[NEWEST] The Run New Game Guide

**General Tips:**

-Use manual transmission (if possible).

-Use hood cam to help judge corners better.

-Cars to use (in order): Shelby GT500 SS, Gallardo Balboni, R8, 918 RSR

-Play on Easy difficulty to avoid getting the "Perfect Run" reward after finishing events - saves 2s per event.

-After finishing the final events of Stage 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 9, quit to menu and continue career again. This skips various unlock animations and the "stage complete" animation.

-[Manual gear specific] When using manual gears, if you're in the air for long enough (for example, on that large jump on 3-1), your speedometer needle will start to go anticlockwise, and when you land you will lose a lot of speed thanks to that. To prevent this, use nitrous as the needle is about to drop and hold it until you land.

-[PC Only] If your game crashes, and you have custom controls, check them when you start the game again because there's a chance that they've been reset back to default.

-[PC Only] The higher the fps, the less grippy the cars are and the more unstable the game is. So, the highest recommended fps to play the game at a 60fps cap. HOWEVER, due to recent discoveries, for the most optimal full game time, you **HAVE TO** play with the in-game v-sync enabled, which limits your game to 30fps (you can read more about why it HAS to be the in-game v-sync under **Glitches and Exploits** near the bottom of the guide).

**Events Per Stage:**

Stage 1 = 4 events (if you count the mob escape as one) - pos. 195 on the final event

Stage 2 = 5 events - pos. 172 on final event

Stage 3 = 6 events - pos. 139 on final event

Stage 4 = 5 events - pos. 109 on final event

Stage 5 = 5 events - pos. 85 on final event

Stage 6 = 5 events - pos. 67 on final event

Stage 7 = 4 events - pos. 50 on final event

Stage 8 = 5 events - pos. 26 on final event

Stage 9 = 4 events - pos. 11 on final event

Stage 10 = 6 events - pos. 1 on final event

(The number of events for each stage and The Run position are listed to help you remember which events to quit to menu on).

**Cutscene Skips:**

To skip a cutscene at the start of an event, just restart the event. The events where you will want to do this are:

-Stage 1-2 (San Fran Race) - Jack preparing for the race. Not only is this cutscene *technically* faster RTA (unless you have very slow loads), but skipping this cutscene via a restart enables clean, dirty, and rapid passes early, which allows you to gain XP from passing the various opponents in this event. This gives you significantly more XP than you would get normally without skipping this cutscene and massively increases the chances of getting various unlocks fairly early, which will mainly save you time in Stage 3 and Stage 5.

-Stage 3-4 - Nikki and Mila cutscene.

-Stage 4-2 - Marcus brake check cutscene.

-Stage 5-5 - Restart event when you can only see a black screen from the fade-in.

-Stage 7-3 - The cutscene where Marcus shoots you; you can only restart the event after Sam has finished saying, "Jack... I just got word".

[PC specific; 10-4 OOB Setup] Stage 10-4 - The cutscene with Cesar and Jack in a cop chase. Skipping it does save time, and it is required to do the 10-4 OOB, but there's a chance of the game softlocking (on PC).

**NOTE**: It's possible for the game to softlock on the Stage 3-4 (which is extremely rare), Stage 4-2 and Stage 5-5 cutscene skips. However, it's nowhere near as likely to softlock compared to the Stage 10-4 Cesar cutscene. Also keep in mind that softlocks are not as common on the console versions of The Run, as far as we're aware.

**Glitches and Exploits (click on the orange text to view a video of a glitch/exploit):**

Here comes the fun part, the glitches and exploits... but before you have a look at these glitches and exploits, I need to explain a few things to help you better understand how the reset glitches work. Around the map, there are reset triggers placed anywhere the developers don't want you to go. However, it appears to be very easy to break these reset triggers by... well... using the resets, as well as either a gas station OR a mid-event cutscene. Our most recent discovery involves spamming the reset button until the game considers you to be in control (you'll know if it has worked if you see a black screen fade followed by your car going in and out of existence), and either going into and exiting a gas station OR going into a mid-event cutscene. For whatever reason, this breaks all reset triggers, allowing you to go wherever you hell you want.

