PM Chapter 3 Part 1: The Enigmatic Mansion

So, do we just grab a Starman and have a fight where both of us are invincible?

We've been in Forever Forest before, and I believe we're acquainted with Piranha Plants.

Boy... The forest is really dark and spooky. People say that if you don't choose exactly the right path, you'll get totally lost. I can believe it. This looks like the type of place where you get lost and then monsters come out of the grass and... Hey! Did you notice that grass over there rustling? I swear I saw it move!

Goombario's Tattle. Goombario's Tattles are incredibly useful here, for reasons that'll make more sense in a bit.

For now, I'm showing off that Piranha Plants will take damage from Zap Tap. This is not the reason I brought it with me, but it's a huge help.

With Power Plus, I oneshot these guys anyway.

To get further into Forever Forest, you have to enter the path next to the shifting flowers.

Oaklie's back, and he's going to continue to try and keep us out of the forest.

All we need to do is have the Boos invite us over, and Oaklie takes us at our word. Early in development, Oaklie would have inspected you for an actual passport, but honestly, it's way funnier that he just smiles and nods.

Oaklie leaves us with a tutorial on the nature of the Forever Forest's take on Mayoi no Mori:

The correct exit to the area will have a difference in the inner vegetation.

He's surprisingly thorough on explaining the gimmick of this map on the way out.

But he leaves us on our own for the rest of the clues. There's also some... complications, we can get into. If you follow Oaklie's advice, you can get to Boo's Mansion OK, but there are secrets to be found further in.

This is a Forest Fuzzy. Forest Fuzzies are always green. Max HP: 6, Attack Power: 1, Defense Power: 0. If they grab hold of you, they'll absorb your HP and add it to their own. The fiends! Those no good... Oh! And they sometimes divide. If they divide they become even stronger, so try to beat 'em before they can split.

Forest Fuzzy (Lv. 11) is the real reason I brought Zap Tap. They're original to this game, and take the tricks the normal Fuzzies were taught and make them worse. They don't actually get stronger when they divide, but the new one spawns with full HP at no cost to the spawning one.

Since they have to grab your face and suck for a few seconds to do any damage, Zap Tap renders them completely harmless. This is true of all Fuzzies, but out here, they're one of the two kinds of enemies we'll find at all.

Seriously, a match with nothing but Fuzzies is a break, and you can Do Nothing if you please. I'd probably recommend playing with your Star Power a little, though- use the chance to Refresh and Focus.

Mario... Don't look now, but I think I saw an eye shining deep inside the hole in that tree.

Goombario's Tattle will tell you what, exactly, the game wants you to keep an eye out for on each map. Which is incredibly useful if you've gone through a few battles and feel a bit disoriented on which map you're on, and don't feel too much like running a lap around the place.

The flowers in this forest are unusual, huh? They're strangely colored, and they look creepy when they move. I think I saw some that were a slightly different color over there. Did you see 'em?

This map is a little weird, though- he's referring to these flowers, which have thick human lips and, as far as I can tell, are the same colour as the normal flowers otherwise. Goombario's observational skills are as sharp as ever.

Oaklie is sitting in a clearing in the middle of this map, sharing advice, and will do so for the rest of the game. The joys of being a roadblock NPC when your job is over.

...Come to think of it, why doesn't he roadblock anyone else?

The trees in this forest are weird, aren't they? I've heard sometimes they smile wickedly... I'll tell you, if I see a tree smiling, I'm gonna run in the opposite direction!

I'm sure you will, Goombario. This map is important, and you should stop and run around to find this clearing.

Bub-ulb number 3 is in here!

You know, you're the ones benefitting from me going and doing this, I hope you realise.

...On second thoughts, I'd rather leave this conversation. As a reminder, this is mandatory to beat the game, so at some point you're going to have to wander in here. I can only wonder how awful it is to find when the time comes to get him.

And, of course, Spike Shield is always an option- those teeth will hurt if you jump on one without.

Our path forward is on the path of the laughing tree. Come on, Goombario, are you really scared of something that can't move to chase us?

