Jak X: Combat Racing Trophy Guide & Road Map

Jak X: Combat Racing
Jak X: Combat Racing Trophy Guide

Overview:

Estimated trophy difficulty: 4/10 (personal opinion) (Platinum Difficulty Rating)
Offline trophies: 30 (8, 17, 4, 1)
Online trophies: 0
Approximate amount of time to Platinum: 14hrs+ (personal opinion) (Estimated Time to Platinum)
Minimum number of playthroughs: 1
Number of missable trophies: None
Glitched trophies: None
Does difficulty affect trophies?: No
Do trophies stack?: No
Do cheat codes disable trophies?: No cheats available.
Additional peripherals required?: No

Introduction:

Jak X: Combat Racing is a spinoff of the highly acclaimed Jak and Daxter franchise. The story follows the titular heroes and their friends through their short but exciting racing careers. Gameplay involves several differently themed bouts involving combat vehicles against AI enemies. Players can also customize their vehicles to improve performance or change aesthetics.

Race Types:

- Circuit Race: Classic get to the finish line first. Includes all weapon types.
- Death Race: Destroy as many drones as possible within the time limit. Limited yellow weapons only.
- Freeze Rally: Get the fastest time alone on the track while picking up tokens that stop the clock. Turbo boosts and health only.
- Turbo Dash: Pick up and charge power cells to destroy opponents and acquire boost. Racer with the most power cells launched within the time wins. Turbo boosts, health and mines only.
- Deathmatch: Gladiator style bout. The first to kill 10 opponents, wins.
- Capture: Classic capture the flag. Pick up power cells and bring them back to your base for ten points. Kills are worth one point. First team of three to 50 points wins.
- Artifact race: First racer to pick up 10 artifacts across the stadium by running over them wins.
- Sport Hunt: Similar to deathmatch. First racer to kill 10 targets wins.
- Rush Hour: Race alone head on into oncoming cars. Crash into as many green and blue cars in the time limit as possible while avoiding red cars. Turbo boosts and health only.

Walkthrough:

Step 1: Complete Adventure Mode 100%

Adventure Mode follows the story and is the core majority of the game. It's made of four tournaments known as Eco Cups with 20 races in each. In each race you can podium first, second, or third place to receive medal points. Gold is worth 3 points, silver is 2, bronze is 1, and not making podium is an incomplete on the track. In order to fully complete Adventure Mode you must earn gold on each race for 60 medal points in each Eco Cup. You do not have to win every track to move on to another cup, there is no particular order to the races you must follow, and you can come back to any track whenever you want. Most tracks are not particularly difficult to get gold on but a handful can be tricky so if you can't get one on your the first try, then just come back after you've completed the other tracks.

After completing this step, you will have earned the following:

Going for Gold
On the Board
Wings of Steel
Cover Your Ears
Golden Standard: Red Eco Cup
Bat Out of Hell
Crash and Bash
Golden Standard: Green Eco Cup
Defensive Driver
Tame the Beast
Golden Standard: Blue Eco Cup
Golden Standard: Yellow Eco Cup

Step 2: Earn Precursor Orbs

Precursor Orbs are earned by completing races in both Adventure and Exhibition modes. By the time you fully complete Adventure mode, you should have approximately 500,000 precursor orbs or more for your troubles. If not, you should continue completing races until you do. Three potential strategies for earning orbs quickly is to complete the Yellow Eco Cup rush hour in Kras City, complete a 1v1 exhibition capture match in Mars Coliseum, or complete a 10 lap exhibition match in Dethdrome with only the supernova powerup (see Kill or Be Killed for information on doing this).

Step 3: Using the Precursor Orbs

Note: If you do not use the following strategy, then you will need to acquire nearly 2.5 million precursor orbs instead. Credit to Linkinito and ThePhoenix for sharing this strategy.

Once you have ~500,000 orbs it's time to start spending them, smartly. Make sure to save your game in two slots. Go to the Secrets Shop in the Main menu and buy Hero Mode, Sand Shark and Naughty Dog. The three trophies associated with those each should pop. Go back to the menu, open Profile and load the save file from before you purchased those. Save back over both (the game will have autosaved) and go back to the Secret Shop. You should have the same amount of precursor orbs as before you earned those three trophies. Continue the same process for the reels, helmets, antennas and wheels, loading and re-saving between each section.

