fast but you have to correct your
direction with the R trigger so much that you'll almost be holding as much as
L. Perhaps there may be a way to utilize the MTSR technique and really get
some blazing speed but I've tried and it's certainly beyond my ability. Going
between the forks with the Quick Cannon G4 can be tricky considering the
ship's wingspan so carefully position yourself with the L and R buttons and
avoid using the analog stick here. After hitting the two boosts there's a
trick section coming up, you should MTS through this enclosed corner but the
angle of it makes recovering out of the slide difficult, even more so because
the ground on the other side isn't level, I recommend avoiding MTS here until
you are really good at it. Speaking of being really good at it you'll need to
be to use it effectively at the sharp right turn coming up, the fact that the
course isn't just turning but also bending upward makes seeing the track twice
as hard and makes controlling twice as hard since you're moving up along with
moving left. Get into the slide early and stay as close to the inner wall as
you can to avoid hitting a severe bend and launching into a wall. FInally you
can get a good bit of MTS in on the turn before the finish line but
considering how much control precision it requires it's not really too worth
it until you've practiced. In fact the main sources of major speed boost and
the huge long turn at the start, and the short hard curve near the end. When
you have the ability to boost it only makes your turns faster and harder to
control so this course really represents one where a good time will only be
obtainable once you've truly mastered the MTS technique.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Aeropolis: Multiplex |
(00015) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ And so we arrive at my favourite course in the game, the Aeropolis
Multiplex. Doubly so since I love the music as much as I love the course
layout. This is another course where I recommend dropping the Acro Lynx in
favour of the Combat Planet-Z. Get maximum speed and begin the race.
Directly in front of you when you start is a boost panel, since you'll be
going so slow at the time there's no excuse not to get the extra boost by
scraping the edge. There's also a jump here, and while this thing is great
later on the first lap it only slows you down so instead of hitting the jump
take the path to the left and use the boost panel to get ahead. Stick to the
left wall and you'll come around a light corner. Now is when we see if you've
really mastered the quick turn. There are 90 degree turns here, two of them
in fact. As you approach tap the R trigger then jam the L trigger and hold it
to quickly turn left then as soon as you do, do the opposite to quick turn
right and you should be able to avoid the walls while still maintaining good
speed. Next comes a 180 degree turn which is simple as pie to get around, the
quick turn works wonders here, quick turn left and you'll find more often than
not you end up turning to much than not enough. There's a boost panel and a
hill in front of you, when you go airborne over the hill point your nose down
and pull up just before hitting the centre of the path so you can nail the
middle boost panel before going off the edge again. On the first lap just
worry about landing in the middle so you can hit the boost panels. Past this
regeneration area there's a rectangular looking 90 degree turn area, a lot of
people have trouble with this bit it's quite simple and involves one use of
the quick turn, not two. Aim yourself on an angle so that you are moving
slightly left, once you get into the little jut out area, do the quick turn to
the right and you'll jerk yourself in that direction, directly in front of a
boost panel in fact. From here avoid the dirt paths on the ground and quick
turn around the corner at the end. Avoid the mines and quick turn right to
find yourself at the beginning again. Boost once past the finish line and
nail the jump head on, before you even hit the jump hold up on the analog
stick so you're diving while flying through the air. Correct your position
before landing and jam the L trigger so that your take the corner well. From
here do the same thing you have been doing except at the recharge panels, it's
extremely hard to aim but try to land on the and remain charging as much
energy even as they wave back and forth, difficult but not impossible.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 02:15:297) The staff ghost strategy is a mix
between the basic strategy and the time trial strategy since the basic
strategy covers a lot of important elements, and the time trial strategy
doesn't utilize any advanced techniques since they are rather inneffective on
this course. The main idea is that your victory is pretty dependent on how
well you are able to control your descent to the recharge panels and gather as
much energy as possible during this time. It is much more effective to dodge
the dirt paths rather than boost over top of them even if it seems like you
aren't losing speed you really are. The most important things to consider
when trying to beat the ghost (which is actually quite easy on this particular
course) will be outlined in the time trial strategy just below this one.
TIME TRIAL (Personal Best: 02:00:906) As much as I wish that I could have,
even being 15 seconds faster than the staff ghost I always wanted to go sub-
two minutes but I was never able to. Oh well perhaps with this guidance
you'll be able to accomplish what I wasn't. Now there's two schools of
thought on the subject, I'm 100% confident I can get below two minutes with
the Combat Planet-Z but everyone and their dog seems to prefer the Fat Shark
on this course. The choice is up to you and the strategy remains virtually
identical, of course if you don't have Fat Shark (unlocked by beating story
chapter 4 on very hard) then the choice is pretty obvious. Anyway here are
the most important things to consider, the first lap is pretty uneventful and
the basic strategy covers it nicely. What the basic strategy didn't emphesive
however is the importance of the landmines near the end of the course, there
are two sets of three on the left side and the right side of the final stretch
and if you want to get a decent time at all, what you need to do is aim
yourself at the first landmine on your left. This however is not enough, you
need to aim yourself at it so that when you hit it the landmine will give you
a burst of speed INTO the next landmine so basically you should be hitting two
at once almost instantaneously after the other. This will send you at a
fantastic speed toward the wall so be ready to quick turn to the right
immediately to correct yourself. Now nail the jump at the beginning and
follow the course to the 180 degree turn. When you come around it here comes
probably the most important speed and time determining factor on the entire
course. Similar to what I said in the basic strategy, which was when you go
over the hill to dip your nose down and hit the boost panel that will send you
over the edge of the drop. Now however this is too much of a time waster for
you, what you need to do is hit the edge of the boost panel leading up the
hill maybe even with the help of some of your own boost and launch (I mean
LAUNCH) off the ramp so much that you are still going to hold your nose down
but you will completely clear the edge of the track and land directly on the
recharge panel. This means basically that you hit the jump and don't hit the
ground again until you are right of the recharge panel. Doing this sends you
at an incredible speed and makes aiming your landing extremely difficult and
controlling your craft along the recharge path even more difficult. You MUST
recharge to full or close to it since there is still so much track to cover so
once you hit this jump and clear the edge of the track perfectly it's still
only the start of the extremely difficult manoeuvre. When you do this
correctly though it looks absolutely amazing, flying off the ramp and landing
perfectly only to zig zag along with the pattern of the recharge panel.
Master this technique (which I can do, but not at any constant rate) and
you'll see times in the 1:50's.
O============================================================================O
| Sapphire Cup (00020) |
O============================================================================O
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Big Blue: Drift Highway |
(00021) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ The machine that I would recommend for this course is a slightly
modified Acro Lynx G4, the Combat Horse Z. The Combat Horse Z uses the same
frame as the Acro Lynx, but changes the engire to the Triple -Z and the
cockpit to the Combat Cannon. The engine change really isn't that necessary,
in fact you may want to stick to the G4 for the Combat Cannon cockpit is quite
important and you'll see why soon. Set it to max speed and start it up. This
is actually quite a straightforward course with one brutal exception, but
we'll get to that. Start the race by staying as close as possible to the
right wall and then straighten out your vehicle toward the centre. Coming up
is a boost panel, you'll want to make sure you hit it while in mid turn rather
than head on to get the most momentum in the direction you will be moving. On
the next turn utilize the quick turn trick, the Combat Cannon cockpit should
allow you to drift around this corner and cut it quite closely. There's a
boost panel ahead of you, try to cut it on the side and then dip your nose a
little to gain speed at the drop. Now here's what makes this simple course
such a pain in the ass, coming up is one of the most difficult turns in the
game, it's an S shaped turn that requires immediate and precise control to
manoeuvre. What you want to do is stay as close to the right wall as
possible, as you come up to the left turn left left on the analog stick and
the L trigger to begin taking the turn, the instant you know you're going to
clear the wall in front of you then you need to jam right on the analog and
press the R trigger to drift and cut the corner immediately, smashing into the
far left wall is almost more common that hitting the actual turn itself. Once
you're clear of this you cut the three boost panels in a row in front of you
and do a nose dive toward the finish, make sure to lift your nose up before
hitting the ground though. On the second lap start boosting right off, don't
worry about saving any for later because you won't be boosting like mad coming
up to the S turn. When your damage alarm starts going off but you still have
some boost left don't use it, for two reasons. One because you'll need at
least some health in case you hit the wall on the S turn, and second because
coming out of that turn is a good time to boost. Around the corner ignore the
boost pads because recharging energy for the third lap is most important.
