Road to 200 gold medals / 50 trackmasters

[HansPatat050]

As many of us will struggle on at least a few tracks, I thought it would be interesting to centralize journeys towards the 200 gold medals or 50 trackmasters. Value this thread as a place to share joy or frustration and centralize tips and tricks for specific tracks. Similar to the awesome 'mein leben runs' topic  

 

I'm currently 17 hours in, 89/200 golds. I have silver on #90 after a few tries, it has a tricky big jump and a lot of drifting corners and I'm just a few seconds short. I messed up quite a bit on the silver run so I don't expect too much pain. Blue valley is up next. I focus on getting gold on each track before moving on to the next one. 

[zracingz]

Keep going, also you can check YouTube Spammiej is a pro player and had 200 Trackmaster medal and also a list with the videos helps a lot to improve times. Good luck

[HansPatat050]

Thanks, and indeed I've watched a few youtubers and it's very useful to check their racelines. For example, Spammiej's final STM is track #16 where he only steers 3 or 4 times, this might come in useful to get the regular trackmaster time. 

[mikee1908]

I can recommend from experience that it's better to always go for golds while you're at it, saves a lot of time  better to grab it while the memory of the track is still fresh. 

 

I just finished track 170 which was the hardest one yet that I completed. Now I stand before the infamous Black Series Valley, arguably the hardest part of the game. 

 

I decided to first try out the three tracks that are often cited as the absolute worst: 175, 178, 180. And... while Canyon was already pretty brutal, I must say those three kind of floored me   I thought it's the wall jumps that are the craziest part but it's actually everything else that really destroys me.  I'm not so sure anymore I will succeed at this platinum, but I'll do my best! 

 

Not meaning to discourage anyone, the feeling of grabbing that gold finally is absolutely amazing and character building. 

Good thread idea and good luck on your road to 200! #90 could be the hardest Blue track if I recall correctly. I hate multilaps in general.

PS I did the 50 trackmaster medals already and they are WAY easier than the 200 gold challenge, they are child's play compared to Black series and even a lot of Red gold medals already felt harder. 

[HansPatat050]

I'm halfway now, 104/200 golds and 20 trackmasters. Which trackmasters did you get? 

 

Mine are 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,11,12,13,16,19,23,27,31,32,38,43 and 93. 

 

And wow what was #100 a pain in the ass. Took me at least 2 hours. This multilap track had it all; dirt, S turns with humps, small bridge sections, water section with only 1 path as there are invisible rocks, bridge section with a very small jump, and a turbo boost over the finish line boosting yourself into the S turn which required full braking. Hate it or love it...

Edited September 6, 2023 by HansPatat050

[mikee1908]

These are my trackmasters:
 

 

 

 

Of course you should go with ones you enjoy most, but I personally felt most of the white lagoon was fairly easy. I even did the multilaps there, which I hate in general and other than those ones you should avoid them like hell in trackmaster medals. I even got a TM on black track 162 by accident   Oh and 73 is super short and easy, pretty much anyone in ghostbuster thread did one for TMs. Good luck! 

[zemiguelreis]

Just started this game recently and I'm at 50/200 Gold medals. So far so good, didn't have any big issues...will definitely be checking these threads for some tips when I need to! Also, I'll probably leave the Trackmaster medals for the end when I have more experience. 

[HansPatat050]

Cool, good luck!

 

Yesterday I've finished the 50 trackmasters and I'm currently 122/200 golds in, 45 hours or so. 

 

Trackmasters I achieved:

White series 1 - 14, 16-10, 21-24, 26, 27, 29, 30-33, 35, 36, 38, 39

Green series 41-43, 46-40, 53, 56, 58, 61, 62, 64, 73, 76

Blue series 82, 83, 93

[mikee1908]

The biggest difficulty gap is between Red and Black series, although if you manage to get golds on all reds, the potential to succeed is there. It's not like you'll breeze through Black but you will have a real fighting chance. 

 

For me the absolute hardest Red ones were 125, 140, 145, will be curious to see if you hate them as much as I did

[HansPatat050]

Oh man 125 is absolutely brutal. The track doesn't feel that difficult, but there are at least 5 spots where you'll have to be perfectly aligned to make it past the upcoming gap, jump, boost part, drift section or S turn. 

 

I've already got at least 2 hours on the track, silver with a few seconds above gold is my best. I did crash on my best silver run so I know it's doable.... 

