Super Mario RPG tips and tricks – 8 essential tips to help beat the Smithy Gang

If you never played the original, then you might be after some Super Mario RPG tips and tricks to help you get through this Nintendo Switch remake of the classic RPG. Mario RPGs have some interesting mechanics that aren’t found in your traditional ones, and unless you know about them already, you might be putting yourself at a disadvantage. That’s why we’re here to share some of our essential tips to help you out on your journey.

We put all this advice together based on our Super Mario RPG review, so check it out to see what we made of the game. And if you’ve come across the Super Mario RPG Melody Bay puzzle, our guide will tell you how to compose each song. With that, let’s get into our list of Super Mario RPG tips and tricks to help you take down the Smithy Gang and save Star Road.

8 Super Mario RPG tips and tricks

Here are our eight best tips and tricks you need to know for Super Mario RPG:

Use Thought Peek

Once you unlock Mallow, you’ll probably have noticed his ability Thought Peek, which the game says lets you see a foe’s remaining HP. This is kind of misleading, as it doesn’t tell you about its best feature – seeing enemy weaknesses. Certain enemies are weak to certain types of attacks, and Thought Peek tells you exactly what they are without trial and error, and stores that info in your Monster List. Use this whenever you come across a new enemy type and it will make your life much easier.

Use your Triple Attack strategically

Your Triple Attack is the most powerful thing in your arsenal, and can is incredibly useful when it comes to boss fights, demolishing their massive health bars. Before you go into any boss fight, make sure to charge up your gauge to 100%. This way, you can use your Triple Attack right away, before charging up to use another one later in the fight. A second Triple Attack could be the difference between winning and losing, so there’s no reason not to.

You don’t really need a healer

In most RPGs, you would usually want a support character to make sure your team stays healed up, but you can get away without one in Super Mario RPG. Once I had the whole gang unlocked, I almost exclusively teamed Mario up with Bowser and Geno, focusing on dealing as much damage as possible. 

Thanks to being able to block enemy attacks by timing your A presses, you can avoid the vast majority of damage, and make up for any missed blocks by using the odd item. In boss fights where enemies may use unblockable attacks, you can swap in Peach or Mallow to do some healing and just swap them back out again after.

Don’t spread your stats

Every time you level up a character, you can choose a specific stat to put some extra points stat points into. It might be tempting to spread them evenly to make a more balanced character, but you should really only focus on one or two. For example, Mario largely uses melee attacks, so putting more points into Magic won’t help him as much as it would for Mallow who needs a higher Magic Attack.

During my playthrough, I generally stuck to one stat to upgrade for each character, choosing either Physical or Magic depending on the character, and avoiding upgrading HP almost entirely, as the HP stat increases I got from levelling up were enough for me.

Use your abilities outside of battle

Mallow and Peach both have abilities that can be used to heal your party members, but what you might now know is that those abilities work outside of battle too. Simply press the Y button when you’re out of a battle, and you can use those abilities to heal up your party. This is especially useful once you unlock Peach as she has an ability that can heal your entire party in one go.

Spend your coins

If you’re like me, you probably like hoarding your money like a fantasy dragon, but there’s really no need to in Super Mario RPG. You get coins like its nothing in this game, so if you see a new weapon or piece of armour in a shop, just buy it. You’ll get the money back in no time anyway, and having the best gear will help you kill monsters faster, earning you even more money and EXP – it’s a win-win!

But save your Frog Coins

While coins are plentiful and you should spend them at every opportunity, Frog Coins are much harder to come across. You can spend them at certain vendors at Tadpole Pond to get some powerful items. Save them through the early and mid game and spend them in the end game when the difficulty starts to ramp up.

Use Mario’s Super Jump special attack

Once Mario levels up enough, he’ll unlock the Super Jump special attack. This might seem like just another attack – and one that’s not very good at that – but there’s more to it than you might think. By pressing A just before your jump lands, you can jump again. By hitting 30 jumps in a row, you can unlock one of Mario’s best accessories, and by hitting 100, you unlock his best piece of armour. This might take a lot of practice, but the reward is worth it so you may as well start ASAP.

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Alex’s Advice

Make sure your sound is on when using Mario’s Super Jump. The sound cues can help you find a good rhythm to keep your streaks going for longer.

That’s if for our Super Mario RPG tips and tricks. If you haven’t got the game yet and were wondering does Super Mario RPG have a physical release, check out our guide. And if you wanted to know is Super Mario RPG remake the same as Super Mario RPG, we’ve got you covered there too.

Super Mario RPG tips and tricks FAQs

Is Geno in the Super Mario RPG remake?

Yes, Geno returns from the original Super Mario RPG to make an appearance in the remake.

How many characters can you play as in Super Mario RPG?

Including Mario, there are five total characters that you can use in Super Mario RPG, though you can only use up to three characters in battles.