Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle Character Guide – Luigi

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle is a unique and fun tactical RPG for a lot of reasons – it has surprisingly deep mechanics despite the simplicity of the system. Beyond that, the character-based gameplay means that each party member brings something unique to the table that makes them more effective in certain scenarios. Choosing the right character for the right mission will take you from “Good” to “Perfect” rankings in your battles and help you to get the ultimate Mario + Rabbids experience. This post will be part of a series where I take a hard look at each character in the game to see what they bring to the table and give you some guidance on the best way to utilize the character.

A few hints about using this guide. Each character’s section will be structured first as a simple point-by-point breakdown of their basic stats, then their weapons, and finally the skills they bring to the table. This is great if you just want to read a quick summary of what the character is good for. Following that will be a more detailed section with my recommended uses for each character. There are mild spoilers in this guide in the form of playable characters and game mechanics, but no story spoilers. These guides will come out one at a time, but I’ll do my best to release them as close together as possible. If the character you are looking for guidance on isn’t up yet, check back the next day!

So get out your flashlight and your vacuum, because today we’re talking about my favorite Mario universe hero: Luigi!

THE STATS
Health: Lowest – Incredibly squishy, Luigi can be defeated in a couple of strong hits
Damage: Medium-High – Both weapon types deal more damage than the average
Range: High – Luigi operates best by being far away and high up
Ground Mobility: High – Massive movement range and pipe exit range
Air Mobility: High – Double team jump grants unmatched travel distance

THE WEAPONS
Precision: Above-average damage, long range, average effect chance, precise
Sentry: Solid damage and range, interesting tactical applications
Effects:
Bounce: Knocks enemy backwards through the air, combos well with Steely Stare
Ink: Blinds enemy and prevents them from using their weapon, great for control

THE SKILLS
Double Team Jump: Grants Luigi unmatched mobility, little offensive application
Steely Stare: Multiple reactionary shots, low damage but great range and fast cooldown
Itchy Feet: Great opening move, opens tactical options, situationally useful

Luigi is the first character in Mario + Rabbids who does not start out in your party. He joins halfway through World One after you defeat the miniboss there. From this point forward, Luigi joins your team. Now when the Green Machine first jumps in, you might find him a bit difficult to use – he’s a lot different from the other characters in your party. He’s very vulnerable to attack, and while he has a massive range on his weapon, the levels aren’t really big enough to take advantage of it most of the time. World One isn’t really an area that is designed for Luigi to excel, but as you move further and further into the game, you begin to discover the true potential Luigi has.

Luigi is the Mario + Rabbids version of a sniper. His skills are designed to put him in an isolated position above the rest of the battlefield where he can take precision shots, dealing lots of damage to enemies. This is immediately evident in his MASSIVE mobility. Luigi is tied with a couple of other characters for the highest ground mobility in the game, with a whopping 9 cell movement range and a 6 cell pipe exit range. Where no one can even approach him is his aerial mobility. Luigi can clear 10 cells with a single team jump maneuver, and if his allies are positioned properly, he can then execute a second team jump that will send him another 10 cells. We’re looking at a movement range of 29 cells in a single turn – that’s enough to make significant progress across any battle map in the game. Combine that with the 15 cell firing range on his weapon and Luigi has a theoretical reach of over 40 cells – if you want Luigi to shoot somebody, you can almost definitely get him into a position where he can aim at them. Mario, the closest person to Luigi when it comes to mobility, only has a theoretical reach of 29 cells for most of the game – that’s Luigi WITHOUT his weapon.

The clear strategy for Luigi is this: use team jump to maneuver to the high ground, take cover, and open fire. Luigi’s weapon already has a higher damage output than the typical blaster weapon used by Mario, and because the high ground bonus is percentage based it amplifies your power more the more power you have to begin with. Because Luigi can attack from so far away, it’s often difficult for enemies to get to him. This is particularly true if you utilize his “fighting retreat” strategy – shoot first and then spend your movement to get as far away as possible from the enemy’s position. There are few Rabbids in the game who can keep pace with Luigi when he is running as fast as he can.

If for some crazy reason Luigi can’t quite get where you want him to go, Itchy Feet is a useful ability which extends his movement range as well as the movement of any allies within reach. This is awesome for “Reach Area” missions, and these battles are the ones where Luigi really shines. Spend the first turn setting up your allies to give Luigi the longest movement possible, then set up Itchy Feet on the second turn if your allies can’t quite reach him after that. I completed most “Reach Area” missions well under the recommended turn limit with Luigi at the helm because he can often cover half of the map in one go. This is particularly true in places where there are raised platforms with huge gaps in between them – Luigi can often Team Jump across them when other allies cannot, allowing him to get to unique positions or cover a massive amount of ground.

Of course, Luigi needs a bit more than high movement and a good primary weapon to succeed. That’s where his Steely Shot ability comes in. If you think this looks similar to Mario’s Hero Sight, you’re right and you should go ahead and prepare yourself: all Mario characters have an ability like this (and all Rabbids have shields). One thing this does for us is allow us to directly compare how the abilities of these different characters work, and maybe even decide which one is “superior.” Personally, I favor Luigi’s Steely Stare over all the other reactionary shot abilities in the game.

