3SE Shortcuts - the Knowledge

[lunar]

I`ve heard a lot about the 3SE shortcuts, on PK and MT in particular, but to be honest I`ve never been able to find them. I`ve searched this forum and the old one, and found no helpful info. I`ve searched every metre of the tracks, tried hyperthrusting myself off the track all over the place, and found no shortcuts (I realise we`re not talking Fusion style shortcuts here).

so please please please :wink: :wink: :wink: can someone precisely describe how to find and make use of these shortcuts, as I presume most of the top pilots in the tables are using them (not that I presume that THE KNOWLEDGE will ever make me into a table-topping player :roll: )

Zargz, I tried to apply your description of the MT shortcut in another topic and just crashed into buildings :oops:

Of course if shortcut times aren`t allowed, someone please tell me..... or if pilots who know them just don`t want to give away any "racing advantage" and think I should find out for myself, please tell me that too.

thanks :wink:

[Task]

Finding a shortcut takes some determination, a willingness to "try, try again". Using a shortcut takes a surprising amount of skill. This isn't Rush, if you're taking a shortcut you better know what you're doing, or it's the wuss wagon for you.
That said, these are the ones I've used:
P-Mar: Boost off the small jump, clear the chicane.
MT: Boost off the second jump (the first being at the start line) and haul right - land most of the way down the strip towards the 90' section.
AFAICT, all shortcuts require the use of boost on jumps and therefore you land with great speed. Being able to not only pull off this landing but maintain the ferocious speed and make good use of it is what requires the "mad skillz".
I've also heard of 3 other shortcuts, but since I haven't used them myself I won't bother to comment on them.
Good "landing practice" can be found in the PK challenge in the arena. If you can pull off a sub-minute time, then you've figured out how to land a jump. 8 )

[lunar]

thanks 8)

[zargz]

MT: pull upp the nose 2slow down .. dont race here alot - coz of the shortcut .. but .. hmm .. y not?
PK: boost of the jump 'bout 45¤ right, land on the downhill b4 the tunnel .. thasit!

[jmoid]

i know most of them, give me a couple of days to whip through the tracks and remember where they are and i'll post them.

[jmoid]

right! after a 15 minute refresher during which i was very glad no-one was around to see how rusty my piloting skills have become, here are all the short cuts i know of (excluding task's MT short-cut which is a new one for me that i haven't tried yet). all of these work at rapier and phantom class but i'm not sure about vector and venom, and hopefully they aren't banned form the tables as i'd be in fairly serious trouble if they were ;)

first, a disclaimer... as task said, using short cuts takes a surprising amount on of skill, so when you're trying these it's very easy to end up losing huge amounts of shield energy while crashing or huge amounts of time while being picked up by the wuss wagon, but keep practicing and you'll get them. another thing to remember is that the most difficult part to all of them is actually getting back on the track after you've done the shortcut, so if you pick up an autopilot before doing one, hold onto it and use it at the last second to get you back on track - any earlier and you'll waste time as the autopilot will take you back the way you came to get back to the track. if you don't have an autopilot, make sure you hold back on the d-pad (or analogue stick) as you land, or the nose of the ship will hit the track first causing major slowage. and with that in mind, here are the short cuts for w3se a la jmoid.

W3 TRACKS

porto kora
try this one first as it takes some skill but not too much imo.
what zargz said - on the jump, turn about 30 - 45 degrees right as you go up, hit the speed pad, press down on the d-pad hold boost briefly as you leave the jump. stay straight-ish in the air and you should hit the track at the entrance of the tunnel.

sampa run
as you go over the second set of bumps, hit the speed pad on the right and pull back, and you should go straight over the dip between the bumps. easy!

hi fumi
this one is only useful if you want to hit the pit lane. on the last jump, pull back and left on the d-pad and tap boost, and you can by-pass the turn into the pit.

p-mar project
after the tunnel chicane, hold back on the d-pad as you go over the double jump. hit the speed pad on the right on the first jump and tap boost very briefly, then hold boost as you go over the next speed pad on the next jump until you're in the air, and keep holding back - as task said, the ship will go right over the chicane.

