Grand Prix and Time Trial modes in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are both laser-focused on one goal: make it to the finish line in the shortest time possible. How that’s accomplished differs depending on the mode. In Grand Prix Cups, you’ll jockey for position and trade item attacks and sideswipes with 11 other fierce racers; in Time Trial mode, you’ll burn up the courses competing mostly against your own previous best times, but also ghost data from your friends and even Nintendo’s own testers.
Grand Prix
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe features a whopping 48 tracks spread across twelve Grand Prix cups, spanning the whole breadth of Nintendo’s unparalleled franchises. Four dozen tracks with twelve competitors per race is a lot of the zany, whimsically unhinged racing for which Mario Kart is renown.
As per Mario Kart tradition, a cup consists of four races, and you’re awarded points based on the place you finish. During the first race of a cup, you are twelfth place on the starting grid, and must work your way to the front of the pack. After the first race, your place on the starting grid in future races is determined by what place you finish. If you finish in third, you start in third for the next race.
Depending on where you are on the starting grid, you are given a set amount of Coins to start the race with.
- Twelfth and Eleventh Place: 5 Coins
- Tenth and Ninth Place: 4 Coins
- Eighth and Seventh Place: 3 Coins
- Sixth and Fifth Place: 2 Coins
- Fourth and Third Place: 1 Coin
Race Rewards
Your place at the end of the race determines your point reward. A perfect cup will have you max out at 60 points total!
- First Place: 15 Points
- Second Place: 12 Points
- Third Place: 10 Points
- Fourth Place: 9 Points
- Fifth Place: 8 Points
- Sixth Place: 7 Points
- Seventh Place: 6 Points
- Eighth Place: 5 Points
- Ninth Place: 4 Points
- Tenth Place: 3 Points
- Eleventh Place: 2 Points
- Twelfth Place: 1 Point
There are five difficulty classes in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 50cc, 100cc, 150cc, Mirror Mode, and 200cc. The “cc” designation means “cubic centimeters,” referring to the displacement of the vehicle engines. So, naturally, 200cc is a lot faster (and therefore much more challenging) than 50cc. Starting with the slowest 50cc, each step up means higher speeds and more aggressive computer racers.
Unlocking Cups
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch is a celebration of Mario Kart’s tenure on the Nintendo Wii U, as well as a demonstration of the flexibility of the Nintendo Switch console itself. In this version of the game, all tracks and modes are unlocked from the beginning. Unlocks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are focused on acquiring new parts for your vehicles. At first, you’ll unlock a new random vehicle part every 30 Coins you collect in completed races. Later, the amount of Coins required between unlocks increases from 30 to 50, and then from 50 to 100. You don’t need to spend any time worrying about this though, really; just keep playing Mario Kart!
Star Ratings
At the end of a cup in single-player mode, your point total can earn you a star rating.
- 60 Points: 3 Stars
- 57 Points: 2 Stars
- 55–54 Points: 1 Star
Grand Prix Tips
Whether competing against the computer-driven racers, against your friends in split-screen multiplayer, or against rivals around the world online, Grand Prix races don’t just reward the fastest racer, they also reward the sneakiest, most cunning, and most devious racer. Make no mistake, you want to be at the front of the pack after three laps, but expect everyone behind you to use every item in the game’s arsenal to make your life difficult. As such, there are a few specific tips to deal with the deluge of shells, Bananas, and Bob-ombs that will stand between you and a first-place finish.
Go Fast, Get Hit (with Lots of Items): Part of Mario Kart’s balance involves “rubberbanding” with items. The better your position in a race, the worse the items you’ll get; the farther toward the back of the pack you’re running, the better the items you get. Basically this means that if you get very good at running in front, you can expect to deal with a lot of assaults from vehicles chasing you. Act accordingly, judiciously using your own items as shields behind you when possible.
The Spiny Shell Will Get Through: The bane of first place, the Spiny Shell is back in force. Short of lucking into a Super Horn, or timing a Mushroom to boost you just ahead of the Spiny Shell’s final dive toward you, if you’re in first place and a Spiny Shell has been fired, you’re likely taking a hit. You either want to be far enough ahead that the inevitable impact is not as devastating to your lead as it can be, or you want to keep second place close enough that you can fall back and let that poor sap take the hit for you. Of course, if the competition is savvy, they might just slow down to make sure the shell homes in on you before they pull ahead.
Going Heavyweight: There’s a lot to be said about the virtues of lighter racers and vehicles, but heavier options are worth learning to corner with. You can really ruin the day of a lighter racer without even using items simply by running into that opponent. Heavier racers and vehicles also tend to be the fastest, assuming you’re able to wrangle them around the turns effectively!
Get Coins: Do what you can to hoard Coins. In heated races, even having just one more Coin toward the maximum ten than your opponent can decide victory between evenly matched racers. Additionally, collecting Coins means your opponents can’t get them. It’s worth it sometimes to stray from the racing line to collect a line of Coins in one drift!
Learn the Shortcuts: Many courses provide alternate routes, but not all of them can be considered shortcuts. Sometimes it’s as simple as using a Mushroom to burst across a grassy field, cutting past a series of hairpin turns. Other times, you might need to get creative with ramps, dash panels, and some fancy gliding.
Intelligent Off-Roading: Some shortcuts or alternate routes through a course require you to go off-road. This is fine, except that going off-road slows down every racer, and some more than others. If you don’t have a Mushroom, or your vehicle-racer combo suffers heavily going off the track, it’s generally best to stay on course.
Time Trial
Distilling Mario Kart down to speed and speed alone, the Time Trial mode allows you to race against the clock, against the ghosts of your previous laps, and the ghosts of other players online, all to set the fastest laps and races through all 48 tracks in the game.
Time Trial Tips
Racing in the Time Trials is fundamentally different from the Grand Prix. It’s just you against the track. You get three Mushrooms, and the only other items you can collect are Coins. The fastest Time Trials on a course demand racers to take the best racing lines while also managing their Mushrooms and collecting Coins in the process.
Keep in mind that some of the fastest times will require that you unlock more parts to optimize your maximum speed and your ability to corner effectively with well-executed drifts and Mini-Turbos.
Ten Coins: You start each Time Trial with zero Coins. Your goal should be to reach the ten-Coin max as early as possible. However, don’t sacrifice speed or a good line through a turn just to collect wayward Coins! Once you reach ten Coins, concentrate on the fastest racing line, collecting Coins only if they are in your way. Note that there may be some courses where getting ten Coins isn’t a reasonable proposition, since that might require you to take longer lines around turns to pick up the Coins.
Coins Do Not Regenerate: Unlike in Grand Prix mode, during Time Trials Coins do not regenerate on the track. Part of the strategy to a Time Trial is to have a route that is not only the fastest, but will also guarantee that you pick up as many Coins as you can, while maintaining a fast racing line. Since the Coins can only be picked up once, you can’t rely on Coins always being around to make up for mistakes.
Study the Ghosts: The lap ghosts made by you and other players with the game can teach you a lot regarding how you should race through a course. If you’re serious about breaking records, you need to observe what the ghost is doing, and the sort of racer-vehicle combination they have going on!
Manage your Mini-Turbos: You don’t always have to go with orange-spark Super Mini-Turbos! Sometimes, it’s best to squeeze out more blue-spark Mini-Turbos during a turn, rather than risk eating a wall or straying off course just to get those orange sparks going! Building to purple sparks for an Ultra Mini-Turbo boost (possible only with steering assistance disabled) is rarely in the cards, except on the longest steady hairpin curves.