Hint Art

Hint Art is a type of special object that appears in Super Mario Odyssey. The objects are photographs or graphics that hint the location of a Power Moon; however, the Power Moon that is hinted at does not appear in the same kingdom that the Hint Art is found in, although it will qualify as and appear as a Power Moon for the kingdom the Hint Art is in. The player is required to look at the Hint Art in order for the corresponding Power Moon to become available. The player can also use the capture feature on the Nintendo Switch to save the Hint Art in their gallery, though this is not required. Once Mario locates the exact spot of a hidden Power Moon as described in the Hint Art, he must ground-pound it to make the Power Moon appear out of the ground. In the Lake Kingdom and Seaside Kingdom, he can also reveal a Power Moon by attacking its spot as a Cheep Cheep. Only one piece of Hint Art can be found in a kingdom, aside from the Dark Side, which has ten different pieces of Hint Art. Hint Art does not appear in the Cascade Kingdom, in the Cloud Kingdom, in the Lost Kingdom, in the Ruined Kingdom, or on the Darker Side. Finding and solving enough Hint Art puzzles will reward Mario with two Power Moons from Archivist Toadette in the Mushroom Kingdom: one for solving five puzzles, and another for solving fifteen.

In addition to the in-game Hint Art, from March 14, 2018, to November 28, 2018, following the version 1.2.0 update, Nintendo posted new Hint Art on social media. If Mario ground-pounds at the correct spot as described in these pictures, instead of a Power Moon, a sprite of Luigi from Super Mario Bros. (recolored to match his modern design) pops out of the ground and grants Mario 200 coins. If Mario reveals a hidden Luigi sprite he previously discovered, he receives ten coins instead. These pieces of Hint Art are based on the unused Hint Art found in the game's files. To celebrate Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker releasing on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS, the Luigi sprite in all kingdoms was replaced by a Captain Toad sprite with the same effect until August 8, 2018. However, even after this date, the Captain Toad sprites remain in place of Luigi sprites in the Snow Kingdom and Ruined Kingdom.