What you want to do though, since you'll recharge to full before you reach the
end is right when your energy maxes out hit the L or R trigger to nail the
third boost panel before going over the edge, this will really help and give
you some extra speed. On the final lap only charge enough for a single boost
to use before crossing the finish line and hit as many of those final three
boost panels as you possibly can.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 01:07:331) - The Combat Horse Z can easily
conquer this ghost, well maybe not easily but considering how much he leaves
you in the dust at the start you'll be surprised at how easy it is to catch
up, he probably put everything into acceleration. A strategy for this ghost
would be easy to outline in the simple phrase "Practice the S turn" and in
essence that will make or break your victory, but it's not all of course. The
real weakness of this ghost comes on the straight-away after the large right
turn leading up to the S turn, since the ghost is to heavily weighted toward
acceleration you'll catch up quite quickly here especially if you're boosting.
Stay as close to the walls on corners, without hitting them of course, to cut
valuable second fractions off your time. One thing you might want to try in
the second lap is hitting the first and third boost panels near the end.
Coming out of the S turn and approaching the corner hit the first boost panel
straight on and use it to launch yourself into the recharge area before
hitting the third as well before you exit to get some extra kick.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal Best: 01:02:753) Lets drop that Combat Horse Z and
return to our Quick Cannon G4. If you want to do even decent on this map it's
going to take an insane amount of practice, MTSing these corners is just
suicide 90% of the time. On the first and second corners don't even bother,
for the first angle you analog stick slightly go that your vehicle turns but
not so much that it drifts, on the second corner aim yourself with the L and R
triggers. Now on the third turn is where MTS comes into play but may require
some serious balancing with the other trigger just to be sure you don't hit
the wall on such an extreme angle. As for the S turn it's your one real
benefit, the Quick Cannon G4 takes this turn absolutely beautifully just with
the L and R triggers alone since it turn so sharp. MTS around the final
corner and straighten out as you hit the first of the three panels. You can
expend most of your boost at the beginning like normal, but now since your
speed is up MTSing around the first two turns will probably be beneficial, try
to hit the boost panel on the second turn as you turbo slide around it. To be
honest if I had to choose any course where I believe my time could be
seriously improved this would be it, playing it yourself you'll see what I
mean by how difficult it is to use the Quick Cannon here, but that's how I
managed to get my best time so I stick with it.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Port Town: Aero Dive |
(00022) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ Not only do I love this course, I also love how my favourite machine
is extremely useful on it. Take the Combat Planet Z for this one, you're
going to want a fast heavy ship (Fat Shark works great as well.) Start off
and cut the edge of the boost panel in front of you for some extra speed. Now
here's a nice little tactic I like to use, coming up in front of you is a
serious of stair-like drops. While there's not a lot you can do here, what I
find is that after going over the edge, if you press down ever so slightly on
the analog stick you will actually notice that you hit the next one a little
bit smoother, and with that you lessen your speed loss. Every bit helps of
course. Drop off final one a little ways further and hit the boost panel into
a long right curve. Stay close to the wall here but allow yourself to glide a
tiny bit toward the center after a couple of seconds to guarantee you hit the
boost panel that comes around quickly. Coming out of this there is a sharp
left follow by a couple more very quickly, use the quick turn or drift to
avoid ending up all the way over at the far wall. This will lead you ward an
upward slope, your vision may be a bit impaired so do your best to centre
yourself, all the boost panels are in the middle of the road, there's three of
them. Now you'll suddenly launch off the end in a huge drop. Here's what I
find works best for this part, allow yourself to glide straight forward for a
couple of seconds and then jam up on the analog stick. If you time it right
you should hit the road just before the stair-like drops again. Upon landing
pull your nose up to soften it and then remove your thumb from the gas
completely, believe it or not this will actually lessen your speed loss over
the first few steps and your momentum will be maintained. After about five or
six of them hit the gas again and get ready to make a hard right. Around the
corner do a quick turn to the left into the boost panel, this quick turn will
ensure you don't accidentally fly off the edge which is a common problem for
people in this map since the next drop occurs on a curve. Stay on the right
hand side of the road to ensure you hit all the boost panels on the way to the
finish line. Start off boosting here and as you go over the edge let go of
the gas for the first couple of stairs, you'll notice that if you boost just
beforehand and aren't holding the gas when you hit the next step there's a
little extra bit of boost appearing around your car, it's not much but again
every bit helps. If you can't seem to master this technique don't worry about
it, just focus on keeping up your speed and boosting as much as possible.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 02:25:689) The Combat Planet Z can beat this guy
no problem as long as you avoid any major mistakes. The trick I outlined in
the first strategy about the large drop will really come in handy, if you're
behind him or even if you aren't near him, you can see how much it sets you
ahead by keeping an eye on the little timer above your minimap. Despite these
tips, this is one of the more difficult staff ghosts to beat, and takes a fair
bit of course memorization before you can come out on top. Hitting all the
boost panels is essential for a victory, but the ones that appear on the
upward hills are sometimes difficult to hit even when you know where they are,
make sure to position yourself well in advance.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal Best: 02:16:022) If you're looking for the best
possible time on this course you'll need to drop the Combat Planet Z in favour
of Fat Shark. Fat Shark is a better MTSer (although that tactic is not nearly
effective here as it is in other courses) and gets better speed bosts from the
drops. Letting off the gas on the drops actually becomes quite an important
part of the time trial strategy since it is concerned with finding almost any
method of cutting off extra time. The only two places I was able to
effectively utilize MTS were after the long right curve and the turn at the
bottom of the huge drop off. Other than that you can find extra means of
gaining speed by doing your best to aim yourself at the corners of all the
boost panels, even the ones that come over the hills, this requires extreme
precision and is another example of why an incredible time on this course is
extremely difficult to get without a hell of a lot of practice.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Green Plant: Mobius Ring |
(00023) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ Take the Combat Planet Z for this course as well, this is a
surprisingly simple course and doesn't really require that much tactical
advice. It's pretty much the hilly terrain on the road that makes it
difficult, so that's what you'll need to focus on. Start off and hit the
boost panel than stay close to the wall on the corner, glide toward the centre
and hit the second boost panel coming out of the turn. Now as the road
straightens out it will bring you toward a left turn, you want to stay in the
left lane but not right up to the wall! The wall here waves in an odd S
pattern and you'll end up crashing if you try to follow it. Coming around the
corner stick with the left lane and stay on the side until the recharge panel
comes up, slowly make your way toward the centre. Basically you're trying to
navigate the sloped parts without having it bump your ship around too much so
whatever you do, you should do it gradually. After the tunnel stick to the
left wall again and stay on the raised part as you go around the corner.
Coming around the final turn stick to the centre to avoid any nasty bumps and
then level yourself in the middle and go straight toward the finish line.
Pretty simple. The second lap consists of the same strategy except it becomes
more difficult to avoid all the bumpiness because you're boosting. Try to
save boost for straight-aways, doing it around corners will usually end you up
in some kind of sloped valley bouncing from left to right and suffering some
big speed loss. Make sure you hit the recharge panel though.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 01:35:169) Beating the staff ghost on this course
really doesn't present that much of a challenge, as long as you are consistent
then you should be able to stay ahead of it by at least a second the whole
time. First of all drop the Z engine on the Combat Planet Z and replace it
with the G4 engine, now just start racing. Follow the basic strategy, but
there are a couple of important things to consider. First of all by far the
most important thing are the mines after the first recharge panel, you need to
hit a minimum of two of them on your first lap to make it worthwhile, this is
really your only decent source of extra speed so you're advised to take
advantage of it as much as you possible can. While on the later laps and
boosting furiously it's still a good idea to take out any remaining mines
because the damage to your health is still not as severe as when you boost,
and the extra speed is quite a lot. Watch out when boosting around corners
and coming up on recharge panels, the second most important thing to do in
this race is to fill up your boost entirely and that is extremely difficult
given the position of the strips and how thin they are. You might want to
avoid boosting when coming up to one so you can get straight onto it.
