¤¤Updated February 26, 2020 to more accurately portray our community¤¤
After a lot of testing, and a lot of playing around with all the different characters and settings, here are my recommendations for new players trying to get better times. Once your goals are accomplished with these settings, feel free to tweak them however you like, but I HIGHLY recommend starting here.
Camera: Over top - From default, hit C-Up 2 times to get this camera angle. Currently all record times on NTSC were accomplished with this camera angle. Technically it is just preference, but the view provided with this camera is a big benefit to you.
The stages listed are in the following format:
Stage Recommended difficulty Record Times¤ whole seconds - Difficulty of record times¤ whole seconds Character Settings
Degrees of difficulty from easiest to hardest. 0 First Session - Easy enough for a "skilled beginner" to accomplish on day 1 1 Beginner - Good time for a beginner to strive for when trying to improve at the game 2 Easy - Getting these times when you are new means you are getting better at the game, but don't stop there. 3 Medium - These times take a reasonable understanding of the game and level to accomplish. 4 Hard - High tier time, usually difficult for good players. 5 Very Hard - Top tier time, only accomplished by a few players. 6 Extreme - Untied World Records, or times achieved only by one player, the most difficult of all to achieve.
Stages:
FORWARD
Sunny Beach Preferred Difficulty Setting: Normal 1'03 - Medium 1'04 - Easy 1'05 - Beginner 1'06 - First Session D. Mariner 0----------- -----------0 -----------0
Sunset Bay Preferred Difficulty Setting: Normal 1'05 - Medium 1'06 - Easy 1'07 - Beginner 1'08 - First Session D. Mariner 0----------- -----------0 -----------0
Drake Lake Preferred Difficulty Setting: Normal 1'10 - Extreme 1'11 - Medium 1'12 - Easy 1'13 - Beginner 1'14 - First Session D. Mariner 0----------- -----------0 -----------0
Marine Fortress Preferred Difficulty Setting: Hard 1'07 - Very Hard 1'08 - Hard 1'09 - Medium 1'10 - Easy 1'11 - Beginner M. Jeter -----0------ --------0--- -----------0
Port Blue Preferred Difficulty Setting: Hard 1'17 - Very Hard 1'18 - Hard 1'19 - Medium 1'20 - Easy 1'21 - Beginner
M. Jeter -----0------ --------0--- -----------0
Twilight City Preferred Difficulty Setting: Hard 1'23 - Extreme 1'24 - Hard 1'25 - Medium 1'26 - Easy 1'27 - Beginner D. Mariner 0----------- -----------0 -----------0
Glacier Coast Preferred Difficulty Setting: Expert 1'14 - Extreme 1'15 - Very Hard 1'16 - Hard 1'17 - Medium 1'18 - Easy 1'19 - Beginner D. Mariner 0----------- -----------0 -----------0
Southern Island Preferred Difficulty Setting: Normal 1'13 - Extreme 1'14 - Hard 1'15 - Medium 1'16 - Easy 1'17 - Beginner D. Mariner 0----------- -----------0 -----------0
REVERSE
Sunny Beach Reverse 1'05 - Hard 1'06 - Medium 1'07 - Easy 1'08 - Beginner D. Mariner 0----------- -----------0 -----------0
Sunset Bay Reverse 1'07 - Extreme 1'08 - Hard 1'09 - Medium 1'10 - Easy 1'11 - Beginner D. Mariner 0----------- -----------0 -----------0
Drake Lake Reverse 1'11 - Hard 1'12 - Medium 1'13 - Easy 1'14 - Beginner D. Mariner 0----------- -----------0 -----------0
Marine Fortress Reverse 1'09 - Very Hard 1'10 - Hard 1'11 - Medium 1'12 - Easy R. Hayami -----0------ --------0--- ------0-----
Port Blue Reverse 1'15 - Very Hard 1'16 - Hard 1'17 - Medium 1'18 - Easy M. Jeter -----0------ --------0--- -----------0
Twilight City Reverse 1'34 - Hard 1'35 - Medium 1'36 - Easy 1'37 - Beginner D. Mariner 0----------- -----------0 -----------0
Glacier Coast Reverse 1'20 - Very Hard 1'21 - Hard 1'22 - Medium 1'23 - Easy D. Mariner 0----------- -----------0 -----------0
Southern Island Reverse 1'19 - Extreme 1'20 - Hard 1'21 - Medium 1'22 - Easy D. Mariner 0----------- -----------0 -----------0
Adding the difficulty setting for each course would be a good thing to add to this guide. The difficulty selection is not available through videos and is essential to having competitive times
Update
I added a lot of things to this today including listing recommended course difficulty on its own line, and putting more goal times on here. I also corrected the formatting of my recommended settings.
My best advice for you "new" guys is to accomplish all of the times listed as "medium" difficulty to achieve. That will give you a great base skill at the game that will then allow you to more easily compete for top times. Also all that practice will make you a beast in rta.
If you would do a bit of backtracking and figure out what settings you used with Hayami for MFR that would be helpful to add to this edit: he found out it's the same config with Hayami as with Jeter on MF and PB
I can't figure out what I need to do to keep my speed at the constant max like you're doing, Shibbypod. Your videos are absolutely insane!! I'm using the B Button trick and Dave Mariner. I can't figure out what else I should do. Any tips? Thanks!