...I say that, and then we fight four enemies that should be rooted in place.

This is gonna hurt...

Although the rewards more than made up for it. Dang, excellent double Star Points.

And perfect timing on the next HP level up!

Is it just my imagination or is it getting darker? Are we going the right way? I'm getting a little worried. There seem to be a lot of strange glowing mushrooms around these tree trunks. Boy! They're everywhere! Must be an infestation... It kind of looks like one mushroom patch is slightly different from the others. My mind may just be playing tricks on me, though.

Goombario's mind isn't playing tricks on him, there is a much more prosperous mushroom patch than the others that is our correct direction. However...

Give me a sec, I just had a Fire Flower delivery...

This patch, on the direct opposite site, also glows differently. It has the same number of mushrooms as the bad paths, but they don't turn off quite so fast.

That's because this is the first secret path!

You can hit this tree with the conspicuous beehive on it. You just need to hit the right root somewhere...

Look, I'm sick of this forest, all right? Let's get out of here. I don't care how many important things are hidden in this forest. I can't stand another instant in the freaky place! Look, I know I saw a beehive. Let's make the beehive a landmark, OK?

Goombario getting kinda bratty about his role as the chief guide. Mainly, there's only one beehive on this map, and it's standing next to the only exit that isn't back to Toad Town.

Ah, there we are. Got a bee to come out.

The First Strike took it out! Excellent news!

This is a Bzzap! Bzzaps! are monstrous bees. Max HP: 3, Attack Power: 6, Defense Power: 0. If they sting you, sometimes you'll be poisoned. They also occasionally call a swarm of small bees to attack you in a cloud. Be careful of those little attackers, because you'll sometimes shrink when stung. They don't have a lot of HP, so take care of 'em as quick as you can.

Bzzap! (Lv. 19) is a regular enemy native to Chapter 6, making a surprise cameo as a dangerous encounter here. That 6 Atk is never going to get any better, even without the status effects (the small bee attack only does 5 damage total, but it gets 5 chances to proc the Shrink thing). At this point in the game, they expect Mario's Jump to only do two damage total- not enough to take out all three HP.

Fortunately, we have Power Plus. This could get ugly otherwise.

Find the clearing over in this map, and there's a HP Plus Badge waiting.

...Yay?

Anyway, back to where we came from.

Don't you just love fights that promise fun times? Whatever happens here, we just need to take out the Piranha Plants.

And then we can play the Refresh game.

What's he going to do, bug-zap himself to death?

And now, we can basically heal up for free until that one in front either makes a new Fuzzy or zaps himself to death.

New one it is. More Star Points is more Star Points.

...Why all the Fire Flowers, anyway? I don't think they're super-effective on forest enemies. Elemental effectiveness is in this game, but it's not a Pokemon-like omnipresence.

What kind of evil flowers would grow in a place like this? When we approach, some seem to shrink, while others just grin... But... but I'm not scared. I mean it, Mario! I told you that they don't scare me! All right?

This one is a curveball if you're not on your toes: The correct path is the one where the flowers don't shrink away. You'd expect the more impressive animation to be the correct path, but if you don't check three bushes and learn the "shrinking" is the common route, you may be led astray by mental shortcuts.

Now I'm really recharging.

Where are we? After making so many turns on different paths, I'm getting confused as to which way is up. Aren't there any signs?

The last map before you get to Boo's Mansion has a helpful sign indicating the correct direction to go. There's also a laughing rock over here on the other side.

This all looks the same to me. Gloomy trees that seem to go on forever. Seems like they found the perfect name for this place. By the way, did you hear something in that bush?

This is the other secret area. The way out is marked by a bush you can check- it's a pretty difficult path to keep your bearings in.

FP Plus Badge in its clearing, though.

...Yay, I guess.

I did actually take enemy attacks this turn.

Anyway, let's get out of this place.

And make it to the Ghost House at the other end.

