You can upgrade your ships and powerups
Powerups can be upgraded to a maximum of level 4. Ships can be upgraded in the ship selection screen (look in the bottom left corner for the key command - it is easy to overlook). You will need to be fully upgraded to compete on equal footing.

You can play Class 4 ships in online mode without unlocking them first
You can use any class in online races. Any powerups that you've already bought can be equipped, but you won't have the ship upgrades if you are "borrowing" a prototype ship, so you'll still be at a disadvantage.

Join us on Discord![discord.gg]
Can't find anyone to play with? Want some guidance from the experts? Redout has a friendly userbase on Discord. The Weekly Wall-Grind is open to all and takes place on Saturdays at 8pm UTC+1. We also organise lobbies at other times and give guidance to new members.

What is strafing and how do I do it?
Strafing is moving the ship sideways without changing the direction it's facing. It can be imagined like riding a motorcycle - as well as steering into a corner, you must also lean into it. The majority of corners are taken by strafing in the same direction as you steer. So, if you're steering right, you also strafe right (this guide points out any unusual corners and traps that are taken differently).

You can replay old Career missions to complete new Contracts
It doesn't matter if you've already completed the mission once. Do any compatible mission to achieve your Contract requirements.

What's the best ship?
There's no team that's absolutely dominant over the others. However, Lunare ships are recommended for beginners because of their excellent handling (though beware their fragility). Sulha is usually the fastest team, especially on Pure.

What's the best powerups?
Though there's pretty much a single best active powerup in the form of Turbo Boost, as a new player you may find yourself benefiting from using Repair Drone especially in Survival events.
For passive powerups, there's mainly three different used powerups in the forms of Augmented Propeller (aP), Overloaded Energy Turbine (OeT) and Magnetic Stabilizer (mS). Which of these is best is predominantly depending on a track by track basis, but aP is the best all around of these. Magnetic Stabilizer should be used with care for new players, as it significantly changes ship handling and could put you in a position where it acts as a crutch.

You unlock tracks for Online and Quick Race modes by playing the Career
You do not have to win the events. You only have to complete an event in Career to unlock the track. You're then free to practice it as much as you want in Quick Race!

You can play any track that the host of the online lobby has unlocked
You do not have to own the DLC tracks to play them online. You do need the DLC to play them in Career though.

Why am I getting hammered by everyone online? I beat the Career easily!
Many of the online players are well experienced veterans with tens or in some cases even hundreds of hours. We're an intensely competitve crowd, but we're always happy to mentor newcomers - don't be shy and ask questions in the chat!

How do I rebind my controller?
Steam allows you rebind a compatible controller - Steam Controllers and XBox controllers should definitely work. Make sure you have the controller actually plugged in, or the configure option won't appear!
If you want to rebind a keyboard instead, AutoHotKey is commonly used.

Check out the Unofficial Companion App!
This application contains a useful guide that shows you Turbo Boost patterns and shortcuts for the tracks. You can find it here: https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/app/517710/discussions/0/1291816569122971831/

Cornering well in Redout requires effective use of strafing.

There are two ways to strafe - strafing into a corner and away from it. Consider this left hand turn:


Holding the left strafe button while steering left is the conventional way to take this corner.

Holding the right strafe button and strafing away from the apex produces a drift turn. This swings the rear end of the craft out. Drifting is generally slower and is not your technique of choice. Learn it anyway however, because it does have some rare uses.

One suggested move for tight corners is the "hairpin turn", also known as "pre-strafe" or "counterstrafing". This is when you initially drift (strafe opposite) then strafe into the corner. Bouncing off a wall to align yourself faster also works well.

The majority of corners in Redout are taken by strafing in the same direction as the turn. This guide concerns itself mainly with unusual corners that are not taken this way. Unless otherwise stated - strafe in the same direction as the turn.

Different craft will have slightly different preferred approaches to the same corner. Turning early is the general rule. You're driving a hovercraft, so the ship will feel slow and cumbersome in the corners.

There are times when you want to use your strafe only - without the accompanying steering. Corkscrews and pipes are often tackled this way.

Redout also requires you to pitch the nose of your craft appropriately. If you're going up a hill, you will need to pitch back so you don't scrape your nose on the track. If you're going down a hill, you need to pitch forward to counteract the redout effect and maintain control.

You will also need to pitch back to get extra air time on your jumps. This is a crucial technique if you're playing Class 1 ships on more challenging levels.

The terminology can get a little confusing, so to reiterate:
Pitch back (down on the control stick) = Nose up
Pitch forward (up on the control stick) = Nose down
(this assumes you are playing with a typical control scheme, of course)

There are some corners in Redout that I call "pitchy" corners. These are corners that are not tackled by strafing, but rather by pitch alone. Hell has one of these early on; Magmatic Chamber is full of them.

Newcomers are often flustered by how often they are hitting the walls. Wallbouncing is not a crime! Indeed, bouncing off the wall at the end of a corner is usually the efficient way to take it. The very first corner in Calima is one such example.

There's a difference between a controlled wallbounce and a ship pinballing all over the place. You usually want to strike the wall gently with the rear of your craft.

Some corners are so tight at speed you can't bounce them, but just have to grind them. Don't think you're doing it wrong.

Get familiar with the corners. Keep your ship's health in mind when devising your racing strategy - there will be some points where a bit of damage is inevitable.

Your ship does have brakes. Generally speaking, you will not be using them. Hit the brakes if you don't have the hull to survive an upcoming wallbounce. Don't let go of the accelerator though.

Your ship regenerates health if you go a sufficient period without hitting any walls. If you hit a wall, you will interrupt the regen.

This is a crucial point on some tracks, like Khamsin, Vertigo and Revolving. Knowing where your health regen opportunities are, and where it is vital not to accidentally interrupt it, is important on these tracks.

Your boost is powered from the blue energy meter. The blue meter recharges as long as you have the accelerator pressed. Active powerups are also powered from this.

A common point of confusion - there is an active powerup called the Turbo Boost which takes the entire energy pool, but you also have a weaker, regular boost you may use at any time.

The mini boost is useful for getting back up to speed from a bad corner. It can also rescue you if you're flying short on a jump.

The vast majority of jumps are straight and should be flown straight. If you're flying off to the right or left, you're oversteering the section beforehand. Slow down a bit and observe the lie of the land. Look out for white circles in the air or on the water's surface. These are to guide your flight and direct your landing.

Exiting a pipe can be a flustering experience. Generally you will want to exit on the floor, or in other words, definitely not upside down on the ceiling. Exiting upside down from some pipes will be an almost guaranteed death. The guidance lines in a pipe may be safely assumed to be the "floor" at any given moment. Use them to line up your exit, keeping your eyes as far ahead as you can.

Remember, the exit is all that ultimately counts in a pipe!

These are pipes where you drive on the outside. Using the centrifugal forces effectively is important in a tube - you'll often drive them on the underside. Like pipes, the exit is the crucial point of a tube.

Don't forget to upgrade your vehicles and powerups! This can definitely make the difference between a failed mission and a success.

Beginners should favour structure and grip, although there will soon come a point in the Career where you must start prioritising speed, or you won't be competitive. In terms of feel and handling, the ships can be broadly divided into "grippy" craft and "drifty" craft. If in doubt, the ESA ships are a good starting point.

ESA: Built to be the all-rounder and a good choice for beginners. Feels very similar to the Lunare. The ESA craft handle almost as well but can take a few extra knocks.

Koeniggswerth: A strange beast, the Koens are extremely durable and their handling... feels just a little off. Although Koeniggswerths are technically the most grippy of all the grippy craft, the Lunare is actually easier to use than the Koen. The Koens certainly have their uses, but total beginners will probably find other ships more comfortable to start with.

Asera: Built for boost. The Aseras do "well enough" in terms of handling and structure, being roughly comparable to the ESA craft. The Asera's big energy pool and fast recharge means it has a very powerful boost. However, if you're unfamiliar with the tracks and their ideal boost patterns, you'll not be able to capitalise on the Asera's strength. Hence it's not a good choice for beginners.

Lunare: Best handling, good speed, somewhat fragile. A good beginner's choice. Bear in mind however that your hull is paper thin.

Sulha: Built for speed and absolutely nothing else, Sulhas have dreadful handling and are extremely fragile. Beginners should not totally write them off though. Sulhas are the fastest ships in the game bar none, especially when racing Pure. So if you don't find the handling off-putting, the Sulha should be your team. You'll probably need a Repair Drone though...

Conqueror: These were built to go sideways, and unlike the Sulhas, they don't mind scraping their paintwork in the quest for the most epic drift. Conquerors benefit from a very quick energy recharge, so you can shoot off EMPs every ten seconds. Unfortunately, the Conquerors' poor acceleration means they are slow out of the corners. They have a really weak boost, too. Not really recommended for beginners, or indeed anyone else.

Buran (Neptune DLC): The Buran's handling is slippery. It's crippled by its lack of energy recharge, so you'll be waiting an entire lap for your active powerup. The Buran's main advantage is its sturdiness.

Powerups come in two flavours - active ones that you trigger at the press of a button, and passive ones that apply all the time. You can have one active powerup and one passive powerup equipped. Active powerups will need to take some energy from your energy pool, but passive ones come free. Powerups, like your craft, can be upgraded in the menu to a maximum level of four.

Your craft can repair itself automatically, but is slow to activate. If you're taking a lot of damage, you will need to go equipped with the Repair Drone. This active powerup quickly heals your craft. If you just need to bulk up your fragile Lunare or Sulha a bit, you might prefer to use the passive Hardened Hull instead.

An alternative strategy is to use the EPSS instead. This active powerup briefly nullifies contact damage.

The Magnetic Stabiliser is a newcomer's favourite. This passive powerup significantly increases the turning ability of any craft. Even the super-drifty Sulhas can grip the road like rubber with the mS. However, it's a crutch that you must ultimately learn to do without, as it will block you from using the all-powerful Augmented Propeller.

It might as well be said now that Augmented Propeller + Turbo Boost is the One Combination To Rule Them All. As a beginner, you will have other priorities than just going as fast as possible. However, as you progress, you will find that any AI or rival human player equipped with an Augmented Propeller simply leaves you in their dust. The answer to "why can't I win?" is there's a good chance the opponent is driving a Sulha with aP.

And finally - don't forget that any Pure event means that no powerups are allowed. So don't get overly dependent on them!

Redout has several modes on offer, which do require you to have slightly different priorities. Watch out for Pure events, when you won't be able to rely on your powerups. Your ship upgrades, on the other hand, are yours to keep even in Pure. Which is why you should upgrade your favourite ship at the first opportunity.

Whatever mode you're playing, being familiar with the tracks is always your best defence.


A standard race. You know what to expect here - first over the finish line wins! Watch out for Pure races on trickier tracks. I did say you shouldn't get too dependent on your Magnetic Stabiliser and your Repair Drone...


Multiplayer races can be Pure or otherwise, with up to twelve people racing.

You can race Class 4 and other ships in multi without unlocking them first. You can play any DLC track that the host of the lobby has unlocked.

The multiplayer scene is a bit sparse and some newcomers have mistakenly thought the mode is broken because it apparently shows "No avaliable servers" all the time. The answer to this is to host your own lobby and invite some friends! Redout has a Discord channel where you can announce lobbies and meet other players. https://discord.gg/CCUBDvD


You simply have to do a fast lap. Note, that's one fast lap - not three. The game is only interested in your fastest lap. You're wasting your time trying to set any records on the first lap, because you'll need a flying lap to do it. So save your energy for lap two, then let rip.

If you are using an active powerup that isn't Turbo Boost, you are doing it wrong. Augmented Propeller should also be your first choice of passive. Sulhas are generally dominant, doubly so if Pure.


A series of races, usually three or four. Coming first in all races is the obvious way to win. However, you can quite happily coast along in second and third and still win overall. Taking your chief rival out might be a strategy under consideration, but bear in mind that Redout isn't suited to precision attacking.

Pay attention when the race is announced - tournaments don't always consist of standard races! Arena, Boss and others can show up too.


Oh yes please. All five tracks in one world get patched together into a single epic ride. Boss is a standard race, just a very long one. It typically lasts two laps. Fun as Boss mode is, you probably want to restrain yourself a bit, as it is rather a marathon of ship health endurance.



