If you have opened this guide to learn the way of the car fu master, then you have come to the right place. By the end of this guide, you will recognize the different offensive maneuvers of attacking drivers and be able to defend yourself and your machine from peril.

It might seem nearly impossible to play online without getting wrecked in the first lap. Maybe someone in a bus or a Wardigger rammed you off the road, or you just seem to be targeted as the weakest driver. Understandably, that can upset even a well-established driver, but this guide was made to help change that.

Before you play Wreckfest online, remember that it's not just about being first and eliminating your opponents. If this was true, real life battles would've ended much sooner. At the same time, it's not a complicated formula.

It's all about practicing awareness and knowing the proper defense strategies to protect yourself and potentially drive faster laps. Even if you think nobody is behind you, understand that racing in Wreckfest is much closer than in other games - a driver can start in first, find themselves in last, and climb back up to first in a single race. With that being said, everybody has an equal chance of winning, and the ones who manage to win the most have already applied these strategies.

In the sections below, I'll help you understand what these strategies are, learn offensive and defensive maneuvers, and identify particularly problematic machines. But before we do, let's take a look at some definitions before you get confused.

Please keep in mind that most content here are theories, based on observations from my +200 hours of experience playing Wreckfest online. There may be better tactics and ideas by more experienced players.

Without further adieu, let us begin!

These are some highly recommended mods that should be enabled. This is modifying the camera for more rigid movement, and the minimap is extended so more of the track and players can be seen.

Rigid Camera - High - I personally use this for the sake of a stiffer camera. I don't like the default camera swaying to the sides too much, since it keeps me from being able to see where I'm going, but this mod fixes that. It also helps me see more of the track and what's happening around me.
See More of the Minimap - I recommend this more since you'll be able to spot rhinos and roadblocks much further ahead than what the camera allows you.

These mods do not trigger anti-cheat and will still work online!

Before we begin training, be sure your gameplay settings are properly established. Any deviation from these settings may create disharmony between you and your machine.

FOV Offset: Make sure this is at least +20 degrees! This widens the camera view and allows you to see more of what is happening around you. Depending on your screen size and distance from your monitor, you may make adjustments: the further away you are from the screen, the narrower the view should be.

Shifting: Doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. This is all about personal preference.
ABS: Set this to half to allow some brake-locking; this encourages your machine to drift more than with ABS fully enabled.
Traction Control: It is proven that driving without traction control is faster, and you have more feel of the machine on the road. Also encourages powersliding and higher corner exit speed.
Stability Control: Turning this off would make it harder to recover in the event of oversteer or spinout, but turning this on makes it harder to drift. Leave this at half for the middle ground.

Only 2 aspects of tuning matter here, otherwise it's free reign:
Locked differential: I always keep the differential set to locked (far right), because this encourages the machine to turn easier into corners, especially on dirt.
Rear brake bias:I also keep the brake balance set to the rear (far left); this prevents the machine from understeering under braking, which I noticed was a major problem when I had this in default settings, even with ABS enabled.

Desperate
Becoming so determined, one resorts to drastic measures for their desired outcome. It's similar to "tilting" in first-person shooters and fighting games, but in racing, they'll do whatever it takes to defend their position, win the race, or take you down.

Finishing well
Finishing a race in the top half of the grid. For example, if there are 24 drivers, finishing well means finishing in 12th or better. This is the ultimate goal of the guide.

Machine
The living metal beast on wheels that you control. Scary at first, but know that she will only do what you want her to do.

Rhino
A driver going backwards around the track, often intending to ram into other drivers head-on. Taken from the Rhino SUV unit[nfs.fandom.com] in Need For Speed: Most Wanted.

Stagger
This is a state when at least half of the machine's wheels have left the ground. The machine loses stability after a collision, bump, or uneven landing, and might roll over. Machines with shorter wheelbases, narrower track width, and higher centre of gravity are more likely to become staggered.

To avoid getting staggered, use machines with an average wheelbase with lower centre of gravity. Softer springs help keeping the machine upright, especially in sloppy landings and T-bones. Avoid short machines like Killerbee and Speedie.

Stress
The pressure put on a driver's mental and emotional state during a race. A stressed driver can't focus as much and is more likely to make a mistake. They might end up desperate and resort to offensive maneuvers. Stress can be caused by fighting for a position, driving with a difficult or unfamiliar track/machine combination, or driving with critical damage. Examples of stress include:

• Repeating the same tactic and wondering why it isn't working.
  
• Feeling it's impossible to reverse the situation.
  
• Taking fewer and fewer risks just to survive the race.

Wreckfest is a combat racing game. And in combat, there are two main strategies to have: offence and defence. It may seem wiser to adopt guns-blazing offence because it means you're beating the enemy before they beat you, but that's not the case at all. In martial arts, some of the best competitors use both offence and defence to enhance their fighting ability.

