------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CRASH BANDICOOT 4: THE WRATH OF CORTEX (GCN) GEM, BOSS, AND PLATINUM RELIC GUIDE (C) 2004 josher_1212@sbcglobal.net v1.44 12/11/2004 ------------------------------- CONTENTS ------------------------------- I. CONTENTS II. LEGAL JUNK III. WARP ROOM 1: EARTH a. Arctic Antics b. Tornado Alley c. Bamboozled d. Wizards and Lizards e. Compactor Reactor f. Rumble in the Roks IV. WARP ROOM 2: WATER a. Jungle Rumble b. Sea Shell Shenanigans c. Banzai Bonsai d. That Sinking Feeling e. H2 Oh No f. Drain Damage V. WARP ROOM 3: FIRE a. The Gauntlet b. Tsunami c. Smokey and the Bandicoot d. Eskimo Roll e. Fahrenheit Frenzy f. Crashes to Ashes VI. WARP ROOM 4: WIND a. Avalanche b. Droid Void c. Crashteroids d. Coral Canton e. Weathering Heights f. Atmospheric Pressure VII. WARP ROOM 5: FUTURE a. Crash and Burn b. Gold Rush c. Medieval Madness d. Crate Balls of Fire e. Cortex Vortex f. Crunch Time VIII.SECRET WARP ROOM 6 a. Knight Time b. Ghost Town c. Ice Station Bandicoot d. Solar Bowler e. Force of Nature IX. TIME TRIALS TIPS X. BEST TIMES/WALL OF FAME XI. CREDITS XII. VERSION HISTORY ------------------------------- II. LEGAL JUNK ------------------------------- Plain and simple. DO's: ------------- Download this to your hard drive for PERSONAL use Print and distribute this for FREE E-mail this to your friends Put this on your own site WITH PERMISSION, which I usually will grant. E-mail me if you have questions or blazing fast times. E-mail me if you have hints I do not have listed here. DON'Ts: ------------- Commercially distribute (SELL) this document. Take credit for this document. E-mail me regarding spelling errors in this document. I check this document for such errors whenever I update it, which is quite often. (Update is different from submit.) Take information from this document and put it into your guide WITHOUT giving me a credit. 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Contact me via e-mail. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ***Note that this guide is intended for the US Gamecube version of the game. Overview of time trial ---------------------- For those of you that have read my guide for Crash 3 time trial, this guide is in exactly the same format. I copied and pasted roughly half of the guide, me being a lazy FAQ writer :-) After you get the level's crystal, there will be a floating gold clock at the start of the level. Grab the clock to start TIME TRIAL. Obviously, you want the best time. If you go fast enough, you will recieve a relic. There are 3 kinds of relics: ############################################ SAPPHIRE ############################################ Most of these are easy. There are a couple of tricky ones, but you should be able to get at least 15 to 20 of these before you beat Cortex and Crunch, when you get the running shoes. ############################################ GOLD ############################################ Not too hard to get, but will challenge you. There are a few of these you could get without the shoes, but most of the running levels need them. ############################################ PLATINUM ############################################ These need running shoes, and even then you need near perfection on many of the levels. These are for experts only! ############################################ MY TIMES ############################################ Many of these require the skill of a master to beat. ############################################ LOW READER TIMES ############################################ These were submitted to me by e-mail, and are often better than mine. The times are shown in this format: Relic Kind Relic Time (interval from some other time) Strategies for getting it, and comments END TIMETRIAL OVERVIEW >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ------------------------------- III. WARP ROOM 1: EARTH ------------------------------- Level 1: Arctic Antics Boxes: 147 Rating: 3/10 Fairly easy level. After all, it's the first one! Most of the 147 boxes are in plain sight. There are a few tricky ones near the end, where the bonus level is. Checkpoints: 1st - 9/147 2nd - 40/147 3rd - 61/147 Bonus- 74/147 Death Route Rating: 5/10 Reward: Blue Gem TIME TRIALS Sapphire 1:15.00 Rating: 2/10 Try not to get hung up on anything. Get all the time boxes, and you can do this without the shoes. This is a sinch with them. Don't fret if you miss a box or two...or five. Gold 45.00 (-30.00 Sapphire) Rating: 7/10 You really have to haul bandicoot to make this time. Spin and jump as little as possible except on the ice, where spinning will cut your time. By the time you first get to the skiers, around 13.45 is a good time. Platinum 37.00 (-8.00 Gold) Rating: 8/10 If you struggled with the Gold, this takes a lot of patience. If you got 40.50 or less on your Gold run, this is something to try. My Time 34.08 (-2.92 Platinum) First, run up to the set of boxes after the first five Wumpa fruits, then turn around and shoot the clock. You won't be able to see it, so you'll have to listen for the lock-on "beep", then shoot. Try to get the feel for how long it takes for the shot to hit the clock, and spin the boxes at the exact moment when the shot hits the clock. You should have no more than 0.10 on the clock. You can get it down to as low as 0.01 of a second! Anyway, just run and spin all the time boxes. Don't jump or spin unless you have to; otherwise, you lose time. Once you break the time box in front of the ice, you should have about 6.80 on