Garfield Kart – Beginner’s Guide

This is a full guide to almost everything in Garfield Kart.

Different CC

Please note: all credit goes to Amyy!

50CC

To fully beat Garfield Kart, it would be suggested to start off with bot practice. Start out by playing on 50CC against bots in the Lasagne Cup. After you’ve done this three to four times, it’s time for a different cup. You’re now ready to move up to the Pizza Cup, also on 50CC. Similar to the Lasagne Cup, it is recommended to play through this cup three to four times. This will help you with learning the lay-out of the different maps, and discover potential shortcuts. As you can guess, the next step is the Hamburger Cup.

When you’re done with all of these cups on 50CC, you’ll have a good knowledge of all map layouts, and potentially of some shortcuts. This knowledge will come in handy during the entirety of the game, so it’s certainly recommended to follow the steps mentioned above.

100CC

Now that you know the layout of all maps, the time has come to move onto more difficult races. As you could have concluded from the title, you’re ready to move up to 100CC. All maps will stay the same, so the 50CC races should help you a lot. The only real noticeable difference between 50 and 100CC is that the enemies are more difficult. They have been made more intelligent, and will therefor use power-ups more often and race better in general. If you didn’t struggle with 50CC, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem for you. If you had close races or lost races in 50CC, this will take a few more attempts. (Don’t give up, though! You’ll get better after each and every attempt.)

Playing the cups multiple times here is not required, as it was only necessary to build up knowledge of the different maps. Of course, if you lose, you’ll have to play the races multiple times. If the races are too close, you should play them multiple times. Try to finish first on every map!

150CC

The hardest difficulty, 150CC, has arrived. As with the previous difficulties, the intelligence and playstyle of your enemies will change. The change will not be too drastic, it’s quite similar to the change from 50CC to 100CC. If you struggled with that change, naturally you will have some problems with this change as well. You shouldn’t worry about it too much, however, as you should be used to this change from the previous cups.

If you beat this cup but got lower than first or second place on a map, it is recommended to replay the cup and try to finish at least second on every map. Once you’ve mastered these computer-controlled enemies and you’ve beaten all the cups with a gold trophy, you’ll notice there’s one more cup available.

One More Cup

The Ice-Cream Cup

As a reward for beating all other cups on 150CC with a gold trophy, the Ice-Cream Cup will be unlocked. This cup includes four new maps, so it is recommended to start out on 50CC. Having no knowledge of the maps’ layouts, you must study them, similar to how you started out with the game. For these maps, the same rules as the initial cups on 50CC can be followed (IE playing through the cup three to four times, learning the layouts and any potential shortcuts). Once you feel confident enough about the layouts, it is time for a higher CC. If you’re very comfortable with the maps, you could even skip 100CC all together! Only do this if you’re certain you can beat the difficult enemies on the new maps. If not, play 100CC until you’re confident enough to play 150CC.

As with the other 150CC cups, try to get first or second on all maps. This will certainly help you with races on these maps later on.

Customization and Power-Ups

Customization

In this game, there is a lot of character customization available. At the start you will not have a lot of characters, hats, boosts or vehicles unlocked, but you will unlock these as you play the game. Each of these forms of customization have different abilities, strengths and weaknesses. It is best if you try out most of them and see what you prefer. All forms of customization can be purchased using the in-game currency, but most of them will be unlocked through playing the game. There are far too many options of customization to describe here, so if you want to see them for yourself you will have to look at them in-game or online.

Characters include most of your favourite Garfield characters, such as Garfield, Odie, Jon, etc.

Hats can be applied to your characters. These will not only look good, but also give you certain abilities.

Boosts can be equipped and used at the start of a race. These boosts will be consumed when you use one, so use them wisely!

Vehicles, like characters and hats, are a form of customization to make you look more stylish, and provide you with certain abilities.

Power-Ups

Garfield Kart has a wide variety of power-ups, which all have different abilities. These power-ups are gained from the item boxes spread around the map, and are picked up by driving through them. Some power-ups will help you, and some will attack your opponents.

Examples of power-ups that help you include but are not limited to: lasagne, perfume, spring*, etc.

Examples of power-ups that will attack your opponents include but are not limited to: U.F.O., spring*, pie, etc.

