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Friday, May 5, 2017

The Optimal Way to Play Team Kirby Clash Deluxe

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - My secrets to unlocking enjoyment from Team Kirby Clash Deluxe. There's spoilers.

It was April 12 when Team Kirby Clash Deluxe was released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop as a free-to-play game. It's an expanded version of the Team Kirby Clash sub-game from Kirby Planet Robobot, similar to how Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe ($6.99) and Kirby Fighters Deluxe ($6.99) are expanded eShop games of their non-deluxe counterparts from Kirby Triple Deluxe. I guess we finally now have a truly TRIPLE deluxe since there are now three deluxe Kirby games on the eShop? 

Note: On September 4, 2019, Nintendo released Super Kirby Clash on the Nintendo Switch, which is a modified version of Team Kirby Clash Deluxe. The advice from the 3DS game is largely applicable to Super Kirby Clash.

Team Kirby Clash Deluxe is a boss rush of 42 different fights where you can pick four different roles for Kirby, each with their own set of weapons and armour: Sword Hero, Hammer Lord, Doctor Healmore, and Beam Mage. You have a team of four Kirby warriors (you play as one, and the other three are either computers or local friends — no online multiplayer), and you can mix-and-match the roles on your team.

The optimal team is composed of four Beam Mages. The Beam Mage is overpowered. Why? Because they can stop time — freezing not only the enemy in place, but literally the timer you're graded by. How fast you defeat enemies determines how much experience points (there's stats and levels in this game) you get, and many special missions are based on how fast you can finish the fight. Why are missions important? Because this is a free-to-play game in the mold of Pokémon Rumble World. Instead of blood diamonds, they have gem apples growing from a tree. Still, same system of a 3,000 purchasable maximum of diamonds/apples, you get a few diamonds/apples from completing missions, and there's “limited” purchasable special deals from the in-game shop. You also need to use the diamonds/apples to progress through the game in progressively larger quantities, but your “income” of them doesn't grow enough to keep up.

Team Kirby Clash Deluxe Magolor Shop apple glitch
So you'll have to buy some apples from Magolor's shop.
(Assuming it's open.)

Fortunately, you don't need to spend a lot of money on apples to have a pleasant experience. How much you'll consider enough to have a pleasant experience is up to you. Here's how I spent my money. Note that I have earned the platinum rank for all 42 battles, and I have all missions from battles completed (that's 4 missions per battle, so 168 missions). I first played Team Kirby Clash Deluxe April 14, have a play time of 38:04, and played it 80 times.
  1. 50 gem apples for $.49
  2. 100 gem apples for $.89
  3. 200 gem apples for $1.69
  4. 500 gem apples for $3.89 
I bought all of these gem apples — the above four purchases represent the four “limited offer” deals that give a better apple-per-money rate than normal pricing — on Sunday, the timing of which gives you a few more extra gem apples thrown in for free. That's a total of $6.96, which is about the same amount of money one would spend for one of the non-free-to-play Deluxe-series Kirby games from the eShop. I suspect Nintendo did that pricing intentionally.

You will want to buy more gem apples than this amount if you wish to complete some of the additional non-battle missions, such as buying every item that exists from the shop. Doing that doesn't help you at all (you only need to invest in a few of the Beam Mage items — don't buy every level of them, just key ones like Level 6 and then Level 10) and of course makes you spend more gem apples than you'll receive for completing the missions.

By the way, there is a revealed password for North American versions of Team Kirby Clash Deluxe: KIRBYBIRTHDAY. That'll give you 10 gem apples, plus another 10 for the mission that asks you to recite a password.

In Super Kirby Clash, the passwords are SUPERKIRBYCLASH (expiration unknown) and GEMAPPLES (expires October 6, 2019). These each give 10 gem apples.

Team Kirby Clash Deluxe 42 platinum medals Beam Mage high score heroic rank
The 19 remaining missions include having people to play with over local wireless,
buying a ton of crap from the shop, and summoning 100 wandering adventurers (you can do 3 a day for free).
In other words, I've done everything you can do that requires actual skill, so I'm done with the game.

There are some heroic missions that require you to beat a certain boss with a certain weapon/armour set, which will make you spend more gem apples acquiring those weapons/armour than you get from completing the mission. I've done all those, but it's up to you if you'd want to. Many of the “get a certain rank by having one Kirby for each of the four roles” missions, which implies you'd want to keep upgrading each Kirby role equally, can be done by getting lucky with the Wandering Adventurers feature, which allows you to summon a Kirby from a real-life player (it goes through your friends list first, and then random appropriate-level people). If THAT person isn't a Beam Mage, then hey, you can use that person as a teammate. (Again, it's not actual online multiplayer — they're controlled by the AI, but at least they'll hopefully have a much better weapon/armour set than you'd have for that role.)