A standard race, but with no respawns. You crash, you're out.



It Gets Worse. The damage from the barrier walls is cranked up in this mode. Crash and you're out!


I'm not a man, so I guess I win by default, right? This is an elimination round. The player in last place gets kicked from the race every lap.



A time trial mode. If you keep your speed above a certain point, you get bonus time. Thus it is possible to finish the event with a negative time.



A time trial mode. The course now has mines scattered all over it. A fairly strict time limit as been added as well. The mines will slow you down and damage your ship. If you explode or run out of time, you're done. You win based on how far in the track you got.

Here you can see C̮̥̥͋o͚̖͛ẅ͖̭̜̑̏++ versus "Jupiter's Survival":



The most complicated mode is Score, since it's not immediately obvious how to suceed. The person with the most points is victorious. You can finish the race in first, but not win the race.


You gets points per second based on which position you're in. Obviously, being in first place gets you the most points over time - 3 points per second. These are the other ways to score:

Hit Boost Pad: Worth 10 points.
Speed Trap: Worth 50 points. This is located at the finish line, and seems to require you to go faster than you did on your previous lap (with a minimum speed of around 1,000 kmph).
Clean Lap: Worth 50 points. Don't blow up.
Best Lap: Worth 50 points. Beat your own previous best lap on this race. This introduces some sneaky strategy. To score really highly, you have to start out deliberately slow, aiming to best your previous time on every single lap.
Perfect Lap: Worth 200 points. Don't scrape the walls, at all. This is pretty much impossible. Doing this will net you the Steam Achievement "Flawless". You'll either have to take the race at a crawl, or use something like EPSS.

Respawning will dock you 10 points.

You also get bonus points for your final position as you cross the line. It's 1150 points for first.

- Today's forecast: windy

This guide is written for beginners and serves to point out any traps or tricks to a course. Redout has a steep difficulty curve and some very challenging tracks. The Cairo tracks are set up for beginners and provide a good place to practice the basics. You will meet some important rites of passage here, particularly Calima's First Turn, Khamsin's Last Turn, and Ghibli's Knot. Do not be discouraged as you meet these hurdles - they are training you for later!

My difficulty rating for tracks goes roughly as follows:
1) A Summer's Day
2) Fun!
3) Easier With Practice
4) Annoying
5) Cheese Grater to the Face

Shortcuts:
The only track in Cairo with a notable shortcut is Ghibli.

Did You Know? The Cairo tracks are named after the Saharan winds.

Difficulty: A Summer's Day
Watch out for: First corner. Corner after the second hill.
Shortcuts: No.

Calima is an excellent place to practice. And you should, a lot. Doing ten or so laps in a custom Time Trial will have you handling Calima confidently.

The first corner is a bit of a trickster.


The most efficient way to take it is almost always to wall bounce off it. On your first lap, you're going slow enough to tight turn it - just barely. On the second lap though, embrace the gentle wall-bonk on the exit. It will get you aligned for the little straight coming up.

Corner two should usually be tight-turned, with caution. A lot of the craft will be at the limit of their turning circle here.


There's a chicane up next. The way to drive through this, and any other chicane, is straight as possible. The craft in the picture above is perfectly aligned to do so - you can see, it can just drive straight through. Of course this is easier said than done, as it requires a perfect exit out of corner two beforehand.

If you are unlucky, you'll encounter a sandstorm here, which will obscure your view.


Later on, we meet two blind hills. You don't have to bother pitching your craft for these. Fly straight over the first hill. The second hill (picture above) has a tricky turn after it. The turn is pictured below:


In high speed craft (i.e. around Class 3 and above) you'll have start turning immediately as you crest the hill, before you can see what's happening. This means that until you have it memorised, this is going to be a difficult corner.


Calima's famous loop is a fairly trivial affair, if you were paying attention to the pitch lesson. If you weren't - you must pitch back and put your nose up.

Be restrained in your steering on the loop. You only need to nudge a little one way or the other to stay aligned. The sharp left on your exit is a different story though - tight turn as much as you possibly can and don't fret if you need to wall-bonk it.

There's a slight corkscrew at the end of Calima. Use your strafe alone (no steer) to keep yourself corrected. The last corner usually requires a wall-bounce.

Here is my demonstration lap for Calima, in a Class 1 Sulha (no powerups). I take the demonstration laps slower than I normally would, to give you a good view of the track.

Difficulty: Easier with practice
Watch out for: The jump. The final corner.
Shortcuts: No.

In a nutshell: Short. Hull critical.

Khamsin is a track where every corner is a difficult corner. Invest in grip and durability if you're new. Magnetic Stabiliser passive, or EPSS active, will be very useful. Longer events will need a Repair Drone if you aren't good at health management - Khamsin is unfortunately a track with few healing opportunities.

The chief menace here is the jump. It’s very easy to hit the building on the right if you don't line up correctly.


If you don't take control of your landing, you are at risk of overshooting the right turn that follows. Angle your nose down.


At Class 3 speeds and higher, you’ll have to start turning in mid-air for the sharp right corner immediately afterwards.

You won't actually turn much until you land, but high speed craft will need to start strafing in the air and get their nose pointing in the right direction.

There are only a handful of these mid-air turns in the game. Khamsin's jump is the hardest, so if you can pull it off here, you'll do fine elsewhere.


The hard left turn at the very end of Khamsin can be taken perfectly without slowing down, in theory.

In practice, discretion is the better part of valour. Put your ship into a drift (strafe right while trying to point your nose left). Then switch to strafing left. Don't be afraid to kiss the wall to get your ship pointing the right way. Hit the boost once your nose is pointing towards the finish line.

There are many different approaches. Another is to drift and brake. Or you could hug the right hand wall and try a tight turn (a Lunare or a ship with MS can pull this off at the correct angle).

Get familiar with this last corner. Several of the harder tracks also like to throw in a sharp turn at the end. The skills you learn here in Khamsin will serve you well later.

Khamsin is a hull critical track, meaning, recharge spots are few and far between. Make sure you don't accidentally knock any walls where you don't need to. You really need to be precise, in order not to interrupt your health regen. Khamsin is so health critical in fact, this is one of the few tracks where a Sulha MS can outcompete a Sulha AP, thanks to the survivability factor.

This is my demo lap of Khamsin, in a Class 1 Asera:

Difficulty: Easier with practice
Watch out for: Initial hairpin
Shortcuts: No.

The first corner is a hairpin, followed immediately by a tight chicane. There’s no good way to take it, except to be very confident in your ship's steering. The Magnetic Stabiliser passive powerup will save your skin here. Get it.

Without MS, this is a more complicated turn. The standard hairpin turn is to initially drift (strafe left, while steering hard right, to fling your rear out) then turn tight inwards (strafe right while steering right). You may have to let up with the right steering midway through the manoeuvre to get a good response from the craft. Some craft will just have to do a drift here, bouncing off the wall a little at the end, and proceed.

This picture shows you just how sharp that first hairpin really is:


Keep revisiting Simoom as you grow more confident in your cornering skills. By the time you face Underground Tour (proud owner of the Hardest Hairpin Award), you should be pretty confident with Simoom.

Note that Simoom features a "pitchy" corner, though an optional one. The long turn leading up to the hill can be steered with your nose, rather than your strafe. Strafe does work equally well on this occasion, so is likely to be the method you'll use. Still, try the pitching technique just for some good practice!

Here is my demonstration lap of Simoom, done for fun in a Class 4 Conqueror, aka the "flying block of wood". The Conqueror has the last laugh here, as all it needs to do is casually drift the thing.

Difficulty: A Summer's Day
Watch out for: No traps in this one!
Shortcuts: No.

Sirocco is very easy, at least if you spend a little time getting to know the corners. Drifty craft can have fun sliding all round the oasis.

The chicane where the first boost pad is requires some practice and confidence in your handling. You will pinball off the walls if you're clumsy here. Try to plot a straight line through it, then give it a subtle zig-zag with your strafe.

While you can strafe-steer all the corners in Sirocco, note that the second turn around the oasis is more efficiently tackled by pitch instead. Correct pitching eliminates any need for strafing.

I refer you to my demonstration video for Sirocco:

Difficulty: Fun!
Watch out for: Plan in advance where you intend to land on that last jump.
Shortcuts: Final jump can be taken long.


Ghibli's first section (the Knot) is here to teach you how to steer and pitch at the same time. Take special note of what you're doing with your nose. Notice how over-pitching really slows you down, and also how pitching interacts with your strafing. Play around. In time, pitching will be second nature and you'll hardly even think about it.

Putting your nose up (pitch back) is in essence all you have to do here. Pitching forward is of secondary importance in Redout. Those eponymous redouts will not slow you down much, compared to a far nastier nose-grind.

Ghibli's last super speed jump is tremendous fun, but requires a little practice on the landing. If you're going slow (i.e. Class 1), then go straight with your nose down, aiming to kiss the hill dead in front of you.


A better way to take this jump is to go right, aiming for the apex of that big turn. Ideally, you'll land with a mid-air turn so you're already facing left, towards the finish line. This isn't too hard, but will take a lot of speed, which a beginning Class 1 vehicle doesn't have.


The Class 4 Sulha above has the corner apex lined up perfectly between its two engines. Big jumps like this are easy at Class 4. However, if you want to pull this off at Class 1, you will have to pitch back hard as you take the jump, in order to increase your air time.

Another tip: If you're flying in the air and can see you're going to overshoot the landing, let go of the accelerator. Your ship will drop like a stone. If you're falling short instead, boost and point your nose up a little bit.

Here is my demo lap of Ghibli, in a Class 1 Lunare:

- Please drive safely

Alaska ups the difficulty a lot. All these tracks benefit from a ship with good durability and steering. Use your powerups effectively! Cairo let you get away without them, but debuting in Alaska without a Repair Drone or Hardened Hull is begging for murder. Alaska is one of the few places where the Koeniggswerths can really shine.

Shortcuts:
Airborne has two minor shortcuts.

Did I mention you should upgrade your ships? Yes? Good.

Difficulty: Annoying
Watch out for: Hairpin
Shortcuts: No.

That is a highly inaccurate name for this track.

You'll sometimes hear this track referred to as "Alaska Speedway," to avoid any confusion with the Neptune DLC track, Mobius Speedway.

Speedway starts off with some really tricky corners, which are only tricky because they are all so blind. You cannot see the exit on any of them, which means the only way to really tackle this part is to memorise it. Magnetic Stabiliser might be a good pick.


Gentle left - hard right - nudge right - gentle left - hard right. The last two corners are almost a repeat of the first two.

The straight "speedway" parts are easy enough, assuming you are now totally at ease with your pitching. If not, practice in Calima and Ghibli before proceeding. All you really need to do here is pitch back during the appropriate section.

Then just when you've got some of that speed, the hairpin wants to mess you up. It is long, tight and has a blind exit (of course).


How to take a corner will depend on your ship, its class and its powerups. Some ships will be able to take this hairpin with just a tight turn (Lunares, or if you have Magnetic Stabiliser). Others might be able to do a slow, long drift here (the Conquerors favour this tactic).

Most ships however would be better off with the "hairpin turn". Begin by putting your ship into a drift attitude (strafe opposite to the corner). Then turn sharply into the corner (strafe into the corner). Try to practice this, as it's not the easiest technique but a very useful one to have in your arsenal.

Whichever technique you use, chances are you're going to have to do a wall-bounce if you're going at substantial speed. Try to avoid a prolonged scraping against the wall.

Here is my demo lap for Speedway, in a Class 1 Lunare:

Difficulty: Easier with practice
Watch out for: The jump
Shortcuts: No.

This is another track that is about getting your pitch right as much as your steering.


Pitchy corner time! The third corner (above) is blind, but very gentle. Pitch down while steering very gently left. No strafe is required. And that is how you do a "pitchy" corner! Practice for yourself and see.

The turn immediately as you enter the cave is hidden and sharp, catching you unawares. This is the approach:


And the actual corner:


At Class 1, you can probably take it tight, but Class 4 will probably have to accept that this is a wall-slam moment. Pitching back on this corner is helpful.