TIME TRIAL (Personal best: 01:30:713) I really don't have a lot to say about
this track in this section because I have yet to find any extremely good
strategies to do spectacular on this course. The Quick Cannon G4 is almost
out of the question given the slope of the road, the Combat Planet G4 or Fat
Shark are still your top choices. The only thing I can recommend trying is
the following. After the straight-away that follows the mines, approach the
final turn while hugging the right while. There is a bump in the ground here
and if you hit it on the right angle it becomes possible to get a decent shift
boost off of it, you can read more about shift boosts in the advanced
techniques section. Besides this, be sure to hit the mines head on.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Port Town: Long Pipe |
(00024) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ Virtually the entire course takes place in a tube structure, so you
won't have to worry about hitting the walls or going out of bounds most of the
time, though neither of those hold true the whole way. Select the Combat
Planet Z as your craft for this one. Now you'll see how the course forms a
cylinder and turns almost immediately, what you want to do is slowly inch up
the wall on your right so that you can take the bend as smoothly as possible.
One inclination you might have is to go up the left wall, since the inside of
the corner will be shorter, and while this is true you aren't going to stay
stuck to the track so taking the inside of cylindrical corners will cause you
to make a little jump when you go around, and this will reduce your speed far
more than the little extra distance you have to go take take the corner
smoothly. Do the same thing to the next corner, glide left and take it on the
outside. Now this will be hard to explain since you can loop as many times as
you want and there's really no frame of reference. If you went around the
seond corner smoothly you should be around the middle of one of the gray
section (as opposed to brown.) The first panel is coming up slightly to your
left, once you hit it remain on this gray section but slide to the right edge
to hit the next boost panel, for the next one you need to get yourself on the
roof, it's in the centre of the gray path up there, loop around until you're
on top to catch it. The next on is on the left edge of this same path, then
again quickly and another one almost immediately slightly to your right.
Finally the last one requires to to shift over to the brown area on your
right. Now you'll be approaching a drop off. There are two rotating pipes
that have no purpose but to get in your way, try looking ahead to where those
pipes are going to be and avoid them, these are the first and you almost have
to go out of your way to hit them. Next you'll come up to one with three
pipes, you need to do two things here. First watch the pipes, but also look
out for a yellow boost panel. Move yourself around to loop so that you're
aligned with it and can boost when you hit the ground. Same principle again,
look at the boost panel but watch for the six rotating arms which can be
extremely dangerous. Once you hitt he panel shift left a bit to nail the next
one. Stick to the gray panel until you come to a really bump area. The
straighter your vehcile the easier this will be to weather, if you're on even
the slightest angle it's going to slow you down substantially. Now stick to
the gray panel once again going around this section, all the boost panels are
on it. You'll come to a very odd type of loop in the track that will probably
disorient you. All I can say for this part is to aim yourself dead on
straight for the centre of the loop and don't press any directions whatsoever
while in mid air, when you hit the ground you should be able to correct
yourself without too much speed loss. Depending on how you land this will be
different, basically what you want to do obviously is dodge those caution
poles that are scattered here. When you get to the curve be absolutely sure
to get on the outer path, but do not stay right in the centre! One more pole
comes almost out of nowhere. Just beyond it are five boost panels side by
side that you can't miss, now this is important. What you want to do is hit
the straight on and keep going straight until you pass underneath a horizontal
bar. Immediately after you do slide to the right with the R trigger so that
you're in the middle of what was the right wall. This will allow you to pass
under another horizontal bar and completely eliminate the need to try and
sneak between those four side by side poles. It has to be to the right, not
the left. If you went to the left the tunnel will open up and you'll find
yourself on the top which completely disappears sending you into the sky and
off the track. Race to the finish line and get your boost power. Now the
next two laps are similarbut you'll be boosting, you don't have enough boost
to use it the entire time, so use about half of it up at the beginning and
then almost all the rest after the rotating arms. Never leave yourself
completely drained otherwise even the slightest touch against those pillars at
the end will spell death for you. Keep boosting and it's home free.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 02:26:802) The Combat Cannon Z works wonders
against this ghost, the Triple Z engine you have outputs an enormous amount
more boost out of the boost panels than his car does, this will become very
evident if you happen to be trailing behind during that first section of boost
panels, every time you hit one you'll be creeping up on his faster and faster
even though you're taking the same route. Now what you need to focus on doing
is keeping that lead. Make sure to aim for all the boost panels during the
moving arm section, but don't just land and then slide over to them, you'll
lose way too much speed you need to see them in advance and move in
anticipation, memorizing their positions is still the best tactic. Once
you're past this section on the later laps utilize a lot of boost here so that
you are going at top speed for the bumpy area, and pull up before hitting each
bump to reduce speed loss. It might just be me but it seems like the ghost
really messes up that odd loop about three quarters of the way through the
third lap, so even if you're trailing behind a bit remember to keep at it!
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal Best: 02:19:802) Still using the Combat Planet Z for
this one the key to getting a much better time for me were the use of the
shift boosts here, now compared to other courses these ones are extremely
difficult, and that's on top of the almost-random quality shift boosts already
have. There are three main ways to get these, and they're pretty much
impossible unless you're on the second or third laps. The fist is through the
turns, if you take them on the side, not on the short inner corner where
you'll jump, and not on the longer outer side but about midway between them so
that you get just a tiny bit of air, this can serve as a shift boost if you're
still retaining some speed fro ma recent boost. Secondly the easiest to get
are the ones on the bumpy area, you want to boost as much as possible before
this are and pull up slightly before hitting each one, if all goes well you
should notice a drastic speed increase on the the first and maybe second ones.
The third is on that odd disorienting corner at the end, this is almost
impossible to get with any degree of consistency but if you've got a very
slight left angle, sometimes your car will boost when it hits the ground
again, I hesitate to even bring this up but I have done it on more than one
occasion. You can still get a great time with the previous tactics though.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Mute City: Serial Gaps |
(00025) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ The car I recommend for this course is the Acro Cannon G4, when used
correctly it can easily handle soome of the more dangerous turns. This course
requires more practice than almost any other in the game, the chance of flying
off the edge somewhere is always a constant danger. Start the race off and
hit the boost panel right in front of you, the road goes in kind of an S shape
here. When you come out of it position yourself near the left wall to make
sure you hit the boost panel before going over the edge. Angle your vehicle
downward and dive into the tunnel, you want to try and avoid slamming into the
ceiling here, try to level yourself out with the sloped ground before landing.
Coming up after the recharge panel are some mines, you might want to try
hitting a couple of them for two reasons, the first being that they'll be
dangerous in later laps and you want to get them out of the way, the second
being for the obvious speed boost. Be careful though if you hit more than
one, you'll likely launch out of the tunnel and plummet to your death. When
you land from the drop immediately use the quick turn to drift right so you're
facing 90 degrees right from where you were before, there's another drop and
instant death if you aren't facing the right direction. Make another hard
turn to the left this time to straighten yourself out with the next drop. Now
coming up is a jump on your right, you may want to hit this and angle your
nose down to dive, but make sure you're turning right while in the air because
the road curves just after the jump. Around the corner there is a pretty
dangerous ice patch, stay in the middle and make a hard left at the end to
nail the boost panel. This will send you over a huge drop, there's also two
possible paths here, one is a higher road and then other is a lower road. The
lower road has dirt patches and is also longer, your goal is to try and land
on that higher section and if you're using the Acro Cannon G4 it's quite good
at gliding so once it looks like you're going to make it aim your nose down
and dive for the road. Careful though because there are no walls on it. Stay
in the centre as the road curves right toward the top and sends you off a
boost panel. Aim yourself below the overpass (certainly not into it) and
you'll be back on the main road again. The finish line is just ahead. Now on
the second lap start boosting right away and do the same thing you did before
until you reach the tunnel, now you will probably want to try and avoid the
mines at this speed, when you fly out it's going to take some light speed
maneuvering to avoid flying off the sides. Be careful when boosting up to the
jump as well, it has a high risk of sending you to some pretty dangerous
heights. On the third lap if you need extra boost take advantage of the
recharge pad just before you enter the cave, on the right side of the track.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 01:26:549) The Acro Cannon G4 can beat the staff
ghost no problem as long as you're consistent. Obviously you'll never beat it
if you keep dying on every corner, it takes a lot of practice. When you first
start he's probably going to disappear way ahead of you. he's got quite a lot
of acceleration but don't worry about that. Coming out of the landmine
section is where you should catch up, hit as many as possible even though it
may be dangerous, since it's the first lap it's no big deal to restart if you
screw it up a couple of times. Dive as you come out of the mine area and you
should overtake him. He takes the next couple of corners fairly well so it'll
be nose to nose as you come up to the jumps. Here's another great opportunity
to get ahead. If you're going at maximum normal speed when you hit the jump
don't turn immediately, wait about a second or so and then jam the R trigger
along with diagonal up-right on the analog stick. If performed correctly you
should be able to curve around in midair and land facing the right direction
on the ice section of the track facing the opposite way you did when you hit
the jump, it's like a huge U turn to the right. This will have you ahead of
the ghost by a hell of a lot of done right. Aim yourself for the higher
section of track and just play it cool to the finish line. Boost like crazy
at the start of the second lap and then fill it up again as much as you can in
the tunnel, try and avoid the mines. Now approaching the jump again do the
exact same thing, except boost this time so it becomes even easier. Learn
when to time your boost though, it's still possible to overshoot your
destination. Since the recharge sections are short in the level you'll need
to be a bit more careful with your boost on lap 3, try saving most of it for
the end and start going nuts around the ice patch to ensure a victory.
