DS Desert Hills

DS Desert Hills is the first course in the Leaf Cup in the Retro Tracks. This is a course which is perhaps somewhat straightforward apart from the shroomspot. Its course abbreviation is rDH.

Character and vehicle combination
Funky Kong is the best character to use here, once again due to his speed bonus.

The best vehicle to use here remains a subject of debate. The world record has used two vehicles in recent times, Torpedo/Spear and the Bowser Bike/Flame Runner. The world record currently uses the Torpedo/Spear. However, the Bowser Bike/Flame Runner is considered by many to be the easier choice.

Strategy
A double trick can be performed on the big ramp by pressing jump before the edge, tricking, and tricking again at the edge.

Perhaps one of the biggest issues with this course is controling the bouncing on the turn before the trick. By learning when to hop, these bounces can be eliminated, making it much easier to control the drift and charge a fast mini turbo.

The other big issue here is the shroom spot. The mushroom is used to bounce over the two large hills towards the end of the course, saving significant time. It is important that you do not hop onto the first hill too much to the left, as this will launch you far too high to bounce over the second hill afterwards.

If learnt well, it is possible to bounce over the second hill very low, which is quite rewarding if done correctly.

For the flap, the first mushroom should be used on the turn before the big ramp, the second one on the normal shroomspot, and the last one to cut the last turn.

Advanced strategies
The fastest way of all to take the shroom spot is to hop onto the first hill, use the mushroom and then hold the wheelie all the way until you are past the second hill. However, this is highly dpeendant on luck and does not happen so often, with an extra bounce required on the first hill to finalize the necessary angle.

Glitch
There is in fact a glitch present on this course, which is only thought to be beneficial for the flap. It requires landing on the wall by shrooming from a hill towards the end of the course, driving past the start/finish line checkpoint whilst on the wall and finally, leaving the wall at its other end without being picked up by Lakitu by getting a strange bounce from the sand. The final phase of this glitch is very difficult.

The glitch is demonstrated in this video:



This glitch has yet to be used in a world record.

There is another glitch that is possible by turning sharply to the right just after the starting line. By going slightly into the off-road and lining up your character very precisely, it is possible to use a mushroom and perform a wall-clip that launches the player over the lake, saving multiple seconds. This is a very difficult glitch to perform and requires pixel-perfect precision.