How to Make Money Fast in Need for Speed Heat
Check out our guide on making bank quickly and easily in Need for Speed: Heat.
Need for Speed: Heat has two primary currencies: your reputation, and money, referred to by the game as “Bank”. And while gaining the latter in particular is never easy, we’ve got a surefire way to farm you a lot of money - at least $75,000 - in about ten minutes.
What You’ll Need to Make Money in Need for Speed: Heat
This method requires only that you get to the rather early point in the game where races with a challenge rating of 220 open up. Don’t worry about being underleveled here: our car was only ranked 213 and still won with no difficulty whatsoever.
Once these races open up, take whatever car you own that has the best emphasis for on-road race performance. It is possible to win without this, but it’ll be a lot easier with that kind of build. Luckily, most of the early vehicle upgrades focus in this direction, and even if you do have a car built more for off-road drifting, we recommend splashing out on the necessary modifications. They’ll all be paid back momentarily.
Where to Go Next
Once you have a car you feel comfortable with, simply go to the abandoned race track right behind Lucas’ Garage. You’ll be looking for a daytime sanctioned race named The Resort’s Circuit, one of the few racetracks in the game that actually looks like a race track. Sign up for the race and call your bank to tell them to get ready. The prize should be a touch over $25,000 dollars, a significant prize for anybody.
Racing In the Resort’s Circuit
Once you’re in the race, there’s only two things you need to do as you race around in circles.
Firstly, use slipstream to your advantage. We found that the race almost immediately splits into two halves each time we played, five racers in front and the rest lagging behind. Get behind the first half quickly and their slipstream will keep you close if you ever find yourself falling behind.
That shouldn’t happen though, because of the second thing you’ll be doing: Hug the inside of the track as much as possible. It’s amazing how all these professional NPC racers seem to forget this obvious point, but nonetheless they keep weaving back and forth with no reason to do so.
Don’t make the same mistake; keep on the inside lane and you’ll be amazed how much distance you’ll put behind them. You don’t even need to take any risks here, the turns are wide enough that you don’t have to drift and there’s enough space given to squeeze past any cars that might be in your way. Even underleveled, we kept comfortably in first place each time. Make it to first place and you’ll get your money, all for less than two and a half minutes of minor effort.
How to Farm for Money
Now that you know how to win, simply sign up for the race again! The prize money will go down by $5,000 each time you sign up, but it the ease of victory still makes it worth it until it caps at just $5,000 a race.
Don’t worry, you haven’t exhausted that source of income. Simply go back to Lucas’ Garage, have a nap and come back the next day. You should find that the race’s value has increased back again, meaning that you can earn all that money a second time.
Now that you're feeling wealthy, why not take a look at our guide on the fastest cars in the game so you know what to spend on? Or if you want to know how to take care of them, why not take a look at our guide on car repair? Alternatively, check out our step-by-step process on how to join and create your own online crews so you can share this advice with others!