Mario Kart 8 Deluxe advanced tips and techniques to win races
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe remains one of the most popular multiplayer games on the Nintendo Switch, both online and offline. Therefore, it’s always worth trying to gain an edge that can nudge you into first place. The best way to improve your skills is simply to keep practicing on 200cc, the fastest available speed, but there are plenty of other Mario Kart 8 advanced tips that can make all the difference.
We’ve got all of our best ones right here, which will hopefully have you going for gold. We’ll assume that you fully know your way around the controls and items, as well as how to drift and acquire the three boost levels. When you have mastered these basics and put in enough racing hours it’s time to reach the next level, enabling you to reliably compete with online opponents and consistently defeat your friends.
Here is a collection of our best Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Advanced Tips.
Collect coins to boost speed
The coins collected on the track give you a slight speed boost. This is so minor it is easily missed, but collecting the maximum of 10 coins actually has a noticeable difference when compared to 0.
As such, aim to pick up as many as you can from the track, and use your coin powerups as soon as you get them (assuming you’re not already on 10).
They aren’t worth compromising your tight turns for, but you should definitely get them where you don’t need to go out of your way. Coins also accumulate to unlock the Gold Kart, which is bonus.
Know the advanced routes of every track
This is a fairly obvious tip, but it’s also the most important one. There is really no substitute for knowing every single track inside out. Virtually all of them have shortcuts or different paths you can take at certain points in the race.
By far the best way to do this is to race against high-level ghosts. If you are playing offline you should race against the best CPU ones, but ideally you should connect to the internet and race against the world record ghost times on each track. At the very least, watch some of the world record runs to see how they approach each track.
Don’t expect to seriously compete with their times, but you’ll be able to see the optimal methods of getting around every track as quickly as possible. You’ll also see the best places to use those all-important mushrooms.
Drift off ramps before a tight turn
On 200cc, jumping off a ramp is usually worth doing for the speed boost, but certain ramps appear at awkward places where a jump boost will cause you to take the next corner too wide.
On these, you should drift onto the ramps and refrain from jumping, allowing you to touch down at the right angle to drift boost around the bend. If you judge it right, you will get around the corner and unleash your boost without taking your kart wide of the track.
This technique will feel a little unusual at first, but your drift boost will only diminish when your wheels touch the track, so you can maintain it in the air.
Drift when using a mushroom
Another of our key Mario Kart 8 advanced tips is to use mushrooms whilst drifting around a corner, preferably on an off-road shortcut.
Obviously your increased speed will push you wider, but if you enter the turn a little tighter than normal and then use your mushroom after you start drifting, you will zoom around a bend and leave others trailing in your wake.
It’s harder to pull off than using your mushroom in a straight line, but on certain tracks the biggest advantages will come by cornering with mushrooms and cutting out tricky parts of the course, like the shortcut through the waterfall at the start of Yoshi Circuit.
Master brake drifting
On 200cc, you simply cannot beat advanced players without mastering brake drifting. If you don’t drift, you’ll lose precious time but if you don’t brake, you’ll fly off the track. Brake drifting is occasionally helpful on 150cc if you slightly misjudge a corner, but not essential.
As you are building up drift boosts on tight corners, you need to press the brake button (B) at the same time as ZR to keep your kart angled tight enough.
This isn’t always the case – there are plenty of turns that do not require a brake. However, most tracks will have a few turns where it is essential.
If you brake for too long without releasing ZR to boost, you’ll lose the boost altogether and seriously slow yourself down. Finding the balance is crucial and the key is to practice finding that sweet spot of braking enough to maintain course but not too much to lose the boost.
Mastering this is simply the most important aspect of successfully racing on 200cc.
Hop when you need to
Though the infamous fire-hopping technique was removed from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, there is still an edge to be gained by hopping at the right times.
Hopping is still the best way to adjust your angle without careering off the track. This is particularly important if you get hit mid-turn and end up facing sideways. Hop multiple times whilst you accelerate and turn back on course.
Even when you aren’t hit, certain S-shaped turns are best tackled with a few hops to tighten your turn and stay close to the inside of the track. If you can hop rather than braking, this is a slightly better way to maintain your speed, but definitely requires deep knowledge of each track to determine the best method on each turn. Again, observing world record holders is a great way to figure it out.
