Current meta

The prerequisite is to know the tracks, shortcuts & tricks, this can only come with experience.

Joystick is much slower than keyboard. Wheel wasn't tested.

Starting Cash: 100$
1. Upgrade: Engine -> 35$
2. Race: Surf -> 100$
3. Race: Fort -> 325$
4. Upgrade: Booster -> 275$
5. Race: AAD Base -> 650$
6. Upgrade: Engine, Tires -> 295$
7. Race: Mines -> 710$
8. Race: AWACS -> 1190$
9. Upgrade: Engine -> 460$
10. Race: Camping -> 905$
11. Upgrade: Booster -> 715$
12. Race: Rancho -> 1250$
13. Upgrade: Booster -> 730$
14. Race: Silo -> 1305$
15. Upgrade: Tires -> 1015$
16. Race: Fishers -> 1165$
17. Race: War Path -> 2220$

Alternative route (Perfect bonuses needed):  
Starting Cash: 100$
1. Upgrade: Engine -> 35$
2. Race: Surf -> 100$
3. Race: Fort -> 325$
4. Upgrade: Tires, Boost -> 210$
5. Race: AAD Base -> 585$
6. Upgrade: Tires -> 295$
7. Race: Mines -> 745$
8. Upgrade: Engine, Boost -> 265$
9. Race: Fishers -> 415$
10. Race: AWACS -> 1015$ / Note: Super hard to get enough bonus for the upgrade
11. Upgrade: Engine -> 285$
12. Race: Camping -> 835$
13. Race: Rancho -> 1536$ / Note: Not easy to get max bonus with cheating AI
14. Upgrade: Tires -> 805$
15. Race: Silo -> 1555$ / Note: Also super hard to get max bonus
16. Upgrade: Boost -> 1035$
17. Race: War Path -> 2385$

Enable persistent ghosts storage

To fix ghost cars not saving, go to game directory, folder GhostRecords. Create there folders "Track1", "Track2"... "Track10". Now, for example, your records from track "Surf" will be saved into Track1 folder etc.

Reverse stages mod

On this page we can find description on how to drive stages in reverse.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3385927533

Tracks guide & tricks

Tricks:

- Doing hits adds a bit of boost, so crashing into lighter objects, like cans, often doesn't lose any time.
- Boost barely gives any accel to RR car on uphills & flat ground. But downhill, the car easily reaches its top speed, which can be broken only with boost. If we keep holding the boost on a straight after a hill, we can maintain a few more speed units through the whole straight. I found downhill boosting to be the best use for it.
- Catching even a little bit of air immediately loses you speed & tends to spin the car. Its best to avoid any tiny bump which causes the car to rev for split second and instead try to find a path around such bump.
- There are a few places where you could gain a second going underneath soldiers feet, but it's not worth it in the face of the whole, hour long, run. I remember vividly from my first playthroughs that one could consistently avoid getting shot just by boosting near them. But in my current experience it no longer works & you can get hit even boosting at top speed.

Surf:

1. On the Pier to Beach jump shortcut, I've had the most success by counter-intuitively trying to jump to the right of the big rock. There is also a small bonus in jump height when jumping the moment you enter the slope. It is doable on controller, but on keyboard I would go for a very wide, early entry onto the slope & try to align my exit a bit to the right of the rock
2. The Overwall doesn't make much difference whether taken a bit more round like I do, or over the rocks to the right, but taking it to the left is way more consistent for me. If a skilled player could jump over the streams to the left, it would definitely be faster to go around.
3. Jump from the hill to the beach, if taken with enough speed, can be made very consistent. I also found on the best physics setup, the car corrects itself very well on more crooked jumps, so I tend to avoid resetting the car on bad landings and just see what happens.
4. The overwall shortcut at the end needs to be taken slowly and cautiously, there is no need to hurry. Especially because the game punishes speed with unpredictable behavior of the car. When jumping down from the top, it's counter-intuitive also, but the car lands best if we stop accelerating and jump down quite slowly. In Reality I would expect a car to tip nose down in such situation, but RC Cars physics make it jump flat down & land more smoothly than when accelerating from the top. The jump-on the hill can theoretically be done by jumping from the ground straight onto the rock to the right, but I'm unable to do it consistently even in 30 hot-laps, so I don't recommend it. 

Fishers:

1. When going back after the first checkpoint I found that the car behaves better when going out from underneath the walkway, one wooden leg later than I do in my attempts. I knew this in my run, but being tired, I couldn't force myself to go "the longer route", which would save me from spinning on a bump.
2. No need to jump over the streams under the bridge. You need to slowdown to turn for the uphill anyway, so the streams are good at doing it for you.
3. Reseting at the end of the pier is faster than slowing down and turning around. Tested.

