Berita
How to survive the wasteland in Without a Hitch
D
Diego Nicolás Argüello
Evoking elements from the likes of R.E.P.O., Rocket League, and Lethal Company, Without a Hitch turns a chaotic mix of influences into a playground for both solo players and parties alike. The latter is where the experience truly shines, allowing teams to experiment with different strategies while navigating procedurally generated levels.
When we spoke to Codename Entertainment, the team emphasized that each run is designed to be unpredictable. The layout of the levels will be different, players can collide and pick each other up, and humor emerges spontaneously from interactions with other participants. But this isn't a free-for-all, free-roam type of game. Its six-day structure gives players a sense of progression while also leaving room for surprise, chaos, and emergent stories.
Whether you're making sure not to fall into lava or dodging lasers from a massive robot with a kitty head roaming the wasteland, there's much to learn about the world of Without a Hitch if you want to make sure your deliveries arrive as safely as possible. From the best upgrades to pick to survival tips, either alone or with others, we've covered our wheels in dust to bring you everything you need to know before you venture into the wasteland yourself.
Do the tutorial
Let's start with the basics. Without a Hitch only allows you to host games, meaning that you won't be able to join others unless you're invited. Once you've coordinated with others, you'll be sent to a starting area. This is a useful tutorial that you may be tempted to skip—after all, there is an open window that allows you to just squeeze through and jump to the exterior base—but doing so would be a disservice.
First of all, the tutorial is quite short and valuable. You'll learn the basics of what your car is capable of, as well as some of the puzzles you can expect. Your vehicle-mounted crane allows you to pick up and carry almost anything. Moreover, the crane can throw things at a distance, even if that thing happens to be a fellow car.
As you work on delivering a crate of unknown contents to its destination (humorously called "123 Fake Street"), you'll come across a series of doors and paths to unlock, using objects to activate plates or gathering specific items that essentially work as keys. The tutorial won't spoil every single surprise out there, but it'll prevent you from being caught totally unprepared. If you can nail the basics, the more complex puzzles and points of interest across a map won't be as daunting.
The tutorial also serves as a great introduction to the comedic tone of Without a Hitch, all the way from cardboard cuts of Martians and what seems like infected sharks to a super long delivery agreement and avoidable risk waiver that you can sign without reading. In just a couple of minutes, you're immediately drawn into the world, getting an idea of what to expect.
The best spots to gain money from
Influenced by quite a few recent multiplayer games, Without a Hitch tasks you with hitting a specific money quota when you travel from point A to B. Every time you leave your base, you'll get a message saying how much money you'll need to earn per day, starting with $25,000. It sounds like a lot, but don't fret, as there are plenty of ways to gather what you need.
The easiest is to keep an eye out for other cars. Look for yellow icons on the map with a small car in them, or just be attentive while driving and double jumping around, and you're bound to come across them. These cars always have quite a bit of loot. Is it grim? Probably. But you have to do what's necessary to survive. Some enemies might be hiding nearby, however, so always have an escape plan at hand.
There are also specific events and points of interest that you need to discover around the map. Some, like The Golden Egg, are definitely worth your time. You just need to use your crane to grab small eggs around the area, put them inside four empty chalices, and then grab the golden egg. Once you break it, you'll get some precious loot from inside.
Challenges and puzzles like these are fairly straightforward, but when it comes to the ones that require some acrobatics, it can get tricky. If you spot one that might seem hard to pull off, especially at the beginning of a run when you don't have many upgrades installed on your car, it's best to leave them as a last resort. Chances are you'll be able to hit the quota by tackling other tasks elsewhere.
Upgrade durability, boost, and jump
Speaking of which, everything you collect during a run—which accounts for all valuables from the time you get your package to the time you deliver it—is added to the team's piggy bank. You don't lose this money when making a delivery, so you can use it to get yourself some car upgrades.
There are quite a few boosts to pick from, but the best ones are the durability upgrade to gain more health, increasing the boost capacity to use your nitro longer, and strengthening your jump power. You can also get a triple jump, which is as pricey as it is useful. If you're struggling with puzzles that require some acrobatics and hard jumps, that specific upgrade will go a long way.
Make sure to work together
Without a Hitch can be enjoyed in single player, but having more hands (or, uh, wheels) on deck brings an assortment of benefits. In sequences where you have to put weight on a platform to open a door or enable a path, remember that your car, or a friend's, will be enough to get the job done. As long as the timing is right, you'll be able to blast through it without issues. Whether or not you trust your friend to not pull a joke on you, of course, depends on how well you know each other.
Moreover, remember that the crane can also pick up fellow cars, so you can save a teammate who might be about to fall off a cliff, for example.
When it comes to enemies, there isn't much you can do to defend yourself, but if you have a full party, you can have one car serve as bait while the others storm in and grab what they need.
Last but not least, remember to divide and conquer. If you're on a team of four, you can go ahead and split into two groups to tackle tasks simultaneously in different areas of the map. It'll make for much more efficient runs.
How to get more cosmetic items
Codename Entertainment understands that cosmetics are a crucial element in multiplayer games. In Without a Hitch, there are different ways to get them:
- If you notice a car with a golden glow emanating from within, that means it'll likely have a cosmetic item alongside valuables for your quota.
- Getting all four letters on a map to form the word W.O.A.H. will net you a special cosmetic.
- Keep an eye on achievements, too, as they usually reward you not just with a serotonin boost, but an in-game cosmetic as well.
How to survive and revive out there
The wasteland is no joke. As many upgrades as you can add to a car, offensive tools aren't one of them. There are plenty of enemies that won't hesitate to try and hunt you down, so watch out!
If foes are giving you a hard time, there are ways to mitigate the challenge. You can get an upgrade to enable passive repair, which recovers a percentage of your car's health per second. There's also self-revive, although it's a pricey upgrade, and there are other ones that you could be spending your money on instead that will give you a better bang for your buck.
If your car is destroyed, you'll become a ghost tire. If this happens, don't fret—you'll get a timer along with the chance to look for a respawn point. These are cars that look like a mechanic truck, and you'll spot them with a heart icon on the map. Get to them, bring your car back to life, and return to the marked spot to pick up your package and continue driving along.
You can pick up loot without holding the package box
You may not know this, but you can actually pick up valuables from the ground with your crane and carry them without. There are situations, especially some puzzles, in which your package may be in danger of getting damaged, which causes the overall price of your current valuables to drop. Or, worse yet, it can fall into lava, forcing you to purchase a new box altogether. If you feel like the box is best left somewhere else as you tackle a puzzle or a point of interest, go ahead and bring the loot manually with you—or toss it by doing a long-range throw if your aim is good enough.
Without a Hitch is available on Epic Games Store.