Legendary Machines sit at the top of Kirby Air Riders’ vehicle roster. They are rare, match‑defining Air Ride Machines that can decide City Trial and Stadium events the moment someone assembles one.
Kirby Air Riders currently features four Legendary Machines: Dragoon, Hydra, Gigantes, and Leo. Two of them return from Kirby Air Ride, while two are new to this game. All four are tightly tied to City Trial and Road Trip progression.
What “Legendary Machine” means in Kirby Air Riders
Legendary Machines are defined less by flavor and more by structure:
- They are dramatically stronger than regular Machines in at least one area (speed, flight, durability, or combat power).
- You do not buy or select them directly for standard runs; you assemble them mid‑match by collecting three parts in City Trial.
- They are temporary. Each new City Trial run requires you to collect their parts again.
- Two of them, Gigantes and Leo, also sit behind Road Trip story progress before they even start appearing as collectible machines in City Trial.
In practical terms, a Legendary Machine is both a power spike and an event: the player who finishes one often becomes the center of the lobby’s attention.
How to unlock and use Legendary Machines
All four Legendary Machines share a core requirement in City Trial: collect three specific parts from red boxes scattered around the map. Once all three pieces of a given Machine are collected, they automatically combine, and the Machine spawns for that player to ride.
There are two extra layers on top of this:
- Mode access: Legendary Machines are City Trial machines. They are not part of the standard selection for other modes.
- Road Trip gating: Gigantes and Leo require finishing specific Road Trip endings before they can appear as collectible Legendary Machines in City Trial.
Legendary Machines do not cost Miles in the Miles Shop and do not have permanent unlocks. They are always earned run‑to‑run through parts.
Legendary Machines overview
| Machine | Type | How it’s obtained | Core strength | Primary modes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragoon | Legendary Machine | Collect 3 Dragoon parts from red boxes in City Trial | Best overall flight and very high top speed | City Trial (including Stadium events), Free Run |
| Hydra | Legendary Machine | Collect 3 Hydra parts from red boxes in City Trial | Highest driving speed, extreme offense and HP | City Trial (including Stadium events), Free Run |
| Gigantes | Legendary Machine | View the normal Road Trip ending, then collect 3 Gigantes parts in City Trial | Legendary‑tier power; details fit City Trial and combat | City Trial, Road Trip‑unlocked |
| Leo | Legendary Machine | View the true Road Trip ending and complete 140 Checklist blocks, then collect 3 Leo parts in City Trial | High‑end stats and late‑game mastery reward | City Trial, Road Trip‑unlocked |
Dragoon in Kirby Air Riders
Dragoon is the flying specialist and the most recognizable Legendary Machine in the series. It first appeared in Kirby Air Ride and also shows up as a powerful item in the Super Smash Bros. series.
In Kirby Air Riders, Dragoon keeps its defining role:
- Flight: unmatched glide and aerial control, ideal for any Stadium event that prioritizes time in the air or distance covered.
- Speed: very high top speed, especially when airborne.
- Ground handling: serviceable but not its main purpose; it favors routes that let it launch and stay airborne.
In Air Glider and High Jump‑style Stadium matches, Dragoon is designed to dominate unless the opposing player’s build is extremely optimized. On normal race courses, lines that favor big jumps and long glides let Dragoon convert flight into raw time gains.
To use Dragoon, you must complete it by collecting its three parts in City Trial. Each part drops from red boxes; parts automatically link to each other once you have at least one piece, following you until all three are collected and the Machine forms.
Hydra in Kirby Air Riders
Hydra is the brutal land counterpart to Dragoon. Where Dragoon owns the sky, Hydra owns the road — and the combat space.
Hydra’s defining traits include:
- Top speed: the highest driving speed of any Machine.
- Offense and HP: enormous durability and collision damage; ramming from the front can instantly knock out most other Machines outside Stadium events.
- Charge behavior: requires charging before unleashing its full speed burst, echoing Bulk Star’s playstyle.
- Weak air game: less effective once it leaves the ground compared to Dragoon.
Hydra is built for races with long straights and for City Trial lobbies where direct combat and disruption matter more than trick lines. In City Trial’s free-roaming phase, Hydra turns its rider into a roaming hazard that other players have to respect or avoid entirely.
Like Dragoon, Hydra forms when its three parts are collected from red boxes in City Trial. Once complete, the Machine appears and can be mounted immediately.
Legendary Machines coming from Road Trip: Gigantes and Leo
Kirby Air Riders goes beyond the two GameCube legends by adding Gigantes and Leo. These do not replace Dragoon or Hydra; they extend the Legendary tier and tie it into the single‑player Road Trip mode.
| Machine | Road Trip condition | Legendary status in City Trial |
|---|---|---|
| Gigantes | Watch the normal ending in Road Trip | Becomes a Legendary Machine that forms from three parts in City Trial |
| Leo | Defeat the true final boss and fill at least 140 Checklist blocks | Becomes a Legendary Machine that forms from three parts in City Trial |
This structure turns Legendary access into a long‑term goal:
- Players focused on Road Trip progression, unlock Gigantes first, then Leo.
