Top Tips To Master Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, one of my personal top ten games on the Nintendo Switch. It’s got
brilliant tracks, brilliant karts, brilliant characters… but it can get DIFFICULT a little later on
in the game. I’m going to give a few top tips I’ve learnt while attempting to fully complete
Mario Kart (currently battling 200 CC, successfully if I may add).

In no particular order, we begin:

LEARN TO USE DRIFT

This is BEYOND important; I doubt you could complete 100 CC without the use of drift.
To use drift you press the R or ZR key while turning, it’s usually used on a corner that
leads to a straight road as the use of drift will give you a minor boost.

However, as you progress through the game, drift will be useful even in small corners that lead onto even
more corners – any boost is welcome after a while! The drift has three levels: the spark
will first be blue, then orange, and then pink. Each of these levels gives a different amount and time of boost, building with how long you hold the drift for.

My personal favourite use of drift is on Melody Motorway at 150 CC, also the first turn on N64 Yoshi
Valley is great on 150 CC if you can hold into the second turn. Learning the drift is a must in order to complete the game.

USE THE BRAKE

Though the brake isn’t necessarily needed from 50 CC until 150 CC, it’s still worth getting used to it where possible, probably more in the 150 CC zone. I speak from experience when I say going into 200 CC with little to no experience with the brake key is not ideal.

The number of times I’ve attempted to seamlessly drift around a corner at 200 like I used to 150 and promptly fell off an edge once the boost hit is embarrassing. To use the brake you press B, which can be a little difficult to manoeuvre at first since it’s directly under acceleration. But trust me, getting used to it before hitting 200 CC will do you a world of favours!

COLLECT COINS

It honestly took me way too long to figure out the purpose of those coins around the tracks of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and I know that many people still aren’t fully aware of their use.

So, basically (because it is humiliatingly basic), for every coin that you get your kart goes a little bit faster. It’s an extremely small percentage but if you’ve ever been at ten coins and then been hit by two red shells, losing six coins, you’ll have noticed the difference in speed.

Unfortunately, the coin limit is maxed at ten but it does give you a great advantage over those at zero. Although, coins get real old real fast when you’re in first place through an entire track because it’s essentially the only power you can collect from an Item Box. But still, collect!

USE. THE. BOOST. START. IT’S SO USEFUL.

Sometimes it takes a little while to get it perfect every time, but once you do, it’s your superpower – until you hit 150 CC and half the CPUs are doing it. But that’s exactly why it’s so important.

Once you get to a specific speed, the CPUs will start acting like the appropriate player, so they’ll be using it and it could be your downfall. To use this boost, you start accelerating before the race begins.

My top tip here is to start it a few milliseconds after “2” appears on the screen. Not at 3 or as soon as it hits 2 or you’ll burn out, and not way into 2 or during 1 or it’ll be a mini boost. To get the most use out of your starter boost, try to hit it JUST after the 2 appears. You don’t have to thank me… But you will do. 

JUMP!

The jump key is the same as the drift key but you can only do it when going in a straight line. It may seem like a weird command if you’re new to Mario Kart, but you’ll need it for even more boosts.

Whenever you’re about to leap off of anything: a plane, a cannon, even a ledge; pressing the jump key will cause a boost mid-air. This’ll send you faster through the air and prolong the airtime so if you can use that to your advantage, do it! 

HARVEST SHELLS AND SUPER HORNS

Last, but certainly not least, you must harvest all shells and horns, especially if you’re in first place. A hidden gem here is that the super horn can dispel even blue shells!?! It’s amazing right?! There’s actually a power-up that can stop that pesky blue shell from ruining your 1st place streak.

As well as this, green and red shells are amazing defences while in 1st place. You’ll probably use them a lot more for the player in front of you if you’re not in first but holy hell are they brilliant when you’re on top.

Any time you get an alert that a red shell is headed your way, if you try to wait until the last minute then you can shoot a red or green shell directly behind you and destroy it! This also works with banana peels, both at blocking incoming shells, and using shells to get rid of peels in front of you.

Basically just keep your shells, peels, and horns, no matter how tempted you are to throw them away. Disclaimer: the ‘throwing a shell behind you’ trick doesn’t work if you’re turning a corner! You’re also likely to have a Boo take your item if you’ve had it too long… It’s still worth it though. 

Do you have any tips or tricks to master Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? Anything that can help us complete 200 CC? Let us know on Twitter, we always reply! For more Guides on your favourite games, you can jump over to here.