Dr Mario World Staffing Guide: Best Doctors and Assistants abilities
Dr Mario might have his face on the front of all the game art, but there are a whole host of doctor versions of your favourite Mushroom Kingdom characters to collect in Dr Mario World.
To go along with your top doctor, some of Mario’s most memorable adversaries make appearances as assistants that give you special bonuses as you play.
Here’s a run-down of the best starting doctors and all the assistants we’ve seen so far!
Dr Mario World - who is the best doctor to start with?
As you make your way through the opening levels of Dr Mario, you’ll play with everyone’s favourite Italian plumber himself. However, after a few stages you’ll get to pick from three characters: Dr Mario, Dr Peach, and Dr Bowser.
Here are all the skills that they have for single and multiplayer:
| Doctor | Stage Mode | Versus Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Mario | Clear 1 row in lowest position | Clear 1 row in lowest position |
| Dr Bowser | Clear 2 rows at random | Clear 1 row at random |
| Dr Peach | Clear 1 column at random | Clear 1 column at random |
As for who’s the best doctor, it depends somewhat on your playstyle.
Dr Mario’s ability to consistently clear the bottom row with his special move is the most predictable. So if you want to be able to accurately plan what your ability will do every time, then go with Mario.
His skill is also useful in multiplayer, making him pretty well balanced (just like in every other Mario game).
Dr Peach - who must ruin her feet doing her rounds on the ward in those high heels - has a column ability that can help to clear stubborn viruses that get clustered on their own, but because of the random element, there’s more chance things could go wrong and you get stuck with layouts you don’t want.
In PvP, Peach attacks really quickly and her ability is the same. So you could pick her if you want to have a consistent playstyle across both game modes.
Dr Bowser makes up for the randomness of his ability by clearing two rows instead of one. This makes his ability really strong in single-player. However, he only clears one row at random in Versus, which is weaker than the other two characters.
Despite this Bowser is probably the strongest character at this early stage of the meta. Although he’s slow, his attacks are strong and his chances of deflecting hits are good.
Dr Mario World Assistants
Below we’ll keep a running list of the Assistants we encounter throughout our playtime with Dr Mario World.
We’re playing at the same time as you, so if you share the abilities of any you’ve collected in the comments we’ll add them to the table (with credit, of course):
| Assistant | Stage Mode | Versus Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Goomba | Increases score by 1% | If opponent attacks, grants 4% chance attack meter fills instantly |
| Spike | Increases base score by 50 points for every green virus eliminated | Grants 4% chance your attacks will be 20% faster |
| Porcupuffer | Grants 10% chance of extra 3 seconds in timed stages | If opponent attacks, grants 6% chance received viruses will be matching-colour |
For more on Dr Mario World, check out our page on hearts, coins, and diamonds.
Or if the colours are giving you trouble, try enabling your device's colourblind filter.