Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PS2)
Tricking FAQ (created November 16)
By Hound8
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Pro Skater's Specials
2b. Secret Skater's specials
3. The Regular Tricks Guide
4. Linking tricks (revert, manuals, hidden combos)
5. Doing Specials Properly
6. Adding New Tricks and Stats
7. Getting the SICK Score (scoring lines)
8. Credits
1: Introduction
This is my first-ever FAQ, so please excuse any mishaps
or errors. The Tony Hawk series is, to me, the best
skateboarding series in the world. Tony Hawk 1 was pretty
good, but with no way to truly link tricks. THPS2
introduced the manual, a way of linking tricks along the
ground, as well as tons of new grabs, flips, lips, Specials
and grinds, but with no way to link vert tricks.
THPS3 now gives even more grabs,
flips, lip tricks, grinds and Specials, and also, the
fundamental move, the revert. It now allows you to link
vert tricks for amazingly long combos.
I'm great at the whole Tony Hawk
series, and am now here to show you how to play just as
well as me. Hope this FAQ helps any trick problems you'll
ever have!
2: The Pro Skater's Specials (Moves with an "*" indicate
that it can be held longer for more points.)
Tony Hawk (vert)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The 900 (air)- 6500 pts.
Double Kickflip to Indy (air)- 2000
1-2-3-4 (air)- 2500
5-0 Overturn (grind)- varies
Steve Caballero (street)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kickflip Superman* (air)- 1500+
FS 540 (air)- 4500
Hang Ten Nosegrind (grind)- varies
Handstand 360 Handflip (flatland)- varies
Claw Punch (air)-
Claw Drag (flatland)- varies
The Beserker (air)-
Officer Dick (street)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Assume the Position II* (air)- 1250
Sobriety Grind (grind)- varies
Lazy Ass Manual (manual/flatland)- varies
Private Carrera (street)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Handspring Layout (air)- 3500
Ho Ho Sad Plant*(lip)- varies
Ahh Yeahhh! (flatland)
Ollie the Magic Bum (probably street)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Panhandling* (air)-
S.U.I Grind (grind)- varies
ZZZZ Manual (manual/flatland)- varies
Can Ya Spare A Dollar? (flatland, only available to him,
doesn't start with it, though) - varies
Kelly Slater (surfboard guy)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AC Air (air)-
Going Home (flatland)- varies
The Summoner (grind)-
Neversoft Eyeball
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Super Hand Clap (air)-
Created Skater
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
McTwist (air)- 4500
540 Flip (air)-
Handstand (flatland)- varies
(can't remember the other one)
Other specials not given to any particular character
include the Sacktap, Salad Grind, Stalefish Frontflip,
Nollieflip Underflip and To Rail.
3: The Regular Tricks guide
The above were all special tricks, tricks that require 2
button presses. You can customize them in the Edit Tricks
menu to your liking. To do specials, though, you'll need
your special meter yellow.
How do you that? Well, you do have regular
tricks which increase your special meter, and this section
tells you about them.
"X" tricks
~~~~~~~~~~~
Ollie- Press X to ollie or jump. Holding X increases your
speed and the amount of air you'll get when you ollie.
Remember to ollie to when you go up a ramp.
Nollie- Press L2 while on the ground and then jump to
Nollie.
Fastplant/Bonless/Beanplant- Press up-up then X to do one
of these. Each skater does their own: for example, Tony
Hawk does the Fastplant, Kareem Campbell does the Boneless
and Elissa Steamer does the Beanplant. These give you a bit
more air. Use them to try reaching areas that can't be
reached by a simple Ollie.
No Comply- Simply press up and X simultaneously to do a No
Comply. Considering that a simple Ollie gives you no points
and this does, a No Comply is great to do.
Switching Stance- No, it's not an Ollie trick, or not a
trick at all, to tell the truth, but is important. While on
the ground, press R2 to switch stance. Moves in your switch
stance are worth more points and devalue separately from
moves in regular stance. For example, an FS Shove It worth
100 would be worth around 120 in switch stance, and when
the FS Shove It's value goes down to just 20 in regular
stance, if you haven't done the trick in switch at all, it
would still be worth 120 pts. The same rule applies for all
tricks, including specials.
