Stealing Souls
a Graffiti Guide to Jet Grind Radio
by Thomas Wilde [talespinner@msc.net]

===========
DISCLAIMER:
===========

I own nothing. Sega owns most everything.

=============
INTRODUCTION:
=============

This is a more-or-less complete guide to getting all
of the Graffiti Soul icons in Jet Grind Radio for the
Dreamcast. While I don't have the numbers written down for
all of them, I've collected all these Souls myself and
therefore know what I'm talking about.

================
CHARACTER GUIDE:
================

As a general rule, you have to do crazy mad tricks to get
Souls. This puts Soul collecting squarely into the domain
of characters like Tab, Mew, occasionally Cube, and later,
the Love Shockers, who have ridiculous Technique scores.

The exception here, however, is that of size. Combo, and
later, Slate, are both very large, and as such, can often
get Souls with much less trouble than smaller characters
could, despite the fact that they both have the skating
ability of a brick on wheels. This has nothing to do with
priority or anything like that, and everything to do with
the fact that they take up incredible amounts of space.
For Souls that are hanging out in empty space, such as
the openly visible Souls in Shibuya GG, Kogane Circus,
or the rooftops of Kogane-Cho, Slate and Combo have a better
chance at them than most other characters.

=========================
STAGE-BY-STAGE BREAKDOWN:
=========================

Shibuya GG:

#11: On the billboard ledge, by the level's lone XL tag
point. It's in plain sight, and it's easy to get.

#45: Hovering in the air by the Rokkaku truck tag point. All
you need is to grind off the nearby railing, like Gum did in
her test, and you'll probably get it.

#15: This is a little tricky. To get this, you'll need to
get on top of the bus station roof, and grind off of the
stoplights. Jump cautiously from stoplight to stoplight,
keeping a fairly constant speed, and you'll probably be
able to snag #15 with a trick jump.

#49, #79: Underneath either side of the bridge, above the
underpass. You can try to hop on top of a bus and ride it
along to get these Souls, which is tricky and not at all
health-positive behavior; or you can simply wait until
after Chapter 2, when you can revisit Shibuya as Combo,
and grab them with a running jump.

Benten Boogie:

#90: On a ledge in front of a billboard, in the lower
left-hand corner of the level. You'll need to take a wild
jump off the rooftops, grind down the nearby telephone wire,
and jump off onto the ledge. There's an L tag here in the
Benten-Cho Jet Graffiti stage.

#56: In the second "lane" from the left, if you look at the
map, there's a staircase leading into a building. This
passage leads to a spray point, a couple of health cans, and
a girder. If you grind this girder, you'll get about ten
spray cans, and at its end, you can make a wild jump onto
another girder. In mid-air here, if you've got enough speed
going, you can grab a Graffiti Soul. Mew uses this jump for
one of her challenges.

#24: As above, for #56, but watch carefully as you're
jumping the gap. There's another Soul on a balcony to the
left of the one you're headed towards. I find it useful here
to jump a little early, so you don't do a trick, land on the
second girder, grind right up until before the girder turns,
and jump for the other balcony. I can only seem to do this
as Mew.

The Monster of Kogane:

I've divided this stage up into three "floors," so as to
facilitate writing a FAQ for a highly visual game in a
text-only format.

First floor: where you start the stage, and where you'll
wind up if you go into the water.

Second floor: the intermediary zone between the canal and
the residential district. Anything between the first
staircase you see and the staircase next to the water tower.

Third floor: the residential district, where virtually all
of the level's tags are.

#88: Directly in front of you when you enter the level.
Skate forward and turn around, then grind off the wall
opposite the Soul, jump across the canal, and grindjump
off the wall just below the Soul. You should get it on
the fly.

#52: This Graffiti Soul is hiding inside a building on the
"second floor" of the level. From the start, run up the
stairs, head towards the fence, turn around, and do a
wall-grind into a jump across the canal. This'll put you
down in front of the stairs to the level's "third floor."
Check the nearby buildings for a door you can go through,
and you'll find #52 hidden just inside the doorway. Later,
in Fight or Flight, there's a Golden Rhino statue right
next to this door.

#20: From your starting point, dash forward, onto the
rowboat floating in the water, and jump onto the nearby
girder with as much speed as you can manage. Don't jump
again once you're on the girder, regardless of how much you
think it looks like you should; you'll grind along this
girder's turns and curves automatically. #20 is at the end
of the girder, on a small hidden inlet.

#18: From the inlet where you found #20, take a running jump
at the next girder in line. Grind down it, and you'll be
able to jump off the end to grab #18.

