_______ _ _ _______ _ _____ _ __ _____ |__ __| | | | | | _____| | | / ___ \ | | / / / ___ \ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | / / |_| | | | | | |___| | | |___ | | | |___| | | |/ / __| | | | | ___ | | ___| _ | | | ___ | | K < |__ < | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |\ \ _ | | | | | | | | | |_____ | |___| | | | | | | | \ \ | |___| | |_| |_| |_| |_______| \_____/ |_| |_| |_| \_\ \_____/ _ _ _____ _ _ __ | _ | | | | | / ___ \ | | | | / / | | \ \ | | | | | | | | | | | | / / | | \ \ | | | | | |___| | | | | |/ / _____ | | \ \ | | . | | | ___ | | | | K < |_____| | | \ \ | | / \ | | | | | | | | | |\ \ | | \ \ | |/ . \| | | | | | | |_____ | | \ \ / / | | \__/ \__/ |_| |_| |_______| |_| \_\ / / | | / / | | _____ _ _ ____ ___ _ _ ____ _ _ / / | | |_ _| | | | | | _ \ / _ \ | | | | / ___| | | | | /___/ |___| | | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | | | | | | | _ | |_| | ___________________ | | | _ | | _ < | | | | | | | | | | | | | _ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |_| | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | |A --> B| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| \___/ \___/ \___/ |_| |_| |___________________| A guided tour through the game from start to finish and much more Jak 3 is a game that mixes many genres in one: third view shooter, action, adventure, racing, and puzzle. It is the direct sequel to Jak II which is the direct sequel to Jak & Daxter. This walkthrough will get you through the game from start to finish, offer a lot of finer detail on various game play aspects, and even includes a decent assortment of glitches and other oddities. Jak 3 is fairly easy for the most part, but there are times, especially toward the end, where a lot of trial and error is involved. While there are times where you can choose between multiple missions, I will set the order based on the rewards given. ___ ___ __ _ _____ _____ __ _ _____ ____ / _ \ / _ \ | \ | | |_ _| | ___| | \ | | |_ _| / ___| | | |_| | | | | | . \ | | | | | |__ | . \ | | | | \ \ | | _ | | | | | |\ \| | | | | __| | |\ \| | | | \ \ | |_| | | |_| | | | \ ' | | | | |___ | | \ ' | | | __\ \ \___/ \___/ |_| \__| |_| |_____| |_| \__| |_| |____/ ############### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 0 Table of contents **000000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ############### Tip: use control+F to use your browser's find feature to jump to the specific sections. The string you search for is in the "search" column - note how it relates to the section number in the **AABBCD** format where A is a major section (using 2 digits, with a leading zero if needed), B is a section (using 2 digits, with a leading zero if needed), C is a subsection (using 1 digit), and D is a sub-subsection (using 1 digit). Do note that the table of contents completely leaves out all level 4 headers (the D) and low-importance level 3 headers (the C) to better compact it. +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | Section | Title | Search | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 0 | Table of Contents | **000000** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 1 | My history and using the guide | **010000** | | 1.1 | My Jak history | **010100** | | 1.2 | Using this guide | **010200** | | 1.2.1 | The concepts | **010210** | | 1.2.2 | The method of organization | **010220** | | 1.2.3 | Understanding directions | **010230** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 2 | The basic controls | **020000** | | 2.1 | While on foot | **020100** | | 2.1.1 | On solid ground | **020110** | | 2.1.2 | In deep water | **020120** | | 2.1.3 | As Dark Jak | **020130** | | 2.1.4 | As Light Jak | **020140** | | 2.1.5 | As Daxter | **020150** | | 2.2 | Vehicle operation | **020200** | | 2.2.1 | ATVs (aka vehicles) | **020210** | | 2.2.2 | Zoomers | **020220** | | 2.3 | Other transporation | **020300** | | 2.3.1 | On the jet board | **020310** | | 2.3.2 | Leaper lizard | **020320** | | 2.4 | Other controls | **020400** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 3 | Gameplay basics, objects, and info | **030000** | | 3.1 | Game objects | **030100** | | 3.2 | On screen info | **030200** | | 3.3 | ATVs | **030300** | | 3.3.1 | Meaning of and determing the ratings | **030310** | | 3.3.2 | In-depth ATV details | **030320** | | 3.4 | In-depth zoomer details | **030400** | | 3.5 | Enemies | **030500** | | 3.6 | The wheel menu | **030600** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 4 | The list of secrets | **040000** | | 4.1 | About secrets | **040100** | | 4.2 | Weapon upgrades | **040200** | | 4.3 | Vehicle upgrades | **040300** | | 4.4 | Crazy stuff | **040400** | | 4.5 | Expert options | **040500** | | 4.6 | Cheats | **040600** | | 4.7 | Art gallery | **040700** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 5 | Walkthrough for act 1 | **050000** | | 5.1 | Starting a new game | **050100** | | 5.2 | Complete arena training course | **050200** | | 5.3 | Earn 1st war amulet | **050300** | | 5.4 | Catch kanga-rats | **050400** | | 5.5 | Explore Spargus City | **050500** | | 5.6 | Ring challenge 1 | **050600** | | 5.7 | Unlock satellite | **050700** | | 5.8 | Orb hunt 1 | **050800** | | 5.9 | Learn to drive a vehicle | **050900** | | 5.10 | Beat Kleiver in desert race | **051000** | | 5.11 | Race for artifacts | **051100** | | 5.12 | Beat Monks in leaper race | **051200** | | 5.13 | Destroy metal head beasts | **051300** | | 5.14 | The hang time challenges | **051400** | | 5.15 | The distance challenges | **051500** | | 5.16 | The roll-a-derby challenge | **051600** | | 5.17 | The satellite game | **051700** | | 5.18 | Orb hunt 2 | **051800** | | 5.19 | Orb hunt 3 | **051900** | | 5.20 | Orb hunt 4 | **052000** | | 5.21 | Orb hunt 5 | **052100** | | 5.22 | Orb hunt 6 | **052200** | | 5.23 | Orb hunt 7 | **052300** | | 5.24 | Earn 2nd war amulet | **052400** | | 5.25 | Corral wild leapers | **052500** | | 5.26 | Orb hunt 8 | **052600** | | 5.27 | Orb hunt 9 | **052700** | | 5.28 | Orb hunt 10 | **052800** | | 5.29 | Orb hunt 11 | **052900** | | 5.30 | Climb Monk Temple tower | **053000** | | 5.31 | Glide to volcano | **053100** | | 5.32 | Find satellite in volcano | **053200** | | 5.33 | Find oracle in Monk Temple | **053300** | | 5.34 | Orb hunt 12 | **053400** | | 5.35 | Rescue wastelanders | **053500** | | 5.36 | Beat turret challenge | **053600** | | 5.37 | Turret challenge for orbs | **053700** | | 5.38 | Ring challenge 2 | **053800** | | 5.39 | Defeat marauders in arena | **053900** | | 5.40 | Destroy eggs in nest | **054000** | | 5.41 | Orb hunt 13 | **054100** | | 5.42 | Defend Ashelin at oasis | **054200** | | 5.43 | Orb hunt 14 | **054300** | | 5.44 | Ring challenge 3 | **054400** | | 5.45 | Follow me 1 | **054500** | | 5.46 | Rescue more wastelanders | **054600** | | 5.47 | Time stopper 1 | **054700** | | 5.48 | Orb hunt 15 | **054800** | | 5.49 | Follow me 2 | **054900** | | 5.50 | Complete Monk Temple Tests | **055000** | | 5.51 | Travel through Catacomb subrails | **055100** | | 5.52 | Explore eco mine | **055200** | | 5.53 | Escort bomb train | **055300** | | 5.54 | Defeat Veger's precursor robot | **055400** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 6 | Walkthrough for act 2 | **060000** | | 6.1 | Scorpions for skull gems | **060100** | | 6.2 | Orb hunt 16 | **060200** | | 6.3 | Orb hunt 17 | **060300** | | 6.4 | Reach port via sewer | **060400** | | 6.5 | Orb hunt 18 | **060500** | | 6.6 | Explore the Haven City port | **060600** | | 6.7 | Destroy incoming blast bots | **060700** | | 6.8 | Orb hunt 19 | **060800** | | 6.9 | Destroy barrier with missile | **060900** | | 6.10 | Missile reload practice run | **061000** | | 6.11 | Jet board scoring challenge | **061100** | | 6.12 | Orb hunt 20 | **061200** | | 6.13 | Beat gun course 1 | **061300** | | 6.14 | Orb hunt 21 | **061400** | | 6.15 | Destroy sniper cannons | **061500** | | 6.16 | Orb hunt 22 | **061600** | | 6.17 | Reach metal head area via sewer | **061700** | | 6.18 | Destroy dark eco tanks | **061800** | | 6.19 | Kill dark plants in forest | **061900** | | 6.20 | Destroy eco grid with Jinx | **062000** | | 6.21 | Orb hunt 23 | **062100** | | 6.22 | Orb hunt 24 | **062200** | | 6.23 | Hijack eco vehicle | **062300** | | 6.24 | Orb hunt 25 | **062400** | | 6.25 | Ring challenge 4 | **062500** | | 6.26 | Orb hunt 26 | **062600** | | 6.27 | Defend port from attack | **062700** | | 6.28 | Beat gun course 2 | **062800** | | 6.29 | Break barrier with blast bot | **062900** | | 6.30 | Follow me 3 | **063000** | | 6.31 | Orb hunt 27 | **063100** | | 6.32 | Ring challenge 5 | **063200** | | 6.33 | Orb hunt 28 | **063300** | | 6.34 | Defend HQ from attack | **063400** | | 6.35 | Orb hunt 29 | **063500** | | 6.36 | Find switch in sewers | **063600** | | 6.37 | Find cypher in eco grid | **063700** | | 6.38 | Eco grid game for orbs | **063800** | | 6.39 | Unlimited skull gem grinding | **063900** | | 6.40 | Race for more artifacts | **064000** | | 6.41 | Orb hunt 30 | **064100** | | 6.42 | Time stopper 2 | **064200** | | 6.43 | Orb hunt 31 | **064300** | | 6.44 | Defend Spargus' front gate | **064400** | | 6.45 | Take out marauder stronghold | **064500** | | 6.46 | Orb hunt 32 | **064600** | | 6.47 | Orb hunt 33 | **064700** | | 6.48 | Metal head mass destruction | **064800** | | 6.49 | Orb hunt 34 | **064900** | | 6.50 | Orb hunt 35 | **065000** | | 6.51 | Destroy metal-pedes in nest | **065100** | | 6.52 | Chase down metal head beasts | **065200** | | 6.53 | Marauder mass destruction | **065300** | | 6.54 | Orb hunt 36 | **065400** | | 6.55 | Ring challenge 6 | **065500** | | 6.56 | Orb hunt 37 | **065600** | | 6.57 | Beat pillar ring challenges | **065700** | | 6.58 | Orb hunt 38 | **065800** | | 6.59 | Destroy war factory defenses | **065900** | | 6.60 | Explore war factory | **066000** | | 6.61 | Beat Cyber-Errol boss | **066100** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 7 | Walkthrough for act 3 | **070000** | | 7.1 | Time trial of first race for orbs | **070100** | | 7.2 | Marauder race | **070200** | | 7.3 | Finishing the hang time and distance challenges | **070300** | | 7.4 | Rescue Seem at temple | **070400** | | 7.5 | Defend Spargus from attack | **070500** | | 7.6 | Activate astro-viewer in forest | **070600** | | 7.7 | Destroy Dark Ship shield | **070700** | | 7.8 | Orb hunt 39 | **070800** | | 7.9 | Blow open tower door | **070900** | | 7.10 | Destroy metal head tower | **071000** | | 7.11 | Orb hunt 40 | **071100** | | 7.12 | Orb hunt 41 | **071200** | | 7.13 | Reach Catacombs via palace ruins | **071300** | | 7.14 | Break through ruins | **071400** | | 7.15 | Reach Precursor Core | **071500** | | 7.16 | Destroy Dark Ship | **071600** | | 7.17 | Destroy final boss | **071700** | | 7.18 | Finishing up - orbs in Spargus City | **071800** | | 7.19 | Finishing up - orbs in nest | **071900** | | 7.20 | Finishing up - orbs in Haven City | **072000** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 8 | Summary reference and hero mode differences | **080000** | | 8.1 | Story missions | **080100** | | 8.1.1 | Act 1 story missions | **080110** | | 8.1.2 | Act 2 story missions | **080120** | | 8.1.3 | Act 3 story missions | **080130** | | 8.2 | Orb hunts | **080200** | | 8.3 | Ring challenges | **080300** | | 8.4 | Vehicle stunts | **080400** | | 8.5 | Follow me challenges | **080500** | | 8.6 | Races | **080600** | | 8.7 | Time stopper challenges | **080700** | | 8.8 | Minigames | **080800** | | 8.9 | Gun courses | **080900** | | 8.10 | Other side missions | **081000** | | 8.11 | Other stuff | **081100** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 9 | Tips and other fun stuff | **090000** | | 9.1 | Rapid fire spin attack | **090100** | | 9.2 | Over 1 kilometer distance jump | **090200** | | 9.3 | Fly up with vehicle | **090300** | | 9.4 | Slide or fly up a slidable slope | **090400** | | 9.5 | Quickly collect items from smashables | **090500** | | 9.6 | High speed travel on foot | **090600** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 10 | Bugs and glitches | **100000** | | 10.1 | Format and organization | **100100** | | 10.2 | Infinite orbs | **100200** | | 10.3 | Light Flight infinite jumping | **100300** | | 10.4 | Jet board infinite jumping | **100400** | | 10.5 | Fall in water to a bottomless pit | **100500** | | 10.6 | High jump without holding R1 | **100600** | | 10.7 | Extend time for hijack eco vehicle | **100700** | | 10.8 | Spargus City's vanishing act | **100800** | | 10.9 | Super jump with an ATV | **100900** | | 10.10 | Invulnerable doesn't make everything invulnerable | **101000** | | 10.11 | Flash freeze in desert means big frame rate loss | **101100** | | 10.12 | Aspect ratio setting is not saved | **101200** | | 10.13 | Missile short jump bug | **101300** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 11 | Frequently Asked Questions | **110000** | | 11.1 | The walkthrough itself | **110100** | | 11.2 | About the guide in general | **110200** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ | 12 | Copyright, credits, and other legal stuff | **120000** | | 12.1 | How to contact me | **120100** | | 12.2 | Copyright | **120200** | | 12.3 | Credits | **120300** | | 12.4 | Version history | **120400** | +----------+-----------------------------------------------------+------------+ _____ __ _ _____ ____ ___ |_ _| | \ | | |_ _| | _ \ / _ \ | | | . \ | | | | | |_| | | | | | | | | |\ \| | | | | _ < | | | | _| |_ | | \ ' | | | | | | | | |_| | |_____| |_| \__| |_| |_| |_| \___/ ############################ ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 1 My history and using the guide **010000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ############################ .================================. # 1.1 My Jak history **010100** # `================================` I've grown up loving platformers. I used to be so good at them that I rarely had any difficulty completing them. However, after the 4th generation systems (e.g. SNES, Genesis), platformers seemed to have vanished and I lost my touch. Having been recommended Jak & Daxter a few times, being a platformer, I've wanted the game and it took several years to finally get it. I got the entire trilogy for the PS2 as a gift. I played Jak & Daxter and fairly easily completed it 100%, getting all 101 power cells and close to 1900 precursor orbs (I haven't gotten all 2000 in the game though). I went at Jak II (always referred to as Jak 2) and found it much more difficult, to the point I sort of gave up on it. Little did I know, I was missing out on a lot, from not knowing about the kiosks and not really liking the need of the guns. From checking GameFAQs, I wanted to give Jak 2 another go. Invulnerability and swimming in Dead Town's mud were quite attractive to me. It took a few years to return and I returned to Jak & Daxter again for another full play. I went at Jak 2 next and completed it, seeing the vulcan fury and peace maker for the first time. It was also fun grinding orbs while causing all sorts of chaos, using the infinite orb glitch to get over 2000 orbs (when only 286 exist in that game). After having completed Jak 2, including hero mode which was entertaining from being invulnerable with infinite ammo and Dark Jak most of the way through, finding numerous bugs and oddities along with it, I was ready for Jak 3. Jak 3, from having lots of experience with Jak 2, was noticably easier and generally more enjoyable. There was a lot less trial and error - no more need to spend 30 to even 200 minutes repeatedly doing the same mission over and over - I only needed 40 minutes at the longest end, rarely more than 20. The infinite orb glitch had to be done differently and it wasn't as enjoyable as Jak 2, so it wasn't fun to grind to 2000 though there is one area that at least has great action to it. I've since completed it and in hero mode as well. Realizing GameFAQs didn't have much in the way of detailed, in-depth walkthroughs for Jak 3, I decided to write a walkthrough, my first one. .==================================. # 1.2 Using this guide **010200** # `==================================` `````````````````````````````` 1.2.1 The concepts **010210** .............................. This guide focuses on Jak 3, a PS2 game with a PS3 HD remake (I'll, for the sake of clarity, only refer to the PS2 version, the only version I have). The first section explains the basic controls. Surely those buttons on the controller have some good use to them. The next section explains what the information showing on screen is all about. All those odd-looking dots and numbers, and various other 3D objects must have some purpose. After that, I explain the wheel menu's options, brought up by pressing start at almost any time. I detail the secrets in its own section as there's a lot of detail with them. The next 3 sections cover the walkthrough itself, one major section per act. Side stuff will be included in with the main walkthrough - those orbs have great value to them as they, in a way, help make you stronger. I summarize and categorize the lists next, detailing differences with hero mode for the story missions. The next 2 sections cover tips, tricks, and other fun stuff followed by various glitches. The last 2 sections are the usual FAQ and legal stuff. I will try my best to keep story-related spoilers to a bare minimum. ```````````````````````````````````````````` 1.2.2 The method of organization **010220** ............................................ Because this guide has several sections (note the section 12 or 6.61 on the table contents), keeping things organized is essential. Just before each major section, you'll find centered text in large, thick letters representing the basic idea covered. Each major section has a wide, extra large, and bold border around it directly below the giant text. A large gap is present between the ends of each major section to make them stand out better. Each section within a major section also has a bold border, but it's not as large or stand out as well. There is a smaller gap between such sections. Subsections within a section still stand out, but only lightly. The gap is no longer present. Sub-subsections, the deepest level I go into (and rarely) have no borders or decorations with no gaps. If you're observant, you might notice the Fibonacci Sequence in the styling in many areas. The Fibonacci Sequence is one of my favorites. Basically, start with two ones. Take the current number then add the previous and you'll build it up: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21.... How many places can you find where the Fibonacci Sequence appears in the styling or formatting? `````````````````````````````````````````` 1.2.3 Understanding directions **010230** .......................................... To better explain what direction to go from a known direction currently being faced, I use straight, slight right, right, hard right, backwards, hard left, left, and slight left for how much of a turn is needed. Straight means an angular change less than 20° - the object in question is pretty much straight ahead and visible on screen (being obscured by foreground objects aside). Slight left and slight right mean an angular change is about 10 to 45° where the object is generally on screen or slightly off. Left and right mean an angular change of about 30 to 120°. Hard left and hard right means an angular change of about 105 to 170°. Backward means an angular change greater than 160°, basically directly behind. There is overlap in the angles to account for some uncertainty and imprecision. I generally assume you are directly facing the object upon reaching it from the previous point or turn to get to the next one. Don't understand the angles? Here's a visual representation of each to help, where the ^ is the initial direction of travel: | / ____ __ __ __ ____ \ | / / / \ / \ / \ \ \ | / | | \ | | / | | \ | | | | \ | / / | | | | | | | | | | | | ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ | ^ ^ ^ Str- | Slight | Right | Hard | Back- | Hard | Left | Slight aight | right | | right | ward | left | | left ___ ___ __ _ _____ ____ ___ _ ____ / _ \ / _ \ | \ | | |_ _| | _ \ / _ \ | | / ___| | | |_| | | | | | . \ | | | | | |_| | | | | | | | \ \ | | _ | | | | | |\ \| | | | | _ < | | | | | | \ \ | |_| | | |_| | | | \ ' | | | | | | | | |_| | | |___ __\ \ \___/ \___/ |_| \__| |_| |_| |_| \___/ |_____| |____/ ################ ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 2 The basic controls **020000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ################ To play any video game, you need to know how to control it. Video games aren't exactly movies where you just sit and watch. Nope, they're interactive so there has to be some sort of input. Now, just what does that button on the controller do again? This section details the controls for every aspect of the game except cases where something is only done once for a single mission. I will refer to the buttons as L1, L2, LS or LJ (left stick), L3 (press the left stick down), R1, R2, RS or RJ (right stick), R3 (press the right stick down), <, ^, >, v, St, Se, X, O, /\, and []. .===============================. # 2.1 While on foot **020100** # `===============================` Travel on foot is the most common form of travel used. Master this and you master about 60% of the game. There are several different sets of controls. The basic set is given here, used for solid ground or shallow water. When Jak immerses himself in deep water, another control set is used. When he transforms into Dark Jak, another control set is used. Also, in addition, when he transforms into Light Jak, there's yet another control set. ````````````````````````````````` 2.1.1 On solid ground **020110** ................................. Ah, Mother Earth! Nice and solid! I will list the basic controls first then list any modifications or differences in the subsections. When no buttons are pressed and the sticks are centered, Jak will either stand, or, if you wait long enough, do something to entertain himself, such as playing with and doing tricks with Daxter. LS - move in that direction with a small tilt, run at full speed with a large tilt. The more the stick is away from the center, the greater the speed, though there's only 2 different movement speeds available. RS - move the camera. Left rotates the camera clockwise (from north to east), right rotates the camera counterclockwise (from north to west). Up moves the camera closer in and angles it upwards slightly. Down moves the camera farther away and angles it downward slightly. The more the stick is moved away from the center, the faster the movement. The up and down orientations have a limit on how far they'll go. The configuration settings can change how this behaves. X - a basic jump. Somehow, there's got to be a way to cross that gap to get on that platform over there. There aren't any invisible lines you can just walk across. X then X while in mid-air near the top of a jump - double jump. Okay, so maybe there are invisible lines after all! How else can one jump in mid-air, jumping even higher? Or maybe land appears directly below for an instant too short to see but just enough to allow for a jump? Flash freeze doesn't show anything else. Hmm. Quite the puzzle we have! [] - punch. Look out! That scorpion metal head is about to sting Jak! Punch that skull gem out of it! Be careful with this move though - never use it near the edge of a cliff, unless you feel like falling forever. Use it in open areas against a single enemy. It's also the stronger of the basic attacks, but only on certain things such as vehicles (yes, you can punch marauder vehicles to destroy them, and more quickly). X then [] near the top of a jump - smashing dive. Glass barrier on the floor? Just break it! This can also be used to smash enemies and destroy vehicles, or take a leap of faith in the water below for a heroic 200-foot dive into the lake below! O - spin attack. I'm getting dizzy doing this! This is the best of the normal attacks to use as it defeats multiple things at once. For maximum effect, this works best in mid-air as it's easier to get the hits in without being hit. X, X, then O - a guided long jump. This is the long, guided jump, the second-longest jump there is. To maximize the jump distance, do a normal jump as usual then, upon falling for about 100 to 250 milliseconds, jump again with another X. Now, about 1/4 to 1/2 of the way down from the top of this jump, use the spin attack. The falling abruptly stops and another fall begins but you're still moving forward so gives that slight bit of extra distance. This, when each button is pressed at the top of the jump, allows for a slightly higher jump than a regular double jump. L1 - duck. Whew! That robot hoverbot shot just passed right above me and I wasn't hit by it! That was close! L1 then X while still ducking - high jump. How does one jump 15 feet high? This is useful for getting up those really high ledges. Under the right conditions, it's easier to use this than it is the launch jump with the jet board. Use this method whenever possible. L1 then X while still ducking then O at the top of the jump - highest jump. It may not seem like it, but by using the spin attack at the top of the high jump, you actually gain a slight bit of extra height. There are times where this slight extra boost is all that's really needed. L1 then [] - uppercut. Aerial robot above? Just give it the ol' uppercut and put a good dent in it. L1 while moving - roll. Rolling has almost no use by itself. So, then, why roll? I guess maybe to roll down that slope for some crazy speed where the camera can't keep up any more... or maybe not. L1 while moving then X - rolling long jump. This is the longest of all the jumps. Start the roll about 2 Jak heights away from the edge of the gap you're trying to cross, and you'll make the big, long jump, starting a little before the edge of the gap is reached. When used in open areas, this is the fastest way to travel on foot, roughly 30% faster. Vehicles, including the jet board, are still faster (the jet board only slightly so, but more risky to use in towns). /\ - enter a vehicle or get on a leaper lizard. Don't want to be on foot or in water and would rather take a form of transportation of sorts? Go for it! It's tiring being on foot! L2 - transform. See the Dark Jak and Light Jak controls for more details. ^ - bring out and cycle through the red guns. Bang, bang! Red guns tend to have short range, but have a wide area of coverage to compensate for the short range. They are best used when those blasted metal heads are in front, in large numbers, and close. Pressing ^ once brings out the scatter gun. Pressing it again brings out the wave concussor. Pressing it yet again brings out the plasmite RPG. One more press and it's back to the scatter gun. v - bring out and cycle through the yellow guns. Zzzzeeewwwwww! Yellow guns tend have long range and also have greater ammo but go through ammo more quickly. Pressing v once brings out the blaster. Pressing it again brings out the beam reflexor. Pressing it a third time brings out the gyro burster. Another press and it's back to the blaster. < - bring out and cycle through the blue guns. Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow! Blue guns tend have a rapid firing rate, eating up ammo very quickly by their nature making them great for taking out large quantities of metal heads. Pressing < once brings out the vulcan fury. Pressing it again brings out the arc welder. Pressing < yet again brings out the needle lazer. Press it once more to return to the vulcan fury. > - bring out and cycle through the dark guns. Kaboom! Dark guns, having a dark magenta color, have little in the way of ammo capacity (just 20 shots at the most), but they are immensely powerful to compensate, able to destroy most metal heads in a single blow with surrounding metal heads also going down for the count. Pressing > once brings out the peace maker. Pressing it again brings out the mass inverter. Pressing it yet again brings out the supernova. Press it again and it's back to the peace maker where it all began. Hold ^, v, <, or > for 2 seconds - holsters the gun. At last the metal heads are gone and the mission is done, so I don't need the gun any more... or do I? There are some places that are forever in combat. R1 - fire a single shot from the current gun. If no gun is out, fires the most recently used gun. R1 held - charge or repeatedly fire the current gun, if applicable. Some guns require charging to use effectively, others can be shot repeatedly. St - bring up the wheel menu. Say, what sort of fancy customization options do I get? See section 3.6 for details on the options and section 4 for the secrts. Se - pause the game. Wai- (game paused)! Need to run to the bathroom or grab a quick drink... or need to bypass something especially difficult requiring fine timing and control? Pausing the game has plenty of uses, both directly and indirectly. ``````````````````````````````` 2.1.2 In deep water **020120** ............................... When in a place that's blue, wet, and deep, the controls change slightly. If you move the camera in close, you can see that the water is quite wavy (there are some areas where the water is not at all wavy) and, if Jak isn't moving, you'll see him bobbing up and down with the waves as he treads. With a large enough wave, it's possible to see very clearly underwater. Ain't swimming fun? Danger! Don't swim too far out or fall into certain pools or a giant snake will turn Jak into an easy lunch! [] - dive. Get a big breath and explore the world below the waves. Surely there's some sunken orbs down there! Hold to sink down deeper or swim at the bottom. Jak will only go so far under then level off, something like 8 meters. Press repeatedly to control depth. O - dive. Okay, 2 buttons do the same thing. Now, pressing both buttons at once.... R1 - does nothing. Sorry, when in deep water, guns cannot be used. Consider jumping at the surface of the water and using the spin attack for the time being. L2 - does nothing. Sorry, when in deep water, Jak cannot transform. Find somewhere solid to transform. L1 - does nothing. Need to duck? Just dive instead! You've got all that water below you to get out of the way - use it to your advantage! You don't get 3 axes of movement for nothing ya know! ````````````````````````````` 2.1.3 As Dark Jak **020130** ............................. Jak turns into quite the monster, but only if he has some dark eco. To get dark eco, defeat certain enemies, usually metal heads and monsters, and dark eco will drop. Dark eco can also be found in containers. With a full dark eco meter, Dark Jak has a lot of potential. What hideous acts do you have against those pesky metal heads? The controls are the same as being on solid ground with these exceptions: L2 - transform into Dark Jak and return to normal. Jak turns into quite the monster, but only if he has some dark eco. What hideous acts do you have against those pesky metal heads? X then [] while in mid-air - Dark Bomb. Unleash a massive shock wave that deals big damage to all around him in a modest radius of about 50 meters. [] then X while on the ground - Dark Blast. Unleash an energy wave that deals big damage to all around him in a modest radius of about 50 meters. L1 held then [] - Dark Blast. Another button combination that does the same thing? This is different! /\ - Dark invisibility. When next to certain idols, for which is only needed in a certain area of the story for one mission, Jak turns invisible. No metal head, security device, etc. will ever know he was there. Jak turns into a transparent outline so you can at least see where you're going. It is possible to unlock invisibility in any location though, even in the middle of the desert with marauders bearing down at full speed. R1 - Dark Charge. Send a big blast of dark eco at something. It's really only needed to advance the story, hardly of use elsewhere. See that broken glass? Shatter it with Dark Charge and now you have easy passage into the next room. `````````````````````````````` 2.1.4 As Light Jak **020140** .............................. Jak turns into a glowing blue-white being, but only if he has some light eco. To get light eco, defeat enemies of most any kind or smash containers. Until unlimited Light Jak is available, this serves little use outside healing. Keep your light eco strictly for healing unless forced upon by the story. With a full light eco meter, it's potentially 16 more units of health. L2 (held) with /\ - Light Regenerate. Who needs a medic when you can heal yourself? Each pack of light eco offers the potential to heal 2 units of health. This is useful throughout pretty much the entire game. Sometimes, however, it's actually better, when health is really low and you pass certain points, to just go swimming in the lava or jump down that bottomless pit. It may seem bad, but you fully restore your health. L2 (held) with [] - Light Flash Freeze. Time's runnin' short! Let's make it flow 5% as fast and get that extra time needed. It takes 4 packs of light eco to use this and it lasts roughly 20 seconds... or was it one second? This cannot be used with any form of transportation as using such transportation cancels the effect. Ain't it nice seeing the world go by so slowly? This is great fun to play around with once unlimited Light Jak is unlocked. Flash freeze is critical if you want to do a 1000-meter distance jump with an ATV. L2 (held) with O - Light Shield. Too many metal heads and other monsters on the rampage? Bring out the Light Shield and deflect those attacks! It's a great way to get past certain parts in the game, especially during act 3, but it's otherwise of little use. L2 (held) with X - Light Flight. Free as a bird... almost. You can't fly forever... or can you? It just so happens that it is possible to fly forever, but how exactly to do it, see the glitches section, in section 10. ``````````````````````````` 2.1.5 As Daxter **020150** ........................... Always riding on Jak's shoulder is the little ottsel friend of his, Daxter. Well, almost always. There are a few odd cases where only Daxter can do something. While a bit limited compared to Jak, a lot of the on-solid-ground controls are still the same. Again, I'll list the differences from normal Jak. /\ - does nothing. Daxter's vehicle is Jak himelf. Sorry, he can't board a vehicle... but at least there aren't any situations in which Daxter can board a vehicle. R1 - does nothing. Daxter cannot use guns. He does, at least, have the same basic physical attacks. R2 - does nothing. Daxter cannot use the hoverboard on his own. However, if Jak uses it, Daxter does as well. O - defensive stance. If Daxter is hanging from an overhead fence, he will get up and avoid being hit by things below. This is rarely, if ever, of use. X - drop off of a fence. This will make Daxter drop off of an overhead fence, no longer hanging from it. Simply going past the end of the fence will do the same. Better check to make sure it's safe to drop! Over a lava pit isn't exactly the safest place to let go. .===================================. # 2.2 Vehicle operation **020200** # `===================================` Vroom, vroooooom! Vehicles come in multiple flavors and varieties, each with pros and cons. This refers to the ATV-like vehicles and the zoomers (hover cars found only in Haven City). The following subsections explain the basic controls for each, with the first being the most common controls. ````````````````````````````````````` 2.2.1 ATVs (aka vehicles) **020210** ..................................... The game calls them vehicles, but, by definition, even a zoomer is a vehicle. I will often refer to them as ATVs for the sake of clarity since they are, in a way, all terrain vehicles. They are the most commonly used vehicles, mainly in the desert area. They take a fair while to get used to controlling but have very poor versatility that sometimes make them not a good choice. They are generally always faster than being on foot, but when there's a lot of really rough terrain, sometimes, it's best to be on foot, but the game doesn't always allow that. Each ATV has all sorts of various pros and cons. Some are super fast, but others are slow. Some are designed for battle, some are not. Some are great at jumping, others can barely leave the ground. I've detailed the specs for each in section 3.3 below. Never put ATV in deep water - it's instant death. They can go in shallow water though, but not more than about neck deep. This just lists the controls, since all ATV are the same. LS - turn ATV. Going the wrong direction or need to make a turn? Just tilt the left stick left or right to turn in that direction. RS - move camera. This is rarely needed with ATVs as the camera is much better behaved with ATVs than it is on foot. Still, when caught up in a tough or tight area, there is some use in this. X - accelerate. Put the pedal to the metal and zoom along! Full speed ahead... but watch out for that cliff! [] when moving forward - brake. Don't be crashing into those trees and rocks like the marauders seem to love doing! This isn't a crash course! [] when stopped or going backward - reverse. Still crashed into that tree? Shift into the gear labeled "R" and back up. Reverse is slower to use so use wisely. O - brake. Regardless of the direction, slamming on the brakes when in need is wise. Speed isn't always the name of the game, even in races. R1 - fire gun. Except for the Tough Puppy, this will fire the gun that's mounted on the ATV. All ATVs have unlimited ammo so feel free to get those guns blazing! There's always a marauder or two around! R2 - use a turbo. Turbos make the ATV go much faster for a short period of time, usually 2 seconds. Hold the button to continue using turbos as soon as they recharge. L1 - jump. Contrary to what the game says for the Dune Hopper, L1 does not need to be held for it to do its high jumps. However, holding it does add a small bit to its hang time. L2 (held) - rear view. Those pesky marauders sure love to cause trouble! Being tailed or need to back up? Hold R2 to see what's going on behind you. With the Gila Stomper or Slam Dozer, this allows for the gun to be fired behind, to destroy any tailing marauders. Now, when you do a big jump, using R2 can be a great way to get some really weird and crazy views, especially if the jump doesn't go quite right where you're on the side. /\ - exit ATV. Need to go on foot? Leave the ATV, but do so wisely. This is required to get upwards of 20 seconds of total hang time. You cannot leave an ATV if it is in the water, even shallow water that it can handle. St - bring up the wheel menu. Say, what sort of fancy customization options do I get? See sections 3.6 and 4 for details on the options. Se - pause the game. Wai- (game paused)! Need to run to the bathroom or grab a quick drink... or need to bypass something especially difficult requiring fine timing and control? Pausing the game has plenty of uses, both directly and indirectly. ````````````````````````` 2.2.2 Zoomers **020220** ......................... Zoomers are only found in Haven City. These are much more flexible vehicles. While they have multiple varieties, the controls are still the same for each. They are very similar to the ATVs, with just a few differences. R1 - fire one of Jak's guns. Zoomers never have guns. Never, ever use the wave concussor, plasmite RPG, peace maker, or supernova with a zoomer or there's a high risk of destroying the zoomer and if this happens while Jak is in or near it, it'll cost him 2 health points. If you need to use a gun, which is generally not necessary, use either the blaster or, the better option, the vulcan fury. R2 - change hover zones. Zoomers have 2 hover zones. The lower one is the ground one - you'll be crashing into the civilians, guards, and monsters quite often, but at least you won't have to worry about other zoomer traffic. The upper one avoids all ground hazards, but you'll then have to deal with zoomer traffic. For most missions that actively involve zoomers, the upper hover zone is best used, but do decide wisely. Sometimes, dropping down to the lower hover zone then back up again to avoid traffic can be very handy. .=====================================. # 2.3 Other transporation **020300** # `=====================================` The jet board, leaper lizard, glider, etc. all have other controls that are different. For things used just once in a single mission, see the appropriate mission for the controls. This area is used for things that can be used multiple times. `````````````````````````````````` 2.3.1 On the jet board **020310** .................................. Surprisingly, the jet board has little use in the main story. Its primary use is in grinding, riding on small pipes or narrow rails and this isn't particularly common either. The jet board has fairly complicated controls, most of which only needed for the jet board challenge. Water, for the jet board, functions the same as solid land. Getting off the jet board while over water will make Jak go in the water. Getting on the jet board while in the water will make him hover above it. Also, the use of the jet board will instantly cancel any active Dark Jak or Light Jak effects. LS - steer. Turn left or right with the stick being left or right, or accelerate when the stick is forward. When the stick is backward, it results in either a rapid turn when not grinding or slowing down when grinding. RS - camera. For the most part, controlling the camera is unnecessary as the camera is well-done with the use of the jet board. You turn right, it automatically turns right so you can see where you're going. In a big fall? The camera follows along. X - jump. Jumping, it's so basic, but it's what makes a platformer a platformer. Somehow, there's got to be a way to get from one platform to another, even if it's by jet board. X then X shortly after landing - high jump. A higher jump has use, but this isn't necessary for the most part as the launch jump is slightly more reliable. L1 held then X - launch jump. This is fairly tricky to pull off. I tend to miss it quite often. It takes a lot of time to get used to it. Fortunately, it's really only needed twice in the entire game as the standard high jump is good enough and much easier to pull off. R1 held with LS and X - flips and spins. Up on the stick does a front flip. Down on the stick does a back flip. Left does a counterclockwise 360° spin and right does a clockwise 360° spin. After any spin, the jet board gets a speed boost, useful to get going quickly from a near-stop. L2 held with LS and X - perform tricks. These have absolutely no use outside the jet board challenge. Diagonals on the stick can also be used, for 8 total tricks. R2 - put the jet board back and return to normal on foot mode, depending on what type of environment you're in. [] - grind. See a rail or small pipe of sorts, like a small pipe or the top of a caution sign? Hold [] while in mid-air until Jak lands on the grindable surface. He will remain on the grindable surface until he goes over the edge, he jumps, or crashes into something like a wall. Upon jumping, be sure to hold [] again to grind on the rail or even a different rail. This aspect takes a lot of time and effort to master and it often costs me a lot of redos. ``````````````````````````````` 2.3.2 Leaper lizard **020320** ............................... Leaper lizards are exclusive to Spargus City. They are the main transport to get around the city more quickly, much like zoomers are to get around Haven City. However, control is a bit different. RS - camera. Unlike the jet board, camera control is needed with the leaper lizards much more as they can go from a sudden stop to full speed ahead and back to a sudden stop only to turn hard left. X - jump. Leaper lizards can jump quite high and far due to their higher speeds. Use this knowledge to get to some of those hard to reach areas for extra orbs. X then X while in mid-air near the top of a jump - double jump. Unlike Jak, leaper lizards hardly get any extra height, but it does stop the falling, making it easier to make longer jumps as needed, what rare case this is needed. [] - dashing strike. Use this to bash a rat for some eco refilling or to catch a kanga-rat. .================================. # 2.4 Other controls **020400** # `================================` There are some other common controls as well. These are the last of them: /\ - skip scene. Don't want to bother with the story and just want to focus on the missions? Just get the /\ button ready and you'll instantly skip story scenes whenever they occur. It makes the game faster, a must for speed runners. L3 - display game stats. How many orbs or skull gems did I have again? What's my health like, so I can regenerate if I really need to? I forgot. Just press down the left stick to bring up this information. The health and eco meters do not show, however, when guidance text shows up or, strangely, when Light Flight is in active use. R3 - look around. The only way to look directly up or directly down is to use the look around mode, which requires Jak to be standing still on the ground. It cannot be done when in deep water, in a vehicle, on a leaper lizard, using the jet board, or when transformed. Use the right stick to move the camera. Down moves the camera to look up, up makes the camera look down, left pans the camera to the left, and right pans the camera to the right. Press R3 again to return to normal. ____ ___ __ __ _____ ____ _ ___ _ _ / ___| / _ \ | \ / | | ___| | _ \ | | / _ \ | | | | | | _ | |_| | | . V . | | |__ | |_| | | | | |_| | | | | | | | | | | _ | | |\ /| | | __| | __/ | | | _ | \ V / | |_| | | | | | | | V | | | |___ | | | |___ | | | | | | \___/ |_| |_| |_| |_| |_____| |_| |_____| |_| |_| |_| ################################ ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 3 Gameplay basics, objects, and info **030000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ################################ It's a staple of video games - plenty of things to collect, plenty of information showing on screen, and plenty of monsters to fight. Here's what each of them are, in detail. .==============================. # 3.1 Game objects **030100** # `==============================` Scattered throughout the game world are countless game objects. All such game objects have a function or use. This section will explain what these objects are. Vehicles and enemies are in other sections below. Skull gems. These are mostly obtained by defeating metal heads. Look for an unusually bright forehead area on a metal head - if the metal head has a bright area, it has a skull gem. Defeat it to get the skull gem to pop out of it. Skull gems can also be found in crates and vases. Smash stuff, basically, to have a smashing success! They are traded at precursor statues and kiosks to get side missions for precursor orbs. Beyond 344 total skull gems collected is of no use for a first play, another 344 for hero mode. Use all that you can. Skull gems are plentiful and there's even places where it's easy to grind a few hundred... or a few thousand if you so choose. Unlimited skull gem grinding isn't available until about 3/4 of the way through the game. Be sure to grab every skull gem you can, provided it's safe to do so. Precursor orb. These objects are used to purchase secrets. Purchase wisely as orbs aren't easy to get... unless you use the infinite orb glitch. Orbs, as I often call them, are egg-shaped objects with strange writing on them. They come in 2 flavors. Red ones are your basic ones and there are plenty scattered around, waiting to be collected. They may even be in the water, on top of buildings, or along rails so search both high and low, wet and dry dry alike. Gold ones are exclusive to the orb hunt side missions and are worth 3 orbs in one. Certain side missions give 3, 6, 9, 10, 12, or even 18 orbs in one go so it's well worth spending the skull gems as it's generally better than a 1:1 ratio. The more skull gems needed, the higher the return rate. One side mission may require 16 skull gems, but you can net up to 45 orbs from it, fairly easy orbs with the right setups. Then again, there is the infinite orb glitch where a single mission can net thousands upon thousands of orbs with minimal effort and all you need is just 4 skull gems in the entire game to get all the orbs you'll ever need to unlock every secret. Dark eco blobs. These are found in crates or left behind by defeated enemies that are not robots. They are used to fill the dark eco meter for Dark Jak. It takes about 50 of these to completely fill the dark eco meter from empty. Unless you use Dark Jak a lot (I don't), avoid collecting dark eco as it's a waste of time. Light eco blobs. These are found in crates or left behind on occasion by defeated enemies. They are used to fill the light eco meter for Light Jak. It takes about 8 of these to completely fill the light eco meter from empty. Smashables. Krimzon Guard crates, urns, vases, and sacks are all over the place. These tend to contain ammo, but a few contain orbs, skull gems, or even dark or light eco. Smash 'em all! To automatically collect everything in the crate, run into them with the jet board. It's much easier collecting skull gems that way as skull gems go flying all over the place. Until the jet board is obtained, you'd have to collect them the old fashioned way which means chasing after them. Red frisbee. These are red ammo restocks and they come in packs of 5 or 10. Defeating robots or smashing stuff reveals such ammo. Yellow thermos. These are yellow ammo restocks and come in packs of 5 or 10. Defeating robots or smashing crates reveals such ammo. This is the most common ammo drop and if ammo is to be dropped based on the gun that is missing ammo (chosen at random) but all ammo is full, this is the default drop. Blue curve. These are blue ammo restocks and come in packs of 5 or 10. Defeating robots or smashing creates reveals such ammo. This ammo isn't particularly common, but it's still plentiful enough. Dark ball. These are dark-magenta-colored ammo restocks that come in packs of 1 or 5. Defeating robots or smashing crates reveals such ammo. This is the rarest of the ammo and minly only drops if the ammo drop condition is toward the one where some ammo is missing. That is, if you're missing some red, blue, and dark ammo, such crates and defeated robots will randomly drop one of those 3 types until full where the variety reduces. If all ammo is full, then the yellow ammo is dropped by default. Black box with green +. These are health packs and restore either 1 or 2 health units (usually the former from enemy drops, the latter from crates). Red light pulse. These blobs of red light are turbos. In an ATV, collect them to gain the ability to use a turbo. Grab all that you can during races until you can unlock unlimited turbos. Outside of races, destroying a marauder vehicle will always drop a turbo. Blur or red circle with faint concentric circles going to the center. These are accelerator rings and used for certain missions, especially the game's 6 ring challenge side missions, the leaper lizard race, and a few others. They serve as race check points (not progress check points where you return to them upon a death) and there's almost always a time limit to reach each one and they often have to be reached in a certain order. .================================. # 3.2 On screen info **030200** # `================================` Timer. This appears in the top center of the screen whenever a timer is present which is solely dependent on the mission, usually side missions. When the timer runs out, the outcome varies, depending on the mission. Usually, it's "mission failed" and you need to restart it. However, some cases have the "test" simply end if the timer runs out, as is the case with the jet board scoring challenge. When flash freeze is used, the timer is also affected by it, counting down 5% as fast. The timer does not flow while the wheel menu is up or the game is paused. Guns. The top right corner of the screen shows the active gun by shape, color, and grade as noted by the colored arrows that light up. It also shows how much ammo you have of that color. This information only shows when you've taken a gun out. When there is insufficient ammo of that color, the ammo counter will be displayed in red. Attempting to fire a shot without adequate ammo will cause a different gun to be fired instead, with the blaster being the primary default. When unlimited ammo is unlocked, ammo may appear to still count down, but even when 0 remains, you still fire ammo of that type. If a mission displays a counter or something in that area, such as the ATV stunt challenges, then bringing out a gun, if possible, will not display this. However, there is a glitch where, if you display the map, the gun info shows, overlaid on top of it, causing it to look weird and confusing. Map. The bottom right corner of the screen shows a broad view map of the area you're in, but only in Spargus City, the big desert, or Haven City. Its range varies, but it's typically 450 meters in all directions and it's oriented so that the top is the exact direction the camera is facing. There are a few times where the map displays outside these means as a mission destination (e.g. Haven Forest). Marked on the map are various icons and dots. Light gray dots indicate transportation sources, such as ATVs, unoccupied zoomers (as opposed to the ones going by overhead), and leaper lizards. Dark blue dots represent Freedom League Guards (exclusive to Haven City) with the medium-light blue cone representing their field of view. Dark violet dots represent metal heads. Dark red dots represent Krimzon Guard robots. Small, yellow down-pointing arrows indicate locations where active side missions are available, either in the form of precursor statues or kiosks, depending on the location. At any time, the map can be viewed via the "map" option, but it lacks the display of all dots except for the currently active ATV and Jak's destination noted a light blue arrow that repeatedly grows and shrinks. Health meter. The bottom left corner of the screen shows Jak's health. It comes in the form of 8 to 16 green or red dots going around the outer edge. Green dots indicate available health points. Red dots indicate missing health points. Grabbing health packs or using Light Regeneration will change some or all red dots into green ones. Health packs recover 1 or 2 health points. Light Regeneration recovers 1 health point per 1/16 of the light eco meter. Obtaining precursor armor increases the total number of available health points by 2 for each, to up to 8 extra. Light eco meter. This is on the left side of the health meter area. It takes 8 pieces of light eco to completely fill it from empty. Light eco is needed for the use of Light Jak powers. I'd recommend sticking strictly to Light Regeneration though, unless required by the story. Dark eco meter. This is on the right side of the health meter area. It takes about 50 pieces of dark eco to completely fill it from empty. Dark Jak is of little use beyond the story-required stuff, but if ammo is running short or there's a ton of enemies in a small space, consider using dark bomb or dark blast to bulk-eradicate enemies. Skull gems. This is how many skull gems are currently in possession. Find them in crates, or from certain defeated metal heads (noted by an oddly bright glowing area). There is no known limit to how many you can have; I have over 3300 and counting. The limit is either 9999, 32,767 (signed 16-bit integer limit), 65,535 (unsigned 16-bit integer limit), or something phenomenally higher. Precursor orbs. Precursor orbs look like eggs and are used to purchase secrets, such as increased ammo, unlimited turbos, invulnerability, and various other things. See section 4 for details. .======================. # 3.3 ATVs **030300** # `======================` In total, there are 8 vehicles, of which I always call ATVs for distinction purposes because zoomers and perhaps even the jet board could be considered vehicles. 5 of which require story progress to obtain, 3 of which can be purchased with orbs. Each ATV has its strengths and weaknesses. I've given a rating for many of the vehicles and did in-depth analysis to determine how strong they are using frame by frame analysis in videos. So, before I get started, I'll explain what each of the fields mean. `````````````````````````````````````````````````````` 3.3.1 Meaning of and determing the ratings **030310** ...................................................... Name, top speed, turbo, handling, jumping, durability, and weapon, are the 6 key attributes to each ATV. Name is self-explanatory - the name of the ATV as stated by the game. Top speed is how fast the vehicle goes at its full speed (driving straight after a few seconds). A high top speed also makes it more prone to skidding, making it difficult to control. Since there's no speedometer in the game and the distance challenge depends on the slopes and requires air time which are not dependable, I have to use alternative methods to determine this while still being as definitive as possible, as opposed to subjective. I used the lost city area (in the southeast part of the desert), where you go to catch wild leapers. I used an area 2 "blocks" west from the eastern edge and passed under 2 arches eventually crashing into the far edge of a third arch that's almost parallel with the direction of travel. I started the timer on the last frame when a part of the northern arch that sticks out on the left side under it was still fully visible. I ended the timer when I crashed into the arch on the other side or got to the point where I would've crashed. For precise timing, I recorded a video of my game play and analyzed it frame by frame. For example, if I got, for the Desert Screamer, 120 frames, 124 frames, 120 frames, then 123 frames, where the frame rate is 30,000/1001 (the NTSC standard), I average out the 4.06 seconds indicated. The standard deviation is about 0.6%, around 2 game frames for 6 seconds (probably from slight variations in the angle of approach). Because this is a measured time, the lower the value, the faster the vehicle. The winner is the Desert Screamer at 4.06 seconds. The loser is the Gila Stomper at 8.64 seconds. Turbo is how effective the turbo is. Duration and speed boost are how I determine it. The greater the speed boost and the longer the duration the speed boost occurs, the better the turbo. I'm using exactly the same process for determining top speed, except I start the turbo very shortly after crossing the start line and I only use 1 turbo in all cases for consistency reasons. Again, because a time is involved, the lower, the better. In addition to the time, I state the duration the rocket engine fires and also the factor of the top speed time divided by the turbo time where a higher value is better. The winner is the Tough Puppy with a 1.31x factor and 3.5 seconds of turbo, the loser is the Slam Dozer with 1.07x factor and just 0.25 seconds of turbo. Handling is how easily the ATV keeps traction. Some ATVs, especially the fast ones don't need much to skid or roll while others take a lot of effort. Handling is difficult to measure definitively so this one is highly subjective. I'm rating it from 1 to 5 where 5 is the most stable and 1 is the least stable. The Tough Puppy wins here along with the Slam Dozer. I have such a hard time getting these to skid, even with turbos, and if I do get it skidding, it's so easily corrected. The Heat Seeker is the main loser here because, at full speed, even without turbo, the slightest of turning gets it to skid. Jumping. The more hang time, the better the jumping. Most ATVs have a total hang time of 0.9 seconds. Testing this is easy. I get the ATV as still as I can possibly get on as flat of a surface as I can get and I jump. To get the duration of the jump to high precision, I recorded a video of it, averaging the 3 jumps. The area I used was the area where the vehicles are stored. The winner is the Dune Hopper at 2.17 seconds (when fully charged, 1.93 seconds with a quick press). The Sand Shark and Dust Demon are tied for last, at 0.6 seconds. Durability. Eventually, all ATVs will take so much damage that they get destroyed. Because ATVs become vulnerable and the toughness upgrade is lost once they are exited, even with invulnerability, I had to make sure that only the spin attack could ever damage the vehicle. The spin attack is the weaker of the normal attacks so it results in more hits being needed, giving a more accurate reflection on how tolerant vehicles are. Because vehicles are invincible in the area where they are stored, I had to take the vehicle outside the gate. I hardly had to cover any distance for it though. I got outside and started using the spin attack, counting how many whacks were needed. I counted twice to verify the number of hits needed. If I got a mismatch (which happened once), I counted 5 times, taking the most common case. The 15 needed for the marauders is a comparison point (yep, I tested it on the marauders - flash freeze and having a single marauder that spawns in an open, smooth arrea (so as to avoid them shooting each other, crashing, or rolling, which is all but inevitable) helps with that). The winner is both the Gila Stomper and the Slam Dozer at 40 hits. The loser is the Tough Puppy at just 15, tied with the marauders. Weapon. This one is sort of subjective. All ATVs except the Tough Puppy have weapons. Twin-mounted, front-facing, machine guns are the most common, which fire 15 shots per second when combined (7.5 shots per second each). These guns are weak but the high firing rate makes up for it and they are fixed in place, always facing directly in the front of the ATV. Large cannons fire 10 shots per second and are either 50% or 100% stronger and they also automatically point toward their target. With such guns, holding L2 allows for the gun to fire behind the ATV, to get rid of the marauder tail you might have. Grenade launchers are the other type, firing just one shot per second, which deal huge damage, instantly destroying the marauders in one hit, but they have poor firing rate and are not easy to aim. They only fire in the direction the vehicle is going. `````````````````````````````````````` 3.3.2 In-depth ATV details **030320** ...................................... Name: Tough Puppy Top speed: 7.3 seconds Turbo: 5.59 seconds for 3.5 seconds with a 1.31x factor Handling: ***** Jumping: 0.9 seconds Durability: 15 hits Weapon: * None While the Tough Puppy lacks any weapons and has the lowest durability of all, it's a fair quality all-around early game vehicle for beginner racing or just getting from point A to point B. You'll hardly need to bother with marauders during the story missions that use it but one mission has heavy marauder involvement. However, it's easily superceded by other vehicles on multiple fronts. However, the lack of skidding from its superior handling is amazing. I just can't get this thing to skid, short of being on awkward slopes or running over a lot of buried rocks. With unlimited turbos unlocked, it's possible to get gold in both of the key races though this isn't the best option for racing. Name: Sand Shark Top speed: 5.52 seconds Turbo: 4.61 seconds for 2 seconds with a 1.2x factor Handling: 3.5 Jumping: 0.6 seconds Durability: 20 hits Weapon: *** Machine guns The Sand Shark is one of the most commonly used ATVs in the story. One side challenge even requires it. Although lacking in the jumping front, it's got a decent top speed and modest handling making it a great choice for racing. Name: Dune Hopper Top speed: 5.76 seconds Turbo: 4.58 seconds for 2 seconds with a 1.26x factor Handling: ** Jumping: 1.93 to 2.17 seconds Durability: 25 hits Weapon: **** Grenade launchers When it comes to jumping, nothing beats the Dune Hopper! Too bad it cannot be used for the hang time or distance challenges. Then again, there's a far, far better way to smash the 4.5-second gold requirement (and it takes so little effort as well to triple the gold requirement) or the 220-meter gold distance (it doesn't take much effort to get 500 meters, but I've gotten over 1000 meters, well off the map (literally)). Although slightly slower than the Sand Shark, and having worse handling, it serves an okay role for racing, especially if you put shortcuts to use made possible only by this thing's insane jumping ability. This ATV is required to get to the Monk Temple, but it is actually possible to use any vehicle to get to the Monk Temple with the right setup. See the "hang time", "distance", and "roll" side challenges in sections 5.14, 5.15, and 5.16 for details. Name: Gila Stomper Top speed: 8.64 seconds Turbo: 7.57 seconds for 2 seconds with a 1.14x factor Handling: **** Jumping: 0.9 seconds Durability: 40 hits Weapon: ***** Cannons The Gila Stomper is the first ATV you'll have access to that's designed for combat and, if purely for combat only, the best vehicle. Although it is the slowest vehicle of them all, who needs speed when its gun can target anything in a full 360° circle (use L2 to shoot stuff behind)? Unfortunately, the autolock only works when near a target, not when one is far away. Name: Slam Dozer Top speed: 8.06 seconds Turbo: 7.54 seconds for 0.25 seconds with a 1.07x factor Handling: ***** Jumping: 0.9 seconds Durability: 40 hits Weapon: ***** Cannons This vehicle is slightly better than the Gila Stomper on the speed front, but the turbo is really horrible, the worst of all. Although it is very short, it does result in a massive speed boost. To make the most out of it, use the turbo then jump about 100 milliseconds later. This will provide a modest speed boost. The ratings are based being purely on the ground, for consistency reasons. Unfortunately, the guns only cover a 270° arc so it cannot get stuff directly behind it. I'd say that, for purely combat purposes, this vehicle is second place. Name: Heat Seeker Top speed: 4.37 seconds Turbo: 3.58 seconds for 2 seconds with a 1.22x factor Handling: * Jumping: 0.9 seconds Durability: 17 hits Weapon: *** Machine guns The Heat Seeker is purchased with 15 orbs. It's a very fast vehicle, but it's not very durable and it has the worst handling of all. It's so bad that, at its full speed, it takes very little to get this thing skidding, even on flat terrain with nothing rough. It was a challenge to log the top speed and even more of a challenge to log the turbo speed as I had to line up and go full speed without any turning. It's, however, best used for getting the silver and gold for the hang time and distance jumps until the real big stuff becomes available. It's also not very durable, only slightly better than the Tough Puppy or the marauders. I would not recommend it much. Name: Dust Demon Top speed: 4.77 seconds Turbo: 3.94 seconds for 2 seconds with a 1.21x factor Handling: *` Jumping: 0.6 seconds Durability: 24 hits Weapon: **** Grenade launchers This is obtained for 15 orbs. While it has a great speed and slightly better handling than the Heat Seeker, it's not a decent vehicle overall and it can barely jump at all. Pass up on this one. Name: Desert Screamer Top speed: 4.06 seconds Turbo: 3.41 seconds for 2 seconds with a 1.19x factor Handling: ** Jumping: 0.95 seconds Durability: 20 hits Weapon: *** Machine guns This the ultimate ATV. It's so good, it screams, hence the name! Not only is it the fastest of all, making getting the gold look easy, it's also got a fair handling ability and a slightly better jumping ability than the norm. It has moderately low durability though, but it's, overall, a great all-around choice for almost everything. It does cost 20 orbs to obtain though, but it's well worth it for use in hero mode. I mainly only recommend unlocking it if you have 270 or more orbs. .