Grid Autosport Multiplayer is not like any other CodeMasters multiplayer title, and getting into multiplayer at first might be a bit much.

I decided to write this beginners guide to share what I learned the hard way so you can have a flying start, and believe me, you'll need it.

Note: If you're having trouble finding any game online, read this.[/i][forums.codemasters.com]

It is obvious that the objective will be to win races. To do that, you need to get lots of cars, and to do that, you need lots of ingame cash.

The problem will be getting cash. Grid Autosport multiplayer introduces using your earnings to pay for done damage to your car. This makes you wonder, should you drive aggressively and try to win no matter the costs, and just hope that your reward will be bigger than the damage to your car, or should you settle for the last place and just keep your car clean?

Because Grid Autosport multiplayer is nothing like Grid2, and even a bit different than grid1, or any of the other titles for that matter, it really requires you to get used to the game. So driving clean and settle for the last place is a good starting strategy. Even if you have little damage done to your car and you get last place, you still earn experience and money.

When you make contact during a race, an icon besides your name will show you how well you are able to avoid making contact with other cars. Note that even if someone else makes contact with you, it may be seen as contact by the game and causes your impact rating to drop. The more it drops the more chance it will change color.

Here are what these icons mean:

Grid Autosport Multiplayer has 5 different disciplines to race in. To start, I suggest to focus on just one discipline. Learn the tracks and cars, and make money. Use this discipline as a foundation for your entire career. Whenever things go rough, you can come back to this discipline where you have your cars ready to get back on track. Which one that is, is up to you. Each discipline has its own strong and weak points. If you are unsure of which one suits you, do a little bit of research then try one that seems good. If it doesn't work out, pick another. I can't give much feedback on this one yet, as I've only been driving one discipline myself. But you're probably going to be looking for Open Wheels or Streets.

As stated earlier, in order to start getting first place, you need cars. Grid Autosport multiplayer will give you a loan vehicle for races when you don't have one. At the end of the race, you will pay for the damage done to this car, so if you drive like a maniac, you're going to loose money rather than making it. It will become clear that the handling for every car is different and takes a lot of getting used to.

When you start your race you can pick your vehicle. If you don't own one yet, only loan vehicles are shown. Use this moment to try all cars out before buying one yourself. This way you can figure out if a car handles well or not. Worry later to get the best car. First get a car you can drive well in. You'll need these and they will make you win races.

Also a warning: If you choose expensive cars (for example the Bugatti Veyron) little damage to this car will cost lots of money. So if you crash, be ready to use your flashback to undo that damage and settle for last place at all times unless you have enough cash. I've lost 15000 money because I was unaware in just 2 races.

When you enter a race you get the chance to upgrade/repair your car. This will only work if you bought a car. Repairing before a race is great. Upgrading should probably be done in the garage as you have more time to read what each setting does. If you know the setting already, you can do it now.

Now, the most important part for this stage is the ability to turn on and off bonusses, also known as the difficulty level. If you enable all helpers, you will get very little bonus at the end, and it is this that helps you get cash early on. Here comes my recommendation on what to turn on and off and why.

• Traction Control: Off (try it with off first, and enable later if you think you really need it. It will make your car be more stable, but it depends on you if you really need it. I can drive perfectly with it off, so I rather take the little bonus.
  
• ABS (braking assist): Off (try it with off first, and enable later if you think you really need it. I found it made it easier while driving off. Note that Stability control, steering assist and corner assist all require ABS to be on.)
  
• Stability Control: Off (try it with off first, and enable it later when you have a bit of cashflow. Having ABS and Stability Control on will likely help you go faster, but if you lack the experience in driving you are likely to crash more. So wait with this until you have atleast driven about 4 hours in multiplayer.
  
• Transmission: Automatic (you may also put it to Manual, but only if you are able to drive with it. Remember we want to damage the car as little as possible, and if you don't shift well, you'll break your gearbox)
  
• Hud: full (this setting doesn't really matter. It shows you the speedometer and the map, but also shows names from drivers close to you, what position you are in and who enters the lobby. Putting this off might actually help you focus entirely on the race, but it may also leave you out with information you want to know, such as what place you are in, or what bastard hit your car.)
  