Next you will do essentially the same thing for vehicle upgrades. Go into Adventure Mode and select the Yellow Eco Cup so you can have access to all vehicles, select any race, go to the garage by pressing and select Tune Performance. Beginning with engine, add two or three upgrades (usually to slot five) to every vehicle until All Jak'd Up pops. Exit to the Main Menu and reload your save file like you did with the secrets. Repeat this process for gearbox, armor and turbo. Congratulations, you've just saved several hours of grinding. If you truly feel like buying everything at once, then you can use the strategies laid out in Step 2 of the Roadmap. After completing this step, you will have earned the following:

Zero to Hero
Why So Salty
Unleash the Beast
Highlight Reel
What Did You Expect?
Head Case
Full Bars
Fresh Kicks
All Jak'd Up
Swift Shifter
Road Resilience
Adrenaline Junkie

Step 4: Cleanup

This is for any trophies you might not have gotten normally during Part 1. Kill or Be Killed and Unanswered are the only ones that require you to finish the race.

After completing this step, you will have earned what's left of the following trophies:

Out of My Way! (Adventure Mode)
Getting Sideways (Exhibition or Adventure)
Kill or Be Killed (Exhibition or Adventure)
Unanswered (Adventure Mode)
Road Rage (Adventure Mode)

[PST Would Like To Thank infavol for this Roadmap]

King of the Road

Unlock all trophies.
(1)
Get all the other trophies, to obtain this one.
Head Case

Unlock all helmets.
This trophy is earned by entering the Secrets Shop in the Main Menu and purchasing each helmet using precursor orbs. All six helmets will cost a total of 328,000 orbs. See Full Bars for a way to speed this up.
Full Bars

Unlock all antennas.
This trophy is earned by entering the Secrets Shop in the Main Menu and purchasing each antenna using precursor orbs. All six antennas will cost a total of 168,000 orbs.

See here for how to reduce the total cost of all upgrades: Credit to Linkinito and ThePhoenix for sharing this:

Once you have ~500,000 orbs it's time to start spending them, smartly. Make sure to save your game in two slots. Go to the Secrets Shop in the Main menu and buy Hero Mode, Sand Shark and Naughty Dog. The three trophies associated with those each should pop. Go back to the menu, open Profile and load the save file from before you purchased those. Save back over both (the game will have autosaved) and go back to the Secret Shop. You should have the same amount of precursor orbs as before you earned those three trophies. Continue the same process for the reels, helmets, antennas and wheels, loading and re-saving between each section.
Highlight Reel

Unlock all reels.
Earned by entering the Secrets Shop in the Main Menu and purchasing each reel using precursor orbs. All five reels will cost a total of 175,000 orbs. See Full Bars for a way to speed this up.
From Zero to Hero

Unlock Hero Mode.
Hero Mode may be purchased in the Secrets Shop for 50,000 precursor orbs after completing Adventure Mode 100% by earning all gold medals.
Fresh Kicks

Unlock all Wheels.
This trophy is earned by entering the Secrets Shop in the Main Menu and purchasing each wheel using precursor orbs. All ten wheels will cost a total of 200,000 orbs. See Full Bars for a way to speed this up.
Gold Standard: Red Eco Cup

Collect all Gold Medals in the Red Eco Cup.
This trophy requires you to complete each of the 20 events in the Red Eco Cup with a first place finish.

Spargus:
- Spargus City: Circuit Race, Freeze Rally, Death Race
- Precursor Temple: Circuit Race

Kras City:
- Loading Docks: Death Race, Turbo Dash
- Dirt Stadium: Deathmatch, Sport Hunt
- Seaport Strip: Circuit Race
- Mar Coliseum: Deathmatch

Haven City:
- Clifftop Battlefield: Artifact Race
- Forbidden Jungle: Freeze Rally
- Sewer Raceway: Circuit Race

Icelands:
- Icebound Citadel: Death Race, Circuit Race
- Mountaintop Highway: Turbo Dash
- Frozen Speedway: Death Race
- Timberline Track: Rush Hour

Grand Prix:
- Qualifier
- Qualifier
- Kras City, Spargus City, Southern Tour
Gold Standard: Green Eco Cup

Collect all Gold Medals in the Green Eco Cup.
This trophy requires you to complete each of the 20 events in the Green Eco Cup with a first place finish.

