Automatic drift

Automatic drift is an alternative drift type option available for every vehicle. A few basic mechanics are changed compared to manual, leading to exclusive techniques. While it performs worse than manual in most situations, it is currently the preferred option for a few no glitch and supersliding TASes.

Overview

Holding a horizontal stick input of ±6 or ±7 (from now on called hard inputs) for 12 consecutive frames will initiate a drift, if IV is greater or equal to 55% of max base speed. Holding an input of magnitude ±5 and lower (or soft input) for even one frame will reset this drift timer, or cancel the drift if it's active. On bikes, during a wheelie, 16 frames of consecutive hard inputs automatically cause a wheelie drop.

Compared to manual, automatic has different statistics for handling and drift. Handling is higher for all vehicles; drift is higher for karts and ODBs, but slightly lower for IDBs. Additionally, automatic is able to turn without speed loss, while for manual it causes speed loss (without a boost).

Hops and miniturbos are disabled for automatic. The inability to hop restricts movement options for automatic, and prevents it from performing glitches such as supergrinding and superhopping. Due to the lack of miniturbos, after most drifts, auto bikes have to slowly accelerate up to wheelie speed; for this reason, the best auto bikes are those with a 0.9 T2 acceleration value (the Spear, Sneakster, and Quacker) as they accelerate much quicker at the start of a wheelie.

Overall, the ability to perform hops and miniturbos makes manual superior to automatic. However, automatic has a niche on a couple no glitch tracks, such as DS Peach Gardens and DS Yoshi Falls, due to its improved wheelie turning ability, as well as many supersliding categories due to its drift mechanics and improved handling.

Techniques

Optimal wheelie turning

In a wheelie, 16 consecutive hard inputs cause a wheelie drop; therefore, the pattern for the best wheelie turning is 15 frames of ±7, followed by 1 frame of ±5. Since turning in a wheelie with auto does not lose speed, this pattern does not depend on any statistic and applies to every bike.

Artificial chain wheelie

After forcing a wheelie drop by holding hard inputs for 16 frames, a new wheelie can be started immediately after. This is similar to a chain wheelie due to the unavoidable a 3 u/f speed loss, but unlike a regular chain, it can be performed on command. Artificial chains allow for slightly tighter turning, but they lose time if they cause an additional chain later.

Rewheelies

The rewheelie strat consists in performing several artificial chains in a row, typically out of a drift. Rewheelies allow for much better turning than wheelie turning, but worse than drifting. The average top speed during rewheelies approaches about 3 u/f slower than a normal wheelie, which is much higher than a drift. Rewheelies are usually performed out of a drift, because the bike's acceleration is barely affected during the first 3 rewheelies.

Rewheelies work because of quirks with maximum speed. When starting a wheelie, maximum speed immediately jumps to the new value; when dropping a wheelie, maximum speed decreases back to regular top speed at a rate of 3 u/f^2. Therefore, the bike's IV can still increase during a wheelie drop for a few frames (if its IV is more than 3 u/f below max wheelie speed). This can be exploited after a drift, since IV is much lower than wheelie speed, by repeatedly starting and dropping wheelies, allowing for improved turning while still accelerating up to wheelie speed.

The optimal inputs for rewheelieing to the right are as follows: starting from a drift, 1 frame +5, 1 frame +7, 1 frame +5, 17 frames +7, 1 frame +7 + wheelie, 2 frames +7, 1 frame +5, 16 frames +7, 1 frame +7 + wheelie. This sequence performs 2 rewheelies, which is useful out of most turns. If the bike needs to keep turning in the same direction, looping the last 20 frames allows for additional rewheelies. Typically, 2-4 rewheelies is optimal, depending on the situation.

Rotation conversion

While driving, auto bikes are often subject to big changes in pitch and roll rotation, due to wheelie drops and drifting. This can be exploited for better turning, due to rotation conversion.

• Optimal drift: Optimal inputs (to the right): starting from a wheelie drop, 11 frames +7, 1 frame -6, 1 frame +5, 4 frames +7, 1 frame +5, hold +7. These inputs start a left drift for 1 f, then delay the second drift with a soft input, resulting in better yaw rotation than simply holding +7.
• Auto spindrift: Example inputs: starting from a wheelie drop, 10 frames -2, hold +7. During a wheelie drop, leaning in the opposite direction for a few frames before initiating a drift allows for much greater yaw rotation at the start of the drift, due to the larger shift in roll rotation. This technique is typically done during a boost, as it takes more time to achieve the same yaw than simply holding +7.
• A-tech: Releasing A while decelerating from any boost causes no speed loss, and keeps the bike's pitch rotation from changing as much. When drifting and starting a wheelie out of a boost, the pitch rotation conversion lets the bike turn a little more in the direction of the drift. Not exclusive to auto, but much more powerful; decelerating with high roll is more common, and some manual bikes lose speed during A-tech due to turning speed loss.

Brake drifting

On automatic only, it is possible to release A during a drift, and brake by pressing B, without cancelling the drift as long as IV remains above 55% of max base speed. Releasing A and braking for 1 frame can be useful to lose a very small amount of time and manipulate QM. Releasing A for longer loses a lot of speed, so it is generally not useful.

Auto hop

An auto drift is started and continued by holding hard inputs. The game only checks the magnitude of the input, not the sign; therefore, switching from a +7 to a -7 input (or ±6) changes the direction of the drift, without ending the drift. The drift direction can be switched on every frame by repeatedly alternating inputs.

(Inside-drift) bikes gain significant roll rotation while drifting. By changing the drift direction with high roll rotation, the shift in momentum causes the bike to bounce due to TF physics. The greater the roll rotation, the bigger the bounce. It is possible to chain auto hops too, for even bigger bounces.

Autosliding

Main article: Supersliding#Autosliding

Automatic bikes are able to gain EV much more efficiently than manual bikes in a superslide, by repeatedly starting and ending auto drifts. This allows them to accelerate more quickly at the start of a superslide, and reach higher caps. An example input sequence is: 11 (or more) frames +6, 1 frame -7, 1 frame +5.

Autosliding works due to a combination of two quirks: switching from a right hard input to a left soft input switches the drift's direction, and resets the lean rotation value to a high value in the opposite direction. This makes it possible to lean for a long time (while turning and drifting), switch drift direction to immediately reset the lean counter, then cancel the drift and resume leaning in the same direction.

Autosliding allows for a much higher percentage of leaning frames than optimal patterns otherwise allow. A big limitation of autosliding is the IV requirement: the bike's IV must be at over 55% of its max base speed to drift, but negative IV is very useful to turn tighter in a superslide.