Paper Mario Any% Route

PAPER MARIO any% ROUTE
By r0bd0g

Version 5.3.1


-- Prologue --

- Talk to Goompa, then to Goompapa
- Get 3 coins from the first 3 bushes in Jr. Troopa's playground
- Get Hammer
- Get a coin from the tree next to the Hammer bush
- Get 10 coins from block
- Jr. Troopa: Jump 5x [20 XP]
- Hammer the coin block
- Jump on the trampoline for 4 Coins and a Fire Flower
- Say NO to tutorials
- Equip Power Jump ASAP
- Get coins from the two boxes
- Get Close Call
- Red/Blue Goombas: Power Jump Blue / Headbonk Red, Power Jump Red / Do Nothing, Fire Flower [40 XP]
- Go back and hit the Heart Block
- Goomba King: Power Jump King / Headbonk Tree, Power Jump / Headbonk [70 XP]
- Get a coin from the tree across the bridge
- To the Shooting Star Summit and talk to the Spirits
- Say NO to tutorials
- Magikoopa: Power Jump / Headbonk, Jump [86 XP]
- Black Toads Skip


-- Chapter 1 --

- Coin from coin block
- Fright Jar in the block
- POW Block from block
- 10 coins from last block
- Koopa Village
- Get Kooper
- Fuzzies: POW Block / Untimed Power Shell [98 XP]
- Head for the Fortress
- 5 coins on the path
- Get the Thunder Bolt
- Hit the Heart Block
- Koopa Troopa: Power Jump / Untimed Power Shell [104 XP]
- LEVEL UP: FP
- Get Power Bounce
- Do the Stair-Switch skip & Fortress Key skip
- Get Bombette
- Koopa, Bob-omb 2x: Fright Jar [104 XP] - If it fails on a Bob-omb, use untimed Body Slam. If it fails on the Koopa, use Bomb and restore your FP at the Mt. Rugged heart block.
- Get all the coins that are dropped.
- Return to Toad Town
- Pick up the Honey Syrup behind the blue pole, unless you got a drop from the jail fight


-- Chapter 2 --

- Log Skip
- Get the Seed
- To Mt. Rugged
- Get Parakarry's Letters
- Get 3 Whacka's Bumps - There are some riskier strategies later on that you can try if you get only 2 Whacka's Bumps.
- There's a coin block a bit before the 3rd letter if you lost one somewhere along the way
- Get Parakarry
- Get the Seed
- Get 3 Coins on the slide
- Three of the bushes at the train station have coins, if you're still short.
- Back to Toad Town
- Buy Speedy Spin. If it's not there, head one screen down and one screen left and back to reset the badge shop
- Unequip Power Jump. Equip Speedy Spin and Power Bounce.
- Blue House Skip

---

Blooper [125 XP]

1. Power Bounce / Sky Dive [Shell Shot if at least 11 bounces]
2. Power Bounce / Sky Dive [If you haven't used a Shell Shot yet, either Shell Shot if you've done at least 23 damage or Do Nothing if you've done exactly 22] - Just Shell Shot if 20 bounces on first turn.

3. Power Bounce [Jump if you've used a Shell Shot; keep track of whether or not it should be untimed] / Sky Dive [if necessary]

---

- Take the Pipe to Ch 5


-- Chapter 5 --

- Yoshi Skip & Raphael Skip, enter the volcano
- 1-Cycle the platforms in the first room
- Jump off the zipline and get Fire Shield, unless you're doing Time Out against Hallway Bowser
- Get Life Shroom from invisible block
- Lava skip
- Only need to push one block to get across in the next room
- Get Ultra Hammer
- You can use the Fire Bars to get invincibility from the Lava Bubbles.
- Use Parakarry to touch the loading zone through the rock thing. If you can get it from far away you can skip a Kolarado text.
- Lava Piranha skip and finish out the chapter
- Get the last question of the quiz wrong so that nobody wins
- Get Jammin' Jelly behind tree
- Get the Volcano Vase and the Seed
- Return to Toad Town through the sewers


