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How to get cash quick in Need For Speed Payback
We run through how you can stuff your digital wallet to the virtual seams in EA’s brand new racer.
EA’s long running racing series is back: Need For Speed Payback is the 23rd title in the street racing series, and it looks set to be the greatest yet. Building up on Ghost Games’ 2015 reboot, the Gothenburg-based developers have listened to plenty of fan feedback and are aiming to deliver the best NFS game to date with Payback.
With a Hollywood-inspired storyline, multiple protagonists, a true day-and-night cycle and over 70 killer vehicles for you to obtain, tune and modify to your liking, there’s something for everyone in Payback. But how can you unlock them all for a test drive? It’s all about the (virtual) money, as it happens.
Ahead of the game’s launch, we got to spend some time with the game at the Ghost Games studio and we’ve outlined a few ways you can clock up some quick cash as you head to Fortune Valley.
Always bet on your skills. Always.
Feeling cocky and in the zone? Know for sure that you can hold first place? Put some money where your mouth is then, as Need For Speed Payback lets you bet on yourself at the start of races and events, letting you make some extra cash if you think you can pull off the required task. From holding first place for more than 30 seconds and winning the race to knocking over a certain amount of roadside items during a sprint, if you’re confident you can hit these criteria, you can walk away with some extra cash to your name.
Of course, lose enough bets, and you might be driving around with an empty wallet – but with varying odds, with some of 4-1, it’s well worth coughing up some cash and walking away with a hefty amount more. After a few races, you’ll be growing those digits with ease.
Spend money to make money
Or so the saying goes, and that holds true in Need For Speed Payback too. You’re not going to keep winning races if you don’t upgrade your ride – or buy a new one – and you’re going to have to splash the cash to get a new motor for a specific car class out of the five available (race, off-road, drift, drag or runner). You can’t do drift races in a runner car, and vice versa, so you’ll need to keep an eye out for new cars that fit the criteria – or get lucky with a motor that can fit more than one class.
Once you’ve got yourself a car, you’ll need to continuously upgrade it with new parts along the way, using the game’s Speed Card system, or you’ll be left in the dust in races – and that costs money. But you’re going to have to be smart about it too when you’re spending the cash, and while you can acquire new parts through winning events, which will award you parts at random, you can also purchase items through Part Shops, which have an ever-changing stock.
The higher the level of the upgrade, the more performance you’re going to get out of it, and some parts also provide an additional bonus in key performance areas, from Top Speed, Acceleration, to Nitrous, Air and Braking, and some parts even come with multiple perks. You can also use something called the Targeted Roll system, which gives you a little more choice when getting a chosen part, but that means you’ll have to offer up some parts you no longer want, or need, to recycle them into a new roll. Choose wisely.
The more Speed Cards you get, the better your car.
© EA Games
Synergise your Speed Cards
When it comes to upgrading your car, Ghost Games have made the Speed Card system pretty easy to use – as all you need to keep an eye on are bigger numbers. But to really make the most of your car’s upgrades, you’ll need to match up parts from the same brand to receive an additional synergised bonus. Handily, cards are colour coded for different brands, so you can rest easy if your Skyline is tooled up with all-red cards, letting you receive that sweet, sweet bonus, leaving your rivals behind in the dust.
Sell Speed Cards that you don’t need
The game’s Speed Card system lets you easily upgrade your car without having to know all the details behind installing a turbo or fine tuning your motor, while the colour coded system gives you an easy shorthand to know which ones to match – and which ones to drop.
If you’re hankering for some quick cash, you can sell off Speed Cards that you’re not using, freeing you up some extra dough that you can put towards a Speed Card you actually need, or to a new motor for a new class to try. The amount of cash you’ll get for a card depends on how much of an upgrade it offers, or if it has any additional perks, so you might want to think twice about selling off all of your cards in one big go – you might have some real special cards hiding that’ll help out your other motors.
Go billboard hunting
Across the wide world of Fortune Valley, you’re going to come across a lot more than just races and the game’s blockbuster-movie-inspired story. Pause the game and take a look at the game’s huge open world map: from other racers on the map, to derelict chassis that are in need of restoring, there’s lots to do. Crucially, you’ll also find huge billboards dotted around that are usually near a massive jump. Clock up some speed and smash through these billboards to net yourself a little cash incentive.
Billboards aren’t the only things for you to find across the map – little poker chips are hidden around the whole of Fortune Valley, and you can bet that good things will come to those who find them all.
Explore the gorgeous open world.
© EA Games
Skip the fast travel
With a huge open world, you’ll find that the game’s map offers you fast travel to get to locations quickly – but it usually comes at a price for locations you don’t own. So instead of of spending the thousands it costs to get use a fast travel point, why not put that towards a new upgrade and just drive the way? You might even come across new billboards, or derelict parts that are way more valuable than just the time saved getting across the game world – and you won’t have an empty wallet either.
Need For Speed Payback is out November 10 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
