How To Drift In Drift Hunters MAX

This guide will show you how to earn points and master drifting combos to unlock the finest cars in the Drift Hunters MAX garage.

how to drift in drift hunters max

Introduction
Getting Started
Performance Upgrades
Car Tuning
Body Paint and Rims Paint
Settings and Controls
How to Drift in Drift Hunters MAX
Conclusion

Introduction

Picking up where the hugely popular Drift Hunters Classic game left off, Drift Hunters MAX brings all of the features that drifting fans have come to know and love from the original Drift Hunters game and cranks up the dial to eleven.

Drift Hunters MAX is a step above its predecessor in graphical fidelity and physics, and combined with the addition of the new Save Game Functionality, it’s easy to see why fans keep coming back for more.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about the newest Drifted.com exclusive game is the addition of twelve brand new cars to its roster.

To unlock the likes of the Toyota GR Supra as well as the slew of supercars in-game, you’re going to have to burn a ton of rubber to earn points.

Here are a few tips on how to drift in Drift Hunters MAX – Drifted.com’s latest exclusive drifting game.

Getting Started

Much like the original Drift Hunters game, Drift Hunters MAX welcomes you to the game with a free car in your garage – the iconic Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86.

The AE86 is a fantastic beginner car that you’ll be content with for a long while. In addition, the eight-six is an excellent tuning base that will reward you with a more exciting drifting experience the more money you throw at it.

Speaking of money – you will have 25000 free credits in the bank at the very start of the game, which you can use to upgrade the AE86 in just about any way you wish.

Performance Upgrades

Drift cars will require precise tuning to get the desired handling characteristics that you want from them.

When you enter the ‘Performance’ menu, you can upgrade your car’s Brakes, Gearbox, Weight, Boost, and Engine.

That said, adding power will be your number one priority if you want to rack up the points by maintaining the most substantial drift angles for more extended periods, achieving the highest combo scores possible in the process.

Adding a turbo to some non-turbocharged cars might trigger the purists, but it is by far the most cost-effective upgrade that you can get for any car in-game.

Car Tuning

Good news, drift fans – suspension settings are accessible from the get-go in Drift Hunters MAX.

From the tuning menu, you can change your car’s turbo boost pressure (assuming you’ve installed a turbo already), front & rear camber settings, front & rear wheel offset settings, brake balance, front & rear ride height, and even brake pressure.

Body Paint and Rims Paint

Performance parts and tuning upgrades aren’t the only customization options you’ll have in Drift Hunters Max – you can change the body and rim paint as well.

Drift Hunters MAX has a one-up on the classic Drift Hunters game in terms of paint customization, as the newest Drifted.com exclusive game allows you to change individual wheel colors as well so you can replicate your ‘drift wheels’ once you’ve shredded the tires off your spare pair - neat, huh?

Settings and Controls

A keyboard is all you’ll need to shred rubber on your favorite tracks in Drift Hunters MAX.

As a browser game, DH:MAX is finely tuned so that most common PCs or laptops can flawlessly use the “High” visual setting in-game without the need for expensive GPUs.

So, don’t be afraid to crank up the graphics and make the most of the visual experience alongside the satisfyingly-smooth physics.

We have spent quite a bit of time outlining all of the prep work you need to get started in Drift Hunters MAX.

However, let’s face it, you’re not here to simply tune cars, buy upgrades, or even change the body and rim colors. You’re here to do what we all love – DRIFT!

Fans of Drift Hunters classic will have no problems with getting to grips with the action right away.

For beginners, however, you’re probably thinking: “Drift? What do you mean, drift?”

As Twinkie from the Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift said: “There are lots of ways you can do this (drift), alright? But the first thing I want you to do is rip that e-brake. Then, I want you to power over.” – That’s what we’re going to do today.

Step 1 – Initiation

There are a ton of ways to initiate a drift in real life. Clutch-kick, weight transfer (inertia), braking, e-brake, power-over are just some of the ways to send a car into a drift.

Drift Hunters MAX makes it all simpler, considering you’ll only have a keyboard to work with.

E-brake, power-over/inertia, and braking are the three main ways to initiate a drift in-game, which we’re going to explain more in-depth.

