Formula E: High Voltage Beginner’s Guide—Get Started in the Play-to-Earn Racer

Formula E: High Voltage is the first official game for the eco-friendly motorsport, and it’s bootstrapped with play-to-earn functionality. Therefore, winning is important. The more you win, the more tokens you earn.

Launching the game can all be overwhelming—but we’re here to make everything clear. Check out our full review, and then read below to get started and pick up a few tips.

First things first: head over to the official site and click “connect wallet,” then follow the on-screen instructions and hit play. After receiving your two starter drivers and cars, you’ll need to load up some REVV tokens; then you’re ready to play.

How to win the race

When entering a race, your drivers will automatically drive qualification races for you. Where you place in qualification dictates where you start the race, and pole position will grant you bonus points if racing in a battle league.

Once the race has begun, you have three ways to influence your drivers. You must use these tools to overtake your opponents while managing your car’s battery—if you run out of battery juice, you’ll slow down significantly.

You have three driving modes, ranging from safe to aggressive. This will influence the speed of your drivers, as well as how much battery is consumed. Generally, you want to maximize the amount of time you spend in the aggressive driving mode.

If your battery is running low, you can choose to regenerate your battery. This will slow down your driver, so you need to be tactical when you use this ability.

Finally, there is an “attack” mode. On each course, attack zones are marked on the ground with green or red arrows on the map view. If you activate attack mode before entering one of these zones, you will earn a boost that you can deploy anytime. By entering an attack mode, you will take the corner less tightly and may get overtaken by those not attempting to get the boost. As a result, you’ll have to make a tactical decision on whether the boost is worth it or not.

It’s important to note that each race requires a minimum number of attack zones entered; otherwise, you will be penalized. Two points are taken away from players who finish without fulfilling this requirement. One point is taken away from drivers that fail to deploy the speed boost provided by attack mode.

You must use your driving modes, strategically regenerate your battery, and enter the attack mode to climb the rankings and place as highly as possible.

Battle leagues explained

While you can practice against bots for free, the real fun begins in the battle leagues. These require you to spend 25 REVV (about $0.29 at present) to enter, and you’ll receive a cut of the prize pool depending on where you finish.

After paying your entry fee, you’ll race against 20 bots. You earn points based on where you finish in the race, with first place getting 21 points, second place getting 20 points, and so on. You earn two additional points by achieving pole position and recording the fastest lap of the race.

Bear in mind, however, that points will be taken away if you fail to enter the minimum amount of attack zones. When you finish the race, you can hover over your drivers to see how they earned the points they have. The most points you can earn in a battle league is 45.

Your points are then measured up against the others in your battle league. The top six in the battle league will receive a percentage of the prize pool, made up from everyone’s entry fees. The top place will receive 40% of the haul, second place 19%, and sixth only 5%.

We played three battle leagues, finishing first, second, and third respectively. In total, we won about 136 REVV tokens—$1.60 worth at the token’s current price.

Drivers and cars explained

You’re given two random drivers and cars when first playing the game. Each driver and car will have unique stats for considerations like cornering, energy management, and top speed. Each stat is tallied to create your team score.

Each driver and car also has a unique ability. These abilities are triggered by weather conditions or overtaking an opponent.

For example, one of our vehicles will partly restore its battery after overtaking an opponent, as long as it is during sunny weather. As a result, we should strategically aim to enter races with sunny weather condition as it will give us an advantage.

If you aren’t happy with your racer and drivers, then you can purchase crates through the shop. A team crate includes two drivers and two car cards for $19 (or 1,300 REVV), while a solo crate includes one random card for $5 (or 350 REVV). 

When opening these crates, you’re able to unlock characters that are common, rare, epic, or legendary; the starter cards are all common. Epic and legendary cards are based on official Formula E teams such as Envision Racing and Jaguar TCS, while the common and rare cards are based on faceless fantasy teams such as Attack Mode and Shockwave.

By purchasing these crates, you also unlock the synergy buff which will give your team extra attributes if they’re from the same team.

Once you understand the core mechanics of the game, Formula E: High Voltage is fairly simple. You just have to manage your battery while driving as fast as possible. But the depth in gameplay comes from knowing when to utilize the weapons in your arsenal.

Having a good team of drivers and cars will help you finish higher in the race, but really it’s all down to how well you manage your team. Good luck out there.

Edited by Andrew Hayward