PM Chapter 6 Part 1: Tending to the Garden

This chapter took that literally. Flower Fields is being besieged by the clouds.

Welcome to Flower Fields's central lobby.

And meet our main guide through the fields, the very tree we just crawled out of.

Which means we're going to help you with your problem!

Wise Wisterwood is also the only talking tree, although there's plenty in the way of flowers.

We already have an objective. I always like knowing my objectives ahead of time.

(We are largely going to brush aside the question of why clouds are being treated as the antagonist, when rain is as essential for flower growth as sunlight. Huff is never treated as anything less than evil here.)

Turns out he means this quite literally. It's amusing. If it wasn't so perilous.

I love how much they stick to the idea that Mario is only interested in helping because it will end with him getting a Star Spirit. Some hero.

And also save their lives. Possibly. They seem to think so, but they don't really treat it as such.

Our main obstacle is getting to Puff. We know exactly what he is, but Mario can only jump so high. Even Luigi's not getting up there.

Fortunately, we have a plan that might allow us to get that height.

We need four things to assemble our path to Cloudy Climb, and Chapter 6 is almost entirely assembling those four things. The Miracle Bean is the first, and I believe you can get them in any order you wish. The problem being that the game soft-railroads you into the order, so most people tend to wind up doing it in that order.

Well, I guess that's technically helpful.

There are four Bub-ulbs in this area, and they all have general NPC dialogue as the chapter progresses and you find each objective.

Starting with Petunia, who likes seeds more than she likes the sprouted flowers. For a flower, that's definitely unusual.

This is actual directions. There are three choices in east, and this pinpoints which one.

A bit of an insight into the tone of Chapter 6: the game knows the flowers are all in danger of wilting without the sun, but it's still going to play this chapter on the "lighter" side.

Fortunate that this cloud isn't covering the rest of the world, at least. DQ11 showed us what that could've been like.

I can hear the arguments people making in bad faith against him for that line. Sigh.

Flower Fields has six directions in which to travel from the main path. Theoretically, that means this is a pretty open chapter. In practice, this is not the case.

...Two against one says you're the liar.

It's a Tolielip. He definitely knows a lot about Flower Fields. Unfortunately, he's a liar. You can figure out his riddles, can't you, Mario?

Tolielip here is a pretty helpful NPC, if you're aware of the fact that he's a filthy liar. He will always point you in the direction you need to go next... well, rather, he will always point you in the exact-opposite direction, and thus doing the opposite of what he says will accomplish your goals.

This is also a lie.

Proof of concept, every path except due east is immediately met with a roadblock.

The Stinky Herb appears if you jump around near a few of these hanging flowers on the arches here. It is usable in four recipes... all of which we've already found. Specifically, Boiled Egg, Dizzy Dial, Healthy Juice and Kooky Cookie. Strange Leaves can fill in for them in all but the Kooky Cookie, which can be done with a Koopa Leaf.

Due east it is.

This is a Crazee Dayzee. Crazee Dayzees look cute, but you won't think they're so cute after they attack you! Max HP: 8, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: 0. They attack by singing a song. If you fall under the song's spell, you'll fall asleep. If you get their HP low enough, they'll try to run away. Beat 'em quickly so they can't flee.

Crazee Dayzee (Lv. 19) is an enemy from Yoshi's Island, although they've seen a massive upgrade. Dayzees in Yoshi's Island are basically Shy Guys, while here, they are surprisingly deadly opponents.

This hard-to-avoid attack has a chance of putting you to sleep. Where you are helpless against any enemies on the field for three turns. And they spawn in groups with things.

Equip Feeling Fine, that's what the lesson is.

Oh yeah, remember these guys? This is where we're supposed to be finding them. By now, any aerial attack is going to knock them out in one hit, so don't let them get one of their own attacks off. 6 Atk still stings over here.

Yes, this is exactly the enemy you don't want to see in formation with a Dayzee.

On the minus side, these things aren't worth as much EXP anymore.

Now then, there are three trees here, and my secret sensor's tingling.

The order is middle, right, left, and you can learn it from Merluvlee or Tolielip- although he'll tell you left, right, middle, of course.

Entering the next room has quite possibly the weirdest song in the game. Petunia Under Attack plays only in this room, only on the overworld (not in battle), and goes away once you've helped Petunia.

