Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe True Arena guide

Posted on March 13, 2023 by Tom in Guides, Switch

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe features a mode called The True Arena, and we have a new guide to help you out here plus a quick overview on how to unlock it.

How to unlock True Arena in

Like most Kirby games, a boss rush arena mode waits for the most dedicated players after finishing the main campaign. They often include secret boss fights only accessible by completing them and are required for a 100% completed file. For Return to Dream Land Deluxe, along with beating the main story, you must also finish the EX-campaign, and Magolor’s Epilogue to unlock it. The True Arena features 21 boss fights you must defeat consecutively without dying once.

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe guide – tips for True Arena

In this video walkthrough, I take you through the easiest way I know to complete this mode. It relies heavily on Kirby’s new Sand Copy Ability. Sand is an incredibly powerful ability, with large hit boxes and fast attacks. Sand Kirby’s up B and special sandcastle attack (that can be performed by pressing down then up then B) do most of the work in my run. But the most important part of Sand Kirby’s kit is block. By pressing L or R, Kirby performs a guard that can limit damage taken upon being hit or be dodge rolled out of. However, for some abilities – like Sand – the guard makes Kirby completely invincible at the cost of being completely immobile. Obviously, being invincible is well worth the tradeoff in boss fights and I recommend abusing it regularly.

Leveraging Sand in each fight will make this extreme challenge very doable for most players who aren’t even that good at the game, including myself. You are also able to bring item rewards from Merry Magoland to aid in your fights in addition to the health items naturally available (only three Maxim Tomatoes are provided in The True Arena).

This Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe True Arena guide isn’t intended to help you complete the mode the fastest, but is instead about making it relatively easy while still being fun to do. You could just Stone Kirby your way through this but that would be a bit agonizing.

Spoilers follow below.

The order of the first eight bosses is randomized. Below are timestamps from my walkthrough’s order:

00:46 Metal General EX
02:10 Whispy Woods EX
03:08 Fatty Puffer EX
04:48 Mr. Dooter EX
05:27 True Mid-Boss All-Stars #2 ( Kibble Blade EX, Moundo EX, Water Galboros EX & Dubior EX)
06:51 True Mid-Boss All-Stars #1 (Gigant Edge EX, King Doo EX & Bonkers EX)
08:01 Goriath EX
09:29 Sphere Doomers EX

After the first eight, the next two fights are fought in a fixed order:

11:02 Grand Doomer EX
12:13 Landia EX

Transitioning to the second half of the Boss Rush, you get four remixed boss fights in a random order:

13:41 Fiery Puffer
14:55 Hydriath
17:24 Rampaging Doomers
19:42 Electricky Dooter

The last seven fights are fought in a fixed order:

20:46 Crowned Doomer
22:20 HR-D3
24:29 Lor EX & Magolor
26:54 Magolor EX
28:25 Galacta Knight
30:17 Master Crown
34:17 Magolor Soul

Have you beaten the True Arena yet? What Copy Ability did you use?

Visit the official Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe here for more information about the game.