Advanced Techniques

If you’re taking on strong opponents, you need every advantage you can get! Use these techniques to get an edge on your most devious rivals.

Insta-Whip

Even when you’re out of Rings, you’re not out of options! Holding L with no Rings will charge the “Insta-Whip”, a unique melee attack.

The Insta-Whip is risky; while you hold it, it drains you into Ring Debt, and if you hold it for a long time, your Tether module will temporarily shut down. Used recklessly, it can make a bad situation way worse!

However, with great risk comes great reward. The Insta-Whip can hit any player, even if they’re immune to damage from Invincibility or Grow—and, for a fraction of a second, it renders you invincible, letting you pass through hazards!

Use the Insta-Whip to steal close laps, parry power items, and terrorize your foes with berserk attacks!

• After burning your final ring, continuing to hold the L button won’t charge the Insta-Whip right away. Release L, then hold it to start charging instantly.
• In modes that use the Sphere Gauge, the Insta-Whip will drain Sphere Gauge instead of Rings. See “Battle Mode” for more information!

Drift Storage

Going airborne doesn’t stop your drift. Keep holding R as you enter the air, and you’ll keep drifting, holding onto any drift sparks you’ve charged up.

When you land, you’ll continue drifting and continue charging. Look toward your destination, land, then release!

Triangle Dash

If you release your drift boost in the air, the burst of energy will push you forward and downward, sending you into the tarmac at an angle. Unlike the Fast Fall, the “Triangle Dash” doesn’t bounce, letting you take off right away!

The power of a Triangle Dash is determined by two things—the power of your drift boost, and the speed you were moving at when you released it. Try dropping off a ledge with a Sneaker, or releasing above a steep slope…

Sliptiding

While boosting, drift in any direction, then release R while continuing to turn. You’ll know you’ve done it right when you see waves of dust shoot from your Ring Racer—your vehicle will tilt off the ground, and your turning radius will massively shrink!

Wavedashing

As you continue a sliptide, the aerodynamic imbalance builds up a vortex behind your vehicle. A weak vortex will quickly dissipate for a small speed boost, but a powerful one will “lock” into place, sustained by the power of your engine.

You can hold onto a “locked” vortex by continuing to boost, or by holding a drift. Once you let it go, the speed you lost from turning will collapse into a wave of force, blasting you ahead—a Wavedash!

With the right timing, you can blast off in places that would normally force you to take it slow, or stack an extra boost to break the sound barrier!

Heavy, slow racers—racers with better Drift Boosts—sustain longer Wavedashes. When it comes to boost states, though, speed and handling are their own reward.

Directional Influence

The Ring Racer is equipped with kinetic stabilizers, letting you redirect force from a harsh collision.

When you’re damaged by an item or hazard, you’ll freeze for a moment during the impact. Hold a direction, and when you start moving again, your “Directional Influence” will nudge you towards the direction you held.

“Directional Influence” also works when you’re bouncing along the track; each bounce is another opportunity to change your fate. Use “DI” wisely to avoid getting tossed into extra hazards, or off the course entirely!

TIP: When slipping on a Banana, the loss of traction throws your stabilizers out of wack, and your “DI” will work backwards! If a collision is unavoidable, try to steer into hazards!

Failsafe Boost

If you’re caught in the air with very little speed, you can release A to get a short burst of speed. This can help you get going after hitting vertical springs, or making contact with high walls.

Null Drift

Releasing the accelerator during a drift kills the engine dead—but for a short time, you’ll keep some of the momentum you’ve built up. This lets you turn even sharper than brakedrifting, at an even harsher speed penalty. Sometimes, nothing else can avoid a well-placed trap!

If you already have drift sparks stored up, slowing down too much will drop their strength to gray, the lowest tier. This can still be useful for adjusting your angle, or accelerating quicker when you’ve come to a nearly dead stop.

However, execute a fast Null Drift with momentum built up, and you can often keep stronger drift sparks. This can let you take unorthodox lines, or keep you nimble on defense…

Tripwire Lockout

After bouncing off a Tripwire, you might notice that you don’t see your “aura”, even when traveling quickly. You’ll need to use an item to pass through, or wait for your Ring Racer to recover. (No cheap tricks with the Drop Target!)

You normally need 200% speed to pass a Tripwire, but if you’re being slowed down by offroad, that requirement gets even steeper—to 300%!

Item Lockout

In Race modes, for fair-play reasons, you can’t pick up two item containers of the same type in a row without making progress along the track. (The “types” of item containers are “Item/Ring Box”, “Permanent Ring Box”, and “Item Capsule”.)

There are two major exceptions to this rule:

• Item Capsules containing Rings are never locked out.
• When you take damage, your Item Lockout turns off.

Item Boxes and Ring Boxes react to nearby players; if you’re the closest to an Item or Ring Box, and eligible to pick it up, the center symbol will light up in your color. If you don’t see that color, Item Lockout’s engaged—get moving!