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A Beginner's Tips and Tricks to Racing [READ COMMENTS]

By TrueWOPR

While a beginner at this game I noticed each vehicle was marked as having its own 'secrets' and 'tricks', so after a lot of trial and error I figured I'd mark down what I found for each vehicle I've unlocked.
This is my first guide, so if there's anything I can improve on please let me know in the comments below.

Update: Commenters have corrected and updated information for me, I do need to test them out properly before updating this guide, so for now I'd like to direct you to others who likely know more than I do about the game.

Award

Created by

TrueWOPR
In-Game
HELLCARD

Category: Characters, Gameplay Basics, Secrets

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

25 Jun, 2023 @ 10:54am

4 Feb @ 10:44pm

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Guide Index

Overview

How I Define The Cars

C CLASS VEHICLES

B CLASS VEHICLES

A CLASS VEHICLES

Comments

How I Define The Cars

I've noticed general traits all the vehicles share, so I will use terms on each to explain how they generally handle in regards to drifting.

"Straight" - The car will straighten out when this action is performed.
"Sharpen" - The car will drift much sharper when this action is performed in conjunction with pushing your drift stick.
"Charge" - The car will appear to do nothing, but this step is necessary to perform other actions.

"On Press" - Action is pressing relative trigger.
"On Release" - Action releasing relative trigger.

"Gas" - Trigger is gas.
"Brake" - Trigger is brake.

To use the Super Coda as an example since its bizarre handling is what prompted me to make this guide.
"Charge on Gas Release / Drift on Gas Press / Sharpen on Brake" = In order to start a drift you need to hold the drift stick in the direction you want to drift. Release the gas to charge your drift - the longer you hold the sharper you'll drift when you press the gas back down - if you didn't charge quite sharp enough for your liking you can brake to tighten the turn and make it sharper.

You'll find going forward a lot of vehicles share "Straight on Brake Press" as a trait. So when you come out of a drift, quickly tap the brake to fully straighten out on those vehicles.

C CLASS VEHICLES

Terra Dart

The most basic of the vehicles available with no real tricks.
It can Sharp on Brake Press but that's about it. A great beginner's vehicle until you learn the mechanics of the drift stick.
Gives immediate feedback on turns.

Roton Boba

It's the dart ON ICE! This vehicle is similar to the Terra Dart but incredibly slippery to handle. In fact it reminds me painfully of the slick star from Kirby's Air Ride.
Can Drift or Straighten on Gas Release and Sharpen Drift on Brake Press

Coda Gecko

So you started the game on normal and want a simple car that isn't a tutorial car. Welcome to the Coda Gecko, nothing spectacular but nothing bad either. Car sharpen's its Drift on Gas Release and Brake Press so if hard drifting isn't enough, let go of the gas, if it's still not enough hit that brake. If you can't make the turn while riding nothing but your brake then you should have slowed on approach. My favorite of the default Class C vehicles.

Venom Ind. Bullet

A high speed and odd control C-Class car that Automatically Straighten's on Drift-Stick Release
It can also Sharpen or Start a Drift on Brake Press. So tap that brake to start the drift, hold it during the drift to tighten. Releasing gas isn't required.

HPE Katana

Unorthodox but one of my favorite class C vehicles.
It'll Charge Drift on Gas Release / Sharpen it on a charged Gas Press / and can Instantly Straighten on Brake while it controls much differently from the rest of C class, it has some of the tightest turning in its class - as long as you prepare for the turns and have proper gas control.

Venom Ind. Ventus

Speaking of sharpest handling, the Ventus!
This vehicle Drifts on Brake Press / Tightens on Gas Release so unfortunately you have to be braking, at least the tiniest little bit, in order to turn sharply. Have a sharp turn coming up ahead? Don't worry about slowing down, just slam that drift stick over, go hard on the brake, release that gas, and watch the car immediately hairpin. you straighten on brake release too, so don't worry about over committing.

B CLASS VEHICLES

I now have All class B vehicles unlocked with the Coda Gecko RX taking the longest for me to obtain. We'll get into him later.

HPE Dragon

If you start story mode on hard, this is what you'll be driving.
Drifts on Gas Release / Straightens on Brake
This is the entry level B class vehicle to show that you're supposed to plan for and prepare to turn in advance. How hard you can drift is also dependent on speed, so it's good to brake before a sharp turn. With naturally terrible drift recovery, be sure to pump that brake real quick to regain your footing and get straightened out after any tight turn.

