radioboiii's guide to MKPC Online

Hello, this is radioboiii i was a previous 200cc wr holder for Mario Circuit 1, and ive been playing this game for almost a year now and have experience in many other mario kart games such as mkds and mk8dx. Now that i'm pretty alright at the game i feel like i can finally make a guide and pass some of my knowledge to some others who may need it. This intro will be pretty short as sum of all probably already know me, or are just looking for the guide. Anyway, with that said, without further ado, lets start giviner bud (im srry jpg)


1. Online Racing Speed

Im assuming that since youre playing mkpc, (probably at school) you enjoy racing against others. You may even be pretty good and find yourself winning pretty consistently in races. But what if i were to tell you there are ways to race faster, and win more often? yeah despite how small and simple this game may seem, there are lots of cool advanced techniques you can learn in order to improve your racing speed against other players online.

A). Snaking.

Alright, snaking is pretty easy. Essentially you want to have your keybinds set so that drifting while holding a direction can be done in a repeated rhythm for this to work. You can either find out some good keybinds for you by finding what you like racing with or using another players settings. If youre looking for players to ask about this topic, i recommend those who have a high amount of VR, or just message Nodac64, Mapno, or someone who is known around the community for having good knowledge about these topics. Alright, you got your controls down, now its time to finally snake. While learning, i recommend going into time trial, and selecting figure 8 circuit. (a custom track with a big straight road thats decently long could also work too) When you get to the part with the long straight road, heres what you gotta do.

Drift in one direction, hold your direction AND the drift button while your karts sparks begin to change color. Depending on the tightness of the path, you may be able to charge blue or gold. Gold is better to charge when available since you get more speed from it after the drift is over. Once you have charged your mini turbo (the spark color under your kart) release the drift button, and as soon as youre finished with that, do it in the other direction. Some may say this is pretty easy to do, but some people may take longer to get it down than others and thats perfectly fine. If you have any questions or are having trouble with the timing or any other related issues, don't be afraid to ask. The Game forum and Discord server for the game are great places to go to ask questions about whatever you are curious about.  (By the way, the formal names of the types of mini turbos are Normal Mini Turbo [blue] and Super Mini Turbo [Gold or yellow color]

TLDR for the PROS!!! ;

Drift in one direction
Charge a mini turbo (blue or gold depending on  the path)
Let go of drift
Drift in the other direction and repeat! yeee boi u got it now keep going. once ur ready, and you arent running into walls all too often anymore, Reverse Drifting is the next step


B) Reverse Drifting

lets get this out of the way right now, in order to reverse drift, you MAY have to adjust your control scheme from before to support how it works. If your control scheme already has reverse next to the accelerate or drift button, you should be fine. but if it doesnt, i recommend setting up your controls in that way so that reverse drifting is easier to perform. alright, now heres how to do it.


Like snaking, begin a drift in one direction, while holding your direction, accelerate, and the drift button, tap the reverse button so that you stay away from the offroad. (once u get better youll be able to take sharper turns), release the mini turbo you charged and TADA! you just hit your first reverse drift. good job man im proud of you. Once you get more used to doing it, and begin to look at some world record runs, you will better understand which direction you will need to be facing, and how sharp you will have to take your turns to keep the RD (reverse drift), and your lines tight as possible.


TLDR for the PROSSSS;
set your keybinds so that your reverse button is close to your accelerate or drift button perferably and you can easily click it if you need to

Drift in one direction

Tap the reverse button while drifting to adjust how you want to take the turn and also charge ur mt (mini turbo)

Release & Repeat


Alright, we've got the GENERAL movement stuff down to make you go faster, but that's not all you need to win games, especially online. Which is why we gotta talk about item management next, I would write a whole 5 something paragraphs with every item and how to use it, but Nodac has already done that and his is already miles better than any list I could have made :,) here's the link: https://mkpc.malahieude.net/topic.php?topic=18871

But yeah, in general, don't use your items too carelessly. despite what you may think, there are many good spots to save your items and use them for other situations.



Racing and Line Improvement

For this I recommend going into a couple time trials and racing against some of the top 50 runs if you're first starting out. I wouldnt  recommend racing the first record as you may find yourself more confused than smarter by the end of it, since they may use completely different and more optimized shortcuts than you, be completely ahead, and it'd be hard for you to see if you're generally on pace or not. But yeah, look at a couple top 50 runs for the tracks you wanna practice. Before racing online I usually time trial for about 10-30 minutes just so I can unrust before I play a few online games, but that's just what I like to do.


