Kartos

Speaking to Kartos and accepting his offer places Yooka and Laylee inside his cart for a ride along a fixed track. The original courses require them to reach the end with at least the number of gems he requests before setting off. Blue gems add one to the total and gold gems add five, so a short detour or well-timed jump towards a gold gem can make a substantial difference. Kartos moves forward along the railway, while the player controls his speed, jumps over gaps and hazards, and uses his mouth-mounted cannon against obstacles ahead. A shot takes time to become available again, preventing the player from clearing a crowded section simply by firing continuously. Braking, accelerating and choosing when to jump remain necessary, especially when a moving hazard crosses the route or a line of gems leads away from the safest landing point. Enemies can also be bounced on to reach a higher group of gems. Mistakes have different costs: hitting a barrel removes three gems, being burned by a flame jet removes five, and colliding with a Corplet Drone removes eight. Those losses reduce the collected total rather than merely slowing the cart. Falling from the railway ends the attempt, while arriving safely with too few gems also leaves the Pagie unearned. Kartos offers another ride after failure, and an unsuccessful attempt does not permanently remove the reward. Reaching the required total and the end of the course earns that world's minecart Pagie; later rides can be taken for enjoyment without producing an endless supply of additional pages. Completing one of these challenges unlocks the Kartos Returns achievement. His actual railway rides are separate from Rextro's Arcade, even though the original arcade includes a game called Kartos Karting. That arcade game is a small racing circuit with laps and a high score, whereas Kartos's own challenges follow the minecart tracks and judge the gems remaining at the finish.

In Tribalstack Tropics, Kartos waits partway up the large Tribalstack Monument after the Tome has been expanded. Climb the Monument, take the right-hand route at its early fork and continue through the passage to the platform where he stands beside the rails. His first course asks for sixty gems, introducing the jumps, firing and speed changes needed for the later rides. On completion he thanks the duo for taking an old cart out again and plans to exchange the gems they have gathered. In Glitterglaze Glacier, he is found around the rocky shore by Pentagonal Peak, close to the lake. This course raises the requirement to one hundred gems. His conversation also remembers the treasure-loving royal family of the Icymetric Palace, tying his enthusiasm for mining to the history of the place where he is waiting. The Moodymaze Marsh ride begins near the outside of Moodymaze Bunker, reached by following the route around the structure. Here he asks for one hundred and twenty-five gems. His greeting mocks the idea that a minecart adventure is too dated for the pair, but his bravado gives way when Laylee takes the suggestion seriously and wants to move on. In Capital Cashino, he occupies a high platform in a corner of the casino, above the arcade area and approached by its raised walkways. Reaching him in helicopter form is useful, but the duo return to their usual bodies to take the ride. The target is one hundred and fifty gems, with branching rails and a circular section of crossing flames demanding careful control of speed. Kartos enjoys the casino's nightlife and worries about Mrs. Kartos discovering his visits; later remarks also recall a golf cart that broke his heart. In Galleon Galaxy, he explains that losing his gems in the casino has sent him back to mining. Find him by taking the ledge before the red security gate on the far side of the large robot structure and following the upper platform around. His last original course requires one hundred and seventy-five gems. Low gravity makes jumps much higher and longer, while energy barriers and flame hazards still threaten the total. Braking helps arrange a safe landing when the cart would otherwise sail past the intended section of track.

