Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland is much too easy offline, and doesn’t do a good
job of preparing people for online play. Hopefully, this guide will help you to
learn how to score in the millions consistently.
The guide is mostly done. There are a lot of useless things I wanted to put in
to point out why you shouldn’t do them, but I haven’t felt like doing it.
If you have questions concerning something in here feel free to e-mail me at
t3h_nO_ob (at) yahoo.com. Please don’t e-mail me concerning goals or technical
issues.
This section will explain how to score. It’s divided into three sections which
decrease in importance after the first section. Everything in the first section
is vital, while there are things in the third section which are only useful to
the most obsessed players (who uses Front Tucks anyway?)
This is what should have been in the instructions. Most of the stuff here is
fairly obvious, but until you come to terms with everything here you’re not
going to do very well.
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The Concept
Base Score x Multiplier = Score
If your base score is high and your multiplier is high, you’ll get a lot of
points.Your base score is the sum of the point value of all tricks you did in
your combo. Your multiplier is the amount of tricks you did in your combo. Your
base score will always be higher than your multiplier.
The rest of this guide serves to explain how to get high base scores and
multipliers by using the tons of techniques available in the game.
These are done with square button and direction. They’re generally fast and low
scoring. Do these often to get your multiplier very high. By often I mean every
opportunity. When ever your in the air you should do a trick. These can be done
into and out of grinds or between rails.
By hitting square twice (or sometimes 3 times) you’ll do a trick that’s worth
more points and will take longer to do. For instance left + square is a
kickflip worth 200 points, but if you press left + square, square you’ll do a
double kickflip which takes longer but is worth 500 points; pressing square 3
times will do a triple kickflip worth 1000 points, but it takes the longest.
Grab tricks are done with circle and a direction. These can be held for more
points. You can use these quickly to increase your multiplier or hold them to
help with your base score. Remember to let go before you land. You can also do
double taps with these.
These are done with triangle and a direction on a rail or an edge. You have to
balance grinds. The more time you spend grinding, the worse your balance gets.
The more times you grind the same rail, the worse your balance gets on that
rail. It’s unwise to grind for long periods of time as it hurts your balance.
Eventually, during a combo you’ll find that your balance becomes practically
uncontrollable. It’s best to only stay on rails for a second or two at a time
when this happens. Hop on then hop off for best results.
You can also do several variations to grinds while in one by pressing different
combinations of square circle and triangle. This isn’t very useful, as you’ll
find yourself grinding for longer than you should.
Manuals are down by pressing up down or down up on the ground or right before
you land. These have to be balanced. The more time you spend manualing the
worse your balance gets. It’s best to only do these for short periods of time.
For traveling long distance you should do a manual, jump, flip trick, manual
and repeat; this is called bouncing. Beware that you can only balance while in
the manual. Remember where it is in the meter before doing another one. Know
that if it’s at the edge when you jump it’ll still be there when you land.
You can do flatland tricks while in a manual, but it’s not necessarily wise.
You shouldn’t be doing manuals long enough to do this, and they also slow you
down. If you stop to gain speed while in a manual press left, right + square to
go into a spacewalk; this will give you some speed.
Go straight toward the lip of a quarter pipe and press a direction plus
triangle. Lip tricks are somewhat useless as they break the flow of a combo.
They can help your multiplier dramatically however. You can do modifiers to lip
tricks. It’s wise to do this for as long as possible once in every combo. Hold
it as long as you can and fall back onto the quarter pipe. The meter will be
green on the side which it’s safe to let the meter go off. Sometimes you can
fall toward either side.
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Special Tricks
These score much higher than normal tricks and will make up the bulk of you
base score. Air tricks and Grab tricks are the ones worth the most. Grind
tricks, Manuals, and Lip tricks need to be done for long periods of time to get
high scores for them which makes them less valuable. If you use you should only
do them when you plan to hold them.
The 900 and Indy 900 are the two highest scoring tricks, and it’s in your best
interest to use them. Tricks that take longer to do are worth more, but harder
to land. Shorter tricks are worth less but easier to land. There are also
tricks that you can’t spin as you do. It’s up to you to decide what works best
for you.
