Street Racing Syndicate - FAQ/Walkthrough Written by: James Pelchar (jesterguy) Version 1.00 Date: 9.08.04 Email: *holding email info for now, check back next update! *If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, send them to my email, I will try to respond as quickly as possible. I do recieve a lot of email daily so it may take some time for me to respond to your letter! I. Updates II. Introduction III. Controls IV. Street Mode - Crew Meets - Street Challenges - Respect Challenges V. Arcade Mode - Coming Soon! VI. Vehicles - Getting Started - Vehicle List - Unlocking Vehicles VII. Frequently Asked Questions - Free nitrous and more! VIII. Credits ---------- I. Updates ---------- (9.08.04) Version 1.00 - Got basically everything I needed in there for the first update, more work on both the Street and Arcade Modes in the next update. Will definately have more in depth info on the various Crew Meet courses as well as Street Challenge ones. I'll also try to get in an overall reccomended cars list sometime. ---------------- II. Introduction ---------------- Street Racing Syndicate is Namco's latest game based around the import culture. Though not a true to life portrayal of what it's really like, it's a very fun and entertaining game and a nice break from the straight racing sims. In this guide you'll find car lists, secrets, tips, and much more. ------------- III. Controls ------------- D-Pad: Steer L.Analog: Steer R.Analog: Acclerate/Brake Start: Pause Menu Select: Map Circle: Hand Brake Square: Brake Triangle: Change View X: Accelerate R1: Nitrous R2: Upshift R3: --- L1: Rearview Mirror L2: Downshift L3: Flash Headlights --------------- IV. Street Mode --------------- 1. City Locations 2. Crew Meets 3. Respect Challenges 4. Street Challenges 5. Cruise Zones 6. Earning Respect As you start the game, you'll take the reigns of your friend's Skyline to win a big race. It's pretty simple, your car is much faster, handles better than the rest of them so it shouldn't be to much trouble. Hit R1 to use some nitrous if you find yourself falling behind. Finish in first and you'll have $30,000 to play around with. If you don't know what car to buy, refer to the Getting Started part in the Vehicles section of this guide. -- 1. City Locations -- The city locations are just the 3 areas you can go to for things relating to you and your cars. Here are the details on them: - Garage - Here you can buy new parts for you car including engine mods, stickers, paint, bodykits, spoilers, etc. You can also dyno your car and repair it if its damaged. - Car Showroom - Go here to purchase a new vehicle to run around the streets in. For info on how to unlock specific cars, check out the "Vehicles" section of this guide. - Warehouse - Your warehouse is where all of your cars and girlfriends are stored at. I like to call it my "stable". Come here if you want to switch your vehicle or girlfriend you want to roll around with (and also to watch videos of your girlfriends). -- 2. Crew Meets -- Crew Meets are where you go to challenge car teams in the area for respect points, ulocking showroom cars, unlocking respect challenges, as well as making some nice cash. Basically each Crew Meet consists of 3 series with 3 races each (for a total of 9 races to beat the crew). To win the series overall you'll need to be number one in respect points. You get points for placing in each of the 3 races: 1st: 750 pts. Each race has a maximum of 1,000 pts. You can 2nd: 500 pts. make the other 250 by getting respect points in 3rd: 250 pts. the race. See the "Earning Respect" part of 4th: 000 pts. this section for more info. Hit select to open your map, it will show the locations of the crew races that are available, you can jump to them or drive. A. Team Nemesis B. VRS Racing C. VF Crew D. Street Revolution E. Lightspeed F. Nitro Xtreme -- 3. Respect Challenges -- Respect Challenges are the way you pick up girlfriends in the game. When one appears you go to the location and the girl gives you a challenge to complete before she comes with you. You are given 3 to start out with and more will open up as you start beating the Crew races. Go to your warehouse to "hook up" with any of the girls or watch their videos. - Aiko - This challenge is incredibly simple, all you need to do is get some points by getting your car airborne. Just follow the road straight down and you'll run right into a little jump which will get you the necessary points. - Angelica - Follow Angelica around and stay in the green numbers. She's driving a Celica so you could probably get out of the car and walk and still keep up with it =) - Cherie - Cherie's checkpoint run is pretty simple (considering there's only two to get). Just go straight ahead and when you hit the first one, double back the way you came to get the second. You can take the scenic route and keep going all the