TIME TRIAL (Personal Best: 01:11:589) We we're back to times that I'm really
happy with and tricks that are worth mentioning. Look no further if you want
to beat the staff ghost by more than 15 seconds, but be warned that this
process it extremely, extremely difficult. Select the Quick Cannon G4 for
this run, we'll need it for more than just its turning ability here, also its
gliding ability. Now some of these tricks are absolutely crazy, it's not
going to be easy to describe them in text but do your best to follow along.
There is really almost no need for MTS in this course, I didn't even use it
when I got that time, but it does help if you're good at it on the second turn
of the course, coming out of the S shape right at the beginning. Now fly down
into the tunnel, hit any mines if you wish but it isn't necessary. Here's the
first trick, when you come out of the tunnel dive down to the road. Now you
will notice something, as the road curves to the right, the left wall barrier
stops just before the actual drop. There is a little area of the road between
where the wall ends and where the drop is, so that if you came out of the
tunnel and decided not to turn very much you would probably fly off the course
here. Well what you want to do is indeed fly off the course here, the instant
you go over the edge hit the L trigger and press ever so slightly down on the
analog stick to lift your nose up a tiny bit, any more than a tiny bit and
you'll stall compeltely. If done correctly you should be able to turn in mid
air without losing altitude and find yourself directly in front of the jump,
completely skipping those nasty turns. Now that far from all. Hit the jump
like you normally would, now the Quick Cannon G4 can turn incredibly sharply
in mid air and you can easily fly over the the ice path area BUT you must let
yourself fly forward a bit and do the large U turn anyway, if you cut the
corner too much in mid air the game will consider it out of bounds. Try it
yourself. Now when you land on the ice patch, head forward and nail the boost
panel. This is probably the hardest thing to do and you shouldn't even try
using this technique until you can run everything else on this course
perfectly. Here's what you do, the boost panel that sends you off the edge
you must hit it straight on facing the direction that it's pointing, meaning
that you have to do a very sharp left turn before going over the edge, this is
quite easy using the Quick Cannon. Now that you are going perfectly straight
in the air, perhaps pressing extremely lightly down on the analog stick to
keep your nose up, but nothing more otherwise again, you'll lose altitude
almost instantaneously. Here's the super secret trick, it is possible to wait
until you're just about over top of the road below you, now remember you have
done your best to stay as high in the air as possible up until now, and just
when you're about to go over the road to need to slam the right analog stick
and the R trigger. This will send you into a death plummet to your right but
as you turn you'll realize that you're actually falling toward the overpass
where you usually land after taking the higher path. Now even if you are
perfectly aimed at it, there's still problems. If you didn't go out far
enough you risk going off course, if you weren't straight enough there's a
very common result of hitting the road and just exploding because you're
vehicle is sideways. Remember this trick can be done, and cuts a rediculous
amount of time off your total, but there are still other ways to do well on
this course. On to the second lap. Now here's a brand new trick not quite as
difficult as that one, but more difficult than any of the others. Now that
you have boost, start using it like crazy when going through the tunnel.
Hopefully you cleared out as many mines as possible on the first lap because
hitting any will probably completely crew you up. You need to boost and get
going as fast as possible toward the edge of the tunnel, when you fly out stop
boosting immediately, and stop pressing buttons entirely. You need to get a
huge amount of distance on this jump and you're not going to get it unless
everything is perfect. You destination is the road directly beside one of the
three jumps. This means that you are going directly from the tunnel to the
jump, it's difficult but not nearly as difficult as the shortcut near the end.
Now when you land you want to land right beside one of the jumps. Even though
you are coming at them on a perpendicular angle, you can still hit them the
instant you land on the ground to be launched again. This is your goal, to go
from the tunnel, fly over to the ground beside the jump, land, and be
instantly launched again. While flying through the air position yourself so
that you land in the correct direction on the ice road, and then repeat the
process on the third lap. This is the last trick that I know off, besides the
fact that a suicide finish can be done right before the end, but after making
a perfect run with all those tricks I would never have the balls to risk it.
One more thing I'd like to mention is that it is possible to get enough air to
land beside the jumps on the first lap as well, if you hit at least two mines
sometimes it will provide the kind of speed you need, but since mines are so
unpredictable and hard to hit sometimes, I've done this before but never on
any kind of regular basis. Hopefully some of this will come in handy.
O============================================================================O
| Emerald Cup (00030) |
O============================================================================O
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Fire Field: Cylinder Knot |
(00031) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ The recommended vehicle for this course is the Combat Goose Z, it has
a powerful engine capable of high top speeds and really getting a kick out of
the boost panels. This course isn't really all that difficult, but that in
itself is what makes the course difficult. Since it's so straightforward
there aren't exactly a lot of chances to get ahead of the competition. You
need to focus on hitting as many boost panels as possible, and since it's hard
to tell exactly what side of the cylinder you;re on, memorizing their
positions if quite a chore. Start off the race and hit the boost that's right
in front of you, then slide to the right a little bit about as far as the red
and yellow strip. As you approach another curve slide back left a bit to hit
the next boost. You'll notice that the red and yellow strip on has brown
edges on the sides, this will become important for reference. Get onto the
strip that's just left of the second boost panel. You should be riding on the
outside of the turn. The next boost is located on the left brown edge of this
strip. Stay on this edge to hit the next one as well, which comes just at the
bottom of the hill. Now loop around to the opposite side and get onto the
right edge of that strip, as you come up over the bump you'll hit the next
boost. Stay on this edge even over the bump, just after the largest bump at
the end is another boost panel on the right edge. Now slowly slide to the
left once you hit it in between the two red and yellow strips for the next
boost. Continue left and stay on the left edge of the strip to hit a boost.
Stay on the inner side of the track to hit a couple of boost around the next
corner. Now the track will look a bit different as you climb a pipe
approaching the next turn. Get on the outer side to go around it and there's
another boost on top of that. One more boost on the outer edge of the next
curve before coming to a section with some dangerous pipes coming down. If
you hit the last boost panel then you're on the opposite side of the cylinder
and you need to gradually glide to the left to get to the other side, doing so
should make it fairly easy to avoid the pipes and you'll pop out onto a
recharge panel and near the finish line. There aren't really any
exceptionally good places to use boost on the next couple laps so just use is
on straight sections between boost panels to keep your speed up.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 02:40:909) Many people call this the hardest
staff ghost in the game and I wouldn't disagree with them. It's not uncommon
to find those who have 25 staff ghost victories under their belts yet still
cannot conquer this one. To be honest, there is no foolproof strategy, The
Combat Goose Z can do it, quite easily in fact, but easily is relative of
course. I can usually beat the staff ghost on almost every run, but I still
can't beat it by more than a mere couple of seconds so you can see that it's
just a formula you need to learn and follow. Hit every boost panel, don't
just skip them because they're on the other side or out of your way or
something. Especially on the first lap they're you're only real source of
extra speed. If you do exactly what the staff ghost does then you will win,
the Combat Goose is a much better car that his. In fact one of the best ways
to beat this course is spend a few runs trailing him and learning his path.
