Hotshot Tales, Part 19: Four Kills at Surf City

Hotshot Tales, Part 19: Four Kills at Surf City

It's very difficult to get four kills in a single Barrel Barrage race at Surf City (the most difficult track added in the Big Boss Bundle DLC to Hotshot Racing) while also surviving to the very end, especially if the race in question is 7 laps long (the longest possible distance), and even more so if the Expert class (the fastest one available) is chosen, but it can be done, although it takes a lot of skill, luck, and patience - and choosing the right car also helps. For this challenge, I chose Marcus' Carbon (the best Speed-class car, and the best car overall) to give myself the best chance of completing sectors within the notoriously strict time limits this track/class combination has to offer.

It took several hours and dozens of attempts for me to get what I wanted, but eventually I managed to pull it off for the first time in months, if ever. Here's how it happened:

Above, from top: A chronology of kills and the final result from a 7-lap Barrel Barrage at Surf City in which I not only got four kills (one each against Xing, Keiko, Mike, and Alexa), but survived until the very end.

Right from the start, I had to be very aggressive against the opposition (by carefully timing and placing my barrel drops to prevent my opponents from avoiding them), and it paid off. Xing (in a Sentinel) was the first to fall, bowing out after just two laps; on the next lap, I took out Keiko (in a Super F-90) and Mike (in an Athena) within the space of just a few seconds. For the next few laps, I mixed speed with precision, avoiding barrels while meeting the sectors' time limits as the opposition kept dropping like flies, until an opportunity for a fourth kill presented itself on the very last lap. Alexa (in a Stallion) was about to be lapped and at critical damage (20 health or less), having taken care of Viktor (in a Blade) a few laps earlier, so I matched her speed and placed a barrel I held in reserve right in front of her to finish her off. My attempt at a fifth kill was unsuccessful, as the last remaining opponent, Toshiro (in a Wild Line) was eliminated before I could catch up to him, but it didn't matter anyway; all I had to do was get to the finish line in time in one piece, and against all odds, that's exactly what I did.

Above: Some alternate angles of all four my kills in this chaotic 7-lap Barrel Barrage on Expert at Surf City (plus Alexa taking out Viktor) as shown during the replay.

In short, this was one of the most chaotic Barrel Barrages I've had anywhere in a long time, and it goes to show that the perfect storm of circumstances (>2 kills in 7 laps on Expert and completing every lap while also being the last man standing) for a Barrel Barrage on any track is very rare and difficult to achieve, but still possible with the right combination of skill, luck, and patience.