way around but you'll cut it very close, just easier to go back. - Christi - There are 12 checkpoints to hit in this one, just follow the circle around until you get them all. It repeats the same pattern every time. - Courtney - Just follow Courtney's Impreza wherever she goes and try to say in the green numbers. If you find yourself falling behind then use some nitrous to get you back up by her. It's very short so it shouldn't be much of an issue. - Flo - - Francine - Francine's is one of the more fun challenges to do. There are 10 checkpoints in the area, you'll just need to rely on your map to find them. I reccomend taking a left after you get the first one, then work your way up from there. - Kaila - Kaila's checkpoint challenge is very simple, just keep going in the circle until you collect all 10 checkpoints. - Linda - - Meriah - - Michele - You just need 10 respect points to get Michele. Go straight ahead and drift around the first corner and you should be able to get enough, if not more, points to win the challenge. - Natasha - Natasha's is a checkpoint challenge. You basically just go in a circle of on-ramps and collect 19 checkpoints. Just find the pattern and follow it over and over until you've got them all. - Neferteri - My favorite girl in the game =) There is a checkpoint on the highway so after you come up the hill where you begin at, hang a left and take the on-ramp down to the highway. Hit the checkpoint and go back the way you came and touch the second one to complete the mission. - Rowena - - Sasha - You'll either find this one pretty difficult or very easy. The way I did it was to just accelerate as much as I could until I saw where the highway branched in 3 directions and did a Break Drift right in front of the yellow barrels. If you do it correctly you can get link together a few tricks and get it in one pass. You can do this over and over until you get it or drive somewhere else and give it a try. Whatever works for you. - Sharon - - Tila - - Tina - Tina is a time trial, there is a checkpoint set pretty far up the road you need to reach in a minute or less. Just go straight as far as you can and hang a right to turn onto the highway and up to the checkpoint. -- 4. Street Challenges -- Street Challenges are specific locations around the city that you can race for money on a course. It also gives you an opportunity to win back a girl that might have left you after losing a crew race. A. South and North B. Freeway Over C. Western Park D. ATL and G E. Garage Challenge F. Hotel Hike G. Motel Hotel H. Theater Run I. Boulevard Sprint J. Surfin Time > A. South and North > B. Freeway Over The Freeway Over track is ideal for a car with a high top speed and relatively good handling. There are a lot of open straightaways and almost all of the turns are just more gradual instead of sharp. The one you really need to look out for is the one after the long stretch of highway at the beginning of the race. You will need to break hard since the course ends abruptly into a very sharp turn. Other than that the rest is pretty simple as long as you don't go barreling into the turns. -- 5. Cruise Zones -- There are 3 Cruise Zones on your map that you can go to (Parkway, Sunset, Santa). Basically you let the computer take over the car and you can rotate the camera around and see how sexy the car is in motion. You don't gain/lose anything for doing it, just a way to check out your car from a different view. -- 6. Earning Respect -- Respect in this game is similar to the Kudos system on Project Gotham Racing (if you've ever played it). You gain or lose points based on the things you do when racing, read below for more details on that. Gaining respect will open up more crew races for you to participate in. - Braking Drift - Pretty self explanitory, it's using your foot break through a drift maneuver, one of the more common bonuses you will recieve. - Caught Air - Just go over a little jump and get your car airborne to catch this bonus. The longer you keep it up there the bigger your bonus gets. - Clean Lap - Go an entire lap without getting point penalties and you'll get a bonus when you cross the start/finish line. - Drafting - Drafting is when you get into the airflow of the car in front of you. Usually you'd need to be right up on them to draft but in here you'll need to be about 10 cars back and going around 80+ to get the bonus. It'll get you an instant 30 or 60 respect points so get it when you can! - Faint - This is done by drifting into the outside part of a corner, then back into it. Not the easiest maneuver to do by any means but you'll get the hang of it. - Jump Drift - - Kansai Drift - - Lap Leader - Pretty self explanitory, just be in the lead when you're coming across the start/finish line on a course with 2 or more laps. - Long Drift - Maintain a drift for an extended period of time. This one