Super Mario Run is finally here for iOS devices (sorry, Android users), and it marks Nintendo’s biggest splash so far since it recently debuted in the mobile space. The gaming giant describes this new title as a “new kind of Mario game that you can play with one hand.” It is a side-scrolling game, where Mario moves forward through the different levels, and makes different kinds of jumps to get around. According to Nintendo, Mario will move differently depending on how you time your taps, and just like you would in other Mario games, you can gather coins, travel through castles, plains, and different environments, and seek to rescue Princess Peach from the evil Bowser, or King Koopa if you prefer his alternate name.
There are six worlds to clear, with 24 all-new courses optimized for one-handed play on your iPhone. There’s also a multiplayer mode where you can challenge players for all over the world in the Toad Run. And while this is a new game, it’s also attracted a ton of first-day downloads, with some reports suggesting it even beat Pokemon GO’s record. So regardless whether you’ve adjusted well to the game or are having difficulty moving forward, we suggest you check out this Super Mario Run ultimate guide. We’ve got tips for newbies and experts alike, so feel free to read on!
1. Learn The Jumps
Mario has different jumps, and you can perform those jumps depending on the timing of your taps. So how do these jumps work?
For starters, the Mini-Jump appears to take place automatically, without any intervention from your end. The Normal Jump is executed by normally tapping on the screen, just as the name of the jump suggests. The High Jump is executed via a tap-and-hold motion. And if you want to get fancy and execute the Spin Jump, you’ll need to tap on the screen, then tap-and-hold while Mario is midair. The Flip Jump can be executed by tapping on your screen any time Mario is about to fall onto a platform. The Wall Reverse Jump takes place when you tap on the screen any time Mario bumps into a wall, or grabs onto a block or any obstacle’s edge. That’s a whole lot of jumps, and each one of them serves a different purpose in the game.
2. Take Advantage Of The Pause And Time Blocks And Switches
There are 24 courses over the six worlds in Super Mario Run, and these courses will sometimes come with red blocks, with the Pause symbol on them. Take advantage of these blocks when you see them, and have Mario hop on one on them so that the two of you (i.e. you and your character, of course) can take a break, with all the time you need to plot out your moves going forward. You want to plan your moves carefully, and these Pause Blocks can be real life-savers; they can also help you spot enemies in the way, and plan how to avoid them.
There are also Time Blocks which you can hit, and if you do, that’s a good ten seconds added to your timer. As you’ve got a limited amount of time to finish a level, you want to hit these blocks as often as possible. Switches, on the other hand, can be turned on or off by landing or jumping on one while you’re vaulting, but you’ll want to take note of what the Switch does and the fact that they’ll only be active for a few seconds.
3. Basic Jumping Tricks You Can Try
Now that you know how to perform each jump in the game, let’s look at some of the ways you can use those newly-learned jumping skills in Super Mario Run. First off, you should practice timing your jumps in such a way that you’re able to hit more than one block at the same time. Practice having Mario jump while he’s running, so that you can hit two blocks in the middle. That may sometimes result in both blocks getting activated, with twice the rewards as you would normally get.
Another trick you can try would be to jump and grab the flagpole near the end of a stage by doing a Spin Jump. If you’re able to hang on to the very top of the flagpole, you will get an extra ten coins for your troubles, but the best way to do this would be to do the Spin Jump, or to tap-and-hold while Mario is in midair.
4. How Does Toad Rally Mode Work?
Those tips above are probably the most basic, but you may also be wondering at this point about Rally mode. This will allow you to play in a level that’s similar to Tour mode, but with the difference of another player showing up on the stage as your opponent. This isn’t multiplayer in the truest sense; the other player shows up in “ghost” form, meaning it’s a simulation of the other player’s previous run. You don’t need to worry about the pressures of facing someone in real-time. Rally is like a pseudo-endless mode, as you have 60 seconds, no more and no less, and once that one minute is up, your coins will be counted, but so will the likes from the Toad audience. The winner of the Rally will be the one who has the most coins and likes.
