EA Sports WRC Guide: Tips For Your First Career Steps

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A major feature of the new EA rally game is its career mode. With so much to do, here is a guide to best enjoy the first season of your EA Sports WRC career.

Image credit: EA Sports

Last week, EA Sports WRC came out to mixed reviews. Whilst we enjoyed our initial time with the title, the official launch met a collection of unhappy fans due to a sizeable number of performance issues and bugs.

But with a new patch out now looking to fix said framerate and stuttering downfalls (although only succeeding partly), it is time to enjoy what the game has to offer. For many, the main focus of the title will be its career mode. In fact, EA Sports WRC certainly captures inspiration from its sibling title, the F1 franchise.

In the EA Sports WRC career mode, one takes on the role of an amateur rally driver setting up a privateer team. With help from a benefactor, you can rise through the WRC ranks, in the hopes of claiming a top class Rally Championship. However, there is much more than aiming for the top series.


Throughout a season, there are many historic rallies to compete in, with championships on the line. Success in these will also please your benefactor. You can also form a high-flying team. Rather than focusing on one’s own achievements, a team can run a second car for a teammate. Recruiting engineers and drivers can also be a big part of the game.

With so much to do and little explanation in the early hours, navigating one’s first season optimally can be tough. Luckily enough, we have completed many rounds of many championships and, most importantly, have committed some mistakes we know not to do again. So here are five tips to achieve success in your first EA Sports WRC career mode season.

EA Sports WRC Career: Focus Up​

In any given week of the EA Sports WRC career mode, there can be up to half a dozen rallies to compete in. Of course, you can only take part in a single event per week. However, the scale of possibility on offer can be confusing.

This is why an important tip is to focus on just two championships in your first season. Sure, you can maximise your various benefactor budgets and run up to three cars, depending on their cost. But running too many championships will easily lead one to either miss rounds, or lose where they are.

Benefactor Page in EA Sports WRC Career Mode.jpg


Instead, simply commit to the pair of series your benefactor wants you to race in for your first season. This means you will get to know your opponents on a deeper level, allowing you to play more of a Role Playing Game style. By doing so, you will also feel a greater sense of progression throughout the different seasons of your career. At the end of the day, progressing and a feeling of growth is the whole point of a racing game career mode.

But the most important reason to commit to a minimal amount of series in your first season is that it will enable our next point: preparing your team.

Early planning​

When first starting up your EA Sports WRC career, the game puts the player as the principal of a new team. Newly formed, the squad is made up of a benefactor, Team Principal – the player – and Chief Technician.

But after completing a selection of rallies, one will discover that building up said team is important. Throughout a calendar year, the game offers opportunities to purchase new vehicles, expand one’s garage, hire engineers and grow the team’s maximum number of members.

Build up your team early.jpg


By owning more cars, you can compete in all the events your benefactor wants you to complete. Furthermore, bringing more engineers to a given event allows for reduced repair costs and times. Therefore, in shorter service areas, having an additional mechanic onboard will allow you to repair that radiator that otherwise sends you over the allotted time.

Early on in the first season, there are few events to compete in. This is the perfect time to hire new team members and prepare one’s fleet. For example, the first of many Manufacturer Hospitality events takes place early on in the season. A good idea would be to skip this event, in lieu of hiring a mechanic prior to the first WRC event.

Start your WRC career low​

Before setting up their team, the opening menu asks players where they would like to kick off their career. In EA Sports WRC, a career can start at one of three levels on the World Rally Championship ladder; Junior WRC, WRC2 and WRC.

Whilst it would certainly be fun to hit the track in the top class, with the cars’ hybrid power, it is not recommended. In fact, both the WRC and WRC2 seasons are more intensive throughout the calendar. Furthermore, the cars cost more for the benefactor.

EA Sports WRC Career Mode Ford Fiesta JWRC.jpg


Therefore, one would suggest taking part in the Junior WRC class for the first season. This will allow more time to build up one’s team, with fewer events to compete in. Furthermore, the slower cars will provide a great first rally experience in EA Sports WRC. This means the first season can almost be considered a tutorial season.

After completing this first year in the WRC paddock, you will better know how to navigate the career mode. This will allow for a more fun time at the wheel of the higher echelons later on.

Season 1: Keep things short​

In the same vain as the previous top EA Sports WRC career mode tip, we recommend keeping the first season’s rallies short. In fact, the Difficulty screen allows players to alter event length. Whilst it would be fun to take part in full-length rallies even in JWRC, we suggest keeping things short in season one.

EA-Sports-WRC-Ford-Fiesta.jpg


Part of the attraction to this game are the high-flying, hybrid boost Rally1 cars. So getting to the top class in as few hours as possible may be beneficial. In fact, quitting one’s career early is certainly a possibility after spending too much time in the underpowered Ford Fiesta.

