A guide to Advanced MKDS Gameplay: Tips and Tricks!

[Kid Ninja]

This guide is here to help those Mario Kart Ds players that want to achieve a higher level of skill at the game. This guide will pretty much cover all the advanced techniques in the game. Ok, without further delay, lets begin.
First, i will begin with:

*ITEM STRATEGIES/USES*

Each item has their own use in the game. It is up to us players to experiment with these items to deduce a productive use for it. Although some of these uses for the items that i mention may be obvious, some people normally forget the basics during competative play, so i'm here to remind you. Items that are not listed here are items that do not really have a specific strategy...you just use them.

Triple Bannanas/Bannana
Defensive uses-Bannanas are probably the most common item in the game. A good use of it as a defensive mechanism is to stick it and hold it behind your kart. This will prevent any green or red shells hitting you on a straight pathway. *TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THAT THE RED SHELL MAY HIT YOU ON THE SIDE OF YOUR KART WHILST TURNING*

Offensive uses-If you are close to an adjacent opponent, drifting into them with the bannana(s) may be the best course of action. laying them behind items boxes may be a wise idea, as your opponents can't obviously see what is behind item boxes.



Triple Green shells/Green shell
Defensive uses-The defensive uses for these items are much the same for the bannanas. You can also use these Green shells to shoot at bannanas that stand in you way whilst driving, if it is too late to try to avoid them

Offensive uses-Again, pretty much the same as the Bannanas, you can drift into your opponent with these.




Triple Red shells/Red shell
Defensive uses-Now, red shells are homing, so will not have a great use in shooting items that you might hit, if there is an opposing Kart near you. the best uses of the red shell as a defensive mechanism may be to keep it at your back whilst you drive for the single red shells, And for the triple red shells, let them revolve around you as you drive

Offensive uses-The red shells are a good item to use on far opponents as it homes onto the kart that is ahead of you. If you have Triple red shells, a wise idea would be to shoot them one at a time if your opponent is far to kill their speed and to bring you closer to them. you will know when you have hit with one because your driver will make a little cheer, that indicates that you have hit. try to spread out the interval in which you shoot the shells. Also try to mak them get hit consecutively, one shell after the other. in order to do this, you will need to predict the timing of shooting the next shell.




Fake item Box
Defensive uses-The defensive uses of this item is pretty much the same as that of the bannana. Although they can't block you from Green and red shells like the way the Bannanas do

Offensive uses-Drifting into your opponent while holding the fake item box at your back is one way of using it. But generally, what most players like to do with the fake item box is stick it directly onto the space where item boxes are so that the opponents can be confused. Using this fake item box around sharp corners is another great item because you can't see around corners.



Triple Mushrooms/Gold Mushroom/Mushrooms
Defensive uses-tired of being knocked down all the time by Bigger/Heavier karts? well, any one of these items can be used to protect you. when you see a big kart trying to knock you down and you have any one of these itmes, as soon as they get close to you, boost away. This will send you straight forward while knocking the other kart away, which may even knock them down at a track like Rainbow road.

Offensive uses-Any one of these items can be used to knock you opponent of that cliff or edge. just make sure to time it right, as your opponent might be trying to pre-empt what your trying to do


ThunderBolt
Defensive uses-The Thunderbolt can be used to pre-empt any oncoming attacks. when you posses a Thunderbolt, look down at the bottom screen. If you see any unpleasant items that your opponent may have such as a red shell or a Blue shell that you don't what to get hit by, just quickly use the Thunderbolt before they shoot thier item. This will shrink them causing thier item to be knocked off.

Offensive uses-Again, use as an offensive device requires you to look at the bottom screen. Change the map layout on the bottom screen so that you can see where every Kart is. Just use the Thunderbolt when its inconveinient for your opponents. like when they are on a narrow road in rainbow road..so that they can spin off course, or when they are in the air in Sky garden so that they fall.



Star
Defensive uses-The Star is a great Defensive item that can be used in many ways. It can be used to avoid being hit by a Blue/Red shell and can be used to prevent people knocking you off the cliff.

Offensive uses-This item can be used to knock your opponents off course.



Boo Hoo
Defensive uses-Great mechanism of defense as it turns you invisible. this makes you impervious to Blue/red shell assualts

Offensive uses*Funny use*-When an opponent is next to you, and they acquire a mushroom, you probably know that thier intention is to knock you down. This can be avoided with the Boo Hoo. As soon as they use thier mushroom, use the Boo Hoo, so instead of them knocking you down, they go through you and drop themselves

*NOTE: YOU CAN'T DRAG ITEMS ON WIFI*

[Kid Ninja]

*Shortcuts for the most used stages*

Many of the tracks in this game do not have shortcuts, but it is worth pointing out the tracks that do have shortcuts. I will not mention ALL shortcuts, i will only mention shortCuts for the most used stages. The other ShortCuts for the non picked stages are quite minor.

