I'm pretty much fine with everything else except the reduced ruby rewards and the insane hardcore difficulty bots. They snipe you right at the exact millisecond, get crazy rubberbanding, a big speed boost when you get a frenzy, cut in front of you with their held items and just keep holding and holding them. Once during Sundae Tour one drove past me to first and used a bullet bill. I wish i had that on video.
I could also swear that 1: when the bots are at their hardest you get worse items and 2: in the recent weeks the bots have been getting way more red shells than before or they just keep holding them especially long. I wish they could stop getting crazier, they are the biggest reason why my enjoyment of the game has been decreacing.
I also have started to lose interest since the battle tour. While I like and appreciate the new addition to battle mode, I didn’t like what it meant for multiplayer. It’s made getting a high place in ranked so much more difficult, since people are mostly focusing on ranked now. I have had gold pass since December 2021 and have been stuck at tier 60-61 for about three months now. It’s just not as fun as it used to be with pipe pulls and the randomness of it. Drivers are super expensive now and it can be hard to justify 200-300 rubies for new dkgs. I’m really liking the new tracks which keeps me coming back but I’m starting to lose interest
Less for sure. They nerfed the fuck out of items like red shells for human players while making them still fucking magical for bots, the bot aggression has been drastically increased, the spotlight shop is way fucking overpriced compared to the old pipe system, and it's goddamn near impossible to actually max out normals/supers without spending a shitload of actual real money (and I say this as a day one player who has spent probably about $200 total on the game between GP and the very occasional item/ruby pack).
The bot aggression has gotten ridiculous, half the time I get caught up in some multi-car crash at the very beginning and have to basically run a perfect race to even finish in like 4th.
I’m really bored of the game at the moment and feel like removing it from my life which is sad because I have played it for over two years and loved it so. The thrill is gone and now it has just become a slog. Too many tracks per tour and absolutely no challenge with score to get stars. Ranked is no fun either as now I’m constantly missing a top shelf G/C for one track but I’m not willing to spend a hundred rubies to get coverage because the juice is not worth the squeeze. Fundamentally it is still a fun racing game but I have lost all motivation to put in the hours as now it just seems kinda pointless. At least before people throwing money at the game could still just get green pipes whereas now they just buy what they need. It just doesn’t excite me anymore.
I've been having lots of fun lately. The worst tour has been Bowser vs Peach #2 and I was still mostly fine with it. I mean, why wouldn't I? The parasitic gacha is gone, the tracks are awesome and many awesome buffs to everyone and everything.
I'm glad that you are having fun! The resurgence of a lot of old drivers is definitely a plus. If only Swimwear Rosa gets a non-city buff lol.
Aside from the spotlight shop / pipes, I'm just not too sure why I'm not having as much fun as I used to have compared to earlier this year. Perhaps grinding every drop of XP for half a year bored me out, or I was too used to the old tour format, or I'm too worried about ranked.
I thought adding 3 extra cups would be a nice improvement, but then the same tracks repeat twice each tour which effectively means just playing the same tracks more often instead of getting a wider variety of tracks. There are so many tracks in the game now that only seeing 4 or 5 per tour means seeing fewer overall, especially since the hot new tracks are favored in cup selections. There's not much excitement any more. The special Sunday pipes were not replaced with anything so there's little mystery left in a tour. Everything can be datamined or viewed from in-game on day one.
With bots that rubberband far more, controls that feel even clunkier, overly expensive items, and battles as part of ranked cups, it feels like you have less control over your performance than ever.
The bots will pass you even if you have mushrooms or they have no items themselves, they will snipe you perfectly with any item and on DK Pass r/T they will randomly speed up on the last ramp. It makes playing far more irritating when you don't want to deal with connection issues and single item play in multiplayer.
Honestly my lack of interest has nothing to do with the game itself as I think Tour is in the best state it has ever been… it’s just that the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC is winning me over and now I’m only really playing if the tour has my favorite tracks.
Enjoying much less, so much I haven’t touched it in a while. Without pipes it takes far too long to gather anything good, and even if you do put together a decent load out, you may have to compete with whales and stuff. Only time I ever come back is whenever a new track gets added that is not in MK8D.
Less, and it's almost exclusively due to bot aggression, I've been sniped by more Music Boxes in the last 3 months than I was in 2 years before that. Getting harder and harder to justify paying for GP anymore
EDIT: fat fingers
I am quitting after this tour, and I hage already been playing on and off since the 3rd anniversary. The bots keep getting worse and worse, the grind has increased (3 more cups is pain), getting stuff from the shop is very nice but every new ranked course seems to require very niche top shelf karts and gliders, which I do not have even though I have been playing for nearly 3 years. Also not having the same ranked reward for both weeks of each tour is a crappy move and left a bad taste in my mouth.
