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Heat: Pedal to the Metal
#47BGG8.0RATINGHOT #35
Updated Sep 12
1–6
PLAYERS
30–60
MINUTES
6
BEST WITH
2.2
MEDIUM
ERRATA2
Sponsorship one-time-use symbol names the wrong stepdesigner
- RULING
- The advanced rulebook's back-page definition of the one-time-use symbol says the marked cards are removed from the game during step 8 (Discard cards from hand). It should read step 9 (Discard played cards). Designer confirmation: "You are correct. Step 9 it is."
AUTHOR: megalomane (Daniel Skjold Pedersen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(1 reply, 11 thumbs)DATE: 2022-12-27Road Conditions setup wording corrected in the revised rulebookpublisher
- RULING
- "Shuffle the 12 Road Conditions tokens and draw as many as the number of corners on the track. The other ones won't be used for this race. Reveal one of the drawn tokens for each corner, in racing order. If the token shows the Sector Symbol, it modifies all the spaces between this and the next corner: put the token on the tent for that sector next to the track. A token without a Sector Symbol modifies the corner it was drawn for: put the token on the tent close to that corner."
AUTHOR: beewee (Franck, Days of Wonder, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(15 replies)DATE: 2023-02-09
DESIGNER CLARIFICATIONS24
Slipstream is two spaces or nothingdesigner
- CONTEXT
- Players asked whether a slipstream could be taken for a single space instead of the full two.
- RULING
- "If you have the right position, you can make a single slipstream move or choose not to. It is zero extra spaces or two extra spaces." You may never voluntarily slipstream only one space.
AUTHOR: AsgerAG (Asger Aleksandrov Granerud, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(39 replies)DATE: 2022-08-17Slipstream cannot be chaineddesigner
- CONTEXT
- A slipstream move can leave your car in a new position that again satisfies the slipstream condition.
- RULING
- "You may only slipstream once." A slipstream never triggers a second slipstream in the same round.
AUTHOR: megalomane (Daniel Skjold Pedersen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(14 replies)DATE: 2022-12-08Blocking applies to the slipstream movepublisher
- CONTEXT
- Distinct from D1: the two-space slipstream is always attempted in full, but ordinary blocking still resolves it.
- RULING
- "Blockage works as usual, which means that if you slipstream and that the space you are supposed to land in already has 2 cars in it then you put your car in the first available spot behind them (which can lead to a 1 space bonus or even completely nullify the slipstreaming bonus)." Being blocked into the slipstream position also still counts — if you are in the correct position at the beginning of step 6, you may slipstream.
AUTHOR: beewee (Franck, Days of Wonder, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(39 replies)DATE: 2022-08-23Slipstream and the finish linepublisher
- RULING
- You cannot slipstream if your move already carried you across the finish line, and you cannot slipstream if the slipstream itself would carry you across it. This exception applies only on the final lap of the race, "not when you cross it on the first or an intermediate lap."
AUTHOR: beewee (Franck, Days of Wonder, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(11 replies)DATE: 2022-11-10Slipstream Boost bonus symbols are optionaldesignerpublisher
- CONTEXT
- Slipstream Boost symbols can come from Upgrade cards, Weather tiles and Road Condition tokens.
- RULING
- "When it comes to the Slipstream Boost symbols, they are optional and separate. They also are bonus to your slipstream." You may take the basic two spaces and decline any or all of the bonuses. AsgerAG: "Franck is of course 100% correct."
AUTHOR: beewee (Franck, Days of Wonder, publisher), confirmed by AsgerAG (Asger Aleksandrov Granerud, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(11 replies)DATE: 2022-11-09Slipstreaming behind a car that spun outdesigner
- CONTEXT
- A car missed a corner, spun out and was placed back just before the corner; the next player's car ended its move directly behind it.
- RULING
- Yes — a spun-out car is a normal car for slipstream purposes.
AUTHOR: megalomane (Daniel Skjold Pedersen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(12 replies)DATE: 2022-10-13Every player can Boost in every geardesigner
- CONTEXT
- The React step reads "Only applies if you have access to symbols from cards played (Garage Module), Adrenaline or your current gear," which players read as gating Boost.
- RULING
- "You quoted the answer yourself '…or your current gear'. All gears have a + on the player board which means you may boost." Boost is available once per round regardless of gear, Adrenaline or cards played.