=========================================. # 3.4 In-depth zoomer details **030400** # `=========================================` Zoomers mainly come in 3 flavors. The single seaters are fast, but don't have much durability. The double-seaters are slower but are much more durable. For most needs, the single seaters are the best choice. When zoomers take too much damage, they explode which deal 2 units of damage. However, if you use this explosion wisely, you can be used as a makeshift weapon with certain missions. Top speed is measured by the time it takes to get from point A to point B at full speed. To avoid combat and crashing into stuff, I used the port area, in the far back area (the southernmost part). I used the wall as a reference point. Durability is measured the same way as that of the ATVs - I just use the spin attack repeatedly until it explodes. Unfortunately, even with invulnerability, zoomers can take damage and will eventually blow up, regardless on whether or not Jak is using it. It seems like a big oversight by the developers, one present in Jak 2 as well. Thus, I had to be more careful with it. Flash freeze, to eliminate most variables, was the best way to test it. Type: single-seater Top Speed: seconds Durability: 8 hits Type: double-seater Top Speed: seconds Durability: 12 hits .=========================. # 3.5 Enemies **030500** # `=========================` Monsters, metal heads, Krimzon Guard robots, marauders, and dark creatures are Jak's primary enemies. However, Freedom League Guards and Spargus's civilians can also become enemies if attacked. Running into them with the jet board counts as being attacked making it not recommended to use the jet board in city walk ways (but feel free over water). Defeating them via the peace maker does not count as being attacked. While the list is not complete, here's the rough idea on the enemies, how they behave, and strategies on dealing with them. I do not know any of their official names, so I'll reference them based on what they look like or how they behave. Bosses are left out as they are specific to individual missions. `````````````````````````` 3.5.1 Monsters **030510** .......................... Monsters are things like the lurkers in the original Jak & Daxter. They never drop ammo, health packs, or skull gems, but do drop dark and light eco. Rat - these are harmless and prefer to run away. They are only found in Spargus City. Either run into them with the jet board, dash attack them with the leaper lizard, or shoot them. Small lizard - these are harmless and will rarely move. They are only found in Spargus City. Just attack as you see fit, but they don't drop anything so it's best to just ignore them unless you're the type that loves destruction. Hedgehog - these roll and tend to be in groups. They are an orangish color and have small spikes lining their backs. Hedgehogs are found in the volcano. Shooting them is the best way to deal with them, though the spin attack and punch can also be used. They deal 2 units of damage but don't drop anything. Death guard - these are found in the central area of the Monk Temple and will cause instant death when they attack. Use a fully charged wave concussor attack or the supernova (hero mode only) to destroy them with, all together at once. Frogs - found frequently in the sewers and eco mine, they are an easy target that deal 2 units of damage. Shoot or spin attack them. Flier - a blue-green- and teal-colored monster exclusive to the eco mine. They do diving swoops when close. Shoot them down. Wall lizard - these shoot beams of dark eco that do 2 units of damage and crawl along the wall. Shoot them down so they fall to the ground then shoot until destroyed. Red rat - these cannot be killed outside sending them down a bottomless pit but their use is in getting wheels spinning. They'll chase after you and deal 2 units of damage. However, once one in the set is in the wheel, they'll generally stop chasing. Kanga-rat - these are exclusive to a single mission and prefer to run away and not attack. They serve as leaper lizard food though. ````````````````````````````` 3.5.2 Metal heads **030520** ............................. Metal heads tend to have skull gems and come in an assortment of varieties. They never drop ammo or health packs but do drop dark and light eco. Scorpion - these make random movements and very quickly strike when close to one. They tend to sneak up on you as they're quite small and tend to be in large numbers. Shooting them with the scatter gun is the easiest way, but mid-air spin attacks are just as easy as the striker will hit spinning Jak and Jak's attacks take priority, so their strike is a weak point. They deal 1 unit of damage. Pouncer - these run like gorillas and will pounce (jump on) you when they get close. They take 2 hits to defeat but are easy targets. Shoot 'em or spin attack them. They tend to have skull gems as well and drop 3 to 5 dark eco. Their attacks deal 2 units of damage. Leech - these are in huge numbers and only found in the metal head cave, Haven Forest on the first visit, or in the metal head destruction side challenge. They gang up on you in large numbers and constantly attack. For this, just get those guns blazing, especially the arc welder, or use jumping spin attacks. They deal 1 unit of damage. They don't always drop something, but when they do, they drop a single dark eco and rarely light eco. They never have skull gems. Dragonfly - these fly in the air and fire dark eco projectiles. They are primarily at the Monk volcano and Monk Temple. They take 2 hits to defeat and are best defeated by shooting them, especially with the blaster as they like to keep distance. Their attacks deal 2 units of damage. Shooter spider - these move very slowly and, when close to one, shoot beams of dark eco light repeatedly. Just shoot them from a distance. Ninja mantis - these are the most difficult to attack, but are only found in one mission. They deal 2 damage, but only take 1 hit to defeat. I find that either the scatter gun or the beam reflexor are the best options, the peace maker only when there's more than 5 of them in a small area. Croc - these are exclusive to the sewers and can handle deep water. They deal 2 units of damage and take 2 hits to defeat. Dinosaur - these giant metal heads are only dealt with during certain missions. They are huge and run at incredible speed, often firing projectiles in the form of magenta-colored balls. They are exclusive to the desert. Giant bat - these metal heads are exclusive mainly to large-scale combat missions involving the ATVs. They shoot missiles. `````````````````````````````````````` 3.5.3 Krimzon Guard robots **030530** ...................................... These robots tend to drop ammo instead of eco, but they still drop eco. They do not drop skull gems but can drop health packs. Rollbot - these robots roll on the guard then get up, aim, and shoot at their selected target. They deal 2 units of damage and take 4 spin attack hits to defeat. The arc welder, especially with the upgrade, works best for these. Crawlbot - these small robots constantly move toward their target then pounce when close. They deal 2 units of damage and are best defeated with the spin attack as they're so simple and easy to get though they can sneak up on you. Fortunately, they're quite noisy so if their familiar sound gets fairly loud, look around. They tend to drop ammo and health packs though. Hoverbot - these small aerial robots randomly move about, tending to stay near the edges of walls, and shoot. They're easy targets, but they drop large ammo drops for the peace maker, packs of 5 in one. Just shoot them, for the most part, or, if one is close, spin attack. They only do 1 unit of damage and take only 1 hit, however. Jetbot - these are much like the rollbots, except they're aerial and more fragile taking 2 hits instead of 4. They're also quite annoying as I get hit by them frequently. For the most part, shoot them with the blaster or beam reflexor. Blastbot - these are the most dangerous of the robots. Although all attacks they do deal 2 units of damage, they are incredibly resistant, taking upwards of 50 hits to destroy. When they take too many hits, they stop attacking and moving and get ready to explode. Fortunately, there are only a limited quantity of these present. Frogbot - these are the same as the monster frogs, just red and robotic in nature instead. They are exclusive to one part of the sewers. ``````````````````````````` 3.5.4 Marauders **030540** ........................... Marauders are only found in the desert and they only appear to drop dark eco. They come in only 5 flavors. All but one type are found in only certain events. Sword marauder - these are the most basic of marauders. They deal 2 units of damage and take 2 hits to defeat. These types are limited to only certain events. Gun marauder - these are the worst marauders as they have incredible range and tend to sneak up on you. They deal 2 units of damage and take 2 hits to defeat. Car marauder - these are found at any time in the desert. They spawn in the direction of travel about 300 meters away with some angular varation on either side, unless an obstacle is present at that distance such as water or a mountain. These are quite annoying and they constantly have their guns going off. Fortunately, they're not very smart as it's easy enough to lure them into a tree or even into deep water to drown. They take 15 hits to defeat but those hits come very fast with the right vehicles. Flaming car marauder - these are the same as the above, but exclusive to a single mission and deal small damage. See the main walkthrough for details. Catapult car marauder - these marauder vehicles are exclusive to the a single mission and deal huge damage. See the main walkthrough for details. ```````````````````````````````` 3.5.5 Dark creatures **030550** ................................ The most hideous and dangerous of all the enemies in the game don't start appearing until the very end of act 2. They tend to appear out of nowhere and they are frightfully strong! It's a good thing the good guns are available for handling these. They often drop a lot of dark eco when defeated. Dark demon - these creatures put up shields which easily break with a spin attack or punch but not so with guns then fire a projectile that does 4 units of damage (yow!) and is somewhat difficult to avoid. If close to one, they will attack with a different action that deals 2 damage. I find it best to use the peace maker on these as, even with the shield up, they are instantly defeated and in bulk. Otherwise, they take 4 hits to defeat. Dark bat - these large flying bats constantly shoot, dealing 2 units of damage, and are quite strong. In large numbers, use the peace maker. Otherwise, the beam reflexor works nicely. Dark spider - these spiders are very simple but they come in large numbers, even splitting into multiple smaller ones. They come in 3 sizes - large, medium, and small. Yep, one spider and you might as well have a total of 7 to deal with. The large and medium ones take 2 hits to defeat, the small ones take just one. I find it easier to use spin attacks and punches for the larger ones, but when there's more than 4, either the [[first red gun]], arc welder, or peace maker work best to do some much-needed cleanup. What they drop depends on what mission they're encountered in - either ammo, eco, or both. .================================. # 3.6 The wheel menu **030600** # `================================` Jak 3 offers a little more customizability and options than any of the previous games. The wheel menu is a somewhat updated version of what Jak 2 has. There are, in total, 10 options. Here's what each of them are and what they do. Map - view the current, full map, regardless of the destination. There are only a few, special cases where no map is available but they don't really need a map. This is the same as the minimap shown in the bottom right, but it lacks all of the indicators except where side missions are, where Jak is, and, if in the desert, where the currently active ATV is. It also shows where mission icons are along with other key locations as flashing green or red dots. Missions - view the current missions in progress and the ones you have cleared. If you don't know what you're supposed to do, or what's going on, check here then check the name of that mission in the walkthrough section itself (sections 5, 6, and 7). High scores - view your current best scores and times for various actions. This shows you what is needed to get the bronze (3rd place), silver (2nd place) and gold (1st place) rankings to get those extra orbs. Inventory - view your current inventory and what you've picked up. Vehicles, guns, key items like the eco crystals and gate pass, the Dark Jak skills, the Light Jak skills, and a few others. Controls - review the controls for the game. It's a quick reference on how to control things, but you cannot configure anything. Section 2 above goes into more detail. Options - configure 5 different types of configuration settings. • Game options. Set the vibration function, use of subtitles (the text of the scenes that play), and the the language for the subtitles, game itself, and voice acting. • Graphic options. Center the screen (use ^, >, v, or < to move it, or [] to reset to where it was), set the aspect ratio, or the use of progressive scan. I strongly recommend using the 4:3 aspect ratio instead of the 16:9 default because you can see more of the game scene, including enemies you couldn't otherwise see with the 16:9. I've had that happen a few times. The reasoning is simple: the 16:9 is actually just a cropped version of the 4:3. Due to a bug in the game where the aspect ratio is not saved (also present in Jak 2), you'll need to reset this every time you load the game. So, use 4:3 and take the added advantage. You can see more of the game world that way! • Sound options. Adjust the volume of the sound effects, music, and speech. Also, adjust the sound mode to either surround (default), mono, or stereo. The "mono" seems to be a bit louder than the other 2. Surround, at least, gives an extra advantage where you can get audio cues of things going on the sides (and specifically which side), but it requires compatible speakers. • Picture options. Adjust the contrast and brightness. Contrast is the difference between the dark and the light. Jak 3 tends to be fairly dark where it's difficult to see. When it's hard to see, consider reducing the contrast to 40% instead of the default 50% and brightness to 60% instead of the default 50%. It's much easier to see dark stuff. • Camera control. Adjust how the movement of the camera works. It is split into horizontal and vertical. For each, you have "default" and "flipped". The latter simply reverses how the camera moves. That is, instead of up moving the camera closer, it moves it farther away. Load game - not liking hero mode or want to go with hero mode instead of normal mode? Load your applicable save and go from there. Save game - sometimes, the automatic save is unfriendly. It comes when you don't want it to and you can't disable it. Thus, by saving to a backup file first then saving to your main file, you can undo what autosave does. If you load your backup file, be sure to replace your autosave-destroyed main file right away so you still have your backup. Also, when you collect orbs or complete side missions, the results do not get automatically saved so this comes in handy to perform a manual save, so you don't lose that progress. Secrets - use your orbs to purchase various upgrades at almost any time. See the "secrets" section below, in section 4, to learn more. Restart/quit - off to a horrible start on a difficult mission? Instead of waiting to die or for a timer to run out, just choose to restart it to save time. If you've unlocked a secret that requires it to be accessed from the game start menu, you can choose to quit your current game. This part on the wheel menu is critical to the infinite orbs glitch. See the "glitches" section for more details. ____ _____ ___ ____ _____ _____ ____ / ___| | ___| / _ \ | _ \ | ___| |_ _| / ___| \ \ | |__ | | |_| | |_| | | |__ | | \ \ \ \ | __| | | _ | _ < | __| | | \ \ __\ \ | |___ | |_| | | | | | | |___ | | __\ \ |____/ |_____| \___/ |_| |_| |_____| |_| |____/ ################# ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 4 The list of secrets **040000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ################# .===============================. # 4.1 About secrets **040100** # `===============================` On the wheel menu, noted by 3 question marks, you can spend orbs to purchase various secrets. Most of the secrets are of little worth or use and should be avoided until all the important stuff is obtained first. You "only" need 565 orbs to obtain every secret, out of the 600. If you get all 600... or over 600 via the infinite orbs glitch, Jak's looks change but the change isn't really worth it as it's just a bit of palette-swapping. At first, very few secrets are available. However, as certain missions complete, new secrets become accessible. The really good stuff, like unlimited ammo and invulnerability, don't become available until the final boss is defeated. Most secrets take only a few orbs to unlock. Interestingly enough, even if you only get 400 orbs on your first play, you can choose to go with hero mode and obtain more orbs to finish unlocking stuff, though it's easier to just use the infinite orbs glitch as soon as possible. Here's what all of the secrets are and what effects they have. The timing is given in the walkthrough itself. Name - the name of the secret as it appears on the list. Orbs - the number of orbs required to obtain the secret. Recommendation - a rating from 1 to 5 stars (where ` is a half star) on how much I recommend obtaining that secret. The walkthrough itself will explain the optimal timing for it. Details - in-depth description on what the secret does and why I rated the recommendation the way I did, to the best of my knowledge. .=================================. # 4.2 Weapon upgrades **040200** # `=================================` These secrets involve the guns Jak uses such as increasing the ammo limit, efficiency, or damage. Most of these are worth obtaining as soon as they become available. Once these are purchased, they cannot be undone. Name: Increased red ammo capacity Orbs: 4 Recommendation: **` Details: Increases the max ammo capacity for the red guns by 50. This makes the maximum 150. Since the red guns are rarely of use, this is not a necessity. Skip it until further notice. It's not needed until a fair ways into the game. Name: Increased yellow ammo capacity Orbs: 4 Recommendation: ***** Details: Increases the max ammo capacity for the yellow guns by 100. This makes the maximum 300. Yellow ammo is among the most common and with the beam reflexor or spinning rapid fire trick, it's a very effective choice having a significant increase in capacity. Name: Increased blue ammo capacity Orbs: 4 Recommendation: ****` Details: Increases the max ammo capacity for the blue guns by 100. This makes the maximum 300. These guns go through ammo like there's no tomorrow so having the higher capacity makes them last longer, especially the ever-so-useful arc welder. Name: Increased dark ammo capacity Orbs: 4 Recommendation: ***** Details: Increases the max ammo capacity for the dark guns by 5. This makes the maximum 20. Because this ammo is so limited and so powerful, this is a must as soon as the peace maker is obtained. Name: Blaster damage upgrade Orbs: 6 Recommendation: **** Details: Damage with the blaster gun is increased by 50%. What used to take 40 hits to destroy the Gila Stomper now takes 27 hits for the same thing (actually 26 2/3). However, other yellow guns are not affected, just specifically the blaster. If you use the spinning rapid fire trick a lot, this is a really worthwhile method. Name: Scatter gun rate-of-fire upgrade Orbs: 6 Recommendation: ** Details: The rate of fire for the scatter gun increases by about 80% (I logged 136 frames before, going to 77 frames after, for 5 total shots, 4 full ones). The scatter gun has a fairly low rate of fire, taking a while to reload (around 1 1/8 seconds it seems). There are better guns than the scatter gun so this isn't particularly favorable. Pass it up for a fair while. There's hardly any good use in the scatter gun beyond the second mission in the game (section 5.3). Name: Vulcan fury damage upgrade Orbs: 6 Recommendation: **** Details: Increases the damage with the vulcan fury by 25%. What used to take 40 hits to destroy the Gila Stomper now takes 32 for the same thing. Name: Peace maker increased radius Orbs: 6 Recommendation: ***** Details: Doubles the area of effect radius to about 20 meters instead of 10 making it cover 8 times more volume or 4 times more area. Make those few shots this gun comes with count to its fullest! Name: Reflexor increased reflections Orbs: 8 Recommendation: ***** Details: With the reflexor being so useful, why not make it even more useful!? With this one upgrade, it'll be easy to get the gold for the gun course mission that involves it. Instead of a maximum of 3 deflections, it increases to 6, but I'm not entirely sure on the exact effect this has as I haven't figured out a way to test it as the bullets tend to go off screen or above where I can't possibly see it. Name: Concussor damage upgrade Orbs: 8 Recommendation: * Details: Although of little use, like most red guns, this increases the damage done with the wave concussor gun by a mere 10%. The worst part about this is that you have to get the near-useless rate of fire upgrade first in order to even get it which basically means 14 orbs. It knocks the recommendation down by a whole star because of that, and with the damage upgrade being so minimal, it's totally not worth it. A better upgrade would be an increased radius and/or ammo efficiency. Name: Arc wielder robot shock Orbs: 8 Recommendation: ***** Details: Deals double the damage to robots and vehicles. One of the best guns in the game can be upgraded to quickly eradicate robots with great efficiency and there's tons of robots around! It also affects vehicles, including the ATVs and zoomers, but this generally isn't needed - be careful where you aim when around ATVs and critically important zoomers. Name: Mass inverter duration upgrade Orbs: 8 Recommendation: * Details: Increases the duration from about 6 seconds to 7. Unless you're after a 23-second hang time or a 1000-meter distance, well beyond what is required for the gold, it's best to avoid this. Name: Gyro burster duration upgrade Orbs: 10 Recommendation: *` Details: The Gryo burster itself has little use so this is not recommended. It still eats up just as much ammo though - 51. The duration is 50% longer because, instead of using the equivalent of 1 1/2 shots (starting with 2 then going to one and alternating from there), a single shot is always used but still uses the same 51 shots. It's hardly worth it outside blast bots. There's a more controlled way to get such rapid fire and one that's more dependable over all. There's the blue guns and there's the trick with the blaster (which gets a 50% damage increase, more so than the vulcan fury). To get the rapid fire with the blaster, jump, spin, then press R1 while spinning. Not only do you get the distance, you don't have to aim and you get a better damage upgrade boost. The rapid fire doesn't last as long, but the lack of the need to aim more than makes up for that, on top of the damage boost. Turn to other rapid fire methods instead. Name: Plasmite RPG ammo efficiency Orbs: 10 Recommendation: *` Details: One of the better red gun options will use 8 red ammo instead of 10, a 20% reduction. The bonus takes effect the next time the gun is used. It's not much though, but since this red gun ammo has a great area of effect and does a lot of damage, it's quite useful. The only catch is that you have to get the other 2 junk red gun upgrades to get it so it's effectively 24 orbs, making it not worth it for a while, severely hurting my recommendation score because of that, knocking it down 2 1/2 whole stars. Name: Needle lazer ammo efficiency Orbs: 10 Recommendation: **** Details: One of the better guns in the game will use 1 1/2 ammo shots (in the form of alternating between using 2 and 1 shots) instead of the 2 shots it would otherwise use. If you make a shot that uses 2, change to another gun, even the vulcan fury which uses the same type of ammo, then make another shot with the needle lazer, it'll still use 2. It has to be from the same gun and consecutive for the benefit to occur. Name: Supernova ammo efficiency Orbs: 10 Recommendation: *` Details: The supernova destroys everything within a roughly 100-meter radius of where the mushroom cloud is. It uses 10 of the most limiting ammo of all, but this upgrade reduces that to just 8. It's not worth it so pass it up. Name: Ratchet and Clank gun courses Orbs: 5 Recommendation: * Details: Adds 2 new gun courses to the list, styled after how Ratchet and Clank are. Unfortunately, you cannot get any more orbs from it so it is not worth obtaining until all the good stuff is obtained first. So, pass on it. .==================================. # 4.3 Vehicle upgrades **040300** # `==================================` These 5 secrets, 2 of which toggleable, improve on the ATVs in general or unlock new ones. Name: Upgrade vehicle toughness Orbs: 15 Recommendation: ***** Details: Doubles vehicle durability, withstanding twice as much damage as before. This, however, only takes effect while it is in operation (that is, can drive it around). That is, the Sand Shark will still take 20 spin attacks to destroy it, before and after this, but after this, when operating it, it takes the equivalent of 40 spin attacks. This is essential for some of the challenges the game has that requires vehicles. It significantly reduces the amount of redos needed. Get it as soon as it becomes available. You'll thank yourself later! Name: Unlock the Heat Seeker Orbs: 15 Recommendation: *** Details: Add the Heat Seeker ATV to the list of vehicles you can choose. This is a cheap, fast vehicle with the worst handling of all. It's great for early access to the gold records for hang time and distance jumping. It's the best vehicle for the roll challenge though. Name: Unlock the Dust Demon Orbs: 15 Recommendation: ** Details: Add the Dust Demon ATV to the list of vehicles you can choose. A durable, fast vehicle. It's hardly worthwhile. Name: Unlock the Desert Screamer Orbs: 20 Recommendation: **** Details: Add the Desert Screamer ATV to the list of vehicles you can choose. This is the ultimate ATV which goes nicely for any of the races and still does well for the getting the gold records for hang time and distance jumping. Then again, there is that trick for making the gold records for hang time and distance look like child's play, even with something like the Gila Stomper (if only you could use it)! Name: Unlimited vehicle turbos Orbs: 30 Recommendation: ****` Details: There's no better way to win races than to always fire off turbos whenever optimal setups become available for them. It's also great for saving time and dealing with the final boss. Get it about as soon as it becomes available, especially if you have at least 280 total orbs by then. .=============================. # 4.4 Crazy stuff **040400** # `=============================` These secrets have no use whatsoever. Do not bother obtaining any of them until you've obtained everything else of higher priority. Save your orbs for the much more important stuff. Basically, wait for hero mode to be unlocked first. Name: Toggle Jak's Goatee Orbs: 2 Recommendation: * Details: This removes Jak's facial hair. You rarely see his face and you have to get in close to see it. Useless - skip it. Name: Big head mode Orbs: 3 Recommendation: * Details: Makes Jak's head become 8 times bigger (twice the size on each axis). This is completely useless and only good for the comic relief. Skip it. Name: Small head mode Orbs: 3 Recommendation: * Details: Makes Jak's head become 8 times smaller (half the size on each axi). This is completely useless and only good for the comic relief. Skip it. Name: Kleiver's diaper Orbs: 4 Recommendation: * Details: I have no clue what this does. Name: Bad weather Orbs: 5 Recommendation: * Details: Talk about weather control! Love thunderstorms and sand storms? Unless they're forced by the story or mission, or the randomization says otherwise, this will allow you to control the weather so that it's always the worst possible weather. It's only something for fun and serves absolutely no use so don't bother getting it. Name: Mirror world Orbs: 5 Recommendation: * Details: What's on the left is now on the right and what's on the right is now on the left. Controls feel the same, but it's quite confusing when it comes to figuring out where to go. It's useless trash so skip it unless you've got orbs to spare, as from the infinite orbs glitch or using hero mode to obtain more. Name: Fast movies Orbs: 5 Recommendation: * Details: Movies, the game's scenes, play back twice as fast. It's useless junk as, if you don't want to watch the story unfold, just press /\ and it's done in an instant! Skip this. Name: Slow movies Orbs: 5 Recommendation: * Details: Movies, the game's scenes, play back half as fast. This is only useful to see the finer details in what goes on. Again, skip it as it's useless. .================================. # 4.5 Expert options **040500** # `================================` These have little use. The exception is hero mode. Want to play the game from the beginning again with all of the guns, the hoverboard, among others to go with it? While it seems like a bad idea, it's so much more entertaining playing with unlimited ammo, the peace maker, and invulnerability. There's some other crazy things you could do. They don't unlock until the right requirements have been obtained, usually reaching certain parts in the story. Name: Level select act 1 Orbs: 5 Recommendation: ** Details: Replay any of the story missions from act 1. See the act 1 walkthrough for details on which missions these are. For the most part, this isn't of much use. Name: Level select act 2 Orbs: 5 Recommendation: ** Details: This is the same as before, except involving act 2 instead. See the act 2 walkthrough for details on which missions these are. Name: Level select act 3 Orbs: 5 Recommendation: ** Details: Again, it's the same as the previous 2, except involving the few missions that comprise act 3. Name: Hero mode Orbs: 5 Recommendation: ***** Details: Replay the game from the beginning with all 12 guns, all 8 ATVs, Dark Bomb, Dark Blast, Light Regenerate, Light Flash Freeze, Light Shield, the hoverboard, all armor for the full 16 health points, and all secrets unlocked at the point this begins. I would strongly suggest unlocking invulnerability, unlimited ammo, unlimited Light Jak, and, perhaps, unlimited Dark Jak before starting hero mode. That's when the greatest fun begins. It is best if you've completed all of the side missions and found a fair bit of the loose orbs. .========================. # 4.6 Cheats **040600** # `========================` Come on, admit it, you just want to cheat. Sorry, most of these are unavailable until the final boss is defeated. Some do become available early on though, but not the good stuff. However, if you decide to replay the game in hero mode, having the really good stuff only available after defeating the final boss will have it available throughout hero mode, adding immensely to the fun. After all, you've played the game through normally (or close to it if you exploited glitches), so what better way to add replay value than to cheat? Name: Turbo jet board in the desert Orbs: 5 Recommendation: ****` Details: Normally, in the desert, you'd be using the ATVs. However, they aren't exactly flexible for maneuverability. The jet board excels on the flexibility and maneuverability front. The only catch is that it's normally quite slow, barely 50% faster than running. With this, it becomes very fast, but only in the desert, with speeds along the lines of Heat Seeker (untested). For some of the side challenges in the desert, such as ring challenges and follow mes, the poor flexibility and maneuverability with vehicles makes them so much more difficult. Crash into a wall, get an unexpected roll or skid in which are hard to avoid when you need to go fast, and it's back to the beginning. With this, that is no longer an issue making this strongly recommended for those specific side missions. Unfortunately, the jet board doesn't count as a vehicle - it cannot be used with races. Name: Dark Jak homing attacks Orbs: 3 Recommendation: *** Details: Unless you use Dark Jak a lot beyond what's required for the story, this allows Dark Jak to automatically go to the nearest enemy and attack it, if it's reasonably close to him. For the most part, it's a quick way to get through some missions that are very heavy in enemies. Then again, guns do the same, just in a different way. The best part about Dark Jak, however, is that he takes less damage from enemy attacks, half the damage. Name: Dark Jak invisibility on /\ Orbs: 25 Recommendation: * Details: This is pretty much useless as, by the time this is available, you can have invulnerability if you planned for it accordingly. However, at least, any time you use Dark Jak, you can just press /\ to turn invisible without the need of those statues that are pretty much exclusive to the monk temple and one time only. Name: Unlimited ammo Orbs: 50 Recommendation: ***** Details: Although it appears that the the ammo is still limited, you can still fire shots with inadequate ammo with that gun. You won't have to bother with any ammo pick ups, saving time. Get those guns blazin' all you want! Name: Invulnerability Orbs: 100 Recommendation: ***** Details: Makes Jak, Daxter, ATVs only when Jak is operating one, and the dark suit invincible except to bottomless pits, lava, acid, and long falls without proper cancelation. This is what makes the game the most fun! Too bad swimming in the acid and lava aren't possible. Some tools, like special turrets or some key character's health will still take damage as normal. Name: Unlimited Dark Jak Orbs: 50 Recommendation: ***` Details: Allows the use of Dark Jak indefinitely, keeping the dark eco meter always full, regardless on how much it's used. Unless you love using Dark Bomb or Dark Blast, this isn't particularly useful. Name: Unlimited Light Jak Orbs: 50 Recommendation: ***** Details: Oh the joy of going through things like ring challenges and fiddling around with flash freeze and the infinite flight glitch. This, indirectly, makes for a good alternative to invulnerability as you can use regenerate infinitely. However, it's not complete as vehicles cannot be recovered. .=============================. # 4.7 Art gallery **040700** # `=============================` These are of no use for the main game. Short of using the infinite orb glitch or running through again in hero mode, it's best to put these in the back seat until nothing else of worth is available. Name: Scrap book Orbs: 2 Recommendation: * Details: View various artwork that the game designers made for concept art. How many of the scenes and characters do you recognize? Name: Mega scrap book Orbs: 2 Recommendation: * Details: This is the same as the above, except it covers different content. How many of these scenes and characters do you recognize? Name: Jak and Daxter model viewer Orbs: 2 Recommendation: * Details: If you've played the original Jak & Daxter, the first in the series, you'll definitely recognize several of these characters. Press /\ to exit the model viewer, < or > to change between the models, R1 to raise the camera, L1 to lower the camera, and the right stick to rotate the camera around. Name: Jak II model viewer Orbs: 2 Recommendation: * Details: This is the same as the above, but focuses on characters from Jak II, the sequel to Jak & Daxter and the prequel to Jak 3. Name: Jak 3 model viewer Orbs: 2 Recommendation: * Details: This is the same as the above, but for Jak 3 instead. Name: Scene player act 1 Orbs: 2 Recommendation: * Details: Love the game's story? Watch all the scenes unfold with the scene player. This one focuses only on act 1. Name: Scene player act 2 Orbs: 2 Recommendation: * Details: This is the same as the above, only for act 2. Name: Scene player act 3 Orbs: 2 Recommendation: * Details: This is the same as the above 2, only for act 3 instead. Name: Commentary Orbs: 2 Recommendation: * Details: Listen to what the game designers have to say about the making of the game. This is played with the scene players. (There's a few glitches in Jak 2 and 3 that allow you to see level design details.) ___ ___ _____ __ / _ \ / _ \ |_ _| / | | |_| | | | |_| | | |_| | | _ | | | _ | | | | | | | | | |_| | | | _| |_ |_| |_| \___/ |_| |_____| ################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 5 Walkthrough for act 1 **050000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ################### It's now time for the walkthrough, the 61 total missions in the game. This section covers the 25 missions with act 1. But first, just having the game disk itself won't make the game playable. The names are based on the names of the missions that appear under the "missions" section of the wheel menu. Any "Talk to %s" missions are ignored as they are actually part of the main mission - you'll never see any "Talk to %s" missions in the "completed missions" section, only in the "missions in progress" section. Each mission has a difficulty rating from 1 to 5 stars where the ` is a half star and 1 is very easy and 5 is very hard. The harder, the more likely redos are needed and the more total redos are needed, along with increased frustration to go with it. Difficulty is usually split into 2 variations. Normal mode is based on a first play of the game. Hero mode assumes you have all of the major secrets unlocked and active such as invulnerability, unlimited ammo, etc. Certain challenges have a bronze, silver, and gold threshold where each have their own separate difficulty rating. Side missions, as they become available, are listed as soon as they become available. Side missions are the key to getting orbs to unlocking secrets. Get all that you can as you'll need a lot of orbs for the really good secrets. .=====================================. # 5.1 Starting a new game **050100** # `=====================================` Of course, just having the game disk itself doesn't make the game playable. You can't just read all the microscopic bumps on the disk. Nope, you need the game system and its key accessories to play it. So, pop in the game disk, make sure it's secured, attach the to-TV cable as needed so you can see what you're doing, hook up the power cable and plug it in to an outlet, connect the controller for that system, and insert a memory card with at least 1200 MB of free space on it. Now press the little button on the system that turns it on. Great! That part is done. You've made a great first step! Now, you'll have to wait for the game to load while various logos display. To eliminate or reduce loading times to as near to zero as possible, it is crucial to have all the commonly-used textures and objects fully available in system memory. Then the intro movie begins playing with a desert scene zipping by and some medium- and low-pitched instruments playing. Press [] to toggle the subtitles (the text that states what the speech is), or just press /\ to skip the intro movie. The intro movie is a great way to learn how the game's story starts, after Jak 2's completion. You'll be brought to the Jak 3 title screen if you watch the entire movie or pressed /\ to skip it. Wait about a second, then you'll see "press start button" flashing below the large "Jak 3" title. Once pressed, you'll see 4 options. New game starts a new game from scratch. If you haven't played Jak 3 before, choose this option. Load game starts a game from a save file for where you last saved or left off. Options allows you to set the basic configuration options as explained in section 3.6 above. The last option is secrets, for things only accessible from the title screen. For now, choose "options" then "graphic options" and go to aspect ratio. Set it to 4:3 by pressing X, pressing <, then pressing X again. Why? You'll give yourself an advantage by seeing more of the game scene. Regardless of whether you're starting a new game or resuming an older one, you'll always have to set the aspect ratio due to a bug where this setting does not get saved (a bug also present in Jak 2). Feel free to adjust any other settings though. I will assume you leave everything at their defaults for the purpose of this walkthrough though most of it is irrelevant to the walkthrough. .================================================. # 5.2 Complete arena training course **050200** # `================================================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: * A staple of modern video games is that they have a tutorial level of sorts first thing in the game or very close to it. The game very nicely explains the controls, though section 2 above expands on them in much more detail. The task is very simple: collect the 35 white light pulses seen. The game calls them tokens. To collect them, simply make contact with them. To start, go into the light. There is a speaker or transmitter device here. It brings out the voice. Now, go to the part that leads upwards and jump up. Touch the light to collect it. Continue up the path. You will reach a larger ledge with 4 lights on it. Grab all 4 then cross the narrow bridge. It will not collapse. The game will instruct you to roll though - do so. Across the bridge, there are 4 other lights on it, and a dummy manequin for a monster. The game instructs you to use the spin attack. Do so. You should have 24 lights remaining. A ladder is present. Either walk up to it or, for a head start, jump toward it. Once contact is made, simply press up and down to move up and down the ladder. Climb to the top and grab the 3 lights. You will find a higher ledge straight ahead. Use the double jump to get up it as the game instructs you to do. Another dummy manequin is present. Use the punch to get it, as the game instructs you to. A very tall ledge is next. While the high jump could be used to reach it, turn left instead and jump across the gaps. If you fall, it's the lava which pretty much means instant death. Don't worry though - you have infinite lives though will need to start this over again. At the end of the path, you will need to use the high jump, as the game instructs. You should have 11 lights left after grabbing the lights at the top of this. Turn right. You will see a moving platform. It's large and it's slow. Plan your jump so that, when you land, the platform will be in the center of where you would land instead of where it is at the start. If you need to, remember to use a spin attack about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way down from the top of a double jump to get that extra bit of distance. Turn right. You will find a platform that moves up and down instead. To make the jump easier, time it so that the platform will be at its lowest point by the time you land on it. Jump off it when its at the highest point to more easily get to the other side. You will find what appears to be a dead end. The game instructs you to do a dive, a smashing dive that breaks things and gets buttons on the ground pressed. Break through the odd-looking area. Follow the path until the end. You should have all 35 lights collected. If not, you missed something somewhere and you'll have to go back and collect it. When you do have all 35 lights collected, a platform will raise from the ground. Simply jump or walk onto it to get the next scene. After standing on it for about 2 seconds, it will automatically start rising. Wait for it to reach the top and you will find an area where a light beam is present. Jump into it. Congratulations! You have completed the game's first mission! Item received: • Scatter gun (first red gun) .=====================================. # 5.3 Earn 1st war amulet **050300** # `=====================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: * The scatter gun. It's, perhaps, the least useful gun of all, or the second least useful. It comes with 20 shots out of the 50 maximum capacity it has which, for the most part, is sufficient enough if used wisely. For this mission, you need to defeat 20 sword marauders, as indicated by the counter on the far right side of the screen. It's not as straight forward as that though. You also have the lava to deal with. Listen for the buzzing sound. When it occurs, immediately get on a higher ledge to avoid being cooked. The lava deals 4 units of damage. The marauders deal 2 units of damage. Pan the camera around frequently and look for any marauders closing in. When the lava goes back down again, as from the platform going back up, return to the platform. You may find ammo coming out of some of the crates. The game instructs you to press R1 to fire. Wait until a sword marauder is in front then press R1 to fire a shot at it. Sword marauders will repeatedly come out and will close in. Use the scatter gun to shoot them with. They'll will drop dark eco when defeated which take 2 hits to defeat - stand near it to pick it up - it will be drawn into Jak unless full where it can be ignored. If Jak happens to die in this, you'll have to restart the mission from the beginning. Again, you have infinite lives so try as many times as you need. In fact, if you have 2 health units left and more than 10 left to get, consider deliberately dying or choosing to restart the mission so you have a better start - attempt to collect any ammo you can beforehand. If you run out of ammo, use aerial spin attacks. You will want to learn to master the aerial spin attack as there are a ton of uses for it, far more so than the punch. When 5 marauders remain, Jak will automatically transform into Dark Jak. You won't be able to use your gun, but Dark Jak is fiesty and fierce. Dark Jak also takes half the damage as well. Instead of the marauders doing 2 units, they only do 1. Instead of the lava doing 4 units, it only does 2. Use this to your advantage. Finish off the last of the marauders. The spin attack with Dark Jak has a slightly greater range which makes it more effective. Once all 20 marauders are defeated, a platform will appear and the platform will no longer sink into the lava. Jump into the light for another scene. That's 2 missions down! Items received: • First war amulet • Spargus gate pass • Blaster (first yellow gun) .==================================. # 5.4 Catch kanga-rats **050400** # `==================================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` You now have free reign throughout Spargus City. But first, you need to get out of the arena. Simply hop on the platform then to the eastern (leftmost) ledge. The door will automatically open up. You fill find Krimzon Guard grates and Kleiver leaning against the wall a little beyond. Approach Kleiver first for another scene. You are instructed to use the leaper lizard to catch kanga-rats and there are 6 to catch. Before starting, go back to where the door is and smash those Krimzon Guard crates to get a nice restock of ammo for the scatter gun. Stand near the leaper lizard and press /\ to hop on it. The game instructs you to press [] to do a charge. Do so so you can see how it is. One of the game's better songs begins playing during this as well. Once you reach the bottom of the stairs, the minimap will display in the bottom right corner of the screen. There are 6 red dots that repeatedly grow and shrink. They mark the locations of where the 6 kanga rats are. These are very fast, but the leaper lizard is slightly faster. The trick to this is to simply chase the kanga-rat until very close to it. When close and pointed in the direction the kanga-rat is, charge at it. If close enough, the leaper lizard will devour it whole. Such a fierce and fiesty little thing, isn't it!? Upon getting the first one, the game instructs you to press /\ to dismount. This isn't entirely necessary, but do remember that. Check the minimap to find another one and repeat for the remaining 5 kanga-rats. The tan-colored rats only drop eco and are not part of this mission - ignore them for now. You're after the orange-looking ones. .======================================. # 5.5 Explore Spargus City **050500** # `======================================` Normal difficulty: * Hero difficulty: * Ready for some fun? Let's spend some time exploring Spargus City. There are plenty of orbs and skull gems to be obtained. If you plan on using the infinite orb glitch (in section 10.2), then feel free to skip this section. I will assume, in this walkthrough, that that glitch does not exist in the game. Plus, if you check the main map from the menu wheel, you will find a yellow arrow pointing don on the eastern side of the narrow pathway along the western wall. This is a side mission, but you can't use it yet. Ignore it for now but we will be coming back to it. You will also find an icon, someone's head, in the far western area near a strange-looking device. Avoid this area for now. Instead, hop around on the buildings and smash stuff. You'll find a few orbs in this and you'll find plenty of skull gems, essential for doing the side missions and getting more orbs from them. Dismount the leaper lizard and explore on foot. You can swim in the ocean if you want, but do not go too far out. See the faded area on the map? That's the limit on how far you can go out. What happens if you go farther out? A giant snake will suddenly come out and eat Jak for a small snack! Yum! Whatever orbs you do get, do not spend any of them as none of the worthwhile secrets stuff are available. Save them up for the good stuff. Once you collect the third orb, the game will state "you can now afford to purchase new secrets" - do not do so as none of what's available is worth it. For a guide on where some of the orbs are, I will assume you start just south of where the icon is, the area I instructed you to avoid for now. Follow the western edge going north. You will find an orb on one of the awnings. Jumping on the awnings gives a high jump and you can jump in mid-air from that. Continue north to the ocean, following the wall and you'll find another orb in these rocks. Follow the coast to the very tall central area. Go to the small island to the east to find an orb there. Turn right and there's another orb on the rocks right by the shore. Just south of the eastern shore, you will find a market area. 3 orbs are hidden here, 2 in containers, one up in the trees where you need to use an awning or leaper lizard to reach. Although it'll take a bit of climbing around on stuff, the building south of the large dark-colored blob in the western part of the map has another orb on the top. In the area in the corner southeast of there, there are about 10 skull gems and another orb, quite the haul. Continue north from there and you'll find 2 other massive hauls of skull gems. Grab a leaper lizard (or do a tricky jump) and go to the area farther north on this high ledge. You will find another orb up here. Southeast of there, in the area just south of the eastern edge of the shore, is another modest haul of skull gems and another orb. This is a good time to save your game - you'll have to do so manually though. Into the narrow pathway, near the center, an orb is found on the ledge. This requires a jump across a gap, a skilled series of jumps to get around a part sticking out. Be sure to use the spin attack to make it easier. This is the 13th one. Upon getting it, the game brings up a notice stating that secrets are still available for purchase. Again, do not get anything because what's currently available is useless. Along the northern wall southeast of the door with the crown symbol on it is another orb. This orb requires a high jump or a leaper lizard to get to. Along the southeastern wall in the eastern section, SSE of the arena entrance, there is another orb and a modest skull gem stash. On the east side just north of the southern most part, an orb is far out and requires a leaper lizard to to obtain it. That should be 15 orbs and 82 skull gems. In a gap between 2 buildings on the eastern side of the eastern area, just north of a dark-colored circle on the map has another orb, hidden in all those breakables. Climb up the ladder to find one on an easy-to-reach roof top and another on a pipe. The one on the pipe is reachable, but it's very difficult. A leaper lizard cannot get up here. You may have to wait for the hoverboard to get it though. But, if you do manage to get it without the hoverboard, you've got excellent jumping skills! If you're like me, you'd have 90 skull gems and 20 orbs. This is a great time to do another manual save. Items received: • 20x orb • 90x skull gem (about) .==================================. # 5.6 Ring challenge 1 **050600** # `==================================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: **` Now is the time to go to that yellow down arrow on the map for your first side mission. If you plan on using the infinite orbs glitch, skip this task. You will need 8 skull gems for it, for which you should easily have if you focused on exploring Spargus. A precursor statue has eyes that are lit in a blue-cyan color. Stand next to it and press /\ to trade the 8 skull gems. A ghostly voice will sound, instructing you what to do. Quickly get on the provided leaper lizard and go through each ring. It is unnecessary to go through the center of each. Contacting it where the center of the leaper lizard must touch some part of the ring is all that's needed. The next one will appear right after. The rings show up as green dots that repeatedly grow and abruptly shrink on the minimap. Go through every ring before the timer runs out. When 1 second remains and changes to 0, you actually still have 1 more second yet as it's actually 00:00.99, for example. The last one is in red. Here is the order of the rings - in short, they just follow around in a circle: [[update to match new standards]] 1. 8 seconds - slightly left (use stairs to reach) 2. 7 seconds - straight 3. 8 seconds - straight (use stairs to reach) 4. 5 seconds - straight 5. 5 seconds - straight (use stairs to reach) 6. 7 seconds - left (use stairs to reach) 7. 6 seconds - slight left (use stairs to reach) 8. 5 seconds - slight left 9. 5 seconds - straight 10. 5 seconds - slight left (behind rock on left) 11. 6 seconds - slight left (use stairs to reach) 12. 8 seconds - slight right (initially hidden behind building) 13. 7 seconds - right (on top of stairs to arena) 14. 6 seconds - slight left (tricky; reach top of stairs then jump left to roof top, doing a double jump as needed) 15. 6 seconds - slight left (on higher roof top) 16. 8 seconds - slight left (just at edge of roof top - walk over the edge) Items received: • 10x Orb .==================================. # 5.7 Unlock satellite **050700** # `==================================` Normal difficulty: *** (* with pausing) Hero difficulty: *** (* with pausing) Remember that one icon I told you to avoid? Now is the time to go to it. You will find a strange-looking object and someone there. When close, a scene will occur. You will then play a minigame. See those blue circles that repeatedly go in and out? Press the corresponding button for the symbol that is inside the blue circle. At least some part of that symbol must be inside the cyan-colored inner ring for it to count. For example, if the [] is just into the center of the left blue circle, press the [] button. The symbols come in from all 4 directions and move from the outside to the inside. If you press a button when that symbol isn't in the corresponding blue circle, it counts as a miss. If the symbols coming from the edges reach the center, it counts as a miss. You are limited to 5 misses. If only a single symbol is present in the circle, and the corresponding button is pressed, it counts as 1 point and that symbol is removed. If more than one symbol is present simultaneously in the target area, it counts as either 6 points for 2, or 10 (?) points for 3, the most possible. For this case, you will only deal with the singles. Your goal is to get 75 points. When 75 points are obtained, the mission is complete. If you don't get 75, you will need to restart from the beginning. Not fast enough? Press the select button to pause the game and identify the situation. If you're not ready to press a button other than select, press select to unpause the game then press it again to pause without doing anything else. If a symbol is present, unpause the game with select, press that button, then press select again. This way, it becomes more of a strategy game instead of one requiring fast reflexes and good controller knowledge. Item received: • Dark eco crystal .============================. # 5.8 Orb hunt 1 **050800** # `============================` Normal difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: ** You will now find a fist icon on the map, and another down arrow icon as well. Go to the down arrow icon and trade the 4 skull gems. This is the earliest possible point in which you can use the infinite orb glitch (see section 10.2 for details). I will write this walkthrough as if the infinite orb glitch didn't exist but I will still explain how to use the infinite orb glitch in case you do want to use it. The speech the statue has is sort of randomized, but the general saying is to get to that spot before time runs out. The scene changes to where the orb is, so you have some clues on where it is. You will have a varying amount of time to reach it. The time limit gives you a sense on how far away it is at the most. It's much easier with the jet board, but if needed, park a leaper lizard near the statue then use it to get there quickly. If the time runs out, the mission fails. You can choose whether or not to retry. You can try as many times as needed. Because this guide is a walkthrough, I will explain how to get to every orb. For this orb, you have 24 seconds to reach it. This orb is located on the rocks in the narrow area in the eastern part of the coast. From facing the statue, go to the left of it and follow the wall on to the rocks. It's not hard to miss. Items received: • 3x orb .