Zone Battle Strategy Guide
Aightfolks with all the recent hype around zone battle and how it wasnt fun, I decided to write a Helpful FAQ and Strategy guide JUST for zone battlers.
Vartazian's Zone Battle Guide
"Ayane Approved!"
Tutorial Movie 1 ----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otvQK...e=channel_page
Zone Battle when understood is a Exhillerating and Challenging Mode that many a Pilot can Enjoy, I hope this Guide will help you perfect your technique while racing at blazing fast speed Online and Offline!
The First thing I should mention is that to be an Effective Zone Battler is to first Get Aquainted with your ZONE Mode. Practice is key, You wont be flying at Super Zen speed without flaw on your first try, Practice is your friend! Soon you will be laughing at Wreckage that is left at your wake after you practice a bit.
How do I start? To be an effective zone battler you should first be aquainted with your friendly neighbourhood ZONE MODE. PRactice on zone mode is key, you get familiarized with high speed's and how your zone ship handles, this is key to becoming victorious in zone battle! How can you win if you cant avoid barriers? After you get Aquainted with how your ship handles Fire up zone battle, if your looking for an accurate repersentation of how good some people are online, you can put it on elite, but Stick to novice for now, We dont want to throw you through the Gauntlet!
So Theres 3 Main Type of Zone Battlers: Survivalists, Racers, and Blockers.
RACERS
Racers focus on speed, Charging their boost bar, and rely on their sharp Evasion skills to get past the barriers that they Themselves and other racers place in attempts to stop players. To be and Effective racer you need to be Extremley Confortable at high speeds, (Especially in 40+ ZB's) Racer is the hardest of the 3 Types to race at, it requires a Large amount of concentration and skill as one Mess up can devestate your entire race. A Few key things to remember about being a Racer are these.
- Dont miss a Single Speed pad, Memorize your Speed Pad Chains (A Speed pad chain is where there is a 1 and 2 Speed pad beside each other Take the two)
- Perfecgt your Racing Angle, Make sure you arent flying off the course, keep in mind a Zone Craft is substantially easier to pilot then an "Normal" AG Craft, use this to your Advantage!
RACER PRO's AND CON's
PROS
- Highly Effective online
- Gains an Early advantage
- Allows Faster Speed Pad grab in later speeds
CONS
- EXTREMLEY Risky, One Barrier at the start and you are hurting badly
- Hardest Method to learn
- Requires Substatial amount of practice
- Requires Global Knowledge of All courses
BLOCKERS
Most Zone Battlers start off as BLOCKERS, Blockers are pilots that drop Barriers as soon as it is available in their boost bar. This strategy is effective at stopping people going all speeds, a Well Balanced blocker can Stuff (Stop) a Racer in his tracks before he can even start his Boost Build. A Good Blocker can even Counter a Survivalist, a Survivalist cant avoid 3 Barriers locked into a single Bottleneck, its near impossible. The Problem with blockers is that their strategy mostly consists of knowing their opponents skill rating, a blocker's entire strategy is based on the fact that their opponent will screw up, this is Primary downfall. Their Secondary Downfall is the Fact that you sacrifice your acceleration to High Tier Racing, The Second you start Barrier spamming you Crush your boost chances, the hard part of playing blocker is knowing when to STOP blocking and start racing.
Playing a Blocker is the Easiest of the 3 Strategies, Blockers can be called many things, Spammers, Stoppers, and Especially ANNOYING. But blockers can use this frustration to their advantage, most Racers and Survivalists get a tad "Shocked" when they hit a barrier and Blockers can use this to their advantage on the track by CHAINING BARRIERS.
a BARRIER CHAIN consists of placing Barriers in a strategic way so that people when they trigger the first barrier, it is almost Guaranteed that the "engine shutdown" caused by they first barrier will cause the Pilot to slide into the 2nd, 3rd and if placed right, even off the track! A Properly placed Barrier Chain is very difficult to master but can be the turnign point in a zone battle!
