SnowRunner Tips And Tricks To Keep You Rolling

snowrunner

SnowRunner (available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One), the followup to off-road driving sim MudRunner, is everything we could have asked for in a sequel, and more. Saber Interactive has given us a large stable of new vehicles to pick from and new, larger maps to drive them on. I’ve been spending a lot of time in the snow and mud, and I’m here to tell you that driving 10 miles per hour has never been more exhilarating. I’ve gotten stuck, and sometimes unstuck, more times than I’d like to admit and I can roll a truck over just by thinking about it. There isn’t much of a tutorial to SnowRunner so I’m here to share some of the SnowRunner tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way. They might just keep you from getting stuck in the mud.

Speed kills

Most driving games reward you for going as fast as possible. Snow Runner bucks that trend, and going too fast can result in damage to your vehicle or even end with your ride on its side. Low gears are best for getting you out of the thick or give you the torque you need to get up a steep incline but that isn’t their only purpose. Lower gears are also your first defense against flipping your truck as you throw on some of the bigger tires. Throwing your transmission into low will also help you descend a steep or uneven slope. 

Think outside the box

Sometimes the obvious choice isn’t the best choice. Grabbing a heavy truck capable of hitching up to a trailer stuck in a bog may seem like the sound choice, but as soon as you hit the deep mud and your wheels start spinning you’ll quickly find you have wasted your time. If you don’t have the patience to build up the cash for a real off-road heavy, try jumping in your Scout and pulling that trailer out with a winch. It may take a while but completing a job in an unusual way can be very satisfying, and many times the reward is worth the effort.

Pick the right loadout

Just like a first-person shooter, planning ahead in Snow Runner by picking the correct loadout for the job at hand is key to your success. This starts with picking the right vehicle. An International Scout is lightweight and can climb some of the steepest slopes on the map but its weight becomes a liability when trying to winch a heavy truck out of the muck. It may take a little longer to get a heavier vehicle to your destination but their power and stability can save you time in the long run.

You’ll also want to make sure you have the right equipment for the job. Do you need a low or high saddle to pull a trailer, or maybe you need a crane to load and unload some cargo? Make sure to read the task or contract information carefully to ensure you are prepared for the job at hand before leaving the garage to save you from making a second trip.

The right tool for the job

Watch your fuel

The terrain is your worst enemy in SnowRunner, but your fuel gauge comes in a close second. Nothing is worse than being out in the thick and running out of gas, so use these tips to conserve your precious petrol and extend your drive time:

  • Even while you are stopped your engine is still guzzling fuel. This may not sound like a big deal but spending a minute or two perusing the task list or setting waypoints can cost you a liter or two of go-go juice. To avoid this, shut off your engine before you pull up your map.
  • Only use all-wheel drive and differential lock when necessary as both greatly increase fuel consumption. With a little practice you’ll be able to switch them on and off without losing any momentum.
  • Not every vehicle has the option to carry extra fuel but some do. Roof racks on scouts and fuel tanks on heavy trucks can greatly extend a vehicle’s range, but don’t forget to weigh in the reduced functionality. A great way to overcome this is to winch a fully loaded scout vehicle behind you as a secondary fuel source. Then, when you are done with it, discard it like the worthless piece of junk it is.
  • In an emergency, you can always stop by a trailer park, buy a fuel maintenance trailer, use it to top off your tanks, and then resell it back for 100% of the price.
  • Last, but not least, if you’ve left any other vehicles out in the world be sure to siphon off their gas if you happen to be passing by.

Wenches Winches are your best friend

The obvious use of a winch is to pull something out of the mud or winching yourself out of a sticky situation but there are so many other ways to use them:

  • Winch the side of your truck to an anchor point when going around a narrow or sloped corner. Doing so will keep your truck upright and on the road.
  • The autonomous (aka electric) winch will work even when your truck is flipped on its side and the engine won’t start. It may be weaker than the other winch options but if you just want to explore the map it is the best option and worth the $10k to buy one.
  • Use the winch to increase your hauling capacity by winching a second trailer behind the one attached to your truck. Go crazy and winch a truck with a trailer attached to it for even more space!
  • When pulling another vehicle it isn’t just dead weight. Whether you are the lead vehicle or in the one being pulled, the other truck will have an autopilot that mimics your actions. When you press the gas the other vehicle will also apply the gas. If you are in the lead truck and become stuck the other vehicle will continue to move and can even bump up against you to give you that nudge you need to get rolling again.