==========================================. # 5.9 Learn to drive a vehicle **050900** # `==========================================` Normal difficulty: * Hero difficulty: * Go to the fist icon, in the southernmost part of Spargus City. This is the icon for Kleiver. Simply go into the room, past the door for a scene. You will appear next to the Tough Puppy. Press /\ to board it. The game states to follow the green dots on the map. Press and hold X to accelerate. Go to where the beam of light highlights something and crash into it. Don't worry, it won't do any damage to the ATV or even cause a loss in speed - you'll go through it as if nothing was there but you'll still get it. When you get to the next one, the game instructs you to brake using []. Do so. Then you're instructed to press L2 for a rear view. Do so as well. At the next light beam, the game instructs you to press [] to reverse. At the next one, you learn how to jump with L1. Jump over the blocks to grab the item then jump over them again to continue. Crashing into the blocks deals damage to the ATV - more damage with higher speeds and instant death with very high speeds. For the most part, it's not something to be concerned about. The next area has you learning how to do a skid turn. This is the fastest way to make a sudden turn, but you pretty much come to a complete stop. The next beam has you jumping and turning in place. This is useful if you happen to crash into a wall or tree and get into a rather tight spot, but it's very rarely of use. The next beam completes the mission. Item received: • Tough Puppy .==============================================. # 5.10 Beat Kleiver in desert race **051000** # `==============================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: *** You will instantly be at the starting line, in last place. This race involves 3 laps and you must win the race. If you don't, you must repeat the race from the beginning until you do. If the vehicle goes too far out of bounds (with the exception of a jump - the bounds are noted by small reddish rocks in the ground and are only checked if any collision is detected), takes too much damage and gets destroyed, or falls in the water (which is instant death to the ATVs, though shallow water no more than neck deep is fine), the mission will also fail, making you restart the race from the beginning. It may take a few tries. If you manage to get the time under 3:30, you will obtain 3 orbs. However, I'd recommend waiting until you obtain the Sand Shark or unlocking unlimited turbos before going for the orbs for this. So, just focus on winning the race for now. Be on the lookout for turbos, the red lights you see. You often have to jump for them. Use them wisely. There are a few key places where they are of great use. Right away, turn slightly to the right so you don't crash into the vehicle right in front of you, giving a great head start. The race starts with a fairly straight path that leads to a turbo, then a left turn to cross a bridge, a modest right turn to cross another bridge, then a slight right turn to cross another bridge. A hard right turn is next, a good place to use a skid turn. This is also a good time to use a turbo but do line up to make the jump to get the turbo above. Rough terrain is present that leads to a cave. Go into the cave. Avoid using a turbo here. At the end of the cave, a small jump ramp is present that leads to a turbo. Grab it as it'll come in very handy for the next part where mud puddles are. Mud puddles significantly slow down the speed of the vehicle so it is best to fire the turbo just before reaching them then jumping over them. With the right positioning, you should only need to jump over 2 of them, from the far right edge of the track which is marked by rocks. Past the mud is another jump ramp that leads to a turbo. Grab it, make the gradual right turn, then use the turbo on the straight but rough path. A somewhat sharp right turn concludes the lap. Repeat 2 more times. Once the race is done, beware of marauders - they will come. The Tough Puppy has no way to defend itself so just avoid them the best you can. Return to Spargus City. .=====================================. # 5.11 Race for artifacts **051100** # `=====================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: ** Remember those light pillars that highlight key locations or objects? Get to each one before the time runs out. When 10 seconds remain, a dust devil shows up over the item. Grab the items in the order given by the game. During this, you will have to deal with the marauder vehicles - just avoid them the best you can and concentrate on getting the artifacts. I often have more than 10 seconds left on the clock by the time I reach each of these, without the use of turbos. Here's the order of the items, starting from the city gate: 1. 40 seconds - left 2. 27 seconds - slight left 3. 32 seconds - right 4. 28 seconds - straight 5. 30 seconds - slight right (jump to cross the gap in the bridge) 6. 32 seconds - right 7. 30 seconds - slight left 8. 28 seconds - straight 9. 32 seconds - hard right (jump to avoid time-costly water) 10. 27 seconds - left 11. 28 seconds - right 12. 29 seconds - straight 13. 63 seconds - hard left Item received: • Bracers (armor; +2 max health points) .============================================. # 5.12 Beat Monks in leaper race **051200** # `============================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: **** Go to where Seem is, in the middle of the road due north of the vehicle storage room. Yet another race, and a tough one at that. Fortunately, it's the last "real" race forced upon by the story. Unfortunately, it's a tough one that will take several tries because of sudden turns and sneaky requirements to obtaining some of the rings. For this, you're racing leaper lizards, and faster ones at that. Go through each of the rings as before, explained in section 5.6 above. For the most part, this one is best done with course memorization in mind. As you get to know the course, it's easier to win the race. The other racers will often knock you back so do try to get ahead as soon as possible and stay ahead. Do a few trial runs where you know you're going to lose just to get course memorization done then go for the real thing. However, if you're off to a bad start or take more than 3 seconds to back track to get a ring that's suddenly off the side or you took a wrong turn, consider restarting as it's all but inevitable you won't win and you must win to complete this mission. Rings 11, 12, 23, and 39 give me the most trouble. I often always have to back track to get number 23 as it's suddenly off the side with almost no time to react to get it and the leaper just won't jump up the ledge. For your guidance, here is the order of the rings: 1. Straight 2. Straight 3. Right 4. Straight 5. Right 6. Straight (jump up the rocks) 7. Straight (jump up the short ledge) 8. Slight left 9. Slight left 10. Left (jump up the rocks and avoid the stairs) 11. Slight left (tricky; go straight to the edge, then jump over to it) 12. Straight (tricky; on the ramp) 13. Straight 14. Straight (on the ramp - jump to get it) 15. Slight left 16. Straight 17. Straight 18. Slight right 19. Straight 20. Slight left (initially hidden behind building) 21. Slight left 22. Slight right 23. Slight right (very tricky; on the ramp needing a jump) 24. Straight 25. Straight 26. Left 27. Right 28. Straight 29. Straight 30. Straight 31. Slight left (initially hidden behind building) 32. Slight left 33. Straight 34. Straight 35. Straight 36. Straight 37. Left 38. Left 39. Straight (tricky; on ramp) 40. Straight (jump to get it) 41. Slight right (jump to get it) 42. Straight Item received: • Light eco crystal .============================================. # 5.13 Destroy metal head beasts **051300** # `============================================` Normal difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: *` Go to the vehicle room and approach Kleiver. You will get a scene. Board the Sand Shark, the first vehicle with guns on it. Hold R1 to fire the guns. All ATVs have unlimited ammo so feel free to always hold down R1. This mission may seem quite difficult as well but it's easier than it first appears. Those giant metal head dinosaur things are very fast and if contacted, will send the vehicle flying at high speed which carries a high risk of instant vehicle destruction. To make this easier, keep your distance. Use the terrain to your advantage. The monsters follow exactly the same path every time so watch closely. Learn their paths, keep your distance, and keep the guns blazing and this mission is very easy. For the first of the four, hug the eastern wall around the bend to the west. Wait for the giant monster, a dinosaur as I call it to walk by and shoot at it when near. Follow for a short bit, about 3 to 5 seconds, not straying far, and return to where you were. Wait for it to come by again to get it. Repeat until it goes down. These monsters will not drop skull gems. Continue west and follow the area to the top of a dune north of the sharp, narrow curve of the mountains and southeast of the small alcove of water. Go down this and stay near where a rock and a few trees are. It's a safe distance from the metal head but close enough to get some good shots in. Shoot when it passes by. You'll notice that it fires projectiles as well. This spot here keeps a safe distance from them and the monster. Although it's a lot of distance, it is possible to hit this metal head. You will need to use the slopes to aim the gun up and down. Defeating this one marks a check point. If the vehicle explodes, you will restart with the last 2 remaining to get... with full health. If done right, you shouldn't have any damage at this point, outside perhaps a small bit from crashing into walls from skidding or the like. Slightly west of the second area is the best area for the third monster. The top of the steep-looking sand dune with the rock on it is the best area to use. Use the brakes and reverse and use a slow speed to keep control of your aim. Again, slightly west of the third area is where the last one is best attacked. It'll make some fairly wide circles and sudden turns, and a short sand dune is sort of in the way, but there's plenty of space to get a clear shot and still keep a good distance. Items received: • Sand Shark • Dark eco crystal .===========================================. # 5.14 The hang time challenges **051400** # `===========================================` Single best hang time difficulty: Bronze difficulty: ***` for 2.5 seconds Silver difficulty: ***** for 3.5 seconds Gold difficulty: impossible for 4.5 seconds (wait for later) Total hang time difficulty: Bronze difficulty: ** for 10 seconds Silver difficulty: ***` for 12.5 seconds Gold difficulty: ***** for 15 seconds Hero difficulty: * (for all) Now that you have a halfway decent vehicle, it's time to put it to good use. Numerous side challenges are available, enough to get a good 50+ orbs. We'll start with the best one where 21 to 30 orbs are waiting (the other 15 to 24 will have to wait). See the river in the western part of the map? See the sharp 90° turn for the dark area on the map and the down arrow there? This kiosk takes 16 skull gems, but you can get potentially 45 orbs out of it. Once the skull gems are traded, the kiosk can be used indefinitely. For now, you'll only be able to get about 27 orbs, depending on skill and somewhat luck. This section covers the two hang time challenges. Hang time is based on how long the vehicle is not making any contact with anything, even walls. Yep, suspended in mid-air as long as possible. For now, aim for the bronze on the single hang time challenge. The 2.5 seconds is fairly easy to get but may still take a few tries. The silver is almost impossible and the gold is completely impossible for the time being. Just get the bronze, have the vehicle survive, then return to this kiosk. For this, use the area to the right from facing the kiosk. There is a bridge jump ramp here. Use a turbo about one second before jumping off and be sure to jump at the edge. With the proper aim, you'll easily get the 2.5 seconds for bronze. Once you get the 2.5 seconds, just focus on returning to the kiosk instead of attempting for a longer hang time. You'll get the 3 orbs if the vehicle survives in tact (hasn't exploded). The total hang time counts all hang times greater than about 3/4 second and sums them up to a grand total. You have one minute to get all of the required time. The 10 seconds is easy. Use the same starting point for the single hang time for a roughly 2.5-second start. In the landing area, there is a dune that goes quite vertical - use your boosts to go up it and jump repeatedly. The more vertical the slope, the longer the hang time can be. Blast the marauders for extra turbos as needed, but with the 3 to begin with, you're already close to the bronze goal with plenty of time left. I would suggest going for the silver on this as that's 6 orbs. If you only get the bronze, you'll get 3 orbs and need to select the total hang time challenge option again. The gold is doable, even with the sand shark, but I strongly don't recommend it for now. If you're playing in hero mode or just returning to this to get the rest of the orbs from it, get in the vehicle to start the clock, quickly get out of it, use the mass inverter, especially with the duration upgrade (not necessary), and just wait. 4.5 seconds of hang time for gold is really nothing more than waiting, literally. I've gotten over 23 seconds in a single from this method. For the total, just do the same thing. I've gotten close to 50 seconds total hang time with this method. Seeing why it's 1 star for all? Items received: • 9x orb for starting • 9x orb afterward .==========================================. # 5.15 The distance challenges **051500** # `==========================================` Single best distance difficulty: Bronze difficulty: **** for 180 meters Silver difficulty: ***** for 200 meters Gold difficulty: impossible for 220 meters Total hang time difficulty: Bronze difficulty: *** for 500 meters Silver difficulty: **** for 650 meters Gold difficulty: ***** for 800 meters Hero difficulty: Single distance: *` (for all) Total distance: Bronze: *` Silver: ** Gold: *** The jump distance challenges are the next 2. They use the same kiosk as the hang time ones. The distance is in meters. For the first time of using it, I would only recommend going for the bronze. The silver is very difficult to get - I've gotten silver with the sand shark, but I end up with a drowned vehicle to do it - I have to land just right. Total distance is easier to get silver. At least 3/4 second of hang time is needed in a single jump for it to count. When returning or playing as hero mode, things are a bit different. For the single distance, just use the mass inverter then a fully boosted wave concussor. It seems dangerous, shooting your own vehicle, but 220 meters for the gold is pretty much effortless. It's so easy to get 400 this way. For the total distance, it takes a bit more effort and a few more tries and some luck to do it. First, get the vehicle to the edge of a ramp, about 1 to 2 vehicle lengths away from it. Get out of the vehicle, quickly use flash freeze, bring out the mass inverter, fire it once, change to the wave concussor, fully charge where Jak is directly behind the vehicle in the direction you want to "launch" it, then unleash it. Now unleash about 3 to 5 half-charged shots (until the vehicle is just going over the edge). Quickly bring out the mass inverter then fire it off again. With luck, you could push 900 meters this way, even 1000 (my highest is 1048 meters). Yep, that 800 needed for gold obtained all in a single jump! However, there is a fair risk the vehicle will get destroyed upon the landing so be careful. Also be careful where you aim the vehicle - do not aim for the mountains, the ocean, or straight toward a sand dune. You will have to jet board or walk over to your vehicle though when the challenge is done but do wait for the clock to run out, whether you make it or not. Items received: • 9x orb for starting • 9x orb afterward .=============================================. # 5.16 The roll-a-derby challenge **051600** # `=============================================` Normal difficulty: Bronze difficulty: *` for 3 rolls Silver difficulty: **` for 6 rolls Gold difficulty: ***` for 9 rolls Hero difficulty: Bronze difficulty: *` for 3 rolls Silver difficulty: ** for 6 rolls Gold difficulty: **` for 9 rolls The last challenge from that kiosk is rolling. You have one minute to get the vehicle to roll as many times as possible. The vehicle has to be rotated from level to halfway to upside-down for the roll declaration to start (not cartwheeling, unless it goes upside-down - Jak's head must be pointed downward instead of up)), and return past the 90° threshold for it to count. I find this one the most difficult to do, though it gains a slight advantage when invulnerability is obtained. The trick to getting the vehicle to roll is to have a high speed while impacting a sudden object that sticks out on the side on a sideways slope. Very rough rocky terrain near mountains, a steep pile of sand by the mountains with an odd rock sticking out to crash into, or just a skidding jump on a steep slope. Here's the key concept, in diagram form as a front-facing view: __ ________| | <- an object suddenly poking out, hit on one side at high speed _ \ \ \ \ <- the terrain ahead - note the very steep and sideways slope \_ __ __ / \_/ \ <- vehicle, as viewed from behind it O O <- wheels I would suggest getting at least the silver, but I would recommend going for the gold. If you're starting the challenge with the vehicle in bad shape, deliberately destroy it so you can start fresh, highly recommended for this side mission. Items received: • 6x orb for starting • 3x orb with extra dedication .=====================================. # 5.17 The satellite game **051700** # `=====================================` Without pausing difficulty: Bronze difficulty: *** for 100 points Silver difficulty: ****` for 500 points Gold difficulty: ***** for 1000 points With pausing difficulty: Bronze difficulty: * for 100 points Silver difficulty: ** for 500 points Gold difficulty: **` for 1000 points Remember that "unlock the satelite mission" where you had to get 75 points? Well, the actual thing is now available, at the odd area in the southwest corner of the desert. You can score 9 orbs from it and it starts off harder. For getting the orbs, I strongly recommend the pausing method, especially if you're not fast or have a hard time concentrating (the latter is my main issue). See section 5.7 above for details on how this minigame is played. I would suggest going after the gold now, since you're at it. By about 100 points, the symbols come in large quantities where it's possible to score the 6 and 10 points quite frequently which helps speed things up but also makes it much harder to get all those points needed for the orbs. Just focus on doubles only and only when they're close together - avoid going after triples as it's very risky and not worth the risk. With the pausing trick, I can easily get over 2000 points but going beyond 1000 serves no use. Just deliberately start missing at the 1000 points threshold to stop the game and claim your prize. Items received: • 9x orb .=============================. # 5.18 Orb hunt 2 **051800** # `=============================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: ** Go WSW of the Spargus entrance to the western part of where the mountains form a T shape. Trade the 4 skull gems for the mission and, like the first orb hunt, you will be shown where the orb is. It is located in an open spot and it kind of blends in with the sand making it difficult to see. You have 28 seconds to get there so it's quite far. Quickly return to the vehicle and, from facing the statue, turn left and cut through the trees in the narrow opening by the rock and go straight through there. You will drop off an edge, but remember the direction you were facing. Return to going in that direction and continue. You will go down a slope, up a slope which levels off then up another slope. The orb is right there near the pair of rocks on the right and pair of trees on the left, look carefully and it should be there. Items received: • 3x orb .=============================. # 5.19 Orb hunt 3 **051900** # `=============================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: ** Go to the north central part of the desert, due west of the vehicle storage room of Spargus. You will find the next orb hunt mission. Trade the 4 skull gems for it. This orb is located on a rock. You have 15 seconds to get it. From facing the statue, turn right and follow the jagged edge. You will come across a steep sand dune. The orb is on the lower rock. Items received: • 3x orb .=============================. # 5.20 Orb hunt 4 **052000** # `=============================` Normal difficulty: * Hero difficulty: * In the area just east of the vehicle room in Spargus, near the shore as opposed to due east (that one is a race, for which you don't stand much of a chance at getting the gold just yet - it's slightly northeast of this, in the form of a statue). Trade the 4 skull gems to get the mission. You get 18 seconds to reach the orb which is sort of in the middle of nowhere. To reach it, face the statue and turn left. You will see a stack of 3 rocks, that familiar race track of red rocks, an odd but short rock, and a series of rocks in a long line. Aim for the short rock then turn left once past it, following the long rocks outside the track. The orb is right along the wall of rocks, near the center of them. Items received: • 3x orb .=============================. # 5.21 Orb hunt 5 **052100** # `=============================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: *` The rest of the side missions in the desert are all races for which you don't stand much of a chance at for the gold (or even the bronze), or something that's difficult to do right now. We will return to these later. For now, return to Spargus. Just inside and on the right wall is another statue, for another orb hunt. Trade the 4 skull gems to get the side mission. You have 19 seconds to reach the orb. To reach it, go backward from facing the statue then turn right, hugging the wall on the right. Ignore the first 2 sets of stairs, and you'll go by a flowering cactus, to the right of it. Make a sharp turn here then go right. Use the closer set of stairs and reach it by jumping over the gap. Items received: • 3x orb .=============================. # 5.22 Orb hunt 6 **052200** # `=============================` Normal difficulty: * Hero difficulty: * Go to where the arena stairs are and go to the right side of them. The statue is here. Trade the 4 skull gems for the mission. You are given 25 seconds to reach the orb. From the statue, go back, jumping over the rocks jutting out, then turn slightly left. Continue straight and the orb is found on the ledge straight ahead. For speed, though not necessary, use the rolling jump. Items received: • 3x orb .=============================. # 5.23 Orb hunt 7 **052300** # `=============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` This statue is on the right west side of Spargus, in the southeast corner of the western half. Trade the 4 skull gems for the mission. You have 20 seconds to reach this spot. From the statue, go backward, to the northwest. Look at the house-shaped pentagon dark brown blob on the map. Go up the ramp on the right, the shortest one, then get into the area between the buildings. The orb is located in the center of this near that ladder shown. Items received: • 3x orb .======================================. # 5.24 Earn 2nd war amulet **052400** # `======================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: *` At last, all of the worthwhile side missions are done for now. See that crown icon on the map? Go to it. The door has a crown icon on it - it will open when close to it. Get in the lift that's present. Go forward when the lift reaches the top for a scene. You will receive the wave concussor. The game instructs you to press ^ twice to access the gun, then to press and hold R1 to charge it up and fire it. Before going back down, seek the 4 orbs present here. From facing the throne, turn hard left and you will find the first orb on top of rocks. Directly behind the throne, where a water wheel is, there are 2 orbs present here. One is in a container directly behind the throne, the other is directly behind the water wheel nearest to the outer edge. Be careful not to fall in the gaps though. From facing the throne, again, turn slightly right and go to the edge. You will find a vase that contains the fourth orb. Return to the lift and wait for it to bring you back down. Go to the sword icon on the map. Once there, pick a side, it doesn't matter which side. If you really need an ammo restock, choose both sides. Regardless, hop on the platform with the criss crossing pattern on it and let it take you down into the arena. Notice how it looks different now. A ray of light highlights 3 Krimzon Guard boxes. Smash them and you get... dark eco? The game instructs you to press L2 to transform then to press X + [] to perform the dark bomb. Do so as a sword marauder is bearing down on you and it offers a great start. Luring your enemy into a trap is a good battle tactic. You will now need to defeat 30 marauders and the use of dark bomb helped eradicate a few of them. When the alarm sounds, immediately get off of that platform and go to another one as the one you're on is about to sink. Use whichever weapon you so desire for this. For the rest, consider practicing the use of the spinning rapid fire trick, with the blaster. Mastering the technique will help a lot in the future. Otherwise, use the wave concussor. The wave concussor has a devastating effect covers a wide range, but it eats up ammo quite fast. For the best use with it, charge it up and let a bunch of the marauders group together then unleash. You can get several of them at once, typically 4 to 6 so the higher ammo usage is usually justified. Once all 30 are defeated, get back on the platform that appears then jump into the spot where the light is. Items received: • Wave concussor (second red gun) • +25 max red ammo capacity • Second war amulet • Beam reflexor (second yellow gun) • +50 max yellow ammo capacity .======================================. # 5.25 Corral wild leapers **052500** # `======================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: **** Finally some more worthwhile secrets became available, so now it's time to put a few of those several dozen orbs you likely have to good use. Under the weapon upgrades section, you will find "blaster damage upgrade" and "scatter gun rate-of-fire upgrade". I would only recommend the blaster damage upgrade at the moment, increasing its damage by 50% (what used to take 3 hits now takes 2). However, the rest of the secrets available are not worth it. To buy an upgrade, select it with X, then confirm by pressing < to "buy" then press "X". Once obtained, weapon upgrades are permanent. Now, go to the fist icon on the map, and approach Kleiver for a scene. The first part is simple enough - board the Sand Shark and go the dark grayish symbol on the map. This is where the lost city is, as I like to call it. It resembles an abandoned city from a couple millennia ago. The task involves 2 steps being repeated 3 times. The first step is easy - using the Sand Shark, chase a leaper lizard until you get close to it. When close, Daxter will jump off and land on it. That's the easy part. The hard part is getting those leaper lizards into the kennel. You cannot run into a wall, touch a cactus, or any of that. These wild ones can only jump and steer left and right. They run at tremendous speed making it very hard to control them. These combined yield the high difficulty rating. Hero mode with invulnerability offers no extra advantage. Even for me, having played through the game multiple times, I still have a hard time with this mission, needing close to a dozen attempts in total to get the 3 on the first attempt and still a good 6 attempts by the third playthrough. Luckily, for each one you corral, you don't have to corral it again so you don't have to get all 3 in one go. If you get the first one on your first try but fail on the second, you will still only need to get 2 more leaper lizards. If you manage to get the second one, you will only need to get the third one. Simply put, 3 successes and you're done. If you manage to get all 3 in one go, you have some serious skill and/or luck! Item received: • Dune Hopper .=============================. # 5.26 Orb hunt 8 **052600** # `=============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: * Four new side missions in the desert are now available. One is very close by. Board the Dune Hopper and hold L1 for about 1 second then release it to do the highest jump possible. A quick tap of L1 does only a slightly lower jump that isn't much different. Now, go to the statue that's very nearby, to the north. You will have 15 seconds to obtain this orb. From the statue, turn left then turn slightly right. The orb is just past a bunch of cacti in easy reach. Items received: • 3x orb .=============================. # 5.27 Orb hunt 9 **052700** # `=============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` Another orb hunt mission is due south of there, right by where a chain of islands are. You have 28 seconds to reach this spot and it requires a vehicle such as the Dune Hopper to reach it with sufficient time left. From the statue, go directly behind it and follow the edge on the left. The orb is in the center of the piece of peninsula just directly due west of there. Items received: • 3x orb .==============================. # 5.28 Orb hunt 10 **052800** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` Go to the NNW and jump across the river. This statue is located at the bottom of the T shape of the central mountains, on the northeast corner of the center volcano. Trade the 4 skull gems to get the mission. You have 14 seconds to collect the orb. From the statue, turn left then turn slightly right to go on that island. The orb is located there nearest to the waterfall on the right. Items received: • 3x orb .==============================. # 5.29 Orb hunt 11 **052900** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` Go to the ENE to the statue on the southeast side of the easternmost mountains in the northern half. There are 18 seconds to reach this orb. From facing the statue, turn right, then hug the wall, turning left. The orb is mixed in with the rocks. Items received: • 3x orb .==========================================. # 5.30 Climb Monk Temple tower **053000** # `==========================================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: **` You now have 2 icons to go to. You could go to a crown or you can go to a red cactus. Which one you do is up to you. However, for the most reward possible, I will go to the red cactus. To reach it, you have to use the Dune Hopper. Go to the southernmost part of the desert island. From the mountains in the southeast corner, the smaller one where you got the orb in section 5.27, jump to the island to the SSW of there. It's quite the gap, but the Dune Hopper can easily jump it. Turn slightly left and jump to the island to the southeast. Turn slightly left again and jump up the island there. This island is higher so you'll need to launch a little earlier. Cross the bridge (it's stable), then follow the path. One you get on that southeasternmost island, you will run across a waterfall that's actually another gap. Jump over it. Once across, the minimap disappears - you have reached the monk temple. Once past the support structures, turn left and climb up the rocks. You will need to use a high jump and maybe a spin attack (it helps) to get up the first rock. Once there, make some skilled weaving outside jumps, using the spin attack for better control to grab the 3 orbs here. Go into the monk temple - the door will open. Continue forward and a scene will occur. Instead of going up the platforms shown, Be sure to go around smashing things to get more skull gems and some ammo reloads as well, if needed. See that large eye-like thing? If you get too close, it will cause spikes to come up, blocking the path. Instead, once done smashing things, go up the platforms. It's now time for some real platforming action! An awning is present to take you to the first main platform. Note the poles sticking out. Jump up onto them. Jak will automatically grab on and begin spinning around. Time your jump, press X to jump, when Jak is at the top to launch upward to another pole. Always remember to time the jump so that Jak is at the top of the pole, for the maximum jump height and simplicity. If Jak is at the bottom of the pole, he will go forward at high speed, but have little jumping height, something of almost no use. Land on the upper platforms then just jump across the gaps. You will encounter 2 more poles. Again, time the jump when Jak is at the top of the pole. Transfer to the other pole then onto a platform. The next platform is fragile and will break in about 2/3 of a second. Quickly jump off of it to the next platform. The next one after this is unstable - quickly get to the next one. The next platform is also unstable so quickly cross those to the next one. The next one is stable, but leads to a room with an urn - smash it for some ammo then turn right to go up some stairs and smash a vase for skull gems. Turn right to do some more platforming. The first 3 platforms are stable, but the next 2 aren't so quickly jump across. Climb up the higher platform, jump to the pole, and do the usual top-of-jump timing to get on the next pole above. Repeat for the next pole then get on the platform to the left. The one on the right is a dead end with nothing present. Jump across the 2 platforms then an unstable one is encountered. Climb up the higher platform, jump up onto the pole and do the usual with both poles. Land on the platform to the left and jump across the unstable platform and onto a stable one. The next platform is unstable so quickly jump across. The next 2 are stable and lead to 2 poles going up. Do the usual jump timing and land on that ledge to the left. At the top, you'll see a hang glider. Approach it for a scene. .===================================. # 5.31 Glide to volcano **053100** # `===================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: ***` This is a fun one, with a great view! The only catch is that's somewhat difficult. Turn left or right with the glider using the left stick left or right. Pitch up by pressing down on the stick and pitch down by pressing up on the stick. The meter at the bottom is your speed. When the speed gets too low, you will crash and have to start the mission over again from the beginning. To keep the speed up, use the accelerator rings. However, some of them are closed. Use the blaster to shoot them to get them to open. It only takes 1 hit, but if you're a bad shot, it may take multiple firings. While it is unnecessary to hit every accelerator ring, it helps. I've missed a few on occasion, but you can only miss one at a time. Miss twice in a row and it's down you go! On occasion, you will see blue vents showing. These function as accelerator rings and height boosts at the same time. Fly through them. Some of the rings move left and right repeatedly, noted by trails, others move up and down. If speed is running low and you're close to a ring, consider remaining a little lower then pitching up at the last second. Usually, it works. The path goes as follows: 1. Activated automatically 2. Straight 3. Straight - shoot to open it 4. Straight - moves left and right 5. Straight 6. Slight left - moves up and down 7. Straight - shoot to open it 8. Slight left 9. Slight right - moves left and right 10. Straight 11. Slight right 12. Moves up and down 13. Left 14. Slight left 15. Straight - vent for speed and height boost 16. Straight 17. Straight 18. Straight - moves left and right 19. Straight - moves left and right 20. Straight 21. Straight - moves up and down 22. Straight - vent for speed and height boost 23. Straight 24. Slight left - moves up and down 25. Slight right 26. Right 27. Slight right 28. Slight left 29. Slight left 30. Slight right - shoot to open it 31. Slight right - vent for speed and height boost and a checkpoint 32. Straight 33. Slight left - shoot to open it 34. Straight - shoot to open it 35. Slight right 36. Slight right - shoot to open it 37. Straight - shoot to open it and moves left and right 38. Slight left - shoot to open it and moves up and down 39. Straight - goes around in circles 40. Straight - vent for speed and height boost 41. Straight - moves left and right 42. Slight right - moves left and right 43. Right - shoot to open it and moves left and right 44. Straight - shoot to open it and moves left and right 45. Straight 46. Slight left - shoot to open it and moves up and down 47. Straight 48. Straight - vent for speed and height boost 49. Straight - shoot to open it 50. Right 51. Slight right - vent for speed and height boost 52. Straight - moves left and right 53. Slight right - moves left and right 54. Slight left - shoot to open 55. Straight - shoot to open 56. Straight 57. Straight - the goal - go into the cave I don't know if it works or can be used or not, but if you go into a vent, pitch up while doing so then turn around and go back into the vent, pitching up. Repeat as necessary. If it works, you might be able to just take a shortcut all the way to the volcano or focus only on the vents. .============================================. # 5.32 Find satellite in volcano **053200** # `============================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: ** There's a lot of combat involved with this. For the most part, I would suggest using the blaster and spin attacks. Follow the path leading downward, then, when the path begins leading upward, you will find scorpion metal heads popping out of the ground. This is a good use for the scatter gun, aerial spin attacks, or even Dark Jak for aerial spin attacks. To use the latter, jump toward them in a spin, when quickly get back. Be sure to get the 3 skull gems. Up a small ledge, you will find 2 more of these scorpion metal heads. Repeat what you did earlier, though this case is easier to use the jumping spin attacks on. 2 more scorpions will appear. Grab those skull gems! Across that, there are 3 scorpions. Deal with them, but then 5 more come out. Get them as well then get the 8 skull gems. As you attempt to continue, 2 more scorpions come out, single ones spaced close together. Just use aerial spin attacks to effectively jump on them to destroy them. Grab the skull gems too. Climb the ledges leading upward to the next zone. Approach the leaper lizard and a very brief scene will occur. Smash the Krimzon Guard crates for an ammo reload. Before continuing, get out the blaster. As you're walking, the land will crumble and fall - quickly jump across and onto another unstable ledge. Jump while continuing to avoid being fried. On safe ground, you will run into a dragonfly metal head, and 2 ninja mantises. Just shoot them all. This is another good time to use the spinning rapid fire trick. I found it easier to get rid of the monsters this way. Jump, spin, then shoot the gun while the blaster is the weapon in use to do it. More unstable land follows so be ready to jump. Across it, 4 more ninja mantis metal heads come out. Just shoot them, preferably with the spinning rapid fire attack to get rid of most of them. There is a chance in which the skull gems will fall into the lava, making them impossible to obtain. You could, if desperate, deliberately go swimming in the lava to respawn them, but you'll have to start over from where the entrance to the volcano occurred. If you have less than 5 units of health left, it's suggested anyway, to indirectly restore it. You'll have to deal with those scorpions again... but this time, they don't have the skull gems. Across to the next zone, you will run into some hedgehogs. Just shoot or spin attack them as you see fit. They're simple enough, though they are a bit fast and tend to be in large groups. Destroy them, then chase down that leaper lizard. When you get close to it, press /\ to hop on. This one functions the same as those in Spargus. It may seem like a bad idea, but once you get to the ledge, found at the end western part of the U-shaped area you're in, jump in the lava past here - you will restart where you were with full health. Some somewhat difficult platforming action is next, using the leaper lizard. Jump across the gap to that ledge just as the fireball starts going down. You will have another gap that leads to a platform that rises and lowers repeatedly but is always out of the lava - land on it, jumping when the fireball starts going down and that platform is at the highest point. Jump onto the next ledge. You will now see 3 platforms like the one you were just on. Jump onto them when they are at the highest as the the jumps are the easiest then. Upon being at the highest upon arriving, wait for them to go down then begin making the jumps when they're halfway to the top. Keep full speed ahead and carefully make the jumps. There is a fireball present, but that's only leading to the first platform. Be sure to avoid it as before. A modest gap is present beyond, but it's easily jumped with the leaper lizard, fireball aside. Smash the Krimzon Guard crate for an ammo reload. Turn left and follow the path. Another rising platform is found a short distance out. Time this jump so that the platform is at its lowest to make it easier. On the other side, some hedgehogs are present. An unstable ledge is present so be ready to jump again upon landing. Quickly rush to the end of the passage, turning right, and Jak will get off the leaper lizard. Attack the hedgehogs as you see fit or just ignore them and go up the ladder. At the top, be ready to jump across an unstable ledge where the gap is, unstable being the closer one. You will reach what appears to be a dead end. You will now need to control Daxter and get him across the fence hanging on the wall. For this, just stay along the edge nearest to the wall to reduce the chance of impact by those fireballs, but do try to avoid them. Note how Daxter takes about a half of a second to actually get moving at full speed. Be sure to account for that. Pan the camera to a side view so you can better judge the distances to the fireballs, going when close to one and just as the fireball starts going back down. Past the fence, just press X to jump down when there is ground below. A series of gaps, complete with lava river flows gushing out to avoid, are next. Time your jump so that the lava is not present. The second gap leads to a swinging platform. Time your jump so you land on it as well as avoiding the gushing lava. Across the gap are 2 ninja mantis metal heads. Just spin attack them, and grab the skull gems if they don't fall in the lava. Past that is another gap to cross with yet another ninja mantis. Jump across with the spin attack for best results. A swining platform is next which leads to a fence. Jump up into the fence to grab it and dodge the single fireball in the same way as before. At the end, continue straight and a scene will occur. Go to where Jak is waiting, jumping across the gap first. Now, continue across that new platform. Before continuing, get the blaster gun ready. Do a high jump to get up that ledge and prepare to shoot 4 ninja mantises, grabbing their skull gems while at it. Around a bend is a pair of hedgehogs and a pair of ninja mantises - just shoot 'em while they're far enough away. A dragonfly is next - shoot it while avoiding its shots. A rock is present where a vent is. Just punch or spin attack the rock to where the vent is. You just need to get it close. Use it as a platform to get up that high ledge. 2 ninja mantises are waiting at the top of this ledge. Aim and fire! Continue on for a nice health pickup. Jump across the gap for an ammo reload. You'll likely want to do a rolling jump for this long gap but a double jump with a spin attack also works. 3 hedgehogs wait, followed by a pair of ninja mantis. Bang, bang, bang! Shoot them and grab the skull gems if possible. Another big gap follows, which leads to an unstable ledge on the other side - quickly get off and be ready to shoot a ninja mantis. Another ninja mantis follows then another with a dragonfly. Shoot 'em all! Jump across the gap and continue on, turning right. Now here's a vent that doesn't have a rock to use. There is a small pipe slightly left though - simply approach it. Daxter will now need to ride on a chute. Simply press X to jump at the gaps and left and right to move left and right. Stay in the pipe and jump very close to the edge. The first jump is easy. The next 3 are tricky. The last one is easy enough - jump onto that ledge there. The chute curves left a little, then makes a 90° right turn which has a gap at that point but continues turning right. After about 45° more right, another gap is present, slightly right. After sliding about 120° around to the left, another gap is present, continuing the left curve. About 150° more right, another gap is present that leads to going straight. After a short bit, jump across the final gap. Now on solid ground, climb up the rocks then use the trampoline to jump to a higher ledge. The trampolines alternate left to right and there are 4 in total. At the top, a pair of hedgehogs wait. Just spin attack them. Climb up the rock again and use both trampolines. Spin attack the 2 hedgehogs, climb up the rocks, and bounce up both trampolines. At the top, continue straight for a scene. With the rock now available for that geyser, knock it into the steam to get up that ledge and use it as a platform to get up there. Get the blaster out as well as a hedgehog and dragonfly are waiting. 5 ninja mantises are waiting just beyond - shoot them at first sight, using the spinning rapid trick if they get close. This time, you need to get 2 rocks onto the geysers, one each. This will get the middle rock to lift, the one you need that's already on the geyser. Use it to get up the ledge and climb up it. At the top, and across a small gap, are a pair of hedgehogs. Just shoot them while they're unable to reach Jak. Continue climbing and you'll turn left to encounter another hedgehog with 2 more waiting around the corner, up the ramp. Around this corner a series of floating rocks over a river of lava. Jump on one of these rocks and quickly and carefully get on that ladder. At the top, a scene will occur. Finally this long-lasting mission is done! Item received: • Dark Jak Invisibility .=============================================. # 5.33 Find oracle in Monk Temple **053300** # `=============================================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: *` This is a direct continuation of the previous mission. The game labels it under a new mission though. Carefully jump back down onto those floating rocks and get to a platform on the left. Do not let the rocks go over the edge or it's one well-cooked Jak and Daxter you'll have. Get out the blaster again and follow the path. Be ready to shoot a pair of ninja mantises and grab their skull gems. Continue on and drop down the edge you come across. Straight ahead is a glowing dark magenta-colored thing. Approach it then press /\ to become invisible. Turn left and go through the gate. Being invisible, the eye will not put up the spears that are present when close. You have to be reasonably fast to reach the portal in time though you typically have plenty of time to do so. Go to the portal and press /\ to enter it. Back at the Monk Temple itself, remember that one eye you saw that brought up spikes when close to it? Remember that one odd-looking statue? You can go around smashing the stuff in the bottom area, but you'll only get ammo reloads. From the portal, however, just go straight and you'll see the statue. Activate invisibility then make a hard right turn to go where the eye is. You can pass through that area safely now but reach it quickly. Once you reach the door, which automatically opens and makes the eye disappear, get out the scatter gun. 6 giant spiders are waiting right on the other side! Yikes! Jumping spin attacks work nicely as well though the scatter gun should get them all in one go. Follow the stairs downward and you'll encounter 4 more spiders. Repeat the shooting or jumping spin attacks as needed. Continue down the stairs to find a dark eco vent. Step into it to instantly fully recharge your dark eco meter. Vases are also in this room - smash them for ammo reloads. At the end of the hallway, you will reach an open room. Do not shoot those robots. They will cause instant death, even with invulnerability. Attacking one will cause all the others to attack. For now, avoid the interior area. Instead, stay on the outside. Go to the left to find some vases for ammo. Continue around until you reach another one of those statues that makes Jak invisible. Activate it and quickly get into the center of the room where the highlight is. Do a smashing dive to get the button to press. But, uh oh, Jak is no longer invisible. Now what? Stand in the center of the room here, get out the wave concussor, fully charge it and unleash it. This will destroy all of those guard robots at once allowing for safe passage and roam throughout this room. Spin the camera around and look for the room that does not have the dark eco vent present. Go into that room. As you approach it, spiders come out. Quickly get out the beam reflexor and shoot them. They will keep coming forever until you reach the end of the room so quickly make your way through. On the other side, gates will come up, blocking the path. There are vases and urns present though - smash them for a health pack, skull gems and dark eco. If you approach the poles that repeatedly go up and down, they'll be electrified. Use the invisibility to stop that but quickly make your way across. Regardless of the pole's position, always do a jump at the top of the high jump (usually remaining on the pole about a 1/2 to 1 second is all that's needed). Don't use the spin attack unless going from a pole that's very low to a pole that's very high. Avoid the extra jump if going from a pole near the top to one near the bottom. It should be easy enough to get across with this strategy. When you reach the end, the eye is removed and Jak is no longer invisible. Do this 3 more times as you zigzag around the path. Once around, smash the crate for a health pack then get out the beam reflexor. Go through the doorway to be greeted by infinite spiders again. Quickly make your way through this to the other end. You make take a hit or two though. See the oracle straight ahead? Walk into the room for a scene. Now, smash the urn nearby for an orb. Walk into the light straight by the oracle for a scene. You have now completed this long series of contiguous missions. You will obtain one of the most helpful abilities of all and you will be using it until invulnerability is unlocked. Remember the holding of L2 while pressing /\ combination. You're going to need it, and quite often. It, in a way, means 16 more health points. Also, notice how the light eco vent is now open. Stepping into it will fully restore all light eco. Also, enemies will now start dropping light eco. Think of the light eco as health packs that restore 2 units of health. Item received: • Light Regenerate .==============================. # 5.34 Orb hunt 12 **053400** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` Go through the portal then exit the Monk Temple. Board the Dune Hopper and make those jumps again, only in reverse. Remember to jump across the waterfall gap and take note of the map to locate the jumps. Return to Spargus City - follow the crown icon to get there. Once there, a new side mission is available, another orb hunt. Go to the far eastern edge in the northern part of it to find the statue. Trade the 4 skull gems to get the mission. You have 23 seconds to reach the orb. The orb is located southwest of the statue. To get it, go backward then make a slight left toward the random rocks by the building. Get up the ramp and go into the narrow gap between the two buildings on the left. At the end, turn right and there's the orb. Items received: • 3x orb .======================================. # 5.35 Rescue wastelanders **053500** # `======================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: ** Go to the crown icon and into the familiar lift. At the top, go straight ahead to get a scene. Now, return to the city exit. The highlight marks the Sand Shark. Board it and go out to find... a clear sky? It'll get worse over time, but ignore the weather for now. You have a time limit to reach the wastelander and bring them to safety. In short, just follow where the green dot is. Do attempt to pick up some turbos from the busted marauder vehicles though. They'll help some, but they're not entirely necessary. When you get around the mountains, you will see a very tall pillar of light, a highlight in a way. Get to that spot before the time runs out. To pick someone up, have them on the left side of the vehicle and brake close to them, but don't crash into them. Wait for them to get on. A pillar of light will then appear where you need to go to to drop off the wastelander - just stop in the light and wait for him to get out. You'll have 100 seconds to reach the first wastelander. From the gate, turn slightly right and stick close to but not too close to the mountains. Once past them, turn right. Once past these mountains, turn left and you'll see the pillar of light. Stop where the light is on the left side to let the wastelander quickly board. Wait for him to board. Once onboard, turn left and you'll see the pillar of light. Simply stop in the pillar of light and the wastelander will get off. That's one down. You'll now have 90 seconds to reach the second wastelander. Turn hard right to find the pillar of light. Continue toward it until you see the terrain going up very high. Turn slightly right here then slightly left to go under the bridge and keep to the less rough lower area. Reach the pillar of light with the light on the left side and stop. Let the wastelander board then turn hard left to find the pillar of light. Stick to the lower area, quickly cross the river and follow it, paralleling it. Once past the rocks, continue past and go straight to the pillar, using a turbo when past the rock if time is running short. Stop at the pillar and wait for the wastelander to get out. You now have 90 seconds to reach the third wastelander. Turn hard left to see the pillar of light. Turn left, get across the river, and keep to the upper terrain. Again, stop with the wastelander on the left and wait for him to board. Turn hard right to find the pillar of light. Jump across the bridge gap there and to the left side of the next bridge. Continue straight toward the pillar of light and stop. Wait for the wastelander to get out. This time, it's 260 seconds to reach the fourth wastelander. Wow! What a long, long time! Something is suspicious about that. Anyway, turn to go backwards but you don't see the pillar of light. Yep, it's so far away that it's beyond the draw distance. Continue in a straight line toward where the green dot is. Shortly after the river is in view, the pillar of light finally shows, albeit fairly faint. Get past the river, follow it, then turn left when the passage is clear of the mountains, and the dot is there but something is different. Upon reaching the fourth wastelander, a checkpoint is reached. Jak will jump out of the vehicle. Approach the wastelander and a scene will occur. The clock is reset to 259 seconds and you'll have a boss fight to deal with, a fairly easy one. Quickly get out the blaster then get under the boss before the lasers start showing up. The lasers do one unit of damage. Just stay with and follow the boss, staying below it. Do not shoot it as it has a shield present. When the lasers stop, immediately get away from the boss and prepare to jump because shockwaves will appear that do 2 units (?) of damage when touched. A tentacle will come out of it. This is the time to shoot the boss. Aim and fire, keep firing but do jump over the tentacles as they do 1 unit of damage when touched. When damaged enough, the boss will explode and repeat the process, with a somewhat narrower area for the circle. The ground impact yields 2 shockwaves to jump over and there will be 2 tentacles. Shoot it again when the tentacles are out until an explosion occurs as usual. Again, the boss will fire lasers, now even tighter. Once they disappear, 3 shockwaves will come out then 3 tentacles. Shoot at the boss with the blaster until the tentacles disappear and it jumps up. When that happens, keep away from it as it's about to explode. Quickly return to the vehicle. If it's in bad shape, with less than half the health remaining, deliberately destroy it (just punch it repeatedly), to get it back to new as you'll only have to repeat the run to the vehicle. Quickly get to Spargus and into the light to complete the mission. Item received: • Dark eco crystal .========================================. # 5.36 Beat turret challenge **053600** # `========================================` Normal difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: ** Go to the fist icon by the shore. Approach Kleiver to get a scene. Climb up that very tall tower and get to the top where the giant gun is. Get ready for one of my favorite minigames. Because of the awkward use of the sticks (if only the directional buttons could be used instead, it would be easier), the pausing trick isn't particularly effective with this, but it can still be used to plan a strategy. Your goal is to score 7000 points. It seems like a ton, especially compared to that one satellie game, but objects tend to score a lot as well. This run is also of an easier difficulty but it also misses some of the bigger scoring potential where you can get over 2000 points in a single target. The object is to shoot the targets that come out of the ocean, using R1 to shoot them with. If the shot misses the target, it does not count as a miss. It only counts as a miss when the target goes back in the water. The sooner the target is destroyed, the more points you get. Red ones have a base score of 100. 1 point is lost from that base every 30 or so milliseconds it shows up. Blue ones have a base of 200 and green ones have a base of 300. Do note that targets do appear from the sides as well. Arrows display when there are targets that are off screen on that side. Don't worry too much about a shot missing, just focus on at least hitting the target. Item received: • Light eco crystal .============================================. # 5.37 Turret challenge for orbs **053700** # `============================================` Bronze difficulty: *` (10,000 points) Silver difficulty: **` (20,000 points) Gold difficulty: **** (40,000 points) Return to the cannon and get the orbs. This time, the targets come and go much faster. Also, shot accuracy makes a big difference. If the shot misses, the consecutive bonus is reset. If the shot hits, you get the base score multiplied by the number of consecutive hits, to up to 8x. Yep, over 2000 points is indeed possible! I would suggest going for the gold, silver at the very least. Items received: • 9x orb .===================================. # 5.38 Ring challenge 2 **053800** # `===================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: *** Go due south of the cannon in the western part of the southern wall, to find another challenge. Trade 8 skull gems to activate it. You will be given a leaper lizard very nearby for this. Go to it, get on, and go through the rings. Rings 15 through 19 and 21 are the most difficult ones to me, especially 18. Here is the order they are in: 1. 9 seconds - straight 2. 4 seconds - slight right (jump up the rocks) 3. 4 seconds - straight 4. 3 seconds - slight left (go straight, up the rocks, then turn left) 5. 3 seconds - straight but on left (tricky; jump at ring 4 to reach it) 6. 6 seconds - slight left (on the top of the rock ledge 7. 3 seconds - slight left (partially obscured by the building) 8. 4 seconds - straight (jump over the edge of the cliff to reach it) 9. 5 seconds - straight 10. 7 seconds - slight right 11. 5 seconds - straight 12. 4 seconds - right 13. 6 seconds - slight left (jump over the rocks) 14. 3 seconds - slight right 15. 4 seconds - straight (either jump to it or go around and drop to it) 16. 6 seconds - straight (tricky; double jump across the gap then up the rocks) 17. 3 seconds - straight (tricky; jump upon getting ring 16) 18. 5 seconds - straight (tricky; go around on the upper part or jump to it) 19. 4 seconds - hard right (jump up the rocks to get it 20. 4 seconds - slight right 21. 9 seconds - slight right (tricky; use the awning to jump up to it) 22. 5 seconds - slight right 23. 9 seconds - straight (jump up the rocks to reach it) Items received: • 10x orb .============================================. # 5.39 Defeat marauders in arena **053900** # `============================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: ** Go to the sword icon, the arena. Pick a side, or visit both if you're really short on ammo. Jump into the highlighted area for a scene. Press < to access the vulcan fury as the game instructs you to. For now, pick a platform to jump onto and let it carry you down to the arena. This arena challenge is the most difficult of them all under normal mode. This is because some of the marauders have guns that shoot that are hard to avoid and there isn't much maneuvering space either. If a shooter marauder is present, make it the highest priority. Use the the vulcan fury to its fullest potential. Hold R1 to repeatedly fire shots at an ever faster rate, up to a certain point. It eats up ammo like there's no tomorrow so be careful. What I prefer, instead, is to use the spinning rapid fire trick with the blaster. When the vulcan fury runs out of ammo, you'll revert to the blaster anyway and it's the best gun for this otherwise. If health drops to 4 or 6 units out of the 10, use light regenerate to heal. You're going to need it. When the alarm sounds, quickly get onto one of the four platforms that rise out of the lava as the entire platform you're on will sink after a few seconds. Wait for that main platform to return then resume blasting the marauders. When you need to use light regenerate, be sure to pick up any light eco drops if available and safe to get to. If any light eco is missing, Jak will suck in it when close. Item received: • Vulcan fury (first blue gun) .