Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PS2) Tricking FAQ (created November 16) By Hound8 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Pro Skater's Specials 2b. Secret Skater's specials 3. The Regular Tricks Guide 4. Linking tricks (revert, manuals, hidden combos) 5. Doing Specials Properly 6. Adding New Tricks and Stats 7. Getting the SICK Score (scoring lines) 8. Credits 1: Introduction This is my first-ever FAQ, so please excuse any mishaps or errors. The Tony Hawk series is, to me, the best skateboarding series in the world. Tony Hawk 1 was pretty good, but with no way to truly link tricks. THPS2 introduced the manual, a way of linking tricks along the ground, as well as tons of new grabs, flips, lips, Specials and grinds, but with no way to link vert tricks. THPS3 now gives even more grabs, flips, lip tricks, grinds and Specials, and also, the fundamental move, the revert. It now allows you to link vert tricks for amazingly long combos. I'm great at the whole Tony Hawk series, and am now here to show you how to play just as well as me. Hope this FAQ helps any trick problems you'll ever have! 2: The Pro Skater's Specials (Moves with an "*" indicate that it can be held longer for more points.) Tony Hawk (vert) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 900 (air)- 6500 pts. Double Kickflip to Indy (air)- 2000 1-2-3-4 (air)- 2500 5-0 Overturn (grind)- varies Steve Caballero (street) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kickflip Superman* (air)- 1500+ FS 540 (air)- 4500 Hang Ten Nosegrind (grind)- varies Handstand 360 Handflip (flatland)- varies Kareem Campbell (street) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ghetto Bird (air)- 3500 Kickflip Backflip (air)- 4500 Reemo Slide (flatland)- varies Nosegrind to Pivot (grind)- varies Rune Gilfberg (vert) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Double Kickflip Madonna* (air)- 1400+ Christ Air* (air, obvious)- 1000+ Crail Slide (grind)- varies One Foot Blunt (lip)- varies Eric Koston (street) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fandangle (grind)- varies Slamma Jamma (air)- 1750 Stalefish Backflip (air)- 4500 Pizza Guy* (air)- 1500+ Bucky Lasek (vert) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Big Hitter II (grind)- varies Fingerflip Airwalk (air)- 1500 Misty Flip (air)- 5000 FS 540 Heelflip (air)- 4500 Bam Margera (street) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 540 Tailwhip (air)- 2000 The Jackass (air)- 1500 Human Dart (grind)- varies Russian Boneless* (lip)- varies Rodney Mullen (manual master) (street) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gazelle Underflip (air)- 3500 Truckstand (flatland)- varies Anti Casper (flatland)- varies Handstand Double Flip (flatland, too)- varies Chad Muska (street) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Handstand 50-50 (grind)- varies BS Nose Comply*(lip)- varies Tailblock Slide (grind)- varies Ghetto Blastin (grind)- varies Andrew Reynolds (street) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dark Disaster*(lip)- varies Hardflip Lateflip (air)- 1500 Noseslide Lipslide (grind)- varies Quad Heelflip (air)- 1350 Geoff Rowley (street) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rowley Darkslide (grind)- varies Casper Flip 360 Flip (air)- 1500 The H Teeth Sweeper*(lip)- varies Sproing (flatland)- varies Elissa Steamer (street) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Coffin (grind)- varies Primo (flatland)- varies Bigspin Flip to Tail*(lip)- varies Judo Madonna* (air)- 1500+ Jamie Thomas (street) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Crook Bigspin Crook (grind)- varies One Wheel Nose manual (manual/flatland)- varies 360 Hardflip (air)- 1350 Layback Sparks (grind)- varies 2b. The Secret Skater's Specials Darth Maul ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Force Grab* (air) Dark Jedi Grind (grind)- varies Sith Saber Spin (flatland)- varies Wolverine (Spiderman replacement) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Claw Punch (air)- Claw Drag (flatland)- varies The Beserker (air)- Officer Dick (street) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Assume the Position II* (air)- 1250 Sobriety Grind (grind)- varies Lazy Ass Manual (manual/flatland)- varies Private Carrera (street) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Handspring Layout (air)- 3500 Ho Ho Sad Plant*(lip)- varies Ahh Yeahhh! (flatland) Ollie the Magic Bum (probably street) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Panhandling* (air)- S.U.I Grind (grind)- varies ZZZZ Manual (manual/flatland)- varies Can Ya Spare A Dollar? (flatland, only available to him, doesn't start with it, though) - varies Kelly Slater (surfboard guy) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rodeo Clown* (air)- Paddle Out Grind (grind)- varies Duck Dive Shark Attack (flatland)- 1500 Demoness (Satan's girlfriend) AC Air (air)- Going Home (flatland)- varies The Summoner (grind)- Neversoft Eyeball ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Super Hand Clap (air)- Created Skater ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ McTwist (air)- 4500 540 Flip (air)- Handstand (flatland)- varies (can't remember the other one) Other specials not given to any particular character include the Sacktap, Salad Grind, Stalefish Frontflip, Nollieflip Underflip and To Rail. 3: The Regular Tricks guide The above were all special tricks, tricks that require 2 button presses. You can customize them in the Edit Tricks menu to your liking. To do specials, though, you'll need your special meter yellow. How do you that? Well, you do have regular tricks which increase your special meter, and this section tells you about them. "X" tricks ~~~~~~~~~~~ Ollie- Press X to ollie or jump. Holding X increases your speed and the amount of air you'll get when you ollie. Remember to ollie to when you go up a ramp. Nollie- Press L2 while on the ground and then jump to Nollie. Fastplant/Bonless/Beanplant- Press up-up then X to do one of these. Each skater does their own: for example, Tony Hawk does the Fastplant, Kareem Campbell does the Boneless and Elissa Steamer does the Beanplant. These give you a bit more air. Use them to try reaching areas that can't be reached by a simple Ollie. No Comply- Simply press up and X simultaneously to do a No Comply. Considering that a simple Ollie gives you no points and this does, a No Comply is great to do. Switching Stance- No, it's not an Ollie trick, or not a trick at all, to tell the truth, but is important. While on the ground, press R2 to switch stance. Moves in your switch stance are worth more points and devalue separately from moves in regular stance. For example, an FS Shove It worth 100 would be worth around 120 in switch stance, and when the FS Shove It's value goes down to just 20 in regular stance, if you haven't done the trick in switch at all, it would still be worth 120 pts. The same rule applies for all tricks, including specials. "Circle" Tricks (grabs) The circle button is used for grab tricks. A grab is a maneuver where the skater grabs the board with his/her hands. The majority of grabs can be held for more points, and spinning really adds to it. For example, if you got 2000 pts for holding a Melon, you might have got 10,000 or more by spinning it 720. Spinning is fundamental, and the more rotations done in the air, well, the more points you'll get. Some grabs aren't exactly easy to land, though, such as the Madonna, Crookedcop, Judo (sometimes hard to land, usually harder in switch stance) and others. The Madonna is the hardest to land, so avoid using it in competitions or after you've done a really big combo and are finishing with a spinning grab. Just practice. One mistake that people make, more with specials, but also with regular grabs, is that they wait until they are pretty much "floating" in the air or even coming down from an air to do a trick. I press the direction and circle pretty much the second I've left the ramp, before the screen changes to show myself in the air. Practice doing that so that you'll have more time to spin. Another good idea is to start with a Boneless/Fastplant/Beanplant for extra air. Also note that not all grab moves look like grabs. The FS Shifty doesn't even involve your hands touching the board, but can be held, and the Varial is often classified as a grab, but cannot be held. "Square" Tricks (flips) A flip trick is a trick where your skater uses his or her feet, and in moves like the Sal Flip, their hands, to flip the board independent of their body. Most flips take no time to do and cannot be held, making them the perfect move for "comboing" into and out of grinds, manuals and lip tricks. Since they're so easy to do, flips aren't worth nearly as much as grabs, except for flips that can be held, such as Fingerflips. With that in mind, don't expect to get any good scores with just a few kickflips or Pop Shove Its. Certain flips can be combined or done more than once to get a higher score, such as double and triple kickflips. These are known as hidden combos and I'll explain them later. When tricking between grinds with flips, try to use only those assigned to up-square and down-square (the best being Pop Shove It, FS Shove It, Impossible, 360 Flip) for less chance of jumping off the rail, edge or lip. "Triangle" Tricks (grinds, lips) The triangle button is used for grinds and lip tricks. To grind Ollie onto a rail and press Triangle. There are lots of different grinds that can be done, and unlike flip and grab tricks, everybody has the same grinds. 