With over 800 moons to collect in Super Mario Odyssey, you are going to be spending a lot of time combing over every pixel and jumping on every platform. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t do a good job of telling you some of the most important skills you need to know in order to finish your collection.

Some of these skills are advanced jumping techniques, while others are just simple tips that you wouldn’t think of without some guidance. Luckily, we are more than happy to give you that guidance. Hopefully this list of tips and tricks will help you reach the holy grail of full moon completion.

Use Cappy to Control Your Jump Momentum

By throwing Cappy, Mario will pause in mid-air for a brief moment. It also pushes him up and forward just a tiny bit. Use this to control the trajectory of your jumps. If you think you are going to overshoot a platform, throw Cappy to stop Mario at the right time to land safely. If you don’t think you are going to make a long or high jump, throw Cappy at the last moment to give Mario the extra distance he needs.

Master the Long Jump Cap Bounce Dive

One of Mario’s most useful advanced jumps is the long jump, but you can get even more distance out of it by using Cappy. Long jump as usual by getting a running start, crouching, and then jumping. Then, when the jump is about to end, throw Cappy for a little extra distance. After the throw, press the crouch button and throw button at the same time to execute a mid-air dive.

If executed correctly, Mario will dive forward toward Cappy and bounce off it for yet more distance. After the bounce you can dive again giving you essentially the equivalent of three long jumps of distance without ever touching the ground. You can use this to bypass entire platforming segments and reach areas that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to get to.

Master the Back Flip Wall Jump Dive

The above technique is the best way to get distance out of a single jump. The best way to get height out of a single jump, however, requires a backflip and a wall. Backflip near the wall (hold crouch and press jump) such that you touch the wall at the highest point of your jump. At that point press jump again to wall jump. At the peak of your wall jump, turn around a throw Cappy and dive into him as we said before. This should give you another bounce, granting you maximum height.

You can use this in conjunction with multiple wall jumps to scale vertical surfaces almost infinitely, but it’s quite hard to get the timing down and if you dive straight into the wall at any point, you’ll plummet like a rock.

Buy Every Costume

Costumes might seem expensive, but they are worthwhile. Every costume (at least every one that you can buy with purple coins) will eventually lead you to one or more moons. Just talk to the NPC who mentions the costume and they will either cough up the moon immediately, or let you into a special area with several moons waiting behind small platforming challenges.

Pay Attention to the Controller’s Rumble

Every so often you will feel the controller rumble for what appears to be no good reason. What this is actually doing is pointing you toward buried treasure. Move Mario around until the rumble gets as strong as possible and then ground pound. You will find coins, a heart, some easy enemies to dispatch, or even a hidden moon!

Look for Sparkles

Hidden moons are telegraphed by a very particular rainbow sparkle pattern. If you see these sparkles, then a moon is nearby. If the sparkles are on a post, throw Cappy onto that post and you’ll get a moon. If they are in the ground, ground pound for a moon. If they are on a rock, break it for a moon.

Make Use of Hints

There are two major ways to get hints in Super Mario Odyssey, the Hint Toad and the Talkatoo. The Hint Toad will mark where a moon is on your map for 50 coins while the Talkatoo will tell you the moon’s title, which is usually a hint on how to obtain it. If you want further assistance, talk to Uncle Amiibo and scan an amiibo to mark power moon locations on your map after a five minute wait.

Use amiibos for Assistance

Outside of searching for moons, amiibos can grant you other in game bonuses as well. Any Bowser amiibo will highlight purple coins on your screen. Any Peach amiibo will give Mario a Life-Up Heart, and any Mario amiibo will give Mario a 30 second invincibility effect.

Don’t Start Major Exploration Until After the Game Ends

Super Mario Odyssey doesn’t tell you that a good portion of the game’s moons aren’t obtainable until after the game ends. This is because all the maps change in subtle ways after the end of the game. They also change in minor ways after defeating each major story mission. These changes usually unlock further power moons for collection. So if you are scratching your head trying to get to a moon that is clearly in sight but unreachable, it’s probably because you haven’t defeated Bowser yet.

In fact, there are more moons that become unlocked after the end of the game than there are moons to collect over the course of the game proper. Be sure to hit the moon-blocks that appear in each world after you beat the game, as they nearly double the amount of moons to be collected .

Find the Second Moon in Mini Challenges

Entering a hat-shaped door, going down a grey moon pipe, possessing a rocket, or otherwise finding a portal to another world will send you to a mini platforming challenge. By completing this challenge you will earn a moon. However, each of these challenges also has a second moon to find somewhere in their mini-world. If you are missing a few moons on your completion list, this is where to find some of them.