5. What’s In It For You If You Win A Rally?
Anyone who wins Rally mode will win all of the Toads who had showed up to watch the event, and that’s going to add them to your Kingdom. Losing a Rally, however, will cost you the Toads who had showed up to the race, subtracting them from your Toad Kingdom total. It’s as simple as that, and if you’re thinking of racing in another Rally race to rebuild your Kingdom, you’re going to need a Toad Rally ticket. Read on, as we will be getting to the topic of Rally tickets later on in this guide.
In order to be sure you’ve got the best chance of winning a Rally race, it’s best to race against opponents whose rank is similar to yours at the most. You don’t want to race anyone that’s ranked much higher than you are, as you will likely lose that race and lose Toads in the process. But if you race someone ranked lower than you, or at a similar level, you’ll have a much better chance of winning once everything is over and done with.
6. How To Make The Most Out Of Coin Rush
The Toad Rally comes with a Coin Rush, which is like a fever mode of sorts, as it allows you to earn more coins than you usually would from the blocks or the enemies. You can unlock Coin Rush if you impress the Toads well enough, and by filling up the Coin Rush meter, which is found on top of your screen. Watch out for that blue star showing up, and once you see a rainbow tinge, coins will start appearing at random, allowing you to collect a ton of coins as long as Coin Rush is still active. Just make sure NOT to die during Coin Rush, as that will end things automatically and reset your meter.
7. Enemies Can Level Up In The Rally
If you’re able to beat a ton of enemies in the Toad Rally, they will level up, and while that could mean tougher opposition and a higher score required to beat your opponents, that also means more coins in this game mode. You can also earn yourself more Toads, but beating those leveled-up enemies could easily double your score and then some. Keep in mind that any enemies beaten in Tour mode would count toward your totals here, so if you want the bad guys to level up so you can maximize your Rally rewards, grind it out in Tour mode, replaying completed levels and defeating more enemies.
8. You Don’t Need To Play Modes You Don’t Enjoy
Super Mario Run has various modes, and the bonuses you win in one mode can help you in another. Characters unlocked in one mode can be used in another. We can go on, but the main point here is that all the modes are, in their own way, related to one another. But the good thing here is that the game won’t force you to play all modes. If you’re happy sticking to the Tour levels, then you can focus on those levels alone, but if you prefer to focus on Rally mode, you can try your luck against more “ghost” players as long as you’ve got tickets. Then again, it’s still recommended that you play as many modes as possible, maybe even all of them, so you can get the hang of things.
9. How To Kill Boom Boom
The arch-enemy of the game, as Mario fans may know, is Bowser, a.k.a. King Koopa. But before you get to him, you’ll face a number of thugs in the boss battles, including Boom Boom. He may look tough to defeat, and it is indeed hard to beat him if you’re facing him for the first time. But if you want to get a jump on Boom Boom, you’ll want to bop him several times on the head. Timing your jumps plays a huge role here, and you can try using the Wall Reverse Jump so you can give Mario a higher jump and more airtime. Practice timing Mario’s landing so you can beat Boom Boom even faster than you normally would. Once again, Boom Boom is no walk in the park, but if you practice well enough, beating him may soon become second nature.
10. Play In The Bonus House
Super Mario Run comes with a Kingdom Builder mode, and the first new addition you will get for this mode is the Bonus House. This will allow you to play a bonus game every eight hours, though the catch here is that you will need to choose between more than one path while trying to collect more coins. These paths will lead to one of four different treasure chests. Two of those chests come with a Rally Ticket, so that’s a 50 percent chance of getting more tickets for the Toad Rally by playing this mode. You can also buy Blue and/or Yellow Bonus Game Houses with your in-game currency, provided you’ve earned the required number of Toads per color. At this point, no one knows whether it’s possible to win Rally Tickets by following the paths in these pay-to-play houses, but chances are they would, hopefully with improved chances for both.
