TopDrives
Top Drives is a shocking success. With over a million downloads in its first week of release – the game is looking to be popular for a long time coming.
But Top Drives is different from most racing games. You’re never behind the wheel. Instead, you’re selecting the best car for a given situation. If you’re used to the arcade style racing presented in games like Need For Speed, you may find yourself overwhelmed.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Thus, presented for your approval, are 6 tips to help you own the asphalt, get better cards (and cars), and become a strategic mastermind.
1. Save your gold. Save all your gold.
With most major iOS releases, Top Drives has a premium currency – gold. And like most major releases, gold is used to buy the best cars quickest. You may find yourself tempted to spend your gold immediately, buying the best, coolest, and fastest vehicles off the bat.
Resist this urge. As games mature, the developers will eventually run sales, release new packs, and have promotions that give you more bang for your buck. In the early going (Top Drives has only been out a week), it’s best to sit, wait, and see how far you can make it based on cash and strategy alone.
2. Speed is Sweet but Gripper is Quicker.
There are a variety of race types in Top Drives. Drag races, kart races, g-force challenges, and so on. You might be inclined to assume the best car for each race is the fastest, but this is not the case.
A car with a high top-speed but a crummy 0-60 speed will lose a short drag race. A car with a great 0-60 and bad ‘grip’ will slide all over the track during a kart race, and just about any vehicle without 4-wheel drive will find themselves buried during any kind of sand race.
Thus, take special note of the terrain type, race type, and the qualities of your on-deck vehicles.
3. Keep a 4×4 On Deck.
You should end up with an SUV at some point in the early going, likely as a race reward or from pack openings. Keep this vehicle on deck, as you’ll need it for just about any race taking place on the sand. Otherwise you’ll find yourself struggling.
4. Don’t Upgrade Anything Until You’re Truly Stuck.
As with any CCG the compulsion to open packs for better and cooler cars is strong. There’s nothing more exciting in the world of gaming – to me at least – than the pack opening.
But opening packs when you don’t need them can waste money you should be saving for even better upgrades. If you’re winning races and making money, don’t waste cash (or gold!) on slot upgrades or mediocre packs that are going to give you mediocre cards.
Save your cash and wait. You’ll be surprised what you can afford if you’re willing to make do with what you got, until you need something new.
5. Teach yourself via advantage info.
After every race there will be a button that takes you to advantage info. If you lose a race you expected to win – or win a race you expected to lose, this screen will give you the information you need.
While relatively bare in the information it provides, that information is invaluable and should be accessed after every confusing result.
6. Play on a big screen.
Got an iPad or an iPhone+ with the massive screen? Great. Playing Top Drives on a small screen can be…frustrating. It’s ultimately a numbers game, and a tiny iPhone 5c screen, for example, makes those numbers hard to parse and makes the beautiful images of the cars on the cards you open a little…underwhelming.
Playing on a bigger screen gives you room to breath when selecting vehicles to keep on deck and when it comes to reading what kind of race type your in, and what cars of yours are best suited for it.