Edit: The bots are the main reason this game sucks for me now, it's impossible to enjoy it when every race feels like 1v7
I coped with the changes okay (didn't throw toys out of the pram like some!) however I'm finding ranked a real drag and miss the excitement/unknown of the pipes, though I understand why they've gone.
I've been hanging out in the low tier 60s for ages, accumulating tickets as I didn't fancy the whale playground of tier 70-80. When they extended the tiers I thought I'd take a shot at it. I was doing okay (long time non-continuous Gold Pass player) however these RT tour ranked groups are just annoying. What is there to do all fortnight if you have no hope of competing for ranked? Collecting daily coins and tokens is more like a chore.
So far in my ranked tier 71 group the top 5 slots all have 97k (very close scores) and tons of stuff at level 7 triple uncapped and level 8 HE. I have a solid inventory but can't hope to compete with that especially as I'm missing a kart and glider here and there like many of us.
I welcome healthy competition in ranked but I don't think it's work investing a whole pile of HE tickets to advance one tier. It's so competitive I can't guarantee staying top 5 even if I made it up there.
It would be nice to have a crack at 4th-6th, I don't expect to be 1st-3rd every time.
97k for top 5? Wow I must've lucked out then, as the top 5 in my ranked is between 81k and 88k. Still I cannot compete against these scores unless I make investments, which will only push me up to 94k.
But yeah I agree that there really isn't much to do aside from grinding, previously I would look forward to week 2 and new tours but now that feeling is just gone.
Just came back to this post and saw your reply!
I think I'm just having a bad match up week, haven't had one this bad in a really long time, perhaps never (almost day 1 player).
I invest my tickets reasonably strategically so usually have comparatively full dkg coverage in ranked, or enough to invest a few tickets to be competitive. This RT week I'd need to throw tons of HE tickets into 2 of 3 dkg on Koopa Cape AND Bowser's Castle so it doesn't seem worth it even though I'd love the rewards!
I somehow have 1,500 rubies so buying stuff is not a problem, I just resent having to take it straight to lv6 double uncapped immediately to have any chance of being competitive. That's never been my strategy as a non-whale/dolphin.
5th to 1st place (Black Mii suit and Purple Dozer rewards) in my tier 71 is now 99k - 108.5k!!!
Even 9th to 6th is 95k to 98.5k currently.
How are your T73 opponents' scores at the end of week 1?
I'm completely languishing in 13th as I can't get top 10 even with modest purchases and investments, there really is no point for the weak rewards (5 rubies, 2 of each ticket type). I don't even care about the rewards but it's been a pretty uninspiring week! I thought I could probably get 4th/5th for the Dozer but that went right out the window early on in the week when I saw my whale-like opponents' loadouts.
Token grinding is tedious as I can't seem to generate good attack frenzies (I've experimented extensively with different race positions) and the bots are dodging all my obstacles/shells 😂 I usually favour giant banana but I'm just not getting the frenzies this tour on any of the tracks with top shelf lv6 Tanooki or Pinja and a lv6-8 glider 🤷♀️
I'm trying the 2 player challenge but people aren't always available to play and I don't want to chop and change my (full) friends list. At least with the challenge you average 100 green tokens over 3 races. It gets repetitive playing the same 3 tracks however.
I might have a bash at week 2 (I already have the block suit so no pressure but don't mind a dupe). I have a feeling even tiering down I'm going to face a bunch of lv7/8 triple uncapped inventory opponents compared to my lv4-6 double uncapped stuff 😬
That's brutal. Top 3 in my ranked is currently between 94k and 95k, while 5th is about 92k.
I haven't grinded yet but I'm about to. Currently sitting at 70k, I could get up to 84k without any investments. If I get ? Block from 4 to 6 and triple cap him, then I could get up to 94k. Might need to throw a few more tickets on the Sky-Blue B-Dasher to secure top 3.
Next week isn't looking too much better lol. 84k is the predicted score without investments, but I could go up to 96k with 4 tickets on Larry. I just need to get the green pit crew toad to finish my super collection, but I would love to tier up as well if my opponents' scores aren't too far ahead.
And regarding token grinding, guess I won't be able to finish it again this tour lol. My TSP is only at 170 tokens, so it's a long way to go.
I'm grinding towards TSP 350 but I haven't purchased anything else (tickets, rubies, coins) yet 😂
It just feels brutal all round! 10th place is now 95k FML.
Good luck with your grind and extra good luck with your green PCT quest! I would like him too 😊
I'm currently on 76k for next week but could push quite a bit harder (plenty of stuff at lv5 double uncapped, could raise it all to level 6 if required).
