Twisted Metal vehicles and weapons guide

The combat of Twisted Metal can be fun, but it certainly has its barriers to entry. Without a little foreknowledge, many of the subtleties of the weapons and vehicles go unnoticed. Why isn’t this alt special working? Why is this bomb better than that bomb? What the hell is a Sweet Bot? 

We’ve answered these questions and more, so read on and maybe you’ll stand a chance next time you’re competing in a twisted game of murder for a chance to have the devil grant your wishes.

VEHICLES

Sweet Tooth

Darkside

Vermin

Meat Wagon

Outlaw

Junkyard Dog

Juggernaut

Roadboat

Shadow

Crimson Fury

Kamikaze

Talon

Reaper

Roadkill

Death Warrant

Warthog

WEAPONS

Vehicles

Note: All numbers inside parenthesis denote damage values

Sweet Tooth is a well-balanced vehicle with a very simple (yet powerful) primary special. This makes the truck a good choice for beginners, though piloting the Sweet Bot effectively may take some practice. 

Speed: 2

Armor: 4

Special: 5

Special: Laughing Ghost (40 max)

While slow, this homing attack does high damage and can pass right through objects.

Alt Special: Sweet Bot

Activating the secondary special turns your ice cream truck into a flight-capable, bipedal robot. While in this mode, the Sweet Bot controls like any wheeled vehicle - as in hold square to accelerate, etc. This special lasts indefinitely until you use the head toss special (R2), deactivate it yourself (R1 or L1), or are hit with a freeze missile.

In this state you can fire improved machine guns by pressing L2 and use standard equipment such as the freeze missile. Pressing R2 will cause the bot to take of its head and toss it, dealing a max damage of 20. However, the head does not track very well and can be unreliable, especially at close range.   

Pushing either stick forward after jumping causes the bot to enter flight mode, which can be sustained until you land or run out of turbo. In this mode, you control Sweet Tooth like you would a helicopter. Pressing jump again will cause the bot to use its drop attack - assuming there is enough turbo meter left. This causes ram damage from the hit and splash damage from the drop.

Simply a great tank-type vehicle. You can absorb a lot of punishment in the Darkside, and its weapons are reliable and simple.   

Speed: 2

Armor: 4

Special: 4

Special: Darkside Slam (78 max)

This move is very similar to a turbo boost ram, but you only need press one button (no waggle, thank goodness) and the damage output is slightly higher.  

Special 2: 4 Mines (15 max each)

Press down on the d-pad when your special weapon is selected to drop four large mines from the back of the vehicle. Since Darkside is not very maneuverable, this can be a great way to shake those pesky pursuers.

Alt Special : Trigun (59 max)

Hold down R2 to use the minigun turret on top of the vehicle. This tracks very well and has great range, making it one of the more reliable special weapons.

Not the most impressive vehicle. Vermin’s only real draw is its piloted missile, which allows you to find a hiding spot and wreak havoc without getting your hands dirty. 

Speed: 2

Armor: 3

Special: 3

Special: Rat Rocket (30 max)

A reliable rocket that tracks just like a homing missile.

Alt Special: Piloted Rat Rocket (100 on direct hit, 20 indirect)

Steer the rocket with the left stick and control its speed with the right. A direct hit causes massive damage and blows your enemy off the ground. Just make sure to reach your target quickly, as not only is the rocket short on fuel, but your vehicle is left defenseless while you are controlling it.

The Meat Wagon is a lot like the Vermin - an unimpressive vehicle with a piloted special. Meat Wagon’s primary special is more powerful than the Vermin’s, but the alt special is slightly weaker. 

Speed: 2

Armor: 3

Special: 3

Special: Gurney Bomb (40 max)

An exploding lock-on weapon that blasts your opponent off the ground. The weapon itself is restricted to ground travel only, because... well, it’s a gurney.

Alt Special: Piloted Gurney Bomb (90 max, 20 indirect)

Similar to the Vermin’s piloted Rat Rocket, but restricted to ground travel only. Though you can control its speed with the right stick, this weapon is not very maneuverable, so try to have a clear line of sight before using firing. 