11. How (Else) To Win More Toad Rally Tickets
Now here’s what you’ve probably been waiting for since a couple tips back – how to win those Toad Rally Tickets and get more chances at adding Toads to your kingdom. Aside from the above tip, you can earn tickets by finding and grabbing the five pink coins found in any Tour level. There are also purple and black coins in the levels, and it’s safe to guess that collecting all of them (which could be a Herculean task for many) will also earn you free tickets.
There are also four boss battles in the game, and if you beat a boss, you can win Rally Tickets for knocking off the much tougher opponent. In fact, winning boss battles can earn you tickets in the double digits, so you’ll want to work on polishing off Boom Boom and Bowser’s other lieutenants, as well as Bowser himself. And for yet another way to get yourself some of those ever-so-useful Rally Tickets, you’ll want to take advantage of the social media options in the game. You will be asked when you start playing if you want to link a Nintendo Account, so if you don’t have one yet, create one and link it to your game. Missions completed once your Nintendo Account is linked could also allow you to redeem your points for coins, gold statues, and more.
Lastly, buying the full game will give you an easy 20 Toad Rally Tickets, plus 3,000 coins and a decorative item.
12. Pay Attention To Your Notebook
Super Mario Run may look like a simple platformer for casual gamers, but it’s got far too many dimensions to it to be considered casual in the truest sense. For example, consider the various jumps. And also consider the various moves and tricks Mario can do with just one touch, or a combination of one-touch actions. There is a ton of them and we will be detailing those moves for you, but before we get to that, we strongly suggest making good use of your Notebook. Go to Menu, Notebook, then Tips and Tricks so you can recap all those moves on the fly and know what to do when the time comes.
13. Spinning Moves
To do a Midair Spin, tap the screen while midair. This would slow your descent downwards, and could also take some enemies out, making it useful if you’re facing danger. The Spin Strike can be done by tapping while Mario is midair and near an enemy; it’s very similar to the Midair Spin, except that it’s done when near an enemy.
14. Additional Info On The Above Jump Moves
We already covered the High Jump, and to add to what we had told you earlier, Luigi can make an especially high jump, and each character has their own jumping ability. Also, the length of your tap-and-hold motion determines the height of a character’s jump. Likewise, the Wall Jump can be done even while sliding down a wall, which would allow you to jump from a lower point. This might result in you missing some coins, but at least it gives Mario more wiggle room in terms of what he can do while wall-jumping.
15. Jump Moves For Other Characters
The Flutter Jump is exclusive to Yoshi, and you can execute this by tapping-and-holding, allowing him to flutter “for a short time.” Use this move when you’re trying to grab coins that Mario otherwise couldn’t reach, but not necessarily when enemies are nearby. The Floaty Jump is done the same way, but is exclusive to Princess Peach. Use this move when you’re trying to clear taller enemies or higher gaps.
16. More (Toad-Pleasing) Jumping Moves
On top of those moves we mentioned, you can do a Midair Stall by touching the screen and sliding to the left while you’re in the middle of a jump; this works if you had jumped too far and were about to grab something important. You can “impress the Toads” and please the crowds in Rally Mode by doing consecutive Wall Jumps.
To do a Vaulting Jump, tap on the screen while vaulting (see below); this is another great way to get some love from the Toads, and also a nice way to deal with enemies such as Goombas and Koopas or turn switches on. Rolling Jumps can be done by tapping while you’re rolling (again, see below), and this, once again, is perfect for the Rally as it can impress the Toads with the “energy” involved in the move. Lastly, you can tap while climbing an edge to do a Climbing Leap. Yet again, this is a crowd-pleaser in the Toad Rally, but probably a move too risky if you aren’t familiar with the run of things just yet.
17. Moves That Don’t Require Action
To Vault, just as we had hinted above, you can launch yourself over small enemies and obstacles by not doing anything at all; Mario can vault over one-block-tall obstacles or non-spiky enemies of a similar height. Just make sure you’re doing your part, as Mario won’t kill the enemies if he’s automatically vaulting. The Landing Roll also doesn’t require any action on your part. It lets you break long falls and maybe defeat some enemies, but the key thing with this “move” is that you won’t take damage if you ever fall, and rolling automatically kills enemies you roll over.