=======================================. # 5.40 Destroy eggs in nest **054000** # `=======================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: *` Finally some new secrets are available, all weapon-related ones. The red and yellow ammo can now get 50 and 100 additional shots respectively to the capacity. For a total of 8 orbs, it's well worth it. Red ammo capacity can wait though as that gun is hardly used. The yellow gun, however, is much more useful and used more often so definitely obtain that one as it goes nicely with the spinning rapid fire attack. The vulcan fury is quite useful as well so why not get a nice damage upgrade to go with it? It's only 6 orbs... but it's also only a somewhat small 25% increase in damage which isn't very much. What used to take 5 hits now takes 4. Reflexor increased deflections will make one of the most useful guns even more useful. Is it worth the 8 orbs? Indeed! You will find that the concussor damage upgrade is available, but cannot be selected. This is because the first upgrade to the red guns is needed. The wave concussor, however, has pretty much no use right now so it's not worth it. Pass up on it and save the orbs for the bigger stuff. Sure you may have over 100 available, even over 120 if you've done everything in this walkthrough as I've explained, it's best to wait until you start exceeding 250 orbs and a purchase will not drop it under 250, unless it's very useful. For this mission, simply go to where the vehicles are, that familiar place in the southernmost part of Spargus's eastern half. There is a highlight on the Gila Stomper and there's a great reason for that. What's to occur is a highly combat-oriented mission so you'll need a very tough vehicle for it, one that's also designed for combat. Get on it and exit the city, going to where the mountain cave icon is. You won't be able to get out of the vehicle until the mission is done. Go due south, around the mountains slightly east, cross the river, to the start of the lost town, then turn right to go to where a strange-looking wall is. Simply approach it and a scene will occur. Continue into the cave and you'll have a handy minimap to use to get around it. Just follow the path into the cave. When far enough in, leeches will start showing up, in huge numbers. Just run over them - the vehicle will destroy them without any damage to it. Do not stop though as the leeches will latch on and begin doing damage. It appears that jumping will detach the leech. While there are 8 orbs in here to collect, you won't be able to get them at the moment. When you get to a more open area with a spiraling curve, drop off the edge to the left and get on that ledge there, turning right. It's a shortcut, saving about 20 seconds. When the leeches stop showing up, get ready for combat. You will enter a room that has 5 green orb things, indicated as 5 dots on the map. These are the eggs you need to destroy. The first one is slightly to the right. Shoot them with the Gila Stomper's cannon to destroy them. They will fire shots at the vehicle - they're hard to avoid, so concentrate more on just destroying the eggs. They can be destroyed in any order. I would suggest going counterclockwise around the wall to get them. Along the way, past the second egg, you will encounter giant bat-like monsters. Shoot them to get rid of them. Once those 5 eggs are eggs are destroyed, several bats will be going after you - shoot them all. Don't forget you can hold L2 to shoot the bats if they're behind. You will find another mark on the map in the southern part. Shoot at it to knock the bridge down. Just beyond, more bats are present. At the end of the hallway, more bats are present. Get those guns blazing and shoot 'em down! Next, you'll have a room full of eggs, 5 more of them. One is straight ahead. The other 4 are close together in the northern section of this. Get on the path to the left of the first egg in this area and follow it. That bridge is unstable so get across it quickly. Go full speed ahead to cross it and do not jump. The second egg in this area is here but beware of bats as well. Focus on the egg. The continuation of the path is fairly hidden. Just follow along the area. You will have to get all 10 in one go and it's not particularly easy to do. When all 10 eggs are destroyed though, you will have 3 minutes to get out of the cave as the green gas is toxic. Just continue straight and shoot the bridge's bottom part to knock it down to get a way to cross it. You will encounter deep mud next - just drive right through it and turn left. Ignore the metal heads here and focus on the escape, but do have the guns blazing (just hold R1) at all times while doing this. It helps as there are more bats present. Chug through the mud and quickly get out of it, turning left then right onto the high overpass, continuing straight to get into where a tunnel is. Follow the tunnel. When you reach the end of the path, the curling tunnel, turn left after this part of the ground gets near the main ground and go to the center to get on the curling path, for a shortcut. Follow the path there to exit the cave. You should easily have well more than a minute left unless you crashed a lot, got a roll or two in that was unexpected, or just got stuck. Regardless, out in the open air, return to Spargus. Item received: • Gila Stomper .==============================. # 5.41 Orb hunt 13 **054100** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: *` Although the Heat Seeker can be unlocked right now, don't bother with it as it's not necessary at the moment although it could be used to get the gold the old fashioned way for the hang time and distance challenges, for the other 18 orbs (see sections 5.14 through 5.16). Remember that one kiosk where you had the hang time, distance, and roll challenges? Well, one NNW of that, hidden in the sand dunes where the curve in the river almost points to it for the part leading north. Go to the statue and trade the 4 skull gems for it. You get 21 seconds to reach the orb and it's best to use a vehicle for it. Notice how it's at the edge of a broken bridge. It's due south of the statue. To reach it, from facing the statue, go hard right and follow the lower part of the terrain that isn't by the river. When you reach a bridge sticking out, turn right and go to that bridge. You will find the orb there at the edge of the bridge on the highest point. Item received: • 3x orb .==========================================. # 5.42 Defend Ashelin at oasis **054200** # `==========================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: *` Choose any of the 3 highlighted vehicles, except the Gila Stomper which cannot be used. I would recommend the Sand Shark for this only because of a side mission that becomes available afterward that requires it, to save time. Go to the oasis in the southwest corner of the desert using that vehicle. Once close, you will automatically leave the vehicle. Simply approach Ashelin who is standing there. You will now have a tough fight of defeating about 56 marauders, including their vehicles. Bring out the blaster and use the spinning rapid fire trick (press X, O, then R1 in that order, the latter 2 while in mid-air) to make this easy. Use the vulcan fury if you run out of yellow ammo. Get those guns blazing! When health drops to 4 units or less, use light regenerate. The marauders will drop ammo, health packs, and light eco. Don't worry about shooting Ashelin - Jak's shots don't even exist to her. Ashelin does very well defending herself so focus more not on her but on the marauders around you. The sword and shooter ones are both present. Items received: • Jet board • Seal of Mar .==============================. # 5.43 Orb hunt 14 **054300** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` A single new secret and 4 new side missions have showed up. The new secret is the turbo jet board in desert, costing just 5 orbs. This will make the jet board insanely fast, and it's needed for some of the side missions, including one that was rejected earlier due to being very difficult from the very poor maneuverability the ATVs have. Obtain it. You already are next to the first of the statues, needing 4 skull gems, so trade them. You get 18 seconds to find the orb. From facing the statue, turn right and go between the pair of trees. Turn slightly right once past them, going directly toward the right edge of the trees and rocks ahead. The orb is there, clearly visible. Items received: • 3x orb .===================================. # 5.44 Ring challenge 3 **054400** # `===================================` Vehicle difficulty: **** Turbo jet board difficulty: *** Go to the kiosk northwest of the oasis. Trade 8 skull gems for the side mission. For this, I would recommend using the jet board with the turbo active for the significantly enhanced control - if you do lose control, get off the jet board and get back on again right away. It'll cost a bit of time, but losing control means a high risk of missing the ring from not getting it in time. If you do use the jetboard, you will eventually wind up facing the vehicle. The order of the rings is as follows: 1. 11 seconds - right (from the statue) 2. 5 seconds - slight right 3. 6 seconds - straight (go around the trees) 4. 6 seconds - slight left 5. 5 seconds - left 6. 5 seconds - straight 7. 5 seconds - straight 8. 5 seconds - right 9. 8 seconds - slight left (turbo given) 10. 5 seconds - straight 11. 5 seconds - slight left (partially obscured by the sand dune it's on) 12. 7 seconds - left 13. 9 seconds - straight (turbo given, avoid the rocks with vehicle) 14. 8 seconds - straight (turbo given) 15. 4 seconds - slight left 16. 4 seconds - straight 17. 5 seconds - slight left 18. 10 seconds - straight (turbo given) 19. 11 seconds - slight left (turbo given) 20. 10 seconds - slight left Items received: • 10x orb .==============================. # 5.45 Follow me 1 **054500** # `==============================` Vehicle difficulty: ****` Jet board with turbo difficulty: **` This mission was available earlier, but with the vehicles prone to rolling, crashing, and a ton of other obstacles, it is best done with the turbo jet board. Now that you have it, it is time to do this side challenge. If you attempted it before, trading the 8 skull gems, you won't have to trade any more skull gems for it. The statue is located southeast of the northwesternmost island. The core concept of this type of mission is very simple - just touch the large light and follow the trail it leaves, but don't get too far behind or close to it. Being too far (about 200 meters) causes the mission to fail. Being too close makes it hard to know where the light is going to go. If you're getting too close, make some S curves or slow down a bit. S curves increase the net distance to travel, covering the would-be distance in more time. (Airlines do it to bleed off speed without a steeper descent (which means more speed) if they're getting too close to the runway with too high height.) At the end, the light will stop and turn into a large light like the starting point. Touch it to complete the mission. The following, however, isn't exactly easy as there are all sorts of twists and turns, including sudden turns, which is why you need to keep some distance from it. This, coupled with obstacles and the tendency of the vehicles skidding and rolling is what makes this so difficult early on. The jet board doesn't have those issues, but it's touchy in other parts and you can't slow it down without a lot of jumping or, the indirect method, using S curves. For the most part, full speed is what's needed. From facing the statue, go to the left to find the light very close by. Get out the jet board and touch it. The light will go forward for a fair while. It will go down then up. At the top of a small sand dune, it will make a sudden left turn then it will curve gradually left. A series of rocks are present that will give vehicles trouble but the jetboard has no trouble. Follow the sand dune, curving slightly left then gradually right. Pass by the trees and up a sand dune. This is where you will lose sight of the light beam because of the camera and even the 4:3 aspect doesn't help. The light curves to the right though then far around left around the trees and rocks. This is a key place where vehicles struggle, but not the jet board. At the pile of large, flat rocks, the light curves slightly right then left to go around it and up a sand dune. It goes straight for a fair bit then makes a right turn at the top of the high sand dune. Near the shore, the light turns left to go into a valley then straight toward where a line of trees are. It curves left and drops down a cliff of rocks, another area where vehicles struggle but not the jet board. The end is shortly beyond. Touch the light to complete the mission - you can get off the jet board before touching it and simply run to it and jump up into it. You pretty much arrive right where you started - how convenient! Items received: • 10x orb .===========================================. # 5.46 Rescue more wastelanders **054600** # `===========================================` Normal difficulty: ****` Toughened vehicle difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: *** You will need to have the Sand Shark in order to do this mission which is why I suggested choosing it for section 5.43. Go due east and get past the sand dunes and trees. You will have mountains on the right. Follow these mountains to the eastern side of the T of the central mountains to find the statue for the mission. It takes a massive 12 skull gems to get the mission, but for 18 orbs, that's a huge return and a good investment! The only catch is that it's also a particularly difficult mission, harder and different than the story one. While the mission is pretty much exactly the same as the story one, the positions are different, the marauders are in greater force (care for 4 cars), and you have to cut through a cave for which the map does not offer any real guidance on where the turns are and what leads where. First, trade the skull gems. If your vehicle does not have full health, destroy it after activating the mission - go where it's blue, wet, and very deep or use a turbo to full speed into a rock or wall. You're going to need a healthy vehicle if you don't have invulnerability. If you do this with the vehicle toughness upgrade, then you'd need at least 3/4 of the health, but a full health bar is still recommended, to make this easier. The first wastelander is directly to the left from facing the statue and is the easiest one. You have 90 seconds to reach him. The pillar of light is clearly visible. As with the story mission, have him on the left side once you reach him. The pillar of light is to the left, following the river. At the highlighted area, stop and wait for him to get off. There are 100 seconds to reach the next one, to the left. However, you cannot go that way because the water is too deep. Instead, go back the way you came until an island is reached. Cross the river from the island. Once across, just head directly to where the pillar of light is, remembering to have the wastelander on the left side to pick him up quickly. Go back the way you came. Cross the river where the islands are and stop where the pillar of light is to let him off. That was another easy one. The third one is a fair bit tricker. You have 120 seconds for this wastelander. It's a lot of time, but this wastelander happens to be quite far so far that it's outside the draw distance for the pillar of light. Turn right to go to the right side of the mountains. Continue in that direction to get around the lost city, all in a straight line over easy terrain. You won't have marauders around here, fortunately. It's also a good place to use any turbos you might have, since it's generally a straight path. Once past the lost city, turn slightly left and go through that narrow passage in the mountains but remember to stay clear of the rocks - this isn't the roll-a-derby. Turn slightly left and the wastelander is waiting. Pick him up with him on the left side. Go backward and follow the same path in reverse. Turn slightly right to go into the narrow pathway, then turn slightly left once past it, staying clear of the rocks. Make the slight right turn once past the lost city, then a slight left turn to go directly to the pillar, stopping where it is to let the wastelander off. The last wastelander is the hardest one. You get 140 seconds to reach him, which seems like a lot, but it's not. Turn hard left and follow the river toward where the green dot is. Straight ahead is a cave - go into it - it's the only way to get this last wastelander in time. At least you won't have to deal with marauders for it. The cave curves slightly left then splits into 2 paths. Take the right path. It curves around to the right, then to the left at the end. Stay to the right side of the river, near it, but avoid it and other obstacles along the way for now. The very tall cliffs show up and you'll see the wastelander on an island. Stop by, with the fisherman wastelander on the left side. Once he boards, go back the way you came, with the river on the right. Go back to the cave and enter it. It will curve slightly to the right then somewhat sharply to the left. The path will split in 2 again. Take the left path. The cave curves around gently to the right. The pillar of light is straight ahead. If you have any turbos, fire one off right as the cave finishes curving around to shave off a bit of time. Follow the river until close to the pillar of light where islands are. Cross the river here and go to the pillar of light. There are now 60 seconds to get to the finish line. Turn left to go around the rocks, then slightly right once past them. There is a rock in the way on the direct route to the light - go around it then go directly to the light. Once you reach it, you will obtain the massive 18 orbs. And just like that, the weather quickly improves. Ya gotta wonder how that could happen? Items received: • 18x orb .=================================. # 5.47 Time stopper 1 **054700** # `=================================` Vehicle difficulty: **** Turbo jet board difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: * Go due east to the small group of mountains east of the T-shaped part. The southwest side has another statue present. Trade 8 skull gems to get the mission. This is one of my favorites and it serves as my proof of flash freeze slowing time down to 5% that of normal. These types of missions are exclusive to side missions. Once the mission is activated, you will have a white light appear. Touch it and you have 11 seconds to get to the end... but the end is so, so far away that, even with flash freeze and all the fastest stuff you have, it's unreachable. Fortunately, along the path, there are clock-like cymbols with 1 to 3 balls inside of them. Blue ones give you one extra second and are the most common, with one sphere inside. Yellow clocks have 2 spheres and give 2 extra seconds. Rare red clocks have 3 spheres and give 3 extra seconds. It is unnecessary to keep to where the red light is, but it is essential to stay close or you'll get lost. The key to this mission is to grab all the time extensions you can in a wise and efficient manner. If you run out of extra time, the main clock will resume. The mission fails when the main clock is exactly 0:00.000 (remember, 00:00 from 00:01 still means 0.99 seconds). To complete this mission, here is what I recommend to do. First and foremost, don't use a vehicle. They're not reliable. The course, at least, is easy enough with a decent vehicle like the Sand Shark. However, the jet board with turbo is far easier to use for this. So, turn hard left from facing the statue, get out the jet board, and touch the light to start the mission. Turn slightly left to see a series of colored circles. Just touch them to collect them to add to the "extra time". Go straight, curving slightly left to follow the line but be a little on the left side of it. You will see some yellow and red clocks off to the right from the line, with a blue one just before. If you're on the left side, you can get the blue one while also getting the yellow, red, yellow, then red one leading up. At the top, turn left, go over the rock, and return to where the line is, going on the left side of it, turning right to collect the clocks. At the yellow one, turn right to get the red one, then turn left to go to the bridge. Jump across the bridge (a basic jump is good enough). The light curves to the left to a red clock. It'll then curve to the right - stay on the right side of it for 2 blues, a yellow, then a red. Stay near the line and turn left with it at the top of the dune to get another clock. Cross the line to the left side and follow it as it curves left, staying on the left side, collecting clocks. Stay to the left side until you pass by a rock with several icons going over to the right - go to them, jump over the low rocks here, and follow them back to the line, staying on the right side. It'll curve around to the right - simply follow it. A sudden left turn then right turn to go around mountains leads to 3 more blue clocks. Follow the line gradually to the right then the left. After a left turn, the end is reached - simply touch the light to receive the reward. Unfortunately, now, you're far from your vehicle, and the marauders come out. You have 2 choices. Deliberately jump over the edge and get eaten by the giant snake to instantly appear in a vehicle again (and fully restore the vehicle while at it), choose "restart mission" (which has the same effect, only faster), or go directly back to the vehicle via the jet board. If you choose the last option, the slower option, I'll explain how to return. Note where the small gray dot is, representing the vehicle. Turn hard left, get back on the jet board, and avoid the marauders. Don't bother shooting them, just ignore them but don't run into them. The jet board is far, far more maneuverable than the marauders. Go slightly right to go around mountains but avoid the rocks as they can toss you up very high with a sudden loss of horizontal speed, giving time for the marauders to group up, leaving you at a disadvantage. You will reach the lost city again where the marauders stop. Avoid the cacti while here - they hurt (for 2 units of damage)! Follow along the lost city, sticking to the outer edge of it where it's open. Past the mountains, turn left, to go away from the lost city but directly toward where the vehicle is. Cross the river and carefully dodge the marauders. Make sudden turns to avoid them. You've got good skill if you make it all the way back to the vehicle without taking a hit. If you want to do this challenge the most interesting way, though it'll take a while and requires unlimited Light Jak, activate flash freeze. Touch the light and quickly get to pretty much all of the time extention tokens there are. When the blue-faded view of flash freeze fades away, stop, hold L2, and repeatedly press [] to activate it again. As a warning, the game seems to have a lot of problems with flash freeze in the desert, with frame rates dropping down to just 2 fps at times, 5 to 10 fps being the most common. See the glitches section for more details, section 10.11 to be exact. While flash freeze is taking full effect and you have extra time available, notice how it counts down not 1 second for every real second, but 0.05 second for every real second. With constant use of flash freeze, it's entirely possible to push nearly 50 extra seconds on the "extra time". Items received: • 10x orb .==============================. # 5.48 Orb hunt 15 **054800** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: **** Return to Spargus City and go to the western side. The very far westernmost side has a statue needing 4 skull gems. Trade them to get the mission. You have 15 seconds to get the orb. The orb is located on the opposite side of the place where the cannon is, near the center of the east-west shore. To reach it, go in the opposite direction from facing the statue and quickly get out the jet board, aiming straight for it on the right side. Get of the jet board when right next to the rightmost rocks that barely stick out. Quickly climb up and you will find the orb there. This one is hard because you pretty much don't have enough time to reach it. Items received: • 3x orb .==============================. # 5.49 Follow me 2 **054900** # `==============================` Leaper difficulty: ** Jet board difficulty: ***** Flash freeze only hero difficulty: **` Go to the southwest and grab a leaper lizard as you will need one. In the southwest corner of the dark-colored area on the map, there is a statue requiring 8 skull gems. Trade them. Get on the leaper lizard, turn hard left from facing the statue, then touch the light. Now, simply follow the light as explained in section 5.46 above. Because of all the civilians in the road, which get in the way frequently, the use of the jet board for this is strongly not recommended. Hitting someone with the jetboard will cause them to start shooting at you and it also really slows you down, almost guaranteeing a fail. Use the leaper, it's the only practical way. Here is what it does: The light will go straight but make some sudden kinks. It turns a gradual hard right with the path. An odd kink will follow. After following the path a little bit, it'll curve off of it to the left to parallel the coast. Be sure to jump up the rocks along the way. At the end of the rocks sticking out, it will turn right and return to the path. Follow it along the path. The stone path will abruptly end. Straight ahead is the door with the crown on it. When it goes off the path to the next section of Spargus, it will turn right at the start of these paths. Continue following it along the path. At the split in the road, turn right. At the T-intersection, turn left. It will stop just short of where the light eco vent is. Touch the light in any way to complete the mission. Don't forget to step into that light eco vent this leads to if you're missing any light eco, essential for healing. With nonstop use of flash freeze, this challenge is a little harder, but can be easier if you fully memorize the path the light takes (or reference the steps above). To do it, get ahead of the light while in flash freeze mode and wait. When the blue haze starts fading away, hold L2 and repeatedly press [] again. The light will catch up and get back ahead of you again, but you can now catch up and pass it. Items received: • 10x orb .=============================================. # 5.50 Complete Monk Temple Tests **055000** # `=============================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: *** With all available, and worthwhile, side missions done, it's back to the main story. And just in time too as those skull gems are really starting to run short. Go to where the vehicles are and grab the Dune Hopper, required for the mission. Remember the Monk Temple? That's where you need to go, in the southeast corner of the map. Hop the islands the same way as before and enter. Unlike the previous visit, do not go up the platforms. Instead, go into that one door that the eye was blocking, straight ahead. You do not need invisibility for this as the eye was destroyed on your first visit. Just continue across - no spikes will appear. Past the door, you won't see any spiders, but get the blaster out as you will need it. A pair of dragonfly metal heads will come out as soon as you make the right turn. Shoot them and grab their skull gems. Continue down the stairs. Just after the second flat area, another dragonfly will come out - just shoot it. At the next flat area, 3 more dragonflies will come out. Get that blaster blazin! Grab the ammo reloads in the room with the dark eco vent. Continue farther in. If you see stairs going up, you went the wrong way. In the room where you had those guard bots, turn right (or go to the left and smash stuff then go directly behind). See that door with the symbol that looks much like the health meter's center where the dark and light eco are? Approach it for a scene. Just a bit inside are 3 dragonflies. Shoot them down and grab the skull gems. While grabbing them, another one will come. You know what to do with that blaster gun, right? Another blaster-demanding dragonfly metal head is just a short bit beyond that. Around a slight left turn, you will find a more open room. Smash the pair of urns right by the entrance to this room for 8 easy skull gems. See that one symbol that has the white and magenta colors, spinning around? Touch it to get a scene. You will have 17 more of these to collect. The game will guide you on how to use the jet board. The jet board has poor control and it's easier to just go swimming in that water below and grag the nearest one on the right. Swim to the one on the left, turning left to get to it then do a basic double jump. The next one is also easy to get without the jet board. The game instructs you to do a flip to get it, but unlike the "learn to drive a vehicle" mission, there are no restrictions other than simply touching the symbols. So, do it the easy way. Turn slightly left to get the last of them over the water. This one is a high one, where the game instructs you to do a launch jump. It's actually easier just doing a double from from in the water. For the next part, you'll need the jet board. Turn around to go back but hug the wall on the right. Point Jak, while in the water, toward the ramp and get out the jet board. It's the only way to climb up that steep slope. Once at the top, get off of the jet board. Ignore what the game says and just follow the stairs down, grabbing the symbols while at it. At the end of this, you will find what appears to be a very narrow rail. You will have to get out the jetboard for this one. Get about 2 or 3 Jak heights away from the edge, point toward the rail, get out the jet board, jump, then hold [] until landed on the rail. This will do a grind. On the other side, get off the jet board. You should have 9 symbols left to get. Go around the holes. Falling in one means instant death and with something like that, control is critical which is why I suggest avoiding the use of the jet board - it's simply easier. A bigger gap will follow after the symbol. Just do a normal double jump with spin to cross it with ease. It's much easier than the jet board. Another, bigger hole is present right after ward. Do the usual jumping to get across it. Another rail follows at the end. Get the jet board out and grind across it as I explained before. However, you will have to jump to get the symbol. Simply press X when just short of the symbol so you contact it, but remember to press and hold [] until landed on it. On the other side, get off the jet board again and follow the path. At the end, you will now have 4 symbols left to get. The jet board is needed to get up the ramp straight ahead. Once at the top, get off of the jet board, as usual. You will have 3 large holes to jump across and the game's nagging text to get on the jet board to make otherwise easy jumps a bit more difficult. At end end of this, you should have just one symbol left. Jump down into the water, turn to the left at the wall then stick near the wall for a fair ways. You will find the last symbol in the far right. Just jump up the ledge there and grab it. A scene will occur. Go back out and turn to the right. This jump is the trickiest, but it is possible without the use of the jet board though it takes a few tries. It's slightly easier to use the launch jump, but it's still not easy. To do it without the jet board, see that steep-looking rock on the left? You need to do a double jump toward it and a spin attack right at the top of this, but also have a turn to the right at this so that Jak can "glide" up the steep slope and land on something solid. If you prefer the launch jump route, get some distance then hold L1 while approaching the jump. Press X while still holding L1 when near the edge. It's a tricky jump, but it is doable in both ways. Once at the top, get off the jet board. Inside the room, a vase and urn are waiting. As a tip, run into them with the jet board to quickly and effortlessly collect whatever is inside. That's 8 skull gems without the need of chasing them around. Turn toward the room with the left curve in it. Follow it and you will enter a room with another light by the statue. Doesn't this room look familiar? It's just another section of the room! First though, smash those vases and urns for 2 orbs and 10 skull gems. Use the jet board to smash them with for very quick grabbing. Ain't it so much more convenient not having to chase after skull gems any more? Walk into the light now for a scene. Let's try out the most fun skill the game has to offer - flash freeze. Just hold L2 while pressing [] to use it. Those platforms that spin so impossibly fast are now easy to cross. Wait for the one ahead to make a spin first then go for it. Follow the platforms using double jumps (avoid the spin unless you feel you're coming well short) then get on that ledge. Continue into the room and follow it. Another rail is present. Get on the jet board and grind across. Falling now will mean a long back track so be careful! You need to go into that room straight across. Once across, get off the jet board. Avoid the holes, but then a big one with a rail is present. This rail is difficult to get onto. You will need to combine a front flip jump with a grind to get onto it. From a greater distance, about 6 Jak heights (or near the hole), get on the jet board, go forward while holding R1 and up on the left stick, then press X when near the edge. Quickly press and hold [] to secure the grind to get across. Once across, get off the jet board again. A simple hole is next - just do a simple jump across, though it is possible (but risky) to walk across on the side. Jump across the next hole and continue folling the path. Another pesky rail is present. The problem is, this one has a gap in it. A regular jump is fine, but if you're good with flip jumps, it'll be a little easier. The game's camera tilts downward so you can see where the jump is. Jump when near the end of the rail, remembering to hold [] until you land again. Follow the path straight ahead. A door is there that will open up on its own. Inside, don't those spinning blades look so familar, from the electrified pole jumping with invisibility? You now have to cross those, and there's there's only one way: flash freeze. Even then, it's not as easy as it looks. Step into the light eco fountain to restore your light eco - you will need it. The trick to this is to jump frequently. Do not touch the blades or it's instant death and you have to restart from the last successful crossing you made, or the beginning of this room if you haven't crossed any. It'll take a few tries to get used to it though. Use normal jumps, but if you jump too early, do a double jump to give yourself extra time so you can land on the platform while it's more level. You will need to cross these 3 times. Continue across the room but do not step on that bridge. It will instantly collapse. Time for the last forced use of flash freeze. Activate it while in the light eco vent to make sure you have a full supply of light eco after this. Quickly jump across the bridge to the other side. You'll now have to wait until you unlock unlimited Light Jak to really have fun with flash freeze as you will no longer be needing it. Healing is much more important. Get on the platform in the room on the other side for a scene and to complete the mission. What a long one that was! Item received: • Light flash freeze .====================================================. # 5.51 Travel through Catacomb subrails **055100** # `====================================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: **** But, you're not done yet. In the next area, there's a yellow car present in a weird-looking room. Simply approach it for a scene. Before getting on the vehicle, if you're curious, check the in-game map. What a surprise! "Map Data Unavailable" It seems like you've stumbled into unknown territory. Anyway, get on the vehicle with /\. Unlike all other vehicles, this one has minimal control. You can rotate around the chute and shoot with R1, with unlimited ammo), but that's all that's can be done. Lining the route are several transmitter things, solid wall connectors, dangerous red robots that move with the vehicle, plenty of holes that have rapidly blinking lights around them to serve as a warning, and even parts of the tube missing. This will take several tires to do. Also, don't run into things or the vehicle will take damage, even with invulnerability (bug!). Holes mean instant death so avoid them. Unfortunately, this thing goes so fast that it's hard to see them and with so much trash around, it's hard to avoid them. The general rule: stay near the bottom, avoid hitting anything, get that gun blazing at all times by repeatedly pressing R1 all the way through, and be sure to blast that robot that moves with you as it, after time, will do some big damage. It's the only way to make this at least reasonably easy enough. This may barely take a minute and there are no check points, but it's quite difficult where the numerous redos can make it take upwards of 5 minutes, even 15 minutes. Here's what's along the path, in finer detail, and places to go and avoid. I will split the path into several distinct sections. If, at any time, you crash or the vehicle takes too much damage, you will have to start over from the beginning. Notice the panel-like design, where there are 10 total panels. I will refer to the panels as 0 for the lowest one, then increasing from 1 to 4 for the left and right, with 5 being the very top. Thus, L2 means 2 panels to the left from the bottom center one, which is almost entirely on the far left side. A hole is on panel L3 during the first curve. After the curve is done, a hole is in panel R2. A red robot comes out after this - it will come around to you so shoot it when it gets near the bottom. Shortly past it is a hole for panel L1 with a support column in panel R1. Use panel 0 to avoid both. Another support column is in panel 0 - go to the left side to avoid it. At the same time, another red robot comes out. It will come to the lower part on its own - shoot it when you can. A hole is in panel R2 right afterward with another support in panel 0. A hole is present in panel 0 just beyond so pick either side to avoid both of these. A hole in panel L3 follows shortly after. Stay in the area from L1 to R1 as the sides and ceiling disappear. Stay in the center as near to panel 0 as you can without any left or right movement because the whole floor then disappears. You will only make it safely across if you don't move. Otherwise, you'll veer into the left and right sides and crash into the side of the chute. The car will suddenly speed up by about 50%. A hole for panels L4 and 5 is present side by side. Another one follows for panel L1. An empty-looking area with a different floor texture arrives, with a red robot to go with it. Get on the ceiling and shoot it - it's not an easy one to hit. The next section has an area where large electric arcs spark and rotate around - avoid the spark. Another one follows shortly after, leading to a red robot and a hole for panel L1. The entire upper half (L3 to R3) of the chute is missing after the right curve with a whole in panel 0 then, very shortly after, panel R1 to make things harder. You're home free after some transmitter things. At the end, you will receive a new ability, one that doesn't have use for some time (not until act 3). The best use for light eco is still healing - save it for now. Item received: • Light shield .===================================. # 5.52 Explore eco mine **055200** # `===================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: ** From where you land, turn right (left if facing the blue barrier) and go out that door. Upon approaching the elevator in that room, a scene will occur. Go straight and turn around the corners. A light eco vent is present there. Turn right and go up the rocks. At the top, go straight for a scene. Smash the 2 Krimzon Guard crates for ammo reloads and get out the blaster as you're going to need it. The game instructs you to shoot the bridge to knock it down. You're going to learn to hate those bridges. Don't cross it just yet as 2 flier monsters are present - shoot them while they're still plenty far away. Once on the bridge, take note of the lizards crawling on the wall. Shoot them as well - one shot will knock them down, another will defeat it. This is one area where the 4:3 aspect gives you an advantage as, with the 16:9, those lizards are harder to see as you can't look upwards as much to see them so you can get ambushed by them. At the end of the path, another one of those bridges is present. Shoot it and get ready to shoot the pair of flies on that island. Now cross the bridge and shoot the next one... and the 3 flier monsters on the other side. Smash the crate for a health pack. Go over the track, get the crate for an ammo reload, then go down the path on the left. The crate has more ammo in it. Ahead is an elevator, an unstable one. Get on it and wait for it to go down. Shoot the bridge while the elevator is still going down. When the elevator is at the bottom, you have 2 seconds to get off of it or it'll collapse. On the other side are 3 metal heads. 2 jumpers and a flier. Just shoot them. Another flier and some lizards are on the wall in the background. As you approach the wall with the lizards on them, 2 more fliers will come out. Shoot the jumpers then get the fliers then lizards while still far enough away. Be sure to grab the skull gems as you pass by them. Upon nearing the narrow pathway, 2 more fliers come out - shoot 'em! If you're missing any health in this and white eco drops, get a fair distance from the white eco and use light regenerate, grabbing the light eco when done. It's the most efficient way to use light eco. Of course, when you heal, the gun is put away, so you'll need to bring out the blaster again. Continue following the path around a tight corner. 3 total jumper metal heads are up ahead - shoot them. At the end of the path is one of those bridges that you have to shoot. It leads to one of those unstable elevators. Get on it and when it reaches the top, quickly get off. A jumper metal head is waiting - do a double jump with a spin attack and land right on it. Whack it again while it's near the wall to defeat it and be sure to grab the skull gem. Another jumper metal head is waiting off to the left so listen closely and be ready for a spinning jump attack again. Another one is at the top of the ledge above - this one you can simply shoot... or spin attack if you so choose. Around the corner are 3 fliers - shoot them all down. Turn right to find 3 more fliers. The blaster sure is getting a work out, isn't it? A health pack and an ammo reload is in the crates ahead. Turn right to find a series of platforms. Before crossing, note the lizards on the wall. Shoot the closer one while you have a nice distance. Jump onto the first platform (don't walk to it - there are gaps present). Shoot the next lizard. Jump to the next platform then shoot the next lizard. Jump across again to find solid ground. Crates are on the left for a red ammo reload and a health pack. Continue up that then turn left into the side area. A jumper metal head is waiting around the corner. Get back and be ready to shoot it. Around the corner, 2 more jumpers are present. Shoot them just as well. An ammo reload is at the end, of both types of ammo. An unstable elevator leading down is next - be ready to shoot the bridge on the other side and get off the elevator when it reaches the bottom. A lone flier is present along with a trio of jumper metal heads. That blaster has more work to do! Another flier is around the corner as well, but hidden. Watch out for it! At the end, you will find an elevator. Get on it. This one is stable so no worries. Go into the passage, turning left. Use the light eco vent to heal in full as needed. The crates have a health pickup, kind of pointless with the light eco vent there. There is an ammo reload, at least. Get onto the center block and it will go down at a diagonal. It's an elevator. While on it, get out the vulcan fury as you'll have a lot of monsters to deal with. You will be greated with about 6 frogs and 3 fliers (I didn't get a full count). Unleash the fury! See that one giant, red, rat-like monster ahead? You will need these for the next few sections. Just whack it into that wheel to get the platforms to the right available. Do not walk up to it as it will do 2 units of damage. Killing it by sending it over the edge of the cliff will cause a new one to come out of the pipe on the right. The gun gets put back automatically by the game - bring it back out again. The blaster will do just fine as you've got lots of distance to shoot the roughly 13 frogs over there. Shoot the ones you can see now while it's still easy to get them, to clear a path. Go down the platforms now and, at the bottom, wait for the rest of the frogs to come and shoot them. A health pack is at the bottom, which, if you've been following along or took a hit from that one monster you had to whack into the wheel, is unnecessary. Continue on to find 5 more frogs. Shoot them while they can't get to you as a gap is in the way. Jump across the first gap and wait for the 4 other frogs to come in range and shoot them while they are helpless. Once cleared, get across the gap and watch one of those red monsters come out of the pipe to the right of the wheel. Knock a monster into the wheel. This time, you'll have to lure them over. Whack them with spin attacks or shoot them to stun them for about 5 seconds. You'll have 2 to deal with - only one is needed in the wheel. Once both are stunned, you can safely walk up to them to touch them. Use the spin attack to move them around and get one of them in the wheel. Ignore but stay away from the other one. A scene occurs and the gun is automatically put back. When the scene is over, get the gun back out. Starting to get annoyed by that? Climb up the platforms using double jumps and, at the top, it's ribbit, ribbit, ribbit! Shoot the 6 frogs here while still on the top platform. Beware of the pair of fliers as well that sneak up from behind. Them them first as they can still attack. Finish the frogs off then get on that ledge. A health pack and ammo reloads are in the crates just to the right. Follow the path up. Near the top, you will find several more frogs. Where's the swamp when you need one? Guns blazin' to get rid of them. There are about 7 frogs in total. More of those giant red rats come out, 2 of them. Get the crate for an ammo reload. Stun the rats by jumping spin attacks then get one of them in the wheel on the right like before. Go past the wheel and on the right to find the area that was shown. These are moving platforms. Jump so that, when you're right at them that you're slightly to the side in the direction they're going. Use a spin attack to help as needed. Repeat for these platforms that move left and right repeatedly. You will often have to fight the camera to better prepare the jump. Ribbit, ribbit! Yep, you guessed what 9 things were going be waiting across the gap. Yep, those ever-so-common frogs. Surely there's got to be a swamp around here somewhere! Where are they all coming from? Just shoot them. Straight ahead another wheel, with a pipe on the right. This time, 3 of those red rats come out. Lure them over to the wheel then spin attack them all. Pick whichever one is closest and/or easiest to get to the wheel and send it into it. Platforms that go around a wheel now rotating. Get on one of them and be prepared for... frogs. Shoot the 4 frogs there while the platform is on the upper 1/3 part of the wheel. Get on the next wheel of platforms and, again, be ready to go ribbiting on shooting frogs, again from the upper 1/3 of the wheel. There are a lot of them here so you'll need to go around probably twice. Beware of 5 fliers being mixed in with this as well - shoot them first, then get the frogs later. Another pipe, some ramps, and... I think I'm getting ribbititis now... 8 more frogs are waiting at the top of this. Shoot them, as usual. The crates at the top have ammo reloads and a health pack. To continue, jump back down and lure the 3 red rat monsters over to the wheel. Spin attack them all, as before, then get one of them into the wheel, as before. The gun gets put a way during the scene showing the new platforms. This time, don't bring the gun back out. Go straight to that weird clock-like thing and you'll get a scene. You now have 12 health points! Go to the right. There is a highlight on a switch. Just spin attack it to turn it on for a scene. Which will complete this mission as well. What a long mission! Item received: • Greaves (armor; +2 max health points) .====================================. # 5.53 Escort bomb train **055300** # `====================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: *** Quickly get out the blaster, smash the crates for a big ammo reload, then shoot the red switch where the track is pointed up. You have to be close enough to shoot it. Each one along the path gives you extra time on the clock. Beware the 2 fliers that will come diving down after you. Shoot them quickly. Turn right and quickly get across the path. Use a rolling jump to go faster. Cross the track and go to the right. Shoot the nearby switch on the right then shoot the farther one from near the corner. The crates are ammo reloads. Go down the narrow path, get out the jet board, then grind on the rail on the right. The left one has a gap in it so avoid it. Once across, get off the jet board and quickly get out the blaster again. Ignore the lizard on the wall and go to the left corner to shoot the switch there. Go to the right and go down the path, smashing the crates for ammo and a health pack. Continue forward then shoot the switch. Turn right and get on the platform that goes in and out of the wall. Time your jump so that it's just starting to come out of the wall. If it's already out, don't jump. Continue straight across. Optionally shoot the lizard on the wall, but ignore it for the most part. Cross the track and turn right. Jump across the platforms that don't move but have gaps present. On the other side are a lot of fliers. Shoot them quickly. Go to the right to find 2 switches - shoot them. Turn left and follow the path. You'll now have a pair of platforms going in and out. One will always be in - jump toward that one then jump toward the ledge. Shoot the switch straight ahead. Cross the track, get out the jet board, and pick any of those 3 rails to grind on. The center one is easier. Just past it, you'll have 2 more of those platforms going in and out. This one is trickier as you have to wait for the closer one to be going out then jump to the next one as the one you're on starts going back in again. Quickly get to the left edge and shoot the 2 switches here, one on the left, the other on the right and a bit more distant. Jump down the ledge, then shoot the bridge to get it to come down. Beware the 2 fliers waiting on the other side. Once across the bridge, shoot the switch on the left. Go to the right and around to get an easy shot on the other switch, the last one. A scene will occur regardless of how much time is left on the clock. That will complete this mission. .=================================================. # 5.54 Defeat Veger's precursor robot **055400** # `=================================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: *` Go to the right, shoot the bridge, the 2 fliers, the next bridge, the 3 fliers, smash the crate for a health pack, then jump across to that new opening. Get on that large, circular, central platform and wait for the elevator to go down. Go in the only direction there is and you'll get a scene. Now it's time for a big boss fight! If you're missing any health, suicide to restore it instead of using regenerate. Now, get out the vulcan barrel or blaster (whichever you prefer) but don't shoot the boss - you'll just waste ammo. Instead, right away, it will cause shock waves, a pair of them. Just jump over it. After some time, it'll use a laser that sweeps across the floor - jump over it. Timing the jump is easy - note when the boss is twisted. Do a double jump with a spin attack at that time. It'll do it again - jump over it the same way. Then it'll fire off a giant dark spider. Use the spin attack on the single one then begin shooting the doubles. They will drop ammo here. There are crates on the right side to get more ammo as needed. Once the spiders are defeated, the boss will fire energy beams into 5 places in the ground. Take note of which one is the fourth one but avoid touching them until they stop glowing. The center one is the fourth one. When they stop glowing, quickly get to the fourth tallest one with a high jump and a spin attack at the top of that. Pick a bomb car and shoot at it until it breaks free. Now the boss will fire off 3 shockwaves that are quicker. It'll do the laser sweep 3 times as well, and faster - jump over it each time. 2 giant spiders will be fired next. Either use the vulcan barrel or the beam reflexor and shoot them down. After defeating them, note the fourth spot where the laser is. This is the one closest to the boss in the center. Wait for the pillars to rise and cool then do a high jump with a spin attack at the end to get on. Shoot a bomb car (pick one) until it comes loose. This time, you'll have 4 shockwaves to avoid touching and they come so quick that you're bound to take a hit. 3 runs of the laser follows... except that there are 2 of them, one slightly higher. Use the same timing as before and just do a simple high jump with a spin attack near the top to avoid being hit. Afterward, it's 3 giant spiders. The beam reflexor works very nicely for that. For the beams, the right-most pillar is the one you use, closest to the boss. Shoot at the final bomb car until it goes down. Congratuations! You have just completed act 1! Items received: • Arc wielder (second blue gun) • +50 max blue ammo capacity ___ ___ _____ ___ / _ \ / _ \ |_ _| / _ \ | |_| | | | |_| | | |_| | | | _ | | | _ | | / / | | | | | |_| | | | / /__ |_| |_| \___/ |_| |_____| ################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 6 Walkthrough for act 2 **060000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ################### During this act, you will eventually cross a key threshold for the orb count, if you've been doing the side missions and searching around. That threshold is 250. This is for invulnerability, unlimited ammo, unlimited Light Jak, and unlimited Dark Jak. If you exceed this, feel free to spend orbs on stuff, especially weapon upgrades at first. Just don't drop below 250, regardless. .==========================================. # 6.1 Scorpions for skull gems **060100** # `==========================================` Normal difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: * New secrets have become available, plenty of worthwhile ones at that. First, buy the "increased blue ammo capacity" for 4 orbs. For a gun that goes through ammo like there's no tomorrow, what can go wrong with an extra 100 shots to keep at it more, or use the other blue guns that also go through ammo like crazy? Get the "arc wielder robot shock" for 8 orbs as well. You'll be encountering a lot of robots so this will damage them severely, making it fast and easy to destroy them. Ignore the "level select act 1" under "expert options". It's not worth it. Under art gallery, ignore everything there - those can wait for hero mode. Anyway, go through the only door you can get to and continue. If you've played Jak 2, you'll recognize the second door. It's Haven City! Go inside to the elevator for a scene. Once at the top, go straight... but be careful! There are a lot of scorpion metal heads here, a never ending supply. Fortunately, they have a modest spacing, but be watchful and listen to their rattling/hissing. When it gets loud, one is nearby. It's also a great opportunity to gather some more skull gems. Avoid the kiosks for now. Focus on the skull gems. Either shoot the scorpions or use jumping spin attacks. Their strike while you're in mid-air is their weak point as they're actually coming straight for you and as long as you're spinning, you deal the damage to the enemy. They deal one unit of damage though which isn't much. If you fall in the water, there is a ramp in the central area, where the big bulge is to get out of it. If you want, consider using Dark Jak and just endlessly using spin attacks. There's a lot of dark eco being dropped - might as well put it to use and make it even easier, given the slightly extended range. Don't use the Dark Bomb or Dark Blast though. Over about 10 minutes, the scorpions stop having skull gems in them. You've already gained close to around 60 of them from this alone, enough to last a fair while. By now, you probably have over 140. Look around the area as well as there are a few hidden orbs. If you fall in the water, there is a ramp in the central area, where the big bulge is to get out of it. There are 4 orbs to be obtained. One is hidden in a corner and plainly visible. Another is in a lone Krimzon Guard crate. A third is on top of a pile of trash leading a fair ways up. Don't bother grinding to reach it - a simple jump is sufficient enough. The fourth one is in the water in an area past the junk - there is a small opening in the junk to allow passage through to the other side - jump in the water here, then use the nearby ramp to get out. Note how there aren't any monsters over here. When you return, and go back, you'll find that the scorpions won't go past a certain point. Hmm. What a clue that is! Items received: • 4x orb • About 60x skull gem .=============================. # 6.2 Orb hunt 16 **060200** # `=============================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: *** With the skull gem gathering out of the way, it's time to put those two available kiosks to use. Go to the one in the southwest corner of this room and trade 4 skull gems for the mission. You have 15 seconds to reach it. Go backward from facing the kiosk to the tall pile of junk where you got that one high orb. Grind on the pipe then jump using a flip jump (hold R1 while pressing up on the left stick, then pressing X when near the edge of the pipe) over to the other pipe, grinding to reach it. It'll take a few tries as this one is a bit tricky. Items received: • 3x orb .=============================. # 6.3 Orb hunt 17 **060300** # `=============================` Normal difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: *` Return to the area and trade 4 skull gems at the eastern kiosk for the mission. You have 23 seconds to reach the orb... and scorpions to deal with along the way just ignore them this time - if you have low health, consider deliberately failing the mission instead of using regenerate to heal with - you'll be fully restored If needed, smack a few scorpions to attempt to get some white eco to help. The orb is almost due east of the kiosk. From fading it, turn right, turn left, then turn left again. Turn right then turn slightly right and the orb is there near the support column pillar. Items received: • 3x orb .======================================. # 6.4 Reach port via sewer **060400** # `======================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: ** Continue east and you'll find a white gate with some familiar characters on the other side of it (familiar if you've played the earlier Jak games). A scene plays when when you get close. The manhole icon shows where the sewer entrance is. Go to it - it's on the northern side of this area, on the western part. Use the icon to tell which door it is. When you reach the elevator, a scene will occur. Get out the blaster while you wait for the door to open. One of my favorite songs in the game plays during this. A pair of flying metal heads are waiting. Their skull gems will automatically come to you upon defeat, along with any eco. Turn left and go around the path. About halfway around, 2 more flying metal heads will come out - shoot them down into the bottomless pit below! Continue following the path. A series of platforms leads downward to a half pipe. Get out the jet board and get on the half pipe. See that lower part on the left? That's where you need to go. Go up it and, at the top, get off the jet board. Turn right. Follow the path to the door. Wait for it to open and get the blaster out while waiting. On the other side, there's that really familar monster - 6 frogs. Well, I guess it's a little more appropriate of a location for them, but sewers are not it. The next area is a large pipe. You're forced to use the jet board for this and you cannot get off of it until past it. See that hole there though? Go around it. Another one is ahead - avoid it too. A supposed dead end is reached - see that area to the side? Go in there. Turn right and note the other side chute. Go into it, but don't go too far out while attempting as it's a bottomless pit down there! At the bottom of this are a bunch of monsters. A mix of about 8 frogs and 4 crocodile-like things. Quickly switch to the arc wielder or just use spinning aerial attacks to get them. Don't worry about the water - it's harmless, other than slowing down movement and pushing you around. Don't go up that chute just yet. If you took damage during that fight, don't heal as there is a pair of health packs on the left side of the chute. Now, go up the chute - you'll want the jet board for this, so that the water doesn't push you back. It's doable without the jet board though - just use repeated double jumps with spin attacks. At the top, get off the jet board and you'll see 2 monsters. Do not spin attack these as they'll be destroyed but damage Jak 2 units. Shoot the monsters instead. Go straight. The water will push fast and hard, but that can be avoided by using double jumps with spin attacks. Get on that ledge there then do a high jump up there. On the right, you will see 3 crates. There are 2 orbs and an ammo reload in them. Return then go left. A rail - time for the jet board! Grind across it, getting off the jet board on the other side. You will find 3 fans here and an exploder monster. Just shoot the monster first then destroy the fans with the any of the yellow or blue guns (the red one doesn't have the range). The fans take 3 hits to destroy (assuming you got the blaster damage upgrade). An exploder fish is right after - shoot it. Get on the jet board and go up the ramp of water. Another exploder fish is present here at the top - get off the jet board and shoot it or just ignore it and go up the water fall to the left, avoiding the exploder fish. At the top of this, get off the jet board. See that whirlpool? Stay away from it. It's instant death if you fall in as it's actually just a hole. There are firm platforms on the right though - jump on them. Jump across the chute of water to the other side and smash the crates for an ammo reload. Now, jump in the chute of water and go with the flow - it's faster that way. At the bottom, jump on the side where there's a whole lotta frogs just waiting for the blaster to make them croak. Shoot all 10 of them. There are also for metal head crocs. Jump in the water below, avoiding the whirlpools, then wait for them to come. Shoot these 4 then a rail will come down for grinding. Heal if needed and collect any light eco you may have gotten. Keep the greatest distance you can from the whirlpools. If Jak is being moved toward a whirlpool, jump and correct it while in mid-air while also continuing generally in the direction you want to go. On the right side, from where the chute ended, you will find 2 crates - a health pack and an ammo reload. Go to that rail and grind it to the other side, getting off the jet board at the end. On the right, there is a flow of water. Walk or jump over to it then get the jet board out to climb up it. Get off the jetboard at the left side and get out either of the yellow or blue guns and destroy those fans! There is a rail just past it, but don't bother with it as it leads nowhere. Jump over it. Now, you'll need go stright to where the ramp of water is, using the jet board to get up it. At the top, get off the jetboard and quickly get out either gun of your choice that isn't red. Shoot the zapper metal heads, the ones with the red lights at the end of a stick. They will, when close to them, zap Jak for 2 units of damage. They take 3 hits with the blaster. There is another one just to the right - shoot it out, but be careful of the flame dancers that are higher up. They'll start throwing those slow-moving projectiles out that do 2 units of damage if they hit Jak. Quickly cross the zigzagging narrow passage and shoot the next zapper metal head. At the end is another ramp of water - the jet board is eager to help you get up that! Get off at the top. Of course, ribbititis is setting in hard! With the rushing water making things harder, it's easier to just use the ol' fashioned aerial spin attacks to get the 10 frogs there! Um, did Jak just contract ribbititis now? Nah, just make sure the frogs don't jump on him as they do 2 units of damage. Turn left from the water ramp to see those zapper metal heads together with the flame dancers that were firing projectiles at you a short bit ago. Give them a taste of their own medicine and just shoot them back, especially that flame dancer. Just keep your distance from it (it won't go in water) and when it fires, just move off the side to avoid it. Straight ahead are 2 more of those flame dancers. Just shoot them from a distance and avoid their shots. Rushing water is ahead. I just jump out with a roll jump then quickly get a double jump with a spin at the end to get the rest of the way across. Jump in the water on the far right side though. 