This is a guide of Undercover mode for PC version.
Recommended options:
-Viewing distance - always max -Traffic density - always lowest (position 0). However, this changes back to position 1 in EVERY chase. I have no idea why. Changing the traffic density also changes the starting position of any cop - eg. the cop at the very beginning of Luther's heap of junk will drive from right to left instead of left to right with traffic density at position 1. -Night brightness - always max. However, this changes to position 0 in Ticco's Ride. I have no idea why. -Auto handbrake - off -FMV - off -FPS limit - 50fps or Auto. Off makes the game run very fast and is forbidden.
Tricks:
-Cruise control - use this to keep speed under 60mph in order to not get felony. -Skip cutscenes - most missions have short cutscenes at the beginning, which can be skipped if you hold or press Esc button during loading screen. -Faster turning - you can sometimes use burnout to turn faster in low speed turns instead of using handbrake, which lowers your speed. Quite useful especially in rainy missions. Make sure not to overdo it and don't spin the car. There's also a button for quick steering, which may help you during "burnout turning", but I personally don't use it. -Wall/car bounce - if you don't have a lot of damage, you can just handbrake and bounce of a car or a wall. Quite dangerous, though. -Earlier mission completed - pretty much every mission ends 5 seconds after "Well Done!" message is displayed. Luckily, you can usually enter "Mission Completed" menu after just 2 seconds, and sometimes even immediately. Exact timing is specified in mission walkthrough below. -Curbs - every time you hit a curb, your car will slightly accelerate, so take advantage of that.
Chase patterns:
-Chase missions have a very weird mechanics. They are not randomly generated, they work via positions. Everytime you start the game, the game position will be at 1. Now if you load for example Take Out D'Angio's Car, you will also load a pattern that is in chase position 1, in this case 1:25. Now if you quit to menu and load the same mission again, or if you just restart the chase, you will move the game position to 2, thus you will get 1:22 pattern. How is this useful for speedrunning? It's simple, you know exactly how many times you have to restart the mission in order to get your desired pattern. I have created a table with all positions here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19dBO6_iI5dkBs042kkEenxEpjPDSi_TqefzI7szhxUI/edit?usp=sharing
Cars:
-All cars have a top speed of 87 mph, with two exceptions: 1) Superfly Drive mission, 2) Chase missions - acceleration and top speed is determined by how far you are from the chased car. If you're right next to him, you'll have no advantage. If you're very far, you can accelerate up to 113mph. -Cars have slightly different acceleration and handling, mostly notable in rainy missions. -Some non-standard cars are less durable, for example the cop car in Steal a cop car mission or "Mustang" in Superfly Drive.
Traffic:
-Try to stay at least one lane from traffic on crossroads. They can and will unexpectedly turn into your lane. -Traffic car use signal lights, but I've seen cars signal left and eventually turn right and vice versa, so don't count on it. -If you crash into a car, it will keep some momentum for a while, usually towards the way you want to drive. Make sure you count with that. -You should always drive through a crossroad in the middle lane, if possible. That way you can react on any unexpected traffic movement.
