Techniques, Tips & Tricks


There's no denying that F-Zero GX is a hard game, it's a fact that Very Hard in Story Mode has driven players mad, but there are a few technique/glitches to help you out.

Snaking

Also known as Dakou, this technique tricks the physics engine into thinking you are taking a lot of curves, thus gaining high speed. The game is set up to give you speed boosts after properly navigating around curves with the high-accel. car setting. Essentially, "snaking" on a straight path is simply driving fake curves. It's very hard to pull off, and when racing against 29 other pilots on a deadly track with lots of curves Snaking wont help you much.
To use the snake technique, select a heavy car with a high grip rating A like Black Shadow's Black Bull, then set it to max. acceleration. By alternating L and R and turning left and right at the same time, players then drive serpentines and essentially simulate turns on a straightway. But don't just press the buttons in a frenzy, but instead practice it a lot and try to be more calm when executing this technique. Turn left while holding L, then turn right while holding R after you've performed a visible turn. You'll do best on straight wide tracks. Snaking will probably be most welcome in Time Attacks, since any touch from a competing racer will end the technique and it's a perfect way to get revenge on the Staff Ghosts ;).

Submitted by - Metroid Killer

Flying & Space Diving

Soaring miles and miles above a track in F-Zero GX? Yes, that's actually possible. You can fly on any track, even the ones with out jumps, by crashing into a wall at high speed and popping into the air. There are two ways of using this technique, while it's a great way to take shortcuts on many of the tracks you can also use the techique to fly incredible high up in the air and then do a Space Dive. Though this wont not help you to get good times, it'll create some really incredible speed records for you.
Space Diving First you need a very light machine, either use some of the default machines such as the Super Piranha, or go make your own light costum machine(Paper Craft, Garnet Dragon etc.). Put your setting at max acceleration. If you can't get up in the air by crashing into the rail then Just fall off anywhere you can. Now hold left + L, or right + R, do NOT pull back on the stick like you would in an airplane, or your engine will stall. As you continue to hold left and L, or right and R, you'll trace a tight circle going higher and higher. To move around, fly a half circle left, then a half cirle right. It looks really weird for some reason, it's kind of like your machine is actually flying backwards. On many tracks you'll get retired if you fly around the wrong areas. I would recomend Port Town: Aero Dive for playing around with flying because it appears that you can fly anywhere without getting retired.

Submitted by - Metroid Killer

Sliding

It's actually not always bad when your machine looses it's grip to the track and starts sliding while you even loose speed. You can actually turn it around and use this very effective technique to gain lots of speed and take the long curves in no time.
Every machine can slide, but you will slide way better with any E grip machines(Blood Hawk, Night Thunder etc.). Max acceleration settings. The basic of sliding is actually pretty simple: Turn to the left while holding R, and vice versa when turning right. When you both slide and hold down L/R you will gain speed instead of loosing it. The more you turn your machine the faster it will go (though, don't turn it too much or you will ram into the rail, or even go reverse). It's a lot easier to slide on the long wide curves, where you can angle your machine much more, thus gaining more speed. In the narrow curves you need to keep a steady slide, as you wouldn't want to bump into the rail. Try boosting while sliding.

Submitted by - Metroid Killer

Momentum Techniques (discovered and named by JKTFZEROX)

There are 4 moves which JKTFZEROX created and named, the japanese f-zero players later discovered those moves and called them something else.
It's called momentum since it matches the moves perfectly, you snake to gain a good amount of speed, then you let off accel so that it goes into neutral and just cruises smoothly and fast and the speed decrease is a bit slower than when its held with accel, the higher the speed you gain the better and longer the momentum lasts.

All these moves run with no accel on.

