TL;DR
Ben Quadinaros is the best podracer in the game, fully upgraded. His boost thrust of 400 is the highest of any pod and he heats up very slowly, which is why he holds nearly every max-upgrade record. He is also the last pod you unlock. Before that: start with Ebe Endocott, switch to Mars Guo when you win Spice Mine Run, and pick up Bullseye Navior, the best all-rounder and the safest pod to learn on, at Sunken City. Boles Roor is the fastest pod with no upgrades at all, and nearly impossible to steer. Buy thrust coils first, cooling second, and one pit droid for every stat you upgrade.
That is the answer from the people who have timed every pod on every track: the moderators of the game's speedrun board and the community wiki's tier list, which agree with each other almost line for line. Several games sites say otherwise, starting with Sebulba.
The Sebulba trap
Outsider Gaming ranks him first and calls him "the best on the track"; TheGamer has him third.
Sebulba has the highest stock top speed in the game, 600, and he is the third fastest pod with no upgrades. But every pod in the game tops out at the same 650 top speed fully upgraded, so Sebulba's head start disappears, and the rest of his stats are poor. The community wiki's verdict is blunt: fully upgraded, he is "the slowest and worst pod in the game."
The in-game stat bars do not show why. Two numbers decide the late game, and neither is on the selection screen: boost thrust (how hard the pod pulls when you boost) and heat rate (how fast it overheats while boosting). Both are fixed per pod, and they are what separate Ben Quadinaros from everyone else.
The pods worth racing
Ben Quadinaros: the best pod, once you can handle him. Boost thrust 400, the highest in the game, with an extremely slow heat rate, so he boosts harder than anyone and can hold it. Speedrun moderator andypanther calls him "the overall best podracer in the game and the king of time attack," and the wiki notes he holds the max-upgrade record on every full track except Grabvine Gateway and Fire Mountain Rally. The cost is handling: he turns slowly and stiffly. CBR also ranks him first.
Bullseye Navior: the best all-rounder. The wiki calls him "the most agile pod in the game and also one of the fastest," and "the safest pod to learn the game with." He has the highest maximum turn response (900), a top turn rate, the best air brake and the best repair, and he holds the two records Ben does not, on Grabvine Gateway and Fire Mountain Rally. His weakness is durability: he is extremely fragile and the narrowest pod in the field, so walls hurt.
Mars Guo: the best early unlock. You get him in the first circuit. The wiki credits him with the longest boost duration in the game and handling close to Bullseye's, despite being the widest pod; his boost thrust is 315. His stock cooling is terrible, so he needs cooling parts sooner than most. TheGamer ranks him first overall, mostly on how early he arrives.
Ebe Endocott: the best starter. Of the pods available from the start, the wiki rates Ebe the best, and the speedrun guides use Ebe to open every full-game category for the cooling and turning. Anakin is close to even with Ebe (better brakes and boost, slower acceleration) and fine for the first circuit.
Boles Roor: the expert pick for stock races. With no upgrades he is the fastest pod "by a wide margin," per the wiki, and second fastest with them. He is also "supremely difficult to control," and worse at low frame rates. Unless you are racing with stock parts on purpose, pick someone you can steer.
Skip Neva Kee (one Steam guide's lap test ranks him fastest, but with no boost; the wiki calls him "basically a worse Bullseye") and Slide Paramita, a joke pod in the speedrun guides that pinballs into walls.
The stats that matter, and why
Seven stats can be upgraded. Speedrun moderator Gamedraco's "Podracer 101" guide is the clearest breakdown of what each is worth.
- Top speed matters least for the fast pods and most for the agile ones. Sebulba, Boles Roor and Ben reach the 650 cap with a mid-tier Plug5 thrust coil. Mars needs a Plug8. Bullseye, Neva Kee and the slowest pods need the final Block6. That is why Bullseye costs more than Ben to max out on top speed.
- Cooling is what lets you boost again. Every pod, stock, heats up faster than it cools down.
- Turning sets how sharply the pod responds. The GameFAQs parts guide warns that better turning parts make the steering touchier.
- Traction keeps the pod from skidding, on a scale from 0 to 1.
- Acceleration, air brake and repair matter on specific tracks, but nobody in the speedrun guides spends early money on them.
