When performing an air trick, you can earn extra points by spinning before, during, or after the trick. For every 180 degrees of spin, you receive 50% of the trick's base score. For example, if you perform a trick worth 10,000 points and add a 180 spin, the total score for that trick becomes 15,000 points. Doing a 900 spin with the same trick will award you 35,000 points. This mechanic is why special grinds, manuals, and lips are rarely used in high score runs.In most games, the extra points for spinning are capped at a 900 spin.This should not be confused with spinning flatland manual tricks, which do not award extra points.

Extra points for spinning tricks

Trick score values decrease depending on how many times a trick has been used in a combo. The points awarded for a particular trick decrease by 25% of its initial value for the first 3 times it's used. After the 4th use, the value is finally decreased by 15%, making 5th and every following use of the trick give only 10% of its initial value. The trick percentage values can be presented as 100-75-50-25-10-10…In THUG, THUG2, THUG Pro, THAW and reTHAWed every trick will award the player a maximum of 9.5 multiplier - 1 for each of the first 9 uses and 0.5 for the 10th use. After reaching this limit, the trick won't add any more multiplier. In THP8 and THPG, the multiplier gained for all tricks decreases based on the total number of tricks performed in the combo.These rules don't apply to gaps, which always award the player the same amount of base points and 1 multiplier.The regular and switch variations of the same trick are distinguished and counted as different tricks - e.g. Kickflip and Switch Kickflip.

Trick usage

Total time spent on grinds, manuals, or lips during a combo. The more time you spend on a particular balance type, the harder it becomes to control. Depending on the game, balance stability may also increase or decrease based on applicable balance penalties and rewards.

Grind / Manual / Lip time

Any grind made on a rail or a rail segment different from the one that the previous grind was started on. Many THPS games reward the player by subtracting a fraction of a second from the total time spent on grinds, which makes the grind balance move a bit slower. The grind indicator moves toward the center of the balance bar with each new grind.

New grind

Doesn't apply to THPS1, THPS2, THP8 and THPG. Two consecutive grinds made on the same rail. The game penalizes the player by adding extra time to the grind timer value, making the balance noticeably faster. When regrinding a rail quickly, the grind balance indicator will also drastically change its position.In most games, it's safe to grind different rail segments one after another. However, in THPS3 and THPS4, double grinds will occur even when regrinding the same rail on a different segment.

Double grind

Exclusive to THUG, THUG2 and THUG Pro, toggable in reTHAWed. A mechanism with the purpose of penalizing players who use very short lines to get high scores. In these games, a single rail segment can be grinded exactly 10 times in a single combo without any penalty. Starting with the 11th grind on the same rail segment, the game adds a significant amount of extra time to the grind timer, making the grind balance much harder to control. The grind balance indicator will also become unpredictable and appear in different places than it normally would.

Tag limit / Robot Line Detection

Three or more consecutive manuals without a grind, revert, sticker slap/wallplant (not applicable to THPS1+2 and THPS3+4), or a lip trick in between. Every time this condition is met, extra time is added to the manual timer, making the manual balance harder to maintain. In THUG, THUG2, and THUG Pro, the penalty doesn't apply when doing consecutive special manuals.

Triple Manual / Manual Cheese penalty

In some games, doing a pivot during a manual adds some time to the manual timer.

Pivot penalty

Every revert in a combo adds a speed penalty that applies to the next revert. Depending on the game, these penalties are either permanent (THPS3, THPS4, THPS1+2, THPS3+4) or temporary (THUG, THUG2, THUG Pro, THAW, reTHAWed) and vanish after spending some time in the combo without reverting.

Revert speed penalty

A game glitch that lets you spin an air trick after the air time already finished, or before it even started. It can be used to obtain extra points for spinning air tricks in places where it wouldn't be possible otherwise to get as many 180 spins. Depending on the game DAO works with wallrides, bonks, reverts, wallplants and even with short manuals.

DAO (Degree Add-On)

Here you'll find commonly used and discussed terms related to high scoring.

Terminology

Every revert in a combo adds a temporary speed penalty that lasts for 20 seconds and is applied to the next revert. If you do more than one revert in less than 20 seconds, then the penalties combine and result in a bigger speed loss.For example, if a player does 3 consecutive reverts in a very short amount of time, it would take roughly 60 seconds of holding the combo without doing reverts for the penalty to disappear completely. The penalty slows the player down only when they do a revert - their general speed isn't affected in any way.This mechanic also applies to landing pivots.

prevzzy

How does the revert speed penalty work?