The turn after exiting the cave is a bit of a menace.


It's a drift corner! Slamming into this corner will do you a lot of damage. On top of that, you really want a clean exit, as the chicane afterwards ideally ought to be taken as straight as possible. Hence a drift turn is called for here. Strafe opposite to your steer to get that drift attitude. Don't turn too early, a common mistake for this trickster turn.


The jump is very nearly but not quite straight, a situation not improved by a tricky corner just beforehand. Your craft will have a strong tendency to fly right. If you have this problem, you can correct this by nudging your craft a little left just before the jump. Notice the yellow circle in the picture above. This provides a good guide for lining up. Aim slightly for the left side of that circle, rather than the middle (and certainly not the right side).

At high speed, take the jump long - aim to land as far ahead as you can, skipping the first corner of the track.

Here is my demonstration lap for Explorer, in a Class 1 Lunare:

Difficulty: Easier with practice
Watch out for: Second jump at high speed.
Shortcuts: One minor.

Airborne looks threatening, but really isn’t. There are three jumps and all of them are perfectly straight. As long as you’re lined up properly, you’re going to be okay. Chances are you’ll accidentally drift right a few times, but a gentle mid-air correction is all that’s required. Strafe rather than steer while correcting in the air, unless you're wildly off course.

Do watch out for the corners following the jumps however, as all of them are all wall-grindingly tight. You'll be using the "hairpin turn" a lot around here - drift, then switch to strafing in the same direction as the turn. Most also need a wall-bounce on the exit, too.

In a ship hull emergency, use your brakes to do a much tighter turn on these hairpins. You'll discover that your brakes are sharp, so a braking turn produces a "pirouette," turning your nose very fast indeed.


The only trap on this course is at the second jump. Class 4 ships will go so fast here, they are very likely to hit the track above. Pitch forward and put your nose down to make sure you land before then. If you're more daring, a Class 4 ship can alternatively fly over the obstructions and land just before the corner.

Also pitch forward on the last jump if you’re at high speed, or you risk overshooting the following turn.

This is my demo lap for Airborne, in a Class 1 Sulha:

Airborne Advanced Studies: The first jump has a minor skip. At high speed, you can keep flying straight, right over the iceberg. You'll land roughly on the apex of the hairpin.

Repeat this trick later on, at the second jump. Fly in-between the overhead track sections and land as far ahead as you're comfortable with.

Here's another demo lap, this time with the shortcuts. They are doable at lower classes, but are best incorporated into a Class 4 run.

Difficulty: Cheese Grater to the Face
Watch out for: Everything, really.
Shortcuts: No.

In a nutshell: Short. Hull critical.

Vertigo is a high workload track. It has no stand-out difficult part, but each corner is different, requiring a lot of thought to how you approach it.

The first corner is the hardest, at least at speed. It is a corner where pitch is more important. Pitch back and steer left - no strafe required at lower speeds. If you're going really fast however, you'll have to attempt this one as tight as possible.

Corner two:


Look at the ceiling on this corner, not the floor. You aim to stop your turn where it stops. This blind crest is easily oversteered otherwise. The "look at the ceiling" trick works in Revolving and other spots too.

Corner five-ish:


This one particularly wants your blood. Almost all craft should drift turn here. It's very easy to turn too late or too early. You will need a good sense for the timing of it (which note, will vary between different ships and classes).

Watch out, as corner six is deja-vu. This right-hander also wants you to slam sideways into it, and you probably will. Know it is coming. The real trick is to start manoeuvring before you see it.

Your reward at the end of Vertigo is the loop. Bring your Turbo Boost, pitch back and let rip! You may need to pull left as you exit the loop.

Vertigo is extremely hull critical with almost no opportunity for health recharge whatsoever. You might actually want to consider a Koeniggswerth for this one...

Here are my demonstration laps for Vertigo. Vertigo is blink-and-you-miss-it short, so I do two:

Difficulty: Annoying
Watch out for: The jump. The last blind plunge.
Shortcuts: No.

In a nutshell: Must be memorised. Hull critical!

Revolving can be an intimidating track. The tricky part goes: hill / dive / jump / hill / dive / little left twist.

It helps a lot to know that this entire section is very nearly perfectly straight. To do well, line yourself up straight for the first tall hill. Make sure you stay straight from there, making little adjustments only.


You should focus on your pitching, which is nose down for most of the time. Watch out for the jump, where you really need your nose down, because you can overshoot it otherwise. Class 4 is particularly dangerous here.

Because you're trying to go mostly straight, emphasise your strafe and go very easy on the steer.

Remember I said to look at the ceiling? Yeah, if you're disorientated during the plunges, the ceiling is where to focus.

The second and last hill curves ever-so-slightly left. Use your left strafe, not your steer, as you go over the crest. The ceiling is your guide. Stop any correction where it stops.


The last plunge has a subtle left hand corkscrew at the very bottom (picture above). You'll barely see it for the speed and redout effect. It's safe to drive straight through here - most of the time - but it can be visually confusing.

Revolving is a hull critical track. The section after the second boost pad is the only part of the track where you can regenerate health at Class 4 speeds. This means you must not accidentally knock the wall as you go through the chicane just prior to the hill (^the one in the very first picture at the top there^). Stay off the walls!

Here's my demonstration lap of Revolving:

- Get the hell off my lawn

The Abruzzo tracks can all be quite tricky at first, however, you faced worse in Alaska. I find that the AI puts up quite a fight in Abruzzo, which can encourage you to take too many risks in Career missions and make the tracks seem harder than they are. Spend some time playing around in Time Trials first.

Remember to upgrade your ships! The AI won't go easy on you if you forgot.

Shortcuts:
Abruzzo is positively littered with shortcuts. Swift Passage, Seaside Hills and Unmanned all have significant cuts, with significant difficulty to go with that. Mountain Road has a much more fun and easy skip. Bridges is the only track left out of this party.

Difficulty: Fun!
Watch out for: Barrier-less first turn.
Shortcuts: No.

Bridges is an easy track. The first secton is the only bewildering part. Going into and out of the water always leaves you blind, so you need to know what's coming.


Fortunately, the answer to this is just "drive straight". The signs indicating a right turn are rather misleading. The track does curve right, but it's subtle enough that you don't have to do much steering.

Don't worry about dropping a lot of speed at the sideways hairpin; it's inevitable. Once you are lined up straight out of it, boost, taking the mini chicanes straight.

The jump tends to send you flying right, so if you're experiencing this problem, correct yourself around where the boost pad is. The old lessons still apply - bad jumps are caused by oversteering beforehand. Get yourself aligned correctly in the first place and most jumps are just flown straight and easy.

On your second lap, the lack of barriers at the first turn becomes a problem. The safe option (other than slowing down) is to aim to bounce off the wall early, where there are barriers.


There's no shame in wallbouncing, but you will of course have to factor it into your ship's health management.

Here's my demonstration lap for Bridges, in a Class 4 Sulha:

Difficulty: Easier with practice
Watch out for: That effin’ tree.
Shortcuts: Two! At both jumps.

My demonstration lap for Seaside Hills, in a Class 1 Conqueror:

Seaside Hills? Isn't that a Sonic the Hedgehog level?

You're certainly going to wish this was a Sonic level, as it is really quite unfriendly at first. However, this track's bark is worse than its bite. Practice in the Time Trials to get your confidence up. You won't be able to master it whilst also trying to fend off a horde of AI.

Meet your first pipe! It's short and easy.


Keep your eyes ahead and remember that the exit is the most important thing. You can take this exit on the ceiling, but it's an inexact science, so you really want to be on the floor. (The guidelines indicate where the "floor" is.)

Keep your steering very subtle when in a pipe, or you'll go spinning. Just using your strafe (without steer) is a good way to keep straight.

As you can see in my demo lap, some judicious wallbouncing is called for on the following corners, especially if you're at speed in a drifty ship. Seaside Hills will be testing your health management skills.

The first jump comes a bit out of nowhere. On top of that, someone stuck a giant maple tree in the way:


Below is the turn just before the jump, so you can know it's coming:


This first jump is a bit deceptive. It is actually straight, but the track tricks you into steering left. Do not go left, or else you’ll collide with the tree. Instead, you want to aim ever-so-slightly to your right.

The second jump is slightly tricky as well, tending to throw you left into the mountain.


Avoid the temptation to over-correct in the air - you really want to be aligned correctly and flying straight in the first place. Higher classes aim for the boost pad. Lower classes aim just slightly below it. Class 4, beware the overhead branch if you fly too high (the one above the Sulha's engines in the picture).


E-Dragon demonstrates some skips on the two jumps in this video:

At the first jump, aim to fly over That Effin' Tree by pointing your nose skywards and boosting a little. Fly left with the intention of landing on the hill, just before the checkpoint gate.

On the last jump, fly over The Branch and aim for the finish line - don't land on the track at any point before the finish. At first glance, this may not look like it's faster - you miss out on a boost pad - but it actually improves your run by quite a bit. You can also do a suicide finish on your final lap for extra miliseconds.

Difficulty: A Ripening Vendetta
Watch out for: Water dive
Shortcuts: One very minor.


The water jump may catch you unawares if you are totally new to the track. Just aim for the white circle provided. If you are at Class 4 speeds, the trap here is the road above you. You will certainly hit it unless you pitch forward and put your nose down.

The bends in the water are blind-crested. They go right-right-left. Don't bother pitching for these.

The first set of corners, which might not have seemed so bad on the first lap, suddenly reveal themselves to be quite vicious if you're going at any substantial speed on lap two. This is Mountain Road's real trap: it is considerably harder at higher classes. The faster you go, the harder each corner gets. At Class 1, you're relatively safe, but by Class 4, this opening section is a real test of your handling skills. You will literally have to pinball this section, by gently wall-bouncing from one corner to the next.

If you're going fast enough, you can ignore the white ring at the water jump. Fly straight onwards and aim to land instead where the two windmills are at. I recommend doing a turbo boost here to make the most of it.


Here are my demonstration laps for Mountain Road, in a Class 1 Lunare. I show off the alternative water jump approach in the second lap:

Difficulty: Easier with Practice
Watch out for: Corner over the water. Second and third jumps.
Shortcuts: One major.

Demo lap:

The jumps are actually all straight. They have bad visibility but no special tricks. Holding your nerve is the key.

The first jump is easy. Aim for the crest of the hill, so you're not wasting time driving uphill. However, beware what comes right after that crest.


This is a nasty corner. On top of that, you must exit it correctly, or else observe all that water and the lack of barriers. Newcomers should slow down. I prefer to take this corner as a drift turn in almost all ships, since only the very best turners have the space for a tight turn.


The second jump tricks you into going too far left and can obscure your landing with roots and fog. Also, if you're going very fast, you can easily overshoot the turn at the landing. High classes will be doing a mid-air turn here. You may want to aim to curl leftwards and land where the barriers are. (If you're racing Class 4, chances are, you've already got the knack for this.)

The third jump is straight, but has a strong tendency to throw you left. Aim to fly slightly rightwards if you have this problem.

The teleport jump (fourth jump) is straight and can be flown essentially without input, assuming you got the previous corner correct. Ideally, you want to aim for the bottom of the teleporter circle. Definitely avoid the sides.


The above picture is a perfect example of this done wrong. Don't do it this way, or you'll miss the landing and explode.

There is a shortcut on this track. At the first jump, you can fly right, through the trees, and land on the big turn over the water. You can see the trick performed in this video (all credit to Dekaid):
This shortcut can be done at all classes! Cow++ pulls it off here in a Class 1 Sulha with no powerups:

There are various approaches that will work on this cut. If you are able to get the height, it is advised to fly high and straight over the trees.

If however you are like me and struggle for height, take a path low and to the left - passing the right side of the two leftmost trees. The disadvantage with this path is you are in a much worse position to tackle the roots afterwards.

Difficulty: Easier with Practice
Watch out for: Final jump
Shortcuts: One minor, at the end.

Unmanned would actually be a rather easy track, except for one thing: the corner and jump at the end are an absolute pain.


You can’t see the jump coming. You’re very likely to fly off to the right if you come at this too fast or misaligned.

The ideal strategy is to slow down and try to take the jump straight. Bouncing off the barrier on the right to get yourself aligned works very well.

