Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door


 * For more uses, see Paper Mario (disambiguation).

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, known as Paper Mario: RPG in Japan, is the sequel to Paper Mario released for the GameCube in 2004. In this game, Mario is hunting the seven Crystal Stars to open the Thousand-Year Door, while Princess Peach has been kidnapped by a gang of aliens called X-Nauts. The game's entire storyline is divided into eight eventful chapters.

Plot


This section covers a list of events in all the chapters of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, plus the Pit of 100 Trials.

Prologue: A Rogue's Welcome
As Mario reaches Rogueport, he meets up with a Goomba named Goombella. She is attacked by the X-Nauts, lead by Lord Crump, and Mario and Goombella escape only narrowly. Goombella joins Mario's team. She takes Mario to see Professor Frankly and they head to Rogueport Sewers, where the Thousand-Year Door awaits. When Mario reaches the bottom floor of the sewers, he has to learn a new paper ability to reach the door from the first Black Chest Demon inside a Black Chest. After Mario reaches the Thousand-Year Door, he has to stand on the pedestal and hold up the map. The magic will show him the location of one of the Crystal Stars.

Chapter 1: Castle and Dragon
The first Crystal Star is found at Hooktail Castle. To get to Hooktail Castle, Mario and Goombella had to find the two stone keys at Shhwonk Fortress and compete with a Thwomp in a Super-Fun Quirk Quiz. After finding the stone keys, Mario and Goombella fight off a Gold Fuzzy. As they leave Petalburg, a Koopa Troopa named Koops will join their team so he can avenge his father, because Koopley went to Hooktail Castle for the past 10 years and didn't come back. When Mario, Koops, and Goombella get to Hooktail Castle, they avoid Hooktail's traps to reach the tower, and learn a new paper ability from one of the Black Chest Demons. They run into Ms. Mowz, who will gives them tips on how to defeat Hooktail. Upon reaching Hooktail's lair, they must fight her to get the Diamond Star, and free Koops' dad, who was swallowed whole after Hooktail's defeat.

After the battle with Hooktail, Peach is revealed kidnapped, as usual. Not by King Bowser, but the X-Nauts and its leader, Grodus. When an X-Naut tells Grodus Mario nabbed the first Crystal Star, Peach knows it was him. Grodus then knows Mario has the map and orders the Shadow Sirens to steal the map from Mario. Peach meets up with the main computer of the X-Naut HQ, TEC-XX, aka TEC.

At Bowser's Castle, Kammy Koopa will tell Bowser Mario is hunting the seven Crystal Stars and will also tell him that Peach was captured. Bowser is outraged at this and leaves for Rogueport to kidnap her back.

Back in Petalburg, the residents are amazed to see that Koops went from a coward to a brave Koopa and that Hooktail has been slain. As they head for the Thousand-Year Door, they receive an e-mail from Peach. Peach tells him she's been kidnapped and the people who kidnapped her are after the map she sent Mario. Mario and his team stand before the door and present their map to it. The next Star's location has been marked on the team's map and visit Prof. Frankly for details.

Chapter 2: The Great Boggly Tree


The next Crystal Star is found at the Great Tree in Boggly Woods. Upon reaching the entrance to Boggly Woods, Mario, Goombella and Koops meet up with a Puni named Punio. Punio thinks Mario and his team are working for the X-Nauts, who have taken over the Great Tree. Mario and his teammates find out that the X-Nauts were behind Princess Peach's kidnapping and offer to Punio to help drive the X-Nauts out of the tree. When they reach Boggly Woods, they see the Shadow Sirens talking. Vivian is showing Beldam Flurrie's necklace. Marilyn notices Mario is on his way, but Beldam and Vivian ignore her.

As Mario, Goombella, Koops and Punio make it to the Great Tree, they notice the door is locked, so they enlist the help from the cloud spirit Flurrie to help them, only they must defeat the Shadow Sirens to rescue her necklace. After giving the necklace back to Flurrie, she joins the team. As they comb the great tree for the Emerald Star, they must fight off Yuxs, X-Nauts and even the Punies' rivals, the Jabbi Tribe, who have teamed up with Lord Crump, and of course, get the Super Boots to rescue the other Punies after Mario and his team fall into a trap set by Lord Crump. As the team makes it to the basement, they finally reach the Crystal Star, but Lord Crump steals it and activates a 5-minute self-destruct mechanism, which will destroy the Great Tree and its inhabitants! As Mario and his team catch up to Crump, they demand that he gives them the Crystal Star and leave the tree forever. Instead of surrendering, Crump deactivates the detonator and summons Magnus Von Grapple to attack. After Mario and the team defeat Magnus, the X-Nauts are driven out of the tree and Mario and his team are given the Emerald Star as a reward.

At the X-Naut HQ, the X-Nauts tell Grodus Mario took the Emerald Star and TEC has Peach do a little dance to prepare for the Mushroom Ball in the computer room. Meanwhile, Bowser and Kammy reach Petal Meadows, Bowser goes through one of the places Mario has visited in Super Mario Bros. and upon reaching Petalburg, they manage to find the Princess, only they discover it's actually a poster.

Back at the Great Tree, the Punies wave good-bye to Mario and his team and tell them to visit the tree anytime. As they move on, they receive another e-mail from Peach. Peach tells him that the X-Nauts are on the search for the Crystal Stars and tell Mario and his team to be careful. Mario and his team stand before the door and present their map to it. The next Star's location has been marked on the team's map and visit Prof. Frankly for details.

Chapter 3: Of Glitz and Glory


Mario and his team learn that the next Crystal Star is located in Glitzville and must locate Don Pianta's daughter Francesca and one of his mobsters, Frankie to get the tickets to the airship. After a little conflict, Francesca and Frankie were engaged and Mario got his ticket.

