Can a Boo steal another Boo on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? [Small Analysis]

The Boo is one of the many usable items on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Appearing for the first time on Super Mario Kart as an exclusive item for the 2P mode (where is generically named "Ghost" in the game manual instead of "Boo"), it has made an apparition in SOME titles of the series while being absent in the others for whatever reason. 

Talking about the mechanic of the item, it presents a very unique and useful effect on the player that can give a considerable advantage in the race. After being used, the Boo will make you invisible to all players for a short period of time, causing you to be invulnerable to all attacks and items thrown at you (Although it wouldn't be possible to go through solid obstacles or walls like a real ghost). Not only that, but after turning invisible, the Boo will go around to one of the players ahead of you and steal the item they are holding during that moment, giving it to you once is back.

With some luck, you may get really good items out of it, like Mushrooms, Fire Flowers, Super Stars, etc. While in the worst case, the only thing you get will be a single coin. 

However, with this "Stealing Items" nature, a small and interesting doubt started growing on me the more I thought about it: Can a Boo steal another Boo from a player? If not, what would happen if the Boo were the only present item during a race?

Question

At first this started as just a silly thought that I was having for these last few days while playing the online of the game, but after thinking for a bit, it became a question that I was genuinely interested in getting an answer from. Luckily for me, it's been a while since a feature called "Custom Items" was added to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe during one of the Booster Course Pass waves, a feature that allows you to decide which items could be usable during a VS Race and which ones would not be obtainable on Item Boxes. Once the Boo was the only item selected as Available, I was ready to go to start with this little "Experiment".

Before starting, I had some question and theories of what could happen after using this item on the actual race.

• Maybe, after not being any other item besides Boo, it will just not steal anything and just make you invisible.
• Or maybe, without having any other option, it will just steal another Boo that will allow you to steal another Boo and so on.
• Or finally, it will just have a default thing to give you if it doesn't detect any other item (Like a coin or mushroom).

My bets were mostly for the first option, apparently, not receiving anything was the reaction the Boo had on Super Mario Kart after not finding any item to steal (Although it would be funny if you could actually get more Boos out of it).

But now, after finally playing a race with these settings, I got the answer that I was searching for.

Answers

-Can a Boo steal another Boo on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe?

The answer, that for some of you may be a bit obvious by now, is a simple No. A Boo is not able to steal another Boo from other players even if settings are made for it to be the only obtainable item on a race. However, even if the answer is negative, the Boo will still give you something in return after being use, being a single Red Mushroom.

Doesn't matter how many times a Boo is used during the race, the mushroom will always be the item they would give you in return, even if mushrooms were marked as disabled on the Custom Item menu. This would mean that out of the three possibilities I considered before starting with the "experiment", the third one talking about a "Default item" was the right one.

But we are not done yet here, kind of. After knowing that Boos cannot steal each other in any way, I started wondering some more secondary stuff else related to this topic that is worth to mention as a complement to the answer given before.

-Besides themself, are there other items that Boos cannot steal? (1/2)

The answer is Yes! Other items that cannot be get using a Boo are the Piranha Plant, a Bullet Bill and a Crazy Eight. Despite understanding the reason why Crazy Eights aren't stealable, I don't get the reason of why you are not able to get Piranha Plants from other players.

At first, I thought Pirahna Plants weren't stealable because they are an item with a timer, but other items like Fire Flowers and Golden Mushroom also have a timer and yet the Boo can steal them, so I can only imagine the reason why behind this decision. With Bullet Bills, I actually have no idea why this could be considering other powerful items like the Lighting and Blue shells can be steal from players.

Using a Boo in a race with just these 3 items will default to a Mushroom again.

-What happens if you use the Boo while being on First Place? (2/2)

To finish with this, a simple question that doesn't require too much thought put into it. If the Boo functionality is based on stealing items from players ahead of you while making you invisible, what would happen if you were the one ahead of everyone while using this item? Considering no one is in front, maybe the most logical option would be to get another Red Mushroom by default, right?

The answer is no, nothing interesting actually happens if you try to recreate this scenario. I tried to do it by selecting Banana Peels and Boos as the only ones obtainable during a race, and after catching up to first place while having a Boo, I got nothing more but a Banana Peel after using it, meaning that you are just getting an item from a random player even if all of them are behind you.

Conclusion

And with all of that said, I don't have anything else to add to this blog. Despite being such a silly topic and questions to make an entire blog, it was actually fun to write about, and I hope it was fun on the same way to read it.

So, tell me! Have you ever wondered this same question before? What other stuff have you thought about while playing? If you want are interested in reading more blogs like this one, make sure to follow my page to be aware of new updates!

For me, that's a wrap! Have a nice day.