[mikee1908]

125 was terrible, close to Black ones in terms of annoyance. Those ramps require very awkward precision and it's so easy to mess up such a long multilap. 

[IzunaGaiden]

On 9/29/2023 at 1:10 PM, mikee1908 said:

125 was terrible, close to Black ones in terms of annoyance. Those ramps require very awkward precision and it's so easy to mess up such a long multilap. 

Happy to see is not just me have very trouble for past this run

[mikee1908]

I'm currently at 175 and it's every bit as bad as everyone says. I think the difficulty is very uneven in this game - tracks 171-174 were quite easy for Black series, and 175 is like 20 times harder than anything I did in this game. 

 

Got it down to -11 seconds vs gold, so there is hope of victory

 

Edit 23.12.2023 - I finally did it, took me about 3 hrs in total, what a nightmare without a doubt hardest one yet. So I guess I made a big step towards slaying that giant of a plat

Edited December 23, 2023 by mikee1908

[mikee1908]

The board is probably dead, but whatever - I bloody did it! Had to do a photo of the TV as PS doesn't really let you share photos these days 😕 
 

 

 

All in all it was a crazy yet super fun and unforgettable journey, can't believe it's over. I started out as pretty average in racing games, so if I managed to pull it off, so can you

 

What I find useful if you struggle with a track:
 - check out videos on YT - I found a lot of amazing tips in there that not only helped with a given track but also improved my technique a lot

 - don't get intimidated by how difficult Black Canyon is - Canyon and Valley are hell, but then Lagoon is easier and Stadium is child's play

 - think how to practice the smart way, sometimes it's better to practice tracks as a whole (since only then do you get the realistic speeds on every obstacle), but sometimes it's really good to practice just one specific obstacle from a checkpoint

 - Black series is largely about completing the track and less so about being super fast, especially in Canyon and Valley the gold medal times are pretty lenient and sometimes even let you still win after using a checkpoint

 

The top 10 hardest tracks for me:

1. 180 - I think that one required the most skill, patience and endurance to do right, especially that jump at the start is just brutal and requires perfect speed and angle, it caused 90% of my failures on that track

2. 178 - that one was without a doubt the most annoying and poorly made track in the game. 180 was extremely hard but I felt steady progress until I got better, here it was sheer luck till the very end, even at my successful attempt I messed up the 1st wall jump which is just terrible and I couldn't do it well consistently no matter what I tried

3. 175 - that one had a million jumps to do and on top of that on dirt and on top of that one of the longest tracks in the game with a little below 4 mins for gold

4. 170 - 2 wall jumps + 2 loops combo was just death

5. 169 - death loops, death loops, death loops... and I felt like the Canyon ones are the worst to do right

6. 190 - a tough finish to an otherwise okay Lagoon series, suprisingly even the rollercoaster section was hard even though I never had trouble with these

7. 187 - the people who invented that wretched wood surface should have a special place in hell

8. 176 - the electropylon jump is pure sadism

9. 125 - long and brutal multilap with a lot of awkwardly precise jumps

10. 140 - super long multilap on dirt, it's nothing compared to Black series, but at the time it was really rough

Also a quick rundown on how Black series went for me and how would I rank all of its 40 levels (of course it's all relative to the avg level of Black series, easy does not mean actually easy :D):

Canyon

EASY: 162, 168
MEDIUM: 165
HARD: 161, 163, 164, 166, 167, 169
INSANE: 170
 

Valley

EASY: 171, 173, 174, 177
MEDIUM: 179
HARD: 172, 176
INSANE: 175, 178, 180

 

Lagoon

EASY: 182, 183, 185, 188
MEDIUM: 181, 184, 189
HARD: 186, 187, 190
 

Stadium

EASY: 193, 194, 197, 198, 199
MEDIUM: 191, 192, 195, 200
HARD: 196

So to those who still fight... good luck and try harder!!!