If you can mimic his path identically, you'll be the one who wins.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal best: 02:36:257) I really don't have any special trick
for doing well on this course, all I did was play it over and over again until
I knew the boost panels well enough so that not only could I hit them all, I
could cut them on the edge as well. The one real source of extra speed may be
the shift boosts you can get over the bumps, these are difficult to get but
you can almost always get a powerful one as long as you boost just before
going over the bumps, now what you do with this huge extra boost of speed is
up to you, because there's a very good chance it's just going to send you out
of control. This is a great course to practice in the practice mode.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Green Plant: Intersection |
(00032) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ Choose the Combat Planet Z for this course, it works and handles well
here. The beginning of this course is quite simple, three boost panels
leading up to a cylindrical tunnel. The tunel soon starts to make some very
sharp curves, you'll want to position yourself around the sides of the curve
so you don't have to weather the bump bump you also don't need to go the long
way every time, and since the sides will be pretty consistent no matter how
much the top and bottom curve you should have to shift positions all that
much. Coming out of the tube you'll see a recharge panel, if we said that
recharge panel is on the room you want to get yourself on the floor so that
it's above you, this will send you straight into a boost panel. Now go up the
left side a bit and around the corner to hit another boost panel. Gradually
make your way right down to the path in between the two recharge panels. If
you go between them to the left you'll end up flying off course when the
ceiling opens up. Now stick to the right wall here because you'll be
approaching a large obstacle in the centre. You can go around this obstacle
on either the left or right side, the right side has a boost panel. Now
there's a number of these, you need to shift back and forth using the L and R
triggers from right to left to right etc so that you hit each of the
alternating boost panels. Coming out of this area is the most difficult part
of the course, if you're playing the Grand Prix and just want to win then I
recommend slowing down, if you're absolutely determined never to let go of the
accelerator then the instant you go around the curve to the right, get ready
to do a quick turn left before reaching the top of the hill because the course
is going to try to throw you off at this point but if you're already in the
process of a sharp turn then when you lift off you'll still be moving in the
direction of the track and can set down safely. On the next laps avoid
boosting in the following two places, the loopy section of the cylinder with
all the curves, and that dangerous section at the end. Besides those two
parts you'll do fine and can really get your speed up near the start.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 02:24:897) Same car, the staff ghost won't put up
too much of a challenge. Your real challenge is trying to balance speed with
dangerous maneuvers. Trying to boost near the end is suicide, don't do it!
Make sure you can aim yourself toward the recharge panel on that final turn
because the course is still fairly long and you'll need all the boost you can
get. After coming out of that loops cylinder section on the second and third
laps recharge your boost but hit the L or R trigger and try to slide all the
way around to the other side so you can hit the boost panel on the ceiling as
well. Boosting during the part with the obstacles is dangerous but efective,
you'll find that again with this engine you can easily catch up to the staff
ghost even when you are doing the same thing he is, so it's just a matter of
not screwing up, there's no vehicle disadvantages to overcome.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal Best: 02:14:133) Take the main elements of the previous
strategies and try to incorporate them into your top speed goal. There's no
really effective MTS routes here but you'll still notice I was able to beat
the staff ghost by more than ten seconds, this is a result of the crazy amount
of shift boosts you can get in this course, and consistent ones too. During
that section of crazy loops in the tube what you need to do is start aiming
yourself so that you are on the inner side of the curve where the distance
around the corner is shortest and the bump is most severe. As you hit this
bump at a good speed you will suddenly gain a boost of speed if done at the
correct angle, this angle is almost perfeclty straight though so your intent
is to make it so you think you're going to lift off the ground, and you will,
but accompanying it will be an incredible boost of speed. Get as many of
these as you can, getting more than one of them in a row will be even more
effective, so the better you are at it you'll almost find you can cut time off
your best run almost exponentially. There aren't any other extremely
effective tricks that I'm aware of, but this one will work quite well.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Casino Palace: Double Branches |
(00033) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ For this course I recommend the use of the Acro Lynx G4, the G4 engine
is a bit more effective for the oddly shaped roads of this course. Now I hate
this course with a passion, it's awkward and extremely hard to navigate, but
with practice I was able to manage and you will too. There's a number of
branching paths, hence the name, but none of them make that much of a
difference. You'll come to one right off the bat, take the right path here.
Hit the boost and start inching around the corner, you'll probably have to
drift a bit in order to avoid hitting the wall. Now coming out of there aim
yourself so that you hit each of the boost panels here, but watch out because
there are no walls on the sides. If you accidentally fall off to the left
there's a good chance you can land and the lower branch and still recover
though. Continue on until you come to another fork, now take the left path,
there's a boost panel on the right side of the road and another one on the
left side around the next corner. Stay around the middle to hit the next two
in between the recharge panel. There's a number of boosters in a row leading
to another fork, follow the right path and stay as close as you can to the
right side, after going underneath the other road there's a hill with a boost
on the right side that you won't see until the last second. Now stick to the
left and hit the boost while jamming the R trigger for another, and then the L
trigger to hit the one on the left again, there's three in a row. Also use
the trigger buttons to hit the two that follow. This will take you around to
a fairly straight section and one final fork, on the first lap it's best to
take the right path and use the two boosters as you approach the finish line.
Now on the next lap boost as much as possible near the start because there's a
recharge panel right near the beginning, in fact there are quite a few
throughout. There's two things mainly to keep in mind, the first and most
important is this. After the second fork at the pert where there are two
recharge panels on either side of the road, followed by three boosters in a
row do NOT boost after this, at the third fork it doesn't matter which way you
go, you will fly off the course if you are going to fast. The same actually
applies to the hill near the end before the final fork. At the final fork
you'll want to boost and take the left path instead of the right this time.
Hit the jump dead on and dive toward the ground in mid air, try to land near
the last recharge panel on the left and level yourself off.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 02:59:117) I'd wager the staff ghost finds this
course rather difficult as well, choosing a good vehicle is very important in
being able to beat the ghost and I would recommend the Cosmic Cannon G4, same
as the Combat Planet with a different engine. You'll need to drift a lot in
order to take some of those finer turns but once you have it down you can
combine extreme speed with precision turning and find yourself leaps and
bounds ahead of the staff ghost. Avoiding walls is obviously important in all
courses but especially here, since that's really the only thing that's going
to keep you from netting a victory unless you go out of your way to avoid
boost panels. Despite being a heavy ship the same ideas still apply about the
sloped road, you can easily fly off and need to adjust your speed before
taking them. Practice with this vehicle as much as possible.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal best: 02:45:289) Using the Cosmic Cannon G4 for this as
well is not a bad idea. There's a couple things you can do to help shave of a
couple of seconds. First of all both of them only really apply in lap two and
three. Once you have boost, at the first right turn that's fairly long and
somewhat sharp you can actually effectively MTS with the Cosmic Cannon if
you're skilled enough, this can give you quite a large boost of speed.
Secondly when you come out of this turn start boosting like mad to get your
speed up. Stick to the right side and hit the boost panel and stay there to
hit the second one, once you do jam the L trigger to hit the third one but
don't let go, instead let yourself launch over the edge. Try to stabilize
yourself with the R trigger in mid air so that you make as soft a landing as
possible on the lower level and take advantage of the three additional boost
panels in front of you, this should help quite a bit. Besides those things at
the beginning the strategy is exactly the same. There's one other thing
though, a special kind of shift boost work on this course that I'll be
describing in more detail on courses like Undulation and Trident, but you
should still be aware of it. During the part at the beginning before you drop
off to the left while you're on the right side of the road hitting the boost
panels, you can let yourself very gradually creep toward the edge. The
instant that your car drops over the edge, and I mean the INSTANT, press the L
trigger toward the road to jump back on again for a boost of speed. It's not
nearly as effective in this course as others, but it is definitely possible.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Lightning: Half Pipe |
(00034) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ Recommended machine for this course is the Cosmic Cannon G4. It's a
dangerous course, the name obviously is indicant of its half pipe structure,
go too far up either side and you'll fly off the course. Start off and hit
the boost panel in front of you. You'll need to utilize the quick or drift
turns quite a bit on this course, starting almost immediately with the second
turn. Around the corner is another boost panel, as you round the next bend
try to ride up the left wall slightly so that you're on the inside of the
curve. As you go around gradually slide down as the curve ends and go up the
right side to hit the next boost. Up next is another booster panel on the
left side, once you hit it return to the centre otherwise you'll bounce off
the course as you go around. The middle of the track now leads to a number of
boost panels around the course in a dangerous spin with sections of the track
opening up. You'll notice a yellow line of lights, after hitting the first
booster panel slide left and follow this path of lights to the next one.
Continue to follow this light path, it will lead you safely trough two more
boost panels and onto the track again. Ride up the right wall on the next
corner to stay on the inside and then hit the middle again for a booster.
Stay in the middle along with the lights to another boost, and then up the
right wall, watch out on this corner because it's easy to go over the edge.
