Tag Archives: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Kappy’s Spotlight — Ms. Mowz

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It’s that time again: #KappySpotlight time, where I talk about badges/items/partners/etc… that are generally seen as “bad” and not used very often by challenge runners. I dive deeper into why they’re perceived the way they are with some cool strategies centered around them mixed in! Today, I’ll be covering a partner in TTYD who’s…ugh, the worst: Ms. Mowz…

 

Ms._Mowz
Moves:
Love Slap — Deals piercing damage to a single enemy (2/3/4 damage) [Front only]
Kiss Thief [2 FP] — Steals enemies’ items and badges.
Tease [3 FP] — Inflicts Dizzy on enemies.
Smooch [10 FP] — Heals Mario for 10 HP.
Glitz Pit Rank: 7th (of 7 Partners)

Ouch, the worst of all partners, but it’s easy to see why. Ms. Mowz is not a combat-oriented partner, so of course she’s the worst, but that might be because she’s entirely optional. If you decide to pick her up, you’ll find subpar HP, lackluster damage, and the ability to steal things from enemies, which makes her worth it all on its own. Unfortunately, being able to steal things translates more to a switch in, steal, then switch out situation because her combat options are, well…terrible. They’re terrible. Let’s break down those moves!

LOVE SLAP

Love Slap isn’t bad, but it’s not great. It pierces, which is awesome, but it only does 4 at Ultra Ranking, meaning even with 1 DEF Bobbery, Vivian, and Flurrie are out-damaging it with their base moves. What really gets me here is that she can’t hit front-spiky or fiery enemies. Don’t get me wrong, others can’t either, but when this is her only move that deals damage. To add onto this, the Stylish command for this move doesn’t actually work. A lot is actively working against her here in this move. Still, the piercing can be quite good, and makes Ms. Mowz and easy third choice in Level Zero runs against Gloomtail, Bonetail, Grodus, Bowser, and the Shadow Queen behind Vivian and Bobbery!

KISS THEIF

Ms. Mowz actually has amazing utility in Kiss Thief. Being able to steal items and badges from enemies is no joke, especially if you get lucky and an enemy is holding a nice badge like P-Down, D-Up P, Power Plus, Close Call, Power Rush (P), etc… with extra badges that you can’t normally get, you can do a lot more than you normally could. Also, it never hurts to steal Life Shrooms, Boo’s Sheets, and the like if an enemy is holding it. You can even steal coins if an enemy isn’t holding anything, but that’s not really useful. For 2 FP, it’s absolutely worth it, and this move alone makes her worth picking up as a partner.

TEASE

Dizzy as a status isn’t amazing. It’s…okay, if not slightly underwhelming. So, Ms. Mowz has a move, like Vivian, that just inflicts status to all enemies, and it’s Dizzy. I’ll admit — I actually think this is better than Infatuation; the issue I have is that this move totally could’ve dealt light piercing damage as well and still function nearly the same while giving Mowz the ability to hit more enemies and get past the spiky/fiery enemy issue that Love Slap has…and, y’know, not only hit the front grounded enemy. Alas… this is an okay move to use in the Pit because a surprising amount of deep Pit enemies can be inflicted with Dizzy. If you don’t have Stop at the ready, this isn’t a bad alternative, and it’s only 3 FP.

SMOOCH

And here we are — the worst partner move in the game. For 10 FP, Mario recovers 10 HP. 10 FP. Can we let that sink in? 10. FP. What was going on when this move was created? It’s such a horrible heal for the FP cost. Even with two Flower Saver P badges, I wouldn’t use this move. Why? because I can Sweet Treat and get 7, or Double Dip two Mushrooms which is only 4 FP, or use a Super Shroom, or do literally anything else. Yeah, this move is bad. I understand that items are limited, but let’s be real… it’s her Ultra Rank move, and with only 10-20 HP, challenge runners don’t need to spend 10 FP to heal what a Super Shroom can or what Sweet Treat can basically heal. If this were less FP or healed way more, I’d consider it usable. EDIT: You can actually determine how much HP this move heals based on how much of the bar you fill, which makes this move much better than a flat 10 for 10. Still, you can probably accomplish the same healing with items rather than spending 10 FP.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way…let’s try a strategy out with Ms. Mowz! One that uses Smooch!

GLOOMTAIL STRAT
15 HP, 15 FP
BADGES: Jumpman, All or Nothing, Mega Rush, P-Up D-Down P, Power Rush P x2, Feeling Fine, Feeling Fine P, Flower Saver P x2, Double Dip P x2 (33 BP, 42 with two FP Plus and HP Plus)
ITEMS: Point Swap, Power Punch, Hot Sauce x2

Click here to see the strategy in action!

