I really enjoy playing through Monopoly GO’s events. While I find Peg-E fun, my true joy comes from Partners events. With Tycoon Racers becoming available worldwide for the first time this week, I was curious how it compares to some of my favorite events and whether I’d have a blast with it.
So far, I’m enjoying Tycoon Racers a lot, but there’s a glaring issue that I’m conflicted on: the difficulty. There are many competitive people out there, and for a group of casual players who rarely have more than a few hundred dice on them at a time, it’s almost intimidating to see.
Unlike Partners events with very clear milestones that can snowball your progress, Tycoon Racers feels like a constant uphill battle, with no guarantee that you’ll get anything out of it. You can also get thousands of dice from a Partners event in one day, with Tycoon Racers rewarding significantly less. It does offer milestone rewards in the form of completing laps around the track, but you’ll often find yourself claiming more flags or taking 100 dice just to get slightly farther in your race.
What is Tycoon Racers, exactly?
Tycoon Racers works in a multi-stage format where you pick your teammates, collect flags, and match up against three other four-player teams. After around 24 hours, you’ll all start racing around a race track, collecting milestone rewards and points to signal your placement. After another 24 hours, you’ll complete your first race, get your placement medals, and repeat this twice more. You’ll find your final rank once you complete your three races and receive a reward for your placement.
After you finish your three races, you’ll get a final score that determines your reward. You’ll get 3,500 dice, a Wild Sticker, and the Tycoon Racer token if you’re in first place. The prizes for second place are 1,000 dice and a five-star pack, while third and fourth place are the equivalent of participation ribbons. In an event like this, it’s all or nothing, as the dice you use to obtain points are far beyond what you’ll receive in return, even if you get first. Nonetheless, the Wild Sticker is a decent prize if you get lucky with your teams and opponents.
Off to a rocky start
Immediately, the initial stage of selecting a team was already a little stressful. I have one person I always team up with for every event, but beyond this, we didn’t have an exact game plan for how to navigate this event. All I knew was that I was intrigued, albeit slightly confused. Nonetheless, I partnered up with my usual friend, found someone else to invite, and got a random player to join near the end of the planning phase. All things considered, I was optimistic, as I was mainly excited to try a new event for the first time.
With that in mind, I’m enjoying the change of pace. I was looking for something interesting and different, and Tycoon Racers scratches that itch. Getting the top prize is a welcome bonus; above all, I’m looking forward to working with my friends and getting a little competitive, even if I don’t necessarily define myself as competitive.
Things are getting a little competitive
As of now, Monopoly GO’s Tycoon Racers event is still ongoing, and the standings look pretty good. I got lucky and found a five-star sticker that I needed to finish one of my albums during the team phase, so I used the dice to fly through a few Grease and Glory milestones beforehand. We’re in first now, but knowing how most Monopoly GO events progress, I don’t expect this to last very long.
After all, competitiveness is what makes events like Tycoon Racers so challenging. In some cases, you’ll match up against a team or two who are so determined to win that they’ll get every event reward possible to collect thousands of flags before soaring through, grabbing lap milestone prizes, and snowballing their success. It’s impressive to see, yet it’s almost discouraging when you’re a group of casual players who just want to have fun. I enjoy the competitiveness to an extent, but I’m slightly disheartened by the game’s habit of having teams skyrocket to quadruple your score in a short time with no hope of making a comeback.
At the end of it all, though, Tycoon Racers is designed for competition. You collaborate with your team to collect points, but at its core, you compete directly against three other teams to reach the top. Whether you get there depends almost entirely on your determination. Sure, there’s luck involved with your dice popper rolls, but this is only half the battle. Getting into the nitty-gritty of min-maxing your rolls, trading stickers to get more dice, and looking out for rewards links all contribute to your success. Fortunately, if you’re competitive, you may have a blast with this aspect of the event. I’m conflicted over whether it’s worth the ending prize.
Is it worth it for 3,500 dice, a Wild Sticker, and a cosmetic token? Honestly, I can’t even tell you for certain. I love cosmetics, so I’ll still try my best during this race to get it. However, if you like to conserve their dice for future events, it may be worth sitting out on this one and waiting until another Partner or Treasures event appears.
