Every update that reached the championship, newest first — what changed on the stages, in the rover, and around the site. Each date is the day that change went live.
The fastest runs' tracks are already in the regolith
Gameplay
A stage no longer opens on untouched ground. The ruts of its board's three fastest runs are already pressed into the regolith when you line up, so you can see the lines the quickest pilots took. Replays and replay videos show them too.
Each board has its own tracks: forward, reversed and storm
A board with fewer than three times shows that many runs; a board with no times leaves the ground fresh
A replay shows the board's other top runs, never the run you are watching
The board tracks sit a little shallower, so your own fresh ruts still stand out where you cross them
The Eight opens as Stage 1; The Opener moves to Stage 3
Stages
A third stage is on the roster and the numbers have moved with it. The Eight is the new Stage 1: a 2,676 m night loop through twelve gates that finishes nine metres from where it started. The Opener is now Stage 3, unchanged, and The Long Run stays Stage 2.
Stage 1, The Eight: twelve gates 27 to 41 m wide, a 40 m climb over the first four, right-handers out and left-handers home
Medal pars: gold 2:47.3, silver 3:34.1, bronze 4:57.3; no author time is set yet, so gold is the top medal for now
New pilots start on Stage 1 again, and the Mars Cup runs stages 1, 2 and 3 in order
Your local Opener records — medals, personal bests and ghosts — move to Stage 3 the next time the game loads
The Stage 3 boards start empty: a run names its stage, so no Stage 1 time could follow The Opener
The Stage 1 boards start empty too — forward, reversed and storm
Every leaderboard row now shows when its time was set
Site
Only the podium used to say how long ago a time was set. Every row of a stage board now carries it too, so a fresh run further down the order stands out.
The evening streak reminder now shows on Android phones
GameplayFixes
With daily reminders on, the game warns you in the evening if you haven't driven yet. Chrome on Android refused the way that warning was made, so it never appeared there; it now arrives like any other notification, and tapping it opens the game.
A call sign could carry characters that never show, like zero-width spaces and text-direction marks, and so look exactly like another pilot's claimed name. Names now drop them, fold wide and styled letters into plain ones and close up runs of spaces, both when a time posts and when you claim a call sign.
A look-alike of a claimed call sign made that way now goes on the board as PILOT
Online results now show the name your time went up under
MultiplayerFixes
After an online race the results said ON THE BOARD AS and the call sign you typed, even when the board posted the time as PILOT: a filtered name, or a call sign another wallet has claimed. The line now shows the name the board actually used.
A linked wallet now stays connected while you keep playing
SiteFixes
A wallet link used to end 30 days after you linked it, and from then on your times went up without the ✓, and under a claimed call sign as PILOT, until you linked again. Now opening the site or posting a time renews it, so it lapses only after a few weeks away.
It renews at most once a week, and lasts at most six months from the day you link
Each device you race on stays connected on its own: connect the wallet on each one
Daily reminders now have an on/off switch in Settings
GameplaySite
Once daily reminders were on, the only way to stop them was to block the site's notifications in your browser. Settings now has a DAILY REMINDERS switch beside SHARING DRIVE PATHS: OFF silences the evening reminder and the daily notification, deleting your browser's delivery address from our server, and ON asks your browser again.
Said NO THANKS on the results screen? The same switch turns reminders on whenever you want them
If your browser blocks notifications for the site, the switch says where to allow them
A call sign you claim now stays yours on the leaderboard
Fixes
Claiming a call sign on the pilot dossier was meant to keep it yours, but anyone could still post a time under it. Now a run posted under a claimed call sign keeps the name only from a browser where the wallet that claimed it is connected; from anywhere else, whoever drove it, it goes on the board as PILOT.
Capitals make no difference: a claim on ACE covers Ace and ace too
Nobody can claim a call sign another pilot already has times under on the board
PILOT, the call sign every new pilot starts with, can no longer be claimed
Your own runs keep the call sign only from a browser where your wallet is connected: connect it on each device you race on, and link again if the link expires
Online race times follow the same rule, on the board and in the whole-race replay
Times already on the board keep the names they went up with
Your wallet profile is private now, and you can delete it yourself
SiteFixes
A linked wallet keeps a profile on our servers: the devices you link from, a copy of your game progress and any call sign you claim. Anyone could read it through the database the game uses; now only our server can, and Delete wallet profile on the pilot dossier erases it.
Deleting also takes the wallet's address off your board times and their ghosts; the times stay, without the ✓
From then on no run carries the address, and other browsers still connected to the wallet are signed out the next time they open the site
The progress kept in your browser is not touched, and your claimed call sign is no longer held for you
The address on a verified time is still public: that is the badge
Every board run can be downloaded to watch, and a copy of one could be posted again under another name, landing on the board as a second, identical time. The board now knows the runs it has taken, and takes the same run again only from the device that first posted it.
