Kirby Air Riders Unlock Machines Guide – Complete List

Racing through Kirby Air Riders isn’t just about dodging the competition or perfecting your turns—it’s about mastering a variety of machines, each with its own unique quirks that can rewrite your racing strategy. Selecting the right vehicle can transform how you approach every race and challenge, so unlocking all the machines available can open up fresh gameplay styles and options to suit your skills or mood.

Most machines unlock through completing specific challenges scattered across the game’s different modes. If you collect duplicates, you’ll earn spares that can be customized, but if customization isn’t a priority, focusing on the unlocking methods that fit your gameplay style will streamline your progress.

The Miles Shop acts as a convenient hub for purchasing machines using Miles, the in-game currency earned simply by playing. Buying machines here can be ideal if you want to stock multiple vehicles quickly and customize them immediately, as purchased machines become available across all game modes once acquired.

Each machine carries a specific price tag in Miles, so planning which vehicles to purchase and which to unlock through gameplay challenges is a smart way to manage your resources. Here’s a comprehensive list of all machine costs, ranked from cheapest to priciest:

• Wheelie Scooter – 2,800 Miles
• Wheelie Bike – 3,050 Miles
• Warp Star – 3,200 Miles
• Wagon Star – 3,600 Miles
• Flight Warp Star – 3,600 Miles
• Winged Star – 3,800 Miles
• Shadow Star – 4,150 Miles
• Chariot – 4,500 Miles
• Bulk Star – 5,200 Miles
• Paper Star – 5,700 Miles
• Slick Star – 6,000 Miles
• Tank Star – 6,250 Miles
• Jet Star – 6,600 Miles
• Hop Star – 6,900 Miles
• Transform Star – 7,250 Miles
• Swerve Star – 7,770 Miles
• Vampire Star – 8,400 Miles
• Rex Wheelie – 8,800 Miles
• Battle Chariot – 9,700 Miles
• Rocket Star – 10,500 Miles
• Bull Tank – 10,800 Miles
• Formula Star – 14,400 Miles
• Total cost for all machines: 142,970 Miles

• Wheelie Scooter – 2,800 Miles
• Wheelie Bike – 3,050 Miles
• Warp Star – 3,200 Miles
• Wagon Star – 3,600 Miles
• Flight Warp Star – 3,600 Miles
• Winged Star – 3,800 Miles
• Shadow Star – 4,150 Miles
• Chariot – 4,500 Miles
• Bulk Star – 5,200 Miles
• Paper Star – 5,700 Miles
• Slick Star – 6,000 Miles
• Tank Star – 6,250 Miles
• Jet Star – 6,600 Miles
• Hop Star – 6,900 Miles
• Transform Star – 7,250 Miles
• Swerve Star – 7,770 Miles
• Vampire Star – 8,400 Miles
• Rex Wheelie – 8,800 Miles
• Battle Chariot – 9,700 Miles
• Rocket Star – 10,500 Miles
• Bull Tank – 10,800 Miles
• Formula Star – 14,400 Miles
  • Total – 142,970 Miles

Unlocking all the machines requires completing mode-based challenges, and the key to success is understanding what each task demands. Focusing on the conditions like race placement, item collection, or specific course objectives will get you that new ride faster. Below, machines are organized with their unique unlock requirements so you can tackle them systematically.

• Warp Star
• Air Ride: Nebula Belt (Laps) – Finish 1st place in a race
• Top Ride – Finish after collecting 10 different types of items

The Warp Star unlock in Air Ride hinges on first unlocking the Nebula Belt track, which itself requires beating 15 races on Galactic Nova. You also need to complete a lap on Galactic Nova while defeating five enemy types to gain access to Nebula Belt. Winning on Nebula Belt then grants Warp Star. In Top Ride, turning on ‘Many’ items and longer laps makes reaching 10 different items easier, so tailor your settings accordingly.

Warp Star

• Air Ride: Nebula Belt (Laps) – Finish in 1st place
• Top Ride – Finish after getting 10 different kinds of items

To unlock Warp Star from the Air Ride checklist, you’ll need to unlock the Nebula Belt course first. You have to unlock the Galactic Nova course first by winning a total of 15 races. Then select Galactic Nova with the laps ruleset and complete a lap after defeating 5 types of enemies to unlock Nebula Belt. Finally, select the Nebula Belt course with the laps ruleset and win a race.

Unlocking Warp Star from Top Ride requires finishing a race after getting 10 different items. The best way to do this is by changing the rules and setting the items to Many. You could also race on a course that has long laps, as well as increase the number of laps.

Wing Star

• Wing Star
• City Trial: Field – Touch the underside of the garden in the sky
• Road Trip – Change machines 30 times total

To grab Wing Star in City Trial, you need to reach the underside of the floating garden. Using flight-capable vehicles like Warp Star or Paper Star helps you gain enough height or glide, especially if you find ramps or high points like rooftops or volcanoes to launch yourself. In Road Trip, swapping machines 30 times might sound tedious, but exploring garages with many empty machines speeds this up significantly.

To unlock Wing Star from City Trial, you have to touch the bottom of the garden in the sky. To do this, it’s best to find a machine with great flight capabilities like Warp Star, Paper Star, or Wing Star. Then you can build up glide power-ups, find a ramp or ledge to boost off, then tilt your left stick back to hit the bottom of the garden. Finding a high place to start like the buildings or volcano will help too.