The Outlaw is one of the most well-rounded vehicles. Decent defense, good maneuverability, and turrets that automatically track targets also make it a fantastic choice for beginners. 

Speed: 2

Armor: 3

Special: 3

Special: Turret with Grenades (47 max)

Pressing R2 will prompt the auto-locking gunner to fire continuously until the special runs out. If you repeatedly press R2 during this time, he/she will also launch grenades. Really, there’s no reason not to mash R2 for the duration the turret is firing. Pressing R3 changes targets. Press down on the d-pad to fire behind you.

Alt Special: Turret with Rockets (70 max)

This works just like the primary special, only it cannot be fired behind you.

The Junkyard Dog is really only useful during team matches, where its alt special is a health taxi. In non-team games, the health taxi turns into an underwhelming weapon. 

Speed: 2

Armor: 4

Special: 3

Special: Taxi Toss (35 max)

Press R2 once to spawn a dragging taxi behind your vehicle. Press R2 again to launch the taxi forward. You can also launch it backwards by pressing down on the d-pad. You can deal a small amount of damage to enemies by dragging the taxi into them, but this is hardly a useful tactic.

Alt Special (team game): Health Taxi

In any team-based game, you can drop a health taxi for your friends to pick up.

Alt Special (non-team game): Shockwave Taxi (20, 60 stage 2)

This turns your taxi into a remote bomb (R2 to detonate) with a very wide radius. If you let it sit until it reaches stage 2, the damage output increases. It may not seem like a lot, but you can catch multiple vehicles in the blast. Beware that you can damage yourself as well, and if you hit an enemy directly with your taxi toss, the bomb will automatically detonate. As such, don’t forget that you can set it down behind you by pressing down on the d-pad.

The Juggernaut is a massive, hulking semi truck that is extremely slow, but its turbo boost ram can deal a whopping 100 damage. However, the only time this truck truly shines is during team games, when teammates can drive inside your cab and take control of the extremely powerful rocket turrets. The Juggernaut’s driver can only control its mines, making the vehicle nearly useless for solo missions. 

Speed: 1

Armor: 5

Special: 3

Special: 8 Mines (25 max each)

Press R2 once to deploy the mines, then again to launch them forward. Press down on the d-pad to drop them behind you. Given how slow Juggernaut is, this is a fantastic weapon for shaking off pursuers.

The Road Boat doesn’t have a particularly powerful special weapon set per se, but you can annoy the crap out of your enemies by grabbing them with your front-end magnet and either slamming them into things for damage or hurling them out of bounds. Use the magnet in combination with freeze missiles for maximum effectiveness. 

Speed: 2

Armor: 3

Special: 3

Special: Magnetic Projectiles (33 max)

Like any homing missile, only you can hit three targets at once. The max damage given is for when you hit a single enemy with all three projectiles. If you fire without a lock-on, the projectiles will bounce off any non-vehicular surface. This actually increases their damage potential.

Alt Special: Mega-Magnet (varies)

Once you activate your front-end magnet any vehicle within a certain range will be dragged onto your front bumper. Use this opportunity to turbo boost them into a wall or another vehicle. If you hold R2 with an enemy attached, you can charge up the magnet and launch your foe. Just know that the magnet will not last indefinitely, and that enemies can break free pretty quickly, so deal your damage as fast as you can.

Since both of its special weapons can be manually detonated, the Shadow is a vehicle great for those who have a good sense of what’s going on all around them. 

Speed: 2

Armor: 3

Special: 2

Special: Death Coffin (90 max, 20 indirect)

The Death Coffin is a fast-moving, ground-based projectile that bounces off walls and can be detonated manually by pressing R2. You won’t get the maximum damage unless the coffin travels a considerable distance first.

Alt Special: Reticle Death Coffin (70, 120 stage 2)

This coffin will stay wherever it lands and can be remotely detonated. If you wait for it to reach stage 2 before detonating, the damage output will be much higher. Be careful when throwing the coffin to avoid direct hits; during stage 1, the super coffin does less direct damage than its standard counterpart. 

