The first thing you’re going to want to know when you pick up the full retail release of ARMS is how to unlock new Arms in the game. This article covers how to get new Arms in Nintendo’s latest Switch release, but it’s going to be a bit of a grind, so be prepared. Of course when you first begin playing the game, every fighter’s default trio of Arms are already available and unlocked. But if you want to use Helix’s Blorb as Min Min, you’re going to have to unlock that.
Unlocking Arms
In order to unlock Arms in the latest Nintendo Switch game, you’re going to need to earn the in-game currency of ARMS. Almost anything you do in ARMS will give you at least some currency. Completing the Grand Prix mode will give you currency based on the difficulty setting, which playing Party Mix Mode or Ranked Mode will give you currency based on how much you win. Win more in Party Mix Mode and you’ll earn more currency, don’t win at all and you’ll still get at least 1 currency point for each match played.
Once you have at least 30 points of currency, you can select Get Arms from the bottom of the main menu. This takes you to the character select screen where you should pick the character you most want new Arms for. Not every Arm you earn here will go toward the selected character, but you have a higher chance of getting Arms for the selected character compared to other characters.
After selecting your character you need to determine how much time you want in the Get Arms mini-game (which is basically a variation of Skillshot). You can spend 30 points of currency for a base of 25 seconds, 100 points for 50 seconds, or 200 points for 90 seconds. During the mini-game you can extend the time, but these are the default starting times.
Mini-Game Options
| Cost | Default Time | Clock Bonus |
| 30 | 25 Seconds | +5 Seconds |
| 100 | 50 Seconds | +5 Seconds |
| 200 | 90 Seconds | +10 Seconds |
The goal of the mini-game is to hit the targets that appear as quickly as possible so you can move to the next level. Occasionally a clock or gift box will appear. Hit the clock in the 30 or 100 point games to add five seconds to your time, or in the 200 point game to get 10 seconds added to your time. If you hit the gift box to be rewarded with one Arm.
When you hit a gift box you will see an image appear on the back wall of the Arm you just unlocked and the character who it was unlocked for. The more gift boxes you hit, the more Arms you’ll unlock. It’s important to hit the targets as quickly as possible to move on to the next gift box appearance and not waste any time.
With 270 Arms in the game that need to be unlocked, we’ve come up with a few ways to unlock these Arms as quickly as possible. If you need some help with that, be sure to head over to our ARMS game hub!
