After crossing from the Twinsy Tropics, Mario, Luigi and Paper Mario finally reach the mainland again. However, the Sunbeam Plains has changed since our last visit. In several places, new cardboard obstacles have appeared, which block previously easily walkable paths. The rescued Toads therefore ask you to return to Peach’s Castle as quickly as possible and see if there is any new information about the abducted princesses. Follow the goal arrow west on your map and use the Trio Grab along the way to overcome the gaps between the platforms. If you have not yet collected all accessible blocks on the return trip, you should also examine the small sideways. Especially the double 1-UP mushroom on the eastern island, the boots on the elevated lead and the brooch west of the Lakitu Info Center are valuable finds. The now available battle cards can also serve you well in the upcoming boss fights.
As soon as you reach the castle courtyard, a toad awaits at the entrance and leads the group to Peach’s Castle. There you will learn that there is finally a new reference to the whereabouts of Princess Peach and Papier-Princess Peach. The two were apparently taken to Bowser’s villa on Mount Brrr. The villa is located high on the snowy mountain and can not be reached via the previous path through the Doop Doop Dunes. Instead, Mario, Luigi and Paper Mario must first cross the northern Sunbeam Plains and then pass the dangerous Gloomy Woods. Only behind this forest begins the actual ascent to the mountain.
New equipment in Peach’s Castle
Before you leave the palace again, it is worth a visit to the eastern shopping area. The dealers have expanded their range since your imprisonment and now offer stronger pieces of equipment. Especially the super boots and improved hammers are a useful purchase, if your previous weapons still come from the first stages of the game. Compare the attack values directly in the equipment menu and also consider additional effects that some clothes and accessories have. A slightly weaker item can be useful, for example, if it increases your speed or strengthens successful counterattacks.
The battle card store is also open. Here you can expand your first card set from the Rogueport Underground and buy cards with better effects. Especially useful are cards that weaken several Enemies at the same time, increase your power or restore lost BP. Since we will soon encounter an Enemies with numerous copies, such effects can greatly facilitate the upcoming fight. If possible, put your deck together so that you have both cheap support cards and some stronger cards for particularly dangerous situations. If your coins are scarce, you do not have to buy all new offers immediately. The store remains permanently available and can be visited again later.
Also take the opportunity to replenish your supplies of mushrooms, nuts and syrup glasses. Especially Luigi’s Fire Flower will be important in the next boss fight, so you should plan enough opportunities to restore your BP. Once Mario, Luigi and Paper Mario are ready, you will leave Peach’s Castle through the main entrance.
With the trio grave to the north of the Sunbeam Plains
Go east from the castle court and enter the Sunbeam Plains. First, follow the known route north and cross the first two areas. The Enemies have now become partly stronger and next to ordinary Goombas you will now also meet Monty Moles and Papier-Bob-ombs. The Monty Moles regularly disappear under the Earth and reappear elsewhere. Watch their movements to surprise them with a first strike if possible. Paper bob-ombs can ignite after damage has been sustained and explode shortly afterwards. Therefore, try to completely defeat them as quickly as possible after the first hit or avoid their last attacks in time.
In the northern part of the next area you can see several red poles hanging over a wide watercourse. On our first visit, we could not overcome this point. With the now learned Trio Grab this is no longer a problem. Stand on the edge of the platform and point Mario, Luigi and Paper Mario to the first wire. Activate the Trio Grab and move to the opposite side. Repeat the process on the remaining poles until you reach the small island north of the watercourse.
Party member clothing behind the watercourse
On the remote island there is an individual? Block that you should definitely open. Therein lies the party member clothing, a piece of equipment for Mario or Luigi. It not only improves defense, but also increases power and speed. This makes it particularly suitable for one of the two brothers, who often fights Bros. Performing attacks. After the find, open the equipment menu directly and compare their values with your previous clothes. The extra power can be especially useful against the upcoming boss.
After that, return to the previous lead and follow the path east. Cross the narrow connection to the next platform and enter the adjacent area. Here, too, several paths are now blocked by new cardboard obstacles. However, our destination is further northeast, which is why you can ignore the southern detours at first. Some particularly high-altitude blocks remain unreachable as long as we do not own the Trio Drill or the Trio Glider. We will search these sites in full on a later visit.
Paper Mario’s detour between the rocks
In the next area you follow the way north. Between two large rocks is a narrow passageway that can only be passed by Paper Mario. Stand right in front of the opening and send it through while Mario and Luigi wait on the other side. Behind the rocks stand two? blocks containing three mushrooms and ten coins. Open both and then return to his companions with Paper Mario. If you have already visited this area during an earlier exploration, the blocks are of course already empty.
Then go southeast. Here a wide water course blocks the direct path to the eastern part of the plain. On the other side are several red poles, which you can reach again with the Trio Grab. Move the group across the water and follow the narrow path east. After a few steps you reach an Arrow Sign that already points towards Gloomy Woods. This puts us on the right path to Mount Brrr.
