2021 Lunar New Year Update

The 2021 Lunar New Year Update is the 46th update of Asphalt 8: Airborne.
==Announcement==
A brand-new update is charging your way, with a fresh festival and new challenges to enjoy!
THE LUNAR FESTIVAL
Celebrate the Year of the Ox by plowing full-speed ahead in the gorgeous new BXR Bailey Blade GT1 Special Edition! And there's plenty more in store, so be sure to keep an eye out for other exciting prizes and surprises before this party's over.
NEW MODE: SPEED TRIALS
Looking for instant multiplayer action? Then look no further than Speed Trials! You'll jump inside a random race car and go head-to-head with other players. It's the fastest way to try out new cars. No upgrades, no planning, just a pure test of skill!
GET WHAT'S COMING TO YOU!
Race in Speed Trials every day to earn an avalanche of amazing rewards!
==New Vehicles==
* Class D
**Italdesign DaVinci
* Class B
**Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo
**Ferrari 599XX Evo
*Class A
**Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta
*Class S
**BXR Bailey Blade GT1 Special Edition
The new cars will need the following cards:
==Game Changes==
===Gameplay Changes===
* New game mode: Speed Trials
* Car Packs have been removed.
** This means that several vehicles are now unobtainable. This includes all motorcycles ranked higher than the Ducati Monster 1200, at C1422. Nine motorcycles were exclusively obtainable from Car Packs before this update. Four motorcycles are still available for sale in the Garage; the Suzuki GSX-R750, Kawasaki Z800, KTM 1290 Super Duke R and the aforementioned Ducati Monster 1200. One additional motorcycle is event-exclusive; the Dodge Tomahawk, and another motorcycle has been permanently removed from the game for non-owners over two years ago; the Aprilia Tuono V4 1100 RR my2017.
** This means that several decals are now unobtainable. This includes fifty-three decals that are exclusive to the Garage Kingpin Decal Pack (GKDP) (six of them were also obtainable from the Top Contender Decal Pack, which was a cheaper alternative decal pack that provided much fewer decals). Many of these decals were common for other cars but exclusive to the GKDP for certain cars (such as camos and simple stripes), however, there were also many decals that were very rare, thirty-four of them to be exact (so, nineteen exclusive decals were common for other cars).
**Note: In the splash screen upon loading the game, the periodical tip advising players to purchase exclusive cars from Car Packs has now been replaced by a similar tip advising players to purchase exclusive cars from Offers.
* Inventory capacity is increased by 100 slots.
* Vehicle-specific cards for the Nissan Leaf NISMO RC, BMW M4 GTS, Aston Martin Valhalla and Bugatti Divo are now available for Wild Card (Optimal, Superb) conversion.
* rewards from 7-Day Milestone Advertisements have been reduced from to in total per week.
* Fusing cards of , and rarity (Wild Cards and Vehicle-Specific Kit Cards) now provides ten times fewer . Pro Kit Cards have the same sale value like before. Overview of sale values in the table to the right.
* thumb|The "Fully Armed" achievement before the 2021 Lunar New Year Updatethumb|The "Fully Armed" achievement after the 2021 Lunar New Year UpdateThe achievement "Fully Armed", which was a feature of the game since its initial release, was modified upon the launch of the update. Originally, it required players to "fully upgrade all the vehicles". However, the definition of the achievement became unclear when more cars (and motorcycles) were added to the game in successive updates and, especially, when some of the original cars in the game were removed for non-owners due to licensing issues. Due to complaints from players (on the Gameloft Forums and elsewhere) about the nature of this achievement and whether it was achievable for new players, the achievement was changed to require players to "fully upgrade 100 vehicles", applying to any vehicles that the player might own.https://forum.gameloft.com/viewtopic.php?f=1505&t=711596&p=4117932#p4117932https://forum.gameloft.com/viewtopic.php?f=1505&t=708964&start=40
*Gauntlet upgrade deals have been removed from the Offers section as of mid-March, 2021. The vehicle deals are still present.
*Since March 29, there is now a US $10 offer in the Offers section for 30-day boosters (one of each of the 30-day Nitro Starter, Tuning Kit and Extra Tank).
**This offer has allegedly existed on certain platforms prior to now, though it is new for Windows PC players.
==== Festivals ====
List of changes:
*Kit Cards in Offers: Starting from the Exotic Rides W70's Festival, which began towards the end of the 2020 Christmas Update and ended at the beginning of this update, it is now possible to purchase kit cards for new Festival cars directly from the Offers section (once you own the car) with no purchase limits. This means that players can almost immediately acquire all of the kit cards for new Festival cars without even participating in their Festivals and in their Festival kits/coins cups.
*Lack of Kit Cards in Standard Rewards: Kit Cards have not been rewarded in the Standard Rewards (aside from compensation rewards) in every Festival after the BXR Bailey Blade GT1 Special Edition Festival. This includes:
**Exotic Rides W70 Festival (immediately preceding the BXR Bailey Blade GT1 Special Edition Festival)
**Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta Festival
**McLaren Festival
**Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo Festival
**Italdesign DaVinci Festival
*BXR Bailey Blade GT1 Special Edition Festival: The BXR Bailey Blade GT1 Special Edition's Festival has been marketed as the 2021 Lunar (New Year) Festival. It features the Bailey Blade GT1 SE as the main Festival car, themed with Year of the Ox livery, colours and accessories. Bonus cars featured in the Festival include all of the old Lunar New Year "Special Edition" cars, including the Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG Special Edition, Audi R8 e-tron Special Edition, TVR Sagaris Special Edition and Infiniti Project Black S Special Edition.
