Snowmobiling Time Trials Suck.

[GilgameshReborn]

You don't control the snowmobile. You think you control it, but it has a mind of it's own. Why did they add ramps if when you hit the ground you either 180 or drift into a rock, flinging you in a different direction? Why do they have a light under the shards that makes you think that's the pick up radius for them but you actually have to hit them? Why do whenever you pick one up in midair it throws the front of the snowmobile up, trying to make you backflip? This minigame is infuriating. At least Score Attack had a method with getting a high score, whereas you have to get lucky in this with NOT having your snowmobile ping off in any one direction that it feels like.

Rant over. Good luck.

[DarkAnimaa]

Git gud

 

jk, i got out of the map 3 times near the finish line, and it resets you in the beginning -.- 

[Sythroz]

Some tips:
* I suggest you try the 2nd course first (easy, ~1:29), then the 3rd (medium, ~1:17) and then the 1st one (hard, ~1:13);
* Press the accelerator at the "zero" at the countdown to get a speed start;
* Try to stay on the ground, avoid everything from small things to ramps (when possible);
* When you're loosing control or are about to fall after a long jump, release the accelerator and try to align the snowmobile. That will (hopefully) help you maintain some control;
* In the first course, after the big jump, take the left at the fork and try to stay to the left.

 

Note: Upgrades won't carry over to the time trials.

 

Edited October 19, 2021 by Sythroz

[MissShake]

Why on earth would you put the toughest track first?

[OctoLatte]

I rage quit out of them after 15+ tries...I was excited for them until i fell through the map the 5th time.

[Zedymieon77]

1:17 might be the difference between 2* and 3* for the 3rd/medium trial. I got a time of 1:16:97 and it was enough to give me 3* on it. 

[ThiophenSJ]

I raged about these snowmobile races at first too. But looking back honestly, I did like 6 or 7 tries on the first track, always getting a 1 star rating, but then next day I finished all three races with 3 star rating in under an hour. So overall, I had no big time investment and I learned the tracks and where to avoid the jumps pretty fast. Yes, the controls are very bad, yes, the races can get annoying fast, but at in all it poses no real challenge once you manage to overcome your own rage-mode.

Edited June 29, 2017 by ShadowStefan

[Sythroz]

5 hours ago, Zedymieon77 said:

1:17 might be the difference between 2* and 3* for the 3rd/medium trial. I got a time of 1:16:97 and it was enough to give me 3* on it. 

Oh, thanks. Updated!

[QuentinCle95]

Does upgrading the snowmobile not help? Or is it a requirement to even coming close to the markers that the snowmobile's been fully upgraded? Tried a couple side missions and I'm unfortunately not a big fan (it's basically just spamming R1 whenever they're enemies that don't have weapons to loot)

[RNumbers]

From everything I've read, upgrades DO NOT carry over. Don't bother with them.

[QuentinCle95]

12 minutes ago, RNumbers said:

From everything I've read, upgrades DO NOT carry over. Don't bother with them.

Well that sucks. Thanks for the info. 

[RNumbers]

1 minute ago, QuentinCle95 said:

Well that sucks. Thanks for the info. 

 

Well... it does and it doesn't. I'm just as happy not to have to do a bunch of the side quests. The fact that there's no way to mitigate the suckiness of the time trials is unfortunate, but it least it means you know that all the trials are doable as-is instead of being impossible until you have certain upgrades.

[QuentinCle95]

1 minute ago, RNumbers said:

 

Well... it does and it doesn't. I'm just as happy not to have to do a bunch of the side quests. The fact that there's no way to mitigate the suckiness of the time trials is unfortunate, but it least it means you know that all the trials are doable as-is instead of being impossible until you have certain upgrades.

True. Wasn't looking forward to doing 20 of those side quests just for the snowmobile upgrades. 

[QuentinCle95]

I think it's really dumb that they put speed shards in places that have a huge chance of fucking up your speed/ launching you in the wrong direction. I think it's a pretty common concept in racing/ speed games that a line of collectibles should have a trajectory that leads the player forward (for instance, there isn't a line of collectibles in a straight line going towards a wall), and they aren't applied here. This is especially true in the third trial, where you can barely see and the collectibles are supposed to visually guide you to the end. 

And yeah, the inconsistency of what happens when you bump into things and the "wobbliness" of the controls aren't helping either. 

I got the second trial on my fourth try. Now trying trial 3 and have never even gotten 2 stars...

[jaehyun1009]

The loading times sucked more than anything else. I'd bet it doubled the time it took for me to get gold on all races. (took a little over an hour total for all 3)

[Karnacharya]

18 minutes ago, jaehyun1009 said:

The loading times sucked more than anything else. I'd bet it doubled the time it took for me to get gold on all races. (took a little over an hour total for all 3)

 

Agreed. The army of loading screens I had to contend with definitely helped me catch up on some of my reading, though.

[Redgrave]

While these aren't the worst time trials I've ever done (Just Cause 3 takes that bar none) I feel like these trials were tacked on and not very thought out. On the first trial there's that jump OP mentions halfway through that every time I make it and land, the camera spins all over the place and I lose about 3-5 seconds trying to find myself and hope I don't run into a wall. I also wasn't aware that bullets could stop Snowmobiles dead in their tracks. There's no point for the enemies to be there since everything else is perfectly capable of slowing you down.

[TwilightSpira]

I finally finished last night, incredible how square enix must add annoying minigames in their games at some point. 

It isn't annoyance overload like they did on birth by sleep but my wow, it's close. 

 

 

At least Aranea is there to cheer a bit 

[BrilloHD]

Just finished these off (and got my 100%!). I definitely didn't find the first trial to be the most difficult. I'd almost consider it the easiest. There's really only one point that can screw you over, and that's the big jump (and failure to take the left route after). Most of my times were within a few short seconds, and I maybe had one run I'd consider bad. The third trial easily took more attempts than the other two combined.

 

But it's done haha. Thanks for all the tips and videos in this thread!

Edited August 31, 2017 by BrilloHD

[Catastrophe]

>.<

Edited February 18, 2019 by Catastrophe

[Cobby]

I found 'em all quite easy to be honest ... Took 3 or 4 goes to get used to how the snowmobile controlled with certain jumps, after that I did all 3 tracks in about 3 attempts each, except the 2nd which I did 1st try.

[GentleElf]

These time trials were an absolute dumpster fire. People seem to have lots of tips, but the one that helped me the most was holding "O" before you land a big jump. It still seems pretty random, but I think it made it less likely that I just bounce into the air and do a 180. The other thing is try to bring the nose of the snowmobile down when you land. I think people have a tendency to lift the front of the snowmobile on the jumps, and if you aren't landing flat, your chances of making a clean landing are pretty much nonexistent.