Kirby Air Riders: How To Unlock Every Machine

Machines are the vehicles that you can pilot in Kirby Air Riders. In addition to the many new riders you can choose from, there are a lot more machines you can race with. Each one serves its own purpose and playstyle, so if you want to see which one resonates with you, here’s what you’ll need to do to unlock every machine in Kirby Air Riders.

Most of the machines can be unlocked through various means and game modes. Unlocking a machine more than once will give you a spare of that machine that you can customize in the My Machine option, found in Extras. So if you don’t care for that, just unlock the machine with whatever method seems easiest to you.

Miles Shop

Machines are one of the several things that you can buy in the Miles Shop. This is mainly for those that want to buy multiple machines to customize, but buying a machine here makes it available for use in the other game modes as well. They’re bought with a currency called Miles, which you earn by just playing the game.

Each machine has its own cost in Miles, so you can determine which ones are worth buying and which ones you’d rather unlock through other methods. Here are the costs of all the machines sorted from least to most expensive, as well as the total cost if you wish to buy one of each.

• Wheelie Scooter – 2,800 Miles
• Wheelie Bike – 3,050 Miles
• Warp Star – 3,200 Miles
• Wagon Star – 3,600 Miles
• Flight Warp Star – 3,600 Miles
• Winged Star – 3,800 Miles
• Shadow Star – 4,150 Miles
• Chariot – 4,500 Miles
• Bulk Star – 5,200 Miles
• Paper Star – 5,700 Miles
• Slick Star – 6,000 Miles
• Tank Star – 6,250 Miles
• Jet Star – 6,600 Miles
• Hop Star – 6,900 Miles
• Transform Star – 7,250 Miles
• Swerve Star – 7,770 Miles
• Vampire Star – 8,400 Miles
• Rex Wheelie – 8,800 Miles
• Battle Chariot – 9,700 Miles
• Rocket Star – 10,500 Miles
• Bull Tank – 10,800 Miles
• Formula Star – 14,400 Miles
  • Total – 142,970 Miles

How to Unlock Every Machine

From here on out, the guide will be organized by machines. Below each machine will be the checklist challenges that you’ll need to complete in order to unlock them. The challenges will be sorted by the game mode first, location or course second, then ruleset last if applicable. Make sure you meet each machine challenge’s conditions before going for them.

Warp Star

• Air Ride: Nebula Belt (Laps) – Finish in 1st place
• Top Ride – Finish after getting 10 different kinds of items

To unlock Warp Star from the Air Ride checklist, you’ll need to unlock the Nebula Belt course first. You have to unlock the Galactic Nova course first by winning a total of 15 races. Then select Galactic Nova with the laps ruleset and complete a lap after defeating 5 types of enemies to unlock Nebula Belt. Finally, select the Nebula Belt course with the laps ruleset and win a race.

Unlocking Warp Star from Top Ride requires finishing a race after getting 10 different items. The best way to do this is by changing the rules and setting the items to Many. You could also race on a course that has long laps, as well as increase the number of laps.

Wing Star

• City Trial: Field – Touch the underside of the garden in the sky
• Road Trip – Swap machines a total of 30 times

To unlock Wing Star from City Trial, you have to touch the bottom of the garden in the sky. To do this, it’s best to find a machine with great flight capabilities like Warp Star, Paper Star, or Wing Star. Then you can build up glide power-ups, find a ramp or ledge to boost off, then tilt your left stick back to hit the bottom of the garden. Finding a high place to start like the buildings or volcano will help too.

Shadow Star

• Top Ride: Flower – Copy enemy abilities 2 times in a single race
• City Trial: Field – Ride grind rails around the island once in a single match

You have to copy enemy abilities twice in Top Ride’s Flower course to unlock Shadow Star. You can leave only attack items on to force copy abilities to spawn more while omitting the safer items.