50-50- Press Triangle when you are facing the rail straight. Remember, no direction. Nosegrind- Press up and triangle. 5-0- Press down and triangle. Nosebluntslide- Press up, up triangle. Bluntslide- Press down, down triangle. Noseslide- Left-triangle Tailslide- Right-triangle Crooked- Up/right-triangle (diagonal) Overcrook- Up/left-triangle (diagonal) Smith- Down/right-triangle (diagonal) Feeble- Down/left-triangle (diagonal) Boardslide/Lipslide- hit the rail sideways Lip tricks are done by skating directly up a ramp and pressing triangle and a direction. There are 2 types of lip tricks, stalls and inverts. Stalls are where you stay on the lip of the ramp without going inverted or so, balancing like you were on the skateboard skating but stalled. You can therefore jump out of these. Inverts are like handstands on the lip of the ramp, and being inverted you can't Ollie out of them, but like all lip tricks, must still press X to get out of them. You can jump out of a lip and land in another one. Both grinds and lip tricks have balance meters, indicating your balance on the rail or lip. Use left and right for grinds to balance, and up and down to balance lip tricks. Once you improve your rail balance and lip trick stats, you can balance better on rails and hold lips longer. 4: Linking Tricks You may be great at all regular tricks, but without combos, you'll never really get anywhere. The manual (up down) and nose manual (down up) are the most fundamental linking moves in the game, except perhaps the revert. A manual can be done on the ground, but is better to do it when coming down from a trick (tap up down or down up as you land). Manuals are the wheelies of skateboarding, and you can link everything with them. Bust a Boneless followed by a Varial Kickflip and land in a manual, jump to a Kickflip, to a nose manual, go over to a rail, do a Crooked grind, ollie into an impossible into a 5-0 grind, heelflip off into another manual... Manual combos can be abused to get hundreds of thousands of points in one combo; I've already got 460,000 off my starting combo once. While doing a manual, tap R2 or L2 to do either a pivot or nose pivot, depending on if you're in a manual or nose manual. Basically a 180 turn, pivots add style and flair to your regular manual combo, and can be substituted for manuals when your manual starts to barely give points. From a pivot, press L2 to spin back to a manual. You can keep switching them as long as you can balance them. The revert is used to link vert tricks and is done by pressing R2 or L2 as you land from a vert trick. The revert itself is just a quick stance change, but if you do a manual as you do the revert, it'll keep your combo going, meaning huge combos. This move here is invaluable, and without it you will NEVER get the high scores or gold medals. Think 'bout that. Hidden Combos ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A hidden combo is linking tricks without jumping or repeatedly doing a trick. Flips and Grabs Double Kickflip: Left-square + square Triple Kickflip: Left-square + square + square Double Heelflip: Right-square + square Triple Heelflip: Right-square + square + square 360 Shove It: Pop Shove It + square 540 Shove It: Pop Shove It + square + square 360 FS Shove It: FS Shove It + square 540 FS Shove It: FS Shove It + square + square Double Impossible: Impossible + square Triple Impossible: Impossible + square + square Kickflip to Indy: Left-square + right-circle Kickflip to Crail: Left-square + Up-circle Beni-fingerflip: Benihana + Up-square (The button presses must be done in rapid succession.) Note that the Kickflip to Indy and Kickflip to Crail, unlike in the first 2 games, cannot be held, and that the Beni- fingerflip is not one trick, but 2, using up one Benihana to do. (And don't try to press the buttons all at once.) Grinds 50-50 links to: Nosegrind (up-triangle) 5-0 (down-triangle) Bluntslide (down, down-triangle) Nosebluntslide (up, up triangle) Nosegrind links to: Nosebluntslide (up, up-triangle) Noseslide (square, square) Overcrook (circle, circle) 5-0 links to: Bluntslide (down, down-triangle) Tailslide (square, square) Feeble (circle, circle) Nosebluntslide links to: Crooked (up, down-triangle) Noseslide (square, square) Overcrook (circle, circle) Bluntslide links to: Smith (down, up-triangle) Tailslide (square, square) Feeble (circle, circle) Noseslide links to: Nosebluntslide (up, up-triangle) Overcrook (circle, circle) Tailslide links to: Bluntslide (down, down-triangle) Feeble (circle, circle) Crooked links to: Nosebluntslide (up, up-triangle) Noseslide (square, square) Overcrook (circle, circle) Overcrook links to: Nosebluntslide (up, up-triangle) Noseslide (square, square) Smith links to: Bluntslide (down, down-triangle) Tailslide (square, square) Feeble (circle, circle) Feeble links to: Bluntslide (down, down-triangle) Tailslide (square, square) The Boardslide/Lipslide can't be linked to another grind, only by jumping. Lips If you're not in an Invert Trick, (Gymnast Plant, Invert, Eggplant, etc...), if you're in a Nose Stall or Boneless or something, you can link to these: Boneless (left, left-triangle) Axel Stall (right, right-triangle) Disaster (left, right-triangle) While in an Invert lip trick, you know, kind of like a handstand trick, you can link to these: One Foot Invert (left, left-triangle) Invert (right, right-triangle) Gymnast Plant (left, right-triangle) Varial Invert to Fakie (right, left-triangle) Remember to seriously watch your balance when switching. Flatland Tricks To link flatland tricks, you must have at least one in your trick inventory, so try to make sure that each character has at least one, if they don't already have one. From any special manual, except the Sproing, Duck Dive Shark Attack and One Wheel Nose Manual, you can go straight into these without jumping: To Rail: left, left-triangle Truckstand: right, right-triangle Anti Casper: left, right-triangle Casper: right, left-triangle Handstand: right, right-circle While in a Truckstand, doing another will result in a Truckspin. The Truckspin is a different trick to the Truckstand, so use it when the Truckstand's point value starts going down too much. Also, and this only counts for Rodney Mullen, press L2 + R2 + Triangle for the Pogo to Hair Flip, a hidden combo flatland trick. While in any of these but the Anti Casper, pressing left and square will flip the board, making a new trick (Truckflip, Casper Flip, Railflip, Handflip). You can do nice long combos with these. Watch your balance well! Remember that flipping the board counts as a different trick, giving points as it is held, meaning a new trick. For example, a Handflip is different to a Handstand. (For variety, choose a flatland trick for your character that can't be comboed into, such as the Reemo Slide and Primo.) And as always, watch your balance. 5: Doing Specials Properly ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lots of people have trouble with either doing specials or doing them quickly enough. For air specials, most people wait until they're in the air to do them, but that's wrong, especially in the case of longer specials like The 900. What I do is as I'm going up the ramp, or quarterpipe or halfpipe I press the 2 directions and then the button (circle or square) so it all comes down to the second you've left the ramp the special has started already. You must input the special fast to do this. It took me a long while to get this technique perfected, so keep trying. Special Manuals (flatland tricks) should be done the same as manuals, only a bit faster. Special grinds can be done in 3 ways. The 3rd is the best for beginners. You can input the 3 button presses as you're about to grind a lip, you can do it in the air as you're about to jump to a rail, or while on a rail, jump up and try to land in the grind, pressing the 3 buttons quickly. Special Lip tricks are done by pressing the 2 directions and then triangle as soon as you hit the lip. 6: Adding New Tricks and Stats ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can change your regular tricks at any time, either during a run or at the skater select screen by heading to the Edit Tricks screen. From there, chose a category, click on the move or space and select a move to put there, and then the direction(s) that suit you best. Choose tricks carefully, based on the category. You will gain a new, free special slot every time you complete all objectives on a level, although you don't need to get all the Stat Points in a level to do this. The stat points are round, yellow Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 logos, which give one extra stat every time you collect one. Put these in any stat you want, be it air, hangtime, spin, manuals, etc... (Remember not to give your character too many of any type of Special, make the characters balanced.) Also note that the Panhandling, Going Home and maybe others can only be done by their respective skater. Sorry. 