"Circle" Tricks (grabs)
The circle button is used for grab tricks. A grab is a
maneuver where the skater grabs the board with his/her
hands. The majority of grabs can be held for more points,
and spinning really adds to it. For example, if you got
2000 pts for holding a Melon, you might have got 10,000 or
more by spinning it 720. Spinning is fundamental, and the
more rotations done in the air, well, the more points
you'll get.
Some grabs aren't exactly easy to land, though, such as
the Madonna, Crookedcop, Judo (sometimes hard to land,
usually harder in switch stance) and others. The Madonna is
the hardest to land, so avoid using it in competitions or
after you've done a really big combo and are finishing with
a spinning grab. Just practice.
One mistake that people make, more with
specials, but also with regular grabs, is that they wait
until they are pretty much "floating" in the air or even
coming down from an air to do a trick. I press the
direction and circle pretty much the second I've left the
ramp, before the screen changes to show myself in the air.
Practice doing that so that you'll have more time to spin.
Another good idea is to start with a
Boneless/Fastplant/Beanplant for extra air.
Also note that not all grab moves look like
grabs. The FS Shifty doesn't even involve your hands
touching the board, but can be held, and the Varial is
often classified as a grab, but cannot be held.
"Square" Tricks (flips)
A flip trick is a trick where your skater uses his or
her feet, and in moves like the Sal Flip, their hands, to
flip the board independent of their body. Most flips take
no time to do and cannot be held, making them the perfect
move for "comboing" into and out of grinds, manuals and lip
tricks.
Since they're so easy to do, flips aren't worth nearly
as much as grabs, except for flips that can be held, such
as Fingerflips. With that in mind, don't expect to get any
good scores with just a few kickflips or Pop Shove Its.
Certain flips can be combined or done more than once to get
a higher score, such as double and triple kickflips. These
are known as hidden combos and I'll explain them later.
When tricking between grinds with flips, try
to use only those assigned to up-square and down-square
(the best being Pop Shove It, FS Shove It, Impossible, 360
Flip) for less chance of jumping off the rail, edge or lip.
"Triangle" Tricks (grinds, lips)
The triangle button is used for grinds and lip tricks. To
grind Ollie onto a rail and press Triangle. There are lots
of different grinds that can be done, and unlike flip and
grab tricks, everybody has the same grinds.
50-50- Press Triangle when you are facing the rail
straight. Remember, no direction.
Nosegrind- Press up and triangle.
5-0- Press down and triangle.
Nosebluntslide- Press up, up triangle.
Bluntslide- Press down, down triangle.
Noseslide- Left-triangle
Tailslide- Right-triangle
Crooked- Up/right-triangle (diagonal)
Overcrook- Up/left-triangle (diagonal)
Smith- Down/right-triangle (diagonal)
Feeble- Down/left-triangle (diagonal)
Boardslide/Lipslide- hit the rail sideways
Lip tricks are done by skating directly up a ramp and
pressing triangle and a direction. There are 2 types of lip
tricks, stalls and inverts. Stalls are where you stay on
the lip of the ramp without going inverted or so, balancing
like you were on the skateboard skating but stalled. You
can therefore jump out of these.
Inverts are like handstands on the lip of
the ramp, and being inverted you can't Ollie out of them,
but like all lip tricks, must still press X to get out of
them. You can jump out of a lip and land in another one.
Both grinds and lip tricks have balance
meters, indicating your balance on the rail or lip. Use
left and right for grinds to balance, and up and down to
balance lip tricks. Once you improve your rail balance and
lip trick stats, you can balance better on rails and hold
lips longer.
4: Linking Tricks
You may be great at all regular tricks, but without
combos, you'll never really get anywhere.
The manual (up down) and nose manual
(down up) are the most fundamental linking moves in the
game, except perhaps the revert. A manual can be done on
the ground, but is better to do it when coming down from a
trick (tap up down or down up as you land). Manuals are the
wheelies of skateboarding, and you can link everything with
them.