 

Edited January 14 by mikee1908

[Marcolashow]

23 minutes ago, mikee1908 said:

The board is probably dead, but whatever - I bloody did it! Had to do a photo of the TV as PS doesn't really let you share photos these days 😕 
 

 

 

All in all it was a crazy yet super fun and unforgettable journey, can't believe it's over. I started out as pretty average in racing games, so if I managed to pull it off, so can you

 

What I find useful if you struggle with a track:
 - check out videos on YT - I found a lot of amazing tips in there that not only helped with a given track but also improved my technique a lot

 - don't get intimidated by how difficult Black Canyon is - Canyon and Valley are hell, but then Lagoon is easier and Stadium is child's play

 - think how to practice the smart way, sometimes it's better to practice tracks as a whole (since only then do you get the realistic speeds on every obstacle), but sometimes it's really good to practice just one specific obstacle from a checkpoint

 - Black series is largely about completing the track and less so about being super fast, especially in Canyon and Valley the gold medal times are pretty lenient and sometimes even let you still win after using a checkpoint

 

The top 10 hardest tracks for me:

1. 180 - I think that one required the most skill, patience and endurance to do right, especially that jump at the start is just brutal and requires perfect speed and angle, it caused 90% of my failures on that track

2. 178 - that one was without a doubt the most annoying and poorly made track in the game. 180 was extremely hard but I felt steady progress until I got better, here it was sheer luck till the very end, even at my successful attempt I messed up the 1st wall jump which is just terrible and I couldn't do it well consistently no matter what I tried

3. 175 - that one had a million jumps to do and on top of that on dirt and on top of that one of the longest tracks in the game with a little below 4 mins for gold

4. 170 - 2 wall jumps + 2 loops combo was just death

5. 169 - death loops, death loops, death loops... and I felt like the Canyon ones are the worst to do right

6. 190 - a tough finish to an otherwise okay Lagoon series, suprisingly even the rollercoaster section was hard even though I never had trouble with these

7. 187 - the people who invented that wretched wood surface should have a special place in hell

8. 176 - the electropylon jump is pure sadism

9. 125 - long and brutal multilap with a lot of awkwardly precise jumps

10. 140 - super long multilap on dirt, it's nothing compared to Black series, but at the time it was really rough

Also a quick rundown on how Black series went for me and how would I rank all of its 40 levels (of course it's all relative to the avg level of Black series, easy does not mean actually easy :D):

Canyon

EASY: 162, 168
MEDIUM: 165
HARD: 161, 163, 164, 166, 167, 169
INSANE: 170
 

Valley

EASY: 171, 173, 174, 177
MEDIUM: 179
HARD: 176
INSANE: 175, 178, 180

 

Canyon

EASY: 182, 183, 185, 188
MEDIUM: 181, 184, 189
HARD: 186, 187, 190
 

Canyon

EASY: 193, 194, 197, 198, 199
MEDIUM: 191, 192, 195, 200
HARD: 196
INSANE: 170

So to those who still fight... good luck and try harder!!!


 

Glad you made it! Thanks for the tips!

[HansPatat050]

Great stuff @mikee1908! Love you posts. How long did it take you?

 

I gave it a halt at 125, but it's still winking at me to finish at some point.

[dieselmanchild]

Congratulations @mikee1908! 🙂 This is a monster of a platinum and a super impressive one to have in the collection. It’s nice you took the time to write up some tips and info about your journey so other people can learn from them too. I always really enjoy reading these kinds of threads and wish more people would post in this one!

 

I’ve got TT in the backlog and have been seriously thinking about taking a crack at this one myself this year, but as someone who is decidedly average at racing games I am quite intimidated by it. It’s really great to hear the experiences of someone else who considers themselves average and still managed to persevere and gain the platinum. It definitely gives me a little hope that I could do it too!

[mikee1908]

18 hours ago, HansPatat050 said:

Great stuff @mikee1908! Love you posts. How long did it take you?

 

I gave it a halt at 125, but it's still winking at me to finish at some point.

Haha thank you, this journey took long enough I actually enjoyed sharing the pain and rage from time to time!

 

If it makes you feel any better, even after having completed the platinum, 125 still feels like a rough one. Just a really hard track, I don't think anything close to that awaits in Red series except maybe 140. After these two it's smooth sailing through Red. 

 

17 hours ago, dieselmanchild said:

Congratulations @mikee1908! 🙂 This is a monster of a platinum and a super impressive one to have in the collection. It’s nice you took the time to write up some tips and info about your journey so other people can learn from them too. I always really enjoy reading these kinds of threads and wish more people would post in this one!

 

I’ve got TT in the backlog and have been seriously thinking about taking a crack at this one myself this year, but as someone who is decidedly average at racing games I am quite intimidated by it. It’s really great to hear the experiences of someone else who considers themselves average and still managed to persevere and gain the platinum. It definitely gives me a little hope that I could do it too!

