Arcade Stage Ver. 3 - Beginner's Guide

Initial D: Arcade Stage (Version 3)

A guide for the beginning mountain racer.



Copywrite Issue: Some of these have been ripped off of GameFaqs.com to gather information, especially ChaiThai. You can view them here http://www.gamefaqs.com/coinop/arcade/game/15501.html

Others have been taken from various Forums and Message Boards.

About me: I'm an experienced Inital-D racer on versions 1 and 3. I have not had much experience getting into the details of Version 3 but anybody can post here to offer opinions or correct me on any mistakes.

I understand that everybody has a different arcade style that they play with during a race and I really want to hear from you about any kinds of tricks that you would have to offer to me and everybody else.

This faq was made with the 2 Ver.3 machines in my town in mind and it may not be correct when you use ones in different regions or countries.



~Getting started:
You pay for a game for EVERY race you play, except when you win against a human player.

One of 2 screens will show up.

1. You will choose either ACCEPT to accept anybodies challengies while you play. Or REFUSE to not accept any challenges whatsoever.

2. If you have somebody accepting challenges in the other seat, a screen will show up. Choose "I'm not ready" if you want to play alone or "I'm in" to make a challenge.

Another screen will show up, it wants to accept your Initial D card. Insert a card or press start.

Note: It costs a game to buy a custom car\card or to transfer a Version 1 or 2 card to Ver. 3.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Options menu

After inserting your card, your statistics will come up. Press the View Change button until you see a options menu after the Time Attack stats. Here's the list.


~BGM- ON, OFF, or FIXED.

ON - Turn the background music on.
OFF - Turn the background music off.
FIXED - The game will play the same song over and over until you change it.


~Display - Normal or Simple.

Simple - Displays a smaller map, a smaller tachometer and speed display, your time, your game time remaining, the time of the last course section completed, and the rear view mirror if racing in 1st person mode.


~Stiffness - 1 through 9.

This will let you decide how stiff you want the wheel and the feedback you want to have.

1 - Almost nothing. (You can throw the wheel around with one hand and feel practically nothing.)

5 - Default setting.

9 - Fairly tight. (You must have a very good grip to handle this.)


~Map - ON, OFF, or PAPER CUP.

Paper cup only shows a cup of water. If you crash into any walls the water will stir and spill. If you spill a lot, you need improvement.

Comment: In the Initial-D anime and manga, this option was used by Takumi to learn how to shift the weight of his Trueno, which is important in drift racing. This option has the same idea here.


~Force Quit - ON and OFF.

Force quit reduces your remaining track time to 0 during 1 player mode, ending your match immediatly. It is done by holding Start and View Change together. It's probably best to leave this alone since it's like wasting a game.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


~3 modes of play


Legends of the Streets - Challenge the CPU on any course from Easy to Expert.


Time Attack - Race by yourself on any track at any time in any weather to establish times.


Challenge Bunta mode - EXPERTS RECOMMENDED!!! Race against the toughest CPU in the game on almost any track. Bunta gets progressivly harder after every win and even changes cars after a certain amount of wins.
IMPORTANT: You will lose points if you lose race.

To get an idea about how fast\good Bunta is, his fastest time in Version 3 on Akina Downhill is 2 minutes, 4X seconds... the world record on Akina Downhill Dry in Version 3 is GT_HO from Hong Kong on July 29, 2004. His time was 2'55"946. Average times for very good racers in Versions 1 & 3 is 3 minutes, 4-9 seconds. It's physically impossible to defeat Bunta at his best.

NOTE: His best times on Myogi is 2:55 and 2:50 on Usui, which can be beaten.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


~Secret Car: BUNTA'S SUBARU IMPREZA WRX STi VERSION V (GC8V)

Go to the car selection screen ang highlight the SUBARU icon. Follow these directions.

Shift Up 6 times
Shift Down 2 times
Hold Brake
Press View Change

Comment: It's said that this car low accelleration but has very high grip. This is for the skilled driver's.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


~Picking your car

Select on drive-train and number of gears, also get opinions on what other cars are like from various people. Or just select something you think would be good.

FR - Power goes to REAR wheels only.
These cars are ideal for drifting, slides easily in Snow and rain.

FF - Power goes to FRONT wheels only.
These cars grip good. They don't have a good spin-out rate.