A run stays known after a faster time replaces it, and after an online race files it
Nothing changes for the times you drive yourself
A refused copy is told the run was already posted from another device
The privacy page says what the board keeps to know a run again
Recruit crates and reminders now answer only to your own device
SiteFixes
A referral now counts only when the recruited pilot's own game reports it, with the key it keeps next to its board id, and only your device can switch on its daily reminders. Nobody else can invent recruits, claim a pilot someone else brought in, or stop your device from switching on reminders.
A pilot is recruited once, and only their own device can say whose link brought them
Each network can log only so many referrals an hour, so invented recruits run out fast
A copy of the game left open from before this update needs a reload before it can credit a recruiter or switch on reminders
The privacy page now covers referral links: what a shared link carries, what is stored and who can read it
A run that took ten minutes or more finished as normal and then failed to post: the game said LEADERBOARD SUBMIT FAILED and kept the time on your device. Runs up to half an hour now go on the board, with their ghost and replay.
Corrected: a linked wallet keeps a copy of your profile
SiteFixes
The pilot dossier promised your profile lives in your browser, no signup ever, right above the panel that links a wallet and keeps a copy of that profile on our servers. It now says the profile stays in your browser unless you link a wallet, and playing still needs no account.
The dossier links the privacy policy, which lists what that copy holds and who can read it
The landing page's card for new pilots says the same, and no longer gives the tutorial a length
The terms no longer list wallet linking and community features as plans: both are live
The privacy policy now covers wallet linking and daily reminders
SiteFixes
Linking a wallet and switching on daily reminders both store data on our servers, and the privacy page described neither. It now says what each one keeps, which of it anyone can read, the cookie a wallet link sets, and how to stop each.
A linked wallet keeps a public profile: the devices you link from, a copy of your game progress and any call sign you claim
Runs that go on the board while a wallet is connected carry its address, on their ghosts too
Disconnect on the pilot dossier deletes the session cookie; deleting what a link stored is a request to us
Daily reminders store a delivery address for your browser, never public; turning off the site's notifications ends them
Only your own device can post or claim its board times
Fixes
Your device now keeps a private key next to the id the board knows it by, and the board asks for it with every time you submit and every wallet you link. Nobody else can post a run in your name or put their badge on your times, and linking a wallet now keeps one time per board: your fastest.
Linking a wallet folds the runs from all your linked devices together, so each board shows you once.
A badge another wallet stamped on your runs before this change no longer counts as theirs; link your own wallet on that device to take the runs back.
A copy of the game left open from before this update asks you to reload before it posts a time.
Linking a wallet in a browser where the game hasn't run since this update links the wallet only: open the game once, then link again to bring that device's times under the badge.
Every finisher of an online race is now filed with the race, so the race can be rebuilt from each pilot's inputs and watched with all of its rovers on the stage together. Times set in a race carry an ONLINE tag on the leaderboard.
WATCH THE WHOLE RACE appears on the results screen once everyone is home
The ONLINE tag beside a time on the site opens the race it was set in
Press F or NEXT CAR to follow another pilot, and VIDEO to save the race as a file
Only the race server can vouch for a race, so a solo run can never wear the tag
An online race runs the same simulation as a solo drive — the other rovers are ghosts the physics never touches — so its time can be checked the same way. Every finished race now goes on the global leaderboard by itself, under your call sign, re-simulated from your inputs like any solo run.
If your connection drops mid-race, finish offline and the time still posts
The line under your time says when it is on the board, or that a faster time of yours stays there
Online times get REPLAY and RACE on the board like any other run
WATCH REPLAY after a race now plays the run rebuilt from your inputs
Sharing a blog post, a stage guide, a stage leaderboard or a ghost challenge left the preview in the chat or feed without its picture, because the site failed to draw the card. Each link shows its own card again — the headline for a post, the medal times for a stage, the top three for a board, and the time and pilot to beat for a challenge.
In a laptop-sized window or on a tablet turned sideways, the header ran off the edge of the screen, every page could be dragged sideways, and the Play now button was squeezed until its label disappeared — with a wallet linked, it was cut off on wide screens too. The header now gives way before it runs out of room, so every page fits and Play now always reads in full.
On mid-size screens the logo shrinks to its badge so every link stays in the bar.
Narrower windows fold the links into the menu before the bar can overflow.
On phones and tablets the menu button, wallet chip and Play now sit at the right edge.
