Our beginner’s guide has essential tips and tricks to help you get started in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is out now. With the series returning for the first time in 13 years, many players will be new to Test Drive Unlimited. Like previous games in the series, Solar Crown is all about living a life of luxury, collecting and driving the world’s most desirable cars and showing them off to other players in a shared world.
Compared to Forza Horizon 5's instant gratification, Solar Crown’s progression is deliberately slow: you won’t be handed the keys to the most powerful cars in a hurry. However, there are a few ways to earn money and XP faster in Solar Crown. Our beginner’s guide will help you get started.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown’s car list features 100 cars at launch from over 30 manufacturers. However, when you start the game, you can only choose from three cars after the tutorial: the 2018 Ford Mustang GT, the 2018 Alpine A110 Legende, and the 2011 Nissan 370Z.
Money is limited, and progression is slow in the early stages, so you’ll spend a lot of time in your first car. Each car has its advantages and disadvantages, and you can test drive them to see how they handle. But out of the three starter cars, we recommend the Nissan 370Z. It is not only the cheapest, but it also offers the best balance between performance and handling, making it ideal for beginners getting to grips with Solar Crown.
Once you’ve bought your first car, you can enable or disable driving assists to suit your skill level. Confusingly, the assists aren’t available in the main menu options. To change assists, pause the game and scroll to the Car tab using the shoulder button. Then go to Driving Assists.
Here, you can apply assists to make the cars easier to drive. Applying traction control will improve the car’s grip and stability while increasing the ABS (anti-lock braking system) will prevent the wheels from locking up during heavy braking. Within the Driving Assists menu, you can also switch between automatic and manual gears and activate or disable the racing line showing you when to brake and accelerate.
Solar Crown’s car handling strikes a balance between arcade and simulation. It’s less forgiving than Forza Horizon 5, so it’s easier to understeer and miss a corner. These assists can be adjusted from 0-100%, so feel free to experiment with the assists and gradually reduce them until you get a good feel for the car. However, it’s worth noting that you’ll earn less money in races when applying assists.
You can finetune your car’s handling in the Car Setup menu. Here, you can select preset Driving Modes such as Sport, Dynamic, and Cross Country. Each preset affects your car’s top speed, acceleration, braking, and handling.
Sport, for example, focuses on speed, making it suitable for highway driving. Dynamic, on the other hand, is more suitable for navigating tight city streets, whereas Cross Country softens the suspension and shortens the gear ratios for off-road driving.
When you reach reputation level 20, you’ll unlock the ability to create custom tuning setups, allowing you to precisely adjust the gear ratios, suspension springs, and brake bias, among other aspects, to tailor the driving experience to suit your style.
It may sound like an obvious thing to do in an open-world racer, but exploring the map is one of the best ways to earn XP and money fast, helping you level up quicker. It may be tempting to fast-travel to destinations, but Solar Crown rewards you XP whenever you discover a new road as you drive around, encouraging you to explore Hong Kong Island. The more roads you discover, the more XP you’ll earn.
In addition, XP is earned every time you discover a new landmark, whether it’s a meeting point, petrol station, or car dealership. Driving through speed traps and beating the target speed will also reward you with thousands of Solar Crown coins if you get the top three-star rating.
You’ll also find hidden collectables around the map that give you bonus XP and Solar Coins, so it’s worth taking the time to explore and enjoy the journey rather than the destination.
Like Forza Horizon 5, Solar Crown rewards your flamboyant driving in free-roam, from pulling off drifts and doughnuts to driving the wrong way and dodging traffic. Returning from Test Drive Unlimited 2, Solar Crown’s Free Ride Instant Money (FRIM) system lets you create combos and bank cash rewards.
Successfully achieving a combo gives you a cash reward of 1,000 to 10,000 coins. The more combos you chain, the bigger the payout if you don’t bank it. This presents a risk versus reward, as you'll lose your combo if you crash or stop and start again. The other catch is that you can only claim a cash reward ten times each day, so take advantage of Solar Crown’s FRIM system whenever you can.
Completing secondary tasks and daily objectives is another effective way of earning money fast, but they are easy to miss. When viewing the map, open the Task List and you’ll see a list of Secondary Tasks to complete, with new tasks added every five levels. These vary from beating rival clan members to earning five stars in a district's speed traps. Most tasks are easy to complete and can be very lucrative.
Similarly, completing daily challenges like reaching a target top speed or driving a set number of miles will earn you bonus credits.
With these Solar Crown tips and tricks, you’ll earn money and XP much faster. This will help you level up your reputation and unlock dream cars on your shopping list.