CLASSIC TRACKS

terramax
there are 3 big fat short cuts on this track but they're all pretty tricky.

1. on the first hill, hold back as you go up, then when you get to the weapon pad push left and boost fairly hard, and you should cut the corner. you have to turn slghtly right as you come back towards the track. this one is very tricky to land as the track is very narrow at the landing site..

2. on the first jump point the ship slightly right, boost quite hard as you go over the edge and hold back on the d-pad to cut the corner. you should go over the jump and the hills. wuss-wagon possibility on this one is off the scale.

2. on the final jump, make sure you go over the speed pad on the left at the bottom, then hold back on the d-pad, and keep holding it all the way through. boost hard as you go over the edge, then again when you're about half way over the water. keep heading straight for the track on the other side and as long as you've got plenty of speed this one is the easiest to land - just don't lose your nerve at the end as it almost always looks as if you're going to crash, but if you keep holding back, you (usually) won't.

gare de europa
this one is an absolute show stopper but the potential for catastrophe is enormous so be warned.

on the big jump at the end, try to get on the speed pad near the bottom, then tap boost and hold back on the pad as you go over each bump. then after the last bump, before the you go over the edge hold boost and back on the pad, until you find yourself gliding serenely in mid-air, remembering to watch the track beneath you. then when you get to the turn, hit the right air brake and pull right (while still holding back) on the pad and do a 180 in midair, then ease off the accelerator and try to land back on the track before then next set of turns by using both brakes at the same time to slow yourself down.

and that's it. remember grasshopper, the path to short-cutty glory is rife with wuss wagons, or something like that. have fun!

[lunar]

Wow, thanks jmoid, I`m going to print this out and keep it by my PS2. The Gare d`Europa stunt sounds wild, but I`ll stick with trying to jump straight into the pit lane for now.

Thanks also Task and Zargz.

I will study hard and try to improve myself, o wise masters of wipeout. :D

[jmoid]

anytime, glad i could help!
ahem, i mean, tread carefully young learner, and the airbrakes of glory will be yours ;)

[Vasudeva]

... but you don't know the power of the dark side.

Darth V.

[Brother Laz]

Grrmpf... that last scut on P-Mar doesn't cooperate. After 10 sightseeing excursions by helicopter, I finally made it to the track at the other end, at a 90 degree angle of course -> WHAM Contender Eliminated. From 40-ish shields to 0 in one hit. Wow.

[jmoid]

hmm... are you doing it on the double jump immediately aftere the chicane in the tunnel? there is another jump after that but there isn't a short cut on that one.

[Brother Laz]

No, the large one at the end of the track. :) I thought it was possible to skip the large 180* right hander by hypering through the mountain, but on the few occasions I make it across (and that's by sticking so close to the actual track that it's rather pointless) I blow myself up against the wall :D

[jmoid]

i tried that so many times! i never managed to make it either. these days i just slow down to a crawl before i get to the corner - not very impressive, but less dangerous :)

[Task]

I'm pretty sure that that section can't be cut. I tried a couple times and decided that the mountain was too much in the way to be able to give the whole section a skip.
So what I ended up doing instead was learning how to fly that area at high speed. Nose down over the jump, nose up landing on the right side, hit the speed pad, nose up turning left, sharp turn right into the underground, tap airbrake and left, hit the double boost, hard right, and a quick left into the pit lane.
It's a frenetic little section, but it feels reeeal niiice when it all comes together.

[lunar]

This isn`t really a traditional shortcut, but on Gare d`Europa its possible to carry out "mid-air refuelling", which may or may not save time, but is quite spectacular anyway and will bring gasps of admiration from onlookers.

By boosting off the big jump until you`re high over the pit lane, its possible to make the ship stall or hang in the air while your shields recharge even though the pits are way down below. Then with another dab of boost you can send the ship away from the pits again, landing halfway through the first corner or on the straight. The most important part is to boost quite gently off the jump, while making the ship float by pulling back on the stick/pad. It works at rapier and I think would probably work on venom too. Can`t claim to be able to do pull it off with total success every time though. :-?