PM Chapter 2 Part 1: Clumsy Koopas

That is certainly of a boss design. That thing in front of him is a Chain Chomp, and it's gnashing its teeth here, I just caught an off-frame.

And with that, we have now alighted at the destination.

Shoutouts to the train that stops before a mountain and asks its passengers to go mountaineering and desert-trawling to reach the major populated area. I get that it's not easy to put a rail through a mountain, but doesn't this train pride itself on safety and ease of use?

Despite being forever rich, I'm still picking up coins. For, uh, some reason.

Also an Egg in this bush. The Egg is a cooking ingredient first and foremost, although it does heal as much as an uncooked Mushroom. It cooks into the Fried Egg (10 HP), and has two more recipes later.

Whacka is not an enemy, but it is a cute.

Hm, another one of these. Hopefully we can smash 'em soon.

Somebody's lost something up here.

Impressively done, Parakarry. No really, I'm not sure how one flies backwards.

Also, hi Parakarry! This is where he wandered off to.

I'd comment on him knowing us by name, but he's delivered mail to us, I'd trust him to know our name in a professional capacity as well as by reputation.

This is technically our introduction to him, although it's our third time meeting him.

As mentioned, Parakarry's problem delivering the mail doesn't seem to be his flight speed or his ability to keep his eyes on the airway, but his inability to keep letters in his satchel.

Well, he might be bad at all three, but at that point, man, you may just need to quit being a postman.

Most information I can find on bad mail management pertains to intentional destruction of mail, but the culprits faced jail time. You might be lucky if your job is the only thing you lose.

Spoilers, he won't find anything. All right, time to help cover up this guy's federal crime.

He's Parakarry, a Paratroopa who delivers letters. He's got some problems. It must be nice to have wings. He can fly anywhere. All postmen should have wings. You know, some people say that if you help someone in trouble, good things will happen to you. You know, karma. What? You've never heard that?

Wishing you were a Paragoomba, Goombario?

At the start of the mountain, we can see one of this area's cute gimmicks: the slides. This one is useless for traversal, but it has three coins for your trouble.

This is a Monty Mole. Monty Moles are rock-throwing moles, big time mischief-makers. Max HP: 3, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 0. Ugh. They have kind of scary looking faces. They're pretty weak, though. Maybe they wear sunglasses because they have really sensitive eyes. Or maybe they're just hip.

Monty Mole (Lv. 8) first appeared in Super Mario World, and regularly appear in the series following. They like to burst out of walls or floors, before charging in your direction so fast, jumping over them causes them to rocket past you and skeeter around to turn back. In this game, they throw rocks instead- I don't think this is a behaviour copied outside the RPGs.

At this point in the game, enemies that have enough Atk power to still hurt past your block become the norm. Either have a counterstrategy or prepare to heal. Mario & Luigi prefers to let you keep taking 0 damage forever, which leads to a different playstyle.

And then there's the fact these guys spawn in groups. And we can't oneround them yet without FP.

Good thing I have Heart Finder!

The block has a Sleepy Sheep, not a Honey Syrup. That was a drop.

Also down here is...

Whacka! Whacka is cute.

He's a Whacka. When you hit Whackas, they get Bumps that fall off. I heard that they're yummy. You know, I'm not normally into hitting Whackas, but once I heard of their tasty Bumps... I got the urge to whack' em!

...The more I Tattle with this kid, the less I'm starting to like him. But yes, whack Whacka on the head and you get a Whacka's Bump, which heals 25 HP and 25 FP, and can also be sold for a high price at many shops. With that said, however, get eight Whacka's Bumps and Whacka disappears forever. Future Paper Mario games describe him as an endangered species.

You monster.

Whacka's Bump cooks into a Yummy Meal (heals 20 HP/FP, yes that is inferior), and is also the easiest way to cook a Deluxe Feast later. No thanks. Whacka gets to live.

This Monty Mole demonstrates the series' usual behaviour for Monty Moles, complete with the comical imprint of their jumping sprite they leave behind. This is more common in the older games, ironically.

Oh yeah, and Parakarry's lost letter. Huh, it tells us the name and address (...even if the address only points out the town). No, we can't backtrack and deliver it. I'm not 100% sure that helps Parakarry's case.

