======================================== Incontinentia's TopSpin Quick Legend FAQ ======================================== v1.0 - Dec. 15, 2003 - more or less my final version unless something glaring pops up! =============== A. Introduction =============== Why am I writing this FAQ? Well, as most of you know, getting to legend status in TopSpin can be an arduous journey, especially when it's your first time through and you're new at this game. I've created five 14 star/4 skill players, countless more 14 star/3 skill players, played about 250 online matches, and I have picked up some tricks along the way. I'm not going to tell you how to allocate stars here, or what skills you should pick; aside from mentioning some common mistakes and pitfalls. This is simply a bag of tricks to get you through all the training and tougher matches to achieve legend status the quickest way possible. Take a look at Frodo's FAQ over at the Xbox TopSpin forum for general game help and pointers. So when do you become a legend anyway? The simple answer is: the moment you have won at least one Grand Slam and have reached #1 in the rankings. The long answer is: you have to finish all your training (14*), play at least one minor pro (15K), one or two pros (100K), possibly one major pro (500K), and certainly a few Grand Slams (1M), as well as accepting a sponsor challenge from a sponsor - maybe two if you need the cash! You won't be filthy rich when you're #1 with my method, but you will be a legend! The payoff: this is the only way to get your 4th skill, which is practically a must for online play. One note: if you're a newbie to this game, you should probably run through at least one character doing it your own way, especially games against the tougher Grand Slam opponents. If you don't go through at least a few tough matches against the AI, you will be stunned when you see the level of play on Live. At least practice against the tougher AI players on Exhibition mode/hard. ========================== B. Creating your character ========================== You are faced with a bunch of decisions right off the bat. Some are cosmetic and some will affect the way your player behaves on the courts. The character creator in TopSpin is incredibly flexible. I've spent a lot of time here conjuring up my stable of Grand Theft Auto hoodlums, circus sideshow freaks, cavemen, and British naturalists. But this being a *quick* character creator FAQ, I will not spend any time on cosmetics! The only thing of note here is that at each step of character creation (face, nose, etc) you are presented with a choice of presets as the first item bar on each page, which you can then tweak to your heart's content in the lower item bars. Cosmetics: - Name - Country - DNA - Face - Nose - Jaw - Lips - Hair - Skin tone - Clothing Game affecting choices: - Height/weight - Muscle - Natural ability - Serve style If this is your first creation, I do not recommend building a Hulk-like character no matter how tempting. That's what I did. My first guy was 6'9" 302 lbs: max height/max weight/max muscle. Big guys take a lot of skill to play online. They tend to stumble a lot and are slow. No point having all that power if you can't get to the ball. One of my more recent guys is 5'3" 107 lbs: min height/min weight/min muscle. Guess who lays the whoop@ss on whom? You should try starting with someone in the lower left quadrant of the height/weight square if you want maneuverability; eg: 6' or less, 200 lbs or less. Add some muscle, but don't go overboard. All you need to do is look at the physique of the greatest tennis stars of all time: Borg, MacEnroe, Laver, Agassi, Sampras, Connors, Rosewall, Edberg, Becker, as well as the new stars like Kuerten, Federer, Roddick, the list goes on and on… Not too many of them look like Arnold Schwarztenneger, correct? Natural abilities: - Defense: -1 Precision, +1 Speed, +1 Angle, -1 Power - Technician: +1 Precision, 0 Speed, +1 Angle, -2 Power - Power: -1 Precision, -1 Speed, 0 Angle, +2 Power These abilities (and later, skill add-ons) are quite obvious by their names. Their values are all relative and I have no idea what a difference of "1" really means other than that it's noticeable. However, one of the skills, "angle", depends on having enough "precision". Angle lets you hit the ball in a sharper angle, but without enough precision, you will have to let go the stick early or watch your ball go out - not good for button mashers. One of my players, a technician, has +2 precision and +2 angle, and he goes out more often than my power player - of course at wider angles than my power guy is capable of. So be careful there. Later, you can boost the default levels of these abilities by picking: precision (level 1 mastery), speed, angle, power (level 2 masteries). Serve style: Take a look at the serve style animations. One of them, #2, is the Sampras style - good for serve and volleyers, because the player positions himself towards the center of the court quicker with this serve. The others are good baseliner styles, with perhaps minor differences between them in terms of play. Choices I'm not 100% sure about: - Two-handed or One-handed