Racing games have been around since time immemorial. It’s extremely difficult, if not virtually impossible, to find an arcade without at least one Daytona racing game installed inside. On the other hand, titles like Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, and Burnout, just to name a few, have found immense popularity on consoles. Today, there are tons of racing games for mobile devices. Kids love it, adults love it, and it’s why racing games will never go out of fashion.
Adding to the extensive roster of racing games is Race Master 3D from SayGames, the folks behind titles such as Decor Life, My Little Universe and Pirate Raid. The company’s racing title Race Master 3D is available on iOS and Android platforms and it has a lot of things to offer. It has 33 unique levels, eight bosses, and seven different locations that you can drive through.
What makes this game interesting is that many of the tracks currently feature 14 neon designs that give levels a pleasantly psychedelic feel. In terms of acquiring cars, the game currently has seven different race cars you can unlock and around 15 paint jobs, aside from various glow lights and wheel designs that you can use to pimp your ride.
Since it’s a fairly new game, you will see that there is a Missions tab that can be accessed in the future. When this update will drop is anybody’s guess and the feature appears to remain under development. However, this is something to look forward to if you’re currently playing the game.
Speaking of gameplay, the mechanics of Race Master 3D are quite simple: You hold the screen to make your car move and maneuver it throughout tracks featuring various obstacles. Unlike perhaps some other racing games, Race Master 3D plays in portrait mode, and you can control your car with either two fingers or just one.
Because of its largely intuitive interface, the game also doesn’t really have tutorial levels. You immediately start on Level 1 and race. The objective, of course, is to finish in first place as you’re pitted against five other AI racers. Finishing first will get you in-game cash rewards and other items such as glow lights, tires, and paint for your car.
Aside from this, zipping past the finish line first will also win you a trophy. After collecting four trophies, you get to fight a boss in a head-to-head racing battle. Finishing second or in any place lower than first will not earn you a trophy. However, you will still go up one level.
While the game may seem simple, this doesn’t mean you won’t find yourself occasionally griping about losses here and there. That’s why we’re here to help: With our beginner’s guide for Race Master 3D, you can earn more trophies, get more items, and finish at the top of your game!
1. Be Patient With the Ads
First things first: there will be ads, as is the case with many free-to-play games. In Race Master 3D, ads are one of the things that you will notice first and foremost when you play the game. This is why we’re putting this particular section at the very beginning of our guide.
Before starting a race, your screen will display your latest acquired car bearing the latest paint job and items you’ve unlocked. At the lower half of the screen, you will see that there’s an option to watch an ad so you can get an in-game cash amount of 200 for free. You will be offered this twice, which can get you a total of 400 in in-game cash just through this option alone.
As you can see from the image above, you only have one currency to acquire and upgrading your car requires cash. The more upgrades you make, the more you have to spend.
Additionally, you have the option to simply continue without watching ads. You may click this instead, but be warned that an ad may still play regardless of whether you’ve availed of free in-game cash or other items. In some cases, you may have to watch an ad to obtain a tire, paint, or glow light you’ve won after multiple races, as seen in the image below.
Other times, you may have to open two to three rewards boxes to get the item you’ve won. You get one chance to open a box for free, but if you don’t get the item, you may open other rewards boxes by watching ads. You have a one out of three chance to get the item instantly, but odds won’t always be in your favor. If you don’t get that particular item, you will instead get cash. In the example below, we had to open a second rewards box and watch an ad to get the Purple Paint item.
Getting boosters (more on this later) will also require you to watch ads before entering a round. Most ads that you will encounter will typically last for 30 seconds, but some can be a bit longer or shorter. Again, you may skip watching ads for rewards and items, but there are cases when an ad will still play regardless.
That said, you might as well watch those ads and take advantage of the rewards they bring. Since skipping ads won’t necessarily deter them from playing anyway, it’s best to be patient. This may be a bit frustrating for some players, but it’s better to get something than nothing out of these ads. Just think of it as somewhat of a mutual reward between you and the developers.
2. Don’t Hurry Upgrading Your Cars
As previously mentioned, you can upgrade your car by spending in-game currency. You will be given the option to upgrade its handling, top speed, and acceleration. Each upgrade will bring you closer to leveling up your current car.