**The SLK 55 AMG SE, R8 e-tron SE and Sagaris SE are all Legacy cars that have + upgrades, making them useful even without any upgrades (aside from the SLK 55 AMG SE). The Project Black S SE, like the Bailey Blade GT1 SE, is a Festival vehicle with good performance at full- but bad performance when partially upgraded. The SLK 55 AMG SE is useless in the present day, due to its poor acceleration, handling, drifting and nitro efficiency, although it was formerly extremely overpowered in the past due to its extremely high speed in the past, which has since been nerfed drastically. The R8 e-tron SE (or "AR8SE") is highly sought after due to its dominance in Multiplayer League at ranks ranging from B1200 to its final rank of B1672, and prior to this Festival, it was not available for purchase outside of sales (the last sale occurred from January 3–7, 2021). The Sagaris SE is very powerful as a mid-Class A car with a unique rank, though it is not as overpowered as the R8 e-tron SE since it isn't so powerful at lower tunes.
**The premium pass for this Festival costs US $10, and there is no option available. According to Gameloft, this is because several of the cars in this Festival have high prices in Tokens when they are temporarily on sale. None of the cars in this Festival have ever been placed permanently on sale, though the SLK 55 AMG SE and R8 e-tron SE were both formerly Blueprint vehicles.
*Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta Festival: The Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta's Festival features five cars, including the LaFerrari Aperta itself, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale, Ferrari F50, Ferrari FXX K and Ferrari 488 Pista.
**The SF90 Stradale and FXX K are both older Festival vehicles with good performance at full- but bad performance when partially upgraded. The 488 Pista has always been a decent car ever since it debuted in the game, and now that it has been buffed in late-2020, it is now an overpowered car comparable to well-known Class S kings like the Lamborghini Centenario and Koenigsegg Jesko. The 488 Pista and F50 are both Legacy cars that have + upgrades, making them useful even without any upgrades. The F50 was buffed in this update to have overpowered performance relative to similarly ranked cars within mid-Class C, though it is not the best possible choice at the moment since the Renault Trezor, ED Design Torq and Audi R8 e-tron Special Edition seem to still be superior at the same ranks in Multiplayer League.
**The F50 is available for free at standard Tier 13 in this Festival, whereas the LaFerrari Aperta itself is only available at premium Tier 8. There is no compensation if the player already owns the F50. The premium pass in this Festival costs either US $15 or .
*Pay-to-Play Festivals: The Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta is the second Festival vehicle to only be available as a premium reward in its own Festival, the first being the Dodge Tomahawk (which was shipped alongside the Morgan Aero GT, which itself was available as a standard reward in the 2020 Halloween Festival). The LaFerrari Aparta is unlocked at premium Tier 8 whereas the Tomahawk was unlocked at premium Tier 1 in its own Festival.
**Previously, the Koenigsegg Jesko and Koenigsegg Agera RS were both available as standard rewards at Tier 25 within their debut Festivals (the 2019 Winter Festival and Koenigsegg Agera RS Festival, respectively), which is equivalent to premium since it is impossible to reach Tier 25 without paying real money. The Lotus Elise Cup 260 was shipped alongside the Jesko in its debut Festival, unlocked at standard Tier 11.
**The Exotic Rides W70 was available as a standard reward at Tier 15 in its Festival, though it was impossible to acquire kit cards for the W70 without purchasing the premium pass. The W70 was available "early" at premium Tier 1 in its Festival.
***The same is true for the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo in its Festival.
**The 2018 McLaren X2 was available at standard Tier 25 in the 2018 McLaren X2 Festival, similarly to the Jesko and Agera RS, though the car is actually a Legacy car that was previously available by various means, including a Championship.
*Legacy Festivals: The Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta's Festival is the second Festival to feature an old car (i.e. a car that has already debuted during a previous update) within the standard rewards, the first being the 2018 McLaren X2's Festival. The old car that is available as a standard reward in the LaFerrari Aperta's Festival is the Ferrari F50, at standard Tier 13.
**Some players have jokingly referred to this Festival as the "Ferrari F50 Festival" since the LaFerrari Aperta itself is only available as a premium reward, at premium Tier 8.
*Fuel costs for Festival TLEs: The Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta's Festival kits/coins cups only require 1 fuel point rather than 4, allowing players to reattempt the cups more frequently.
**This also applies to the McLaren Festival, Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo Festival and Italdesign DaVinci Festival, so far.
*McLaren Festival: The McLaren Festival includes the reappearances of five old "Legacy" cars, all of which were McLaren F1 cars that were previously available via Championships and various other means. All five cars were originally -only (with ten levels), requiring racing engines to be fully-PROed, and they were subsequently converted into Festival cars in the Fifteenth Anniversary Update. The 2018 McLaren X2 was already given its own solo Festival in late-2020, the 2018 McLaren X2 Festival, with various other Festival cars used as bonus vehicles.
**All cars that are rewarded in the McLaren Festival can only be obtained by purchasing the Premium Pass with real money (there is no option available); the cost is US $15. Even then, the Kit Cards provided for the five cars are minimal, with the first four receiving twenty each and the last one (the X2) receiving zero kit cards. If players already own the cars, they are provided with ten kit cards for each car as compensation, so the maximum number obtainable are thirty for each of the first four cars and ten for the last one.