Here we have the most maneuverable car in the game. It has extremely powerful specials too, but with only one point of armor, you’re going to need some serious driving skills to survive. 

Speed: 5

Armor: 1

Special: 5

Special: Flamethrower (119 max)

This weapon is exactly the same as the Kamikaze’s flamethrower only it deals slightly more damage, making it one of the best specials in the game. Keep it trained on the enemy to get the full damage potential.

Alt Special: Shockwave (20 max)

It’s not very damaging, but the shockwave has a massive radius. Make sure to fully charge the attack by holding R2 for maximum effectiveness. 

The Kamikaze is nearly as maneuverable as the Crimson Fury, and has slightly more armor. The special weapons are only a bit less impressive.   

Speed: 5

Armor: 2

Special: 4

Special: Flamethrower (105 max)

As you can see, this does some serious damage, but in order to get all of it you’ll need to keep the flames trained on your enemy for the duration of the special attack. Even though the thrower does some auto-tracking, it can be difficult to maintain a clear line of sight; people generally try to avoid flames.

Alt Special: Shock Freeze (20 max)

This weapon has a similar effect to the freeze missile, only it works like a grenade and cannot be thrown/fired. Hold down R2 to charge the weapon, then release it in the vicinity of your enemy. Anyone caught in the blast’s radius will suffer 20 damage and be temporarily frozen.

The Talon is a fast-moving helicopter. It has very low armor, but enemies will often have to manually aim up to get a clear shot. Being able to ignore all terrain is fantastic, though it can be tough to avoid incoming fire, especially once multiple enemies have had enough of your shenanigans.  Click the sticks to use turbo. 

Speed: 4

Armor: 1

Special: 4

Special: Tri-Gunner (150 max)

Pressing R2 will bring you inside the chopper and behind the sights of a mounted turret. Control the turret with the right stick and the horizontal movement of the chopper with the left stick. There is a small degree of auto-targeting to this weapon.

Alt Special: Drop Magnet (60 max)

Activate the magnet then hover above an enemy to pick him/her up. Fly up high and drop your foe with triangle + down for some easy damage. Just be aware that they can shake out of your grasp by mashing buttons.

You can also use the magnet to give teammates a lift. Just don’t drop them from too high a distance.

The Reaper is one of the most maneuverable vehicles in the game and boasts one of the most powerful special attacks (flame saw), but has virtually no armor. Hey, at least you’ll be a smaller target, right? 

Speed: 4

Armor: 1

Special: 5

Special: Chainsaw (40 max, 150 flaming)

Press R2 to chuck your chainsaw. It has some tracking, but because it flies quickly you’ll still want to get lined up.

Hold back on the left stick while driving to pop a wheelie and drag your chainsaw on the ground, setting it on fire. The flaming chainsaw has similar properties to the normal chainsaw, but deals way more damage.

Alt Special: RPG (45 max, 80 stage 2)

Using your alt special stops your vehicle and brings up a first-person reticule. The RPG will stick to whatever it hits, leaving it up to you to detonate when you see fit. If you detonate immediately (stage 1) you’ll deal 45 damage, whereas if you wait until stage 2 before detonating, you’ll deal 80. 

Roadkill is a pretty underwhelming vehicle. It’s only average in the speed department, and below average when it comes to armor. Given that, we’d expect the special weapons to be better than normal - but they aren’t. Yes, the mines can be useful, but the ridiculousness that is this vehicle’s alt special negates any positives we noticed in this car. 

Speed: 3

Armor: 2

Special: 3

Special: Chain Gun (55 max)

Fully charge the weapon for a steady stream of bullets.

Special 2: 4 Mines (25 max)

Press down on the d-pad to arm the mines, then press down again to let them go. These mines deal a lot of damage and blow your enemy off the ground.

