This guide will be mostly about the Blue Falcon, but some tips might apply to your favorite ship.
As I’ve written before, I’m a Blue Falcon main and I’ve seen a lot of comments that the Falcon is the weakest ship. I disagree with this, but the truth is that the Falcon is probably the most difficult ship to master.
And I found the biggest threats to a win are:
- bad energy management
- red bumpers
- those blue fuckers
I have lost the most wins to red bumpers and there’s a simple reason: You want to push the last lap like crazy and you really need to avoid those driving bombs. Then those blue motherfuckers have become really skilled and it takes only one lucky attack to bring you out of rhythm and let others catch up.
But let’s start with the “basics”: Assuming you are somewhat proficient and you really want to use the Falcon as your main, you will have to learn the tracks three times (in Practice mode):
- drive the tracks completely without boost (except at the start)
- drive optimal total time (all 4 laps)
- optimal hot lap (maximum boost through the lap)
Start training without the boost. Drive the laps perfectly clean, meaning without touching the barriers. Then learn how to take the turns as tight as possible without touching.
If you’re able to consistently drive clean laps, identify the part of the tracks where your speed is slowest. In the case of Mute City this would be the last turn before the main straight. That’s one obvious boost point. And then start experimenting what parts of the tracks are good boost points. The best track to learn to use your Falcon optimally is Port Town II because it requires all kinds of driving techniques and it requires boosting through long curves.
As a rough guideline, these are my times with the Blue Falcon on Port Town II:
| Lap | with boost | without boost |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | 32.16 | 34.03^ |
| 2. | 32.00 | 33.76 |
| 3. | 32.90 | 34.05 |
| 4. | 32.46 | 33.98 |
| — | ---------- | ------------- |
| Tot | 02:09:52 | 02:15.82 |
^: one boost directly at start
What should be said: These times are not record pace, these times are clean laps for preserving energy, meaning they are close to what I drive in an actual race.
So your first objective is to beat my “without boost” time by using boosts (I think the time needed for the pilot card’s background is 02:12.00). Your second objective is to beat the 32.90 single lap time. Your third objective is to get consistent and deliver clean laps all the time.
Also one more thing: Port Town II has a lot of curves/turns. Are they though? There are many curvy parts where you can simply drive in a straight line.
Strategy
A few guidelines:
- keep your energy meter as high as possible: if you are close to the leaders and you can keep up without boosting: Don’t boost. Use your boost if you’re in danger of falling into the pack
- if you’re inside the pack: Boost out of it. The thought process is very easy: If you stay in the pack, you will lose your energy anyway, so try to get ahead of the pack.
- stay close to the leaders, stay just ahead of the pack: The pack will push you and give you speed boosts without you doing anything. Use your spin attack “backwards”: if you see a check mark closing in on you, use your spin attack to push them back while you get a small boost.
- DO NOT SMOKE: if you start smoking the Geese will attack you. They won’t KO you, but the energy from the attack damage will be missing when you recharge.
- if you have almost full energy and you’re about to collect sparks for the skyway: Boost before you get all sparks. Especially if you are close to the pitlane! If you are recharging and your energy meter is full you are wasting energy which could be used to boost.
- optimal for the last lap: full energy and skyway available. Use the skyway ASAP (ASAP because if you wait too long you won’t be able to use your full energy and the leaders will be too far) and after the skyway start boosting like crazy and dodge the red bumpers
- bait the blue fuckers: Drive in a certain direction to bait the lucky bumpers and change direction before passing. Use an emergency boost if you really need to pass the blue bumper.
I strongly advice you to use Team Battle for practicing the following things:
- going for KOs of opportunity; drop back in the race and lookout for smoking/blinking enemies and take them out
- “protect the leader”: get behind the leader and protect them from the other team. This means looking on the minimap and looking for “check”-marks and using your spin attack in defense. Also boost and attack if someone from the other team tries to attack the leader. Also let your homies pass if they’re faster.
- as already mentioned: Practice using spin attack on the cars behind you which will make you faster and them slower.
