Need for Speed: Rivals Achievement Guide & Road Map

Need for Speed: Rivals
Need for Speed: Rivals Achievement Guide

Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 3/10
- Offline: 23 [940]
- Online: 2 [60]
- Approximate time: 20-30 Hours
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 2 [1 Cop, 1 Racer]
- Missable achievements: No
- Does difficulty affect Achievements: No
- Unobtainable/glitched Achievements: No
- Extra equipment needed?: No

Introduction:
Welcome to Need For Speed: Rivals the twentieth installment of the long running series. Rivals pits you in the role of both the cops and the racers, featuring full career modes for both factions. Packed with sweet rides and cool gadgets you will race and chase your way through the fictional open world of Redview County. The primary game play is made up of busting racers and wining races whilst completing challenges that will allow you to level up your factions.

Step one - Cop Career:
First up you will need to complete tutorials for both factions. During the racer tutorial you can unlock two of the harder achievements for the faction really easily, ‘Multiplier’ and ‘10 Heat’, check the ‘10 Heat’ guide for more information. Now start up the Cop career, this will consist of 20 'levels' spread over 9 chapters. There are 3 assignments to choose from at each level, Patrol, Undercover and Enforcer. Initially you will only be able to choose one assignment per level so at the end of your career you will be rank 21 and should have easily obtained the achievements related to busting racers. The first thing you are going to want to do is earn 65,000 SP, which will allow you to completely upgrade your Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG to obtain ‘Upgrade Master’. Once your career mode run is over you will be able to go back and complete the other two assignments at each level, this is how you will rank up to 60. Along the way to 60 there are some miscellaneous achievements you should work on. At rank 5 you will unlock your first Ford, the Shelby GT 500, you can start working on ‘Deep Down, You Know You Want To’, ‘Lcnce n Rgstrtn pls’ and ‘5,4,3,2 Mach 1!’ immediately or wait until you are ranking up. Whilst you rank up you will want to try and get as many gold medals on the events as you are can to progress towards ‘Gold Master’. Once you hit rank 60 you should have earned 15 achievements worth 625:

Multiplier
10 Heat
First National
Cop Rank 5
Cop Rank 10
Cop Rank 20
Cop Rank 40
Cop Rank 60
5 Buster
8 Buster
Bust 50
Upgrade Master
Deep Down, You Know You Want To
Lcnce n Rgstrtn pls
5,4,3,2, Mach 1!

Step two - Racer Career:
Now you can start your racer career, the structure is basically the same as the previous career. 20 'levels', each with 3 speedlists to choose from across 9 chapters. There will be less miscellaneous achievements to worry about during your racer career, just two, ‘Bigger Spender’ and ‘Professional Collector’. Check the relevant sections on the guide for more information on when and where you can obtain these. The same principle applies here, playing through the career will get you to rank 21 and then you will be able to go back and complete the other 2 speedlists for each level to get you to rank 60. Again you will want to concentrate on getting as many gold medals as possible to finish up ‘Gold Master’. At the end of this step you will have another 7 achievements worth 265:

Racer Rank 5
Racer Rank 10
Racer Rank 20
Racer Rank 40
Racer Rank 60
Bigger Spender
Professional Collector

Step three – Multiplayer:
There are actually only 2 true MP achievements on the list, ‘Friendly Race’ and ‘Buddy Bust’, both of which will require you to enlist the help of someone on your friends list. If you don’t have any friends who own the game you can always check HERE for some people willing to play.

Step four – Mop-up:
If you followed the road map and unlocked everything along the way the only thing you might have to mop up is ‘Gold Master’. You can check the relevant area of the guide for some hints and tips for grabbing you 100 gold medals and your final achievement.

Conclusion:
Need For Speed: Rivals is a relatively easy 1000, with the only difficult moments coming from trying to obtain some of those harder gold medals and a small grind to rank 60, but even then it’s not too stressful. It is a pretty fun run though so just try to enjoy another good installment in a great series.

