Distance Guide

How To Play Distance for Distance

How To Play Distance

Overview

Everything you need to know on how to play Distance, and more, all from a veteran Nitronic Rush player!(Distance is basically a new and improved version of Nitronic Rush. Nitronic Rush is free though, give it a try!)

Introduction

So, keen on learning how to play this game without crashing a few too many times? Don’t worry, I’m here to help.

First things first, I personally use the Xbox360 controller with an altered control layout to make the controls more like the controller layout for Nitronic Rush. I know some people prefer to play keyboard controls, and others like the default controller setup, so the majority of my guide will give the default controls, and there is a separate section at the bottom which details my preferred controls, if you are interested to try it out.

Basic Controls

Firstly, look at the menu. I know it’s tempting to just try to dive in with the single player Adventure mode (or worse, starting with the Arcade), but seriously, most of the stuff you can learn from me, you can also discover by getting a good look at the menu screens, and then playing Adventure. You see those graphics settings? Already, your game is better! You’re welcome.

Anyway, once you’re ready to play, start up the Adventure mode. Get a good look at your car, it’s the most important thing on the screen. The second most important thing is the road. Keep an eye on both.

On your car, the main feature is a lit up compass-like display that shows which way is down. I know that sounds a little odd, but trust me, it’s important. For now, it will be pointing into the ground. Around the compass is a semi-circle that measures your speed. Just like any speedometer, to goes from left to right the faster you go. Finally, the rear lights of your car are no ordinary lights, these lights are your Boost meter. When you use boost, starting from the middle and going outwards, the rear lights will light up, before curving back in as you approach overheating. Warning in advance, do not let yourself overheat.

Here is a quick overview of the default controls. These will be written as: Xbox360 controls, (Keyboard controls).

RT, (Up Arrow):
Accelerate. This is naturally the thing you’ll be using the most.

LT, (Down Arrow):
Brake. Just in case you use RT or boost a little too much. (Hint, that’s never. Mostly.)

Left Stick Left/Right, (Left/Right Arrows):
Steering. Very important, especially at high speeds. Use it to not hit things. [Note, in midair, this now controls the thrusters (see below)]

A or RB, (Left Shift):
Boost. Using it will dramatically increase your acceleration and top speed, but as a result, you may find tighter corners harder to take. Basic rule of thumb – if you can’t see which way you’re supposed to go, you shouldn’t be boosting.

LB, (Q):
Grab. This ability allows you to activate all of your thrusters (see below) at once, propelling your car towards the ground to hold on to terrain as you progress, or to help guide you to a smooth landing on walls or ceilings.

X, (Space Bar):
Jump. Use this to clear small obstacles that lie in your path. If it can’t be dodged by steering out of the way, you probably have to jump it.

Left Stick Press, (E): Horn. Use it if you feel like. Hold to make it louder!

[In Midair] Left Stick, (WASD Keys): Thrusters. Your car has a number of thrusters lined along the roof, allowing you to make your car flip and barrel roll. Use for style on large jumps, and to flip your car to make it land safely back on the track after a jump. Tricks in midair will also recover boost meter, allowing you to keep boosting after you land!

Y, (V): Change Camera. Want the camera to be further away? Closer? First-Person? Weird cinematic camera angles!? Use this button to cycle through the options!

Back Button, (T): Reset. Makes your car explode and respawn at the last checkpoint you reached.

Start Button, (Escape Key): Pause menu. Kinda obvious.

The first level of Adventure is smooth and easy going, so feel free to take the time to learn the controls, play around a little bit. It’s gonna get tougher as we go on.

THE BOOST METER

So, now that you know how to drive, did you try to boost yet? If not give it a go.

Ok, now that you have tried it, you may have noticed that as you neared the maximum boost meter, the screen started to turn red, and a warning sound started to play. These two things together tell you that you are basically about to blow up from overboosting.

Of course, explosions don’t happen straight away, you’ve got a couple of seconds to stop boosting, but you should consider stopping before the max. No-one likes premature detonations.

