Super Mario Odyssey: How to Beat All Darkside Bosses

How to Beat All Darkside Bosses in Super Mario Odyssey

Once you get to the end of Super Mario Odyssey, you’ll quickly realize that the fun (and the challenge) isn’t over just yet. One of the most difficult tasks in the entire game is waiting for you once you manage to collect 250 moons. Collecting enough moons will allow you to travel to the Dark Side of the Moon where a rather fashionable group of bunnies will be awaiting you. By now the Broodals will be anything but strangers to you but this encounter with them will be different from all the others. You will need to take on four Broodal bosses with only one life before running into an even greater challenge once you’ve made it past them.

Having to go through all four of the Broodal bosses with one life means there is little to no room for error here so you’ll want to make sure you’re approaching each one with the right strategy. While some of the bosses are best handled by rushing in, you’ll definitely want to baby sit the edge of the arena when going up against others. This guide will give you a complete breakdown so you can climb your way to the top of the Space Carrot.

Topper

How to Beat All Darkside Bosses in Super Mario Odyssey

As you can imagine, the first floor is the easiest one but that doesn’t mean it’s a walk in the park either. Topper isn’t necessarily a particularly daunting foe but he is a particularly annoying one. His hats are a bit random and although they aren’t impossible to deal with their sporadic nature can easily turn into a headache for you. The best thing to do here is to actually rush Topper and immediately throw your cap to knock his own hats off his head. Once you’ve accomplished this, jump on his head and prepare for the second round of attacks to begin. This time you’ll want to give Topper some space. Hang out at the back of the arena and hit any hats that come your way. You will keep this up until Topper has run out of hats or until the timer has run down.

The fight isn’t over yet. Topper will bring out a larger stack of hats and you will essentially just want to focus on keeping space between you and him. Just don’t forget to hit any loose hats left appear the arena. Keep this up until your golden moment to deal tons of damage arises. While other classic franchises have taught us to just avoid big bosses when they got into spin moves, Super Mario Odyssey calls for you to throw that thought process out the window. Use the long throw to toss Cappy towards the pink circle and you’ll manage to knock multiple hats off in one throw. Hop on his head once you have cleared the second stack of hats and you will enter yet another phase of the battle.

Topper’s collection of never ending hats allows him to go into the third heat of battle with even more hats so you’ll want to stay towards the back of the arena and repeat the same strategy as before. Keep an eye out for spinning attacks that you’ll need to jump over to preserve life. Just like before, wait for Topper to run out of hats and then rush to jump on his head and you’ll be ready to move on to the next floor.

Harriet

How to Beat All Darkside Bosses in Super Mario Odyssey

The best strategy to use again Harriet is easier said than done but having the right approach is still extremely helpful. Yet again you’ll want to stay along the edge of the arena to put as much as space as possible between you and this explosives-loving rabbit. Once Harriet starts throwing bombs at you, you’ll want to run along the edge of the arena to avoid the attack but make sure you turn around and throw Cappy at the bombs from a safe distance. If you don’t the bombs will explode on the ground and could still deal some damage. After tossing out a few bombs it’ll be time for her spin attack. She’ll throw the bombs out towards you but they’ll ultimately get stuck in the ground. Hit them with Cappy and it’ll send the explosives flying right back at her, causing them to blow up in her face instead of yours.

This is your moment to attack. Harriet will become frustrated with the turn of events so you have time to use Cappy to stun her before jumping on her head. That’s when she’ll pull a new trick out of her hat — or rather she’ll put herself into it. Harriet’s hat doubles as a UFO that she’ll use to float through the air and drop bombs on you. The good news is that it’s easy to get her out of this aerial attack. As she drops a bomb from her hat UFO, toss Cappy at it quickly while she’s still hovering above the bomb. If you get the timing right, the bomb will pop up into the air and hit Harriet. Once she’s back on her feet, you will basically start over at square one and repeat the entire thing a few more times before Harriet will finally call it quits.

