Star Wars: Galactic Racer Beginner Tips: Best Vehicle and Early Mistakes to Avoid

Star Wars: Galactic Racer launched October 6 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, and its roguelite Tour structure punishes anyone who treats it like a normal arcade racer. Lose every League Entry Token and the run ends outright, favors and upgrades included. The fastest way to burn through those tokens is overconfidence in the first few hours, before the dual-boost system and the branching Tour map make sense. Here is what actually matters at the start: the vehicle to pick, how Afterburner and Ramjet work together, and the mistakes that cost new racers the most tokens.

Official launch trailer from the STAR WARS: Galactic Racer YouTube channel.

Start with the Landspeeder

Three vehicle classes are available from the opening Tour: the Landspeeder, the Speeder Bike and the Skim Speeder. The Landspeeder is the jack-of-all-trades pick: stable through contact, forgiving on landings and easy to drift without overcorrecting. The Speeder Bike turns tighter and squeezes through gaps the other two can't, but it crashes far more easily on contact with rivals or scenery. The Skim Speeder rewards smooth, precise drifting once mastered, but punishes rough inputs hard. None of these are locked forever, since vehicle classes stay unlocked across failed Tours, but learning the track-reading and drift timing on the Landspeeder first makes the other two much easier later.

Afterburner and Ramjet are not the same button

The two boosts solve different problems. Afterburner is the safe option: a shorter burst that recharges on its own, good for regular acceleration and short straights. Ramjet is the aggressive option: a longer, stronger push that builds heat the longer it's held. Push it into the red zone and the engine stalls or explodes, costing a crash. Release it just before redlining and let it vent instead. A few tracks let you manage heat environmentally: driving through water or ice cools the Ramjet and extends how long it can run, while acid pools can trigger a temporary malfunction that interferes with it. On long straights, lean on Ramjet and bail early; on short connecting straights or tight chicanes, Afterburner is the lower-risk choice.

• Use Afterburner for regular acceleration and short straights — it recharges passively.
• Save Ramjet for long straights or clawing back lost positions, and release it before redlining.
• Drive through water or ice when a track offers it; it buys extra Ramjet time.
• Avoid acid pools when possible — they can malfunction the Ramjet temporarily.

League Entry Tokens are lives, not currency

Each Tour is one continuous run built from a branching map of races, Field Tests and Eliminator events. On Pilot difficulty you get three crashes per race before the next one starts costing a League Entry Token, and losing every token ends the Tour — any fitted Parts and unspent Upgrade Points from that run are lost with it. Field Tests are the safer option early on: missing the target usually doesn't cost a token the way a failed race does. Eliminator races pay out extra Upgrade Points but can knock you out of the event entirely, so they're worth the risk only once a vehicle's upgrades and Abilities are in reasonable shape. Finishing a race further back than you'd like almost always beats wrecking a vehicle to protect one position, since the Tour itself is what's actually at stake.

Spend upgrade points on cornering before speed

Both temporary Upgrade Points earned mid-Tour and permanent Tuning Points earned over time follow the same priority order: cornering and drift control first, then resilience or damage mitigation, then Ramjet or Afterburner capacity, and only after that a vehicle's unique maneuver or raw top speed. A car that corners and survives contact is faster over a full race than one that's quick in a straight line but spins out every tight turn or explodes after two mistakes. The same logic applies to Abilities: pair one defensive or utility pick, such as Shield, Vent or a Status Scrubber, with one speed-focused pick like Surge, rather than stacking every point into aggression.

Mistakes that drain tokens fastest

A few habits account for most of the tokens lost in the opening hours:

1. Chasing a Perfect Start by restarting instead of driving clean, patient corners.
2. Taking an unfamiliar shortcut mid-race instead of scouting it in an Arcade event first.
3. Buying a Legendary Part from a Scrap Dealer without reading its attached Fault.
4. Leaving a damaging Fault unrepaired going into a major race or an Eliminator.
5. Holding Ramjet a half-second too long instead of releasing it before the red zone.

Check Star Wars: Galactic Racer's official site for the full roster of vehicles, Racer Styles and Abilities, and visit Hibi's Shop at every paddock stop to spend spare credits on Upgrade Packs rather than letting them sit unused. For everything on price, editions and what shipped at launch, see our launch coverage. The game is available now on Steam and the PlayStation Store, and it carries an E10+ rating from the ESRB for fantasy violence and language.