#87: Behind the large watertower-lookin' thing. Go to the
top of the stairs that lead to the level's "third floor,"
grind down the left-hand railing, and jump to the platform
surrounding the water tower. The Graffiti Soul is on the
other side of it, surrounded by paint and health cans. Later,
in Fight or Flight, there's a red tag back here, so one way
or another, you'll get this Soul eventually.

#22: On the "third floor," there's a girder, leaning against
a telephone wire, which leads to a railing. Grind up the
girder, and if you've got enough speed, you'll grind from
that to the wire to the railing, and grab the Soul along the
way. At the end, jump as far to the right as you can manage,
and you should land safely on one of the nearby bridges.

#55: When you first get to the "third floor," there's an XL
tag on a big concrete wall. On the street side of the wall,
there's a stack of boxes to the wall's left. You can smash
through them to find an alleyway with two health cans and
#55 in it.

#85: Floating above the fence, near the cluster of buildings
where you found #52. Taller characters (Combo, Slate) can
simply suicide-dive for this one from the rooftops, or a
high-Technique character, such as Tab, can grab it after
grinding down the chain-link fence around the stairwell.
To perform the latter stunt, you'll need to hop onto the
outside edge of the stairwell on the "third floor" and
grind down.

Love Trap:

#47: Hanging above the elephant slide. You'll need to head
in that direction with some serious speed, usually by
building it up on the playground and coming up the slide at
a dead sprint.

#83: On top of the road sign, above the street to the north
of the playground. This one is tricky as hell to get, and I
advise that you wait until you've unlocked this Jet
Technique stage before you try for it. In any event: grind
up the elephant slide, on the left-hand side. Jump on top
of the swingset that's pointing towards the street, and
trick-jump off of it onto the road sign to get the Soul.

#50: Use the crane to jump the gap in the road, on the
street above the playground. You'll need a considerable
amount of speed to do this, which makes it very tricky indeed.
I'd recommend that if you want this, you should go after it
first, before this road fills up with riot cops. I'd further
recommend that you take at least fourteen paint cans with
you, so you can fill in the XXL tag on the other side of
the road.

#80: From the road with the XXL tag, as above, head to your
left and take a blind hop down. You should wind up on a
rooftop with another Graffiti Soul...

#81: ...and finally, from there, take a running leap and
slam into the chainlink fence you can see across the
halfpipe. You won't take any damage, and you can hop through
a nearby door for yet a third Soul.

#13: As you travel down the street, heading south, towards
the four tag points on the walls, you'll notice two small
railings overlooking the halfpipe, each of which has two
spray cans floating above it. Via the "eastern" one,
according to your map, you can grind onto a pink rooftop.
On that rooftop, you'll find two health cans and #13.

#16: Hanging above the south side of the street. You'll need
to position yourself at the south edge of the playground and
jump onto a bus that's going that direction, then hop up at
the right moment and get the Soul.

No. 540:

#17: At the beginning of the level, hop onto the gray wall
to your right and grind down it. Trick-jump off its end to
grab this Soul. Some people advise you to crash one of the
helicopters and use its tail to get this Soul. Some people
are also apparently shooting heroin directly into their
eyes. Don't do that. It's a bad idea. Wrecked helicopters,
you see, are sort of *on fire*. If you try to grind off of
them, you will start doing the hip JGR Fiery Hoopty Dance
and will not be any damn good for anything until it's out.

#??: Hanging out on a telephone wire above the junkyard.
Grind down the crane, jump, and angle your fall so you land
on the wire. (In Jet Set Radio, Mew used to use this jump
as one of her tests. She's wised up in JGR.)

#86: On the rooftop by the level's lone XXL tag. No problem.

#21: Above the halfpipe, in the gap between catwalks. The
trick to getting it is *not* to grind over the gap; if you
simply hop onto the catwalk and take a running jump at it,
you'll get it more easily than if you grind off the railings.


Graffiti High:

#93: On the stack of crates right in front of you when you
start the level. A running jump, and it's yours. If you miss
this initial jump, you can't try again until you hit the
boardwalk; there's no way back up to the roof of the train
car from the ground.

#58: Above the boardwalk. You can grind onto an awning, and
jump for the Soul from there.

#92: In a slightly obscured alcove on the main street of the
boardwalk. You can easily pick this up by accident; when you
initially enter the boardwalk from the carnival, it's on the
right.

#91: On a telephone wire above the carnival. Ride one of the
carousel wires to the XL spray point, then jump onto the
telephone wire from there. It's easy to spot if the
parachute troops have landed, because one of 'em gets stuck
on the wire. You'll earn a replay and grab the Soul.

#61: Inside the pink octopus. If you just got #91, you
should be right in position to jump for it. A short hop will
usually carry you safely through the octopus' legs and to
the Soul, but it's not by any means a sure thing.