Here's the dangerous part you need to get over onto the left wall to hit the
next panel, but then immediately quick turn right and straighten yourself out
so that you don't launch over the side when the road dips down. Next comes a
dangerous S turn, aim to cut the corners tight to minimize your speed loss
here and then hit the boost panel in the middle. Around the next corner
you'll see a number of red light pillars, these deal extremely minimal damage
to you so don't worry about them, just get up the left side of the track to
hit the booster and just gun for the finish line from there. Same deal
applies in the second lap, use your boost when it's safe to do so, a good
place would be in that spiral where you follow the lights around. The one
other thing you need to be careful of besides the edges are those red lights,
if you've gone crazy with all your boost and used it up, they'll destroy you
the instant you pass under them. You might want to hold off a little bit.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 02:50:296) The Cosmic Cannon G4 will obliterate
this ghost, I can almost guarantee anyone who can get through this course
without dying, and isn't afraid of boosting while doing so can beat this staff
ghost by more than three seconds. Boosting in that spiral of panels will get
you so far ahead of the ghost it's not even funny, the dangerous parts come
when you're boosting but also trying to ride up the walls as well, it's easy
to find yourself with no time left to glide back ot the centre of the track
again and all of a sudden you'll be thrown off. This is especially true for
that sharp S turn near the end, you might even want to brake a little before
then, in the long run it's better than a huge crash there. Save a little bit
of boost for the end and use it just as you pass by the red lights, keep
boosting along the recharge panel and victory will be yours.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal Best: 02:36:682) Once you start getting these tactics
down the staff ghost will seem like child's play. The Cosmic Cannon G4 is
once again your weapon of choice here. First of all when you start, after
hitting the boost you'll notice that if you hit the little bump on the left
turn at the right angle while holding the L trigger you can get a handy little
shift boost. Now play the course as you normally would around the next corner
on the right and still further. After passing the two boosts on the sides the
road opens up for a second before becoming a half pipe again. At this part
there is a boost panel on the left side and you first shortcut. What you want
to do is hit that booster moving in the same direction it points, wait for
about a fraction of a second and then slam the L trigger to launch yourself
over the edge. When done correctly (and this is actually quite easy) you'll
skip the next turn and be able to land smoothly on the ground just before the
spiral loop part, saves you a good couple of seconds. Now as you approach the
S turn, but not quite there, I mean the corner before with the right boost
panel and then the dangerous left boost panel. After hitting the left one
straighten yourself out quickly on the path, if done right you'll get a decent
shift boost from the speed as you go over the little hill approaching the S
turn. As for the S turn itself the best way to navigate it is to not navigate
it at all, simply ride up the left wall and jam the L trigger just before it
curves to quickly hop over the entire thing. Not only does it save some time
you're about ten times less likely to make a critical error. Now for the
final tip, and by far the most difficult one, so difficult in fact that I gave
up on it even after practicing constantly. Note that I also find Fat Shark is
a better ship choice if you're going to be attempting this, but even then it's
extremely difficult. Note that the time I got there, I did not use this trick
at all. When you cross the finish line boost immediately and hit the boost
panel right on the edge. As you go down the little drop the road turns left,
but you don't. Instead go straight up the side and launch over the edge. You
need to get huge air here but it's pretty obvious what you're aiming for, the
track in front of you, it's quite far away but given the right amount of speed
it's very reachable. The problem is that even when you reach it, if you
didn't do a good enough job curving right while in mid air, you're just going
to explode when you hit similar to in Serial Gaps. You can try to master this
manoeuvre but like I said, it's extremely difficult.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Big Blue: Ordeal |
(00035) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ It's no secret, I love this course as well. Choose the Acro Lynx G4,
I think it works quite well here. Start off the course and go over the drop
in front of you, make sure to tip your nose down and dive before pulling up at
the last second to soften your landing. Make a sharp right and then sharp
left with the quick turn and you'll reach a fork. Take the left path and dive
to cut a little bit of time off. Now go down, get ready to angle yourself
left and then make a hard right. This will take you over another jump and to
a recharge panel. Follow the road over two more drops, diving each time, it
curves in an S pattern, try to do your best to stick close to the inside
track. The next corner is the biggest drop yet. If you have enough momentum
you can try and go straight ahead to the ground ahead of you, otherwise angle
left and hit the parallel path. This may hurt you a bit when you land if
you're on an angle though, use the R trigger to straighten out. There's a
sharp left and then right leading to a drop. Hit the boost panel and then do
your best to ride along the ice where you'll find another boost panel in the
centre. Inside the tunnel you'll quickly come to a lare U turn, use the quick
turn technique twice to take it easily, and the one that follows it. Stay in
the centre of the track to hit a boost panel as you go over the hill. Now
when you're outside again the next left turn is deceptively sharp. Stick
close to the left wall as the road corkscrews up and then thins out toward the
finish line. Use the same basic tactics on the later laps, except utilize the
recharge panel on the right instead of riding the ice before the tunnel.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 02:50:808) The Acro Lynx G4 still makes a fine
tool for taking down this ghost. Start off and dive like the basic strategy,
then take the left branch again. Now the first thing to note is here. As you
approach the hill you'll need to turn left, then right in order to get around
that square shaped turn. What you should do is go left, then quick turn
right, followed by a quick turn left again so that you hit the ramp on an
angle to the left and glide through the air cutting off as much of the corner
as possible, landing on the recharge pad. For the next couple of roads
there's not much to do besides cut the corners as much as you can. Now before
coming to the large drop, quick turn early so that you are going completely
straight when you fly off the edge. Press ever so lightly on the analog stick
down to keep your nose straight and glide over to the corner where the path
turns if you can. Go around the corner and drop down to the boost panel, hit
it and take either the recharge pad or the ice booster depending on which you
need more. The rest of the track toward the finish is straightforward, just
avoid hitting the walls there aren't any tricks. The last trick occurs right
at the beginning of laps two and three. Boost just beyond the finish line and
when you go over the edge, instead of diving hold the R trigger to glide over
so that you land on the road that goes straight toward the path branch, you
can avoid that sharp right turn and save some time this way.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal Best: 02:31:477) I've got a special preference for this
course, and considering beating the staff ghost by almost 20 seconds I'd say
it works pretty well. I find the Flying Cannon G4 works wonders here, as the
name sort of implies, while you won't be doing any flying you will be doing
quite a bit of gliding, and this shop does a great job. Start the race and
drop over the edge, dive down for the first lap and turn the corner. Now
comes the most difficult trick for the entire course, fortunately it's early.
When you go up the ramp on the left, instead of going off it straight angle
yourself to the left and go off it at a 45 degree angle. You must be facing
diagonally to the left, which means turning with the analog stick and the the
trigger buttons. You also have to angle yourself BEFORE leaving the ramp,
when you try and turn in mid air in only leads to a speedy descent. What you
want to do is glide past the big blue building on the left side and land on
the road just in front of the next ramp. When you hit this ramp try to cut
the corner as much as you can again, land near the recharge panel and
straighten yourself out. Now continue along the course until you come to the
next large drop off. This is the one where you're gliding over the gray road
below that's full of 90 degree turns. During the first lap you'll just want
to aim yourself straight and hit the ground parallel to where you dropped off.
Go over the ramp and hit the boost panels and race the course normally to the
finish line. Now on the second lap boost and cut the first corner by gliding
to the right. Do the exact same thing with the left branch ramp, cutting
across past the building, but it should be easier now that you have a lot more
speed. On these later laps when you drop over the section with the gray road
and sharp turns you can clear it entirely with the Flying Cannon G4 and land
right at the ramp below the waterfall to save a load of time. These are the
tricks you need to use in order to get yourself a decent time on the course.
Finally you can get a really good suicide finish at the end if you try to MTS
near the end of that thin section of road and don't have any energy left, but
this takes precision and practice and you shouldn't try it unless you've been
able to do it consistently on practice runs.
O============================================================================O
| Diamond Cup (00040) |
O============================================================================O
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Cosmo Terminal: Trident |
(00041) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ This is a difficult course to ride due to the lack of any walls
throughout, so be on the safe side your best bet will be the Acro Lynx G4. At
the start you are faced with your first of many branching paths. For the
first lap the best choice is the right branch, so take it and hit both the
booster panels. When they come together again, slide over and choose the left
path. Now at the next one take the middle path and get ready, the instant you
go over the edge hold up on the analog to dive down and then correct your
angle before hitting the ground again. After you land and come to a fork
again, take the right branch to get on the inside track. Be sure that you're
holding the R trigger when you go over the edge, there's a good chance of
accidentally launching over the side at this point. On the next lap boost
constantly since there are so many recharge panels, take the middle path
instead of the right one at the first fork on the later laps but everything
else should remain the same.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 02:58:650) This staff ghost also ranks as one of
the hardest in the game to conquer for a similar reason as the Cylinder Knot
one, though at least for this one there are some advanced techniques that will
allow you to beat it rather eaisly, these will be outlined in the time trial
section. As for the ghost itself, it follows pretty much the optimal path so
there's nothing wrong with tailing it most of the time. The ship I recommend
is the Gallant Cannon G4, it runs at almost an identical speed to the staff
ghost but will get more power out of the boosters. Since you're so even;y
match though you'll have to perform extremely well if you want to get ahead.