Kooper: Phew! Well, it looks like we finally made it out of that spooky forest. Heyyy... Mario... What do you bet that's the mansion that the old Boo was talking about before?
Bombette: Oh, finally! I couldn't stand being in that spooky forest for another minute! Hm? Mario! I'm positive that's the mansion the creepy old ghost was telling us about...
Parakarry: Ugh... I'm certainly glad we're out of that forest. Talk about creepy... What's this? Mario, I have a feeling that this is the mansion we're looking for.

There's a few instances where the partner pipes up for a dollop of dialogue. Surprisingly, about half of them are in this chapter. Sadly, the party doesn't get much out of it. I just love this one in particular because the randomiser went out of its way to write dialogue for every party member we don't have to say if you happen to trigger this cutscene, including the one we're supposed to get from this chapter.

Volt Shroom at the end of the path. It's not a Hot Shroom unless we go back to Toad Town, and Electrify is only really worth it in the forest itself.

Walking into the gates has them slam shut behind you. I think you're allowed to leave, but I just never do. It's very effective set dressing.

I love the tiny detail. "Sirs and madam" is the correct form of address, since we only have one female party member. Since we're largely just "Mario" to most people, the fact they not only acknowledge the party, but acknowledge the party knowing who's in it is extra cute.

Yes, this is intentional on her part.

All righty.

(If you try to leave past Boo's Mansion to Gusty Gulch, the gate is shut. I can't believe it slipped my mind to try, but I never was one to say no to the lady.)

Welcome to Boo's Mansion. And here's the theme to go with it. Ghost Houses in Mario games are places of mystery and fear, where you can never be sure what you see is what is actually there. The platformers have some nasty ones where the path forward doubles back on itself- especially in Super Mario World- but Paper Mario has a rather benign implementation. We will see plenty of ghoulish tricks, don't you worry, but there is no concern of losing our bearings.

What a magnificent mansion! Being haunted must hurt the real estate value, though. I like the old-fashioned yet eerie style. The chandelier and the display case look like they're valuable antiques. Even the sofa in the foyer looks like it's pricey, even though it's a bit worn. I love antiques. I wouldn't mind taking a good look at those things.

He scoffs, but haunted places don't generally have their tenants depart for greener pastures. Real estate value only matters if there's someone to sell to, and no one's going to buy a house that's already owned in perpetuity by a dead person who can and will challenge you on it.

The sofa, as Goombario hinted, will launch you like a trampoline if you inspect it. Well, OK, he didn't foreshadow that, but he did suggest something interesting would happen.

And as things go, dragging the chandelier to ground level is certainly something. And oh look, a door behind a cupboard!

Unfortunately, without our... rotund physique, the chandelier springs back to the ceiling and our door is no longer accessible. Scaredy Rats.

Up on the top level, we have some portraits of some well-to-do Boos. That is the same door in both pictures.

The other door is by this empty picture frame. Say hi to the Boo, by the way. That design comes from Yoshi's Island- the traditional Mario Boo design doesn't have protruding fangs or angry eyebrows, and is honestly adorable when it tries to be.

JUMP SCARE! The first door you attempt to open will have this.

You can enter all three doors currently available unhindered after you trigger it, though.

Our first stop is the top-right room.

There's a bunch of Boos hiding in the closet, and they all jump out when you open it.

Now why would we want a record? I'm sure we can figure something out, though.

Time for a minigame!

The Boo with the Record will circle in one direction, while the Boo Buddies (the technical term for "Boos that travel in a circle") travel in the opposite direction. At one point, the Boo will drop the Record into the Boo Buddies.

You will be challenged to identify which Boo Buddy is the one with the Record. Most players have never read this dialogue: The Boo Buddies are still moving while it is on-screen, and your eyes should be glued to it.

Hit it with a jump or a hammer, it'll drop it all the same. It also goes to the space directly in the middle of the ring.

The Boos accept defeat and allow us the Record.

For some reason, departing involves performing their scaring animation.

I wonder how many kids were genuinely unaware of what a Record was and how it was used before this game. I think the game is kinda assuming you at least know of vinyl records, even if you've never seen one (it's owned by ghosts, I don't think they expect one to be in your house).