HPE Katana XT
(Picture Pending)
Souped up alt of the C-Class HPE Katana
This strange vehicle Straightens and charges on brake press / drifts on brake release so you have to be going relatively straight and slowing down to charge up a drift, but the moment you let go of that brake you go into a full turn. You do straighten on drift-stick release as well though, so don't worry about braking again just to straighten out. Very fast.

Vlox Jet Z 880

Not much to say on this one, drifts and sharpens on brake press slow recovery to straightening out.

Roton 7D
(Picture Pending)
The first exposure to "one foot drive" vehicles. This guy can only Drift on Brake Press & Gas Release, that is to say there's no benefit or reason to ever push both gas and brake at the same time for this vehicle. Either you're giving it gas, or you're giving it brake, but never both.
Arguably a downgraded version of the A-Class "Roton 7D Super"

Coda Gecko RX

The sneaky boy. This is another "one foot drive" vehicle that Drifts on Brake Press & Gas Release . This one Straightens on Gas Press & Drift Release though.
What makes this vehicle sneaky is it Enhances Performance Off-Road so all those mud, dirt, sand, and snow traps along the road that punishes drivers for drifting too wide? RX doesn't just want to hit those but needs to for ace times. Some tracks even have full off-road shortcuts designed just for this vehicle.

HPE Jester

A sensitive full commitment drift-stick that can take you all the way, the only way out of a drift on this one is to Straighten On Brake Press. Once you get the strategy of tapping the brake to snap back into place this is actually quite an easy one to drive, just go easy on the drift-stick, it's sensitive.

A CLASS VEHICLES

Full disclosure, I'm not good enough at the game to have unlocked everything in A-Class yet, I just have an eye for picking out mechanics on the back-end.

Roton 7D Super

Souped up version of the B-Class Roton 7D, still a one-foot drive style of car, however the cornering on a full drift is insane for it, able to hairpin!

HPE Dragon GTX
(Picture Pending)
A souped up version of the HPE Dragon from B-Class.

Roton Boba UHT
(Picture Pending)
A souped up version of the Roton Boba, MUCH more sensitive drift stick, Straightens on Full Release let go of gas, let go of brake, let go of drift, maybe even let go of steering for a moment.

Coda Chrono

In my opinion one of the slickest looking vehicles in the game. Charges drift on Gas Release / Executes drift on Gas Press / Straightens on Brake Press simple, too the point, no further hidden gimmicks I found. Fun to drive!

Coda Superino

The meme-machine. As alluded to in the preview this thing Charges drift on gas release / starts drift on gas press / sharpens on brake press / straightens on full release.
Additional note, this thing has one of the highest top-speeds in the game, but the slowest acceleration. It won't be good enough to hit those turns, if you want good times you need to drift as softly as you can get away with to minimize slow-down and ride that high speed as hard as you can. Good luck, it's still my favorite to drive once I got its trick down, the thing can charge a drift so hard that on gas press you'll just 360 and keep going.

12 Comments

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Jonny 16 Sep, 2024 @ 3:30pm

thisserviceismadeoffail, happy I could help! Kinda forgot just how much framerate affects regular drifts too when replying to your other comment earlier, whoops. An instant 20 second improvement is great to see!

TrueWOPR, thanks! This is a pretty comprehensive guide for such a short amount of playtime, I'm impressed you've got such a grasp on all of these cars in just 13 hours.

One other thing I've just noticed while reading through it again, with Ventus it's always quicker to just tap the brake slightly to tighten a regular drift than releasing gas. The only time you should release gas with Ventus is when braking at the same time to perform a superdrift.

TrueWOPR [author] 16 Sep, 2024 @ 3:12pm

I'm so sorry I missed all of these notes Jonny, I'll do my best next week to incorporate your comments and give credit as due.

thisserviceismadeoffail 16 Sep, 2024 @ 3:04pm

> Chrono, Raptor and Supreno's superdrifts are framerate dependant , in that the lower your FPS, the higher your chance of spinning out.

OMFG THIS WAS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED. Unlocked Framerate and my times in Viv's third lakeside run went from about 70 seconds at 60fps to 50 seconds at 144fps. The car is SO much more responsive.