It's also one of the game's coolest bangers. Somebody composed this song and then somebody else decided not to put it in an actual fight scene.

This is Petunia. Her flower looks a little weird from the bottom, and we sadly never get to see what the bloom looks like.

Like most flowers, she's heavily impacted by the loss of the sun.

Also her roots are being nibbled by Monty Moles. That seems like something that's a little higher priority. Flowers need their roots to live, especially in the absence of sunlight.

This seems to be a bit of a biological misconception about the diet of moles. Real moles are largely insectivores, and any damage they do to your garden is because of their burrowing and not any active attempt to nibble the roots and seeds therein.

Just Monty Moles? I can handle them.

This long camera pan through each mole is largely an excuse to give Petunia Under Attack some screentime. I believe it is necessary to watch this cutscene to attack the moles, even though they are on the map beforehand.

This Crazee Dayzee spawns only after the dialogue, but you don't need to defeat it to save Petunia. I'm fairly sure there's a joke being made here, but I don't get the punchline.

...I love that she went for "please don't fail me". Of all the phrases to apply to this...

This flower is named Petunia. She's obsessed with Seeds. She's pretty talkative. She says she doesn't do anything with the Seeds. She just collects them. Collecting Seeds? Talk about a boring hobby! Don't you think so, Mario?

You judgemental little chestnut.

This is a Monty Mole. You remember Monty Moles from Mt. Rugged, don't you? Max HP: 12, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 0. They're vicious rock-throwers. They may look intimidating but they're not very strong.

Monty Mole (Lv. 19) is a really weird enemy. For one thing, it has the exact same name as the Monty Moles on Mt. Rugged (in Japan, it has the distinct name Flower Monty Mole). Its green hue seems to be original to this game, although maybe it's inspired by some old Super Mario World art. And it has a weakness to one specific tool in our arsenal.

It's hard to oneshot, but it's pretty easy to twoshot with the right setup.

The four moles have different formations- 1, 2, 3 and 4 moles. I think it's consistent which mole is which.

So yeah. Flower Monty Moles are weak to Hammer Throw, taking an additional three points of damage. They are the only enemy weak to Hammer Throw.

It's not worth packing it.

Also, there's a Star Panel over here.

A good strategy for the 3 and 4 formations is to use high-power multi-target attacks, like Power Bomb.

I didn't have a follow up on Mario to capitalise, though.

I brought Quake Hammer to the 4 Monty fight, but I forgot to pack enough firepower to land the kill with it.

Oh well.

So long, Petunia Under Attack. The normal song for Flower Fields right now isn't exactly the most pleasant track, either.

...I don't think we asked for it. Very handy, though. Also, unfortunately for it, we're going to wait on planting it.

I don't think she knows they call her that as an insult.

Unfortunately for you, we will be planting it eventually.

Petunia is not the flowers' favourite bloom because of her... unique perspective of flower cultivation. To be fair, the Bub-ulbs mocking her for this are capable of locomotion, but on the other hand, Petunia is able to collect seeds somehow.

This is our plot clue as to how to get the Miracle Bean to grow as large as we need it to. Somewhere in the Flower Fields are flowers that will give us Fertile Soil and Miracle Water, and we'll need to gather those before we can plant the Miracle Bean.

By the way, there's a map behind Petunia.

All one can find back here is a well, and no clear indication of what it does. We can't jump into it. We'll come back later, then.

We have to chase this Crazee Dayzee around if we want to take it. While we're up to it, here's a Red Berry. It cooks into a Super Soda and also appears as substitutes in miscellaneous other recipes. It an also be used with a Strange Leaf to make a Sleepy Sheep. We're interested in it for other purposes, however.

This Bub-ulb complains about the lack of sunlight again, and brings up a bit of a relevant point: We're going to need to do something about that if we're going to be growing anything.

...Is that how fertiliser happens? I always thought it was animals who provided that part of the cycle of nature. Then again, the animals got those nutrients from plants.

...I guess. I think the way plants grow is completely foreign to the words used for nuclear families.

Oh if that isn't foreshadowing for the Miracle Water quest...

Clearly we're going to need to keep this mind.

So then, our next objective?

To pass through these three gates guarded by this breed of plant, we need to throw them some berries.

