---
title: "How to play · Clash Karts"
description: "How to play Clash Karts: starting a match, the controls on keyboard, gamepad and touch, every item, the four game modes, rewards and tips."
image: "https://clashkarts.com/og.jpg"
---

# How to play

Source: https://clashkarts.com/how-to-play

Drive round a beach arena, grab items from the boxes and use them to wreck the other karts. A match lasts three minutes, and whoever has the best score when the clock runs out wins.

## Starting a match

- **Quick Play** puts you in a public room with whoever is online. If no public room is open, the game opens a Classic one for you and others join it.
- **Host** opens a room of your own. Pick the game mode and who can join: *Public* (Quick Play can bring anyone in), *Private* (friends join with the room's five-letter code or its invite link) or *Solo* (offline, against computer racers, entirely on your device).
- **Join** takes a room code from a friend. Opening a friend's invite link fills the code in for you.

A room holds up to eight karts. Computer racers top a room up to six, so there are always rivals to chase, and real players take their seats as they arrive. If the player hosting a room leaves, another player takes it over and the match carries on. Every player's game checks the host's against the rules, and a host caught cheating loses the room the same way. A player who neither drives nor fires for 90 seconds of a match gives up their seat.

## Controls

| To | Keyboard | Gamepad | Touch |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Accelerate | W or ↑ | A, or the right trigger | Push the stick forward |
| Brake and reverse | S or ↓ | B, or the left trigger | Pull the stick back |
| Steer | A and D, or ← and → | Left stick | Move the stick sideways |
| Use your item | Space (or J, or Enter) | X | The fire button |
| See the scores | Hold Tab |  | Hold the trophy button |
| Pause and settings | Esc |  | The pause button |

There is no drift button. Karts pull away steadily and coast a long way when you let go; brake to slow down fast or to reverse. A moving kart turns at the same rate at any speed, even off the pedal, but never standing still. Turn hard at speed and the kart slides wide with its nose in, and your shots go where the nose points. Let go of the steering to straighten out. Settings let you change the sound, the graphics quality and how far behind your kart the camera sits.

## Items

Drive through an item box to get an item; it shows in the slot at the bottom of the screen. You carry one item at a time, and while a Bubble Bath, Hot Sauce or Mega Burp you used is still working, boxes give you nothing. An empty box comes back five seconds after someone takes it. The item you hold rides on your kart, guns on the nose and the rest on the roll cage or the back, so everyone can see what you have. Only a Bubble Bath stays hidden until you use it.

| Item | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| Plunger Rocket | Two shots that fly straight ahead. |
| Ducky Trio | Three rubber ducks fired in a fan: good when a rival is close but not dead ahead. |
| Seagull | A gull that homes in on the rival in front of you. |
| Gumball Gatling | Hold the button to spray up to 36 gumballs. |
| Whoopee Cushion | Two cushions to drop behind you. They are live the moment they land. |
| Bubble Bath | A bubble that blocks damage and knockback for five seconds. |
| Hot Sauce | Breathe fire and get two and a half seconds of speed. Ram rivals while it lasts. |
| Mega Burp | Blasts every kart near you away. |
| Grand Piano | The rarest item: a heavy piano you lob in an arc. It ends careers. |

Every kart has 100 health. When yours runs out you are wrecked, and you are back in the arena three seconds later. The [items guide](https://clashkarts.com/items) has the damage and reach of each item, and how to dodge it.

## Game modes

- **Classic**: every knockout (KO) is a point. Most KOs wins.
- **Bounty**: the player with the most points wears the crown (a tie never takes it away). A KO is worth one point, and wrecking whoever wears the crown is worth two.
- **Derby**: no weapons. Item boxes give only Hot Sauce, Bubble Bath and Mega Burp, and you wreck rivals by ramming them. The faster the hit, the more it hurts, and a hit to the side does half as much again.
- **King of the Mound**: stand on the sandcastle mound alone to score a point every half second. When two or more karts are on it, nobody scores until it is one again. A KO is worth three points. A ring of light round the mound, and the minimap, show who holds it.

The [modes guide](https://clashkarts.com/modes) goes through the scoring, the tie-breaks and how to win each one.

## Rewards

Every match pays coins: for taking part, for winning or reaching the podium, and for feats such as three KOs in a row, a match without being wrecked, smashing the beach's props, or each mode's own goal. Three daily challenges, the same for everyone, change at midnight. Every level you gain pays coins and a free spin.

Spend coins at the Jackpot machine in the menu to win kart paints and hats (see [the racers](https://clashkarts.com/racers)). They are only looks: every racer drives exactly the same, and nothing in Clash Karts costs real money.

## Tips

- Keep moving. A kart that stops is an easy target for rockets and seagulls.
- Whoopee cushions work best where rivals have to drive: next to item boxes and at the bottom of ramps.
- Save a Bubble Bath for when a seagull or a piano is on its way.
- In Bounty, the crown makes you everyone's target. Grab Bubble Baths and keep your distance.
- In King of the Mound, a Mega Burp clears everyone off the top at once.
- In Derby, hit rivals from the side, and use Hot Sauce to arrive fast.

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