Delfino Square
When you come out of all the Houses, you come out into the open near the shore. you have to go near the Grey section and leap onto the bridge, which greatly kills sometime. becareful about the leap though, this shortcut is risky as you could fall in the water for not getting the angle of the jump right. *Mushroom Only ShortCut*

If you don't take the bridge pathway, the is a little junction you can cut into between the houses further down. this place has mud so it is difficult to powerslide through it. *Mushroom and Powerslide only ShortCut*


Bowser Castle
At the TurnTable, the are 2 exits...the one you see first while turning that has a Red horizan, and the other one right at the end of the turn table that has a Thromp in the distance. The exit at the end of the turn Table is the short cut, so make sure to go all the way round the turn Table. *Free ShortCut*

At the rolling Log, do not fall, carry on travelling on it, as this is the short Cut. Falling will take longer because you will need to climb back up. *Free ShortCut*

Desert Hills
Ok, at the beginning of the Track, there are a road of Palm trees. Before you come to the end of that road where the last Palm tree is, the is a small pyramid shaped Stack of blocks, to the left of that is your ShortCut. *Free ShortCut, Although Prefered if you go there using Mushrooms or Superstars*

Peach Gardens
Cutting through the grass is a good shortCut instead of going round.
*Free ShortCut, Although prefered if you go there using SuperStar, Mushooms or PRB* (I will explain what PRB is later in this guide.)

Wario Stadium
Cutting through the Mud is a good ShortCut instead of using the humps.
*Free ShortCut, Although Prefered if you go there using Mushrooms, SuperStar or PRB*

Choco Island 2
At the finish line, just keep travelling straight. the ShortCut is through the sand.
*Free ShortCut, although it is prefered if you go there using PRB, Superstar or Mushrooms*

Sky Garden
At the beginning of the Track, there is a big Ramp to use as your shortCut.
*Mushrooms, and Powerslide Only shortCut* (Risky using a powerslide, you need to get the angle of the Jump right if you dont want to drop)

Closer to the Middle of the Track, there is a smaller Ramp. this ramp kills time.
*Superstar+Hop, Mushroom+Hop and Powerslide+Hop only ShortCut*

This next short cut is hard to explain, so im going to use a video to help aid me.


the ShortCut is at 0.15-0.16, you can only use a Mushroom to use that shortCut, it also requires a Hop at the edge.*Mushrooms+Hop only shortCut*

The Last ShortCut is at 0.27-0.29 of this next video.
This shortCut Greatly kills some time. although you do miss the items when you use this ShortCut. Choose wisely, ShortCut....or Items.... *Free ShortCut*




Yoshi Curcuit
This ShortCut is at Yoshi's paw. there is an Opening that you can go through. But there are requirements.
*Mushrooms+Hop, Superstar+Hop or Powerslide+Hop*

That's it for all the ShortCuts

[Kid Ninja]

*Red Shell Dodging*

Well, it is not technically Red shell "Dodging", it is more like Techniques to avoid being hit by a red shell. During my Time of playing MKDS (Coming up to 5 years now), i have experienced and noted down 2 ways of avoiding the Red shell that i have seen and even done before, It works as i have practiced it many times.

As you all know, the red shell does not change its attack target, so what you must do for the first technique, is to make sure that an opponent kart is adjacent to you. What you do is that when the Red shell is close to hitting you, you must quickly pick up the pace and position yourself infront of your opponent. This will insure that as soon as this is done, the red shell will hit the opponent. This technique requires Precision and timing. As i have said, the red shell does not change its attack target, so if you move infront of your opponent too early, the red shell will just miiss your opponent and hit you.

The second Technique is much like the First one, but for using walls instead of Opponents. For this technique, a sharp turn and a corner is required. As the Red shell is about to hit you, you must quickly turn the Corner at a sharp angle so that the red shell hits the wall. This too takes quite a bit of practice.

*Blue Shell Dodging*

Blue shell Dodging is more believeable than the red shell "Dodging". To Blue shell dodge, the required Tools are a Fully operational R button and The red Streaks coming from your Kart. *Not Blue....RED*
When you hear the Blue shell coming, you need to space yourself from it, give yourself enough time to get the red streaks and hold it for when the Blue shell comes. When the Blue shell comes, prepare yourself. Ok, when the Blue shell is about to land on you, you need to Let go of the Boost AND at the same Hop AWAY from the blue shell. If you do this right, you should avoid the Blue shell landing on you and the explosion it makes. *Note:this does take practice to get the timing right*

at first this will be hard and a bit complex to comprehend, so here are a few videos to aid you in your practice on how to blue shell dodge.




Hope these videos help you guys.

*Snaking*

Snaking is one of the hardest skills to master as it requires complete consistancy.
Snaking does take quite some time to master so don't get down if you don't get it the first time round.