**The Festival TLEs for the McLaren Festival are exclusively , with no Festival Kits Cups rewarding McLaren Kit Cards available, though there is a Superb Wild Cards Festival Kits Cup at the end of the Festival. This further limits the number of relevant kit cards that can be obtained via the McLaren Festival. Wild Cards are also rewarded in this Festival, though no or Tokens are rewarded in the McLaren Festival, as has been the case for the past few Festivals.
**Remarks: The McLaren Festival has been hailed by many as the worst Festival in Asphalt 8: Airborne's history, thus far. The McLaren Festival is generally useless for the vast majority of players since those who don't already own the five Legacy cars that are rewarded in the McLaren Festival will find it very challenging to overpower the numerous players who do already own these cars in the McLaren Festival TLEs, with many players already owning these cars at full-PRO. The kit cards rewarded in the McLaren Festival and the McLaren Festival TLEs are nowhere near enough to upgrade these cars to a competitive level, though additional kit cards are available for sale in Offers, so the most viable option available (for wealthier players) is to just purchase all of the kit cards directly from Offers with real money. The standard rewards in the McLaren Festival are generally not very useful, albeit not completely useless either, consisting of just parts cards, engines and tech cards of the four highest rarities (i.e. excluding the common-rarity cards), as well as one of each type of Wild Card. The rewards are only mildly worth going after if the player already owns the relevant cars at full-PRO. 
*Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo Festival: The Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo Festival features four Legacy cars in addition to the newly-added Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo itself. Among these are the Ferrari LaFerrari, Ferrari Enzo Ferrari, Ferrari F60 America and Ferrari 812 Superfast. This Festival features more Legacy cars with + upgrades than any other Festival to date, with four in total.
**The F60 America and the 812 Superfast are both relatively recent additions to the game from 2019, with good performance by default. Meanwhile, the LaFerrari and Enzo Ferrari are both relatively early additions to the game, both of which had relatively poor performance until they were buffed on March 5, 2021. This marks the first Festival that has featured more than one recently-buffed car. This Festival also marks the latest reappearance of the unpurchaseable Enzo Ferrari, which was last purchaseable on September 9, 2020, during a temporary sale.
**This Festival features the most Festival TLEs of any Festival to date, with nine in total. Though, the last one is a Prime Wild Cards Festival Kits Cup, and it isn't relevant to the 488 Challenge Evo itself. The 488 Challenge Evo is available from its Festival both at premium Tier 1 and standard Tier 15, exactly like the Exotic Rides W70 in its own Festival. No compensation is provided if the player already owns the LaFerrari and Enzo Ferrari. It is likely that a compensation of kit cards for the 488 Challenge Evo is provided as compensation at standard Tier 15 if the premium pass has been purchased. The premium pass can be purchased for US $15, and there is no option available.
**Remarks: The 488 Challenge Evo Festival is decent if the player is willing to spend real money on it. Progressing through the 488 Challenge Evo Festival is cheaper and easier than progressing through the preceding McLaren Festival, with a higher payout as well. All of the cars rewarded in the Festival are useful, and every car aside from the 488 Challenge Evo itself has MAX+PRO upgrades, making them useful even without any upgrades.
*Brand-themed Festivals: The Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta Festival, McLaren Festival and Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo Festival are the first ever purely brand-themed Festivals. The Koenigsegg Agera RS Festival was also mildly brand-themed since it featured the Koenigsegg Jesko as a bonus vehicle, though there were also other non-Koenigsegg bonus vehicles as well.
*Italdesign DaVinci Festival: The Italdesign DaVinci Festival features four Festival vehicles (including one motorcycle) in addition to the newly-added Italdesign DaVinci itself. Among these are the Dodge Tomahawk (ULTIMATE motorcycle), Drako GTE, Chevrolet Corvette C7 ZR1 and Lamborghini Sián FKP 37. There are no Legacy cars rewarded in this Festival.
**This Festival marks the first reappearances of the Tomahawk, Drako GTE, Corvette C7 ZR1 and Sián FKP 37 in an in-game event. The Tomahawk has never been placed on sale in the Garage, though it was placed on sale in the Offers section for US $120 in the past. The Drako GTE, Corvette C7 ZR1 and Sián FKP 37 are all currently purchasable in the Garage. The Sián FKP 37 was recently given away to a single player at full- in the Saint Patrick's Day Facebook Contest, as detailed elsewhere in this article.
**This Festival requires for Tier 25 instead of . The number of rewarded from Festival TLEs has increased. The number of provided in Festival Offers has increased, in exchange for fewer and fewer . The premium pass for this Festival costs US $15, and there is no option available.
**Remarks: This Festival is generally not very worthwhile even if one purchases the premium pass since the Drako GTE and Corvette C7 ZR1 are both major barriers to progressing through the Festival if the player doesn't already own both vehicles with substantial levels of upgrades (having the Sián FKP 37 with substantial upgrades is less important). The only worthwhile reason to participate in this Festival, aside from acquiring Kit Cards for the DaVinci itself, is in order to acquire the Dodge Tomahawk, which is being sold for a rather low price in this Festival (this is the lowest price that the Tomahawk has ever been sold at, as of April 2021). The DaVinci can be acquired for free in this Festival, though the player needs to pay money in order to acquire a sufficient number of Kit Cards for the DaVinci from this Festival and its Festival TLEs.
*Changes to Festival Offer Payouts: Starting with the Italdesign DaVinci Festival, Festival Offers now provide more , fewer and fewer . The purchase prices of the offers have remained the same. Gameloft is now marketing these bundles with the slogan "Buy Fusion Coins... ...and get bonus content as a gift!". The additional that have always been provided in these offers are now more prominently advertised.