#??: Above the train tracks. From the boardwalk, head to the
highest balcony, jump onto the left-hand rail, and
trick-jump for the Soul. Ideally, you'll land safely on the
train car. However, given how tight time is on this level,
you should probably wait 'til Jet Technique to do this.

#57: Hovering above a billboard at the carnival. There's one
wire leading from the top of the carousel-lookin' thing that
connects to the wall next to that billboard; ride it down,
jump at the billboard, wall-grind off of it, and jump for
the Soul. Alternatively, with luck, skill, and speed, you
can simply trick-jump for the Soul straight off the wire,
although I've only been able to make that work with Combo.

Kogane Circus:

#84: Poison Jam starts the level standing in front of a
stack of crates. Bust through them to reveal this Soul.

#19: In the southern tunnel, there's a barely secret hallway
hidden on either end by a stack of crates. I say "barely
secret" because it's on the map. Smash through to get the Soul.

#51: Hovering above the water in plain sight. You'll need to
make a trick jump across the water from the middle catwalk
to get it. The only really problematic aspect of this is
your aim; you may have to do this a couple of times before
you get the Soul. As mentioned above, Combo and Slate occupy
more space than the other GGs, so you may wish to use them.

Noise Reduction:

#16: At a junction point between staircases. The Noise Tanks
use this area a lot, so you'll probably pick this one up
while you're chasing them.

#60: Hidden in a tree on the east side of the level. You'll
need to grind down the walkway rail, jump for the nearby
billboard, and jump off the billboard through the tree to
get the Soul. I got it by accident while practicing the
level's infinite grind.

#95: This one is a bitch and a half. At the dead center of
the level, you can go up a staircase to a very high
platform; from there, you should be able to see a crane
swinging a platform back and forth. You'll need to grind up
the railing on the staircase and jump from there to the
nearby girder, which is tricky and may take you a few tries.
Go to the other end of the girder and wait. The crane will
swing the platform over your way. Jump onto it, and it'll
carry you straight to the Soul.

#94: As above, this one is a bitch and a half. It may have
even achieved the lofty bitch-and-three-quarters status. As
above, you'll need to grind up the stairs to get onto the
girder, but now, you'll need to go from the girder to the
I-beam that's attached to it. Grind down the I-beam, and
you'll see a platform sticking out of a building, with
another I-beam attached next to it. You need to jump from
your I-beam to the wall above the platform, grind it, jump
off of that, and grab Soul #94 on the fly. This isn't as
hard as it seems, but you need to have *just* the right
amount of speed for this to work. You will also probably
face-plant right after this, unless you're *very* lucky,
or you angle your fall to land on a railing.

#27: Thre is a brightly lit staircase on the west side of
the stage, at street-level, on the inside of the curve. This
will take you to a subway platform. There is a Soul here,
above the train tracks, but it's difficult to get. The trick
here is to grind the handrail pointing towards the Soul,
trick-jump, do a long wall-grind, trick-jump *again*, and
get the Soul.

#23: Near the side of the road on the east side of the
level, there are two trucks parked on either side of a white
van. Jump onto the van and wait for a garbage truck to come
along, heading to the left. When it does, jump onto it.
>From it, you'll be able to jump up and grab Soul #23.

Love Attack:

#48: In the center of the level, you'll see a steep staircase
with three health cans floating above the banister. At the
top of this staircase, there's a Graffiti Soul semi-hidden
among the banners. Jump to grab it.

#14: There's a small "park area" where a bunch of streets
meet, down at the bottom of that staircase. Near a wall,
you'll see three sandwich boards on the sidewalk, lined
up in a row. Knock 'em over, and you'll find #14 "hidden"
in one of them. If you don't get it now, you'll probably
get it by accident in Explosion, as there, the wall near
the sandwich boards is a L tag point.

#82: On top of the movie theater marquee. The trick here is
to *only* grind off of the railing leading up to the movie
theater, as otherwise, you'll build up too much speed.
Cube has to jump up here as her GG entry exam.

#12, #46: About halfway down the main street, in the middle
of the left-hand lane.

Bantam Street/Tag Or Die:

#63: In the construction/play area on the east side of the
level, where all the ridiculous wall-grind-jump tags are. As
with everything else in this level, you'll have to grind off
a wall and jump to get it. It's markedly easier to get this
Soul if you go at it from the northern side of the alley,
rather than the south.

#89: On a girder in the undercarriage of the train tracks.
Grind off a nearby roadblock and hop up towards the girder
to get it. Simple, although the presence of a crowd of
annoying Rhinos can make it trickier.

