In late 2021, a group of players including myself wrote what was at the time the complete beginners guide to iGP. However, a recent update brought some major changes: a new UI for sure, but a more significant change for the new player was the abolishment of the 'Rookie' tier of leagues and implementation of Sprint races, a new universal tutorial area where they would race exclusively until they reach level 10.
With that in mind, I've decided to rewrite this guide as a port of first call for newbies who haven't a clue what to do- just to give you a nudge in the right direction. This will not be a copy/paste of the old guide, though: it's more beginner focused, aiming to get players over the barrier to entry and into the league system.
I'm Rhys, a long time player of iGP; I've raced in many of the most competitive leagues in the game, won races across community-run 'esports' style events (such as the World Cup) and I hope you find this guide helpful. If you've got any questions, add it into the thread and someone who knows what they're doing will fly in and solve all your issues. I hope to see you ahead of me in elite one day!
This guide is a work-in-progress and I'll be updating it across the following days to cover whatever areas I've certainly missed. Let me know in the thread if there's anything useful (this guide is aimed at levels 1-10) you'd like to see added!
Chapter 1 - Why play iGP (and not another game)?
Let's be honest- you probably didn't go hunting for iGP to play it in particular. You probably picked a top result off your app store and thought you would try it. With that in mind, here's why iGP is better than the alternatives: The LEAGUES SYSTEM.
Maybe you've done a few races already, and think that iGP feels a little bit of a grind? That's because it is. Your first 10 levels, achieved outside leagues, are all about gaining experience to prepare you for the real fun. In a league, you get so many new things: a league wall, for all your banter and arguments, Live in-race chat, to gloat over or trash talk or congratulate your leaguemates... and a freshly updated car design system that turns the whole season into one giant, multidimensional arms race. This guide won't teach you the nuances of this, as it's exclusively for level 10+ play.
Your sprint race career is a consequences free place for you to learn iGP's basics and arrive at your league of choice a competent performer, ready to (once you level up a bit more) take the fight to those in elite for league titles.
Chapter 2 - How to win sprint races
I really debated putting this last and making you read about how to run an account sustainably first, but the most important part of any game is having fun, and isn't it more fun to fight for wins than 15th? Without giving away any secrets, here is a quick rundown on best practices that should have you towards the sharp end of any sprint race grid.
1 - Getting a good setup (shown by a percentage for sprint races) is important. In sprint races, the effect of a good setup is much stronger than building your car purely for extra design points (DP). Generally, if you set your car towards setup rather than design you'll be able to compete.
While I'm not going to tell you the completely optimal way (the image's mech/aero slider is randomly set), a car looking something like this won't be the reason you're off the pace. Experiment with settings for Setup/Design and Mech/Aero and find what works for you!
2 - Tyre management is crucial. You can control tyre temperature using 'push levels' - Higher push makes your driver faster and more likely to overtake, but increases fuel usage, tyre wear, and tyre temperature. Overheating your tyres increases wear further and slows you down, negating any positives from the extra push, so it's important you keep the tyres close to the optimal window shown on the tyre gauge. If the tyres are very worn (under 50%) they may begin to lose temperature by themselves, requiring more push to correct. It's around this time that you should be looking to pit for new tyres, before they hit the 'cliff' at ~40% and their performance drops drastically.
3 - 'Boost' is iGP manager's defining in-race tool. It's your most direct way to push for extra performance. A common misconception is that it works by increasing engine power. Rather, it's a fantasy device, providing an immediate and short-lived performance increase, and is therefore also effective in corners. It should be used tactically, not wasted, but mastery of boost usage is an advanced technique that will come with experience.
Chapter 3 - How (not) to bankrupt a racing team
Money makes the world go round, and the same is true for iGP. you may have noticed that you've been handed a nice little pot of £50 million in your chosen currency (iGP money is universal and currencies irrelevant), and have no idea where to spend it. The good news for you is that early in the game, almost all places to spend are positive. The most important, however, are:
#1 HQ Upgrades are the most important thing you can do with your money. However, you will not have enough to keep every building at your manager level all the time, so with that in mind these are the best buildings to prioritize:
Design - 10/10 - Available from the start of the game, the design HQ is possibly the most important HQ building. Not only does it give you greater customisation of your sprint race car, but it's imperative once you reach league racing as it produces design points to upgrade your car with.
Technology - 9/10 - While this building has no effect in Sprint races, you will sorely miss it if it's not at your account level when you begin league racing. Even if it is, you'll likely need to become accustomed to losing places on DRS straights.
Manufacturing - 7/10 - This building is crucial early-game, as any parts deficit sets your account into a doom spiral it is very hard to recover from. However, it's expensive to upgrade, so standard practice is to only upgrade this building as needed. Getting it to level 4 or 5 early and then leaving it be until you notice a parts deficit is my recommended approach.
Simulator - 6/10 - Cheap to upgrade, and straightforward in its use, the simulator is a handy building to upgrade. However it is not a necessity, and the main reason it's ranked so low for new players will be explained later on in the Drivers section.
Youth Academy - 3/10 - While relatively cheap to upgrade, this building is unlikely to produce any Drivers better than the open transfer market until at least level 20. Worth it then, but not early-game.
