"Blackbelt Champion" Trophy

[Destructor-8]

If anyone still needs this trophy then there's a very easy one called Air Brake City that is currently in the rotation. I just went on the Asian Stack to play a match & ended up getting this on the first match, so definitely recommend trying to get it there if you still need it. It only requires air brakes which is L2 where most jumps are straight ahead & you can take your time on the pipes here too.

[Joey-Ravn]

I've been trying and trying... and I just can't get it. I never, ever get any of those "easy" tracks everyon is talking about. It's always the same handful of tracks I just can't beat all the time

[iceman_CFC]

Air Brake City - Very Very easy map in royal mode. I did it the first time she showed up

[Tommiieeh]

for everyone whos having a hard time with this, there is a club called "royal training maps", where you can practice all the royal maps. after practicing 2 maps i did on my first go in royal mode.
hope this helps you guys out, good luck!
🐙

[dalailama1989]

On 8/22/2023 at 8:37 PM, Tommiieeh said:

for everyone whos having a hard time with this, there is a club called "royal training maps", where you can practice all the royal maps. after practicing 2 maps i did on my first go in royal mode.
hope this helps you guys out, good luck!
🐙

Which map of the currently available ones did you end up doing?

[MushuMixLipa]

I've wasted way too much time trying to do royal recently. Can get to most of the black level easily just cannot seem to beat it. 

 

Don't enjoy most of the rotation at the moment, will wait for a refresh. (the new sand jump map can be done with practice imo) 

[DesmaBR]

The new Criss Cross map is easy, tbh.

 

Took me a few tries, but I managed to get it

[dippidude]

Yeah just got this on Criss Cross, definitely practice Red + Black beforehand 

[MushuMixLipa]

On 11/7/2023 at 11:19 PM, dippidude said:

Yeah just got this on Criss Cross, definitely practice Red + Black beforehand 

Hunted for the map for 3 hours after practicing it, didn't show up once. Practised Stella Fireworks for an hour, eventually got this trophy. No idea why I struggled so much, finally onto the fun part...

[dalailama1989]

On 11/9/2023 at 3:04 AM, MushuMixLipa said:

Hunted for the map for 3 hours after practicing it, didn't show up once. Practised Stella Fireworks for an hour, eventually got this trophy. No idea why I struggled so much, finally onto the fun part...

Agreed! Thanks for the Stellar Fireworks tip - this map should currently be the easiest of the bunch. Finally did it.

Should be in the rotation until December 25th, according to this site: https://royalgraveyard.jeffs.rocks/pool/

Edited November 12, 2023 by dalailama1989

[NielsB90]

Oh man I never thought this would be what kept me from the platinum.. It is the last trophy I'm missing but I am not enjoying the hunt - I've spent 5+ hours trying for it with no progress. There is something about this gamemode I truly hate. A mix between 95% of the maps being unenjoyable for me and the fact that you have no control of map rotation. I've enjoyed everything about the game until now but I would gladly trade this for another 50 author medals where you can practice and improve whenever you have a moment to spare. At this moment of burnout, I consider it the hardest trophy of the Trackmania games (I know it isn't but it feels like an absolute chore).

 

I can't even finish Stellar Fireworks or Criss Cross in training. I swear this trophy has made me worse at the game. Please do post if any of you encounter any truly easy maps and I will try again after a break.

Edited November 24, 2023 by NielsB90

[Shrooba]

If anyone is looking for a doable track for the Blackbelt Champion trophy right now, I highly recommend Adriatic Coasting 2, which is currently in the cycle. Here's my run through it:

 

When I first stumbled across this track in the rotation, I struggled making it past the Blue section, but after some training of the track (through Clubs > Royal Training Maps > Week 134: Royal - Adriatic Coast - Campaign), I quickly got the hang of it.
I definitely would say to train through the Red and Black sections a few times, as even in my full run in the video, I still made some careless mistakes 😅 But even then, I practically nearly got through the Black section twice over, so it's a good show of how doable this one is with some practice.
From 2:37 onwards, you'll need to go full throttle in order to make the final jump, but it's nothing too difficult, nerves aside! 😅 Again, I made it pretty much to the end of the Black section twice, so there's a good amount of time.

I'll also tag @NielsB90 since I know you've got this to do, good luck!

Edited December 27, 2023 by Shrooba

[NielsB90]

Hi Shrooba. I appreciate your advice and I gave it a try last night. I have to ask, when you say "train through the Red and Black sections a few times", do you mean that literally?  I other words - did you manage to complete them after a few tries? I played the map for 45 minutes last night and managed to clear red twice and black 0 times in 50+ attempts.. I haven't played the game since November so I think I have hours of practice before even attempting rotation. I'm gonna give it another two hours and if I don't clear black somewhat consistently then I'm going back into hibernation. 

 

A word of advice to others: do not save this trophy for last. It gets progressively harder the longer you wait as you are "out of shape" and practicing the same 10-second snippet of technical map over and over is the opposite of fun.

