This page contains a list of Tips and Tricks for how to beat the competition in Mario Kart Tour, as well as how to get the best advantage, and more!
Mario Kart Tour Guides:
Contents
Everything Different in Mario Kart Tour
For Mario Kart veterans jumping into Tour, there are some big changes to know about. Because the game was developed for mobile, it plays drastically different from the traditional console and handheld version of Mario Kart. It also functions quite differently too, resembling a gacha game more than a standard Mario Kart.
Before you jump into the game, here’s everything different about Mario Kart Tour.
- You play using the touch screen.
- Instead of using a controller, only a finger is needed in Mario Kart Tour.
- You slide your finger left and right to move your kart on screen and simply tap the screen to fire off your items.
- Players participate in Tours and within each tour are Cups, which fans of the series will likely recognize.
- A cup only lasts for two weeks so completionists will need to play often to complete every cup within each tour.
- When players first begin a tour, only one cup will be available.
- Racers will need to collect Grand Stars from races and challenges to unlock the other cups within a tour.
- A cup consists of four courses and additional courses are unlocked after completing the courses that come before it.
- Characters, karts and gliders determine the bonuses players receive during a cup: choosing Mario, if you have him unlocked, during a Mario Cup with a Mario-themed kart and glider will give players the maximum possible bonus.
- The Gold Pass is $4.99 a month and gives players exclusive gifts after completing cups called Gold Gifts, exclusive Gold Badges and the 200cc mode.
- For players looking to race at the fastest speed in Mario Kart Tour, they’ll need to purchase the monthly Gold Pass as 200cc is exclusive to that pass.
How to Play
Because this version of Mario Kart is quite different from more traditional Mario Kart games, you might be wondering how to actually play the game using your phone.
If you’re jumping into the game for the first time, you’ll be asked to pull down on the green pipe. A character will launch into the air and that will be the character you use in your first race.
Now, your first race will be more of a tutorial than an actual competition. When the race begins, use your finger on the bottom of the screen to move your character’s kart left and right accordingly. Drag your finger left to move the kart left and vice versa.
This tutorial race will also teach you how to use items. Drive through a spinning item box to start the random item slot machine-like mechanic on the top of the screen. You’ll see your item box flashing with all of the possibilities.
When an item is selected, simply tap the middle section of the bottom of the screen to use the item. We’ll cover items in more detail later in this guide.
How to Use Items
Items are essential to winning in Mario Kart Tour, just as they have been in every Mario Kart game before this one. They give you the ability to jet ahead to first place, take out enemy racers in your way, and do what you need to do to get out of an otherwise tough situation.
Once you have an item, to use it, just tap on the middle section of the bottom of your screen. This will use whatever item is in your item box at the top of your screen.
If you have multiple items, the item on the left will be used first, followed by the middle item and then the right item. Using all three items will require three separate taps.
Below is a breakdown of what each item is and how to use it in Mario Kart Tour.
Banana
The Banana is a Mario Kart staple and a great item to hold when you’re in first place. The banana can be dropped on the track behind you, or thrown in front of you.
If you hit a character, they will spin out. If the banana lands on the ground, any driver that goes over it will spin out. You can also carry it behind your cart to protect you from a single attack.
Giant Banana
The Giant Banana works much in the same as the regular banana. If you hit it, you’ll spin out. Where this banana differs is its size — it’s much larger and harder to dodge because of it — and when its hit, it splits into three regular bananas.
Green Shell
Another staple of Mario Kart, the Green Shell takes out any driver it hits. Fortunately, they usually just go straight after being thrown forward or backwards but occasionally, they’ll bounce off of walls and change trajectory.
Triple Green Shells
Triple Green Shells work in the same way as Green Shells except instead of just one, you get three of them. Like Bananas, Green Shells can be held behind you to block an incoming attack.