AUTHOR: megalomane (Daniel Skjold Pedersen, designer), confirmed by AsgerAG (designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(17 replies, 7 thumbs)DATE: 2022-11-16React-step symbols resolve one at a timepublisher
- CONTEXT
- Whether Boost and Adrenaline are added together into a single move or applied as separate moves, which changes how blocking resolves.
- RULING
- "In the React phase, you get to apply the symbols you have access to one by one, which means that you can move twice in the react phase (adrenaline and boost)." Blocking is checked after each individual move, and you choose the order in which the symbols resolve.
AUTHOR: beewee (Franck, Days of Wonder, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(26 replies, 8 thumbs)DATE: 2022-11-21Heat Upgrade cards start in your deck, not the Enginepublisherdesigner
- RULING
- A Heat Upgrade card is shuffled into your deck like every other Upgrade. It only reaches the Engine by being cooled down during play, and once it is in the Engine it behaves as an ordinary Heat card. AsgerAG on the rules-as-written reading: "You have understood the rules as written correctly."
AUTHOR: beewee (Franck, Days of Wonder, publisher); AsgerAG (Asger Aleksandrov Granerud, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(11 replies)DATE: 2022-07-21Direct Play symbolpublisher
- CONTEXT
- The rulebook's description ("You may play this card from your hand") reads as redundant, since all Upgrade cards are playable.
- RULING
- A Direct Play card may be added from your hand during the React step, on top of the number of cards your gear requires. "Note that you can still program this card in step 2 if you want to (or if you need to because of the Gear you are in). In this case, you simply ignore the symbol in Step 5 (you cannot play the card from your hand as it is already in your Play Area)."
AUTHOR: beewee (Franck, Days of Wonder, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(8 replies, 6 thumbs)DATE: 2022-12-19A Cluttered Hand does not prevent shifting geardesigner
- RULING
- You may shift gear up or down in step 1 even when your hand is cluttered, and even when the shift does not resolve the clutter. Asked whether a cluttered player may shift to 4th: "Yes, you may shift to 4th."
AUTHOR: AsgerAG (Asger Aleksandrov Granerud, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(5 replies, 5 thumbs)DATE: 2022-10-16Cluttered Hand: playable cards firstdesigner
- RULING
- The Cluttered Hand rule is mandatory in order: "Use means you must use non heat cards, before heat cards." You cover the remaining difference with Heat cards only after every playable non-Heat card has been used.
AUTHOR: AsgerAG (Asger Aleksandrov Granerud, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(5 replies, 5 thumbs)DATE: 2022-10-16Cluttered Hand: played cards have no effectdesigner
- RULING
- "None of the cards played will come into effect. As soon as you reveal a played heat card, discard the entire hand" — clarified by the designer immediately afterwards to mean the played cards, not the remainder of the hand. The played cards go to the discard pile and the car does not move.
AUTHOR: AsgerAG (Asger Aleksandrov Granerud, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(5 replies, 5 thumbs)DATE: 2022-10-24Deliberately playing an Upgrade whose Heat cost you cannot paydesigner
- CONTEXT
- The rulebook only describes what happens if you "accidentally" play an Upgrade whose Heat cost you cannot pay. A player with a hand full of Heat asked whether they could do it on purpose.
- RULING
- It is legal. The "accidentally played" rule covers the case regardless of intent: the Upgrade is discarded and treated as a "+". The designer endorsed the reading that this is "an allowable loophole" — "Ryan has it spot on in the above post."
AUTHOR: AsgerAG (Asger Aleksandrov Granerud, designer), endorsing Ryan Keane's postSOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(37 replies, 11 thumbs)DATE: 2022-12-29Top-of-card effects resolve in step 3, in any order you choosedesigner
- CONTEXT
- Whether a Brake card's value must be locked in before a Stress card flipped in the same step is revealed, and whether "+" effects trigger in step 3 or step 5.
- RULING
- "Every single top corner part of a card played, is executed during step 3. They are however, executed in any order you choose. Hence you could choose to do it after the stress reveal. And there is no point in doing otherwise." This includes "+" and Accelerate flips, which resolve "in phase 3 where you reveal/determine your speed," not in the React step.
AUTHOR: AsgerAG (Asger Aleksandrov Granerud, designer); megalomane (Daniel Skjold Pedersen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(4 replies, 5 thumbs)DATE: 2023-02-11Dual-value Brake cardsdesigner
- RULING
- "The card has two speed values. You decide if it is speed 1 or 4 when you reveal it to move your car." The two numbers are alternative Speed values, not a reduction applied to your speed.
