How to rail grind, wall ride, and charge jump in Mario Kart World
Rail grinding, wall riding, and charge jump are new mechanics in Mario Kart World on the Switch 2. But the mechanics are a little weird and only come up in specific circumstances.
Rail grinding and wall riding are two new mechanics in Mario Kart World on the Switch 2. And both of them are kind of related to the new jump boost. Together, these all add a little extra pizzazz to the go-fast-and-drift at the core of the Mario Kart franchise, but the mechanics are a little weird and only come up in specific circumstances.
This BigFriendly.Guide will tell you how to jump boost, rail grind, and wall ride, and talk a little about where you can do those tricks.
How to rail grind in Mario Kart World
Rail grinding is the easiest of the new maneuvers to pull off, and that's mostly because the most grindable rails tend to start at ground level — at the start of the rail, you'll usually see a ramp up. For these rails (and pipes and power lines), all you have to do is drive over them.
Grinding along a rail generates a mini-turbo boost — those sparks you see under your kart. Importantly, though, you only get the boost if you jump off of the rail by hitting R plus a direction on the left stick, not if you just ride the rail to the end.
Rails that you can't just drive up onto require a slightly different strategy to reach them. Namely, charge jump…
How to charge jump in Mario Kart World
Charge jumping is a way to, well, jump in Mario Kart World. You're not going to leap over buildings or anything, but it's a nice feature to have. And you'll need it to pull off a wall ride (more on this in a second) or to hit certain rails. It also generates mini-turbo.
Charge jump is a little tricky (and frustrating) to pull off. You need to be driving (holding down A) and going straight (not touching the left thumbstick). Hold down R (the right shoulder button), and your kart will kind of scrunch down. After a couple seconds, you'll see the mini-turbo sparks appear. That's when jump boost is ready. That's also when you can start steering a little.
When you let go of R, you'll jump. If you haven't moved the left stick (much), you'll jump straight up and land with a boost. Once your kart starts the charging part of the charge jump, you can hold the left stick in a direction. If you do that, you'll jump with a roll in that direction when you let go of R.
The tricky part of the charge jump is both how long it takes to trigger, but also that it's the exact same button as drifting. If you're not careful when you start it, you'll just drift instead. It also seems to get interrupted and reset if you run into a wall.
Using that charge jump and directional input is how you'll…
How to wall ride in Mario Kart World
If you're driving parallel to a wall when you charge up a charge jump, you can use the left stick to jump onto that wall. That's kind of all there is to it.
Wall riding is kind of limited, though. You can't go very far — you'll slide off after a few seconds of driving unless it's curved up (relative to your direction) — and you won't have a lot of control.
It is a really good way to avoid crowds during a race, though. And it'll help reach some out-of-the-way places during free roam.
This post originally appeared on BigFriendly.Guide
Please pardon any formatting weirdness