Driving Guide

Welcome to The Karters 2! If you're new to the game or just looking to improve your driving skills, we've got you covered. In this guide, we'll cover everything from the basics to advanced techniques to help you become a kart racing pro.

## Controls

To get familiar with the controls, let's have a look at the following controller layout which will be used throughout this guide for consistency:

* **Accelerate:** The kart’s acceleration is controlled by `A`, which activates the engine and enables forward motion. The engine power is indicated by the speedometer, which can reach up to 100% by holding `A` which is considered your base speed.
* **Reverse:** Hold  `d-pad down` or `left analog down` to drive in reverse.
* **Brake:** `X` acts as a brake, which can rapidly decelerate the kart to a complete halt.
* **Jump:** The kart is equipped with a jump mechanism, which can be triggered by pressing either `LB` or  `RB` .
* **Drift:** The jump mechanism can also initiate a drift maneuver if you hold either `LB`  or `RB` while turning.
* **Items:** The kart can also utilize various items that can be obtained from item boxes along the track. You can use items by pressing  `B`, which will launch them in the direction that the kart is facing.
* **Aim:** You can aim backward with the items by holding  `RT` button and then pressing `B` .

## Basics

To get started, there are a few beginner mechanics that you should master first.

* **Starting line boost:** At the start of a race, press  `A` repeatedly to fill the three gauges in your speedometer. When all three gauges are full, you’ll receive a boost that will give you an initial burst of speed. This will help you take the lead right away.

* **Jumping:** The kart can execute a jump from various surfaces by driving over them, as they possess a collider near their boundary. You can control the height of the jump by pressing  `LB` or `RB`  precisely at the edge of the surface, such as ramps, hills, or platforms. The height of the jump is proportional to the timing and accuracy of the button press. Legends say fences are the best for jumping.
* **Jump trick and landing boost:** If you press the jump button while you are in the air, you will do a trick. You can do this any time you are airborne. If you land on the ground after doing a trick, you will get a landing boost that will make you go much faster for ~1s. It will also increase your engine %, which affects how much reserve (will be explained later) you build up. This means you can go faster as it increases your top speed. If you don’t press the jump button or do a trick, you won’t get a boost.

* **Drifting:** While accelerating, tap and hold `LB` or `RB` while steering left/right to start drifting. This will help you take sharp turns with ease. You can control the sharpness of the turn by steering in the direction of the drift.
* **Opposite Drifting:** A mechanic which permits to your kart to turn in the opposite direction of your drift. This can help the kart avoid hitting walls or obstacles, or to take wider or narrower turns depending on the situation. To perform opposite drifting, you need to move  or press  in the opposite direction of the kart’s orientation while holding  `RB`. The opposite drifting angle is the angle between the kart’s orientation and its direction of travel. By adjusting the opposite drifting angle with simple directional pad presses, you can take wider turns or drift in almost a straight line.
* **Mini-Turbo (MT):** This is the most important mechanic in the game. To start MT, begin drifting by holding `RB`. You will see a red gauge bar fill up in your speedometer in ~1s. Tap `LB` before the bar is almost full but not too early! Congratulations, you have done one MT. Alternatively, you can also look at your kart’s tires instead of the gauge bar. They will glow when you drift with `RB`. When the two lines on the tire meet in the middle, press  `LB`. MT gives you a small boost that depends on how full the gauge bar was when you pressed `LB` . It also increases your engine % in your speedometer, which makes your kart faster.

* **Triple Mini-Turbo (3 MT):** To do 3 MT, you have to keep drifting even after pressing  for the first time. After doing one MT, wait for another gauge bar to fill up and press  again before it’s almost full. You can do MT up to three times in one drift.
* **Airbrake:** This technique is used to perform ultra turns in midair at the cost of speed and partial reserve reduction. While in the air, just hold  along with your desired direction. This technique allows you to adjust your trajectory and alignment in midair, which can be useful sometimes in taking very sharp corners. Just make sure to not perform the break on the ground as it will drain all your reserve instantly.
* **Character and kart selection:** All characters and karts in the game have the same stats for simplicity and balance. This means that there is no single best character or kart to choose from. You can pick any character or kart that suits your preference and style without worrying about their performance differences. This also prevents creating a dominant meta where only certain characters or karts are viable.

