Pursuit

Pursuit is a game mode in Need for Speed: Heat where the player gets pursued by the Palm City Police Department, or the Eden Shores Police Department, depending on what time of day you’re being pursued in.

In the mode, the player has to run into the cops roaming around in free roam, and once that happens, they will be wanted by the police and they will attempt to arrest them if they resist.

The player must then find a hideout or attempt to outrun the cops in order to get out of the pursuit. The more trouble the player causes along the way or messes with the cops, the more trouble they will be in indicated by the heat level which eventually the cops will send reinforcements, and use various tactics agains the player such as ramming them with S.W.A.T Trucks (dubbed, “Rhinos”), putting spikestrips and roadblocks in the road, deploying helicopters, and using Killswitches. (EMP's.)

They will also attempt to PIT, Ram, Block, and Box the suspect in by traveling in packs. They can be triggered by hitting a patrolling or parked police vehicle in free roam at any time of day, or them appearing in the races at night, in which they’ll continue to chase the player even once the race is over unless they escape from them in it likewise. The player must then either Bribe the cops $10,000 to avoid getting into a police pursuit in free roam along with their current heat level being erased, or run away in hopes of outrunning them, and have their heat level rise in the process of it. The player is given 2 warnings to bribe them and on the 3rd warning is when they get pursued by the two cops that appear in the chase. Then they have to outrun the cops or fight back against them by ramming them with their vehicle in order to escape from them in free roam for hitting them. The player can fight back like the previous games like usual but they may potentially get slightly damaged in the process of hitting them, which usually this isn’t a lot, but it can have a toll on their possibility of escaping the pursuit since they only have the chance of repairing their car 3 times per night total before they must escape. They can use various auxiliary upgrades to aid in their escape. Once the player is out of sight of the police, they can either find more cops to smash and escape from, stay out of sight and get to a garage and cash in their nightly earnings, or do more races and do high heat races eventually at one point once they have the heat level to enter it.

They will be wanted for the night and won’t be able to bribe the cops beyond this point, and the only way of avoiding them at this point is by staying out of sight and avoiding running into them as they will put on their searchlights on the mini-maps which indicate that they are currently looking for the player and their vehicle as well.

The only differences between the daytime and the night time pursuits, is the fact that rhinos, roadblocks, and spikestrips will not appear in the daytime with the Palm city police department, and the pursuits in the daytime will not any have benefits for the player whatsoever, and are just specifically for the purpose of passing the time away when there’s nothing else to do in the daytime. While in the nighttime, rhinos, spikestrips, and roadblocks will start to appear in the pursuits, and the player’s current amount of rep they have earned through races or speed, jump, and drift zones that night will be multiplied based on the heat level they are at, similar to that of how bounty worked in need for speed most wanted 2005. The player will also be able to repair your vehicle as many times as you want on the daytime vs. at night time where they only have the chance of repairing their car 3 times per night. it can end with the player hiding or the Arrest of the player

Cop Tactics
Ram. This is also a very deadly pursuit tactic. They will attempt to hit you from the side or from the player's rear really hard, which is both a weak spot for the cops and the Player, especially when they drive corvettes which can keep up with the player at high speeds since they have catch-up on, and they will deplete a lot of health.

So you would want to avoid that at all costs by turning in a lane so the cops won’t have a chance at ramming you from the back.

PIT. This is a very deadly pursuit tactic in this game as they will spin the player leaving room for units behind the player to come and ram into them, and/or box them in.

Block. They will attempt to block the player from having an opening for escape. This usually means the player it’s about to be boxed in somewhere.

Box. They attempt to box the player in if they are near a corner and will also ram them in hopes of wrecking them along with it, in which the player has to find an opening very quick and nitrous as soon as they can as the, “busted” meter will go down very fast. And even then, this can't always be guaranteed and it may be end of the road for the player if it takes less than 3 seconds or longer to find an opening.

Herd. They will attempt to travel with all of their reinforcements in packs in attempt to box the player in. Be aware of these. Leading them into the ocean can help a lot in this case if you're near a body of water.

Heat Levels
Heat Level 1, Crown Victoria’s will appear.

Heat Level 2, Dodge Chargers will appear.

Heat Level 3, Corvettes will appear as well as Dodge Charger cops using killswitches, and spikestrips and roadblocks being deployed all over the city and map.

