As someone who’s been playing Mario Kart for a quarter century, I know a thing or two about how to play and want to impart some of my wisdom unto you, fellow Mario Kart World newcomer.
Staying in First Place
Staying in first place in Mario Kart is as much about using items correctly as it is about driving well. Bananas and Shells destroy each other, and the items you get in first place aren’t that useful offensively, so it’s better to hold onto them so you can block other projectiles coming in.
Shells and Bananas will protect you from Red and Green Shells as well as single ice and fireballs, which will be the most common items your opponents use against you. Keep in mind that they don’t work agains Boomerangs or Blue Shells.
Feathers and Super Horns can protect you against more types of items, but they require more precise timing. Feathers let you jump over any ground-based projectile, and Super Horns can destroy Blue Shells and Boomerangs.
In practice, you’ll only be able to jump over Red Shells since you need some sort of warning or happen to be looking behind yourself at the perfect time, so I recommend prioritizing holding onto 2 of the following items as much as possible:
| 1. |  | Super Horns |
| 2. |  | Shells |
| 3. |  | Bananas |
| 4. |  | Feathers |
| 5. |  | Bob-ombs |
| 6. |  | Coin Block |
| 7. |  | Coin |
You can get Triple Bananas and Green Shells in 1st place, but they’re rare. I don’t like them all that much because they orbit around you and only offer protection if they happen to collide with the projectile, so once you block the first shot, you have to drop the items manually if you want to guarantee your safety.
Super Horns are also pretty rare and are the best item you can get in first place, so you want to fish for them by dumping both items and going through the double item boxes as much as possible. If there isn’t a double, make sure to flush your coin-based items.
Your items can and will get taken or removed by explosions (Bob-omb and Blue Shell), Lightning, Boos, and the Lakitu toll, so there’s no reason to save anything to protect you against something stronger. Just use your Super Horn on the next item that will hit you.
Yes, Super Horns are rare, but so are Blue Shells, and their knockdown effect isn’t consequentially more powerful than that of any other type of Shell, so you’re better off using it to protect yourself against a Red Shell than letting yourself get hit by a Blue Shell, which may never come before you’d lose the Super Horn anyway.
Coins should only be saved if you’re at 20 Coins already to replenish your stock after you get hit. If you wanna pull a little Substitution Jutsu, Coins are nice garbage that someone else’s Boo can steal from you, too.
Bob-ombs will block incoming projectiles and detonate behind you if you’re close to your max speed, but you can get caught in the blast if you recently began accelerating or get hit at a weird angle.
In this game, you have to run directly into them to cause the explosion or get caught in the blast, so they’re only as useful as Bananas when throwing them forward.
It’s best to drift as close to the inside of a turn as possible so you cover the greatest track distance in the shortest amount of time. This is also the best time to drop bananas because it prevents others from taking a short of a path as you did.
The chances of you getting hit with an item right before getting another one are low because most people have already used their items from the last box, so it’s okay to be vulnerable for a little bit.
If there isn’t a tight turn near an item box, just drop your Bananas in front of the double item box or right after you pass through a speed booster or coin. Strategic Banana placement will do you more good than just dumping it thoughtlessly.
Catching Up
Drafting is your only real way to pass a good driver without using items. To draft, all you need to do is stay right behind another driver for a few seconds. You’ll start seeing air streams and then get a burst of speed. You’ll go as fast as you would with a Mushroom, but you don’t get the increased traction.
Speaking of Mushrooms, look for ways to cut through off-road terrain using items that eliminate the Speed penalty, including Mushrooms of any kind, Super Stars, and Boos.
Strangely, you can still draft off of others while a Boo has made you incorporeal, but others can’t draft off of you.
In general, you should try to take the shortest safe path possible. Those tight turns and double item boxes are usually safe against the computer, but they’re magnets for violence online.
Don’t forget to consider vertical distance either. If your wings aren’t deployed and you’re in the air, you are moving slower than you would be on the ground. The mini-turbo you get after doing a trick helps to mitigate this, so make sure always to do one.
Don’t forget to press Accelerate (A button) as soon as you see the “2” appear at the start of a race or the moment you hit the ground after getting hoisted back onto the track by a Lakitu.
On the item front, try to do maximum damage. If your projectile doesn’t break on contact, like a Boomerang, blue Spiny Shell, or golden Coin Shell, try to line yourself up so you’ll hit multiple players.