As Mario and his team reach Glitzville, they visit the Glitz Pit. Only then, Mario and company learn that the champ, Rawk Hawk has the Crystal Star, located on his Champ's Belt. Their task at getting the Crystal Star: fight their way to the top. Mario heads into Grubba's office and goes under the name "The Great Gonzales". As Mario and his team get up to rank 15, they find an egg being chased by the guy at the Hot Dog Stand. The egg decides to come along and help Mario and company. As Mario and his team get ready to battle the Armored Harriers, two Iron Clefts, they chicken out of the match and then, the egg hatches into a Yoshi, who joins their team. During the rematch with the Iron Clefts, the Yoshi manages to put a dent in their defenses by gulping one Iron Cleft and spitting it at its brother.

Mario and his team finally make it to the major league and keep receiving anonymous e-mails from a mysterious person named X, telling them that someone has been making the fighters disappear, and someone keeps sending Mario and his team threatening e-mails saying that Mario and his team shouldn't get their hands on the Crystal Star they're looking for. As Mario and his team rise to rank 8, X tells them to visit the juice bar and Mario will get his Super Hammer and find a Dubious Paper hidden in the minor league locker room.

After Mario and his team defeat an opponent at the Glitz Pit to raise their rank to 5, King Bowser shows up and challenges Mario and his team to fight! After Mario and his team raise the rank to 4, X tells them to go to the phone booth, where they will find the key to the Glitz Pit Storeroom. They'll have to sneak into the vent system to spy on Grubba.

As their rank reaches 1, Mario and his team must remove the Great Gonzales posters in the lobby using Flurrie's wind and find a key to the storeroom on the second floor. There, Mario will find two of the fellow fighters, King K and Bandy Andy lying on the ground, injured. When Mario gets ready for the champion match, the security guard will escort him to a minor-league locker room and lock Mario in there. Mario must blow away the Princess Peach poster to reach the major league locker room and go in the toilet to reach the designated major league locker room and visit the ring to face Rawk Hawk, who is responsible for sending security to lock Mario and his team in the minor league locker room and sending that poisoned cake before the rank 2 match.

When the Hawk is defeated, Mario receives an e-mail from X, telling him to find the ghost in the vent, which is actually Grubba's voice. When Grubba goes away, Mario combs his desk for clues to find the paper he found in the minor league locker room. Mario discovers the paper is actually a blueprint for a machine powered by the Gold Star. Grubba will enter his room and rush into the ring, where his machine dwells. The machine turns him into Macho Grubba and Mario fights him for the Crystal Star. After Mario defeats him, Jolene will tell Mario and his team she was X all along, and it was because the loss of his younger brother, the first champ of the Glitz Pit, Prince Mush. Prince Mush comes out of Grubba's machine unharmed and Mario and his team are given the Gold Star as a reward.

At the X-Naut base, TEC tells Princess Peach to disguise herself as an X-Naut to find out what Grodus is planning. They learn Grodus is planning to use the treasure behind the Thousand-Year Door to take over the world. Meanwhile, Bowser is searching for one of the Crystal Stars at the Great Tree in Boggly Woods. He has no luck.

Back at the Glitz Pit, Mario tells the fighters and Jolene he's retiring, but he's sure to make his comeback someday. As they head for the Thousand-Year Door, they receive another message from Peach, telling them that the X-Nauts are planning to use the treasure behind the Thousand-Year Door to conquer the world. Mario and his team stand before the door and present their map to it. The next Star's location has been marked on the team's map and visit Prof. Frankly for details.

Chapter 4: For Pigs the Bell Tolls
Mario and his team learn that the next Crystal Star is located in Twilight Town. They manage to find the gate to Twilight Town, hidden in Rogueport Sewers, but they can't enter since their name aren't on their clothes. So, they visit the alley, directly behind Merlon's house and meet a resident from Twilight Town, named Darkly. Darkly writes Mario's name on his overalls and they go back to the pipe that leads to Twilight Town.

As the team reaches Twilight Town, Mayor Dour tells the team that the town is cursed and it may be coming from an ancient building called Creepy Steeple. Mario and his team are about to leave Twilight Town after talking to the shopkeeper's wife and hike up to the Steeple via Twilight Trail, but the gatekeeper won't let them leave without Dour's say-so, but of all the horror -- the team notice Mayor Dour turned into a pig due to the bell ringing (The bell's ringing is causing the curse). After Mario and his team give one of their items (for example, a Life Shroom or a Peachy Peach) to a resident that lives next door to Mayor Dour, they return to the gate to discover the gatekeeper turned into a pig. The team sees this as the perfect opportunity to hike up to Creepy Steeple.

While hiking up to the Steeple, they can't go on because a tree was cut down, but they do notice a key which unlocks the storeroom in the shop. Koops gets the key with his Shell Toss and Mario gets a Black Key hidden in the shack at the beginning of the path to unlock a Black Chest. The team returns to the shop in Twilight Town and unlock the storeroom and learn a new paper ability from one of the Black Chest Demons: tube mode. Now Mario and his team can get under the tree that was cut down and continue their hike to Creepy Steeple. Upon reaching Creepy Steeple, Mario and his team must free a Boo's friends to continue on. The Boos are imprisoned in the basement. After freeing them, one of them will ask Mario how many came out of the chest. Mario and his team will tell them 200. Mario and his team will be given an Ultra Shroom and a funny insult. If they talk to the Boo and tell him he's not going to be mean, a bunch of Boos will appear and if Mario and his team stay still too long, they'll be thrown out of the Steeple, (like what happens after a Sentinel catches Mario and his team infiltrating Tubba Blubba's castle in Paper Mario) but if Mario and his team hit them with his Super Hammer twice, they'll merge into an Atomic Boo and defeating it will earn them a Lucky Start Badge.

After moving the stairs to the left, Mario and his team go up the stairs and Koops will grab the Steeple Key. After moving the stairs to the right, they'll unlock the door across from where the key was and go up to the tower to face the Boss. As Mario and his team deplete half the Boss' HP, it'll turn himself into a shadow form of Mario. After they defeat him, they'll get the Ruby Star and leave Creepy Steeple, but Mario will get up from the ground and learn the Boss stole his appearance, so Mario must get to the bottom of it all.