Spargus:
- Beachfront Drive: Circuit Race
- Desert Arena: Deathmatch
- Canyon Run: Rush Hour, Freeze Rally
- Badland Sanctuary: Circuit Race
- Wasteland Isle: Deathmatch

Kras City:
- Kras City: Turbo Dash, Death Race
- Waterfront Loop: Freeze Rally
- Dethdrome: Death Race
- Dirt Stadium: Artifact Race
- Western Tour: Circuit Race

Haven City:
- Forbidden Jungle: Circuit Race, Death Race
- Clifftop Battlefield: Sport Hunt
- City Outskirts: Circuit Race
- Haven City: Circuit Race

Icelands:
- Frozen Speedway: Circuit Race

Grand Prix:
- Qualifier
- Qualifier
- Forbidden Jungle, Mountaintop Highway, Northern Tour
Gold Standard: Blue Eco Cup

Collect all Gold Medals in the Blue Eco Cup.
This trophy requires you to complete each of the 20 events in the Blue Eco Cup with a first place finish.

Spargus:
- Canyon Run: Circuit Race
- Desert Arena: Artifact Race
- Beachfront Drive: Rush Hour
- Northern Tour: Circuit Race
- Badland Sanctuary: Death Race
- Spargus City: Turbo Dash

Kras City:
- Waterfront Loop: Death Race
- Seaport Strip: Turbo Dash, Death Race
- Dirt Stadium: Capture
- Loading Docks: Circuit Race
- Dethdrome: Rush Hour

Haven City:
- Eastern Tour: Circuit Race
- Clifftop Battlefield: Deathmatch
- Waterworks Circuit: Freeze Rally

Icelands:
- Icebound Citadel: Freeze Rally
- Mountaintop Highway: Freeze Rally
- Ice Pit: Deathmatch

Grand Prix:
- Qualifier
- Qualifier
- Sewer Raceway, Frozen Speedway, Western Tour
Gold Standard: Yellow Eco Cup

Collect all Gold Medals in the Yellow Eco Cup.
This trophy requires you to complete each of the 20 events in the Yellow Eco Cup with a first place finish.

Spargus:
- Precursor Temple: Death Race, Turbo Dash
- Spargus City: Rush Hour
- Beachfront Drive: Freeze Rally
- Wasteland Isle: Capture

Kras City:
- Seaport Strip: Rush Hour
- Mar Coliseum: Artifact Race
- Kras City: Rush Hour
- Dethdrome: Turbo Dash
- Waterfront Loop: Circuit Race

Haven City:
- Waterworks Circuit: Circuit Race, Death Race
- Sewer Raceway: Freeze Rally
- Clifftop Battlefield: Capture
- Atoll Arena: Deathmatch

Icelands:
- Mountaintop Highway: Circuit Race, Death Race
- Southern Tour: Circuit Race

Grand Prix:
- Qualifier
- Qualifier
- Canyon Run, Eastern Tour, Dethdrome
On the Board

Win a race in Adventure Mode.
Come in first, second or third place in any race while playing Adventure Mode.
Kill or be Killed

Earn 4 kills in a Circuit race without dying once.
In any circuit race, kill four enemy racers and complete the entire race without dying.

