Cascade Kingdom moons: full Super Mario Odyssey guide

Cascade Kingdom moons in Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey opens with a crash landing in one of the most visually striking early kingdoms in the game. Waterfalls pour down eroded cliffs, a long-necked Tostarenan waits at the summit, and the layout pushes the player upward rather than outward. Forty Power Moons are spread across the region, and the final fifteen of those only appear once the main story is finished. Players who only walk the linear path will miss a meaningful chunk of the kingdom, so the collection has to be approached the way the developers built it: a launch route, a post-game route, and a long tail of optional pickups that reward curiosity.

This guide walks through every Cascade Kingdom moon using the launch and post-game lists from the verified walkthrough, in roughly the order the in-game tracker uses. The post-game moons are kept in their own section because their prerequisite is the entire story, not a single kingdom action. The aim is to help you finish the launch set cleanly on a first pass, then return after the credits for the hidden moons without backtracking through the whole map.

How Cascade Kingdom fits into Super Mario Odyssey

Cascade Kingdom is the second named kingdom in the main story, right after the Cap Kingdom introduction. It is a vertical level with three readable zones: the upper falls, the middle basin where Mario lands after the opening cutscene, and the lower gorge that holds the Chain Chomp and the path toward Fossil Falls. Each of those zones hides its own cluster of moons, and the level design keeps the player climbing rather than crossing flat ground.

Cascade Kingdom is also the first place where the Chain Chomp shows up as a capture mechanic rather than a hazard, the first place the Sphynx offers a traveling hint, and the first kingdom in the game with a dedicated two-part timer challenge. Getting comfortable with those mechanics here makes the rest of the game feel easier, because the same patterns repeat in every later kingdom.

Prerequisites before you start collecting Cascade Kingdom moons

You cannot finish Cascade Kingdom on a single visit. The kingdom is split into a launch phase and a post-game phase, and a few requirements sit between them.

Defeat Bowser in the Cap Kingdom: Cascade Kingdom only becomes accessible after the first story boss is cleared. The initial moons here are gated by that progression beat.
Clear the Cascade Kingdom story objective: The Tostarenan fight at the top of the falls is required to trigger the kingdom’s post-game state and unlock the second story exit.
Finish the main story: The last fifteen moons only appear after the credits. Plan to return after the final Bowser fight in the Moon Kingdom rather than chasing them mid-run.
Have at least one capture target available: Several moons require specific captures, including a Chain Chomp, a Tostarenan, and a frog. Know the basic capture controls before you start.

If you arrive in Cascade Kingdom and notice that some moons are missing from the world, the most common reason is that the main story is not yet complete. A handful of moons stay invisible until the post-game state is active, so a count of 25 out of 40 is expected on a first clean run.

Cascade Kingdom moons 1 to 25: the launch set

The first twenty-five moons can be earned without finishing the main story. They cover the upper falls, the basin, the lower gorge, and the Tostarenan fight. The order below is the same one the in-game tracker uses, which is roughly the order the player meets each challenge while climbing.

#	Moon name	Primary zone	Type
1	Our First Power Moon	Upper falls	Story reward
2	Atop the Falls	Upper falls	Exploration
3	Chomp Through the Rocks	Lower gorge	Capture challenge
4	Behind the Waterfall	Upper falls	Hidden
5	On Top of the Rubble Power Moon	Basin	Exploration
6	Treasure of the Waterfall Basin	Basin	Treasure chest
7	Above a High Cliff	Cliff edges	Exploration
8	Across the Floating Isles	Upper sky	Movement
9	Cascade Kingdom Timer Challenge 1	Basin	Timer challenge
10	Cascade Kingdom Timer Challenge 2	Basin	Timer challenge
11	Good Morning, Captain Toad!	Hidden alcove	Bonus area
12	Dinosaur Nest: Big Cleanup	Upper nest	Sub-quest
13	Dinosaur Nest: Running Wild	Upper nest	Sub-quest
14	Nice Shot with the Chain Chomp!	Lower gorge	Capture challenge
15	Very Nice Shot with the Chain Chomp!	Lower gorge	Capture challenge
16	Past the Chasm Lifts	Lower gorge	Movement
17	Hidden Chasm Passage	Lower gorge	Hidden
18	Secret Path to Fossil Falls!	Lower gorge	Story path
19	A Tourist in the Cascade Kingdom	Sphynx location	Traveling NPC
20	Rolling Rock by the Falls	Upper falls	Capture challenge
21	Peach in the Cascade Kingdom	Hidden painting	Peach capture
22	Cascade Kingdom Regular Cup	Basin	Koopa race
23	Caveman Cave-Fan	Upper nest	Sub-quest
24	Shopping in Fossil Falls	Fossil Falls entrance	Shop purchase
25	Sphynx Traveling to the Waterfall	Upper falls	Traveling NPC