  • MT = Momentum Throttle (japanese call this super glide or something)
  • MD = Momentum Drift (japanese didn't call this anything, although its the same as super glide only for turns though)
  • MTS = Momentum Turbo Slide (japanese call this super drift)
  • MTRS = Momentum Turbo Rail Slide (japanese didn't call this anything either, but its the same as MTS only that you railslide it against the rails)
MT can be performed on Ramps, Jumps, Incline of the loops, Hills, Edges of the track. First get a nice speed(with snaking etc.) then let off accel just before a ramp, jump, hill and you should be sent flying at awesome speeds. MT is the best when you boost first then let go accel after, also for jumps its best to hold up before letting go accel. When resuming accel it benefits you if you're on top of a dash arrow if not then boost immediately after you resume accel to not lose a lot of speed.
MD is the same but used mostly for cornery tracks with a bending slope that turns. On a turn let off accel and hold right+R or left+L, it'll hug the rails deep and fast.
MTS can be used on almost any track where there's a dash arrow. To MTS to the right get a good speed and then hold right+L tap R let go accel, and to MTS to the left get a good speed and then hold left+R tap L let go accel.
MTRS is a finisher move that you don't want to use while you race, but rather to finish 3rd lap passing the finish line at speeds of 3000 km/h+. It doesn't matter if you're on accel or maxspeed settings it works for both. Get really near the rails which ever side you want to MTRS, when you get near that side now perform a MTS against it and it'll automatically slide itself to speeds up to 3000km/h+. Make sure you don't turn in too much otherwise it won't work.

Submitted by - Metroid Killer

Additional Boostpad speed

Hit the edge of the yellow boost pads to gain ADDITIONAL speed.

Submitted by - Mew2King

Suicide Finish (discovered and named by JKTFZEROX)

First make a custom vehicle like the mighty dragon-v2 or the garnet dragon-v2. Then pick a track (I would recommend sonic oval) and set the vehicle graph to maximum acceleration. Then finish the first two laps, and when you get to the end of the 3rd lap make sure you have very little energy left (enough energy to give you 1 boost or less). When you are at the end you need to snake towards the finish line, then boost, do an L&R drift turn towards the left wall, a split second later let go of the gas and then immediately after let go of the L. Then you should slide at 3000-3500 km/h towards the wall, and if you have luck you’ll reach 10000+ km/h. You cannot see that speed, but you’ll know it happened if your vehicle stops completely on the track

Submitted by - sonicfan2003

Sharp Turn

When approaching a sharp Left turn, Press R, and then quickly L and left.

Submitted by - PhoenixGX

Jump

When jumping push the nose down(hold stick up) to gain the fastest speed. But as you land pull the nose up(hold stick down) again so that you land perfectly flat. This way you won't lose as much speed as if you landed with your nose down. Also you should boost a few seconds before you land so that you don't loose any speed at all on the jump.

Submitted by - Metroid Killer

Mine Glitch

Aometimes when you hit a mine at a VERY slow speed you get shot off the course on some other spot and the view gets weird. If you do this on Mute City: Serial Gaps, then when you go off a jump the view will go backwards. It's pretty cool actually, but pretty hard to drive well that way.

Submitted by - Mew2King

Dash Boost Delay (DBD) (discovered and named by Will Haven)

Passing over a zipper gives you a limited boost that lasts about a second or so. If you pass over a zipper during MT then you can delay the restart of your engine to a preferable point within this one second window...when you press A again, the car will still experience what is left of the dash boost. For snaking this allows you to exit MT with a dash boost enhanced engine restart. This is different to just pressing A as you hit the dash plate, since they are not all placed in areas where it is good to restart the engine. Delaying the pressing of A after passing over a dash plate can save you speed and time on a lot of tracks, especially if shift boosts or MTS are involved, as you can massively extend the distance at which you maintain shift boost speed (for snaking at least).

Submitted by - Will Haven

Manual Boost Delay (MBD) (discovered and named by Will Haven)

This works on the same principle as the DBD but using normal boost power. You need to boost just before you release A to begin MT (timing can be different, just as long as MT/MTS occurs within the boosting time frame). As long as you restart the engine during the period when energy is still being drained from your car, then you'll experience the remainder of the boost.

Submitted by - Will Haven

Landing Manual Boost Delay (LMBD) (discovered and named by Will Haven)

This uses the manual boost delay principle again, but applies it to dive landings. Normally people use MT to land (but exiting it loses you speed) or boost after they have hit the ground. The basic idea of LMBD is to get the manual boost upon the instant of landing so you can go straight back into 2000+ snaking speeds. To do this, you manual boost at a point in the dive (timing varies depending on the nature of the track ahead). Then simply do the standard MT style landing, but instantly press A once on the ground to start the engine again and continue snaking. So basically you are getting an increased landing speed from the boost, and an increased exit speed from the landing. Should be a very fast transition.

Submitted by - Will Haven

Submit your Tips & Tricks now!
-Please include a name describtion of your tip/trick-