Shadow Star

• Shadow Star
• Top Ride: Flower – Copy enemy abilities twice in one race
• City Trial: Field – Ride all grind rails around the island in one match

Copying two enemy abilities during a race on Flower means focusing on picking attack items exclusively, increasing the chance to get ability copies. For City Trial, the grind rails form a loop on Skyah’s border—jump on these rails and follow them completely once to unlock Shadow Star.

You have to copy enemy abilities twice in Top Ride’s Flower course to unlock Shadow Star. You can leave only attack items on to force copy abilities to spawn more while omitting the safer items.

In City Trial, Shadow Star is unlocked by riding all the grind rails around the island. If you ride anywhere along the border of Skyah, you can find a pair of grind rails going left or right. Just hop on one and stick to them until you’ve gone around the whole island.

Wagon Star

• Wagon Star
• Air Ride: Cavernous Corners (Time) – Complete a lap within 1:50
• Road Trip – Enter 15 shops

The timed lap on Cavernous Corners challenges you to finish fast, so speed and aggression against enemies will matter. In Road Trip, shops are marked on the minimap with shopping bag icons—simply stopping by 15 times over multiple stages nets this unlock comfortably.

Completing a lap within one minute and 50 seconds on Air Ride’s Cavernous Corners, with the rules set to time, will unlock Wagon Star. A lap doesn’t take that much time to finish normally, so as long as nothing’s slowing you down too much, completing this won’t be an issue. But defeating enemies and damaging other riders will help boost you to the end quicker.

While playing Road Trip, you have to enter the shop 15 times to unlock Wagon Star. The shop spots on each stage are indicated by the shopping bag icon on the roadmap on the bottom left. Just stop by each one you see and you’ll get this done eventually.

Slick Star

• Slick Star
• Air Ride – Defeat 3 enemies by spitting stars in a single race
• City Trial: Drag Race 1 – Finish within 35 seconds

Spitting stars to defeat enemies requires inhaling foes that don’t grant Copy Abilities and then using the star attack on others. If you ever grab a Copy Ability here, spam the Y button to cancel it. For Drag Race 1, a machine with a strong top speed will help you breeze through the challenge in time.

To unlock Slick Star from Air Ride, you must defeat 3 enemies in a race by spitting out stars. This requires inhaling an enemy and attacking another enemy with the star-shaped projectile. Make sure the enemy you inhale or capture can’t give you a Copy Ability. If you end up with one, repeatedly press Y to get rid of it.

While playing City Trial’s Drag Race 1 contest, you must finish within 35 seconds to unlock Slick Star. As long as you’re hitting some boost pads, this shouldn’t be a problem either. If you use a machine with decent top speed, you can even put the controller down and complete this challenge.

Formula Star

• Formula Star
• Air Ride: Galactic Nova (Laps) – Finish without touching energy columns around Nova’s core
• Top Ride – Finish without crashing into walls

After unlocking Galactic Nova by winning 15 Air Ride races, focus on racing while avoiding the bright, moving energy columns near the course’s core heart-shaped crystal. Good mobility machines make this more manageable. For Top Ride, clean driving without wall crashes finishes the unlock quickly.

You must first unlock the Galactic Nova course before you can unlock Formula Star from Air Ride. You do this by winning 15 Air Ride races. After you’ve unlocked the course, you have to race on it with the rules set to laps and complete the race without touching Nova’s energy columns around their core. Nova’s core is a heart-shaped crystal, and the energy columns are the beams of light that will move along that part of the course, so use a machine with good mobility.

Bulk Star

• Bulk Star
• Air Ride: Steamgust Forge – Break 3 cargo on conveyor belts in one race
• City Trial: Field – Use 8 attack items in one race

On Steamgust Forge, the conveyor belts with cargo come early but don’t appear often, so upping the lap count helps get more chances to break three cargo boxes. Meanwhile, stacking eight attack items during City Trial isn’t tricky if you seek out item pickups actively and adjust time limits if necessary.

While racing on Steamgust Forge, you have to break three pieces of cargo on the conveyor belts in one race to get the Bulk Star from Air Ride. The conveyor belts are found pretty early in the race. but you don’t have many opportunities to pass them. Try increasing the number of laps if you need more chances to break the cargo.

While playing City Trial, picking up eight attack items will give you the Bulk Star. Just be on the lookout for many different items and pick up all that you can. Once again, you can change the rules to increase the amount of time if you need to.

Rocket Star

• Rocket Star
• City Trial: Field – Swap to 30 vacant machines
• Road Trip: Top Ride – Ride for 180 seconds in a Top Ride challenge

Swapping vacant machines in City Trial is easier if you hit garages in the city where many empty machines spawn together. The time-based Road Trip Top Ride challenge is straightforward — choose a durable machine, stay on course, and keep riding for three minutes without interruptions.

To unlock Rocket Star from City Trial, you have to swap to unoccupied machines a total of 30 times. You don’t have to do this in one race, so you’ll eventually unlock this as you continue playing the mode regularly. But if you go to the garages under the city, you can possibly find many vacant machines at once to complete this a lot quicker.