There are plenty of abilities and characters in Star Allies that can tear the game's difficulty down effortlessly.
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Dream Friends
- Most of the Dream Friends are Purposefully Overpowered by having more versatile movesets than the standard abilities, making it easier for them to kill bosses and provide puzzle assistance. They're always easily available in Story Mode, since you can summon them at Dream Palaces on the world maps (you have to clear a stage to use a Dream Palace again, but you can unlock up to four separate ones as you progress).
- Rick & Coo & Kine and Gooey are two of the most practical dream friends in the game. R.C.K. has fire, wind, water, rock, and cutting/wind abilitiesnote whereas Gooey has throw, fire, water, and rock. All the team needs is the lightning ability (Plasma, Beam, and especially ESP)note and you have almost all your bases covered. And as of the second Dream Friends update, there are two Dream Friends who do have lightning - Adeleine & Ribbon, via the Kracko painting, and Daroach via Doc's UFO. Both also have ice and cutter via Ice Dragon and Waiu for the former, and Ice Shot/Laser and claws for the latter.note
- While Marx's puzzle skills aren't particularly impressive, his fighting skills more than make up for it. Even though he needs friend combo abilities to unlock a lot of his more powerful moves, there's a good pool of moves that he doesn't need a single friend for, one of them being his Black Holenote . Then there's his Marx Flip Ultimanote and also his heavily damaging (albeit hard to consistently pull off) Marx Megaspin, which is able to do quick damage to foes as an invincible multi-hitting move. Speaking of how much of a powerhouse Marx becomes with Combo abilities, specifically his Ball-Spit attack, Splash Marx is able to spawn a column of thorns from his boss fight whenever a Spit-Drop ball hits the ground or an enemy, Blizzard Marx is able to spam the ice-mine attack from his boss fight, Sizzle Marx allows for utterly ridiculous ground DPS thanks to not only the flames covering the ground after it explodes when it hits the ground, but also through the four fireballs that shoot out of it as well, and Bluster Marx allows him to spam his wide-range cutter attack for as long as he can spam the attack. Add the fact that his Flip Ultima/Shadow uppercut combo can be BUFFED as well, and that gives you a Dream Friend who can reduce a huge portion of bosses to nothing within seconds (Kracko/Twin Kracko especially goes down pretty easily, moreso in Guest Star), and pretty much hide underground to avoid almost every attack in the game at the same time.
- Meta Knight, like his previous playable appearances in the Meta Knightmare sub-games and Return to Dream Land, is one of the best characters in the game. He's fast on land and in the air, and he has an extensive moveset that can rack up damage very quickly. However, give him a Friend Ability and he becomes even more of a threat. His default Shuttle Loop is normally a great move for both attacking and moving horizontally, but when combined with Fire, it essentially becomes Burning + Burning from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards; a fast, long-lasting horizontal move where Meta Knight is invincible the whole time. And unlike Burning + Burning, Shuttle Loop can be aimed and used continuously. Basically, this one attack can blast through entire rooms and tear enemies to shreds.
- Adeleine and Ribbon may not be notably versatile, but they still have their uses. While Adeleine is slower than others when it comes to Friend Combos (having to draw a boss first), that still gives her cutting, electric, ice, and an upgraded Artist moveset, complete with Al Fresco, an upgrade of Still Life that spits out even more items. Add her to an Animal Friends and Gooey team and the only puzzles they can't solve could probably be counted on one hand. Her aerial shard gun is a potent projectile attack that can be spammed, and her Kracko mount can zap bosses while flying above harm. What's more, her Ice Dragon mount has its icy breath that can do ludicrous amounts of damage.
- In terms of game-breaking invincible charges forward, Dark Meta Knight trades in Meta Knight's Shuttle Loop for the combo string of Dark Drill, Dark Spiral, and Meteor Edgenote . Dark Spiral in particular shreds through bosses like they're made of damp tissue, but since the moves chain into each other, you need to use Dark Drill and there's no reason not to use Meteor Edge. And don't worry about Collision Damage — the entire string has i-frames. Bosses can be brought past their Turns Red threshold before the game even puts their health bar on screen! For swarms of regular enemies, he still has a blazing fast sword-based moveset while summoning BFSs gives him comparatively massive reach, Blade Burst hits a huge area and the startup time is mitigated by being completely invincible, and pressing down-B for a Dark Mirror move (ground or air) is always a good panic button (as you guessed, also loaded with I-frames). As an alternative, Triple Thrust (dash, jump, and hit B again after Dark Crosscut) does great damage as well, and is useful against airborne foes. Adding Bluster, of course, makes DMK more mobile and his summoned blades go even farther.
