How to get Gold Tires in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

There’s no better way to stunt on your rivals in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (MK8D) than to leave gold tracks wherever you drive. Not only are they going to look stunning, but they’re essential to putting together the Gold Kart build.

Here’s how to unlock the Gold Tires in MK8D.

How to earn Gold Tires in MK8D

You need to beat the times of all 32 staff ghosts in MK8D to unlock the gold tires. The staff ghosts are time trials completed by the developers of the game, so they know the ins and outs of every track. 

The 32 staff ghosts are contained within the eight cups that came with the base game of the original Mario Kart 8, and they go as follows: Mushroom, Flower, Star, Special, Shell, Banana, Leaf, and Lightning.

You don’t necessarily need to challenge the staff ghosts to a race in order to beat them, you simply have to beat the ghosts’ times on Time Trial mode in either 150cc or 200cc. The staff ghosts will have “Nin” at the beginning of their tag to signify that they come from Nintendo.

The best approach to beating the staff ghosts is to watch them play through the course to observe how tight they make their turns and whether they take any shortcuts. Even better, you can download the ghosts of real players who’ve dominated those tracks to see how other people have beaten the staff ghosts.

Be sure to keep a close eye on builds the staff ghosts and other racers use and try to replicate them if you’re still having trouble. Staff ghosts typically use karts that cater to the course that they hail from, so sometimes it might be your build that’s holding you back, rather than your driving.

How to unlock the rest of the Gold Kart in MK8D

Once you unlock the Gold Tires, you are a third of the way to completing the Gold Kart build. To get the Gold Kart body, you simply have to place first on every cup in 150cc and Mirror Mode. You don’t need to get the top score of 60 points in every Grand Prix—all you need is to place first in order to earn at least a one star rating.

And lastly, to unlock the Gold Glider, you need to earn 5,000 coins in your game file. You earn coins by picking them up during your races, so just keep playing and you’ll be able to unlock them naturally. 5,000 is plenty of coins, but compared to the base game when you had to earn 10,000, this is much more manageable.

And that’s everything you need to unlock the Gold Tires and the rest of the build in MK8D. Now you look cartoonishly rich and can flaunt your wealth to the common class. Congrats on entering the one percent.