Dirt 5 guide — A sponsor system explanation

Dirt 5 is now in the hands of the many and it brings with it a sponsor system. The game is very straightforward, but some may have questions regarding what exactly this system is and how it works. Therefore, I’m going to break down all the nitty-gritty details so that you’ll know exactly what to expect when it comes to sponsorships and the differences between specific ones.

You should already know what sponsorship is in racing. Brands sponsor the participants in sporting events so that logos can be placed on vehicles and clothing for advertisement purposes. Oh, and commercials and banners. Fun stuff. As you’d expect, each sponsorship in Dirt 5 is tied to a brand and you can freely switch between them on the menu. Proceeding through the game’s events will unlock more sponsors that offer more money and new rewards, so they’re worth checking out routinely.

First off, each sponsor has 15 ranks to go through. Ranks are directly tied to both cash rewards and special sponsor unlocks. Every event you take part in grants you a certain amount of rep, which is represented by a blue flame. Whenever you fill up that flame, you gain an additional rank. When you first sign with a sponsor, they offer a set amount of money per race. But this amount increases as you rank up and stay with that sponsor. Sponsors also offer bonus currency on top of what you’re already getting if you stay with them for a long enough period of time.

Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours

As you can see in the above screen grab, you unlock bonuses by staying with the sponsor for a certain number of races. Once you do, you unlock that bonus and get to keep it. At the bottom, max race pay is listed, which is reached when you hit max rank for that sponsor. And you’ll want to do that, as the money is obviously much better for later sponsors. Aside from that, sponsors offer rewards on the right side of their cards. They’re purely cosmetic and can be used to decorate your player cards or slap decals on your cars. Completionists will likely want to collect each unique one, but most players probably won’t want to bother.

That’s it for our primer on sponsors. It’s obviously not complicated at all, but it still pays to look at new ones as they roll in and switch based on max pay. There are a lot of cars to buy in Dirt 5, so you’ll want to stay flush with cash. That being said, the game throws it at you in large amounts solely for playing it, so you won’t have to worry about money for long. But it can be fun to customize your cars to your liking and extra decals can make for some neat designs. In the end, this game is meant for you to just sit back and enjoy the driving, so you don’t need to worry much about sponsors if you don’t want to. Unless you just really like Pepsi and need to show it in-game.