F-Zero GX CHAPTER FIVE (VERY HARD) FAQ by Tei Sama Version 1.0 CONTENTS //1 Intro //2 Tech //3 Map/Key //4 Legal Poop //5 Contact Info --- 1// Intro F-Zero is an intense racing series that started waaay back in the day of the good old SNES, when "3-D" Graphics were fresh in coming. The technology used for F-Zero, which brought two-dimensional sprites into a pseudo third-dimension also took part in the original Super MarioKart. Featuring four racers and a small, but varied selection of tracks to play on, F-Zero certainly set a mark on the racing genre. Not too long later, a sequel to the series--F-Zero X--came out on the Nintendo 64, featuring a literally infinite number of tracks to choose from (thanks to the X-Course Generator), a total of 30 racers (26 of them new), and a fresh, hard-rocking soundtrack with a spice of electronica to keep your adrenalin pumping and rocking. And now, we've got the recently released F-Zero GX; continuing the tradition started by X, a slew of new racers, courses, and songs have been brought forward, not to mention extra modes of gameplay, and even backgrounds for the playable characters--well, stuff more developed than the one-liners you found in X. Among the new modes is Story Mode, which houses some of the most challenging missions seen in modern gaming; the most particularly impossible of them is Chapter Five: Save Jody!. This FAQ will cover how to beat Chapter Five on Very Hard mode, though the data can be applicable to Normal and Hard modes if you're stuck on those. --- //2 Tech Before we start, I feel obligated to explain the goal of this chapter before moving on, so... GOAL: Escape the power plant in XX.00 seconds, where "XX" represents a number that changes depending on what difficulty you play as. NORMAL MODE: 50.00 seconds HARD MODE: 45.00 seconds VERY HARD MODE: 40.00 seconds And as this FAQ is for VERY HARD MODE, all information following will be based on that. There are some basics about the F-Zero series in general that you always need to apply for everything: #1 - Go as fast as you freaking can #2 - Don't hit anything In order to secure these two very basic necessities, you need to know how to time your boosts, and keep your steering under control. If you don't know how to do either of these, then you need to get away from your computer and learn right now, because this course is absolutely UNFORGIVING. And for those of you who are still with me, please feel free to advance further in this FAQ. Starting with the above factors, you need to keep these in mind: you cannot stop boosting, AT ALL, until the very last stretch of the course where you should have no more boost energy left. And, you can't hit ANYTHING. PERIOD. Hitting things is bad. Here's a flowchart of how bad it is: HIT SOMETHING = LOSE SPEED + LOSE HEALTH = LOSE BOOSTS = LOSE TIME If you hit something and your speed drops below 1000KM/H, consider yourself screwed. I strongly recommend hitting ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, though I believe you can scrape by if you nick a door or two. If you're lucky. This also means you need to keep swerving at a minimum; it's hard, especially on the first two horizontal doors, but if you master it, you should be able to make the transitions more naturally. This will save you time and keep your speed up. Due to the level's strictness, you really can't afford to miss any power cells. That means NONE. You have to know where the power cells are, and you have to work out the best ways to get at them. Power cells restore your health energy, which you need DIRELY to boost, and since this entire thing is about timing the boosts, you can't ignore the power cells. All power cells are located in the center of the floor, so you might have to do some funky driving to hit each one. TO BEAT THIS COURSE, YOU NEED TO HAVE THE BLUE FALCON'S STATS SET ON THE MAX SPEED SIDE. No exceptions. If you hit anything, you're screwed, so putting it on the Acceleration side is pointless. Have the stats set EXACTLY on the last bar the words "Max Speed" will remain white for. If the words turn gray, you've put it too far and need to take it back to the last bar. *Now for some new rules: You need to find a pathway that best suits you. There will come a time where you have to leave the center of the floor, where I al- ready made mention of the power cells existing. The best technique I can recommend is finding one side and sticking the hell to it; this is largely for