Capital Cashino's minecart reward brings Kartos into direct conflict with I.N.E.P.T., the robot enforcing the casino's rules. After the pair complete the one-hundred-and-fifty-gem run, Kartos awards their Pagie without going through the Casino Banker. I.N.E.P.T. treats that distribution as an offence and confronts the three of them, turning the successful outing into another ride with a hostile pursuer. Kartos remains the vehicle carrying Yooka and Laylee, and his jumping, speed control and cannon form the basis of the battle. The player must keep the cart on the rails while dealing with the robot's attacks, including explosive hazards and missiles, and take opportunities to fire at the boss. Ordinary movement abilities used while exploring the casino give way to the minecart controls for this encounter. The boss's poor hearing and repeated misinterpretations extend the confrontation's jokes, while Kartos reacts to their opponent as another threat that must be cleared from his tracks. His advice and responses are part of the fight, rather than an introduction followed by his disappearance from the action. If the trio lose, Kartos discusses the defeat and offers to go back after I.N.E.P.T.; the player can retry the boss directly instead of earning the original gem-run Pagie again. This matters because the minecart challenge and the security fight are separate objectives, despite occurring one immediately after the other on the first successful visit. Winning removes the robot's obstruction and earns the boss reward, after which Kartos allows the gem trail to be revisited for fun. The encounter also returns in Yooka-Replaylee, retaining the cart partnership while using the remake's revised presentation and controls. There, Planker's nearby replay service provides a separate way to request the completed I.N.E.P.T. battle again, alongside the ordinary opportunity to return to Kartos's course.

Yooka-Replaylee brings Kartos back to all five Grand Tomes with rebuilt courses under the name Kartos Kartway. His basic offer remains a treasure-gathering ride, but each course now has bronze, silver and gold targets, with a Pagie attached to each tier. This gives the five courses fifteen course Pagies in total and makes a near-complete run useful even when it falls short of the highest requirement. In Tribalstack Tropics the targets are sixty, ninety and one hundred and twenty gems; a result between ninety and one hundred and nineteen therefore earns the first two rewards while leaving the last available for a later attempt. Glitterglaze Glacier uses forty, sixty and eighty. The targets belong to each rebuilt course and should not be substituted for the original game's single requirement in the corresponding world. The result screen identifies which targets have been reached, and Kartos distinguishes an attempt that earns some rewards from one that gathers enough for everything. His courses include alternative routes, enemies, barrels and gem trails placed around jumps, preserving the need to choose a line through the level. Blue and red gems appear along the remake's tracks, and cannonball pickups supply ammunition for shooting obstacles. The instructions separately identify jumping, firing and braking or boosting, while the more responsive cart and revised track arrangements change the timing of familiar actions. His dialogue continues to celebrate returning to the rails, and the duo can approach him again to improve their result rather than treating a bronze finish as the end of his task. The Feeling Ore achievement supplies another objective: complete a Kartos course without taking damage. It does not require a particular gem score, so a clean run and a high-scoring run are different achievements even when they can be pursued together. I.N.E.P.T. also remains part of the casino adventure, with its boss reward accounted for separately from the three Pagies attached to Kartos's gem targets.

Kartos returns in Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair as part of the Royal Stingdom's three-dimensional overworld. In the Final Zone he travels around a compact railway circuit with the Chapter 20 entrance, Scareship Scroll, on board, bringing his love of the rails into the route between the adventure's side-scrolling stages. His moving cargo makes the entrance less convenient to approach, and the nearby movable crate gives Yooka and Laylee a way to interrupt the circuit. Positioning the crate on the track stops the cart, allowing the pair to deal with the entrance while it is stationary. This appearance uses the overworld's pushing and positioning puzzles instead of launching one of the first game's gem-collection courses. Kartos can be seen thinking about his repetitive journey as he circles the rails, while the surrounding Final Zone includes another Planker who offers a paid clue to a hidden Tonic. The two returning characters therefore appear within the same later stretch of the kingdom but perform different jobs. Kartos's further guest appearance in Mighty Fight Federation accompanies Yooka and Laylee's selectable fighter. The developer's character description places the heroes in a tournament through Capital B and Hyperion's scheming, with Kartos unexpectedly brought along to assist them. He contributes to the duo's fighting repertoire rather than occupying a separate place on the character-selection roster. The crossover's November 2020 announcement specifically includes him with the arriving guests, recognising that their minecart companion is part of the appearance as well. The crossover also includes the Grand Tome Chamber arena and remixed music from the platform adventure, accompanying the returning characters with settings and sounds from their own series.