Paper Mario/Chapter 8: A Star-Powered Showdown

Star Way
After talking with the final Star Spirit, start the long journey back down Shiver Mountain, all the way to Shiver City. As you pass the save block just outside Crystal Palace, you can step of the side of the cliff to find a star piece.

Go to sleep in the Toad House in Shiver City, and when you wake up there will be a bunch of items on the floor. Go back through the pipes and into Toad Town (using the shortcut), and north to the very top of Shooting Star Summit. Don't bother buying any items in Toad Town, since there is a much better shop in Star Haven.

Here, you will be able to take Star Way all the way to Star Haven. Use Sushi's water attacks to defeat the Embers along the way. You may also want to re-equip the Ice Power and Fire Shield bages.

Important Note: If you're a completionist and you want to find all the collectibles, you need to do before travelling along Star Way. Once you defeat Bowser at the end of this chapter, there is no way to continue playing without loading an old save. In theory you could double back before the end of the chapter, but it's a long walk!

Star Haven
On the lower level of Star Haven, there is the star's version of Toad House, and at the top of the castle is a shop with several high-powered items. You'll want to make sure you're fully healed and stocked up, since we're heading to Bowser's Castle in a moment.

Follow the path round to the right, and go into the Star's castle. Here, you will be given the Star Spirit's final power, and a ship that will let you fly to Bowser's Castle.

The Dungeon
Head through the door to the front of the castle. Unsuprisingly, the front door is locked, so instead go through the small door to the right. Defeat the Koopatrol to get the key. Watt's Electro Dash is especially helpful against their strong defence.

Unlock the front door, and precede through the castle, defeating the various Koopatrol and Hammer Bro you encounter.

Eventually you will come across the Guard Door, who will trick you into falling through a trap door into the dungeon. Use Bobmette to blow out the wall and escape.

The Lava River
In the second room, you'll need to use Kooper to activate the switch for the moving platform, and Parakarry to fly across the large gap by the middle door. For the second switch, you'll need to use Lakilester's ability to fly to the platform and hit the switch, then fly back round to the left and up the stairs to jump on the new moving platform. Use Parakarry's ability to get across the next string of platforms.

In the third lava room, you'll once again have to use Lakilester's ability to travel across the lava (which feels awful - it's clearly painful for the cloud!). You can use Kooper's ability to grab the Mystery item (which will randomly grant you another item in combat), but will need to ignore the Thunder Rage for now. On the next moving platform, use Bow's ability to hide from the waterfall, and the Parakarry to get across the gap. At the end of the room is a locked door, but we can't get through it yet. Instead, use Lakilester to fly through the door in the lava.

At the top of the stairs in this new room, you'll find a Magikoopa and gang of Koopatrol protecting an important switch. Defeat the gang (strong all-enemy attacks, like Star Storm and Air Raid, are helpful here), and press the button. This will block the lava fountain, causing the lava to cool and harden. Mario will now be able to walk across it.

We can now reach the locked door, but we're going to need the key. Double back on yourself, all the way to the second lava room (jumping up to grab the Thunder Rage on the way past). Remember the door we flew past earlier? Mario can now walk to it, where you will find a chest containing the Castle Key.

Before we go through the door, there are a couple of goodies to grab. Head as far west along the lava as you can. You'll pass a yellow block containing a Life Shroom. Keep going, back to the front of the castle, and up the pile of stone columns to the red block, to get the Deep Focus badge.

Go back to the locked door and use the key to get through it.

The Dark Caves
Use Watt to illuminate the caves, and to get through the thick shells of the Bony Beetles. Use Parakarry to fly across the large gaps. Note that when you're in battle, you won't be able to attack the enemies at all unless you have Watt as you're companion, since it will be to dark. Annoyingly, they will still be able to attack you.

The first two times the path splits into three, the lower path is a dead-end, and the upper path leads to an item (POW block, then Shooting Star), and the middle path is the way forward.

The third time, all three paths are dead-ends. The way forward is to follow the upper path, and then intentionally fall through the gap. Follow this path into the next room, and then push the Bowser-faced pillar to reveal a secret door back to the Guard Door, who will now let you through.

We're about to go deeper into Bowser's Castle, but first there is a chance to save, heal, and stock up. The save point is obvious, but the heal point and shop are less obvious.

Take the lower door to the east, and head down the stair. Defeat the Koopatrol to get the key to the dungeon, and open the door. Here, the Toads will be so grateful they will let you use the cell as a temporary Toad House, allowing you to heal.

If you go to the top left door in the main area, you'll find a small shop that will let you buy items.

The East Wing
Go back to the main area, up the stair, and through the door to the east. Keep going through the corridors, past the platform with the button, until you reach the locked door. Next to this, you'll find a spring up to a platform, with a long chain hanging down. Jump to pull this chain, and flood the East Wing with water.

You can now use Sushi to swim back to the previous section, and access the platform with the switch. Using this switch gives you a spring to jump up to the next platform. Use Bombette to blow through the wall, and then Tornado jump to get the second switch down. This reveal a secret passage to another chain, which will flood the East Wing even more!

Head into the previous room, and use Sushi to swim across to the platform with the key. Now we can unlock the door - if we hadn't just flooded it! Fortunately, the chains can also remove the water. Do everything you've just done, but backwards: go through the secret passage to pull the second chain, then swim back round to the first chain. You should now be able to unlock the door.

In the next room, you'll find a stream of Bombshell Bill coming towards you. If you're careful, you can weave your way through these, although it's likely you'll end up fighting at least one of them. Destroy the B. Bill Blasters at the end to continue up the stairs. Then, do the same thing another three times, for each level of blasters. The last two sets are also protected by additional enemies - you might want to consider just using Up & Away to get rid of them all.