**NOTE**: 2-5 (reset only), 6-1, 10-4, and the faster version of 5-1 (where you do the bugged reset) are significantly more consistent if you play the game with the in-game v-sync (with the in-game v-sync even being a requirement for a lot of them) because it has a special property which appears to delay the amount of time it takes until a manual hard reset is allowed to be triggered. Meaning it can't interrupt the buggy reset that you need to get to setup the glitch.
Once you're in this mode, you have to be aware of some VERY IMPORTANT side effects of this bugged mode.

1) You can not manually reset your car.

2) You pretty much enter a permadeath mode, so if you wreck your car, you're toast. And the only way to become less toast is to restart the event.

3) The timer in make up time and battle events completely breaks. So, even if you run out of time, you won't fail the event.

4) You can't get killed on any mob events. Not from the Cayennes, the chopper, OR EVEN EXPLOSIVES. *Meaning this glitch could potentially be useful on Extreme difficulty.
Another thing to mention is that this glitch only works on the latest version of the game (for PC, it's 1.1), so make sure that you have the latest version of the game (for example, the official Origin version on PC). And with that done, let's get to the fun part :D

And just to be clear:

*"Instant reset version/bugged reset version"* - requires the in-game v-sync to work, will always be fastest. [Example](https://youtu.be/Cp3D72J_-ts), [Example with input display](https://youtu.be/udBkg32PGlw)

*"Alternate setup version"* - in-game v-sync not required, however it will always be slower than the instant reset/bugged reset version of the glitch.

[Stage 2](https://clips.twitch.tv/InquisitiveTenuousKimchiPanicVis) - 2-5 Reset glitch - Can work without the in-game v-sync enabled, but it's less consistent.

~~[Stage 3](https://youtu.be/FGBw9nqHAMM) - 3-5 OOB (bugged reset version) - Restart event, then do reset - Do the direct version below instead.~~

[Stage 3](https://youtu.be/T5gjfodIgtU?t=3022) - 3-5 OOB (direct OOB version; legacy; currently faster)

[Stage 4](https://youtu.be/XYYEKYP-2is) - 4-4 OOB

[Stage 5](https://youtu.be/Z_FsmHlpPPc) - 5-1 OOB - Spam reset during the cutscene until you gain control - you only have one chance at getting the reset. If you don't get it, then do the alternate version shown in the video (the one that doesn't require v-sync to be on).

[Stage 6](https://youtu.be/Cp3D72J_-ts) - 6-1 OOB - Restart event, then do reset. This OOB setup only works with the in-game v-sync enabled.

[Stage 9](https://youtu.be/iype6E-1B14?t=8771) - 9-2 OOB - Doesn't require a bugged reset setup; can be done without the in-game v-sync and above 30fps

**[1]** [Stage 9](https://youtu.be/iWAgCao4_bY) - 9-4 OOB - The bugged reset does NOT work on 9-4, so follow the video linked and read the instructions in the description.

**[2]** [Stage 9](https://www.reddit.com/r/needforspeed/comments/sdygge/check_this_out/) - this is the original discovery made on the /r/needforspeed subreddit - don't need to refer to this, this just acts as a way to credit the people who originally discovered this.

[Stage 10](https://youtu.be/udBkg32PGlw) - 10-4 OOB - For this one to work, you NEED to skip the cutscene by restarting and you need the in-game v-sync enabled. It is recommended to spam reset really quickly for this specific setup.

[Stage 10](https://youtu.be/iype6E-1B14?t=10214) - 10-6 Orange Barrier OOB - No setup required, just drive through the barrier.

Car Swap glitch

The Car Swap allows the player to change the car he's using in 'The Run', to any car in the game he has unlocked.

Meaning you can now use a Tier 5-6 car at nearly every stages of the game.
Nearly means you can't use this glitch at anytime.

