How to Play Daily Dirt Rally
Everything a new driver needs: the controls, the set of three races and its points, why a lap sometimes refuses to count, and what actually gets a set onto the daily leaderboard.
Daily Dirt Rally is a top-down racer that runs entirely in your browser. There is nothing to install and no account to create. At each midnight rollover the server builds three new tracks from the calendar date, and everyone driving on that date gets the identical three. A visit is a set of three races against up to seven other drivers, human or computer, with points for every finishing place. You are not racing the tracks so much as racing everyone else who drove them today.
Controls
The game reads the arrow keys and WASD identically — use whichever your hands prefer. Nitro is on the space bar.
| Key | Action | What it actually does |
|---|---|---|
| W ↑ | Accelerate | Adds thrust along the truck’s nose. Thrust falls off as you approach top speed, so the last 20 km/h takes noticeably longer to find than the first. |
| S ↓ | Brake, then reverse | While you are moving forwards this is a hard brake. Once you are near stationary the same key backs you up at about 30% of forward speed. |
| A ← | Steer left | Rotates the truck. Turn rate scales with your current speed — see the cornering guide. |
| D → | Steer right | As above, mirrored. |
| Space | Nitro | Spends one stored canister for a three-second boost. Full details in the nitro guide. |
On a touch screen the race shows on-screen buttons; turn the phone sideways. Anywhere on the lower part of the left side of the screen steers, left or right of the middle of the two arrows. On the right, gas sits in the corner with brake to its left and N2O above it: the lower part of the right side is gas or brake, whichever is nearer, and N2O answers on its own button. A thumb keeps its button until you lift it or slide it onto another, and touching N2O fires a boost without letting go of the gas. The top quarter of the screen and a strip down the middle do nothing.
The race format
Every race is two laps of its circuit. A countdown of three seconds runs before the lights go green; your controls are locked until it clears, so there is no advantage in mashing the accelerator early. For those three seconds a red arrow bobs over your own truck, so you can pick yourself out on a grid of eight.
Each track has one checkpoint besides the start/finish line, at the halfway point of the lap measured along the road. You must pass it on a lap before crossing the finish line will count that lap. The checkpoint is a whole tile of road, so it is hard to miss, but if you cross the line and the lap counter does not move, that is why, and it is not a bug: the truck turned back before reaching it, or went past it off the road.
The top of the screen shows your lap counter (LAP 0/2 at the start) and your checkpoint progress for the current lap. If the checkpoint count is lower than the total when you reach the finish line, keep driving — the lap will not register, and you will need to complete the missing section before the line counts again.
Left of the lap counter is your place in the race as it runs: P3/8 is third of eight. It flashes when it changes, and when you pass someone +1 PLACE! pops up under it; losing a place only changes the number. On the right, under the lap, total and best-lap clocks, each lap you finish shows its time to a tenth of a second and, from the second lap, how much faster or slower it was than the lap before: green for faster, red for slower.
A set of three races
GO RACE and Play with friends both run a set: three races in a row, on three different tracks, with the same eight drivers in the same truck colours all the way through. Race 1 is the track the front page shows; races 2 and 3 are made from the date the same way, so everyone gets the same three. Each race scores points by finishing place: 10, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0 for first to eighth.
A race ends when every human driver has finished, or 30 seconds after the first truck crosses the line, whichever comes first: from that first finish, RACE ENDS IN 30 under the lap counter counts down the time left. Anyone still driving then is placed behind the finishers by how far round they got. When you finish, the race keeps running behind a banner with your place until it ends, so keep an eye on the others.
A rookie set, your first, is gentler. It starts at once, when you press CONTINUE on the controls picture, with no wait for other drivers. A rookie race waits for you, up to two minutes after the winner, as a safety net for a tab left idle, and it ends as soon as you have finished. RACE ENDS IN shows only for the last 30 seconds of that wait.
