After you complete the main story, collecting 250 Power Moons unlocks Dark Side, a post-game area on the Moon known as Rabbit Ridge. It opens a new set of challenges rather than ending the game or unlocking every late-game area.
What 250 Power Moons unlocks
In Super Mario Odyssey, the 250-moon milestone opens the route to Dark Side after you have visited the Moon Kingdom and completed the main story. Prima Games’ guide describes the requirement and identifies the destination as Rabbit Ridge: Welcome to Rabbit Ridge.
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Dark Side is a playable post-game area, not just a reward screen. Its tower features a sequence of boss encounters, including fights with the Broodals, and the area has additional routes and challenges. See Nintendo Life’s guide to Captain Toad locations.
What you do on Dark Side
Reaching Rabbit Ridge gives you more to explore and challenge after the story. The tower’s boss sequence is the central draw, while other routes offer further objectives. The 250-moon milestone therefore grants access to new post-game content; it does not by itself complete every challenge in the game.
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250 moons is not the same as 500
Dark Side and Darker Side are separate milestones. NintendoSoup’s 2017 kingdom and moon list associates 500 Power Moons with Darker Side: Kingdom and Power Moon list. That article noted it was still being updated, so treat its count as a guide reference rather than an official Nintendo statement. The 250-moon threshold for Dark Side is stated in Prima Games’ guide.
| Milestone | What it unlocks | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 250 Power Moons, after story completion | Dark Side (Rabbit Ridge), with a tower of boss challenges and more routes to explore | Prima Games guide; Nintendo Life guide |
| 500 Power Moons | Darker Side, according to NintendoSoup’s 2017 list | NintendoSoup list |
Why Power Moons matter
Power Moons are the energy source for the Odyssey and are needed for the ship to travel between kingdoms, according to Nintendo’s Explore the Kingdoms page. Collecting them is part of the game’s main progression as well as a way to reach extra content. In a June 13, 2017 interview with TIME, director Kenta Motokura described how players can follow the story or collect moons in shorter sessions; that speaks to the collection loop, not the specific 250-moon unlock rule (interview).
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Can you collect 250 before beating the final boss?
A GameFAQs answer says that if you reach the moon threshold before defeating the final boss, the dark areas unlock after you beat the boss. This is community guidance, not a timing rule confirmed on the Nintendo pages cited here. The supported practical takeaway is that Dark Side is a post-game unlock requiring both story completion and 250 Power Moons: GameFAQs discussion.
Do you need amiibo to unlock it?
No amiibo requirement is identified for Dark Side. Nintendo says compatible amiibo can provide clues to Power Moon locations, making them an optional hint aid rather than an unlock condition: Nintendo’s amiibo page.
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