Powerups Explained Part 1 | Dev Blog #4

Alright Runagades,

Racing fast is great and all, but sometimes the real strategy is making sure the other players don’t.

That’s where powerups come in. You can grab them by picking up the gacha balls around town.

You may have also noticed other Runagades running past those strange blue cubes. Those are Tesla Cubes. They were originally built to power Sprint City’s electric grid by harvesting the kinetic energy of citizens constantly moving through the city.

As it turns out, Runagades discovered the cubes can also be used to charge their items.

In Sprint City, every powerup can be charged before you use it. Spend some time near a Tesla Cube and your item will become stronger, bigger, or just a lot more annoying for everyone else on the track.

Let’s start with a few of the tools you can use to cause some trouble.

Ever wanted to turn another Runagade into a popsicle mid-race?

The Ice Beam lets you aim at your opponents and freeze them in place.

Uncharged it gives you a narrow beam that requires good aim. Charge it longer and the beam grows bigger, making it much easier to catch the other Runagades

It is even more fun to hit the others while they are mid-air, or riding a vertical rail. Be mindful though, if you hit them on a rail with the right momentum, they might even slide by faster than they can run. See the GIF below for some visualization.

The Rocket slows down any Runagade it hits, but the real fun comes from charging it.

• Level 1: You fire a rocket you have to aim yourself. Tricky, but very satisfying if you land the shot.

• Level 2: Charge it longer and it upgrades into a homing missile that locks onto your target.

• Level 3: Keep charging and suddenly you’re launching three homing missiles instead of one.

Steam post image

A mine is simple, effective, and just a little bit mean.

You drop a spiky ball onto the track behind you. The next Runagade who touches it will trip and lose their momentum.

Charge it, and things escalate:

• The traps become bigger and stronger

• You’ll drop multiple obstacles instead of just one

Leave a few of these in the right spot and you can turn a clean racing line into a complete disaster zone.

Steam post image

As you may have guessed, I ADORE pigeons. And soon you will too.

Activate this powerup, and the pigeon will go after the Runagade in first place and mess with them during the race.

Charging the pigeon makes it more powerful, meaning it becomes a much bigger nuisance for whoever gets targeted.

That’s it for the first batch of powerups. In the next post I’ll talk about the other tools that help you beat the other Runagades out there!

See you in the streets, Gary D. Tour