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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
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    skythian
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    Default Tips for Old People with Bad Reflexes

    I'm old. I imagine many of us have been around since the original wipE'out" on PS1, and I wanted to lay down some tips that might help those of us who aren't quite as quick as we used to be... (i.e. me). I managed to "Transcend" on HD/Fury, and this game hasn't been too difficult (actually maybe just a bit easier?). Still frustrating though, and any help is valuable if you're struggling with the speed. The upside to getting old is that you have more patience (and I happen to have some time off work).

    Feel free to add your own tips.

    Disclaimer: I've only just beaten the races on elite in the HD campaign. About to start work on Fury. I'll update this post when I (hopefully) finish it.

    So, we can probably all agree that the main challenges in the HD campaign are all in Meltdown: the Chenghou and Sebenco single races on Phantom and the 8-race Phantom tourney.

    SEBENCO: This was the toughest track for me. Tougher than Chenghou. Biggest two tips were:
    1) I used Feisar. In my opinion, the only thing that matters in Phantom is maneuverability. Even with Feisar, you have to lead the turns on phantom a lot more than you think. I aimed to try to scrape the inside apex. After 20 or 30 laps of trying this, I was able to consistently pass the Elite AI in the turns.
    2) Kind of a shortcut. If you manage to get a turbo in the race, save it for the part just before the tight chicane towards the end of the track. The track slopes up slightly here, and if you use the turbo at the right time, you can skip the whole chicane. You wouldn't think that this would help since, with the right line, you can drive straight through the chicane, but I always managed to get a few places by doing it. Throw on a barrel roll and you've got a nice, reliable timesave.

    CHENGHOU: It's all about conserving energy here. I absorbed most items unless it was a turbo or autopilot.
    1) You can drop off the side of the big ramp at the end, making it easier to hit the boost pad on the track below.
    2) As with all races, sometimes you just get a bad AI spawn. If you find that 1st and 2nd place are consistently finishing multiple seconds in front of everyone else, just "Return to Grid" and get a new spawn. This was the difference in spending 30 minutes finishing 3rd vs winning on my first try at this track.
    3) On the first section of repeating drops after the tight chicane, I did a barrel roll and aimed for the tip of the second drop-off, so I'd get the boost but wouldn't get launched into the air, making the next declining corner difficult.
    4) The place to make up time is in the middle of the track, just before the big drop-off. Taking the turns tight here (see above) I was consistently able to pass the AI in the turns.

    PHANTOM TOURNEY:
    1) Open a large beer and relax.
    2) You're always going to get mines when you're still in 8th place. You're frequently going to get rocketed as soon as you pass someone. And when you're in last, 7th place will always fight you to the death. Get used to it.
    3) Now that you've accepted that, as has been mentioned before, you only need about 40 points to have a good shot at winning the tourney. The first couple of races (Vinetta K and Anulpha Pass) shouldn't be too much trouble. I'd argue that if you're having difficulty with these, you might not be ready for this tournament. I would usually get 1st or 2nd in these without too much trouble. If you're able to do that, try to win Metropia (next) and then just try not to get eliminated in Chenghou. You should be around 24-30 points here, in which case as long as you don't get eliminated, you've got a decent shot at getting the tourney trophy.
    4) Phantom races are LONG. Don't give up and try not to get eliminated because of energy loss because there's a good chance 1 or 2 of the AI ships will die during the race - meaning as long as you finish, even if it's a terrible race, you'll get a couple of points even if you finish last.

    Many of this has been mentioned previously, so forgive me, but hopefully these tips and the ones that follow will help some of us old farts! Good luck!

  2. #2
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    I've got some good advice, as well as a question I'd like to pose for some zone battle masters.

    I'm probably a bit ahead of you skthian, only because I wrapped up HD on Friday, but I pretty much followed the exact same strategy of just doing everything at Elite difficulty all the way through. Surprisingly, despite dreading the Phantom stuff, I had an easier time than I thought I would. My specific problems were with Sol 2. I personally like Harimau for the Phantom stuff, but the methods will work with any ship.

    To add to your already good strategies for Chenghou, I only rolled on the easy to land rolls.
    1.When you go around the first hairpin, try to hit the boost pad to the left. This can be difficult due to the angle you have to take to make it around the hairpin, but if you hit the boost pad just after, you'll get enough boost to get a barrel roll off the first "hump" and completely clear the second one. I can confirm this is faster based off of time trial experimentation.

    2.When you go around the extended raised turn immediately after, push and hold down+left on the dpad to reduce getting any air around the turn and try to stay as low as possible.

    3.Save your turbo for the last straight off the huge drop off, and try to fall off the left side between the track and the post instead of going off the center and make a straight low boost and then barrel roll. Don't be afraid to slam on the airbrakes for the final chicane, and side shift to hit the double boost pad.

    -This way you only really need to do two barrel rolls each lap which saves on energy.