BLOCKERS PRO's AND CON's
PROS
- Easy Strategy to start
- Effective against racers Somewhat above your skill level
- Memorization of speed pad isnt required for mass Barrier Drops
- Slower Speed's for longer time allows to see where other players drop Barriers
CONS
- Highly Ineffective against Good players
- Slower Speeds means slow Aquisition of Speed Bar
- Can Backfire. You may run into your own Barriers
- Difficult to Master
SURVIVALIST
The Survivalist strategy is in their name, They survive. A Survivalist's Key Strategy is never dying, wether it be by being highly effective at Dodging barriers or by Sheild spamming, They dont die, they are very difficult to kill and can be a hassle to Blockers or a threat to racers. Survivalists are the middle ground between blockers and racers, They dont really Excell at either but are a threat to both. Survivalists both Drop Barriers (Not to the extent of the blocker) And Boost Charge (Not as Fast as Racers) Most Blockers move to Survivalist after they experiment a bit with Boost Charging.
The Survivalist doesnt have a strategy like Barrier Chaining or Boost Charging, they get their points from not Dying, they wont last against a pure racer lobby so they rely on dodging the barriers that the racers place and Strategically placing barriers in return. However a Good Survivalisgt will Balance to best of both worlds and can still pass a racer by being a constant harassment.
However a Survivalist can do a TACTICAL BARRIER HARASS. A TACTICAL BARRIER HARASS is only effective in the first lap before racers can accelerate and before blockers can set up a Gauntlet. For the Harass you Constantly blast the people behind you in the first lap with .3 Barriers (Barriers at the .3 Boost Charge rating) this will give the Survivalist some room to breathe. This only works if you are in 1st and SOMETIMES Second place, therefore is highly conditional to where you start in the race.
SURVIVALIST PROS AND CONS
PROS
- Death never happens so your Zone score never actually depletes.
- Amazing at Harassing both Racers and Blockers.
- Can take the Game at his/her own pace.
- Shield Spam
CONS
- Doesnt Specialize in any real area.
- Cant Accelerate as fast as racers.
- Quickly Passed
- Smart Blockers will counter The Survivalist dodge patterns, Devestating the Survivaists main strategy
Remember that these are the 3 Basic outlines, your play style can vary in between any of these 3 basic outlines, A Good Zone Battler is a Perfect balance of these 3 aspects.
A good motto is this while your on the track
Block your Opponents
Go as Fast as you Can
Stay Alive
Okay now that thats done ill give you a few globably effective Strategies. these strategies take alot of skills to Perfect and are very risky at the Start of your Zone battle carrer. But Practice makes perfect!
TACTICAL DROP
Difficulty 9/10
A Tactical Drop is a VERY Risky strategy and requires near PERFECT memorization of a track. a Tactical drop consists of intentionally falling off the track to get another crack at a Pad Chain (2 or more pads) quickly charging your boost meter. You need to know that when you fall that you will actually respawn in an Accessable position of the boost pads, if you dont, you just lost 40 Life and your race Position for no reason.
Pros : Quicker Charge
Cons : Position Loss, Large Health Loss
PERFECT LAP
Difficulty : Variable 1/10 Lower Speeds 8/10 Higher Speeds
This is so important it even has a badge! Perfect laps give you that much needed edge in races by giving you .02 (That 2 boost pads if you havent grabed any!) and gets Substatially bigger if you already have a Boost Charge!
Pros - Free Boost Charge
- No Damage
Cons - None!
BARREL ROLL BARRIER
Difficuty 7/10
A Barrel Roll Barrer increases the Area that there is to hit on a Barrier. A Barriers Placement is Dependent on where the ship is located when activating the boost, You can use this to your Advantage, While in mid Barrel roll if you activate your Boost you can PLace a Barrier on its side Increasing its Hit Potential Substantially!
Pros - Provides bigger Barrier for people to Hit
Cons - YOU can hit it
- Difficult to pull off
- Not Available on All courses
STEALTH BARRIER
Difficulty 6/10
A Stealth barrier is a tactic that is quite dirty but can give you that edge that you need stop a good racer, a Racer depends on his eyesight to see barriers that are coming towards him, what if he cant see the barrier? a Stealth Barrier shouldnt be done multiple times as it causes health loss and Loss of movement but can trick an Opponent. A Steath barrier requires you to turn your ship precisely 90 degrees left or right and too BOOST straight into a wall. The Barrier will be on its side and be substantially harder to see for pilots moving fast.
