The Crew Guide: 7 Beginner Tips

Don’t Go Car-Buying Mad

The Crew is a driving game where you can buy cars. It stands to reason, then, that you’d want to get busy buying before you get busy dying. However, you should hold back for as long as you can when starting out. Think I’m wrong? Well, here’s a handful of reasons why you shouldn’t fill your garage at the start line.

First and foremost, you get a steady stream of upgrades for whatever car you own just by playing the game. Completing story missions and skill challenges (coming up in this very guide soon) can beef up almost any of the initial vehicles into a motorized powerhouse capable of going toe-to-toe with rivals well above its pay-grade.

Secondly there’s a little thing called Uplay. I know everyone hates it (myself included) but if you’ve got an active account, linking The Crew up to it can net you a pretty sweet ride. For 100 Uplay points – the only fake currency to still be worth more than the Zimbabwean Dollar – you can pick up a sweet Dodge Viper which can be specced into Performance or Circuit. The first time you should really be looking at buying a new car is when you move onto Dirt races.

Lastly in the list of reasons to not go out and spend all your money, we have Crew Cash. Now, yes, this can be purchased with some phat real money dollah but relatively early in the game (when you buy your first Dirt spec vehicle to be exact) a whole new side of The Crew opens up. This is Factions. There are 5 different factions in The Crew, 1 per arbitrary segment of the USA, and when you team up with them you’ll initially get a whopping 100,000 CC to spend . This secondary currency is a great way to fill out the garage with really pricey cars.

Team Up With The Crew

Since The Crew is always online, you better be damn well sure that multiplayer runs through the engine powering this beast. Now I’m not saying here that you have to indulge in multiplayer, but it does make things a little more interesting. Not just because you’re racing against people rather than artificial intelligence, either.

Inviting others into your story events means you’ve got an extra pair of hands on your side. If someone on The Crew completes the objective, you complete it, too. For race events this might not be everyone’s first choice granted. When you’re diving into events where you have to evade the police or take down an enemy with brute force, an extra set of wheels can make things much easier. If you’re having trouble doing one event solo, opening it up for Quick Co-op can tip the balance in your favor.

There are also currency benefits to doing this. If another human being is in your event, you will both get a higher amount of experience and Bucks (The Crew’s version of normal currency) for completing the mission. This can be further boosted with perks but it generally varies depending on exactly what you’re doing. Do bear in mind though that not all other people are necessarily intelligent. They might be especially huge asshats who will ram you off the road or just make life more difficult.

Skills Mean Prizes

Outside of The Crew‘s normal story missions and stuff you’ve got these little things called Skill Challenges. They’re dotted -mainly – around the roads of The Crew and constitute quick little challenges. There are 8 flavors in all (Speed, Slalam, Scramble, Race Line, Precision, Jump, Hill Climb, and Escape) with each being designed to test your skills. Depending on how good you are at them you’ll be rewarded with a range of shiny things.

The main drive to take these on is the flow of new components for your car that they provide. Getting improved brakes and suspension on the way to a race is nothing to be sniffed at. There are 3 different ranks of upgrades and of course you’ll be wanting to get the best to boost your car’s level to new heights. Let’s say for example that you complete one but you only obtain the bronze medal, you can always go back to attempt it again until you get the best possible reward.

As well as the improved components, you can obtain experience and bucks from doing these quick challenges. Getting a quick couple of hundred experience points and bucks on the way to something else can make the difference between a good evening and a great one.

Sometimes you’ll do Skill Challenges that give you a component which is too high of a level for you to use right now. In this case, it is saved at your HQ for use when you level up further. The components obtained don’t transfer between cars or specs though, so when you first get into a Dirt spec vehicle you’ll have to do a few of these to get your car level up.

Landmark Success

So you can drive through Miami and New York. Who cares right? Well you should care. Throughout each city – not to mention in other places around the world – small marks in the road open up a window into Landmarks. Driving up to one and viewing it will grant you the ability to watch a sweeping FMV of the location. Sounds pretty crap I grant you, but there is reason behind the madness.

That reason is the same reason most of us have jobs; money. After you drive up to an as-yet undiscovered Landmark a cool 2000 Bucks will be deposited in your account. That’s a lot of money in The Crew. It’s especially awesome when you factor in that it only takes a few seconds to do this. Keep that money in your pocket and use it for the purchase of future cars or visual modifactions to make that car of yours especially special.

Oh yeah, there’s some experience on offer here. In the scheme of The Crew however a measly 25 experience isn’t exactly worth mentioning. I mean yeah, I just mentioned it, but still.

Perk Up in the Morning

Keep this one in mind and close to your heart. Playing The Crew can easily suck up hours of your time. Heck, I almost missed my lunch today because I could not stop exploring. This is a good thing, especially when The Crew frequently bestows you with lumps of experience for doing stuff. That experience of course leads to you leveling up, which then grants you a perk point. For the love of all that is holy, don’t forget about these.

Make sure you periodically head back to your HQ to slot these babies into place. Admittedly, at first they are pretty poor. Small discounts on parts purchased for vehicles of each spec and a 1% increase in your car’s braking aren’t the best ways to sell a system. When you start getting more though you’ll also be unlocking new selections to buy into. Things like a visual racing line which changes color depending on your cornering speed brings a very Forza vibe to The Crew. Things like higher discounts on new cars and 10% boosts in experience and bucks from races aren’t exactly bad either.

Building them up slowly and carefully making sure you’ve got what you think is best is always the way to go. You can even buy perks with CC if the mood takes you. Do bear in mind however that these perks can be earned pretty quickly by simply leveling up so save that CC for important things like cars and sick-ass spoilers. Also bear in mind that if you spend real world cash to buy extra perks in The Crew, you’ve really got to rethink your spending priorities.

Drive With Style

As is the case in most racing games, the way you drive can directly affect how quickly you move up in the ranks and unlock some sweet loot to use on one of your various rides. With The Crew’s open nature, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to show your stylish side out on the road. Driving at high speeds, drifting through roads, narrowly missing other vehicles on the road, and playing chicken with the world are all great ways to net yourself some useful points.

These points can boost your level and allow you to unlock higher upgrades. Higher upgrades means a better car for you, and that means bigger challenges for your opponents. If that’s not called a win-win situation, then I don’t know what is. 

Choose the Right Car for Each Discipline

While playing through The Crew you’ll eventually unlock several different race types that need cars tuned to specific disciplines. There’s Performance, Circuit, Street, Dirt, and Raid. While there are a few cars that can actually be tuned for all five, you’d be better off getting a car specifically for each.

This will save you time so you won’t have to stop and re-tune your vehicle each time you want to do something new. Also, some cars just happen to be better at certain races than others, even if both allow for the same tuning. Broadening your options can only help you in the long run, so choose wisely and be ready for anything.