As seen in the image above, you will start with the Triumph, with a handling of 112, top speed of 232, and acceleration of 11 for base stats. Upon reaching Level 2 of the upgrades, the Triumph will slightly change its appearance.
When you reach Level 3, the appearance will be slightly modified yet again and you can max out the upgrades by this time. Particularly for the Triumph, you will have to spend between 15,000 and 20,000 of your in-game cash to reach its maximum level. Only then will you be able to unlock another car. For the purposes of this guide, we chose to unlock the Fierre, which will cost an extra 2,070 of in-game cash after maxing out the Triumph.
The base stats of the Fierre are only very slightly different from the Triumph’s base stats, as seen in the image below.
After maxing out the Fierre, you may unlock the next car. The vehicle we chose to unlock is the Faster. Again, its base stats are not extremely far off from the first two cars mentioned.
What does this all mean? It only means you don’t have to hurry upgrading and maxing out your vehicles. For this guide, we were curious to see how far a maxed out Triumph could take us, and we can definitely say that your starter vehicle can go more than the extra mile.
After trying out all three vehicles (there are many more to unlock, of course), we found no conclusive difference between them in terms of handling, top speed, and acceleration. Given that each vehicle can be expensive to upgrade, we suggest holding it off if your goal is to simply win races and progress through levels.
Though you may occasionally fall in second place or lower, the game will still allow you to go up a level. With a handful of strategies in play (more on strategy after this section), your starter vehicle—or any car you choose for that matter—will get you to your destination.
However, if you want to indulge the completionist in you, we suggest acquiring more in-game cash to spend for upgrades and unlock other vehicle designs. Additionally, it’s important to note that items such as tires are purely cosmetic. Changing tires will only affect your car’s design but not add or subtract stat bonuses. The same goes for paint and glow lights: they are merely there to make your vehicles look more appealing.
3. Look Ahead
Ads, upgrades, and cosmetics aside, now it’s time for some strategy. Since you can use virtually any vehicle in the game, our first strategic recommendation involves improving your depth perception. You may be tempted to simply focus on your moving vehicle once the race begins. However, there are other factors you need to pay attention to, not the least of which is how the track gradually unfolds.
As in most racing games, the turns and obstacles in Race Master 3D reveal themselves slowly, which may sometimes cause you to miss a few important details when you’re simply focusing on your car and not the road ahead. To minimize bumping into obstacles or grazing your vehicle during turns, try to position your mobile phone a comfortable distance away instead of holding it too close. This approach can give you enough leeway to perceive how the track goes.
One thing about Race Master 3D is that it has no map and you can only see how far you’ve managed to travel a lap or two through a progress bar at the top of the screen. You can find this bar under the level number you’re currently in. The checkered racing flag at the end of the bar will indicate how far you are from reaching the finish line.
With no map, you can only vaguely anticipate the direction of the road when you have a clear view of the entire screen. In some cases, the terrain may work against your favor, especially since most obstacles can come as a surprise or turns may be too sudden. In this case, giving yourself a complete view of the screen will minimize mistakes compared to when you only have a limited view.
4. Don’t Panic
When faced with sudden turns, twists, and obstacles, you might have a knee-jerk reaction and turn your vehicle drastically away from an unpleasant surprise. However, this might do more harm than good. Try not to panic and turn your vehicle too sharply. This is because the track can be fairly short and traveling a quick distance will let you encounter another obstacle or multiple obstacles in succession.
Turning sharply might also cause you to bump into the edge of the road, which can result in abrupt stops or even your car suddenly turning over if you’re going at an extremely high speed.
Instead of making sharp, panicked turns, approach possible roadblocks calmly and make only a slight move to the left or right. More often than not, a little change in direction is sufficient to avoid bumps and obstacles, especially if they’re situated in the middle of the road.
By moving only slightly, you will have an easier time bringing your vehicle back to the center of the road to make more advantageous shifts in movement. Keep in mind that bumping into anything will drastically reduce your speed.