backhand - Racquets I don't think one or two-handed backhands make any difference - perhaps a little improvement on backhand volley reaction time at the net? I doubt it, but I find it psychologically satisfying to build two-handed baseliners and one-handed volleyers - it just seems right to me. However, I do believe racquets make slight differences. Racquets come as power, control, or mixed. I noticed that my player would no longer miss any wide-angle smashes after switching to a control racquet. Someone else in the Xbox forums mentioned seeing a couple of mph increase in their serve after switching to a power racquet. We're talking about minute differences here. Righty/Lefty: No real difference in abilities, aside from any surprise factor online. Most people are righties and are used to playing righties. ======================= C. Training your player ======================= Ok, you have your new player, but before you play any matches he will need training. Lots of it! I will consider everything but the final push for legend as a training exercise, and this is the meat of my FAQ: how to get your 14* and 3 skills quickly with the highest ranking possible. I will be showing you how to make a balanced 3-4-4-3 player here, one of the more popular choices online. But I'll still describe the level 5 trainings in case you go that way! Time saver tip for experimenters: if you have a memory card, it may make sense to save your character before important decisions like mastery skill choices. For example, if you know that after finishing the next training you will be offered a skill choice, first save your character on the card, then complete the training and pick a skill. If you don't like it, you can erase your Xbox character and reload the one from the card, continuing where you left off. Back to training: spend your initial cash on low-level training. You can get your first 4 stars with the coin at hand. I usually go for only 2 forehand or 2 backhand right off the bat. Not 3*, or 1 of each. Why? Well, you'll waste some time checking in your luggage at the airport that way! And you'll want to avoid the ridiculous load times when visiting the same training center a second time! Anyway, you should be able to quickly dispatch the low-level grunts with a 2* forehand or backhand. You'll be doing more training later, when you get more coin. My coin calculations are based on nailing the training on the first try. ------------------------------------------- Step 1: Forehand or Backhand training 1 & 2 Coin at hand: 5000 Cost: 1000 + 2500 Coin left after the training: 1500 Allocation: 0-2-0-0 or 0-0-2-0 ------------------------------------------- Very easy: stand to the left or right of the center line so that the ball is launched to the correct shot you're trying to achieve; eg, a righty trying to hit a forehand should stand at the baseline to the left of the center-line. When the ball is launched, push "A", direct the stick to one of the targets, and after you nail the target, make sure to adjust your player back to the starting position if he moved. If you are having a lot of problems with these, you should not go online! Maybe even return the game; you will become frustrated. ------------------------------------------------- Step 2: Go to your nearest sponsor (Challenge #1) Coin at hand: 1500 Payola: 15000 Coin left after the challenge: 16500 ------------------------------------------------- Let's get some more cash. The 15K from the first sponsor challenge is the fastest way to get more coin! You'll be playing a 3-game set against the sponsor's lackey. Not much to say here, except the fastest way through is to risk-serve wide or down the line, make them stumble and hit a winner topspin or flat shot away from them. If you can't risk-serve yet, you can use a normal full power serve or "cheese" your way through with a 0-power serve. There is more on this later on in the FAQ when it really becomes a useful technique against the top players. You can't do the 50K challenge until you've become a Young Gun, but remember which sponsor you're with. You may be coming back for more coin if you fail any trainings. Now you need to get more training. Unless you're building up a lopsided player (eg: 5-5-3-1), you should be able to get your 2 remaining groundstroke stars as well as your serve and volley stars next. I always go for a 2-2-2-2 start. --------------------------------------------------------- Step 3: Complete your Forehand or Backhand training 1 & 2 Coin at hand: 16500 Cost: 1000 + 2500 Coin left after the training: 13000 Allocation: 0-2-2-0. --------------------------------------------------------- Remember, backhand training is the mirror image of forehand. See step 1. Now you should be at 0-2-2-0. --------------------------------------------------------- Step 4: Pick up your first mastery skill (curve serve, precision, return risk shots, return serve) Status: First Skill --------------------------------------------------------- Congratulations, you're on your way now. Most people pick "precision" at this point. Unless you're a technician, or are planning some weird strategy for online play, I would pick up