## Reserve and Engine%

Now that you mastered the basics, we can move on to the core mechanic of this game: the reserve system. If you want to win (especially against the infamous CPU of this game), it’s important to maintain and gain more speed throughout the race. The reserve system is a mechanic that rewards players with more speed. In this guide, we will explain how the reserve system works, how it affects your speed, and how to use it to win the race!

### What is reserve and engine power?

Reserve is a hidden value that represents how much extra speed you can maintain in the race. It is not directly visible to the players, but it is closely related to the engine power percentage that is shown on the HUD. The engine power percentage indicates how much faster you are going than your base speed, which is the normal speed of your vehicle without any items or boosters. For example, if you have 100% engine power, you are going at your base speed. If you have 150% engine power, you are going 50% faster than your base speed.

The reserve system in The Karters 2 is similar to the one found in Crash Team Racing, but with some key differences that make it stand out. One of the biggest differences is that the reserve value is converted to engine power percentage and directly affects your maximum speed. The higher your reserve value, the higher your engine power percentage, and the faster you can go! Another difference is that you can gain more reserve by doing tricks in midair after jumping off ramps or ledges or chaining full mini-turbos. This result in having a reserve system more dynamic and responsive to your actions as speed is changing all the time! In Crash Team Racing, reserve will be correlated to speed upgrades and there is a limit to the kart max speed as they are tied to turbo pads.

### How to get reserve?

To gain reserve and increase your engine power percentage, there are few ways in The Karters 2:

* **Mini turbos (MT):** This marginally gives you reserve and increases the engine % shown. For example, chaining 3 MT can increase your engine % from 100% to 115%. The more MT you chain together, the more reserve you accumulate.
* **Trick Jumps:** This will give you a lot of reserve and a burst of speed. The amount of reserve will depend on the jump height as you will receive almost 10%+ instantly from landing after a trick from a long jump.
* **Items:** Some items, such as Teleport Dash and Tank, can give you a significant amount of reserve. There is also the boost item which can give you a fixed amount of reserve for some duration.

### How does the engine power percentage affect your speed?

The engine power percentage shows how much faster you can go than your base speed. In simple terms, let's consider the following example. Imagine your base speed is 100 (unitless and for the sake of comparing it to % better) and the engine % at is set at 100%. If your new engine power is 145%, then your new speed will be:

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{\displaystyle
\begin{align} new\_{speed}= base\_{speed} \times (1+0.45) = 100\times 1.45 =145 \\ \end{align}
}**

This shows that the new speed will be 45% more that the base speed.

The relationship between reserve and engine power percentage is not linear, but rather exponential. This means that as your reserve increases, your engine power percentage increases at a faster rate. However, this also means that you lose reserve at a faster rate when you have a higher engine power percentage.

The exponential relationship between reserve and engine power percentage can be approximated by using two functions: one for increasing reserve and one for decreasing reserve. A possible formula for calculating your engine power percentage based on your reserve value is:

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{\displaystyle \begin{align} engine\_{power\_{percentage}} & = f(reserve\_{value}) \\ \end{align}}

where

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{\displaystyle \begin{align} f(reserve\_{value}) & = g(reserve\_{value}) - k \times (t-t\_0) \\ \end{align}}
* g
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{\displaystyle \begin{align} g(reserve\_{value}) & = 100 + 8 \times \log\_{10}(reserve\_{value}) \\ \end{align}}
* k

{\displaystyle k}

 is a constant that depends on your current engine power percentage
* t

{\displaystyle t}

 is the current time
* t
0

{\displaystyle t\_0}

is the time when you started increasing or decreasing your reserve

These functions show that as your reserve value increases, your engine power percentage increases at a diminishing rate by adding 8 times the logarithm of your reserve value to 100%. However, you also lose reserve at a linear rate by subtracting

k

{\displaystyle k}

 times the elapsed time since you started increasing or decreasing your reserve from the previous function.