Linking a wallet no longer leaves your old time on the board
Fixes
Once you had linked a wallet, a faster run could go up beside your previous time instead of replacing it, so the board showed you twice. The faster run replaces the old one again, and a run you set while your wallet is connected carries the verified badge straight away.
A second device that isn't connected to the wallet still posts its own time: connect the wallet there, and your next faster run folds the two together
Online race results now say the time stays off the board
MultiplayerFixes
An online race never posts a leaderboard time, yet its results screen still asked for your name and offered SUBMIT, which silently posted nothing. It now says the time is not eligible for the board, with no name field and no SUBMIT, whether the race ran to the end or you lost the connection and finished offline.
After a dropped connection, RETRY starts a fresh solo run, and that run can go on the board
CHALLENGE A FRIEND no longer appears on those results, since the run has no board time to share
On a phone, the daily quests now sit under the briefing card
SiteFixes
On a phone, the daily briefing on the landing page and the daily challenge page was squeezed in beside its three quests, so the stage title and RUN TODAY'S CHALLENGE ran past the edge of the card. The quests now sit underneath, and the briefing takes the full width of the screen.
Corrected: 30 achievements, and storms that last the whole stage
SiteFixes
The About page counted two dozen achievements and promised dust storms that change your stage mid-run, and the landing page said a storm can roll in mid-stage. There are 30 achievements, five of them hidden, and a dust storm comes only with a stage's storm variant, where it blows at full strength from the start line to the finish.
Search results and the install prompt stop promising eight stages
SiteFixes
The game was described as eight stages in search results, link previews and the install prompt, and two are open. That copy now describes the driving instead of counting stages, so it stays true as more stages open.
Corrected: midnight rolls the daily stage, not the leaderboard
SiteFixes
The daily challenge page said its board resets at midnight. There is no daily board: a daily run goes on that stage's leaderboard and stays there, and what midnight changes is the stage, the sky, the three quests and the day your streak counts.
The daily page no longer promises storm days: a daily rolls sunrise, midday, sunset or night, and only a stage's storm variant has a dust storm
Its search description no longer says one attempt: run the daily as often as you like until midnight
The site no longer says online race times can reach the board
MultiplayerSiteFixes
The multiplayer page said that if your connection dropped mid-race, your finish could still go on the global leaderboard. It cannot: a run that starts as an online race never posts a board time, even when you finish it offline, so the pages that suggested otherwise now say that board times come from solo runs.
Corrected: the stages are sculpted, not mapped from real Mars
SiteFixes
The landing page, footer and About page said the stages were charted from real Martian terrain. They are not — the ground is hand-sculpted to Martian morphologies, and the site now says so.
We now look at where drives go wrong — and you can switch it off
GameplaySiteFixes
Most people who start a stage never finish it, and a counter saying so tells us nothing about why. When a drive ends, the game now sends us the line your rover took — position and speed, no call sign and no account — so we can find the corner that spins everyone and the rock people get stuck on. It is kept a month, never published, and Settings has a switch to stop sending it.
Settings → SHARING DRIVE PATHS turns it off for good on this device
The privacy page spells out exactly what a drive path contains and how long we keep it
It also now discloses the control recording stored with every leaderboard time, which is how your run is checked and how anyone can watch it back
Quitting the proving ground or a free-roam session is finally recorded at all — both used to end in silence
The proving ground no longer promises three minutes
GameplaySiteFixes
It was advertised as a three-minute tutorial and it is not one — nineteen lessons, each with room to get it wrong a few times. The copy now says what it teaches instead of how long it takes, and a real figure goes back once we have measured how long pilots actually spend in it.
A run that ends early now counts toward your profile
Gameplay
Until now every reward waited at the finish line: quit six gates into a stage and the run left no trace at all. The ground you covered, the air you caught and the time you held it sideways are now banked whether or not you cross the line, and reaching a gate you have never reached on that stage pays XP and credits the first time.
Your streak counts any real attempt — two gates in, or a minute of driving — not only a finished run
Four new honours sit at the start of the board: FIRST GATE, FIVE DEEP, HUNDRED CLUB and FIRST FLIGHT
WANDERER, SIDEWAYS, LOW GRAVITY and TERMINAL VELOCITY now count the distance, drift, air and speed from unfinished runs too
The daily PASS CHECKPOINTS quest asks for 6 to 12 now, and no longer forgets the gates you crossed before you quit
A long first finish posts to the board — runs up to half an hour are accepted, where the limit used to be ten minutes
A gentler first run, and a way out of a total loss
GameplayFixes
The proving ground is now the first thing a new pilot is offered rather than the thing they skip, and a first timed run starts on Stage 2 — twice the distance of Stage 1 but far easier ground, where Stage 1 puts its two tightest corners 51 m and 75 m down a steep start line.