Explanation :
Any PC version of the game should work.
You'll need to start a new 'The Run', this glitch doesn't work through the stage selection.
When you'll be on a stage that allows the glitch. (still needs to be tested)
Finish the stage.
Retry the stage from the end race menu.
Quit the stage when in the race again.
Go to the Challenge Series.
Select any stage that contains the car you want. (only challenges from Stage 9 & 10 contains Tier 6 cars)

For example :
Select 'East Coast Challenges'
Select 'Drive Hard' or 'Drive Hard with a Vengeance'
Thoses are two events to include the top-end Tier 6 cars

Select the car.
Launch the Challenge Series event.
Quit the event.
Resume The Run.

You'll now be driving the car you've selected in the Challenge Series event.

The gain :

Using this glitch will result in a loss of a minute and 15 seconds if done well.
Minus the car change for the VW Golf Mk.1, you got a minute net loss.
By driving just carefully to not crash, you'll pick up the time you lost with the change quite quickly on long streches without car change (Stage 1-4 / Stage 5-8).

source, visual tutorial : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgaSc6NoidA

Cars that i recommend using in the Challenge Series Speedrun

I've chosen those cars by personal preference.

The "--------------------" means that you have only one car option on that race.

Coastal Rush : 1. Camaro SS
                        2. Dodge Challenger R/T
                        3. M3 Sport Evolution 
                        4. -------------------
                        5. -------------------

National Park : 1. Dodge Challenger SRT
                        2. Subaru
                        3. Mustang RTR
                        4. Mustang RTR
                        5. -------------------

Nevada Dreams : 1.BMW M1
                            2. BMW M1
                            3. Mustang Boss / Dodge Challenger SRT
                            4. BMW M1
                            5. --------------------

Desert Valley : 1. 911 Carrera S
                        2. Lotus Exiege
                        3. Shelby Cobra Daytona
                        4. -------------------------
                        5. -------------------------

Winter Blast : 1. 911 Carrera S
                      2. 911 Carrera S
                      3. Shelby Cobra Daytona
                      4. 911 Carrera S
                      5. ------------------------

Plains Interstate : 1.Golf GTI
                            2. Golf GTI
                            3. Nissan GTR ( easy handling )
                            4. Golf GTI
                            5. -----------------------

Windy City : 1. Golf GTI
                    2. Golf GTI
                    3. Shelby
                    4. --------------------------
                    5. --------------------------

Industrial Run : 1.Golf GTI
                         2. Golf GTI
                         3. Ford GT ( Dr. Pepper ) - don't use shortcuts
                         4. Golf GTI
                         5. ----------------------------

Rural Track Attack : 1. ----------------------------
                                2. Golf GTI
                                3. 918 RSR
                                4. 918 RSR
                                5. Pagani "Shadow"

East Coast Express : 1. Golf GTI
                                  2. Elemento
                                  3. Shelby
                                  4. Elemento
                                  5. Elemento
                                  6. ---------------------------

Cutscene Skip

What is it?: From the point when you leave your garage with your starter car, you're able to skip all cutscenes completely and the race starts instantly. But only certain cutscenes are worth skipping.

How does it work?: Loading screen 1 happens, cutscene starts, you pause the game in the cutscene, you restart the event, loading screen 2 happens, cutscene will be completely skipped, race starts instantly.
So, you accept one more loading screen in order to get a time save because you won't see the cutscene anymore.

It should work with all categories (except Challenge Series):
It should also work on consoles.

Here all cutscenes with time saves:

Stage 3
Number of event: 4th
Cutscene: Jack, Nikki and Mila at the gas station.
Time save: 47 seconds

Stage 4
Number of event: 2nd
Cutscene: Marcus overtaking Jack, doing a full braking and Jack driving into him.
Time save: 8 seconds
Note: There is a very small probability to softlock(²) the game if you restart.

Stage 5
Number of event: 5th (last one)
Cutscene: Jack in front of a barrier (Avalanche), Audi drives through the barrier, Jack follows him.
Time save: 23 seconds
Note: There is a very small probability to softlock(²) the game if you restart.

Stage 7
Number of event: 3rd
Cutscene: Sam cares about Jack, Marcus shoots at Jack and rams him.
Time save: 10 seconds (*)

Stage 10
Number of event: 1st
Cutscene: Jack and Sam before racing against Eddie Cooke
Time save: 2 seconds

Time save in total: 1min30s

Please note that those time saves can vary depending on what PC specs you have (or your console), you recording and/or streaming additionally, other software running in the background, etc.