T1: Triple Dip (Hot Sauce x2 Mario, Point Swap Mario), Spin Jump (67) *Don’t Guard
T2: Spin Jump, Smooch (48) *Don’t Guard
T3: Jump, Power Punch Mario (32)
T4: Spin Jump, Love Slap [KO]

This strategy aims to have Mario get to every trigger with an attack starting Turn 2 and finish Gloomtail before he can attack with Megabreath. Look at all that BP we need! Let’s get into it:

In order to use Smooch and actually do some damage manipulation with Mario and Ms. Mowz, we needed Mario at 15 HP and can’t guard any attacks, or else Mowz won’t be at 5 HP T4. So, because Mario’s at 15, we need to get creative with how he’s getting into Peril. Luckily, Triple Dip costs 8 FP, down to 6 with two Flower Saver P badges, putting us at 9 FP, which is perfect for a Point Swap. We Point Swap and hand Mario two Hot Sauce badges to temporarily increase his attack with Spin Jump. Remember, Gloomtail’s got 80 HP, 8 ATK, and 2 DEF. We circumvented the DEF with Jumpman and All or Nothing, but we need to make sure we’re dealing 32 damage total Turn 2. After the swap, we’re at 15 FP again with Mario at 9 HP. We then Spin Jump, dealing 5 + 8 = 13 damage. We then opt to not guard Gloomtail’s breath and take 8 damage (Mowz 9 damage). Feeling Fine (P) prevents both from being poisoned. Now, Mario’s at 1, and Ms. Mowz is at 16 since Ms. Mowz at Ultra Rank has 25 HP total. Turn 2, we Spin Jump under Peril, but without the Hot Sauce since we burned them Turn 1. 8 + 11 = 19 damage, which, when adding with the 13 we dealt previously, is a perfect 32, putting Gloomtail at 48 and setting off his first HP trigger. We Smooch as well, putting Mario at 11 HP. Now, Gloomtail always uses Earthquake at 48 HP per his trigger, so he uses it, and deals 10 damage to Mario (11 to Mowz). Mario’s in Peril once again, and Mowz is in perfect Danger, sitting at 5 HP. Turn 3, we do a normal Jump (8 + 8 = 16 damage) to get Gloomtail to his next trigger at 32. We then give Mario a Power Punch for his next attack. As per his 32 HP trigger, Gloomtail charges up for Megabreath. Turn 4, we finish it. Spin Jump now does 10 + 13 = 23 damage, and Ms. Mowz is at 9 ATK thanks to the 5 from two Power Rush P badges and P-Up D-Down P. 23 + 9 = 32 damage total, and with a final Love Slap we take down Gloomtail, Mowz style!

I’ll be honest…coming up with strategies with Mowz can be quite the challenge, so I actually had some fun making this despite my distaste for Ms. Mowz as a battle partner. Maybe I’m just traumatized by my Ms. Mowz Only run…who knows, but what I do know is that she’s not good in combat, and basically everything she has is outclassed. Still, being able to steal things is cool, and is a utility no one else can boast, so even if you never use her in battle, I do suggest you always pick her up in any runs where you’ll be using badges and items!

Next time, I’ll be going back to 64. Will it be a badge? An item? A partner? You’ll have to wait and find out!

Just Sayin’

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Kappy’s Spotlight — Poison Shroom

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It’s that time again: #KappySpotlight time, where I talk about badges/items/partners/etc… that are generally seen as “bad” and not used very often by challenge runners. I dive deeper into why they’re perceived the way they are with some cool strategies centered around them mixed in! Today, I’ll be covering a really unique item in TTYD that’s RNG…for Mario! It’s POISON SHROOM!

Poison_Shroom_TTYD.png
Move: Poisons Mario and takes away half of his HP or fully heals his HP. Poison Shroom is an interesting item. Unlike other items that are random for Mario (Mystery, Peach Tart, etc)…this one just looks like it’s awful at a glance. Hurting Mario with an item…why would you ever want to do that? And you can easily manipulate HP with Point Swap and Double Dip. Plus, it could accidentally do the other thing you didn’t want it to do (for example, it could heal you where you’re wanting it to hurt you). The item itself requires quite a bit of cooking to obtain, although that’s not really a huge issue. To break down the chance of both — poisoning Mario and taking half his HP is an 80% chance and the full heal is a 20% chance. That might sound bad at first, but we can actually use this to our advantage. Let’s adapt a couple strategies to use a Poison Shroom!

GRODUS STRAT
10 HP, 5 FP
BADGES: Last Stand, Power Plus x2, Power Bounce, Mega Rush, Power Rush, All or Nothing, Flower Saver, Flower Saver P (29 BP)
ITEMS: Poison Shroom, Fire Flower

Click here to see the strategy in action!

T1: Fire Flower, Poison Shroom Mario (M: 1)
T2: Spin Jump (25), Rally Wink, Spin Jump [KO]

This is a pretty cool variation on the classic Turn 1 Peril strategy against Grodus. With a
Poison Shroom, if Mario has 10 HP, he’ll be at 5 and poisoned. With Last Stand and a guard, Grodus’ lightning attack that he always does Turn 1 will do 6 / 2 = 3 damage, leaving Mario at 2. Finally, poison kicks in, dealing 1 damage and leaving Mario at 1. Awesome. We use a Fire Flower with Goombella to get rid of the Grodus X’s Turn 1. With two on the field Turn 2, Grodus has 3 DEF, so we need to make up for that with Power Plus and All or Nothing. Our base is 0 with Ultra Boots, brought back to 2 with two Power Plus and All or Nothing. Mega Rush + 2 Power Rushes is 9 extra ATK, leaving us at 11. We Spin Jump once for 25 damage, then use Rally Wink. With Flower Saver and Flower Saver P, two Spin Jumps is 2 FP and Rally Wink is 3 FP for perfect FP use. We then use another Spin Jump to deal the last 25 damage for perfect damage on Grodus!

This next one is a variation with Gloomtail!

GLOOMTAIL STRAT
10 HP, 10 FP
BADGES: Last Stand, Mega Rush, Power Rush x2, Power Plus x2, All or Nothing, Power Bounce, Feeling Fine, Flower Saver, Double Dip P x2 (37 BP, 40 with FP Plus)
ITEMS: Poison Shroom, Power Punch, Hot Sauce x3

Click here to see the strategy in action!

T1: Triple Dip (Power Punch, Hot Sauce x2 Mario), Poison Shroom (Mario)
T2: Hot Sauce Mario, Power Bounce (5-cap) [KO]

This strategy aims to deal perfect damage to Gloomtail T2 with Power Bounce with a Poison Shroom. Gloomtail has 1 DEF, but that’s okay — with all the ATK we’re stacking, Mario ends up being at a staggering 18 ATK. So, how does Poison Shroom get us into Peril? At half, Mario is again at 5 HP. Gloomtail always uses breath T1, and it does 8 damage, so halve that and we’re at 4. Nice! But, we have a small problem — Poison Shroom also poisons Mario! Luckily, Feeling Fine actively prevents the poisoning part, which allows us to get into Peril T1 cleanly. After that, it’s just stacking on ATK and Power Bouncing T2. Perfect FP with Flower Saver since Triple Dip is 8 FP and Power Bounce is 2 FP with Flower Saver. We could remove a Power Rush and deal 81 damage with a 6-cap, but perfect damage is more fun!

I want to draw attention to the fact that Poison Shroom is actually a really cool way to get to peril without the use of Double Pain. Normally, both of these bosses pose a problem getting to Peril T1 with 10 HP. You can easily circumvent this by having 15 HP and equipping Double Pain, but Poison Shroom allows us to do it without those things. Of course, there’s some RNG involved, but since Poison Shroom is used T1, it’s easy to just reset and wait until the desired outcome happens, which is pretty often at 80%.

Besides getting into Danger/Peril from 10 HP or dropping your HP by half if you have higher HP, Poison Shroom doesn’t really offer much use, and even then it’s heavily outclassed by Point Swap as the easy Peril item. That said, it is a really cool way to manipulate your HP, so try it out next time you want to do something weird with your strategies!

Next time, I’ll be covering…Ugh…Ms. Mowz…

Just Sayin’

Kappy’s Spotlight — Charge

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It’s that time again: #KappySpotlight time, where I talk about badges/items/partners/etc… that are generally seen as “bad” and not used very often by challenge runners. I dive deeper into why they’re perceived the way they are with some cool strategies centered around them mixed in! Today, I’ll be covering another badge in TTYD that boasts a lot of power, but little use — CHARGE!

Charge_TTYD
BP Cost: 1
FP Cost: 1
Move: Increases the damage dealt from Mario’s next attack by 2.
Glitz Pit Rank: D+

Charge actually almost barely made the cut into C Tier for the Glitz Pit, and it’s not hard to see why. For only 1 FP, Mario can do quite a bit with +2 ATK. The ability to stack charges can lead to insane damage output, and the fact that it stacks with Spicy Pasta and Hot Sauce means you can get away with some crazy charge-boosted attacks in just a few turns with Double Dip or Triple Dip. The big downside, of course, is that it takes up Mario’s turn, and you can easily achieve the +2 with a Power Punch that a partner can use instead of Mario. For the most part, you don’t need the extra +2 ATK to defeat bosses; Power Punch/Power Lift/Power Rush/Mega Rush is really all you need to take down most bosses in 1-3 turns. Still, there’s definitely some use with Charge, so let’s jump right into the strategies!

RAWK HAWK STRAT

10 HP, 5 FP
BADGES: Charge, Jumpman, Power Plus, Power Plus P x2, Power Bounce (24 BP)
ITEMS: Power Punch

Click here to see the strategy in action!

T1: Charge, Power Punch Mario (M: 7, Y: 7/10)

T2: Power Bounce (6 bounces), Ground Pound (KO)

This is a nice 2-turn strategy that doesn’t use any Danger. Turn 1 is all setup. At this point, Mario has the Super Boots, giving Mario a base of 2 ATK for his Jump. With Jumpman and Power Plus, it’s at 4. With Charge and Power Punch, it’s 8. Now, Rawk Hawk has 40 HP and 0 DEF, and his attacks won’t even put Mario & Yoshi in Danger Turn 1, so we’re not really concerned if we guard or not.

Turn 2 is where it all goes down. (8+7+6+5+4+3) = 33 damage. Yoshi at Base rank does four bounces with Ground Pound, so we just increase his ATK by 2 so it starts at 3. (3+2+1+1) = 7, which is just enough to KO Rawk Hawk. Easy, and no Danger abuse needed!

GLOOMTAIL STRAT

10 HP, 10 FP
BADGES: Charge, Jumpman, Mega Rush, Power Rush, Power Bounce, Feeling Fine (12 BP, 15 with FP Plus)
ITEMS: Point Swap

Click here to see the strategy in action!

T1: Charge, Point Swap Mario (M: 1) *Don’t guard
T2: Power Bounce (5-cap), Rally Wink, Power Bounce (5-cap)

Another two-turn strategy with Charge! It’s Gloomtail (80 HP, 8 ATK, 2 DEF), so we really needed to crank up the power with Peril.

Turn 1, we set up with Charge and a pretty unique way to achieve Peril against Gloomtail on Turn 1 with Point Swap. At this point, we have 9 FP, so Mario will have 9 HP now. Gloomtail always uses Breath first, so we don’t guard to take 8 damage and go down to Peril. We use Feeling Fine to ensure we aren’t poisoned.