TOTAL LOSS now offers a restart, and the repair zone shows on the minimap with how far back it is
Blow past a gate and the HUD says so — gates are crossed in order, so you have to come back through it
A run starts in the FAR camera, which holds more of the ground ahead in frame — pick another under SETTINGS, or press C
Skipping the proving ground drops you straight onto a stage instead of back on the website
The Mars Cup opens on Stage 2, and Stage 1’s guide now describes the descent honestly
Fixed an error that could interrupt the game for players who were never in an online race
At a larger UI SCALE, the pace notes keep clear of the timer
GameplayFixes
On a phone, a larger UI SCALE ran the co-driver's pace notes into the timer and the speed readout across the top of the screen. The HUD now grows only as far as the screen is wide enough for, and keeps your full setting wherever it fits.
On a tablet with MINIMAL HUD off, the minimap no longer covers the rival's tag at a larger UI SCALE
At the rover's top speeds, the speed readout no longer runs into your online race position or the rival's tag beside it
On a phone, a larger UI SCALE now grows only as far as it fits
GameplayFixes
On a phone held sideways in a short browser window, a larger UI SCALE pushed the damage readout under the look buttons and the CAM button onto the pedals. The HUD now grows only as far as the screen has room for, and keeps your full setting wherever it fits.
On a phone, the readouts on the left no longer sit under your thumb
GameplayFixes
On a short screen, such as a phone in a browser tab, the damage readout and the rival's tag ran down the left edge and under the look-left and look-right buttons. They now share a row under the speed readout, clear of the controls.
The damage readout is one compact row: DAMAGE beside the four corner lights
With MINIMAL HUD off, the power and battery gauges sit beside it, folded to fit, and the rival's tag moves up beside the speed readout
In an online race on a phone or tablet, your position sits beside the speed readout
When the rover is stuck, the hint on a phone says to tap ↻ LAST GATE and sits just above that button
On a phone, replays load without the driving controls on screen
Fixes
A run opened from a leaderboard, with REPLAY on the site's boards or WATCH on the game's, showed the pedals, steering and gear chips over LOADING REPLAY…, where they did nothing. The screen now shows only LOADING REPLAY… until the run plays.
The QUALITY button's tip now lists what the presets change
PerformanceFixes
Hover QUALITY in the pause menu and its tip now names what the presets trade: render scale, bloom, film grain, shadow resolution, ground detail and wheel ruts. It used to list a shading effect that Medium and High stopped drawing in September.
On a phone, the gear buttons now sit beside the brake
GameplayFixes
The H, D and L buttons stand in a column just left of the brake, level with the pedals, so with the browser's toolbar taking its share of the screen they no longer climb into the race timer or off the top edge. On a tablet they keep their place above the handbrake.
The gas pedal sits a little lower on phones and tablets, clear of the CAM button on the shortest screens
On a phone, the touch controls now work during the countdown
GameplayFixes
The countdown screen used to catch every tap, so the pause button, the gear chips and the pedals did nothing until GO. They now respond while the lights count, and pause takes you out of the stage before the start.
Pick H, D or L on the grid and the rover launches in that gear
Hold GAS through the countdown and the rover pulls away on GO, as it does with a held key or trigger
On a phone, the pause button no longer covers the race timer
GameplayFixes
The pause button now has the top-left corner to itself, with the speed readout beside it, so every digit of your time stays in view. The timer, the checkpoint distance and the CAM button keep the top-right.
With MINIMAL HUD off, the minimap now sits below the pace notes instead of on top of them
When you chase a rival's ghost, their tag sits under the speed readout instead of across it
On a phone with a notch, the checkpoint distance and the CAM button line up with the timer, clear of the notch
In the Proving Ground on a phone, SKIP TUTORIAL sits in the top-right corner, clear of the lesson text
Before your first drive, the new-recruit card on the pilot dossier now reads 0 / 26 achievements, the number the game awards. It used to count one too many.
The stage plate on the HUD reads STAGE 1: THE OPENER and STAGE 2: THE LONG RUN, where it used to repeat the stage number. The championship cup names them too, up next and in its results.
A new helmet, winged yoke horns and a rover that loads faster
GameplayPerformanceFixes
The pilot's helmet now has a tall shield and a chin, and the yoke's horns flare into flat carbon wings. The rover draws lighter and builds faster, so a stage starts sooner.
