Shanghai Roadster advanced tips: how to win gold medals

To win gold in Shanghai Roadster you need three things: spend every unit of nitrogen where it gives the most speed, land every jump softly so you keep your speed, and never rub the rails. This page shows how, with the real numbers from the game.

Not got bronze everywhere yet? Start with tips for new drivers.

How much faster is gold?

The gap between the time limit and the gold time is different on each track. These numbers come from the game's track files (the game doesn't show them).

The silver times are on the tracks page.

On Shanghai Nights, nitrogen really decides the race. In the game's own tests, its computer drivers could not finish inside 57 seconds without nitrogen. With nitrogen, they made it in time. Gold at 46 seconds needs clean driving and a good nitrogen plan.

Nitrogen plans for gold

Boost where you are slow

The motor alone takes the car to about 270 km/h. Boost is at full strength up to about 320 km/h, then it gets weaker, and the car tops out near 390 km/h. So:

• Best: Boost right after a turn, a landing or a climb, when you are slow and have a long straight ahead.
• Worst: Boost at very high speed, where it has faded.
• Never: Boost into a turn or while braking.

Boost works in loops too

The button boosts everywhere on the track, also in loops and corkscrews. When you are slow there, part of the gas goes to Stick, which presses you on. When you are fast, holding Nitrogen only boosts. But remember that Boost fades at very high speed, and loops are often taken fast. A slow straight after a turn is still the best place for it.

The refill gate trick

A refill gate fills your tank up to 40 units, but only if you have less. If you already have 40 or more, your tank stays as it is. So the gas you still have when you reach a gate is gas you could have used. (See refill gates.)

• Plan to arrive at each refill gate nearly empty, having spent the rest on Boost.
• After the gate, 25 units are kept for the rocket jump's landing. With 40 in the tank, you can Boost with the other 15 before the jump, and with everything after you land.
• You pass each gate on both laps, so this works twice per gate.

Careful: if there is a loop or a jump between your last Boost and the gate, keep a little for Stick or Land.

Start with a rocket start

Press Nitrogen from 0.3 seconds before green to 0.2 seconds after, and the car shoots off at about 58 km/h: Rocket start! Press up to 1.2 seconds too soon and the motor gives nothing for 0.7 seconds, which is slower than a plain start. Watch the lamps, not the clock.

Take the crystals that pay

Each crystal is 10 units, one second of Boost, and they come back on lap two. Rio de Janeiro has 14 a lap, New York 12. But a crystal only fills the tank up to what you started with, so grabbing one with a full tank gives you nothing. Burn some gas first, then pick them up. Crystals on an open stretch sit right by the edge: a fall there costs the whole race.

Mind the low-thrust zone

Under 25 units, every job is weaker (the gauge turns orange and the tip says Low thrust). The last units in the tank give less push than the first ones. On a small tank, use your big Boosts early in a straight while the tank is still strong.

Read the result card

Nitrogen left on the result card should be close to 0% on a gold run. Anything left at the finish line is speed you didn't use.

Perfect landings

A landing doesn't only decide whether you crash. It also decides how much speed you keep.

That means a bumpy landing at 250 km/h can drop you to about 175 km/h. Getting that speed back costs Boost.

How to land perfectly:

1. Leave the ramp straight. The ramp's rails help, but come in lined up.
2. Don't touch the steering in the air. It starts a roll that only the jets can stop.
3. Fire late, not early. On rocket jumps, wait for the green ring. Firing early only idles the jets and drains the tank: about 5 units a second for nothing.
4. Go for the Bullseye. Fire at the very last good moment and land softly on a rocket jump: Bullseye! +5 nitrogen gives you gas back.

Twist jumps take more time to straighten, because the jets first stop the spin and then turn you wheels-down. Fire as soon as the ring turns green, and never wait for it to turn red. All the stunts are explained on the stunts page.

Clean lines

• Don't rub the rails. Rubbing a rail costs a steady bit of speed plus 12% of your speed every second. At 300 km/h that is almost 50 km/h lost for each second you scrape.
• Brake before the turn. Braking or pushing hard while turning leaves less grip for the turn, so you drift wide.
• Steer smoothly. On a keyboard, short taps give small turns, because the steering eases in, and the car runs straight again soon after you let go. On a controller, the stick lets you hold a gentle line.
• Full steering never skids. If a turn is tight, holding the key all the way is fine: the car turns as hard as the tyres allow, without sliding.

Track by track

• Shanghai Nights: only 100 units and no refill gate, but 3 crystals a lap. Use Boost on the straight after the loop and the long straight after the jump.
• Los Angeles: no refill gate here either, but 8 crystals a lap. Boost over the hill and on the long straight after the loop.
• Paris and New York: the rocket jump comes after a refill gate, so use the refill gate trick.
• Tokyo: the two jumps at the start set your pace. Land both softly.
• Dubai: the corkscrew and triple loop come together. Come in fast so you don't need Stick.
• Rio de Janeiro: Boost on the long climb, where the car loses the most speed.
• Shanghai Sunrise: two refill gates, so the refill gate trick works four times in one race.

Every track's stunts, in order, are on the tracks page.

More to master

Want another game where timing is everything? Try the Caribbean Corsairs guide for fast arcade action at sea, or find more on the guides page.

See also

• Nitrogen: one button, three jobs for every detail of the tank.
• Loops, jumps and stunts for the landing ring.
• Medals, practice and unlocking tracks for how records are kept.
• Play Shanghai Roadster and go for gold.

• About Shanghai Roadster
• All game guides