How to Play Dispatch Rush: Strategy for Every Shift
Dispatch Rush looks calm at first. A tidy town, a police station in the middle, a few patrol cars waiting. Then three calls arrive in five seconds, one of them a red crash on the far side of town, and you find out what the game is really about: making good choices quickly. This guide explains how the game works under the hood and gives a simple way of thinking that will get you three stars on every shift.
How the town is laid out
The map is a grid of seven streets running up and down and five running across. Calls always appear at a street corner, and patrol cars always drive along the streets, taking the shortest route. The police station sits at the centre corner, and every shift starts with all your cars parked there.
A car needs a little under one second to drive one block across the map, and a little less than that for one block up or down, because the blocks are slightly shorter in that direction. That gives you a handy rule of thumb:
- Count the blocks. Every block across or down is roughly one second of driving.
- The centre is powerful. From the station, the farthest corner is three blocks across and two blocks down, about four and a half seconds away.
- Corners are expensive. A car parked in one corner of town needs about twice as long to reach the opposite corner.
You never need to count by hand, though. Tap a car and every waiting call shows a yellow tag with that car's travel time. Tap a call and the car cards at the bottom show every car's travel time to it.
Know your four kinds of call
Each call has a ring around its pin that runs down while the caller waits. When the ring is empty the caller gives up, and that is a missed call. Three missed calls end the shift.
| Call | Caller waits | Car stays on scene | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noise (green) | 20 s | 4 s | 100 |
| Theft (orange) | 16 s | 5 s | 150 |
| Crash (red) | 11 s | 6 s | 200 |
| Alarm ×2 (purple) | 18 s | 6 s | 300 |
These are the standard times used on shifts 3 to 5. Callers are more patient on the first two shifts and less patient from shift 6, dropping to 85% on the Chief's Challenge. The second column matters as much as the first: while a car is on scene it cannot be sent anywhere else. A crash takes a car out of play for six seconds after it arrives.
The basic rule: most urgent call, closest free car
If you remember only one thing, remember this. When several calls are waiting, deal with the one whose ring is emptiest first, and send the free car with the shortest travel time. We tested every shift with a simple program that does exactly that, reacting one second after each call appears. It answered every call on all ten shifts, so this rule alone is enough for three stars.
When the same program waited two seconds before reacting, it started missing calls on the later shifts. That tells you where the real difficulty lies. It is less about clever plans and more about not hesitating. Make a decision as soon as a pin appears.
When the closest car is the wrong car
The basic rule sometimes needs a small adjustment. Here are the three situations where it pays to think one step ahead.
Two calls, one good car
Imagine a green noise call and a red crash appear together, and the same car is closest to both. Send it to the crash. The noise caller will wait twenty seconds, which leaves time for a car that is further away. The crash caller will not.
Leaving a hole in the middle
If every car drives off toward the same side of town, the next call on the other side will be far from everyone. When two cars are almost equally close to a call, send the one that is already off-centre and keep the more central car free.
Roadworks
From shift 7, some streets are closed with red and white barriers. Cars drive around them automatically, but a car that looks close may need a long detour. This is where the travel-time tags earn their keep. A car two blocks away with a barrier in between can take longer than a car four blocks away on open streets.
Handling alarms that need two cars
Purple alarm calls are worth the most points, and they are the easiest calls to get wrong. The call only counts as answered when the second car arrives. The first car to arrive waits at the corner and cannot be sent anywhere else in the meantime.
- Send both cars at once. Pick the two closest free cars as soon as the alarm appears, so they arrive at about the same time.
- Don't send a lone car early. If only one car is free, it is usually better to let it handle a normal call and send two cars to the alarm a few seconds later. Alarm callers are patient.
- Watch the dots. Two small dots under the pin light up as cars arrive, so you can see at a glance whether the alarm still needs help.
Changing your mind
A car that is still driving can be given a new call at any time. It finishes the block it is on, then turns toward the new corner. This is useful when a red crash appears right beside a car that is on its way to a patient noise call. Send that car to the crash, then give the noise call to someone else.
A car that has already arrived and is on scene cannot be redirected. Its card at the bottom says "On scene" with a countdown, so check the cards before you plan around it.
Scoring more points
Stars only depend on missed calls, but the score rewards speed. Every answered call gives its base points plus up to 50 extra points depending on how full the caller's ring still is when help arrives. For an alarm, that is when the second car gets there. Quick decisions therefore help twice: fewer missed calls and a higher score. Your best score for each shift is saved in your browser, so replaying an early shift with faster decisions is a good way to practise.
A quick checklist for the hard shifts
- New pin? Decide straight away.
- Red first, then orange, then green. Purple when you have two free cars.
- Check the travel times, especially when streets are closed.
- Keep at least one car near the middle of town whenever you can.
- Redirect a driving car if a more urgent call appears next to it.
If you enjoy planning routes across a street grid, you may also like Patrol Route, a calmer puzzle where you draw a single route that covers every street. Our guide on how to play Patrol Route explains how that puzzle works.
Dispatch Rush is short enough to play in a coffee break, and every shift uses the same calls in the same order, so each replay lets you try a better plan. Good luck on the radio, and keep those callers from hanging up.