the clock. Run across the ice. When you get to the point with the 2-sec. box, the jumping fish, and the TNT box, jump across the gap, spinning the 2-sec. box without setting off the TNT. You should now be at the point where the skiers are. About 12.90 would be a good time here. Dodge the skiers (only spin if a collision is imminent), spin the time boxes, and enter the tunnel. About 17.80 would be great here. There are a few gaps you'll need to jump, not to mention some penguins, some TNT, and a few time boxes. Once you get to the first time box on the other side of the tunnel, about 27.50 would be great. Now, this lake section will make or break your time. Here is a diagram of the lake: ----------------------------- | __ \^\ | X = Box (Nothing, ignore it) |\ X\ \ \ _ | 2 = 2-sec. box | \_/ | | /2/ | 3 = 3-sec. box. | | | /_/ | U = Spring Box (3-sec box above it) | | | _____ | ^ = Rest of level | \ \ /U ___/ | | | | | | | | __ | | \ \ /2 \ | | | | /___/ | | ___| |____ | | __/ \_____ | | / \ | ----------------------------- First, jump to the first 2-sec. box. Off the 2-sec. box, double-jump and spin the 3-sec. box. Now jump to the other 2-sec. box, spin it, and move on. It is very easy to miss the 3-sec. box off the double-jump, and just as easy to fall into the water. If you dawdle too long here, it is going to cost you a lot of time. Now, run up until the final ice section. The last time box is just past the very short tunnel. When you break it, about 32.10 is great. From here, just run across the ice, toward the exit. I told you to slide across the ice before; don't do it anymore. Running across the ice will give you a faster time. MY RESULTS First Ice Patch: 6.83 Ski Section: 12.93 Enter Long Tunnel: 17.78 Exit Long Tunnel: 27.76 Last Time Box: 32.16 -------------------------- Overall Time: 35.53 Level 2: Tornado Alley Boxes: 15 Rating: 3/10 Just destroy all the balloons. This is a very easy gem. TIME TRIALS Sapphire 2:00.00 Rating: 2/10 This is plenty of time. If you can't get this, I don't know what to tell you. Gold 1:20.00 (-40.00 Sapphire) Rating: 5/10 This is also very easy. Don't forget there are time boxes in these levels, unlike in Crash: Warped! Platinum 1:00.00 (-20.00 Gold) Rating: 6.5/10 This is the easiest platinum to me. I got it on the first try, believe it or not! There is no real pattern, just hit time boxes wien you can and take out the machines quickly. My first attempt was 59.90. No restarts or anything! My Time 41.18 (-18.82 Platinum) The pattern I used to get this time was flying into the clock and shooting the machine directly in front of you (obviously.) From here, turn around and shoot the one right behind you, then shoot the others in a clockwise order. Shoot down all the time boxes. Try to hit the box instead of the balloon, especially the one by the last machine, because you might not get all of the box's effect. You might not even get any of it at all! Low Reader Time 39.51 (-20.49 Platinum) Achieved by: Joe Palmer Level 3: Bamboozled Traveller's Tales did a lot better job than Vicarious Visions did with their GBA Atlasphere levels, although time trial is just as frustrating. Boxes: 125 Rating: 3/10 There's no time limit, so take your time. Be thorough and this should come no sweat. Checkpoints: 1st - 24/125 2nd - 91/125 TIME TRIALS Sapphire 1:15.00 Rating: 4/10 Get used to the speed of the Atlasphere time trials with this relic. It's the last easy one you'll get in this level style. Gold 35.00 (-40.00 Sapphire) Rating: 7/10 OK, there are a couple of secrets you need to find to get this relic. First of all, you need to be able to jump off of the half-pipes and onto the lower sections of the course to save some time. Second, you need to learn to conserve momentum, even if you need to take a wider turn. Platinum 25.00 (-10.00 Gold) Rating: 9/10 This is a very frustrating challenge, and there's a shortcut at the end that's critical to take. At the point where you would ordinarily make a U-Turn to get on an elevator near the end of the level, turn the other direction, towards the screen. There are four Nitros guarding the entrance I'm talking about. There are tons of time boxes down there, and the route itself is shorter. My Time 13.05 (-11.95 Platinum) This is nearly impossible to get and takes a great deal of luck. Here's what I did. The timing you get with the first elevator is going to determine your time, and there is no way to get it right every time because it has no guaranteed "start" position every time you restart. The suggested split times assume you got near-perfect timing. Here goes! At the top of the first elevator, about 1.00 to 1.20 is what we're looking for. When you go into the first half-pipe, head up the near half so your momentum can carry you into the time box on the inside corner of the first turn. Right after that, it will begin to curve the other way. Completely ignore the turn. In fact, TURN THE OTHER WAY, and jump off the half-pipe. The target of your jump is the lower half-pipe. Try to land on top of the 3-sec. time box down there. About 5.80 is great here. Now, follow the half-pipe, breaking all the boxes until it ends. This next part is a bit tricky. Here's another diagram for you. ----------------------------- |_____________________ | | <- *X3 | | X = Box (Nothing, ignore it) |____________1**** *| | # = Time box | \^^^^^^^^* | <-= Rest of level | \^^^^^^^^* | V, ^, <, > = Hill | \^^^^^^^^* | * = Suggested path | \VVVVVVV*\ | | \VVVVVV*V\ | | \VVVVV*VV\ | | / * / | | / *2 | | | / **** | | | /_**_________| | | />*><<*><<