Basic info about cops:
-It's almost always better to keep cops on your tail until the very end of a mission, because if you loose them, new cops will always spawn near your position and can potentially kill your run or at least make it slower. -Many missions require you to loose tail in order to escape. Usually the fastest way is to kill the cop. It's best to hit him from side as that does more damage than frontal or back hit and you actually only need one good hit, but that usually doesn't happen, so a head-on collision and then burnout does the job fine. Make sure you stay on the road as killing a cop on grass takes twice as long for some reason. Hitting another car or a wall can help too. If you go for a head-on collision, you'll need at least half of your health, unless the cop was previously damaged. -Cop cars are always faster than you, except for Superfly Drive, but they crash often. Felony affects how aggresive they are. -Some missions have specific areas called "safe zones", where every cop will stop chasing you. They're usually located near entrances or exits. They're pointed out in the mission walkthrough. -It's highly recommended to use wide roads. You can easily avoid cops on highways in Miami or wide boulevards in Frisco/LA. -Try to keep your felony as low as possible. The higher it is, the more cops will chase you. If you have more than half of your felony, expect roadblocks. Roadblocks can be driven through without touching a single cop car, but it's not reliable. -You get felony by either speeding (over 60mph), running a red light (doesn't always work), crashing into a car (even not by your fault), damaging property (crashing into signs, cones or even touching a wall), or using handbrake or burnout. -It's recommended not to get felony in some more difficult missions like The Casino Job or The Maddox Hit, otherwise you might have problems finishing them. -Always look at your minimap to determine from which side of the road the cops are coming. -Visibility cone in front of every cop car determines their visibility. If you're not in it, there's a countdown
Avoiding/losing a cop:
-Head-on approach - if you're on a wide road or a highway, then just stay as far away as possible. Check your minimap to see on which side of the road the cop is. If he goes straight in the middle, you have to "bait" him by slightly turning to one side and then quickly turning to the other side. He won't be able to react fast enough to your second input. -Side approach - if you think you'll make it in time, then just stay as far as possible and pray he won't hit you, but if you know you won't make it, you can slow down, hide behind a corner and once he drives past, go. The corner and additional objects like lamps or traffic will protect you. -Rear approach - the best way to get rid of cops behind you is to drive zigzag between traffic and cops will eventually crash. If he is right on your bumper (eg: in The Presidents Run), you can bait him by driving straight into a car and avoiding it at the very last moment. It has to be timed properly, though. You can also use objects to your advantage such as lamps, bollards or trees. -Closing approach - if you're on a wide road, just drive as far away from the cop as possible and he shouldn't hit you, but if you're on a narrow road, the best tactic is to get close to the cop right behind him, slow down, and wait for him. The cop usually panics and tries to do 180, which is your opportunity to step on the gas.
Mission walkthrough:
-Miami:
- Interview. Difficulty - 5/10
-I've tried many possible ways to complete this mission as fast as possible and this seems to be the fastest one: Start with a burnout immediately followed by turning left using handbrake. Proceed to do a slalom and when you're about to turn around the last pillar, do 180 and possibly even 360 (doing 360 here is a bit tricky, but can be done). Complete the slalom, go right, complete almost an entire lap, and brake near the starting point as hard as you can before crashing into a wall while turning left. This should complete both speed and brake. Reverse to a certain speed, then turn to either side to complete reverse 180. If you didn't manage 360 during slalom, now is the best time to do so. It's possible to get sub 30 seconds if you're fast, but 35 seconds is also good enough. My best time is 25:160
Ending: Immediately after "That's it. You got the job."
- The Bank Job (message 1). Difficulty - 3/10
-First part: Drive to the checkpoint and wait for 14:98. You can't trigger the cutscene earlier and there's about 7-8 seconds to spare, so if you crash along the way, you should still be fine.
-Second part: Once you pick up the guys, take MacArthur and head for the finish. There's a pretty big chance that you will be tailed or a cop will spawn near the safehouse, so if that happens, just restart as it's the first mission and you will probably lose a lot of time.
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
- Ticco's Ride (message 2). Difficulty - 3/10
-First part: Lot of time to get to Ticco's place. If you get any felony, you will probably lose 2-3 seconds losing a tail. There's a safe zone right before Ticco's place. Do 180 at his place. IGT timer should display 40-46 seconds. If you get a cop at Ticco's place, restart the run. It doesn't happen often and you lose 10-15 seconds.
-Second part: Take Flaglen St and go full throttle. You'll get some felony, but it doesn't matter. There's a safe zone before the finish, but you can still get a cop spawn at the very end. Destroy him. There's a small shortcut behind the house at the end that saves about a second, but you will have a higher chance for cop spawn, so just drive straight and then turn left. IGT should display 1:02+
Ending: Right after you hear "...beetteeeeer".