Back in Twilight Town, the Shadow Sirens are planning to grab that map from Mario and his team, and as usual, Beldam is blaming Vivian for losing something. The thing they were planning to use against Mario and his comrades was an item called the Superbombomb. As Mario reaches Twilight Town, he runs into the Boss and will ask Mario to guess his name. Mario guesses wrong so he has to fight the Boss. Since Mario and the boss are opposites, neither can damage each other. Mario decides it is best to flee the battle. As he meets Vivian in Twilight Town, he finds the Superbombomb for her. He tells her not to feel bad about the Superbombomb being broken and Vivian will join the team. As Vivian hides Mario and herself with her Veil, the crows will explain about the Boss' name being hidden under Creepy Steeple. Mario and Vivian head up to Creepy Steeple and go down the well to the basement. As Mario and Vivian reach the basement, they find The Letter "p" and when Vivian hides Mario with her veil while standing next to the parrot, they learn that the name of the Boss is Doopliss. As Mario and Vivian return to Twilight Town, they guess Doopliss' name and Doopliss will flee back to the Steeple. As Mario and Vivian confront Doopliss at Creepy Steeple, Doopliss will convince Goombella, Koops, Flurrie and the Yoshi to fight Mario and Vivian. Vivian discovers she was helping Mario and does a little time to think it over. During battle, after being attacked twice by Doopliss and his own teammate, Vivian joins Mario's team for real, because he was a lot nicer to her than anyone was ever in her whole life. After Mario and Vivian defeat Doopliss, Mario gets his appearance back and Doopliss runs off in humiliation. Vivian thanks Mario for defending her and gives him the Ruby Star as a token of his kindness and as a reward for ending Doopliss' reign of terror over Twilight Town. Witnessing this, the group agrees to welcome Vivian to their party. Back in Twilight Town, Beldam and Marilyn notice Vivian isn't here and they notice Doopliss running past them.

At the X-Naut base, Princess Peach is competing with TEC in a Quiz Show and learns the treasure behind the Thousand-Year Door is the spirit of a 1000-year-old demon, and that Grodus wants to bring it back to life and the only thing required to seal the demon again is the seven Crystal Stars. During Bowser's event, Bowser is flying to Glitzville on his Clown Copter, but the copter malfunctions and he lands in the ocean. He goes through the underwater world. He makes it back to Rougeport when he reaches the finish line.

Back in Twilight Town, Mario and his friends had explained to the townspeople of how Doopliss imitated Mario. The Mario who was taking all the credit for the end of the curse was an impostor and so, the townspeople apologize to Mario for the misunderstanding. Mario and his team are about to head for the Thousand-Year Door, until they receive a message from Peach, saying that the treasure is the soul of a 1000-year-old demon. Mario and his team stand before the door and present their map to it. The next Star's location has been marked on the team's map and visit Prof. Frankly for details.

Chapter 5: The Key to Pirates
Mario and his teammates learn that the next Crystal Star is located in Keelhaul Key and they head for the Rogueport Inn and ask Flavio if he could take them to Keelhaul Key. He'll answer "Yes" and when he'll get to the dock, Flavio tells Mario and his team that they'll need Admiral Bobbery to navigate. Mario and his team head up to the east side of town and go up onto the rooftops of the town. As they reach Bobbery's house, the stubborn Bob-omb will refuse to travel with Mario and his team. The team heads to the Inn and ask Podley why Bobbery won't travel with them. Podley will tell them Bobbery blames himself for the death of his late wife, Scarlette and will give him the letter. Mario and his team head back to Bobbery's house and give the note to Bobbery. Bobbery agrees to travel with them. As the ship takes off for Keelhaul Key, an X-Naut hides behind a stack of crates and informs a soldier that infiltration was successful because one of Flavio's crewmates is actually Lord Crump in disguise. As the ship travels to Keelhaul Key, Embers attack and sink the ship. The ocean washes them up on Keelhaul Key, ironically. 3 of Flavio's shipmates are missing and after Mario and his team find them being attacked on the bridge, they'll force Mario to flee from the spirits attacking them. Mario and his teammates continue across the bridge and take out the Embers circling the tree Bobbery climbed up, too. After getting Bobbery down from the tree Bobbery asks for some Chuckola Cola. Mario heads up to a deserted island just north of Keelhaul Key to get a coconut and give Flavio a coconut he found in one of the trees and he'll give Mario the Cola. When Mario and his team give Bobbery the Cola, the admiral will join Mario's party.

As Mario and his team return to the campsite, Flavio will join the team for a little while. As Mario, Flavio and the team reach the entrance to the Pirate's Grotto, Mario places the Skull Gem onto the hole. As they listen to Flavio's lyrics, they hit the red stone 3 times and the blue stone 4 times, causing a hole leading to the entrance. Mario tosses Bobbery into the hole and the wall blows up, creating an entrance to the Grotto.

Mario and his teammates journey through the Grotto to find the Crystal Star. As Mario and his team trek deeper through the Grotto, they'll hear ghostly voices telling them to turn back. Could it be the ghost of the Pirate King Cortez? I'm thinking so! As they keep going, they learn a new paper ability: boat mode. As they trek through the grotto during boat mode, they manage to rescue dozens of shipwrecked Toads and the Don's daughter, Francesca and son-in-law, Frankie. After freeing the Toads and the two Piantas, the team makes it to Cortez's lair and Cortez fights Mario and his teammates, thinking they are after his treasure. After they defeat Cortez, they tell him they don't want his treasure, just the Sapphire Star. After meeting with the Toads, they learn that one of the crew mates, namely Four-Eyes, is actually Lord Crump in disguise. Mario, Flavio and the team enlist Cortez's help in defeating Lord Crump and the X-Nauts and Cortez will tell the team that the key component to running the Black Skull is the Skull Gem, which was stolen from Cortez by Flavio's ancestors. After the negotiations, the team gets ready to take on Lord Crump. While Cortez's ghostly minions and the stowaways deal with X-Nauts, Mario and his teammates engage into battle with Lord Crump. After they defeat the X-Nauts, Lord Crump is sent off to lick his wounds.