Hey, that strange contraption at the back of the room is a phonograph. You know, a machine for listening to records. Have you seen any records around here? I wouldn't mind doing a little adventuring to the timeless classic, "Mario's Theme"!

The game has prepared for the possibility that you don't actually know what a record is, and Goombario will tell you enough to solve the puzzle. Although this is using real objects, it's not really testing your ability to recognise them.

Although with that said, I'm not... 100% certain the actual puzzle is communicated?

This Boo is guarding a treasure chest. Bow told him to, I guess. She must be pretty scary to command such obedience! Say, don't you think that Boos have the funniest expressions?

And Goombario's not quite covering the distance. I think we can figure it out from context, though.

Obviously, the puzzle solution is to play the Record on the phonograph to get the Boo to abandon his post. Now, why the Boo would abandon his post to dance to music doesn't seem to be explained by the dialogue I showed, but perhaps he elaborates if you pester him more.

It's a short mashing game to do what we have to do.

By the way, yes, the song is an old-timey version of the 1-1 theme. Because of course it's the 1-1 theme.

The Record has inherent value. The Weight is only good for solving the puzzle of Boo's Mansion.

I hope she doesn't. I imagine she expected you to abandon your post, if she guarded the means I used to do so.

So we've got to find something in this Mansion to use the Weight on...

Yeah, that'll do. I feel better about Mario's size. I don't think he has a canonical weight (or even a canonical body type), but this Weight can't weigh too much, considering the shape and the fact we carry it around in our pocket.

Anyway, into the mystery door.

...This chest is booby-trapped, of course.

Down into the basement, then.

Bunch of nothing in these storerooms.

Another storage room, I guess. Not a whole lot here, as far as I can tell. Hey, incidentally, what happened to the door...?

No exit, a familiar boarded panel on the ground...

And a big treasure chest?

Lady Bow, you shouldn't have!

We got our pair of new Boots! Well, once we've played hide and seek with the Boo Buddies.

This carousel is a harder game than the first.

The Boo Buddies throw the Super Boots from one Buddy to another as they spin around in circles.

Once they're done, they bunch up and flex out. They don't compress into one Boo, thank goodness- as a matter of fact, the Boo with your Boots doesn't do anything tricky. Perhaps that, in itself, is the trick.

I appreciate it's the same line, but if you're going to read it the first time, you're going to try and read it the second anyway.

Give me my +1 Atk per bounce! Once again, an unmodified Jump and Hammer will do equal damage to a 0 Def enemy- 2+2 and 4. However, since we're getting Atk buffs, Jump is getting more and more powerful.

This move is very confusingly named across the series. The move they are describing is a Ground Pound, with the "Spin Jump" being (multiple) different kinds of jump techniques available to Mario in the platform games.

With pleasure.

We never do find out what Bow's opinion is about the Boos failing to keep us from her treasures.

This might possibly be the only helpful Boo before solving the puzzle of the Mansion.

...Hold on...

There we go. There are 36 Star Pieces hidden underneath hidden cavities in the ground, accessible by Ground Pounding next to them to flip them over. Merluvlee can tell you where they are, and there's a Badge that helps out too, but otherwise, you're on your own.

To add insult to injury, if your partner, or any NPC, is standing on top of the panel, you can't flip it. If this happens, or if you're only sorta close, the panel will hop slightly to show you where it is- I don't think I ever catch that shot, but it's easy to see when playing.

These boxes scattered throughout the mansion, and some other parts of the world, also have items if you Ground Pound on them specifically. For the most part, these are non-renewable, even if the boxes are.

Now for the intended use of Ground Pound: breaking through these wooden panels.

Ooh, shop! Ooh, they have Life Shrooms on the counter!

Well same to you, buddy.

Let's just hit the switches and-

Whoa, big switch! The "scared Mario" animation happens only if you use Kooper to hit the little switch that spawns it from underneath it.

You have to Spin Jump to hit the Switch. I don't think this is teaching the player anything about Spin Jump they didn't already know- this is the only big Switch of its kind. Maybe that you can get higher ground by climbing the stuff?