Red Shell
The Red Shell works in the same way as a Green Shell except that it homes in on other racers. If you launch a Red Shell toward an enemy, it will do its best to follow it over hills, around curves and into the air to take home out. It’s possible to dodge a red shell with a tight enough turn, though, so don’t consider a Red Shell a guaranteed hit.
Spiny Shell
The Spiny Shell is one of the most useful items in the game, just in its ability to anger whoever is in first place alone. When you throw a Spiny Shell, often known as a blue shell, it will go straight after whoever is in first place, knocking out anybody in its way.
When it gets to the front, it hits first place in an explosion-like fashion leaving them subdued for quite a few seconds.
Bowser’s Shell
Bowser’s Shell is the largest of the shells in Mario Kart Tour and easily the most useful. When used, this giant shell that resembles Bowser’s back, will position itself on the front of your kart. Now, all you have to do is drive near other racers and the shell will automatically take them out.
Bob-omb
The Bob-omb can either hit racers head-on, causing them to crash in a fiery explosion, or it can be thrown onto the track. The latter option will see the item use its legs to walk back and forth along the track. If it isn’t hit in enough time, it will explode on its own taking out any nearby drivers.
Double Bob-ombs
This item works in the same way as regular Bob-ombs except instead of one, there’s two. This makes for a bigger explosion.
Mushrooms
The Mushroom can be used at any moment during a race to give you a temporary speed boost.
Triple Mushroom
When used, this item will work just like a single Mushroom except the speed boost will last significantly longer.
Mega Mushroom
The Mega Mushroom increases the size of your kart when used making it easier to crash opponents by driving into them.
Bullet Bill
When you use this item, you’ll turn into an actual Bullet Bill and bullet ahead, crashing through any enemies in your way.
Blooper
The Blooper squirts ink onto any driver ahead of you in the race making it harder to see what’s on screen. If you get hit with this, wipe it off on your screen using your finger.
Lightning
This item causes lightning to strike your enemies. Upon impact, the drivers will spin out and lose their held items. They’ll also be left in a shrunken size with decreased speed as a result.
Fire Flower
The Fire Flower causes protective fireballs to spin around your kart. These stop items from hitting you and cause enemies that crash into you to spin out. You can tap the screen to fire one of your fireballs.
Boomerang Flower
This item allows the user to throw a boomerang and cause any kart it hits to crash. It will collect any coins in its path for you as well.
Super Horn
This horn blows away all incoming items and drivers. It’s especially useful for taking out a Red Shell coming your way.
Coin
This item gives you two coins. When you get this item, it is used automatically.
Heart
This Heart will put a protective layer around your kart that prevents all attacks and drivers from damaging you. Once hit, it vanishes. Up to five can be stacked on one driver.
Yoshi’s Egg
Yoshi’s Egg targets the drive in front of you and crashed into it. When that happens, three additional items will break out of the egg for the taking.
Bubble
This item surrounds your kart and protects you for a set amount of time. After using the bubble, you’ll receive a speed boost and float in the air. This Bubble disappears after taking damage.
Banana Barrels
A staple of Diddy Kong, this item straps two Banana Barrels to your kart and shoots out loads of bananas. Be careful because if you run over one of these bananas, you’ll spin out of control.
Mushroom Cannon
This item continually shoots speed boost mushrooms in front of you.
Lucky Seven
This item is extremely rare and fives you a Red Shell, Banana, Green Shell, Bob-omb, Super Horn, Mushroom and a Blooper all at once. Tap the screen to use all of these items at once.
How to Get Grand Stars
Grand Stars are the currency used to unlock additional cups within a tour. They can be earned by simply racing in a cup and by completing additional challenges during those races.
The most sure-fire way to get Grand Stars is by racing as often as you can. Here’s an example to demonstrate how Grand Stars are earned after a race.
In the photo above, you can see that we got first place in a 150cc Mario Cup within the New York Tour. We were awarded 2400 points for getting first place and an additional 1,258 points as bonus for the actions we performed such as super-jumping, using items and more.
Finally, we earned 867 points based on the character, kart and glider selected.