At the X-Naut base, TEC sends Peach into the labs to make a potion that'll make herself invisible and find out what Grodus is planning. The potion order is (from left to right): Red, Blue Orange and Green. After boiling the potion for 30 seconds, Peach drinks it and turns invisible, although she must remove her clothes to avoid getting caught. She heads into Grodus' office and gets information from a disk. TEC analyzes the information and Peach tells Mario about it. In Twilight Town, Bowser and Kammy Koopa run into Lord Crump, who is searching for the Superbombomb and initiate a face-off between the X-Nauts and the Koopas. When Crump begins to attack the Koopas using the Superbombomb, the item is defective, but Bowser's fiery breath set it off.

Back at Keelhaul Key, Cortez ferries Mario and his teammates back to Rougeport on his ship. Mario gets an e-mail from Peach, telling them about what TEC is analyzing. Mario and his team stand before the door and present their map to it. The next Star's location has been marked on the team's map and visit Prof. Frankly for details.

Chapter 6: Three Days of Excess
Mario and his teammates learn that the next Crystal Star is located at the Poshley Sanctum in Poshley Heights and to get the tickets to the Excess Express, they must ask Don Pianta for them, only to find that he's sick and the reason is he misses his daughter. Mario and team return to Keelhaul Key via Black Skull to find them and give Francesca her missing wedding ring. After they return to Rogueport, Don wakes up and announces he's retiring and wants his daughter and son-in-law to run the business and gives Mario and his team the Train Tickets.

After they leave the Don's apartment, Shadow Siren Beldam overhears on their conversation on where the next Crystal Star is. Only then, Mario and his team knew they must get to the Crystal Star before the Shadow Sirens do.
 * Day 1: Beginning their train voyage, Mario and his team notice a note lying on the ground telling them not to go to Poshley Heights or a sticky, yummy doom awaits it. Mario and his team had a sneaking suspicion that the Shadow Sirens might be behind it. They show the note to the conductor. Upon returning to their room, a crime is afoot-- The chef's Galley Pot is missing! Pennington, a detective thinks Mario and his team did it, but they manage to find the culprit in cabin 3, and find the Galley Pot in his drawer. Heff T. apologizes, saying he couldn't help himself, Mario and his team return the pot and talk to Pennington about the note they found. Pennington will think Goldbob and his family are behind it all. Mario will go into Cabin 8 and talk to Bub, Goldbob's son, and he'll give Mario and crew a hint on what he wants for his birthday. Pennington thinks its a Gameboy Advance. Bub will give Mario and his team a second hint: it's someone's autograph. Mario and his team go into the engineer's suite to get the engineer's autograph and give it to Bub, then, Mario and his team will visit Pennington for their next assignment. The conductor will tell Mario he's one blanket short and left his in Cabin 4 and will also tell him there's a person without a ticket on-board the train, thinking the ticketless passenger may be the team's perpetrator. As the team visits Cabin 4, Vivian hides them with her Veil ability and a ghost appears and tells Mario he's looking for his diary, hidden in the baggage car. The ghost tells Mario and company he will give them the blanket in exchange for his ragged diary. The team does so and turn in for the night.


 * Day 2: On Day 2, Mario and his teammates visit Pennington and the Ratooey businessman's briefcase is missing and so is the waitress' shell earrings and Toodles' gold ring! The businessman will tell the team that what was in his briefcase was a formula for Nitro Honey Syrup and if the syrup was mixed together with shells and gold, the results would be explosive. Pennington thinks that the person who stole the briefcase, the shell earrings and the gold ring would be the same person who left that threatening note in Mario's room on day 1. Mario and his comrades comb the train for clues and discover a piece of paper in Cabin 1, Zip T.'s room and show the paper to Pennington and the businessman. Mario and the team return to their room and notice another paper from the businessman's briefcase. Vivian hides the team with her Veil and Zip T. comes out of hiding. The team catches him and Pennington tells Mario and company that their culprit was pretending to be Zip T. Looks like the jig is up for the impostor, who is forced to return everything that was stolen. Upon reaching the Riverside Station, one of the conductors and Pennington are about to take the impostor downtown. The person pretending to be Zip T. reveals himself to be none other than Doopliss, who tells them he'll leave the rest of the plans to Shadow Sirens Beldam and Marilyn. While exiting the train, the bridge controller will tell Mario and the team someone lifted the drawbridge and tells Mario and his team to flip the switch and lower the drawbridge. As they enter the station, they must search for the elevator key to gain access to the basement, where the switch lies, also, they have to get the Ultra Boots. As they reach the bridge control room, they see strange black creatures guarding the switch. They fend off the creatures and flip the switch. After that, they board the train and turn in for the night.
 * Day 3: After Mario and his team wake up, they notice something strange is going on, so they visit the engineer to find out what's going on, only they notice the creatures from the Riverside Station are attacking the train! The engineer enlists Mario and the team to check on the passengers while he maintains control of the train. Mario and the team see there aren't any passengers aboard the train, so they check in the baggage car to see that the creatures have boarded the train through the window! Mario and teammates fend off the creatures to rescue the conductor and waitresses and the creatures flee through the window. Mario and his team go through the window and fight off a giant creature called a Smorg to rescue the passengers. After they defeat the Smorg, the team finally makes it to Poshley Heights and upon reaching the Sanctum, they discover that Pennington lives there-- he's the sanctum manager and reveals to the team that his detective thing was a hobby of his. Upon entering the Sanctum, they discover Beldam, Marilyn and Doopliss beat them to the Garnet Star! Pennington tells the team the star he put there was a red herring: a fake! Mario and his team manage to find the real Garnet Star hidden in the painting and return to Rogueport.

At the X-Naut HQ, an X-Naut tells Grodus Mario managed to get the real Crystal Star and tells him TEC is betraying him. TEC tells Princess Peach he has reached a conclusion to the data he analyzed: the X-Nauts plan to sacrifice her to the demon behind the Thousand-Year Door (that part is cut off while TEC talks to Peach) and also tells Peach that she's being held captive on the Moon. Peach tells Mario about it via communicator and gets captured by Grodus, who deletes TEC's memory of Peach.

