Disney Infinity: Toy Box 2.0 Edition is a huge game with infinite possibilities. The Toy Box is a key feature of the game, and it can be somewhat daunting at first as there is so much to do. However, before we begin exploring the Toy Box, let’s take a look at the basics of playing the game.
Your Screen
Character Portrait: A picture of the character currently in use.
Blue Sparks: You accumulate these from breaking open blue capsules and as rewards at the end of a mission. Spend them in the Toy Box on cool toys and accessories.
Level: The number shows your current level, and the bar displays your progress toward the next level.
Objective Marker: A mission marker that pinpoints distance and location for your next objective.
Mini-Map: A radar map showing the direction you’re facing. Various points of interest display on the map, such as objectives as yellow dots and challenges as green dots.
Targeting Circle: This is where you are pointing. Very important for ranged combat and locking on to targets.
Your Character.
Movement
Basic Motion
There are a large number of characters to play in the game, and fortunately they all move in a similar fashion. You use one stick to move and the other to look around, and you use the same buttons to jump, block, dodge, and activate abilities; however, each character is unique and has his or her own special abilities and methods of attack. They do all share a few common movements that are essential for navigation and platforming.
Jumping
The first common technique is the double jump, and while it is easy to do, there is more to it than merely pressing a button twice. Double jumps will allow you to jump higher, but they can also allow you to jump longer. If you wait until you begin to fall on the first part of your jump, and then press the jump button for the second time, you will extend the distance you cover, allowing you to jump across far ledges and buildings. If you have Super Jump, holding the jump button sends you sky high.
Climbing
Most of the platforming in the game will include plenty of climbing. The skill is easy to perform, but it can be tricky to know where you can actually climb. Look for railings along climbable edges; usually these railings are yellow or blue. Once you are hanging, there are a lot of options including jumping up or over to another grapple point, jumping down or off the structure, or following the hand hold to maneuver around the edge. Other objects, such as poles, can also be climbed. If a character has Wall Crawl, he or she can climb straight up a surface, regardless of edges or railings.
Block/Dodge
All characters have the ability to move in a quick fashion—rolling, flipping, hopping—which can be used for defense or offense. A dodge is a great way to avoid an attack (by holding block and pressing the control stick in the direction you want to dodge) and to maneuver into a better position, such as behind an enemy for a sneak attack. If you don’t touch the control stick and press the block button, you defend in place and decrease the damage from melee attacks.
Flying
Some characters, such as Tinker Bell, have the ability to fly. The left control stick affects your direction, the right control stick moves you up and down, and the left trigger accelerates. Don’t worry about falling; you can’t be hurt. When you want to land, you can continue full speed into the ground and perform an Air Attack, or you can use your block button to suddenly stop flying and drop to the ground.
Vehicles
Ground and Flying
All vehicles move by using one stick to steer and the other to look around, and they all use the triggers to accelerate and brake/reverse. Ground vehicles, like the Autopia Car, will get you from point A to point B quicker than running it, and with vehicles you have limited jumping and shooting abilities to clear obstacles. However, if you’re a character who relies on your feet to get around, you really want a flying vehicle. It’s much easier to navigate the 3D space once you acquire that flying vehicle.
Drifting
Drifting is the process of holding both triggers while driving into a turn or even a circle. This maneuver is great for getting around corners when you are at top speeds, but more importantly it builds up the turbo meter. More turbo means more speed. Drift in any race or situation where you need to store up that potential boost.
Turbo
There is a meter under your vehicle that indicates how many bars of turbo you have. When you do a stunt or drift, the meter in one bar will fill until it is yellow, which means you can activate that boost. After one bar is yellow, the next gauge will start to fill and continue the process. Once all segments of the meter are yellow, you are wasting an effort to build turbo and should use a boost as soon as possible. Turbo activation is a simple flick of the control stick and your vehicle will shoot flames showing you are boosting. Obviously, it can be dangerous to boost at a turn, but a drift can help control that speed. A turbo assist is great any time you are in a straightaway, a close race to the finish, or when you want to hit a ramp at top speed to maximize your air time for stunts or tricks.
