Tree Men Games has just returned with another installment of the massively popular isometric car chase franchise with Pako 3. Fans of PAKO – Car Chase Simulator, it’s sequel Pako 2, PAKO Forever, and even PAKO Caravan have new challenges to conquer while complete beginners to the series can test their wits and driving skills in Pako 3 like never before.
Pako 3 is as welcoming to complete newbies as any of its earlier incarnations, returning to its roots of providing the simplest control schemes and game mechanics. Both number of levels to conquer and vehicles to unlock have been supersized, ensuring hours after hours of simple yet challenging fun and mayhem.
Pako 3 is easy to pick up and play for just about anyone. Players only need to tap and hold either side of the screen to turn and hold both for extra slides and the handbrake. There are no tutorials included in Pako 3 but a quick dive into the first stage ensures a decent understanding of what needs to be done. Surviving longer earns you a higher rating and potentially more coins as well and stars unlock more levels while coins can be used to purchase new cars.
As simple as it all sounds, Pako 3 is one of those games that are easy to learn but hard to master. If you yearn to unlock all cars and dominate each challenge fast and efficiently, then check out our Pako 3 guide below! Our collection of tips and strategies will certainly help you to become a top tier getaway driver!
1. Practice Makes Perfect
The control scheme of Pako 3 ensures that players will have no trouble remembering all of it given that there is only a left turn, right turn, and slide or handbrake. The core mechanic is to simply survive long enough by avoiding taking damage from collisions. As simple as all of that sounds, grasping the controls with complete precision to be able to perform the way you envision it is a huge challenge and the only way to achieve it is through practice.
Regardless of how you feel about the initial level in Pako 3 that greets you, it can serve as the perfect training grounds to master those maneuvers and perform better across all other stages moving forward. As simple as Pako 3’s controls and mechanics are, it takes time to get perfectly acquainted to both in such a way that the results you get are exactly similar to what you have in mind.
For starters, Pako 3 has a fast-paced gameplay and it already takes quite some level of focus to keep tabs on all that is happening. Priority one as far as focus is concerned should always be directed to your car, of course. With so many moving vehicles to avoid, like the police cars in the starting stage, it cannot be helped that sufficient attention be given to each of them as well. As cop cars continue to pop up over time until it reaches a certain number, survival in every run can often feel like luck has a lot to do with it.
Although luck does have a hand in what transpires within each of your runs, there are plenty of factors that you can influence with skill and strategy. Both skills and strategy can only be honed with immersion across attempts and each attempt you make should contribute to improving both. In this sense, you should consider the initial runs as mere practice instead of immediately targeting to earn more coins or stars.
Mastering turns regardless of speed, as well scenario, can be a tremendous challenge but repetition and making the proper adjustments with each unsatisfactory execution will eventually reap its rewards.
2. Establish Routes To Cycle Through
All levels in Pako 3 are finite and stand the same across multiple runs. If you analyze it from a strategic standpoint, only you and the moving cars are the variables in it. What you would want to do is establish a path you can cycle through as many times as you need to survive the stage longer. With the exception of race tracks, of course, seeing each other level like a race track and following a standard flow over and over can lead to better runs as far as longevity is concerned.
What you would want on your initial runs in each level is to scope out the whole map. The level maps are not that big but it would take several runs to memorize it enough for you to establish an optimum route. The best route for one person can differ from all other players which is why this is something you have to discover and perfect on your own. Likewise, each new stage will require several attempts for you to just map out its entirety.
The idea behind this concept is to establish a semblance of consistency across multiple runs with the goal of extending survival time to earn more coins and star ratings. At the same time, this will also yield information on what you feel your current car needs more and less of, given its best performance across various runs. Knowing details like the need for more speed or handling will help you search for just the right vehicle to use in each stage.
In this consideration, we can say that latter levels in Pako 3 are not necessarily more difficult than the earlier ones. If you are able to establish a looping route for you to consistently drive through, it will become easier to survive longer in that stage. In some cases, even, you can master specific areas of the stage to the point of consistently being able to eliminate enemy vehicles and cashing in more coins in the process.
