In addition to the Unite Morphs you earn from encountering one of the seven main heroes and the Unite Morphs you start the game with, the Wonderful Mart allows you to buy a plethora of additional Unite Morphs to broaden your arsenal. You can also purchase a selection of Custom Blocks that allow you to seriously change your offensive and defensive capabilities, and you can pick up a trio of skills that help boost the Wonder-Liner and Team Attack moves that you start the game with. By the time you reach the final battle, you should be a completely won-stoppable, wonderful force for justice and peace on Earth.
But all that stuff costs O-Parts. Lots and lots of O-Parts. Due to their prices, you’ll often have a choice of purchasing only one new upgrade in between missions. This section will discuss all of the extra Unite Morphs, Custom Blocks, and skills to help you understand what they do and why they might be things you should aim for as early as possible.
Unite Morphs
You begin The Wonderful 101 with a set of Unite Morphs, but that’s not going to be enough to properly resist the GEATHJERK. Consisting of a wide variety of utility abilities, the Unite Morphs you purchase from the Wonderful Mart emphasize enhancing your defenses and mobility. However, there are several upgrades found here that make certain abilities more offensive in nature. Clever players can use these enhancements to make some really creative combos while also staying out of harm’s way.
Starting Unite Morphs
Unite Chain
There are instances where you must cross gaps that you can’t double-jump across while making smart use of Wonderful Stinger. Draw a Wonder-Liner across the gap to the location you’re trying to reach. If it’s a valid target, your team will automatically form a chain (or even a full-sized bridge, if you have enough people for it) that will let you cross safely to the other side.
Unite Glider
The Unite Glider is very situational in nature but absolutely vital when it needs to be used. Transforming your entire team into a glider, this Unite Morph allows you to fly across normally uncrossable chasms and even figures heavily into several missions (and a boss battle or two) throughout the game. However, by itself the Unite Glider has no offensive capability and nothing defensive save for its maneuverability to avoid attacks in the air. Summoning it on the ground is a...questionable tactic at best.
Purchasable Unite Morphs
Unite Guts
This is one of the first Unite Morphs you should purchase from the Wonderful Mart. Purchase it immediately after finishing the Prologue. Unite Guts transforms your whole team into a candylike shape and allows you to bounce back a large number of incoming attacks from a wide variety of enemies throughout the entire game. Some attacks might require a larger form of Unite Guts to defend against, so always be looking for new recruits to max this ability out.
Unite Guts requires good timing to use well. You can’t just hold down the button and wait for the attacks to land; the form fades after a very short time, leaving you vulnerable. It also costs Unite Gauge to use, so if you keep spamming Unite Guts in anticipation of an attack, you might not have enough meter to use Guts when you really need it. Use it too late, and you’ll take damage because the morph wasn’t fully completed before the attack landed.
Properly executed, Unite Guts can stun enemies, allowing you to launch them into the air for juggle combos. Well-timed uses of Unite Guts also earn you an O-Parts bonus to your Combo multiplier. A full list of attacks that can be reflected, organized by enemy, can be found starting on page 348, in the GEATHJERK Files.
Unite Spikes
An enhanced form of Unite Guts, this ability causes the morph to produce spikes the moment it reflects an enemy attack. This causes damage to foes using melee attacks. As a side effect, Unite Spikes can also deal damage to anything else that happens to be close enough, regardless of whether you were reflecting their attack.
Unite Spring
This Unite Morph is the other purchase you should make immediately upon completing the Prologue. As with Unite Guts, Unite Spring is one of your key defensive abilities, allowing you to dodge away and over attacks when used with the proper timing. So long as you have at least ten heroes on your team, you can use Unite Spring. Similar to Unite Guts, evading an attack with Unite Spring grants you some bonus points to your Combo multiplier.
Unite Drill Spring
Unite Drill Spring is an upgrade to Unite Spring, turning the purely defensive ability into a useful offensive move when used well. Barring enemies possessing thick armor (or spiked armor), using a defensive barrier, or simply being too large to drill through, Unite Drill Spring can pass through most GEATHJERKs with ease. As a bonus, you can maintain your Combo multiplier (and even increase it) by sneaking in a Unite Drill Spring in the middle of your attacks.
Unite Blade Glider
Not an essential upgrade by any means, Unite Blade Glider adds blades to the front of Unite Glider. You can use this on enemies to help maintain juggle combos, but in practice this can be tough to set up. On 101% Hard Mode, where you don’t get time dilation to draw the Wonder-Liner in relative safety, it’s quite hard to work in the Blade Glider. Of course, if you’re able to do this regularly on your enemies, there’s no denying the style points you’ll get from it.