You may earn this while normally playing through Adventure Mode. If not, choose Exhibition in the Main Menu and make sure it is set to Circuit Race. The other settings don't really matter but the easiest strategy is to select Frozen Speedway, put the CPU's to 4 and performance to rookie. In advanced settings on the next screen, choose 1 lap and turn off all pickups except for Super Nova (looks like a nuclear explosion in the bottom right corner). When you enter the race stay back in last place and run over a yellow eco weapon pickup. There may be a 30 second delay for when a pickup will actually give you a supernova; just keep driving along until then and use it when you can. If you were in last place when you set it off, it should kill all four drivers so when you cross the finish line the trophy should pop.
Getting Sideways

Drift 600 meters or more.
You will need to drift continuously for 600+ meters. In order to drift you must turn while pressing the handbrake (). Drifting in this game is a somewhat sporadic mechanic but is extremely useful for cutting precious seconds around switchbacks or lining up kills through turns. It is possible to switch directions while drifting and even stop and restart while continuing the same combo so long as it is an immediate continuation. You may naturally achieve this trophy while getting used to and continuing through the game. If not, there are a few places it will be easiest to get it:

- Dethdrome, during either of the two spirals. You will need to have full boost, start from the left side, and cut a hard right turn just past the right wall and continue turning through.

- Loading Docks. There are several sections with large, open turns here that might work. In particular, after making a jump into a section with shipping containers stacked high and overhead there is a hard left turn into a quick 180 degree right toward another jump. If executed properly, drifting into the left and snaking back toward the right in an 'S' shape should be enough to get 600.

- Any arena-type (Mars Coliseum, Dirt Stadium etc.). Again, get full boost go, up along an incline and turn opposite it while igniting your boost. Don't turn in too much or you will cut yourself off and stop too early.

- Many sections of the Icelands tracks, also have wide turns and the ice will more easily slip you into a drift there.
All Jak'd Up

Purchase 50% of all Engine upgrades.
There are 61 potential engine upgrades so you will need to purchase 31 of them. In order to upgrade your vehicle, you need to select Customize from the Main Menu, select a vehicle and pick Tune Performance. Alternatively you can enter the garage just before starting a race. The cheapest way to do this is upgrade all vehicles' engines to the fifth slot and then buy seven more slot-6 upgrades on vehicles of your choosing. This way will cost just under 450,000 precursor orbs. See Full Bars for a way to speed this up.
Swift Shifter

Purchase 50% of all Gearbox upgrades.
There are 67 potential gearbox upgrades so you will need to purchase 34 of them. In order to upgrade your vehicle, you need to select Customize from the Main Menu, select a vehicle and pick Tune Performance. Alternatively you can enter the garage just before starting a race. The cheapest way to do this is upgrade all vehicles' gearboxes to the fifth slot and then buy eight more slot-6 upgrades on vehicles of your choosing. This way will cost just over 480,000 precursor orbs. See Full Bars for a way to speed this up.
Road Resilience

Purchase 50% of all Armor upgrades.
There are 45 potential armor upgrades so you will need to purchase 23 of them. In order to upgrade your vehicle, you need to select Customize from the Main Menu, select a vehicle and pick Tune Performance. Alternatively you can enter the garage just before starting a race. The cheapest way to do this is upgrade all vehicles' armor to the fifth slot and then buy five more slot-6 upgrades on vehicles of your choosing. This way will cost 340,000 precursor orbs. See Full Bars for a way to speed this up.
Adrenaline Junkie

Purchase 50% of all Turbo upgrades.
(1)
There are 58 potential turbo capacity upgrades so you will need to purchase 29 of them. In order to upgrade your vehicle, you need to select Customize from the Main Menu, select a vehicle and pick Tune Performance. Alternatively you can enter the garage just before starting a race. The cheapest way to do this is upgrade all but one vehicle's turbo capacity to the fifth slot. This way will cost just over 400,000 precursor orbs. See Full Bars for a way to speed this up.
Road Rage

Reach 100 kills in a Death Race, in Adventure mode.
(4)
This may be the most difficult trophy to get, thus it is recommended you wait until you are more skilled at the game before attempting it.

The final score in a Death Race is not the same as the number of kills. You can see how many kills you actually performed on the second page of the scoreboard after completing a race. I recommend racing on the Kras City Dethdrome in the Green Eco Cup for this, though it can also be done elsewhere, whatever track you feel you're best at. Choose a car you're comfortable with. You do not need to upgrade any attributes, though if you're prone to running into walls you should increase armor. If you're not comfortable controlling faster cars you should definitely avoid increasing your engine. Turbo is useful for maintaining your position relative to the target cars but again, not totally necessary.

