Some spotlight pipes are not worth it and others are really worth it, so I thought you guys might find it helpful when I always show here the current (and upcoming) spotlight pipes and give some more insights if you should spend your rubies for that pipe or wait for the next one.
Super Mario Kart Tour Spotlight Pipes
Spotlight Pipe Week #2
…coming soon when 2nd weeks starts…
Spotlight Pipe Week #1
In terms of retro value, the current spotlight pipe has huge value, but when looking at it game-wise… how much value will the current pipe bring to the table?
Overall Rating: 3/10
Let’s have a look what we can get here:
Driver (Value: 2/10): Mario (SNES) looks really cool and remember everyone to the first Mario Kart game, but has only very few feature courses and also no strong special item. The only reason to get him is either for retro reasons or because you have no other featured driver for the Ranked Cup in the first week of the Super Mario Kart Tour. Otherwise, really useless.
Kart (Value: 2/10): Same here with the 8-Bit Pipe Frame… only little featured tracks and the Mini-Turbo Boost Extra doesn’t make it much better in my opinion. Nothing else than optional.
Glider (Value: 5/10): The glider is actually average but nothing more. The special skill is okay and it has a decent amount of courses to use it with. But it will not stand out and not make this pipe much more valuable.
If you put that together I only recommend you to go for this pipe if you really want the retro style or really need it for the Ranked Cup, otherwise safe your rubies for the second week where we have a great Gold Pipe coming up!
Summer Festival Tour Spotlight Pipes
Spotlight Pipe Week #2
In the second part of the Summer Festival Tour, we will get a special pipe as well that has all Japanese inspired driver, karts and glider as the spotlight:
Overall Rating: 6/10
Let’s have a look what we can get here:
Driver (Value: 8/10): If you check out the latest version of my driver tier list here, you can see that the spotlight driver, Mario (Happi)/Peach (Kimono)/Mario (Hakama) are all in the upper half of the tier list and worth getting. Mario (Hakama) is probably the best one here also being very high in the tier list with a lot of featured courses and the Coin Box as special item. A nice choice, but remember that you will only get one of them before you need to reset the pipe!
Karts (Value: 4/10): The Glam Bruiser, Quickshaw and Kabuki Dasher are alright. The Kabuki Dasher has a good amount of featured courses as well as the Quickshaw but their special skills aren’t that great. I mean, if you pick them up while going for the spotlight driver they are still some solid picks. Always remember, karts have the lowest impact on your final score.
Glider (Value 4/10): With the Fireworks Parachute, the Purple Oilpaper Umbrella and the Full Flight are solid picks but not overwhelming. If you don’t have them, you will appreciate picking them up in case you need them for a Ranked Cup but none of them has the Coin Extra Special Skill and they also don’t have a ton of featured courses.
Overall, it’s a solid pipe and if you’re missing several of them and have the Rubies to spend you can go for it. It’s a 100 pull pipe and if you get lucky with the driver you can reset early. Never pull after you already got the spotlight driver!
In the second week of the Summer Festival Tour we will also see a Gold Pipe again and for those of you that want to pull, it’s all about karts from the B-Dasher class:
Overall Rating: 3/10
There’s no featured spotlight kart, all of the shown ones have the same chances and pulling one will empty the pipe so you need to refresh. Is it worth it?
In my opinion not really. First of all, you can’t know which one you will get and karts are the least important equipment to use in Mario Kart Tour when it comes to the final score – and spending your Rubies here isn’t worth it.
Spotlight Pipe Week #2 coming soon
Spotlight Pipe Week #1
Overall Rating: 4/10
You will see Daisy (Yakuta), the new driver for this tour, along with the Festival Girl kart and the Crimson Crane glider as the spotlight equipment to get. The pipe has 100 pulls so let’s have a closer look.
Daisy (Yakuta) (Value: 3/10): If you check out the latest version of my driver tier list here, you can see that Daisy (Yakuta) is pretty average. She has only 5(!) Tier 3 favored courses and that’s the least amount a High-End driver can have. Her special item, Fire Flower, is alright but also nothing very special. Just using her for Tokyo Blur, the first race in the Ranked Cup is not enough to really invest heavily here in this pipe.
Festival Girl Kart (Value: 3/10): Also not that special with only 4 favored courses and Jump Boost Plus. I mean, it’s nice to have but none of the courses has only little favored karts. If you pull it for free, why not, but that’s not enough for going for the pipe pulls here.
Crimson Crane (Value 6/10): actually a solid glider, although already in the game for some time. You have 11 favored courses and Red Shell Plus is not bad to have for some extra points. i’d rate him higher if he would have Coin Plus as special skill, but still a decent one. But this glider doesn’t make the pipe worth pulling, to be honest.
Cooking Tour Spotlight Pipes
Spotlight Pipe Week #2 (Gold Pipe)
This is the pipe we’ve all been waiting for with really cool. It has 50 pulls and that makes it already worth it, but the driver you can get here are top notch
Overall Rating: 10/10
Dry Bones and Gold Koopa have Coin Box as item and Bowser has the Bob-Omb Cannon and looks just freaking fantastic. I really love all three of them and you should save up all rubies to get the most out of this pipe!!
Spotlight Pipe Week #2 (Shy Guy Chef & Baby Peach Cherub)
This is the second spotlight pipe and with 6x High-End also a more decent one and also with more value if you haven’t unlocked the drivers so far.