2 more zapper metal heads, together with a flame dancer, are just beyond - shoot them while you still have good distance. Jump or jet board across the water. Turn right at the end of the path here. 2 crates are on the left side, containing an ammo restock. Go to the door and wait for it to open. Go straight, but get out a gun as 5 flying metal heads are coming out - shoot them all down into oblivion! Turn left at the center, jump up the parts sticking out, and go into the door. Approach the elevator for a scene. Finally this mission is done! .=============================. # 6.5 Orb hunt 18 **060500** # `=============================` Normal difficulty: * Hero difficulty: * There are no enemies to fight here so there's no need to get out any guns. Unlike Jak 2, attacking guards does not get the alarm going off, but it will cause that guard to start attacking so still avoid doing so. Avoid using the jet board as well, unless it's over water. From the start, jump in the water straight across and get the jet board out. See the second circular island on the east (left)? There is a kiosk here. Trade 4 skull gems for the mission. You have a puny 4 seconds to get the orb. It's easy to get too. Jump up on the kiosk (you can go through the blue panel), do a high jump up the wall, then use a spin attack going forward. Nothing to it, huh? Items received: • 3x orb .=============================================. # 6.6 Explore the Haven City port **060600** # `=============================================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: **` Although not an actual mission, there's more than a dozen orbs just sitting around in the port area. 5 are easy to get to. The other roughly 12 to 15 I have no clue how to get to - I haven't figured it out yet, without using a glitch. Turn to go backward from the kiosk, jump in the water, bring out the jetboard, and go straight to where the pipes are. Right past the big pipe where a smaller pipe goes under, deep in the water, is an orb. Dive under to get it. Off to the right, around the easternmost part of the port area is a Krimzon Guard crate with an orb in it, hidden in the corner. Follow the path around. It dips down, then goes up with a bridge going over a pipe. Remember this spot as you'll likely have to return to a few times for this. Just past it is one of those vent things with a blue glow in it. Using the jet board over these does a very high jump. When no one is around this vent thing, run toward it at high speed, hugging the right wall, and be ready to grind on a pipe. An orb is waiting but you have to jump to get it. Jump the gap (a basic jump is fine) and grind the pipe to another orb. Jump the next gap and grind the pipe to get to the next part. Another orb is waiting here. Resume following the path around, avoiding going into the building where the cup icon is for now. See the odd dead end with all the fires? On the left side of this is an orb. Go back out, turn right, then go into the little alcove with an orb in it. Just on the west side of this, in the alcove, is an orb. I currently do not know how to get the orbs suspended on the wires without using a glitch in the game that isn't available at the moment. Items received: • 5x orb .=============================================. # 6.7 Destroy incoming blast bots **060700** # `=============================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: *** Regardless, continue to the cup icon and go in the building. The crates have ammo reloads and a health pack. Go inside for a scene. You will be shown where one of the blast bots is. If you haven't gotten it yet, get the "arc wielder robot shock" for 8 orbs. It will help immensely for what's coming up next. From facing the entrance to the Naughty Ottsel, go to the right to find a zoomer. Press /\ to use it. The game will instruct you to press R2 to switch hover zones. Ignore this for now as you've got more important things to do. Turn right to go to the westernmost circular island where a blast bot is there. Dismount the vehicle, quickly get out the arc wielder, and watch the laser. When the laser turns red, get out of the sight. Beware of other robots around the area as well. Blast bots have a ton of health so it'll take a while and a lot of ammo to destroy them. The other robots tend to drop ammo as well - let the guards do the dirty work while you get the blast bots, unless one is sneaking up on you. Watch the blast bot as, if it starts to kink inward or act funny, the blast bot is about to explode - get away from it, or the explosion will do 2 units of damage. When destroyed, heal if you're missing more than 4 units of health. Return to the vehicle... or snatch one that's overhead if that one is destroyed. To snatch one overhead, note the "press /\ to use" that appears - press it once to hang on the side (not what you want), press it again to get inside (and if this was Jak 2, possibly send someone in the wet waves below for endless treading (or instant death if it was guard)). Anyway, go to the east where another blast bot is. Put the arc wielder to use. You can use the zoomer as a weapon to do a bit of extra damage to it - go full speed into it then get out with /\ right as you're about to hit it but a little before. Once destroyed, grab the ammo it drops, then use rolling long jumps to get to a nearby zoomer as quickly as possible, or snatch another one from above (sorry folks, gotta save the world!). Again, if more than 4 units of health are missing, heal with light regenerate. Follow the path west and go for that blast bot, destroying it the same way. This time, finish off whatever other robots there are and grab all the ammo you can to restock as much as possible, prioritizing light eco. .=============================. # 6.8 Orb hunt 19 **060800** # `=============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` Go the far westernmost part of the port circle where a kiosk is. Trade 4 skull gems for the mission. You have 5 seconds to reach that orb, but looks are very deceptive! That orb is not on the edge by the wall as it is appears to be. It's suspended fairly high in mid-air. From facing the kiosk, turn right and use the vents to jump up to reach it. Items received: • 3x orb .==============================================. # 6.9 Destroy barrier with missile **060900** # `==============================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: **** Return to the cup icon and go in the building for a scene. Leave the building, and now you have one of the hardest story missions in the game. Daxter will ride on a missile, but this thing goes so fast and with the added fact you can't run into anything significant (guards and zoomers are fine, but not walls, boats, or barriers). Use the left stick to steer left and right only and use X to jump. To complete the mission, you will need to get 27 total red pulses of light. While the lights are in a fixed path, this is no easy game. I often need about a dozen total retries to finally make it. Fortunately, there's a check point after number 15 to make things easier. If you die upon getting the 16th light pulse, you will restart already facing the 15th one for easy reach. This is the path you should take: 1. Straight 2. Slight left 3. Slight left - jump on pathway to get it; stay on it 4. Straight - turn left to get it 5. Left - on the bridge over the pipe 6. Straight 7. Left - over the water 8. Straight - on the circular island; jump a bit early to get it 9. Slight left - over the water 10. Left 11. Left - on the pathway - jump a bit early to get 12. Left - tricky; on the port circle - go straight then left to get it 13. Slight left - over the water 14. Slight right - over the water 15. Left - on the bridge going over the pipe (check point reached) 16. Left - just past the pathway (go straight then turn left to get it) 17. Left - on the circular island's left side 18. Slight left - on the pathway 19. Straight - on the left side of the circular island 20. Slight left - over the water 21. Slight left - jump over the pipe 22. Slight left - on the port circle 23. Slight left - over the water 24. Left - jump over the pathway 25. Left - go around the circular island; over the water 26. Straight - go left a little then turn right to go through the barriers 27. Straight - jump into and past the port circle 28. Follow the path left - nothing to collect .==============================================. # 6.10 Missile reload practice run **061000** # `==============================================` Normal difficulty: ***** Hero difficulty: ***** You will now start in the middle of a big battle with robots and my most favorite song in the game plays, fitting for endless battles. Quickly go to the south from where you start, picking up ammo along the way, and hug the eastern wall to find the kiosk for this mission. Trade the 12 skull gems for it. It's a lot, but the reward is 18 orbs (which seems to be rather low actually, given the sheer difficulty). This is the hardest side mission in the game and I often need a half hour of retrying to finally get it. Numbers 12 and especially 18 give me the most trouble, especially more so as there's an unexplained bug in the game where jumps only go half as high as they should be which often causes you to miss some of the light pulses and have to redo it. It's the same as section 6.9 above, except you have to get all 23 light pulses in one go. Get 22 then crash and it's back to having to get the very first one again. What's more is that there's a time limit of 140 seconds, but that is not an issue. You typically end with about half that time left. Basically, pretend it's not even timed at all. If you miss one, it takes so much effort to go back and reestablish the path that it's easier to just deliberately crash and start over. Be prepared to be frustrated. It took me nearly 40 minutes and about 50 attempts on my first play of this to finally get it. Here's the order of the light pulses: 1. Straight 2. Slight left - stay on the path and go around the center 3. Right - keep on the path but jump over the gap to align easier 4. Straight - over the water 5. Right - approach port circle then jump while turning to line up easier 6. Straight - on top of the bridge going over the pipe 7. Slight right - initially obscured; over the water 8. Slight right 9. Straight - jump over the boat 10. Slight left - jump to get it 11. Left - jump over the pathway to get it 12. Left - tricky; jump when near it as it's slightly above 13. Left 14. Slight left - steer around the boats but jump over the pathway to get it 15. Slight right 16. Slight right - on the port circle 17. Straight - just before the bridge crossing the pipe 18. Slight right - very tricky; initially obscured; go straight, turn right, jump and turn left while in mid-air - land on port circle 19. Straight 20. Slight right - over the water near pipes; watch the barriers 21. Slight right - jump over the pathway 22. Right - jump on the circular island and follow the path 23. Straight - jump on the port circle Items received: • 18x orb .==============================================. # 6.11 Jet board scoring challenge **061100** # `==============================================` Bronze difficulty: ** (25,000 points) Silver difficulty: ***` (50,000 points) Gold difficulty: ****` (75,000 points) Go back into the area where the robots are, the eastern side of the port. Use the arc wielder, for the most part. Just spin attack the small crawler robots and use the arc wielder to get the rollerbots and aerial shooterbots. In the odd dead end area to the northwest, there is an orb present - grab that easy orb! Go backward, pass the first turn off but look into the narrow area here for another orb. Return, then turn right to find the kiosk. It takes 12 skull gems. Is it worth it? It is only if you're willing to go after the silver for 12 orbs, even more so if you're after the gold for another 6 on top of that for a grand total of 18. In short, you have 90 seconds to perform the greatest variety of stunts and tricks you can to score as many points as you can. This kiosk will remain forever available. Interestingly enough, all of the robots and stuff will vanish as this is going on. Thus, use this kiosk and deliberately avoid scoring anything significant to safely pass through the area if you need to. Just remember to choose "no" when asked to restart the mission. You may be reset to where the kiosk is though, but I don't know if that's the case or not. The key to scoring big is variety. Don't keep using the same trick again and again. Don't keep alternating between the same 2 tricks again and again either (though that does score a little faster, a little faster yet with the same 3, and faster yet with 4). Randomize it. Have something unique. Remember to use the vents, now red, if you want to get into the upper areas quickly (which isn't necessary; and the game camera sometimes doesn't help and gets stuck and there's nothing you can do about it other than dropping down and trying again). What I do is randomly move the left stick about while I repeatedly but also randomly press R1 and L2, attempting to time L2 while in the air. I've seen some big scores of 5000 in some of it, but I get a wide mix of stuff. I would recommend going for at least the silver. It's not as easy as it seems. If you do manage to get gold, save your game! Items received: • 12x orb • 6x orb with heavy dedication and great skill .==============================. # 6.12 Orb hunt 20 **061200** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` From facing the kiosk for the challenge above, turn left. It is on the left wall. Trade the 4 skull gems to get the mission. There are 11 seconds to get the orb. Turn left from facing the kiosk and grind up that rail. Turn slightly left and grind on that rail to get the orb. Items received: • 3x orb .====================================. # 6.13 Beat gun course 1 **061300** # `====================================` Normal difficulty: Goal: * (10,000 points) Bronze: *` (12,000 points) Silver: *` (14,000 points) Gold: ** (16,000 points) Hero difficulty: * (all) There are now 2 different missions you could choose to do. For the purpose of this guide, I will choose the one offering the best rewards. What can go wrong with 50 more yellow ammo, 9 orbs, and a new gun... a gun that's something worth passing up on. Go to the west and into the narrow passage. Follow it, destroying whatever robots you find and make sure you have a full stock of yellow ammo as you'll need it if you want to get the gold. Be sure to obtain both the "increased yellow ammo capacity" for 4 orbs and "reflexor increased deflections" for 8 orbs. With that, you will easily get the gold. At the port circle, turn right. See that green wheel icon on the map? Go there. However, along the way, in the area going WSW, near the center, there is a Krimzon Guard crate containing an orb - grab it. Once in the room, turn slightly left to get a scene. You are forced to use yellow guns only, and the beam reflexor is one of the best guns in the game. Gun courses are a bit different from Jak 2, but the mechanics are very similar. As soon as a target appears, there is a base score of 100 points. For every 33 milliseconds the target shows, 1 point is deducted. If a friendly target is hit, a town resident, you will lose 100 points, regardless of how long it shows up. There are multiple targets present, coming in in a generally fixed order. Move through the course slowly as targets will appear along those bands. It is possible to use the spin attack or punch attack to hit targets, but for this course, that is unnecessary. Here's what they do: • Small red robot - these will shoot back at you, doing 2 units of damage. Unfair! They take 1 hit to defeat though. They are the third highest priority. • Medium red robot - just your basic target and harmless. It takes one hit to destroy it. • Large red robot - another basic target and harmless. It takes two hits to destroy it though. • Spider - these will explode if not destroyed in 5 seconds. If they explode, you lose 50 points and if close to one, take 2 units of damage. How unfair! These are the second highest priority. • Gold robot - these appear when certain conditions are met and give a lot of points. The base is 400 points and you lose 2 points every game frame (17 milliseconds) that they remain. These are top priority! This gun course, if you've done what I said to do, is so easy to get the gold on the first try, it's crazy. Every time I go through, I regularly get near 18,000 points, well above what's needed for gold and that's with nearly every citizen target being shot as well. How can I score so big? With the "increased deflections", the beam reflexor just has the bullets bounce around like crazy. With bullets already out, lots of them, targets are destroyed almost as soon as they appear, even those that take muliple hits. While it includes just about every citizen target, who cares about that when the targets are all being destroyed with little effort and so quickly that the points come so crazy fast! Just shoot regularly and keep a healthy supply of bullets flying around. They will not harm Jak at all. Do make sure you pick up every ammo drop there is from the crates in the area. You'll probably end the course with around 20 to 60 shots left out of the 250, even with the extra ammo. Hey, for 9 easy orbs, who cares! Shoot like there's no tomorrow! Seeing why it's only 2 stars for difficulty? Items received: • 9x orb • Gyro burster (third yellow gun) • +50 max yellow ammo capacity .==============================. # 6.14 Orb hunt 21 **061400** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` Slightly right, upon leaving the gun course room, you will find another kiosk. Trade 4 skull gems for the mission. This orb has 13 seconds to reach it. Notice how it's very high up as well. If you're really low on health, deliberately let the mission fail - you'll restore it. From facing the kiosk, turn right. Turn right at the corner. Skip the first vent and use the second. The orb is high up in the air. Items received: • 3x orb .=========================================. # 6.15 Destroy sniper cannons **061500** # `=========================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: ** Go backwards, to the west, and to the cup icon. Smash the crates along the way for a much-needed ammo reload. Enter the Naughty Ottsel and you'll get a scene. Leave, turn left, then follow the route far to the east. Remember all those robots where you did the jet board scoring challenge and orb hunt number 21? That's the key area. Get out the arc wielder, since it's very effective on robots. Remember, for the crawlerbots, just spin attack them - they're simple enough. For the hoverbots, I find that a jump helps reach them easier. Since all of these cannons are in the higher area, go up the ramp straight ahead where the path splits in 2. Turn right at the top of the ramp. See those buttons? Approach them but watch out! The camera changes to that of the view as perceived by the cannon. Note the symbol on the ground with the arcs of 3 concurring circles. It starts off green but then turns blue and will begin to beep when it's ready to shoot - get out of the way the best you can. While trying to get a lock on, it will move in whatever direction you're going. Going forward, it will be in front. Stopped? It will go to where Jak is and stop there. To press the buttons, you must do a smashing dive to press the buttons but you must press the later ones quickly (you have about 15 seconds). If you're not fast enough, you will have to go back to the previous buttons and repress them. With all of them pressed and active, the core will be revealed - use the arc wielder to destroy the core which will destroy the cannon. Stay away from it though - it will explode and do 2 units of damage. Just follow the upper path, staying near the middle to avoid potentially being knocked off by surprise attacks from the crawlerbots sneaking up on you. Turn left from where the first cannon was then turn left again. Straight ahead is the second cannon and it requires 3 buttons to be pressed. The timer only starts when the first button is pressed so quickly get to the others. The first 2 buttons are close together, the third is a fair bit out. The core appears in the odd gap. Continue along the path and the third cannon is straight ahead. There are four buttons on this one, all close together. The core is just past the buttons. Continuing on are 3 crates, for more ammo and a health pack. If you're missing 4 or more health units, use light regenerate. The fourth cannon has 3 buttons. The first is very close by, the other 2 are a fair distance away. Because the core is near the first, lone button, skip it and go to the other 2 that are close together, getting the far one first and working back. Once destroyed, heal as necessary then go back, using the map to get to the last gun, near the power station. There are 3 buttons for this one. There's one button that's alone, the other 2 are together. Again, get the other 2 and return to the third one. The core appears right next to it - destroy it and the mission is complete. .==============================. # 6.16 Orb hunt 22 **061600** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: ** Return to the Naughty Ottsel by following the cup icon. Upon entering, you get a scene. Turn left and return to the area where you just were. Except, this time, things are a bit different. A new kiosk is available. Trade the 4 skull gems. You have 11 seconds to collect the orb. It is located on those pipes to the northwest. From facing the kiosk, turn hard left and go straight, around obstacles as needed and avoiding the robots. If you're missing any health, deliberately fail the mission first but attempt to, if needed, get some ammo and light eco reloads. Items received: • 3x orb .==================================================. # 6.17 Reach metal head area via sewer **061700** # `==================================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: *` From facing the wall, turn left and go down the ramp. The entrance to the sewer is present. Doesn't this look familiar to you, if you've played Jak 2? Upon approaching the elevator, a scene will occur. When it's done, get out the arc wielder - lots of robots! Did you remember to get the "arc wielder robot shock" for 8 orbs yet? At the bottom, go straight then turn right. If you're missing any health, jump down the bottomless pit to fully heal for free and only need to back track a few seconds. A dead end is to the left is a dead end. Those 3 vents spewing out the green gas need to be crossed, but not when the green gas is present. The gas deals 2 units of damage and you're bound to fall into a bottomless pit from that hit. Wait for it to go away first then quickly cross. Avoid using the spin attack unless you know you're not quite going to make it - single jumps are adequate so use the double jump instead if needed. At the top of this, there's a wall in the way with another one of those green-gas-venting pipes. You will need a double jump to reach this one and a double jump to the left to get off to safety. At the other end are some crates for ammo reloads. Get the arc wielder out as, beyond the door to the left, runnerbots await. Unlike that area in Haven City, these robots don't always drop something. Around the corner are more runnerbots, including some across a ledge. The arc wielder has a huge range and can easily destroy them. Go to the right to find 3 more of those gas vents. Cross them using a double jump to get on the first one then normal jumps for the other 2 and onto the ledge beyond. Turn left and a fan is present in the water on the right. Destroy the runnerbots if you haven't yet then destroy the fan. The arc wielder isn't particularly effective against it, but to avoid getting unwanted yellow ammo drops when the blue is more important for this, use the arc wielder to destroy it. It will push you off otherwise - run toward it, but it is possible to destroy it before it turns on. The runnerbots straight ahead cannot do anything and will not go in the water (it's instant death to them if they get knocked in). Around the left turn are 2 more of those gas vents. Cross them as usual using single jumps and turning slightly right. On the ledge is another runnerbot - arc it to its destruction. Around the right corner are jetbots which are very annoying. There are 3 of them. Stand on the third-lowest ledge and use the arc wielder to short them out. You may take a hit though but don't worry about it. Get on that platform there and it will move on it's on to the left. Note the laser that moves back and forth. Touching it will do 2 units of damage and possibly knock you off the platform. Also be prepared for an jetbot to come out in the area ahead. Another one is just off to the left as you get past the second laser. 2 runnerbots are on the other side. The arc wielder has some zapping to do. Smash the crates for an ammo reload and a health pack then turn left. Once you pass through those pillars, you will suddenly be locked in. Lots of jetbots will come. The arc wielder has lots of arcing to wield on those jetbots - destroy them all and the gate to the right will open up but it's still a dead end. Part of the problem with this part is that it's hard to aim upward. If health drops to 4 units or less, heal. If you die now, it'll be right back to that one platform and jumping over lasers. Afterward, a seemingly endless supply of crawlerbots will come out. The arc wielder has a lot of work to do. Quickly get to the right and right around the corner for 3 crates. Go slightly left to leave then in one of the areas on the side, there is a health pack with more ammo. Destroy the crawlerbots until the electric arcs for a gate opens. Get on the platform ahead when the laser is halfway to moving toward the back. It'll be easier to jump over it. However, a gun ahead will spray a large stream of bullets. Simply do single or double jumps to avoid them but continue moving with the platform. At the other side, jump across and the gun will stop firing. You cannot destroy this gun. Turn left and you'll see 3 crates for a massive ammo reload. On the other side, it's a big drop. Turn left to get some crates. Upon landing, croc metal heads will come out - shoot, punch, or spin attack them as you please. Destroy them all for skull gems. There are about 10 in total. Turn to the right - a gate is present. Look down in the water. There's an opening. Dive in the water, holding [], swim under it, then surface. Quickly get on the land to the right, from a distance as the crocs will dive in after you. On land, get out your gun of choice for more croc metal heads. Shoot them all and get the crates for a health pack and an ammo reload. A button is also present - smash dive onto it to open a gate. 2 more croc metal heads come out - shoot them when they get on land. Go through the gate, either by swimming or a skilled jump, and follow the path. This area is a check point, thankfully. Going around the perimeter are not only platforms, but a spinning blade robot that cannot be destroyed. It's much easier jumping and staying in the water and swimming instead of using the platforms. Just hug the wall to the right. Those spinning things will never get you in the water so just focus on getting to where the opening is and jump through when the coast is clear. Pick a direction for this area as you need to get to the other side. A button is present. Smash it. Now, go back in the water when it's clear, pick a direction to turn, jump when it's clear, then turn left. To get up that ledge, just do a double jump. Turn right to find a door after a curve. Get the arc wielder ready as a jetbot is present. Destroy it then turn left following the path that curves to the right. About halfway around, another jetbot will come out - short it out. The end of the path has a door - go through to the elevator for a scene, and another mission in the done bin. .=========================================. # 6.18 Destroy dark eco tanks **061800** # `=========================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: **` Welcome to the scariest-looking area in the Jak series. While that land may look like it has hard-to avoid spikes, it's harmless. Be ready to shoot or aerial spin attack a never-ending supply of pouncer and scorpion metal heads though. They do not drop skull gems. The acid in the middle is instant death, even with invulnerability (too bad, it'd be interesting going swimming in that). Focus on defeating the metal heads. Turn left and you will find some really bizarre terrain. If you remember this area from Jak 2, it was a pretty garden. Those green vent things with the steam coming out are harmless - you can walk over them without any issues. As you follow the path, you will find a weird violet-colored branch that looks like a rail. Grind it. Once you get to the other side, get off the jet board and jump over to where that thing causing the sparks is. That's the dark eco tank. Swat it to destroy it. Although the game intends on you grinding the rails that are coming up, those electrified knots make it so much harder, to the point it's easier to just go back the way you came, grinding that rail you just used to get, then following the path to the right. Avoid healing with light regenerate. Sure you may take a few hits, but you'll know why when the time comes. Plus, if you fail to make the jump, it's back to where the first dark eco tank was anyway... with full health to go with it. Any odd stray plants you see sticking out can the spin attacked for some dark eco. The creepy-looking door sticking out with the branches can be spin attacked for dark eco and easier passage. They're all harmless, despite the looks. If you manage to get 3 of those branches on the door at once, the game will get a massive frame rate drop, to about 8 fps at the low end. How fun! Continue until you reach the closest point to the center islands there. When the coast is clear of metal heads (check the map), do a rolling long jump to reach it. It's a tough jump, but it's a lot easier than grinding with those electric knots. If you make it across, see that one flower venting gas? Jump into it while it's venting gas to get thrown up. Destroy the tank at the top (you may need a high jump to reach it). You've now reached a checkpoint. If any health is missing, go swimming in the acid to restore the health without back tracking anything or wasting light eco. Now you know why I told you to avoid healing, right? See the flower sticking out in the center of the platform a little farther ahead? Jump toward it with a spinning long jump. Jump into it when the flower vents gas. You will be transported to a platform that has another vine with an electric knot. Instead of going to it, turn to the right and do a basic double jump to get back on land, an easy jump. Destroy the branches on the door and continue. Destroy metal heads along the way. You will reach a gas-venting flower, a large one. Jump into the gas to get thrown to the other side. Another large flower is here - don't use it as you'll just go back to the other side which is not needed. Instead, get to where the dark eco tank is and jump across with a basic spinning double jump. The flower on the left is needed to get to the top. Destroy the dark eco tank (you may need to use a high jump). That's another check point. Dive into the acid to heal. Use the flower to return to the left side. Turn right and follow the path, destroying any metal heads you run across. You will also find some really weird weeds with a light green spot on them. Spin attack them for dark eco drops. They're harmless otherwise. You will encounter a flower to transfer to the other side. Optionally jump into it as it vents gas. The flower on the other side will get you to the other side again. Which side you use ultimately doesn't matter as both sides are about equal. Either do a spinning double jump to reach the platform or do a rolling long jump. If you make it across, use the flower to reach the tank (you may need to do a high jump). That's another check point, but this next part is easy. Play in the acid if you have 4 units of health or less. Otherwise, jump into the flower as it vents to be transported to... mushrooms right in the acid? You also get hurt as well from this, one unit of damage. Just jump across the muchsrooms - they're stable, even the small ones. The only ones that aren't are those that are budding, that look like points. At the end is a flower that vents gas - jump into it as it vents to get to the platform with the last dark eco tank. Jump in to the flower around the corner as it vents to get to it (you may need a high jump). Jump into the venting flower at the top to reach the other side. Turn right and... another dark eco tank? Spin attack it for a scene. Contrary to what the game says, you do not need to hold R1 to charge it. Just a simple tap is good enough. Press it and destroy that shattered wall. You will also be fully healed as well, conveniently. Item received: • Dark Charge .=============================================. # 6.19 Kill dark plants in forest **061900** # `=============================================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: *` A new secret is available. Dark Jak Homing Attacks, for 3 orbs under the cheats section. Unless you use Dark Jak a lot or have 253 orbs available, avoid it. Go backward and take the left path. Follow it to where a ramp is to go to Haven Forest. If you remember from Jak 2, this was about where Mountain Temple is. There are a lot of leeches present here. However, Krimzon Guard crates are just off to the right. Spin attack the leaches - running into them with the jet board will do 1 unit of damage. Once cleared of leeches, find a green eco vent (to the right) and get on the jet board while in it. With the green eco, the leeches get destroyed with contact with the jet board so feel free to run into them while green eco is available. Do not get off the jet board or you will have to go visit another green eco vent. Unlike Jak & Daxter, these will not fully restore Jak's health. I cannot offer any real guidance for this as there is no one way to do it. I can offer some general guidance, just not directions on where to go. You will need to cover pretty much every single square inch there is over land. The plants (flowers as I often call them) tend to be in groups of 6 to 9, sometimes a little smaller or larger. When you reach a group, clean it out entirely before going to the next one. It's a little easier. Use the map as a guide. The green dots represent where green eco vents are. The flashing dark magenta dots are locations where a group of plants are, flowers as I tend to call them. There are a grand total of 280 (with some slight uncertainty). If you run into ledges that need to be jumped up and you're having difficulty with no plants around, consider getting off the jet board and jumping up the easy way. The water is harmless, despite the nature of the setting so if you need to get off the jet board, do so over water. When fewer than 10 flowers remain, the bar will display a number indicating how many are left. When you're done, a series of circles will rise out of the lake in the middle. A large circlular platform twice the size is in the middle with 5 smaller ones around the outside. A pillar of light is in the middle of the large one. Jump into it for a scene. Jump away from it, going to the east and another scene occurs, completing the mission. Items received: • Shoulder guards (armor; +2 max health points) .=============================================. # 6.20 Destroy eco grid with Jinx **062000** # `=============================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: ** Now, it's time to leave Haven Forest. Hop in the lake and go east. Because the leeches are still present, avoid going on the land - the water is much safer. Because the minimap disappears, you'll need to check the main map to get your bearings. From the east side of the lake, follow the river and take the right path when it splits. Take the left path at the next split. Around the corner, you will find a small water fall. Jump on the rock that's just out of the water on the left side and use it for a high jump to get over the rest of the rocks. Follow the water to the edge, go left onto land, around the corner, then through the door. Note the health bar in the top left corner. This is the health bar for Jinx. The zoomer does not have a visible health bar, but it does have a visible indicator. No smoke means at least 75%. Occasional puffs of smoke means 50% <= x < 75% health. Constant smoking means 25% <= x < 50% health. Seeing fire means less than 25% health. Losing the vehicle or Jinx fails the mission. You must get all 4 in one go - there are no check points. On the other side of the door, walk over the edge to the left and will you find Jinx in a zoomer. Get into it, quickly go to the upper hover zone, then curve around to the right and through where that pathway was busted open with Dark Charge. The first key location is there, highlighted by the pillar of light. Drop to the lower hover zone and brake when near it. Do not bother to orient the zoomer - keep it in the same direction so you know which direction to go. Position the zoomer in a way so that it can serve as a barricade. I would recommend having it slightly ahead of the key destination. This will force any metal heads to have to go around if they want to get Jinx, giving you more time to destroy them. Get out of the vehicle and bring out the arc wielder. Destroy every metal head that comes close, staying close to Jinx. If Jinx takes a hit, it will take longer at the stay. Don't worry about shooting Jinx - oddly, it's as if he's not there at all. Do avoid using the spin attack or punch near Jinx though - those will hurt him. It takes about 15 seconds for the charge to get set - watch him closely. When he gets up, quickly get back in the vehicle, go to the upper hover zone, and continue straight. There are about 5 seconds before it'll explode, which does 2 units of damage and damages the zoomer. In the zoomer, turn left to continue following the route, then turn left at the port circle. Follow it around. It's easier over the water so you avoid traffic and it's wide open. There is no time limit so that helps. The next target is on the right side in that odd alcove halfway around the port circle. When you see the location, drop down to the lower hover zone and brake when about 2 zoomer lengths away from the destination, stopping near it. Get out and fight off the metal heads. Position the zoomer so that it serves as a barricade, forcing any metal heads to have to go around or get stuck, making it easier to fight off whatever comes over as it gives you more time to destroy them, protecting Jinx, the most important of all. If Jinx has less than 3/4 of his health or the zoomer is already on fire by now, restart the mission as you won't easily make it the rest of the way. If you're short on ammo, continue ahead to the third one as you'll be able to get ammo restocks there, but don't worry about Jinx or healing. The robots will provide an ammo reload. Use punches and spin attacks instead of ammo to get them (though do use the arc wielder on the rollbots as they take 4 hits to destroy and the arc wielder destroys them 5 times faster). Restart the mission when you're ready. When ready, get back in the zoomer, rise to the upper hover zone, turn around to go backward, then turn left to continue, following the port circle. Turn into the area on the left when a left turn is possible. Follow it, avoiding crashing into anything. Turn left into that dead end area. Have the vehicle stop just short of the destination, to have it serve as a barricade to force the robots here to take a detour around it or get stuck. I tend to struggle a lot here because of the aerial robots being so hard to hit. This take, upon getting back in the zoomer, go backwards (press []) and rise to the upper hover zone. Turn around to go backward and deeper into the robot territory. Continue straight then curve around to the left, right, then left to reach it. Park the zoomer in front for the barricade. The left side will make it harder because of the game camera getting stuck. Once this one is done, the mission is complete. Items received: • Needle laser (third blue gun) • +50 max blue ammo capacity .==============================. # 6.21 Orb hunt 23 **062100** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: **` One new secret is available. The needle lazer can get an ammo efficiency boost. It's not a particularly decent weapon though but it does have heat-seeking capabilities, where the shots turn toward enemies to help you hit, so I would suggest passing it up for now. I find the arc wielder more a bit more dependable, especially given the sheer number of robots you need to deal with. Although 3 new side missions have become available, there are also 3 new missions, via 3 different icons. For efficiency reasons, let's go to the nearest of the new kiosks, to the northwest. Just south of there, in a very narrow area, is a Krimzon Guard crate containing an orb - get it if you haven't already (if you have gotten the orb, it'll just be eco instead). The kiosk you're after is on the left side. Trade the 4 skull gems to get 11 seconds to find the orb. It's on the upper pathways to the SSE of the kiosk. From facing the kiosk, turn left, going away from the wall and a short bit out. Turn right then get out the jet board. Go full speed ahead toward the vent to get up to the upper pathways. If not near full speed, you will not reach the top and you will not make it. Straight ahead is the orb - full speed ahead and you should easily get it. If you need an ammo reload or to restore health, consider deliberately failing the mission by focusing not on the orb, but on the robots. Grab the ammo they almost always drop, and light eco if needed. Do not use light regenerate, even if 2 units of health remain. Failing the mission will fully restore it for free so save your light eco. Items received: • 3x orb .==============================. # 6.22 Orb hunt 24 **062200** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: **` Go back north and follow the path. Ignore the highlight for now - stay away from it. Instead, focus on the kiosk. It's another orb hunt taking 4 skull gems with 12 seconds to get it. From facing the kiosk, go directly behind. Get out the jet board and grind on that rail to the top. The orb is straight ahead after a small turn right then left to keep on the pathway. Items received: • 3x orb .=====================================. # 6.23 Hijack eco vehicle **062300** # `=====================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: ***` Now go to the highlighted cargo zoomer and press /\ to get in. What about the other available side mission? Doing this mission will ultimately take you there so it's for efficiency reasons. Just as you do, missiles fire. Whatever you do, always hold X to keep full speed and do not crash into anything. Failing this means the missiles will destroy the zoomer. Never drop to the lower hover zone until I say so as hitting something on the ground, such as a guard or robot, will slow the zoomer down and allow the missiles to destroy it. This zoomer also turns around very quickly, slow at first, but accelerating. It may take a bit to get used to the nonstandard turning. Along the way, red arrows will point in the direction you need to turn, and roughly when to turn. Start out by going straight. A pair of rapid right turns are first, a full 180° turn to go around a wall. Turn left and follow the narrow pathway. Turn left again at the end then turn right after a short bit being careful to avoid the supports. Turn right, avoiding the supports again, then turn left after a short bit. Follow the widening path, turning slightly right, and it will open up. Once you reach the port area, a checkpoint will be set and there's a 90-second time limit... and a bug unique to this mission. Want to extend the time? Just deliberately crash. Each time you do, you get 15 extra seconds added on, to up to 360 seconds and the game autosaves again every time you crash during this. Because of the check point, you will only return to this point and not have to go all the way back, following the turns to get to the port. For the most part, the timer is not much of an issue, but if it is, consider using that glitch. The goal now is to shoot the decoys, the blue-lighted things sticking a short bit out of the water. The blaster will automatically be taken out for this and you will have a full ammo load. To hit the decoys, drop down to the lower hover zone. This is a safe area to do so as the only obstacles are ships, the pathways, and the decoys themselves. Each decoy will lure one missile to it. If you miss one or a missile doesn't go to it, you can always try again later in another loop. Not crashing into anything or slowing down is the highest priority - always keep going at full speed. The 5 decoys can be hit in any order. The recommended route to use, the easiest, is as follows: 1. Straight 2. Slightly left - go over the walkway and follow around the circular island 3. Straight - go to the left wall then continue going around for a clear shot 4. Slightly right - go over the walkway 5. Slightly right - just before the large pipe 6. Slightly right - under the pump building 7. Behind - where the Naughy Ottsel is (no shooting necessary) .==============================. # 6.24 Orb hunt 25 **062400** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: **` Already right next to the last kiosk at the time, go to it... but 2 more have opened up. Let's get these out of the way. Trade the 4 skull gems and you'll have 21 seconds to find the orb. This orb is on a rail. From facing the kiosk, turn left and quickly get on the jet board. Continue past the first vent and use the next one to get on a pipe, grinding it. You will have to jump over a gap just before a right turn, then, after the right turn, jump over another gap. The orb is straight across in easy reach now. Items received: • 3x orb .===================================. # 6.25 Ring challenge 4 **062500** # `===================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: *** Follow the port circle going to the east and follow the path after the left turn. You will now find roller bots mixed in with the other robots in this area, but only in the first part. Turn right at the split then turn slightly left to find the kiosk on the wall. It takes 8 skull gems. You will need the jet board for this so quickly get it out. Fortunately, the robots in the area instantly all vanish. Here is the order of the rings: 1. 11 seconds - right 2. 6 seconds - straight (use the vent and jump down while turning right) 3. 5 seconds - right (continue the right turn) 4. 7 seconds - straight (be ready to line up for going up the ramp) 5. 8 seconds - backward (go up the ramp) 6. 4 seconds - slightly right (follow the pathway and grind on the rail) 7. 3 seconds - straight (continue grinding the rail) 8. 4 seconds - straight (jump over the edge) 9. 5 seconds - slightly right (go to the ramp on the right) 10. 5 seconds - straight (turn left at the top of the ramp) 11. 5 seconds - left (stay on the right side and avoid the parked zoomer) 12. 5 seconds - straight (follow the path right then left) 13. 5 seconds - slightly left (follow the path, turning left and jump down) 14. 6 seconds - slightly left 15. 5 seconds - slightly left (follow the path and turn left) 16. 7 seconds - slightly left 17. 7 seconds - straight 18. 4 seconds - slightly right 19. 5 seconds - straight (use the vent to go up) 20. 5 seconds - straight (follow the path then turn right at the end) 21. 6 seconds - right (just continue straight along the path) 22. 7 seconds - straight 23. 4 seconds - slightly left (turn left along the path) 24. 4 seconds - hard left (follow the path then turn left at the end) 25. 7 seconds - straight (continue following the path) 26. 5 seconds - slightly right (go straight then turn right) 27. 5 seconds - straight (go straight then turn right) 28. 5 seconds - right (continue straight then turn right) 29. 4 seconds - right (continue straight) 30. 4 seconds - slightly left (go straight then turn left) 31. 7 seconds - slightly right (go straight then turn right) 32. 5 seconds - right (go straight then turn right) 33. 7 seconds - straight 34. 7 seconds - straight (turn left at the end) 35. 7 seconds - left (continue straight and jump down) 36. 7 seconds - straight (initially obscured; go straight then slightly left) 37. 4 seconds - slightly left (stay more left then turn right to line up) 38. 7 seconds - right (use the vent to go up and continue straight) Items received: • 10x orb .==============================. # 6.26 Orb hunt 26 **062600** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: ** Continue north and turn left into the path, following it. Trade the 4 skull gems. There are 8 seconds to reach that high-up orb that's almost straight up. From the kiosk, get on the jet board turning left. Use the vent to get to the upper area. Get off the jet board once at the top of the vent launch jump, turn the camera around quickly, then, from the edge, do a spinning double jump to reach the orb - there's no need to grind on that rail. In fact, if done right, you'll actually jump over that rail. Items received: • 3x orb .==========================================. # 6.27 Defend port from attack **062700** # `==========================================` Normal difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: ** Go back to the port area and go into the Naughty Ottsel. A scene will occur. You will be transported to a bizarre minigame. You only get the blaster for a gun, but unlike before, you have infinite ammo. On occasion, guns will appear at random. However, I suggest avoiding them as much as possible. There's a good reason for it. Did you know that the blaster can almost have the same firing rate as that of the vulcan fury, for a limited time? It's so simple to do and it will get you through this, so long as you avoid the other guns (which is sometimes hard to do because they often appear right where you are). The guns you get appear to be fixed but the ammo they have is very limited, far more so than usual. Ammo limit increases do not apply, but damage boosts do. To make this look like a cake walk, simply jump, do a spin attack, and press R1. Lots of bullets fired, often toward enemies so even aiming is left out of the equation. Just simply repeatedly press X, O, then R1 in that order. That's it! Do that throughout the entire thing, wasting the ammo of the other guns you accidentally get to get back to the easy routine. With good skill, you can even go around collecting the skull gems and health packs (which shouldn't be necessary with this trick (which also works outside of this event, available as soon as you obtain the blaster and remaining throughout the game)). There are 4 stages to this. Completing each stage is another check point. If you reach stage 2 and die, you will restart from stage 2. If you make it to stage 3 and fail, you restart from stage 3. The first stage has a lot of robots, mainly the crawlbots but later some rollbots. Just use that shooting trick endlessly, avoiding any guns (stay away from the center). Some Freedom League guards will come in - just ignore them. The second stage has a lot of scorpion and pouncer metal heads which drop a lot of skull gems. This is where you want to use that trick with movement to go around collecting stuff. Plus, if you're on top of a metal head, the spin attack will do damage to them. You're almost invincible and unstoppable, to the point that the Freedom League guards are of pretty much no use and just unnecessary clutter. If you want to grind skull gems, consider deliberately choosing to restart the mission after a fair bit - rapid fire skull gems. However, it only goes so far so you can't grind skull gems forever. The third stage has a mix of both of these and making matters worse is that of the need to protect the 3 civilians. With the trick I explained, the enemies won't even get near, unless you grab one of those guns that tends to appear on top of the civilians. At least one of the civilians needs to survive. If all 3 die, the mission fails and you have to restart from stage 3 again, regardless on how Jak's status is. The fourth stage has a pair of blast bots to deal with, one at a time with lesser bots mixed in after the first one goes down. Just use the trick, avoid the extra guns, and keep moving to stay out of the way of the blast bots, using rolling long jumps as needed. They may launch bombs - just ignore them and focus on using the rapid fire trick. Once done, the camera will return to normal. .====================================. # 6.28 Beat gun course 2 **062800** # `====================================` Goal difficulty: **` (11,000 points) Bronze difficulty: ***` (13,000 points) Silver difficulty: ****` (15,000 points) Gold difficulty: ***** (17,000 points) Remember how I stated of avoiding the ammo increase for the red guns? Now's the time you'll need them. Get "increased red ammo capacity" for 4 orbs, to add 50 more red ammo to the stock. The other 2 for the red guns are unnecessary. The rate of fire increase is only for the scatter gun, which will not be needed for this. The concussor damage upgrade requires the unwanted scatter gun rate of fire upgrade to get it and the damage upgrade is useless for shooting gallery so ignore it anyway. It's not worth 14 orbs. Now, the ammo needs to be reloaded, big time. Because of a bug in the game where the ammo limit is significantly reduced, even from a full stock, you will need to reload it all, and for future missions as well. So, go to the area in the eastern part of the part where all the robots are. Destroy the robots as usual, using the arc wielder. Do not use red ammo though. Let the Freedom League guards help. They will never collect the stuff, they will still destroy the robots that still drop stuff. However, you may prefer not to get involved with them, going at it on your own. This is because sometimes, they get in the way and actually cause harm through friendly fire, or an accidental attack on them, which is all but inevitable, and they'll start attacking you. If you want to go at it alone, go farther into the area. If you want to reload your light eco and not bother healing, go to where the jet board scoring challenge kiosk and use it. If you've already traded the skull gems for it, you won't need to trade any more. Now, deliberately fail the mission and choose to restart it. Fail it again and choose not to restart. You'll have full health without using a drop of light eco. It does cost time, however. Either that, or just choose "restart mission". It's less predictable on where you'll wind up though but you'll keep any light eco and ammo pickups so put it to use. Once you have a full restock of everything you can, go to the gun room, noted by the green target symbol icon on the map. It's just to the right in the north central part of the port circle. Once inside, turn left for a scene. You will only be able to use red guns in this. This is why I suggested getting the ammo boost. The only red gun you'll need is the wave concussor. That's why you don't need the one for the scatter gun - it's not the same gun. You can use the scatter gun, but it's not recommended. This gun course is much harder than the first one. The trick to it is to hold R1 to charge the gun and keep it charged. When targets appear, which are often in groups, release R1, but press and hold it again to get another charge ready. You'll be needing it, a lot. You need to get at least 11,000 points. Some of the robots have shields around them so it takes more than one hit for things that would take one hit otherwise. I have never been able to get the gold on this one, even with infinite ammo, invulnerability, etc. I have gotten silver at best, but only barely. Items received: • Plasmite RPG (third red gun) • +25 max red ammo capacity .===============================================. # 6.29 Break barrier with blast bot **062900** # `===============================================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: **` New secrets are now available, but they're all junk. Although the plasmite RPG is the only worthwhile red gun there is, it eats up ammo like crazy and getting the mere 20% ammo reduction (from 10 ammo to 8) means spending 24 total orbs because you have to get the unwanted junk to even be able get it at all, taking 10 orbs for the main thing. It's not justified. Still, with the arc wielder around, that's the main thing you need, for now. The "Ratchet and Clank gun courses" for 5 orbs is completely useless - there's no reward or extra orbs for it. Save it for your run through hero mode when you've got nothing else left to get beyond things of pretty much no use. Leave the shooting gallery and turn right, following the port circle. If you need an ammo reload, not necessary with the red guns, go blast some robots on the left side. There are Krimzon Guard crates along the way to the Naughty Ottsel to get that will restock close to about 80 red ammo shots for a quick reload which should be mostly what's needed. Go to the desk in the back for a scene. Now for a fun one. You'll get to control a blast bot. It cannot jump, but it can move and it can shoot with R1. Even with invulnerability, it's still vulnerable, a bug, so be careful. Fortunately, it's not all that difficult. Just destroy all the enemies along the way, including the Freedom League guards as they will attack it. The other bots generally won't, but still get them anyway - less risk of "friendly fire". Just keep on pressing R1 as you move about - there's infinite ammo with this. You won't be able to collect anything so ignore all the stuff dropped. For the most part, just keep moving and attacking, following the path given. At the intersection, a blast bot is present - destroy it then turn right. When the path splits in two, turn left. Another blast bot is waiting. Destroy it, guns blazing. After a left turn then a right turn, another blast bot is waiting in the more open room. Destroy it and turn right. Follow the narrow, winding path. At the final turn is another blast bot, the last one. See that red gate up ahead, just get close to it for a scene to complete the mission. Item received: • Peace maker (first dark gun) .==============================. # 6.30 Follow me 3 **063000** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: **` The peace maker is perhaps the best gun in the game. It pretty much destroys everything in one shot. What's more is that it has an awesome area of effect that will destroy everything within a 10-meter radius. However, it has really limited ammo, starting with a puny 5. New secrets are now available, but this time, there's something worthwhile. 5 ammo? Is that all? Let's spend 4 orbs for "increased dark ammo capacity" and make it... 10 shots? For the most part, that goes a surprisingly long way. What's more is the "peace maker increased radius" for 8 orbs (?). When you hit something with a peace maker shot, anything in the vicinity takes the full hit as well. That upgrade doubles the radius to 20 meters, meaning potentially 8 times more volume or 4 times more area of coverage, huge! I strongly recommend it, to make this amazing gun even more valuable. Take the same path you followed using the blast bot and continue beyond it. Along the way, use not the arc wielder, but the peace maker. Sure the ammo may be limited, but every ammo drop, which is common, will be peace maker ammo, unless another gun is not fully loaded or the peace maker ammo is full where the default is always yellow ammo. From the port circle's eastern side (have the water on the right), turn left into the familiar area. Rollerbots will be quite common now. Follow the path then turn right. Where the path splits in two, turn left. The path splits in 2 again - go straight. Follow the winding path. The second block area near the northern part of the straight-looking parts will have a ton of robots, so many that the peace maker will frequently destroy 4 to even 7 robots, dropping a lot of health packs, light eco, and ammo, so much so that the game starts suffering minor frame rate problems (it can drop to 20 fps at the worst case, especially if you avoid collecting stuff. For the most part, it rarely drops below about 40 fps which is a non issue. Where the path splits in two, go left into what used to be the slums in Jak 2. Doesn't this look familiar to you, if you've played Jak 2? The path splits in two, again. Go straight. On the right side, you will find an orb along the wall. At the crack in the ground, turn left and follow it. A statue is present. Trade the 8 skull gems for the mission. A zoomer will appear to the left - you will need it for this. From facing the statue turn left and get in the zoomer. Touch the light and quickly go to the upper hover zone so you don't have to deal with the robot war below. Here is what the light does. Right from the start, the light turns to the left. It will make some weird turns but generally go straight then turn left with a slight right afterward. Past the odd, lone building, the light turns left, goes straight, goes straight again, then turns slightly right at the wall, following it. Follow the path then turn left when it opens up again. The light will continue straight into a corner where a very narrow opening is, turning into it on the left at the wall. It will go straight but gradually curve to the left, making a slight left turn in the open area. Another slight left turn to finish going around the building follows. A slight right turn is made then it goes straight. It will curve gradually to the right. At the tent, light will stop - get out of the zoomer (there's no need to go to the lower hover zone first before leaving - it will automatically do so) and touch the pulse of light to complete the mission. Items received: • 10x orb .