My Total High Score (your score is equivalent to the sum of the highest record of experience points you've gotten from all 42 fights) is 30 higher (as of publishing) than the above screenshot. Right now? It's 115,075 (as of April 26, 2019). That's higher than I've seen from all of the other level 50 42-platinum Kirby players I've acquired from doing Wandering Adventurers, so that probably means I have very good scores. I've made a spreadsheet of these that I have also embedded below:

Oh, there's a thing called Vigor in the game. Vigor is Team Kirby Clash Deluxe's wait-to-play mechanic. You can buy items from the shop (with gem apples) to make your Vigor be replenished faster, going from 7 minutes per 1 Vigor to 1 minute per Vigor. Buy those. You'll need to spend a certain amount of Vigor to play any battle (how much depends on the battle), and you get more maximum Vigor added to your capacity whenever you level up. Also, whenever you level up, all of your Vigor gets replenished, so you should play... strategically.

You definitely will need to grind a fair amount in this game. In general, with some exceptions, the later bosses have a better experience-per-vigor-spent ratio. I don't know why people grind off Colossal Waddle Dee (the first boss), since that's incredibly inefficient. Any boss that says Pyribbit or Landia in their name aren't ones you'll want to grind off of, because they're really annoying. You can use my spreadsheet to figure out what the best vigor for experience, assuming you play efficiently. ...If you have a better score than I do, let me know and let me know how you did it.

Now, I mentioned enjoyment in the sub-title to this article. At first appearance, I seem like a big Kirby fan, don't I? He's one of my favourite characters. However, in terms of release date, the last Kirby game I've actually purchased was Kirby Super Star Ultra which came out in 2008. I never bought Kirby Triple Deluxe or Kirby's Return to Dream Land or Kirby Planet Robobot. (I did listen to, and enjoy, their soundtracks, though...) That's the best way to enjoy Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, because then so many things are new to you and the fact that it's derivative of Kirby Planet Robobot won't impact your experience. If you already have Kirby Planet Robobot, then you shouldn't spend money on Team Kirby Clash Deluxe.

Otherwise, if you're like me and you're content with spending $7 on this free-to-play game that gives quite a bit of content, then you should come out pretty happy. If you spend the maximum $30 in the in-game shop on 3,000 gem apples, then you're probably getting a bad deal. The game keeps some dialogue and music hidden from you if you don't buy absolutely everything, which kind of sucks, but I don't think that's at all enough to go through with the spending.

One more thing: There's another set of resources called Fragments. You also need Fragments to buy weapons/armour. Fragments are really easy to get in large quantities by your normal experience grinding, and you shouldn't spend apples on the Codexes that allow you to get more Fragments. You can also use amiibo (with small bonuses if you have a Kirby series amiibo) if you have a New Nintendo 3DS to get a token amount of fragments, but this soon becomes pointless since you max these out quickly. At least the background music is nice when you're interacting with the amiibo statue?

Some other miscellaneous tips:
  • If you screw up a run (time-wise) or you're about to get a game over, press Start and Restart. It takes some Vigor to Restart, but it's a fraction of how much you would spend if you went back to the select screen. 
  • Also, you can do three Beam Blasts in the air, which outdamages charged Time Beams in terms of damage per second (DPS) as long as you press B at the arc of your jump. 
  • You can buffer a Time Beam during cutscenes/the introduction to a fight if you hold down B. You can also buffer it the same way when you're falling from the air to the ground. 
  • Sometimes, you want the first phase of a boss fight to end with the freeze-clock close to full, as opposed to ending the first phase after a time-freeze. This will allow you to freeze the boss immediately after the second phase begins and perhaps deplete the rest of their HQ, allowing you to skip second-phase time-wasting theatrics.
  • On the other hand, surplus damage from the first phase carries over to the second phase... up to a certain point. (Making up numbers here, but if it normally switches to second phase at 50% of max HP, then if you time-freeze them right before the switch and basically would deplete all of their hit points, they'd start the second phase with 25% of max.) 
  • For the first four or so bosses, it's more optimal to be Hammer Lord with a team of Sword Heroes. You can dash in + jump with an Ultra Giant Swing to knock them immediately into the first phase (with Sword dash attacks helping), and then charge up a Hammer Flip immediately when their second phase starts, and the bosses have low enough HP that that is all you need.

If you want to be Ludwig's 3DS friend so you can use Wandering Adventurers to get his maxed out Beam Mage, you can exchange friend codes with him in the comments section. His friend code is 3351-5164-3598. He bought the ChuChu set for Doctor Healmore because he really likes ChuChu, not because it's good equipment (it's not — you'll want the charge speed-granting mad scientist set for Doctor Healmore).

Nintendo wants everyone to play this game, even going as far as lying about it in a push notification.
Do you want to time-attack even more games, and receive even more pro-tips? Why not try this Pocket Card Jockey records article?
Here's more information on the optimal timing to get Gem Apples.


  1. I usually am not a fan of free-to-start games, but Kirby Clash Deluxe is actually enjoyable.

    1. Enjoyable in spite of being free-to-start?

      It's not like being free-to-start ever helps a game become more fun. Right?

    2. MY friendcode 3840 9969 6722

    3. I added your friend code, but you didn't add mine (it's in the article's footer, remember?) so I don't know why you shared yours here or who you even are.

