Elimination

The Triakis FX300 being destroyed by a backward Quake (note the rubble in the air) in Citta Nuova through an exploit that allows the player to eliminate all opponents easily.

Elimination is a core gameplay concept of Wipeout introduced in Wipeout 2097. The term itself refers to the condition where a ship's shield energy is completely depleted through weapons, wall impacts and collisions from other ships, causing it to explode. Eliminated players are subsequently out of the race, and this will count as a loss for them.

Usually, when the player or an opponent is eliminated, the announcer will shout "Contender eliminated", and the number of racers still running per the screen HUD will decrease by one.

Under normal circumstances, eliminated players will not respawn, and in tournaments, no points will be awarded. Some other game modes, depending on the game, may allow for respawning, with the possibility of incurring penalties.

Depiction

The elimination animations have varied for every game. Below are the descriptions of how a ship is destroyed in each game.

Wipeout 2097 and Wipeout 64

Flames will come out of the ship's rear, traveling at a slow speed before bursting into a fireball. In 64, debris of the ship will be sent flying and exploding into even smaller pieces. Also in 64, there is a counter showing how many opponents the player has eliminated.

If the player is eliminated, a beeping sound can be heard, and the screen will read "Critical Shield Failure" before the ship explodes.

In-game effect: In 64's multiplayer, player ships explode imminently when eliminated.

Wipeout 3

The ship will turn black, disintegrate into the ground, and smoke will come out of the ship.

In-game effect: It is only possible to respawn in Eliminator mode, but in this instance, eliminated players will respawn at the starting line as opposed to the exact spot they were left out.

Wipeout Fusion

Flames will come out of the ship, and upon final impact, a warning alarm can be heard alongside the onboard computer saying "Ejection process imminent". The ship will then veer itself to the nearest wall before exploding into a ring of fire, leaving only the pilot ready to be evacuated by a rescue shuttle.

In-game effect: Eliminating opponents in a tournament also yields two extra points each, and this applies to all pilots, regardless of their finishing position, even if they were eliminated themselves.

Wipeout Pure

Vapor trails are no longer emitted from the ship's exhaust as it implodes in a ring of fire, with a completely damaged chassis and sparks flying everywhere as the ship slows down, before exploding into a fireball with debris flying everywhere, leaving a cloud of smoke behind.

In Zone and the classic tracks, the explosion effects are pixelated, where pixels are seen flying out of the ship (as with ship damage in Classic 2 tracks) before exploding into large black pixels.

When the player is eliminated, a beeping sound can be heard while going through the elimination sequence.

Wipeout Pulse

The ship completely implodes with its chassis completely charred. Sparks and flames can easily be seen around the ship, which then explodes into a ring of fire. On the PS2 version, the ship is left off with burnt paintwork before exploding entirely.

In-game effect: It is only possible to respawn in Eliminator mode, with eliminated players respawning exactly where they have left off.

The same beeping sound from Pure during the elimination sequence can be heard as soon as the player is eliminated, but will fade out once the ship has imploded.

Wipeout HD/Fury

The ship is sent hurling across the air, followed by a small explosion, with flames burning from the rear of the ship. What is left of the ship is a damaged, bent bodywork, along with debris everywhere as it is gradually disintegrated into the ground. If the ship falls off the track, it will explode into a fireball and then disappear completely.

In Zone mode, the ship's chassis turns into a polygonic model before splitting apart completely, and the same also applies to Detonator mode, except the ship will dissolve instead. In the original version, the elimination effects will also cause the environment to turn into a black void as the ship is being destroyed (white void in the HD and Fury DLC of Wipeout 2048 and HD mode in Wipeout Omega Collection).

As for Zone Battle ships, the transparent body layering of the ship's hull will be completely shattered, leaving only the main frame of the ship intact. Unless used for the dedicated Zone Battle mode, these ships also emit flames when eliminated.

In-game effect: As with Wipeout 3 and Pulse, it is possible to respawn in Eliminator Mode, although this will incur a five-point penalty. This is also possible in Zone Battle (where eliminated players will lose five Zones) and almost any form of online races. In all cases, eliminated players respawn exactly where they left off.

Wipeout 2048

The elimination effects in 2048 are the same as HD and Fury, except later on, the ship will explode into a fireball.

In Zone mode, the ship disintegrates with a completely damaged chassis before exploding into pixels. The environment doesn't disappear into a void, however.

