Guide: How To Get 3 Stars In Mario Kart World’s Knockout Tour

Knockout Tour is a brand new mode featuring non-stop racing across the continent in Mario Kart World. In this guide, we will show you how to get 3 stars in every Knockout Tour rally.

What is Knockout Tour?

Knockout Tour features eight different rallies with 24 racers competing for first place. Unlike cups in Grand Prix, each tour spans across six different locations. These races are non-stop, meaning there are no intermissions (breaks) between them, and there is no scoring system.

However, there are checkpoints between the different locations, and you must be at a certain position or higher in order to continue racing. For example, the first checkpoint requires racers to be in 20th or higher; if you are in 21st place or lower when you pass the checkpoint, you will be kicked out of the race and the rally ends. This will continue until the finish line – the racer who crosses it at 1st place wins the rally.

First checkpoint: 20th place or higher to stay in tour
Second checkpoint: 16th place or higher to stay in tour
Third checkpoint: 12th place or higher to stay in tour
Fourth checkpoint: 8th place or higher to stay in tour
Fifth checkpoint: 4th place or higher to stay in tour
Finish line: 1st place wins the tour

How to get 3 stars in Knockout Tour

While there is no scoring system in Knockout Tour, you need to get first place at all six checkpoints through the entire rally in order to get 3 stars.

This means that even if you finish first at the end of a rally but didn’t place first in one or more checkpoints, you will not get 3 stars.

Also, keep in mind that if you don’t need to get 3 stars on every speed class to unlock 3 stars for that speed class. Unlocking 3 stars on a higher speed class or difficulty (such as 150cc) will unlock 3 stars on lower speed classes (such as 100cc and 50cc).

Strategy for getting 3 stars in Knockout Tour

At the start of every rally, you’ll begin from 24th place. You should hit the first two item boxes and use the items gained from them (usually at least one triple mushroom and another powerful item, like a mega mushroom, golden mushroom, or star) to take huge shortcuts. This should help you get first place at the first checkpoint.

After the first checkpoint, your next priority would be to get first place at every checkpoint, maximize your coins to 20 and play defensively. Refresh your items as much as you can to keep items like mushrooms and super horns in reserve to dodge blue shells.

Even if you somehow lose your first place midway before reaching the next checkpoint, there is still a window of opportunity to reclaim it by playing more aggressively with items before the next checkpoint is reached.

If you do not get first place at the first checkpoint or any of the other checkpoints, you should quit and restart the rally.

Tips for 150cc and mirror mode

Mario Kart World uses a dynamic difficulty system. The difficulty of the CPU players increases when the player drifts often. If you’re struggling to get 3 stars in 150cc or mirror mode in Knockout Tour, we recommend you to avoid drifting completely from the start to the end of the rally. This will reduce the speed of the CPU players, as well as the probability of them getting powerful items.

You can rely on other techniques, such as wall riding, rail riding, using Dash Food and items to take shortcuts, etc, to reach first place at every checkpoint.

Based on our testing, we found that CPU players were less aggressive when we didn’t drift in the entire rally. However, we found that it was also safe to drift in the last part of the rally (before the goal / last checkpoint).