- Daroach joins the animal friends in sheer utility, boasting Doc's electric UFO, fire bombs, ice beams, slashing claws (his own and Spinni's), and Storo's stake-pounding bulk. In fact, pairing him with a Broom Hatter or Cleaning Kirby grants a team all of the elemental properties in the game that can be used on weapons within two characters. And in battles, between Smack-in-the-Box, the fire bombs, and being able to summon the rest of the Squeak Squad, Daroach is always going to have a massive amount of damage on the screen when he needs it, while being completely free to teleport or throw his Ultra Ice Laser in for extra hurt.
- Apparently, Magolor hardly even needed the Master Crown's power. He has insane area control, with his spikes and Ultra Swords, the latter of which can pass through walls and he can't be hit while using it. His magic blasts aren't very hard to charge up and will yield both electricity and fire depending on how long they were charged for, and his invincible dash attack provides wind, making him about as versatile as Daroach or the Animal Friends based on only two moves. The Gem Apples can be charged if you leave them out for long enough and the explosions they leave can make for great traps. And to top it all of, his friend ability will summon the Lor Starcutter and the more friends that get on means the ship, which already dashes across the screen, will make the ship bigger. He even has a Black Hole attack similar to Marx's and his can be summoned almost instantly unlike Marx who has to charge his. Finally, his Ultra Sword attack gives him virtually perfect and permanent invulnerability, as its inputs are very simple, you can chain another just before the previous finishes, retain full air mobility when using it, and of course it deals massive damage in an arc that's about half a screen wide.
- Taranza isn't as game-breaking as the other Dream Friends, but his Super Taranza Burst, however, is what makes him a monster. It's a chargable attack that can be used on the ground or in midair, and at full charge, it creates an area of devastating pain around him that can blow holes in pretty much everything. Better yet, it has no cooldown, so you can spam it as much as you want.
- Susie has some of the best range out of all the Dream Friends. Her laser has a long range and can be fired rapidly. Her Transporter's propellers can damage anything above her and she can shoot from it. The Transporter Burst can help defeat a large group of enemies in a row and she gets invincibly frames during the attack. But her real power comes in the form of her Business Suit. While it doesn't have much range, the sheer power that the mech can produce can tear apart a mini boss in seconds. Oh, and she can have elements applied to her, giving her even more power to mess with.
- The Three Mage-Sisters, unlocked by getting the Happy Ending in Heroes in Another Dimension, are all consolidated into one single Dream Friend, and boy do they make beating Another Dimension well worth it. Each one is able to use all of the attacks they use as bosses, trading in how long some of the attacks last for utter buttloads of I-frames and attack chaining potential, and has a pretty easy button combo to cycle between the three (Down + B), as well as their Sister Circle attack, which is their equivalent to Crash Kirby that does stupidly large damage to bosses, and clears an entire room of enemies by pressing Down + holding B. They're also able to grant Kirby/any compatible Friends/Dream Friends four of all five elemental abilities so that all you really need is a Friend that can grant Bluster to be able to access all five elemental abilities in the game. In fact, you could plow through Soul Melter EX pretty easily with them, especially if you spam their Down-Up-B moves. Naturally, bringing in two/three more sets of Mage-Sisters allows for yet even more power, and can plow through Bosses even easier.
- It's also important to note that having a team consisting of all Mage-Sisters takes their already game-breaking status to an almost literal extreme: the game will start to struggle and noticeably lag if you have all four Mage-Sisters spamming attacks simultaneously, and using an all-Mage-Sisters team when fighting against the Mage-Sisters bosses (which means having five Mage-Sisters entities on the playing field, mind you) can in some instances (particularly when all five Mage-Sisters are spamming) slow the game to a crawl.
