Here you will find tips and techniques that will help you improve your time trials, speedrun story mode, or just become a faster racer. The general driving tips are useful for all modes, the item/racing tips are useful for any mode with opponents, and the story mode tips are useful for story mode of course. ;)
General driving tips:
Skidding is crucial. You should be boosting at least from yellow skids nearly all the time. Do a yellow skid as quickly as possible to get to full speed faster (like at the start of a race or after getting hit). Red skids are more powerful, so try to get them when possible. Unlike in 0.9.3, yellow boosts no longer cancel out the effect of red boosts, so you don't have to wait before skidding again after a red boost. Skid boosts are more powerful in combination with a zipper—have a skid boost prepared before using a zipper and then release the skid boost right after using the zipper.
Unlike in 0.9.3, there is not a specific amount of time you should hold down the nitro button. Tap the nitro button for each use (try not to hold it down). Nitro has a greater effect if used as another boost is wearing off. Because of this, a small amount of overlap is actually beneficial. In general, however, nitro use should be spread out. Nitro is also more effective right before skid boosting. You will need to use nitro more frequently in nitro-heavy courses like Ravenbridge Mansion and STK Enterprise.
Start accelerating when the screen says "Set." Do not press the acceleration button any time during or before the countdown. You will not be able to get a boost start (if you accelerate before the countdown, you won’t get penalty time, but it will still be impossible to get a boost start).
Heavier characters are faster but have poor acceleration. For time trials, use heavyweights except on Minigolf (use a lightweight), XR591 (use a middleweight), and any other course where a heavyweight might cause you trouble (try middleweights for Oliver’s Math Class or Zen Garden). When racing with AI or other players, acceleration is important in order to break away at the beginning and to recover quickly from getting hit. This makes middleweights very good for online play. Though if you are playing a relatively simple course with few people, heavyweights could be best. Aside from Minigolf, lightweights are useful for egg hunts (and non-speedrun modes like soccer and battle).
For normal races in story mode, use heavyweights when possible (except on Minigolf), but you can use middleweights on courses where you are struggling to quickly break away from the AI (e.g. likely Around the Lighthouse and/or Old Mine). Use a heavyweight for the XR591 nitro challenge if you can (since not being able to use nitro gives heavyweights an advantage).
The only difference between characters in the same weight class is their hitboxes. Although the difference is very minor, you may want to choose characters with smaller hitboxes to avoid items more easily and take slightly sharper turns (Sara the Racer for lightweights, Sara the Wizard/Gavroche for middleweights, and Pidgin for heavyweights). It will be slightly more difficult to collect nitro, however.
There are no major skips or checkline glitches in 1.0, although there are still a few shortcuts. You can find track-specific tips and routes in my Track-By-Track Guide (https://www.speedrun.com/stk/guide/kpu9t). It will also help to looking at the time trial records (in the speedrun.com Level Leaderboard) or story mode speedruns. Some alternate paths are balanced enough that you may want to test them for yourself, like the split paths in STK Enterprise and Fort Magma.
Item/racing tips:
The start of a race is very important. You might get stuck behind the AI for a while and lose a lot of time (and possibly have to restart the course). Practice getting ahead of them early. Getting an early drift boost is important here. Try to draft them without colliding with them too much.
There are many item mechanics you should be aware of. Gum can protect you from any other item. Swatters can get rid of dynamite or parachutes. Shooting a bowling ball or cake at a basketball can destroy it before it ruins your race. Slowing down a sufficient amount gets rid of parachutes. Use swappers to turn gum into big nitro cans. Like nitro, zippers have a greater effect if they are used when another boost (perhaps another zipper) is ending.
Make use of Thunderbird if there is about to be an unavoidable disaster (e.g. basketball approaching, dynamite about to explode, falling off the track).
Story mode tips:
SuperTux mode can be unlocked early. Simply meet the SuperTux challenge requirements in Expert mode for five courses (including nitro requirements for nitro challenges). SuperTux mode should be played from then on, as it is the fastest mode. You'll want to unlock it as early as possible, so start out with the five shortest unlocked courses: Shifting Sands, Nessie's Pond, Hacienda, Snow Peak, and either Antediluvian Abyss or Ravenbridge Mansion. You may want to choose Ravenbridge Mansion instead of Antediluvian Abyss to get it out of the way, but they are practically the same length. For the "All Challenges SuperTux" category, you'll have to redo those five challenges later to get the SuperTux trophies.
You'll want to minimize the number of times you change characters. At some point, switch to a middleweight and do every track you use a middleweight on, and do the same for lightweights. Then you'll need to switch back to heavyweights since they are optimal for the final challenge.
Other than these factors, the order that you complete challenges is up to you. So do the ones that can ruin your run early.
Skipping the results screen of challenges will cause you to restart the challenge. Just quickly exit the race after this happens. You won't see the "Challenge Completed" scene but you'll get the trophy. This is faster than returning to the overworld normally. But do NOT let the game restart the Fort Magma challenge! Otherwise the speedrun timer won't stop (your run will still be accepted but with penalty time). Instead, press the "go back" key after finishing the challenge (probably ESC if you are using a keyboard), to cause the "You completed a challenge!" button to appear. Then you can go ahead and continue.
Be careful with results screens in GPs (grand prix). If you skip ahead before the game shows the point tally, the game will not register the points until the end of the next race. So if you haven't given the game a chance to tally points by the final race, you might not get credit for the GP.
This glitch can actually be abused. Play either the first or second race and get first, whichever is shorter. Let the game show the point tally screen. Skip every other race (by giving up). As long as you skip the point tally screen in the last three races, you should nearly always end up with at least enough points for a bronze trophy (credit to Fouks for improving this exploit). This saves a significant amount of time. The second track is shorter for Off the Beaten Track. For To the Moon and Back and At World's End, play the first track. For Penguin's Playground the first two races are about the same length, so see what works for you. For the "All Challenges SuperTux" category, always play the first track. Otherwise, you won't get enough points for a SuperTux trophy.
Fouks's gate skip has been fixed in 1.x. You'll have to complete every challenge.
Other notes:
Take a look at the General Rules forum post if you are new: https://www.speedrun.com/stk/thread/39mav
The on-screen timer is highly recommended, as it accounts for loading time. To turn it on, create a new profile, go to the Interface options in the in-game settings and enable the speedrun timer.
Story Mode and individual level runs for 1.1 are in the same category as 1.0. Gameplay is mostly the same, but there are a few differences: certain checklines are easier to miss in Old Mine and XR591, and the timer is not included in the main game, so you will need to get Alayan's modified version. Linux: https://github.com/psypherium/SpeedrunnerSuperTuxKart/releases/download/1.0/Linux-STK-1.0-Speedrunner.7z Windows: https://github.com/psypherium/SpeedrunnerSuperTuxKart/releases/download/1.0/Windows-STK-1.0-Speedrunner.7z
Always make sure that the timer is running AND that you are recording before continuing with the run!
And good luck! :)
(Credit goes to Fouks for some of the boost strategies; check out his "Top Speed and Advanced Boosting Techniques" guide for more info.)