Max turn rate and pod width are fixed per pod too. You cannot buy your way out of a wide pod.
Upgrade order
This is the community order, from andypanther's upgrade guide and the speedrun board's Any% route guide by Nimputs.
- Thrust coils first. andypanther calls top speed "the stat you want to upgrade." The speedrun route buys a Plug3 before Executioner, a Plug5 or Plug8 before Sebulba's Legacy, and a Block5 or Block6 before Grabvine Gateway.
- Cooling second, bought alongside the Block5 or Block6: a Dual or Turbo Coolant Pump.
- Turning and traction only when you switch to a fast pod that slides. The speedrun route buys a Control Vectro-Jet and an R-80 Repulsorgrip when it swaps to Elan Mak, new from Watto rather than from the junkyard.
- Air brake and repair last. Repair still helps a casual player who clips walls a lot, and air brakes help on the winding tracks.
The prices climb steeply. In a parts guide on GameFAQs, the thrust coil ladder runs from 1,000 truguts for a Plug2 to 20,000 for a Block6, and the best cooling part, the Turbo Coolant Pump, is 5,400. The top traction part (R-600 Repulsorgrip) is 6,000 and the top turning part (Control Stabilizer) is 7,500. You never pay full price for an upgrade: the shop takes your current part's value off, so going from a Plug2 to a Plug3 (2,400) costs you 1,400.
Better parts also unlock as you race, per andypanther: level 3 parts after 2 races, level 4 from 4 to 6 races, level 5 from 8 to 10, and level 6 from 12 to 16. Invitational races do not count.
Pit droids: one per upgraded stat
Pit droids cost 1,000 truguts each, and you can own four. After each race, each droid keeps one installed part from taking damage and repairs one damaged part. Default parts never take damage. The rule of thumb from the speedrun guides is simple: own as many droids as you have upgraded stats, or your parts wear down. So upgrade four stats well rather than seven badly.
The junkyard flip
The junkyard sells random parts of tiers you have not unlocked yet, never in perfect condition. Leaving to the vehicle-select screen and coming back re-rolls the stock. andypanther's trick: buy a damaged high-tier part cheap, race once so a pit droid repairs it, and its resale value is now higher than what you paid.
Where to unlock each pod
From Outsider Gaming's unlock table, which matches the community wiki on the pods we checked.
| Pod | Circuit | Race to win |
|---|---|---|
| Ebe Endocott | Available from the start | None |
| Anakin Skywalker | Available from the start | None |
| Mars Guo | Amateur, race 7 | Spice Mine Run |
| Bullseye Navior | Semi-Pro, race 1 | Sunken City |
| Boles Roor | Semi-Pro, race 5 | Zugga Challenge |
| Neva Kee | Semi-Pro, race 6 | Baroo Coast |
| Sebulba | Galactic, race 7 | Boonta Classic |
| Ben Quadinaros | Invitational, race 4 | Inferno |
Your run, in order
Race the Amateur circuit as Ebe and put your first money into a thrust coil and a couple of pit droids. Switch to Mars Guo after Spice Mine Run, then to Bullseye after Sunken City, and stay with Bullseye until Ben arrives in the Invitational circuit. Ben takes practice, so keep Bullseye for the twisty tracks while you learn him.
If you are setting the game up on a current PC, start with our guide to running Episode I Racer on Windows today. Everything else about the game lives on the Episode I Racer hub. And if all this has you in the mood for podracing, Star Wars: Galactic Racer launches October 6; our preorder guide covers which edition to buy.
The details
- Pod rankings, stats and records come from the speedrun.com board guides by moderators andypanther (Best Podracers) and Gamedraco (Podracer 101 and max upgrades vs no upgrades), and the community Episode I Racer wiki's pod tier list, which agree with each other.
- The press rankings cited are Outsider Gaming (Sebulba first), TheGamer (Mars Guo first, Ben second, Sebulba third) and CBR (Ben first). Those are single-writer opinions.
- The Neva Kee lap test is one player's Steam guide, run without boost.
- Part prices are list prices from Matthew Menzies' Parts and Pit Droid Guide on GameFAQs, written for the Nintendo 64 version.
- The upgrade order, pit droid rule and junkyard trick are speedrun community advice. A casual run can spend differently and still win.