Turn 2, we simply Power Bounce twice thanks to Rally Wink. With 10 FP, we have just enough to do this with perfect FP use. We do two 5 bounce Power Bounces for perfect damage. First, Mario starts at 1 ATK with Ultra Boots thanks to Gloomtail’s DEF. Factor in Jumpman, Mega Rush, and Power Rush, and we’re at 9 ATK. With Charge, we’re at 11. So, the first Power Bounce does (11 + 10 + 9 + 8 + 7) = 45 damage. The second Power Bounce deals (9 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 5) = 35 damage. 45 + 35 = 80. Perfect damage!

Charge is an easy substitute for Power Rush and for a quick boost in power. What holds it back is that it’s just so easy to achieve Danger/Peril already, so you can just use a Power Punch or Power Lift to increase your ATK further than a +2. Still, its ability to naturally use 1 FP and increase ATK is something that can be used cleverly. Feel free to use the strategies I’ve made or adapt them to something else!

I’ll putting up another poll for the next spotlight . Look out for it!

Just Sayin’

Kappy’s Spotlight — Bobbery

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It’s that time again: #KappySpotlight time, where I talk about badges/items/partners/etc… that are generally seen as “bad” and not used very often by challenge runners. I dive deeper into why they’re perceived the way they are with some cool strategies centered around them mixed in! Today, I’ll be covering a partner in TTYD who’s bombastically underwhelming — BOBBERY!!

1200px-Bobbery1.png
Moves:
Bomb — Deals damage to a single enemy (4/5/6 damage) [Front only]
Bomb Squad [3 FP] — Throw 3 bombs that explode one turn later for 3 damage each.
Hold Fast [4 FP] — Inflicts half-damage back to physical attackers.
Bob-ombast [9 FP] — Damages all enemies (8 damage)

Glitz Pit Rank: 6th (of 7 Partners)

Unlike Paper Mario 64, Partners in TTYD serve different purposes and can be included in strategies since they can be hit and have many, many more badges that can affect them. As such, I will be sharing strategies for these partners.

Bobbery is sitting at the 2nd-to-last position on the Glitz Pit Tier List. Yikes. Besides his fantastic HP as a tank and good base damage, Bobbery suffers tremendously once everyone is upgraded to Ultra Rank and you start stacking ATK+ badges on them. He’s the 2nd best tank in the game with a massive 40 HP pool at Ultra Rank, but he’s too FP inefficient and doesn’t cover as many enemies as he’d like without bringing that FP inefficiency into play. Despite this, he’s great at Level Zero – probably the best option there thanks to his base HP and ATK – but that alone isn’t going to make up for it when contenders like Vivian, Flurrie, and Yoshi exist in Level Zero runs. He’s also got a really unique niche use as a way to clear Fog with his moves/Appeal. Let’s break those moves down:

BOMB

Bobbery’s Basic attack. 4 damage at Base rank is pretty great, but it’s basically a Hammer attack. It can only hit the front. Bonus points for him being able to flip Clefts with this move, though! It can also clear Fog. Unfortunately, because of partner balance Flurrie also gets to 6 at Ultra Rank, making Bobbery’s upgrades less impactful in terms of power. You’ll use this move if there’s a spiky enemy or a Cleft, but otherwise, you’ll stick with something stronger.

BOMB SQUAD

This is Bobbery’s ace in the hole but unfortunately is outclassed once you start stacking power. This move can be an incredible way to defeat certain bosses. Cortez, Smorg, and even Magnus Von Grapple 2.0/Grodus can all be disrupted heavily by Bomb Squad. You can also use it to skip a turn in Shadow Queen’s Phase 2, which can be invaluable, but ultimately is still niche since you can just KO them outright with well-planned strategies. Bomb Squad actually has an amazing niche in Impossible Mode, where it can be used to ultimately optimize turns since it’s the highest damage-dealing move in your arsenal that can hit multiple opponents. The biggest drawback to Bomb Squad is that it can’t have its damage increased by any badge that raises ATK, so it’s stuck at base 3 even at Ultra Rank. If it could be increased I guarantee Bobbery would be seen in a different light off this move alone, but alas.

HOLD FAST

The worst move by far in Bobbery’s arsenal. It’s literally the Return Postage badge as a partner move, and it’s not great. While the idea of having this move on the highest HP partner is good, the fact that many attacks later on aren’t direct attacks really sells the move short. Hard to justify it when basically every boss after Chapter 5 isn’t affected besides a select few moves, and you can’t double the damage Bobbery takes, so you’re forced to use a Spite Pouch to deal more damage. It’s just not good when you can do so much more.

BOB-OMBAST

This is probably Bobbery’s second-best attack behind Bomb Squad, and is actually quite good at Ultra Rank. 8 damage base is strong. Unfortunately, it costs 9 FP, meaning you’re really digging into your FP to use this move when fantastic moves like Shell Slam, Stampede, and Fiery Jinx are all 6 FP and can deal way more damage. This is basically diet Supernova that costs FP. It’s an explosion, so you can definitely get use out of it by flipping 4 Clefts or dealing extra damage to 5 Phantom Embers, but otherwise…well, you have better, more FP-efficient options.

Now, let’s look at a strategy with Bobbery featuring Bomb Squad!

