How To Win At Racer

Ah yes, racer. The event that makes most people rage quit.

This guide will help you improve your odds at winning racer.

This guide was written using the collective wisdom of top racers such as Arn964, Joefish, MrEverything, and yours truly. I have their permission to post this content.

Select a topic, below.

Preparation
Starting The Event
Timing the shift
Exiting Racer
Mulligan
2.5 Hour Event Recording
Ranking
Clearing Up Misconceptions About Racer
Other Tips
Closing Thoughts

Preparation

I know these are obvious things, but it doesn’t hurt to remind you: make sure you eat, drink, and use the bathroom before racer starts. Minimize interruptions as much as possible. About 10-15 minutes before the event starts, close/force close any other apps you’re using and restart your phone.

If you plan on participating the entire time, save around 175-200 Atlas Bucks (AB) per hour. Racing day will vary from week to week and time to time.

Make sure you maximize your boost before the event begins. You won’t want to run booster ads when you could be racing! Some people don’t run 2 AB ads while they race.

Most importantly, make sure you have an excellent connection. Lag is one of the biggest factors that decide who wins each race. There will be races that you lose because of lag. It happens even to top tier racers. Do as much as possible to reduce lag so that your shifts will register correctly.

Each race costs 2 AB. From the 4 AB deposited, Atlas Reality will add 2 to 3 AB to the total prize pool. It is unknown if 2 or 3 is added until after racer starts. The best way to tell is to look for the total prize pool. If it’s odd at some point, then it is 3. If it is never odd, then it is 2.

Starting The Race

Racer officially starts when you see the racer icon follow you. It looks like this:

If you tap this icon, this takes you into the racer event. Tap the button at the bottom to pay 2 AB. The system will randomly assign you a racer. It will do its best to match you with someone who has a similar number of wins as you do, though sometimes it matches you against a top racer, even if you only have a few wins.

Timing the Shift

WARNING: RACER IS GOING THROUGH SOME CHANGES. PERFECT SHIFTING WAS THE CORRECT STRATEGY DURING THE LAST FEW EVENTS. I WILL UPDATE THIS GUIDE ONCE I HAVE MORE DETAILS ON THE OPTIMAL STRATEGY TO WIN. FOR THE TIME BEING, IGNORE THIS SECTION.

This is why all of you are here! Below is the official advice from Atlas Reality:

Atlas Reality also offered a video explaining how the controls work and the best time to shift! See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP01HMkRzp0&t=2s&ab_channel=AtlasReality.

Many of you have tried this strategy and lost most of your races. Let me let you in on racer’s dirty little secret.

Perfect shifting is a lie.

That’s right! This is a losing strategy! That begs the question: If perfect shifting is a lie, how do I win? Great question!

The best strategy is to do the following:

• When you see the timer at the top count down 3…2…1…Go, hold shift at 2. This will give you a “good” boost. “Perfect” seems to cause your car to spin out.
• Your first two shifts should be right before the “best shift zone”. I’ve marked it in red, below. This will register as “good” when you shift in this area.

• The last two shifts should be in the “best shift zone”. They will register as “perfect”.
• The red zone is bad. Don’t let your needle go past the final tick in the “best shift zone”.

NOTE: Not all “good” and “perfect” shifts are created equal. The exact place to shift will vary slightly from race to race and opponent to opponent. If you lose to an opponent more than once, try shifting slightly differently. For example, I beat an opponent three times in a row by shifting in the “good” zone three times and “perfect” on the last shift and lost to them using the above strategy. Learn from your mistakes and try different things when you lose.

Also, sometimes you race the same person over and over again. You can (usually) break the cycle by waiting 10-15 seconds before starting another race.

Exiting Racer

You can skip part of the “results” animation if you keep tapping the bottom of your screen where the “OK” button exists. This will save you a few seconds each race, allowing you to do a few extra races.

Below is example of me quickly exiting and re-entering a match. Although the event is different, the concept is the same.

Mulligan

If you lose a race and want a chance to get some of your AB back, you can run an ad to get 1, 2, or 3 AB. There’s a bit of a delay between stopping the needle and when the needle actually stops. Just like in racer, lag is a major factor that determines your result. However, lag tends to clear up after the first hour.

Bear in mind that if two people race each other trying to purposefully lose, the app will just assign one of you as the race winner. If anyone has any information on tiebreaking, I would appreciate it.

Below is an example of me running the Mulligan. Although the event is different, the concept is the same.

2.5 Hour Event Recording

To those interested, I recorded myself during the February 20th, 2024 racer event, which lasted 2.5 hours.

Ranking

Your rank in racer depends on the number of races you win. If there is a win tie between racers, the racer who got their first will rank higher.

If you want to win the top prize, you’ll need to play the entire time. However, sometimes you can’t do that. If you are a proficient racer, consider going for bottom 500 for a small payout. This will help you minimize AB cost and earn you a decent payout while you practice your skills to take one of the top 100 spots. People in ranks 101-400 usually lose AB. However, with the Mulligan feature, the 101-400 people can make a profit.

