Smash Run is an exclusive game mode in Super Smash Bros. 3DS, and a very fun one. It involves running around on a huge stage for 5 minutes, defeating enemies, completing challenges, and collecting stats. Customized characters are allowed, and encouraged.
If you want to learn all there is to know about Smash Run, find out what you can unlock, and tips on doing it, then this guide is for you.
This guide will cover everything in Smash Run including:
- Smash Run – Detailed info on what this mode is about.
- Stats – Each stat and what they do.
- Items – The possible items you can get in this mode.
- Equipment and Powers – What they do and recommendations of which to use in Smash Run.
- Challenge Doors – What they are, and all the possible types of challenges.
- Events – Random events and what each one means.
- Final Battle – All the possible final battles and what to do in each one.
- Rewards and Tips – What you get for completing Smash Run and tips on what to look for.
Smash Run – What is it good for? Everything!
Let me start by saying that Smash Run is the best mode to play for almost everything. You won’t unlock characters in this mode, but you will get plenty of gold, trophies, equipment, and character special customizations.
This mode starts with a 5 minute run around a huge map. The map is the same every time, but the enemies and placement of chests and events are different each time.
You compete against 3 CPU, or human players if playing the group mode locally. You don’t interact with them during the run, but you compete against them in the final battle.
During group mode, switches sometimes appear from chests. hitting these switches will send 3 giant bob-ombs to the other human players. They come one at a time.
Your goal is to defeat enemies and collect stat points. During this 5 minute run, you’ll come across several enemies, chests, challenge doors, and events.
At the end, your stats are at the time are finalized and used for a final battle that is chosen at random. I’ll cover all that later in the guide.
Stats
- Speed – This determines how fast your character runs. Very important in Smash Run.
- Jump – How high your character jumps. Just like speed, very important in Smash Run.
- Attack – Increases power of standard (A Button) attacks.
- Special – Increases power of special (B Button) moves. Decreases charge time and range of special moves.
- Arms – Increases effectives of both damage and healing items, increases throwing damage and grab range, and makes you less likely to drop items when hit.
- Defense – Decreases how much damage you take and how far you get launched from attacks.
Speed and Jump are very important because it will get you around the map quicker, allowing you to get more power ups and items. When creating custom characters, it is a good idea to give them a decent speed stat and not sacrifice too much defense.
The attack and special are not as important in Smash Run, so you can change it when you decide to do normal fighting.
Besides getting the stat points from killing enemies, chests, and challenges, you gain stats by doing activities. For example, running and jumping will slowly raise those stats, even if you don’t pick them up as rewards.
You also lose stats every time you die, so try your hardest to survive!
Items
- Gold – Money that you use to buy trophies, bet on players in Spectate mode online, and select higher difficulties in Classic mode. They have the Smash Bros. logo as their icon. They come ins bronze, silver, and gold.
- Trophies – Random trophy added to your collection, they look like big, white, question marks.
- Smash Run Powers – Gives you a random power you can equip in Smash Run. The icon is a rainbow-colored bag with a question mark inside.
- Equipment and Character Customizations – These give equipment to put on your custom characters, outfit and headgear for your Mii Fighters, or character special variants. It has the Wrench icon.
Equipment and Powers
Equipment
Each character has 3 slots for equipment. Equipment comes in 3 categories:
- Attack – Raises attack, but lowers Defense.
- Defense – Raises Defense, but lowers Speed.
- Speed – Raises Speed, but lowers Attack.
Even though everyone starts with 0 in each stat in Smash Run, equipment stats are also taken in account. So if you put a lot of speed in your character, you’ll start moving quickly at the beginning, even though your speed stat is low.
Equipment can also have effects. These can be anything from Starting with items such as Home-Run Bats, to raising certain actions, like increasing Launching power by 1.3 times when launching up. They also can have negative benefits if the stats are very good, like lowering your jump height.
Powers
This is unique to Smash Run mode. By going to Custom in the Smash Run section, you can create Custom characters AND add powers to them. These powers can only be used in Smash Run.
Each power has a weight and the total weight you can carry is determined by how heavy your character is. You can raise this by adding more Defense to your character.
These powers can be used to heal yourself, send Meteor Showers down on the enemies, protect yourself from flinching when taking damage, and more during the 5 minute run. There is a long list of powers available and how you want to spend those 5 minutes will determine which powers you want to equip.
I highly recommend putting at least one healing item, an attacking power that hits an area, and a defensive item that protects you from getting launched all over the field. These will keep you alive the 5 minutes and help take out the tougher enemies for big rewards.
