Shanghai Roadster stunts: loops, jumps and rocket jumps

The tracks in Shanghai Roadster are full of stunts: loops, corkscrews, jumps, big rocket jumps and tilted turns. Most need one thing: enough speed. A board tells you how fast to go before a loop or a jump. In the air, hold Nitrogen to land on your wheels. On a rocket jump, wait for the glowing ring before you fire.

This page goes through every stunt in the game. To see which track has which stunts, look at all the tracks.

Speed boards

Before a loop or a jump, a board appears near the top of the screen. It tells you the speed the car needs, without any nitrogen, to get through.

The numbers above are the ones the game works out for the city tracks today. If you are slower than the board asks, it gets an orange dashed border and a ▲ in front. Then hold Go, or use a little Boost.

The game finds these numbers by test-driving each stunt itself, so the board always matches what the car really does. A stunt that almost any speed gets through has no board. That is why the corkscrews and the rocket jumps on the city tracks don't show one. On the Rocket Test track, the rocket jumps are much longer and do have boards: Rocket jump: 120 km/h or more and Twist jump: 120 km/h or more.

Loops

A loop is a circle of track that turns you upside down and back. The gauge says STICK while you are in it.

• Fast enough? Just hold Go and drive through. Keep the steering still.
• Too slow? Hold Nitrogen. Stick presses the car onto the track, and the same press boosts you round.
• Much too slow? The motor can't climb a loop from a crawl. If the car stops on the way up, it drops off the track and the race ends.

Double and triple loops are loops in a row. Shanghai Sunrise and Dubai have triple loops, and Rocket Test starts with one.

Corkscrews

A corkscrew is a stretch of track that twists round while you drive along it, so you go upside down sideways. Like a loop, the gauge says STICK. Some corkscrews twist round once and some twice. Steer as little as you can, and hold Nitrogen if you feel slow.

Corkscrews are on Tokyo, Dubai, Rio de Janeiro and Shanghai Sunrise.

Jumps

A jump is a ramp, a gap in the track, and a landing zone on the other side.

1. Get up to speed. Watch the board: Jump ahead: 90 km/h or more.
2. Drive up the ramp. The ramp has rails that point the car straight, so you leave it facing the right way.
3. Fly. The gauge says LAND. Let go of the steering.
4. Hold Nitrogen as you come down. The jets turn the car level and soften the landing. When you fall from high enough, the same glowing landing ring as on a rocket jump shows you when to fire.
5. Land. The landing zone starts almost twice as wide as the track, like a funnel, so it is hard to miss.

Soft and bumpy landings

• Soft landing! You keep your speed.
• Bumpy landing. Fire a little sooner. You hit hard or tipped over. A bumpy landing can cost almost a third of your speed.
• Crash landing! You came down on your roof or from very high. The race is over.

Don't steer in the air

While you fly without nitrogen, the car slowly tips crooked by itself, and steering throws your weight over and starts the car rolling. Nothing stops that roll except the Nitrogen jets. So in the air: hands off the steering, then hold Nitrogen.

Rocket jumps and the landing ring

A rocket jump is a much longer jump. The car flies high and far, and it must land softly and on its wheels. A hard or crooked landing is a crash. So there is always a refill gate just before a rocket jump, to make sure you have gas to land (see refill gates).

When you fly off a rocket jump, a landing ring lies on the pad where you will come down, and closes in as you fall. A message in the middle of the screen tells you what to do:

Bullseye

Wait until the very last good moment, then hold Nitrogen and land softly: that is a Bullseye! On a rocket jump, it gives you 5 units of nitrogen back, and you see Bullseye! +5 nitrogen. The bonus never takes your tank above what you started with.

Twist jumps

A twist jump is a rocket jump with a twisted ramp. It throws the car off spinning round. Only the Nitrogen side jets can turn it back onto its wheels, and if you land on your side or roof, you crash. Hold Nitrogen when the ring says so, and the jets first stop the spin, then turn you wheels-down.

Twist jumps are on Tokyo, Shanghai Sunrise and Rocket Test.

Banked turns and spirals

A banked turn leans inward, like a racetrack. The tilt helps the car round, so you can take it fast. Gold rails run along both sides, and a line of light along the rails shows where they hold you.

The outside wall of a banked turn is taller than a normal rail: it takes twice as hard a hit to go over it. Loops and corkscrews have these tall rails on both sides. So do the first 90 metres or so after a banked turn, a loop or a corkscrew, because you often come out of them fast and off the middle. Some turns are long spirals that go round more than once, like the turn that goes twice round on Dubai.

Hills and open stretches

• Hills: some straights climb or drop. The biggest climb is on Rio de Janeiro. Use Boost on the way up if you slow down.
• Open stretches: straights with no rails and a glowing red edge. Drive over the edge and you fall. Read how to stay on the track.

See also

• Nitrogen: one button, three jobs for Boost, Land and Stick.
• How to stay on the track for every way to fall off.
• Advanced tips for perfect landings.
• Play Shanghai Roadster and try the loops yourself.

• About Shanghai Roadster
• All game guides