During Bowser's event, Kammy tells Bowser that she's got the henchmen combing Rogueport Sewers. Bowser dashes through one of the castle courses in the first Mario Bros. game and upon reaching the finish line, he finds one of the Crystal Stars. Rawk Hawk tells Bowser and Kammy that the Great Gonzales (Mario) has the real Star and Bowser realizes he's getting nowhere on his search for Mario, Peach and the Crystal Stars.

Mario and his team return to Rogueport and receive an e-mail from Peach, but the rest is cut off due to TEC being deleted. Mario and his team stand before the door and present their map to it. The next Star's location has been marked on the team's map and visit Prof. Frankly for details.

Chapter 7: Mario Shoots the Moon
Mario and his teammates learn that the last Crystal Star is located on the Moon, which is also where Princess Peach is being held. Prof. Frankly tells the team the only way to get there was to use a cannon at Fahr Outpost. Mario and his team had to obtain an Ultra Hammer to get to Fahr Outpost. As Mario and his team make it to Fahr Outpost, the Mayor tells them that they must get Goldbob's permission to use the cannon. The team had to return to Poshley Heights to get Goldbob's permission and had to keep saying "yes" to his questions. Mario and company are given Goldbob's permission, and the only thing they must do is search for General White and the mayor tells Mario and company he's in Petalburg.

As they get to Petalburg, they ask the koopa at the gate to Petal Meadows where the general is. He tells them that he's on a deserted island to the south. Mario and his team learn he's on Keelhaul Key and ask Pa-Patch for a clue: He's at some arena. Mario and his team head on up to Glitzville and ask the bartender where he is: he's at some huge tree. Mario and his team head for the Great Tree in Boggly Woods and ask the Puni at the gate where he is: somewhere dark. Mario and his team head to Twilight Town and ask the man at the rest house where he is. It would seem Mario and his team had no luck searching for the general, until they found him back at Fahr Outpost, sleeping at his house. They manage to wake up the general and tell the mayor they found him. Mario will be led to the cannon and will be blasted into space! As they reach the moon, they manage to find a warp pipe leading to the X-Naut HQ and they manage to fight off two Elite X-Nauts at the front gate. After taking out the X-Nauts, they had to go through many difficult tasks to get to the Crystal Star, like going through electric floors to retrieve items, compete in another Super-Fun Quirk Quiz and even play a crane game after Mario and his team found a cog in the Teleportation room. After getting the keys to the elevators and the card keys to the factory, Mario and his team seem to be ready to face the boss: Magnus Von Grapple 2.0, an upgraded version of Magnus Von Grapple and is a lot tougher than the Magnus Von Grapple Mario and his team battled back at the Great Tree. After Mario and his team defeat Magnus, it will explode, shooting Lord Crump into space. Mario and his team will earn the final Crystal Star.

During Bowser's event, Bowser will arrive at Poshley Heights, searching for one of the Crystal Stars. After he and Kammy break into the Poshley Sanctum, they manage to get one of the Crystal Stars, only Pennington tells them it is a red herring. A Paragoomba will fly into the Sanctum and inform Bowser Mario is heading for the Thousand-Year Door. Because of what the Paragoomba told them, Bowser and Kammy are determined to get their hands/claws on the treasure.

Back at the X-Naut Fortress, Mario and his team notice the doors are locked and they can't get out, so they go to the computer room on Sublevel 4. There, they meet TEC. TEC is running on a backup generator after Grodus deleted his memory and he will tell them Peach was taken to the Palace of Shadow and will start to go haywire. He will unlock the teleportation room on Sublevel 2. After Mario and his team escape the fortress, the fortress will be destroyed. After they go through the teleporter, they wind up in Rogueport Sewers. Prof. Frankly meets Mario and co. there and Mario and co. tell him they got the final Crystal Star, but they weren't able to rescue the Princess, since Grodus took her and took off for the Thousand-Year Door.

Chapter 8: The Thousand-Year Door
Now that Mario has received all 7 Crystal Stars, the time has come to open the Thousand-Year Door and enter the Palace of Shadow to rescue Princess Peach from Grodus.

As Mario and his team enter the Palace, they run into some Bombshell Bills blocking their path. After taking out the Blasters, they continue through a spiked floor maze, avoiding the spikes, they cross a room with firebars and as they enter the next room and examine the Dark Bones lying on the ground, the room starts to flood with Dry Bones (similar to what happened in Hooktail Castle) After they chase and defeat the Dark Bones, they continue into another room full of Bombshell Bill Blasters. After defeating the Bill Blasters, they continue their way into the palace and into a maze. Mario follows the torch's path: bottom, bottom, top, top, bottom, top, bottom. After getting through the maze, they reach... outside of the palace? Well, actually they are outside what seems to be a tower.

As they continue their way through the corridors of the Palace, they run into Gloomtail, Hooktail's older brother! After defeating Gloomtail, something expels from Gloomtail's belly-- a Star Key. Mario and co. backtrack through the corridor of the Palace and outside the riddle tower. Mario tosses Bobbery down the mouths of two Chomp Statues, revealing warp pipes leading to the two switches that open the path to the Riddle Tower. As they enter the riddle tower, they head up to level 3 and put the Star Key into the slot. After doing so, they search for 8 palace keys. After getting the keys, they place the keys into the slots and a secret path in the corridors that led them to Gloomtail is opened. Before they can enter the secret path, the Shadow Sirens ambush them along with... Professor Frankly?! Well, that's not Prof. Frankly, because the Prof. Frankly they were with when Mario and co. opened the door was actually Doopliss!

