Royal Raceway Shortcut Info

1'53"12 (PAL) 3lap by abney317 (April 2024)
26.66 (NTSC) by Jonathan C

Wall Jump Strat

It is possible to land on top of the checkered wall on Royal Raceway (TAS example) and get warped to the bridge because the top of the checkered wall isn't mapped to a section. By doing the first river jump shortcut (seen below), we can get our last known section stored as 21 (up on the bridge). By not doing the shortcut off the bridge and just driving the rest of the lap normally, we can keep that last section stored as 21 which will be used as the fallback value when we land on top of the wall. This will then warp us to the ramp because it finds the closest pathmarker in section 21 to place us at (and happens to be within 1000 units of where we get stuck). The kart also needs to get stuck directly on the top of the wall for this to work. If the kart gets stuck floating a bit above the wall, then it will fail. This strat saves around 5 seconds on the lap if done with no setup.

Older Strat Info

1'59"49 (PAL) 3lap by abney317 (July 2016)
37.14 (PAL) by abney317 (April 16, 2021)

There are 2 shortcuts done for Royal Raceway. There is the initial jump across the river, and then another jump going off the left of the big ramp. The 2nd shortcut has 2 variations, one will place you down on the road close to where you landed in the water, and the other will cause the kart to get warped directly to the finish line.


The first shortcut
To hit the first shortcut, the kart needs to hit exactly on or to the right of the polygon seam highlighted in green here:



For WR, the first shortcut needs to be one of the best 2 type of bounces. The bounces are not random but require hitting the wall in a specific way that isn't always easy to control.
The fastest bounce needs to aim directly for the polygon seam. The 2nd fastest would be a relatively low hit to the right of the polygon seam. If the kart is too far right or too low, the shortcut won't work.
Example video of the fastest bounce variation
Example video of the 2nd fastest bounce variation

The fastest type of finish line warp hit can be seen in VAJ's 37.18 run


List of all first shortcut bounce variations

The 2nd shortcut
To hit the 2nd shortcut the regular way, you just need to hit the rock texture area of the track shown here:


For the finish line warp, the kart needs to avoid the section above. We aim for the polygon seam in the picture below, but want the kart to be as far left as possible in order to land in the water sooner. Hitting close to this polygon seam can allow the kart to roll down in the water and get the finish line warp potentially.


Why are you driving around to the 2nd lap?
Fast lap attempts on most tracks are done on lap 2 (or 3) because lap 1 is slower. The startboost doesn't make up for the difference of starting so far behind the finish line.

Why aren't you doing the 2nd shortcut on lap 1?
The finish line warp places you on the finish line and ends the lap, so then I'd have to drive around again. The slower variation of the 2nd shortcut saves less than a second so I usually don't bother since I'd miss it a decent amount too.