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1. Introduction
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This is NDS_Master and welcome to my Kirby: Canvas Curse Cart Run FAQ! As
you’ll see from my contributor page, I prefer to write in-depth complete
guides for the majority of the games that I have played. With Kirby: Canvas
Curse, however, I decided that I didn’t quite want to compose an entire
game guide. With so many medals scattered through so many levels, it would
take a long time to map out all of the locations and write them all out.
Then I would add in in-depth strategies to Rainbow Run, the Jump Game, and
the Sub Games. It would be a mammoth guide by the time I finished.
Since it would be so long, I decided I would take a simpler approach to
Kirby: Canvas Curse. I decided to only focus on making a single guide for
one of the sub games. When I saw someone was already making a guide for
Paint Panic (my favorite sub game), I decided that I would go with a Cart
Run FAQ. Here it is. It’s not long, but I hope that it will provide you
with plenty of useful information.
I don’t have a section on “How to Play” in this guide, so I’ll put that
here. In Cart Run, you are Kirby and you race in a cart. Your opponent is
King Dedede. Since the cart goes automatically, you don’t need to worry
about accelerating or braking. Those are two things you do not get to
control. The one thing that you do control, however, is the direction of
your cart. Press your stylus against the touch screen, and move it up or
down. By doing so, you will move the line generator that guides that cart.
Not only do you want to move the generator to move the cart into food
(which speeds you up), but you also want to move it so that the generator
slams into and destroys enemies. Kirby is weak, so he will take damage
whenever an enemy hits him. He only has four health, so if he is hit by
enemies four times then he will die. Use health and Maxim Tomatoes to
recover his health. That’s basically all there is to the game. Have fun!
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2. Ranks
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Ranks are basic. When you complete a race, you will be given a rank
depending on how well you did (how many points you acquired). The ranks
range from Crawler to Rainbow Hero with ten in between, so the ranks will
give you an accurate reading of how well you did in that level. Because
there are so many of them, it is easy to vary between a low and high rank
in the shorter races. In Level 3, however, the points separating each rank
is much larger, making the reading more accurate.
Rankings are great, but you cannot get good rankings if you do not acquire
a lot of points during the race. As hard as it is to believe, winning is
not the key to getting a good ranking. You need to take time out of your
race to specifically defeat enemies so that your score will increase. Since
the generator is invincible, you can defeat enemies simply by hitting them
with it. Although Kirby can kill enemies when he hits them, his vitality
will decrease by one and his speed will be drastically reduced if he does.
Use the generator to eliminate foes, which requires carefully planning and
thinking ahead.
Now, you will notice that you get points for how much time you have left at
the end of the race. The quicker you go, the more points you receive.
However, you only receive 50 points for each second you have remaining. If
you take a second out of your time to destroy an enemy such as Soarar, you
will receive many more points than if you merely saved the extra second.
Always do everything in your power to destroy hordes of enemies. Also, you
will get an additional 20 seconds after you complete each course. If you
finish each course in under 20 seconds, you can gain even more points to
add to your score. Race quickly and destroy enemies to gain high points.
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4. Races
========
Points matter. Rankings matter. However, you won’t get either points or
rankings if you don’t take the time to actually race. When you race, there
are three things that you should race for: fun, ranks, and a medal. Fun is
the most important reason. If you aren’t playing Kirby to have fun, you
shouldn’t be playing. Ranks are another good reason to play Cart Run. I
enjoy racing to get AAA rank, and you can race for ranks on any level.
Playing to earn a medal is something that you can only do on Level 3, and
you need an A rank (48,000 points) to get it. A medal is necessary to
complete the game 100%, so it is also an important reason to race.
Each of the sub games in Kirby: Canvas Curse has three levels. The first
two levels you play when you play the sub game as a boss game. After you
beat levels one and two as a boss game (your rank does not matter), you can
play the boss game as a sub game. Levels 1 and 2 in the sub games are
fairly easy, but there is a major jump between the second and third levels.
The third level is much harder than the first two levels. But why read
about generalities? Let’s look at each level of Cart Run and learn some
things.
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Level 1
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Level 1 is obviously the first level in Cart Run. It is by far the easiest.
It features three courses that you must race through. The courses are a
little different than their Level 2 and 3 counterparts, but they will
provide a challenge nonetheless. King Dedede is extremely easy to beat, so
you will have little trouble gaining the 2,000 points from winning. Here’s
a look at the requirements to earn each rank.
