Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: World of Light guide
World of Light is the single-player adventure mode in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and it’s a bit of a beast. There’s a good 30+ hours of content here if you want to do and see everything, and that can be a little bit daunting. However once you’ve understood the basics, you’ll be flying through it, and that’s where we come in. Let us guide you through the fundamentals and help you as you begin your journey in the World of Light.
Humble Beginnings
After the opening cut-scene, you’ll find yourself in control of Kirby as your only playable character. In a game that prides itself on a roster that includes everyone, this can feel a little restrictive. However, don’t worry this won’t be the case for long. As you move along the only path available to you, you’ll come across your first Spirit to do battle with, The Smoky Progg. A bout will begin, and when you’re successful you’ll have bagged your first Spirit to add to your collection. Feel free to equip new ones you like the look of as you progress. There’s a bit to take in regarding Spirits, so for more information on them, check out or Spirit guide here.
If you progress further in the World Map, after a further few battles against Spirits, you’ll come across your first fighter that has been made a puppet by Galeem, and it’ll be everyone’s beloved plumber, Mario. You’ll notice the difference, because instead of a glowing orb on the map, it’s a blue mannequin type shape instead. The way to unlock them and add them to your roster is to beat them in battle. To simplify things, there will be no additional rules for Fighter Battles, so just normal Smash action for you to contend with. Once beaten, you can choose to fight as Mario instead, and in fact can switch up your fighters or Spirits at any point on the World Map using the Party menu.
Pay Attention to your Team Power
Your Team Power will be the strength of all of your equipped spirits, both Primary and Support. Before each fight, you’ll see what the Power of the enemy will be, and this should give you an indication of how hard the fight will be. If your Team Power is relatively close, then the fight should be OK to attempt. Obviously if you’re significantly higher, it will be easier and vice versa.
There is a handy Autopick function you can use before each battle should you so wish. A press of the Y button will select a set of Primary and Support Spirits for you for the fight ahead that will give you a decent chance of success. You can keep pressing to re-roll, or if you’re happy with the Primary Spirit that is suggested, hovering over the Support Spirits and pressing Y will just autopick those.
As well as the difficulty of the match, the rewards you receive from battle afterwards are also impacted. An easier battle will result in far fewer rewards, and whilst that isn’t the end of the world, some of those rewards can actually be quite useful to help progression. I would recommend that you at least try and overcome enemies at a similar Team Power to them, so that you get decent rewards (by all mean go in lower if you fancy a challenge!) The reason for this is because all fights are single time bouts, once you’ve beaten them, they disappear, and so do your chance for rewards, and in the early part of the game you’ll appreciate accumulating items to help you. As such make sure that you’re maximising each opportunity, rather than going for the easy time. Obviously if you’re finding it too difficult, then raise your Team Power to help, so that you can progress.
Skill Spheres
One of the best items you can get as part of your rewards are Skill Spheres. These are spent in the Skill Tree menu that can be accessed from the World Map. Here you can purchase permanent upgrades to use in the World of Light mode, ranging from increased attacks, movement, defence or even item efficiency. Each skill has a Skill Sphere cost next to it, and you unlock it as long as you have enough, and have bought all the skills previous to it on the tree.
There are a couple of additional points to note about World of Light’s Skill Tree versus those you may have seen in other games. Firstly you can see what each skill does from the start of the game. That means if you find a skill that would be particularly handy for your playing style, you can plan ahead to spend points to unlock that skill, even if it means unlocking others to get there.
Secondly this isn’t strictly a skill tree, it’s more of a skill web, as for some upgrades there’s more than one route to unlocking them, so it might be worth taking some time to fully explore what the skill tree has on offer, to see what you want to unlock and which route to take to unlock it. And remember, it’s probably wiser to save your spheres to unlock a skill or route to a skill that you actually want rather than just unlocking a skill just because you can. Also just to say Skill Spheres are not used anywhere else in the game, so don’t be afraid to invest them here.
Items
Aside from Skill Spheres there are also a wide variety of items that you can earn as rewards, which is why maximising them are important. The majority of items you will earn during your World of Light adventures will be those that you can use on the Spirit Board – a separate place outside of World of Light where you can challenge spirits separately to try and unlock them.
