Pelican Moto strategy guide

How a race works

Every race puts 8 riders on one stretch of coast road. Finish in the top 3 and the track counts as cleared, which opens the next stop on the career map. Clear all 5 stops and the next league opens. Every finishing place except last pays prize money, so a bad race still beats no race.

You have two bars to watch. Health is your bird: it drops when you get hit, and at zero you are knocked off. You tumble, walk back, and about two and a half seconds later you're riding again with a bit over half your health and a moment where nobody can touch you. Stay out of trouble for five seconds and health slowly starts coming back.

Bike is your motorbike's condition, and it doesn't come back during a race. Cars, roadside scenery and hard falls chip it away. When it hits zero the bike is wrecked, your race ends on the spot, and the tow truck bills you for a full repair. Getting knocked off in a fight barely scratches the bike; a head-on crash with an oncoming car can take a third of it in one go.

Fighting on the move

You hit one side at a time: Z (or LB) swings left, X (or RB) swings right. A swing only lands on a rider who is roughly level with you, so pull alongside before you attack instead of flailing at someone's tail light. The game quietly gives you a little more reach than the rivals get. Use it.

Timing matters more than button mashing. Hit a rider while they're winding up a swing and you do extra damage and break their attack. Every hit also knocks the target sideways, and you can shove without swinging at all by swerving hard into someone. That's how you push a rival onto the verge, where the palms and posts are waiting, or into the path of a truck.

Bare wings are the weakest attack. The anchor chain hits hardest but swings slowest. The frozen mackerel is the dependable middle choice. The beach umbrella has the longest reach and the biggest shove, perfect for bullying riders off the road. The baguette barely stings, but it swings faster than anything else. The nightstick belongs to Officer Honk and can't be taken.

Knocking a rival off pays $200, once per rival per race. Every bird on the grid is worth one bonus, and flattening the same bird twice only pays once, so spread the love. Wounded rivals who aren't natural brawlers will try to run. Finish them before their health creeps back.

Watch out for the cheap-shot artists: Flyboy, Motormouth and Redbeard. They hit harder from behind, and when they land a blow on an armed rider they sometimes snatch the weapon. That includes you.

Gulp: your best weapon is your face

Every race starts with you bare-winged. The only way to get a weapon is to take one. Press Gulp (C, L, Y on a pad, or the GULP button on touch) and your pelican lunges its pouch at the nearest rider. If they're holding something, it's yours now and they're left flapping. If they're empty-handed, it's just a peck.

Gulp reaches further forward and back than any swing, so you can rob a rider who's slightly ahead of you. It has a cooldown of just over a second, and it also swallows any fish, cash or wrench within reach.

A stolen weapon is yours until you get knocked off, and then it's gone. Two warnings: the bird you robbed now holds a grudge and will come looking for you, and a crow with an anchor chain is a much better target than a gull with a baguette. Pick your victims.

Officer Honk and how to lose him

The goose cop patrols every road except Harbor Dawn. He rolls up from behind, the screen warns you, and a few seconds later the nightstick comes out. He only has eyes for you; rivals never get pulled over.

He arrests you in two situations: you're lying on the road after a fall, or you're crawling along below 30 km/h, with him right there. Get busted and you pay a fine ($600 in the Bush League, more later), and the race doesn't count, however well you were placed.

His bike is always a little quicker than yours, so flat-out riding won't shake him, but Fish Nitro will. You can also turn around and fight: knock him off his bike and he gives up. Otherwise he calls it a day after about twelve seconds (a little longer in each later league), or once you've left him far behind. He never starts a chase in the final stretch before the finish line.

Most rivals mind their manners when he's close. The cheap-shot riders do the opposite and try to leave you lying in the road right in front of him. When the siren is behind you, stay away from Flyboy, Motormouth and Redbeard.