Added up, our total points equal 4,525. This amount earned us five Grand Stars.
Another way to earn Grand Stars is by completing challenges. These challenges list the amount of Grand Stars you’ll earn upon completion.
When you first begin the game, challenges won’t be available for you to complete — you must first finish seven cups before the challenges section of Mario Kart Tour is unlocked.
How Points Work
Points drive, pun intended, almost everything in Mario Kart Tour. They’re earned based on what you do during a race be it come in first place, knock enemies out with red shells, super-jump off of ramps and anything else that’s possible on a course.
Your total points are made up of your base points, which are determined by your character, kart and glider, your position points, which are determine on your final placement in the race, and your bonus points, which are earned based on the actions you perform during the race.
Base Points
Your base points begin at a certain amount based on the character, kart and glider selected. Those base points rise with each race you complete using that same setup so to maximize your points, stick to a kart loadout you’re comfortable using.
Position Points
Your position points are determined by a multiplier placed on your player level points:
- First place: Player Level Points x 1
- Second place: Points x .85
- Third place: Points x .75
- Fourth place: Points x .65
- Fifth place: Points x .55
- Sixth place: Points x .45
- Seventh place: Points x .35
- Eighth place: Points x .2
So, if your Player Level points are 1000, for example, a first place win will grant you 1000 Position Points. If you got eighth place, you’d only get 200 Position Points instead.
Bonus Points
Bonus Points are rewarded based on the actions you complete during an individual race. These actions include things like super-jumping, turbo-boosting, drifting and using items to knock opponents off track.
You can combo Bonus Points by performing actions back to back. If you used a mushroom to boost forward and then use a red shell to take our a nearby racer, you’ll receive bonus combo points.
How to Get the Best Scores
One of the biggest goals in Mario Kart Tour is to get high scores to obtain Grand Stars, which are used for both unlocking new Course Cups, as well as getting free Tour Gifts.
In order to get the best score possible, you need to know how scoring works. This is divided into three categories: your Character, Kart, and Glider Score, your Performance Score, and your Placing Score.
The farther into the Tour Cups you get, the higher you’ll find the scores are needed to get all 5 Grand Stars. You can also unlock new cc speeds for better rewards, but more difficult and faster races.
Each of the Racers, Karts, and Gliders all give different points when selected that contribute to your overall score. These are ranked by rarity, but by leveling them up, you can increase their base score – and possible multipliers.
By making sure you have the best point score possible, you can help maximize the base points possible going into a race. However, a character or kart you have that may have a great point score may not be the same as the one that gets additional bonuses from a favored course – so you’ll need to pick the best combination to make sure you’ll also be able to win big.
By default, a racer will earn twice the score as normal when placing on their favored ++ Course! Leveling up your racer can increase this.
Your Placing Score is largely dependent on how you do in the race. Getting first place is the most important thing you can do, and will often give the biggest boost possible to your overall score.
Point Score
With higher cc courses giving increased point rewards, it’s important to have a loadout you trust to get you across the finish line, and get all the favored bonuses you can like more items, better boosts, and so forth.
You’ll also get another point score for the place you are in when you finish the first lap – so keep on top of the competition even if the race isn’t over just yet!
The final source of points is your Performance Score, which comes from all the Actions you perform during the race. Everything from boosting, to jumping, to using and hitting other racers with your items all count towards this score, and the more things you do, the better:
- Rocket Start: +15
- Mini-Turbo: +5
- Super Mini-Turbo: +15
- Jump Boost: +20 (+30 if done while gliding)
- Glide Time +10, +1 per second after
- Item Use: +10?
- Passive Item Hit: +10 (+11, 12, 13, etc. per hit if multiple racers hit)
- Direct Item Hit +100 per hit
- Coin Pickup: +1 per
- Slipstream Bonus: +30
All of these point bonuses and more can be directly influenced by the level of your character, karts, and gliders, as leveling up can provide additional bonuses, or even multipliers to your total score.
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