**First Exponential Offer
***Before = + + (+ )
***After = + + (+ )
**Cheap Daily Offer
***Before = + (+ )
***After = + (+ )
**Note: The same advertising scheme is now being used for the Kit Card Offers and some other various limited-time offers. One other such offer is the "Special Currency Bundle" that was on sale in early-March, which advertised Fusion Coins (alongside VIP Points) as the main reward and Credits as a bonus reward.
*Increased Festival Coin Requirements and Payouts: The Italdesign DaVinci Festival has introduced a new and Festival Quests scheme wherein are required to reach Tier 25, an increase of compared to the previous standard amount of . To somewhat compensate for this, Festival Quests now seem to be more numerous; for example, some days now have multiple Gauntlet-themed quests, whereas there was previously only one Gauntlet-themed quest per day. Additionally, (TLEs) now reward substantially more than they did previously (roughly 100 more). Also, as seen in the above section, Festival Offers now provide additional Festival Coins.
==== Vehicles ====
===== Launch =====
* Eight cars had their final ranks reshuffled to approximately D1230, nearby to the Mazda Furai. Two of the cars were originally higher up in Class D, five of the cars were originally in Class C and one of the cars was originally in Class A. All of the cars retained the same stock ranks that they had previously, aside from the Chevrolet Corvette C3, which was converted to status.
**BMW M3 Sedan
*** + rank decreased from to 
***Fully upgraded top speed decreased from 314.2 km/h to 292.0 km/h 
***Fully upgraded nitro speed decreased from 35.4 km/h to 32.5 km/h
***Fully upgraded acceleration has been improved
***Drift radius has been adjusted
***New price: 
***Nitro efficiency changed from 10/15/20 to 5.5/9.5/13
**BMW M1
*** + rank decreased from to 
***Fully upgraded top speed decreased from 342.9 km/h to 292.2 km/h 
***Fully upgraded nitro speed decreased from 36.9 km/h to 32.5 km/h
***Fully upgraded acceleration has been improved
***Drift radius has been adjusted
***New price: 
***Nitro efficiency changed from 10/15/20 to 6/10/13.5
**Infiniti FX50
*** + rank decreased from to 
***Fully upgraded top speed decreased from 334.8 km/h to 292.3 km/h 
***Fully upgraded nitro speed decreased from 36.4 km/h to 32.5 km/h
***Fully upgraded acceleration has been improved
***Drift radius has been adjusted
***New price: 
***Nitro efficiency changed from 6/12/16 to 4.5/8.5/11.5
**Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG
*** + rank decreased from to 
***Fully upgraded top speed decreased from 344.8 km/h to 292.3 km/h 
***Fully upgraded nitro speed decreased from 39.4 km/h to 32.5 km/h
***Fully upgraded acceleration has been improved
***Drift radius has been adjusted
***New price: 
***Nitro efficiency changed from 8/13/18 to 5.5/9.5/13
**Chevrolet Corvette C3
*** + rank decreased from to 
***Fully upgraded top speed decreased from 418.4 km/h to 300.1 km/h 
***Fully upgraded nitro speed decreased from 46.0 km/h to 24.9 km/h
***Fully upgraded acceleration has been improved
***Drift radius has been adjusted
***Converted to status
***New price: 
***Nitro efficiency changed from 6/12/16 to 5.5/9.5/13.5
**Honda S2000
*** + rank decreased from to 
***Fully upgraded top speed decreased from 315.5 km/h to 292.6 km/h 
***Fully upgraded nitro speed decreased from 35.9 km/h to 32.5 km/h
***Fully upgraded acceleration has been improved
***Drift radius has been adjusted
*** New price: 
***Nitro efficiency changed from 5/10/15 to 6.5/10.5/14
**Acura NSX 2005
*** + rank decreased from to 
***Fully upgraded top speed decreased from 344.0 km/h to 292.5 km/h 
***Fully upgraded nitro speed decreased from 37.3 km/h to 32.5 km/h
***Fully upgraded acceleration has been improved
***Drift radius has been adjusted
***New price: 
***Nitro eficiency changed from 9/14/18 to 5.5/9.5/13.5
**Honda Civic Type R
*** + rank decreased from to 
***Fully upgraded top speed decreased from 364.8 km/h to 292.5 km/h 
***Fully upgraded nitro speed decreased from 40.4 km/h to 32.5 km/h
***Fully upgraded acceleration has been improved
***Drift radius has been adjusted
***New price: 
***Nitro efficiency changed from 5/9/12 to 6/10/13.5
**** Note: Upgrade costs were reduced for all of these cars, where applicable (i.e. excluding the Corvette C3).
* The eight aforementioned cars had their performance statistics adjusted in order to improve their competitiveness in Multiplayer. Their real statistics are listed below, alongside the real statistics of other nearby vehicles:
** Note: The Honda Civic Type-R and Honda S2000 both had either some or all of their three nitro efficiency values nerfed, though the S2000's level 3 nitro efficiency was buffed.