Before entering the next passage, however, you should check your supplies again. A storage facility is located in the vicinity of the direction indicator. Make sure to use it, because a longer boss fight is waiting right away. If you have passed a Heart-Crystal block before, you can also go back there and fill up the HP and BP of all three characters. Make sure that Paper Mario has enough life energy. His copies will not be available in the following battle.
Paper Petey Piranha released
As soon as you have crossed the narrow transition behind the Arrow Sign, you hear the cries for help from a Toad. The small resident runs panicked across the plain and is chased by a huge piranha plant. At first glance, the Enemies is strongly reminiscent of the Petey Piranha, against whom Mario and Luigi had to fight at the beginning of the adventure. This time, however, the plant is made entirely of paper. It is about Paper Petey Piranha who has escaped from the mysterious book and now guards the access to Gloomy Woods.
The Toad can get to safety just before the huge paper opponents attack Mario, Luigi and Paper Mario. Although at first glance Paper Petey Piranha seems a little less dangerous than his three-dimensional counterpart, he possesses an unusual ability that makes the fight much more complicated: he can multiply. With this, you not only have to fight several Enemies at the same time, but also find out which of them is the real boss at all.
Boss Fight: Paper Petey Piranha
Right at the beginning of the fight, Paper Petey Piranha takes a strong breath and tears out his copy crystal block from Paper Mario. Before the three heroes can intervene, the plant uses the Block itself and creates numerous copies of its body. The individual paper tyrannhas are placed on top of each other and form a large stack that changes again and again during the fight. The real problem is that the real boss is also hidden in this stack. As long as you attack only his usual copies, you do not permanently damage the main opponent.
Paper Mario cannot create new copies of himself during this phase, as his copy crystal block was stolen. He therefore has to fight without his main protection mechanism and is particularly vulnerable to direct hits. Make sure to restore its HP in time with mushrooms or nuts. Mario and Luigi should be as strong as possible Bros. Use attacks to quickly remove the individual copies from the stack. The Fire Flower is particularly helpful because Paper Petey Piranha is sensitive to fire and suffers considerable damage from the numerous fireballs.
Beat the copies from the stack
Focus your first attacks on the large pile of paper tyrannhas. Each copy has its own life energy and falls to the ground once it has suffered enough damage. The defeated copies initially remain on the battlefield and look like flattened paper figures. Keep attacking until several specimens are on the floor. You should watch the fallen figures closely. One of them behaves differently than the rest: the real Paper Petey Piranha occasionally lifts his head and looks around. From this small movement you can recognize him reliably.
Once you have discovered the real boss, you attack exactly this specimen. A hit on the right Petey Piranha actually does damage to his life energy and ensures that the copies are then back together into a stack. If, on the other hand, you only make an ordinary copy, you lose another attack option without significantly harming the actual boss. Therefore, always observe the lying figures first before choosing your next goal. If none of the figures lifts their heads, you attack the stack again until more copies are detached.
If the copies remain unnoticed for too long, they straighten up again and reunite. This starts the search for the real Enemies practically from scratch. Therefore, try to examine the already on the ground specimens as quickly as possible and attack the real boss. Particularly effective are attacks that hit several targets simultaneously. The Fire Flower can not only weaken the copies, but also hurt the real Petey Piranha if he is among the hit characters. Alternatively, you can use the first Trio Attack to reduce the stack faster. As long as Paper Mario’s copy crystal block is missing, you should be careful not to subject it to unnecessary counterattacks.
Track the right copies
As the fight progresses, Paper Petey tries to confuse Piranha, Mario and Luigi with an additional trick. The copies are whirled together and change positions several times. Some of them remain stacked on top of each other, some of them are distributed over the battlefield. It is crucial that you do not lose sight of the position of the real boss during this process. Once you have recognized it by its striking head movement, you should remember where it lies or in which area of the stack it returns.
Then observe the entire movement of the copies until they have come to a complete stop. Only then choose your goal. If you attack too early or rely on the original position, you may only catch an ordinary copy. If you lose track, this is no reason to restart the fight. Just grab the stacked figures again until some of them fall to the ground. Then you can search again for the Petey Piranha, who briefly raises his head.
For the safest possible strategy, it is recommended to weaken the stack first with strong surface attacks and then the real boss with a targeted bros. attack to hit. Luigi’s Drill Shell is just as suitable for this as Mario’s Rocket Blast, as long as you can reliably master the respective key inputs. If the real Petey Piranha is already on the ground, you have to make sure that the selected attack actually hits the corresponding target. An ordinary jump can sometimes make more sense in such situations than an elaborate bros. Attack that hits several other copies.
Defend the attacks of paper tyrannhas
While you try to recognize the real Enemies, the copies of course do not remain inactive. One of their most common attacks is a quick rush on Mario, Luigi or Paper Mario. One of the plants jumps off the pile and storms towards the selected character. Hold the hammer ready and strike only when the copy is immediately in front of you. Some copies stop short or delay their attack to tempt you to a premature hammer strike. Therefore, observe the movement of the opponent closely and do not press the button on the first run.
