I started playing Spintires, and was immediately struck by the lack of tutorials or explanation for basic gameplay. I managed to learn what I needed to know from various sources, but never found one good place for all the answers I needed. So I thought I'd make one! I hope this helps people enjoy this wonderful game who might otherwise be discouraged at the start. This is by no means a comprehensive guide, but should be enough to let someone new to Spintires get to the point where they can enjoy the game, and then learn the more advanced aspects themselves. As there has been a good bit of interest in this guide so far, I will try to update it from time to time as I figure more things out. So check back once in a while.

When you first start the game, you will be given a choice of maps. I would start with the Coast map on normal difficulty. It will give you a good introduction to the basics of the game. It contains all of the trucks, and has examples of pretty much all of the terrain types featured in Spintires. You will then just be dropped into a truck, the A-469. Don’t worry about objectives to start with, just learn how to drive the truck. Start by driving south along the wide road until you get to the end of it, where you will find a C-4320 to unlock. It is one of the most versatile trucks in the game. From there, you can start by trying to reach the center of the cloaked areas of the map. The A-469 or the C-4320 are good choices for doing so. Don’t worry if you get stuck, as you can always rescue your truck to the starting garage from the map screen. Exploring will let you get the hang of driving, and allow you to unlock the other trucks on the map. After that, attach a Garage Carriage to a truck that will take one, and unlock the other garages. Then you will be ready to pick up some lumber and take it to the objectives. I would start with small logs, as they are the easiest to transport. You will need the Carriage attachment to transport them.

These are the basic controls as found in the pause menu. The camera controls take some getting used to, but in general, the default forward and backward cam is what you will use. You will get used to the camera control, but it can be frustrating at first. I will try to give instructions for playing with or without a controller. Know that if you use a controller, you will still need to use the mouse and keyboard (M/K) for some actions. I like using a controller, but this game seems to be set up pretty well for doing without it.

The gearbox has four components. You can shift between them by clicking the gearshift in the lower right corner of the screen with M/K, or by clicking the right thumbstick with a controller.



1. Automatic: This will shift up through the gears automatically, and will shift to reverse if the brake button is held down. Useful for areas where you want to go faster than you can in first gear, and where there aren't any hazards to worry about. In hardcore mode, Diff Lock is disabled in this gear.

2. Hi Gear: This gear is faster than first, but not as fast as auto gets. You cannot start out in this gear; the truck will just stall out. You have to gain some momentum, and then shift to it on the fly. It gives you more speed and is useful for powering through obstacles, but you are far more likely to do major damage to your truck. With practice, this gear can be useful, but beginners should leave it alone, as it can be tricky to control.

3. Manual First Gear: This is where you will spend most of your time. Keeps you in first gear. Gives you the maximum traction and torque. You will notice a gradient range in this gear. This allows you to change the tire speed while using M/K. If you right-click on the shift knob, you can use the mouse to move the lever to adjust your speed. If using a controller, it doesn’t matter where in this range you set it, because you have analog control of your speed with the trigger.

4. Manual Reverse Gear: Works just like the manual first gear, but going backwards.

All Wheels:
Sends power to all of the wheels. Consumes fuel faster. Having this on can help when moving through mud or over obstacles, but its main effect is allowing you to turn better in mud. Experiment with it, and you will learn when you can do without it.

Diff Lock:
Differential lock makes all of the drive wheels turn at the same rate. This is what powers you through mud or water. The downside is it makes tight turns more difficult, and it consumes fuel faster. Again, you will learn when you can turn it off, but you will need it a lot.

Starting out, just leave them both on until you get a feel for the game. Later you can experiment with taking them off to conserve fuel.

Winching out of the mud:
The winch is your first lifeline when you get stuck in the mud. Try it out before you get stuck, just so that you know how it works. Stop your truck near some trees. Click on the Advanced button, and you will see some circles appear on your truck. How many there are will depend on the truck, but there will be at least one on the front and one on the back. These are the places you can place the winch on your truck. Click on one on the front of your truck. Now you will see a large ring around your truck, and you will notice that any large trees within that ring have circles on them, like the ones that you saw on your truck. These are the objects you can attach your winch cable to. Pick one roughly in front of your truck and click on it.