• Racing line: Full (This setting is turned off by default, and to begin racing I recommend putting it on. The reason is that it will help you crash much less frequently and get a feel for each car and track. I started driving with it off and I always ended up last. When I switched it on, I was able to learn the tracks much better and anticipate on the surrounding cars much better. As a result I started to drive clean laps, and other cars made mistakes and I could overtake them simply due to that. My car was in good shape near the end while theirs were falling apart. You can also set this to corners only, but there is no bonus difference, and it really helps you getting fast in a race. So as soon as you see a corner turning red, hit the breaks hard, but remember, people behind you will not break. So if you know a corner is going to be a slow corner (it turned red a previous lap), break early, so people will move aside. Only tab the break a bit is enough.)

The others are up to you.
When items are grayed out, the current car does not support them or they are disabled by the lobby settings.

When you enter a lobby, you will have 0 points. During a race, you will earn points. The higher you finish the more points you get.

If you leave and rejoin a lobby, your points will be reset to 0.

The starting order for every race in the normal playlists are set to these points from high to low. Meaning the person who is in this lobby the longest is likely to start at the 1st spot, and the person who entered last will start at the back. The benefit of this is that when you enter a lobby, there are no players behind you that are likely to crash into you causing you unnecessary money. But a few races in and people will join the lobby and start behind you.

It can be very dreadful if a player just wants to create havoc for whatever reason. Although in this game such player doesn't last long, the game has the option to kick those players stimulating them to stop doing whatever they do and start driving nicely again. Often 2 racers are battling each other and the other drivers find hinder of this. You'll quickly get support from others if you initiate a vote kick.

Here's how you do that. When you have voted for the map, the next screen allows you to kick those players.

This is what you see:
Press your right arrow to hi-light the users. Navigate to the user using your up-down arrow keys, and press Enter on this user to access the menu.

Navigate to the Vote to Kick button and press enter again.









An indicator will be added to the right showing that this is a bad user.

When you have made enough money to buy your first car (around 30.000) should be enough, start with used vehicles, not new cars. New cars are great for when you have money to spare, but we're not there yet.

Once you buy your car, it will be the stock car (loan vehicle). As such it is not in the best shape, so repair it first.

It is important to apply a livery to your car. Although it will cost a bit of money and time to create a livery (and you can get a very cheap one if you want by setting certain patterns and colors), it will allow you to set sponsors too.

Adding sponsors to your livery means that you get bonus objectives with additional experience points. These experience points will help boosting your car's exp points. It is possible to store your livery to a racenet club if you make one, so you only have to create a livery once and then apply it to all your vehicles easily.

Racenet clubs work through the website: http://racenet.codemasters.com

Now, when you start racing with your cars, following the racelines, and crashing as little as possible, you'll start to level them up. Unlike with loan cars, you do NOT pay for the damage done at the end of the round. Instead, you pay for the damage when you choose to repair your car. Keep this in mind if you're planning to sell your car, but also note that a damaged car doesn't sell as well as an undamaged car.

When levelling up your car, you'll start unlocking upgrades and the ability to tweak settings. So it is important to race as much as you can with your vehicles. You can find custom races that only race with your car, or you can just play the rotational lists and wait for your car to come by. It doesn't really matter what you choose because with the rotational, you can learn all the tracks and test out all the cars, and you earn overall experience too.

As you upgrade your car, it becomes faster and better, and it should allow you to beat any loan vehicle. Once you get there, your earnings will shoot up.

When you finish a race and you have setup your livery with sponsor objectives, you'll get an additional screen seeing the statistics of your sponsor objectives.

You should note that participating in RaceNet Challenges is worth doing. You get a lot of cash for participating in them, and you can use this to boost your experience on cars you own.

Your goal is not to be the best in the RaceNet Challenges, but at least try and get a gold medal. If you do, you usually get about 20.000 to 25.000 Grid cash per race, and up to 8000 xp.

Just make sure you actually finish and send that result to RaceNet. If you restart at the end, and then decide to quit, you will not get money and experience at that point.

When a racenet challenge is completed (end of the week) you get an additional 20.000 to 50.000 grid cash per event depending on how well you did. I usually get 200.000 or more grid cash per week. Just make sure you participate in every event and send your result in. Even if you didn't even make bronze, just submit it, as that way you still get cash at the end of the week, and some experience.

Now, the above is based on my own experience. If you have any tips that worked for you, feel free to share them with us, by placing them in a comment below. :) And remember, this guide is aimed to people new to racing multiplayer in this game. Even if you raced in other games (Grid2 especially) you will find out that it is a learning experience to drive in this game. When you get around the tracks better, you'll learn things and then the guide probably won't apply anymore.