The flowers insist it's the colour of the berry they love. Despite, you know, colour having nothing to do with taste. Nice and convenient for our purposes.

This is a Ruff Puff. Ruff Puffs are nasty little cloud henchmen of Huff N. Puff. Max HP: 10, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: 0. Ruff Puffs float in the air, so a Jump attack or something similar may be best. Of course, I'd be more than happy to give 'em a Headbonk! It's your call, Mario.

Ruff Puffs (Lv. 19) are Huff N. Puff's little pawns, and you'd think they'd have borrowed a few of his tricks. Nope- in this game, it seems all they have is that 4 Atk bonk. They do have one trick, though- don't bother Electro Dashing them, they're resistant to it. This chapter (and this chapter alone) came prepared for Watt.

You need all three Atk ups to oneshot these. You may want to consider other plans.

Behind the Red door is the Yellow Berry. All the coloured Berries are usable in the same recipes, and are functionally completely interchangeable as far as cooking is concerned.

Star Panel here.

Anyway, here's our next objective. Of sorts.

...Acknowledging the artstyle making it unclear what exactly her design is, although "mouth" doesn't look like a very clear way of making that mistake. Mostly, it's out-of-centre.

Posie's our stop for Fertile Soil.

...Well, Mario's bulbous nose is fun to play with in the games where this is possible. Not very floppy here in Paper Mario, though, which might be why Posie suggests we change that.

So, about this uniquely designed tree beside her?

Ouch.

She's Posie. A lily. She looks generous and kind, doesn't she? Of course, sometimes the kindest looking characters turn into the scariest when you make 'em mad.

If you whack this tree enough, she'll get mad enough to kick you out of the room. Don't worry, that won't leave her angry enough to turn you away when you need her later, but yes, we will be coming back later.

Since we don't need the Fertile Soil for a while, I wonder if you can leave her be until then. You can in the rando, but that's an obvious thing.

...I could've sworn there was a Heart Block here. The rando put one here, and I have no idea why it wasn't here in the base game. If you're that desperate for healing, there's a Toad House right behind the Wise Wisterwood's door in Toad Town.

...And why shouldn't she?

I'm sure I know a princess or two that could challenge that title.

Yeah, we get it.

You lot are the most blatant video-gamey railroading guards ever. At least pretend to be competent at your jobs.

...I hate this room.

You can jump across some of the first blocks, but Parakarry is necessary to carry you over the last ones. You have to cross this path multiple times. Hope you're good at jump spacing.

This is our Blue Berry Tree here.

...Unfortunately, I missed it in the hubbub of manipulating my inventory to carry both Blue Berries, but there's a Star Piece in this flower patch. You can barely see it in the first screenshot of the tree.

I'm really full on items around here.

...You get the slightest sensation there's going to be some way to fill this up with water? It's the Sushie panels, isn't it? Until we get that to happen, no getting that tree up there, and you can bet we'll need to hammer it.

Star Panel on the opposite side.

And a Maple Syrup in a hidden block above it.

If we thought getting some Miracle Water would be as easy as the Fertile Soil, no such luck. We're going to need to make it rain.

Sushie, how much can Squirt do?

When you're wishing upon a star... or perhaps a Staryu.

...Is that how water lilies work? I really should've brushed up on my botany before this chapter.

They always make the best jokes out of the fact that Mario is very much not the traditional prince on a gallant steed. Yoshi may be gallant, but Mario's is a face that no one is in a hurry to woo from Peach.

Just as long as it's not Huff N. Puff, or else we're going to have a Cluck and egg situation on our hands.

Check.

By the way, there's a Jammin' Jelly in that tree up there. You can walk around just fine, I just have a full inventory and would rather not leave that behind.

...SHINYSHINYSHINY

This is an Amazy Dayzee. Amazy Dayzees are so rare that they're also called the Legendary Crazee Dayzees. Max HP: 20, Attack Power: 20, Defense Power: 1. These guys almost always flee at their first chance. It would be nice to beat one, but be careful! Their attacks pack a powerful punch!

Amazy Dayzee (Lv. 100) has made his appearance! They usually show up in this room, although I'm not sure whether that's by design or because this room just happens to have eight Crazee Dayzees for it to replace. 20 HP and 1 Def means you need to have a serious plan to wrack up the firepower necessary to one-turn it, because if you don't, it will either run away or hit you with a 20 Atk song with a chance of sleep. You do not want either outcome.

