Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 [Subset ‐ Extreme Challenges] - RetroAchievements/guides GitHub Wiki

1. Synopsis
Set Difficulty 7/10
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
Fun Factor 2/10

2. Credits

3. Introduction

In this RetroAchievements guide you'll find useful information intended to help with mastering the Extreme Challenges subset for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (PlayStation 2). Most of the guide will be focusing on the Beat the Cops (Hot Pursuit Mode) achievements with a little bit of coverage on the Endurance Master (World Racing mode) side, as the world racing half of this subset is mostly straightforward.

The subset requires a lot of patience and quick thinking under pressure, as it's nothing but an onslaught of 8 lap endurance races throughout all the circuit tracks in the game, which would take the absolute minimum of 544 total laps to complete (be prepared to drive far more than that).

[!WARNING] It is highly recommended that you, at the absolute least, 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. Table of Contents

5. 📓Rules of the Road📓

This section covers cars and their usage in both game modes, as well as defensive driving skills to help you deal with the cops, and power through Hot Pursuit mode.

🏎️ Cars

In most cases, picking the right car will matter much more for Hot Pursuit mode than for World Racing.

For Hot Pursuit, it's best to use cars that have good acceleration, coupled with greater weight, as you will be forced to slow down to a crawl and accelerate back up to speed again and again, while plowing through roadblocks and cop cars alike. For World Racing, cars with superior acceleration and top speed give you the best chance against the rather severe rubberbanding employed by the AI in this mode. Good handling is a nice bonus, and not much more.

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.

[!NOTE] Class E and Class D cars only have achievements for the first two tracks in the game. They are judged with that fact in mind.

Recommended Cars

These are the cars we would recommend you use on your own pathway to mastery. These recommendations are fundamentally subjective, however every car was tested in a time trial on a relevant track.

Class E and D cars were tested on National Forest (forward), the marginally more difficult track of the 2 they need to drive on in this subset. Class C, B and A cars were tested on Calypso Coast (forward), a track that is on the shorter side by this game's standards, but one with a lot of corner variety, elevation changes and sections both high and low speed.

  • ✅ - Car is a good choice, performs significantly better than most in its class. Picking this car is always a good option.
  • ❌ - Car is a bad choice, performs significantly worse than the best in its class. These should be avoided.
  • ⚠️ - Car is very middle of the road, not the worst, nor the best in its class. Take caution picking this vehicle, as its performance may or may not be satisfactory.

Please note: Every car in this game can be used effectively. If we do not recommend it, that doesn't mean the car is entirely unusable. It only means that it would make things a bit harder than they would be, if you were using a recommended vehicle.

[!WARNING] NFS Edition cars are not allowed for Endurance Master achievements. However, they are allowed, and recommended for Beat the Cops achievements. Cop cars are not allowed at all.

