Sea Tower



"A tower standing in the Great Sea. That's...the Sea Tower. Obviously."

- Captain T. Ode

The Sea Tower is a tall tower standing in the Great Sea in Paper Mario: The Origami King. It is charted in territory B1 on the Sea Chart and requires three Orbs to enter the tower. The Sea Tower contains elements of all the previous Vellumental areas: the Earth Vellumental Temple, Water Vellumental Shrine, Fire Vellumental Cave, and Ice Vellumental Mountain. Tape is battled atop the Sea Tower as the guardian of the purple streamer. The Sea Tower also connects to Shangri-Spa by a beacon at the top of the tower.

A Collectible Treasure of the Sea Tower (No. 100) is available for purchase from a Spike in Shangri-Spa for 10,000 coins (20,000 coins after the green streamer is cleared).

Layout
Mario must have gathered the Courage Orb, Wisdom Orb, and Power Orb from having cleared the three trials on Diamond Island in order open the door to the Sea Tower; when interacting with the door, Mario has to place all three orbs in, and he can then enter the tower. The Warp Pipe serving as a shortcut between the Sea Tower and Musée Champignon in Toad Town is located outside the tower.

The first floor of the Sea Tower is styled after the Earth Vellumental and Water Vellumental. First, Mario has to jump across multiple expanding and retracting pillars. He comes across two idols resembling the Water Vellumental. A blue Sidestepper steals the Red Gem from the left statue and runs into a passageway. Following the Sidestepper leads Mario to an Earth Vellumental Temple area, with rising and falling pillars. Midway through the area, he must hammer two pillars out of the wall and jump on top of a protruding statue. Pulling some tape off of a pillar and filling in a Not-Bottomless Hole leads Mario through a doorway to a Water Vellumental Shrine room. The Sidestepper runs between the front and back ends of the room, entering cracks in the wall that allow it to easily escape Mario. To trap the Sidestepper, Mario has to hammer the walls to lower Vellumental heads and cover the cracks, then catch the Sidestepper and recover the Red Gem. Once he puts it in the statue's eye, he can go up the stairs to the second floor.

On the way up the tower, Mario and Olivia observe Toads taped to the tower walls. After going up a moving platform, Mario arrives at an area dedicated to the Fire Vellumental and Ice Vellumental, with statues of themselves facing each other. There is a button behind the Fire Vellumental statue that Mario can hammer to make it spit out a weak flame. To the south of the Fire Vellumental statue are stairs going down to an icy path above a pit of spikes. The path leads to an icy area to the left, where Mario has to complete an ice-sliding puzzle similar to the ones in the Ice Vellumental Mountain. There is a chamber nearby that Mario can enter to reset the puzzle. Mario must first slide the first ice slab into a block of spikes in order to reach the second ice slab, which he must then slide to the right to form a bridge over the spike pit, granting him access into a Fire Vellumental Cave room to the right. To get to the other end, he has to jump across a group of tiles, repeating a sequence in reverse. This takes him to a Magic Circle, and Mario must use the 1,000-Fold Arms to release a metal ball, which rolls down a slope and hits the button behind the Fire Vellumental statue with enough force to make it spit out a strong flame that melts the icy teeth of the Ice Vellumental statue, clearing the path to the next floor.

Even more Toads are taped to the tower walls as Mario climbs higher until he reaches the top of the tower. Here, he finds a spool for the purple streamer, along with four Vellumental pillars—one each for earth, water, fire, and ice—that are all blocked by the streamer. As Mario approaches the spool, Tape appears on a central platform and challenges Mario. Once Tape is defeated, the strips of tape that restrained the Toads to the tower walls disappear, freeing them. Also, a Magic Circle spawns on the platform, allowing Mario to use the 1,000-Fold Arms to destroy the purple streamer's spool. After clearing the streamer, Mario can examine below his feet to find a hint to continue from the Sea Tower: "Let four fold into one and point you toward paradise." At this point, Mario can access the four Vellumental pillars. He must stand on a rainbow-colored Magic Circle in front of each pillar and use the power of its corresponding Vellumental: Earth Vellumental to lower a mound of dirt holding up the Earth Vellumental pillar, Water Vellumental to douse a ring of flames around the Water Vellumental pillar, Fire Vellumental to melt a chunk of ice encasing the Fire Vellumental pillar, and Ice Vellumental to freeze a pool of water around the Ice Vellumental pillar. Mario must also hammer a red button on each Vellumental pillar to make it rotate toward the platform. When all four pillars are facing the platform, each fires a beam from its mouth; the beams merge over the platform and create a beacon of light that shoots vertically into the sky. Mario and Olivia then use the beacon that transports them both up to the entrance to Shangri-Spa, starting their quest to destroy the green streamer next.

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 * Collectible Treasure No. 100: "A giant tower that has loomed over the Great Sea since the dawn of time. Legends say it leads to Shangri-Spa."