So why is Luigi’s my favorite? Well for one, Luigi has the best weapon for it. To a degree, a reactionary shot is more or less valuable based on the utility of the weapon firing it. Because Luigi’s weapon has an extensive range, his Steely Stare ability covers a much wider area than anyone else with a similar power. Now unrelated to his weapon, Luigi’s Steely Stare also fires more reactionary shots than anyone else’s ability. He can shoot enemies who move into his sight up to three times before the ability wears off. This is awesome because it means you can snipe multiple targets or pour all of your firepower into taking out one big target (try shooting a Smasher with Steely Stare ready to go!). Finally, Steely Stare has a really fast cooldown, taking only one turn to recharge and be ready to go again. This allows you to use it with great frequency and continuously rain fire down on your enemies. The one disadvantage of Steely Stare compared to everyone else’s reactionary shots is that it has the lowest damage output – you really need to be taking advantage of high places to get the maximum worth out of Steely Stare.

Now I’ve said a lot of very positive things about Luigi – he’s my favorite Mario regular, after all – but this isn’t to say that he’s perfect and that you should bring him to every map. Luigi has some fatal flaws that really limit his usefulness in certain scenarios. For one, Luigi has pitiful dash damage and no special quality to his dash that increases its utility. He can dash one opponent for (at maximum) a measly 90 damage. This makes him practically useless in melee, a problem that is further compounded by Luigi’s incredible frailty. No character in the game even comes close to Luigi when we’re talking how low his health is. As an example, at the point I’m at in the game (post-game), Luigi’s MAXIMUM health is still 100 points lower than the MINIMUM health of the next-frailest character. Luigi is consistently easy to kill throughout the length of the game, and this frailty is his Achilles’s Heel.

Giving a pitiful performance in melee damage and having significantly worse health than any other character in the game, Luigi is someone who needs to be protected. Leaving him without cover or in the midst of enemies for one round could be enough to do him in, which gets really dangerous when you are dealing with tough enemies like bosses. Tight quarters are Luigi’s worst enemy – he needs to be able to get height advantage over his enemies, where cover and weird angles stop them from reaching or shooting him while his weapon stretches far enough to still hit them. If the map doesn’t meet these conditions, I fully recommend that you do NOT bring Luigi into the battle.

When it comes to mission types, Luigi is tailor-made for Reach Area missions and I almost always recommend bringing him to that type of event. Luigi isn’t an awful character for Escort missions (Itchy Feet on the character you are escorting is a great way to beat the turn limit), but he isn’t necessarily the best character to bring to them either. When looking at missions where you are focused on defeating enemies, look at the terrain – can Luigi effectively snipe from a safe distance? If the answer is no, leave the Man in Green far behind until the next map.

So what characters work well with Luigi’s strategy? Well, when looking at Mario characters (as opposed to Rabbid party members), you should be aware that you can only choose one for your party. Your group of three has to contain Mario and at least one Rabbid, so that means you can’t combine Luigi and Peach or Luigi and Yoshi. So when looking at Mario characters we’re going to have fewer options than we did when looking at Rabbid characters.

Luckily, Mario is a pretty solid partner with Luigi. They both have great aerial mobility in ways that gel together pretty well – using Luigi to toss Mario onto an enemy for a Stomp Jump and then having Mario launch Luigi onto a high point to snipe is a pretty simple way to combine their talents. Even better, setting up Steely Stare and Hero Sight together is a great way to seriously chip down a powerful enemy. This is particularly effective against mid-bosses/bosses that have the “rush” ability (they move towards you when you damage them). Shoot the bad guy with Mario, then when they start running, Luigi will take his reactionary shot, prompting the bad guy to run towards him, and then Mario takes his shot – they go back and forth like this in a deadly combo for a total of six shots against the enemy. This is an awesome way to chip down bigger opponents, and this combo gets even more effective when you combine it with specific Rabbid allies.

Both Rabbid Mario and Rabbid Yoshi have abilities that cause enemies to move. Rabbid Mario’s magnet dance causes them to move towards him, and Rabbid Yoshi’s scaredy rabbid pushes enemies away. Either way, these abilities force enemies into motion and thus set up Mario and Luigi to start popping shots at bad guys. Of these two, I would say Rabbid Mario makes a bit of a better partner for Luigi because of his strong close-range abilities – he is the one drawing all the aggro in melee so that Luigi can continue to shoot safely from a distance. Of course, Rabbid Mario tends to struggle on the stages where Luigi really excels, so you may find Rabbid Yoshi a more useful partner on the vast, open maps that Luigi prefers.

Luigi is a unique character who is excellent at the things he is good at, but really bad in the areas where he struggles. Bring Luigi onto the field strategically when playing on maps that suit his style and you will find Luigi to be a capable and dynamic character able to do some serious damage to the enemy. There is no better character for quickly reaching the opposite end of the map on Reach Area missions, so be sure to utilize Luigi whenever an opportunity that is appropriate for his skill set comes up. If you have a suggestion of how to effectively utilize Luigi that I didn’t touch on here, please feel free to leave it in the comments below. And stick around over the next week or so as I continue doing these guides for the remaining Mario + Rabbids characters!