Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope best Sparks and their locations

The Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope best sparks that use elemental weaknesses against your opponents and give you immunities against their attacks. Sparks can do a lot and many provide useful powers, but the ability to control elements is so useful that it's nearly always worth exploiting that aspect as much as possible. The tricky bit is finding Sparks - but we can show you how to do that, the best ones to choose, and more in our guide to the best Sparks in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. 

Best Sparks to pick in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope

The best Sparks in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope are specifically those that counter whatever enemies you're fighting, as resistances and attack types are generally more effective than the unique abilities offered by each Spark. Mario + Rabbids doesn't explain this too well, but most Sparks provide resistance to some kind of attack type or Super attack, meaning you'll take reduced damage and be immune to the special effects usually bestowed by them. Combined with the common ability to inflict Supers and specials yourself, and this means you can equip your team in the following method:

1. Before the fight starts, when you can still pick teammates and Sparks, use the Beep-O Tacticam to survey the battlefield and your enemies.
2. By holding Beep-O over enemies and pressing A, you can see their weaknesses and resistances (enemies often inflict the damage type that they're resistant to).
3. Go back into the Sparks menu and equip at least two Sparks to each playable character (assuming that you've unlocked the ability to use multiple Sparks).
4. One Spark should ideally inflict damage that the enemy is weak to, and the other make the character resistant to whatever they inflict.

Once you have this set-up going, you'll be entering any fight with a huge advantage, better than any amount of special abilities can give you. 

However, if you don't have a wide enough variety of Sparks to equip everybody with attack types/resistances accordingly (or if you're fighting enemies with no weaknesses, like the Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope Giant Wildclaw), here are some useful ones to try out, and who to put them on:

• Glitter (pulls in nearby enemies): Great when paired with close-range fighters like Edge, Rabbid Mario and Peach. Bring them in, then hit them all at once. Obtained as part of the campaign on Palette Prime.
• Screech (repels nearby enemies): The opposite of Glitter, Screech is great for scattering nearby enemies. Use it to protect your support characters from melee fighters. Obtained when behind the locked door in Beacon Beach that you need to buy the key for.
• Ethering (makes the user invisible and untargetable temporarily): Good on any fighter, but mainly those who have lesser health and might need an exit, like Luigi. Obtained by completing the "Wolf at the Door" mission on Pristine Peaks.
• Starburst (increases damage dealt by all allies nearby): Very good when given to support characters who generally have to be close to allies, like Peach or Rabbid Peach. Mario starts off with this Spark.

How to get new Sparks in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope

Sparks in Mario + Rabbids are often provided to the player simply through playing the main campaign, helping to bolster their arsenal and choices. However, there area lot of optional ones that can be found in the world beyond, usually as a reward for completing sidequests and optional content. You can find them by opening the map and looking for the yellow icon highlighted above - then simply head there and interact with whatever NPC or unfinished quest is waiting to find out the requirements.

There are 30 Sparks in total across the game, roughly half of which are obtained on the critical path. To get all of them, you'll need to go off the trail and explore all the various islands to their utmost. 

Of course, the Sparks you equip aren't going to help as much if you don't know the best team builds to apply them to - but we've got a page on all the Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope best teams if you need to know that!