General Racing Awareness


I cant believe I didn't put this in before, but its very important to be aware of your surroundings when driving, just like in real life too. Online you will definitely need this, like right now. so lets get into it.

Using the Minimap


There are two minimaps that you are able to use. One shows the entirety of the track while the other shows a small part of the track in which you and others around you are located. While there are times you use both, and its mostly based on preference (aside from when you need to see who's in what position and may have which items which we'll get into later), my personal choice is the smaller minimap since its easier to see my location and other opponents. Also, its way easier to see hazards on the road such as bananas on shortcuts and such.

Use the minimap to look for the following situations

Who is in what position (useful for knowing If a better player is approaching your position, and good for knowing if you need to put out a defensive item

Detecting track hazards

People usually put items down (like bananas, poisons and such) on the track behind them to make the track harder to race on. By looking at the minimap you can notice these hazards way quicker and adjust to avoid them before its too late.

Generally checking how far away you are from others.

In any Mario Kart game, its always important to know your position from others, whether you need to lay back or stay focused and keep your position. This determines how youd use your items in first, determining whether you'd back (throw behind) an item, or trailing (holding behind) an item to get the person behind you off of you.

Using the Minimap for snipes

I knew you were expecting this. The Minimap is VERY VERY useful for throwing items behind you since it allows you to easier see the opponents without having to use your rear view camera. Pretty self explanatory, but also you can use it to mimic your opponents lines and trail (hit them with an item dragging behind your kart) them sometimes. This is especially useful when you're in first place




General Item Management

okay I know I said I probably wasn't gonna make this, but I decided why not make a short version for just item management in general. I can still give some tips for this so here we go


Item Usage in different positions



1st.


Generally in this position, as expected you want to be pretty careful with your items and how you use them. In this position, you will genuinely find yourself getting bananas, green shells, red shells, and mushrooms (pretty rarely) from item boxes. For greens, usually you want to trail them and create a sort of wall for your opponent by using the minimap to threaten their position by aligning your kart in front of theirs that way you can trail them if they get to close to you. Same can be done with bananas, except you cant make them travel behind you, and hit walls and other players

[general tip, PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW RIGHT BEHIND SOMEBODY AFTER THEY GET AN ITEM BOX. Slow down if you have to, but mostly just go in the other direction to avoid getting trailed by the item they pull.]
[general tip 2, IF SOMEBODY PASSES YOU UP, DONT THROW EVERYTHING YOU HAVE AT THEM. You may still be able to save your items for their appropriate moment, like a mushroom for a big shortcut coming up like on Mario circuit 1 or broken pier.]



2nd. In this position, red shells and mushrooms are more common, and generally you want to still be more preservative with your items. In most situations you may still be pretty close to the pack so you almost want to play like you're in first, but if the situation presents itself, occasionally using your items to target first place and claim the lead. Note though, that blue shells are still in play and you need to pay decent attention to the minimap, and usually by 2nd or 3rd lap, they begin to appear more often, so its important to know when to attack or stay behind. Generally, hold back your items to avoid getting passed.


3rd

You're most likely in the pack (the big group of players behind 3rd or 2nd place commonly) and there will be quite a lot of havoc and you may be tempted to throw your items first like everyone else, but please don't. Save your items and use them when the situation presents its self. Still try to hold your items and be careful.


4-8th Either bag (stay back intentionally to get  better items and attempt to carry yourself to higher positions with them) or use your items offensively to target the person in front of you. Generally though, being calm and using your items appropriately still works best, and bagging is an entire topic that I will cover RIGHT NOW!!



BAGGING (YEEEEEAHHH)

probably my favorite strategy in the entire game. Bagging allows you to use items that you wouldn't get in higher placements, and use them to rise to the top and take the victory. There are some tracks that are meant for bagging and some that aren't. In general, heres how it works.

Tracks that are pretty long per lap, have hard tight corners and are hard to catch back up on generally aren't the best for bagging.

Tracks that are pretty short, have easy roads to ride on, and are easy to catch back up on are good for bagging (SNES Rainbow Road is an exception since its very easy to fall off the track with the items you get in last.)