Unite Ball
Another key Unite Morph, Unite Ball can be used directly after Unite Spring to speed away from your enemies or just to travel faster. Most importantly, there are several collectibles in the game that require you to use Unite Ball, so it’s important that you snag this ability as soon as you can afford it.
Unite Spike Ball
Unite Ball gains a set of spikes all around it, which allows you to roll into enemies to cause damage. This does not protect you from incoming attacks, so watch your rolling!
Unite Rocket
A somewhat situational Unite Morph to use, Unite Rocket allows you to blast your team to tough-to-reach heights. You can get more height by charging up the rocket prior to launch.
Unite Tombstone
This is a very situational offensive Unite Morph, but it can be extremely effective at capping off a long air combo. Your entire team transforms into a tombstone that when dropped from a height causes a powerful impact shock wave. The tombstone can cause damage to any enemy below it, with only the thick armor of a Megang or the spike armor found on Gehdowns or Gedie Dough-Goo able to resist. Combine this with a Wonderful Rising launcher on a stunned enemy. If timed right, you can land multiple hits on an enemy with Unite Tombstone before landing on the ground.
Unite Camp
This utility Unite Morph turns your team into a camping tent, fully restoring your Unite Gauge. The real advantage of Unite Camp comes from its ability to supercharge the Unite Gauge, turning it from gold to silver. While you have any amount of supercharge, your Unite Morphs will automatically be at their maximum strength without having to draw larger shapes with the Wonder-Liner. This ability can be used before major fights, or if you’re feeling particularly cheeky, you can use it during battles if you can find a spot to set up a Unite Camp. Mind you, it takes time before the ability actually triggers, and you are vulnerable to attack while using it.
Wonderful Forever
A special Unite Morph unlocked for purchase after beating the game once, Wonderful Forever is set up by drawing a giant “W” with the Wonder-Liner. This transforms a team of 100 heroes into a giant Wonderful 100 logo, firing a massive beam that can pass through nearly any defense imaginable. This can be a devastating weapon against slower targets, but faster enemies can get around the beam and are faster than you can steer it. At the end of the move (or if enemy attacks interrupt it), you are completely drained of all your Unite Gauge. Use this morph wisely, or not at all.
Platinum Forever
The second Unite Morph unlocked by completing the game, Platinum Forever requires a full team of 100 heroes. When you meet these requirements, you can draw a “P” with the Wonder-Liner to begin executing the attack. Your team will transform into a Platinastar Emblem and will spin around rapidly before engulfing the area in an enormous explosion, causing heavy damage to everything in your general vicinity. As with Wonderful Forever, this is an extremely situational attack, made difficult to use, as you are vulnerable during the windup to the actual blast. It is stylish as anything gets, though, which might be good enough for people who want to use it.
Custom Blocks
When you start the game, you can only place a single Custom Block on your Wonderful Medallion in order to boost your abilities, and the pickings are fairly slim. However, it’s important to invest in good Custom Blocks as soon as possible, as they can change your entire gameplay style. This is not an exaggeration. Whereas you’d normally evade attacks as best you can, the Hero Counter Custom Block, for example, will let you stand your ground and parry the incoming strike (or strikes) with near impunity. Other blocks like Unite Charge will let you ramp up your offense much faster than taking the time to draw a large Wonder-Liner shape.
Speed Charge
Speed Charge increases the recovery of the Unite Gauge. Depending on your play style, this may or may not be an important Custom Block to have equipped. Remember, you gain back Unite Gauge faster through any means of attacking.
Unite Charge
One of the most useful Custom Blocks in the game, this allows you to charge up your Unite Morph attacks without drawing larger Wonder-Liners, simply by holding down the Unite Morph button. It costs Unite Gauge for every charge level you advance, and you need to have enough people to advance up a level, but the benefits of the increased damage you’ll do are worth it.
Energy Converter
This is one of the best Custom Blocks, though its value may not be immediately apparent without purchasing the Attack Liner skill. Essentially, if you are at full health and get a health recovery item, your Unite Gauge will refill. If you are at maximum Unite Gauge, your health will refill. This is all proportional to the level of health or Unite Gauge recovery you’d normally receive.
One tactic is to slow the enemy down with Unite Bomb, then to draw an Attack Liner–enhanced Wonder-Liner through an enemy. The constant damage from the Wonder-Liner will help boost your Unite Gauge and will eventually start refilling health.