On the other hand, driving smoothly will accelerate your vehicle to its top speed. One good thing about the game is that your vehicle’s response can be pretty good, making abrupt movement changes unnecessary.
5. Try to Follow the Road’s Inner Curve
Generally, we would also recommend staying at the center of the road as it typically has a line you can easily follow as you drive. While there may be some obstacles right smack in the middle of these roads, they can be avoided with a slight shift to the side. You may also encounter tunnels that are only half paved, meaning one part is full of holes that your car can fall into.
On the image below, you will see that the left part of the tunnel isn’t paved, though this may not be easily perceived as it can only seem like the road is transparent. The best approach, at least until you reach the end of the tunnel, is to drive safely following the centerline of the road.
However, in terms of securing the top spot in the race, driving right at the center might not always be to your advantage. This is particularly true when you’re trying to overtake your competitors.
To give yourself an edge, try to drive closer to the road’s inner curve when turning. Driving on the outer curve will make your vehicle move a slightly longer distance. Meanwhile, driving through the inner curve is a little closer to driving straight, which is slightly shorter—but that small distance can make all the difference between winning first or eating dust. Unlike other racing games, Race Master 3D has no function for drifting, but again, vehicles have a pretty good response when it comes to handling.
One caveat about following the road’s inner curve (aside from possibly encountering obstacles) is that driving too close to it and for too long can flip your car over. You’re especially susceptible to this when you’re inside a tunnel.
To avoid a scenario like this, leave a small gap between your vehicle and the inner curve. When you find yourself almost scaling the curve upwards, make a gradual shift in the opposite direction.
6. Watch Out for Obstacles
One of the most challenging features of this game is that there are various obstacles that will keep you from reaching the finish line ahead of the other vehicles. These obstacles can come in different shapes, sizes, and forms, but they’re generally a variation of five kinds of hurdles. Let’s look at each one and see how you can tackle them on the road:
Breakable obstacles and debris are perhaps the easiest to deal with. All you need to do is drive through them and they will instantly collapse. What’s tricky is that some obstacles might seem like breakables, but you might be surprised to discover that they can actually stop your vehicle with their sheer mass.
There’s really no way to tell which roadblocks are breakable or not, unless you see your competitors ahead encountering the same obstacle or if you encounter it yourself. The best solution, of course, is to avoid these altogether.
However, falling debris like rocks and snow from avalanches, can be difficult to avoid because they can fill up the horizontal section of the road. Thankfully, they’re also “breakable” and can be managed by simply driving through them.
That said, some examples of breakable obstacles are rolling barrels (but avoid the flaming ones since they can explode or set your car on fire), stationary barrels, balls, small rocks, and snowmen, to name a few.
Fixed obstacles are those you simply can’t drive through. They will stop your car and even cause it to turn over. Upon hitting fixed obstacles, your vehicle’s position will be reset in a predetermined location depending on where you’ve encountered this roadblock on the track. Some examples of these are concrete road signs, walls, large containers left on the side of the road, etc.
Ramps can also be considered “fixed” obstacles as a wrong move can cause your car to slide off the side of a ramp and topple over. Usually, longer and wider ramps indicate that you have to jump from one platform to the next. Things can easily go awry if you don’t have enough speed to make the jump.
In some cases, you may successfully jump off a ramp only to find yourself driving straight through a huge hole or a narrow strip of road. Because of this, treat ramps as both an obstacle and a warning.
Moving obstacles can come in several variations. Some are windmill-type obstacles, others behave like pendulums, while there are some that act like giant hammers on the side of the road. One key factor that all moving obstacles have in common is how fast or slow they move.
Hammer-type obstacles usually move rapidly while windmill-type obstacles can vary from being deceptively slow or heart-stoppingly fast. In some cases, moving obstacles with varying speeds are placed one after the other, which can definitely throw you off balance as all of them require precise timing to be avoided.
The good news is that many moving obstacles can be easily seen from a short distance. This leaves you with enough room to anticipate how fast they’re moving and in which direction you should steer your vehicle. When dealing with moving obstacles, try to place a considerable gap between your car and the moving object if possible. You may approach this by going the opposite direction of the obstacle’s movement or following it.
