Guide to getting extra lives in New Super Mario Bros

Welcome to the easy and unofficial guide to gaining 1-up mushrooms incredibly quickly in New Super Mario Bros! This guide teaches you the best ways of gaining mushrooms in levels and getting to a perfect 99 lives!

100 Coins

Every 100 coins you get gives Mario 1 extra life. So in levels filled with coins, grab as many as you can, shoot enemies with fireballs and explore all the secret rooms for huge amounts of money and lives.

Good Mega Mario Levels

Level 1-1

Here, chase the giant mushroom until it nearly fall in the pit, smash all the blocks and the flag pole at the end and you should get an easy five extra lives!

Level 7-5

Use it while on the large pipe in the level, and stomp through everything until you get to the Banzai Bill cannon. When it runs out, you will get five extra lifes

Level 6-3

Get to the first red pipe, and use the Mega Mushroom. Stomp through everything afterwards up to the money bag enemy and you will not only destroy half the stage, you'll also get five lives (as usual in the form of 1-up mushrooms).

Level 5-2

As soon as you enter the pipe, there is a huge structure of blue blocks and enemies. turn Mega and smash all of it for five extra lives.

Smash the Money Bag!

In some levels, there is a money bag enemy which runs away from you. Defeat him by hitting it with any fireballs or jump attacks for an easy 1-up mushroom! It appears in certain levels, but the easiest is level 5-2, where with some practise, you can get 6 extra lives in one level!

The Flag Pole Jump

Simply jump at the very top of the flag at the end of a normal level to get an extra life.

Sliding to kill

In any level there is a slope, slide down it to kill the enemies. After about 8 enemies killed, you started getting 1-ups!

Star

When using a star, defeat as many enemies as you can, and by the eighth enemy, you will start getting 1-ups!

Enemy Bouncing

Land on an enemy, and then off it's head onto another and after the eighth enemy killed in this way, you start getting 1-up mushrooms

Shell Missile

Kick a shell at a row of enemies, and after the eight, you will get 1-ups for each enemy killed with the shell

Advanced Tricks

The old Lakitu trick

In level 2-2, there is a square of bricks surrounded by two ledges. Throw a shell in there, and every spiny Lakitu throws which falls into the gap will add doubles of points, until you eventually get many 1-ups!

Video of Lakitu trick

Bullet Bill Bananzaa

In level 7-5, just before the Banzai Bill, there's a pair of cannons. Throw a shell between to destroy the bullet bills they fire which eventually leads to yet more extra lives for infinity.

Bullet Bill banazaa

Goomba Farming

Go to the last pipe before the flag in level 1-4, the one where goombas come out of the pipe. Bring a shell with you and throw it, while standing relatively near the middle of the area with the horizontal and vertical pipes. Throw the shell and it will kill goombas. But you have to jump over it when it comes otherwise the score resets, so keep dodging the shell for infinite lives.

Video of the above trick

Pumkin Hopping

In world 3 Ghost House, go to the second set of stairs which appear after you hit a switch. There is a door after the switch so go in. Hop across the pumpkin enemies without touching the floor (hop on the last one twice, and go back towards the door) to get an extra life. Exit and re-enter, and they reappear. Repeat for infinite lives.