In City Trial, Shadow Star is unlocked by riding all the grind rails around the island. If you ride anywhere along the border of Skyah, you can find a pair of grind rails going left or right. Just hop on one and stick to them until you’ve gone around the whole island.

Wagon Star

• Air Ride: Cavernous Corners (Time) – Complete a lap within 1:50.00
• Road Trip – Enter the shop 15 times

Completing a lap within one minute and 50 seconds on Air Ride’s Cavernous Corners, with the rules set to time, will unlock Wagon Star. A lap doesn’t take that much time to finish normally, so as long as nothing’s slowing you down too much, completing this won’t be an issue. But defeating enemies and damaging other riders will help boost you to the end quicker.

While playing Road Trip, you have to enter the shop 15 times to unlock Wagon Star. The shop spots on each stage are indicated by the shopping bag icon on the roadmap on the bottom left. Just stop by each one you see and you’ll get this done eventually.

Slick Star

• Air Ride – Defeat 3 enemies by spitting out stars in a single race
• City Trial: Drag Race 1 – Finish within 0:35.00

To unlock Slick Star from Air Ride, you must defeat 3 enemies in a race by spitting out stars. This requires inhaling an enemy and attacking another enemy with the star-shaped projectile. Make sure the enemy you inhale or capture can’t give you a Copy Ability. If you end up with one, repeatedly press Y to get rid of it.

While playing City Trial’s Drag Race 1 contest, you must finish within 35 seconds to unlock Slick Star. As long as you’re hitting some boost pads, this shouldn’t be a problem either. If you use a machine with decent top speed, you can even put the controller down and complete this challenge.

Formula Star

• Air Ride: Galactic Nova (Laps) – Finish without touching the energy columns around Nova’s core
• Top Ride – Finish without crashing into any walls

You must first unlock the Galactic Nova course before you can unlock Formula Star from Air Ride. You do this by winning 15 Air Ride races. After you’ve unlocked the course, you have to race on it with the rules set to laps and complete the race without touching Nova’s energy columns around their core. Nova’s core is a heart-shaped crystal, and the energy columns are the beams of light that will move along that part of the course, so use a machine with good mobility.

Bulk Star

• Air Ride: Steamgust Forge – Break 3 pieces of cargo on the conveyor belts in a single race
• City Trial: Field – Use 8 attack items in a single race

While racing on Steamgust Forge, you have to break three pieces of cargo on the conveyor belts in one race to get the Bulk Star from Air Ride. The conveyor belts are found pretty early in the race. but you don’t have many opportunities to pass them. Try increasing the number of laps if you need more chances to break the cargo.

While playing City Trial, picking up eight attack items will give you the Bulk Star. Just be on the lookout for many different items and pick up all that you can. Once again, you can change the rules to increase the amount of time if you need to.

Rocket Star

• City Trial: Field – Swap to vacant machines 30 times
• Road Trip: Top Ride – Ride for 180 sec. during a Top Ride challenge

To unlock Rocket Star from City Trial, you have to swap to unoccupied machines a total of 30 times. You don’t have to do this in one race, so you’ll eventually unlock this as you continue playing the mode regularly. But if you go to the garages under the city, you can possibly find many vacant machines at once to complete this a lot quicker.

In Road Trip, riding in Top Ride challenges for a total of three minutes will unlock Rocket Star. This is also something you’ll eventually unlock by playing the Road Trip mode normally, so long as you don’t avoid Top Ride challenges entirely. Prioritizing them will help you reach the required driving time.

Swerve Star

• Top Ride: Cyber – Win with at least 3 sec. between you and 2nd place
• Road Trip – Clear a Race challenge 10 times

On Top Ride’s Cyber course, you have to cross the finish line three or more seconds before the 2nd place finisher does to unlock Swerve Star. You have to perform pretty well to get a good enough lead. Lowering the level of CPUs can help, but all you’ll really need is good top speed.

Unlocking Swerve Star from Road Trip requires clearing 10 race challenges. Look out for any challenges requiring a race, whether it be Air Ride, Top Ride, or some form of racing from City Trial’s contests.

