Yoshi starts the adventure. Mario, Luigi and Wario have separate rescue courses and keys. Open their lettered doors in the room above the lobby’s right stairs to choose them permanently; a colored cap found inside a course is a temporary transformation.
Mario — eight stars
Start as Yoshi and collect eight stars. Above the lobby’s right stairs, enter the one-star door, then the central door and the eight-star door beyond the Rec Room. Jump into Mario’s painting.
Follow the platforms to the tall tree and climb to its hollow stump. Drop inside to face Goomboss. Catch a trailing Goomba with Yoshi’s tongue and spit it at the boss, or turn it into an egg first. Hit Goomboss three times while staying clear of the expanding body and faster movement.
Take Mario’s key back to the character room and open the red M door. Mario can wall-kick and uses Power Flowers to inflate. Feathers in appropriate ? Blocks give him flight. Borrowed red caps work in some earlier missions but do not permanently open his character door.
Luigi — Big Boo Battle
With fifteen stars, enter Big Boo’s Haunt as Mario and clear Go on a Ghost Hunt to raise the main staircase. Activate the ? Switch by looking into the lobby’s beam as Mario if the red blocks are still transparent.
Enter the mansion’s upper-right room, use the Power Flower and float to the attic entrance. Jump into Luigi’s painting. On the lower-screen map, follow the doors right, up, right and up, then drop through the hole beyond the Boo picture.
Approach the mirror to start the King Boo fight. Use the reflection to locate him when he is invisible, face away to draw him close and ground-pound him three times. Take Luigi’s key to the green L door. His high backflip and scuttle help with long crossings; his Power Flower makes him invisible and lets him pass through designated grates and pictures.
Wario — Chief Chilly Challenge
Defeat Bowser in the Fire Sea after opening the thirty-star basement door and clearing Board Bowser’s Sub. Use the new key to reach the upstairs mirror room as Luigi.
Take a Power Flower from the pedestals, walk through the mirror while invisible and enter Wario’s painting. Follow the icy platforms, take the right branch and reach the hole above Chief Chilly’s arena.
Knock Chief Chilly off the ice three times. Jump or attack toward him while keeping your own landing inside the platform; reposition after each hit as the arena becomes smaller. Take his key back to the yellow W door. Wario breaks Black Bricks and becomes metal from a Power Flower, letting him resist currents and walk underwater.
Switch characters and use their powers
Re-enter the door belonging to the character you currently control to return to Yoshi. Yoshi’s flutter jump and fire breath solve objectives the other three cannot, including frozen Red Coins. He cannot normally punch bricks or defeat Boos.
Under the standard DS controls, B jumps, A attacks or uses Yoshi’s tongue, Y runs and R crouches. Press R in the air to ground-pound; crouch and jump for a backflip. Mario wall-kicks by jumping again as he touches a wall. Other control modes remap buttons, so check Options if your setup differs.
A red, green or yellow cap borrows Mario’s, Luigi’s or Wario’s moves, including that character’s flower effect. Damage can knock it off. Several special-course caps appear only after their owner is rescued, so return later when a checklist calls for a cap that is absent.
Secret Stars in the three rescue courses · Walkthrough overview