Several of these moons are tied to sub-quests. The Dinosaur Nest and Caveman requests both need the player to interact with the same Tostarenan that becomes the boss, and the two Chain Chomp moons both depend on capturing the same Chain Chomp in the lower gorge. The timer challenges reward a clean run with a Chain Chomp or Tostarenan capture, so it is worth practicing capture control on the easier Chain Chomp moons first.

Cascade Kingdom moons 26 to 40: the post-game set

The remaining fifteen moons only spawn after the main story is complete. They sit in the same map but in spots that are awkward to reach without a deliberate return visit, which is why the developers gated them. The post-game list below is the one the official walkthrough uses to track the final stretch of the kingdom.

#	Moon name	Primary zone	Type
26	Bottom of the Waterfall Basin	Lower gorge	Hidden
27	Just a Hat, Skip, and a Jump	Basin	Movement
28	Treasure Under the Cliff	Cliff edges	Treasure chest
29	Next to the Stone Arch	Upper falls	Exploration
30	Guarded by a Colossal Fossil	Fossil Falls entrance	Combat
31	Under the Old Electrical Pole	Basin	Exploration
32	Under the Ground	Lower gorge	Capture challenge
33	Inside the Busted Fossil	Fossil Falls entrance	Hidden
34	Caught Hopping at the Waterfall!	Upper falls	Sub-quest
35	Taking Notes: Hurry Upward	Upper nest	Sub-quest
36	Cascade Kingdom Master Cup	Basin	Koopa race
37	Across the Mysterious Clouds	Upper sky	Movement
38	Atop a Wall Among the Clouds	Upper sky	Movement
39	Across the Gusty Bridges	Upper sky	Movement
40	Flying Far Away from Gusty Bridges	Upper sky	Movement

The post-game moons lean on movement tricks. Several of the upper-sky moons ask the player to chain long jumps from cloud to cloud, and the two bridge moons expect a comfortable grip on the gust mechanic first introduced in the Cap Kingdom. The Hopping and Hurry Upward moons are sub-quest deliveries, so talk to the relevant NPC before looking for the destination.

Capture targets you need for Cascade Kingdom moons

Capture is the central verb in Super Mario Odyssey, and Cascade Kingdom is where it starts to feel like a vocabulary rather than a gimmick. The verified launch and post-game lists depend on five capture targets in particular.

Chain Chomp: Required for the Chomp Through the Rocks moon, both Nice Shot challenges, the second timer challenge, and the Under the Ground post-game moon. The Chain Chomp is also the fastest way to break the large rock piles in the lower gorge.
Tostarenan: Required for the upper-nest Dinosaur quests, the Caveman sub-quest, and several of the upper cliff exploration moons. Capture the Tostarenan once the player reaches the upper nest and use it for vertical climbing rather than horizontal combat.
Rolling Rock (small boulder): Required for the Rolling Rock by the Falls moon. Capture is the only way to move the boulder onto the right pressure plate.
Frog: Needed for jumping sequences that other captures cannot complete. The frog near the upper falls is the right pick for the vertical leaps in the post-game sky sections.
Sphynx: Not a capture target in the traditional sense, but the traveling NPC who hands out hints and unlocks Cascade Kingdom moons 19 and 25.

Every capture target in this list returns in later kingdoms, so the muscle memory built here carries forward into Sand Kingdom, Wooded Kingdom, and beyond.

Strategy by zone: how to approach each area

Cascade Kingdom rewards a specific exploration order. Rather than running around the basin, treat each zone as a separate problem and clear it before moving up. The structure below matches the verified moon list and keeps the path short.

