Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled

[Moonface]

Couldn't believe I missed out on Tawna Pink, but other stuff I knew I wouldn't get in time.

Tawna Pink was never available in the first GP. Back N. Time had two stickers that were never actually in the Pit Stop rotation either.

[Mr EliteL]

Oh, never knew those weren't included in rotation at all. No wonder I thought I missed them then, well the paint job mainly. Why on Earth wouldn't they be though, what were they thinking? Was Spyro GP all there then? They need to make a full list now, so we know what's going to be available. Ah well.

[Moonface]

All of the Spyro content made it in. The missing stuff was an oversight, not intended.

[Moonface]

Neon Circus Grand Prix Details
Beenox has released details of the next Grand Prix coming to Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled — the Neon Circus Grand Prix which starts this Friday, November 8.

Here's a rundown of everything you can expect from Neon Circus:

• New Track - Koala Carnival
  
• New Mode - Ring Rally
  
• New Characters - Koala Kong (Nitro Gauge), Pasadena O'Possum (Pit Stop), Ebenezer Von Clutch (Pit Stop), and King Paul III (???).
  
• New Karts - Nitro Bumper Kart (Pit Stop), Pressurizer (Nitro Gauge), and Daredevil (Nitro Gauge).
  
• New Pit Stop Skins - Rustic Fake Crash, Cannonball Nash, Farmer N. Gin, Clown Cortex, Circus Isabella, Circus Megumi, Circus Liz, and Circus Ami.
  
• Neon Wheels, new Paint Jobs, Stickers, and a new Champion Decal.
  

The new Ring Rally mode is set to debut with the Neon Circus Grand Prix, and works as thus:

The time continually counts down from the moment you take off, making this a race to survive the longest and earn a high score. Time is added onto the clock for each ring you collect, and rings give you a boost to help you get down the track even quicker.

Earn points in this mode by collecting rings and by finishing a lap with the time remaining on the clock to set a new record. In each successive lap the rings – laid out on the track’s optimal route – get smaller, making it even harder to collect and keep on driving. Endure on the track as long as you can and once you clock in a time face the ultimate challenge: can you beat your own record?

[Mr EliteL]

Watched the trailer and didn't see Von Clutch, and wondered if he was even included. Hoo boy though, a new mode, 4 new characters, all those new skins and that track. Looks nuts. Really wasn't expecting a new mode and King Paul to be there too, so makes this GP even bigger. Don't get where Farmer N. Gin fits in this theme though.

Really wish Weekend Bonus could start earlier than what it does, don't like waiting till 9PM. Oh well. Gotta make sure I play online then, and check other stuff beforehand.

[Moonface]

Watched the trailer and didn't see Von Clutch, and wondered if he was even included.

Von Clutch can be briefly seen at 0:10.

Also, King Paul III is unlocked via Adventure Mode. There will be a golden egg hidden in each hub world, and finding all five will open a door in The Lost Ruins. Whether there's a race behind the door or you just straight up get the character isn't known yet.

I was worried the new mode would be in online, but thankfully it isn't. Unless there were no items I don't want to imagine trying to do that shit online with the item spam that can happen. Personally I hope the new GP adds some invulnerability frames in races when you get hit so you can't be spammed with items back-to-back.

[Mr EliteL]

Managed to get King Paul today. Glacier Parks' egg took me a while to find as I started in an area before, went all the way round the others and got to Glacier, couldn't find it and thought it wouldn't be across the bridge as that is pretty much the entrance, and none of the others are in the pathway into a hub. For anyone wanting to know, King Paul doesn't require a race to unlock.

Haven't noticed if there's anything like invulnerability yet, but do agree on that need to be a thing. Has happened to me before. Also remember seeing a reddit post with a video of a player who was in first, believe it was the last lap and gets continuously hit in a row and ends up last. Some hits were right after each other too, so they were in the same spot barely being able to move.

Don't know if it's true, but been noticing the item box gives you the potion or TNT more if you're in first place. Do get the odd Shield, Turbo and Mask, but barely any Bowling Bomb like there used to be. Was wondering that for the hit crates/other power ups with a power-up , and you can't hit them with a potion or TNT obviously. Those two and the bomb should be the main items for first. Shield too, but less common than them.

Also, Brio has Dr in front of his name now, like the other three. N. Gin still needs a space though. Funny seeing those slowly being corrected each update.

[ShiraNoMai]

Don't know if it's true, but been noticing the item box gives you the potion or TNT more if you're in first place. Do get the odd Shield, Turbo and Mask, but barely any Bowling Bomb like there used to be. Was wondering that for the hit crates/other power ups with a power-up , and you can't hit them with a potion or TNT obviously. Those two and the bomb should be the main items for first. Shield too, but less common than them.

I would say Shields and Potions should be the priority percentage in the 1st place item-crate spot than anything else. I'm glad they moved away from bombs in first, as they were incredibly commonplace to come across. I used to joke with Moony about how many bombs he would get in a row on a race. I think he got 5 in a row once. They're pretty useless, I find, since they're a short-range weapon that makes less sense to utilize in first than anything else. I'll do what I think should be the item chance percentage breakdown:

Potions - 35%
TNT/Nitro - 25%
Shield - 20%
Bombs (3x) - 10%
Mask - 5%
Boost - 5%
Turbo Engine - 0%
Missiles (3x) - 0%
Orb - 0%
Time Clock - 0%

I think there should be a small chance to get a mask or boost, for a lucky person, cuz I think having a little bit of a cushion is always nice to have while you're in first, and the rarity would make it unlikely to happen often.

[Mr EliteL]

That list I agree with most apart from the Bombs, partly. Torn between them either having the 10% or share 15% with Shield. Although Shield can protect you from anything (even the train in Android Alley where Mask doesn't for some reason), but Bomb can only help with an incoming missile or taking out a Potion/TNT in your way (or other Karts). Comes down to who's lucky to get the better one or the other, and keep them on their toes if they simply get a Bomb.

