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Top Drives Beginner’s Guide: 6 Tips & Tricks for Rookie Drivers

Hutch Games has something different for all of you out there who may be interested in trading card games, collectible card games, card battlers, or whatever you prefer to call them. Top Drives is now available for iOS and Android users, and instead of the usual fantasy setting, this game is all about the world’s best-known and, in most cases, fastest automobiles. And there are a lot of them in here, as you can build your deck from more than 700 officially licensed cars, including vehicles from ubiquitous names such as Ford and Mercedes, and high-speed automakers such as Bugatti, McLaren, and Pagani. All car stats are certified to be accurate, and like you normally would in racing games, you can manage your cars and upgrade them. There are “hundreds” of racing challenges to play, and multiplayer events where you can compete for exclusive cars.

We understand that cars might not be the first thing you think about when it comes to mobile card games. But that’s why we’re here to help — we know that this is a rather unusual premise, and you may be wondering how to play your cards, and how to build your deck to begin with. While you may have read our first strategy guide for the game, but we’re back with even more hints. Read on, and check out our collection of tips and tricks for Top Drive.

1. Keep Your Eye Out For The Highlighted Stats

If you simply want to watch car races take place before your eyes, there’s a very easy way to do so, and an easy way as well to take note of what’s needed in a certain race. Keep your eyes peeled for the car stats on the bottom of the screen that are highlighted whenever you’re choosing cars to race. Specifically, the box on the left will show you the stats that are being focused on in the currently selected race, and when you look at your car list, you will see the most important stats highlighted in blue, further helping you out when choosing cars. But it’s not enough that you simply look for the blue highlights — some of the blue highlights in here are brighter than the others. If you see a car whose stats are in bright blue, that means it’s the best in a certain category. You’ll hardly ever go wrong with that, so go ahead and choose that best car when you hit the racetrack. And if you see a car with multiple stats in blue highlights, regardless of how bright the highlights are, you’ll want to go for that vehicle as well.

2. Open The Free Gifts

Although this tip is practically given in any kind of card collecting game, we’re going to mention it nonetheless, for the benefit of those who may have downloaded Top Drives for the auto racing, and not the card battling. Like other games, this title gives out free gifts to players every few hours or so; in this case, you will get a mystery gift that can be opened only once a day. Unfortunately, you will have to settle for the weak common card you would normally get as a reward, but you just might luck out and get yourself an uncommon card, which is as far as it goes with these free rewards. If it’s any consolation, you can increase your lineup of common cards, and load up as well on experience.

3. Take The Course Details Into Account

You will only be given a few precious bits of information to help you choose the cars to take with you in the next course. Make sure you take stock of these details, as this could mean the difference between winning and losing!

The first track detail to remember is the weather — the game will let you know if the weather is sunny or rainy, and this has bearing on the type of cars that will excel. If the weather is rainy, for instance, you should be bringing a high-grip car with you, because as you may know, cars with low grip would easily spin out under such weather conditions. Also take surface into account, as this tells you the type of terrain to expect in any given track. On-Road is self-explanatory; this is a conventional racetrack or course where you drive on a paved surface, while Off-Road, likewise, is very easy to figure out. Mixed is a combination of on- and off-road, and if you’re going to be racing on such a course, make sure you’re bringing some 4WD cars with you, at least for the most part.

4. Some Important Upgrade Tips

Obviously, you’ll want to make your cars faster and better so that you have more chances of winning big in the races. But what should you do to upgrade those vehicles you have and improve their prospects in Top Drives? Keep this basic tip in mind — anytime you’re trying to upgrade a car from one stage to another, you’ll need to sacrifice three cars that you presumably won’t be needing anymore. This may include some common cars that won’t do you much good if your deck is mostly composed of uncommon cars or rarer, and if we may go back a couple of tips, that’s where the free common cars would oftentimes come in. It’s classic RPG mechanics at play in this game — if you’ve got heroes you no longer need, you can use them as sacrifice material to improve the heroes you need.

5. Save Up Your Cash

Cash is the premium currency in Top Drives, and it is, quite unfortunately, rather hard to earn in the game. That means you should try your best not to spend your cash on the car packs, until you’ve earned more than enough of it. Upgrading, after all, doesn’t just require that you have three cars to sacrifice. You also need to have a generous amount of cash, especially once your car’s sufficiently leveled up, and you don’t want to spend it on anything less than essential, or anything that could compromise your upgrades later on in the game.

6. Fail To Get Three Stars? You Can Always Try Again

As this is a beginner’s guide, we won’t get into too much detail when talking about the star system. But to fill you in on the basics, each track will allow you to earn a maximum of three stars, with this grade based on your performance. Perform well enough and you’ll get a perfect three stars, but lose any one of the races in a course and you will lose some points. Losing once isn’t the end of the world, but if you lose enough, you will end up losing one star, and later on two stars. Don’t be overconfident, and make sure you’re giving it your all in each and every race! It’s all about beating your opponents as quickly as possible here — winning per se won’t cut the mustard.

It’s important to collect as many stars as possible, because your star rating will determine how many bonus cards you will be allowed to flip over, and also determine how quickly you can unlock new tracks. But don’t sweat it too much if you aren’t able to get a perfect three stars in the first time you try out a new track. The game will allow you to return at any time to replay that race and shoot for three stars again.