Other
- The amiibo mechanic carries over from the previous game to this one, only this time you get no copy abilities from them- just healing items and Picture Pieces. Do note that if you use them in The Ultimate Choice, the game will put a marker next to your score at the end.
- The Hammer Flip now uses its Smash Bros. (and Team Kirby Clash Deluxe) variation where it can be charged while moving (slowly) and has 3 levels of charge.
- The Friend system by itself leaves you unable to even lose due to bringing back the ability to revive your fallen teammates from Team Kirby Clash Deluxe (short of falling into a pit or getting crushed). Not to mention many of the Friend Abilities dealing high damage. As such, a common Self-Imposed Challenge in doing either Guest Star ???? or The Ultimate Choice is to do them without any Friends.
- The Team Attack from Return to Dream Land returns. Now, instead of the attack being determined by the character at the bottom (i.e Kirby, Dedede, Meta Knight and Bandana Waddle Dee have different attacks), any combination of friends make one attack when it's triggered: a giant laser that grows larger if more of the Friends participate. This does require more than 1 human players, however.
- In the game, you can have a friend give you some elemental boosts. There are five elemental boosts *, and out of all of them, Bluster is the most broken. Some of the abilities and allies below are busted because of this boost. Not only does it increase your attack like the rest of the boosts, but it also make your mobility with certain moves absolutely ridiculous.
- Bluster Sword is worth mention. Among other things, it modifies the Sword Spin move (dash jump + attack) so that the user floats up slightly when using it before slowly descending, and can be repeated as long as the user stays in the air and doesn't get hit. This basically turns Sword Kirby, Blade Knight and especially Meta Knight into a whirlwind buzzsaw of doom with high DPS, particularly on bosses.
- Any Friend that can heal others are this (particularly in the Ultimate Choice), but especially Chef Kawasaki. Heck, the friend system in general — with friends, doubly so if they're controlled by the real ones playing with you, you can steamroll stages upon stages, solve most of the puzzle rooms quickly, shred the bosses into paper within seconds, and most of all, you'll never die, because for most of the time they'll revive you.
- Almost every weapon-based friend combo could qualify. Not only do they increase your attack, but they drastically increase the practicality and range of the item.
- Ever felt sorry for Beam, an Overshadowed by Awesome ability? Well, Star Allies buffs Beam up to horrifying levels, mainly Beam Blast, its Spread Shot aerial move. Originally, its air stall wasn't that great, so you could only use it three times before hitting the ground. Star Allies increases the air stall of Beam Blast to a point where you can use it up to seven times before landing, and this game follows the Planet Robobot boss mechanics where multi-hit attacks are much more effective. Additionally, Beam applies an electricity effect to bosses that stops them in place, which makes it great at stunlocking. Other Beam moves got buffed as well (all of its attacks hit more times, Cycle Beam maintains Kirby's momentum instead of stopping him, and Wave Beam charges faster), but Beam Blast really pushes it into boss-killer territory.
- Bomb. Dear god, BOMB. On its own, it's an unremarkable ability, but when applied with two particular elements, it becomes one of the scariest boss killers. With Bluster Bomb, you can float while holding an enlarged bomb, which happens to explode when it touches the enemy. Re-stocking the bomb in midair while in contact with the enemy has given it one of the highest air DPS. Sizzle Bomb can make the floor burst into flames if it explodes on it, and the combined damage of the burning floor and the Sizzle Bomb itself gives it the highest ground DPS. Both of these properties can let you clear the Ultimate Choice in under 7 and a half minutes
. And as mentioned above, a certain Dream Friend can apply both of those elements... - The Power-Up Hearts in Guest Star. By themselves, the concepts are simple: collecting one increases your overall health, speed, or power, and they max out at five. The thing is, the enemies' durability doesn't adjust to this mechanic, and this extends to the bosses as well. Boss fights that lasted one to two minutes in the regular story mode now last half that long if you have max power, and at max speed, everything else struggles to even catch up. It's because of this very mechanic that Morpho Knight was considered to be such a joke. Even Morpho Knight EX - only in the Three Mage Sisters' Guest Star run - goes down pretty easily with the mechanic, especially considering you're spamming boss-level attacks that have been buffed to max power, even considering that Morpho Knight can no longer be easily exploited.