 

EDIT: watching your videos it seems possible to complete the sections at slower speeds than I thought so I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Edited December 31, 2023 by NielsB90

[Jeanolt]

I played again a while ago and the maps where completely different, absolutely madness to complete them in 2 minutes and a half without prior practice.

 

I'm really glad to have this trophy lol

[NielsB90]

34 minutes ago, Jeanolt said:

I played again a while ago and the maps where completely different, absolutely madness to complete them in 2 minutes and a half without prior practice.

 

I'm really glad to have this trophy lol

Are you saying the maps used to be easier?

[Jeanolt]

14 hours ago, NielsB90 said:

Are you saying the maps used to be easier?

The classic maps from summer 2020 used to be easier. The game updated at a slower pace before, so there weren't many maps.

 

They are easy to recognize because they only use a few bright colors, mainly green. 

[Shrooba]

On 12/31/2023 at 4:55 PM, NielsB90 said:

Hi Shrooba. I appreciate your advice and I gave it a try last night. I have to ask, when you say "train through the Red and Black sections a few times", do you mean that literally?  I other words - did you manage to complete them after a few tries?

Yep! When I say to train through 'em, I mean to complete full runs of the Red and Black sections a few times each through the Clubs menu, just to really nail in the muscle memory-- that way, when you encounter the map in Royal, you'll be able to perform consistently in spite of any pressure... like I had! 😂
Since you asked how long it took me to complete it, my timeline was essentially this: I completed a match of Royal, then played for about 40 more minutes to acclimate myself with the tracks-- getting a feel for which one I figured was the most doable-- in which case I settled on Adriatic Coasting 2 as a good candidate. From there, I practiced through the Red and Black sections, and then went through Royal and got placed into the same map again on the 4th track, where I got the run in that video.
I'm no pro at Trackmania, I absolutely suck at ice tracks for instance! 😂 This is all to say that if I can get it with just a bit of practice, then you've got what it takes! Since you've got the 290 author medals for the campaign and TOTDs all up, you've definitely got this! Believe in yourself! 💪
Even though I made errors, I still had plenty of time, so it's quite generous for this map, as opposed to other ones.
 

 

On 12/31/2023 at 4:55 PM, NielsB90 said:

I played the map for 45 minutes last night and managed to clear red twice and black 0 times in 50+ attempts.. I haven't played the game since November so I think I have hours of practice before even attempting rotation.

 

EDIT: watching your videos it seems possible to complete the sections at slower speeds than I thought so I'll keep that in mind for next time.

What I think makes this track doable is just what you described! You can afford to take your time with a few bits of the Black section. However, there are some crucial speed checks through it, and I'll try and give a bit of commentary on my video to help you get a feel for when to go full throttle.

2:26, the first jump, is where you need to build up speed in order to reach the first grassy left turn. From there, you can afford to slow down-- just for a moment-- to gain your bearings on the turn. But from there, you need to drive at a steady pace to cross the gap at 2:30.
When you approach the jump to the next grassy turn at 2:36, I personally approach it from the left side. Since the grassy terrain makes your vehicle prone to drifting, you'll probably slide right off if you land on it from the right. As a good visual cue, you want to land around the middle of the squarish section after the jump, before the turn.

From there on, you must go full throttle, otherwise you won't make the final jump into the finish.
At 2:42, the track itself-- mainly the railing on the right-- can interfere with your final jump to the finish. I like to stick near the middle-- which naturally transitions into the left side of the turn-- to set myself up for the jump, especially since you'll naturally be in a drifting state on the grass. You wanna strike a good balance between maintaining a steady turn without compromising speed, otherwise what'll happen is my prior fail at 2:18! 😂
A very important visual cue-- especially as noted in my failed attempt at 2:!8-- is that I began my left turn to the final jump right before the second to last black bar in the grass. On my successful run on 2:42 however, I committed to the turn just a moment sooner, aligning my car with the darker rim of the grass. This was the difference between me hitting the wall and clearing the jump.

I don't mean for this to sound too complex or anything! Me being in-depth is just so you can iron it out during some practice runs through the Clubs section. Trust me, when you're in the moment in Royal, your muscle memory will do all the work. You won't need to do any analysis like I just wrote out in the heat of the moment! 😅 Again, like I've said, even I made some fatal errors in my successful run, but I still had a lot of time to work with, and you will too! You absolutely got this! Best of luck!

Edited January 1 by Shrooba

[NielsB90]

I've spent all my free time lately doing the Adriatic map (I have tiny kids so time is limited) and at 5 hours in I've encountered the map twice. First time I made it to the second to last jump of the black section but by the time I encountered the map a second time I was so nervous I never made it past blue before giving up. I swear I've played the newest map more than ten times in the same time.