Bust a Boneless followed by a Varial Kickflip and land in
a manual, jump to a Kickflip, to a nose manual, go over to
a rail, do a Crooked grind, ollie into an impossible into a
5-0 grind, heelflip off into another manual...
Manual combos can be abused to get
hundreds of thousands of points in one combo; I've already
got 460,000 off my starting combo once. While doing a
manual, tap R2 or L2 to do either a pivot or nose pivot,
depending on if you're in a manual or nose manual.
Basically a 180 turn, pivots add style and flair to your
regular manual combo, and can be substituted for manuals
when your manual starts to barely give points. From a
pivot, press L2 to spin back to a manual. You can keep
switching them as long as you can balance them.
The revert is used to link vert tricks
and is done by pressing R2 or L2 as you land from a vert
trick. The revert itself is just a quick stance change, but
if you do a manual as you do the revert, it'll keep your
combo going, meaning huge combos. This move here is
invaluable, and without it you will NEVER get the high
scores or gold medals. Think 'bout that.
Hidden Combos
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A hidden combo is linking tricks without jumping or
repeatedly doing a trick.
Flips and Grabs
(The button presses must be done in rapid succession.) Note
that the Kickflip to Indy and Kickflip to Crail, unlike in
the first 2 games, cannot be held, and that the Beni-
fingerflip is not one trick, but 2, using up one Benihana
to do. (And don't try to press the buttons all at once.)
The Boardslide/Lipslide can't be linked to another grind,
only by jumping.
Lips
If you're not in an Invert Trick, (Gymnast Plant, Invert,
Eggplant, etc...), if you're in a Nose Stall or Boneless or
something, you can link to these:
Boneless (left, left-triangle)
Axel Stall (right, right-triangle)
Disaster (left, right-triangle)
While in an Invert lip trick, you know, kind of like a
handstand trick, you can link to these:
One Foot Invert (left, left-triangle)
Invert (right, right-triangle)
Gymnast Plant (left, right-triangle)
Varial Invert to Fakie (right, left-triangle)
Remember to seriously watch your balance when switching.
Flatland Tricks
To link flatland tricks, you must have at least one in
your trick inventory, so try to make sure that each
character has at least one, if they don't already have one.
From any special manual, except the Sproing, Duck Dive
Shark Attack and One Wheel Nose Manual, you can go straight
into these without jumping:
To Rail: left, left-triangle
Truckstand: right, right-triangle
Anti Casper: left, right-triangle
Casper: right, left-triangle
Handstand: right, right-circle
While in a Truckstand, doing another will result in a
Truckspin. The Truckspin is a different trick to the
Truckstand, so use it when the Truckstand's point value
starts going down too much. Also, and this only counts for
Rodney Mullen, press L2 + R2 + Triangle for the Pogo to
Hair Flip, a hidden combo flatland trick.
While in any of these but the Anti Casper, pressing
left and square will flip the board, making a new trick
(Truckflip, Casper Flip, Railflip, Handflip). You can do
nice long combos with these. Watch your balance well!
Remember that flipping the board counts as a different
trick, giving points as it is held, meaning a new trick.
For example, a Handflip is different to a Handstand.
(For variety, choose a flatland trick for your
character that can't be comboed into, such as the Reemo
Slide and Primo.) And as always, watch your balance.
Lots of people have trouble with either doing specials
or doing them quickly enough. For air specials, most people
wait until they're in the air to do them, but that's wrong,
especially in the case of longer specials like The 900.
What I do is as I'm going up the ramp, or quarterpipe or
halfpipe I press the 2 directions and then the button
(circle or square) so it all comes down to the second
you've left the ramp the special has started already. You
must input the special fast to do this. It took me a long
while to get this technique perfected, so keep trying.
Special Manuals (flatland tricks) should
be done the same as manuals, only a bit faster. Special
grinds can be done in 3 ways. The 3rd is the best for
beginners. You can input the 3 button presses as you're
about to grind a lip, you can do it in the air as you're
about to jump to a rail, or while on a rail, jump up and
try to land in the grind, pressing the 3 buttons quickly.