For instance, if you encounter a windmill-type obstacle rotating clockwise, gauge whether there’s enough space for you to zip past it by going left. Otherwise, you can follow the opposite direction of its movement and go slightly to the right depending on its speed.
Retractable obstacles are an unpleasant surprise because you can’t see them outright. They usually spring up from holes on the road and if you don’t see them, you can bump into them. Occasionally, you may also see other obstacles that drop from a rope, like cars or giant containers. These may catch you off-guard, but they can be avoided when you pay attention to the road’s.
More often than not, retractable obstacles that spring up from holes can be found on either side of the road, in multiples across the road, or lining the middle of the track. For bigger objects that drop from a rope, you may see them from afar, but the challenge in avoiding them is that they usually offer only a small space for maneuvering as their size can occupy much of the road. You have to time it right by driving through that area when larger obstacles are hoisted up. Otherwise, you have a bigger chance of bumping into them and being thrown off the track.
The Environment Itself Tries to Kill You
Yes, aside from giant windmills, flaming barrels, and glowing pink wrecking balls, the environment itself will try to kill you as you race. You typically encounter these murderous elements during boss fights. Some examples are planes flying above the track and machine-gunning the road, alien spacecraft trying to obliterate you with deadly beams, and, as seen in the image above, a train trying to shoot you from the roadside.
But while these obstacles can be intimidating, they’re not unavoidable. In fact, most of them target only one part of the road, or leave the middle open for you to drive through unscathed. Fortunately, boss fights take two laps to finish. After encountering these obstacles in the first lap, you’ll have an easier time dodging them in the second.
7. Forget About the Brakes
Some racing games give players the option to pull the brakes or even drift. This isn’t available in Race Master 3D. To come to a stop, you just need to let go of the screen until your vehicle gradually halts. Otherwise, you’ll always be driving at breakneck speed unless you run into an obstacle.
That said, aggressive driving tends to be the best approach in this game. There will be times when you’re head-to-head with an opponent or multiple opponents. Take this chance to perform some of these aggressive driving tactics:
- Bump your opponent’s car on the side (best done with a Shield booster)
- Bump your opponent from behind (best done with a NOZ booster)
- Bump your opponent while in mid-air (preferably with a Shield booster so your car won’t recoil from the impact)
- Cut through the inner curve of the road and bump your opponent while they’re turning
- Bump your opponent right into the direction of an obstacle
These are but a few basic tactics, but one thing’s for sure: you’ll get farther if you forget the brakes altogether.
8. Give Yourself a Boost
As mentioned, you can avail of boosters before starting a race by watching ads. Currently, there are only two boosters being offered by the game, but they’re more than sufficient to ensure victory. These boosters are the NOZ and Shield. You can only get one type of booster per level by watching ads, but you may still use boosters you’ve left from previous rounds. Whatever is available is picked by the game at random.
You may also acquire boosters when you manage to accumulate enough Season points to unlock rewards without spending in-game cash.
Let’s look at how these two booster items can help you win:
Activating this item will give your car a five-second boost, allowing you to accelerate further even after your vehicle achieves its top speed. This can sound like a short-lived advantage, but knowing how and when to use the NOZ can maximize its winning potential and even turn the tide of a seemingly unfavorable race.
Because timing is especially crucial when using the NOZ, here are a few scenarios where we suggest activating this item:
- When you’re falling behind or taking the lead, and the road ahead is straight
- When you have an opponent or multiple opponents nearby, so you can zip past them or bump them off the track
- When you’re head-to-head with an opponent near the finish line
- Before jumping off a ramp so you can get extra airtime and land farther into the track ahead of other cars
- When you’re faced with multiple moving obstacles
These are just some ways you can use the NOZ to your advantage. Try them anytime you find yourself in similar situations.
The other booster you can get before entering a match is a Shield boost. You may be offered two or three Shield boosts before each round. Unlike the NOZ, this is automatically activated at the start of the race. Keep in mind that Shields can’t protect you from falling off holes or cliffs. They also can’t smash through some fixed obstacles, like large objects or walls. Shields also give only a limited amount of protection. This means that if you’ve bumped into too many obstacles, the shield may eventually disappear.