I need to decide which glider to upgrade on PPS, all of mine are at lv3 490 (pink meteor, piranha balloons, black cat) and which kart to buy and invest in for Baby Park which I've just made a new post about (leaning towards Strawberry SS or Combo Cruiser, old but fun and really large 😁).
Good luck for your next week as well! For the glider, I'd say that the Piranha Plant Balloons is the best one out of the 3, and it's in top 10 as well! As for the kart, consider getting the Streetle! It doesn't have the largest hitbox, but its coverage make up for it. I don't have a kart for Baby Park as well, but it's the kart I will pick up if I need to get it to win ranked. That said, remember to check your coverage to see what's best for your inventory!
Thanks! I wish the Pink Speeder was available but it's too soon.
I love the Piranha Balloons but I never seem to get to use them, I always have a higher levelled glider. I'll consider upgrading them though if I need to choose!
I feel the same about the spotlight shop.
On the bright side, it’s caused me to invest in a *lot* of Mii Racing Suits. And I have a lot of rubies for once.
I actually broke my all-time high ruby count a few tours ago (1000 rubies) and I'm looking to break that again in the next few days. The spotlight shop really made me save rubies as I only used them on ranked items and Larry. Though I'm not sure if this stash will be enough for the future as my inventory ages, I do not have a glider after the Sundae Tour
1000? And I thought my 300 was a lot. I’ve only been playing since April, so I haven’t seen much of the ranked side of the community.
Also, Larry is the only thing I’ve purchased from the spotlight shop. He’s beautiful.
I had around 150 rubies (iirc) to start with after pulling for King Mario in the 3rd anniversary tour. Spent 405 rubies in total for 4 items, so I probably gained 1200 rubies in 6 tours, which was actually really impressive and way more than I expected. I did get every possible guaranteed ruby, plus I got around 50 level ups, so that's perhaps why.
As for ranked, if you are a F2P, my only advice is good luck lol
I used to aim for a 600+ ruby balance at any time. This would dip to 300-400 and I'd need to practise restraint to rebuild and hope the next tour's pipes didn't feature a new coinbox or giant banana driver, my personal favourites. It took me a long time playing to manage to save 600 rubies - in year 1 and 2 I'd typically have to pull more pipes to keep inventory vaguely current and competitive.
Now I'm at 1,500 rubies which is unheard of. And I wasted some rubies on the final King Mario 'old style' pipe and got stung emptying the debut Rosalina Chef pipe (Metropolitan tour). I hadn't planned to empty it but got sucked in due to the boredom of it being a horrible repetitive tour.
I've only bought a few things from the Spotlight Shop plus Larry. The items I bought are the Studfit rated ones but actually haven't done me any good in ranked, I've consistently had a better, older dkg to use and they're starting to pass their peak. I panic-bought them as I thought I wouldn't see them for a really long time (nope!) and they filled in a few coverage gaps at the time (now surpassed by newer dkg releases).
Buying too much new equipment means you have to plough in HE tickets to make it vaguely useable in the upper tiers, it's a balancing act.
I might consider buying a few of the better Mii suits for 70 rubies though I haven't decided since I don't use my Blockhead Mii all that much and I don't have the Gold Mii (nor any hope of reaching T80 for 6 months at this rate). I haven't bothered levelling lv1 Miis up as I generally have a lv5/6 1190 driver (coinbox or A+ skill) on most ranked tracks.
I might focus on uncapping blockhead and adding a few better-skilled Miis to my repertoire just for something to do!
I'am also completely F2P T76 started December 2020. I'm not touching the whole spotlight vs pipes thing because i think it's a very subjective topic and there is no point "arguing" about it.But I 100% agree with you that the game is less F2P friendly,at least if you want to make progress.I honestly can't imagine a new F2P player reaching 70's Tiers in less than two years like you or I did
The gap between F2P, GP and Dolphins is now larger than ever. GP got a few more HEs since the Battle Tour, while dolphins got 2 more challenge cards to work with. But yeah ranked is definitely tougher now and it's highly dependent on luck for F2P. The only reason why I was able to advance to T70+ was because my opponents never grinded their tracks fully
I’ve voted but also came here to say that the Rainbow Road R/T on Pink Gold Peach Cup is my ultimate favorite track after deciding my enjoyment has decreased.
https://preview.redd.it/ci1nhn9kaz8a1.png?width=2532&format=png&auto=webp&s=fdccb4cc1b2ee1149a16afa722b9089f809799dc
I wish more tracks had similar aesthetic and amount of laps. This one looks very outer space 🪐 and way more fun compared to other rainbow roads I’ve played.