In the next room, you'll encounter a set of Dry Bones. Kooper's Fire Shell attack will absolutely obliterate these, so don't bother using anything else. The third Bowser staute can be moved, revealing a secret passage to a room, this time with a locked door. The first statue can be moved, to reveal a passage to a third room.

The third room is sneaky. It looks like the secret passage has already been revealed, but it just leads to a dead end. There a secret secret passage hiding behind the 'moved' middle block. Go through this passage to get the Castle Key, and then go back and unlock the door.

The Guard Door
Here, you will meet another guard door, who will subject you to a memory quiz. He'll reveal a bunch of his followers, and quiz you on them. The answers are as follows:


 * 1) Q: How many Koopers? 'A: 3
 * 2) Q: What were there two of? A: Red Shy Guys
 * 3) Q: Who came out the middle? A: Red Shy Guys
 * 4) Q: How many Goombas? A: 2
 * 5) Q: How many arms did you see? A: 4

Beyond the Guard door there is a short stretch of the castle walls, which should be a fairly simple trip, with the opportunity to get more items.

Once you're back inside the castle, there's another chance to rest, heal, and get more items. The format is very similar to the floor below. The lower west door leads to another dungeon acting as a Toad House. The upper west door is hiding an Ultra Shroom. Jump up the coloured block, and then fall down onto the lower block. From here, you should be able to send Bombette off the edge to trigger the switch, which will let you just across the platform to the Ultra Shroom.

The Even East-er Wing
Once you're fully saved and healed, go to the upper east door. Here, you'll need to do the same thing with Bombette - stand on the top platform, and send her off the edge to trigger the switch. Jumping across the platform will get you the Castle Key needed to unlock the door.

The next five rooms act as a maze, with each room giving you two options: an upper door, and a lower door. Choosing the wrong one will cause you to go back to the beginning. Fortunately, the lamps in the first room provide the sequence we need: up, down, down, up, down up. In all cases, you want the door on the right (that is, east), rather than backtracking.

Once, you're through the maze, head across the bridge, and heal at the next section. Here, you'll meet 'Peach', although something doesn't seem right. Head back to the left far enough that she goes out of sight, and then return to discover she is actually a Duplighost. Bash her a bunch of times with your hammer until the Duplighost gives up and fights you. Heal again before heading on.

Jr Trooper
Here, you'll encounter another Guard Door, and after a short cutscene, see the return of Jr. Trooper. Watch out for when he grows wings - since he's in the air, Mario's hammer won't work, but you also can't use a jump attack because of the spike on his head. This battle isn't especially hard, but Jr has quite a strong attack, so you may want to keep a focus on support skills like Cloud Nine and Star Spirits. Watt's Electro Dash will help cut through Jr's reasonable defence.

Getting Ready
Most of this will be familiar, since you've explored it with Peach. Most rooms are empty, but there are a couple of goodies hiding.

Outside the castle, take the opportunity to save, since it's the last time before the first of the boss fights. Inside the castle, head to the right-most room. In the chest, you'll find a Last Stand badge. In the wardrobe, there is a Toad hiding, who will turn the bedroom into a makeshift Toad House. On the second level, there is a Life Shroom in the library (south-west room), which can be reached by jumping up the piles of books by the table.

We're about to face Bowser, you may want to think about badge choice. Badges that affect large numbers of enemies aren't going to be helpful, but anything that helps your HP or FP will be. Badges that strongly attack one enemy, like Mega Smash, will also be helpful.

Bowser: Part One
Head all the way up the stairs to find Peach in trouble, and the first fight with Bowser. This battle is similar to any boss battle - keep doing damage while also keeping an eye on your health. Whenever Bowser uses the power of the Star Rod, use the Star Beam power to remove his protection. Note that Bowser has several nasty suprises - the ability to immobilise your companion, to heal, and to stop you using items.

Once you've defeated him, he'll run away, so just follow him further up the castle.

Peach: A Final Wish
Once meeting Bowser on his special arena, the next few minutes are essentially a cut-scene, even though you'll be fighting. You'll have a very short Round 2 with Bowser before discovering Kammy's invention has made him too powerful even for the Star Beam.

The action will cut to Peach, who is trying to find a way to help Mario. You'll get a short fight as her and Tink, where you'll defeat Kammy. Both Peach and Tink only have one ability, so just keep doing what the game tells you. At the end of the battle, Peach will collect the wishes of all Mushroom Kingdom, and give them to Tink, who will join the other Star Spirits to upgrade you Star Beam.

Bowser: Part Two
Now Mario will get a Round 3 with Bowser, for his toughest fight yet. Bowser can use the Star Rod to heal 30HP three times, giving him an effective heath of 189! He can also poison you, as well as take away your companion, items, hammer, and boots for several turns.

The key to this fight is simply to stay alive long enough to chip away Bowser's health. Make defence and health a priority - try to keep Mario covered with Cloud Nine as much as you can, and use a combination of Ultra Shrooms and Smooch to keep your health up. Refresh is also a keep way to cure poisoning. Try not to take too many risks with your health, since you never know when Bowser will take away one of your abilities.

You also need to make sure you use Peach Beam immediately after Bowser uses the Star Rod. His ability doesn't only make him invincible, it also massively increases his attack power, so you'll lose a lot of health if you delay.

Eventually, you should be able to keep dropping Bowser's health enough to get him to zero, and finally win the Star Rod back!

Epilogue
Once you defeat Bowser, you'll get a long string of cut-scenes to finish of the story (with a very small walk to Peach's Castle). After watching the parade, you'll be present with a final screen declaring you have officially reached "The End".

One small note to avoid confusion, like many old Nintendo games, this final screen truly is the end of the game. There's no way to keep playing, do a final save, or even return to the main menu. Once you're ready, simply turn off your console, and decide which game to play next.