Advanced Controls – Flying

[In Midair] X, (Space Bar): Fly. Hell yes, your car can fly! Only once you unlock it, you’ll know when you do though.

IN FLIGHT CONTROLS:

Left Stick, (WASD keys): Up/down – Fly up/down or down/up, depending on your preference.
Left/Right – Turn Left/Right in flight.
(Left/RightArrows) – Turn left/right (Yaw). Good for small adjustments to your path.

X, (Space Bar): Stop flying. Be careful, if you’re not about to land on a road, you may fall into the out-of-bounds death zone!

[Touch any surface]: Also stop flying. Try to land flat to the surface. The game may assist that if you have the option enabled.

BOOST AND FLIGHT

When you fly, your booster is automatically on. It needs to be. As such, your boost meter WILL INCREASE as you fly. Go through the floating circular boost regenerating zones to spend longer in midair.

If your boost maxes out in midair, YOU WILL STOP FLYING. You will only be able to start flying when you’re not overheated. If you’re still flying when your meter fills, and you’re not about to land, you’re pretty much dead. Just reset and try again.

Advanced Controls – Gravity

Remember how I mentioned the compass display, and how it always points down? Well, this part explains why that is so important.

Firstly, BOOST. You WILL need to be boosting for these, and if you do them right, your boost meter will go down on successful wall/ceiling rides.

BASICS – WALL AND CEILING RIDING

At first, you may see some tracks curve around in such a way that you’re driving on more of a wall instead of a regular road. Don’t worry, as long as you go at a reasonable speed, your car’s downforce will keep it attached, even when the road goes upside-down!

BASICS – JUMPING TO WALLS

X(Space) is not just to jump over obstacles! By pressing X(Space) while closing in on a wall, you can jump and, with the left stick, twist your car so that its wheels land on the wall. Once the wall run is reaching its end, another tap of X(Space) and some careful thruster use will get you back onto the main road.

This may take some practice to get used to. At least in adventure mode, it tells you how to do it and lets you practice it. (Are you glad you did Adventure first now?)

ADVANCED – JUMPING FROM WALLS TO WALLS

Eventually, you’ll need to do a bit more than just basic wall jumping. Make sure you know which way is down. Once you leave a wall, you’ll start to fall that way, and you want to reach the next road before you fall too far.

Start by turning slightly up, against the direction of gravity, whichever way your compass tells you it is. Then jump, and use the left stick to half-turn yourself ready to land on the second wall. If you have a good speed going, you should reach it alive and well.

If gravity isn’t to your left or right, you can’t turn away from it. Instead, make sure you’re boosting. Jump while driving straight, and then spin, you won’t need to spin as quickly as sideways wall-to-wall jumps, but the longer it takes, the more likely you could run out of boost before you land.

Try using up/down on the left stick (or Grab) once you’ve span around to propel yourself towards the second wall. It can save your life sometimes.

ADVANCED II: FLOOR TO CEILING JUMPS AND BACK AGAIN

Floor to ceiling jumps can be hard. They often have obstacles before the end of the floor jump, so you have to jump at the right moment, then you also have to turn really quickly to make sure you hit the ceiling right. Turn too much or too little and you could find yourself going off to the left or right as you land. Hit the edge of the track and you’ll crash, drop off, and explode. Fun.

Ceiling to floor jumps are a bit more tolerating of mistakes, but still, they must be done quickly because of gravity.

Practice these a few times. Mastering jumping will give you a significant advantage against other people. Speaking of which…

The Arcade and Multiplayer

The arcade allows you to play all of the tracks you’ve just completed in Adventure mode, with a few more tracks made by other players, as well as a few special ‘Challenge’ tracks, and some special Reverse-tag and Stunt tracks.

SPRINT / SPEED AND STYLE

Did you like the Adventure Tracks? Play them again! See how your fastest time compares to the world! Try some new tracks too, and compete the ghosts of other players!

Feel like your natural style with tricks isnt recognised? Speed and Style will take time off your run through any track for the total points (eV) you earn during the race!