Vehicle Brand	Vehicle Model 	Vehicle Type 	Upgrade Status	Vehicle Ranks: Stock, Middle, Final	Final Total Top Speed 	Final Raw Top Speed 	Final Launch Acceleration	
Renault 	CLIO R.S. 200 EDC 	Sport Hatchback 	 	951 • 1098 • 1235 	336.2 km/h • 208.8 mph	303.0 km/h • 188.2 mph	2.4s 	9/13.5/17.5
Nissan 	Leaf Nismo RC 	Electric Racing Hatchback 	 	1013 • N/A • 1232 	335.5 km/h • 208.5 mph	301.9 km/h • 187.6 mph	2.5s 	7/10/13.5
Honda 	Civic Type-R 	Sport Hatchback 	 	1096 • 1168 • 1230 	334.7 km/h • 207.9 mph	301.2 km/h • 187.1 mph	2.5s 	6/10/13.5
Honda 	S2000 	Sport Softtop Convertible 	 	1026 • 1133 • 1230 	334.9 km/h • 208.0 mph	301.4 km/h • 187.2 mph	2.5s 	6.5/10.5/14
Mazda 	Furai 	Racing Coupe 	 	1230 • N/A • 1230 	334.9 km/h • 208.0 mph	298.8 km/h • 185.6 mph	2.5s 	7/11/15.5
Acura 	NSX (2005) 	Sport Coupe 	 	1101 • 1170 • 1230 	334.7 km/h • 207.9 mph	301.2 km/h • 187.1 mph	2.5s 	6/9.5/13.5
Chevrolet 	Corvette C3 	Retro Sport Hardtop Convertible 	 	1229 • N/A • 1229 	334.7 km/h • 207.8 mph	309.1 km/h • 191.9 mph	2.4s 	5.5/9.5/13.5
Infiniti 	FX50 	Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) 	 	1085 • 1162 • 1229 	334.6 km/h • 207.8 mph	301.1 km/h • 187.0 mph	2.2s 	4.5/8.5/11.5
Mercedes-Benz	SLK 55 AMG 	Sport Hardtop Convertible 	 	1026 • 1132 • 1229 	334.6 km/h • 207.8 mph	301.1 km/h • 187.0 mph	2.4s 	5.5/9.5/13
BMW 	M1 	Retro Sport Coupe 	 	1069 • 1153 • 1228 	334.3 km/h • 207.7 mph	300.9 km/h • 186.9 mph	2.4s 	6/10/13.5
BMW 	M3 Sedan 	Sport Sedan 	 	1026 • 1132 • 1228 	334.2 km/h • 207.6 mph	300.8 km/h • 186.8 mph	2.4s 	5.5/9.5/13
Mercedes-Benz	SLS AMG Electric Drive	Electric Grand Tourer (Sport Coupe)	 	1026 • 1170 • 1226 	333.6 km/h • 207.1 mph	300.5 km/h • 186.6 mph	4.1s 	7/11.5/16
Kawasaki 	Z800 	Motorcycle 	 	956 • N/A • 1223 	330.1 km/h • 204.9 mph	295.9 km/h • 183.7 mph	2.7s 	6/10.5/15.5
===== February 23 =====
On February 23, the following car has been rebalanced:
*Ferrari F50
** + rank decreased from to 
**Fully upgraded top speed decreased from 389.8 km/h to 357.4 km/h 
**Fully upgraded nitro speed decreased from 42.4 km/h to 39.7 km/h
**Fully upgraded acceleration has been improved
**Drift radius has been adjusted
**Upgrade prices were lowered by roughly 25%, in line with other cars near its new rank. 
**The F50's acceleration was buffed substantially, though its nitro efficiency was either only improved slightly or not at all. Mastery rewards were also reduced to match the F50's new rank classification.
* Note: The F50 is a bonus vehicle in the Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta's Festival.
=====March 5=====
On March 5, the following cars have been rebalanced:
(Note: The changes didn't appear on Windows PC until around March 9.)
*Ferrari LaFerrari: 
** + rank increased from to 
**Fully upgraded top speed increased from 396.9 km/h to 400.5 km/h 
**Fully upgraded nitro speed increased from 43.8 km/h to 44.5 km/h
**Fully upgraded acceleration has been improved
**Drift radius has been adjusted
***The LaFerrari's maximum total top speed was buffed slightly and its acceleration was also buffed slightly. The displayed acceleration was worsened despite the real acceleration being buffed. The displayed handling statistic was also changed slightly with no noticeable real change.
***The upgrade prices for the car have been increased so it can match with the cars in its rank.
***Note1: The LaFerrari has an unusual cosmetic error wherein its white paint option cannot be selected unless a decal that has white paint as an option is equipped. There is no known reason for this issue, especially given that the Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta (which is the open-top version of the LaFerrari) can have white paint selected as normal, so there is clearly no licensing issue at play here. This paint issue has existed for several years.
***Note2: The LaFerrari is a bonus vehicle in the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo's Festival.
*Acura NSX GT3 Evo:
** + rank decreased from to 
**Fully upgraded top speed decreased from 401.6 km/h to 401.1 km/h 
**Fully upgraded acceleration has been improved
**Drift radius has been adjusted
***The NSX GT3 Evo's maximum total top speed was nerfed slightly and its acceleration was nerfed significantly. The displayed acceleration was improved despite the real acceleration being nerfed. The displayed handling statistic was also changed slightly with no noticeable real change.
*Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport:
** + rank decreased from to 
**Fully upgraded top speed decreased from 402.5 km/h to 401.1 km/h 
**Fully upgraded nitro speed decreased from 44.7 km/h to 44.6 km/h
**Fully upgraded acceleration has been improved
**Drift radius has been adjusted
***The 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport's maximum total top speed was nerfed slightly and its acceleration was nerfed significantly. The displayed acceleration was improved despite the real acceleration being nerfed. The displayed handling statistic was also changed slightly with no noticeable real change.
