Breakneck – Zone Strategies

by Falagar / Articles, Misc. Guides / 11 Dec 2017

Wastelands

Depending on the exact level number, you may find yourself largely traversing long, narrow straightaways, which are great to boost along, or you may find yourself dealing with a hodgepodge of rocky obstacles that force you to weave and dodge past them.

Try, if you can, to spot where you can jump into the air. Some ramps are very obvious; others are almost unnoticeable. Either way, these ramps will let you bypass considerable segments of the level, especially if you have Charge Wings.

On the whole, however, this level is not difficult to traverse, and with a Fast Charge powerup, you can get some nice boosting power built up if you find a nice long rocky wall to go alongside.

Invader Stronghold

This can potentially be even easier than Wastelands; for the most part, the challenge you face is if you end up in a wide-open area with no walls to race besides, and you lack boost. Otherwise, use Charge Wings to sail through the air and cleverly stay alongside the numerous vertical walls to get that boost up and keep it up.

Invader Outpost

It can be challenging! As noted elsewhere in this guide, there are some sections where you have to travel past a dense collection of pillared columns, which you may have to deftly weave your way past to line up with an exit point.

There are numerous air-boosting opportunities (again, Charge Wings is handy!) and getting to race past vertical constructions for boosting.

Carbon Farm

Parts of this can be easy, and other parts of this can be frustrating. First, two notable parts are segments with multiple square pillars, which force you to race on an angle rather than straight through. Second, there are tall walls with narrow holes in them, which you must try to line up with “on the fly,” which is not easy to do when the pursuer vessel is getting close to you!

On the other hand, there are some excellent long walls you can race along to get a boost, as well as quite a few places where you can race up a ramp and fly through the air for a considerable distance.

Shipyards

The devil is really in the details for these levels. The main problem is there are numerous dead-ends you need to be careful of; you’ll be doing a fair bit of jinking and swerving to keep from smashing into something. However, some levels have multiple ramps, which, if you time your jumps just right, will let you leapfrog nearly to the end while barely touching the ground.

Research Base

The main obstacle you face here is that the terrain is quite varied and rugged. As such, you’ll find yourself facing falling tall rocks, large building clusters you need to weave your way through cleverly, and ramps which, if you time them wrong, can lead to you ignominiously crashing into something.

However, there is a kind of easter egg. If you know you’re coming up on a Research Base level, send your vessel going off to the left or the right as you hit the finish line of the previous level (but without boost!) and keep your finger down on the left or right direction key as the Research Base level opens.

If you do, you can veer off far to the left or the right and enter sections of this level that are almost impossible to reach any other way.

Sandspear Nest

This level is truly difficult; the main hazard you face is that large “spears” abruptly erupt from the ground just as you’re about to traverse a section of the map. As a result, you need to be very keen at spotting the eruption patterns and dodge the spears quickly!

The difficulty is, as you can imagine that you cannot boost continuously through this level without virtually guaranteeing you will lose control and smash into something.

This is where the Aerodynamic Perk will be invaluable: use short, concentrated boosts, and let your vessel coast as you maneuver through the obstacles on this level. You’ll be able to keep ahead of the Pursuer Vessel but also be able to keep control of your ship until you can hit the final stretch where no further spears erupt. You can do a last-ditch boost here.

Diamond Swarm

This level is even worse than the Sandspear Nest because diamonds will crash down to the ground from the sky. They can fall in an extremely deceptive way: you will think you have a safe run ahead, only to find you’ve suddenly hit the spot where two diamonds touch, crashing your ship when you least expect it.

Again, boosting is a problem: the Pursuer Scrambler powerup is virtually a necessity here, as is the use of concentrated short bursts. The only saving grace of this level is that there are generally stretches of diamonds you can race alongside and power your boost up, and there is, as with Sandspear, a final stretch where no diamonds will fall. You can do a last-ditch boost there, too.

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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