NIGHT-RUNNERS – The Comprehensive Guide to Starting This Game

Ultimate Starter Guide

Welcome

I chose to make this guide due to a number of reviews I saw complaining about handling and other issues in this game. I intend for this to serve as a guide for any new player wanting to get into this game. With that stated, lets dive into it.

Starting Out

When you boot into the game, you will see some opening scenes, then get put on a splash screen. Make a username, check your keybinds and hop in.

You spawn in a safe house. You will be told to find a shoebox of full of money. Go to the computer and choose a car at auction. Your options are three variants of the Sanis Livisa (Nissan Silvia). The 180RS has a 5 speed and a lighter chassis, the 200RS has a 6 speed. The engines are identical 2.0L turbo SR20s.

The general consensus so far is that the 200RS is the best starter vehicle choice. Avoid obvious issues listed in the vehicle card. Try to go for a manual. If you have some spare money, see the section of the guide on improving your car.

Once you purchase your vehicle, you are gonna get a call from a Loan Shark, he is gonna warn you that your buddy who left you the money owes him big. You will be given a few million yen for betting and will be told to earn the loan sharks money back.

Now you will want to head to a race. Head to the garage door and exit. Turn left from the door and head down the highway. Make a right at the first exit ramp. Tatsumi PA is gonna be on the right. Turn at the three traffic cones and enter the Parking Area. You will be able to walk around and look at the various cars. Challenge the racer with the lowest rep (usually Daisuke).

Racing as a Beginner

You have a stock POS nissan. It is not going to be fun to drive. The car will understeer badly and accelerate worse. However as of the current patch, the early opponents should be relatively easy to beat. There are two types of races. Drag races, and Route Races. Lets start with Route Races.

With route races, you will run a course vs your opponent. In my experience route races are easier to win from underdog position as AI currently brakes too much for corners. Open the minimap with Left Arrow key or D-pad Left to see your speed and upcoming corners. There will be blue markers designating checkpoints at on and off ramps. Make sure to brake and downshift for corners, you can wall ride in this game but if a npc car is on the outside lane, they will bring you to a stop.

Now for drag races. For these, superior HP and gearing is the key to success. The race will be best 2 of 3. You will have a chance to warm up your tires before starting. Hold brake and accel and warm up to 35 degrees C. On the lead up to the race. Hold brake and accel, when you get the race start indicator, release brake and focus on clean shifts. Good luck!

Sometimes you will have racers challenge you to double or nothing for a second race. If you think you can win again, its free money. Don’t take offers to lose races on double or nothing, you will get less money and lose your night modifier.

Fun fact, if you crash and think you will lose, you can ALT + F4 and the loss wont count, you will restart the night with 12 hours left and can go back to challenge the driver again.

My Car is Horrible, How do I Fix It?

So you’ve earned some money from the early races, but the opponents are getting faster and your car is a pain to drive. What do you do?

Bring your car to the garage via fast travel from the pause menu. From here, walk up to your car and click to customize. There are a bunch of customization options that are navigated with your left and right arrows, for now we will only focus on 3.

• Engine
• Wheels
• Handling

Engine Customization: The engine covers your entire drivetrain. You can modify everything from your air filter to your transmission. The key mechanics of the engine are your cooling and strength percentage.

Cooling strength determines if your engine overheats which can end your night and ruin your engine. Strong cooling systems are required to run NOS. Your intercooler, radiator and oil cooler modify this percentage.

Engine strength determines your engines ability to handle HP and Torque. Pistons, Sparkplugs, Engine Head, and Engine Block modify this strength percentage.

So what do I start with? It depends on your money situation. The goal is to increase your power while maintaining your engine. Some cheap easy power mods are Air Filter Street, Intake Manifold Street, Sparkplugs Street, Radiator Street, and DIY Low Power NOS.

Wheel Customization: Wheels affect your handling score, you want to gun for Semi-Slick Tires as soon as possible. Your overall goal should be to get a handling score of 8 or better by the time you get to 600 HP.

Handling. Upgrade everything besides steering knuckles. See above. You want the best handling possible, it will make your game so much easier.

You will be tempted to upgrade cosmetics, while carbon parts do improve performance (they reduce your weight), 500,000 for a marginal weight loss is not worthwhile until late game.

Its tough to earn the money to buy parts. You can actually sell the stock parts you get, Just visit the customization menu, and use Q to access storage. Go through each part type and use E to sell the stock parts, some stock parts can be worth up to 300,000 yen.