Mario Kart Tour: What is a Kadomatsu and How to Hit 3 in a Race

A new year means new challenges in the revolving set of Mario Kart Tour courses. As usual, there are a few challenges that are much harder than the rest. One rather curious entry at the bottom right of the New Year’s challenges may have caught your eye — Hit A Kadomatsu With An Item 3 Times In A Single Race.

At this point, you’re probably wondering: what the heck is a kadomatsu? Turns out you’ve probably already seen them several times but just didn’t know what to look for in the very first track.

Where to Find Kadomatsu in Mario Kart Tour

Kadomatsu are the giant potted plants with the three slant cut bamboo shoots sticking straight up (see the image to the left).

These are quite plentiful in the Tokyo Blur 2 course, which is the very first race in the Mario Cup of the New Year tour.

You can specifically find two kadomatsu at the start and finish lines (one on the left side and one on the right side). You can also find one just before the Thwomp and another just after the Thwomp in the middle of the track.

That offers plenty of opportunity to take out three with any combination of items throughout the race. Just because there are several kadomatsu to find doesn’t make this an easy challenge to complete, however.

There’s a big catch with Tokyo Blur 2. The track only has one favored driver — and it’s Happi Mario, the rarest new driver available. That means you have to do this challenge without a frenzy (unless you pulled Happi Mario).

That can be a problem, because the hit does actually have to be with an item. Just running into the kadomatsu doesn’t count towards the challenge, except for two notable exceptions.

If you run into a plant while you have a green shell in your inventory and have the green shell visibly sitting behind your driver, it does count as an item hit towards the challenge.

The challenge can also be completed by driving into a kadomatsu while in big mode after using a Mega Mushroom. Since the plants go by so fast, this can be the simplest way to complete the challenge without requiring any careful item aiming.

You’ll know you’ve hit one — either by firing off an item or hitting the plant after using a Mega Mushroom — when a “Happy New Year” message appears in the points text box after you hit the kadomatsu the right way.

Keep in mind that your chances to pull any given item change based on your position in the race.

When in first place, you will likely have to hit the plants with green shells, since bananas aren’t much use here. Red shells aren’t helpful at all since they have the homing quality; they will actually bend out of the way of the kadomatsu.

If you get tired of waiting to finish this challenge organically, just use an item ticket as you are nearing the finish line in the first lap, and then fire off the green shell if you pull one.

Don’t forget you can boost your chances to pull a Mega Mushroom by using the Piranha Plant Parafoil or Full Flight gliders. Otherwise, anything that increases your chances of pulling a green shell works best, like Soaring Jack, Shell Parachute, or the Parafoil.

I haven’t been able to verify if lightning or the super horn works on the kadomatsu, so if you get a chance to try it out, let us know what happens!

Let us know what items you used, and be sure to also take a look at the rest of our Mario Kart Tour challenge guides including:

• Find the course with the most coins
• Earn a score of 9,000 using a driver with horns
• Break 5 jars in a single race
• How to take out 5 piranha plants
• Land 3 hits with Bowser’s Shell
• How to get bullet bill in Mario Kart Tour