In a successful counterattack, you strike back the attacking copy and direct additional damage. If several copies attack one after the other, however, you have to focus on the next movement immediately after each hit. Pay attention to which character is being targeted. Mario counters with A, Luigi with B and Paper Mario with Y. Especially with the faster attack combinations, a wrong keystroke can lead to several hits coming through one after the other.
Two shock waves in a row
Another attack begins with two copies detaching from the stack and jumping high into the air. Observe exactly which of the two plants flies up first. It also lands on the ground first, creating a circular shock wave that spreads across the battlefield. Jump over with the affected character in time. Shortly after, the second copy lands and triggers another shock wave. You have to jump twice in a row, with a short break between the two movements.
Especially important is the right timing for Mario and Luigi. If you jump too early, the brother may end up back on the floor when the second shock wave reaches him. Therefore, wait for the first jump and orient yourself at the landing of the second copy. Paper Mario can use his special hovering ability to stay in the air a little longer. For this, press Y and hold the button after the jump so that it slides more slowly to the ground. Thus, the successive shock waves can often be overcome more easily.
The second phase of struggle: Pursuit with the paper plane
Once Paper Petey Piranha has lost about half of his life energy, he becomes angry and begins to glow red. His attacks are thus faster and partly contain additional movements. Particularly striking is a new pursuit attack in which Mario and Luigi have to run away from the boss. Meanwhile, Paper Mario turns into a paper plane and hovers over his two companions. At the same time, the boss sends several of his copies ahead, which fold up on the floor and block the escape route.
First, observe exactly in which order the copies end up before Mario and Luigi. Some obstacles lie individually on the ground, others are placed in small groups immediately one behind the other. For a single copy, it is usually enough to jump over with the affected brother in time. If, on the other hand, several paper tyrannhas are close together, an ordinary jump is often not enough. In this case, the brother must hold on to the paper plane in order to be carried over the entire group of obstacles.
While the attack is being prepared, you should therefore remember which obstacles are individual and at which points several copies appear immediately one after the other. As soon as the pursuit begins, you jump over the obstacle with A or B for individual figures. If, on the other hand, a larger group appears, you move Paper Mario over the affected brother and let him hold on to the plane with the appropriate button. Hold the button until the entire obstacle group has been passed. Then you can let go of the brother and concentrate on the next obstacle.
The further the struggle progresses, the faster the obstacles follow one another. Therefore, do not try to look at every single copy only when it is immediately before Mario or Luigi. Follow the order you saw during the preparation. If you need to take a hit once, focus immediately on the next place. A single mistake does not mean that the entire pursuit has failed as long as your characters still have enough life energy.
Paper Petey defeating Piranha
After the persecution attack, the fight returns to normal view. Paper Petey Piranha continues to use his copies and again tries to hide the real body in the pile. The basic strategy remains unchanged: first attack the stack until several copies fall to the ground. Then watch which character lifts its head for a short while and focus your attacks on this specimen. As soon as you meet the real boss, the remaining copies regroup and the process starts all over again.
Since the Enemies is now angry, you should not let your HP sink too far. If necessary, use a groove to heal multiple characters at the same time, or play a suitable combat card. Cards that increase your power are especially useful if you have just discovered the real Petey Piranha. Then combine the effect with Luigi’s Fire Flower or another strong bros. Attack. Due to his weakness against Fire, Paper Petey Piranha can be combated particularly effectively with the Fire Flower. However, be sure to restore your BP stock in time with syrup glasses so that you are not exclusively dependent on ordinary attacks in the final stages.
After several successful hits, the boss finally loses his last HP. The remaining copies disappear and Paper Petey Piranha collapses. Paper Mario gets his stolen copy crystal block back and can reproduce as usual in the following fights. As a reward, the group will receive 650 Experience Point and 330 coins. In addition, the boss leaves the collector’s clothing for Paper Mario, which you should check directly in the equipment menu.
The last crystal block before the Gloomy Woods
After Paper Petey Piranha is defeated, you can finally pass the previously blocked path. Before you go further north, should you still go? Open block near the battlefield. There are 50 coins in it, which we take directly. You can then return to the last storage option if necessary and replenish your HP and BP. You should especially check Paper Mario again after the fight, because he could not build up any additional protection from his copies during the confrontation with the stolen copy crystal block.
Follow the road north and enter the Gloomy Woods. Even the first steps lead you into a dense forest, which is populated by unusual plants and numerous paper figures. In addition to new enemies, you will find several puzzles where we have to use the Trio Grab and the Trio Hammer. We also meet an unusually large resident: Wiggler, who guards the forest and will play a crucial role in finding a way to Mount Brrr.
We continue with the Gloomy Woods, where we must first help Wiggler find enough food before he can help us overcome the obstacles created by Kamek. There is also another encounter with Nabbit, with Mario an additional Bros. You can get an attack.