3.Avoid All Distractions
With a lot going on your screen with any stage you play in Pako 3, there is actually hardly any time for you to be distracted by other things. With a focus on your vehicle being the most important, followed by a constant awareness of what is ahead of you more than what is trailing behind, the amount of concentration needed to stay on top of your game is barely sufficient to keep tabs on opportunities and threats that come your way.
For beginners, knowing that you have to stay as long as possible on any stage to reach milestones and earn stars serves as the golden rule. While it is only natural to actually be conscious of how many seconds you have spent dodging enemy vehicles and obstacles in your run, you should actually refrain from paying too much attention to it. Actually thinking about how long you will survive on any level while at the same time dodging cars that chase you and avoiding wall hits and other collisions can be too much to handle, even for multitasking experts.
It is fairly easy to catch a glimpse of the timer that runs in real-time at the upper left side of the screen but it is recommended to completely ignore it as it is one of the distractions in Pako 3 that can adversely affect your performance. The path towards securing better runs require your focus on more important aspects of each run which is why you will have to consider other things as distractions as well.
Coins are the most basic currency in Pako 3 and you need a fair good sum of it to be able to purchase new vehicles. Coins are not necessarily the only goal you have on each run, especially since you need to pull off better performances and reach milestones for stars needed to unlock new levels. While you will always earn coins in any given run, more coins will appear on the level the more enemies are blown to bits, even if you had no hand in it. These coins are likewise distractions that can impact your performance if you pay too much attention to them.
Even for runs that are specifically targeted at farming more coins, you should still consider them as distractions that can lead to poor performance and less coins earned at the end of the run, when an enemy vehicle bursts into flames and coins begin to bounce on the area, you should only consider grabbing them if doing so will not put you at risk.
Sudden turns and deviations from an established route can be difficult and we do not recommend for anyone to grab coins for whatever reason. In the natural course of following a circular path as we established earlier, you are bound anyway to nab some coins without even intending to do so.
Last, but definitely not the least, are the gift boxes that randomly appear across the level. These gift boxes provide you with random power ups that can often make runs easier. It can make your car grow and give you practical invulnerability, slow time down and make runs easier for a few seconds, destroy enemy cars, or all other sorts of neat powers that just make gameplay all the more exciting.
Even without knowing how much of a help grabbing it will do you, the gift box certainly has an appeal that makes it even more attractive than coins whenever they appear. As much as any of the perks you can get from the power-up box can make your run easier for a few seconds, you need to consider weighing the risks involved in attempting to pursue it.
While you have yet to master every maneuver to ensure that you can grab anything without causing a collision, then you can always go for the gift box. Otherwise, you should focus on maintaining the route you are going through and nab the gift box when it falls within the imaginary track you are driving through.
4. Moving Cars Are Not The Only Threats
One of the first ideas you will get hooked on after your initial dive into Pako 3 is that the cop cars are the only threats. Each collision or bump reduces your car’s durability and with your first car, it will only take 3 hits for it to explode and end your run. Staying stationary is hardly an option, of course, given that cop cars as well as most other vehicles in the map you see are as attracted to you as mice are to peanut butter.
Although you will constantly be on the move, it will simply be not enough, as you would have to keep moving while steering clear of any moving vehicles as well as inanimate objects that can also damage your car.
The natural tendency is for you to continue driving away from cop cars that chase you tirelessly and while that seems fair enough, the bigger challenge is actually avoiding to hit everything else. There is actually a higher chance of hitting walls, trees, houses, or even parked cars in front of you than having a collision with cop cars or other moving vehicles in the map. For a more efficient run directed towards surviving longer, the next item to focus on ought to be directed more towards what is ahead of you rather than what you aim to leave behind.
Even with the slowest of vehicles, there are plenty of ways to ensure a gap between you and the cars that are constantly tailing you. Travelling on a straight line will lead them to catch up with you fast, but at this point in time you should already be used to turning left and right every few seconds. In doing so, however, it can become increasingly challenging to maintain successful avoidance of walls and obstacles ahead of you.
The idea here that we are trying to impart is not to disregard cop cars and other moving vehicles as a potential threat to your continued progression in your run. Rather, what we recommend is to keep a mindset that obstacles and immobile objects you can bump into are as much of a danger to you as the cop cars. Ultimately, the ideal run should aim to maintain balance between distancing yourself from the vehicles chasing you while also keeping tabs on the distance between you and the numerous obstacles ahead.