If you get Triple Red Shells in second or third place, space them out by several seconds. If you spam fire them, the second and third will land while your target or go to the next one if they still have immunity from getting hit the first time. Make them regret ever prioritizing Speed over Acceleration.
Despite having decent aim with Green Shells, I find I have better chance of hitting someone (as opposed to no one) when I spam throw Ice, Fire, or Hammers at once, though your mileage may vary.
New Game Mechanics
There are a variety of new game mechanics and items in Mario Kart World, most of which pertain to terrain in some way.
Hidden Stats
Road surface/terrain is the big hidden stat in Mario Kart World. Some vehicles are specialized to perform better on smooth surfaces, rough racetracks, or in water (jetski deployed, but perform significantly worse on the other 2 racetrack types. Roughly a quarter of the vehicles don’t have this type of specialization and perform equally on all surfaces.
Given the vast majority of racetracks have smooth surfaces or some combination without a clear winner, it’s currently best to use a vehicle specialized for smooth surfaces or that is unspecialized.
At the time of initial publishing, vehicle balance is horrendous because of these hidden terrain stats. Half of the vehicles will be worse at any given time and at least a quarter are worse in every racetrack.
Mini-Turbo quality is also determined by the Acceleration stat, but it doesn’t seem to be strong enough to compensate for the loss in raw Speed that comes with higher Acceleration, at least according to current Time Trials leaderboards.
Check out our Stats and Vehicles Guides for more information.
Feathers
The Feather item is designed to be intuitive and functional. You can use it to jump into ? Blocks, dodge shells, hop onto electrical wires, grab items blown up by Ptooie Piranha Plants, and even leap over small bends in the road.
You won’t have it forever, and holding onto it instead of picking up a new item means you’re essentially throwing another item away, so just try to seize the Feather as soon as you see an opportunity to use it.
This approach will also protect you from jumping over the next row of item boxes. Don’t ask me how I know that.
Rear View
You can look behind you by pressing X. It’s not new in Mario Kart World, but this input is not listed in the controls layout. It’s useful aiming shells behind you, preventing others from drafting off of you, and crucially, timing dodges with the Feather.
Coins
In Mario Kart World, you can hold up to 20 Coins with each coin improving your Speed stat slightly, capping out at 5% with 20 Coins. It may not seem like much, but that is definitely enough to decide the race.
The amount of Speed you get per Coin is not always linear and depends on your Weight stat. The heavier you are, the closer you need to be to 20 Coins to get that 5% boost, whereas you’ll get closer to 5% with fewer Coins the lighter you are.
Tricks
You can do tricks in the air by pressing the Drift button (R, ZR) and you’ll get a small speed boost (mini-turbo) as soon as you land. You can do multiple tricks in the air, but they don’t affect the quality of the mini-turbo when you land.
Steering in a specific direction during a trick off a jump will affect where you go. Tricking forward and backward will reduce your air time, whereas left or right will make you do a barrel roll.
No directional input is required to trick jump across small forward gaps in the railing. Tricking into a wall will cause you to drive on it for a short time. In many locations, this can result in time savings or even give way to alternate routes.
Be mindful while rail grinding or drifting that you are going slower until you get that turbo boost at the end. If you expect to be hit by an item soon, it’s better to end that grind/drift early rather than lose the mini-turbo.
Hops
You can also hold Drift (R, ZR) while not turning to charge up a little hop. You can’t jump as high as you can with the Feather item. Its main use is starting rail grinds, but it will also slow you down without offering a way to recover the lost speed unless you’re in water.
Speaking of which, when you land in water, you partially submerge before bouncing back up, which lifts you slightly out of the water and counts as a trick opportunity. I’m not sure whether this is optimal.
Rewind Time
Mario Kart World has a rewind button. Just like the Rear View button, the game does not tell you about it anywhere, but if you hold down the up button on the D-pad (▲), you will rewind your own place in time.
Rewind works everywhere offline, even in Grand Prixes, but it’s most useful for retrying tricky sequences in Free Roam to redo ? Pads and Peach Coins. It isn’t necessarily worthwhile to do in a race because time continues normally for everyone else.
You can’t use it to reroll items, and some effects will get turned off immediately, like Super Stars. The effective time cost for even the shortest rewinds is similar to getting help from a Lakitu, so if you’re quick enough, it can be worthwhile and save you some Coins to rewind before falling.
You can rewind as far back as the last time the you were transported somewhere instantly, like via Lakitu or Warp Pipe.