After Mario and co. defeat the Shadow Sirens, they head down the stairs into the secret path. Flurrie blows open a path to the next room with her Gale Force and Yoshi carries the team across. They go into the next room and Koops uses his Shell Toss to create a floor to fill the gap to get across. They wind up outside a room and hit the small green block to make the huge green block vanish and Yoshi gets them across and the team falls to hit a small, purple hammer and ride the elevator to the next room, with Yoshi carrying them. Mario crosses the gap with his spring jump and they head to the next room. As they get there, they have Bobbery blow up a switch to create a floor, allowing Mario and co. to cross a gap. They jump on a wheel and have Koops snag a palace key which opens a door at the top of the stairs to the next room. Mario rolls up into a tube and climbs the stairs. Mario and his team hit 4 switches from right to left: Blocks 2, 4, 5 and 7, activating the wheel and allowing Mario and co. to get to the next room, where they have to blow away paper and smash a huge, gray block and smash a wooden floor to get to the next area. Mario and co. cross the floor carefully and down the stairs and to the next room. Mario activates plane mode and heads into the next room, where a palace key awaits. Mario hits the red switch and has Yoshi carry them to the column, allowing them to cross it and get the palace key. Mario heads back to the previous room, jumps off the floor, jumps on a trampoline and activates plane mode, allowing Mario and co. to get to the Boss. As they get there, they meet up with Grodus, who thanks them for opening the Thousand-Year Door and Grodus wants to finish them once and for all. After Mario and. co. defeat Grodus, they see Peach trapped in a barrier. Grodus threatens to kill Peach if Mario and co. ever got any closer. Just then, a rumbling sound is heard and who should drop from the ceiling but King Bowser and Kammy Koopa?! Mario and his team defeat them and when they discover Grodus is gone, they hear Peach screaming! Grodus is taking her to the demon's crypt! They follow Grodus into the demon's crypt, only to discover they are too late! Grodus has already awakened the Shadow Queen from her deep sleep and the Queen has possessed Peach's body! Grodus orders the Queen to attack, but the Queen destroys Grodus' body. The Shadow Sirens arrive and took full credit for the awakening of the Queen. The Shadow Queen asked Mario and co. to be her eternal slaves, but Mario and company refused and engaged into battle with the Queen, but the Shadow Queen found Peach's body too weak and used her true form to destroy Mario and company, not to mention having to devour the souls of Mario's audience to restore all of her HP. The Crystal Stars scattered throughout to where they were found and let everyone know Mario and his team were in trouble and sent their positive thoughts and wishes to them. Peach managed to break out of the evil Queen's control and replenished Mario and his team's HP, FP and Star Power. Mario and co. defeated the Shadow Queen and released Peach from her control. After the Queen was defeated, it was sent back to her grave. Prof. Frankly arrives and shows Mario and his team the real treasure behind the door.

After the Prof. shows Mario and his team the treasure, Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toadsworth depart for home and wave good-bye to the team and Punio and Petuni come along and gives Mario and Peach fresh mushrooms for the trip home. At the Mario house, Mario receives an e-mail from Goombella, telling him that she's Prof. Frankly's lab assistant, Koops is running for mayor in Petalburg, Flurrie is a top-class actress alongside Doopliss and they're making a play about Mario's adventure (with Doopliss playing the role of Mario), Yoshi goes solo at the Glitz Pit as the Great Gonzalez Jr., Vivian is reunited with her sisters, who have ended their villain activities and said they won't be mean to her again, Bobbery is sailing the seas with Cortez, Ms. Mowz is back running the Lovely Howz of Badges, Lord Crump and the X-Nauts couldn't do any evil activites anymore and Grodus is still alive, only his head is intact and who knows-- maybe the X-Nauts will plan revenge against Mario, and TEC is alive as well. Peach and Toadsworth visit the Mario house and show the Bros. another treasure map and decide to hunt for the real treasure.

The Pit of 100 Trials
The Pit of 100 Trials is an optional challenge. Before or after saving the world, Mario decided to take on the enemies found in the 100 basement floor area known as the Pit of 100 Trials. He was wary as he continued to venture deeper into the pits, knowing the enemies located on levels 50-99 were very strong. When Mario reached floor 100 he gazed up at Bonetail, long-lost relative of Hooktail and Gloomtail. After defeating Bonetail, Mario got the Return Postage Badge and decided to leave.

Paper Abilities
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door brings up new gameplay elements not present in the original Paper Mario game. Throughout the game, Mario finds four black treasure chests, which give Mario special abilities to use in the overworld. They all base on the Paper element of the game's graphics. With the first ability, Mario is able fold himself to a paper airplane at certain spots, allowing him to fly over large gaps. The second ability allows him to turn sideways, making him as thin as paper, so that he can get through very narrow passages. With the third ability, Mario can roll himself up, allowing him to roll through low passages. With the fourth ability, he can fold himself to a paper ship at certain docks, allowing him to move over water.

Background
Another element introduced in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is the background scenery, which is actually accessible for Mario through certain pipes. Several places which only appear in the background can be visited this way, including Hooktail Castle, the Great Tree, and Merlee's house in the Rogueport Sewers.

Intermissions
After each chapter, there is an intermission where the player is able to control Princess Peach, who is held captive in the X-Naut Fortress. The Peach intermission is followed by a Bowser intermission, a new addition in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Bowser usually visits the places Mario has been to one chapter before, and several missions include a side-scrolling platformer level in the style of Super Mario Bros. In these levels, Bowser has the ability to breath fire, and by using the only available item, the Meat, is able to radically increase his size, thus crashing everything in his way. While enemies like X-Nauts charge at Bowser, others like Goombas are actually scared by him and turn away when he approaches them.

Attacking enemies
While Mario and his partners are battling enemies, they can attack enemies with extra power using the Action Command.


 * Countdown: Tilt and hold the control stick left, then release when the red light flashes.
 * Tricky Timing: Pressing A just before landing on Mario's opponent.
 * Aiming: Aligning a cursor in the center of the targeting reticule
 * Button Mania: Holding on to or repeatedly tapping a button or input an entire sequence.

Stylish Moves are extra commands to please the crowd more and gain more star power.

Guarding
To perform a guard action command, press A or B when Mario's opponent is about to strike him. Guarding will reduce the damage he takes from enemy attacks and help the player resist status effects. The player must time it right, though.