However, the value of

k

{\displaystyle k}

 is not constant throughout all engine power percentage levels, as it is slower at around 135% for example where both engine power percentage gain and loss are lower. Therefore, we need to adjust the value of

k

{\displaystyle k}

 according to the following table:

 120% - 140%
 140% - 160%
 160% - 180%
 180% - 200%
 Above 200%

Additionally, the value of

k

{\displaystyle k}

 is not constant within each range, as it varies depending on how many mini turbos you chain and how long you maintain them. Therefore, we need to modify the value of

k

{\displaystyle k}

 by multiplying it with a factor that depends on these variables. A possible formula for calculating this factor is:

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{\displaystyle factor = m \times n}

where

* m

{\displaystyle m}

 is the number of mini turbos you chain
* n

{\displaystyle n}

 is a constant that depends on the quality of your mini turbos (full or partial)

For example, if you chain three full mini turbos, then

# m
3

{\displaystyle m=3}

 ,

# n
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{\displaystyle n=1.5}

  , you will get a factor of 4.5.

For example, if your reserve value is 10 (which means you have no extra speed), then your engine power percentage will be:

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{\displaystyle
\begin{align} engine\_{power\_{percentage}} = f(10) = g(10)-k \times (t-t\_0) \\ \end{align}

}

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100
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108

{\displaystyle
\begin{align} g(10) = 100 +8 \times \log\_{10}(10) = 108 \\ \end{align}

}

This means that you are going 8% faster than your base speed. However, if you stop increasing your reserve at this point, and your current engine power percentage is 108%, then your engine power percentage will start decreasing by

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{\displaystyle (1 \times factor)}

  per second (since it falls in the range of 100% - 120%). Therefore, after one second, your engine power percentage will be:

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{\displaystyle
\begin{align} engine\_{power\_{percentage}} = f(10) = h(10)-k \times (t-t\_0) \\ \end{align}

}

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108

{\displaystyle
\begin{align} g(10) = 108 \\ \end{align}

}

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103.5

{\displaystyle
\begin{align} f(10) = 108 - (1-factor) \times (1-0) = 103.5 \\ \end{align}

}

This means your reserve will drop to 103.5% after 1s.

### How to maintain your reserve?

To maintain your reserve and speed, you need to avoid losing reserve by doing the following:

* Avoid crashing into walls or obstacles
* Avoid braking: This will also cause you to lose all reserve instantly if you are driving on the ground (160% can become 100% instantly and cause emotional damage). You can use break while jumping in the air to take sharper turns with the expense of losing some reserve. When you are in midair, you won't lose all reserve instantly but rather incrementally based on the duration of press (the exact rate is unknown).
* Keep chaining mini turbos and jump tricks: This is the best way to maintain your reserve and speed, as it will constantly replenish your reserve and increase your engine power percentage. Try to do mini turbo as much as possible and use every opportunity to jump and do trick.

## Advanced mechanics

There are few techs that can be utilized frequently or situational which can be useful in many game modes.

* **Air-boost:** This technique combines drifting, mini-turbos, and trick jumps to gain a lot of reserve and speed. Before leaving any platform, initiate a drift by pressing `RB` and then tap  `LB` when the gauge is almost full. You can chain up to three mini turbos in midair this way. At the end, release the jump button and perform a trick jump by pressing `A` . This technique allows you to increase your reserve value by doing mini turbos and trick jumps, which in turn increases your engine power percentage and speed.

* **Drift-cut:** This technique allows you to take sharper turns by using the angle of your drift. When drifting, your kart will be positioned in an angle. You can take sharper turns if you do an inside drift and then release the jump button while holding the same direction. For example, if you are drifting to the right direction while holding `d-pad right/left` , as soon as you release the jump button and assuming you are still holding right direction, your kart will move in the direction it was positioned during the drift which allows you to change directions quickly. This technique is useful for avoiding obstacles or taking shortcuts that require sudden change in direction.
* **Spin-drift:** This technique allows you to make a 180 turn without losing engine power percentage or reserve. While drifting, you can press `X`  to make your kart spin around. You can even build more reserve by chaining three mini turbos during the drift while holding `X`  which can even result in a faster spin. This technique is useful for reversing your direction or escaping from players in Arena Mode.

* **Boost Jumping:** This is an advanced technique that combines the landing boost from a jump trick with the natural jump from a surface. To perform a boost jump, you need to do a jump trick right before you land on a surface that can give you a natural jump, such as a ramp, a hill, a tree or a fence. If you time it correctly, you will get a momentary speed from the landing boost resulting to a propulsion and a higher jump from those surfaces! This will help you reach places that are normally inaccessible or difficult to access, such as shortcuts, hidden paths, or high platforms.