Bounty: how to take the crown, and how to keep it

In Bounty the leader wears a crown, and wrecking whoever wears it is worth double. That one rule turns every match into a hunt.

Published 12 October 2026.

How the crown moves

The crown sits on the player with the most points, and it is checked every time someone is knocked out and whenever its wearer leaves the room. It changes heads only when a rival gets strictly ahead of the wearer: a draw leaves it where it is, and if two challengers go ahead at once, it goes to the one who joined the room first.

A knockout scores one point; a knockout on the wearer scores two, and it is counted before the crown moves, so the hunter who takes it gets the full two. The wearer gets nothing for wearing it: no extra points and no armour. What they get is attention. The crown is drawn half again as big as a kart above their head, it marks them on everyone's map, and the computer racers go out of their way to get at them.

The arithmetic of catching up

Say the wearer has 6 points and you have 2. Two crown knockouts take you to 6, level, and a level score does not move the crown. Your next knockout of anyone puts you on 7, ahead, and the crown is yours.

That is why the crown is the quickest way up the table, and also why it is not the only way. The wearer scores one point a knockout like everybody else, so a wearer who keeps scoring stays ahead of a hunter who does nothing but chase the crown. Take the ordinary knockouts that come your way, and the crown ones when you can.

Knockouts go to whoever deals the damage that finishes a kart, with nothing for helping. If the wearer is already hurt, the two points go to the last hit, so finish them with whatever you have in your hand, even a burst of gumballs.

Hunting the wearer

• The wearer is easy to find and hard to catch, because everyone else is hunting them too. Let the computer racers open the fight, and be the one who finishes it.
• After a wreck, the wearer comes back, usually at the spawn point furthest from the other karts, with three seconds in which nothing can hurt them. Racing across the beach to meet them is wasted driving. Wait out the shield, or take the karts that are chasing them.
• A Seagull does not know who wears the crown. It goes for a rival that is close and nearly straight ahead of your kart, so point your nose at the crown before you let it go.
• The Grand Piano is the only item that wrecks a kart at full health in one direct hit. On the crown, that is two points in one go. It lands about 27 to 35 metres ahead of you, depending on your speed, so get the wearer about that far in front before you fire.

Wearing it

• Keep moving, and keep something built into the beach between you and the hunters: the huts, the rocks, the van, the cabanas or the mound. They stop shots and soak up three quarters of a blast. The bins and other loose props stop a shot but not a blast.
• Hold on to a Bubble Bath for when shots are coming. Five seconds in which nothing can hurt you or blast you about, and the computer racers stop shooting at a kart in a bubble.
• Drop whoopee cushions behind you. A hunter right on your tail drives straight over them.
• Being wrecked costs the wearer more than it costs anyone else: it hands a rival two points. If you are hurt, get away and heal; after six seconds without a hit, a kart mends at 8 health a second.

The last half minute

Only the clock ends a match, so count. One point behind the wearer, a single crown knockout wins it. Two points ahead as the wearer, a single crown knockout can only draw you level, not pass you, and a level finish goes to whoever has more knockouts, then to whoever was wrecked fewer times.

So the wearer's last half minute is about not being wrecked, and the hunter's is about being the one who lands the final hit.

The full rules of all four modes are in the modes guide, and every item is in the items guide. More strategy is on the articles page.