Staircase back out to the first storeroom.

And a Super Shroom in a crate.

And while we're thinking of it, three more Star Panels. Yes, there are more in areas we've already been- multiple in Toad Town, Goomba Village, Pleasant Path, and Dry Dry Desert- but now that we have the Super Boots, specifically, there's actually a boss guarding the way back to Toad Town. This is because, if we wanted, we could spawn a shortcut to Boo's Mansion with the Super Boots, and the game wants us to fight that boss.

I suspect similar logic is why Twink never came and told us about Tubba Blubba in Gusty Gulch- you could theoretically get the Super Hammer, go back to Toad Town, spawn the shortcut, and now Twink has to be able to catch you from both the train station and the Tunnels before you can get to the forest.

Let's finish off this mansion first.

This room is waiting for you to have the Super Boots, but there's not nothing to do in here without.

You can jump into this pot and turn into the amazing 8-bit Mario- or rather, the modernised version of him with his familiar colouring. Anyone truly familiar with him remembers him as a weirdly red/yellow/green figure, and I don't think the NES can handle a Mario with as many colours as this one.

All this does is play a cute chiptune track and let you run and jump around. There's a bit in Super Mario RPG where you could turn into Mario's classic design, and it's a tradition that stuck around (in the Paper Mario RPGs, at least) until Sticker Star.

This room does have a lot of space, but it's still a shame to use it for storage. That pot and those wooden boxes look suspicious... There's also a weakened spot on the floor. Look... under the chandelier. Hey, check it out! A real old rocking chair! These things rule! It rocks back and forth when you sit on it. I love napping in these.

By the way, this rocking chair really rocks.

You can go back to Paper Mario by jumping back in the pot or leaving the room.

These boxes in the back have Apples, and these do respawn. They're necessary for recipes- on their own, they become Super Soda, and it looks like they only have one unique item to make out of them.

Down we go.

There certainly seem to be a lot of books. I didn't know Boos liked books.

...Why wouldn't Boos like books?

Dropping down into the library is the only way to acquire this weird object.

It's a portrait with no frame! Goes well with the frame with no portrait.

Before jumping down, notice these boxes here.

If you break them, you can find a Star Piece. There's no way to do so other than jumping down from the bookshelves- annoying as hell, especially since I can never get the measure of where to jump down. This might be a candidate for the worst Star Piece in the overworld.

This is where the library was, in the space of the mansion. You could blow up this wall from the other side, if you knew where it was, but there'd be no point- you couldn't get any of the things within it.

Now depositing the portrait.

...When were you removed from it?

...Was I supposed to talk to an empty frame?

Hi! Did I startle you? You want to go up to the third floor, don't you? Well, I'm afraid you'll have to go find whatever's missing from this frame. If you manage to find it, I'll let you go upstairs. Mmwaah ha ha ha! Bow is such a harsh Boo, testing her guests like this...

If you did get curious, there would in fact be dialogue for it.

"Stumble across" is right. Bow's been leading us on a carefully guided goose chase.

Time to put some Mario 64 in this Mario World!

...That was not nearly as impressive as it looked in my head.

Nothing in our way up here.

She has two doors all to herself.

This is a big personal room. I'm fairly sure Ghost Houses do not obey normal physics, insomuch as other spaces in the Mario world do.

Not too tough, but this is a pretty weird way of going about it. Did you notice the lack of combat, or even precision platforming? Boos are completely non-hostile in this game! I'll appreciate not having to fight, but let's face it- Mario has never been a puzzler, no matter how many Ghost Houses make him try.

Say hello to the lady of the hour, Lady Bow. Bow is one of the few Boo characters in the entire series, and honestly, I'd like to see her have some words with the King.

He fails to grow any more of a character.

Bow wants our help. For some reason, she hasn't seem to have considered "I'm Mario, it's my job to help people"- perhaps she recognises Mario's habit of going for the Princess first.

Bow: "I'm doing my best to let you have some dialogue in this game too."