Block Blue Shells with the Super Horn
The Super Horn is a great item to hold onto when leading a race. You probably won’t get it whilst in first place but if you manage to snag one beforehand and get into the lead without using it, it’s arguably one of the best defensive items you can get.
As soon as a Blue Shell starts circling your driver, use the Super Horn to destroy it and save yourself from the blast.
You can also use a Super Horn to destroy other items like red and green shells, but the timing is harder to pull off without switching to rear camera view to see how close it is.
Use a banana to mitigate a Blue Shell
This definitely takes some getting used to, and will only be possible on certain stretches of track.
If you have a banana when the dreaded Blue Shell icon appears, you can throw the banana in front of you and ensure that you drive into it just before the Blue Shell hits you.
Slipping on the banana at just the right time will ensure the Blue Shell has no effect. You should aim to slip right before the blast, but there is a reasonably generous margin of error where you will be invincible.
Obviously the banana will slow you down, but will have a far smaller effect than the Blue Shell blast. Hopefully you’ll be able to maintain your lead and if you’re lucky, the Blue Shell’s AOE might even hit nearby opponents as well.
Timing this right is imperative, as you certainly don’t want to end up being hit by both of them. It is far easier on a straight track, where you should have enough time to reach the banana before the Blue Shell blast if you throw it just as the Blue Shell enters your screen.
Escape a Blue Shell with a speed boost
Believe it or not, you can actually use a mushroom boost away from a Blue Shell if you time it just right. This may be a glitch rather than an intentional design choice by Nintendo, as the window to pull it off is incredibly small. This is one of the Mario Kart 8 advanced tips that will have your friends incredulous if you can master it.
If you use a speed boost from a mushroom or a boost pad on the track at the exact moment a blue shells starts to fall on you, you will actually escape it. The right moment is just after you see the full underbelly of the Blue Shell. which comes after it has circled you. As soon as it shows its blue side one more time, use the mushroom to get away.
The real question is whether it is worth wasting a mushroom trying to do it. If you get it wrong, you completely waste your mushroom which could have been used to regain your lead just afterwards. Perhaps only try this in a heated multiplayer race after you’ve had a lot of practice first and feel more confident you can do it.
Trail Powerups behind you
You probably know that holding down L will cause your current item to trail behind the kart until you release the button.
When you’re in a first place and get hold of a banana or green shell, these can be used defensively to protect you from incoming projectiles. A red shell is virtually guaranteed to be blocked by a trailing shell or banana. Basically, you should get used to driving whilst also holding down L the entire time. This feels awkward at first, but the practice makes perfect.
The upside is that these shells (particularly green shells that don’t carry much warning) won’t take you out by surprise. The downside is that being hit by a Blue Shell will cause you to drop the item on the track and waste it.
Another benefit is that these items automatically hit anyone who touches them, making it hard for opponents to overtake you safely. It also effectively prevents them from taking advantage of your slipstream.
Adjust the trajectory of your glide
There are a few turns that are virtually impossible on 200cc unless you manually descend onto the track sooner.
Examples include the final turn of DK Jungle and the section towards the end of Shy Guy Falls. The only realistic way of pulling off an effective turn without bashing into the wall is to hold the joystick up and hit the ground sooner.
You can combine this with a pre-drift, where you start your turn whilst in mid-air, allowing you to touch down on the track and get around the bend efficiently.
On a similar note, you can also hold the joystick down to maintain your glide longer, which is preferable if there are obstacles on the track, or awkward bend sections such as the final section of Mute City.
Get rid of Blooper ink with boosts
One of my least favourite powerups in Mario Kart 8 is the Blooper, which fills your screen with ink and makes it perilous to take the corners as tightly as you want, particularly as it also reduces your traction.
If you know the tracks well, you can mitigate the potential damage of this, but a better method where possible is to eradicate the ink altogether. Reach a boost pad or use a mushroom and the ink will be blown off the screen, making it plain sailing again.
With these Mario Kart 8 Deluxe advanced tips and pro tips, you will hopefully have an edge during those online or local multiplayer races. Check out our other Mario Kart 8 content below:
