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It can be difficult to keep track of what games your Skylanders figures and portals will work with. If you're just starting out playing Skylanders games, or you need some help understanding the particulars of compatibility across the various games and consoles, or you want to know whether or not a toy is a Skylander to begin with, this guide will help clarify how it all works.
Steps
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1Understand that all figures from older games work in newer games. Or to put it another way, newer games in the franchise are backwards compatible with figures from previous games.
- For example, all figures that were released for the Spyro's Adventure game will work in every game in the franchise, because that was the first game to be released.
- Figures that were released for the Swap Force game will work in Swap Force and later games, but not necessarily in Spyro's Adventure or Giants, which both came before Swap Force.
- There are only a few caveats to this rule of thumb. It particularly applies to Magic Item and Expansion / Adventure Pack figures from earlier games. They do still work in later games, but their functionality often changes or diminishes over time compared to what they did in their debut games.
- For example, the four Adventure Pack figures from Spyro's Adventure (Dragon's Peak, Darklight Crypt, Ice Cave, and Pirate Ship) each unlock a new stage to play in both Spyro's Adventure and Giants games. From Swap Force on however, they no longer do this, and instead function as a magic item that damages enemies on the screen at the time of placing them on the portal.
- Another example is Traptanium Traps from Skylanders Trap Team. When you use them in Trap Team, they can capture specific villain characters and allow you to play as them in the game. In SuperChargers and Imaginators however, Traps merely augment your racing stats and abilities, or give your character some gold when scanned in during play, rather than performing their original functionality.
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2Understand that unlike portals, Skylanders figures are not console-specific. This means you can use them with any Skylanders game they are compatible with, regardless of the console you are playing on.
- There are also no region locks or restrictions on figures, so you may import them from other countries online without having to worry about compatibility issues in your region.
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Method 19
Method 19 of 19:
Understanding a Figure's "Series" and Forwards Compatibility
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Check the original packaging that a Skylanders figure came in when you purchased one new, if you have access to packaging for one at this point. You may notice a few mentions on the box, of Skylanders games that the figure is or is not compatible with. These are not always accurate indicators of a particular figure's compatibility, and were sometimes incorrect.
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2Keep in mind that if a character had their "Series 1" or debut figure in a given Skylanders game, then you can use newer versions of that character's figure in their "Series 1" game, and any game after it.
- For example, say you have Tidal Wave Gill Grunt, a Trap Team figure designated on the packaging and in the game as "Series 4", and you want to know if it will work with any earlier Skylanders games. All you need to do is determine the earliest game in the Skylanders franchise that had a Gill Grunt figure in it, which will be his "Series 1" debut figure. Gill Grunt was one of the original Skylanders figures from Spyro's Adventure, so even though your Tidal Wave Gill Grunt is a Trap Team figure from a newer game, it will work in any games in the franchise from the first Skylanders Spyro's Adventure game onward.
- All that the "Series #" designation means, is that the character has had its own figure released in that number of games up until that point. It doesn't necessarily mean that they were sequentially released with every new game however.
- For example, the character Shroomboom had his "Series 1" debut figure in the second Skylanders game, Skylanders Giants. However, he did not have a figure in the third game, Swap Force, at all. Instead, his "Series 2" figure came in the fourth game, Trap Team, as Sure Shot Shroomboom. So for this character, if you have the "Series 2" version of his figure from Trap Team, using the rule of thumb, since his "Series 1" debut was in Giants, his "Series 2" Trap Team figure is compatible with Giants, Swap Force, Trap Team, and later games.
- It is important to note that this rule of thumb only applies to the first 4 games in the franchise: Spyro's Adventure, Giants, Swap Force, and Trap Team.
- SuperChargers was the first to break this rule, with its figures only being compatible with SuperChargers (and the later game Imaginators) despite having figures of some of the same characters from earlier games. This is because even though the characters themselves were familiar faces from previous games, their SuperChargers figures actually had redesigned skill trees, and in some cases completely different play styles than their earlier games' versions.
- Imaginators features only all-new character figures, with no figures of returning playable characters at all. You could technically play as the villains in Trap Team if you captured them using Traptanium Traps, but they weren't fully fleshed out as playable characters with their own skill trees and progression systems in Trap Team like their Imaginators figure versions are.
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Community Q&A
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QuestionWhere are my game stats saved when I play?Jonathan HawkinsCommunity AnswerFor Skylanders games you could say there are two locations. Your game progress is saved on the console you are playing on. So things like your progression through the game's levels or story, any achievements you have completed, and access to any in-game content you've unlocked, are all stored in your console's save file. However, individual Skylander figure progression is stored on the figure itself, using its built-in NFC chip. This allows you to transfer it between games and keep its progress intact. So things like the level of your character, how much gold they have, the hat they are wearing, and the skills they have unlocked, are all stored on the figure itself.
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QuestionWhen I was little, I had a bunch of figures, but no portal or game (I just wanted to collect them) and I colored the bottom the base with a sharpie. Will they be able to be used still? Can I clean it?Jonathan HawkinsCommunity AnswerColoring them with a Sharpie pen won't hurt their functionality on the game portal, so they should still work with the games just fine. As for cleaning off Sharpie, try using a dry erase marker, repeatedly marking over the sharpie area, and wiping off with a towel or similar cloth. However, after a few times of trying this method, it will wreck the dry erase marker, so be ready for that.
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QuestionCan I use Skylanders Imaginators figures with a trap team?Jonathan HawkinsCommunity AnswerNo, sadly. Skylanders Imaginators figures only work in Imaginators. They are not compatible with the earlier games in the series.
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Tips
- If you're having trouble identifying a particular Skylanders figure, it might be helpful to compare your figure with pictures of complete sets of figures for each game. If you have access to the foldout poster that originally came with each Skylanders game, you can see many (but not all) of the figures that were released for that particular game on it. Alternatively, you can find complete sets of images and additional information for every figure in the franchise via popular Skylanders fan websites, like Skylanders Character List, or Fandom / Wikia.Thanks
- If you are unable to determine compatibility of a figure or portal even with the information provided in this guide, you can in fact test portals and figures individually by just trying them out with your console and your game. Any of the Skylanders games will provide appropriate error messages when you try to use an incompatible portal, or when you place an incompatible figure for that game onto a compatible portal.Thanks
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