Luigi is back and ready to bust more ghosts. Inside the ghost-filled hotel of Luigi's Mansion 3, it's going to take every tool at Luigi's disposal to save Mario and friends from the evil ghouls. While it seems that much of Luigi's success comes from dumb luck, that doesn't have to be the case for you. Luigi may have been tricked into this escapade and didn't have time to prepare, you came here intentionally and can properly prepare yourself fro this haunted adventure. Here are ten pro tips for Luigi's Mansion 3.
10 Shoulder Buttons Work
Luigi's Mansion 3 wastes no time during the tutorial, giving a very brief explanation of mechanics before moving on. That said the "default" controls for the game are not good. Using vacuum functions involves holding a face button which makes it difficult to use the right stick to turn, making ghost-catching difficult. The game has the same functions set to the should buttons, allowing for full turning mobility and the use of the vacuum, making the normally frustrating and awkward controls much easier to use. Luigi is going to be whipping those ghosts around like they owe him money.
9 The flashlight can be tapped instead of held
Once again, Luigi's Mansion 3 had a wonderfully short tutorial that would normally receive a bunch of praise if there wasn't a bunch of stuff it didn't tell you. In this case, during the tutorial, the game instructs you to hold down the flashlight until it is fully charged and then release it. This is a pain to do and aim at the ghosts during a fight but don't worry because you don't need to fully charge the flashlights before hitting ghosts with it. In fact, you very rarely, if ever, are required to fully charge the flashlight before using it.
8 Turn off tips
Luigi's Mansion 3 is a puzzle game at heart and playing a puzzle game where you know all the answers is pointless. After freeing Dr. E Gadd, you receive a headset to be able and communicate with him while exploring the hotel.
When this happens he begins giving you tips on whatever task you are currently trying to complete. In the settings menu, the option to disable these tips will have been added and for the sake of having fun while playing this game turn them off. If you ever need the help it's still available by calling the hotline from the menu, but this way its by choice.
7 Puzzles will not deviate outside the main functions
Luigi's Mansion 3 does an excellent job of not adding new mechanics every single floor. The game instead gives all of the mechanics to you within the first couple hours and bases all of the puzzles around these mechanics. This means for some of the harder and more obtuse puzzles in the latter half of the hotel its important to keep in mind that the solution involves using the tools you have at your disposal. The game really only introduces a late-game mechanic once, but it is explained immediately and doesn't show up again after.
6 Just pile up golden bones
Golden bones serve as this games 1-up mushroom, reviving Luigi if he ever loses all of his hearts. The bones are not found like previous games however but instead can be purchased for 1000G for Dr. E Gadd. Money can only be used to purchase three things in the game, golden bones, boo trackers and gem trackers, all of which cost the same. Since the game gives money out pretty freely there is no reason not to purchase a small stockpile of golden bones. While dying doesn't happen often, there is no reason to lose progress when it does.
5 Explore as much or little as you want
While the game features plenty of opportunities to do extra exploring and extra puzzle solving it does very little to encourage it. There are no real rewards for finding collectibles or getting a ton of cash besides a letter grade at the end of the game, so the amount of time spent searching for the extras is entirely up to you.
The game can be beaten either way so just do whatever is the most enjoyable for you to do.
4 Buy Boo trackers if you care about collectibles
Boos are one of the two collectibles featured in Luigi's Mansion 3. Gems are set up pretty simply, with six to a floor that just need to be found through exploring and extra puzzles. Boos, on the other hand, are split up a little differently and can be found by feeling for vibrations in your controller. That said, the vibration tracking doesn't work very well at all. After the tutorial Boo where the mechanic is explained, I finished the entire game without ever noticing another vibration. The more efficient way to deal with this is to purchase the Boo trackers from the store, so you have the locations for them.
3 Money Doesn't Matter
This shouldn't surprise anyone who played the previous two titles but money serves no real purpose in Luigi's Mansion 3. Its only effect is a letter grade at the end of the game, that doesn't do anything itself.
With that said, go wild with the store. Buy anything and everything. Don't stress out too much over that single dollar bill you can't seem to suck up because it is irrelevant. This might be a simplistic way to view the game but the overall experience of the game is very relaxed so this just relives more stress.
2 Turn Off Motion Controls
The game features the option to use gyro controls to adjust Luigi's vertical of his vacuum while sucking up ghosts. Like the majority of Nintendo games that weren't designed 100% around motion controls, this feels extremely awkward and downright annoying to use. The game doesn't control super well anyway so adding one more curveball in the mix just makes it worse. Seriously, go to the settings and disable this right now.
1 Use Gooigi As Bait
Luigi's trusted companion Gooigi has limited health but can be respawned unlimitedly. While playing alone Gooigi can be popped out whenever and frequently gets sued for puzzle solving. He also can be dropped out during combat and left there to serve as bait for the ghosts. While not all of the ghosts are fooled by him and take the bait, it takes dome of the heat off Luigi allowing for an easier time focusing in combat. Gooigi can take it so you might as well put him to work.