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Lakitu Guide

Why have you wrote a Lakitu guide?

I have written this guide because there are many queries to how the game works and this guide should solve the mysteries and explain the unexplained phenomena in the game. This guide also gives you tips about faling off the edge and ways to use Lakitu exploits to dodge items.

Section 1, Lakitu Exploits

There are three main types of Lakitu exploits. The first are glitches, which are any use of Lakitu to cut a large portion of track as unintended shortcuts like in Sky Garden and Tick Tock Clock. These will be covered in the guide as well as videos. The second are malfunctions, where you can go the wrong way and get away with it, and go the right way and be told to turn around. The final type are Lakitu tricking exploits, where you half-complete shortcuts to be put down after it, or jump at a bend to cut the bend.

Lakitu glitches

Here are the known Lakitu GLITCHES:

These can be done as follows:

Sky Garden shortcut 3- Go to the bend in Sky Garden before the final vine bridge. Now aim towards the gap with the ramp in the distance, and boost, jumping at the last minute. You should be placed before the finish line. This does not work in Mario Kart Super Circuit. Sky Garden shortcut 4- Jump off the edge near the final vine bridge to be put down before the bridge. Rainbow Road shortcut 2- Jump off the edge near the slope after the jump and you should fly really far. If your aim was right, you will be placed by the corkscrew. Rainbow Road shortcut 6- Jump off like the last trick and you may be placed after the gap in the track. Rainbow Road shortcut 7- Jump like in the last two and you may be placed before the hairpin, perfect position to do the third shortcut. Tick Tock Clock shortcut 1- Jump off the track at the gears to be placed after the gears. Tick Tock Clock shortcut 2- Jump off the track near the pendulum to be placed on the next straightway.

How these work: You trick the checkpoint system in the game into making it think you fell off at the target area, then the game will place you there. As it has recorrected it's location of you, the lap does not become invalidated.

Lakitu Malfunctions

These are glitches where you trick the game into thinking you are going the wrong way, or force it to allow you to go backwards slightly. This is because you trick the positioning systems in the game to think you are somewhere else in the level.

These levels can be made to malfunction:

How the positioning system likely works:

Each part of the track is in one zone in the checkpoint system. If you cross an invisible line, the game knows you are in that area. Now in a place with sharp bends and close walls, sometimes the walls can cross that line. The game thinks you are the other side of the bend and will react accordingly.

Strange exception

In Sky Garden, the wall after the final bridge is really strange. If you are to the left of it, the game will either say:

You are going backwards if you face upwards Or you are going forwards if you face downwards!

This is strange because if you obey Lakitu, you commit suicide as the edge is where the game says you should be going!

Lakitu tricking

This is a technique where you half-complete a shortcut, and the game acts as if you are successful! It works on all ramp tricks!

The reasoning behind this may be as follows: When you start the shortcut, you are in the normal checkpoint. But the checkpoint change doesn't happen at the end. It happens directly in the middle of each intentional shortcut, and once you cross a line, the game has calculated that you've made it, and acts accordingly!

Why does this happen?

This happens with checkpoints because of how the game would react without it. The game has been proven to work on a system on invisible checkpoints, which track your position on the map. This was implemented as a glitch counter measure, and an possible attempt to stop people cheating with game alteration devices. If these weren't in place, you could jump half the track and the lap would count, causing anarchy!

Why is there a checkpoint in each intentional shortcut?

Because without it, the game would no recalculate your position, and the lap would get invalidated by the game and it would act like you've done a glitch in the game!