Upper falls and upper sky

Start with the upper falls because the story puts the player there first. Atop the Falls and Behind the Waterfall are the easiest exploration pickups, and the waterfall region is the entry point to most of the upper-sky moons that appear later. Once the story is done and the kingdom is in its post-game state, return here for the cloud-based moons 37 through 40.

Move along the cliff edge and look behind every waterfall to find the hidden cave entries.
Use the Tostarenan capture for the long vertical climb rather than wall jumping, because the capture ignores fatigue.
After the post-game state is active, chain the four upper-sky moons in a single route through the cloud platforms.

Basin and timer challenges

The basin is where most players stop exploring, but it actually holds four important moons: the two timer challenges, the Rolling Rock capture, and the Sphynx traveling NPC. Treat the basin as a hub that can be cleared in two visits rather than one long session.

For the timer challenges, capture the Chain Chomp and head straight to the target without detouring for coins.
The Sphynx is only available at certain story moments, so if she is missing, progress the main story or finish the kingdom once before returning.
Use the basin’s central plateau as a save anchor. If the player falls into the lower gorge, the respawn puts them right next to the Chain Chomp area.

Lower gorge and Fossil Falls

The lower gorge is the most vertical part of the kingdom and the place where the post-game moons cluster. Expect to come back here twice: once during the story to clear the Chain Chomp moons, and once after the credits to grab the hidden moons near Fossil Falls.

Capture the Chain Chomp before exploring the lower gorge, because the Chomp breaks rock walls that other captures cannot touch.
The Hidden Chasm Passage moon is easy to overlook. The entrance sits on the wall behind the Chain Chomp pen rather than at ground level.
The Fossil Falls area is shared with the next kingdom, so do not be surprised if the map boundary feels thin. Some moons are awarded on the Cascade Kingdom side of the line, not the Sand Kingdom side.

Common mistakes when collecting Cascade Kingdom moons

Most Cascade Kingdom moons that get missed fall into a small set of predictable categories. The kingdom is well-signposted, but it punishes players who assume every moon is reachable from the main path.

Skipping the post-game return: Finishing the kingdom, moving on to Sand Kingdom, and never coming back is the most common reason for a stuck collection. The last fifteen moons are invisible until the main story is complete.
Forgetting the Sphynx: The Sphynx traveling NPC is not always in Cascade Kingdom. If the hint is missing, progress the story until the post-game state is active, then return to the upper falls.
Missing the hidden cave behind the waterfall: The Behind the Waterfall moon is one of the easiest to miss because the entrance is invisible from the main path. Walk along the wall behind the largest fall and listen for the music change.
Not capturing the Chain Chomp before exploring the lower gorge: Several moons in the lower gorge depend on breaking walls with the Chain Chomp. Trying to clear the gorge on foot leads to a dead end that looks like a soft lock.
Walking past the Dinosaur Nest and Caveman requests: The Dinosaur Nest and Caveman sub-quests share an NPC, and the same NPC can hand out multiple quests over the course of a playthrough. Talk to the Tostarenan near the upper nest after each major story beat.

How Cascade Kingdom moons connect to the rest of the game

Super Mario Odyssey treats each kingdom as a self-contained content pack, but the moon counter is shared across the entire game. The moon threshold for the final story push is the same regardless of which kingdoms the moons come from, and Cascade Kingdom’s forty moons are an outsized slice of that early progress. The verified Cascade Kingdom Power Moons walkthrough also acts as the template for the Lake, Wooded, and Sand Kingdom guides, because every kingdom in the game uses the same pattern: a launch cluster followed by a post-game cluster that only appears after the credits.

For players who are tracking the broader route, Cascade Kingdom is also the first place where the Chain Chomp and Sphynx mechanics appear. Getting comfortable with both here removes a meaningful amount of friction from Sand Kingdom and Wooded Kingdom, where the same mechanics return with tighter timing windows.

If a kingdom-by-kingdom completion plan is in use, this is also the right moment to check the overall moon total against the next story requirement. Most players leave Cascade Kingdom with 25 to 30 moons banked, which is close to the threshold for the next story segment. The remaining 10 to 15 moons in this kingdom can be saved for a clean-up visit after the credits.