 

You are right that the map is doable but the cruelty of this trophy is not the difficulty but the fact that you spend 98% of your time doing absolutely nothing that gets you closer to achieving it. With a twenty map rotation + endless loading times I think it could easily end up taking 50 hours. Im already at 10+ hours chasing it. At this point it is definitely sunk cost fallacy as I've spent 80 hours completing the rest of the game..

 

Sorry for whining.. 

Edited January 3 by NielsB90

[Shrooba]

It appears that there will be some changes to the Royal mode with the next Winter season in TM 2020, according to their recent news:

https://www.trackmania.com/news/7856

 

Quote

Over 2 years ago, in June 2021, the Royal mode was introduced: a collaborative team mode where 60 players in 20 teams compete to be the last team standing and to become the Royal Champion! Every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, a new track unveiled, composing a total of 20 entertaining tracks selected through the track review server.

If you are feeling more competitive, the ‘Super Royal’ competition is happening 3 times a day, with more Royal crowns to win: 8 PM CET, 4 AM CET, and 12 AM CET.

To kick off 2024, we are thrilled to announce updates to the Royal mode. The base of the mode stays the same: there are still 20 teams composed of up to 3 players and the tracks are still made with 5 types of segments, ranging from the easiest to the most challenging: white, green, blue, red, and black. From now on, each player must complete their own segment to advance to the next difficulty. Our goal is to encourage players to improve their skill by spending more time on each segment instead of skipping directly to the harder segments.
 

With this new Royal game mode, you will progress through each segment by earning stars. After accumulating 10 stars, you will advance to the next one! The number of stars you earn depends on your performance:

• Beating the current record of the segment gives 5 stars.
• Achieving the first record on a segment gives 4 stars.
• Beating the gold time gives 3 stars.
• Beating the silver time gives 2 stars.
• Beating the bronze time gives 1 star.

Each segment will have its own record time set by the players during the round which will define the bronze, silver and gold times.

Completing a segment gives one point to your team even if you are not the first of your team, and holding a record on a segment grants two points until another team surpasses the record and steals those points. The Royal tracks remain unchanged.

This update will go live on January 9th alongside the Winter campaign. New Royal skins were designed for 2024, inspired by fruit! The options include apple, avocado, banana, blackberry, blueberry, cherry, coconut, date, dragon fruit, fig, grape, kiwi, litchi, mango, orange, papaya, peach, pineapple, strawberry, and watermelon… So, which team will you join?

It'll be interesting to see this roll out! It seems now you cannot skip through the coloured tiers if a teammate has finished before you, and each tier will need to be beaten multiple times now in order to advance, depending on how many stars you achieve.

@NielsB90 No need to apologize! Especially if you've got family duties, after all. I remember being quiiiiite nervous during my run in the Black section, so don't worry, that's normal! 😅

Edited January 5 by Shrooba

[NielsB90]

Sounds like it will be much, much harder from now on unless they change the time limit? I have to clear each section at LEAST a couple of times including black or have I missed something?

Edited January 6 by NielsB90

[ClassyCaptain]

I know the update has only just been released an hour ago (and the servers are apparently terrible…), but I’m curious if anyone’s been able to try the new Royal mode yet. It’s the last trophy I need, and I’m very curious if it’s actually much harder to reach black now.

 

Been pretty burned out with the game, so I’m planning on taking a small break from it. But curious to hear how the new update plays.

[barra333]

Caught part of a run on a stream - looks like the time limit is much higher.

[ClassyCaptain]

Sadly enough, it seems like they changed the trophy requirements as well… I just managed to finish the black section once during the game, but no trophy popped. I e-mailed Ubisoft support about it, but it seems like you also have to get 10 stars on the black section now in order to get this trophy instead of just finishing it once…

[Shrooba]

It appears Nadeo has now shifted the overall length of the Royal mode from 5 tracks to 4, in order to add balance to the now 6 minute length for each track, which is a nice change! I do have to wonder though, since the time has been adjusted to be longer, could future Royal tracks have longer sections? 🤔 Might make things trickier on top of already now needing to complete Black sections 3-4 times for it to actually clear now. Definitely gonna be interesting to see how this mode plays out!
Since tracks will now consist of more repetition, I always recommend to anyone going for the trophy to practice any doable Royal tracks that others post here on this thread through Royal Training Maps in the Clubs section.
Good luck to everyone! 🫡

Edited January 11 by Shrooba

[barra333]

6 minutes ago, Shrooba said:

could future Royal tracks have longer sections?

That would not be ideal...

 

Lets say you have times for the 5 colours of 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 seconds. Without setting any records, you need to complete each one 4 times to finish black. That is 40 + 48 + 56 + 64 + 72 seconds (4min 40 sec). The timer is 6min. Assuming you 1 shot white and green, you still only get 5-6 fails in attempting to complete 12 runs of blue/red/black.

 

Some tracks are upwards of 20sec per finish. If that becomes the norm, you will need records or one-shot everything to complete black. That said, if you can one shot white and get to green first, you get a free 4* and only have to do 3 runs. Same goes for being first to any colour. That is likely going to become what is needed.