Neo: The World Ends With You has a lot in common with its DS predecessor. It can also be likened to other Square Enix action RPGs on the Switch or other consoles including Kingdom Hearts. Neo: The World Ends With You is an action RPG, for one, but its battle system is also unique to this series alone. Instead of equipping swords, guns, staves, or whatever, characters equip pins.

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These pins bestow magical abilities such as the ability to cast fire or to use telekinesis to throw cars around. They’re also pretty stylish as is Tetsuya Nomura’s specialty. There are over a hundred in the game so finding the best ones can be tricky. Let’s scale things down to the first few hours of Neo: The World Ends With You. What then are the best pins for beginners to smoke the competition with?

10 Tiger Punks

The Tiger Punks pin from Neo: The World Ends With You

Tiger Punks is a pin that is invaluable early on in Neo: The World Ends With You. It is the one way players can heal. Unlike most pins that have a recharge built into them, this one has a set number of uses and then that’s it.

The nice thing about the pin is that if players chain Noise together, the pin will recharge between rounds. It isn’t the greatest healing pin in Neo: The World Ends With You but it’s the best for a good majority

9 Stylish Beam

The Stylish Beam pin from Neo: The World Ends With You

Stylish Beam is a projectile pin that shoots out ice bullets. These ice bullets can also have a chance to freeze enemies. There are certainly stronger projectile pins early on in Neo: The World Ends With You, including the Lovely Launcher which shoots out ricocheting sound bullets.

That’s also a great pin but Stylish Beam is more valuable because it has the chance to freeze enemies in place.  

8 Caught In The Undertow

The Caught in the Undertow pin from Neo: The World Ends With You

Caught in the Undertow is a water-based pin with a wide area effect. It basically creates a torrent of rain that can fall down on enemies.

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It’s great for taking out groups of enemies all at once while also slowing them down. It has a sort of gravity-like effect in this way, which is good up until a literal gravity-infused pin becomes available later in Neo: The World Ends With You

7 Thunder And Lightning 

The Thunder and Lightning pin from Neo: The World Ends With You

Thunder and Lightning rains lightning bolts down on enemies. It’s a very strong pin especially in the early hours of Neo: The World Ends With You. The one downside to it is that the effects are randomized, meaning it is hard to control.

This won’t matter if the battlefield is full of enemies. Chances are these bolts will hit at least something in that case. 

6 Top O’ Toppo

The Top O’ Toppo pin from Neo: The World Ends With You

Top O’ Toppo is another electric-based pin. It is a literal beam cannon that can pierce through enemies. Anything caught in the blast will take damage.

This is something called an Uber pin in Neo: The World Ends With You. It’s one of the game’s bigger changesThat signifies its strength alone. Until players upgrade their Social Links, only one Uber pin can be equipped at a time. Top O’ Toppo is the one to equip early on.

5 Classical Cacophony 

The Classical Cacophony pin from Neo: The World Ends With You

Classical Cacophony is a great name first of all. Secondly, it is actually the evolved form of a similar pin called Rapturous Rabbits. This happens with a lot of pins that level up. Both of these pins summon sword-like projectiles out of thin air and then pierce through enemies.

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Not only that but they will explode. These pins are strong and come with the added bonus of slowing enemies down due to the pin cushion-like predicament they put targets in before they explode.

4 Garbage Gattling

The Garbage Gattling pin from Neo: The World Ends With You

Garbage Gattling is another great name for a pin and its usage is quite literal. Spamming the execution button will cause the character to launch a pile of garbage at their opponent. This includes everything from bikes to cement blocks and literal bags of garbage.

It’s funny and powerful too. There are actually quite a few pins in Neo: The World Ends With You that use objects like these as weapons but Garbage Gatling is among the best

3 Azamaru

The Azamaru pin from Neo: The World Ends With You

One of the most common pin types in Neo: The World Ends With You is a melee slash attack. This is an action RPG so it can feel like a pretty standard attack. There are some pretty cool variations though. Among the early versions of this in the game, Azamaru stands out.

Azamaru is basically a flaming sword. It hits hard and can cause fire damage as well. A more powerful version of this pin that comes later is called Tsurumaru. That’s a wind blade. 

2 Honor And Sacrifice

The Honor And Sacrifice pin from Neo: The World Ends With You

Honor and Sacrifice turns the character into a human bullet. It dashes the character into enemies with a powerful tackle. This pin is the evolved form of Just Up Ahead and is not the final variation of this type of attack.

While it doesn’t have the wider area of attack that slashing pins like Azamaru have, Honor and Sacrifice is stronger. Lining up the burst can be tricky though. 

1 A Mysterious Gift

A Mysterious Gift pin from Neo: The World Ends With You

A Mysterious Gift is a giant bomb. It is the evolved form of Mom’s Secret Ingredient which also uses a bomb attack albeit in a smaller form. A Mysterious Gift’s bomb is over-the-top in terms of size. It’s something right out of the Looney Tunes.

Not only is it a devastating attack in terms of power, but the spread of the blast is huge. It’s great to deal damage in battle and is always a treat to just watch the bomb expand and then explode. A Mysterious Gift will also make the game easier

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