How To Drift In Drift Hunters

We’ve created this guide to show you how to master the art of drifting in the hugely popular Drift Hunters game.

how to drift in drift hunters

Introduction
Getting Started
Upgrading Your Car
Tuning Your Car
The Next Steps
How To Drift In Drift Hunters
Conclusion

Introduction

As Drift Hunters continues to be a hit among gaming fans in the Drifted Arcade, our fans have been asking us how they can improve their drifting skills.

Not only does this earn you the highly sought-after bragging rights from your buddies, but it also helps to unlock your dream drift cars and tuning upgrades much quicker.

Drift Hunters MAX

Before we get started, we highly recommend checking out the latest game in the Drift Hunters series - Drift Hunters MAX.

We’re confident that you’ll agree that this brand-new Drifted exclusive provides the ultimate free-to-play drifting experience on the web.

The new game boasts the most impressive car list to date, including never-seen-before rides such as the new Toyota GR Supra, a range of supercars, and even the first-ever pro-spec competition car in the Drift Hunters series - Max Cotton’s BDC/DMEC Nissan Silvia S13.

That’s not all – there’s also a range of brand-new tracks, alongside drastic overhauls made to the existing favorites and mind-blowing graphics and physics for you to enjoy.

It doesn’t end there, either - with saved game functionality included for the first time; you’re now able to pick up on the progress you’ve made at home when you also want to enjoy the game during your break at work or school.

Getting Started

When you first begin playing the Drift Hunters game, which is free to play in the Drifted Arcade, you’ll be gifted with a Toyota AE86 right away.

Not only do you get a free car, but you also get 25000 credits in the bank to get you started, which provides you with a choice.

You can unlock another car, or you can spend the cash upgrading your AE86.

We would recommend stashing your cash and investing in the AE86 to get you started.

It’s a fantastic drift car, and a highly-tuned AE86 will make a far better drifter than spending the cash on an expensive car with no spare change for upgrades.

Upgrading Your Car

Assuming that you’ve made the sensible choice of investing in upgrades, head to the “PARTS” department from the main menu - this is where you can install tuning upgrades.

From here, you can choose the upgrades you’d like to make. We highly recommend upgrading the turbo and engine to begin, giving the car a better ability to keep the wheels spinning and maintain the drift.

Tuning Your Car

Once you’ve installed your chosen upgrades, head to “TUNING” from the main menu.

From here, you can make a wide variety of adjustments, from ride height, camber, and offset right the way through to braking and turbo pressure adjustments.

The Next Steps

Before you begin shredding tires on the track, or the street, you can head to the “VISUALS” menu to change the paint job of your body or rims, as well as selecting a different set of rims if you wish.

After that, it’s time to head to the “OPTIONS” menu, and assuming your PC can handle it, we recommend setting the graphics to “HIGH.”

You can also adjust your gearbox here, and although we wouldn’t usually drift an automatic car, we recommend sticking with it to get you started.

If you wish to use the manual gearbox, you’ll use the left “Shift” key to shift up and the left “CTRL” key to shift down.

After that, hit “RACE” and choose between the track, street, or touge! Don’t forget – you can always come back and check out the other locations later.

If you’re just getting started, we recommend heading to Nishuri or Emashi, as there are fewer obstacles to crash into at these clean and straightforward racetracks!

At this point, you’re ready to begin smoking your tires!

If things don’t go to plan right away, then don’t panic. Learning the art of drifting takes time and patience, but we assure you it’s worth the wait.

When getting started with drifting, it’s best to start with the basics.

Since we’ll be playing with the keyboard, this can take some getting used to if you’re used to playing with a wheel or controller.

Firstly, we recommend putting some time into getting to grips with learning how the car is reacting and the movement/weight shift.

It may be worth starting with donuts and figure-of-eights until you’re confident tapping the left and right arrows to execute the perfect handling skills.

Once you’ve got to grips with the basics, it’s time to put them to the test as you prepare to throw your car into the corner.

Step 1 – Initiation (Starting the drift)

Initiation is where you go from driving straight to throwing the car sideways and can be achieved with either of these methods.

E-Brake

Pressing the “Space” bar on your keyboard allows you to lock up the rear wheels, making weight shifting easy when turning at the same time.

The e-brake method is straightforward, but it will slow the car down, making it ideal for entering low-speed corners.

Power Over (Weight Transfer)

Power over is when you point the car in the direction of the corner you’re entering while applying a significant amount of throttle (Up arrow.)

Once the back end starts to come out, you’ll quickly counter-steer into the opposite direction while tapping the throttle.

As with everything in drifting, practice makes perfect for the initiation, so spend some time learning these techniques to find out which works best for you.

E-brake is likely to be the easiest solution to get you started, and as you grow with confidence, you can make faster initiations.

It’s completely normal to keep spinning out before you get the hang of it - so don’t panic!

Step 2 – Maintaining the drift (Staying sideways)

Once you’ve learned how to initiate and you’re able to get the car sideways, it’s time to learn how to maintain the drift for as long as possible.

Now that the back end has stepped out, you’re going to want to ‘catch’ the weight shift as soon as possible.

The easiest way to do this is to build up speed and initiate using your chosen method.

With the car sideways, you can either let off the throttle or occasionally tap it to maintain speed.

Too much throttle will likely leave you heading for the barrier, and don’t forget you can always hit the brake pedal (down arrow) if all else fails!

If it feels as though the car is rotating too far and generating too much angle, then ease off the gas, or tap the e-brake until it returns to the correct position while also counter-steering to correct at the same time if necessary.

Maintaining the drift isn’t too complicated once you get the hang of it, be confident and heavy with the throttle and use the brake/e-brake methods and steering to keep the car at the desired angle.

Step 3 - Transitioning (Switching direction)

As you continue to tap the e-brake when necessary, this will make the process a lot easier as you juggle the steering to achieve the desired angle when switching sides mid-drift.

Again, don’t be scared to go heavy on the throttle during the transition.

You want to “catch” the car’s weight as it transitions, and counter-steering with the correct throttle will enable you to do so.

This will often take time to learn but be patient, and you’ll soon reap the rewards.

Step 4 – Exiting the Drift

When you want to come out of the drift, allow the weight shift to bring the back end of the car to its desired position, along with full throttle, and give the e-brake (space) several ‘taps’ if necessary until the vehicle is back driving at the correct angle again.

Conclusion

Drifting is like an art, and once you get the hang of it, you’ll see why we love it so much here at Drifted!

It can seem a little frustrating to get the hang of things at first, but your patience and persistence will soon be rewarded as you begin scooping up combos to spend on your favorite drift cars and upgrades.

If you’re looking for tips and pointers on how to piece this together, we highly recommend checking out this entertaining video:

It’s vital to remember that drifting is all about having fun.

We guarantee you that after you’ve put the time and effort into learning how to drift, you’re going to enjoy Drift Hunters more than ever, and you’ll soon be able to build your dream car collection.

If you’re interested to learn more about real-world drifting techniques, then we highly recommend checking out our in-depth How to Drift guide.

For those looking for more drifting games, why not check out Arcade Car Drift or Drift Runner 3D: Port. Just like Drift Hunters, these are both FREE to enjoy in the Drifted Arcade, alongside many more!

Good luck, and remember that your patience will soon pay off!

Thank you for reading our How to Drift in Drift Hunters guide.

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Now that you’ve mastered Drift Hunters, head over and check out our Ultimate Madalin Stunt Cars 2 or Ultimate Madalin Stunt Cars 3 guide.

Written by Joe Terrell Drifted.com founder, motoring journalist and all-round car enthusiast. Read more about Joe and the Drifted team on our about us page.