7: Getting the SICK Score Each level has 3 score-based objectives, the High, Pro, and SICK Score. The SICK is hardest to get, and gets progressively harder to get as the levels get tougher, all the way up to 500,000 required as the last score in the last level, the Cruise Ship. Foundry ~~~~~~~ Vert ~~~~~ Score required: 60,000 Not much to start with. Just start with a Boneless or Fastplant or Beanplant into a Pop Shove it and manual, tricking over to the makeshift halfpipe. Grind the lip a bit to finish your combo, then hop in and start busting 540 Seatbelts, 720 Cannonballs, Melons, Airwalks and all your aerial Specials. Reverting seriously slows you down here, and since the score is so low, you won't need to, but if you do, just follow up with a couple of lip tricks. Remember to ollie out of them (except Inverts) and follow up with a revert to keep things going. Also check out the quarterpipe near to the molten bucket for more high-flying. And, also check out the bowl unlocked in the secret area after un-jamming 5 the valves, and the pipes high up reached from the Tape rail. Street ~~~~~~ From the start, turn slightly right and forward and launch off the kicker with a flip and land in a grind on the rail. Jump with Shove Its and Impossibles and kickflips and heelflips between rails up to the end then Ollie off with a spinning grab. If you have balance, land in a manual and do a few flip-manual-flip-pivot combinations. Session the nice semi-circular rail in front the molten bucket with lots of hidden combo grinds and throw in a special around it to spruce things up. In no time, you should have the score. For insane grinding, open up the secret area and skate to the top of the walkway, turn around, and grind all the way down, or as far as you can go before balance runs out. Whew!(Do airs too for variety!) Canada ~~~~~~~ Vert ~~~~ Score required: 120,000 Start off with a Fastplant into a flip and then a manual. Manual-flip over and over until you reach the kickers. Launch over them with a short spinning grab, land in a manual if you have balance, and go over to the quarterpipe and launch up with a short special or a grab trick or a couple of lip tricks. Now head over to the skate park by grinding the fence and hopping in. This whole area is perfect for vert, so stay in here and impress your Canadian skate buddies. Revert after every special air and use up your lip tricks. If you want even more vert, head to the Bully area and go past the bridge to find a bowl of sorts. Mission accomplished! Street ~~~~~~~ Start the same way as in the vert. After that's done, turn and grind down the rails leading into the parking lot and finish with a manual up the quarterpipe at the end and a spin, or grind the lip, Kickflip off, and manual to keep the combo going. Mix up your flatland tricks here. If you want, head to the skate park. Do a few grabs and aerial Specials for variety, and grind all the lips. Jump off with a Varial Kickflip or Heelflip from the lip into a manual and soar up the ramp. For a great long grind, head to the Secret Tape area and grind the rail leading away from the tape. No problem. Rio ~~~~ There shouldn't be vert or street in the competition levels, but a mix of both for variety. About 170,000 should do the job, but go for 200,000 and above. Start by grinding the short rail on your left. Fall into a manual and ride up the ramp with a spinning Melon or Mute grab or something. Revert, nose manual, and ride up to the lip and do your special grind for as long as you can hold it then leap off into a manual. Do a few tricks to build up the multipliers until your balance runs out, then finish. Now session the ramps for a while, then head up the ramp you started on up to the top and ollie onto the electric wires in a grind. Hold it for a while then jump into the street below and try to