D-Down Pound got me 10 damage, but Goombario's not making that up in one action. Plus, he was Tattling this one.

So long, Star Point bag. They have a 10% chance of being inflicted with any status ailment, so don't count on it.

The flowers like dropping various Syrups, which is a good way to gather enough Maples for your recipes, I suppose.

...This can only get worse from here.

Let's nip this in the bud.

Full disclosure, I'm actually kinda terrible at Tidal Wave. I blame the fact I've assigned C-Down to an unintuitive part of my keyboard, so I always have to think about what key I have to press. If you're playing this game on official hardware, but not on the original N64, you're probably using a controller that assigns C-Down to a control stick, which I can say from experience is not much better. This may be where Parakarry gets his edge back.

Going up here gets you a Super Block, and this time I picked Kooper. This is honestly more down to a lack of alternatives, although Kooper will want to be Ultra Rank before Chapter 7.

What are you flowers even guarding these gates for? Are you on Huff's side or the flowers' side?

This is a Spiny. Spinies have spikes on their shells that are pretty sharp. Max HP: 5, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: 3. They'll roll into Spiny Eggs and slam into you. It'll be much easier to fight them if you can flip them over. Their defense power falls to 0.

Spiny (Lv. 19) is a Mario enemy dating all the way back to the original. These enemies are the archetypical "don't jump on me, I will hurt you" design, although they're easy prey for a Fire Flower. In this game, they have a lot of Defence to chew through. Ultra Watt can oneshot them with Electro Dash, although everyone else has to stay on their toes. I think you need Quake Hammer to flip them over.

...A breakable brick block?

...Oh. That will come back if I leave the room, but still.

We're going to need some HP. More FP is nice, but let's be honest, how many uses of Fan Smack do we really need?

Over here we have a hedge maze, where some Lakitus are searching furiously for a lost item. Lakitu first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 1, and is about as prevalent as the Spinies they throw. Lakitu is perhaps more famous for hosting Mario Kart races, though, and in that game and many sports game, the one Lakitu that appears is usually addressed as "the", as opposed to a species.

Here, though, they're hostiles.

OK, I get it, perilous situation involving a lost item we're set to find, but the DQ fan in me cannot take the idea of the Puff Puff Machine seriously anymore. This is the machine that's responsible for the cloudy skies of Flower Fields, and being made by Huff N. Puff and his army of Ruff Puffs, it's a perfectly reasonable name in the context of Mario games. Hell, by this point, I wouldn't be surprised if no localised Dragon Quest game had used the term "Puff Puff" yet. But still... that's an unfortunate one.

...Probably the wiser call.

Although I love the acknowledgement this isn't going to end well for them. Lakitus, in the platforming games, normally like to fly so high that Mario needs to find some height-gaining technique in order to jump on their heads.

This is a Lakitu. Lakitus are strange Koopas that can ride clouds. Max HP: 12, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 0. They toss down Spiny Eggs, and these sometimes turn into crawling Spinies. We'd better deal with them quickly or else we'll be surrounded by Spinies. It seems like these Lakitus have been hassling you for your entire career, Mario.

Paper Mario's Lakitu (Lv. 20) doesn't fly so high, though. 12 HP is usually as high as generic enemy HP goes in this game (I think there's something with 13 later), and we're not expected to be throwing out 6 damage per bounce yet, so we will have to two-turn those guys. The Lakitus can either Spiny Flip (throw a Spiny Egg at you for 3 damage) or spawn a Spiny. In this game, I do not believe more than four enemies can appear on the enemy side at once, so it may be in your best interest to spread your attacks across both Lakitus, weather a round of hits, and then knock them all out on turn 2 to make sure they don't throw any new Eggs. Or let them and reap the EXP.

Also, they're flying. They actually will always be Dizzied for +1 turn if you try to apply it, go nuts.

They fell like chumps.

Anyway, now for this hedge maze.

This is a bit awkward, but you can walk on any hedge that is indented and a few squares that are raised (like the ones directly north and south of me). If you need help keeping track of yourself, switch to either Parakarry, Bow or Watt- since they fly behind Mario, they'll poke their heads out from the bushes and give you something to go on. It's not your exact position, but it'll do.

