How to play Drift Arena

Throw a top-down racer sideways through three circuits of tightening corners, catch the slide on the way out, and settle it over three laps against the computer or a friend on the same keyboard.

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Drift Arena is a top-down circuit racer about one thing: what a car does when the tyres stop holding on.

The rules

Complete three laps before the field does. You have to pass cars, not just survive.

Grip is a number you can feel

Turn hard enough at speed and the rear steps out. The car keeps carrying its old direction across the corner while the nose points somewhere else, and the wider that gap gets the more speed it scrubs.

That is the whole trade, and it is worth stating plainly because it runs against instinct: a drift is quicker to look at and slower on the clock. The fast lap is the tidy one.

The two kinds of corner

On fast, open corners, do not slide at all. Brake before the turn, roll through it with the car settled, and get back on the throttle as it opens. Any slide here is pure loss.

On tight, slow corners, the slide is the point. The car will not rotate quickly enough on grip alone, so the technique is: brake, flick the car sideways to rotate it, then straighten up and get on the power early. The slide is a rotation tool, not a driving style.

Knowing which corner is which is most of the skill.

Surfaces

Grass and kerbs cost grip. A wheel off the tarmac reduces what the car can do for as long as it is there, which usually means a small mistake becomes a large one because the car cannot recover on a surface that will not hold it.

Keep two wheels on the tarmac wherever you can. Cutting a kerb to shorten a corner is very often slower than going round it.

Overtaking

The reliable overtake is on the exit, not the entry.

Diving up the inside into a corner puts you on a tight line with cold brakes and usually ends with both cars slow. Instead, follow closely through the corner, get on the power earlier than the car in front, and use the speed advantage down the straight that follows.

The lap that wins

Consistency beats heroics over three laps. A driver who is half a second slower per corner but never slides wide will beat one who is quick in two corners and recovering in the other six.

Drive the exit of every corner rather than the entry: how fast you leave a corner determines your speed for the whole straight that follows, which is where lap time actually lives.

Controls

Left and Right steer, Up accelerates, Down brakes — WASD works too.

Two players

Player 1 takes the arrows and Player 2 takes WASD on the same keyboard.

Touch

Hold the bottom-left or bottom-right of the screen to steer and use the Brake button; the car accelerates for you.

Strategy tips

Do not drift the fast corners. A slide looks quick and scrubs speed, so the tidy line is genuinely faster everywhere the car can hold on.
Use the slide as a rotation tool on tight corners only. Brake, flick it sideways to turn the car, then straighten and get on the power.
Brake before the corner and turn once the car has slowed. Turning while braking is what breaks the rear loose when you did not want it to.
Keep two wheels on the tarmac. Grass and kerbs cost grip, and a car with no grip cannot recover from the mistake that put it there.
Drive the exit, not the entry. Your speed leaving a corner sets your speed for the whole straight, which is where lap time actually lives.
Overtake on the exit. Follow through the corner, get on the power earlier, and use the straight — diving up the inside usually slows both cars.
Be consistent rather than heroic. Half a second a corner with no mistakes beats brilliance in two corners and recovery in the rest.
Remember you have to pass, not survive. Three clean laps at the back is still a loss, so take the overtake when the exit gives it to you.