Trivia

• Despite the gameplay feature being introduced in the F5000 League, it has existed in the AGRC, due to the fact that craft-destroying weaponry existed since the very beginning, only to have them banned in the F3600, then reintroduced again in the F5000.
• The explosions from destroyed ships have no effect on nearby ships.
• Players that voluntarily retire from online races will be treated as eliminated.
• The ending of the intro movie sequence of 2097 shows a Qirex F5000 eliminating a FEISAR F5000 with what appears to be a Plasma.
• If the intro movie of Wip3out is played in reverse, it will depict a Goteki 45 F7200 self-destructing to eliminate both a FEISAR F7200 and an AG Systems F7200, which is likely a testament to the Goteki team's violent racing tactics during the F7200 era.
• In the games before Fusion, failing to reach a checkpoint in time will result in an instant elimination once the ship has reached a standstill.
• Up until Pulse, the anti-gravity generator of eliminated ships were still active before its complete destruction. This is no longer the case with HD, Fury and 2048.
• It is difficult, but possible to eliminate all of the opponents in a race until Pure (also possible in Pulse, but it requires the use of a cheating device). However, even if you eliminate all the opponents, you must still finish the race to actually win the race. In 2048, eliminating all the opponents will mean the end of the race and an instant victory (easily done with the Qirex Prototype).
• Pure is the last game where it is possible to get eliminated in a Time Trial.
• Upon getting eliminated in Pure, the damage model of the eight starter ships will drastically change if an alternate livery is applied, albeit less detailed, compared to their standard liveries. This may imply that the standard livery variants have weaker chassis integrity after an elimination, as their destruction is more severe, even as far as body panels and hulls split apart from the ship, compared to the alternate livery variants.
  • Other ships, particularly from bonus and privateer teams, may also lose their liveries when eliminated.
• In 64 and Fusion, ramming opponent ships to eliminate them is counted as a valid means of doing so. These two games are the only instances where this is true.
• Pure has exploits in at least four tracks (Sinucit, Citta Nuova, Cardcity Run and Paris Hair), where in Phantom class, players can build up a barricade of Bombs, use Quakes and other weapons to gradually damage opponents in order to eliminate them easily. This feat has to be done quickly, for if opponents have finished the race, it will be nearly impossible to eliminate them. This may have led to weapon and pad balancing in the later games.
• In games like Wip3out, Fusion and Pure, there is a short delay before the position counter reduces the number of opponents due to elimination. In theory, it is possible to finish the race as the last one standing, but with lower medals (one such example is in Pure, where destroying all opponents with the exploits as stated above, but with a destroyed craft reaching the finish line on their final lap may cause the position counter to read, for example "POS: 2/1", which results in a silver medal should the player finish the race normally with all opponents eliminated).
• Fusion is the only game in the series where pilots are seen ejecting from their eliminated ships. It is suggested that pilot evacuation and safety has always been this way ever since. Furthermore, it is also the only game in the series where eliminating opponents in a tournament yields extra points.
• If looked closely in the photo mode of HD/Fury, upon close inspection from an eliminated ship, the dash would read "EJECT!", suggesting a form of emergency ejection to safely evacuate the pilot from the shipwreck.
  • Also in HD/Fury, HD-class ships have a more detailed damage modeling than Fury-class ships upon destruction.
• In the Omega Collection, when an eliminated ship is viewed in Photo Mode, its model reverts to an undamaged model. This is especially noticeable if a ship in the HD/Fury mode flies over the edge of the track. In this case, an undamaged model of the eliminated ship will spawn and remain for the rest of the event, although flames will still come out of the rear, and its anti-gravity generator will still be permanently disabled.
• The 2164 disaster at Temtesh Bay (Course 2), where six pilots died as a result of the explosions caused by FEISAR's Super Missiles ad the subsequent collapse of the underground mining area, might count as eliminations, albeit fatal, and also likely to be illegal, as it would technically be an act of manslaughter, and that the race was suspended as it had occurred on the first lap, which meant that the results for that race were declared null and void.
  • It is not known which pilots were canonically killed in the Temtesh Bay disaster.
  • It is highly likely that Daniel Johnson fired the missiles that caused the disaster. This could also mean that the FEISAR team, on behalf of Johnson, would be charged with involuntary manslaughter for these fatal eliminations.
  • There are no other such stories of fatal eliminations in Wipeout's storyline other than the Temtesh Bay disaster itself.
    • The Temtesh Bay disaster is likely a reference to the 1955 Le Mans disaster, as well as the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna during qualifying and the actual race, respectively, of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy.
• It is unknown if the death of Daniel Chang was an elimination, but it was highly unlikely as the F3600 League's weaponry was incapable of damaging ships to such an extent. Instead, it might have been an assassination attempt by the Chinese government in retaliation for his defection.
• 2048 Zone mode in the Omega Collection is the only instance in the series where the announcer says "Contender eliminated" on a Zone event.