Special Lip tricks are done by pressing the 2 directions
and then triangle as soon as you hit the lip.
6: Adding New Tricks and Stats
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can change your regular tricks at any time, either
during a run or at the skater select screen by heading to
the Edit Tricks screen. From there, chose a category, click
on the move or space and select a move to put there, and
then the direction(s) that suit you best. Choose tricks
carefully, based on the category.
You will gain a new, free special slot every time you
complete all objectives on a level, although you don't need
to get all the Stat Points in a level to do this. The stat
points are round, yellow Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 logos,
which give one extra stat every time you collect one. Put
these in any stat you want, be it air, hangtime, spin,
manuals, etc... (Remember not to give your character too many
of any type of Special, make the characters balanced.)
Also note that the Panhandling, Going
Home and maybe others can only be done by their respective
skater. Sorry.
7: Getting the SICK Score
Each level has 3 score-based objectives, the High, Pro,
and SICK Score. The SICK is hardest to get, and gets
progressively harder to get as the levels get tougher, all
the way up to 500,000 required as the last score in the
last level, the Cruise Ship.
Foundry
~~~~~~~
Vert
~~~~~
Score required: 60,000
Not much to start with. Just start with a Boneless or
Fastplant or Beanplant into a Pop Shove it and manual,
tricking over to the makeshift halfpipe. Grind the lip a
bit to finish your combo, then hop in and start busting 540
Seatbelts, 720 Cannonballs, Melons, Airwalks and all your
aerial Specials. Reverting seriously slows you down here,
and since the score is so low, you won't need to, but if
you do, just follow up with a couple of lip tricks.
Remember to ollie out of them (except Inverts) and follow
up with a revert to keep things going.
Also check out the quarterpipe near to the
molten bucket for more high-flying. And, also check out the
bowl unlocked in the secret area after un-jamming 5 the
valves, and the pipes high up reached from the Tape rail.
Street
~~~~~~
From the start, turn slightly right and forward and
launch off the kicker with a flip and land in a grind on
the rail. Jump with Shove Its and Impossibles and kickflips
and heelflips between rails up to the end then Ollie off
with a spinning grab. If you have balance, land in a manual
and do a few flip-manual-flip-pivot combinations.
Session the nice semi-circular rail in
front the molten bucket with lots of hidden combo grinds
and throw in a special around it to spruce things up. In no
time, you should have the score.
For insane grinding, open up the secret
area and skate to the top of the walkway, turn around, and
grind all the way down, or as far as you can go before
balance runs out. Whew!(Do airs too for variety!)
Canada
~~~~~~~
Vert
~~~~
Score required: 120,000
Start off with a Fastplant into a flip and then a
manual. Manual-flip over and over until you reach the
kickers. Launch over them with a short spinning grab, land
in a manual if you have balance, and go over to the
quarterpipe and launch up with a short special or a grab
trick or a couple of lip tricks.
Now head over to the skate park by grinding
the fence and hopping in. This whole area is perfect for
vert, so stay in here and impress your Canadian skate
buddies. Revert after every special air and use up your lip
tricks.
If you want even more vert, head to the Bully area and
go past the bridge to find a bowl of sorts. Mission
accomplished!
Street
~~~~~~~
Start the same way as in the vert. After that's done,
turn and grind down the rails leading into the parking lot
and finish with a manual up the quarterpipe at the end and
a spin, or grind the lip, Kickflip off, and manual to keep
the combo going. Mix up your flatland tricks here.
If you want, head to the skate park. Do
a few grabs and aerial Specials for variety, and grind all
the lips. Jump off with a Varial Kickflip or Heelflip from
the lip into a manual and soar up the ramp.
For a great long grind, head to the
Secret Tape area and grind the rail leading away from the
tape. No problem.
Rio
~~~~
There shouldn't be vert or street in the competition
levels, but a mix of both for variety. About 170,000 should
do the job, but go for 200,000 and above.
Start by grinding the short rail on your left.
Fall into a manual and ride up the ramp with a spinning
Melon or Mute grab or something. Revert, nose manual, and
ride up to the lip and do your special grind for as long as
you can hold it then leap off into a manual. Do a few
tricks to build up the multipliers until your balance runs
out, then finish.
