Kirby Air Riders has a bunch of different machines for the characters to ride, all with their own quirks and strengths. You’ll only start with a few at the beginning, but you can unlock more just by playing the game.
There are three machines available at default: Warp Star, Wagon Star, and Winged Star. There are also two machines that are unlocked, but not usable in normal game modes: Flight Warp Star and Compact Star, the former limited to just free run and the latter being your starting vehicle in City Trial.
There are two ways to unlock machines. You can buy most of them from the Miles Shop and you can also earn them from the checklist achievement list. You only need to use one method to unlock the machine for use, but if you want to customize your vehicles, you’ll want to grab multiple of them.
Below we explain how to unlock all the machines in Kirby Air Riders, including the legendary air ride machines.
How to unlock all machines in Kirby Air Riders
Below, we list the cost in miles that you can buy each machine for, as well as the checklist unlock methods you can use to get these vehicles. Note that some of the checkboxes require you to complete specific courses or Stadiums, which we’ve also listed in the respective box.
If you’re looking to find details about the legendary air ride machines, we’ve broken them into a separate section, not only because they work differently, but because there are some major story spoilers. Scroll down below the following table for more information about them.
Machine
Miles cost
Unlock requirement #1
Unlock requirement #2
Unlock requirement #3
Battle Chariot
9,700 m
(Top Ride) Hit 2 riders at once with a Sensor Bomb
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Bulk Star
5,200 m
(Air Ride – Steamgust Forge) Break 3 pieces of cargo on the conveyor belts in a single race
(City Trial) Use 8 attack items in a single race
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Bull Tank
10,800 m
(City Trial – Dustup Derby) Win without being defeated at all
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Chariot
4,500 m
(Air Ride – Airtopia Ruins, Laps) Finish within 3:00.00
(Top Ride – Flow) Finish within 1:00.00
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Formula Star
14,400 m
(Air Ride – Galactic Nova, Laps) Finish without touching the energy columns around Nova’s core
(Top Ride) Finish without crashing into walls
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Hop Star
6,900 m
(Air Ride – Checker Knights) Fly over the wall to the road that leads to the castle
(Road Trip) Jump 10 times during Top Ride challenges
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Jet Star
6,600 m
(City Trial) Stray too far from Skyah’s edges and get struck by lightning
(Road Trip) Ride a total of 5,469 yd during Stadium challenges
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Paper Star
5,700 m
(Air Ride – Crystalline Fissure) Glide continuously for 3 sec. without landing
(City Trial – Air Glider) Fly a distance of 547 yd
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Rex Wheelie
8,800 m
(Air Ride – Waveflow Waters) Defeat 20 enemies in a single race
(Road Trip) Defeat 3 enemies with star-shaped projectiles in a single challenge
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Rocket Star
10,500 m
(City Trial) Swap to vacant machines 30 times
(Road Trip) Ride for 180 sec. during a Top Ride challenge
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Shadow Star
4,150 m
(Top Ride – Flower) Copy enemy abilities 2 times in a single race
(City Trial) Ride grind rails around the entire island once in a single match
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Slick Star
6,000 m
(Air Ride) Defeat 3 enemies by spitting out stars in a single race
(City Trial – Drag Race 1) Finish within 0:35.00
(Road Trip) Clear a Race challenge 10 times
Swerve Star
7,770 m
(Top Ride – Cyber) Win with at least 3 sec. between you and 2nd place
(Road Trip) Clear a Race challenge 10 times
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Tank Star
6,250 m
(Top Ride – Steam) Go through the hidden passage and finish within 0:55.00
(Road Trip) Perform perfect landings 2 times in an Air Ride challenge
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Transform Star
7,250 m
(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
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Turbo Star
12,500 m
(City Trial) Soar 110 yd up into the air and fly above the garden in the sky
(Road Trip) Clear Stadium challenges 3 times
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Vampire Star
8,400 m
(Road Trip) Defeat 15 kinds of enemies
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Wagon Star
3,600 m
(Air Ride – Cavernous Corners, Time) Complete a lap within 1:50.00
(Road Trip) Enter the shop 15 times
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Warp Star
3,200 m
(Air Ride – Nebula Belt, Laps) Finish in 1st place
(Top Ride) Finish after getting 10 different kinds of items
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Wheelie Bike
3,050 m
(City Trial) Swap to 3 different kinds of machines in a single match
(Road Trip) Clear City Trial challenges 3 times
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Wheelie Scooter
2,800 m
(Air Ride – Floria Fields, Laps) Finish in 1st place
(Top Ride – Flow) Finish a lap without crashing into walls more than 3 times
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Winged Star
3,800 m
(City Trial) Touch the underside of the garden in the sky
(Road Trip) Swap machines a total of 30 times
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How to unlock all legendary machines in Kirby Air Riders
Image: Bandai Namco Studios, Sora Ltd./Nintendo via Polygon
So, legendary air ride machines have some quirks. You can’t race with them in the regular modes, only in the “free run” versions of the maps where you can time your laps. You can get them in City Trial, though you’ll need to find all three pieces of the respective machine to actually use it in that round.
There are two new legendary machines in Kirby Air Riders: Gigantes and Leo. Dragoon and Hydra (the machines that were in the original game) are available right away, but if you want the two new ones, you’ll need to play the Road Trip game mode:
- For Gigantes, you’ll need to watch the normal ending in Road Trip, which just requires beating the game once normally.
- For Leo, you’ll need to defeat the true final boss and fill in at least 140 checklist blocks for Road Trip.
Once you meet each of those requirements, the pieces for those legendary machines will start appearing in your City Trial runs.
Gigantes, given how huge the machine is, can’t be ridden in free run modes (at least we didn’t find a way to), but the rest of them can be unlocked for free run by completing the following checkboxes in City Trial:
Machine
Unlock #1
Unlock #2
Unlock #3
Dragoon
Collect a total of 20 legendary-machine parts
Swap to vacant machines 100 times
Play 16 different kinds of Stadium contests
Hydra
Experience all field events
Power up all your machine’s stats to at least 12 in a single match
Touch down on all of the floating isles that appear around Skyah
Leo
Ride on Leo’s back
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