This final challenge was less "difficult" and more "tedious" because if you screw up a later section, you have to try again from the beginning. Making a really long level with no checkpoints is just an archaic way to create artificial difficulty.

This game makes me so mad. I was literally just seconds away from finishing the level and I fell off a platform making me start from the beginning! I literally almost broke my switch last night. They at least could've added a checkpoint at around the Yoshi section

For the 1st part, the invader hat, you don't need to stack the goombas. You just need to wait for it on the far end ledge ( the opposite side of where you respawn ). Then just long jump to the invader hat when he's on that side. This is way easier than stacking all the goombas and risking death.

You should have skipped 1, you can get the extra lives later from the Sphinx.

1. You can run past the Yoo-Foe (hat invader) in the first section, or, to beat it easier, long-jump from the top of the steps to hit it when it comes close. 2. The Sphynx will give you a Life-Up Heart if you answer his riddle, and it's pretty easy to make it to that point without dying. 3. At the tower of pushing blocks, you can instead stand on top of the rising block with the scarecrow and throw Cappy downward to give yourself an elevator ride to the top and skip the entire section. 4. Using Glydon correctly (diving into a whirlwind and using motion controls to get a boost upward, then never stop shaking the controller to maintain height) can skip three or four sections, landing you at the Bowser painting or even getting you over it to the very end. If you can do that, no lasers and Burrbos or Pokios to deal with. 5. Practically every other section of the level has a heart hidden or in a block that will allow you to regain some of your health, keeping the challenge on the platforming.

Screw. The. Popping out. Blocks

The fact they skipped the Sphinx made me sad 😢 since he just wanted to say thank you for being a good friend :(

Stage eleven got me until I realized I could just hang on the edge of the moving platform. Just trigger the rings of fire and hang. Easy

Now that I've seen the end reward, this hell ain't worth it anymore

I can do the whole level up to the bird part, god I hate that part

Died twice at the bird section were you have to stick to the surface. Having it be an insta kill + all the stuff back made me ragequit lol

I swear who thought the darker side was a good idea

I got to the electric wire part and I just could not handle the possibility of losing to a beginner's trap after getting that far. Came here to scope it out and laughed my head off when I was already at the end. Thanks for putting my mind at ease!

Now the narrator of course didn’t mention this but if you happen to have an amiibo then with enough patients. You can actually generate hearts making the kingdom quite a bit easier.

So what you're saying is, all that effort I've done so far has only gotten me halfway.

If you don’t need the extra health you can skip the first goomba section. There is another life bonus during the grass pathway on the left under a sphinx. Also the gliding section is way easier if you just shake the controller to maintain altitude.

This was super tricky and really tedious, but after beating It I felt amazing. And the Invisible cap Is definitely the best cap In the game.

When doing the Gliding Gecko you can shake the controls as fast as you can throw the first tornado perfectly Time it and you can skip the Hedgehog and the fork level

the frustration level and difficulty is on par with darksoul series, i thought mario is supposely an easy friendly happiness enjoyment joyful game...

I hate that stupid bird! Also Nintendo makes it so obvious that you can just skip the first part

I'm not ashamed to admit that I couldn't finish it without Assist Mode. My take on it is that since I found every purple coin in the game and over 800 moons on my own without a single hint from Toad or the talkatoo (and real moons too- not the ones you simply buy), I could get some assistance for this part, especially when I know people who finished the Darker Side the real way but had to go online to find where some moons were.

i was so excited to collect 500 moons just to find out i gotta do this 😔 i hate and love this game so much. i’m not doing this lmao

Thanks so much for this guide. I would have broken my game out of frustration without it!

You can make this level a lot easier by skipping stage 10(forks)-13(DK) at the diniosaur gliding part. When you shake the joy-cons you will go up a little, so you can fly really far. If you only use the first tornado and from that point start flying you can fly over the forks section and go straight to the bowser painting! Make sure you only use the first tornado though, because the others are a bit lower and you won't be able to make it to the painting.