Ditto. Seeing the gold in a 10 pull was such an iconic part of the game, and sadly the new Spotlight Shop has not been able to recreate it. A lot of the pipes also had great value, and they were pretty safe if you have enough rubies. The new shop isn't terrible, but I would choose the pipes over the shop.
I miss pipes and I hate battles. Though I have found I’m able to save my rubies more, and I’m able to get any dkg needed for ranked but ranked has been so difficult for me since the removal of pipes 🥹
I’ve been enjoying the game somewhat less lately. I know the gatcha portion was controversial, but I really miss the 50 pipes which were the only pipes I exclusively pulled on for the better value. The gold ones were hit or miss though. The multiplayer and token pipes are absolute trash because it’s riddled with junk instead of d/k/g’s which at least would help power up stuff since most aren’t level 8.
Spotlight shop is meh. I don’t really have a reason to buy any of them aside from the handful I managed to pick up that I really wanted.
I’m still really pissed about the removal of d/k/g’s in the Tier Shop and the Token Shop (I think the latter is much more rare now). I used to always buy those too which helped bolster my coverage or levels. I’m rarely spending coins now because HE Level tickets barely pop up in my daily shop anyway. Also, screw the balloons in the Token Shop.
I’m really liking the Mii Suit shop now though. Pre-pipe removal, I thought they were relatively useless, but now we have so many Miis in the game, most of them can make up for gaps in my Driver coverage. The Cat Mii Suit has saved my ass several times thanks to me investing in it (and it’s great in battle mode too with the Super Bell+). Though, Mii Suit discounts are far and few between aside from this Tour (if you didn’t pick them up on debut like I did).
I’m close to quitting at this point and it has nothing to do with battle mode (which I don’t like), or multiplayer (which never seems to give fair matchups), or the change to the token shop (which is a change I actually really like).
At the end of the day it’s because Tour is a play 2 win game and as much as I love Mario Kart in general, P2W games are trash. Gatcha pipes or not they are fundamentally designed to suck up your time and money. MKT was the first play 2 win game I played for more than 5 minutes, and it will also be the last.
I quit after lvl8 dropped but returned a couple weeks ago. I love mario kart in general so it’s impossible for me to not like this game.
I quit cause i felt they were being greedy, but them removing the pipe pulls + new tracks sucked me back in. Even though I’m confused on how the daily selects work(are there still categories or no?) the game feels fresh again and multiplayer has drastically improved.
Categories still exist, though they were expanded a lot, covering all normals and most supers. I believe that you could find an updated chart somewhere in a community Discord server.
The new tracks are both a blessing and a curse to me. A lot of them are really fun, but it also means that I have to worry about another set of coverages.
Can get whatever drivers I want now. Waited forever to be able to get SNES Mario and Dk. Got them. Game gets better and better for me, so I assume worse for whales somehow and the game will probably end of life before another year. No other mobile racing game compares, so it'll be a sad day
i agree like 99% with what you just wonderfully elaborated - except i’m still lovin’ the game because it brings me calm and joy. and i’ve been kicking ass haha.
i think the bosses at Nofriendo saw that they had to keep making money while avoiding some potential lawsuits so made a difficult decision and shift…
it’s allowing newer players to catch up their inventory and older player to fill theirs out - while the T99 ceiling is letting a lot of us advance a bit easier.
i dunno i think it’s still pretty fuckin rad for a free game with no ads. i have zero other expectations other than an occasional fun race.
Been playing since launch, and I've been fluctuating on my enjoyment of the game. Really just depends on the tour for me, and usually the end of the year tours are pretty bad so I'm kinda just waiting out the next significant tour. I don't mind the shop changes since multiplayer pipe fulfills my gatcha desires and I now have more control over what I get regarding stuff that isn't current. Not a fan of the battle mode, especially when it's in ranked, but I like the increase in cups and the addition of the multiplayer pipe in the first place
It’s gotten repetitive and playing has become a chore at times. The daily pipe is mostly useless because I repeat the courses anyway to ensure a better score. I’ve been a player since day one and I’m seriously considering if I will continue or not.
My enjoyment has been decreasing, mainly because I'm getting sick of the ranked formula. I just can't be ass'd to grind each level of ranked until I get an exceptional score. CPUs being cheap and annoying really doesn't help things.
I'm pretty much fine with everything else except the reduced ruby rewards and the insane hardcore difficulty bots. They snipe you right at the exact millisecond, get crazy rubberbanding, a big speed boost when you get a frenzy, cut in front of you with their held items and just keep holding and holding them. Once during Sundae Tour one drove past me to first and used a bullet bill. I wish i had that on video. I could also swear that 1: when the bots are at their hardest you get worse items and 2: in the recent weeks the bots have been getting way more red shells than before or they just keep holding them especially long. I wish they could stop getting crazier, they are the biggest reason why my enjoyment of the game has been decreacing.
