Hotshot Tales, Part 1: The Surf City Barrel Barrage Challenge

Hotshot Tales, Part 1: The Surf City Barrel Dumper Challenge

Recently, I decided to attempt what may be the most difficult Arcade Mode event possible in Hotshot Racing - a 7-lap Barrel Barrage race on Surf City with the difficulty level set to Expert, in any Speed-class car. The objective was simple - be the last driver standing while also completing every lap - but it was easier said than done.

So what makes this particular challenge so difficult with these settings? Let's explain why:

• On Expert difficulty, the cars have a higher top speed than in any other difficulty setting. However, to balance this out, the time limits are much lower, as is the amount of time gained from checkpoints.
• Speed-class cars have the highest top speeds, but accelerate more slowly than cars from other classes. As such, they are best suited to tracks with long straights - Surf City is not one of those tracks.
• A Barrel Barrage event over 3 laps is quite fun, but leaves little time for players to be eliminated. The same event over 7 laps would have a much higher attrition rate due to there being more time for each player to collect - and place - more barrels on the track.
• Regardless of length, in a Barrel Barrage, players receive 20 damage from hitting a barrel, but will only recover half as much of it if they complete a lap, and will be eliminated if their car receives too much damage.
• Surf City (the first track introduced in the Boss Level DLC) is the most difficult track in the game, with two tight bottlenecks and a very tricky double right-hand bend after the first checkpoint. The second bottleneck is a severe chokepoint that can be virtually impassable in Barrel Barrage if enough barrels have been placed there.
• Related to the above, selecting this track (or any other Boss Level track, for that matter) on Expert difficulty gives you only 19 seconds at the start, and just 10 seconds per checkpoint. As such, you'll need to be consistently fast through each sector to avoid running out of time. On the other hand, any race on the same difficulty at any track that's not in the Boss Level DLC will give you more time at the start and whenever you reach a checkpoint.
• Finally, the AI is generally faster and more aggressive on higher difficulty settings (especially Expert), and can potentially build an unassailable lead if they get too far ahead. Thankfully, the AI is not immune to its own mistakes, and will occasionally slam into a wall (which slows them down) or hit a barrel (which will damage or destroy their vehicle), sometimes in the worst possible place.

It took me around two hours' worth of attempts to complete tis challenge. However, when I finally did it, I felt absolutely elated. Granted, other players may have attempted (and even completed) this challenge before I did, but I felt compelled to give it a try anyway.

The result of my first successful attempt on the Surf City 7-Lap Barrel Barrage Expert Speed Challenge.

Right at the beginning, I got a boost start (which is surprisingly easy to do on Expert difficulty) and managed to keep pace with the leaders coming into the first checkpoint. 

Over time, the opposition started dropping like flies, but my cautious approach of sticking to the racing line (only deviating from it when absolutely necessary) and not placing any barrels unless I had no choice but to do so began to pay off.

I could have been the one hitting the barrel ahead, but someone else did - and eliminated themselves in the process (above). Meanwhile, the barrels took their toll on the opposition (below).

By the start of the penultimate lap, I was the last player standing, but I wasn't yet home free. All I had to do was to survive one more lap of a twisting, barrel-infested track without running out of time - and I did exactly that, if only just.

The last lap began with me as the last surviving player (above), with a mostly intact car, but a mistake early on meant that I barely avoided running out of time halfway through it, and had to hit some barrels just to get to the second checkpoint, with my car barely holding together by the time I reached the finish line (below).

Obviously, if the same rules were applied to an 8-player multiplayer race, the challenge would be even crazier - especially if all 8 players were highly experienced and skilled. However, under these circumstances, only one player would have to survive all 7 laps for the challenge to be successful. Nevertheless, this is the hardest thing I've done in Hotshot Racing, and while this may put some of you off attempting it for the sake of your own sanity, the rest of you may be brave enough to give it a go - and hopefully succeed. Good luck, and happy hunting!

Update (January 19th 2024): I've tried a Barrel Barrage with the exact same settings on every other Boss Level track, and am genuinely surprised by the results: On 8-Ball Highway, it's quite challenging to pull off the win due to the fact that its distorted figure-8 track layout necessitates near-constant drifting and boosting to keep pace with the leaders and avoid running out of time. It wasn't quite as hard as Surf City, though, especially since the whole of 8-Ball Highway is consistently wide with no roadblocks or bottlenecks, and neither was Frozen Freeway, whose track layout was similarly twisty (although to be fair, Frozen Freeway has a slightly more open layout, with the third sector being generally wider than the first sector of Surf City). In fact, Cargo Chaos is the easiest Boss Level track in which to win a 7-lap Barrel Barrage on Expert with a Speed-class car, since it is the only track in the set to have a genuinely long straight (and the turns are generally wider to boot), giving you more room to build up some speed and avoid barrels.