The Nintendo Switch library is brimming with amazing games for kids and games for adults, but the one that appeals to gamers of all ages has to be Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. This kart racer is great fun to play casually, but those who want to push their kart racing skills to the limit will find a lot of depth in the mechanics. In particular, the dozens of ways you can set up your kart does way more than change up its appearance. Depending on your character, the type of kart, choice of tires, and glider all change your stats on the race course. Once you hit the higher CCs and start racing competitively, these stats can determine if you finish first or last. We’ve been tinkering under the hoods of our Mario Kart 8 Deluxe karts ever since the WiiU days so we’ll be your trusty mechanic and give you the best Mario Kart 8 setup.
How to make the fastest Mario Kart 8 setup
Your setup in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is comprised of four main components: the character, kart, tires, and glider. Each one impacts one or more of the five major stats, which are Speed, Acceleration, Weight, Handling, and Grip. You will want all these stats as high as possible, but there is no combination that has max stats on each one.
Our recommendation for the best setup comes from hours of races using every combination we could think to try and settling on what we feel is the best compromise of stats. Of course, you can use this setup as a baseline to try and make tweaks from there to fit your preferred racing style.
Character: Any heavy character, such as Morton, Wario, Bowser, and Dry Bowser
Kart: Pipeframe, Blue Falcon, or Streetle
Tires: Slick tires
Glider: Cloud Glider, Peach Parasol, Parachute, Parafoil, Flower Glider, Bowser Kite, MKTV Parafoil, Paper Glider, or any Glider with no stat changes.
To justify our Mario Kart 8 Deluxe setup, we were drawn to the heavy characters for a few reasons. First, they have the best speed stats of any character, which is obviously desirable in a racing game. Second, heavy characters can bully other racers around. For our Kart, we wanted to find the ones with the best balance of speed and traction to help compensate for the slick tires, which boost speed and weight at the cost of grip and acceleration. Finally, the glider has the least impact on your stats so you can really pick any you want. The ones we suggest all slightly improve your acceleration and mini-turbo, but lower your speed and weight by a tiny amount.
