Crash Team Racing Reserves/Speed Technical Analysis
Channel: Mario
Date: 2020-06-29

Ever wonder exactly how much reserves you get from a drift boost, or how fast the different fire levels are? This is a detailed look at the technical aspects of CTR: Nitro-Fueled's gameplay. Watch the video for all the answers, or check down in this description for easy reference!

This video was partly inspired by TheRedhotbr's video on the same subject for the original CTR:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llgZdOUhBX0

All testing was done on the Switch version of the game, version 1.0.15 (the update that added dev times and changed collision).

 All questions and answers (reserves are listed in seconds and speed is a percentage increase over your normal (base) speed):

1. How much reserves does a drift boost give you?
For non-drift classes, 0.405s (minimum boost) to 1.77s (maximum boost). For drift, 0.458s to 1.867s. There are 15 frames on which you can boost. The equation for non-drift is R = 0.105x + 0.3, and drift is R = 0.10833x + 0.35 (where R is reserves gained in seconds, and x is the frame on which you boost).

2. Should you do more small boosts, or fewer big ones?
Always do fewer, larger boosts and boost when the meter is as high as possible! This gets you the most reserves.

3. How much reserves do you get from jump boosts?
For a jump of 66-146 (on the classic speedometer-style boost gauge), you get 1.1s of reserves. 150 or above gives 1.43s.

4. How much reserves do you get from turbo pads?
Every track is different, and even pads within the same track give different amounts of reserves. They generally range from 0.5-1.5s.

5. How do turbo strips affect reserves?
The long blue turbo pads on Electron Avenue and the blue tunnel in N. Gin Labs are turbo "strips". While you're touching them, your reserves stop going down.

6. Does u-turning or going off-road affect reserves?
Both will slow you down, but don't affect your reserves. Reserves always go down at a constant rate.

7. What speed does drift-boosting give you?
+17.7% for one boost, +20.7% for two, and +23.7% for three.

8. What speed do turbo pads give you?
Yellow fire pads are all +33% speed. Blue fire speed is different on every track and many tracks have multiple levels of blue fire. The typical range is +40% to +80%.

9. What speed and reserves do items give you?
The unjuiced turbo gives 2.9s of reserves and +22% speed. The juiced turbo gives 2.9s of reserves and +32% speed. The super engine (normally) doesn't give reserves, but instead stops your reserves from dropping while it's active. The unjuiced one lasts for 8 seconds and gives +19% speed, and the juiced one lasts 11 seconds and gives +37% speed.

10. What speed and reserves do start boosts give you?
For one rev, +1% and 0.87s, two revs +2% and 1.17s, and three revs +3% and 1.57s.

11. Does revving a lot at the start make any difference?
Nope, all that matters is how high the boost gauge is when the light turns green (only three revs are needed).

12. What speed do you get from jump boosts?
Approximately +16% for the minimum jump boost (66) up to about +26% for 186 or above. Equation: speed(%) = ((jump - 66) * 0.08333) + 16

13. How much faster is it to have 10 wumpa fruit?
1% faster. Also, you must have all 10, you don't go any faster if you have 1-9 wumpa fruit.

14. Is time trial speed equivalent to having 10 wumpa fruit?
No, speed in time trials is as if you had no wumpa fruit.

15: How much slower is it to not hold the gas button?
As long as you have reserves, you go 1% slower when not holding the gas.