Patch

This article is about power-ups that appear in City Trial mode of Kirby Air Ride. For the environmental element in Kirby's Epic Yarn, see Environment#Patch

Kirby Air Ride screenshot
Patch
Name (JA)	パワーアップアイテム (Pawā Appu Aitemu)
- Meaning	Power Up Item パワー = Power, アップ = Up, アイテム = Item
In Games
Type	Power-up
Properties	Provides various boosts and debuffs

Patches (or Power Ups) are special items that appear in City Trial mode in Kirby Air Ride. There are various types of patches: some slightly change the stats on Kirby's Air Ride Machine until the end of the match, while others provide larger stat changes but for a much more limited time, others grant special attacks and effects, and others give Copy Abilities. Depending on their type, they can be obtained from different colors of boxes, but they can also appear by themselves anywhere in the city.

Power-Up/Power-Down

This type of patch appears from Blue Boxes. These are patches that, once collected, stay on Kirby's machine until the end of the match unless they are lost, which can happen by taking damage or switching machines. Their general purpose is to upgrade Kirby's machine to heighten the player's chances of winning the Stadium contest that is played after the city.

Any of these patches except the HP and All Up Patches may be colored gray instead of their usual color. These are Power-Down patches, and they will downgrade Kirby's machine in their respective parameter.

There is also an event during City Trial that causes some fake Power-Up patches to appear. These decrease a machine's stats, and also cause some damage.

Offense Patch

This patch raises a machine's offense. Offense is important for causing greater damage and thus disable other machines more quickly. This power-up is handy on stronger machines like the Shadow Star, or the Swerve Star for quick winning in a melee.

Defense Patch

This one raises a machine's defense. Defense is good for withstanding high amounts of damage. A machine with good defense and health often prevails over the others. Its appearance is based on a shield, an item used for protection. Putting this power up on a machine like Bulk Star, or the Rex Wheelie will make the player very hard to take out, which is especially useful in a melee.

Top Speed Patch

This one raises a machine's top speed. Top Speed is good for winning drag races and avoiding opponents. It goes well with the Boost power up. Its appearance is based on a meteor. The player should get this power up to stars like the Winged Star to help with drag races.

Turn Patch

This one aids a machine's handling. Turning is important for going past sharp corners and turns, as well as avoiding damage from the environment. Its appearance is an arrow turning at 360 degrees. When the player hops on a Star that doesn't turn well, like a Slick Star or a Swerve Star, the player should get plenty of these to make it handle better.

Charge Patch

This one raises a machine's charging speed, making it charge faster. Charging is good for accelerating quicker and winning races. It is best combined with a Boost Patch. It is based on a battery. The player should apply this to stars like the Bulk Star to make accelerating and winning a drag race a lot easier.

Boost Patch

This one raises how much speed a machine gets when it lets out a boost after charging. Boosting is good for accelerating to top speed faster than normal. It looks like a dash panel. This power up should be applied to stars like the Formula Star for drag racing.

Glide Patch

This one raises a machine's ability to glide. Gliding is good for getting to higher places easier. If Kirby lands perfectly after gliding, he will get a slight boost of speed. It appears to be a pair of wings. The player should apply this power up to stars like the Rocket Star for excellent air time in the Air Glide Stadium. It is important to combine this with speed.

Weight Patch

This one raises a machine's weight. Weight is important for balancing Glide and gives resistance to a vehicle being knocked back when hit with an attack (complimenting Defense and HP). When Kirby gets weight, the gliding arc that take off produces becomes more straight so more time is spent going forward instead of up. The patch itself appears to be a weight.

In events such as Air Glider and High Jump, it can be desirable to get negative Weight patches.

HP Patch

This one raises a machine's stamina. It is one of the rarest and most important power ups in the game. Stamina is very important to a machine; if the machine's stamina is depleted, it will explode, and the player will have to find a new one. It appears to be a heart shape. The HP gain is by percent - machines with higher native hit points gain more per patch. HP makes fragile machines like the Winged Star more balanced, and defense/offense-oriented machines really difficult to take out.

Every HP patch increases a machine's HP by 18.75% of its base HP, which varies by machine. Since the maximum number of HP Patches the player can have is 16, that makes the maximum possible HP for a given machine 400% of the base HP.

