Need for Speed: Most Wanted/Pursuit system

Most Wanted features a far more sophisticated pursuit system and police AI than its predessecors. This section aims to provide you with the information needed to face police pursuits and end them.

Initiating a pursuit

In career mode, you run the risk of facing the wrath of the police if you have committed traffic offenses, including:

Property damage
Traffic collisions
Off-road driving
Speeding
Racing

When police talk about your car and your offences, it is a warning that police cars are in the area. You will need to watch out for closing police units using the upper radar (which tracks the location of a nearby unit and proximity to it). Once a police unit acquires visual contact of your car, the camera zooms in on the police unit to indicate where it is. Then, a pursuit begins.

In the event that you have a higher heat level, 2-5, all that has to happen is for the police to see you. They will then initiate a pursuit.

Heat levels

The aggressiveness of the police depends on the "Heat", or wanted level, of your car. Heat is collected during pursuit, when you are seen committing police offenses or continuing to engage in police pursuits.

While in chase, the police will refer to yours "Heat" level as a "Condition". There is a total of 7 Conditions in the game.

Condition 1, when district police will chase your car using Ford Crown Victoria-like police cruisers
Condition 2, when district police will chase your car using black, unmarked Ford Crown Victoria-like cruisers
Condition 3, when the state police will take over and use Pontiac GTO police cars against your car.
Condition 4, when state police will chase your car using black, unmarked Pontiac GTO cars
Condition 5, when the federal police will take over and use Chevrolet Corvette C6 police cars against your car. Sergeant Cross' elite Street Racing Unit will also participate in the prusuit.with cross in tow
Condition 6, when the federal police will combine black, unmarked Corvettes with the use of Rhino SUV's. Sergeant Cross himself will also participates in the pursuit along with his Street Racing Unit.
Condition 7, when the police will only use Heavy Rhino SUV's against your car. This condition is only available in the Black Edition of Most Wanted, within in a Challenge mode mission.

Police tactics

Heat Level 1 - The District police will simply chase you around.
Heat Level 2 - The District police will start using roadblocks.
Heat level 3 - The District police will start using Light Rhino SUVs.
Heat Level 4 - The State police will use Heavy Rhino SUVs, spike strips, and will call in a police helicopter to supervise the chase.
Heat Level 5 - The federal police will use all of the above tactics in the other heat levels

Heat levels can be reduced by changing the physical appearance of you car in a parts shop, or using another car you are owning to race while storing the other car in your garage (each completed race using that car will reduce the heat level for the other car in storage).

Infractions

Speeding- driving in police vision in excess of 150mph
Excessive Speeding- driving in police vision in excess of 180mph
Property Damage- running through destroyable scenery, including signs and light posts
Ramming a Police Vehicle- coming into contact with a police vehicle
Driving Off Road- driving your vehicle out of the lines binding the road edge
Resisting Arrest- awarded for entering cooldown after successfully evading custody
Hit and Run- hitting another car while in view of the police
Reckless Driving- driving in police vision in excess of 200 mph

In some cars, the speeding, excessive speeding, and reckless driving infractions may require a slightly higher speed.

Pursuit Breakers and Speedbreakers

The game introduces two new pursuit-related features: Pursuit Breakers and Speed Breakers

Pursuit Breakers, marked as triangles in the city map during pursuits, are road-side objects which are designated to collapse when you use your car to knock down its support, damaging or disabling following police cars. This feature is the best way to cut down the number of police units chasing you, as it is far more effective than evading the police units with speed, which will not always work. However, take note that you will need police units to be close to you and behind you when using Pursuit Breakers. Obviously, police units in front of you may not be affected by the collapsing debris, and police units far behind can easily avoid the falling objects. Each Pursuit Breaker will be replenished after a certain amount of time. On a side note, Pursuit Breakers may also be use in the same way to crash racing opponents.

The Speedbreaker is basically a bullet-time mode that slows down time and allows you to control your car quickly for a limited time. This feature is best used to find a weak point of a roadblock, or avoid incoming Rhino SUVs. Speedbreakers are also useful during fast-paced races, where you are required to avoid traffic (particularly in drag racing), maneuver tight corner or realign you car to take a shortcut. Each steering turn using a Speed Breaker, however, sends the car in a drift that could slow your car down; as such, it is also effective in taking sharp corners, and comes in handy for tough tollbooth races.