*Ferrari Enzo Ferrari:
** + rank decreased from to 
**Fully upgraded top speed decreased from 427.3 km/h to 421.9 km/h 
**Fully upgraded nitro speed decreased from 47.0 km/h to 46.9 km/h
**Fully upgraded acceleration has been improved
**Drift radius has been adjusted
***The Enzo Ferrari's maximum total top speed was nerfed from high-end Class A to mid-Class A levels, though its acceleration was buffed substantially and its nitro efficiency was also buffed slightly.
***Note1: The Enzo Ferrari is not available for purchase. The reason is that it was originally a Blueprints-buildable car, and when Blueprints were discontinued in late-2019, the Enzo Ferrari never became permanently available for purchase with a currency. Despite this, the Enzo Ferrari was temporarily placed on sale for many times throughout 2020, having last been on sale on September 9, 2020.
***Note2: The Enzo Ferrari is a bonus vehicle in the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo's Festival.
===== Speed Trials =====
At the time of writing, March 18, 2021, the Nissan Leaf Nismo RC (D1232) is now available as an option in Speed Trials at approximately D1230, alongside the nine other cars that were previously already available.
===Technical Changes===
* Since February 9, 2021, Windows players can now watch fifteen Daily Milestone Ads rather than just ten, as has long been standard for other platforms such as IOS and Android.
** Daily Ads had been temporarily removed the day before, on February 8, 2021, likely so that the subsequent fix could be implemented.
* According to the Asphalt 8: Airborne YouTuber "Cars On!", graphics for Windows were improved in this update. The graphics had apparently been worsened several months earlier but have now been restored to their former quality.
*As of around March 15, 2021, it is now impossible to watch the regular Daily Ads alongside Milestone Ads on Windows PC and Android. This was previously possible through a bug. As the game was loading, the Milestone Ads would take a while to appear, whereas the regular Daily Ads would appear briefly before being overridden by the Milestone Ads. So, if the player clicked on the regular Daily Ads before the Milestone Ads appeared, usually during a timeframe of around one second, then they would be able to watch the regular Daily Ads. Later on, they could exit the regular Daily Ads and then subsequently watch the Milestone Ads as well, for a total of thirty (two times fifteen) or twenty (two times ten) ads.
===Cosmetic Changes===
* Upon the launch of the update, there is a new splash loading screen of a BXR Bailey Blade GT1 Special Edition in Patagonia.
* The player's balance is now placed after and before . Previously, the order of their display was: Credits, Tokens, Fusion Coins.
* The newly-added Speed Trials has taken the place of the recently-removed Car Packs in the main menu.
*In the BXR Bailey Blade GT1 Special Edition Festival's associated TLEs, whenever Patagonia was featured, it was reskinned as "Snowy Spring Festival", with a Chinese-style Lunar New Year theme. This map-reskin originally debuted in the 2020 Lunar New Year Update, in conjunction with the Infiniti Project Black S Special Edition Festival.
*Animations are now faster and smoother than before.
5.6	pre 5.6
 	
* The has been redesigned. The 15th Anniversary theme has been replaced by the common design of cards, and the Lamborghini logo has been added.
Current	Previous
 	
* On April 12, billboards that previously advertised Asphalt 9: Legends and Asphalt 8 were replaced to now show "1 billion downloads celebration".
==Exclusive Vehicles==
*February 12 - 18, 2021
**Pontiac Solstice GXP: (8% off)
**Chrysler Firepower: (11% off)
**Honda Integra Type-R: (13% off)
**Lotus Evora Sport 410: (16% off)
**SCG 003S: (17% off)
**Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport: (21% off)
*February 14 - 18, 2021
**1967 Chevrolet Impala: (8% off)
**KTM X-Bow GT4: (9% off)
**Equus Bass 770: (12% off)
**Peugeot SR1: (13% off)
**Vanda Electrics Dendrobium: (20% off)
*February 22 - 28, 2021
**Audi R8 e-tron Special Edition: (52% off)
**Infiniti Project Black S Special Edition: (46% off)
**TVR Sagaris Special Edition: (44% off)
**Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG Special Edition: (40% off)
==Events==
#Lunar Festival (February 12 - 22, 2021)
#Coldsnap 3 Multiplayer Season (February 25 - March 22, 2021)
#Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta Festival (February 26 - March 8, 2021)
#McLaren Festival (March 8 - 18, 2021)
#Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo Festival (March 19 - 29, 2021)
#Spring Fling 5 Multiplayer Season (March 25 - April 4, 2021)
#Italdesign DaVinci Festival (March 29 - April 8, 2021)
#Bloom 3 Multiplayer Season (April 6 - 11, 2021)
#Ferrari 599XX Evo Festival (April 9 - 19, 2021)
==Gifts==
===Valuable Player===
Valuable Player Screen (1 Year) a8.png
Valuable Player reward FC (1 year) a8.png
Valuable Player reward VIP (1 year) a8.png
Valuable Player Screen (2 years) a8.jpg
Valuable Player reward FC (2 years) a8.jpg
Valuable Player Screen (3 years) a8.png
Valuable Player reward FC (3 years) a8.png
Valuable Player reward VIP (3 years) a8.png
* On February 12, 2021, all players were rewarded with and for playing the game. The minimum rewards were and and the maximum rewards were and depending on the number of years that a player has played the game. 
* "Almost 1 year with Asphalt 8... Thanks for your loyalty and involvement!"
**The players who have played the game for a year received:
***
***
* "More than 2 years with Asphalt 8... Thanks for your loyalty and involvement!"