Fort:

1. The track requires quite alot of bonus money to afford upgrades & next entry fee, so I focus on getting as many hits as possible on the first lap. You can see all the best ones on WR recording.
2. Small boost taps on the uphill seem to maintain most speed, while losing just a little bit of boost. We need this boost for downhill & following straight.
3. I found that I can gain a second or two, by saving the boost from uphill and using it on downhill and following highway straight. This way, I am going 35 speed instead of 30, for quite a long time.

AAD Base:

1. This track also requires alot of hits to afford better gear & buy-ins, so we need them planned well & executed methodically
2. On the downhill into bunker, to avoid the car bugging and spinning out, its best to slow down a little before the flattening. This does not always help so... pray to RNG gods
3. When going back out the top, I try to hit the cans so they land in places I am able to hit them again on further laps. They sometimes land in some holes where you can't see them on next lap until the last moment, so very often on second lap, I just take mental note of their new positions and try to go for them on third lap. Same thing on 4th lap and go for them again on last lap.
4. When going around the first AA battery, I advise to go from the left and hit the red can very hard, then go around and hit the green can lightly. This tends to put them in a spot where you can hit them again on further laps. When going around from the right, they are very easy to hit into landing next to the wall, where you cant reach them later.
5. When returning from first AA battery, I found that to avoid AI its best to enter the narrow corridor from the left, than quickly switch to the right. The AI seems to very often hug the opposite walls, so by driving this way, we have a high chance of avoiding them without resorting to jumps.
6. The start-finish flat space seems to be the best place to utilise as much boost as possible. I hesitate in my run, but its a bad habit.

Mines:

1. Don't try to boost too much, its much better to maintain medium speed than go fast for a second just to crash to 0. 
2. The best boosting spots are:  
the start-finish outdoors space
the entry to the mine, just before the rails before wooden supports start (they often bug the car, making you fall and lose alot of time)
the dead-end straight (but only the back and forth narrow space. Going to fast on the downhill tends to upset the car and make you fall)
3. We don't need alot of bonus cash & points here, but other than heavy bottles, there are also a few light tumbleweeds you can hit for points. Keep your eyes out.
4. Notice the path I am taking to avoid having the car lose contact with the ground.

Camping:

1. Here, more important than maximising speed is to minimise crashes. Going from 35-40 speed to 0 is very time costly.
2. Brief braking and turn-around on ends of the map is faster than reseting and gaining speed back.
3. I've noticed the cars to spawn in a few predefined patterns and there can't be many as the same spawns have been really noticable to me after whole day of runs. If you notice on the first lap, that the cars appeared in the same place as before, if you maintain the same speed as in previous attempt, you can recall where the cars are going to be on consecutive laps.
4. The overwall is best done by just driving onto the rock smoothly, no jumping, no gaining speed for it, just approach it at 10-15 speed for consistent overwall.

AWACS:

1. We need alot of bonus points on this track, but the AI tends to stay a few seconds behind us. So, a consistent setup with hitting as many cans as possible is needed. There are a few cans in tricky spots, so hitting them right, so they are accessible in later laps, is very important. I hate this track, I have failed most of my runs on it.
2. The car tends to bug out in so many places on this map, that I just give up explaining them. Special lines are required to avoid tricky spots and there are so many sharp objects connectors that we drive over, it is impossible to be consistent on this track.

Rancho:

1. I have a love, hate relationship with this track. On one hand, it is very satisfying to get it right, on the other hand, all the small puddles, rocks, inconsistent porch jump and barn exit, have caused me so much anger.
2. On the first uphill, you can avoid the car losing grip and bugging on landing, by driving on the steeper hill to the right and on top of it, exit to the left for very smooth landing. I forgot about it in my run though.
3. I found the porch jump to be most consistent when done at breaching speeds. You can see in my run, that I try to position myself at a small angle, far to the left, then boost and jump while keeping the car straight. Turning might be helpful, but I am not sure about it. I'm just holding the stick by force of habit.
4. To jump over the water wheel, it is best to take a wide approach on the turn around and try to jump into it, to exit as close to the door as possible.
5. The checkpoint after shortcut has quite a bit larger hitbox than it seems, I didn't have the balls to use it too much though :P
6. After the checkpoint, where we enter the ravine over a conveyor belt, on the downhill, there is a small flat shelf. This small shelf is what allows me to jump over the conveyor belt at full speed.
7. The first puddle we jump over, the second one (under water wheel) can be passed on the right at full speed with enough skill. If you find yourself failing to pass this puddle to the right, its best to enter the water straight on, no jumping, no tricks and slowly lead the car to exit on the right, it is important for the next puddle.
8. For the next puddle we need a bit of speed to jump over it. So the exit from water wheel puddle is important. And the last two we also jump over.

