X-Naut

"You rang, dude? I mean, sir? You rang, Sir Grodus, dude? Grodus? Sir Grodus, sir?"

- X-Naut

X-Nauts are soldiers that work for Sir Grodus and Lord Crump of the X-Nauts; they all appear in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. They are short and individually weak, but rush to defend their leader, Lord Crump, if he is threatened. It is unknown what is behind their uniform, as they do not show their true appearance, just like a Shy Guy.

In battle, they attack by charging into Mario or jumping on top of him. They can also use potions to heal each other or make themselves huge; increasing their Attack. They also appear in Bowser's platforming levels, where they attack by charging at Bowser if they spot him.

Several X-Nauts are encountered in the Great Tree as they and Crump search for the Emerald Star. The remaining X-Nauts are forced to retreat once Crump is defeated. During the boss battle with Lord Crump in Keelhaul Key, a platoon of X-Nauts help him. Also, some are encountered in the X-Naut Fortress, including X-Naut PhDs and Elite X-Nauts. At least four X-Nauts aside from Crump remain by the end of the game, and are shown in the ending sequence: A regular X-Naut soldier, an X-Naut PhD, and two Elite X-Nauts.

A large army of X-Nauts (exceeding any count of X-Nauts seen in the Great Tree or X-Naut Fortress) is often summoned by Lord Crump. When Mario defeats Crump the first time, he summoned the X-Nauts (which included a regular X-Naut named Johnson) to attack Mario, but they accidentally attack Crump instead while Mario and Goombella escape. Later, on Keelhaul Key, Crump brings the army of X-Nauts with him on a battleship to attack Mario and take the Sapphire Star back from him. They fight against the Toads and Cortez's Embers, and eventually Crump calls them in to assist him in the fight against Mario, but when Crump is defeated, he and the army retreat. Shortly afterward, when Crump encounters Bowser and Kammy Koopa in Twilight Town, Crump summons the army of X-Nauts again. Bowser and Kammy retaliate by summoning various members of the Koopa Troop (Hammer Bros., Koopatrols, and Magikoopas). Crump throws the recovered Superbombomb at them, but as it was broken it does not work. Bowser sets it off with his fiery breath, destroying both armies (though Bowser, Kammy, and Crump survive).

X-Nauts also appear as members of the Audience during some battles. They typically throw rocks at Mario if the battle drags for too long or if Mario receives contact damage and/or his attack deals no damage.

According to Super Paper Mario, X-Nauts have been featured in two sci-fi TV shows: Starship X-Naut and The Grodus Chronicles (the latter of which is only known to have featured one X-Naut whose lover had dumped him). There have been many seasons of Starship X-Naut, and the show is a favorite of geeks such as Francis. Apparently, he favors people who would dump somebody over a conversation about the propulsion system of the X-Nauts' spaceship on the show. An X-Naut made a cameo appearance on the Nintendo Monopoly board.

Profiles and statistics
Similar to a Fuzzy Horde, Goombella can use Tattle on the X-Naut platoon, but it will not be recorded in her Tattle Log, instead using the same entry as an ordinary X-Naut in this case.

Trivia

 * X-Nauts are known in a pre-release English localization as Boomer Gangers.
 * Due to the lack of voice acting in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the pronunciation of "X-Naut" is unknown. It may be pronounced like the letter "X", which is supported by Goombella's tattles using the article "an" and by Koops saying "tissues... to the extreme" (i.e. phonetically "ex snot") when first meeting Punio. However, it can also be pronounced "cross", as suggested by Goombella's tattle on X-Yux, in which case it may be a play on, an alternative name for tic-tac-toe.
 * In Super Paper Mario, there is a Sammer Guy by the name of Laughing X-Naut.