In the Short Event Length option, the career mode sets all rallies – including historic events – to two stages. Those that venture to the Medium length will take part in five-stage rallies.

Do not be afraid to change settings​

Throughout this guide, we mention that one’s first season is all about preparation. In fact, keeping the year short, joining at the bottom rung of the ladder and getting one’s team set up is all about making future seasons easier. However, this particular tip is all about making the EA Sports WRC career more enjoyable.

A new game, it will obviously be difficult to perfect one’s settings immediately. Every player will want to play the game in their own way, with unique settings, assists, difficulty and length. Therefore, do not be afraid to alter settings throughout your first season.


For example, perfecting the AI difficulty rating is sure to make WRC2 and WRC championships both challenging and fun in your future seasons. Therefore, do not be afraid to spend the first season dialling in this setting. In our EA Sports WRC bugs article, we pointed out that altering AI settings in the middle of an event can cause issues. However, in the latest update, this is one issue that should have disappeared.

Elsewhere, whilst we recommend running a shorter first season, changing event length from one series to another can be fun. For example, the main focus of your season should be the World Rally Championship. However, the benefactor does ask to compete in a select number of Manufacturer Hospitality events and historical series. So why not run these secondary events as shorter rallies than the WRC rounds?

How are you enjoying your EA Sports WRC career? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
About author
Angus Martin
Motorsport gets my blood pumping more than anything else. Be it physical or virtual, I'm down to bang doors.

Comments

..need no tips when the game runs like crap.
Never thought Codemasters would end like all other studios.. with unfinished games.
Give me my money back EA ! I cannot refund at cdkeys :speechless:
All Codemasters games in recent history have been released in an unfinished state. Take all of the recent F1 games which have needed a slew of corrective updates post launch - some of them release with exactly the same bugs which the previous version had to be patched for.

Also DR2.0 was heavily crticised at launch for FFB issues amongst other things.

I‘m not saying this is acceptable, it most certainly is not, but when you buy a Codemasters title at launch you should know what you‘re getting into - especially now that EA are holding the reins.
 
All Codemasters games in recent history have been released in an unfinished state. Take all of the recent F1 games which have needed a slew of corrective updates post launch - some of them release with exactly the same bugs which the previous version had to be patched for.

Also DR2.0 was heavily crticised at launch for FFB issues amongst other things.

I‘m not saying this is acceptable, it most certainly is not, but when you buy a Codemasters title at launch you should know what you‘re getting into - especially now that EA are holding the reins.
yea sure but...
DR2.0 (and all other codemasters games) was SO MUCH better than WRC in the first days... so i guess 2.0 will stay better than WRC for all time.
THAT is the thing what i am talking about.
 
I haven't gotten around to firing up the game yet. These are good tips for my Career start after I play with video and control settings and maybe do some Rally School. Thanks!

It seems like the WRC cars are the focus of this game, with the historic cars getting less attention in terms of physics modeling and whatnot. I like how the Career focuses on the WRC cars and mixes in a bit of the older stuff to get a good sampling of the game's content.
 
The game is unplayable and looks horrible. No need for such WRC articles until the anti aliasing blur and the performance are fixed.
 
Premium
I say, for any career tips on WRC, first one is wait until the game is on the discount bin and/or the version number is at least 1.5, preferably 1.8 or greater.
 
Thanks for the tips, I am currently running through my first season in career mode using the WRC junior.

Good fun, the latest update has improved several issues from me, hopefully further performance work will enhance things further.

Overall, the game is running and looking great on my lower end system.
Waiting till black Friday to see if there are any deals before updating my GPU.

Graphics: mostly high with a few medium settings mixed in
FSR: Quality
AA: high
Avg. 70-90fps during clear conditions
Avg. 55-70fps during weather at night.

I5 9600kf
1660 ti 6gb
2560x1080 HDR
 
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The most important tip: do not exit the rally in progress. If you do, you break the whole event and AI switches down to 0% difficulty, giving you a 40 second gap on each course until the event is over. It's a bug that makes all single-player broken.
 
D
  • Deleted member 197115

The game is unplayable and looks horrible. No need for such WRC articles until the anti aliasing blur and the performance are fixed.
You have 4090, correct? Surprised you weren't able to run it properly. I am on 3080Ti and can run everything on Ultra with DLAA and HDR, no issues at all, crystal sharp and great looking.
 
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..need no tips when the game runs like crap.
Never thought Codemasters would end like all other studios.. with unfinished games.
Give me my money back EA ! I cannot refund at cdkeys :speechless:
Unlucky, I feel sorry for you, I refunded it just in time. It was exactly as I expected sadly enough(UE4). A stuttery blurry mess. The only tip is indeed refunding.

