Much like Zuuks Games’ Bus Simulator: Ultimate, Truck Simulator 2018: Europe offers a unique driving experience that immerses you in a realistic perspective of running your very own trucking business. It goes beyond simply managing drivers and trucks, as you will also be involved in driving the trucks yourself. If you love driving simulators and especially dream about what it is like to be behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler, then you should definitely check Truck Simulator 2018: Europe out.
Truck Simulator 2018: Europe comes packed with various camera options that can give driving enthusiasts a good feel of driving from within the cockpit as well as other perspectives. Beyond realistic traffic rules and toll fees, varying weather conditions also provide extra challenges to driving from point A to point B. As an added incentive to truck lovers, there are various customization options available for each truck from paint jobs and accessories down to the tires.
There is not much of a tutorial session involved as you jump into Truck Simulator 2018: Europe. After accepting your first job and before you pick up the trailer, you will be introduced to the different buttons on your screen that you need to familiarize yourself with to start driving. You can actually learn as you go and despite the various challenges that come your way, patience and caution will help you through it.
If you find yourself in trouble completing jobs or simply looking for more efficient ways of earning profits and expanding your business, then read our comprehensive Truck Simulator 2018: Europe beginner’s guide below. With the help of our tips, cheats and strategies you will certainly become the King of the Road!
1. Adjust The Settings To Suit Your Tastes Better
As soon as you install Truck Simulator 2018: Europe, there will naturally be an itch to jump straight into your truck and start driving. Before you do, however, it is best to look into the settings menu first. You can easily do this by tapping on the gear icon at the lower left side of the screen. There are not that many options available but at the very least, ensuring that the game and your truck’s setup is the best possible one for you can make your job easier on the road.
What is mostly important relative to the settings is the controls and layout. As far as the control schemes go, you can choose between buttons, a gyro, or a steering wheel to maneuver your truck. There is no best option when it comes to steering options and you would have to choose the one that suits you best. In terms of control layout, it is unfortunate that you will not be able to adjust each button’s location but switching from left to right should be suitable enough to make it easier for you.
If you prefer to silence the GPS voice assist or switch the vibrations off, you can do that as well. As far as the camera is concerned, you can always cycle through more perspective options within the game. It is best to go through all these settings before taking on a job but if you happen to forget doing so, you can quickly pause your game and head on to the main screen to tinker with it further. It will naturally reset your progression on the job at hand. You will naturally consume fuel as you practice driving in the garage so you might want to consider restarting the mission instead.
2. Master The Controls
Truck Simulator 2018: Europe is designed to give you as much of an immersive experience as possible in a mobile game. To give you a good feel of what it is really like to operate a truck, there will be plenty of buttons and icons that litter your screen for you to click on, each with its own unique function. Before you head on out in pursuit of completing your first delivery, be sure to acquaint yourself with each one of them.
To start off, there is a pause button at the top of the screen. Pressing it will give you 3 options, which is to continue playing, to “play again” or reset the job at hand, or to proceed to the main menu. Initially, this will be handy if you want to go for a test drive first before actually attempting to complete a job. Later on, you might find yourself deciding to let one of your drivers to take on the job instead of you, so heading on to the main menu will automatically quit the job at hand.
Next to that is the camera button. Truck Simulator 2018: Europe comes with 7 different camera views that you can cycle through. While you may prefer to use one perspective for driving, a different view may be suitable for parking. Sometimes, you will have to utilize different camera views at different scenarios.
If you want to hear more than your truck’s engine, horns, the rain, and other vehicles on the road, then you will certainly appreciate Truck Simulator 2018: Europe’s built-in radio that comes packed with a lot of stations. Once you click on it, you can tap the “radio open” button and start tuning in to the different stations on the list. Be sure to scroll down as there are more channels available than what you can readily see on the screen. It may take a while to pick up signals so you may want to set it up before you start rolling.
One important icon you need to pay special attention to from time to time is the driver’s status. As time passes by, the driver gets tired and hungry. It is best to keep him as fit as possible so regular rest stops and meals are part of every journey you make.
At the right side of the screen, be sure to keep the side mirror on especially out on the road. This is very important to keep an eye on especially if you swerve on the road or go through tight corners. Below the side mirror is the start and stop button that controls your engine. You will not be able to move without turning it on and once it is turned on, you start consuming fuel.
All trucks in Truck Simulator 2018: Europe have automatic transmission and you need to swipe it upwards or downwards to shift between drive or moving forward, park or neutral, and reverse to move backwards. It is actually easy but for beginners, you may encounter some mishaps occasionally if you do not focus on it much.
