Star Wars Galactic Racer Upgrades: Which Stats to Max

Editorial update 2026-10-09 · Source publication dates are listed below · Independent fan guide

Put your first Star Wars Galactic Racer upgrades into Cornering, then Resilience, and add Ramjet once you can hold a clean line. That is the order KeenGamer’s October 6 guide recommends, and Kotaku’s launch-day tips also put Cornering first. Upgrades come in two layers: temporary ones that last for a single Tour, and permanent ones bought with Tuning Points.

The six stats and what each one does

Every speeder has five shared stats and one that belongs to its class. Xbox Wire’s October 6 developer feature names cornering, resilience, ramjet and afterburner as per-run stats; KeenGamer’s guide fills in the rest.

Podracers sit outside this system. The developer FAQ says podracers cannot be customised, so the advice on this page applies to the three speeder classes.

Run upgrades versus permanent upgrades

Run upgrades are the ones you pick up during a Tour. After Races and Eliminators the game offers a choice of random stat options, and Hibi’s Shop sells Upgrade Packs, Parts and Ability Packs for credits between planets. Xbox Wire describes up to five installed Parts with rarity tiers, some of which can develop faults.

All of that disappears when the run ends. As Xbox Wire puts it, the per-run stats are temporary, while stat upgrades for each vehicle type persist across runs.

Permanent upgrades are bought with Tuning Points. KeenGamer reports that Tuning Points unlock the other speeders (10 for the Speeder Bike, 20 for the Skim Speeder) and raise an owned vehicle’s base stats up to Level 15. A failed Tour therefore costs you the run’s build, not the vehicle you have been investing in. The campaign guide covers what a failed run resets.

Why Cornering and Resilience come first

The reasoning is about survival rather than lap time. A Tour ends when you lose your last League Token, and tokens are lost by wrecking out or failing high-stakes events. A speeder that turns tighter hits fewer walls; a tougher one survives the hits it does take.

Kotaku’s Zack Zwiezen makes the same point from the other direction: finishing mid-pack and staying in the event is often better than chasing a win and restarting the whole Tour. His own shortlist is cornering plus top speed, so the two outlets agree on Cornering and differ on what comes second.

Ramjet is the third pick in KeenGamer’s order because it is the fastest boost in the game and also the one that can destroy your vehicle. Extra Ramjet capacity only pays off once you can read the heat meter. The boost and overheating guide explains that risk.

Priority by speeder class

KeenGamer’s Rafly Wibowo breaks the order down by class. Treat it as a starting plan, not a measured optimum.

The Speeder Bike gets Resilience early because it has the least armour of the three. The Skim Speeder leads with Knife Edge because its wide corners are its main weakness. If you have not chosen a class yet, the best vehicle comparison sets them side by side.

When Battery and Afterburner are worth it

Battery only matters if you spend Energy. Kotaku notes that each Ability use costs one battery charge, shown as dots in the bottom-left corner, and advises skipping battery upgrades if you have no Abilities. KeenGamer’s rule of thumb is to ignore Battery with zero or one Ability, take some with two, and prioritise it with three or four.

Afterburner becomes the better boost stat on hot planets. Volcanic heat makes the Ramjet overheat sooner, while the Afterburner refills during a race with no explosion risk. On a cold world such as Ando Prime the trade reverses, because the cold lets the Ramjet run longer.

How to spend Tuning Points

KeenGamer suggests this order for permanent spending:

1. Put the first points into the Landspeeder’s Cornering and Resilience.
2. Try the other speeders in Arcade, which uses preset vehicles, before paying to unlock one.
3. Unlock the speeder you want to main.
4. Take that speeder to Level 15.
5. Unlock the remaining speeders last.

The last step is not optional for completionists. The trophy list asks for a Galactic Gauntlet win with all three vehicles, which the trophy guide covers.

Champion difficulty changes the order

Champion difficulty unlocks after one full campaign clear, according to PowerPyx’s trophy roadmap. KeenGamer reports that on Champion your crash allowance no longer refreshes after every event; you get three crashes back when you reach a new planet.

With mistakes that expensive, its Champion order moves Resilience to the top, paired with Cornering, with Ramjet third. A separate build target from another launch-week guide is a Level 15 Skim Speeder with at least 7 out of 10 in every stat before the finale, which is a more even spread than a priority-first plan.

A simple rule for in-run choices

Xbox Wire quotes the developers describing a run as picking a Racer Style that sets a build direction, then choosing from randomly awarded abilities, parts and upgrades after each race. Kotaku’s advice for those choices is to build around one focus instead of taking whatever is rarest.

In practice: decide before the Tour whether the run is about cornering, Ramjet or Abilities, and pass on upgrades that do not serve it. For more first-week advice in the same vein, see the beginner tips.