-- Chapter 3 --

- To Forever Forest
- Right 2, Left 1, Left 1, Left and Get the Seed, return to Toad Town
- Open the Flower Gate


-- Chapter 6 --

- Lakilester early
- Pick up the Shooting Star hiding in the flowers
- Blow up the rock and talk to the sun

---

Spike? [144 XP]
Stats: 10/10/3
Items: Shooting Star, Thunder Bolt

1. Shooting Star / Shell Shot / Block at least 2 of 4
2. Thunder Bolt / Shell Shot
3. Refresh / Shell Shot
4. Starstorm / Shell Shot
5. Starstorm / Shell Shot

---

- Leave Flower Fields and return to the sewers
- Get the Ultra Boots (save this for next time if you're not brave enough to tackle the sewers at such a low HP)
- Use the Ultra Boots to get the Life Shroom in the invisible block
- If you only picked up 2 Whacka's Bumps, then you should grab the invisible Maple Syrup here.
- Take the pipe to Chapter 5 and head back through the entire volcano
- Use Lakilester to cross the lava rooms faster. It saves a few seconds to ride the first moving platform in the 2nd lava room, assuming you avoid the Fire Bars this time, but if you do that then you have to risk an encounter with a Lava Bubble.
- Lakilester clip down below the lava to get the Piranha's text. Don't softlock.
- Peach Warp
- Take the Beamstalk and get S. Jump Charge. (It's a bit faster to reload the area to reset the cloud's cycle. You can also get onto the upper cloud faster if you use the Ultra Boots.)


-- Chapter 7 --

- Leave Flower Fields and return to the sewers
- Take the pipe to Chapter 5 and head back through the entire volcano
- Peach Warp
- Get the Thunder Rage in the pillar
- Climb the stairs and Upgrade Parakarry at the Super Block
- Get the Repel Gel behind the tree
- Upgrade Bombette at the Super Block in the sewers
- Head to the Shooting Star Summit


-- Chapter 8 --

- Get Star Beam
- To Bowser's Castle
- Koopatrol 2x: Thunder Rage / Power Bomb [168 XP]
- Pick up the Tasty Tonic and THEN get Life Shroom in the crates in the jail cell
- Ride Lakilester back toward the entrance
- Get the Life Shroom in the ? Block, use it to duplicate your Repel Gel by eating the Honey Syrup as you pick it up.
- Block Clip
- In the water-puzzle room, use Lakilester clips to skip needing Sushie, then do the fast flood room clips
- Cannonless
- There's a strategy you can use to consistently avoid the troll Hammer Bros., but if you don't want to bother avoiding him, you could instead kill him with Starstorm / Power Bomb (Level Up: BP) and then later you will Up & Away the Duplighosts. It wastes maybe 1s to do that, assuming the Up & Away works and they wouldn't have all transformed. To do this you will have to switch to Bombette before passing him, even though you might not end up needing her. Note that if you do end up killing him, you will not have enough Star Power for the normal Time Out strategy.
- The answers to the Quiz are 1st answer, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 1st. (3rd. 2nd.)
- There's a Maple Syrup here just after the quiz. If you're planning on doing Time Out against Hallway Bowser but you won't have enough Star Power because you killed that Hammer Bros., then you will need to pick this up. If you're planning from the start on maybe doing Time Out and there's a chance you might encounter that Hammer Bros., then you should not be picking up that 3rd Whacka's Bump.
- Use Kooper on the switch, unless you're going to Up & Away the Duplighosts, in which case you should use Bombette.
- The maze path is: Up, Down, Down, Up, Down, Up

---

Duplighost 4x: Power Shell / Switch to Bombette, Starstorm / Power Bomb [224 XP]

If all of them transform, skip the Starstorm.
If only one of them doesn't transform, perhaps Jump / Power Bomb, Untimed Jump would be faster than a Starstorm / Power Bomb.
If only one of them transforms, you will have to block all 3 attacks.
If none of them transform, you will lose a Life Shroom, which is bad because you need all the help you can get on the final fights.

