Mario Kart Tour Guide: Tips & Cheats for 5-star Races

Nintendo has just launched Mario Kart Tour on mobile and the game is absolutely amazing, offering what I would call a premium gaming experience on our mobile devices… for free. And we’re here to share with you a complete Mario Kart Tour guide filled with tips and tricks so that you finish first in all races and have more fun with the game.

If you have played Mario Kart games before, you will see that the mobile version is extremely similar to what you already know. The tracks will be familiar too, so you will start with an advantage.

But even if you haven’t played the game before on other Nintendo devices, or if you need to get up to date with the changes and tricks in the new mobile game, we’ve got you covered! So let’s move on and check out the Mario Kart Tour cheats and tips below!

More cc, more points

And more points you have, the better it is. And, despite an increase in the racing difficulty when you increase the cc of the race, you will actually earn more points this way.

Actually, as you go up the Tours and unlock more races, it gets more and more difficult to grab the 5 stars that you need and want without playing at higher difficulty.

So my recommendation is to play all races at 150cc (or even 200 if you have the Gold Pass in Mario Kart Tour – and we’ll talk toward the end if it’s worth getting or not).

Try the two different steering methods

There are actually three steering options that you have, but I am completely ignoring one of them – the “tilt your screen” one because it simply doesn’t work.

But the other two… well, it’s up for you to test it and see which works best, as they both have their Pros and Cons.

For starters, we have the Manual Drift which can be turned on and off, completely changing the way you steer your kart. If this option is on, you have to swipe left or right in order to drift and release in order to move forward.

This is pretty difficult to get used to and I still find it difficult and unintuitive, despite trying it over and over again. I might just have to stop using it completely, which I don’t really like because those drifts also give you a mini speed bump when you perform them.

But in my case, I am losing more from not being able to fully control the vehicle, so most likely I will turn it off.

With the Manual Drift turned off, you lose the turbo boosts, but you get better control of your kart: simply hold the finger on your device’s display and swipe left or right to steer. Pretty easy!

But you should experiment and see which one works best for you: if you can get the Manual Drift mode to work, it’s even better because you will get those mini turbo boosts. But even without those, you can still be #1!

In order to change these options, simply hit the Menu button from the main screen, then tap the Settings icon in the lower right corner.

Pick the right driver for each race

With so many drivers to choose from, you can’t just have one “best” driver to play over and over again. Actually, the more you have unlocked, the more options you have when it comes to each race – so any driver can be a good choice depending on the situation.

The drivers you can select can have an affinity for the track you’re running on. The good news is that you don’t have to remember which is which as the game itself will show it to you on the character selection screen.

The only thing you should do is pick the best one you have available for the race – ideally, one with triple items rewarded when you collect a power-up, or one with two.

The overall level of the characters will influence the number of points you will get, so you will probably have to do a lot of grinding to get multiple drivers to a higher level… but it’s all part of the game and it’s really fun.

But even with a lower level character, if they get three items from a power-up, chances are that you will still do better and rank higher when the race is over than if you were to play one that only receives 1 item.

The same goes with the Karts and Gliders – but in this case, you get more points or increase the combo multipliers.

Practice makes perfect (characters)

As I said, the game requires you to grind and replay races over and over again. Not just to master them and grab all 5 stars, but also to improve your characters aka drivers, as well as the vehicles you’re using and the gliders.

The good news is that once you get all five stars in a race, you don’t really have to replay it if you don’t enjoy doing so – even though you do have this option.

Instead, focus on playing and replaying those tracks that you enjoy the most: the more points you can score in each, the better. Level up your characters and this way you will make even more points!

In other words, if there’s a race where you can’t get that fifth star even if you rank first, then you should definitely improve your driver, kart and glider in order to increase the amount of points you get.

Skill up your favorite drivers, karts or gliders

Apart from leveling up all the three main elements used in Mario Kart Tour, you also have the option to skill them up individually – and this is a bit more difficult, as well as expensive.