Higher Classes may need to pitch forward slightly on landing. Otherwise they risk overshooting the corner afterwards, which is devoid of barriers.


Other tips for Unmanned: Aim to land on the apex of the first corner, or as high up as you can make it in the lower classes. Watch out for the blind crest towards the end of track. Steer tight left there if you're at high speed.

Here is my demonstration lap for Unmanned. I make things as difficult for myself as possible, in the drifty Class 4 Conqueror:


Having taught you to avoid flying off to the right at the final jump... Now I'm going to encourage you to fly off right at the jump.

Done right, in a sufficiently fast vehicle, this little skip will take you from the jump to the finish line. Be careful if you're attempting this at Class 1...

Dekaid suggests aiming for the red tree. I usually prefer to fly this a little safer and aim just to the left instead. Go too high and you'll hit a root overhead. The lack of visibility means you'll have to get this one well practised.

In this video, you can see me doing the skip several times, out in the wild:

- Whoooooooo!!!

Volcano is set on Moutohora Island[en.wikipedia.org], which is off the coast of New Zealand.


Volcano features some fast, exciting tracks that are surprisingly suitable for beginners. Fingertips, Deep Dive and Magmatic Chamber are good places to test out your Turbo Boost and just have a blast. You will need to be familiar with the basic pitfalls though.

Shortcuts:
Hell and Deep Dive have minor cuts.

Difficulty: Fun!
Watch out for: First jump and dive.
Shortcuts: No.


If you're going fast, you will need to put your nose down slightly on that very first jump. A dive comes quickly afterwards. It is quite steep and you will go flying off if you don't pitch forward. Yes, finally, a track where pitching forward is essential!

Other than that, Fingertips is not as tricky as it first seems. The track has some visibility issues, which familiarity will eventually cure.

Subtle touch: On the loop, you should pitch down at the first jump and land sooner. Landing far forward gives your ship a steeper angle, which loses speed. Watch out for this on loops - a steep landing is bad. On this loop's exit, do the opposite. Extend the jump a bit and flick the boost.

There's a moderately tricky hairpin, where you will have to do your best to avoid too long a wall grind.


The several right hand turns at the end are blind, but you will get used to them. This last section goes - two blind crests, right turn, right turn, water entry, and another right turn, immediately followed by a swing left.


Most of this track is very boost-able, so intermediates should bring along their Turbo Boost and have fun!

Fingertips is popular in multiplayer. Here it is showcased in its natural habitat, the Online Race:

Difficulty: Fun!
Watch out for: Barrier-less section after dive
Shortcuts: No


Don't stray left as you go over the dive, or you risk hitting the magma. The crest in the picture above is where to make sure you're aligned. The ceiling is your guide - centre or right is fine, left is dangerous.


After the first big drop, there are some moderately tricky corners without barriers. These are made extra tricky because you’ll have a lot of speed behind you from the plummet. Unless you know the track well, let go of the accelerator and slow down after the dive.

Some convoluted chicanes follow. The drill with all chicanes is to stubbornly drive them straight if you can. Some wall-bonking here is acceptable, but you should be able to "twitch" through these with precise application of your strafe.

A graceful drift works well on the big corner, otherwise try a hairpin turn.

This is my demonstration lap for Deep Dive:

The barrier-less section after the Dive allows for a very minor shortcut - or more correctly, forces a shortcut upon you if you're going too fast. You will have to land on the checkpoint gate or else you'll explode. Dekaid shows this corner approach in this video:

Difficulty: Cheese Grater to the Face
Watch out for: The Hardest Hairpin. The Pipe.

The whole of this track is a pain, with some unpleasant corners waiting to catch you out. If in doubt, all these can be dealt with just by slowing down a bit. The massive hairpin early on is just plain cruel though.


Remember Simoom? This is worse than Simoom. In fact, go back to Simoom and apologise.

Seriously, go and practice your hairpin technique. This is a corner you need to experiment on. Try everything! Also, did I mention you have brakes? This might be the one place you need to use them. You can do some extremely sharp drifts with a bit of brake application.

Whatever technique you settle on, watch your health management. The right style is the one that lets you bounce and get out fast - a prolonged grind here can easily take half your ship's hull and leave you floundering.

Hairpin aside, the turns can all be taken normally. Tight turns and drift turns seem to work equally well around here.

Definitely watch out for the pipe.


The pipe ends quite abruptly, taking you out if you are on the ceiling. You want to remain on the floor, slowing down if necessary. You don't have a lot of time to correct yourself if you go spinning. The jump at the the pipe exit isn't so bad. However, if you panic, you'll over-correct the landing. Steering too much is where it goes wrong.

My demonstration lap for Underground Tour is here:

Difficulty: Fun!
Watch out for: Set of turns after the Spiral

You remember Khamsin's last turn, right? Well - guess who's back.


This first turn is actually less vicious than Khamsin's, so you should be well prepared.

Magmatic Chamber's signature Spiral comes next.


The barrier-less section on the left isn't a problem. You're flying nowhere near it, assuming you did the first turn correctly. If you are flying off here, it's a sign your technique at the first corner has gone horribly wrong. (Back to Khamsin with you.)

So how do you fly a spiral? The answer is, preferring to use your strafe only, with little to no steer. A spiral handles a little bit like a pipe and it will send you spinning if you let it. It also helps to point your nose down very slightly (we're going downhill).

The good news is that a spiral is actually easier to drive the faster you're going. So I encourage you to hit that Turbo Boost.


The corner at the end of the spiral (picture above) can be tackled either tight or drifting. The key common to both techniques however is that it will require lots of pitch as well. Look at the way it's curving up there. This is not a flat 2D course. While a lot of tracks are generous and let you get away without pitching, let it be known, Magmatic Chamber ain't one of them.


Coming up next - yes, it's more pitchy corners! At first, you will likely be over-pitching as you wildly point your nose up and down. Don't worry about it, you'll develop a subtler touch as your practice.

Then finally, we have a straight. Hit your Turbo Boost and enjoy. Though not for too long, because a nasty chicane is coming.


There are no barriers on the inside. However, this is a blessing in disguise. If you want to, you can cut the corner and fly straight over to the left-hander corner. Expect quite a lot of crashes while you're learning this bit.

After your panicked flight, it's hard to take that left-hander with any grace. A drift and a wall-bonk will do fine, but keep an eye on your ship's health.

More straights! Some glorious straights at that, again with pitching being the key to success. But as you speed over the line on the home straight - remember Khamsin. Don't get too carried away and treat the first corner with the respect it demands.

This is my demo lap for Magmatic Chamber, in the trusty Class 1 Lunare:

Difficulty: Annoying
Watch out for: The Dive. Mushroom chicane.

Hell starts off with a blind right-hander. You need to memorise this one (as you did long ago in Speedway). Success requires you to be aligned and turning before you can actually see what you're turning for.

Then there's a mini chicane.


As usual, try to plot a straight line through it. Take it almost scraping your left wing on the jutting part, then you'll just narrowly avoid scraping your right wing on the next part. High speed craft will probably bounce off a wall at some point.


The next long corner (pictured above) is a pitchy corner. If you've done Magmatic Chamber, this is trivial sport to you now! Pitch your nose forward initially, then pitch backwards. Done perfectly, no strafe is required.


The big jump and dive comes next.

You need to put your nose down fairly hard here. Class 4 craft may need to point their nose down and actually boost downwards as well to make sure they don’t hit the ceiling.

Conversely, Class 1 needs to build a lot of speed on the run-up to make this jump. Your class and relative speed make a big difference to your approach here.


Immediately after the dive is a little kink (picured above). Once again, you need to nudge right before you see it. Try not to hit the left hand wall.


The little chicane near the mushrooms also needs to be taken slightly nose-down if you're Class 4, or else you’re likely to fly off the course. Be gentle here and don’t try to oversteer it. The correct line is in fact to fly over the corner. Yes, at class 4, we will be airborne for this section, taking advantage of the lack of barriers.

The long jump isn't too threatening, as you mainly just need to fly straight. Over-thinking and over-correcting is when problems start!

This is my demonstration lap for Hell:

- So you thought Alaska was cold?

Europa[en.wikipedia.org] is Jupiter's sixth moon, first recorded by Galileo Galilei. It's thought to have a frozen water ocean on its surface.

Appropriately, most of Europa takes place underwater. The tracks are challenging and will test you on all the skills you've learned so far. Hydro Thunder is really the only track at all suitable for beginners.

Europa is the first complex truly meant with Class 4 in mind. Beware if you're tackling it for the first time at a lower class - you will find that some of the jumps just aren't suitable for a Class 1 vehicle, unless you are a skilled pilot.

Europa should, logically, be a low gravity environment, but is not. Europa's gravity is normal. This is because it was released before the Neptune DLC, which introduced zero-g physics for the first time.

Shortcuts:
Surface Sprint is 80% shortcut. This is certainly a track where you will need to do your Advanced Studies.

Difficulty: The Washing Machine of Death
Watch out for: Jump mid-pipe. Barrier-less section at end.

The entry to the pipe is ideally taken straight with your nose down. However, this is very hard to do consistently. Don't worry if you go spinning. Just be sure to straighten up before the pipe exit! You cannot exit the first pipe on the ceiling, or you're guaranteed to go spinning into the nether.


Don’t freak out at the lack of barriers here at the exit. Aim straight for the next pipe's opening. Nudge very gently right, basically ignoring the corners. It's a chicane and we're flying it straight! If you hit the wall just before the pipe entrance, that's fine.

Next is another pipe, with a mid-pipe jump. Don’t panic! It is easier than it looks. This is the one pipe exit where you don't want to be on the floor - in fact, it's easier on the sides. If you're going a little slow, pitch back a bit as you launch for safety. This jump is only a big problem if you’re spinning out of control, because then you’ll have insufficient forward momentum (and no control). If you're going dead straight and boosting, you can bluff right past the jump and hardly notice it's there.

The final pipe exit can be taken safely on the ceiling, but as usual, this isn't recommended. (Though you can gain some speed by taking a less conventional exit.)

The hardest part is the barrier-less section out of the water. If you're new to the track, I recommend letting go of the accelerator and taking it very easy.


The corner in the picture above is rather deadly. You have to be very familiar with the track to pull off this section at any speed. Once you’re safely lined up, hit the boost and make up for it. Mind the hard left corkscrew afterwards.

My demonstration lap for Spinning Pipe, in the Class 1 Lunare:

Difficulty: Cheese Grater to the Face
Watch out for: Blind teleporter dive. Barrier-less turn. Everything.

An alley of hard turns followed by a trick jump, you have no chance unless you know what’s coming. Pack your Repair Drone / EPSS and your Magnetic Stabiliser (all of which you should have upgraded to Level 4). Heck, you might want to consider the Enhanced Respawn Device. You're going to be crashing a lot.


The first chicane is driven straight, but the first major corner (above) is usually taken as a wall-slam. Try for a hairpin turn. Use your brakes if you're already badly damaged from a prior lap. Bounce off the wall, turning hard left as you do, to orient yourself for the straight.

The first jump is a pitfall for Class 1 vehicles. If you aren't at full speed, Class 1 falls short.

The second jump sucks all the speed from you, thanks to a particularly awkward ramp.


Again, Class 1 vehicles are vulnerable. Flying aimlessly here is a bad idea, as it slows you down dramatically. Boost downwards, or for an alternative strategy, fly as little as possible. The jump can be taken extemely low - below the white ring even - and land on the edge.

And then everything goes horribly wrong:


This barrier-less section can go fu-... demands your respect. You have to know that its coming and restrain your ambition on the corner beforehand.

You can wall-bonk on the barrier just before the barrier-less section to get yourself aligned (remember Bridges and Unmanned). I usually prefer to deliberately grind my nose on the inside corner instead. Taking this corner clean is faster of course, but it's not as safe.

The next left-hander is a secret hairpin! You can see it pictured from an unconventional angle below:


This is very, very tight. You will probably have to apply your brakes here, and pirouette on the spot.


Next up, a totally blind dive through the teleporter! Aim for the top of the teleporter circle. Then once you're through, avoid pitching back. The temptation to slow and control your dive will be strong, but it's exactly the wrong thing to do. In fact, you may need to pitch forward, in what seems a rather counter-intuitive move.