If you got into an encounter with the Hammer Bros. earlier and opted to kill them, you should instead use Up & Away.
One benefit of this option is that there is no chance of losing a Life Shroom, so you could opt to do this route intentionally, if you find that risk unacceptable.
Switch to Parakarry before the fight instead of after.
If Up & Away fails on one, use Air Lift. If it fails on two, then I guess you should use Air Lift multiple times? If it fails on more than 2, I guess you just have to use Up & Away again. You should still have enough Star Power for Jr. Troopa (unless it fails again or something), right? In that case you will probably want to sleep at the Toad House, no matter what strat you were thinking doing.
If you lose any HP or FP after using Up & Away, go back and heal at the heart block.

---

Level Up: BP
Equip S. Jump Charge and Close Call.
Switch to Parakarry

---

Jr. Troopa [260 XP]
Stats: 10/10/6
Badges: S. Jump Charge, Power Bounce, Close Call, Speedy Spin
Items: Whacka's Bumps 2x, Life Shroom

1. Chill Out / Shell Shot
2. Super Charge / Shell Shot / Block at least 1 of 2
3. Whacka's Bump / Shell Shot
4. Super Charge / Shell Shot / Block at least 1 of 2
5. Whacka's Bump / Shell Shot
6. Super Charge / Do Nothing / Lose A Life Shroom without a Close Call
7. Power Bounce 10-9-8-7-6 / 4 Cap: Do Nothing

8. Starstorm

If you picked up a 3rd Whacka's Bump, after this fight is the time to eat it.
If you instead picked up a Maple Syrup and you're leaving this fight with 10 HP, you should eat it, unless you're planning on doing Time Out against Hallway Bowser and used Up & Away on the Duplighosts. If you don't have 10 HP and were planning on eating a Maple Syrup here, instead go back and heal at the Heart Block. Healing with a Maple saves about 6s over healing with a Whacka, but if you have to resort to the Heart Block, you will lose 6s instead.
If you used extra Star Power (either Starstorm here and/or Up & Away against the Duplighosts), you're doing the normal Hallway Bowser strategy, and you'd just like to finish the run, you might opt to sleep at the Toad House, in case the Hallway Bowser fight goes awry.

---

- Get Last Stand - Skip this if you're doing Time Out against Hallway Bowser.
- Pro tip: You can jump over the railing
- Go to the Library and get the Life Shroom and Power Rush.
- Unequip S. Jump Charge and Power Bounce. Equip Last Stand, Power Rush, and Fire Shield.

---

Hallway Bowser - Normal [309 XP]
Stats: 10/10/6
Badges: Last Stand, Power Rush, Close Call, Fire Shield, Speedy Spin

1. Starstorm / Shell Shot / Block
- If you get Fire Breath here, you'll need a Close Call on one of the next two attacks to survive.
- You could also survive by getting Waved on turn 4, but there's nobody who can actually make both the blocks required to make that work.
- If the Claw attack ever comes out, BLOCK IT because there's no worse mistake that you can make on this fight.

2. Jump / Shell Shot / Star Shield

3. Star Beam / Shell Shot / Block

4. Jump / Sky Dive / Block
- Block the Wave with your partner, if it comes out on this turn.
- ALSO block it with Mario if you got Fire on turn 1 didn't get a Close Call yet (good luck with THAT).
- This is where you might end up losing a Life Shroom if you had bad luck.
- He could also use Star Shield now, which wastes a decent chunk of time unless you're going to die. Dispel it with Star Beam, of course.
- If you are going die, the Star Shield gives you a chance to do an extra Sky Dive, which lets you kill him before he can heal.
- Be wary if he uses Star Shield now and you still have 4+ HP. Do NOT use a Sky Dive after using Star Beam or else he will most likely heal.

5. Jump [Starstorm if you lost a Life Shroom] / Sky Dive
- He should be dead unless you lost a Life Shroom.
- If you did lose one, he will probably heal.
- If he doesn't heal, kill next turn with an Untimed Jump (and if he uses Star Shield, use Hammer instead).

6. Starstorm / Sky Dive / Block
- From here on are extra turns that occur if he heals. This is very, very slow, so hopefully this doesn't occur, but it sometimes will.
- If you previously used extra Star Power and didn't heal at the Toad House, this fight will be especially horrid.
- Block the Wave with MARIO (don't worry about your partner), if it comes out on this turn (or next turn if he does Star Shield on this turn).
- The Wave doesn't put you in Danger, so, if you don't block it, Last Stand won't save you from the Fire Breath if it comes out after.
- That the Wave doesn't put you in Danger also costs a bit of time from lost damage.

7. Jump / Do Nothing / Block
- He'll probably use Star Shield again at some point in here.
- If he does, a pair of Sky Dives, instead of Do Nothings, could kill him a turn earlier, unless you got Waved while you had full HP.

8. Jump
- Can be untimed unless you got Waved while you had full HP.

---

Hallway Bowser - Time Out
Stats: 10/10/6
Badges: S. Jump Charge, Power Bounce, Power Rush, Close Call/Speedy Spin

This saves about 40s over the normal strategy, but Time Out has only a 30% chance to work against this guy.
The equip before the fight is to trade either Speedy Spin or Close Call for Power Rush.
Close Call doesn't actually help you at all in this fight, but if you are on VC and are planning to use Close Call against final Bowser, then you should leave it on.
If you are on N64, it's better to unequip Close Call and then equip it again just before the final fight, so you should take Close Call off, regardless of whether or not you're planning to use it for the final fight.
If you are doing the normal strategy and you get Turn 1 Fire, you could opt to switch to this strategy in the middle of the fight, and it will work just fine. The odds of winning the fight will be reduced from 44% to 30%, and it won't save as much time as if you were planning on doing Time Out from the beginning, as you will not have skipped Fire Shield and Last Stand.

1. Starstorm / Shell Shot / Block
2. Time Out / Shell Shot
3. Jump / Shell Shot
4. Jump / Sky Dive
5. Jump / Sky Dive

---

Hallway Bowser - Backup Time Out
Stats: 10/10/6
Badges: S. Jump Charge, Power Bounce, Power Rush, Close Call/Speedy Spin
Items: Maple Syrup

You will have to use this strategy if you used Up & Away on the Duplighosts, as you will not have enough Star Power for the normal Time Out strategy.
It's more risky as it doesn't save very much time over not using Time Out, if you get 3-capped.
You could also opt for this strategy if you were not able to use the Maple Syrup to heal after Jr. Troopa, which will save about 6s.
Unlike the normal Time Out strategy, there is a chance for Close Call to save time on this fight, but only if you get 3-capped, so I guess you can factor that into your decision to use Close Call or not.

1. Super Charge / Shell Shot / Block, if Butt Stomp
2. Time Out / Shell Shot
3. Maple Syrup / Shell Shot
4. Super Charge / Sky Dive
5. Power Bounce 10-9-8-7 / 3 Cap: Sky Dive / Star Shield

6. Hammer / Do Nothing / Lose a Life Shroom without a Close Call - He might heal in some cases. See below.
7. Hammer

If you get Butt Stomp on turn 1 or get the Claw and decide to block it (as that technically does save a few seconds over getting poisoned), he will most likely heal on turn 6, if you get 3-capped.
If this is what might be happening, you can probably avoid the heal by reducing the damage you do. Instead do the Sky Dive on turn 3, and then Do Nothing with Parakary on turn 4.
If you get 4 bounces as planned, kill with a Shell Shot on turn 5 (5 bounces to skip).
But then if you do get 3-capped, Do Nothing with Parakarry on turn 5, Star Beam / Do Nothing on turn 6, and then kill with Starstorm / Shell Shot on turn 7 (Jump / Shell Shot, if Close Call).
If you used Up & Away on the Duplighosts AND had to use Starstorm against Jr. Troopa, then you will not have enough Star Power for that extra Starstorm.
Personally I'd recommend just not getting 3-capped, which I guess means not doing this strategy, if you can help it.

---

- LEVEL UP: FP
- Just before entering the final fight, Unequip Last Stand, Fire Shield, and Close Call/Speedy Spin. Equip S. Jump Charge and Power Bounce.