time some car plants while mixing it up with manuals and pivots. Grind the planters and rails and finish with airs. Your time should be running out now, so just finish with a big air special, revert, then keep your combo, even if time is up, until your balance finishes. Also check out the secret area behind the fence, and keep away from the small quarterpipes that force you to either go straight up or bail. Remember not to bail. Bailing once and having a stellar run anyway is all right but once you fall more than once, restart. Suburbia ~~~~~~~~~ Vert ~~~~~ SICK Score required: 200,000. The points are going up, but there are endless vert lines here. Mix them up with grinds and manuals and these should be easy. From the start, plant off the ice cream truck and land in a manual. Carry it over to the backyard park and head up with a 540 grab. Revert and manual over to the lip. Do a special lip trick if you have one, or do a couple of lip combos. If you can, revert and finish with another air. Now go over to the backyard pool near the construction site or first session the quarterpipes, revert, and then grind the wooden planks on the ground and manual over to the pool and finish with a lip trick. You can revert all your Specials here and do a Special grind to really rack up the points. You can finish in the pool and try for the 200,000, or head to the 2 other very playable areas: the trailer park skate park and the haunted house. To open the haunted house, get an axe by grinding one of the pieces of wood on the ground inside the unfinished house and then bring it over to the Thin Man. He'll chop the door and open up his house, opening up a whole vert park. Great! Oh, and remember to mix up your grabs and lips, and grind for good combos. Street ~~~~~~~ Start off with a 360 Shove It or 360 FS Shove It and land in a manual. Trick over to the ice cream truck and plant off it then manual again. Go over to the park and grind along the lip, doing hidden grinds. Use circle-circle and square-square repeatedly for cheap points. Jump off and if your balance persists, manual or pivot up to the lip and bust a lip trick, since you probably won't have the speed to do an air with a respectable amount of rotations. Do a few vert tricks here and revert after every respectable trick, especially Specials. After that, head up to the roof of the house near the satellite dish and grind the long electric wire here. Repeat the grind-flip- different grind combination and balance. You'll end up on the roof of another house. From there, head up the quarterpipe, do a nice 720 trick. Now that you've gained speed, launch off the kicker with a Boneless and a long flip like the Sal Flip or Fingerflip. Now from here session the park with grinds, lip tricks and airs. From there, take it on your own path. Grind the fences near the pool and grind up high in the construction yard. Also grind and manual around the haunted house area. After you've collected the Secret Tape by grinding the branch, air off with a grab and land in a manual. Plant off the ice cream truck multiple times for cheap points. The kicker in the middle of the road can be Fastplanted off with a 360 Impossible or Double Kickflip and then go into a Special Manual. Airport ~~~~~~~~ Vert ~~~~~ SICK Score required: 300,000. Start like in the street section and follow it exactly the same until you reach the baggage claim. Now air over the escalator and then revert, manual and grind around the baggage claim for a good combo. This can be plumbed for cheap points at the loss of style. More vert is found in the country flags area. Do Specials on the quarterpipes and then revert and manual over to the flag rails. Jump out of the grind before you bail, though. The bottom area is great for vert. Revert every move and grind the lips and lamps for gaps and multipliers. Keep the combos coming down here and you'll get the big 300. Street ~~~~~~~ Start with a Nosegrind on the left counter going BACK to the starting point. At the end ollie with a flip into a Nosebluntslide on the couch and flip into a manual. Go over to the other couch and jump and grind it for a gap. Leap to the counter and grind it to the end then hop off with a flip. Be careful not to land near the pickpocketers' victims because they'll throw you down. Do a Special Grind completely across the escalator and manual at the end. Launch up with a grab off the escalator to the lights and grind them. Ollie off with a short special like the 360 Hardflip