Here are a bunch of tips, strategies, and skips to help speedrunners for Twisted Metal 3.
Choosing a character:
There is nothing stopping you from choosing whichever character you want. However, the most popular character for speedruns tends to be Thumper. This is because his stats are generally high- his armor and speed are on the high end and his special not only does fantastic damage over time, but it has strong pushback utility, which is useful, or even critical, in situations that I will mention later.
If you choose an ally:
Allies are not mandatory, and as of now are accepted for speedruns. When you choose an ally, the character you choose, much like the player-controlled character, will not appear as an enemy on your run. This means that the ally you choose should be someone you don't want to fight against. Warthog tends to be a popular ally choice for a few reasons. First, high armor characters like Warthog take longer to whittle down to low health, so for a speedrun, it would save time if your enemies mostly had lower HP. Second, Warthog's special homes and causes pushback, which can hurt your run by taking time to recover. Third, of the four characters with high armor (Warthog, Auger, Sweet Tooth, and Minion), Auger and Sweet Tooth are seen as less of a threat to the player, as Auger's special requires that he be touching his opponent to work, Sweet Tooth's special is a straight shot that is easily avoided, and both are slightly slower than Warthog. Minion is faster and more versatile, but choosing him does not effect the Minion boss fight in London, so the point is moot if your choice is based on removing an enemy from the run.
Do not choose pool lives. Your ally will start with three lives, but even after three deaths, they will spawn with one life after you finish each stage. Choosing pool lives causes the ally to use your lives after theirs run out, so if the ally dies often, which they usually do, you will be left with one life for the entire run.
General tips:
Freeze missiles are your friend. Manual aiming can be rough in this game, so freezing opponents frequently and laying down as many non-homing weapons as you can (with machine gun fire) is beneficial. These use a lot of energy, so be sure not to waste them by firing when you don't have a clear shot at the opponent, especially since homing ability is weak in this installment.
Enemies have a tendency to actively seek health pickups, especially on Twisted Metal or Pure Lunacy difficulties. Having to kill an enemy all over again when they restore their HP after being at low health can potentially add minutes to your final time. Therefore, in speedruns, it is worthwhile to keep health pickups out of their hands by taking them for yourself, even when you don't need them. You may lose a life if those health pickups are unavailable to you when you are later low on health, but unless you are not confident in your ability to survive, it's worth it. Finishing with a low time is most important in a speedrun, especially when you are allotted two deaths in the run, so dying isn't necessarily the end.
Missiles and remote bombs are more valuable than aerial/lobbing weapons like napalms, rain, and mortars because they are more difficult to aim. You may find they're more useful when used point blank, even if it hurts you.
Machine guns and ramming are weak in this installment. If you are out of weapons, it's better to move and search for more ammo than to attempt to fight without them. The only exception is when the opponent is low enough on health that a ram will kill them.
Only use turbo on straightaways and to put out fires. The physics in TM3 make it easy to spin out, and turning while using turbo only makes spinning out easier.
Turn off the game's music when recording. There have allegedly been issues where runs were taken down because of music copyright issues. Supposedly it also helps load times, but I haven't confirmed this.
Level tips:
Los Angeles: -The first level should not take more than 2 minutes. If both your enemies on this stage are high armor or otherwise take a long time to kill, it may be worth it to restart the run. -There's lots of health in this level, so make sure the enemies don't take it.
Washington: -Darkside generally spawns far away from you. If you move to the capitol steps after killing your third opponent, Darkside will most likely spawn on the opposite corner of the stage near the warp, then immediately use the warp to pursue you at the capitol. If you camp near the warp's dropoff point you can freeze and ambush Darkside early into the fight.
