by In this guide to Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope you will learn, among other things:
- What you should definitely consider before each fight
- Why the Tacticam is so important
- What trick you can use to get a lot of coins quickly
In the Switch-exclusive Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope from Ubisoft, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and their crazy bunny friends travel five diverse planets in order to put an end to the intergalactic entity Misera. In the following you will find out what things beginners in particular should consider in the first few hours.
Never jump into the fray unprepared
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope has numerous, quite tricky battles ready. To be prepared for this, you should consider three things. Firstly, do not start a battle until you have reached the required experience level . You can see which level is recommended for a battle by the number above the opponent in the overworld.
Second, you should fully heal your squad of heroes before difficult battles by pressing the D-Pad Down button. Your robot assistant Beep-Os will then take care of the rest, provided you give him the desired number of coins.
Important: If all team members only have minimal losses of power points, you can also do without this type of healing and thus save a chunk of coins .
Third, make sure you always have enough Super Mushrooms and some POW Blocks with you. The former ensure that wounded heroes can still regenerate even when things get critical and Healer Rabbid-Peach is not part of your team or has already been knocked out.
POW blocks, on the other hand, work within a large radius of action, so they are ideal for inflicting large amounts of damage on multiple opponents standing next to each other. They also do an excellent job against tough bosses in Sparks of Hope. However, they are too good and too expensive to fight a single enemy with only little life points.
Analyze the battlefield with the Tacticam
If you know before the start of a battle which opponents you are dealing with, you have a clear advantage. In order to put this wisdom into practice in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, you should first activate the Tacticam (press in the left analog stick) on the opening screen of each battle and let your gaze wander over the battlefield at your leisure. First, check the position and type of the various currently visible enemies.
If you know what types of enemies you’re up against, equip Sparks in the team menu before you start the battle, which will take advantage of those enemies ‘ elemental weaknesses . For example, if you’re dealing with multiple enemies with a weakness to Fire Attacks, equip one of your heroes with the “Gluto” Spark, which deals Fire damage.
If new enemy types suddenly appear in the middle of the battle, of course check their strengths and weaknesses with the help of the Tacticam. However, Sparks can only be swapped out at the start of a battle. If in doubt, rely on a wide range of different sparks to be prepared for all eventualities.
Always place your heroes behind cover
Your squad of heroes in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope can take a beating, especially if you’ve already invested a lot of points into skills that increase their power points. In order to effectively arm yourself against enemy projectiles, it is nevertheless advisable that you come to a standstill behind suitable cover at the end of each movement phase.
Above all, covers that exceed the height of the character and are made of stone are ideal. Wooden barriers are also sufficient in a pinch. But be careful: wooden covers usually break after just a few hits, while stones last longer . Cracks in the material show you whether a cover has already been damaged.
However, it is not only important that you have cover, but also that there is no direct line of sight between you and the opponents . If enemies succeed in flanking you or even attacking you from behind, even the best cover will not help.
Concentrate on the mission objectives
Many battles in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope are designed in such a way that new standard opponents keep storming into the level through dimensional portals. Eliminating them all gives you a lot of valuable resources, but usually means that your team gets more and more under pressure and at some point is no longer able to complete the actual mission.
To prevent things from happening in the first place, you should give top priority to mission objectives . This is especially true for taking out Dark Eyes and all six boss fights. The latter are often divided into several phases, after which Sparks of Hope sets an automatic save point. All the more reason to work quickly towards the end of each phase.
Tips on how to use the characters correctly
The easiest way to win battles in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is to balance character abilities and talents each round.
For example, it doesn’t make sense to activate a wide area attack buff if all characters have already fired their weapons . Therefore, perform this action first and then proceed with the attacks. Sounds obvious, but is quickly forgotten in the heat of the moment.
You should also get used to playing through the current move in your head before you put it into action. Don’t forget that you can switch between characters at any time .
For example, team jumps are most effective if you first position character A as a “springboard” in the correct spot in the level, then switch to character B in the same turn to perform the jump with her, and then switch back to character A again. to guide them behind cover.
Focuses damage on single foes
The less damage you take in a battle, the better. Therefore, eliminate one enemy after the other . Because any enemy removed from the battlefield can no longer deal damage.
If you distribute your attacks to different enemies, it usually takes several rounds before they go down. During this time all these enemies will attack you and deplete your health bars .
First eliminate the opponents who will be particularly dangerous for your troop in the next turn – these are mostly long-range fighters. But several Goomba squads approaching from different directions can quickly become a problem despite their low life energy.
The best countermeasure in the latter case is the frenzy melee attack – ideally executed in such a way that a sliding maneuver takes out all three Goombas in succession . You can see which opponents are affected by your attack by the jagged marking on the ground.
Level up your Sparks regularly
The Sparks, which can be allocated before the match starts, give your heroes practical attack and defense bonuses. These buffs are even more effective if you level up the Sparks by feeding them Star Pieces . You earn star parts for every battle you win. They are considered the universal upgrade currency for all Sparks.
So that the sparks don’t become too powerful too quickly, there are so-called level upper limits . Once these are reached, you can only level up a Spark again when at least one hero on the team has reached a given character level. For example, to level Sparks to level 5, at least one team member must be level 21.
As an alternative to star parts, you can also upgrade Sparks using star potions. However, this is only worthwhile if the spark to be upgraded is not already on the verge of reaching the next experience level by using star parts.
Unlike standard power-ups, Star Potions cannot be purchased with coins, only in exchange for each world’s special collectible . For example, in the summer world “Radiant Beach” you need one sun per star potion, in the ice world “Flockenbrocken” you need a snowflake, in the autumn world “Prima-Paletti” you need an acorn and so on.
Experiment with the skill tree
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope places great emphasis on accessibility. Not only can you change the level of difficulty at any time in the options menu, but you can also switch on the invincibility mode if you wish . A great thing, especially for beginners!
What’s more , thanks to a flexible skill tree, it’s practically impossible to “skill up”. If you are not satisfied with the skills you have already learned, you can simply have the skill prisms reimbursed and invest them in other talents.
What initially sounds like a convenience feature can also be used strategically. In boss fights, for example, it can be worthwhile to unlearn irrelevant skills and then invest the prisms gained in return in more power points.
Does everything sound too complicated? No problem. When you press the Y button in the skill tree menu , the game will automatically distribute remaining skill prisms for the currently selected hero.
Earn coins quickly in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
Like almost every game with Mario in its name, you’ll find plenty of golden coins in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. They are primarily used to buy power-ups and to refill life energy before a fight. But what to do when there is a lull in the coin bag again?
The easiest method is to collect all the coins around in the current planet’s overworld, then enter a tube or tunnel and immediately return to the previous area of the overworld. Voilà, the coins you’ve already picked up are back.
Trick to Surveillance Skills & Frenzy Attacks
Mario, Luigi, Rabbid Mario and Rebella have so-called surveillance modes . Once activated in exchange for an action point, the character then monitors the battlefield within a set radius and automatically attacks enemies who move into that area on the next turn.
Mario’s said ability is called Hero Sight, Luigi’s Iron Sight, Rabbid Mario’s Counterstrike, and Rebella’s Storm Blade.
What Sparks of Hope doesn’t reveal at first: For example, if Mario is put in surveillance mode and a teammate uses the frenzy slide attack, Mario’s Hero Vision will trigger that same turn, not the next.
Mario then pulls out his Dual Blasters and immediately attacks the enemy thrown into the air by the Frenzy attack. This move combination (which also works with Luigi, Rebella and Rabbid Mario’s surveillance modes) is worth its weight in gold, especially when fighting tough opponents with a lot of life points .
