Manual drift

The drift is a basic driving mechanic in Mario Kart Wii. This article describes mechanics and techniques exclusive to the manual drift type, which is used for the majority of TASes. The other drift type, automatic drift, follows different mechanics for drifting.

Overview

Internally, a drift is started by landing on the ground with the drift button active, if at least one directional input was pressed in the air. In practice, drifts can be started from the ground, by performing a hop first and pressing a directional input at any point during airtime; or in the air, by pressing B while holding A and a direction before landing. Additionally, IV must be strictly greater than 55% of max base speed to start a drift. If IV is exactly equal to 55% of max base speed, the drift is not started, but on outside-drifting vehicles only, a turning bonus is applied on that frame, as if a drift had been started.

Drifting allows the vehicle to turn much more sharply than regular turning, and without any IV loss. Continuing the drift for a long enough time charges a miniturbo, triggering a boost as the drift ends. For this reason, drifting and charging a miniturbo is the optimal method for taking the vast majority of turns across every track in the no glitch category.

Vehicles can be divided into two categories depending on their drift type. All karts and half of the bikes are outside-drift vehicles; during a drift, the vehicle rotates to face up to 45° away from the IV vector, and drifting ability is reduced until the 45° offset is reached. The other bikes are inside-drift vehicles; the facing direction is always the same as the direction of IV and there is no delay in drifting. They also gain much more roll rotation while drifting than outside-drift bikes (karts do not gain any roll). Inside-drift bikes are able to take turns by drifting more efficiently than outside-drift vehicles in general. The drift stat controls the tightness of the drift.

Techniques

Softdrift

The tightness of a drift can be controlled with horizontal stick inputs, which also determine the charge rate of the miniturbo. During a right drift, inputs from +3 to +7 charge the miniturbo equally quickly, whereas countersteer inputs from -7 to +2 charge the miniturbo more slowly. (For left drifts, the same is true with opposite signs.) Turning with a ±3 input in the direction of the drift, known as a soft drift, gives a much wider line without delaying the miniturbo charge compared to turning with ±7 inputs (known as a hard drift).

For very wide turns, optimizing softdrifts may involve minimizing the number of necessary countersteer inputs for a given line. This is particularly true for karts during snaking.

Slipdrift

The term slipdrift refers to any drift started in the air, without a hop, by pressing B + direction while holding A before landing. The term is also sometimes improperly used for chain drifts (see below).

Slipdrifts skip the airtime that comes from hopping before starting a drift. The miniturbo charge does not progress during hop airtime, which makes slipdrifts very useful for bikes to spend less time below wheelie speed. However, slipdrifts require getting at least 1 frame of airtime, making them situational. On top of this, slipdrifts cause the vehicle to take a much wider line at the start of the drift; this is particularly noticeable on outside-drift vehicles, since it takes longer for the facing direction to fully turn away from IV.

Performing a slipdrift, then immediately ending the drift to start a wheelie, is known as a slipchain.

Wheelie lock

Performing a slipdrift requires pressing both B and a directional input. Holding B without committing to a directional input when landing causes a state known as wheelie lock (or drift lock, drift storage). In this state, the vehicle is not able to hop or drift, until either the B button is released and pressed again, or it goes airborne again and begins a slipdrift using a directional input. Wheelie locks can be useful RTA to make inputting slipdrifts easier, but are not useful for TASing.

Chain drift

Performing a grounded hop and starting a drift immediately after ending a drift is known as chain drifting. Inside-drift bikes gain a lot of roll rotation by drifting, which makes it easy to perform grounded hops. Some large outside-drift bikes are also able to chain drift, but it is less consistent because of the decreased roll rotation. Karts generally cannot perform chain drifts.

Chain drifts allow vehicles to start a second drift without getting any airtime from the hop. This makes them very useful to quickly charge miniturbos through long turns, as on SNES Mario Circuit 3 NG 3lap. Chain drifts rely on the ability to get a grounded hop, which may be difficult on terrain that isn't flat; adding a wheelie between the drifts and increasing roll rotation helps with consistency.

