Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope has an excellent combat system that plays fast when it needs to but is not afraid to get really tactical from time to time. Battles are split between bite-sized encounters and much more intricate mission-based battles. Regardless of why you’re in combat, however, the mechanics largely stay the same.
They are also fairly complex for a game based around both Mario and some weird French rabbit…things. In fact, it’s very easy to forget some of the options you have in combat, and this can make your life much more difficult. That’s where we come in – we are here to keep you on track and make sure you can make the most of combat.
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Beginner Tips | Musical Highlights | Accessibility
Stick To Cover!
This is one of the most important aspects of Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope. Accuracy is very black and white in this game, and cover is the catalyst for that. If you are in the open, you are getting hit, simple as that. If you are crouching behind a knee-high wall, you have a 50% chance of getting hit. Is it a full-height wall? You’re safe.
It is that simple, but do bear in mind that cover is destructible. If enough shots hit your cover, it will downgrade and eventually be removed. Still, if you want to stay alive, stick to cover as much as you can. Enemies can deal massive amounts of damage, and you don’t have all that much health – especially early on.
Flank Your Enemies
Cover applies to your enemies too, and the same rules apply. They are either in cover, or they aren’t. If they are, your shots are going to be less effective (ineffective at worst). Each segment of cover only protects from one direction though, and this is where flanking comes into play.
Flanking is the simple art of getting your guys to move around an enemy, and attack from an exposed angle. If an enemy is behind a wall, then all you have to do is get around that wall and shoot them in the side (or back). Many encounters in Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope will require careful movement as you push up a battlefield in an attempt to get around an entrenched enemy.
Building A Balanced Team
There are a lot of playable characters in Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope. Heck, you start with a whopping six, and this number only grows as you play. Building a team becomes quite difficult when you have so many options, so we would recommend building something balanced.
By this we mean take characters who operate in some sort of specialism. Early on, you will gain access to a third character slot in battles, and this is an ideal time to experiment. We found having a close-range attacker, a potent support piece, and a ranged user was a great mix. An example of this would be Rabbid Mario (close range), Peach (support), and Mario (ranged/all-rounder).
Of course, you can take whoever you like. Edge can replace Rabbid Mario, Rabbid Luigi or Rabbid Peach are great alternatives to Peach, and Luigi is an excellent choice if Mario isn’t your thing. Mix, match, and experiment your way to victory.
Use Your Abilities
Every character has a unique ability, and these really make them tick in the heat of battle. You want to be using these as much as you can because they are incredibly powerful. Holding onto them for the “perfect” time usually means you never use them. Cooldowns are short enough to allow for liberal usage, and if you aren’t using them, why are you bringing that character?
This is especially true for support characters like Peach, Rabbid Peach, or Rabbid Luigi. Their abilities are game-changing, and holding onto them turns them into wasted space Peach’s protective Barrier can turn your team into immortal death dealers able to tank the biggest of enemies with ease. Why wouldn’t you want that active at every available opportunity?!
This also applies to Sparks, however, we cover those in more detail during our Beginner Tips guide.
Items, Items, Items
Similar to Abilities, every character in Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope can use Items. These are purchased from the shop or found as an end-of-combat reward. More become available as you play through the game, and they are all very powerful. Even the humble mushroom can change the course of a battle thanks to its powerful healing effects.
Throw in things like the Stopwatch that resets all of your Abilities (and Sparks) cooldowns, or items that allow you to move twice as fast, and you can bend the game to your will if you have the right item and the tactical knowhow to pull it off. Keep your inventory healthy, and you’ll always have a way out of a sticky situation.
Get To Grips With Range
Every weapon in Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope has a maximum range characteristic. On the surface, this means you can’t shoot at things that are too far away, and similarly, they can’t shoot at you. This is of course important to understand, but it’s also fairly simple and doesn’t take much effort to engrain that into your memory banks.
Where range gets interesting is with characters like Luigi and Peach. These characters interact with range in different ways, with Luigi dealing less damage the closer enemies are, and Peach dealing less damage the further away they are. This fundamentally changes how they play, so always check what weapons your characters are using, and use them accordingly.
Character Builds Are NOT Set In Stone
As you play Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope, you will gain EXP. Gain enough EXP and your characters will level up. This rewards you with Skill Points that can be spent on various Skill Trees. Each character has their own mix of unlockable abilities that helps define and improve upon their core identities. Mario, for example, is very mobile and can chain jumping, with stomping, aerial shooting, and all manner of other things.
There’s a lot to choose from when levelling up, and it can be rather overwhelming. However, you can refund all of your points, for free, at just about any time. This lets you experiment to your heart’s content, and even customise what Abilities you want each character to have on a battle-by-battle basis. Nothing is set in stone here, to get spending.
Movement Is Key
Shooting things is a great way to nab kills, but the most important aspect of Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope combat has to be the movement. If you can’t move effectively, you are going to get left behind. There are all manner of ways to move, and those options only expand based on unlocked Skills and even Character.
In short, you can run normally, use items to double your movement, use an ally to Super Jump, use abilities to bounce off enemies to extend your jump, use skills to shoot whilst airborne, and more. How about dashing through enemies? or dashing through them multiple times? Heck, you can even dash through an enemy, Super Jump, reset your Dash, and repeat multiple times over.
Your base movement is incredibly lacking and using all of your tools to your advantage can get your team moving significantly farther each turn whilst drastically increasing your damage output.
That’s everything you need to know to get the most out of the combat system in Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope. Keep an eye out for more guides in the future.
