1. Synopsis

Set Difficulty	7
Approximate time to master	48h 56m (avg. over 30 players)
Minimum numbers of playthroughs needed	1
Number of missable achievements	None
Does difficulty affect achievements?	Yes

2. Credits

• Lilihierax - Developer of the base set and subset.
• Avengersman - Author of this guide.

3. Introduction

This guide provides tips and tricks on mastering the Extreme Challenges subset for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (PlayStation 2). The majority of the guide will be mostly focusing on the Beat the Cops achievements with a little bit of coverage on the Endurance Master side as the world racing side of the subset is mostly straightforward. The subset requires a lot of patience and quick thinking under pressure as it's mostly an endurance throughout all the events and requires 544 laps to be completed across all tracks. Playing with sound enabled and listening to the radio chatter can help to know the next moves of the police.

[!WARNING] It is highly recommended that you unlock all of the NFS Points achievements in the base set before attempting this subset. Quick race awards you with NFS points and unlocking NFS Edition cars while in the subset will cause you to miss the achievement unlock in the base set. In the event that this happens, make sure to take a video recording of the post race results showing the NFS Edition car you just unlocked and request a manual unlock. In most cases your achievements unlocked on your RA profile should also be helpful for proof.

4. Rules of the Road

This section covers cars and their usage as well as defensive driving skills to help you power through in hot pursuit mode. Any cars not included in the list are to be avoided entirely unless chosen by personal preference.

🏎️ Cars

In most cases, picking the right car will matter much more for hot pursuit mode than for world racing. It is recommend to use cars that have good acceleration somewhat heavier mass as coming to halt and hitting roadblocks will be fairly frequent throughout the set. Starting from Class C and up is where you start to have more options for what you can use in both modes with the cars being faster.

Recommended Cars

[!WARNING] NFS Edition cars are not allowed to be used for Endurance Master achievements.

Class	Cars	Endurance Master	Beat the Cops	Notes
E	Ford TS50	❌	✅	The TS50 is very capable of withstanding the police for longer durations as opposed to the Lotus, Opel, and Vauxhall since they are smaller and thus more prone to getting overpowered by the police.
E	Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG	❌	✅	The CL55 AMG serves as an alternative to the TS50 for pursuits although being more on the heavier side which can put you in sticky situations more often than not.
E	Vauxhall VX220	✅	❌	The VX220 is the fastest Class E car in the game.
D	BMW M5	✅	✅	The M5 is a great all-rounder for Class D. Perfect for both pursuit and racing.
D	HSV Coupé GTS	❌	✅	The Coupé GTS is essentially a faster TS50.
D	Jaguar XKR Coupe	✅	❌	Great Class D racer. It will struggle in pursuits unless you're an expert.
C	Aston Martin V12 Vanquish	✅	✅	The V12 Vanquish is the XKR Coupe 2.0 while being able to hold it down in pursuits.
C	BMW Z8	✅	❌
C	Ferrari 360 Spider	✅	✅
C	Ferrari 550 Barchetta Pininfarina	✅	✅
C	Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R	✅	✅	Does very well at punching roadblocks.
B	Chevrolet Corvette Z06	✅	✅
B	Dodge Viper GTS	✅	✅
B	Ferrari F50	✅	✅
B	Lamborghini Diablo 6.0 VT	✅	❌	The car's handling might be problematic during pursuits.
B	Lamborghini Murciélago	✅	✅
B	Porsche 911 Turbo	✅	❌	Only for experts when it comes to pursuits.
B	Porsche Carrera GT Concept	✅	✅
A	All Class A cars	✅	✅	Pick any ride. All are capable in both modes. Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR can be unlocked very early on by completing the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR achievement in the base set. McLaren F1 (not F1 LM) is the fastest Class A car.