That said, Shields aren’t only useful for safeguarding your vehicle. You may also use it to your advantage when you’re driving alongside multiple opponents. With the Shield on, you can bump other cars and throw them off track. You may even do this mid-air, but be mindful of your landing.
You may also apply some of the aggressive driving techniques we’ve previously cited with the Shield switched on, making these more effective and minimizing the chances of your car acquiring damage.
9. Catch Some Airtime
Driving smooth and straight is just one way to get to the finish line. Another way you can do this is to get ample airtime when jumping off ramps. Getting just enough airtime will ensure that you successfully reach another platform, enter a floating tunnel with ease, and even increase your chances of overtaking your opponents.
However, getting a little too much airtime can also be disadvantageous as you might unwittingly land on a large fixed obstacle. Before this happens, steer your vehicle a little to the side, away from the object you might potentially hit. Similarly, if you think you’re getting too much airtime, you may let go of the screen for a few seconds to sort of pull your car back mid-air instead of moving at top speed.
10. Beat Bosses
What’s a racing game without going head-to-head with a big boss? After winning four racing battles in first place, you’d have obtained the required number of trophies to unlock a boss and fight them one-on-one. Again, since Race Master 3D is a fairly new game, there are currently eight available bosses that you will encounter. We’ll list them down in order alongside what you can expect when you fight them:
- Theme/Terrain: Hellish map with all the skulls, fire and brimstone you can think of
- Most dangerous obstacles to watch out for: Rolling flaming spike balls and a skull-shaped tunnel entrance whose jaws open and close
- Theme/Terrain: A combination of a waterpark and a sea-themed map complete with dolphins jumping over the track
- Most dangerous obstacles to watch out for: Half-paved tunnels (mostly to the left) and a tunnel that’s basically the throat of a shark (driving through the tunnel’s inner curve too high will make your car topple over)
- Theme/Terrain: A town where a tornado is wreaking havoc
- Most dangerous obstacles to watch out for: The tornado itself is an obstacle, as well as the barnyards, large elevated rocks, and civilian cars popping out of nowhere
- Theme/Terrain: This one has a zany theme, with a town being destroyed and invaded by aliens
- Most dangerous obstacles to watch out for: Flying saucers with deadly beams, giant one-eyed tentacle windmills, and large neon debris
- Theme/Terrain: This track is a destruction derby junkyard
- Most dangerous obstacles to watch out for: Rolling barrels that are on fire
- Theme/Terrain: A snowy mountain with snow-covered roads
- Most dangerous obstacles to watch out for: The sudden avalanche and the biplane that flies out of nowhere to shoot you (most of its bullets are aimed at either side of the road so if you see this plane, stay in the middle and you’ll be fine)
- Theme/Terrain: A desert track with hills and cliffs
- Most dangerous obstacles to watch out for: The train moving at the roadside that tries to shoot you (bullets are aimed at either the left or right side of the road so simply shift a little the opposite way when you see this train)
- Theme/Terrain: Another icy terrain with icy roads
- Most dangerous obstacles to watch out for: Ice that explodes at either side of the road
Beating bosses will get you in-game cash rewards as well as Season points that can be used for boosters, cosmetic items, or more cash. It’s interesting to note that bosses don’t have a special skill, and the only difference between each one are their track designs and the appearance of their vehicles. Other than that, we can’t say that there’s anything separating them from each other in terms of skill. Basically, you will simply have to beat eight bosses to get more rewards.
When you’ve managed to defeat Furyosa in a head-to-head match, the boss cycle will repeat. This means the next boss after Furyosa is El Diablo again, and so on in the same order we’ve listed above.
If you don’t win a boss fight, you may retry as many times as you like until you finally defeat them.
With this, we come to the end of our guide for Race Master 3D. We hope that with these tips and tricks, you’ll breeze through matches and boss fights, get as many rewards as you can to pimp your ride, and zip past that finish line while leaving other racers in the dust! If there are masterful driving tips you can share for this game, feel free to leave them as a comment below!