Now click on the Advanced button again, and you will regain control of your truck. Now press the F key on the keyboard, and your winch will pull you forward. If you were stuck in the mud, combining this with the normal driving controls can get you out. When you are done, click the Advanced button again and click Release, or just click on the the big "X" where your cable is attached.



Winching another vehicle:
This is your second lifeline when stuck in the mud. If you get a truck stuck in the mud somewhere out of reach of trees, you can winch it out using another truck. To do so, attach the winch to the back of the mobile truck first, then to the stuck one.



This will give you more options than before. You can just pull the towed truck out, or tell it to accelerate and steer to follow you. If you choose "accel" in the options, pressing the "F" key will make the towed truck accelerate, but be aware that it will do so in whatever gear you left it in. Trying to tow a truck that is reversing is kind of a losing battle. Pick your options, then click Advanced to regain control of the mobile truck. Tow the stuck truck clear. Click Advanced again and Release when you’re done.

Open the map to try to see where you’re headed. I find it useful to start by rotating the map so that North is at the top. Parts will be blacked out, and can be cleared by reaching the center of the “cloaked” area. When using the map, you can set waypoints to plan out a route to your next objective. Left-clicking will set a waypoint, and right-clicking will remove the last waypoint placed.


This can be useful for reaching specific points by a specific path. Also, you can click on any unlocked trucks on the map to switch to them. Locked trucks have to be reached to unlock them. If playing on normal difficulty, you can also click on your garage to “rescue” your vehicle to it, where it will be fully repaired and refueled. Note that you will lose any load you may be carrying.

Different vehicles have different configurations of attachments that they will support. I won’t go into all of them, but it is worth noting that the reason many of them appear as “unavailable” is because there is already something installed in that slot, or because you have to install some other part to use that one. For instance, to haul medium logs, you have to remove the “carriage,” install the “log cart,” and then install the “medium log trailer.” Starting out, just stick with the “carriage,” as this will let you haul short logs, which are the easiest.

Also be aware that all attachments have weight, and will affect vehicle handling. For example, the Trunk attachment for the A-469 lets you repair a little damage, but it makes the vehicle top heavy and prone to taking way more damage than it would otherwise. Experiment with attachments once you have a better feel for the driving and have learned the map some. Some are great; others not so much.

The crane is a very useful tool in Spintires, but it takes practice to master. There are a lot of controls, and they are less than precise. I find it much easier to operate with a controller, but it is possible with M/K. The controls are as follows:

Mouse and Keyboard:
E and Q = claw up/down
R and T = rotate claw
W and S = claw forward/back
A and D = claw right/left
4 = open/close claw

Gamepad:
Left stick forward/back = claw down/up.
Left stick right/left = rotate claw.
Right stick forward back = claw forward/back.
Right stick right/left = claw right/left.
Left trigger = select next action.
Right trigger = execute selected action.

Open the Advanced menu to use the crane. With the controller, pressing the left trigger will select the action on the left that you want assigned to the right trigger. This is indicated with a little star. Most of the time you will want this set to Crane Grab. You can try to grab logs in the middle to keep them balanced, or grab them at one end and drag them around to the back of your trailer and into place that way. I won’t go into more detail on the crane here, as that is a guide in itself, and an excellent one has already been published here on Steam by KrisJay. Check it out.
http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=272188996

Additional resources can be found in other guides here on steam, or by clicking the “Manual” link on the right of the Spintires page of your library. I created this guide to help people enjoy what I consider to be a brilliant game. I am still playing the game myself, so I may update this guide as I discover new things and learn more about the mechanics. Still, this is all information that I had to go find myself that would have been good to know from the start. I got some of it from the manual, some from forums, and some by just figuring it out. Feel free to suggest stuff to add in the comments.

If this guide helps you out, great! That was my goal in making it. If you don’t like my guide, or think it should have been written differently, go write your own. It’s not hard. If you want to translate my guide into another language, that would be super cool; just let me know you are doing so, and please credit me. Any other usage, message me on steam to ask first.

Thanks to mendel and MangAnimE for tips that are now in the guide.
Thanks to Oovee for making such an awesome game.
Thanks to God for all that I have, and for sending His son Jesus to die for our sins.