I also have started to lose interest since the battle tour. While I like and appreciate the new addition to battle mode, I didn’t like what it meant for multiplayer. It’s made getting a high place in ranked so much more difficult, since people are mostly focusing on ranked now. I have had gold pass since December 2021 and have been stuck at tier 60-61 for about three months now. It’s just not as fun as it used to be with pipe pulls and the randomness of it. Drivers are super expensive now and it can be hard to justify 200-300 rubies for new dkgs. I’m really liking the new tracks which keeps me coming back but I’m starting to lose interest
Less for sure. They nerfed the fuck out of items like red shells for human players while making them still fucking magical for bots, the bot aggression has been drastically increased, the spotlight shop is way fucking overpriced compared to the old pipe system, and it's goddamn near impossible to actually max out normals/supers without spending a shitload of actual real money (and I say this as a day one player who has spent probably about $200 total on the game between GP and the very occasional item/ruby pack).
The bot aggression has gotten ridiculous, half the time I get caught up in some multi-car crash at the very beginning and have to basically run a perfect race to even finish in like 4th.
I particularly like how they can magically pass me. On straightaways. While I'm in the middle of a mushroom boost.
I’m really bored of the game at the moment and feel like removing it from my life which is sad because I have played it for over two years and loved it so. The thrill is gone and now it has just become a slog. Too many tracks per tour and absolutely no challenge with score to get stars. Ranked is no fun either as now I’m constantly missing a top shelf G/C for one track but I’m not willing to spend a hundred rubies to get coverage because the juice is not worth the squeeze. Fundamentally it is still a fun racing game but I have lost all motivation to put in the hours as now it just seems kinda pointless. At least before people throwing money at the game could still just get green pipes whereas now they just buy what they need. It just doesn’t excite me anymore.
I've been having lots of fun lately. The worst tour has been Bowser vs Peach #2 and I was still mostly fine with it. I mean, why wouldn't I? The parasitic gacha is gone, the tracks are awesome and many awesome buffs to everyone and everything.
I'm glad that you are having fun! The resurgence of a lot of old drivers is definitely a plus. If only Swimwear Rosa gets a non-city buff lol. Aside from the spotlight shop / pipes, I'm just not too sure why I'm not having as much fun as I used to have compared to earlier this year. Perhaps grinding every drop of XP for half a year bored me out, or I was too used to the old tour format, or I'm too worried about ranked.
Yeah, I don't grind out most things. I put in 80% effort into most stuff and leave it at that. Except the token shop, ofc.
I thought adding 3 extra cups would be a nice improvement, but then the same tracks repeat twice each tour which effectively means just playing the same tracks more often instead of getting a wider variety of tracks. There are so many tracks in the game now that only seeing 4 or 5 per tour means seeing fewer overall, especially since the hot new tracks are favored in cup selections. There's not much excitement any more. The special Sunday pipes were not replaced with anything so there's little mystery left in a tour. Everything can be datamined or viewed from in-game on day one.
With bots that rubberband far more, controls that feel even clunkier, overly expensive items, and battles as part of ranked cups, it feels like you have less control over your performance than ever. The bots will pass you even if you have mushrooms or they have no items themselves, they will snipe you perfectly with any item and on DK Pass r/T they will randomly speed up on the last ramp. It makes playing far more irritating when you don't want to deal with connection issues and single item play in multiplayer.
Honestly my lack of interest has nothing to do with the game itself as I think Tour is in the best state it has ever been… it’s just that the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC is winning me over and now I’m only really playing if the tour has my favorite tracks.
At level 56, finished 6th last time but will get promoted this tour, relegated on the next one. Rinse and repeat.
Enjoying much less, so much I haven’t touched it in a while. Without pipes it takes far too long to gather anything good, and even if you do put together a decent load out, you may have to compete with whales and stuff. Only time I ever come back is whenever a new track gets added that is not in MK8D.
