Some time back, we provided you a few CSR Classics strategy guides, which include some general hints, as well as more advanced tricks on how to win races and earn cash. This time, we’re revisiting this highly addictive Android and iOS racing game from NaturalMotion and giving you some tips and tricks on how to do well in two of the game’s most popular modes. But before that, here’s a brief refresher on CSR Classics – this game allows you to go drag racing in one or more out of 70 classic American muscle cars and European/Japanese sports cars from decades past, with each of the boss characters having some sort of criminal past or present in the game’s storyline.
Speaking of storyline, you’ll get to go through it in CSR Classics’ Crew Battles, where you challenge crew members with progressively faster cars before facing the crew boss. The second mode we’re covering here, which is online mode, pits your car against real-life players from all over the world, and as we’ll tell you in a bit, this can be a really good way for you to earn some in-game money. But we’ll leave it at that for now, and get on with the strategy guide, which you can refer to any time you’re having a tough time in the game.
1. Take Note Of The Difficulty Level
Races in CSR Classics are rated by their difficulty, starting with Easy, then progressing to Challenging, Hard, and finally Extreme. And as you keep upgrading your car, you’ll notice the difficulty level becoming easier and easier. What we’d suggest here, to allow you to save gas, is not to take part in a Crew Battle if the difficulty is still at Hard or Extreme. Chances are no matter how good you think your car is, you’ll need to make a perfect start and perfect shifts in order to pull off the win.
2. Raise Money For Upgrades
As we stated above, you should avoid Crew Battles unless you see that the difficulty has been downgraded to Easy or Challenging. But in order to downgrade that difficulty, you’ll need upgrades; you’ll only be wasting gas if you lose a difficult race, and boss races always cost you two pips of gas, win or lose. Upgrades, however, cost money, and a lot of it if you’re talking Level 4 and Level 5 parts.
What you’ll need to do is to keep racing to raise money – the Ladder Races are typically a breeze, and so are the Regulation Races. But the best way to earn more money, as we’ve seen, is through online/multiplayer mode, which is the second focus of this strategy guide. Once you’ve reached the fourth to sixth race in a League, you’ll start winning cards, which could contain gas, gold coins, cash, or other freebies. Just make sure to bank all your winnings if you feel you don’t stand a chance to go much further; losing one race in a league means you lose your winnings too. You could also earn a ton of money by leveling up from Bronze to Silver and Silver to Gold Leagues by trading in two cards for an entry bonus.
3. Hire The Right People For Your Pit Crew
In online mode, you’ll be asked if you want to hire one or more team members – the Pro Tuner, the N2O Maniac, the Tire Crew, and/or the Blogger. Based on our experience, the Pro Tuner and Blogger are the most helpful. The Pro Tuner optimizes your engine for a race, thus allowing you to shave some split-seconds off your time. The Blogger, on the other hand, grants you free restarts (which ordinarily cost gold coins) should you lose a race, and salvages some of the Respect Points you may have lost in the process.
As a bonus tip, you can hire them for a given number of races before you tap on Race the World and enter the leagues; if you’ve got some spare cash to spend, this would certainly be a good idea.
4. Race Higher-Tier Cars In The Regulation Races
Want some easy wins and easy money for those upgrades ahead of your next Crew Battle? If you’ve got a higher-tier car, you can enter it in the Regulation Races, and set the difficulty to Pro so you can earn more money; in most cases, those races will still have an Easy difficulty. For example, you may want to race your Tier 2 Dodge Dart Swinger in the Tier 1 Regulation Races, where it should dominate the competition.
5. Be Careful With The Time Lapse Cheat
We mentioned this before in our original set of CSR Classics tips and tricks, but we’ll say it once again as a reminder. The time lapse cheat still works if you want to refill your gas tank ASAP, albeit with a catch – if you set the time back to normal, you’ll have to wait till the time you set your phone to before getting another refill.
6. All About The Boss Races
Once you’ve beaten everyone in the boss’ crew, you’ll get to face the boss himself or herself and have to beat them thrice. With each time you win, the boss’ car will become harder to defeat, which makes it necessary to have the sufficient upgrades before taking them on. And just to reiterate an important point we made earlier, regular races cost a pip of gas, while boss races cost two.
Once you’ve beaten the boss three times, they will ask you if you want one final race; if you win, you get their car, but if you lose, you lose a certain amount of gold coins. If the boss drives a car you don’t own yet, then by all means give them one for the road; once again, be sure you’ve got the right upgrades! The Agent may also suggest a special upgrade for your ride, which may cost you some cash or coins; if you’ve got enough, then go for that upgrade.
However, it’s best to leave this final race alone and miss out on it if you already own the same car the boss uses at the races.