In other words, it's smarter to defend yourself first and attack when you see an opening. This is the same strategy used in fighting games competitively:



Driving with a defensive strategy keeps your stress levels low, while your chances of survival and potentially even victory rise much higher. I've written a three-part "code of honour" for myself to keep this in mind.

1. Patience is key.
You will fight for a position many times and your opponent won't seem to let it go. This is normal. Be patient. There are many laps in a single race, so there are plenty of opportunities to seize their position. Avoid losing that patience and resorting to ramming; instead focus on identifying and exploiting their weaknesses: if they are braking too early, brake later. If they corner wide, corner tight. Using such tactics will put stress on the opponent and eventually make them desperate - if they attack, remember your defensive maneuvers.

2. Attack meaningfully.
Ask yourself if it would make sense to strike another opponent - would it benefit you in the race? This may seem tempting, but if you are approaching a slower or more vulnerable machine (I.E. one stuck in a wall or facing the wrong way), don't strike even when it's near death. This will take time away from actually racing for good positions, slowing you down.

3. Drive for honour, not revenge.
You may find yourself wanting payback if an opponent defeated you in a previous race. Set that anger aside and focus on winning. The mere sight of your machine's taillights will be enough to upset your enemy and make them desperate. Don't resort to cowardly maneuvers that will only damage your machine and ruin your chances of finishing well.

So, how exactly do you drive "defensively"? It's as simple as reading an attacker's intentions, and then acting accordingly to make sure that doesn't happen. The most basic of these is detecting when and where an attacker will strike, and then altering your own trajectory to dodge the attack. You can even follow it up with a counter when you see the opportunity.

This might cause the attacker to feel stressed and even desperate, instead of yourself -- because not only did their move fail, but they took damage and lost positions as a result.

Below is a short list of the known offensive maneuvers that drivers typically use online.

The Problem: Derived from the infamous "bump and run" technique used in early NASCAR days, it was commonly utilized by police to neutralize a fleeing suspect in a hot pursuit. This is when the pursuing machine turns into the drive wheels of a fleeing machine, sending them loose and spinning out.

The Solution: If you are spinning, brake and gently steer in the opposite direction of your spin to slow yourself down and stabilize. If you're spinning too fast and find yourself rolling backwards, turn to the opposite direction of your spin to complete a 360 degree spin. You'll save enough momentum to keep going and catch up to your aggressor.

If a driver is right beside you and you sense that they will turn into you, stop accelerating and brake immediately. Brake only for a tenth of a second, because you don't want to slow down too much-- only to clear the path of the other driver.

If they scrape against the wall and slow down, you have a chance to damage them in a counterattack.

The Problem: Whether as an act of last resort or cold-blooded revenge, the offending driver becomes a heat-seeking missile. When their target is turning through a corner, they follow and ram into them at full speed. Damage affects both the target and the attacking driver.

In Wreckfest and beyond, this is the equivalent of a sucker punch; doing quick and heavy damage, but it is nothing more than a cheap and cowardly move!

The Solution: Bullfighting technique.

1. When approaching slow turns, be cautious of who exactly you're ahead of. Drivers in large or heavily armoured machines are more likely to ram you. Be especially wary on tracks like Motorcity, Fire Rock, and Espedalen; cornerbombs are common thanks to its frequent right-angle corners and hairpin turns.
   
2. Quickly check your rear view as you slow down, even if you think nobody is near you. If you are not in the corner yet and you sense that a driver will cornerbomb you, slam the brakes and stop turning immediately. The attacker is expecting you to turn through the corner without suspecting a thing. By doing this, you can quickly change your trajectory and trick the rammer.
   
3. Feel satisfied as they smash into a wall.

Video example:
https://streamable.com/ctkq15

How to read a cornerbomb:

• The attack is directly behind you or in the opposite lane leading up to the corner.
  
• The corner is approaching but the attacker is speeding up.
  
• The attacker turns too early into the corner, as if expecting you to be right where you will in the corner's apex.

The Problem: Similar to the corner bomb, the offending driver (usually in a heavier and strong machine, like a bus or big rig) drives backwards around the track, with the goal of hitting as many drivers as they can head-on. To them, it is no longer a race, but a suicide mission.

A head-on rammer may actively target a particular driver, and head into their direction as they attempt to avoid the impact.

The Solution: You can simply swerve to the left or right to avoid the hit, but doing it too early and the attacker may follow your direction. If the attacker is approaching too fast, you may have to leave the track if possible. Smarter attackers may predict where you will end up, so it's your job to trick them into turning the wrong way.

The Alternative Solution: Take cover and drive closely behind a larger machine when a Rhino is ahead. They usually won't risk taking too much damage by heading on another large or possibly larger machine. Even if they do, the added cushion will deal less damage to your machine. Though, beware of brake checks and don't follow too close behind.

