FZC Staff Ghost: Split Oval guide

Time: 51''116 (Ranked 78th, 5.575 sec faster than staff ghost)
Splits: 18''542 - 15''922 - 16''652
Machine: Fat Shark

You may already know all about Fat Shark at this point. It’s a beast of a machine with the best booster in the entire game. However it loses a substantial amount of speed in the turns if you don’t quick turn or don’t quick turn enough.

In this course however, even if you still don’t quick turn it’s still by far the best machine for the course.

Lap 1
The boost plate path I take it what I would recommend you to try. For the 4th boost plate you hit, you may prefer hitting the one on the left side of the track and skip the one on the right side, but by doing so, your boost will run out before the machine reaches it, causing you to lose speed.

It is possible to hit all of the boost plates before the track splits, but it isn’t something that can be mastered immediately. It requires well timed, precise quick turns to get the boost plates without losing speed. Initially it is very easy to miss them or hit the wall. Over an entire run it could potentially save about a full second, but again it isn’t the easiest thing to pull off.

Once you are at the part where the track splits, if you know how to MT, you should do a brief MT before the second boost plate in the split path. I don’t MT there at all.

Now, for the jump, assuming you hit all the boost plates, your speed should be ideal to perform a jump where the machine doesn’t “bounce” off the ground after lifting off briefly (close to or just above 2000 when going past the second to last boost plate). Stay closer to the right side of the course, ignore the last boost plate on the left. Once your machine begins to lift off, slowly tilt up left on the control stick and hold L. Don’t do it immediately, or you risk hitting the wall or messing up the jump.

If you get a good fast jump, make sure you turn enough to land back on the track, level out your machine and MT until you cross the finish line for lap 2.

Lap 2
If you landed the jump at a fast speed, then the boost you use at the start of lap 2 will last through hitting the first boost plate. If that isn’t the case for you, you probably want to consider MTing after the boost instead of boosting again… if you don’t plan on doing the jump again. More on that in a moment.

In my run you may notice that I do a quick turn after one of the boost plates. I only did that because it was easier for me to keep control of my machine. You don’t need to do a quick turn there, but it is faster since Fat Shark loses a lot of speed whenever you stick steer with him.

Now as you approach the potential jump, you have two main choices: To jump or not to jump. I didn’t do the jump on laps 2 and 3 to make it not too difficult to beat the time I set in the video. If you don’t want to jump, then you will need to reduce your speed at some point to around 1800 before the track begins to curve and turn. Otherwise the machine will lift off and who knows whether or not you will be able to get back on the track quickly and successfully. In the middle of the turn, you can begin to boost again.

If you do want to jump, which will save a lot of time, then approach it the same way as lap 1. But because of the boost used earlier, you might be going a little faster than before, usually around 2100 kmh through the split track. If that is the case, then it will be considerably harder to perform the jump the way I did on lap 1 because it is much difficult to return to the track at higher speeds. To reliably perform the jump, after you hit the last boost plate in the split portion of the track, begin to MT earlier than usual. Aim to hit the next boost plate going close to or slightly over 2000. Although if you are still going well over 2000, just continue to MT. If you get the speed right you can perform the lap 1 jump the exact same way.

Right before you land, boost. Or you can do a brief MT landing then boost. I prefer the second method. Doesn’t make much of a difference either way.

Lap 3
It’s basically the same as lap 2. But if you didn’t take the jump on lap 2, you will find yourself low on energy like I did in this run. However if you boosted twice at the start of lap 2 you will probably have no energy left at all, which is why I suggested to boost only once at the start of lap 2 if you don’t plan on doing the jump again.

You may want to get some energy but it isn’t worth it compared taking the boost plate path. If you don’t do the jump on lap 3 you’ll run out of energy before the finish (as I did).

If you did do the jump on lap 2, you will have one more boost worth of energy, which should be enough boost to take you all the way to the finish even if you don’t do the jump on the final lap. Though if you boosted twice at the start of lap 2, you will run out of boost well before the finish if you don’t do the jump in the final lap.

Once you’re in the final straightaway, if you have the energy, perform a MTRS if you are able to do so. If you have no energy and know how to MTS, time a MTS so you’ll hit the wall after or just before you cross the line.

Although this track looks simple, that jump alone makes it surprisingly tricky. Once you get the hang of the jump and hitting the boost plates without crashing, you’ll stand a good chance of beating this time.