Guard: To perform a Guard move, press A to dodge enemy attacks, reducing the damage they do by 1, also protecting Mario from negative status effects. The player will have a 1/2 second to guard.

Superguard: To perform a Superguard move, press B to dodge enemy attacks, negating the attack completely, damaging their opponent if it is attacking directly. The player only have a 1/4 second to superguard, making it naturally harder than guard.

Star Points
Every time Mario wins a battle, he'll earn Star Points. When Mario's Star Point Level gets up to 100, he'll choose whether to upgrade his Heart Points, Flower Points or Badge Points. Choosing HP and/or FP will raise Mario's HP or FP by 5 and choosing BP will raise Mario's BP by 3. Mario stops levelling up at 99, however it is very hard to reach this level.

Shine Sprites
When Mario and co. collect Shine Sprites, Mario can give 3 of them to Merlon and Merlon will power up Mario's partners, increasing their HP and teaching them new moves. Getting the Up Arrow in Hooktail Castle will cause Merlon to remember he has an Ultra Stone which will allow Mario to power up his partners a second time, and Merlon will teach Mario's partners ultra-rank moves.

Star Power and the Audience
In the Prologue, Mario will earn a new Special Move, and every time Mario and company earn a Crystal Star, they will learn 7 Special Moves and the Special Moves can be used if Mario and company have plenty of Star Energy. After using a Special Move, Mario and company can replenish their Star Power by appealing to the audience and thrilling the crowd with the action command and stylish moves.

The Audience (or Crowd) are minor characters that appear in every battle sequence in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and in Super Paper Mario when the player performs a stylish move. They can either be allies or enemies during the battles. They appear in the bottom of the screen, giving Mario Star Points when he attacks enemies. These Star Points can be powered up to release a special move on the opponent. There's also special crowd members.

For example, a Crazee Dayzee may sing to put all audience members around her/him asleep. A Bulky Bob-omb may light its fuse and explode, killing the audience members around him/her. Bosses such as Hooktail may use the audience as a power source, restoring HP upon eating the audience members. The crowd may also throw objects at Mario. It can either be an item that will aid Mario, or hurt him. The items that will aid him can range from one Coin to a Boo's Sheet. The items that will hurt him range from rocks to crushed soda cans. Mario can press the X button to get them out of the theater.

Also Luigi, Punis, and Toads often appear in the crowd. Luigi, Punis, and the Toads will never do anything to hurt Mario or his Partners and will throw helpful items such as coins and mushrooms. Also, the X-Nauts refuse to give Mario helpful items. Also Shy Guys will sometimes get on to the stage and go backstage and drop something on the enemy, boss, or even Mario and his partners during battle.

With the exception of Shy Guys, Audience members never appear until they have been encountered. For example, X-Nauts and Punis don't appear in the audience until Chapter 2.

Also getting a Bingo will cause the crowd to fill in, but however if the player hits a poison mushroom during an Bingo round, the crowd will usually run away, and Mario's party's health and FP will be cut in half. Also Mario's star power will get cut in half as well.

Bingo!
An icon will appear next to Mario's Star Power Gauge whenever the player nails an Action Command. If the player has two matching icons and if the player executes an additional Action Command, Mario can take the Bingo! wheel for a spin. Press the A button to match the third icon to the first two. Matching anything but poison mushrooms also brings Mario's audience to max. 3 Mushrooms will fully recover Mario's Heart Points, 3 Flowers will fully recover his Flower Points, 3 Stars will refill Star Power, and 3 Shine Sprites will fully restore everything!

'''Goombella
A female goomba who studied at Goom University. She's the first character to join Mario after he defeats Lord Crump. She has the same ability to uncover an enemy's stats, like Goombario has.

'''Koops
A timid koopa who lives in Petalburg. To prove to Petalburg he is not a coward, he joins Mario's team to avenge his dad, Koopley's death. He has the same ability Kooper has outside of battle, using his shell toss move to flip switches, grab items and attack enemies.

After defeating Hooktail, he finds out that Koopley isn't dead after all, and because it, he is able to give the heroes the Diamond Crystal Star.

'''Madame Flurrie
She can blow wind at enemies to make them dizzy and blow fake walls away, revealing secret passages. She is an actress, although when Mario meets her, she is on hiatus.

'''Yoshi
Call him by any name the player wish and people will call him by that name. Press X to ride on his back like most Yoshis and hit A to fly briefly over places that have no solid ground, which is the same ability Parakarry possesses in Paper Mario. This character also can be a different color based on when it was hatched.

'''Vivian
One of the Shadow Sirens. At first, worked for Grodus, but joined Mario's team to help Mario get his name, appearance and teammates back, because Mario treated her a lot nicer than Beldam and/or Marilyn. She can hide Mario from enemy attacks, in which that is the same ability Lady Bow has, but instead of turning Mario and company invisible, she'll pull them into the shadows.

'''Admiral Bobbery
A retired admiral who refused to help Mario at Keelhaul Key, but decided to help him after Mario gave him his late wife's letter. After Mario saves him from Cortez's underlings and gives him Chuckola Cola, he joins Mario's team. He has the same ability Bombette has outside of battle: with his bomb attack, he can destroy fake walls, flip switches and attack enemies.

'''Ms. Mowz
Optional Partner: A Little Mouser cat burglar/badge hunter and the assistant shopkeeper at the Lovely Howz of Badges. Mario and his teammates encounter her at Hooktail Castle, the Great Boggly Tree, and the Glitz Pit Storeroom. She joins Mario's team after Mario gets the Attack FX B badge in Hooktail's lair and gives it to Ms. Mowz. She can also seek out hidden items and penetrate enemy's defenses like Watt did.