Not gonna lie, the reward is pretty underwhelming. Glad I saw this video otherwise I would be pissed.

"It will be OK --- you are not alone." Thanks, Satan.

I just finished this level. In fact, it didn't try as many times as I thought I would. The hardest part was the bird part, but when I passed it, I was lucky not to die in the DK part and I finished the rest in my first try. Thank you

OMG no joke, Best tutorial I’ve ever had I stressed when I made it half way through then watched this and completed it, best tutorial

Ok so... when I stared Darker Moon I couldn’t even get pass the lava bubble stage. After watching this video I did the run and didn’t get hit once? What?

The enemies don't even ignore you while being invisible. One of the most disappointing moments in gaming history.

For the first goomba challenge, I just jumped up to the high part of the steps and long jumped onto the top of the spinning hat. Very easy way to complete the first bit and get the extra lives

OHHH I finally beat this insanity

Does anybody live in the bay area that can beat this I will pay you

If the purple hat thing is to hard you can stand on the higer platform made from stone and do a long jump you cant be hut by that sawblades this way and its eassier and quicker. And sorry for my bad grammar just wannta give a tip

When you get glydon, you can shake when you get to the first whirlwind and skip to the thank you section. You have to shake the whole time btw

I’d like to add a few things :) Turn on assist mode for this. You’ll thank me later. Skip the first boss. Literally just run past him. Long jump makes the 3rd part easier. For people who aren’t coordinated enough, there’s nothing wrong with breaking the blocks while you’re yoshi just use his tongue to ignite those things. You totally ran right past the sphinx!! Don’t skip him, he gives you a heart with 3 extra health. Which is good for those who skipped the first boss.

Thank you! I tried it like 30 times and couldnt get to level 7 but I completed the whole thing in 1 time with this guide thank you so much❤

Just did it after 2 hours of tries, thank you for part 8, which i saw in order to save time learning the correct path. However I have to say that I expected it more difficult hearing people. I found much more difficult the Broodals chain bosses in the dark side. After the bird I did the stages in the first try. The trick in my opinion is only to mantain focus and do not get the anxiety from the idea to start over, most of all in the last part (from the edgehogs on). In my opinion the most brutal enemy of the level is the fear to start over, which defocuses you and let you make stupid mistakes, and it grows more and more through all the level (I think this was intended). Like it and this games in general a lot anyway. Thank you again.

Please start my petition to please put a check. Right when you go to the water pipe after you do the forks I died on the birds and I’m so upset I’ve been playing it for the last three days and I’m just done with this game until they at a checkpoint maybe I’ll end up playing it again

This was insanely difficult and took me hours and hours of many attempts but I finally got it! This video was really helpful and informative and now I can enjoy the invisibility hat! So cool’

Tip: Turn on assist mode. You can do this by hitting : + > options > choose mode > assist mode. Don’t do this if you are in the middle of the challenge because it will reset you. Wait until you die or go back to the beginning. It gives you 6 hearts (but you will start out with 9 as a bonus) and when you fall in lava, of the edge, or fall anywhere else, you will take 1 heart of damage and be teleported not to the beginning, but the beginning of your stage. And if you lose health, just stand still and you’ll regenerate. This really helped me with the fork-flinging one and the pokios. Hope this helps you too! (P.s. this guide really helped me. I used assist mode to save me the pain of starting over. But I couldn’t have beat the levels without you. If you think assist mode is cheating, don’t use it. But it was put in to help and it’s there to use. Thank You!)

I love how the platform disappears at the end of the hedgehog part.

This is the most raging and hardest video game ever. Edit:I finally beat it when I remembered there was this thing called Assist Mode

I FINALLY BEAT THE LEVEL in assist mode

cursing at whoever created the triad: darker side, champion's road, and grandmaster galaxy perfect run

The lines cappy said at the end were so sad 😢 But thank you for helping me i was raging so much!

