Unlike in the past Mario & Luigi games, Dream Team not only includes a certain set of ranks you achieve, but also various ‘abilities’ you can give each brother when they reach a new rank. These let them equip more gear, level up quicker and all kinds of other stuff, so here’s a guide to each and every rank option.
Rank List
- Mushroom Rank
- Shell Rank (gotten at level 8)
- Flower Rank (gotten at level 16)
- Star Rank (gotten at level 26)
- Rainbow Rank (gotten at level 40)
By themselves, these ranks don’t mean much. However, you’ll need a Rainbow Rank to shop in the high end gear shop in Driftwood Shore, so it does have some use.
Rank Bonuses
And here’s a list of all the possible bonuses you can give each brother for reaching a new rank:
| Bonus Name | Bonus Description | Earliest Rank Available From | Maximum Times Choosable (per bro) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gear Slot +1 | Increases your apparel slots by one, letting you use more gear! | Shell Rank | 2 |
| Badge Stock +1 | Adds an additional effect stock for your badges. | Shell Rank | 2 |
| HP Up+ | Gives you an additional +2 HP every time you gain a level. | Shell Rank | 1 |
| POW Up+ | Gives you an additional +1 POW every time you gain a level. | Shell Rank | 1 |
| BP Up+ | Gives you an additional +1 BP every time you gain a level. | Shell Rank | 1 |
| Quick Level | Gives you 20% more EXP from enemies you defeat, making it easier to level up. | Shell Rank | 1|
| Iron Body | Reduces damage you receive from enemies by 25%. | Shell Rank | 1 |
| Jump Man | Boosts your solo-jump attack power to 125% of normal. | Flower Rank | 1 |
| Hammerhead | Boosts your solo-hammer attack power to 125% of normal. | Flower Rank | 1 |
| Counterer | Boosts your counter-attack power to 150% of normal. | Flower Rank | 1 |
| Shroom EXP | Makes Mushrooms give you EXP as well as HP. Mushrooms lovers level up easily! | Flower Rank | 1 |
| Big Lucky | Boosts the power of Lucky Hits so you can deliver 200% the normal damage. | Star Rank | 1 |
| Casual Bros. | Makes Bros./Luiginary Attacks cost half the BP they normally do. | Star Rank | 1 |
| Quick Healer | Makes restoration items restore 200% of what they normally do (in battle). | Star Rank | 1 |
My Recommendations
So that said, what bonuses do I recommend? Personally, I’d say the following are most useful:
- Gear Slot + 1
- Badge Stock + 1,
- Iron Body,
- Quick Healer
- Casual Bros
Since they can’t be mimicked using items.
The following are potentially useful, but can be copied with gear:
- Quick Level
- Jump Man
- Hammerhead
These ones are debatable:
- Counterer (since counter attacks do very little damage anyway, and shouldn’t be your primary means of attack).
- Shroom EXP (apparently the effect is tiny, and not really worth it)
And these ones are entirely pointless, since you can get infinite amounts of beans to boost stats
- POW Up+
- BP Up+
- HP UP+
In theory, you can just use the Wellington Boots in Neo Bowser Castle and kill hordes of enemies to get a ton of POW/BP/HP boosting beans and use them instead. Heck, you could theoretically boost all your stats to 999 before level 30 with beans…
So that’s a guide to ranks and rank bonuses, as well as my recommendations for what ones to pick. Hope it was useful!