Andrew is trolling again because he's the only person on earth that's running WRC with DLAA(I didn't know that DLSStweaks worked with WRC? Because of Denuvo I expected it not to work. Because there's no DLAA available in the game menu's) with a smooth framerate, crystal sharp and good looking. And that with a 3080TI :roflmao:
 
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D
  • Deleted member 197115

Unlucky, I feel sorry for you, I refunded it just in time. It was exactly as I expected sadly enough(UE4). A stuttery blurry mess. The only tip is indeed refunding.

Andrew is trolling again because he's the only person on earth that's running WRC with DLAA(I didn't know that DLSStweaks worked with WRC? Because of Denuvo I expected it not to work. Because there's no DLAA available in the game menu's) with a smooth framerate, crystal sharp and good looking. And that with a 3080TI :roflmao:
Laugh as much as you want, but it works brilliantly with DlssTweaks, Preset C, latest DLSS dll 3.5.10 and very little NVidia sharpness on the top. Same procedure and even the same configuration I've been using with ACC and Forza Motorsport, except Forza Motorsport supports DLAA out of the box but it defaults to not the sharpest preset F, when C is much, much better, this is where DlssTweaks helps.
Samsung Odyssey G9 5120x1440 native resolution, WRC Ultra Preset. Smooth eye candy at 60-90fps depending on the track. Japan twisty mounting roads seems to be the most tasking one, but even there it never goes under 60. Really enjoyable driving, decent physics and FFB, tactile support, what's not to like.
Have you even tried it, or just parroting what your read on the net?
If you cannot make it run smooth at max setting with 4090, there must be some serious system or skill issue.

And I also helped others to set it up, so hardly the only person on Earth running it.
 
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Premium
Laugh as much as you want, but it works brilliantly with DlssTweaks, Preset C, latest DLSS dll 3.5.10 and very little NVidia sharpness on the top. Same procedure and even the same configuration I've been using with ACC and Forza Motorsport, except Forza Motorsport supports DLAA out of the box but it defaults to not the sharpest preset F, when C is much, much better, this is where DlssTweaks helps.
Samsung Odyssey G9 5120x1440 native resolution, WRC Ultra Preset. Smooth eye candy at 60-90fps depending on the track. Japan twisty mounting roads seems to be the most tasking one, but even there it never goes under 60. Really enjoyable driving, decent physics and FFB, tactile support, what's not to like.
Have you even tried it, or just parroting what your read on the net?
If you cannot make it run smooth at max setting with 4090, there must be some serious system or skill issue.

And I also helped others to set it up, so hardly the only person on Earth running it.
Uh, seriously shouldn't have to do any of what is described in the first sentence to in order to get a brand new game from one of the world's "premier" game development companies to look or run decent on current mid to high end hardware.

That fact that what you wrote is required doesn't reinforce your point at all.Quite the opposite.

No laughing, Just a **** situation.
 
Well it's also subjective. I
Laugh as much as you want, but it works brilliantly with DlssTweaks, Preset C, latest DLSS dll 3.5.10 and very little NVidia sharpness on the top. Same procedure and even the same configuration I've been using with ACC and Forza Motorsport, except Forza Motorsport supports DLAA out of the box but it defaults to not the sharpest preset F, when C is much, much better, this is where DlssTweaks helps.
Samsung Odyssey G9 5120x1440 native resolution, WRC Ultra Preset. Smooth eye candy at 60-90fps depending on the track. Japan twisty mounting roads seems to be the most tasking one, but even there it never goes under 60. Really enjoyable driving, decent physics and FFB, tactile support, what's not to like.
Have you even tried it, or just parroting what your read on the net?
If you cannot make it run smooth at max setting with 4090, there must be some serious system or skill issue.

And I also helped others to set it up, so hardly the only person on Earth running it.
Well, in a honestly I really thought that you were joking. But great for you that you got it running well with those tweaks. I'll give it a new try in ~5-6 month's once VR is implemented. This was the only title that could have made me return to my 100 inch screen for a while(until VR was released) but it's not worth it and I probably would have been annoyed at the screen/no VR anyway until that time so I'm happy that I refunded. I didn't have the chance to try DLSStweaks because I had to refund it within the max. 2 hours playtime, not enough time to tweak it properly and I didn't expect DLSStweaks to work because of Denuvo.

Great to hear that DLSStweaks does work properly but I don't understand that the CM dev's weren't able to implement DLSS/DLAA properly and that such a tool is needed. So I fully agree with what Metla just stated above here.
 

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