You can see a very small bolt of electricity from Watt here- this square of bushes is not obviously accessible as part of the maze, but it is mandatory to go through it.

It's how you get to the pipe in the middle, which you access from the east.

The other pipes, I assume, go to other pipes in the maze.

Oh, and if you want the Coin Block, just go behind this hedge.

Over in this area of Flower Fields, we have Rosie. I'm not sure what this is about "Rose Spirit", though, she looks like an ordinary rose to me. Perhaps she was intended to say something about her beauty being ethereal in JP.

If I'm perfectly blunt, you are far from the most aesthetically pleasing rose I've ever seen. But we don't get far saying that to her pistil.

Again with the jokes about Mario's stache. Mario & Luigi went the other way and made the quality of Mario's stache an actual stat whose purpose was to get discounts at shops. (Also increases your crit chance, but who cares about that?)

Rosie has, somehow, managed to catch the Water Stone the Lakitu dropped! How absolutely perfect!

...I can see where this is going already.

By the way, yes, Mario has been standing there running in place with his hands out like a beggar since Rosie pulled out the stone. ...OK, I think he's stopped the running in place bit, but that doesn't make the beggar thing any less ridiculous.

...If all else fails, Mario, I think you might want to introduce her to your favourite flower.

And just in case we thought we could try appealing to her sense of kindness, turns out she killed that a while ago.

...Now might be a bad time to mention I agree with Lily on the subject.

Rosie is, somewhat, convinced to let Mario take the Water Stone.

I don't really want to know how she would've acted if we told her she hands over the stone or she wilts.

...The worst part is now we have to leave and go find something.

What do you know? A rose called Rosie! She loves it here in the garden. She's pretty full of herself. I guess she thinks she's the prettiest of all flowers. She is quite beautiful... She has a strange way of expressing herself, though...

You are the worst judge of character.

Backwards we go.

Perfect time to stop and grab this, at least.

Our destination is Posie, and yes, we can't grab one of these when we got the Fertile Soil. Well, Yellow Berry. We do have to visit Rosie first and learn we need one.

A little bit.

It'll hurt Posie if we hit the tree, but Posie is happy to give it a try on her terms and see if anything will happen.

...Now that's a lady.

I mean, surely Peach would be the ideal of ladylike elegance, and the fact even the most docile incarnations of her are willing to get into a few scrapes means I don't think very many people worth listening to will think less of you for the occasional "shake a tree without touching it".

Excellent.

I need to go back and deposit a few of my valuables to make room for more valuables. Either I should be less sparing or I need more space. I like to think it's the latter.

...Uh, Beth?

I know you just made room for them, but...

You did remember to turn in the Crystal Berry first, right?

That's two crossings of that damned thorn patch I didn't need to do.

Here's Parakarry keeping his head over the hedges.

Rosie, rather happily, is taken by our choice and is happy to make the trade.

...How about no? Posie's not that far off, I can draw one less line.

...Leaving now.

Anyway, this is why I grabbed that extra Blue Berry.

You can throw Berries down this well.

He'll give you an item if it's a Blue Berry, but Bzzap!s if it's not. Tolielip will tell you not to do this.

Also Merluvlee, if her Badge hint directs you to this one.

Oh hey, he's back. Now then, I mentioned something about Amazy Dayzees having high resistance to all status?

Dizzy Attack don't care about no resistance tables. Sure, we only get one turn, but one turn is all we need.

Babam! We didn't need D-Down Jump, but whatever.

This is the only reasonable way to get EXP if you've got plans on hitting the level cap. You don't need that, though.

Annoyingly, you talk to Lily and she tells you to set it in its rightful place. I'm not sure you can check that spot first.

We have water!

Also water in here, too.

Although the water on this map looks far, far prettier. They went hard on the graphic design of this pond.

You can almost believe this is miracle water found in no other pond.

And we're just about ready to grow our beanstalk!

...Right. At this point, we have everything we need, but we won't be growing that beanstalk until we have the sunlight's nourishment back, so now the game is ready to tell us to go and do it.

Fortunately, returning the Water Stone has allowed us another resource that'll get us what we need.

The Bubble Berry will be our ticket to the next segment of Flower Fields, and cooks into a Tasty Tonic instead of a Super Soda. It is also useless in any other capacity as a recipe item.

Next time: Fewer fetch quests!