Once the engine is turned on, you will see a speedometer icon below the gear stick. Tapping on it show up a cruise control. This feature will enable your truck to move at a constant speed without you having to step on the accelerator. It comes in very handy on the road especially since the shortest distances you need to travel for the job are still pretty lengthy. You can set the speed you want with the arrows and once you tap on the on/off button, your truck will start to move.
The cruise control will still be affected by your brakes and the hand brake but once you stop pressing on either brakes, your truck will continue to move unless you turn cruise control off again. The hand brake is below the cruise control button, and the short pedal is your normal brakes.
At the bottom of your screen is your dashboard, which is jam-packed with a lot of features to give you an even more immersive experience of driving. There is a hazard button for emergency stops above the left signal button. You have your horn to use on slow moving cars in front of you as well.
Next to that is the wiper that comes in handy when there is snow and rain and at the right side of the speedometer is your citizens band or CB radio that makes your driver blurt out a lot of interesting speeches. You have the headlights next to that and you should remember to use it whenever it gets dark.
3. Drive For A Bit Before Picking Up The Trailer
One of the other things to take note of is that Truck Simulator 2018: Europe does not provide you with a training session to get more accustomed to driving your first truck. Once you have chosen a job to take, you will start at the garage where you will pick up the trailer. There is a green arrow indicating where you need to park and the trailer will automatically attach itself to the truck once you are in a good enough position. Once the trailer is attached, the countdown timer starts running, so you will need to proceed to your destination as soon as you can to earn the most out of the contract.
It can happen that the first delivery job will be the most challenging one especially if you have not fully mastered controlling your truck yet. If you have experienced some difficulty backing up to where the trailer to pick up is in an open garage, then chances are that you will even have a harder time on the road.
To have a much better performance on the road, therefore, take a bit of time to accustom yourself to the controls, specifically, the steering and acceleration of your truck. It will naturally be a lot more challenging with a trailer to drag later on but at the very least, you can improve your grasp of the speed and maneuverability of your truck as well and improve your turns and breaks on the road.
4. Go For The Easiest Job First
Another unique feature of Truck Simulator 2018: Europe is that you can already choose from a wide plethora of jobs to take on day 1. There are no expertise restrictions of any sort although some require you to watch a few ads to unlock as well as higher truck classes. This may have a positive impact for more experienced driving sim enthusiasts but for beginners, the best route to take is still going through it starting with the easiest.
Each type of job differs in pay and what impacts pay seem to be reflected on the icons underneath the job banner. There is weather, load type, and distance shown but as far as the load type is concerned, it hardly merits a significant impact. What you should keep an eye on is the weather conditions and preferably go for ones that have sunny weather.
If there is fog or snow involved, it gets a little trickier so you should master driving through regular conditions first before testing your driving skills on slippery roads or with an impaired vision. Distance is basically measured by the duration of work indicated. This means that if you see a job that takes 40 minutes to complete, it means that it is going to be a long drive and not even counting the stops in-between.
Note that you can readily choose the same job right after completing it. The first job you see after clicking on the job offers icon on the main screen is actually the easiest. It only pays $2,500 but the route is very straightforward and under sunny weather. This job serves like the training ground among all jobs as it is a lot simpler than the rest.
5. Take As Much Time As You Need
Once you pick up the cargo from the source location, you have a limited period of time within which to deliver it to the destination to claim full payment. At first, this can seem like a critical aspect of the job especially if you are a beginner and would want a job well done on your first go. However, this can pour unnecessary pressure on you and just might cause you to be less focused and reckless on your job.
This aspect of the game makes it even worse when the countdown has ended and you will start losing money as more time passes by. The alarming way it flashes on your screen can be very disconcerting, but in truth, you can actually choose to ignore the time aspect of each job and focus instead on being patient and careful every step of the way.
Do not worry if you receive pay deductions for late delivery as you will never be too slow to reduce the payment to zero. On the other hand, being involved in an accident or a couple, especially if you are rushing towards the destination, will be a lot more expensive.
For starters, limiting yourself to a certain speed especially as you are still familiarizing yourself with your current truck is a must. Although your first truck is supposedly the slowest of the bunch, its top speed can still be a lot to handle especially for the uninitiated. It is viable to take it a step at a time when trying to speed up your delivery time but never at the cost of breaking traffic laws and causing collisions.
Keep in mind that even at your best run on the initial jobs you will take, it is still going to be a challenge to make it in time. Your first truck is naturally the most basic type and has very limited fuel capacity, which means that you will have to stop over for refueling more often. While you can have as much practice within the open garage before hooking to the trailer, it will still be a very different world as soon as you reach the highways.