Once you're in the race, cars will start appearing after five seconds so it doesn't matter if you get the start boost or not. For the entire race you are focusing on two things:

1: Destroy the farthest car back.
2: Run over Yellow Eco powerups.

There are very few spots where you will need any turbo, it's just in case you're too far behind to hit anything.

Two things that will likely end your chances:

1: Crashing
2: Going more than three seconds without a kill.

Crashing will waste time and reset your Dark Eco meter, which will make you kill less quickly. You should continuously be getting kills by destroying the back one or two cars with your default gun as they spawn. They'll spawn slightly in front and off to the side of you most times. As you do that, look to get other weapons from the Yellow Eco powerups so you can quickly rack up more kills.

The trophy will pop once you've destroyed 100 cars before the race ends.
Out of My Way!

Reach 150 kills in Rush Hour, in Adventure mode.
This is similar to Road Rage but much easier. It should come naturally while completing Adventure Mode, but if not you can go to Kras City in the Yellow Eco Cup. Pick the most armored car you can; it keeps you more steady as you run into cars and gives you more chances not to die to red cars. Points don't matter but what does, is the actual number of Green and Blue cars you run into so just focus on hitting as many as you can and the trophy should pop when you have hit 150.
Unanswered

Capture 5 power cells before the opposing team captures any, in an Adventure mode Capture event.
(2)
Go to the Kras City Dirt Stadium in the Blue Eco Cup. You need to win the event without the other team bringing a power cell to their base and without your team getting 10 kills (that would put your team to the winning score of 50 points on the fourth power cell capture rather than the fifth). Right from the start go to the power cell. If you get it head back towards your base but wait until all three members of the other team are close by so when you score they don't instantly pick up the next one and score. If you're not directly next to the opposing team when they pick up the power cell or they're not at critically low health there's a pretty low chance you'll be able to stop them from getting to their base in time. If your teammate gets it go ahead and protect them to your base as them scoring still counts for you getting the trophy. Before they actually score head out to the center of the stadium to be immediately ready to get the next one since they won't wait to lure the other team in and you want to avoid the same consequences.
Wings of Steel

Unlock the Dragonfly.
See Golden Standard: Red Eco Cup for more information.

Earn 15 medal points in the Red Eco Cup. This equivalent to five gold medal races or earning bronze in 75% of Red Eco Cup events.
Cover Your Ears

Unlock the Howler 99.
See Golden Standard: Red Eco Cup for more information.

Earn 33 medal points in the Red Eco Cup. This is equivalent to earning a gold medal in over half of Red Eco Cup events.
Bat Out of Hell

Unlock the Firebat.
See Golden Standard: Green Eco Cup for more information.

Earn 15 medal points in the Green Eco Cup. This equivalent to five gold medal races or earning bronze in 75% of Green Eco Cup events.
Crash and Bash

Unlock the Roadhog.
See Golden Standard: Green Eco Cup for more information.

Earn 33 medal points in the Green Eco Cup. This is equivalent to earning a gold medal in over half of Green Eco Cup events.
Defensive Driver

Unlock the Boomer.
See Golden Standard: Blue Eco Cup for more information.

Earn 15 medal points in the Blue Eco Cup. This equivalent to five gold medal races or earning bronze in 75% of Blue Eco Cup events.
Tame the Beast

Unlock the Havoc V12.
See Golden Standard: Blue Eco Cup for more information.

Earn 33 medal points in the Blue Eco Cup. This is equivalent to earning a gold medal in over half of Blue Eco Cup events.

Why So Salty?

Unlock the Sand Shark.
(3)
This trophy is earned by completing the Blue Eco Cup then entering the Secrets Shop in the Main Menu and purchasing it for 40,000 precursor orbs.
Unleash the Beast

Unlock the Naughty Dog.
(2)
Earned by completing the Blue Eco Cup then entering the Secrets Shop in the Main Menu and purchasing it for 50,000 precursor orbs.
What Did You Expect?

View the Hot Coffee reel.
This trophy is earned by starting Hot Coffee after entering the Secrets Shop in the Main Menu and purchasing it for 100,000 precursor orbs.
Going for Gold

Earn Gold in any event.
This trophy is earne by completing any Adventure Mode race in first place.