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Tricks and tips

Learn the most important tricks for speedruns.

Inputs​

Buffering inputs can be done by holding a d-pad directional button, holding the left joystick in a certain direction or with the arrow keys on your keyboard. The buffered inputs will help us menu far faster than tapping these buttons would. These buttons can be held before the position of input is needed. E.g loading cutscene before entering the safehouse. This works in all menu types such as buying from the safehouse, Tuning, Hiring crew members etc. Getting used to this can greatly speed up your menu times and is often overlooked.

Placing the mouse cursor in the same position as where “yes” would be in yes or no optional areas will always take priority of the mouse. So by putting our cursor where yes is we can menu faster and more consistently. A bit of tape on your monitor as marking where this option would be can be used as a reference without any damaging effects to your screen.

Menuing example with input buffering and mouse position

World Map​

Analog stick is inverted, use mouse and keyboard if possible. Enter races quickly by pointing over the event and press Enter twice. When you hit the first enter, quickly move your mouse away from the center of the screen to avoid activating GPS or changing crew member.

Markers​

You can skip the marker spin animation by pressing open map to pick the marker on PC or shift down on some consoles.

Cops​

Avoiding the cops is a big part of the career mode in Carbon. The only mandatory cop chase is in the prologue section which can be done by hitting a truck to take out all the cops. Outside of this event we want to avoid cop chases at all times. There are quite a few factors that lead to drawing cops attention so here are a list of a few and what causes them.

  • Race Event: Certain race events have either cops on or cops off. They aren’t listed but some races cops are impossible to get them on.

  • Race Type: Cops cannot spawn on certain races: drifts, canyons, checkpoints, race wars and boss races.

  • Before cutscenes: Cops cannot spawn in races that have an IN GAME cutscene. They can still spawn if you have a cutscene that is skippable such as Sals cutscene or Nikki’s Cutscene where she gets into the player's car.

  • Safehouse: The cops 9-1-1 call will be activated 37s into the race if it is held from a safehouse. The only exception to this is when the race that has been started from the safehouse does not have cops enabled such as drift races, canyon races or boss races etc. To avoid this we simply exit the safehouse through “Free Roam” instead of starting events from the safehouse.

  • Causing Cost To State Damage: The cost to state damage will contribute to the 9-1-1 call that the cops spawn in from. Keep in mind that you AND the racers will share cost to state together so if you combined cause enough damage this will enable the cops to spawn. Damage to property and hitting traffic cars are both separate initiation points for the cops but will both lead to the same result if enough damage is done.

If you are unfortunately found in a cop chase it is recommended to reset your car and get busted as soon as the race is finished though if you are knowledgeable on cooldown spots and are confident in getting away from the cops quickly it could be slightly faster to escape via cooldown locations. You can also close the game to avoid the cops, but do NOT do so if you’re on the last race before a boss, otherwise you’ll have to redo said race.

You must be aware (mainly for hundo categories) that you only have 3 arrests before your car will be impounded and you will have to buy a new one.

Territory attacks​

If you get a territory attack in a zone where you already beat the boss for, you can ignore it and decline.

If you didn’t beat the boss yet, decline the attack, go back to safehouse and main menu to reload your savefile. The territory attack disappears and you can continue your run.

Stacked Deck Crew NEVER tries to reclaim the races you give away to minor crews, so if you get attacked in a Silverton event you controlled 2 races on, you can keep going without reloading.

On the other zones, the boss’ crew will quickly try to reclaim them so any no reload is at your own risk. If you have more than 2 races left in the zone your odds of keeping the territory your odds are very low so better not try.

As soon as the SMS for the boss race showed up, you can ignore any attack in that boss’ zone. The boss race will stay unlocked.

If you’re running one of the 100% categories you need to reload after any attack.

Driving techniques and inputs​

Driving in Carbon is difficult to master due to the amount of precision needed to keep the car on the limit at all times. The best way to maintain speed in this game is to “smooth steer”. This is done by moving the left joystick gradually as the car turns in and trying not to scrub off speed with sharp movements. This is mainly done with “grip” cars but is also done with muscle cars on gradual corners with not much angle to them.

The run below has an input visualizer to showcase what steering technique is required for different car classes.

Challenge Series by Artacer

Gearing​

Gearing is an important part of cornering in carbon. As stated before, using manual will allow for the user to have more speed in each gear. When downshifting in corners it is often required to “engine brake” on entry of a corner as this mechanic will allow for us to carry more turning angle into a corner. This is most prominent in tuner and exotic cars but does also work in muscle cars to some degree.

Evo IX example by TDOG

Gearing is also important to be kept in high RPM ranges to allow for the car to use its Turbo or Supercharger more effectively. The acceleration of a car is often much better in high rpm rather than low. In low speed cars such as the mazda Speed 3 keeping gear shifts to a minimum will lead to you carrying a higher average speed and not scrubbing off speed in unnecessary ways.

Gearing in carbon jolts the car forward when shifting up and jolts the car backwards when shiftng down. You can see this by looking at the speedometer when you change gears where you will normally lose or gain 3-7kph or more depending on the car.

Prioritize shifting up before jumps and shifting down in midair to avoid speed loss.

Hold Clutch when in mid-air and release when landing to preserve more speed when landing.

Speedbreaker​

Speedbreaker is a tool that allows us to take corners at speeds they were never intended to be taken at. The speedbreaker mechanic adds a large amount of grip to the tires and increases the weight of the car. Though unlike most wanted the cars grip levels are far higher than what was in that game under speedbreaker usage. If abused correctly the speedbreaker mechanic can allow you to take the corners at sometimes 40kph faster than what was intended.

To abuse speedbreaker correctly it is important to use smooth steering as spoken about earlier only in this case your inputs are delayed. When you activate the speedbreaker and deactivate it there is a small window where your car will have far more grip (normally at the front of the car) making it very sensitive. This small window after you have disabled speedbreaker is where you need to smooth steer correctly to ensure you are carrying speed. Sometimes steering the car into an angle then not even steering at all is more beneficial than trying to fight the car. This mechanic is useful in all types of cars but has its biggest impact with understeery cars such as the Lotus Elise.

Speedbreaker abuse example

Drifts​

Drifts are the hardest events in the game to do fast and require the most time and practice to get good at. Doing them optimally saves dozens of seconds over crashing a lot. As soon as you are turning, even slightly, the game will save your speed and give it back to you when you straighten the car, whether you gained or lost speed in that time window. You don’t get the speed back if you release throttle for too long or if you hit a wall. This means every crash will snowball pretty hard, and that also means you should wait until your car is perfectly straightened to use NOS otherwise it will be wasted. When oversteering, your car will turn very well if your holding the accelerator halfway. If you’re understeering, release gas and tapping handbrake is a safe way to help you turn a bit more.