Offices - 0/10 - This is an extremely expensive upgrade, and will not help your team in any way early-game. Best saved for when you're at higher levels with much lower staff turnover - until then the transfer market is all you need.
#2 Staff contracts are costly, but well worth it as you fight to make your team competitive. For context a level 30 account can easily end up spending £1.5m on each staff member per race, but without a strong CD and TD (more on them later) you will be doomed to fail at any level. Well worth the costs.
#3 Pit Crew Salary is a no-brainer for anyone outside those in serious financial trouble. Setting every team on your pit crew to their maximum salary is cheap, effective, and protects against atrophy setting in.
As a new manager without access to leagues, your only source of money is from sponsor bonus payouts. Therefore, you should take sponsors with large monetary bonuses in your second sponsor slot (Unlocks at level 5). This is the only way you'll be able to fully develop your account in the pre-leagues economy.
Sponsors can be selected by clicking on your balance at the top of your screen, which takes you into a hidden finances tab.
Chapter 4 - Talking Tokens
Tokens are iGP's 'special' currency, like Gems or Gold in other games, but while their function is similar (speed up upgrades, bid on staff, buy cosmetics or special abilities, etc) they have one key difference from what you may be used to:
You have a regular, guaranteed token income throughout the game
This comes from your primary sponsor awarding (if you pick well) 3 tokens per league race, and this is just enough to cover all the costs of running a free-to-play team, with a small amount on top. That's not to say that supporting the development team is useless - extra tokens can be used on cosmetics or to speed up your in-game progression. However, that does mean that with enough time and commitment, a player managing their account optimally will be able to have it fully equipped at all times.
It's worth noting that while it isn't currently working, you should be able to receive tokens once per day by completing a sprint race while under level 10.
In the early game, your uses for tokens are limited as most optimal uses are unlocked along with leagues later on. I would recommend the purchasing of new staff every now and again, but the rest is up to you: you could convert them to in-game money, get a fancy livery, or save them for later. There aren't too many wrong answers.
Chapter 5 - Drivers
I will preface this chapter with a quick fact: You do not need to worry about your driver(s) at all until you enter a league. That might sound counterintuitive, but in order to allow anybody to compete alongside maxed players in sprint races, Drivers are completely equalised in almost every way. With that in mind, save yourself the money and tokens; keep your default-assigned drivers until at least level 8 or 9, and even then only buy them to train them up yourself.
Nonetheless, here are a few quick tips on what makes a driver fast:
Health is important even in quick races. A driver that's just been trained to within an inch of their life won't perform well on the track. If you're planning to run multiple races in a row, it's worth swapping between your two drivers to always field a healthy one.
Talent can't be trained. Talent determines a driver's raw speed, and can never be improved. With that in mind, a more talented driver might be worth taking over a less talented one with similar stats, because they have a greater potential. However, just because a driver is more talented it doesn't mean they are faster - every stat plays its own role.
Special Abilities are powerful. Coming in four types, each with three tiers (Common, Rare, Legendary), special abilities can be purchased at the cost of 50 tokens per level (plus 50 to change the equipped ability). That may feel like a lot, and it is - but drivers can naturally spawn with abilities and finding one on the transfer market for a single token is often a great purchase. Abilities are situational, and will not transform a bad driver into a good one... but they can help provide the edge in close races, especially in the much more competitive elite tier.
Chapter 6 - Staff
A good corps of staff is the key to any real racing team, and the same is true in iGP. Each member plays their own role, and it's usually worth your tokens and money to keep a top team at all times.
The Chief Designer (CD) is the most important staff member when you enter a league: they are responsible for building a chunk of the next season's car each race. Even a single race with a low-rated CD will harm your chances next season. Their strength and weakness will also influence the next season's design, so it's important that you consider which attributes you want to prioritise or sacrifice. They also share responsibilities for research with...
The Technical Director (TD) organises your team's research department. This is the key to lower level car design, as it allows you to duplicate improvements made by other teams each race. A better TD gives you stronger research. TDs can have special abilities equipped for extra data gathering or a small performance boost. These may not be worth it at a low level, however the abilities are permanent so there are worse uses for excess tokens!
The Doctor (DR)'s star rating reduces the cost to your driver's health when training them, allowing you to train them more and level them up faster. While not essential, this is a handy buff and often worth having at a lower level.
Chapter 7 - Preparing for PRO
So, you're a level 9 manager, one race away from unlocking leagues. Amazing! We can't wait to see you on track. That's it, I hear you say? No more tips? How do I know what to develop my car in? Is my chosen league good?
The second question is easy - if you can usually make the live races, and there are enough players to enable promotion, it'll do you fine.
The first one is a little harder. I'm not here to baby you - you'll have to find out a lot of things on your own. I'll give you this: There are four stats that increase your car pace, two that increase your car's efficiency, and two (Cooling and Reliability) that you should never need to develop - after all you've upgraded your manufacturing building to avoid the need!
This short guide by long-time player Slo Bro might be useful for you to understand the changes that come with entering your first league, and this guide by Super Mod Kevin Bissell is a great introduction to the League system's car development.
I wish you the very, very best in iGP. If you have any questions please drop them in the thread below and someone who knows the game will be happy to help.