This being Shallow Waters, you may follow this advice and crash anyway. The AI especially likes to crash in a hail of pretty fireworks at this bit, so that's some consolation.

My demonstration lap for Shallow Waters, in the wall-bonking Class 1 Sulha:

Difficulty: Easier with Practice
Watch out for: Long ravine jump at Class 1.

The second corner on this track can prove an early frustration because of the lack of barriers. This turn is much less sharp than it appears. If you’re flying off, you’re oversteering it.


The corners following are also moderately gentle ones. Fly straight as you can get away with.


The big ravine jump in Trench is hard to pull off in a Class 1 vehicle, due to your comparative lack of speed. Here is a Class 1 Lunare demostrating this fail:


Class 1 will need to pitch back when launching, making sure you’re nice and straight. If you seem too low, use your boost to get you over the ridge (the ground “comes up to meet you” at that gap, as demonstrated in the picture). Note that the white guidance circle here directs you too low for Class 1.

In contrast, Class 4 ships at speed can overshoot and hit the loop if they pitch back. Higher speed vehicles should not need to pitch here.

Don’t panic about the pipe! The Trench pipe has a tendency to correct you towards the exit, making it one of the easier ones. Focus instead on not over-correcting the landing.

Trench has a Khamsin-style tight corner at the end. You know the drill by now - tight turns, drift turns + wallbonk, and hairpin turns can all be made to work. It will depend on what ship you're using.

Here is my demonstration lap for Trench, in a Class 1 ESA:

Difficulty: Fun!
Watch out for: The blind surface jump, especially at Class 1
Shortcuts: No.

This track is actually fast and easy for the most part. However, Class 1 craft will really struggle to clear the surface jump. Here is a picture of a Class 1 Asera flying for its life:


All you need to do here is PITCH BACK HARD as you launch. If you’re too low or slow, you will hit that track that circles around your landing. Use your boost to make sure you clear it.

High speed vehicles don't need to do anything special at this jump, basically flying it with neutral input. Very high speed vehicles may need to point their nose down and assume control of their landing, else overshoot.


Once you’re over the obstacle, the white circle guides you to your underwater landing.
A somewhat tricky hairpin follows this landing. You may want to let up on the accelerator to get around it, then hit the boost again as you exit. Alternatively, try a drift turn.

Don’t worry about any of the other jumps, which are all straight and easy. You may need to hit the boost if you’re falling a little short in Class 1.

My demonstration lap for Hydro Thunder, in a Class 1 Asera:

Difficulty: Attacks with Kittenish Glee and Never Stops
Watch out for: Trick starting jump. Nose down section. Sideways jump. Everything.
Shortcuts: Very yes. Three.

This joker of a track starts off as it means to go on, with an awkward little jump right, followed immediately by a jump back left.

My first tip is don’t even bother with the little strip to the right. Ignore its existence. Aim to land directly across the pond from your starting position. Pitch back and boost. This jump is easily done even by Class 1 vehicles from a cold start, but it requires confidence.


You will have to make the landing semi-blind as it is below your nose. Get a feel for the distance, which is a little longer than you think it is. In the picture above, you can see the two pink Xs marking the start of the track, just below the craft's wings. Boost will save you if you’re flying short, and if you're lucky, you can bounce safely off that iceberg just in front. Remember you’ve got a sharp right turn immediately as you land.

The other place to watch out for is this dive:


You must put your nose down here, or you’ll go flying off the track. (Class 4 ships are doomed!)


A second nose-down part follows immediately. Nudge right here, or you'll slam into the building.


The barrier-less section at this part should be taken as straight as possible, making subtle adjustments. You're certain to hit a building if you've approached it incorrectly or too fast. If you drop off the edge briefly, it is possible to bluff your way back onto the course by lifting your nose.

The water then blocks your view of the right hand turn coming up. You need to start turning for it very soon after entering the water.

Finally, upon exiting the water again, watch out again for the sideways jump.


You will crash here if you are too slow, too far right or if you hit the barrier. The turn isn’t hard, but you will need some speed behind you, or else gravity will win this encounter. If in doubt, boost!


The last hairpin has no barriers on the inside (picture above). This means, feel free to not bother steering. If you're going fast, you can just fly straight across the water, slamming into the far barrier. Sometimes that's easier than slowing down or steering. Be sure your hull can take it and you've got the speed to do it.

Remember Ghibli's last jump, and how you can land on the hairpin apex? You can approach Surface Sprint's final hairpin the same way. Launch off either the sideways jump, or the mini jump just afterwards. This technique doesn't add a lot of speed to a run, but it's a good way to jump the queue in a race.

Here are my demonstration laps for Surface Sprint, in a Class 1 Asera. I show off both hairpin approaches:

More shortcuts? Oh yes! Two of them!

You can be more ambitious with that very first jump. Instead of aiming for directly across the water, fly right and aim for the checkpoint gate. (Not after the checkpoint, or the course bounds kill you.)

You can also skip the barrier-less downhill section. On the inverted half loop, you can fly off the course to the right. Again, you need to land just before the checkpoint gate. Watch the killplane to the right, which will destroy you if you fly too far right too soon. Use the building on your left to judge your distance.

You can see ALL the shortcuts performed in this video:

- Don't forget your oxygen!

Neptune is Redout's first zero gravity environment! This changes the physics of your jumps considerably. You will have to spend a little time re-learning how to handle your ship in these conditions. It's highly recommended that you have some fun just floating in space. Firstly, because it's damn good fun, and secondly, you'll need to appreciate how the ships will not alter their trajectory unless with your input. There is no downward curve on your jumps. This means, if a landing is below you, you have to point your nose down for it, and don't expect gravity to do the work for you.

Shortcuts:
Asteroids, Drifting and Red Giant have significant shortcuts and alternative approaches.

Difficulty: Fun!
Watch out for: First corner's staggered barriers.


This track takes its name from the famous Möbius strip. Of course, the track isn't actually one-sided, it just appears that way because the start/finish section "folds" onto itself, which the above image nicely illustrates.


The hardest (and most annoying) part of Mobius Speedway is its first corner; note the spaced barriers. This corner can be taken cleanly, which is the safer method. However, bouncing off either the second or third wall section may be faster. Be careful not to go flying off the track as there's a killplane waiting nearby.


Since this is a zero-gravity track, the corners can also be skipped completely on the inside, though the first one isn't easy to do this with. The left hander shortly afterwards can be skipped this way should you choose (it's not any faster, but it's a nice demonstration of the different physics on Neptune).


There's a slight chicane eager to pinball you just after the crest in the image above. Do the usual drill and use the ceiling to align yourself a little left of the centreline; this helps significantly when you're at speed. Strafing is sufficient to get around the chicane, steering will most likely cause you to hit a wall.


The half-spiral is rather straightforward (recall Magmatic Chamber's signature corkscrew): minimal steering, lots of strafing, and DO NOT touch the left wall at any cost (you will lose a lot of speed otherwise). The only jump on this track is nothing noteworthy, although you can pitch down slightly for a smoother landing.


The final corner is very fast, and very blind. Not much steering is required here, but you'd need some muscle memory to pull it off cleanly.

E-Dragon demonstrates Mobius Speedway:

Difficulty: Easier With Practice
Watch out for: First corners.

A lot of Neptune's initial difficulty is due to the new physics. This track will introduce you to flying through space (yaaaaay!).

The very first corners present a unique zero-g challenge. Ideally you want to cut them, taking advantage of the lack of barriers. Taking it clean is possible, but hitting the barrier on the right is the typical safety move. It's extremely easy to accidentally fly over the barrier instead, so put your nose down.

A visual curveball here. You are not flying to the piece of track in front of you. In fact, it's not even solid. You will be dropping down far below...

A nice straight here. Don't be bamboozled by the space debris in your path. Straight on provides a safe path. A fairly tight hairpin follows this, but you've already conquered far worse. You know what you're doing!

A novelty here, Escape Velocity features Redout's only split track. You must fly either right or left around the obstacle track here! Keep it subtle, because you then have to aim for the teleporter gate behind it.

E-Dragon demonstrates Escape Velocity:

Difficulty: Annoying!
Watch out for: The spinning space junk!
Shortcuts: One section of skipped track

Since there is a familiar crimson ship in the course, I suspect the track name is a play on Red Dwarf[en.wikipedia.org] (although the Jupiter Corp Mining Ship would actually be enormous if it were to be dumped into the Redout universe as-is).


The first section of the track is a couple of hills. Nothing to do here but pitch and strafe, and try not to slam into that right hander at the end. You will, but try not to.


Align yourself using the ceiling, staying centre and straight on the hills. The corners afterwards are all uncomfortable. Taking them clean is rarely worth the effort, although should be doable if you hug the outer wall and turn in at the perfect moment. I'd advise just using the brakes instead.


Here we find Red Dwarf. Initially you may be tempted to simply follow the track, lest you disappear forever in the vast emptiness (there's a killplane for that), but the faster way is to actually go slightly under it, keeping close to the red ship. If done right, you will emerge like this:

Pitch yourself as needed to land yourself back on the safety of the track, and all is fine with the world...


After a straightforward and totally noteworthy jump, you will come across this corner. Grinding the orange wall is somehow faster than bouncing off it, so do that.


You've finally reached the final and most annoying part of Red Giant. Two white guiding rings lead to the portal back to the start line, but you have to get past the two Spinning Thingies of Death first. They block your racing line at regular intervals, and they will kill you if you so much as touch them! They rotate rather slowly, so pitch up or down to manoeuvre out of their way. Once through the portal, pitch up slightly for a smoother landing.

E-Dragon tackles Red Giant:

Red Giant Advanced Studies on Zero-G Racing and Pilot Safety Features
The teleporter at the end of Red Giant (assuming you get that far and the space stations are merciful) is very obviously glitchy. Hit it too fast and you'll actually miss the teleport. Hence some pilots advise boosting early to make sure your speed is not too great for the teleporter.

If the spinning space junk is *not* merciful, you respawn right at the teleporter gate. This is quite a distance to jump and some have theorised that the Enhanced Respawn Device might actually make a suicide technique viable. As of now, it doesn't appear to be fast enough (AP takes a lot of beating). However, if your way is obviously blocked, it might indeed be easier to simply suicide against the nearest object, rather than waste time floating through space.

The teleporter has a hitbox that is much too tall for it, so aim to hit it high. No need to touch the track. Whatever you do, don't be beneath the track!

Difficulty: Easier With Practice
Watch out for: First jump (or rather, its landing!)

Once you get the hang of hopping from one piece of space junk to the next, this becomes a fun track.

The initial hairpin is actually rather easy. The tricky part comes afterwards, when you're flying through space.

The best line here is to fly on the right side of the obstructing track (rather than the left, where the white circles direct you). Aim to hit the wall just after the next turn. It's easy to fly over the wall and into the killplane if you are slightly off.


After a short crest (remember to use the ceiling for alignment) you will come across this jump. As the arrows indicate, the landing is not straight ahead, but to the right. Aim to be on the left side of the track, but facing right; similar to the first jump, launch angle is very important here.


Don't blink yet, because your space drifting adventures are far from over. The track section ends
as soon as you land, with only a giant loop in the distance. A turbo can be used here to gain some speed, with some minor pitching adjustments (you really don't want to end up below the loop). Don't land too far forward in the loop, because the steep landing angle will take your speed.


Here you are presented with yet another jump. The landing is straight, but if you think the angle is rather steep, you'd be right. Again, mind your landing angle. The easy solution is to pitch back a bit as you exit the loop, lifting your nose. Land as far forward as you like, right up to the corner.


After leaving the previous section, the ship will fly through this nebula with sparkly bits. There's not much reason to touch this track section except to bounce off the corner.


The final track section contains the second loop, which is dark green. Not much else to say about this.

At the end of the track, after the second loop, there is a shortcut. Instead of hitting the boost pads in front of you, fly left cautiously. Aim to land on the finish line.

This arguably doesn't significantly improve a run. However, you can take it to a further extreme and do a "suicide finish", by overshooting the finish line and into space. Obviously, this technique is only recommended on the final lap, or a flying lap in Time Trial mode.