The helmet cam keeps the road in view when you launch hard, and its visor frame no longer glows against a night sky
The dash and onboard cameras hold their framing at speed and at every field-of-view setting
From the chase camera the pilot's helmet shows clear of the comms mast, the suspension reads in zinc and silver, and the race number on the tail is bigger
Gloves grip with a grey knuckle panel, the sleeve closes on the wrist at full lock, and the suit wears a broad charcoal collar
Dents bend the steel into smooth dishes, sparks fly from the grille on any slope, and cockpit shadows reach further ahead
Handling is unchanged, so every leaderboard time, ghost and replay still stands
On a gamepad, START during a run now restarts it the way R does, straight back on the start line without the countdown. In an online race, BACK now asks before you leave, as Esc does, instead of taking you out of the race at once.
When the game asks whether to leave an online race, BACK again leaves and START keeps you racing
During an online race, START no longer drops you into a solo restart, mid-race or from the results screen
With a controller connected, the tutorial names the controller's buttons instead of keyboard keys: RT / R2 to roll forward, RB / R1 to shift up, A / CROSS for the handbrake. Before, a card saying "tap A to shift up" sent pad players to the handbrake.
The welcome and final cards say to press START, which moves you on
Connect or unplug a controller mid-lesson and the card switches to match
Buttons read the same as in the CONTROLS list in Settings
On a controller, START in the middle of a lesson now takes you back to the start of that lesson instead of restarting the whole proving ground
Gamepad steering fixed, and every control listed in Settings
GameplayFixes
On a gamepad, pushing the left stick left now turns the rover left; the steering had been mirrored. Settings has a new CONTROLS section listing the keyboard, gamepad and touch controls, and the pause menu opens the same list.
The list opens on what you are playing with: a connected controller, shown by name, the touch controls on a phone, otherwise the keyboard
Keys you rebind show up in the list straight away
In the full settings panel (M), key rebinding sits under KEYBOARD and the gamepad sliders under GAMEPAD
The tutorial now follows a gamepad: the triggers, stick and handbrake pass its lessons, and START moves on from its NEXT cards
In the pause menu, Esc closes an open panel before it takes you out of the run
Handling is unchanged, so every leaderboard time, ghost and replay still stands
A run opened from a leaderboard, with REPLAY on the site's boards or WATCH on the game's, played in silence. It now sounds the way your own replay does after a finish: engine, tyres, wind and every impact.
Where the browser keeps a page quiet until you touch it, the replay shows TAP FOR SOUND; a tap starts the sound and the replay plays on
Every run now starts through the pilot's visor, gloves on the yoke and the stage opening ahead. One press of C takes you out to the chase view behind the rover.
On a gamepad the chase view is one press of B away, and on a phone one tap of CAM
Settings still sets the camera a run starts in: HELMET, CHASE or DASH
A starting camera you already picked in Settings stays as it is
A rebuilt rover, a pilot at the yoke, and a helmet cam
Gameplay
The rover is rebuilt as a pressurized Mars rally-raid machine, and a pilot in a pressure suit now drives it from a centre seat. A helmet cam shows the stage through the pilot's visor, gloves on the yoke.
Long-travel suspension you can watch work, knobby tyres on beadlock rims, and brake calipers that stay put while the wheels turn
Two stacked spare wheels, oxygen tanks and a comms mast in the open rear bay, and race number 27 on the doors
A wraparound light bar and a roof light bar up front; tail lights glow as you drive and flare when you brake
Mars dust settles where the wheels throw it
ONBOARD, a new rally-TV camera on the pilot, in play and in replays
Handling is unchanged, so every leaderboard time still stands
The haze is back: distant ridges fade into the sky
GameplayFixes
The haze that softens the far landscape had stopped drawing, so every ridge stood out hard to the horizon. It is back at every distance: the ground near you stays crisp, the ranges behind fade into the colour of the sky, and the horizon melts away instead of ending on a line.
A dust storm now closes in as brown haze, and the gate you are driving to still shines through it
The haze takes its colour from the sky, so sunrise, sunset and night each tint the distance
Looking toward the sun, the haze glows brighter
Replays and replay videos show the same haze, storms included
Nothing about the driving changes, so every leaderboard time, ghost and replay still counts
New checkpoints: Race Control gantries with a lit control line
GameplayStagesFixes
Every gate is rebuilt as Race Control hardware: stainless legs faced in black heat-shield tile, one black visor across the top and one light line that shows which gate to drive through next. The start rises into stainless piers under the Mars Rally Championship lockup and counts you down with its own start lights.
Only the gate you are driving to lights up in colour; the next one along shows a dim line, and cleared gates a short green dash
Checkpoints carry their number and chevrons that point the way the road turns
The start lamps fill with the countdown and go out for GO
The finish shows a stage clock that stops on your official time, over a chequer timing strip
The co-driver's left and right calls were mirrored; they now match the road and the gates
The posts stand exactly where they did, so every leaderboard time, ghost and replay still counts
Medium and High graphics run lighter, with nothing lost
Performance
Medium and High no longer draw the whole world a second time every frame for a shading effect that barely showed, so the picture looks the same and costs your graphics card less to produce.
