Kirby Air Riders treats its roster like one big celebration of the series: 21 racers pulled from main characters, classic enemies, and deep-cut bosses. Only four are playable from the start. Everyone else has to be earned by meeting specific conditions in modes like Road Trip, Air Ride, Top Ride, and City Trial.
Every character can be unlocked through the game’s mission “checklists” tied to each major mode. Some riders have multiple challenges spread across different modes; you only need to clear one of their conditions once to add them to your roster.
Starter characters (unlocked from the beginning)
Four riders are available as soon as you boot up Kirby Air Riders. They still appear on checklists, but those objectives give you alternate colours instead of the base character.
| Rider | How to use them | Checklist notes |
|---|---|---|
| Kirby | Selectable immediately in all relevant modes. | Air Ride checklist has a “Laps” mission that asks you to finish a race without hitting walls; completing it adds an entry for Kirby and can award extra colours. |
| King Dedede | Selectable immediately. | Appears as “Starter” on the character unlock list. |
| Meta Knight | Selectable immediately. | Appears as “Starter” on the character unlock list. |
| Waddle Dee | Selectable immediately. | Appears as “Starter” on the character unlock list. |
Use these four to start clearing mode-specific missions and filling out your checklists; every other rider is tied to these objectives in some way.
How character unlocking works in Kirby Air Riders
Every major mode has its own checklist. Character icons on those boards act as unlocks or recolours:
- Checklist tiles with a green background and a rider silhouette are character rewards.
- Completing the objective once adds that rider if you don’t already have them.
- Completing a checklist objective for a rider you already own gives you a duplicate that unlocks an alternate colour.
Most alternate colours are purely cosmetic. Kirby is the exception: Kirby’s colour changes their Special, so repeat unlocks for Kirby have gameplay implications as well as visual ones.
Characters can show up on more than one checklist (for example, they may have both a Road Trip condition and a Top Ride condition). Any of those conditions is enough to add them permanently.
Full Kirby Air Riders roster and unlock requirements
The table below lists every rider currently in Kirby Air Riders, along with at least one known way to unlock them and the most practical mode to do it in.
| Rider | Primary mode / checklist | Unlock condition |
|---|---|---|
| Kirby | Starter / Air Ride checklist | Available from the start. Air Ride “Laps” mission tracks a run where you finish without crashing into any walls; clearing it counts toward Kirby entries and recolours. |
| King Dedede | Starter | Playable immediately; checklist entries award recolours only. |
| Meta Knight | Starter | Playable immediately; checklist entries award recolours only. |
| Waddle Dee | Starter | Playable immediately; checklist entries award recolours only. |
| Susie | Road Trip / Air Ride | Road Trip: hit 3 enemies with a single attack in one go. Air Ride: perform 5 perfect landings in a single race. |
| Chef Kawasaki | Road Trip | Complete three Air Ride-type challenges while playing Road Trip (pick red-coded challenges on the route). There is also an alternate Air Ride method involving specific food near the end of Mount Amberfalls. |
| Knuckle Joe | Road Trip | Raise every Road Trip stat to at least level 1 during a run. Stat orbs picked up on the road count; this usually happens naturally over repeated routes. |
| Rocky | Road Trip / Top Ride | Road Trip: open a treasure chest that appears on the road. Top Ride: use a total of 30 items across races. |
| Bandana Waddle Dee | Road Trip / City Trial | Road Trip: clear three Top Ride-type challenges on your route (orange-coded tiles). City Trial: destroy two item boxes within 30 seconds in a single match. |
| Rick | Road Trip | Visit the shop three times while playing Road Trip. Shops appear as route events; visit them across multiple runs if needed. |
| Lololo and Lalala | Checklist mission | Defeat 10 riders who are currently racing on star-type machines. Target Warp Star, Slick Star, Jet Star, Shadow Star, and other star-class machines when you see them. |
| Daroach | Top Ride | Win a Top Ride race after lapping at least one other rider. Using a fast machine such as Wheelie Bike and setting CPU difficulty to the lowest level makes this straightforward. |
| Cappy | City Trial / Top Ride | City Trial: finish a match without collecting any power-down items (greyed-out stat icons). Top Ride: on the Flower course, complete a lap within 0:30.00 using Warp Star. |
| Taranza | City Trial / Air Ride | City Trial: win a “short race” stadium event at the end of a match. Air Ride: ride a total of 5,000 miles on the Beanstalk Park course; accumulated distance eventually unlocks Taranza. |
| Waddle Doo | Air Ride | Complete an Air Ride race on Floria Fields without colliding with any enemies. Running only one CPU opponent and choosing a controllable machine like Swerve Star helps. |
| Marx | Road Trip | Spend a cumulative total of 300,000 Road Miles. Road Miles are earned by completing races in Road Trip; expect at least two full playthroughs to reach this total. |
| Star Man | Top Ride | Finish four laps in first place on the Crystal map in Top Ride. Low CPU difficulty and extra laps keep this requirement manageable. |
| Scarfy | Air Ride | Defeat an enemy Scarfy without enraging it. Strong single-hit attacks, such as King Dedede’s quick strike, can knock it out before it transforms. |
