Stealth is the accomplishment of finishing a Mono Turbo course without picking up any gray cars from the track. Achieving Stealth gives you a nice bonus at the end of your song, and can make all the difference when you're shooting for the top score on a competitive leaderboard.

Let it be known in advance that Stealth can be extremely difficult to obtain on certain songs, especially considering you're playing on a high-speed playmode like Mono Turbo. You most likely won't shoot from the bottom of the board to the top just by reading this guide, and, like most other things, practice makes perfect.

So what's the easiest way to finish with Stealth? How can I get that delicious additional bonus when I'm finished playing my song? I'll try to explain a bit of what I know here, in this guide. Read on!

The first tip that I'd give to anyone trying to get accomplish Stealth is to find a skin that they're most comfortable with. You won't perform well if the skin you use causes eye strain, makes the cars hard to see, is too bulky and condensed or too spread out and thin, etc.

If you want to find a skin that works for you, head over to the Workshop and download a few. Try them out and pick one that you're most comfortable playing on!


I personally use Twisted Classic (now uptated and known as Hyperdrive), by wolflord480 and Kiisseli. It's a nice skin that gives the gray cars a good amount of contrast and size so I can see them clearly, and the transparent track lets me see oncoming cars that are further ahead more easily. Plus, it looks pretty awesome.


Once you've found the skin you want to use, you're ready to move on and start playing.

Once you're in the game and playing a song, you're on your way to getting that lovely Stealth bonus. If you can manage avoiding every gray on the track, of course.

Before I share any of my personal tips, be advised that my style of play is not the only style that can work. I'm not the best Audiosurf player on the planet, and I still need practice myself. The methods of play I've come up with are best accustomed to how I want to play the game, and they work excellently for me. If you have a playstyle that you're more comfortable with, and it helps you achieve the goals you're shooting for, I strongly encourage you to use it.

That being said, here are a few basic tips that I've come up with.

• Exercise your hand/mouse movements. The more agile you train yourself to be, the easier it becomes to swipe across the lanes and quickly dodge grays or pick up colored cars. A quick, controlled hand can make all the difference when you're going for Stealth.
  
• Keep your eyes focused at the furthest point on the track, instead of the cars directly in front of you. If you're only focusing on the cars rushing at you right in front of your face, you're bound to fumble and accidentally pick up a gray or two. Study the track that's further ahead, and anticipate your movements before you have to make them.
  
• Use your mini-ship sparingly! I'm going to cover this in the next section of the guide, but learning to use your mini-ship only in necessary situations is critical to your success at achieving the Stealth bonus.
  
• Know the feel of your songs. It might sound silly, but knowing the tempo, beat patterns, and sections of the song your playing can drastically affect your performance. Blindly playing through your music could throw you into a gray when you're not ready to move out of the way. Remember where the beat picks up, the bass drops, the guitar solo kicks in, etc. It'll save you more than you think.
  
• Try, try again! If you end up hitting a gray or two, don't be discouraged! Restart the song, or play a different one and keep trying. The only way you're gonna improve is if you practice, and it's inevitable that you're going to mess up a few times. I still ram into grays all the time, but all it takes is a few retries and I eventually nail my songs near-perfectly. Stay persistent!
  
• Don't risk losing your bonus to snag one or two cars. You'll often see a colored car or two nestled in behind or in front of a gray, and more often, you'll have the urge to try and sweep in and pick it up. If you have a feeling it's too much of a stretch, don't go for it! Losing out on a few hundred points because of missed cars is much less painful than losing your entire Stealth bonus. If they're too far out of your reach, just move on.

Ah, the mini-ship. Truly the best of friends.
This baby can sweep around the lanes of a course and pick up any cars that are out of your reach. It's an excellent way to rope in more points and land a higher score on the leaderboards.

But it has a dark side. If used a moment too soon or too early, or if held down for too long, it turns into a heartless fiend that'll scoop up that gray you desperately tried to avoid. Tragic.

In order to use the mini-ship to your advantage, you need to learn when and when not to use it. It's easy to rely on this thing for the entirety of your songs, and it's a nasty habit to get into for aspiring Stealth players. I've had excellent runs of my songs, only to accidentally snag a gray car at the very end of the course because I used the mini-ship at the wrong moment. It sucks, and it definitely can be frustrating.

So how can you avoid it? Simple. Learn a bit of restraint, and time your mini-ship's deployment wisely.

This area of the song is a perfectly fine area to deploy the mini-ship! Notice how colored cars are spread around the lanes, and it would be difficult to pick them all up by sweeping from side to side. As long as you're clear of gray cars and you know when to stop, you're golden. Get that mini-ship out there and collect 'em all before the grays appear again.


This area of the song is a terrible place to use your mini-ship. Notice how grays are flying at the ship left and right, and the mini-ship is collecting just about all of them. When you're zooming through tight, condensed areas that are littered with grays, keep the mini-ship off the track. Rely mostly on your ability to sweep around and collect colored cars yourself.


Note that even if you're in a clustered area with both colored and gray cars, the mini-ship can still be used if your timing is good. It's not the most reliable method, but deploying it when you have a few colored cars spread out between some grays might net you a few more points. Just be warned that your timing must be honed in if you want to avoid snagging a gray on accident.

If you can teach yourself when and when not to use the mini-ship, you'll be well on your way to getting the Stealth bonus. This feature can make all the difference when you're playing, and it's crucial to master your use of it if you want to play for the top ranks on your music.

Another quick thing I want to point out before closing this out is the Clean Finish bonus.

Finishing a song with 0 cars left in your pool (both colored and gray) will net you a sizeable bonus at the end of the course, along with the Stealth bonus. Both will give you a good point boost, and when you can manage to get them both at once, the reward is even sweeter.

That being said, when you're nearing the end of a song, take note of how many colored cars you have collected. Ask yourself if you can pick up a few more without overfilling and picking up one or two extra, as they'll only sit at the bottom of your pool and eliminate your Clean Finish bonus. Ask yourself if it's worth it to go for the extra cars at the end of the track, or if it'd be more beneficial just to avoid them and not risk losing your bonus. These decisions can be the difference between a plain finish and a bountiful one.

Here's a short video of my techniques in action.
Playing "Get Free" by The Vines on Mono Turbo. Recommending to watch in HD.


That's about all the advice I can give. I hope you guys found this guide helpful, and I wish you all the best of luck in your effort to Stealth your music. Get crackin'!