There's not a lot you can do on the first lap but on the later laps you can
get ahead by boosting 100% non-stop all the time, since the ghost sometimes
avoids boosting on the more difficult sections. The one place you may want to
hold off is before the enormous drop, if you're going to fast while you fall
you'll end up bouncing over the bumps even if you made a soft landing. Save
your boost and wait until you hit the ground before using it again, you should
be just about empty by the time you reach the recharge panel.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal best: 02:49:969) Now I'd like to introduce a concept I
had only touched on briefly before that will literally make or break your time
on this course. Though you've probably used shift boosts before, this entire
course is pretty much your outlet for them, using them virtually whenever you
want. The tradeoff of course is that they are extremely extremely dangerous.
What I did when I got my time was practice enough and use them often on the
first lap when I had no other source of boost, this significantly decreased my
time on the first lap and then I just boosted crazily but played it safe by
avoiding shift boosts on subsequent laps. Now here's how you should go about
doing it. First of all your vehicle of choice is the Gallant Cannon G4 for
sure, you'll need a thin car if you want to do this right. Fortunately you
can start doing them almost immediately at the start of the race so it doesn't
take much time to practice and retry whenever you fall. The first is as you
come up the the three way banch, you want to take the right path on the first
lap of course, but instead of aiming yourself toward it, aim toward the right
SIDE of the centre branch. Now a split second after you pass the sign on your
right between the paths, jam the R trigger to jump over from the middle path
to the right path. I say wait a split second for a reason, you need to get
far enough so that there is a definitive gap, but not so far so that it's too
big you can't get over to the path. This is what makes it so difficult, the
timing. It's the little gap in between the paths that will give you the shift
boost when you go over it. You'll be able to tell if you did it right because
you'll hear a sort of swooshing noise, see a little cloud appear under your
car and if you're using the Gallant Cannon G4 at max speed, you'll go from
about 850 to 1090 instantaneously and maintain that speed. If you can't get
this right don't worry because they don't all work this way. Now that you're
on the right path you need to wait for it to stop bending around. Once it's
going straight slide over to the far left edge (or right edge, whichever
you're more comfortable with.) Now allow yourself to very gradually slip off
the edge, but you must predict when you're going over because you have
approximately a tenth of a second to react and slam the R trigger to jump back
onto the path. Doing this right with trigger another shift boost and give you
a considerable speed kick. Make sure you hit the yellow booster in the centre
as well. If you're good you can probably do three of these before the path
bends around again. Don't ever try to do this on a bending or curving path,
you will die no matter how good you are. Now on the second split aim toward
the middle path but jump across to the left one just after they branch. Since
the path is moving up and down here it's considerably harder to get a shift
boost but if you try right at the tip of a hill where it flattens out you can
still do it. The one type of road where it's still safe to try besides flat
road is road that's sloping down. It's actually harder to get it right when
it's sloping down, but it's also much safer to try because as you start to
drop when going over the edge, the road is still dropping with you and you
have more time to jump back on. Use this technique as often as you can,
pretty much the more you do the better time you're going to get, but obviously
the more risk you're taking. Find a delicate balance and you should be able
to conquer my time with enough practice, I played it really safe.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Sand Ocean: Lateral Shift |
(00042) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ The Acro Lynx G4 is a fine ship to use here. Here's pretty much how
the course works, it's called Lateral Shift becuase you constantly need to
laterally shift with the L and R triggers since there is a continuous wave of
dead ends in front of you. If you look at the map you can see that every once
in awhile the course just ends and another path picks up to the left or right.
You need to always be aware of these, the arrows on top of the overhead sign
will tell you which way to move, but usually it's pretty obvious anyway.
Start off and hit the boost panel, then stick to the left and be ready to
shift over when you get near the sign. Normally you can prepare by just
angling your car so that it will simply take each one as if it was a turn and
not an abrupt shift. Continue further through the enclosed area, when you
come out you'll notice that the walls have disappeared. Keep doing the same
thing you have been doing but obviously keep an eye on how close to the edge
you are. This especially holds true once you're around the bend because the
path will start constricting to a very thin area in the middle, make sure you
always stay in the centre until it opens up again at the section. There's one
final large turn to the right, drift around this and then continue on the the
finish line. There's plenty of recharge panels on the course so your
willingness to boost should only be held back by how comfortable you are at
high speeds on dangerous courses that send dead ends at you.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 02:09:849) The staff ghost on this course is
rather difficult if you aren't trying to use any of the more advanced
techniques to beat him, I say this because the staff ghost actually uses them
himself! If you follow behind him you'll notice that he seems to get random
speed boosts on the dead end corners, that's because he's utilizing the shift
boost technique, so I recommend just going ahead and reading the time trial
section. I will tell you however that there's absolutely no reason you need
to stoop to his level though, you can kick his ass without fancy moves like
that, all you need is a strong backbone and a fast car. The car I'm referring
to is the Combat Cannon Z. Now I'm telling you it is going to be very hard,
if you choose to do it this way it will be one of the hardest staff ghosts. I
wasn't even sure if it was possible without copying his technique but I tried
it myself two seconds ago and beat him using the Combat Cannon Z. The thing
is you're going to have to accept the fact that you'll be absolutely clobbered
i nthe first and even second lap. In fact at the end of the first lap I was
behind by three seconds, and behind by one second by the final lap. There's
nothing you can do to start except watch him fly off into the distance. Just
hit all the booster panels and avoid all the walls, like I said expect to be
about three seconds behind on the second lap (you should aim for 2.5 seconds
though, it's not too difficult.) Now on the second lap despite the fact that
he's still using the shift boosts, he's a big sissy and if afraid to boost at
every physically possible chance, but that's what you're going to have to do.
In fact you'll be going so fast the the majority of your steering will be done
with the L and R triggers while you rest the bend in your thumb on the A
button and slam the Y button with your tip. I'm serious when I say do NOT
stop pressing the Y button until you reach a certain point. That point is the
big left curve you'll come to just after the walls disappear. After coming
out of the enclosed area boost once but then stop. Let yourself go around
that large corner at a normal speed and then boost once coming out of it.
Save some boost for just after you get around the final right turn, then boost
over the recharge panel and speed into the final lap. Use the exact same
technique here as well, in fact I find that he does rather poorly in the first
lap, if you caught up by two seconds on the second, doing the exact same run
on the third will probably result in catching up by three seconds. Simple
math tells us that if you're losing by three seconds on lap one, and catch up
by 2 + 3 seconds for the next two, you're going to beat him by two seconds.
Beating him by that much isn't very likely, but at least you'll win.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal Best: 01:52:211) For those who understandably find the
previous strategy difficult, or those that just want the best time you'll need
to familiarize yourself with the shift boosts. If you got used to them on
Cosmo Terminal that's perfect because they're about ten times easier here. As
you approach the dead end corners what you want to do is stay in the lane
that's going to drop off, but as close as you can to the edge near the next
road. If it happens that the road continues on the right, the instant you fly
off the edge jam the R trigger to jump onto the right path (through the wall)
and get yourself a nice shift boost. Not only are these easier to do than
normal ones but they also give you the shift boosts almost every time, I would
wager some of it is attributed to passing through the wall and that the extra
bumps almost guarantees the boost, but even in the areas where the walls are
gone they're still not that hard to do. Practice using them on this course
and with the Combat Planet Z you should be able to not only beat the staff
ghost at his own game, but come off with some incredible times as well.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Fire Field: Undulation |
(00043) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ This is actually quite a fun course, though also a very dangerous one
that continues the trend of courses with no walls. You'll have to problems
with the Acro Lynx G4 so you may as well select it. To start off it's just a
whole bunch of large hills one after the other. Ride up and down and try to
avoid getting carsick. On one of the last large hills you may find yourself a
bit airborne when going over, make sure to correct your angle so that you
don't bounce to much when you land back on the course. There's a jump at the
bottom but it really doesn't give you any advantage on the first lap so it's
best to go around it and position yourself for the upcoming section. Try and
get yourself as straight as possible, there's no easy way to get over these
bumps without at least bouncing around a little bit. On the next hill it's
another one that's likely going to launch you a bit, remember to hold the
analog stick up a little so that you're angled with the sloping ground. Over
the next couple there are two booster panels on the elft and right sides,
choose one and then speed up the hill and over the edge, diving as you fall.
