Mario Kart World 150cc Knockout Tour guide – how to easily win
Today, we’re going over some tips and strategies on how to more easily win in Mario Kart World’s new Knockout Tour mode.
In order to unlock all the content Mario Kart World has to offer, you’ll have to earn 3 stars on every single cup in both Grand Prix and Knockout Tour. We’ve already covered tricks for Grand Prix via our corresponding guide, but today we’re focusing on strategies that apply specifically to Knockout Tour. Compared to Grand Prix mode, Knockout Tour places a much higher emphasis on straight pathways – which means the Speed stat is incredibly important here.
Character and kart selection are very important for Knockout Tour. You’ll want to maximize your Speed stat, but you don’t necessarily want to ignore the other three stats either. A combo of Bowser and the Reel Racer maximizes Speed while maintaining decent stats otherwise, and so it comes highly recommended here. As we mentioned in our Grand Prix guide, CPUs in this game may have some sort of dynamic difficulty system – the more you drift, the more powerful items they use and the more shortcuts they take. This isn’t explicitly confirmed, but it’s highly suspected from early testing. We’ve had more luck in 150cc Knockout Tour when we simply drive forward without drifting or using charge jumps – it doesn’t remove every single Spiny Shell from the rotation, but it does seem to make the races a little easier.
The idea with Bowser and the Reel Racer is that your max Speed will be higher than most of the CPU drivers, especially if you make sure to grab 20 coins. Since a good chunk of Knockout Tour is driving directly forward, Bowser’s top Speed helps him pull ahead and establish a lead. As always, we recommend cycling out your items so that you’re holding a coin but have a defensive item in the back. That way, if a Boo or Lightning strikes you, you’ll lose the coin but keep the defensive item in case you’re targeted by a Red Shell. If you find you’re still having trouble winning 150cc Knockout Tour with Bowser, we recommend trying out Swoop or Para-Biddybud with the W-Twin Chopper – and if you’re still having trouble, you can use Bowser Jr. with the W-Twin Chopper for an even more balanced build. These setups sacrifice a bit of Speed for additional Handling and Acceleration, which can help you make more tight turns without necessarily needing to drift. Furthermore, we recommend switching back to drifting during the last checkpoint of Knockout Tour – we’ve been knocked out of the game with Blue Shells right before the finish line more than a few times, so you’ll need all the speed you can get during that last section.
In order to get 3 stars on Knockout Tour, you have to reach each checkpoint first. If another driver reaches any of the checkpoints before you, you can no longer get 3 stars and you have to start over and try again. That means earning 3 stars can be pretty frustrating, but when you find the right character and kart setup it shouldn’t be too bad. In the meantime, if you have any tips of your own to add, feel free to tell us in the comments down below.
If you’re looking for more information on Mario Kart World, check out the official website for the game. We also have our Grand Prix guide here.
