So you all know that both CR and XP are basically restricted by time played. You can only earn so much CR or XP in say an hour. With the Black Friday sales coming up (30 % off every car in the store, 35 % with the perk) and 18 million CR in my account I was starting to think about the best way to actually make money. I used to think that by using XP/Skills HE cars you could actually make more money than by using a Credits HE car. You earn much more XP and that is good for wheelspins which again give you CR. And I never questioned that. But I realized that with XP requirements for level-ups steadily rising from level 300+ (20.000+ XP) to level 900+ (200.000 XP) the reward for using XP/Skills HE cars over Credits HE cars would slowly get less. But does it actually make sense to switch?
Turns out it does and it does so much earlier than I anticipated. I did a one lap test on Goliath, these were the results.
Credits HE car (Ford GT), 11:00 minutes lap time
40.000 CR race finish
40.000 CR difficulty bonus (I run with a 100 % multiplier, automatic transmission on, braking on, Drivatars Unbeatable)
30.000 CR lineup bonus (I have 2 drivers with level 200, 1 with level 400, 1 with level 750)
40.000 CR HE car bonus
40.000 CR double credits perk bonus
Which is a total of 190.000 CR in 11 minutes. I also got
35.000 XP race finish
10.000 XP lineup bonus
3.500 XP perk bonus
30.000 XP skills perk bonus (perk that gives 3x skills XP)
4.000 XP clean racing bonus
Which is a total of 84.500 XP.
Now let’s assume it takes 60.000 XP to level up once, which would be at level 433. A wheelspin on average is worth something like 60.000 CR if you’re a VIP, So the XP I earned would be good for 84.500 CR. Which puts the total earnings of one lap on Goliath to 274.500 CR.
But how much do I make in an XP/Skills HE car? Well, an XP car gives double base rewards. So I lose the CR HE car bonus and win more XP:
150.000 CR
119.500 XP
These are good for 119.500 CR, which totals 269.500 CR
And a Skills car doubles the skills bonus. I guess some people can get more from skills than I do but not that much more based on lap times. You’re either fast or you are skillful. Anyhow it boils down to
150.000 CR
114.500 XP
in my case, which totals 264.500 CR.
So the Credits HE car actually gives the most money if you are higher than level 433. My math could be off and wheelspin rewards on average are actually much higher (though I doubt it, even if you’re lucky and get an HE car in 100 levelup spins that is only worth less than 10.000 CR per level), so let’s assume it is actually 80.000 CR on average for VIPs. Then we end up with 294.500 CR for the Credits HE car and 310.000 CR for the XP HE car. So it takes a few more levels to make the switch. If it takes us 80.000 XP to level up we earn 274.500 CR in a Credits HE car and 269.500 CR in an XP HE car. And it takes 80.000 XP to level up at level 500+.
So if you want to make money and you are higher than level 433, go use a Credits HE car to make the most money. The payouts for the XP cars have diminishing returns unless you are an extraordinarily great skills driver.