All Up Patch

The All Patch raises every stat on a machine by one. It is the ultimate Patch, and is the rarest of them all. Only a few of them, if any, appear in an entire run through of City Trial. Most of these patches can be obtained through the events that occur throughout the city such as the Dyna Blade, U.F.O. (where it always appears in the center of the U.F.O.) and TAC events, or, very rarely, inside a Blue box or the Star Pedestal. 6 of them can appear at once in the castle's secret room, but they will disappear very quickly. While incredibly rare, they also appear during the Item Bounce event in varying locations. They also may rarely show up when the player has an abundance of other Patches and they take a hit, or switch vehicles.

In stadium events such as Air Glider and High Jump, the all patch does very little to help the machine's performance in the event, as it raises both weight and glide equally.

Quick Fix

This type of patch usually changes a machine's stat by a much larger amount than regular Power-Up or Power-Down patches, but only for a short amount of time. Some have other, non-offensive effect. They can be obtained from Green Boxes.

Mock Attack

This one maximizes a machine's offense. This should be used to quickly destroy other machines and boxes with ease before it wears off.

Mock Guard

This one maximizes a machine's defense. With this, the player briefly doesn't need to worry about damage before it wears off.

Mock Speed

This patch temporarily increases top speed and boost stats. It can be useful in a number of situations.

Super Charge

This maximizes a machine's charging speed, top speed and boost, allowing Kirby's Machine to travel much faster than his opponents. At full speed, Kirby's machine can break any destructible object by running into it.

Speed Down

This one temporarily decreases speed.

Charge Cut

This item temporarily reduces top speed and disables the ability to charge-up and boost.

Candy

Kirby becomes invulnerable to all attacks. The player can use this to ride through a blast radius or a bunch of Golden Spikes and make it out unscathed.

Special Offense

These do nothing to the machine's stats, but temporarily give Kirby a special attacking ability. They can be found in Green Boxes.

Panic Spin

This makes Kirby spin his machine out of control until the time frame runs out. This ability, although it somewhat hinders handling, also makes Kirby inapproachable and it becomes easier to destroy other machines and break boxes. After picking up the ability, it can be used in conjunction with other abilities like Fire or Fireworks in which Kirby can't control accuracy of the projectiles.

Sensor Bomb

Kirby receives one timed sensor bomb to plant in the ground. It detonates once the timer runs out whether Kirby is still holding it or if its already in the ground, or when planted, whenever a player moves over it. Planting it quickly after picking it up will make its location visible (to all players) via pulsing circles. Waiting several seconds and then planting will render it completely invisible. If Kirby is on a machine that can tilt back, the player is able to throw the bomb ahead by tilting back and tapping the A button. A bomb can be thrown further depending on how far back the machine can tilt.

Gold Spike

Kirby receives three Gordos to throw at his opponents. Once thrown, they grow to a titanic size and linger in the spot they landed in for just over 10 seconds and then disappear. The spikes go through walls. Golden spikes do relatively high damage, and are especially effective in confined spaces.

The thrown Gordo stops growing should Kirby's throw be interrupted halfway, such as the machine being hit, but they still do the same amount of damage.

Fireworks

This one gives Kirby an orange cannon that he holds above his head and fires continuously until the time frame runs out. The player can easily break boxes and destroy other machines with this.

Copy Panels

These Patches, like the previous type, have nothing to do with the machine's stats. These are Copy Ability patches. Because there are no enemies who give any Copy Abilities in City Trial, Kirby must rely on these small Patches that he finds in Red Boxes to gain his powers.

Bomb Source

This Patch bestows the explosive Bomb ability when obtained. With it, Kirby will be able to toss a single bomb in the direction he is facing using the R button. Press and hold the R button to increase the power gauge, which denotes how far Kirby will throw the bomb. If not charged at all, Kirby will throw the bomb close to himself. If fully charged the bomb will be thrown very far away. If attacked while charging, there is a probable chance that Kirby will drop it immediately, causing it to explode at the spot where Kirby took damage.

After landing, Bomb causes an explosion that slowly grows in area, dealing damage to any player that steps into its vicinity multiple times if they stay in it. The explosion goes through walls. In City Trial, Bomb can be used to break many boxes at once.

Fire Source

This Patch bestows the Fire ability when obtained. By pressing the A button, Kirby lets loose a ball of fire that can damage opponents as its flying. If the ball of fire hits no one and lands on the floor, it leaves behind a fiery spot that deals damage if an opponents speeds into it. The A button is the same button used to charge the boost meter and this changes how far Kirby will launch the ball of fire. The farther it is launched, the bigger the fire ball becomes and thus the bigger the fiery spot it creates.

