Patapon Tips and Tricks
Each entry below is one mechanic, what it costs you, and the patch it was last checked against. Filter by category or difficulty to narrow the list, and use the anchor beside any heading to link straight to a single tip.
Boss Levels
#Patapon 2 bosses gain a new attack at Level 10
Most of them pick up an extra and more dangerous move borrowed from a stronger cousin once they reach that level. Patapon 1 works differently, where higher levels only inflate stats. Plan for the fight to change shape and not simply to hit harder.
Checked against 1.0.9
Bosses
#Gorl targets your best unit, not the one standing in front
Parking expendable Tatepons at the front and hiding your carries behind them does nothing here. What saves the unit is reacting to the two-hands-forward tell, either with Defend to free it or with a stagger that makes him drop it. Farm Gorl and budget for the odd loss.
Checked against 1.0.9
Commands
#Charge is PON-PON-CHAKA-CHAKA, and the DON one is Jump
Community shorthand calls Charge the PonChaka song for exactly this reason. DON-DON-CHAKA-CHAKA is Jump, and Jump does not exist in Patapon 1 at all, where the Don drum turns up only in the Miracle song.
Checked against 1.0.9
#Charge is worth 4x on a Robopon and almost nothing on a Yumipon
Player damage testing puts the charged-attack bonus near 1.05x for Tatepon, Yumipon, and Kibapon, around 1.15x for Toripon, a little over 2x for Dekapon, and 4x to 5x for Robopon. No single published multiplier covers your whole army.
Checked against 1.0.9
Rarepons
#Wagyanba resists everything except the elements
It halves damage from all non-elemental sources, while fire, ice, and electricity hit it at full strength. That is the reverse of what most players expect, so take a Koppen or Nyontama build to elemental stages instead of leaning on it.
Checked against 1.0.9
Status Effects
#Only Mashu at level 10 or Babassa is real sleep immunity
A level 1 Mashu carries +10 percent sleep resistance, which will not save your frontline from Sleepy Breath. The Party song clears sleep after it lands and is the more dependable answer, and a Toripon Hero shrugs off both Sleepy Breath and Toasted Meal outright.
Checked against 1.0.9
Stews
#Your stew is consumed the moment the mission completes
Only one can be equipped at a time. King's Stew, which means missing at most one chop, gives +60 HP and +2 damage, and a perfect run yields Divine Stew at +100 HP, +5 damage, and a fire element on your attacks. Save the good ones for fights that need them.
Checked against 1.0.9
Divine Collection
#No boss in Patapon 1 drops Divine equipment
All nine Divine items come from the Fwoosh Famooze anvil run with Mytheerial, where a perfect run awards one for each of the first nine equipment types. After that the anvil returns only Magic Alloys. Farm Mytheerial from Dogaeen, Cioking, Shookle, or Gorl.
Checked against 1.0.9
Material Farming
#A stagger landed on a sleeping boss guarantees Grade 3 or better
The usual farm equips the weakest wooden weapons so the boss survives and stacks Menyokki for its +200 percent Cnc stagger rate. The other half is Mashu, which supplies the sleep and knockback that turn a stagger into a guaranteed drop.
Checked against 1.0.9
Materials
#Seeds gate your Evolution Map and no minigame produces them
Every other material category has a minigame behind it. Seeds come only from Gancheeks and the Shookle family, and they gate the Mahopon and Toripon evolutions. When Evolution Map progress stalls in Patapon 2, seeds are almost always the reason.
Checked against 1.0.9
Minigames
#Patapon 1 minigames cost a material, never Ka-ching
Ubo Bon takes 1 Leather Meat, Pop Bean 1 Banal Branch, Rumble Thump 1 Tender Meat, Simmer Slurp 1 Eyeball Cabbage, and Fwoosh Famooze one mineral. The 50, 100, and 150 Ka-ching entry fees belong to Patapon 2's three difficulty levels, not this game.
Checked against 1.0.9
#The Bell turns materials into Ka-ching, never into better materials
Feed it Grade 1 stock hoping for Grade 2 and you simply lose the stock, and Grade 4 and 5 materials cannot go in at all. Played well with rare materials it is one of the strongest earners in the game, paying from a few dozen Ka-ching up to two thousand.
Checked against 1.0.9
Paragate
#Banking Parachi beats opening the Paragate reward boxes
Every Parachi converts to 5 Ka-ching when you leave. Opening all the boxes costs 200 of them, and whatever you did not spend converts on the way out, so a good run walks away with roughly 1,000 Ka-ching instead of a handful of items.
Checked against 1.0.9
Evolution Map
#The Evolution Map makes you farm classes you will never field
Robopon is the clearest case. Reaching Kanokko means taking a Tatepon through Buhyokko, Wanda, and Chigyobi first, which means grinding intermediate-tier materials that have no other use. Plan the whole path before you spend anything.
Checked against 1.0.9
Minigames
#Patapon 1 minigames have no difficulty levels to unlock
Each one has a single input sequence and a single cost. The three-tier system where two flawless runs open the next level belongs to Patapon 2. Five minigames carry over, but their sequences were reworked there, so nothing you memorize transfers note for note.
Checked against 1.0.9
Rarepons
#Turning a unit into a Rarepon costs it the helm slot forever
Only Normal, non-Rarepon Patapons can wear a helm, and Dekapons and Megapons cannot wear one at any rank. That is a real trade-off against the stat bonuses, and the game never states it anywhere on screen.
Checked against 1.0.9
#Which Rarepon you get is your two material levels added up
Each material carries a level from 1 to 4, so the total runs 2 to 8. A 2 leaves a Normal Patapon, 3 gives Pyokola, 4 Gekolos, 5 Mofeel, 6 Tikulee, 7 Mogyuun, and 8 Baasara. Two Level 4 materials such as Super Cedar and Mytheerial are the only route to a Baasara.
Checked against 1.0.9
Settings
#Input Timing Adjustment is on every platform, not just Steam
It runs 11 steps from -5 to +5, and negative values shift the game's judgment toward earlier inputs. Try it before you conclude your own rhythm is at fault. It is not a PC-only concession, so console and handheld players have the same slider.
Checked against 1.0.9
Paragate
#Missing exactly one beat at the Paragate can raise your material tier
The Don Chaka minigame there never gates your mask, and playing it badly does not cost you a mask drop. The documented trick runs the other way: deliberately dropping a single beat on a harder egg can return a better grade of material than a clean run does.
Checked against 1.0.9
Unit Loss
#A fallen Patapon in the first game is gone unless you take its cap
Patapon 1 drops a cap where the unit died, and leaving without it loses that Patapon permanently. Patapon 2 collects the cap for you automatically, so an ordinary death there costs you nothing beyond the rest of the mission.
Checked against 1.0.9
What to Read Next
- Rhythm and Commands. Every drum song, the Fever state, and what Charge is worth per class.
- Getting Started. Input Timing Adjustment, difficulty options, and the remaster's own additions.
- Unit Classes and Rarepons. Patapon 1 Rarepon crafting, the level totals, and the helm slot.
- Materials and Farming. Patapon 1 minigame costs, boss drops, and the Divine Collection route.
- Hero Mode. The Paragate, Parachi conversion, and the Don Chaka minigame.
- Unit Classes and Evolution. The Patapon 2 Evolution Map and its forced detours.
- 100% Achievement Guide. All 38 achievements across both games.