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General Information

All the information needed to get the basics of the game.
Reading this document is mandatory for you. For each route described in this guide, it is assumed that the elements described here have been taken into account.

Controller or keyboard ?​

Both input devices (XInput & DualSense) are OK to use to play the game. However, playing with a controller will be better in any way since you can smooth steer. Keyboard can be also used but only for Individual Levels (ILs). You will lose time using a keyboard compared to a controller and this whole guide, it is considered that you are using a controller to run. To date, all of the any% runs have been done with a controller device, except for a few die-hards.

Unlike his predecessor Most Wanted, menuing is way smoother in this game, as smooth as Underground 2 i would say. Also, if you want to navigate through menus very fast, buffering left/right arrows can be very useful.

Driving techniques​

During races, especially the starting cooldown, you want to do a perfect start to get an additional speed bonus. To do this easily, you can full throttle during the 2 first seconds of the cooldown then release it to time the perfect start. Note that those 2 seconds will be different if you are driving a different car (each car has is own max RPM). Alternatively, if you feel it, hold the throttle at perfect launch level during the cooldown.

Try to smooth steer as much as you can without making too many rapid analog stick movements unless you have to take very sharp corners.

Try to use your NOS for a bigger duration of time on longer straights. The goal here is to not spam it randomly. It is also pointless to use it while mid-air where you don't gain speed this way.
Using NOS while steering on drift events doesn't gain you speed. You want to be going straight forward for it to be the more useful.

Speedbreaker (SB) allows the player to enter a temporary state of slow motion (in-game time is slowed down by a factor of 4, source : game files). But it is not the only ability the feature gives. It also approximatively triples your downforce and doubles your car mass and, so, can be useful to :

  • use on jumps,
  • take some sharp corners,
  • when colliding with cops,
  • reduce your speed loss if you hit traffic / lamp posts / signs / etc.

‼️ On jumps landings, you can upshift mid-air (if you're close to the rev limit) and downshift as you're landing to retain more speed. Same with holding clutch when you land does the same effect.

Regarding the Speedbreaker​

You can spam SB to take any type of corner but to not lose any speed, it is mandatory to :

  • turn a bit your car, in such a way to rotate it in keeping with the corner,
  • while spamming speedbreaker, you don't want to steer subject to spin your car,
  • a grip bonus after speedbreaking is granted to your car, allowing you to smooth steer a bit after each speedbreak jolt.
A video is worth a thousand words

Map-related warnings & known game bugs​

A not-so-rare sound bug can happen during cutscenes. The cause is still unknown, but, the game will crash at the end of a cutscene. Any FMV has a chance to encounter sound bug.

Don't spam Confirm button after beating a boss on his canyon race, sound bug chances are higher to happen.

Somehow, the suspension tuning is bugged : oversteer and understeer are inverted. Also, suspension does change drag coefficient, which is related to aerodynamics here.

On the World Map, analog stick is inverted. You would use your mouse anyway because it is faster to choose an event this way.

As for territory attacks, evaluate if the attacked race is required for future progress.

  • If not, ignore.
  • Reload your savefile if yes.

‼️ Any time you get one in Silverton on a territory you already own, you don't have to reload your savefile : for whatever reason, Darius doesn't attempt to reclaim the races from the other crew therefore you will keep control of the territory.