Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope: best skills and how to level them up

Mario is no stranger to RPGs. He’s been leveling up and adventuring in turn-based worlds ever since the SNES, and yet never quite in the way we get in the two Mario + Rabbids games. While the tactical style of the gameplay is still novel and by far the most approachable game in the genre for newcomers, there is still a robust RPG leveling system under the hood as well.

While the skill trees themselves won’t be too intimidating on the surface, the number of different skill types, plus having them for each character, can easily get overwhelming. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope breaks down skills into four different categories: Health Skills, Movement Skills, Weapon Skills, and Technique Skills. There are a ton of skills among them, some of which only one character can get, while others can be learned by many.

Having a good spread of skills among your team, and focusing your characters on skills that improve their natural abilities, will make the tougher boss fights that much easier. Here are all the best skills you should go for, plus how to level them up, in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope.

How to level up skills

Mario's skill tree menu.

Before we talk about which skills are best, you should know how to get and upgrade them. Everything related to your skills will cost you a resource called Skill Prisms.

These items are rewarded for leveling up your heroes by accumulating XP through battle. The more battles you take, the more XP you earn, and thus more Skill Prisms you get. That makes it well worth your while to take on side objectives.

While you do need to spend Skill Prisms to unlock new skills, you are not committed to your choice. If you want to respec your character, you can simply open your menu, go to the Heroes tab, select the character you want to reset, and choose Refund. This will return all the spent Skill Prisms you’ve used for this character. There are also special Gold Prisms that are rewards for specific side quests in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope.

These are exclusively used to unlock a special Sparks skill tree for a character. These can’t be refunded, so choose carefully who you want to use them on.

Best Health Skills

Mario and rabbids in a dungeon.

We will start with the Health Skills since there are only three of them and they can be used by all characters. Because there are so few, and they’re all great, we recommend getting them all.

Here’s what they do: Extra Health: Increases that character’s maximum HP. Heal Sponge: Increase how much health a character recovers when healed.

HP Chill Out: That character recovers 15% of their total HP after every battle.

Best Movement Skills

Rabbid luigi breakdancing.

For Movement Skills, we like to focus on the skills that let you do more, or get more out of, moves that don’t cost Action Points. Here are our picks, what they do, and who can learn them: Extra Dash: Increases the number of Dashes a character can do in one turn (Edge, Peach, Rabbid Luigi, Rabbid Mario, Rabbid Peach).

Team Jump Extra Dash: Gives one extra Dash after performing a Team Jump that turn (Luigi).
Extra Stomp: Increases the number of Stomps Mario can do in a single turn (Mario). Exhaust Dash: Makes Rabbid Luigi’s Dash apply Weaken to any enemy hit (Rabbid Luigi).

Best Weapon Skills

Luigi aiming his bow.

Weapon Skills are far more dependent on which team composition you use.

That said, there are some that play to the cast’s strengths more than others, and some that are just great to get for everyone you can. Weapon Damage: A simple damage buff to that character’s weapon (Peach, Rabbid Luigi, Rabbid Mario). Weapon Range: Like Weapon Damage, it’s a simple increase to a character’s weapon range (Edge, Luigi, Mario, Rabbid Peach).

Second Helping: If Mario’s first shot eliminates his target, the second shot will deal double damage (Mario). Discruptor Chained Targets: Increases the amount of enemies Rabbid Luigi can target with chain attacks (Rabbid Luigi).

Best Technique Skills

Screenshot of Mario shooting enemies in mario + rabbids sparks of hope.

Last up, the Technique Skills have no overlap between characters since they are all specific to each character’s Signature Ability. Here, we will give a recommendation for each starting individual character:

Hero Sight Cooldown: Mario’s Hero Sight skill takes less turns to charge up (Mario). Ghost Bullet: Luigi’s Steel Stare will go through objects to hit your target (Luigi). Team Barrier Discharge: When your Team Barrier is broken, it will create a 5m AoE attack (Peach).

Mountain Stance: Edge will take 50% less damage while Stormblade is active (Edge). Counter Blow Range: Makes Rabbid Mario’s Counter Blow have increased range (Rabbid Mario). Weaken Effect: Makes the Weaken debuff from Rabbid Luigi’s Exhaust last longer (Rabbid Luigi).

Heal Range: Makes Rabbid Peach’s healing range larger (Rabbid Peach).