==============================. # 6.31 Orb hunt 27 **063100** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: * From facing the entrance to the tent (don't bother going in - it's unnecessary), turn right and continue straight. At the second turn, after the open one, a kiosk is present. Trade the 4 skull gems to get 18 seconds to obtain the orb. Remember that tent? From facing the kiosk, go backward and get on the jet board. Don't worry about hitting any guards - they're the least of your concerns for now. Turn slightly left at the first left turn then go straight. The orb is right next to that tent, on the left side of it. Items received: • 3x orb .===================================. # 6.32 Ring challenge 5 **063200** # `===================================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: **` Again, from facing the entrance to the tent turn right and continue straight. At the first left turn, turn hard left to go around the wall and continue straight through the path. When the path splits in 2, pick a direction as it ultimately leads to the same place. You will reach what used to be the water slums in Jak 2. Boy has this changed a lot! And wow does that water get really blue during the night! It's harmless though (except to enemies and Freedom League guards) so feel free to jump in if you want though it's not necessary. Anyway, follow the path. When it splits, go slightly left to the fountain. Jump on top of it and jump from there to grab the orb in the tree. From the fountain, face the path again and turn slightly left. Go around the corner and where the tree is is a dead end. Go back the way you came, go straight at the next two splits, and the kiosk is found on the right. Trade the 8 skull gems for the mission. You are given a zoomer to the hard left - get in, rise to the upper hover zone right away, and follow the course. Here's where all the rings are: 1. 11 seconds - slightly left (turn the zoomer left) 2. 5 seconds - slightly left 3. 4 seconds - straight 4. 5 seconds - left 5. 5 seconds - left 6. 5 seconds - slightly left 7. 5 seconds - slightly right 8. 6 seconds - right 9. 6 seconds - right 10. 6 seconds - straight (diagonally relative to the paths) 11. 5 seconds - left 12. 6 seconds - straight 13. 6 seconds - straight 14. 5 seconds - left 15. 6 seconds - slightly left 16. 6 seconds - left 17. 6 seconds - straight 18. 4 seconds - slightly right 19. 6 seconds - right 20. 7 seconds - right 21. 5 seconds - slightly right 22. 5 seconds - slightly left 23. 7 seconds - left 24. 6 seconds - left 25. 6 seconds - slightly right 26. 5 seconds - slightly right 27. 5 seconds - right 28. 4 seconds - straight Items received: • 10x orb .==============================. # 6.33 Orb hunt 28 **063300** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` From previous kiosk, go backward (east) then turn left at the split. Turn left at the next split, then right. The kiosk is on the left. Trade the 4 skull gems for the mission. You have 16 seconds to get the orb and it happens to be on a pipe that serves as a rail. From facing the kiosk, go slightly left and get out the jet board. Along the building, there is a rail - grind it. There is a jump present, a curve to the right, then easy access to the orb. If you jump across the gap, you will obtain 2 more orbs - jump with a normal jump at the end to get the one in the air. Items received: • 3x orb .========================================. # 6.34 Defend HQ from attack **063400** # `========================================` Normal difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: ** The side stuff is now out of the way. Get off the jet board, splashing in the water below, and turn backward to go back north. Turn left at the split, right, go straight past the splits, right where you have to turn, left when you can turn left. At the fountain, climb up it for an easy orb - you'll have to use the spin attack to get it. Go toward the building where the shield icon is. The doors will open automatically. Go on the elevator to the top then go straight for a scene. You will automatically appear outside. Get out the peace maker and start making peace... err, war, and destroy those giant cube-shaped robots with the 4 flames. Use the smaller robots and Krimzon Guard crates to restore ammo. Focus on the giant, hovering robots - there's only 3, but they take several hits, even with the peace maker but it's the fastest and easiest way to destroy them. Focus on one of them at a time, letting the spreading effect of the peace maker destroy the other robots, collecting their ammo drops as needed. .==============================. # 6.35 Orb hunt 29 **063500** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` Go back to the south again. Another kiosk is available. Trade the 4 skull gems. There are 21 seconds to get it. The game states that you'll need a vehicle. The jet board and good jumping is all you actually need. From facing the kiosk, go backward and follow the path on the left side over the water to avoid hitting things. Turn left remaining over the water until you see a tree. An orb is up there. Stop where the violet-colored flowers are and do a high jump. Vehicle needed? Nah! Just good skill. It's even possible without the jet board, 100% vehicle-free (unless those 2 feet count as a vehicle, for which they don't under anyone's terms) - you'll have to use repeated rolling long jumps and stick to the path though. No flash freeze is required either. The jet board is just easier. Items received: • 3x orb .========================================. # 6.36 Find switch in sewers **063600** # `========================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: *** Return to the shield icon like before. Go up the elevator then go straight for a scene. Go back to the elevator and wait for it go down. From here, go straight, turn left at the fountain, turn right at the split and go straight until you're forced to turn twice. At the split, turn left, the right, then the other right. The sewer entrance is on the left. A scene will occur upon approaching the elevator. After the scene, get the arc wielder out. Lots of robots are in store! 3 runnerbots are first followed by 3 jetbots a little beyond. Smash the crates on the right after dealing with the runnerbots for ammo as necessary. Turn left and follow the path. Remember those green gas vents? Time your jump so that you cross them as the gas just stops. Just use single jumps and keep moving to get across easily. 4 Krimzon Guard crates are a short bit beyond - smash them for a health pack and lots of ammo. The door on the left will open to reveal runnerbots - short them out with the arc wielder. Around the corner to the right are a lot more robots. The arc wielder will take care of them with ease. Straight ahead are a pair of lasers, with runnerbots beyond. Wait for the lasers to be going to the right then use the arc wielder to quickly eradicate the robots on the right. Quickly go back to avoid the lasers. Repeat as needed to get the robots. Now, wait for the lasers to go back again and get in the center of the area where the lasers are. When they start going back left, do a high jump while going forward to get over them. Another pair of lasers is just ahead, with different spacing. Go when the lower laser starts going to the left, following it to the center of the area the lasers cover. Wait for the lower laser to return, with a high jump ready, then use the high jump while going forward to get over both lasers. Use a spin attack upon just starting to descend for a little more hang time to help. Robot frogs are just beyond with robots on a ledge farther out. Put the frogbots to their demise with the arc wielder. Turn right and put those basic robots to their demise as well with the arc wielder. Turn left, jumping across the flowing water (there's no need for the jet board) and smash those crates for more ammo. A basic rolling long jump can get across easily. Turn left and go up the platforms. Weld those runnerbots with the arc wielder, the ones on the ledge farther out. Just before the right turn, 4 aerial robots will come out. Short them out. Just around the corner to the right are more runnerbots. Give 'em more electricity than they can handle! A triplet of lasers are next. Around that corner are runnerbots. Ignore the top laser and go out a short bit to give the runnerbots their shocking destruction. To get past these lasers, wait for the 2 lower ones to start going to the right - follow it to about the halfway point, ignoring the top laser for now. Once there, wait for the top laser to go by while getting a high jump ready then jump over the lower 2 lasers. If you didn't get hit, you're good! Follow the path to the left and there's 4 frogbots ahead. Obliterate them from the lower platform where they cannot reach you because water is in the way. Jump over that and continue straight and up the ledges. At the high ledge near a pair of pipes, more runnerbots are present. Arc them out. Continue straight. To the left is another runnerbot. Arc it. Another one will come around the corner. The arc wielder is just dyin' to destroy it. Turn left at the path split. See those red rings coming out of that device, and the big red button just beyond it? That red button is your target. However, don't just run out - touch those red rings and you'll be getting shot at by that device. Instead, carefully jump over the rings. At the switch, spin attack the button. A door will open and a pair of jetbots will come out. The device also stops so it's safe to go in the water and stay in it without having to jump. Go to that door. Flowing water is present - keep continuing and you'll get a scene. Quickly make your way to the land straight ahead on the right and dig out the arc wielder. Say, wait a minute! Those are normal frogs, not frogbots! There are 4 in the water and one on the land straight ahead from the start. The water where the frogs are is shallow. From that land that's out of the water, turn right to see flowing water and some platforms going in and out. Since there are 10 frogs around the corner here, it's easier to just use the platforms - get the peace maker ready though. At the top platform, jump onto the land and immediately fire a shot. Quickly switch to the arc wielder to finish off any that survive. Yep, all those frogs gone in just that one shot. What an effective gun that peace maker! Jump in the flowing water and dive under to get under the gate. The game states of using O, but a mid-air smashing dive works just as well. There's no need to hold the button either. Turn left and get in the shallow water so you can put the arc wielder to use of the 3 runnerbots. Continue straight then turn hard right, more right then the water wheel. Get a little more distance then get the jetbots on the ledge - you'll need to jump to get to them. With the coast clear, jump on the platforms of the water wheel. Use a double jump to get on the first platform then a high jump with a spin attack to easily get to the next higher platform. Jump from there to the left and smash those 2 crates for an ammo reload and a health pack. Turn to the right to see platforms going in and out of the water. Jump across the platforms, timing your jump just as the platform begins rising up. Another water wheel is present. Get on it, using either a double jump or a high jump from the platform that repeatedly goes up and down. At the top, 2 runnerbots are waiting. Another is waiting just past the fence on the right, but it's inaccessible. You can still hit it though, but it requires effectively wasting a peace maker shot. Turn left to go to the end of the path then turn left again to see more platforms. Across this river are runnerbots. Arc wielder, you have a job to do! From there, it's easier to use the jet board to get across than to use the platforms so bring it out and go across. Approach the object with the red-orange light for a scene. Turn to the right to find a door. Turn left and go up the platforms. At the top, turn right and go in the central structure. Approach the elevator for a scene and another bagged completed mission. .==========================================. # 6.37 Find cypher in eco grid **063700** # `==========================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: *** Get the peace maker out as there's a lot of robots around here, ones that drop peace maker ammo (among others if it's missing). Go straight, up the ramp, then turn slightly left. You will find a rail here. Grind up it - it's faster that way, but difficult to line up and get on if grinding is not your thing. The southeast corner of this section has a ramp leading up that you can use as an alternative. Regardless, the door where the power room is will open on its own when close to it. Go inside for a scene. A Pac-man-like minigame will occur. X makes the movement about 3 times faster, the left stick, where an opening is, allows you to change between zones. The goal is to "eat" all the dots while avoiding the securitybot and getting rid of the repairbot. You can know where the security bot roughly is by the red square highlight. Always keep your distance from it. If you have to cross that red line, which is guaranteed to happen, note the location of the bot. Quickly cross if it's safe to do so. It's generally safe if you can't see the bot. For the most part, put the fast speed to good use - it's easier that way. At random times, a high-pitched sound will occur and another robot will appear. This robot will replace some of the eaten dots. Simply touch this one to get rid of it. At first, you can mostly ignore it, but when the dots get low in quantity, it's a higher priority. When no dots remain, a light will appear just south of the center - collect it to complete the mission. If you're having difficulty, pause the game to plan strategies, act accordingly, and pause the game again. Item received: • Cypher glyph .=========================================. # 6.38 Eco grid game for orbs **063800** # `=========================================` Bronze difficulty: **` (200 points) Silver difficulty: **** (500 points) Gold difficulty: ***** (1000 points) Loved that minigame? How'd like to get up to 9 orbs from it? Return back the way you came to go at it again. This time, things are a little different. Each dot gives 1 point. The score is shown in the center of the area. When the repairbot comes, each dot added back causes you to lose a point. When you get 1000, there is no point in continuing any further, as you'll get all 9 orbs. Each time you clear a map of all the dots, the whole thing will refresh with new ones to continue. By the fourth map, there are now 2 guardbots. This will make things much harder, but if you can manage this, the gold is waiting. There are 252 dots in total per map. When you pass 200 points, you'll gain 3 orbs. When you pass 500 points, you'll gain another 3 orbs. Pass 1000 and it's another 3. I would recommend going at least for the bronze as it should be a quick 3 orbs, the silver is also recommended. The gold is not really recommended because of the pair of security bots. You'll need to have good skill and/or serious dedication if you want to go for the gold. Fortunately, it takes zero skull gems so go at it and score those orbs. Items received: • 6x orb • 3x orb with extra dedication and good skill .===============================================. # 6.39 Unlimited skull gem grinding **063900** # `===============================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: * This is not any actual mission in the game, but it's important enough to have its own section. It's also available throughout the remainder of the game. Also, if you're really short on skull gems, there is no better time than now to get them... an infinite number of them at that. Collect to your heart's desire! You actually really only need about 400 total skull gems for the entire game though, so it's uneccessary to go at it a lot. But, if you missed a lot of them, now's the time to get them. If you need to practice combat, this is also a good time to do so. From the power station, get the peace maker out, jump down and start getting those guns blazing, well, the peace maker at least. Sure you may only have up to 10 shots, there's a ton of ammo drops. If you destroy one of those small aerial hoverbots that shoot, you can get 5 more shots. Grab the health packs and put light regeneration to good use, mainly using it when at least 4 health points are missing or light eco was dropped. To use it with a light eco drop, get some distance so it doesn't get sucked in upon transforming. When done healing, quickly get out the peace maker again then go to the light eco. If you're really good at this, you can even play around with flash freeze for the fun of it. Both robots and metal heads alike are all together, everything you've seen in the city is present here, except the shooter metal heads. Feel free to shoot the Freedom League guards. When defeated, they open up more slots to spawn potential metal heads with skull gems. You can also watch how much they struggle with some of the more basic things. This is my favorite thing to do in Jak 3. So many things flying around. So much litter all over the place! So much activity. I'm not kidding - it's crazy active! You'll often encounter frame rate drops to 15 fps at times and note how flawed the AI is. The AI only takes into account horizontal span, not the vertical. You'll find that guards will go directly under a bridge and shoot up for nothing. Enemies directly below will attempt to do a jump or shoot attack even though the pathways above are inaccessible via that method. If you shoot one of the parked zoomers with the peace maker, you'll find it flying off at insane speed. Too bad you can't ride it straight up and get an awesome view out of the deal as well... assuming the camera will even point down at all. Items received: • Unlimited skull gems (limited only by how much time and effort you put in) .==========================================. # 6.40 Race for more artifacts **064000** # `==========================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: *** Remember that blue vehicle you saw during the missile riding on the southeast part of the eastern circular island? That's where you need to go. This vehicle is how you get to and from the desert and Haven City. Go to Spargus City, on the right. See the odd vehicle sticking out? Approach it for a scene. Now it's a quest for a lot of artifacts. Here's where they are, and the order they are in, starting from just leaving Spargus City going straight out the gate: 1. 24 seconds - slightly right 2. 33 seconds - right (on top of the sand dune) 3. 25 seconds - slightly left 4. 26 seconds - left 5. 28 seconds - hard right 6. 24 seconds - straight 7. 27 seconds - hard left 8. 23 seconds - right (go around the mountains) 9. 22 seconds - slightly right 10. 25 seconds - backward 11. 25 seconds - right 12. 23 seconds - right 13. 16 seconds - straight (jump across the bridge) 14. 33 seconds - hard right (in the lower section, below the bridge) 15. 24 seconds - straight 16. 26 seconds - left 17. 29 seconds - right 18. 25 seconds - left 19. 23 seconds - hard left 20. 33 seconds - straight 21. 24 seconds - straight (jump across the bridge) 22. 22 seconds - slightly right (go straight then turn right toward bridge) 23. 21 seconds - right (jump across both gaps, using the higher left side) 24. 22 seconds - left 25. 28 seconds - straight 26. 23 seconds - hard left 27. 28 seconds - right (go around the mountains) 28. 28 seconds - right 29. 23 seconds - straight (go around the mountains) Item received: • Holo cube .==============================. # 6.41 Orb hunt 30 **064100** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: **` Go into Spargus City. There are now 3 statues waiting. The first one is surprisingly close and just off the left. Ignore it for now, for efficiency reasons. Instead, go to the statue to the northeast. Trade 4 skull gems to get 24 seconds to find an orb that's on a bridge. It is located to the northwest from the statue - go backward and get out the jet board. Go slightly left to dodge the stuff in the way and line up better, then go slightly right to line up to where that ramp in the far distance is, being careful not to hit anyone. Items received: • 3x orb .=================================. # 6.42 Time stopper 2 **064200** # `=================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: **** Remember that statue you were to avoid? This time, go to it. It's due south from where that orb was on the bridge. Trade 8 skull gems for the mission. This is identical to section 5.48 for the basic concept. However, this one is much harder. The residents in the pathway tend to cause problems as well, abruptly stopping you because they get in the way. From facing the statue, turn right but don't touch the light just yet. You'll need that leaper lizard. Get it and go back to where the statue is. This will line you up for the light. Run for it and go forward. While this may not be the optimal route to take, it should be close. Go straight, collecting the 3 blue clocks. Go directly to the blue clock ahead. I do not know if the area with the red clock is any better or worse, but I got the blue and yellow clocks right after. Continue slightly left of the line and go for the red clock on the top of the ramp. Quickly turn right and grab the 2 blue clocks and the yellow clock. Follow the line staying a fair bit left of it to directly go to the nearest clock (the shortest path). Grab the 4 blue clocks but ignore the yellow one. Around the corner, go directly to the blue clock and get the yellow then blue ones shortly after. Turn right, going quite a ways from the line and go up the ramp for a red clock - jump over to the left for a blue clock. Follow the line and get the 2 blue clocks. Abruptly turn to the red clock on the right then turn left back toward the line for a blue and yellow clock. Follow the line straight toward the blue clock ahead, ignoring those way off to the right. A yellow clock is just beyond. Grab the 3 blue clocks slightly right of the line, then get the red one on the other side of the line. Back on the other side, get the 2 blue clocks, then touch the light at the end - there's no need to get off the leaper lizard for it. Items received: • 10x orb .==============================. # 6.43 Orb hunt 31 **064300** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: **` Since you're already in the western side, where the last statue is, go into the narrow area east of the "crack" on the map to the far south. Trade 4 skull gems for the 21 seconds to get this orb. This orb is very far away to the northwest. See that large blob of dark brown? The orb is on the northeast side of it. From facing the statue, go backward then turn slightly left a little before the pathway - do not crash into anyone or you'll likely run out of time... and get shot at once you get the orb. Items received: • 3x orb .=============================================. # 6.44 Defend Spargus' front gate **064400** # `=============================================` Normal difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: *` New secrets have been revealed - new vehicles. To prepare for races, get the desert screamer. It may be rather expensive at 20 orbs, but it's the best vehicle of all for most things. Why? Go to section 3.3 for details - it's the fastest vehicle of them all and it has decent handling. Go east into the narrow pathway and follow it. Remember the door with the crown symbol on it? Go in there and get on the lift. At the top, go straight for a scene. Once done, go back on the lift and go to where the vehicles are. Choose a vehicle, especially one with good durability as you'll need it. Do not use the Tough Puppy as it cannot shoot, a requirement for this mission. The Gila Stomper would be the best, but it's missing. The Sand Shark is probably the best contender. The Dune Hopper has great durability, but kind of lacking on dependable weapons. If you're willing to spend some orbs, the Dust Demon, at 15 orbs, is a slight upgrade from the Dune Hopper in regards to weapons, having a faster firing rate but I don't really recommend it. Speed is not at all important. Choose a vehicle wisely. I chose the Sand Shark. Once chosen, leave the city and be ready to attack. Just hold R1 at all times and focus on the giant vehicles that are catapults. They take several hits to destroy, but they are the highest priority. Notice the dark red dots on the map - those are the catapults. The flaming marauder vehicles are the next priority, the light red dots on the map. As long as you hold R1 and focus on the 13 catapult vehicles, this mission is easy - check the map often to help. Notice the gauge in the top left corner. That's the health of the Spargus City gate. .===============================================. # 6.45 Take out marauder stronghold **064500** # `===============================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: ** You will have to use the Dune Hopper for this mission. Regardless, hop on board and leave Spargus again. Turn slightly left and go around the mountains. Cross the river, and reach the lost city. Once there, turn right then left when past the buildings. Turn right to go into the narrow passage then turn left. You will find a pair of bridges - you need the first one - turn right get on it. Unfortunately, there are two holes in the bridge - jump over them, the reason why you needed the Dune Hopper. Continue around the bridge and a scene will occur. Continue on and another scene will occur. Now you have to get 60 marauders of varying types at once. On top of that, you have catapults to deal with. Choose a gun wisely - the arc wielder and beam reflexor are 2 good options. Or, you can put the spinning rapid blaster fire trick to use. The choice is yours. The marauders will drop ammo based on the type you have something missing for. If health drops to 4 units or less, heal. When all 60 marauders are defeated, a scene will occur. Get in the Dune Hopper and quickly leave. You will need to chase after the marauders. The first 3 have a time limit. The last one does not but if it strays too far, about 500 meters, it will still escape. If the time runs out or the marauders get too far away, the mission will fail. You'll have 45 seconds to reach the first one. Destroy it by then. You'll have 60 seconds to reach the next 2. There is no time limit for the last one, but if you get too far away from it, the mission will still fail. You will start with 3 turbos right away. Do not use them on the bridge. Once you turn left off the bridge to chase them, use a turbo to catch up while the other marauders are very far away. If a junk marauder gets in the way and the path is clear, jump over the marauder. With skill, and some luck, you can get all of the marauders by the time they are just past the lost city. You must get all 4 in one go though - there are no check points. Item received: • Prism .==============================. # 6.46 Orb hunt 32 **064600** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: * Return to the lost city area. In the southernmost part of it, there is a statue requesting 4 skull gems. The orb is located due north. To get it, for which 15 seconds are available, bring out the jet board and continue straight past the statue from facing it. Go under the arch and carefully avoid the cacti as they do 2 units of damage. On the left side, there is an odd area that's raised slightly. That is where you need to go. Items received: • 3x orb .==============================. # 6.47 Orb hunt 33 **064700** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: * Hero difficulty: * Go north of the lost city and follow the east coast. You will need to cross the river to get to it. Trade 4 skull gems to get the mission. 16 seconds is what you get to obtain the orb. The orb is on the island to the SSE a bit beyond the peak. Get out the jet board and go to it. This is such a basic, effortless orb search. Items received: • 3x orb .==============================================. # 6.48 Metal head mass destruction **064800** # `==============================================` Normal difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: ** Return to the lost city area to the southwest, pass through the narrow passage on the right, cross the short bridge slightly to the right, then turn left to follow the lake. Turn right into the narrow gap, then turn slightly left to find this statue. It takes a massive 12 skull gems to get the mission. You have 1 minute to destroy 180 metal heads, all in the form of leeches. With a massive quantity, just use the arc wielder for this. Some strays may make it past - just spin attack them. I typically get the 180 with nearly 30 seconds still left on the clock. Items received: • 18x orb .==============================. # 6.49 Orb hunt 34 **064900** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: * Hero difficulty: * To the northwest along the coast is the next statue for another orb hunt. There are 22 seconds. The orb is on the island to the south. Get on the jet board and go to it. The orb is a little to the left of center. Items received: • 3x orb .==============================. # 6.50 Orb hunt 35 **065000** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` Go to the northeast to reach this statue. Go around the T-shaped mountains where the oasis is, turning right. Parallel the river until past it, then turn left. Skip the kiosk as that's a race. Instead, go a little farther north. Trade 4 skull gems for 11 seconds to get an orb near the river. From facing the statue, turn hard right. The orb is straight ahead on the rocks right by the river. Items received: • 3x orb .==============================================. # 6.51 Destroy metal-pedes in nest **065100** # `==============================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: * Go south and, on the left, cross the small bridge. Continue straight until the lost city - turn left and you will find the Gila Stomper there - approach it for a scene. Go into the cave. Follow the path and, when in the open area, drop off to the left for a shortcut. Upon reaching the pathway leading out of there, you will see an icon of a millipede with a 5 near it and a green bar below it. The green bar is the health of the currently-active millipede. The leeches will gradually stop showing up - slow down and be ready to stop. The millipede will randomly jump around. I don't really have any effective strategies for dealing with these. The Gila Stomper is too slow-moving, and not agile. It's hard to avoid being hit by the centipedes but it is possible to avoid the leeches. You have to shoot them while they're out. It does appear that, for every millipede destroyed, it's a check point. For the first one, stay on the upper area and shoot at the millipede as it comes out. Keep your distance from the leeches so the gun has a lower chance at aiming for them instead of the millipedes. I've had cases where the camera gets stuck and all I see is a rock. The second one is fairly deep into the cave. Go straight from the ledge, just to the side of the raised area, then turn left. Turn hard right and go into the mud. Follow it until you can make a left turn. Follow that path. Stay to the upper area and get the gun blazing. There are long delays before it shows up though. The third one is directly back the way you just were, near the arch. Go backwards then follow the path. Once a left turn is possible, make it, and continue. To the left side of the arch, you will find the millipede. A bunch of leeches will come out, but they will not come over. The fourth one is the same as the second one - go back the way you came. Like before, use the land as cover, which helps, though not always, to block the shots the millipede makes. The fifth one is the same as the third one - go back the way you came. Like before, the leeches that appear will not go to the vehicle. Once defeated, a pillar of light appears. Go to it to get the key item. Leave the area. Turn right and go into that passage. Follow it and go around the swirl area until it reaches the lowest point. Turn left to get onto the part leading up, turning right to go up it. Follow the path until you've left the cave. A scene will occur that will complete the mission. Item received: • Light eco crystal .===============================================. # 6.52 Chase down metal head beasts **065200** # `===============================================` Normal difficulty: ****` Hero difficulty: * A new secret is available, costing 15 orbs. It's upgrade vehicle toughness. Obtain it as it's very useful. Vehicles can now withstand twice as much damage before they get destroyed, but it only takes effect when operating the vehicle. You will find that the Gila Stomper will still need 40 spin attacks to destroy it. But, try letting the marauders destroy the vehicle with their shots. You will find that they will need twice as many shots to destroy it. With a slow vehicle like the Gila Stomper, consider going into the lost city and deliberately crashing into things at full speed without turbos. You will find that it takes several more crashes to destroy it. Return to Spargus City. Cross the river ahead, turn slightly left and go straight. Upon entering the vehicle storage room, a scene will occur. It's right back out again. This time, you control the gun with left stick. Point the crosshairs on a metal head and shoot their projectiles. Arrows will appear on the sides to indicate if something is off screen in that direction. In short, note the green dots on the map. They are in the center of the green if the green dot is up from the center on the map. In short, focus on the projectiles until right by Spargus again after a tour. Shooting the metal heads to defeat them can still be done, but the projectiles are much more important. The exception is when you finally return to the area by Spargus - that one must be destroyed and it takes about 3 times as many hits to bring it down. Here's what all happens (positions are based on the direction the vehicle is pointed in at the time of spawning): A dinosaur metal head appears on the left. Another appears around the mountains to the right. Hard left of the ATV is another dinosaur around the mountains. A pair of dinosaurs will spawn slightly left next. Another pair of dinosaurs spawn on the left side. Just before crossing the river, another dinosaur spawns slightly right. Across the river, a missile-shooting green bat metal head spawns on the right, of which shoot missiles instead of large balls. At the start of the lost city area, a dinosaur spawns on the left in the city itself. A dinosaur spawns in the buildings straight ahead halfway past the lost city on the first side. Halfway into the gap between the mountains past the lost city, a pair of dinosaurs spawn simultaneously on the left. On the hard left is another green bat spawning in the lost city. Upon entering the cave, a dinosaur spawns directly behind and chases. A pair of dinosaurs spawn on the hard left, right as the first left turn in the cave is made and are not visible until clear out of the cave. A little before the start of the river, a dinosaur spawns straight ahead. A green bat spawns on the left shortly after the vehicle turns to go away from the river. As the green bat leaves, a dinosaur spawns hard left. At the top of a sand dune, a dinosaur spawns on the left. Several seconds pass, then a pair of dinosaurs spawn on the hard left. Another dinosaur spawns very close by to the left, adjacent to the mountains. This is the dinosaur you must destroy. Once destroyed, you will now be able to drive the ATV instead - drive to the object (there's no need to get out). You are now 3/4 finished with the game's story. Item received: • Quantum reflector .============================================. # 6.53 Marauder mass destruction **065300** # `============================================` Normal difficulty: Bronze: ** (30 kills) Silver: **` (45 kills) Gold: **** (60 kills) Hero difficulty: Bronze: *` (30 kills) Silver: ** (45 kills) Gold: ***` (60 kills) You will definitely want the "upgrade vehicle toughness" for this side mission. The vehicle you use is up to you. I find it easier using the Dune Hopper or Dust Demon (the latter requires 15 orbs to get and isn't much better). Sure the grenade launcher seems like a waste, because it's so slow, it offers the ability to instantly destroy multiple marauder vehicles at once and since they almost always come from the front, often in groups, this is especially handy. I've gotten almost 70 kills this way and you only need 60 for the gold. The Dune Hopper has a very slightly higher durability than the Dust Demon (the latter is quite a bit faster, but speed is not needed for this). Something like the Sand Shark has great range, but it requires remaining on very flat terrain and always turning the vehicle around slightly to get them. The trash left behind from just-exploded marauder vehicles also blocks bullets, but doesn't block grenades. If it's too much for you to even survive long enough, come back once invulnerabilty is unlocked. Then it's about as effortless as you can get. Upon leaving Spargus City, go straight ahead (due south). This kiosk requires 8 skull gems. Trade them for a fun minigame that involves a lot of explosions and a lot of combat. Tired of all those pesky marauders? Want to vent? This minigame is for you! Trade the skull gems and you're given the task of destroying as many marauder vehicles as possible within the 2-minute time limit. I've done it with the Sand Shark but it's harder. I've done it with the Dune Hopper and find it the easiest. The trick to this isn't so much the aim (which does help a lot), it's more along the lines of getting the marauders to spawn. To get them to spawn, you have to be at least 300 meters away from the lost city area in any direction (not applicable to this challenge) and at least 50 meters away from Spargus City's gate. The center of the map to the edge is 450 meters, for reference. They spawn about 300 meters out and always in the direction of travel with an angular variation of about 15° on either side. If water or some sort of obstacle is present 300 meters out, marauders will not spawn. For this, a low speed is a must. It may seem like it'll save time going faster, to catch up with them, it won't because the marauders will stop spawning and you'll have to go backwards, and during all this, you won't be able to get any more marauders, resulting in a net slow speed. For this to work well, you need to keep a very slow speed and try to keep as straight as possible. When too far forward, back up quickly then resume going forward slowly. Regardless, at all times, hold R1 to keep the gun blazing. If a marauder goes behind, hold R2 to get them when they go behind. I would suggest going for the silver, at least. If you're serious about it, go for the gold. I typically get the gold in about 5 attempts, though my first try on gold took me nearly 20 attempts, often getting around 53. It wasn't until I kept a very slow speed that I managed to get almost 70 kills. Items received: • 6x orb • 3x orb with extra dedication .==============================. # 6.54 Orb hunt 36 **065400** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` Return to Spargus City and get the Sand Shark, needed for the next side mission. From facing the Spargus City gate, turn right and follow the coast. Skip the kiosk as that's a race we're still not set up for easy obtainment of the gold (you can try, but I don't recommend it). On the far northeastern side, a statue is present needing 4 skull gems. 19 seconds are given to find that orb on the island due north of there. From facing the statue, turn right, get out the jet board, and go for it. Items received: • 3x orb .===================================. # 6.55 Ring challenge 6 **065500** # `===================================` Normal difficulty: ****` Hero difficulty: ****` Go SSW from there, to the northern part of the lost city. Don't confuse the statue on the far north by a bunch of rocks - it's the one on the other side of that. Trade the 8 skull gems for the mission. This is a difficult mission and it pretty much requires a vehicle. The Sand Shark is a good option for this as it's got a modest speed and especially good handing. The Tough Puppy could also be used for this, since handling is important and speed isn't too critical. Making this ring challenge much more difficult, however, is the fact you lose the minimap as it goes into the metal head cave and unlike the previous visits, the minimap does not show. You will only have leeches to deal with at least - just keep a modest speed and they're not an issue... except seeing where you're going. For the most part, don't go full speed. Keep a modest speed - pace. Not only do you maintain better control, you don't need to go full speed ahead. To help, I'm listing the order of the rings and things to watch out for: 1. 11 seconds - left (from facing the statue; under the arch) 2. 9 seconds - left (under the arch) 3. 9 seconds - straight (under the arch) 4. 8 seconds - straight 5. 7 seconds - slightly right 6. 11 seconds - slightly right (turbo provided - unnecessary) 7. 8 seconds - right 8. 8 seconds - right (over the rocks; skid/roll warning - go slow over them) 9. 10 seconds - left 10. 8 seconds - slightly left (turbo provided - unnecessary) 11. 12 seconds - slightly left (use of a turbo okay; skid warning from rocks) 12. 9 seconds - straight 13. 10 seconds - slightly right (minimap lost) 14. 9 seconds - slightly left (follow the path) 15. 10 seconds - slightly right (follow the path) 16. 13 seconds - straight (turbo provided - unnecessary but use as a guide) 17. 11 seconds - straight (follow the path) 18. 12 seconds - straight (follow the raised path around - no shortcut) 19. 10 seconds - right (follow the raised path; under overpass) 20. 10 seconds - right (follow the raised path) 21. 10 seconds - right (follow the path around) 22. 10 seconds - straight (use of a turbo okay) 23. 8 seconds - left 24. 9 seconds - slightly right (keep to the path) 25. 13 seconds - slightly left (keep to the path) 26. 10 seconds - right (under the overpass) 27. 12 seconds - right 28. 10 seconds - straight 29. 6 seconds - slightly right (don't be fooled by the ring's hint to turn) 30. 8 seconds - slightly left (go into the cave) 31. 9 seconds - right (follow the path) 32. 11 seconds - slightly right (follow the path; skid warning with ledge) 33. 10 seconds - slightly left (follow the raised path) 34. 11 seconds - left (follow the raised path; just past underpass) 35. 10 seconds - left (turbo provided - unnecessary) 36. 11 seconds - left (follow the raised path to top) 37. 15 seconds - slightly right (follow the path) 38. 14 seconds - straight (follow the path) 39. 9 seconds - slightly left (follow the path) 40. 15 seconds - straight (follow the path) 41. 10 seconds - right (follow the path) 42. 13 seconds - slightly right (minimap reappears; use of turbo okay) 43. 9 seconds - straight (skid/roll warning - go slow over rocks) 44. 13 seconds - slightly right 45. 8 seconds - straight 46. 7 seconds - slight left Items received: • 10x orb .==============================. # 6.56 Orb hunt 37 **065600** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: ** Hero difficulty: * Remember that blue vehicle just east of Spargus City? Go to it and get in. A scene will occur. At Haven City's port, go to where HQ is in the water slums area. Along the way, you will find that battles are going on nonstop. Even the water slums area has nothing but robots and fighting. That blue water... being contaminated by dead guards, blown up robots, and trash from destroyed zoomers. It's still safe to go in, but you can't do any fighting in it so it's not as safe. The peace maker goes so nicely here - they drop so much ammo. If you're running low, focus on the hoverbots that shoot - they'll drop 5 peace maker ammo shots. If health drops to where you're missing 4 or more, heal. There's plenty of health packs and especially white eco. A little to the WSW of the is another kiosk, on the right when going to HQ. 16 seconds are given after trading 4 skull gems to find the orb to the northeast around the northwest corner of HQ. Get on the jet board to go faster and help avoid the trouble from the robot war going on. From facing the kiosk, turn slightly left and zig zag with the path. Jump in the water to cross diagonally quickly. The orb is right around that corner - you may want to get off the jet board right before reaching land, to make the jump easier. Items received: • 3x orb .==============================================. # 6.57 Beat pillar ring challenges **065700** # `==============================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: **` Go back to the port circle and take the western path. At the area with the acid in the center, take the left path and follow it to a ramp leading up to Haven Forest. These metal heads now have skull gems. Only metal heads are here in the pouncer and scorpion variety, and there's no ammo drops so it's not the best area to use. It is the fastest though, especially if you want to grind skull gems in hero mode. Once in Haven Forest, you do not need to get the guns out for this. The jet board is needed more though. Go to where you see the highlight. A statue will come out of the ground. Spin attack the nose to activate it - these don't take skull gems. Various rings will appear, with a light much like the follow mes. There are 5 total statues and each must be done in order. Each statue has its own ring course. Each time you complete one, a check point is set. If you make the first one but fail on the second, you won't have to do the first one again. Don't be afraid to get off the jet board if you're losing control. As long as you're going forward, you'd only lose about a half to 1 second which, for the most part, is not an issue as there's a decent amount of time. The biggest problem comes from the areas where you need to grind - it's sometimes difficult to see the areas where grinding is needed. If you miss, there is still a chance you could use a high jump with a spin attack at the top of the jump to attempt to continue, but it's no guarantee. Here is the order of the rings: Statue 1: 1. 10 seconds - backwards 2. 8 seconds - hard right (over water) 3. 7 seconds - straight 4. 9 seconds - straight (tricky; go right, around the island, then up the ramp; grind the log) 5. 8 seconds - slightly right (between the trees) 6. 7 seconds - right (go around the rocks) 7. 6 seconds - slightly right 8. 6 seconds - straight Statue 2 (backward, behind the rocks from the first statue, across the river): 1. 10 seconds - backwards 2. 7 seconds - straight 3. 6 seconds - right (under the overpass) 4. 5 seconds - slightly right 5. 8 seconds - slightly right 6. 7 seconds - straight 7. 6 seconds - right 8. 6 seconds - slightly right 9. 5 seconds - straight Statue 3 (backward, across the lake from second statue): 1. 10 seconds - hard left (grind the log) 2. 7 seconds - slightly left 3. 7 seconds - right (consider getting off the jet board to jump the ledge) 4. 6 seconds - left 5. 9 seconds - slightly left 6. 9 seconds - hard left 7. 8 seconds - straight 8. 10 seconds - right (go slightly right, grind the log, then turn right) 9. 10 seconds - straight 10. 10 seconds - straight 11. 8 seconds - hard left (turn hard left to go up the ramp) 12. 7 seconds - straight (grind the bridge edge) 13. 7 seconds - straight (grind the bridge edge) 14. 9 seconds - slightly left (grind the log) 15. 7 seconds - left (stay on the path) 16. 7 seconds - left (grind the bridge edge) Statue 4 (hard left from third statue, on a rock in the river): 1. 10 seconds - hard right (over the water) 2. 8 seconds - slight right (over the water) 3. 6 seconds - right (over the water, around the central columns) 4. 7 seconds - left (follow the river) 5. 7 seconds - right (follow the river) 6. 6 seconds - slightly left (follow the river) 7. 7 seconds - right (follow the river; on the rocks) 8. 6 seconds - right (follow the river; between the rocks and trees) 9. 5 seconds - left (follow the river) 10. 7 seconds - right (follow the river on the right side) 11. 7 seconds - straight (follow the river around on the left side) 12. 6 seconds - straight (back on land again) 13. 5 seconds - left (go up the ramp) 14. 6 seconds - hard right (go up the ramp on the right then around left) 15. 6 seconds - slightly right (follow the river) 16. 6 seconds - left (go over the rocks) Statue 5 (left from fourth statue - go around the slippery rocks by going to the left, then climb up the ledges - ignore the game's reference for a launch jump - the high jump is much easier - do a high jump to the left ledge): 1. 10 seconds - left (immediately close - just walk through it) 2. 7 seconds - straight (between the trees) 3. 6 seconds - slightly left 4. 6 seconds - straight (grind the log) 5. 7 seconds - straight 6. 7 seconds - left (immediately turn to go up the ramp) 7. 7 seconds - straight (grind the bridge edge) 8. 7 seconds - straight (grind the bridge edge) 9. 7 seconds - slightly left (grind the log) 10. 6 seconds - left (jump over the gap) 11. 7 seconds - straight (jump over the gap) 12. 7 seconds - left (jump over the gap) 13. 6 seconds - straight (on an island across the river) 14. 6 seconds - slightly left 15. 6 seconds - slightly right (get off the jet board, do a high jump up the ledge, then quickly get back on again - it's much easier) 16. 5 seconds - slightly left (go around the curve) 17. 5 seconds - slightly left (go around the curve) 18. 7 seconds - hard left (go around the curve) Once all 5 statues are destroyed, go to the lake in the middle (go backward to get to it) and climb up. The platforms you step on will rise upon landing on them to make it easier to go up. Use double jumps to cross the gaps. It is unnecessary to go on the last pillar - just jump the short distance up to the right and go to the beam of light for a scene. This challenge is fun to do with flash freeze via hero mode. It's entirely possible to do it without the use of the jet board. Just remember that you cannot use flash freeze where you cannot touch bottom in water, but you can in the water when it's shallow. .==============================. # 6.58 Orb hunt 38 **065800** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: *` From facing the key object, go backward and jump over the edge. Yes, it's a great height that potentially lead to fall damage, just make sure you fall in the lake. Doubtful? Use the jet board to fall with as no fall damage is taken with it. Follow the river going straight, left, right, then around the bend. Jump on the rock just sticking out of the water and do a high jump with a spin attack to get up the rocks. Continue to the end of the river, get on the land then turn right to leave. In the creepy area, take the right side and follow it back. In the port circle, turn left and follow it, turning left on the east side. This is where the peace maker is needed. Follow it to the slums area then turn left when you'd normally go straight. You have 9 seconds to find the orb due east of there, where you just were. From facing the kiosk, turn right and get on the jet board avoiding running into anything. Items received: • 3x orb .===============================================. # 6.59 Destroy war factory defenses **065900** # `===============================================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: **` Continue your way to the water slums area and make your way to HQ, destroying the countless robots along the way, remembering to heal when at least 4 units of health are missing. Once at HQ, where the shield icon is, go up the elevator then go straight for a scene. Go back down the elevator and go around the building. Be sure to have a full load of ammo for this. Go into the building for a scene. Now, if you've played games like World War II airplane fighters where you fly a plane and shoot down enemy planes, this mission is very similar, just simplified and confined to a fairly small area. Working with speed loss and stalling are not involved and the speeds are fairly low. Left and right on the left stick are used to steer it (and it turns fast), down makes it go higher, up makes it go lower. R1 is used to shoot but there's no autofire so you have to repeatedly press R1 to fire. There's infinite ammo though, so always repeatedly press R1. L1 is used to fire off a bomb (which is more like a missile). Save your bombs for later - you'll need at least 4. X is used to speed up a little which isn't really necessary. If you haven't gotten "upgrade vehicle toughness", do so as it will help a lot with this. If you're curious, bring up the map to see "no map data available" - okay, why is there a minimap then? Seems like a bug. There are various red planebots around, lots of them, but they're simple one-shot defeats. As long as you constantly press R1, you'll inevitably blow up several of them. It is unnecessary to go after them though. On tracks in the rotating building are tanks. There are 3 stages. The first one has 16 yellow lights, 4 each in the 4 corners. Destroy them all by simply shooting them (you're repeatedly pressing R1, right, getting that gun constantly blazing?). Upon destroying some, a gun will replace them - shoot it as well to destroy it. Once those are destroyed, another 16 lights show up, in randomish locations. Because you'll be all over the place during this, often going back to get those that you missed, I cannot offer any direct guidance. Use the minimap as a guide to locate where things are. If you're really close to something and need more distance, simply turn away from it for about 2 to 5 seconds (depending on skill - 3 seconds is a good balance), then quickly turn around to get it. You just need to destroy the 32 total lights. Once those 32 lights are destroyed, you will find that the odd towers in the corners become guns that shoot, after a bit. There's also a gap in there directly above. Face toward it and fire a bomb at it to instantly destroy it. If you're out of bombs, you'll have to use R1 to shoot into that hole and it will take several dozen shots to destroy it. Once all 4 are destroyed, the mission is complete and a scene will occur. .======================================. # 6.60 Explore war factory **066000** # `======================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: ** Get on the elevator and wait for it to go down. While waiting, get out the arc wielder as there's tons of robots around. Straight ahead are 6 runnerbots - short 'em out! Turn right then slightly right around the corner. A conveyer belt is present with a runnerbot on top. Go up the conveyer belt once the runnerbot is destroyed. At the top, 5 crawlerbots and 3 runnerbots are waiting. An ammo reload is on the right. A gate is in the way straight ahead. Instead, turn right. It seems like a dead end, but do a smashing dive in the center of that area to get down to the next area. Turn right to find the opening with 2 crates on the right for a health pack and ammo reload. To the left is a fan going at high speed. Flash freeze will not allow you to get past it. Instead, note the pipe slightly right of it. Approach it for a scene and a checkpoint. See that red switch straight ahead? Follow to the overhanging gate to it, jump down at the end (press X), go to the switch and spin attack it. That will stop the fan. Jump over the blade and turn left to return to the waiting Jak for another check point. Get out the arc wielder again and pass through the fan. Go slightly left, up the ledges. A high jump is needed to get up the high ledge. At the top are jetbots. If you destroy them, more will come, an infinite number of them. 3 crawlerbots are also waiting. It's a dead end to the right. Instead, go slightly right into the opening where crawlerbots are. Turn left and there's a conveyer, going in the wrong direction. Use double jumps with spin attacks to more quickly cross it. You need to get on that platform. You're bound to get hit by the jetbots while doing so - it's almost unavoidable. On the other side, there are 3 crawlerbots and 2 runnerbots. You'll likely have a jetbot on you as well, causing a lot of damage. They're very annoying. Don't bother healing though. Smash the crates on the left for ammo and a health pack you'll likely need. Go up the conveyer straight ahead. At the top is are 2 runnerbots and 3 crawlerbots. Shock them. On the right are more crates in the odd corner. Another health pack. Turn left and go up the ramp. Ignore the robots past the gate. Turn right. A platform is there but it isn't moving. To the left of that is a pipe - approach it for a scene and a checkpoint. This time, you'll need to avoid stuff while following the fence. Turn left and watch out for the arcing. Remember Daxter's 1/2-second delay before going full speed? Get close, noted by the red line, and at about the time it disappears, go past. Do the same for the next one. Turn left at the end. Go straight until the camera turns around. Drop down and whack that switch with a spin attack. The platforms now move. Have Daxter carefully jump on them. Time your jump so that the platform is approaching and about one platform width away so you land, with a double jump, where the platform will stop. The next platform is a bit harder - get on the right edge of the current platform and wait for it to almost stop. Run toward the edge and jump across then. Wait for this platform to reach the other side where Jak is waiting. Another checkpoint is reached and Jak is also fully healed as well. (How did that happen? He must've found a big medipack or something while waiting!) Get on the platform in the same way as before. The jump to transfer to the other platform is a bit tricky. Get on the far front side of the platform and a bit back from the left edge. Keep panning the camera so you see the platform you're after. On the first cycle of the platforms, don't make the jump. Instead, note how they are positioned. Wait for the platform to go back then return. When the platform you're on is about to reach the end point, make your jump toward it. Once across, wait for the platform to reach the other side then it's a very simple jump from there. A gate is in the way. Press L2 to get Dark Jak then press R1 to use Dark Charge to destroy it. Quickly revert back then get out the arc wielder. A never-ending supply of jetbots will come out of the dome on the left. See those lasers? Destroy enough of the jetbots for the lasers to go down. You're bound to lose half of your health because of the jetbots. Another dome is ahead, but it doesn't release any robots until just passing it - more very annoying jetbots. Go past it. On the right are crates. Consider ignoring the crates as they seem to have unwanted red ammo. A health pack is present, but it's kind of useless with the jetbots as they'll inevitably do a hit that will undo it. Instead, go slightly left and smash that area at the dead end. At the bottom are 3 runnerbots - send them "free" electricity. A slow moving platform is ahead. Jump on it when it gets very near the edge. Get on the still platform ahead, jumping over the short gap, then turn left. Wait for that platform to arrive and jump on it. A conveyor going up is on the left - go up it. Follow the path. Turn slightly right, then turn right at the top. Jetbots will come out, but there those gates on the left in the way to block them (whew!). Ignore them. Instead, turn right. Get the jet board out and go up that conveyor. It's faster and easier. Running while doing double jumps with spins also works. Just past it is a pipe - approach it for a scene and a much-needed checkpoint. As Daxter, there are 2 jet engines that go left to right - go to the right side of the fence and get close to those flames but not too close. When the flame is just about out of the way, go. Remember that 1/2-second delay to full speed? Go slightly early. Repeat for the second one, going to the end then turning right. Red electric arcs are present, at a diagonal. Get on the far left side and stop just before the red glow. Just as it disappears, go at a diagonal to get past it. You will need to cross these diagonals 3 more times. Zigzag back and forth, staying near the center of where the arcing part is. Once past, turn left to reach the end of the fence. Drop down. A switch is present, waiting to be whacked with the spin attack. Jump down over the edge to the right of the switch to return to Jak and get a much-needed check point. Get the arc wielder out. Turn right to where the fans were spinning and go past them. A gate is on the right, blocking the robots - ignore them. Instead, turn left. Follow the path to the end. Smash that gate in the center. A pipe is straight ahead. However, slightly left is a runnerbot - destroy it. Now, go to the pipe for another scene and a checkpoint. Boy, that was quick! More diagonal electric arcs are present, 2 of them. Cross them like before. Turn right and more of those flaming jet things are present. Stay to the left side and wait until those flaming jets just start going past to the right. Quickly turn left and follow the fence. Turn left into the alcove when you can. Wait for the flame throwers to go back then go backward into the area where those flame throwers would be, waiting on far left side. When the flame throwers on the left start to go by, quickly turn right and quickly cross. Turn right as soon as you can. Go straight, drop off, and there's a switch. Spin attack it for a scene. Go straight to find Jak waiting at the edge slightly right and below. Jump down to get another check point. From facing that wall, turn left and go past the pipe. On the left is another runnerbot just around the corner - destroy it. On the right is another runnerbot - destroy it. A vehicle is straight ahead, much like those you've used around the desert area. Get on the vehicle. Do not go over the or destroy the vehicle. It comes with 3 turbos, but they're not necessary at the moment - only one spot could actually use one. There's no time limit so you don't need to go fast. Turn right to go up the ramp and onto the conveyer. Follow the conveyer around. The vehicle does not have guns, but it can destroy things by simply running over them. Nothin' beats having a 5-ton battering ram! 4 runnerbots are across the platforms. If you need ammo reloads, pick them up after the runnerbots are destroyed. Go up the conveyor ramp. Remember those gates? Just run into them with the vehicle with enough speed (a modest speed - full speed is not necessary) to destroy them. The key to this part is to destroy the gates. If any platforms are involved, you took a wrong turn - go back. Turn left - it's a dead end to the right (a smashable gate, but that isn't what you're after any more). There are 3 runnerbots ahead and a sneaky gap. Go forward with moderate speed, braking only after the initial drop. Run over the 3 runnerbots, picking up ammo reloads as needed. Go slightly right for a conveyor going down and gates ahead. Bash through those gates. Remember those jetbots and that dome? Destroy the dome by running into it. Ignore the jetbots and turn left. Another gate is there. Smash through it. More gates follow. Smash through those. Turn slightly right and you see an odd jump ramp. Approach it with moderate speed to get across the gap present. Another ramp is ahead that leads to a gate. You will need a bit more speed for this one. It's a great spot to use a turbo if you need to. Another dome is just beyond, except this one is busted. Smash the gates ahead. Talk about mass destruction of a factory! There are gaps present - be sure to either have a modest speed, or jump across. Turn right and go up the conveyor. Smash through the gates ahead. This will lead to an elevator. You will automatically leave the vehicle and the vehicle will disappear. Be sure to get out the arc wielder and destroy the runnerbots. Get on the elevator to complete this long and difficult mission. Finally, it's done! .