Super Mario Odyssey represents a high-water mark for the 3D platforming genre, blending nostalgic charm with an incredibly deep, physics-based movement engine. As Mario, alongside his ghostly new companion Cappy, players travel across a multitude of whimsical worlds aboard a hat-shaped spaceship called the Odyssey. The goal seems simple on the surface: collect Power Moons to fuel your ship and rescue Princess Peach from Bowser’s forced wedding plans. However, beneath its welcoming, colorful exterior lies a game packed with hidden depths, complex platforming challenges, and an overwhelming volume of secrets.
To truly master this globe-trotting adventure, you need to think beyond the basic running and jumping of Mario's past. The inclusion of Cappy expands Mario's moveset into a versatile acrobatic toolkit while introducing the "Capture" mechanic, which fundamentally alters how you interact with the environment. This comprehensive guide will take you through the chronological progression of the game, breaking down the essential "how-to" strategies for movement, exploration, boss strategies, and late-game completion. Whether you are aiming to see the credits roll or looking to gather all 999 Power Moons, this guide will provide the tactical roadmap you need.
1. Starting the Journey: How to Choose Your Mode and Partner with Cappy
Before you even take your first step into the kingdoms, the game presents you with an important choice between two gameplay styles: Regular Mode and Assist Mode. For beginners or younger players who might find 3D spatial navigation challenging, Assist Mode acts as a wonderful safety net by doubling your health bar, preventing fatal falls, and providing a clear guiding arrow toward the next objective. However, if you want to experience the pure, unadulterated joy of platforming where every missed jump carries real stakes, Regular Mode is the definitive way to play.
Immediately after the opening cutscenes, you are introduced to Cappy in the monochrome world of the Cap Kingdom. Do not rush through this tutorial area; instead, use this safe environment to build muscle memory for Cappy's core mechanics. Practice throwing him to break crates, holding the throw button to keep him spinning in place as a temporary barrier, and running into him to trigger a small upward boost. Mastering these basic interactions on day one establishes the foundational habits required for the advanced acrobatics down the road.
2. How to Master the New Kinetic Movement Engine and Advanced Combos
Once you understand the basics, you must learn to push Mario's physical limits by chaining his classic moves with Cappy’s mechanics. The standard Long Jump, Triple Jump, and Side Somersault make a return, but they now serve as links in much larger movement chains. The physics engine in Odyssey places a heavy emphasis on vector momentum, meaning that maintaining your forward speed through fluid inputs will allow you to cross gaps that look completely impossible at first glance.
The single most important technique to learn is the Cap Jump Combo. To execute this, perform a standard Long Jump, throw Cappy at the peak of your arc, press and hold the dive inputs ($ZL$ + $Y$) to propel Mario forward onto Cappy, bounce off him, throw Cappy a second time, and execute one final mid-air dive. This sequence grants Mario an unparalleled amount of horizontal airtime. It allows you to skip tedious platforming sections entirely and reach high-altitude secrets without waiting for moving platforms.
Essential Movement Inputs:
- The Ground Pound Jump: Press $ZL$ to ground pound, then instantly press $B$ the millisecond you hit the dirt to launch into a super-high vertical jump.
- The Homing Throw: Flick your controller right after throwing Cappy to make him automatically snap onto nearby regional coins or hidden targets.
- The Spin Throw: Rapidly rotate your left analog stick in a full circle before pressing $Y$ to send Cappy out in a massive, clearing radius around Mario.
3. How to Utilize the Capture Mechanic for Environmental Navigation
The core gameplay hook of Super Mario Odyssey is the "Capture" mechanic, triggered by tossing Cappy onto any creature or object that isn't already wearing a hat. Capturing strips away Mario's traditional jumping moveset and replaces it entirely with the unique physical traits and abilities of the target. This mechanic is the central key to solving the game's hundreds of environmental puzzles, turning enemies into tools for your progression.
Every kingdom features custom-tailored challenges built around the limitations of specific captures. In the Cascade Kingdom, capturing a massive T-Rex allows you to smash through solid stone walls that block hidden pathways. In the Lake Kingdom, capturing a Cheep Cheep eliminates Mario's oxygen meter completely, giving you total freedom to explore the deep ocean floor. Always experiment by throwing Cappy at everything you see; discovering how a new creature moves is often the direct solution to earning a nearby Power Moon.
