Paper Mario: Sticker Star/Gameplay

Attacks
The only way to attack in this game is to use stickers you have in your journal. Select a sticker with the Control pad, Circle pad or the stylus. When you select a sticker, Mario will attack the enemy with it. And by "attack the enemy with it", I don't mean Mario will THROW it at the enemy. He will use it's special power.

Sticker types
There are three different kinds of stickers; normal stickers, Shiny Stickers that "glimmer" as you shake the bottom of the 3DS, and Flashy Stickers that have a rainbow in the background.

Stickers have the same power for the whole game. So normal stickers (if you get the action command right) will usually do about 15-17 damage depending on what sticker it is. Shiny stickers (also getting the action command right) will do about 30-40 damage depending on the stickers power. And Flashy, the most powerful sticker in the game ALWAYS does around 50-70 damage and somtimes even more if you do an action command for it and depending on the sticker power.

Overkill
When you attack an enemy that small bar on the right shows the enemies HP. If when jumping you "overkill" an enemy it and It's health bar will turn gray, every hit you do after that will give you coins.

You can't do Overkill with hammers. There is one Hammer Sticker though, that will hit the enemy repeatedly until you miss an action command and if the enemies health is low enough you can keep hitting it and getting coins

Quick Warning
If you do not have any stickers in your journal stay away from enemies because if you do not have any stickers, you can't attack.

Battle Spin
Not so late in the game, Kersti will show you the battle spinner, it's lke playing slots. The more stickers you match in the battle spin, the more stickers you get to use per turn for the rest of the battle. (For example: If you played the battles spin and you matched 2 coins with a pow block in the middle, the 2 coins will let you use 2 stickers each turn for the rest of the battle.)

First Strike
Hitting an enemy with a hammer or jumping on them will do damage to them right before the battle starts.
 * Note: You cannot get the First Strike on bosses or mini-bosses.