This video pretty much summarises how to snake.
The basis of snaking comes from powerslides. to do a powerslide, need to press R to be in the drift position, and then Press, Left- Right for the Blue streaks, then Left-Right again for the red Streaks. when you have these red streaks, you can Release R which will propel you in a turbo boost. This is the beginnings to snaking.
once you have mastered the powerslides you can begin to snake on Straight lines. Its like doing powerslides, but continuosly. once you finish one Powerslide, lets say to the right, quickly shift to the left and do the same thing and keep repeating this while shifting to the left and then to the right. This WILL take some practice, and you might start crashing into things but thats ok because that's what the majority of players do while practicing their Snaking. When you do master snaking, you will even be able to snake on awkward pathways and better on straight roads.
If you have any Questions on Snaking, please feel free to ask.

[Kid Ninja]

*PRB*

(Permenant Rocket Booster)

The last bit of my Guide.
PRB is also known as Permenant Rocket booster

To successfully perform a PRB, you must master 2 things:
A perfect rocket Boost start at the beginning of a race
Snaking

PRBing is the act of mainting top speed throughout the entire race, starting
off with the very first boost from the start line. If done properly, PRBing
will allow one to maintain a "mushroom-like" speed for the entire race. Just like using a mushroom, the player will be able to cut grass, dirt
and other terrain without reducing their overall speed. to constantly keep this speed, you must keep snaking, if you stop, your speed will go back to normal.

If it isn't the maximum boost you can obtain, the PRBing won't be
possible. The best time to start holding down A is right as soon as the
2 starts to fade off the screen. To test out if you've got the perfect rocket
boost start, practise on SNES Super Mario Circuit. At the beginning of the
course there is a little patch of dirt you can cut across to your left instead
of going around the turn. At the start of the race, starting holding the A button
as soon as the 2 starts to fade away, and lean to the left. Keep holding left
until the race starts. If you cut across the dirt patch without
slowing down, you've successfully done a perfect rocket boost start. If not,
keep trying to get a perfect rocket boost start by holding down the gas at the
appropriate time during the countdown. You will know when you have successfully done the perfect rocket boost if your speed is not reduced at all when you go on the dirt. It will be Obvious when you have performed the Perfect Boost

[INFO from IGN]

Make sure you're still on SNES Super Mario Circuit as it's an easy course to learn PRB. Start the race off with a perfect rocket boost and cut across the patch of dirt. Now take notice that while you are in the boost, you can see the white lines behind your kart indicating your acceleration. Now, the key with PRBing is to never stop the initial acceleration you gained through the perfect rocket boost start. You want to maintain constant acceleration, never slowing down from your initial speed at the start of the race. To do this properly, when you start of with the Perfect rocket boost, immediantly start snaking. if you do not lose the white lines behind you, it means that you are succesfully performing the PRB. This means that you are going at mushroom speed and that you can go on Dirt/Mud/Grass without your speed being reduced.

This is probably the hardest thing to master in the game, as you need to master 2 things...The Perfect Rocket boost at the start of a race and Snaking.

*Take into consideration: PRBing DOES NOT WORK WITH ALL KARTS*

The only Karts i have Noticed to be able to PRB is:
The Dry Bomber
Dry Bones' Standard Kart
Polt
ROB BLS
Mushmellow
Yoshi/Luigi Standard karts

The Karts that i have noticed That CAN'T PRB is:
The Yoshi egg ()

well, that's it for my Guide.
Any questions? comments? post them here.

Credits:
FlyingWolf: For the Help on other Karts that can PRB
DH: For the help on if you can drag items or not

For those Interested in Backwards Racing, Check This Out!:

Backwards Race: Rundown

[Kid Ninja]

More Info about which Karts can PRB to come when more things are discovered.

[Flyingwolf]

The Egg1, Polt, ROB BLS, Mushmellow, Yoshi/Luigi Standard karts can all PRB in this game @_@

I might be forgetting some of them, but those are karts that come to mind. @_@

[Kid Ninja]

Originally Posted by Flyingwolf The Egg1, Polt, ROB BLS, Mushmellow, Yoshi/Luigi Standard karts can all PRB in this game @_@ I might be forgetting some of them, but those are karts that come to mind. @_@

i will list the others now
Thanks

[DH]

brute? lolz

[ShadowBlade]

Nice guide.

Now I can dodge those blue shells. ;D

[Kid Ninja]

Originally Posted by ShadowBlade Nice guide. Now I can dodge those blue shells. ;D

Thank you.

[Haven]

I miss playing this game.. Best Mario Kart by far.

Good stuff Kid Ninja , really good guide.

[Kid Ninja]

Originally Posted by Haven I miss playing this game.. Best Mario Kart by far. Good stuff Kid Ninja , really good guide.

I think this is by far the best MK game by far too.
i still go back and play it often when i have time

Thanks for the comment Haven. I apreciate it