Speed Zoomer

A super-fast hoverbike glitch being performed in Haven City.

A speed zoomer or SFHBG (super-fast hoverbike glitch) is a technique in Jak 3 which can be used to build up enormous amounts of speed. It is performed by using Light Jak Freeze Time ability and then quickly using the Wave Concussor to shoot a zoomer multiple times. This causes the zoomer to have an extremely high speed upon Light Jak Freeze Time ending.

Variants & Effects

A speed zoomer can be performed by entering the vehicle to end Light Jak Freeze, or by ledge grabbing it, though riding the zoomer is faster and considered to be more useful. When referred to below, it is assumed that the player is riding the zoomer unless otherwise specified.

When a speed zoomer is performed, the speed gained will make it extremely difficult or even impossible to steer the vehicle. Following a relatively weak speed zoomer, the vehicle will slowly lose speed over time. However, following a strong enough speed zoomer, the zoomer will instead exponentially gain speed, until shortly after the player is killed. The speed can be controlled somewhat by repeatedly changing hover zones.

Strong speed zoomers can occasionally cause graphical glitches and in rare cases even severe corruptions which may result in corrupted save data if the game is saved afterwards.

Uses

In Any% and Hero Mode, some runners choose to use a short speed zoomer from the carrier in Haven Port to reach the first corner leading into the industrial zone around 4 seconds faster. However, not all runners choose to do this as it is considered risky and is a common failure point. There is also a small chance of a slow zoomer or even no zoomer at all being parked near the carrier which will result in the strat either not saving time or not being possible.

In a TAS setting in these categories, it saves a great deal more time as it is possible to use a strong speed zoomer to effectively teleport, deep into the industrial area with the camera passing through all loading triggers. This is an extremely chaotic and inconsistent strategy to use and thus is limited to TAS usage.