Turbo Star

• City Trial: Field – Soar 110 yd up into the air and fly above the garden in the sky
• Road Trip: Stadium – Clear Stadium challenges 3 times

Fly really high into the air, above the garden in the sky, to unlock Turbo Star from City Trial. You can complete this by gathering up enough glide power-ups and using a machine with good lift. Characters that also have good lift such as Kirby, Starman or Cappy will be a great help too.

While playing Road Trip, finding and clearing three Stadium challenges will give you Turbo Star. Watch for challenges that take part in City Trial’s Stadium contests, like Kirby Melee, Drag Race, Target Flight, and others.

Jet Star

• City Trial: Field – Stray too far from Skyah’s edges and get struck by lightning
• Road Trip: Stadium – Ride a total of 5,469 yd during Stadium challenges

You have to move far enough away from the City Trial stage, getting struck by lightning in the process, to unlock Jet Star. The screen will progressively darken red as purple electricity forms around your vehicle. Get far enough and you’ll be struck down by lightning.

In Road Trip, playing Stadium challenges and driving 5,469 yards will give you Jet Star. This just requires playing the Stadium contests and driving the set distance. Oval Race, Gourmet Race, or other challenges that require moving around a lot are great for this.

Wheelie Bike

• City Trial: Field – Swap to 3 different kinds of machines in a single match
• Road Trip – Clear City Trial challenges 3 times

To unlock Wheelie Bike from City Trial, you have to swap to three different machines in one game. Playing the mode like normal can get this challenge completed, as long as you make sure you’re not swapping to the same machine.

For Road Trip, you’ll have to clear three City Trial challenges. Be on the lookout for any challenges that will take place in Skyah. This can be fighting any of the bosses that show up, taking part in short races, or any other field event.

Rex Wheelie

• Air Ride: Waveflow Waters – Defeat 20 enemies in a single race
• Road Trip – Defeat 3 enemies with star-shaped projectiles in a single challenge

To unlock Rex Wheelie from Air Ride, you have to defeat 20 enemies before finishing a race on Waveflow Waters. Just play very aggressively, taking out any enemies you pass, and you can do this no problem. You can make it easier by increasing the number of laps and playing as a rider with a damage dealing special.

In Road Trip, you need to defeat three enemies with star-shaped projectiles in one challenge to get Rex Wheelie. Similarly to unlocking the Slick Star, you have to inhale enemies and spit them back out at other enemies, making sure you don’t inhale an enemy that will give you a copy ability. The best challenge for this is Kirby Melee, since it gives you lots of enemies to beat.

Wheelie Scooter

• Air Ride: Floria Fields (Laps) – Finish in 1st place
• Top Ride: Flow – Finish a lap without crashing into walls more than 3 times

If you finish in first place on Floria Fields with the rules set to laps, you’ll earn a Wheelie Scooter in Air Ride. Using a machine with decent top speed will get you there, along with defeating any enemies you run into.

In Top Ride, you have to finish a lap without crashing into walls more than three times on the Flow course to unlock Wheelie Scooter. The course doesn’t have many sharp turns so this shouldn’t be too much of a problem, but you can always boost charge right before hitting a wall to halt your movement and steer yourself away from it.

Hop Star

• Air Ride: Checker Knights – Fly over the wall to the road that leads to the castle
• Road Trip: Top Ride – Jump 10 times during Top Ride challenges

You’ll have to unlock Checker Knights first before you can start unlocking the Hop Star in Air Ride. To do this, you must first unlock the Fantasy Meadows course, which is done by winning two races in a row. After that, you have to select the course with laps rules and finish three laps in a minute or less to unlock Checker Knights.

Once you unlock Checker Knights, you have to choose the course and fly over the wall to the road that leads to the castle. This wall is after a sharp turn with three boost pads just before the end of the course’s lap. If you drive straight, you’ll automatically gain some air, so just make sure you’re using a character and machine combination that has good lift.