========================================. # 6.61 Beat Cyber-Errol boss **066100** # `========================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: ** Once the elevator is at the top, get out the arc wielder, again. Follow the path then turn left for a scene. By the way, check the main map - "map data unavailable". For starters, use the arc wielder. You'll have a lot of robots to destroy, dropping ammo most of the time. There are 4 stages to this. Stage 1 has 4 fireballs being thrown - just constantly keep moving to avoid them, which do 2 units of damage. You will then have 11 total runnerbots to destroy with the arc wielder, a group of 4, a group of 3, then another group of 4. A spinning, hovering robot, a spinbot as I'll cover it will come out right under Errol - put the arc wielder to use until it drops to the ground. When it's on the ground, use the spin attack to aim it toward the platform Errol is on - the camera will automatically be pointed toward that platform. If this misses, you will have to repeat stage 1. The second stage has a new kind of fireball, one that, upon impact on the ground, causes a shockwave that must be jumped over, a shockwave that does 2 units of damage. Like the other fireballs, just run around to avoid being hit. There are 3 of these to dodge. After this, about 6 targets will appear in random places along the floor. Simply stay away from these - holes will be formed in the floor that mean instant death should you fall down one. 4 basic fireballs, like those first thing in stage 1, will be thrown next - just run around to avoid them, now avoiding the holes in the floor. A mix of crawlerbots and runnerbots will come out of the holes, often in groups. There's about 6 crawlerbots in the first batch, 3 crawlerbots and 3 runnerbots in the second batch and 5 runnerbots in the third batch. Shock them to destruction with the arc wielder. Another one of those spinbots will appear with 2 others behind and on the sides - use arc wielder until it falls to the ground then spin attack it toward the wall where Errol is (the camera points toward it). Stage 3 is similar to stage 2 - 4 shockwave fireballs to avoid and jump over, 7 random target spots for more holes in the floor, then 4 basic fireballs to avoid by running around. A mix of about 5 crawlerbots, 5 runnerbots, and now 3 jetbots will be coming out, the latter the most annoying, as experienced in section 6.60 a little bit ago. Again, more of those spinbots will come out, this time 4 of them, 2 from the hole Errol is above. Use the arc wielder until one drops then spin attack it to the wall right under where Errol is. Stage 4 is similar to stage 3 - 4 shockwave fireballs, 7 random target spots for even more holes in the floor, then 4 basic fireballs. This time, the game's worst normal enemies come out, dark demons and dark bats. These are very black demon-like monsters that bring up a white shield around them. Their projectiles that are very hard to avoid short of a lot of distance do 4 units of damage. You will want the peace maker for these, it's the only effective way to get rid of them as it also cuts through their shields. Otherwise, they take a lot of shots to get, almost too many to really be worth it (and their shields absorb the shots making it still harder). Dark bats will also come out, aerial monsters resembling the green metal head bats seen in section 6.52, only black. They frequently fire dark eco shots that do 2 units of damage so destroy these monsters quickly as well, best with the peace maker. There are 4 total dark demons and 2 total dark bats to get. The familiar spinbots used to attack Errol with follow, all 3 from the same gate. If, at any time, all of the spinbots are destroyed and/or don't hit Errol, you will repeat the stage you are currently in. There are no check points so you must get all 4 stages in one go. Once the final hit is dealt to Cyber-Errol, a scene will occur. Congratulations! You have now completed act 2. Items received: • Light eco crystal • Mass inverter (second dark gun) • +5 max dark ammo capacity ___ ___ _____ ____ / _ \ / _ \ |_ _| |___ \ | |_| | | | |_| | | __| | | _ | | | _ | | |__ < | | | | | |_| | | | ___| | |_| |_| \___/ |_| |____/ ####################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 7 Walkthrough act 3 **070000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ####################### Like with act 2, once you exceed 250 orbs, you can start spending them on less worthwhile stuff. Just don't drop under 250. Focus on the more important weapon upgrades first such as ammo efficiency. .===================================================. # 7.1 Time trial of first race for orbs **070100** # `===================================================` Normal difficulty (Sand Shark or Desert Screamer, assuming unlimited turbos): Bronze difficulty: **` or ** (under 3:30) Silver difficulty: ***` or *** (under 3:15) Gold difficulty: ***** or ****` (under 3:00) Hero difficulty: Bronze difficulty: *` (under 3:30) Silver difficulty: **` (under 3:15) Gold difficulty: ***` (under 3:00) There are now 4 new secrets are available, all but one of which is junk. The only good one, though very expensive at 30 orbs, is unlimited vehicle turbos and it's the key to getting gold in the races. But, is it worth it? If you have 280 or more orbs available, get it as. That's up to you. The races can recover 18 orbs at least and with unlimited turbos, gold is easy to get. Plus, when you start again with hero mode, you can get gold right off the bat on the first race (I've done it). The other 3 secrets are junk and require something that's also junk just to get it making it more worthless. Level select act 2 for 5 orbs is available, but cannot be selected because act 1 is needed first. It's junk anyway. Ignore it. Jak II model viewer for 2 orbs is available, but requires the first model viewer, both of which are junk for now. Scene player act 2 is available, but you have to get the act 1 scene player first and both of them are junk for now. The mass inverter deals no damage, but it's the key to getting gold for hang time with minimal effort and it works on any vehicle. The mass inverter is also needed for easy gold on the distance jumping. A lot of side missions have also become available. Might as well put them to use. Nothing is available in Haven City though besides the jet board scoring one that's always available (ignore it if you already got gold or went as far as you could). For now, return to the port area and board that blue vehicle to return to the desert. If you want to race, get the desert screamer for 20 orbs. It's the best vehicle there is. Otherwise, the Sand Shark will still do well. It has a modest speed and excellent handling. Although the highlight is on the Dune Hopper, it is not necessary. Regardless, if you do purchase stuff with orbs, make sure you always have at least 250 for the really good stuff to come fairly soon. Regardless, it's now time for going for the races and other side stuff that have been on hold for a long time to better prepare for it. Claim those orbs while you still can! Use either the Sand Shark or the Desert Screamer for this (the latter costs 20 orbs). From just leaving Spargus, turn left. The kiosk here requires 8 skull gems and it's right by a tree. Trade them and you'll get the race. See section 5.10 for details on this as it's the same thing minus the other drivers. It's nothing but a time trial. I would suggest going for at least the silver. Go for gold if you're dedicated and/or like racing. Just remember - take it slow around any corners to keep skidding to a minimum. If you got the gold, just press /\ to not repeat the race and return to the kiosk. Items received: • 6x orb • 3x orb with dedication .===============================. # 7.2 Marauder race **070200** # `===============================` Difficulty (Sand Shark or Desert Screamer, assuming unlimited turbos): Bronze difficulty: ** or *` (under 4:40) Silver difficulty: **` or ** (under 4:30) Gold difficulty: ****` or ***` (under 4:25) The longest race has a lot of long, straight pathways so a very fast vehicle will make this race look easy. Unfortunately, you're racing with others, marauders. Fortunately, it's a fairly easy race, especially with unlimited turbos. Go for the gold, or at least silver if racing isn't your thing. This race is surprisingly easy. This race is unique. This kiosk is on the western side of the central mountains. It takes 12 skull gems though, a really big haul, but it's worth 18 total orbs. Torches now lay out the path and the minimap doesn't show the shape of the course so it's hard to make out what's coming up. You'll need course memorization. The first step is to get past the other racers, the biggest problem. Once past them, which is easy enough to do with a well-timed jump after firing a turbo right away, just follow the course. To get the gold, you need to be under 1:28.667 for each lap. It's easy enough to get 1:25 per lap with the Desert Screamer. Start by firing off a turbo then jumping over the car directly in front, easy enough to do with the Desert Screamer. A short bit into the cave, a left turn is made. Another turbo can be used to go straight after the skid turn and lining up but it's only weakly recommended. A slight right turn is next, leaving the cave. Go straight, slightly left of the cactus, then brake when just going by the cactus. Turn left, point toward the bridge, fire off a turbo, then jump. Jumping will avoid most of the water, saving a lot of time and just landing in it will help regain stability. Turn slightly left but aim for the right wall where the turbo light is. Make the slight right turn then fire off a turbo. The path curves around slowly to the left - fire off turbos the entire way (just hold R2). A long straight path is next - just keep firing off turbos like there's no tomorrow and stick to the left side as the path on the right narrows. Whether you go left or right where the rock and trees are doesn't matter but avoid firing off a turbo here. I prefer the right as it's easier. A slight left turn is present. Once aligned, fire off another turbo. The path significantly narrows and is tilted in the next area. Use of a turbo is only recommended if going straight (no chance of hitting anything) and stable. A slight left turn follows and the path widens again - another good spot for a turbo. A slight right is next, with a turbo light on top of a sand dune. If you can line up with that sand dune, aiming slightly left, fire off a turbo and jump at the top. A left turn is at the end, which completes the lap - fire off a turbo once aligned and stable, always doing so regardless of stability if this is the last lap. Repeat this twice more for the other 2 laps. If you got the gold, just press /\ to avoid repeating the race and return to the kiosk. Items received: • 12x orb • 6x orb with dedication .=================================================================. # 7.3 Finishing the hang time and distance challenges **070300** # `=================================================================` Normal difficulty: All but total distance: * Total distance: *** Hero difficulty: All but total distance: * Total distance: ** With the mass inverter now in your posession, it's time to put it to use and get easy gold. See sections 5.14 and 5.15 for details on how to do it. There's still a good 18 orbs left, depending on how far you went. From the race kiosk above, go backwards to find the kiosk in the high area. You will not need trade the 16 skull gems for it because, if you've done it before, it's done for good. If you didn't bother with this before, you'll definitely want to trade those skull gems because potentially 45 orbs are waiting. Save your game before starting if you plan on doing it the easy way. If you plan on doing it the old fashioned way, it's fairly easy with the Desert Screamer as it's so fast with a crazy powerful turbo. For a quick summary: For the hang time challenges, destroy the vehicle upon starting if the health is less than 75% (you can see it smoking) so you can start fresh. With that check done, get in the vehicle and right back out again. Quickly change to the mass inverter and fire off a shot. That alone finishes the hang time challenge. For the total, just fire enough shots to get the 10 seconds needed, firing one off when the vehicle lands. Once you get the goal (or are very close to it where driving over the edge can get the rest), don't do anything else - let the time run out so you can spare the ammo for the distance jumps. Once you complete these, it's a good time to save your game again. The single distance is easy to do - flash freeze is not required. Get the vehicle lined up as explained, use the mass inverter and quickly get a wave concussor charged up so that it sends the vehicle off where you need it. Without unlimited Light Jak and unlimited ammo, the total distance is much harder with normal mode. Items received: • ?x orb (varies, depending on how many you got during 5.15, 5.16, and 5.17) .=======================================. # 7.4 Rescue Seem at temple **070400** # `=======================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: ** If you need an ammo reload, return to Haven City via that blue vehicle just east of Spargus City's gate and use the area where all the robots and metal heads are. Return to the vehicle storage room and get in the Dune Hopper, which is highlighted. Leave the city going slightly left to get to the lost city. Go around it or through it, continuing south to get on the chain of islands leading to the Monk Temple. Make the familiar jumps and stop. Get the peace maker out as you're going to need it because of what's present. Go through the door into the temple and wait for the first 2 or 3 of those dark demons to appear. Destroy them, especially when they're grouped, with the peace maker. Remember the room that had the eye bringing up the spikes? Go into there and turn right to find some of those dark monsters present. They may be alone, the best time to use normal attacks as needed. Spin attack to destroy the shield then punch them until they're down. Spin attacking the shield will have a knockback effect and it sounds like Jak is injured, but he takes no damage. However, you must be quick or the shield will go back up again. Continue down the stairs and go into the room where those guardbots were. More of those dark demons appear. To make the most out of the peace maker's few shots, consider taking cover behind a pillar on the outer edge of the room. They will not attack or even have their shield up if taking cover. When ready, get out of hiding and quickly fire off a peace maker shot and destroy them. You'll often get 3 or more in one this way. They drop a ton of dark eco as well, so you could even consider using Dark Jak, and either the dark bomb or dark blast. Once they're defeated, find the room with the dark eco vent and turn slightly left. You will need Dark Jak's Dark Charge to break that door. Inside, more dark demons appear. Wait for 3 to show up then fire off the peace maker. Turn left at the intersection then make the right turn. Turn left and you'll find another door that's shattered - put Dark Jak to use to destroy it. Go straight. This room will have a never-ending supply of dark demons. There's also vases with skull gems present. Because of the unlimited skull gem grinding being available (see section 6.39), ignore them. Upon entering this room, however, turn hard right to find a light eco vent. Go into it to heal, healing while in the vent to keep a full supply of light eco. If you find this room difficult, put Light Shield to use, one of the very few times where that skill has some use. From entering the room, you need to go straight to the wall then turn right, jumping over the gap. Keep going straight, jumping over every gap there is. There are plenty of vases along the way that have ammo reloads and occasional health packs. At the end, use Dark Charge on the cracked door to destroy it. Once inside, continue straight. A light eco vent is present just ahead. Just to the right of it is an urn with 9 skull gems - hit it with the jet board to quickly collect them all at once so do you don't have to go chasing them around. Use the light eco vent to heal, healing while in the vent. Continue straight. Before going into the pillar, there is a single vase on the left side containing an orb. Smash it then go into the pillar of light for a scene. Press X to jump, as usual, then press X at the top of the jump to make another, really high jump, even higher than the high jump with the spin attack at the top. To maximize flight duration - practice here while it's still easy - press X while the wings are about level or slightly below level. If you need to restore light eco, go to the light eco vent you just passed. From facing the statue, go to the left side. It may be a dead end, but there's a lot of vases and urns there, with 15 skull gems and 6 orbs. To make the stuff quick and easy to grab so you don't have to go chasing stuff around, use the jet board to smash them with, applicable mainly to the center ones. What a haul! If you're short on ammo, consider deliberately jumping off the edge to die. It'll respawn the ammo-restocking vases. It's also a bit quicker to return. Regardless, you need to get to the other side. Assuming you didn't jump down to respawn the smashables, hold L2 and press X to get Light Flight again. Jump to the right side, slightly right. Jump straight across, then jump slightly left. Remember to flap the wings (press X) as near to the level position as possible for maximum flight duration. Continue straight and go in that path. The door will automatically open upon being near it. It's faster to use the jet board to get this distance covered. To the right is a light eco vent. Just beyond it is an urn. Use the jet board on it for 5 skull gems. Slightly to the right, you will see a pillar across a large gap - fly to it. Fly to that ledge straight across. Turn right. There are some smashables there - jet board time! It's just a single skull gem. Reactivate Light Flight, go backward, then jump across that gap to get an orb. Reactivate Light Flight, turn hard right, then jump to that pillar. Turn slightly left and jump to that pillar. Do not go into that room on the left - there's nothing there. Instead, turn right and go to that pillar. The room to the right has nothing present so don't go there. Instead, turn left and go to the top of that pillar. Turn hard right to go on that ledge. Go straight to get a scene. Items received: • Light Flight • Time map .============================================. # 7.5 Defend Spargus from attack **070500** # `============================================` Normal difficulty: ****` Hero difficulty: ****` A new secret has become available, but it's of no use - 8 orbs for mass inverter duration upgrade. Ignore it unless you have at least 258 orbs available. Jump through the portal to return. If you needed to restock ammo, go around the area and smash the smashables. Turn left to leave - you don't need to get the guns out. Return to the Dune Hopper and jump across the gaps as before, returning to Spargus City. At the gate, get the peace maker out. Those dark shield monsters are appearing throughout the city. Don't worry about destroying the residents - they actually drop ammo. Some residents will chicken out and run away, others will attempt to attack, causing the dark demons' shields to turn red. Past a certain point, the shields break and damage can be done to them. The peace maker gets through those shields and instead of taking 4 shots, takes just that one. Loving the peace maker yet? You need to get to the turret as quickly as possible but there is no time limit. From the entrance, go straight then turn left into the narrow passage. Follow it, turning left as the path splits. Turn right as the path splits then turn left to follow the shore. Turn right to get to the top of the turret and get in with /\. Now for a difficult mission, one that invulnerability does not help with due to a bug in the game. There's also no check points so you have to do this all in one go. I spent a half hour retrying on my first attempt at this - it's not easy. For the most part, just repeatedly press R1 (time it, pacing yourself, for the maximum shooting rate). The top of the screen will have a health bar, the cannon's health bar. Each monster will have 5 points that need to be shot at - the head and the 4 for the legs. Note the gray target symbols. Focus on destroying the projectiles. What I do is I alternate between targeting the monster and the projectiles. Get it so that you destroy a projectile that has just launched then focus on the monster. Quite often, you'll have 3 monsters at once, all firing projectiles, making things more difficult. Focus on destroying one monster at a time, but destroy all projectiles. After the first monster is destroyed, another will appear with another shortly after giving 2 at once. A batch of 3 on the left side of the island is next, making things difficult. A group of 3 monsters will appear on the right side of the island, also in short succession. Once those 3 are destroyed, the gun will turn around automatically to face the city itself. There are 3 monsters here, spaced farther apart, firing smaller projectiles in a magenta glow that are hard to hit due to their size. If you've got at least half of the health bar left, just ignore the projectiles and focus on destroying the monsters. A good offense is a good defense. Once these 3 monsters are down, the mission is complete. If you made it with a full health bar, you can call yourself a master of the turret! Items received: • 3rd war amulet • Breastplate (+2 max health points (now maxed at 16)) .=================================================. # 7.6 Activate astro-viewer in forest **070600** # `=================================================` Normal difficulty: ***** Hero difficulty: ** Return to Haven City. There is no longer any need for the guns as the dark monsters have stopped appearing. Exit Spargus City, turn left, and board the blue vehicle. There is no need for a vehicle to get here - just use the jet board and don't stray too far out - hug the edge so that the marauders don't spawn. Be sure to get a full stock of light eco and ammo - you're going to need it. Remember the eastern side of the port where all those robots are? Go there to get the ammo restocked and, optionally, light eco. Go to the western side of Haven City. At the creepy-looking area, take the left route and follow it to Haven Forest. This time, Haven Forest is dangerous, really dangerous. Those dark monsters have invaded and they're all over the place. The dark demons will even steal the guns and use them against you. Taking cover is essential, but fortunately, there are frequent check points. Even then, it's totally not easy. On my first play, I needed a good 30 minutes to get past this part as it was so frustratingly difficult. It's probably the hardest story mission in the game. It's to the point where you definitely need Light Shield or even flash freeze to quickly get to the guns with greater ease and get rid of the dark demons operating it - avoid healing so you can at least use Light Shield to help. This is the one and true place where Light Shield is of any real use. The goal is to shoot and destroy the 9 flowers. Each gun gets 3. Each set of 3 is a check point. If Jak's health is getting low after each set of 3, choose to restart the mission - you will restart from the last checkpoint and return to the entrance. The first gun is pretty much straight ahead. Off to the left are crates for ammo. However, don't go straight to the gun - there's a good chance a dark demon will take control over it and if you're in its sights, it will shoot. The shots do 2 units of damage each and they're nonstop. Heat-seeking ammo such as the needle lazer (spend the 10 orbs on the ammo efficiency to make it more effective and useful) and luck with the beam reflexor are the key that I can see for getting these monsters while they tend to a gun, though it takes a bit of a distance and an odd angle shot to make it. Take cover behind the trees and rocks but beware of the dark bats that will endlessly keep arriving, which come from the flowers you need to destroy. Ignore them for now and focus on getting rid of the dark demon behind the gun. If you need to, use Light Shield to run over to the dark demon while it's shooting. A good example of a setup, for a top down view with forward being on the right is like this (not to scale but the rough distances and angles are the focus): A J O GD A J is where Jak stands, O is the tree or rocks you're using to take cover, G is where the gun is, D is where the dark demon is, and A is roughly where you aim to, on either side. Once the dark demon is destroyed, quickly run to the gun and get in. Even with invulnerability, the gun is vulnerable and the dark monsters will always be attacking it. I find it easier to just ignore the never-ending supply of dark monsters and focus on quickly destroying the flowers, your biggest priority. Use the map to determine which direction the flowers are (if facing the flower, the red dot is to the top of the map) then use the visual cues to find it. The gun will take a modest amount of damage, but once the flowers are destroyed, quickly get out of it before it gets destroyed. If the gun has a lot of health left, you can even consider using it to destroy some of the monsters and spare some of Jak's health to make things a little easier. The flowers take several hits to destroy - a life bar appears upon one taking a hit. Once all 3 are destroyed for the gun, get out of the gun and get the peace maker ready to bulk-destroy the dark shield monsters. The second gun is either straight ahead from the entrance or slightly left, across the river. Both are by the lake. I will assume you take the one straight across. If you a see dark demon just appearing by the gun, fire off the peace maker straight to it and take cover before it can fire the gun. The shot should, unless dark bats are around, destroy it. Otherwise, use the needle lazer or even Light Shield to knock the dark demon away from the gun, destroying it. I would suggest, before going to the third gun, choosing "restart mission" so you can restore your health and get an easier approach to the third gun. If needed smash the crates for more ammo... of the wrong types. Instead of going to the closest gun straight ahead from the entrance, go to the river and hop in. Follow it around and turn hard left at the intersection, then turn right go around the island and past it. You will need to get on that land to the left but it's too high up there. Follow it around until a lower area is revealed where a double jump with a spin attack from a slight distance will get you up on it. You will slide down if you make contact with the ground so it may take a few tries. It's located between the two light grayish-brown areas on the map. From there, the gun is to the right. Get the needle lazer ready. Once at the gun, focus on just the flowers again. Once the flowers are destroyed, get out and a scene will occur shortly after. The peace maker will finish off the dark demons. Man, all that trouble for no reward either. Once the scene occurs, you can choose to restart the mission so you don't have to fight the monsters. Regardless, once all the flowers are destroyed, go to the center of the lake and climb up the platforms which will rise like before. A highlight is at the top - step into it for a scene to complete this frustratingly difficult mission. .==========================================. # 7.7 Destroy Dark Ship shield **070700** # `==========================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: ** This time, you control a dark maker robot. The controls for movement are quite awkward. Press X to jump. Double jump is not possible. Press [] to do a punch attack and this thing is strong enough to destroy the dark demons in one hit, even with their shields up. Press [] repeatedly do up to a 3-punch combo in short succession. Press R1 to pick stuff up or place it back down. Press [] while holding something to throw a held object. Press and hold O to use the shield. However, the shield will break if it takes too many hits and cannot be used again. Use it against a lone monster. Unlike Jak 2's Titan Suit, invulnerability affects this dark maker suit making hero mode much easier. It's only the awkward control and jumping that pose the biggest problem. From the start, you will find 5 dark demons straight ahead. Destroy all 5 of them. You won't be able to pick up anything they drop. Once all 5 dark demons are destroyed, a door will open on the west side. Go into that door. A ball bomb is straight ahead. Punch to knock it toward that door straight ahead to destroy it. I love the sounds these bombs make when they blow up. Go to the door and a target symbol shows up on it. Punch the door to smash it down. A room with blue lasers is beyond. They rotate 45° clockwise 3 times then pause for about 3 seconds. You need to go by the lasers without touching them. When the laser is level, go straight 2 zones. When the laser is at a diagonal, go on the wider side one zone. If the laser is vertical, don't go. It's the easiest and fastest way to get past here. There are 10 total lasers. The end is a door to be smashed. A pair of dark demons are beyond the door - punch them out of existence. From the entrance to this room, turn hard right. A ball bomb is here. Punch it toward that electrified thing to blow it up. A hole is formed - jump down it. Turn slightly right to find the opening. Dark demons are beyond. Punch them into oblivion... or send them over the edge to fall forever. From entering this area, turn slightly left and a ball bomb is there. See the electrified thing straight ahead? That's where you need to aim. Platforms replace it - use them to get across, carefully timing your jump, a full jump, so that the location you plan on landing is where the platform will be. A dark demon is just across - use the shield to block its attack. Another ball bomb is present with the electrified thing on the right to blow up slightly right. Like before, platforms will replace it. A dark demon is beyond, use your shield to protect yourself from its attacks while you wait for the platforms to get across. It may attempt to attack as you're punching the ball bomb but you're safely out of its range. On this large platform, turn left. A box is there. Approach it and pick it up with R1. Carry it to just a bit before the ledge its very close to then press R1 to place it. Use it as a platform to get to the ball bombs. Punch a ball bomb to the electrified thing to destroy it. A scene will occur where a door will open on the other side. Jump down, pick up the box, and carry it to the other side, placing it like before. Jump up the ledge using the box as a platform. Use the ball bomb on top to destroy the electrified thing to get more platforms. Go into the doorway and go straight to the dark demons straight ahead. Destroy all 4 of them. There's too many to use the shield on as the shield will break. Turn left and go into the room ahead. A laser repeatedly sweeps across the floor. Time your jump so you can jump clear over it. There are 3 spherical things orbiting a central area, one slow, one medium, the other fast. Aim the ball bombs to the central area so that they explode where one of the sphere is. For the fast one, time the punch so that the sphere is closest to the ball bomb - the ball bomb will explode as the sphere makes one full loop. Once destroyed, you'll get a scene and the mission is complete. .=============================. # 7.8 Orb hunt 39 **070800** # `=============================` Normal difficulty: **` Hero difficulty: ** You'll return to Haven Forest. From facing the astro viewer, go backward and dive into the water below. There is no need to get out the guns as there are no monsters present. Follow the river like before, turning right at the end to get to the door. In the scary-looking area, take the right path. Follow the port circle around to the east side and continue to where HQ is. Spend a little time here recovering ammo as needed. When at the fountain where HQ is, go straight then turn right. Turn left then follow the left turn to the kiosk on the left. Trade the 4 skull gems for the mission. You have 19 seconds to find that orb in the air along rails. From facing the kiosk, go slightly left and get out the jet board. Go to the lower part of the rail, from the circular part of the path and jump on it, grinding. Jump across the gap to the higher rail, then jump across the gap to the rail here. At the end of this, grabbing a red orb, jump at the top to grab the gold orb. Items received: • 3x orb .======================================. # 7.9 Blow open tower door **070900** # `======================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: **** Return to HQ, going up the elevator. Go straight to get a scene. This is yet another difficult mission, but at least there's a checkpoint to help. The driving is automatic - you control the gun. There's unlimited ammo with this so hold R1 from start to finish. Use the left stick to move the targeting symbol around. Left and right move it left and right. Up moves it down and down moves it up. Unfortunately, invulnerability will not make you invulnerable in this, due to a bug in the game. Fortunately, you don't have to worry about avoiding shooting the other vehicle - your shots don't exist to it. Focus on the numerous enemies instead. Your task is to destroy the hoverbots (a different kind that can launch small missiles), rollbots that just stand and shoot only, blast bots, pouncer metal heads, explosive barrels, and large missiles. There's a ton of enemies around. There are 2 health indicators. The top left one is for the vehicle in front. The bottom left one is for Jak's vehicle. Under the first tree are 2 rollbots. A rollbot and hoverbot are around the turn on the right. After the left turn, 2 rollbots are on the ground with another shortly after. The next area has a series of 6 rollbots in short succession, one even in the water (surprising, as the water is normally instant death to them). Around a left turn then a right turn are 2 rollbots on top of buildings, one on each side. Another pair are on the next building with a blast bot to the right. A rollbot is on the wire above followed shortly after 2 on the ground. A pouncer metal head is on the building to the left with another on top. After a right turn, a pouncer is waiting on the building straight ahead with another on the ground to the right. A pair of rollbots are on the left on the building. 3 more and a pouncer are on the left with an explosive barrel nearby. After the left turn, a pair of rollbots are on the left with a single on the left, a hoverbot very shortly after, then a pouncer. Next are 3 rollbots by an explosive barrel. After a right turn, the camera turns around. 6 missiles are going straight for the other vehicle. A pouncer waits near the top of the ramp shortly after. You will pass under an overpass where 2 pouncers wait above. After the left turn, it's another pair of pouncers on top of the overpass. A right turn follows where a blastbot is on the pathway above. Almost immediately, 6 missiles are fired but they're hard to see as you're looking straight at their front. After a left turn, another blastbot is on the ground. A pouncer is just a tiny bit ahead at the top of the ledge. The camera will turn around to face the front again. A pair of blastbots one after the other with a rollbot and a pair of pouncers are waiting at the edge. 3 rollbots are on the other side of the path at the edge. About 10 explosive barrels and 3 rollbots follow a right turn - just shoot the closest barrel for mass destruction. A left turn, a right turn, then another left turn are next. About 22 missiles are headed for the other vehicle, one right after the other. On the left, upon just entering the port, are a pair of pouncers that are hidden until they've already jumped, an ambush of sorts. You've reached a checkpoint, finally. Chances are, the vehicles will be almost destroyed by this point. When you see the pouncer on the wire, consider choosing to restart the mission, so you have full vehicle health to make the next half easier. Continuing on, a pouncer is on the wire. A pair of hoverbots are next. On each ship, except the closest one, are a pair of rollbots, totalling 6 visible. A pair of hoverbots will be mixed in. With a more rightward view, another 4 more rollbots are visible on the ships then a trio of hoverbots. After the left turn, a blastbot is on the ground at the same time 2 hoverbots come up. 6 missiles will come mixed in with 4 rollbots lining the walkway. A pair of hoverbots are next. 2 rollbots are in front of the pillar, then 3 pouncers are on the right side of it, just around the corner. 3 missiles fire just as you go under the pathway - focus on the 2 rollbots on the ship while under the pathway. The vehicles will then go above. 6 missiles will come then 2 rollbots are on the ledge. On the higher ledge is a pouncer. The next ledge has a pouncer followed by the next one and the next one. Something on the other pillar, the next destination, fires grenades or bombs over - shoot them to destroy them. There are 5 rollbots here though, with 3 hoverbots being added in after a fair pause between them. More rollbots are on the pathway below, 5 in total, with a blastbot mixed in. Hoverbots come from over the building in the center after a slight right turn. A series of 4 pouncers ambush from the top of the building, one after the other. After a right turn, a rollbot, a pair of blast bots, and at least 15 explosive barrels are all together - destroy the closest barrel to destroy them all. A pouncer waits in the creepy room upon just entering. Another pouncer is on the right side with another on the left in short succession. After a right turn, a trio of pouncers will come around the left corner in an ambush with a fourth one close by. A hoverbot instantly appears in the flower on the right. A pair of pouncers are just beyond. Around the left turn are 4 rollbots across the bridge. About 6 missiles follow after turning right for a fair bit. A series of 3 pouncers follow, mostly on the right side, starting after a left turn. Immediately after, 2 more come from the left side, the last you'll need to deal with. After a pause, a scene will occur. Items received: • Super nova (third dark gun) • +5 max dark ammo capacity .===========================================. # 7.10 Destroy metal head tower **071000** # `===========================================` Normal difficulty: *** Hero difficulty: *` Another new secret is available - super nova ammo efficiency. It costs 10 orbs. The supernova instantly destroys everything in about a 100-meter radius. It takes 10 of the dark ammo, half the maximum stock. The ammo efficiency drops that down to just 8, still 40% of the stock. It's not worthwhile, but get it only if you have at least 260 orbs available. Go through that door that's now wide open. Smash the crates on the left for an ammo restock. A light eco vent is on the right - use it to heal, standing in it while doing so. Beyond are dark spiders, 4 of them. A bit beyond are dark bats - put the peace maker to use on those. Return to the light eco vent to heal as needed. Several (about 4) dark spiders will come out of the hole in the wall. As go around, a platform will lower and dark demons will appear on it and the gun gets automatically put away. Bring the peace maker back out then wait for 3 of them to show up then fire off the peace maker at them. Jump on top of it and another platform will lower. Wait for 2 of the dark demons to appear on it then fire off the peace maker to destroy them. Get on the platform and to the ledge straight across. Go up the ramps. At the top, to the right, are a series of ledges with dark spiders coming out of holes. This is a good spot to use Dark Blast from Dark Jak, to get rid of the annoying dark bats. At the top, there are crates to get an ammo reload. However, be fast because more monsters are coming, including dark bats. Dark spiders will come out of the holes. Just spin attack these easy things. The branches that go back and forth are harmless, but they do push you around - jump over or go around them. Just continue straight. A light eco vent is ahead - heal while standing in it, then use Light Flight while standing in it. Fly across the large gap and quickly leave Light Flight once across it. Ignore the crates on the right for now. Destroy the 3 dark demons with the peace maker. Now smash the crates for an ammo reload. Jump over the swaying branches. A ramp is ahead with crates to the right just before it, for ammo. Skip them unless you have 10 or fewer dark ammo shots left. Climb to the top where a lot of dark spiders and dark bats are, even big dark spiders that split into 2 or sometimes even 3 (yep, 4 spiders from one). This is another great place to use Dark Blast or Dark Bomb. There will be so much dark eco dropped from all this you're ready for another use. If you chose to use the peace maker instead and didn't get the crates earlier, return to the crates for ammo. If every monster is destroyed, a pathway made of magenta-colored light forms to connect the 2 areas. Go up it. At the top, crates are on the right, for more ammo. At the top, dark monsters will appear, both the dark demons and the dark bats. The peace maker has work to do. Wait for at least 2 dark demons to appear then put the peace maker to use. Once destroyed, a platform will rise... and the gun annoyingly gets put back. It is to the left upon entering this area from the ramp. Bring the gun out again then jump on it. Turn slightly right and a high ledge is there - use a high jump to get on it. A crate is on the left for ammo - ignore it if you have a full ammo load. Turn right and go up the ramp. 4 large dark spiders will come. Put the peace maker to use again. At the top, dark demons will appear, 4 in total. Shoot them with the peace maker, waiting for at least 2 to show up for maximum efficiency of the peace maker. Another magenta-colored pathway of light appears on the left. Collect the drops as needed then cross it. A lot of dark spiders are just across - either use the peace maker or Dark Blast to bulk destroy them. However, to the left of the light path, a long chain of dark spiders are coming, single file. The peace maker has more work to do. These spiders will split into multiple small ones as well which makes the peace maker that much more effective. The game's frame rate will even drop to about 6 to 10 fps, depending on how many are hit with the arcing. Go up that ramp and dark demons are waiting. Hit them with the peace maker. Destroy them all and a platform will rise... and the gun annoyingly gets put back automatically. Bring it back out as soon as you can, collect the stuff, then go to that platform for a scene and another completed mission in the bag. Items received: • Dark eco crystal • Eco power sphere .==============================. # 7.11 Orb hunt 40 **071100** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: *` Hero difficulty: *` That now completes everything in the items inventory. Get the peace maker out again then leave the building you're in and leave the water slums area. From the start, turn right and follow the path around, turning right twice. Turn left after the short distance and continue straight, following the path. Turn right at the insection, left, then right at the next intersections. Follow the path. When the path opens up again where the cracks are, turn hard right and continue straight to go to the tent. Go inside for a scene. Return to the water slums area - go backward, turn hard left, then follow the path. At the intersection, turn left, go straight, turn left, go straight, then turn right. Here, you will find nothing but scorpion metal heads. You remember this place right? First thing in act 2, upon arriving in Haven City, you were in this area. Unlike before, there's now a never-ending supply of skull gems from them as well. Grind skull gems if you desire, though it's not really necessary. On the right side near the water, there is a kiosk. Skip it for now, for efficiency reasons. Go to the next one along the path. Trade 4 skull gems for the mission. There are 16 seconds to find the orb on the high spot there. From facing the kiosk, turn right and get out the jet board. Turn right to get on the bridge, left once across it. Get off the jet board here and do a high jump with a spin attack. The orb is on top here. Items received: • 3x orb .==============================. # 7.12 Orb hunt 41 **071200** # `==============================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: **** Go back to the kiosk I told you to skip which is straight ahead. Trade the 4 skull gems for the final side mission in the game. There are 20 seconds to find the orb on the pipe. Say, doesn't that pipe look familiar? You were just there from the previous orb hunt! From facing the kiosk, turn left. There is a pile of junk over there but you slip through. Continue straight then turn left at the bridge. Turn left once across it. Now, get on that long pipe and grind it to the top. The orb is there at the top. This one is hard because I take several tries and there just isn't really enough time to get it. Congratulations, you completed every side mission in the game! Items received: • 3x orb .===================================================. # 7.13 Reach Catacombs via palace ruins **071300** # `===================================================` Normal difficulty: ***` Hero difficulty: ** Go straight into that narrow passage. You will get a scene at the end of it. Straight ahead are a bunch of ninja mantises (about 8) and spider metal heads that shoot often (about 3). Use the blaster and pick them off while they're not jumping around. If they are, just use the rapid fire spinning attack approach to quickly eradicate them, but only when there's a large number. The scatter gun works nice too, but it's not really recommended because of the short range it has. Another good option is Dark Blast or Dark Bomb. They drop a lot of dark eco. From the entrance area, turn left to find an orb at the end of the very narrow pathway. Go back then continue straight. More ninja mantises are present, and more spider metal heads. Just off on the left side are very narrow platforms with 2 orbs. Get the orbs using spin attacks to carefully position the landing, doing so once you've cleared the area out of metal head monsters. You can stand on the higher platform where the orb is and shoot the ninja mantises from there - they won't get up there so it's a great spot for a quality ambush. Continuing straight, go right where 3 more ninja mantises are waiting just around the corner. The blaster does fine there - shoot them as they become visible. 4 more ninja mantises wait around the corner on the left. Shoot them. In the corner, to the right from the top of the stairs, are crates for blue ammo and a health pack. Around the left, there is a cracked wall - use Dark Jak's Dark Charge to destroy it. Consider remaining as Dark Jak so you can ready Dark Blast just beyond because there's 5 ninja mantises present. Return to the dark eco vent to recover as needed. Jump up the bluish-colored object and continue straight. Poison flowers are ahead. Do not punch or spin attack these. They can be shot though. If you've got good health, you could spin attack them to get through more quickly - just get to the white eco vents ahead and use Light Regenerate while standing in them. Also, activate Light Flight while standing in the light eco vent as well. From facing that wall, turn left and fly across. Be ready to deal with 3 or 4 ninja mantises - you may need to use spin attacks when they're really close. There are crates on the right for an ammo reload. Hiding in the pile of rubble are 2 more ninja mantises - shoot them. Another light eco vent is straight ahead, another opportunity to heal and another need for Light Flight. Use it to get to the area on the right. The crates slightly right have blue and red ammo reloads. Turn left to find 2 shooter spiders and 5 ninja mantises - put the blaster or Dark Blast to good use. A dark eco vent is straight ahead for a full recovery - you need Dark Charge to destroy the shattered glass. You may remember this area from Jak 2, the pathway around what used to be the stadium where you had the 3 race classes. Continue around - there are no monsters. When the camera starts tiling down, be careful. Those platforms are unstable. Jump on and quickly jump back off again. At the bottom are 2 crates for a health pack and an ammo reload. Straight ahead is an unstable platform - get on it and quickly go to the right, which is stable. Just around the right corner are 4 more ninja mantises. Are you loving these things yet? Another pair of ninja mantises are ahead. Shoot or spin attack them, depending on their distance. A rail is straight ahead. Either use the jet board to grind across (it's an easy one) or use Light Flight if you're really bad with griding. Another rail is ahead, this time with a jump needed to the left. Grind the rails or use Light Flight, whichever is easier for you. Several more lovely ninja mantises, about 6, are straight ahead. Either get the spinning rapid fire ready, or Dark Blast, and destroy them all. At the other side are unstable platforms - quickly get on and jump off, continuing straight. On the other side is a dark eco vent on the left and one of those pods where the poison flowers keep coming out of and a cracked wall beyond it. Transform into Dark Jak and run straight to the wall. If you're low on dark eco, use the dark eco vent instead. Avoid the flowers, though it's very hard. Destroy the cracked wall and continue until you go up a ledge where the flowers stop but about 5 ninja mantises are waiting. Turn left and get across the unstable platforms. About 7 ninja mantises wait. Spinning rapid fire attacks are very helpful here. There are another 2 ninja mantises just beyond. Turn slightly left and a rail is present that requires a transfer to another rail then a jump across a gap. Grind across - flying isn't really possible without the infinite flight glitch. Quickly get off the jet board and get out the blaster or transform to Dark Jak so you can use Dark Blast, assuming you have at least 50% of the dark eco stock. Destroy the roughly 6 ninja mantises here. Crates contain an ammo reload and a health pack. Turn left to find a pair of unstable platforms - climb up them and quickly get across. More rails, with a weird diagonal gap to the right. Grind or fly across. Again, quickly get off the jet board and get out the blaster for another spinning rapid fire run. Turn right and jump across the unstable platforms to the ledge. Another roughly 8 more ninja mantises are waiting. Destroy them. A dark eco vent is on the right - transform into Dark Jak, turn left and use Dark Charge to destroy the cracked wall. Return to the dark eco vent to have a full load of Dark Jak. Go through the gate for a scene and another completed mission. Item received: • Slam Dozer .======================================. # 7.14 Break through ruins **071400** # `======================================` Normal difficulty: **** with toughness upgrade (***** without) Hero difficulty: *` The Slam Dozer, horrible for turbos, but a really high endurance vehicle. If you haven't obtained "upgrade vehicle toughness", get it now as it will help significantly with this already difficult mission. From the entrance, go straight then turn right. Upon turning right, a dark bat is present. Shoot it. Dark shield monsters will appear - just run over them to destroy them. You won't be able to leave the vehicle to pick things up. Also, you will find that fireballs are repeatedly fired. A target symbol appears on the floor in random positions, sometimes it doesn't even show up at all. Stay away from it though it's often very hard to do because ATVs have such poor maneuverability. After following the path, a gate will be present - smash into it from about a vehicle length away using a turbo. On the other side, you'll find a gate, a barrier. Notice the 2 bluish lights as you enter. Ram into them (turbo not required) to destroy them. Destroy both and the gate goes down. However, 4 dark demons and 3 dark bats are present. Run over the dark demons with your 10-ton battering ram and shoot the dark bats. When the gate is down, go through it. There is no need to use a turbo for it. Through the now-open gate, 3 dark demons will appear - run them over. A bridge that is up is straight ahead - run into it with a modest speed - a turbo is not needed. On the other side are more dark demons - run over those too! You can mostly ignore them though, if you're fast. Turn left and follow the path. A bridge is present at the end - run into it to create a pathway to the other side. Dark bats will arrive. Just to the left is another one of those control tower things - destroy it. Back up and turn around. Turn left and go into the passage. Follow the passage, running over every dark demon you can find. Ain't it fun using your 10-ton vehicle to run over monsters with? The dark bats and the endless barrage of fireballs are the next concern. Shoot the dark bats down. If a target symbol appears over the vehicle, use a turbo to quickly get out of the way. To get that control tower on the ledge to the right, go past it then make a hard right turn to go up the ramp. Go through the passage and follow it, running over the dark demons like a battering ram. A control tower is conveniently along the way - run into it. The next one is to the right in the corner. Ram it. The gate almost directly behind will be down. The hardest part of this mission follows. If you've got less than 1/3 the health, this is going to be quite tricky but still doable. If you've got less than 1/5 the health, you might consider restarting to try again so you get here with more health. Unfortunately, there are no check points. Turn left to find a control tower and estroy it. Turn right and follow the path to another control tower straight ahead - ram that thing down. As you turn left, another dark bat is present - shoot it down. This is the toughest area. If you've still got 1/5 of your health by now, you're still doing okay. From entering this room, you will find a control tower on the left... and about 4 dark bats, among several dark demons. Now for the hard part - skilled jumps. The Slam Dozer has very poor jumping and poor speed. However, if you use a turbo just before the jump then jump over the edge, you can actually make it and still keep the high speed while in the air. Just make sure to brake once you get to the other side. 4 dark demons are present on the other side - run them over. On the left is a control tower and on the right is a bridge to knock down. Ram the control tower. Another one is straight across on the island over there. Beware of the part sticking out - avoid it or you'll fall in the area below and it's not easy getting back (both are in the southern corners of this large room - there are 2 gates that could be rammed. If you do fall, take the southeast exit and follow it around. If you didn't fall, return to where you were. Turn left and jump across this gap. Turn left to find a control tower - destroy it. Turn around the way you came and knock the bridge down. Knock the bridge down to the left if you haven't already. The last control tower is here. The gate is now open. Go through it for a scene. Man, what a tough mission, now finally finished! Even I had difficulty writing how to do it. It's probably not the best way though, especially for this last part. .=======================================. # 7.15 Reach Precursor Core **071500** # `=======================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: **** Remember the Catacombs from section 5.52? You've got another one of those to do, this one being different. Remember, like before, repeatedly press R1 to fire and destroy stuff along the way. I will use the same terminology I used in section 5.52 for how holes are located. This course is a lot messier and it even rotates around so what's panel 0 doesn't always stay the same, gradually becoming what was panel R1. Panel L2 after a fair hit has the first hole. Panel R2 has the next hole immediately after. Shortly after, panels L4 through R2 are all missing (no ceiling or right wall). Spinning electric arcs are to be avoided with the hole in L3 and another spinning laser very shortly after. After a slight right turn, panel R2 has a hole with an arc right after. Panel L1 has the next hole twice in a row, with R2 having the next one and a red robot at the same time. Panel L2 has a hole then R1 then L1 and L3 all while turning right. At the same time as the hole in panel L3, a red robot comes. Panels L3 and L4, side by side, have holes. Immediately after, panels L3, L4, and 5 are all a hole, side by side. R2 and R3, side by side, are holes shortly after. Panel L4 has the next hole a fair ways out. Next is another case of panels L4 through R2 being a large hole (no ceiling or right wall. Panel L2 has a hole at the same time a red robot comes. Another hole in L2 is next followed shortly by L3 then R4. The entire upper part from L3 to R3 is missing in the next section. Immediately after is a hole in L1 with a red robot. A pillar in panel 0 comes a fair bit later with a hole in panel R2 - go around the pillar to the left. Panels from L3 to R3 are missing again, for no ceiling. Panel R1 has another hole, with a red robot at the same time. R3 has a hole almost immediately after followed by panel L2. A pillar in panel R1 is next then an electric arc spinning clockwise. Panel R3 has a hole immediately after followed by a gap, then R3 with R4 together. A pillar is in panel 0 again with R1 having a hole right after - go around the pillar on the left side. A red robot comes at the same time the pillar was. Panels L4 and 5 have a hole immediately after then R2 with R4 immediately after. Panel 0's first hole finally comes next. A clockwise-spinning electric arc is immediately after then a hole in L1 then R2 immediately after. A clockwise-spinning electric arc is next. Panels R1 all around to L4 are missing (no right side or ceiling). This is then flipped to L1 all around to R4 are all missing. L1 is added back shortly after. The end of the course follows. This long area has nothing present. You can stop firing. .====================================. # 7.16 Destroy Dark Ship **071600** # `====================================` Normal difficulty: ****` Hero difficulty: **` Remember from before? This time, you don't have that machine. You're just plain ol' Jak. There's also a 5-minute time limit, which shouldn't be too much of a problem. Like before, destroy the 5 dark demons, using the peace maker, and the other door will open, on the right from upon first entering. Go through it and things are different, since it's a different side. If you're low on ammo, or needing to restock from failed attempts, use only the martial arts moves Jak has, the punch and spin attack to destroy the dark shield monsters. Use Dark Blast with all 5 dark demons present to speed things up a bit. Jump down the bottomless pit to respawn the 5 dark demons. Don't worry if the monsters defeat Jak. The focus is restoring ammo. 2 dark bats will come - shoot them with the peace maker. A series of 7 platforms are to be crossed. Just go full speed ahead and jump with only single jumps shortly before the platform makes a full rotation. Another pair of dark bats will come as you're making the jumps - ignore them and keep moving. Quickly climb up the ledges. 3 dark demons will be waiting - put the peace maker to use on them. You will find an area that looks like ice - go down it. At the bottom, 2 dark bats are waiting, with 3 dark demons on the cliff straight ahead. Shoot them all. Turn left and you will see poles going in and out. Get on the first pole using a double jump, starting just as it comes out. Jump when Jak is near the top of it and get to the ledge straight across. A pair of these poles are present ahead - do the same thing, transferring and always using double jumps. Follow the path and you will find a door that won't open. Turn right and find 3 dark bats - shoot them all. The door will open. A check point is reached. Follow the path. 3 dark demons are present - a single use of the peace maker should be all you need to take all 3 down at once. Continue straight. A light eco vent is present, funny in this setting. It's there because Light Jak's Light Flight is needed. However, just before reaching it, you will find 4 dark bats approaching. Destroy them with the peace maker. Use it to heal first, if needed, standing in the vent. Then, while in the vent, activate Light Flight. Fly straight. Fly to the platform slightly left. You have 2 options here. You can either go to the platform to the right, or you can skip it and carefully fly your way around the platform. Another option is present - you can either turn slightly left and go onto that platform then make a slight left turn to get on the ledge. Or, you can skip the small platform and go directly to the ledge, since it's quite a ways down. Regardless of how many shortcuts you used, return to normal Jak and get out the peace maker, continue straight. 