MR - Power goes to REAR wheels only.
A drift car with the engine positioned in the rear of the car where the trunk usually is.

4WD - Power goes to ALL wheels.
These cars grip the road very good, even in Snow and Rain. Not really drift happy.

(Note: There are some exceptions to these rules, this isn't an exact science.)


~Best car in the game

There isnt really a best car in the game, but it seems the best cars overall seem to be FD typeR, GC8V and the EVO4. Check the Inital D time records web site.


~Automatic or Manuel

Choose Automatic. Manuel was a MUST in Ver. 1 because of the BOOST trick where you would get a LOT of speed off the starting line instead of the trick below. This Ver. 1 BOOST has been killed in Ver. 2 & 3, now you have the freedom to choose AUTO so you could concentrate more on the track then on the speed\tachometer. Unless you like to shift alot and manage your car in every aspect, choose AUTO.

Despite being in AUTOMATIC, you can still downshift to still take those hairpins.


~BOOST

Boost is the option that's to even out the odds against begginner's and experts. This gives the car in the rear more handling and a boost of speed.


~Turning Boost off

When the laoding screen shows up (the track selection and random art picture from the Initial-D series), both players should hold the brakes until the screen shows the race start-up with words in red "BOOST OFF!" flashing in the top right of the screen.

Now without Boost, you can have a clean race that only depends on skill without help from the CPU whatsoever.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Driving tips and tricks for beginners:


~Landmarks

Study the map, and to help remember where certain turns are, use landmarks along the side of the road and on the road themelves to show where you have to do turns or know where traps are.


~Hitting the apex (Or out-in-out turning)

A mistake many beginners make is that they attempt to take a turn from the inside. That is, if the turn is a right hairpin, they line up on the right and attempt to make the turn. What happens after this is the car severly understeers, then hit the outside wall, slide along the rail, and lose tons of speed, as well as get passed. Even if the car slows down enough to make the turn cleanly they will still be going much slower than normally possible out of the turn. The proper practice behind fast cornering is to approach the corner from the outside. For example, approach the right turn hairpin from the left lane. As you turn, your car should guide towards the inside of the turn, so that when you're about at the apex of the turn, you're close to the inside wall. If you're going fast enough, your car will naturally pull back out to the outside without hitting the wall.

Remember: Outside lane, turn towards the inside lane, then slide towards outside.


~Brakes = Faster times

1. Brake early before hairpins and heavy turns.

2. If you're unsure of each hairpin, brake before the turn, then don't push any pedals until you're sure you can exit the turn without hitting any walls.

3. Never have a constant heavy foot on the gas.


~Left Foot Braking

1. Left foot braking removes the time it takes for you to move your foot from the gas to the brake and back again. But for certain drivers, left foot braking is an excellent way to make turns. Simply have one foot ready to press the brakes while the 2nd foot is on the gas.

2. Simply step on both pedals and turn. This will let you take turns at close to the same speed as you would with accel off turning.


~Off the Line

Some CPU racers will be able to beat you off the line, so don't worry about this too much.

Note: If you have MANUEL, experiment with off the line shifting.


~The Walls

Stay off the walls in this version, as it's similar to Version 1, in which if you hit the walls HARD, not only does your car not bounce off the walls but it slows your car down and your acceleration doesn't increase like it should have. Downshifting (or possible, upshifting again) is one way to get your speed back up.


~Passing

Ver. 3 is very, VERY dependent on passing and the CPU is smart about blocking (a big upgrade from Ver. 1). Against the CPU, try to wiggle your way past during a turn on more narrow courses like Irohakaza and Tuchizaka, and pass on the straights on larger, wider tracks, but make sure that you won't slam into a wall or take a bad line in the process. If both cars are almost together but one is slightly behind than the other, either by 0.5 Meters or 4 Meters, than you can still block them by ramming into them and the car in behind will be forced to get behind your car again.


~Tail Gaiting and blocking

It's annoying to have somebody on your bumper and even more so in this game. When you have a CPU or person behind you and practially running into your rear-end, you will find it gets difficult to take turns and swerve wildly because they are offsetting the balance of the rear part of your car.

You should block on straights and small turns, but it gets hard when the CPU or person behind you tries to wiggle around you on both sides of your car, even through the hairpins. You can swerve easily and hit the walls if you're not careful.