The orange square icons relate to shuffling and redistributing the Spirit Board so that you are more likely to find the type of spirits you are looking for. Green basket items are then specific bonus items you can use specifically in fights in the Spirit Board. These may include banning all items, or causing enemies to start with initial damage to make your time fighting them easier, and making it more likely you’ll defeat and capture them. Blue circle items are linked to the shield you have to penetrate after victory against a Spirit on the Spirit Board to unlock them, either reducing the shield itself or slowing its rotation. For more information on the Spirit Board, check out that section of our Spirit Guide.
But perhaps the most useful item for World of light is Snacks. These items give automatic experience to your chosen Primary Spirit to help level them up and become stronger much faster. At the beginning of the game I would reserve these Snacks for 3-star Spirits, because you’ll find 2-star and below spirits will level up relatively quickly anyway. As you progress further and begin finding 4-star Primary Spirits, I would focus your snack use solely on them to help level them up as you find them to make those tougher battle more manageable. To use them, go into the Manage Spirit menu, and then to Level Up.
Shops and Activities
As well as purely battling through World of Light there are other activities that you can do. Every now and then on the World Map you will come across a Master Spirit. Once defeated, these Master Spirits will open up a location that you can visit and make use of what’s inside. Some of these are shops where you can spend the Spirit Points you have been accumulating on items and Spirits Some items will have a discount versus their regular price, and so those are worth picking up if you can afford them. It also means it is worth checking up on the Shops periodically when they have new stock to try and bag yourself a bargain. Once discovered, Shops can be accessed from the World of Light menu, at the bottom under Shopping.
But Shops are just the tip of the iceberg, Master Spirits will also be hiding more interesting establishments that can benefit your Spirits and you in different ways. The first are Expeditions, where you can send up to four Spirits off on a timed adventure looking for treasure. After a set amount of game time, they’ll come back, most likely with Spirit Points for you to bank. Also if you pick Primary Spirits to go on the Expedition, they’ll also level up a little bit which is a nice bonus.
There are also Dojos littered throughout the World of Light, where you can train your Spirits in particular fighting styles. This will make them stronger overall, but also focus their strengths and weaknesses in a specific way. For example it could raise their attack, but lower their defence, or it could affect their shields or movement. It’s worth playing around with Dojos as you unlock them to see if they suit your style, and the good thing is all applied styles are completely reversible so you’re not locking yourself into anything if you find it doesn’t click.
Finally, there’s also a Gym to find in the world which you can put up to four Primary Spirits in at any one time. Once in the Gym, they will level up continuously over time until they reach the Level 99 cap. Spirits of higher star rankings naturally take longer to level up, and if a Spirit is in a Gym it can’t be used in any battles until you remove it. When selecting Spirits for the Gym or Expeditions, look out for a little up arrow by the Spirit as this means it will level up quicker or find more treasure than normal, and so it is worth considering this when making your selection. Make sure you always have your Gym full to make the most of it, and you can always check in the Activities section of the menu to see the status of Expeditions, Dojos and Gyms, to help manage them all at once.
I’m Stuck! What do I do?
For various reasons you may come up against some stumbling blocks in World of Light, that may frustrate you, but don’t worry, here are some final tips to save you from despair. Firstly there are three difficulty settings for World of Light, and the only difference will be the rewards you ultimately get. If you’re having a tough time with a particular fight, then consider lowering the difficulty temporarily, especially if you’re OK with reduced rewards, you can also put it back up later if you wish.
What’s also worth remembering is that whilst at certain points, World of Light does get more difficult by design, there are also random Spirit fights which are significantly harder – normally for a 3 or 4 star Spirit unlock – that you might not have a high enough Team Power to reasonably fight against yet. However World of Light’s map is labyrinthine, with multiple ways to progress, so it’s recommended after a few failed attempts, that you come back later when you have amassed a higher Team Power or more useful Support Spirits to tackle the specific rules of the fight you’re struggling with.
On the World Map you may also find blockages or other obstacles preventing your progression down a particular route. If that is the case, then don’t worry, chances are you’ll need a specific Spirit to solve the problem, and the game does a good job of highlighting when you’ve found what you need. Blocked passages will be highlighted with a No Entry sign on the World Map when you zoom out, and these areas will also be highlighted when you have the Spirit you need to get through. So, if your path ahead is blocked, simply choose another, you’ll find what you need eventually.