Use Motions Controls and Co-Op

Like it or not, Super Mario Odyssey just gives you more options with motion controls. The Homing Throw and Spin Throw are both very useful abilities and the upward and downward throw let you bypass some platforming segments. But by far Mario and Cappy become most powerful in co-op mode. In this mode, the second player can make Mario jump extra high, provided that Cappy is on his head, and they can do this at any time. This will allow Mario to get extra height and distance on all of his jumps, provided the two players can coordinate.

Break the Game

If you think you can go out of bounds then by all means do it. Nintendo has actually hidden giant piles of coins in places you shouldn’t normally be able to get to. These coin piles are sometimes large enough to buy multiple moons! It’s just a small reward for players who try to think outside the box.

Hit Easy Moons First

There are actually more moons to find just lying around than locked behind platforming challenges. If you want to find some easy moons, hang out around areas where there are NPCs. You can usually find at least one costume moon, one moon simply for speaking with someone, a few mini-game moons, and several moons just lying out in the open. This is usually where you will find Princess Peach on vacation after the end of the game, and she always has a moon to give as well. You can also get the easiest moons, moons that you just buy from the store. After completing the game you can actually buy infinite moons from the store, to help unlock new worlds. You’ll also be able to get a bunch of free moons from Toadette for completing achievements.

Photograph Mysterious Drawings

Super Mario Odyssey places hints in mysterious places, one of which being paintings hung on walls. When examining these paintings you’ll go into first person mode for a while. Use this time to take a snapshot of the painting using the Switch’s image capture controls. Refer to it later, as it might be a hint for a moon in an entirely different world.

Use Paintings to Warp

Some moons seem completely out of reach, and that’s because they are. There’s no way to reach them via conventional means. Instead, you’ll have to find secret warps in order to get them. These warps take the form of Mario 64-style paintings that open wormholes from world to world. However, they always warp you to out of the way places that you couldn’t reach otherwise. For example, to reach Yoshi’s house in the Mushroom Kingdom, you actually have to warm from the Luncheon Kingdom.

Use Yoshi

If you manage to find Yoshi, possess him immediately! He has a high flutter jump and he can use his tongue as a grappling hook. Using him makes moon collecting much much easier. The first place you can find Yoshi is on top of Peach’s castle, in the same place you could find him in Super Mario 64.

Fast Travel

Flagpoles aren’t just checkpoints. They are fast travel points! Go into your map and use them to warp around on your quest to find all the game’s moons. In fact, certain moons will put you in an area that you can’t get out of without dying or warping.

Use Cappy to Collect Things

Remember that not every item needs to be touched by Mario. You might notice that some purple coins are dangling over a pit that is sure to kill you. That is because you can throw Cappy to collect them without dying. Then again, dying only costs 10 coins so no one will blame you if you want to leap to your doom just for fun.

Don’t be Afraid of Death

Some items in the game actually do require you to die to collect. The most we can say is: don’t be afraid of dying. There’s basically no penalty outside of 10 coins, and 10 coins are certainly worth a power moon.

If You See a Rabbit, Catch It!

Super Mario 64 veterans will remember that catching a rabbit in the basement will get you a star. This is the entire premise that 3D Mario was based on, and some form of rabbit catching has survived in every 3D Mario game. The same holds true in Super Mario Odyssey. If you come across a rabbit, they will instantly start running from you. Luckily you can catch them with a simple long jump or two and they will cough up a moon. There are also other animals to catch, like birds, which also carry power moons.

Follow Dogs

Nintendogs are scattered throughout the game, and if you throw Cappy at them, they will play fetch! More importantly, if you follow them they will usually dig up a moon for you.

Try Your Hand at Gardening and…. Wait

Some of the most frustrating moons to get are the gardening moons which ask you to plant a seed in a pot and wait 20 minutes. After this excessive time limit is up, a bulb will grow. Break open the bulb with Cappy to get a power moon.

Explore Everywhere

The best tip we can possibly give you is to explore everywhere. Hit every corner of the map. Rotate the camera around at all times. Possess binoculars to look at your surroundings. Use the advanced jumps we talked about to scale every wall and cross every chasm. We found that many of the easiest to miss moons are sitting out in the open in areas you likely wouldn’t have otherwise explored.

Have more tips for earning moons? Let us know in the comments below.