I FINALLY DID IT YAY Tip: press + go to options choose mode and pick assist it will send you to the start of your stage when you lose a life (I would rather be a cheater than u people in my replies calling me a cheater)

Him: stage 11 welcome to my least favorite part Me: same

Thanks for the nice walkthrough. I managed to beat this myself last night & get my own invisibility hat. Now I’m only missing the volleyball moon anymore!

The easiest way to beat the darker side is to Turn On Assist Mode. Assist Mode Makes you start with 6 lives. And if you get a life up heart you will have 9 hearts. If you fall over you will teleport back to the previous checkpoint

OMG! Its Galaxy all over again. No way can I do this. :(

You explained this so smooth and you didn't even do any skips 👍👌

Tip: Use Assist Mode to beat it. You always have six hearts as normal health, and if you get a Life-Up heart, you have NINE lives. (Wish there was a Cat Mario outfit.) Anyway, the nine lives thing won't matter, because if you stand still for a few seconds, you REGAIN YOUR HEALTH. No worrying about falls either, because if you do, a bubble takes you back to the last solid object you were one, but takes one health away. To get assist mode, press ➕ or ➖ to go to the Pause menu, then select Option. Then select Choose Mode. And, lastly, select Assist Mode. The game will take you to the last time the game was saved at the Odyssey. Then, you'll know you did it right if it says Assist Mode in the bottom-right corner. After you beat the challenge you want (Assist Mode can be used at any point in the game), make sure you throw Cappy onto the globe to save the game, then you can switch BACK to default gameplay with all the progress achieved in Assist Mode. It is a nice little trick that can make any near-impossible challenge a LOT easier.

I can't even get past the swings from the beginning, and when I did I died on the next one and had to go back.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 Super Mario 3D World Super Mario Odyssey: Ahh sh*t. Here we go again

6:20 IMPORTANT NOTE: shake the JoyCons and you will make it easily

Managed to beat darker side before watching this video but came to see my fellow gamers tell their stories of frustration like I once was. I think I had about 15-20 goes before being able to beat this. The problem here isn’t even the levels. They’re pretty simple when you break them all down in regards to what you have to do and how short each level is on their own merit. The problem in this is that their are 0 checkpoints and this makes the challenge. It’s very gruelling but thankfully you can get 6 lives and they give hearts at certain points. The hardest part is the long nose bird part, not hard because of what you have to do but hard because one incorrect placement means you die and start again, no life lost, just a straight up kill and start again. Smh. I had a tear in my eye when I heard that heavenly music and I got spell out the thank you. You do feel very accomplished once you’ve done it. For sure.

I finally completed it today. I used gryphon to skip a few stages to the electrical thanks

I got all the way to the hedgehogs then lost. They put me at the beginning and I was like nah. Screw that. So I'll just try again another day

I have been trying to beat this level for like 4 hours

I will give you timestamps for each section of Darker Side. Here you go!: (I will edit the comment as I watch the video.) Intro/Getting into the actual REAL Darker Side= 0:52 Stage 2/Pole Climbing= 1:59 Stage 3/Jumping the Rising Hills= 2:36 Stage 4/Lava Bubble jumping= 3:06 Stage 5/"Onions" and moving platforms= 3:33 Stage 6/Ice cold water and Fuzzies= 4:14 Stage 7: Climbing convery belts with a Yoshi= 4:40 (If you answer the Sphinx's question[which is on the platform to the left at 5:33], you get access to a much needed Life Up heart.) Stage 8/Pushing blocks and Coin Rings= 5:44 Stage 9/Glydon and Windy Gushers(which is the furthest I have EVER reached as of 3/2/21)= 6:19 (Taken a long break so I can catch up to the video) Stage 10/Having a Luncheon near Lava= 6:51 ___________________________________________Taking a break to do dying due to the lava _____________ Continuing here a some point/continue to edit this comment once I have gotten good at video games.

I literally spent the last 2 hours trying to complete this level. The obstacles are fairly easy but the fact that this has no checkpoints is what makes it hard.