- The Clean Up (continues mission 3). Difficulty - 2/10
-First part: Drive full throttle and take Flaglen St via small park shortcut. There is a safe zone before the finish, so you can ignore all cops. Stop the car by crashing into a tree near finish. IGT should display 42+
Ending: Two seconds after "to be continued..."
-Second part: Turn right from the garage and then left at the end. Drive via Tamiami trail road and then take right at the very end. Then just straight ahead into the finish. There's a chance you'll get noticed by a cop, so destroy him if necessary. IGT should display 1:23+
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
- Tanner Meets Rufus (message 1). Difficulty - 3/10
-Drive right from the hotel and take 2nd Ave, then MacArthur. There's a safe zone before the finish, but there's still a pretty high chance of getting a cop. Destroy him. IGT should display around 52 seconds if you didn't get a cop.
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
- Bust Out Jean-Paul (continues mission 5). Difficulty - 6/10
-First part: Your job is to destroy or at least damage the escaping van. It's faster to destroy it, of course, but that requires a lot of experience and a bit of luck. Beware of the van as it can easily make you crash into traffic or a lamp/tree. He can also push you out of bounds if he hits you hard enough. Make sure you destroy him on MacArthur, otherwise you'll lose time. I'm not sure if it's faster to destroy the van as fast as possible and then proceed on your own, or wait till the very end of MacArthur. The best way is to destroy him when he's close to the right wall as your car will not spin around automatically. I would recommend to NOT destroy him while still at the S road. Just do it on the straight after that.
Ending: Two seconds after "to be continued..."
-Second part: Continue via MacArthur, turn left at the end and continue via Washington Ave. There's a safe zone before harbour area and there's also a high chance of getting a cop, so make sure you destroy him. IGT may vary, depending on how fast you destroyed the van in the first part.
Ending: Immediately after "Mission Completed" (no idea why it works in this mission).
- Superfly Drive (message 2). Difficulty - 5/10
-This is the only mission where you have a car with top speed of 113mph. This car is also very fragile (about half of the usual durability). The key to this mission is to be very careful and don't crash. Drive straight, then turn right to follow East West Expressway and MacArthur. Now just keep the car on median and watch your minimap for oncoming cops. Then take Collins Av and drive straight to the finish. There's a low chance to get cop spawn at the end, but it doesn't happen often. If you get it, restart the run as it's a big timeloss. IGT should display 1:10 - 1:17.
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
- Take Out Di'Angio's Car (continues mission 7). Difficulty - 4/10
-1:22 pattern seems to be the best one and since it's in chase position 2 and we also have game position 2 (Bust out Jean-Paul counts as a chase), you don't even need to restart. Drive right, left and try to block Di'Angio as he spins out and turns right. He'll turn left on the next crossroad, so make sure to block him again. There's a long road ahead, so you should have plenty of time to destroy him. IGT should display 45-50.
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
- The Informant (continues mission 8). Difficulty - 2/10
-One of the easiest missions once you learn the route. Don't follow the train directly, use shortcuts. You can't finish the mission before 14:96. Cops are not a problem since there's a safe zone before the finish.
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
- The Casino Job (continues mission 9). Difficulty - 5/10
-First part: Just drive to the checkpoint. You have a lot of time to spare since you can't finish before 14:98. Don't get any felony.
-Second part: Drive straight, then turn left at the end (try to not hit anything, otherwise you will get unwanted felony). Beware of oncoming cars and trams. Follow Market St and watch for oncoming cops, but they shouldn't be much of a problem. Then turn right and head for the finish. There's a safe zone before the finish, but there's also a high chance of cop spawn right next to it, so destroy him. You don't have to stop right at the red arrow, you can just crash into the building. IGT should display 1:45+
Ending: When the camera switches.
