Drift City/Undercity

Undercity, implemented in the US version of Drift City as of v0.11j, is an instance dungeon-like game mode that pits a group of 2 to 4 players against a series of challenges in a heavily teamwork-orientated environment. Undercity can only be initiated by being in a party, and all players must be in the same city and gate to initiate the game mode. In the US version of Drift City, Undercity is available only in Moon Palace, however in Skid Rush, Undercity is available in Koinonia as well.

Undercity takes place in a carbon-copy of the normal "overworld" city, with the exception of no traffic cars. The other predominant difference is that the whole map is in constant darkness, with the sky featuring objects such as moons and large, coloured aurorae. The sky changes in each of Undercity's main "phases" (mentioned below), and serves as an indication of the user's progress through Undercity.

Starting Undercity

After all players have fulfilled the requirements in this article's introduction, one member of the party must find and enter a portal-like object, which is marked on all players' maps as a pink house with the letter "U". This player will receive a prompt, and when he/she confirms the initiation of Undercity, a prompt is sent to all other members of the party, no matter where they are in the city. The game mode begins only when all party members confirm the request.

Undercity Phases

Undercity has four predominant "phases" or "rounds" which the group must complete. The challenges in each round are different, but all require good teamwork between party members to accomplish effectively. It should be noted that upon starting Undercity, the user's in-game chat channel is automatically diverted to party chat.

HUBs

Undercity begins with the user being shown (seemingly live) footage of large, four-footed rocket-shaped robots referred to as HUBs in various locations in the city. The user sees two types of HUBs; blue ones that move, and a stationary red HUB. The user is also shown a jump ramp in close proximity to the red HUB, indicating a link between the ramp and red HUB.

All users are then placed on the map in close proximity (in Moon Palace, it is near the gates to Oros) to one another. They are then informed that their mission is to destroy the HUBs. There is a brief countdown and all players must set about destroying the 100 HUBs. There is no time limit to this round and all HUBs are marked on the user's map.

Blue HUBs

There are 90 blue-coloured HUBs on the map. Blue HUBs oscillate between two intersections of road at approximately 80 to 90MPH. Their movement is regular and predictable, and the user must simply drive into the blue HUB to destroy it.

Red HUBs

10 of the 100 HUBs are special red HUBs. They differ from the blue HUBs because (other than the fact they are distinctly a different colour) they are stationary. In close proximity to each red HUB is a jump ramp. Although the red HUB can be destroyed by driving into it, like the blue HUB, using the ramp to jump and hit the HUB while in mid-air will bring up a message stating that "Boss HUV time has been increased". Jump attacking these red HUBs increases the amount of time the group has to destroy the final Boss HUV at the end of Undercity (details in a following section) and hence it is advised that participants in Undercity destroy the red HUBs in this manner. There is a small tip box under the user's chat box during this "phase" which encourages the user to destroy the red HUBs by jump-attacking.

Boss HUB and Barrier HUBs

Once the group has destroyed all 100 HUBs, they are returned to their original starting position, this time with the mission of destroying the Boss HUB (not to be confused with the Boss HUV, which is coming later) located at the other end of the city, within the time limit of 2 minutes, 20 seconds (for Moon Palace). However, the twist to this seemingly simple task is that the Boss HUB is shielded by a number of Barrier HUBs located at strategic points around the city. The team must destroy all Barrier HUBs and finally the Boss HUB before the time limit is up.

Good teamwork is crucial for success in this "phase", and although the number of Barrier HUBs changes with the number of party members (ranging from 5 HUBs for a party of 2, up to 15 for a 4-person party), a common strategy employed during this round is to have one member of the party (typically the fastest) devoted to the sole task of attacking the Boss HUB. To complicate things further, as the user approaches the Boss HUB, he/she encounters numerous waves of guard bots, which block the main routes to the Boss HUB. Although avoidable to some degree, they cause a dramatic decrease of speed when struck.

If the team does not complete the objective within the time limit, they are returned to the starting point and re-attempt the round with less Barrier HUBs and more time. If the group does not complete the objective after 3 attempts, they cannot receive the parts reward at the end of Undercity.

HUV Chases

After completion of the previous round, the group is immediately thrown into a series of HUV chases. The HUVs spawn in waves of 4, 6, 8 and finally 10 HUVs. Like with normal HUV chases, the user must hunt down and ram the HUV until its HP bar is depleted and the HUV gets destroyed. The time taken to destroy the HUVs resets and increases each round (in a party of 4, you have 3:30, 4:00, 5:00 and 6:00 to destroy each successive wave) and increases with the less people in the party. If all HUVs are not destroyed by each time limit, the next wave will appear anyway, and the group must destroy the new HUVs as well as any HUVs remaining from previous waves.

Boss HUV

After the final wave of HUVs, a Boss HUV will appear at a random location on the map. The Boss HUV can be one of three boss HUVs, unique to Undercity (not the same as the Boss HUVs found in Rush Time). In the US version, the only Boss HUV seen so far (known as the Hover Detacher) periodically deploys large, pellet-like objects with green shields in a pattern across the road, which slows anyone unfortunate enough to strike it. In Skid Rush, there are more Boss HUVs for the user to combat, such as the Double Upset, a vehicle with very large wheels that can almost without warning, flip itself over, reversing its direction of travel, and has the ability to swap the left/right input of the player.

If the time limit for the final wave of standard HUVs expires, the HUVs will periodically sacrifice some of their HP to restoring the HP of the Boss HUV. The more HUVs are remaining, the greater the healing effect. In addition, if the Boss HUV is left undamaged for some time, even with all normal HUVs destroyed, it will slowly regain HP.

An interesting feature of Undercity's Boss HUV fight is the presence of a Battle Zone-like damage bar. In the case of the Hover Detacher, striking the pellets it drops, or contacting the HUV itself while it has a ring of electricity around it will cause this bar to deplete. The bar recovers slowly, and when it depletes fully, the user must "repair" in the same manner as "repairing" in the Battle Zone.

Depending on how many red HUBs were successfully jump attacked during the first "phase" on Undercity, the group will have somewhere between 10 and 16 minutes to destroy the Boss HUV.

Upon success, the user is shown a screen showing his/her party's performance and spoils, then returned to wherever he/she was before they started Undercity.

Rewards

Apart from significant amounts of experience points and mito (the in-game currency), participants in Undercity have the chance of obtaining a part from one of the two Shinoya sets. The Shinoya Alpha and Beta sets differ from normal part sets because they have a special effect of giving additional bonus stats when gathered together.

In addition, there is a chance to gain S and H Mittron Enhancers depending on each user's success in Undercity. In Skid Rush, Liquid Mittron Bottles and Mittron Enhancers are rewarded, as their parts system differs from all other versions of Drift City. Typically the highest reward goes to the user who contributed the most to completing Undercity, highlighted as the "Best Driver".

External Links

Undercity official game guide
Undercity Video (from Skid Rush)