Overall Rating: 7/10
Shy Guy (Pastry Chef) has 11 favored courses so you can be sure that it will be nice to have this guy and Mushroom Cannon can be a real powerful Frenzy if you can use it on a straight part and boost your combo up a ton.
Baby Peach (Cherub) has with Heart the least useful skill item but is with 14 favored courses also a driver that will be useful in the future as well.
Apple Kart with 9 favored tracks a solid kart but normally you can also find alternatives to this one.
Macharon Kart with 10 favored tracks a decent kart and the Jump Boost Plus makes it also nice to use. Not a mandatory kart but one that is useful to have.
Strawberry Crepe Glider a decent glider with Bob-Ombs as skill and 7 favored tracks also a one that you can use here and there. Still, not mandatory
Spotlight Pipe Week #1 (Mario Chef)
A spotlight pipe with 100 pulls (making it quite hard to get the desired ones) with 3x High-End. I have really mixed feelings about this pipe, looking at the pipes we will get in the second week of the Cooking Tour. I don’t recommend pulling this spotlight pipe unless you’re really pushing in the top tiers!
Overall Rating: 4/10
Mario (Chef) (Value 6/10) is a High-End driver and only has 4 favored courses, which is not really good. He has Lucky Seven as special skill, a really powerful skill that makes up a little bit for the lack of favored tracks.
What makes him really valuable is that you need him in the Ranked Cup in the first week, unless you have Dry Bones (Gold) that was only available for money or Pauline who was in spotlight in the first or second tour. Looking at this (and that fact that you should have saved up a good amount of rubies from the last tour if you followed my advice), makes him a decent option if you’re pushing in the upper Tiers.
Choco Macharon (Value 3/10) only has 3 featured courses, making him not a good kart at all. He’s one of three favored karts in Choco Island, however, and I doubt that you have the other karts.
Still, getting it is not mandatory in my opinion unless you really push in the Top 5% and go for Mario (Chef) anyway and get lucky to get it on the pulls. Still, I’m not really happy about this and karts have the lowest impact on your final ranking.
Chocolate Donut (Value 3/10) also has only three favored courses, one of them is Choco Island as well. But in this case you have two other gliders as option that you have been getting in the recent tours as gift.
Also not a glider that I would specifically go for. If you go for this pipe it’s a nice to have but for sure no mandatory as I don#t expect your opponents in Ranked Cup to have all featured items neither.
Jungle Tour Spotlight Pipes
Spotlight Pipe Week #2 (Dixie Kong)
Another 100 pulls spotlight pipe with 2x High-End and 1x Super. The first week spotlight pipe was for sure no pipe that you wanted to spend your rubies on (see below), so let’s have a look at the second spotlight pipe with Dixie Kong.
Overall Rating: 7/10
Dixie Kong (Value 7/10) has quite some good value as you very likely need her for Choco Island in the Ranked Cup unless you got Builder Mario from the Builder Tour (who already has a low value there).
Still, Choco Island will not be the track that will give you the big score in the Ranked Cup and she is not available in other Ranked Cup races. Still, with 6 spotlight tracks and a solid special item not a bad choice to get if you saved your rubies and want to spend them.
Offroader (Value 6/10) has 5 spotlight tracks and one of them is Mario Circuit that is in the Ranked Cup and where you only have other High-End karts available, making it not a bad thing to have, but no mandatory one as you can also use T2 kart and get a good score.
Flower Glider (Value 7/10) no new glider in the game but with 6 spotlight tracks not a bad Super glider plus useful in Vanilla Lake in the Ranked Cup. If you are a player with the Gold Pass or have the Gold Blooper you won’t need it, otherwise not a bad choice.
Final through: as you should have saved rubies from the first spotlight of the Jungle Tour, you can spend them in this spotlight. Dixie Kong is a nice driver and the other ones helpful for the Ranked Cup and have spotlight positions on several tracks making it worth the pulls.
Spotlight Pipe Week #1 (Funky Kong)
First of all, it’s a 100 pulls spotlight pipe so you will not have great odds pulling a spotlight High-End unless you spend 135 Rubies or more – those are in general spotlight pipes that are not that great, but let’s have a closer look at the things you can get.
Overall Rating: 4/10
Funky Kong (Value: 3/10) has only spotlight in 3 tracks and those are the ones where you can also use Donkey Kong or Dry Bowser, a driver that you have very likely at a higher skill level and they are also available in the shop. 
Also, Funky Kong is only available as spotlight in the Ranked Cup in the first week once and also once in the Ranked Cup for the second week (Diddy Kong Cup), where you can also substitute with Diddy Kong. In my opinion not worth it at all.
Bolt Buggy (Value: 2/10) is a super rarity kart and has 4 spotlight tracks but karts aren’t that important for a high score compared to driver and glider. Also, you have other karts here that you can use in the Ranked Cups in the Jungle Tour.
In the Ranked Cup of the first week, you have it quite prominent for Choco Island, but as this will be the track with the lowest high score and the kart not being that important you can skip it without any bad feelings. In the Ranked Cup Week #2, Vanilla Lake 11R offers 7 karts in spotlight position with 5 of them of super rarity, so no problem skipping it here.
Banana Wingtip (Value: 6/10) also has only 3 tracks as spotlight glider. From all the items that can be the only useful one with Choco Island for a nice combo boost. Not mandatory, though and for Ranked Cup Week #2 you have plenty other options as well.
Final through: don’t spend your rubies here unless you really want Funky Kong right now! You can make up for this with Donkey Kong, Bowser and Diddy Kong.