- Once unlocked, both appear alongside Dragoon and Hydra as Legendary Machines tied to three collectible parts in City Trial.
- City Trial runs in lobbies with Road Trip‑progressed players can feature up to four different Legendary Machines in play, depending on who assembles what.
Gigantes and Leo both follow the same part‑collection rules: their pieces appear in red boxes and remain linked until the Machine is completed. Detailed stat distributions focus on late‑game power, fitting their role as rewards for finishing Road Trip’s key endings.
How Legendary parts work in City Trial
Legendary Machines are only as common as their parts allow. Understanding how parts behave is the key to playing around them, whether you are hunting one or trying to deny opponents.
- Parts live in red boxes: Legendary parts share the same red box pool as regular items; they do not have separate containers in Kirby Air Riders’ City Trial map.
- Three parts per Machine: every Legendary Machine uses exactly three pieces; when you grab a second or third part of the same Machine, the pieces automatically connect.
- Persistence: once a Legendary box has spawned in a match, it stays somewhere on the map until opened. If no one has seen one in a while, it is usually sitting at one of its spawn locations.
- Spawn limit: the game caps how many Legendary boxes can exist at once, often one or two.
- Event tells: certain City Trial events make Legendary boxes more obvious. For example, during “What’s in the Box?” when all boxes show the same item, those containing Legendary parts behave differently (they do not spin). During “Item Bounce”, Legendary boxes may also stand out by not bouncing.
Legendary parts are not guaranteed to appear every match. A full City Trial session can end without anyone ever seeing a Legendary box, especially at lower player counts or if boxes are cleared unevenly around the map.
Known Legendary box locations
Legendary boxes in Kirby Air Ride were tied to a mix of standard and exclusive locations across the city. Kirby Air Riders preserves the idea of “hot spots”: specific corners of the City Trial map where Legendary boxes are allowed to spawn, sometimes sharing space with normal red boxes.
Examples of locations used in Kirby Air Ride’s City Trial include:
- Beaches between Electric Lounge and City Wharf, and around Castle Hall
- Inside Castle Hall
- Underground passages beneath the city, including the Free Run Machine room and forest entrances
- Electric Lounge, including the central Super Jump Pad
- Inside the volcano area in Heat Top
- High Plains’ golfing area and the ledge above the water wheel
- The “dilapidated houses” sector on the surface
- Transition rooms linking the volcano rail and the Underground
Kirby Air Riders follows the same design pattern even as its map layout shifts: Legendary boxes gravitate toward standout landmarks, edges of major areas, and transitional spaces between layers of the city.
Legendary Machine quirks and edge cases
Legendary Machines have a few behaviors that matter in competitive play:
- Two Legendaries at once: if a rider completes one Legendary while mounted on another, the first is normally lost. This can be bypassed by dismounting the current Legendary, finishing the second with a normal Machine, then returning to the first; this keeps both active on the map.
- One‑hit collisions with Hydra: Hydra’s front collisions can instantly destroy most other Machines during the City Trial build phase, but this effect does not carry into Stadium events.
- Lobby dynamics: once someone finishes Dragoon, air‑focused Stadium events become heavily skewed. Players often adjust by prioritizing other Legendary Machines, or by stacking top speed and combat stats to counter the Dragoon rider before the Stadium phase begins.
In Kirby Air Riders, Legendary Machines also intersect with new systems like expanded player counts and additional vehicle types (bikes, chariots, tanks). With up to sixteen players competing for the same pool of Legendary parts, assembling a Machine becomes less about memorizing two or three spawn points and more about routing efficiently and capitalizing on chaotic drops.
Why Legendary Machines still matter
For many players, Dragoon and Hydra are the mental image of City Trial: the rush to find nose, body, and tail; the sudden shift in power once someone finishes a Machine; the scramble to either escape or retaliate. Kirby Air Riders keeps that fantasy at the center of its design while extending it with Gigantes and Leo and with Road Trip integration.
For anyone coming from the GameCube original, the practical takeaway is simple:
- Dragoon and Hydra are back and still function as sky and land specialists.
- Gigantes and Leo add two more reasons to clear Road Trip endings and chase Checklists.
- City Trial remains the place where all four take over games, one red box at a time.
If the goal is to dominate City Trial lobbies, learning Legendary spawn habits, part behaviors, and when to prioritize Dragoon versus Hydra or the newer machines is as important as mastering any single course.
