Kero Sewers to Forest Maze. Follow the linked route in order, stopping for recovery before the major fights. This chapter follows the original SNES game.
In this chapter
- Kero Sewers
- Belome in Kero Sewers
- Midas River
- Tadpole Pond and Melody Bay
- Rose Way
- Rose Town
- Forest Maze
- Bowyer
Kero Sewers
Use the pipes and shallow-water exits to work through the sewer rooms. The optional chest monster Pandorite awards a Trueform Pin and Flower Jar; take it only with enough HP and FP for the battle. The pin protects against Mushroom and Scarecrow, useful for the coming boss.
Find the large ! floor switch in the room with Boos and press it to drain the water. Return through the nearby pipe to the multi-pipe room and use the pipe that was submerged. Avoid taking the exit spring before reaching that pipe, because leaving resets the drained water. Collect the recovery chest, save and continue to Belome. The high treasure near this exit is reached much later from Land’s End, not by an impossible jump from below.
Belome in Kero Sewers
Belome can swallow a companion temporarily and inflict Sleep or Scarecrow. Equip your available protection and keep the remaining character healthy while one is absent. A Scarecrow can still use special moves, so do not treat every status as a complete lost turn.
Use Mario’s strong attacks while Mallow preserves enough shared FP for HP Rain. Recover before the next strike can knock out the healer. Defeat Belome to open the route into Midas River; there is no need to spend your rare full-party recovery item just to save a single ordinary Mushroom.
Midas River
On the waterfall, steer toward the coin trails and tap Jump to resist the descent briefly. The side caves lead to different rewards: some contain Frog Coins and some Flower Tabs, so a detour can sacrifice the remaining main-waterfall coins.
In the barrel section, jumping while an approaching barrel meets yours keeps you on the current side; letting it meet you changes lanes. Jump over fish to avoid losing coins. At the end, exchange the collected total for Frog Coins; an incomplete total is carried toward a later attempt. The first completion also gives Mario the NokNok Shell. Equip it, save and continue to Tadpole Pond. You can replay the minigame instead of trying to collect every branch in one run.
Tadpole Pond and Melody Bay
Stand on the rock at the pond and jump when asked so the tadpoles form a crossing. Speak to Frogfucius and finish the story conversation. Give him the Cricket Pie from Mushroom Kingdom’s shop to receive Mallow’s FroggieStick.
Visit Melody Bay and stop the tadpoles on the notes G, A, E, D, C, D, C, D for the first composition. This earns the Alto Card for the Juice Bar. That shop uses ordinary coins; the nearby special-item merchant uses Frog Coins. The Juice Bar’s party HP drinks are separate from Kerokero Cola, which restores both HP and FP but does not revive fallen allies. Leave by the southwest route toward Rose Way when ready.
Rose Way
Ride the yellow platforms between the islands, changing to the next platform where their paths meet. Collect the Flower and optional coins while checking the landing direction before each transfer. The side branch with Shy Guys on moving blocks contains an optional treasure challenge.
Continue through the southeastern branch, passing the Shy Guys on chests. Strike a multi-coin chest repeatedly while its question mark remains. Crooks can flee from battle, so choose quick attacks if you want their coin reward. After the scene with Bowser’s troops, follow the route onward to Rose Town.
Rose Town
Arrows from the forest are freezing the residents. Shop for armor and useful status protection, then enter the inn and play along with Gaz’s toy scene. Sleep upstairs, save and watch the next scene before leaving for the Forest Maze.
The item shop’s shelves hide a chest; use the chimney route from the crates outside for its elevated treasure. At the house on the hill, jump from the resident’s head to get inside, then press the upstairs switch to lower the steps. Apologize if you opened his treasure chests. He provides the route clue for the forest’s optional treasure clearing.
Forest Maze
Collect the hidden chest near the western edge of the entrance, then descend the first stump and cross the underground passage. In the clearing with seven stumps, check the eastern stump for a hidden Flower and the northwestern stump for the sleeping Wiggler. Touch Wiggler to open the onward route, then return into that stump for the chest behind its former position. One other hidden chest is intentionally empty.
At the four-way forest junctions, the optional treasure route is northwest, southwest, southwest, northwest. Return to the maze entrance afterward. To reach Geno, take southeast, northeast, northeast, southeast, northeast, northwest, using screen directions rather than rotating “left” and “right” from Mario’s facing. Save and collect the nearby hidden Red Essence before committing to the boss route.
Bowyer
Geno joins for this battle. Use well-timed attacks and keep Mallow ready with HP Rain. Bowyer can disable ordinary attacks, special moves or items by shooting the corresponding command button. Adapt to the available commands rather than relying on one repeated action.
Recover before the command you need is locked: a party-wide attack can punish a low-health group, and Geno has limited HP at this point. Keep syrup for the shared FP supply. After winning the second Star Piece, return to Gaz at Rose Town’s inn for Geno’s Finger Shot and equip it. The optional Pipe Vault leads to Yo’ster Isle; Moleville is the next main-story destination.