Drag Racing (Hints and Tips)

By
WildWilly
– November 16, 2011Posted in: New Reviews

Drag Racing (Hints and Tips)

We reviewed Drag Racing back in May and thought that this engine growling beast was an awesome time killer.  Some of the body work in this game has been given a new lick of paint and the latest version has some hot boosts.  We’re going to briefly give you the lowdown on the changes, and our tips to beat your mates in a drag race!

The Improvements

As soon as you start, there’s a hip and funky music track being played to you.  The graphics are funked up and there is a section where you can buy reward points.  Once you navigate to the Race section there’s a full rearrangement of buttons with a much heavier emphasis on online racing.  The most notable difference is the World Records option.  Oh… and once you’re actually racing in the game, you’ll see that the race girl has been replaced with some useful race lights.

Hints and Tips:

Below are some tips for beginners about how to improve in your race and how to use your money and respect points efficiently.  In the future we hope to show some race winning car tune ups too.

[If you're not a beginner and you want to know the best upgrades then check out our upgrade tips here.]

[If you're not a beginner or an intermediate player and you want to know how to tune your car then check out our tuning tips here.]

Info for beginners

The first thing to do is to play and enjoy the game.  Don’t worry so much about which car to buy when you start.  It’s not that relevant, and it’s really easy to get money to buy the level one cars and kit them out later.

The main plan at the beginning is to gather cash fast and respect points so you can buy cars which are at a higher level.  The higher your level, the more money and respect points your races earn.  The fastest way to earn cash at any level, is to play the online races because there’s more cash rewards, and there are respect points (which you need later for upgrading your cars).  Jump straight into the Quick Races > Drivers Battles.  This doesn’t need you to kit out your car so it’s the cheapest way of battling.  Note that this only works at low levels – when you start playing pros this is quite a test of your gearing ability since your opponent would know the cars just as well as you.

Once you have the money then you can pick a car to kit out – be very precise to ensure you know which level your car is graded at.  You should aim to own one car of each level to give yourself the most freedom in gameplay.  We suggest just progress with one car at each level initially.  Also, try not to use respect points where possible – save them for upgrading the more pro cars later.

Then you can go into the Face-to-face or Pro league battles with a car that you’re familiar with.  Don’t worry about losing any matches, just focus on practising and improving your technique.  Your real battle is always with yourself and your own time.  Keep trying to drive those seconds down.  Eventually you’ll notice that you’re always outmatched – that’ll be because you’ll need to tune your car to get the fastest drive on the planet – we’ll cover this later.

General drive methods

At the beginning levels the launch starts are useful and wheel spinning isn’t so much of a time penalty.  To do the launch starts, you need to time when you press the accelerator pedal.  Use the race lights to decide when you press the pedal fully.  Generally, it’s on the third amber light.  (Getting the perfect launch also bonuses you with more money – even if you don’t win the race).

With experience you’ll realise that some cars work better without wheels spins (especially at higher levels).  When you find this type, you should consider using the NOx right at the beginning to overcome their slow starts.

Regardless of what car you’re using, the safest time to use the Nox is immediately after you’re in second gear.  This cranks up your acceleration and puts you into third gear very fast.  It’s a very safe overall formula although not necessarily the most optimum method.

To summarise, there are three general (and obvious)  methods:

  1. Perfect Launch, Nox when changing to second gear
  2. Slow natural acceleration, Nox when changing to second gear
  3. Slow natural acceleration with Nox right at the beginning – generally for tuned cars.
Mid race, the rough rule of thumb is to aim for perfect gear changes – that way you at least get money bonuses.  However, the best time to change gear isn’t always at the perfect gear change point – you need to look and aim for the point where the car can continue to accelerate.  The best way to check this is in the car tune up area – there you have an identical computer racer every time, and you can see where your car is and how well it does depending on what time you change gear.

Fastest way to rise up the levels

The fastest way to go up the levels is by kitting out cars (rather than buying them).  Don’t aim to jump levels.  Once you’re in a higher level then your races will naturally earn more money and respect points.  Ideally you should play in the Pro League to win money and respect points the fastest.  But if you’re finding you’re not winning there, then play the Quick Race > Face To Face or Drivers Battles.  Although offlline races will get you money – you’ll earn less, and there aren’t the crucial rewards points!

Which car to buy

Some cars are outright better than others.  Also, when you pimp up cars bought at a lower level, then they will be better than the same level stock cars.  To decide which cars are the best to purchase for a level, then upgrade your car until it’s classified as the next level.  Then go into a pro race.  From there you can see what most people are driving, and what’s likely to be a fast car.  For instance the Aston Martin is a great level 5 & 6 car (half mile drag) which is the weapon of choice and it can be seen in the Pro Races.  After you know which car you need to get, then you can downgrade your car so that you have a competitive ride again.

The alternative way is to check the World Records and see what car is fastest there.  If you race against that beast then you can also see the most optimum drive style for that car type.  Unfortunately, this will be a fully tuned car, and you won’t know the specs.  So although its going to be a fast car choice – it’s not necessarily going to be the best choice unless you’re also willing to tune your car.

If you’re not a beginner and you want to know the best upgrades then check out our upgrade tips here.

If you’re not a beginner or an intermediate player and you want to know how to tune your car then check out our tuning tips here.

Drag Racing QR code
(Click on the image or scan the barcode with your Android phone to goto the Android Market)

 Developers: Creative Mobile

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