---

Final Bowser
Stats: 10/15/6
Badges: S. Jump Charge, Power Bounce, Power Rush, Close Call/Speedy Spin
Items: Life Shrooms 2-5x, Repel Gels 2x, Jammin' Jelly

Phase 1:
1. Super Charge / Shell Shot / Block
2. Power Bounce 6-5-4 [Exactly 3 Bounces] / Shell Shot / Star Shield
3. Star Beam

You must do exactly 3 bounces.
Any more damage and Bowser will heal ASAP in phase 2.
Which of these Phase 2 strategies you should use depends on how many Life Shrooms you have and how risky you want to be.

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Phase 2 - No Turn 1 Peach Beam

This strategy is best used if you have 5 Life Shrooms, which is only possible if you get a Close Call against Jr. Troopa and didn't lose any elsewhere in the run.
If you do have 5 Life Shrooms, this strategy is much safer.
Though the fight itself is faster than if you were to use Peach Beam on turn 1, it's technically slower overall, as you could have skipped a Life Shroom or two, however I'd never actually recommend ever skipping any of those Life Shrooms.
That said, turn 1 Peach Beam can be faster in the fight as well if you can get extremely lucky with Close Call.
You can attempt this strategy if you have 4 Life Shrooms, though you will be committing to either getting 5 bounces or 4 bounces with a Close Call.
In that case, the fight is probably a bit more risky?, but only because you need 5 bounces. Since 5 bounces save so much time over 4 bounces, perhaps it's worth it to take that risk.
Close Call will cost you a couple seconds on movement, maybe as many as 8s if you use Time Out against Hallway Bowser, and it only has a chance to save you time if you get 4 bounces. Perhaps consider against using Close Call?

1. Super Charge / Do Nothing / Lose a Life Shroom
2. Super Charge / Do Nothing / Lose a Life Shroom
3. Super Charge / Do Nothing / Lose a Life Shroom
4. Repel Gel / Do Nothing / Wave Miss
5. Jammin' Jelly / Do Nothing / Miss
6. Super Charge / Do Nothing / Lose a Life Shroom
7. Repel Gel / Do Nothing / Wave Miss
8. Super Charge / Do Nothing / Miss
9. Peach Beam / Do Nothing / Block
10. Power Bounce 18-17-16-15-14 / 4 Cap: Shell Shot / Lose a Life Shroom

11. Starstorm [Jump, if Close Call]

You need to give yourself the best chance of being invisible when the Wave attack comes out.
The Wave attack removes all positive status boosts, most notably, charges, so if you get hit by it, you're wrecked.
The first turn that the Wave could possibly come out is on turn 4. After he uses Wave, he cannot use it again in either of the next two turns.
If you're charging, he seems to have a preference for using the Wave as soon as possible, and that's what we're counting on with the timing of our Repels.
The main idea of this fight is to tank Life Shrooms when you know that the Wave can't come out, use Repel Gels when you know it can.

But if he delays using the Wave such that you used a Repel Gel and it never came out, you could be in trouble.
If that occurs, you need him to decide to further delay using the Wave at some point in the fight.
If he does this after the 1st Repel Gel, personally I would toss on the 2nd Repel Gel immediately and hope he delays one of the next two Waves by a turn.
If he delays using the first Wave by only one turn and you started the fight with 5 Life Shrooms, you can Charge instead of using the 2nd Repel, delaying the use of the 2nd Repel by a turn. Then proceed mostly as normal, just pushing everything you do back by one turn.
If you were to use the 2nd Repel at the normal time, you would only be invisible on one turn where he is able to use the Wave, instead of two.
If you do this, when you bounce you will be able to kill immediately with 4 bounces, but you will not have the chance to save a turn by getting 5 bounces.

Since your partner is pretty useless in this fight, it doesn't matter too much if you block the Wave, but perhaps it is a little bit faster to block it.
In some cases you will have to block it, in case you get 4-capped (so in this strat, it only matters if you have 5 Life Shrooms), so that you can use that final Shell Shot on one of the last two turns.
If the Wave comes out on the turn before you are to use Peach Beam and you fail to block it, if you have 5 Life Shrooms you could also opt to charge an extra time, allowing you to kill with 4 bounces without needing your partner.