Hangar 18: -It should go without saying that the proper way to run this level is to use the Spaceship lightning weapon as quickly as possible. There are two ways to do this. The easy way is to destroy the four switches, then, as quickly as possible (using turbo when appropriate), use the spaceship warp to the platforms, then use the platform warp to the ship's roof. If you choose this way, be sure to equip your napalm and fire it if the UFO flies over your head, so you can take the extra special weapons it grants you when you destroy it. -The other, harder way, without destroying the switches, is to line yourself up with the bottom floor ramp that faces the platform warp above, and use turbo and the jump command while you're against the wall to your left, which, if done correctly at the right angle, will allow you to reach the warp without opening the door to the spaceship warp. This is very difficult and takes practice, but is favorable to destroying the switches as it prevents enemies from following you to the upper levels and avoiding the spaceship lightning. -Once you are on the ship's roof, destroy the cockpit using an inventory weapon to save time, as it takes a lot of machine gun bullets to destroy. Immediately switch your weapon to Spaceship and fire it, which should kill everyone on the bottom floor or leave one alive with low health, which is easy to pick off. This is assuming, of course, that no enemies followed you through the spaceship warp to the upper level.
North Pole: -Lightning is important here, grab it from the center platform as soon as possible, but try to lure at least one opponent onto the platform with you, or ensure some opponents are on the lower floor/inner ring. Use turbo and the jump command to get to the outer ring from the platform, as the lightning effects the inner ring and center platform only. -Avoid falling into the inner ring, as there are no weapon pickups down there.
London: -Minion, like Darkside, tends to spawn far from you, but one of his possible spawn points is near the warp that drops off in front of Buckingham Palace. When he spawns, your best bet (though not guaranteed), is to head to Buckingham Palace to try to ambush him.
Tokyo: -Destroying the grating above the fan is useful to get instant kills if you can successfully push an opponent into it. This is where Thumper's special comes in handy, as it's an easy way to aim and push an opponent where you want them. Do not rely on this strategy, though, because it could cause you to waste time by idling and waiting for an opponent to come to the fan rooftop. It's better to try it when there's already an opponent near the fan. -The satellite weapon is useful, but make sure an opponent or ally hasn't already taken it before you waste time traveling along the ramps to get to it. Also, make sure that the satellite dish is pointing toward an enemy when you fire, as it can hit you or your ally. -Pushing opponents off the roof will not kill them like it does in other games. Instead, it does lava damage while they look for a warp to the rooftops. The lava does little damage- it takes about 45 seconds to kill Mr. Grimm, and longer for other characters, but heading to the warp takes about 5 seconds. Generally it's not worth knocking an opponent into the lava for the sake of damage, as it only means they will use a warp to escape from you before taking substantial damage, and chasing them into the lava may only cause you to lose track of them. -The full health pickup is obvious on this stage. It might be worth taking away early on.
Egypt: -The best way to use the lightning in the tomb is to use the warp under the pyramid when you're fighting with at least one opponent in or near the pyramid's entrance. The opponent will likely chase you through the warp, allowing you to turbo to the tomb's exit and hit them with the lightning before they reach you. Laying a remote bomb or eye weapon just outside the tomb's exit is a good strategy for when they inevitably try to leave, but be sure they're following you when you lay it down or you'll be stuck waiting for them. -This stage also has an obvious full health pickup that's worth stealing early on.
Blimp: -Normally you will need to destroy four switches on the lower level before destroying the main switch on the upper level to stop the regeneration. However, there is an exploitable glitch skip here that saves a lot of time. If you ram the main switch head on, there is a small window of time where the grill of your car will be on the other side of the shield, allowing you to fire a high damage weapon and destroy the switch at the exact moment of your ram's impact. It's much easier if you're using Thumper, because his special does continuous damage over 1 second, so activating the special just before ramming the switch will allow you to destroy it without having to time firing a weapon. This doesn't seem to work with Firestarter, though, possibly due to his lower damage output. -Make it a point to use the lightning early on, before the opponents move to the lower level. -Primeval is not worth fighting unless you are stocked with weapons and energy for freezes and are very confident. Instead, head to the bottom floor near the pitfall opening and wait for Primeval to chase you. Hide around the corner so he doesn't hit you from afar when he comes down the stairs, then freeze him when he approaches you near the pitfall. If you're at a good angle, you can ram him into the pit for an instant kill, or even easier yet, use Thumper's special to knock him in. I've also seen this done with strategically placed remote bombs that knock him into the pit as well.
