TouchDS MK Guide

-- Kart Tiers list --

Top Tier

* Egg1
* Dry Bomber
* ROB BLS
* Poltergust


Higher Tier

* Dry Bones Standard
* ROB Standard
* Yoshi Standard
* Toad Standard
* Mushmellow
* Shooting Star
* Banisher


Medium Tier

* Peach Standard
* Daisy Stanard
* Luigi Standard
* Mario Standard
* Peach standard
* 4 Wheel Cradle
* ROB LGS
* Streamliner
* Cucumber
* Waluigi Standard
* Light Dancer
* Light Tripper


Low Tier

* B-Dasher
* Bowser Standard
* DK Standard
* Wario Standard
* Brute
* Zipper
* Gold Mantis
* Hurricane
* Widlife


Bottom Tier

* Rambi Rider
* Tyrant
* Royale
* Dragonfly

-- Helpful Shortcuts on Wi-Fi --

Figure 8 Circuit-
Boosting through the grass is faster than snaking the turn... but thats it.

Yoshi Falls-
They're not really shortcuts but you should always be crossing every waterfall except the 2nd one, its too long and you'll probably fall off.

Cheep Cheep Beach-
If you get a triple mushroom on this track, KEEP THEM, don't waste them like a noob =P. After going over the 2nd boost ramp, go straight and boost through the water. only use 1 mushroom though... unless it is the last lap and you've got more than 1 left. it is also faster not to go over the 2nd ramp if the tide is out.

Luigi's Mansion-
Coming out of the 'mansion' part, turn left and triple boost through all that grass. One mushroom will at least cut you through that first turn, but don't try doing the whole thing with one.

Desert Hills-
There's 2 on this one, and both require boosts. The first shortcut is cutting the 2nd turn on the course by going behind the large pyramid. The second is jumping the S curve at the end of the course by boosting over the hills. Both of those cuts are major time-cutters.

Delfino Square-
There are 2 shortcuts in this one, but one is so hard i've only managed to pull it off(correctly) twice. So I'm not even going to go through it... If you want a video of it PM me. The one you'll want to take is the mud-covered path through the buildings near the docks. take it with or without the boost, but make sure to powerslide and get the MT into it. powerslide at the end of it as well.

DK Pass-
Ok this one has one cut and one "useful tip". Once you come out of the ice tunnel and past those little curves afterward, there is a rather large turn that starts where the fence starts. If you turn into the snow right after you pass the fence and triple boost, it cuts a good amount of time. The "tip" here is to go over(not around) the big mound that the road goes around right before you start going downhill. towards the end of the mound is a question box that does not show up on the map, and it gives you triple mushrooms, a star, or a single mushroom, no matter what place you are in. let me tell you, a star in 1st place is extremely helpful.

Mario Circuit-
Only one real cut in this one. When you come to the turn with the piranha plants, ignore the turn and snake or boost through that sand in between the piranha plant and the wall.

Wario Stadium-
Go through the mud on the side of the area with the zippers and hoops of fire with mushrooms. Not a big time saver, but its still better than going through the normal course.

Rainbow Road-
There is like 1 shortcut on this one, but i think its only possible in 150cc so it doesn't matter anyway.

SNES Mario Circuit 1-
The second to last turn on this course can be bypassed easily by triple boosting through the sand. The more boosts you have, the earlier you should start cutting it.

N64 Moo Moo Farm-
none.

GBA Peach Circuit-
Most people don't do this... 3-4 turns on this course have walls blocking any cuts, but they fall short of the actual road. Then they stuck trees there... On those turns, ignore the road and powerslide into the grass and in-between the wall and the trees. It works pretty well, i beat leafgreen doing it =D.

GCN Lugi Circuit-
No cuts that i know of... Just be sure not to be a noob and actually use the zippers on the turns, multiple powerslides are WAAAY faster. Actually, i think its faster even without powersliding, unless you take a really wide turn.

N64 Frappe Snowland-
For most of this course, straying too far into the snow gets you picked up by Lakitu. The only cut i use and know of is going across the mound after the snowman-riddled minefield, just cutting the turn and going past the 3 snowmen on the turn. There is also one cut i haven't tried before...

Video

GCN Baby Park-
As far as i know, there is no possible way to jump the walls. Therefore there are no cuts =P

N64 Choco Mountain-
One very useful thing you can do on this course is to powerslide and get the MT right before the triple mounds at the end, and jump when you're on the top. That way you skip over the tops of the mounds and its a lot faster. Make sure to aim it right though, a lot of the time you'll nail a wall if you're not careful.

SNES Choco Island 2-
Only cut that i am aware of is the one at the start. From the finish line, go straight and ignore the turn. Snake it out in the mud, there is a hole in the wall that you can go through. Boosts make quick work of it as well.

GBA Sky Garden-
Three cuts on this one
1. Use a boost or a MT right before the second ramp, the one next to the boost ramp that has an item box.
2. Towards the end there is a cloud in-between the roads, jump on to it(and then jump off at the end =P) to cut a rather big turn. It skips over the last green bridge on the course and the item boxes on it. MTs or boosts are not required, although a boost makes it a lot faster.
3. If you have a boost, rather than taking cut #1, follow the road but ignore the turn and boost(and jump). I know, kinda vague.

