The Scourge on the Skyscraper
Mario’s unexpected pit stop in Lost Kingdom cost him valuable time, but Cappy’s intuition was right. Bowser had been to Metro Kingdom, and he’s even advertised his wedding all over town. But that’s the least of the city’s troubles. Mayor Pauline has to find a way to restore the city’s power. And the only way that can happen is if Mario deals with whatever has caused the city’s residents to flee to the rooftop south of New Donk City.
Scamper across the girders to the right and ride the Spark Pylon down to the City Outskirts. Numerous Urban Stingby Larvae have apparently swum in on the rain and some are hatching
into Urban Stingby. Swat the larvae with Cappy before they hatch to rid the area of this pestilence. Cappy can dispatch the Urban Stingby bugs as well, but it’s a bit riskier. Urban Stingby behave much like a Trapeetle—sidestep their path as they attempt to divebomb Mario with self-destructive aggression.
Bowser erected a massive roadblock beyond the park, cutting off the direct path to New Donk City Hall. Take the road on the left, where the Sherms are, and either ride the Scooter past them or capture a Sherm and use it to blast the Urban Stingby bugs and other Sherms.
Follow the coins through the Construction Site, past the Goombas, to the Sherm atop the girder beyond the warp flag. Capture the Sherm and drive to the nearest suspended iron beam. That’s a good spot from which to blast the crumpled piece of scrap metal below the taller beam. This causes the beam to fall, giving Mario a way to throw-and-hold Cappy at the ? Blocks.
Exit the Construction Site onto the street ahead then turn around and run the length of the girder where the coins are to find Power Moon #08. With 80 other Power Moons to find, you can be sure they won’t all be this obvious.
Continue past the broken-down taxis and around the corner to the plaza in front of New Donk City Hall. Five Sherms stand guard in front of City Hall, but it’s not clear what they’re protecting. Capture the Sherm atop the girder where the Heart was and use it to blast the other Sherms to pieces. Strafe side to side as you fire to constantly stay ahead of the incoming volleys.
Blast away at the Urban Stingby and their larvae in the area then release the Sherm capture and follow the trail of coins up the stairs near the Construction Access warp flag. Continue to the first rooftop, where the Goombas are, and either use the Spark Pylon or a series of wall jumps on the rear of the building to reach the Heliport. Take a moment to pluck Power Moon #09 from above the swaying beam before entering the New Donk City Hall Interior via the open door on the adjacent building.
Cross the crumbling walkway and ride the lifts to the right of the Mini Goombas up. Leap and dash across to the left, use Cappy to get the Regional Coins from the descending lift before continuing the ascent. Use homing throws to clear the Urban Stingby and Mini Goombas out of the way before venturing anywhere near the crumbling walkways.
Climb the yellow and black striped poles to continue your ascent of the skyscraper’s interior, but skip the next landing.
Continue to the top of the left-hand tower, wall jump off the wall on the left, and continue climbing the tower above to the blue fencing. Leap from pole to pole to reach the treasure chest in the upper left corner for Power Moon #34.
Fight your way past the Urban Stingby on the main path wrapping around the interior of the building. The ? Blocks in the corner contain a Life-Up Heart which comes in handy. Grab it before heading back out into the rain.
From New Donk City Hall Rooftop, use the Spark Pylon to access the top of the skyscraper where a mechanical beast known as the Mechawiggler is attempting to suck up the city’s electricity. Mechawiggler knocks Mario to the plaza below and descends the building to attack.
Boss: Mechawiggler
Don’t waste a single second when the battle starts: Capture one of the Sherms off to the side and open fire on Mechawiggler’s glowing orbs. Strafe left and right across the area to dodge the incoming projectiles while continuing to pepper Mechawiggler with Sherm’s cannon attacks. Aim for those sections of Mechawiggler that appear curled back on itself so a single attack can destroy multiple orbs.
Cappy provides great advice once the initial set of orbs has been destroyed, and that’s to keep firing! Continue blasting away at the orbs as they turn purple. But be quick about it! You need to fire Sherm’s cannon as rapidly as you can to inflict critical damage. So keep blasting until you see Mechawiggler go dark.
Mechawiggler doesn’t stay dark for long. It turns gold—your cue that it’s temporarily invincible—and disappears into a portal. Watch for the golden ray of light to emerge from the portal and steer Sherm out of its path. Mechawiggler emerges from the portal and speeds across the arena in an attempt to collide with Sherm. Keep clear of it as it disappears into another portal. The portal shifts to another location, the golden ray appears again, and Mechawiggler emerges in another attempt to stampede Sherm. Continue to avoid Mechawiggler during this phase to stay safe.
Mechawiggler zips across the arena three times before returning to the side of the building. It emerges from its portal alongside a barrage of energy projectiles. Steer clear of the inbound projectiles while firing on Mechawiggler once the orbs turn purple. Continue firing on Mechawiggler until the last purple orb is destroyed and a chain-reaction ripples through its lengthy body. Pepper it with attacks until it explodes, releasing Power Moon #01.