#96: Hovering well above the street. Duck through the front
door of the gray tenement building in the southeast corner
of the level, and head to the third floor. Be careful; if
you come in here after the Assassin's arrived, there are
gangs of gunmen on the second and third floors. Dive out
the center window, towards the street, for this Soul.

#28: This is just ridiculous... okay. When you begin the
level, turn around. You'll see several billboards, with a
trail of spray cans hanging in the air between them. To get
Soul #28, you must:
    -- jump onto the grindable gray curb nearby, in front
of the billboard.
    -- trick-jump off it and wall-trickjump off the next
billboard.
    -- wall-trickjump off *that* board, and head straight
for the next one.
    -- hit *two more* wall-trickjumps, and grab the Soul out
of the air.
    From here, you can either opt to face-plant, or you
can make a final wall-trickjump through the third floor of
the tenement building. The former is easier than the latter,
obviously, although the latter is definitely easier on the
ol' ego. Personally, I like to avoid multi-story falls.
    This may just be the hardest Soul to get of the lot.
The trick, I find, is to hit the first walljump with as
much speed as can be conveniently managed; this will give
you the extra boost you need to make the rest of the jumps.
As an added bonus, if you're really good and know exactly
what you're doing, you can deliberately blow the last jump
and fall two stories onto the curb at the south end of the
skate park; this enables you to finish off the walljump
combo with the curb-grind combo in the skate park. 'Course,
if you blow this, you'll eat one of the most painful-looking
faceplants in the game, but to live boldly is to incur risk.

#62: Hidden behind the Hexagon gas station sign. You can
jump from the train tracks to get it.

Grind Square/Rock 'N' Roll Grind:

#64: Hanging on top of an easily accessible 'phone wire.
Take the west elevator up, and that wire is moored nearby.

#98: At the center of the level, where the two 'phone wires
pass by each other. You can get on those wires most easily
by taking the east elevator up and jumping onto the wire
near there. From the wire, jump onto the low balcony, where
the XXL tag is. On that balcony, you can jump onto the wire
that leads to the Soul.

#97: Ride the east elevator up and head south, to the large
open area. Jump on and ride the cornice. At its end, you
can jump for this Soul. That jump should carry you to
another cornice stone, which in turn has a telephone wire
moored to it...

#30: ...which you can grind to get #30.

Benten-Cho, subway:

As far as I know, one Soul is only available now, when
Benten's various neighborhoods merge into Benten-Cho. You
can go for it in Jet Technique, which may be the course
of sublime wisdom, or you can use the subway tunnel as a
relatively enemy-free, yet train-rich, way to navigate
between the carnival and the downtown area.

#26: About halfway between the underground subway platforms,
hovering above the tracks. You can access the subway through
staircases in the city area or under the ramp in the
carnival, and skate down the tracks towards this Soul. Once
you see it, you can wall-jump onto the center fence, and
from there, grind off it to the Soul. You could probably
also get it by getting on top of the train, but I can't
recommend that, as I suck at it. (You can also use the
tunnel walls and the rails for a truly ridiculous grind
combo if you like, but that will involve dodging trains.
I managed to get hit four times by the same train while
I was going for this Soul.)

Kogane-Cho, rooftops:

The rooftop area, as far as I know, only becomes accessible
now. I'd recommend you do any Soul collecting you've left
to do in the Jet Graffiti or Jet Technique stages, as otherwise,
you've either snipers or the *tremendously accurate* jetpack
gimps to deal with.

#53: Above the sidewalk--*way* above the sidewalk. Jump up
onto the rooftops using the parked car in the playground
on this part of the level's northern edge, then head up
the roofs and grind back down towards the northern end
using the telephone wires above the sidewalk. You'll have
a good chance at jumping for this Soul.

#89: Pay attention while you're on the rooftops. There's a
hidden guywire that stretches underneath them, going from
north to south and bridging the second east-west side
street. Hop onto that guywire, and you'll get #89.

============
OTHER SOULS:
============

After you collect all the Souls in the game, you'll still have
empty spaces in your grid. These are for the two special tags
each of your gang members brings with him or her upon joining
the GGs. This includes the various secret characters, with the
exception of Pots. Having your entire grid filled in, as far as
I know, doesn't get you anything spectacularly cool, but it does
give you mad geek bragging rights.

If you should want to e-mail me, my address is talespinner@msc.net.
Please read the following before you e-mail me, and take the
guidelines therein to heart:

http://www.dimfuture.net/elsewhere/writing/fiq.html
[warning: explicit language]

Thomas Wilde
a.k.a. Wanderer
talespinner@msc.net
http://www.dimfuture.net/elsewhere/
http://www.rpg-net.com
http://www.rawfeedonline.com
http://www.gamingtarget.com