CORTEZ STRAT

10 HP, 10 FP
BADGES: Jumpman, Power Plus x2, Power Bounce, Flower Saver (21 BP, 24 with FP Plus)
T1: Bomb Squad, Spin Jump (10)
T2: Bomb Squad, Spin Jump (0) -> Phase 2 -> (18) (16) [Gem now exposed] (10) (4) (0) -> Phase 3 -> (18)

T3: Power Punch Mario, Power Bounce (4 bounces) [KO]

This is a modified strategy from one of our Puzzle Challenges hosted on the Glitz Pit. I wanted to specifically show this strategy to expose it to others and show how cool Bomb Squad is. This is a really nice, clean strategy and I love it, so let’s jump in!

We’ve set up Mario so that a Spin Jump does 4+6 damage against Cortez, who has 3 phases with 20 HP each. He has 4 ATK and 1 DEF. Our goal here is to completely skip Phase 2 with Bomb Squad. So, with Super Boots, Mario’s Jump does 2+2, and Spin Jump does 2+4. With DEF, we’re at 1+3 on Spin Jump, so Jumpman and two Power Plus badges put him at 4+6. We’ll be using FP every turn, so we put on Flower Saver so that Mario’s Spin Jump is 1 FP and Power Bounce is 2 FP.

Turn 1, we Bomb Squad and Spin Jump so that Cortez is at 10. It doesn’t matter who he attacks since this is the only turn he’ll get to attack. Turn 2, we Bomb Squad first to ensure we have six bombs out, then Spin Jump again to end Cortez’s Phase 1. After he transitions to Phase 2, the bombs from Bomb Squad thrown Turn 1 explode. Cortez sinks once when the bone pile is attacked in Phase 2, and the bombs attack the bone pile, so he sinks once, then exposes his gem on the second bomb. Now, on the third bomb, the bomb hits both the bone pile and the gem. Cortez’s gem actually has -1 DEF, and Bobbery’s bombs from Bomb Squad have 3 ATK, so he takes 2 on the bone pile and 4 on the gem, resulting in 6 damage total and leaving him at 10 HP. Now, two more bombs go off because the bombs from Bomb Squad can actually set each other off, and with two more bombs Cortez’s Phase 2 ends before Turn 3 has even started. Remember, we’re still at the end of Turn 2! And finally, the last bomb goes off and inflicts 2 damage on Cortez.

Now, finally, Turn 3 starts after Phase 2 is completely skipped. We have 2 FP left after two Spin Jumps and two Bomb Squads (both costing 4 FP total per turn). We Power Punch Mario and perform a Power Bounce with four bounces. With a Power Punch, Mario’s base 4 (factoring in Cortez’s DEF) is now at 6. (6+5+4+3) = 18 damage. And that’s exactly what we need to defeat Cortez’s third Phase and end the fight! I like this strat because you can really see how Cortez was definitely a boss for Bobbery. He annihilates him with Bomb Squad, and it’s amazing. Awesome, awesome, awesome!

Now let’s look at Bob-ombast!

SHADOW SIRENS & DOOPLISS STRAT

15 HP, 15 FP
BADGES: Jumpman, All or Nothing, P-Down D-Up, Power Plus P x2, P-Up D-Down P, Mega Rush P, Power Rush P x2, FP Drain, Multibounce, Double Dip (30 BP, 39 with 1 HP Plus and 2 FP Plus)

ITEMS: Point Swap, Shooting Star

Click here to see the strategy in action!

T1: Multibounce, Bob-ombast (26, 26, 16)

T2: Double Dip (Shooting Star, Point Swap Bobbery) (20, 20, 10), Bob-ombast [KO, KO, KO]

This is a variation of the classic “Double Dip and destroy with Yoshi” strategy, but with Bobbery! There’s a lot to unpack, so let’s dive in!

The goal of this strat is to finish off the Shadow Sirens & Doopliss with Bob-ombast. To do that, we need to get Bobbery in Peril. So, we’ll need to use Point Swap. We also don’t want Mario to be KO’d Turn 1, so we equip P-Down D-Up to guarantee he lives all 3 attacks in the worst case (4 from Doopliss, 6 from Marilyn, and 3 from Beldam with guarding). Bobbery’s got 40 HP, so he can’t die Turn 1 even with P-Up D-Down P equipped. We also have FP Drain equipped, but we’ll get to that a little later. With two badges that drop Mario’s ATK, we need to boost that back up to normal, which is 3 with Ultra Boots. So, we equip Jumpman and All or Nothing, a classic combo that boosts Mario’s ATK by two for jumps at the BP cost of one Power Plus. We gave Bobbery all we could for boosting a partner’s ATK for maximum damage.

Okay, let’s actually get into this! Turn 1, we Multibounce for 3 damage each. Now, Multibounce is 2 FP, but because of FP Drain, we get 1 FP back, leaving us at 14 FP. We then Bob-ombast for 11 damage (8 base + 3 ATK from badges), which is 14 total for the turn. Now, here’s where FP Drain came into play. Without it, we’d be at 13 FP, and 13-9 is 4. With FP Drain, we get that one crucial FP back to be at a perfect 5 FP. Then, Doopliss and the Shadow Sirens attack. Turn 2, we are now able to do the classic Double Dip -> Point Swap thanks to FP Drain. We use a Shooting Star first for 6 damage, then Point Swap Bobbery, putting him at 1 HP and giving us all of our FP back. In Peril, Bobbery has +5 ATK from Mega Rush P and +4 from the two Power Rush P badges. That’s 9 ATK total, bringing Bob-ombast up to a staggering 20 damage beast of a move. As you can see, we’ve left Doopliss and Marilyn, who have 40 HP each, at 20. Beldam, who starts with 30 HP, has 10 left. With one last Bob-ombast, we finish off Doopliss and the Shadow Sirens at the same time, with perfect damage on Doopliss and Marilyn. Unlike other strategies, Bobbery’s insane FP requirement for Bob-ombast requires a couple FP Plus badges or some level ups in FP, so it’s a little unoptimal compared to a partner like Yoshi with his 6 FP Stampede. However, achieving a 2-turn fight with Bobbery is pretty cool, and it’s always nice to use FP Drain!

