This is a quick reference/getting started guide for NIGHT-RUNNERS Prologue.
How to Start
All credit goes to jertzuu!
Foreword
NIGHT-RUNNERS Prologue is an early alpha/demo of the upcoming NIGHT-RUNNERS game, all features are not implemented and game may lack polish in certain ares. FAQ of the most common questions I have come across are in the end.
Progression
The goal of the Prologue is to beat 2 teams at the Tatsumi PA (Parking Area):
- G-Company
- Endless appeal
Both teams have 2 bosses in their crews
- S.K as “sub-boss” and Star Tamer as the “crew boss” in G-Company
- Sonny as “sub-boss” and Eternal Sun as the “crew boss” in Endless Appeal
When starting the game a mysterious figure will give you a betting loan, use this to bet against the other drivers. 75% of the winnings will go to pay off your debt. Multiplier and crew bonuses are not taken into account when paying your debt, only the wager. The 25% and bonuses are your own money to spend on upgrades.
My suggestion is plan ahead and try to keep 1 000 000 yen in bank after paying off thew debt. You will be able to get the debt again if you have too little money: it prevents the soft-lock of the game.
Beat the other drivers to gain rep, once you have enough rep you can challenge these bosses. Around 5000 rep for the first boss and around 9500 for the crew boss. After beating the crew boss you get a chance to join their crew.
You start the game without a crew, and you need to beat G-Company first. After beating Star Tamer he will offer you a chance to join G-Company. After agreeing to join, Endless Appeal should appear in the Tatsumi PA. If this does not happen, use the cheat to force the change (known bug):
Added cheat to change crew ownership -> pause game when in PA, press ‘EnterLocation’ button (Y,TRIANGLE, F). Crew will change when you leave the PA.
Planet Jem Software
After beating Eternal Sun and joining Endless Appeal you get a message thanking you for playing the prologue, this is the end of the prologue, however you are more than welcome to play more and continue racing at the PA.
Racing
The game currently has 2 types of races and Time Trials (TT). The races are started buy the flashlight guy, when he turns on the light the race starts, if you false start you lose some rep, but not the heat.
Drag racing
- Best of 3 -types of straight line races. You win by winning 2 of the 3 rounds.
- Tyre warm up before the race:
- Hold brake and throttle, release brake for a short time and press it again, this should start a burnout.
- Maximum and best temperature seems to be 90°
Sprint racing
- Currently there are 2 types of sprint races
- Normal races, best of 1
- Boss races, best of 3. To win the event you need to win 3 out of the 5 heats
If you have circuit or prototype ECU installed you get launch control. This can be used on all race starts and free roam. To toggle it, hold throttle, brake and handbrake. To launch release the handbrake and brake.
Cars
The Prologue has 1 chassis but 3 cars to choose from:
- Sannis Livisa 180RS Sunroof
- Sannis Livisa 180RS No Sunroof
- Sannis Livisa 200RS Sunroof
- The 180RS has a 5 speed manual or a 4 speed automatic transmission
- The 200RS has a 6 speed manual or a 4 speed automatic transmission
Upgrades and Tuning
Upgrade quick reference guide
- Engine cooling keeps your engine’s temperature down, once you overheat you lose power. To combat this, my suggestion is to keep the cooling at 80% or higher. Upgrades that increase cooling are: radiator, intercooler and oil cooler
- Engine strength lower the wear your car gets when driven, once your engine status turns dark orange you start to lose power, you can repair the engine from the garage once you get the prompt where you would normally change oil. My suggestion is to aim for 100% engine strength. Upgrades that increase engine strength are: engine block, engine head and pistons.
- A good assumption is that all other engine upgrades lower one of these stats, keep this in mind and plan ahead.
Visual modifications
- You can change body parts from the exterior menu
- Same make of parts have different variations, these are mainly more downforce and less weight, meaning visual upgrades have a chance to affect your handling too
- You can toggle on/off certain aero parts without affecting your downforce or weight if you wish, such as splitters, diffusers, canards, hood latches etc.
- Modifying these parts is done from the menu they are in:
- Bumpers, hood, side skirts etc. from the exterior menu
- Tyre and rim size, width and spacers etc. in the wheels menu
- Camber, ride height etc. in the handling menu
- To modify these parts you need to be realitively close and look at the part in question.
- You can make custom liveries in your preferred photo editing software or use community made ones. These can be imported to the car after buying the livery editor.
