Star Wars Galactic Racer Ramjet vs Afterburner
Ramjet and Afterburner both make you faster in Star Wars Galactic Racer, which makes it easy to wonder why the game gives you two separate boost systems. Ramjet is the more aggressive option, trading additional speed for heat and a much greater risk if you stay on it too long.
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What Is Ramjet?
Ramjet vs Afterburner
How to Use Ramjet
Should You Keep Accelerating?
Should Afterburner Builds Use Ramjet?
What Is Ramjet in Star Wars Galactic Racer?
Ramjet is a high-speed boost system that lets your vehicle reach much higher speeds than a standard Afterburner. It has its own gauge, can be armed once that gauge is ready, and then takes over your normal boost input while active.
The tradeoff is heat. Ramjet can be maintained for a long stretch of track, but pushing it too far can eventually overheat and destroy your vehicle. That makes it most useful when you have enough room to take advantage of the extra speed without losing control or cooking the vehicle before the next section.
Ramjet: Higher sustained speed with overheating risk
Afterburner: Shorter and safer boost
Ramjet Recharge: Begins after you stop using it
Main Risk: Staying in Ramjet too long can destroy the vehicle
Ramjet vs Afterburner in Star Wars Galactic Racer
Ramjet is faster than Afterburner when you are comparing the two at a basic level. If the track gives you a long straight or a section where you can safely carry a lot of speed, Ramjet is normally the better option.
Afterburner is more flexible. It does not carry the same overheating risk, works well for shorter bursts, and can be useful when accelerating out of slower corners where committing to a full Ramjet run would not make much sense.
Higher top speed: Ramjet
Safer boost: Afterburner
Long straights: Ramjet
Short acceleration bursts: Afterburner
Low-speed corner recovery: Afterburner
Maximum-speed sections: Ramjet
Ramjet's speed also makes it useful when colliding with other racers, but I would not treat ramming as its main purpose. The much bigger advantage is being able to sustain speeds that Afterburner normally cannot match.
How to Use Ramjet
Ramjet needs to recharge before you can use it again. Once its gauge fills, arm Ramjet and then use the normal boost input to activate it.
The gauge begins filling again after you stop using Ramjet, so there is a rhythm to the system. You use the faster boost when the track gives you room, come out of it before heat becomes dangerous, then let it recharge while using normal acceleration and Afterburner elsewhere.
This is also why immediately activating Ramjet every time it becomes available is not always ideal. Track knowledge matters because using it just before a technical section can waste most of the boost, while saving it for an upcoming straight can produce a much larger gain.
Ramjet is one of the systems worth considering when spending upgrades, and our Star Wars Galactic Racer best upgrades guide goes through where it fits compared with Cornering, Battery, Afterburner, and Resilience.
Should You Keep Accelerating While Using Ramjet?
Yes, you generally want to keep holding the accelerator while Ramjet is active. Letting off the throttle still reduces your speed even though Ramjet remains active.
There are situations where lifting is useful, especially on tighter corners. You can release the accelerator or brake to get the vehicle rotated without necessarily ending the Ramjet, then get back on the throttle once the vehicle is pointed toward the exit.
That makes Ramjet less of an all-or-nothing mechanic than it initially appears. You do not have to barrel through every corner at maximum speed just because it is active.
If the main problem is carrying speed through turns, our Star Wars Galactic Racer how to drift guide covers the cornering side separately.
Should an Afterburner Build Still Use Ramjet?
Usually, yes. Building around Afterburner does not automatically make Ramjet useless.
Some parts directly connect the two systems. Players have found upgrades that increase Afterburner capacity after redlining Ramjet, allow Afterburner to recharge while Ramjet is running, or increase Afterburner power after using Ramjet. In those setups, Ramjet actually helps the Afterburner build rather than competing with it.
An extremely upgraded Afterburner can also become fast enough that the difference is much smaller, so the best choice eventually depends on the parts you have collected rather than a universal rule that Ramjet always wins.
Standard setup: Use Ramjet for sustained speed and Afterburner for shorter bursts
Afterburner-focused setup: Ramjet can still be worth using on long sections
Ramjet/Afterburner synergy parts: Cycle between both systems to benefit from their bonuses
Your vehicle type also affects how much Ramjet you can realistically carry through a track. Skim Speeders are built around maintaining speed much differently than Landspeeders or Speeder Bikes, so our Star Wars Galactic Racer best vehicle type ranking is worth checking if you are deciding what to build around.
For most races, the useful way to think about the two systems is simple: Ramjet is your faster, riskier sustained boost, while Afterburner is your safer and more flexible burst of speed. Use Ramjet where the track lets you carry its extra speed, then use Afterburner to cover shorter sections and recover from corners while Ramjet recharges.