the horizontal doors and the X-shaped door. Some people find more comfort in staying right, others in staying left. Either way you do it, it doesn't matter; you don't lose time, so just take whichever way you can navigate easier. *Keep your nose up at the very end. Pull back on the joystick; if you have enough time left on the clock, you WILL make it through, but you need to keep your nose up. Leave the joystick in the center, and you'll wind up hitting the bottom half of the door; furthermore, you need to have more than one second on your clock if you're going to make the jump. Which means you need to get all the power cells, hit nothing, and boost like a fucking madman as far as you can. *Keep boosting. Don't stop, period. Most people will try to mash the Y button (or whatever you have Boost set as) but that will screw the timing; you need to hit the Y button when you think the boost is finished. If you miss it and have to hit it twice, then so be it; just don't stop boosting until you've run COMPLETELY out of energy. *The first door that will give you trouble is the one right after the second power cell. To avoid it, nudge the machine a little bit to the left--not too far, as the door will also be closing from that side. Use the lines in the floor to help you out. Once you've passed the door, line yourself up in the middle to grab the power cell following. *The best way to handle the doors that close diagonally is to stay on the floor and cut across between them, snatching the power cell while you're at it. You want to get pretty close to the side of the area, right in the corner between the floor and the walls. *Similarly, the X door is hard to navigate correctly; you need to aim it just right by going to the left or right side of the floor. You CAN'T start riding the wall--you hit the door otherwise. You need to stay on the floor for this one. *For the triple-sets of doors...good luck. You just need to aim straight and hope you make it through. There's nothing else I can offer here. *If you look at the map, you'll realize that there's a large gap between the six-second mark and the one-second mark; don't be afraid, because there are five boost-pads that will accelerate you clear to the end if you hit them all. TIMING: -You need to be near or have collected the first power cell with 30 seconds remaining on the clock. -You need to be through the first diagonal door with 21 seconds left. -You need to be through the X door with 14 seconds left. -You need to be near the triple vertical doors with 9 seconds left. -You need to be through the triple horizontal doors with 6 seconds left. -You need more than one second left on the clock to make it through the very last door. This is all the advice I can give you; if you still have trouble, then the only thing left is to practice. Sucky deal, I know, but unless you're lucky, in which case I envy you, keep at it. --- //3 Map/Key _ | |~~~~~~1 Second KEY: | # | i : Doors that close vertically | ^ | = : Doors that close horizontally | | / : Doors that close diagonally-left | ^ | \ : Doors that close diagonally-right | | X : X-shaped door | ^ | 0 : Power Cell | | ^ : Boost Pad | ^ | # : Ramp | | - : Start/Finish | ^ | | | | | | | | | | | | = |~~~~~~6 Seconds | = | | = | Apologies to 600x800 monitor-users; I tried | | to fit this all on one screen, but it isn't | | gonna fly. It annoys me, too, since I use | i | a 600x800, so we can all be pissed off | i | together. | i |~~~~~~9 Seconds | | | 0 | | | | = | | = | | | | 0 | | | | X |~~~~~~14 Seconds | | | 0 | | | | i | | i | | | | 0 | | | | \ | | | | 0 | | | | / |~~~~~~21 Seconds | | | 0 | | | | i | | | | 0 | | | | = | | | | 0 | | | | = | | | | 0 |~~~~~~30 Seconds | | |i | | | | 0 | | | | i | | | | 0 | | | | i | | | | | | i | | | | | - ~~~~~~GO! --- //4 Legal Poop F-Zero and all characters, levels, etc. is Copyright Nintendo. F-Zero GX is copyright Sega and Nintendo. FAQ is copyright Anthony Summo 2003. Do not repost without my permission. This document must be posted in its entirety, or not at all. THE FOLLOWING SITES ARE ALLOWED TO POST THIS FAQ: GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) F-MODE (http://www.metroid-online.com/f-mode/index.htm) --- //5 Contact Info Got questions? Good for you. E-mail me at TeiSama (at) snet (dot) net and I'll see if I can help you. Please no mindless praise...I don't like checking my email, so only send me something if you have a serious question. Muchly appreciated.