CHALLENGE

Feel like there were too many checkpoints in the Adventure tracks? This gamemode does away with them! Play special tracks that you must complete with only your skill to keep you alive. (And of course, the faster you go, the better your medal, and the higher up on the global leaderboards you’ll be!)

STUNT

Have a good run-around some specially designed tracks, flip and spin as much as you like and earn enough points to express your skill to the world! Just don’t land headfirst after soaring through the air!

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MULTIPLAYER MODES
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SPLIT SCREEN FOOTBALL

It’s like Football (Soccer for Americans), but with cars! Get the ball into the opposing team’s net and claim victory!

REVERSE TAG

In this gamemode, one of the players is ‘IT’. They will have a bright circular aura around them. Drive or fly into it and claim it as your own! Whoever reaches 3 minutes as IT first wins the game! An excellent opportunity to display your skills as evasive driving, or even flying!

ONLINE

Join in a game with other players, talk to each other, enjoy some new levels, and compete to get the best times!

HOW TO PLAY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE

Firstly, you’ll want to go to the Online option in the Arcade. Then, select to connect to a match, unless you want to try hosting.

Secondly, look at the options that show up. You can see the following info on the available servers:

Name: The name the Host gave the server.

Mode: The gamemode the host has chosen. This will be either Sprint, Challenge, Reverse Tag or Stunt.

Players: The current/max players on the server. If it’s green, there’s a space available! If it’s red, maybe later.

Ping: The lower the better, this is the delay between you and the server, in milliseconds (1/1000). A blank entry of – is actually unable to connect, so don’t try servers with this icon.

Status: Private or Public. Private servers will need a password, Public ones will not.

If you’re a Host, you will choose each of these things (except the Ping, of course!) so please make sure you know what you want to do, and who with first, you don’t have to wait for other people to join either, others can join mid-game!

Other Stuff

CAR COLOURS

Go into your menu screen, select the Garage option. You can customise you own colours under the Primary, Secondary, Glow, and Sparkle options, or you can choose one of many presets. Enjoy making your car look awesome!

You can now also use new cars instead of the standard design. Unlock them through gameplay and certain achievements, and from the Garage you will be able to select different vehicles!

CHEATS

With the release of v1.0, the ability to activate certain cheats can be unlocked through gameplay and certain achievements. The use of these can be for comedic value, for messing around, or for giving yourself an advantage when attempting harder tracks you may be struggling with. Please use responsibly.

Australiumfish’s Xbox Controller Layout

So, I have personally found that some of the default controls for the Xbox 360 controller don’t make a lot of sense, I preferred the layout before the Grip feature was added (nothing against Grip, I actually love it), and so I created a slightly altered controller layout that makes driving easier in my opinion, at the expense of not being able to move the camera around, which I never did anyway. So, here’s my layout, feel free to copy if you are interested.

RT: Accelerate.
LT: Brake.
Left Stick Left/Right: Steer.
Left Stick Press: Horn
A/RB: Boost.
X/LB: Jump/Fly/Stop flying.
Back: Reset.
Start: Pause.
Grip: Right Stick Press
[In Midair] Right Stick Directions: Air Roll, Jet Roll, Wing Roll.
[In Midair] Left Stick Directions: Wing Yaw.

This gives you more control in midair flight, as well as allowing gameplay with the right thumb only on the right stick, meaning better reaction times for flight/landing without loss of the ability to jump.

End of Guide / Walkthrough Video

I hope I covered everything that you need to know on how to play this awesome game. If not, leave a comment and let me know what I missed, and I’ll add it in the appropriate spot!

Well done to Refract on making this game as brilliant as we all hoped!

Please rate this guide, so that more people can see it! :3

And now, a couple of videos from me, completing a clean run of the entire Adventure mode (v1.0 and the old beta campaign), just to give you an idea of what it’s like playing through it. Enjoy!

(Side note: The colours I use for my car in the below video are not the standard colours. You can change them in the Garage option from the main menu.)

v1.0:

Beta:

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