Stunt/Tricks
Probably the coolest thing about vehicles, besides high-speed driving, is the tricks you can pull off. After leaping in the air, pushing the right stick up, down, left, or right will trigger front or back flips, spins, or barrel rolls. Doing two of the same motion while in the air is considered a double trick. However, if you push in two different directions, the stunt is considered a combo and earns more points. If you get enough height and speed, it is possible to pull off a triple combo for really big points on courses like the ice stunt park. The key to chaining moves is to immediately flip the control stick when you are airborne and quickly press another direction as that move completes to perform the next trick.
Sparks
Blue Sparks
Sparks usually come from capsules; break open a capsule and Sparks spill out. You may have to run through them to capture them all because they only last for a limited time. Blue Sparks are your form of currency. Take all the blue Sparks you capture and spend those blue Sparks in the Toy Box on various cool toys and accessories. You are also rewarded blue Sparks at the completion of each mission.
Green Sparks
Green Sparks are for health regeneration. As your character takes damage, your health bar decreases; green Sparks fill your health bar back up.
Orange Sparks
Orange Sparks give you experience. Just like defeating foes and gaining experience through the orange Sparks they drop, orange capsules give you experience Sparks, only there are usually more orange Sparks in a capsule than even a modest enemy encounter.
Purple Sparks
Collecting purple Sparks adds to your special ability bar. Depending on your character and your skills, you may have more than one section on your special ability bar, and these purple Sparks fill the bar up so you can use your really powerful abilities.
Combat
Melee
All characters have melee skills, though some are more skilled in hand-to-hand combat than others. In melee, one punch or kick may be fine, but you usually want to string together a combo of melee attacks to inflict maximum damage on a foe. Many enemies will fall down after taking some damage, but that doesn’t mean they are defeated. A lot of them can be hit while they are down or trying to get up, so make sure to finish off a single enemy. Quickly switching from enemy to enemy is a good tactic when you are surrounded, but it is always a good idea to reduce the number of foes you face as soon as possible.
Ranged
Many characters have ranged attacks that can deal damage far away from the potential danger of melee combat. Ranged attacks will generally shoot at the closest target; however, when you need precision, you can enter a zoomed-in mode where you can place the aiming cursor over what you want to hit. When your ranged fire is locked on an enemy like this, you can still run and gun, allowing you to move quickly while unloading ranged damage on a single target. It’s also a good technique for destroying obstacles.
Area-Effect
Certain characters have area-effect attacks that will damage multiple enemies that are close together. Area-effect comes in two forms: personal area-effects that surround the character with damage or ranged area-effects that deal out damage to all enemies in the area surrounding the point of attack. All characters have the ability to perform an Air Attack, which is useful when surrounded by enemies as it lifts your character out of danger for a second and delivers an attack to the enemies immediately nearby.
Special Moves
Every character has different special moves that make them unique in combat. Your main special ability is powered by purple Sparks. Once you trigger it, your special ability bar depletes and you’ll need more purple Sparks to power it back up. Get to know your characters and what they can do.
Blocking
On the opposite end of the combat spectrum is the defensive ability to block with a simple button press. Most attacks can be blocked, and while this doesn’t get you any closer to defeating your enemy, the maneuver can set your enemy up to drop its guard. By blocking or absorbing an attack, it can create an opening for you to counter or avoid getting knocked down. If you aren’t sure what to do in a battle, especially when faced with a powerful foe, fall back on the block and plan your next move. Keep in mind, too, that certain attacks can break blocks and deliver potent counterattacks.
Leveling Up Your Characters
As your characters collect orange Sparks, they earn experience and, when they have enough, they level up. Every time they level up, they also earn Skill Points that they can spend in the Skill Tree. You can get to the Skill Tree from the pause menu. Each character’s Skill Tree is different. It consists of skills that can affect health, speed, melee combat, ranged combat, the speed at which power discs recharge, and a unique special move. This move must be unlocked in the Skill Tree and can then be upgraded. For most characters, you want to get your special move as quickly as possible. Depending on your character, you may choose to focus on melee or ranged attacks.
The Skill Tree is called such because you can’t just pick any skill you want. You have to follow the branches of the tree to get to some skills, purchasing others along the way. Therefore, look at all the skills and find out which you really want and begin spending Skill Points to get to them. When looking at a Skill Tree, you may notice that some of the skills have laurels around them. These are skills that the game designers recommend and are very useful for that specific character. Try to include those in your acquired skills.