👤 Driving Style

How you handle your car is going to make or break your runs especially in hot pursuit mode. To ensure a smooth driving experience, it is recommend that you use the classic handling option for all events. You will need to adapt a defensive driving style in order to withstand the police for the entire duration of the race. Your overall goal is to keep a constant high speed throughout the races with as little dead stops possible and of course without getting busted. A key advice to remember is to pay attention to your surroundings at all times. There are very little breaks in the action with police spawns points being many and close in-between and roadblocks will sometimes quickly catch you off guard. Great ways to practice your defensive driving is by learning the patterns of the racers and cops and anticipating their next moves, and to also familiarize yourself with the spawn points of parked cops and roadblocks.

🚓 Police

This section covers the police and the tactics they will use to try and bust you. Each of the police vehicles have certain actions and patterns to watch out for that can make dealing with them more manageable.

[!WARNING] Pressing SELECT to reset the car will result in being busted automatically if a cruiser is nearby.

Police Cruisers

• Tailgating - This is the initial phase the cop car will always do before engaging in any further action. You'll notice it going swerving side to side near the rear of your car. during this moment can be hard to shake it off your tail. The best course of action is to wait for it to start pulling ahead when it will try to either force you to the side or brake check you. This will make it easier to guide it into an object to crash into.
• PIT maneuver/Forcing - This can occur after the tailgating phase. The cop car will start to push you off to the side in an attempt to use the wall to put you to a dead stop. At this point it is best to either hit the brakes or use the straight line traveling of the cop to guide it into a traffic car/solid object to disable it. Cars in lower classes may have trouble breaking free from this tactic so it is best to try and avoid it entirely when using those cars. Other times it may try to attempt to pit you when close to your rear quarter panel. This tactic is less problematic as you can break free from it most times.

• Brake Checking - This can also occur after the tailgating phase. The cop car will pull ahead of you and hit the brakes to bring you to a halt. This tactic is more dangerous during Class E and D where the cars have slower acceleration and thus making it harder to get out of the halt. A good way to avoid this is to serve out of the way as soon as you see the police car beginning to brake. If you're at very low speed and it happens, try your best to drive off to the opposite side the cop car is facing. If needed you can also drive backwards to give you room to turn around and regain speed.

Roadblocks

[!IMPORTANT] Sometimes the radio chatter can lie about the position of where the spikes are located. For example they may say spikes are located on the right when really they are in the middle of the road. You can avoid this issue by paying attention to where it happens most like at the roadblock spawn near the lava on Island Outskirts/Palm City Island.

It is best to punch roadblocks at the front end of cop cars instead of their rear especially if you're using lighter cars such as the Dodge Viper GTS and Ferrari 360 Spider. Hitting the barriers will cause your tires to lock up temporarily before releasing. Do your best to maintain control of the car while it's in this state as it becomes easy to spin out and come to a dead stop which leaves you extremely vulnerable. If you are blocked in to the point driving forward further will result in you getting busted, do your best to turn around and drive backwards (not by reversing). This will help create a gap for you break out of the dead stop and re-enter the race.

Helicopter

5. Secrets

This section will cover ways to gain an edge in the events by using the game's mechanics and controls. Because Hot Pursuit 2 follows certain system patterns in an indirect way, they can sometimes be player controlled.

Being a "Law Abiding Citizen"

Controlling the Spawn Points

Most roadblocks spawn depending on the current route of your travel. What this means is if you're in a shortcut and a cop requests the use of a roadblock, that roadblock is most likely going to spawn in the shortcut that you're in. The way you can control this is once you hear that call, stay on the current road that you are on until the roadblock spawns. This will allow you to take a different route where you can avoid the roadblock entirely. This method works best on tracks that have many roadways/shortcuts.

Rekting the Competition

6. Endurance Master

This challenge consists of 8 laps of road racing without the police. There is not much to cover here but to be aware of the rubberbanding that can occur at times. It is crucial to never let the AI get too far in the fear that the rubberbanding doesn't allow for the catch up system to function properly.

[!WARNING] For the Island Outskirts endurances, do not take the beach shortcut on the final lap. The AI will always rubberband too far past you causing you to lose the race. It is best to stay on the main road so the AI maintains a normal speed around the final turn and straight.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/88a41770-8bb8-45e1-9476-c845de5cb335