Howdy pig racers! We're up to lesson four of our
Angry Birds Go Offensive Driving course! In this lesson we turn our focus to
Kart Tuning Strategies. This lesson was written by @les-toreadors of
Pigineering and adapted for the 'Nest by @birdleader.
Tuning Strategies: Spend Little! Speed Much!
Because of some of the Angry Birds GO's reviews about in-app purchases, it's commonly perceived that you have to spend a lot of money on the game.
This is false. A starter kart provided upon installing the app (which means, completely free) is very competitive and remains the best choice for Seedway races when partly upgraded, due to its extremely high top speed. Its low grip (handling) rating means it's the best drifter kart of them all!
Top speed is arguably, the
most important tuning stat on a kart. Nothing is more frustrating than upgrading a kart to maximum stats (for its tier) and having to upgrade even further (costing many more bird coins) to be competitive in Champion Chases. Your kart may be grounded to the ground with masking tape wheels, but the ‘excess' traction causes drag and reduces its crucial speed so much as to be at a disadvantage in open terrain!On the other hand, the Semi-Skimmer L1 has the best top speed of all the starter karts, is inexpensive to upgrade, and is a very effective Seedway racer.
Speed is your friend!The Semi-Skimmer L1 shown above evolves into the Spoon Mobile L2 shown below.
To save bird coins I merely upgraded acceleration and maxed out top speed to complete all Seedway levels including the crucial Champion Chase.
![Angry Birds GO Spoon Mobile L2]()
Tape wheels give better traction, but lower top speed due to increased drag.By contrast, a grip-optimized kart as previously mentioned, Tape Deck L1, does have excellent handling. This is helpful for a beginner because it doesn't over steer as much, but it's restricted top speed means it must be upgraded and evolved further to have a comparable Top Speed as the Semi-Skimmer L1. Even so it will be at risk of making you feel "underpowered" in the best of times. Thus, once I got used to the ‘drifting' physics of ABGO, I switched right back to the Semi-Skimmer and stuck with it all the way, spending
little to no further Bird Coins for the
entire Seedway race series.
Wait! What about the strength attribute?
Damage resistance, hull integrity, anti-krak-snap, etc. from a high Strength rating I found redundant in both Seedway and Rocky Road as body contact between racers is occasional and low-impact at best. Even against direct attack from competitors in Champion Chase mode, I found it more practical to maintain an unbeatable speed through the course and keep ahead of the competition.So long as you can get the lead early (or punt the opposition off the track) in the first minute of the race and drive a tight line on your speed optimized kart, you should find most of the levels very easy so long as you have CC (Cake Capacity) in excess of the level requirements. Oh and of course, maximum top speed and the acceleration to get there pronto!In Beat the Fuse mode there is certainly more risk of collision with on-track obstacles but once again clever driving and not having any frontal collisions meant even a minimal-strength kart is more than durable enough for the job. Even a last second panic swerve allows you to take merely glancing damage as opposed to the full brunt of the collision force generated by a frontal impact. You would be more concerned with speed loss from hard maneuvering and the occasional mistakes, and that's where the next topic – Acceleration – comes in.
Is acceleration important?
This is more essential than bacon in a Baconery. An extremely high top speed rating for your kart allows you to get away cleanly from the opposition in the Seedway courses, but as the game progresses to more challenging levels with tight confines, unfavorable corner geometry and steadily increasing opposition, you will need some means to get up to your sky-high top speed as soon as possible.So max out that Acceleration stat
as soon as you find yourself being confronted with repeated sharp corners and any other circumstance which are interrupting your quest to be the world's fastest avian! There's no such thing as a slow player in Angry Birds GO! – everyone is invited to achieve that magical speed where you feel like a Fast and Furious movie star. But sometimes due to Murphy's Law you are racing against the most pugnacious of porcine drivers and you are forced to lose significant speed mid-race from avoiding being squashed by his ham-fisted driving, and quite often the ability to accelerate back to race speed after about of offensive driving shall be your one and only ticket back to pole position.While karts are assumed to be unpowered in ABGO, high acceleration statistics generally means lower rolling resistance and significantly quicker acceleration from gravity and whatever other magical forces propelling those karts. It also counters the speed loss from wheel slip and as soon as your constant-acceleration rate is able to overcome your steering and maneuvering drag, that's when your kart stops acting like a 20 year old hatchback and more like a Nissan GT-R! Or whatever make sports car works for you. I am quite partial to the new Corvette, myself...Without sufficient acceleration you would be force to drive very gently through sharp corners, taking as conservative of a driving line as possible. A "wide entry, tight apex, wide exit" strategy is perfectly acceptable in Earth-land's peaceful human-only motorsports events, but here on Piggy Island, expect nothing but mortal combat between various animal species vying for total domination.Here, racing is not just a sport, it's about your species' survival! So pack on as much acceleration as you can afford!
Bonus! Angry Birds GO! Strategy Videos Coming Soon
If you prefer videos to go with your lessons, you're in luck, as @les-toreadors and team are working on just that. Below is the intro video teasing the forthcoming video series (note, this video doesn't contain any tips per-se, but it does show some awesome driving skillz!).
All Offensive Driving Course Lessons
Credits & Thanks!
Originally posted on
Pigineering here.
by
Les Toreadors (@les-toreadors)
Tape wheels give better traction, but lower top speed due to increased drag.By contrast, a grip-optimized kart as previously mentioned, Tape Deck L1, does have excellent handling. This is helpful for a beginner because it doesn't over steer as much, but it's restricted top speed means it must be upgraded and evolved further to have a comparable Top Speed as the Semi-Skimmer L1. Even so it will be at risk of making you feel "underpowered" in the best of times. Thus, once I got used to the ‘drifting' physics of ABGO, I switched right back to the Semi-Skimmer and stuck with it all the way, spending little to no further Bird Coins for the entire Seedway race series.
