The doors to the next area open up and it’s a lot bigger than previous areas. Go forward and touch the checkpoint flag, then double back to right before you went through the doorway. Look southeast and get on the lower portion of the castle roof there, following it straight ahead to grab three purple coins underneath the roof above you (48) . Keep going in the same direction a little bit more and look for the part of the roof that’s jutting out, where you’ll see a spark pylon at the end. Take this to a hidden room inside of the roof, where a Power Moon will be waiting (Found Behind Bars!) .

Return to the rooftop and get onto the highest roof here to find three more purple coins (51) , then drop down the other side to find three more purple coins on the lower roof (54) . Go back to the flag and on the main path, by the two Pokios, you will see some water on either side. Dive into the smaller one, swim down a little bit and look in the alcove created by one of the upper platforms to spot three purple coins (57) . While you’re down in the water, you can grab a Power Moon in the big alcove, by the bars (Sunken Treasure in the Moat) .

Get back on the main path, capture a Pokio and hop across the gaps by the other pond. Use the Pokio’s beak to climb up to the next section, where you will have to dodge a single bomb dispenser, a Spiny and another Pokio. Just beyond that will be three more bomb dispensers, sort of on stairs. Remember that you can send the bombs the other way with just one hit of your beak. There will be some actual stairs just past that section, with another checkpoint flag, so touch that and look at the lone Pokio beside the stairs.

If you need another one, go ahead and capture this, then peer over the edge, along the big section of climbable wall to spot three purple coins (60) . See the roof to your southeast? Ditch the Pokio and travcel along this rooftop and around the corner, you should find Captain Toad, who will hand over a Power Moon (Good to See You, Captain Toad!) . Get back to the main area and provoke the Stairface Ogre into following you to the end of the path, where you want it to smash open the metal box that is glowing, which will free another Power Moon (Inside a Block in the Castle) .

Recapture a Pokio and sneak behind the Stairface Ogre to find some more climbing is in your future. There is a spinning section immediately to your right, with four purple coins, which might be tricky to get and a little bit dangerous, as deadly purple goo is below you (64) . Not much higher will be another spinning wall to your wall, this one will have a target in the middle with three purple coins (67) . From that wheel, flick yourself to the next one and get off to the little rooftop, where you’ll find three purple coins (70) . After that, it’s just a little more climbing to the top, where you’ll come across another checkpoint flag.

You’re almost there, as you only have one more wall to climb with a Pokio. The majority of the walls here are moving from either left-to-right or right-to-left, with some vertical strips hanging there that have spikes on them. Should you touch these with the Pokio, the creature will instantly vanish and Mario will plummet to the goo below. The only thing you need to do here is collect three purple coins on the left side of the area (73) , so grab them and reach the top to find another checkpoint flag. You may think you’re done getting stuff, but not quite yet.

Dashing Through the Clouds¶

First and foremost, there’s nothing on the eastern side of the roof tiles up here, so ignore that area, but there is something you can do on the western side. Jump on over to that side, minding the spike strips and look over the edge to your southwest to spot a large pool of goo below you. Drop down to the strip of land surrounding it and follow it around to a gate. You won’t be able to open the gate right now, but if you hug the wall on the right side and wall jump to the top of the gate, you’ll find three purple coins (76) . Note that it may take a bit of wall jumping to get into the correct position to reach the top.

On the rooftop below your current one, you will find a planter for a seed and a large seed. Navigate past the Spinies and spikes to plant the seed, then climb the large vine to reach a new sub-area. The first thing you will see up here are some flowers that grant you super speed, which is the main point of this little area. As soon as you start sprinting, it will be hard to stop, so it’s good to talk about what’s going to go down up here. There are no purple coins, but you will find two Power Moons, one at the end and another on a side path. In fact, you should barely be able to make out that side path from the beginning if you look at the end.

Note that once you collect the side Power Moon (Dashing Through the Clouds) , you will automatically stop running, so make sure you adjust for that. Luckily, you can easily get back on track for one final jump to the end, where you can find the second Power Moon waiting for you (Dashing Above the Clouds) . There is a secondary function to this sub-area, as it is one of the best ways to earn gold coins in the game. Make sure you don’t touch the left stick at all upon entering the sub-area and you shouldn’t have to do anything other than jump and throw your hat. You can get a total of 180 coins per run of this, so keep this in mind when you’re starving for coins.

Return to the Inner Wall flag and use the Pokio to scale the moving walls again. There is a path behind the stairs that lead to the spark pylon, with some wooden crates, a hole you can poke in the wall and some Spinies. Break the crates to reveal another hole, so put the Pokio’s beak in that one to get a Power Moon (Poking Your Nose by the Great Gate) . Use the spark pylon to get to the big area above, but don’t go confront Bowser just yet. Look back where you came and make a long jump to the top of the gate that stood above the just recently used spark pylon (may need to do a dive at the end to get on top). Hmm, that picture frame is glowing, which is a bit suspicious. Hit it with your cap to knock it down and reveal it was hiding a Power Moon (Knocking Down the Nice Frame) .

Double back to the top of the large castle and peer over the edge behind you to spot a giant Bowser head. Leap down to it and pound the ground on the nose to unearth another Power Moon (On the Giant Bowser Statue’s Nose) . There’s a spark pylon on the right side of the Bowser statue, as well as lanterns hanging on either side. The lanterns on the right have nothing, but the ones on the left will have three purple coins on them (79) . That’s all you can do for now, so return to the top of the roof and confront Bowser, leading to the next boss fight.

BOSS - Mecha Broodal¶

The fight against Mecha Broodal can be a little more challenging than their individual battles, but as long as you know what’s going on, it’s just as easy. At the beginning, you can’t do anything as Mario, so you just need to wait for now. As Mecha Broodal shoots bombs at you, dodge them and eventually, the boss will spit out a Pokio. Capture it and wait for more bombs to come out, only this time you are going to be sending them back to the boss. Damage a leg two times with bombs to topple over the mech, revealing some walls you can climb with the Pokio.

Do that to get on top and poke the Broodal until the bubble breaks, which equals one point of damage. That’s one down and three more to go, with the second phase being triggered now, which is pretty much the same as the first. Reflect the bombs at the legs until two hit one leg, then climb up the side of the mech and break the second Broodal bubble. It isn’t until the third phase that Mecha Broodal changes things up some. To begin, the mech’s legs will begin flashing and the thing will charge straight ahead, so either ditch the Pokio or keep it, as the dashes aren’t hard to dodge.

After doing the dashes, the boss will shoot out little circular fireworks that will damage you if you touch them, but they can be knocked away with the Pokio’s beak (they don’t do any damage to the mech). While this is going on, the mech will shoot out more bombs, so reflect them back to damage the legs and eventually get a chance to deliver another blow to the remaining two Broodals. For the final phase, the boss will simply stomp around more quickly and still shoot out the fireworks. Wait for the bombs, reflect them back, climb the mech and deliver the final blow, netting yourself a Multi Moon in the end (Showdown at Bowser’s Castle) .