(²) Never-ending blackscreen.

(*) Pause menu can appear 9 seconds after starting the cutscene (when you see Jack for the first time). Theoretically, this could be a 19 seconds time save. 
All the other cutscenes can be paused within 1 second.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not worthy cutscene to skip anymore:

Stage 10
Number of event: 4th
Cutscene: Race against Cesar DeLeon
Wrong time save: 2 seconds
True time save: 0,6 seconds
Note: There is a high probability to softlock(²) the game if you restart.

How to play at 60FPS without particles going crazy (NVIDIA GPUs)

I will teach you guys how to play at 60FPS and remove the crazy particle effect that happens when playing at 60+ FPS.

One thing to keep in mind is that this will limit your game to 60FPS. Cutscenes will always stay at 30FPS no matter what you do.

-THIS ONLY WORKS FOR NVIDIA GPUs AND I HAVE NO WAY TO TEST IT OUT ON AMD GPUs BUT PROCESS SHOULD BE THE SAME OR SIMILAR!-

Let's get started!

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(1.)  Go to your main desktop (where you see all of your apps, folders, etc.) and right click on the desktop with your mouse to open the desktop menu. Doing sh should give you a menu similar to this:

https://imgur.com/a/5mXLaFl

(colour of the menu can be either white or dark like mine since it depends on if you are using dark mode or no)

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(2.)  Click NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL and you should get a new window opened that looks like this:

https://imgur.com/a/KvEpVc7

(you may not be located in the same place as I was in the picture but don't be alarmed about that)

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(3.)  Inside NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL click MANAGE 3D SETTINGS and after that you should be on a screen that looks like this:

https://imgur.com/a/2Jf3GVG

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(4.)  While inside MANAGE 3D SETTINGS, click the PROGRAM SETTINGS TAB and after that you should get to a screen that looks like this:

https://imgur.com/a/OeSokiY  

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(5.)  Once you have reached PROGRAM SETTINGS you will be tasked with selecting the program/app/game you want to modify.

Press SELECT A PROGRAM TO CUSTOMIZE and look for "need for speed the run.exe"

If it's not there, you will have to manually add it using the ADD button. Putting a check mark inside the box where it says SHOW ONLY PROGRAMS FOUND ON THIS COMPUTER will help you find the game. If not, you will have to manually add the game's exe file from the game's install directory.

How it looks when you are selecting a program:

https://imgur.com/a/5xkDa58

Optional, but might help you find NFS:TR exe file faster:

https://imgur.com/a/2xYBx6A

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(6.)  Once you have found the game's exe file we can start limiting particle effects and making sure you have 60FPS.

We are looking for 2 things inside the settings that have been listed inside the window with all the different options. That window looks like this:

https://imgur.com/a/eZzrsaw

2 options we are looking for are VERTICAL SYNC and PREFERRED REFRESH RATE (MONITOR NAME).

NOTE THAT REFRESH RATE OPTION WILL NOT BE INCLUDED IF YOUR MONITOR ONLY SUPPORTS 60Hz!! THIS OPTION IS INCLUDED ONLY FOR MONITORS THAT GO ABOVE 60Hz!!!

Once you have located those 2 settings (or only 1 depending on your monitor select these setting for the corresponding setting):

https://imgur.com/a/kMJGAij

After changing those settings click APPLY button in the BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(7.) After you have done that, we need to go inside the game.

Once inside the game go into the SETTINGS option and choose DISPLAY.

Here we will select our RESOLUTION and REFRESH RATE (those two settings are tied together) just as shown on the picture:

https://imgur.com/a/FnlipUz

SET REFRESH RATE TO 59Hz FOR BEST RESULTS! 60hz WORKS BUT SOME PARTICLES ESCAPE HERE AND THERE!

And finally set your in game V-SYNC to OFF. To do that simply press ADVANCED DISPLAY SETTING under RESOLUTION option and click on it to enter it. Once inside scroll down to V-SYNC setting and set it to OFF.

https://imgur.com/a/coTloAj

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AND THAT'S IT! You can now play at 60FPS without particles blocking your view!

