'Super Mario Run' Kingdom Builder: Guide for Toad houses, Rainbow Bridges and hammers

Impact

Super Mario Run consists of several main modes. There's World Tour, which contains all the classic Mario platforming you'd expect; Toad Rally, which allows you to earn Toads of various colors; and Friendly Run, which lets you challenge your friends to a casual competition. These modes are all pretty self-explanatory, but Super Mario Run's Kingdom Builder mode has some nuances and tricks worth explaining in greater detail.

Super Mario Run Kingdom Builder Mode Guide: How does it work?

Kingdom Builder is influenced by the progress you make in Tour and Toad Rally. These three modes interlock, meaning you have to dabble in each of them to make progress. For example, completing levels in World Tour will unlock stages in Toad Rally, which allows you to earn Toads that you can use to build structures in Kingdom Builder. Get it?

A large portion of Kingdom Builder involves designing an aesthetically pleasing and personalized space. However, several of the available structures provide other benefits too. For example, if you earn enough Toads in Toad Rally, you can eventually unlock Luigi, Yoshi and Toadette as playable characters by building their houses.

Additionally, building the different colored Toad houses will net coins over time. Sometimes, when you visit your kingdom, you'll see a little coin icon hovering above one or more of your Toad houses. You can tap the houses to retrieve the coins, which you can then use to purchase additional structures. 

Other structures will unlock secret levels and give you Toad Rally tickets. So play around and experiment with your kingdom.

Super Mario Run Kingdom Builder: How to use Hammers to deal with Thwomps

One thing you may have noticed lingering in your kingdom are some angry-looking Thwomps. They don't seem to be inherently harmful, other than the fact that they take up real estate you could use for other structures. To clear them out, you can use the Hammers  you earn by playing through World Tour. All you have to do is tap the Hammer icon in the bottom right corner of the screen and then tap the Thwomp to clear it out.

Nintendo

If you're just getting started in Kingdom Builder, you probably have way more Hammers than Thwomps, right? Don't worry, you'll need those extra Hammers once you expand your kingdom.

Kingdom Builder: How to get the Rainbow Bridge and expand your kingdom

As you continue playing through the other modes of Super Mario Run, you'll eventually earn enough Toads to place a Rainbow Bridge in your kingdom, which will give you new lots of empty land on which to place structures.

Nintendo

You need to earn 20 of each type of Toad to unlock the first Rainbow Bridge, but once you do, actually placing the bridge is free. Subsequent Rainbow Bridges require you to earn even more Toads, though. According to IGN, you can combine up to five different chunks of land in Kingdom Builder.

To navigate from one bit of land to the next, simply swipe from right to left.

More Super Mario Run news, updates, tips and tricks

Can't get enough of Mario, Peach, Bowser and the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom? Check out Mic's coverage of Super Mario Run, including how to unlock new characters like Toad, Peach and Yoshi, how to get different colored Toads to come back to the kingdom, how to find the game's secret levels, how to play the game on your Apple TV, our coverage for the Android release date and some knock-off versions to tide you over until it drops, as well as some cheats for the new game if our guides aren't enough — we won't tell anyone if you don't!