How to Drive with a Keyboard: A Guide for Absolute Beginners

Driving in BeamNG for the first time can be overwhelming, especially with the fact that there is no clear tutorial in the game. But don't worry, as this guide is here to help. This guide will go through what cars are best for beginners, the basic controls, and some advanced controls for other cars.

Your Car

Choosing a car to start driving may not even be something a first-time BeamNG driver thinks about, but it is very important. I recommend a basic front-wheel drive car similar to one you would see every day driving on the road in real life. Performance cars are not recommended!
Here are some specific cars and configurations of those cars I recommend:

Cherrier FCV:

• Vivace 110
  
• Tograc 110
  
• Vivace 160

Hirochi Sunburst:

• 1.8
  
• 2.0 Sport

Ibishu Covet:

• 13S
  
• 1.5 DX
  
• Student Driver
  
• 1.5 DXi

Ibishu Pessima (1st gen):

• 1.8 DX
  
• 2.0 LX

Ibishu Pessima (2nd gen):

• 1.8 DX
  
• 2.0 LX

The Basics

The absolute bare minimum of controls you need for driving in BeamNG.

Basic Movement:
Up Arrow: Throttle (go forward)
Down Arrow: Brake (also reverse in arcade gearbox, which is the default)
Left and Right Arrows: Steers left and right respectively
Right click and drag: Look around

Manual Transmissions:
Q: Switches gearbox mode (arcade auto-shifts and has down to reverse)
X: Shifts up
Z: Shifts down
Up Arrow (in reverse): Go in reverse
Left Shift: Clutch

Cameras

This will go over every camera option in the game. Some vehicles or props may not have all camera options.

C: Switch between the first three camera options
1: Orbit camera (default)
2: Driver POV
3: Hood camera
4: External camera (cinematic camera, basically)
5: Relative (WASD to move the camera)
6: Chase camera (always stays behind you)
7: Top Down (not recommended in tunnels)

Advanced Controls

These are some additional controls that you may need and use for playing BeamNG.

Forms of Resetting:
R: Reset car to spawn point
Insert: Recover car (resets your car where you are)
Hold Insert: Rewind car (release to recover)

Handbrakes:
Space: Handbrake (temporary)
P: Parking Brake (permanent, at least until you press it again)

Other Controls:
V Turn Ignition On/Off
Comma: Left Turn Signal
Period: Right Turn Signal
H: Honk
N: Toggle headlights

Vehicle Specific:
B: Toggle Nitrous Oxide
T: Toggle JATO Rockets
Ctrl+Q: Switches Drive Mode (only available on newer cars)

Conclusion

And therer you have it, just about every control you need to play BeamNG. If this helped you, consider leaving an award. Also, sorry if I left out some of the less useful things, there's just so many controls. I really hope this helped, and thank you for reading!

Edit 1/5/23: Thank you guys so much for the awards! I might update this guide to include a bit more when I have some free time, even if you don't shower me with awards, but wow! Again, I cannot thank you enough!

[pringle]

Quick tip: Go into controls and change them, like the arrows into WASD.

[Mobber]

I just downloaded beamng yesterday and this helped a lot, thanks!

[3ayya6]

i agree there is indeed too many camera modes

[eyebrow raise gaming]

lol, theres kinda too many tho

[WashableBeet121]

Been playing Beam for over a year now and had no idea that there were more camera modes and keyboard buttons for some actions. Definitely saving this guide for reference!

[eyebrow raise gaming]

i am honored to have billy bobby approve of my guide

[Williamlm2011]

billy bobby approves

[Jason]

lol what happened

[Italy foreva]

sure

[eyebrow raise gaming]

could you stop