Tips for beating the Darker Side of the Moon if your still frustrated or needed help with sections, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered with My Tips for the longest stage (It took me almost 9 minutes to get the Power Moon) “Long’s Journey End”. 1:00 Or when your about to go to the next Section to get the King Life Heart, just Long Jump and Bounce on Cappy onto the Invader. 2:03 Move the analog stick to the left and wall jump until you get the pole’s maximum height. Then, Long Jump and bounce on Cappy to get to the Last Pole of this section then Long Jump and bounce on Cappy again to the Last Red Pole (That does not move.) Then bounce off Cappy to finish off this section. You might want to dive to gain extra distance. 2:45 Long Jump on Larger Tidals of Bowser (Skip Small Tidal) to the Medium Tidal. Beware of your timing. 3:15 Go to the edge of the Lava Circle (As a Lava Bubble) to build up momentum and also beware of timing again. 3:45 As a Uproot, when you get to “Hedgehog Spawner 2”, Uncapture Uproot then Long Jump then Cappy Bounce to the Next Section. 4:25 With good alignment with the Fuzzies, you could Cappy Bounce off of the Fuzzies or perform a roll next to the Fuzzies and then perform a backflip into the water for the halfway point. 4:55 You can still get hit being on the Left Side of the Screen, and you can use Yoshi’s Flutter Jump for a short time (0.25 to 1 seconds) to make Yoshi faster and maintain more speed. You may already know this by now, This section is nice to offer you a Sphinx to give a “King Life Heart”. 6:00 Go between the block (After the first set of Golden Coin Rings) that are next to two blocks. Then, you can roll to maintain speed. You could Skip this whole Section by throwing Cappy next to the scarecrow that triggers blocks trying to push you into lava. Then, do a backflip and shake you controller for Cappy to get on Scarecrow. Found by “Blue Television Gamer” 6:25 Shaking the controller gains “Glydon” tons of height were players could skip Sections 10 to 14 if you kept on shaking your controller for long enough. This section is broken in the “Darker Side” of the Moon. Nintendo should of added invisible walls to prevent players from skipping sections. 6:55 Cappy throwing with correct timing can help you, and you can’t bounce off of Cappy after uncapturing a capture. Once again, you could keep on shaking your Controller as Glydon to keep your normal altitude so you could skip this section entirely. 7:30 While the player is dealing with Hedgehogs on the Platform, try not to let Cappy hit the Ring Burners or else the Ring Burners start causing chaos at the end of the section. 8:35 Be careful about timing your pokes with Pokio, after poking through three swinging board, move to the closest wall and then fling up to the Next Section and if you die, you might be screaming in frustration. 9:10 Be careful when avoiding obstacles at the moving platforms with a barrel causing you to most likely get hit, and the same here applies with “Donkey Kong” and himself rolling all of those monstrous barrels, take the first moving platform you see (Which you already know if you watched the entire video). Man, the good old days of “Donkey Kong” and “Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2” remember some of those missions where some time during the mission where the player was restricted into 2D areas (Not really for MayroSMM because of his 90 degree wall jumping in his “No Transformation Run” in Super Mario Galaxy 2.) does this section remind you of nostalgia when you were a kid? 10:10 Don’t worry if you have 1 piece of life leftover. As Bowser, he gives you six pieces of life while crawling and scratching through rocks and boulders throughout this entire section. By performing a Triple Jump onto a Boulder Spawner then jumping with a claw. Beware of your timing of when it’s time to Crawl, Scratch, and Breath out Fire. 11:20 Everyone reacts in the comments are, “Thank the lord, I’ve finally beaten the “Darker Side” of the Moon after all brutal torture and pain, I thank my skill put into this Power Moon.” After going through the words (As a Spark Pilot) saying “Thank You” then you throw Cappy at the Scarecrow to lighten up the words you went through. Then you go up a Tower that resembles New Donk City’s Rooftop Tower in the Metro Kingdom to get your Multi Moon. Did you know that there’s a 8-Bit Rosalina on one of the side of the Tower on the bottom and going through the coin stack awards you 200 coins so you could get to 9999 coins to get your Skeleton Costume at the Crazy Cap Store. Then, after beating the Darker Side of the Moon, you unlock the weirdest hat in the game, “Invisibility Hat” which NPC’s are like, “???” and nobody could hear you crying from frustration. So, what do you think is the hardest level in any 2D or 3D Mario Game? (Ex. Champion’s Road from Super Mario 3D World, The Perfect Run from Super Mario Galaxy 2, and The Darker Side of the Moon from Super Mario Odyssey.)

