You can skill swap by pressing the jump (B) and menu (X) button right after you get a Star power up and swap your party position before leveling up.
The skill swap is a game glitch that lets you learn skills intended for other party members. For example, you can let Princess Toadstool learn Shocker, which is Mallow’s skill that he gets at level 10.
Skill swap works for everyone in your party except Mario whose position cannot be swapped.
Table of Contents
- Where to use skill swap
- How to activate the skill swap glitch
- How to use swapped skills
- Other swap skill combinations
Where to use Skill Swap
You can use skill swap in any place with a Star power up. For this example, we will use the Star power up location at the Sea map right before the sunken ship area.
Swapping skills between party members
In this example, let’s give Princess Toadstool Mallow’s Shocker skill. Shocker is learned at level 10. With Mallow at level 11, that mean he already learned the shocker skill. The Princess is at level 9 so if done right, she will learn the shocker skill once she levels up to level 10.
How to activate the skill swap glitch
To activate the glitch, jump and hit the treasure chest with the star power up and press the X button to bring up the menu. You have to open open the menu midair so be sure to hit X as soon as you jump.
If you time this right, the menu should pop up while the star Powerup music will be playing in the background. Select the switch option and have the princess and Mallow trade places before exiting the menu.
Afterwards, try to get as much experience by bowling over the mobs in the area until you level up.
Here is an article of how to Xp farm to level up during this tutorial
The Level Up screen
As soon as the star power up disappears, a level up notification will pop up. It shows that Mallow has reached level 10 and has learned the shocker skill. This is actually a glitch and everything on the level up a screen will be bonuses for the swapped character.
How to use swapped skills
Selecting the skill window in battle will bring up the list of skills you have learned. If you do this right, the shocker skill should show up on princess toadstool’s skill window. Shocker is a good skill for her to learn since she has only 1 offensive skill in her repertoire and it only becomes available at level 16.
Other swap skill combinations
Having Bowser learn Geno Whirl is a nice combination especially if you know how to do Perfect damage. With Bowser teamed up with Geno in a party, you can deliver 2 Geno Whirl skills that can do one shot to almost any tough enemy when done right.
Another good combination is the skill Geno Blast which Geno unlocks at level 16. Giving it to the princess switches her to a offensive member since she has one of the highest base mahick attack damage in the game. This is one of the favourite skill swaps that players use in speed runs.
Aside from skills, you can also benefit from each character’s bonus stats when leveling up. Be careful though, using skill swap on 2 characters who is about to learn a skill on their level will break the system and you lose both the skill for that level as well as the bonus stats. It’s best to save your game often and focus on skill swapping 1 character at a time.