Class Cars Endurance Master Beat the Cops Notes
E Ford TS50 ✅ ✅ AVN: The TS50 is very capable of withstanding the police for longer compared to the Lotus, Opel, and Vauxhall since they are smaller and thus more prone to getting overpowered by the police. MAY: Slightly slower than the CL55, largely because of worse gear ratio. Other differences minimal.
E Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG ✅ ✅ AVN: 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. MAY: Best vehicle in class, best power, good handling and great weight. Highest top speed.
E Vauxhall VX220/Opel Speedster ⚠️ ❌ AVN: The VX220 is the fastest Class E car in the game. MAY: The twins are significantly slower than the Class E heavyweights above, because of their terrible top speeds. On top of that, they can often spin out, and are hard to control in such a situation.
E Lotus Elise ❌ ❌ MAY: Slowest vehicle in the game, great handling, but no tracks to take advantage of it on. Useless.
D BMW M5 ⚠️ ❌ AVN: The M5 is a great all-rounder for Class D. Perfect for both pursuit and racing. MAY: Worst stats in Class D, no NFS version, but heavier than the XKR. Handling barely better than HSV. Pointless.
D HSV Coupé GTS ✅ ✅ AVN: The Coupé GTS is essentially a faster TS50. MAY: Best top speed and acceleration in class, heaviest, tolerable handling. Deserves a VB Longneck.
D Jaguar XKR Coupe ⚠️ ❌ AVN: Great Class D racer. It will struggle in pursuits unless you're an expert. MAY: Best handling in class, slower than the HSV. Lower weight, but drives like a dream.
C Aston Martin V12 Vanquish ✅ ✅ AVN: The V12 Vanquish is the XKR Coupe 2.0 while being able to hold it down in pursuits. MAY: Absolute best-in-class, rivaled only by the Ferraris. Incredible acceleration and top speed, good handling and delightfully heavy. Spiffing!
C BMW Z8 ❌ ❌ MAY: Absolute worst-in-class, has trouble keeping up with cars of Class D. Understeering, underpowered, no NFS version. Grausam.
C Ferrari 360 Spider/Modena ✅ ⚠️ MAY: Very competent and nippy sports car, second-best in class power-wise, but best handling, albeit oversteery. Rather lightweight.
C Ferrari 550 Barchetta Pininfarina ⚠️ ✅ MAY: Acceleration to rival the Vantage, but worse handling and lower weight. Still a good option.
C Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R ⚠️ ⚠️ MAY: Heavy, with decent power and handling. Oversteery. The budget Vantage.
B Chevrolet Corvette Z06 ⚠️ ❌ MAY: Lightweight and fun to throw around, with good power. There are better Class B cars, especially for pursuits.
B Dodge Viper GTS ❌ ⚠️ MAY: Heavy and slow, lackluster stats, underwhelming power. This snake needs to shed some skin.
B Ferrari F50 ✅✅✅ ✅ MAY: Staggeringly quick, insane acceleration and great top speed. Handling is difficult, yet satisfying and manageable, but car is lightweight.
B Lamborghini Diablo 6.0 VT ❌ ⚠️ AVN: The car's handling might be problematic during pursuits. MAY: Mid. That's all. Meh.
B Lamborghini Murciélago ⚠️ ✅ MAY: Good power, heavy. AWD means it's very stable, especially at low speeds.
B Porsche 911 Turbo ⚠️ ⚠️ AVN: Only for experts when it comes to pursuits. MAY: Not very powerful; lightweight, but stable and nice to drive.
B Porsche Carrera GT Concept ⚠️ ⚠️ MAY: Very similar to the 911. The two Porsches and the Murciélago are similar in performance, but Murcie is the fastest in a straight line, 911 is best in corners, and Carrera is right there in the middle.
A McLaren F1 LM ⚠️ ⚠️ MAY: Worst A Class vehicle, worse than the stock F1 in every quanitifable measure and by a significant margin. Slow, understeery, lightweight. What a noob trap. This is the first racing game I've seen where the racing model of a vehicle is inferior to the street legal one.
A McLaren F1 ✅✅✅ ✅✅✅ MAY: NFS II called - wants its top-tier back. Best vehicle in the entire game with 0 competition. Quicker than lightning, faster than a rocket, oversteers in a very fun and controllable way and with the weight to scoff at roadblocks - the F1 makes every other vehicle here look like a lawn-mower in comparison. Don't try to be a contrarian, this vehicle is objectively superior to all. Just use it.
A Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR ⚠️ ⚠️ MAY: Slightly better version of the F1 LM, has less power, but better gear ratio means better acceleration, top speed is insignificantly inferior. I am not comparing it to the stock F1 for a good reason.

👤 Driving Style

How you handle your car is going to make or break your runs, especially in hot pursuit mode.

Whether you pick Expert or Classic handling doesn't matter much at all, so go with Classic, as it is easier to deal with.

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 (the Beat the Cops achievements can only be obtained if you never get busted even once).

A key piece of advice to remember is to pay attention to your surroundings at all times. There are very little breaks in the action with police spawn points being frequently scattered around the track, with roadblocks often spawning ahead as the chase continues. Great ways to practice your defensive driving is by learning the patterns of the cops and anticipating their next moves, and to also familiarize yourself with the spawn points of parked cops and roadblocks.

