Mario Kart World: Best Character & Vehicle Combo | Fastest Racer Meta

Mario Kart World has a hidden stats system that makes certain combinations of characters and vehicles better than others — there are hidden factors in every vehicle and character that change just a tiny factor in how they play. Some vehicles might drive better in off-road conditions, or in water, and some characters are heavier than others, giving you higher top-speed over lighter characters but less acceleration. It’s a complicated system that’s only been revealed through meticulous testing and dozens of hours of gameplay, and it’s also basically discovered the current best all-around pick for fastest racer in Mario Kart World.

Before we get into the details, you might want to check out more secrets and guides in Mario Kart World. Learn how to unlock characters or farm coins for new vehicles with our unlockables guides. You can also unlock a secret Mirror Mode engine class that flips the world, giving you an entirely new way to play.

Best Meta Combo

As of this writing, the best meta combos in Mario Kart World are essentially heavy characters paired with light vehicles. Heavy characters have higher top speeds while lighter vehicles have better acceleration. While most players will be able to play with literally any combo based on preference, if you want the best possible chances at success, you might want to pick the easiest combo that pairs high speed with a vehicle that goes faster on standard streets.

• Best Meta Combo: Wario + Baby Blooper

Wario is the second fastest character in MKW and the Baby Blooper vehicle has the best top speed on asphalt streets. Streets are the most common surface you’ll be driving on in Mario Kart World, so for most situations the Wario + Baby Blooper combo is your best solution for speed and acceleration.

More Meta Combos

Let’s do a breakdown of other strong combos and why they’re so good.

• Fastest On Normal Roads: Wario + Baby Blooper
• Highest Top Speed: Bowser + Heavy Reel Racer
• High Speed On Dirt Roads: Toadette + Loco Moto

And there’s more. Luigi + Hot Rod is another strong contender for best speed and acceleration / maneuverability combo.

Like any of these, the differences are extremely small — it’s still your skill and random item drop chances that determine how well you’re doing in races. Pulling off complex wall-driving tricks is one way to get an advantage in races, but these simple metas will give a slight edge over kart racers that aren’t as carefully optimized. It might not make a difference, but that’s the nature of meta-gaming. We don’t know all the hidden stats yet, and until the game is datamined for all that juicy hidden stat data, all we can rely on are tests and attempts to understand the barely-there differences between racers.