The guide

What each thing on the screen does, and then one way to win with it. Everything factual on this page is the game’s own wording.

PART ONE · THE GAME

THE RACE

You steer the whole screen. Everything else on the road is either speed or a bill.

Touch anywhere, then push sideways to steer — where you touched is the centre. Double tap to fire a boost.

Bearings on the road pay for parts on the bench.

Three boosts to start, and charge buys you more. The straights are where they pay.

The rail costs you speed. Come off it early.

A pad gives everything at once. Pick the moment.

THE BENCH

Six specifications. Each one is a physical change to the marble, and each is stronger somewhere and weaker somewhere else.

GRIPKeeps your speed through the corner, and holds your line. Water and ice take it away.

MASSWins contact. The lighter marble pays the knock, and the wet takes less from a heavy one.

SPHERICITYRuns true. The rail costs it less, and it wanders less off the line.

CHARGELonger boosts, a harder push, and more of them held.

LUBRICATIONTop speed, on every surface.

DRIVEThe determined driver. Every metre you lost — the start, a knock, a corner — comes back faster.

THE COURSE

Five things a course can put in your way. The briefing names the one you are about to meet.

PINCHThe track narrows here — the field has to file through.

BROKEN STARTRough ground from the first metre, before anyone has speed.

THE PLUNGEThe ground falls away. Everyone gains; holding your line is the work.

LONG STRAIGHTSmooth and straight — nothing to steer around, and the pads sit in it.

DOUBLE BENDTwo tight corners the opposite way round. Carry too much in and the second takes it back.

THE SEASON

Six seasons. Each one unlocks one specification and each one is run in its own weather — and the weather is why that specification exists.

Twelve marbles, four abreast. You start last.

10 for a win, then 8 · 6 · 4 · 2 · 1, and nothing below sixth. First on points opens the next season.

Sets grip and speed for everyone on it.

01DRY SEASONDustGRIP

02THE WETRainMASS

03SHINGLEShingleSPHERICITY

04NIGHT SHIFTNightCHARGE

05COLD SNAPIceLUBRICATION

06GRAND CHAMPIONSHIPPer trackDRIVE

The ground is not a colour. Dust, rain, shingle, night and ice each set grip and speed for everyone on the road — the same marble is a different marble on ice.

PART TWO · ONE WAY TO WIN

What follows is a recommendation, not a rule. It is how the bench would play it.

Read the plan first

The briefing’s map is measured off the real road, not drawn from memory — so the feature it names is the one thing you can prepare for before the line.

The course from above — left and right are yours, and the fall is the number beside it. The band is the road at its real width, so a pinch reads as a throat. The five marks are its sharpest corners.

Buy for the weather, not for the number

The specification a season unlocks is the one that season’s ground asks for — that is what unlocking it means. On rain, contact decides more than cornering does, so on THE WET the knock you take is the race. On ice nothing holds, so what is left is what you carry down the straight.

Sets grip and speed for everyone on it.

Spend the boost on the straight

Nothing about a corner rewards more speed into it. Keep them for the straights — the game says the same thing on its own loading screen.

Three boosts to start, and charge buys you more. The straights are where they pay.

Hold your line

Correcting costs you more than the thing you are correcting. Two of the game’s own lines say it better than we can.

The wave is out of your line. Trust it and stop correcting.

Hold your line and let them find that out.

Play the season, not the race

A 4th place that banks bearings builds the marble that takes the next four races. Retiring a run you cannot save keeps the bearings you collected in it.

Nobody takes a season in one race.

10 for a win, then 8 · 6 · 4 · 2 · 1, and nothing below sixth. First on points opens the next season.

THE ONE ADVERT

There is one advert in the game. It is the salvage run, it lives on the bench, it only plays if you ask for it, and it pays in bearings. The campaign is balanced for the player who never watches one — salvage is a shorter road, not the road.