Hint: If you see a roadblock, use the Speedbreaker to find a weak spot in the block, then come out of Speedbreaker mode and use a nitrous oxide speed boost to effectively smash through it. If you have no choice but to hit a police car, aim your car at the back tires of the police car.

Pursuit status bar

A crucial indicator to take note of during police pursuits is the pursuit status bar, located at the bottom of your computer screen, this bar helps you indicate the current status of the pursuit, the number of police cars in pursuit, the amount of time before the next back of backup arrives, and the risk of you getting arrested.

The time remaining before backup arrives, obviously, indicates the amount of time before a large group of police units joins in to chase you. When this time runs out, you will see additional units waiting for you ahead, in addition to Rhino SUV units attempting to stop you. This counter will reappear again after the pursuit party is reduced to a small number of police units, whereby they request for back up again.

During pursuit, the meter will indicate the risk of you being arrested or the chances of you evading the police. If your car stops close to the presence of the police, the meter moves to the left, with the bar turning red, indicating that you will be arrested; driving your car away at a minimal speed will lower this risk. If all pursuing police units are far away from your car, or have lost contact of your car, the meter moves to the right and turns green, indicating that you will be evading the police.

The bar also indicates other information about police units: The number of police units disabled, and the number of police units which had a "exchange of paint", or physical contact from you car.

After evading the police, this bar will switch to a "Cooldown bar:, which will be explained in the next section.

Cooldown

Upon evading the police, you are still required to avoid the police for an allocated time, known as a "Cooldown" period, until they give up and cancel search. Cooldown periods will be indicated in a bar where the pursuit status bar was. In this period, the police will still initiate search of your car; thus it is usually required that you avoid police units to avoid another new pursuit. In order to endure a Cooldown period, you will usually required to stop at an area that will rarely or never be seen by the police, usually off roadways and in covered spots. Hiding spots are also provided on the map; driving into these zones will speed up Cooldown time and shorten the Cooldown period.

Under higher heat levels, however, Cooldown periods will be longer, while more police units will be searching for your car, and cars with over 4 heat levels will be sought for by police helicopters, which are capable of finding your car easily if you are not hidden very well.

Arrest

When your Pursuit Status Bar on the bottom of your screen goes all of the way to the left (Busted), the game will switch to a cut-scene showing you being taken into custody. A police officer will simply arrest you or in some instances, your character will try to resist and the police officer will retalliate (ergo the "T" rating). After an arrest you are required to pay fines owed on the current pursuit as well as fines from others that you have evaded. You also have the option to use a "Get out of Jail Free" marker to avoid having to pay any fines at all. In the unlucky case where you happen to not have enough money to pay your fine, your car will be impounded.

Milestones

Milestones are one of three requirements set out by Blacklist racers that have to be completed in order to race them. Milestones may vary from Blacklist racer to Blacklist racer. Please note that to complete milestones, you have to successfully evade the pursuit.

Bounty Challenge- Requires a certain amount of bounty to be aquired in a single pursuit.
Cost to State Challenge- Cause the police to spend a certain amount of money to apprehend you in a single pursuit.
Roadblocks Challenge- Requires you to avoid a certain amount of roadblocks in a single pursuit.
Spike Strip Challenge- Requires you to avoid a certain amount of spike strips in a single pursuit.
Pursuit Time Challenge(less than)- Requires you to evade a pursuit under a set amount of time.
Pursuit Time Challenge(greater than)- Requires you to keep a police chase going for a set amount of time.
Trade Paint Challenge- Requires for your car to come in contact with a set amount of police cars in a single pursuit.
Infractions Challenge- Requires you to commit a set amount of infractions in a single pursuit.

Bounty

Bounty is another requirement to race a Blacklist racer. Bounty is calculated on three things; the length of the pursuit, the number of police vehicles immobilized, and milestones being completed. The more of each one of these that you get, the higher your bounty goes, plain and simple.

Rap sheet

Your rap sheet is a database where the Rockport police can access your street racing files. These files include your vehicle database, rankings compared to the 14 other Blacklist racers, pursuit information, etc. Your rap sheet is accessible from your safehouse in Career Mode.