This is Mario's introduction to Tubba Blubba, I think- we've heard about him from Bowser while with Peach (hey, wasn't Bowser supposed to "unleash him on us" at some point?), but without Twink playing messenger boy, nobody's told that to Mario yet.

What does Gusty taste like? Or, well, Boo.

Tubba Blubba's claim to invincibility is pretty robust, and will pose a problem to us, but I'd laugh if Tubba Blubba was actually just specially resistant to Boos. There would be a way to make that work.

"The Invincible Tubba Blubba", of course, being the second choice in name, behind... actually, scratch that, I don't think there's any more uncreative name for him.

Don't worry, we're not being asked to kill an invinicible monster.

We're being asked to chase hearsay and conjecture to find what might be a weak point. Those are kinds of evidence!

I mean, I'll do it, but I was hoping for something more robust than "...he might have a weakness?"

If we can figure out that weakness and save the Boos from... a fate worse than death, we'll get...

...

How the hell did you get your hands on that?

I'm not sure if it's just the way this shot is framed or if it's a genuine change in expression, but Skolar looks so much more hapless here than he did on Shooting Star Summit.

Skolar, as previously mentioned by Kammy, has escaped from Tubba Blubba's Castle on his own.

But he got stuck in Forever Forest and found by the Boos before he could do anything productive about his escape.

The honourable Star Spirits, ladies and gents. At least this one's not supposed to be the clever one, despite his glasses.

Neither do I, honestly. At the very least, no other Star Spirit manages to escape at all.

The way she phrases this kinda implies it was either "we save Skolar directly from Blubba" or "we beat Blubba and get Skolar from Bow", ignoring the possibility that Skolar gets home on his own.

This kinda makes this point weirder, because there's no real indication we're not helping the Boos regardless of whether Bow got involved or not. What Bow has done here by intercepting Skolar is force Mario to fight Blubba head-on. As I've pointed out, Mario kinda has a one track mind of saving the princess first, and saving whatever people he happens to pass by through coincidence and happenstance rather than altruism. This is something the story doesn't like to linger on, because it's Mario and he's The Hero for Nintendo, but Bow has directly challenged that hidden dark side of Mario's character: if she didn't intercept Skolar, Mario would be content to help him to Star Haven without putting a stop to Tubba Blubba- if he ever needed to go to Gusty Gulch to begin with. Now, though? We don't leave until we've helped the Boos to Bow's satisfaction.

And Bow's not just going to sit back and let Mario do the work.

Bootler was not informed of this part, though.

Tubba Blubba's Castle might be the only boss and final dungeon that doesn't have some means of attacking the partner.

We don't get any indication this is personal for her. She just cares about the Boos Blubba has eaten that much.

Eh, not really. But she will be a huge help nonetheless.

...What ancestors? Boos seem to have some means of ancestry and descent, but they don't like to explain how they breed.

Yeah, we don't get two Boo friends.

Boo has a very angry face when she's berating Bootler here, but I missed the shots- it's while she's doing her lip-flaps. Imagine Bow's doing the scaring animation of the normal Boos.

He'll just sit here doing a good impression of Toadsworth for the rest of the game.

Bow asks if we're all right with this.

She wasn't being genuine: She's coming whether or not we agree. She doesn't even attempt to But Thou Must us.

Lady Bow's field ability is the ability to turn invisible and intangible. While it's not that helpful dealing with field obstacles (they manage a few cases), it is helpful dealing with enemies, as shown in her drawing.

The reason it's not that useful is that Mario is also immobile. It's helpful if you expect your current position to be more favourable later, but usually you'd rather move somewhere else.

Oh, by the way, Bow is my favourite battle partner in the game. Smack is a side-contact attack that can hit any enemy she pleases for 4 damage at base, while Outta Sight, for 2 FP, can render Mario invincible for a single turn. It'll be a while before we can find her a Super Block (I wouldn't bother saving one of the ones we've already used for her, there's one here in Chapter 3), but she's already probably a better party member than Goombario in nearly every situation.

Oh, by the way, Bow is an ojou noblewoman with the laugh to match.

Here's intangibility in action.