The Problem: Similar to the side collision/T-bone, the body shield is when the offending driver pushes the victim by its side door, with the aim of running them into a wall or another machine, as if using them as a shield. Both sides of the victim's machine are damaged, and the driver can be crushed.

The Solution (requires more research): As soon as you sense your rear axles giving in, use your brakes. Time is sensitive here and doing it too late will cause the defence to fail.

The Problem: This one is special because it does not involve only one driver, and usually happens within the first lap. When the victim is stuck in the middle of the road, they are already in the way of over 20 different drivers, and they will not stop. The victim will be smashed into at high speed, by one opponent after another, like a stampede. This can wreck your machine within seconds.

The Solution: If you are still on your wheels, you need to get the hell away from the road as fast as you can. Depending on which direction you are facing, you need to either reverse or drive to the wayside. If you can reset in time, use it so you can respawn on the road with enough invincibility to maintain the pace. If not, keep driving offroad until it is safe to reenter.

If you are on a two-way track (like Bonebreaker Valley and Crash Canyon) and you find yourself on the wrong side of the road, do not cross the road to get back where you were. It's safer to follow the flow of traffic and add another lap to your race, even though you lose a lot of time.

This is the most complicated section of the guide and still needs more research. Large machines are, well, large machines. They're the strongest ones in the game, and also the most dangerous. Typically, players who drive these large machines are, as outlined by Wreckfest für Fortgeschrittene:

• Brawlers, who are competitors that actively seek out vulnerable or staggered machines.
  
• Blockers, who either block the road or other drivers from getting past.
  
• Backwards (Rhinos), who purposely drive backwards around the track for the results stated in the previous chapter.

Large machines are determined by three elements:

• Wheelbase, the distance between the front and rear axles.
  
• Size, how much space the machine occupies.
  
• Base strength (without armour upgrades), the weight and attack power of the machine.

If you're driving in a normal-sized machine, be wary of the following large machines:

• Big Rigs
  
• Bugzilla
  
• Grand Duke
  
• Harvesters
  
• School Buses
  
• Van
  
• Wardigger

School Bus

1. Buses are the armored rhinos of Wreckfest. Avoid head-on collisions NO MATTER WHAT.
   
2. The rear bumper just behind the drive wheels is the weakest part of the bus. Aim for this frontwards or sideways to spin the bus around.
   
3. Aim right between the back and front axles to roll the bus over.
   
4. A wrecked bus can create a roadblock. Use this to your advantage. You can spin a wrecked bus around at full speed to change its position and lead following drivers right into it.
   
5. You may need to team up with other drivers to successfully take down a bus.
   

Battle Bus

1. The Battle Bus has a shorter wheelbase than the regular bus, so it has better resistance to spinning out. However, its lower centre of mass makes it more resistant to collision staggering.
   
2. The added plow to the front is permanent and can't be detached - avoid head-on collisions.
   
3. T-bones can stagger a Battle Bus and even roll it over.

Harvester

1. Harvesters have small back wheels. Aim for them.
   
2. The front blades of the harvester are not that heavy. If it is a roadblock, drive slowly under them and you will basically slip through like a glove.

Bugzilla

1. Bugzilla's are the hardest to take down. With their large wheels and armored body, it is a death wish to try and drive into one. Avoid them at all costs.
   
2. Bugzilla's engine is located in the rear and doesn't have much protection. Aim for this spot when you have the opportunity.
   
3. While not tested, it is theoretically possible to flip a Bugzilla over by running into the body. Because that it is suspended over its massive wheels, it has to be done mid-flight. Using ramps is your best bet at successfully damaging a Bugzilla.

Wardigger

1. Since the Folk Frenzy update, the Wardigger was buffed. Due to its heavier armour, it's now classified as a Large Machine.
   
2. This is a military-grade machine, stronger than even a Battle Bus. It'll take more than a single high-speed ram to wreck a Wardigger. Avoid head-on collisions.
   
3. T-bones are this machine's weakness. Always target its doors whenever you see the chance.

If you made it this far, I thank you for taking the time to read this guide. These ideas seem a little ridiculous on paper and I was unsure whether to publish this or not. This guide was about a year or so in the making and I kept updating this with new information.

Some of it is still not complete, especially with missing images and videos that would better illustrate these ideas in action. I just needed to get this out as quickly as I could and I was tired on Steam's awful image upload rules...

I'll still support this guide with more content as I play the game more. You can check some other guides below that can be even more helpful. Hope you enjoyed reading this, and take care!

Wreckfest für Fortgeschrittene - This German guide was designed for more experienced players in mind, but it helps identify some stereotypes and their behaviours in Wreckfest that this guide went over.

Using the tune page so you can win races and get dolla - Goes over tuning exhaustively - very helpful if you need to improve your build's performance aside from just upgrades.