The Holiday Update, also known as the Transylvania Update, is the 30th update for Asphalt 8: Airborne. It added the Transylvania track, whose name was revealed prior to the Fifth Anniversary Update.
Announcement
Celebrate the holiday season by unwrapping this new update to Asphalt 8, filled with a new environment, fresh events, and enough new rides to bring holiday cheer to racers everywhere!
**What’s New**
SNOWFLURRY FESTIVAL
Welcome to the new Snowflurry Festival event! We're introducing a lot of all-new, all-fun activities and quests for you to complete everywhere in the game -- and of course, new prizes for the victors!
WELCOME TO TRANSYLVANIA
We're dedicated to delivering the best new racetracks we can, so get ready to brave the risky mountain roads and gorgeous medieval landscapes of Transylvania!
NISSAN 370Z SPECIAL EDITION
This classic Nissan race car is returning to the game -- this time with improved stats and a stylish new look! Catch this sweet new ride once it appears in the upcoming R&D Event.
WINTER HOLIDAY R&D
The Lamborghini Centenario -- the famous 770 HP, fully carbon hypercar -- is speeding into Asphalt 8 this winter! Check out our exclusive Winter R&D Event to add this car to your Lamborghini collection!
NEW MOTORCYCLE
Ride the Lightning LS-218. This superb motorcycle will arrive in the game with its own special event shortly. Check the game often for details!
THE HOLIDAYS ARE HERE!
The winter spirit -- and winter decorations -- are back to make the game even cooler. We couldn't be happier to celebrate the holidays with you!
DIRECTIONAL STEERING
Handle your vehicle with unmatched precision using a brand-new Directional Steering control scheme.
New Vehicles
Class C
Class B
- Lamborghini Murciélago LP 640 (Championship,
-only Upgrades)
Class A
- Infiniti Vision GT (R&D, -only Upgrades)
Class S
- Lightning LS-218 (EDD)
- Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 (R&D, -only Upgrades)
The new vehicles will need the following engine cards:
- V6 Engine
- Nissan 370Z Special Edition (x36)
- V8 Engine
- Infiniti Vision GT (x52)
- V12 Engine
- Lamborghini Murciélago LP 640 (x28)
- Legendary Electric Engine
- Lightning LS-218 (x24)
- V12 MPI Engine
- Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 (x60)
Game Changes
Gameplay Changes
- New track: Transylvania.
- New engine type: V12 MPI Engine (Legendary rarity).
- "MPI" stands for "multi-point injection", a type of fuel injection used in car engines.
- Directional Steering is now available as a control scheme.
- The handling of the Kawasaki Ninja H2R has been improved.
- The tune up time for the Hyundai i30 N has been reduced to 1 hour 20 minutes (from 2 hours 0 minutes).
- The achievements D is for Drift, C is for Cars, B is for Burnout, A is for Awesome, S is for Superior, and King of the Garage can now be achieved by owning any 15 vehicles per class rather than by owning the original vehicles.
- This change was likely done due to the Scion FR-S and both RUFs being no longer available for purchase due to licensing-related reasons.
- Champion Kit Box now guarantees one V8 Engine card.
- Optimal Split Boxes and Optimal Shuffle Boxes are now opened on the spot, rather than having to be opened in the inventory.
- After December 26 2018, Exclusive Deals has offers that give more cards.
- Most of these deals were made to be purchasable with Tokens only.
- The number of deals was also reduced from 8 to 6.
Cosmetic Changes
- New app icon of the Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4.
- This icon has a bright silver reflective background as opposed to the white background with small road pieces used by many other icons for the game.
- Iceland, Tokyo, and the Alps are decorated with Christmas scenery objects once again until January 2019.
- In-game advertising of Asphalt 9: Legends was re-enabled from December 13, 2018, although the extra pre-race cinematics are no longer present.
- The Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 R&D has a new Winter theme.
Exclusive Vehicles
- December 21-27, 2018
- Renault Trezor: 5,000
- Kawasaki Ninja H2R: 9,500
- McLaren MP4-31: 15,000
- Renault Trezor:
Events
- Lamborghini Murciélago LP 640 Championship (December 13, 2018)
- Holiday Rush Multiplayer Season (December 13, 2018)
- Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 R&D (December 21, 2018)
- Snowflurry Festival (December 24, 2018)
- Infiniti Vision GT R&D (December 29, 2018)
- Asphalt Moments Series (January 4, 2019) - 31 Days Limit
- Arash AF10 R&D - 12 Days
- Apollo N Championship - 7 Days
- Falcon F7 EDD - 9 Days
- Mazda RX-8 Special Edition R&D - 9 Days
- Vanda Electrics Dendrobium Championship - 10 Days
- Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 Edition EDD - 9 Days
- Mercedes-AMG C 63 Coupe Touring Car 2014 R&D - 12 Days
- Ariel Atom V8 Championship - 7 Days
- Weber Faster One EDD - 8 Days
TBA
Bugs / Glitches
- The following glitches still persist from the 2018 Spring Update:
- Delayed loading (Android, partially fixed)
- Gameplay lag (Android)
- Aggressive AI after restarting races
- No loading screen when replaying/restarting races (re-enabled yet again when online)
- The following glitches still persist from the Halloween Update:
- Collection notification reset issue for Old School if all cars are owned (including Acura NSX 2005 and Toyota Supra RZ (Mark IV).
- Loading screen music: When a Transylvania track is loaded, in-game race music begins to prematurely play before loading has finished.
- Optimal split/shuffle box: When a player gets one of these boxes from daily ads and has a full inventory, a message of failed synchronization appears. The boxes are still rewarded and appear in the inventory though. The issue was resolved after update 4.0.1.
- No Festival Coins in Tokyo and Transylvania: Races do not have any Festival coins to get and the coin counter does not appear.
- No out of bounds messages: When the player goes off the map, the messages that appear when the player is reset on the track do not show up at all.
- Transylvania respawn glitch: Should the player wreck at the fence near the castle and successfully go out of the track in King's Highway, the player will respawn inside the castle, allowing for a shorter lap time.
Fixes
- The following glitch(es) have been fixed:
- No Hyundai i30 N Elite performance degradation
- Gameplay lag (Windows)
- Infected Maserati MC12 to Maserati Alfieri
- R&D Quality Checks counter
- Missing VIP bonuses during offline races
- Missing title bar name on Windows
- No stunt meter on motorcycles in a replayed offline race
Trailers
Post-Update Screen
Trivia
- This update features the following firsts:
- The first update to add a modern Vision GT (2010s-present) car from the Gran Turismo series.
- The first to add a car that was last seen in Asphalt 3: Street Rules.
- The first since the 2018 Spring Update to add an Enduro Double Down-obatinable vehicle.
- This update and the Santa's Gift Update are the only updates of Asphalt 8: Airborne where more than one Lamborghini car was added.
- Coincidentally, both updates were released in the month of December, in 2015 and 2018, respectively.
- This update continues the Fifth Anniversary Update's trend of adding a vehicle whose debut was in Asphalt 9: Legends into Asphalt 8: Airborne.
- With the Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4's appearance on the Transylvania Update app icon, Lamborghini is the manufacturer featured in the most Asphalt 8: Airborne app icons to date, with six of them (one featuring the Lamborghini Veneno, two featuring the Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4, and another two featuring the Lamborghini Egoista).
