LEGO DC Super Villains: Beginners Guide

Lego DC Super-Villains (Image credit: Amazon)

LEGO DC Super Villains is out now on Nintendo Switch, giving you the chance to turn the tables on the usual Super Heroes formula and play as your favorite dastardly characters with a light, fun twist and a lot of LEGO building. DC Super Villains will look and play in a very familiar manner to anyone who has ever touched a LEGO game, but for those just starting out, here is a quick guide on what to expect as you bust out of the cell block and join your fellow villains on an adventure.

Customization!
Johnny DC
Studs
Vehicles
Red Bricks
Swapping villains
Unlock any villain

Have fun with customization!

When you start up LEGO DC Super Villains for the first time, you'll be prompted to customize your character. Feel free to go crazy! Nothing you do in the customization affects anything in the game drastically, and you can always go back and re-customize later on. Like other LEGO games of a similar caliber, you'll partner up with lots of other classic DC villains throughout, gaining access to their appearances and powers and being able to swap freely between them and your customizable hero for different missions. Don't feel like you're missing out if you don't make an exact copy of The Riddler with your customizable hero or heroine. Be you, be someone else, be anyone you like, and enjoy the ride.

Johnny DC is your friend

LEGO DC Super Villains is a fairly straightforward game that does a good job of signaling to you where to go or what to do next between its map, its glowing objectives, and its simple level design. That said, sometimes you might still get stuck! And that's okay, because Johnny DC is your friend. Johnny DC is essentially a free "hint" button you can use whenever you get stuck by pressing the left stick. He'll point you toward your next objective with no penalty whatsoever. However, if you'd rather figure it out for yourself or find his presence annoying, you can turn him off entirely in the game options.

Get studs. Lots of studs.

It's a LEGO game, so you're going to need a lot of studs. Studs are the tiny LEGO pieces you will see scattered around levels, often in conveniently placed lines that lead you toward interesting sights or objectives. You can walk around and gather them, but it's also important to collect them from other sources.

You can acquire studs by destroying things, so always be sure to destroy anything in a level. If it's made of LEGOs, you can probably bust it up for studs! You can also get studs for beating up enemies, and hitting them multiple times in succession without getting hurt can increase your "stud multiplier," which in turn increases the number of studs you get for winning. You'll want to hang on to those studs, as they can be spent to unlock lots of interesting goodies in the game, including some of the coolest vehicles.

Vehicles?

Yes, cool vehicles! There are far more in the game than what you get just playing through the story. New vehicles can be purchased later in the game for around 25,000 Studs (for most of them) and 50,000 Studs for the most expensive. They're entirely optional, but if you really want to drive the Bat Copter around, you'll need to not only purchase the vehicles but also complete certain challenges to unlock them. For example, that Bat Copter? You have to finish a Flying Tour Race Around Gotham first before it becomes available. Most of the vehicles are only unlocked for purchase once you finish a certain race, so if you run into a race, don't avoid it! Try it out and see what you get for winning.

Track down Red Bricks

Lego DC Super Villains on Nintendo Switch (Image credit: Nintendo)

As with other LEGO games, Red Bricks are an exciting collectible prize that you can track down only with extreme diligence. There's one in each of the game's levels, for a total of 20 once you include the five bonus levels. They aren't just cosmetic, though. Each Red Brick offers a different bonus unlock - some of them will multiply the number of studs you collect, others unlock special modes, or other abilities such as a Minikit Detector to help you track down more Minikits.

You can visit STAR Labs in Metropolis at any time to see how many Red Bricks you have - it's up the elevator inside the building. You can then activate the different bonuses from these Bricks in the game's Extras menu.

To get you started, you can find the first Red Brick in New Kid On The Block on the clock tower, held by the golden gargoyle statue. The second, in It's Good To Be Bad, is inside the fish tank on the second floor of the Iceberg Lounge, though you'll need to bust the tank apart and throw the fish around to get it.

Your first Stud Multiplier Brick isn't until Level 8 - Fight at the Museum, and requires a platforming challenge hidden behind a mirror portal. Keep an eye out for it, and good luck!

Never fear if you miss a Red Brick, or anything else for that matter. You can always use Level Select to return to areas you've already been to and explore a bit more. This will be necessary later if you want to unlock all the characters, too!

Swap villains often

Remember earlier when I said it was fine to customize your character however you liked and not worry about missing out on your favorite villains? You'll start to unlock the different villains of the game as you play through the story, and you'll gain the ability to swap between them at will while you're out in the world. This is necessary for solving some puzzles, and you'll be prompted to swap if there's something you can interact with by using a certain villain.

But that's not all. You can fight as the different DC villains, too, and each one has a different set of powers and stats. Though your hero will gain basic abilities for progressing the more you play, you'll want to try out the different DC villains too, as some may have more powerful attacks better suited to certain playstyles. Experiment the second you unlock a new villain, and see who your favorite is! You might find the game's combat easier as a result.

Unlock any villain

You can unlock any villain you want just by playing through the game's story normally, but if you're really impatient, there are codes you can use to unlock specific villains at any time. To use the codes head to Amusement Mile and interact with Joker's enormous face on the wall - or just go to the Extras menu.

I've listed those codes below - just note that unlocking a character early won't automatically complete the story mission that would normally unlock them, so you'll still have to track those down if you want to fully finish everything in the game.