Drift Hunters Upgrade Costs: What a Full Build Actually Costs

I wanted to know exactly what it costs to max out a car in Drift Hunters before I started spending my own credits on it, so I pulled every upgrade price straight from the game’s files. Turns out the cost curve isn’t as even as I expected — a couple of categories are cheap to max, and one is a real credit sink. Here’s the full breakdown, plus what I’d actually buy first.

Table of Contents

• Full Upgrade Cost Table
• What I Noticed Comparing the Numbers
• What I’d Buy First
• FAQ

Full Upgrade Cost Table

This applies to every car in the game — the pricing doesn’t change whether you’re upgrading the cheap AE86 or the top-tier RWB.

Add it all up and a fully maxed car costs 112,100 credits in upgrades alone — separate from whatever you paid for the car itself.

What I Noticed Comparing the Numbers

A few things jumped out once I lined all five categories up side by side:

• Weight is the cheapest category to fully max at 13,300 total, and it affects how the car rotates more than any other single upgrade. Best return for the money in the whole list.
• Brakes come in second at 14,400, and they matter more than the price suggests once you’re trying to initiate drifts consistently.
• Engine and Turbo both cost exactly 30,000 to max — together that’s 60,000, over half of a full 112,100 build, for the two power-focused categories.
• Level 3 Engine on its own (18,900) is close to the cost of maxing Weight and Brakes combined (27,700 for both). One power upgrade eats up nearly as much budget as two entire control categories.

What I’d Buy First

If I were starting from scratch again, I wouldn’t touch Engine Level 3 until everything else was done. Here’s the order I’d actually go in:

1. Weight, fully maxed (13,300) — cheapest full category and it changes how the car rotates immediately.
2. Brakes, fully maxed (14,400) — makes drift initiation far more consistent, and it’s still cheap.
3. Gearbox Level 1-2 (3,900 + 7,600 = 11,500) — enough torque delivery improvement without committing to the full 24,400.
4. Turbo, as far as your budget allows — Level 1 alone (5,200) is a noticeable jump before you’re anywhere near maxed out.
5. Engine last, and only Level 3 if you’re chasing max output — it’s the single priciest purchase in the game, so I’d rather have a fully sorted chassis first and treat Engine as the finishing touch, not the starting point.

Maxing Weight, Brakes, and Gearbox together costs 52,100 — and in my experience that gives a far more controllable car than dumping the same money straight into Engine Level 3.

FAQ

How much does it cost to fully upgrade one car?

112,100 credits to max out all 5 categories — Engine, Turbo, Gearbox, Brakes, and Weight.

What’s the cheapest upgrade category to max?

Weight, at 13,300 total. Brakes is second at 14,400.

What’s the single most expensive upgrade purchase?

Level 3 Engine at 18,900 credits — the priciest individual purchase in the entire upgrade system.

Do upgrade costs change per car?

No. Every car in the game uses identical upgrade pricing, so a cheap AE86 costs exactly as much to max out as the priciest RWB.

If you want to see where these upgrades take a car, jump back into Drift Hunters and try the Weight-and-Brakes-first build for yourself.