- Guns In The Trunk (message 2). Difficulty - 4/10
Before you do this mission, go to Options and set Traffic Density to position 0. It takes about 3-4 seconds, but will save more than 10.
-First part: Full throttle to the finish. Try to not get too much felony. IGT should display 1:43 and less. Try to slightly turn the car while triggering the finish in order to make the car spin and face the correct direction.
Ending: Two seconds after "to be continued..."
-Second part: Drive left around the corner to avoid the first mob car, then drive straight ahead. Avoid a roadblock and then very carefully watch the minimap and predict mob cars movement. They are very fast and very dangerous, but they also crash or flip very often due to their cheated handling. Turn left at the end, then right, and drive straight to the finish. There's a safe zone near the finish and also a chance for mob car to spawn. Either destroy him or just drive to the finish and park at the very top of the barn. That should make you loose the cop. IGT should display 1:57+
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
- Taxi! (message 1). Difficulty - 2/10
-Easy mission, but traffic may cause some problems. Drive straight ahead and then try to drive diagonally as that allows you to reach 80+ mph quicker. Once you do, do 180 and repeat this twice until you reach full bar. IGT should display 31:XX and less.
Ending: About half a second after the guy says "...I understand."
- Cosy To The Chopper (continues mission 12). Difficulty - 5/10
-First part: Drive to the checkpoint. You can take felony here, but you risk some time loss. IGT should display 23 and less.
-Second part: Plenty of time to get to the chopper. Cops shouldn't be a problem unless you picked a lot of felony, but traffic and tram might be, so be careful. There's a safe zone before finish. IGT should display 46 and less.
Ending: When the chopper goes slightly down.
- The Mercy Mission (continues mission 13). Difficulty - 4/10
-First part: There's not much to explain, just drive to the first phone booth and do 180.
Ending: Two seconds after "to be continued..."
-Second part: Again, not much to explain. Do 180 at the phone booth.
Ending: Two seconds after "to be continued..."
-Third part: Drive straight and turn left at the garages. Then right at the end of the road to follow tram line, then left. The phone booth is right next to a lamp, so you'll probably have to reverse a bit in fourth part, although it's possible to stop in between.
Ending: Two seconds after "to be continued..."
-Fourth part: Drive straight and then across a park (jump over the road). Then down and left to the last phone booth. IGT should display 1:04 and less.
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
- The Set Up (message 2). Difficulty - 4/10
-First part: Go full throttle and drive to the garage. Use wide roads and make sure not to get too much felony. There's a safe zone near garages. IGT should display 27 and less.
-Second part: Drive out of the garages and follow the same roads back to the hotel. The first crossroad might spawn up to 3 cops, which can be very dangerous. It's a bit of RNG, that's why you'll probably fail this mission sometimes. There's another safe zone couple blocks from the hotel and a cop spawn near hotel, but if you keep going on the right side, you shouldn't need to destroy him. If he's onto you, enter the hotel parking lot and stop your car in the upper right corner (farthest from the entrance). The cop won't drive into the parking lot and this spot should make you loose him after few seconds. IGT should display 1:22+
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
- Tanner And Slater (continues mission 15). Difficulty - 6/10
-1:31 pattern seems to be the fastest and is in chase position 4, so you have to restart at least once. Try to block Slater after the very first crossroad to get at least 1/3 damage. IGT should display around 1:02 and less.
Ending: Right after you wreck Slater.
- Steal A Cop Car (message 2). Difficulty - 7/10
-The only problem in this mission is that you usually have to deal with a cop at the finish. If you're lucky, you can just drive straight to the end. If not, you have to loose/destroy him. Use at least 2 city blocks, 1 is usually not enough. Alternatively you might be able to destroy the cop in some cases, but only if you know he's very damaged, because you drive a cop car, which is fragile. IGT should display 1:14 and less if you didn't have to deal with a cop.
Ending: When the "Mission Completed" message disappears (about 5 seconds).