E-Dragon demonstrates Drifting:

Difficulty: Easier With Practice
Watch out for: Jump after first "nebula" is easy to overshoot.

Asteroids is a short, fun track that will initially take some getting used to. It's quite hard on your hull, offering little chance for regeneration, and often requiring you to bounce hard off its apexes.

A space station (?) lies between the first and second corners of the track. Mind the ceiling. It's better to fly low. Since the landing is below your path, pitch forward after you clear the obstacle. You have to supply your own gravity.

On the long jump, ignore the large chicane after the floating boost pad. Yes, that entire section of track in the above picture - just ignore the whole thing. Aim for the corner around the green "nebula" instead (which can be seen in the distance). Your ship will naturally roll slightly as you fly (it tries to orient itself flat to the track below). This may be a little nauseating at first / looks super duper cool like you're actually flying a spaceship.

The first few times you try, you will probably fall under the track, or overshoot the corner. You'll quickly adjust to the physics, and learn to make the walls work in your favour.


After going around the "nebula", a short jump leads to this section of track. It is easy to overshoot or fall below this corner. Aim to hit the barrier where the checkpoint gate is. With a little practice you should hit it consistently.


The final jump takes you through another nebula. The landing is straight, but some pitching down is needed to not fly off into the distance. From here, a couple of corners (and a boost pad) takes you back to the start line.

E-Dragon demonstrates Asteroids:

- Eye strain guaranteed, or your money back

The V.E.R.T.E.X. environment is the virtual training area. The tracks are forgiving to newcomers, so you shouldn't have too much difficulty with them. These are generally high speed tracks, with quite a few minor shortcuts littered around.

V.E.R.T.E.X. is a normal gravity environment, with no water sections, pipes or tubes.

Shortcuts:
Voxel and Loop have some minor skips. Breakpoint has a meatier one.
Stack tosses the laws of physics out of window. Stack is 99% shortcut, with three very difficult skips, one of which is a reverse blind skip through the scenery.

Difficulty: A Summer's Day
Watch out for: Don't stray left on the jump
Shortcuts: Two minor

Voxel is super short and easy, especially once you're familiar with it.

Probably the hardest part of the entire track is hitting that very first boost pad. It is cunningly hidden just over a little blind hill. Strafe fairly hard right as you're passing through this bit.


Pictured above: the boost pad. Yes really. It's right in front of your nose, over the tiny hill.

Do a wall bounce on that first corner, then pitch back for the loop. Again, you'll be hard on that strafe as you line yourself up for the boost pads. You don't want to be using your steer here.


The chicane contains a secret. Notice there are no barriers to the left. If you drive off the left, you can use your airtime to skip doing the chicane and keep your straight line. Otherwise, once again, you'll be abusing your strafe to wiggle you through the corners. This is very much the strafe circuit.

The jump is immediately following this. Take care you don't go flying left here.

There's a long right-hander at this part, which can be skipped. Fly deliberately far right at the jump. You want to land back on the track before the checkpoint gate (or else explode). This isn't the easiest thing to do, as you tend to lose a lot of height and potentially fall short of the track.


Don't be intimidated by that scenery! You will fly through any voxels, pixels or other virtual decoration.

Difficulty: Cheese Grater To The Face
Watch out for: The most insane shortcut in Redout.
Shortcuts: Is entirely shortcut.

Stack is a controversial track. Expect angry eyebrows to be raised if you select this one in multiplayer. Stack has several "ugly" shortcuts which are hard to perform, and which leave very little of the vanilla track's original design intact. It's considered bad form to select Stack unless everyone in the lobby is aware of how to do the cuts. (This also somewhat applies to any track with significant shortcuts - e.g. Seaside Hills - that newer players have not learned yet. The SRRL encourages pilots to be good mentors and look after the newbies.)

With that, let's go over "vanilla" Stack. The track generally feels blind and claustrophobic, but is a little easier than it looks at first blush.

The track starts off with a blind corner. There are arrows indicating where you should head next, but you still can't see where you're going. A slight left follows shortly after.

Next up is a medium-sized hairpin. It's a fairly easy corner, but the blocks obscure your view so judging how much to turn can be a little tricky. Familiarisation will alleviate this somewhat though.

Don't forget to hit the boost pad! In the distance is what appears to be a mirrored Hammerhead from the Top Gear test track. The inside has no barriers so you can shave off a little time here.

This is a 270-degree hairpin. You can't actually cut it by dropping off from this point, you simply phase through the track and meet your doom with a killplane (I've tried).

Three evil-looking orange platforms stand between you and the other side of the jump, but they're actually pretty harmless. Just drive through them like normal.

The right-hand corner (in the distance) actually extends a lot further than it appears. Once again, the abundance of blocks causes you to see less of the track than usual. Remember to hit the final boost pad before heading for the finish line.

You want cuts? Stack gives you cuts!

Remember this mirrored Hammerhead? Remember how the inside has no barriers? You can pull off one of the "ugliest" cuts in the game by going off the track here and pitching way up, such that you fly above the track and across the hairpin. If done right, you'll get something similar to the following...

Apologies for the oil painting, motion blur doesn't look good in an image. However, it still gives a pretty good indication of what's happening. The engine trails show that the ship is actually facing sideways, and that's because you need to do an about-turn in mid-air before landing back on the track (the "forward" direction is towards the bottom-right), which allows you to cut a significant portion of the hairpin. It may sound stupid and look ridiculous, but it saves time and that's all that matters.

In case you've not had your fill of cuts, there's another one on the second half of the track. This one doesn't involve any aerial pirouetting, but it still requires jumping through seemingly solid blocks. Just after the three-evil-red-platform jump, you can veer off the left side to (again) fly over a small bit of track, which the smeary image below nicely shows:

Do not skip the evil platforms! You'll get an invisible killplane that messes up the actual cut. The jump is easy to miss, because you can't see the track until it's too late. Rotate your ship to the right to line up with the track, taking note to land before the boost pad.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a thousand pictures:

Redout Bulletin: Stack Now 80% shortcut

Our friend Blu' has added a third shortcut to Stack's ignoble list, which now makes the track almost entirely shortcut. This one is performed right at the start line, by flying off to the right where there is no barrier. You land where the "mirrored hammerhead" shortcut is, so this shortcut leads directly into the next.

The cut can only be performed from the second lap onwards, since you won't have the speed required coming from a cold start.

Your Redout senpai Zeph demonstrates in this video:

Difficulty: A Summer's Day
Watch out for: Sideways jump

Loop is super easy, featuring really nothing you can't handle.


The track starts right off with that eponymous loop. Just pitch back and try to hit the boost pads.


There is a little shortcut at the first jump. You want to skip the corner and land either directly on the boost pad, or ahead of it. Lower classes need to be more wary here, since they don't have the same speed or height.

What follows next is a good spot to learn one of the crucial lessons of Redout - it is better to strafe than to steer. Negotiate the minor corkscrew with a subtle touch, heavy on the strafe.


This sideways jump echoes the sideways jump from Surface Sprint. If you are too slow, gravity is going to pull you under. Unfortunately, there is an awkward corner just beforehand that will mess you up. Be confident in your wall slamming! Slowing down to negotiate this leaves you struggling to make the jump. You can take this section entirely clean, which is what you should be doing in any Time Trial. In an actual hectic race however, don't be so fussy. Save your hull for this bit and bounce off the walls hard as you like. You must keep your speed for the jump - no hesitations.

You'll also be needing a bit of hull for the next section, featuring three blind left handers, then a right.


Some memorisation is required here. Avoid straying left on the first bend, or you'll knock the inside wall. Stay centre or right, and preferably don't be afraid for some more wall bouncing.

My demonstration lap for Loop:

Difficulty: Nagging Worry That You Left The Cooker On
Watch out for: the 270-degree hairpins, the jump

Return Null prides itself for being the most technical track in V.E.R.T.E.X.; with three hairpins, expect a lot of hard cornering here. However, it could also be argued as the "simplest" since it doesn't have any cuts to speak of.

Return Null doesn't like to hold back, and the track opens immediately to the first 270-degree hairpin. Only half is visible from this angle because the rest goes underneath. Some wallbouncing is to be expected here, especially if hotlapping (it's the faster method anyway).

This slight chicane is up next. the right side is missing some barriers, but you shouldn't be falling off there in any case. Hit the boost pad and align yourself for the straight that's coming right up...

Now would be a good time to use the Turbo Boost if you have it equipped. The straight actually ends with a jump that's split in two by a floating platform, but Class IV ships are usually going fast enough to skip that entirely. In fact, they're so fast they may even overshoot the landing too! Pitch down slightly and slam yourself against the outside wall to tackle the hairpin.

After what you've been through, the next section will seem quite unremarkable. The inside of this corner has no barriers, so you can hang off the edge to shave off a sliver of time. Don't forget to hit the boost pad.

You may be wondering where the second 270-degree hairpin went. Well, here it is. This track does not forgive and you need even more hard cornering before you're allowed to finish the lap. After much bouncing and grinding, emerge from the other side, hit the final boost pad, and the finish line awaits.

Now to put those words into action (warning: wall abuse):

Difficulty: Easier With Practice
Watch out for: A few blind corners

If you haven't figured out by now, the tracks in V.E.R.T.E.X. derive their names from computing terms. This one is ironically named however, because unlike a real breakpoint[en.wikipedia.org], you want to be going as fast as possible here.

The track opens with a couple of heartline rolls[en.wikipedia.org] followed by a negative-G section. Hit the boost pad and keep you ship centred because you cannot see what's ahead.

You are then immediately presented with a right-hander and another (shallower) negative-G section. Same drill here: bounce off the left wall and centre your ship.

After another heartline roll, you'll reach this corner and the track appears to end abruptly, launching you into nowhere if you continue driving. Actually, there's a loop just off the top of the image...

This is what you'll see just before the jump. Note that you may need to pitch up in order to reach the other side, especially if you've used a Turbo Boost (and driving a Class IV ship). A killplane lurks just behind the track, should you miss the landing...

A hard right-hand corner comes after the loop. Grinding the wall seems to preserve more speed, but bouncing preserves more health.

Remember Escape Velocity's chicane? This is a slower, more forgiving version of that. Cut straight through, but beware of the right edge...

... because this corner will devour you. If you didn't strafe/turn left at the chicane midpoint, this will be the last thing you see, except you're going full speed and have no time to react.

After heeding my advice (and not getting consumed), you are faced with the final jump of the track. While it's not obvious at all, you actually have a choice...

The safer method is to perform a smallish jump and stick with the track, which rewards you with a gentle chicane before bringing you back to the start line. But...

... the faster (and much riskier) way is to launch yourself off to the right. The green blocks appear to be in the way, but they are actually not solid at all. (also note the aforementioned chicane on the bottom-left) While I appear to be heading towards a killplane, I won't actually blow up as long as I don't veer too far right (exactly how far is difficult to pin down though). Aim to land just in front of the helix thing, and the finish line is just a short distance away.

Here's a video that should (hopefully) explain the cut better:

- He who controls the boost, controls the universe!

Mars is a low gravity environment, meaning you should expect the jump handling to feel a bit off. Mars' gimmick is tubes (outside pipes), so be prepared to learn some new tricks. You probably want to avoid Schiapparelli until you've really mastered the handling.

The Mars tracks are named after the Mars rovers.

Shortcuts:
Spirit has a lot of barrierless sections, which means a liberal seasoning of minor cuts. Opportunity has a useful cut at the very end. Mariner and Curiosity also have alternative approaches.

Difficulty: Easier with practice
Watch out for: The Loop.
Shortcuts: 1 minor

Comfortably clocking in at over a minute, Mariner is the longest track since Hydro Thunder way back in Europa. However, a mix of technical sections and boost-able straights makes it a pleasure to drive on.

Totally Irrelevant but Mildly Interesting Fact: The Mariner program[en.wikipedia.org] is a family of ten interplanetary probes designed to visit Mercury, Venus and Mars, of which seven were successful.

The track starts off with a gentle right-hander followed by this corner. Aim to only tight-turn this bend so you maintain as much speed as possible (take note to avoid hitting the right wall at the kink behind the pillar).