- Foxhunting: Especially on Mute City 1. If you see Foxes running away, chase them. The Falcon is faster and will catch in the pitlane. You might get lucky with a kill.
- all bumpers are human controlled: Practice avoiding them
I don’t know about other high level players, but I don’t try to win in Team Battle unless the other team is leading. And since you’re getting expanded energy when your team KOs someone, there’s a good chance that you could get your first win in Team Battle.
The Psychological Component
I found that being in 1st place in FZero99 creates more adrenaline than being in a real-life Gokart race.
Let’s imagine the following scenario: You are level 21/A-, you have won the first race in a Mini Prix, you got second place in the second race (which I have won). You go into the third race with a 14 points lead, all you have to do is to finish the race. You are in a Blue Falcon and you have one of the fastest guys on White Land 1 behind you. Just so you understand: The leader and I were 4 seconds ahead of 3rd place. White Land 1 is my track and I should win every 3rd race, but I constantly choke because of red and blue bumpers.
So the leader is blazingly fast and about one second ahead of me. I go in to the last lap with full energy and I do a single boost at the start of the lap. This is enough to break the poor guy. He starts panic boosting through the lap and I think he was 2 seconds ahead of me. All he had to do was to slow down and drive over the finish line. Imagine being 2 seconds ahead of 2nd place and 6 second ahead of 3rd place! He crashed into a red bumper just before the finish line. He lost the Mini Prix. I didn’t win the Prix. I wasn’t even his rival.
So, there are three lessons from this story:
- know who your threat is. In the last race, your rivals are the threat.
- slow down in the last lap if you can afford it point wise. the bumpers are your biggest threat
- the leader doesn’t know about the energy status of those behind. 2nd place can do a strategic boost where the leader will see someone closing in on the minimap. This will put the leader under pressure because the leader doesn’t know if they’ve got expanded energy because of KOs
Mute City I
So in my last article I mentioned that the Blue Falcon is shit at Mute City 1. I retract that statement, it’s actually possible to regularly get a top 10-finish in the BF. But it is really damn hard to get good.
Here’s a table with my practice time on Mute City 1. Again, these are super clean laps meant for a race. The most important turns for the Falcon is the turn before the jump pad and the last corner before the main straight. You can lose so much time in the last corner if you don’t get it right along with the boost.
| Lap | Blue Falcon | Golden Fox | Wild Goose | Fire Stingray |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 25.76 | 25.98 | 25.76 | 25.85 |
| 2. | 26.28 | 26.00 | 26.23 | 25.71 |
| 3. | 25.78 | 25.88 | 26.23 | 25.73 |
| 4. | 25.83 | 25.70 | 25.83 | 26.08 |
| ----- | ------------- | ------------ | ------------ | --------------- |
| Total | 1:43.65 | 1:43.56 | 1:44.05 | 1:43.37 |
One thing I should add: The times for the Fox, Goose and Stingray are after about 5 tries. I needed 30 attempts for the Falcon to get this close to my Golden Fox time.
And something weird has happened: It turns out that my worst track is Big Blue where I only win 4% of my races, while I win 5% on Mute City I.
If anyone wants, feel free to post videos from your practice and race runs and I’ll give advice on strategy and driving technique.
Some more bumper advice:
- watch out for blue bumpers in the pit lane! If a blue bumper manages to spin attack in the pit lane, your race is over. Best way is to use skyway if you have it. Otherwise defend your self with spin attack, but it will slow you down considerably
- lagging blue bumpers: if you see a blue bumper in front of you lagging, take immediate avoiding action (best is skyway). You may not see the bumper, but it is in front of you and it will attack you. it completely wrecked my race because I was attacked in the slip zone in White Land I
- if there are red bumpers in the jumping section of White Land I, consider staying on the ground. I was in first place and there were two red bumpers. I avoided the first one, but because of this I crashed into the second bumper in the air, which send me into the first bumper in the air. Yes, I managed to hit two red bumpers in the air in the same jump.