Danger Highway

dangerhighway.com — Instructions

The game

You are driving a convoy vehicle through hostile desert terrain. Mines, IEDs, burning wrecks, insurgent soldiers, RPGs, and crater-filled roads lie between you and the next firebase. Keep moving, keep shooting, and keep your fuel tank from hitting zero.

Before you start

On the menu screen, pick a vehicle, pick a weapon, and pick a play mode. Your score increases as you drive further, kill soldiers, and blow up hazards. Reaching firebases earns bonus points and refills your armor, fuel, and ammo.

Your high score is recorded against the 15-digit player ID shown in your verification email. Only the player ID, top score, and play mode are displayed on the public Top Scores page — your email is never shown.

Play modes

Trial. Slower pace, easier enemies, good for warming up and learning the controls. Tracked separately on the leaderboard.
Game. Full-speed run. Faster enemies, denser hazards, harder to survive. This is the real leaderboard.

Vehicles

Vehicle	Strengths / weaknesses
ULTV	Fastest, lightest, sand-immune. Only 5 armor hits — easy to kill. Doubles points per unspent round at firebase.
Humvee	Baseline. 25 rifle hits to kill. Good speed, no special armor.
Up-Armored Humvee	Rifle-proof. +5% fuel consumption. Gets stuck easier in sand.
MRAP	Rifle-proof + mine-resistant (first mine only stuns 5 seconds). Heavier, slower.
M2 Bradley IFV	Tracked. Rifle-proof. RPG kills it. Crosses ditches perpendicularly. Carries M240 + 25mm Bushmaster + TOW.
M1 Abrams Tank	Tracked. Immune to rifle + RPG. Mines can still kill it. Carries M240 + M2 + 120mm cannon. Turbine whine on acceleration.

Weapons

Weapon	Notes
M240 7.62mm	Baseline MG. 1000 rds/can, 12/sec, 1 pt per unspent round.
M249 SAW 5.56mm	Faster cyclic rate, 1200 rds/can, 20/sec.
M2 .50 cal	Heavier rounds, 105 rds/can, 8/sec, 10 pts per unspent round.
MK19 40mm grenade	Each round explodes on contact or at life expiry. 48 rds/can.
TOW missile	Bradley secondary. 7 per load. Direct-fire, long range, big blast.
25mm Bushmaster	Bradley secondary. 900 rds, 10 pts per unspent round.
120mm Cannon	M1 secondary. 42 rounds. Massive blast radius.

Keyboard controls

Input	Action
W tap / hold	Accelerate (fast taps = higher speed, up to max)
S tap / hold	Reverse / brake
A / D	Steer left / right (heading-based, taps increase turn rate)
Left Shift	Emergency brake
Shift+A / Shift+D	Pivot turn in place (Bradley / M1 only)
Arrow keys	Aim turret — fires automatically while aimed
Right Alt / Right Ctrl	Raise / depress gun elevation
Right Shift tap	Swap active weapon (M1 / Bradley dual-weapon vehicles)
G	Throw grenade toward aim direction
C	Take side-road shortcut / village detour (when available)
R	Pay rescue (500 pts) when stuck in a ditch / pothole / sand trap
M	Mute / unmute audio

Touch controls (phone / tablet)

Left joystick: steering + forward/reverse by stick angle. The stick's 12 o’clock always points toward the vehicle’s nose, so pushing straight up drives forward in whatever direction the chassis is currently pointing.
Right joystick: aim + fire MG.
Grenade button: throw in aimed direction.
Weapon-swap button: cycle weapons on Bradley / M1.

Motion controls (mobile only)

When you play on a phone or tablet, the device’s orientation sensors take over two input channels. The “rest pose” is captured at the start of each run — hold the device however feels comfortable, then tilt/rotate relative to that baseline.

Tilt forward / back — tilting the top edge of the device away from you depresses the gun; tilting it toward you elevates the gun. Replaces the old on-screen elevation buttons.
Rotate clockwise / counter-clockwise (roll the device left or right) — pivot turn the chassis for tracked vehicles (Bradley / M1). Counter-clockwise = left pivot, clockwise = right pivot. Pivot rate scales with how far you roll the device.

Gamepad

Left stick: drive + steer.
L3 (click the left stick in) + left stick left/right: pivot turn in place (Bradley / M1 only). Without L3 held, the tank steers like a wheeled vehicle.
Right stick: aim + fire.
L1: boost forward. L2: brake. R1/R2: gun elevation.
X button: grenade. B button: swap weapon (dual-weapon vehicles). Y: rescue.

Hazards on the road

Mines / IEDs — detonate on contact or proximity, bypass armor on all but MRAP/Bradley/M1.
Craters — small ones crash you; big potholes get you stuck (self-rescue in 60 s if no enemies are near).
Oil barrels — shooting them explodes & repairs 5 armor.
Road debris — tall debris piles can incapacitate a slow-moving light vehicle for 15 s. Heavy vehicles push them aside.
Ditches / embankments — trap wheeled vehicles (request rescue with R or 500 pts). Tracked vehicles can cross only at roughly perpendicular angles.

Firebases

Every 14000–24000 road units (about 30–50 miles).
Refill armor, fuel, ammo, grenades.
Every 10th firebase: +1000 pts bonus. Every 50th (“R&R”): +2000 pts plus heavy-weapon reload (TOW/Cannon only restock at R&R).
Unspent ammo at arrival is converted to points (per-round rate depends on weapon).
After firebase #3, look for a side-road shortcut — narrower, fewer enemies on short routes, double bonus for clean runs in a ULTV.

Day / night

The cycle is natural: dusk → night → dawn → day, each transition a gradual 25-second fade. Night comes in three severities (dim, dark, pitch-black) with road-edge blackouts on the worst nights. Soldiers become near-invisible in darkness — their muzzle flashes and bazooka rocket trails are the only thing giving their position away.

Questions or bug reports

Write to info@dangerhighway.com. Please include your 15-digit player ID and a description of what happened.