[We would like to thank Metabolic x360a for this Roadmap]

Gold Master

50
Earned 100 Gold medals across both factions
During your two career runs you will play a total of 7 different events:

Cops:

Hot Pursuit: A race against the clock to bust all racers in a set amount of time. They get progressively more difficult by adding in more racers, more defensive/offensive tech and increasingly difficult courses.
Interceptor: Similar to Hot Pursuit but you only have 1 racer to bust. You just have much less time to do it in and the difficulty will progress along the same lines.
Rapid Response: A point-to-point race against the clock with time penalties added for each collision, up to a maximum of 3 seconds per crash. As you work your way up to the [Hard] ones the courses will get more intricate and the times will be almost unbeatable.

Racers:

Race: A Point-to-point race, get’s harder as the racers upgrade their cars and tech.
Time Trial: A point-to-point race against the clock. Unlike it’s Cop counterpart there are no time penalties.
Hot Pursuit: The opposite of the cop version, a point-to-point race whilst being pursued by the police.
Interceptor: Again the opposite of the cop version, you have to escape your pursuers.

Each faction has a maximum of 68 gold medals they can obtain, for a total of 136, you only need 100 for the achievement. I recommend getting gold in all the [Easy] and [Medium] events because they aren’t all that hard, then pick whichever event’s you find easiest to complete on [Hard].

For cops I found the easiest ones to complete were hot pursuits and interceptors. The rank 15 Lamborghini is one of the best cars for these; it’s got a high toughness rating and decent speed/acceleration. Also by the time you unlock this car you can get rank 4 of both the ESF and the Shock Ram. This is the best combo for wrecking racers in my opinion.

For racers I found the interceptors, time trials and some of the hot pursuits to be the easiest. For the interceptors just concentrate on wrecking the cop, having shockwave and the ESF at rank 4 will be your best method for this. Use the same method for hot pursuits but concentrate on nailing as much of the competition as you can.

Give each event a couple tries and if you think it’s going to be too hard move on, don’t forget you have a 36 medal leeway.
First National

25
Banked your first score
(1)
You will unlock this at the end of the racer tutorial after returning to the hideout.
10 Heat

75
Reached Heat 10
(4)
As a racer the more events played, head-to-head races won, cops wrecked, cops outran etc. the higher your heat will get. If you are caught or wrecked your heat level will drop. This can be obtained during regular play by doing just these things but there is a much easier way to obtain this during the racer tutorial.

After you have completed the required objectives you are told to return to the hideout, don’t go back yet, instead keep running head-to-head races until you reach heat 10. The reason this is much easier to do here is because no cops will spawn during the tutorial, so there is no chance of being busted or wrecked, unless you crash every 2 seconds. This will combine with ‘Multiplier’ so once your heat/multiplier hits 10 the achievements will pop. Credit to IRELAND NO 1 for this tip.
Multiplier

40
Hit a X 10 Multiplier
As a racer the more events played, head-to-head races won, cops wrecked, cops outran etc. the higher your multiplier will get. If you are caught or wrecked your multiplier will drop. This can be obtained during regular play but there is a much easier way to obtain this during the racer tutorial.

See ‘10 Heat’ for more information.
Bigger Points

35
Banked 500,000 in one go
(6)
This achievement needs to be done with the racer faction. Almost everything you do in the game will grant you SP, your goal here is to collect 500,000 SP in one go before returning to your hideout to ‘bank’ it. The easiest way to do this is to progress in your racer career until you can purchase the Ferrari F12 at rank 16. This car has the best base toughness/durability, upgraded to rank 5 you should have no trouble taking some solid hits. The cop car you are given for your rank 16 missions is pretty tough too but the pursuit tech options aren't that great, you are restricted to 2 and one of them is the spike strip which is not all that useful when you are getting bashed around by multiple cop cars at heat 10.

