Dakar Desert Rally navigation guide: How to stop getting lost

Watch for Dakar Desert Rally navigation guide tips and tricks. Just in case you spend more time getting lost in the wilderness than not.

While in many games your hand is held tightly as you navigate around their virtual worlds, Dakar Desert Rally gives you training wheels in Sport mode and then, in Professional and Simulation, proceeds to take them off, set you on fire and push you over a cliff.

Honestly, in the first few events I was hopelessly lost more often than not, unable to get back on track and rather confused. Obviously this an important element to an officially licensed game of the real navigation-based Dakar Rally, but the difficulty curve can cause you to give up.

This is despite a fairly decent tutorial, so here I am giving you some tips that got me to the point of finishing every event except for one of the ridiculously long Simulation beasts – and the only reason that is unfinished is because I wanted to make this video.

So let’s get straight to it, after you like and subscribe obviously. Just bear in mind that what works for me may not work for you but hopefully you will pick up some useful info along the way. Also, getting lost happens in the real race – that is the challenge, remember. So avoid despairing.

Please note: This is the script from my YouTube video, click play above to watch or go here.

Dakar Desert Rally navigation: General tips & tricks

Now in my experience the most important things I use to keep on track and secure a podium finish are the cap bearing and some key pace note instructions.

Yeah, yeah. Captain Obvious is here, but honestly “follow traces”, “forward on traces”, “stay on track” and “forward on track” are four of the most important instructions. These mean stick to the visible trail ahead of you and therefore give you time to make fast progress and check what is ahead.

Cap bearing

Cap bearing, which is read out by Mr Pace Note if he is sitting next to you (no such luxury on a bike or quadbike), is the upper right number – between 0 and 360 degrees as you would expect from a circle. Or, more precisely, a compass.

This number can be confusing sometimes and does not always line up exactly with your vehicle, depending on whether you took a corner wide or are mid-slide, but it gives you an accurate estimate of the direction you should be heading.

Being told “stay left” and cap bearing “something” is a sure-fire way to know you are going left at the fork in the road – factor in the “stay on traces” or “stay on course” and you can cruise onwards in blissful peace. For now, anyway.

Sometimes you may have to double-check your route choice if there are multiple similar routes ahead of you such as two or three lefts. Snaking about to drag the compass across all options will help you work out which route is closest to the required cap bearing.

A useful thing to bear in mind is that cap bearing number increases when you go right and decreases when going left, although confusingly increasing can mean going up to 360 degrees then back round to zero and so on.

The key, then, is not that the number is larger or smaller, but that it is ascending from what it is now for right or descending for left. Or it is roughly the same, meaning you are heading straight on your current bearing.

Ignore Mr Pace Note

In addition, it helps to know when to ignore Mr Pace Note when he is clearly drunk and needs to go home. Things like “between two trees” and “between two rocks” – I usually have no idea which bit of the forest or rockpile he is talking about.

He also sometimes says to “leave traces” or “leave track”, which can mean a really obvious moment of leaving a trail to go off-piste into the middle of nowhere. But it can also mean you swapped from traces to track or vice versa, meaning stay on the visible path. So technically you never left.

Of course, if he says, “leave track” or “leave traces” or “off track” and then shortly after says “you are heading away from the cap”, then you know it is time to go into the wilderness. A roadbook picture glance should confirm this.

What about when totally lost?

So what about those times when you get lost and are finding it hard to work out where to go? In this instance, you can listen to Mr Pace Note and backtrack at the cap bearing he says although this can be hit and miss.

One option is that in Sport and Professional you can admit defeat and go into options and select ‘Last Waypoint’. This can put you back a big or small distance, depending on how big the checkpoint gap is and how far you travelled, but it will save the day. Learning when to cut your losses is useful.

Alternatively, listen to the cap bearing he keeps telling you and follow it while having a look at the last instruction and distance. If the pictures show lots of straight arrows, then get back on that bearing you originally had and can see in the roadbook note before.

There is no shame in a quick stop or reduced speed to avoid making your current mileage and pace note mileage too different, something that can add to the confusion.

You can also use another racer to guide you for the stage if you are happy overtaking later or just want to finish above eighth to avoid a race restart. Obviously though, aiming for first often means you are on your own.

Drunk pace notes

Annoyingly there are times when Dakar Desert Rally navigation tells you to go back and that you are using the wrong cap bearing despite the fact this is untrue. I suspect an invisible checkpoint is used and if you miss it then the game thinks you never got there and wants you to keep looking for it.

Eventually you learn when whopping great porkies are being told, but until then and even after use the stage progress bar on the left. If the indicator stops moving or you start heading back towards a previous checkpoint, you know things have gone wrong.

Even if Mr Pace Note is giving you bad advice you will clearly see the next checkpoint approaching, hopefully rapidly, and eventually it should flag as visited and normal directional service will resume.

Personally I find the roadbook images confusing more often than not, but maybe a quick check can work for you – and on a quad or motorbike it becomes essential. In this instance you always want to ensure the roadbook instruction distance and distance travelled are the same or similar.

Basically, do whatever takes you the least time to check and is least concentration-sapping. When on motorbike or quad bike get used to the different colours and lines.

You can use the bumper buttons or equivalent on PC (X and Z according to the menu) to adjust the instructions up and down if necessary, which can prove useful if the roadbook is lagging behind. Or you want to peek ahead. Doing this manually as you pass each instruction can help keep things simple.

Also useful is the view reset in case things get a bit overwhelming. On Xbox and presumably PlayStation, click the left joystick. On a PC keyboard it is the tab button.

Course memorisation

Of course, if your Dakar Desert Rally navigation skills fail you can rely on course memorisation (unless it is a 5,100km+ epic). Run a stage once or twice and then hopefully on the third run and beyond you know where not to make the same mistakes.

Given that Dakar Desert Rally gives you ‘ultimate reward’ vehicles for completing stages multiple times in different vehicles, familiarity is inevitable. And thankfully because each vehicle type handles differently, it is a palatable process. Except when it comes to those annoying quad bikes (improved in update 1.4, thankfully).

Is Simulation tougher?

Well, it is different to Professional. The navigation stuff is potentially trickier, but the stages seem to go off-piste less and the 140kmh speed limit makes working out your directions easier than at 200+ in a mighty DAF legend.

Summing up

In summary, focus on cap bearing if there is one and keep tabs on your current distance driven and the pace note it correlates to. If in doubt, use the roadbook image and decrease speed to let your brain catch up.

Because processing everything while driving fast is the challenge at hand and what makes Dakar Desert Rally such a satisfying racer. If it was easy this would be just another Forza wannabe with admittedly as equally pretty visuals. On a good PC, at least.

If really stuck, keep to trucks, cars and SXS lightweight vehicles for the added comfort blanket of Mr Pace Note. Then when comfortable give the pace note-less bikes and quadbikes a go.

Admittedly, this may seem like a wall of speech just hit you like a tidal wave – and I get that. Honestly though, Dakar Desert Rally rewards patience with driving thrills and a sense of satisfaction so put in some practice.

I still make the odd mistake, especially when I choose a vehicle that lacks Mr Pace Note. However, most of the time navigation becomes this automated process where things just make sense and somehow you make it to the finish line in one piece – and just before last orders.