The Wonderful Mart is a convenience store for Wonderful heroes, stocking everything from Wonderful snacks to Wonderful ways to dish out brutal beat downs. It’s difficult not to be dazzled at the prospect of all those Wonderful choices, so we’ve put together a list of the most essential purchases to help you best spend those hard earned O-parts.
While we’ve presented a selection from each category, it would be advisable to invest in the recommended Unite Morphs first, before moving onto the Skills category and then saving up your O-parts for the pricier Custom Blocks.
Items
You’ll need to prioritize with your shopping list, as frittering away the in-game currency on unnecessary purchases will compromise how much you can splurge on the Unite Morphs, Custom Blocks and Skills. With that in mind, you can comfortably pass on buying items that replenish health as there are enough of these scattered around the stages that you should just save your O-parts. Of course, there is another incentive for holding on to your wallet; if you use any of the really useful items on the list, like calling in air support from the Virgin Victory, or filling up the Unite Gauge to the max, your final score in the operation will be lowered, because apparently Platinum Games want you to know that they will think less of you, and by penalizing your score, they want you to know that they know that you know that they know…
Unite Morph
There are two Unite Morphs that are available to you at the beginning of the game and that you should buy immediately. They are:
Unite Guts – 15,000P
An essential of the Unite Morph arsenal, this ability lets your team take the form of a gelatinous pudding to repel an oncoming enemy attack, leaving them stunned long enough for you to move in and finish the job. Whilst it doesn’t deflect everything (lasers will tear it apart like a grenade in a bowl full of jelly), it will protect you from the vast majority of onslaughts and later on in the game, an offensive upgrade will become available that allows you to sprout spikes to damage enemies as they bounce off you.
Unite Spring – 30,000P
As you make your way through the stages, you’ll be running an aggressive recruitment drive, mopping up stray civilians to join your team until you can amass all 100 of the Wonderful Ones. In the heat of battle, with waves of enemies mobbing you from all directions, you’ll need to be able move as one entity to dodge your way out of trouble and that’s exactly what the Unite Spring lets you do.
Unite Rocket – 150,000P
A number of heroes and hidden items are tucked away in the dizzying heights of Blossom City’s skyline and to reach them you’ll need the power of the Unite Rocket to give you a super boost.
The rest of the Unite Morphs can serve to shake things up during combat, but don’t make the cut as staples when there are Custom Blocks and Skills that are more deserving of your O-parts, particularly given how expensive they are.
However, when you come back round to the Unite Morphs after you’ve built up your basic arsenal, you should invest in the offensive upgrades and Unite Ball, which melds your team into a ball for ease of movement, but it’s not quite fast enough to justify buying it at the outset, as the Unite Spring and dash options do the same job just fine. You may also stumble across a few secrets by getting your ball jammed in a hole somewhere…which isn’t as gross as it sounds.
Custom Block
Custom Blocks are augments that you can attach to the slots in your CENTINEL-Suit. They can be equipped in the Custom tab in the Menu option between stages. You begin the game with only a single slot, but more will open up as you progress.
The Custom Blocks are certainly up there when it comes to cost, and again, it’s a case of being subtly punished for taking the easy road with abilities like Auto-Guts that automatically activates Unites Guts when under attack, and Unite Charge that lets you bump up the size of your Unite Morphs with the push of a button, as your Unite Gauge will take a hit with each use. As long as you have a vague idea of what you’re doing and not just wildly button mashing, you should be able to navigate each battle without resorting to such expensive auto-abilities.
The most useful Custom Blocks are those that enhance your effectiveness in a fight without sucking away at your Unite Gauge as a trade-off:
Speed Charge – 500,000P
This is a basic augment that increases the recovery speed of the Unite Gauge, giving you one less thing to worry about in the wake of a frenzied combo attack.
Dodge Mine – 400,000P
Whilst fairly expensive, this block bestows an offensive capability on Unite Spring by leaving landmine energy bombs in the wake of your human slinky, blowing away any hapless enemies that trigger them.
Ukemi – 800,000P
Obscenely priced at 800,000 O-parts, Ukemi will let you avoid lethal damage by jumping just before impact. This ability will definitely prove itself useful as you wade through boss battles against gargantuan mecha Kaiju kitted out with lasers and other attachments that are all designed to decimate you at an atomic level.
Skill
These become active as soon as they’re purchased so there’s no need to try to find a hole in your CENTINEL-Suit to jam them in to:
Attack Liner – 150,000P
Attack Liner is worth investing in near the outset, as it deals out damage with your Wonder-Liner as you’re drawing out your glyphs. Bearing in mind that time slows down when making shapes, this can help you sneak in bonus damage against unarmoured enemies – particularly when you have a huge team pounding their way through enemy lines on their way to becoming a giant sword.
Speed Liner – 300,000P
The benefits of this particular skill are twofold; first, when paired with Attack Liner, you can mete out damage at a faster rate with the Wonder-Liner and second, it makes chaining combos together more fluid with the right analogue stick, which you’ll need to master over the game pad if you want to rack up those combo points.
This selection of Unite Morphs, Custom Blocks and Skills should be enough to provide you with a solid base for a well-rounded offensive and defensive strategy and will set you back by 2,345,000 P, so start whooping some robo butt to pillage those O-parts!
And if you're looking for more tips for Platinum Games' latest, check out GamesRadar's Wonderful 101 combo guide.
