Remember the good ol’ days when Mario jumped around 2D worlds without a care for skill trees?
Well, those days are gone in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope!
As nostalgic as we are at Retro Dodo – couldn’t you tell by our reminiscent best Mario and Luigi games of all time article?! – we also welcome change.
It’s incredibly fun tailoring the Mario Rabbids experience to our own preferences. For my playthrough, I’m all about enhancing the skills of my healer (that’s Rabbid Peach to those less well acquainted).
This is what the Mario Rabbids skill trees are all about: enhancing your team’s strengths.
Each hero has their own special trait that they bring to the battlefield, but those traits are only worth what you make them. This is where we come in, we’re going to show you how to level up those skills.
If you’re ready, it’s time to sit back, relax, pop on your Rabbids costume, and prepare to level up like a Mario Rabbids pro.
Obtaining Skill Prisms
No, we’re not talking gibberish. For those who aren’t familiar with the Sparks of Hope gameplay yet, skill prisms are the key to improving your team. Without them, you can’t open new areas of each skill set, which means Cursa is going to beat you faster than you can say “okie dokie”.
Fear not my avid adventurers, for skill prisms are easily obtained throughout the game, all you need to do is level up those heroes. And that means battling!
You need to dash into as many enemies as you can, triggering tactical battles on every planet you visit.
If that idea frightens you more than facing King Boo, we’ve got you back. Our Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope tactical battle guide is an invaluable tool designed to make clearing battles a breeze.
Assigning Skill Prisms On The Skills Tree
We know that navigating new interfaces can be daunting for even the most avid gamer. Fortunately for us, Beep-O is on hand to explain everything. And we’re like Beep-O’s helper, there to fill in the blanks when he’s powered down.
Once you have your skill prisms, you’ll need to open the Team Management section of your control panel. Sounds complicated, but it’s a simple press of the Y button.
This takes you to the Heroes page, where you’ll find a brief overview of each team members’ skills, info, and weapon skins. Obviously, our main focus today is the skills tree.
No matter which hero you’re looking at, the layout of the skills tree remains the same: there’s four columns, labelled Health, Movement, Weapon, Technique. There is a fifth column, but that’s initially hidden (we’ll reveal more about that later on).
These columns are where you assign your skills. As Beep-O so eloquently says “skill prisms of the currency you spend to activate upgrades”. Which, you guessed it, means you need to spend wisely.
Okay, that’s not strictly true because you can reset your skills tree at any time, essentially allowing you to erase any poor management decisions… like when I left Princess Peach vulnerable because I focused only on her health.
But be careful, while most skill prisms can be reused, golden skill prisms can’t.
What Are Golden Skill Prisms And Where To Find Them
You know when we said we’d reveal more later? This is that moment.
As the use of the word ‘golden’ should inform you, these special prisms are kind of a big deal. Not quite a Ron Burgundy big deal, but close enough. Without them you can’t unlock the secret fifth skills column.
Think of golden skill prisms as an enhanced extra, just like the silver tokens in Mario Strikers Battle League. In more ways than one: they’re both made from precious metals, and they both require you to beat your opponents to win them.
There is one notable difference, though: the golden skill prisms are non-refundable.
Yes, once they’ve been assigned there’s no take backs, only deep regret. Even more so considering how troublesome they can be to obtain. This is because you have to battle giant enemies to find them. We’re talking MASSIVE Goombas and Magikoopas.
I realise I’m not really selling the benefits of golden skill prisms at the moment, but I can assure you they’re worth the extra effort. My advice would be to challenge these Godzilla size foes once you’re comfortable with battlefield strategizing.
Assuming you are, and you’ve already vanquished your first giant, you can use that golden reward to unlock the Sparks column. After all, levelling up our sparkly companions isn’t just beneficial to our heroes, it’s beneficial for the entire Mario Rabbids universe.
Wow, we don’t know about you but we feel stronger somehow. Dare we say, it’s almost as if we’ve improved our own skills? Too cheesy?
Despite my questionable jokes, we’ve reached the end of our skills tree journey. Hopefully, you feel better able to tackle the trials and tribulations of the Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope universe.
