A basic guide to drifting

Overview

A few breif tips to controlling your drifts

Disclaimer

This is my first guide and I am by no means good at this game but due to the lack of any helpful guides explaining the fundamentals and how difficult it is to drift properly I figured I should share what I’ve learnt from my play time so that begginers sould get more from it.

Configuring your controlls

From reading comments and reviews from the game it seems at this point in time controller support for the game is lacking so for this guide I’ll be speaking in terms of keyboard controlls.

You can edit the game settings from the main menu, not whilst in game, which makes adjusting and testing the options a bit tedious. For the easiest means of driving I would reccomend setting the gear ‘transmition’ to automatic so you don’t have to manually change gears, one less thing to worry about. I like to leave steer assist on as it automatically straightens your car when you come out of a drift. At higher levels of play I imagine having this off helps when chaining together drifts or prolonging a drift. For the steering sensitivity I set it to 100% so the turning was more instantaneous during slaloms.

I’m not sure what the ‘difficulty’ option affects and noticed no differences when it was set to easy or hard. If you are starting out you should probably set this to easy just to be safe but if anyone knows what this does please let me know.

Starting a drift

As the game will tell you, to start a drift turn either left or right. It also says to break as you do so but doesn’t go into any further detail. It is important to know when and how to do use the handbreak and also when not to use it at all.

When you are on a large turn and have not yet begun steering you the car it is best to just accelerate and turn in the direction until you enter a drift. This ensures you have enough momentum to pass the large corner, starts of slaloms and doesn’t crash you in to the inner wall of the turn.

At shorter or sharper turns you must then use the handbrake. The handbrake cause the back wheels of your car to stop and skid which, when combined with steering, will swing the back of the vehicle outward. To achieve this you only need to tap the handbrake button as once the back is out it is a lot easier to adjust. Any longer will just slow you down. The handbrake is key to many of the drift courses you’ll encounter as most of them involve many twisting corners in short succession. Using the handbrake it is also possible to quickly change direction by using it inbetween corners to swing the back of the car to the opposite side.

When you should handbrake depends on your momentum. If you are approaching a corner quickly you want to handbrake well in advance so you can drift before you overshoot the turn and crash in to the outer wall. If you have slowed down then you should wait until you just enter the turn before hitting the handbrake as any sooner and you may crash in to the inner wall.

Controlling a drift

The key part to enjoying this game is being able to control a drift. Anyone can start a drift and knowing when and how to start drifting helps but the real challenge is maintaining the drift and being able to turn as sharply or as quickly as you want.

The main thing to focus on when drifting is your momentum. Momentum is the direction your car is going, not the way it is facing and keeping and controlling your momentum is what stops you from ending drifts too quickly or drifting wide. Ideally you want to be travelling quite quickly so your car doesn’t gain too much traction and turn normally. Too quickly, however, and your car will have no traction meaning, no matter what angle your car is at, you will travel in a straight line.

if you feel you have entered a turn too quickly and you need to bail, turn and let go of the accelerator. With no acceleration the car will slow down and regain traction which should quickly give you back control of the car. Do not try to turn and accelerate as this will keep the wheels spinning and stop them from gaining traction, only slightly influencing your turn. Bailing can save your combo when on drift courses and as there is no timer there is no direct disadvantage to bailing on a drift. You still get points until you stop and it can serve as a nice breather during the harder drift tracks.

Finally there is steering. The way the car turns varies from vehicle to vehicle and this can effect when and how sensitive the car is to spinning out. Measuring at which point your car spins out can be done by using the skid marks. A general rule of thumb is to keep your skid marks from merging in to two lines however some vehicles spin out sooner or after that point. If you think you are going to spin out stop accelerating and correct your turn slightly by steering outwards. Once the car is at a more controllable angle start accelerating again to keep drifting.

In my opinion the stearing of the starting car ‘The Classic’ is quite difficult in comparison to some of the other vehicles. If you have completed World 1 and are still struggling with ‘The Classic’ then try out ‘The Super’ at the bottom right of the map or by using the ‘Garage’ from the main menu.

Summary

This guide was much longer than I intended it to be so just to summarise:

• Give the turn a wide enough berth, will you scratch your headlights.
• Guage your car’s momentum, can you clear the turn or will you overshoot the turn.
• Asses the sharpness of the turn, should you use the handbrake or just steer.

• Tap the handbreak (if necessary) to bring out the back of your car.
• Adjust the car’s angle relative to the inner wall, think of where the car is accelerating relative to its momentum.
• Accelerate to keep traction low.

• Check your skid marks and avoid spinning out.
• Keep the skid marks as consistent as possible for a smooth drift.
• Overshooting the corner? Let go of the accelerator and do not break, wait until you regain traction.

• Check how you are exiting the turn.
• Close to the outside wall? Stop accelerating and reposition yourself near the middle of the track.
• Close to the inside wall? Steer outward whilst accelerating.
• Center lane? Just accelerate and let the car exit normally
• If you’re in a slalom then tap the handbreak as soon as possible to swing the back out ready for the new turn.