Drive Cars Down A Hill Dunes Walkthrough (Day 1)

Dunes is Day 1, the oldest chapter in Drive Cars Down A Hill, and the hill the rest of the game is built from. Spawn is an unnamed rural Nevada town. Community maps place it east of Tonopah along US-6; you do not need that lore to finish the drop. You need a car, a line that respects mines, and a plan for four sniper towers. There are about eleven sections between spawn and the teleport into Bunk Laps (Day 1.5). This walkthrough names the ones that matter for badges and wrecks, then tells you when to teleport instead of dragging a chassis into a river.

If you have not spawned the Jalopy 2106 yet, start on getting started. If Space still ejects you, fix binds on controls. Dunes is a teacher, not the best cash farm. Once Hydrochapter is unlocked, Depot pays about 100k per loop. Use this chapter to learn the physics, grab Dunes / Ghosttown / Overgrowth badges, and leave.

Start — “Once you’ve started, there’s no turnin’ back!”

Start includes spawn, a long hill, the first sniper tower at a river, the second tower, and the run into Ghosttown. The first tower is an old military outpost that guards the jump across the water. A sign reads Lookout Point Alpha. If a Gunner is up there, do not crawl. Speed plus a slightly off-center line is harder to hit than a polite brake in the middle of the dirt.

The river deletes slow cars and cars that already lost wheels. Explosive barrels sit near the banks. A secret cliff line past the first two barrels exists for people hunting side paths; it is not required for the badge. The second tower sits on a cylindrical concrete drum on a steep decline. Gunners dislike it because fast traffic is hard to lead. You should still not park under it.

Landmines are the quiet killer on Start. They do not look like ramps. If the dirt looks too helpful, assume a mine. Style cash comes from air time you meant to take, not from a barrel that launches the engine into the river. When the Jalopy is on three wheels, teleport. The shop and spawn UI are behind you. The crash survival page explains when a wreck is already dead.

Drive Cars Down A Hill downhill run

Ghosttown — Soviet signs, sunken buildings, train bridges

Ghosttown’s flavor text calls it a formerly bustling town returned to dust, uniquely Russian-speaking and home to many Soviet makes. Gameplay is a cliff into the streets, sunken buildings that work as ramps, train bridges over a rushing river, and the gate into Overgrowth. The Ghosttown badge sits here. The Gaz-24 Volga and Lada 2106 feel at home; the $100 Crudcrate does not.

Use the sunken roofs. They are some of the first style ramps that pay without requiring a 250 MPH Cougar. The river under the train bridges is the same rule as Start: if you are already on fire, do not “send it” for content. Other players will be bouncing off the same brick. 25-person servers mean Ghosttown is a traffic jam, not a ghost. No clanning, no targeting people with guns. Drive through. If someone is hunting you, teleport and change servers. The community links page is for arguing later.

Overgrowth — cacti, reservoir, last two towers

Overgrowth is densely packed with cacti because of an underwater reservoir. The Overgrowth badge lives here. So do sniper towers 3 and 4. Tower 4 sits on a cliff at the end of the section. An abandoned train is a landmark and a ramp, not a garage. If you are collecting the badge, keep four wheels until the sign, then you can wreck for fun.

Cacti hide mines and barrels. The reservoir fantasy does not mean the ground is safe. Slow down only for the cliff tower’s sightline, then get out. Overgrowth is where new drivers finally have cash for a Volga and then spend it on a weekly 125 MPH truck that cannot fit between cacti. Check the starter vehicles list before that purchase.

The Climb — “Drive Cars UP a Hill!”

The Climb is the joke in the middle of a downhill game: a large hill you must climb to reach the halfway point of Day 1. The Jalopy will crawl. A heavier Gaz-66 will crawl with more drama. Do not assume Left Shift will save you unless you are in an event car that actually has boost.

At the top you get the access road toward the Area 89 military installation and the entrance to Milbase. Milbase’s own line is that the drill sergeants are on lunch break. It is still a military zone with props, bunkers, and enough clutter to rip a wheel. Graal is a bunker collectible, not a cash strategy. After Milbase the remaining Dunes sections keep the desert theme through later biomes, including a dried water bed, a broken bridge, and a seafood restaurant. A teleport at the far end leads to Bunk Laps (Day 1.5). The industrial line, gas-station farm, and Noob Barrel are on the Bunk Laps walkthrough. You do not need to name every remaining strip on the first day. You need to know there are about eleven sections total and that the last teleport is how Day 1 dumps you into the industrial extension.

Snipers, mines, ramps, and when to teleport back

Four sniper towers, all in Dunes, all range-gated. Spawn’s shooting-range tower does not count. If you own the Sniper pass, sit in a tower, shoot traffic in range, and stop. Named lookouts including Lookout Point Alpha sit on sniper towers. Witch-hunting one player across Ghosttown is how servers sour. If you do not own the pass, treat towers as weather: sometimes it is raining bullets, sometimes it is empty. Details on the pass sit under gamepasses.

Teleport when any of these is true:

• Two or more wheels are gone.
• The engine is on fire.
• You are in a river with no ramp out.
• A Gunner has already tagged you twice on the same slope.
• You unlocked the next checkpoint and the current car cannot climb.
• Hydrochapter Depot is available and you are still here “for money.”

That last bullet is the important one. Dunes teaches the game. Hydrochapter prints the stack. North Nevada is a newer desert with abandoned commercial zones and a hydroelectric dam; it is not a replacement for this walkthrough. The no-mine 2024 day is the North Nevada guide. Forest Chapter is deleted. Official materials still say four levels and 80-plus miles. The live four are Dunes, Bunk Laps, Hydrochapter, and North Nevada. See maps and chapters.

After a clean Ghosttown badge, buy with a plan. Volga at $10k and Lada at $30k are reasonable Dunes cars. Suzuk Carrier, Roadster 1915, Caddy, and Harle are later. Sand Bruiser FJ45 at $1M is a cash planner problem, not a Start problem. Rank speed separately on the speed ranking and best cars pages. The vehicle roster keeps prices honest.

If you came here from the guides hub, next reads are Hydrochapter for the farm world and crash survival for fire and coils. Codes are empty as of September 2026; group rewards still help. Updates and weekly vehicles will tell you if a new truck changes how The Climb feels. Official links point at the Roblox listing.

Dunes is the chapter that teaches you when to quit a wreck. The sign at Start is not a threat. It is a reminder that the fun is downhill, the money is later, and the river does not give refunds.