Next up is this gentle hairpin (shown facing the wrong way for a better angle) that appears to be made out of frosted glass. Nothing you can't handle.

What the three arrows fail to indicate is that the following corner is very tight. Kick that rear end out and be prepared for some wall scraping.

Aim to hit all three boost pads before heading for the vertical loop in the distance; try to hit them with only the left side of your ship for a better entry angle. The kink in the middle can be taken clean, but more often than not you'd be bouncing off a wall here. (Interestingly, you get a better view of the frosted glass hairpin mentioned earlier.)

This loop section, if you've been at all scruffy, will leave your hull in tatters. Loops in Redout are generally not dangerous, but this one requires a little more respect than most.

Immediately following the loop is an inclined hairpin. You won't even land on the dirt part of the track (where the ship is) if you're carrying a lot of speed; you can land on the apex of the hairpin (slow, and involves a painful track slam) or pitch down for a smoother (and faster) landing.

Because of Mars' low gravity, and the incline of the track, you may find this jump rather deceptive. It is easy to fly too far right, overshoot, or undershoot.

The slight left bend is blind (as it's just after a crest), so start turning early or you'll slam into the inside wall of the hard right corner.

This is a vertical jump. Pitch down slightly for a smoother landing (don't forget to hit the boost pad), but don't forget to pitch up afterwards to avoid scraping the track.

Another frosted glass section. Grind the outside wall a little and hit the boost pad on your way out. You won't hit the track even if you don't pitch here.

Make use of Mars' lower gravity to extend this jump as far as possible, but take note not to pitch up so much that you slow down. Your craft should always be horizontal or pointing slightly downwards.

Cut: You can aim to land just after the bend to save a little time (as you avoid the slowdown caused by turning). Don't be too greedy though, as there's a killplane waiting.

The penultimate corner is a double loop. Unlike the one at Vertigo which keeps you at the centre, this tends to throw you from side to side, so counteract accordingly.

The final stretch of Mariner is straight, requiring no steering at all. Keep to the left and strafe through the chicane midway, and pitch up for the final half-loop back to the finish line.

And now for a demonstration video:

Difficulty: Easier with practice
Watch out for: Low gravity shenanigans on the jumps
Shortcuts: Two - first corner and greenhouse jump

Spirit is the second track to stay above the 1 minute mark even with Class IV ships (and powerups). It's very meandering, not unlike a stream or river (hinting at something, perhaps). Radio signals are also audible at certain points along the track.

Totally Irrelevant but Mildly Interesting Fact: Spirit[en.wikipedia.org] is part of the Mars Exploration Rover[en.wikipedia.org] mission, and was sent to the red planet to explore its surface and geology. It functioned for over twenty times longer than expected, but became irrecoverably stuck in soft soil. Communication with the rover ceased in 2011.

Spirit starts with a blind crest into this downhill meander. Half the barriers are missing, but fortunately the outside walls are still present. This will be a common sight, so get used to it.

Another one of those long sweeping curves. Keep steering to a minimum, and use strafing to cut the inside corner for a straighter path.

Same drill here: more strafing, less steering. Don't go off the edge or you'll plow into the dirt and blow up. You may need to pitch up at the jump to clear the greenhouse.

There's a boost pad on this middle platform that you should ideally hit. Another one is obscured by the checkpoint in the distance, so pitch down and land early. This whole stretch is straight, so you shouldn't have problems here.

After the loop is a straight-ish section of track. This slight kink can actually be driven straight through, with the ship going airborne for a split second. Remember to pitch up when doing so!

It looks fairly obvious, but it's worth pointing out that you cannot cut the inside of this corner. If you do, you'll find out the obstructing piece of track is very solid indeed.

Finally, a tube section! The ship is actually fairly stable, and you won't veer off-course as long as you stay somewhat centred. There's a boost pad mid-way that shouldn't be difficult to hit at all.

After a gentle right-hander at the tube exit, you'll reach this dirt section that snakes all the way to the top-right. The corners are pretty wide and forgiving, so use only tight-turning here.

This corner is rather gentle too, and takes you past a bit of construction. But...

... the final corner breaks the trend and is a sharp hairpin instead. Drift through that motherfu it and make your way to the finish line.

Spirit may not be a particularly exciting track, but it does have a cut or two that help to shave some time off a lap (you'll still clock over a minute though).

You can skip the first meander by driving off the right edge of the first corner and landing on the straight down below in the distance. However, make sure to do so early as there's a killplane before the checkpoint (aim for where the dirt section begins).

Another cut can be performed at the corner before the first jump. Instead of following the track, drive off the left side. You should be doing something like this:
Depending on your speed, you may need to pitch up slightly to avoid the greenhouse (which you'll encounter if you went for the jump anyway). Land on the middle platform, and continue as usual.

Majora does Spirit:

Difficulty: Easier with practice
Watch out for: Last corner
Shortcuts: 1 major

Opportunity is the third track on Mars to clock in at over a minute. It has the most epic jump of any track so far, and the largest number of boost pads in a row (5, or 10 depending on how you count). Just a fun track all around.

Totally Irrelevant but Mildly Interesting Fact: Opportunity[en.wikipedia.org] is the twin of Spirit, and landed three weeks after the latter on the other side of Mars. The rover has been active for over fifty times its designed lifespan, and is one of two that's currently operational.

The track begins with a gentle left-hander followed by this frosted glass loop. The kink is very slight and can be driven through with minimal steering (and a lot of strafing).

This otherwise straight dirt section should be tackled the same way: strafe through the annoying kink and keep your ship centred.

Hit the two boost pads and launch yourself off the ramp. You may be wondering where exactly you're supposed to go next, since the landing appears to be blind...

... but a little downward pitching reveals an inconspicuous pipe resembling a sarlacc[starwars.wikia.com]. Adjust your pitching and aim to land on the inside bottom of the pipe, which is marked by double orange lines. Ok the sarlacc thing is admittedly a bit of a stretch...

The pipe's large size means that ships appear slower than they actually are. Fortunately, there are five boost pads to help speed them up. Unfortunately, they're not in line with each other and can be hard to spot. Fortunately, those keyfob thingies hovering in the middle of the pipe point towards their locations. Unfortunately, this means you have no excuse not to hit all of them.

This bend tends to shove ships to the "top" of the pipe, which then opens up and flings them off in random directions. The "bottom" of the pipe is indicated by the double orange lines, so try to stay here if you wish to avoid a costly respawn (pitching down helps).

Pitch up for the pipe's end section to avoid scraping the track, before turning right for the corner immediately afterwards. The sides have helpful animated arrows in case you're ever unsure of which direction you should be going.

There hasn't been any wallbouncing so far, but that changes here. This series of hard corners can be taken clean if you so prefer, but tight turning and hitting the outside wall is faster. Eagle-eyed pilots may also notice something...

Speed demons (which should be everyone) are in for a treat here. This connecting arch hops you from one cave to the next, and has a row of five boost pads that accelerate your ship to ludicrous speeds even without a Turbo Boost. It's also free of corners, so keep yourself centred and enjoy the ride.

As you dive into the second cave, you'll find that it's quite a bit darker than the first. There are another five boost pads to hit here, but it won't be as easy because of the long sweeping right-hander. Avoid the outside wall by turning slightly sharper.

The final section of the track is the Martian Knot, which is nicely framed by the connecting arch between the two caves. With the exception of the entry corner, this twisted mass of frosted glass tends to throw you to the right, so compensate accordingly.

The Knot ends with a jump to the first portal ever placed on a Redout circuit, which can be seen in the distance. It doesn't look any different from all the other portals you've encountered so far, nor does it function any differently, so I dunno. The jump can be hard to handle because of the tricky corners, but the low gravity gives you plenty of room to correct a bad launch. Do not miss the portal! Or you'll find that the rock behind it is very solid indeed...

Once through the portal, a rather anti-climactic hairpin brings you back to the start line. Nothing much to say about this.

If you think winning all the lotteries in the world was already very improbable...

Backtrack to the exit of the Martian Knot. This jump can be rather tricky to launch off of, so what better way to improve your chances than to avoid it altogether? You may have noticed that the left side of the track is missing a few wall sections. A few pilots have pointed out that a cut is not possible because the track is in the way. BUT! The SRRL has perfected the art of quantum tunnelling, so ships can phase through that section without losing any speed (or pilots). This cut also gives you more air time to adjust your landing at the portal.

Obligatory demonstration video:

Difficulty: Easier with Practice
Watch out for: Exit off the first tube
Shortcuts: One minor, at the end of the half-tubes

Spirit may have given you a brief taste of tubes, but they make up a significant portion of Curiosity. It's also the shortest track in the Mars complex, so toob-haters at least have that consolation. Hope you've practised your strafing...

Totally Irrelevant but Mildly Interesting Fact: Curiosity[en.wikipedia.org] is a rover exploring Gale Crater as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL). Its two-year mission was extended indefinitely in 2012, and is one of two rovers still currently operational.

The track starts off with a short straight and a drop onto the first tube. Staying on the inside is more difficult (the centripetal force will tend to swing the ship out) but slightly faster; the outside is the easier (and slower) path but has three boost pads to close the gap somewhat.

Note: "inside" and "outside" refers to the corners (e.g. inside wall). You are not supposed to be literally inside the tubes at any point!

This is the first of three boost pads on the first tube. You can't really see them due to the curvature, but they are all situated along the double blue line, so follow that and you'll hit them all.

The tube abruptly ends with an upside-down jump. You'll make the landing even when just going moderately fast, so not much to worry about here. Faster ships may want to shift slightly to the right and aim for the apex instead.

A long sweeping left-hander. This section is easy to drive clean even with just tight-turning. Remember to hit the boost pad just before this.

Next up is a jump to this hump of a tube. You may be tempted to simply drive straight and follow the double blue lines, but the faster way is actually to drive on the side.

More accurately, you want to be on the side at the entry and exit, but on the underside at the highest point of the "hump", as this is the straightest path through this tube. From this slightly spooky angle, you can see the tube opens up at the end anyway, so watch out for the landing.

After hitting another boost pad, you'll arrive at the final series of tubes. Driving on the inside is faster than blindly following the double lines.

After the corner is a couple of shallow tube jumps. Both of them are straight, so following the lines here is a good idea as it helps to keep you centred.

Finally a jump back to "regular" track! Hit the boost pad just after the checkpoint and grind the wall on the hard left-hand corner back to the main straight.

The tubes on Curiosity are rumoured to be so repulsive, pilots get nauseated just by looking at them...

Somewhat uncommonly, the half-tube section of the track can be "cut" in two different ways. The first is by flying right at the first tube jump, and pitching up so that the ship skips the final tube altogether. Continue flying while angling yourself to the right, so you are facing the correct direction when you land on the checkpoint. Don't land too far ahead as there's a killplane at the boost pad.

The second method is the Undertoob™. The tubes' undersides open up before the first jump, so you can skip both the half-tubes here. Just be prepared to pitch up after the camera roll as you'll be flying pretty low.

Here's a video showing the cut (and how annoying the tubes are):

Difficulty: Uncooperative Bra Straps too Early in the Morning
Watch out for: All tube exits

Known almost universally as "Spaghetti" because a) we can't spell it, and b) spaghetti junction of tubes indeed it is.

One thing you don't have to worry about on this track is your hull. The first corner is a wall-grinder. However, you have ample time to regenerate after it. Enjoy the novelty!

After the loop - I surely don't need to tell you to pitch back by now - there's a blind flight over the dunes. Just fly straight here. Put your nose down slightly to control your landing. The apex of the first tube turn is your preferred spot.


So, here's a long and complex tube. The centrifugal force will usually swing you to the underside of the tube, which is fine. At the end, the underside of the tube will become the topside in just a moment. However, maintaining this line is hard to achieve because of a sharp kink that will send you spinning. Chances are, you'll be pretty disorentated and the exit will catch you by surprise.


Take a very good look at that picture above. Where the tube sharply bends back upon itself is your cue that the exit is coming. There's not much you can do here, but keep your wits about you and memorise this part.


The landings coming off the tubes are difficult to nail. You are aiming to land on the apex of the green tube. And then immediately coming off that green tube is the hardest exit of all.


