SMUGGLER'S RUN: WARZONES (Gamecube)
GREAT RANKINGS GUIDE
written by Clark Kent Nielsen
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I was surprised that I could find NOTHING on how to get a Great ranking
on all the mission levels in Smuggler's Run. Well, not so much HOW to get
them, but what the requirements were. I did find it, by the way. Sort of.
But I found out the hard way... by doing it myself. So why should I make
everyone else in the same situation suffer? I'll compile what I know so
you don't have to waste a lot of time searching for something on the
Internet that isn't there. Let us begin:
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Contents of FAQ:
1. The Reward
2. General Tips
3. Ranking Requirements
4. Misc. Junk
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ready...... go......
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1. THE REWARD
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If you haven't noticed, depending on your performance on each and
every mission, you'll get ranked either OK, GOOD, or GREAT. Great is
the highest, no doubt, and not so easy to get. So what does
thirty-nine Great rankings get you? The last vehicle, the hover bike.
And I'm sure you're asking, "Is it worth the trouble?" And that all
depends on how much time you spend trying to get it. I'll tell you
this, the hover bike can be a lot of fun, especially in the Joyridin'
mode. It looks cool. It's fast. It can climb hills easily. It comes
with the turbo boost AND vertical boost. Pretty nice stuff.
So how bad do you want it?
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3. GENERAL TIPS
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Knowing the requirements is one thing, but knowing how to GET those
is entirely different. A Great ranking is determined by a combination
of your overall time and accumulated money. Well, I guess you could
say it's more or less just the money, because completing a mission
in record timing gives you BONUS money. You'd better realize, though,
that reckless driving can damage contraband, which lowers its value
AND your pay. A few bumps in the road are inevitable, but crashing
into a tree or cop borders on if you'll be able to tweak by with
enough money to get the ranking you deserve.
The ATV is ideal for Great rankings. You can use this vehicle to do
most of the missions. It's fast. It has a turbo boost AND a repel
sphere. And most importantly, it has better landing, which means you
won't damage the contraband as badly.
Now you can play fair and do this the hard way, but... why waste
the time? It'll still take you quite a while to get through it all.
Smuggler's Run doesn't have many cheats, but there is ONE cheat that
proves VERY useful:
* Pause
* Tap Y, Y, Y, X, X, Z, Z
This will give you infinite countermeasures. You will need it. It's
not like you're really cheating. The game even gives you this cheat in
the Joyridin' mode. Besides, it only HELPS you get a Great ranking, it
doesn't just GIVE it to you. You still have to work for it.
And it IS work.
Now, missions aren't all the same, as you know. You have the basic
drill of picking up contraband and delivering it. Then sometimes you
do this as a team effort against another team. Some missions cause
you to follow a vehicle, while others have you follow and DESTROY
another vehicle. What's the key to each? Well.... read on.
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BASIC CONTRABAND RUN
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The thing you'll be most concerned about is keeping contraband
damage to a minimum. Sometimes the difference between a Good and a
Great ranking is only $200, and that's not as easy as it sounds.
Again, the ATV is good at controlling damage, but reckless driving
will quickly see to that. Try not to go over big cliffs when
carrying goods. If you have to, slow down beforehand so you don't
fly over the edge. But if you do THAT, remember to use the R
button to balance yourself out. The worst of it, though, is
getting hit by the cops. This is where the ATV's repel sphere
comes in handy. I'd generally use it when picking up and dropping
off contraband, because that's when the cops will be the thickest.
The sphere is useless against head-on collisions, though. So if
you can sense cops ahead near the drop-off, don't go straight
through; make a wide turn into it. That throws them off.
The ATV's other countermeasure, the turbo boost, is very handy,
also. Use it whenever you can, because who knows what a difference
time will make in your final score. But speeding leads to reckless
driving, as mentioned before, which leads to damaged goods. So when
toting contraband, only speed on flat surfaces. Sometimes you have
to run from the cops at the end of the mission. THIS is when you
can get rough. Hit the turbo as many times as you can and head
towards the nearest cop-free area on the radar.
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TEAM PLAY
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These can be quite fun. It's just like a multiplayer game, except
you're playing by yourself. Hmmmmm. A lot of the strategy above
applies here, but a big factor is what teammates you have. If you
haven't noticed, every vehicle has a different team role, and in
each of these team missions, you get to choose two AI teammates.
* Forwards: go out and find contraband.
* Backs: attack the other team's Forwards.
* Guards: protect your team's Forwards.
* Corners: try to steal contraband from the other team.
The only one that will prove of any use to you, however, is the
Corner. Backs MIGHT help you, but I never noticed much of an
improvement. The nice thing about Corners is, they wait by the
enemy's drop-off point and try to hit on-coming vehicles. You'll
need this kind of distraction to keep them from winning, because
you are and should be the only forward on your team. Why? Because
the AI is dumb, and secondly: while their deliveries help you
win, they don't add to your money score, which consequently
affects whether you get a Great ranking or not.
Here, I wouldn't worry so much about damaging contraband as I
would making sure you delivered enough by yourself.
There aren't many of these... thankfully. Basically, you just
have to follow an ATV to a certain point, staying within a certain
radius. My advice, drive by the radar. What I mean is: watch the
radar more than you do your vehicle. You have to keep within the
outer circle, but outside the inner circle. You know what I'm
talking about. Every time you fall too far behind, or get too
close, your score drops. You can only stand to do this about three
times before you lose the chance of a Great ranking. Don't worry,
these aren't that hard. With the infinite countermeasure cheat on,
you can always catch up real easily (using the ATV).
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CHASE AND DESTROY
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This is the only time I'll suggest something besides the ATV.
With these, you have to seek and destroy, and the ATV just can't do
that sort of thing. Big vehicles like the Grenadier are perfect.
You have to be ruthless, and do it quick. With the Grenadier, you
can zip ahead of the enemy and drop a bomb in front of them. Not
only is it fun and does some damage, it will often times put them
on their back, where you can proceed to roll them across the road.
Rolling them seems to do the most damage.
You won't accomplish much, though, if you follow the guy directly.
The best method is to lag behind and watch when he turns, then try
to ram him from the side. A mixture of this and bombs should do
the trick. No other weapons have this sort of effect.
I believe I said earlier that I couldn't find anything on this,
right? Well, I'll be honest with you, I'm still not sure. This is
just a list of every mission with the scores *I* got on them. While
not accurate, they should be close.
I'm not doing this to brag. I'm doing this so you have an idea of
what to shoot for. If you can clearly see you won't get anywhere NEAR
this score, don't waste your time. Start over. You'll be spending a
lot of time restarting anyway. Why make it hard on yourself?
Note: Time is written as minutes:seconds:milliseconds. The times
are a bit skewed. In the mission, the timer counts down, right? But
the high scores list them as counting up. If you really want to know,
do the math. But time is only a big issue with missions like the
CHASE AND DESTROY. I would be more worried about how much money you
still have. The money scores, by the way, include bonus money.
Leave yourself a little leeway room.
Smuggler's Run by Rockstar Games and Angel Studios.
If you don't feel like any of this helped you, just remember this
rule of thumb: top whatever you did to get a Good ranking. If
that doesn't work, top it again.
That's it. It's over. There's not much more one can do with this
game. That doesn't mean it isn't still FUN, though. I really like
the multiplayer mode, and like I said earlier, using the Hover Bike
can be a blast. Good luck.