Challenge Doors
Red doors appear through the map that lead to challenges. Completing the challenge yields big rewards and are well worth the time to complete them.
You have to finish them during the time given, and they range from Easy to Hard ranks. The harder the challenge, the bigger the reward. Here are the possible challenges:
- Survive – The object in this one is to just stay alive for the amount of time given. You can defeat some of the enemies, but there are some that can instantly kill you.
- Defeat Enemies – Start on a platform and defeat the given number of enemies in the time limit.
- Break the Targets – Break all the targets within the time limit.
- Crystal Smash – There will be one or more giant crystals you must destroy. Just attack repeatedly and break them all within the time limit.
- Gold Bug Room – This and the Chest room aren’t real challenges. This room has golden bug that drops huge amounts of gold when attacked. If you’re trying to get money, take advantage of this room if you’re lucky enough to get it.
- Chest Room – Like the Gold Bug Room, this only has rewards. Open the chests for stats and other items before leaving. Free stuff!
Events
Random events also happen during the 5 minute run. Arrows point to the locations of each event when they start.
- Fast Learner – For a short time, all stats you gain from killing enemies will be one type.
- Max Stats – One or more of your stats gets maxed out for a short time.
- Random Power – A random passive power is given to each fighter for a short amount of time.
- Challenge Doors – Reveals all the Challenge doors on the map for a limited time.
- Treasure Hunt – Reveals all the Treasure chests on the map for a limited time.
- Treasure Area – A secret area will appear on the map. The first person to make it there is rewarded with 3 chests full of rewards.
- Same Enemy – All enemies that appear, will be of one type for a limited time.
- Defeat the Enemy – A random difficult enemy will appear somewhere on the map. Defeat it to gain huge rewards.
Final Battle
After the 5 minute run, you’ll come to a final battle. Everything you’ve collected is finalized and a random competition gets chosen. Here’s the list of possible final battles:
- Smash – Free-for-all match. This can be a normal match, or combined with one of the special match types.
- Team Smash – Same as free-for-all, but it is a 2 vs. 2 match.
- Stamina Smash – Uses fixed Health Points instead of time or stock. When health reaches 0, the fighter is out.
- Glorious Smash – Uses “For Glory”rules. No items and the Omega form of the stage.
- Flower Smash – All fighters have a permanent flower on their head that constantly does damage to them.
- Item Smash – A match that has only one type of item that appears periodically.
- 300% Smash – All fighters start at 300% damage, like Sudden Death.
- Mega Smash – All fighters start huge, like when getting a Super Mushroom item.
- Race – No fighting needed in this mode, but it is allowed. You must reach the finish line before the other fighters. Obstacles appear that put you in last place if you touch them. Speed stat helps with this battle.
- Climb – Same thing as race, but you’re climbing a Tower instead of running to the finish line. Jump stat helps with this battle.
- Multi-Man Smash – Fight several enemies in a map by yourself. The fighter with the highest number of KOs, wins.
- Vs. Enemy – Similar to Multi-Man Smash, but this time you fight enemies you find during Smash Run.
Rewards and Tips
Rewards
After the final battle is over, all the rewards you collected during the run will be revealed. These are the items that you can pick up during the run. While playing, you can look at the bottom of your screen to see the items you’ve collected.
Once you fill up the screen, every new item will push the item off on the far right. If you want certain items, pay attention to the bottom screen and only pick up the type you want.
For example, if you want to unlock equipment and character customizations quickly, only pick up the Wrench icon items during the run.
Even while doing this, if you didn’t fill up your screen towards the end of the run, it is okay to pick up different item types until you fill the screen. This way you’ll still get the max amount of rewards while getting the type of reward you want.
Tips
- You can also change the bottom screen to a map of the area. This useful for knowing where you are, as well as your opponents. If you want to get to a certain area, the map makes it easier to do so.
- Big enemies give more rewards than smaller enemies, so try to take them out when you see them. Goombas are the easiest because all you have to do is jump on them.
- The enemy with a skull on the ground that gets up and changes to a bigger enemy is not worth your time unless you have power ups available to damage it and protect yourself. It constantly hits you, doing a lot of damage and knocking you back.
- Save your power ups for big groups of enemies, challenges, events, and other hard tasks. The only power up you should use in normal situations is a healing one when you have taken a lot of damage.
This wraps up my extensive Smash Run guide for Super Smash Bros. 3DS. There is a lot in this mode, so if I missed anything, or you know of more tips, please let me know in the comments.
