Mario Kart Next Steps - Part 1

Ben Madley, 10 Nov 2018

So you’ve been playing Mario Kart for a while and it’s going well! You can beat the computers pretty much every time and you find yourself getting into first but losing it! This is a really frustrating stage to be at, so over the course of the next few blogs I’m going to give you some tips to keep you on top. For this blog I’ll be focusing on defensive item management.

What is a defensive item?

Certain items can be held behind your character by holding L on the controller. These items include Bananas, Bob-ombs, Green Shells and Red Shells. I call these defensive items as while you’re doing this you can’t be hit by a Red Shell.

Now we know that you can hold items behind you…

Don’t hold your item behind you

While you’re in first, unless the kart behind you is very close, you don’t need to hold an item behind you for protection all the time. The game gives you enough warning to get the item out.

Why would you want to do this? When you’re in first, you get a really limited supply of defensive items so you need to use them all as well as possible. If you get hit by a blue shell or a bob-omb you can’t defend yourself and it will destroy the item.

Hold a coin

Hopefully by now you know by now that the further back you are, the better your items get. This means that, when you are in first, a lot of your items are coins. (Sometimes you even get a coin in second!)

In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe we can deal with this: You’ve got two item slots and they can’t both be coins! Just don’t use a coin if it’s in your first item slot and your second item slot is free.

That way you’re guaranteed to get a defensive item.

Caveat

Just as an aside, this isn’t always true online. It’s possible to get two coins at once.

I believe this is a bug. Possibly due to race conditions.

Keep holding the coin

So now your first item is a coin and your second item is a defensive item.

Now, don’t use the coin! This protects you from a ghost from stealing your defensive item! AND as a bonus you know whoever had the ghost has gotten a coin instead of something better.

Final advice

My last piece of advice for now: If someone good is doing something that seems illogical, ask them why they’re doing it. It could change everything! It’s how I learned everything in this post!