Freeze Source

This Patch bestows the Freeze ability when obtained. Press and hold the A button for Kirby to surround himself in a cyclone of freezing wind, causing damage to nearby opponents and freezing them. Freeze freezes the opponent once, and ceases to be effective until they have thawed, but frozen players are vulnerable to other forms of attacks.

Sleep Source

This Patch bestows the Sleep ability when obtained, and control over the machine is lost while its rider is sleeping. Mashing buttons will make Kirby wake up faster. Colliding with any player with Sleep will cause both players to acquire the status. Two players with Sleep colliding with each other will usually result in none or one or both taking varying amounts of damage.

Wheel Source

This Patch bestows the Wheel ability when obtained. Kirby and his Air Ride Machine transform into a Wheel, giving him all properties of the Wheelie class vehicles. Includes: Increased top speed, increased turn speed, increased attack power (spinning becomes quite deadly), boost pads and other ground-based items are touched automatically, and smaller collision size (unless the player is using the Compact Star or Wheelie Scooter, they are roughly the same size). When holding the A button to charge, anything directly in front of a Kirby with Wheel will start taking damage very rapidly. This can be quite dangerous however, since all other abilities outrange Wheel.

Wing Source

This Patch bestows the Wing ability when obtained. Kirby loses his Air Ride Machine and gains the ability of flight. Wing has good speed and control both on the ground and is even better in the air, making it useful should the player's machine lack turning capabilities or glide. Wing handles like Meta Knight and does not charge, with Kirby planting a foot on the ground to create traction. Performing the quick-spin while using Wing does not cause Kirby to lose nearly as much speed as if he had performed it on a machine.

Plasma Source

This Patch bestows the Plasma ability when obtained. Kirby starts to gather energy using any input from the D-pad or joystick. He can build five stages of power, each one stronger than the previous, but requiring more power to use. Pressing the R button uses the attack and resets the power gauge. Plasma has a hidden counter that counts how much power Plasma uses. When the counter hits a certain amount, Plasma is removed from Kirby automatically.

1. Shoots three bullets in front of Kirby.
2. Shoots a lot of bullets that are spread in front of Kirby.
3. Shoots three bolts of plasma that travel far and fast.
4. Shoots a homing plasma spear that travels very far and fast.
5. Shoots a huge, homing sphere of plasma that is a little slow, but travels far.

Tornado Source

This Patch bestows the Tornado ability when obtained. It is activated by performing the quick spin or by completely charging the boost gauge. Tornado increases the potency of quick spin - it has longer range, duration, and causes other vehicles to go flying a short distance away if hit. Like Freeze, Tornado only hits a vehicle once (causing it to spin), and only affects it again once its own effect wears off. Against players, Tornado can be disorienting, as the camera can change direction erratically while under the effect. While Kirby is dizzy he can still move, but the A button is disabled momentarily.

Sword Source

This Patch bestows the Sword ability when obtained. Kirby equips himself with a sword and slashes opponents (or boxes) in front of him. This ability is automatic; Sword activates so long as an attackable object is in front of Kirby. The attack range is pretty short (comparable to Freeze), but Sword lasts for a certain amount of time so players can attack as many times as they wish.

Needle Source

This Patch bestows the Needle ability when obtained. Pressing the A button causes Kirby to cover himself in retractable spikes, dealing damage to any opponent within range. Holding the A button causes Kirby to keep the spikes out. Needle runs on a timer - the number of activations do not affect how long Kirby keeps the ability. It is especially useful in defeating King Dedede very quickly in the event VS. King Dedede.

Mike Source

This Patch bestows the Mike ability when obtained. Kirby lets loose an amplified scream, dealing damage to all attackable objects (opponents, boxes, enemies, etc.) in a very wide area around him multiple times. If opponents are damaged, they are sent flying. Since every hit causes lift, it can send opponents really high depending on the glide and weight of the machine they are using. Mike by itself does not do a lot of damage, but it is affected by the offense power of a machine.

Artwork

Kirby: Planet Robobot (sticker)

Kirby: Planet Robobot (sticker)

Kirby: Planet Robobot (sticker)

Kirby: Planet Robobot (sticker)