Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars/The fifth Star Piece

Before you go to Seaside Town, return to Booster Pass. To the left, a new path has opened where before there was just a hill. Enter it and you'll see an apprentice on a training course. Simply beat him and walk all the way across to find three Treasure Boxes with a Frog Coin, a Flower and a KerokeroCola. (Note that if you lose against him, he will become Booster's fourth Snifit. Booster can have up to seven Snifits if you lose three times)

Seaside Town
For some reason, all people are acting strange if you talk to them... Go into the item shop building on the left and go into the lowermost door. This shop has very good stuff that cannot be acquired later. Stock up on Fire Bombs (you'll need three or four) for later. Get any other items from here if you want, though Fright Bombs can also be acquired for free from Booster Pass so you don't really need them.

You can't do anything else, so once you're done, go to the Elder's house to the north. He tells you that a star has fallen into the ocean and he needs it, therefore you're supposed to find it for him. If you go upstairs, you'll find one of Frogfucius' students who is selling some really good stuff for insane amounts of Frog Coins. If you have the required money, the Exp. Booster is really useful. The others are not required. Once you have done this, leave this area to the south and go to the Sea.

Sea
Go forward and you'll find a shaman who is willing to sell you stuff. The Hurly Gloves are a new weapon for Bowser, the others are all stuff you already have. Do buy all the armor though and equip it, also stock up on Pick Me Ups if you haven't already. Once you're done, continue your journey by going south. Here, drop down to find a Treasure Box containing an Invincibility Star. Quickly run through all the seastars here, then go down and kill some others in the next room before the Star Power runs out. Now, go through to the next room. Jump into the waterwhirl so you're pulled down to the seabed. Go into the alcove and let yourself be pulled up to reach a Treasure Box containing a Max Mushroom. Now, go forward to be outside again. Jump into the waterwhirl, then walk to the pipe and go town to enter the Sunken Ship.

Sunken Ship
There are sheets of paper from the travel log all across the ship. You can read them if you want, but it's nothing interesting. Since many of the enemies in this area are weak to thunder attacks, you may want to use Mallow here to plow through the large stream of enemies.

Go through the right door to find a save point. Return and go through the left door to find a room infested with ghosts, Just go through this room, as well as the next one. Now, you'll be in front of a staircase going down. Jump into the hole created by the boxes to collect a Flower. The Treasure Box at the very bottom contains some coins, so collect it while avoiding the rats.

The next room is a large one. There are several doors here which you must go through to solve a riddle at the end. Every door is guarded by a Greaper standing in front of it which you must battle first (or you can carefully sidestep to avoid the Greaper battle). The riddles are as follows:


 * In the first room (counting from the right), there's a Sky Troopa who follows you wherever you go. Your goal is to push the ball onto the green switch. To do this, walk behind the ball and the switch, then run around so the Sky Troopa pushes the ball onto the switch. Once you've done that, you will get a Recovery Mushroom and a note, saying that there's an s in the word.
 * In the second room there are three moving springboards. You have to stop them in a way to allow the ball to jump all the way to the green switch. Jump against the J boxes to stop each springboard. Once you've solved this riddle, you'll get a flower and a note saying that it is found on the bed of the ocean.
 * The third room is a three-dimensional maze. Pressing allows you to restart at the beginning (or to view your position in the maze). Since you cannot see yourself, it is very difficult.  First, head directly up-left in the opening until you reach the hole you can poke your head out of.  Continue left, and try heading to the top-right of the room, where you climb on some platform.  Move slightly down, and make a jump to the left, and you should reach the bottom-left corner, where you can easily move to the back.  Move down-left until you reach the end, then jump to the up-left. Move up-right to reach the final hole, and thus jump on the button.
 * Once you manage to find your way through, you'll get a Royal Syrup, and another note saying the word has two vowels. Note that this clue is redundant - if you can't complete this maze, you'll only be out one Royal Syrup.

After you've done these three riddles, go to the south into the next room. There's a Treasure Box here but it is guarded by a Dry Bones. Dry Bones can only be killed by special attacks (Bowser's Terrorize is already sufficient) and will resurrect after a while. The Treasure Box itself only contains some coins so you may want to skip it. There's another Shaman here who will sell items, in case you need some more. Once you've done that, go down and continue with the next riddles (this time counted from the left):


 * The fourth room has a coin trail - you must collect all the coins without actually collecting the lead coin itself until the end. It is somewhat frustrating, but once you manage to do this, you get some coins and another note which states that it has four consonants.
 * The fifth room has three cannons. The J box on the far left shoots the first cannon. You need to jump into the cannonball from below so it hits the J box far up, which then triggers the next cannon, and so on. Once you've done that, you get another mushroom and a note which states that at least two consonants are side-by-side.
 * The sixth room straight ahead has a save point and two switches. You need to get onto a nearby barrel to roll it onto one switch while you jump onto the other. Once you've done that, you get a Recovery Mushroom and the last note, which says the r comes before the l.