[!NOTE] The Cop Detector at the top of your Hud will use different colors for what kind of cop ambush is coming. A pursuing cop will be shown as green lines on the Detector. A roadblock will be shown as yellow lines instead.

🧰Hot Pursuit Mode Game Mechanics

👮⏳Busted Countdown

There is not much info available online about the way it works in this game, but if you are driving below around 16 kmh (10mph) while a cop car is nearby, the busted countdown will begin. After approx. 2 seconds, you will get busted, unless you reach the speed required to avoid it. This is one of three ways to get busted, the other two being resetting while in pursuit, or running over spikes.

There is no visual indicator if how close you are to getting busted, but it's likely that instead of a simple timer, it is instead a meter, like one you would see in Most Wanted.

🐌Slowdown

Slowdown is the state in which you are unable to accelerate. You can be put into this state by making direct contact with:

  • Roadblock cars
  • Roadblock explosive cones
  • Explosive barrels
  • Homing missiles

[!NOTE] If you hit an object that puts you into slowdown, as long as you have Zone Cams enabled in the options (as you should for this subset), Zone Freeze will activate automatically on contact.

Slowdown can last as long as ~3-3.5 seconds:

...or it can end early if your speed drops below ~30 kmh (18mph):

Therefore, whenever you are put into this state, it is best to brake and lower your speed enough to exit slowdown. However, be careful when doing that: the chasing cop can sometimes take advantage of your braking and get into position to block you off. Sometimes it is best to keep your momentum. Judge which option is preferable depending on your current situation.

💀Spike Strips

Spike Strips are the scariest obstacle you will encounter on the road. Running over them is an instant fail, as, no matter what you do, after a few seconds, you will automatically get busted.

Spikes burst your tires, drastically reducing your car's stats to the point of irrelevancy. If you run over spikes, may as well restart immediately.

Spikes come in two varieties: Roadblock spikes and Explosive barrel spikes.

Roadblock spikes are spawned in almost every roadblock, after enough time has passed in the pursuit. Spike strip locations are usually (!but not always!) announced on the Police Radio.

The radio can say that spikes are either on the left, or on the right side of the road relative to the race's direction. However - spikes CAN be in the middle of the road, but you will not be warned about it.

The best way to avoid spikes is to know exactly where they are - Zone Zoom is incredibly useful in that regard, as it can show exactly what you can find in the incoming roadblock (more about it in the Special Techniques section).

To avoid spikes, you can sometimes pass around them, if there is enough empty space next to them in the roadblock. However, it is much safer to just take the bullet and hit the cop cars or the explosive cones in the roadblock - the slowdown is easy to deal with, once you are used to it.

Explosive barrel spikes are sometimes dropped by the helicopter (more about them in the Helicopter section down below).

💥🚓💥Cop Car Disabling

Cop cars can be disabled in this game. To do this, you need to make sure that they hit an object with sufficient force. Said object could be a wall, a traffic vehicle, a static obstacle on the track, or your own vehicle.

Once a cop car is disabled, it can no longer engage in a pursuit, or bust you.

Disabling a cop car has limited usefulness, as a new one will spawn very soon after the previous had been disabled. Nevertheless, disabling a pesky tailgater can be helpful and very satisfying in the short term.

🚨 Police Units

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 getting busted automatically if you are currently have a wanted level.

🚔Police Cruisers

A pursuit begins once you pass a parked cop while traveling over 128 mph (80 mph), or hit a vehicle in their line of sight (traffic and racer vehicles included). Cops already active in a pursuit with another racer will not chase you even if you speed pass or hit them. A racer (player included) can only be chased by a single cop at any given time.

In rare cases if a cop busts another racer and goes back to their inactive state and at the same time you speed past them - they will initiate a pursuit with you.

  • Tailgating - This is the initial phase the cop car will always be in, before engaging in any further action. You'll notice the cop car swerving side to side near the rear of your car, and otherwise trying to pressure you. When it's directly behind you, it can be difficult to shake it off. The best course of action is to wait for it to start pulling ahead on either side of you as it tries to either force you to the side or brake check you. In such a situation it will be easier to guide a cop car into an object to crash into.