Try taking the apex line (the fastest and most straight line through a turn or track) as much as possible to block your opponent and to try to make it farther ahead.


~Rain & Snow

Snow and rain is somewhat hard to get used to because every car takes the weather differently. For the FR AE86, it's just a matter of experimenting with the brakes when taking a hairpin since it slides pretty easily. The AWD Subaru's and Lancer's take can take the same hairpin and do it almost like it was dry. It's recommended to experiment with how your car handles in wet weather and take the course slow so you can get fast times.


~BOV (Blow-Off-Valve)

This is a sound that happens when you down\upshift, you get the upgrade early on in the game (unless you have already fine tuned your car from a previous version) and it provides a trick to let you know that you've done something right. For example, downshifting taking a specific turn doesn't produce the sound but using the drift accel-off on the same turn makes the sound, telling you that you've done the correct way of going through the turn.

Comment: Some people say that it sounds like a sneeze.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Drifting Techniques


If you've played games like Ridge Racer, Daytona USA, or even Project Gotham, you must be familar with drifting. For the rest of us, drifting is a method of turning where your car slides almost sideways through the turn, rather than the standard way of turning.
For certain cars, this is the fastest way to make corners.

Some cars won't drift at all, while others tend to drift closer to real life. The same basic general rules apply, although countersteering may be more important in this version.

There are multiple ways to drift, but there are two basic ways - accel off and braking drift.


~Accel off drifting

Release the gas, and the car will lose traction, causing the car to drift. While this may not seem like much, it can suit the purpose if you have messed up on consectutive hairpins and don't want to lose too much speed on the next one, or on long turns like the one at Usui or the long left turn at the end of Akina. It also works well on Happogahara for the consectutive S turns.


~Braking drift

Before the turn, get on your brake pedal, turn the car through the corner, then release the brake. What this does is allows you to throw out the back end, creating a faster drift. You can downshift if you would like, and I recommend you do so in Irohazaka often.
Note: Don't try to do this too much or you'll lose too much speed.


~Countersteer

If your car slides too much and you find yourself facing the inside wall, you've oversteered. To correct this you must countersteer, or turn the wheel the opposite direction of the drift. If you drift around a left hairpin, turn the wheel right to counter the motion and vice versa. It takes time but once you master it, you'll be drifting without fishtailing.


~Feint Motion

This is an advanced technique to shift the weight of your vehicle to make a hard turn, while still having your foot on the gas. An example of this technique is when your about to make a hard left turn, make a hard swerve to the right, almost into the guardrail\mountain and swerve left into the turn to through out your rear-end. This is a excellent technique to practice with on all the HARD and EXPERT tracks.


~Fifth-In, Fourth-Out

(Designed for 5 gear cars, but can be used with 6 gear cars as well.)
Also known as 5 in 4 out, this is an advanced technique developed to take corners at extreme speeds for this version. Although there are varying opinions and ways of doing the technique, method I've most heard mentioned is the following.

As you approach a corner, brake in 5th gear and turn. When you reach the apex, step on the gas, then downshift to 4th. Coming out of the turn, shift back up to 5th when the appropriate speed is reached.

Yes, this is an extremely concise explination. Yes, you can develop the technique to your own liking. And YES, it will make your runs faster. It's tried and true on Akina and works very well on Irohazaka (although you should shift down from 4th to 3rd in that track).


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Specific Track Tricks


~Myogi - Gas it all the way through the course and don't forget the Out-In-Out, accel-off at the hairpin. This track lets you get used to the controls and the physics of the game.

BEST CAR
Counter-Clockwise: UNKNOWN (either Cappucino or R32)
Clockwise: R34 (but could be Capp)
WET: R32


~Usui - 2 hairpins and 1 hard turn. The hairpins are just wide enough to try drift-accel-off but should try brake drift. The hard turn can be taken with drift accel-off.

Best Car: Dry: Sil80
Wet: UNKNOWN (Looks like Sil80. Could even be GC8V.)


~Akagi - Your first track with S-curve type hairpins; a good place to try Feint Motion and 5-in-4-out.

Best Car: Downhill: S14Q Or RX-8.
Uphill: EvoIII
WET: R32

~Akina - This is a hard track to master, even with players who've beaten the game have a tricky time dealing with this. The rain gutters on the sides of the road provide VERY high grip to take hairpins and tight turns, but the risk is that you're VERY close to the track walls as well which makes it easy to grind along it and loose tons of speed. Downshift on some of the hairpins and never go below your 4th gear on the Downhill. Uphill is slow giong.