This is a Cleft. Clefts are pretty strong, so you'd better be careful. Max HP: 2, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 2. Their specialty is pretending to be rocks, so watch your step on the mountain. You'll get hurt if you jump on the spikes on their heads. You know, there's courage in running away sometimes...

Clefts (Lv. 10) are, I believe, the first enemy original to the Paper Mario games to be encountered. This makes sense: Clefts are basically impossible for us to defeat with conventional tactics, but are slow and prefer not to engage unless we get close. You know, the antithesis of a good platformer enemy. The only way to deal with a Cleft the game can assume you have is Bombette's Bomb technique.

An attacking item like a Thunder Rage or a Badge like D-Down Pound will also take them out. I prefer D-Down Pound (one FP cheaper than Bomb), but you have to know ahead of time that this is going to be an issue and buy it from Rowf/equip it. The kid gloves are off now.

You can first strike Clefts with Bombette, but this is easier said than done.

Hey, I caught the Monty Moles in their leaping pose! Shame I can't jump over the gap he is in, though.

You have to jump through this hole in the mountain to grab that Star Piece. Little annoying, but not too bad.

Huh. Another gap that's too big for us to jump over. And we're helping a guy with wings out.

If you jump down, you can find another letter. Good thing I kept looking!

Man, I wish there was a Badge that was D-Down Pound, but... hits everything?

All right, we're done at this end of Mt. Rugged, time to take the slide.

WHEEE!

...This place is new.

More mail! Taking the slide is the only way up here, incidentally.

...And here I am with no FP.

You have Refresh now. The game can be sure you have access to Refresh, even if it's a long and painful process.

Oh goody.

Another gap? And a chest up a ledge.

Did you notice the ramp in the side of the wall there? It's really tucked in.

Damage Dodge (3 BP) will give you an extra point of Defence... if and only if you successfully block the attack. This will help us keep up with the increasing Atk power of enemies, but at 3 BP, are you sure your blocking game is good enough to make this worth it? The better you get at the game, the closer the answer gets to "yes".

This block up here was just a coin.

One of these on the other side, though.

And the slide takes over to the letter. We can just walk down from here.

Kolorado? Hey, maybe we can ask Parakarry to introduce us! He was researching the ruins, too!

Really, I just want a better solution to Clefts.

Whee!

Anyway, here's your mail.

Don't worry, he remembers the other letters. You will have to track down all three.

...Come to think of it, how does a Paratroopa "trip" and drop mail?

Yeah, looks like dirt and more dirt to me, too.

How far back does this problem of yours go? Look, I can put in a good word to Peach and see if you can get let off with a slap on the wrist, but I'm not a miracle worker!

...I think.

Parakarry starts to wonder what more he can do.

He has dropped 12 letters total, counting these three (well, OK, one of them is a little weird in terms of timeline, so I might be willing to blame that on something other than Parakarry). We legitimately haven't been able to find any letters until now, but it'll be another thing to keep an eye out for.

All we get out of them is 11 Star Pieces, a rare Badge, quite the runaround, and possibly save this guy from prison. I don't think the job (or the reputation) is salvageable at this point.

Hm... an originally costumed character based on a classic Mario enemy offering help with a yes/no prompt?

Yep, we've got a new party member for the ride! Parakarry will be the party member of Chapter 2.

Parakarry's field ability is being able to carry us across gaps too big for Mario to jump across himself despite being, you know, Mario. Not forever, though- he can't even fly without dropping letters, how long do you trust him to carry a guy bigger than he is?

Sky Dive is an awkward attack- it's Jump, but if you hit the Action Command, it does 2 damage instead of 1+1. I don't particularly like it because it's a big "if" on managing it. Shell Shot (3 FP) is a powerful offensive attack, doing 5 damage if you hit... but if you miss, it's 0. It's easy to hit, at least, and it's probably Parakarry's saving grace.

We have some parts of Mt. Rugged to explore!

Oh yeah, now we can backtrack and deliver mail. I'll wait until after the chapter: they've waited this long to be delivered, they can wait a little longer. To make it a bit more clear, if you have a letter to deliver, Parakarry must be the active partner to actually deliver it. Does this make up for him dropping the letters in the first place? Probably not, but it'll help his case.

Right, Sky Dive.

Told you the attack was clunky. You press the A Button as Parakarry hits the enemy's head, like usual, but since he comes from a diagonal, it's a little trickier to figure out when that is. Despite being a diagonal attack, Parakarry will take damage if he attempts to Sky Dive a Spiked enemy. Honestly, you might as well pretend Sky Dive doesn't exist.

