As we noted in our review, Gameloft’s GT Racing 2 (Free) is a great addition to the long line of excellent full-featured racers on iOS. While its freemium underpinnings are relatively benign, there’s still plenty of opportunity to get caught in that trap of feeling the need to pay in order to advance. The purpose of this guide is to provide some tips and tricks to avoid getting into those situations.

The Freemium Basics

All the freemium elements in GT Racing 2 are centered around spending the game’s premium ‘Cash’ currency. Cash is used for a variety of different things. For example, you can use cash to purchase mechanics, which allow you to upgrade multiple vehicles at the same time or upgrade one vehicle faster. Cash can also be used to instantly unlock vehicles that are still locked behind a star requirement, instantly speed up vehicle upgrades and as a last resort be used as an alternative to the game’s standard currency when purchasing cars and upgrades. Thus, you’ll notice that a lot of our tips center around timer management and planning out upgrade cycles.

Save Your Cash for Mechanics

This should be the number one rule when thinking about freemium in GT Racing 2. Mechanics are incredibly important because they allow you to upgrade multiple vehicles at the same time and better mechanics can also shorten the time it takes to perform upgrades. They also are pretty expensive as well. Considering their importance, it makes perfect sense that I’d highly recommend that you save every bit of premium currency earned so you can put it towards increasing your inventory of mechanics. You’ll notice a lot of the forthcoming tips are centered around not spending cash for the primary purpose of saving it for mechanics.

Don’t Use Your Cash to Fast-track Upgrades

Make no mistake, the whole purpose of GT Racing 2’s inclusion of upgrade timers is to encourage impatient gamers to spend that precious cash on advancing the timer. I ask that you don’t give into what they want you to do and to practice restraint. Later on in this guide we’ll provide some specific guidance on how to effectively plan your upgrades to minimize the amount of time you’ll have to actively wait for upgrades.

Try to Purchase a New Car As Quickly As Possible

The beginning of GT Racing 2 is the hardest in terms of dealing with its freemium aspects. Once you start an upgrade on a vehicle, you aren’t allowed to race it on a track until said upgrade is finished. Thus, you may find yourself at the beginning of the game unable to participate in matches as you wait for upgrades to finish (which thus nudges you rather blatantly to spend cash to speed it up). The biggest remedy to combat this tactic is to purchase a new car. Owning another car will allow you to are with that vehicle while you’re waiting on an upgrade on another car.

Feel Free to Replay Previously Won Races for More Basic Currency

While GT Racing 2’s premium currency is primarily reserved for speeding up upgrades and purchasing mechanics, it can also act as primary currency when you’re trying to purchase a vehicle or upgrade that you can’t afford (the game will then helpfully ask you if you’d like to spend cash to supplement the lack of common currency). This is probably the rest thing you can use your cash on. Players can freely replay races already won for a decent amount of basic currency. Since most of the currency earned during a race is based on actions taken, (such as taking perfect turns, overtaking cars, and beating lap times), it’s definitely possible to earn a decent amount on replaying races. Even better, you can also earn more experience towards your overall level which bestows cash for each level-up.

Plan Your Vehicle Upgrades Wisely

This tip is more common sense than anything else, but good time management is always the best defense against freemium timers. Set up lengthy upgrades when you know you won’t be playing awhile. During extended play sessions, I’d suggest upgrading a car that you don’t plan on playing during that session so that way it’ll be ready to drive by the time you’re prepared to upgrade the car you’re currently playing (so that way you always have an able-bodied vehicle to earn more stars with. Once you get more than one vehicle, it’s also a good idea to always have an upgrade going on a car that needs it (unless you’re saving up for a big upgrade).

Just Play Through the Campaign As Intended

One of the complaints we noted in our review of GT Racing 2 is the fact that it’s nearly impossible to purchase a car in a higher tier when just starting out unless you shell out a decent amount of premium cash to unlock the ability to purchase it. Based on that, I’d highly recommend just sucking it up and playing through the campaign as intended, buying cars that are already unlocked and earning stars until the vehicle of your choice is unlocked. Yes, it kind of sucks but considering how rare cash is earned during normal play, there are far better things to spend it on (namely, mechanics).

Don’t Ignore Multiplayer

If you’ve got the skill, multiplayer in GT Racing 2 has the potential to be a pretty good way to earn normal currency. While you won’t earn stars which are used to unlock new vehicles and races, multiplayer, balances that out with bestowing more currency, especially if you win a match. I’d suggest holding off until you have a pretty beefed up car, but once you have one, it never hurts to play a few matches between AI races.

As is usually the case with freemium games that feature timers, a lot of the above tips are relatively straightforward and based on planning on common sense. However, it always bears repeating just in case. I personally don’t believe GT Racing 2’s timers are particularly onerous, but following the above tips should mitigate most of the impact they have.