Don’t be fooled by the ridiculously stupid Rabbids. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is an impressive tactics game that can and will kick your butt if you’re not careful. Luckily, the game also offers you a variety of mechanics and tools that come together in complex and satisfying ways. Here’s what you need to know.
It’s called Mario PLUS Rabbids for a reason…
spark of hope you can choose your team, and technically you can only roll around with members of the original Mario cast if you want. But if you don’t give in to the absurdity of the Rabbids, what are you even doing here? The best team is the one that delivers what it promises.
But you should try different characters
It’s easy to stick with what you know, especially when it works. But each new character you acquire has different abilities that can come in handy in the specific battle you’re in. You may find it difficult to stay alive, in which case a healer might be the way to go. Perhaps this fight will require you to get to the end of the map as quickly as possible, so your mobile characters are important now. Don’t use a character just like that; The game levels up everyone as you go. Plus, you might discover a new favorite. It’s also not really an excuse not to like the way someone plays, as the game lets you undo any skill points spent!
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Change difficulty if you must
Rabbids offers an open world where you can traverse a map full of characters, points of interest and secrets. It is possible to enter a level before you are ready for it. And honestly, some levels are just hard! When you start a fight, the game will ask if you want to adjust the difficulty. If you find yourself struggling, there’s no shame in tailoring the experience to make it fun instead of repeatedly banging your head against the wall.
set waypoints
When you open your map, you can see where characters are located, along with levels and other handy landmarks. You can highlight each one and press on it to have your radar tell you where to go to start the quest. Some locations also allow you to fast travel after selecting them.
Explore the world
You can go straight to the next mission, but that would be a waste. One of the most charming things about Spark is that Ubisoft has filled the game to the brim with little details and secrets, whether it’s silly dialogue, red coin challenges, or blue coin levels. Some of these will mark the game on your map if you walk past them, even if you didn’t know it was there. Other things to remember because you won’t be able to interact with it the first time you see it. But you won’t see it at all unless you go for a walk.
Later in the game you unlock the ability to scan things. You’ll want to scan floor swirls, footprints, glints, invisible objects, and cracked walls with your trusty robotic sidekick, Beep-o, if you want to give it a thorough try.
Prepare before battle
First of all, you should always stop by a store before going into battle so that you have enough mushrooms and the like with you. Once you’re on the pre-battle screen, you can look at your enemies and their weaknesses, and adjust your gear accordingly. Just as you experiment with different characters, you should feel comfortable changing Sparks as needed.
It might also be tempting to tell the game to heal your characters for that small fee, but I encourage you to play a little. Can you recover early? Do you think you can beat the level without taking much damage and just enjoy the post-game rejuvenation? Eventually you will unlock the revive ability. Don’t waste the money just because you have it.
Spend the money, that’s what you got it for
lol ok but HEAR ME, you’re saving the money for other stuff! Rather than paying out heals, you could instead stock up on things like POW blocks and reset timers that instantly regenerate your abilities. Healing is a built-in mechanic, but it’s not everything. Save your money for the things you couldn’t do otherwise. For the same reason, you should use your items instead of hoarding them until they’re no longer useful.
Accelerate
Press Y during enemy turn. That’s it, that’s the tip.
Throw your enemies AND friends
You’ll want to move your characters as much as possible while they’re still within range of each other so they can jump and slide to new areas (or heights). Beware of fall damage – if you walk into a pit, it’s going to hurt! But you can also dash into things like Bob-ombs, activate them, and then throw them into the other baddies to blow everything up. You should always run at every turn, looking out for pipes and other shortcuts for transportation. but if you can run, slide, teleport, and throw, that’s even better.
Be careful with your recordings
Characters like Mario, for example, shoot twice. Sometimes when you kill an enemy you have to redirect your shot to the first man as he will automatically find another target for the second bullet. Unless of course you are secure that you want to have a clean shot and hit two targets. Don’t assume you’ll hit just because you pull the trigger, though. Sometimes it’s best to double-tap to kill something rather than just hurting two enemies and killing none.
Line of sight is important
For shooting, the way this works might be obvious. If you can’t see it, you can’t hit it. But it’s also important for things like strokes and abilities. If you’re not in the right spot, it’s possible your dash will miss the full Goomba line, so make sure the game tells your enemies actually take damage, not just being attacked. However, don’t get discouraged if you don’t have access to an enemy. Destroy the barriers and leave them open!
know yours attack priority
If you do your main attack, that’s it. There’s nothing else you can do. Her secondary ability can sometimes gray out other options as well, so pay attention to what does what.
Play the goal
At the start of a fight spark of hope will tell you that you need to reach a certain part of the map or defeat a certain enemy. Don’t ignore the policy. The map will likely be swarming with enemies that weren’t there before, which can be scary and you should probably take care of that. But the level ends once you meet the conditions, so it doesn’t matter how outnumbered you are at that point. Anything else is a distraction that can doom you to fight an impossible battle, and restarting a game can be a major disappointment.
Good luck out there!
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