Now session the ramps for a while, then head up
the ramp you started on up to the top and ollie onto the
electric wires in a grind. Hold it for a while then jump
into the street below and try to time some car plants while
mixing it up with manuals and pivots.
Grind the planters and rails and finish
with airs. Your time should be running out now, so just
finish with a big air special, revert, then keep your
combo, even if time is up, until your balance finishes.
Also check out the secret area behind
the fence, and keep away from the small quarterpipes that
force you to either go straight up or bail. Remember not to
bail. Bailing once and having a stellar run anyway is all
right but once you fall more than once, restart.
Suburbia
~~~~~~~~~
Vert
~~~~~
SICK Score required: 200,000. The points are going up, but
there are endless vert lines here. Mix them up with grinds
and manuals and these should be easy.
From the start, plant off the ice cream
truck and land in a manual. Carry it over to the backyard
park and head up with a 540 grab. Revert and manual over to
the lip. Do a special lip trick if you have one, or do a
couple of lip combos. If you can, revert and finish with
another air.
Now go over to the backyard pool near the construction
site or first session the quarterpipes, revert, and then
grind the wooden planks on the ground and manual over to
the pool and finish with a lip trick.
You can revert all your Specials here
and do a Special grind to really rack up the points. You
can finish in the pool and try for the 200,000, or head to
the 2 other very playable areas: the trailer park skate
park and the haunted house.
To open the haunted house, get an axe by
grinding one of the pieces of wood on the ground inside the
unfinished house and then bring it over to the Thin Man.
He'll chop the door and open up his house, opening up a
whole vert park. Great! Oh, and remember to mix up your
grabs and lips, and grind for good combos.
Street
~~~~~~~
Start off with a 360 Shove It or 360 FS Shove It and land
in a manual. Trick over to the ice cream truck and plant
off it then manual again. Go over to the park and grind
along the lip, doing hidden grinds. Use circle-circle and
square-square repeatedly for cheap points.
Jump off and if your balance persists,
manual or pivot up to the lip and bust a lip trick, since
you probably won't have the speed to do an air with a
respectable amount of rotations.
Do a few vert tricks here and revert after every
respectable trick, especially Specials. After that, head up
to the roof of the house near the satellite dish and grind
the long electric wire here. Repeat the grind-flip-
different grind combination and balance.
You'll end up on the roof of another house.
From there, head up the quarterpipe, do a nice 720 trick.
Now that you've gained speed, launch off the kicker with a
Boneless and a long flip like the Sal Flip or Fingerflip.
Now from here session the park with
grinds, lip tricks and airs.
From there, take it on your own path. Grind
the fences near the pool and grind up high in the
construction yard. Also grind and manual around the haunted
house area. After you've collected the Secret Tape by
grinding the branch, air off with a grab and land in a
manual. Plant off the ice cream truck multiple times for
cheap points. The kicker in the middle of the road can be
Fastplanted off with a 360 Impossible or Double Kickflip
and then go into a Special Manual.
Airport
~~~~~~~~
Vert
~~~~~
SICK Score required: 300,000. Start like in the street
section and follow it exactly the same until you reach the
baggage claim. Now air over the escalator and then revert,
manual and grind around the baggage claim for a good combo.
This can be plumbed for cheap points at the loss of style.
More vert is found in the country flags
area. Do Specials on the quarterpipes and then revert and
manual over to the flag rails. Jump out of the grind before
you bail, though.
The bottom area is great for vert. Revert every move
and grind the lips and lamps for gaps and multipliers. Keep
the combos coming down here and you'll get the big 300.
Street
~~~~~~~
Start with a Nosegrind on the left counter going BACK to
the starting point. At the end ollie with a flip into a
Nosebluntslide on the couch and flip into a manual. Go over
to the other couch and jump and grind it for a gap. Leap to
the counter and grind it to the end then hop off with a
flip. Be careful not to land near the pickpocketers'
victims because they'll throw you down.
