If you have just started the game and have no idea what to do, you can consider the tips and tricks for beginners in this guide.
Beginners Guide
This is a guide specifically made for beginners, mid/late game content won’t be covered.
Step 1: What Car do I Buy?
Your first car is guaranteed to be either the Sannis Livisa 180RS or 200RS.
What’s the difference between the two?
- The 180RS has a 5MT (or a 4AT), which provides more torque than the 200RS
- The 200RS has a 6MT (or a 4AT), which provides quicker acceleration than the 180RS, and has a sunroof unlike the 180RS.
Your first car in this game should be have no major issues, any car with major issues are bound to suck
Never buy a car in this game with an automatic transmission, they are significantly slower than their 5 speed/ 6 speed manual counterparts.
If you can’t find a car with these requirements, restart the game and look at the auction house again.
Step 2: Who and Where to Challenge to Races
Once you get your car, you have to head over to the Tatsumi PA to challenge your first racer.
Obviously, since you’re riding in a stock car, you should challenge the easiest driver available for you to challenge, who is Daisuke.
In Night runners, you’re required to put in a wager before a race starts.
Your first couple of races against Daisuke will be a breeze, but the 3rd or 4th races won’t be nearly as easy, and when you lose your first race due to AI rubberbanding, you need to upgrade your car.
When you win races, you get Rep. With Rep, you get to challenge higher tier races at the cost of them being difficult. Keep this low without losing money.
Step 3: What do I Buy for My Car?
Since in this game, AI rubberbanding has the potential to softlock your save (when you run out of money and can’t win races anymore, which has happened to me), so you have to upgrade your car to stay ahead of the other racers on the road.
If you plan on actually winning races, I strictly recommend to only buy performance upgrades until you get rich. When you get rich and have money to spare, buy upgrades first and then buy cosmetics.
Currently, the best upgrade setup for beginners are:
- Semi-slick tires
- Prototype camshafts
- NOS
Even with the upgrades, you should lose less races but you will still lose fairly often, no matter what.
Extras
No, you can’t change your name without resetting your playersave.
I’ve said this before and I will say this again, the AI rubberbanding will screw you over.
The AI in this game fear two things:
- Tunnels
- Corners
Regarding the engine light colors, your performance doesn’t get affected until it shows up red
