Chasing Your Way To A Chariot Chase Trophy

Right now during the offseason of the Altador Cup the infamous colosseum in Altador is still a buzz of an activity with holding chariot races! Chariot Chase is certainly one of the more challenging games to play on Neopets, but once you get the hang of the game it really becomes addicting! I often hear people say when this game is selected for the Daily Dare that they hate this game due to its difficulty. My hope is that this game guide will help you achieve that score you always desired and will open your eyes to the awesomeness of this game!

The Basics

The game Chariot Chase involves 7 Alabrisses pulling chariots around a figure-8 track. The aim of the game actually isn't to cross the finish line first on each lap, but to just continually lap around the figure-8 track without crashing into other chariots! Even though this game isn't really a race, time is still important for your score in the game. The faster you go and the more laps you complete, the higher your score will be. I will talk more about scoring later on.

The game has 2 levels of difficulty: normal and hard. I suggest playing in normal mode because the chariots move slower and there is no difference in points between normal and hard mode. After choosing your difficulty level, you select which Alabriss you want to race with. You get 4 options: Fire, Electric, Faerie, and White. I always choose Fire because you start on the outside lane. Another good option would be choosing Faerie because you start on the inside lane. I would never choose Electric or White as you start in the middle and you would be more likely to run into another chariot and lose a life at the start of the game. You only get 4 lives in the game. You lose a life when you hit another chariot or another chariot hits you. You can hit the sides of the track without losing a life, but it isn't recommended to hit the sides of the track either because that will slow you down and make it more likely a chariot will hit you from behind.

At the start of the game is a countdown of 5 seconds to take off. Once you see the word GO on your screen you immediately hit the up arrow key to move and get a head start on all the other chariots. Alternatively, you can wait until all the other chariots go ahead of you before you go. The controls in the game are simple: the up arrow key moves you up, the down arrow key moves you down, the right arrow key moves you to the right, and the left arrow key moves you to the left. The track is in a figure-8 and you must move around the track in a full figure-8 or else your laps will not count. You start at the top of the figure-8 on the upper left corner of the screen. Then you move down and cross through the middle area to the bottom right corner of the screen. Then you move up into the top right corner of the screen. Then, you cross through the middle again to the bottom left corner of the screen and up across the finish line. You follow this pattern over and over again until you are out of lives. There are also power-ups in this game that I will explain in the next section.

Power-ups

There are 4 power-ups in Chariot Chase. I consider 2 of them to be good and 2 of them to be bad. I will list them and their effects below.

Cloud: The cloud is a good power-up! The cloud gives you the ability to just fly over all the other chariots, so you don't have to worry about hitting any chariots! When you get this power-up go as fast as you can around the track and complete as many laps as you can before it wears off. When it starts to wear off the chariot will flash yellow for a few seconds and then the power-up disappears.

Sun: The sun is also a good power-up! It gives you a shield, so you can just zoom around the track without worrying about the other chariots. Again, move around the track as fast as possible when you have this power-up and complete as many laps before your chariot flashes yellow and the power-up wears off.

Clock: I consider this a bad power-up. The clock will slow down all the other chariots for a few seconds. I find this to actually hinder my game play because the chariots slow down so much that they get in your way and they are hard to move around without touching them and losing a life. I try to avoid this power-up if at all possible.

Dung: There is no disputing that this is a bad power-up. When you hit the dung, your chariot spins out of control and crashes into the sides of the track, which can often result in another chariot hitting you causing you to lose a life. Try your best to avoid the dung!

Scoring

As I said before, this game is more of a game of survival rather than a race. You don't need to cross the finish line first in order to win the game. However, time is still an important factor in this game! Scoring for normal and hard mode are the same, but what a lot of people don't know is that the scoring will change depending on how fast you go in the game. If you manage to get through the game averaging less than 10 seconds per lap, your score is (number of laps completed) + (number of seconds lasted in the game) x(10). However, if you averaged more than 10 seconds per lap throughout the entire game or if the lap you were on when you lost your final life was more than 10 seconds long then your final score is only the number of laps you completed. You would be surprised how important that time bonus is when getting a high score in the game! Yes, you want to be cautious in the game and there are times when you do need to slow down or stop, but you need to be wary of the clock as well and you need to finish the laps under 10 seconds. The game just keeps going as long as you have lives, so just try to complete as many laps as possible as quick as possible to get a high score!

Tips

I have important tips scattered throughout this article and some other ones I haven't mentioned yet, so I will summarize them all here!

-Play in low quality! This game tends to lag, and if it lags too much, it will be game over for you very quickly!

-Play on normal mode! The chariots move slower and you get the same number of points as you would in hard mode!

-Choose either the Fire or the Faerie Alabriss so you can start in the outer or inner lane.

-When the game first starts press the up arrow key immediately to get a head start on all the other chariots, or alternatively wait for all of them to get ahead of you. You want to either stay ahead of the pack or behind the pack, which ever feels more comfortable for you. I personally like being ahead, but it doesn't make too much of a difference either way.

-Pick up the sun and cloud power-ups and avoid the clock and dung power-ups. When you have a sun or cloud power-up moves as quick as you can around the track. Never risk losing a life though to pick up or avoid a power-up! Some people say you can go on a detour to pick up a power-up, but honestly I wouldn't bother. More times than not you will end up making a mistake and losing a life if you try to go out of your way to pick up a power-up.

-Crossing the middle of the screen to get to one part of the figure-8 to the other is the most dangerous part of the game. This tends to be the one spot where I do slow down or even stop to make sure it is safe to cross!

-Try your best to avoid running into the sides of the track! It will slow you down and often a chariot from behind will hit you causing you to lose a life.

-I tend to stick near the outer edges of the track when driving my chariot. I just find this the easiest position to move around most of the chariots. You will start to notice after playing for awhile that certain chariots move to the same spots and most of them tend to stick to the middle or inner edges of the track. There are some that will move to the other edges in certain parts of the track and you will eventually learn which ones do that so you can avoid them. Until you learn which chariots go where, just be aware of your surroundings and follow your instincts.

I hope this guide will help you become a fan of Chariot Chase and will get you a new shiny trophy for your lookup!