Cross-references for verifying your Cascade Kingdom moons count

Because the moon list is gated by story progression, players get the most out of Cascade Kingdom when they cross-check their list against a verified walkthrough. The Cascade Kingdom Power Moons walkthrough on Mario Party Legacy is one of the most consistent references for this kingdom and pairs each moon with a specific zone, which is useful when the in-game tracker feels ambiguous. Players who want a printable checklist can copy the launch and post-game tables from this guide into a notes app and tick them off as they go.

A practical verification workflow looks like this:

Open the in-game map and note the current moon count for Cascade Kingdom.
Cross-reference the count with the launch and post-game tables in this guide.
If the count is below 25, the kingdom is still in its launch state and the missing moons are likely post-game content.
If the count is 25 but the main story is finished, return to the upper falls and the upper sky to find the cloud moons, which are the most commonly missed post-game pickups.
If the count is 40, the kingdom is fully cleared and the player can move to the next kingdom in the progression route.

For a third-party reference that covers the same list with screenshots, the Cascade Kingdom Power Moons walkthrough on Mario Party Legacy mirrors the structure used here and is the most reliable external cross-check for this kingdom.

Frequently asked questions

How many Cascade Kingdom moons are there in total?

There are 40 Cascade Kingdom moons in Super Mario Odyssey. The first 25 are available during the main story, and the last 15 only appear after the player has beaten the game. Plan to return to the kingdom after the credits to finish the set.

Why are some Cascade Kingdom moons missing on my first visit?

Most of the post-game moons are invisible until the main story is complete. If the Tostarenan boss fight is done but the final Bowser in the Moon Kingdom is not, the cloud moons, the bridge moons, and the hidden cave moons will not yet be visible on the map. The launch set is fully available, so if the count is below 25, focus on those first.

Do I need to beat the Tostarenan to get the Cascade Kingdom moons?

Yes, the Tostarenan fight is part of the story progression for this kingdom, and several sub-quest moons depend on the Tostarenan being available as a capture target. The boss itself is not a moon source, but clearing the fight unlocks the rest of the kingdom’s vertical space.

Which capture target is the most important in Cascade Kingdom?

The Chain Chomp is the single most useful capture in this kingdom because it unlocks the Chomp Through the Rocks moon, both Nice Shot challenges, the second timer challenge, and the Under the Ground post-game moon. Capture the Chain Chomp early and keep it for the rest of the gorge.

What is the difference between the Cascade Kingdom Regular Cup and the Master Cup?

Both cups are Koopa races against a time limit, but the Master Cup is a post-game unlock and runs on a longer course with tighter checkpoints. Finish the Regular Cup first to unlock the Master Cup, and bring a Tostarenan or Chain Chomp capture for the start of the race because the first stretch uses a slope.

Are the Cascade Kingdom moons required to beat the game?

No specific moon in Cascade Kingdom is required to beat the game, but the overall moon total is. Cascade Kingdom contributes up to 40 moons, which is meaningful progress toward the final story threshold. On a minimum-clear route, the linear story moons are enough to keep the main story moving.

Can I get the Cascade Kingdom moons in any order?

Within the launch set, the order is mostly free, although the Sphynx and the Tostarenan sub-quests require story progression. Within the post-game set, the cloud and bridge moons are easier to clear in a single upper-sky route rather than a series of separate trips, because they share a capture target and a spawn condition.

Where is the Sphynx in Cascade Kingdom?

The Sphynx moves between two locations in Cascade Kingdom. The first appearance is at the upper falls as part of the story, and the second is a post-game appearance that unlocks the Tourist moon. If the Sphynx is not visible, return after the main story is complete and check both the upper falls and the basin.

What is the fastest way to reach the upper-sky moons after the post-game state?

Start at the upper falls, capture the frog, and chain jumps across the cloud platforms in a single route. The four cloud moons are sequential, and the frog is the cleanest capture for the vertical leaps, so the route usually takes a single uninterrupted attempt.

Should I finish Cascade Kingdom before moving to Sand Kingdom?

It depends on the goal. For a main-story run, the linear launch moons are enough to leave for Sand Kingdom. For a completionist run, returning after the credits is faster than chasing the post-game moons mid-progression, so most players clear the launch set, move on, and come back later.

Cascade Kingdom moons in Super Mario Odyssey: every Power Moon