this skill. Read more in Frodo's FAQ about this. You should have enough cash to get your 2* in serve and volley. If you have problems nailing them on the first try, go to a different sponsor and get 15K more. Later, you can always go back to your original sponsor and continue where you left off. They don't hold grudges against you! A slight detour…for analytical types! This is a good time to discuss the Top Spin power and shot placement system as I understand it. Both power and placement are controlled by how long you press your shot button and how long you keep the analogue stick aimed in a direction. This is the basic system for all shots in this game: ground strokes, return of serve, serves, volleys, smashes, risk shots, drop shots. For volleys, smashes and drop shots (when you're at the net), power and direction must be done simultaneously. You press a button and aim with the stick almost simultaneously - these are pure reaction shots most of the time. With the other shots, there is enough time to separate the power part from the aiming part of the sequence. Why would you want to do that? Well, in the case of anything "risk", you do not want to over "aim" a shot. It will most definitely go out! In the case of a groundstroke, you want to wait a bit to see what your opponent is doing. Do not commit too early unless you're sure this is what you want! Example: if your opponent has no chance to return the shot you are planning to make (eg, he stumbled or he's completely out of the court). Then you can power and aim your shot. For the serve, I find separating the powering up from the aiming simplifies everything. Of course there are other methods (Cyric powers and aims his serve at the same time, but releases the aim early - before the racquet hits the ball; ttrig234 powers and aims for the longest possible time and then counter aims in the opposite direction for correction; one thing for sure: if you power and aim throughout the serve sequence you *will* go out!!!). I think the game simply averages out how long a direction is maintained within the powering up phase: which starts when a shot button is pressed and ends when the racquet hits the ball. Any over-aiming can be corrected by going the other way. I've tried all three methods, and I can paint the lines with any of them, but I use my method because it's more consistent for me. The serve sequence: - start your power up phase: press "A" (or "B" or "X" or achieve a red-line on the risk meter) - aim your shot with the analogue stick - release the stick before the ball is hit by the racquet - end your power up phase: A, B, or X - watch as the ball hits the corner or down the line Ok, now back to the training. ---------------------------------- Step 5: Serve training 1&2 Coin at hand: 13000 Cost: 1000 + 2500 Coin left after the training: 9500 Allocation: 2-2-2-0. ---------------------------------- I find these almost as easy as forehand/backhand training. In a way, simpler - there is no ball machine here - you control everything! What you want to do is just hit the green/red targets near the center corner all the time. Forget about the wide ones and do not move your player from his starting position. If you want to practice your serve placement, go to exhibition against the AI. You should be nailing these on the first try in order to speed through to Legend. For serve training 1, you will nail every target if you follow my serve sequence making sure to have 2/3 power or more and the stick pointing diagonally towards the center target (up/left or up/right). You'll need to figure out how long to keep the aim with the analogue stick for your player using my method. For a rookie creation w/o any serve stars or much power, you need to keep it there for quite a bit. Less when you move up in skills. For serve training 2, follow the same principle, but make sure you get the power meter in the orange/red; eg: more than 3/4 full. Otherwise, it won't count. ---------------------------------- Step 6: Volley training 1&2 Coin at hand: 9500 Cost: 1000 + 2500 Coin left after the training: 6000 Allocation: 2-2-2-2. ---------------------------------- For volley 1, step just inside the "T" almost right up to the net, wait for the ball to launch and aim down/left or down/right to hit the targets. Use the "A" button to volley. Reposition your player before the next volley if he moves away. For volley 2, step just inside the "T", wait for the ball to launch and aim down/left for the left target, up for the center target, and down/right for the right target. Again, use the "A" button. Don't forget to reposition after the shot. You should be getting 10/10's here after some practice. Congratulations! Now you should be at 2-2-2-2. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Step 7: Pick up your second mastery skill (volley, speed, angle, power) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- On the secondary mastery menu we have: volley, speed, angle, power. All of them are great skills. What you pick here will shape your player's style, so pick carefully. Common sense says: pick a skill that will boost your weaknesses rather than one that improves on your strengths. Just make sure the skill is in line with your player's style. -------------------------------------------------- Step 8: Win your first tournament: Minor Pro (15K) Coin at hand: 6000 Payola: 15000 Coin left after winning the tourney: 21000 Status: Young gun. (Minor Pro + First Skill) -------------------------------------------------- The trick here is to look for a tourney with the highest ranking opponent - beating him will boost your ranking the most. You don't need to waste time checking your luggage at the airport, and flying around the world. Instead, enter the nearest one, take a look at the draw, and if you see a very badly ranked opponent, get out and look at the new draw (the game cycles through the same draws every three times I believe). The best ranked opponents are in the 60's here, maybe better, but I haven't seen anyone in the 50's yet. Every little bonus helps in your speed-quest to #1. To do this, you just enter the tourney, look at the draw, press "A" to look at your opponents rating, and then press "B" if he's not ranked in the 60's or 70's, otherwise go ahead. This is a trick you'll be using for all the tourneys, with the exception of the Grand Slam, where a little more strategy is involved. The minor pros are slightly better than the sponsor lackeys. But you should have no problems here with your 2-2-2-2 double-mastery player! Congratulations, young Padawan. Now you're a young gun, and some of the AI players are starting to notice you ;-). You should be ranked somewhere in 90's or 80's. ------------------------------------------------------------- Step 9: Win your second tournament: Pro (100K). Coin at hand: 21000 Payola: 100000 Coin after winning the second challenge: 121000 Status: Young gun. (Minor Pro + First Skill + Top 70 ranking) ------------------------------------------------------------- You won 15K for the minor pro, but you'll need more. Training gets very expensive at the higher levels. Especially the volley training, since you will almost certainly fail on volley #4 a few times! You could go back to your first sponsor and shoot a commercial. But it's better to win your Pro tourney for coin, since you need this for completing your Star checklist. Use the cycling trick I mentioned in Step 8 to get a high ranked opponent. Once I got Gide with a ranking of 4! Bingo! These guys should be easy to beat if you have mastered the risk serve and slice return. If you've nailed all of the training so far, you should have enough coin to get 6 more level 3 or 4 *'s. What about the sponsor challenge #2 if I need extra cash? In case you want to try the sponsor challenge #2 at some point here are some tips for nailing the targets: - use up/left, up/center, up/right direction and A or B for targets that are deep - use down/left, down/center, down/right and B for targets that are closer to the net - use left, center, right and A or B for targets near the middle - use Y-lob on the balls that are launched far away from you --------------------------------------------- Step 10: Forehand and Backhand training 3 & 4 Coin at hand: 121000 Cost: 2 * (10000 + 25000) Coin left after the training: 51000 Allocation: 2-4-4-2 --------------------------------------------- I usually go for more forehand and backhand here. I like having at least 4* on these as a baseliner. You may want to do serve and volley training instead. In that case skip to those sections first and then come back here if you're going to put more than 2* on the ground strokes (highly recommended). These trainings are very easy. Here's the formula. As in 1 & 2, you need to position your player just behind (or at) the baseline. Place your player to the left or right of the center line depending on whether he's a righty/lefty and whether you're going for forehand or backhand. For level 3, you just want to hit the green target at the back center over and over again. Wait for the ball to launch, press A and aim up. If your aim is off make sure the stick is straight up. You can use the digital pad, but I do not recommend doing this. It will mess up your regular game especially online. Learn to aim with the analogue stick! For level 4, you are asked to vary your shots: B, X, A, Y, etc… The trick here is to follow the basic steps for level 3, but when you see a slice X, or a lob Y, you should hit the ball without any aiming, just keep the stick neutral. Otherwise you will go long on these shots. For A and B, you should aim up. Now you are a mean old baseliner with 2-4-4-2. Time to round out those serve & volley skills! If you don't have enough coin, it's time to go to your second sponsor and make some more cash. From now on, if you need cash between trainings you know what to do! Just remember, once you complete a challenge it will not be available to you anymore - just become a sponsor wh*re! It's OK. If you nailed all the training so far and won your tourneys and challenges, you will have enough coin to complete your 3-4-4-3 training (or some permutation of 3's and 4's). ----------------------------------------------------------- Step 11: Oh, another skill! Pick up the third mastery skill (risk shot, passing shot, ace, drop