That’s it for Bobbery. All in all, his few strengths are greatly outclassed by other partners thanks to his insanely bad FP economy and the inability to increase Bomb Squad’s power. However, he is a great tank and you’ll be hard-pressed not to use him in a Level Zero run; and, Bomb Squad can actually obliterate certain bosses. As always, feel free to modify or use these strategies yourself and try out Bobbery sometime! You might be surprised.

Next time, I’ll be covering another badge in TTYD. I wonder what it will be… oh, and hey, check out that Puzzle Challenge I mentioned earlier that features Bobbery. It’s pretty sick.

Just Sayin’

Kappy’s Spotlight — Lakilester

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It’s that time again: #KappySpotlight time, where I talk about badges/items/partners/etc… that are generally seen as “bad” and not used very often by challenge runners. I dive deeper into why they’re perceived the way they are with some cool strategies centered around them mixed in! Today, I’ll be covering a partner in 64 that you get last and subsequently usually use the least — LAKILESTER!

LakilesterSPM
Moves:
Spiny Flip — Deals damage to a single enemy (3/4/5 damage)
Spiny Surge [4 FP] — Deals damage to all enemies on the field (2/3/4 damage)
Cloud Nine [4 FP] — Mario is evasive for 4 turns
Hurricane [5 FP] — Blows away all enemies on the field (no Star Points given)
Glitz Pit Rank: 7th (of 8 Partners)

Oof, 7th out of 8 partners. Lakilester is an interesting partner because he has one ridiculous ability in Cloud Nine, and the rest just sort of…fall flat. Now, this spotlight I won’t be crafting any strategies with Lakilester for one big reason: all of the partners in 64 function almost exactly the same besides a few differences in their support abilities. Many partners deal 5-6 damage with their basic attacks and can hit multiple enemies. With this in mind, many strategiess I can devise for Chapter 6 and beyond bosses can all be done with multiple partners, especially since Mario is the only one who can increase his ATK & DEF. For the most part, when I strategize for 64 I just choose a partner that can give me the damage I need for exact damage. What I’ll be doing this spotlight is instead going through the strengths and weaknesses of each move. So, let’s get started!

SPINY FLIP

Lakilester’s basic attack. This basic attack is actually really good because he can hit any enemy and it doesn’t make contact. No real drawbacks here — it’s easy to follow up with Mario’s Jump (or have Mario follow up on an enemy that was on the ceiling) after this hits, and it can act like an aerial hammer since other attacks that can hit aeril and ground enemies like Body Slam and Headbonk can’t hit spiky enemies, which Spiny Flip can.

SPINY SURGE

Spiny Surge is another solid move, but with a pretty hefty FP cost. 4 FP isn’t much in the grand scheme of things, but for the most part, enemies like to be on the ground. Just look at most of Chapter 7 & Chapter 8. A huge majority of those enemies are grounded, meaning Kooper can clean up with Power Shell for 2 FP less. However, Spiny Surge does have a nice niche uses as the most cost-effective way to get rid of the Tuff Puffs during the Huff N. Puff boss fight and the ice bits during the Crystal King boss fight. You can always use it to take out all Bzzaps with ease, although Multibounce will likely work just as well for less FP. Other than that…you’re probably not going to get much out of 4 damage for 4 FP. Better to use Sushie’s Tidal Wave or Parakarry’s Air Raid against higher HP/DEF enemies, especially since Sushie can deal waaaaay more damage with Tidal Wave for only 6 FP. Still, it’s not a bad move. It’s definitely heavily outclassed, though.

CLOUD NINE

Fun fact: if you equip all Luck-based badges available to you, you get ~50% evasion in Danger. With Cloud Nine, you get basically 50% evasion without needing to be in Danger. However, it cancels out all Luck badges equipped. It’s a double-edged sword, but really…this is way better than equipping Luck badges. This move alone is enough to keep Lakilester relevant. Cycling through Turbo Charge, Water Block, and Cloud Nine is a common strategy to keep Mario ultra-buffed at all times, especially with a Flower Saver or two equipped. The ability to have that much evasion for 2-4 FP is actually insane, and there are times where Cloud Nine will help you dodge 3-4 attacks in a row…all for a pretty low FP cost. It’s good. It’s great. It’s awesome. There are no drawbacks if you’re not manipulating HP and are trying to avoid attacks entirely. There’s only one downside to this move: experienced players don’t really need it, and will instead use Bow’s Outta Sight for a guaranteed dodge since you’ll likely only need to dodge once after being in Peril to finish enemies off. Oh, and I guess it’s still RNG-dependent, which isn’t good. But, I’ve seen it do amazing things, and that can’t be overlooked.