Although I did manage to get it this time.

You get this by using Parakarry's ability where Merlon's letter was. Quake Hammer (1 BP) will damage all grounded and "ceiling" enemies for 2 damage at 2 FP. This is your new best friend against Clefts, and will be worth having on for a long time to come. Yes, it does directly outclass D-Down Pound, why did you ask? Don't worry, there's a catch, D-Down Pound does have value later, but for now, Quake Hammer is superior in every way.

Shell Shot in action. If you've ever played Yoshi's Island, it's basically the same aiming system as that game- Parakarry's angle with move up and down, and when you release the control stick, Parakarry will instantly shoot in the current direction. If he hits the target, he lands his 5 damage (minus Defence)- and like Kooper's Shell Toss, this is not considered contact damage. Shell Shot can be aimed at an enemy positioned anywhere on the screen.

Quake Hammer is still superior for dealing with Clefts, but Shell Shot's a new boss-killing technique to add to our belt.

Level up! More Defence!

Over on this ledge, where the Monty Mole was, we can find our second Bub-ulb.

...I think this is literally the first time I have noticed that this Bub-ulb's flower is a different colour to the one in Toad Town.

I have no idea what this is a reference to. I wonder how many people who make this reference are equally clueless. Apparently it's a movie called Taxi Driver.

...It's also supposed to be a threat, although this Bub-ulb doesn't seem interested in that part of the schtick.

Have you considered planting your roots a little closer to the road?

The Toad Town Bub-ulb had a red flower and a red Seed, this guy has blue. If the pattern continues, that would be a nice gameplay hint for which ones you haven't yet found.

...You may wish to spend the next few weeks until your next contact rephrasing that.

It's a flat 2 damage, unaffected by Defence. And doesn't deal bonus damage to Monty Moles despite being partially buried. You're thinking of Pokemon.

Backtrack all the way up here, it's a Star Piece.

This way is progress.

...You ever get the feeling you are being watched?

The guy recognises us. Meep.

He slowly flies out, and then pulls out a piece of paper from his wingfolds.

While this guy happens to recognise us, he doesn't actually know we're Mario, he just has a very strong suspicion.

And asks us a very legally binding question. Now, we could be honest, or...

If you want proof, I have an autograph prepared. Don't worry, I'm not Mario, I'm just his identical twin brother!

Yep. If you don't want to fight this boss, identify yourself as Luigi. You don't actually need the autograph, the whole reason I grabbed that was for that joke.

I needed healing.

All right, looking at what I'm equipping before boss fights. Quake Hammer is pointless, but I didn't really have a whole lot I wanted to equip instead.

If you do answer Luigi, he'll still challenge you the next time you pass by. It's not an often used road, but it's a reasonable suggestion to deal with him if you want to use it often enough.

So what about saying we're Peach?

The only reason he objects to this suggestion is that he knows Peach has an alibi. No question of whether it's reasonable to assume Mario passes.

I like the assumption the only reason he challenges us to a fight is not because he genuinely believes we're Mario, but because he's so insulted we lie so obviously that he wants to smack us around on principle.

I'd do the same thing.

This is Buzzar. He guards Mt. Rugged. Wow! That's one big bird! Max HP: 40, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 0. If you get caught in the clutches of his sharp claws, you'll lose 4 HP! Try to wriggle out of his grip. His special attack is flapping his wings to create wind. This attack damages your party members, too. But he was hatching eggs, wasn't he? Is it possible that he's really a she? I wonder...

Buzzar (Lv. 35) is the first boss in Paper Mario to show the game's teeth. Although Goombario's claim of an Attack power of 3 is accurate for his claw attack, Buzzar has a variety of attacks at his disposal, each with a different set of timings to respect. He can throw his feathers at you for 2 damage, and as described, throw you into the air for four damage if you can't get away. He can also create a galestorm that, for the first time so far, targets the party member. This attack hits both Mario and the party member, dealing 1-3 damage and cannot be fully blocked- I believe all party-targeting attacks from here on can be, making this one a rough exception. Let Buzzar be a lesson in how bosses play: take their Atk ratings as suggestions and be prepared for anything.

Parakarry is the party member of choice.

