Highway Truck Dhaba Run

Highway Truck Dhaba Run — how to play and tips

Highway Truck Dhaba Run is a free 3D driving game about the life of a long-distance truck driver on an Indian National Highway. You take the wheel of a brightly painted lorry, keep it moving through the traffic, and plan your stops at roadside dhabas and petrol pumps so that you never run out of diesel or out of energy. The road never ends: the further you drive, the faster the traffic and the higher your score. It plays in any modern browser on a phone, a tablet or a computer, with nothing to download and no sign-up.

How to play

The truck accelerates by itself, so all you have to do is choose the lane. On a computer, change lanes with the left and right arrow keys or with A and D. Hold the down arrow, S or the space bar to brake, and the up arrow or W for a little extra speed. Press H to sound the horn (hold it for a long blast), L to switch the high beam on at night, C to change the camera between the view behind the truck and the driver's seat inside the cab, and P or Esc to pause. On a phone, swipe left or right on the road or tap the arrow buttons at the bottom left; the big BRAKE button sits at the bottom right with GAS above it, and the horn is at the top right. If you prefer, you can switch on tilt steering in Settings and lean the phone to change lanes.

Two meters at the top left tell you how long you can keep going. The orange bar is your fuel, which lasts roughly two and a half kilometres. The brown bar is chai, the driver's energy, which lasts about three kilometres. When the chai runs low the steering becomes slow, the truck drifts a little and the edges of the screen go dark. When the fuel runs out, the truck rolls to a stop and the run is over.

Dhabas and petrol pumps

Every one and a half to two and a half kilometres a stop appears on the left side of the road. A blue or green board announces it 500 metres ahead, and the next stop is always shown under the distance at the top of the screen. To pull in, move into the left lane and brake so that you are below 20 km/h inside the yellow lay-by on the shoulder. A petrol pump fills the tank. A dhaba fills the chai meter, and some dhabas have a fuel pump as well, which adds a little diesel. Stopping right in the middle of the yellow zone counts as a perfect stop and is worth a bonus. You may drive past a stop if you are full, but the game never puts the next pump farther away than your tank can reach.

Traffic, cows and the night

You share the highway with cars, buses, oil tankers, other lorries and auto-rickshaws that like to weave between lanes. Passing a vehicle with less than a metre to spare earns a close-pass bonus. Your truck can take two knocks: every crash costs one of three hearts, the third ends the run, and coins can buy one Continue. Brake lights and a yellow warning sign over a slow vehicle in your lane, with a beep that speeds up, tell you to change lanes in time. Cows sometimes stand in the middle of a lane; sound the horn and they will walk off the road, and the traffic behind them starts moving again. Potholes slow you down and speed breakers before the villages will shake the cab if you hit them fast. A full day lasts about four minutes of driving: the sky turns orange at sunset, then only your headlights, the tail lamps ahead and the glowing dhabas light the way until dawn.

Score, coins and the garage

Your score is the number of metres you drive, plus 50 for each coin you pick up, 25 for every close pass and 100 for every perfect stop. Fuel cans and glasses of chai on the road top up your meters by fifteen per cent. Coins are saved between runs and unlock two more trucks in the Garage: a faster lorry with a smaller tank and a heavy tanker that carries far more fuel but steers more slowly. Missions such as reaching ten kilometres, making three perfect stops or driving through a whole night without a crash pay out extra coins. The Daily Route gives everyone the same road for the day, so you can compare scores with friends.

Tips

Plan your stops instead of waiting for the warning beep: if the fuel bar is under half, take the next pump. Move to the left lane early, before the 500 metre board, because the traffic in the left lane is slower and you will need time to brake. Use the horn as soon as you see a cow, and keep an eye on auto-rickshaws, which change lanes without warning. At night, the high beam lets you see farther, but the tail lamps of slow tankers are the thing to watch.

Frequently asked questions

Is the game free? Yes, completely, with no purchases. Does it save my progress? Your best score, coins, trucks and settings are kept in your browser. Can I play in Hindi or Gujarati? Yes, choose the language in Settings. My phone is slow, what can I do? Set Graphics to Low; the game also lowers the detail by itself when the frame rate drops.

Credits

The 3D models come from Sketchfab under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0) and were reduced in size for the web, with brand marks painted out: Ashok Leyland Truck by Meshmill, Indian Oil Tanker Truck by playmode280513, Indian Truck Tata SE Lorry by apv004, Indian Dhaba 3d model by nitin0illigel, Indian Village Dhaba House by saksham12x, Old Petrol Pump by Vipin_bhonde92, Vintage Copper Tea Boiler by PKPS2004, Wooden Bench (Indian Tea Shop) by speeddroners, Indian Bed (Charpayi) by premrastogi2210, Asian Charpai - Wooden Bed by 00amza, Autorikshaw - Indian Tuk Tuk by bhagathartworks, Indian Bus 1 by playmode280513, Cow by JosueBoisvert, Low Poly Forest Tree Pack by 99.Miles and Generic passenger car pack by comrade1280. The links to every model are on the in-game Credits screen. The 3D engine is three.js (MIT licence). All dhaba, pump and place names in the game are invented.