Who needs a big rig when you have a winch?

Save your money for upgrades

Hunt down trucks that have been stranded on the map to unlock them instead of spending cash to buy them. And while some upgrades are vehicle specific many are interchangeable between vehicles of the same type. So, for example, there’s no need to buy a second Scout winch; unequip it off one vehicle and reattach it to your current truck.  This will leave your precious cash to buy the upgrades you need to get your truck to the hard to reach areas. If you are still cash poor you can even sell off extra upgrades or vehicles at 100% of their purchase price.

Accept Every Task

When you are driving by a new task make sure you stop and accept it. Unlike contracts that can be activated from the map menu, tasks will show up in your menu as soon as you discover the starting point but don’t automatically activate. Later on you’ll try to complete the task and upon arriving at the destination it won’t complete. You’ll then have to backtrack to the original spot to activate it and then go back to the destination to finish it, wasting a bunch of time in the process. 

All along the Watchtower

You don’t have to but I strongly suggest you find all the watchtowers when you get to a new map. It’s the quickest way to open up the whole map, including upgrades and resource locations. Doing this allows you to pick your priority tasks to help you find new vehicles or unlock upgrades. 

Once you’ve revealed the entire map you can then go back and clear any roadblocks, complete the remainder of the tasks, and then finally finish up the contracts in the area. You don’t have to do things in this order but contracts are usually the hardest missions to complete and getting the rest of the tasks completed first will earn you a ton of XP and driver ranks to make the contracts that much easier.

Take it off-road

In many places, the road can be your worst enemy. It can be smooth sailing when on asphalt but the dirt roads can be full of ruts, deep mud, or water. Intersections are often the worst of the worst. These deep areas can bring you to a standstill and if there isn’t a winch point within range you either have to recover your vehicle or jump in another truck and perform a rescue. 

To save yourself the time and hassle of an emergency rescue sometimes all it takes is driving off-road. I’m not talking about going cross country (although that can be a lot of fun), but a lot of the time the ground right next to the road is more solid and safer to drive on than the road itself. 

Cab view makes everything more extreme

Create better waypoints

Since a lot of your time is spent off-road it makes sense that SnowRunner doesn’t have the convenience of Google Maps and GPS. You can still lay down some quick waypoints if you aren’t familiar with your route.  You could plot a waypoint every 50 or 100 feet, but there is an easier way to do it. The quickest way to plot your path is to put a waypoint just before each intersection you need to make a turn. You can place it to the left or right side of the road to give you a quick reminder of which way you need to turn.

Rapid Fire Bonus Tips

We’re going to shoot off a bunch of one-liners here. Hopefully, you find something useful:

  • When stuck in the mud, turn your wheels left and right to find a little traction.
  • Also when stuck in the mud let off the gas and let your truck rollback, then floor it to burrow a little further than you were before. Rinse and repeat.
  • Use your crane as a counterweight when you are close to tipping to one side or the other.
  • Bigger tires and roof racks may help you get to places you couldn’t reach otherwise, but they will make your vehicle more top-heavy and easier to flip over.
  • The Hummer (found near the pipeline in Alaska) is an early game beast and worth the time to hunt it down.
  • If you don’t like driving at night you can always advance time to the morning or afternoon for better visibility.
  • SnowRunner too easy (I doubt it, but you never know)? Try sticking to the in-cab view as much as possible to make driving even more perilous than it already is.
  • If you want to pull a trailer but don’t have the required hitch just grab it with your winch and pull it behind. You can also unhitch a trailer if you’re having a tough time making a climb, move ahead and then winch the trailer to your new spot.
  • SnowRunner has a great modding community. Check out all they have to offer at snowrunner.mod.io

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