And of course he starts with the gust of wind. What you do is button-mash a gauge filled- I was a little busy obeying the command and hoping I could get it to zero. The game does get your hopes up, but as far as I know, it's impossible.

So much for his first showing.

Right, let's try to play things tricky. Most statuses have a decent 60-75% chance of success on him (Shrink is the 75%), although for all but one status, Buzzar has a -1 turn modifier: I've only shrunk him for two turns.

It does allow me to shield this attack entirely, though.

Let the onslaught begin!

This is another button-mashing attack, and happens to be the same interface as running away from battle. You mash to fill a gauge, and if the "OK" meter happens to be over a filled part of the gauge, you succeed. It will randomly move from one end of the gauge to the other as you progress, though, and I'm not sure if where it stops is random or predetermined.

I did not succeed. I'm told you can block the damage if you hit A as soon as you hit the ground. It'll be tough timing to hit.

All right, enough playing around with Shrink, I brought this along for a reason.

Dizzy is pretty good at dealing with flying enemies, and has a 70% chance of landing on Buzzar. If it does, Buzzar will be under for +1 turns- 4 in total!

In addition to the strengthened effect, it also lets Buzzar stay big. Big targets like bosses have a bigger margin of error for Shell Shot. I think some bosses are so big that Parakarry can't possibly miss, although I don't know which ones. You're not really worried about missing, but it is still an all-or-nothing attack and you shouldn't forget that. Unless you work better when not under pressure.

Hold on, I'm going to need to recover my FP somewhat.

Victory to the mailman! The real superhero of the Mushroom Kingdom!

...Well, OK, maybe not this mailman.

Parakarry looks so happy in his victory animation.

And that's the end of dealing with Buzzar.

Don't worry about their chicks, they've got that dealt with.

Welcome to the desert. Dry Dry Desert is a massive 7x7 grid of identical-looking tiles, filled with treasure of both the valuable and only-mildly-useful variety. If you're only interested in plot, though, this path goes straight to Dry Dry Outpost. If you're wondering where we are, we're in the middle row.

And over here is an explorer-type Koopa Troopa with a moustache.

He is exactly as British as you'd expect.

Oh yeah, and he's Kolorado.

He's not doing a very good job of it, though. We only see him on this tile, and no other tile in the desert looks like it's being touched. Probably for the best: British men coming along and looking for treasure for their own benefit isn't exactly welcome behaviour in many parts of the globe.

He has also sent men to interrogate the locals. Whether or not his success is based on the suspicions of the locals or the competence of the archaeologists is left to viewer interpretation. I favour the latter.

If you have Kooper out, he'll actually react to meeting his hero.

And you'll learn the tricks of the trade with me.

Kooper's hero adoration might be expected to be parasocial in nature, but no, Kolorado and Kooper are as acquainted as Kooper is with the missus. Perhaps less so, since Kolorado spends so little time around the house, but Kolorado is aware of Kooper.

...Perhaps this is a clue the man himself isn't entirely up-and-up on his own skills. I'd want to prepare a Kooper-appropriate expedition before I take him on one.

Kolorado gives a valid, and pretty good, reason to not take Kooper with him- if you want a reputation of reliability, you have to prove that you will stick through a job to completion when you take it on. Kooper doesn't want to be known as the guy who chickened out of helping Mario, right?

At least he has that to look forward to in his future.

He's the archaeologist, Kolorado. He's famous as both a scholar and an explorer. Unfortunately, he's also renowned for his carelessness. He's wild about treasures and ancient secrets, so he's always taking off around the world on some adventure.

Although many NPCs that move around have multiple Tattles depending on where, exactly, you Tattle them, Kolorado appears in so many maps that the game appears to only give him the one. We'll see his carelessness a lot more later, but right now, he does seem to be pretty competent, lack-of-any-actual-archaeology notwithstanding.

This guy doesn't seem entirely comfortable with the idea of leaving the path. I am, but if you don't keep the 7x7 grid firmly in mind, you probably will get lost.

There are some enemies on a few of the path tiles, but not all of them.

You know, that's probably a good idea. Don't want him coming back to no tent and no clue where his backup is. In the middle of the desert.

Archaeology! History! I'm sure we're going to walk right over it, we're JRPG protagonists!