Money: earning it and keeping it

A new career starts with $500. Money comes from three places: prize money for your finishing place (a win in the Bush League pays $1,200), $200 for each rival you knock off, and $150 for every cash note you ride over. The Pro League multiplies prize money by 2.2 and the Hell League by 4. Off the podium, prize money plus road cash never adds up to more than the winner's prize; notes past that stay on the road.

Money leaves in three ways. A bust costs a fine. A wreck brings the tow truck, and its bill is a full repair, priced by your bike's durability and multiplied by the league, so wrecking an expensive bike in a late league really hurts. And wear adds up: damage you finish a race with carries into the next one, and a battered bike loses up to a tenth of its top speed.

Fix wear in the garage between races. It costs half of what the tow truck charges, and starting a race with a healthy bike is how you avoid the tow in the first place. If your cash goes below zero you're broke, and the game offers to buy back one of your bikes at 60% of its price. The starter scooter isn't worth selling, so you can't.

Busted or wrecked, you still keep your KO bonuses and the cash you picked up, up to that same cap. Quick Race is an exhibition: pick any road, league and bike, even ones your career hasn't reached, and nothing you win or lose sticks. It's the place to test-drive a bike before you spend real savings on it. In the free trial, Quick Race covers the first 3 tracks.

What to buy first

Your first $2,500 should go on the Dock Runner. It's 30 km/h faster than the scooter at the top end, quicker off the line and tougher in a crash. It is the single biggest upgrade in the early game.

Next, the Biker Jacket ($1,500, +25 max health) makes every fight easier, and it keeps working on every bike you'll ever own. Save for the Beak Shark R6 ($6,500) after that: 250 km/h and a third Fish Nitro every race. The Seashell Helmet ($2,800) takes a fifth off every hit you take, and the Iron Claw Gloves ($4,200) add a fifth to every hit you land. Gear stacks and never wears out.

The Bonefish 900 and Pouch Rocket V2 are Full Game bikes and cost serious money. Buy one only when you can also afford to tow it, because the bigger the bike, the bigger the bill. Always keep a repair fund; a career with a fast bike and an empty wallet ends at the tow truck.

Track by track

Harbor Dawn is the only road without cops, and it has light traffic. Treat it as the dojo: practice pulling alongside, gulping a weapon and landing counter-hits.

Palm Coast adds rolling hills, and the crests hide what's on the other side. Ease off near the tops if you can't see the road. This is also where Officer Honk makes his first appearance.

Salt Flats has the longest straights on the coast. That's where you should spend your Fish Nitro, and where the fish trucks are easiest to pass cleanly. The heat shimmer is just scenery; the trucks are not.

Neon Docks has the densest traffic of any track, at night. Cars in the left half of the road come straight at you, and a head-on crash is the most expensive kind, so keep right unless you're passing, and start fights only when the road ahead is clear.

Lighthouse Cliffs is the longest and twistiest road, and it's raining. Wet asphalt gives you less grip for steering and braking, so brake before the hairpin, not in it. Big Bill, the Pelican King, rides this road in every league. He hits like the anchor chain he carries, so steal it if you can.

Leagues: Bush, Pro and Hell

The career runs through 3 leagues, each on all 5 roads. In the Pro League and Hell League the rivals are faster and angrier, cops turn up more often, and fines and tow bills grow with the league. So does the prize money.

Don't enter the Pro League on the scooter. The pack's pace is tuned to the bike you'd plausibly own by then, and an underpowered bike turns every race into a brawl at the back of the pack. Clear every road of the Hell League and you're crowned King of the Coast.

Playing on a phone

Turn the phone sideways. Your left thumb steers with the arrows and has the brake; your right thumb has both hit buttons, GULP and NOS. Touch Auto-Throttle is on by default, so the bike accelerates by itself and only lets off when you brake. If you'd rather hold the gas yourself, switch it off in Settings.

If the game stutters or your phone gets warm, set Graphics to Battery Saver. If the camera shake bothers you, Screen Shake can be turned off in the same menu.