Do you have any tips and tricks for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown? Let us know in the comments below or join the discussion in our forum.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is out now. With the series returning for the first time in 13 years, many players will be new to Test Drive Unlimited. Like previous games in the series, Solar Crown is all about living a life of luxury, collecting and driving the world’s most desirable cars and showing them off to other players in a shared world.
Compared to Forza Horizon 5's instant gratification, Solar Crown’s progression is deliberately slow: you won’t be handed the keys to the most powerful cars in a hurry. However, there are a few ways to earn money and XP faster in Solar Crown. Our beginner’s guide will help you get started.
Choose The Best Starter Car
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown’s car list features 100 cars at launch from over 30 manufacturers. However, when you start the game, you can only choose from three cars after the tutorial: the 2018 Ford Mustang GT, the 2018 Alpine A110 Legende, and the 2011 Nissan 370Z.
Money is limited, and progression is slow in the early stages, so you’ll spend a lot of time in your first car. Each car has its advantages and disadvantages, and you can test drive them to see how they handle. But out of the three starter cars, we recommend the Nissan 370Z. It is not only the cheapest, but it also offers the best balance between performance and handling, making it ideal for beginners getting to grips with Solar Crown.
Driving Assists
Once you’ve bought your first car, you can enable or disable driving assists to suit your skill level. Confusingly, the assists aren’t available in the main menu options. To change assists, pause the game and scroll to the Car tab using the shoulder button. Then go to Driving Assists.
Here, you can apply assists to make the cars easier to drive. Applying traction control will improve the car’s grip and stability while increasing the ABS (anti-lock braking system) will prevent the wheels from locking up during heavy braking. Within the Driving Assists menu, you can also switch between automatic and manual gears and activate or disable the racing line showing you when to brake and accelerate.
Solar Crown’s car handling strikes a balance between arcade and simulation. It’s less forgiving than Forza Horizon 5, so it’s easier to understeer and miss a corner. These assists can be adjusted from 0-100%, so feel free to experiment with the assists and gradually reduce them until you get a good feel for the car. However, it’s worth noting that you’ll earn less money in races when applying assists.
You can finetune your car’s handling in the Car Setup menu. Here, you can select preset Driving Modes such as Sport, Dynamic, and Cross Country. Each preset affects your car’s top speed, acceleration, braking, and handling.
Sport, for example, focuses on speed, making it suitable for highway driving. Dynamic, on the other hand, is more suitable for navigating tight city streets, whereas Cross Country softens the suspension and shortens the gear ratios for off-road driving.
When you reach reputation level 20, you’ll unlock the ability to create custom tuning setups, allowing you to precisely adjust the gear ratios, suspension springs, and brake bias, among other aspects, to tailor the driving experience to suit your style.
Explore The Map
It may sound like an obvious thing to do in an open-world racer, but exploring the map is one of the best ways to earn XP and money fast, helping you level up quicker. It may be tempting to fast-travel to destinations, but Solar Crown rewards you XP whenever you discover a new road as you drive around, encouraging you to explore Hong Kong Island. The more roads you discover, the more XP you’ll earn.
In addition, XP is earned every time you discover a new landmark, whether it’s a meeting point, petrol station, or car dealership. Driving through speed traps and beating the target speed will also reward you with thousands of Solar Crown coins if you get the top three-star rating.
You’ll also find hidden collectables around the map that give you bonus XP and Solar Coins, so it’s worth taking the time to explore and enjoy the journey rather than the destination.
Free Ride Instant Money
Like Forza Horizon 5, Solar Crown rewards your flamboyant driving in free-roam, from pulling off drifts and doughnuts to driving the wrong way and dodging traffic. Returning from Test Drive Unlimited 2, Solar Crown’s Free Ride Instant Money (FRIM) system lets you create combos and bank cash rewards.
Successfully achieving a combo gives you a cash reward of 1,000 to 10,000 coins. The more combos you chain, the bigger the payout if you don’t bank it. This presents a risk versus reward, as you'll lose your combo if you crash or stop and start again. The other catch is that you can only claim a cash reward ten times each day, so take advantage of Solar Crown’s FRIM system whenever you can.
Complete Secondary Tasks and Daily Challenges
Completing secondary tasks and daily objectives is another effective way of earning money fast, but they are easy to miss. When viewing the map, open the Task List and you’ll see a list of Secondary Tasks to complete, with new tasks added every five levels. These vary from beating rival clan members to earning five stars in a district's speed traps. Most tasks are easy to complete and can be very lucrative.
Similarly, completing daily challenges like reaching a target top speed or driving a set number of miles will earn you bonus credits.
With these Solar Crown tips and tricks, you’ll earn money and XP much faster. This will help you level up your reputation and unlock dream cars on your shopping list.
Do you have any tips and tricks for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown? Let us know in the comments below or join the discussion in our forum.