Coming up is a jump, at this speed it's a good idea to hit it and just hold up
to dive as you fall, try and aim to the centre and straighten yourself out
when you hit. Nail one of the boost panels and it's on to lap two. Now while
you're boosting manually it's important to remember first of all that it's
going to make the hills a whole lot bumpier. It also makes the first jump
worth taking as long as you jam down the L trigger. Now when you come to the
second jump you probably won't want to dive immediately, there is a suspended
large pipe in the air and you're likely to hit it. Try aiming yourself while
in mid air and doing your best to dive once you pass over it.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 02:06:916) Now fortunately for you, this is
pretty much considered to be the "beginner's" staff ghost, it is indeed
probably the easiest in the game to beat, of course like any other staff ghost
it's no pushover, but it seems like on this course you're much more likely to
get yourself killed than actually lose the race. The car you want is the same
one you used for the Cosmo Terminal, the Gallant Cannon G4. Just follow the
basic strategy for the entire first lap, while he will pull ahead at the
beginning you will quickly catch up with max speed and I guarantee you that
with the Gallant Cannon G4 a normal run without utilizing any special tricks,
as long as you don't have any screw ups, will leave you with a minimum lead of
four seconds by the second lap. On the second and third lap however he
becomes serious, the problem for him is that you've got such a huge lead that
closing the gap proves extremely difficult. Your problem however is that
boosting constantly, while a great asset to your speed, is incredibly
dangerous and also makes for a lot of bumps if you don't keep correcting your
angle after going over every bump. One thing you can do to improve your lead
comes just before the large drop off, after the side side by side boost
panels. Hit the boost panel on the left and then wait for approximately one
second. Now instead of going all the way to the top of this hill and over the
edge, jam the L trigger and go over the side of the course. You should easily
be able to glide along and land on that lower part of the course you usually
drop to, this saves you an incredible amount of time that would have been
wasted going all the way up to the top, and your very small angle of descent
means a soft landing when you hit the course again.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal Best: 01:51:733) Now for the ever improved time on this
course, I must say that my time on this course is probably my best, I remember
the run particularly and how much my heart was pounding as I approached the
finish line. For a third timein a row the key to success in this course is
the same key as the previous two Diamond Cup courses, the shift boosts.
Using the gallant Cannon G4 you can get to massive shift boosts in this
course, though it's not nearly as dangerous as the ones on Cosmo Terminal,
it's quite a bit more dangerous than the ones on Lateral Shift, so it's the
medium level of difficulty I guess. Starting off the race you can get shift
boosts if you slip off the side of the course and then jump back on right as
you go over the top of the hills, almost as you start to descend. This works
a lot better on the minor small hills than it does on the large ones in fact I
find myself using the technique pretty much on every other hill, starting with
the second one. The next place it becomes effective is during the hilly
section with the two recharge panels coming up to, including and past those
side by side boosters, though you're still going to want to do the trick I
mentioned in the staff ghost section where you drop off the side of the course
to save time. Get as many shift boosts as you can in each lap, even when
boosting, although it's next to impossible to try it while boosting over a
large hill, you can still get it on the smaller ones in later laps.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Aeropolis: Dragon Slope |
(00044) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ Another great course, this ones is home to the largest straight drop
in the game. Just to be consistent take the Acro Lynx G4. Begin the race
and boost around the first corner, and the second one as well. Be careful on
the third, it turns on an odd angle and if you get too close to the wall you
risk smashing into it near the end. Hit one of the two side by side booster
panels and then the one in the middle to send yourself over the edge.
Immediately start diving down, you'll notice there are different levels of
road you can land on, but for this lap at least you'll most likely be landing
on the lowest one every time. Make sure to correct yourself before you hit.
Continue doing this down and down again until you reach the bottom. Down
there is a boost panel followed by a long dangerous path of ice surrounded on
the side by dirt and with no walls to boost. Navigate this ice patch to
another safer section of the course which takes you around a dangerous left
turn and on a skinny path over a hill. It's pretty straightforward toward the
end. On the second lap the main thing you are concerned with is the large
drop. While boosting you're obviously going to have more speed, and with that
more distance. You need to keep an eye out and make sure to level yourself
early if you're going to land on a higher platform. The higher up the better
because it means you'll be able to drop toward the very bottom from the
highest position and accumulate the most speed. I'll outline how some of this
can be used to your advantage in the next two sections.
STAFF GHOST ~ (Time to beat: 02:59:076) Ironic that the easiest staff ghost in
the game is followed by the second easiest staff ghost in the game. To be
completely honest without using any special tricks or techniques I found
myself beating it by 18 seconds on a practice run, when this course is played
right you can absolutely obliterate this ghost and it's all about how you do
the drop off. Switch over to the Gallant Cannon G4 for this course, I
wouldn't use any other ship. On the first lap it's really not that important,
just dive each time and hit the boost panels at the end and you'll be fine.
It really starts to come into play on the second and third laps. You'll need
to be boosting all the way up to the edge before you drop, now this is a bit
tricky considering the challenging corner that comes before the edge but if
you can successfully utilize the quick turn you should be able to avoid
hitting the wall. When you drop after boosting you're still probably going to
hit the lowest road, but that's okay. Right before you land correct your
angle for a smooth landing and boost just as you hit, this will send you at an
extremely high speed into another boost panel over the edge, now you'll almost
definitely land on the middle one. You shouldn't need to boost when you land
though, hit the booster at the end and this should send you down to the
highest platform right on top of the boost panel and give you the ability to
dive for the highest drop in the game until you land on the main road at the
bottom. Boost as you hit and nail the booster panel as well to go into the
ice section at an insane speed. Boost along the ice and recharge at the end.
Repeat the process one more time on lap 3 for a guaranteed victory.
TIME TRIAL ~ (Personal Best: 02:34:770) Get ready for some insane speeds here.
The difference between the time trial strategy and the staff ghost strategy is
the inclusion on shift boosts, MTS and track jumping, but all in extremely
small quantities. First of all the most used of the three is MTS, you should
be able to use this at the first couple of turns on laps two and three, but to
make it effective you need to be able to use it accurately enough so that you
can ride along the recharge panel as well. This isn't really too important if
you can't do it well. The most important place to use MTS is on the ice patch
after the huge drop. Going into the ice patch start MTSing to the left to get
a huge boost in speed, then switch to the right MTS mid way through to top it
off. This is important in trying to get the best possible time. Finally
there's the track skipping, first of all if you boost before going over the
edge at the very top, and boost while you land each time you should be able to
(if you're going fast enough) land on the top section of road on the second
row rather than the last row, in this case if you boost when you land and hit
the boost panel going over the edge, hold the L trigger to shift to the left a
bit in mid air and completely skip the third level of platforms, this will be
an enormous drop resulting in probably the highest top speed you've ever seen,
and even better if you can level out and boost when you hit the road at the
bottom to try and maintain it. Finally if you're boosting during that skinny
section, when you go over the top of the hill there's a good chance you'll be
launched into the air, use this to glide a little to the right and drop down
just after the S shaped turn at the bottom to save some time. Now the third
and least important trick is the shift boost, there's only one time to use
this and that's on the final little bump at the end on the first lap. If you
go over this bump you'll notice that your car bounces a bit and you lose speed
on the first lap, well if you hold up just a tiny bit on the analog stick to
point your nose down when going over this, there's a good chance you can get a
shift boost upon hitting the course again, it's not much but it helps.
__
|__ - Zero GX /-------------------------------------------------------------o
| -----o------\ Phantom Road: Slim-line Slits |
(00045) \------------------------------------------------------------o
BASIC ~ And now for my least favourite track in the universe, and I know I'm
not alone on that one. Personally I'd go with the Acro Lynx G4 here, might as
well continue the trend. This whole track is composed of very tight paths
that go around large curves and pretty much beg you to crash into the wall,
there are also some unpleasant dead end drops that come up here and there, so
you need to be aware of what's ahead of you at all times. Start off going up
and around the large curve to the right, and down a huge drop to a booster
panel. Ahead of you is a fork in