This is Pokey, an evil cactus. Pokeys attack by throwing parts of their bodies or by coming up close and falling on you. Max HP: 4, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 0. Be careful fighting them! It'll hurt if you jump on their spiky heads! They also have an annoying habit of calling in reinforcements. Let's beat 'em quickly!

Pokey (Lv. 9) first appeared in Doki Doki Panic, before transitioning to the Mario world with... Mario World. Wherever you find a desert, you'll probably find Pokey- although they're not in Odyssey.

Pokey are traditionally defeated by knocking out their segments one by one to get to the head, which is an instant-kill if you can somehow reach it early. This mechanic is largely absent from the RPGs, although the whole "losing segments" part persists with their ability to literally throw them at you. Kooper can also knock a segment away, although if you reduce one to just a head, it is still capable of attacking you.

With Damage Dodge, I'm back to blocking for full HP.

And Quake Hammer is still worth something.

Pokeys have a chance of dropping Dried Fruit, a powerful healing item (matches the Hot Shroom but for the FP) and also a cooking ingredient. It doesn't cook into anything by itself, but it does cook when paired. There are two recipes that require it, as well as a third where it's helpful to have.

Attack FX C (0 BP) is located in the south part of the desert. Well, more specifically, we're on "G2"- if you imagine the letters A-G going north-south and the numbers 1-7 going west-east. If you're really desperate for orientation, each square of the desert has a unique Goombario Tattle. (Except, from the looks of things, E7 and F6.)

If we get lost in the desert, we'll dry up and turn into mummies. How about it? Let's rest by that small rock. Maybe there's something unusual about that rock...

A few of them hint to the locations of treasure. Usually the valuable ones like Badges.

Hey, Mario? Are you thirsty at all? I'm parched. Really thirsty. Totally dried up. Wait a minute... My mouth is really dry! Maybe that's why they call it Dry Dry Desert!

Educated, Goombario. F5 is one of multiple homes to the Tweester, a tornado with a face. While the main series has tornados often appearing in deserts since SMB3, Paper Mario was the first one to give them a name, and the named variety appears only in this game, Mario Parties 5-7, and DDR Mario Mix. The ones in the main series are still faceless.

Tweesters, as mentioned in Toad Town, will send you to some other square on the desert if you touch them. You might expect this to be highly bad news, considering how difficult the desert is to navigate.

It's not. Tweesters will always send you one square north and one square east of your current square. The one in F5, specifically, will also put you on top of this mesa, the only means to access

the Spin Attack (3 BP) Badge! Spin Attack is an upgraded form of First Attack, allowing you to destroy an enemy you outlevel if you're Spin Dashing when it hits you. 3 BP, though, is too high to use unless you're planning on doing a lot of exploring in wholly-underlevelled areas.

E6 also has a Stop Watch on this other mesa. The Stop Watch attempts to apply the Stop status- there's a paralysis status in this game, but the resistance tables are totally different.

Look! Look, Mario! There's actually some grass growing around here!

This is F6. It and E7 are adjacent to an oasis. G7 is, too, but Goombario has a different comment there.

Excuse me, I was about to comment on the oasis some more.

This is an easily memorable tile, and a must-find for any novice adventurer. No, really, if you're playing without a guide, you will want to find this tile. It's due south of Dry Dry Outpost's entrance two squares, pretty easy to find (and I think you are directed here, too).

South of the water is our first instance of a Super Block, a collectible foreshadowed by Merluvlee's clues. This is the first one you have access to, it's just this late for some reason.

The Super Block "upgrades" the partners. There are exactly enough Super Blocks to upgrade every partner, but right now, there is a genuine choice to be made about who you want to upgrade first.

.

So what does being upgraded mean? The party member will learn a new skill, and all attacks will gain additional Atk power. You didn't think Goombario was going to be stuck doing 1+1 damage all game, did you?

You get the choice of partner to upgrade, don't worry, you don't have to hit the block with the partner you want out. So what will upgrading our partner do to the people we have?