is pretty tough to pull off since you'll need to keep the car under control and manage to not plow into a wall. It works pretty well in areas where there is an S-turn since you'll have a bigger area to slide around in. - Near Miss - You'll get this for getting very close to slamming into a pedestrian car when you're racing. The closer the better. - Nitrous Air - Similar to the "Caught Air" bonus except you'll need to use your nitrous before you get airborne. - Position Lost - Drop a position in a race and you'll be penalized 10 respect points. - Position Gained - Gain a position in a race and you'll gain 10 respect points. - Power Over - - Shortcut Taken - On certain courses you are able to take a little shortcut that can gain you some much needed time. If you run through one of these you'll get the bonus. - Two Wheels - Get the car driving on two wheels to get this. It's one of the more common bonuses in the game since you'll get it almost every time you go up on a curb coming around a turn. - **** - You lose points for hitting walls, cars, or having a car hit you. This will also stop any point combo you have in progress and possibly deduct from your overall total. Drive safely! -------------- V. Arcade Mode -------------- COMING SOON! ------------ VI. Vehicles ------------ 1. Getting Started 2. Vehicle List 3. Unlocking Vehicles -- 1. Getting Started -- "So, what car should I begin with?" You've got a pretty limited selection from the beginning but there are some decent cars in there. My personal choice is the Subaru WRX 2.5 RS Sedan. If you choose to upgrade this car it will last you through AT LEAST 4 of the Crew Battles and you can kick pretty much every car's ass on the road. Since you can keep this car for such a long time you won't need to worry about buying, upgrading, and maintaining an expensive car anytime soon. You'll have some money to buy this car and beginning modding it, here's what I suggest doing from the start (in chronological order): >> WRX Shopping List: 1. Tires - I prefer the BFGoodrich g-Force's. You can try the Yokohama Parada's and see if you like those better but I stuck to the BF's. 2. Suspension - Go with the Koni Threaded Coil Kit. 3. Turbo - I chose the HKS T51R, it gives you the same performance as the Greddy T78 but it's $775 cheaper. Also, pick up the Greddy front mount while you're in the turbo section. 4. Electronics - Grab the Venom Performance Module, very cheap and it gets you a bunch of power. At this point you'll be left with $3180. I suggest stopping here and going to do the Team Nemesis crew challenge, this money will pay for your ante to get in the race and also leave you some to bet with the racers and get even more cash. Your car is easily leaps and bounds beyond what they are driving so winning won't be a problem at all. If you win the first of the 3 series and get all of the biggest bets on the racers you can pull in over $10,000 - 11,000 right away. Head to the garage and start upgrading again. 5. Weight Reduction - Get the Stage 3 Weight Reduction, this will greatly improve your cars power, handling, etc. 6. Brakes - Brembo Gran Turismos are the way to go here, with all of this power you're adding you will definately need a way to stop it in the turns. 7. Electronics - Pick up the Unorthodox Racing Lightened Pully Sets and some AEM Cam Gears. Once again, cheap with some nice power is always great. 8. Exhaust - Get the JIC Magic Spec 90 Series. From here on out you can pretty much figure the rest on your own. Just pick whichever parts will get you to where you want the car to be, what you can handle, or whatever else. Keep doing the Crew Meets and definately do the 2 sanctioned races. -- 2. Vehicle List -- The following is a list of all the vehicles in the game you can obtain from the Showroom. Below is a list of the ways to unlock specific ones you can't get from the start. -Model- -Price- -Year- Lexus IS300 5-Speed $29,980 2004 Lexus IS300 5-Speed SE $31,695 2004 Mazda RX-7 R1 $22,900 1993 Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type A $45,000 2002 Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type B $45,000 2002 *Mazda RX-7 Type R Bathurst $45,000 2001 Mazda RX-8 $26,680 2004 *Mazda RX-8 Mazdaspeed Ed. $33,380 2004 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS $19,449 2004 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T $23,210 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT $21,147 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT $21,649 2004 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT-S $24,649 2004 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS $18,399 2004 Mitsubishi EVO VIII $28,987 2004 *Mitsubishi EVO VII GSR $34,999 2002 Nissan 350Z Coupe $26,930 2004 Nissan 350Z Coupe E. $28,910 2004 Nissan 350Z Coupe P. $31,090 2004 Nissan 350Z Coupe Touring $33,840 2004 Nissan 350Z Coupe