Ok, I'm about ready to kill. I just got all the way to Dk, but took a crazy amount of hits as the directional sense was all over the shop. Killed him, dropped down the hole and a barrel landed on my head. About as painful a loss as one can suffer.

for the firs part with the goombas you are able to go across to the stars and stand on the top of the leg and be able to jump with ur zL button and your y button and just jump on top of the hat and not have to deal with the goombas.

8-11 8: There is a heart on the wall right at the start here on the left, ground pound jump then throw Cappy, dive on to him holding forward the entire time, the do a wall jump off the wall, throw Cappy and keep holding forward then dive and Mario should leap over the ledge, you don't need to do this if you don't want as it can easily kill you 9: This parts fine 10: Good strat, this is better than mine Hope this was useful

I just use assist mode, it makes it easier

Somehow this guide actually helped me and I beat this second try today, thank you. It also wasn’t as hard as I thought it was.

Watching this video helped immensely. Thanks. A couple things I did differently 1. Skipped the first section after I got really good at the sections up to the sphinx. I got the 6 heart that way. 2. Shake the controller for glideon I couldn’t get the hang of the forks, but I could fly over it with glideon and skip it.

They make this sound like The Perfect Run or Champion’s Road. Truth is, you could probably do this first try if you’re careful enough.

You forgot about the 2 heart pieces in section 4 and the extra 3 heart container in the sphinx in 7....

I keep failing at the lava ball section(section 4)And could it hurt them to at least put a checkpoint somewhere

I died at section 8 and I was like "I'm not doing that again!" Thanks for the video.

a couple shortcuts ive found - stage one: jump your way up to the top edge of the cliff (on other side of the lava on the left) and then just long jump onto the hat thing when it swings around near you. saves you the time and health of dealing with the goombas. stage two: you can do all of the poles in one run if you go fast enough. jump off the column and onto the pole, then wait until the first three are starting to slide up. spam the crap out of the b button, and you should jump off the last pole onto the platform just as theyre starting to sink. stage three: long jump between the platforms and long jump onto the platform at the end. i find long jumping easier. stage seven: use yoshi for the vertical conveyor belts but leave him at the top. instead of using his flutter jump for the three tall blocks during the flowers, triple jump. the distance is perfect to use a triple jump and its a lot easier.

i was so angry at this level i was going to delete mario odyssey from my switch

This guide already from the start is just wrong, instead of stacking 10 goombas(if you actually need the extra hearts early, which you shouldn't) just go to the upper platform-.... long jump, throw cap, dive onto your cap, bounce off it, throw cap again, dive again etc.... and you can easily make the distance to kill the purple hat without having to run around collecting goombas. You will gain more than enough distance. After a few tries I no longer bothered with the first heart reinforcement, I just got the one at the sphinx to save time. Only part of this you should really lose a heart or two max is the part with the moving platforms and the little multicoloured turds running at you from all angles. Every other part of the level can be mastered to near perfection without any unpredictability. The most amusing thing about this guide, is that it recommends wasting a tonne of time stacking goombas for a reinforcement heart and then ignores to mention the one on the left of the flowering path underneath the sphinx :P which requires 0% effort. The moving platforms along the lava can be moved along 100% faster aswell, by using long jumps and throwing your cap, or just using the exact same method mentioned above to beat the flying purple hat at the start. If your unsure of the jumping method, observe the 2nd koopa race in the woodland kingdom, the golden koopa uses it to clear a very large jump near the finishing point.