shot) ----------------------------------------------------------- After 12* you will be offered your third mastery: risk shot, passing shot, ace, or drop shot. My only suggestion here is to avoid risk or drop unless you really have a hard time with these. Why? Eventually you *will* be able to hit a normal risk shot, and having one of these skills will mess up your timing! The skill actually slows down the meter, so you will be left with a fast risk and a slow drop, or vice versa - not a good thing! Passing shot is probably the best choice here. Ace is also good, especially if your serve stars are low! Now you can pick either an additional 2* on serve, 2* on volley, or 1* on each. You have enough coin left for any of these combos (51000), so I'll just stop being an accountant at this point…unless, of course, you fail at any of these. If you need more cash, your sponsor is waiting for you with Challenge #2. ------------------------------- Step 12: Serve training 3 & 4 Allocations: 3-4-4-2 or 4-4-4-2 ------------------------------- Ok, time to brush up on your risk-serve timing as well as the serve sequence I outlined earlier. For level 3, you will be asked to hit various serves, including the risk-serve. You can still pass this without nailing the risk-serve, but might as well learn how to do it here. You'll need it online. Do not use the pendulum method! You might get the timing right for offline, but online it is not very reliable due to the lag. Furthermore, the pendulum method is suicide for the risk-shot or drop-shot! Learn to flick that R trigger to get a red-meter serve! The formula for serve 3 is to stay at your starting position and do the serve sequence using the A, B, X, or R-trigger to power up, then aim up/left or up/right to hit the center corner target. That's the only target you'll be hitting to get through this quickly: it's usually a green target but sometimes red. You should power up at least 3/4 to make sure you hit the target. Risk should be red or slightly high green, as low green will hit the net. For level 4, you will need to clear 4 sets of 3 targets. The targets are placed down the line, in the corner, and wide (just below the corner one). I usually take them in that order. Follow the serve sequence with decent power, aiming for the down-the-line and corner targets. I use the "A" serve. For the wide target, power-up half way and aim the stick left or right without any up. Once you get good at this, you'll be nailing 12/12 all the time. ------------------------------------ Step 13: Gulp! Volley training 3 & 4 Allocations: 3-4-4-3 or 2-4-4-4 ------------------------------------ Welcome to the most frustrating part of the game. Well, maybe Chang and Kuerten have something to say about this, but here goes. For volley #3, you want to stand just behind the "T" and wait till the ball launches. For the side targets hit "A" and then quickly nudge the stick to aim. Don't keep the stick too long or you'll go out too wide. For the middle target, just hit "A" without aiming. You must time the hit just right, or your player will do a retarded fencing jab instead, trying to go after an imaginary ball! If that happens, get him or her back to position quickly. Ok, volley #4 is all about the drop shot. The technique I use here works for reasonably placed targets; ie, the ones near you in front of the net. This training can eat up your coin very fast! If your timing is off, take a break and come back later. It's not "Grand Turismo 3 driving test" hard, but it's hard! Here's the technique: stand near the net, when the ball launches get your L-trigger to red (or green), and then feather the stick in the direction of the target. You'll hit some and you'll miss some. I can now do this on the first try every time, but my first attempt took me 6 tries and a lot of coin! Note that one of the guns, the blue one as mentioned by CBranch, fires higher than the others, making it kind of hard to get. You can choose whether to skip that one or go for it. I always go for it. There's enough time to get back into position if you miss. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a contender! You should be at 3-4-4-3 (or whatever 14* allocation you have chosen) with 3 mastery skills at this point. Time to go kick some @$$ in the tournaments and raise your ranking. At this point you may need to play another tourney to raise your ranking to 70 or better, unless you got lucky with the draw. Play a Pro tourney to increase your ranking more and get more coin for some styling clothes. ------------------------------------ Step 14: Win another 100K tournament ------------------------------------ This should be easy with the skills you now possess. As before, try to look for a tourney with a high ranked opponent to boost your ranking the most. One tip: the AI very often returns shots towards the middle when they are pulled wide, so make sure to take advantage. A good strategy is to serve wide and hit their return to the other side. When receiving, go down the line using the slice "X" button. Press it after they start their serve and aim down the line. What about level-5 trainings? I want that monster serve!!! Ok, here