5. Choose To Earn Coins Or Stars And Not Both
With coins and stars being the basic currencies you need to unlock all of what Pako 3 has to offer, you will sooner or later want to start applying everything you have learned so far to start earning both. Surviving longer in each run and reaching milestones will earn you additional stars on the first achievement and while doing so will also net you more coins, eliminating enemy vehicles will also contribute to amassing coins.
We have talked about focus in numerous instances and this is yet another situation to apply the simple concept. Before choosing a stage to conquer, be sure to decide on what you are aiming for. You can either push to survive longer and earn more stars or go wild and eliminate as many enemy vehicles for those extra coins. This can depend on what you need more but we recommend unlocking as many levels as you can first to choose from among them which ones are best to farm for your needs.
6. Venture Into New Stages Once They Become Available
When it comes to earning more stars to unlock more levels, there are basically 2 choices available for you to earn stars. The first is to push for better performances in the stages you have driven in and hope to reach the top milestones and claim all 4 stars. The other option, which is what we recommend, is to test the waters first in every new stage you unlock and then make an effort to secure the initial goals in each of them.
As we have mentioned earlier, Levels in Pako 3 are not necessarily unlocked from the easiest to the most challenging. You will come to discover early on that there are plenty of levels to unlock that relatively make it easier for you to clear goals easier than the first level, regardless of which vehicle you use. In this sense, it becomes only logical to hop to each new level and aim to secure even just the initial 2 stars, rather than hold off on doing so while you struggle to clear all goals in the first few levels.
Even with just a few coins earned per run, unlocking vehicles become second priority to unlocking levels early on. Daily logins can reward you with free vehicles and the first one you get to drive is not bad at all. If you have played several times across a variety of stages, you will realize just how many of the wrong turns you make and collisions you get yourself into, are the results of having an inferior car. Rather, most of those predicaments will be products of a lack of practice and strategy, which applies to each individual stage.
7. Newer Cars Are Not Necessarily Better
Including the Stationer, which is the first car you will use, there are a total of 35 different playable vehicles in Pako 3. It is only normal to expect that the 34 other vehicles to unlock will progressively be better than the Stationer as far as overall stats are concerned. However, vehicles that become available for purchase later in your adventure are not necessarily better cars.
For example, the Originello, which is the first unlockable car, only has a small improvement in handling compared to the Stationer and the Originello R has better speed. You will come to discover that even The Blob, which is the last vehicle to unlock is not in every way better than your first car given its tremendously slow speed and mere average handling. What makes each car unique is their overall stats and while one vehicle will be distinguishable enough to have one of its stats better than others, chances are that its other 2 stats will be considerably average or lower.
Pako 3, in this respect, does not make it so that there are top tier or ultimate vehicles that are best to use across all of its challenges. Rather, unlocking all cars will simply give you a wider array of choices to pick one you feel is most suitable for the challenge at hand.
While speed is always important, there are numerous stages where a slower car will actually perform better. This will also depend on the maximum speed you can still handle as you dodge oncoming vehicles and swerve left and right to avoid taking hits. Race tracks are primarily designed to make the fastest cars perform better but there are still exceptions depending on how fast of a car you can handle well enough to finish the race faster or at all.
Some levels make it more challenging to stay alive and a car’s health becomes more important than its speed. Although one of your constant objectives is to avoid taking damage, some levels are simply designed to make that idea more difficult to actualize than others. In such situations, having a vehicle with better armor will increase your survivability.
Keep in mind as well that some stages have items like trains or giant saw blades that will automatically destroy your car regardless of its health. In such cases, banking on health may not be the best choice and you may instead consider cars with more speed or better handling.
Despite its simple controls and game mechanics, Pako 3 ensures hours after hours of addictive gameplay thanks to its plethora of unlockable levels and cars, as well as leaderboards for achievement-oriented gamers. This is where we end our Pako 3 guide and we hope that you learned a great deal from the simple tip and strategies that we discussed. If you happen to uncover some tricks and strategies of your own and want to let us in on your discovery, do not hesitate let us know in the comments below!