    Sebenco is more technical, but resist the urge to land all 10+ of the barrel rolls. There are really only 2 worth doing.
    1. the first barrel roll over the hump right after the starting hard left turn isn't worth doing. Instead, nose down to minimize air time. In fact, though easy enough to do, none of the barrel roll spots are worth doing until you get to the top of the hill (where the downhill starts and there is the double boost pad to the right side of the track).

    2. ALWAYS try to get the barrel roll mentioned above. You can side shift just before the downhill and land on the boost pad which makes the following straight pretty quick. You'd be surprised how much time you can shave by this alone.

    3. Save turbos for the exit of the uphill tunnel that leads into the chicane. If you boost just before you exit the tunnel you can fly over the chicanes, barrel roll, and shave a lot of time. If you don't have a turbo, aim for the boost pad to the left just before the chicanes and nose up and sideshift to get enough air to barrel roll over the chicanes. You won't be able to completely clear them this way, but you can aim for the middle of the chicanes and it should be a straight shot.

    4. It is possible to barrel roll after the chicanes too, but when racing AI, I wouldn't advise it, because you'll lose all the momentum almost instantly when you have to hit the hard right hand turn before the finish line.

    5. That first turn sucks. Go wide right and brake hard left. It will line up your approach much better than trying to stick to the left side without first swinging wide, and it is slightly faster.

    For that 8 race tournament, I've noticed that by comparison to HD on the PS3, it seems to be easier. Mainly because on the PS3, there always seemed to be one ship that dominated the others. Basically, you'd have to get first place on 6 or 7 of the races to assure first place in the tournament. I cannot confirm this, but this has been my personal experience. That being said, it is better to settle for 3rd or 4th and not try anything risky as opposed to doing something risky to try to get 1st. 9 times out of 10 you'll fall off the track instead. In my experience, the most likely first place tracks are: Vineta K (although I get 2nd pretty frequently), Anulpha Pass, Moa Therma, Metropia and Uber Mall. If you can get first on these, and not get eliminated, you have a pretty good shot at first. If you don't get 1st or 2nd on both Anulpha Pass and Vineta K, I'd reset because you'll pretty much have to win out, and you'll save time by starting over.

    Additionally, I've found the autopilot for Omega to actually be useful. Normally I would always absorb, but I've gotten better race times by using autopilot just for the hard turns (like turn 1 on Chenghou, the middle turn going uphill on Metropia, the Hello Kitty turn on Uber Mall, 1st turn on Sebenco, Chicane turn on Sebenco if you botch the barrel roll, and the turn series on Sol 2). You'll have enough autopilot on each of these turns to cover it. But if you do this, be sure to "absorb" (aka cancel out of) the autopilot as soon as you are through because it is much easier to take control back when your ship is lined up, otherwise it is a guarantee that autopilot will slam you into a wall otherwise.

    Ok, so my question is this: Any tips for the Modesto zone battle? If you get the 4 boost pads just before the hard turn at the start, it puts you at 1.1. If you do this however, there is about a 75% chance one of the AI ships will boost immediately after that turn which on Elite means you just lost; time to reset. I don't remember this one being so hard. Every other race I've been able to beat first try, but this one has resulted in 24 failed attempts. So my strategy seems to not work. Is there a safe non 8.0 boost you can do that will get you out of the initial fustercluck? If so, what is a good number to settle for? If you get lucky, you can get the full 8.0 boost right past the chicanes after that tough turn I just mentioned, but that rarely happens. The track is just so narrow that the likelihood to get pushed into a barrier on the first lap is super high. I'll probably have lucked my way through it before I get a reply, but it would be useful for others to know later.

  3. #3
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    Keeping this post separate as this applies to the Fury campaign which I wrapped up on Sunday. Also as previously mentioned, I don't fool around with normal or skilled, I go straight through elite. But the strategy should apply to any skill level.

    The toughest challenges for me were specifically Aftermath challenges. Those were: The HORRIBLE Zone Battle on Modesto Heights, the Zone Battle on Talon's Junction, and the HORRIBLE 460,000 point Detonator on Tech De Ra (it might have been reverse). Another notable challenge is the Detonator on Corridon 12, but there is a simple strategy for that one.

    Zone Battle (in general)
    The best way to do these is to stick to waiting until you save up a 7.9 or 8.0 boost. AI ships will loosely follow the same paths, but they also are notorious for dropping a barrier right around when you have 3.0 or so saved up. I don't recommend boosting with anything lower than 6 because the AI ships will almost certainly steal a gold from you if you do. This especially applies to Elite. This is very problematic and difficult on narrow tracks like Modesto.

    Freakin' Modesto
    For Modesto, the main thing to focus on is hitting the first 4 boost pads so you have 1.1 saved by the time you take the first hairpin. After that, there is a 75%ish chance that an AI ship will make a barrier right after the double boost pad. It is worth skipping those in instead of risking it because there are double pads shortly after that. If you do however, here is the key thing to do to catch up: Barrel Roll just after the bump before the final straight and turn. There are enough pads to get 0.3 before lap 2, and if you barrel roll and immediately make a barrier after hitting the pads to get the 0.3, it will knock off the leader. That was what I was missing. There is a lot of luck involved in this one though mainly through the first part.