This analysis is also partially applicable to THPS3, THPS4, THAW, reTHAWed, THPS1+2, and THPS3+4. The key differences for these games are:<ul><li>No robot line detection (toggable in reTHAWed).</li><li>Special manuals don't prevent the manual cheese penalty (repeatedly jumping on manuals).</li><li>In THPS1+2 and THPS3+4, wallplants don't stop the manual cheese penalty.</li></ul>

Differences

Thorough presentation and explanation of grind and manual balance mechanics. Demonstrated in THUG Pro, fully applicable to THUG and THUG2.

Grind Balance Analysis

Manual Balance Analysis - part 1

Manual Balance Analysis - part 2

Grind and manual balance analyses

Short and straight-to-the-point guide on how to get started with high scoring in THUG Pro.

High score basics

Make sure that the games' executable filenames match THUGPro.exe, reTHAWed.exe, THUG2.exe and THAW.exe. If you're using any modifications for these games, you may need to change the filename accordingly.Depending on the game version installed on your PC, you might experience issues with Combo Tracker failing to detect THUG2 and THAW games. The application has been tested to run with the executables provided at the bottom of <a href="https://github.com/prevzzy/Combo-Tracker/releases/tag/v1.1.0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">this page</a>.If your game is running but you're still encountering the error messages "Could not find any active supported game process." or "Reinitializing addresses. Restart the game if the problem persists.", then try swapping your .exe files with the ones linked below. If this doesn't help, try running Combo Tracker as an administrator.

Troubleshooting

No installation is required. After you downloaded the .zip, unpack it and simply launch the Combo Tracker.exe.

Installation

Combo Tracker is an app that gathers and presents data about combos made in THUG Pro, reTHAWed, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland and Tony Hawk's Underground 2. Its purpose is to significantly simplify analyzing combos, and help players improve and achieve their score goals faster. It is also destined to serve as an individual highscores list, that allows the user to have all of the data of their best combos available at all times.It's worth noting, that although the combo data is almost completely obtained from inside the game, either directly or by mimicking the game engine's logic, the application only keeps track of the values. At no point does it modify any of the in-game values in any way.

Download

Combo Tracker

<ul><li>Always hold ollie button.</li><li>Avoid double grinds.</li><li>Avoid manual cheese penalty.</li><li>Minimize balance usage by staying in the air.</li><li>Don't use special grinds, special manuals or special lips.</li><li>If you're using the controller, use d-pad instead of analog.</li><li>Use dedicated spin keys to spin.</li><li>Don't use 180 spin taps.</li><li>Build base points by finding high airs and spinning valuable special tricks.</li><li>Don't repeat the same special tricks too much.</li></ul>

TLDR

THPS Tips with andyTHPS — 10 most basic and important high-scoring rules explained in 9 minutes.

andyTHPS

10 THPS basics to get better

<ul><li>Learn to quickturn: Down, Down, Right Spin button.</li><li>Jump out of wallrides at the right time to get more air.</li><li>Level out on ramps to avoid unnecessary reverts.</li><li>Use acid drops and spine transfers for more speed and higher airs.</li><li>Spend as little time on rails and manuals as possible to maintain balance stability.</li><li>Learn to shuffle effectively.</li><li>Learn robot lines.</li><li>Improve your movement with drop downs.</li><li>Improve your movement with drop downs.</li><li>Control your stance and trick usage.</li><li>Save your special tricks for places where you can spin them.</li></ul>

THPS Tips with andyTHPS — 10 more advanced techniques to help you improve your game.

10 advanced THPS tips to get better

An in-depth tutorial on how to get the Warehouse robot line right, for both beginners and experienced THPS players.

Bullet

Beginner friendly Warehouse robot line guide

<ul><li>Maintaining speed</li><li>Holding grind balance</li><li>Holding manual balance</li><li>Base building</li></ul>

Topics covered

The most advanced and in-depth guide for highscoring in THPS1+2. Also fully applicable to THPS3+4.

Skill hub

Welcome to Skill Hub!