When in the air you can spin with either L1 or R1. Spinning multiplies the
value of the tricks you do in the air. Spinning 180 multiplies it by 1.5, 360
is 2 etc. If you get big enough air you can use a special trick that can’t be
spun then do a spin after it for massive points. A 360 Switch Indy 900 will add
over 20,000 to your base score.
When you spin, you have to make sure to land fairly straight. If you’re off by
too much you’ll fall. You don’t have to worry about this is landing in a grind.
PEOPLE WHO SPIN LOOK BETTER THAN PEOPLE WHO DON’T.
Every time you do the same trick it’s value will decrease by 10%. If you repeat
a trick it will eventually be worth practically nothing. Vary your tricks to
minimize the effect this has on you. Note that doing tricks switch and regular
degrade separately. If you do trick regular then switch they’ll both be worth
they’re full value. If you then do it again switch it’ll degrade to 10% less.
Press R2 while skating outside of a combo to switch between switch and regular.
While you’re skating switch, tricks are worth 10% more. To minimize score
degradation you should use both switch and regular tricks. This will happen
naturally if you spin.
First of all, the parkour tricks are worthless and will be covered later.
Walking can serve many purposes to extend a combo, but the worst way to use it
is to replace manuals. You only get a few seconds of walk time every combo, so
don’t waste them. Long travel on the ground should be done bouncing, not
walking. However, if you expect that you’re manual balance to too bad to use,
then it’s better to walk instead of manual.
If you find that you’re about to land awkwardly and fall, land in a walk
instead. If you’re going to slow and need to speed up significantly get off
your board and get back on. If you need to make a sudden stop/turn, land on
your feet.
The best way to get back on your board is to press L1 + R1 while walking. This
increases your speed, but more importantly it stops your walk meter faster than
jumping and doing a cave man.
If your feet don’t touch the ground, the timer won’t start, and it is better to
cave man.
Press R2 or L2 as you land at the bottom of a quarter pipe to revert. Get the
timing down because it’s very important; it should become second nature. To
manual out of a quarterpipe you have to revert first. Always revert when you
land in a quarter pipe, even if you aren’t going to continue the combo.
Every revert you do slows you down more, and at some point you’ll do one and be
forced to skate in place, walk, or spacewalk. If you ollie after a revert you
won’t slow down as much. If it’s possible to ollie out of a revert without
crashing then do so.
As I said before, to get high scores you want a high base score and high
multiplier. Using the tricks listed above you should be able to easily score 5
million points and possibly much more with experience. But one of the key
things is knowing how to put it all together in a combo.
It’s wise to start a combo with something that will give you a decent base
score to on which to build. I tend to start off with 2 Indy 900s and 2 The 900s
using two quarterpipes with some space between them. Do a 900 in the quarter
pipe, revert, ollie, flip trick, manual and air the next quaterpipe, then
repeat. This will get your base score past 40,000 and combined with flips/rolls
it can be worth more than 1 million points.
*Note: often there are much better ways to get a nice base score to start your
combo, but they’ll vary by level. I’ve been able to do this method on almost
every level since THPS4. If you know a better way feel free to do it, but this
method will carry you far.
Next comes the creative part of a combo; increasing your base score and
multiplier. There’s no correct way to do this so you can interpret it in pretty
much anyway you like. The highest scoring method of doing this to find
something that increase your base score significantly and do it as much as
possible, but that’s easier said than done. If your going for tags (playing a
graffiti style game) this is the time when you want to use as much of the level
as possible. Generally, doing lots of grinds, flip tricks, and the occasional
big air will suffice. If you play online, watch players better than you and if
you see something worth copying feel free.
Eventually you’ll find that your balance is going crazy, now it’s time to just
try not to fall. Do a lot of bouncing to increase your multiplier, and this is
the perfect time to do a lip trick or two until you can’t balance those any
longer. Remember to stop before you fall. If you have time left on your walk
meter use it to do an air on a quarter pipe.