Whichever car you choose, upgrade your two favorite offensive pursuit techs, I recommend the ESF and Shockwave. On your map find the interceptor 'Great Escape' it's right next to the hideout near Last Stallion Ranch, this is a good starting point because it is right next to the hideout and just down the road from a garage. Start it up and immediately just do a 180 and wreck the cop to end the event. Restart the event from the easydrive menu and do the same thing again, stopping at the garage as needed, as many times as you can. Now as your heat level goes up you are going to have more and more cops on you and you can't restart an event while being pursued, at this point don't bother losing them to try the event again just start to wreck all the cops that show up, stick around the garage so you can just run through if you take one too many hits. Save your shockwave as much as you can for when you get penned in so you can blast them away and avoid being busted. Keep this up until you hit 500k SP then quickly head over to the hideout to bank it and unlock your achievement. It shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes to hit your target.

I recommend doing this in ‘Single Player’ so you will just be up against AI cops instead of other players gunning for you.
5 Buster

35
Busted a Racer at Heat 5 or greater

Story related, cannot be missed.

As you progress through your cop career the heat levels of the racers you bust during the Interceptor and Hot Pursuit events will increase. As will the heat levels of the random racers you see driving around. As soon as you bust a racer with heat 5 or higher the achievement will unlock.

This will likely be the first achievement you unlock during your cop career.
8 Buster

75
Busted a Racer at Heat 8 or greater

Story related, cannot be missed.

Just like ‘Heat 5’ this should come through natural progression as you start to play the harder events. If for some reason you have not come up against a racer with heat 8 or higher you will get this on the final mission of your cop career. You will have to complete an Interceptor against a heat 10 racer.
Lcnce n Rgstrtn pls

30
Busted 10 Racers in a Mustang
The first Ford you can unlock is the Shelby GT 500 at level 5 of your cop career. Now you can either take it out right away and get to work on this or you can wait until after you have completed the career and you are ranking up to 60. Either way I suggest you combine this with the other two Ford related achievements, ‘Deep Down, You Know You Want To’ and ‘5,4,3,2, Mach 1!’. Which require you to drive for 50 cumulative minutes in a Ford and earn 50 seconds of cumulative airtime in a Ford respectively.

Best way to get all three of these is to set a timer on your phone or start at a set hour to be sure you don’t undercut yourself and waste 45 minutes of your time, then head out in your Shelby and start busting any racer you see on the roads. Busting 10 racers should take up a good chunk of your time, once you’re all done with that head over to the the bridge on Kingfisher Road and check the video for a quick and easy way to rack up your 50 seconds. This location is good because you can just do a figure eight circuit and continuously hit two jumps, killing the last of the time, if you do have any extra time left on your timer you can just sit and wait it out. You don't actually have to be driving around for the full 50 minutes.
Bust 50

35
Busted 50 Racers
(2)
This will come naturally during your cop career.
Friendly Race

30
Won a Race against a Friend
(175)
Join or host a game with a friend and both choose to be racers. Meet up with your friend and challenge them to a head-to-head race by hitting while you are close to them. Win this race to unlock the achievement. If you don’t have any friends who own the game you can check HERE for other people willing to play. If you find a player from the site don’t forget to add them to your friends list.
Buddy Bust

30
Busted a Friend
(86)
Join or host a game with a friend, play as the cop faction and have them play as a racer. Meet up with your friend and initiate a pursuit by either hitting or giving them a nudge with your car. Bust them and the achievement will unlock. If you don’t have any friends who own the game you can check HERE for other people willing to play. If you find a player from the site don’t forget to add them to your friends list.
Racer Rank 5

15
Reached Racer Rank 5
See "Racer Rank 60" for more information.
Racer Rank 10

20
Reached Racer Rank 10
See "Racer Rank 60" for more information.
Racer Rank 20

30
Reached Racer Rank 20
See "Racer Rank 60" for more information.
Racer Rank 40

40
Reached Racer Rank 40
See "Racer Rank 60" for more information.
Racer Rank 60

75
Reached Racer Rank 60
(4)
Playing through the career mode will get you to rank 21, at this point you can go back and complete the other 40 speedlists that you skipped during your career, and this is how you will reach rank 60. Most of the goals are going to be very similar to what you have already done throughout your career. Here are some general tips:

Drifting: See the video for a spot that will make even the longest drift easy. I recommend hitting this drift spot with a car that has high speed and moderate control, like the Hennessey Venom GT I am using in the video. With that car I have never had any trouble getting the drift to start, when I tried to do it in the rank 15 Lamborghini I couldn't get it to drift at all.