 

I think anyone can do it with enough will and patience. To compete with the best or do Super Solo Campaign you really need to be talented and have inhumane reflexes. But platinum is not as terrible as it looked 1st time I played, everything I did was totally trainable, the difficuly curve is pretty smooth in this game. Even the worst of the tracks are not THAT impossible on their own, but sheer amount of difficult tracks makes it a colossus to complete. Good luck though, for me grinding up the ladder was extremely rewarding - as a fun fact once I got the platinum I was 7/5901 players in my home town district, 175 in Poland and in top 15k in the world. That gives a general idea on what level you need to be to slay the giant

[ShadyWARcotix]

Congratulations!! 

[Carlxzgfx]

Resuming my Trackmania Turbo road to plat on my 100% account, started doing Trackmaster Medals since I'm scared of Black Series x.x

 

Spoiler

 

[kickdrumss]

On 8/29/2023 at 8:25 AM, HansPatat050 said:

As many of us will struggle on at least a few tracks, I thought it would be interesting to centralize journeys towards the 200 gold medals or 50 trackmasters. Value this thread as a place to share joy or frustration and centralize tips and tricks for specific tracks. Similar to the awesome 'mein leben runs' topic  

 

I'm currently 17 hours in, 89/200 golds. I have silver on #90 after a few tries, it has a tricky big jump and a lot of drifting corners and I'm just a few seconds short. I messed up quite a bit on the silver run so I don't expect too much pain. Blue valley is up next. I focus on getting gold on each track before moving on to the next one. 

Just started my journey on this game and I must say this is a very good idea for a thread. IMO it kinda gives a bit of an extra motivation to document your journey and seeing other players documenting theirs. So far I've only done the first 10 tracks, so I'm really at the very beginning, but I'm looking forward to get deeper into the tracks and sharing the process with this thread.

[kickdrumss]

20 hours ago, kickdrumss said:

Just started my journey on this game and I must say this is a very good idea for a thread. IMO it kinda gives a bit of an extra motivation to document your journey and seeing other players documenting theirs. So far I've only done the first 10 tracks, so I'm really at the very beginning, but I'm looking forward to get deeper into the tracks and sharing the process with this thread.

Made it to blue series and so far I'm still progressing without much struggle, even got a few trackmaster medals on accident. I'm sure that is all going to change once I make it to red series and progress will be much slower.

[mikee1908]

On 3/27/2024 at 12:58 PM, kickdrumss said:

Made it to blue series and so far I'm still progressing without much struggle, even got a few trackmaster medals on accident. I'm sure that is all going to change once I make it to red series and progress will be much slower.

I would say the difficulty curve is pretty smooth up until the Black series, where it goes up quite a bit. Once you reach Black, you understand why they require you to have 160 gold medals - and even at that level you'll likely find Black canyon pretty brutal. But don't be discouraged, if I did it, so can you

[kickdrumss]

On 3/30/2024 at 3:48 PM, mikee1908 said:

I would say the difficulty curve is pretty smooth up until the Black series, where it goes up quite a bit. Once you reach Black, you understand why they require you to have 160 gold medals - and even at that level you'll likely find Black canyon pretty brutal. But don't be discouraged, if I did it, so can you

Thank you for the words of encouragement! I'm currently stuck on the dreaded track #175. I'm very slowly getting more consistent chaining laps but the part that's giving me the most trouble is the first big jump, after the first turn. 9/10 times I can't align the car properly and it starts rotating in the air, which means that when I land the car rolls over and I lose tons of time. But I'm picking away at it, making a few runs every day and trying to get it more consistently. Can't be playing the track for too many hours at a time because I know that I'll get frustrated that way. It's just a matter of patience and persistence.

 

Edit: corrected the track number. Had previously mistyped #170 instead of #175

Edited April 2 by kickdrumss
typo

[kickdrumss]

12 minutes ago, kickdrumss said:

Thank you for the words of encouragement! I'm currently stuck on the dreaded track #175. I'm very slowly getting more consistent chaining laps but the part that's giving me the most trouble is the first big jump, after the first turn. 9/10 times I can't align the car properly and it starts rotating in the air, which means that when I land the car rolls over and I lose tons of time. But I'm picking away at it, making a few runs every day and trying to get it more consistently. Can't be playing the track for too many hours at a time because I know that I'll get frustrated that way. It's just a matter of patience and persistence.

 

Edit: corrected the track number. Had previously mistyped #170 instead of #175

Welp, and just after typing this reply I went for another run and finally got it after only 3 retries lol