Hopefully, after you’re done all this you’ll have a nice score you can be happy
with.
You should already be able to score a few million points and be able to keep up
with and sometimes beat average players online from reading the vital section,
but there are also things that will help you tremendously. If you can master
the things listed in this section the only obstacle between you and
2,147,483,647 points (the highest possible score) is how far you’re willing to
push yourself.
When you do a spine transfer you’ll gain some speed when you revert out. When
you spine transfer from high to low, if there’s another quarter pipe in front
of you’ll be able to do a decent air trick from it. In these situations is
rarely wise to ollie out of a revert. Hip transfers are done the same way as
spine transfer but when the quarter pipes are at a right angle. You can use
either of these to grind the top of the pipe it sends you in to.
When you do an acid drop from a high point to a low quarter pipe you’ll be able
to get some speed, and if there’s another quarter pipe in front of you big air
is very possible. Another use for acid drops is to grind the top of a quarter
pipe.
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Leveling Out
After jumping from a quarter pipe, if you press R2 you’ll turn parallel to the
ground, or do a Spine/Hip Transfer. This will allow you to grind the top of the
quarter pipe. If you don’t want to revert because you’ll lose your speed, this
is a good alternative. Beware that if there’s an object you can grind above the
quarter pipe, you may bail on that if you do a big air trick.
If need to turn around this is the best way to do it. Of ten you’ll find
yourself being launched into walls by rails, so you should Wallplant off of it.
Use both of these tricks equally as they do degrade and there’s no reason not
to.
The “Noob line” is riding on a rail between to walls jumping and doing a lot of
flip tricks and a slightly bigger trick after you wall plant. The more times
you grind the same rail the worse your balance will be on the rail, and you
can’t do very big tricks from wall plants. This is a simple solution to
scoring, but there is always a much better alternative.
These are hard to find on your own, but very important if you want to be a true
whore. Whoring is playing the game simply to score using any methods outside of
cheating. It’s not something I enjoy, but if you’re trying to get over 75
million points there’s no other way.
A good line will take you all over the level letting you get big air tricks and
a larger multiplier. Finding the best line in a level isn’t easy. The best way
to find them is to watch a good whore and copy them.
A baser is a small part of a line that can give you a lot of air so you can get
your base score up quickly. Typically, you can find a high drop into a series
of quarter pipes, but those don’t exist everywhere. Here is another situation
where you should watch somebody better than you and copy them. While a baser
isn’t necessary, for people who have trouble getting a good base score it’s
important.
Not to be confused with Create-A-Trick, this is changing the layout of your
tricks on your controller. There no correct tricks to select, it depends on
what you want.
The important part here is your special tricks. For the highest possible scores
you’ll want to have as many high scoring tricks as possible and you want to use
all of them. I don’t know all the values of the tricks and I don’t intend to
find out. My only recommendations are The 900 and Indy 900. If your care more
about style than points pick tricks that look good. If you’re able to spin well
consider how much you can get by spinning a trick when picking them.
If you want to change your normal tricks you can. Take into consideration that
you’ll be doing these tricks very often so you shouldn’t pick ones that are
hard to do. The way I play, I use flip tricks to haphazardly to use anything
slower than the default tricks, but my grab tricks are changed for style.
*************************************
Practically Useless
*************************************
Things in this section aren’t going to help you to increase your score much and
will often break the flow of your combo. Unless you’re working to look better,
there’s really no reason to read this section. This guide is being rushed and
something had to be cut from it.
You can use these to make sharp turn at high speed, although instance where you
need to do this are rare. The longer you slide for the slower you’ll come out.
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Power Slides
This is done by pressing Down, Down, R1. You’ll spin around 180 degrees without
losing speed. Unfortunately, you can only do this while skating out side of a
combo. It is still the fastest way to turn around. It’s very useful to make
quick turns while playing King of the Hill
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Create a Skater
You are your CaS. If you play offline it doesn’t matter at all, but online you
look like a noob. If you play well it won’t matter too much, but if you’re only
average you face some banishments from server run by jerks: when I host if I
need to clear space you’ll probably be first to go.
