Mario Kart Tour race points system

This page details the system used to calculate total points in Mario Kart Tour races, using data gathered during the Ice Tour.

Overview
Race points are earned in three ways: base points from the driver, kart and glider being used, bonus points earned by performing actions during the race, and position points, based on finishing position, driver level, and several other factors. Upon earning enough points in a given race, players can earn from that race up to 5 total Grand Stars, which are necessary to unlock tour gifts in the current tour.

Base points
The base points of the driver, kart and glider selected are added to the initial score of 0 before the race begins. Base points can range from 800 total points for base-level Normal items to 2800 points for completely maxed-out High-End items. Individual items' base points can be increased through experience points obtained at the end of the races or through point-boost tickets that provide 50 experience points each. The experience points are used to fill a gauge that when filled will increase the base points until the maximum amount has been reached. The amount of experience points needed to fill the gauge increases every time the gauge is filled.

The maximum amount of base points for each driver, kart and glider can also be increased up to 3 times with points-cap tickets. Each increase costs more tickets than the last (1, 5, and 10 tickets, respectively), and adds 6 or 7 more levels to the gauge. These increased levels have their required XP grow more slowly and award more points per level-up.

Bonus points
Many actions performed in-game give the player a number of bonus points. There are a wide variety of point-giving actions, ranging from hitting another player with an item to picking up a coin or simply running into a traffic cone. The base points are modified by many multipliers and bonuses before being added to the player's score. The full formula to calculate the bonus points of a single action, as given in the game's FAQ, is as follows:


 * base points for performing action
 * × multiplier from kart's favored course
 * × multiplier from kart's level
 * + increase from kart's special skill
 * + increase from glider's special skill
 * + combo bonus
 * + driver's bonus-points boost
 * + kart's bonus-points boost
 * + glider's bonus-points boost

The final result is rounded up to the nearest whole number. Each of these items is covered in detail in the following sections.

Action base points
Each action in a race has a default number of points associated with it, called the base points of the action.

Item actions
These actions are performed with specific items or in Frenzy mode.

Object interactions
These actions are performed by interacting with hazards or other elements that appear on one or a few tracks.

General actions
These actions can be performed on most or all courses.

Tour-exclusive actions
A few tours have introduced elements to every track that give points with a special message when interacted with. These actions have also had one or more associated spotlight drivers, to whom the action awards far more base points.

Interim rank points
Points are earned when crossing a Finish Line to begin lap 2 or enter another segment of the track. The points earned depend on the player's position and the engine class used. 200cc is considered identical to 150cc here, as it is across the rest of the points calculation. The action triggered also allows one extra second on top of the player's normal combo time before the next action.

Kart bonus-points multiplier
The base points of the action are first multiplied by the bonus-points multiplier of the kart, determined in two parts. The first part is a simple multiplier dependent on the kart's tier on the course: top-tier karts receive a x2 bonus, middle tier karts receive x1.5, while bottom-tier karts receive the default x1. A further multiplier is applied based on kart rarity and level, as shown in the below table. The multipliers stack, so x1.1 on top of x2 becomes x2.2.

Special skill boost
Every driver, kart, and glider has a special skill that separates it from the others. For drivers, the special skill is a unique item, such as the Boomerang Flower or Coin Box; these are covered in the "Item Actions" section above. For karts, the special skill is a boost to a general action, such as Mini-Turbo or Jump Boost, which awards more points and a bigger speed boost when performed. For gliders, the special skill is a boost to a general item, such as the Banana or Super Horn, which increases the chance of rolling that item and awards more points for landing a hit (or simply using the item, in the case of Mushrooms). The point bonus for kart and glider actions is added directly to the score after the multipliers, and depends only on the item's rarity; it is not affected by level or course tier.

Glider skills
Skills with missing points values mean there are no gliders of the given rarity with that skill, as of the September 2021 Sydney Tour. The Coin and Mushroom boosts only apply to rolled items, and not those picked up from the track. Similarly, the boosts are not applied to the drivers' special skills that involve multiple amounts of an items, such as Triple Bananas and Triple Mushrooms.

Combo bonus
When performing multiple actions within a short period of time, the player receives a combo bonus for each successive action. The length of time allowed depends on the level and course tier of the glider used. The combo points themselves, however, only depend on the glider's tier on the course. The first action in a combo is awarded a combo bonus of 0, and successive actions each get an increase depending on glider tier:


 * Top-tier: bonus increases by 3 points with each action
 * Middle-tier: bonus increases by 2 points with each action
 * Bottom-tier: bonus increases by 1 point with each action

There is also a cap to the combo bonus that depending on engine class:


 * 50cc: actions beyond the 6th receive the same bonus as the 6th
 * 100cc: actions beyond the 11th receive the same bonus as the 11th
 * 150/200cc: actions beyond the 16th receive the same bonus as the 16th

This leads to the following table for max combo bonus:

Bonus-points boost
The bonus-points boost is a single points bonus that is added to every single action performed, up to and including the 200th. The driver, kart, and glider are each considered separately in calculating the bonus. If an item in use has the course as its favorite and is at level 2 or above, its bonus points boost is determined by the ceiling (rounding up to the whole number) of the following formula:


 * Item base points
 * × (item level - 1)
 * × (cc / 30,000)

where 200cc is still treated as 150cc. As an example, a level 3 Bowser at the base cap of 675 base points used for a 200cc race at Bowser's Castle 1T, one of its favorite courses, gives the following boost:


 * Base points: 675
 * × (lvl 3 - 1) = 1350
 * × (150 / 30,000) = 6.75
 * Ceil(6.75) = 7

Thus, 7 extra points per action are earned. If the Bull's-Eye Banzai at level 2, but with minimum 200 base points, is used, it adds the following boost:


 * Base points: 200
 * × (lvl 2 - 1) = 200
 * × (150 / 30,000) = 1.00
 * Ceil(1.00) = 1

The kart would thus be worth just 1 additional point per action. On the other hand, a level 6 Swooper, with the base cap of 400 base points grants the following boost:


 * Base points: 400
 * × (lvl 6 - 1) = 2000
 * × (150 / 30,000) = 10.00
 * Ceil(10.00) = 10

The total bonus-points boost for this setup would be 18 points per action. Currently, the maximum boost is 42 + 21 + 21 = 84 points. The bonus-points boost is reapplied at the end of the race, using a different formula that yields similar results.

Position points
At the very end of the race, points are given based on the player's level and finishing position, along with another helping of the bonus-points boost. Nintendo gives the position points formula as:


 * Base position points
 * × position bonus
 * + driver's bonus-points boost
 * + kart's bonus-points boost
 * + glider's bonus-points boost

Base position points
The base points the player earns for finishing 1st are called base position points. These range from 2000 to 6000, depending on player level and engine class:

Position multiplier
When finishing in a rank other than 1st, a simple multiplier is applied to the base position points, with diminishing returns for lower ranks:


 * 1st: x1.00
 * 2nd: x0.85
 * 3rd: x0.75
 * 4th: x0.65
 * 5th: x0.55
 * 6th: x0.45
 * 7th: x0.35
 * 8th: x0.20

Bonus-points boost
The driver, kart, and glider each apply their bonus-points boost again at the end of the race. The formula is largely unchanged, but two extra steps are added:


 * Item base points
 * × (item level - 1)
 * × number of actions (capped at 200)
 * × (cc / 30,000)
 * × position multiplier

Since the same boost is applied to each action during the race (assuming a 1st-place finish), this will be roughly equal to the bonus-points boost earned throughout the race, although it tends to be slightly less due to the favorable rounding on individual actions' boosts.