Jumps: See the video for a spot that will fulfill even the longest distance task.

Hard Gold Medals: The easiest event’s to gold medal for general medal tasks are the interceptors and hot pursuits for both factions. Use your upgraded offensive tech and focus on taking out the competition/cops. For the racers head-to-head events again just focus on blasting the competition then you can finish the race at your pace. There are some that are just going to be flat out hard, all I can suggest for those is try a couple out and find one that feels a little more doable than the rest. Don't forget that if you really need to you can redo an event you already know you can get the gold on to make it a little easier.
Professional Collector

50
Purchased 10 Racer vehicles
The earliest you can unlock this is when you reach rank 11 of your racer career, at this point you will have 10 cars available to purchase. It’s not necessary to purchase all these at once right now, you will earn more than enough SP on your way to rank 60 that you can just have your pick of cars. However you choose to approach this once you have purchased your 10th car the achievement will unlock.
Cop Rank 5

15
Reached Cop Rank 5
See "Cop Rank 60" for more information.
Cop Rank 10

20
Reached Cop Rank 10
See "Cop Rank 60" for more information.
Cop Rank 20

30
Reached Cop Rank 20
See "Cop Rank 60" for more information.
Cop Rank 40

40
Reached Cop Rank 40
See "Cop Rank 60" for more information.
Cop Rank 60

75
Reached Cop Rank 60
Playing through the cop career will get you to rank 21, at this point you can go back and complete the other 40 assignments you have missed, and this is how you will reach rank 60. You can check the guide for ‘Racer Rank 60’ for tips and general advice on some of the more random tasks.
Upgrade Master

50
Upgraded all Cop Pursuit Tech in one car to maximum level and equipped both slots
(3)
You can obtain this using your very first car in the cop career, the Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG. You will have four pursuit techs available to you, each with only 1 rank, it will take 65,000 SP to purchase all of the upgrades. Head out onto the streets and do a couple events, bust some racers, whatever you want to earn the required SP, but DO NOT complete the assignment. Doing so will mean unlocking more tech upgrades meaning more SP will be required. Once you have your 65k head back to a command post and purchase all four of the techs, equip two items in your slots and the achievement should pop. You can also get this with zero effort if you wait until the rank 10 mission that has you going undercover in the Ferrari Enzo, this car has two rank 4 techs available, you just have to unequip them and equip them again for the achievement to pop.

Now although both these methods are confirmed to work as of right now I am not sure this is how it was intended to work, it reads like the original goal was to unlock all 6 pursuit techs and upgrade them to maximum level. In the interest of providing as much information as possible, and in case the above method is patched, I will also provide the information needed to obtain all pursuit tech.

You won’t unlock all 6 pursuit techs and their maximum upgrades until rank 15, at this point you will have all 6 techs and each one will have 4 levels. To upgrade all 6 will take 1,160,000 SP. It’s honestly not that hard to earn that by this point, the fastest method I found to earn that much SP is to find a [Medium] hot pursuit and just keep doing it over and over for about 20 minutes. Go back to a command post, upgrade your tech and equip 2 to unlock the achievement.
Deep Down, You Know You Want To

40
Driven 50 cumulative minutes in any Ford then entered garage
See "Lcnce n Rgstrtn pls" for more information.
5, 4, 3, 2, Mach 1!

40
Earned 50 seconds of air time in any Ford car
(2)
See "Lcnce n Rgstrtn pls" for more information.