Spewart

How to Beat All Darkside Bosses in Super Mario Odyssey

Spewart may look the most intimidating out of all the Broodals but he soon exposes himself as the easiest of the bunch to take down. Spewart will begin the fight by, well, spewing purple goo all around him. All you have to do it throw Cappy into the goo and it will clear a path through. Walk through the path and hop on his head and it’ll cause him to retreat into his hat for the second phase of his attacks. Spewart will start sliding across the arena, leaving purple goo behind him. All you have to do is pick a spot, stand there, and throw Cappy at Spewart whenever he gets too close or starts heading in your direction. This will cause him to change paths until he’s done with his purple goo spewing tirade. He will return to the center of the stage and repeat the exact same process all over again.

This one will be a quick and easy fight.

Rango

How to Beat All Darkside Bosses in Super Mario Odyssey

Rango isn’t a particularly troubling boss fight either but it will require you to have a solid sense of timing. Once the fight starts prepare for Rango to toss two hats in your direction so you’ll want to run to the far left or far right to avoid getting hit. Create a good amount of space between you and Rango as he will launch his hats at you again in a few seconds. Toss Cappy at one of them and it will flip over to expose a spiraling flower. Hop on this and it will launch Mario high into the air, allowing you to position yourself perfectly above Rango and come down on his head.

Once you do this, Rango’s spinning attack will unveil a dangerous new feature of his hat — a rotating blade. He will chase after you with it but if you run along the very edge of the arena he will just barely miss you every time. Just make sure you keep moving. Like the other bosses, defeating Rango now becomes a sort of rinse and repeat process. He will toss two hats at you again and you’ll need to avoid getting hit and then toss Cappy at one of them like you did the first time around.

RoboBrood

How to Beat All Darkside Bosses in Super Mario Odyssey

As you prepare to head up to face the fifth boss, you’ll want to make sure you have all three of your lives in tact. As you climb the tower a heart will be waiting for you. If you snag this heart and then head back down the tower and enter the door again before coming back out and running back up, the heart will respawn. You’ll want to go into this battle with a full health bar because RoboBrood will require a ton of patience and provide little room for error.

In the beginning of the fight you’ll want to use Cappy to capture one of the Hammer Bros. Run towards your giant mechanical foe and start tossing hammers at its legs. Just make sure you’re also steering clear of the bombs falling after each hit. If you deal enough damage, you’ll see the leg crack. At this point you can now focus your hammer throwing on the other leg. Keep hurling hammers at the other leg even after it cracks and eventually you’ll see RoboBrood fall over. Throw everything you’ve got at the leg up top until it finally breaks away completely. You can leave your Hammer Bros days behind you for a short while because you will need Mario’s backflip jump to climb to the top of RoboBrood and then jump on the clear dome protecting one of the Broodals.

The second wave of attacks will be very similar to the first except for the fact that RoboBrood will take a few steps before throwing more bombs out. As you probably guessed, you need to keep your distance here. You’ll need to alternate between moving in and out, avoiding RoboBrood while it’s in motion and then rushing back in to attack when it comes to a stop. Eventually the robot will tumble again and you’ll repeat the same process from before.

Once you pull this off a second time, the dynamics of battle change up a bit and you’ll certainly need to pack your patience for it. Rush to the edge of the arena and get ready to keep rolling along the edge. Just keep rolling until you notice the robot’s legs have stopped flashing and RoboBrood returns to the center of the stage. You’ll need to capture another Hammer Bro now and bounce around the edge of the arena. At this point you’ll notice snakes coming after you but once they hit the end of the arena they will disappear. As they start to clear out, carefully navigate your way back towards RoboBrood to get some more hits in. Keep doing this until RoboBrood finally takes a new stance. At this point, focus all your attacks on the leg you haven’t broken completely off yet. Once the armor is taken away, jump to the top and bounce on the next clear dome.

You’re almost there now. You’ll just have to repeat this process one more time to attack the final dome and you will have officially defeated RoboBrood!

Need more tips and tricks to make it through Super Mario Odyssey? Check out our Wiki here.