**The players who have played the game for more than two years received:
***
***
* "More than 3 years with Asphalt 8... Thanks for your loyalty and involvement!"
**The players who have played the game for three years or more received:
***
***
Valuable Player compensation 1 a8.png
Valuable Player compensation 2 a8.png
Valuable Player compensation 3 a8.png
Valuable Player compensation 4 a8.png
*On February 15, 2021, all players received a compensation for receiving the Valuable Player gifts without a clear message. It was made clear on the official Discord channel of Asphalt 8: Airborne that the Total Play Time (in hours and minutes) in the game account is the literal time spent in the game, regardless of the date of registration. All gifts were sent based on this data. The compensation included:
**2x 
**2x 
**2x 
**
*Bug: All Windows PC players only received the minimum rewards, regardless of the number of years that they had played the game. IOS players were generally not affected. Android players were variably affected or not affected.
=== Lunar New Year YouTuber Promo Codes ===
Throughout the months of February and March, in celebration of the Lunar New Year, several YouTubers posted single-use promo codes in their YouTube video descriptions that could be used to acquire rewards in-game by an infinite number of players over a limited time period. Each of the rewards provided by the promo codes consisted of either:
# 1x + 1x + 1x + 1x 
# + https://forum.gameloft.com/viewtopic.php?f=1505&t=711388
The promo codes were not accessible by all Windows PC players, and these players did not receive any compensation for the lost rewards. The rewards were only available for players using the platforms IOS or Android.
The YouTubers involved in the promotion included Aguila Negra, Asphalt89, Cars On!, RpM Darua, Super G. Black and tsssssststststs[sic].
=== Saint Patrick's Day Facebook Contest ===
On the official "Asphalt" page on Facebook, Gameloft held a global contest for Saint Patrick's Day (an Irish public holiday) from March 17 (11:00AM GMT) to March 21 (11:59 PM GMT).https://www.facebook.com/AsphaltGame/posts/5294019094001725 The contest involved players sharing an in-game screenshot of any car that they owned with green paint applied, and only a single reward was given to the winner of the contest, consisting of a full- Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 (S1861), valued by Gameloft at approximately US $2054. The winner was determined by random selection. Each player could only make one entry. In order to enter, players had to follow the Asphalt Facebook page if they hadn't done so already, "like" the Facebook Contest post on the Asphalt Facebook page and post their submission in the comments section of the post with the hashtag "#A8Contest". Gameloft released a virtual legal document listing all of the parameters of the contest, including the fact that contestants had to be over the age of 13 (i.e. not a child), as well as the fact that players from certain countries or other smaller jurisdictions were legally not allowed to enter the contest.https://mkt-web.gameloft.com/static/df8ddcc1656c3849e06a6ca5e7e439eb.pdf The winner of the contest was Laura D.
Countries or regions from which players could not enter the contest included:
* Africa - Sudan
* Americas - Brazil, Cuba and Quebec (Canadian province)
* Asia-Pacific - Malaysia, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and North Korea
* Europe - Belgium, Italy, Norway and Spain
* Middle East - Syria and Iran
* Oceania - Australia
Note: The Facebook page "Asphalt" only serves Asphalt 8: Airborne, whereas Asphalt 9: Legends has its own Facebook page titled "Asphalt 9: Legends".
==Bugs / Glitches==
* As of February 5, the time of writing, the handling statistics of the 2018 McLaren X2 and McLaren MP4-31 have seemingly been changed, though it is not clear whether these changes are intentional or are just bugs. No note was made of this particular issue in the patch notes, though players had been complaining of frequent skidding with these cars for months, and it seems that the skidding has also been reduced as a result of the handling changes.
* As of February 6, the time of writing, the transformation animation in Tag Racing and Gauntlet isn't being displayed properly, even with extreme effects enabled. Instead of first transforming into the melted metal car body that is usually shown during the animation, the player's car just briefly becomes invisible when transforming into another car.
** This bug was fixed partway through this update at an unknown time. The time of writing is March 22, 2021.
* As of February 6, the time of writing, it has been observed that races in Speed Trials contribute towards the player's Multiplayer League statistics in the "Info" section.https://forum.gameloft.com/viewtopic.php?f=1505&t=711544&start=40
*The following bugs/glitches still persist from the preceding updates:
**Loss of profile data: Since the Seventh Anniversary Update, several players have reported losing owned vehicles and upgrades while others have had their profiles be completely lost.
*** Contacting Customer Care and providing the Gameloft ID will let them give restored data.
**Data-loading crashes: On Windows PC, the game frequently crashes when data is loading, such as due to watching ads and due to Gauntlet mode's regular data updates. The issue with Gauntlet crashes has persisted ever since Gauntlet debuted in late-October of 2020, in the 2020 Halloween Update.
**Ads, boosters and upgrades don't load: On Android, the player often has to click on ads, boosters and upgrades multiple times in order to get them to work, and this problem has persisted since at least late-December of 2020, during the 2020 Christmas Update, and probably since even earlier than that. Meanwhile, the problem has now become commonplace on Windows PC ever since the formula for watching ads was changed on February 9, 2021.