The only trace it left, faint dark outlines along distant ridges and the cockpit pillars, is gone too
The front light bar fades as the battery takes damage
GameplayFixes
The light bar across the rover's nose now dims as knocks wear down the battery pack and goes dark once the pack is badly hurt, so you can read the damage from the driving seat. It used to stay at full brightness whichever camera you drove with.
It shows in every driving camera, the dash view included
Parking in the repair zone brings it back up as the battery heals
No more stutter when a crash knocks the headlights out
PerformanceFixes
Smashing the rover's nose hard enough to kill the headlights used to freeze the picture for a moment, and again when they came back at the repair zone. Now the beams simply go dark and light up again, with no pause.
MP4 replay videos carry AAC sound in more browsers
GameplaySite
Where a browser can't encode AAC sound itself, the game now brings its own encoder, so an MP4 replay video keeps its sound in the format phones and social apps expect, rather than Opus or none at all.
Browsers that can encode the picture but not the sound no longer save silent videos
The encoder is fetched only when a video needs it
The About page now credits the open-source code the game is built on
Replay videos render frame by frame, in landscape or vertical
Gameplay
DOWNLOAD REPLAY VIDEO now builds the video from the replay one frame at a time instead of recording the screen, so a slow device takes longer rather than dropping frames, and the size of your window no longer matters.
16:9 at 1920×1080, or 9:16 at 1080×1920 for vertical video
The whole run, or just its last 30 seconds
30 or 60 fps
Engine, tyres, wind and impacts rebuilt for the soundtrack
A VIDEO button in every replay, board replays included, with SHARE where your device has a share sheet
SAVE CLIP is retired: LAST 30 S makes that clip from the replay
Watch any board run — reversed and storm boards included
SiteGameplayFixes
Every run on every board can now be watched rebuilt from its inputs: the site lists each stage's forward, reversed and storm boards in full, and the game's own boards open any run in a new tab.
Reversed and storm boards on the site, beside each stage's forward board
Every run listed, 50 to a sheet, ranks carrying on from sheet to sheet
WATCH on the results and pause boards opens a run in a new tab and leaves yours where it was
Storm runs replay inside their storm
A new time shows on the site boards as soon as the server accepts it
A reversed or storm challenge races its ghost on its own route
Every board time is now re-simulated from its inputs
GameplaySiteFixes
Each run now records what you did with the controls, sixty times a second, and a time only goes on the leaderboard once the server has driven those inputs through the same physics and reached the same finish. Every board has restarted on the new build.
The physics steps at a fixed 60 Hz on every screen, so a run plays out the same on a 60 Hz laptop and a 144 Hz monitor
WATCH REPLAY rebuilds your run from your inputs, the way the server checks it, instead of playing back positions saved while you drove
Any board run can be watched: REPLAY on a leaderboard row rebuilds that pilot's run from their inputs
A time the server cannot reproduce is refused, and the game tells you so; the time stays on your device
Rocks sit in the same places on every run and for every pilot, and none are left within 15 m of the line through the gates
Every graphics preset drives on the same one-metre ground; Low changes only what is drawn
Regolith grips like soil now, and a slide comes round under power
GameplayFixes
The rover reads the ground the way a real tire does — packed regolith has cohesion that low gravity does not take away, and a tire sliding sideways digs in — so a drift comes round under throttle. Every board has restarted on the new handling.
Grip on regolith is about a fifth higher: the rover stops from 100 km/h in about 125 m instead of 148 m, and the tightest corner it holds at that speed shrinks from about 300 m to 250 m
Hold the brake and steer and the rover turns while it slows — the brakes share the tire with the steering instead of taking all of it
Full throttle no longer strips the cornering grip off cracked polygon ground or a worn tire, a flat-out launch holds its line instead of pulling to one side, and in a slide the throttle pulls the rover out along its nose
The steering ratio tightens with speed, so a full turn of the wheel at speed bites instead of ploughing; full lock comes back with the handbrake or once the tail is out
T (Y on a gamepad) now puts you back at the last gate you cleared, facing the next one; a new Proving Ground lesson teaches catching the slide
The co-driver's calls show at the top of the screen with the distance and a speed for each corner, and a BRAKE cue lights when you need to start slowing
The CASUAL, STANDARD and SIM presets are gone from the settings panel. Every pilot now drives the way SIM did, so the rover behaves the same for everyone and every time on the board was set on the same physics.
