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The combat inSouth Park: Snow Day!is not the turn-based style you may be used to from the former games. It’s a 3D hack-and-slash with a roguelike feel, and, despite the more limited scope, there are still many systems at play, particularly for upgrading New Kid’s powers and weapons.
These are handled through a card-based system via Jimmy, and there’s an additional perk upgrade system initiated by Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo at his porta-potty. Here are the best options for both branches of upgrades!
The rarity level of each Upgrade Card depends on how much you upgrade it to increase its stats.
11Energetic
Stamina Perk Upgrade
The Energetic chain of Dark Matter perk upgrades is one you might want to invest in, as it helps with New Kid’s stamina. Whenever running or attacking, you might find yourself quickly depleting your stamina meter, and it will slow you down quite significantly.
Filling out the Energetic perks will be of great benefit to keep you moving and spending less stamina in the long run. It’s even more worth it than the increased health upgrades since the Healing Totem can be quite OP with the right upgrade cards, and it’ll get you closer to the Ice Skater perk to prevent you from sliding on ice.
10Deadeye
Ranged Weapon Perk Upgrade
Ranged weapons are definitely the way to go in South Park: Snow Day. When you haveheavy enemies like Ents, sixth-grader hockey jocks, and projectile launchersthat can do some real damage fast, it’s best to hit them with a ranged weapon from afar. Even bosses like Kyle and Princess Kenny will be better if fighting them with either your bow, wand, or wizard staff.
Therefore, the Deadeye perk upgrade, which deals an additional 20 percent damage for ranged weapons sounds perfect to acquire, especially when combined with any of the other upgrade cards you’ll receive from Jimmy the Bard throughout the chapter’s levels.
9Last Stand
Health Upgrade Card
Depending on the difficulty you’re playing on, whether you’re with friends or the AI companion bots who are more than capable of fighting alongside the New Kid, you might run into some danger of your health being depleted quickly if you aren’t careful. That’s why you have The Last Stand upgrade.
This Upgrade Card grants you the ability to do a whole lot of percent of damage the lower on health you are, the percentage increasing as you upgrade the card’s rarity through Jimmy. If you aren’t Pissed Off enough to put a Healing Totem down or don’t equip the Healing Totem power at all during a mission, this card can mean the difference between life and death.
8Hemorrhage
Dagger Weapon Upgrade Card
Dual-wielded daggers are the starting weapons in this South Park game, and they can easily become your weapon of choice for the first couple of chapters before you unlock Stan’s battle axe. They’re fast and unbelievably swift at dealing damage and bleeding, and the Hemorrhage Upgrade Card makes using these an even better experience.
It makes life for the New Kid all that much easier, as not only are enemies already bleeding, but the daggers will now inflict an even greater percentage of damage. It starts with 25 percent, but if you were to upgrade Hemorrhage further, you may increase that to 38 percent and so on.
7Non-Conformist
Henrietta Upgrade Card
Throughout the chapters, you’ll come across some more hidden areas around the map that conceal the Goth Kids member Henrietta. She serves as yet another upgrade card dealer to Jimmy and has some Goth Kids-centric cards that could put 100 extra toilet paper in your inventory or replenish your Bullshit Cards when you run out.
By far the best and most helpful would be the aptly named Non-Conformist card, which will automatically increase all your current Upgrade Cards' rarity, saving you the cost of a lot of toilet paper. And then, when you encounter Jimmy, you can potentially do another upgrade to level them up again and make them even more powerful.
6Second Life
Self-Revive Perk Upgrade
The co-op nature of South Park: Snow Daymakes you largely rely on your teammates, whether they be friends or AI bots. In either case, both should be pretty good about reviving you whenever you’re down. But what happens when you’re the last one standing and everyone else is in need of revival?
That’s where the perk upgrade of Second Life comes in. This one allows you the option to revive yourself without the help of others, but only “once per map.” It’s a great one to have, nonetheless, especially when you aren’t lucky enough to receive the upgrade card for the Healing Totem that will revive you and other players if you’re within its proximity.
5Card Shark
Card Re-Rolling Perk Upgrade
Card strategizing is a key part of the game, and Jimmy is there every step of the way to present you with new cards before each major level.
If you aren’t happy with his current selection of cards, you do have an opportunity to re-roll the deck, especially if you see the same cards reappearing again. It will cost you additional toilet paper, however, and there’s no guaranteeing the next will be any better, and you may want to continue re-rolling. The Card Shark perk will help with reducing the costs.
Pissed Off Meter Upgrade Card
Adding bleed upgrades to your weapons is going to be the most helpful when wanting to clear enemy waves faster, but having the Bad Blood upgrade to go along with the bleed effects is even better. Getting it to Legendary level can make the damage you cause to already bleeding enemies increase your Pissed Off meter by as high as 62 percent.
You want your Pissed Off meter constantly getting refilled in order to use your powers, like setting up Healing Totems for your team or any of the other ones that best fit your playstyle and help you dispatch enemies. Also, the card name is an obvious Taylor Swift reference. South Park just can’t help itself staying current (as current as 2016 can be) and jumping on that bandwagon.
3Sour Cheese
Cheesing Power Upgrade Card
When it comes to powers, Cheesing is one of the best ones to equip yourself with, as it unleashes cat urine on enemies to put them under your control.Enemies being turned into allies and temporarily fighting for youis a classic ability in video games, just framed as inappropriately as possible in South Park: Snow Day!
And with Sour Cheese at your disposal, the allied enemies will exhibit stronger Cheesing effects to unleash 100 percent more damage on the enemies that remain. There’s no telling how much damage they started with anyway, but now you have a 100 percent guarantee of their combat effectiveness.
2Extended Aura
Healing Totem Power Upgrade Card
Even more important than the Cheesing power is the Healing Totem, which spreads Cheesy Poofs into the air and has a radius to heal you and your friends during battle. It comes in very handy, but you have to stick close to it to receive those healing benefits.
The Extended Aura Upgrade Card changes things by extending the range of the Totem’s healing effects by a significant 60 percent, giving you a wider and less worry-free range of battling and healing. Combine that with the Opposing Aura Upgrade Card, which increases the damage enemies take when inside the Healing Totem’s range, and you’re pretty set.