Alt Special: Blood Missiles + Chain Gun (97 max)

Here we have one of the trickier specials. Hold R2 until the meter gets into the red, then release and quickly hold R2 again. Once the second meter reaches red, release and hold R2 a third time until fully charged. The result is missiles + bullets. As cool as it sounds, the amount of effort required compared to the damage output makes this special quite unattractive.

It might be one of the most reliable and solid cars to drive in the game, but Death Warrant is seriously lacking in the special weapons department. 

Speed: 3

Armor: 3

Special: 2

Special: Chaingun (33 max)

A weak offering, though the bullets track fairly well.

Alt Special: Zoomy Rockets (64 max)

Adds rockets to the standard chaingun fire. Hold R2 until the charge meter hits red, then let go and quickly hold again to charge the rockets.

The Warthog will be unlocked if you get gold medals in every story mode mission on Twisted difficulty. Its tank treads should give you an idea of how it should be used. 

Speed: 2

Armor: 4

Special: 3

Special: Warthog Crush

Press R2 to raise the vehicle’s front end. While in this state, any enemy caught under you will be severely damaged. You’ll deal bonus damage to each successive vehicle you hit until the special runs out.

Alt Special: Shockwave

A simple yet damaging wide-radius blast. 

WEAPONS

PICKUPS

Note: In parentheses you’ll find the damage output and the color of the weapon.

Homing Missile (12/purple): A simple yet effective weapon with good tracking and range.

Fire Missile (16/orange): Very similar to a standard homing missile, but with less range and tracking. In return you get a higher damage output.

Power Missile (75/red): This weapon is extremely powerful, but does not lock on to its target. You’ll have to line up head-on with your foe before firing.

Shotgun (5-40/light blue): It’s all about getting close with the shotgun. From touching distance, you can do a whopping 40 points of damage, but the damage decreases severely as you increase the distance.

Ricochet (35, 16/blue): The Ricochet is tricky. Press R2 to release it in a straight line, and it will bounce off of anything that isn’t a vehicle. A pre-bounce direct hit causes 25 damage, and a post-bounce direct hit causes 35. If you charge the Ricochet before releasing it, you can detonate it manually for up to 16 points of damage.

Sniper Rifle (16, 36, 60, instant death/green): Press R2 to target an enemy. Depending on how long you can keep them in your sights, different areas of their vehicle will be hit when you fire. Watch the target reticule for small symbols indicating the level of damage you’ll do. If your vehicle is stopped, the timer counts down much more quickly.

Remote Bomb (35, 50/green): The Remote Bomb will stick to whatever surface you throw it at and must be detonated manually. If you wait until it reaches stage 2, the explosion will do more damage. The values given come from direct hits to a vehicle.

Napalm (10-35/orange): Press R2 to lob the napalm bomb high into the air, then press again to have it drop its contents. A direct hit will score 35 damage points, whereas an indirect hit will score only 10. A great weapon to use on groups of enemies.

Swarmer Missile (4-48/yellow): The Swarmer missiles are very fast and launch in different numbers depending on how long you hold down R2 before releasing. A full salvo does 48 damage. 

Stalker Missile (45/pink): When shot without first charging the weapon, a Stalker missile acts in the same manner as a Power missile - as in no tracking. If you do charge the weapon first, the Stalker turns into a guided missile.

SIDEARMS

Mounted Guns (1 per bullet): It’s what you start the game with. It can be effective, but there are better options.

Submachine Guns (4 per spray): This weapon sprays a few bullets with a one second delay between sprays. Although weak, there is some degree of tracking to the weapon.

12 Gauge Shotgun (8 max single, 17 double): Being a double-barreled shotgun, you can fire this weapon twice in succession before having to reload, which takes about three seconds. Like any shotgun, you need to be very close to get the maximum damage values.

Magnum Revolver (11 max): Six shots can be fired for 11 damage each before the ten-second reload cycle starts.

Rockets (15 max): Fires a salvo of homing rockets that do a max of 15 damage. The tracking arc is not that wide, but these rockets are awesome at long range. Reload time is about eight seconds.

Laser Pistol: This powerful, chargeable sidearm becomes available only after you beat the story on Twisted difficulty.