Delay drift

After hopping, it is possible to commit to a drift direction from the second hop frame onwards, causing the vehicle to start rotating in that direction in the air. Delaying the drift commit input by holding neutral first allows the vehicle to land with less rotation, taking a wider line during the drift.

Delay drifting is less useful overall in TAS than RTA, due to quickhops allowing inside-drift bikes to quickly rotate in the opposite direction after a drift with no speed loss. Partial delay drifts (as in, only waiting a few frames) is quite common for turns that are slightly too shallow for the bike's drift; whether it is better to delay drift and drift with ±7, or simply softdrift, is highly situational and should always be tested. Fully delayed drifts are occasionally useful to start drifting with as little rotation as possible.

Spindrift

Bikes retain the ability to lean during a hop after committing to a drift, giving them the ability to spinhop by leaning in the opposite direction of the drift commit. Performing a drift after a spinhop is known as a spindrift.

Spindrifts allow bikes to drift with a tighter line upon landing initially. However, the more leaning in the opposite direction, the more the bike moves away from the corner during the hop, and the less rotation it will have later in the drift. "Full" spindrifts are typically used for turns where taking the initial part tighter is much more significant than keeping a tighter angle throughout. This is particularly common for vehicles with a low drift stat, such as the Spear.

It is more common to only spin for a few frames during the hop. This can still result in a notable difference in the initial rotation, without compromising the final line as much. Inputs for maximal rotation are as follows: commit to a right drift (+7), 3 frames -7, 1 frame 0, hold +7; alternatively, commit to a right drift (+7), 5 frames 0, hold +7. The first input sequence grants the best landing rotation, the second keeps a slightly more direct line during the hop.

Reo drift

A Reo drift consists of starting a normal drift in some direction, getting a landing bounce, and using it to initiate a slipdrift in the opposite direction. Using a spinhop to start the initial drift allows the second drift to start with even less rotation than a delay drift would allow. However, Reo drifts cause the bike to stay below wheelie speed for longer than usual, so it is almost always better to change the approach into the turn than to perform a Reo drift.

Two examples where Reo drifts are optimal are on the 3rd turn of lap 1 on SNES Ghost Valley 2 NG 3lap, and 1st turn on laps 2 and 3 on N64 Sherbet Land NG 3lap; in both cases, Reo drifts are useful to gain rotation in the opposite direction before drifting, and no other approach is possible.

It is possible for some inside-drifting bikes to chain Reo drifts indefinitely on flat ground, as starting a drift and leaning in the opposite direction will consistently give airtime on these bikes.

TF physics

External velocity from leaning always causes bikes to move perpendicular to their facing direction. If the bike has a large amount of roll rotation, the direction of EV points partially up or down, so EV can have an effect on the bike's vertical movement as well as lateral.

The most common application of TF physics is drifting with an inside-drift bike to gain roll rotation, then leaning in the air. During a right drift, the bike is tilted clockwise; leaning left causes TF physics to increase airtime, while leaning right has the opposite effect of lowering airtime. Drifting to the left tilts the bike counter-clockwise, with left and right having the opposite effect.

The effect of TF physics is proportional to the bike's roll rotation. TF physics are most noticeable while drifting, but apply whenever the bike has any amount of roll rotation. For example, TF physics affect airtime during side trick abuse with stunt tricks; drift tricks are faster due to TF physics lowering airtime; spinhops can lower or increase hop airtime due to TF physics, especially if performed on a curb; wallclips benefit from TF physics to gain additional height, if applicable.

It is worth noting that TF physics apply to automatic drift, too; they are responsible for auto hops, for example.

Rapid fire hops

Main article: Rapid fire hop abuse

Hopping at a concave slope change will often result in zero airtime. Hops do not update the vehicle's facing angle until 2 frames after the hop; thus, if the player hops every other frame, the vehicle will retain the initial angle from before the slope change and will continue to get grounded hops while moving along the new slope. This is generally known as rapid fire hopping (RFH), and enables many other physics exploits through RFH abuse.