After a surprise announcement in March, LEGO 2K Drive has landed. If you’re looking for tips to help you get started, our LEGO 2k Drive beginner’s guide has all the tips you need.
If you need a break from Mario Kart, LEGO 2K Drive is one of the best new kart racers in ages, with a vast open world to explore and a surprisingly comprehensive car builder for creators.
From learning how to drift to changing your vehicle loadout, here are five essential LEGO 2K Drive tips you need to know.
Boost as often as possible
Boosting in LEGO 2K Drive is essential if you want to win races. As you race, your boost meter will gradually fill up.
Once your boost meter is full, pressing the boost button (X on PlayStation, A on Xbox) will cause giant turbines to pop out of your car, giving you a burst of speed. Time a boost just before the finish line to get the edge over the competition.
Although your boost bar fills up automatically, smashing into destructible objects and pulling off drifts will charge it up faster.
Ranking up classes also unlocks special boost abilities. Class B unlocks the Brickbash ability. This lets you smash opponents out of the way by holding the boost button for more than three seconds. Quickbash is also unlocked in the highest A class.
With this ability, maxing out your Boost meter earns you a Quickbash token. Double tap the boost button to spend this token and activate Quickbash. This gives you a much faster speed burst than standard boosts while letting you obliterate opponents in your path.
Drifting
Drifting is the fastest way to approach corners and get ahead of your rivals in most kart racers. LEGO 2K Drive is no exception. If you want to win races, you need to learn the art of driving sideways.
To execute a drift in LEGO 2K Drive, press and hold the left trigger and the accelerator at the same time. This will cause your vehicle to slide as you turn for a corner. You don’t need to counter-steer – simply steer into the corner while holding down the drift button.
Drifting is not only stylish in LEGO 2K Drive, but it also charges up your boost meter, so it pays to drift around corners as often as possible.
Quick turn
As well as drifting, another technique worth mastering is the Quick Turn. Essentially a handbrake, this enables sharper turns around tighter corners.
To do a Quick Turn, press the Square button on a PlayStation controller or the X button on an Xbox controller. This will spin the car around and can also be used while drifting to finetune your angle. Unlike drifts, quick turns slow you down so use them wisely.
Quick turns are especially useful in side challenges where you have to destroy hordes of enemies within a time limit.
Jump
Whether you’re driving a street car, off-roader or boat, every vehicle in LEGO 2K Drive can jump. Pressing the Triangle button on PlayStation or Y on Xbox will make your car jump through the air.
Jumping in LEGO 2K Drive has several perks. If you jump just before the end of a ramp, you’ll get a handy speed boost. You can also use jumps to discover shortcuts and collectables hidden around Bricklandia, avoid obstacles, and dodge missile attacks from opponents.
Change your vehicle loadout
One of LEGO 2K Drive’s most unique features is vehicle transformation. As you race or explore the world, your vehicle automatically switches between a street car, off-roader or boat depending on the terrain.
This is also possible in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Transformed, but that game came out over ten years ago and hasn't been seen in kat racers since.
If you want to change your vehicles in LEGO 2K Drive, you can assign up to three different loadouts for every terrain type.
To access your vehicle loadouts, select Loadout in the pause menu. Here, you can create up to three loadouts for different scenarios. Each vehicle has stats for speed, acceleration, handling, health and weight. Some vehicles are better suited to tracks than others, so experiment and use loadouts to your advantage.
While in loadouts, you can also assign up to three perks to boost your vehicle's stats. You can only equip one perk when you start in Class C, but you'll unlock two extra slots as you progress to Class B and Class A.
Applying perks will improve top speed, acceleration, handling or health, so use these to improve any of your vehicle's weaknesses and get the edge on your opponents.
Review
Does LEGO 2K Drive live up to the hype? You can find out our verdict on 2K Games’ new Mario Kart rival in our LEGO 2K Drive review.