Another note about how you dress your CaS: panda suits are just as bad as not
having a CaS at all. Hundreds of people use them and you’ll look just like
them. Be creative.
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Winning
===============================================================
In the quest for victory scoring isn’t everything. While scoring is almost
always important, it’s only the objective in 1 game. Here I’ll briefly explain
what you should do to win in each game, but first you must know what a tag is
as well as a couple other concepts.
Tags are the unit of scoring in graffiti. You tag an object by doing a trick on
it. The game remembers the score of the combo in which you got the tag. When
you tag an object it will become your color (the color of your name) and you’ll
get a point for it. The twist is that tags can be stolen. If somebody else
tricks on an object you’ve tagged with a higher scoring combo they steal the
tag. You lose the point and it becomes their color.
Tagging more than half of the level with a score nobody can beat is a
guaranteed win.
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Collisions and Slapping
When two players collide, the one going faster will slap the other and knock
them down. Online collisions are rarely turned on.
Because the game lags a lot, online you’ll need to get in front of the person
you’re trying to slap because they aren’t really where you see them. The host
has an advantage in that wherever they see a player is where they are.
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Skating After 0
Sometime called “after time”. When the clock reaches zero you’re allowed to
continue your combo until you land or fall. This is a good time to watch other
players.Beware that some hosts will turn this off; typically this is don’t by
inexperienced hosts that get bored with watching others. You can’t skate after
zero in elimaskate.
ES for short. This can be played with tags or points. This section is about
points, “Elimigraff” is discusses tags.
When the timer reaches zero the player with the lowest score is eliminated. If
two players are tied for the lowest score they both will be eliminated. When
you’re eliminated you may view other players. Use this as an opportunity to
learn from them. Combos landed between rounds don’t count. Usually score resets
are turned off. When score resetting is on all players will lose all points at
the beginning of each round, your special meter will empty, if you’re in a
combo when the round start you’ll lose it (you won’t fall, it’ll literally
disappear), and score degradation will reset. You have no way of knowing if
it’s on or not until the beginning of the second round. If the preceeding
happened, it’s on. Usually the game is played with a 30 second time limit on
rounds, but sometimes it’ll be played with 1 minute rounds; 2 minute rounds are
extremely rare.
When score resetting is on, you need to be fast and consistent. Score as much
as you can within the time limit and make sure to land before the time hits
zero. I find it’s best to build a decent base score first and then focus on
your multiplier. Use your special tricks as much as possible. Fall and you’re
screwed.
When score resetting is off strategy will come into play. Very high scoring
combos take much longer than the 30 seconds you’re usually allowed, so you’ll
want to go several rounds without landing. However, if you don’t land you run a
big risk of ending up in last place. This gets very unpredictable when
everybody is evenly matched. I usually try to land at least 1 million points
during my first combo in the first round, and then hope I can continue my
second combo into the third or fourth round, but doing this isn’t a guaranteed
win. Often people jump from last place to first place, so be wary of the
scores. If you see red text on your screen telling you you’re in last place you
must land or face elimination. If you’re told by red text how far ahead of last
place you are, unless you’re confident the last place person won’t beat your
score, you should land.
Also, because of score degradation, it’s better to save your special tricks for
your larger combos.
The most important thing is not to fall behind early, and you’ll be fine.
This is Elimiskate with tags instead of points, and with good players it can be
insanity. All the stuff I said about Elimiskate still applies, but now you have
to worry about stealing. It’s possible to be relaxed in first place then
suddenly find your self on the brink of elimination because somebody stole most
of your tags. For at least the first round you may want to try and tag more
obscure areas. The more often people touch an object the more likely it is that
somebody will tag it with a high score. When you start in the second round you
want to play it’s like Graffiti. Score as much you can while tagging as much as
you can. It’s best not to land every round, but beware of the scores. People
like to land within the last 5 seconds and this can be painful if they’re
stealing from you. If you think you’ll be eliminated land, other wise keep
skating and hope for the best.