Silo:

1. Nothing really special here. Just copy the lines from current WR.

War Path:

1. There are so many small bumps on this track, that it is important to figure out yourself, which lines have the least severe bumps and which ones require going a bit off throttle to improve consistency. Practice in TimeTrial is very useful here.  
Worst parts are:
after the first checkpoint
cave with the exit, before last checkpoint.
2. Overwall over the rock before cave entry, is best done with wide entry. The rock is much smoother from the side opposite to where we come from.
3. If you get caught by tide at exit of the cave, then its better to drive into the water than jumping over it. Jumping into water tends to spin the car around more often than driving into it.
4. Going right between last checkpoint and start-finish, is objectively faster.

Tracks summary

The game includes 10 tracks, here are their rewards & my rating of what they test

Game mechanics to keep in mind:
Hit bonus: 5$ per hit (special items on track)
Gap bonus: 5$ per sec (gap to 2nd place AI), waiting after race end, for the gap to stabilise, might bring you these few missing $

Schema:
x. TrackName
Fee: EntryFee
Score: EntryScore (Max Score to gain)
Prize: BaseWinning (With max bonus)
Max Bonus: Max Bonus (Max Score)
...

1. Surf  
Fee: 0
Score: 0 (65)
Prize: 50 (65)
Max Bonus: 15
Good RR lap time: 0:52
Characteristics: A few straights, many skill jumps
Biggest time loss: Flipping on jumps
2. Fishers  
Fee: 50
Score: 15 (200)
Prize: 150 (100)
Max Bonus: 50
Good RR lap time: 0:55
Characteristics: Plenty of bumpy straights, easy shortcuts, easy to overuse booster
Biggest time loss: Bad tires & random bumps
3. Fort  
Fee: 100
Score: 65 (325)
Prize: 250 (225)
Max bonus: 75
Good RR lap time: 0:50
Characteristics: Asphalt straights, one tough overwall shortcut
Biggest time loss: Weak engine
4. AAD Base  
Fee: 150
Score: 250 (525)
Prize: 400 (250)
Bonus: 125
Good RR lap time: 1:02
Characteristics: Wide straights with rough transitions
Biggest time loss: Head on collisions, weak engine
5. Mines  
Fee: 200
Score: 500 (650)
Prize: 500 (300)
Max Bonus: 150
Good RR lap time: 1:02
Characteristics: Tough terrain with a few skill based shortcuts
Biggest time loss: Flipping on rails, messing up the shortcut, weak booster out of corners
6. Camping  
Fee: 250
Score: 1000 (800)
Prize: 600 (350)
Max Bonus: 200
Good RR lap time: 0:50
Characteristics: Pretty much only straights
Biggest time loss: Getting hit by trucks, weak engine & booster
7. AWACS  
Fee: 300
Score: 1500 (900)
Prize: 700 (400)
Max Bonus: 200
Good RR lap time: 0:46
Characteristics: Constant high speed track with a few random transitions
Biggest time loss: Getting ran over by humvee or shot (going over 25 should make it safe), weak engine
8. Rancho  
Fee: 400
Score: 2100 (1100)
Prize: 850 (450)
Max Bonus: 250
Good RR lap time: 1:04
Characteristics: Alot of tight corners, small objects & slowing water puddles
Biggest time loss: Weak booster, failed jumps over water & getting spun by items
9. Silo  
Fee: 500
Score: 3000 (1250)
Prize: 1000 (500)
Max Bonus: 250
Good RR lap time: 0:50
Characteristics: Medium speed track, with big height differences & difficult shortcut
Biggest time loss: Bad tires & booster, Head on collisions, getting stuck in shortcut
10. War Path  
Fee: 1000
Score: 5000  (2350)
Prize: 2000 (1000)
Max Bonus: 350
Good RR lap time: 1:01
Characteristics:
Biggest time loss: Skill issue

TODO: Add info about minimal upgrades required to have a chance at winning

Nombre	Autor
Current meta	HighPriest 1 year ago
Enable persistent ghosts storage	HighPriest 1 year ago
Reverse stages mod	HighPriest 3 months ago
Tracks guide & tricks	HighPriest 1 year ago
Tracks summary	HighPriest 1 year ago