Every craft in Star Wars: Galactic Racer carries two boost systems that work against each other. Afterburner is the safe, repeatable speed you lean on all race long. Ramjet is the dangerous one that can either win you a race or turn your speeder into a fireball. Both push you faster, but they get there in completely different ways.
Quick answer: Ramjet is the stronger of the two. It delivers a far bigger speed burst than Afterburner and lets you shunt rivals off the track, as long as you manage the heat it builds before you hit Redlining.
How Afterburner works
Afterburner behaves like the familiar boost from most arcade racers. You press the button, you get a short burst of speed, and the gauge drains. It then refills gradually as you keep driving, so you can use it again and again across a lap. It draws on your Battery, and there is no penalty for spamming it beyond running the meter dry.
The Afterburner stat does more than feed that boost. It also governs how quickly your vehicle accelerates and slows down, and how much boost you actually get when you fire it. A higher Afterburner rating means a sharper, more responsive machine, not just a bigger tank.
How Ramjet works and what Redlining means
Ramjet is not a press-and-go boost. You prime it first, then activate it, and when it kicks in it hurls your speeder toward its top speed, well past anything Afterburner can reach. That extra momentum is what makes it so good for closing gaps and for ramming rivals clean off the track in true Burnout fashion.
The catch is heat. While Ramjet runs, your craft overheats, and the blue indicator on your HUD slowly climbs toward red. Once it turns red you are Redlining, and holding it there risks your vehicle exploding. An explosion counts as a crash, which costs you lap time and chips away at your crash allowance for the event. The whole system turns a chase into a gamble instead of a simple speed increase.
Why Ramjet is the stronger boost
Afterburner keeps you quick and safe, but it tops out well below what Ramjet offers. Ramjet gives you the single largest burst available and adds an offensive tool on top. Being able to take down opponents rather than just overtake them changes the math of a race, especially in Eliminator events where you need rivals out of the running.
The trade-off is that Ramjet demands attention. The best racers flutter between both boosts, feeding on Afterburner to stay fast and dropping into Ramjet in short, deliberate windows to gain ground or set up a hit, then backing off before the needle goes red. Mastering that rhythm is what separates a clean run from an expensive pile of scrap.
Managing Ramjet heat with cooling upgrades
You can offset the explosion risk by fitting cooling gear from Hibi, the Ardennian mechanic who runs a shop in the paddock on each planet. Visit before a race, spend your credits, and install the parts as soon as you can. Options in the shop include Ramjet Cooling, which improves speed-based cooling, along with parts like the Supercooled Vent and Auto-Vent that bleed heat off faster.
If you plan to lean on Ramjet, prioritise cooling before anything cosmetic. More time in the red directly translates to more top-speed windows per lap.
Track conditions that change how Ramjet behaves
Where you race matters as much as what you install. The planet itself can help you push Ramjet longer or punish you for trying.
- Water sections cool your craft, buying you extra Ramjet time.
- Ando Prime’s freezing atmosphere lets you hold Ramjet far longer, though the cold interferes with handling.
- Molten and lava-heavy tracks demand far more careful boosting, since you are already running hot.
- Acid can corrode your vehicle and shut Ramjet down temporarily.
Many shortcuts route you straight through these hazards, so the fastest line and the safest heat management are not always the same choice.
Parts that link Ramjet and Afterburner together
The two systems stop being rivals once you start fitting the right Parts. This is where the stronger boost really pulls ahead, because Ramjet timing can be turned into free Afterburner fuel.
| Part | Effect |
|---|---|
| Afterburner Recharger | When Ramjet becomes ready, fully refills your Afterburner. |
| Heated Fuel II | Redlining increases the power of your next Afterburner by 50%. |
| Ramjet Jet I | Every Takedown grants +5% Ramjet power. |
Afterburner Recharger is the clearest example of why the systems reward being built around each other. Improve your Afterburner stat, reduce the downtime around Ramjet, then let Ramjet readiness top your conventional boost back up. At that point you are not picking one boost over the other. You are running a loop where the risky one keeps the safe one topped up, and that is where Galactic Racer’s buildcraft starts to click.