Another move that requires zero action is Edge Climbing; Mario will automatically climb up while hanging from a ledge, provided you don’t touch the screen for a few seconds. Tapping while he’s climbing, as mentioned above, will allow him to do a Climbing Jump. Slope Sliding is like a hyped-up version of rolling – it takes out enemies as you automatically slide down slopes.
18. Other Toad-Pleasing Moves That Don’t Involve Jumping
The moves in the above tip don’t require you to take action, but these moves do. Consecutive Stomps please the Toads and earn you extra coins, so try stringing together a combo by stomping multiple enemies consecutively. (Pro-tip – Use this tip when completing Airship levels.) Lastly, Threading the Ring simply involves passing through a castle’s rings and making it through safely in specific castle levels. Be very, very careful as these are fire rings, and be sure you’ve got enough wiggle room to climb over the bottom of the ring on both sides. Pull off this move perfectly and the Toads will love it at the Rally.
19. Dealing With Bubbles
When it comes to bubbles in Super Mario Run, tap on the bubble icon so that you can pop yourself into the bubble and float backward. It’s also possible to enter a bubble manually (provided you have bubbles available) by tapping on the icon on top of your screen. Do this whenever you’ve missed a pink, purple, or black coin, or possibly a switch, as you can float backward and get the item you thought you had missed. You can add bubbles if they appear from a question mark block, though this is quite a rare occurrence.
20. Unlocking New Characters
Mario is your stock character, but you can unlock five other playable characters in the game. And it will all depend on how many Toads you have in your Kingdom, thus making it important to do well in Rally mode if you want to unlock more characters.
Basically, you can unlock most of the characters by building their personal houses in the Kingdom; look for them in the Special tab in the in-game shop. To unlock Luigi’s house, you’ll need 150 green Toads and 150 purple Toads. Yoshi’s house would require you to have 30 red Toads and 30 yellow Toads. Toadette’s will require 200 of each Toad per color – red, blue, yellow, green, and purple. That’s a whopping one thousand Toads, but are you up to it?
Princess Peach can be unlocked by completing all levels in Tour mode, so that’s a total of 24 levels. The process to unlock Toad is substantially longer. First, connect your MyNintendo account to Super Mario Run. Go to the MyNintendo part of your Kingdom, tap on Toad in the Rewards section, and scroll down. Once there, tap on Redeem, then exit the menu and tap on the gift box so you can collect Toad, all ready to play like the other characters in the game. You can shift from one character to the next by going to Kingdom Menu > Notebook > Characters, or choosing the character icon at the bottom part of your screen before beginning Tour or Rally levels.
21. The Basics Of Coin Collection
We will be talking about coins in a separate guide, as we believe it can be quite an exhaustive topic on its own. But when it comes to the basics, you will need to collect all five colored coins in the Tour stages to complete the collections; missing one would require you to go back and collect all of the coins when you replay the level. Fortunately, the game will help you by storing your last completed run so that you know which coins you need.
Also expect some colored coins to get knocked out if you get hit by an enemy or obstacle, especially if it’s pink, purple, or black. But once you’ve completed a coin collection, that will allow you to unlock bonus levels, which may likely be much more difficult than the standard ones you are able to play.
22. How To Beat Bowser
Now that we’re down to our very last tip, let’s talk about the big bad of this game, the feared and hated Bowser. And anyone who’s played a Super Mario Bros game might have an idea or two on how to beat Bowser – just hop over him repeatedly while the two of you are on the bridge above the pools of lava, then land on the axe found behind him. That will cut the bridge, make it collapse, and send Bowser hurtling into the lake of fire underneath.
In Super Mario Run, you need to make sure that Mario is in super-sized, power-up form; you probably know that form of his from the old platformers. If you fight Bowser while you’re a teeny-tiny conventional Mario, you will most probably lose, or at most have a much harder time at beating the arch-enemy of the game.