4. Establishing a Routine: How to Efficiently Strip-Mine a New Kingdom
When the Odyssey lands in a brand-new kingdom, the sheer size of the map can cause immediate analysis paralysis. To stay organized and avoid aimless wandering, you should always follow a specific exploration routine. Your first priority should always be to complete the main story objectives marked on your map. Finishing these localized missions changes the physical state of the kingdom—such as thawing out the frozen desert or stopping a torrential rainstorm—which naturally opens up the map and unlocks dozens of new Power Moons.
Once the kingdom enters its "peaceful" post-story state, begin a systematic sweep of the map by activating all Checkpoint Flags. These flags act as instant fast-travel nodes, saving you immense amounts of time when backtracking. Next, actively hunt down the regional purple coins hidden in the nooks and crannies of the architecture. These coins are the only currency accepted at the local Crazy Cap shop, where you must purchase themed outfits that are required to gain entry into exclusive, locked puzzle rooms.
Your Kingdom Completion Checklist:
- Defeat Local Bosses: Alters the kingdom's environment to spawn additional collectibles.
- Activate Checkpoints: Builds a reliable fast-travel grid across the entire map.
- Collect Purple Coins: Spend these first at the local shop to unlock required area clothing.
- Consult Hint NPCs: Talk to Hint Toad or Uncle amiibo near your ship to mark stubborn Moon locations on your map.
5. Wealth Management: How to Farm Coins and Manage Currency
Super Mario Odyssey utilizes a dual-currency economic system consisting of standard Gold Coins and Kingdom-specific Purple Coins. Gold Coins are no longer tied to an "Extra Lives" mechanic; instead, they serve as your primary financial resource. You need thousands of them to purchase cosmetic costumes, buy extra Power Moons directly from shops, and pay Hint Toad for map markers. Because dying penalizes you by deducting 10 Gold Coins, keeping a healthy bank account is critical.
To farm Gold Coins efficiently, you should look for specific, repeatable bonus rooms or high-payout minigames. The absolute best early-to-mid-game farming method is found in the Wooded Kingdom. By finding a hidden key, you can enter a secret vine area that leads to a sky-high coin array where capturing a Coin Coffer allows you to spit out hundreds of coins per minute. In the late-game, replaying the Koopa Freerunning races or utilizing the bonus rooms in Bowser's Kingdom will keep your wallet maxed out.
6. Combat Strategies: How to Overcome Bosses and the Broodals
While Super Mario Odyssey is fundamentally a platformer, you will regularly face combat trials in the form of boss fights against the Broodals—a family of villainous wedding-planning rabbits. Each Broodal has a distinct, highly telegraphed gimmick, such as Topper’s stack of spinning hats or Speir’s toxic spitballs. The universal tactical approach to these encounters is to use Cappy to knock off their defensive headwear, leaving them stunned and vulnerable to a traditional Mario leap onto their skulls.
When dealing with massive kingdom-ending bosses like the mechanical Wiggler in the Metro Kingdom, you must integrate your capture skills into your offensive strategy. For example, during the fight against the stone deity Knucklotec, you must capture his rocket-propelled hands and physically steer them through a gauntlet of ice pillars to crash directly back into his face. Purchasing a Life-Up Heart from a Crazy Cap shop before a big fight will give you a six-heart health bar, giving you plenty of room for error.
Boss Counter-Measures:
- The Six-HP Boost: Always buy a Life-Up Heart before major encounters to double your survivability.
- Projectile Deflection: You can neutralize most boss projectiles by timing a basic forward hat throw to intercept them.
- Post-Hit Positioning: After hitting a boss, they will enter a brief invincibility phase; use this window to sprint to the center of the arena to avoid their desperation attacks.
7. How to Conquer the Mid-Game: Navigating the Metro Kingdom and New Donk City
The Metro Kingdom serves as the thematic and mechanical turning point of the game, dropping Mario into a vertical, realistic urban cityscape. Navigating New Donk City requires a complete shift in your environmental mindset; instead of looking at the ground, you must look upward at the skylines. The primary method of travel here is capturing Spark Pylons—electrical lines that instantly transform Mario into a bolt of pure energy, zipping him up the sides of skyscrapers in seconds.
