How to beat the Dark Side bosses in Super Mario Odyssey

Warning this video contains spoilers for Super Mario Odyssey.

Once you get to the end of the story in Super Mario Odyssey you’ll be tasked with getting 250 moons in order to travel to the next location. That location is The Dark Side of the Moon and when you first arrive you’ll find there’s nothing to do expect battle your way through the four Broodal bosses to the top of the space carrot where a final challenge awaits you. Oh and you have to do it all in one life. Here’s the best techniques for defeating each one.

Stage 1: How to beat the First Floor (Topper)

This is probably the Boss where you’re likely to lose the most lives because of the random nature of the hats but you can do it without getting hit at all.

As soon as the battle starts run forwards to rapidly throw cap to knock all the hats off Topper’s head then jump up and land on his head. This will activate the second stage of attacks. This time around the hats are quite easy to manage just stay at the back of the arena and hit any that comes towards to (you can also jump on top of them to make them disappear). Once you’ve hit them all, or the timer has run out Topper will re-appear with a bigger stack of hats.

Here your job is to stay away from him and make sure you hit the roaming hats that’ll appear once you knock it off the Topper’s head. Every now and then he’ll go into a spin attack. This is your opportunity to quickly deal with a bunch of hats. Throw Cappy towards the pink circle with a long throw and you’ll knock off 3 or 4 in one attack. Once all the hats are off jump on his head again to move on to the final stage of this fight.

This time there are even more hats to deal with but stay at the back of the arena again, dealing with any hats that comes near you and you should be relatively safe. Wait for all the hats to appear on Topper’s head again and then repeat the process from stage two, making sure you jump over any spinning attacks that might hit you at ground level. Try to stick to the very edge of the arena to give yourself the best chance of not being hit by any rogue hats. Once he’s hatless once again just jump on his head to complete the fight.

Stage 2: How to beat the second floor (Hariet)

To beat Hariet you need to stick to the very edge of the arena. Just run along the edge until she starts throwing bombs at you then immediately turn around and hit them with Cappy so they don’t explode on the ground (you can also hit them back at her but it’s risky and not necessary). After a few lose bombs she’ll go into her spin attack. Stick to the edge again and once you see the shadows on the ground run towards it and hit the glowing bombs with Cappy. The bombs will explode in her face and she’ll get a bit upset. Run over and stun her with Cappy before jumping on her head.

The next phase is an aerial assault but this is easily cancelled. Once Hariet goes into the UFO you’ll be given a few seconds to prepare but as soon as you see the shadow move run towards it. She’ll then drop a bomb from the ship. All you have to do is hit it with Cappy to fire it back up at her. This will cancel the bombing run and bring her back down to earth. You’ll have to repeat this whole process three times but nothing changes during each stage so just rinse and repeat.

Stage 3: How to beat the third floor (Spewart)

This is perhaps the easiest Boss to beat as you don’t really have to move. Once the fight starts throw Cappy forwards to mop up the goo and run into the now clear pathway. Hit Spewart once with Cappy and then jump on his head.

During stage two he’ll draw a star on the floor in goo but if you just stand at the back of the arena the throw Cappy whenever he gets too close he won’t be able to touch you. Once again, clear the goo from in front of you and hit him once to remove the hat then jump on his head. Stage three is exactly the same.

Stage 4: How to beat the Fourth floor (Rango)

Beating Rango just comes down to timing. When the battle starts immediately run to either the left or right to avoid his first attack. Now wait until he throws hit hats again and launch Cappy at one of them. Once you hit one use the flower to boost yourself high into the air and come down on his head. For the second stage he’ll bounce after you with a killer rotating blade. All you need to do here is run along the very edge of the area and you should stay just far enough in-front. It’ll look really close, but don’t worry. You’ll make it. Wait for him to throw his hats again and repeat the first steps two more times.

If you can get past these four stages you can actually go into the final fight will a full three lives. See that heart of the way up? Well just collect it, head down the mountain and go back through the door. Turn around and go back the way you came and the heart will have respawned.

Stage 5: How to beat the Fifth Floor (RoboBrood)

This final stage boss looks like a monster you should be able to get past the RoboBrood with a little patience. First you'll want to capture on the hammer Bro’s from the edge of the arena. Next bounce towards the robot and start throwing hammers at one of the legs making sure you bounce away from the falling bombs after every hit.

Keep bouncing and throwing until one of the legs cracks and then focus on the other leg. Once the second one cracks keep hitting it until the robot falls over. Once it’s on the ground throw everything at the second leg and then just out on the hammer bro and use Mario's backflip jump (hold ZL and press B) to get to the top. Now jump on the clear dome.

The second stage is very much the same as the first except this time the robot will take three steps before sending out bombs. Stay away from it while it’s moving and them move in to thrown hammers at it’s legs. Once it’s down, hit the armour off the other leg and make your way back to the top to jump on the dome.

The third stage changes things up so as soon as you’ve hit the second dome move to the very edge of the arena. Now hold ZL and hammer Y to roll along the edge. Keep rolling until the robot's legs have stopped flashing and it returns to the center of the arena. Now capture another hammer bro and bounce around the edge of the arena. The multicoloured snakes will hit the side and disappear so wait until there’s only one of two left then carefully turn around and get a few hammer hits in. This stage requires a bit of patience as you’ll only get a few hits in each time but hang in there and the robot will eventually go into a wide stance. Bounce over to the leg you haven’t yet taken completely off and throw hammers at it. Once the armour coating is off jump to the top and bounce on the dome to activate the final stage.

This is exactly the same as stage three. So stick to the edge of the arena and get hits in while you can. Once the robot is down hit the final piece of armour off, make your way to the top and complete the challenge to get 3 moons and (most importantly) a king outfit!

Bonus Tip: It’s worth exploring the dark side of the moon now you’ve beaten the boss, there’s A LOT more moons to find (by completing some of the hardest challenges in the game) and loads of art to discover. Good luck.