BEFORE:

https://imgur.com/a/9BAk3SE

AFTER:

https://imgur.com/a/bahNs2P

How to play without wild particles at 60FPS (AMD GPUs)

I will show you how to play at 60FPS and remove the absurd particle effect that happens when playing at 60+ FPS.

One thing to keep in mind is that this will limit your game to 60FPS. Cutscenes will always stay at 30FPS no matter what you do.

-This is only for AMD GPUs with the 2020 Drivers!!! Landbird made a step by step for NVidia GPUs.
Let's get started!

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(1.) Go to your main desktop (where you see all of your apps, folders, etc.) and right click on the desktop with your mouse to open the desktop menu. Doing so should give you a menu similar to this:

https://imgur.com/dFrYTft

(colour of the menu can be either white or dark like mine since it depends on if you are using dark mode or not)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.) Click AMD Radeon Software and you should get a new window opened that looks like this:

https://imgur.com/KYmAeZN

(you may not be located in the same place as I was in the picture but don't be worried about that)

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(3.) Inside of the AMD Radeon Software click Gaming and go to "Need for Speed The Run" and after that you should be on a screen that looks like this:

https://imgur.com/M25V0Hv

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(4.) Once you got to that Screen we can start limiting particle effects and making sure you have 60FPS.

The 2 options we are looking for are "Radeon Chill" and "Wait for Vertical Refresh".

Once you have located those 2 settings (or only 1 depending on your monitor select these setting for the corresponding setting):

https://imgur.com/8CDks6R

After changing those settings you can go back to the Home Tab and close the Programm.

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(5.) After you have done that, we need to go inside the game.

Once inside the game go into the SETTINGS option and choose DISPLAY.

Here we will select our RESOLUTION and REFRESH RATE (those two settings are tied together) just as shown on the picture:

https://imgur.com/a/FnlipUz

SET REFRESH RATE TO 59Hz FOR BEST RESULTS! 60hz WORKS BUT SOME PARTICLES ESCAPE HERE AND THERE!

And finally set your in game V-SYNC to OFF. To do that simply press ADVANCED DISPLAY SETTING under RESOLUTION option and click on it to enter it. Once inside scroll down to V-SYNC setting and set it to OFF.

https://imgur.com/a/coTloAj

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AND THAT'S IT! You can now play at 60FPS without particles blocking your view!

*credits to Landbird for making the template of the step by step (and everything from step 5)
(basically just an edited version of his guide for AMD users)

Strategy Guide for The Run any% any difficulty

The most important part about speedrunning this game is avoiding crashes.
Every reset, restart, car reposition is costing you at least 10 seconds at best. Most of crashes result in 1-5 minute loss.
Crashing is very easy and traffic is mostly unpredictable, but there are some patterns that can be used, but they are not always working.

You can be slow on stages, losing 10-20 seconds, driving safely and have higher chances for record run than people doing record stage times, but with crashes.

Preparation for record run should consist of:
-Finding the best suitable car for you (Best of the best Tier 4 car wasn't discovered yet. Very close times are achievable with those we know for now)
-Learning most important corners and fake shortcuts.
-Practicing stage 8. Mob is hell'a hard. Especially on harder difficulties.
-Learning police roadblocks. They are always the same and are result of huge time losses.

Link to the strategy Doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HT6E_nTMnk07Hb-tK8Oxma4paV7YpTNwpTKyw5agz7k/edit?usp=sharing

Name	Author
[NEWEST] The Run New Game Guide	ItzSamOnPC 2 years ago
Car Swap glitch	jv 7 years ago
Cars that i recommend using in the Challenge Series Speedrun	Antipu 7 years ago
Cutscene Skip	Proenke 4 years ago
How to play at 60FPS without particles going crazy (NVIDIA GPUs)	Landbird 4 years ago
How to play without wild particles at 60FPS (AMD GPUs)	J0nny0 4 years ago
Strategy Guide for The Run any% any difficulty	HighPriest 8 years ago