Need for Speed Most Wanted Tips & Tricks

To an extra $10,000 in career mode have a Need For Speed Underground career game saved on your hard drive. After the prologue you will get $10,000.

Pay close attention to your tachometer when launching from the start line. Grab a perfect launch to gain a few precious seconds. When the needle turns blue drop the clutch and hold on.

Hitting nitrous torques the chassis back, giving the rear tires immensely more weight under the new acceleration. The end effect is that you will go straight. If you find your tail sliding out or are about to spin out of control, hit your nitrous. You will be surprised at how fast you will get straight again. This is a great trick in combination with Speedbreaker. With the correct timing, there is no corner you cannot take at any speed.

Defeat the indicated Blacklist Boss to win the corresponding car:
Aston Martin DB9: Blacklist Boss 7
Audi A3 3.2 Quattro: Blacklist Boss 15
Audi A4 3.2 FSI Quattro: Blacklist Boss 14
Audi TT 3.2 Quattro: Blacklist Boss 15
BMW GTR (Race version): Blacklist Boss 1
Cadillac CTS: Blacklist Boss 12
Corvette C6: Blacklist Boss 5
Corvette C6.R: Complete 100% of the game
Dodge Viper SRT 10: Blacklist Boss 6
Ford GT: Blacklist Boss 4
Lamborghini Gallardo: Blacklist Boss 6
Lamborghini Murcielago: Blacklist Boss 4
Lotus Elise: Blacklist Boss 8
Mazda RX-7: Blacklist Boss 9
Mazda RX-8: Blacklist Boss 12
Mercedes-Benz CLK 500: Blacklist Boss 8
Mercedes-Benz SL 500: Blacklist Boss 11
Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren: Blacklist Boss 3
Mitsubishi Eclipse: Blacklist Boss 14
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII: Blacklist Boss 11
Mustang GT: Blacklist Boss 12
Pontiac GTO: Blacklist Boss 10
Porsche 911 Carrera S: Blacklist Boss 7
Porsche 911 Turbo S: Blacklist Boss 5
Porsche Carrera GT: Blacklist Boss 3
Porsche Cayman S: Blacklist Boss 10
Renault Clio V6: Blacklist Boss 13
Subaru Impreza WRX STi: Blacklist Boss 9
Toyota Supra: Blacklist Boss 13
Vauxhall Monaro VXR: Blacklist Boss 10

Find an easy race such as a drag or something short that you can win quickly. Win the race and get the money. Go back to the safe house and start the race again. Win the race to get the same amount of money again. Repeat this process as much as desired. This is quite useful when you need that extra bit of power to defeat a blacklist rival, but don't have the money for a better car or parts.

Defeat one of the opponents on the blacklist. You will get two marks to use on several different things. Do not use them on the Uniques early in the game. Instead, use them on the middle or the left "Random" choices. They should usually come out to either a large cash bonus or the opponent's pink slip.

Before you can do anything, you must win the Burger King Challenge. Once you win it, you will unlock all unique parts (also called Junkman parts). Get any car and put all the parts on it except performance. Once you have your car the way you desire, go to the performance shop. Max out your car, then put the Junkman parts on. Max out your car again. Then put on the Junkman parts again. Your car should be fully upgraded now.

Get some cops to chase you, then go to the bus stop. Get on top of the buses and make sure that the front of the car is at the edge of the last bus so that the cops can see you and do not lose you. Keep looking behind you, because the cops will sometimes find a way on top of the buses. When they do get on the buses, just reverse as soon as you see them coming and push them off. Only one cop car will come on top of the bus. Do this for as long as desired. When you want to lose them, just reverse, park in the middle of the buses, and wait until your Cool Down bar fills. The cops will also drive crazy and crash into themselves, giving you extra bounty and bring up your rap sheet rankings on police vehicles immobilized and police vehicles involved.

You start Campaign mode only being able to achieve Heat levels 1 and 2 (City Police). By defeating certain Blacklist Rivals, you can then achieve the higher Heat levels:
Heat level 3 (State Police): Defeat the Blacklist Rival #13.
Heat level 4 (Undercover State Troopers): Defeat the Blacklist Rival #9.
Heat level 5 (Federal Authorities): Defeat the Blacklist Rival #5.
Heat level 6 (Cross' Street Racin' Unit): Defeat the Blacklist Rival #1 (final level only).
After you beat the Rockport's Most Wanted level, Heat level 5 will then consist of both the Federal Authorities and Cross' Street Racin' Unit.