or Hardflip Lateflip or a simple grab or a bunch of flips. Land in a manual and grind the escalators. When you're done, launch off the hump on the right and grind the lights. Now grind down the escalator and manual over to the halfpipe and bust a few spin-revert combinations. Now grind the flag rails. Remember to mix up your grinds. Finally head down to the basement area. Session with air Specials and long combos with reverts, Special Grinds off the lips and grinds on the lights. Good work, grasshopper. Skater's Island ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Not very diverse, simply air all over the bowls and launch off the kickers with flips to manuals, do a few flatland tricks where possible and revert constantly. Go for 200,000 to get the gold, and grind the pirate flag to unlock a secret area with a pirate ship and some nice vert. Los Angeles ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vert SICK Score required: 400,000. First start by turning around and doing a big trick off the pipe. Having gained speed, grind up the wire up to the freeway. Combo into and out of grinds to help you get up the wire. From there, go straight forward until you reach a sort of halfpipe. Trick there. There are 2 other places you can go for good vert: the purple halfpipe and the pipe near the fire truck. Grind the ladder for a gap, manual, and ride up the pipe. Do a Special then revert and continue your combo. A good line is to do another air or a short Special like the Jackass or 1-2-3-4, revert, then grind the other lip with a Special grind. Remember to play street with grinds and manuals for variety, because simple vert cannot get you the score. Reverts are essential. Street ~~~~~~~ Just mix it up. Grind, revert, air, manual and pivot like there's no tomorrow. Mix up the vert lines with grinds and manuals. A good line is a grind down the fire truck ladder, an air up the halfpipe, and then a revert. Mix it up, but be cheap. Also, get your Special meter full in the starting area with repeated airs off the quarterpipe, then do short Special grind like the Crail Slide or Salad grind off the rail leading down the stairs and leap off with a flip into a manual up the brown quarterpipe. Do a trick, then revert, manual, and grind the rails ahead. Tokyo ~~~~~~ This place is tough. You could start with a Boneless or Fastplant or Beanplant off the kicker and do a Pop Shove It. Manual over to the other kicker and do a Nosegrab off and land in a grind. Jump with an FS Shove It or Impossible into your Special grind and hold it for as long as humanly possible. When you must, leap off with a Hardflip and manual over to the vert area. Launch up with a grab trick and from then on, keep doing Specials, revert, manual, then do a Special grind and then manual up the ramp. Go up the loop at least once, and try to finish your run with a nice flatland combo. Remember not to bail once or your failure is assured, UNLESS you can get a combo worth over 200,000. From there, your VICTORY should be assured. You could also start with a 540 grab on the quarterpipe to your left from the starting point, revert, manual, and grind along the lips of the quarterpipes, jump across the gap with a flip, grind to the end and then jump into a special manual and do some flatland manual combos to finish off. A good 300,000+ should give you 99.9s or so. Don't give up. Cruise Ship ~~~~~~~~~~~ SICK Score: 500,000 (vert and street) From the start, turn around and do a few grabs to get your special meter cranked up. When it's full, go and grind the banner rail by launching off the kicker and doing a Special grind all the way down then manualing up the quarterpipe with a huge spin. Revert and go back up the rail a bit then hop off with a Double Kickflip or Double Heelflip. From there, drain the pool by grinding on the white pipe and try to get the rest of the points there by grinding around the pool for a gap, and reverting every trick. That's the best I've got for this level, although you can also explore the level to find some awesome grinding lines and some great reverting lines with pipes near to rails. Credits Thanks to everybody who created the Tony Hawk series, and this game, thanks to Tony Hawk and all the other pro skaters who gave the game meaning, thanks to GameFAQS for making a great site, to PlannetTonyHawk for making a good site, I got a small bit of info there, and to the guy who puts up the FAQS, and good luck to everybody trying to beat the game.