There are random factors to consider as well such as other vehicles on the road, road constructions, and weather. Even if you utilize turn signals, hazard lights, and even your horns, you still will not be able to accurately predict the behavior of vehicles around you. In this sense, you have to always drive as defensively as possible just like in real life. You will incur costs for each collision you are involved in and even the slightest ones will cost more than delivering late.
6. Always Make The Necessary Stops
Taking as much time as you need mostly relates to driving defensively as you need to be extra careful not just with the cargo you need to deliver but your truck as well. There are numerous unpredictable elements you will encounter on the road and until you are familiar enough on how to handle them, you should not travel at a faster speed. Beyond all fortuitous events that may transpire, Truck Simulator 2018: Europe provides for a more realistic touch with numerous scenarios that require you to make a stop.
The first line of business when it comes to necessary stops are traffic rules are the traffic lights. Most especially if the device you are using is small, it may become difficult to see stop lights until it is too late. An easy trick to keep in mind is identify the type of road you are on and the environment. Expressways and roads on rural areas typically will have no stoplights.
Within city roads, specifically intersections, you can expect that there will always be a stoplight. Seeing it may not be enough all the time especially if you are going very fast. As such, slowing down as you approach an intersection is a good preventive measure to ensure that you will obey traffic rules without fail.
Another important point to consider is your truck’s fuel that constantly drains as you keep the engines running. Note that both bars at the bottom of your dashboard serve as the gauge for your fuel. Your first truck will have a much smaller fuel tank than other trucks so you will have to make a stop for fuel more often. For starters, always make it a point to fuel whenever you spot a gas station.
Even if you still have more than half of your fuel left, you still do not know when the next gas station will become available. You can afford to refuel on every other gas station on a job you have already completed provided that you have a good idea about each gas station’s location and distance from one another. Once you have purchases a better truck with more fuel capacity, you can also opt to refuel on every other gas station.
Your driver needs attention as much as your truck does. Instead of just fuel, however, you need to keep an eye on both your driver’s hunger and tiredness levels. Both depletion of these levels will adversely affect the driver’s performance so just like gas stations; you will also have to keep a keen eye on motels and diners along the way.
If you always keep to the right side or slow lane on highways, it will be easy to notice gas stations, motels, and diners as there will be a service road leading to each establishment. You can also see the fuel, bed, and food icons at the mini map on the upper left corner of your screen to guide you in advance. If the mini map is too small for you to see details on it, you can tap on it to see a zoomed in version. Note that if you opt to do so, you either do it quickly and only on long, straight roads, or you should make an emergency stop.
You may not encounter it on your first couple of jobs but there are actual toll gates and police checkpoints in Truck Simulator 2018: Europe. Toll fees become a constant expense in long distance travels and you will need to slow down and stop as you approach one as well. Sometimes, you will see stop signs on the road ahead of you telling you to swerve to frontage road to the right and you will easily know that it is a checkpoint as the cops and cop cars are highly noticeable.
What is crucial, however, is the tight spot within which you must completely stop your truck for the checkpoint. If you move past the mark even for just a teeny bit, you will be instantly charged $500. The supposed police inspection does not even take a minute and you will simply need to make a full stop at the checkpoint.
Considering all these necessary stops along with some random factors that should inhibit your urge to run at top speed, you will experience a lot of pay deductions early on as adhering to these guidelines will certainly cause a delay in delivery. Once you have racked up enough cash to purchase better trucks, however, acceleration and gas tank capacity will improve, allowing you to travel faster and stop for gas less often.
7. Never Settle For Less Than Full Delivery
Picking up the cargo can be a challenge for total beginners but after spending some time in an open garage, anyone can get used to it in no time. It is actually easy to back your truck up to the parked trailer and initiating the job is often as simple as that. What is more challenging comes at the rear end of the job as you finally arrive at the delivery destination. Fortunately, there are 3 options to choose from as you finally make a delivery.
Regardless of which option you choose, you will still get paid for doing the actual delivery. The delivery options at the destination, however, offer opportunities for you to earn extra cash. The first option is a full delivery service where you will have to park your truck backwards within the specified delivery stop.
On that same spot comes the second option, which is a normal delivery service, not requiring you to park backwards. The last option is to end the job at the entrance of the delivery area. This will not earn you extra cash as it comes with no effort but you can save a bit of time and move on to the next job.
To be honest, going for a full delivery service can be a hassle especially for beginners. Parking a truck with a trailer backwards is a lot more challenging than it looks. The trailer’s behavior is very difficult to control when you are moving in reverse, so chances are that you will continue raking up late charges while going for a full delivery service.