There is also ranking payouts available for your state/territory. This will vary considerably, depending on which state you are in. Atlas Earth will assign you to a state/territory based on your location when you first open racer during the event.

Finally, if you want to minimize the number of races you do, aim for the bottom of your target tier. However, the number of wins you will need depends on the number of participants. The more people there are, the more times you will need to win. However, more participants also mean a larger prize pool. Obviously, if a racer event exceeds one or two hours, more wins will be required to keep your rank.

Clearing Up Misconceptions About Racer

There have been a lot of rumors around racer regarding how long it took to develop, how much AB Atlas Reality removes from the game, matching, and other issues. In response to this, Mod Mak wrote a post to address them. To view Mak’s post, select A couple of things about racer.

Other Tips

1. The biggest thing you can do is not panic, and just play your best game. If you concentrate on your shifting and stop worrying about the other player, you will fare better.
2. The biggest issue isn’t lag, it is lag spikes. If you had consistently bad lag, you can compensate for that. What you can’t compensate for is when it is all over the place. So if you have a lot of lag spikes, this might not be the game for you. If your lag is consistent, find your shift points (which will be different from everyone else’s).
3. Because of lag, it is better to be a little conservative over peeling out. However. If you find that you are consistently losing to someone, then it is best to be a little more courageous in your shifting. So against someone you often win against, be conservative. If you are losing a lot to someone, be more aggressive.
4. You can also break the cycle of facing the same player over and over again by waiting about 10 seconds before starting another race. This is useful if you keep losing to the same player over and over again. It’s a good time to check the leaderboard!
5. If you find that you are losing a lot, consider taking a break and target a lower rank with Mulligans. Or…perhaps this just isn’t the minigame for you.
6. Some people have reported turning on the music helps them time the shifts.
7. If this is your first time, consider pushing for top 500 on your first go and Mulligan every time you lose a match. If you think you are decent at the game and have time, push hard for a typical 2 to 2.5 hour event. This will help you figure out your overall rank and will help you figure out which rank you should target and how often you should Mulligan your losses.
8. Ask yourself what your goal is. Look at how long the event is through Reddit, then ask what you aim for. If you want T100, most times you’re going to need to play for most of the window. T50 or above, unless you’re RainbowUltra, Arn, me, etc. You’re playing the full 2 1/2 hrs or about 4-5 hours on weekends. If you can’t manage to play that long, consider shooting for top T500 and relax. It’s a minigame, it’s supposed to be fun!
9. If there is 30 minutes to an hour left of the game and you’re on the edge of a higher bracket, consider sacrificing Mulligans to push for the higher bracket. You are risking a little bit of AB for a potentially bigger payoff.
10. If you think you have your ranking secure and have time to continue playing, consider Mulliganing your losses intentionally to squeeze a few more ads for a few more AB. This will also help raise the pot and could potentially raise your payout. However, bear in mind that other people might also be Mulliganing their losses, which could lead you to unintentionally winning a match and wasting 2 AB.

Closing Thoughts

I hope you found this guide helpful.

If you have any questions, feel free to DM me on Reddit or Discord. If you don’t know where the Atlas Earth Reddit and Discord servers are, select Resources.

For those who haven’t yet downloaded Atlas Earth or want to learn more about it, check out my Beginner’s Guide.

Updates:

11/05/2024 – Added a warning to indicate that perfect shifting is correct as of the last racer event. More details and updates to follow.

05/20/2024 – Added a table of contents.

03/15/2024 – Removed videos/images that were potentially in violation of Google Adsense’s policies and added captions to comply.

03/08/2024 – Added videos for quickly exiting/rematching and running the Mulligan.

02/21/2024 – Added tips 7-10 in “Other Tips”, which was inspired by this post by u/princesky_. Also added a section for my recording of a 2.5 racer event.

08/28/2023 – Added a section for Mulligan and more information to the first paragraph for preparation. Also, fixed an error in the opening section about required AB saved.

08/16/2023 – Removed text that this is a two hour event at a fixed time, all the win tables (they vary too much to keep a consistent table running), and added a tip to consider adding music.

08/09/2023 – Added a picture of myself winning a racer event for effect.

07/23/2023 – Added link to Atlas Earth’s official video on racer. Also, slightly modified bullet points in section “Ranking” and clarified that the time spent vs. rank to go for is for proficient racers. Finally, added a statement at the end of section “Ranking” to indicate rankings that typically lose AB (aside from not ranking at all).

07/13/2023 – Added section “Other Tips”. Many of these tips are from Angel on Discord.

07/11/2023 – Updated ranking ranges based on races completed in June and early July.

07/03/2023 – Added credits to Arn964, Joefish, and MrEverything for their collective wisdom that makes up this guide. Also, added a new paragraph to “Ranking” based on advice from TwoElls on Discord.

06/29/2023 – Updated language in sections “Preparation” and “Ranking” to clarify caveats on how long racers last, how much AB goes into the pot, and rough estimates on win rankings. I also added the racer icon to section “Starting the Race” and slightly modified the language leading up to it. Thanks to angel.velez and ajdowntown on Discord for their help!