Super Mario Odyssey is loaded with nearly 900 Power Moons to collect across its many kingdoms. Some of these are easier to get, while some are insanely difficult. Super Mario Odyssey is overall on the easier side, but some challenges will test your skills to the limit for you to collect them. Now that I’ve completed the game entirely and have collected all 880 Moons, I can tell you which ones are the hardest and most challenging. So, in my opinion, here’s the top ten hardest Moons to collect in Super Mario Odyssey.
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#10: Herding Sheep Above the Forest Fog (Wooded Kingdom #73)
This is a moon that can be very difficult at first. Here you’ll help a robot shepard take a sheep through an obstacle course to the top of a structure. To do this you’ll need to throw Cappy at the sheep to launch them through the air or get close to them to have the sheep run away. This area gets difficult when the guard rails are gone since the sheep can very easily run off the side and make you start over. The harder power moon isn’t too much more difficult, just requiring careful Cappy throws to get the sheep from a higher platform across a floating bridge and with the other sheep. It’s not as difficult as the first power moon, which can be difficult without precise cap throws.
#9: Jaxi Driver (Sand Kingdom #58)
Heading into a deep tunnel under the Jaxi Ruins takes you into a very precise room involving the running statue. Here you’ll guide the Jaxi across a poisonous path to the end. Since there is nothing to block you from the edge, you can very easily fall if you aren’t being careful. Some platforms are very thin and it can be difficult to guide Jaxi across them if you aren’t moving completely accurately. The other moon can be a bit more difficult, requiring you to run on a pretty thin platform to collect music notes, which means you can’t break the whole way through or you’ll run out of time. This section and both of its power moons can be pretty tough to complete.
#8: Vanishing Road (Dark Side #7)
Welcome to Dark Side, home to some creative hint art and some of the hardest moons in all of Super Mario Odyssey. To collect this moon, you must progress through the Metro Kingdom sub-area in which you’ll run across a temporary road to the next platform. But here instead of having a motor scooter, you only have Mario’s own abilities. This makes rolling your best option for flat areas and diving the quickest way to go upward. But since you’re on a timer, bonking is a complete let-down, meaning that you have to be very careful as you roll, plus being quick at the same time. Without the motor scooter, this section completely ups the difficulty.
#7: Invisible Road: Rush! (Dark Side #5)
Wow, we’re back in Dark Side! Trust me, this kingdom has some pretty hard moons, so expect to hear from this place a lot. This power moon is found in a section where you aren’t allowed to use your cap. In the room, there’s poison piranha plants spitting gunk on an invisible walkway to two large piranha plants at the end you need to defeat for a Moon. The only difference to the Wooded Kingdom version of this area is that you can’t clear the poison because Cappy is outside. This means you’ll have to make very careful jumps around the purple goo to not get hit. While you can still defeat the smaller piranha plants, it’s still not a very easy Power Moon to collect; especially with the last two piranha plants since you can’t attack with Cappy.
#6: Arrival at Rabbit Ridge! (Dark Side #1)
The Broodals aren’t very difficult bosses, but mix that with one go at all 4 bosses plus the Mecha-Broode and no hearts until the very end, plus moon gravity making accuracy more difficult. Mario will have to fight the four Broodals first without any extra health. Just one hit can leave you with only limited health for the rest, and again, moon gravity makes accurate jumps very difficult. Also, the bosses’ attacks are a bit harder than any of your previous encounters with them. After the four fights, you’ll get just one heart before the final battle: the Mecha-Broode fight. To be fair, I did find this fight to be a bit easier than the Bowser’s Kingdom variant simply because you don’t have to wait for the bombs, where using the Hammer Brother is slightly easier. But otherwise, it’s all pretty difficult.
#5: Long Journey’s End (Darker Side)
While it is the traditionally difficult final challenge of Super Mario Odyssey the 3D Mario series has had since Super Mario Galaxy 2, it’s pretty easy compared to the other three levels. While it is the longest of the four and quite possibly the longest Mario level in history, its sections are all pretty simple. Most sections require precise platforming and avoiding lots of enemies, but it’s all pretty manageable. Even though the lava or death pit is a one-hit knockout, enemies and hazards aren’t. Nintendo also added hidden hearts around the level, plus three places where Mario can gain 6 hit points. But that doesn’t mean this level is a cakewalk, especially the burbos and Pokio sections, which truly ups the difficulty. Otherwise, it’s pretty underwhelming for the traditional 3D Mario end-game challenge.
#4: Jump Rope Genius! (Metro Kingdom #30)
Sports in Super Mario Odyssey are seemingly easy at first, but once you go for the second, more difficult moon, it’ll eventually make you suffer for hours. We’ll get to the other sport later, but to start is the notorious jump-rope in Metro Kingdom. The jump rope starts swinging at a simpler pace, but will start to get faster and faster every 5 jumps. It gets to the point where it’s almost a button-mashing minigame because of how fast the jump rope gets. I will say that the jump rope is a bit easier than Volleyball in Seaside (which we’ll discuss later) due to the timing. If you have the timing perfectly, you’ll be okay. However, it is still a very difficult and precise power moon to collect.
#3: Iceburn Circuit Class A (Snow Kingdom #52)
Listen, I’m not that great at the Bound Bowl races of the Snow Kingdom, so the harder course in this style of racing is not going to be easy for me. Iceburn Circuit consists of a bunch of slanted parts of the course, a tunnel with only slants on both sides, and some big jumps. This all makes for a very difficult race to get first place in. The racers aren’t too difficult to pass, but the race course itself means that bad mistakes can cost you any semblance of chance to get the gold medal: the power moon.
#2: Iceburn Circuit Class S (Snow Kingdom #53)
I’ve talked about both collectible power moons in the sub-areas on this list while including only one mission, but both Iceburn races are so difficult that I ranked them as two separate picks for the list. This power moon is basically the same as the other moon with the same race course, but the racers are a bit better meaning any mistake can cost you the race. Otherwise, it’s only a little bit harder than Class A.
#1: Beach Volleyball: Hero of the Beach! (Seaside Kingdom #38)
When I hundred-percented Super Mario Odyssey, this was the final moon I collected after working on it for a very long time. Beach Volleyball in Seaside Kingdom requires you to hit the ball back and forth with a snail. / You can hit the ball from below with Mario, with Cappy, or off the ground for only a second or two after touching down. Getting 100 is much easier said than done since every 2 volleys the ball speeds up. By 50, the ball is coming at you so quickly that almost every ball will hit the ground. It’s also pretty annoying to collect since the ball doesn’t pick up speed noticeably until about 25-30 hits, which makes restarting very slow. This entire power moon is very annoying to collect, but once you do, it’s a really great feeling.
And that’s my list of Super Mario Odyssey’s ten hardest Power Moons. Let me know in the comments which power moons made you struggle the most.