How to beat Skylanders Giants on Nightmare Mode: Tips and advice

Finish the game on Nightmare Mode and you’ll unlock the best hat in the game – the Knight Helm – as well as an extra ending and the 100G Nightmare Avenger achievement.
Here’s our tips to finishing Skylanders Giants on the Nightmare difficulty setting.

1. First, finish the game on Hard. This is possible with a small selection of level one Skylanders that come with the game, and it will prepare you for the difficulty of Nightmare Mode. Start a new game on Nightmare Mode.
2. Have a handful of strong Skylanders at least. Having five top characters (between level 12 and 15) is much better than having loads of Skylanders at lower levels. We focused on Legendary Stealth Elf for close combat, Flameslinger for fast movement and long range shooting, Chill for tough armour and attack damage, Flashwing for long-range attacks and Cynder as an all-rounder. Having a few more won’t hurt, but you should be able to finish the game with five or six excellent Skylanders. Ten or above is recommended.
3. In Nightmare Mode, enemies have a lot of health and will dish out a lot of damage, so keep it simple. Find a tactic that works for you for each Skylander. For example, one tactic we used as Stealth Elf was casting stealth decoy before completing attack combos and repeating until all enemies were defeated.
4. When facing a number of enemies, and particularly larger ones which will punish you when close, try kiting the enemies in a circle. So move in a clockwise fashion and keep your distance from them, while turning around and attacking them from a distance every now and then. Then rinse and repeat.
5. Don’t bother with optional extras, secrets or bonuses in Nightmare Mode. Get the main missions out of the way. Once you’ve finished the game and got your Knight Helm and achievement, you can take the hat and return to your Hard game save, then finish unlocking all the extras there as it’ll be easier to do.
6. Do your best to avoid enemy fire. Some bad guys will be able to kill you in two or three hits, so focus on evasion techniques.
7. Increase your speed stats by completing challenges and using hats that boost your speed stat. For example, Wabbit Ears, Trucker Hat, Umbrella Hat, Bottle Cap Hat, Crown of Light and Santa Hat are all handy. If your Skylander has low defence, use hats that increase it to compensate for this.
8. When facing large groups of enemies or stronger opponents, focus on the ranged bad guys first – like the archers. This will make it easier for you to focus on the short-range enemies. However, if you’re up against characters that throw bombs at you, it’s a good idea to leave one of them alive. Catch the bombs they hurl at you and throw them back at the tougher opponents to take them down quicker.
9. Beat the final boss – Kaos. Watch this video and read these tips on how to beat Skylanders Giants’ final boss on Nightmare Mode.
10. Once the credits have rolled, you’ve watched the extra ending and unlocked the Nightmare achievement, you’ll unlock the Knight Helm. We recommend equipping all of your Skylanders with this hat, as it adds +6 Speed, +15 Armour, +15 Critical and +15 Elemental stats.

Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.