The picture above is a common example of a fail. You're going to find all sorts of fun and interesting ways to crash here. The key? Don't do anything. Keep your input neutral and trust your ship to know where it is going. If you've been playing the Neptune tracks, I understand your scoffing, but on this occasion, the ship really does know best. Your ship should do a sharp roll to orient itself to the track. Do not interrupt this roll - doing so is the number one cause of failure. Once the ship has auto-corrected, then you need to seize control of the landing, pronto.

And now - that green tube again!


Slighty easier this time round, we're now treating it as a pipe. Once again, trust your ship on the exit. If you're upside down, the ship will do a tight corrective roll you do not want to interrupt.

There are two more wall-grinder corners just before the exit, but blah. Even a Sulha can pinball through here and have health to spare.

Now to see the track in action:

-A small step for a Lunare

The Moon is a low gravity environment! So watch out for the jumps. The Moon has a surprising quantity of nose-down sections requiring actual nose-down. Avoiding redouts may not be very important, but a lot of these dips will throw you wild and high if you aren't pitching correctly.

Shortcuts:
Spacepark has an important shortcut. Trailblazer has some more subtle alternative approaches.

Difficulty: Easier With Practice
Shortcuts: A slightly different approach at jump two

This track is straightforward, relatively free of surprises. A standard Sulha AP + TB loadout should be quite sufficient here.

The only tactic of note is you want to take an efficient line on the second jump. Don't go too high, and don't land on the short strip of track. You want to fly to the side and very slightly below the level of the platform.

Brionac shows off his skills:

Difficulty: Wild Horse Ride Off A Cliff
Watch Out For: Two blind jumps without an obvious landing (#7 and #9)
Shortcuts: One major, at jump three

This track has something truly bizarre going on - is that a Conqueror at the top of the board!?

The trickiest part is the first chicane. You know by now to cut a chicane as straight as possible, which is very doable here. It will take a few tries to find the way through, but you should be able to pass here silky smooth.


Have your mid-air turn mastered for the first jump's landing - mind the low gravity, which can mess you up here if you just came from a normal gravity track.

The next jumps are through various space junk. They aren't too dangerous, if you control your urge to over-correct.

The seventh jump however will prompt your ship to rotate in mid air.


It might not be obvious, but you're upside down when you start this jump, and that's your ship just rolling to point its belly down again. Don't fight it - trust your ship. Keep fairly straight - you can't see the track, but it is in front of you. Follow those red rings.


The eighth jump needs some nose-down. The final jump (pictured above) is where things really get dangerous. The track is obscured by the space junk. Mind the "spoke" immediately to your left, which will force you to go slightly right to avoid it (see how the red rings curve slightly around it). Then you have to pitch down and fly over the obscuring spoke below. This blind landing is not easy to nail, so don't worry if you can't immediately get the hang of it.

Shortcuts:


At the third jump, fly off towards the spokes and antigravity ball. Pass on the left side of the bottom spoke, quite close to the ball. Then your ship will rotate naturally. It's wise to use a turbo boost here once your nose is pointing the right way - you'll be losing quite a bit of altitude at this point.

Your first few tries, you will be flying blind, as its hard to see where you're flying to. The track is more or less dead ahead.

Zeph does a lap of Spacepark, in a C4 Conqueror AP:

Difficulty: Wild Horse Ride off a Cliff
Watch out for: Just confusing all over

There seems to be no consensus on Reactor - Koeniggswerths are shoulder to shoulder with ESAs on this track. There do seem to be some minor cuts on offer at the jumps.

Watch out for your health on this track. There is a lot of wallbouncing to do, which might account for why Sulhas are scarce on the leaderboards.

There might be a video and track assessment here when someone finally figures out an optimal strategy for this one...

Difficulty: Easier with Practice
Watch out for: The first corner
Shortcuts: nope

The most memorable track, Solar Farm has you flying on solar panels (or, preferably, flying just over them without actually making contact).

Watch out for the first corner, which is a rather abrupt and blind right hander. It leads directly into the first jump, with a tendency to catch you by surprise. Ideally, you want to pitch back a touch and extend your jump so that you land on the track, not the dust.

After some uneventful corners, you're at the iconic part. As mentioned, keep your airtime and only land on the panels towards the end. Jumping towards the next bit of track is annoying. There's a rather inexplicable killplane that you can't see, and which prevents high class ships from landing as far forward as they would like. And to be extra annoying, there are no landmarks indicating where the killplane is. Know that you will have to land shorter than you want to.

Next is a half-tube, the only part of which you need to worry about is the end. This hard left is rather damaging if you take it wrong. This is one of many reasons Magnetic Stabiliser is favoured on this track.

Now we have a jump. You have probably noticed a theme in this guide of extending jumps, flying them long and landing with a mid-air turn at the corner apex. You would be right. That's how we roll. However, here we have a rare example of the opposite. While you certainly could fly this jump long, it seems to be more efficient to fly it short and make sure you hit that boost pad.

The next corners are mildly irritating, especially the last one, which is deceptively gentle and longer than you think.

Brionac demonstrates Solar Farm, in a Class 4 Sulha with MS:

Difficulty: Wild Horse Ride Off A Cliff

After all that novelty and excitement, Trailblazer is a standard Sulha AP track - but one that has a few too many sharp elbows for rough and tumble racing. It has some potential for shortcuts, and you'll certainly want to try some mid-air turns on those big jumps and big corners.

The jumps are all a bit wild. Particularly, the sixth jump (just after the teleporter) is dangerous, forcing you to weave through rocks. Don't be ambitious. This track will remain dangerous until you're very familiar with it.

Forecast: Samba and dubstep

A zero-g environment! Here's a quirky little planetoid, complete with its own corkscrew moon! It has acquired the much more catchy nickname of "Party Rock" because just look at it:


This section of the guide will get a proper update when we're more familiar with the tracks. If such a thing is possible.

Difficulty: Death Incarnate
Watch out for: The Chicane of Lost Hope

Annapurna's last three corners are the most brutal in all of Redout. Use your brakes. There really isn't much else you can do about them. Annapurna looked at Shallow Waters and laughed mockingly.

All the turns and twists on this track are fairly nasty. The speedways will tempt you into getting a lot of speed and subsequently punishing you for it. That said, a bit of practice will significantly improve the main section of the track. There are no special techniques, just lots of strafing.

Forecast: Techno bagpipes and Scottish naturalists

Sequoia's tracks are rather technical affairs. Expect an update to this section once we've got to grips with these knotty tracks. Beginners should be very wary in these parts.

In the meantime, here is Joltout showcasing the arena:

Difficulty: Cheese Grater to the Face
Shortcuts: No
Watch out for: Everything, but especially the jump towards the tube

Magnetic Stabiliser is strongly recommended for this track, otherwise you'd better be in a Lunare or a Koen. This track is essentially a longer, even nastier version of Khamsin. All the corners are sharp; much sharper than many of the ships can reasonably handle at class 4.

The first jump is not especially dangerous, if you know it is coming. Feel free to ignore the platform. You'll only be in trouble if you forgot the jump was coming up and let yourself over or under-steer the corner beforehand.

Beware the landing on the half-tube, after the second jump. Aim for the left side of the tube. You'll want to be moving towards the right as you approach the tube exit. It will be disorientating at first, but some practice will help.

Joltout does a smooth demonstration. Note his good technique on the tube:

Difficulty: Easier with Practice
Shortcuts: Minor alternative approach at the end
Watch out for: Landing of first jump has vicious corners

Kinshijaa starts out nice and easy, but it's a false sense of security. The chicane after the first jump is not nice, and leads into a nasty set of corners. Newbies are likely to be applying some brakes here.

The finale of Kinshijaa is three floating platforms. Take advantage of the minor shortcut here, which has several options.

Flying left, takeoff from the second platform. Land slightly in front of the support beams at the finish line. Watch out, as those beams are very solid. Also, if you get your approach angle wrong, you won't have the height to make it. A few practice shots should get you reasonably confident at this though.

Alternatively, you can fly to the right instead of the left, which is what Joltout does in this video. Ignore the platforms and land in front of the totem beams.


And then there's Zeph's approach, where he somehow does both of these at the same time, plus a suicide finish for good measure.


He does love explodin'. Note too that Zeph cuts the dangerous chicane by flying it straight and high, essentially negating its tedious existence.

Difficulty: Easier with Practice
Shortcuts: No
Watch out for: Chicane at jump landing

Probably the easiest track in Sequoia, however, the chicane after the jump is very tricky. Brionac's video shows best how to handle it, cutting the whole thing straight from a considerable height.

-Angel Island Zone Act 4

Wait, New Zealand again? Yes, we're actually just a short hop over from Fingertips and co. Lake Rotorua is on New Zealand's North Island, with Moutohora hanging about offshore.

And oh boy did they make a mess of the place when they landed here. A big crater and floating islands where the water goes upwards...

Rotorua is a little easier than Sequoia, but still quite a technical set of tracks. You can see the whole thing in Joltout's video:

Difficulty: Asleep at the Back of the Class
Watch out for: .... nothing to see here
Shortcuts: Nope

Apparently not methane at all, just green.

This track is.... boring. The first few corners will be tricky at first just because they are sweeping and blind. Finding the timing for them will be matter of memory, since you don't have good visibility.

This track is extremely featureless. With no jumps at all, its only vaguely memorable part is the corkscrew.


This corkscrew is significantly easier than the Magmatic Chamber one, because it's on a level, with no forces pulling you to the sides. It can be flown entirely neutral, but you'll probably need a bit of strafe. You may scrape you nose a bit on the exit, so pitch back there. Unless you're lazy.

The only slightly exciting part is the final straight, just before the teleporter. You can build a lot of speed here, but there's a kink in the road. You can zoom through here without hitting the walls at all, but it takes a little finesse.

Difficulty: Fun!
Watch out for: Kink after the straight within the tube

The corners around here tend to be slightly longer than what is comfortable... You'll have to memorise their best timing.


There's a big hairpin early on. Ships with good enough steering (MS) should attempt to take this one clean and on the inside - Sulhas will have to own their wallbouncing, and you know a Conqueror wants to drift that. Just avoid the wallgrind.


Next up is a tube! For this one, you want to line yourself up using the level track below you. The lines on the actual tube are misleading. It's perfectly straight, so no fancy stuff here - just corrective strafe.

The section after this is a bind drop - with a gap serving as a sort of jump - then an immediate loop back. You can see its actual shape in the picture below. It's actually a smaller version of Fingertip's crossing-streams loop.


From a driver's perspective however, this is just two small jumps driven entirely straight, and you don't want to go wild on your pitching. I advise a little nose up after the first gap to avoid scraping your nose, then a little nose down on the second jump landing. It is fairly forgiving.

You are then inside the tube. There's a kink on the exit, which can and should be taken clean. Good luck practising that - it's not easy the first few tries.


The next couple of corners (pictured above) are a chicane that should be taken as just the one corner. Fly very close to the left inside edge (it's a larger version of the early chicane in Hell, and rather easier).


Perfectionists note, there is a tiny hill just afterwards. It's so small you'll hardly notice it, but it will cause you a minor nose scrape, and that means a potential health regen interrupt. So remember to point your nose up here - it won't be intuitive to do so on such a minor slope.

Next up is a pair of chicanes - try to take them as straight as possible. Beware the very last corner - it's sweeping and somewhat blind, longer than you think it is. Don't let it trick you into hitting the inside right edge.

Need even more help? Ask in the comments!

Extra special thanks to my bovine buddy C̮̥̥͋o͚̖͛ẅ͖̭̜̑̏++, who has joined me as a contributor on this guide!


Special thanks to everyone whose videos I have used. Kudos and thanks to Dekaid, E-Dragon, Zeph, Blu', Brionac, Joltout and all my Redout friends for sharing their tips and encouraging me to be a better racer! Thanks to Drowne and the 34 Big Things team for continuing to support the game and its fanbase so wholeheartedly. The community is very supportive and we often give tutorials to newcomers. Find us on the Discord server and don't be afraid to ask questions.

Last piece of trivia: Look out for Redout 2's achievement "A Cheese Grater to the Face," which is a reference to this very guide.