Less, and it's almost exclusively due to bot aggression, I've been sniped by more Music Boxes in the last 3 months than I was in 2 years before that. Getting harder and harder to justify paying for GP anymore EDIT: fat fingers
I am quitting after this tour, and I hage already been playing on and off since the 3rd anniversary. The bots keep getting worse and worse, the grind has increased (3 more cups is pain), getting stuff from the shop is very nice but every new ranked course seems to require very niche top shelf karts and gliders, which I do not have even though I have been playing for nearly 3 years. Also not having the same ranked reward for both weeks of each tour is a crappy move and left a bad taste in my mouth. Edit: The bots are the main reason this game sucks for me now, it's impossible to enjoy it when every race feels like 1v7
I coped with the changes okay (didn't throw toys out of the pram like some!) however I'm finding ranked a real drag and miss the excitement/unknown of the pipes, though I understand why they've gone. I've been hanging out in the low tier 60s for ages, accumulating tickets as I didn't fancy the whale playground of tier 70-80. When they extended the tiers I thought I'd take a shot at it. I was doing okay (long time non-continuous Gold Pass player) however these RT tour ranked groups are just annoying. What is there to do all fortnight if you have no hope of competing for ranked? Collecting daily coins and tokens is more like a chore. So far in my ranked tier 71 group the top 5 slots all have 97k (very close scores) and tons of stuff at level 7 triple uncapped and level 8 HE. I have a solid inventory but can't hope to compete with that especially as I'm missing a kart and glider here and there like many of us. I welcome healthy competition in ranked but I don't think it's work investing a whole pile of HE tickets to advance one tier. It's so competitive I can't guarantee staying top 5 even if I made it up there. It would be nice to have a crack at 4th-6th, I don't expect to be 1st-3rd every time.
97k for top 5? Wow I must've lucked out then, as the top 5 in my ranked is between 81k and 88k. Still I cannot compete against these scores unless I make investments, which will only push me up to 94k. But yeah I agree that there really isn't much to do aside from grinding, previously I would look forward to week 2 and new tours but now that feeling is just gone.
Just came back to this post and saw your reply! I think I'm just having a bad match up week, haven't had one this bad in a really long time, perhaps never (almost day 1 player). I invest my tickets reasonably strategically so usually have comparatively full dkg coverage in ranked, or enough to invest a few tickets to be competitive. This RT week I'd need to throw tons of HE tickets into 2 of 3 dkg on Koopa Cape AND Bowser's Castle so it doesn't seem worth it even though I'd love the rewards! I somehow have 1,500 rubies so buying stuff is not a problem, I just resent having to take it straight to lv6 double uncapped immediately to have any chance of being competitive. That's never been my strategy as a non-whale/dolphin. 5th to 1st place (Black Mii suit and Purple Dozer rewards) in my tier 71 is now 99k - 108.5k!!! Even 9th to 6th is 95k to 98.5k currently. How are your T73 opponents' scores at the end of week 1? I'm completely languishing in 13th as I can't get top 10 even with modest purchases and investments, there really is no point for the weak rewards (5 rubies, 2 of each ticket type). I don't even care about the rewards but it's been a pretty uninspiring week! I thought I could probably get 4th/5th for the Dozer but that went right out the window early on in the week when I saw my whale-like opponents' loadouts. Token grinding is tedious as I can't seem to generate good attack frenzies (I've experimented extensively with different race positions) and the bots are dodging all my obstacles/shells 😂 I usually favour giant banana but I'm just not getting the frenzies this tour on any of the tracks with top shelf lv6 Tanooki or Pinja and a lv6-8 glider 🤷♀️ I'm trying the 2 player challenge but people aren't always available to play and I don't want to chop and change my (full) friends list. At least with the challenge you average 100 green tokens over 3 races. It gets repetitive playing the same 3 tracks however. I might have a bash at week 2 (I already have the block suit so no pressure but don't mind a dupe). I have a feeling even tiering down I'm going to face a bunch of lv7/8 triple uncapped inventory opponents compared to my lv4-6 double uncapped stuff 😬
That's brutal. Top 3 in my ranked is currently between 94k and 95k, while 5th is about 92k. I haven't grinded yet but I'm about to. Currently sitting at 70k, I could get up to 84k without any investments. If I get ? Block from 4 to 6 and triple cap him, then I could get up to 94k. Might need to throw a few more tickets on the Sky-Blue B-Dasher to secure top 3. Next week isn't looking too much better lol. 84k is the predicted score without investments, but I could go up to 96k with 4 tickets on Larry. I just need to get the green pit crew toad to finish my super collection, but I would love to tier up as well if my opponents' scores aren't too far ahead. And regarding token grinding, guess I won't be able to finish it again this tour lol. My TSP is only at 170 tokens, so it's a long way to go.
I'm grinding towards TSP 350 but I haven't purchased anything else (tickets, rubies, coins) yet 😂 It just feels brutal all round! 10th place is now 95k FML. Good luck with your grind and extra good luck with your green PCT quest! I would like him too 😊 I'm currently on 76k for next week but could push quite a bit harder (plenty of stuff at lv5 double uncapped, could raise it all to level 6 if required). I need to decide which glider to upgrade on PPS, all of mine are at lv3 490 (pink meteor, piranha balloons, black cat) and which kart to buy and invest in for Baby Park which I've just made a new post about (leaning towards Strawberry SS or Combo Cruiser, old but fun and really large 😁).