THANK YOU, YOU HELPED ME GET ONE OF THE HARDEST MOONS IN THE GAME, I CANT THANK YOU ENOUGH, looking forward to your next videos

I’ve been at this for awhile but I finally did it…. This guide was so helpful for some of those tricky parts. Thank you!!!

Dammit. I was so close. I wish they would start you out with 6 health. Even with the "shortcut" the boss at the beginning is super tedious.

Weird they never mentioned the sphynx at the end of the flower path section. It literally gives you an extra 3 hearts, which can be VERY useful if you are on low health. (On the left at 5:32)

I finally....FINALLY...did it. I must have tried 100 times. But it DID IT. That was, bar none, the most challenging thing I've every done in any video game. By the way, you can long jump across the ramp-like platforms moving through the lava. You literally can't miss.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!! Bruh I had to pray, heart racing, shaking, frustrated,ETC.

why do people call this a secret because cappy tells you when you beat the game there are more kingdoms to explore and the odyssey says how many more moons to get to that kingdom Edit 1: why is there a shadow on something invisible

WHY DIDNT U TELL ME TO SHAKE ON THE DINO FLYING BIT!

I would be totally lost without this video. I just beat it after so many tries. Thank you for the guide☺️💗

Fun cheat for level 8 on the popping out blocks. My daughter switched the game to 2 player mode, put Mario on top of the elevator and when you put Cappy on the scarecrow, Mario gets a free ride to a secret level at the very top. Switch back to 1 player mode at that point!

**rage** This level stressed me out, my ears are so hot right now.

THE SWINGING FOR ME IS STILL IMPOSSIBLE

As someone who gets legitimately angry at sub areas as they don't have checkpoints I don't think I'll be attempting this anytime soon

I know it's rude to generalize accents but I truly feel like this is being explained to me by Garnet/Estelle and I love it. Very motivating. Especially when you said "we've done it". You sounded so confident lol

Thank u for the vid I have been having problems in the lava bubble jumps every TIME I jump to the other lava circle it completely lands on the floor Wait IT WAS NOT UR HELP I JUST KNEW WHAT T0 DO

terrible ending to the game. most of the puzzles are memorization based so you'll die over and over until you muscle memory your way throw the stupid parts.

This level literally made me cry

You can skip from the gliding section to the bowser fight. 1.Capture Glydon 2. Glide low until you’re almost to the bottom of the first gust of wind. 3.Shake your joycons nonstop while moving forward, and make sure to cap Jump if the game auto-releases you from glydon. Congrats, you’ve skipped the end majority of the level.

8:28 that disappeared way too fast im using assist mode atleast to get back to that point.

THAT STUPID BIRD PART MAN

I can now consistently get to the wings part. This whole gauntlet not having checkpoints is unfair

Nice job with the horribly annoying hedgehog platform section! When you're playing as Bowser, you can shake the joy-con to breath fire. Near the start of that section of Darker Side, you can get a safe vantage point of the long corridor of breakable rocks from atop a dual boulder shooter just before the triple boulder shooter. Stand on it and breathe fire to destroy the entire corridor, making that section of the level MUCH easier. In the gliding section, you can shake the joy-con to maintain more altitude, which allows you to easily skip the entire fork-flicking section. Before the moving wall section (immediately after dismounting Yoshi), you can throw Cappy, hold Y to keep him spinning in place, do a backflip to the top of the moving platform (keep holding Y), and then shake the joy-con to activate the switch, which allows you to skip that entire section. Lastly, I'd recommend not running right past the Goombas in the first segment. There are plenty of heart containers between there and the Sphinx, which is a much easier route to a 6-heart container. There are bigger skips, too, but these strategies allow you to play through most of the level. :-)

Man after the octodecillionth time those earlier sections aren't fun anymore, you know what nintendo just no more please. No more perfect runs, no more post game stuff let's go back to way things used to be

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