Late charges are just a few dollars every minute though, but the extra cash you can receive for an accomplished full delivery service can match the job pay on its own. As such, it is not an opportunity that should be allowed to pass, especially if you have the luxury of time to spend on the game and eager to master the art of truck driving.
As a tip to make parking in reverse easier with the trailer attached, set your goal to have the truck perfectly aligned to the small parking spot provided. Do not mind the trailer at first and just picture backing up your truck to the spot on its own. Maximize the use of the space in front of the parking spot as you may have to move forward and backwards a couple of times. Switch your camera to the top view as it will be easier to check for the alignment of the truck, the trailer, and the parking spot from this perspective. As you back up and the trailer continues to swerve in any direction, move forward and swerve a bit opposite the direction of where the trailer is swerving to.
Once you have fully aligned the truck and can move in straight line forward, simply reversing back to the spot becomes easy. One important detail to note is that you need to be mindful of your speed in the parking area. Going slow and steady wins the race, and in this case, moving very slowly can more easily bag you the extra pay.
8. Alternate Investments Between Drivers And Trucks
With all our talks about driving and actually immersing yourself in the job, you might forget that Truck Simulator 2018: Europe is a trucking business sim and not simply a driving sim. You will initially be driving your first truck yourself as the initial cash you have will be spent on purchasing your very first truck. As you complete jobs and earn more cash, you will soon be able to afford hiring a driver and another truck, and this opens up an opportunity for you to start earning idle profits.
As soon as you hire a driver, you will have the option to assign the driver to a particular job. It will usually take the driver more than twice as long to complete the job but if you are tired of virtually driving, or do not have the time to actively play, then this is the best alternative. You only need to take note of the completion time and then you are free to log out of the game and come back when the job is done to claim your profits.
Over time, you will naturally be able to afford buying another truck. Once you do, you can have your driver take on a job with one truck while you perform another one with the new truck. This will basically be what you should be doing moving forward to continuously grow your idle profits. You can hire your second driver next so both of them can take on different jobs while you are offline and away from the game.
If you have spare cash, or simply bored with the looks of your trucks, you can spend a few bucks at a time to make it more appealing. There are a wide selection of customization options available in Truck Simulator 2018: Europe and while each one is purely aesthetics, having a gorgeous truck to drive in comes with immeasurable pleasantries that no money can buy.
You can purchase and attach customizations via the garage icon on the main menu. There are accessories for the roof and front of your truck as well as decals on the top choice. There are plenty of solid paint jobs as well and a large selection of custom tires. You can even own a customized plate for each truck.
9. Take Advantage Of Free Rewards
Even virtual driving to earn some cash can be a tiring experience, especially if you drive defensively all throughout the journey and focus hard on the road ahead of you. While you can also earn some idle cash through hiring drivers, it still takes a while to amass money to purchase more trucks and customizations as well as hire more drivers.
There are quick and easy ways to earn extra cash in Truck Simulator 2018: Europe and you should take every opportunity to do so as much as you can. To start off, there is a gift icon at the upper left side of the screen. All it takes to earn some free cash is to watch a 15 to 30-second video ad each time and you can claim 5 gifts per day.
There is also an extra one-time opportunity to earn more free cash via the event icon at the right side of the screen. This is actually where you need to like or follow Zuuks Games on different social media channels. If you happen to have active accounts on those different platforms and would like to extend your support to the company, then by all means do so as it will only take a minute or so. If not, and this is a cheap trick, you can simply tap on the green button beside each item, wait for the web page to load and click back on your device to get back in the game. This will still reward you with the cash incentive and you will be a step closer to purchasing a new truck or hiring a new driver.
Before we end this guide, we want to caution you further on the value of driving carefully even after progressing further in the game. The more expensive trucks have surprising horse power and acceleration and it may take some time to get accustomed to them. Relatively, the higher-class jobs that require the more expensive trucks pose more challenging routes to take as well.
If your initial driving sessions made you feel that it is impossible to tip your truck over and instantly fail the mission, then at least there is a sight for you to discover later on. Fast trucks combined with curvy and slippery roads can lead to these kinds of accidents and when you happen to experience it, your run will instantly end.
And that is all we have for you, as far as our Truck Simulator 2018: Europe tips, cheats and strategies are concerned. If you have spent a lot of time in the game to chance upon a different tip, trick, or strategy we have not mentioned in this guide, or if you have other concerns on the game we can help you with, we would appreciate hearing from you about it so do not hesitate to drop us a line in the comments!