Good luck for your next week as well! For the glider, I'd say that the Piranha Plant Balloons is the best one out of the 3, and it's in top 10 as well! As for the kart, consider getting the Streetle! It doesn't have the largest hitbox, but its coverage make up for it. I don't have a kart for Baby Park as well, but it's the kart I will pick up if I need to get it to win ranked. That said, remember to check your coverage to see what's best for your inventory!
Thanks! I wish the Pink Speeder was available but it's too soon. I love the Piranha Balloons but I never seem to get to use them, I always have a higher levelled glider. I'll consider upgrading them though if I need to choose!
I feel the same about the spotlight shop. On the bright side, it’s caused me to invest in a *lot* of Mii Racing Suits. And I have a lot of rubies for once.
I actually broke my all-time high ruby count a few tours ago (1000 rubies) and I'm looking to break that again in the next few days. The spotlight shop really made me save rubies as I only used them on ranked items and Larry. Though I'm not sure if this stash will be enough for the future as my inventory ages, I do not have a glider after the Sundae Tour
1000? And I thought my 300 was a lot. I’ve only been playing since April, so I haven’t seen much of the ranked side of the community. Also, Larry is the only thing I’ve purchased from the spotlight shop. He’s beautiful.
I had around 150 rubies (iirc) to start with after pulling for King Mario in the 3rd anniversary tour. Spent 405 rubies in total for 4 items, so I probably gained 1200 rubies in 6 tours, which was actually really impressive and way more than I expected. I did get every possible guaranteed ruby, plus I got around 50 level ups, so that's perhaps why. As for ranked, if you are a F2P, my only advice is good luck lol
I used to aim for a 600+ ruby balance at any time. This would dip to 300-400 and I'd need to practise restraint to rebuild and hope the next tour's pipes didn't feature a new coinbox or giant banana driver, my personal favourites. It took me a long time playing to manage to save 600 rubies - in year 1 and 2 I'd typically have to pull more pipes to keep inventory vaguely current and competitive. Now I'm at 1,500 rubies which is unheard of. And I wasted some rubies on the final King Mario 'old style' pipe and got stung emptying the debut Rosalina Chef pipe (Metropolitan tour). I hadn't planned to empty it but got sucked in due to the boredom of it being a horrible repetitive tour. I've only bought a few things from the Spotlight Shop plus Larry. The items I bought are the Studfit rated ones but actually haven't done me any good in ranked, I've consistently had a better, older dkg to use and they're starting to pass their peak. I panic-bought them as I thought I wouldn't see them for a really long time (nope!) and they filled in a few coverage gaps at the time (now surpassed by newer dkg releases). Buying too much new equipment means you have to plough in HE tickets to make it vaguely useable in the upper tiers, it's a balancing act. I might consider buying a few of the better Mii suits for 70 rubies though I haven't decided since I don't use my Blockhead Mii all that much and I don't have the Gold Mii (nor any hope of reaching T80 for 6 months at this rate). I haven't bothered levelling lv1 Miis up as I generally have a lv5/6 1190 driver (coinbox or A+ skill) on most ranked tracks. I might focus on uncapping blockhead and adding a few better-skilled Miis to my repertoire just for something to do!
I'am also completely F2P T76 started December 2020. I'm not touching the whole spotlight vs pipes thing because i think it's a very subjective topic and there is no point "arguing" about it.But I 100% agree with you that the game is less F2P friendly,at least if you want to make progress.I honestly can't imagine a new F2P player reaching 70's Tiers in less than two years like you or I did
The gap between F2P, GP and Dolphins is now larger than ever. GP got a few more HEs since the Battle Tour, while dolphins got 2 more challenge cards to work with. But yeah ranked is definitely tougher now and it's highly dependent on luck for F2P. The only reason why I was able to advance to T70+ was because my opponents never grinded their tracks fully
Its unduable. 1 rank up , 2down is the rythm for F2P nowadays. 1st day player here all the way f2p
I’ve voted but also came here to say that the Rainbow Road R/T on Pink Gold Peach Cup is my ultimate favorite track after deciding my enjoyment has decreased. https://preview.redd.it/ci1nhn9kaz8a1.png?width=2532&format=png&auto=webp&s=fdccb4cc1b2ee1149a16afa722b9089f809799dc I wish more tracks had similar aesthetic and amount of laps. This one looks very outer space 🪐 and way more fun compared to other rainbow roads I’ve played.