  • PIT maneuver/Forcing - This can occur after the tailgating phase. The cop car will start pushing you off to the side in an attempt to pin you between itself and the wall. At this point it is best to either hit the brakes and swap sides with the cop, or use the cop car's predictable trajectory to guide it into a traffic car/solid object and 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 by turning into your rear quarter panel. This tactic is less problematic as you can break free from it most times, either by slowing down, or counter steering.

  • 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, using its rear end as a weapon. This tactic is more dangerous during Class E, D and C, 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 make sure they chasing cop car is never directly in front of you. Swerve if you must. If you're at very low speed and this happens, don't be afraid to turn around and go backwards to get some distance from the cop. Avoid getting busted at all costs.

The best way to bet all those tactics is to avoid driving next to a wall. When near a wall, you have fewer options of escape, and the cop has a much easier time blocking you. However, staying near the middle of the road is not a safe option, thanks to...

🚓🚧🚓Roadblocks

Roadblocks are a wall formed with cop cars, explosive cone barriers, spike strips, or a combination of the aforementioned aimed at bringing an immediate end to the pursuit should it prove to be effective. Some roadblocks spawns are deviously hidden around bends or hills, which can obscure them from view, and give you much less time to react.

If you pass a roadblock and there is no cop actively pursuing you whilst you have a wanted level, a cop car from the roadblock will begin to chase you. This can be dangerous at times in lower car classes if the roadblock was hit at a very low speed since it will make it easier for them to block you in and bust you.

[!IMPORTANT] The radio chatter, when mentioning the location of the spikes in the next roadblock, have no voicelines for the rare occasion when the spikes are in the middle of the road. When going by the radio chatter, follow this simple principle: > "Spikes are on the left" -> Spikes cannot be on the right (but can be in the middle or on the left) -> Aim for the right side of the roadblock.

Hitting either the cop cars, or the explosive barriers that are part of a roadblock, you will be put into slowdown. If you are blocked in to the point driving further forward will result in you getting busted, do your best to turn around and drive backwards (go into the reverse gear if you must, but avoid it if possible). This will help create a gap for you break out of the dead stop and re-enter the race.

🚨🚁🚨Helicopter

The helicopter is an aerial police unit that joins the pursuit once you have reached 4 stars, usually after 1-2 laps have passed, after the first roadblocks had already been deployed. It takes on a more hostile role in dropping explosive barrels and occasionally dropping a spike strip barrel and firing a homing missile. The helicopter can be a major threat to runs especially if you are on Lap 6 and above.

When the helicopter starts pulling in front of you, it is getting ready to launch an attack. You can avoid the chopper by driving into tunnels and shortcuts, where it can't follow.

Let's take a deeper look into the chopper's arsenal, shall we?

  • Explosive barrels - one of the chopper's least dangerous, yet most annoying weapons, the chopper drops these barrels on the road ahead of you in barrages, usually throwing out 1 or 2 barrels at a time at a short time interval, for a total of 10+ barrels dropped per barrage. They emit colored smoke to stand out better as they bounce and roll around the road chaotically. The Explosive barrels cannot bust you, or destroy your car; however, they can send your car flying into a direction you may not want to go (say, towards a strip of spikes, for instance), and they also inflict slowdown on you. They don't seem to impact cops, unlike spike strips. You may want to consider slowing down to avoid them, as surely hitting one will make you go even slower than that, thanks to the slowdown mechanic.

  • Spike strip barrels - the chopper's most lethal weapon. At first masquerading as a normal explosive barrel, this one, when dropping onto the ground, immediately explodes and leaves behind - what else - a small spike strip. These are usually dropped one at a time, though it can drop two, and, very rarely, three in a single area, one after another. These barrels teach you to fear the chopper, as you don't know where or when they are going to drop and send you to early retirement. Often the chopper drops them at the end of an explosive barrel barrage, and stays hovering right above it. However, sometimes it can drop them on their own. The best way to avoid them is to always be prepared for them: avoid ever driving directly behind the chopper; slow down if you can't see what the chopper is dropping ahead of you, and always stay vigilant.