- The Chase (continues mission 17). Difficulty - 5/10
-This chase is actually the easiest one if you play the game casually, but quote difficult if you speedrun it. The best pattern seems to be 3:43 as that's the one where Duval sort of crashes on the first crossroad, so you can easily overtake him and block him. Since 3:43 is in chase position 5, you shouldn't need to restart. IGT should display 3:00+
Ending: Right after you wreck Duval.
- The Maddox Hit (continues mission 18). Difficulty - 8/10
-First part: Drive to garages and try not to get too much felony or damage. If you do, you will have a small chance to complete this mission.
-Second part: Safe strat here is not to get any felony, but you can go full throttle if you feel confident. If you end this part with more than half damage, you'll have a really hard time doing the last part. When you get to the finish, make sure your car points to west.
Ending: Two seconds after "to be continued..."
-Third part: This part is the reason why this mission deserves 8/10 difficulty rating. Drive to the crossroad and turn left. You'll meet 2 OP cops here, so be extra careful. Turn right and try to lose your tail. When you approach Santa Monica Freeway, turn left. If you didn't lose tail, you're probably dead right now :) Avoid any cops and drive to the finish. There is a safe zone, so cops shouldn't be a problem. There is a chance to get cop spawn, but it's very rare.
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
- The Test Run (message 4). Difficulty - 1/10
-No cops here, so just go full throttle. Turn right at Beverly Hills and drive to the finish. IGT should display 1:51+
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
- Luther's Heap Of Junk (message 3). Difficulty - 5/10
-Drive left and avoid a nearby cop. Your car is pretty banged up, so if you want you can use safe strats here and not get any felony, but the mission might take extra half a minute. If you feel confident, go full throttle. Turn right to Broadway (take the right lane), left to Houston road and then straight to the finish. There is a safe zone nearby. Be careful on crossroads, though. IGT should display 2:16+
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
- The Rescue (continues mission 21). Difficulty - 6/10
-First part: Drive straight and take left across the park. Beware of traffic. Then drive north and left to the checkpoint. Try not to get too much felony, or you'll have problems in second part. IGT should display 0:38 and less.
-Second part: Drive left and continue along West Side Highway. If you have too much felony, expect roadblocks, which are difficult to avoid and will probably cost you the run. Turn left at the end, right and again left to the finish. IGT should display 2:24+
Ending: When the camera switches to a nearby building.
- Trash Granger's Wheels (message 3). Difficulty - 4/10
-First part: Drive straight and take left across the park. Beware of traffic. Then drive west and take right side at the park. Then hit Granger's car. Try to hit it from side as it does much more damage than from front or back. IGT should display 1:40 and less.
-Second part: Drive the same way back to your hotel. There will be cops around, but nothing to worry about. There's also a safe zone near the hotel and you'll sometimes get a cop spawn nearby, so destroy him if necessary. IGT should display 0:43+
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
- The Negatives (continues mission 23). Difficulty - 5/10
-Fish for 0:52 pattern as it's the only one where the AI car reverses and continues via West Side Highway road, so take an advantage of it and destroy him. IGT should display 31 and less.
Ending: Right after you wreck the car.
- The Ali Situation (continues mission 24). Difficulty - 1/10
-Your goal is very simple - destroy your car as fast as possible. It should only take about 30 seconds. Outcome of this mission only affects the outro video, so you can just fail it and the game will still progress. IGT should display 2:54 and less.
Ending: Right after you wreck your car.
- The President's Run (continues mission 25). Difficulty - 10/10
-Definitely the hardest mission and also most RNG based. PS version can use OoB and glitch the mission, PC can't. Drive straight and avoid every cop you can. The most important thing here is prediction. Cops are very OP, so even a slight mistake can be fatal. Once you get close to Madison Ave, turn right across the park and follow Park Ave. Then drive straight to the garages and pray for good cop RNG. IGT should display 2:26+
Ending: Two seconds after "Mission Completed".
