[section=Q: What's the optimal file setup?] A: For your UYA file, you want these weapons in order on your quick select.
- Plasma Storm V8
- RYNO V4
- Splitter Rifle V8
- Plasma Whip
- Nitro Launcher V8
- Shock Cannon V8
- Megaturrets V8
- Tesla Barrier V8
- Rift Ripper V8
Items you would want to get Nanopack Infernox Armor
Items you would want to skip Box Breaker (makes Metropolis upwarp impossible at the optimal level)
[section=Q: How do you turn off Quick Select pause?] A: On PS2, you can do this in settings. But on PS3, you need to go into a local multiplayer game, quit out and start an entirely new file. From here on out, you'll have Qs Pause disabled. Sadly this cannot be done on a finished file.
[section=Q: How do you scroll through the menus at the start of Veldin so fast?] A: By pressing R2 and L2, allows you to keep the cursor on Weapons at all times if so necessary.
[section=Q: Why is my camera on Marcadia Mission 3 so wiggly and bad?] A: For some reason on PS3 only, playing with inverted controls makes the turret a lot harder to control losing you time. So to fix this, you'll have to convert to Normal controls.
[section=Q: How do you avoid the missiles in planets like Veldin, Blackwater and Command Center] A: For some reason on PS3, going to Blackwater once will make every future freefall mission like the ones on Veldin, Blackwater and Command Center have the missiles be far away from Ratchet. This doesn't really save or lose time but is important to note because this can not happen in the NG+ category where you never visit Blackwater.
[section=Q: What are the fastest versions?] A: BCPS3 > PS3 SSD > PS2 NTSC > PS3 HDD > PS2 PAL = PS3 Disc
BCPS3 is the fastest version as it has the fastest loads (40s over PS3), however it has a few problems if you're looking into buying one. First, it can break very easily with the Yellow Light Of Death (google it). Second, it has around 3 frames (50ms) of consistent input lag. It's very well this could not be a problem for you, but this is a reason why some runners choose to avoid it completely. And third, the boards are split so you won't be able to compete with many other runners. (Only two people play on BCPS3 in our community at the moment).
PS3 with SSD is the fastest and probably the most consistent version. It's relatively easy to get, and has no input lag or weapon lag making this a choice a lot of people like to play on. It also has Qwark warp which saves a decent chunk over PS2. Overall it saves around 30-50s over the PS2 version.
[section=Q: What's the fastest language?] A: In order: German (PS3) Spanish (PS3) Korean (PS2) Even though korean has less dialogue than Spanish and German, for some reason the german and spanish languages can do a glitch named Qwark Warp which saves around 30 seconds and is only available on the PS3 version. It does not work on any other language.
[section=Q: What is Qwark Warp?] A glitch that allows you to warp directly to Qwark on Florana upon landing, saves around 30 seconds and is only possible on PS3 version with either German or Spanish language.
[section=Q: How do you perform Qwark Warp?] A: There are a few factors but to simplify it: 0.5. Play on German or Spanish (German is fastest for PAL PS3, Spanish is fastest for NTSC PS3, it doesn't work on JP PS3)
- Sideflip past the first cutscene on Veldin
- Die in the dropship as demonstrated in this video:
- Hopefully you'll warp on Florana once you arrive, it's not entirely consistent and if your warp didn't work, it's probably not your fault if you've followed all of the steps above.
[section=Q: What's Quit Exploit?] A: A writeup by doesthisusername can be found here: https://tcrf.net/Bugs:Ratchet_%26_Clank_Collection Short answer is: Having a bolt count and exiting the game will allow you to use the bolt count to point to where you want to write values in memory. So basically with this we can do some memory editing inside the game (with heavy limitations, you cant hit everything), and this will allow us to write values like Item IDs to the vendor in memory, allowing us to buy items like the Master Plan, gravity boots and so on in the vendor, saving 15 minutes in the NG+ speedrun.
