Advanced Tips and Item Management Guide

This guide is still a good read even after all these months. Thanks again for compiling it, Mini.

I'd add the following tips:

Red shells

1. Remember that red shells do not bounce off walls. For this reason, it is generally not a good idea to shoot a red shell behind you unless you are confident that it will hit someone.

FIBs/bananas

2. Other good places to drop FIBs and bananas are in the landing areas from cannons and big jumps, such as DKM, DKS, MT, DS and KC. These are often blind areas that force people to quickly adjust if they don't actually land on the trap itself.

Stars

3. Stars do not recover your size if you use them after getting shrunken by a Thundercloud. If you are unable to "suicide" yourself by falling off the track after shrinking, you might want to hold your star until after you recover and then activate it. Using a star while small will not give you the maximum speed boost.

Triple bananas/triple green shells

4. If you get triple bananas or triple shells, you can deploy them all in rapid succession to create an impenetrable roadblock, but only if you drop them quickly AND drive in a diagonal line in a narrow area.

Mushrooms

5. You can use a mushroom to thrust yourself in whichever direction you're facing, regardless of whether you are in the middle of a drift. This can help reset your orientation if you find yourself about to drift offroad by accident. This is very useful after the big jump on DKJP or the hairpin turn of MC3.

Triple red shells/triple green shells

6. You can use triple reds or triple greens as a form of barbed wire by ramming into other racers while they are deployed. Unless there is major lag, you can usually take out a racer just by bumping into them with these shells activated.

Thunderclouds

7. If you get a Thundercloud and are fortunate enough to get another power item in reserve, wait until the last possible moment to use the power item to cancel the TC. The TC removes the effects of terrain and gives you a slight speed boost, so use the TC to take offroad shortcuts as long as you can before activating your power item to cancel the TC. This tactic essentially gives you double power items.

8. Remember that TCs disappear when you enter a cannon or a large ramp. This is particularly helpful on tracks like DKJP and DKM. Rather than trying to pass your TC off if you get it in the first set of item blocks, try to keep the TC and go offroad as much as you can before the TC harmlessly disappears in the cannon or big jump.

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[OF] Zzonk /// PSN ID: Zzonkmiles
MKW FC: 5456-6092-6685 (main), 3824-7295-6329 (kart alt), 3008-3903-0633 (2nd alt)

POWs

9. Sometimes you can time a POW so that even if you activate it when other racers are in midair, it will hit them at the same time they hit the ground and are unable to dodge it.

10. It can be helpful to use a POW after someone else has activated a Blooper. The ink usually blocks the "POW" letters on the screen, so other racers might be vulnerable to the POW, especially if they are not listening to the game's actual music and can't hear it coming.

Bullet Bills

11. If you want to be a jerk, activate a Bullet Bill when you are right behind another racer. The player in front of you won't have any time to react and that player will get knocked out, losing their item as well.

FIBs, bananas, single green shells, single red shells

12. When dragging any item, you can often take out a racer slightly behind you or next to you by bumping into them. They might hit your dragged item and spin out or stop. Just make sure you're not dragging a bomb. This is also a jerkish move, so don't dish it out if you're not willing to take it.

Item boxes in general

13. There is no rule that says you must get the item box in front of you. You can swerve at the last moment to get an item block on your left or right, thus causing the player behind you to get nothing. Again, this is arguably a jerk move, but it can be devastating if you do it in 10th place or so and the racer behind you can't get a power item of his own.

14. Keep track of how many item boxes a racer in front of you has passed and how many items they have used. This will give you a good indication of what they might be holding, if they're holding anything at all. If you see them going through item boxes and not deploying any traps, for example, there's a good chance that the racer has a mushroom, for example.

Hope that helps make this guide even more comprehensive and useful than it already is.

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[OF] Zzonk /// PSN ID: Zzonkmiles
MKW FC: 5456-6092-6685 (main), 3824-7295-6329 (kart alt), 3008-3903-0633 (2nd alt)