**Festival Quests, Daily Tasks, TLE runs, Gauntlet challenges and MP leagues don't sync properly: As of April 6, the time of writing, various issues with data-syncing still occur occasionally throughout the different areas of the game. Festival Quests sometimes don't register after you've successfully completed the described task. Daily Tasks sometimes don't register either, or if they do, you can't collect the rewards immediately. Time-Limited Event runs can sometimes get erased if an error occurs whilst you are trying to record a new run, for example. Gauntlet challenges can sometimes not sync properly both in terms of the rating points and in terms of the Gauntlet daily rewards. In the former case, this can result in absurd amounts of extra rating points being granted to the challenger, at the detriment of the defender, whereas, in the latter case, this can result in rating points being gained/lost and being consumed without the Gauntlet daily rewards being granted to the challenger. Leagues in Multiplayer League can sometimes be falsely assigned to a player if they achieve an "equals sign (=)" too many times (which occurs whenever a player comes third in a race, or during free MP races). This always involves the player dropping from a higher league to a lower league even though their rating points haven't changed. Usually, this issue is fixed by re-syncing MP data, though it can occasionally result in the player being locked within a lower league, regardless of their level of rating points.
**Gauntlet Tickets lost due to syncing issues: In normal Gauntlet gameplay, are consumed when the player enters a challenge or defence, regardless of whether the race is completed. However, if the player's game crashes, this also results in the loss of a ticket. As of April 6, the time of writing, sometimes, the player's game doesn't actually crash and instead has a very brief syncing issue at the moment that they have entered the race, and two or more tickets can be consumed simultaneously for a single challenge or defence attempt, which is detrimental both for attaining additional rating points and for attaining the Gauntlet daily rewards.
** Wrong brands displayed in the Offers section: Occasionally, the wrong brand can be displayed for a car in the Offers section. This apparently occurred around April 6, when the Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 was allegedly displayed as a Ferrari on its Kit Cards in an offer, though this particular problem has seemingly been fixed, as of April 8. Meanwhile, the "Champion League Pack" Gauntlet deal, which contains the Zenvo TS1 GT 10th Anniversary Edition, still currently displays that car as an Aston Martin, as of April 8.
**Dodge Tomahawk lacks a transparent ghost model: The Dodge Tomahawk, presumably alongside all other motorcycles, does not have a proper transparent ghost model, likely because it is not supposed to have the ghost option enabled. However, due to what seems to be another bug, the Tomahawk can be driven in a single race in Career Mode, the "Dodge" race in Season 4: Elite. When racing against the Tomahawk ghost here, it can be seen that the Tomahawk ghost just looks like a normal Tomahawk.
* The BXR Bailey Blade GT1 Special Edition, which debuted in this update, is missing some components on its in-game model, specifically some pieces of its front grill, which have been referred to by some players on the Gameloft Forums as "fins". As proof that this is some kind of error, the components are featured on the BXR Bailey Blade GT1, the car which the Bailey Blade GT1 SE is entirely based upon, within the same game. Furthermore, all of the promotional images for the Bailey Blade GT1 SE both within the game and within Gameloft's social media promotional campaigns have shown the components to be present, despite their absence from the in-game model. Some players on the Gameloft Forums have theorized that the fins may have been omitted in order to avoid licensing fees, whereas others have jokingly suggested that they will become available as premium downloadable content in the future.https://forum.gameloft.com/viewtopic.php?f=1505&t=711896
* Since March 30, the Nissan Leaf Nismo RC does not have any preset boosters in Speed Trials. This is certainly a bug since all of the other cars still have preset boosters.
==Post-update screen==
A8 v5.6 screen 1.png
A8 v5.6 screen 2.png
A8 v5.6 screen 3.png
==Trailer==
==Trivia==
* This update has had the most vehicle performance reshuffles of any update as of March 20, 2021. Eight cars were reshuffled at the beginning of the update, one car was reshuffled around three weeks later, and four more cars were reshuffled around one month later. Therefore, a total of thirteen cars were reshuffled in this update.
* The first three cars that have debuted during this update are all based on or related to cars that already exist in the game. The BXR Bailey Blade GT1 Special Edition (S1860) is based on the BXR Bailey Blade GT1 (B1664), the Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta (A1772) is the convertible variant of the Ferrari LaFerrari (B1680), and the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo (B1682) is a cousin to the Ferrari 488 Pista (S1859) (both cars are based on the Ferrari 488 GTB, which is not featured in Asphalt 8: Airborne but is featured in other Asphalt games).
* The Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta has an open roof and, as such, features a race-car driver during races (though, not in the Garage). This is also a feature of the Ariel Atom V8, McLaren M14A, Formula E Gen2, McLaren MP4/8, McLaren Mercedes MP4-25, Zeus Twelve Sigma, McLaren MP4-31 and the now-removed Despicable Me "Villain Wheels", as well as all motorcycles (there are 15 in total, and they all feature the race-car driver both in the Garage and during races). Note that the 2018 McLaren X2 does not have a race-car driver, despite being a McLaren F1 car, because it has a closed roof, which is unusual/illegal for F1 cars (the 2018 X2 is a concept F1 car with non-standard features).
*Italdesign Giugiaro is now the first brand in the game with multiple vehicles that are only Festival vehicles (cars) with -only upgrades. So far, the brand's vehicles in the game include the Italdesign DaVinci (D1344) and the Italdesign Zerouno (A1771).
*The Italdesign DaVinci features a "DaVinci" number plate at the rear, instead of an "Asphalt" number plate, and it does not feature any kind of number plate at the front. This is reminiscent of the Rinspeed zaZen, which features a "Rinspeed CH" number plate at both the front and the rear, as well as a "zZen[sic]" plate at the rear. Note that the zaZen has been removed from the game due to licensing issues. The ONUK Sazan LM also features a kind of plate reading "ONUK Sazan" at the front.
==References==
Category:Updates
Category:2021
Category:Lunar New Year Update