    4. Because your friendcode is not right

    5. ...oh shit you're right.
      It's 3351-5164-3598

      OKAY. GOOD JOB. You get a correction corner point.

    6. Mine is 3068 1067 0969

    7. Hi Unknown,

      Sure, I accepted your friend request. Would you like to learn more about KoopaTV and/or Team Kirby Clash Deluxe?

  2. My friend code is 0559-8147-4991

    1. I accepted your friend request!
      (Not sure what good that'll do ya, but if you want a Wandering Adventurers overpowered Kirby, I'll see if I can help you.)

    2. You're welcome.

      And definitely feel welcome to hang around KoopaTV. We have all kinds of great content for you to enjoy here! <3

    3. thanks! Without u telling me about beam mage. I wouldve had a rough time.

    4. No problem!

      If you have any other questions or need tips, lemme know!

    5. i find Pyribbit easy but telepathos rlly hard. Anyways, how do i use ur account in battles?

    6. Summon three Wandering Adventurers with the button on the lower screen without using any apples. You can get three a day, and you can use each three times before they disappear.

      It will summon people on your Friends List first, and then summon random people around your level if you keep summoning more adventurers.

  3. My friend code is 1521-8981-9813

    1. Thanks. By the way, this site is very informative. Keep up the good work!

    2. Yay! That means a lot to me! (Be sure to come back!)

      Hopefully you got my Kirby in Wandering Adventurers. I got yours — if you need any more help or tips or whatever, I'd be happy to assist you!

  4. My friend code is 0791-1993-8581 and id love it if you added me :)

    1. Added you!

      Feel free to keep checking out KoopaTV!

  5. Mine is 4296-3051-4596. I know mine by heart XD
    My name's G. G. if that matters (I don't think it does though lol). I bought the Susian Bolt Blade and Helmet because I thought exclusives would be obviously really good to get, but I'm definitely saving up for Beam Mage stuff now as that's easily my favorite class. Though I do have two questions.

    1. I often use Hammer on really low-level missions to get Platinum medals (I'm a couple dozen points behind your high scores on the first three, but I'm only level 18 with level 2 gear [the highest without spending gems]). Should I invest in hammer gear to get gold and platinum medals for missions that need them or is that a waste of gems?

    2. I can buy level seven things but you say to only get 6 and 10 above. I noticed that level 6 Beam Mage things charge attacks faster, but they obviously don't raise the base stats as much. Were you saying level 6 as a general baseline to hold players up until the end of the game, or does the faster recharge time actually make the level 6 things better than the level 7 things?

    Thanks in advance~!

    1. We are now 3DS friends!

      Beam is the fastest no matter how weak your opponents are. You'll want to buy Hammer gear as the Missions require it, but other than that, nah.
      Also, don't worry about platinum medals yet in early-game.

      Faster charge time for Beam is really important. More charges = more time freezes.

    2. Thanks! This has worked really well so far.

      Now that I can get level 8 weapons and upgrade them, should I get the Drawcia stuff, upgrade the golden stuff I already have, or wait until I can get level 10 things?

      Thanks in advance~!

    3. Wow, thanks for coming back and replying to my comment!

      I'd recommend wait for the level 10 things, unless you're having trouble with the game's difficulty after trying enough times. The bosses have patterns that you should be able to avoid taking much damage, but if you're losing because you can't do enough damage within the time limit, then I'd suggest upgrading.

      Drawcia stuff is cheaper than upgrading the gold stuff to DX, right? That might be just what you'd need if you're too weak to keep going.

    4. Hey, I wouldn't come back if this site weren't awesome! ;)

      I was kinda thinking that myself (mostly because you never mentioned the Drawcias or Gold DX lol). Right now I'm having a decent time (especially with helpers) getting missions complete, and pretty much every death is totally my fault and not the armor's. XD

      I haven't run into any huge roadblocks yet. Hopefully by the time I do I can get the level 10 things!

      (Also, is still the email to use for applications?)

    5. Thanks for the flattery! :D

      (Yes, it is. Sorry, haven't checked e-mail last night because of the Nintendo Direct, and then playing games/sleeping after said Nintendo Direct. But I see you've sent one in. Will reply to it... sometime tonight.)

    6. Thanks for the thanks! And thanks in advance for the thanks for the thanks for the thanks. >:3

      (No worries! I just wanted to make sure as it was a bit obscure. In my opinion, having some sort of 'Contact Us' page or even having contact information at the bottom of the website would allow a lot of people who are busy to find you more easily~)

    7. Liiiiiiiiike this one:

      The "KoopaTV Informational Pages" and "KoopaTV Interactive Pages" are just lists of links that would otherwise go in the top-navigation, and at one point, were there. But they were very cluttered.

    8. I've changed my opinion regarding Hammer and weak foes, and added an additional bullet point at the end of the article.

      The number of "weak foes" is low, like, 4.

  6. would you recommend sdx on your armor or should you focus on sdx for more weapons?

    1. Depends where you're at in the game.

      If you're having trouble completing the missions because the bosses are too tough, armour.

      If you're trying to time attack it (and get better medals), then weapons first.


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