The brakes use the whole tire: a held pedal stops you from 100 km/h in about 148 m instead of 165 m, but while you hold it the nose turns and the rover keeps sliding straight
On keyboard and touch the brake is all or nothing, so brake in a straight line and steer once you let go; a gamepad trigger can still feather it
Turn-in is capped at what the tires can actually hold, so corners are planned rather than flicked and the handbrake is how you pivot a hairpin
A wheel that goes light over rough ground gets less help back than it used to
The DRIVING preset row has left ALL SETTINGS
Leaderboard times set on CASUAL or STANDARD have been removed; SIM times stay, and your personal bests on this device are untouched
A minimap on the HUD shows the ground ahead and the next gate
Gameplay
A small map now sits in the corner of the driving view, zoomed in close enough to read the ridges and hollows around the rover and pick a line. It follows you across the stage and marks each gate as the bar you have to drive through.
The gate you are driving to is lit in its own colour and pulses; once it is behind you it goes quiet
When the next gate is beyond the edge of the map, a marker on that edge points the way
Your ghost and the other pilots in an online race appear as dots on the map
Turn it off under ACCESSIBILITY in the in-game settings; MINIMAL HUD hides it too
The second slot on the roster is open again, on a route laid out from scratch. The Long Run covers the full length of its 2.5 km square: a short drop off the start, one pair of real corners, then long, fast ground all the way to the finish.
Twelve checkpoints over a 2,306 m timed line — nearly twice the length of The Opener
Medal pars: gold 2:24.2, silver 3:04.5, bronze 4:16.3; no author time is set yet, so gold is the top medal for now
The Mars Cup, the daily challenge and the featured stage now draw from both open stages
The Stage 2 leaderboard starts empty — no time from the retired Crosscut route is on it
Reverse and storm variants are open, each with its own board and personal best
Stage 3 stays off the schedule until its route is rebuilt
Stages are now charted against the ground at the metre
Level editor
The in-house editor the championship routes are built in draws terrain at the same one-metre detail the game drives on, so a route is laid over the ridges and hollows exactly as the rover will meet them. Stages charted from here sit truer to the ground.
The detailed square under the editor camera is the sculpt itself, metre for metre, widening to 4 km with altitude
Sculpt brushes paint straight onto that ground, so terrain reshaping is judged at full detail
The workshop readout reports the ground detail and its reach
Every stage is built on the hand-sculpted Martian terrain at its native one-metre detail, and the ground around your rover is drawn at that same detail as you drive. The ridges, ruts and hollows you feel under the wheels are the ones you can see.
Crests and gullies that used to be smoothed over are back — expect a livelier ride
The ground is drawn at full detail out to 192 m around you, further on High
Stages load the ground in tiles, so only the terrain you drive on is downloaded
Low graphics keeps the old, lighter ground — step up to Medium for the detail
Leaderboard times and ghosts have been reset: every earlier run was set on smoother ground
Crosscut and The Eight have been pulled from the roster — neither route was good enough to keep. The two slots hold their terrain and will come back with routes built from scratch.
Stage 1, The Opener, is unchanged
The Mars Cup, the daily challenge and the featured stage now draw from the stages that remain
The leaderboards for Crosscut and The Eight are closed
Your medals and personal bests on every other stage are untouched
Pilots who last drove one of the two now start on The Opener
Regolith is loose, and the rover now sinks into it: every wheel presses a rut into the surface wherever it rolls, at any speed, the way tires cut into snow or mud. The tracks stay for the whole run.
Tracks are pressed into the ground, with a shaded trough and the tread pattern, rather than painted on top of it
The tires sit down in the surface instead of resting on it
A slide, a locked wheel or a hard landing digs deeper and wider
Firm hardpack takes a shallower rut than loose dust
Every mode lays tracks, and a replay lays them again from the start line
A bump used to lift the rover and leave it gliding along with its wheels clear of the regolith, for far longer than the bump deserved. It now settles straight back down, and each wheel follows the ground under it instead of riding at a fixed height on the body.
The suspension reaches for the terrain, so the wheels stay down over crests and through ruts
Braking and hard acceleration tip the body without picking an axle up off the deck
Replays show the same thing: the broadcast and drone cameras watch a rover that is actually driving on the surface
The rover casts its shadow on every stage, not just near the middle of the map
Wheels kick up dust and scuff the ground when they land
Gameplay
Each wheel now throws a puff of dust as it touches down after a jump, a crest or a washboard hop, sized by how hard it lands, and leaves a short dark scuff where the tire bit. A nose-first landing shows the fronts touch down before the rears, and replays show the same landings.
A finished run can now be saved as a video file instead of screen-recorded. Pick the camera it should be shot from, and the replay plays one full pass from the start line while it records — engine, skids and wind included.