The next room is the password room, where you can select one of five letters If you haven't figured it out by now, the password is pearls. Enter it using the J boxes, then talk to the tube and go through the door.

Miniboss: King Calamari
If you bought the Fire Bombs, drop them here, then physically attack any tentacles remaining. This should get you all the way through up to the main body. Here, have Mario use Super Flame on King Calamari while the others drop the remaining Fire Bombs, or physically attack once they run out. This miniboss should be gone quickly.

If you have not bought any Fire Bombs, it becomes more difficult. Mario should use Super Flame while the others physically attack or heal. Occasionally the tentacles may take one party member outside, in this case continue attacking and it should return quickly. Eventually you'll manage to beat him.

Sunken Ship, part 2
You'll land in another room. Go through and in the next room take the upper door. Here, you can either try to run across while the cannons aren't shooting or simply fight the Alley Rats sitting on the cannons. In the following room simply go down the stairs to the next room. You can jump from the barrels to the structure where there are two Treasure Boxes with coins in each. Now, go straight ahead and you'll be in an empty room with a mirror image of yourself. Before you go through the room, walk over to the middle light on the floor, and stay along the wall between the doors. Jump up midway between the doors to reveal a J box and a treasure chest. Then position mirror Mario under the treasure box that's appeared and grab it!

After that, go through the next room to the room after. Here, go down the stairs and you'll find a save point and a Treasure Box with a Recovery Mushroom. There's another box across the wall of boxes, open it up and an enemy's inside!

This guy is challenging because he has powerful attacks. But again Jump is his weakness, so have Geno cast Geno Boost on Mario and then Super Jump Hidon. Eventually he may generate Goombettes, these should be killed with Terrorize or Poison Gas. In any case, they should go down quickly. You'll get a Safety Badge for your efforts, which protects against all status effects such as Sleep, Fear or Poison.

Go to the next room, and just go through the next one since you can't do anything there. In the following room there's a waterwhirl. You can either go back to collect some Frog Coins, or go forward. Here, jump down the staircase while avoiding the Zeostars if possible. In the following room, hug the left wall until you come to a door. Go through this door, you'll reach a Treasure Box with a Safety Ring inside. This works like the Safety Badge but protects against instant death attacks as well. Go back to the water room, climb up the barrels, jump out of the water and go into the next room.

Some Bandana Reds will engage you there. If you still have some Fire Bombs left (from getting freebies) you can drop them here, otherwise attack as you normally would. The Treasure Box right next contains a Recovery Mushroom. Now try to go upstairs and more Bandana Reds will challenge you. Beat them again and they'll zip away. In the next room you'll find the fifth star and the person who owns it. His name is Johnny and he challenges you to a fight.

Miniboss: Johnny
Whatever you do, do not kill all the Bandana Blues. If you do so, Johnny will challenge Mario to a 1-vs-1 fight, which is pretty difficult. If you leave one Bandana Blue alone, this never happens and you can beat up Johnny together.

Bowser should use Terrorize at the beginning of the fight. As already stated, kill all Bandana Blues except for one, and then attack Johnny using physical attacks. Eventually he'll Get Tough, which turns him red and raises his defense considerably. Use Geno Boost on the other two characters two or three times, then start using Geno's normal attacks or specials if he has enough flowers. After that, just continue to punch him out, eventually he should be dead. Once he's dead, the Bandana Blues disappear on their own.

Once you've managed to finish him, he will give you the star as a present. Leave the Sunken Ship using the backdoor.

Seaside Town
The townspeople are already waiting for you. They're actually called Yaridovich and part of Smithy's goons. The fake elder now asks you to hand him over the star. Give it to him, because keeping it won't do any good and reduces a later reward. He will then rush off, follow him to the left exit. Here, he will notice that his ride is late and try to jump into the sea, which is quickly stopped by Johnny. Being surrounded, he decides to transform and fight...

BOSS: Yaridovich
This boss fight is very hard. Yaridovich has powerful special powers including Water Blast, which knocks you out easily if you're not careful. You should bring multiple Mid Mushrooms and Pick Me Ups to the battle. Geno should use Geno Boost on everyone if not busy with healing, since it powers up Attack as well as Defense if timed. Eventually, Yaridovich will duplicate himself. The real deal is easily found because if you attacked in the round before, the cursor will automatically be pointing at the correct Yaridovich. Continue to dish at him and hopefully you'll manage to beat him.

You'll now get your star again. Run to the east and you'll find the Shed Key. Go back into the village and unlock the door to the shed (the first building you see) and you'll notice that all the townspeople have been trapped inside. If you handed over the star to Yaridovich immediately before, you will get a Flower Box from the real elder (or a Flower Tab if he was tickled). To continue your quest, return to the elder's house and speak to him.