Everything you need to go from stalling at the rank to running a full lane like a Lahnee. Short version: load full, drop smart, make your Target, keep the van alive, and never load where you're not welcome.
The loop
StopStop is one simple loop turned up until it bites. You pull into a rank, wait the few seconds it takes commuters to climb aboard, then drive them to the rank they actually want and let them off for cash and points. Do it again. Do it faster. The whole day is a race against a clock and a number: your Target, the takings your boss expects before the day ends.
The skill isn't the driving. It's the choosing — which rank to work, how full to leave before you pull off, and which drop to chain into the next pickup so the van is never running empty. An empty van earns nothing and the day is short.
Reading the rank
Commuters gather at ranks and on street corners, and they aren't all going to the same place. Slow down beside a waiting group and they'll load, up to fifteen at a time. Each passenger carries a destination; the more of them heading the same way, the more you earn from a single drop. The temptation is to pull off the moment the first few climb in. Resist it. A near-full van to one popular rank pays far better than three half-loads scattered across town.
Watch the flow. Ranks fill and empty on a rhythm — morning pulls people into the CBD, the afternoon pushes them back out. Learn which ranks feed which and you stop chasing passengers and start meeting them.
Mind the Walls
This is the part that catches new drivers. Every rank in the game belongs to a crew, and the invisible lines between one crew's turf and the next are the Walls. Load at your own crew's ranks and you're safe. Poach passengers from a rival's lane and it escalates — first a warning, then enforcers on your tail, then the kind of trouble that ends your day early.
You can cross a Wall to make a drop; that's just traffic. What you can't do is work another crew's rank — sit in their lane and pull their commuters. Early on, stay inside your own colours until you know where the lines are. Later, a quick poach when the heat is low can be worth it. Read the risk before you take it.
The Target and the day
Each day gives you a Target: a cash figure to hit before the clock runs out. Make it and you carry on. Miss it and you get a strike. Miss it too many times and the finance man tows the van away — game over. So the Target sets your pace. If you're behind with time left, chase volume: full loads, short chains, popular ranks. If you're comfortably ahead, spend the slack servicing the van or banking toward an upgrade.
Metro and permits
Metro police watch the streets. Two things put you on their radar: an overloaded van and an expired permit. Overloading pays more per trip but every extra body over the line raises your chances of getting pulled. A stop costs you time and money — the two things the Target is eating already. Renew your permit before it lapses; a lapsed permit is a fine waiting to happen. Treat Metro like weather: you can't remove it, you can only drive so it doesn't cost you.
Maintenance
The van has a maintenance meter, and it only goes one way. Ignore it and the engine will strand you mid-lane with a full load and a running clock — the worst moment for it to happen. Service the van at your home rank using the wrench button in the garage. It costs cash and a little time, so do it when you're ahead of Target, not when you're desperate. A serviced van is faster off the mark and less likely to die on you.
Money and the garage
Your takings aren't just for hitting Target — they're for building a better taxi. In the garage you can buy:
- A stronger engine — quicker acceleration, so you spend less of the day getting up to speed between ranks.
- Better brakes — you can pull in tight and slow beside a group without overshooting the load.
- A bull bar — you shrug off knocks that would otherwise cost you time and condition.
- A sound system — commuters come to your door faster, so your loads fill quicker.
Buy in the order that fits your problem. Struggling to fill loads? Sound system. Losing time between ranks? Engine. Getting bumped around in traffic? Bull bar. There's no single right build — there's the build that fixes today's Target.
Ranking up: Gaatjie to Lahnee
Points are separate from cash. Cash buys upgrades; points earn you rank — your standing on the road. You start as a Gaatjie, the fare-collector's apprentice, and climb toward Lahnee, the boss with the good lane and the say-so. Higher rank is how you unlock the next city, so even on a comfortable day it's worth chasing the point-rich drops, not just the cash.
Unlocking the cities
You begin in Durban, working Warwick Junction, and it's open from the first day. Bank enough points and Johannesburg's CBD opens up — a bigger, faster board. Go the distance and you earn Cape Town's CBD, the reward map under the mountain. Each city runs on its own three crews, its own Walls and its own rhythm, so treat a new city as a new thing to learn, not just a new backdrop.
Ten quick tips
- Load fuller than feels comfortable — within permit — before you pull off.
- Chain drops into pickups; never drive an empty van across town.
- Learn two or three of your own crew's ranks cold before you range wider.
- Service the van while you're ahead of Target, not when it's dying.
- Renew the permit early; a fine always lands at the worst time.
- Only overload when the payout clearly beats the Metro risk.
- Buy the upgrade that fixes your actual bottleneck, not the shiny one.
- Chase points on the days cash is easy — that's what unlocks the next city.
- Cross Walls to drop, but don't work another crew's lane until you're sure.
- When the clock is short and Target is close, go for the nearest full load, not the perfect one.