Skylanders 101 presented by SCL

Skylanders Necessities

There are a few things that are required to play Skylanders, but it's probably not as much as you think.

To play Skylanders you will need:

  • 1 Skylanders Game
  • 1 Portal
  • 1 Skylander

That's it.

Any Skylanders game can be played all the way through with just these three items.

All of these items can be purchased from a third party quite cheaply. However, I still recommend picking up a Starter Pack if you can.

The Starter Pack will include all the necessary items I've mentioned above plus a few extras. The Starter Packs always do a good job of introducing you to all the new types of figures and gameplay that make the new game unique.

Spyro's Adventure Starter Pack (2011)

Spyro - Series 1Let's go back to the beginning.

This pack included:

Spyro's Adventure was the first Skylanders game. At this point everything was new, so the Starter Pack simply included three basic Skylanders.

Giants Starter Pack (2012)

Tree RexMoving on to the second iteration a year later…

This pack included:

As the name of the game suggests, the Giants were the main attraction this year. So a Giant was included in the Starter Pack. The pack also included one brand new character and a character that was present during Spyro's Adventure which they branded a Series 2 figure.

You can start to see it already, the Starter Packs give you a little taste of everything that's available.

SWAP Force Starter Pack (2013)

Wash BucklerWhile the first two games were developed by the same group (Toys For Bob), SWAP Force took a new direction as Vicarious Visions took the reins.

This pack included:

In this game the swappable SWAP Force Skylanders were the main attraction. So in the Starter Pack they made sure to include not just one, but two swappable Skylanders. They wanted to make sure you could experience the joy of swapping right out of the box.

The pack also included a brand new Series 3 figure. Series 3 figures are similar to Series 2 figures, but they are different. (Click here for more about reposed (Series 2-4) figures.)

Trap Team Starter Pack (2014)

Trap Master - Snap ShotThe next year brought us the fourth iteration in the Skylanders series.

This pack included:

Now there is some debate as to whether the main attraction here is the Trap Master Skylanders (as you might first assume) or whether it's actually the Traps.

There was a lot of new material introduce with Skylanders Trap Team, but in any case, they made sure to give you a chance to experience it all right out of the box.

SuperCharger Starter Pack (2015)

SuperCharger SpitfireThere were a lot of variations in the Starter Packs for Skylanders SuperChargers, mostly depending on which console you were playing on. You can read about all the different Starter Packs here. You can find the contents of the most basic Starter Pack below.

This pack included:

While in all previous games you could get by with just 1 Skylander, in SuperChargers you will also need 1 Land Vehicle. Naturally, this is included in the Starter Pack, but it is worth noting that the requirements have changed slightly.