In order to skill up any of your drivers, karts or gliders, you will need a skill level up ticket. These can normally be brought from the store, but you can also earn them every now and then from various in-game challenges, events or gifts.

In order to use such a ticket, you need to visit the character, vehicle or glider you want to upgrade and tap the button to do so. And since these tickets are very hard to get, I would recommend to use them with care.

When increasing the skill level, you get the same type of bonus in each category, and I am listing them below:

– Drivers: increased chances of starting a frenzy and level bonus
– Karts: increases the amount of all bonus points earned and level bonus
– Gliders: increased combo time and level bonus

The only difference is that rarer characters, vehicles or gliders will offer a larger increase, meaning that it makes more sense to keep those tickets and use them on your rarest items.

Focus on picking up coins

Especially when replaying the races – when you don’t really care that much about your final position since you’re not under pressure to get as many points as possible, you should focus on getting as many coins as possible from the races.

Even though the coins themselves won’t give you a speed boost like they do in other Mario Kart games, you get to keep them at the end and you can spend them in the shop to buy various items.

The items in the shop are extremely expensive and even though you won’t be able to collect tons of coins during races, every little bit helps, so it doesn’t hurt to focus on getting as many as possible, especially when you’re not fighting to get a new star.

Complete those challenges!

After completing 7 tours, you unlock challenges which are really worth getting to ASAP. Although very difficult, they will offer you amazing rewards. So do your best to unlock the challenges as fast as possible and when you have them, focus on acing them for the rewards.

Get as many stars as possible

While this sounds like a “Duh!” kind of thing, it has to be said: you need to get as many stars as possible in each race, in order to unlock new content and especially those Tour Gifts.

You start getting those Tour Gifts after completing the first three Tours, and after each completed tour afterwards. In order to unlock them, you need a specific number of stars, so make sure you have them.

Fortunately, you don’t have to master all the races with 5-star ratings in order to unlock new content, but the more stars you have, the better. Because the Tour Gifts really offer a ton of value!

Keep an eye on the shop

In the shop, you will have the Daily Selects, which change daily, and give you a chance to buy all sorts of items for regular coins.

The offers vary from new characters, vehicles or gliders, to various types of tickets used to level up or skill up your unlocked items, but also boosters that can be extremely useful.

So make it a habit to check the shop each day and spend your hard earned coins on the best items available on sale. And remember that the farther you get in the game, the more items you will get in the shop as well.

Is Gold Pass worth it in Mario Kart Tour?

The Gold Pass is basically the Premium version of the game, unlocking new rewards and goodies for those who spend the monthly fee to have it unlocked.

Once you activate the Gold Pass, you start receiving all sorts of goodies and rewards that make your life in the game easier: gold gifts by racing in Tours (which are usually more premium aka rare items), badges from completing Gold Challenges (which unlock when you unlock Challenges in the game), as well as the 200cc difficulty mode in all races.

With all these in mind, it’s still difficult to answer the question whether it’s worth getting or not. You do have to pay a monthly fee for these premium boosts, which are indeed useful… but at the same time you can still enjoy the game without paying anything.

Probably the best thing to do is to take up on the offer of a two week trial that’s available in the game right now and decide for yourself if the Gold Pass is worth keeping or not something that useful.

Mario Kart Tour Multiplayer & Friends

There are two features that are not yet available in the game, but fortunately coming soon: the option to add Friends (which unlocks when ranking unlocks, which is after completing the 5th tour).

Multiplayer, however, is definitely not a part of the game yet, but it’s a work in progress feature and we’ll be able to go head to head against friends and strangers in multiplayer races really soon. But at the moment of writing this article, we don’t have any multiplayer in Mario Kart Tour.

If you’re curious to see which are the best drivers in the game in my opinion, make sure to read this article as well.

Also, for some more tips for more advanced players, check out this article here as well.

These would be, for now, our Mario Kart Tour tips and tricks. If you have additional advice to make our guide complete, don’t hesitate to share your thoughts in the comment section below.