| Gooey | Top Ride | Win a Top Ride race after being pulled into the stage’s tornado three times in that same match. Increase lap count and deliberately drive into the tornado whenever it appears. |
| Magolor | Top Ride | Hit another rider twice with the Drill Driver pickup within a single Top Ride race. Running many laps against a single CPU gives more chances; a well-aimed Drill Dive can hit more than once. |
| Magolor (naming note) | In some menus the name appears as “Magolor”; in others it may use “Magalor.” The character and unlock conditions are the same. | |
| Cappy (checklist detail) | On the Top Ride checklist, Cappy sits on the Flower course entry; on the City Trial checklist, Cappy is tied to a Field match with no power-downs. | |
| Rocky (checklist detail) | On the Top Ride checklist, Rocky’s tile tracks 30 total item uses; on the Road Trip checklist, it tracks opening a road chest. | |
| Daroach (checklist detail) | On the Top Ride checklist, Daroach’s tile specifically calls out “win after lapping 1 other rider.” | |
| Cappy (Air/City cross‑unlock) | Either Flower 0:30.00 in Top Ride or a clean, no-power-down City Trial “Field” match is enough; you do not need both. | |
| Noir Dedede | Road Trip | Clear Road Trip’s true ending. Road Trip has a standard ending and a hidden route; completing the conditions for the latter unlocks Noir Dedede as a secret character. |
Checklist structure and duplicate unlocks
The checklists for Air Ride, Top Ride, City Trial, and Road Trip all follow the same general pattern:
- Each tile describes a specific objective (time targets, item counts, race conditions, etc.).
- Tiles that unlock characters are coloured green and show a silhouette of the rider on the right edge.
- Completing a green tile the first time adds that rider to your collection.
- Completing it again (or fulfilling alternate mode conditions for the same rider) adds a duplicate copy that turns into a new colour.
Because every non-secret rider can be unlocked through multiple checklists, you effectively have up to four chances to earn them offline: one in each of the main mode boards. An online checklist exists separately but does not gate unique characters.
How alternate colours work for riders
Every time you obtain a rider you already unlocked, that duplicate turns into an alternate colour. Over time, you can fill out a small set of palettes for each character.
- For most riders, colours are cosmetic only.
- For Kirby, each colour is tied to a different Special move, so chasing Kirby duplicates has a mechanical impact.
- For supporting casts like Bandana Waddle Dee or Rick, colours are primarily for personal preference and visual variety.
If you see a character icon attached to a mission you’ve clearly already met the conditions for, the reward will still be useful: it pushes you further toward their full colour set.
Road Trip, Air Ride, Top Ride, and City Trial: which mode to use for which rider
Many characters can be unlocked in more than one way, but some modes lend themselves to quick clears.
| Mode | Best targets | Why it’s efficient |
|---|---|---|
| Road Trip | Susie, Chef Kawasaki, Knuckle Joe, Rocky, Bandana Waddle Dee, Rick, Marx, Noir Dedede | Road Trip strings together Air Ride and Top Ride challenges while also tracking long-term stats like Road Miles, shops visited, and route events such as treasure chests. It is the only way to unlock Noir Dedede via the true ending. |
| Air Ride | Kirby recolours, Susie (alternate), Waddle Doo, Scarfy, Taranza (alternate), some checklist times | Traditional racing format makes it easy to control CPU count, machine choice, and track, which helps with “no enemy collisions” or “perfect landing” requirements. |
| Top Ride | Rocky (alternate), Daroach, Cappy (alternate), Star Man, Gooey, Magolor | Short overhead races with simple layouts are ideal for repetitive, condition-based tasks: using items a set number of times, triggering tornadoes, or landing Drill Driver hits. |
| City Trial | Cappy, Taranza (primary), Bandana Waddle Dee (alternate) | City Trial’s open arena and timed events are suited to avoiding power-downs, hunting boxes in a short window, and aiming for a specific stadium event such as a short race. |
For most players, Road Trip is the natural starting point. It feeds progress into several characters at once and eventually unlocks the true ending required for Noir Dedede.
Using the character list as a checklist companion
Kirby Air Riders also maintains a simple roster view that shows all 20 base riders plus Noir Dedede. This list is useful alongside the mode checklists:
- Locked riders appear as silhouettes until you meet at least one of their conditions.
- Once unlocked, their individual pages show flavour details along with their default machine and stats.
- From the roster, you can quickly see which characters remain greyed out and then hunt their coloured checklist tiles in any mode you enjoy.
Working across multiple modes is usually the fastest approach. A single evening of Road Trip can unlock several Road Trip-specific characters, while short Top Ride sessions can knock out targeted conditions like Daroach’s lapping requirement or Gooey’s tornado stipulation.
With the starter quartet in hand and a few Road Trip runs under your belt, the rest of Kirby Air Riders’ cast arrives steadily. Focus on green silhouette tiles on each checklist, pick the mode whose challenges fit your playstyle, and treat duplicate unlocks as a path to building a full palette of colours for your favourites—especially Kirby, whose different hues come with genuinely different Specials.
