Hotshot Tales, Part 4: Drive or Explode!

Hotshot Tales, Part 4: Drive or Explode!

Among the many game modes available in Hotshot Racing, Drive or Explode is one of the most challenging, as it turns the game into a test of survival. Each player must maintain (or remain above) a set speed for the current sector, and their target increases for every sector completed. As an additional incentive, players will receive 10 health for completing a sector, and 25 health for completing a full lap. Any player that fails to reach the minimum speed threshold for a given sector will gradually lose health; if this is fully depleted, that player is immediately eliminated as their car explodes. In addition, collisions with walls or other players' vehicles will also cause damage, so a fast, clean run is generally desirable (or even vital). Finally, once the leader completes a sector, any other player who fails to do so within a time limit (which decreases with every sector completed) will rapidly receive damage until they are eliminated or successfully complete that sector, whichever comes first.

With that in mind, here's my general advice for this game mode:

• Speed-class cars are generally favored, since they can stay farther above the minimum speed threshold for a given sector. Acceleration-class cars may also be recommended (especially on more technical tracks), since they can reach the target speed more quickly.
• Avoid collisions with walls as much as possible, since it leads to speed and health loss; a heavy collision may even cause your speed to drop below the current target value, causing further damage until you explode or reach the target.
• Taking the fastest line for your chosen vehicle is even more important than in other modes - you need to maintain a consistently high speed for the best chances of survival, and the best way to do so is to drift only when necessary (unless you really need to build up your boost for later use) and avoid losing too much speed when doing so.
• Collisions in which an opponent hits the rear half of your car will cause you to receive 10 damage; conversely, if you hit the rear half of an opponent's vehicle, they will receive 10 damage instead. Sometimes, this may be sufficient to lead to elimination - great when you're causing it, but not so much when you're on the receiving end!
• Tracks with multiple challenging corners in quick succession are often the most difficult to complete at higher speeds - not a problem for the first few sectors, but a potential nightmare in longer races lasting 5 laps or more.
• Avoid falling too far behind the leader - if you take too long to complete a sector after the leader has done so, you will lose health very quickly, which will guarantee your elimination unless you are very close to a checkpoint.
• Always keep at least one boost in reserve for later sectors, where the speed targets are highest - you'll never know when you need to recover from a sudden loss of speed and minimize health loss.
• You can induce an indirect elimination (or bring them close to it) by hitting an opponent's vehicle and causing them to lose so much speed that they cannot recover (or take too long to do so).
• The more laps there are in this mode, the lower the survival rate. It's fairly common for only one player to be left standing after 5-7 laps have been completed, and even that player may not even complete every single lap.
• Related to the above, the target speed for the first sector is only 100 mph, but increases gradually in every subsequent sector, up to a maximum of 277 mph for the final sector of a 7-lap race.

I have generally achieved the best results with Marcus' Speed-class car, the Carbon; as the fastest car in the game in terms of top speed, it is the best choice for Drive or Explode, as long as you can reach that speed soon enough to avoid elimination. On the other hand, cars that don't handle very well when drifting (or are too likely to lose too much speed when doing so) are best avoided considering the faster-paced nature of Drive or Explode compared to other game modes.

Drive or Explode starts out slowly, but ends up being much faster-paced after just a few laps - on tracks with particularly long straights, you can easily exceed 400 mph with boosting if you are travelling fast enough and have survived to around the fifth lap.

In short, Drive or Explode is even more intense than most other modes, not just because you have to be consistently fast enough to survive, but also increasingly precise with your driving line to get to the finish line in one piece, especially if there is still at least one opponent left alive by the time you start the final lap.