Choose from all 15 replay cameras before recording, and watch the shot change as you pick
TRACKSIDE, the broadcast camera beside the line, is now the view a replay opens in
One full pass recorded in real time at 30 fps, so the video is the whole run
Saved as MP4 where your browser can encode it, so it uploads without converting first
DOWNLOAD REPLAY VIDEO sits on the results screen; V opens it from inside a replay
Stage drops, physics changes and daily-challenge results now get posted as they land. The link sits in the site footer, above every Mission Log post, and the cockpit asks once after a finished stage — with a box to never ask again.
Replays play back your real steering, with broadcast and drone cameras
GameplayFixes
A replay now follows the wheel inputs recorded during the run instead of inferring them, so the car you watch drives the line you actually drove. Two new cinematic views watch it: a trackside broadcast camera and a flying drone.
TRACKSIDE plants a camera beside the line ahead of you, holds still as you pass, then cuts to a fresh spot
DRONE flies with the car, sweeping around it and banking into the turns
Both read the rest of the recording, so they frame where you are about to go
Cycle the replay views with C, Shift+C or the CAM button; your pick is remembered
Your driving camera is untouched, and photo mode holds either view perfectly still
26 new Mission Log posts, with FAQs, bylines and share cards
Site
Driving guides, Mars science explainers and engineering write-ups on the tire model, the damage model and the netcode. Every post now carries a visible FAQ, a byline and its own share image.
Stage-count achievements only count stages you can drive
Fixes
Goals that ask you to finish every stage now measure against the stages that are open, not against stages still being charted, so they are completable.
The game ships on HIGH graphics, and AUTO is retired
Performance
Everyone starts on HIGH instead of being benchmarked into a preset at boot. Step down from the quality control in settings if you would rather have the frames — nothing demotes you silently.
Gate posts are solid and checkpoints count at the line
GameplayStagesFixes
Collision was rebuilt so the rover behaves like a real body on the real surface, and a checkpoint counts when you cross the line between its posts rather than when you near it.
The rover collides as an oriented body instead of a disc under its centre
The terrain the physics drives on is exactly the terrain you see
Gate posts are solid, and no longer bury the rover on contact
Leaderboard times were reset once for the new line detection
Race Control v2: a new site design, wordmark and share cards
Site
The website was rebuilt as an official artifact of the championship rather than a landing page — numbered documents, timing-sheet typography and cinematic Martian plates.
New wordmark, favicon and one share-image system across every page
Full-bleed hero panorama and cinematic band backdrops
Honest 404s, and pages that render without JavaScript
The stage workshop grew up: undo, drag gates, sculpt terrain
Level editor
The in-house editor the championship routes are charted in became a tool a stage can actually be authored in, including reshaping the ground under the route. New stages get better because the tool they come out of did.
Per-stage undo and redo
Gates and the spawn point drag; inserting a gate mid-route puts it in the right place
Raise, lower, smooth and flatten brushes for sculpting the base map
A route can be test-driven from any point, leaving the driven line behind as a ghost
Link a Solana wallet and claim your leaderboard runs
SiteFixes
An optional wallet link lets you claim the runs you set, and the leaderboard now verifies submissions on the server. The game still needs no account to play.
Sign in with Solana from the pilot dossier — no email, no password, still optional
Times are validated server-side before they reach the board
A stable device id keeps only your best run per stage instead of every attempt
The website is the menu now, and /play starts driving
SiteGameplay
The game lost its menu screen. The site carries the mode launcher and everything around the driving, so opening the game puts you on a stage instead of in front of a list.
Mode launcher and practice stage picker in the landing hero, with Mission Control below
Garage, pilot dossier and leaderboards moved to the site, on the same saved profile
Stages without an authored route are hidden everywhere rather than advertised
Online multiplayer: invite rooms and a public lobby
MultiplayerPerformance
Up to 8 pilots race the same stage at once, seeing each other live. Create a private room and share the link, or join whoever is already racing in the public lobby.
A training course walks you through throttle, braking, looking around and landing jumps before you are timed on anything. Gears shift sequentially on A and Z.
Real Mars braking distances and flipped-chassis physics
GameplayFixes
The grip model was rebuilt around real Martian constants, so stopping takes roughly three times the distance it would on Earth — about 165 m from 100 km/h.
A longitudinal grip model with honest braking distances under 3.72 m/s gravity
A rover on its roof gets real contact physics: torque and scraping friction
Asymmetric landings rotate the body instead of freezing its attitude
A corrupted personal best no longer blocks new times from saving
Where the record begins: a rover on hand-sculpted Martian terrain, a deterministic physics simulation with fixed substeps and a per-wheel tire model, recorded runs you can replay bit for bit, and a leaderboard to put them on. Everything above is what happened next.