The narrative climax of this zone is the iconic New Donk City Festival. To unlock this event, you must locate four street musicians scattered across the city rooftops and alleys to form a band for Mayor Pauline. The festival itself is a masterful, multi-screen 2D retro segment built into the walls of the city, paying direct homage to the original Donkey Kong. Success in this segment relies on classic, old-school platforming: timing your jumps over rolling barrels and recognizing hidden 8-bit pipes that lead to secret rooms.
8. Unlocking the Post-Game: How to Beat Bowser and Beyond
After trailing Bowser's airship across the globe, the final showdown takes place on the surface of the Moon. The Moon Kingdom completely shifts the game's physics, introducing a low-gravity environment that drastically extends the height and length of Mario's jumps. The final battle against Bowser is a multi-stage gauntlet where you must dodge rolling rocks, jump over burning shockwaves, and eventually capture Bowser’s own boxing-glove hat to pummel him into submission.
Defeating Bowser and watching the credits roll is not the end of your journey; it is merely the prologue to the massive post-game content. Once you return to the world, Moon Blocks across all previous kingdoms shatter open, dropping an entirely new set of high-difficulty Power Moons across every map. Furthermore, you unlock access to the nostalgic Mushroom Kingdom, a gorgeous hub world modeled after Super Mario 64, complete with retro painting worlds and achievements managed by Toadette.
Post-Game Unlock Progressions:
- Mushroom Kingdom Travel: Explore Peach's Castle and complete system-wide milestones for Toadette.
- Moon Block Activation: Return to old worlds to locate the newly spawned, highly advanced Moons.
- Koopa Freerunning: Engage in high-speed parkour races against Koopa troupes to test your movement optimization.
9. The Ultimate Platforming Tests: How to Survive the Dark and Darker Side
For the hardcore players who successfully accumulate 250 and 500 Power Moons, the game rewards you by unlocking the true ultimate challenges: the Dark Side and the Darker Side of the Moon. The Dark Side introduces a brutal, low-gravity boss rush where you must defeat all the Broodals back-to-back with limited healing options, followed by a series of ultra-precise platforming rooms that strip away your hat abilities.
The Darker Side is home to "Long Journey's End," the absolute pinnacle of 3D platforming design. This massive level is a continuous, multi-tier gauntlet that features absolutely zero checkpoints. You are forced to rapidly swap between various capture forms—such as using a Pokio to flick yourself up moving walls and a Volbonan to launch yourself across lava pits—while executing perfect Cap Jump Combos over bottomless voids. To conquer this, you must remain calm, memorize the exact pacing of the hazards, and prioritize safety over speed.
10. Achieving 100% Completion: How to Find Every Last Power Moon
Reaching the true 100% completion milestone is a monumental task that requires you to max out your ship's counter to 999 Power Moons and purchase every single costume outfit from the Crazy Cap catalog. Once you have cleared every environmental Moon marked on your maps, head directly to Peach's Castle to speak with Toadette. She holds dozens of exclusive Moons that are locked behind specific achievement milestones, such as capturing a set number of unique entities or successfully executing a target number of hat throws.
For the final stretch of your completion journey, the game allows you to purchase standard Power Moons directly from any Crazy Cap vendor for 100 Gold Coins apiece. This is the moment where your hours of gold farming pay off. Once your counter finally ticks over to the grand total of 999 Moons, a special hidden easter egg will unlock on top of Peach's Castle, officially cementing your legacy as an absolute master of Super Mario Odyssey.
Conclusion
Super Mario Odyssey is a profound celebration of movement, exploration, and creative freedom. By breaking down your journey into structured, bite-sized phases—from nailing the initial kinetic timing of the Cap Jump to systematically clearing individual kingdoms and braving the ultimate post-game gauntlets—the massive scale of this game becomes an incredibly rewarding pursuit. The true genius of Odyssey is that its mechanical depth perfectly mirrors its overarching sense of childlike wonder. Every hidden corner explored, every strange creature captured, and every flawless jump executed brings you one step closer to total mastery. Trust your reflexes, enjoy the seasonal beauty of the kingdoms, and let your imagination guide your cap.
Master Super Mario Odyssey by chaining Cappy jumps, utilizing enemy captures, establishing a systematic exploration routine, and conquering the post-game Moon gauntlets.