HURRICANE

This move is, well…useless. Unless you’re trying to not earn Star Points or save Star Energy, you can just use Up & Away or, well, run. Really, it’s disappointing that this is Lakilester’s Ultra Rank move — a stronger Spiny Surge here would’ve been more effective, but you can tell they were hinting at using Lakilester for Huff N. Puff with it being his second base move. Should’ve been Hurricane… anyway, this move does have a good chance at blowing away every enemy not named Bombshell Bill Blaster and is a tad more reliable than Up & Away or Spook. For 5 FP though, I’d rather use something else. If this move gave you Star Points, it’d be on par with Flurrie’s Gale Force, which would make it great in my eyes.

That’s it for Lakilester. As I said before, you can swap around partners when it comes to bosses and normal battles and see mostly the same results, so no strategies for this one. Partners in 64 are tricky to talk about. A lot of them perform the exact same function damage-wise besides a select few like Sushie & Bow, so you have to look at their unique abilities like Cloud Nine, Water Block, etc… with that said, Lakilester, while being one of the worst-rated partners, isn’t always a terrible choice. You’re just going to find yourself going to others more unless you’re specifically looking for evasion.

Next time, we’ll go over a badge in Paper Mario 64!

Just Sayin’

Kappy’s Spotlight — Hammerman

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It’s that time again: #KappySpotlight time, where I talk about badges/items/partners/etc… that are generally seen as “bad” and not used very often by challenge runners. I dive deeper into why they’re perceived the way they are with some cool strategies centered around them mixed in! Today, I’ll be covering a badge that’s simply…smashing — HAMMERMAN!

Hammerman

Glitz Pit Rank: D-

This badge suffers from its namesake — hammers. Hammers are generally inferior to Jumping once you start to buff Mario’s ATK. With great move badges like Multibounce and Power Bounce, combined with the support badges Spike Shield and Ice Power, Mario is able to deal damage to all non-ceiling enemies, and with enough ATK-increasing badges, he can wipe out normal battles and boss battles in 1-3 turns. Hammers, on the other hand, are less effective. The biggest drawback is that you can’t hit anywhere but the front without Hammer Throw, and Quake Hammer and Fire Drive can’t hit aerial enemies. Hammer’s biggest positive is that it has higher base damage, so whereas a Jump may not deal damage to a high-DEF enemy, Hammer can. Unfortunately, as said before: increasing ATK only helps Jump more and more, and since you get Power Bounce and badges like PowerRush/Mega Rush so early, it’s tough to compete with Jump when challenge runners are great at manipulating Mario’s HP to get into Danger/Peril quickly.

Hammerman is a little different than move badges like Power Smash or Fire Drive because it gets rid of Jumping entirely, meaning Hammer is your only option. Now, this isn’t really great, but partners are so versatile that if you wanted to run a Hammer-centric build, you could quite easily and still be an effective fighter, and the 2 BP isn’t bad for a flat increase to damage. Let’s look at a couple places where Hammerman can be put to very good use!

THE MOON

The Moon in Chapter 7 houses an enemy that Jump quite literally cannot compete with unless Mario’s in Peril/Danger. Moon Clefts have 5 DEF. An insane amount, to be sure. At this point, you’ve probably got Jumpman and 2 Power Plus badges equipped. Well, that’s 6 ATK for your Jump…and 1 damage to Moon Clefts. You’d need to be in Danger to KO them with a normal Jump, and in Peril to KO them with Multibounce. With Hammerman, you don’t need any of this. In fact, from the get-go you can KO them all with Quake Hammer. Quake Hammer’s base ATK is 2. With 2 Power Plus badges and Hammerman, it’s at 5. Throw on P-Up D-Down and you’ve got an easy way to KO Moon Clefts with no effort. Throw on Flower Finder/Flower Savers and you can literally win every battle on the Moon (besides the ones with Z-Yux…but your partners can deal with those guys) without batting an eye.  Bonus points go to Hammer Throw having an ATK of 10 at this point and being able to easily KO Z-Yux as well.

PIT OF 100 TRIALS FLOORS 51-99

You might be thinking, “Wow, the later half of the Pit, Kappy? How is Hammer really good there?” Well, let’s take a look at the enemy list for these floors.

50s —– Badge Bandit | Ice Puff | Dark Boo | Red Chomp | Moon Cleft

60s —– Dark Lakitu (+ Sky-Blue Spiny) | Dry Bones | Dark Wizzerd | Frost Piranha | Dark Craw

70s —– Wizzerd | Dark Koopatrol | Phantom Ember | Swoopula | Chain Chomp

80s —– Spunia | Dark Bristle | Arantula | Piranha Plant

90s —– Elite Wizzerd | Poison Puff | Bob-ulk | Swampire | Amazy Dayzee

Now, let’s get this out of the way: there are quite a few enemies that Hammers can’t deal with easily. However, we have our partners, and they all can easily deal with the enemies Hammer can’t. Let’s assume we’re at end-game with Power Plus x2, Hammerman, All or Nothing, Power Rush, and Mega Rush equipped along with Fire Drive, Quake Hammer, Power Smash, and Hammer Throw. Let’s do some quick math when Mario’s in Peril…

Fire Drive Damage: Base (5) + Power Plus badges (2) + Hammerman (1) + All or Nothing (1) + Power Rush (2) + Mega Rush (5) = 16 piercing damage (decreasing with each hit).
Quake Hammer Damage: Base (2) + Power Plus badges (2) + Hammerman (1) + All or Nothing (1) + Power Rush (2) + Mega Rush (5) = 13 piercing damage.
Hammer Throw Damage: Base (6) + Power Plus badges (2) + Hammerman (1) + All or Nothing (1) + Power Rush (2) + Mega Rush (5) = 17 damage.