BEST CAR: DRY: AE86
WET: GC8V


~Happogahara - This is full of consecutive left-right-left turns. Use drift accel-off to make the regular turns. Try to go for the straightest path between turns and try to aim towards the middle of the track when you take the constant left-right curves or you'll slam into the wall. Downshift to 3rd gear when you take the VERY tight 4-hairpins section and take it to 4th on the tight 2-hairpin curves section.

Comment: Also called the "Happy place."

BEST CAR: OUTBOUND: EK9
INBOUND: EG6 (The MR2 is also quite good)
WET: R32 (RX8 is also good)


~Irohazaka - CONSTANT HAIRPINS!!! Lots of downshifting and upshifting here. Use 5-in-4-out, In-Out-In, and Feint Motion. While going Downhill, there's a few places on the track where the guardrail ends before the apex of the road and you can drive your car over the grass and into the lower part of the track. This is usefull to try to make faster times and passing your opponent.

BEST CAR: EVO4


~Akina Snow - Like Akina but with much lower traction, it's VERY easy to slide here, and there are no gutters whatsoever since it seems to be covered in snow and ice. The physics are different from the Rain, example is that if you take the same hairpin you used the AE86 as in dry or wet, you'll fishtail wildly. My advice is to go slower than normal and get used to the mountain, then try to speed up.

BEST CAR: Celica has top ranking internationally, but it also shows all 4WD cars can run the same times.


~Shomaru Pass - A very narrow track with constant left-right turns like Happo and more harder turns this time. Be sure to use drift excel-off and Feint Motion when necessary.

BEST CAR: DRY: Cappaciuno
WET: R32


~Tuchizaka - This track is a test of all the skills that you've learned on every track in the game. Tuchizaka's a combination of all the tracks, from the wide and slow turns of Myogi and Usui, the hairpins of Akina, a VERY long straight like Iro, and the crazy turns of Shomaru pass. Be sure to look out for the oil slick on one of the tight turns. You'll slide when you run through it, although it will help you when you go through OUTBOUND, it doesn't work very good on INBOUND. You don't get the oil in WET.

NOTE: CPUs either go through the oil or not, either way nothing happens to them.

BEST CAR: DRY: EVO5
WET: R32


THE BOSSES - 3 secret people who only appear when you've defeated all the regular opponents.

~Boss 1: Keisuke "K.T." Takahashi on Tuchizaka Outbound in Mazda RX-7 Type R Hard at first, use Feint Motion to take turns as much as possible. His time is 3' 3" time.

~Boss 2: Takumi "Tak" Fujiware on Tuchizaka Inbound in Toyota Truneo GT-Apex (Project D car)
Even harder to defeat and almost seems to go through the oil. His time is 3' 0".

~Boss 3: Bunta Fujiware on Akina Downhill in Subaru WRX STi.
VERY HARD AND UNFORGIVING!!!!! Differences from Version 1 and other opponents is that he'll gas it all out on the straights, take the gutters on the 5-Hairpins-Of-Death, rear-end you heavily, and ram you from the side. His time is 3' 8-10". Good players on Akina Downhill in this version have 3' 12-15", you'll seriously need better training to defeat him.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Be sure to post anything you have on your mind about this guide.

Can you explain the 5-in-4 out technique in depth detail on the first hairpin on downhill akina?

its an advanced technique and its not really supposed to be used until you have got your time to a point where you can no longer increase it.

i'll try to explain it but its hard to understand if you don't see it on video. firstly start on an inner-line when the turn approaches snap to the outer line, break, stop breaking at a reasonable speed (first turn akina is around 132-3) when it reaches this speed, step on the accelerator, and downshift to fourth. thats 5-in-4 out. if you don't understand it that well, play the stage some more by doing a normal feint on the first turn. basically its the same thing except when you snap to the outside you break & downshift then accelerate when your speed gets to an appropriate speed to clear the turn.

if you are a trueno user or just wanna be fast in general on akina this technique MUST be used on almost EVERY turn since it helps your apex and exit speeds from anywhere 2-5 km/h.

Cool. Thanks for the help Duluth.

Is there any video available for the 5 in 4 out technique?