*The spring power-up can be used to jump higher, but can also be left behind as an obstacle for your opponents.

Defensive Power-ups

  • Lasagne: This power-up comes in different quantities, mostly just singular. When used, this power-up will give you a temporary speed boost. If you get multiple, using it will only consume one. 
  • Perfume: This power-up also gives you a temporary speed boost, but also provides invincibility. The amount of speed gained is less than from the lasagne, but lasts much longer. While this is active, you’re immune to all incoming attacks and cannot be slowed down. 
  • Spring: This power-up can be used in two ways. This will describe the defensive use. The spring will make you jump much higher than usual, and can be used to evade incoming attacks or jump over large gaps. 

Offensive Power-ups

  • U.F.O.: This power-up will send out three U.F.O.’s, which will get ahead of the opponent who is in first (if you are in first, this power-up is impossible to obtain). These three U.F.O.’s will hover over the road, all giving out a beam of light. One of three U.F.O.’s is safe to drive through, the others aren’t. If you drive through a wrong one, it will pick you up and hold you in the air for some time. Be careful, though! Your own U.F.O.’s can still grab you. 
  • Spring: As described in the other spring section, it has two uses. This will describe the offensive use. When used offensively, the spring will be dropped on the floor behind you, creating an obstacle for opponents. Once an opponent drives into it, they will be stunned momentarily. 
  • Pie: The pie can also be used two ways. The first way is to throw it in front of you, stunning anyone it makes contact with. The second way is to throw it behind you, in the exact same way as you’d do to the spring. Anyone who drives into this will be stunned momentarily. 
  • Pie (Homing): This pie has the exact same secondary ability as the normal pie, but differs in the first ability. The first ability of this pie is to be thrown in front of you, but it will home onto anyone in front of you. This pie always targets the person closest to you.

Stuck?

Being Stuck

If you’re stuck on a certain map, there are plenty of tactics you can attempt to try and improve your gameplay:

  • You should try recording your gameplay. This will allow you to look at your gameplay, and see what you’re doing wrong (or right!). There are plenty of free screen recording programs out there, so you can easily find one that suits you best. My personal recommendation would be OBS. 
  • Another thing you can try is taking a completely different route. Some routes may not seem good, but can turn out to help you a lot. For exploration purposes only, you should try it out on 50CC. Once you’ve got a route you’re happy with, try it out on 150CC to see if it is truly faster (if you’re unsure, you can start a timer once the race started and ended. Do this for a race without the route, and a race with the route, then compare the times and see which was faster). 
  • A third tactic would be to look at other people’s gameplay. There are plenty of 150CC gameplay videos out there, which show great gameplay for all cups. A video I recommend watching is.

Multiplayer

Online Play

Ever since July 2018, Garfield Kart received a multiplayer beta mode. This beta mode can be activated through;

Steam > Library > RMB on Garfield Kart > Properties > Betas > Select the multiplayer beta

Once activated, Steam will reinstall the game, this time with the multiplayer mode enabled. This mode adds the ability to compete against online players, which makes a great addition to the challenging and competitive style of gameplay Garfield Kart has.

Lobbies

When you’re in the game, just press the play button like you normally would. This time, you will have the option to play by yourself against computer-controlled opponents, or to play against other players. Making a lobby is easy, as this game has an easy and accessible interface. For creating a lobby, you’ll just have to enter a name and press the ‘create lobby’ button. This will create a lobby, which other players will then be able to join. If your lobby is not full when starting the game, computer-controlled opponents will enter the race instead. For joining a lobby, you just go to the lobby browsing section and click the one you want to join.

Difficulty

Competing against players will of course be different every single race, so a certain strategy cannot be applied. You’ll have to see what works best for you depending on your opponents. Most tactics used for beating the computer-controlled 150CC opponents will be useful in multiplayer, though. Depending on the type of players you’re against, the challenges you face will differ. It is always helpful to assume your opponents will be very good, though. Never underestimate people’s abilities.

Volodymyr Azimoff
About Volodymyr Azimoff 15056 Articles
I love games and I live games. Video games are my passion, my hobby and my job. My experience with games started back in 1994 with the Metal Mutant game on ZX Spectrum computer. And since then, I’ve been playing on anything from consoles, to mobile devices.

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