Pros - Near impossible to see Barrier
- Lower speeds health loss is minimal
Cons - Requires boosting into a wall
- Small hit Radius
- Loss of Position
AMBUSH BARRIER
Difficulty 10/10
Another Barrier Strategy that requites impecable timing and skill to pull off. An Ambush barrier does exactly what it says, it ambushes. While some of my other strategies require taking damage yourself, this one only requires a great sense of timing and knowledge fo your track. An Ambush Barrier is a Barrier that the second someone falls off the track is Unavoidable, cant be dodged and maybe even be in a spot where someone respawns from a fall or death. To place a ambush barrier simply place it on the respawn point or directly in front of the respawn point so that when an opponent falls off the track he smashes right into your well laid trap! If placed right after an opponent falls off its a whopping 80 damage and 4 Boost Bar loss! a Devestating blow to any racer indeed!
PROS: -Highly Damaging
- If Placed right, Unavoidable
- Doesnt require damage on your half
Cons: - Requires impecable timing
- Much Practice is needed
- Hard yto Succesfully pull off.
Ill add more Strategies at a later date.
BASIC INFO
The Basic Charge Ratings for BOOST Charge are as Follows per Pad.
0.0 - 0.3 - 0.6 - 1.1 - 1.7 - 2.5 - 5.2 - 6.5 - 7.9 - 8.0
The Basic Recovery Gauge for Shield charging is as Follows per Pad.
0.0 - 18.6 - 27.9 - 37.1 - 46.4 - 55.7 - 80.7 - 90.0 - 99.3 - 100.0
The Zones Are As Follows
Sub-Venom - 0.0
Venom 2.0
Sub Flash - 3.0
Flash - 5.0
Sub Rapier - 7.0
Rapier - 12.0
Sub-Phantom - 16.0
Phantom - 20.0
Super-Phantom - 27.0
Zen - 35.0
Super-Zen - 42.0
Subsonic - 50.0
Piloting Strategies
So Adding Just Blocker tips wouldnt be fair now no? im gonna add a few of my Piloting Strategies. Some of them are Basic, Some Require practice but they will all Help!
S-SWEEP
The "S" Sweep does exactly as it sounds. It moves in a "S" motion. Maybe with a simple diagram I can show you how this move is very useful on the track.
For instance If your doing Metropia Reverse and are flying into the Magstrip a very popular place to place a Barrier is right in front of the first Chained Boost Pad.
Sort of Like this.
= Track
-- Wall (outsides of Track)
| Barrier
> Speed Pad
---------------------------------------------
====|== >> =====|============= PEAK
=====================|==>>===| PEAK
---------------------------------------------
How are You going to take the Speed Pads? S Curve! I will mark your path in Red!
---------------------------------------------
====|== >> =====|============= PEAK
=====================|==>>===| PEAK
---------------------------------------------
Some people might just say "Why not sideshift", This is the main reason SIDESHIFT RECOVERY TIME, Your Sideshift has a recovery time of about .75 to 1 Second. You cant side shift fast enough in and out of the curve fast enough to get the pads and not hit the Barriers!
Forgive my Poor Diagram, but ill do my Best to explain how to pull off a S-CURVE to the best of my abilities, to Start off the S Curve as you are heading into the Start of the "S" Pin your Airbrake in the direction of the Speed pads, After your ship starts to shift into the Direction That you want to turn, PIN Your OPPOSITE Airbrake, Your momentum will cause you to side to your original orientation, but by pinning your second Airbrake, you will start to move in the Opposite Direction! It Takes practice but is a Very Useful Strategy! In this case you would gain a 4 Boost Charge that other in-experienced pilots would just skim over!
General Tips and Tricks
- Damage is Greatly reduced in zone battle when hitting walls. therefore it is Substatially better to hit a wall then to hit a barrier, if Grinding along a wall is what is needed to dodge a barrier, then it is the most desirable effect
- You dont lose boost energy falling off the Track, where as a barrier will Make you lose 4.0 Boost energy! if it means falling off the course or hitting a barrier, take the fall. (You may learn something for the Tactical Drop!)
- Sideshift is your friend, Master it! A Smart Side shift can stop Barrier hits, Track falls and even other AG Craft! Sideshift is the best "weapon" in your Arsenal (for those just starting wipeout A side shift is a double tap of L2 or R2 for the default controls)
- Memorize your OWN Barriers FIRST, Keep in mind that nobodies racing line is exactly the same as your own, the highest risk to you on the Zone Battle track is yourself! Remember that your barrier placement will hinder your own racing ine better then anybody elses, so prepare for on the fly changes to your line.
To be continued...
Link to ProblemSolvers Zone Battle Guide ---> http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6501
If you Have any Questions feel free to ask!
~Var
