Stats' Descriptions

Understand Land Speed, Water Speed, Acceleration, Handling, and more in Mario Kart 7. Learn how each stat impacts your race.

Land Speed--The speed of your kart as you travel along the ground. A higher stat means faster ground travel. Collecting coins on the track also increases your top speed.

Water Speed--The speed of your kart while traveling underwater. A higher stat increases underwater speed, which is vital on courses with significant underwater segments, especially in Time Trials mode.

Air Speed--The speed of your kart while gliding through the air. A higher stat increases glide speed. This stat rarely comes into play and can generally be ignored.

Acceleration--The rate at which your kart reaches its top speed from a lower speed. A higher stat reduces the time it takes to reach top speed. While important, speed is considered more pivotal for maintaining a lead and winning races.

Weight--Your kart's weight. A higher weight makes it harder to be pushed by opponents and easier to push them. In Mario Kart 7, weight is considered relatively meaningless.

Land Handling--How well your kart turns and maneuvers on land. Karts with higher speed often have lower handling. Karts with higher handling typically drift tighter and can perform certain maneuvers that lower handling karts cannot. Higher handling also makes snaking easier.

Water Handling--How well your kart turns and maneuvers underwater. A higher stat improves underwater turning and obstacle evasion. This stat is not very important as drifting and turning are rare underwater, and underwater physics reduce its effectiveness.

Air Handling--How well your kart turns and maneuvers while gliding. A higher stat improves directional changes and movement during glides. This stat is only vitally important for specific shortcuts, like the Wii Mushroom Gorge shortcut, and can otherwise be ignored.

Offroad--How well your kart maintains traction (and thus the ability to turn and maneuver) on offroad surfaces like snow, sand, dirt, grass, mud, and rain. Offroad does not apply to underwater terrain. On courses with extensive offroad terrain, a kart with a higher offroad stat has a distinct advantage. It is also believed that a kart with higher offroad will have a higher speed on offroad terrain.

Miniturbo--This stat determines the duration of your miniturbo boosts. A higher stat results in longer miniturbos, though the difference is relatively small.

Drift--This stat determines how tight your drifts are, partially influenced by your handling stat. A higher stat results in tighter drifts, which can make it harder to maintain a drift in certain situations where a miniturbo should be held.

Stability--This stat determines how well your kart handles while turning without drifting. This stat rarely applies and does not require concern.