Mario Strikers Battle League Football is the third installment in the Mario Strikers series, and although it is relatively light on content, it does introduce a couple of new features. Not only does the Switch game allow you to play online multiplayer with Strikers Clubs, but it also provides you with equippable gear for your team.

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Gear can be a massive help to your team if you know how to use it, but utilising the wrong gear can be detrimental and can potentially even make your team worse. Here, we'll go over everything you need to know about gear so that you can build your ultimate team.

What Is Gear?

The gear system in Mario Strikers Battle League allows you to equip your characters with items that alter their stats. It can be accessed by entering the Gear Settings menu from the game's main menu.

There are four gear slots on every character — head, arms, body, and legs — and each have different gear options with various stat alterations. However, every character has access to the same gear, so if you want your team members to wear matching outfits, you're in luck.

Each piece of gear costs 100 coins, apart from the Bushido gear which costs 300 coins per piece. Coins can be collected through online battles in the Strikers Club, but completing Cup Battles is probably the most efficient way of harvesting them. Winning every cup won't give you enough coins to unlock every gear option in the game, but it will give you enough so that you'll rarely have to worry about money.

When you buy a piece of gear for one of your team, you buy it for that character — if you want to use the same piece of gear on two characters you'll have to buy it twice.

Base Gear

Unlockable Gear

The Bushido gear is the only unlockable gear in the game, and you can acquire it by completing every Cup Battle on Normal Mode. Fortunately, this is also a great way of earning coins for buying gear, and it will also unlock Galactic Mode — something which will be a true test of your footballing abilities.

Tips For Using Gear

The most important thing to understand about gear is that every gear piece has both positive and negative effects, and that each piece has a net zero contribution to your overall stat total. You shouldn't think of gear as improving your stat line — instead, choosing gear is all about reallocating your stats to augment values that matter more to your character.

There are two ways in which you can use gear to improve your characters: you can either enhance their already strong stats, or you can round out their weaker ones. For example, Toad has very good Speed and Shooting. but weak Strength, so your equipment choices might focus on improving his Speed/Shooting — although you can also bump up his Strength slightly if you wish.

Equipment should always be chosen with a character's on-field position in mind; your equipment choices for strikers will be different from your defenders. As an example, buffing Donkey Kong's Shooting would be useless if you are playing him in defence, whereas it may be useful if he's being used as a midfielder.

What gear you decide to equip to your team is ultimately up to you and will depend on your playstyle. The possibilities are almost endless, so don't be afraid to experiment and see what works for you.

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