Mario Kart World: Kamek Item Explained - What Does It Do & How To Get It

Mario Kart World keeps its line-up of items relatively familiar. You'll be intimately familiar with the Super Star, Golden Mushroom, and the Blue Shell. But there are a couple of newcomers, including one former racer.

Yep, Kamek — who was a playable racer in the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass Wave 5 DLC-- is now an item in Mario Kart World, and it functions very differently from anything else. In this guide, then, we'll be going over exactly what Kamek does in Mario Kart World, how to increase your chances of getting it, and what you can unlock with it.

Note: With Kamek's appearances being so rare and the unpredictability of the item, we'll be updating this guide over the coming days as we see him more.

What does the Kamek item do in Mario Kart World?

Kamek, depicted as a purple crystal ball, is a new item that summons the Magikoopa and turns all other racers on the main track ahead of the user into a NPC character or enemy.

To get the item, you need to be sort of around the upper-middle end of the pack — anywhere between 12th or 6th from what we've seen. But, like everything else here, it's inconsistent and we've had it as low as 20th or as high as 4th.

The character seems to be dependent on the course you're racing on; we turned into the Penguin on DK Pass and the Cow on Moo Moo Meadows. But we haven't tested it out every single course as the item is relatively rare.

In some cases, Kamek can enough summon more enemies onto the track — we've seen Goombas pop up on a course after everyone has been turned into one before, and even Boom Boom has popped up once.

However, if you happen to get hit by a Kamek yourself, you'll be the one turning into an enemy — and, in some cases, you can unlock the transformation as a new playable racer.

What characters can Kamek turn you into?

Kamek can turn you into a lot of different characters, but right now, we don't know exactly how many.

At the very least, we do know Kamek can transform you into a variety of playable characters (that aren't the likes of Mario, Luigi, etc.) — Penguin, Cow, Pokey, Hammer Bros., you get the idea.

So, for now, we'll just say expect the unexpected — you might just turn into a Pianta when you're not looking.

How many unlockable characters can you get with Kamek?

While we haven't quite unlocked all of the characters in Mario kart World, it looks like there are 11 characters to unlock via Kamek's magic.

Again, from what we've seen, certain transformations seem more likely on certain courses, but it's not completely consistent. We've seen reports that Spike appears more often during Whistlestop Summit, but we turned into him during a transition between Acorn Heights and Boo Cinema.

For help on getting all racers, have a look at our guide on How To Unlock All Characters.

How to make Kamek appear more often

Kamek is a pretty rare item, and while this isn't a consistent method, we have seen him appear a little more often in certain circumstances. We're talking once or twice consistently in a few modes.

Vs. Mode with Frantic Items

Heading to Vs. Mode, either on your own with NPCs or with friends, and setting your Item rules to Frantic, does increase the chance of Kamek appearing as an item a little bit more.

In three different 'sets' of races — two with five rounds, one with six — we saw Kamek twice in one set, and once in the other two sets. We also tried a couple of individual course races, but Kamek didn't show up in those.

So, essentially, you will probably see Kamek at least once per Vs. Mode — just hope it isn't you who gets it!

Play Knockout Tour

Kamek seems to be a little more common in Knockout Tour, too — but not much more, and you have the added pressure of surviving for as long as possible.

Because the Tour is essentially one long drive through six checkpoints, with the competition narrowing the further in you get, the idea is that rarer items become more common the further in you get, because eventually, 4th place is considered "last".

Plus, a Knockout Tour takes a lot longer than a Grand Prix — over 10 minutes, by our count — so that's a lot more opportunities for Kamek to appear in an Item Box.

More magic awaits in Mario Kart World, so make sure you take a pit stop and check out our Mario Kart World guides for more tips, tricks, and unlockables.