  • Missile. This explosive homing missile has a similar effect to the Explosive barrels, however, it's only launched one at a time; the chopper has to be nearly stationary to launch it (usually), and it has a somewhat stronger explosion, which, on top of inflicting slowdown, can launch you off the road, tip you over, or, worst case scenario, land you on top of a cop car's roof and get you stuck. Yes, that last scenario happened to me. Three times. I only managed to escape once, and that's cause the cop I landed on got disabled. To avoid the missile, and all other chopper weapons, avoid ever driving straight behind the chopper, and try to pass it on the side, never underneath. The missile is especially deadly when you are driving slowly.

While staying in the middle of the road puts you at risk from choppers and roadblocks, staying near the side of the road makes it easier for the pursuing cop to pin you next to the wall. Every pursuit is a balancing act of good positioning, taking necessary risks, maintaining momentum and reacting to everything thrown your way, all for the sake of survival.

You need to take them seriously, and pay a lot of attention, unless you want to be forced to retry the 8-lap race again and again.

But, there are some special tricks that could make this challenge far more surmountable...

6. 📔Special Techniques📔

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

🔭Using Zone Zoom to your advantage

While many achievements in the base set force you to disable zone cams, no such limitation exists in the subset. Therefore, you should make full use of the most useful of the two Zone Cams: Zone Zoom.

Zone Zoom freezes the world and zooms ahead, paying special attention to ambush cops, roadblocks, helicopters and other cop-created debris on the road ahead. This can be a crucial tool for scouting and planning ahead for what the cops throw your way next. For example, it could tell you precisely where the spike strip is located in the incoming roadblock:

Make sure to enable Zone Cams in the options menu, and check how to activate them in the race. If using manual transmission, you will have to hold two buttons instead of pressing just one as with the automatic transmission.

📰Being a "Law Abiding Citizen"

If you find yourself struggling on any of the Hot Pursuit challenges, you can pass parked cops while traveling below 128 kmh (80 mph) for most of the race to avoid any chases entirely. Be careful not to hit any vehicles (traffic and racers included) in the line of sight of the parked cop, as it will trigger the chase, regardless of whether you are at fault or not. You can go faster between the parked cops, just make sure to pay attention to the cop detector and slow down before entering their line of sight.

You will be many seconds behind the first place racer for much of the race but because rubberbanding in the game most of the time is lenient, you'll be able to catch up once you start driving at normal speed around Lap 6/7.

Or you may get lucky, and have all the racers get busted, either off-screen or with you as witness. However, that is only likely to happen on the Island tracks, thanks to their length. Consequently, that is where this trick is the most useful. I recommend using it in C class Hot Pursuits on any of the 4 longest tracks in the game. Because doing it normally is an RNG nightmare.

📆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 further up in said shortcut, and not on the main road, and vice-versa. 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.

💣Taking Out the Competition

Just like you, the racers can also get busted. If they are busted 3 times they will get arrested and be out of the race completely. Sometimes spike strips can be used in your favour against both the police and racers. When at 4 stars and roadblocks begin spawning with spikes, they will only despawn after you have passed them, so you can slow down before the roadblock and let the racers pop their tires. Only roadblock spikes despawn this way, helicopter barrel spikes despawn differently and thus need no babysitting.

Letting the racers go through the roadblocks first will give them a good chance of running over spikes and getting busted. This is not as likely to work if there are wide gaps in the road for the racers to go around the roadblock. It's harder to get the cop to run over the spikes which is why it's simpler to just take them out by having them drive head-on into traffic or a solid object/obstacle at high speed.

7. 🔨Endurance Master🔨

This challenge consists of 8 laps of road racing without the police. There is not much to cover here but do 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. The rubberbanding in World Racing mode events is more severe than the one racers have in Hot Pursuit mode events.

[!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.

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