After races 1 and 2 you see the standings: every driver’s total points, beside the place and points each earned in the race just run. If the platform you are playing on shows an ad, it comes first (a rookie set has none after race 1). The standings then count down five seconds into the next race, for everyone together, with a READY button: when every human driver still connected has pressed it, the next race starts at once. READY never cuts an ad short. Races 2 and 3 line the grid up by the standings, so the leader starts at the front.
After race 3, Final Standings shows each driver’s points from every race, the total, and the total time. In a GO RACE set it has a button to enter your name on the leaderboard, with PLAY AGAIN and MAIN MENU under it. The scoring guide has the details.
A driver who leaves, or whose connection drops, keeps their truck in the set: the computer drives it to the end and it keeps scoring under that name. A dropped connection gets the truck and the points back when the game reconnects. Nobody joins a set once it is under way.
Staying on the track
The dirt is edged with green, and the green edge is a wall: drive into it and the truck stops against it or scrapes along it, so a line across a corner is never a shortcut. The edge is decided against a grid cut from the same artwork you can see: each tile is divided into 16×16 cells, about 22 units across, and a cell is open if its centre is on the brown. So the wall stands where the brown surface meets the green, give or take one cell. Off the road altogether, which seldom happens, your speed ceiling drops to 60% of normal — from 450 units down to 270 — and the boost is suppressed, so a canister lit there does nothing until you are back.
You do not spin, and you are not left stuck. After about three seconds pinned against a wall or another truck with the gas held, or two seconds off the road, you are put back on the road, facing along the track, and your truck is see-through for a second so nobody hits you while you get going. Drive against the track for a second and a half and the screen says WRONG WAY, with an arrow pointing the way to go.
Nitro in one paragraph
Every race starts with one canister already in hand, so your first boost needs no pickup: the screen says N2O! at GO. Green canisters sit on the track surface — up to ten are scattered around the lap. Drive over one to bank it. You can hold a maximum of three at a time, and each one you spend ramps your top speed from 450 up to a peak of 900 and back down again over three seconds. Spending them well is most of the difference between a decent time and a good one; the nitro timing guide covers where on a lap they pay for themselves.
Upgrades
Three more pickups on the track, shared by everyone in the race, make your truck grip better, accelerate harder and go faster for the rest of the set. See the upgrades guide.
Getting onto the leaderboard
Finish a GO RACE set and Final Standings offers you a button to enter your name. Your name, your points and your total time go on today’s board, which ranks sets by most points first, then the lower total time. Only GO RACE sets go on the board. Play with friends sets do not count, which makes a private lobby a safe place to practise. Your first GO RACE set is a rookie set, against easy drivers only: it is not ranked and does not go on the board, and Final Standings offers PLAY AGAIN TO MAKE THE LEADERBOARD: your next set counts.
The front page shows the ten best sets of the day plus yesterday’s champion. The leaderboard is keyed to the track date, so it clears when the tracks do — every midnight everyone starts level again.
A set goes on the board once, and names are not reserved, so every set you enter is its own entry. See scoring and fair play for exactly how results are recorded.
A sensible first session
- Open Play. On your first visit the game opens on the controls picture: a race, the controls for your device and the three-race tournament, with CONTINUE under it. CONTINUE starts a rookie race at once. To practise first, press the small MENU link under it: MENU opens the start screen, where Play with friends is. Start a lobby there on your own and drive the first lap without touching nitro, collecting the canisters you pass. Nothing there counts, so you can learn where the corners are and where the canisters sit on this particular layout.
- On the second lap, spend your boosts on the longest straights you found. When you cross the line the clocks show the lap’s time against the first.
- Now press GO RACE and play a real set (the controls picture shows once more, and CONTINUE starts the race). Unless you have already finished a set with friends, your first one is a rookie set and does not go on the board, so use it to learn; your first competitive set comes right after, and the day’s three tracks never change underneath you.
Up to eight drivers share a race: GO RACE matches you with whoever else is starting one, and a private lobby’s six-character invite code brings your friends in. Empty seats are filled with AI. That is covered in the multiplayer guide.