Achievements Anonymous: Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2012)

This week’s Achievements Anonymous looks at the car-crumpling fun of Criterion’s Need For Speed: Most Wanted.

I had the pleasure of reviewing the latest Need For Speed title at the end of last month, and I’ve been solidly playing the game. Now that I’ve got all the Achievements, I thought it only fair to give a little advice to those who are struggling.

Introducing the Achievements Anonymous guide to Need For Speed: Most Wanted…

The first thing I recommend to you when playing Most Wanted, is to explore. Hunt down as many vehicles as you can, find one that you like and complete all of it’s races to earn modifications for that vehicle. Making sure you are properly equipped makes winning races against the Most Wanted much easier to do.

The great thing about Most Wanted is that you feel that all of the vehicles in the game are useful, especially when you’ve got all the modifications. However, I did find myself particularly fond of the Marussia B2 for most of the game, later moving onto the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport once I had beaten Rank #3.

Rim Shot
Escaped The Cops With at Least One Blown Tire

A nice easy Achievement, this one. You could run over a Police spike-strip deliberately and then escape, but this will take a bit of time as you’ll need to get a really high Heat level for the cops to start using strips.

A far easier method is to hold brake and accelerate while stationary. This will spin your rear wheels and, after a short while, one or both of your rear tires will burst (make sure you don’t have Reinflate Tires Mod enabled!). Once you’ve burst a tire, simply find a cop, ram him at top speed and drive off without giving him/her a chance to come after you. As you’ll only be on Heat level 1, it should be easy to escape.

Pit Stop
Repaired a burst tire at a Bodyshop

Almost identical to the Rim Shot solution, is to find a Bodyshop (indicated by the green spanner on your map), burst your tires by holding brake and accelerate, then drive into the Bodyshop. Simple!

Kitchen Sink
Used a Billboard and a Jack Spot to successfully evade a pursuit (Single Player)

Another easy one to earn. Just knock into a cop, find a Billboard to smash through and change your car via a Jack Spot (doesn’t matter what order), then escape the Pursuit. It’s not a bad tactic for escaping pursuits in general, especially if you change cars during the Cooldown period.

Another tip for getting rid of the cops is, during Cooldown, drive as far away from the police as possible, then find somewhere to park. Come to a complete stop, and press the left analog stick. This will turn off your engine and speed up the rate your Heat level falls during Cooldown.

Switcheroo
Used a Jack Spot in a Pursuit (Single Player)

If you’ve earned the Kitchen Sink Achievement/Trophy above, you should get this one as well.

Feeling The Need
Emptied a full nitrous bar without hitting anything.

You’ll probably earn this one without thinking about it, but if you’re a bit accident prone, I recommend driving down the long, winding roads at the East/North-East side of the map. Pick a slower car as well, to give you a bit more time to react to traffic.

Go Pro or Go Home
Unlocked all the Pro Mods on a car (Single Player)

You earn the Standard Mods by coming First or Second in each car’s unique set of Events. But to earn the Pro Mods for a vehicle, you’ll need to reach various Milestones for that particular car.

Pro Off-Road Tires – Drive 5,000 yards off-road with the Off-Road Tires Modification equipped.
Pro Track Tires – Drift 5,000 yards with the Track Tires Modification equipped.
Pro Re-Inflates – Hit 5 spike strips with the Re-Inflates Modification equipped.

Pro Burn Nitrous – Use Burn Nitrous for 300 seconds.
Pro Powershot Nitrous – Use Powershot nitrous 25 times.

Pro Lightweight Chassis – Get 60 seconds of air time with the Lightweight Chassis Modification equipped.
Pro Reinforced Chassis – Score 10 cop takedowns with the Reinforced Chassis Modification equipped.

Pro Aero Body – 120 seconds of Slipstreaming with the Aero Body Modification equipped.
Pro Impact Protection Body – 2 crash escapes with the Impact Protection Body Modification equipped (narrowly avoid other racers’ crashes)

Pro Long Gears – Drive 10,000 yards in oncoming traffic with the Long Gears Modification equipped.
Pro Short Gears – 25 near misses with the Short Gears Modification equipped.

Got To Smash Them All
Smashed every Billboard

Cameraman
Triggered every Speed Camera

In Your Face
Smashed a friend’s face on a billboard and beat their jump distance.

Getting these Achievements requires you to find all the Billboards and Speed Cameras; a very tricky endeavour  as some are very well hidden in the concrete jungle of Fairhaven City. However, because I’m so good to you all, I’ve created some maps detailing the locations of all these collectables.

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Hopefully while earning ‘Got To Smash Them All’, you should also earn ‘In Your Face’ for beating a friend’s jump distance after smashing a billboard with their face on. The best advice I can give you is to pick your fastest car, take a long run up and go for it!