Dirt 5 tips: The best tricks for the arcade racer

In our Dirt 5 guide you will learn:

  • Whether you play Dirt 5 with a steering wheel or a controller
  • What the best Dirt 5 tips are for beginners
  • Which tricks you must consider with the level editor

With Dirt 5, developer Codemasters is launching a thoroughbred arcade racer for PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. In addition, the next-gen version of Dirt 5 for Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X is already in the starting blocks. Although the new off-road racing game is less simulation-heavy than Dirt Rally 2.0, the many possibilities around the glossy mud battles seem overwhelming. To make sure that you don't let yourself down when starting your off-road career, we'll reveal the best Dirt 5 tips and tricks in our guide.

We also present all the cars from Dirt 5 in a separate guide.


Controls: Play Dirt 5 with steering wheel or controller?

Dirt 5 is not an extremely heavy racing simulation, like F1 2020 or Project Cars 2, in which you won't score a victory without the right steering wheel. Instead, the off-road racer focuses on action and fun, which is why you can get by with a high-quality gamepad, such as the Xbox One or Dualshock 4 controller ().

However, if you want to get the most out of the off-road racer, we recommend playing Dirt 5 with a good steering wheel (). Thanks to the more precise input and the more realistic driving feel, you will improve your lap times by the decisive fractions of a second. Besides, all racing games are simply more fun with a steering wheel!

Dirt 5 steering tips for PC: If you play Dirt 5 with a steering wheel or gamepad on PC, you'll quickly notice that the steering deadband is set extremely high, so you'll have to steer in a good bit before the car responds to your input. You won't find the corresponding settings in the game options of Dirt 5. However, you can use a trick to calibrate the steering via Steam.

First, activate the Big Picture mode in Steam by clicking on the full-screen icon next to your profile name. On the next page, click on the gear icon in the upper right corner, which will take you to the settings. Select the menu item "Controller settings" in the "Controller" section and activate the configuration wizard for your gamepad or steering wheel.

Then exit the Big Picture mode and open the Steam overview page of Dirt 5, where you will now find an additional button "Controller Configuration". One click further and you can adjust the sensitivity and dead zone of the stick or steering wheel to your liking. By the way: The Dirt 5 trick works with all Steam games without advanced controller settings.

What are the best Dirt 5 tips for beginners?

In the following, we'll reveal the best Dirt 5 tips to help you get started with Codemaster's new off-road racer.

Get an overview in the arcade mode

When you start the off-road racing game for the first time, you'll already get a first insight into the career mode of Dirt 5. Instead of a classic tutorial, you'll complete an Ultra Cross event in Norway. Afterwards, you'll not only get a first feel for how the vehicles behave on different terrains, but you'll also unlock access to all game modes in Dirt 5.

We recommend that you first test your Dirt 5 skills in arcade mode. Not only can you create your own events here, but you also have access to all Dirt 5 tracks and events. This gives you an overview of the different game modes before you dedicate yourself to the events of the career mode.

Take all the event objectives

Before the start of each career event, you will be presented with three event objectives. Event objectives are small bonus tasks, such as achieving a certain number of drifts, overtakes, jumps or top speeds. Completing the bonus objectives will earn you rewards in the form of in-game currency, which you can use to buy new cars in Dirt 5. You'll also earn reputation points to level up your rank with the sponsors.

Bonus tip: The event objectives in Dirt 5 are chosen in such a way that you will automatically unlock almost all Dirt 5 achievements if you master them. If you don't like the event objectives for a race, update them before the race starts - for a small extra cost in in-game currency.

Don't worry about the rankings and stamps

Dirt 5 is a racing game and of course you want to win. After all, in addition to the honor, higher prize money and rewards for reaching the podium await you. However, you don't have to worry if a race doesn't go well or if you simply don't like an event type. Because even for the last place you'll still get a bonus and most importantly - a stamp.

Speaking of stamps: You can collect a total of 375 of them in the Dirt 5 career - the current status can be found on the right side of the career screen. You need stamps to unlock new chapters of the career mode. However, the difficulty level is set so easy that you only need to complete the events to advance in the career.

Bonus tip: Only if you want to collect all Dirt 5 Achievements do you have to win all events. This is because you will receive an achievement for collecting 375 stamps.

Adjust the difficulty and driving aids

In Dirt 5, you can adjust both the difficulty level and the driving aids at any time. As a beginner, we recommend you start on the medium difficulty level. This is because the off-road arcade racer focuses on action and fun and does without nerve-racking races. At the latest when you are leading the field of drivers by yourself, the time has come to switch off the driving aids bit by bit and to increase the difficulty level, so that the game remains fun for you in the long run.

How to unlock Throwdown events

In addition to classic events, you'll find a Throwdowns tab in Career mode. These are special 1vs1 races. If you win such a duel, you will win larger amounts of in-game currency and unlock special designs for your player card.

To unlock new Throwdown events, you'll need to complete a certain number of Dirt 5 events. You don't need to worry about placement. Complete as many events as possible and you will unlock the Throwdown events automatically.

Dirt 5 Guide: Tips and tricks for the new track editor

The biggest new feature in Dirt 5 is the Playgrounds, which is a track editor where you design the race tracks of your dreams with a huge selection of objects - very similar to the Trackmania track editor.

Unlike in Trackmania, in the Dirt 5 track editor you'll have to choose between the event types Butterfly Attack (collecting objects), Target Riots (time races with checkpoints) or Rider's Festival (gymkhana arenas) before crafting your own track.

Therefore, we recommend that you test a few Dirt 5 playgrounds from the database beforehand. This will give you a feel for the atmosphere and special features of the events before you start working on your own. No matter which event you choose: You can assign all cars from Dirt 5 to your Playgrounds.

Decide on a car early on - even before you start building a track. Because despite the high arcade part of the off-road racing game, the driving behavior with sprint cars, rally cars or off-road trucks is completely different.

If you want to find the best playgrounds in Dirt 5 your track design must be optimized for the assigned vehicle. Check out our Dirt 5 Playgrounds guide to learn how to create the best tracks.

Tips & tricks for the settings of the PS5 version of Dirt 5

Dirt 5 is one of the first racing games to be released for the next-gen consoles Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5. On all variants, you can choose between different graphics modes that are either designed for the best possible graphics or performance. There is also a mode with up to 120fps, provided your TV supports a 120 Hz mode.

The PS5 version also supports the new adaptive triggers and rumble functions of the DualSense controller (). Especially the vibration of the DualSense can be felt very strongly in Dirt 5, which feels good, but is also very exhausting in the long run. We therefore recommend that you set the vibration to "Low" under Settings>Gameplay right from the start.

You can leave the adaptive triggers on the standard setting "Medium". In contrast to the strong vibration, the triggers do not disturb, but provide an even better driving experience.

More Dirt guides and game news at GAMEZ

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