Unlocking Hop Star in Road Trip is a lot simpler. You only have to make 10 jumps in Top Ride challenges. Look out for Top Ride challenges on the Road Trip, and find ramps or edges to jump off in each course. There’s at least one in each course, usually near the end of a lap.

Vampire Star

• Road Trip – Defeat 15 kinds of enemies

Vampire Star can be unlocked from Road Trip by defeating 15 kinds of enemies. Just play the game mode and defeat enemies as you complete challenges. Once again, a good challenge for finishing this quickly is Kirby Melee.

Paper Star

• Air Ride: Crystalline Fissure – Glide continuously for 3 sec. without landing
• City Trial: Air Glider – Fly a distance of 547 yd

Unlocking Paper Star from Air Ride requires gliding for three seconds on Crystalline Fissure. Characters with good flight capabilities paired with good flying machines will make this easier. But there aren’t many opportunities to fly on the course, and the ones that are there are either easy to miss or at the very end of the lap.

To unlock Paper Star from Road Trip, you have to play the Air Glider Stadium challenge and fly 547 yards. If you’ve stacked up on glide power-ups, this will be easier to do. But if not, you can still barely make it past the required distance, as long as your machine is capable of decent flight.

Chariot

• Air Ride: Airtopia Ruins (Laps) – Finish within 3:00.00
• Top Ride: Flow – Finish within 1:00.00

Finish a race on Airtopia Ruins in under three minutes with the rules set to laps, and you will unlock Chariot. This course is only two laps by default, and they don’t take long to complete. Try using a rider and machine with great top speed if you have trouble.

You can get Chariot from Top Ride by completing a race on Flow within a minute. This course is four laps by default, and there are a few sharp turns, so this one might be difficult to do. Like in Air Ride, trying a rider and machine with high top speed can help.

Battle Chariot

• Top Ride – Hit 2 riders at once with a Sensor Bomb

To unlock Battle Chariot, you have to hit two riders with one Sensor Bomb in Top Ride. If you set the items to Many and the item restrictions to Attack, you’ll have much higher chances of getting a Sensor Bomb. You should also increase the number of riders so you can get many of them at once with the item.

Tank Star

• Top Ride: Steam – Go through the hidden passage and finish within 0:55.00
• Road Trip: Air Ride – Perform perfect landings 2 times in an Air Ride challenge

In Top Ride’s Steam course, you have to go through the hidden passage at the end of the first turn at least once, and finish the race in less than 55 seconds to unlock Tank Star. There are four laps and the course is quite long, so even with high top speed, I found this very difficult to do under the default rules. Lowering the lap count makes this a lot more manageable.

You can also unlock a Tank Star in Road Trip if you make two perfect landings in one Air Ride challenge. Your machine will automatically level out with the ground below you, so your best bet for completing this challenge is finding jumps and not moving your left stick up or down as you’re landing.

Bull Tank

• City Trial: Dustup Derby – Win without being defeated at all

To unlock Bull Tank, you must win a Dustup Derby contest without being defeated once. This is also quite hard to do under default rules. Your best chances are with a Battle Chariot since it’s a super offensive machine, but you can also give the CPUs lower levels and weaker machines like Paper Star.

Transform Star

• Air Ride: Cyberion Highway – Use a switch to make a platform appear 2 times in a single race
• Top Ride: Crystal – Complete a lap after going through all crystal dash zones

You have to touch platform switches twice on Cyberion Highway to unlock Transform Star from Air Ride. These switches are right past the first right turn of the course, with the first one on the right spawning a ramp and the second one further up on the left spawning a road above some grind rails. This course only has two laps so you won’t have many chances to press these switches unless you increase the laps.

In Top Ride’s Crystal course, you have to go through all the crystal dash zones then finish a lap to unlock Transform Star. These are triangular-shaped zones at the top of the course. You can’t miss the first one, but you might miss the other two depending on where you are. Try to use a machine with high turning.