I'm not sure how old Bow is (...both in terms of how many years she's existed and how that compares to the Boo's "lifespan"), but I think she is supposed to be at least in part a child, so she doesn't really appreciate Bootler.

He's a Boo called Bootler. He's the manager of the mansion and the personal assistant of Lady Bow. Ordinarily his title would be "butler". Being a butler is hard work. Hmm... Maybe I'm just imagining this, but doesn't it look like he's enjoying himself? Maybe he likes hard work??

Doesn't look like it from here. Then again, Bow is preventing Bootler from doing what he considers his job.

The Boos that live in Boo's Mansion are enamoured with Bow. Well, uh... there's only two we can talk to, as far as I can tell.

The shop is now selling to us now that we have Bow.

However, this guy is Franky, and we need to drop off our letter.

The lack of Boos here in the mansion helps narrow down which Boo is being referred to.

Good for you. Dry Dry Outpost is pretty bleh for me.

...Sure?

I think I would've liked an explanation before deliving this.

This guy has another mention of Bow's mysterious ancestors. Presumably the Boos pictured in the portraits, but that just raises further questions.

All Ghost Houses are worn and perhaps not fully WHS-compliant, and that's a feature for Boos. Probably helps they don't need to worry about WHS- they can fly.

You can start with keeping a frightening hold on my spare stuff, like the Apple.

Prices on the Boo Mansion inventory. Wow, most of this stuff is crazy expensive. The Mystery at the far end is the most interesting item here: When used in battle, it can turn into a Mushroom, Super Shroom, Fire Flower, Stone Cap, Dizzy Dial or Thunder Rage- if it doesn't whack you on the head for 1 damage with a pebble. When cooked, Mysteries will probably become Mistakes, but they have a 50% chance of turning into one of 23 other recipes. I don't know which ones, but if you just want to fill out your recipe book...

This is the only shop selling Life Shrooms until endgame. Sure, you can get them from Li'l Oinks, but... this is cheaper.

Strange Leaf in this bush, too. I would've run out of inventory space if I grabbed it before going in. The Strange Leaf is weird, in that while it should cook into a Dizzy Dial on its own, it doesn't do so until you get the cooking upgrade.

Only with Bow's word can this gate be opened.

And it goes right from night to sunset. The transitions in and out of Forever Forest are amazing.

...A little bit. I'm not turning around, but... how exactly am I supposed to beat Blubba without a Starman?

Star Panel out here. Don't worry, they're not this common.

This is a Hyper Paragoomba. Hyper Paragoombas are Hyper Goombas with wings. Max HP: 7, Attack Power: 1, Defense Power: 0. They sometimes charge their power before attacking. That charged attack will take away 8 HP, so watch out when they start to glow. It'll miss you if you can become transparent. Except for that, they're no different from normal Paragoombas, so use a Jump attack to defeat 'em.

Next map over, we meet our new enemies, Hyper Paragoombas (Lv. 12). These guys are original to Paper Mario- fairly obviously, they work best in the RPG system. They're normal Goombas- well, Gloombas- at most times, but sometimes...

They charge up. This is your cue to use Lady Bow's Outta Sight to avoid a massive owie.

Killing them is also an acceptable response.

This is a Hyper Goomba. Hyper Goombas are crazy, uncivilized Goombas living in Gusty Gulch. Max HP: 7, Attack Power: 1, Defense Power: 0. They sometimes charge their power before attacking. That charged attack will take away 8 HP, so watch out when they start to glow. It's a good idea to use Bow or an item to become transparent. The attack will miss for sure.

Incidentally, Hyper Goombas (Lv. 12) also appear, but around here, they're mostly just clipped wing Paragoombas. Fortunately, there are no Hyper Spiked Goombas to go along with it. Yet.

The windmill is locked. Good to keep in mind.

...These are first strikes?

Bow's Smack attack in action. She does four damage, but she does so in 1+1+1+1. She tears through most enemies, but if the enemy has a point of Defence, Bow is stonewalled.

Bow's victory animation, of course, is the coquettish "ohoho" laugh with her fan.

Next time: Gusty Gulch.