Video.

GCN Yoshi Circuit-
Using a boost or MT, you can easily cut that water-filled area at the beginning, but you need to jump if its an MT.

[MT=Mini Turbo]

-- Advanced Techniques --

SSMT(Straight Stretch Mini Turbo) means any mini-turbo (power-slide boost) on a straightway as it has for the last couple of Mario Kart games. 'Snaking' is a slang term used to describe mini-turbo repeatedly on a straight way in an alternating pattern, like a snake. It is simply power-slides and boosts. And to do a mini-turbo, you just hold R while cornering (or on a straight in this case) then push the control pad from left to right (or vice versa) for blue sparks, then again for red sparks. When you get to red sparks, let go of the R button.

Sandbagging or Item Farming- This is when you stay behind someone to get better items than them, and there are many strategies revolving around this. Sandbaggers usually stay back on courses like Rainbow Road, Sky Garden, Desert Hills and Delfino Square and get at least one mushroom. Then use it for a shortcut in the course. This technique is normally frowned upon in the upper levels of MK racing.

Blue Shell Dodging- Somewhat simple technique, requires you to be powersliding. Once the Blue Shell is above your head and about to come down, get the MT and jump. If done correctly, you'll find yourself untouched with a big blue explosion behind you. Requires precise timing in 100cc, it is much easier in 150cc.

PRB (Prolonged Rocket Boosting) is a technique that allows you to pass over sand and grass (and basically any offroad terrain you can think of) without slowing down. It is performed by getting the best rocket boost, and then continously snaking to maintain max speed at all times. If you fall below max speed for even a moment, you lose it, and there are only limited ways to get it back, which is what makes it one of the most difficult techniques in the game. The first uses the zippers (like those found on Rainbow Road, though it wouldn't do anything for you there...); snaking off of one of those will put you in the same state as if you had started a PRB from the beginning of the race. The third method involves a complicated manuever using the mushroom to quickly boost into and away from a wall, although this is by far the most difficult and least reliable way of all. You can dominate certain courses (like rMC1 for example) with this technique. On a lot of courses, even if you don't sustain the boost for the whole race, it can often give you a sizable advantage even in just the first few corners.

-- Point System --

Points apply to the final results after all 4 races.
Get a win for every opponent you beat.
Get a loss for every opponent you lose to.
If you disconnect and the match completes, you get a loss for every member still racing.

[leafgreen386]

Move Rob-BLS below DB but above Poltergeist. It certainly isn't the best. >_>

grr im real busy right now but i'll finish the shortcut thing soon enough

leafgreen could you write something about PRB, i don't pretend to know much about it =P

[leafgreen386]

Sure. How's this?

PRB (Prolonged Rocket Boosting) is a technique that allows you to pass over sand and grass (and basically any offroad terrain you can think of) without slowing down. It is performed by getting the best rocket boost, and then continously snaking to maintain max speed at all times. If you fall below max speed for even a moment, you lose it, and there are only limited ways to get it back, which is what makes it one of the most difficult techniques in the game. The first uses the zippers (like those found on Rainbow Road, though it wouldn't do anything for you there...); snaking off of one of those will put you in the same state as if you had started a PRB from the beginning of the race. The third method involves a complicated manuever using the mushroom to quickly boost into and away from a wall, although this is by far the most difficult and least reliable way of all. You can dominate certain courses (like rMC1 for example) with this technique. On a lot of courses, even if you don't sustain the boost for the whole race, it can often give you a sizable advantage even in just the first few corners.

ok thanks man.

im gonna have to update the rest of the shortcuts and other techniques(definition of snaking, sandbagging, etc...) later. but i did do a few.

if you have anything to add, post it up.

[leafgreen386]

Btw, your "no cuts" on f8c is incorrect. You can use a mushroom through the grass to cut down your time by a little. lol

On CCB, if the tide is out, it's much faster to NOT go over the ramp.

I've gotten single mushrooms from the item box on DKP before.

On WS, you can use mushrooms or prb to go through the mud on the side of the area with the zippers and hoops of fire.

Btw, the other sc on DS is pretty easy imo. Just mushroom into the grass area before the bridge (provided that's the one you were talking about). I'm not sure if you have to jump or not... I do anyway.

easy? i've only managed it correctly in 150cc, all of my tries online either made me fall into the water or barely get onto the docks. ideally it plants you right into the split-building shortcut.

but yeah i think you have to jump

and i haven't noticed much difference between the WS cuts you put up...

[leafgreen386]

Meh. The sc on WS does save time. I'm sure of that much. It's probably a lot more useful for TT than wifi though...

As for the DS sc... I dunno. I never thought it was too difficult to set up for... I get really lucky when I try it? lol I haven't tried it on wifi, yet, though. I'm sure it's a lot harder there.

[Silfarion]

The shortcut on DS is extremely easy to pull off... Just miniturbo up to it and hop off the ledge. It's really useless though; it saves almost no time and if you take it you miss the alley cut.

dude if you do it right, it puts you right INTO the alley cut.

thats why i said it was hard, its freaking tough to get into the alley. otherwise its not even a shortcut, it just looks cool