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Combo Mambo
CM for short. This can be played with either tags or points. Only your highest
scoring combo counts, and there once you land score degradation is reset. If
you want to play it safe, land before the clock hits zero and then going for
another big combo after time.
When playing with tags there is still stealing, so you do have to make sure you
land a very high combo. The score that counts is the combo that is the highest
scoring when you land it. If somebody steals those tags your score will go
down.
Offline, this is broke when played with tags. It will be scored as normal
graffiti and all combos will count.
The goal is to slap your opponents as many times as possible. You slap by
riding into them. The player that’s going faster will slap the other. Once time
is up you should continue for as long as you can and keep hitting people to
rack up points. After time they’ll stay where they are when you slap them
opposed to them respawning when you slap them in game.
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Pot O’ Gold
The goal is to either get points or tags while in possession of the pot. If you
land a combo without the pot you won’t get the points. If you have the pot and
land a combo you will get the points. If you’re in a combo when somebody takes
the pot from you, you’ll fall. If your in a combo when you get the pot you can
continue your combo. Doing a big combo then getting the pot before you land is
a good way to win, but it’s not easy. After time you can continue skating, so
if the person with the pot lands before you, steal it from them.
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Capture The Flag
Steal your opponents flag from their base and return it to yours while keeping
your flag at your base. Ride over the flag to take it from the base. Hit an
enemy flag carrier to return your flag if they have it, or take another team’s.
You can only carry 1 flag at a time. If two flag carriers collide, the one
going faster will slap the other and if possible return the flag. When you’re
playing with a time limit, it’s a good idea to try and get points after time is
up, but don’t fall with the flag or your team won’t be able to recover it.
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King of the Hill
The goal here is to hold the crown for the assigned amount of time. You’re
slower when you have the crown. Slap the player with the crown to steal it.
There are a lot of players that have some mastery of flying around the level in
a way that’s almost impossible to follow. In this and scavenger hunt knowing
the levels very well helps more than being able to score.
You spend the first half of the game hiding your tokens and the second half
hunting down everybody’s. Try to put yours in a place where you can get them
easily but other people won’t. I prefer to put all five of mine together
somewhere that it’s not obvious how to get to. A lot of people hide their coins
within glitches. This game has nothing to do with scoring.
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Fire Fight
Shoot fire balls at your opponents. Doing big combos will make your fireballs
bigger and more powerful. It’s very possible (a necessary) to kill people in
one hit. Once your balls are big enough spray all over the level. Remember to
shoot backwards if nobody’s in front of you. You can fire up to four balls at
once and doing so will cover a very large area. Avoid common scoring lines or
you risk being fried before you have enough points to do any thing decent.
Complete the goals as fast as you can. The goals are the same as the classic
mode goals on sick. If you play this a lot it’d be wise to memorize this, but
it’s not something I’d bother with.
You get ten seconds to start a combo, and you can continue for as long as you
like. Score as much as you can.
*****************
Style
*****************
While this isn’t really important, it does matter. A lot of people think that
scoring is everything, but many don’t and I’m one of them. While it’s good to
go into a server and just be unbeatable, that doesn’t make you interesting to
watch.
While technically it doesn’t matter, if you have style you’re going to be more
interesting to watch and generally be more able to adjust do different
situations. The basic things to do when styling are to spin and not get
repetitive. You should also make an effort to use things like spin outs and
bert slides and to avoid walking or losing speed.
There’s also the thing called improv, short for improvisation. Doing this will
yield lower scores than lines, but you look cool. The key principle is to be
unpredictable and creative.
===============================================================
Copyright Information
Copyright 2005 Alfred Blackman III (Sik and Twizted). This document is may be
printed for personal use. It may not be posted in whole or in part on a site
other than gamefaqs.com. You may not link directly to this document without
permission. If you’d like to please contact me at t3h_nO_ob ( at ) yahoo.com
