Speed Classes

Speed Classes are, traditionally, the standalone difficulty levels of the Wipeout series. In later games, a separate setting determines the opponent difficulty. Speed classes generally restrict the speed of the AG craft to an appropriate level, from generally slow for the beginners to as fast as possible for the more seasoned players. Every speed class has a determined lap count, depending on the game.

For speed classes corresponding to Zone events, see the Zone article.

Wipeout

Wipeout provides two speed classes:

• Venom
• Rapier

Only Venom is available at the start of the game. Rapier class can be unlocked by winning the Venom Championship. All races last for three laps, regardless of speed class.

Wipeout 2097

Wipeout 2097 carries over both the speed classes from the first game, and introduces two new speed classes: Vector, which is slower than Venom; and Phantom, which is faster than Rapier.

• Vector - 2 laps
• Venom - 3 laps
• Rapier - 4 laps
• Phantom - 5 laps

Initially, only two tracks are available per speed class, with Phantom inaccessible. Players have to play through the arcade mode, and win Phantom Challenge and Piranha Challenge, to unlock more tracks for these speed classes.

Wipeout 3

Wipeout 3 carries over all speed classes from Wipeout 2097. The race lap count for each speed class also remains the same.

• Vector - 2 laps
• Venom - 3 laps
• Rapier - 4 laps
• Phantom - 5 laps

Only Vector, Venom and Rapier are available at the start of the game. Phantom has to be unlocked first.

Wipeout Fusion

Wipeout Fusion is the only game in the series that does not have speed classes in traditional sense. Instead, it allows players to upgrade each craft's Top Speed (along with various other stats) by expending the credits they receive from the AG League. As progress is made through this mode, craft modification becomes necessary.

For this purpose, all races in Fusion last for three laps.

Wipeout Pure

Speed Classes make a return in Wipeout Pure, with all classes in Wipeout 3 returning to the game, along with a new intermediate class, Flash. This class sits between Venom and Rapier class.

• Vector (383km/h) - 3 laps
• Venom (453km/h) - 3 laps
• Flash (530km/h) - 4 laps
• Rapier (650km/h) - 4 laps
• Phantom (788km/h) - 5 laps

Only Vector and Venom are available at the start of the game. All other classes have to be unlocked first.

Wipeout Pulse/HD/Fury

Wipeout Pulse and Wipeout HD/Fury have four speed classes, with Vector removed from the range. In these games, the speed classes only dictate the speed of the ships as there is a separate setting for opposition difficulty. Additionally, unlike in previous installments, all of the playable speed classes are available at the start of the game.

• Venom (462km/h) - 3 laps
• Flash (538km/h) - 4 laps
• Rapier (657km/h) - 4 laps
• Phantom (793km/h) - 5 laps

Wipeout 2048

Wipeout 2048 has a slightly different class system. Instead of traditional names, they have letter designations, ranging from 'D', the slowest, to 'A+', the fastest.

• D Class (Venom-equivalent) - Normally unplayable, but appears in Zone
• C Class (Flash-equivalent) - 3 laps
• B Class (Rapier-equivalent) - 4 laps
• A Class (Phantom-equivalent) - 5 laps
• A+ Class (Super Phantom-equivalent) - 10 laps (Campaign challenge), 6 laps (Racebox)

Trivia

• Pure is the last game to include the Vector speed class, as well as the only game to feature all known speed classes in the series.
  • It is also the only game in which the Vector class is raced over three laps, compared to two in all previous installments.
• The manuals for Wip3out and Pure refer to the Phantom class as a "previously-banned speed class".
• It is impossible to compare exactly how fast the vintage AGRC-era ships are in 2048 to modern FX350 ships, due to a lack of a numerical indicator on their HUD.
  • There was an exploitable glitch that allowed players to use 2048 ships on HD tracks, in turn allowing for much faster lap times compared to HD ships, indicating these early ships were extremely fast. However, because of the nature of this glitch, it was impossible to set races to A+ Class. This glitch has been patched.
  • The HUD's of Wipeout and 64 also lack numerical indicators. However, it can be assumed that the speed of the ships in 64 are roughly the same as in 2097.
• Despite Fusion's lack of fixed speed classes in favor of upgrades, the ships during the F9000 era can exceed the speed of sound (approximately 1,235km/h).
  • Even with F9000-era ships being able to go this fast, there is no audio or visual "sonic boom" effect whatsoever.
  • In the later games such as in Pulse and HD/Fury, it is possible to reach the speed of sound, although this can only be done when using a Turbo at full speed in the Phantom class. These games still lack the use of any audio or visual "sonic boom" effect, however.
• The AGRC-era FEISAR Prototype, when its speed pad boost meter has been fully charged, can run at a significantly higher speed than the maximum limit of any given speed class, but resets on every new lap and has its effects reduced from weapon impacts and hard collisions with anything.