I do get annoyed with getting Bombs though, yeah. Miss them only for the challenges I need them for. Usually I just throw them if nothing's near me in hopes to get a better item next crate box. Almost like Green Shells, although those move faster than Bowling Bombs I think, although MK8 makes them less useful now for not being able to hold onto behind for protection.

Played with Moony all three nights of Weekend Bonus. Ack, tonight I kept messing up shortcuts, and as usual skimming walls to stop my reserves. I was even worse after when I played 3 races in Matchmaking as I got 8th. I need Electron Avenue to be the only course or something. Nah, just need keep at it, do some Time Trials again. Haven't even got Tropy or Oxide, what am I doing?

[Moonface]

Ring Rally is a very good mode and I like that it gives a higher WC rate than races. According to Reddit, farming Ring Rally by having the timer expire right as you start your second lap is the fastest way to farm coins offline. For any and all farming, Hyper Spaceway and Out of Time are the two highest paying tracks for time spent, provided you can get most of the track spent with blue fire. HS can net about 5100 coins in 30 minutes for online, so at a weekend that track would net roughly 10,000 coins in 30 minutes of play, if you do it efficiently.

https://www.reddit.com/r/crashbandicoot/...s_edition/

If you can't do HS efficiently, either practice it or pick the next track down the list you can do efficiently. The best way to log your times is probably just doing Time Trials, that way you can get an actual record of your time saved in your file and deal with Oxide at the same time. Plus with no AI you won't have to care for items, which in a private lobby are probably best not used unless they're not going to affect someone else, i.e. shields, boosts, masks, etc.

Koala Circus is a simple but fun track. I don't think I would really care for it if not for the music and visuals, since the track design itself is pretty simple. I can't believe no one found and/or fixed the wall collision at the start by the bowls though. The left side of that section is a game of russian roulette for whether you get through properly or not.

[Mr EliteL]

Didn't think Ring Rally would be a good farming coin mode. Didn't quite understand what you meant when you only needed to get to the second lap before the timer, but just tried it out against going for 8 laps. Well, 6 since I wasn't trying as hard I could and missed too many rings and ended up on 6, but I got 172 from 6 laps to...56 coins on one lap (both on Weekend Bonus rate on Slide Colosseum). So I can cut 3 laps out and earn the same amount (just about) doing a single lap three times.

For online farming, best for me at the moment is Android Alley being least stressful as the poster puts it. Although Hyper Spaceway plus Out of Time I'd be willing to try out as they're better for coins, and if I actually do as good as I've done before on them (although not recently, need to practise them again). Out of Time I'm better on out of the two highest paying ones.

Koala Carnival's alright. Do agree on the colourful nature of the track. Haven't paid enough attention to the music yet., or just forgotten what it sounds like out of game. I've hit that invisible wall quite a few times, so wondered why that hadn't been sorted out/found before release. May have to wait for the next update for the fix.

[Moonface]

Hyper Spaceway is doable so long as you can keep blue fire for the first half of the track, lose it in the figure eight section (you could keep it there but I doubt you'd maintain any reserves for the tubes that follow) to build reserves, then do blue fire from the tubes until either that section again or lose it right before the blue fire ramps at the start so you can again get some reserves built up.

I'm not bothered about coin farming efficiently now though since I already got everything in this GP, and filled the nitro bar too. Any coins I get now will be to either save up for the next GP or empty out the Pit Stop so I only end up with GP stuff in future to buy. I'll probably build up to 50k or more in coins before I start buying anything so that way I always have reserves for GP's.

[Moonface]

Winter Festival Grand Prix Announced
The next Grand Prix for Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled starts this Thursday, December 12 at 7am PT!

Here is the full list of all the content coming this Grand Prix:

• New Racers - Rilla Roo (Crash Bash), Yaya Panda (CNK 2), Chick (CTTR), Stew (CTTR), and Hasty.
  
• New Skins - Reindeer Crash, Winter Tawna, Rabbit PJ Baby Coco, Monster PJ Baby Crash, Winter Guardian Spyro, Arctic Nash, Ugly Sweater Polar, Ski-Suit Hasty, and Elf Coco.
  
• New Karts - Snowplower, Candy Cone, and Nitro Sleigh.
  
• New Wheels
  
• New Paint Jobs
  
• New Stickers
  
• New Decals
  

You can see more details and images on the Activision Blog post for this Grand Prix. Also, in the New Year there will be another Grand Prix. So far the only detail we have is that it'll take place in the post-apocalyptic chaos of a place called Rustland.

[Mr EliteL]

5 new characters this time?! That's the same as the first one so that means this'll be a big one again. Was wondering when the new GP would start, was expecting before last weekend but couldn't find anything, so was beginning to think there would be nothing. Would've been strange with no GP for Christmas month.

I lost interest in the last GP as I stopped playing completely half way through the month. Partly due to playing Shield but also not wanting to play. Did unlock at least the three characters, not so much of other stuff, and no GP decal. Only thing I was bummed on was not getting Liz's new skin.

Will get back to playing now though. Glad Chick and Stew finally made it in before the year is over, but was thinking they would show up in a different GP. Perhaps a sign they're coming to an end soon as new updates every month can't go on forever.

[Moonface]

Putting this in here for anyone who wants a very good guide to Wumpa Time: https://www.reddit.com/r/crashbandicoot/...s_edition/
It also helps keep track of when WT resets, since it used to be 9PM UTC but now it resets at midnight instead. I never considered using Electron Avenue as the last track of the session nor keeping track of my race times to see how far into WT I am, so I'm totally doing that from now on.