are the remaining trainings. Their cost is 50K. If you don't have enough cash you should do sponsor challenges #2, which is the quickest way to 50K of coin. Serve training 5 In this one, you will need to hit 4 sets of 3 targets which are lined up right, center, and left along the service line (that's the line beyond which a serve will be too long and called Out!). Use the serve sequence I mentioned earlier: get your red (or slightly off green) risk meter, and aim right, center, or left to hit these. It's easy when you're comfortable with the risk serve. Forehand/Backhand training 5 Not much to say here. This is exactly the same as training 4! Maybe the number of targets/points you need to hit has been increased, but I did not notice any other differences. Volley training 5 This is easier than training 4. There are random targets that pop up, and you should be able to volley or smash the far ones. For the close ones you will need to use the drop-shot, but I didn't even bother trying. There's enough time to finish this without the drop shot. You are now a bonafide STAR! Sign some autographs and get yourself to a Slam! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Step 15: The final push (or beating Chang, Blake, Kuerten, Grosjean, and Hewitt the easy way) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- If you're feeling confident, you can skip the Major Pros and go right for the Slams. Again, you should cycle through the draw in a Slam to find the #1 player. He's in there somewhere. You might have to fly to get the right draw, but now it's worth it. Having too many high ranked players (like #2 and #3) may not be good, however. This is because one of them is likely to go all the way to the finals, and even if you win, their ranking will also go up (for a second place finish). The following players are very tough to beat in a Slam: Kuerten, Grosjean, Chang, Blake, and Hewitt. Gide and a few others are a pain too. Ironically, Sampras is a pushover, but not against other AI players! If you are having problems beating someone, cycle the draw until Sampras comes up against that player. More often than not, he will win. Then you can skunk Sampras! How to beat the top 5: Chang, Blake, Kuerten, Grosjean, and Hewitt. I could go on and give strategies for each of them, but there's one strat that beats them all. When you serve, use the Cheese (TM) serve. Here's how you do the cheese serve (or at least how I do it, there are many variants out there): - Double-tap "B" and aim your stick towards the net (down, if you're at the bottom of the screen). - Run up towards where you served, that is, towards the left if you just served from the right (deuce court). You're trying to fake the AI by going there. - Move to the right when you see the AI start its swing. 99% of the time, the AI will hit a weak cross angled shot which you will then volley into oblivion. Be ready in case the AI reaches that volley and smash or volley it again. What do I do when the AI is serving? All you need to do is to use a slice return down the line, then run towards center court to pound their weak central return to the opposite side. You may lose a game here and there, but you should be able to beat any AI player using these methods. But I do not recommend using these methods online or you will p*ss off many people. Also, the best online players will make you look like a fool for trying these techniques. ----------------------------------------- Step 16: Pick up the fourth mastery skill (topspin, slice, aggressive lob, smash) and go online with your new creation!!! ----------------------------------------- Which skill should you pick here? My favorite is topspin, because I play mostly from the baseline and mid-court, and that's a great skill to have for put-away shots. As a serve and volleyer you may want to go for the slice, giving you extra time to get up to the net. Smash doesn't seem to be as popular. Only pick this if you think you'll be seeing a lot of lobs from your opponents. I have absolutely no idea about aggressive lob. Try Hewitt in Exhibition and see if you like it. I have a feeling aggressive lob may be a "sleeper" skill. There's at least one pro with each of the final 4 skills you can test drive before making a decision. Unfortunately, without the exact star distribution, skills, abilities, size, etc, as your creation you won't really know how your player will turn out with this skill. Good luck and see you on the courts. Aknowledgments: kudos to all the playas over at the Xbox TopSpin forum: Cyric, EyesOpen, ttrig324, Trainerdude, Zakeroni, TheAlphaOmega, Beans on Toast, Prince of India, The Duke 05, Jacked Up, L M L Y P, UndauntedErik, Huckboarder, Stef Big Gee, DrewKBell, CBranch, BankHoldup, Notorious B I G, Cster, bigdance, Messatsu, Steve87, Dark Daan, T o g u r o, cRusad3r, WastedDonkey, Kyta Swan, MrGreen (looking forward to playing you last two) and anyone else I've missed that plays a clean game of TopSpin. You guys have helped me fine tune the quick Legend process by forcing me to create my countless TopSpin characters in my quest to beat you! Brought to you by Incontinentia/GT: bjornBORG, copyright 2003.