THE FINAL CONFRONTATION:
THE BLIMP OF DOOM
Stop Regeneration Defeat PrimeEvil
How to stop the cars from regenerating:
If you've played TM3 on tournament and got to the final blimp level, chances are that if you haven't found all the switches you're still there. The cars can't be destroyed! Shoot em, and they regenerate. Here's how to fix that:
The regeneration thing is triggered by a set of switches...five, actually. Three of these are in plain view, one is behind big red lines and can't be triggered until the other four are hit, and the fifth is hidden.
Before you start hunting down those switches, I've found it works best if you DON'T try to get anyone down to a low level of health first. The enemies will have enough trouble aganist other enemies, as usually there are a bunch of them on the first floor of the blimp. Sometimes someone even dies before you get all the switches, even if you don't take any shots. So get those switches quick, then do the work.
The three east switches are all on the bottom part of the blimp. They're on the walls of the large rooms, two in one large room and one in the other. You just need to a missile or so, or let blow a little machine gun fire to get em.
The next one is harder to get. Find the hallways found between the large rooms on the bottom part of the blimp that end suddenly, and have a sign that sez "Closed" or something at the end of them. There are two of these hallways, mind you, and you can take either one -- you'll just end up on different sides of the room. Anyway, shoot down that wall! That's right, fire a missile or machine gun it down. LET YOURSELF GO! Anyway, after blowing it down, head through, where's there's another a little farther. Shoot it also. Go up the ramp, and depending on which hallway you took, the switch will be on the right side or across from you on the left next to the opposite entrance. Blast it also. There's also a lightning up here, and a full health. The portal will take you to the first floor of the blimp.
Finally, go for the fifth switch, the one behind the laser bars. If you got all the other switches, you should be able to get this one now. License to kill.
So you got all the switches and killed everyone? Prepare for the TRUE Twisted Metal!
The Final boss , Primevil, is some sort of funky Monster truck, except the car's body is real low to the ground. His special weapon isn't like Hammerhead's, though -- he has this really really nasty missile-mortar-nuke weapon. Well, it's really nasty. It looks like Sweet Tooth's Special, except that it's got some spikes or something and a big trail of smoke behind it. And it takes off a lot of health. A LOT. This is what you need to watch out for. If you get in front of Primevil, he will no doubt use this on you, and then he will bum rush you. Don't let this happen.
The name of the game for beating Primevil is hit and run. That's right: first, while avoiding him, stock up on weapons. A great area for this is the room with the large yellow colored stone boxes on the bottom floor of the blimp. You can shoot all of those down, and a lot of them have some good weapons. The main weapons you will need are: Power missiles, homing missiles, remote ombs, and ricochet bombs. Ricochet bombs are located in one of the hallways that led to the fourth switch (the hidden room...see the regenerating part if you don't know what I'm talking about). You will also need to use freeze a lot, and I mean A LOT.
Here are the tactics, for the main weapons and some others:
Power missiles - If your vehicle's special isn't that powerful, these will form the brunt of your damage. Just freeze and shoot. Make sure that when you freeze him, you attack from the side or back. That way, when he unfreezes, you won't be facing down one of his missiles. Remember, Power missiles don't home in.
Homing missiles - Use these at long range to wear him down.
Remote bombs - Very powerful. Freeze, place, and run. Detonate. You can try to use one to bounce him into the pit on the bottom floor, but it's hard. Use remote bombs often.
Ricochet bombs - While not very powerful, these are your main getaway weapons. When you hit him, he bounces in the air, so his weapons won't aim straight at you and he can't go anywhere. You can even use a couple, or a few bombs to go for a juggle, but juggling is mostly for fun and doesn't do that much damage against Primevil. You can also try to use these to bomb Primevil into the pit.
And for some final tips...
If you find that you're in front of Primevil, do a >90 turn, hit the turbo, and jump (U, U, R). This is a great evasive action, and if you get it down right, and it works almost everywhere.
Watch the health locations. Primevil will automatically hunt them down when he gets close to a location, whether or not he's low on health. This is a big problem. This means you need to know where the health powerups are, and when they appear. Make sure you get them before he does. Actually, this is one of the reason that this battle can be so difficult -- Primevil keeps stealing the damn healths. Or you could use the code to make sure he doesn't.
That's pretty much it. Just remember -- hit and run.
(c)1999! Grimm Thinking! Woo!
mrgrimm@softhome.net