Jonny 4 Jul, 2024 @ 10:38am

One final note:

Chrono, Raptor and Supreno's superdrifts are framerate dependant , in that the lower your FPS, the higher your chance of spinning out. Which means that this game is inadvertently pay to win based on your PC specs. Don't know why, but game physics does game physics things. At ~120FPS Raptor's superdrifts stop spinning out, Chrono's and Supreno's scale much higher though. So slam all the settings to minimum and disable Vsync for your best chance with those cars.

This ended up being way longer than I thought, but hopefully this will help anyone who stumbles across it. There's an official Discord server too if you want more advice or to just chat with other players: discord.gg/wdXFqaQpkV (also linked on the game's store page). Happy drifting!

Jonny 4 Jul, 2024 @ 10:38am

Impuls (A Class), LMP2 car. Drift stick is entirely useless, this is as close to an actual race car as this game gets. Brake before corners (as little as possible) then coast around them. Don't drift at all.

Raptor (A Class), one of the most insane cars, and another 90 degrees or nothing. Release gas to charge a drift, then accelerate to execute it. Tap brake to cancel. This one is a superdrift, unlike Bison.

Jonny 4 Jul, 2024 @ 10:37am

XX82-133 (A Class, DLC), jack of all trades, master of none. Small angle drifts with brake taps, increased grip with partial throttle/no throttle, superdrifts after holding brake to charge then releasing brake to execute. Cancel drift with gas release. Can go offroad but not as well as Gecko RX

Gladio (A Class), weird controls, haven't been able to master it in practice but I know the theory. You want to treat it similar to R.A.I. in the corners, with the brakes giving it extra grip, however the true difficulty comes from trying to avoid the huge kick of oversteer you'll get once you release the brakes. To do that you'll have to release the drift stick before releasing brake to reduce the drift charge (bottom orange bar) as much as possible. This is risky though as if you release drift too soon, you won't make it around the corner.

Jonny 4 Jul, 2024 @ 10:37am

Now for the cars that haven't been mentioned:

R.A.I. (C Class, DLC), sort of a mini Jester, very sensitive drift stick but braking while drifting makes the car grip up and glide through the corners.

Hyperia (C Class, DLC), grip, grip and more grip. Release gas for extra grip. Tap brake to swing the car around, cancel drifts with drift stick release. Shouldn't be sliding around that much, if at all.

Bison (B Class, DLC), 90 degrees or nothing. Hold brake to swing the car to its maximum angle, release gas to cancel. Technically not a superdrift since it doesn't "hook" you around the corner but it's damn close. Rely on the immense acceleration to pull you through. It can do (very) small angle drifts by releasing gas but its utilisation is few and far between.

Jonny 4 Jul, 2024 @ 10:37am

7D and 7D Super can brake while drifting to slow themselves down, useful if you're about to plough into a wall. Of course optimally you don't want this, but not even the world record runs can pull that off all the time (currently..?).

Jet Z 880 is a tricky one, but you'll want to release gas and coast for a lot of corners, it gives you extra grip. Combine that with braking to swing into a tighter angle and you'll find a lot of corners become a lot easier. Release gas and drift to snap back to pointing straight.

Chrono and Supreno have the ability to "superdrift" (community term, same as you've been calling a hairpin drift) if you charge their drift to ~3/4 full, which can drop their lap times significantly. This is very difficult to get right though, too little charge and you'll drift wide, too much and you'll spin out. Muscle memory is your friend here.

Jonny 4 Jul, 2024 @ 10:37am

Old thread is old, but I've got some extra tips for these cars.

(I hit the character limit multiple times so this is separated into several parts)

You should never be releasing gas with Gecko, it will always be slower than mastering when to brake for tight corners.

Similarly, you should never be using the brake with Katana, it will always be slower than releasing gas to straighten up/letting the drift decay naturally.

Dragon builds up drift to half charge instantly when braking + holding drift, so combining that with releasing gas and brake afterwards will allow you to charge a drift much quicker. Dragon GTX is just this car but on steroids, and the turning ability is much worse, but the controls are the same.

Katana XT and Gecko RX both initiate small angle drifts when releasing gas and holding drift, useful for those shallow bends.

TrueWOPR [author] 26 Feb, 2024 @ 11:49am

It's not just you, that particular level is a bit off-kilter.

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