Crystal Stars

 * '''Diamond Star
 * Found in: Hooktail Castle
 * Power: Earth Tremor


 * '''Emerald Star
 * Found in: The Great Tree in Boggly Woods
 * Power: Clock Out


 * '''Gold Star
 * Found in: Glitzville's Glitz Pit
 * Power: Power Lift


 * '''Ruby Star
 * Found in: Creepy Steeple
 * Power: Art Attack


 * '''Sapphire Star
 * Found in: Pirate's Grotto in Keelhaul Key
 * Power: Sweet Feast


 * '''Garnet Star
 * Found in: The painting in the Poshley Sanctum
 * Power: Showstopper


 * '''Crystal Star
 * Found in: X-Naut Base on the Moon
 * Power: Supernova

Sweet Treat

 * Crystal Star Received: N/A
 * What It Does: Replenishes UP TO 8 HP for both party members and 8 FP.
 * Power Needed: 1

Earth Tremor

 * Crystal Star Received: Diamond Star
 * What It Does: If successful, this power creates an earthquake that can do up to 6 damage against all enemies.
 * Power Needed: 2

Clock Out

 * Crystal Star Received: Emerald Star
 * What It Does: If successful, immobilizes enemies temporarily.
 * Power Needed: 2

Power Lift

 * Crystal Star Received: Gold Star
 * What It Does: Boosts attack and defense power for a short time for both party members.
 * Power Needed: 3

Art Attack

 * Crystal Star Received: Ruby Star
 * What It Does: Any amount of damage can be done depending on how many times the player encircles around the enemies
 * Power Needed: 4

Sweet Feast

 * Crystal Star Received: Sapphire Star
 * What It Does: Much like Sweet Treat, the player will replenish up to 24 HP for each party member and 24 FP.
 * Power Needed: 5

Showstopper

 * Crystal Star Received: Garnet Star
 * What It Does: If successful, destroys enemies in a single blow! NOTE: Does not work on the more powerful enemies such as Glitz Pit rivals, minibosses and bosses.
 * Power Needed: 2

Supernova

 * Crystal Star Received: Crystal Star
 * What It Does: Does up to 15 damage to all enemies, 3 each time the player fills the gauge.
 * Power Needed: 6

Badges
Badges are what Mario may need throughout the game. They can be purchased at the Lovely Howz or by Charlieton, traded for Star Pieces by Dazzle, won at the Pianta Parlor or found in one of the places Mario and company visit. The blocks in which badges are found in the field are red in color, unlike normal item blocks which are yellow.

When leveling up, Mario can gain Badge Points which allow him to use badges he has already found. Some of the badges add new Jump or Hammer moves to Mario's commands during battle and other new abilities.

Badges can also affect Mario and his partners outside of battles. After the battle certain badges can increase the amount of points defeated enemies leave. Enemies might also carry badges in battle, which only Ms. Mowz can steal right away, and there's a likeliness that they might leave them when they're defeated.

Two special badges, the W Emblem and the L Emblem, can change Mario's clothing. With the W Emblem, Mario gets Wario's clothing, with the L Emblem, he gets Luigi's clothing, and with both Emblems combined, he gets Waluigi's clothing.

If multiple copies of the same badge are worn at once, the FP requirements will increase, but so will the attack power.

All badges found in RPG's like Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door are listed here in detail.

Bestiary (Tattle Log)
Goombella has the ability to analyze enemies and state their HP, Attack and Defense, as well as a short description. These information are stored in the Tattle Log, also known as Bestiary.

Trouble Center Side Quests
In Rogueport there's a "Trouble Center" which offers the citizen's troubles for Mario to solve. An anonymous quest comes from Ms. Mowz and requires Mario to find a badge she has hidden. Only then she joins Mario's team.

Bosses
Yellow signifies chapter bosses.

Voice Acting

 * Charles Martinet as Mario
 * Jen Taylor as Princess Peach Toadstool
 * Scott Burns as King Bowser Koopa

Similarities
Any one who has played both Paper Mario games will notice many similarities between them. The following are some of the similarities in the game.


 * The first partner of both games is a Goomba that will give Mario hints on both enemies and the area. They both have headbonk, tattle, and multi-bonk as attacks.
 * The second partner of both games is a Koopa Troopa. Both will be able to be shot out to hit switches, etc. Both of them are also able to use Shell Toss and Power shell in battle.
 * The fourth partner of each game will allow the player to travel across gaps.
 * Both games have a Bob-omb as a partner, both are able to destroy cracked surfaces.
 * Both games have a partner that allows Mario to become invisible to enemies.
 * Both games have a partner who has betrayed an enemy to join Mario's party.
 * The main plot point of both games is to find seven stars.
 * In both games the player is able to play as Peach between chapters. The player is required to dress Peach up as an enemy to learn secrets. Also, the player can cook something in both games.
 * Mario and Peach contact each other using friendly characters in both games. Twink helped in Paper Mario and TEC in The Thousand-Year Door.
 * Mario must solve a mystery in both games. A Bumptie is Mario's fellow detective in both.
 * In one point of the games, Mario falls for a ploy created by the boss of the level which led him to be confined in a cage. A ? block in Paper Mario, and a fake puni pedestal in The Thousand Year Door.
 * Chapter 1 in both games features a castle/fortress as the location of the boss.
 * The partner acquired in Chapter 2 in both games required Mario to bring him or her an item.
 * An oversized Clubba is the boss of Chapter 3 in both games.
 * In both games, at one point, Mario has to chase the Chapter 3 bosses (Grubba and Tubba's Heart).
 * Chapter 4 in both games features a childish opponent: the Shy Guy Army in Paper Mario and Doopliss in The Thousand-Year Door
 * Chapter 5 takes place on a tropical island with coconuts in both games and both involve an expedition.
 * Chapter 6 takes place in a beautiful area and has a boss that can do a very high amount of damage when charged up: 16 for Huff N. Puff, 10 for Smorg. Also, both are blob-shaped and made up of a smaller species.
 * Chapter 7 features a snowy region.
 * Chapter 8 includes a minor battle against Bowser before the final battle. Also, Kammy Koopa is fought in both chapters.
 * Mario's final battle is divided into multiple parts. At one point, each boss is invincible and Peach must save Mario by sending him phychic energy.

Trivia

 * When Mario controls the Puni in Chapter 2, it is similar to Pikmin and its sequel.
 * Collecting 7 shiny objects that the main rival wants as well is similar to the Sonic the Hedgehog series of Games.