Pursuit Tech | Cop career NfS Rivals Guide
Last update: 01 February 2017
Basic information
In each police car you have you can mount up to two pursuit technologies and it is good to use both slots from the very beginning, even if initially you have these upgrades which are not useful to maximum.
The important information is that from the beginning some of more advanced technologies are not available and in order to unlock them you have to advance to next chapters of the main career. The same applies to new generations of existing technologies. For example, if you invest in developed version of EMP you can decrease the time needed to lock another vehicle. Unfortunately, when you want to mount the best version of particular technology, you have to buy all previous versions first, so you should really think off if you use this technology and you won't waste points upgrading it. Full list of technologies, along with suggestions on how to use them, can be found further in the guide.
Important note - new versions of technologies requires also better models of cars, unlocked along with achieving new ranks. So do not count on this that you'll be able to purchase best boosters for the base model of Porsche Cayman S for example, because you just won't see them on the list. This dependency forces you sometimes to buy new cars, clearly hindering attempts to complete a large part of the career with one chosen car model.
Helicopter
Usefulness: high
Main applications: breaking illegal races
A possibility of calling police helicopter for help is the most expensive pursuit technology available in cop career. This is not the only bad news because this modification is getting really useful starting on the third level. Only then mentioned helicopter has a high effectiveness in disturbing racers during pursuits, proving its usefulness and correctness of spent points. I recommend choosing this technology when equipping police cars (plus this technology doesn't require you to operate it). In addition police helicopter doesn't end the flight after one or two attacks, staying longer in the air.
Unlocking next generations of described technology results in equipping the helicopter in new devices. The main thing is a "reward" for purchasing third level of modification because from this moment the helicopter can throw down spike strips just in front of races, significantly increasing a chance that they will fall in this road trap.
Electrostatic Field
Usefulness: high
Main applications: breaking illegal races; stopping single racers
Contrary to what description of this technology may suggest, ESF shouldn't be used mainly to avoid stun mines and EMPs, though of course these are its unquestionable strengths. The main advantage of this modification is that after charging the controlled car it damages other vehicles which get in contact with it. ESF in cop career is even more useful technology as in the racer career and that's because police cars are more durable than sport cars and are better in direct collisions. When colliding with fleeing car in most cases you can count of it that you will take of half or even 2/3 of competitor's energy bar.
A very important thing is to unlock new generations of this technology as fast as possible, so the power of ESF increases. In addition, with purchasing new generations of ESF you decrease the regeneration time and increase the amount of possible usage, so you won't have to keep looking around for a repair shop.
EMP
Usefulness: average
Main applications: stopping single racers
EMP on lower development levels is not very useful pursuit technology and this is because full tracking of the vehicle in front of you takes far too long. As a result it is easy to make a mistake and waste the EMP charge after failed process of aiming. Only after purchasing next generations the effectiveness of this technology increases, although still in most cases it is better to lead to the direct collision with the chased racer's car (supported additionally by ESF for example) than to try to track him down again.
Along with unlocking new generations of this technology its charging time decreases. In addition you can count on taking more energy from other vehicles and decreasing technology regeneration tine.
Roadblock
Usefulness: low
Main applications: breaking illegal races
Roadblock has some similarities with police helicopter and that's because after activating this technology, further activities are passed to AI and you do not have any influence on it. Unfortunately, as the helicopter is very useful, roadblocks do not significantly help in stopping racers during pursuits. What's more, purchasing next generations of this technology doesn't change too much and still it is wasted too often, not slowing down even a single driver.
Subsequent generations of the described technology influences appearance of the blockade, properly modifying it. As I mentioned before, those changes are not so significant as you might think.
Shock Ram
Usefulness: average
Main applications: breaking illegal races; stopping single racers
Shock ram is very similar in many aspects to shock wave available for racers. At the first glance this technology has only advantages - it is cheaper to purchase than ESF and in contrary to competitor EMP technology, doesn't require targeting process. But it quickly turns out that the price for such advantages is quite weak effectiveness. Do not count on this, that thanks to this technology you'll be able to easily deplete energy bars of racers, even after purchasing next generations of shock ram. Its main usage is disturbing enemies during drive and dependent on the situation it can slow them down or make them to collide with environment elements or another civilian car. In summary, it is quite good modifications for beginners but further on in the career you should invest in something more powerful.
Along with purchasing next generations of shock ram, its power range increases, its regeneration time decreases and amount of its usage increases.
Spike Strip
Usefulness: average
Main applications: stopping single racers
Spike strip is quite cheap pursuit technology, but this is not by accident because only after unlocking higher generations this modification gets better, helping you quicker catch racers. Described technology should be mainly used in Interceptor events to slow down single racers and as result faster finish the event. But consider two disadvantages of this technology. First of all, you have to place your car directly in front of chased car so its driver won't be able to pass by you before you place the spike strip. Secondly, even if the opponent gets into spike strip and get flat tires, they will be regenerated after a moment so quickly perform the action and attack the racer.
Purchasing next generations of the described technology mainly increases the amount of possible spike strips to be placed. In addition you can count on increasing the number of usage of the spike strip before you have to visit the repair shop again.
Summary
Regardless of chosen events I recommend having the ESF with the highest possible level. As for the second slot I recommend using Shock Ram initially because it is cheap and useful already on the first level. After gathering more SP start using the police helicopter (3rd or 4th development level).