This Is The Best Mario Kart 8 Build, According To Math
You ever play Mario Kart 8 and get absolutely dusted by your friends? Maybe, after losing all four races in a single cup, you take your build back to the garage, tinkering with the stats in an effort to create the fastest racer your friend group has ever seen. Well, science has now given us the tools to find the most optimal Mario Kart 8 build, and the speediest racer of them all might surprise you if you aren’t already a competitive karter.
Data scientist Antoine Mayerowitz released a beautifully presented bit of research on which Mario Kart 8 build would dominate the racetrack. The research is extensive, as it whittles down the game’s 703,560 possible builds to just 14 through a process of elimination and by employing the Pareto Frontier, a set of solutions devised by 19th-century French math guy Vilfredo Pareto that looks for the best trade-off between all the objective functions. In Mario Kart 8's case, the “objective” is to win and the “functions” include things like acceleration and speed.
So, then, if we focus on those two points—top speed and acceleration—who’s the fastest racer in Mario Kart 8? Mayerowitz says Bowser and Wario are speed demons, but their heavier stature makes it difficult for them to accelerate. Cat Peach, Diddy Kong, female Villager, and Inkling Girl all sit in the middle of the two points. Meanwhile, Baby Mario, Baby Peach, Baby Rosalina, and Toadette got the giddy-up when it comes to acceleration, but they lack a bit in terms of speed. Of course, there are other factors that determine the best build, including how you outfit your car. The chassis, glider, and tires, along with the racer, all contribute to the overall weight, so if you really want to create the best build, you need to think about these elements, too.
According to Mayerowitz’s research, the best Mario Kart 8 build and the one favored by pro players is comprised of Peach, the Teddy Buggy, Roller Tires, and the Cloud Glider. This gives you the most optimization when it comes to acceleration, handling, speed, offroad functionality, weight, and mini turbo (the speed boost you get after drifting). Peach is equivalent to Birdo, Daisy, Peachette, and Yoshi, though, so if you swap out the Mushroom Princess for any of those four characters, you should get the same results. That may be great for you but sucks for me, because my main is black Shy Guy, which has more acceleration but less speed than Peach. Maybe I can compensate somehow.
Kotaku has reached out to Mayerowitz for comment.
Anyway, it’s fascinating research that I can’t wait to put to use. I’m over my friends smoking me like meat on the grill. It’s time I won for a change, though hopefully, with Mayerowitz’s data, I’ll figure out how to get Shy Guy on the first-place podium spot.