Track $34,750 2004 Nissan Skyline GT-R $93,000 1999 Nissan Skyline GTR M-Spec $97,300 2001 Nissan Skyline GTR M-Spec Nur $118,000 2002 Nissan Skyline GTR V-Spec $94,000 1999 Nissan Skyline GTR V-Spec II $95,000 2000 Nissan Skyline GTR V-S.II Nur $115,000 2002 Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS Sedan $18,995 2002 Subaru Impreza S202 STi $71,412 2002 Subaru Impreza STi Sedan $57,124 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX Sedan $23,995 2002 Toyota Celica GT $16,875 2000 Toyota Celica GT $18,085 2004 Toyota Celica GT (AP) $20,050 2004 Toyota Celica GT-S $21,345 2000 Toyota Celica GT-S $22,055 2004 Toyota Celica GT-S (AP) $24,625 2004 Toyota MR2 Spyder $23,735 2002 Toyota MR2 Spyder $25,410 2004 *Toyota Sprinter Trueno $13,550 1985 Toyota Supra 3.0L 5Z-R $28,300 1996 Toyota Supra 3.0L RE $30,900 1997 Toyota Supra SR Targa RE $33,500 1997 Toyota Supra Turbo 3.0L RZ $36,500 1996 Toyota Supra 3.0L TT RE $36,500 1997 Volkswagen Golf GTI 1.8T $19,250 2004 Volkswagen Golf GTI VR6 $22,070 2004 Volkswagen Jetta GLI 2.8L $23,210 2004 Volkswagen Jetta GLS 2.0L $19,460 2004 Volkswagen Jetta GLS 1.8T $20,940 2004 * - Vehicles unlocked through arcade mode (see below) -- 3. Unlocking Vehicles -- The following is a list of the cars you can unlock by completing certain requirements in the game. Refer to the above vehicle list for pricing, etc. A. Defeat Team Nemesis - Lexus IS300 5-Speed - Lexus IS300 5-Speed SE - Mazda RX-7 R1 - Mitsubishi Eclipse GT-S - Toyota Celica GT-S - Toyota Celica GT-S - Toyota Celica GT-S (AP) - Volkswagen Golf GTI VR6 - Volkswagen Jetta GLI 2.8L B. Defeat VRS Racing - Mazda RX-8 - Nissan 350Z Coupe - Nissan 350Z Coupe E. - Nissan 350Z Coupe P. - Nissan 350Z Coupe Touring - Toyota Supra 3.0L 5Z-R C. Defeat VF Crew - Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type A - Mitsubishi EVO VIII - Nissan 350Z Coupe Track - Nissan Skyline GT-R - Subaru Impreza WRX Sedan - Toyota Supra 3.0L RE - Toyota Supra SR Targa RE - Toyota Supra Turbo 3.0L RZ D. Defeat Street Revolution - Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type B - Nissan Skyline GTR M-Spec - Nissan Skyline GTR M-Spec Nur - Nissan Skyline GTR V-Spec - Nissan Skyline GTR V-Spec II - Toyota Supra 3.0L TT RE - Subaru Impreza S202 STi - Subaru Impreza STi Sedan E. Defeat Nitro Xtreme - Nissan Skyline GTR V-Spec II Nur F. Other - Arcade Mode Unlocks - Mazda RX-7 Type R Bathurst (1st in L.A. Iron Man) - Mazda RX-8 Mazdaspeed Ed. (1st in Miami Iron Man) - Mitsubishi EVO VII GSR (1st in L.A. Checkpoint) - Toyota Sprinter Trueno (1st in Philidelphia Iron Man) -------- VII. FAQ -------- Below is a list of questions I see a lot of on various message boards as well as ones from emails, hopefully this will save some of you the hassle of searching around for answers. 1. Q: I just started playing, what car do you reccomend first? A: Check the "Vehicles" section of this guide for more info. 2. Q: I'm out of money, how can I get more? A: Go to the Desert or Storm Drain sanctioned races, there is no entrance fee and you can pick up some decent money for completing them. Well, enough to get you back on your feet for a little while at least. 3. Q: I see two cars for sale that appear to perform the same, what are the differences between them? A: Year is one of the major differences, also on cars like the Celica, the Action Package which is essentially a factory bodykit adds to the price. Special edition type cars, though they don't have any performance gains over a similar vehicle, are more expensive simply because they are special edition. 4. Q: How do I unlock [insert car here]? A: Check the "Vehicles" section of this guide for more info. 5. Q: I can't get into one of the crew battles, where can I get respect? A: Go back to previous crew battles that you've done and try to max those respect points out, also make sure to do it in the sanctioned races as well. 6. Q: Why did one of my girlfriends leave and how do I get her back? A: You can lose a girl if you are riding with her and lose a crew meet series. To get her back, keep playing the Street Challenges and she'll be with one of your opponents eventually. Beat the person she's with and you'll have her back. 7. Q: What's this I hear about free nitrous? A: There was supposedly a trick that you can do in garage where your purchase total would come out to $0, but it does infact subtract from your money as normal. To get free nitrous, when you are just driving around the streets do drifts, jumps, or whatever else to earn you points and this will (magically) add nitrous to your bottle. If you don't feel like doing this just go to your garage and buy a new bottle. ------------- VIII. Credits ------------- I'd like to thank: The People - For reading my FAQ, I hope its helpful, comments and things to add are always welcomed. Namco - For creating this game, job well done!