AUTHOR: megalomane (Daniel Skjold Pedersen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(16 replies, 5 thumbs)DATE: 2022-12-02Accelerate applies to every card flipped that turndesignerpublisher
- RULING
- "It is +1 speed on ALL flipped cards this turn (incl. itself and any stress, boost etc.). You can decide not to use it (it isn't mandatory)." Cards revealed and discarded because they show no Speed icon do not count as flipped.
AUTHOR: megalomane (Daniel Skjold Pedersen, designer); beewee (Franck, Days of Wonder, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(17 replies)DATE: 2022-11-21Legends ignore corners after the finish linedesigner
- CONTEXT
- The rulebook states that a player's speed on the turn they cross the finish line is not checked against later corners, but says nothing about Legend cars.
- RULING
- "Blue moves 18 (ignoring corners after the finish line just like players do)." A Legend car moves its full value and ignores any corner it passes after crossing the line.
AUTHOR: megalomane (Daniel Skjold Pedersen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(5 replies, 8 thumbs)DATE: 2022-12-20Legends use the modified corner speeddesigner
- CONTEXT
- Road Condition tokens can raise or lower a corner's speed limit by 1; Legend movement lines are keyed to corner speeds.
- RULING
- Legend cars check against the modified corner speed. Road Condition and Weather tokens affect Legends through their +1/-1 corner effects only.
AUTHOR: megalomane (Daniel Skjold Pedersen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(4 replies, 4 thumbs)DATE: 2022-11-14Drafting Upgrades when playing Legends with the Garage moduledesigner
- RULING
- Draft normally — "4 cards each draft round." Combining Legends with the Garage module does not change the draft.
AUTHOR: megalomane (Daniel Skjold Pedersen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(2 replies, 7 thumbs)DATE: 2022-12-05The Championship can be played solodesigner
- RULING
- Yes. The Championship campaign is playable in solo mode against Legend cars, and modules may be combined freely: "You can combine all of it, or as much as you like."
AUTHOR: megalomane (Daniel Skjold Pedersen, designer)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(2 replies, 7 thumbs)DATE: 2022-12-05Nobody may browse a discard pile, including their ownpublisher
- RULING
- "You cannot browse through discard piles, even your own (an advanced upgrade cards allow you to do so though)." Only the top card of a discard pile is public knowledge.
AUTHOR: beewee (Franck, Days of Wonder, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(5 replies, 3 thumbs)DATE: 2022-10-11The Engine is public informationpublisher
- RULING
- The Engine is not treated like a discard pile. "Regarding the Engine, only Heat cards go there so no need to look through the pile. The number of cards in the Engines is public. You can ask your opponents how many Heat cards they have there."
AUTHOR: beewee (Franck, Days of Wonder, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(5 replies, 3 thumbs)DATE: 2022-10-11Britain championship: "first 3 to cross the finish line"publisher
- CONTEXT
- Four cars crossed the line in the same round; players disagreed whether the first three were determined by turn order or by final position.
- RULING
- The Sponsor card is gained the instant a car crosses the line, in turn order within the round. "As soon as a car cross the Line they add a Sponsor card to their hand. It doesn't matter if it is actually 4th or even 6th at the end of the round."
AUTHOR: beewee (Franck, Days of Wonder, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(8 replies, 3 thumbs)DATE: 2023-07-03
EDGE CASES1
An Upgrade's Heat cost becomes unpayable mid-movepublisher
- SITUATION
- A player programs an Upgrade with a Heat cost expecting to cover it with a cooldown, but the move carries their car into a sector whose Road Condition token forbids cooldown, leaving the cost unpayable. Undoing the move would restore the cooldown, which appears to create a loop.
- RULING
- There is no loop. "You played the Upgrade card, but cannot pay for it as you don't have any Heat in your Engine. In this situation, the Rule states that the card is discarded and replaced by the first card from your deck (by following the + symbol rule)." The card has left the Play Area, so regaining access to Heat afterwards does not reactivate it, and the resulting shorter move is not recalculated.
AUTHOR: beewee (Franck, Days of Wonder, publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(17 replies)DATE: 2023-10-18
Last researched: 2026-08-10
CATEGORIES
Racing·Sports
MECHANICS
Catch the LeaderDeck, Bag, and Pool BuildingHand ManagementProgrammed MovementPush Your LuckRaceSimulationSimultaneous Action SelectionSolo / Solitaire Game
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