Tricks

Tricks spin and flip your kart in the air off ramps and drops, motocross style. Land them cleanly for a boost. They are off by default.

Turning them on

− menu > Game > Tricks:

Setting
Off	the default: the game as it was
On	tricks in the air; landing mid-trick just sets the kart back upright, without a boost
On + Wipeouts	as On, but landing in the middle of a trick spins you out, as a wall hit at speed does

Tricks work for every player (1 to 4) and in every camera view (Driver FPV and Kart FPV turn with the kart). They are off in LAN play. Computer karts don't do tricks.

When a trick can start

• Only off a ramp or a drop: the kart must be in the air for a moment (12 frames, a fifth of a second) and high enough above the ground. The drift hop and small bumps are too low, so a D-pad press then is just steering.
• A press made before take-off doesn't count: it is steering too.
• A press made close to the landing doesn't start a trick either: when there isn't time left to finish one, the press stays steering, so you can set up the next turn while still in the air. This also applies to the next trick of a combo.

Kart tricks (D-pad or stick)

Use the D-pad, or flick the left stick: from the middle to the edge quickly. Holding the stick over to steer doesn't do tricks, only a quick flick does. On a keyboard the D-pad is the numpad's 8, 4, 2 and 6.

Press	Trick
Up	front flip
Down	backflip
Left	360 (a flat spin)
Right	barrel roll
Up, Up	double front flip
Down, Down	double backflip
Left, Left	double 360
Right, Right	double barrel roll
Up + Right (or Up, Right)	corkscrew, front and right
Up + Left (or Up, Left)	corkscrew, front and left
Down + Right (or Down, Right)	corkscrew, back and right
Down + Left (or Down, Left)	corkscrew, back and left
Left, Right	whip, to the left
Right, Left	whip, to the right
Up, Down	tabletop, laid on its right side
Down, Up	tabletop, laid on its left side
JUMP	rider superman, then cliffhanger

+ is both at once (a diagonal), , one after the other.

Turning a trick into another

Early in a trick, a second press changes it:

Second press	Becomes	When
the same direction again	a double: the same trick twice round	in the first half of the trick
a crossing direction (up or down with left or right)	a corkscrew: flip and roll at once, front or back, left or right	within a few frames (pressing both at once, a diagonal, does it too)
left then right, or right then left	a whip: the kart thrown sideways and back	within 10 frames
up then down, or down then up	a tabletop: the kart laid on its side and back	within 10 frames

Combos

A press later in a trick queues the next one, which starts as soon as the first finishes. Keep pressing while the kart stays in the air to chain more, as many as the jump has time for.

Rider tricks (JUMP)

Press JUMP in the air and your back rider does a trick on the kart: superman first, then cliffhanger on the next press. They can be done together with the kart's tricks. JUMP has no button by default: give it one in Controls > Button mapping (Game > Jump height can stay Off, then the button only does rider tricks).

Boost

Land with every trick finished (or almost: the last 15% of a turn still counts) and you get a mini-turbo style boost:

Landed	Boost
1 turn	20 frames (a third of a second)
each extra turn (double, combo)	15 frames more
most	75 frames (1.25 seconds)

Land before the trick is done and there is no boost: the kart settles upright quickly (On) or spins out (On + Wipeouts).

Tips

• Big ramps fit a double or a combo; small drops fit one trick. If a press does nothing, the jump was too low or the landing too close.
• Wipeouts only happen in a trick: landing a clean trick, or not doing one, never spins you out.
• For bug reports, Debug > Logging writes a trick: line to logs/mkdd.log for each trick, each press that was too close to the landing, and each jump.