Safeguard
Safeguard reduces the damage of an incoming attack by half, at the cost of a significant portion of Unite Gauge. Ideally, you shouldn’t be getting hit much at all, so the value of this Custom Block is somewhat limited.
Double Power
This Custom Block doubles the damage done by your Unite Morphs, but it also doubles the Unite Gauge cost. This can be a block on higher difficulties, where the enemy possesses more health, but it means you’ll have to make your attacks count due to the high Unite Gauge costs.
Item Catcher
Reflecting an attack with Unite Guts will cause the enemy to drop an item. This can be useful throughout the whole game, as it works on every enemy attack you can reflect with Unite Guts.
Healing Guts
Upon successfully reflecting an attack with Unite Guts, you’ll gain back a chunk of life. By itself this is useful. However, equipping this Custom Block halves the speed at which your Unite Gauge recovers. This can change your play style from being aggressive to being more passive, as you wait for your Unite Gauge to recover.
Auto-Guts
Unite Guts will automatically trigger in response to enemy attacks, at the cost of a significant amount of Unite Gauge. This ability is somewhat of a crutch, and not always useful in the face of multiple enemy attacks, which can overwhelm you even with this Custom Block active.
Dodge Mine
Dodge Mine is a situational but highly exploitable Custom Block. Every time you use Unite Spring, you will leave a mine on the ground that can cause moderate damage. Combining this with time-dilation abilities, such as Unite Bomb, Hero Time, and Hero Sense, can allow you to place a large number of mines at the feet of your enemies. If they are placed close enough, just hitting one will set all the mines off. A very dirty and awesome tactic to use against annoyingly swift foes.
Hero Time
Using Unite Spring just before an enemy attack lands slows the entire game world down, while you maintain your full speed. This gives you ample opportunity to move to a better location, to set up a stun with Team Attacks, or to begin an immediate counterattack. This is arguably the most useful Custom Block in the game, particularly on 101% Hard Mode, where you don’t have time dilation while using the Wonder-Liner.
Hero Counter
The other Custom Block that could be considered “the best,” Hero Counter allows you to parry most attacks in the entire game simply by pressing the Left Stick toward the attack the instant before it hits home. The timing might be tough to read at first, but skilled players will be able to negate most threats simply by staring them down and parrying at the right moment. This is a Custom Block meant for the truly skilled.
Hero Sense
Similar to Auto-Guts, Hero Sense triggers just before incoming attacks hit, costing you a large chunk of Unite Gauge. Hero Sense throws your surroundings into slow-motion, giving you a chance to evade to safety, use Unite Guts if applicable, or begin your counterattack.
Hero Sense stacks with Hero Time. So, if you trigger Hero Sense, then Hero Time by using Unite Spring to escape, the enemy will be moving ridiculously slow and be completely at your mercy. However, this is a costly combination of Custom Blocks to use, due to how much energy Hero Sense takes.
Ukemi
By pressing the Jump button just before taking damage, you can completely nullify that damage and keep fighting. This can be useful on high difficulty settings due to how little health you have to work with. This is a solid Custom Block to pair with Hero Counter.
Skills
The three skills you can purchase from the Wonderful Mart can improve your fighting capabilities by a significant degree, but as they are so pricey and aren’t as obvious a set of improvements, it’s easy to disregard them while you save up for other Unite Morphs or Custom Blocks. But pick up these skills as early as you can, as it will make the basic parts of your offense be more effective throughout the course of the game.
Note that all skills in the game, whether they are purchased from the Wonderful Mart or are earned by leveling up Unite Morphs, can be toggled on or off in the Status menu. You can play without the fear of accidentally triggering an attack you did not want.
Attack Liner
This skill allows your Wonder-Liner to do damage to unarmored opponents. By itself, that doesn’t sound impressive. However, with creative use of various Custom Blocks, you can turn the Wonder-Liner into an extremely useful offensive tool.
Speed Liner
Speed Liner makes the Wonder-Liner move much faster, a useful skill for 101% Hard, as you don’t get any time dilation while using the Wonder-Liner. It makes completing action sequences that require you to draw specific Unite Morphs more profitable, as you’ll be able to put more heroes into the morph, and gain a larger O-Parts bonus at the end of the sequence. However, it does make drawing specific shapes with the Right Stick trickier. You can turn this skill on and off in the Status menu, so it really depends on your preferences.
Formation Charge
Normally, the Team Attack sends out one hero at a time to initiate a Climb Attack, and you have to land many of these Team Attacks to stun an enemy. Formation Charge allows you to power up a Team Attack to include multiple heroes. This can make it much easier to stun your opponents, setting them up for big combos much sooner.