Heat Level 4, Everything will be the same as heat level 3 but more aggressive, but Rhinos will spawn and attempt to ram the player every 1 minute.

Heat Level 5, Everything will be the same as heat level 4 but the intervals for the rhinos will be shortened and the Helicopters will come into the pursuit and attempt to blind the player with their light, making it difficult to see what’s in front of them. More cops will appear more at this heat level and become a lot more aggressive and more prone to boxing them in easier.

Quotes
3rd Warning of Pull-Over mode: (Megaphone)

"It doesn't matter where you run I'll find you!"

"Don't try to run!"

"You got nowhere to run!"

"Challenge accepted!"

"Challenge accepted! Prepare to loose!"

"Ahhhhh.... You just made my night!"

"You can't hide from me!"

"Hey you! Big shot!"

Radio:

"Do I have to do everything myself? Send some extra hundreds!"

"Do I have to do everything myself? Send some extra hundreds if there ARE any!"

"Damn why hasn't this driver given up already?"

"Let's see this faggot match up to my vehicle!"

"Woohoo, stuff like this gets my blood pumping."

If Rhino hits player:

"Bullseye!"

"I guess they didn't learn how to dodge a rhino!"

"You mess with the bull, you get the horns!"

"It's fun to see these guys smash things up!"

"Woohoo! That was a good hit!"

"Bam! It smashed right into them!"

"Armoured smashed right into the suspect!"

"That asshole just got clobbered by the rhino!"

Rhino Deploying:

"This is 7-10 charging suspect!"

"What what in the butt!"

"This is 7-10! Ready for action!"

"Heads up y'all. Rhino incoming."

"SWAT Truck's gonna disable his vehicle."

"There's some heavy armor on the road."

"Rhino's being called in on the chase. Make sure you stay out of it's way."

If they find player:

"I've located that looser!"

Trivia:

 * this is the first game since 2015 to feature a pursuit system, unlike in Payback which was supposed to have it but was cancelled due to programming errors.
 * A Ford Explorer SUV finally has a home in this game but not as a police pursuit unit, but rather as Frank Mercer’s vehicle. It was in the files for Payback as a pursuit unit as a Rhino unit and was planned to be added before they replaced it with the Lenco BEAR-lookalike S.W.A.T Van instead.
 * The pursuit system in this game a lot more organized and more convenient than other games in the past.
 * This is the second time a Need For Speed game has had a pull-over-and-pay-the-ticket feature since 2015.
 * This is the second game to have a helicopter as a pursuit unit since Rivals. It was in Payback but as a decoration and brifley in a scripted mission instead of an actual pursuit unit due to the lack of a proper pursuit system in-game.
 * Every file for the pursuits is the same as 2015 and Payback but as a pursuit system now. This is all the stuff that originally was supposed to be for Payback but was scrapped and later used for this instead of Payback. Including all of the messages you received such as the “Rhino Incoming!” and evening the “Pursuit Started” message as well, and even the pull-over feature too. It doesn’t have an exclamation point this time though.
 * This is the second time an EMP (Killswitch) is used a as pursuit hazard and tactic the police use against the player to stop their vehicle. This idea was supposed to be used by EA Black Box for the 2006 game Need For Speed: Carbon, as a helicopter that shoots EMP’s at the player but was scrapped and used in a cutscene instead, but it now finally has a home in the Need For Speed series for an actual purpose.
 * This is the second time a pursuit system is used in a Miami-inspired city map since the 2008 video game Need For Speed: Undercover by EA Black Box.
 * This is the first time the Need For Speed series uses a damage system is used as a critical part of the game and pursuit similar to that of the 2008 video game, Midnight Club LA.
 * This is the third game since Most Wanted 2012 and Payback to feature a S.W.A.T vehicle in the game.
 * Unlike in the daytime, the cop speech will barely use any radio codes, and become more casual and angry than in the daytime which do.
 * If the player is busted in the daytime, they will get the same cutscene as if they were being pursued by the Eden Shores Police Department instead of the Palm City Police Department.
 * The pursuits, unlike the previous games, are slightly more difficult to do now that your own vehicle has a health bar, making it slightly harder to fight back against the cops or escape at free will.
 * It is unknown on wether not it's a glitch the fact that the Player gets damaged slightly along with the cops when fighting back, or if it was intended for a challenge. This may have been intentional as Max mentioned that you may get damaged along with fighting back.