E-Brake

The “e-brake drift” is by far the easiest way to send the rear of your car sliding in-game.

By pressing the e-brake button (space bar on your keyboard), your car will instantly kick out its tail relative to where your vehicle is currently facing.

The e-brake method is best used in transition corners and tight/slow corners since it allows you to change your car’s direction almost instantly.

Braking

The “braking drift” is known to many as Takumi Fujiwara’s signature drift initiation technique.

Since his AE86 Trueno is very lightweight, Takumi can brake very late into corners and transfer all of the car’s weight onto the front – taking the load off of the rear wheels, resulting in the rear stepping out.

He finishes his drift by following up with a foot-full of throttle to power out of the corner.

The same applies to Drift Hunters MAX – the braking drift is best used in-game on corners following a long straight (such as the long straight at Ohio Race Track) – so you can shed some momentum before entering the next bend.

Weight Transfer (Inertia)

Drifting in-game rewards you with a constant stream of points – as long as your rear tires are smoking and you don’t hit a wall.

With this in mind, you will want to drift just about everywhere – even on straights!

This is where weight transfer comes in – keeping the power on while you’re making left-to-right transitions with your car will keep you drifting so you can gather tons of points as you rack up the combo multipliers.

Step 2 – Maintaining the Drift

After you have initiated the drift by using any of the three methods mentioned above, you’re going to want to keep the tires spinning to clear the corner.

Most gamers are likely tempted to keep the gearbox on “Auto” in the “Settings” menu – which is understandable since shifting gears manually yourself seems like a ton of work.

Hear us out for a moment!

Even in real life, drifting forces drivers to hit the rev limiter frequently because this gives them the most control over their mid-corner speed.

This real-life comparison is just a testament to how good of a game this Drifted exclusive is.

In Drift Hunters MAX, you’re going to want to occasionally ride the limiter as well for the ultimate precision – which can only be achieved by setting the gearbox to “Manual” mode.

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

With manual selected, your beginner car, the AE86, will feel more controllable, and can you’ll be able to take advantage of the little power that it has to clear corners by mostly only needing to use second gear – especially on slower tracks.

For these reasons, we recommend keeping things simple and giving “Manual” a try to see how quickly you can adapt.

From there, it’s just a matter of massaging the throttle and steering inputs to keep the car drifting at your desired angle.

Step 3 – Transition

There are two ways to negotiate a quick transition in Drift Hunters MAX – by using your brake and e-brake.

The e-brake is going to give you the quickest and most aggressive direction change, but it keeps the entry speed reasonably constant, which might push your car off of the track or into the rails.

Fortunately, you can easily supplement your e-brake (rear) with your regular (front) brake pedal by pressing the “Down” key on your keyboard to help you shed the excess lateral speed you took with you going into the corner.

Step 4 – Corner Exit

Upon corner exit, you can opt to keep the drift you had going from the last turn and continue sliding left and right even on the following straight. A technique is also known as a “manji” - doing so provides you a constant stream of points and maintains or improves your multiplier combo.

However, if you want to straighten the car on the corner exit, you can bring the revs down by shifting up immediately or tap the brakes before steering the vehicle until it’s pointing straight.

Conclusion

Beginner drifters might find the art of drifting complicated at first, but through enough practice, along with this guide, we do not doubt that you’ll soon get the hang of it and begin satisfyingly shredding tires in no time at all.

Keep experimenting with how fast you enter corners, which gear to use in a given situation, and the amount of throttle to apply – you’ll be consistently drifting, earning combos, and amassing points before you know it.

Most importantly, have fun! The points will come as you get better at drifting in the game. Soon, you’ll have more earnings than you know what to do with, enabling you to unlock your dream rides in your garage, complete with insane horsepower outputs and the ultimate rubber-burning capabilities!

If you’re keen to stick with the classic game for the time being, then we highly recommend checking out these articles – Drift Hunters tuning guide, Drift Hunters money guide, Drift Hunters car list, and How to Drift in Drift Hunters.

So, there we have it! We hope that we’ve covered everything you could want to know about drifting in Drift Hunters MAX in this guide.

Thank you for reading our How To Drift In Drift Hunters MAX guide.

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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.