The biggest run killer occurs right at the very end of this fight, when you Power Bounce.
Of course, getting 5 bounces saves a lot of time over only get 4, but worse than that, getting capped at 3 bounces is probably the most common result.
Maybe as much as 50% of the time you will get only 3 bounces?
If this happens, he will very likely heal immediately after you lose your next Left Shroom, and even if he doesn't, he probably still has too much health for you to reasonably be able to kill him.
I think only in the event that you charged an extra time and then got a Close Call or a no heal, could you reasonably survive a 3-cap. Afterward, 2 Starstorms and 2 Sky Dives will kill, but of course that will be slow.

---

Phase 2 - Turn 1 Peach Beam

You need to use this strategy if you have 3 or less Life Shrooms.
You will need some help from good bounces or Close Call if you have only 2 Life Shrooms.
If you have 4 Life Shrooms, the extra Life Shroom is usually wasted. On the occasions where it does come into play, you probably need more help than the 4th Life Shroom can give you.
Whether or not it's worth it to use Close Call in this strategy is debatable.
If you can get 2 Close Calls in turns 2 to 4, you can save a Life Shroom, or if you can get Close Calls on turns 7 and 9, you can save a Life Shroom.
And of course you could save a Life Shroom if you can get one on turn 11, after a 4 cap.
But if you get one on turn 7 but not on turn 9, you won't be in Danger on the turn that you should bounce, and you can't take the time to get into Danger because the Wave is probably coming up soon. The best option really might be to try to get 6 bounces.
But then again it does have a chance to save you from the Wave if it comes out at a bad time...
If you use it and it doesn't end up helping you, then you've lost a few seconds, maybe as many as 8s if you used Time Out against Hallway.
So you can decide for yourself whether or not to use Close Call here.

1. Peach Beam / Do Nothing / Block
2. Super Charge / Do Nothing / Lose a Life Shroom
3. Super Charge / Do Nothing / Block
4. Super Charge / Do Nothing / Star Shield
5. Repel Gel / Do Nothing / Wave Miss
6. Jammin' Jelly / Do Nothing / Miss
7. Super Charge / Do Nothing / Lose a Life Shroom
8. Repel Gel / Do Nothing / Wave Miss
9. Super Charge / Do Nothing / Miss
10. Peach Beam / Do Nothing / Block
11. Power Bounce 18-17-16-15-14 / 4 Cap: Shell Shot / Lose a Life Shroom

12. Starstorm [Jump, if Close Call]

Everything else that I said regarding the previous strategy also applies to this one.
The only exception to that I guess is regarding the required number of Life Shrooms, which you can subtract 2 and arrive at the required number for this strategy.

But there is one additional complication: The turn on which he recasts his Star Shield.
He usually uses the first Wave on turn 4, but if you use Peach Beam on turn 1, he'll usually want to use Star Shield on turn 4 instead.
If he decides not to use Star Shield on turn 4, however, the Wave is probably coming out in its place. Scary stuff.
If he neither uses Wave nor Star Shield on turn 4, your best option is probably to continue without using your first Repel until he does.
If you somehow actually get past turn 6 without seeing either a Wave or a Shield, then I think you should finally toss on your first Repel anyway. It's not until turn 7 that his lack of being powered up will save you a Life Shroom.
If you're actually getting some super-strange pattern like that, watch that you don't try to get into Danger on the same turn that he's planning to use Wave. Try to spend an extra turn charging if that's what you're on-track for.
If he uses Star Shield on turn 3, that's really bad, because now there's no way he could use Star Shield on turn 4, so the Wave is most likely what's next.
In that case I would throw on the first Repel a turn early, and hope somewhere in the next three uses of Wave, he decides to delay using it by a turn.
Using the Repel a turn early like that typically results in the fight costing you an additional Life Shroom.

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- Luigi Skip
- T H E   E N D