Power Smash Damage: Base (8) + Power Plus badges (2) + Hammerman (1) + All or Nothing (1) + Power Rush (2) + Mega Rush (5) = 19 damage.

That’s actually quite a bit of damage. You can KO a loadout of 4 Badge Bandits (12 HP), Chain Chomps (7 HP), Red Chomps (5 HP), Dry Bones (8 HP), Ice Puffs (provided they’re ground | 9 HP), Frost Piranhas (10 HP)…I think you get it. With the combined might of Fire Drive + Quake Hammer, you can lay waste to quite a few enemy loadouts. You can even KO 5 Spunias (12 HP) with Fire Drive after the last one takes Burn damage or is superguarded. That’s crazy. With this much damage on Fire Drive, you can even KO 5 Elite Wizzerds (12 HP) in one turn and they won’t even attack you!

Quake Hammer’s utility is more for piercing through Chomps, Clefts, and the Dark Bristles, while simultaneously being able to KO lower HP enemies like Badge Bandits or Frost Piranhas for less FP. Fire Drive is used to take out bigger HP enemies like Arantulas, Dark Koopatrols (after you flip them with Quake Hammer), and all Wizzerd variants (since Quake Hammer can’t hit them). You can OHKO Airborne Puff variants and Arantulas with Hammer Throw, and do enough damage to a Swampire that your partner can finish them off easily. You can even use Hammer Throw or Fire Drive to set up for easy Amazy Dayzee KOs. Power Smash…well, it doesn’t have a lot of use for all the normal battles since your normal Hammer also deals 17 damage and can OHKO basically anything you attack besides Swampires and Amazy Dayzees (even Elite Wizzerds are taken out with one Hammer), but you can use it against Bonetail to deal 17 damage for less FP than Fire Drive. And whatever you don’t finish off or can’t, you can with partners, especially at Ultra Rank!

Obviously, this isn’t optimal compared to the Multibounce method for two core reasons: 1) Hazards. A lot of these attacks are slightly more prone to causing hazards to happen. If you don’t have DEF, you could cost yourself Mario’s life if he gets hit by a falling stage light, the fire crackers, etc… especially when utilizing Peril. 2) Enemy layout. Some enemy layouts are cruel to hammers, with some switching off between an aerial enemy and a grounded enemy and others starting with all enemies you want to be grounded airborne, etc… this can be especially bad with Puffs, who randomly decide to be grounded or airborne at the beginning of battle. Sometimes, you won’t be able to KO all enemies with Hammer and your partner in one turn.

These can be mitigated with Life Shrooms and other support items, and that’s where the strategy becomes unoptimal. With Multibounce, you really don’t need to worry about enemy placement; just Multibounce away with easy partner cleanup (or use Rally Wink).

Okay, let’s do at least one boss strategy with Hammers!

MAGNUS VON GRAPPLE 1.0 STRAT

10 HP, 5 FP
BADGES: Power Smash, Hammerman, Power Plus, Mega Rush (10 BP)

ITEMS: Honey Syrup, Mistake

Click here to see the strategy in action!

T1: Power Smash (25), Multibonk (5-cap) (20)
T2: Honey Syrup, Power Smash (15)
T3: Power Smash (10), Mistake (Goombella)
T4: Power Smash [KO]

This strategy revolves around Power Smash with Hammerman providing just enough ATK to give Mario 6 damage with it, which is reduced to 5 with Magnus Von Grapple’s 1 DEF. Magnus Von Grapple always Stomps Turn 1, then is triggered into summoning his X-Fists at Turn 2. We get him to his trigger Turn 1, then Goombella uses a Honey Syrup so Mario can continue Power Smashing Turn 2. Turn 3, Goombella uses a Mistake to put Mario at 2 FP so he can finish off the fight Turn 4. On Turn 3, Mario takes 3 attacks — two from the X-Fists and a Quake attack. The attacks do 4, 4, and 2 respectively. Luckily for us, Mario can get himself into Peril whether he was attacked Turn 1. Depending on how many attacks Mario guards, he can take 7, 8, or 9 damage. Because Magnus Von Grapple’s Stomp does 2 damage, we have a way to get into Peril if we’re at 8, 9, or 10 HP. Easy. Turn 4, we finish up with a Mega Rush boosted Power Smash to win the fight. It’s a nifty little strat, and I actually really like it. You could upgrade FP once or equip FP Plus so you don’t need to use items, but to be honest, it means your partner is kinda just sitting there since if they keep attacking, you can just end him before Mario goes into Peril. This strat is about Hammerman, so we want to finish with a hammer move!

And that’s it! The thing about Hammerman is that you’re not going to build a strat around it as a move like with Power Smash — it’s just a supplement to Mario’s damage, but forcing you to only use Hammer options can help you see Hammer’s strengths and weaknesses. I recommend trying it out and seeing what you come up with! As usual, feel free to use these strats or modify them for when you next play! I always say this on my streams: there’s something special and extremely satisfying seeing a strat on paper come to life in the game.I want to do something from Paper Mario 64 next time, so let me know in the comments and on social media what you’d like to see! I’ll put up a poll later this week with the answers I get.

Just Sayin’