5 dark bats will come out, 2 at first with the other 3 about 5 seconds apart. Activate Light Flight and fly across that gap. Quickly end Light Jak and get the peace maker out to shoot the 4 total dark demons. The door will open - go through it to an elevator. A scene will occur and the timer will vanish. At the bottom, go straight for another scene. You must now quickly get to the portal to escape, but there's a massive blast of wind coming, throwing junk around, and the land is unstable. Stay to the darker-colored parts and avoid the junk. Use rolling long jumps as needed - avoid using the jet board. The first part will break immediately, go straight and avoid jumping, using rolling long jumps when the trash gets near. Continue straight. When you reach the dark platform, immediately go left to avoid the junk. Stay to the left and let the junk pass then quickly jump onto the next platform. Once on it, immediately go left then continue straight. As soon as it's possible to go right, do so but don't go too far right. Get on the next platform and stay to the right to the end where you need to jump to the left on the next platform. Go straight, going to the right as soon as it's possible. Jump up the platform. Continue going straight to the edge but wait for the junk on the left to go by then continue, going around to the far left side. Go to the right side to get on the sturdy platform and go straight to get a scene and finish this mission. .=====================================. # 7.17 Destroy final boss **071700** # `=====================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: *** The first part is quite difficult. Right from Spargus City's gate, you get the Sand Shark, which doesn't help much in this first part because the guns cannot be aimed beyond turning and using the terrain's slopes. I don't know if there's a time limit for this boss, but I've gone on for 5 minutes and I still haven't had any "mission fail", beyond the Sand Shark being destroyed. The goal is to shoot the 14 symbols on the bottoms of the legs to disable the boss. The legs move very fast. I cannot really specify as to which legs have the symbols and where because it's always moving. There are 6 legs in total, with a mix of either 2 or 3 symbols on them. The symbols are generally on the sides and sometimes in the front. The ones in the front tend to be the most troublesome, especially the front legs. I tend to spend the last 2 to 3 minutes just trying to get the last 2 symbols. While under the giant insect, spiky balls will be randomly thrown about - shoot them for turbos and to clear the path. Spinning blades will also be released that move about randomly - shoot them to destroy them. Once you get all 14 symbols, a scene will occur. A dark eco vent is just to the left - use it as needed, though it's not really a must for this. There are 3 small spiders - consider using the dark eco vent for a Dark Blast to make things easy. Get out the peace maker though. Destroy the 3 small spiders then go to the right, from facing the wall. A platform will take you to the next higher area. At the top, turn left to find 2 medium-sized dark spiders. Spin attack them - they're simple enough. Once defeated, get on the platform for the next area. Go up the platform to find a single, large spider. Spin attack it until it splits in two. Spin attack the two together or just fire the peace maker. Climb the platform on the right. Another platform is immediately straight ahead - no spiders to deal with. At the top, the main final boss itself starts. There are 4 rounds to it. 3 crates are present for an ammo reload. Always use the peace maker in this as there's a lot of slow-moving monsters, even tentacles. The enemies here always drop ammo based on the gun that's missing ammo so the gun you use is your choice. The peace maker is the best due to the massive area of effect it has (plus plenty of ammo drops to gain more ammo than you use). Shoot the tentacles right away to destroy them. Various dark spiders of random sizes appear. Let them group up then fire the peace maker toward the center for mass destruction. Because the spiders frequently split, you'll often need more than one shot, even as many as 3. Spiders will continue coming for some time - shoot them and collect the ammo. While doing this, keep an eye on the boss's mouth. When it starts glowing red, begin moving around at high speed (rolling long jumps and especially the jet board are unnecessary). The laser will always follow. Collect ammo as needed. Now, the dark eco vent (on the left) and the light eco vent (on the right) open up. The dark one should be ignored. Instead, go to the light one and heal while in the vent (so you can make sure you have the 16 extra health from healing for effectively 32 maximum units). During this, the boss will do laser sweeps - jump over the lazer to avoid it. When the boss exposes the magenta-colored part on the side during the laser sweeps, shoot it with the peace maker (or have fun and fire off the supernova as the boss is halfway down the sweep. Regardless on how you hit that magenta thing, round 2 follows. Very shortly after the hit is scored, the boss's head will smack down on - just run to avoid it. The vents will also fade away. More tentacles will appear - shoot them right away, along with the countless dark spiders. This time, during this, giant spinning blades will be added in that do 4 units of damage. Shoot them to destroy it. Failing to do so will cause it to chase after you and it's impossible to avoid it. There are 2 such blades in total, mixed in with the barrage of dark spiders. Again, the laser chase follows, this time mixed in with dark spiders. While the laser is going off with the dark spiders around, you can actually get it so that the laser deals damage to the dark spiders. Continue avoiding the laser while the peace maker (and laser) destroy the dark spiders. After a bit, the vents open up again and the laser sweeps begin again. Heal as needed then fire a shot at the magenta thing like before. Follow the same process you did with the second stage for the third stage - destroy the spiders and avoid the chaser laser. When the vents open up, heal again and shoot for that magenta-colored spot. On the fourth stage, the boss will attempt to swat you with its head - just move around constantly to avoid it. It will make 2 strikes. Repeat the process as done with stages 2 and 3. After a while, the boss will attempt to swat you with its head again, 3 times in total. The vents open up - heal as needed then finish off the boss by shooting that magenta-colored area. Once hit, a scene will occur. Congratulations! You have now completed the game... well, sort of. You completed the main story. There's still orb hunting to do, among others. Items received: • All the best secrets in the game (not really an item but well worth noting) .======================================================. # 7.18 Finishing up - orbs in Spargus City **071800** # `======================================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: **** Now the best secrets in the game are available. If you've avoided dropping below 250 orbs, you can get them all now. Otherwise, you'll have to focus on the orb searches, the lone red ones or start hero mode. Do not go after hero mode right away. You can still pick up orbs that will carry on into hero mode. First up, get invulnerability, for a massive 100 orbs. With that, the rest of what's needed, and replaying in hero mode will be very easy and quite fun. Next, get unlimited ammo for 50 orbs. Now, unlimited Light Jak is the next higher priority, for 50 orbs. Unlimited Dark Jak is the next higher priority. Do try to spare 5 orbs so you can activate hero mode. Buy whatever else you want, just don't drop below 5. Dark Jak Invisibility on /\ is pretty much junk and it's crazy expensive. Everything in "art gallery" is 2 orbs, but you have to get lesser stuff to get the others. You start in Spargus City, on the eastern side. Let's go get some more orbs. Remember that bridge spanning 2 buildings to the north? Remember all those tempting orbs on the roof top? With Light Flight, they are reachable. From the top of the bridge, activate it and fly away from the side with the orbs on it. You will need to get on that roof top and it may take a few tries. It's easier if you can get the top of the big jump, the second jump that starts the flight, and aim it so that the flight is just over those things sticking out. You can't land on them, but it stops the falling, giving you that last boost to get on the roof top. From that roof top, however, you can then fly over to the top of the building where the orbs are. There are 11 in total. Sure it looks like 5, but there's another 6 on the higher area. In the southeast corner of the eastern area, there are high pillars, one with an orb on it. There is no other way to access them without using Light Flight. Use it to fly to the orb to the southeast from the top of a ramp. In the building in eastern area's eastern part, where a ladder goes up, fly to the WNW to a building that has an orb on the top. From there (for which that pipe behind it has no collection for, though the camera glitches as if it does), get out the jet board and grind the pipe sticking out over the edge. To get across the large gap, start as far away from the pipe as you can on the high part and get out the jet board without moving. Once out, go straight, grinding the pipe (just hold [] for that) then fall over the edge, holding [] to get on the pipe. Grind it to the top to pick up 2 orbs. At the very top of this, there is another orb, but you get thrown up. Carefully land on the odd pipe and go over the edge to get the last orb. Do not get off the jet board until you firmly land - you will take fall damage otherwise (even with invulnerability). Go to the northern part of the eastern area, going up the stairs leading to the arena. Activate Light Flight and fly to the right. Climb up the ledges and there's an orb in a bag - smash it. Turn left from the top of the stairs and fly to those roof tops. Another orb is found on top of a white-sided building. Go the western side of Spargus City. Remember that large area of dark brown? You will need to climb to the top of that building. There are a lot of vases, urns, and bags here, often containing ammo. There are 2 easy to reach orbs at the edges of the roof - approach them slowly. One last orb is stuck far out - use either the jet board or, easier, Light Flight to get it. The last orb is on top of a cylindrical tower on the western side of Spargus City. I currently do not know how to get it without using glitches. There may be more orbs, but I currently do not know of any others. Items received: • About 22x orb .==============================================. # 7.19 Finishing up - orbs in nest **071900** # `==============================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: *` Leave Spargus City. With invulnerability, a vehicle is not necessary, especially with jet board turbo. Remember those orbs you couldn't get out of the vehicle to get at the entrance to the nest? Those orbs are now accessible. Go to the northwest part of the lost city area to find the cave. Unlimited Light Jak will make this easy - when the leeches start appearing, just use flash freeze to make it easy. Also, as you go into the metal head cave nest, note the odd areas on the left and right sides in the narrow path. The map doesn't show the location so you will have to use counting. Looking on the left side of the pathway, count 3 structures on the left. The third one has 3 orbs on it. Get to about the middle, for the lower part, then jump up it with a double jump. Pass through the narrow gap. Straight ahead is one orb. Another orb is to the left, and the third is in the vicinity and very close. At the other side (the side that would've been on the right), farther in, there's another area with more orbs, easily visible from the ledge. There are 3 orbs on this ledge, all close together. Continue deeper into the metal head cave. On the left side are 2 more orbs, the last 2. Leave the metal head nest and do a manual save to save the 8 orbs you obtained. Items received: • 8x orb .====================================================. # 7.20 Finishing up - orbs in Haven City **072000** # `====================================================` Normal difficulty: **** Hero difficulty: **** Regardless on how you got to the metal head cave, you don't need to go in any deeper. If you do, you can find a lot of collision-related flaws - walking through walls, the mud being much shallower than it appears, among others. With invulnerabilty, you're free to explore. Regardless, return to the blue transport vehicle. [[figure out how to get the 12 or so orbs above]] Even now, I still cannot figure out any possible way to get the orbs on the wires in the ports without using glitches in the game. The area on the eastern side where a vent is just beyond a bridge that leads to rails gets a start, but the rails come well short. Flips, launch jumps, etc. don't seem to work. Even "cheating" using infinite Light Flight to get on the eastern tower then grinding the rails over does not yield any clues. If you can figure out how it's done without the use of glitches, please let me know. I know the jet board is behind it. Although this is still only 520 orbs or so, I still have no clue where the remaining 80 or so are. It could be in some of the mission areas, such as Haven Forest or the Eco Mine. Once you've obtained every orb you can, save your game (via manual save) then spend the 5 orbs to unlock hero mode. You will have to save to an open save slot first. Oddly, you cannot overwrite an existing save file, a bug in the game. You will restart the game from section 5.2 in the walkthrough above. See the next section for details on the differences. Items received: • ?x orb (at least 15) ____ _ _ __ __ __ __ ___ ____ _ _ / ___| | | | | | \ / | | \ / | / _ \ | _ \ | | | | \ \ | | | | | . V . | | . V . | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | \ \ | | | | | |\ /| | | |\ /| | | _ | | _ < \ V / __\ \ | |_| | | | V | | | | V | | | | | | | | | | | | |____/ \___/ |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| ######################################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 8 Summary reference and hero mode differences **080000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ######################################### To organize the above walkthrough into story missions and side missions sorted by type, I've summarized them here. Differences with hero mode are also explained and other weird things you can do with hero mode not possible in normal mode. The section number is always stated first, for quick reference. .================================. # 8.1 Story missions **080100** # `================================` To complete the game and get new secrets revealed to spend the orbs on, you need to complete these missions. They are listed in the "missions" section in the wheel menu. With hero mode, you will already have all 12 morph guns, all 8 vehicles (if you've unlocked them), all 4 pieces of armor for 16 max health, Dark Bomb and Dark Blast, Light Regenerate, Light Flash Freeze, and Light Shield. The item inventory is wiped clean (they're story items), except for the jet board. You keep every secret obtained and all the orbs you collected from the previous, but the orbs reset. That is, you can collect another potentially 600 orbs. If, after purchasing hero mode, you have 7 orbs left, you will start hero mode with those 7 orbs to spend. This is crucial to unlocking the rest of the secrets. To focus on just the story missions, and know what key differences there are with hero mode and the biggest secrets unlocked, here is the list: ``````````````````````````` 8.1.1 Act 1 story missions ........................... Section 5.2 - This is done the same way as before. Section 5.3 - Use any of the 12 guns of your choice. The marauders are harmless now, but the lava, oddly, still does 2 units of damage so you will still need to get on the higher ledges. You won't need to worry at all about ammo - it's now unlimited. If you feel like it, put flash freeze to good fun use. Section 5.4 - This is done the same way as before. Section 5.7 - There is no change here either. Section 5.9 - I don't know if you can take a different vehicle for this. The only change here is that the ATVs can no longer take damage, but only when in operation. Crash and burn all you want, firing off turbos as you please. Even crashes that would totally obliterate the vehicle would be 100% survivable. Section 5.10 - Use turbos all you can. With good skill, you can even get the gold first thing and I'd recommend it. You will get so far ahead of everyone, it's as if they don't exist any more. If this race had 6 laps, you'd be crossing the finish line before the others even start their 6th lap! Oh the fun that would be! Section 5.11 - This is almost the same, except you have unlimited turbos. I don't know if it works or not, but you could use endlessly use flash freeze and just go on foot all the way. Remember, when the bluish color starts fading away, begin holding L2 and repeatedly pressing [] until it goes through again - the game will have major frame rate problems. Section 5.12 - This is the same as before. I don't know if you can dismount and put flash freeze to use throughout the entire race though. Section 5.13 - With invincible ATVs, you can just chase the beasts around and get done faster. I don't know if it's possible to just dismount the ATV and use the peace maker or the like to destroy the beasts that way. Section 5.24 - Use the gun of your choice and destroy the 30 harmless marauders in the way you see fit. Like before, you will need to avoid the lava. Section 5.25 - This is done exactly the same as before and invulnerability will not help, except with the operation of the vehicle which is hardly an issue. Section 5.30 - Because Dark Invisibility is taken away, you will need to climb the platforms to obtain it again. At least you won't have to worry about taking damage from the torch flames. Section 5.31 - There is no change with this mission. Section 5.32 - This is now much easier, but the lava is still instant death upon touching it. Oh the joy it would be going in it for a swim.... Section 5.33 - If you have the orbs, unlock the "Dark Invisibility on /\" secret so you can save time. Just activate Dark Jak and press /\ instead of using the statues. The guardbots will still cause instant death. Try using the supernova once and see what happens with them, from a distance as usual. Section 5.35 - This is the same except the vehicle is invincible with unlimited so it's easier. The Sand Shark is still required for it though, as far as I'm aware. Section 5.36 - This is unchanged from before. Section 5.39 - Use whichever gun you so desire to mass-erase the 30 marauders, while avoiding the lava. Section 5.40 - With an invincible vehicle, the only challenge is just getting around the area, as if no monsters existed. Do destroy the eggs as usual and escape within the easy time limit. Section 5.42 - Use any gun you so desire, except the supernova, and unleash your fury. This is now far easier. Section 5.50 - This is about the same as before, just easier with using the guns of your choice. Section 5.51 - There is no change here, because the vehicle is still vulnerable due to a glitch. Section 5.52 - You will still need to make the jumps and destroy the enemies, but it's overall easier. Section 5.53 - This is only slightly easier with the invulnerability, but you still need to be fast. Section 5.54 - The peace maker goes nicely here. Instead of jumping on the ledges at the end, use the supernova. It won't instantly destroy the boss though. I don't know if just firing the supernova 3 times right from the start is sufficient enough though. ``````````````````````````` 8.1.2 Act 2 story missions ........................... Section 6.4 - This is about the same as before, just slightly easier from invulnerability and unlimited ammo. Section 6.7 - While zoomers are not invulnerable due to a bug in the game, this mission is much easier with the unlimited ammo. The supernova should instantly destroy the blast bots... along with everything else in the area. With infinite ammo, why not? Section 6.9 - This is still just as difficult as before as crashing into anything will make the missile blow up, failing the mission. The checkpoint, at least, is unchanged. Section 6.13 - This is the same as before, except the ammo drops can be ignored as ammo is unlimited. Go for the easy gold! Section 6.15 - The speed for smashing the buttons is still needed, but with the invulnerability, this is much easier and faster as the target symbol can be ignored. Consider even using flash freeze or attempting to use the cannons to shoot the other robots with. Section 6.17 - What was very difficult is now very easy. Section 6.18 - The invulnerabilty helps with this, but the jumps to the areas with the dark eco tanks are still a bit tricky, and the grinding is just as difficult. The acid is still instant death though - oh the fun it would be going swimming in there.... Section 6.19 - This mission is only slightly easier because of the invulnerability. It's still otherwise done the same. Section 6.20 - This is also much easier, but do not use the dark guns or the plasmite RPG for this as they will instantly destroy the vehicle. Use any other gun of your choice though and don't be afraid to shoot Jinx either if needed - he's still vulnerable but Jak isn't. Section 6.23 - The missiles will still cause instant death to this vehicle so there is no change. Section 6.27 - This is only slightly easier due to the invulnerability, but the core process is still the same. However, the extra guns still have unlimited ammo so it's more important to avoid them as you can't go back. Section 6.28 - This is only slightly easier from the invulnerabilty and unlimited ammo. Try to get at least the bronze, though try for the silver. Section 6.29 - This is unchanged from before and the blast bot is still vulnerable due to a bug in the game. Section 6.34 - The mission is now easier and faster than before. Consider using flash freeze or the supernova to keep the enemy robots altogether to make this faster. Section 6.36 - This is a bit easier, but still has some tricky jumping to do. Section 6.37 - There is no change from earlier. Section 6.40 - With unlimited turbos, this is faster. I don't know if it's possible to get out of the vehicle and just endlessly use flash freeze though, like the first case. Section 6.44 - Although the ATVs are invulnerable, the gate still is vulnerable. The concept is still the same though. I don't know if it's possible to do it without the vehicle, but if it is, use flash freeze and the peace maker or supernova to make this as effortless as possible. Section 6.45 - It's fun to use flash freeze once at the destination. Seeing the explosions on the ground is fun! Use whichever gun you prefer for this. Section 6.51 - What used to be difficult is now very easy. The metal-pede shots will still knock the vehicle back, but at least the ATV cannot be destroyed. Section 6.52 - I don't recall if invulnerability affects the vehicle for this mission, but if invulnerable, this mission is a piece of cake - you ignore everything except the final one which must be destroyed. Section 6.57 - This mission is doable without the use of the jet board. You will have to use flash freeze entirely. Try to figure out how, for an extra challenge. Section 6.59 - This mission is just as difficult as before because the vehicle is vulnerable due to a bug in the game. Section 6.60 - Thanks to invulnerability and unlimited ammo, this difficult mission is now far easier, outside the jumps and the use of the vehicle. Section 6.61 - The mission is easier now - stay clear of the holes though. ``````````````````````````` 8.1.3 Act 3 story missions ........................... Section 7.4 - What used to be frustrating due to the dark demons is now easy. Just focus on getting from point A to point B. Section 7.5 - Because the gun is still vulnerable, due to a bug in the game, this is still just as challenging as before and uses the same strategy. Section 7.6 - This frustratingly difficult mission is now much easier. The guns are still vulnerable though, but shouldn't be much of an issue by focusing solely on the flowers and destroying them quickly enough. Section 7.7 - Unlike the Titan Suit in Jak 2, the robot is invulnerable, making it easy beyond the awkward control and the jumps needed. Section 7.9 - With both vehicles just as vulnerable as before, this is just as difficult as before. Section 7.10 - This is now much easier. Section 7.13 - The unlimited ammo and invulnerability help significantly with this, but the grinding and jumps are still just as tricky. Section 7.14 - A difficult mission turns much easier due to invulnerability. Just focus on getting through the area. Section 7.15 - With the vehicle just as vulnerable, due to a bug in the game, this is just as difficult. Section 7.16 - There is no need to restock ammo, but you still have to be fairly quick and make those jumps and flights. Section 7.17 - The first stage of this boss is just as frustratingly difficult. However, the second phase is much easier, almost effortless. .===========================. # 8.2 Orb hunts **080200** # `===========================` All 41 orb hunts require 4 skull gems to be traded to get the mission. A gold orb that's worth 3 orbs in one, is then placed in some nearby, somewhat random location. A scene will occur, lasting about 4 seconds, showing where the orb is located. Take the visual clues as a reference. You are given a few seconds, starting the moment the camera returns to where Jak is, to touch the orb (to collect it) using any means necessary before the timer runs out. The time limit is a good clue on how far away the orb is. More time typically means the orb is farther away or requires more distance. Flash freeze can be used to significantly slow down the clock, to 5%. Flash freeze is not always available though. If the timer runs out, the mission fails, but you can try as many times as necessary. If you choose not to restart the mission, as from giving up, you can always return to the statue or kiosk later and resume trying again, though you won't have to trade skull gems again. Once the orb is collected, with one exception, it can never be collected again. See the "glitches" section for details. This section lists all 41 of the orb hunts in the game. The section number, and flags are given. FW meand that the "fall in water" glitch can be used for this. IO means the "infinite orb glitch" can be used for this. A ? at the end of either flag means I'm not entirely sure if it's possible. They are ordered by availability: 1. Section 5.8. FW IO 2. Section 5.18. IO 3. Section 5.19. IO 4. Section 5.20. IO 5. Section 5.21. IO 6. Section 5.22. IO 7. Section 5.23. IO 8. Section 5.26. IO 9. Section 5.27. IO 10. Section 5.28. IO 11. Section 5.29. IO 12. Section 5.34. IO 13. Section 5.41. IO 14. Section 5.43. IO 15. Section 5.48. IO 16. Section 6.2. FW IO 17. Section 6.3. IO 18. Section 6.5. FW IO? 19. Section 6.8. FW 20. Section 6.12. 21. Section 6.14. FW 22. Section 6.16. IO? 23. Section 6.21. IO 24. Section 6.22. IO 25. Section 6.24. 26. Section 6.26. 27. Section 6.31. IO 28. Section 6.33. FW 29. Section 6.35. FW IO? 30. Section 6.41. IO 31. Section 6.43. IO? 32. Section 6.46. IO 33. Section 6.47. FW IO 34. Section 6.49. FW IO 35. Section 6.50. IO 36. Section 6.54. FW IO 37. Section 6.56. FW IO 38. Section 6.58. IO 39. Section 7.8. FW 40. Section 7.11. FW IO? 41. Section 7.12. FW Total skull gems: 164 Total orbs: 123 .=================================. # 8.3 Ring challenges **080300** # `=================================` Although some ring challenges are integrated in with the story, this strictly refers to the side missions, from the statues and kiosks. All 6 ring challenges require 8 skull gems to be traded to get the mission and the reward is always 10 orbs, a decent return. You are always given an appropriate form of transportation for these very close to the statue or kiosk. The timer starts as soon as the mission starts. The task is to go through every blue ring in the given sequence before the time runs out. Each ring has its own time limit. Running out of time, dying, destroying the vehicle, etc. causes the mission to fail. The last ring is always red - go through it before time runs out to complete the mission. Most of these are possible without a vehicle and just using flash freeze nonstop. On a second play through, consider trying to do as many of these as you can without the vehicle and just use flash freeze nonstop throughout. Here is the list of each one, how many total rings there are, and the normal source of transportation. They are ordered by availability. 1. Section 5.6. 16 rings using leaper lizard 2. Section 5.38. 23 rings using leaper lizard 3. Section 5.44. 20 rings using ATV or jet board 4. Section 6.25. 38 rings using jet board 5. Section 6.32. 28 rings using zoomer 6. Section 6.55. 46 rings using ATV Total skull gems: 48 Total orbs: 60 .================================. # 8.4 Vehicle stunts **080400** # `================================` All of these are done through a single kiosk in the desert and there are 5 in total, all requiring a single skull gem trade. Single hang time is getting the longest single hang time. Total hang time is getting a sum of total hang times above a certain threshold. Hang time is based on how long a vehicle is not colliding with something, even a wall. The mass inverter is the cheap and easy way to get the gold on this. Single distance is getting the longest distance jump you can get. Total distance is the total distance covered from jumps where the hang time is at least 3/4 second. The distance starts as soon as collision is not detected and ends once collision is detected again by any means. The distance is in meters and is based purely on the horizontal span and not the vertical. Flash freeze, the mass inverter, and the wave concussor are the easiest way to get distance, even more than a whole kilometer. Rolls are based on the vehicle being more than 90° from level and returning to upright. Rocks near mountains, hitting something odd sticking out, and very sideways slopes are the key to rolls. Each of the 5 challenges has a bronze, silver, and gold rating. If you make just the bronze threshold, such as 2.53 seconds of single hang time or 594 meters of total distance, you will obtain 3 orbs. If you get 3.77 seconds or 658 meters, you will get the silver for 3 more orbs. If you get the silver on the first try, you will receive 6 orbs instead of 3. With 4.61 seconds (or 23 seconds) and 1048 meters (or 1300 meters), you will get the gold for another 3. If you got the bronze before and now got the gold, you will get 6 orbs instead of 3. If you got the gold on the first try, that will yield 9 total orbs. Thus, for the 5 total challenges here, that's 45 potential orbs. Further details are in sections 5.14, 5.15, and 5.16. Total skull gems: 16 Total orbs: 45 .======================================. # 8.5 Follow me challenges **080500** # `======================================` There are 3 follow mes, each costing 8 skull gems for a reward of 10 orbs each. These side challenges involve following a light, staying close but not too close around a preset path. By getting too far away from the light source, about 150 meters it seems, the challenge will fail but you can retry indefinitely, always from the start. In short, touch the light, follow it around carefully, and at the end, touch the light to receive the 10 orbs. Here's which sections they are covered in. 1. Section 5.45 (available after 5.13). Uses ATV or jet board with turbo. 2. Section 5.49. Uses leaper lizard. 3. Section 6.30. Uses zoomer. Total skull gems: 24 Total orbs: 30 .=======================. # 8.6 Races **080600** # `=======================` There are 2 races, both in the desert. They cost varing numbers of orbs. The area used during the story mission (section 5.10) is used for the first case, only as a time trial. The other race becomes available later on. Races are self-explanatory - reach the finish line first. However, for the orbs, you need to reach the finish line in under a certain time limit. The Desert Screamer works best with these for its very high speed and modest handling. Having unlimited turbos helps significantly to get the gold, often the only practical way to get the gold. Thus, it's best to wait until you can get the desert screamer and unlimited turbos. For more in-depth information, go to these respective sections (a brief summary of the skull gems and orbs are given): 1. Sections 5.10 and 7.1. Trade 8 skull gems for 9 orbs. 2. Section 7.2 (available after 5.13). Trade 12 skull gems for 18 orbs. Total skull gems: 20 Total orbs: 27 .=========================================. # 8.7 Time stopper challenges **080700** # `=========================================` There are only 2 time stopper challenges. Each cost 8 skull gems and reward you with 10 orbs. A light appears very near by. Touching it starts the clock - you have 11 seconds to reach the finish line typically more than a kilometer away. To get there, you need to collect clock icons with spheres in them to get extra time. Blue ones give one extra second, yellow ones give two extra seconds, and red ones give three extra seconds. The key to these is to collect the time bonuses in a wise manner. These are the most fun when flash freeze is put to heavy use. It's possible to get almost 50 extra seconds on the clock and it's my proof for flash freeze slowing time down to 5% that of normal. For more in-depth information, go to these respective sections (the location and transportation options used are given): 1. Section 5.47. Find in Spargus City using leaper. 2. Section 6.42. Find in desert using ATV or turbo jet board. Total skull gems: 16 Total orbs: 20 .===========================. # 8.8 Minigames **080800** # `===========================` There are 4 total minigames. Most don't cost any skull gems at all, so use them as soon as they're available. "Free" orbs are waiting with good skill and/or strategy. There are only 2 time stopper challenges. Each cost 8 skull gems and reward you with 10 orbs. A light appears very near by. Touching it starts the clock - you have 11 seconds to reach the finish line typically more than a kilometer away. To get there, you need to collect clock icons with spheres in them to get extra time. Blue ones give one extra second, yellow ones give two extra seconds, and red ones give three extra seconds. The key to these is to collect the time bonuses in a wise manner. These are the most fun when flash freeze is put to heavy use. It's possible to get almost 50 extra seconds on the clock and it's my proof for flash freeze slowing time down to 5% that of normal. For more in-depth information, go to these respective sections (the location and transportation options used are given): 1. Section 5.17. Satellite game - initial details are in section 5.7. 2. Section 5.37. Turret shooting gallery - initial details are in section 5.36. 3. Section 6.38. Eco grid game - initial details are in section 6.37. 4. Section 6.53. Marauder mass destruction - trade 8 skull gems. Total skull gems: 8 (3 are free) Total orbs: 36 .=============================. # 8.9 Gun courses **080900** # `=============================` There are 4 total gun courses, but only 2 of them yield any orbs, the ones used in the story. The other 2 are unlocked in the secrets list. They do not cost any skull gems. See section 6.13 for the full details on how the gun courses work. In short, the goal is to destroy every non-civilian target as quickly as possible, especially the gold ones. Orbs are only given when a certain score threshold is crossed. For more in-depth information, go to these respective sections (the gun type used is referenced): 1. Section 6.13. Beam reflexor gun course (can also use blaster). 2. Section 6.28. Wave concussor gun course (can also use scatter gun). Total skull gems: 0 (both are free) Total orbs: 18 .======================================. # 8.10 Other side missions **081000** # `======================================` There are 6 other total side missions and they tend to cost a lot of skull gems, usually 12 each. Making up for that is the fact they grant a lot of orbs when successful. These side missions are either unique or don't really fit in anywhere else. For more in-depth information on each, go to these respective sections (the mission name and what it is are given): 1. Section 5.46. Rescue wastelanders. Similar to story mission 5.35. 2. Section 6.10. Missile reload practice run. Similar to story mission 6.9. 3. Section 6.11. Jet board scoring challenge. Perform tricks to score. 4. Section 6.48. Metal head mass destruction. Kill 180 leeches. Total skull gems: 48 Total orbs: 72 Skull gems subtotal: 344 Orbs subtotal: 431 .==============================. # 8.11 Other stuff **081100** # `==============================` When certain conditions are made, it is possible to do something that is not a side mission or even a story mission. These are my own missions, in a way, serving some good use. For more in-depth information on each, go to these respective sections (the mission name and why it's important is given): 1. Section 5.5. Explore Spargus City. Gather skull gems and orbs for later. 2. Section 6.1. Scorpions for skull gems. Restock on skull gems. 3. Section 6.6. Explore the Haven City port. Collect orbs in the area. 4. Section 6.39. Unlimited skull gem grinding. Obtain unlimited skull gems. 5. Section 7.18. Finishing up - orbs in Spargus City. Obtain more orbs. 6. Section 7.19. Finishing up - orbs in metal head nest. Obtain more orbs. 7. Section 7.20. Finishing up - orbs in Haven City. Obtain more orbs. Total skull gems: unlimited Total orbs: 169 Grand total skull gems: unlimited (344 needed) Grand total orbs: 600 (more are possible - see section 10.2) With 600 orbs in the game, that means 169 orbs are scattered about in the various mission areas and home worlds. I only know where about half of those remaining ones are. _____ _____ ____ ____ _____ _ _ __ _ |_ _| |_ _| | _ \ / ___| _ | ___| | | | | | \ | | | | | | | |_| | \ \ _| |_ | |__ | | | | | . \ | | | | | | | __/ \ \ |_ _| | __| | | | | | |\ \| | | | _| |_ | | __\ \ |_| | | | |_| | | | \ ' | |_| |_____| |_| |____/ |_| \___/ |_| \__| #################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 9 Tips and other fun stuff **090000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# #################### Want to learn a few tips and tricks from a pro? How about doing some other fun stuff just for the fun of it? That's what this section is for. .========================================. # 9.1 Rapid fire spin attack **090100** # `========================================` Jump, spin attack while in mid-air, then press R1 just after the spin attack with the blaster as the active gun. Whenever there's a lot of enemies around, this is an effective way to destroy them. It may cost a lot of ammo, but the accuracy is surprisingly good. Couple that with the 50% increase in damage with the blaster and it's even more effective, rivaling even the vulcan fury because you have to aim with the latter. The vulcan fury, however, is still best whenever there's a lot of enemies in front, though the arc wielder generally replaces that. .================================================. # 9.2 Over 1 kilometer distance jump **090200** # `================================================` Thought 220 meters for gold was very difficult to get? Think again. There is a way to make that look very short. It's entirely possible to get even 1200 meters at the most extreme end. First, get the mission. Second, get in the ATV and position it so that it's facing a jump ramp or the like. Quickly get out. Activate flash freeze. Quickly get out the mass inverter and fire off a shot. Change to the wave concussor and fully charge it. Unleash it while lined up behind the direction you want to send the vehicle and the vehicle will go flying off at high speed. For a more extreme distance, use the wave concussor as many times as you can. Quickly change to the mass inverter and fire it off while the vehicle is still in range and before falling over the edge. If done right, sent off in the right direction, and it lands in an optimal orientation, you could very well have a distance jump of 1 kilometer, more than what's needed for the gold in the total distance, but all in a single jump. .=====================================. # 9.3 Fly up with vehicle **090300** # `=====================================` From a level location, use the mass inverter. As the vehicle goes up, try to grab onto it from the side to cause Jak to hang on it. He will be carried up with the vehicle. Now, if you have a Game Shark that makes the mass inverter last several minutes, you'll be able to get some really extreme views from far above looking down at the tiny ground below. .==================================================. # 9.4 Slide or fly up a slidable slope **090400** # `==================================================` When a slope surface has you sliding on it instead of landing on it, using the spin attack or Light Flight will allow for that surface to be climbed a little higher, sometimes reaching areas you normally wouldn't be able to access. .=======================================================. # 9.5 Quickly collect items from smashables **090500** # `=======================================================` When a smashable contains skull gems, ammo, etc, smashing it will cause them to not be immediately collected, allowing skull gems to go flying all over the place, forcing you to chase after them. To make the items quick and easy to collect, smash them with the jet board. Doing so will cause whatever is in the smashable to be sucked toward you, for immediate collection, saving a lot of time. .===========================================. # 9.6 High speed travel on foot **090600** # `===========================================` Although control is a little limited, repeated rolling long jumps is the fastest way to travel on foot until the jet board which isn't much faster. At least you don't have to worry about running into the residents of Spargus City and having them shoot at you when doing repeated rolling long jumps. However, you won't be able to turn while in mid jump. ____ _ _____ _____ ___ _ _ _____ ____ / ___| | | |_ _| |_ _| / _ \ | | | | | ___| / ___| | | _ | | | | | | | | |_| | |_| | | |__ \ \ | | | | | | | | | | | | _ | _ | | __| \ \ | |_| | | |___ _| |_ | | | |_| | | | | | | |___ __\ \ \___/ |_____| |_____| |_| \___/ |_| |_| |_____| |____/ ################ ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 10 Bugs and glitches **100000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ################ No game is perfect - there's always going to be some bugs present. Some bugs are good and fun, others are bad and disastrous. While the list is not everything, here some of the many glitches in the game. There are even some crasher type bugs, where the game freezes, as if 0 fps was the frame rate, permanently. The music still plays though, an indication it's on a different thread. .==========================================. # 10.1 Format and organization **100100** # `==========================================` Before we get started, I'd like to explain the layout. There are 5 sections to each listing. The first 4 serve as a summary; the last part goes into fine detail. Here is what the 5 sections are and what they mean: Difficulty to exploit: this is how difficult it is to exploit the bug. The harder it is to exploit, the more time it takes to see the effects or the more time it takes to master it. 5 stars means it's really hard to exploit. 1 star means it takes very little effort. Fun factor: If a bug results in some thrills or amazing experiences, it scores very highly here. Usefulness: The greater the benefit, the better the score. Some glitches are useful, others are not. Conditions: This lists what requirements there are to attempt the bug. Description: The last part describes what the bug is in more detail, and describes not only how to reproduce the bug, but the pros and cons, etc. in greater detail. The ratings are just a summary. .================================. # 10.2 Infinite orbs **100200** # `================================` Difficulty to exploit: ** Fun factor: * Usefulness: ***** Conditions: Orb hunt mission with orb near ground, Dark Jak available to use The infinite orb glitch is, in a way, a cheat. If you don't like the side challenges or just want to get the new look for Jak, especially the races and other difficult stuff, this glitch will help you save time. For best results, a nearby orb (usually a short time limit) that is easy to get to is what you need - it makes it faster. Also, make sure to have enough dark eco to be able to use Dark Jak. First, choose any one of the orb hunt missions where the orb is on the ground (high in the air or on rails will not work). Second, using whichever method you feel comfortable with, get to the orb, but do not grab it. Get about 1 to 1 1/2 times Jak's height away from the edge of the orb. Now, hold L2 until Jak bends completely down. Press start to bring up the wheel menu while still holding L2. When the wheel menu is up, you can let go of holding L2. Go to "restart mission" and choose "yes". Now, don't press anything. When the game resumes, Dark Jak will suck in the orb (or won't if too far away from it) but the game declares the mission a failure. Press X when the motion stops. Now, the orb reappears. If you press L3 (press down on the left stick), you'll see that you have 3 more orbs than you had before. If you go to the location where the orb is, again, you will find that it is there. Repeat the trick as many times as necessary. If you collect the orb without doing the mission restarting, choose "quit game" and reload your save. If you get at least 600, Jak's looks will change slightly, mostly as a palette swap. The game thinks you've obtained every orb that exists, but you can easily have 2000 orbs collected out of the 600 using this but past 600 (565 if you don't care for the looks) has no further use. .================================================. # 10.3 Light Flight infinite jumping **100300** # `================================================` Difficulty to exploit: ** Fun factor: *` Usefulness: ***** Conditions: Light Flight, Light Shield This glitch is the easiest way to reach extreme height and reach orbs that are very difficult to reach through normal means. Reproducing it is fairly simple, but it's best with unlimited Light Jak. First, transform into Light Jak. Now, press X to jump, then X at the top of this to take flight. At the top of this, use Light Shield (just press O), then press X about 1/4 second later. Alternate between O and X, changing buttons about 1/4 second apart. Pace yourself. Unforuntately, the camera is stuck to the ground and I don't have any effective ways to get around that. I've tried running up a slope and getting it started, flying all over the place doing this, but the camera is generally stuck to the ground or at least very close to it. However, it has a high success rate as it's not hard to use. The camera severely hurts the fun factor. Until I can figure out a way to get the camera to follow upward, this glitch is best used to get to difficult orbs. .=============================================. # 10.4 Jet board infinite jumping **100400** # `=============================================` Difficulty to exploit: ***** Fun factor: **** Usefulness: *` Conditions: using jet board Enjoyed the view from the glider? How'd you like to get such a view in other places... almost? Almost? The entire area doesn't all load so you'll see gaps that you wouldn't have seen with the glider. To reproduce the bug, it requires very careful coordination, and a good, steep slope (the steeper, the better). The reason is that, to get the aerial views, you have to take off while the camera is going up and that means steep slopes are your best friend. The steeper the slope, the better the outcome. It also prevents you from straying too far off course. There are plenty of good locations to use. The vast desert is the easiest as it's so broad. Once you've chosen your location, get out the jet board and go toward the slope. When close to it, let the left stick go into a neutral position. Jump with a full jump. Now for the tricky part. Have the left stick tilted slightly (about 1/4 to 1/2 of the way to the edge) to the upper right, starting as near to the top of the jump as possible. While the stick is slightly up and right, repeatedly press L1. This will take several tries to get it to work, but if done right, Jak will be attempting the same trick again and again and again and each time he does, he goes up a little higher. From going up a slope, the camera follows upwards as well. The longer you go and the steeper the slope, the greater the overall aerial view will be. How high can you get? Remember, to prevent fall damage, do not get off the jet board. What discoveries await? There won't be any orbs, and this isn't the best way to get orbs. It will take a lot of practice to get this going, but once you begin mastering it, try it in other areas and see how extreme you can get. .====================================================. # 10.5 Fall in water to a bottomless pit **100500** # `====================================================` Difficulty to exploit: *` Fun factor: *** Usefulness: * Conditions: timed mission in which going in deep water is possible This glitch has no use, but it is a bit funny. Pick any mission where you have a time limit and can go in the water. The missile riding one along with the one to hijack the eco vehicle cannot be used because you cannot go in the water. Orb hunts are a great, and common, choice to use, one near deep water. For this glitch, obtain an applicable mission and jump in the water as soon as you can (don't dive in unless you have more than 5 seconds left). Remain at the surface. When the timer just changes to 00:00, wait about 100 milliseconds then dive, holding [] until the timer runs out. If not done correctly, then Jak will instantly appear at the water's surface, treading. If done correctly, Jak will no longer be diving and will, instead, be falling. If you choose to not retry the mission, Jak will resume his eternal fall. The fun factor comes from seeing the hidden undersides of things that you would never see otherwise (short of another glitch that takes extreme measures to get). Some interesting hints to the way the level designers made the game to optimize frame rates and the like. .===============================================. # 10.6 High jump without holding R1 **100600** # `===============================================` Difficulty to exploit: ** Fun factor: ** Usefulness: ** Conditions: rolling long jump in use While of little use, this glitch is easy to exploit. First, do a rolling long jump. Then, without the need of holding R1, simply press X right about at the time Jak would land to do a high jump as if you were pressing R1. .=====================================================. # 10.7 Extend time for hijack eco vehicle **100700** # `=====================================================` Difficulty to exploit: * Fun factor: *` Usefulness: *** Conditions: in port area during eco car mission Simply crash into something once the timer shows up during the "hijack eco vehicle" mission (section 6.23). You will gain 15 more seconds each time you do. The game will also attempt to autosave each time. The time limit maxes at 6 minutes but the autosave attempts still continue. .===============================================. # 10.8 Spargus City's vanishing act **100800** # `===============================================` Difficulty to exploit: **` Fun factor: **** Usefulness: * Conditions: skilled jumping with the Dune Hopper Grab the Dune Hopper and go to the west central part of the desert. In the northern part of the central mountains, there is a narrow gap that you can see through with even just a modest height that the Dune Hopper can easily jump. On the right side of this area, there is a raised area right by the wall, with a lot of rocks around it. Use a turbo toward it and a fully charged jump with the Dune Hopper. If done right, you'll be able to jump clear over the mountains with a nearly 6-second hang time. You may be in the middle of the area - it is possible to drive out, through the mountains. Go straight then turn left to go where Spargus City should be... but it looks oddly different. Approach it and you'll find the gate for it entirely missing. Continuing straight and there's a very sudden drop off where water is. The giant snake is not present here unless you go too far to the left or right (west or east). Get out of the vehicle if you want to explore the water areas. On the left side, a steep slope is present that leads up into mountains, but you go right though them as if they don't exist there. Explore all you want. .=========================================. # 10.9 Super jump with an ATV **100900** # `=========================================` Difficulty to exploit: **` Fun factor: **** Usefulness: *` Conditions: invulnerability; while in a vehicle Choose any vehicle, the Dune Hopper being the best. In an open area, jump with the vehicle. Immediately upon it landing, jump again for an even higher jump. With the Dune Hopper, it will instantly be destroyed without invulnerability but you get a jump that is far higher than the vehicle would normally do, short of jumping while going up a slope. Try stacking jumps and see what happens. .=====================================================================. # 10.10 Invulnerable doesn't make everything invulnerable **101000** # `=====================================================================` Difficulty to exploit: * Fun factor: * Usefulness: * Conditions: obtain invulnerability and use certain vehicles or equipment Turrets, zoomers, and Catacomb cars, among a few others, are not invulnerable, even with invulnerability active. Big falls still cause damage when they shouldn't. This seems like a massive oversight by the game designers. Even though it's possible to get out of it, it should be possible to go swimming in the lava (have it function like mud, such as that of Dead Town in Jak 2), acid (probably closer to water without waves and no transparency), and other such instant-death places. Those guard bots in the monk temple shouldn't cause instant death either. There's plenty of cases where invulnerability should make you not take damage or instantly die. The only cases that make sense for instant death are bottomless pits, crashing into walls with the Catacomb vehicle (from falling down holes) where there's no way to get back, and the giant snake (this serves to keep you within the map bounds though it's sometimes used in bad places that are well within the bounds of the map where it's easy to get back such as a central area that bridges cross). .====================================================================. # 10.11 Flash freeze in desert means big frame rate loss **101100** # `====================================================================` Difficulty to exploit: * Fun factor: ** Usefulness: * Conditions: flash freeze expires in the desert This glitch is best with unlimited Light Jak. To get the bug, simply use flash freeze while out in the desert. Wait for it to expire and take note of what's all going on. You'll find that the frame rate suddenly drops significantly as the blue fade returns to normal. In the worst case, it drops as low as 2 fps where there's a whole half second between updates. It's usually from 5 to 10 fps though, easily a massive drop. .=====================================================. # 10.12 Aspect ratio setting is not saved **101200** # `=====================================================` Difficulty to exploit: * Fun factor: * Usefulness: * Conditions: set aspect ratio to 4:3 and save This is an annoying bug as, every time I start up the game, I have to reset the aspect ratio as it does not get saved. To reproduce it, simply set the aspect ratio to 4:3 then save your game. Reset the system and load your save - it's still 16:9 after loading the save instead of the 4:3 you set it to. .==========================================. # 10.13 Missile short jump bug **101300** # `==========================================` Difficulty to exploit: *** Fun factor: * Usefulness: * Conditions: while riding the missile in the Haven City port area I don't exactly know what's going on so this might not be a bug. What's happening is that, at random, the missile during the missions in sections 6.9 and 6.10, the missile won't jump the full height, but only half of it. Whether I do a quick tap of X or a long press of X, the jump height is a bit random. _____ ___ ___ | ___| / _ \ / _ \ | |__ | |_| | | | | | | __| | _ | | | | | | | _ | | | | _ | |_| |_ _ |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| \______| |_| ######################### ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 11 Frequently Asked Questions **110000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ######################### Here are some questions that may be (or have been) asked involving this. If you have any questions you'd like to ask, see the question at the bottom. .=========================================. # 11.1 The walkthrough itself **110100** # `=========================================` Q. Why do you integrate the side missions in with the story missions? A. Orbs are the key to enhancing power and making things a little easier, via using them to purchase secrets. All of the secrets take 565 total orbs when 600 exist in the game. Side challenges get 431 of those, most of what's needed. Plus, a run through hero mode will allow for the remaining 134 orbs to be obtained as all the orbs are reset. Of course, you'll find plenty of individual orbs to cover some of that 134, leaving around 60 or so left. Q. Why did you decide to leave out spoilers? A. The aim of a walkthrough is to help get you through the game from start to finish, not to detail what is going on with the story - that's what transcripts are for. It's more focused that way. Q. You state 7 seconds are given but I see 6. Why? A. It's really 7 seconds. You see it as 6 because the fractional part, such as 6.98, gets truncated. When the timer ticks down to 00:00, that doesn't mean you've failed the mission, you basically have 1 full second left (well, 0.99 second). This is where the discrepency comes from. I've recorded videos and analyzed them frame by frame as further proof that it really is 7 seconds instead of the 6 you see first thing. You can actually see the timer showing as 7, but it's only for an instant and only when the clock is already present - blink and you'll miss it (and interlacing kind of hides it as well). Q. Why do you encourage deliberate deaths? A. If you know where the check points are, it's a great way to not only restock ammo, but fully restore health at the same time. There's an unlimited number of lives, so nonstop deaths are always a worthy option. It's mostly for saving time, especially if you're not particularly skilled at this kind of game or some of the especially difficult missions are just not really doable with 4 units of health left. It's part of exploiting the intended design of the game to your advantage. Q. Why are skull gem counts and orb counts obtained during missions not always included in the "items received" section? A. The actual amounts will vary so I can't provide any actual value. I also didn't pay much attention to this either. With side missions being the most important, especially the countless orb hunts, I figure it's important to list the details there. .=============================================. # 11.2 About the guide in general **110200** # `=============================================` Q. Why did you decide to write a guide? A. Having played the Jak series from Jak & Daxter onward to Jak II (played through twice) then Jak 3 (played through twice), I noticed that GameFAQs hardly had little detail for walkthroughs for Jak 3. I decided to write one because of not only that, but I've also never written a walkthrough before. I have written many guides before, but they're in-depth, more specialized stuff such as powerleveling in RPGs to reach max level as early as possible or finer details and strategies involving a certain aspect of the game. Q. How do you get those special symbols, like the •, ×, ±, or even ÷? A. On a Windows computer, Character Map ("charmap.exe" in run) or alt codes are used (hold alt, while pressing, on the numeric pad and in order: 0, 1, 7, 7, then release alt and see what comes up). On non-Windows computers, or any mobile device, I don't know. Q. Are there any details you don't know? A. Most of what I don't know is how to get to some of the orbs, especially those on the wires above the port area of Haven City without the use of game glitches. There's also a lot of orbs I apparently don't know about either. Q. I have something to ask, found a spelling error, or know of something you don't that could improve your guide. How do I contact you? A. See the "legal" section directly below for my E-mail. This is the only effective way to contact me. _ _____ ____ ___ _ | | | ___| / ___| / _ \ | | | | | |__ | | _ | |_| | | | | | | __| | | | | | _ | | | | |___ | |___ | |_| | | | | | | |___ |_____| |_____| \___/ |_| |_| |_____| ######################################## ############# ############# ######## ######## ##### 12 Copyright, credits, and other legal stuff **120000** ##### ######## ######## ############# ############# ######################################## Legal stuff - it can be boring, but it's very important. .====================================. # 12.1 How to contact me **120100** # `====================================` If you have questions, comments, suggestions, or found an error, E-mail me at "ulillillia (symbol with a small a inside) mail that is hot spec com". The E-mail is "encrypted" to help prevent spambots from picking it up and delivering dozens of spam messages. I check my E-mail at least twice a day, often 3 times a day (even more when working on my own game), so you can often expect a response within 16 to 20 hours for the most part, provided there's something to comment on. The exception is if I'm unable to get online for some reason, though this is rare. In order of most common to the least common, this is due to: I'm on vacation without access to a computer, my ISP is down for extended time (e.g. having major technical issues), or I get extremely involved a game and forget about my daily check (this is the rarest of all cases). The latter 2 cases can be combined. .============================. # 12.2 Copyright **120200** # `============================` This document is copyright ©2016 by ulillillia. It may not be placed on any Web site outside GameFAQs, Neoseeker, and my own at www.ulillillia.us. This guide may be printed or copied, but only for home, non-commerial-use. Commercial use is commercially printed strategy guides, magazines, or any action where it is sold for money and the related. .==========================. # 12.3 Credits **120300** # `==========================` Credits go to several sources: • This document and the walkthrough itself were made by ulillillia. • My best friends on Facebook for finding the infinite orb glitch and jet board infinite jumping glitch. • This unique and interesting game was created by Naughty Dog. .==================================. # 12.4 Version history **120400** # `==================================` Version 1 - Initial release Version 1 is the initial release. I detail the main walkthrough itself, provide a description of the controls, vehicle stats, tips, and glitches.