Pack a papery punch with these tips!

Omigosh! Legendary treasure, Goomba researchers, feisty little Yoshis—there’s a lot going on in the Paper Mario™: The Thousand-Year Door game! But to experience this epic journey, it’s going to take bravery, smarts, and the combined talents of an eccentric gang of misfits.

(And a big hammer. A big hammer can often help.)

This game is a turned-based RPG with a heavy dose of humor. If you’ve played the Super Mario RPG™ or original Paper Mario™ games, you may feel right at home…at first. This game has a few things that all players should keep in mind no matter their experience level.

Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to being a hero, kiddo!

Better than having a GPS…

Goombella is the resident smarty pants of the game and is always ready to help. If you’re not sure where to go, press the ZL Button and she’ll give you a hint. Also, if she is by your side, press the X Button for a bit of colorful commentary about the places you go or the folks you meet. Her tough-but-fair observations can liven up exploration!

Keep an eye out for weird stuff

OK, so there’s a lot of weird stuff in this game—we’re specifically talking about the backgrounds this time! Is that piece of the wall starting to peel off? Are there mysterious cracks in a block? Chances are that if you spot something unusual, you’ll need to come back later and check it out again. So, keep a note of where it is, and continue to move on and meet characters. When you get the appropriate ability, head on back—Future You will thank you.

Shine get!

If you want to beef up your partners a bit, give some Shine Sprites to Merlon in Rogueport. Meanwhile, trade the harder-to-find Star Pieces with Dazzle in Rogueport Underground to get more Badges (more on Badges later).

Battling 101

OK, let’s talk battles. Mario and his friendos have many different attacks, abilities, and special moves (and that list will grow even more as you power them up). You can even supercharge some of your moves with timing-based button presses called Action Commands. Just follow the on-screen cues to pull them off. An example of an Action Command is pressing the A Button right before you jump on an enemy. Give it a try!

Defense is a similar situation. You can weaken an enemy’s attack by pressing the A Button right before they hit you. You’ll go far just knowing that, but there’s also an advanced version if you’re feeling fancy. If you successfully press the B Button right when you get attacked, you may negate all damage AND do damage to the enemy—this is called a Super Guard. The timing of the Super Guard is tougher to pull off than a normal Guard, but we believe in you! Put in the practice and see if you can get better.

Tattle in battle

Going back to Goombella, don’t sleep on her Tattle ability in battle. If you correctly pull it off, she’ll tell you about an enemy’s strengths, tactics, health points, and more (including more tough-but-fair comments). You’ll keep this info the next time you meet the same enemy, so you won’t have to keep repeating the move to see their health points. Basically, we recommend tattling early and often*!

Uh, what’s with the audience?

So, we just went through battle basics, but there’s another layer on top of that—pulling off moves with style! You see, each normal battle has an audience who are literally watching you fight. They may grow in number as Mario levels up and may even toss you helpful items (or not-so-helpful ones).

If you’re good with your Action Command timing, the crowd may also start filling your Star Power meter. When that meter is full, you can pull off a super cool Special Move!

If that sounds like a lot…

If all of this sounds a little intimidating, don’t fret—you can equip Badges to tailor the experience to your liking. By mixing and matching Badges, you can get all sorts of benefits: from different attack moves to increased strength to easier timing for Action Commands. If you’re having trouble with a certain aspect of the game, chances are that Badges can help you find your preferred playstyle.

Oh, and if you need to practice any of this or dive deeper into how the game works, seek out the purple-clad Toad called the Battle Master. After all, he is a master…of battle.

For your convenience

Finally, don’t forget about the little things when you’re out exploring. Hold down the L Button to quickly swap partners with the Partner Ring. Or press the [UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT ARROW] buttons to quickly open menu tabs (Gear, Journal, Party, Badges). And in battle, you can press the Y Button to swap places with your partner. This can help your battle strategy, but we’ll leave it at that—this article is long enough already!

OK, that’s all for now. If you’d like to buy the game, please visit the link below.