    Talon's Junction
    This is another place where luck is involved, but it isn't as bad. Just when you hit the dip on the downhill, you will be blind when you start uphill again. I found that ships like to boost here, but the barriers are typically in the center, and there are boost pads right and left anyway, so just get in the habit of boosting away from the center.

    Detonator
    This one should trouble anyone with good reflexes and is an outright nightmare for diminished reflexes past zone 10. You will likely earn about half of your total points from zones 9-14 though, so keeping up ship energy is almost more important than blowing up mines for the other previous 8 zones. Bombs are worth way more if you don't use your blast. In fact, even if you don't get a chain bonus, it is worth more points to avoid using the blase when you can. Each clip has 15 shots, and you get an extra 100 points for each mine after the first. For example, if you hit 9/15 mines before reloading, the last mine is worth 900 points. If you blast them, each one is only worth 100, but it will clear out an area. So for the first 8 zones, try to empty each clip and not reload. Past 8, things start to get hectic, and you'll need to just get in a rhythm of reloading when safe regardless of how many shots are left. During zones 11+, I hold down fire and reload rhythmically.

    Don't hold down fire until you need to. Try to make one shot at a time. Your scores will thank you.

    If you can, try to build up a full blast and let it loose just before the end of a lap. All the mines you missed will still be active until you cross the finish line which will clear up the first part of the track from dead mines without clearing out the next round's fresh mines. This is a good strategy for the first 8 zones on any race.

    When you do use a blast, get in the habit of reloading at the exact same time. This sounds unimportant at first, but even the smallest blast wave gives you enough time to reload safely. I forget sometimes and it is always a bad move.

    Lastly, and this is yet another general strategy: save blasts for track parts when you are blinded, or track parts you have difficulty with. If you can't see around the walls of a chicane series, use your blast there every lap. Consider this just a part of the race if you chose this route. This might seem obvious, but if plan it out first, you'll know what to expect.

    Corridon 12
    There is a trick to this one. It isn't really that hard of a track to navigate, but I failed to get enough points after zone 14 to Elite pass this once or twice. The reason is the split at the start of the race. Try alternating paths to hit more bombs. It is still random, but I was consistently hitting 8 or 9 bombs by alternating paths. This worked for me, but another angle would to be to only chose one path and stick to it. Mines that become inactive don't spawn new mines around them as much, so if you are consistently clearing the mines on your chosen side, most of the new mines will spawn in their place. You will lose out on Bombs though and with such a narrow point margin it could be significant.

    Since this is a pretty wide track, save up your blast until just before the finish line and fire down both splits. This will clear up the mines on the side you missed earlier and give you enough additional points to get an Elite gold.

  4. #4
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    Good tips! Did you get all golds on Fury?

  5. #5
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    Yep. I got my Gold PS4 trophy for beating everything on Elite and the silver HD/Fury campaign legend, AND the bronze Meltdown all back to back. I breezed through everything except Modesto Zone Battle and the Detonator. Those took about 20 tries EACH. Fury's race campaign was much easier than I remember but the zone stuff was much harder.

    As someone who does a lot of single race, speed lap and time trial, I think they raised the bar for elite passes and made it a little harder. I'm pretty good and have a top 50 rank on just about everything speed lap or time trial, with a top 10 time on most of the flash and a #1 rank (for the time being at least) on many venom courses and I was just beating the minimum pass time for gold by a second or two, so there is a razor thin margin for error if you are going for the Elite golds. I didn't get a single gold for speed laps on the first lap, but that was mainly due to trying to get some records up in the process. What I lack in reflexes I seem to have an overabundance of muscle memory. But that is kind of hard to pass along as a"tip" for others.

    I don't know why, but it seems like some of the challenges are different. I don't remember the Zone 50 requirement for Elite on Syncopia. But then again I'm ok with that considering that Airbraker is no longer a trophy and Zone Zeus isn't either.

    How goes your progress? Any new road blocks?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by mannjon View Post
    As someone who does a lot of single race, speed lap and time trial, I think they raised the bar for elite passes and made it a little harder.
    I agree, they said they had made the AI harder for A+ in 2048, but I think they might of tweaked the AI on a few of the other tracks/speed combos in HD/Fury, I was having a particularly hard time trying to beat Elite on Sol2 at Venom speed,where I could do it first time every time on the PS3 version.
    I also think the range of travel on the PS4 controller isn't as much as on the PS3 controller, I'm finding I'm having to air brake at slightly different places than usual to keep the line I want using the PS4 controller, not much in it if you haven't done a lot of hours playing SL & TT, but if your like me I think you will have noticed a slight difference

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by mannjon View Post
    How goes your progress? Any new road blocks?
    I took a bit of a break after beating the HD campaign. Working on Fury now, I'm only up to the second grid and it's a cinch so far, but I can see Detonator and Zone battles being a huge pain later on. Overall I'm having less issue than I did with the original HD/Fury, which is nice.

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