Do a Special Grind completely across the
escalator and manual at the end. Launch up with a grab off
the escalator to the lights and grind them. Ollie off with
a short special like the 360 Hardflip or Hardflip Lateflip
or a simple grab or a bunch of flips. Land in a manual and
grind the escalators.
When you're done, launch off the hump on the
right and grind the lights. Now grind down the escalator
and manual over to the halfpipe and bust a few spin-revert
combinations.
Now grind the flag rails. Remember to mix up your
grinds. Finally head down to the basement area. Session
with air Specials and long combos with reverts, Special
Grinds off the lips and grinds on the lights. Good work,
grasshopper.
Skater's Island
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not very diverse, simply air all over the bowls and launch
off the kickers with flips to manuals, do a few flatland
tricks where possible and revert constantly. Go for 200,000
to get the gold, and grind the pirate flag to unlock a
secret area with a pirate ship and some nice vert.
Los Angeles
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vert
SICK Score required: 400,000. First start by turning around
and doing a big trick off the pipe. Having gained speed,
grind up the wire up to the freeway. Combo into and out of
grinds to help you get up the wire.
From there, go straight forward until you
reach a sort of halfpipe. Trick there. There are 2 other
places you can go for good vert: the purple halfpipe and
the pipe near the fire truck. Grind the ladder for a gap,
manual, and ride up the pipe. Do a Special then revert and
continue your combo. A good line is to do another air or a
short Special like the Jackass or 1-2-3-4, revert, then
grind the other lip with a Special grind.
Remember to play street with grinds and
manuals for variety, because simple vert cannot get you the
score. Reverts are essential.
Street
~~~~~~~
Just mix it up. Grind, revert, air, manual and pivot like
there's no tomorrow. Mix up the vert lines with grinds and
manuals. A good line is a grind down the fire truck ladder,
an air up the halfpipe, and then a revert. Mix it up, but
be cheap. Also, get your Special meter full in the starting
area with repeated airs off the quarterpipe, then do short
Special grind like the Crail Slide or Salad grind off the
rail leading down the stairs and leap off with a flip into
a manual up the brown quarterpipe. Do a trick, then revert,
manual, and grind the rails ahead.
Tokyo
~~~~~~
This place is tough. You could start with a Boneless or
Fastplant or Beanplant off the kicker and do a Pop Shove
It. Manual over to the other kicker and do a Nosegrab off
and land in a grind. Jump with an FS Shove It or Impossible
into your Special grind and hold it for as long as humanly
possible.
When you must, leap off with a Hardflip and manual over
to the vert area. Launch up with a grab trick and from then
on, keep doing Specials, revert, manual, then do a Special
grind and then manual up the ramp. Go up the loop at least
once, and try to finish your run with a nice flatland
combo.
Remember not to bail once or your failure is assured,
UNLESS you can get a combo worth over 200,000. From there,
your VICTORY should be assured.
You could also start with a 540 grab on the quarterpipe
to your left from the starting point, revert, manual, and
grind along the lips of the quarterpipes, jump across the
gap with a flip, grind to the end and then jump into a
special manual and do some flatland manual combos to finish
off. A good 300,000+ should give you 99.9s or so. Don't
give up.
Cruise Ship
~~~~~~~~~~~
SICK Score: 500,000 (vert and street) From the start, turn
around and do a few grabs to get your special meter cranked
up. When it's full, go and grind the banner rail by
launching off the kicker and doing a Special grind all the
way down then manualing up the quarterpipe with a huge
spin. Revert and go back up the rail a bit then hop off
with a Double Kickflip or Double Heelflip.
From there, drain the pool by grinding on the
white pipe and try to get the rest of the points there by
grinding around the pool for a gap, and reverting every
trick. That's the best I've got for this level, although
you can also explore the level to find some awesome
grinding lines and some great reverting lines with pipes
near to rails.
Credits
Thanks to everybody who created the Tony Hawk series, and
this game, thanks to Tony Hawk and all the other pro
skaters who gave the game meaning, thanks to GameFAQS for
making a great site, to PlannetTonyHawk for making a good
site, I got a small bit of info there, and to the guy who
puts up the FAQS, and good luck to everybody trying to beat
the game.