• Goombario: Headbonk now does 2+2 damage. Goombario learns the technique Charge- for 1 FP, this will increase the power of each hit of his next Headbonk by 2, and like Mario's Charge techinques, it can be stacked. Like most charging techniques in all RPGs, this is usually outclassed by just clicking Headbonk twice.
• Kooper: Shell Toss and Power Shell now do 3 damage. Kooper learns the technique Dizzy Shell- for 4 FP, this attempts to apply the Dizzy status to all enemies. I feel like this is all grounded enemies, because Kooper, but this is still powerful if it works- and in normal battles, it probably will.
• Bombette: Body Slam now does 3 damage, Bomb now does 6. Bombette learns the technique Power Bomb- for 6 FP, this will hit all enemies on the field with Bomb. Powerful, but FP-hungry.
• Parakarry: Sky Dive now does 3 damage, Shell Shot now does 6. Parakarry learns the technique Air Lift- for 3 FP, he will attempt to pick up an enemy and literally drag it out of combat. It will deprive you of Star Points and won't work if the enemy is tied to the ground or does contact damage from the top, but if you just don't want to deal with an enemy, the option is available.
  

There are multiple ways to approach Chapter 2 and its Super Blocks, and I always feel like I have chosen poorly. For this run, I'm taking on a novel approach and choosing Goombario first. Sure, Charge is probably the least useful of the new techniques, but the upgrade does raise the power of his normal attack the most, and Goombario's normal attack can be used on any enemy in a formation except ceiling-mounted ones (which we will find in the near future). Kooper is a tempting option, for all the Pokeys in your near future, but an upgrade doesn't bring him to one-shotting Pokeys.

Super Goombario, go!

There's also a Heart Block here. Not that we're too far away from town. I wonder if the oasis was originally intended to be in a more remote location (probably on the south edge of the map), but was moved here for player convenience.

These two trees are also renewable sources of the new ingredients Lemon and Lime. They cook into Tasty Tonics alone, and have only one unique recipe to their names. With that said, however, you will need Lemons and Limes for other purposes as well.

There's a pre-cooked Tasty Tonic behind this bush, for some reason. Well, there'll be poison in the near future, but...

This is a Bandit. Bandits bump into you hard and shake up your pockets. They can steal up to 10 coins. Max HP: 5, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 0. They'll slyly approach and then slam into you all of a sudden. If you can damage them in an attack, you can get your stolen coins back. Let's beat 'em before they can make off with our loot!

Bandits (Lv. 9) appeared only in Yoshi's Island before this game- there's a surprising amount of influence found solely from Yoshi's Island here. They will attempt to steal coins from you in every attack, and they can't rob you if you block, no matter how much damage they manage to do. If they do rob you, their next action will be to run away, depriving you of your hard-earned cash and their Star Point payout. Luckily, any damaging attack will knock the coins out of their hands, back into your wallet, and keep the Bandits around.

I kinda think of Bandits as regular Mario enemies, but they're actually pretty few and far between: They're in three Yoshi's Island games (SMW2, DS and New), two Paper Mario games (this and TTYD), two Mario Party games (7 and 8), two Mario & Luigi games (Dream Team and Paper Jam, with appearances in the minion modes of Superstar and Inside Story), and a Spirit in Smash Ultimate. I'm sure there's less recognisable Mario enemies with a more impressive record, like Scuttlebug or Amp.

If you block a Bandit, they have this upset animation and matching jingle.

Goombario doesn't oneshot a Bandit, sadly, but this one had 1 damage from a first strike. No other party member can do that- Kooper can do it to first-struck Pokeys, but I value getting Bandits more.

A Quake Hammer sets up a decent opportunity for the 3-damage-doers.

I'm told the Bandits rob "up to 10" coins. As you can see, this guy's nabbed a round 10. I imagine the "up to" weasel word applies only to very poor victims- the people who don't even have 10 coins to lose.

I say, possessing more than I could ever spend.

Whack him and he drops it, even if you didn't kill him. I am, but details. The coin magically slides over into your wallet.

These fights are getting more and more involved.

Quake Hammer solves most. Not all, but most.

Healing, because I know there's a good item in this block-

Huh. Just a coin.

Turns out it was up here. The Life Shroom is a must-have in any inventory: If you hit 0 HP, a Life Shroom will bring you back to 10 automatically. If you plan on using Danger strats, or are just in general cutting Mario's HP close to the wire, this is your ticket to not getting a Game Over and losing all your progress. We'll be able to buy, and cook, these later, but for now we've got to make do with the one we've got.

(For reference, we are in the map one square north of the oasis.)

With that, we have made it to Dry Dry Outpost. There's still more to explore in the north of the desert, but I think we should take inventory first.

Well, OK, Parakarry dropped a letter in this tree, too.

Next time: The mystery of Dry Dry Ruins.