Marked patrol cars and cruisers. They mostly chase and try to run you off the road. If you have a quick car, they are not hard to get away from.

Unmarked patrol cars and cruisers, roadblocks. The police mainly try to ram you off the road and setup roadblocks. Avoid roadblocks by doing an emergency brake lock U-turn or go through them. You can get through by ramming the cars on either end of the roadblock or by going through a weak point like the sawhorse or a gap between the cars. Use Speedbreaker to see the weak point in the roadblocks and use nitrous to ram straight through. Some road blocks will not extend all the way across the road -- you can go through where they have not placed a car.

Marked GTO (Monaro) police cars, marked 4WDs (Rhinos), rolling road blocks, roadblocks. These are quicker and you need to use objects to knock down in front of them to disable them. Lead the chase with these vehicles through the cities to use knock down points (for example, the giant donut sign, etc.) to disable the vehicles and end the chase. Then, find somewhere to hide when you hit Cool Down mode. "Rhinos" will ram you from the front. Listen for the call over the police radio. You can usually see these coming on your map or on the road ahead. Depending on which car you have, you can get away with ramming them head on. Otherwise, just use Speedbreaker again to change lanes before they ram you.

Unmarked GTO (Monaro) police cars, helicopters, spike strips. The unmarked GTOs (Monaros) usually chase in packs and are very hard to avoid. They will try to box you in by surrounding the car from the front and back and slamming the brakes to take away any room you have to escape. Avoid this by staying ahead and using the same tactics used in level 3. For the helicopters, use tunnels and underground parking lots to escape from them. When they spot you, they can radio the police to your location. Spike strips are set up usually on main roads and highways. You can see them on the map when you see only one vehicle over to left of the road not driving (i.e., pulled over). Aim for the police car and use nitrous to ram it and get away. If you hit the spike strip you will get caught.

You will not reach this level until you are at Blacklist #3. When you reach this level, all the best and toughest police come out. The helicopters get more aggressive, there are more spikes, and more belts are called in on you. You must also deal with "cross" cop Corvettes. Cross and his team will apprehend you at all cost. Like in level 4, the unmarked GTO cars will surround and box you in and hit the brakes. Corvettes will also try to use rolling road blocks. If you reach level 5, make sure you are in your fastest vehicle. You will need the nitrous.

You start Campaign mode only being able to achieve Heat levels 1 and 2 (City Police). By defeating certain Blacklist Rivals, you can then achieve the higher Heat levels:
Heat level 3 (State Police): Defeat the Blacklist Rival #13.
Heat level 4 (Undercover State Troopers): Defeat the Blacklist Rival #9.
Heat level 5 (Federal Authorities): Defeat the Blacklist Rival #5.
Heat level 6 (Cross' Street Racin' Unit): Defeat the Blacklist Rival #1 (final level only).
After you beat the Rockport's Most Wanted level, Heat level 5 will then consist of both the Federal Authorities and Cross' Street Racin' Unit.

When approaching a corner at a high speed, quickly assess whether or not you can get through it cleanly as fast as possible and without touching the inside or outside barriers. If you start drifting (or worse, careening out of control) toward a barrier, turn on your Speedbreaker in order to regain control via increased handling and traction. During this period of slowed time, straighten out your car and put it back into an ideal racing line. Once you are straight and driving in the correct direction, quickly turn off Speedbreaker and hit the Nitrous hard to rip out of the remainder of the corner. 

After upgrading your car with engines, suspension, brakes, etc., pause the game and go to "Performance Tuning". For better handling for the Lamborghini, Porsche, Corvette, and Viper, set the "Height" of you car to "-1". If you need more gripping power either take the "Height" to "-2" or set the "Aerodynamics" to "+1". If you go overboard with the performance tuning options (anything past "+3" or "-3"), the car will actually handle worse.

After getting busted and taking a strike, turn off the system the next time you get pulled over. Resume the game and those strikes will be removed.

If you get busted, during the scene when the cops are wrestling you to the ground, disconnect the controller then reconnect it and you will be at the pause screen. Then, jump to safe house to not get an impound strike.

Look at road signs around the city. They often have colored shapes (yellow triangles, etc.) to guide the way to the shops. Also, look for street-lights casting a colored glow. This indicates that there is a shop very close.

On the corner if you have a NOS speed up and press space (drift) while your moving (make it a large a turn ) before the car stops press the NOS and speed up,that way you'll have the best drift with no stoping.