Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope character guide: Rabbid Mario

Nintendo Everything has created a series of character guides for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, looking at the best skills to acquire, party members to use with them, and Sparks to give them to maximize their potential. This is a guide for Rabbid Mario.

Rabbid Mario is one of the characters you will begin the game with, and returns from Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. He has the highest hit points of all characters, which is appropriate as his Technique, Counter Blow, has him counter enemies that use weapon attacks on him. Despite being a short range fighter, his damage output is also on-par with Luigi’s and hits enemies in a wide arc, making him a formidable character with very few drawbacks with the right support.

What skills are best for Rabbid Mario?

When building Rabbid Mario for combat, you will want to invest in the Technique branch of his Skill Tree first. Increase Counter Blow Range, so that you can keep Rabbid Mario closer to your other party members and take advantage of its effects sooner, before investing in Counter Blow Cooldown and Additional Counter Blow Charge. Pay Back is nice to have but it comes at a very high cost of 4 Skill Prisms, and you can use the Reflector Spark to increase damage dealt as a substitute if necessary initially, so you may want to consider investing in Weapon Damage at this point so that you can unlock No Limits – being able to move after attacking is an extremely useful ability to have in later stages of the game, especially considering Rabbid Mario is primarily a frontline fighter and you will not want to have him in cover most of the time so that you can take advantage of Counter Blow. Being able to attack and then retreat behind cover when his health is low or you do not have Counter Blow active can be a benefit at times.

Rabbid Mario is excellent for survival and traversal maps, and for these you will want to invest in Movement Range and, if necessary, Extra Health – Rabbid Mario already has the highest HP of all your party members, and increasing his further will turn him into a defensive wall, especially when paired with a healing Spark like Regenesis and a defensive Spark like Exosphere.

Who are the best party members to use with Rabbid Mario?

Luigi, Bowser, and Rabbid Peach in particular stand out as good choices for a party with Rabbid Mario in combat. Luigi and Bowser are both long range units and can provide additional damage support from a safe distance whilst Rabbid Mario gets up close and personal. Luigi can use Steely Stare to take out enemies before they even reach Rabbid Mario, and Bowser can hit enemies when they are clustered together and destroy their cover once you unlock Demolisher, allowing Rabbid Mario to hit them from close range as well. Rabbid Peach can provide support with healing, which is more useful to Rabbid Mario than Peach’s barrier or Rabbid Rosalina’s stasis and, despite his higher hit points, is essential in protracted battles and on higher difficulties. As he will be in the enemies’ line of sight and will need to take damage in order to make the most of Counter Blow, characters that support him from a distance make for the best party members.

Which Sparks are best for Rabbid Mario?

As his Technique is centered around taking damage, Regenesis in particular is ideal to give to Rabbid Mario, as it will regenerate his health and increase his max HP, which is already considerable. For his second Spark, you may wish to change it accordingly depending on which enemies are on the map and what statuses they can inflict so that he isn’t affected by them, although Reflector is a good general choice for the first half of the game, or if there aren’t many enemies that inflict one particular effect like Burn or Splash.

For later in the game, Vampastra is a solid choice, giving him additional regenerative abilities and an increase in damage. Glitter is also a good all-around choice as it clusters enemies together, making them easy prey for other members you may have in your party with area of effect skills such as Bowser, Rabbid Rosalina, Rabbid Luigi, or Edge. On maps where your objective is to survive, a combination of Exosphere and Regenesis will turn Rabbid Mario into an excellent stall unit.