13,000 = AAA
12,000 = AA
11,000 = A
10,500 = B
10,000 = C
9,500 = D
9,000 = E
8,500 = F
8,000 = G
7,500 = H
7,000 = I
0,000 = J
As you can see, you need at least 13,000 points to get the AAA rank. Since
Level 1 is only for fun and ranks, you should strive for the AAA rank. Now,
acquiring that rank will take a little effort, but it is worth the effort
in the end. First, you need to win. Gain food whenever you can, and take
advantage of the bonus speed that two pieces of food gives you.
While winning will help you, alone it won’t help you get the triple As. You
need something more. To get the additional points to win, look to your
enemies. They provide an excellent way to gain a lot of extra points
easily. Focus on munching on a lot of food, but focus even more on finding
and destroy enemies. Even though the race consists only of three courses,
you can gain a lot of points by devastating the enemies in those courses.
King Dedede’s hammers are also a way to earn points. It will take practice
and a lot of enemy bashing, but a AAA rank is achievable.
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Level 2
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Level 2 is similar to Level 1. Instead of three courses, however, it has
four. That makes it slightly more challenging. It takes a little more to
achieve a really high rank, but it can be done. Sorry, I have not mapped
out every single point value for every single rank. Just race well, gain
lots of points, and the rank will fall into place. If its of any use to
you, I got a AA rank after gaining 15,000 points in Level 2 (I only raced
once). If you do a little better, you are sure to be able to gain a AAA.
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Level 3
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Okay, so you’ve ignored what I wrote on Levels 1 and 2. They won’t help you
get a medal, so you just didn’t read them. Fine. I’m okay with that. Level
3 is all that matters. (How can you be so boring? Have fun with the game!).
I admit, not everyone cares about medals. Some people care about having fun
and getting all AAA rankings. This section is for you as well.
Unfortunately, I cannot tell you how to get a AAA rankings in Level 3, as I
have only achieved an A rankings myself. (Sorry) To get an A ranking, you
need to get 48,000 points. It’s a hefty amount, but one that is achievable.
Unlike Levels 1 and 2, which only have a few courses, Level 3 has a lot.
Five separate courses make life difficult, and three laps add to the
insanity. That’s fifteen courses in all! If you want to score well, you
need to race not only well but consistently. If you do good on lap one but
ruin lap three, you most likely will not be seeing an A pop by your score
at the end of the level.
If you desire the medal attained by getting an A, you will have to do more
than simply race well. You will need to gather many points if you are to
succeed. Whenever you see an enemy, try to destroy it. The points to be
gained from enemies far outweighs the points to be gained by additional
time. Before I go too much into the important of defeating enemies, let’s
look at the point distribution for Level 3.
7,000 Points - Completing all fourteen courses
+2,000 Points - Winning the race (fifteenth course)
+3,000 Points - Finishing with a minute left
=12,000 Points
Finishing with a minute left and beating King Dedede may seem like an
unreasonable add-on to the point distribution table. However, it is almost
essential that you finish the race quickly (it’s okay if you don’t quite
have a minute left) and win the race. It may be possible to get an A
ranking without doing either, but it much easier to do both and do well in
the race at the same time.
Since you get 12,000 points simply by racing, you only need to acquire
36,000 points during the race. That is much to get, but you don’t need to
gain all of that in one course. There are fifteen courses to earn all of
the points. 36,000 divided by fifteen is 2,400, which is the amount you’ll
need to secure per course. Assuming that you get, say, fifteen regular
pieces of food and five food combos each course, that’s 1,250 points you’ll
earn just by food. That leaves only 1,150 points per course for you to
steal from enemies. That doesn’t seem so bad, now does it? Defeat two
Waddle Dees, three Bronto Burts, one Soarar, three blocks, and one hammer
and you have that amount. If you can manage to destroy more than one
valuable enemy, you can easily attain those points. That’s not even
including the Maxim Tomato! It will take work, but if you collect lots of
food and take time to eliminate enemies, you can do it. Focus on enemies
whenever you can (I cannot stress this enough) if you really want to get
the A ranking and the medal that accompanies it.
Look for specific enemies whenever you race. While you may not destroy them
the first time you see them, you can take advantage of their position later
on. For instance, in course five there is a section where three Waddle Dees
fall onto the course. This happens twice, and a Soarar is usually with the
first group. If you destroy them all with the generator, that’s 800 points
you can earn in just a few seconds. In another course, three Bronto Burts
are stationed next to some food. That’s 450 points in one second if you
destroy them, and that does not even count the food! Pay attention to
hordes of enemies and slaughter them whenever possible. Also, don’t be
afraid to take out blocks if you have a speed up; they give you valuable
points. When you collect a lot of food and destroy a lot of enemies, an A
rank is sure to be yours. Just keep playing and you will soon achieve it.
