Batman: Arkham Knight Guide - How to Master the Batmobile

The Basics

Congrats! You are now the owner of a shiny, new Batmobile. Here’s the thing about the Batmobile, though–it’s a pain in the ass. Batman: Arkham Knight does a wonderful job of giving you the keys to all of Batman’s toys and allowing you to run wild with them throughout Gotham City. The problem with this is if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll quickly find yourself driving the Batmobile straight into the Gotham river. Repeatedly. To avoid this, the first thing you need to do is get acquainted with the Batmobile’s controls.

So, first thing’s first; change the Batmobile’s control scheme. For some reason, this can’t be done straight away, but once you’ve arrived to the Gotham City Police Department’s building, you’ll be allowed to. So hit pause and jump into the options menu. There will be something called the “Battle Mode Toggle.” Switch this to ON. Now you can use the left trigger to break and reverse, like God intended, and tap R1/RB once to switch between the Batmobile and the Bat-tank. This will make driving the Batmobile much more natural, so much so that it’s a wonder why this isn’t the default option.

Next, you’ll want to get a feel for the Batmobile itself. Cruise around Gotham a bit to get a sense of how and when you should be using the vehicle’s drift mechanics to navigate corners at top speed. There will be several times when you must pursue or evade an enemy on wheels, and getting the hang of speeding around a tight corner will save you frustration in the long run. Another useful tip: use Battle Mode to switch to the Bat-tank to navigate tight corners. No matter how fast you’re going, once you switch to Battle Mode the Batmobile will stop on a dime and allow you to strafe, and turn the vehicle in any direction. This is useful when quickly correcting yourself during Riddler trials, or a last minute save before you plunge into the Gotham harbor/off a building.

Another important thing: you’ll need to know how and when to effectively upgrade your Batmobile.

Upgrade the Essentials

We’ve got some bad news for you. In Arkham Knight you’re going to be using the Batmobile, a lot. In fact, many crucial missions along both the main and side stories require a heavy use of the Batmobile. If you want to save Gotham, you basically have no choice but to learn to love the big guy and treat it like your best friend.

This means you’ll need to upgrade your Batmobile early and often. However, there’s no doubt you’ll want to upgrade your squishy, vulnerable Batman as well, so the question must be asked: which upgrades are most essential?

Well firstly, the Batmobile will need plenty of armor, no question. There is no reason why the Batmobile shouldn’t have level 4 armor, especially when tackling some of the more difficult missions later in the game. Early on you may be able to get away with level 2 armor, but make this a priority. You want to kill fast, but bullets too slow? Well, your next priority is reload speed, this makes the 60mm available for firing faster. Even one level in this will grant a noticeable improvement in your firing, but level two is ideal.

Speaking of efficiency, you’ll need energy absorption efficiency. Simply put, this allows you to fire those deadly, deadly missile barrages much faster. Energy Storage Protection is likewise a must, as it’ll make sure you won’t lose your hard earned missiles if an enemy gets a lucky shot in. It goes without saying, but you’ll also want to increase the damage of the 60mm cannon, so upgrade both turret and chassis shot damage as soon as you can. Both Cobra lure and Vulcan Gun accuracy wont really be needed until much later in the game, so don’t worry about it just yet.

As for the Batmobile itself, you wont have to put too many points into that particular tree beyond the armor levels. Ram charge is useful when running down some pesky APCs, but non-essential in the long run. Afterburner recharge is also not that useful. You can get by just fine without it, though consider obtaining at least level two. Dodge thruster boost you can skip, so long as you keep an eye on where enemy drones are aiming. Also, don’t bother with super eject. Use those points instead for Grapnel boosts. You can always standard eject into a huge Grapnel boost to rocket your Bat into space, no problem.

So, now that your Batmobile is a certifiable killing non-lethal machine, you’ll need to know how to actually use it in a fight.

Master Batmobile-Fu

Having the most kitted-out Batmobile on the block is not going to do you any good if you don’t know how to properly use it. On the surface, you may think using the Batmobile in combat is as easy as pointing and shooting, but in practice there’s much more than meets the eye.

First of all, don’t be afraid to switch between Battle and Pursuit Mode on the fly. Doing so is practically essential to get yourself out of tight spots. There’s a reason why you can switch with the press of a button, after all. Switch from Pursuit to Battle Mode when you feel you might lose control and spin off the track, likewise, switch from Battle to Pursuit when you need to quickly get out of dodge when ambushed by tanks. Also, Pursuit Mode can be used to quickly sneak behind Cobra tanks. Because nothing makes more sense than sneak tanks.

When in open combat with drone tanks, you can use their own firepower against them. Though hard to manipulate, if you have two tanks aiming at you from opposite ends, you can dodge thrust out of the way to have them accidentally attack each other.

Another important tactic to keep in mind when fighting multiple tanks, especially later on in the game, is to target the ones that fire missiles first. These annoying tanks fire homing attacks that will hit their mark more often than not. It’s best to pinpoint where they are, eliminate any airborne missiles, and take them out first.

Also, STRAFE, STRAFE, STRAFE. This can’t be said enough. Your Bat-tank has wheels, use them. A moving target is harder to hit than a stationary one. In fact, use the Batmobile in a similar way you would use Batman in melee combat. Hit hard, hit fast, keep moving, and build up your combo meter to store your energy reserves. If you upgraded your Batmobile the way we’ve outlined, then you should have no problem building up meter to use one of the Batmobile’s many gadgets. However, don’t use them straight away. Generally, it’s best to save up for at least a level three That way, you can strike multiple targets and really leave the militia forces reeling.

Hopefully these tips have helped you establish yourself as a more confident, more capable Batmobile user. For more tips, tricks and guides check out our Batman: Arkham Knight wiki guide, old chum!