Interior
- Interior parts play a factor too
- They can “add lightness”, improve handling or just look really cool
- Default handbrake is toggle, the 2 upgraded variants are hold
- Aftermarket gauges alter the gauges you see on the HUD.
- Aftermarket speedometer shows up to 460km/h.
- Oil and water temperature gauges.
- NOS pressure gauge
- Dashboard tachometer has a working shift light.
- Buying the straight-cut gearbox gives you a gear indicator in the cockpit.
Most, if not all parts are interchangeable between the 180RS and 200RS.
Handling
The cars have some weight to them, this can be felt best when cornering
- Slow down well before the corner, the brakes are not the best in the world even when you equip prototype brakes and semi-slick tyres
- Using a manual with clutch is a bit faster than using manual without clutch. Use of the clutch is not mandatory however
- Automatic gearbox can be manually operated, though it will still ggo to a higher or lower gear if deemed neccessary. Especially useful when slowing down as the automatic gearbox may still feel a bit slow.
FAQ
Will we get more cars?
Most likely in the full release, projected release date is in May 2025 for the public game, April 2025 for the private beta.
Can I suggest a car to be added?
Kickstarter has a pledge for £3650 where you can suggest a car from 2009 or earlier.
What cars will be in the full game?
I can not say for certain, but the S13 seems to be confirmed. Other cars we can expect are:
- Nissan Skyline R34
- Nissan Silvia S15
- Toyota Mark 2 JZX100
- Porsche 964
Will the progress carry to the full release?
Expect that it will not. Getting money seems very fast in the prologue, my guess it will get toned down. Also the game will likely change a lot during the development progress, thus making old saves incompatible.
I have 34 000 loan left and no money in the bank, I’m softlocked, what do I do?
My suggestion is to start a new save unfortunately.
Should I lose a race, I got a call for more money.
If you deem it is worthy, keep in mind that losing a race makes you lose quite a bit of rep and most if not all of your nightly multiplier.
I found a bug, what now?
You can report it in the official NIGHT-RUNNERS Discord in the #bugs-read-guidelines channel.
Can I sell parts?
Yes, you need to enter the corresponding menu and choose storage to access this.
Can I sell cars?
Yes, but not your only car. You need to have at least 2. The garage will fit 3 at most.
Customisable keybinds?
Jem has stated it’s in the works due to the demand. No promises or ETA however.
Can I mod?
Can you? If you do however, all bugs and glitches are out of Jem’s reach. Do not file any bug reports about missing textures, models or other bugs regarding modded content.
My handbrake was on the entire time, this doesn’t count
Major skill issue.
quick question, I noticed that there are time trials but what is the purpose of the time trials? Do I get money, do I get rep, secret parts maybe? I dunno, anyone that here that knows?
Beating time trials and “toll booths” is a way to control the map, the higher the control the more bonus rep you get from winning the races. This affects your “PA crew strength” in the post-race screen.
These need to be controlled by you or your crew mate, you don’t need to beat everything yourself to get the max bonus. It isn’t a huge bonus, but every little bit helps.
i think you need to change the part of “launch control” where you need to hold both brakes and throttle. You only need to hold the handbrake, wait for the jump then release it. Other than that, this is a great guide for beginners.
Oh, and also keep in mind that NOS when used will also heat up your engine, so be careful when installing certain parts, cuz otherwise it’s a disadvantage especially with long races.
The reason why I suggest holding brake too is if you hold only handbrake there is a small change if you actually jumping the start, I do not know if it is a bug in the game or on my controller, but seems like a few other people have had this too. But yes, holding just the handbrake and throttle are enough.
As far as i saw, once the check engine light comes on on your dash, you can repair it in the customization menu.
But if your engine strength is kept above 100%, you will not lose engine condition, unless you overheat the engine. (To prove this, i raced 39 Races on the original engine, and have yet to repair it. Still doesnt give me the prompt to do so)
how do you fix engine damage?
do you just get new car??
Sparkplugs also increase engine strength. Only by a few percent, but its still noteworthy.
how do you fix engine damage?
do you just get new car??
While looking at your car before entering the customization menu you have the chance to either change oil or repair engine. The engine can be repaired once the engine color changes to dark orange. When it is red red you lose some power. The engine health can be preserved by frequent oil changes and having good engine strength and cooling
Sparkplugs also increase engine strength. Only by a few percent, but its still noteworthy.