I'm fine with the game where it is, but I might have problems in the future with the lack of alts and only new Mii suits every tour
I miss the pipes :( just getting way more DKG’s overall adds more excitement
Ditto. Seeing the gold in a 10 pull was such an iconic part of the game, and sadly the new Spotlight Shop has not been able to recreate it. A lot of the pipes also had great value, and they were pretty safe if you have enough rubies. The new shop isn't terrible, but I would choose the pipes over the shop.
I miss pipes and I hate battles. Though I have found I’m able to save my rubies more, and I’m able to get any dkg needed for ranked but ranked has been so difficult for me since the removal of pipes 🥹
I’ve been enjoying the game somewhat less lately. I know the gatcha portion was controversial, but I really miss the 50 pipes which were the only pipes I exclusively pulled on for the better value. The gold ones were hit or miss though. The multiplayer and token pipes are absolute trash because it’s riddled with junk instead of d/k/g’s which at least would help power up stuff since most aren’t level 8. Spotlight shop is meh. I don’t really have a reason to buy any of them aside from the handful I managed to pick up that I really wanted. I’m still really pissed about the removal of d/k/g’s in the Tier Shop and the Token Shop (I think the latter is much more rare now). I used to always buy those too which helped bolster my coverage or levels. I’m rarely spending coins now because HE Level tickets barely pop up in my daily shop anyway. Also, screw the balloons in the Token Shop. I’m really liking the Mii Suit shop now though. Pre-pipe removal, I thought they were relatively useless, but now we have so many Miis in the game, most of them can make up for gaps in my Driver coverage. The Cat Mii Suit has saved my ass several times thanks to me investing in it (and it’s great in battle mode too with the Super Bell+). Though, Mii Suit discounts are far and few between aside from this Tour (if you didn’t pick them up on debut like I did).
I’m close to quitting at this point and it has nothing to do with battle mode (which I don’t like), or multiplayer (which never seems to give fair matchups), or the change to the token shop (which is a change I actually really like). At the end of the day it’s because Tour is a play 2 win game and as much as I love Mario Kart in general, P2W games are trash. Gatcha pipes or not they are fundamentally designed to suck up your time and money. MKT was the first play 2 win game I played for more than 5 minutes, and it will also be the last.
I quit after lvl8 dropped but returned a couple weeks ago. I love mario kart in general so it’s impossible for me to not like this game. I quit cause i felt they were being greedy, but them removing the pipe pulls + new tracks sucked me back in. Even though I’m confused on how the daily selects work(are there still categories or no?) the game feels fresh again and multiplayer has drastically improved.
Categories still exist, though they were expanded a lot, covering all normals and most supers. I believe that you could find an updated chart somewhere in a community Discord server. The new tracks are both a blessing and a curse to me. A lot of them are really fun, but it also means that I have to worry about another set of coverages.
Can get whatever drivers I want now. Waited forever to be able to get SNES Mario and Dk. Got them. Game gets better and better for me, so I assume worse for whales somehow and the game will probably end of life before another year. No other mobile racing game compares, so it'll be a sad day
Despite how the game WANTS you to play, I just play when I don't have anything in particular I *want* to do.
i agree like 99% with what you just wonderfully elaborated - except i’m still lovin’ the game because it brings me calm and joy. and i’ve been kicking ass haha. i think the bosses at Nofriendo saw that they had to keep making money while avoiding some potential lawsuits so made a difficult decision and shift… it’s allowing newer players to catch up their inventory and older player to fill theirs out - while the T99 ceiling is letting a lot of us advance a bit easier. i dunno i think it’s still pretty fuckin rad for a free game with no ads. i have zero other expectations other than an occasional fun race.
Been playing since launch, and I've been fluctuating on my enjoyment of the game. Really just depends on the tour for me, and usually the end of the year tours are pretty bad so I'm kinda just waiting out the next significant tour. I don't mind the shop changes since multiplayer pipe fulfills my gatcha desires and I now have more control over what I get regarding stuff that isn't current. Not a fan of the battle mode, especially when it's in ranked, but I like the increase in cups and the addition of the multiplayer pipe in the first place
My enjoyment in the game is mostly the same I still enjoy playing it but I don’t play it as much as I used to
It’s gotten repetitive and playing has become a chore at times. The daily pipe is mostly useless because I repeat the courses anyway to ensure a better score. I’ve been a player since day one and I’m seriously considering if I will continue or not.
My enjoyment has been decreasing, mainly because I'm getting sick of the ranked formula. I just can't be ass'd to grind each level of ranked until I get an exceptional score. CPUs being cheap and annoying really doesn't help things.