A Fresh Start for the City
The destruction of the Mechawiggler cleared the skies of rain. Come morning, the city was back to its old self, free of Bowser’s ugly posters and roadblocks. But there’s still lots to be done to restore the city’s electricity. Mayor Pauline is waiting for Mario outside City Hall, but don’t head straight there. The Odyssey still needs 14 Power Moons, and one isn’t very far. Enter the girder beyond the platform with the Spark Pylon nearest the Odyssey to find Power Moon #13.
Ride the Spark Pylon down to Main Street Entrance and head north to New Donk City Hall Plaza where Mayor Pauline is waiting. Mayor Pauline wants to stage a festival, but she needs four musicians to play backup. Mario is going to receive a Power Moon for each of the musicians he finds, so this is a great chance to help Pauline and power-up the Odyssey in the process!
Powering Up the Station
The band’s together playing a familiar song—a jazzy rendition of the original Super Mario Bros. theme song—but Mayor Pauline needs some more help. Exit the auditorium and head west toward the beam of light emanating from the sewer near Outdoor Café. Capture the Manhole Cover to slide it out of the way and dive on in to the Underground Power Plant.
Follow the walkway around the corner to the second pipe and enter it. The next room contains several large platforms that Mario needs to get spinning if he’s to make his way across the poison-filled room. Use the hat launcher to knock Cappy into the green platform to get it spinning then leap across. Continue to use Cappy to clear the path of poison and to distract the Poison Piranha Plants while you kick them out of the way. Use a homing throw to clear away any Urban Stingby you encounter.
Use the hat launcher to get the vertical platform spinning then carefully leap onto it as it becomes horizontal.
Turn the camera so you’re facing where you were, leap to the top edge and then to the platform on the right where Power Moon #35 is hidden. Continue to the pipe in the corner of the room.
Mayor Pauline has somehow made it to the power plant room before you—and so have two Big Poison Piranha Plants! Clear away a little of the poison then throw Cappy at the Big Poison Piranha Plant before it spits any more poison. The plant briefly collapses—perhaps out of exhaustion but probably because Cappy doesn’t taste good—giving Mario a chance to bounce on top of it. Defeat both Big Poison Piranha Plants to earn Power Moon #06.
Ground pound the red button atop the pump to get the power flowing once again to New Donk City. With this accomplished, it’s time to celebrate! Mayor Pauline invites Mario to participate in the festival. And you absolutely should say yes!
A Traditional Festival
Mayor Pauline and the band take the stage for a wonderful rendition of their hit song, “1-Up Girl”. As special as it will be to take the stage, as the guest-of-honor, Mario gets to participate in a city-wide 8-bit mural erected on the sides of the city’s largest buildings.
This is an extremely special moment, both for Mario and us gamers getting to experience this game. So, take your time making your way through the various sections of the 8-bit level. Avoid the barrels and fire pits, hit the blocks for coins, and enjoy this time-warp back to classic gaming.
Things get a little trickier as Mario makes his way to New Donk City Hall. Spring along the curved wall to get inverted. You’ve played as an upside-down Mario in Sand Kingdom, here’s your chance to do it again! Carefully avoid the barrels as you traverse the area upside-down. Guide Mario as he freefalls through the columns of coins before finally getting returned to his normal right-side-up path.
The final climb to the finish takes place along what should be, for those old enough to have played many videogames in the 1980s, a very familiar assembly of ramps. Use the additional blocks to take cover from the barrels as you collect the “DK” coins. Slip under the final platform where an old nemesis is standing and hit each of the ? Blocks beneath him to clear a path for the warp pipe. The warp pipe delivers Mario to the stage so head on up and dance a little with Mayor Pauline before talking to her to get Power Moon #07.
Collect More Power Moons
At this point, if you’ve been following along closely, you should only need four more Power Moons in order to fuel the Odyssey. And we’re going to show you how to grow three of them right now!
Ride the Spark Pylon down into town and locate the three seeds in the corner of the park near Talkatoo. Pick one of them up and carry it to the northeast corner of that same park, near where the guitarist was earlier. Toss it into the flower pot so it can start growing. Return later to harvest Power Moon #22 from the fruit.
Grab another seed from the plaza and carry it toward the taxi parked behind he Scooter. Bounce from the taxi onto the fire escape and use the wooden crate to jump onto the roof.
Cross the three rooftops to find the flower pot. Return later when the fruit ripens to earn Power Moon #21.
The third flower pot is a bit trickier to spot, but it’s not far. Grab the third seed from the plaza and head northwest toward the corner of Expresso and Main. The flower pot is on the roof of the corner building next to the one where the Slots room is. To get to the roof, head around to the alley behind the Slots house and wall jump up the sides of the alley to reach the roof. If you didn’t think you could wall jump while carrying a seed, think again! Mario retains a surprising number of non-Cappy abilities while carrying items. Plant the seed in the flower pot and return later to collect Power Moon #23.
Now that you have some time to kill while waiting for the Power Moons to bloom, how about a little RC Car action? Capture the New Donker playing with the yellow RC Car near the Scooter and guide the RC Car to the finish line. This particular RC Car doesn’t control as well as some advanced models you’ll get a chance to use later—this one turns best while in reverse. Pilot the RC Car around the barriers and into the cage to get Power Moon #31.