Dragoon

• City Trial – Unlock Dragoon parts A, B, and C on the Checklist
  • Dragoon Part A – City Trial: Field – Collect a total of 20 legendary-machine parts
  • Dragoon Part B – City Trial: Field – Swap to vacant machines 100 times
  • Dragoon Part C – City Trial: Stadium – Play 16 different kinds of Stadium contests

Unlocking Dragoon requires doing some other checklist challenges to unlock its parts. For Dragoon Part A, you’ll have to collect 20 legendary-machine parts in total. These can sometimes not spawn in City Trial at all, but you may find them in the white and yellow rare boxes, or as a bright sparkle of light. CPUs will always go for them if they’re on the map, so it’s actually recommended to have as many of them in a game as you can to try to steal the parts from them.

For Dragoon Part B, you’ll have to swap to vacant machines a total of 100 times. This is just something you’ll have to play tons of City Trial to accomplish over time. But you can stick to finding machines in Skyah’s garages and participating in machine-related events to speed this accomplishment up.

To unlock Dragoon Part C, you have to take part in 16 different kinds of Stadium contests. While there are only 15 main Stadium contests, many of them have different versions. You can unlock the contests through other City Trial Checklist challenges and partake in them manually, but this is also something that you can complete over time by playing City Trial .

Hydra

• City Trial – Unlock Hydra parts X, Y, and Z on the Checklist
  • Hydra Part X – City Trial: Field – Power up all your machine’s stats to at least 12 in a single match
  • Hydra Part Y – City Trial: Field – Touch down on all the floating isles that appear around Skyah
  • Hydra Part Z – City Trial: Field – Experience all field events

Just like Dragoon, Hydra requires completing other checklist challenges to unlock. Unfortunately, you’ll find that these are much harder to accomplish. For Hydra Part X, you have to power up all your machine’s stats to at least 12 in one game of City Trial. You have to do everything in your power to build up stats, whether it be finding blue or white and yellow boxes, defeating other players, or participating in field events that will reward you. You can always pause the game to keep track of your stats, so you’ll know which ones you need to prioritize to complete this challenge.

To unlock Hydra Part Y, you have to land on all six floating islands that can appear around the map. This is difficult because not every game will have a floating island. And for the ones that do, there’s a chance that they’ll be ones you’ve landed on already. But finding a game with the islands you need is only half the challenge; the other half is building enough glide stats and finding the right machine to make it to them. I’ve always found success in using Starman because his special lets you fly high into the air, but the performance of this special is stat dependent so you’ll still need to find lots of glide power-ups first.

To unlock Hydra Part Z, you have to experience all field events. There’s a staggering 40 different field events in City Trial. You can’t keep track of each ones you’ve experienced in-game either. Participating in them all is just a matter of playing the mode over and over again until you get lucky and encounter each one.

Gigantes

• Road Trip – Watch the normal ending in Road Trip

Gigantes is a destructive legendary machine that can become powerful enough to destroy the planet. You can also wield that power by assembling parts for in City Trial. To unlock it, you have to watch the normal ending in Road Trip. This just requires completing one playthrough of the mode, in which you’ll face Gigantes at the end. Stock up on health and defense power-ups so that you can withstand some of its attacks.

Leo

• City Trial: Field (Offline) – Ride on Leo’s back

Leo is another legendary machine that you can assemble parts for in City Trial. But to unlock the ability to find those parts, you must first defeat the true final boss in Road Trip and complete at least 140 Checklist missions. Defeating the final boss requires collecting every machine, so you have to complete Road Trip and play a few times on New Game+.

Once you unlock Leo’s parts in City Trial, you have to ride on its back in an offline game. Just like unlocking one of Dragoon’s parts on the checklist, look out for rare boxes and play with a lot of CPUs, since they’ll go for legendary parts that are on the map. Once you find all of Leo’s parts, you’ll complete this challenge.