How to bag THE RIGHT WAY


Dont take too long to bag. Bagging should be done at the beginning of the race or typically in the middle or end of the first lap to provide the necessary time to make a comeback. Usually dont do it in other laps since it may take too long for you to catch up. Don't spam your items, use your good lines and racing technique to cut past the competition and begin using them once your in more middle positions, such as 5-4th.

Once you start bagging and obtain your items, 90% of the time use the acquired items immediately and get some more on the next item set when youre closer to everyone else. Beware that if you ever see a pow block above your kart, use an item such as a mega mushroom or a star to gain immunity, because such items clear your item slots. Dont hold your items for too long because you may get shocked and lose all of your items. If you use an item that grants immunity while someone else uses a shock, such as a star or bullet bill. You will bypass the shrinking effect and stay your normal size when your item runs out. This has been named the Shock Dodge by the community coined by legendary Mario Kart Wii player, TWD98.



Special Bagging (WOOOOAH)

there are some tracks where youd bag completely different than on other tracks. Remember when i said earlier that GENERALLY, for a track to be a good bagging track, it needs to be short and have easier lines? well i lied, kind of. There are some tracks in which you generally bag a different way than usual.

GBA Peach Circuit
GBA Mario Circuit (MAINLY THIS ONE)


On these stages, instead of waiting and bagging normally, you actually want to go.. backwards?.. yeah I know it sounds weird, but it actually works. Heres how you do it.

When the race starts, turn around and go around the track in the other direction until you get a bullet bill. If you're going too far backwards around the track and don't get a bullet bill, turn around and do the same thing but forward. Once you get the bullet bill, use it and since the tracks are so long. you will have about the perfect amount of time to catch up and claim high placement by the end of the race.



HELLO!


yeah I added lots of stuff to the guide today and I hope y'all enjoy it. if u got any feedback please let me know.

when I think of more stuff to add, I'll add it. but for now, I guess this is


THE END


THANKS FOR SCROLLING TO THE END, AND FOR THAT, I THINK I DISCOVERED SOMTHINGTHAT YOU, VERY COOL INDIVIDUAL SHOULD FIND OUT.


Red Shell reversing - basically it allows you to reverse the opponents red shell back AT THEM, instead of you. I don't know how this works, or how consistent it is since Ive only hit it a few times and its very situational, but basically as a red shell is about to approach you, use a jump ramp to fall off of the map. If done correctly, for some reason the red shell should go BACKWARDS, and hit whoever it sent. I have no idea how or why this works, I just thought why not put it here. alr thanks for reading byee!!

also I may or may not have discovered an interesting version of the Coque strat, but I will not claim that I have until I am almost certain.

I'm interested, can you elaborate?

First, I have to say that this is probably useless.

ok, now that's out of the way, here's what I have discovered (or not)

To do this variation, you don't need to hold reverse and let go, so timing doesn't matter. What you need is a wall. By going to the edge of the wall, and either, releasing a mini turbo of any kind, using a mushroom or boost from other types of mushrooms (including ground mushrooms), the accelerate key or mobile floors. (maybe bumps idk I'm by myself). By having a boost and being at a wall, you will get launched over. Holding the accelerate key when the blue shell strikes will not send you over the wall.

The requirement to go over the wall is to be at the very edge, where you can't go forward anymore, and to have a positive value on the speedometer.

The more parallel to the wall you face, the further you get launched.


This doesn't work when facing towards a corner at a corner because you are unable to move forwards (get a positive value on the speedometer). Also this works for bomb-ombs as well (and dark shells)

You don't need to be at the edge of the wall at the start, you just need to be there when the blue shell strikes.

How to do this wall thing without items:


I'm not done recording them all, here are the ones I have

Using mini-turbos:

Using mini-turbos again (further):

Using mushrooms:

Using mushrooms again:







at this point it's not related to coque strat at all

Credits: Commands to get items (eg. blue shell) in my item slot (helped me during testing)
Nodacyclone64's topic about every item (including blue shells)

Thanks you for great advices!

yoo thanks mapno!

This is exactly how I started my pro MKPC journey, and this is EXACTLY what other people need. This is actually really helpful. Thanks for the tips and tricks!
-@Iceberg

Well I'll tell you, in the topic explaining how item works as well as giving some tips I explained how to do Coque Strat in the most efficient way.
But all the examples you've shown are you doing the Coque Strat in different variants basically. We already knew this was a bug in the game and knew what was causing it.
But it's great that you could discover what you didn't know yet yourself!

forgot to say but updated!!!

It's a lot easier to do, though it is less practical